Jaymee Jacobs's Blog, page 4

Lessons Learned: First Drafts

I learned a lot over the past months as I worked on Breakout Play .

My life has been full of ups and downs so far in 2016, which has affected my writing time. And then, when I sat down to write, I struggled with getting the words out of me. Since I'm a relentless perfectionist, I wanted the first draft to be, well, perfect. I wanted every sentence to be well-crafted and full of detail. So of course I painstakingly agonized over every. single. word.

The prose didn't flow; it trickled slowly onto the page.

Once it was finished, I sent it out to my critique partner and beta readers for notes and comments. They pointed out what they thought didn't work and what worked, and I dove back into my draft to make it better. To make it the book on your eReaders today.

That's when it hit me: being a good writer isn't in writing a good first draft. No, being a good writer means being able to craft the story over the course of several drafts.

Writing a first draft is like making clay. It's making mud, making substance, that you can use later; it's getting words on a page that you can delete or add to during the coming phases of revision and editing. This should not be the hard part about writing a story.

So when you work with the second draft (and every, you're shaping the clay that's already been made into a form. This is the hard part. This is where all the work is, when you use your muscles to knead, roll out, and assemble the statue and use your brain to envision what it is you're planning and then execute. It's carving the lines and details that will reveal the true beauty in the art. It's cutting out sections or chapters that don't help to advance the plot or define the characters, and instead layering in details and emotions that you missed the first time around. It's shaping the story into something smoothly written but what tells the story that was inside you all along.

I learned that the only thing that matters about first drafts is getting them finished.

Because once they're finished, that's when the real work begins.

But you can't work with something that isn't there. You need words on the page in order to mold the story into what you want it to be.

With this lesson learned, I hope to crank out first drafts more quickly with the intentions of spending more times on the revisions. I'm thinking that this can help me publish more quickly—but I'm hesitant to make any guarantees! After all, I did make a resolution to publish three novels this year, and I've only been able to tick one off my list.

As always, I will keep you updated!

The Party Continues!

I'm so excited! Breakout Play is finally out, and yesterday was a great release day!


The celebration continues today at Toni Anderson's iBook Club "Sweet Romance" August Party. Join me and some other great sweet romance writers! It starts at 3:00pm, and the contests will be open for 48 hours. Be sure to check it out and enter to win some iBooks.

And check out the Rafflecopter giveaway going on for the next month (until September 20). You can win a $100 iTunes gift card!

Finally! The News You've Been Wanting to Read...

Happy August 1st! Usually I'd be lamenting that another month has come and gone, but that will not be the case today. You see, July was a busy month, and I've set a date for Breakout Play to release! Are you ready? It'll be coming to you on... *drum roll* August 22!

That's three weeks from today!

I'm working on getting all the preorder links. Once I have them, I'll blast them all over social media. You won't be able to miss your opportunity to preorder.

Be sure to add Breakout Play  to your Goodreads to-read list.

Want a chance to read Adam and Ally's story before August 22? It's possible as long as you're signed up to be a part of my ARC group. If you aren't and would like to be, find out more info and how to sign up here.

I'm also giving my newsletter subscribers a chance to read Breakout Play for FREE. Yes, that's right. I feel awful about how far back this release date has gotten pushed, so I want to make it up to my fans. If you aren't on my mailing list, here's where you can do that. To get in on this offer, though, you have to be signed up by August 8, 2016.

So that's one big announcement on the books. I have another one, too!

Next year, I'll be doing my first author signing. I'm part of Angels and Sirens 2017 , which takes place on Saturday, March 4, at the Meadows Casino in Washington, PA. So if you are in the Pittsburgh area or are planning to be in the spring, this is not something you want to miss.

Not only will I be there, but so many other authors will be too—including some hockey romance authors who I know or am excited to meet! Melody Heck Gatto, Lisa B. Kamps, Jennifer Lazaris, V.L. Locey, Samantha Wayland, and probably others I'm forgetting.

I'll be giving away tickets closer to the event. Tickets can also be purchased here.

Wow, can you believe it? What a year 2016 is turning out to be. It sure was slow going in the first half, but things are finally happening in the second.


Keeping Up With the Jacobses :August 2016
Wednesday, August 3: I'll be hanging out with V.L. Locey and friends at her Tape to Tape release party on Facebook. This should be a really fun party, and I can tell just by looking at the list of authors taking over throughout the night.Monday, August 15: I'm going to celebrate Melody Heck Gatto's newest Renegades release Shutout with her and some other awesome hockey romance authors during her release party on Facebook. I'm taking over for an hour starting at 7:00pm. You'll need to be a part of the Tall, Dom, and Dirty group to attend and participate.Monday, August 22: I'll be in the Sin Bin and hanging out on social media ALL DAY as I celebrate the release of Breakout Play. Tuesday, August 23: I'm going to be a part of Toni Anderson's iBook Club for August! The party is on Tuesday the 23rd. I will be with several other awesome authors celebrating the theme of Sweet Romance and giving away iBooks of Breakout Play. You'll also have a chance to enter to win a $100 iTunes giftcard, so you're definitely going to want to check out the event and Facebook group.

Resolution Update: Midpoint Progress Report

So it's July 1st.

The first of 2016 is done and gone, and I'm in disbelief that these six months have flown by like they have.

I want to take the time to recap my three 2016 resolutions and see how well I adhered to them.


First, there was:
This is the resolution I've stuck with fairly well! My office has been redesigned, I've added shelves and compartments around my apartment for extra storage, and I still have more plans that I've yet to set into motion.
I'm pretty proud of the way I've continued to tackle this big goal by chipping away at small projects. My latest was to add a shelf to my closet. I went to Lowe's, picked a board, and had it cut to fit the measurements I'd taken. While this wasn't necessarily the hardest thing, it was definitely more involved. I'm glad to have it done, at least!

 And second on the list,
Okay, so this one I was not as consistent with. I was going well at first, but then life took away my spare time or ability to work out. Right now, I've got some severe sunburn on the tops of my feet, so wearing socks and tennis shoes is out of the question. I'm hoping that, by next week, I'll be able to get back to the gym. Better yet, I can pull my bike out of storage and go for a ride!


 Third,
Eep! This is the one I have definitely failed at. I can say that because, at six months in and zero books published, it would take a miracle or a thunderbolt of inspiration (and free time) to make it happen. As it is, I'm struggling to get a completed manuscript off for final read-throughs. I'm looking at an August release date. I'll make an official announcement when I have a better idea.


So that's my 2016 update. I want to hear from you! Have you kept up with your resolutions? Or maybe you're making new ones to finish out the year. Tell me all about it in the comments!

Holy Cow It's June, Free Stuff, and an Excerpt

I really don't know how it became June already.

Sure, I understand how time works, and I follow the days in my calendar/planner, but I still can't believe that it's June. We're almost halfway through 2016 already!

My publishing schedule has officially derailed, and I hate admitting that. I knew it would be hard, but I really didn't expect it to be as hard as it's been to meet my self-imposed deadlines.

I don't want to be a complainer; I've learned from experience that dwelling in negativity only breeds more negativity. When I complain, I focus on all the bad stuff, and I need to focus on on the good stuff instead, because that makes me happier sooner than if I had vented and fumed.

Every author has time constraints and issues that pop up that hold them up, obviously. Whether a full-time writer or part-time writer, we all have other stuff that gets in the way. For me, I work a full-time job, which can be very mentally draining, and also do some independent contracting on an irregular schedule. I'm a single cat mom to two very sociable cats who need a good bit of attention and love. And of course, I have to factor in time to see friends and family.

Some days, it's really hard to forget about the real world and jump into the fictional one in my head.

Writing is fun. For me, it's a necessary outlet. But that doesn't negate the fact that writing is also work. And sometimes, it's hard.

I wanted Breakout Play to release early this year. Obviously, it's June and the book isn't available yet. The best part about being a indie author is that I make up my own deadlines and can push them around—up or down the calendar—as needed.

Right now, I'm aiming for late July or early August. I feel like, at this point of progress on the book, that's a fair estimate to allow me to create the best possible story and still have time to have the book available for preorder. The closer I get to my target, then I will announce a for-sure release date.

I do feel quite bad that I'm so behind that I'm going to offer free copies to those who have signed up for my newsletter (so if you haven't signed up, do so now!)

And to try to tide you over until release day, here's an exclusive excerpt: the entire chapter one of Breakout Play.

Finding the Words...

I struggle with writer's block quite a bit; that's nothing new.



But it's not very often that I want to say something but have trouble finding the words.

That's how I'm feeling right now, for the sake of my new kitties. Particularly Flynn.

They love watching birdies.
When I adopted my cats from the shelter, the individual who was in charge went over their medical histories with me. I was told that Flynn had originally been adopted out but returned by his owner after one year due to aggressiveness. I could hardly believe my Flynn could be called aggressive at all! He's been nothing short of a sweet companion. The only issues I've had with him... well, I'll get to that part.

I was not told that Flynn was originally rescued from a hoarding situation. I only found out this information once I took Flynn to the shelter's clinic, when the vet recognized him.

Apparently, when cats (or any animal) are raised in a hoarding situation, the neglect they face can cause impaired immune systems as well as stunt, or prevent, proper development. Because of this, these cats are susceptible to diseases, infections, and chronic issues for the remainder of their lives.

Even though they've been rescued from their horrible living conditions, they will be always be affected by their past.

So Flynn is a special needs cat. No biggie; I'll make sure he gets the care he needs.

What bothers me is that the individual who took care of the adoption paperwork and went over his medical history didn't tell me this. All I was told was that he had mild gingivitis and would need his teeth cleaned in the near future. His condition is much more severe than this. How am I supposed to give a cat special care if I don't know he needs it? This makes me furious.

Perhaps the individual didn't know his long-term history. But I can't believe there wasn't a note in his file or something in his history to indicate he would have ongoing issues.

This is on top of the fact that Anna had worms when she was adopted out, which means the shelter didn't properly treat her.

She likes to "hold" paws.
The shelter was absolutely careless in their cases, at a detriment to the cats. The shelter is supposed to be on the cat's side, not their own.

If they won't act as his advocate, then I will. I will take action, although I haven't decided what I'll do, whether I will stop by the office in person to talk to someone or write a letter to the organization.

You don't wanna mess with this white girl!


In Flynn's case, we've established two conditions that we have to treat:

1. Ear Infections. He will always be at risk for ear infections, due to improperly formed ear canals (probably due to long-term ear mite infestation in the hoarder house of horror).

2. Stomatitis. This is an inflammation of the mouth, which makes eating, drinking, and grooming painful and difficult. The cause of Flynn's stomatitis? A severe autoimmune reaction to plaque. The vet informed me that this is also common in hoarder cats. It's almost like the cat's mouth is rejecting its own teeth. In the most severe cases, the cat needs a complete extraction of all its teeth. This is absolutely a last-ditch method of pain management for such kitties.

When Flynn visited the clinic two weeks ago, the vet gave him some steroids and antibiotics to help with the stomatitis. In a little over a week, he'll go in for a teeth cleaning to remove all the offending plaque. Afterwards, I will have to try to "brush" his teeth. And then we wait and see how he feels after that to determine a further course of action to manage any pain.

Such a sweet boy. He deserves a happy future.

Everyone wants to adopt the cute kittens, which leaves the older cats, and those with special needs, stuck at shelters. Flynn is so sweet and Anna is cuddly, and they really liven up my life. Even though we've had some hurdles early on in our time together, I can hardly imagine my apartment without them.

My goal is to improve shelter life for all the kitties who are still awaiting their forever homes.

If you are considering adopting, I urge you to consider adopting a rescue from a shelter. They truly need the care that only a loving home can provide. I can suggest names too! Mario LeMeow, Sidney Clawsby, Evgeni Meowkin... :)

I'd be remiss if I didn't end this post with a rousing LET'S GO PENS!

Resolution Update #3

It's been a while since I updated my blog, which is just because life has been so crazy. My Maxie has crossed the Rainbow Bridge after her struggles with chronic renal failure. That was a very devastating day for me, but the positive side is that I was able to welcome two new kitties who needed a forever home. Flynn and Anna have their very own Instagram account, because I'm a crazy cat lady who needs an outlet to share all their adorableness!

There was a lot of stressful change in March and April, but I feel like my life is slowly starting to even out again. One of my resolutions was to get three books published this year, and the past two months have definitely thrown a wrench into my writing schedule.

I was able to get a lot of writing done this weekend—enough to get the first half sent off to my critique partner. So, while it's taken a lot longer than I had planned, BREAKOUT PLAY is moving along.

Another resolution of mine was to go to the gym three times a week. I stopped going once Maxie was sick and needed to receive medications and fluid therapy. And once the Flynn and Anna came home, I wanted to be home to make sure they were adjusting well. I hope to pick up my gym routine again soon.

My third resolution was to get organized. I'm still working on that, too. Since my last update, I've:

hung my purses and scarves on hooks in my closet, to organizeworked on getting a shelf installed in my closet and also some additional shelving in my living room as well.given away items to the local Goodwill, in the hopes that someone can use the things I don't need anymore.cleaned out some of my fridge and freezer and organized my kitchen cupboards.moved my hobby/craft area into my office and organized that as well. I have some scrapbooking I'd like to do, but that is a project for another time.built a cat tree for Flynn and Anna in the space where the hobby/craft area was in the living room, and set up a window seat against the sliding glass doors overlooking my balcony, giving them a space and furniture of their own. I also rewrapped the cat pedestal with new sisal rope for scratching.reorganized my linen closet.
That's pretty much what I've been up to; not exactly very exciting!

As for May, I plan to do a lot more writing. I'll post some teasers and short excerpts from BREAKOUT PLAY on my Facebook author page as I have them, so you can see what I'm working on.

And of course, to see what else I'll be up to this month check out below for a schedule of events!


Keeping Up With the Jacobses :May 2016

All month long: I'll be in the Sin Bin all month long as the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue. If you're not a member of this Facebook group, you don't know what you're missing!Monday, May 23: Some awesome hockey romance authors (and myself) will be hosting a Facebook event, For the Love of the Cup, from 4:00 to 11:00 pm. We're gonna celebrate the Stanley Cup playoffs, the teams who've made it, those who haven't, and the hot hockey players who devote themselves to the game.

Crazy Cat Lady Is Crazy

Everyone who knows me know that I totally own being a crazy cat lady. I constantly post pictures of my beautiful diva cat, Maxie.

Well, I was constantly posting pictures of her. I haven't in a while because, well, she hasn't been well.
She's taken to making the closet her favorite place, so I made it comfortable for her. She's got her heating pad and her fleece blanket.Friends of mine know that she has been dealing with chronic renal failure (CRF) for a while now. This is an all-too-common affliction for cats. She's 17 years old (at least), has had a bunch of teeth removed, but she's been a trooper through it all—and has even become a snuggly lap kitty in her old age.

Background info: this tiny gray cat adopted my family when I was 16. She finagled her way into our home and has never left. She's always been baby cat, choosing me as her cat-mom by meowing at my loudly late at night, even though no one believed me that this otherwise quiet kitty was a noisy nellie. She's been spoiled rotten from the very beginning, when my mom bought her special cat food because she turned up her nose at what the other kitties were happy to wolf down. She got special treats and special treatment.

She's the queen of my castle. A total diva.

A few weeks ago, she suddenly lost her vision. My Smokey Cat was blind, so I recognized the signs immediately. Smokey gradually lost his sight as he got older, but Max seemed to lose hers practically overnight.

I scheduled her an emergency vet appointment that day, and the vet told me exactly what Google had: her retinas had mostly detached due to high blood pressure. She was still able to see some light, so she can still kind of navigate my apartment by sight, but the most we would be able to do is try to save her eyes from getting any worse. (If you noticed the weird eye reflection in the above picture, the detached retina is the explanation.)
Yes, I installed a nightlight for my cat. I have never denied my crazy cat lady status.
The leading cause of HBP in geriatric cats is hyperthyroidism; however, Max's tests revealed that she's on the low end of the spectrum, so there is no obvious cause for the HBP. That means she needs to take a HBP medication—but, in true feline style, she refused the majority of my attempts to pill her. I've given her antibiotics in the past, but these pills have to be quartered, and they're too small to manage to force-feed her. Anyone with a diva cat knows my struggle.

While at the vet's office, they checked her renal function. It was, to say the very least, not good. In fact, some of her numbers were so high that the machine couldn't read it. The vet was so surprised that she was still acting like her regular self with those numbers! My little cat is invincible.

To help with her renal function, she is now receiving subcutaneous fluids that I must inject into her once a day. This is not the easiest practice for cat and cat-mom, but it's for her own good so we must both soldier on. Some days Maxie's a good little patient, and some days I'm a very good cat-nurse. We make due with what we must.

She was also prescribed a minty liquid that would help with nausea and her phosphorus levels. While we worked out a system that relatively painlessly—for us both—for her to get the full dose orally twice a day.

So, for those of you who aren't keeping track at home, that's two meds and fluid therapy for my diva cat.

*Phew*

Now that you're all caught up, you'll see exactly why I've been a Stress Mess who's avoided social media for the past two weeks. I wish it was because I was writing, but alas. I've become a crazier cat lady.

Today, Max had her follow-up appointment. I'm so happy to report that she appears to be doing so much better. Some of the vision in her left eye has returned! She's responding more to light, which is helpful for her to navigate the apartment.

(It's nice to know that nightlight was not in vain!)

We've made some adjustments to her care. First, we're officially taking her off the minty liquid that she hates. It wrecks her appetite, which is the opposite effect that we intended.

Second, instead of struggling to pill her with a quarter of a tablet of her HBP meds, we're going to compound those tablets into a liquid, so she can get that orally—since that's somehow easier than pills. Because cats.

And third, she's continuing on the sub-Q fluids, since that appears to be helping her.

In another week and a half, Maxie will return to our vet (who I must admit is super awesome) for yet another follow up. This time, once she will regularly be taking the HBP meds, we will retest her blood pressure and renal function.

I like my role as cat-mom much better than I do the role of cat-nurse. This is not an easy time on me; I sometimes feel like I am torturing poor Max more than I am helping her. I'm trying to maintain her quality of life in her old age. I give her meds, I dote on her, and I worry over every move she makes. She gets treats and tons of head scratches.

And in between those moments, I do a couple of chores, try to make myself relax, and maybe write a bit. This is not exactly how I expected my March to go. But we soldier on.

I felt like I owed my readers a bit of an explanation about my absence. I realize that I said, just a few weeks ago, that I was going to disappear so I could write, but that's not the case. I'm still dedicated to Breakout Play, but I am more devoted to my baby cat. And I hope my readers understand.

List of Things I Accomplished This Week

Last week, my good friend and writing buddy Melanie Ting , in her endless efforts to support my current writing crisis, has suggested that I check out Mr. Chris Bailey, an expert in productivity. Mel is already an incredibly productive person, so if she recommends something, I sure as hell listen.

I checked out his website and was immediately drawn to his post about "10 productivity lessons I learned writing an 80,000-word book in 6 months". Seriously, doesn't that sound like the most perfect title for an article for a writer pressed for time to write?

There are a lot of great lessons from Mr. Bailey's article that I'm going to implement during this month of creative productivity (as Breakout Play begs to be written), so I recommend checking it—and the rest of his website—out for all of his imparted wisdom.

One lesson that particularly struck me was to take time to reflect on your multiple, smaller accomplishments within the larger and singular accomplishment of writing a book. Makes total sense! By acknowledging all the little things that have been done to lead up to the accomplishment of one big task, you get to focus on some positivity.

Instead of saying, "Damn, another week went by and I didn't finish that book," I get to say, "Look at the things I did to put myself closer to my goal of finishing my book."

And what's more validating than creating a list of accomplishments and posting it on the Internet where, hopefully, it won't get trolled. (Seriously, I doubt I thought this through!)

Without further ado, I present my:

List of Things I Accomplished This Week
Added scenes to my storyboard.Won a free eBook cover from my amazing designer. Okay, so that's not really something I can accomplish, but that's still awesome and definitely helpful in the grand scheme of things.Found a Google Docs add-on word counter (aptly named Better Word Count) to help me track writing goals and totalsWrote every day, even if it was just a few words here and there.Acquired an Accountabilibuddy: Pusheen. Pusheen watches over me at my desk to make sure I'm writing and not checking on my virtual cats in Neko Atsume. Pusheen!
Okay, so, that's an odd list. But it's something!
I'm off to go add to my word count for the day, and maybe I'll add that to my Accomplishment List for next week.

March Madness

I had hoped to have Breakout Play published by now.

Obviously, that is not the case, and I am sad about that.

I watch too much South Park.
I don't know if I should admit this or not, but here's why: I haven't written it all. I've got a beginning, sections of the middle, but definitely no ending. The story's not even done, and it still has rounds of edits to go through, polishing, and proofing before I feel ready to release it for your reading pleasure.

I should also admit that I don't know how long it will take, so I don't feel comfortable putting forth another release date in case I don't make that one either.

If you're bummed by this news, please know that I am too. I'm excited about this story: I'm excited to tell it, and I'm excited to share it. Unfortunately, I'm running short on time during the day to devote to the project. I won't bother with listing excuses reasons why, because those don't really matter anyway.

Besides, it's more proactive to focus on writing my story than writing a list of excuses reasons, right?

But I would like to reassure everyone—and myself—that I am totally dedicated to this project, and I am spending as much of March as possible on the creative process. I've already deleted the Facebook app from my phone to minimize distractions, and my Facebook presence has dwindled significantly. I barely have time to keep up with The Sin Bin!

And no, Neko Atsume doesn't have anything to do with that, because it only takes a minute to check on those virtual kitties. It's not a time-suck kind of game.)

Well, I may disappear from social media even more in the meantime. I'm sure you won't miss me if the condition is that you'll get something new to read sooner. Right? Okay, well you can miss me anyway. :)

I'll update when I have updates—and as soon as I have a concrete release date and/or pre-order links, I'll plaster it everywhere so you can't miss it. Promise.

Meanwhile, there's plenty of hockey to keep y'all occupied. The race to the playoffs is starting. Is it too soon to start getting my Stanley Cup brackets ready? Not that I'll be watching. I've got some writing to do!