Did you miss any of the earlier posts in this series? Find them here:
Today seemed to go by fast (which was nice!). Three separate video calls with family used up pretty much all the morning. Some editing, some work on my Amazon ads, some exercise (Dance Dance Revolution for the win!), and some lesson planning for the after-school classes I’ll be teaching this year used up the afternoon. As usual, working on my blog post is my after-dinner activity. And then I’m off to bed with one more day of quarantine under my belt!
This building, just visible to my far left as I peer out my window, intrigues me. During the day, it usually looks like a normal, solid, white building with a dark gray striped design in the middle. But after dark, it manages to look as though it’s shaped kind of like an arch, with the enter part completely open (you know, like all those buildings in Hong Kong designed with the big holes so that dragons from the mountains can fly through them at night on their way to drink from the harbor … never mind). A few irregular little lights in the gray part somehow look as though they’re on buildings behind this one, adding to the night-time illusion that the center section is empty. (Or is it an illusion? I’m not completely convinced!) And on a foggy day, the white part fades into the mist, making it look as though a tall, narrow, dark gray structure stands there instead. I’m beginning to wonder if someone purposely designed this building to provide hours of perplexity for stir-crazy inmates peering out at the city from their solitary cells and trying to keep reality and their imagination separate. Then again, is it worth even trying to keep them separate? Some days I’m not so sure …
Ok, time for the obligatory meal photos. Today I actually really enjoyed parts of both lunch and dinner! A couple of the items were actually my favorites out of everything we’ve been served so far.
Anyway, here are some pictures from tonight’s sunset. The sun itself stayed hidden behind a cloud bank most of the way down, but the evening sky was still pretty. I’m so thankful for a room with nice big windows and a sunset view!
See later posts in the series here (once they’re live):
Did you miss any of the earlier posts in this series? Find them here:
Today was a good day! One of the first things I did was chat online with a colleague of mine who just started her quarantine on a different floor of the HiOne Hotel. Her wonderful attitude encouraged me, and so did the song she sent me a link to. “As the Deer” instantly became my quarantine theme song. I’ve heard it dozens, if not hundreds of times before, but it had never brought me to tears before. Of course, I’d never before listened to it when locked in a room alone for two weeks … and yet not alone. The phrase “you alone” takes on a whole new meaning when the Lord is all you have – and you realize he is really all you need after all. I can’t remember the last time a song touched me that deeply.
The picture above is what I saw when I opened my curtains. Typhoon In-Fa is hanging out off the east coast at the moment. Rain splattered my window, “falling” almost horizontally at the time. All day, there have been intermittent heavy winds, sometimes making my windowpanes rattle, and it’s rained on and off.
This morning when I opened my door to pick up my breakfast, I stuck my phone out and took a couple of quick pictures. Below is the view from my doorway. For some reason I always feel a little sad when I see all those other chairs with meals on them. I’ve never glimpsed any of the other guests/inmates here (though this afternoon I heard someone sneeze on the other side of the wall), but every chair represents a person sitting in a room by themselves. There are at least eight of us spending our two weeks in solitary confinement in this hallway, so close together and yet each completely alone. I hope the others have found meaningful ways to fill their time and connect with friends and family in the outside world, as I’ve been able to.
A highlight of my day was receiving a delivery in the late afternoon!
Part of it involved items from my apartment (like extra clothes, so I won’t have to do as much laundry in the sink) that a friend who has the key had been willing to get for me. She also bought me some fresh fruit, yogurt, and a few other goodies. The rest of it was the delicious dinner that you see below, a gift from another friend. Yum! It was definitely the best meal (and the healthiest – nothing was deep fried!!) that I’ve had since I’ve been here.
Meanwhile, here are the meals the hotel served today:
One last picture before I close for the night. I didn’t actually see the sunset this evening because of all the clouds over the horizon, but it did make its presence known very briefly in this gorgeous display. Just a few seconds after I took this picture, the clouds shifted and the colors vanished.
See later posts in the series here (once they’re live):
Did you miss either of the earlier posts in this series? Find them here:
The highlight of my day today was being able to do a fun new form of exercise! I had bought a very basic version of Dance Dance Revolution long ago but hadn’t seen or thought of it for years. Then this summer I rediscovered it up in the closet in my grandparents’ house. Since the dance pad plugs directly into a TV, with no other equipment required, I thought it would be a perfect quarantine activity that I could do in my hotel room. So we brought it along, along with spare batteries, even though it’s a little on the heavy side and we had limited space and weight to spare in our luggage. When we first arrived in the hotel, however, it looked as though it wasn’t going to work right with the TV in my room. So Floyd went online and ordered something from PCHome that would help it connect. The something arrived and got delivered to my room today, and after a lot of fiddling and some tech support from Floyd over a video call, we discovered to my disappointment that it didn’t work. And THEN we discovered that the dance pad could connect to the TV the way it needed to after all, with no external help required! I was delighted, and spent the next hour dancing away! I’m really excited to know that I have DDR to look forward to every day now for the rest of my quarantine! (Hey, when you’re locked in a room alone for two weeks, you have to find excitement where you can!)
Here are today’s meals:
There’s a typhoon moving in at the moment. It’s been raining on and off all day, interspersed with blue skies overhead but fast-moving dark clouds traveling south just above the horizon. My window panes have occasionally rattled in the wind, and when I stand near the door, I hear the wind whistling through some window that must have been left ajar somewhere down the hall. I wonder what it will be like in the next couple of days to watch a typhoon hit the city from the 22nd floor.
I’ll close with this photo I took out my window this evening of the storm closing in on the city at dusk.
See later posts in the series here (once they’re live):
Did you miss the first post in this series? Find it here:
I woke up this morning feeling joyful and grateful, thinking of how much I have to be thankful for. Yes, I’m going to be stuck in this room for the next fortnight, but at least it’s a pretty nice room! Want to see for yourself? Come take the tour!
I’ve wanted to learn to line dance for years. What better time than quarantine? This morning I learned the Cowboy Hustle! I have just enough space between the beds and desk in my hotel room to do it, as long as I skip the part where they keep turning around to face another direction. I plan to learn a new line dance each day I’m here. I’m so thankful for enough room to exercise, and for a fun variety of exercise options on Youtube!
Alas, the person in the room below mine apparently doesn’t feel quite the same way. Midway through my second exercise session of the day, the room phone rang. It was a lady from the front desk, asking if I could please exercise more quietly. Whoops.
A doorbell I didn’t know I had rang this morning. When I put on my mask and peeked out, lo and behold, a care package was waiting for me! What a delightful surprise to find these treats from some of my colleagues at Morrison Academy! (They had to leave the bag at the front desk, and a worker in a mask, gloves, and hospital gown brought it up and left it outside my room, then hurried away to safety as soon as he rang my bell.)
In the late morning, I got a call on the room phone here in my hotel. “Hello, this is the front desk. The police are on the phone and would like to talk to you.” Fortunately, I knew what it was about, otherwise I might have been quite alarmed! It was just Olivia, my friendly neighborhood quarantine officer, trying to get ahold of me since we’d gotten cut off on our previous call on my new cellphone. She reminded me to keep track of my health and be ready to fill in the details when I get a text message tomorrow (and every day from then on, I think?), and that she would call me every two or three days to check in.
This evening there was a gorgeous sunset. My pictures don’t really do it justice, but they’ll give you a little hint of God’s artwork outside my window.
It’s almost time for bed now. First, pictures of today’s meals:
As I end my day, my sports watch tells me I’ve walked (well, and it’s probably including my line dancing) a total of 10,016 steps today. I feel accomplished! Don’t be too impressed, though – today was about three days long!
See later posts in the series here (once they’re live):
My husband Floyd and I have just returned home to Taiwan after a summer in California visiting relatives. Taiwan is taking the current COVID situation very seriously, and all incoming travelers are now required to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks upon arrival. I decided to record my quarantine experiences for anyone who might be interested (and to give myself one more thing to do in what I’m calling my luxury incarceration)! Today is day 0, because the 14 days don’t technically start until tomorrow. (They have to be 14 full days.)
Both our flights (LA to Hong Kong; Hong Kong to Taipei) were fairly empty. Getting through the Taipei airport was an interesting adventure, very different from any of our previous arrivals. First I had to buy a Taiwan SIM card for my new phone (required for all incoming quarantinees), which was pretty simple since they had a table selling them right after we got off the plane. There was a short line for that – the only line we had to stand in the whole time. Then there was a huge hassle about how to access and take screenshots of certain messages and quarantine-related documents on both Floyd’s and my phones, but some helpful airport personnel who sort of spoke English were finally able to help us.
Next we had to walk all over the place, always with uniformed personnel standing ready to point out the way, and always being followed by a masked and gowned cleaning crew spraying disinfectant and wiping the floors down behind us. After getting through customs and immigration as usual, we picked up our boxes and duffel bag from the baggage claim, where a sign informed us what had been done to them.
Along with showing our phone screenshots and other extra info at extra places, we had to take rapid COVID tests (these were in addition to the PCR tests we took a few days ago that actually let us fly). For these ones, we were escorted to private booths where we had to spit in jars, wipe down the outsides of the jars, double-bag them, and hand them to more masked and gowned personnel, who stuck big “quarantine Taiwan” stickers on our shoulders to prove we had completed that step.
Finally we were funneled outside to the quarantine taxi waiting area, where we had to submit documentation about our quarantine hotel arrangements and then get sprayed down with sanitizer, along with our bags. (All of that took almost two hours, even though, as I said, there were pretty much no lines. Actually, the whole airport was almost deserted.) To our disappointment, they had run out of the van-sized taxis, and the regular ones couldn’t fit all our luggage (three large boxes and a duffel bag, plus carryons and a few other small items). So we had to pay for two taxis, which dropped us and our things off at the HiOne Gallery quarantine hotel in Taichung.
Checking into the hotel was complicated. It didn’t help that neither of us speaks much Chinese, and the man trying to check us in didn’t speak English. There were all sorts of COVID- and quarantine-related things to deal with as part of the check-in process, too. We would never have managed without calling a couple bilingual friends of ours and asking them to translate over the phone! All this happened outside and in the entryway, with the expansive lobby standing empty, tape on the floor showing potentially contaminated guests like us which way to walk to the elevator so we wouldn’t contaminate anything else.
Though it will be hard to spend the next two weeks alone (no, husbands and wives aren’t even allowed to quarantine together!), I’m grateful for how nice my room is. I had very little idea of what to expect, but it’s better than I dared hope for. Tomorrow I’ll post a little video of my room.
A lot has been said (and wondered) by various people about the meals that are included in the cost of most quarantine hotels here. I decided to take pictures of each meal to include in my blog, for anyone who might be curious.
That’s all for now. It’s time for bed. Here’s hoping jetlag will let me sleep!
See later posts in the series here (once they’re live):
Welcome to Realm Explorers! In this weekly series, we visit a variety of unique worlds created by talented science fiction and fantasy authors. Enjoy your travels! And don’t forget to read to the bottom of the post to find out more about each author and see how to purchase the featured book.
Author’s name: Erudessa Gentian
Title of book and/or series: Power in Time, Epoch 1 of Kynaston Royal Saga
Brief summary of the story:
Twenty-year-old Larkspur is trapped 2,000 years in the future, but that’s not her biggest problem. Bestowed with strange superpowers, she’s adopted by one of the most powerful families known to the four inhabited planets. As heir, she’s responsible for an entire kingdom she didn’t know existed a few days ago. But when tragic surprises emerge from her past, Lark must decide where her loyalties will lie—past, or future?
Brief description of the world or location you created for this story:
Evren is the third successfully terraformed planet. It is a little smaller than Earth, has two moons, and four extra months in a year. Jewel and metallic tones are the most common colors found there.
If we were to visit Evren as tourists, what would you recommend that we see or do there?
Check out some of their nature reserves. The preservation of wildlife and natural resources is important there.
Is there a distinct or unusual type of food or meal that we might be served in Evren?
Evren was mostly settled by people from modern-day Europe and New Zealand, and some of their traditional foods came along. Their fruit is known for its succulence.
What types of weaponry or fighting styles are common in Evren?
Laser weapons are common, especially guns.
What types of vehicles, animals, technology, etc. are used to travel in or to Evren?
Sky Trams are used for long travel, hovercraft is used for daily travel. Holograms are used in a lot of technology, including computers, maps, and text.
Cats as a species didn’t take well to the terraformation process, so all breeds are considered endangered and protected.
What types of plants, animals, or sentient races might we encounter in Evren that we don’t see on Earth?
There are no alien races in Kynaston Royal Saga, but plants do differ from planet to planet. Mostly in their colors, but some plants evolved differently depending on the chemical makeup of the planet.
What role, if any, does magic or the supernatural play in the lives of people in Evren? If there is magic, please give some examples of what it involves or how it’s used.
Magic is known as Arcane Science, but it’s not studied deeply. Some people are born with the ability to manipulate an element (air, electricity, fire, water, etc.), but it’s considered useless. It takes too much energy to actually do, you’d die before it would be useful.
In Kyanston Royal Saga, a select few are given bio-bots, which help enhance the gift.
Are the days of the week and months of the year the same in Evren as on Earth? What holidays or special events are celebrated regularly there?
Weekdays are the same, but Evren has four extra months than Earth (one for each season).
Christmas is still a traditional holiday, and Evren’s Foundation Month is celebrated every two years.
What is the political or government structure in Evren? Who is in charge there at the moment, and what kind of leader is he/she?
It depends on the country. The main story takes place in the Kingdom of Lothar, the first country on Evren, and still the largest/most powerful.
Avi Kynaston is the current monarch, well loved by the people. He inherited a kingdom on the brink of collapse, and led them back to prosperity. He just adopted Larkspur as his daughter and heir.
Author Autobiography:
Erudessa Gentian is a firm believer that clean entertainment can be powerful. Inspired by her love of cultures and learning, she produces dynamic art to spark imagination and touch souls.
Erudessa writes in multiple genres, but specializes in fantasy and historical fiction. She posts about lifestyle, travel and so much more on her blog.
Where, and in what formats, can we purchase your book(s)? Please include links.
All of Erudessa’s work can be found on her website.
Power in Time can be found on most major ebook retailers. Paperbacks are currently available on Amazon and her website.
Where can readers connect with you online?
You can find all of Erudessa’s social links and newsletter signup on her Contact Page.
I hope you all enjoyed the trip to Evren! Questions about the world or the book? Ask them in the comments and the author will get back to you!
Click here to read other posts in the Realm Explorers series.
Please join us again next Monday for a trip to another world in next week’s edition of Realm Explorers!
Are you an author of a sci-fi or fantasy novel that takes place in another world? Click here to find out about having it featured on Realm Explorers! -Annie Douglass Lima
I never thought I wanted (or needed) a virtual assistant, for Pinterest or anything else. Then I got started with Rebekah of POPpins LLC and realized just how much I hadn’t been doing because I didn’t have time for it or know how to do it well.
Rebekah’s job involves “Helping authors, artists, teacherpreneurs, homeschoolers, special needs & disability advocates, ministries, and artisans increase their visibility via the Pinterest platform.” Though I had a Pinterest account already, I’d never done much with it, prioritizing Facebook as my main social media platform. Rebekah gave it new life! She started by turning it into a business account for me, then got me a Tailwind account (Tailwind is a social media scheduling app that’s tailored for Pinterest) and linked it to my Pinterest. Next, she optimized the presentation of my Pinterest wall by creating dozens of distinct pins and matching board covers for me (all beautiful and professional-looking) from various custom-made, trend-mindful templates to promote my books and website. Then, she followed about 50 other authors from my account and joined group boards and Tailwind Tribes that matched my branding on my behalf. She scheduled up to 15 pins per day for me and submitted certain ones to the exchange system on Tailwind Tribes (where she pinned for other authors on my behalf, and they pinned on mine). Every month she sends me a classy-looking analytics report with simple-to-read statistics like how many new covers she designed that month, how many pins she pinned and repinned, how many impressions my pins received, etc. There’s a line graph showing the number of clicks to my website each day, and also pictures of the most popular organic pins. Even more importantly (to me), Rebekah has been available by email whenever I’ve had questions and has explained everything I’ve wanted to know about clearly and simply.
You can take a look at my actual Pinterest account here. Everything you see there that looks so lovely is thanks to Rebekah of POPpins LLC!
I don’t often blog about professionals in the industry, but I felt it was worth making an exception this time. If you don’t use Pinterest to its full effect as an author, or if you didn’t even realize it could be an effective way to promote your books or drive traffic to your blog/website, or if you simply don’t have time to deal with it on top of everything else, you would probably benefit from the services of a Pinterest Virtual Assistant too. Take a look at the links below to see more about what Rebekah offers on her website, including a special group deal for authors who don’t need her full package.
https://www.pinterest.com/POPpinsPVA/_saved/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahmcclainpva/
https://www.facebook.com/rebekah.mcclain.pva
Questions? Feel free to ask them here. Have you used a virtual assistant before? What did he/she do for you, and has it been worth it? Let us know in the comments!
Date Published: April 13, 2021
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Orion City has been on lockdown for ten years. Courtney Spencer, a disillusioned barista doomed to live a “normal” life in a quarantined fishbowl, is certain she’ll never see over the Wall again. Until one rainy evening, Courtney unintentionally befriends W, an eccentric customer who leaves a switchblade in the tip jar. The unexpected acquaintance soon opens the door to a frightening string of questions that flips everything she knows upside down. Stumbling into a world of secrets, lies, and disturbing truths, Courtney grapples with a burning temptation to look again at the Wall. Surrounded by citizens trained to ignore its looming shadow, Courtney no longer can. Intrigued and terrified to expand her world, Courtney finds herself toeing a knife’s edge between the law and justice, learning quickly that the two are not always compatible. She wants to cling to her morals. She also wants to stay alive. But most of all, she wants to see a certain customer again, despite everything in her whispering W is dangerous. In a gritty urban clash of hope and fear, passion and survival, The Walls of Orion explores the edges of light, dark, and the gray in between.
About the Author
A world-romper from the Pacific Northwest who quite enjoys the label “crazy,” T.D. Fox supplements a hyperactive imagination with real life shenanigans to add pizzazz to her storytelling endeavors.
Armed with a bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Studies, her favorite stories to write usually involve a clash of worldviews, an unflinching reevaluation of one’s own internal compass, and an embrace of the compelling unease that arises when vastly different worlds collide.
When not recklessly exploring inner-city alleyways during midnight thunderstorms in the States, she can be found exploring rainforests without enough bug spray somewhere along the equator.
Contact Links
Facebook: T.D. Fox
Twitter: @TDFoxAuthor
Instagram: @TDFoxAuthor
Purchase Links
A Guest Post by Kim McMahill
I am often asked how I come up with ideas for my books. Inspiration comes from many different places including dreams, travel, childhood experience grossly exaggerated, and current issues. Most of my novels have been stand-alone adventure and romantic suspense novels, but my most recent project has been the Risky Research Series. The idea for this suspense series began to emerge as I started getting to an age when keeping fit and healthy started taking a little more effort and a lot more research.
Nearly every woman I know, myself included, educates herself about nutrition, exercise, fitness, diets, etc. in order to live a healthier life, manage a medical issue, or to lose weight. I’ve found there is so much information out there that it is difficult to sort out fact from fiction. The diet and nutrition industries are worth billions, which makes it even more challenging to ascertain who or what to trust. With so much on the line for something that impacts nearly everyone, there is plenty of opportunity for corruption and crime to infiltrate the industry, making it perfect fodder for a crime series.
So, about six years ago I started the series with A Dose of Danger, which deals with a potential miracle diet pill and those who will stop at nothing to keep it off the market. Book 2, A Taste of Tragedy, revolves around a deadly sweetener, and book 3, A Foundation of Fear, explores the role of lobbyists and politics in the industry. The latest novel in the series, A Measure of Madness, was released on April 9, 2021. There are also two short-story prequels available for free download, A Formidable Foe and Midnight in Montana. Here’s a bit more on the latest novel, A Measure of Madness.
Blurb
FBI agent Devyn Nash’s pursuit of a deadly organization heats up in this fourth installment of the Risky Research series.
The FBI locates the mastermind behind Coterie, but attempts to bring him in result in a shootout that sends Coterie’s members scrambling for cover. When Devyn’s partner is left fighting for his life in a Puerto Rican hospital, she becomes more determined than ever to bring them to justice.
Devyn’s decision to ignore her orders and pursue the head of Coterie to Brazil puts her job and her relationship with Sheriff Gage Harris in jeopardy, but she is unwilling to allow those responsible for so much death to live out their lives in paradise.
Excerpt
“Let me guess, J.R. fast-tracked it to Brazil?”
“Very perceptive, Melonis.”
“Just a lucky guess since he apparently has a fondness for Brazilian bamboo, and it just so happens to be a country without an extradition agreement with the U.S.,” Nick said.
A nurse entered and interrupted their conversation. She checked Nick’s vitals and made notes on his chart. “Don’t visit too long, he needs his rest,” the nurse stated as she hustled out of the room.
“I’ll leave you two alone. I hate always being the third wheel. Just do as Morgan says and take care of yourself. The doctors think you’ll make a speedy recover if you don’t do anything reckless or stupid.”
“Speaking of reckless and stupid, have a nice flight to Rio and try not to get killed,” Nick rasped.
Devyn shot Morgan a scathing look.
“What? How could I have said anything, you’ve been with me the whole time? He just knows you too well.”
She shook her head and took Morgan in her arms. “Take care of him, and take care of yourself.” Devyn hugged her friend tight, hoping it wasn’t for the last time.
To learn more about the Risky Research Series or to Download your copy of any of Kim’s novels, visit:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Kim+McMahill&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Kim+McMahill?_requestid=1007373
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Kim+McMahill
More About the Author
To connect with Kim, check out:
Blog: http://www.kimmcmahill.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kimmcmahill
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/KimMcMahillAuthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimmcmahill/
Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/849945.Kim_McMahill
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Kim-McMahill/e/B007IK0EJW/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/kim-mcmahill
