Sharon Stephenson

I've not written a blog for 2 months. To be honest, I haven't written much in the past 3 months. Life, or to be more accurate our move, had caught up with me. I have moved a lot in my life—back and forth from one US coast to another 3 times, up and down the US east coast 1 time, across the Atlantic 4 times. In Portland Maine alone—5 moves. In Minneapolis—4. Sometimes the moves were because I was changing a job or looking for a job; sometimes because I wanted to live in a better place. One time, when I was working nights as an operator for Ma…

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As I write this, snow is continuing to fall at quite a rate at my home on the Eastern Shore. Having spent most of my life living in states (5) bordering Canada, snow is nothing new to me. In fact, I really love it, especially when I don't have to go anywhere in a hurry. I can write a lot about snow—how light it feels when it…

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It's been a little over a week since our container was delivered to our door and our furniture and roughly 200 boxes were unloaded. We're all unpacked now and gradually getting our house in order. Writing has temporarily taken a back seat but I will be back at it very soon. But this doesn't…

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We're waiting for our ship to come in...literally! We packed up our house and moved to the USA from the UK in late June. Having done this ocean-crossing move 4 times now we expected to see our household goods no later than the end of July. We hadn't counted on a container, ship, and berthing shortage. Fortunately, we were able to buy a bed, couch, and a TV, and a very kind neighbor has lent us an outdoor table and chairs, so we have managed. The house is a breeze to clean and I have lots of excuses for my lack of enthusiasm when it comes to cooking although I do miss baking. Fingers…

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Ahh September. A month for beginnings. We're beginning to settle into life in Maryland, still living with a couch, a TV, a bed, and an outdoor table and chairs on loan from a dear neighbor. The container with our goods has finally left our…

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Well, we made it. After all the pre-move pitfalls (read June's BLOG if you're interested in the details) we made the trip from the UK to the USA. Halfway through our BA flight, the air hostess handed us a slip of paper from the New York Center for Disease Control telling us regardless of having had to take a Zoom Covid test conducted with a doctor and having the signed paperwork to prove it and having proof of having been fully vaccinated we still needed to quarantine for 10 days. Yikes! We were meeting family in Maine the very next day after landing at JFK. Family we hadn't seen…

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Note to self: don't make an international move during a pandemic. Unfortunately I didn't get the memo until after my husband and I had packed up and sold our UK house, bought a house in Maryland (over the internet) and just a week ago were halfway over the Atlantic with our dog. This was the first chance we'd had to take a breath and it almost came as a huge surprise, as if I was awakening from a dream. We had actually done this—made the move! Neither…

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I missed April and May—wanted to finish Taking the Sun and then we got busy! As I write this I am sitting between two…

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It might have escaped your notice, but I didn't do a February Blog. I was 'on a roll' finishing up my latest book, Taking the Sun, and doing a blog seemed like…

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A new year. I'm hopeful we can keep all the good things about 2020 and never revisit the bad. My list of the good—clear, blue, pollution-free skies; hearing bird song and not traffic noise, helping to support folks in our village; learning to plan meals ahead and become a better cook; making time to sit outside and enjoy the sun, read, and listen to music; reacquainting myself with poetry and appreciating the work of poets new to me; learning about and practicing mindfulness and pilates. Lastly, but of most…

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I flipped the calendar over to December and other than eating a chocolate from my Advent Calendar the day was lost on me. I was busy and forgot all the jobs I should have done on the…

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I didn't do a blog for October. I was feeling quite agitated by the end of September and couldn't seem to focus my attention. September is usually a 'traveling month' and this year it was not going…

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There was no August blog--I was deep in the process of editing Stealing Thunder, now available through Amazon. And now it's September. Ahh September. I've written about this before—how the first of September is my NEW YEAR. In the past, it might have been about starting a new year at school. But as I got older it became a time of even bigger change—moving, changing jobs, starting projects. It's also about autumn—my absolute favorite season. The colors—all my favorites—yellows, golds, oranges. The crispness to the air. The whole idea about 'harvest'. The wildlife—active as they prepare for summer. September is a time of restlessness for me. I want to get out,…

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Stealing Thunder, my latest book, is finally finished and I'm halfway through the editing process. One would think with all this social distancing I should have written half a dozen books since we entered lockdown in the UK. In fact, you could make the point that self-isolation would be a writer's dream and for many writers perhaps it is, but not for me. I have not been traveling since we went into the Covid…

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May was not a month I necessarily want to remember. There was a couple of highlights—my husband and I celebrated 20 years of marriage and our dog Abbey turned 6. But by the…

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I started a journal when 'lockdown' began. I hope when I re-read it (if I do!) in ten or fifteen years this whole period feels like a hazy story—with highs and lows. I hope I remember the good things about this 'lockdown' period and take to heart…

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In the far reaches of my mind—the part that files everything away for my writing—are constantly emerging plots, characters, locations. But no part of my imagination could have dreamt of a plot where a microscopic particle kills millions of people and brings most of the world to its knees. Not even James Bond in 'Moonraker' went…

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I didn't write a blog for February. After receiving a lot of advice about this, I spent time advertising my books on Facebook for December—stepping WAY out of my comfort zone. When the 'campaign' was over I really felt I needed to pull back a bit. Please don't get me wrong—I do want my books to be read, but the reality is I prefer 'word of mouth' to purchased advertising. I want to directly connect with my readers, and so I am back to a monthly blog. One of the things I noticed about this 'advertising campaign' of mine was that my focus temporarily went off writing. It was as if I'd…

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Today is the first day I have had since the first of September when I didn't have much of the day planned—when there wasn't a list of…

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As we near the winter solstice, the sun barely makes it over the top of our back hedge (okay, it's a pretty tall hedge) before plunging out of site like a nightshade drawn down.…

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I'm a day late, but I THINK I have a pretty good excuse. Yesterday, November 1, I finished the first edit of my new Breaking Camp Mystery, CAUTION TO THE WIND. I'm really, really happy with it…

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My husband and I have recently returned from a wonderful trip to the USA. We visited places I had been before—the Teton Mountains, Yellowstone National Park, Durango-Silverton Railway, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, Flagstaff and finished in San Diego with a couple of days at Balboa Park and the Zoo. But these were all new sites to my British…

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It's the first of September and as usual I find myself 'seasonally stimulated'. When I was young, September was all about the excitement of going to school, meeting new friends (especially the boys), learning new things, moving one step closer to being a grownup—and independence! I was preparing for an exciting year--for changes! I would have thought as I aged, that anticipation would die down. But it hasn't.…

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Who is this person? This is a question I kept asking myself as I worked my way through the thousand photos—printed and slides—that I was determined to digitize. Once I was finished with this project, there'd be no more lugging around the cumbersome weight of forty-plus photograph albums or boxes of slides (not to mention the gear to view the slides). This past weekend was spent scanning in the last few albums—photos of myself and…

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I am super late with my July Blog because my husband Roy, our border terrier Abbey, and I have been to Wales for the past week. This was a…

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My decision a couple of years ago to start a monthly blog attached to my website was for two reasons—to try and nurture/retain an interest in…

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Last month I wrote about the satisfaction I got from typing the words THE END as I finished my latest book, Those Who Wait. After the past three intensive weeks spent editing- and re-editing, (no mean feat during…

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One of the greatest satisfactions in my writing life is when I type the words THE END. I did this two days ago when I finished the novel I began writing last May. I am hoping THOSE WHO WAIT will be…

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It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.—Charles Dickens. Growing up in and living in a number of states bordering Canada, March was often a month of winter's last gasp—heavy snow full of moisture as we neared spring—a real pain to shovel! By the end of the month I would be…

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My husband and I recently attended a showing of The Wife at our village movie night. If you aren't familiar with it, it's the story of an American who has just won the Pulitzer Prize in Literature. As he travels to Stockholm with his wife and son to accept his award, his relationship with his wife and her relationship to his writing is revealed. I don't want to give the story away, but lurking in the background were the ideas that authors struggle to write and how it's almost a pitched battle getting words on the page. The movie left me thinking not so much about its plot but about writing in general, and my relationship to words. …

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The tree is down. Ornaments and decorations are all gently packed away for next Christmas. Our house looks refreshingly stark, like it's just been decorated by someone from Scandinavia. Outside, the trees are bare, the bones of their branches fully exposed; limp plants straggle across our lifeless garden. Even the fleeting sun, which barely breaches the top of our hedge, brings little warmth. It is winter. Throughout the entire…

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Every year at this time I write a reasonably short letter to go with our Christmas cards. With family on both sides of the…

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When I first started to do BLOGS for my website, I set myself the goal of trying to always turn out a new one the first of every month. Plans this month have gone haywire. I started November's BLOG on October…

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My husband and I did a fair amount of traveling in September. The travel proved to be very nostalgic for me, returning first to Seattle (last time was in 1995!) and then Minneapolis (last time was in 1998!), visiting friends and family. I lived and worked in both locations and had good memories of those experiences. But in both Seattle and Minneapolis, I felt a real sadness. I've lost dear friends in those cities- friends who passed away far too young. And I felt as if I had lost myself too. Who was the person who used to live and work in these spaces, who traveled these roads on a daily basis? I did manage to find my way around…

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It's here again! September! It's always been a month of changes for me, with many new beginnings in my history. I've always been very peripatetic, finding it difficult to settle in a home or even in a state. And lately, as my husband and I evaluate what we'd like our retirement life to be like, we're also considering which country to live in- IF we do move, it will be my 4th across the Atlantic. We have now officially been fully settled in our house for 15 months. I'm glad all the hard work is done- the painting, packing and unpacking, sorting, cleaning, sewing, gardening...now we can enjoy our home. And yet I'm feeling restless; itching for…

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ON THE MOVE My novels always involve some form of movement. My "Breaking Camp Mystery Series" takes a retired couple travelling all across America. My novels As Clear as Glass and Running from the Moon move readers through centuries. For a Rainy Day moves across countries and Winter Pursuit takes readers across decades and continents. The journey is what shapes my characters, changing them as my journeys…

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Time is Passing. Are You? These words were printed above a doorway at Glenwood High School, in Canton, Ohio. I passed under those words every day during high school—they weren't meant to move us along. We weren't supposed to loiter in the halls—we were meant to keep moving. In the…

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I'm late again, but this time I have an excuse I'd just as soon not have. A little over two weeks ago I woke up to the news that my brother Dave, two years younger than me and my nearest sibling, had died suddenly in his home. It was a chronic heart condition that took him, despite his belief—and recent assurances to his family—that all was reasonably well with his health. My husband Roy and I journeyed from London to Boston that same day—two years to the day we had made the trip in…

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When I first left home, September 1971, at the age of 19, I could fit all my possessions into my VW Bug. All my clothes, my records, record player—everything! After a year at Bowling Green State University, I needed to try my wings, and leaving the nest for the first time meant moving from Ohio to Florida. This was the beginning of A LOT of moves- back and forth across America, and more recently, three times across the Atlantic. (The photo is of my black VW bug somewhere in the middle of South Dakota with my brother Darrell, who traveled with me when…

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I have just finished Between a Rock, my latest book in my BREAKING CAMP MYSTERY SERIES. I had hoped to have it through its final edit and on sale by spring, but spring is late coming to England this year, and I'm afraid I'm a bit late as well! One of the more onerous tasks of self-publishing is self-editing. I have always hated going back over anything I've done before—but I actually don't mind editing my books because I usually wait a day or…

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As I write this on the last day of February (yes, I'll be on time with my BLOG this month!) it is snowing- the British have named these past 3 days of cold temperatures and snowfalls the 'Beast from the East' and where I live we've had an accumulation of about 5". I grew up in snow—in the aptly named town of Geneva, in New York State, where snowfalls were often marked in feet. And for most of my life I've lived in states that had snowy winters—New York, Ohio, Minnesota, Washington, and Maine. So there's not a lot you can tell me about snow I don't already know.…

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On February 1st, I was sitting alone in our family room, looking up through the skylights at the brilliant blue sky (unusual for England, especially in winter) and said aloud, "Dad, if you're ready to go, this would be a good day for traveling." Not ten minutes later my husband, who was out walking our dog, called to say his father had 'just passed'. My father-in-law had been a widow since 2016. Boxing Day night he suffered a fall culminating in hip replacement surgery three…

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FOLLOWING THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year! "The old year now hath passed away"...words from an old Lutheran hymn and so appropriate for a NEW YEAR. I didn't get that quite right one time- I was working for a church and in typing up…

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My father always said I was "a day late and a dollar short", and so, keeping in character, I am 'late' with my blog! I love the sense of peace I feel during Advent when the days are short and the sun teases as it barely clears the treetops. I love Christmas!- the music, the Christmas plays, shows, movies, the hand-crafted decorations, and the hand-made food. I love the story of the birth of Jesus, and the…

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I've been reading Lucy Worsley's biography about Jane Austen (Lucy is a UK historian & TV presenter). At the same time I'm reading Northanger Abbey and I'm watching Sense and Sensibility. I've never read Jane Austen before and I must admit there are sentences I'm re-reading several times in order to 'get it'. But I'm going to persevere because I want to get to know this author; my curiosity about her has been aroused thanks to Lucy's book. One thing that intrigues me is that Jane…

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TRAVELLING HOME I'm late with my October blog because my husband and I have just returned from a two week trip to America- it had been 18 months since I was last there- the longest I've ever been away from the USA. We flew into Denver, and thanks to a pre-season winter storm raging in Yellowstone and Teton National Parks, we…

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September—the month of autumn and all my favorite colors—is frequently the time when I check my compass bearing and make sure I'm headed in a direction I want to go. Often correcting my course means making a move—which I've done several times from coast to coast and in between! Which…

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It's the middle of summer and I'm working on another book in my Breaking Camp Series. This time the Trasks are visiting the Black Hills of South Dakota. I've been through this area three times. The first time was when my family visited on a camping trip- we set up our Coleman Apache pop-up camper right on the shores of stunning Sylvan…

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