Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 3

(Sort Of) Mid-Year Planner Review

The planner community has a period in May/June (before the academic year planners come out) where many planner people reflect on what's working for them and what isn't. It's also a time of year when you might see people moving into new planners.

In May and June, I was working on revisions and edits for my July release, and when I wasn't working on revisions, I was doing the readathon. I wasn't paying attention and I have a planner system that was mostly working for me, so I ignored the mid-year reviews going on. And then I thought, you know, it might not be a bad idea.

I'm late. It's August, but here I am with my mid-year review.

FYI, I received no compensation of any kind for this post. I purchased everything I talk about here at full price. These are my true thoughts and opinions.

My 2025 Journey Planner remains fabulous! I bought the A5 size this year and I'll probably stay in the A5 next year, although it is tempting to try the B6. That's the sweet spot for me as far as size goes, but I like all the room I have in the A5 and I'm not sure I want to lose any of it.

Lessons learned in 2025: I would not put as many stickers on the daily pages as I did. I put holidays and moons and charge the fitness tracker and all kinds of stuff like this at the top of the daily page. I also wouldn't put washi tape across the bottom of every daily page. Or the birthday and anniversary stickers. While doing this in my former planner worked well, it's not as great in a planner with Tomoe River Paper and it made it difficult to write by mid year.

Lesson one: Less stickers and washi tape

The weekly section of the planner remains a work in progress (as I said earlier) I like putting the daily weather in at the top, and I like keeping track of my word count at the bottom, but the middle section remained a testing zone. I did learn that I prefer my reading for the week to be listed in the side bar rather than across the days.

You can see in this picture that I have the currently reading spread across the days. This is the problem with setting things up in advance. I'm stuck with a spread in November that I already know I don't like that well. Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm stuck with this until the end of the year.

Lesson two: Test things out before setting up the rest of the year.

With the Journey planner, I've used the monthly pages in ways I've never used my monthlies before. Including using itty bitty icons for when my lawn service comes, when I run the dishwasher, when I do laundry, or when I have a book club Zoom.

I've never been a huge icon fan, but these really small icons I found work for me really well. I'll do this next year, too. This alleviates some of the stress on the daily pages, especially as far as stickers go. It's also easier to look at the monthly page and say, my yard hasn't been cut in eleven days, rather than paging backward through the dailies.

Lesson three: Tiny icons rock

What didn't work this year: multiple planners. I thought it would be easier to keep track of monthly and weekly tasks if I had separate planners that I kept open all the time. That was not true. I did better once I moved everything from my monthly and weekly into my Journey planner.

I also learned that while I really like having a smaller, Everyday Carry (EDC) planner, I should have gotten a monthly booklet for this rather than a full weekly planner with notes pages. I'm only using the monthly pages in this planner, and when I take it with me, I'm only recording on the monthly pages. This will save hauling around more than I need. I still don't know what I'm going to do with those notes pages when the year is over.

Lesson four: One planner beats multiple planners

2025 was about testing new planners to see which one would work for me. Prior to this year, I'd been using the same daily planner for a decade. But I strained against the format of that planner, and every year it got worse and worse for me. The biggest problem was Saturday and Sunday sharing a page, but I had other problems, too. I outgrew this planner years ago, but wasn't ready to give it up.

Because I didn't know which planner would work best for me, I tried out a number of them. I didn't want to leave the ones I decided not to use empty, so I thought multiple journals! This did not work. I don't need four journals. One was enough. I decided it was okay to not finish those planners.

I also am using one of the extra planners as a duplicate to have on the other side of the house. I really like this planner. A lot. Except the year is split into two books and that is a deal breaker for me. It's already become a chore to sync this planner with my Journey planner. My idea of using it as a writing planner didn't work. It's too much planner for what I need for writing.

Lesson five: It's okay to not use planners that don't work for you

I have two more tests I'm running for the second half of this year. One is for a planner that might work as a writing planner because it's a lot less planner than the one I mentioned above. The second involves time blocking in addition to time tracking.

I will report more on this later. This post is already too long. 

Final Day for Special Price!

Today (Monday, August 4th) is the final day to save money on Wicked Ambition!

I want to give my fans (and friends) an opportunity to save money on my books, so I always have the first two weeks (and the preorder) at a lower price. Tomorrow, the price increases, so if you haven't grabbed your copy of Oz and Ayla yet, this is the final chance to get the introductory price.

 

Ayla Desmond never takes risks, but when she senses her twin is in trouble, she boards a plane to Puerto Jardin—a country teetering on the 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 deadly game where trust is scarce and danger is everywhere.
 
Special Forces Sgt. Oziah “Wizard” West is the king of one-night stands, but he hasn’t been able to forget the last woman he hooked up with, a mysterious blonde who slipped away from his hotel room. When he spots her 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’d rather forget, but circumstances force them together. Surrounded by mercenaries and stalked by an arms dealer who believes she holds the key to a hidden treasure, she has no choice but to rely on the enigmatic stranger who ignited her passion. As danger escalates, so do their feelings, and then a positive pregnancy test changes everything.
 
Now, Oz risks not only his heart but also his life to protect Ayla and their unborn child. Can they survive the treacherous game they’re caught in, or will their love become the ultimate casualty?

Wicked Ambition is a stand-alone romance with a HEA. There are references to events that happened in earlier books, but it's not necessary to read them to enjoy this story.

 

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

 

Wicked Obsession Is On Sale!

Wicked Obsession is on sale!
If you've been hesitant to pick up a copy or if you read this book while it was in Kindle Unlimited and want your own copy, now is your chance! Wicked Obsession is available for $.99 for a very limited time.
This is the book that kicked off The Paladin League series.

Blue-Blooded Woman

As an ambassador's daughter, Langley Canfield has lived all over the world, but she's never fit in—not abroad and not at home. She thought she found a man who loved her for who she is, but when it becomes obvious that she's the only one with deep feelings, Langley breaks up with him and heads across the country for a friend's wedding.

Blue-Collar Guy

Special Forces Sergeant Ryder Pienkowski knew that he'd never be able to hold on to Langley Canfield, that she was completely out of his league, but it still stuns him when she ends things between them. He's trying to get her out of his head when her father arrives and tells Ryder there's a death threat directed at her. Without hesitation, Ryder hops on a plane and flies out to protect Langley. She might not want him anymore, but he's not letting anyone hurt her.

The sale ends Sunday. Wicked Obsession is available at Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Grab your copy today and save! (Universal link. Will allow you to select your store of choice.)

Final Week of Special Pricing

Six more days to get Wicked Ambition at special pricing! On August 4th, the price increases.

Ayla Desmond never takes risks, but when she senses her twin is in trouble, she boards a plane to Puerto Jardin—a country teetering on the 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 deadly game where trust is scarce and danger is everywhere.
 
Special Forces Sgt. Oziah “Wizard” West is the king of one-night stands, but he hasn’t been able to forget the last woman he hooked up with, a mysterious blonde who slipped away from his hotel room. When he spots her 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’d rather forget, but circumstances force them together. Surrounded by mercenaries and stalked by an arms dealer who believes she holds the key to a hidden treasure, she has no choice but to rely on the enigmatic stranger who ignited her passion. As danger escalates, so do their feelings, and then a positive pregnancy test changes everything.
 
Now, Oz risks not only his heart but also his life to protect Ayla and their unborn child. Can they survive the treacherous game they’re caught in, or will their love become the ultimate casualty?

Wicked Ambition is a stand-alone romance with a HEA. There are references to events that happened in earlier books, but it's not necessary to read them to enjoy this story.

 

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

For the Birds

I thought my bird issue was solved earlier this spring when I accidentally hit a bird with my Swiffer duster while it was trying to build a nest on my back patio post. I was wrong.

At the beginning of June, I opened the blinds and saw my little bird friends were busy again. Luckily, once again I caught them immediately.

I brushed down the little bit of grass and mud there and hoped it would be enough to remind them of what happened earlier in the year.

Spoiler alert: It wasn't.

Unwilling to waste the kind of time it took in the spring to deal with this little construction team, I pulled out the heavy artillery. Plastic spikes.

I bought these in the spring, but I didn't need to use them after I accidentally Swiffered a bird. I had thick, double-sided tape that I planned to use to attach them to the top of the post.

First, let me say those spike freaking hurt! I managed to stab my fingers and hands several times and dropped one that I caught upside down on my thigh. Ouch! Unfortunately, this required a trip up on the ladder, something I hate because I have this thing about heights, but I was able to mostly reach from two-rungs up.

The tape didn't really stick, but I put them up on both posts anyway and hoped for the best.

When I looked out the window later and saw one of the birds sitting atop those darn spikes, I was like, crap, they're going to build a nest on top of the damn things and now Swiffering is going to be a pain in the butt because it'll knock the spikes down.

But I was overly pessimistic. As it turned out, I watched the birds show up with more nesting material, hover, looking at the spikes, and then give up.

There was an initial attempt to put the nest on the cross wood, but that was maybe an inch wide and they were unable to balance the material on such a narrow piece of wood. They moved on.

Bird spikes for the win!

Get Wicked Ambition Today!

The blog is a day early this week because Wicked Ambition is available today! You can get Special Fan Pricing and save some money if you get it soon!

This is book seven in the ten-book Paladin League series. Like all the other books in the series, this one can be read as a stand alone.

This is Oziah West's story. He's been undercover with Vargas, but was fired in the previous book because he helped his teammate escape from the drug lord's compound.

His heroine is Ayla Desmond, the woman he had an unforgettable night with seven weeks earlier when Oz was in Los Angeles for a wedding. Ayla works for the Paladin League...in Public Relations and has no idea what Archer and his team really do. All she knows is her twin sister is in trouble and there's no one else to help her.

Ayla is not a fan of adventure or traveling, but she'll do anything for her sister, even board a plane and take a nine-hour flight to Puerto Jardin. She's in over her head quickly, but luckily Oz is there to bail her out of trouble and help her look for his missing twin.

Ayla Desmond never takes risks, but when she senses her twin is in trouble, she boards a plane to Puerto Jardin—a country teetering on the 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 deadly game where trust is scarce and danger is everywhere. 

Special Forces Sgt. Oziah “Wizard” West is the king of one-night stands, but he hasn’t been able to forget the last woman he hooked up with, a mysterious blonde who slipped away from his hotel room. When he spots her 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’d rather forget, but circumstances force them together. Surrounded by mercenaries and stalked by an arms dealer who believes she holds the key to a hidden treasure, she has no choice but to rely on the enigmatic stranger who ignited her passion. As danger escalates, so do their feelings, and then a positive pregnancy test changes everything. 

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

Wicked Ambition is a stand-alone romance with a HEA. There are references to events that happened in earlier books, but it's not necessary to read them to enjoy this story. 

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

Wicked Ambition in Four Days!

Four days! FOUR days until Wicked Ambition is released!

Official release day is Monday, July 21st.

Wicked Ambition is Oz and Ayla's story and it will be at special fan pricing for the first two weeks of release. After that, the price increases, so grab it on pre-order or grab it as soon as it comes out, and save some money.

The Blurb:

Ayla Desmond never takes risks, but when she senses her twin is in trouble, she boards a plane to Puerto Jardin—a country teetering on the 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 deadly game where trust is scarce and danger is everywhere.
 
Special Forces Sgt. Oziah “Wizard” West is the king of one-night stands, but he hasn’t been able to forget the last woman he hooked up with, a mysterious blonde who slipped away from his hotel room. When he spots her 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’d rather forget, but circumstances force them together. Surrounded by mercenaries and stalked by an arms dealer who believes she holds the key to a hidden treasure, she has no choice but to rely on the enigmatic stranger who ignited her passion. As danger escalates, so do their feelings, and then a positive pregnancy test changes everything.
 
Now, Oz risks not only his heart but also his life to protect Ayla and their unborn child. Can they survive the treacherous game they’re caught in, or will their love become the ultimate casualty?


Wicked Ambition (like every book in the Paladin League series) is a stand-alone romance with a HEA. There are references to events that happened in earlier books, but it's not necessary to read them to enjoy this story.

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

The Weekly System Test

For the rest of the year, I'm going to test out a new weekly system for my planner. It's a modification of something I was doing the first half of the year. That system was mostly okay, but not perfect.

My planner has monthly, weekly, and daily pages. I've tried weekly planners previously (without daily pages) and knew they didn't work for me. That meant I wouldn't be using my weekly pages the way they were intended to be used.

The planner I'd used for the last ten years was a daily planner with monthlies. Now I had all these weekly pages and I didn't want to waste them.

Once I discovered a monthly sticker dashboard, I had my monthly planning set. The calendar pages were a quick overview and the dashboard was how I keep track of what I need to do that month. I did a thorough planner review in March and you can see the picture of my dashboard partway through the post. There are also pictures of the not-quite-right weekly system there.

  This is my spread for a week in November. I used washi tape to separate my sections. The top is to record the weather. High and low temperatures and I have a stamp set for sunny, partly sunny, cloudy, etc. The second section is where one of the changes happened. Because of how well the monthly dashboard worked for me, I wanted to find something along those lines, but not as large. I didn't need everything I used for the month. I finally found these box stickers. I'll add circles to the This Week box later for checking things off. The "Projects" and "This Week" stickers are separate and I put them over the top of the boxes. Projects and This Week are not for writing, although in April and May when I was doing revisions for Wicked Ambition , I did use projects for writing then. When I'm writing the draft, there is a special section just to keep track of that. The third section is brand new. I was keeping track of my reading on the daily page of my planner, but while that made sense in my old planner, it wasn't making sense in my current one. It got to be annoying trying to find what I was reading when and I spent a lot of time looking up this information on StoryGraph. So much simpler to give Reading its own section. I had some leftover small (but not too small) boxes from sticker kits I'd partially used, so I put those down on the page to block out the times. Another idea I'm going to try is listing the books read down the side of the weekly spread. I don't think it will be quite as helpful as the day by day breakdown shown above, but I tried out some longer boxes on some of the weeklies and there wasn't room for this extra section. The bottom section is all about word count and word count goals. This is where I keep track of my writing. This is also a holdover from earlier in the year. This worked really well for me and I knew I wanted to keep it. I'd like some stickers instead of needing to write everything out, but those will bulk out the planner, so maybe not. I'm hopeful this experiment works so that I'll be set for next year. I intend to buy this same planner again because it's nearly perfect. OMG! Such a welcome change from my old planner. I finally have the room I need to keep myself on track. If this layout doesn't work, I'll have to brainstorm new suggestions for 2026.

The Countdown Begins

Eleven days until Wicked Ambition releases!

Remember, that special fan pricing will expire two weeks after the book's release, so buying it early saves you money!

Oz and Ayla have been in my thoughts for nearly a year now. Actually, for longer than a year because one scene came to me while I was in the middle of Wicked Suspicion, Case and Nyx's book.

Getting scenes early happened to me while I was writing my first published book, and I'd stop what I was doing to write them down. And always by the time I got to the place where the scene should go, it wouldn't work. The characters had changed too much. Needless to say, I was leery about writing this Oz and Ayla scene down early.

But they were interfering with Case and Nyx and I couldn't get anything written. Finally, I thought, fine, I'll write this scene down just to get it out of my head. I need to get going on the story I'm supposed to be working on.

I grabbed my B6 planner/journal, wrote down all the dialogue and a tiny bit of other information, and hoped for the best. It worked, I was able to get back to Wicked Suspicion.

There wasn't a doubt in my mind that the scene wouldn't work when I got to the place it belonged. Only it did! I was shocked. Shocked! And relieved. I hate writing things that won't make the book.

Let me know what you think of Chapter 16. The second scene. That's the one I wrote more than a year early.

Odds and Ends

I don't have enough of any single thing I wanted to talk about to make a full post out of it, so I thought I'd just bullet point some of them.

Every year, a mockingbird family has nested in one of the trees in my front yard. I always enjoy when their baby makes its appearance, but this year? No nest. I'm so disappointed.

 I mentioned that I owned seven books in JAK's (writing as Jayne Castle) Harmony series. I own the anthology with the novella Bridal Jitters, too, but the source I looked at it called it .5 instead of 1 in the series. So between my Harmony collection and what the library owns, I can read the entire series. Almost. Guild Boss is not available. The publisher has the eBook priced at $8.99. Gah! I can get the audiobook at the library, but I'd rather read.

 I mentioned the readathon helped me find some new authors that I loved. There's also a year-long reading challenge from the same group. I had to get a recommendation from one of my friends to fulfill one of the prompts because it's a genre I don't read. I now have another author to glom. I might have to find more reading challenges.

 When I loaded up my kanban board for the next Paladin League book, I used page markers instead of full sized Post-it notes. It takes up less space and made it easier to load all the chapters. I think I'll like it?

 I love having a reading journal! It's a little futzy using my sticker cutter to make book cover stickers and I'm definitely not good at decorating it, but it brings me joy. It also encourages me to finish books.

 I was reading books on my phone or my iPad. Buying an eReader made a big difference for me in how much reading I do. It's much lighter than my phone and it's easier to hold it for long periods of time. I probably would have figured this out earlier if I could have found my Kindle. No, as of writing this, I still haven't found it. I gave it to my dad, and he passed away. I don't know where he put it and I haven't found it yet.

 I think I have my weekly planning system figured out. When I'm sure, I'll do a full post.