Saturday May 17, 2025

Short stuff

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. Occasionally, I will also publish some of my shorter fiction in this newsletter to read for free.

Daily Diary, Day 1718:

By yesterday afternoon I was quite tired, so after lunch and then a phone call, I just read until dinner. I’d lost some sleep, having woken up at 3:30, and didn’t go back to sleep—probably because I knew I would need to get up about an hour later for morning zoom yoga class. Then when I added up all the hours I was on my feet during the day (two walks, cleaning, putting away groceries, etc) it totaled two hours—not counting the core exercise that yoga gives me. As a result, not only was I tired, but in the evening I felt a worrying twinge in my right ankle.

Consequently, while I have done my cleaning this morning, I think I will limit at least my first walk to 20 not 30 minutes. And, since I found no time to write yesterday, I have every intention of getting some done today. To kick that off, after my walk, I plan on participating on zoom with a group who are trying writing together at 9 am. I have no phone calls scheduled…so I should be able to get a little caught up on the writing. But to do so, need to make this post a little shorter!

Oh, I did write a couple of days ago that once my husband’s book, Preserving Government Information, Past, Present, and Future was successfully published. I would mention it. Whenever he can, he is giving the book away, because the goal isn’t to make money but disseminate the information. In case you are curious, here is a link.

Oh, and if you do click on the link and notice that he has co-authored the book with a good friend and colleague, who happens to have the same first and last name. My husband is the James A! For awhile these two James Jacobs worked at the same library, and since their expertise and interests are obviously very similar, it has caused all sorts of confusion over the years. There have even been times at conventions when someone engaged in conversation with one, thinking they were talking to the other. (While the other James is at least 15 years younger, for awhile they both had hair in long pony-tails which added to the confusion!) Since they also have written articles and papers together before this, there have even been times when editors have thought that the two names being submitted as authors was an error and deleted one.

Anyway, I’m very proud of the work my husband has done, which is, more relevant than ever now, and if any of you know of people who might be interested in it, do share the information.

But now time for that walk, but before I go, some more roses.

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