J.J. Devine's Blog, page 54

I can only be me... please quit expecting something different

Good afternoon, everyone!!!

I have been sorely neglecting my website and blog this year. I’m truly sorry for this. Life has been on a mild rollercoaster ride lately and between working on this writing career and getting my health back to 100% some days I’m not sure if I am coming or going.

I’ve always been a firm believer in what is in your environment becomes how you feel not only about yourself but in general. I have so many diverse people on my facebook page that a good amount of the time (more so lately than ever before I believe) some of the first posts I see in the mornings to me border the negative. People complaining about this or that or whining. It began to bog me down and really set the wrong mood for my day.

It isn’t just the facebook world that was starting to build with negativity. I guess because of starting my day off with such down and out thoughts, I began to see the distress in everything around me. Recognize the negative patterns of others and allowing those negative patterns to dictate my day and my mood.

It was pretty easy to do this considering the hormonal rollercoaster I’ve been on since my hysterectomy that threw me right into menopause. Then of course when they removed my thyroid a few years back, well, they took that filter between mouth and brain as well, and my patience levels for things has been gone a long time. This impatience is worse when I turn it on myself and makes me not even want to be around myself much less anyone else in the world.

So I began my sharing the love campaign just to help combat the negative that seemed to be sweeping my world, along with some other changes I’ve been making, such as putting distance between myself and situations, not people so much as a situation that arises, or if they are just being negative or are trapped in negative, I give myself the space I need to allow this to wash over me not be absorbed into me. And when this negative is coming solely from me, I give myself a ‘shutdown’ and reenergize myself.

This also goes for those situations where people who are not around me believe they have all the answers on how to get me back on track. I think this is the part that bothers me most, because in the last year or so my life has taken some drastic hits change wise and I’ve been working very hard to incorporate those changes into my life.

The deal is, with my path comes a good bit of solitude, because frankly, a good many authors do live in seclusion. This does NOT mean there is something wrong with us, our attitude, our life, even our health. For without this isolation these aspects of life will decline. What may work for the ‘normal’ person does NOT work for the author, the writer, the ones who live more inside their heads than in the outer world.

I picked up a book yesterday and began reading it. One of the first books I haven’t already read that is completely non-fiction in a long time. This book is geared toward authors. Writing Alone Together, a sort of self-help book for authors J The three ladies who’ve written this book, really grasp the concept of what an author’s life is like and how ‘unnormal’ we really are.  

When I picked up this book it was more for the writing retreat our writing group has coming up. Something that I, as chapter president, could incorporate into our chapter as well. Then as I began to read, the words spoke to me on a level that really told me, these women get it. They are not trying to mold me into the ‘normal’ they are talking about embracing the abnormal within myself.

To write characters effectively an author MUST embrace all the human emotions, live them, breathe them, allow them to consume them for a period of time. These are the tools we use in character writing. These are the aspects of life when writing a character we can sit back, reflect, and incorporate.

This is also why I am so adamant when I say, people don’t understand the artistic. Emotional rollercoasters are not healthy, for sure, however, someone with the arts in their blood MUST experience this phase of life to be effective in their craft. Maybe this is why you will hear the term, ‘moody’ when someone describes an author, artist, or musician?!?

Mingle this behavior trait with my faith and you will come to realize this is why I do not linger for too awful long, just long enough to embrace what I need to take with me into my chosen career.

My faith teaches me to embrace all, this does not just mean the sunshine and roses, this also means the dark corners of the mind, the midnight of the soul. I put no limits on the Powers That Be, for this would be limiting myself as well. For every season there is a reason. In the past I was blinded to this, today, I have grown enough to know, this too shall pass, however, there is a reason I’m here and I must find that purpose and embrace its pain, its anguish, and turn it around to be a positive production within my world.

I will give an example here. The darkest hour of my life served several purposes. The time my lovely granddaughter became an angel. For a period of time I tried to force myself to remain in the company of those who not only embraced me as a friend but also the man and his family who was directly responsible for making my granddaughter an angel. I told myself this was for the greater good of my soul. I was wrong on many levels with that thinking. This stalled my progress, my inner growth, and kept the wound open and seeping.

How can one move into healing if one inflicts self-harm?

Next, it went deeper, forcing me to look closer. Into relationships I had clung to even though they were not healthy relationships to begin with. They went against my grain, my internal beliefs, and for whatever reason I lingered within these relationships a long time. I knew I did not like the person I would become in these relationships, however, I thought I had come past allowing others to influence the person I am. One thing to keep in mind, no matter how far past this behavior you go, if you surround yourself with this lifestyle pattern you will eventually fall victim to it.

Next, the decision I made for my life it was time to face what I’d been avoiding in life. Look into relationships that not only held some of the harshest memories of my life but also some of the happiest memories of my world. This time I went into this bringing forth all I’d learned from the dormant period of these relationships. This has allowed me to make the most of the relationships in my life not only in this area but in other areas.

I examined the relationships closest to me. Realizing the one thing I would run from all too often is when things got too close to home emotionally. In opening my heart to a child that all I wanted to do was bring her home and love, only to know deep down this would never be, allowed me to face this fear and also gave me the knowledge that even in the most horrifying of situations I will survive, even if I just wanted to die. This beautiful angel touched my life and made me a better person for it. She helped me realize we have only this moment so make the most of it.

Lastly, this aspect of my life helped me to embrace emotions in my writing world I would otherwise have only been able to write mediocre. Dark areas of my writing that required me to go deeper into my own self. Scary places I would rather not see, but go there I must and have.

So in conclusion, to all the people in my life…

My non writing family and friends, I’m good. Please quit trying to mold me into ‘normal’ and please quit making me feel as if there is something wrong with me and my inner world because I do NOT fit your line of thinking on how I SHOULD be. This in itself brings more of a burden to my heart than what I may be dealing with.

To my writer friends, I am blessed every day that this aspect of my life you not only understand but allow me the freedom to just be… you get that being alone is our happy place and how large crowds or even small crowds can sometimes be so overwhelming we find ourselves lost in the jumble.

Everyone have a lovely day!!!

Blessings to all!!!

 


 

Please Welcome Sarah Hegger!!!

Nobody’s Angel
Willow Park Romance # 1

By: Sarah Hegger

Releasing March 31st, 2015

Zebra

Blurb

 

In this evocative new series from author Sarah Hegger, a woman returns home after a long absence—and wonders if two wrongs really can make a right...

 

Nine years ago Lucy Flint ran away to Seattle, taking her friend's boyfriend and leaving her high school sweetheart without a word of explanation. Now she's back in Willow Park, Illinois, to help care for her ailing father—and it's no surprise that her ex, Dr. Richard Hunter, is still angry.

 

Still, she's a different Lucy now. Sober, wiser, ready to make amends to the long—make that very long—list of those she mistreated during her wild younger days. Falling for Richard all over again would mean wreaking havoc in both their lives and possibly squandering her opportunity for redemption. But here, in the place where everything went wrong, is the one person who always felt right, and a second-chance that could be the best mistake she ever made…


 Link to Follow Tour:   http://www.tastybooktours.com/2014/12/nobodys-angel-willow-park-1-by-sarah.html

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22494932-nobody-s-angel?from_search=true

 

Buy Links:   Amazon  |  Barnes  |  ITunes  |  Kobo

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Nobodys-Angel-Willow-Park-Romance/dp/1420137395

B&N:   http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nobodys-angel-sarah-hegger/1119742529?ean=9781420137392

iTunes:   https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/nobodys-angel/id928922851?mt=11

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/nobody-s-angel-8

 

Author Info

Born British and raised in South Africa, Sarah Hegger suffers from an incurable case of wanderlust. Her match? A hot Canadian engineer, whose marriage proposal she accepted six short weeks after they first met. Together they’ve made homes in seven different cities across three different continents (and back again once or twice). If only it made her multilingual, but the best she can manage is idiosyncratic English, fluent Afrikaans, conversant Russian, pigeon Portuguese, even worse Zulu and enough French to get herself into trouble.

Mimicking her globe-trotting adventures, Sarah’s career path began as a gainfully employed actress, drifted into public relations, settled a moment in advertising, and eventually took root in the fertile soil of her first love, writing. She also moonlights as a wife and mother.She currently lives in Draper, Utah, with her teenage daughters, two Golden Retrievers and aforementioned husband. Part footloose buccaneer, part quixotic observer of life, Sarah’s restless heart is most content when reading or writing books.

She loves to hear from readers and you can find her at any of the places below.

 

 

 

 

Author Links:  Website  | Facebook |  Twitter  | Goodreads

Website:   http://sarahhegger.com/


Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/sarahheggerauthor?ref=hl


Twitter:   https://twitter.com/SarahHegger


Goodreads:   https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8202895.Sarah_Hegger a Rafflecopter giveaway

Romance Writers Weekly presents...

Welcome back to Romance Writers Weekly!!! This week Raine Balkera http://rainebalkera.blogspot.com/ would like to hear about our ATM (at the moment) projects. She’s giving away five bonus points for including in today’s blog a wee bit of our favorite scene J So let’s see what can I come up with….

Most recently I’ve had a couple of projects going (Raine, do I get double points if I post a wee bit of both?) one I need to have the rough draft completed by April 1st. It is an anthology a few of my chapter mates and I are working on self-publishing, called The Hope Chest.

Each of the stories will have the words “Hope Chest” in there somewhere. Now this doesn’t mean each of the stories revolve around a hope chest, and ‘hope chest’ doesn’t have to mean an actual hope chest (one of the ladies is writing a story… well… you’ll just have to read the book).

My story and an author friend of mine who is participating in the anthology have decided we would join our stories a bit. My story is a historical romance, Come Home With Me, and hers a time travel ordeal. One of her characters and one of mine are distant relatives with the same hope chest.

My heroine, Dusty Carmichael finds herself alone, in a strange place (she has no clue where she is, only that she’s on the trail westward), and if finally being free from her abusive husband isn’t enough, her soft hearted nature takes over when she finds a Cheyenne warrior unconscious and dying, bringing him to her makeshift home to heal.

Lightfoot, my hero, you will find him in a few of my full length historical novels as a secondhand character. He has a prominent role in Passionate Pursuit and Come Home With Me takes place after that storyline. He’s the jilted lover, the warrior who cannot stop his attraction to white women if someone threatened his life. However, his white women have to have a few things in common, the need for a man to look out for them, to protect them, and a man who can prove to them not all men in this world are evil.

Come Home With Me is a short story that has been giving me fits for a few weeks now. I am making progress, thank goodness, but I normally write 80,000 to 100,000 word stories, this one needs to be 5,000 to 10,000 words. You guessed it, I’m over word count J

Here is a small clip, that has not gone through any editing so please be kind:

            “I asked where I am.”  He kept his tone firm.

         “You speak English?”  Her words crackled out as another tremor shook her.

         “Yes, I speak English.  Now for the third time, where am I?”

         “You were wounded in a battle…” her voice wavered.

         “Why do you tell me what I already know?  Tell me where in the hell am I?”

         She spun on her heel the cup in her grasp fell to the floor.  “If I knew where the hell I was I would tell you.”

The other project I’ve been working on as most of you know, is Destiny’s Price. This one I need to be perfect. I wrote it all those years ago when I was ‘way off’ on writing rules, so it has been a complete overhaul on writing.  However, I do love the changes I’ve made and that’s what matters right?!?

In Destiny’s Price, you’ve met my hero and heroine before if you’ve read The Cheyenne Bride. This is Stephen Davis’s book. This is the book where you get to find out what happened to Destiny. So instead of going into a lengthy description on what this book is about, I’ll let you grab The Cheyenne Bride and see if your interest is peeked enough to read Destiny’s Price. I’ll even give you a sneak peek at the temporary cover, not a completed project just yet J

But for a tiny teaser, how about this????

            Her body convulsed against his, and Stephen didn’t know if it was from fear or shock. “Please don’t leave me, Stephen.  If I am to die tonight I want it to be looking at your face.”

         Her desperate words gripped his heart. For the second time in a day, he stood there covered in her blood. By all rights, she should already be dead.

Well that’s it for me today….Let’s hop on over to Betty Bolte and see what she has in store for us J

http://www.bettybolte.com/blog.htm

Romance Writers Weekly presents...

Welcome back to Romance Writers Weekly!!! This week since it’s St. Patty’s Day Betty Bolte http://www.bettybolte.com/blog.htm would like us to tell you how we celebrate our day or how we’d like to.

For the last seven years there’s only been one way for our family to celebrate today, J With a birthday party!!! Today, is this grandma’s little Irish Rose, my little ‘garden weed’s” as she likes to be called, birthday.

 

There’s a story behind the reason she likes to be called my garden weed and of course I will take the opportunity today to tell you about the day this began.

 

One school break last year I rented the movie, The Odd Life of Timothy Green for her and her brother. One thing you must know about me, I have planted a garden for every year this young lady has been alive. She also has helped me plant, weed, and harvest every year. Her first year, she would eat the veggies out of the wooden bowl I used to harvest them as fast as I put them in the bowl.

 

I really wasn’t sure she liked the movie or even paid much attention to it, as she would rather do pretty much anything other than watch tv when she’s at grandma’s house. So imagine my surprise when she popped off with a question about a month later.

 

“Grandma, did you grow me in your garden?”

 

I looked at her rather strangely, because frankly I had completely spaced the movie and all it was about.

 

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

 

“You know, did you grow me in your garden like Timothy? Timothy Green from the movie.”

 

A lightbulb surely popped up over my head at this point, as dawning fell over me and of course being the grandmother I am, I quickly came up with an idea.

 

“Well of course I grew you in my garden,” I said, “You’re my little garden weed.”

 

A huge smile crossed her lips, “Just like Timothy. So why don’t I have leaves on my legs?”

 

“Well,” I proceed to tell her. “You did have leaves on your legs when I first pulled you out of the mud, but one by one, just like Timothy, yours fell off.”

 

“So why am I still here? He had to leave once all his leaves fell off.”

 

Darn, trapped in my own lie, but being a quick thinker, I came up with a solution. “Well, you see, we loved you so much that the powers that be allowed you to remain with us, for you to always be my little garden weed.”

 

“So I don’t have to have leaves on my legs anymore?”

 

“Well, of course not,” I said. “You my dear met every aspect of life we wrote down on those little pieces of paper to grow you and now you’re free from the leaves on your legs and can be ours forever.”

 

To this day, she enjoys being called my little garden weed, especially in the gardening months when our garden is being prepared and growing.

 

This year we celebrated her birthday with a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. What could be more appropriate for a grandma’s garden weed?!?

Now let’s head off to see how Carolyn Spear has answered today’s question, shall we???

 

http://www.carolynspearromance.com/blog

Romance Writers Weekly presents...

Welcome back to Romance Writers Weekly!!! This week it is all about the writing retreat!!! S.C. Mitchel https://scmitchell.wordpress.com/ has asked us to describe our perfect writing retreat J This is perfect timing seeing as my writing chapter is now in the process of sealing up the deal on our up and coming writing retreat J

I have gone to a few writing retreats since belong to writing groups. Some of them are for a weekend some are just a bunch of writers getting away for a day.

For me, a writing retreat is that time spent with others writers where you can completely be yourself. I’m sure this doesn’t make sense at the moment so I hope to explain it better as I write this.

I make no secret that I have a very supportive family when it comes to writing, however, I also don’t make any secret of them looking at me as if I’ve grown a second head when it comes to talking about writing or my current WIP.

My ideal writing retreat is any retreat I go on with my trusted writing friends. These are fellow authors I’ve critiqued with, goaled with, brainstormed with, and just in general shared life with.

This year we are holding our writing retreat in May. It will be at a nice little bed and breakfast in Arcadia, Indiana called the Crop-A-Doodle-Do http://cropadoodledo.com/   where we will have the entire two story house to ourselves for an entire weekend. Food, campfires, writing, and socializing.

During these retreats, I enjoy the writing time and the socializing. The brainstorming is probably one of my most favorites. This gives us opportunities to discuss what we’re working on, or plan to be working on, and really takes us to a new level on bonding.

Writing retreats are amazing to help me get those writing juices flowing again. Spending time with so many creative minds the artistic energy just overflows and lingers for weeks afterward.

For me it is like a writer’s slumber party J Writers heaven so to speak. I really feel if you belong to a writers group this is the perfect way to help build your relationships with your fellow group members. It gives you an opportunity to get together with fellow authors and learn about one another on a level different from that of over the internet or in the handful of hours you spend at a writing meeting. It adds that personal touch needed to build trust.

Okay, let’s hop on over to A.S. Fenichel and see what her take on this is…

http://asfenichel.net/blog/

Romance Writers Weekly presents...

Welcome back to Romance Writers Weekly!!! Today, Elizabeth Janette http://elizabeth-janette.blogspot.com/ wants us to give the scoop on our writing space. I love this idea because sometimes I think people don’t realize being an author is a job, not just a hobby and sure we write anywhere and everywhere, but a good many of us have that one spot, whether it be an office, kitchen table, favorite comfy chair in the living room, poolside, or wherever it happens to be, we have that space, that comfort zone that allows our minds to drift away from reality and form the stories we love to write.

For me that main comfort zone is either at the end of my kitchen table or my office. Sure in warmer weather I write on my back porch, around the campfire, or sitting in the campsite. But on a normal daily basis there is only one of two places you will find me, the end of the kitchen table (as I am right now) or at the desk in my office.

The kitchen table allows me to mimic still being social. It gives the illusion I am participating in the real world even when I am far away in either one of my historical romances or my paranormal realm. The upside to writing here is I can multitask. I write awhile and wash some dishes. Write some more fold a load of laundry or straighten up a room. This area is not really ideal for serious “can’t be interrupted” writing, because my OCD kicks in and if I can see it needs done, it bugs the hell out of me. This area has also been ideal for housebreaking the new addition to our household, Bear. He’s so used to me sitting in my chair at the table; he learned rather quickly how to inform me he needed to go out the backdoor behind me J

Now my office is my happy place. I could hide away in there for days and never come out. I painted it pink and garnet for the sole reason no one else would want to use this room J Okay so it is peaceful colors for me, also.

The dressers I use as file cabinets, sort of the camouflage of the room. It gives me a lot of storage space for all those papers that would otherwise be cluttering up my writing space and kicking my OCD in the ass.

As you can see from the pics my exercise equipment is also a part of my office area. This is part of my new ‘me’ routine and something to help keep me energized and my mind sharp (this is what I tell myself anyway, LOL).

I love working in my office because it gives me that escape from all else in life. I can hide away from any clutter remaining downstairs when I slack on housework to work on my novels. Out of sight out of mind, right?!?

Everything in my office is easy access, such as a dry erase calendar to help me keep track of what happens on what days. My datebook is my mobile tracker, going from downstairs to upstairs with my laptop J Corkboards for posting little notes on scenes, characters, reminders, anything that I don’t want to lose.

I keep my vision board on the wall directly across from my desk, so when I look up I am reminded of what I need to accomplish for the year and therefore get back to work. The posters of my book covers line the walls, in hopes one day I will have so many book covers there will NOT be enough space to hold them all J This also helps keep me pounding away at the keyboard. The memory of where this all began and where it has lead me.

In the file drawer of my desk I keep a blue binder with the very first copy of The Cheyenne Bride (It was called Valley of Love in those days). On those self-doubt days I pull it out, open it up, and read the horrifying writing that once made up my world. When I see how far I’ve come since that very first day, I realize I can do this.





Well that’s it for me this week. Let’s hop on over to the amazing S.C. Mitchell’s page and see what he has in store for us…

http://scmitchellauthor.com/

 

 

Romance Writers Weekly presents...

Welcome back to Romance Writers weekly!!! This week I’ve asked the authors of Romance Writers Weekly to come up with a flash fiction story using these three words, happiness, egg, and purple. Yeah, pretty random, huh?!? I would lay money on it though there will be some pretty amazing stories this week on the hop!!!

So let me see if I can come up with something…

“Yes! Happiness is my name. Happi for short,” she snapped in annoyance. Why did men always seem so surprised her eccentric mother thought to name her only daughter after an emotion? After twelve sons, she was sure her mother had been filled with nothing less than such with the announcement her thirteenth child was a girl. Besides, she was positive her mother wanted to counteract any and all evil that would tarnish a child born under such a number.

She returned her concentration back to the plain white egg nestled in her palms, trying to focus on her spell.  

“I meant no harm by asking,” the deep baritone voice interrupted her once again.

With a huff, Happi looked up from her task. A strange vibration began to consume her, first beginning in her chest and flowing outward until it reached all her extremities. “Are you a witch?” Looking into his face, she found she could not glance away. Surely, he was a witch, one that was attempting to use his magic on her.

Rich laughter filled the air of her normally quiet clearing. “A witch? What would bring about such a question?” the stranger asked.

Irritation fast consumed her. First this handsome visitor disturbed her practice, now he made fun of her question. “Go away, I need to perfect my spell work,” she grumbled. “I have no time for the charms such as you are trying to use upon me.”

His large hand closed over hers sending a jolt of electricity gushing through her. The egg in her palms began to glow a soft purple. Shock overwhelmed her. He was most assuredly a witch and a powerful one at that.

“Who are you?”

His hands gentled around hers, caressing her flesh with his thumbs, adding to the energy passing from him to her. “Who do you wish me to be?” he answered her question with a question.

Happi tried to remove her hands from his light grasp, but the magnetic pull from his soul to hers was too dominant. Instead, her eyes met his. Two round orbs the color of a sunset, purple, midnight blue, and orange, starring back at her. Her heart skipped a beat when two pearl white fangs dropped from their sheath.

Of course, who else could possibly have the power of seduction? “Go away, vampire. I have work to do.” She willed her strength to look away, to put a barrier up within her heart, to no avail.

“Do you really wish for me to go? I sense otherwise. Does the spell you are working on not have to do with finding your soul mate? Does the egg’s coloring not prove your incantation has been a success? Why else would a vampire enter the realm of witches?” His voice was as smooth and soothing as a salve to a wound.

Happi observed the egg in her hands the illuminant purple was now brighter than moments before. No! There was no such thing as a vampire being the other half to a witch’s soul.

There you have it. Now let’s hop on over to Veronica Forand’s page and see what she has in store for us!!!

http://veronicaforand.com/