S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 27

I Guess I’m A Morning Person Now?

For decades, I just wasn't into the mornings. Mornings made me cranky and irritable, and I hated being up before 8AM but I had to because of work and then kids. The kids knew not to bug Mommy for anything before 8AM. I coasted through on auto-pilot. Breakfast, pack lunches, drink tea. NO THINKING. Everything needed to just be ready to go.

I never write in the mornings. I hear from other authors that they get up at 5AM, write, and then they're done with their work by the time the rest of the house is up. This was (and still is) completely unthinkable to me. Write while in a zombie state? I remember trying it once and I literally just stared at my computer for 30 minutes before giving up and going back to bed. Lol.

But something has happened in the last few years. My body no longer wants to sleep well past 4:30AM. Somewhere around that time, I start tossing and turning. My sleep becomes really light, and I might get some dreaming done, but I'm usually awake on a weekday by 6AM and out of bed 30 minutes later. I attribute this to Dawn Phenomenon, which when your body releases stored glycogen/blood sugar in order to wake you and get you ready for the day. I appear to be very insulin resistant, so this phenomenon is almost instantaneous for me, when for other people, it's not as abrupt. Also, I'm now in my mid-40s which means that menopause is coming, probably early for me since it tends to hit women in my family earlier than others.

I'm doing a lot in the mornings now but still no writing. Editing, yes. Writing, no. We'll see if that changes over the next few months. But for now, my routine is to get up, empty the dishwasher, feed Lulu, start breakfast for the kids (they usually finish the making), sit down to do Wordle and Duolingo with tea, exercise and/or go grocery shopping. Yesterday, I was at Whole Foods by 8:15AM and home before 9AM. Then I took Lulu out for a walk and finished up my exercise for the day.

I've changed my sleeping schedule to accommodate this. On Tuesday nights, I go to bed early. It's a ritual now. I'm in bed by 9:30PM and lights out to front-load sleep. This is the only way I get more hours of sleep now. Because my body says, “Hey! It's 4:30. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO WAKE UP!” I beg to differ.

I guess I'm a morning person now? Yeah. It appears so. I suppose one day I'll be up making coffee at 4:30AM like my parents and in bed by 7:30PM? I wonder what the future holds for me.

The post I Guess I’m A Morning Person Now? appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – January 23, 2022

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 you can see, I'm taking a little blog break while I work out what to do with my newsletter. I'm going to be changing things to a once or twice monthly newsletter since I plan to post less on my blog for the foreseeable future. I want to shift that time I spent posting on the blog to actually writing the books and giving myself more time off. I'm trying to live a more balanced life. Anyway, I ran into a bug with my newsletter plugin (MailPoet) and they are fixing it. I hope to have the plugin updated this week and that should allow me to move forward with my new newsletter.

This week was a little nuts. Lol. We returned from the beach house on Monday without incident, which was nice. On our last morning there, though, the heat crapped out and we had to call someone to come fix it. But they couldn't come until after we left. No problem. We installed new locks that we can open remotely and they have a PIN pad so people can put in a code. Someone came and replaced a sensor and now the heat works. We watched it all on our cameras. Lol.

Tuesday was my birthday. I took the day to hang out and do whatever. I basically watched a lot of Emily in Paris and crocheted. I'm now 46! I don't know where the time is going. We didn't go out to dinner because my youngest had a band concert. The school live-streamed it for people who wanted to stay home so that's what we did. My husband “bought” me a Peloton bike for the beach house for my birthday! We're ordering it this week.

Wednesday, we went out for dinner for my birthday to our usual Italian restaurant. We hadn't been out to eat in a while due to omicron covid so it felt a little unusual. Dinner was delicious!

Thursday and Friday was business as usual. School for the kids. Working for my husband and me.

Saturday was chill at home. My oldest daughter went ice skating with friends in our local park, and we cleaned up a corner of the basement.

Editing on A FORTUNATE ACCIDENT is going really well. I'm in the last act now and I hope to move onto proofreading by Wednesday. That usually takes a few days and then I'll be done and handing it over to my other proofreaders. I hope to have the book up for sale in mid-February. After this I'm moving on to my PETS IN SPACE 7 novella, MYRA'S BIG MISTAKE. Then after that I'll be writing the last book in the Hikoboshi Series. And after that, I'll be back in Skylar's world. Lol. I have it all planned out. Let's see if I stick to it.

Birthday martini, a Happy Birthday sign for my Peloton workout, and then we didn't have a “6” candle so I'm now 451 years old. Lol. I look good for my age!

Birthday photo. I take one every year. I hope 46 is a good year!

Lulu loves the sun and seeing what I'm up to.

Lunch leftovers were Beyond meat chili with cheese, sour cream, and avocado.

Getting crochet done in the car.

Sumo has been back! Today is the last day of the January tournament.

And finally, I'm in the last act of A FORTUNATE ACCIDENT! Editing is going well!

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

The post Sunday Update – January 23, 2022 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – January 16, 2022

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.

A late Sunday Update today as we're at the beach house and getting stuff done so we can actually live here come summer. I didn't sleep much last night due to Lulu being in the room with us (at home she sleeps on the couch). My dog is so itchy! She kept scratching herself all night and then she would come over to see us. I feel like I dealt with a baby all night. Lol.

I'm also experiencing problems with my newsletter/update system on my website. I will be migrating to twice monthly Friday emails this coming week. I was going to do it last week, but MailPoet is not displaying the subscribers in my lists so I can't move them around. It's really annoying. I hope to have it resolved this week.

The rest of the week was a blur. I have no idea what happened in family life. We just got through each day.

In writing life, I am now working on A FORTUNATE ACCIDENT. I went through and made my second draft changes, and now I'm copy editing. I hope to have this one up for sale the second week of February? That's what I'm aiming for. I'd like to give any first readers (after the proofreading is done) a week to read before I publish. This is my new thing. I write a book. I publish the book. No pre-orders. No beta or alpha reads, since those almost never produced any comments anyway. Just final reads and proofreading.

It's been 18 days since I last checked my sales or reviews. I am resolved to checking them almost never.

My 10 year challenge. And wow, camera technology has come a long way!

Working with Lulu.

I tried some mochi that my daughter picked out when we went to the Asian grocery store last time.

Practicing conjugating my Italian present tense verbs.

Sleepy Lulu.

Our journey down to the beach house! I also put a video in my Instagram stories of how easy it is to walk to the beach. Hopefully you saw it!

Finally, don't forget that PETS IN SPACE 6 will be ending soon. Get your copy before it's gone!

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

The post Sunday Update – January 16, 2022 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – January 9, 2022

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.

A full week of January done!

First, it's so nice to have power again. We suffered through on Sunday using the generator on and off. Then we slept without the generator overnight and started it up again at 6AM so the kids could get ready for school. The electricians were here by 9:15AM and we had power restored by noon. They replaced everything that corroded inside the meter box and got us back in business. I'm glad that's over!

This week my kids had half days every day in an effort to curb the spread of covid by not eating without masks. So the kids had school in the morning and came home to eat lunch, but then no afternoon instruction. It was fine. My husband is wondering if the kids are learning ANYTHING at school anymore, but I'm not worried. They learned stuff last year in worse conditions. They'll be just fine.

I spent the week per usual. Lots of exercise and some errands to run here and there. Lulu didn't go to daycare on Monday because of a virus that hit all the dogs there. I decided it would be better for us to skip it. But she went Wednesday and Friday.

I signed the contract to be in PETS IN SPACE 7! I will be writing the next Kimura Sisters book for it, MYRA'S BIG MISTAKE.

On Friday, we closed on the beach house! Yay! It's ours now! My husband drove down there Saturday afternoon and spent the night (he's still there right now) so he could change the locks and the thermostat (so we can control it from home). We're planning a trip down there this coming weekend for the whole family.

All week I worked on editing REUNITED. That went really well and I knocked off about 10k words from it and rearranged a lot of scenes. Hoo boy, that book is a beast. All in all, it's balanced at the halfway point now, and I clarified a bunch of plot points. It made me cry again. Of course. Lol.

This week I'll be working on A FORTUNATE ACCIDENT. I have a few tweaks to make to the narrative and then I'm going straight into copy edits. I hope to have the book done in about two weeks and then it's off to my readers and proofreaders. I'm still trying to decide about whether or not to get my blurb writer to write the blurb for this book or not. I may write a temporary one.

Plenty of celebrations this week! Toasting both the beach house and me signing the contract for PETS IN SPACE 7! I can't wait to write Myra's story next. I already bounced an idea off Carysa about what I wanted to write about.

Lulu loves lying in the sun. It's too bad we've had a lot of gray days lately. She also wants to play or snuggle in next to me.

Working on my temperature blanket. Every day, I do the row for the previous day after the temperature shows up on Accuweather. It's easy enough to do while watching TV.

Scenes from the power outage. No dishwasher meant I had to wash dishes by hand and then I worked by candlelight.

My progress on REUNITED. I wish I could have cut more from this book, BUT a lot of significant stuff happens! So in the end, I managed to pick up the pace on the book, deleted a few scenes that weren't needed, and rearrange several chapters (combining scenes in chapters, too).

I've been cutting back on sweets and baked goods after a gluttonous holiday and replacing them with either decaf coffee with splenda and half and half or roasted grain beverages like this Pero that I got from Amazon. I used to drink Postum with my grandmother all the time. But Postum was sold to a new manufacturer about 8 years ago and it just doesn't taste the same anymore and turns into a brick after a while. So I'm trying Pero and Inka instead. I love these drinks. Low in calories and tasty. Very similar to coffee.

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

The post Sunday Update – January 9, 2022 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – January 2, 2022

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.

First Sunday Update of the year!! And it will be a quick one because we're currently having power issues at home. There seems to be corrosion and a short in our electricity meter and the power company is here. We're running the generator to keep the house going right now. Which is fine but noisy. We have plenty of gas for the generator now that I have the Tesla! Lol. We used to dump the old gas into my old car.

We didn't do much over the holiday break. Due to the high number of covid cases in our area (seriously, we're one of the highest in the country) I have barely been anywhere. I haven't even been in my car since Tuesday when I went to Whole Foods at 8:30AM. We've kept the kids home too, and thank the universe for that because lots of their friends have gotten sick.

I have spent much of the week chilling. I really needed it. I've watched a lot of TV, did some reading, took care of maintenance stuff on my websites, exercised a lot… you know, the basics. This weekend I've been doing a lot of prep work to get back into the swing of things come Monday.

I also forgot to tell y'all that I got a new iPhone, the 13 Pro! So I switched over to that and I love the photos. I'm really happy with it. I also forgot that I updated all of my branding on the website and emails. So that's new too!

Lots of Lulu this past week!

I started my temperature blanket yesterday. I need to crochet another row today. It'll probably be the same color seeing as we're having the same weather as yesterday.

There's been a lot of food around here. I made hush puppies from leftover corn bread. I made up a bunch of my protein shakes. I ate mi goreng noodles and tempura shrimp for my lunch yesterday, and then I tried out this ice cream in a fish-shape. All of it was delicious!

My husband pruned all of his plants. Look how big that jade plant is!

Peekaboo! Hello new phone!

Started a new book. It's exactly what I need after DNFing my last one.

Cheers! Here's to 2022! Now we just need to get this power situation all fixed and we'll be good to go.

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

The post Sunday Update – January 2, 2022 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

January 2022 Goals

Here we are! A new year and new goals abound! Let's get to them!

What happened with December's Goals

Finish Skylar's Book 2. Done! Omg, it was a slog, but I got through it right before Christmas. Thank you, Universe!

Make the audiobook for STOLEN FLYGHT. Done! All the books are done and out there. I'm currently doing a giveaway on them too, if you want to enter.

Edit RELEASED and start editing REUNITED. I did edit RELEASED (Book 2) but I decided that I'll work on both REUNITED and RECLAIMED in January. REVEALED will probably be the beginning of February, and then I'll update them on all the stores right after.

Continue with my courses. No time. And also I'm taking some time off from the business of writing, so I'm just going to hold onto these for later.

Reading and knitting. I read and knit a little.

January Goals

Start first pass edits Skylar's Book 2. I only have a few story elements I need to fix and a few things to iron out and then I can start on copy edits.

Start Kimura Sisters Book 2 for Pets in Space 7. I actually already have started on this book! But it was back when I thought about writing about this sister for Pets in Space 6. I just need to make a few adjustments to the storyline and I'm off and running.

Edit REUNITED and RECLAIMED. The editing of the Nogiku Series is going well! And I remember that by the time I got around to writing these two books in the series, I was much better about act structure, so I think I'll be able to edit these faster.

Schedule my promotions for my books through the end of March. I have half of these done. I will finish these up this weekend.

Do my Duolingo Italian and Japanese every day. I am planning on establishing the habit of doing my language work every morning with my tea. Usually, I spend that time on Facebook. Let's see if I can keep this up.

Start the Winter Power Zone Pack Challenge and keep up with the rides. You saw all of my fitness goals? This includes these challenges and Mon, Jan 3rd is my first ride.

Close on the beach house. We close on January 7th. I think we have to drive to the attorney's office to close but that's not too far away. Hopefully we can get this done and not get covid. Once the house is ours, we can go whenever! We're thinking about heading down for the MLK weekend/my birthday.

Reading, knitting, and crocheting on my temperature blanket. The usual. The blanket needs to be worked on one-row-per-day.

That's it! Have a great month everyone!

The post January 2022 Goals appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

2022: The Year I Become Stronger, Faster, More Powerful and Positive

Happy New Year everyone! And welcome to 2022! 2021 was a really tough year for me, so I'm hoping that things get better in 2022. Of course, I said that last year too, so let's see how things pan out, shall we?

As usual, I am declaring a theme for this year.

2015 was The Year I Say No.
2016 was The Year I Give No F*cks.
2017 was The Year I Have Fun.
2018 was The Year I Don't Compete.
2019 was The Year I Improve Myself and My Business
2020 was The Year I Lead A Happy Creative Life
2021 was The Year I Develop My Systems

2022 will be…

The Year I Become Stronger, Faster, More Powerful and Positive

“Stronger, faster, and more powerful” is a Peloton mantra that I hear a lot from Ben Alldis, and it speaks to me. I'm not here to stagnate. I'm here to grow and become a better person. So, this year, I'm going to get rid of all the negativity. This means deleting podcasts that are just the same tired opinions over and over. This means leaving more FB groups. This means spending less time on FB. I'm adding in my positivity through Peloton and Power Zone training, reading good books, watching good movies, and spending time with my family. I’m also taking six months off from the business of publishing. I’m closing all of my sales windows and I’m setting up promotions ahead of time. More on this below…

I have a lot of goals this year, mostly health and fitness related, so let's get to them!

Writing and Publishing Goals

I will concentrate on writing 1000 words per day when not editing or doing other tasks. I find that if I have a project open and ready for writing, I work best at 1000 words per day. So I'm going to continue that when I have something I'm working on.

Put all my titles into large print format after July. Since I'm taking the first six months off of the publishing business, this will be a second-half-of-2022 goal.

Publish The Amagi Series Books 2 and 3, Hikoboshi Book 5, another Pets in Space novella. If any of these will be late, it'll be Amagi Series Book 3. I really want Hikoboshi Book 5 written and published this year so that will be my biggest priority after the Pets in Space novella.

Business Goals

I will continue to advertise my free books every month. I will set up ads for them every quarter and keep the basic Amazon Ads running on them.

I will take off six months from the business of publishing. I find the whole business of publishing to be really depressing. I open my KDP reports and find I have negative money for the day because people returned my books. Or I see that I'm making 35% less than the year before. Screw that. I am closing my reports and not paying attention to either sales or reviews.

I will continue to spend more time on Instagram. I like Instagram as both a creative outlet and a way to reach new readers.

Creativity Goals

I will read or listen to 20 books. I want to be better about reading next year. Sometimes I fall off this goal because my life gets too hectic, but I don't want that to be the case anymore.

I will learn Italian and Japanese on Duolingo. I bought the year pass to Duolingo. I'm going to do both Italian and Japanese.

I will knit one shawl and crochet a temperature blanket. I'd like to finish the shawl I'm making and start a new one. And I have a year-long project that I'm doing with other people. A temperature blanket! I crochet a new row every day in a color that represents the high temperature for that day. I'll talk more about this in January.

Personal Goals

I will work on making the beach house our second home. We bought a beach house! And I can't wait to spend time there, working on it and making it our home away from home. I want to spend more time at the ocean where I find peace. I hope to be there a lot.

I will travel and see friends and family more, Covid permitting. I'm dying to travel once quarantines are lifted. I miss seeing people I know and love.

Fitness Goals

I will bike 3000 miles on Peloton. I did 2600+ miles in 2021 which is 800 miles past my 1800 mile goal. I can do that again, plus more! I have added in 20-min rides on Tuesdays and Thursdays which gives me an added 8-10 miles per week.

I will participate in Pelofondo again. I would like to do this twice in 2022. This time I will aim for 75 miles.

I will do all the 75-min and 90-min Power Zone Endurance Rides in the library by 2022’s end. This is a fun goal! I saw someone else do it and thought it was a great idea.

I will work my way up to 60-min Climb Rides. This will not be an every week thing. I'd like to work up to doing a 60-min Climb Ride, and once I have done it, I'd like to do it once per month after.

I will complete the Peloton Boxing course. I've never done boxing but it's been included in other Peloton classes, so I would like to try this and see if I like it. It's a short course, like 3 weeks? So it won't be a huge commitment.

I will participate in every Power Zone Pack Challenge and make sure to always buy a t-shirt! This might be difficult with the beach house. We are planning on buying a second bike for the beach house, so if that happens, all of my goals are good. Let's just say that we will buy it and get it done!

And that’s it!

It's a lot of goals, especially fitness ones. But I feel like I'm less of an author nowadays than just a regular person who likes to write, bike, and knit. I hope you'll still follow along as I become a stronger, faster, more powerful and positive person.

Want to share your 2022 goals with me?

Comment and let me know what you’ll be up to in the new year!

The post 2022: The Year I Become Stronger, Faster, More Powerful and Positive appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

A Look Back At 2021 – What I Accomplished, Set Aside, or Changed

And I thought 2020 was bad? It turns out that two years of a global pandemic is worse than one year. Who would have thunk it? 2020 wore me down, and 2021 nearly wore me out. As I sit here in my bed and type this up, I am trying to muster any kind of energy to make the last few days of the year happen. I'm glad we made it to end, though.

Let's look back at this year…

January started off fine with my birthday, lots of Peloton riding, including my 100th ride, snow, cold, and, oh yeah, an insurrection. The words “January 6th” will live in infamy until the end of time. But we got a new president so it wasn't all bad.

February was cold and we spent a lot of time indoors. My kids were still schooling-from-home, but my oldest made macarons, and they both made the best of things.

March was a continuation of February with lots of cold days, lots of Peloton riding, a birthday for my oldest, time spent outside once it was warm, sourdough bread made by my husband (he doesn't do that anymore because he's gluten-free now), and my first covid vaccine shot!

April meant I got my second shot, which felt great to be done with. We had Easter and Spring Break at home. I finished a knit and started a new one. My kids went back to in-person school and everything started blooming again. Softball season started and we got some new furniture. I did Pelofondo! I rode 50 miles in one weekend. It was hard but I'm glad I did it!

May was starting to feel a little more normal. The kids had outdoor band concerts and got into the swing of being back at school. We got our house insulated and had to be at a hotel for the night. Mother's Day was a chill affair at home. My husband's garden started growing things from last year. Lol. I attended a ton of softball games and my oldest daughter got her first covid vaccine dose!

June meant POOL and the end of school! School went all the way to the end of the month and by then I WAS SO DONE. The pool opened and we got back to going regularly. I kept going with Peloton and took another FTP test. My oldest daughter graduated from middle school! We had a bear sighting and softball finally ended.

July was the best month. We went to the pool a lot. We traveled to see my parents in South Carolina. It was the first time we had gotten on a plane since our trip to Jamaica in Feb 2020. We went to the beach almost every day, ate great food, and lived through a hurricane. I got out my hoops and started hooping again. Then we had a family reunion, which was a blast. I changed my hairstyle and finished writing AN UNEXPECTED DEBT.

August was a lot of fun too. We went on vacation to Cape May and loved it so much that we decided to buy a house down there (more to come on that later). There was a lot of Band Camp for my oldest daughter who is now in high school. Carysa Locke and I worked on publishing SUMMON THE STARS. I got new biking shoes. And I started playing around with more reels on Instagram.

September was back to school. And man, things got BUSY. My kids had a million things going on from band to field hockey to social engagements. I started recording chapters of CRASH LAND ON KURAI for Instagram. And looking back on this month, all I remember is how many times I got in the car to carpool and take kids places. It's a blur.

October was more of the same. Field hockey, band, and lots and lots of carpooling. There was an in-town band competition we volunteered at and Halloween. I rescued a sweet dog who was roaming the streets by herself and got her back to her owner. I started concentrating on getting my books all back in paperback. And then the ear and head congestion started. It's been on and off since then. BUT THERE WAS HAMILTON!! So yeah, that was an awesome thing. I'm so glad we got to do that finally.

November was when things started to get rough for me. I started feeling burnt out in mid-October, but November was the nail in the coffin. It started getting colder and the days got shorter. BUT, we started the process of buying that house! Yes, at the beginning of November we went down to Cape May and looked at houses, including the one we are buying. We close the first week of January, so I'm sure that will be in an upcoming Sunday Update. It has been added stress on top of writing and editing, but it'll be awesome once we get it. We managed to have Thanksgiving with family, which was unexpected and nice. I also got my Tesla Model Y!! And I love it.

December has been a blur, mainly because I'm so burnt out. All I want to do is sleep. I know, I know. I think it means I may be depressed some, but who isn't? We got through to the holidays and because of omicron, we had to cancel all of our plans because covid and the pandemic suck big donkey balls. I'm as tired of it as you are, trust me.

I'm really hoping next year goes better. REALLY.

Favorite Part of This Year

Going to Cape May in August with our family and realizing we loved it down there.

Least Favorite Part of This Year

More of the pandemic and the way it has impacted my mental health.

Let’s look back at my goals from the year…

2021: The Year I Develop My Systems

Well, I certainly got better at systematizing my life this year. I have days on which I do things now that I didn't have before. Things like backing up my computer, backing up my mailing lists, posting to social media, charging my car, getting Lulu's nails trimmed, etc etc are all scheduled in my to-do list app, and I get them done. I got better this year about not dropping the ball on important things. I stayed on top of my fitness because I systematized it too. All in all, my systems kept me from becoming a total mess this year, and I'm grateful for that.

Writing and Publishing Goals

I will write and publish the first 2 books in The Amagi Series. Technically, yes, I did this. I published the prequel novella in SUMMON THE STARS and the first novel of the series, AN UNEXPECTED DEBT, in November.

I will write a novella for an anthology. I started a new series called The Kimura Sisters Series and that first novella is now in Pets in Space 6! I am writing the second novella for Pets in Space 7!

I will publish Book 4 in the Hikoboshi Series, THE RISE OF SHIROI NAMI. I did this!

I will write Book 5 in the Hikoboshi Series. I did not do this. My writing goals all got pushed around. I'm hoping to write this this spring.

Added Goals

I am re-editing the Nogiku Series. I'm doing this for a new edition this coming February.

I started offering paperbacks again. But this time I'm skipping KDP Print because I know they were stealing from me. I'm only doing IngramSpark.

I made audiobooks of the whole Flyght Series. I used Amazon's Polly AI voices to make audiobooks of the whole Flyght Series. They are for sale on my website.

Business Goals

I will continue to advertise my free books every month. I did this and I added in some Amazon Ads as well.

I will continue to publish my ebooks as widely as possible. Still publishing wide!

I will spend more time on Instagram. I have spent lots of time on Instagram and I love it. It's definitely where I am strongest with my social media game.

Added Goals

I started Amazon Ads again. I joined Bryan Cohen's ad school and learned more about these. I created ads for my first-books and they have been going since July.

Blogging Goals

I will continue to update my blog on a regular basis. I did well with this again in 2020!

I will continue to update my pen name's website as well. I decided to abandon my pen name about halfway through 2021. I'm going to concentrate on writing space opera romance on my main name from now on. This means I stopped the pen name's newsletter and now I just make sure the site it up and running. I will not be writing cozy mysteries again.

Creativity Goals

I will read 20 books and listen to 20 audiobooks. I did not do this, and I can't even give you a good reason why. I was just burned out and couldn't.

I will watch more TV and movies. I did watch more TV and movies, and I'm happy about that.

I will knit more. Nope. I knit the same amount I always do.

Bring all my Pinterest recipes into Paprika. Nope. Though I am being good about bringing recipes into Paprika when I find them.

Personal Fitness Goals

I will bike 1800 miles on Peloton. My stretch goal was 2000 miles. I rode over 2600 miles! So I beat this one by a lot.

I will complete Power Zone Training and 2 Power Zone Challenges. I did 4 Power Zone Pack Challenges!

I will complete the Crush Your Core Training on Peloton. Nope. I hate core. Lol. And now I only do it twice per week.

I will complete the Tabata with Robin Training on Peloton. Nope. I've decided that I am an endurance athlete, not a sprinter. Tabata is not for me.

I will drop another 10 lbs. I did not do this. I have stayed right around 35-40lbs lost and not lost any more. But I have gained a lot of muscle this year!

I will hit 300 rides. I hit over 500. I'm at 514 now.

I will continue with the Low Carb life. I am still mostly low carb and I am still using Intermittent Fasting to maintain my weight loss. I eat from 12 or 1PM to 7PM and that's about it.

I will get a new GP this year. I needed a new general practitioner/doctor and that turned out to be the hardest goal that I still have not accomplished. Every doctor around here isn't taking new patients and many are going back to tele-medicine because of the continuing pandemic. I'm hoping for better in 2022.

And That’s It For The Year!

Tomorrow, I’ll be back with my goals post for 2022! I hope you all have a safe, healthy, and happy new year!

The post A Look Back At 2021 – What I Accomplished, Set Aside, or Changed appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – December 26, 2021

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.

Here we are at the last Sunday Update of the year. I don't know where this year went. They seem to fly by now that I'm in my 40s, which is kind of a bummer. I like my 40s! Except for the pandemic. So, I was hoping to savor them a little bit. But I suppose that's the nature of time. It's elastic. Sometimes it goes by quicker; other times it's slow as hell.

I'm glad to say that my shoulder pain was gone by Monday. I was a little sore then, but not constant pain like before. I had a lot of work to do, so NO TIME FOR PAIN. Lol. Since my audiobook project was finished, I put all of my energy into finishing the Amagi Series Book 2, A FORTUNATE ACCIDENT. And I did! Yay! I'm so glad that's done. I finished that book on Tuesday, and I'm already looking forward to the revisions.

I spent many nights this past week wrapping presents and getting ready for Christmas. I wrapped presents a few nights in a row in the bedroom at my husband's work desk which is much better than sitting on the floor. Thankfully we got them all done prior to Christmas Eve, and then Christmas Eve was nice and chill.

We did have a slight Covid scare here this past week. My oldest daughter's good friend got Covid, and my daughter and all of her friends had been around this friend several times in the last week. I wasn't too worried because they were masked and distanced the whole time, but of course, with omicron, it could have snuck by all our precautions. So when my daughter started to not feel well on Tuesday, I was wondering, wondering, wondering. She woke up on Wednesday mostly fine so I sent her to school, only to bring her back home by 10AM because she had a sore throat. We went and got Covid PCR tests after lunch at our county's Covid vaccination spot, and I kept her home from school on Thursday. It was a half day anyway, so no big deal. The good news is NO COVID. She and I both tested negative. I think she was feeling poorly was because she was tired and needed a break. I feel that, to my bones.

Christmas was lovely. We opened gifts in the morning and had a pretty normal day. I did a 75-Min Power Zone Endurance Ride on the bike to frontload some negative calories for the day, and then I ate whatever I wanted. Lol. Good thing too, because today it's back to normal and no more cookies. We had a decadent dinner of king crab legs, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, and a few other things, then we watched Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer together before bed.

Today, Boxing Day, means a ton of English Premier Football (those teams who are playing and didn't cancel), and I have to dye my youngest child's hair, plus just sit and read or watch Gilmore Girls. :)

Coming up this week on the blog, my annual round-up of what happened this year, and Saturday, on the 1st, I will be posting my goals and theme for the year, too.

Life with Lulu is never dull.

I made gluten-free mock chicken and dumplings soup. It was delicious!

According to my kids, English Muffin Pizza is now a Christmas Eve tradition.

And here's the tree right before bed on Christmas Eve!

PCR testing in the car. We watched some Great British Bake Off while we spit into the container.

This is my final color palette for my 2021 Temperature Blanket!

I got a Team Wilpers (Matt Wilpers is a Peloton instructor) swag box for Christmas and (not pictured) an iPhone 13 Pro. Gonna switch over the phone later today.

I switched over my oldest daughter's iPad last night. She upgraded from a Mini to an Air with the Apple Pencil so she can draw.

Yes, I actually got on the bike and did a 75-Min class on Christmas Day.

Christmas Day dinner!

And finally, my ending word count for A FORTUNATE ACCIDENT! Yay! I'm so glad I finished it before Christmas!

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

The post Sunday Update – December 26, 2021 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

We Love Pets – Bargain Paranormal Romance, SciFi Romance, and Fantasy Romance Promotion

I couldn't resist promoting this fun collection of over 30 books that include pets. And not just sci-fi romance this time, but also paranormal and fantasy romance as well! There are so many books in this promotion from so many authors I know and love, plus plenty of books from fellow PETS IN SPACE 6 authors, too! Stop on by and take a look…

Check out the We Love Pets Sale!

The post We Love Pets – Bargain Paranormal Romance, SciFi Romance, and Fantasy Romance Promotion appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.