Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 13

Book Journal Vloggers, Sigh

On Tuesday, I talked about how I watched a lot of book journal videos and that I had a few complaints. This is my blog detailing my frustration.

The idea of a book journal was exciting to me and I can actually tackle two new hobbies at the same time. The only thing tripping me up was what pages would work for a nonfiction book journal?

Surely, I can find all kinds of examples on YouTube. I went to find them.

There were many, many videos with titles like Setting up my 2024 Book Journal or something similar. I also had other years to work with. I had my pen at hand, ready to make notes on the pages I needed.

And what I got from these vloggers was videos on how they're decorating their pages. About why they chose the aesthetic they're using. About how they like to use double sided tape or glue sticks or what kind of markers they like to use. Now and then, they'd mention the page they were working on, but they were things like Book Battle, where the book they liked best each month throughout the year competed to win their book of the year. Or a spread for how many books they planned to read in a year.

Pages I'd seen a hundred times, but nothing new or different or exciting.

Okay, maybe if I watched the year-end flip throughs of their book journals, I'll get some ideas on the pages I want to create.

This is where the vloggers talked about the books they read for the year and if they met their goals, the reading challenges they participated in, their To Be Read piles. But nothing that helped me with the setup of my own book journal.

Maybe the book community who journals already knows what pages they want and no one else needs this information?

Or maybe my needs are just so drastically different that it's not a good fit?

I'm not going to do a yearly journal. I plan to use the same journal until I fill it up. This means I don't need monthly spreads. I also don't want a yearly goal or to do any reading challenges. I know me and setting goals on this front will only lead to me avoiding reading these books because I'm weird like that.

I did find flip throughs of two incredible book journals (Video One and Video Two) and I've decided to stay as close to these two examples as possible with my own journal. I know what I do will never look as awesome because I just don't have that level of patience or artistic ability, but I like the general layouts and it's something to aspire toward. Now it's a matter of figuring out what I want in there besides the books.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Sometimes I scare myself with how quickly things escalate for me.

I was on YouTube and saw a video from a bullet journal vlogger who was talking about what she used her five notebooks for. I was curious since I have so many notebooks myself and watched.

She said the words "book journal."

My ears perked up. A book journal? That would be pretty awesome. 

I tried to rein myself back in. I know I'd never use a book journal. I'd start out with the best of intentions, but give up not too long into it. My inner voice said, yes, but what if you only did a book journal for nonfiction books? Yes, what if I did that? I have a slew of books related to writing and language that I've been meaning to read forever. What if a book journal got me to actually read them?

I jumped in with both feet.

I watched videos about book journaling. (I will blog about this later.) I decided that one of the dozens of A5 notebooks I own simply wouldn't work. I must have the 8x8 and placed an order. I didn't buy just one, I bought multiple. I have a lot of nonfiction books.

Next, I went looking for the silicone book spine stamp that so many book journalers use. It was out of stock everywhere I found it.

Hmm, I thought, I wonder if I could make my own silicone stamps?

The answer is yes, yes you can. After doing an online search, I found a company that makes them and a video on YouTube on how to do it. It didn't sound that hard. (Says the writer with no artistic abilities.)

Then I started wondering if I could make a silicone stamp for my planner to keep track of water, vitamins, sleep, etc. I found a great planner with full days for Saturday and Sunday, but I want these trackers.

I started thinking up all the other stamps I could use now that I know I can make my own.

And what if I combined scrapbook journaling with book journaling? My brain raced forward, thinking up all the cool new things I could do.

Then I went looking for items for my book journal. I found someone who'd made a printable bookcase with books on it which saves me from making my own. I also found someone who was selling scrapbook journal templates for things that would be awesome in my book journal, including expandable pockets for the inside of the covers.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped and laughed. I've been like this my entire life and no one suspected I had ADHD until I was tested this year? For real?

Coming Into Focus

I've been living with my ADHD diagnosis for a little while and it's really amazing how much of my life suddenly makes sense.

The jumping from hobby to hobby to hobby.

In the past ten years, I've learned to crochet, learned to knit, am still trying to learn to sew, now I'm jumping in on scrapbook journaling.

(I had a bunch of supplies from when I tried scrapbooking as a hobby, but of course, I ordered more because there are cooler things now.)

ADHD also explains why when I was in junior high, I checked out every single book the library had about sharks, read them all, became expert enough that I was answering questions on a tour at Sea World, and then never read another book on sharks.

It explains why I'm interested in so many things. I would tell people I know a little bit about a lot of things and a lot about nothing.

It explains why I graduated from college with 60 credits more than what I needed because I jumped around from area to area taking classes. Astronomy. Theater. Shakespeare. Oceanography. Greek Myths. Sigh.

It's probably why I've jumped around from Science Fiction Romance to Paranormal Romance to Romantic Suspense. It also probably explains why I write more by the seat of my pants than with a plan in place.

It would have been nice to know earlier, but at least I know now. It helps me feel a little less like a failure at adulting.

Patti O'Shea's Very Bad Day

I have been using the same laptop since 2016. That's right, eight and a half years. I used to either kill my laptops with all the typing I did or they'd start running so slowly, I had to replace them or lose my mind.

But this laptop? It was still running at a fast enough speed that I didn't see any reason to buy a new one yet. Plus, I customize everything and it's all setup the way I like it.

You can imagine my horror when I walked back in my office after doing something else for about an hour and finding a big blue screen. This is not the Big Blue Screen of Death. This was a different blue screen. A more ominous blue screen.

I pulled up a search engine and immediately looked up the error message. The first thing mentioned?

Hard drive problem.

There were other possibilities, too, but it mentioned something about the computer running hot. Which is a problem I'd been dealing with and I kept putting the laptop to sleep to let it cool down.

I ran through the troubleshooting process the computer had, but the drive had died.

Unrecoverable died.

I'm unhappy, but not devastated. I subscribe to a service that automatically backs up everything on my computer plus I pay for a cloud service to save nearly all my files on my hard drive and online. I'm confident that I have everything and did not lose any data.

The part where I'm less happy? I wasn't planning on buying a new laptop right now. I opted for the same brand that lasted 8.5 years, but I bought a smaller screen size since I usually leave it plugged into the docking station in my office. I also got a convertible laptop. I'm not sure I'll use the tablet function or not, but I like having the option.

I will talk about the laptop once I receive it and get it setup.

Usually, I have a backup laptop on hand, but because the one that died was so old, the previous laptops are antique and basically unusable. Luckily for me, I have a MacBook Pro that I use for some writing applications that do not run on Windows. I did have to spend a few hours setting everything up, but I'm up and running and able to do what I need to do at a laptop, including write Oz and Ayla.

The MacBook plugs into my docking station, so I'm able to use my big monitors and the big bonus is I can write really long text messages to my friends because I have a keyboard. I hate doing a lot of typing on my phone. Even doing the keyboard finger drag thing is annoying.

There's a slight delay typing on the keyboard and I'm assuming it's a docking station issue because I'm using a dongle to connect to it. My MacBook doesn't have a USB A port and my docking station doesn't have a USB C cord.

More to come.

Change the Menu

I hate cooking. HATE! I have burned more food to the bottom of pans than I can count, and I finally bought a rice cooker because I always seem to adhere my riced to the pot and have to let it soak to get it out.

After my mom died and my dad moved in with me, he took over the cooking. He actually enjoyed it! But after he passed away, I had to figure something out.

I started with store-bought frozen dinners, but those were not that great and I got tired of them.

After researching meal delivery services, I signed up for one. The meals were pre-made and just needed to be popped in the microwave, but they tasted better than frozen dinners.

This was fine. For a while. Now, a couple of months in, I'm so sick of everything on their menu that I can't even pick anything any longer. Why don't they change that thing up every few weeks? The other problem? The way the sealed the meals in plastic made it damn near impossible to open. About 30% of the time, the cover comes off easily. About 50% of the time, I could pry it off with some effort. The remaining 20%? I would use a pair of needle nose pliers to get that plastic off. Ridiculous.

(I also had shipping issues with them, but their customer service is top notch and took care of it. But OMG, the same food every single week.)

Anyway, I decided to try a different meal delivery service when I saw a discount coupon in my Instagram feed. This was one of the companies I'd looked at before choosing the other one and had been a top contender. There's supposed to be a rotating menu so you get something different every week.

The drawback? This one actually requires me to do some cooking. Not much and everything is like pre-portioned and ready to go, but still actually cooking? We'll see how I do with this.

This same company does have a pre-made meal service, too, so I might switch over to that depending on how the cooking part goes.

There are more customization options with this company, too, which might be good. I'm sticking with the simple options to start out.

Ice, Ice, Baby

The ice maker on my refrigerator has been a bitch--to put it mildly. It's high maintenance, requiring frequent emptying and constant surveillance. This is something my dad handled when he was alive.

Occasionally, I did think about the ice issue, but I was in a fog after he died and then I was nose to the keyboard, writing my book.

I didn't do anything about the ice maker.

And then I noticed water in the pull out tray. Every time this has happened, it's because of the ice maker. I put paper towels down and continued to ignore it. That became easier to do when the paper towels dried out and didn't get wet again.

Then, the fridge decided it really wanted my attention.

Water started showing up under the pull-out tray. Been there, done that with this refrigerator. That means there's ice forming underneath the tray, way in the back. Ignoring it was no longer an option.

I own an upright freezer because there was never enough room in the fridge's freezer, so it was simple to move all the frozen goods. And believe it or not, I own a mini fridge (a large mini fridge) that I bought because this ice maker issue is ongoing. I moved all the food over to the mini fridge, turned the circuit breaker off, and left the refrigerator doors open.

This is what the repair guy had us do--more than once. As soon as we knew the drill, we stopped calling him and started doing this ourselves. This is the first time I've had to do it since my dad died.

Luckily (?), the ice maker wasn't as frozen up as it's been in the past and I was able to pull it out in a few hours and empty the ice out. I also pulled the tray out and removed the sheets of ice that had formed. And then there was all the water from the melting ice. I cleaned that up, too.

And then I dug out the instruction book and looked up how to turn off the ice maker.

My dad never wanted to do this, and while he was alive, it didn't matter because he was taking care of this high maintenance beast. I don't need ice badly enough to go through this again. It turned out to be as simple as pressing a button on the door. I still get my cold, filtered water, which I want, without the pain of dealing with the ice maker. Ugh!

Oz Time

At least, it's sort of Oz time. I'm still caught up in release week for Wicked Suspicion, Lurch and Nyx's story.

But I loaded the Post-it Notes on my kanban board for Oz's book, so when it's time to write, I'll be ready to go. First, it's figuring out the story. I only have broad strokes of what the story is at this point. (The pale blue ones on the left are for Oz.)

Here's the cover copy showing what I have at this point:

Ayla Desmond never takes risks, but when she senses hertwin is in trouble, she boards a plane to Puerto Jardin—a country teetering onthe edge of chaos. As a Public Relations specialist at the Paladin League,she’s used to spin, not bullets. But this mission plunges her into a deadlygame where trust is scarce and danger is everywhere.

Special Forces Sgt. Oziah “Wizard” West is the king ofone-night stands, but he hasn’t been able to forget the last woman he hooked upwith, a mysterious blonde who slipped away from his hotel room. When he spotsher in Puerto Jardin, he knows there’ll be trouble. Oz rushes to her side,determined to keep her safe.

Ayla wants nothing to do with Oz. He’s a mistake she’drather forget, but circumstances force them together. Surrounded by mercenariesand stalked by an arms dealer who believes she holds the key to a hiddentreasure, she has no choice but to rely on the enigmatic stranger who ignitedher passion. As danger escalates, so do their feelings, and then a positivepregnancy test changes everything.

Now, Oz risks not only his heart but also his life toprotect Ayla and their unborn child. Can they survive the treacherous gamethey’re caught in, or will their love become the ultimate casualty?

Wicked Ambition is a stand-alone romance with aHEA. There are references to events that happened in earlier books, but it'snot necessary to read them to enjoy this story.

Indulge in a protective Special Forces hero anda heroine who is a fish-out-of-water, but will do whatever it takes to save hersister. This romantic suspense story features a one-night stand, an unexpectedpregnancy, and a second chance romance.

I am feeling pretty excited to get going. I'm sure it won't be long before Oz and Ayla are frustrating me the way Case and Nyx did, but they're being good right now.

Wicked Suspicion is Available!

Wicked Suspicion is officially released! Go forth and grab your copy!

If you've been reading The Paladin League series, you met Lurch in the first book. He's appeared in every story since then to some degree or another. He met his heroine at the end of Deck and Frankie's book. Now you can see Case and Nyx as a couple!

Nyx is no ordinary woman--as Case will discover. Her father was the chief warrant officer for an Army Special Forces team while she was growing up. Her brother is in Army Special Forces, and is Case's best friend. She has more skill than he realizes, but she also knows she's out of her depth and Lurch gets to call the shots to get them out of this situation.

Here's the back cover copy for Wicked Suspicion: 

In thetreacherous world of covert operations, Special Forces Sgt. Case “Lurch”Lundquist thrives on danger. Undercover as a gunrunner, he dances on therazor’s edge, avoiding rebel forces who hunt him relentlessly. But when hismission jeopardizes a woman’s life, he breaks the rules to protect her.

Nyx Templetonis no damsel in distress—usually. But this time, she’s out of her depth. Shedoesn’t trust the rugged mercenary who steps in, until she recognizes him froma picture she saw years earlier. He’s her brother’s best friend. She remainsquiet, knowing one wrong word could cost him everything.

Case battlesto stay focused, but Nyx is a distraction. When she boldly asks him to cash inher V-card, he can’t resist. It’s not just a yes—it’s a hell, yes!

But in thehigh-stakes game of arms dealing, every edge counts. Nyx unwittingly becomes apawn, and Case must navigate a deadly web of betrayal to keep her safe. Asshadows close in, their love becomes the ultimate weapon—one that could savethem both or destroy everything they hold dear.

Wicked Suspicion is a gripping romantic suspense novelthat combines heart-pounding action with sizzling chemistry. Readers will be onthe edge of their seats as Case and Nyx fight for survival and love in a worldwhere danger lurks around every corner.

All my books are written so that they can be read as stand alone stories even if they are part of a series.

Wicked Suspicion Coming Sunday!

Three days until Wicked Suspicion is available!!!

Lurch and Nyx. They had moments where they drove me crazy (like all my characters do), but now that they're done, I love this hero and heroine! I hope you will, too.

In thetreacherous world of covert operations, Special Forces Sgt. Case “Lurch”Lundquist thrives on danger. Undercover as a gunrunner, he dances on therazor’s edge, avoiding rebel forces who hunt him relentlessly. But when hismission jeopardizes a woman’s life, he breaks the rules to protect her.

Nyx Templetonis no damsel in distress—usually. But this time, she’s out of her depth. Shedoesn’t trust the rugged mercenary who steps in, until she recognizes him froma picture she saw years earlier. He’s her brother’s best friend. She remainsquiet, knowing one wrong word could cost him everything.

Case battlesto stay focused, but Nyx is a distraction. When she boldly asks him to cash inher V-card, he can’t resist. It’s not just a yes—it’s a hell, yes!

But in thehigh-stakes game of arms dealing, every edge counts. Nyx unwittingly becomes apawn, and Case must navigate a deadly web of betrayal to keep her safe. Asshadows close in, their love becomes the ultimate weapon—one that could savethem both or destroy everything they hold dear.

Wicked Suspicion is a gripping romantic suspense novelthat combines heart-pounding action with sizzling chemistry. Readers will be onthe edge of their seats as Case and Nyx fight for survival and love in a worldwhere danger lurks around every corner.

Facebook Diagnosis

Facebook helped diagnose my ADHD. For real.

In June, I was officially diagnosed with ADHD. I never knew I had it. It never occurred to me that I had it. Sure, my mind was constantly spinning and it was impacting my sleep and other areas of my life, but it never seemed like anything other than a personal problem.

Then one of my Facebook friends posted a meme about ADHD and I liked it because it fit me. The FB algorithm got to work and started showing me more memes both on FB and on Instagram.

And I started liking some of those--the ones that fit me. And I still didn't think I had ADHD.

Until Facebook shared the ultimate meme. It said something like: Either people with ADHD are really relatable, or I need to see a doctor about getting tested.

Whoa! Eye opener right there.

I began to do some research on ADHD, and sure enough, I had enough symptoms that maybe I did need to get tested. Adult women present differently than children and girls present differently than boys, so frequently girls do not get diagnosed.

I was given a collection of tests to take--not all of them related to ADHD--and two weeks later, I got the results. Yes, I did have ADHD.

Some of the stuff I'd seen online from people who found out late in life said it was a major deal for them. It wasn't earthshaking for me, although it was a kind of vindication. So many of the things that I considered personal failings were ADHD.

Now I'm moving forward, trying to find strategies to overcome the ADHD. We're not looking at medication at this point, but we'll see how I do without it.

I honestly never expected to end up here from liking one Facebook post.