J.J. Devine's Blog, page 46

A new week, a new beginning...

Good morning, everyone!!!

It has been a busy weekend between work and getting things done around the house. I worked the early morning shifts all weekend, which I enjoy, and had all evening every day this weekend to spend hanging out with hubby.

However, today is Monday. The pics show what my Monday morning looks like. The temps are already higher than they've been all weekend, which in my book is a plus. Single digit temps are not my favorite, but they are something one must learn to deal with living in the North.

It's a new week which means a new beginning. I look at Mondays as a time to either start over or continue moving forward. I'm not really one of those people who dread Mondays :) I actually look forward to them.

This is my short week at work, so the game plan is to spend a lot of time in my writing world. I have to get my Porch Swing story written so I can get it ready for its first round of critiquing. The story I was going to write went to the wayside for the story I need to write for this book. Yes, this happens from time to time. A story comes to mind so strong that it has to be written.

When I think of porch swings I can't help but think of my history. My grandparents home in Georgia, with porch swings sitting under the shade of big trees. A house that smells of a big pot of butter beans cooking on the stove, biscuits in the oven, and the welcoming feel of a grandmother's house. So, yes, my story stormed to mind out of the blue one afternoon while I was doing my outdoor chores for work last week. All I could think was, "Damn it, now I have to change my storyline."

So, yes, this week will be dedicated to my storyline, getting it down on a document, and getting it off the ground. With two days off after today I believe there is hope for a pretty good start :)

Well that's it for me today. I need to eat a little breakfast and hit the shower.

Everyone have a lovely day!!!

Blessings to all!!!

Some days you just got to get up early...

Good morning, everyone!!!

Today begins my wake up before dawn mornings. Those days where I get up a hour and a half before I have to be at work just to get in that morning coffee, wake up, and be that carefree woman who greets her customers with a smile on my face and a cheerful good morning to all.

Yeah, it takes prep time for such an attitude now that I'm older. Sometimes I miss those days I could hop out of bed a half hour before having to be somewhere, throw on my clothes, run a brush through my hair, toss on a bit of make-up, and out the door with a cup of tea in hand.

Now it is total silence for a good hour before I have to speak with other human beings, at least a cup and a half of coffee to get my motor running, and then I can officially say I'm ready for the real world.

This morning, however, I was awake a half hour before I needed to be, which isn't the best route to take before a busy day that awaits me, but hey, at least I've caffeinated and should have no problem keeping up with all that lies ahead :)

It is Friday, but it is also my weekend to work, which means two more days of these early mornings await me. The next two are an hour earlier than this morning.

Would I trade it for the world? No, I enjoy the people I work with, our regular customers, and the work involved. I see such a diverse group of people each day. There's nothing better for the creative mind than meeting new characters out in the real world each day.

Now there is a downside to this...

I am one who likes to stay indoors as often as possible in the cold weather we get here in Indiana. I'm an outdoor person clean up to the moment the weather drops down in the single digits, then I just want to hide away in my house, pretending it is still warm outdoors :) I just remind myself, however, this too will not last. Spring is just around the corner and with it will come the rains, LOL. Another aspect of weather I would rather be indoors for :)

I guess you could say, it is all in the way you look at things. I am determined this year to keep a positive outlook regardless of what is going on in life and yes, this sets me up for the challenge of tough times but it is a lesson that has to be learned to truly enjoy the happiness this life has to offer.

My challenge to all of you is to find one thing in today that makes you smile. Hold onto that and see if it too changes your outlook on life for one day.

Everyone have a lovely day!!!

Blessings to all!!!

Just be yourself...

Good morning, everyone!!!

Something that has really been on my mind lately is all this non acceptance in the world around us.

Everybody takes offense to everything. It doesn't matter if its a religion, race, just someone says something someone doesn't like. There is nothing in this world that doesn't publically offend someone anymore.

The one thing that really gets under my skin is the wanting to 'pretend' things from history didn't happen by removing them from our society. Well, I've come up with my own thought process on this and some of you may agree some of you may not. Either way, it's how I feel.

See I come from a past that is not something one would call socially acceptable. A past I would love to just say didn't happen, or pretend it had no part in helping me become the woman I am today. However, that would be a lie.

To deny my past would be denying how I got to where I am today. It would diminish the person I've become by saying that past meant nothing. But it did mean something. It gave me the point of view I have today on child abuse, sexual abuse, and also made me firm in my beliefs.

So when I hear people say, "We can't fly this flag, we can't talk about race, we can't do this, we can't do that... We might offend someone," It really puts a spin on things for me. What it tells me is...

Society doesn't want to know how hard someone worked to get where they are today, whether it be an individual or a race of people, or a faith someone choses to follow. Society wants to quietly put to rest the hard work of our ancestors. The blood, sweat, and tears that came with following their hearts to right a wrong.

That is wrong on many levels. Our children deserve to know how hard our ancestors worked to gain freedoms they didn't have while living their lives. Our children need these role models to help them grow into human beings that don't just sit there and say, "That offends me." They need to know why something may offend them, they need to understand these symbols of the past are not there to shame, but are there to remind us that at one given point in time, our ancestors stood up for what was right and made a difference for the world their ancestors now live in.

Just my two cents on a touchy topic. Live your life the way you see fit. However, allow others to live their life also. Learn to be bold in your beliefs then the 'transgressions' of others will stop offending you. You will be too involved in making your world a better place for you and your children.

Everyone have a lovely day!!!

Blessings to all!!!

A new day...

Good morning, everyone!!!

I do believe I am managing a fine medium between all the things I need to do in a day. I'm setting goals, writing lists, and making things happen finally.

I have a good start on my cookbook :) A somewhat all right start on my anthology story, (which my goal this month is to complete the first draft of this story). Believe it or not I've also kept up with my outside job and yes, even my housework. So something is working with me these days :)

Each morning I say a prayer asking my dearest Lady to help me keep on track and thanking her for helping me stay on track the day before. I know if left to my own accord I would find any way possible to procrastinate, yes, because I'm good at it :)

I haven't blogged as often as I would like, which I'm working toward changing that but I've also learned not to badger myself over the things I am not able to accomplish in a day, but just smile as I put it on my list for the next day :) One thing I am pushing myself towards is being happy with what I do accomplish and not putting myself down for the things I don't.

I've noticed some changes in my attitude about life. I look at it from a healthier perspective. Each day, even if I don't feel like it, I crawl out of bed, drink that morning java, and then get my day started, even if that means a day to chill with cheesy Netflix movies :) Which I do allow myself once a week or so :) We all need our down time to recharge our internal batteries :)

I'm very excited about this writing year. I will be branching out and self publishing some of my own stories this year. We've had some super educational speakers at our monthly writing meetings which have helped greatly to keep the energy levels flowing. The excitement over our new anthology is starting to build and soon we will be hosting a facebook party for the first anthology story :) So keep your eyes open for an invite in the near future :)

To sum this up, I am feeling very hopeful for the up and coming year. Is the depression behind me, it is something I deal with daily, but the getting back to normal is starting to take over :) Each day I keep focused is a day closer to my goals :)

Everyone have a lovely day!!!

Blessings to all!!!

Romance Writers Weekly presents...

Welcome back to Romance Writers Weekly!!! As you can see from the banner above, we've made a few changes to go with the changes we've been making amongst our wonderful group. Don't worry we're still doing The Hop each week :) And we still have our fan page :) It was just time to dress us up a bit :)

This week, Jenna Da Sie wants to know all about book covers. What do we like to see on book covers? Both characters, one character, shirts off, fully clothed, faces, silhouettes? and What turns us off from choosing one?

I used to be solid on book covers with the hero and heroine on the cover. I would skip over a book that had no couples on the front.

Over the course of time this concept has changed for me. Now what is important is if the cover relates to the story. I really get frustrated if the cover has nothing to do with what's inside the book.

I was very fortunate when the cover artist made my cover for Into the Darkness. The cover turned out to be a scene from one of my chapters. The moment I saw it there was no doubt in my mind this was the cover for this story.

When I took pictures for The Cheyenne Bride book trailer, my female model insisted on reading the story through before we took the pictures. This allowed her to better help me figure out what pictures we needed to take to move the scenes forward. In the end it allowed me to put together an audio book cover that I was satisfied with.

To me a book cover is the first thing that grabs a reader. There are numerous stories out there, so the cover must grab their attention and make them want to read the blurb, excerpt, first chapter, then finally the book.

The cover is the window dressing to what's in store for the reader. It should say what genre just at a glance.

So that's just my two cents :)



 That's it for me, let's hop over and see what Jenna Da Sie has to say...

http://jennadasie.com

Time to fall in love again...

Good evening, everyone!!!

I feel like this year has gotten off to a good start. It's my year to fall in love with writing again. So many things zapped my creativity that sometimes its hard to know where to begin.

So I do like I always do and start a new project to get the juices running and see where things go from there. I have so many goals for this year and I've posted two of the working covers that are some of my main goals. They just need some major rewrites and a lot of editing and they should be ready to go hopefully by the time our formatting class takes place in March or April :)

Just like any love affair, writing has its up moments and its downside also. You have to work at it to keep the fire burning. That's why setting time to write aside each and every day is so important. It throws kindling on that fire each time you sit at the keyboard and lose yourself in the world of your own making.

If you let your imagination run wild, give it free reign to create, allowing it to take you to places you have only dreamed about in the past. This allows it all to become real. To feed you new insight, new horizons to shoot for. Life can take some amazing turns this way.

I've decided this the year of my imagination. To give it the freedom to help me fall in love with writing all over again. To feed the hunger that my soul craves when I am not writing.

My dreams have been filled with mischief, crazy ideas, and I'm pretty sure a few intuition dreams have fallen in there as well. I'm not a big fan of intuition dreams however, because let's just say they keep me thinking them through for days on end until I finally figure things out.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about falling back into love with my characters. Yes, even the bad guys and side characters :) There is nothing more fun than romance and nothing more incredible than seeing where your characters will take you.

Everyone have a lovely night!!!

Blessings to all!!!

Romance Writers Weekly presents...

Welcome back to Romance Writers Weekly!!!

This week we're answering my question of 'What inspires you? Music? Reading? Movies? People in your life? Situations in life? What gets you motivated to sit down and write?

I have so many things that inspire me. When I first began writing having my favorite radio station playing in the background always gave me inspiration and motivation. Now it only drives me nuts to have anything playing in the background when I'm writing :) Crazy, huh?!?

Reading was also a big plus when it came to getting me over the hump of writer's block. It still does today when I'm really stuck. It frees my mind and allows me to relax enough to get back to work.

Movies are another biggie for me. There are just some that inspire me to connect to my creative juices and take my creativity to another realm. Push my limits so to speak.

Dreams are another biggie for me. I have awaken in the middle of the night to fire up the laptop and write down a scene before morning :)

However, I would have to say my biggest inspiration comes from hubby and I's camping trips. We go someplace where the view is just so breath-taking, that it relaxes me enough to just let my creativity run wild. Nature is definitely my biggest inspiration. Waking up each morning surrounded by the beauty of the world, just does something for me. The smell of a campfire, the sounds of the birds and squirrels, the fresh air, the waves lapping at the shorelines. For me this is the inspiration I need to last me through the winter months to get me at the keyboard pounding out that next Great American Novel :)


Well that's it for me. Let's hop on over to see what inspires Marc to write his steamy novels :)

https://marcstevenserotica.wordpress.com/

Back to work...

Good morning, everyone!!!

Well it is that time of the week again, back to work this afternoon after four lovely days off. Okay, one of those days wasn't so great considering I had a bite of the stomach flu :( But hey, I'd rather have it on a day off than on a day I have to work :)

I didn't get everything I wanted to get done accomplished, BUT I did get a good deal completed and I have felt more like my old self so that is a plus all in itself.

We've had rain, bitter cold, ice, snow, and the works over this weekend and beginning of the week. This morning being the coldest and below zero when I awoke. Schools have been delayed all week and getting out in this was not the top of my list, but when I had to I did. I still have one door on my van that is frozen shut :(

My boys, the dogs pictured above, are loving this weather. It's the husky in them for sure. They are constantly wanting out to play in the white stuff covering our yard. When I refuse to let them out because to me its too cold out there, they romp all over my kitchen until I can't stand it anymore or they've bounced off my table so many times my coffee splashes over the edge of my cup. Then I tell them, "Fine, but its cold out there." When I go to bring them in a few minutes later, you'd think it was summer time out there the way they are romping and playing.

I'm still feeling pretty charged up from our meeting Saturday. I love it when that feeling just washes over you and absorbs into your being. The writing energies are flowing and the desire to get back into the right gear is heavy within. I love that feeling of being me again. I'm so thankful I finally broke down and got some help to get back on my feet. It was the best thing I could have done to help myself.

Depression isn't something to play around with, no matter how stubborn you are. Believe me, ask anyone who knows me, stubbornness in this area is one of my strong suits. I hate drugs. I hate anything that will alter the mind, because frankly, my mind is where I make my living. However, sometimes, we need to do what is best for our own mental well-being, and for me, a low dose of anti-depressants have done the trick and I've asked myself numerous times, why did I wait so long.

There are thousands if not millions of reasons people suffer from depression. I encourage anyone who thinks they might be to please seek help. Don't downplay it, for it robs you of your life. I know first hand how much it took from me.

Well time to get ready to go into my day job.

Everyone have a lovely day!!!

Blessings to all!!!

From rain to snow just like that...

Good morning, everyone!!!

As you know Indiana weather is so unpredictable, this winter season has proven that over and over again. We've hardly seen the 'white stuff' all season and we're into January already.

Yesterday, when I left our amazing monthly writers meeting, the rain followed me all the way home. It poured. While Bug, my youngest son, and I went to dinner, it poured some more. It rained into the night and at some point it changed over to snow and left behind a cover of white all around our little world.

It doesn't bother me. I love the change of seasons and even though its cold, I don't mind the snow :)

Even with all the rain yesterday, it was a very good day. My writing juices were energized with such a productive meeting. We met and listened to Jade Lee. She was just awesome to say the least. A very down to earth sort of woman. Her talk on characters was just great. I can't wait to start reading some of her books I bought yesterday to see how she uses all these tips in her writing :)

Bug and I had a nice date night. We went to dinner, then grabbed a couple of scary movies and came home to put on pjs and have a slumber party in my living room :) It was a nice relaxing evening enjoying hanging with the grandson.

Today, yes, I knew this snow was coming, I am headed out to the grocery and getting that out of the way for the week. Then it is home to work strictly on writing :) I've deemed this day my writing day other than a quick run to the store, because let's face it, I HATE shopping. I am hoping to get a few more recipes uploaded to my computer for the cookbook, then, get back to work on my short story for our anthology, The Porch Swing. As evening draws near I am wanting to put in some editing time also :) I have my vision board right in front of me to help me focus on my goals, so hopefully this will keep me motivated today :)

Well I better get out of these pjs and into some 'real' clothes and get this day going. Bug is still sleeping but I'm sure he'll be up soon and wanting something yummy to eat :)

Everyone have a lovely day!!!

Blessings to all!!!

Just a bit of rambling

Good morning, everyone!!!

I thought while I sat here drinking my coffee and facebooking a little bit, I would go ahead and get another blog in.

Today will be my last day of work at the little store up town for this week. In fact, after today I will have the next four days off!!! My plans for those next four days is very jammed packed full of things to get done or work on.

Tomorrow is Crossroads Romance Writers meeting day. So today I have to finish up the agenda, do a tiny bit more research on a topic of discussion for tomorrow, and then anxiously await our speaker for tomorrow, Jade Lee.

Bug and I will be spending some quality grandson/grandma time together Saturday night. He has no idea yet, and I almost blew it this morning when he found out I had so many days in a row off work and he asked if he could stay the night. I plan to take him out to eat to his favorite restaurant then from there who knows :) I am sure we'll be chilling for a movie at some point, if we can agree on what to watch :) Maybe something with Dragons, we both like dragons :)

Hubby got me a food saver over the holidays, so in the next four days I am going to be making several potato dishes to freeze using up what potatoes I have left from the garden. This will be a huge time saver for me on work days.

I did start work on the unusual cookbook I am preparing to release this year. This is one of those fun projects I can do that will keep me pushing forward. I have a couple of those planned for this year along with some of my more serious writing works I want to get out to all of you. I've also begun my story for The Porch Swing Anthology, The Witch of Wolf Island.

These next four days will give me a good start to my writing year this year as this week has already given me. Something I needed desperately.

I am determined to defeat this down and out syndrome this year. Something that is long overdue. I've told myself I've taken a long enough break to get myself back on track. Now, I just have to be the enforcer of my life. I'll let you know how that works out :)

Everyone have a great day!!!

Blessings to all!!!