​When I couldn’t make heads or tails of the code, I asked for a conference call. That was March 16th. By the 17th Adithya said he could meet anytime from 9AM – 9PM IST. I had to look up IST – India Standard Time. Then I found a conversion chart for EST – Eastern Standard Time in the US. I don’t even want to think how many time zones are between India and the US. 

Can you find the US and India on this World Map? 

There were two sets of times that worked. First, 9-10:30AM in India. That’s almost midnight in Ohio! The second, 8-9PM in India. That’s when I wake up, about 10:30 in the morning in Ohio. I’m not a morning person so I asked for the first time.

Adithya immediately set up a time to meet the next morning. Unfortunately, I read his email after I had breakfast, when Adithya was done for the day. We finally got a call set up for after midnight on the 19th. Within 30 minutes I had my code. You’d think it would have been easy. He could see my computer screen as we talked, but it was still tricky.

The tough parts – 1. We both thought our PayPal computer screens looked the same. I knew computer keyboards look different. The keys are in different places, but I thought the screens would be the same, just in different languages. No wonder I couldn’t follow directions from Adithya’s emails. The commands weren’t in the same places.
​
2. There was also a language difference. Thank goodness Adithya spoke English, but he spoke with an Indian accent, which was hard occasionally for me to understand. Sometimes my American English was hard for him.

It sounds funny to have trouble communicating in the same language, but it happens. I was in England, and the hotel guide sent my husband and I to ‘Mer Mickey.’ We couldn’t find it on the map, but we did find ‘Mermaid Quay.’ Our hotel guide didn’t get the joke – but my husband and I did. FYI – the faster you speak, the harder it is to be understood in international situations. SLOW DOWN! 

During the conversation, Adithya had me generate that code again. This time he asked me to paste it onto an email and send it to him. Then he did his magic (he put the right code in the right place – I still couldn’t do it.) He sent the corrected code back to me. I was almost done!

When I got up on the 19th, I sent the code to my developer, Lisa (I thought she was my tech person, but her real title is web developer. Live – And Learn!). Lisa put it up, and at 6:41PM on the 19th, I thought the journey was over.
​
NOT! Brooke, my publisher went in on the 22nd, and found it didn’t work again. URGH! I sent out 12 emails from 4 - 6PM. Sometime during that period Brooke sent me a Capture image (it looked like Greek to me, again), but I sent it off to Lisa. She worked on it, but we needed someone to test-drive the button. Brooke did, and I was finally in business. I closed the case on PayPal, and my daughter finally bought her book. Life is good!

I got my first email from Tech Support on March 10th. Adithya wanted me to generate another button, but I said NO! I sent him the one Neysa and I created. I hoped Adithya would find the error and help me fix it.

He DID say there was an important client ID missing from the button code on the 11th. He didn’t think I generated the code with PayPal, and he asked me to try again. I did, but it felt like I was repeating the same old directions. When you do that, you get the same old results.

I heard back on the 15th and 16th. Adithya sent directions both days, but I couldn’t understand them.  I felt like someone threw me in the deep end of the pool, and I didn’t know how to swim. If someone has ever given you a project that’s above and beyond your skills, you know how I felt.
​
Here’s one of his answers. I looked at my code for 30 minutes, trying to find what he wanted me to find, and change. I couldn’t. ​

​Thank you for your reply, Client ID is the Identifier that uniquely identifies your button and helps in routing all the payments to your PayPal account.

<script src="https://www.paypal.com/sdk/js?client-id=sb&currency=USD" data-sdk-integration-source="button-factory"></script>

As of now it is assigned to generic test account "sb" and adding this button code onto your website will route all the payment to a test account and no real payment can be made.

So as your generated button code is missing on client ID, I would recommend you follow the steps given in the below link to get the client ID from your PayPal account.

Lesson #2 – When something’s not working – change strategies! The emails didn’t work. I couldn’t see or understand what Adithya was asking me to do so I asked for a conference call. I thought if we zoomed, he could guide me into doing what he asked.
​
PS – this section was SUPER hard to write. I thought I’d finish the post tonight, but I couldn’t. This was as far as I could write. The more words I used, the more tangled my thoughts became. I hope I let you feel a little of my frustration . . .  without the knots.
 
Tomorrow – a conference call . . . from the other side of the Earth.

The PayPal button came up again on March 8th, the night before Zoe’s debut. That’s the night I posted the #1 thing to do at the lake – read ZOE!

I called PayPal Support and got Neysa. She was wonderful. She walked me through getting that darn button. By the end of our session, I thought I was good to go. Neysa even sent me 2 notes, one about the button. The other about API Credentials. (I still have no idea what they are, except that it’s a number unique to me, and that if someone gets that number, they can hack into my account.)
​
I emailed the new number to Lisa that night. Guess what – It didn’t work! I don’t know why. Lisa is great at tech issues. Everything you see on my website is due to the foundation she set up. I copied and sent Neysa’s note to Lisa. Nothing changed.

I tried to work with the API Credentials, even though I didn’t know what I was doing. Lisa and I tried two different ways to use them. We failed both times.

At 10PM on launch day I gave up and filed a case with Technical Support. After 24 hours in crisis mode, I turned it over to the tech team. It was the BEST decision I made all day.
​
Lesson #1 – Know when to give up. I had tried everything Brooke, Lisa, Paypal, and Neysa suggested. I wasn’t making any progress. I kept making the same mistake, over and over again. I’m so GLAD I quit!

Tomorrow – Tech Support and I

                                                                                         The 1st try

I started my journey on January 13th by emailing my web guru, Lisa, to ask for a PayPal button. I had no idea what I was getting into. The emails bounced back and forth between us for the next couple days while I tried to find the code she needed. Here’s a sample from the first couple 

In March Brooke asked about my presales. I didn’t have any. The problem – I didn’t know I was supposed to post the link to my PayPal button on social media. People can’t buy something they don’t know about. Duh!

When I started my launch countdown, I added my buy link to the post. That was March 1st, and that’s when I found my first problem. My daughter messaged me that she couldn’t buy my book. I checked it out!
​
​My whole website was down! I couldn’t even get in – at all! That’s never happened before, and my site has been live since 2016. The only change – my buy link. By the time I went to bed, I was back online, back in business. At least I thought so.

                                                                                                                                             The 2nd Try

​The PayPal button came up again on March 8th, the night before Zoe’s debut. That’s the night I posted the #1 thing to do at the lake – read ZOE!

I called PayPal Support and got Neysa. She was wonderful. She walked me through getting that darn button. By the end of our session, I thought I was good to go. Neysa even sent me 2 notes, one about the button. The other about API Credentials. (I still have no idea what they are, except that it’s a number unique to me, and that if someone gets that number, they can hack into my account.)

I emailed the new number to Lisa that night. Guess what – It didn’t work! I don’t know why. Lisa is great at tech issues. Everything you see on my website is due to the foundation she set up. I copied and sent Neysa’s note to Lisa. Nothing changed.
​
I tried to work with the API Credentials, even though I didn’t know what I was doing. Lisa and I tried two different ways to use them. We failed both times.

At 10PM on launch day I gave up and filed a case with Technical Support. After 24 hours in crisis mode, I turned it over to the tech team. It was the BEST decision I made all day.

Lesson #1 – Know when to give up. I had tried everything Brooke, Lisa, Paypal, and Neysa suggested. I wasn’t making any progress. I kept making the same mistake, over and over again. I’m so GLAD I quit!

                                                                                                                                                The Third and Final Try

​I got my first email from Tech Support on March 10th. Adithya wanted me to generate another button, but I said NO! I sent him the one Neysa and I created. I hoped Adithya would find the error and help me fix it.

He DID say there was an important client ID missing from the button code on the 11th. He didn’t think I generated the code with PayPal, and he asked me to try again. I did, but it felt like I was repeating the same old directions. When you do that, you get the same old results.

I heard back on the 15th and 16th. Adithya sent directions both days, but I couldn’t understand them.  I felt like someone threw me in the deep end of the pool, and I didn’t know how to swim. If someone has ever given you a project that’s above and beyond your skills, you know how I felt.
​
Here’s one of his answers. I looked at my code for 30 minutes, trying to find what he wanted me to find, and change. I couldn’t.  ​

Lesson #2 – When something’s not working – change strategies! The emails didn’t work. I couldn’t see or understand what Adithya was asking me to do so I asked for a conference call. I thought if we zoomed, he could guide me into doing what he asked.
​
PS – this section was SUPER hard to write. I thought I’d finish the post tonight, but I couldn’t. This was as far as I could write. The more words I used, the more tangled my thoughts became. I hope I let you feel a little of my frustration . . .  without the knots.
 
                                              A Happy Ending – A Conference Call to the Other Side of the Earth

​When I couldn’t make heads or tails of the code, I asked for a conference call. That was March 16th. By the 17th Adithya said he could meet anytime from 9AM – 9PM IST. I had to look up IST – India Standard Time. Then I found a conversion chart for EST – Eastern Standard Time in the US. I don’t even want to think how many time zones are between India and the US. 

Can you find the US and India on this World Map? ​

There were two sets of times that worked. First, 9-10:30AM in India. That’s almost midnight in Ohio! The second, 8-9PM in India. That’s when I wake up, about 10:30 in the morning in Ohio. I’m not a morning person so I asked for the first time.
​
Adithya immediately set up a time to meet the next morning. Unfortunately, I read his email after I had breakfast, when Adithya was done for the day. We finally got a call set up for after midnight on the 19th. Within 30 minutes I had my code. You’d think it would have been easy. He could see my computer screen as we talked, but it was still tricky.

The tough parts – 1. We both thought our PayPal computer screens looked the same. I knew computer keyboards look different. The keys are in different places, but I thought the screens would be the same, just in different languages. No wonder I couldn’t follow directions from Adithya’s emails. The commands weren’t in the same places.
​
2. There was also a language difference. Thank goodness Adithya spoke English, but he spoke with an Indian accent, which was hard occasionally for me to understand. Sometimes my American English was hard for him.
​
It sounds funny to have trouble communicating in the same language, but it happens. I was in England, and the hotel guide sent my husband and I to ‘Mer Mickey.’ We couldn’t find it on the map, but we did find ‘Mermaid Quay.’ Our hotel guide didn’t get the joke – but my husband and I did. FYI – the faster you speak, the harder it is to be understood in international situations. SLOW DOWN! ​

During the conversation, Adithya had me generate that code again. This time he asked me to paste it onto an email and send it to him. Then he did his magic (he put the right code in the right place – I still couldn’t do it.) He sent the corrected code back to me. I was almost done!

When I got up on the 19th, I sent the code to my developer, Lisa (I thought she was my tech person, but her real title is web developer. Live – And Learn!). Lisa put it up, and at 6:41PM on the 19th, I thought the journey was over.
​
NOT! Brooke, my publisher went in on the 22nd, and found it didn’t work again. URGH! I sent out 12 emails from 4 - 6PM. Sometime during that period Brooke sent me a Capture image (it looked like Greek to me, again), but I sent it off to Lisa. She worked on it, but we needed someone to test-drive the button. Brooke did, and I was finally in business. I closed the case on PayPal, and my daughter finally bought her book. Life is good!

​ Part 3 – Cons of Homesteading
Despite its myriad benefits, homesteading still isn’t for everyone. Take the physical activity element mentioned above. Although it’s great to have the opportunity to stay physically active, it can be unsustainable. If you already have mobility loss, for example, a homesteading situation can be impossible to maintain. Now, you can often mitigate this by planning a smaller garden or limiting your planned production, but it’s important to recognize the physical commitment from the start. 

​It’s also a big commitment and can preclude some other retirement aspirations. It’s difficult to travel while homesteading since you must find someone to care for your crops (and animals, if you have them) while you’re away. Many hobbies are also difficult to juggle along with the demanding schedule homesteading often requires. This isn’t to say homesteading will occupy all of your time, but recognizing the demands before you get started can help you figure out if it’s a good fit.  

​ Part 4 – Finding a Homesteading Property
When it comes to finding your perfect property, keep an open mind. Many people assume homesteading can only happen in rural areas, but it’s far from the truth. There’s a ton of technology out there that makes homesteading accessible for people in suburban and even urban areas. That said, you should always check zoning laws before you commit to make sure the features you’d like to have are allowed at that address. 

You should also take time to think about your overall ideal lifestyle and the kind of spaces you’ll need to achieve it. For example, if you think you’d like to make (and perhaps, sell) your own jam, you’ll want a spacious kitchen with plenty of room for canning, as well as a pantry you can use to store your products. Consider any workshops, guest rooms, and other features you’d need and like to have to be able to achieve the homestead retirement that’s right for you.

Though it’s not for everyone, homesteading is a wonderful form of retirement. Do the research to figure out if it’s right for you and, if so, invest in the perfect property to achieve the golden years you’re dreaming of.

​​​Janet Campbell from Elderspark.com reached out to write another post. I said sure. Here’s what she wrote . . .

When it comes to types of retirement, there are few that offer as much self-sufficiency and personal satisfaction as homesteading. This is a style of retirement built around hard work, cost-saving, and the pride of a day well spent. However, it’s not for everyone. Here’s a quick look at some of the pros and cons of homesteading, as well as some tips that I’m happy to share with Teacher, Speaker, and Author Rinda Beach. I hope they help you find your perfect place. 
​

​                                                                                 Part 1 - What Is Homesteading?
“Homesteading” is a broad term, but in general, it’s a lifestyle in which people try to live more sustainably by “living off the land,” so to speak. Homesteaders may grow their own fruits or vegetables, raise meat, grow crops to make fabric for clothing, or a combination of these practices. In addition to benefiting from their own hard work, many also sell their homegrown fare in their local community via farmers markets or mom-and-pop shops.

​People of all ages can homestead. Seniors can certainly pursue this lifestyle post-retirement, but as we discuss below, those with physical disabilities or mobility issues are wise to be selective about homesteading hobbies that accommodate their needs. For example, rather than growing potatoes in the ground (which are heavy and require a lot of physical labor to tend to), planting lightweight lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes in raised containers might be a better option for older adults.

​
Part 2 - Benefits of Homesteading
There are a ton of wonderful pros to homesteading for retirees. The first is that, when you’re homesteading, you can make a fixed income stretch a lot further. The food you produce on your land substantially cuts down your grocery bill, meaning you have more money to go toward other costs. 

Moreover, if you really get a knack for it, you can look into selling goods you’ve grown or made. If you go this route, however, be sure to check out whether or not you need to register as an LLC. This designation offers some legal protections that make good sense for anyone running a business out of their home. Turning your homestead into an income source can put you in an even better financial position.

Another great benefit of homesteading is that it’s a very physically active form of retirement. It’s easy to grow sedentary when you’re done working, but it’s terrible for your body and your mind. Staying active keeps you strong and sharp, helping you stay healthier for longer. Since homesteading is, by its very nature, a physically demanding lifestyle, you’ll be certain to get plenty of healthy exercise and fresh air. 

​
​ Part 3 – Cons of Homesteading
Despite its myriad benefits, homesteading still isn’t for everyone. Take the physical activity element mentioned above. Although it’s great to have the opportunity to stay physically active, it can be unsustainable. If you already have mobility loss, for example, a homesteading situation can be impossible to maintain. Now, you can often mitigate this by planning a smaller garden or limiting your planned production, but it’s important to recognize the physical commitment from the start. 

​It’s also a big commitment and can preclude some other retirement aspirations. It’s difficult to travel while homesteading since you must find someone to care for your crops (and animals, if you have them) while you’re away. Many hobbies are also difficult to juggle along with the demanding schedule homesteading often requires. This isn’t to say homesteading will occupy all of your time, but recognizing the demands before you get started can help you figure out if it’s a good fit.  

​ Part 4 – Finding a Homesteading Property
When it comes to finding your perfect property, keep an open mind. Many people assume homesteading can only happen in rural areas, but it’s far from the truth. There’s a ton of technology out there that makes homesteading accessible for people in suburban and even urban areas. That said, you should always check zoning laws before you commit to make sure the features you’d like to have are allowed at that address. 

You should also take time to think about your overall ideal lifestyle and the kind of spaces you’ll need to achieve it. For example, if you think you’d like to make (and perhaps, sell) your own jam, you’ll want a spacious kitchen with plenty of room for canning, as well as a pantry you can use to store your products. Consider any workshops, guest rooms, and other features you’d need and like to have to be able to achieve the homestead retirement that’s right for you.

Though it’s not for everyone, homesteading is a wonderful form of retirement. Do the research to figure out if it’s right for you and, if so, invest in the perfect property to achieve the golden years you’re dreaming of.

Started 4/4/21
I just finished THE VIRGIN QUEEN’S DAUGHTER, again. I bought it back in 2012. I liked the author, Ella March Chase, so I bought this book back then too. I’ve always been curious about the queen who ruled for 9 days. Her name – Lady Jane Grey. This is her story, It’s also the story of her two younger sisters.
Their father gambled on them. He used them to secure the English crown. Being rich and powerful does not guarantee happiness. The powerful will do what they need to hold onto it. They did in 1553, and they still do today.
Amazon’s Description:
Sixteen-year-old Jane Grey—the “Nine-Day Queen”—is a quiet and obedient young lady destined to become the shortest reigning English monarch. Her beautiful middle sister, Lady Katherine Grey charms all the right people, until a scandalous love affair causes loyalties to shift. And finally, Lady Mary Grey is a dwarf with a twisted spine whose goal is simply to protect the people she loves—but at a terrible cost.
 
In an age in which begetting sons was all that mattered and queens rose and fell on the sex of their child, these three girls with royal Tudor blood lived under the dangerous whims of parents with a passion for gambling. The stakes they would wager: their daughters' lives against rampant ambition.

Part 2 – Cleveland Clinic Says Go To Sleep 
And I listened! Well, after 2 months! I was taking longer and longer to go to sleep. I had a few nights when I was awake until 7AM. Finally, I gave up and clicked the link to the Cleveland Clinic. I signed up for the program on January 21st.  

                                 Here’s the link: https://clevelandclinicwellness.com/pages/GoToSleep.htm
​

​ 
- Did you wake up in the middle of the night?                - How many times?                               - For how long?
- What time did you wake up for good?                - How long did it take to wake up?          - Rate Your Sleep
- Did you get enough?                                                                        - Did you nap?

- Did you use a relaxation technique?                  - Did you exercise?                     - Within 3 hours of bedtime?
- Did you have caffeine?                                      - Within 6 hours of bedtime?              - Did you drink alcohol?
                                                                            - Did you take any sleeping medications?

Cleveland Clinic takes all those answers and quantifies them. My Sleep Efficiency was 93 out of 100. I’m happy whenever it’s over 85, and usually, it is! WOOHOO!!!
​

Tomorrow – let’s chart it out!

​Part 1 – Where I Was in 2019 and 2020

I wrote about my sleep journey back in September of 2019.  The link is below. Back then I was struggling, like now. I tried to set good sleep habits by going to bed and waking up at the same time. I took short naps when needed, but tried to keep them short, 15 – 30 minutes. I finished that sleep journey December 2nd. My sleep wasn’t perfect, but it was way better! Unfortunately, the journey wasn’t over . .
Link:  http://www.rindabeach.com/blog/a-sleep-journey
​
​

​Over the summer of 2020 my sleep troubles worsened. I was back to sleeping 10 – 11 hours a night, with naps too. I knew something was wrong so I set up my first sleep study on August 11, 2020. The link is below.

I discovered that my bi-pap sleep machine wasn’t working so September 2nd I went in for a second study. It’s amazing how many wires they needed to tape and paste onto me. The results – I discovered it was time to leave my bi-pap machine behind and return to a c-pap.  Link: 
http://www.rindabeach.com/blog/my-two-sleep-studies

My machine came in, and I was happy with the way it worked. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better. I checked back with my doctor in November, and she was happy with my results.
​
She said I was on the right track with my machine, but she also said I needed to work with the Cleveland Clinic on my sleep habits. I thought I was doing fine. I was heading to Texas for Christmas. Everything went well until mid-January. Then I had no choice. I had to do something . . . again!


​
Part 2 – Cleveland Clinic Says Go To Sleep 
And I listened! Well, after 2 months! I was taking longer and longer to go to sleep. I had a few nights when I was awake until 7AM. Finally, I gave up and clicked the link to the Cleveland Clinic. I signed up for the program on January 21st.  

​                                 Here’s the link: https://clevelandclinicwellness.com/pages/GoToSleep.htm

​​​I got an email from them on the 22nd. I logged in and answered some questions. The questions are the same everyday, but the answers change. Here are yesterday’s:

- What time did you wake up?                                                                        - Did you turn off the lights right away?   
- How long did it take to fall asleep?
​

​- Did you use a relaxation technique?                  - Did you exercise?                     - Within 3 hours of bedtime?
- Did you have caffeine?                                      - Within 6 hours of bedtime?              - Did you drink alcohol?
                                                                            - Did you take any sleeping medications?
​

​ Cleveland Clinic takes all those answers and quantifies them. My Sleep Efficiency was 93 out of 100. I’m happy whenever it’s over 85, and usually, it is! WOOHOO!!!
​

​Part 3 – Let’s Chart it Out – Remember those questions and answers from yesterday? My 93/100? The Cleveland Clinic took those numbers and converted them into a chart. It shows my weekly average. Look across the bottom. I’m on Day 56. The blue bar is my Sleep Efficiency, 93 for today. The green bar is Slept Hours, almost 8.  I got up early at 9:30. Otherwise I would have had my favorite sleep number . . .  9 hours.

Day 54 was a bad night. I didn’t get to sleep until 3 in the morning, and I still got up at 10:30AM, but those days are getting fewer. I had 5 nights with 9 hours of sleep, and 5 out of 7 is really good for me!
​

​The next graph shows every night I entered my sleep data. I love to look for patterns. Here’s what I discovered - 

- I slept 7 hours – 14% of the time (8 nights)                                  - I slept 8 hours – 14% of the time ( 9 nights)
                                          - I slept 9 hours – 70% of my time in the study (39 nights)
​
Note – Math doesn’t always make sense . . . The nights add up to 56, but the % total is 98. Where did the other  2% go?   The best news – almost 40 out of 56 nights, I got 9 hours of sleep. WAHOO!

 
So, what have I learned over the last 56 days?

1. I go to sleep about the same time every night. I get up about the same time each morning.
2. If I don’t get to sleep within 15 minutes, I get up for about that much time. I’ve learned I need to redirect my brain. Reading books lets me calm down. Getting on the computer ramps me up. I don’t go there at night!
3. I stop drinking caffeine around 8PM. I stop exercising around 10.
4. I only nap on those days when I get 7 hours of sleep, but I try not to. I also try to nap for 15 minutes. Sometimes it takes 30, but I’m still a work in progress.

​So far, so good! I’ll let you know how I’m doing this summer. The portal is no longer live, BUT the best part about Cleveland Clinic . . . I can still input my sleep data to check on how I’m doing. ​

Started 3/28/21                                   Finished 4/3/21
I stopped and started 2 books before I picked this one. Now I’m on chapter 15! I bought it back in 2012, and I’ve read it multiple times because it asks – What if Elizabeth I had a baby with Thomas Seymour, the husband of her stepmother Catherine Parr? It sounds like a soap opera, but there was speculation about it then. Those possibilities are woven into this story. The best part is the relationship threaded between mother and daughter.

Amazon’s Description:                     
Tucked away in the country estate of her beloved father, Lord Calverley, young Nell de Lacey feeds her hungry mind with philosophy, language, and studies of science. Her mother, once a devoted lady-in-waiting to Henry VIII’s last wife, Katherine Parr, would rather her daughter stop dabbling in the grand affairs of men and instead prepare for her eventual duties as a wife. She knows all too well what menace lurks in royal courts.

But Nell’s heart yearns for something more, and a chance meeting with Princess Elizabeth, then a prisoner of the Tower of London, pushes her closer toward finding it. Now, years later, Nell’s chance arrives when she is summoned to serve as a lady-in-waiting to the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth. Nell is entranced by the splendor and pageantry of royal life, unaware of the danger and deception that swirls around the monarch and her courtiers.

But a lingering rumor about nine unaccounted for months in the Virgin Queen’s past reignites when the flame-haired Nell—a mirror image of Her Majesty both physically and intellectually—arrives at court. Quickly she catches the eye not only of the cunning Elizabeth, but of those who would see the queen fail. With strong evidence to connect Elizabeth to her newest maid of honor and the politics of England in turmoil, the truth could send Nell and those she loves to the Tower to join in the wretched fates of those who’ve gone before her.

​

Started 3/3/21                                                                            Finished 3/27/21
I met the first book, MAID OF SECRETS, at the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators conference back in 2014 (SCBWI). I’m a huge fan of Elizabeth the 1st so I looked it up as soon as possible. I read the first one and loved the mix between facts I knew about Elizabeth and the fiction that strung this plot together. SECRETS focused on one of Spain’s attempts to control Elizabeth and England at the beginning of her reign. I liked it so much I bought the other two books, but unfortunately that’s where the series stopped.
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I’m on Chapter 28 now of the 2nd book, MAID OF DECEPTION. The best part about historical fiction is that it gives you the chance to time travel and meet characters you’ll never meet in person. As a reader I can become part of the story. This time  I’m following Elizabeth and the Lords of the Congregation. They’re working to break free of French Catholic rule under Marie de Guise, mother of Mary, Queen of Scotts. It’s something the Protestant Elizabeth would have supported and funded, secretly.

I just finished MAID OF WONDER. This one focuses on Sophia Dee and her ability to see into the future. There’s a plot afoot to assassinate Elizabeth. Sophie must decode her visions in time to unravel the plot and stop it. I was disappointed that the series stopped here, leaving two maids with untold stories. 

​Amazon’s Description:
Beatrice Knowles is a Maid of Honor, one of Queen Elizabeth’s secret protectors, who has proven herself to be a valuable asset in the Queen’s court—or so she thinks. It has been three weeks since the Maids thwarted a plot to overthrow the Queen, and Beatrice is preparing to wed her betrothed, Lord Cavanaugh. However, her plans come to a crashing halt as rumors of a brewing Scottish rebellion spread among the court.

Beatrice’s new assignment is to infiltrate the visiting Scottish delegation using her uncanny ability to manipulate hearts. The mission seems simple enough, until the Queen sets Beatrice up for failure by pairing her with the worst of the lot—Alasdair MacLeod. But Alasdair could be the key to unlocking the truth about the rebellion…and her heart. Caught in a web of ever-more-twisting lies, Beatrice must rise up among the Maids of Honor and prove what she’s known all along: in a court filled with deception and danger, love may be the deadliest weapon of all.