S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 17

Sunday Update – March 26, 2023

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

As I suspected would be the case, it looks like there won't be any updates to the this blog in March except for Sunday Updates. Hell, I've barely updated my Facebook page, so I shouldn't be surprised. Between writing, editing, and handling my AI writing group, I am freaking SWAMPED every single day.

This week was busy with editing A Surprise Favor. I spent Monday and Tuesday going through the story and shortening long, superfluous passages that I didn't need, adding in story elements I did need, and prepping the whole book for line editing. Then I went straight into line and story editing which is where I am now. I'm past the halfway point, and I should be done early this coming week.

My non-Amazon people (I know it's not many of you), would you like me to put this book up for sale via Direct (with Bookfunnel fulfillment) first for two weeks before I put it up on Amazon in Kindle Unlimited? Let me know in the comments if this is something you'd be interested in.

My oldest daughter's 16th birthday was Wednesday! I can hardly believe she's 16. Where has the time gone? We celebrated on Monday night because very early Wednesday morning (around 3AM) she left for Disney World to march with the band and sing with the chorus! She returns later today. Lucky kid. I hope she had a great time.

We did normal things around here otherwise. I got my teeth cleaned on Thursday and my hair cut on Saturday. Then my youngest daughter got her teeth cleaned on Saturday too, and we went to Michael's together so she could get stuff for a school project. I walked a lot this week and avoided the park, which I think is what's making my previously broken leg hurt. The park is a lot of hills. There's a giant hill to get there and back and then there are hills in the park, too. So I either need to drive to the park OR I walk the flatter adjacent street in my neighborhood. I'm trying the flatter adjacent street for a while to see if that helps.

Not many photos this week…

Lulu says, “Paws off the hot dog! It's mine!!” and “Yo, I'm sleeping here.”

Spring started this week, and boy did our neighborhood feel it. Almost everything is starting to bloom. The forsythias are definitely yellow and many other flowers are open. I bet our cherry tree blooms this week, which is very early. We shall see. Usually, it blooms around spring break, which is in two weeks. Hello, climate change! We barely had a winter here, but I'm not complaining. Lol.

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

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Sunday Update – March 19, 2023

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

Not a lot happened this week! Which is always both good and bad. My husband was supposed to be away for a few days but ended up staying home because of the weather. We had several rainy/snowy days in a row, and then it got warm and everything melted or went away. It got so dry here last night that they issued a fire warning, which is always strange for here.

This week I finally finished writing the first draft of A Surprise Favor! I'm so happy that it's done, and I can move on to the editing phase which is my favorite part of writing. I'll get started on it tomorrow. This weekend I'm working on writing up some blog posts for my blog and generating images in Midjourney for them and for my side art project I've slowly been working on. I'm also sitting around and watching junk TV because I deserve it. Lol.

In other news, we went to a high school concert on Thursday. My oldest is in concert band, all the choruses, and sings in the jazz band. So we got to see her perform several times! She is definitely very musical. This week she turns 16!! SIXTEEN. I can't believe it. I remember her as a baby so clearly. Sigh. She leaves for Disney World on her birthday on Wednesday very early in the AM. She's going with school to perform. They'll be marching on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom and she'll also be singing with the chorus in Disney Springs.

Just a note that after I'm done with edits on A Surprise Favor, I'm going to write a quick short story for the blog. I have this concept I'm working on that should be fun. I'm planning a series of them, and they will all be on my blog until I have enough to publish them as an ebook. And then I start working on the next Kimura Sisters novella. That one has a deadline, so I need to get cracking on it!

In AI news, this was quite the week! GPT-4 came out and Midjourney v5 as well. I started using a text word processor app called Lex for writing blog posts. My Facebook group was very lively with talk about all the new apps. It's been a lot of fun.

Lots of Lulu this week! Snuggling together on the couch. Lulu vs. 5 deer! And Lulu in the backseat of my car, waiting for my oldest to return from an errand into Walgreens.

We went out for Indian again last Sunday. It was the day of the time change so I went to bed after lunch and slept for two hours. Lol. Time Change + Indian Food = Coma.

Had some nice days for walking this week! I got in lots of podcasts.

PS) It looks like the template on my blog updated this week and I have some fixes to do. Hopefully I can get that done today.

And that's it for this week! Stay safe and healthy.

The post Sunday Update – March 19, 2023 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – March 12, 2023

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

This week I came to the conclusion that I may never get back the energy I had pre-COVID, and that I need to learn to deal with that somehow. I'm up to 3-4 cups of tea per day for caffeine, otherwise my brain is foggy and useless, and I'm too tired to do anything. (Of course being too tired does NOT mean I'm sleeping more.) I need to lie down every afternoon or I struggle through the evening. It's really tough on me because I used to get a lot of writing done in the afternoon. I miss that creative time. Still, this is what I'm saddled with now. I need to figure out how to work around it.

I also figured out that I can't have salads with high-acid dressings on them anymore. They upset my stomach and send me running for the bathroom. I've been researching low-acid dressings and making my own creamy dressings. Once again, I'm learning to adapt.

I have not been reading or knitting because I spend every day reading up on generative AI — how it works, how to program it, advancements in this area, what new products use it, and how to use it effectively. ChatGPT has hit the zeitgeist and everyone is talking about it now, more than crypto ever did. I'm convinced this is major disruptive technology and our lives will be vastly different from here on out. I know a lot of authors are pushing back against it, but I don't see the point. You can't stop it or stall it now. I'm determined to be ahead of the pack on this, instead of left behind. Rest assured that everything you read from me from here on out though will still be me. I use tools. They don't use me.

Speaking of writing, I am in the last 10k of the next Amagi book, A Surprise Favor. After this book, I think I only have two more to write. I hope to get those covers made this year; I just need titles for the books. When I'm done writing this book, I'm going to take a week off to read and catch up on some knitting and TV. Then I will get edits done and publish. After this writing project, I plan to write a short story to publish here on the blog, and then I will write the next Kimura Sisters book.

I expect posting to the blog to be light this year as I'm working hard at both writing and figuring out AI and how it can help authors. Since my energy levels are lower than usual, that will be about all I can handle most days. I'm glad for Sunday Updates because they keep me accountable!

Lulu photos! Sleeping on the couch. Checking on Daddy while he's doing musical stuff. By my side while I get stuff done in the morning. (She's next to me now as I type this.)

Some photos of my family and me at my Uncle Richard's celebration of life party. My brother flew up for the day from Florida to be there. It was great to see him and everyone else.

We've had small amounts of snow twice this week and then it all melted away.

Bought this sign which I can see from across the room at my usual spot on the couch. It's there to remind me that all of this AI hysteria will eventually die down and I should just remain calm and carry on with my work.

Finally, the full moon this week was HUGE and disruptive. I slept poorly and Lulu was nuts. Glad it's behind us now!

Have a great week, everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

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Sunday Update – March 5, 2023

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

It's March already! I swear the years just get shorter and shorter.

Today, we have a family gathering/party to celebrate the life of my uncle who passed away recently. He didn't want a funeral. He wanted a party where everyone would laugh and have fun, so that's what we're doing.

It was a week that seemed to zip on by because we were so busy. We got our first significant snowfall this week! It snowed on Monday night, and we woke up to a few inches of the stuff. My workout for Tuesday was shoveling and taking Lulu for a walk. The kids had a delayed opening for school. Pretty much all the snow is gone now. If that's all the snow we get, that's good by me. It's been a very mild winter this year. I'm happy with that.

The rest of the week was go go go. I had a small freakout moment and got some reassurance from a few friends that I'm doing just fine. My friend Joanna basically said to Keep Calm and Carry On, so I bought a tin sign of that classic British slogan that I can see whenever I'm having freakouts and doubts. There were walks with Lulu, and I took my rest day on Thursday. I'm still pretty tired but at least I'm not EXHAUSTED.

Here's the thing, I cut way back on exercise this year because my body just wasn't adjusting to the efforts I was putting in. 2020, 2021, and 2022 were filled with massive amounts of exercise (for me). Before getting the Peloton, my only real exercise was walking. So I got on a regular exercise program and worked towards becoming stronger and fitter for three years. But at the end of 2022, I had to admit that my body was just not adjusting. I was exhausted, completely wiped, and hurting ALL THE TIME. Like, NO ONE should feel that crappy from exercising. It was really weighing on my mental health to feel that way all the time. So I cut back, and I'm happier for it. I'm still getting a lot of exercise (for me), but I'm not overdoing it. I'm doing 30-min rides instead of 45-min ones. I'm taking a rest day every week. Some days when I'm scheduled to ride, I walk instead because the weather is nice. I like not being in pain all the time. It's nice.

Here's something you didn't know about us! We were a Nielsen family for the last 2.5 years! I wasn’t allowed to talk about this but now that the equipment is gone I can.

We were approached by Nielsen out of the blue one day. They showed up on our doorstep with a gift basket and asked us to please let them put their equipment in our home to monitor what we watched. Keith was hesitant but I was excited. I love data, and after years of working at HBO, I knew how important Nielsen ratings were. We said yes.

Installing all the equipment took hours. I remember that day well because we had a bunch of people here getting it done. They explained how it all worked and then took off. Once they were gone, we had to sign in whenever we watched something on our TVs. That bar sitting on the top of the TV (second photo) would show our people-number so we’d always know who was watching. Yes we pressed a lot of buttons over the years.

Now, in the past, I would say to people “I’m not giving that show (or that person) our ratings” and I meant it!! Our home represented something like 10,000 homes. I can only imagine what they thought about us watching Grand Sumo or This Old House. Lol. I was always amazed they wanted us at all.

So this chapter in our life is over but it was cool while it lasted. I will say that Nielsen has a lot of integrity. They really did not influence us in any way. They were neutral and always gathering data about our household, the things we bought, and of course, what we watched on TV. I definitely trust Nielsen ratings after going through this. Now I’m kind of let down that I won’t be saying “Hit the Nielsen” anymore to Keith as we sit and watch TV. So long, Nielsen! It was great working with you while it lasted!

Hanging with Lulu on the couch. I worked on my taxes this week! I certainly needed that martini by Friday. Hoo boy. What a week.

And finally, I'm sad to report that my dear friend Stacey Simpson Duke passed away this week. She was a wife, mom, pastor, knitter, and an all-around wonderful person among many other things to many, many people. She spent the last 5 years at war with Stage 4 leiomyosarcoma. She was strongest person I have ever met. A true warrior in every sense. Please keep her family in your thoughts. We were long-time knitting and blog buddies, and I will miss her.

This is the third person cancer has taken from my life since 2023 began.

If you have a moment, please read this important blog post she wrote many years ago that’s still relevant today. Seriously, reading this could save a life someday.

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

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March Madness Sci-fi and Monster Romance Giveaway

I'm participating in a massive giveaway during the month of March! 52 of your favorite science fiction romance and monster romance are joining forces to give 4 prizes of 10 paperbacks and 1 grand prize winner of 12 paperbacks. It's so rare that these giveaways include paperbacks, so you don't want to miss this!

Enter to Win!

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March 2023 Goals

I sound like a broken record, but how is it already March?

What happened with February's Goals?

Finish A Surprise Favor, the next Amagi Series book. Nope. Didn't happen. I vastly underestimated how much time all of my other tasks would need and how they would affect my writing time. BUT, I am making great progress and I should be done soon. I'm closing in on the last 10k right now.

Build a website for my new coaching business. The basics of this site are done. Now I just need to work on the newsletter portion.

Keep going with Facebook Ads. I stopped my ads on Crash Land on Kurai because they weren't converting. I think this month I will work on ads for Removed.

Get my books off the random international sites and into Kindle Unlimited. Done.

Setup my social media posts for the month. Done to the best of my abilities. I let my Page go a bit at the beginning of the month, but it picked back up steam last week.

Stay on top of my Duolingo Italian, start Portuguese, and keep up Lingo Deer Japanese. I made some changes here. I went back to the Japanese lessons in Duolingo and I added in Swedish and French.

Continue with my fitness goals. I'm working out consistently!

Reading, TV, and knitting. I read plenty on vacation, but I haven't been knitting.

March Goals

Finish A Surprise Favor, the next Amagi Series book. I swear to god I'm finishing this book THIS MONTH.

Start writing a new series of short stories. I plan on writing a series of short stories that I will be collaborating heavily with ChatGPT and Sudowrite on. I have a concept that I'd like to explore and write about, and I think it would be fun to use the AI tools to do it. I don't know what I'll do with the short stories when I'm done. We'll see.

Get the newsletter set up for my AI Fiction Coaching business. I have a sign-up live for this, but I need to set-up a welcome sequence and send out my first newsletter.

Keep going with Facebook Ads. I plan to add in ads for Removed this month.

Keep going with my secret AI art project. I started a secret AI art project (I know, I'm a tease) that is only on Facebook right now. It's images paired with mini-stories I write with ChatGPT. Lots of fun, and I'm just doing it because I like it.

Setup my social media posts for the month. Pretty self-explanatory. I schedule them with a few tools and then I check on them every Sunday.

Stay on top of my Duolingo Italian, Japanese, French, and Swedish. Keep going.

Continue with my fitness goals. Ride Monday, Wednesday, sometimes Friday, and Saturday. Walk Thursday, sometimes Friday, and Sunday. Rest on Tuesday with just one dog walk around the block. That's the plan and I'm sticking to it.

Reading, TV, and knitting. The usual.

That's it for this month! Have a great March everyone!

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Sunday Update – February 26, 2023

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

It's been a crazy few weeks around here. What with all the hubbub trying to get my books off the wide retailers and into Kindle Unlimited, then going to lengths to renew my passport, then finally traveling and returning, I have been run ragged. Today I'm feeling tired and spent. I hope I can get some rest later.

First off, we had a great time on vacation! Jamaica was beautiful as always, the resort was great, and the people were so nice. I ate a lot of food and drank a lot of rum punch and wine. No complaints from me. I slept moderately well there, too. The beds in hotels always seem to be too firm for me, and my hips hurt. This was the case here, but it wasn't as bad as Japan where I swear all the mattresses are made of wood. Anyway, we had no issues getting there and getting home. In fact, when we got into Newark we expected a huge delay through passport control and immigration/customs yet THERE WAS NO ONE THERE. No one! We zipped right through. I should play the lottery because that is NEVER going to happen again.

Since being home, though, life has been sad. One of my long-time author acquaintances, Autumn Kalquist, passed away this week. We started publishing around the same time, and I read several of her books and admired her creativity. Cancer and other life-threatening illnesses took her too young. And now, a long-time knitting friend of mine is in the hospital for comfort-care (end-of-life care) because of cancer as well. She was diagnosed five years ago with Stage 4 cancer and did a lot of treatments to stay alive as long as she has. Fuck cancer. Cancer took my uncle last month too.

Life has been rough in the author world too. There are a lot of FEELINGS surrounding AI right now and its impact on our business and livelihood. I am pro-AI and use the tools all the time. I even teach other authors how to use them. These AI tools helped me so much last year when I was suffering from long covid. I've also had short term memory issues the last 10 years and these tools are helping me with that too. I can't tell you how many times I've been called inhuman, a thief, a plagiarist, and unethical for using AI tools. I'm severely disappointed in the author community right now, so much so that I have pulled away from almost all of my online interactions. I just need to push on and forget about them.

This week I hope things are better. I'm still writing and I have plenty of projects to work on. I just need to concentrate on doing my best and having fun while I do it.

This was the extent of my vacation. Lots of sitting on the beach or by the pool with a drink in hand and my kindle. No complaints. Jamaica is wonderful but I've never seen anything but the resort and the airport. Lol.

Lulu missed us while we were gone, but she did so much better with the dog sitter this trip than our last one. This time, she actually ate her food while we were gone and she adjusted quicker because she knew what was going on. So proud of this little dog for being such a trooper!

And finally, back in the dreary and gloomy northeast. I still went out for a lot of walks this week despite the weather. I needed to bring down my blood pressure on several occasions, and walking is the only way to do that effectively.

Oh! If you listen to podcasts, I was a guest on the Subscriptions for Authors podcast this week talking about how to use AI tools to enhance an author's subscription offerings. Funny enough, there were three podcasts all in one day about AI tools. Lol. Joanna Penn did another AI image and text podcast, and Elizabeth Ann West talked about using Sudowrite to write Jane Austen Fan Fiction.

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

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Sunday Update – February 12, 2023

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

It finally happened! My books are now in Kindle Unlimited. By Tuesday, I was waiting for them to come down from Indigo Canada, and THEN… And THEN, Indigo Canada went down and their site has been unavailable since then due to a “cybersecurity incident” which is probably code for a ransomware attack. Yeah. You know, I was very hesitant to pull all of my books back from stores and just do Amazon because being wide was what I had done for years. But doing this exposed a lot about Kobo that I didn't know. They had put my books on a ton of random websites and not updated them. Books I had delisted years ago were still for sale. Prices were wrong. Author names were wrong. It was a mess. If you're an author and sell through Kobo, go check your books on all of their partner sites. Make sure everything is correct. I'm unhappy with everything that happened, but it's over now. I'm moving on.

I went into NYC on Friday morning to get my passport renewed. Overall, it went well. The trains were all on time and I made it there 30 minutes early. They approved my renewal BUT I have to go back into Manhattan on Monday between 3-5PM in order to pick up my passport. I'm so annoyed by this. I have to take a train and two subways to get there. Round trip costs me about $25. But I guess I have to do this if I want to go on vacation!

The rest of the week sped right on by. I got very little writing done. The switch to Kindle Unlimited required me to update all of my books on Amazon, and that was quite the chore. Then I had to make FB ads, too, and update my website. Everything required a lot of my time. I have some work to do today for my coaching business website and then I can write again. I'm taking the next two weeks off of SFR Station since I don't have a lot of books in the queue and I'm going on vacation.

We had a lovely trip out to get Indian food last Sunday with family. The food was great. The company was fantastic. I'm so glad we were able to do this.

Lulu continues to be cute. Love her little crossed paws in the last photo.

In line and waiting for my passport appointment. Thankfully the weather was warm and it wasn't raining.

Nature! We had a lovely sunrise the other morning, and there are so many geese and ducks in the park right now. More than usual, I think. They are on and off the ice.

Posting on the blog will be light for the next two weeks since I'm going on vacation AND finishing a book. See you all soon! Stay safe and healthy.

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Important Updates Including All Books in Kindle Unlimited and New Books and Sets

I have a whole host of important updates so I'll keep this brief.

All of my books are now in Kindle Unlimited

All of my books are now in Kindle Unlimited which means they are no longer available for sale on other stores. In the end, this was an easy choice for me to make for a few reasons. I made less than 30% of my very small income from stores other than Amazon, and I have to spend a lot on ads to get those sales. Then I have to spend extra time uploading and formatting for those stores, which I no longer want to do. Sometimes these chores would take up multiple days of my time.

Then I found out that Kobo had sent my books to a bunch of their partner stores and never updated them. These small partner stores in Mexico, Canada, etc. never updated covers or prices AND THEN they even had books that I had delisted years ago. Unacceptable. When I put all of my books into Kobo Plus, I thought I would get some money from there, but I never got more than $30 in an entire year because they let people read for the first month for free and they don't pay us for that. So, I'm not sure I will ever sell on Kobo again. I pulled my cozy mysteries from there.

I decided that my efforts would be better spent on focusing on Amazon from here on out. If it doesn't work out, I will make a different choice going forward. But I hope to remain Amazon exclusive for the foreseeable future.

Myra's Big Mistake is now available!

This book was a part of Pets in Space 7, so I'm going to assume that most of you have read it. If not, you can buy it on Amazon now or borrow it in Kindle Unlimited.

Check out Myra's Big Mistake

Sets are now available for the Nogiku Series and the Hikoboshi Series!

I have made book sets for both the Nogiku and Hikoboshi Series available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. You can find out more about them on their pages on my website.

Purchase this set

Purchase this set

And that's all the news I have for today! I have a newsletter going out at the end of this week which will have even more details and I will be giving away a different set of books to subscribers. If you haven't subscribed yet, what are you waiting for?

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Sunday Update – February 5, 2023

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

I thought for certain that this week my books would be in Kindle Unlimited, I'd have Facebook ads running, and all would be right with the world. NOPE. Kobo is still dragging its heels taking my books off two sites: Indigo in Canada and Porrua in Mexico. I've opened up two tickets with them, and still, they tell me they are taking them down and don't. It's getting very frustrating. I thought I could trust Kobo. They are so author-friendly, and I still sell my audiobooks through them. But this is taking far too long. In my opinion, it shouldn't take more than 3 business days to delete books from the stores. We're going on 7 business days now. I'm really hoping that THIS IS THE WEEK. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

In other news, it was a busy week of writing and author business stuff. I reformatted all of my books in preparation of the big move to Amazon-exclusive. I wrote words again once I was feeling less sad about my uncle passing. I went for walks and exercised. I got stuff done.

And THEN, on Friday night, my husband decided to look at the travel restrictions for our upcoming trip and decided to put our passport photos into the United app to expedite things. GUESS WHOSE PASSPORT IS EXPIRED??? MINE, of course. FFS. I asked him months ago to recheck the passports and he only checked the kids. I am so pissed. I spent all of Friday after dinner calling the passport control center, getting an appointment in fucking NEW HAMPSHIRE for the DAY BEFORE our travel, and then quietly crying because I knew it wouldn't work out. Then a friend told us to call back every fifteen minutes and look for another appointment. Oh, okay, I didn't know you could change or move the appointment. I called back 15 minutes later and got an appointment in NYC for Friday morning, the 10th. We leave on the 15th. Much better. I'm stressing and dreading Friday. I will have to get into NYC very early in the morning, wait in lots of lines, fill out tons of paperwork, etc. This could have been sooooo much easier if I had renewed it months ago. I will never let this happen again. Everyone, please learn from my experience and get your passport renewed way before you travel. Check and check again. You'll thank me someday for this warning.

Not a lot of photos this week and they're all of Lulu. I know this won't be a burden on all y'all.

Hey mom! I smell French fries up there. What? I love French fries!

Loves to be in her bed.

She also loves sleeping next to me on the couch, which is where she is right now as I type this up.

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

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