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So I follow this amazing behavior change doctor on Instagram and she made out her 26 by 26 list—a list of things that would give her an amazing start to the new year. She has some rules around them: they have to be one and done things… something that wouldn’t show back on the list the next day. For instance, an exercise program or meditation practice. And she was really clear about what happens if she doesn’t finish them.

Nothing. Nothing would happen.

I LOVE that. It takes the 26 by 26 from a to do list, (like I need more of those!) to something fun. A slap, a tickle, a lark. So being someone who loves lists and goals (blame the cap sun/virgo rising in me), I was in! I included fun stuff and stuff that, if completed, would actually CHANGE how I felt going into 2026. I wrote up this list back in November and have been steadily crossing stuff off as the weeks roll by. What is very telling is the stuff I have done and the stuff that is still lingering on the list. Without further ado, I give you my 26 by 26 list!

1. Organize bathroom drawer
2. Wash blinds
3. Ride on the Sumpter Christmas train through the Blue Mountains
4. Clean oven
5. Finish Studio Ceiling
6. Wash kitchen ceiling
7. Make comprehensive business plan for Powder House Publishing
8. Have a winter picnic
9. Hold a Teri birthday party/bonfire
10. Graduate (conferral day is 1/1/26, but I am counting the last day of term as the day cause I
will be done!)
11. Finish putting garden to bed
12. Clean out and wash fridge
13. Organize dresser drawers
14. Take two boxes to Goodwill
15. Purchase exercise bike
16. Write eight blogs (this one is number seven!)
17. Wash bathroom walls
18. Read 1 nonfiction book
19. Read 1 fiction book
20. Wash inside of car window
21. Wash car
22. Wash kitchen walls
23. Make doctor appointment
24. Make appointment with lawyer to talk about Living trust/will
25. Go to a sound bath
26. Clean out desk

I am on track to finish the majority of them. Some have been waiting for YEARS to get done, like wash the blinds. And oddly, enough, washing the inside of the window is almost an impossible task for me to do. I HATES it, precious, yes I do. Some take the cooperation of others, like finish the studio ceiling, but I WASHED THE KITCHEN WALLS!

So yes, I will be going into 2026 feeling much lighter and more spacious. Some of those things had been weighing on me for years and now I simply don’t have to think about them. Others, like having a winter’s picnic and riding on the Christmas train have been on my bucket list.
And that is the magic of making a list like this without expectations. Next year, you can bet I’ll be making a 27 by 27 list!

I am so very proud of this cover… this is the first cover that I had a real voice in designing. I sat next to my amazing designer/fellow writer/friend, Debbie Schoeningh, and we tweaked it together. And tweaked, and tweaked and tweaked. Everytime we thought we had it done, I would change my mind or get input from my amazing marketing person or something… and we’d have to play with it some more. Here is the final product for Powder House Publishing’s First release, Fall River.

In case you don’t remember what this one is about…

What if the best Lizzie Borden story isn’t about Lizzie at all?

Told across three timelines in one woman’s life, Fall River is a chilling blend of history, psychological suspense, and gothic horror—a reimagining of the Borden legend that asks: how long can the past stay buried before it comes for you?

Perfect for fans of Simone St. James, Kate Morton, and Jennifer McMahon, Fall River is a frightening and unforgettable reimagining of the Borden story.

Brown’s deliciously eerie page-turner is as shocking and haunting as the murders upon which it’s based. A daring, enthralling journey into the darkest depths of the human mind, Fall River held me in its chilling grip from start to finish.
—Cat Winters, Bram Stoker Award nominee for In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Do you love? Because I love. And better yet, you can pre-order here!

I have more information coming soon about my newsletter and a free give away for you Downton Abbey fans, but that is after I figure out my tech issues. Or have someone else figure them out as the case may be! Now, go back and look at my cover!

Happy sigh!

Over the past few months, I have been working on a special project. I have hinted at it, but never explained what I’m actually doing. The reasons for that are complex, but part of it had to do with working out how I would be perceived. As an author who initially had extraordinary publishing success in both young adult and adult, I was afraid that choosing to go this route might be perceived as a kind of failure, instead of the incredibly self- empowering adventure that it is.

To recap, In 2008, I sold my first book to Simon Pulse—a light contemporary romance about a deaf teen. I didn’t sell again until 2012 during the wild and wooly days of massive young adult successes and massive advances for the next big thing. I nabbed one of those advances, as did several of my author friends. The YA novels Born of Illusion, Born of Corruption (an e-novella) and Born of Deception about Harry Houdini’s Illegitimate daughter, created a massive amount of excitement…among adults, anyway. The same year, I sold a 3-book series to Lauren McKenna from Gallery. An adult series, set in the fabulously popular Edwardian Era, The Summerset series went on to sell widely internationally. It did less well in the US and Gallery didn’t pick up my fourth in the series. I had a series of agent catastrophes, returned to school to get my degree and embarked on an excited new career… not to mention moving 300 miles from the place I lived in for 30 years. So my traditional publishing career wasn’t as robust as it once was.

I still wrote, but without the fervor of the early years, and the market changed drastically during that time. Independent publishing gained traction and respect. The publishing world tightened it’s belt, cautiously navigating the new landscape. Proposals my fabulous agent, Laura Bradford, thought would surely sell, did not. If the pandemic taught me nothing else, it taught me how to pivot so here I am: Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you…

After working through my angst about what PEOPLE MIGHT THINK (as if they really think about me that much!), I’m giddy about the possibilities this new chapter and am excited about the impact it will have on my writing life. Powder House Publishing LLC will allow me to publish the books I love and want to write without waiting for others to decide if they are marketable or not. This gives me the opportunity to branch out in unexpected ways in unexpected genres. In addition, I am learning so much about myself, my writing, marketing and publishing.

Right now, I am laying the infrastructure that will underpin and strengthen my business so I can create the work I want to share. In the next few weeks, I will have a pre-order for my dark, literary Lizzy Borden book, a newsletter sign up, and a free novella for my readers.

I hope you will all join me on this journey!

Most writers know what it is like to be blocked. For me, it’s less about sitting down to write and being unable to than avoiding the writing altogether and making up fantastical chores or tasks to keep me from BITCHOK. (Butt in chair, hands on keyboard.)

I do have to admit that I am absolutely a top-notch avoider. Like, seriously, it’s my super power. How many people do you know that would rather run thousands of miles and train for the Hood To Coast relay to avoid their muse? How many people do you know will spend thousands of dollars on a university education to keep from actually writing the thing? Not that my degree in English Lit and Creative Writing is completely useless. I have totally deepened my knowledge of my craft… to avoid plying my craft. Ha!

My block is a general writing malaise. oh, I had spurts of creativity the last few years…enough to limp a manuscript to my agent which got absolute crickets when she took it out, and several proposals for IP’s which went nowhere, but the fire that allowed me to write five books in a year was nowhere to be seen.

So last year, in between doing bouts of homework, I dug deep and learned quite a bit about my blocks and how to address them. What I discovered was that for me, the basis of most of my procrastination techniques stemmed from fear. Some of the fears were writing based and some of them were just tendrils of that age-old fear of feeling unworthy. Some of them include:

• Not having anything new to add. (My writing isn’t original enough. The courses I want to offer won’t be deep enough or helpful enough, the services I could offer are stupid, etc.)
• That I’d never live up to my early success as a novelist
• Being seen as a failure
• Being judged
• Being seen period
• Not trusting my follow through
• Not being good enough

Can you relate?

And yeah, these are just the beginning. Once I realized how much of my writing resistance was due to fear, I went about addressing those fears with the same single-minded Capricorn/Virgo energy that I bring to everything. I excavated the mini traumas that lurked beneath the fears to soothe the hurt child underneath it all. For me, it wasn’t so much as getting rid of the blocks as it was shedding light on them, integrating them and accepting those parts of myself.

So I doubled down on the habits and techniques that helped me do that.  I’ll list them here, but keep in mind that just because they’re working for me, doesn’t mean that they’ll work for you. Self acceptance is pretty unique to the individual,

• EFT Scripts: EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) This exercise combines acupressure with affirmations. Once I learned how to do it and experienced it’s usefulness, I started writing my own scripts that addressed individual blocks. For instance, I wrote one addressing intrusive thoughts about myself and my writing.
• Meditation: This is one of my go tos. It has increased my awareness of my inner chatter and helped me spot those intrusive thoughts as they arose in my mind. Awareness is deadly against my inner editor!
• I journal on the daily. It’s been crucial to seeing my patterns, as well as my growth. I love looking back at old journals to the person I was and marvel at the changes in my life and attitude.
• Movement: Since I am no longer able to run, I have gone all in on strength-training and this has been crucial for my diabetes, mood and confidence. All women should lift heavy shiz.
• Nutrition: I eat all the good things and avoid the things that I know don’t support me.

EFT tapping, meditation and journaling have directly addressed my blocks, while nutrition and movement have supported my physical healing and increased my energy levels. Energy is key to creativity.

Don’t get me wrong, the fear that I’m not good enough, that I’ll fall flat on my face or that people will ridicule my efforts, is still there, Some nights it sits on my chest, hot and heavy, grinning at me with large yellow eyes like the Cheshire Cat. Added to my general anxiety over the world at large, it’s a wonder that I can create at all. And yet, I know deep in my bones that we were born to create. That I was born to create. And that means addressing my blocks and getting to it.

More to come.

We were created to create.

In my insomnia addled brain, this concept makes total sense to me. I see little ones creating the moment they can hold a crayon in their chubby, toddler hands. Children tell stories as soon as they can string words together, their pretend worlds as real as reality, their sentences punctuated with wide-eyed sincerity. Whatever part of our brain is responsible for imaginative musings is fully alive in children, electric with vitality and stretchy possibilities.

At some point many of us lose that connection, drilled out of us by multiplication facts, the laws of grammar and the needs of a capitalistic society—we all want to eat and put a roof over our heads, after all.

Historically, communities have nurtured and nourished the artist in their midst—one wonders if cave painters were given their due. In many indigenous cultures, the word art does not exist, as beautiful things were integrated into everyday life through the exquisite craft of practical items. During 14^th century Europe, artists were seen more as craftsmen and wandering musicians were given food and exposure on feudal estates. During the Renaissance, where the rich and titled fought for the privilege of having an artist in residence. Then of course, the printing press changed everything and the rise of media created celebrity artists. Campbells soup cans, anyone?

The above is a fast and incomplete take on the history of how creators were treated throughout history and I am totally cognizant of the fact that the stereotype of the starving artist was grounded in reality. But my point remains, we were born to create.

Unfortunately, we are also now conditioned to consume. That should actually be a T-shirt. Born to create, conditioned to consume.  If we are all busy scrolling, distracted by adverts, funny videos and the hustle needed to buy all the things we need, as well as the stuff we are told we need, then we have little time to create. Soon, with the rise of Artificial Intelligence, we won’t need to create—it’ll be done for us. What happens to a culture where creativity has gone to die? Ironic that writers, (creators) have already told us what happens. Spoiler alert: It ain’t pretty.

So how can we, as a global collective, fight against the slow painful death of creativity by hustle culture and AI? We double down. We create more art. We share messy human art. We kick perfectionism to the curb. We celebrate artistic attempts, even if they don’t make money. Especially if they don’t make money.

I wrote a poem the other day for poetry class. Honestly, I hated it. I am not a fan of poetic structure, though I’m hoping that as I learn more, I will begin to appreciate it. Specifically, my poem was a sonnet. A very bad sonnet. A very, very bad sonnet. I’m not even joking here. As an aside, have you ever tried to read a sonnet out loud? Am I the only one who feels the clunkiness of it in my mouth? Even Shakespeare’s sonnets with their exquisite imagery, make me feel like I am chewing rocks when I try to speak them, which is odd because his plays are better understood when read out loud.

Anyway, I am sharing my really bad sonnet here as encouragement. If I can share this, maybe you will feel better about sharing your scribbles, words, imperfect crafts and de-glossied (or would it be anti-glossy?) content. Let’s create a world where both good art and bad art are celebrated. It’s all subjective anyway, isn’t it? I know that some people will cry about standards and participation trophies. I am not saying that there aren’t many people who can write a much better sonnet than I can. I am just saying that if we are born to create, even need to create, that effort should be celebrated. After all, AI may be able to write a better sonnet than I can, but it’s not real, it’s not human. And by celebrating bad art, as well as good art, isn’t it our humanity that we are celebrating?

Really Bad, First, (And Last) Sonnet By Teri Brown

Love me true across the decades of time
Our wrinkles meld together like playdough
In sickness and health and post-nasal grime
Our touch still inflames in gray-haired afterglow.

Finish my sentence and I’ll finish yours
The heartbeat of irritation so true
White teeth bitten lips and hard slamming doors
Still here, still loving like cracked yellowed glue.

Ancient and grizzled, completely in sync
Years worth of grievance plowed deep underneath
Your heart and my heart are the same, I think.
When I die, my love my heart I bequeath.

A well-oiled machine, parts grow loose with time,
I am yours, you are mine, regardless of rhyme.

Ahem. Carry on and create.