Jen Geigle Johnson's Blog, page 2

Balance

I can always tell if my life is out of balance when my closet and my laundry room are a mess. My desk, though, my desk is ALWAYS a mess, and I like it that way.

Because I feel like balance is an inside out kind of thing. You can only be truly organized, balanced, at peace, if the smallest unseen corner is also organized, balanced and at peace. Even if the front room that everyone sees is a mess, I can find peace that my closet is organized. Go figure.

That seems like a lot of pressure and even as I wrote it, something in my chest pinched. But I don’t mean you can’t have peace if you throw all the junk from the counter into your bedroom when company comes. I just mean that Peace is an inner state.

And I don’t have much peace when my life is out of balance. In fact, I feel uncharacteristically stressed when life is out of balance. I can accomplish tons of things, be always busy, juggle many projects at once as long as I’m balanced. But I can be doing only two things and feel completely overwhelmed if there is an imbalance.

What do I mean by imbalance? I’m not sure how everyone else works, but I have some pillars that need to be present in my life in representative amounts, and that creates balance for me.

Pillar One: I need to feel fulfilled and connected in my family life. Nothing will ever be perfect at home, but I need to feel like my relationships with the family members are loving and that we are all progressing.

Pillar Two: I need to progress in my passions. Right now this is writing and all that comes with being an Author.

Pillar Three: Friends, connections, service, volunteering–This is basically all the other people outside of my family in my life.

Pillar Four: A peaceful and organized space. I am not sure how much of a pillar this is for me, but I think it is important. And everyone’s version of organized is different. But I am realizing more and more that my space needs to be in control or my balance is off.

Pillar Five: I need to feel at peace with and connected to God.

If any of these pillars is off kilter, I am off kilter. And none of the others function well for very long.

 

Can your Romance Stand Alone?

Can your Romance Stand Alone?

A Tribute to the Clean, Proper and Sweet.
and compelling, gritty, tense, angst ridden, smart and fun.

As a historical romance author of clean fiction, I get asked every so often, “Is there a market for clean romance?”

When I tell them, most exuberantly YES! Many adults nod their heads gratefully. “Great! Where can I buy your books?” RIGHT HERE

But sometimes a well meaning friend will ask, “Who’s your market? Teenagers? Middle Schoolers?”

So I thought I would expl...

Red Caps, Eagles and the Sparrow

Complicated: the best word to use when describing England’s change to greater democracy. What could they do, with the French Revolution so close at their heels? Fear dictated much of the lawmaking. At the forefront, they wished to avoid the terror from across the channel. Undercurrents of resistance to change, the noble class’s feelings of superiority, and an uncharted course as to how to go about change kept things moving at status quo for hundreds of years longer than was necessary.

Theme....

What is Peterloo?

While researching for my first Regency romance, The Nobleman’s Daughter, I asked over and over, “But what about the poor people? Have they no rights? No recourse? Who is caring for them?” I had a wonderful story in mind highlighting the beautiful and wealthy elite–the plight of the poor mercilessly bumped it aside. So I stopped ignoring the lower classes, like the wealthy of the time should have done, and I really looked at what had happened to these people.

And I found that no one was speaki...

Costumes, Heroines, Frenchies

“They seek him here. They seek him there. Those Frenchies seek him anywhere…”

The Scarlet Pimpernel. A Tale of Two Cities. Les Miserables.

I have a thing for the French Revolution.

Where tragedy strikes, heroes rise. It always happens. When oppression grinds, freedom struggles against it.

The human spirit beacons, like a fiery torch and I love to study the struggle for freedom. All of my novels so far address this theme in one way or another. The Nobleman’s Daughter, my first novel coming thi...

Regency: The Struggle for Freedom

Regency.

If you love Regency, you really love it. If you haven’t read a true Regency Romance yet, find yourself one. Usually when we think of Regency, we think of Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, pretty dresses, handsome Lords, the marriage mart. Servants to follow you everywhere and respond to your every wish. Reading a delicious Regency is escapism at its finest.

But there is so much more to the time period besides the 1.5 % that held title or property or both. More than anything, Regency...

Forgotten Pieces of History

On my daughter’s Instagram, she wrote, “This world will remember us.”

And I believe her. She is that kind of person.

It begs to ask though, HOW do we go about remembering? Eight decades from now, when I am turning to dust, and her children are too, who is remembering?

One of the greatest joys of writing for me, has been to extend our collective memory. In my research, I always stumble upon things that are just about to slide into the abyss of the forgotten, and I snatch them up just at the ed...

Maid in Disguise

“Father.” Liz tried to reason with him. “His teeth protrude so far forward that he cannot even close his lips around them.” Not the largest of her concerns about his suitability, but one that surely her father would recognize.

Chuckling while he glanced over the ledger on his desk, he responded, “Lizzy, Lizzy. Come now. What is a little awkward teeth placement when you consider his station in life, his holdings, his family. You could live in any of his lovely estates, have every opportunity,...