Talena Winters's Blog, page 14

Just Roll With It

This morning, I got up, got dressed for church, and had almost finished my makeup before it was decided as a family that we weren’t going. Noah is still getting over a nasty cold which has been making the rounds (so far, it’s hit me and Jabin, and Jude mentioned this morning that he’s feeling something coming on), and the freezing rain that landed on the snow for most of the night means it’s probably for the best. Given recent events (which I’ll get to in a bit), I’m feeling more cautious at the moment.

“How should I use this extra time?” thought I.

So here I am, rolling with it.

Speaking of rolling with it, I’ve had a few adventures lately that have to do with rolling. Well, mostly one, which could have had really, really terrible consequences, but since it didn’t, I’m able to just call it an “adventure.”

Last Saturday, I went to the Coles Totem Mall bookstore in Fort St. John, BC, for a book signing. I love this store and this location. The staff are great, and the customers are awesome and super supportive of local authors. And, since it’s only a three-hour drive from my home, it’s also one of the least expensive and easiest bookstores for me to get to.

And it’s the closest. Yep, I live in the boonies. (I have a local Christian gift store that carries books right in Peace River at which I’ve done a signing before, but that’s the closest thing.)

The Thursday before, I kept getting snowfall warnings for this area all the way from Peace River to Fort St. John, starting Friday and ending Saturday at midnight. I hemmed and hawed. Would it be worth the risk to go?

My mother and a guest from New Zealand she and my stepdad had staying with them, Vanessa, were intending to come with me. Vanessa had never been to FSJ and Mom hadn’t gone in years, so they wanted to check it out, and despite the fact that there is not a whole lot to see there (especially in a snow storm), the idea of spending the day around a bookstore and wandering through even that tiny mall seemed like a fun outing, even if it required six hours of driving through snow to enjoy it. (That’s what happens when you live in the boonies.)

But even this born-and-bred Alberta girl was hesitant about the drive. It was the first major snow storm we’ve had this winter, and even though Jason assured me that both Mom and I are very good winter drivers, there are always a slew of people who aren’t or who seem to have forgotten how to drive in the winter since March. So it wasn’t just ourselves we had to consider.

Still, after much debate, we all decided to go. We got up at oh-dark-thirty, left my place in the snow and dark at around 7 a.m., and by 8:30 had slid through an icy T-intersection with little-to-no warning about the upcoming stop sign into a farmer’s field.

The saving graces were that the ditch was not very deep and the snow was all powder, with no snow pack underneath. After we got out and inspected everything, Mom figured I could back up and drive out of the field to the left onto an access road, and she was right. None of us were seriously injured, having only to deal with a few minor aches and pains for the next several days.

Unfortunately, my car can’t say the same. It’s still totally driveable and, I’m relieved to say, nothing was broken that can’t be fixed. However, what did get broken isn’t going to be cheap to repair, which was an expense that I wasn’t planning on.

I find it ironic that I managed to do five solo book signing trips (while promoting Finding Heaven) all the way to Calgary and back in the middle of winter in this car with tires that were practically bald, and never had a close call like this. But now, with good tires and company and a little day trip, this is what happened.

But that’s life.

I guess if I amortize the expense out between all the trips I’ve done, it’s not so bad. Even still, I’ve decided that I won’t be booking any more November signings. (I’d previously ruled winter signings out after the stress of that Finding Heaven book tour. But I thought early November would be pretty safe. Wrong.)

Thankfully, other than that little adventure, the day was awesome. There were quite a few people in the mall, despite the weather (which was much worse in FSJ than here), and we avoided any more such “adventures” for the rest of the day.

All set up and ready to meet new readers.

Evidence. Photo taken by Vanessa.

In other news, I took some yearly photos of the boys way back in September. I still haven’t gotten them processed, posted anywhere, or printed. Sigh. That’s ma vida loca these days.

However, yesterday, Jabin did some hat modelling for me, and I ended up with this wonderful shot of him.

He turns 14 on Thursday, which is hard to believe. Where did my adorable little munchkin go? Oh, right. He grew into this sassy, spunky, witty, handsome young man. (Who normally wears glasses, but I had him take them off so I wouldn’t have to worry about reflections in the photos, which were challenging enough with the poor winter afternoon light available.)

Love this face. :-)

Lately, I’ve been “studying” sweet romance novels, because I want to put out more stories along the lines of The Friday Night Date Dress. I thought it would be fairly easy to find books like this, but honestly, I’ve been pretty disappointed.

Confession: I’ve never been a big romance reader. I LOVE stories with a strong romantic subplot, but after trying a few straight “romances” when I was younger, I quickly veered towards other genre interests. However, I adore rom-com movies and even dramatic romance movies. They are my favourites of all time. And the subgenre of romance doesn’t really matter. Far and Away, You’ve Got Mail, Pride and Prejudice, Beauty and the Beast, Penelope, Mr. Deeds, 17 Again, Maid in Manhattan, Ella Enchanted, The Princess Bride… the list goes on and on. But the one thing all these romantic movies that I love have in common?

They are clean.

And, silly me, I thought that I could find some romance books like that, too.

Actually, the silly part was thinking that’s what “sweet romance” meant.

Apparently, it’s not.

The other problem is that, the better I’ve gotten at writing and editing, the higher my standards have become. I have such limited time for fiction reading that I’ve gotten to the point that I would rather walk away from a poorly-written book, even if I’ve spent money on it, than slog through poor writing and editing just to say I finished.

In the last three weeks, I’ve purchased eleven romance novels. I’ve started seven of them. I finished two. And only one of those was a book that I really enjoyed, despite not fitting the “clean” stricture I’d been looking for.

(In fact, even though I finished the first one I started, it was that disappointing experience that made me realize I didn’t have the patience to do so again. I started getting a lot more ruthless on later books. The rest of those books are in my figurative “DNF—Did Not Finish” pile. While I usually made it between 20%-30% through, for the worst one, I only managed 8% before I just couldn’t handle the poor writing any longer.)

And this book had over 4 stars on Amazon!

So. I guess I’ve become some kind of a book snob. But despite the number of DNFs on my Kindle, I did learn something—the romance market is ripe pickings for someone who can put out a book with good writing and well-developed characters and settings. Either that, or the romance market is not that discerning and doesn’t care. Either that, or I shouldn’t be writing romance, because I don’t love the things about the genre that the typical reader enjoys.

I haven’t figured out which one of those is the real takeaway yet. :-)

The thing is, when I wrote The Friday Night Date Dress and even Finding Heaven (which I usually classify as “romantic suspense,” though I’m not sure that’s a 100% accurate description, either), I didn’t know much about genres. I’ve read widely my whole life, and genres meant very little to me. I’ve learned most of what I know about genre since then, and part of my current research binge is to find comparison authors who write stories like mine.

So even though I call The Friday Night Date Dress an “inspirational romance”, I can’t help but wonder if it’s more just women’s fiction with a strong romantic plot. The plot isn’t so much about the romance as it is about Melinda’s healing journey, much as Finding Heaven is more about Sarah’s healing journey than whether she and Steve get together. (In fact, for a good 2/3 of the writing on that book, I wasn’t sure they would.)

And recently, I have finally entered the world of figuring out how to advertise my books online and therefore need to know what authors I share an audience with. Thus the reason for my current reading research binge.

So, in other other news, um. Hmm.

I’m down 29 pounds since May from eating keto, and feeling great. I still have another 16 to go to reach my goal weight.

I’ve been enjoying The Good Place, Lucifer, and Carnival Row on TV. I’ve been binge-watching Friends with Jason and Jude so we can finish it before it goes off Netflix at the end of the year. We just got to season 10. Yay! I think we’ll make it.

Jude turned 17 a couple weeks ago, and Jabin’s about to turn 14.

I made a new cover for “Up in Smoke” because I wanted to learn to make my own book covers, and that seemed like a good way to practice.

I’m almost finished the “zero draft” of The Sphinx’s Heart.

I’m hoping to get short stories written for two other upcoming calls in the next couple of months, write a short story for my patrons on Patreon, finish the first draft of The Sphinx’s Heart, and also draft another sweet, clean romance to be released next year.

And I’m thankful that some excellent editing clients have found me and are keeping me so busy that I’m having a hard time finding time to blog.

My two November birthday boys at Jude’s party a couple weeks ago.

Speaking of that, though, I did fit in an interview recently for the “Inspiring People” feature, and that article will be posted in the next week or two. It’s with Mark Leslie Lefebvre, one of the most entertaining and humble speakers I’ve ever had the opportunity to learn from. I look forward to sharing that with you soon!

Lastly, I’m thrilled to mention that The Book of Chaos by Jessica Renwick, which I edited, has just won yet another well deserved award from Children’s Literary Classics. Congratulations, Jessica!

So. What have you been rolling with lately?

Random Wordings

It’s one of those nights where I should be doing about three other things that are more important than writing this blog post. The number one thing is working on my book, but, for reasons I may or may not go in to in this post, I’m not. Plus, I’ve been sick all day, and pretty much all the things I’m supposed to have been doing have been bumped.

So, my sick brain is trying to tackle a book that I’m becoming increasingly terrified I won’t be able to make work due to complexity or lack of coolness factor in my plot, and on top of that, I’ve just come off of three days of binge-learning how to work with Amazon and BookBub ads, and maybe a day when I’m sick isn’t the best day to come to conclusions, but right now I want to throw up my hands and take up knitting.

Oh, wait. I already do that. And believe me, designing is a heckuvalot easier than writing fiction.

But really, I don’t want to give it up. Earning a living writing fiction is also possible, and by far my preferred way to make a living. Thanks to some of the books I’ve been reading, I only recently realized how very possible it is—but also how very much I still don’t know when it comes to marketing, and how many assets I still need to put into place to create a sustainable career.

Sigh.

So, this blog post is because I actually do want to write something, not knit, and I need to get my juices flowing. How well will it work for that book I will likely try to tackle next? Well, that remains to be seen.

In the meantime, why don’t I chat about my insanely busy month-and-a-half since I last updated this blog?

Well, I released a new knitting design. So there’s that.

Stash Potion Cowl & Scarf by My Secret Wish by Talena.

I also learned some new techniques in Photoshop while making that poster, and I’m not 100% fond of how it turned out. But my eyes look kind of witchy, which goes with the design, and I haven’t had time to change it, so there you are. (The purple hair was still holding on from my birthday-gift-to-me crazy colouring.)

Also, Noah and Jabin are involved in the local kids musical again this year. It’s a spoof western called Wild, Wild, Wildest West, and very funny. Though Jabin was disappointed to get cast only in the chorus, I’m thankful—he was brilliant as Robertson Ay in last year’s Mary Poppins Jr., but it is a way bigger time commitment for both a kid and their parents when they get a main cast role. And time is something I don’t have loads of extra quantities of right now.

This year, instead of playing second keyboard (which someone else wanted to do), I quite happily took on various other volunteer roles, such as teaching kids their song parts, dance routines (!), helping out with sewing costumes, and for this final week, I’m doing hair. There are over a hundred kids involved in the play, the majority of which are girls, so there is a lot of hair to do. Still, overall, I think my time commitment has been a little less than playing in the orchestra, and it’s been fun to participate in different parts of the production.

Along with that, I’ve had an exceptionally busy fall as far as editing work, and this last issue of Move Up was the most time-heavy I’ve participated in yet. As a result, I’ve practically disappeared from social media and this blog, and maintaining my commitments to Patreon and my other (paid work) deadlines has been a challenge.

More so today when I’m sick.

Patreon

Speaking of Patreon, did I mention that it’s live? I have some fun benefits on there already, like free eBooks of my novels at certain tiers and an exclusive free short story (Up in Smoke, which I’ve mentioned here before), plus I’ve been putting up inspirational and educational graphics. If you haven’t checked it out already, you totally should.

Check out Patreon
Author Events

I was also part of a local authors’ showcase at the Grimshaw Library at the beginning of the month. I didn’t take a single photo (fail!), but other people did. And, since my new writer acquaintance Father Feroz Fernandes actually put up a short press release-type post about it with his photo, go take a quick look at how many amazing writers came out to our li’l small town event.

Giveaway

Lastly, I’ve been working on a giveaway with a wire-work jewelry artist I know, and that is finally live. You can win a copy of The Undine’s Tear and also a silver-wrapped emerald-green “Tear” pendant made by Barb, and all you have to do is put in your name and email address. Check it out here:

Learn more

Well, there we go. I’ve written, I’ve updated, I’ve woken up my brain a little. I’ve also likely missed stuff, but that will give me something to talk about (or forget to talk about) next time.

Happy Wednesday!

Complicated

As per usual, the beginning of a school year marks a season of change around here. My boys are all settling into their classes well, and I have even managed to have at least one day of the first week of school in my home office alone to be all productive and stuff.

One of the things I’ve been doing has been reassessing my schedule, which I tend to do on a quarterly basis (if you’ve been around here for a while, you’ve probably noticed), but especially when I’m looking to make a change in my business activities. And lately, I’ve been trying to figure out how to work in some things that have been being neglected more than I like as well as see where I can cut out inefficiencies and spend more time on the things that produce value.

That is NOT an easy process, let me tell you. And I’m sad to report, I won’t be going into it in this post. In fact, I’m feeling a little discouraged about it right now and have some hard decisions to make over the next day or so about which very valuable activities are going to have to go so that activities of more value can remain.

Please send happy and calming thoughts to me, because these kinds of decisions are not easy for me. I love all the things I do, but as I’ve often mentioned before, I have a finite amount of time. I have to decide where my “yes” will be, and what needs to have a “not right now.”

So, thanks to that extreme dearth of extra time I apparently have, I’m keeping this post short. Last Tuesday, I posted on Instagram a bit about a recent book I read (in keeping with the “Back to School” theme) called Educated, a memoir by Tara Westover. Several of my tribe responded that they had found the book equally impacting. If you haven’t read this yet, I recommend it.

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Since this is the first day of back-to-school around these parts, and I totally did NOT take a picture of my kids this morning (Mom fail!), it seems like a good day to talk about this book. I listened to this on Audible several months ago (which is why I photographed an on-the-shelf version for this post. I know. SO tacky.) and it has not let me go. Wow. This memoir was pretty tough to listen to in parts (like, "she survived to tell about it so I'll keep listening but otherwise holy cr*p I just can't") but so inspiring and incredible. I highly recommend it. (Also, the audiobook narration by Julia Whelan was enjoyable to listen to.) . What are you reading this week, friend? . #educated #tarawestover #bookstagram #amreading #bookish #reading #igreads #bookworm #booklover #booknerdigans

A post shared by Talena Winters (@talenawinters) on Sep 3, 2019 at 1:20pm PDT

And, to go along with that, I created a free desktop wallpaper for my Patreon subscribers—but since I haven’t really thrown the doors open on that yet and don’t have any subscribers, I’m sharing it with you. Click to open, then right-click and “set as wallpaper” to use or just save the image to your computer. (Photo by Logan Weaver, courtesy of Unsplash.com.)

Free desktop wallpaper. “We are all of us more complicated than the roles we are assigned in the stories other people tell.” Tara Westover, Educated. 1920x1080px.

Happy Sunday, friends!

Turning Points

Last weekend, Jason and I spent the weekend in Calgary for the When Words Collide conference.

Somewhat bleary-eyed as we left home.

Well, I attended the conference. Jason made appearances at key events like the Saturday night banquet and raced two Spartan races (one on Saturday, one on Sunday).

This is my fourth year attending. My first year was in 2016, and marked a major turning point in my career, giving me many of the tools and information and, essentially, the belief I needed to succeed as an author. But the most significant blessing I gained that year was friends.

Friends who lift me up when I’m down.

Friends who “get” what this whole author gig is really like.

Friends who go through ups and downs with writing, but still get back up and brush themselves off and get back in the ring to do it again another day.

These people are amazing.

This year marked some other turning points, both for me and for some of the people in my life.

This was the first year I focused way more on teaching than on learning, blessing others with the knowledge and experience I’ve gained. I presented classes for four hours and spent three hours on panels. It was exhausting, but totally amazeballs.

This was the first year that there was a contingent of new attendees (aspiring writers, as opposed to my sister and husband who have both attended with me before) there because of me in some way, shape, or form. I had so much fun watching them have the fun and wonder of their “first year.” I can’t wait to see where their careers go from here.

This was the first time EVER that Jason and I left our boys home alone for overnight. Or rather, five nights. When we touched base with them the first day as we approached Calgary (so about six hours after we left them that morning) about how it was going, this was what they sent back:

King Jude

That didn’t take long…

Jude and Noah.

Life as a footstool is no walk in the park…

Jabin presents the king’s food.

I’m not sure if we’ve done something very right, or very, very wrong while raising these kids.

Some other memorable moments from the weekend:

This was one of the classes I taught this weekend. Incidentally, the notes for this class are free over on my Editing page. It was a full house! Hagrid and Dumbledore weren’t nervous, though. :-) Photo courtesy of AJ Proctor.

Editing Live Action Slush - Romance with Sandra Fitzpatrick, Shirlee Smith Matheson, and Faye Holt. Photo courtesy of AJ Proctor.

Hagrid and Dumbledore got around a bit. I introduced them to some of my favourite people, and we all made some new friends, too:

Sander was a good sport about holding some dolls for the camera.

This was a “Quick! Take a photo!” shot with Winston Pei on the elevator between floors. (He was dressed as a wizard. It seemed obligatory.)

Joshua Pantalleresco was totally cool about it.

I was thrilled that my friends, author Jessica Renwick and book blogger Corrie DeWolfe (Fae’s Finds on YouTube), were among the “contingent” who came this weekend.

A.J. Proctor made sure the event was well-photographed, and was one of the few volunteers for a photo op with our dynamic travelling duo.

My lifelong bestie Candace Marshall got to come for the first time this year. She decided that Hagrid and Dumbledore had earned a kiss for all their hard work as con mascots. Seriously my favourite photo of the weekend. Photo by Candace.

I’m already planning what I’ll be doing for next year’s conference…

Oh! And did I mention that I have purple hair now? (My birthday gift to me! My birthday was on Saturday.)

I think I better wrap this up, but before I do, I need to brag on my kid a little bit, and someone else’s too. (The oldest this time.)

Jude has really been blooming with his art skills over the last year, most of which are self-taught or learned from online tutorials. (He has an Instagram account where he posts his amazing art, mostly anime-inspired, which you can find here: https://www.instagram.com/the_judeman_/)

Yesterday, he came and told me that one of his friends had released his first single, and had asked Jude to do the art. Apparently, it had been top-secret, so he couldn’t tell me about it until it was public. Jude did a great job of the cover art, and I’m doubly proud, since I got Ethan started with piano lessons when he was only five. (I only got to teach him for a year, but I’ve played with him often on worship team at church.)

You can find the song “Who Am I?” by Ethan Mundt on iTunes or Google Play. Follow Ethan’s Instagram account here: https://www.instagram.com/ethan_mundt_music/.

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I did the cover art for my friends @ethan_mundt_music new song. You should check it out. It's available on apple music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, pretty much everything. He sings and does all the instruments in it. So mozy on to your music platform and listen to it. #music #song #art #coverart

A post shared by Jude (@thejudeman) on Aug 14, 2019 at 10:20am PDT

Now that I’m home from the con, I’m working on getting back into routine and getting caught up on some things. BUT I’m also really excited about a new idea I have for building community on Patreon, and I’m trying to work in research on that around everything else. I’m super-stoked about it, you guys, and can’t wait to find out more.

You could help me out by telling me what type of Patreon rewards would most inspire you to be part of a Patreon community?

Personal interaction with me exclusive to the community

Fan recognition

Digital or physical freebies

Exclusive merchandise

Exclusive content

Early access

Classes and tutorials

Behind-the-scenes peeks into my routine, daily life, project creation, etc.

Let me know in the comments. Every bit helps!

Happy Wednesday!

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This year's WWC book haul was modest (except the cover of Jim Jackson's book, haha!) but diverse. I'm not sure if I've ever read pulp fiction before, so this will be a fun change. I heard Jim read from book 2 in this series at the Taste of Local Authors event in May, and it was so fun that I was tempted. . My editor, Ellen, who was also the sales rep for the Myth Hawker Book Store in the vendor hall, recommended Overture so emphatically I had to get it. And even though I've had the first edition of the Emotion Thesaurus digitally for years, I'm looking forward to having the expanded version in the "flesh", so to speak, on my desktop. . I'd meant to get other books. Laura VanArendonk Baugh's new "Shard and Shield", for example. But I didn't because that's what happens when you're too busy teaching and catching up with friends to go shopping, lol. It's okay, I know where to find those books. . And even though I know all these authors personally, did I get any of my books signed? Um. Nope. Sigh. . Still, I look forward to diving into them as my schedule permits. And I'll let you know what I think, of course. (Well, I can tell you already that the Emotion Thesaurus is something I believe every fiction writer should own. So if you don't, go get it. Now.) . Now back to work. . Happy Wednesday! How's your week going? . @ellens_mic @writers_helping_writers_angela @rebeccahuggins @jacksontron @jmlandels @lauravanarendonkbaugh @mythhawker #wwcyyc2019 #whenwordscollide2019 #writercon #bookstagram #amreading #bookish #reading #igreads #bookworm #booklover #booknerdigans #writerscommunity #writerslife #writersofig #amwriting

A post shared by Talena Winters (@talenawinters) on Aug 14, 2019 at 12:39pm PDT

Joshua Pantalleresco: Blessing the Broken Road

This spring, as I was getting ready to launch The Undine’s Tear, I was pleasantly surprised to be invited to do an interview on Joshua Pantalleresco’s podcast, Just Joshing. After our interview, Joshua and I visited for about another hour, and I found out that he is a very interesting guy. So, naturally, I asked him to share his story with my readers.

And he said yes.

Joshua Pantalleresco: He writes stuff and podcasts, too.

If you talk to Joshua Pantalleresco, 37, for longer than five minutes, you’ll notice that he is both very optimistic and very laid back. On his physical journey, he’s moved more times than you can count on your fingers and toes—from his home province of Ontario, to Calgary, then Arizona, and then back to Calgary, with some summers at his grandmother’s in Detroit thrown in for good measure.

However, his emotional and spiritual journey, as well as his career journey, can be marked by just as many milestones. Not all of them seemed positive at the time, but they led him to the place he has landed today as a writer, award-winning podcaster, advocate of the arts, and overall fairly chill, self-aware human being—for which he is grateful.

“My life is a fairy tale,” says Joshua. “The other day, I posted an episode of my podcast where, in the interview, I negotiated the podcast into a video game. It feels surreal to say that. I’m about to publish my fourth book, which is my first novel, and it will be my first to go into audio book. My podcast is listened to by people around the world and it’s growing. It’s been a wild journey.”

Joshua discovered his passion for writing “by accident” in the eighth grade when he entered a writing contest and took third place. After that, all he wanted to do was write.

“I wrote about a smart-ass kid from Calgary who travels back in time to ancient Canada and discovered that writing was a blast. I wanted to be the next Robert Jordan, Ray Bradbury, or Isaac Asimov,” says Joshua.

Joshua spent his high school years working on a novel (which remains unpublished). He also voraciously read novels, graphic novels, and comic books by authors such as Warren Ellis, James A. Owen, and Neil Gaiman. His favourite book at the time was Green Lantern by Ron Marz and illustrated by Daryl Banks. By the time he’d finished high school, he’d discovered comic websites.

“My dreams became my quest. I believed I could get that book deal I wanted. I went into journalism in college, and even though I dropped out, I started doing interviews with up-and-coming creators. I self-published my first book, a collection of short poems called I Am, then moved to Phoenix when I was 24 and began interviewing independent comic creators for a website called ComicBloc. Because of the interviews and the book, I ended up getting a job with one of my childhood heroes,” says Joshua.

Unfortunately, the dream job ended poorly within a year, leaving Joshua financially strapped and still living in Arizona. The United States was in a recession, and jobs were hard to come by. In 2008, Joshua took a job pumping gas, which seemed like a step down.

“I kept hearing the phrase ‘lucky to have a job.’ I knew some guys who would wait weeks before they got their paycheque from their employers. A lot of companies didn’t have the money to pay. So I did what I had to do to survive,” says Joshua.

He had no car, walking everywhere he needed to go. The physical wear and tear of that stressful year took a toll—several of his teeth cracked and he lost weight. But despite what he was going through, he never stopped creating or lost his passion for writing.

“I was working on my first comic and I didn’t stop, but bad things continued to happen. During that time, I faced my own demons and mortality and it changed me, for better or worse, leaving my broken teeth as a battle scar,” says Joshua.

He moved back to Calgary in 2009, vowing to publish more of his work. He wanted to revisit the success he’d had with I Am and publish another collection of poems. However, his next project took on a life of its own.

“I had this vision of a boy in a watchtower looking into the horizon while below him, his family and friends worked for dragons. It was a fascinating world that grabbed me. Each time I thought I was finished with this story, I kept picking it up. After the fifth or sixth chapter, I realized that this was my ‘collection.’ I had to see the story through to the end,” says Joshua.

Joshua intended to self-publish the epic poem as an eBook and occasionally order some small print runs to sell at conventions. He hired illustrator Florence Chan—“one of the most professional people I’ve ever worked with”—to do the art, and The Watcher came into being. Then his career took another turn—this time, for the better.

The Watcher by Joshua Pantalleresco

“I had interviewed indie author Justine Alley Dowsett for my website years before, and she bought my book off of Smashwords. It was my first sale. She told me she was about to become a publisher and she wanted to publish my book. That’s how I got published,” says Joshua.

Mirror World Publishing picked up the title and published the next two books in the series, Stormdancer and The Wandering God, also illustrated by Chan. Meanwhile, Joshua’s ongoing interviews with creators were bearing other fruit. In 2016, he finally got to interview one of his heroes, Robert J. Sawyer. This interview was inadvertently responsible for Joshua launching a podcast.

“I met Rob at a convention and thanked him for his contributions to Canadian fiction. By the time I asked him for an interview a year later, I’d finally time-travelled to the twenty-first century and gotten a smart phone, so I recorded our interview. I’d planned to transcribe it to my website, but Rob had mentioned to someone that this was for a podcast. That was what gave me the idea,” says Joshua.

In 2016, the Just Joshing podcast was born, featuring Joshua’s interview with Sawyer on Episode 20. Nearly four years and over 278 episodes later, Joshua has interviewed creators from many different disciplines, including authors, illustrators, actors, producers, editors, and more. In 2018, the podcast won an Aurora Award (Canada’s Science Fiction and Fantasy awards) for “Best Fan-Related Work,” and is a finalist this year in the same category.

In 2018, Joshua had 12 poems published in the Starklight Press collection From the Depths. Earlier in that same year, he had finally gotten his teeth fixed.

“I kept the damaged teeth for about ten years. At first, it was because I couldn't fix them, and it was a reminder of what I had survived. Later it became something I wasn't proud of, but I wasn't ready to deal with it until about a year and a half ago,” says Joshua.

Now, at nearly 38 years old, he has taken the lessons he’s learned and the twists and turns of his life and molded them into an optimistic view of the future.

“I embrace taking chances and expanding my comfort zone. My life has been about chasing dreams, and I've been fortunate enough to make some of them real. I would tell people not to be afraid to take chances. Don’t be afraid to fail and, most importantly, don’t be afraid to succeed,” says Josh.

Ever on the search for more opportunities, Joshua has imminent plans to move to British Columbia. In November, he’ll be releasing his next book, The Cloud Diver, in print. He’s also finishing up another epic poem called Alice Zero, the precursor to a series-slash-board game which he describes as “Alice in Wonderland mashed up with Greek mythology, with Alice as Pandora.” His first audio book (The Cloud Diver) will be released in April 2020.

The cover of Alice Zero, which Joshua plans to publish early next year. Art by Mackenzie Carr.

“There is real magic out there. I’ve learned that all things are possible and nothing goes as planned, and that is not a bad thing. I got to travel across two countries, struggle, starve, learn who I am as a person, and see just how magical life can be. All I've done is embrace the opportunities that have come my way. Not all of them have worked out, but when they have, they’ve been better than anything I could have possibly imagined,” says Joshua.

If you want to connect with Joshua online, you can find him on Twitter or Instagram @jpantalleresco, on YouTube, Amazon, or his website at https://jpantalleresco.wordpress.com, and of course, subscribe to his podcast at https://jpantalleresco.podomatic.com.

(And if you want to listen to our interview, it’s on Episodes 265 & 266.)

Joshua and his fantastic new smile. :-)

I hope Joshua’s story inspired you like it did me, friend! If you’re going to be in Calgary next weekend, you can see both Joshua and me at the When Words Collide readers’ and writers’ conference in Calgary. I hope to see you there!

Also, to go along with both my trip to the conference and my birthday next week, I have put the eBook for The Undine’s Tear on sale for only $3.99 CAD until August 15. The sale starts today on this site, Amazon, and Google Play Books, and on August 9 everywhere else. Find direct links and more information here:

Learn more

She was raised to save her people—as long as she doesn’t go crazy and kill everyone first.

Happy Friday!

I’m an author, blogger, journalist, knitter, and freelance editor who is addicted to tea, stories, and silver linings. I love helping people, either through helping them tell their stories or entertaining them with my own. Check out my services above to see if I can help you with anything. :-)

5 Unexpected Benefits I've Received from my Writing Career

In January 2016, seven months after self-publishing my first novella, The Friday Night Date Dress, I arrived at the realization that I finally knew what I wanted to be when I grew up—a career writer.

I had dreams of earning my income from making up worlds in my mind and living in them for hours every day, taking research trips to dream locations as a tax write-off, sharing things with the world that would make it a better place, and getting paid to write for other people. (Though that last one seemed a little bit hard to imagine at the time, I decided I’d try).

Four books and fifty months later, I have either achieved all those goals (yes, people pay me to write now!) or am well on my way (the novels don’t yet pay for themselves, let alone trips to prime research locations, but we’re getting there).

However, I have also been blessed with a list of unexpected benefits, the ones no one would put on a list of “reasons to be a writer.” As I was pondering what to blog about this week (and how to work in the promised story about landing in the mud), I realized that I am just as grateful for these intangible perks as the ones that might eventually go on my Wikipedia page.

I just want to take a moment and record them for posterity.

Greater Boldness and Confidence

Five months after making that life-changing decision to pursue a career as a professional writer, I took a risk: I called a local magazine and asked for a job.

And was blown away when they gave it to me.

I had a trial by fire with my first several assignments, the first of which was to interview local first responders at an event honouring them and their service. I spoke to lots of people with uniforms and badges, learned their names, and put their phone numbers into my contacts.

A couple of weeks later, when I realized that I needed to research police procedures that I could not easily find answers for on the Internet for Finding Heaven, I took another risk and called the police chief—because I knew his name and knew he would remember me.

I didn’t know if he’d have time to help me, but I figured the worst that could happen is he’d say no.

As it turned out, he made time, pointing me toward the people I needed to interview (who also willingly donated their time to help) to learn what I needed to know.

At the time, I knew I would never have made that phone call to the police station if I hadn’t met the police chief two weeks before. And I never would have talked to all those people in uniforms at Tim Hortons that day if it hadn’t been my job to do so. Everyone I talked to was totally approachable and nice, but I wouldn’t have had the confidence to ask them for help if I hadn’t been put in a situation to find that out, thanks to my new writing job.

Now, I’ve talked to all kinds of people for my job as a journalist (and I even now own the title of “journalist,” which seemed way too pretentious and reaching for at least two years), including government representatives and officials, corporate CEOs, famous public personalities and celebrities, local heroes, and more. I am so grateful that I have been able to do this. But more than that, having done this, there are far fewer people who intimidate me now, and that number shrinks all the time.

And when I need to call someone and ask them a question for research now, I just do. (For example, I called a bird sanctuary this spring to find out the best way to biometrically tag dragons. That was a fun day for everyone involved. And yes, they helped me figure it out.)

Larger Community

As I just mentioned, I know way more people now than I did three years ago, thanks to my writing. But quite apart from people I’ve interviewed, I have met some truly amazing people in the writing community. I still shake my head in disbelief at times that I now call so many talented editors, agents, and authors my friends, peers, and even clients. I am astounded at the creativity, energy, and support I receive from both real-life and online friends in the writing community every day. I love the people. There aren’t many careers where you can say that.

Greater Self- and Other-Awareness

It’s often said that writing is therapeutic. In my opinion, when it comes to fiction, this is owing not only to exploring your own traumas through your work, but having to empathize with the perpetrators of those traumas to understand the motivations of your characters who commit them.

While writing, I have explored depths of my own soul that I may not have dared look at for years otherwise. I grieved my son while writing Finding Heaven, and uncovered some of my own wounds while learning about my character’s wounds.

This process of discovery is similar with every character I write. For instance, even though the heroine of The Undine’s Tear is not much like me, we both have control issues. That’s something I can draw on to write her.

With every character, I have to dive deep to figure out what makes them tick, both the good and the bad. This not only helps me understand what my own limits are, but gives me more grace when dealing with others. I’m less uptight now, and this has made me a happier person.

(I’m still uptight enough to recognize that I’ve got a long way to go, though. Thank goodness I intend to write many more books. I’ll have plenty of material to draw from, lol.)

Finding Surprise Bucket List Items

I get these from what I research. For instance, I now want to skydive, learn aikido, and travel to places in the world I’d never heard of before I became a writer.

Maybe I would have found these things anyway.

But probably not.

Landing in Unexpected Situations

And here’s where I finally get to the mud story.

As I mentioned in my first point, I will do things when I’m on a writing assignment that I would likely have avoided in my normal persona as plain ol’ me.

One of these situations happened not that long ago. This summer, I’ve been doing work for our local tourism association, Mighty Peace Tourism, as they prepare to relaunch their website. The work has involved writing itineraries and lists of fun things to do and see in the Peace Country.

Needless to say, it’s been a blast. (And yes, I’ve added a few more things to my “bucket list” because of learning more about the area in which I live.)

At the end of June, I was supposed to be revising an existing itinerary that involved travelling around to several lookout points around my hometown of Peace River. I had only ever been to one of them, and had never even heard of some of them.

I did the research online, but not all of them were easy to visualize from Google Maps. So, after going to my oldest son’s school awards ceremony one Friday afternoon, I decided to just drive the itinerary to check it out.

Just before I got to the last stop, the sky opened in a torrential downpour. I was wearing slippery, smooth-soled shoes.

The path leading to the lookout (Dr. Greene’s Cairn) was flat and had some gravel. But there had been two paths leading from the entrance, and the path by the cairn kept going down the hill and disappeared into the trees. I looked at it doubtfully. It looked steep, but I thought, “I need to know if this path eventually goes back around to the entrance so I can write about it.”

Are you seeing how the mud came in? I got about thirty feet before my butt met the hillside. I was already far enough down the hill that I knew there was no going back up, there was only onward. I ended up skidding down the hill like my shoes were water skis, protecting my camera by hugging it to my chest while I tried to maintain my balance with my other hand.

And yes, the path did end up curving back to the entrance. Thank goodness, or I’m not sure how I would have gotten back to my car!

Writing has made me bolder and braver and more curious. If I hadn’t been writing about the experience, I would have taken the safe route directly back to my car. Despite getting a little dirty, I’m so glad I didn’t take the “safe” route.

Here are the photographic rewards (and evidence!) of the adventure:

The cairn at the top of the hill.

The path leading back to my car. I was so glad to see it, you have no idea.

The wildlife preserve named after Dr. Greene.

Dr. Greene’s Wildlife Preserve, looking in the other direction.

Here lies Twelve Foot Davis, local hero and legend.

View from the Twelve Foot Davis Gravesite lookout.

Cabin on Kauffman’s Hill.

Wild rose at Pat’s Creek.

Wearing the Peace River Valley home

Did you know it’s hard to take a selfie of your butt?

Fiction Update:

Before I go, I wanted to post this here. I redesigned my promotional postcards for Finding Heaven last night, and am so thrilled with how these turned out.

Do you believe in second chances? Riveting romantic suspense novel by Talena Winters. Please share!

I didn’t add “expanding skill sets” to the above list, but I am so thankful for the scrapbooking hobby I got into all those years ago that got me started on graphic design—I’m putting those skills to good use in marketing now! It’s fun, because I don’t do it often and it’s a nice creative break when I need something different to do.

I’m working on some other plans and fun things for my business that I hope to be able to share with you soon.

Oh! And I’ve started writing The Sphinx’s Heart. Woot!

Wherever you find yourself, I hope you are looking for the unexpected blessings from the path you have taken. Even if you end up in the mud, there’s usually something to be gained from it.

And if you have a story to share about an unexpected blessing, I’d love to hear it! Leave it in the comments below.

Happy Monday!

Remembering How to Chillax

I know I said my next post would be about my adventure in the mud, but that was when I thought I’d have time to post it two weeks ago. Which I didn’t. Because I have been blessed with a great deal of paid writing work this summer (part of the reason for that muddy adventure, actually), and was so busy writing to deadline that blogging has taken a bit of a back seat.

However, right now, I’m in the middle of a family vacation. It wasn’t ideal timing as far as some of my deadlines are concerned, but the timing was decided by a family wedding and a family reunion that went with it. And boy, did I ever need this vacation.

As such, the only writing I’ve allowed myself to do while on it is plotting and writing on my new book, The Sphinx’s Heart, and, on impulse, this blog post.

First of all, I am getting super-excited about how the plotting is going. I’ve decided to actually plot the rest of the series in detail before I start to write. When I tell people this, they get surprised, like, “I thought you would have to do that before you started.”

The thing is, I started my writing career as a pantser. In other words, I plotted and wrote by instinct. The more writing I do, the more I understand plot structure, and the more times I’ve broken my stories, the better I’ve gotten at plotting and the more detailed my plotting gets before I begin writing.

Side bonus: I’ve discovered that the more prep work I do before I start writing, the less rewriting and revision I’ll have to do later.

Plotting a novel is a lot like solving a puzzle… except you’re creating the pieces as you go.

So, yes, I did do some plotting for the whole trilogy before I wrote book one, The Undine’s Tear, which is how I knew I had the material to make a trilogy. But that plotting was more like general “plot movements” rather than “plot points.” In general, I knew what would happen in the series. The details were less specific.

On reading the last word of The Undine’s Tear, one of my ARC readers texted to demand what happened next, and I was like, “I would tell you, if you really wanted, except … I don’t actually know. Not the specifics, anyway.”

Well, now I know.

And it’s going to be awesome!

Seriously, I’m so excited to start writing this. I’ve just got to do a little more refining on the plot, and I can get going on it. And, with some of the growth I’ve had in my writing skills, I have the lofty goal of getting through the first draft of book two (which will likely be at least as long as book one, which clocked in at 164,000 words) in less than three months.

So… I’ll keep you posted on that.

Secondly, I’ve been using this vacation to feed my soul. I’ve reconnected with loved ones I haven’t seen for years at the family reunion, plus met some new additions to the family (new partners, new kids). I got to hang out with my sister, which is always awesome. I’ve been listening to podcasts, hanging out with my kids, reading a novel (Good Omens), and just remembering what it’s like to relax.

It’s pretty fantastic. :-)

So, three days have passed… I love holidays. :-)

I was going to write more. But really, the holidays have been a whole lot of visiting and not much else. So I’m going to get back to enjoying it with my family.

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Jason got me a ridiculously frivolous gift. Expect to see Hagrid and Dumbledore in all kinds of places soon. Here they are hanging out with the family at Boston Pizza. . #pairsbestwithfriends #harrypotter #hagrid #dumbledore #plushiesarefun #tripmascots #ontheroadwithhagridanddumbledore

A post shared by Talena Winters (@talenawinters) on Jul 16, 2019 at 7:03pm PDT

Dumbledore and Hagrid enjoying the Edmonton skyline from the Fantasyland Hotel.

Enjoying supper at the Old Spaghetti Factory in West Edmonton Mall.

Maybe the mud will come out next time…

Giveaways and Signings and Podcasts, Oh My!

Whooee! It’s been a busy few weeks for me. Like, don’t-have-time-to-blog busy, and that’s something I almost always make time for. The last few days, it’s been don’t-have-time-to-read busy, and that’s a whole ‘nother level, let me tell you.

So, there were a couple of things I missed getting up here in the relevant time window, but there are some other time-crunchy things I didn’t want to miss telling you about. So here I am, sitting in a hotel room after my first long day of a five-day weekend away from home doing multiple signing events in Edmonton and Calgary, typing this so you don’t miss any of they good stuff.

(Psst… make sure to read to the end. There is free stuff. Spoiler alert: It’s books. There are free books. You don’t want to miss it.)

Live, In-Person Author Events

Signing I recently did at Coles Prairie Mall, Grande Prairie.

First of all, as mentioned, I’m doing my last multi-signing book tour weekend for this particular book launch this weekend. I was at Indigo in West Edmonton Mall tonight (after which I had the good luck to be able to meet up with some other local editors for a social event—how lucky they were holding it in West Ed late enough that I could go!). Tomorrow, I’ll be at Indigo South Edmonton Common. Saturday and Sunday I’ll be in Calgary, at Indigo Shepard Centre and Chapters Crowfoot.

Check my Events page for times and addresses (and to add the event to your Google Calendar).

Just Joshing Podcast

While I was in Calgary a little over a month ago on the first book tour weekend for The Undine’s Tear launch, I was privileged to have a conversation with Joshua Pantalleresco, writer and podcaster extraordinaire.

And since, you know, he has a podcast and stuff, he recorded that conversation and posted it over two episodes on his podcast last week.

Considering we’d just met, we cover some pretty deep stuff in there, like loss, faith, and the secret to happiness. We also talk about my journey from wanna-be professional songwriter to multi-published author. Plus how awesome my mom is. :-)

AND!

I was so impressed by Josh and his podcast that I decided to sponsor it for a month, which includes giving away free books. He’s giving away a free paperback copy of The Undine’s Tear every week in June, and there are still two more up for grabs.

So head over there and enter the draw on the latest post, and while you’re there, check out his podcast. Subscribe. And listen to our interview, too.

Seriously, Josh is one cool dude and he talks to a lot of amazing people. It’s a podcast worth listening to.

Listen to Just Joshing Interview
But wait! There’s more!Free Urban and Epic Fantasy Book Giveaway

Read below for details, or just click/tap the image to see the books.

Earlier this year, I signed up for BookFunnel, which has been a pretty great service for giving out my free ebooks to newsletter subscribers. Since I’ve got it, I am now also selling my books as eBooks directly from this website because, hey, why should I give distribution partners 45% of my profit on every book? Once in a blue moon, it’d be nice to keep that.

Also, BookFunnel is a great platform for joining up with other authors in similar genres to offer bundle promotions. Last week, I did my first one with The Friday Night Date Dress for Sweet/Clean Romance (sorry I didn’t post that here!), and this week, I’m doing my first one for Fantasy.

The reason it took so long for me to jump on the “promo bundle” bandwagon is because I’m picky. Until now, I’ve rarely recommended a book to my audience that I hadn’t read myself. And I wanted to make sure I maintained that trust in the type of promotion I joined.

I chose the Summer Solstice Fantasy Bookfest promotion for two reasons:

First, I have a passing knowledge of the organizer, Derek Murphy, and his high standards when it comes to his own work, as well as his business model and passion for helping other authors succeed. (The “a rising tide raises all boats” philosophy.)

Second, Derek vetted the titles joining the promotion to make sure they were of decent quality, so hopefully that means you won’t have to take a chance on a title written by someone who couldn’t pass a high school English exam.

He actually had some minimum platform requirements that I didn’t meet, so I emailed him and feel privileged that he ended up including The Waterboy as part of the promotion.

That being said, I have not personally investigated any of the titles in the promo, so please do your own homework.

Here’s what’s up for grabs:

102 book downloads in the urban fantasy or epic fantasy genres

A $100 Amazon Gift Card (thanks, Derek!). You gotta dive deep on the page to find this giveaway, so keep hunting until you get there!

The only “catch” is that you’ll have to sign up for the newsletter lists for the books’ authors in order to get the books. You can unsubscribe any time, of course, but if you like the book enough to check it out, then you might like what the author has to say, too.

Here’s the thing: 102 books is a lot, and may be too many titles for any but the most voracious reader to pile on at once.

(Can you say intimidating?)

But this is a great opportunity to stock up on a couple handfuls of amazing fantasy reads. Choose 10-20 (whatever number wouldn’t overwhelm you on both your e-reader and for emails in your inbox) that stand out to you. You might find your next 10-20 favourite authors. :-)

The covers alone are worth ogling the giveaway page for a good ten minutes. So much pretty eye candy!

(I’d like to mention for the uninformed that my contribution, The Waterboy, is already perma-free for my newsletter subscribers. So you can join my super-awesome monthly newsletter and get that any time. But the other books on this promo are only available for free from now until June 30. Well, if you’re reading this past the deadline, go to this post, because some of them will be available for free for longer. These are the ones that are perma-free like mine. How do you tell? Sorry, I don’t know. Just click and try them, I guess?)

Check out the books here:

See Free Books

And if you know some friends who would love to get in on this deal, please share this link with them: https://books.bookfunnel.com/fantasybookfest/pdkkbscgvb

Or send them to this blog post so they know what the deal is first.

That’s all for now, folks. It’s late, I’m exhausted, and I’ve got a long weekend ahead of me. And hopefully, you now have a few more things to do this weekend, too! (Hint: Come see me. Or listen to Josh talk to some really cool people. Or read 100 books. :-D)

Next week, I hope to post about a recent adventure I had that involved some pretty amazing views (yes, there will be photos) as well as getting muddy—not something I often do.

See you soon!

The Secret to Breaking Writer's Block: Do It Anyway; Also, an update.

Yesterday, I spent the morning in my local Tim Hortons, waiting for my car to get out of the shop (routine maintenance and repairs only, but they were a few mechanics down, so it took forever).

As I was sitting there, working on both freelance writing and editing assignments, my friend Gord (who happens to own the restaurant) sat down to visit for a few minutes. He asked me a version of something I hear pretty often:

“Is it hard to get your writing done? Do you have to be in the right mood?”

And I answered with a version of what has become my staple response:

“No, the important thing is to sit down to write. You have to do it. That’s what professionals do.”

And this is true. Professionals show up. Professionals choose to make the time to do their work, or they don’t get results and don’t get paid. While I understand why people ask creative professionals this question (we do talk about the Muse an awful lot, after all), the answer a person gives is what defines whether they are, indeed, a professional, or just a hobbyist with a wish list.

That being said, there are days when writing is hard. You feel like everything you put out is something that came out of the south end of a north-bound alpaca. Or you sit and stare at a screen with a mind that has gone just as blank, and wonder where all your words went.

But if you’re sitting in the chair, trying to write, then you qualify as a professional.

Professionals have discipline. They show up, even when it’s hard.

Today was one of those days for me. I’ve been planning to update this blog for two weeks. (And my other one, Writing Tips.) But, as often happens when I’m in full-on marketing-and-book-launch mode, my schedule and brain space only had room for so much writing, and those resources were devoted to other types of work. All the while that inner type-o-meter that lets me know when I’m not putting in the work on my own important projects was gnawing away at me. So this morning, I sat down, opened a new post, and stared at the screen.

Then I did some accounting. (You know I’m desperate when I procrastinate with accounting.)

Then I stared again.

Then I did some graphic design and tweaked a few other pages on my site.

Then I finally got an idea. And the idea was this:

Practice what I preach. A professional puts out words, even when they aren’t any good.

So here I am, doing it anyway. Telling you that I struggle some days, just like everyone else. Telling you that I refuse to let that stop me from reaching my goals. Telling you that the best way I’ve found to push through writer’s block is to start typing, and then I’m often surprised by the words that flow from my fingers.

Because I’m a professional, and that’s what I do. And some days, the biggest measure of success is that you showed up.

Whether it’s fitness, professional, emotional, or spiritual goals—the only way to reach them is to do the work, whether you feel like it or not.

Beat that, writer’s block.

“Some days, the biggest measure of success is that you showed up.”

What Else Is New?

While I’m here, I’ll give you a quick update about what’s been happening in my life since my last post.

Book Launch

First of all, my book launch has gone well, and I feel like I’m slowly becoming able to shift my focus toward other things. The sense of overwhelm is gone. I still have a few upcoming public appearances (check my Events page for more), including my first-ever signing in British Columbia, but as far as my normal work week goes, I’ve been able to start working on my next book(s) again.

As part of the launch, I was privileged to be interviewed by two different newspapers. Megan Roth of Sylvan Lake News and Twyla Siple of Postmedia (which owns the local Peace River Record-Gazette) both did a great job. You can read those articles by clicking the links.

Writing

Last weekend, I sketched out a backstory novella outline for one of my main characters in Rise of the Grigori, Abela. (The sphinx for which Book 2, The Sphinx’s Heart, will be named after.)

I’d started outlining The Sphinx’s Heart, but was a bit stuck. Now that I’ve got Abela’s back story a little more defined, I will be jumping in on this again, hopefully later today. I have my editor tentatively lined up for October, which means I’d have to finish the first draft by July 12. Hmm. Not sure I’m going to make it. (Just the writing would take me longer than that.) However, even if I have to bump it a month or two, book 2 will still be out by next spring, as promised. A year between books isn’t quite reaching my goal, but it’s still a worthy accomplishment. (And I keep forgetting that I actually have published two books already this year, so I need to cut myself some slack!)

Also, thanks in part to a crazy dream I had, I came up with a cool story concept about a bereaved mother who begins to experience dual timelines—and in the other one, she died instead of her child. Now she has to choose between the life she knows or leaving her current family to join the other one and making it whole again. (Do you like? Do you want to read it? Let me know.)

Grieving

Monday was the four-year anniversary of the death of my son, Levi. However, it came and went without the torment of past years. I’ve had a few “moments” over the last couple of weeks (and I already mentioned the crazy dream—that was not an isolated incident, either), but for the most part, I’ve been able to go through this year’s anniversary more graciously than ever before.

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Four years ago today, we lost 1/6 of our family. Every year since, my mom and I have gone to the greenhouse on the anniversary, a memorial that has been beautiful and healing. This year is the first year I can really say, and mean it, "I'm doing okay." I miss Levi as much as ever. But my life as it is is beautiful, too. And I'm finally getting to be okay with missing him AND appreciating my life. I am grateful for the time we had. And I'm grateful for the time since. And I'm grateful for these beautiful flowers that instantly add beauty and joy to my life. . Spring came at last. ❤️❤️❤️ . #grief #grieving #childloss #survivor #goodgrief #ptsdsurvivor #flowers #seekbeauty #grateful #springishere

A post shared by Talena Winters (@talenawinters) on Jun 3, 2019 at 9:44pm PDT

This weekend, I have a book signing in Grande Prairie on Saturday, after which I’ll be driving six hours to spend the weekend with my sister and my mom’s side of the family. We’ll be celebrating the life of one of my youngest uncles, Bob, who passed away quite suddenly of cancer in February.

Gardening

I’ve also been doing a bit of gardening this week, and have the sore muscles to prove it. It feels good to get my hands in the dirt again. The year of neglect last year hasn’t done my garden beds any favours, but it’s so rewarding to clean them up and see that most of my perennials have soldiered on and are peeking through the surface.

Those are the highlights.

For Writers:

For any writers who happen to be reading this, I’d like to point out two amazing resources that have recently come to my attention:

Adam Dreece’s new book, 5 Critical Things for Successful Book Signings. You can read my review on Goodreads here.

This amazing little free online tool by DIY Book Design for creating your own 3D book cover graphics. (What I was playing with while procrastinating earlier.) Check out my new pretty 3D mockups for The Undine’s Tear.

Well, that’s it. I came, I wrote, I conquered. And now that I have, I know the rest of my words today will flow more easily. Thanks for reading, if you got this far. As much as I write this blog for you, I also write it for myself. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to say to myself, “It’s just a blog. You’re not trying to win the Nobel Peace Prize with it. Write it, and it will break the block.”

And that’s exactly what it does. So thank you. Now, onward.

But first, I’d like to hear from you:

What is your go-to trick for getting past obstacles, whether it’s writer’s block or weight loss or developing a new, good habit? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Thursday!

Erinn Bosch: Choosing Her Own Adventure

Several months ago, I had the privilege of covering an event that was kind of special for my town—a TEDx event put on in Peace River by local organizers and featuring speakers from both nearby and far away.

One of those speakers was Erinn Bosch, 39, of Turner Valley, Alberta, boy mom of three (aged 8-10), foster mom of a 14-year-old daughter, entrepreneur, and influencer through her brand Mom Wears Hiking Boots Adventure Co. After hearing her speak about the lessons she learned through her weight loss journey last year, I was so inspired that I contacted her and asked if she would be willing to be interviewed for my blog, and she said yes.

Getting real with Erinn Bosch of Mom Wears Hiking Boots Adventure Co.

As her brand name implies, she is a person who enjoys the outdoors, hiking, and spending time with her kids. Originally from Winnipeg, she moved to Calgary in 2000, where she met her husband, Chase. In 2007, the family moved from Calgary to Turner Valley to raise their kids in a smaller centre and so they could be closer to the mountains for easy camping and hiking access.

Through her website, she does affiliate marketing, and she also manages social media for several other companies. Her passion for her family and her work are both obvious in whatever she does.

“I am first and foremost passionate about raising a happy, healthy family,” says Erinn. “Being an involved and available parent is extremely important to me, and so is being a devoted and loving wife to my husband. My second passion is my work. I love building networks and communities.”

Several years ago, she started an online mom’s group on Facebook that grew to 5,000 people. Eventually, she left that and started the Mom Wears Hiking Boots community. She still works hard to expand the community with an eye to help women seek adventures of their own.

“The whole idea behind this company was to positively influence women—specifically moms—to start taking care of themselves the way they deserve to. This doesn’t always mean having pedicures or spa days, but rather getting way out of your comfort zone,” she says. “Get outside into nature, learn martial arts, lift heavy weights at the gym, eat healthy food to fuel your body, take social media breaks when needed, and ask for help when things get to be too much.”

Erinn, Chase, and their boys.

The importance of self-care became apparent in Erinn’s life in a powerful way in 2017 when she asked her husband a risky and potentially volatile question: How can I be a better wife to you?

“We were in a weird rut, nothing terrible, but I felt I could do better for him. He told me to lose some weight and start taking better care of myself. It sounds so harsh, but it sent me on a rampage of self-care, and it was the best thing that ever could have happened to me,” she says.

Chase and Erinn and their kids have always enjoyed doing things together as a family, especially outdoor activities like camping and hiking. However, as time went on and lifestyle changes took their toll on Erinn, she had become increasingly frustrated with her inability to keep up on the trails.

“Chase recently told me that he had only wanted to see me taking an hour a day to do something for myself and my health, and he is so happy that I have done just that. He truly is my best friend and has loved me all these years as I was, so it was never about needing to be skinnier for him,” says Erinn.

“He just watched me struggle through all of the hiking that I love to do and wanted me to feel better overall. I believe he knew it would trickle over into other aspects of my life. Taking care of myself has helped my health, but has also helped in the areas of business, marriage, and motherhood,” she adds.

Erinn deadlifts Chase for a fun “I did it” moment.

Having so much on the go has its own challenges, and Erinn knows that available time and money can be factors that make it tricky to do what’s best for ourselves. But Erinn is a big believer in prioritizing well.

“I struggle to manage my time with balancing work, children, and my newfound love for the gym and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I remember my priority to take care of myself, though, so I work my schedule out around that. I do what I can, when I can. When you think about what you’re spending your money on, you realize that if you cut out some of the unhealthy habits, it frees up money for the healthier ones—which have a much better return on investment, in my experience,” says Erinn.

Erinn practices what she preaches, continually expanding her own horizons and getting out of her comfort zone in both her professional and personal life. She is currently taking a marketing course on a full scholarship through Hello Life Academy (https://www.hellolifeacademy.com/) and she and her kids have their first ever Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament this month.

“In my recent TEDx talk in Peace River, I discussed my fitness transformation and weight loss, but the biggest takeaway I had from that experience is that incremental changes lead to monumental shifts. I hope that everyone who thinks ‘I don’t have the time, money, or ability to take care of myself or do fun things’ just tries. Start small and work your way up,” says Erinn.

Erinn is looking forward to more adventures to come.

Being part of the Mom Wears Hiking Boots community has been incredibly rewarding for Erinn. She loves receiving messages from people that she has inspired them to take better care of themselves or overhearing her kids talk about what she does. It’s moments like these that keep her embarking on new adventures. She plans to continue to expand her business through developing relationships with new clients and, above all, being authentic about her journey.

“I want to share the good, the bad, and the ugly. I hope that people will celebrate the highs with me as well as be there to feel the lows. No matter how much my business grows and how much my personal life shifts, I never want to forget where I came from, and to always encourage moms to be their best self. I’m excited to see it all grow!” says Erinn.

You can check out Erinn’s online community on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/momwearshikingboots/, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mom_wears_hiking_boots/, or through her website at www.momwearshikingboots.com.

Right now, I’m on my first book tour to promote The Undine’s Tear. If you’re in Alberta and would like to get a signed copy of the book, be sure to check out my Events page to find one near you.

The Undine’s Tear by Talena Winters - out this week!

Talena Winters is a freelance writer, editor, author, blogger, and knitwear designer who is addicted to tea and silver linings. She writes romantic suspense and young adult fantasy books, and is lead writer for Move Up magazine. Sign up for her newsletter to get a free book: www.talenawinters.com/contact.