S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 130

Nogiku Series Sale Ends Tomorrow!

Hey everyone! A quick note to you that the Nogiku Series Sale ends tomorrow. I’ve decided to keep REMOVED free for the foreseeable future, but all the rest of the books will go back to their normal price as soon as the vendors update. Here’s all the information for you again.

REMOVED is free!

RELEASED is 99¢!

REUNITED is $2.99 ($2 off)!

And of course…

RECLAIMED is $2.99 ($2 off)! (Pre-order now and get it on May 28!)

Dreams

Yes, today I want to talk about dreams. Not the kind of dreams we have for our future, where we want to go, what we want to accomplish, etc. But the kind of dreams we have in our sleep.

I’m fascinated by dreams. I remember as a teenager, standing in the Borders book store and reading a dream dictionary, looking up various dreams I was having and trying to make sense of them. Even today, when I have a very peculiar dream, I often think about it for days or even weeks. Some dreams have inspired short stories I’ve written, and recently I have had recurring dreams about living in a flooded post-apocalyptic world. I don’t know where that one came from but I immediately wrote it in my Evernote notebook for novel ideas.

Full Moon Report – June 2015

It’s that time of the month again! The full moon this year for June falls on the 2nd and last year it fell on the 13th, a Friday. The moon phases are only about 28 days long, so they don’t line up with our months neatly. Next year will be very different

This full moon is in the fire sign, Sagittarius, one of my favorite signs of the zodiac! My husband is a Sag (I pronounce this “sadge” like “badge”) and many of the men I’ve come to know in my life are as well.

Anyway, this full moon should be rather fun since Sagittarius is a fun-loving, hilarious, travel-obsessed fire sign. You may find yourself optimistic for the next week, ready to conquer new projects or jump on a plane to that hot destination you’ve been dreaming about. Now is a good time to go on long walks, read lots of books, study hard, and maybe start a project with an international friend. All activities, connected with sports, outdoor recreation, traveling, excursion, and reading will thrive, so if the weather is nice, GET OUTSIDE!

For some reason, this is not a good time to garden or work on stone projects, so maybe stay away from house projects for the next week.

Another interesting note about this full moon is that it’s the “Strawberry Full Moon.” Given the amount of strawberry photos I saw on Facebook this weekend, that’s very believable! And the full tide on the 2nd is supposed to be very big. If you live by the shore, watch out for it!

Sunday Update – May 31, 2015

Almost forgot to post a Sunday Update! This morning I had to take the little one to a birthday party and I have been knee-deep in revisions on my contemporary romance since then. I’m taking a little break to get you all caught up on my week.

For the first time in three weeks, we are all finally well in my house (knocks on wood). I had bad allergies and battled a sinus infection, and both of my kids had some virus that gave them high fevers for five days straight. Of course, they weren’t sick at the same time! That would have been too easy.

The Conclusion to Sanaa and Jiro’s Story – RECLAIMED is Now Available

I remember a year ago thinking this day may never come. A lot of writers have doubts, at the beginning and decades into their career, and I suffered from them as well. A year ago, I was still working on getting Book 3 (REUNITED) ready publication and wondering how and when I was going to wrap up the whole series. I had plans for the last book but they all felt so nebulous. They were a scattering of notes and ideas but nothing truly formed enough to give me the confidence to finish. I was doubtful but still ready to conquer the end of this series.

When I finished the first draft, I knew I had something good. It was hard getting to the end of the book, but once I wrote it, I was certain I was on the right path. It’s funny that the words are often stuck between my brain and my fingers and they don’t always know how to come out! But I coaxed them onto the page and brought to life a whole world full of problems and possibilities.

I had a few good reasons for finishing this series and the main one was to give a reward the audience that trusted in me when I was nobody (I’m still pretty small fry but I know I have readers now!) Those that took a chance on Sanaa and Jiro are getting their ending now! And I really hope you enjoy it. If you haven’t purchased RECLAIMED yet, you can do so now! It’s available today! (Links below)…

As a little bonus, I’m adding a video here about Kyūdō, the Japanese art of archery. This is one of the new skills Sanaa learns in this book and I only scratch the surface of this beautiful art form and discipline. If you’re interested in learning more, this video is a great place to start.

Buy Now!

You can purchase RECLAIMED via all of these vendors! Please consider leaving a review on ANY of the books of the series. I would love to see those numbers tick up. All reviews, positive or negative, help both authors and readers.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me and this series for the past two years. I especially want to thank my ARC team for reading and reviewing. You’re the best! Stay Awesome!

Teaser Tuesday – Allies

It’s the final Teaser Tuesday for RECLAIMED. In two short days, RECLAIMED will be available for everyone to read, and I couldn’t be more excited! I want to thank all the people that have pre-ordered this book and supported me, an independent author. Watching the pre-order numbers climb has been thrilling and validating. And I hope you all enjoy the last book of the series.

For today’s teaser, I pull out another animal I’m sure you’re all wondering about now.

They’re majestic. They’re powerful. They’re deadly. And they’re exactly the kind of ally Sanaa would hope to have in the fight against Fujiwara. And they aren’t ninjas!

Book Chat #15

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, mostly because I’m between big projects, and I have the time and plenty of books on my Kindle to get through! This is how I’ve spent plenty of time lately

So, let’s talk about what I’ve been reading! First up is WALLED by Anne Tibbets.

This is the follow-up book to CARRIER, the first book in The Line Duology. I really enjoyed both books in this series! It was a unique dystopian world, pretty bleak and harsh, but with a great sense of hope. I liked how the second book of the series answered a lot of questions, wrapped up the main storylines, and still left a few unanswered questions to think about. It has a satisfying happily ever after ending and I closed the book at the end with a smile on my face. I recommend this series to anyone who loves a good dystopian!

I then went straight to a contemporary romance also with “Wall” in the title. Lol. I chose WALLBANGER by Alice Clayton.

I’m at a loss as to what to say about this book. It started off strong and by the 75% mark, I was skimming the rest. The good things: it’s funny, the side characters were really strong, and Simon was a great romantic hero. I feel like the whole book could have been 30% shorter and needed some serious pruning. It just went on and on, and I was confused by switching to the cat’s POV at the end. Oh well.

ETA: It appears that WALLBANGER was actually Twilight Fan Fiction first? Which explains a lot of what happened to the story. Since I have eschewed TWILIGHT, I will now proceed to google all books before I buy them. I have been warned.

I also JUST finished another audiobook! I listened to FUZZY NATION by John Scalzi and absolutely loved it. Mr. Scalzi is fast becoming one of my favorite scifi authors for his books and his personality as well (AND he just announced a $3.4m deal with Tor Books for 13 more novels over the next ten years! How AWESOME!) FUZZY NATION was a great mix of science fiction world building, wit and humor, and court room drama. Plus, he twisted the knife in my chest during one of the penultimate scenes. I actually cried. I love books about humanizing alien life and this one really did well. Wil Wheaton narrated this for the Audible version and his voice work was truly fantastic. This is another audiobook by this duo that I highly recommend. I need to see if there are others I can download!

What’s next? I’ve got Hugh Howey‘s latest short story and then possibly I’ll move onto SHIFT by him as well. It’s been a while since I read WOOL so I hope I remember enough to jump right in! As for audiobooks, I have BLADE RUNNER (aka DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? by PKD) queued up and ready to go! I guess I’m heading into an all scifi phase. Should be fun!

Sunday Update – May 24, 2015

It’s a holiday weekend here in the States, so we’re relaxing today and tomorrow. It was one crazy week around here! My oldest was home on Monday, finally recovered from a virus and fever that had her out of school for an entire week. The sinus infection I felt coming on never materialized thankfully. I’m still blowing my nose at least every hour of every day, but no pain or fever. I feel lucky I managed to escape it this time around.

We were supposed to go to my brother’s house for the holiday tomorrow, but last night my youngest went to bed early without eating anything for dinner. She was exhausted and falling asleep on the couch. This morning she woke up with a fever. Sigh. Whatever this virus is, it is sticking around.

The groundhog family that lives on our property, after four years of us living in peace and not bothering each other, decided to decimate our garden completely (we know it was them because we actually caught them doing it) so now we have to evict them. Sigh. MOTHER NATURE!!!

In book news, RECLAIMED is out this coming Thursday and I am more than ready to celebrate and get the book into all the hands of the people that pre-ordered. The paperback is available now if you want it, by the way. I thought about doing a Facebook party but Thursday got busy with family things too, so no party. I’m not sure how effective or fun they are now that everyone is doing them, anyway.

I’m almost done with my next Kami No Sekai short story. This one took a while to pin down and figure out, but yesterday my fingers were on fire and I wrote over 2000 words. Now I know exactly how I want to end it, and I hope to finish it today.

My next contemporary romance has been read by two people and is with two others including my newly hired editor. I’m nervous. I hope it gets some good feedback.

What else happened this week?

We had a seafood extravaganza last Sunday night. Crabs. They were so good.

Everything is in bloom around here and gorgeous. I really love spring!

I got my postcards into 750 swag packs for UtopYA in June! So, I had to design and get postcards printed Lol. I got that done in a day. I’m glad I have those skills.

And my walks around the park are even cuter than usual now that all the goslings are out and about. They’re so fuzzy!! Adorable.

Have a great week everyone!

RECLAIMED Inspiration on Pinterest

Today, I unveil the Pinterest board for RECLAIMED! While writing this book I often jumped on Pinterest to get inspiration for different themes in the book. I had a lot of fun deciding on what Japanese items and traditions to include in this book and what little bits of pop culture I could throw in too. There are some hints in this board about inside jokes in the book. Funny enough, no one has pointed out the jokes yet! We’ll see who mentions them in future reviews or comments.

Anyway, here it is. Browse and enjoy!

https://www.pinterest.com/spajonas/reclaimed-nogiku-series-4-inspiration/

ON SALE NOW!

To celebrate the imminent release of RECLAIMED, all of the Nogiku Series is ON SALE!

REMOVED is free!

RELEASED is 99¢!

REUNITED is $2.99 ($2 off)!

And of course…

RECLAIMED is $2.99 ($2 off)! (Pre-order now and get it on May 28!)

Teaser Tuesday – Frogs

And here’s where everyone thinks I’m insane. I have this sexy little quote, from a scene in RECLAIMED that I really loved, and I was looking at images for it, images of couples in the embrace, the heat of the moment… When I decided that’s really not me. I am just not that romance author. I see those sexy teasers on Facebook all the time and I thought mine would just blend in with all the others. So, I decided on frogs.

Since RECLAIMED is all about the animals anyway, this seemed like a good choice. The dichotomy of the image and quote should raise a few eyebrows And I aim to stand out!

Sanaa and Jiro have very little alone time in this book, so the romantic intimate scenes pack a nice punch when you get to them. I feel sad that I won’t write them again except in REVEALED and other possible short stories. Enjoy it while it lasts!

ON SALE NOW!

To celebrate the imminent release of RECLAIMED, all of the Nogiku Series is ON SALE!

REMOVED is free!

RELEASED is 99¢!

REUNITED is $2.99 ($2 off)!

And of course…

RECLAIMED is $2.99 ($2 off)! (Pre-order now and get it on May 28!)