Hearts On Our Sleeves

Free Fiction Friday: Door in the Wind

2026-04-17T23:01:01Z

Story #2 in the Gods Above and Below series is now up on my WP Blog: Find it here!

Or you can buy it from me through D2D if that's your preference (always welcome now that D2D is charging writers if they earn less than $100 / year): Buy it for $2.99 here!

comments

When Life Gives You Limes...

2026-04-15T02:48:03Z

Or the tutorial is for lemons, anyway, and you like green better so limes it is!

This was kind of fun. A bit of a challenge in places but for once I managed not to blend everything perfectly as I always want to do.

comments

Free Fiction Friday: The Heat of the Thorn!

2026-04-10T23:51:58Z

Free Fiction Friday (finally!): Decided I wanted to revisit my Gods Above and Below series so enjoy the first story: The Heat of the Thorn.

As always, you can buy the story if you want to keep it as this is only going to be up for a week (ish).

Find the Story Here

comments

I got an iPad and thus had to get Procreate!

2026-04-10T19:40:12Z

I can see what the fuss about Procreate is. It's much easier and more intuitive to use than any other art program I've tried so far. I mean, there's still a HEAVY learning curve but that's fine. There's something like a billion Procreate tutorials out there for me to learn from.

Now if I can just figure out how clipping masks actually work, I'll be delighted.

comments

Free Fiction Friday: Consort

2026-03-21T17:20:19Z

Description:

Keelan glared, hands clenched so tight they felt like wire strung over steel blades ready to spring loose and cut someone to ribbons.

Not someone. Father. Again. Always.

The battle for his and his siblings' freedom never ended. Keelan couldn't win, not when Father was trained and they weren't.

Nothing changed until Keelan's unwanted consort arrived, bringing hope along with a whirlwind of power.

Consort

By Meyari McFarland

His teeth ached. So did his jaw. His hands which were clenched so tight that they felt like wire strung over steel blades ready to spring loose and cut someone to ribbons.

Not someone. Father. Again. Always.

The sitting room was silent, not still. It could never be still, not with Father looming by the window, one finger idly tracing the grill's graceful arcs as if he contemplated nothing more than a fresh coat of paint for the finely carved wood.

Outside there was noise, people training in the courtyard. A horse's hooves. Voices raised, lowered, raised in shock. Stilled. Father smiled as if that sudden silence was his doing but no, it couldn't be.

His power swirled through the room not outside of it. It silenced Keelan's complaints about being forced to take a consort that he didn't want. Padma's tearful expression had collapsed like a burnt-out coal into sullen resignation over Father's declaration that she would soon be married even though she was only twelve. Alex stood by the cold fireplace, arms wrapped around his chest because, yet again, he'd been denied the right to take holy vows as he'd wanted since he was tiny.

Even Morgan, the only one of them who had ever had the ability to stand up to Father and then only with the help of his wives who were not present this afternoon, was silent. Breathing hard, nostrils flaring and shoulders hunched as if he fought even in silence against the oppression of Father's intent.

Find the rest of the story on my WP Blog or buy it for $2.99 here.

(Shh! Time is a construct and Friday is a feeling, a mood, not a due date. *wry grin*)

comments

Free Fiction Friday: Broken Sword of Night

2026-03-14T02:18:17Z

It's Friday and I managed to get the Free Fiction Friday post up! Enjoy!

comments

What? Me? Doing another Promotion?

2026-03-10T16:32:20Z

Stunningly, yes! Because Romance for All Seasons: Spring Fling is an awesome anthology I'm delighted to be part of and wanted to share.

Find my post on my WP site.

Find the anthology on Books2Read!

comments

New WP Post!

2026-03-09T18:31:23Z

Because I had thinky thoughts triggered by a good article: On Thought Provoking Articles...

Also with links to my most recent releases and the most recent anthology my writing has been in because huh, promotion is a thing you need to do repeatedly, apparently.

*deep sigh for the need of it*

comments

Interview! I got Interviewed!

2026-03-02T18:54:09Z

I was delighted to get accepted to the Haunted Waters anthology. My story, "Echoes of a Forgotten Day" was a spooky one to write that surprised me multiple times as I wrote it.

Better still, I got to talk about it!

You can find the interview on the Blackbird Publishing website, along with interviews of the other authors.

And if you want to buy the collection, you can find it here. Enjoy!

comments

Jogging Along Slowly

2026-02-17T18:15:32Z

Another post over on my WP blog: Jogging Along Slowly

Enjoy!

comments

Free Fiction Friday: Stars Drifting Ever Upwards

2026-02-13T21:06:01Z

Been an epic fuckton of years since I did this, too...

Find Stars Drifting Ever Upwards here on my WP site!

Enjoy!

comments

I had a WP blog.

2026-02-12T21:39:18Z

Have? Had? Well, it still exists. I just haven't posted to it since, oh, 2018. *ahem* Can't imagine what might have ever distracted me from blogging and sent me hiding in my shell like a startled turtle back in 2018, noooooo...

Anyway.

Posted to my blog. No comments possible there as the bots have only gotten worse.

I think I'll try (yet again) to get back to sharing things over there. It's mine, just like here is mine, but I miss wearing my heart on my sleeve, I do.

comments

Let's see if this works...

2025-12-04T21:49:57Z

...Ingrams Sparks just set up a way for publishers to sell print books direct. And, you know, I had to try it out.

So, yeah, please go poke the links and tell me what you see? No need to buy if you don't want to, obviously.

Artifacts of Awareness on Ingrams itself

And Artifacts of Awareness on my sadly neglected webpage.

Should go to the same thing once you click the Buy TPB Direct from me link at the bottom of the page. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, looks please and thank you?

comments

Warning: Kobo may be phasing out the Desktop program

2025-10-10T16:20:35Z

So.

I realized about a month ago that my Mac Mini was not updating. Did a double-check and realized that it was purchased late in 2014.

mmm. Yeah. 11 years. Not really a surprise that it wasn't updating anymore. Surprising part was that it was still functioning, actually, but yeah, it was. Slow as molasses but it (mostly) worked.

But updates were necessary to get the latest version of Vellem with pretty options for forced edges and all the cool new things so yeah, time to replace the Mac Mini with a new (screaming fast by comparison) Mac Mini. This was accomplished. Still need to get the dock I bought separately to work properly (wrong cable? Power not plugged in right? Something else??? do not know yet), but it's a very nice little computer and I'm happy with it.

So I started loading programs onto it and then went for Kobo. Because I like Kobo. I buy most of my ebooks through Kickstarter anymore, but Kobo is my backup favorite and the desktop program is my preferred reading experience, completely aside from the ability to download and backup my books.

There was no desktop app.

At all.

Anywhere. ANYWHERE.

I did about 4 rounds by myself, had the spouse do a couple rounds, got on the chatbot and did 3 more rounds, all of which gave me the web reader, not the desktop app.

I finally battled through the chatbot to an actual human being and got the links to the download files of the Windows and MacOS desktop app.

Which worked! I have my desktop Kobo back, all my books are there, works great.

However.

You need to know that the customer service person was unable to confirm (or deny) that the desktop app was being phased out. They said, quite literally, that they had not been notified one way or the other.

Which!

If you're a Kobo reader and you use the desktop app for backing your books up, you need to turn in a general feedback complaint about this issue.

I got my spouse switched over from Amazon to Kobo on the power of the desktop app and the ability to DeDRM books for backup off-line. If that's going away, it's a big deal.

This feels like a warning shot over the bow of Kobo enshittifying their ecosystem so I'm crossing my fingers and taking steps. Including telling people online.

ETA: The downloaders! Because I should totally share that, shouldn't I?

Windows:

https://cdn.kobo.com/downloads/desktop/kobodesktop/kobosetup.exe

Mac OSX:

https://cdn.kobo.com/downloads/desktop/kobodesktop/kobosetup.dmg

Go forth and get your Kobo Desktop for as long as you can, everyone!

comments

Whoo! Smashwords Sale Time!

2025-07-01T15:22:30Z

Offical promo post--with good deals because that's just right and proper.

Now is the best time to find my entire ebook collection for 50% off at @Smashwords. Not just mine, of course, but lots of books at https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/ all month!

You can find my books here:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=meyari+mcfarland

Go forth and find something fun to escape from *waves at everything*

comments

Post for the ticky brain

2025-06-04T16:31:00Z

I'm on StoryGraph, FYI. Feel free to friend me if you're over there, too.

I'm making an effort to Actually Complete Books this year. I mean, I'm always reading something. Usually I'm reading like eight or nine things at once with another 20 or so that I've got a chapter or two into and set aside when the ADHD brain flittered off to something else.

I had only put actual published books in but it looks like, maybe, you can put fanfiction in too? Don't know. I Am Trying It!

Because it's Quantum Bang right now.

I've got 2 stories in QB this year, one coming out on the 5th in the afternoon and the other coming out on the 14th in the afternoon. Check the Posting Schedule tab to see all the awesome that's happening over there. It's really kind of amazing how many good stories there are each year.

So, since it's QB, I'm reading stories each day. And attempting to finish them the same day. Because so many stories yet to come *waves hand desperately at the posting schedule*

What've I read so far?

Cub by Sunryder - Star Wars sequel to a previous QB that is... sweet and cute and just all kinds of lovely. Obi-Wan is the Bestest Boy in this one.

Stone of Theia by MykkiTno - Harry Potter AU / time travel that consumed the entire day's reading time and huge chunks of my brain. Going to have to re-read this one as it's nearly 140K and I blazed through it when it needs to be savored.

You Can Still Be Free by Duochanfan - 911 AU where Buck gets out of his parents' house earlier and just... yeah. Do Not Like Maddie in this one but I'm not overly fond of her anyway so that was fine.

If tomorrow never comes by Hedwig Edwiges - NCIS time travel. Can I just say that I'm not a NCIS fan? I never watched the show. I've got some familiarity with the characters from fanfic but that's it. Still caught me on the first paragraph and kept me all the way through.

So yeah. Post for the ticky brain! Recs for those looking for things to read! Time to get back to work!

comments

A post, a post, a lonely post

2025-06-02T18:08:08Z

I've been sick. Since, like Tuesday last week. No excuse other than General Overwhelm With Everything *waves at the world* for not posting other than that.

There's a ticky line in my day planner for posting. A whole line that's been getting an "X" instead of a check mark. This is An Annoyance.

Thus a post full of nothing much.

I am finally feeling better so that's good. *pauses to cough* I mean, not fully healthy yet, but hey, I can sit up and do things instead of sleeping all day or vegetating on the couch so it's good.

I dunno. I'm just annoyed by the lack of a check mark on the "_____DW Post" line.

Have a lonely, random post of randomness.

comments

New Interview!

2025-05-09T17:45:06Z

I was interviewed about my short story "Scents Drifting on a Breeze" in the new Haunted Places anthology!

*happy dance*

First time I've had an interview like this. It was kind of fun.

The link to where to get Haunted Places is in the interview, down at the bottom. Highly recommend the anthology. There are some really good stories in it. Mine is very soft, very light, and very gentle, FYI. Nothing scary at all.

Anyway--Just wanted to share the glee!

comments

Storybundle! That I'm in! cheers

2025-04-23T02:40:02Z

The Cozy Up to Crime Storybundle is on-going and I now have Actual Graphics (tm)! There are 16 days left to get eleven really great cozy crime stories.

Cozy Crime? What's that?

According to Leah Cutter who set up this Storybundle:

"All of the novels in this bundle are cozy, that is, comforting and all about the characters and the quirkiness that they may embody. There may be a murder, but these aren't thrillers. Instead, it's about the cup of tea and the lovely yarn you're about to read cuddled up next to the fire."

Which frankly? That's a thing that I really need right now. Just saying. If it's something you'd enjoy, too, go check out the Storybundle. You can get all 11 books for as little as $20 and a portion of your purchase can go to Doctor's Without Borders.

*Cheers*

comments

Glee

2025-04-22T02:54:25Z

I've dropped off the face of the planet again due to Work Being Work, but I had to pop up to share this:

A short story I sold to the Crafty Crimes anthology is now available through the Cozy Up to Crime Storybundle! My story Plain Jade was all about rock hounds but there are some really great stories in the anthology. And some awesome books in the Storybundle, too. :D

Find it here!

*happy dance*

comments

Progress!

2025-03-19T16:59:30Z

Very minor progress but I shall take my progress where I get it.

I got my new Linux computer in place, set up, and connected to all its peripherals. All I need to do now is turn it on and get it set up.

If you just pictured me cringing at the words "set up", yeah, accurate. I'm stressing myself out about it even though I'm 95% certain that it's going to be a bit tedious but no big deal, ultimately.

In the process of setting it up, I managed to clean my desk, too. That's stunning in and of itself. Just don't look at the stacks of bookmarks, pens and miscellaneous junk I transferred to the top of my rotating bookshelf. >.>

The hope is that I'll actually get it set up tonight. Hope. Big hope.

Because!

When I got my new Linux computer, I also got myself a drawing monitor and man oh man, I REALLY want to start working with it! So bad! It's 15.5" instead of my Surface Pro's measly twelve or so. It feels ENORMOUS. Actually opened the box this morning just before I had to leave for work and now I'm all excited about using it.

Sadly, my favorite art program (Rebelle 7) may or may not work on Linux. Don't know yet. But I still have the Surface so I can link it to that Surface if it doesn't.

*bounces*

Progress! I'm happy for my progress!

And now I need to go get words made and do work-work because the sooner this day and my words are done, the sooner I can get the Linux computer going and THEN I can play with the drawing monitor. :D

comments

Finished a novel!

2025-03-18T17:36:51Z

Also dropped off the internet yet again due to *waves at the US atm* and my spouse catching a nasty cold. I had no brain left for posting. Lurked a lot. Did not post.

Such is life.

The novel is very soft, very gentle and quite lovely. I'm so happy with it. It's everything I needed over the two years that it took to write it.

I've also made progress on the story (short story - novella - novel - epic novel uuuugh) that I started right after the election which is Kill The Bastards Burn Them Out With Fire. It is exactly what I need right now, so yeah, progress is being made despite the story blooming in length every time I open up the darn manuscript.

I'm trying to spend a little time every day (or couple of days) with Rebelle 7 as I'm creating a piece of art for the soft novel. I'm hopeful that I can create something I like that I can use for the kickstarter for the book.

Yeah, I'm planning to do my very first kickstarter for this book. And yeah, I'm intimidated by the very idea of it. Still gonna bite the bullet and do it, just to see how it goes.

Either way, I'm going to try and get back into posting at leas on weekdays now that the spouse is feeling better. No idea how successful I'll be but I'm going to try.

*waves and goes back to work*

comments

Blerg

2025-02-27T18:13:04Z

*severe pout*

I had plans for today. PLANS! Things I wanted to get done. Some small part of it work-related but most of it was publishing related squeezed into odd moments at work.

I have a lot of odd moments at work, thankfully.

I cannot do a single one of them because I left my zip drive with all the stuff at home like a doofus.

Not pleased. Zero stars for me.

That said, the first collection of the year is up everywhere. Print is still wending its way through the system but it'll get there eventually.

Solitary Paths is up, well, Amazon, Smashwords, D2D, Kobo, yadda yadda yadda. A Great Many Places. Click the link and you can get it there.

5 short stories (one which is a novella), plus a sample of one of my novels. I'd tell you something about the stories but hey, I left my zip drive at home so all my promo material is not here because I am a doofus and I'm annoyed at myself for my lack of focus.

*deep sigh*

I had such plans. Less than one chapter left to finish a novel and now I'm stuck without the novel. *grumbles*

Someday I'll have to investigate / actually use the cloud backup thing instead of trusting my handy zip drive with everything.

Oh well. Back to work for me. Just work. >.>

comments

I feel like I'm officially Getting Old

2025-02-13T16:35:30Z

Way back in the Before-Times (before I turned 40 or so), I could work all day, squeeze writing into 5-15 minute breaks, then write for a good two hours in the evening while also getting stuff published, doing social media, socializing in person and just, you know, living life.

And yes, absolutely, I was scatter-brained and barely kept track of what I was doing half the time, but hey, I got stuff done. Regularly! It wasn't like anything other than crafty hobbies sat around half-finished and utterly forgotten to the point that they developed a layer of dust. That was just, you know, hobbies. Hobbies are like that. Pick them up, obsess for a while (2 to 3 weeks usually), put them down and then not touch them again for eight months to three years at a time.

Normal, right?

And then, 40 came around and suddenly it was harder to get all the things done in a day. Dusting absolutely got kicked to the curb, not that I've ever been much of a duster. Then it was laundry, which the spouse picked up. Then it was Can You Just Do This Thing at work. If I did That Thing, then the regular job duties didn't get done.

Job duties got shifted around. Things got easier again. I kept on trucking.

So then I hit my 50's and huh. Huh. The body started saying You Know What? You Can't Do That Anymore. At least not without Suffering The Consequences in aches, pains and way more exhaustion than I was used to. That's just getting older, right? Happens to everyone.

Everyone around me confirmed that yes, that's just what happens. Ugh.

Then 2020 hit. Three months of WFH heaven where I once again could get All The Things done. Chopping out 2-3 hours of commute is a hell of a drug, dude. Just... so nice. But my day job makes medical supplies so as soon as possible, we were all back in the office.

And I discovered over the last five years that no, I do not have the capacity to do All The Things anymore. Those 5-15 minute chunks of time I used to write and do covers and create blurbs and get stories uploaded are now spent with my brain buffering as I moved from one task to another.

I never used to have brain buffering time! Never! What is this thing? Why is my brain not doing the thing anymore? You know, that thing where the instant a thing leaves your attention you're locked onto a new thing? And that thing gets 100% of the processing power until you bump over to a third thing? That thing!

Mm. Yeah.

This was the point at which I realized that oh yeah. It's not just one of my nephews who's neuroatypical. I am, too. Definitely ADHD (inattentive presentation--all those years of daydreaming through school make so much more sense) and probably a dash of autism too (hyperfocused on huckleberry pancakes for breakfast for six literal years as a kid and no one thought that was odd.)

So, anyway, this was also the period where I was going through perimenopause. Did you know that in menopause the hormone changes affect your ability to focus and multitask? Yeah, no, I didn't know that either.

All of which is to say that I am officially Very Annoyed at how hard it's been the last 3 years or so to Actually Get Things Published. Very annoyed. But I'm not exactly surprised by it. And, if the world, specifically the USA, wasn't a dumpster fire at the moment, I'd go and get officially diagnosed as ADHD so I could get an official prescription for ADHD meds in the hope that at least a small portion of my ability of Get Things Done would come back.

Not happening for a bit. Obviously.

All of which is to say that I feel Very Old today and I have a collection I really wanted to have out at the end of January that I want uploaded and out to readers by Saturday.

Please poke me if you don't see a post by Saturday. Please. I need the pokings. Pokings are Helpful! They keep me on track.

Back to work for me now that this bit of hyperfocus is done.

comments

Well, last week sucked

2025-02-10T22:10:39Z

It was Audit Week, otherwise known as our ISO9001 certification audit. For those who have not one single clue what that means, well, it means that I spent an entire week escorting an auditor (who is a very nice lady, don't get me wrong) to every nook and cranny of my day job so that she could ask questions and establish that yes, we do what we say we do.

Mostly. Audits are samples and we tap-danced around a few issues like we were Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers, but we still did good. As many little problems as we have, we're not doing too bad.

Of course, that meant that I spent the entire freaking week in Customer Service Smile, focusing on other people for nine hours a day. She had working lunches which meant that there were no breaks except for bathroom breaks. I took 29 pages of handwritten notes. The conference room chairs we sat in were old and yikes, so uncomfortable.

I am STILL sore from all of that.

But its over and now I can get back to regular, though I've got an absolute mountain of filing that needs to be done. To the point that I'm not sure that I have enough file space for it all. Ugh.

Goals for this week include actually writing some original fiction / nonfiction, getting the work filing caught up (at least partially), publishing a new collection of short stories (finally!) and setting up my new Linux mini computer.

I don't think I mentioned that over here, actually? Maybe?

Anyway, I'm Very Annoyed with Microsoft for installing Copilot on my computer without my permission and then making it virtually compulsory. I've been annoyed with Windows for ages. Copilot pushed me over the edge, so I bought a mini computer with Linux Ubuntu preloaded on it.

Along with a bluetooth keyboard that works both with the computer and with my phone so I can write while away from home and a drawing monitor that I've been eyeballing for ages because if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it right, darn it all.

This week's goal is to get it set up, get it fully updated and then download the programs I want on it (Krita, Gimp, Inkscape, LibreOffice, Scribus and Atticus, plus Wine which might possibly maybe let me keep running Rebelle, my favorite art program). Then start using it, of course.

I have a Mac Mini which will be Going Away once I'm up and running. I very much do not like Macs and Atticus will do more than Vellum, which was the sole reason I had the Mac Mini. If anyone wants a Mac Mini, speak up. I'll be happy to give it away at this point, maybe for a small payment to cover shipping and whatnot.

My Surface Pro will stick around a bit longer, but eventually it's going to go away, too. And possibly, in time, I'll get myself a more substantial Linux machine since this one is pretty basic, though it does have 2TB of storage for me to play with.

So yeah, back at it again. *waves*

comments

Hearts On Our Sleeves

Free Fiction Friday: Door in the Wind

When Life Gives You Limes...

Free Fiction Friday: The Heat of the Thorn!

I got an iPad and thus had to get Procreate!

Free Fiction Friday: Consort

Free Fiction Friday: Broken Sword of Night

What? Me? Doing another Promotion?

New WP Post!

Interview! I got Interviewed!

Jogging Along Slowly

Free Fiction Friday: Stars Drifting Ever Upwards

I had a WP blog.

Let's see if this works...

Warning: Kobo may be phasing out the Desktop program

Whoo! Smashwords Sale Time!

Post for the ticky brain

A post, a post, a lonely post

New Interview!

Storybundle! That I'm in! *cheers*

*Glee*

Progress!

Finished a novel!

Blerg

I feel like I'm officially Getting Old

Well, last week sucked

Storybundle! That I'm in! cheers

Glee