I realize for most of the world it’s Cinco de Mayo, but in my house it’s Boys’ Day! Fly carp flags and eat mochi!

When designing the world of my Christian Regency romantic suspense series Lady Wynwood’s Spies , I wanted a symbol—a mysterious emblem that would hint at danger, espionage, and a secret organization lurking behind the scenes. What I didn’t expect was how personal that symbol would become. 📜 A Shadowy Mark From the very first book in the series, a strange symbol shows up in the hands of characters and hidden in dangerous places: – A torn image carried by the hero on Hampstead Heath – A secret letter connected to Napoleon’s aide – A pocketwatch hiding more than just the time By Book 4 ( Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 4: Betrayer ), the mystery deepens when a red wax seal with that very same symbol turns up—and readers finally get a glimpse of it on the cover. 💠 The Secret Origin of the Symbol Here’s the twist: the symbol isn’t fictional at all. It’s my actual family crest . I’m a 4th-generation Japanese American, and when I stumbled across this flowered mon , I knew it was p...

Enjoy the holiday today.

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! Did you do anything special to honor today?

I almost forgot! Thanks to my mom for reminding me!

 

My friend Audrey Appenzeller is friends with some missionaries in Japan. They told her about this podcast, which she passed on to me: ”They also mentioned that a fellow Pioneers worker to Japan is currently in the US and started a Christian lifestyle podcast in Japanese. If you know people who might be interested, feel free to pass along the link below. This person is planning to release a new episode every Tuesday.” The website is https://anchor.fm/teatimewithuspod Here’s a (cleaned up) translation of the home page (thanks to Deepl): Welcome to the “Teatime with us” podcast. “Teatime with us” is where Jessica, an American, and Nao, a Japanese, discuss a variety of everyday topics during teatime. It's a Christian Lifestyle Podcast to chat in a casual atmosphere like ☕ ️Whenever you're on your way to work or school, while cleaning up, or maybe during your 3 o'clock teatime, feel free to listen to try it. We will see you at our next teatime! This would be great for a...

I think the biggest change I made in December was that I started journaling again, except that I’m using an electronic journal instead of a paper journal. The decision was a tough one to make because I love the tactile feel of a paper journal, but I also had to consider what I wanted to get out of journaling. I wanted to do a variety of things, including logging my meals (I needed to figure out what I was eating that might be triggering some health issues) and my exercise, and recording what I did during the day for my writing and also outside my writing. I was originally going to use the SparkPeople app for my meals and exercise, but I decided to give e-journaling a try and found that I am more likely to log my meals when I don’t have to figure out portions and calorie count. I still can see where I overeat and when I snack mindlessly, I just don’t see the calorie count. Also I have a reminder on the journal page template to exercise, and I found myself being motivated to check t...

In case any of you were interested:

Catherine de Medici’s pin found in a communal toilet ??? Now that’s the start of some story, don’t you think?

Any cool gifts you gave/received?

Okay, this is my geek side coming out: I’m pretty excited to see what the new cell phone plans from Verizon will look like. The biggest change will be the ability to allow my phone to be a Wi-Fi hotspot for my iPad for no extra charge. That will be so cool! Most of the time I use Wi-Fi, but once in a while I’m stuck somewhere without Wi-Fi and I need to access the internet. I usually use my phone, but I’d love to be able to use my iPad. Do you have a smartphone? Do you use it to connect to the internet very much? (My lovely assistant is Danica Favorite , except that now I can't remember what was on her smart phone that made her want me to take a picture of it.)