S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 134

The World Of The Gods

I’ve had a few people ask me what inspired my new series, so I thought I’d write a blog post on it (naturally). I had been thinking for a while that I needed to branch out into short stories, to give my body of work some depth and diversity. Not everyone wants to read 100k+ word novels (Crazy, right?) and I have never been able to get my thoughts before now into anything less. So I considered it a challenge!

I studied up on writing short stories. I listened to podcasts and came up with a guided outline on how to write them. I was ready to go! I just needed an idea.

Then this past winter I read an article on The Japan Times website about Baymax, a.k.a. Big Hero Six. This particular paragraph stood out for me:

Bestowing a will onto robots may sound like a dramatic device, but Japan’s tendency to imbue machines with sentient qualities reflects certain native religious precepts, which hold that everything has a spiritual component. You are a god and so is that tree. So is that pencil case, for that matter. It’s easier for Japanese people to accept an inanimate object as containing a soul, like all the singing, dancing flatware in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.” It’s why the user’s manual for the toaster you just bought in Akihabara depicts the appliance with a thermometer in its mouth when it’s out of order.

This is a concept I’m pretty familiar with having studied Japanese culture for over 15 years now. Rooted in Shintoism, the Japanese have a deep spiritual connection to nature and the world around them. Shintoism is not monotheistic, it’s polytheistic, and many gods, or kami, live everywhere. Ever seen Princess Mononoke? That’s also a great story about the spirits that surround us. In Japan, people regularly make pilgrimages to shrines by the millions each year. Prayers are offered, gifts are given, and other rituals, particularly water purification, are practiced.

These kami became very interesting to me! What do these gods think of the places or things they inhabit? Do they have agendas of their own? Do they get bored or just want to be left alone? Suddenly, my brain was buzzing with ideas. I started a new notebook in Evernote (this is when I know I’m serious) and started jotting down my story starters — one sentence ideas of what I could write about.

One evening, I saw my rice cooker on the counter and realized how dirty it was. How did I manage to neglect my favorite kitchen appliance? I cleaned it out thoroughly, and, while I was washing it, the story for RICE COOKER REVENGE was born. I would tell the tale of a young man working in a kitchen and the unlikely alliance he forms with the rice cooker to overthrow their evil boss. I especially love the point when the rice cooker breaks up a fight by ending its cooking cycle and playing its tune. Don’t know it? Watch below!

I really enjoyed telling this story from both Ryu and the rice cooker’s point of view. I had no idea rice cookers could be so angry and bitter until I wrote one! Lol. But it was fun, and when all was said and done, I created a full story at 10,000 words, perfect short story length.

Writing short stories is definitely a challenge. This is a muscle I haven’t used much, but with each story I write, I begin to remember how the plot changes and unfolds. I love that I’ve added this to my arsenal!

So, I’ll be back in a few weeks to talk about the next short story in the series, WASHING STATUE WANDERLUST. If you haven’t picked up RICE COOKER REVENGE, it’s only 99¢ and it’s on Kindle Unlimited too. Give it a try!

Have a great weekend everyone!

RECLAIMED Pre-Orders Now Available!

Surprise! I said this was going to be tomorrow but this announcement is coming today! First of all, say hello to RECLAIMED‘s lovely cover.

I think the design speaks well to the themes of the final book of the series, and I’m excited to get it before all your eyes today. I thought long and hard about what I wanted for this cover, the colors and the emotions I wanted it to evoke. I it.

Due to the expediency of Amazon, Kobo, and Draft2Digital, RECLAIMED is now available for pre-order! Besides the second story of the Kami No Sekai series, this is the first true pre-order I’ve ever done across all vendors. Scribd is coming soon, mainly because I have yet to sell a book there so I don’t see the immediate need to get it set up. I expect it to be available there a few weeks before the publish date of MAY 28, 2015. YES. I am getting you this book to you before my promise of “Summer 2015.”

To pre-order RECLAIMED, choose your vendor below. RECLAIMED is priced at $2.99, $2 off retail, and will become its regular price of $4.99 on APRIL 3, 2015.

Available May 28, 2015!
Get your copy now at the Pre-order Price Guarantee of $2.99.

I’m a little shocked and dazed at this milestone. I remember writing REMOVED so clearly with a baby at my feet and juggling writing with nap times and bottle feedings. All of my babies are grown up now! And even though this is the end of this story arc, it’s still just the beginning of this world and all it has to offer both me and you.

Once again, thanks for being awesome!

Grand Masters’ Universe

Today, Aurora Springer stops by to talk about the first book in her series, GRAND MASTER’S PAWN. Her series is a fun mix of science fiction romance, paranormal, chess, and Alice in Wonderland. Intrigued? She was happy to explain the Grand Master’s Universe!

• • • •

My stories feature active characters traveling in exotic worlds where love develops naturally during the adventure or quest. Humor creeps into the books, often the main protagonists love to joke. I enjoy creating unique characters and weird worlds.

The world of Grand Masters’ Universe is set about a thousand years in the future in a galaxy rather like ours. Civilized planets are linked by teleportals for instantaneous travel, and their governments are united under the Galactic Congress. The portals are the main means for interplanetary transport of people and goods. Space ships have a limited, yet vital role in this world. Sub-light speed ships of Space Corps search for inhabited planets outside the system and construct new portals to link them into the galactic web of portals.

The Grand Masters’ Universe is intended to include a trilogy and side stories with the possibility for more. Grand Master’s Pawn is the first book in the trilogy. This book has scenes on eight different planets. Several of the planets were terraformed a thousand years ago and colonized by humans traveling in slow sleeper ships before the invention of portals. Other planets have alien inhabitants. Some aliens, such as the Brululians and the Dragons, rarely travel off their home planets.

The Council of Twelve Grand Masters exerts a major influence behind the scenes. The twelve Grand Masters are the most powerful psychic entities in the universe, or so they claim. There are many rumors about their fabled powers and the games they play. They are rumored to fight each other for ownership of planets. No one has seen a Grand Master. They never appear in public because exposure to their unshielded power can be fatal to ordinary people. Twenty years ago, they closed the doors to new apprentices and prohibited the training of psychic talents. Each year the Grand Masters select a few pawns to serve them from a hundred eligible candidates.

In Grand Master’s Pawn, the universe is viewed through the senses of Violet Hunter, a young empath and graduate of the Terran Space Academy. At the start of the story, the outer regions of the galaxy are disturbed by the serious problem of portal failures. During the course of the story, the portal problems cause loss of communications with sectors of the galaxy and severe food shortages on Terra. Violet seeks the cause of the problem. She hunts for the truth about the Grand Masters. Who are they, and do they intend to help or destroy civilization?

Violet is selected as the pawn of the Grand Master with the griffin avatar. She travels to different planets on missions for him, visiting human colonies and planets inhabited by aliens. During her missions, she acquires new powers and allies.

The title of the book illustrates the analogy to a game of chess, as in Alice Through the Looking Glass. Each mission represents the move of a pawn in the game. The fourth mission takes the pawn, Violet, to the seventh square and she can be promoted to queen in the next move. The game twists in a new direction when she encounters three of the Grand Masters in the dramatic climax of the story. Her search for the culprits responsible for the portal crisis will continue in the next two books of the trilogy.

GRAND MASTER’S PAWN by Aurora Springer

Genre: Science fiction romance with paranormal powers

Publication Date: March 5, 2015

A thousand years in the future, wars and portal failures disturb the fringes of the galaxy. On Terra, twenty-two year old Violet Hunter seems an ordinary student of the Space Academy, who dreams of exploring unknown planets. She applies to serve as the pawn of one of the twelve Grand Masters, although her hidden talent of empathy makes her ineligible. Violet has defied the prohibition against psychics for half her life. Why should she stop now?

Isolation is the penalty for a Grand Master’s great power because their touch is deadly to a normal person. The Grand Master with the griffin avatar selected the girl with the star-shaped birthmark in spite of her father’s dire prophesy. He is suspicious about his disobedient pawn, yet he cannot deny the success of her missions to strange planets where she finds more than he expected.

Violet seeks the truth about the mysterious Grand Masters. Who or what are they? Do they threaten or benefit civilization? While searching for answers, Violet does the unthinkable. She makes a bargain with her obnoxious Grand Master and challenges him to meet her face to face, risking her secret to discover his purpose. She plunges into an impossible love and a world of intrigues. Will she survive the vicious conflicts?

About the Author

My career in science involves describing new discoveries for research articles. But, I’ve imagined adventures in weird worlds for as long as I can remember. Last year, I achieved my life-long ambition to publish novels. My published works include science fiction and fantasy with romance and a sprinkle of humor. I was born in the UK and live in Atlanta with my husband, a dog and two cats to sit on my laptop. We have two sons away at college. My hobbies, besides reading and writing, include outdoor activities like watching wildlife, hiking and canoeing.

Blog: http://AuroraSpringerNovels.blogspot.com/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Aurora-Springer/e/B00K2C4NL8

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aurora-Springer/885945434752937

Twitter: http://twitter.com/AuroraSpringer

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/101087717415198221200/posts

Other Science Fiction Romance Books by Aurora Springer

Smoothies!

I’ve made a few changes in my life lately to help me get through everyday situations that seem to flummox me. You know what I despise? Lunch. Or rather I despise the idea of deciding on lunch every damned day. Lunch would be so much easier if it were more like breakfast. Breakfast around here is toast with peanut butter and a veggie sausage, pretty much every day unless it’s the weekend.

I decided that:

1) I needed to cut back on the amount of calories I’m consuming each day which includes getting lunch under control (see also: sedentary writer)

2) I needed to make lunch painless.

Enter protein smoothies! I’m going to share a bunch of my recipes with you today. They all start with a base of ice, So Delicious Almond Plus (Original or Vanilla), and Jay Robb Protein Powder (Vanilla, Strawberry, or Chocolate, I have them all. Yes, they are really good. Yes, they are expensive. Yes, they are worth it.)

Here are all of my favorite recipes so far! These have all been tested by me and I love them. I have attempted to take photos of them, but damn, smoothies are not very photogenic. I apologize.

Disclaimer: Please use ingredients that you are comfortable with. Substitute as you like, but results not guaranteed with different ingredients.

These all come in around 215-260 calories according to My Fitness Pal’s calculator.

Ginger Mango Smoothie

Calories: 255. Protein: 31g.

1/2 cup ice

1 cup So Delicious Protein Plus Almond Milk

1 scoop Jay Robb Vanilla Protein Powder

120g mango

1/4 tsp ground ginger

Tropical Turmeric Smoothie

Calories: 251. Protein: 31g.

1/2 cup ice

1 cup So Delicious Protein Plus Almond Milk

1 scoop Jay Robb Strawberry Protein Powder

1/2 cup Tropical Blend frozen fruit

1 tsp ground turmeric

Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

Calories: 228. Protein: 35g.

1/2 cup ice

1 cup So Delicious Protein Plus Almond Milk

1 scoop Jay Robb Chocolate Protein Powder

2 Tbsp PB 2 powder

1 tsp Hershey’s cocoa powder

Cherry Vanilla Almond Smoothie

Calories: 235. Protein: 31g.

1/2 cup ice

1 cup So Delicious Protein Plus Almond Milk

1 scoop Jay Robb Vanilla Protein Powder

1/2 cup frozen sweet cherries

1/4 tsp almond extract

Carrot Cake Smoothie

Calories: 215. Protein: 29g.

1/2 cup ice

1/2 cup So Delicious Protein Plus Almond Milk

1/2 cup carrot juice

1 scoop Jay Robb Vanilla Protein Powder

1/2 cup frozen pineapple

1/4 tsp cinnamon

(This one would be good with some coconut too! But I didn’t have any.)

Peach Cobbler Smoothie

No exact info but probably close to the Cherry Vanilla Almond Smoothie.

1/2 cup ice

1 cup So Delicious Protein Plus Almond Milk

1 scoop Jay Robb Vanilla Protein Powder

1/2 cup frozen peaches

1/4 tsp cinnamon

I hope you enjoy these! Let me know if you try them by posting in the comments

Sunday Update – March 22, 2015

Today is a big day for me. Today marks eight years of being a parent! Eight years ago today, my oldest child, C, was born. She came out of the womb clutching her own umbilical cord after 3 whole days of me being induced in the hospital. She did not want to come out

Today, we’re having a small family party for her at home and I hope it’s a great time. I spent the last week working on details for today, ordering catering, birthday candles, cake, presents, etc. I hope she has an awesome day!

What other things happened this week?

I enjoyed some Astronaut Ice Cream! I remember this stuff from my Space Camp days

The snow finally melted (then it snowed again yesterday, boo!)

I edited RECLAIMED every single day.

I treated myself to a super kawaii ice cream sandwich plush. I have no idea why. It was cute and I wanted it. Isn’t that enough?

Sunday Writing Check-in!

I got more candy every day as I finished my copy editing chapter goals for RECLAIMED! (You can see my calendar at the top of this post.) I have to say that I’m really pleased with copy editing this book. It’s a lot less painful than any of my other books. I really learned a lot about writing stories properly the first time around, using active prose, and eliminating extraneous words in early drafts instead of in the final phase. Each chapter has been going by fast, less “red” to deal with, and easier decisions to make!

What To Expect This Week On The Blog

Tuesday: Smoothies!

Wednesday: Guest Post with Aurora Springer

Thursday: The Story Behind Kami No Sekai (my new short story series)

Friday: Cover Reveal for RECLAIMED and Pre-Order Availability!

Shhh… Listen To The Gods

It’s a big day for me! I haven’t published anything in a while, and this is the start of a brand-new series. A few months ago, I decided I wanted to start writing short stories. I’ve always written full-length novels and actually have a hard time keeping to less than 100k words, so I thought short stories would be a challenge. The REVEALED short stories don’t actually count in this equation. Why? Because they are chapters from a larger book, split into installments. They aren’t one whole story in 10-15k words.

So I decided to start something totally new. Something not connected to any of my other stories. Kami No Sekai means “World of the Gods” and in these short stories we’ll meet new gods who live in everyday objects.

Shhh… Listen To The Gods.

The Japanese believe the gods live in all things. Trees, appliances, animals, buildings — they all have a spirit living within them. Maybe, if you listen carefully, you can hear them too.

I’m going to talk more about what inspired this series next week on the blog, but RICE COOKER REVENGE came to me one day as I was, duh, cleaning my rice cooker. I thought about how much work it does in my kitchen and how I can’t live without it now. And a story was born!

It sits there on the counter, quiet and contemplative. Who knew rice cookers could be so vengeful?

Ryu must decide whether to stay or leave The Chef’s kitchen, so he turns to an unlikely ally for help.

You can purchase RICE COOKER REVENGE on Amazon for only 99¢. It’s also in Kindle Unlimited if you want to borrow it. All of the Kami No Sekai short stories will be on Amazon only. Once I have all of them complete, I will be bundling them and selling them as one book on other platforms.

I hope you enjoy it! And please leave a review on Amazon if you get the chance. It would mean the world to me to see these short stories get some attention.

If you love RICE COOKER REVENGE, I think you’re gonna love the second story in the series, WASHING STATUE WANDERLUST.

This statue doesn’t want to sit around. Can it persuade someone to take it on a holiday?

Yuki has been wishing for good health her whole life, and now she has the chance to get that wish fulfilled.

WASHING STATUE WANDERLUST will be available on April 23, 2015, but you can pre-order it now and have it delivered straight to your Kindle when it comes out!

More on both of these short stories next week! Thanks and have a great weekend!

Book Chat #11

I finished a book this past weekend! And if you can tell by Tuesday’s post, I had a hard time deciding what to read next after I was done. FLUENCY by Jennifer Foehner Wells was really great. I enjoyed all the character elements, the mystery of the spaceship, the adventure, and the alien culture presented within its pages. I definitely recommend this one! It kind of reminded me of an updated RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA with some romance thrown in, which is really top notch for me because it hits all my loves in a good story. I’m looking forward to further books in this universe!

When I was done with FLUENCY, I decided to read a few book marketing books I’ve had lying around.

I read READER MAGNETS by Nick Stephenson, and it gave me a few ideas of what to do when the fourth book of the Nogiku Series is out. I was a bit surprised he suggested a purchase-required giveaway as those are illegal in the United States! It’s akin to a lottery which is against the law here. So be careful. Having your readers buy your book and show proof of purchase to be entered into a giveaway is a no-no. But you can offer to send the first ten, twenty, whatever people a special prize. It just can’t be a raffle.

Then I picked up HOW TO GET HONEST REVIEWS by Heather Hart and Shelley Hitz which was also full of good ideas on how to get your books out there and gain honest reviews. They mention lots of Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, and LibraryThing places you could solicit reviews plus how to build your own review club. I definitely recommend this one. I found a couple of good ideas for my future novels!

Five Ways UNCHAINED MEMORY Breaks The “Rules” Of SFR

I love this guest post today! Donna is so right about all of these rules and how they should be broken. In fact, I believe I’ve broken every single one of these rules in my own books. Read on!

• • • •

The free-wheeling subgenre of science fiction romance explores a wide galaxy of wildly different stories, from space opera to post-apocalypse, dystopia to tentacle love. Despite that diversity, you’d be surprised how small a spacesuit we’re expected to wear outside the confines of our community. By the Powers That Be. By readers. And even, sometimes, by other SFR writers.

Those unwritten expectations are how you get questions like, “Oh, you mean, like, sex with aliens?” when you say you write SFR. These questions can be delivered with an expression anywhere between fascination and horror, depending on who’s asking.

So, even though SFR writers may not be overly fond of rules themselves, it seems there are rules out there for the breaking. My recently released science fiction suspense romance Unchained Memory breaks quite a few of them.

For example:

1) All SFR is about spaceships. You know, like STAR TREK, or STAR WARS. Well, the bad-guy alien Grays couldn’t do their dirty work of abducting humans in Unchained Memory without spaceships. And the good-guy Interstellar Council for Abolition and Rescue couldn’t rescue and return those humans to Earth, either. But UM is not about spaceships.

2) All SFR takes place in a galaxy far, far away. Or at least on another planet, in another dimension, in the future, or someplace or time equally far removed from the mundane. Yeah, but what if something science fiction-y is going on right here on Earth? Right under our unsuspecting noses? The X-FILES, FRINGE, TWILIGHT ZONE, all challenged us to imagine a world that was not what it seemed. That is also the world of Unchained Memory, one in which the Earth is at the center of a battle between interstellar slavers and abolitionists. (Not that I don’t go off-planet to show you an alien world here and there. What kind of SFR writer would I be otherwise?)

3) SFR is sex with aliens, or cyborgs or that guy from the future who they sent back to prevent computers from ever becoming sentient. Asia Burdette and Ethan Roberts, the heroine and hero from Unchained Memory, are flawed, wounded, 100% human beings. But I like to think the sex between them is pretty interesting. And hot. And, most importantly, leads to a happy-ever-after, emotionally satisfying ending.

4) In SFR, alien abductors only want one thing (see #3 above). In SF erotica, the abduction trope is fairly common. Alien cruises Earth, looking for mate/concubine/slave. Alien takes heroine. Alien discovers heroine is secretly queen/fated to be his alone/worth more than just meat for alien sandwich. In Unchained Memory, alien abduction is literally the stuff of nightmares, a traumatic experience for heroine Asia. It has no “romantic” component. Not necessarily a better approach, just a different one.

5) SFR heroes and heroines ride off into the starcloud alone. Really, it’s amazing they ever find each other, these starship captains and lone wolf traders, these mercenaries and space pirates, apocalypse survivors and dystopian hustlers. They almost never have friends or family. They can barely tolerate the crew, if they have one. (Some do have cats, thank you, Linnea!) Like the great cowboy, military or detective heroes on whom they’re based, they’re loners, all. Except for Asia and Ethan, who like to confide in close friends. They gather people around them in Unchained Memory, people who risk their own lives to help them—people like Rescue agents Rayna and Sam, who, of course, will tell their own stories later on in the Interstellar Rescue series.

“Rules” are meant to be broken, but I didn’t set out to break any when I wrote Unchained Memory. I just wrote the story as it came to me—the tale of a woman tormented by visions of an alien world and a psychiatrist who risks everything to protect her on the run from mysterious agents with a sinister interest in UFOs. Maybe if you like what I did with this story you’ll be tempted to break a few rules, too.

Cheers, Donna

About the Book

UNCHAINED MEMORY by Donna S. Frelick

Genre: Science Fiction Romance

Release Date: February 24, 2015

Three hours ripped away her past.

His love promised her the future.

From the night she wakes up in her pickup on the side of the road, three hours gone and everything of value lost to her, Asia Burdette is caught in a clash of invisible forces. She has only one ally in her struggle to understand why–Ethan Roberts, a man she shouldn’t love, a psychiatrist who risks everything to help her.

With black ops kidnappers dogging their trail, the lovers race to navigate a maze of mind control, alien abduction and interstellar slavery. If they keep following the signs, they’ll find a battle that’s been raging since the first silver saucer was spotted in the skies above Earth.

Unchained Memory is available NOW at Amazon.com and BN.com.

About the Author

Donna S. Frelick was an RWA® Golden Heart® Double Finalist in 2012 in the Paranormal category for the first two novels in her SFR Interstellar Rescue series. She currently lives in Virginia with her husband and two talkative cats.

Website: http://donnasfrelick.com

Blog: http://spacefreighters.blogspot.com

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

So Many Books

I’m a book buyer and hoarder, it’s true. I get all the book email newsletters (Bookbub, EReader News Today, eBookSoda, etc) and I buy books when they’re on sale or download them when they’re free. My Kindle Cloud library is 450+ books strong and exceedingly overwhelming.

I just finished reading a book and wondered what I would read next. This decision is almost always paralyzing. What do I want to read? Something contemporary? Some scifi? Maybe I should try one of the paranormal, or witchy, or shape shifting books I’ve got in my library?

OMG I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO READ!!!

*hyperventilates*

I had to open my computer and use the Kindle Cloud Reader in my browser to look at all my books. Surfing them via my Kindle Paperwhite was like torture because I have so many and not all of them are on my reader. Many are in the Cloud. And yet, page after page, I couldn’t decide.

While I was scrolling through, I saw my own books amongst the mix, and my chest clenched. If *I* can’t decide what to read, what’s going to sway people to read my books? I’m sure I’m not the only one out there with hundreds of books to choose from (and this why I donate a lot of books so that others can have plenty to read as well). And when I do choose a book to read, it’s based on how I’m feeling right then. Do I want to dip into a brand new series? Do I want a stand alone tale? Do I want to reunite with old friends, characters I already know?

I sometimes wonder about book marketing. I do it. I send out newsletters, update social media, tell all my friends and fans I have a new book out. But it’s such a drop in the bucket now with the sheer number of books available and many more to come. I look at my BookBub emails and think, “I have no idea who any of these authors are!” My mind boggles at the fact that I’m almost 40 years old, been a big reader all my life, yet I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s available.

Just so you know, I have no answers to these conundrums. Lol. It’s just that sometimes it’s overwhelming, my brain frying to a crisp. Even if I stuck in one genre and stayed there, both as a writer and a reader, my choices would be endless. This is both exciting and crushing.

But it’s never “too” many books. It’s never enough. There are always new tales to be told, new worlds to explore. What I really need is to employ some sort of system for getting through my backlog of reads. How do you decide? Are you bound by reading deadlines? Or do you choose based on whim?

The good news is that I always know what to write next. I have enough ideas there to last a decade at least. What to read next and how to prompt people to choose my books to read next? Those are other questions entirely.

PS) I think I’m going to read a few non-fiction books next on… you guessed it… book marketing. Lol. It needs to be done.

Sunday Update – March 15, 2015

I’m glad this last week went by without any huge incidents. My husband was in London, England all week long which meant I was home with the kids by myself, and that’s always hard, when I don’t get any breaks. But I got a lot done while he was gone. I updated all the book pages (except for REVEALED) on my website, and I’m super proud of them now. They each showcase the book nicely with teaser images, quotes, book covers, and praise reviews. All my book pages will be like this going forward. Also, I set up pages for RECLAIMED and RICE COOKER REVENGE and those will be unveiled coming next week and the following week.

I also started copy edits of RECLAIMED this week. I got feedback on the book from my critique partners but thankfully everyone loves this book and doesn’t want me to change much. Phew! Now I’m just massaging sentences, getting rid of repetitive words, and fixing a few things. I hope to be done by early to mid April in time for my ARC readers to get the book.

We also enjoyed the weather this week for the first time in ages! The snow started melting and the sun was shining. It was lovely to be outside and walking to and from school. I can feel Spring is coming! It’s just around the corner now.

We can see the grass in the front yard!

I made myself some snack mix to keep me churning through copy edits.

I broke out the standing desk because my hips were killing me.

And I gave myself some “candy” when I finished my goals.

Sunday Writing Check-in!

No new words this week as I’m now in copy edit phase of RECLAIMED. I’m hoping to jump right into some short story writing as soon as copy edits are done!

What To Expect This Week On The Blog

Tuesday: So Many Books

Wednesday: Guest Post with Donna Frelick

Thursday: Book Chat