What's love got to do with it?

 

June 20, 2026

Dear Diary... ... ...

It's been a hot minute since I've felt like making a blog entry, and I'm not sure why I felt like today was the day to check in, but here I am. Once again, I feel like I'm at a major life crossroad, and setting the words down in black and white seems to help me think. Some days I feel that all I have are the words and nothing else. 

What am I willing to settle for in these new days? That's the question plaguing me in the dark of many a solitary night. I jokingly told my girlfriends that if God wanted me to have a man in my life, He'd have to put one in my path. Weeell, it happened. I think. Sort of. It wasn't a new-to-me man, oh no. It was an old and dear friend from my youth. 

I know this man. Even as a very young woman, I saw into this man. To say he's a complicated person is a bit of an understatement. Then again, I'm a complicated woman. Libra and Gemini. Both are air signs and should be "a match made in heaven." If you believe in the astrological signs. 

It's scary to think my words brought him back into my life. Coincidence? I'd certainly think so except for the very specific way it happened. I was walking across a parking lot to enter a restaurant to meet my girlfriends for dinner and he stepped between me and the door. He actually stepped right into my path. We were both amazed and stood in the middle of that lot hugging each other, and it was a death grip hug, not just a friendly greeting. Go figure that one. 

Now I'm left to ponder what I really want. My years with Ron were good years up until the last two. I don't regret giving him the care he needed. But because of his health, my life lacked "fun." Am I ready for fun? Can I hold this new guy, keep it fun, and not get in over my head? How far do I risk my heart? 

These are only new questions to me. Every woman alive has probably stared at them and wondered how to answer them. It's simply my turn. 

Maybe the great Tina Turner had it right. What's love got to do with it? But then again, maybe he's simply the best, at least for me. 

KC Kendricks

Now what?

The times they are a-changing. 

What comes next? 

March 2, 2026: 

https://hollytreemanor.blogspot.com/2026/03/how-can-it-be-march-already.html

April 12, 2026

All Rayne Forrest books will be unpublished when the current Kindle Unlimited term ends. Better read them now. 

May 1, 2026

Is there a new love in my life? 

Be mindful of your words. I told my friends - repeatedly - that if God wanted me to have another man in my life, he'd have to plop the guy right down in my path. Weell................

I survived Winter Storm Fern, Jan 25, 2026

 January 27, 2026

Yep. I made it through Winter Storm Fern in good shape. I know not everyone did, but here in my part of western Maryland, we had five inches of snow topped by two inches of sleet with no freezing rain to speak of. There is something about the configuration of the mountains right here that pushes clouds out and around us. Anyway...

I made a couple of videos, one about my storm preps and one after the storm. I invite you to view them, and I invite you to subscribe to my channel for more seemingly worthless content. Or maybe you'll find a hint or two, who knows? You won't know unless you go. 

How's that for a shameless plug?

KC

Stat check

 

January 12, 2026

I haven't checked the stats here at Between the Keys since mid-2023. I guess I was a little busy caring for Ron and the aftermath of his passing. But this morning, I decided to take a look, and wow! I had no idea so many people were reading! Thank you! Thank you!

The downside is, having over 10K hits doesn't translate to 10K sales, but it makes me wonder. You would think sales would be at least a quarter of that number, wouldn't you? 

Across the years, I've been aware of other authors claiming their sales have been under reported. Some of them managed to get proof - I have no clue how. It is food for thought. 

Anyway... I was quite pleased to see how many visitors have been here. It makes me think I need to up my game and blog more frequently. Then again, I need to write more frequently, too. Maybe that is really why folks are stopping by - hoping I've been busy writing. 

     _*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks

My home on the web- Between the Keys: 

http://kckendricks.blogspot.com

Visit my bookshelf at: 

https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/bookshelf.html

Social media links:

Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com

My country life at The Hideaway/Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/KCKendricks

twitter.com/kckendricks

facebook.com/kckendricks

KC Kendricks, Between the Keys, LGBT gay romance, Kindle romance, m/m romance, a writer's life, contemporary m/m romance, GLBT m/m, rural living, statistics, 

The Kendricks 1300

January 4, 2026

It seems this new year has already brought a milestone. Thirteen hundred posts here at Between the Keys. Never did I imagine, way back in January 2008, that I'd still be blogging on this platform. I wasn't at all sure I would like writing blogs, but here we are at thirteen hundred. 

It's been a while since I posted number twelve hundred in September 2023. So much has happened since then. My beloved Ron passed from this life, and I've settled into retirement on my little manor. Both have been life-altering. My retirement days are much as I envisioned, but losing Ron was like living in a black hole. Enough time has passed and I'm almost back to my "old" self. 

I posted the 2025 Retrospective just two days ago, so I won't repeat everything today. I invite you to go back and check out that post about a look back at the past year. 

This post is a simple one - let's mark the milestone! As I write this post, tomorrow will be Sunday, January 4, 2026, and the last day of the New Year's holiday. This post will go up in the wee hours. I'll enjoy Sunday, because Monday is the big back-to-work day, even for writers. I'll be posting promos for January After Dark on Monday, something I postponed due to the Christmas/New Year's holidays. Along with that, I will resume work on the next story (or two). 

Will there be a Kendricks 1400? I hope so, but if I've learned anything recently, it's that the universe does not respect plans made too far in advance. Knowing that gives me the proper tools to work with going forward. I wonder where I'll actually end up? 

     _*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks

My home on the web- Between the Keys: 

http://kckendricks.blogspot.com

Visit my bookshelf at: 

https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/bookshelf.html

Social media links:

Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com

My country life at The Hideaway/Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/KCKendricks

twitter.com/kckendricks

facebook.com/kckendricks

KC Kendricks, Rayne Forrest, Between the Keys, milestone, future writings, m/m romance, LGBT gay romance, loss of spouse, planning ahead, rural living, retrospectives, Kindle romances, blogging

You can call me Wimpy

January 3, 2026

I think it's official. I have become a wimp. 

Our winter started early. By December 21, 2025. it was January cold. We've already had one major wind event, too. It's not our normal. Maybe that's why I'm calling myself wimpy. 

My home office has been in the sunroom, which my late husband built, for over a decade. It started out as a simple porch that needed some new decking. Then he suggested we put a roof over it, which we did. When that was done, the man said we should screen it in so we could sit out there in the evenings. So we did that, and you guessed it. He wanted to add windows. So now I have a "sunroom." I'm not complaining because he did a great job on it. We enjoyed it for years until we screened in the back patio and I moved my office into the sunroom at that point. 

Sooooo... It's cold. With windows on three sides, heating the sunroom can be problematic. During the aforementioned wind event, I couldn't work out there. I couldn't get the temperature up in the room. I capitulated. For the first time ever, I moved my desk and computer to the living room. 

And you know what? The location isn't bad. I'm going to stay in the living room until mid-March. It'll give me time to do a thorough cleaning in the sunroom. It has also answered a very important question - new desktop or new laptop in 2026? The answer is new laptop. It's a lot more portable than my desk! 

This little adjustment made feel wimpy. This is the first year I've been bothered by the cold. I freely admit to disliking really hot weather, but temps in the 20Fs and 30Fs have never been a problem for me. I guess it's a first step to feeling my age. 

I don't think I like it much. 

 _*_*_*_*_*_*_

KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com
Visit my bookshelf at: https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/bookshelf.html

Social media links:

twitter.com/kckendricks

facebook.com/kckendricks

Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/KCKendricks

Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com

My country life at The Hideaway/Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

KC Kendricks, Rayne Forrest, Between the Keys, contemporary gay romance, m/m romance, rural living, an author's life, writing, wind, winter, wimps, sunrooms, building, aging

The 2025 Retrospective

 January 2, 2026

I'm not sure what to say about the year 2025. I survived it, but I'm not sure I did it with any sort of grace and style. I tried some new things, I got two books published (The First of February and January After Dark), and I did a lot of physical labor around the manor. This was the year of tree removal, burning brush, and splitting firewood. At least I'm staying warm. 

Writing these retrospectives is never easy for me. They remind of those things I wanted to do but didn't have the time, or energy, to accomplish. Nevertheless, here we go.

January 2025

January 2025 found western Maryland in the throes of an old-fashioned winter. It was cold and snowy. Deuce and I were stuck inside so we made the most of it. The dog caught up on his sleep, and I worked on organization and writing. I wanted to finish The First of February before the first of February, but it didn't happen. 

Memories of where I was in January 2024 intruded. It was in January 2024 that I knew Ron didn't have a lot of time left.

February 2025

Finally! The First of February went live. It was quite a relief to accomplish that. It was also quite a relief that my cousin was home to come to my rescue when the battery in my car went dead. I decided that a story I wrote and originally published with the late Christianne France was worth putting out on Kindle Unlimited. It was one of a series of five stories, but the one I wrote in its entirety to meet our deadline due to her health. A Night on the Town went live on Kindle Unlimited. I also moved my first two KC Kendricks books, Surrendered Victory and Passion's Victory, to Kindle Unlimited (for all the good that did me). 

March through August 2025

I began work on a new manuscript, and I planted a lot of seeds in hopes of a 2025 garden. March 30th rolled around, the first anniversary of Ron's death. I stalled, and stayed stalled for months. After a lot of deliberating, I put all the Rayne Forrest titles on Kindle Unlimited (for all the good that did).

September - October 2025

One of life's twists and turns came to me in October. One of my oldest and dearest friends suddenly stepped back into my life. We've had dinner together a few times, and it's been good for me to talk with someone who knew me way back in the 1970s. 

I took the leap and put all my titles on Audible. I do not like the AI voice, but the service was provided free to me, so I went with it. I worked on January After Dark, tended to the end of the gardening season, and got more serious about making videos. I had survived a second summer without Ron and somehow life got easier. Once into October, my cousin and I got serious about laying in firewood. 

November 2025

Work continued on January After Dark and on a new story that is untitled as of this writing. I learned more about editing videos and, if I must say so myself, some of them are pretty good for a rank amateur. 

Coming home from a trivia game night, I was run down by a deer. Yes, she hit me. I have a small ding in a fender to prove she hit me, and a cracked nosepiece that I'm not going to have repaired until warmer weather returns. It could have been much, much worse, but the airbag did not deploy. 

Thanksgiving was celebrated was celebrated at my cousin's house. I started to burn firewood, something I normally don't do until mid-December. 

December 2025

January After Dark went live! I can still call myself a writer. I read an email from Amazon that said I could go back and put DRM on any books I'd not already put on, so I did that. I gleefully did that.

The weather left a lot to be desired, and I stayed busy feeding the woodstove. I also made a few videos, but December is a quiet time of the Year. There wasn't a lot to record here at the manor. This was my second Christmas without Ron. 

And that brings me to this new year, the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Six. I still miss Ron, every day, but it is better than it was. 

In a lot of ways, I've come full circle. I'm writing for ME. Screw the rules. Screw what a potential publisher wants. I've been at this a long time and I'm back to writing the story I want to read. I think that will make 2026 an interesting year.

KC/Rayne

The 2024 Retrospective

The 2023 Retrospective

The 2022 Retrospective

The 2021 Retrospective

The 2020 Retrospective

The 2019 Retrospective

The 2018 Retrospective

The 2017 Retrospective

The 2016 Retrospective

The 2015 Retrospective

The 2014 Retrospective

The 2013 Retrospective

The 2012 Retrospective

     _*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks

My home on the web- Between the Keys: 

http://kckendricks.blogspot.com

Visit my bookshelf at: 

https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/bookshelf.html

Social media links:

Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com

My country life at The Hideaway/Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/KCKendricks

twitter.com/kckendricks

facebook.com/kckendricks

KC Kendricks, Rayne Forrest, contemporary romance, m/m romance, Kindle romance, country living, romance novels, single life, a writer's life, life after loss, new year

January 1, 2026 - A New Year

 

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

-Alfred, Lord Tennyson

from In Memoriam (1850)