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, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.
Daily Diary, Day 1220:
First of all, I am delighted by the number of you who took the time to answer the poll, there are still two more days, so I really hope I will hear from more of you. Once the 3 days are up I will talk about what I found out and ask some more questions!
Yesterday, as forecast, it rained in the morning, only for about an hour, and only hard for a few minutes, (total precipitation was .28 inches) but it was nice to watch, However, I didn’t get in my first walk. The rest of the day alternated between sun and cloudy skies, but just before I started my before dinner walk, it started to sprinkle. Well, it actually sprinkled in the back yard, but not the front, so I went and walked anyway and stayed dry. The result was some fantastic photos (see below), and I really appreciated my “winter jacket.”
This jacket is what one I bought for our daughter, about 26 years ago, when she was 14 and the three of us went over to Europe for a short trip over the Christmas holidays. We started in London, where we stayed with a friend who was doing a semester abroad for the college they taught at. Then on to Paris for a couple of days, then to Dublin. We had no proper winter coats, so I got a lovely raincoat with wool zip-in lining, my husband got something similar, and we got the shorter micro-fiber jacket (with lining) for my daughter. Boy did we need them. The whole trip was freezing, It snowed while we were in London, was so cold we tried to go up the Eifel Tower, but got too cold standing in the line, so had to bail. Then we got to Ireland, and my husband came down with the flu, never left the hotel, and when my daughter and I took a bus so she could kiss the blarney stone, we climbed up the tower, and she took one look at the gap she would need to lean over, wind whistling up it, and said no way! We then took the bus to Cork, where I had hopes of going around an immigration museum, but it was closed for the holiday. Oh, and I was the only one to brave going around the Tower of London, but I discovered that I forgot to put any film in the camera, so no pictures of this or anything else from the trip!
All of our married lives, our trips have been back east to visit family, and trips to Washington state to visit my daughter and grandchildren. As a result, that freezing short trip our only trip out of the country. No wonder my husband and I are arm chair travelers! But at least I got some good stories out of the trip, and my husband and I still have our raincoats! My daughter left her jacket behind when she moved out of the house at 18, and I have used it ever since! Now that I think about it, this probably means that this jacket has saved me a lot of money over the years, probably paid for the airline tickets which were so much less expensive back them. (Now, don’t bother to talk about inflation and the worth of the 1990s dollar, I know I am exaggerating.)
Ok, time to get to work this morning, since I only got 345 words written yesterday, and much of this morning was taken up with going to pick up my new glasses, and doing my first walk, and I have my usual Thursday zoom meeting with at least one meeting after it scheduled.
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I must admit, Mary Louise, that I don't read science fiction and rarely read historical novels. What drew me to your substack is the fact that you are an older author with a well disciplined daily routine to ensure you fit in all your health hacks. Your work methods, your daily word count for writing done, and your research is so interesting. I did do your polls when I knew about them.
I do read historical novels and science fiction and fantasy. Actually I do read other genres too but those seem to be the choices I have always come back to read for enjoyment.