S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 128

MAMACHARI MATCHMAKER is now available!

Today, I’m publishing another short story in the Kami No Sekai short story series! I got the idea for this particular story after watching a Cool Japan (NHK World) episode on bicycles.

In Japan, the “mamachari”, which is a word mashup of “mama” and “chari” which means “bike” in Japanese slang, is one of the most used and bought bicycles. They are extremely popular, and they are the favorites of moms with kids. Usually, they have a basket in the front and a kid seat on the back.

Credit J Kim. Used in accordance with CC licence.

So I wondered about these bicycles and how they must REALLY want a young family to ride them around town. What would happen if they got a single person instead? And that’s how this story was born. I decided to even dive a little into manga and cosplay culture for this short story, and that was fun to include as well.

I hope you enjoy this sweet little romance!

FYI) All of my Kami No Sekai short stories are now in Kindle Unlimited.

This bike longs to be owned by a family with kids but is bought by a quiet, cosplaying, young woman instead.
How will Mamachari help Eriko to find true love?

On Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
Please contact me if you need an ePub copy.

Sunday Update – July 19, 2015

Another busy summer week around these parts! We were at the pool all day today, and I looked at my husband and said, “I am so happy right now.” And it’s true. I had some down days this past week, as I usually have right when I’m about to launch a book. I always feel like no one is going to read or buy the books I work so hard on, and then I have a few days where the thought makes me really depressed. It’s okay, though. This happens to me EVERY TIME I write and publish a new book. I have doubts just like everybody does about their career. Even when I want to give up, I know the feeling will fade and I’ll be stronger on the other side. These are the things that make me stronger. Like I said to my friend, Tracy, in a text, “I’ll shake it off, take a deep breath, and move on.” And I did!

My busy week kept me from wallowing too much. I got two teasers up for SUMMER HAIKUS, formatted and submitted a new Kami No Sekai short story to Amazon (more on that tomorrow!), took my kids to the pool, exercised, napped, read, and knit! I really love summer so much. I feel alive and (mostly) in good spirits.

Let’s look back on the photos…

My kids have become obsessed with these little things called Shopkins. The youngest got a bunch for her birthday.

I took a walk and hooped outside. My hoops are looking nasty so it’s time to peel all the tape off and start something fresh soon!

I’m trying to make my life as balanced as possible and including knitting a few times a week is helping me not burn out.

My husband and I went on a date last night! We got our regular babysitter to come put the kids to bed, and we went to a local restaurant, ate awesome food (this was halibut over sun chokes with cucumbers and buttermilk), and had lovely drinks. It was such a nice night out, and we had the chance to talk about whatever we wanted to talk about without kids around.

And I finished off the week at the pool. We were there all day! The kids were in and out of the water and played with all of their friends. I worked on the outlines for two novels and a new short story, read my kindle, went in the water, and ate ice cream. Really, the best way to end the week.

This week, I get to announce another short story, two more teasers for SUMMER HAIKUS, and hopefully get the final file up to Amazon. I also hope to get the new paperbacks for SUMMER HAIKUS and FACE TIME, and I’d like to set up a Goodreads giveaway. Lots to do!

Have a great week everyone!

SUMMER HAIKUS Cover Reveal!

Today is the cover reveal day for SUMMER HAIKUS! I’m excited to finally get this in front of everyone, and I hope it gives you a great idea of what the book is about and what to expect from this next contemporary romance. Yes, this book is on the sweeter side of New Adult. Yes, there is still sex because that’s what I like to write. The warning label on it is for sexual situations and profanity because Isa has a mouth on her when she gets pissed off or surprised. Lol. I really enjoyed writing this whole book.

Big thanks to Lola of Lola’s Blog Tours for putting together a great cover reveal for this book today! I really appreciate all the hard work she does for me. Here is her analysis of the cover.

Teasers will continue for the next few weeks on both Tuesday and Thursday! And today, I have an excerpt for you as well. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the cover today! Buy links are below the excerpt…

I walk out onto the front lawn and take another deep breath. It’s a beautiful night in East Lansing. The sky is clear, stars twinkling, and an almost full moon hangs not far above the tree line. I took an Astronomy 101 class last fall, and I’ve been in love with the stars ever since. When I was still trying to decide on my major, I considered astronomy. I thought maybe I was destined to study the stars, what with Halley being named after a famous astronomer and my love of nighttime, but I don’t want to do that for a living, just like I don’t want to be an engineer either. I breathe deep one more time, and the fresh air sobers me a little, so I reach into my pocket for my phone and text Halley.

“Masa showed up and I had to run. Can’t do that. Heading home. Check on me in 30,” I type and wait for her reply while watching the masses of people walking the streets. This is the last chance to party before summer tears groups apart. I wonder if I can walk back to my dorm with someone else.

My phone buzzes in my hand. “Ok. Promise. Sorry about Masa.”

“Whatever,” I say at my phone.

“Isa! Wait up!” I freeze before slowly turning back to the house. Masa comes bounding out the front door, running up to me. “Let me walk you home. You’ve had too much to drink.”

“It’s okay.” I wave at him and turn to go. “I’m sure I can find someone to walk me who’s already going that way.”

“No, please,” he says, lunging forward and grabbing for me. “I want to make sure you make it home all right.” The heat of his hand on my arm stops my breathing. I would give anything to slip my hand into his and walk home with him by my side. I catch my breath in a gasp, and he lets go, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Fine. Let’s go.” I walk in front of him for a bit, texting Halley again. “Couldn’t ditch Masa. He’s walking me home,” I type to her.

“Good,” she replies and adds in a kissing smiley face. There are days when I want to strangle her.

Masa eventually walks beside me and holds my waist when I trip over cracks in the pavement. I twist away from him and put a few inches between us to steady my beating heart.

He clears his throat. “So, have you heard any more about the apartment you’re staying in in Tokyo?”

“Yeah, it’s in Akasaka. Your dad’s apartment is there, right?”

“Yep. Akasaka is a business district and close to Tokyo Station, Shinjuku, and the Imperial Palace. You’ll love it.”

A warm breeze blows my hair into my face, so I tuck it behind my ears. I went easy on my hair today, letting it be wavy instead of straightening it, but I took the time to put on makeup and even eyeliner. I’m getting better at the cat eye, thanks to the beauty vlogs I follow.

“I’ve mapped out ten running routes for when we get there. I want to make sure she’s acclimatized before the Games start. I have three routes with hills, three flat ones, and four combinations. I think it’s enough. I hope it’s enough. Maybe I should make more.”

“I’m sure it’s fine, Isa. It’s probably overkill already.”

“You’re right, of course. You’re always right.”

“I can’t believe you’re still watching Lost,” Masa says, laughing, as I weave around a group of people walking against us on the sidewalk.

“I never watched it the first time around, and we already watched Battlestar Galactica and Breaking Bad together this year.”

Masa tips his head and stares at the ground. “I miss those Friday nights already.”

These statements are the confusing part of my relationship with Masa. He seems to enjoy spending time with me, and we’ve even slept in the same bed with each other before, but he’s never once shown any romantic interest in me.

What if I told him how I feel? The timing is perfect, right before the summer. If he feels the same way, I can convince him to come to Tokyo with me. We’d figure things out together while exploring the city and attending the Olympics. I smile, imagining the two of us doing all the things I planned together instead of me doing them alone.

“What are you smiling about?” Masa asks, as we cross over Harrison and Michigan Ave. Only a few more minutes till home.

I wipe the stupid smile off my face and frown. “Nothing.” I lengthen my stride until I’m right outside my dorm. The parking lot is quiet, and it’s still early enough for me to use my swipe card at the far end door instead of entering through the lobby.

…

Don’t miss out on my newest contemporary romance, SUMMER HAIKUS, out on August 6th, 2015! You can pre-order it from the following online retailers for $2.99, $1 off the normal price.

Teaser Thursday: Soft Serve Gone Swiftly

This teaser feels appropriate on a day when it’s going to be in the 80s here!

I’ll be writing up a post in the future about summer treats in Japan, but one of the all-time favorites is definitely soft serve ice cream in a crazy array of flavors.

By jpellgen on Flickr. CC license.

I’ve always wanted to try the black sesame flavor (far left in the above photo) but matcha green tea is what Masa gets in Asakusa when he plays tourist with Isa for one hot summer day. I loved composing this haiku. When I researched writing haikus, one of the things I liked best about them was contrasting two related elements between the first two lines and the last. I think I did a good job of evoking the color and taste of the green tea ice cream before Masa eats it in a few mouthfuls.

This is one of my favorite scenes in the book! It’s a chance for Isa and Masa to talk about things Isa has kept from him the last two years they’ve known each other, and the setting, Ueno Park, is a great place full of interesting people. Isa even sees a man with a guinea pig on a leash! And yes, that really happened to me when I was there.

Don’t miss out on my newest contemporary romance, SUMMER HAIKUS, out on August 6th, 2015! You can pre-order it from the following online retailers for $2.99, $1 off the normal price.

Teaser Tuesday: Better Than The Perfect Run

There will be Teaser Tuesday and Thursdays for Summer Haikus and this week we’ll see two of them before we even see the cover! I wanted to try something new this time around and do the cover reveal later, closer to publication date, but I still wanted to do my traditional teasers and blog posts. This means I’m mixing it up and testing the waters of something a little new…

SUMMER HAIKUS wouldn’t live up to its own name without actual haikus in the book, right? This particular one is special, but I won’t give away why. Isa is smart and sweet but overshadowed by her awesome best friend, Halley, at almost every juncture. In fact, Isa thinks she’s pretty much no good at anything besides running, even though Halley is the Olympic marathon runner, not her. Still, this doesn’t stop Isa from doing some pretty amazing things in this book, most notably living WAY outside her comfort zone and finding something she excels at, enough to make it her career someday. But in the end, even after all the things she loves most, she thinks Masa tops the list of things to love. I hear he’s pretty dreamy too.

Book Chat #17

There’s been a lot of reading going on around here! I did have to set aside my for-fun reading a few times to work on SUMMER HAIKUS but, in general, my kindle has been getting a workout!

First up, THE SELECTION, THE ELITE, and THE ONE. Yes, I read this whole series in about a week. I’m pretty sure each one of these can’t be more than 80k words a piece, so I easily read one and went right to the next. I enjoyed this series well enough. I wouldn’t call it my favorite of all time or anything, despite how fast I read it. It’s purely romance, which is fine in most regards, but these books tease you with a dystopian world that they never fully explain or explore. It is basically all America Singer (yes, that’s the heroine’s real name) in the castle, falling in and out of semi-love with the prince. They barely go anywhere else or do anything more than have tea or interrupted conversations. And that’s the one huge pet peeve I’m going to say about this series: the majority of tension is ratcheted up by interrupting conversations. Maxon is JUST ABOUT TO SAY SOMETHING, and then a guard runs up and interrupts him. ALL THE TIME. Each time I could feel that we were finally getting somewhere, I would say, “Don’t get your hopes up, Stephanie. They’ll be interrupted in a moment.” And it would happen EVERY SINGLE TIME. It got to be very frustrating so I started speed reading to get to the end. There was also a love triangle, which honestly I wish I had known about ahead of time, because I just don’t do love triangles. But I still enjoyed it, so I recommend them if you like straight-up romance and don’t mind love triangles.

Right now, I’m listening to UNWHOLLY by Neal Shusterman and it is really good. At first, it was hard to grasp what was going on because it had been so long since I read UNWIND and the book is written in close third person alternating viewpoints between chapters. But now that I have the hang of it, I want to know what happens and I’m looking forward to each time I go back to listening!

Sunday Update – July 12, 2015

Late Sunday Update today as we were at the pool all day celebrating my youngest child’s 5th birthday! I can’t believe she’s already five. Where does the time go? We had a party for her yesterday and then did special things today like pancakes for breakfast, pool and ice cream, and ordered Chinese for dinner. Five years ago right now, I was in the hospital waiting for my epidural, and I gave birth at 10:30pm.

I’m beat after this week. There were no updates on the blog because I was working on a few big projects. First, I copy edited the next Kami No Sekai short story (due out on July 20th), and the last set of edits to SUMMER HAIKUS from my editor. I basically worked on 43 chapters of edits for during a 2-day work period. It was insane. When I finished, I swore my eyes were bleeding. I have since sent out ARCs of SUMMER HAIKUS and hopefully some people are already reading.

So we have a lot of updates coming in the next few weeks. You can expect lots of SUMMER HAIKUS teasers and a few blog posts on the Japanese traditions behind some of the events during the story. Plus, I’ll be sure to talk about the astrological signs of my characters and how that influenced their personalities. I even hope to make a short teaser trailer for SUMMER HAIKUS! Fun! This is all the stuff I love to do.

But most importantly, the SUMMER HAIKUS cover reveal will be this coming Friday and the book will also be on NetGalley! If you’re a blogger, let me know in the comments or in a message from my contact page that you want to read!

What else happened this week?

Tried some new beer which was fruity and delicious!

Worked at my CSA and got all these awesome veggies and herbs. I made pasta sauce and used the fresh basil. It was super good.

Put on new Jamberry nails. These are Bright Noise.

Got work done while my kids were at the pool.

Made pancakes for the birthday girl!

And spent the entire day at the pool!

So we have lots coming up this week! Teasers and a cover reveal at the very least, and a Book Chat too! See you soon!

Sunday Update – July 5, 2015

I was away all day on Sunday celebrating Independence Day a day late with my family, so this blog post will be back-dated to last night.

Last week was the first full week of camp and standard scheduling! It was nice to be back into a somewhat routine with my kids at camp each day and I was certain I was going to get a lot done. Of course, that’s not how it ended up. I went off Claritin (antihistamines for fighting allergies) thinking I was past the worst of allergy season and I would be just fine, but no no no. I should never go off Claritin. EVER. I was miserable all week with a scratchy throat, stuffy nose, sneezing, and itchy eyes. Then near the end of the week, I also got a stomach bug and had a fever. It was like my body knew I had free time and decided to revolt. Sigh. Luckily, I am heading into Monday feeling a whole lot better. Stressed but better.

What else happened last week?

Spent some time reading outdoors before my allergies sent me inside.

Got lots of amazing greens from my CSA! They were really delicious.

I hooped outside! This was when my allergies were better (the Claritin was kicking back in again because I went back on) and before the stomach bug.

We went out for lobster and crab on Saturday night, July 4th. We were going to go to my brother’s house on this day, but the morning was raining and the temperature was cool.

The kids and my husband spent all of Saturday in the pool at my brother’s. It was a fabulous way to end the weekend.

And that’s it! Heading into this week, I’m doing copyedits on my next short story, final edits from my editor on SUMMER HAIKUS, and hopefully ARCs of SUMMER HAIKUS out to readers by the end of the week! Busy busy busy!

FACE TIME’s Missing Epilogue

When I originally wrote FACE TIME, I gave it an epilogue, a happily-ever-after, ties-up-loose-ends chapter of Laura and Lee, and then sent it out to my early readers. I was glad I had wrapped up their story, and I was looking forward to moving onto other contemporary romances I had in mind to write. When I got the feedback from readers, they overwhelming told me to drop the epilogue and instead make the whole shebang into a series. They loved the story so much they didn’t want to see it end. I thought it was a great idea at the time, so that’s what I ended up doing. I dropped the epilogue and thought about writing another book in the series.

A year later, I realized that Lee and Laura’s story was done for me. I had considered writing about other characters in the series (Nicole or Justin), but, still, no good ideas came to mind. Instead I have had other ideas for stories (SUMMER HAIKUS) and even more contemporary romances set in the US and Japan, but nothing like FACE TIME. Don’t get me wrong. I loved LOVED LOVED FACE TIME, but I knew that train had left the station.

So in an effort to give back that happily-ever-after ending, I have rewritten and published FACE TIME‘s missing epilogue. If you bought FACE TIME on one of the vendors (Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, or All Romance eBooks), the new files with the epilogue are on their servers. You can download the newest version or contact customer support at those vendors to get the newer files. OR you can read it right now on my website!

http://www.spajonas.com/face-time-epilogue/

If you got FACE TIME for free from me in the newsletter, please check your email because I sent information about this epilogue last night.

FACE TIME is now a part of the Happily Ever Asia series, contemporary romances set in and around Asia, so if you loved it, you should definitely check out SUMMER HAIKUS which comes out August 6, 2015. As part of the roll-up into a new series, FACE TIME got a little cover facelift and a new blurb. You can check out both here.

Why My Books Are No Longer On Scribd

Never a dull day around here as an independent author! So, about six months ago, maybe, I decided to finally take the plunge and put my books on Scribd. The lovely people at Draft2Digital made publishing to Scribd easy, one click of a button, and I knew that if I published my books on Scribd, it would also help shield my books from being pirated on Scribd. You see, before Scribd was a book subscription program, it was a file sharing system and a harbor for book pirates, and they promised that if you put your books in their subscription program, that it would help them keep your books from being pirated.

Okay, fine. I hated their stance on pirating, but I was willing to give their subscription service a try as an author. Let me be clear. I am not a Scribd reader/user. I prefer to just buy my books on Amazon, and I haven’t even tried the Kindle Unlimited service as a reader. But the basic idea is that readers pay a flat-fee to Scribd to read however many books they want per month. Services like this only make money if (1) readers don’t read their fair share or (2) they get plenty of capital venture funding.

Turns out that romance readers, voracious as they are, were reading Scribd out of house and home. (Please know I use “voracious” in a light and sarcastic way because I AM one of those “can’t get enough” readers). In direct response, INSTEAD OF DOING SOMETHING SMART like raising the fee readers pay or consider cutting royalties to authors a few percent, Scribd decided to cut 80-90% of their romance catalog.

I am disappointed in this decision to say the least. There is nothing dumber than alienating a large part of your subscriber base (romance readers) and penalizing romance writers. We are a feisty bunch, and I doubt this will go over well for Scribd. It is probably the beginning of the end for them.

Wednesday morning, all of my books were on Scribd. By lunch time, only my two Kami No Sekai short stories and REMOVED were left. They kept REMOVED because IT IS FREE. That’s right. They are keeping all the free books because they don’t have to pay those authors, BUT they gain money from the reader.

I decided that if they aren’t going to keep the rest of the series listed so I can make money from my work, then I am not going to help them stay afloat.

I apologize to any readers I found via Scribd. I know there were a few of you, and I hope you’re able to continue reading my work from one of the other vendors (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and All Romance eBooks) who gladly carry all romance books.

If you are a Scribd user and you’re unhappy about this situation, please contact them and let them know that you want your romance titles back!