#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Corine McGlown founder of Calmfirmations

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I’d like to welcome Corine McGlown as my guest today for #ThisorThatThursday.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Getting writer’s block or second-guessing my writing choices

Easiest thing about being a writer: Thinking of main topics to write about

Something you’re really good at: Motivating others and creating gift bags

Something you’re really bad at: Lying

Last best thing you ate: Herb-baked salmon over shredded lettuce

Last thing you regret eating: Fast food french fries

Favorite music or song: Soulful R&B

Music that drives you crazy: Techno

The last thing you ordered online: Vitamin supplements

The last thing you regret buying: A dress that looked nothing like it did online

Things you’d walk a mile for: My family, a very large sum of money, Twizzlers (Ha! not really, but I do love them)

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Spiders, centipedes, bugs of nearly any kind, horror movies

Things you always put in your books: Calming affirmations

Things you never put in your books: Negative energy

Favorite places you’ve been: Maui, Las Vegas, Ocho Rios

Places you never want to go to again: Tijuana

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Moved to NYC for a year without knowing anyone

Something you chickened out from doing: Going into a haunted house after paying for it

The first 8-track, record, cassette, or CD you ever bought: Michael Jackson’s Thriller

A type of music that’s not your cup of tea: House or techno music

Your favorite movie as a child: The Wiz

A TV show or movie that kept you awake at night as a kid (or as an adult): Poltergeist

About Corine:

Corine is the founder of CALMFIRMATIONS, an emotional wellness brand inspired by her own lifelong journey with anxiety and the search for more peace in everyday life. What started as simple moments of slowing down, breathing, and speaking affirmation to herself and her children, has grown into a mission to help others do the same. She is the author of a variety of calming affirmation coloring journals and hosts mindful coloring workshop experiences, each encouraging women to hit pause on the chaos, quiet their minds, and reconnect with who they are…one calm, colorful moment at a time. Each journal she creates is designed to speak directly to a specific challenge or season of life. Next on the horizon is an affirmation coloring journal created especially for female entrepreneurs.,with an anticipated release of November 2025.

 Let’s Be Social:

Website: https://calmfirmations.com

Journals: https://calmfirmations.com/journals

Instagram: https://instagram.com/calmfirmations

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@calmfirmations

Amazon Authors: https://amazon.com/author/calmfirmations

Book Links:

College - https://amazon.com/dp/B0DDXYV8SG

Overwhelmed Moms - https://amazon.com/dp/B0F2SBWVLS

#WriterWednesday Interview with Robert F. Lowell

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I’d like to welcome Robert F. Lowell to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Hardest thing about being a writer: The soul-crushing emptiness of the blank page. Slightly worse than the soul-crushing emptiness of marketing.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Coming up with bad ideas. Bad ideas are essential to any creative endeavor. Researchers who study innovation and creativity all agree that the best way to have a few good ideas is to have lots of bad ones. Make sure you write them down.

Words that describe you: Grateful, reliable, respectful, affectionate, committed, disciplined, curious, tenacious, introspective.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Predictable, cautious, dad-bodded.

Last best thing you ate: Shakshuka at the Blue Barbikan, a Polish restaurant in York, England.

Last thing you regret eating: The Sunday roast beef at a pub in York that will not be named. I almost asked the waiter for an axe.

Favorite music or song: Classic rock and hot country. If Eric Clapton and Chris Stapleton ever tour together I'll ask if Ticketmaster accepts payment in blood.

Music that drives you crazy: Heavy metal. No, Led Zeppelin was not heavy metal. Neither was Steppenwolf.

The last thing you ordered online: An excessive amount of artisan roast coffee.

The last thing you regret buying: Loafers. I swear my feet must have variable geometry.

Things you always put in your books: Dialog between two or more people who don't trust each other.

Things you never put in your books: Open-door sex scenes. Sorry, ladies.

Things to say to an author: "Your last book changed my life." "Can I pre-order your next book?"

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: "I've always wanted to write but I've never had the time."

Favorite places you’ve been: Florence, Cornwall, Lake Tahoe. In my imagination Heaven looks just like Tahoe, but everybody's naked.

Places you never want to go to again: Zheleznogorsk, Siberia. The people were very friendly, even the Russian secret service guy who was tailing me, but dang it was cold.

Favorite things to do: Travel, eat fine food, drink wine, whisky, or beer, watch movies, snuggle with my wife. All the above at once.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Changing diapers, home repair, packing to move to a new house. If you've never eaten chapulines (Mexican-style grasshoppers), give them a try.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: D. J. Butler, pirate-hatted science fiction and fantasy author/publisher.

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Clint Eastwood. Saw him in Carmel one night and thought he was the ghost of Arnold Palmer.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: "[Your story "Ghost Wolf" is] something that today’s survivors of Iraq and Afghanistan would understand completely."

The craziest thing a reader said to you: "Wait, your name is Robert?"

My favorite book as a child: Charlie Brown's All-Stars by the great Charles Schulz. I loved the Peanuts gang as a kid, and they'll always hold a place in the sandlot of my heart. Snoopy is my spirit animal. According to one strip, I'm the same age as Charlie Brown. He's aged better.

A book I’ve read more than once: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. If you ever get a chance to see Max McLean's stage adaptation, do it. Your soul will thank you.

About Robert:

Robert F. Lowell is a Writers of the Future winner and Baen Fantasy Adventure Award finalist. His complicated relationship with reality began when he was born between two movie studios in Burbank, California. In previous professional lives he researched and wrote about international relations, weapons of mass destruction, and terrorism. He taught at universities in the US, Costa Rica, and Switzerland and was kissed by a dancing horse in Siberia. Now he expands the universe of online learning as an instructional systems designer and writes about swords, sorcery, robots, aliens, and magic rabbits as a member of the Wulf Pack Writers. He, his wife, and at least one dog live in a town with very expensive weather on California’s Central Coast and travel in search of enchantment. 

 Let’s Be Social:

Website: https://www.robertflowell.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertflowellauthor/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fwehling 


AI Terms Authors Need to Know

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is exciting and terrifying at the same time. Regardless of how you feel about it, it’s here, and it’s popping up everywhere. Here are some terms you need to know. I’ve included some great resources at the end that provide a lot more detail and examples.

Agentic AI: Systems designed to be autonomous. They can make decisions and do actions with no or limited human interactions.

AI Ethics: A multidisciplinary field that studies how to optimize the beneficial impact of AI while reducing risks and negative results.

Algorithm: A rule that a machine follows to complete a task.

Artificial Intelligence/AI: This is where machines act in a way that mimics human intelligence. Sometimes, it’s called cognitive computing.

Autonomous: A machine that can perform tasks without human intervention.

Bias/Machine Learning Bias: Slanted results caused by human bias, training data, or algorithms that lead to distorted results and possible negative outcomes.

Big Data: These are source or sets of data that are too large to process by traditional computers or data processing systems.

Chatbot: A process created for computers to communicate or interact with humans. They mimic human conversations.

Cognitive Computing: A model that mimics human thought processes.

Deep Fake: AI-generated images, videos, or audio to perpetrate a hoax or spread fake information.

Deep Learning: This is a function of AI that mimics human learning. It learns how data is structured rather than by the algorithm or rules that program it to do one task.

Emergent Behavior/Emergence: When an AI program shows unpredicted or unintended capabilities.

EU AI Act: A European Union regulation for responsible AI deployment and privacy.

Generative AI: This is where a system can process data and generate something new instead of regurgitating data that already exists. The system can create text, videos, code, and images.

Guardrails/Controls: These are frameworks or checks to ensure AI systems operate ethically and legally.

Hallucinations/Fabrications: The systems cannot discern truth from fiction from what it is trained on and what it generates.

Large Language Model/LLM: A training method of AI where huge amounts of data are used to teach the understanding of natural language.

Machine Learning: Part of AI learning that centers on algorithms that can “learn” the patterns of training data and make recommendations about new data. This pattern recognition ability enables machine learning models to make decisions or predictions without programmed instructions.

Natural Language Processing/NLP: This is a method where the computer takes structured data and turns it into text or speech.

Prompt: The way humans interact with a system. It in an instruction for a task.

Turing Test: Named for mathematician Alan Turing, this test checks the machine’s ability to pass for a human.

Vibe Coding: A method for developing software where the user guides an AI system through natural language prompts to create, refine, and test code. This is an alternative to writing the code. The term was coined by Andrej Karpathy.

Voice Recognition/Speech Recognition: A way for humans and computers to interact. The computer listens and interprets human speech.

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Sandra Skalski

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I’d like to welcome Sandra Skalski to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things: I adore my butterfly garden and my Christmas ornament collection. Some of them belonged to my grandmother.

Things you need to throw out: I keep old greeting cards. One of these days I must throw them all away.

Things you need for your writing sessions: A comfy chair and a cup of coffee or an ice-cold seltzer.

Things that hamper your writing: Access to the internet. I can either write or doomscroll, but not both.

Things you love about writing: I love the opportunity winning the Writers of the Future contest provided me. The support and encouragement have been amazing. Aspiring SFF writers should enter.

Things you hate about writing: I hate when I know the story isn't working but I don't know why. I'll have to pull weeds or some other mindless chore until I find the solution.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Occasionally, I get a raging case of imposter syndrome.

Easiest thing about being a writer: I love when I get 'in the zone' and the words spill out before my internal editor catches on.

Favorite foods: Steak and raspberries.

Things that make you want to gag: Liver makes me gag.

Favorite smell: I swoon over any kind of gardenia, especially Tahitian gardenia.

Something that makes you hold your nose: I hate the smell of Bradford Pear trees in bloom.

Things you always put in your books: I try to include a bit of humor in most things I write.

Things you never put in your books: Elves, dwarves and goblins won't be in my stories. They've been done to death.

Things to say to an author: I really enjoyed your book.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: What were you thinking with that ending?

Favorite places you’ve been: I love the Galapagos Islands and French Polynesia.

Places you never want to go to again: I avoid big cities. Crowds are not for me.

Favorite things to do: I love to dig in the garden or relax on a beach.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: I hate vacuuming.

Things that make you happy: I love spending time with my family and friends. When I'm not with them, you can find me in the garden.

Things that drive you crazy: Traffic jams get on my last nerve.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: I did a scuba dive to 130 feet to see the Blue Hole of Belize.

Something you chickened out from doing: The Angel's Landing hike in Zion. We changed our minds at the last minute.

About Sandra:

Sandra Skalski is a wife, mom and engineer who scribbles stories in her spare time. She likes to write story that make you smile. When she’s not writing, you can find her in the butterfly garden or traveling with her husband. This year, her stories have appeared in Writers of The Future Vol. 41, Allegory Magazine and Black Cat Weekly.

Let’s Be Social:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Sandra-Skalski-Author-61574495129204/

X: https://x.com/sandyskalski


#WriterWednesday Author Interview with Shamayne Olivia

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I’d like to welcome Shamayne Olivia back to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Favorite thing to do when you have free time: For free time anytime I like to create art using a coloring app. For longer periods of free time, we like to attend live music venues or the theatre.

The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: Grocery shopping.

Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: Peace and quiet with natural light. I like to write in my bedroom because it’s in the back of the house. I have windows looking out to the garden in our backyard.

Things that distract you from writing: perfectionism

Hardest thing about being a writer: Self-doubt, In the beginning, I think I spent as much time convincing myself I could do this as much as I did actually writing.

Easiest thing about being a writer: I’m still thinking about that one.

Something you’re really good at: intuition, organization, and time management

Something you’re really bad at: backing into a parking spot or parallel parking on the street. I get nervous.

Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: an oceanographer

Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: that I would write and publish a book then own my own business

Something you wish you could do: Sing with a strong voice.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: I wish I’d never learned to doubt my own abilities.

Last best thing you ate: Chicken Piccata on our anniversary at a swanky Italian restaurant. At one time the restaurant was called Romeo’s. The new owners named it Juliet’s.

Last thing you regret eating: Pork belly. One bite was enough to know.

Favorite places you’ve been: National Parks in Colorado and Utah

Places you never want to go to again: Over-crowded tourist towns

Best thing you’ve ever done: Coach my daughter through labor and delivery of both my grandsons.

Biggest mistake: not retiring sooner.

The most exciting thing about your writing life: the people I have met. Each stage of my writing journey introduced me to the people I needed in my life at that time. Some are well known and others are like me, but one step ahead and could offer guidance.

The one thing you wish you could do over in your writing life: It’s hard to say since I never imagined I would be a writer. My life as a writer unfolded as I worked to rebuild a life untethered from a painful past. The writing was part of the journey.

About Shamayne:

Shamayne Olivia is an author, speaker, and facilitator whose journey of reclaiming her authentic self has defined her life’s work. The eldest of four children, she carried adult responsibilities far too young, navigating the emotional needs of both siblings and parents. After her parents’ divorce at age eight, she was shaped by the lasting effects of alcoholism and rigid religious beliefs. Refusing to be defined by these patterns, she chose a path of healing and transformation—breaking the generational cycle and guiding others to do the same with courage, hope, and resilience. Her first book, Shoes That Fit Her Soul, explores these intricacies, removing the layers to uncover the fundamental steps needed to recover one’s identity and enjoy a more meaningful life.

Through decades of seeking her true identity, she uncovered profound insights and revelations that became the foundation of her business, Shoes That Fit Her Soul, LLC. Drawing from her own experiences, she created the Shoes That Fit Her Soul workbook, digital workbook, and workshop—resources designed to help others reclaim their voices, rewrite their stories, and step boldly into lives of purpose.

Shamayne lives in the Texas Hill Country, near Austin, with her generously supportive husband, Craig, and two affectionate cats, Wrigley and Ivy. She is the mother to three remarkable adult children, Sydney, Nathan, and Daniel, and “Maymie” to her beloved grandchildren, Emerson, Joaquin, and Jude.

When she’s not writing or leading workshops, Shamayne finds joy in family time, traveling, live music and theatre, major league baseball, and practicing yoga. Simple practices that remind her to stay grounded in gratitude and wonder for each new chapter.

Her hope is that every woman who encounters her work discovers the same truth she has embraced: it’s never too late to reclaim the light within you.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: About Author – Shoes That Fit Her Soul

Organizing Your Book Files

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There is nothing that will make an author cry faster than not being able to find the most recent version of a manuscript. I really dislike not being able to find things when I need them, so this is the method that works for me.

The Writing Files

  1. I use Microsoft Word, so I create folders for each of my books.

  2. There is one main file. At the end of each writing session, I make a backup of that to my cloud files. (I talked to a writer recently who saves each update in a new file with the date in the name. She mentioned that it took her a long time to find which changes she was looking for. My writing time is limited. I don’t want to spend hours looking for a file.)

  3. When I get edits (because each publisher has its own file naming convention), I put my original manuscript in a subfolder (e.g. Original Files) and save the edits in the editor’s format. When other edits happen, I do the same thing. There is always one main book file that gets backed up.

  4. If I have chapters or paragraphs that I’m removing, I make a copy of them and create a file in the “Original Files” folder for unused material. Make sure the file name describes what it is because you don’t want to have to open a bunch of files if it’s called something generic. Are you going to remember what “old chapter four” is several months later?

  5. I create a character spreadsheet for each series. When there is a new manuscript, I make a copy of it and save it to the new book’s folder. Then I add a column for this book. I note which reoccurring characters appear in the new book and add the new folks. This file has what recipes I used, key information on the characters, and location information that I don’t want to lose between books. I also add names of people I want to recognize in my author notes, so I don’t forget anyone.

  6. I have a Word document with my current biography, social media link, and book links. This helps when I need to create a post or provide this information. This document gets updated every time something changes.

Graphics and Book Covers

  1. When I get the graphics of the final book cover, it goes in my master file on my laptop (and gets backed up.) This way, I can find all the book covers in one place.

  2. I make a subfolder for each series/book for different promotional graphics for the book.

  3. When I make a new image or a video, I put it in its folder.

  4. I use BookBrush to create the book with different backgrounds and in different formats (e.g. ebook, audio, paperback, hardback). I use Canva to create my graphics.

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with donalee Moulton

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I’d like to welcome author donalee Moulton back to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

The coolest thing you’ve bought online: A catio. It’s a portable mesh enclosure that lets indoor cats safely enjoy the outdoors. Looks a little like a foldable black maze. Wiley Bob thought it was great until the wind picked it up and moved it three feet with him in it. No longer his favorite toy.

The thing you wished you’d never bought. I knew it was a scam when I bought it and still forked out $39.95 for a life-like toy poodle that barks, runs, licks your face. Yeah right. I got a small stuffed toy that somewhat resembled a dog.

Something you’re really good at: I’m going to say yoga. I’m not sure I’m as good at it as I really enjoy it – at least four times a week. I can do shoelace; I can almost do crow; I am nowhere near getting my legs to assume the lotus position. Ironic really. I have a new series out: the Lotus Detective Agency.

Something you’re really bad at: Eating well. Eating healthy. Eating. I’m the world’s slowest eater (along with the three-toed sloth apparently). There are numerous reasons for this. Bottom line: I’m always trying to stuff food in my face to make sure I’m getting lots of calories. That would be cake, not brussels sprouts.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: I’m tempted to say, “Write a book.” I’m going to go with stuffing myself inside a survival suit and being launched into the depths of a training pool. I was writing an article on a company that makes these suits for the offshore oil industry. The trainer suggested I test the suit. In a moment of weakness, I said yes. And still here.

Something you chickened out from doing: The list is long. My general philosophy is that if it can kill me, seriously injure me, or scare the bejesus out of me, then it’s a “no.” So that rules out skiing, bungee jumping, and watching anything directed by John Carpenter.

The funniest thing to happen to you: As a teenager, I often slept in until the last minute then bolted for school. One day I grabbed the jeans at the foot of my bed, thrust legs into the pants and grabbed a sweater. At break, I went to the washroom. Looked down at the bottom of my left leg only to see a blob of brown. I pulled on the blob of brown and kept pulling. It was pantyhose I’d worn the day before. Sadly, I was not alone in the washroom.

The most embarrassing thing to happen to you: I had this lovely jacket with these big bright silver buttons. I often wore it when I was teaching or presenting. One day I was standing before a class and looked down to see a wrinkle in one of the big bright silver buttons. When I touched it all the silver came off the button. Then it came off all the buttons. The silver was actually aluminum foil that had been wrapped around the “real” buttons to protect them before the jacket sold.

The funniest thing that happened to you on vacation: We had this fabulous house rented in Florida for a family vacation. I’m working quietly on my computer early one morning when my son-in-law comes tearing down the stairs and out the deck door. “It’s a giant lizard,” he yelled. I’m on my feet and running out the door with him. It was indeed a giant lizard. A giant ceramic lizard sitting inanimate on the patio table.

The most embarrassing thing that happened to you on a vacation: My husband and I were in Arizona. We dropped my mother at her bridge tournament and decided to go to the zoo. When we got there, we thought something was wrong. There was not a person in sight. There was not an animal in sight. We later learned no one goes out at high noon with the sun blazing and thermostat topping 100 degrees. That included the lions.

Best piece of advice you received from another writer: Ask for feedback. Listen to feedback. Be thankful for feedback. But pay attention to the little voice inside you that says whether you should change your writing as a result.

Something you would tell a younger you about your writing: Yes, you can.

About donalee:

donalee Moulton’s first mystery book Hung out to Die was published in 2023. A historical mystery, Conflagration!, was published in 2024. It won the 2024 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (Historical Fiction). donalee has two new books out in 2025, Bind and Melt, the first in a new series, the Lotus Detective Agency.

A short story “Swan Song” was one of 21 selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime. It was shortlisted for an Award of Excellence. Other short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. donalee’s short story “Troubled Water” was shortlisted for a 2024 Derringer Award and a 2024 Award of Excellence from the Crime Writers of Canada. 

 donalee is an award-winning freelance journalist. She has written articles for print and online publications across North America including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Lawyer’s Daily, National Post, and Canadian Business.

 As well, donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored the book, Celebrity Court Cases: Trials of the Rich and Famous.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: http://donaleemoulton.com  

Amazon Author: http://amazon.com/author/donaleemoulton

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donaleemoultonauthor

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/donaleemoulton

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaleemoulton/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/donaleemoulton.bsky.social

Instagram: donaleemoulton

#WriterWednesday Author Interview with Diane Bator

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I’d like to welcome Diane Bator to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

A few of your favorite fall traditions: shuffling through the leaves, taking photos of the colors, drives in the country to see the scenery

Something autumn-related that you’ll never do again: trick or treat.

Favorite fall treat: caramel apples!!

A fall treat that makes you gag: Molasses kisses we used to get as kids.

Favorite autumn beverage: Pumpkin Spice Lattes

A drink that gives you a sour face: Green Tea

Favorite fall smell: crisp mornings

Something that makes you hold your nose: skunky ponds

Best fall memory: walking with my dogs in the field behind our house as a kid

Something you’d rather forget: being in the truck when dad was hunting

A tradition you share with others: Hallothanksmas with my family since winters can be unpredictable and we live hours apart!

A tradition that can be retired: Over buying for Christmas. Yes, I’m guilty.

Best thing you ever cooked/baked in autumn: apple crisp with fresh picked apples

Your worst kitchen disaster: my first time cooking rice! The bottom of the pot was black.

Favorite place you spent a fall day: In the local park walking through the crunchy leaves.

The worst place to spend a fall day: In the mall

Your best Halloween costume: A spider!

A Halloween costume that wasn’t quite what you imagined: Tired Writer.

Favorite pumpkin spice item: Lattes

Something that should never be pumpkin-spiced flavored: Chocolate

Best Halloween memory: Taking the kids out when they were little

Worst Halloween experience: Getting caught in a snowstorm miles from home!

About Diane:

Diane Bator is an Award-Winning Canadian mystery writer based in Alberta, book coach, editor, and mom of three. She is the host of the Escape With a Writer blog, and started her own publishing company, Escape With a Writer, in January of 2024 to relaunch her previous 15 novels as well as newer works.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: https://dianebator.ca/

Blog: http://dbator.blogspot.ca/

Newsletter: https://dianebator.substack.com/