Thinkingdog Publishing

Let me tell you a little secret from behind the scenes of my very professional author platform: I put actual effort into my social media. Like, the full package. I plan it out. I write the captions. I pick the music. I schedule it so it doesn’t look like I’m flying by the seat of my sweatpants. I even think about lighting and fonts and which filter screams “whimsical but with integrity.” And yet. The most successful posts? The ones that get the likes, the shares, the "OMG I love her" comments? Are the ones where Blueberry shows up. That’s it. She just shows up. No effort. No notes. No mood board. She doesn’t brainstorm content pillars. She doesn't try to grow an audience or tailor her brand voice. She doesn’t even know what her niche is. (Unless it's squirrel-chasing and chicken snacks.) She just exists — gloriously. Fluffily. Sassily. And people adore her. I’ll admit, it’s humbling. I mean, I’ve got a degree. I’ve got story arcs and character spread...

There’s something magical about mornings in a German village . Before the first streaks of light even dare to touch the rooftops, the bakers are already awake—aprons dusted with flour, ovens glowing like small suns, and the air heavy with the promise of freshly baked bread. When I was growing up, the bakery wasn’t just a shop. It was the place. The heartbeat of the morning. People would shuffle in, still half-asleep, clutching their baskets like loyal companions. There’d be a chorus of Guten Morgens, the creak of the old wooden door, and the rhythmic thwack of bread loaves landing on the counter. No one was in a hurry. You stood, you chatted, you shared your plans for the day—perhaps a complaint about the weather, or a compliment about Frau Schneider’s strudel (which, let’s be honest, always deserved applause). And oh, that smell. If you could bottle it, you’d own happiness itself. Later, when the sun climbed high and the bustle began, the same bakery would transform. The sleepy ea...

So—does anybody remember pen pals? No? Just me? Well then, buckle up, because I’m about to sound like a fossil digging through the dusty attic of childhood communication. Back in the day, every kid or teen magazine worth its neon sticker collection had a pen pal section. The premise was simple: you sent in your name, your address, and (brace yourself) a small fee to be paid in stamps. Actual, lick-and-stick, make-your-tongue-feel-like-sandpaper stamps. I know—gasp! The Stone Age. After a few weeks of waiting (because this was before instant gratification was invented), you’d get an envelope with names and addresses of kids around your age who were looking for friends in far-off towns or even other countries. That’s right—before sliding into DMs was a thing, we were carefully sliding letters into mailboxes. And oh, those letters. We wrote pages about nothing —our grades (inflated), our lives (glamorized), our friends (fictionalized if necessary). Nobody fact-checked, nobody car...

The Writing Process (Or, How I Accidentally Wrote a Book While Folding Laundry) At some point, if you write anything—novels, blog posts, shopping lists in cursive—someone is going to ask about your process . You’ll be at a book club, a festival, the dentist’s office with gauze in your mouth, and the question will come: “So, what’s your process?” Cue the polite smile. I say something reasonable like, “Oh, I research, then plan the structure, outline the scenes, work in beats...” Then I run away. Because here’s the truth. The real story. The real real story. I have no earthly idea how this works. None. My brain has always played this soundtrack of stories. I don’t ask for it. I don’t control it. It’s just there. While I’m folding towels. While I’m unloading the dishwasher. While I’m out walking the dog, trying to look like a normal adult who wears matching socks. There it is. A scene. A snippet of dialogue. A full-on argument between two characters who may or may not exist i...

There was a time I wanted my writing to sparkle — every sentence polished like a diamond, every metaphor clever enough to make my English teacher rise from her chair in slow applause. I’d tinker with sentences for hours, swapping “walked” for “meandered” or “ambled,” then back again, trying to sound like A Serious Author™. You know the type. The kind who drinks coffee with too much intensity and uses “juxtaposition” in casual conversation. But somewhere between the endless editing and the overthinking, I realized something uncomfortable: I was writing to impress other writers, not to move readers. It hit me one day when my best friend — not a writer, not even a big reader — read a scene from one of my drafts and said quietly, “That part made me cry.” She didn’t care about my sentence rhythm. She didn’t notice the metaphor I’d sweated over for an hour. She felt something. And that’s when I understood: readers don’t fall in love with your words. They fall in love with your truth. We...

So - here we are....  It’s a peaceful afternoon. Birds are chirping. The dog is asleep. A mug of coffee cools beside my keyboard. I’m sitting at my desk, deeply focused on crafting the next scene in my cozy mystery novel. My characters are in the middle of a heated debate—someone has been murdered, after all—and things are getting dramatic. Suddenly, my husband peeks into the room and says, “Sorry, did you say something?” Oh no, dear. I wasn’t talking to you . I was talking to myself. Loudly. With feeling. And perhaps a bit of a British accent. This, my friends, is where the writerly madness truly shines. Now before anyone calls for a wellness check, allow me to explain. I’m not losing my marbles (though I admit they do rattle suspiciously from time to time). I’m just... rehearsing. Because when you write cozy mysteries filled with grumpy detectives, nosy neighbors, flustered suspects, and talking Papillon dogs (yes, Pixie has opinions and she’s not afraid to share them), y...

So, here’s the thing—I know we have coyotes in our area. It’s not exactly a secret. They’re basically our unofficial neighbors at this point. Lately, they’ve been as regular as the subway—every ten minutes, one trots by our window like it’s the 7:30 express to Downtown Trouble. Now, I’m a vigilant dog mom. I’ve got fences, gates, lights, and the kind of situational awareness usually reserved for Secret Service agents. My little Papillon, Blueberry, never sets a paw outside without me. We go as a team, like a very small and furry version of the Secret Service detail I mentioned—minus the suits, though Blueberry would totally rock a tiny one. But a few days ago, we were walking our old boy, Kobe—fifteen years old, gentle as a cloud, moving at a dignified senior pace. He stopped to sniff a bush. Harmless, right? A completely innocent dog moment. Except—apparently—not. Because that harmless bush… growled. Before I could even process what was happening, a coyote shot out of it like it ...