In Your Eyes

(On being a decent human being... Garage Kitties, Kindness Journal, and what else BOOKS!)

Hello there beautiful friends.

Weekly Dose of Hope!

Hope all is well in your neighborhood despite all the GARBAGE going on in this country right now. ICE SUCKS. There I said it… and this isn’t a difference in opinion. This is a difference in basic human decency if you don’t agree with that. It’s not about political affiliation anymore, it’s about protecting humanity. Kind people are getting killed now. Nurses, teachers—people are being killed in the STREET! EXECUTIONS. GROSS… just horrid. A public execution in 2026 is NEVER the correct way to answer whatever MADNESS is going on. FORCIBLY shooting a man 10 times in the back, NO. Just gross. That’s all I will say about this. Feel free to disagree and UNFOLLOW me because there is no discussion at this point with this garbage. SERIOUSLY. I look forward to the day JUSTICE is served for Alex Pretti and Renee Good. And there will be JUSTICE. Count on that.

Last Sunday I was featured in the Journal Notes from Jamaica 🖋️ KINDNESS JOURNAL… you can find my Guest Contributor post HERE: on Deanna’s Substack page. It was an honor and Angela (my Rescue bestie) shared it with the entire Rescue… I got nothing but kind remarks and was told by the head of the rescue how HONORED she felt. =)

So, guess what? Remember my leaky problems outside my house a year or so ago now? The one I have been paranoid about happening again? Well, it IS happening again. Ugh! This cold air because of the extreme temperatures because of climate change (and winter! GO home winter, you’re DRUNK!) has caused the pipes to freeze once again and for this BS to happen again. UGH! The leak detection men are out there now looking for the leak to see where they will have to dig up what I can only describe as one neighbor buddy called it to an extent of this—the cement of winter! It IS like cement out there… the ground is freezing and there is SNOW and ICE on top of it, and I don’t know how the eff they’re going to get that shit done… but it will get fixed. I have FAITH. Again, I feel sad for the HOA people who have this on their plate year after year to deal with. I sort of applaud them for keeping a level head about it, because this is A LOT.

Lasagna for the snowstorm was so good! Glad I made it!

Today is a coffee drinking day. It is just so BITTER cold that tea isn’t going to do the trick. Coffee is thicker in some weird ass way, so I think the THICKNESS (ha! —thick and loving it!) kind of warms up my internal organs as I down it. Also, today I need the instant wake up of coffee, unlike the extended release-ness of tea! HAHA! As you can see, I don’t have much to write about or I am overcaffeinated because I got up at 3am and hung out with Mack on the couch and read until my eyes were too tired and I went back up to bed to a dancing Aurora kitty! LOL.

We (Me and the hubs) have been helping these kitties in the rescue called “the garage kitties”. We have made some serious progress already and got Beelzebub (I’m naming them all with ANGEL names—so far, we have B. short for Beelzebub, Gabriel (these 2 I can identify—these kitties all look alike! And… they look like Buddy—Mom’s cat we had for 15 years!) Micheal, Seraphina and I need 3 more names… in the comments if you want to give me an idea maybe you will have a cat named after your idea! I skipped Lucifer, sorry, that one won’t happen!... Beelzebub and the angel’s idea was because B. was staring at me like I imagine Satan would. LOL. The first time, but you should see how in 3 trips there they have changed their demeanor. I still think they’re a little cold and still terrified. Down the road though, they’ll be ADOPTABLE and they’re all so beautiful. ( www. Hart2heartanimalrescue.com … can’t wait until the day I can post their page links here! )

See what I mean? BEELZEBUB. He is sweet though, I promise. Brian got him to even play a bit! =)

I do plan this weekend, on seeing that new movie with Rachel McAdams and I forget the actor’s name. It’s called Send Help and it’s directed by Sam Raimi who is known for horror movies like Drag Me to Hell which wasn’t even that scary, just weird. I love Rachel McAdams and I can’t wait to see her totally UNHINGED in this! HA! My hubs asked me the other day which role of hers is my favorite and it’s funny because 2 of them are romantic roles but she brought it in a beautiful way to both movie adaptations of 2 books I read years ago!

As you all know “The Time Traveler’s Wife” is one of my absolute favorite books of ALL time and she was absolutely fantastic in that movie and then she was also in the movie The Notebook in one of the main roles. I like that movie better than the book which is rare to find in ANYONE who reads books first. So, there’s that. Ryan Gosling as the male lead too brings a beautiful element to it and they click as a couple. =) Two movies I recommend and if you have read ONE Nicholas Sparks book (“The Notebook” author) unfortunately you have read them all. They all follow the same ARC, so it is what it is.

WHAT I AM LISTENING TO AS I WRITE THIS: You will laugh. Or not, I wanted to listen to Madonna and I have her Erotica album on right now because a friend had a song from it in their Instagram stories this morning, lol. Thanks Peter! Next up, Bedtime Stories because it’s been quite a beat since I listened to that record.

BOOKS

Woman Down Colleen Hoover – The QUEEN OF SMUT is back after a 5-year hiatus with this book I was able to get off of Kindle Unlimited. I thought it was excellent. I didn’t see any of the twists coming. No, really, I didn’t… which made me feel kind of dumb and silly but I am glad I went in without knowing what to expect as Ms. Hoover is a lot of genres all rolled into ONE. I loved it. If you loved “Verity” (soon to be a movie as well!) FIVE STARS.

Lights Out Elise Hart Kipness - This is a paperback that I had bought, and I don’t really remember when but I know I got it off Amazon. Where else? This story was basic—I also didn’t like the ending much. She wrapped it up in like 3 pages. I didn’t mind the attention to detail in the writing as some people complained about on Goodreads but at the same time, the story had a lot of detail but then the last scene of the book was short and a little too sweet. Wrapped up in just a wrapper, instead of a bow like the next mention. HA. So, there’s that. Also, this is a book that later in the year probably would have been a DNF (did not finish). HA. Oh well. THREE STARS.

Dead In the Water John Marrs – Good book. Another brand-new book out on Kindle Unlimited. So grateful for that app! It’s wonderful to read all these new books for FREE instead of paying over $12-$15 a piece for a copy of a book I’ll never read again since I don’t re-read books and don’t have a membership to the library currently. This story was kind of crazy, as John Marrs books tend to be! Embedded story after twisty story. I recommend this guy, even if some of his books feel like they won’t end at times—I will give him credit, he wraps it all up in a nice bow for ya’ll. Check it out. FOUR STARS.

The Tenant Katrine Engberg – Good book. Had some good TWISTS that weren’t so obvious. A decent crime novel. I think this is an author to WATCH. I didn’t realize another book coming up on my TBR (to be read for you non-bibliophiles) but now going back down a little bit probably (a paperback though it’s just I don’t like reading too many by the same author back-to-back or close together unless I LOVE them but my tired of blue light eyes are screaming for a paperback)-- I enjoyed it. FOUR STARS.

Dear Debbie Frieda McFadden – This was a FUN RIDE as always. One of her best once again. I probably always say that too. McFadden has a talent for telling a crazy and weird story without all the extra FLUFF that say a historical fiction (yawn) book might. She doesn’t need ALL THAT JUNK. She just tells a weird story and it’s ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS fun! (“The Housemaid” much?) … This is her LATEST and one of her BEST to date. I would know. I have read ALL OF THEM. I think there are 25 of them, haha. I read them all in 2024 when I went on a Frieda BINGE because her books may be EASY to read but this isn’t a reading level competition. It’s supposed to be ENJOYABLE. I loved it. FIVE STARS.

The Locked Ward Sarah Pekkanen – Current read! I started it last night and am halfway through it now. I hope to finish it by tomorrow so it can be my 14^th and FINAL read of January 2026! I have read quite a lot of this author’s books and I always enjoy them. If you like Rachel Hawkins, I think you would enjoy these books too—although they feel more personal in a way and the topics. I can’t rate it yet, as it’s not finished yet. =)

COMING UP for this section of this BLOG! I am going to start reading some of the memoirs I have collected. I will read one and rate it MONTHLY. I got the Brooke Shields and Tim Curry ones recently. I also have Drew Barrymore, Jay-Z (don’t ask!) and Paris Hilton’s memoirs. I will read a MEMOIR A MONTH! At least for now. =) Stay tuned!

The leak people have left. Waiting to find out what’s next. Keep me in your thoughts! As above, so below—literally.

Working hard… and FAST, on my “short story” if you want to call it that anymore. FIFTEEN more pages written about the character ABBIE. STAY TUNED and KEEP LOOKING OUT FOR this blog and more of the story. I think this SECTION of the story will be released in 5-6 parts, but I might just keep it going as a serialized story and then print it as one big story/novel.

Anyways, I also have a great idea for a separate novel now and did the outline for it. So, there’s that. It will be a DYSTOPIAN novel set-in a two-time period setting with at least a dual point of view. Check it out: TOPIC? Immortality and the downfall of medicine. Look for that SOMEDAY, probably LATE 2027. But who knows? And who knows how I will make that available. =) WRITING. It’s what I am here to do! Keep on reading me and I’ll keep on writing for ya’ll. Love my readers and all you fellow authors out there. Thanks, as always for reading my blog and for supporting my work! Have a wonderful weekend. <3

-xoxo-

LWB*