Jennifer David Hesse's Blog, page 5

From the heart

Happy October!

Where does the time go? I didn’t intend for this to become a once-a-month blog, but that’s what it’s starting to look like. And this time I don’t have an impending book deadline to blame! I’ve just been busy with… stuff. Some fun stuff like a niece’s baby shower, a brother’s wedding, and a visit to a downstate pumpkin patch. And some routine stuff, like my day job, household chores, and dental appointments.

Oh, and there was a book release mixed in there somewhere! Yuletide Homi...

The Patterns of our Lives

Photo by Scott Hesse I’ve been thinking a lot about patterns lately. Not dress patterns. (I WISH I had the talent to do something with a dress pattern.) No, I mean something more ineffable than that. I’m thinking about the patterns of our lives. For example...

A few months ago, I started wearing a Fitbit to track my exercise and my hours of sleep--and hopefully motivate me to get more of both. It’s been interesting. In the case of sleep, it’s even been eye-opening. (Ha ha.)

Here’s a questi...

What's your sign? (Thoughts on astrology)

Do you pay much attention to astrology? Read your horoscope? Put any stock in the alignment of the stars?

This is a topic I've been thinking about for the past several weeks. This month has been filled with astrological excitement. There was a partial lunar eclipse on August 7th; mercury retrograde started on August 12th (my birthday!); and, of course, there was that rare total eclipse of my heart-- I mean, total eclipse of the sun (ha ha) on August 21st.

And, boy did people get excited o...

It's My Book Birthday! {Giveaway}

The Wiccan Wheel Mystery Series officially turns one today! It was born on July 26, 2016, with the release of Book #1, Midsummer Night's Mischief .

To celebrate, I decided to give away one signed advance reader copy of Book #3, Yuletide Homicide . Book #3 comes out on September 26, 2017, but one lucky reader will get an early copy.

Enter for a chance to win below.* The winner will be selected at 12:01 a.m. (central time) on Wednesday, August 2, 2017.

Good luck!a Rafflecopter giveaway Cheers, **BOOK...

One free week...

Sunset in Central-Eastern Illinois* I’ve always been a little envious of professors who get to take a sabbatical. To me, it’s like they’ve won the lottery. They get to take a whole (paid!) year off from their regular jobs to go off and pursue some passion project. How lucky is that?

I decided to give myself my own one-week “sabbatical” this month—aka, a vacation. My husband teaches at a jazz camp downstate, so my daughter and I decided to go along. We stayed at my parents’ house and enjoyed lo...

What's the first step?

Holding the ball My husband and I started taking a tai chi class a few weeks ago. It's something we talked about doing for well over a year and kept putting off. There seemed to be too many obstacles. (Okay, excuses.)

Where would we go? How would we pick the best place out of so many choices in our city? When could we find the time in our busy schedules--consistently, week after week? What would our daughter do while we were away at class? Finally, one day, I decided to go on line and try aga...

Summer Lovin'

Happy Summer Solstice!

I hope your summer is off to a great start. Lately I’ve been making a point to get out of the office on my lunch break as often as possible. I’ll go for a little walk and sit on a bench to eat my lunch and write in my notebook.

One day I wandered over here: Buckingham Fountain But the sun was too hot to sit in that area.

Usually I sit under the trees in the gardens at The Art Institute of Chicago… along with a few dozen other people with the same idea. It’s a pleasa...

Making Space & Time

by Jennifer David Hesse Milwaukee Art Museum - Photo by Scott Hesse Have you ever had an "aha moment"?

I had one several years ago that still sticks out in my mind. It was like a flash of insight, a momentary knowing.

It was on a weekend afternoon when I was at home doing some writing. I don't remember exactly what I was working on. This was well before I had a book deal and way before the Wiccan Wheel Mysteries  were born. Whatever it was, I was in the zone. In the groove. I was writing becaus...

Deep Into Mystery

by Jennifer David Hesse Photo by Scott Hesse For my final post this merry month of Mystery May, there was one more mystery game I thought I would try. It sounded unique and intriguing and fun. However… I didn’t do it. I’ve been too busy this month finalizing copy edits for Book #3, sorting out my ideas for Book #4, and generally trying to keep up with my responsibilities at work and at home. But maybe I’ll still give this thing a try one of these days, when I have more time (and cash) to spar...

Just for Fun: Dinner and a Mystery

Continuing with this month's theme of "all things mystery," I've been thinking about other ways we immerse ourselves in mysteries--besides getting lost in a good book. As I mentioned before, we can play detective in board games (such as Clue and Mysterium) and computer games (yay, Nancy Drew!). Another game I played as a kid was sort of a combination board game and computer game, called Electronic Detective. The game box featured a picture of Don Adams and the suspects had funny names such a...