Thursday Thoughts ~ August 14, 2025

Happy Friday Eve! This used to have significance when I worked, but now it’s just a way to keep up with what day it is… LOL.

Summer is probably our least favorite season. The heat, kids out of school, and tourists crowding SoCal. And the heat… In all honesty, it’s been a fairly mild summer so far, heat-wise, but it’s still uncomfortably warm and saps our energy a bit. We’ve been boringly lazy, except for a quick trip to Knott’s after a class The Husband is taking right around the corner on Tuesday mornings. Knott’s Berry Farm, the amusement park The Husband just retired from earlier this year, is about a half hour from home, so when we’re nearby we take advantage of our lifetime passes. It gives us a chance to chat with old friends and get some steps in for the day.

We were talking recently about three gift shops that I’ve been missing lately. They all went out of business years ago. Puddleducks had lots of pretty jewelry, cards, baby gifts, bohemian clothes, and tchotchkes. The vibe was fun, with always something new to see. The Front Porch featured homey things, like kitchen ware, outdoor décor, and furniture, along with smalls like jewelry and cards. It had a very casual, comfortable feel. From the Heart was filled with collectibles like Boyd’s Bears, and colorful tchotchkes from Mary Englebreit, plus artwork, cards, teapots, all types of gifts for men, women and kids, and sparkling yard art. I could spend hours in shops like those, poking around, and being inspired. Many Christmas and birthday presents were bought from all of them. But now I can’t think of many places like that anymore. Marine Avenue on Balboa Island still has eclectic shops, many with handmade art, but out here in the ‘burbs, we’re a gift shop desert. Are you missing cool places like these where you live?

Writing

I initiated the full beta read on ProWritingAid for The Bonus Grave and it came up with some very useful suggestions, mostly for fleshing out some of the secondary characters. (A beta read is reviewing a book from the readers perspective, to get an overview of character motivation, overall story, and any gaps or loose ends.) I’ve edited the full manuscript with those notations in mind and now I’m back to the chapter-by-chapter in-depth edits.

I’m aiming for early November to release the ebook, with the paperback a few weeks later. Since it’s my first experience self-publishing, I don’t really know how long it will take to work with the company creating the cover, do the formatting, which is slightly different for the ebook compared to the paperback, and put those all together as readable products. We shall see!

Meanwhile, when The Husband was in his class this Tuesday morning, I went to the library around the corner and started my second paranormal cozy mystery! I’m excited and think I’ve got a good opening scene.

Reading

I finally finished the ebook I was dragging my feet on. Boy of Chaotic Making is the third book in Charlie N. Holmberg’s Whimbrel House historical fantasy series. Holmberg certainly knows how to put her characters in harms way, which is something I struggle with.

To simplify the first two books, they take place in mid-19^th century New England, in a reality where magic exists but is slowly being lost to the world. When Merritt Fernsby inherits a house haunted by what turns out to be his uncle, Hulda Larkin is sent by the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms (BIKER) to help bring order to Whimbrel House. Together, they discover that his uncle, Owein, died very young and they help him to calm and communicate with them. Along the way, there are dangerous enemies from Hulda’s past, Merritt has to come to grips with his own late-blooming magic, and Owein’s spirit is transported into the body of a dog.

In this third installment, a proposition comes from Queen Victoria ~ Owein’s spirit can be moved to a male donor body if he will agree to marry into the royal family to strengthen the bloodline. Merritt and Owein travel to England to meet with the wealthy family of Victoria’s choosing. Fourteen-year-old Cora, the quiet young lady to be betrothed, couldn’t be sweeter, but deadly accidents keep happening in the opulent estate. Someone doesn’t want this match to happen.

Hulda arrives, having had unsettling glimpses of future catastrophes, to help her fiancé, Merritt, in any way she can. So many characters, some with obvious motives, and others who seem trustworthy, but are they really? The tension was high from the very first page and continued through till nearly the end. I’ve already started the fourth book and just found out there’ll be a fifth!

I’ve read another of Charlie’s series, The Paper Magician, and I highly recommend her books for magical, fantasy, romance readers.

Streaming/Watching

The Husband and I watched the first season of Death Valley on Britbox, starring Harry Potter’s own Peter Pettigrew, Timothy Spall. He plays John Chapel, a once-famous TV detective named Caesar, now retired in a small Welsh village. When a murder is committed in his neighborhood, Janie, a young detective played by Gwyneth Keyworth, knocks on his door and can’t believe she’s face to face with Caesar, the character who helped her through a very tough time in her life and inspired her to join the police. Assisting her in solving murders around the area brings him out into the world again after mourning his wife for years. Together they make a great team, along with a colorful cast of secondary cops and townsfolk. It’s a nice balance of funny (she’s very awkward and always catching herself saying weird things) and poignant, since they both have sorrow in their backstories. This first season is only six episodes, and knowing English TV, who knows when the second season will air??

I also burned through the 16 episodes of Leanne on Netflix. When Leanne’s husband leaves her for another woman, this southern belle has her sister and family to help her through. There are no new stories in the world, just the way they’re told, and this one has some fun moments. Leanne Morgan plays the title character and she has a strong arc through the show (not sure if there will be more episodes/seasons but I hope so). Kristen Johnston is hilarious as her supportive sister, but I have no idea what she does for a living… Her husband, played by Ryan Stiles, is handled in a very interesting way ~ since he knows he messed up bad and, shall we say, is not enjoying his bachelorhood ~ he’s portrayed not as a villain but as a man who’s made a huge mistake… But I still hate him! Clearly, some scenes were a little triggering for me 😊 But I liked this show a lot and most of the secondary characters shone brightly, particularly her parents. And her new relationship with FBI agent Tim Daly was both bumbling and genuine. If you need the sitcom equivalent of comfort food, this is it.

I also watched Leanne Morgan: I’m Every Woman, her standup act recorded in 2023. The first half was a bit too much husband bashing, which was ok, but I thought the second half was much funnier, when she went on to parenting and mid-life topics. I could listen to her all day because her southern accent is so charming.

Y’all watch anything good this week?

Till next Thursday!

Photo by Ethan Robertson on Unsplash

Gray Mare Writes Substack Newsletter Sign Up

Gray Mare Writes Instagram