Jen Gilroy's Blog, page 9

Gratitude is more than an attitude

As my American family, friends and readers celebrate Thanksgiving, gratitude and giving thanks are in the news, and I’ve been thinking about the phrase “gratitude is an attitude.”

Being thankful is an attitude and expressing appreciation for things large and small has been shown to be associated with greater happiness and improved mental (and often physical) health.

As many of you know, each year I choose a word to guide me and in 2016 that word was ‘gratitude.’ When I chose it, I didn’t know that the subsequent twelve months would make it difficult to be grateful and appreciative.

English Rose was diagnosed with the first of what turned out to be several life-changing rare medical conditions.

After Tech Guy’s anticipated Canadian job fell through, I spent most of 2016 single-parenting in Canada while he remained in England to work and job search. Late that year, he was finally able to move to Canada but since his new job was five hours away, we still had to spend weekdays apart.

I was also managing several complicated family estates.

Gratitude wasn’t so much an ‘attitude’ as what often felt like another task to check off on my overwhelming to-do list.

It’s only in retrospect I realize that choosing gratitude for my word that year was more than adopting an attitude. Instead, it was consciously developing a practice of cultivating appreciation, particularly when life was hard.

In the five years since 2016, my life has had many ups and downs. It’s easy to be grateful for good things, but it’s through challenges I’ve gained a fuller understanding of what gratitude means.

Finding things to be grateful for even when life is hard has taught me patience, resilience and given me a happiness more firmly rooted in who I am inside and less influenced by what’s going on externally.

Gratitude is now not only an attitude, but a way of life founded on who I am and want to be, each day and not only at times of thanksgiving.

As for applying that approach this week, when both our kitchen sink and dishwasher have failed?

While I send good wishes to everyone celebrating Thanksgiving in the United States, Canadian Thanksgiving was in October so I’m grateful I’m not hosting a family gathering this week.

Broken appliances are also a first world problem and in addition to plenty of dishes to see us through this time of repairs, we have the financial means to support local restaurants by getting takeout when cooking isn’t possible.

Not least, and thanks to Tech Guy, I’m reminded of my appreciation for romantic leads who are handy around the house and in tackling DIY.

‘Lest We Forget:’ Honouring Wartime Sacrifice

In many countries, the eleventh of November is a day to honour wartime sacrifice.

In Canada, it’s Remembrance Day and here, as in the UK (known as Armistice Day) and elsewhere, there is a minute (or more) of silence at eleven in the morning to mark the armistice signifying the end of the First World War in 1918.

In the US, it’s Veterans Day, honouring military veterans who have served in the United States Armed Forces.

And on the second Sunday in November, the UK also marks Remembrance Sunday to commemorate those who served in the British and Commonwealth military and civilian services in both World Wars and subsequent conflicts.

Remembering and honouring wartime sacrifice has always been part of my life.

At school, I wore a poppy and learned about wartime life through poetry and fiction, including Canadian John McCrae’s celebrated First World War poem, ‘In Flanders Fields.’

Although he rarely spoke of it, a neighbour and family friend served as a navigator on a wartime Lancaster Bomber—an experience at odds with the kindly man I knew as a mild-mannered accountant.

One grandmother remembered Canada’s wartime ‘jam for Britain campaign’ and the other supported the Red Cross by knitting socks for soldiers.

And recently, I discovered that one of my high school teachers, a man who taught me Shakespeare and Dickens and encouraged my love of words, was a World War Two flying officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

In addition to his role as a bomb aimer, his wartime feats, for which at age ninety-five he was awarded a French Legion of Honour medal, included dropping supplies and secret agents into occupied France and supporting the 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy.

However, until I moved to England, wartime life had always seemed distant.

In England, though, the Second World War is a pivotal marker, even for those too young to remember it.

One of my older English cousins grew up with food rationing and spoke about it often.

The architecture of post-war England was also shaped by the war and an even older relative shared memories of air raids, pointing out where German bombing had once reduced a row of shops in her town to rubble.

And when English Rose was in primary (elementary) school, she and her classmates had a field trip to see a wartime Anderson shelter, still in the garden of a nearby house.

Now back in Canada, the Second World War remains part of my life because I’m writing about those years in several women’s fiction novels.

I’ll be able to share details of these books in coming months, but in telling such stories I’m also gaining a new and deeper appreciation of wartime sacrifice—by those who served in the armed forces as well as on the home front.

In the meantime, and if you’re looking for wartime reading, Maisie Thomas, one of my favourite British historical fiction authors, has a new book out today.

Christmas with the Railway Girls is the next instalment in her fantastic Railway Girls series, set in Manchester, England and telling the story of women who worked on Britain’s railways during the Second World War.

Available from Amazon & most other retailers (including UK supermarkets), these books bring the wartime world to life with intrigue, romance, female friendship and now, with this latest release, Christmas too.

Preparing for an early winter

In my part of Canada, the first snow of the season is forecast for next week and weather pundits are predicting a harsh and earlier winter than usual.

While I don’t relish snow and cold, for “winter people,” like most Canadians, there is much to do to prepare for this season. And this year, in part due to pandemic-related disruptions, Tech Guy and I started earlier than ever before.

We bought the snow tires we needed for one of our vehicles and had them fitted in the first week of October. The still usable snow tires for the other vehicle went on this week.

Mittens, scarves, fleece hats and thick coats are at the front of the cupboard, and “boot trays” are at the door awaiting wet winter footwear.

Instead of iced tea, it’s hot chocolate time and a new tin of cocoa is in the kitchen pantry.

I’ve changed the covers on the throw (scatter) pillows on the living room sofa, replacing summer pink with holiday red.

After putting away my summer clothes, I’m embracing cozy sweaters and thermal socks. I’m also using the electric blanket to warm the bed before I get into it each night.

Even Floppy Ears is preparing for winter by growing a thicker coat, snuggling with a favourite blanket, and eyeing the gas fire in anticipation of “toasting” herself near the flames on colder days to come.

And although it’s not yet winter on the calendar, and even before the magic of the first snowflakes, a happy part of the season has already begun.

Last Sunday, Tech Guy and I went to a small-town hockey game to cheer on a player we know.

Ice hockey is intrinsic to Canadian culture and identity and, in some ways, irrespective of political affiliation or world view, the sport has united this country and its people for generations.

As we sat inside that chilly hockey arena, and I “toasted” myself under a helpfully placed ceiling heater, I was reminded that although I may never truly enjoy winter, this seasonal shift, and what it represents, has and always will be a big part of who I am.

Writing update and cover reveal 

This winter also brings another happy moment, the release of a summer book, my debut Harlequin Heartwarming title, Montana Reunion, in January 2022.

In case you missed it in my newsletter or on social media, I’m happy and excited to share the cover here too.

Capturing the Montana landscape and ranch setting, a horse, and a hero and heroine almost as I imagined them (including cowboy boots), Harlequin’s art department did a stellar job and I have “cover love.”

I hope you’ll enjoy this sweet romance and, if you’d like to find out more or pre-order a paperback or e-book, you can do so from Harlequin and other retailers here.

Fingers on the keyboard, head in the clouds

Becoming a published author has taught me many things but perhaps most important is how to juggle multiple writing projects at the same time.

This month, when I have multiple book deadlines within a few weeks of each other, I’ve been once again reminded that certain things characterize “deadline me,” and likely many other authors, as the day approaches when we have to hit “send” on a manuscript.

Food and drink

When I’m under the greatest deadline pressure, I eat at my desk with grazing and snacks replacing meals—at least until Tech Guy sets one in front of me.

Walnuts and dried apricots are excellent writing fuel, although I’ve learned to keep cookies and other sweets out of the house because if I don’t, not only my manuscript becomes heavier!

Fashion…or not

While my usual writing attire, yoga pants and T-shirts, is far from fashionable, when I’m on deadline I often stay in my pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers until midday or later.

If I’m not dressed, I can’t leave my house and be distracted. And since morning is my most productive writing time, moving from bed to desk as quickly as possible maximizes work hours.

This week, however, I realized it had been twenty-four hours since I’d brushed my hair and, in a particularly embarrassing lapse, had gone to the grocery store wearing mismatched socks and only one of a pair of earrings.

Housework

As my word count increases, stacks of books and paper accumulate too.

Post-deadline, cleaning my office space and house are my way of resetting both my writing and real lives.

As for that real life?

Deadline me is someone for whom “real life” is far removed from my fictional worlds and characters.

I’ve been known to pass friends on the street without recognizing them and, with my own family, am in a permanent state of distraction

Tech Guy understands “deadline Jen” and recently, when I gave him what must have been yet another blank look, he asked if I was in in Montana (for my western romances) or England (for my women’s fiction novels).

Only another author, though, is likely to appreciate why I’m seeing variations of my fictional characters everywhere, almost as if they’ve walked out of my imaginary world and into my everyday life.

Deadlines come and deadlines go

In a few weeks, I’m taking a break with no weekend work and, hopefully, some late-season kayaking.

In the meantime, it’s fingers on the laptop keyboard and head in the clouds.

Deadlines come and go, but they’re an integral part of the author life. That kind of pressure also helps me get to the heart of a book, and my own heart, imbuing my fiction with needed emotional texture and richness.

And because I’m blessed to be able to do what I love, I wouldn’t have it any other way…at least some of the time!

What kind of reader am I? And what kind of reader are you?

In the past few weeks, on social media and elsewhere, I’ve seen lots of buzz (and related quizzes) about reading types.

While I’ve thought about my reading life in different ways, “reader type” was new to me. There are, however, certain traits intrinsic to “reader me” so here, in no particular order, are the top five.

Genre

By and and large, I read the kind of books I write, romance and women’s fiction, and non-fiction as it relates to book research or writing craft.

I also read books I’ve been asked to review, for example A Piece of Peace, a recent release by a friend, Sweta Vikram.

Not only an inspiring personal journey through a devastating health crisis, A Piece of Peace offers practical tips for mindfulness and wellness for writers and other creatives.

Time period

I read both historical and contemporary fiction, and dual timeline novels are a particular favourite because they give me the best of both worlds.

I also enjoy time travel books and stories inspired by real historical figures.

Not least, I have a large collection of vintage children’s books, dating from the nineteenth through to the mid-twentieth centuries.

Women writers

Before writing this post, I hadn’t realized that in recent years I’ve read almost exclusively women writers.

Looking at my bookshelves, both physical and digital, books by male writers are few and far between.

As a woman, I like to read books by other women focused on female experiences.

However, since in my romances I write from both the hero and heroine’s perspectives, there’s a gap in my reading life when it comes to male novelists.

Eclecticism

I’m not a single title reader, something that used to perplex Tech Guy but, like many other things in the past twenty-five years of our marriage, he’s come to terms with.

Instead, I have books at various stages of completion scattered through my house and in progress on my Kindle.

The book I read at bedtime is different than those I read during the day.

And I always have a book in my bag to read while waiting in line or at an appointment.

My TBR pile

Although I haven’t counted how many books are in my to-be-read pile, what another friend, author Susanna Bavin (who also writes as Polly Heron) once memorably called a “bibliographic pet,” that pile shows no signs of getting smaller anytime soon.

Instead, and despite reading four to five books a month, which I track in a “reading notebook,” the number of books I want to read seems to increase exponentially.

The bookish life

While there are multiple types of readers, and fun online quizzes to match, maybe I’ll never be able to identify my “kind” and nor should I try.

All I know is that while I may be short of time, I’m never lacking in reading material.

And a life without the pleasure and escape of books is one I don’t want to imagine.

There’s also my beautiful bookmark collection…but that’s a whole other post!

What kind of reader are you? 

How working at Canada’s election is helping my creativity & writing life

For most of my adult life, I fit my writing around a nine-to-five job. However, in the past six years, in part due to English Rose’s medical challenges, I’ve been a full-time writer.

This month, though, I’ve once again juxtaposed my writing with a temporary part-time ‘day job’ working for Canada’s federal election.

While I anticipated the financial benefit, I didn’t expect this work to also energize my creativity and writing life.

Life in the ‘real’ world

As a solitary writer, I spend most of my time in a T-shirt and yoga pants interacting with fictional characters inside my head.

After eighteen months of pandemic, in-person interactions have been limited to my immediate family, medical appointments and physically distanced chats with neighbours when walking Floppy Ears.

Yet this month, and while working as an Information Officer at the election’s advance polls, I’ve met several thousand people.

Although wearing a mask and, on occasion also behind a Plexiglas screen and/or face shield, being in the ‘real’ world is something I needed.

I swapped my yoga pants and T-shirt for smart tops and trousers. I chatted with people I hadn’t seen in over a year. Overheard conversation snippets sparked new story ideas and characters. And I heard family anecdotes that have shaped the community I now call home and which also inspires aspects of the small-town stories I write.

‘Author me’ intersects with ‘real me’

My election work is part of what I call my ‘real life’ separate from my author persona. It’s work where I’m recognized as English Rose’s mum, the woman who walks Floppy Ears and who takes a dance class at a local studio.

This month, and for the first time ever, a few electors recognized me as Jen Gilroy who writes books.

I was asked about my Firefly Lake and Wishing Tree stories and what I’m currently working on. And in chatting about my books, different parts of my life came together in new and happy ways.

Moving between languages and cultures

Canada is a bilingual country and many Canadians, me included, speak both English and French. Yet, after many years in England and at home in an Anglophone environment, these days I rarely speak my second language.

I still listen to French and One Thing in a French Day is a favourite podcast.

I read French too, from translated women’s fiction titles (like Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone) to Harlequin romances (the French edition of Jenni Fletcher’s Harlequin Historical, Besieged and Betrothed).

Via my election work, it’s been a joy to speak with Francophone electors and I was pleased when several told me I speak “good French,” despite not having a French name or Québécois (or other Canadian French) accent.

This experience has reminded me that the French language and culture are an important part of my life.

As for my accent? I learned French from Parisians which is also now shaping a book I’m writing.

Looking at myself and the world in fresh ways

After being outside my house at a day job, I’ve returned to writing with new energy, enthusiasm and creativity.

Although an introvert, I can extrovert when needed and I don’t use that side of my personality often enough when working almost entirely online.

While routine is good, shaking up that routine on occasion is necessary too.

And while Floppy Ears was less enthusiastic about the disruption to her routine (according to Tech Guy, she moped when I was gone), her normal life of contented naps by my desk has resumed!

Little does she know, I’m also working September 20, the main election day.

Book edits, a big birthday & a bigger move

With significant events in both my writing and mum lives, this past week has been a time of joy, reflection and bittersweet change.

Book edits 

As many of you know, Montana Reunion, my Harlequin Heartwarming and western romance debut, releases in January 2022.

It’s a sweet second-chance romance with cowboy hats, boots, horses, ranch life, a creek and many more of my favourite things. There are dogs too, including several who have more than a passing resemblance to Floppy Ears.

This week, I checked what in the publishing world are called “last galleys.”

As the author, it’s my final chance to read the book and make changes before it goes to proofreading and then on to press.

I’ve seen the cover (it’s gorgeous!) and am waiting for the go-ahead from my publisher to be able to share it with you. In the meantime, you can read the book’s blurb via Harlequin, Amazon and most other retailers. If you’re so inclined, you can pre-order it in paperback or e-book too.

A big birthday

English Rose also celebrated a big birthday this week, her eighteenth.

While I rejoice in the wonderful young woman she’s become, in some ways it seems like yesterday that she was the baby Tech Guy and I brought home from an English hospital.

As we buckled our new daughter into her new car seat, I remarked to Tech Guy that I’d been given more instructions when I adopted a rescue cat. Yet, despite facing parenting challenges we never then imagined, somehow, we’ve muddled through.

Tech Guy, though, has never truly lived down the occasion when he and my late dad took an infant English Rose to our village pub having dressed her in her clothes backwards.

An even bigger move

Not least, this week English Rose has moved away from home to start university.

I’m happy and grateful that she’s able to pursue a university education and live somewhat independently (in a hall of residence/dorm). Yet, I’m also not ready for an empty nest, and our home will seem very quiet without her.

Focusing on the moments

On that day eighteen years ago when English Rose was born, I focused on the moments, not the years that lay ahead.

Those years have gone quickly and as English Rose has grown, so have I, not least in becoming the published author I then only dreamed of.

This week, and as I did so long ago, I’m once again focusing on the moments because before I know it, right here, right now will soon be ‘yesterday’ and ‘back then.’

And as I’ve juggled everything happening this week in writing and life, I’m comforted that English Rose has already requested visits from Floppy Ears.

If the dog travels an hour and a half away from home, I will too!

Besides, there are several excellent bookshops, parks and a wonderful bakery in English Rose’s new hometown…and new memories to make.

In the footsteps of L.M. Montgomery and “Anne of Green Gables”

A highlight of my recent holiday was visiting a museum for the first time in over a year. And not just any museum, but one dedicated to a favourite author, Lucy Maud (L.M.) Montgomery, best known for Anne of Green Gables.

While Montgomery is usually associated with Prince Edward Island, Canada, after marriage she moved with her husband to the province of Ontario where she spent the rest of her life. She also set a book in Ontario, The Blue Castle, one of only two stories she wrote for adults.

Tucked in a village in Canada’s beautiful Muskoka region, several hours north of Toronto by car, Bala’s Museum with Memories of L.M. Montgomery was inspired by her two-week vacation there in August 1922.

The tourist home where Montgomery and her family took their meals was purchased and saved from destruction by Linda and Jack Hutton. Since 1992, and thanks to Linda and Jack’s loving restoration, it’s been a museum where every corner shows affection and respect for L.M. Montgomery’s legacy.

Books and more

One of this delightful museum’s many treasures is Linda and Jack’s collection of Montgomery’s books from rare first editions to more modern releases.

They also have bookish ephemera including “Green Gables” china and photographic stills from the American 1919 “Anne of Green Gables” silent film.

My favourite item, though, is a January 1905 copy of The Delineator, an American women’s magazine, featuring the cover image later used for the first edition of Anne of Green Gables.

A sense of place

One of the things I love most about Montgomery’s stories is their vivid sense of place.

From her Prince Edward Island books (including the Anne and Emily novels), to rural Ontario where, in The Blue Castle, “old maid” Valancy Stirling defies her domineering family to live life on her own terms (finding love with a swoon-worthy hero along the way), “place” almost becomes another character.

Today, the places Montgomery knew and depicted in her fiction have changed almost beyond recognition. Yet, in Bala (inspiration for the town of Deerwood in The Blue Castle), parts of that world are still visible and, thanks to Jack and Linda’s museum, protected.

Reading memories

In August 2021, as I sat on the same shaded porch where Montgomery did in August 1922, I could imagine her spirit with me.

And having met Jack and Linda Hutton, “kindred spirits” as Anne of Green Gables would say, I was reminded of how powerful books can be in bringing readers together.

Although Montgomery’s books have influenced me as a writer, I’ll always be a reader first so I couldn’t leave this special museum without buying a book.

Written by Jack and Linda and signed by them for me, in the pages of Lucy Maud Montgomery and Bala: A Love Story of the North Woods, I can revisit this lovely place in my imagination whenever I choose.

Find out more

Museum website | Facebook page (with online shopping) 

“Summer Holiday”

In the last few weeks, “Summer Holiday” by Cliff Richard and The Shadows (first released in 1963 with the British film of the same name) has been on my mind. With a catchy tune and fun, uplifting lyrics, it’s an ode to taking a summer break away from the regular routine.

After almost eighteen months of pandemic, I suspect all of us are in need of a holiday and not only during the summer. Yet, with changing travel guidance, some borders still closed and different regulations in different countries, holiday choices remain limited.

Later this month, Tech Guy, English Rose and I are spending a week at the same place we did last year, a cottage by a lake near the Algonquin Park wilderness in Ontario, Canada.

While I remember with longing our more far-flung vacations, staying only three hours from home brings different and no less important joys.

Rest

Before the pandemic, even on vacation I was busy. There was always a museum to see, a route to plan or something to “do.” As a result, I often forgot to rest and simply “be.”

At a lakeside cottage, life has a different rhythm.

The biggest decisions of the day are when to take the kayaks out, go for a swim, wander into town for ice cream, build a campfire or play a board game.

At night, I sleep better and even when I’m awake, I’m also at rest.

Relaxation

By resting more, I’m more relaxed. My usual “go mode” is set to “stop” interspersed with “slow.”

I notice things I wouldn’t ordinarily. Ducks paddling on the lake, grains of sand between my toes, and the glow of a campfire ready to roast marshmallows.

  Rejuvenation

I arrive at the cottage in list-making mode, tired from the flurry of packing and sure we’ve forgotten something crucial. However, by the week’s end, the only lists I’ve made are for groceries.

I feel lighter and easier in myself and ready to tackle the world again.

No writing

While I used to work on holiday, getting up earlier than my family to fit in my daily word count, for the past two years I’ve left my laptop at home.

In a place with limited Internet access, that’s a practical choice but it’s also important for my well-being. With no writing, social media or anything else work-related, I read for pleasure and think without the “noise” of the working world.

I hope you’re able to enjoy a “summer holiday” of your own. For inspiration, check out Cliff Richard’s original song here.

Why my favourite part of writing is rewriting

I don’t often post about my writing process because most of those who read this blog are readers, not other writers. However, having been in what some authors, me included, call the “writing and editing cave” for weeks (writing the first draft of one book and editing two others) things writerly are much on my mind.

Some authors love writing first drafts. I am not one of them.

Yet, although the first draft is often a slog, writing 70,000 to 90,000 words of a book in 1,000 to 2,000 word daily increments, once that work is done the fun starts as I shape those words into the magic of a story.

At the end of the first draft

I let the manuscript sit as long as I can (depending on contracted deadlines) because when I dive in again after time away, the story feels new and fresh.

I also print the manuscript and read it aloud because hearing the story helps me spot awkward dialogue, holes in the plot, uneven pacing (does the story move too quickly or slowly) and many other problems.

After I identify and resolve these issues, I go through multiple rounds of “on screen” edits including correcting spelling, grammar and punctuation and cutting overused words.

Structural/developmental edits

These are edits I get from my editors and some literary agents, mine included, give them too.

They’re big edits from a professional who hasn’t seen my story before.

I’ve just completed the first round of structural edits for one of the books I’m working on and, amongst other things, my editor’s comprehensive notes helped me dig deeper into characters (who they are, what they want and why), my story world (adding details to bring it more fully to life) and resolve several timeline issues.

All the rest

Copy editing, line editing and proofreading follow big edits—polishing a book to make it shine, line by line and word by word. Again, authors work with specialists through each of these phases.

A partnership

No matter how experienced, every writer needs editors.

I’m grateful to the skilled editors I work with because although it’s my name on the cover, these editors help me make my stories better and give those who spend their hard-earned money on my books the best possible reading experience.

Long before being published in fiction, I wrote and edited corporate and educational materials, and as a child I produced my own mini-newspaper. Even then, I found working with text deeply satisfying.

And today, in the early rounds of edits before anyone else sees my books, I also have help from Floppy Ears who is a gentle and non-judgmental listener for work-in-progress.

Tech Guy and English Rose indulge my “editorial obsession” too and are used to me pointing out “problems” on restaurant menus and shop signage.

So far, though, I’ve restrained myself when I spot an advertising chalkboard with an incorrect apostrophe, although it would be so easy to rub it out without anyone being the wiser…