Iced Coffee, Books, Kids and Chickens! ( Oh! My! )
Hi friends,
Welcome to the chaos — or, as I like to call it, my life. This is my very first blog post as a published author, and while part of me feels like I should be clinking champagne glasses, the reality is I’m sipping an iced coffee. (Let’s be honest, iced coffee is more my brand anyway — it stays cool under pressure, survives being forgotten on the counter, and still gets the job done. Basically, me in a cup.)
I’m Penny Blackwell — wife to a wonderful woodworker, mom to a miracle boy born at 23 weeks (now seven years old and outgrowing his clothes faster than I can replace them), and proud wrangler of two cats, three dogs, and six chickens. By day, I work in ophthalmology counseling patients through cataract surgery. By night — and in all the stolen moments between — I write the kinds of stories I love most: romance, rom-coms, and mystery romance.
Here’s what you’ll find here on the blog:
Books & Writing — behind-the-scenes of my projects, sneak peeks, and the occasional bookish ramble.
Life & Motherhood — equal parts heartwarming and hair-pulling.
Chicken Drama™ — because six hens are basically a feathered reality show.
Balancing Act — working, parenting, writing, wrangling pets, and surviving on iced coffee.
And here’s what you won’t find: marriage advice (my husband and I once debated dishwasher-loading strategies like it was the Olympics), or parenting advice (I’m still googling “is it normal if my kid…” on a regular basis). I’ll share stories, but I’ll never tell you how to live yours.
My debut novel, Waldport, is out in the world, and it still feels surreal. It’s a story of love, grit, small-town secrets, and the kind of characters I hope will stick with you long after the last page. And one day? I hope to expand into rom-coms, dark fantasy, and even straight-up comedy — because life’s too short to stick to just one flavor of storytelling.
So whether you’re here for the books, the chickens, or the chaos, I’m glad you found your way to this little corner of the internet. I promise it’ll never be boring.
With love (and iced coffee),
Penny
