Peggy Jaeger's Blog, page 28

#fridayfive 5.17.2024

5 reasons to write a book review.

it allows other readers to know a little about the book from a reader’s perspective, and helps them make a choice about reading it.it helps the author because it proves someone read their book (!)It also helps the author with book exposure esp. if you post a review to Amazon. Once a book has a minimum of 50 reviews, Amazon tends to promote it on the algorithm.it’s a good way to keep track of what you’ve read, what the book was about, what you liked and didn’t like about it.it costs you nothing but a few minutes of time to write the review

and every review helps the author!!!

#tbt #tbthursday 5.16.2024

This one is from June 10, 2019. My, how much has changed…and yet, hasn’t!

The title of this piece is IN A WORLD OF FOLLOWERS, I’D LIKE TO BE AN INFLUENCER – and just as an aside, I wrote a book called INFLUENCE in 2023 about— you guessed it — a social media influencer. LOL.

I’m going to bet if you know what the above icon is, you’ll understand the title of this blog.

First, a little backstory.

When I was a kid, roughly 175 years ago, my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Karen Sinclair, said something to me one day that has stayed with me all these millennia later. I was an overweight, thick glasses-wearing, curly-haired, shy kid prone to impulse control issues when it came to talking in class. I was bullied – horribly – by both girls and boys. At that age, there really is no division along sex lines with bullying. One day, after an especially verbally vicious attack on the recess playground, I came back into the classroom, sullen and non-communicative. When class ended for the day, Mrs. Sinclair asked me to stay after. She wormed out of me what had been said on the playground. When I cried that all I wanted to do was fit in, be like everyone else, but couldn’t because 1. my clothes were wrong, 2. my hair was wrong, 3. I was ugly, 4. I was fat…etc…. (you get the picture) she took my hand and told me this: “Don’t be a follower.  Don’t be like everyone else. You were born to be a leader, Margaret, to be yourself. There’s only one you. Don’t settle for less.”

Yeah, she was my favorite teacher of all time.

Fast forward 165 years to the present.

The above symbol is the INSTAGRAM logo. Since I started my writing journey, I’ve been attempting to get people to read my books through various marketing methods, one of them, posting on Instagram. Recently, I came across a phrase that “called” to me: Influencer. Apparently, there are people (millennials, mostly) who have huge Insta-followers and who get paid for taking pictures of themselves with products. The companies who manufacture the products pay these kids for simply posting a picture. People see the picture and are Influenced to buy the product because they want to be like the cool person they are following.

Can you spell BRILLIANT!!

I have a decent amount of Instagram followers and I’m gonna work on getting more, but for now, here’s me at my new job, taking a picture with a product I’d like to tell people about so they can buy it and be cool like me. I’m an Influencer:

Hee hee

Sorry the book is backward – this whole Influencer thing is gonna take time to perfect. But you get the idea.

~until next time ~ Peg

And just FYI: The book’s on sale for 99cents right now until june 21~~ Get yours here:

DEARLY BELOVED

Amazon

Nook

Apple books

#wednesdaywisdom 5.15.2024

#teaserTuesday 5.14.2024

I just 1 week LOVE MATCH releases into the book reading world and I am stoked and excited!!

SO, of course, today’s teaser is a little snippet from the book. And a familiar face pops up here.

“Hey, kids. Happy Happy,” Kick Loomis said, leaning over the bar so he could be heard. Befitting the occasion, he was wearing a black t-shirt with colored suspenders over it emblazed with Happy New Year and the year running up them. “What are ya drinking? I’ve got a few specials going tonight.”

Surprise shot through him when Layla ordered the champagne cocktail to his beer.

“What?” she asked when she smacked her lips and groaned after the first sip and found him staring at her mouth. “I love champagne and this is good.”

Kick overheard her, grinned, and gave her a thumbs-up before making his way down the bar.

Add it to your GOODREADS Want to read list

Preorder it from Amazon

Order an autographed PRINT copy from me

#mondaymusings 5.13.2024

I would take anything other than the cold – which if ridiculous when you consider the cold climate I live in!!!!

Give me a beach.

Give me temperate winds.

Give me trees with leaves.

DO NOT give me snow, ice, chilblains, and hail!!

Mother’s Day 2024…

So I laughed when I found this graphic because…right??!!

We always roll our eyes at Mom’s wisdom, and swear we are never going to do/say/act like her.

And you know what? In the end…we do. More times than not.

I miss my Mom. Every single day. Every single hour of every single day.

But I am content that she is looking down on me from Heaven, shaking her head at some of the things I do and say, and still loving me with everything in her soul.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mommie. I love you. I miss you. I know I will see you again.

And when I do, please don’t say, I told you so!

LOL.

#fridayfive 5.10.2024

Today, I give you my five favorite RomCom movies.

When Harry Met Sally. EVERYONE knows about the deli scene, but for me, the best scene is the last one at the New Year’s party.4 weddings and a funeral. My first introduction to Hugh Grant. Swoon.My best friend’s wedding. Classic Julia Roberts.Life as we know it. A little movie but such a heartwarming story on what makes a family.The Philadelphia story/ HIGH Society. Best musical of all time ( for me!) Best movie of 1939 ( for me, other than GWTW)

#TBT #TBThursday 5.9.2024

This post appeared in ROMANCING THE GENRES on July 24, 2020 and is still one of my favorite pieces ( and characters!)

So in deciding who my favorite villain is in literature, the only name that consistently showed up in my head really isn’t a villain, according to the book reading world. It’s a person whose actions are so wonderfully vile and self-serving, though, that she really must be declared a villain.
If you know anything about me you’ve probably already guessed I’m talking about Scarlett O’Hara.

She of the original resting bitch face, Scarlett O’Hara, is supposed to be the heroine of Gone With The Wind, but in my mind she holds a dichotomous role as pure villain.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, a villain is:  a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.
Everything Scarlett does in GWTW is crucial to moving the plot line of the book forward. And everything she does can be interpreted as evil.
Cases in point:
She agrees to marry one man just to make Ashley Wilkes jealous.
Then she marries another just to spite her sister ( because the sister loves him)
Then she goes after Ashley again and lets everybody knows it.
She tries to trick Rhett into giving her money while he is in jail.
She runs a business using convicts as cheap labor and doesn’t care about them just so she can never be poor again.
She blames Rhett for the death of their daughter and once again goes after Ashley after his wife dies.
Everything she does is self-serving. She tries to convince herself it’s because she wants to protect her home, Tara, and her family, but, in reality, she is a narcissistic, egomaniacal, conniving, blatant manipulator who has been spoiled since birth and wants everyone to dance a jig at her feet.
If that isn’t the offshoot definition of a villain, I don’t know what is.
Yes, her life is tragic. Yes, she suffers loss in the most grievous of ways. And yes, she is a victim of circumstances.
But…it’s how she handles and deals with all those events that make her a villain in my eyes.
And she is such a delicious one, too.

#wednesdayWisdom 5.8.2024

YOu need to love yourself first, last, and always!

And you definitely need to remind yourself of that love, and show it by taking care of yourself, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

#tuesdayTease 5.7.2024

Since LOVE MATCH will be releasing in 2 weeks (!) I figured I’d do a little tease for it today to whet your reading appetites.

Here’s a little motivation as to why Cody is such a playa…

She nodded. “So. You were out with the Canterbury girl last night.” The way she said it had the hairs on his forearms jumping to attention.

“Oh? Who’d you hear that from?”

She flipped her fingers in the air. “Just someone who happened to be at The Love Shack the same time you were.”

Mentally, his eyes dragged around the bar to try and remember who could have spotted, then reported, to his mother on his whereabouts. She had her spies everywhere around town.

“Katie’s a sweet girl,” he said.

“Yes. She is. A girl, that is. Has she even graduated from college yet?”

It took everything in him not to toss her a snide comeback. He knew his mother. His divorce had devastated her. Almost as much as it had him. The difference was she wanted him to get married again, while he was content to be single the rest of his life and just simply play the field as long as he could, which he hoped would be until he was six feet under.

Dating girls who were much younger than he was, who were only looking to be taken out and treated good by a guy without any of the happily-ever-after notions front and center was a plan that was fitting him nicely. The one drawback was his mother’s persistent disregard for his playboy – as much as you could be one in a small town – persona.

“Yes, Mom, she did,” he responded after taking a swig of beer. “With a degree in nursing, too. But you know that since her mom’s in your book club. I’m sure Mrs. Canterbury has mentioned how proud she is of her daughter and her new job over at Holy Mother of God Hospital.”

Sally bit down on her lip. Two could play at this spy thing. Katie had told him last night their mothers were in the same club that met every Tuesday night. She offered that she thought they didn’t read and discuss a book as much as drink wine, eat cookies, and gossip about everyone in town.

That sounded right up his mom’s alley.

 “It’s just that she’s so, so…” She shrugged.

“Nice? Sweet? Pretty?”

“Young. She’s almost half your age, Cody.”

Okay, she wasn’t wrong. Forty to Katie’s twenty-three was a bit of a stretch. But it wasn’t like he was going to marry her or forge a life with her. They were friends. Simply having some fun, a few laughs over drinks and dinner. And if that progressed to friends with some benefits, well that was his business and Katie’s.

“I just don’t want to see her hurt,” his mother said.

“Why would she be hurt? Katie knows the score. I’m very up-front with all the girls I date. They know from the get-go that I’m not looking to get married again. Been there; bought the t-shirt.”

Got my heart broken he kept to himself.

Intrigued? Hee hee. You can preorder/order it a few ways:

Through my webstore, where you’ll get an autographed print copy. Of course, this is my favorite way because you get it directly from me, no middleman, and you get presents from me when you order, too, LOL!

Through Amazon for print or kindle/ku

Oh, and if you’re wondering how I picture Cody Fonda in my head when I’m writing, here ya go: