S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 111
July 12, 2016
Teaser Tuesday: Sweet Sleep
For the last teaser for THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER, which is out RIGHT NOW in case you missed it, is one of Mei’s weakest moments in the book. She’s finally made it into Yasahiro’s awesome apartment. She has warmth, food, and his comfortable bed is in the next room. She has sacrificed a lot to make it to this moment in the book. And her weakness for just a little rest throws everything she’s worked for right under the bus.
I could empathize with her in this moment. I have been this tired in my life, right after giving birth to my first child and in the years after my second. I could have laid down and died. Lol. So, I pulled from those memories for this point in Mei’s life.
This point is also when things change between Mei and Yasahiro. I’ll go into that more in Book 3, when we learn more about Yasahiro, but I hope you remember it when the time comes. 
July 10, 2016
Travel To Yusei With The SFRB Summer Blog Hop!
Welcome to the SFRB Summer Blog Hop!
Don’t forget to enter the giveaway at the bottom of this post and visit the other blogs in the blog hop!
When I first started writing the Nogiku Series, I knew I wanted to write two novels on Earth, in Nishikyō, the last city, and then two novels on the colonization planet of Yūsei. I wanted to explore both worlds, and experience them and their differences through my characters’ eyes. Not only could I show their wonder over their surroundings, but I could also build a new planet and continent from scratch. How fun that would be!
I took to this task readily, researching ecology and different ecosystems, how deserts are formed, mountain climates, how the ocean affects weather patterns, and what I could expect of a world mostly made up of water. I dreamed of this world for months, but sometimes I couldn’t picture it. I didn’t always know where to start. And then I realized I did have a place to start!
I would start with Japan.
Japan is also an island nation with a very wide range of internal ecosystems. They range from tropical in the south near Okinawa, to bitter cold in the north in Hokkaido. I went through lots of maps and photos of Japan and drew upon those to form my areas of Yūsei.
The bamboo forests that surround the southern ninja village.
I went through the different areas of Japan and parsed them out for the areas of Yūsei that I wanted to highlight in the books.
I even drew a map! This was originally hand-drawn on paper based on my daydreams of the continent, and then I took a photo of my map and traced it on my computer. Then I gathered more inspiration.
The rivers and bridges of Takayama in the mountains.
The rice fields of central Yūsei, near the town of Mino.
And I couldn’t leave the continent without a great mountain, except I chose two mountains, of course! One heaven and one hell. Akuyama and the black lake it hovers over reminds me of Mount Fuji.
Akuyama and Kuroko Lake.
It was a lot of fun building this world for my characters to explore. Hopefully you’ll love it too! If you haven’t read REMOVED, it’s free on everywhere! Start this compelling, Japan-inspired series today!
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Continue on your blog hop journey…
Sunday Update – July 10, 2016
What a busy week! Even though we started off the week with a holiday (July 4th), it still felt like a really long four days. We took it easy last weekend, not really doing much but going to the pool and relaxing. On July 4th, we also went to the pool, left early, had showers, and went out to dinner. Then my husband left to catch a plane that evening to the UK. He was gone most of the week so I was on my own!
I think the week would have gone better if the weather had been better. Almost every day was REALLY HOT, and I’m fine with it hot, but every afternoon it rained, which meant no pool. Then the weather turned crappy for Saturday, cool and rainy, when we were supposed to have my youngest kid’s birthday party at the pool. Sigh. We had a rain date planned for this next Saturday so fingers crossed the weather holds out.
I also had a new release! The second book of my Miso Cozy Mysteries series is out! THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER is doing well, actually. I’m getting a few sales every day and people are reading the first book of the series and moving onto the second one, which is amazing for me. When the first book of the series came out, I was bummed because sales were practically non-existent. I was holding out hope that when the second book came out, I would do better. A month or two after the first book came out, I decided I would make the first book free and hope that people would download it and try it out. This is not something I normally do. I’m not one to give away my work for free easily unless I have other books for people to buy in the series. Because HOO BOY am I in debt over my books. I have yet to make back my investment on ANYTHING I’ve written. Anyway, I’ve already given away over 13,000 copies of the first book. I’m hoping people are loving it.
I’ve also started working on two new projects. I’m working on a non-fiction project I hope to finish before the end of the month, and I’ve started plotting out the third Miso Cozy book! I’m excited about this next installment of Mei’s life. It’ll be the book in which she grows the most.
What else happened this week?
I’m eating a ton of salads because we’re up to our eyeballs in lettuce from our CSA. I think I had a monster salad pretty much every single day this past week.
Ugh. There’s construction happening next door and the contractors pulled out OUR bushes between the properties (we’ve had words with them) and now I have to look at it every day. If they had left the bushes there, I would have been blissfully unaware of it. My neighbor across the street heard me yelling at the contractors. Lol. I think I have a reputation now. 
July 8, 2016
The Japanese Kotatsu
One of the beautiful things about Japan in the winter is the kotatsu. I’m sure this is something very foreign to most people so I thought I would expand on it today! A kotatsu is a low, heated table, a small, efficient way of heating a space rather than using central heating.
In THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER, each of the homes mentioned in the book have a kotatsu and are used quite frequently. With the long winter ahead people will gather around the table, eat together, and be warmed from the feet up. The kotatsu is not unique to Japan. Low heated tables are quite common in other cultures as well, including in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Spain, Portugal, and China, but the kotatsu has a special place in Japanese family life, and from basic kotatsu to deluxe versions with special lounging pillows, almost every home in Japan has one.
By Tim Notari (tastefulTN) – flickr.com (just a wee bit cropped), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=743925
There are two different kinds of kotatsu, one more modern and common than the other. In the past, kotatsu tables were heated from underneath using charcoal. High quality charcoal in Japan is virtually smoke-free, so it makes for a very good heating element. A low table placed over a pit with heated charcoal in it was the first iteration of the kotatsu. But if not careful, it could catch people or houses on fire, so its popularity died out as modern life took over. Now, kotatsu are heated using electrical elements. The table is then covered with a quilted blanket so heat may be trapped underneath. A stable tabletop is placed overtop the quilt, making a sandwich of the quilt and holding it in place. People can then eat or drink off the top! Even though the kotatsu is warm for both humans and animals alike, the warming effects are even more apparent while wearing a kimono. Sitting at the table, a kimono can be loosened from the waist down and the warm air can funnel up the fabric and heat the wearer all the way to his or her neck.
During the winter months, the kotatsu is the center of activity for a family. Meals are eaten at the kotatsu, television is watched, and naps are taken (though it is not a good place to sleep overnight). When people come to visit, the saké is brought out and everyone drinks together at the low heated table. There are days when I really wish I had a kotatsu of my own! In the meantime, I will continue to visit Mei in The Miso Cozy Mysteries Series and enjoy good food with her and her family around this wonderful invention, the Japanese kotatsu.
THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER is now available! Get it for a dollar off its regular retail price through July 15th.
July 7, 2016
THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER is now available!
Yay!! Today is the release day for THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER! This is my 9th full-length novel and the second book of the Miso Cozy Series. If you want to try out this series, you’re in luck! The first book, THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE, is free for a limited time. Head on over and download your copy today!
I really enjoyed writing this novel. It’s always exciting to write the first book of a series, but it’s even better writing the second one, when you’ve gotten to know your characters and can delve deeper into their lives. I enjoyed seeing how Mei would deal with adversity and where her relationship with Yasahiro would go. Not only that, but I also enjoyed weaving the details about this murder through the whole story! It’s been a great series to write so far and I’m looking forward to conquering the next book next month!
THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER is now available! Get it for a dollar off its regular retail price through July 15th.
July 5, 2016
Teaser Tuesday: Complicated Relationships
One of the great things about writing series is introducing new characters or new relationships as the series progresses from one book to the next. I loved writing the second book of this series because not only did I introduce new characters, but I also introduced new relationships, new friendships. Mei’s friendship with Akiko is rocky, but she finds herself spending a lot of time with Goro, her policeman friend, during the course of THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER. She wants to help solve the murder, Goro is happy to have her along, and the two end up getting along pretty well, only jabbing at each other when things get a little twisted.
Mei might even say that her relationship with Goro is just a little bit, just a wee tad, complicated. Lol. She does some impulsive things, and he is left sitting wide-eyed in her wake. It’s a good thing they can always laugh about it when the day is through!
THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER goes on sale on July 7, 2016 and is available for pre-order now!
The post Teaser Tuesday: Complicated Relationships appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.
Teaser Tuesday – Complicated Relationships
One of the great things about writing series is introducing new characters or new relationships as the series progresses from one book to the next. I loved writing the second book of this series because not only did I introduce new characters, but I also introduced new relationships, new friendships. Mei’s friendship with Akiko is rocky, but she finds herself spending a lot of time with Goro, her policeman friend, during the course of THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER. She wants to help solve the murder, Goro is happy to have her along, and the two end up getting along pretty well, only jabbing at each other when things get a little twisted.
Mei might even say that her relationship with Goro is just a little bit, just a wee tad, complicated. Lol. She does some impulsive things, and he is left sitting wide-eyed in her wake. It’s a good thing they can always laugh about it when the day is through!
THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER goes on sale on July 7, 2016 and is available for pre-order now!
July 3, 2016
Sunday Update – July 3, 2016
Sometimes, all it takes is one week to turn everything around.
I knew that making THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE free for a limited time would have an impact on my visibility and possibly my sales of the second book in the series. At least, that’s what I hoped for. I hoped that a few hundred downloads would give me a much needed boost and I would make back some of my investment. I had no idea that my hopes were shooting so low. Lol.
THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE has been free since June 27 and I’ve already given away over 5000 copies! Holy smokes! Just yesterday I gave away 2800 copies alone and the book made it to #42 in the free store and it got new 5-star review. I can’t even describe how happy I am and how relieved too. I have ideas for five books in this series, but the first book performed so poorly out of the gate and the second one had only 4 preorders for months, I thought this series was doomed. Now, I feel like it has a chance, and I’m more determined than ever to write the next book in the series.
I spent most of this past week watching my numbers, working on my short story, and writing blog posts for the upcoming THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER blog tour. I dictated while walking on the treadmill and I wrote on my Alphasmart while at the pool. On Monday, I went and got my first mammogram. I went to the gym. I took the kids to the pool in the afternoons when the weather was nice. It was a pretty good week. We even had some wicked thunderstorms! Which is my favorite part of summer.
But most of all, I feel energized to keep going with this writing thing. The first part of the year was so tough, both in my business and personal life. Now, the business is picking up a little, and my personal life is less chaotic now that the kitchen is done with renovations. And I have a busy July and August ahead, full of writing and traveling. I’m so looking forward to it!
What else happened this week?
Like I said, I got my first mammogram now that I’m over 40. Remember to get the tatas checked, ladies!
My Alphasmart 3000 came! I got this puppy for $17 on ebay, so it was quite a steal. I’ve been writing on it at the pool which is a lot better than bringing my laptop, and my oldest daughter has been writing on it too. I plan to bring it with me to Japan!
We visited the new children’s room at our town library and it looks great!
My husband surprised me with Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Blu-ray! I’m gonna watch it this coming week while he’s gone to Switzerland and the UK.
We had some crazy thunderstorms roll through this week. They caused a bit of a mess.
I thought this fortune was pretty prophetic.
I enjoyed some iced tea outside yesterday after going to see Finding Dory with the kids.
And here are the stats I woke up to this morning! These are for THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE on Amazon! I’m quite pleased.
July 2, 2016
July 2016 Goals
Hi everyone! I’m back with a new month’s worth of goals. We’re at mid-year now, and work is rolling along. Let’s take a look at June’s goals and then set some for July.
What Happened With June’s Goals?
The Nogiku Series with its new look and feel is out there and I love it! Right now, it’s doing well because I’m pumping money into it. We’ll see how it does into the future.
I did not blog ahead. I seem to only be able to get one week ahead, if that. Oh well.
I didn’t write the December novella for the shared world project because I’m out of that project now due to legal stuff. I lost $50 on that, but I recently got a Freebooksy ad for free, so now I feel like the two have cancelled each other out and I’m okay with it.
July 1, 2016
THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE Is Free For A Limited Time!
It’s not often I update twice a day on the blog, but tomorrow I plan to talk about my July goals and I have a newsletter going out in the morning, so this seemed as good a time as any! I’ve decided to make THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE free for a limited time only (probably through July 15th). This is very irregular for me, to make a new book like this free. But it’s a competitive market and this is a new book in a new series in a new genre for me. Plus, THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER is coming out soon (6 days!), and I wanted to get some exposure for the new release. I don’t plan to make it free again for a VERY long time, so get it today if you wanted to try it out!
