Ann Minnett, Author

One of the few one-star ratings Burden of Breath received on Amazon came from a reader incensed that I had not included a “trigger warning” in the story summary. The outraged reader’s review didn’t use that label, but within weeks the term caused a lot of controversy in the media. Some universities had mandated warnings that the literary content in reading lists might trigger traumatic memories. My reader righted my omission and detailed the entire story in her review. Every detail. Apparently, the reader wasn’t too traumatized to finish the novel. I stop reading anything that offends or bores me. How about you?

Welcome to my world for the past (almost) month of NaNoWriMo. I've hardly blogged, hardly emailed with friends and family, rarely exercised... You get the picture. With the exception of 4 fun days in Tennessee for Car Guy's family reunion, my butt has been in that desk chair, and my head has been spinning a tale of guilt and deception on that old laptop's sticking keys.  I'm one thousand words short of my goal of 50,000 this month. Whew! They're proving to be the hardest. The blank screen has mocked me for an hour now, so I decided to post a blog instead. Pretty soon, I'll have to clean a toilet or rearrange my sock drawer. Why has writing become difficult to close to the end? The final thousand words of this challenge won't be the last I write on this story. It never occurred to me that the NaNoWriMo challenge wouldn't end on November 30th. Instead, the new manuscript has created a whole new world, and I can't wait to see what ha...

Here we go! The first substantial snow of the season. With about six inches on the ground, there isn't enough to plow or shovel. We can simply enjoy the view until a few more inches pile on and pile on and... Soon there will be 3 - 4 feet of snow, and that's the way it will stay until April. Some would dread the onset of winter, but I say Great writing weather!

Here we go! Burden of Breath is on sale for 99 cents today and tomorrow. I have no idea how it will do. Never done this before! Rather than waiting for Amazon sales numbers to sky-rocket on this gorgeous day, I took these photos in our woods. (Some will see right through my procrastination from NaNoWriMo planning.) Neighbor Cliff used his tractor's grapple to move a slash pile to our burn pile. What took us weeks to cut down, trim and gather took him 30 minutes and two trips to move. Truth to tell, Car Guy worked his tail off, and I occasionally pitched in. For three years, Car Guy lusted after a grapple for our tractor, but we couldn't justify spending the $3,000+! After seeing Cliff's magnificent grapple in action this past spring, I caved and was willing to make the investment. Lucky for us he's a wonderful neighbor and willing to trade slash removal for chocolate truffles. Life is good.