Tag: womenwriters

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He “Forgot” to Tell Me He Was Married. So, I Forgot to Meet Him for Our Date.

Tales From the Dating Vault: The One Time I Stood Someone Up.

Having been stood up and ghosted myself more than once, I find that behavior pretty childish. I will admit, there was one time I did it and I have no regrets. I’ll explain.

I met Todd* when I was working a week on/week off rotation in Prudhoe Bay. At the time I was single and looking. As the saying goes in Alaska, the odds are good, but the goods are odd. Even more so in a place like Prudhoe Bay, where there are way more guys than girls. Todd worked in a different department, but in the same camp. This good-looking, southern boy laid on the charm from the get-go.

*Once again, name have been changed to protect the not so innocent.

My best friend has a saying:

Don’t get your honey where you get your money.

My Best Friend’s Favorite Saying about Work Relationships

Having been burned by work relationships in the past I made it clear to Todd that I wasn’t interested in pursuing anything while we worked up north together. After sometime, I transferred to an Anchorage based position, but he and I kept in touch. He wanted to “pursue a relationship” with me now that we no longer worked together in such close quarters. I was till leery since he lived out of state (Louisiana) and worked a rotational up north.

It just so happened that he had a long layover in Anchorage one week and wanted to take me out on a date. I agreed to pick him up from the airport.

The day of, he called me at work to confirm the time. He also let a little bomb drop.

“It’s okay that I’m married, right?”

No. It was absolutely NOT okay that he was married.

He had months to bring up this information.

I sat at my desk flipping back and forth between shock and seething with rage.

He then launched into what I like to call the “Serial Cheater Speech.” At that point in my dating career, I had encountered enough married guys who were out trolling the dating market. They all had some well-rehearsed variation of the same speech:

  • If I told you I was married you wouldn’t give me a chance
  • We got married too young
  • She let herself go
  • We never have sex anymore
  • She only cares about herself
  • She’s cheating on me
  • Etcetera

To be frank, I don’t care. I deserved to be with someone that is free to be with only me. Any guy that is using deceit at the start of a relationship just to trick me into being with him is bad news.

He didn’t respect me or want a real relationship with me. If he did, he would have been honest from the beginning.

He wanted to use me.

As much as I would have loved to give him an earful, I was sitting in the cube farm at work.

I decided on a better course of action.

He wrapped up his whiny speech with, “So, it’s okay, right?”

“Sure.”

“Great, see you at the airport.”

I hung up and put my phone on silent. He had some nerve.

I Turned Off My Phone

Wouldn’t you know, that afternoon was a gorgeous day for a bike ride on the Anchorage Trails. I had an awesome afternoon ride, enjoying the beautiful spring day. I came home that night to several missed calls and plaintive voicemails.

He called me at my desk two weeks later, when he got back on shift.

Note, not when he was home. Can’t have the wife find out he was trying to cheat!

He demanded an explanation as to why I didn’t show up. which I felt was pretty ballsy. As far as I was concerned he didn’t have the right to demand anything of me. But I decided to to respond honestly.

My Response:

You’re married. I don’t date married guys.

He tried to launch into his speech about his unhappy married life.

I cut him off and told him never to call again, especially not my work phone.

Time is valuable. I refuse to let people squander my time. I see too many people letting others waste their precious time. Yes, I stood him up. I have no regrets cutting out people who have no respect for my boundaries or time.

I met my future husband less than three months later. If I had been wasting my time with Todd, we would have never connected.

Set boundaries and value your time. The right people will always respect you for it.

Thanks for reading!

Some places were never meant for humans to trespass

About the Author

I joined the Navy at 18 to escape a small town in the Mojave Desert. A diagnosis of MS disrupted my dreams of becoming an astronaut or a super spy. I made limoncello from my lemons and became a super electrical engineer instead. My fascination with live high voltage drew me to Alaska. I came for the job, but stayed for the adventure. I enjoy blogging about my journey as a woman working in STEM, my experiences dealing with everything MS has handed me, and the wonder of the Alaska wilderness. My husband and I have undertaken the task of turning 30 acres of remote land into an off-grid retreat. I write stories about unique women in STEM who save the day and the hot guys who sometimes help along the way, as well as historical fiction about the Klondike Gold Rush. Teasers for these stories can be found on my website. I self-published my first horror novella, The Dark Land, on Amazon in May of 2020. I released the sequel, The Devil’s Valley, in May of 2021. Both stories are set in the wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and draw on the Athabascan “Head Waters Peoples” legends of the Cet’ann, or “The People With Tails”.

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Electric Connection: My 30 Day Space Available Adventure, Part 3

We left off last time with Jake’s request:

“You don’t have to sleep in the Livingroom tonight. No. Let me put it another way. Sleep with me tonight?”

So what did I do?

Spoiler Alert! I didn’t sleep on the couch…

I will spare you the gory details, this isn’t a purple prose romance. But yes, there was always an intense connection between me and Jake. It was instantaneous and electric, as if no time had passed. There was no being near one another without touching. No touching without kissing. No kissing without…you get the idea.

Confidence is King

I bet you’re curious as to what Jake looked like. I think it’s funny how so many romance novels describe these towering six-foot-tall “Alpha Males” with bulging biceps, and tanned washboard abs. Jake wasn’t like that at all. I’m five-foot-nine, and Jake was slightly taller than me. Many say that confidence is sexy, and I can attest to that. Jake had a quiet, calm confidence that in my encounters over time with other men, few have ever been able to duplicate. His confidence drew me like a lode stone swings north, and it was comforting to connect with him once more.

Tough Questions

Toes in the silky white sand of the Carolina shore, I was reading The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers while I drank cheap beer with Jake on the beach. I made it my mission on this trip to finish reading the entire Tolkien trilogy since they were making all three into movies, and the third one was coming out in theaters soon.

Laying on the beach blanket next to me, Jake asked, “Are you still going to try to fly to Germany and see him?”

I knew this wasn’t an idle question. Remember that confidence, I mentioned about Jake? His confidence wasn’t a brash arrogance. Nowadays we hear a lot about “mansplaining” or guys just giving their advice without asking. Jake wasn’t like that. But he would ask questions to draw you out, at times even play the Devil’s Advocate. He wanted to know what I was thinking without trying to tell me what to do.

I put the book aside and rested my head on my hands. While I hadn’t officially “broken it off” with Bob, in my heart, it was over. The initiating event of what he had said about “not wanting to work,” had been weird enough. But his violent, expletive filled emails showed me a side of him that was truly terrifying. If he could be like that in an email, what would he be like in person when he got angry?

“No, Jake. I don’t want to go anywhere near him.” I looked out over the waves crashing against the shore, thinking about how Bob was over across the sea somewhere. It was strange how fast my thoughts about him had changed. Less than a week ago, he was a guy that was professing that he wanted to marry me and that he loved me. Now he was sending me hate filled emails about how horrible I was.

I didn’t know him at all. I felt incredibly stupid and naïve.

“You’re going to stay with me for the next week or so, right?” he asked, handing me another beer. I could see the tension release across his shoulders and the relief in his eyes.

“Yeah, I’ve got a whole month off. I talked to my friend Bri. You remember her, right?”

“A little bit, she was in your class in Prototype.”

“I told her if I could get a flight, I would try to make it up her way to Virgina.”

He smiled, “Well we’ll make the most of your time here until you go.”

Another Message From Bob

The Insincere Apology

That afternoon we went back to Jake’s to clean up before we went out to dinner. He took a few days off from work in honor of my being in town. I decided to go online to check for flights for the following week. Indeed, there was a regularly scheduled flight from Charleston to Virginia, leaving the next Monday. I could hang out with Jake for almost nine days.

Meanwhile, an email from Bob made my stomach sink. It was an apology—sort of.

“I’m sorry you took what I said the wrong way. I forgot that girls can be so sensitive about crap. I’m going out for a field exercise for the next two weeks. When I get back we can talk.”

Yeah…okay.

I showed that and the other emails to Jake. His jaw set in a hard line.

“You don’t think he’s sorry, do you?” Jake asked me, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Not for a moment.”

Next: Making and Breaking Connections and Slaying Giant Spiders…

Thanks for reading!

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I joined the Navy at 18 to escape a small town in the Mojave Desert. A diagnosis of MS disrupted my dreams of becoming an astronaut or a super spy. I made limoncello from my lemons and became a super electrical engineer instead. My fascination with live high voltage drew me to Alaska. I came for the job, but stayed for the adventure. I enjoy blogging about my journey as a woman working in STEM, my experiences dealing with everything MS has handed me, and the wonder of the Alaska wilderness. My husband and I have undertaken the task of turning 30 acres of remote land into an off-grid retreat. I write stories about unique women in STEM who save the day and the hot guys who sometimes help along the way, as well as historical fiction about the Klondike Gold Rush. Teasers for these stories can be found on my website. I self-published my first horror novella, The Dark Land, on Amazon in May of 2020. I released the sequel, The Devil’s Valley, in May of 2021. Both stories are set in the wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and draw on the Athabascan “Head Waters Peoples” legends of the Cet’ann, or “The People With Tails”.

Some places were never meant for humans to trespass…
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My Review of Immortal Honor Bound by Danielle Anacona

Intriguing Blend of Gods, Heroes, Mythology, Time Travel and Romance

Of Alchemy & Angels, The Series

I enjoy reading as much as I like writing. One of the frustrating parts of trying to publish and promote a book is that it cuts into my reading time. Now that things are slowing down a little it is nice to catch back up on my TBR and Review pile.

In particular, by Immortal Honor Bound by Danielle Ancona involving Angels, Alchemy, Gods, Heroes and other supernatural creatures. Before I dive into my review, I want to be honest and give you a hint of how much liked this book. I rarely buy books for other people because I feel that books are a highly personal thing. But in this case, I bought several copies for the female members of my family and couple of my close friends when it was released. I wrote a piece of fan fiction as part of my blog. I also had the honor of beta reading this story in the early stages three years before it was published and seeing how it evolved, so I had an idea what the final product was going to look like.

So yes…I’m a fan of this story and the stories that are (hopefully) to come in this series.

Danielle’s writing blends historical fiction and paranormal romance with strong heroines and heroes. She takes us on a STEM-based, paranormal adventure through history, blending Greek, Egyptian, and Christian Theology/Mythology/Lore with warrior angel Malachi.

Main Character Malachi

A battle is raging between the Seraphs led by renegade Angel Gideon who wishes to subjugate humankind and the Celestials in Heaven. Unorthodox (and incredibly sexy) Malachi leads forces to thwart him. At the same time, his brash manner and closeness with deities of other backgrounds and humans irritates the Celestials—in other words, makes them look bad. Kind of like the competent blue-collar worker pointing out the flaws in the CEO’s plan. I picture him almost like a cross between Han Solo, Geralt in the Witcher and Maximus in the Gladiator. Competent, not afraid to get his hands dirty, gets the job done, but of course, totally embarrasses the insecure along the way. As punishment, they sentence him to being an immortal earthbound guardian.

Time Travel

He moves forward through time, protecting numerous important historical figures whom the Gideon and the Seraph wish to destroy or manipulate. Because of the success of book like Outlander, there’s a lot of people rushing to write “time travel” romance. Danielle’s version of time travel, having a supernatural character who can move through time, allows for more flexibility/believability than taking a character out of one time and placing them into another. It helps avoid many of the paradox and social issues that turn the story more toward scifi.

Romance Element

Malachi comes forward into 1600’s England where he meets Alchemist, Daphne. I always chuckled growing up when I would read my mom’s “bodice ripper” novels and they would say something along the lines of, “the head strong, sassy, intelligent <female protagonist’s name> did x.” And usually, it was something that a female character of that time period really wouldn’t do. Sure, I get it, they are selling a fantasy. Still always made me laugh. Right there along with whenever they had people taking an unrealistic number of baths in the medieval era or portrayed women with silky, clean shaven legs. I always wanted to re-write in, hairy, you mean hairy right? Maybe they meant the silky hair on her legs. I digress…

Instead of telling us what a smart, strong female protagonist Daphne is, Danielle shows us. Daphne is a female alchemist studying under Dante, a renowned Alchemist in Yorkshire. She walks a fine line this era of England, when women are getting tried for witchcraft and hung/burned just for having the wrong attitude in life, let alone having thoughts and knowledge uncommon to a woman. Not to mention, she is also harboring supernatural capabilities of her own, which Gideon and the Seraph are hoping to bring over to their cause.

The attraction between Daphne and Malachi is intense and immediate. At the risk of avoiding spoilers, there is also a dark fate hanging over the couple. They are drawn together, but forces are conspiring to rip them apart by any means necessary.

Side Characters

Danielle gives us an intriguing cast of side characters who ally with Malachi and eventually Daphne along the way. The heat between Egyptian God Thoth and Warrior Katherine the Adamantine is off the scale. Picture Bridgerton level of desire and wanting, but between a god and an Amazon, instead of Regency England. Danielle has hinted that there may be more instore for these two characters, which I hope is coming soon.

The only negative I would have with Immortal Honor Bound is that Danielle could probably have split the material into two if not three stories and stretched it out. Over all, it is a great and compelling story, and I am looking forward to the rest of her Angels and Alchemy series.

Thanks for Reading!

About the Author

I joined the Navy at 18 to escape a small town in the Mojave Desert. A diagnosis of MS disrupted my dreams of becoming an astronaut or a super spy. I made limoncello from my lemons and became a super electrical engineer instead. My fascination with live high voltage drew me to Alaska. I came for the job, but stayed for the adventure. I enjoy blogging about my journey as a woman working in STEM, my experiences dealing with everything MS has handed me, and the wonder of the Alaska wilderness. My husband and I have undertaken the task of turning 30 acres of remote land into an off-grid retreat. I write stories about unique women in STEM who save the day and the hot guys who sometimes help along the way, as well as historical fiction about the Klondike Gold Rush. Teasers for these stories can be found on my website. I self-published my first horror novella, The Dark Land, on Amazon in May of 2020. I released the sequel, The Devil’s Valley, in May of 2021. Both stories are set in the wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and draw on the Athabascan “Head Waters Peoples” legends of the Cet’ann, or “The People With Tails”.

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Ancient evil stalks the Alaska Backcountry. Some places were never meant for humans to trespass.

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DM’s Mystery Equipment of the Week

Acetylene Generator DMShepard.com
Acetylene Generator out at the cabin in Chicken, Alaska

Acetylene is a highly flammable, unstable gas used in welding and cutting of metals (particularly steel). Before acetylene could be generated and bottled safely and reliably through dissolving acetylene in acetone, it was generated with a device like this. Feeding calcium carbide into the tank to mix with water, the reaction would create acetylene. The downside of this method was that the gas was typically heavily laden with moisture, so the cutting temperature is lower (typical temperatures for modern oxyacetylene torches range from 5700-6300 degrees Fahrenheit depending on the mixture of oxygen to acetylene).

In my Romantic Suspense novel, Torched, my main character Brigit is a welder. She gets one of these as a gift from a friend.

If you would like to see what it looks like to cut a cake with a modern oxyacetylene torch, you can see that here.

Thanks for reading, We’re going to be off the grid until at least Mid-October. They stop maintaining the road 10/15. If you are interested in some of my other writing, my horror novella, The Dark Land is available on Amazon.

The legend of Alaska’s Headless Ravine is steeped in blood. Its hunger for human flesh never sleeps, even in the deepest cold of winter. Courage, skill and love will be stretched to the limits in on the isolated trails of The Dark Land.