Pardon the interruption but I need to talk to you.♥️
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Hello friends,
Do you ever wish you had a circle of people to talk with about the things that really matter, without it feeling like a meeting, a class, or a lecture?
I do. I’ve joined a few online groups about writing and marketing, and while they’re useful, I realized something today: I don’t have that kind of connection with you—my readers. When I finished the first draft of Whispers of Echo Canyon a month ago and started editing, instead of talking to you about the editing process, I gave you Daily Doses of Fiction.
Now I’m not saying I shouldn’t do that. I enjoy writing them and diving deeper into the characters.
But I want to have some real conversations. I want to know what you think. Not just about my stories, but about life. And I want a place where I can bounce ideas around with the people who know me (and my characters) best.
I’d like to start a Chat for us. Think of it as our living room inside Substack—less formal than a post, more like a group text. It’s not a live meeting. There’s no video, no scheduled times to show up.
It’s simply a text-based stream where we can share updates, ideas, and conversation whenever we want.
Here’s a quick poll to see what you think.
Once I hear from you, I’ll announce what we’re going to do and how to do it.
In the meantime….
Read on for 4 days of your Daily Dose of Fiction!
This week in Daily Dose of Fiction we are exploring what it means to begin again later in life. Not in spite of our age, but because of it.
Daily Dose of Fiction – Dare to Begin Again (Day 1)
Invisible. Until it was time to pay.
Skylar only wanted a compressor.
The clerk decided she needed a husband.
That was his mistake.
The hardware store air smelled faintly of rubber hoses and sawdust. Skylar leaned on the cart, pointing toward a row of compressors. “That one should work for the garden irrigation.”
They waited. Clerks passed by, eyes sliding past them like they weren’t there. Finally, one stopped, a young man with a polite smile. “You might want to wait for your husband to help choose,” he said.
Skylar’s jaw tightened. “He’ll be waiting at home. We’ll take that one.”
Val let out a sharp laugh, pushing the cart forward. “And while we’re at it, let’s shop appliances.” She rattled off model numbers, filling a clipboard until the clerk’s eyebrows climbed. By the time they wheeled everything to customer service, the women were half-giddy with defiance.
At lunch, they named what had happened: underestimated, dismissed, invisible.
As they climbed into Skylar’s SUV, Val shook her head. “Funny how we’re invisible until it’s time to swipe a credit card.”
“Why does it still sting? One trip to the hardware store and suddenly we are invisible again.”
The car went quiet. Everyone had felt it too.
Raven’s face lit up their dashboard screen, bright as sunlight. “I’m glad I caught you. Sorry I missed the fun. How about lunch at the ranch on Wednesday?”
Her smile held a secret.
Daily Dose of Fiction – Dare to Begin Again (Day 2)
Too much change can be just that…
Too much. Especially when something is missing.
Riley leaned against the drafting table, watching two of her interns sketch out a new housing prototype. Their pencils moved with the certainty of people who believed the world was waiting for them.
She tried to summon that spark, the pulse of creation that once kept her awake past midnight, chasing lines across paper until they sang. Now her role was to guide, correct, nod at innovations she was not even sure she liked.
The interns laughed, swapping ideas with the kind of bravado Riley remembered well. She smiled, but a question pressed in: Had she already done her best work?
That evening she called Quinn, who was in Japan. The hologram flickered before resolving into her friend’s face. “How are the projects?” Quinn asked.
“They’re fine,” Riley said, too quickly. Then she added, softer, “But I’m not. I want more than this. Maybe not work exactly, but something. A reason to wake up excited.”
Quinn studied her, silent for a moment. “Then maybe it’s time you stopped coasting.”
The words landed like a stone in Riley’s chest. She exhaled slowly. “Can you join the others on a call this week? Raven wants us at the ranch.”
Quinn’s eyes warmed. “I’ll be there.”
But Riley still felt the ache. She could name what was missing, but not yet what would fill it.
Daily Dose of Fiction – Dare to Begin Again (Day 3)
The table on Raven’s porch groaned under platters of grilled vegetables, cornbread, and peach cobbler. “So,” Raven said, leaning back in her chair, “how was shopping?”
Skylar raised an eyebrow. “Let’s just say compressors and refrigerators aren’t for women our age. At least not according to the staff.”
“They didn’t see us,” Val added. “Not really. Just three old women pushing carts.”
Quinn’s hologram hovered at the head of the table, her image shimmering in the afternoon light. “Same everywhere,” she said. “I swear, some days I feel like I disappeared the day I retired.”
The conversation turned quiet, forks scraping plates. They spoke of legacy, of wanting more than the roles handed to them.
Raven pushed back her chair. “Come on. I want to show you something.”
They followed her into the barn, the scent of hay and warm animals wrapping around them. A mare nickered softly, nudging a newborn foal closer. The foal’s legs trembled as it struggled, then found its balance.
“Age doesn’t set the start button,” Raven said gently, stroking the mare’s flank. “See? She began again today. No number stamped on her side, just the will to rise.”
The women stood in silence, watching the foal wobble forward.
Val’s eyes stung. “If only it were that easy for us.”
Raven glanced back. “Who says it isn’t? That foal wasn’t ready. But it stood. That’s the secret. You don’t wait. You begin.”
The canyon seemed to hold its breath, waiting…
Daily Dose of Fiction – Dare to Begin Again (Day 4)
Skylar set her notebook on the kitchen table, staring at the stack of marked-up drafts beside it. Three novels sat on her bookshelf with her name on the spine, proof of a career that had taken her from dusty dig sites to university lecture halls.
Jim walked in with two mugs of tea, sliding one toward her. “You’ve done more than most,” he said, as if reading her thoughts.
She smiled faintly, picking up her phone. With a swipe, the photo appeared: Raven’s foal, legs splayed, eyes wide with newness. She turned the screen so Jim could see.
“He stood up within minutes,” she whispered. “No one told him he was too young, too weak. He just began.”
Jim studied the picture, then her face. “And you think you’re too old?”
The words sank deep. Enough felt like surrender. She thought of all the civilizations she had studied, people who had built, created, written until the very end.
Skylar closed her notebook, fingers brushing the worn leather. Was her purpose complete, or simply waiting for a new form?
She stepped out into the backyard, scooping up a handful of soil from the flower bed. The grains slipped between her fingers, gritty and insistent.
Not finished. Not yet.
She looked back at Jim through the open door. “What if there’s still another story?”
I hope you’re enjoying these stories. I’ll send out the rest of this week’s stories after I post them.
Did you vote on the poll? Your thoughts matter. Of course you can always reply to this email. Thank you!
You don’t wait. You begin. I love these words. Of course, I'm thinking, so often "we" think we will start something when we feel the time is right. But, the time won't be right until we begin.