Kim McMahill

In 2025, the National Park Service will waive entrance fees on six days. One free day has already passed. The next entrance fee-free day will be April 19, 2025, the first day of National Park Week. All National Park Service sites that charge an entrance fee will offer free admission to everyone. For more information visit https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/fee-free-parks.htm The remaining entrance fee-free days for 2025 are: June 19 – Juneteenth National Independence Day August 4 – Great American Outdoors Act Signing Day September 27 – National Public Lands Day November 11: Veterans Day (Photo: Kim McMahill - Yellowstone National Park)

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” -John Muir-

During April in Wyoming, we generally get showers that bring May flowers, but whether it comes in the form or rain or snow is anyone’s guess. April can be beautiful or brutal. I’m hoping for signs of spring, but we’ll just have to wait and see. WRITING The fourth novel in The Beartooth Chronicles, Evil Under the Mountain, is still on tap for an April release. I don’t have the exact date yet, so hopefully you’re following me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KimMcMahillAuthor/ . In the meantime, if you aren’t caught up on the series, now is the perfect time . Refuge from the World (book 1) is only $0.99 and Above the Abyss (book 2) is still $2.99 to download. If you are caught up, I have a couple of free Risky Research prequel micro-reads for download, Midnight in Montana and A Formidable Foe . WANDERINGS Wandering was kept in-state in March. Mostly going to high school basketball tournaments and using those opportunities to check out things I may have missed ove...

Reviews are important to writers and readers, so I plan to share them here occasionally. This one was done by N.N. Light’s Book Heaven and appeared on Amazon and a number of other sites. 5 stars for Refuge from the World (The Beartooth Chronicles, Book 1) My Review:  A chilling scenario depicting the future consequences of global warming sets the stage for this YA dystopian tale. In Beartooth, Ashley McPhee lives a quiet life with her mother, Sara, her best friend Caleb, and a small group of families in a self-sustaining small community. With water levels rising and shifting tectonic plates, the United States is shrinking, and the residents of Beartooth fear the chaos and violence in nearby settlements will find them. Especially, after they learn the government plans to use an untested, geoengineering process to cool the planet, threatening their fragile ecosystem and potentially destroying their crops. To complicate matters even further for Ashley, her mother’s health is...

"We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road / the one less traveled by / offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth."   Rachel Carson

N. N. Light’s Book Heaven is celebrating their 10 th anniversary with a huge party, and I am one of the sixty authors featured. I talk about what I was doing ten years ago, what I’m doing now, how many books I’ve published, and I’m offering a very cool prize. Join in the fun and good luck! The giveaway is open internationally and runs March 1 – 31, 2025. Drawing will be held on April 1, 2025. Enter for the giveaway below and check back every day for new author posts: https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/n-n-lights-book-heaven-party a Rafflecopter giveaway

  Here’s an Irish Blessing for you. Have a great St. Patrick’s Day! May the Irish hills caress you. May her lakes and rivers bless you. May the luck of the Irish enfold you. May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.  May there always be work for your hands to do, May your purse always hold a coin or two. May the sun always shine warm on your windowpane, May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain. May the hand of a friend always be near you, And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.