Hello dear ,

First, I want to thank everyone who wrote back two weeks ago and told me about your collectively fascinating career paths. So many interesting jobs!

Eva Delaney wrote to tell me that her high school counsellor suggested she'd be suited to a career as a taxidermist! Is she one? No—she's an author of off-the-wall romance... including a few shifter romances which, I guess, is kind of like making dead things life-like??

And Renata's career counsellor gave her pediatrician and FBI agent as her two best-match careers which made me want to hear the stories of a female FBI agent who works undercover as a trained pediatrician.

My biggest take-away from the 40+ replies was that the heroines in every romance book I've read (and written) are in jobs or studying for careers in what appear to be "the right job." But evidence from my small survey suggests that while a heroine in a real-life story may work in a bookstore now, in her heart she's always thought of herself as something different—maybe a projectionist at a drive-in, or a tattoo artist, or a librarian...

Thanks so much to everyone who shared a story. My mind is abuzz with ideas for the job—or two or three—I'll be giving my next leading lady!

'Tis the season to be cranky

When I was a kid, in school, I learned that there were four seasons. I suspect you learned the same ones: winter, spring, summer, and autumn (or fall).

But several years ago, I noticed that our morning newscast was sponsored by a drugstore in honor of a new season, called flu season. And this year (or maybe it was last) I noticed another season has been added, sponsored by Claritin. It's called, allergy season.

It seems that flu season and fall/autumn are synonyms, as are allergy season and spring. I wonder if kids in school now draw pictures of winter, allergy, summer, and flu...

As cranky as I get with the co-opting of nature for pharmaceutical marketing purposes, if you have a body and/or a brain that's like mine, only having three months in a year that's "allergy season" would be heavenly.

Allergies for $500, Alex

In honor of Mattea Roach, the young Canadian woman who just ended a 24-game Jeopardy! streak (Woohoo! She paid off her student loans!), here's the answer to a question:

Food item that is added to virtually every meal in restaurants, every salad dressing, and most flavored snack foods in grocery stores.

And here's one hint: the answer is not MSG.

If you write back with a guess, I'll reply with the answer and an e-copy of a novella that was in the Secret Santa anthology last year, but is not yet available for sale. It's called Frisky With My Best Friend and is a prequel to my Mixed Six Pack series.

You can be the first to read it, just for guessing! You don't even have to get the right answer. (I might be cranky, but I'm not mean!)

This hidden food item sent me to the hospital a half-dozen times before I was able to identify it. It hasn't caused anaphylaxis, but it acts like sandpaper in my intestines, causing breath-takingly intense pain and fatigue for days after I eat it.

But that's not my worst allergy by a long shot. The allergy I would trade years of life to be cured of is much harder to avoid. Impossible, really.

Allergies for $1,000

Referred to by some medical researchers as "an allergy to sound," this condition, paired with crackers, can trigger homicidal thoughts in the sufferer.

If you have this condition, you likely know what the question is...

What is misophonia?

Literally translated from Greek, misophonia is the hatred of sound.

I've had misophonia since I was drawing pictures of trees in each of the original seasons, but it was bearable back then. In fact, it was manageable well into my forties. But it seems that with each spin around the sun, as my eyesight weakens, my sense of hearing gets stronger.

It's not just normal chewing that forces me to leave the room or risk having an anxiety-induced heart attack. My husband's normal breathing when we go for walks puts me so on-edge that I've taken to walking a few steps ahead or behind him to not have to hear the rhythmic repetition of his inhales and exhales.

And sleeping beside the man? Unless I doze off before he comes to bed, I have learned to sleep with a pillow on my head to block the sound of his life—which I fear I would smother from him if I didn't take this precaution. (I've tried earplugs but eventually they give me ear aches and work no better than a pillow).

And month to month, my agitation and anxiety around the normal sounds of living with another human are getting worse and worse. Unbearable, really.

Being allergic to the sounds that are part and parcel of a relationship has to be the worst allergy ever. If you suffer from it, I'd love to know either a) how you manage to control homicidal thoughts or b) how you disposed of the no-longer-making-breathing-sounds body and got away with it.

Kidding... I think... it's been a very crunchy, heavy-breathing kind of weekend...

Look! Over there! Free books!

How about a few romance books to distract you from the noisy world around you? These are all bestselling authors and are all free today on Amazon—most are also free on other retailers.

A heroine with misophonia?

What do you think? Would it be interesting to read a story featuring a heroine who struggles with staying calm, cool and collected while her date eats popcorn at the movies? Or when he taps his foot while watching television? Or just breathes while he sleeps?!

Or would you be annoyed with that kind of character flaw?

I'm torn since I can see her and the situations being amusing to other people, but not to her... like, I can step outside of my personal experience and I know this anxiety about normal noises appears ridiculous to onlookers, but when my brain is desperate to flee, it's not funny at all.

I guess part of my curiosity comes from having just finished listening to the fourth book in Penny Reid's Winston Brothers series, Beard In Mind. The heroine suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder.

I loved this book. I loved how Penny Reid treats this disorder in a way that says, "Yup. You're different from the norm. Yes, it creates challenges. And, yes, you are worth the extra effort to love."

But I suspect for some people, it would be a difficult book to read. And Penny says in her comments after the book that it was a challenge to write since she suffers with OCD tendencies around certain triggers.

(An aside: I listen to audiobooks on an app called Scribd, which has all of The Winston Brothers books and hundreds of bestselling romance titles as both ebooks and audiobooks. You can get 60 days for free with this link... I think it's the best audiobook service around. Promotional plug over!)

Two quick celebrations

Last week, on May 4th, while Star Wars fans were meming up the internet with "May the Fourth Be With You" images, I celebrated the 2-year birthday of my first romance book, First In: A Steamy, small-town firefighter romance. Which, totally by coincidence, I published on International Firefighters Day! If you've not yet read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts. As a small-town, volunteer firefighter myself, I drew from real life to write parts of this story.

And, taking off my Clark Kent glasses to expose the "me" my husband risks his life to share a bed with, I was a guest on a wickedly good podcast (the overall podcast, I mean, not my specific episode!) by Sacha Black, who writes books about people with magical powers. The Rebel Author podcast is for writers and our conversation was about how to write the scrappy first draft of a book. Here's the link, in case you're writing the first draft of a book or you just want to hear what my voice sounds like!

The sun has come out in my valley in the Pacific Northwest and I think I'll venture outside before it sets. The sea lions have shown up and I love the sound of their barks.... and admitting that, I feel like the person who says they are gluten intolerant until a chocolate croissant appears on the table and they make an exception for that tasty treat!

I hope you've had a lovely weekend.

love & shhhhstuff,

Danika

xo

PS—let me know what Jeopardy question is the answer to my food allergy. And, if you have experience with misophonia, please, for the love of life itself, share the tricks you use to cope.