S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 108

How I Eased Into My Trip To Japan – Day One

As many of you know, I went to Japan on August 19th and stayed for about 8 days. The night before I left, I was really nervous. I kept second-guessing my decision to go. I was getting ready to get on a flight (two, actually) and fly half-way around the world to be away from my family for eight days. Was I crazy? Just a little bit. But my heart yearns for Japan almost every day. I often say that I think I was Japanese in a former life because nothing feels so familiar to me like Japan does. My friend, Jen, is the same way, and I’ll talk about her a little more later because she’s the one that picked me up when I got there.

I got up super early (5AM) on the day of to catch my first flight to Toronto from Newark at 8AM. I kissed my kids goodbye in their beds and a car service drove me to the airport. I had no problems checking in, which is a miracle, because I was flying business class via Air Canada. Business class is awesome, but Air Canada doesn’t have a lounge at Newark so I stood in a long line to get breakfast from a deli in the terminal and then waited to board my flight to Toronto. The flight itself was smooth. Business class rocks and I got another breakfast on my way there!

Flying into Toronto was easy peasy. Once we landed, I had to walk a long way and then be shuttled through immigration before I could move on to my next leg of the trip, but the staff at the Toronto airport were nice and super helpful. I definitely felt the Canadian hospitality.

Once I was cleared, I went straight for the Air Canada lounge. Toronto is a hub for Air Canada so I was sure the lounge would be good, and it was. I had a nice seat in which to relax, get on my computer, and knit and eat.

The food was pretty good, and they all the free booze you could want too. FREE BOOOOOZE. I had wine with lunch. Of course.

Then my next leg of the trip was a long flight, about 10 hours. But once again, I flew business class (I know this will be repetitive, and I apologize) and I had this cool spot for the entire trip.

You can LAY FLAT in these babies! Plus all the food and drinks you desire. To say I was spoiled on this trip is an understatement. Most people ride in coach and barely sleep. This is luxury.

These were the only photos I took during the actual trip, of the food, of course. I spent the time listening to my audiobook and knitting, reading, and watching movies or sleeping.

Near the end of the plane ride I was feeling kind of ill. I think it was a combination of nerves and having too much alcohol on the trip. But I knew that as soon as I landed, I would be okay.

And I was!

I landed at Haneda airport which is technically in Tokyo, instead of at Narita, which is a 45 minute train ride out of the city. I breezed through immigration again and my awesome friend, Jen, picked me up with her family and drove me to her place. It was so nice to be greeted by a smiling face that I knew, and I immediately felt better as we drove through Tokyo. I felt at home again, so excited to be drinking in the sights and sounds of my favorite place on earth.

We changed at her place and then all got on the train to go to Elizabeth Andoh’s house which was about one ward away. If you don’t know Elizabeth Andoh, then you should! She’s a chef and teaches classes in Tokyo. Her cookbooks are well-known and lauded throughout the Japanese food community. Here’s her Amazon page if you’re interested. I was really excited to meet her and Jen is friends with her and works with her, so I felt honored to be brought along.

Lots of people were dressed up for the fireworks that evening!

I love all the Japanese houses in Jen’s neighborhood!

Jen lives in Meguro and Elizabeth lives in Setagaya so we took the train and then walked in the warm rain to get there. Remember that I had just flown halfway around the world and was now trekking all over Tokyo. It was fun but I was exhausted and sweaty when I got there. Lol. We stopped at a convenience store along the way to get umbrellas and drinks and I snapped this photo of the onigiri rice ball snacks. God I love Japanese convenience stores. THE ABSOLUTE BEST.

I talked to plenty of people that night, including several ex-pats. I’m just outgoing enough to do parties like this, though not very often. There was a super funny point in the night where Jen and I were talking and a Japanese teenager, maybe 15, saw us and his eyes lit up. He then beelined across the room to us and proceeded to test his English on us. Lol. It was cute and we did our best to have a conversation. I was happy for him that he gave it a shot. It’s so hard to speak a foreign language!

Since Elizabeth was hosting, the food was delicious and fresh. I ate as much as I could. My body had no idea what time it was or where I was, so I just decided to feed it food and alcohol and hope for the best.

The fireworks started not long afterward! And we watched from Elizabeth’s porch.

Fireworks in Japan! From the Japan archives. #sjpintokyo2016 #tokyo #fireworks #hanabi

A video posted by Stephanie J Pajonas (@spajonas) on Sep 22, 2016 at 6:27am PDT

By the time 9PM rolled around, I was toast, and I still needed to get to my hotel. Jen and her family got me to Shibuya on the train and then I got a taxi from there to my hotel in Shinjuku, Nishi-Shinjuku, to be exact which means West Shinjuku. I stayed at the Hilton Tokyo there, which was really nice, and it turned out it was the perfect location for my week there. There was a Metro station a two block walk away that I could use to access all parts of Tokyo, and there was plenty to do in Shinjuku as well.

I made it to my room, showered, got in bed, and passed out. Not a bad start to my trip!

Next up: a day spent in Shinjuku shopping and walking around.

The post How I Eased Into My Trip To Japan – Day One appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – September 18, 2016

This was quite a crazy week! Mainly because we started it off in Vancouver! Yep, we flew to Vancouver last Saturday (Sept 10) and we were there until Wednesday. It was a business trip for my husband, and I was expected to come, so we brought the kids too and made a little vacation out of it. I say “little vacation” because, although we did some fun stuff there, it wasn’t relaxing. My husband was in all-day sessions and I was in charge of taking care of the kids and keeping them occupied, except for the two times I hired a nanny for the sessions I was expected to attend. We did have a great time in Vancouver, though! I took the kids to the aquarium and the science center, both of which were really cool. We ate a ton of great food and enjoyed the cooler weather.

We returned Wednesday night and got back to work on Thursday. It was great to get the kids back to school and they were happy to see their friends again. I immediately got back to work too! I’m feeling good about all I have in front of me now.

I continued to read Daydreamer 3 and make little changes so I can get on with the writing. Yesterday, I hit the end of what I’ve already written! And I’m prepared to start writing new material later today. I posted on Facebook to my friends that I’ve decided to institute a new production schedule…

I’m instituting a new production schedule, mainly for my own sanity. After going through a huge dry spell and depression earlier this year because I pushed myself too hard, I think it’s appropriate to make a change.

I’ll be trying out a six months on, six months off schedule. Six months of writing, with scheduled promotions of my back list. Six months of publishing, with promotions of my front list. It won’t feed the Amazon algorithms as nicely as publishing consistently, but even when I’m doing well at Amazon, it’s still less than $1000 per month, so I don’t see the merit in pushing myself hard to hit monthly deadlines all year round.

So September to February, I’m writing. March to August, I’ll be publishing, hopefully 4 books, which is approximately every 45 days. The only exceptions will be the short story I want to publish this November because I already promised I’d do it.

We’ll see how this works for me! I’ve already scheduled promotions for REMOVED through February and I have a few others planned with box sets of my work (which doesn’t count as publishing, since it’s just repackaging older work). Let the fun times begin!

As you know from my anniversary post, I hit a real low earlier this year and I think this new production schedule will work well for me. I’m going to aim to write 3 books during the six months of writing time, maybe a short story or two as well for my mailing list or anthologies. If I write anything more, I will be pleased, but I would actually be happy with two books. I’m learning to be flexible! As of today, I have submitted/paid for promotions for REMOVED through February, and I do plan on having a sale on THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE in late winter. This is all about keeping the back list alive while I work on the front list. It’s a lot of work, but worth it.

What else happened this week?

The Vancouver Aquarium had the coolest jellyfish. These were Fried Egg Jellyfish.

My kids loved playing in the Animal Rescue Center!

This guy was super friendly and loved hanging out.

I didn’t take many photos at the Science Center but this one totally stumped me. You were supposed to get the blue “collar” off the dog. I spent a ton of time trying and couldn’t figure it out!

The Olympic Cauldron was all lit up one night!

And we had fireworks just for us over the water!

Vancouver was absolutely beautiful. I love Canada!

And Canada just wouldn’t be Canada without maple syrup.

Happy 3rd Anniversary In Publishing!

Wow. I’ve now been a published author for three years. Let’s just let that soak in. Three years. I realize that’s not a huge mount of time in the grand scheme of things, but considering there are days that feel as long as years, this is a milestone. In three years, my youngest daughter has gone off to school full time, my brother has moved to Florida, and we finally renovated our kitchen. Lots can happen in three years!

Here are my anniversary posts from Year One and Year Two, if you want to see the evolution of my career. As usual, I will strive to be as transparent as possible in this post, despite how rough this year was. It’s better for me to tell it like it is, instead of sugar coating, but I will focus on both positives and negatives. Hopefully other people can learn from my mistakes!

• • • •

I heard in a podcast recently that by now I’m close to being a pro.

In the first year of publishing, authors are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to jump out and do anything, and SUPER EXCITED about publishing!

Sunday Update – September 11, 2016

I will keep this update short as I am away on another trip AND it’s 9/11, which is a painful day for so many people, so I’m sure many of you are either not online or even checking blogs. Still, I like to keep a record of my weeks so I’m here!

We had a good week, even though it felt really long. Why is it that shorter weeks always feel longer? We had Monday off for Labor Day and the kids went back to school on Tuesday! I’m really excited for them this year. My oldest is in 4th grade and it’s her last year in her elementary school, and my youngest is in 1st grade, and this is her first year of full-day school. Last year, she had half-day kindergarten and then stayed on at the school in an after-care program (which we paid for) until school was out for everyone. So this year, both kids will be at school all day and I no longer have to pay for any supplemental after-care stuff. What a huge difference that will make!

I tried to keep the week easy for them. We went out for frozen yogurt and we took down time every day so they could rest and process their time at school. Friday was spent packing because we’re in Vancouver now! We flew all day yesterday to get here.

This is a funny story you’ll love. We had a layover in Chicago O’Hare airport and we were sitting at the food court getting something to eat between flights. I’m typing away on my computer when I look up and see someone I think I know. After a moment, I realize it’s not someone I KNOW, it’s someone I know of. I turned to my husband and said, “Oh my god, the wife of one of my favorite authors is sitting RIGHT THERE. Maybe he’s here too.” I had recognized Krissy Scalzi right away. And who couldn’t because John Scalzi takes such wonderful photos of his wife! Sure enough, he walked right in not long after. I debated for a while whether I would say anything, but later, I was standing with my eldest in line to get food when Krissy walked right past me, and I happened to look at her and say, “Oh, wow. You’re Krissy Scalzi. I read your husband’s blog.” Then John Scalzi walked right up and I was able to introduce myself without fangirling too much and we shook hands and he was on his way. It was awesome. And he later mentioned it on Twitter too. Lol.

We then got on the plane to fly to Vancouver, and though my husband and I were tired, our kids were full of energy. So we took them out to dinner, walked around a bit, they swam in the pool, and then we called it an “early night” at 8PM. We had been up since 5AM, and Vancouver is 3 hours behind us on the east coast. Not surprising we were exhausted and then slept 10 hours.

In writing news, I waved the white flag on writing Daydreamer 3. I came up with better ideas of what I needed to do with the plot, including changing the killer and weaving in better clues, so I stopped writing and went back to read and edit. I’m glad I’ve done it, though I resisted it. I have yet to actually write a whole book all the way through without going back to read and revise. This is the nature of being a plotting pantster. I can only plot out so much before I just need to get writing and let the ideas come. Anyway, I’ve read through 70% of what I already wrote and made a few tweaks. I’m also feeling more confident about the story in general, which by the halfway mark of writing, I thought was boring and unbelievable. Now, I feel it’s fun and exciting! So, onward! I have more reading and editing to do, but I’m catching up fast to the halfway point where I stopped writing. Hopefully by mid-week, I’ll be writing fresh words again.

What else happened this week?

Along with a massive grocery shopping trip, I got the car washed. I know, exciting, right?

You’ll hear about this in my 3-year anniversary post, but I’m taking more time to read and enjoy the thing that got me into writing in the first place.

I’m posting this pic JUST FOR KRISTEN. Lol. Yes, we got frozen yogurt again.

And here in Vancouver, two cruise ships left the dock right after we arrived. It was cool watching them back out and sail away.

And that’s it for now. It’ll be a light week on the blog because we’re traveling, but I’ve been working on my anniversary post for a few days, so that’ll definitely go live this week.

The post Sunday Update – September 11, 2016 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Book Chat #27 – Two Scifi Recommended Reads Plus John Scalzi and Robert J. Sawyer Audiobooks

First let me start by reminding you that I had two Recommended Reads posts in the last week for you to check out: RED RISING by Pierce Brown and IZANAMI’S CHOICE by Adam Heine. Please be sure to go check them out!

What I’m reading…

[image error]I’m currently reading GOLDEN SON by Pierce Brown, which is the second book of the Red Rising trilogy. So far it’s as good as the first book and I’m continually happy with the way Brown has woven this story into my brain. I’m very happy to be reading it and even my husband has remarked on how taken I am with my kindle lately. Lol.

What I read…

After reading REMANENCE by Jennifer Foehner Wells, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I tried to read a few other books with little success before I started reading IZANAMI’S CHOICE by Adam Heine and then RED RISING by Pierce Brown.

What I’m listening to…

[image error]I’m currently listening to the third book of the Old Man’s War Series by John Scalzi, THE LAST COLONY, which is just as entertaining as every other John Scalzi book I’ve ever read or listened to. He continues to write the kind of science fiction I love, so he’ll continue to be an author I will always buy from.

What I listened to…

[image error]I finished the WWW series by Robert J. Sawyer by listening to WWW:WONDER. It was a perfect end to an imaginative series! These books did not disappoint me in the slightest. I loved Caitlin Decter and her journey through with Webmind and also to understanding her world now that she had sight. It was interesting to see what Sawyer did with the Chinese elements to the story and how Webmind went about becoming a fully functional entity. The last chapter was my favorite. I stopped everything I was doing and just sat and listened. It had me fully captivated. If you enjoy YA and science fiction that makes you think, this series is for you.

The post Book Chat #27 – Two Scifi Recommended Reads Plus John Scalzi and Robert J. Sawyer Audiobooks appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Recommended Read – IZANAMI’S CHOICE By Adam Heine

[image error]It’s time for another recommended read and this one is especially good for all of you who enjoy the Japan and scifi parts of my catalog because this has both and more.

It’s funny how I came across this book. I actually used to follow Adam Heine’s blog a long time ago, maybe ten years ago? I can’t remember but it was back when I was really into ex-pat blogs in Asia. He lives in Thailand with his wife and a gaggle of kids, and I love Thailand. I’ve been there once and really enjoyed my trip. ANYWAY, Adam and my other friend, Susan Kaye Quinn, are writing critique partners and Susan asked on Facebook if anyone was interested in reading Adam’s upcoming release. She billed it as “Samurai vs. robots! Hard times for androids in Meiji-era Japan.” I immediately jumped on it. SIGN ME UP!

I’ve always wanted to write a Japan alternate history book and now I don’t have to because Adam Heine did a wonderful job with IZANAMI’S CHOICE! Rich with culture and tradition, he wove androids into early 1900s Japan and IT MADE SENSE. The story starts with Itaru following his client’s son into a gambling establishment, and Heine does a great job of setting the scene, the tension, the background, and even the cultural eccentricities without dumping in details. He weaves in Japanese names and words (love the use of jinzou for the androids which means “synthetic” or “man-made”) into both dialogue and descriptions without losing the reader, making sure to keep things in context. This is something that readers of The Nogiku Series will really love.

Heine has obviously done his homework when it comes to Japanese culture. Nothing jumped out at me as being out of place or incorrect, and I’m sure you know that’s something I would harp on if there was. The pace of the novella kept me reading furiously all the way to the end. I even read it while I WAS IN JAPAN! And that was such a treat. Itaru’s own demons about a mission gone wrong and his estranged daughter came to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion, and I especially loved the final scene which was a great nod to the samurai way of life.

This was the first book I’ve read by Adam Heine, but I’m sure it won’t be the last. I enjoyed his strong authorial voice, creative storyline, and deep characters. If you’ve come to love Japanese life and culture through my books, then I strongly suggest you pick up IZANAMI’S CHOICE.

Purchase IZANAMI’S CHOICE on Amazon
Follow Adam Heine’s blog

The post Recommended Read – IZANAMI’S CHOICE By Adam Heine appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – September 4, 2016

Well, here we are in September! I didn’t update the last two Sundays because I was in Japan. I WAS IN JAPAN! I’m so glad it actually happened! You know how sometimes you plan something for ages, and you’re sure it won’t actually happen, because you’ve been focused on it for SO LONG it almost feels like it’s fiction? Yeah. I remember feeling the same way about my wedding. I planned that event for over a year and the night before I had an anxiety attack because IT WAS ACTUALLY HAPPENING. Lol. I didn’t sleep well before I left for Japan, and on the plane on my way there, I honestly believed I wouldn’t make it. Like my plane would land somewhere else. Lol. But I landed in Japan, met my friend Jen right there in Haneda airport, and went on to have an awesome week there. Expect blog posts in the immediate future about my trip!

But let’s get to this week. I returned from Japan last Sunday and was in a haze of jet lag that lasted through to Friday pretty much. Turns out going to Asia? Super easy. I bounced back the very next day. Coming home from Asia? Near death. I was tired, irritable, and downright unpleasant to be around. I’ve already apologized to my kids several times for being a major turd this past week. They’re a loving and forgiving lot. But I mitigated the damage as much as possible by taking them to the pool every day, going out for frozen yogurt, and doing other things that kept me from being cranky and kept them occupied.

I’m back to writing as well! It took most of the week for me to be in a place to write again, and I didn’t write at all while I was in Japan (because I was too busy walking everywhere), but now I’m back at Daydreamer 3. I’ve hit the midway point of the novel where I always hate it. I hate the story and my writing. I think it’s predictable and boring, and no one will love it. BUT THAT’S TYPICAL. I always feel that way at the midpoint of a novel. You would think that because it ALWAYS happens, I could just NOT feel that way, right? Nope. Brains and emotions are not always as logical as we would like.

Also, MY KIDS GO BACK TO SCHOOL THIS WEEK! Yay! We love school, the walk to and from school, the teachers, and seeing friends every day. We’re all looking forward to it.

What else happened this week?

Reading at the pool. This is what saved me this week from all-out nuclear-war-style mommy meltdown.

I treated myself to some of my Japan snacks I brought home. This is an Umaibo, a corn snack thing. Lol. Hard to describe. Here’s a wikipedia on them.

When I hit duty free on the way home, I hit it hard. This is a special edition bottle of whiskey for my husband. He was most appreciative. And it’s super pretty.

I am making progress on my WIP! 2000 words a day is doable as long as I know what I’m going to write. I’m at the point right now where I have to plan out the next few scenes so I’ll do that this morning.

On the blog this week: another recommended read from me on Tuesday, a post about my Japan trip, and probably a book chat to get me all caught up (even though I will have broken out two of the books into recommended read posts).

Have a great week everyone!

The post Sunday Update – September 4, 2016 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

September 2016 Goals

Wow. Where did August go? I feel like it flew by! Especially now that my trip to Japan has come and gone.

Recommended Read – RED RISING By Pierce Brown

[image error]I had almost given up on future dystopian fiction. Everything after THE HUNGER GAMES has fallen flat for me, and I scrolled past all the books on Amazon labeled as such. Meh, I said. I’m not interested. But when I was researching covers for The Nogiku Series, I kept seeing this cover for RED RISING near the top of the list. I liked the cover a lot (I gave it to my cover designer as inspiration), but I never even looked at the blurb. Can you believe that? NEVER EVEN LOOKED AT IT.

Then, I was visiting one of my favorite blogs, Paper Fury, and Cait there mentioned that this is one of her all-time favorite series. Huh. Cait has good taste, and I had seen the cover enough times to be interested. Not long after, I received a Bookbub email that RED RISING was on sale for $1.99, so, still never having looked at the blurb, I picked it up. $1.99? Why not?

So I was on vacation this past week in Japan, and I finished a novella I really enjoyed (more on that and my trip later). I picked up my Kindle and started searching for a new book to read. I picked a space opera book that had good reviews and couldn’t get past the opening chapter dream sequence. Nope. Not for me. I picked up another book by someone I know, and for some reason, I couldn’t get into the prose. It wasn’t personal enough (third person POV is hard for me). So I went back to my Kindle library and saw RED RISING. Sure, I thought. I’ll give it a shot. Cait has good taste.

I knew nothing going into this book and, boy, was I glad I didn’t, so I’m not going to go into details here. But I was entranced by the opening chapter.

The first thing you should know about me is I am my father’s son. And when they came for him, I did as he asked. I did not cry. Not when the Society televised the arrest. Not when the Golds tried him. Now when the Grays hanged him. Mother hit me for that…

On Mars there is not much gravity. So you have to pull the feel to break the neck. They let the loved ones do it.

“They let the loved ones do it.” That is literally the end of the second paragraph of the first chapter, and from there this book sucked me in so hard, I dreamt of Darrow and his color-coded Society, of the trials and tribulations he would go through, his lost love. This book had so many things I’d seen done before, done better, done the best. A loved martyr. A game of murder and deceit. A revenge story so intense, you’re both horrified and awed.

I never saw anything coming. I was surprised at every turn. And I’ve read enough books about warfare and war games to see plot twists coming a mile away. But man, no, I was surprised by so much of this book.

But most of all, I loved the writing. It was so simple. So easy. Brown tends to shy away from using contractions (something I really loathe in most writing), but it works. Sometimes he could just sum up an entire feeling with a three word sentence. Really powerful.

I don’t understand why this book is shelved in Young Adult, though. It really did not feel young adult to me at all, besides Darrow, the main character, being young. He’s married and lives an adult life to start, and nothing about the book is really “coming of age.” Anyway, if you think YA isn’t for you, then don’t even take that into account here, because I didn’t see it.

A lot of people in the reviews of RED RISING do compare this to THE HUNGER GAMES but I see many vast differences, especially in the motivations of the main characters and the world in which they inhabit, so that’s something to consider. With over 3000 reviews on Amazon and still over 4.5 stars, there is a reason why this book is doing so well. I finished it quickly and immediately bought the second one.

I highly recommend RED RISING to you all. You know I don’t usually gush over books, and mostly just keep my recommendations to my once monthly Book Chat posts, but I had to let you know about this one.

For those who loved THE HUNGER GAMES and ENDER’S GAME. If you can’t stomach violence, this is definitely NOT for you. If you want to read something that’ll captivate you, pick it up today.

Purchase RED RISING on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2bUkAyH

The post Recommended Read – RED RISING By Pierce Brown appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Heading To Japan!

The blog is going into vacation-mode while I’m in Japan. That’s not to say I won’t update here while I’m gone with what I’m doing, but it’s also not a promise I will! Lol. I plan to write in Evernote every night and catalog all the photos I take while in Japan, but sharing things may not happen until after I return on August 28. I do plan to upload photos and snippets of my trip to my Facebook author page and Instagram, though!

So if you’re interested in seeing what I’m up to there, you can follow me on those social networks.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SJPajonas/

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/spajonas/

I’m putting Sunday Updates and other regular blog content on hold until I return. See you all later!

The post Heading To Japan! appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.