Well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve made a post. That’s not laziness on my part, not intentional neglect, but a consequence of the chaos I’m currently navigating. 2026 stormed in roaring, and life got a swipe with its massive paw.
After almost 20 years living in the Sacramento area, we’re leaving California and returning to our Midwestern roots.
I’ve written before about my plan to retire from my career as an English professor at the end of this semester. That plan is in effect; I will be officially retired in a couple months. I had intended to stay on half-time as an emerita professor, teaching one semester a year, until my husband retires in a few years. But then 2026 roared.
It’s always been our plan to return to our home ground after we retired; we left behind our two oldest sons when we moved west, and they’ve stayed in place, establishing thriving careers and settling down with the loves of their lives. We’d expected to return to them by 2030.
However, recent changes and new uncertainties in our lives and in our family have made it clear that we can’t count on being able to make that move on our own terms, with the best chance for a stable, comfortable retirement, if we wait. So we’re not waiting.
We’re moving at the end of May. Less than two months from now. EEEEEK!
Now let me be clear: no part of this move is about wanting to be out of California. We absolutely adore it here. IMO it’s the best state in the country, and we will miss it terribly. I’ve cried several times over losing things and places I love here, and I’ll cry more. Yosemite is, for me, truly a religious experience every time I’m within its towering walls. I’ve been privileged to be able to spend several days there multiple times each year, and I will feel that loss. Jim is particularly struggling with the loss of weekly photography trips to the myriad, diverse, breathtaking landscapes of this magnificent state. But we do hope to return often to play, not only in Yosemite but in all California’s fantastic cities, amazing National Parks and the glorious Pacific coast.
That said, we’ve missed our older sons terribly for two decades, and they’ve gone through some really tough times—sometimes are still going through them—while we’ve been too far away to do more than lend an ear or Venmo some funds. Though it will hurt to put the Golden State at our backs, we’re excited to get the family back together, as much as we can.
So I’m ending a quarter-century career and leaving a two-decade home. Buying a house without ever being inside it. Having to sell the house we live in now, when we are the only people who ever have lived here. Not to mention other upheavals too private to be discussed here.
To say my focus has been fractured lately would be a masterpiece of understatement.
Even so, I’ve been writing when and where I can. So here’s the part of the update you probably care about:
I set aside my plans to pick up my 1940s noir detective story/romance and give it another go—that story demands a lot of me because I’m writing it, at least the MMC’s chapters, in noir style. It’s not my natural writing voice, so it takes considerably more focus and planning. And existential angst—I doubt myself a lot writing that one. Life needs to chill before I pick it back up.
However, Signal Bend is as familiar to me as my own home. Writing in that world is self-care. So I’m working on the fourth book of the Signal Bend Heritage series, and it’s going well. I’m not able to write with the single-minded frenzy of my first years in this gig, but when I have a few hours available I fall into the world, and the words flow. I’m planning (hoping) to have it ready for readers by this fall. This blog is where I’ll announce the preorder and release when it’s ready.
Meanwhile, as we wind up our California life and embark on the next chapter in our lives, I’ll try to post more regularly. I should have plenty of material to post about!
Sending calm vibes to you all! (And I wouldn’t mind a few sent my way as well!)
xoxo
s—
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