S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 33

PETS IN SPACE 6 Is Now Available For Pre-order!

I’m super duper excited to bring you some fantastic news today! PETS IN SPACE 6 is now available for pre-order!

Isn’t it great? I just love the cover.

This collection features 11 brand new stories including one from yours truly. My novella is called SURI'S SURE THING, and it’s the beginning of a new series that takes place on Orihime, 30 years after the end of the Nogiku Series. You’re going to love it. You'll get to see the world that Sanaa helped build (you'll even get to see her in Book 2 of the series) and how Orihime is holding up as they send off the first wave of the Hikoboshi mission. I'm really excited to write this whole series.

So the cool thing about Pets in Space is that we donate 10% of the pre-orders and first month’s of royalties to Hero-Dogs.org.

Hero Dogs is a charity that helps place specially trained dogs with veterans and first responders, and this anthology has donated over $15,000 in the last 5 years! I’m so excited to be a part of it this year!

So, please take a moment to click over and pre-order. You don't want to miss the beginning of a brand new series and tons of other great novellas in PETS IN SPACE 6!

Pre-order PETS IN SPACE 6 Now!

More posts coming soon about my novella, my featured pet in this novella, and many of the other stories in this anthology…

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August Sci-fi Romance Sale – Promotion

I signed up to be a part of this sci-fi romance sale during the month of August. There were so many books on this promotion from so many authors I know and love that I just had to be a part of it too. Over 50 books here to choose from! Hop on by and take a look…

Check out the August Sci-fi Romance Sale!

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August 2021 Goals

Still have another month of summer!! Yay!

What happened with July's Goals

Finish Skylar's novel, the beginning of the Amagi Series. I finished my first draft! And I'm already revising and making my changes

Start Skylar's second novel. I am very far behind. This is not going to happen until late August.

Make an audiobook for LOST FLYGHT. I'm behind on this too. I'm only 8 chapters in.

Work on the anthology. This is ready to go and I will post about it soon. We've been waiting on pre-order links from Amazon, and they are SLOW for some reason.

Get some of my paperbacks up and for sale. I did do some of this! As of now, FIRST FLYGHT, BROKEN FLYGHT, and HIGH FLYGHT are all up for sale. I'll be working on the Hikoboshi Series next since I plan on doing the rest of the Flyght Series as I complete each audiobook.

Go on vacation! We did go on vacation and it was great! So glad it all worked out because it looked dicey there for a bit with a hurricane blowing through.

Start the Summer Power Zone Pack Challenge. I'm in the midst of this now!

Continue with fasting. This is still going well.

Audiobooks, reading, and knitting. I have been reading and knitting. I have totally fallen off the audiobook wagon. I hope to get back on in the winter.

Snuggle more with Lulu. I love my dog. We snuggled. We snuggled hard.

August Goals

Finish AN UNEXPECTED DEBT. I want to finish revisions on Skylar's novel and send it off to my first readers.

Start Skylar's second novel. I will go straight from Book 1 to Book 2 to keep the momentum going.

Finish the audiobook for LOST FLYGHT. I'll finish this this month.

Promote the SUMMON THE STARS anthology. We'll learn more about the stories in this anthology both here and on the SUMMON THE STARS website.

Get the Hikoboshi paperbacks up and for sale. I'll work on this series next.

Go on vacation! Another vacation! We're going to the shore with family. It should be a rocking good time.

Finish the Summer Power Zone Pack Challenge. This ends the last week of August.

Continue with fasting. The usual.

Reading and knitting. The usual here. Get in a few rows per week, and read a few books.

That's it! Have a great month everyone!

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Sunday Update – August 1, 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.

It's August! And my blog break is over. I hope you all had a fabulous July.

Everything here went, more or less, according to plan. We went on vacation to South Carolina and still managed to do the beach and good food and family visiting despite a hurricane that came straight at us. We traveled on a plane and none of us got sick, so that's an added bonus, too.

We had a family reunion too and that went great too despite the VERY hot weather. All of the adults and most of the kids were vaccinated, so that made it safer for us to gather. Again, everyone had a great time, and no one got sick.

I've been doing my usual stuff. Working working working, and keeping the family afloat and busy. Unfortunately, I did not hit a lot of my goals for the month, which you'll hear about in tomorrow's Monthly Goals post. I struggled through the book I was writing, Skylar's Book 1, AN UNEXPECTED DEBT. I did finish it! But it needs a lot of work, and now I really have to consider where I'm taking the series because it's not what I thought it was going to be at all. I'm beginning to question my ability to write stories and make them coherent. I will persevere!

Peloton workouts have been good. I've added hooping back into my life! You can check out my Reels on Instagram and see the hooping I've been doing there.

I gave TikTok a go! And then I decided I hated it, so I stopped spending any time there. Lol. Typical. I really am an Instagram girl. Speaking of…

I've been spending a lot of time on Instagram lately, so if you're not following me there, you should! I have decided that I'm going to focus on a few things for my business: This blog right here, Instagram, Amazon Ads, and paid newsletter ads on my free books. That's about it. Notice that Facebook is not in there at all. I barely spend any time there anymore.

Let's get to the photos!

We enjoyed our vacation to South Carolina! Lots of beach and great food.

I got to see and spend time with my friend, Sarra Canon, while I was there.

There was 4th of July and my youngest daughter's birthday.

Plenty of pool and walking.

I hit some milestones on Peloton. 300 rides and 10,000 minutes.

We've been eating and drinking well. No complaints there! Even with my husband going gluten free.

Family reunion!!

There's been plenty of Olympics watching. While working and not.

I actually made it out to have lunch with a friend. Then I got Starbucks as a treat.

Lulu is great, as usual.

I retaped some of my hoops so that I can get back into hooping again.

And last but not least, Pets in Space 6 is available for pre-order! I'll write more about this on the blog this week, but go pre-order your copy now!

Have a great week everyone!

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Audiobooks Are Now Available for Books 1-3 of the Flyght Series!

It's my very great pleasure to announce that I finally have audiobooks now available for FIRST FLYGHT, BROKEN FLYGHT, and HIGH FLYGHT! And on my 10-year blogiversary, no less!! Happy 10th birthday, blog!!

A few months ago, I decided that I should just take the time to make my own audiobooks since I wasn't sure if I was ever going to be able to afford them. It's looking like I'll be able to put my new grant money towards audiobooks on future series, but that leaves my current series without them, and we can't have that.

Instead of narrating the audiobooks myself, since I'm unqualified to do so, I went the AI-generated audio route. I did a lot of research and ended up making my audiobooks with Amazon Web Services's Polly text-to-speech app. Now, this is not a pump-your-text-in-and-automatically-get-good-audio situation. I had to put a lot of work into making these sound good and easy to listen to. I had to learn SSML, a markup language for speech, and X-SAMPA, a phonetic alphabet for speech pronunciation. I had to tell Joanna (my Polly voice) how to say words like Flyght (it is not ‘flit'), Belem, klutziness, raposquirrels, Brazilianos, and so on. Then I had to proof every chapter and make changes to things like dialog tags and pauses and stutters. I had to tell Joanna when “tear” was a tear from someone's eye (a noun) and not a paper torn in two (a verb). Sometimes I would spend an hour figuring out how to say just one word!

Ultimately, I listened to and tweaked every chapter at least twice. Some more than three times. Then those files had to be mastered and mixed properly, which I had to learn on the fly with Garageband and Audacity. And then I had to figure out how to sell them! All in all, this was a monstrous task for me. But I got it done.

I also started up a whole new email sales funnel newsletter just for my direct store. That was also a challenge as I figured out how to also use Zapier and Encharge, and hook it all up to Bookfunnel for people to download and listen.

It's the biggest task I've taken on in years, bigger than even building websites and switching over my cozy mysteries to a pen name last year.

I'm so excited to be bringing it to you today! Let me give you some details…

These books are not available for sale anywhere else but my direct store. And when you buy from my direct store, I'll send you a 25% off coupon for any future purchase you make! AI-generated books are currently not allowed on the major stores like Audible and Google Play. I hope to upload them to Eden Books later this year when I have more time, but for now, you can only buy them direct.You can listen to FIRST FLYGHT entirely for free on Youtube! Yes, I uploaded the whole book there for you to listen to. Go for it.Want to just listen to some samples to see what they sound like it? You can listen on each book's page. Check out FIRST FLYGHT's sample.Want to just buy it and own it? You can buy the first book for only 99¢. The other books in the series are $5.99, less than a WhisperSync audiobook via Amazon. That way you can take it with you, speed it up, slow it down, save it for later. All files are delivered via Bookfunnel and can be listened to on the Bookfunnel iOS or Android app, via a browser, or even downloaded. I did not put DRM on these files.

There are more audiobooks to come! I'll be working on one per month until the Flyght Series is done. Then I'll be giving the Nogiku Series a makeover and that will get audio as well. I'll work my way through all my books until I have them all done.

I will also be adding more audio to Youtube too. Anything that's audience appropriate will go there. Due to the romantic and sexy nature of my books, I can't put them all there. Most of my first books are appropriate for Youtube, so I'm sure most will go there, if not more. Please subscribe to my channel so you can get more free audiobooks in the future.

I'm now off the blog for the rest of July. Have a great month everyone!

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July 2021 Goals

SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER!! I am my happiest in summer. Yay for July!

What happened with June's Goals

Finish editing my Pets in Space novella and send it off. Done! I got this out to the anthology editor early in the month. And it felt great to have it off my plate of things to do.

Finish Skylar's novel, the beginning of the Amagi Series. I am unfortunately not finished, BUT I have made significant progress.

Finish the audiobooks for HIGH FLYGHT and LOST FLYGHT. Done! They should be live in the store tomorrow.

Build my anthology website. This is 90% done! You can check it out here at https://www.summonthestars.com

Continue on with SFR Station. Done, and now we're off for the summer!

Keep up with the Spring Power Zone Pack Challenge. Done! And I took my FTP test again and I gained 11 points!

Continue with fasting. Keeping on…

Audiobooks, reading, and knitting. No audiobooks this past month. Lots of podcasts, reading on my kindle, and plenty of knitting at softball games.

Snuggle more with Lulu. A snuggled with Lulu whenever she allowed me to. Lol. Dogs.

July Goals

Finish Skylar's novel, the beginning of the Amagi Series. It's definitely happening this month.

Start Skylar's second novel. I have decided that I'll go straight from Book 1 to Book 2 to keep the momentum going.

Make an audiobook for LOST FLYGHT. It's my intention to make a book a month from here on out. Once I'm done with the Flyght Series, I'll move on to the Nogiku Series.

Work on the anthology. My anthology partner and I have plenty of work to do on editing the stories and then preparing them for pre-order.

Get some of my paperbacks up and for sale. Now that I'm able to buy ISBNs and pay the fees, I'll be making paperbacks of the Flyght Series first and uploading them to Ingram Spark for wide distribution.

Go on vacation! That deserves an exclamation point. We are going on our first vacation in over a year, to see my parents in South Carolina. I'm so excited and ready to fly again. I miss my parents so much. I haven't seen my dad in two years and my mother in 18 months. It'll be good to get away, even though it'll be blazing hot in the South.

Start the Summer Power Zone Pack Challenge. Yes! Another challenge! I'm ready!!

Continue with fasting. The usual.

Audiobooks, reading, and knitting. Maybe I can pick up an audiobook for my trip? Either way, I plan to read and knit while away.

Snuggle more with Lulu. I will miss Lulu while we're away. She'll be boarding with her buddies at daycare. So I will snuggle her hard when we return.

That's it! Have a great month everyone!

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Bringing Back Paperbacks and More Audiobooks

I have a little news for you all before I go into a blog hiatus…

First of all, I have the best family. THE BEST. A relative has gifted me some money to put towards my business, and I'm going to use it to get paperbacks back up in the stores and start doing audiobooks on my new upcoming series.

I initially stopped offering paperbacks for several reasons including that I was running out of ISBNs and buying more would cost me a pretty penny, and the publishing fees through Ingram Spark were cost prohibitive. It was also the middle of a pandemic and I didn't have any more energy to put towards them. Now that I have been given an influx of cash, I can afford to buy the ISBNs and pay the fees (I'll be joining a professional organization which will help offset those costs too).

You may also remember that I stopped offering paperbacks because they are terrible for the environment. I still believe this, and I hope that more print-on-demand companies become greener in the future, but I'm willing to put this aside so that readers can get the stories in their preferred formats. Live and learn.

I'll be sure to let you know when the paperbacks are available on all stores. I will start with the Flyght Series and work my way through my catalog from there.

This money will also go to getting human-narrated audiobooks made of the Amagi Series (Skylar's upcoming series), and possibly the Kimura Sisters Series (an upcoming series, too, that will start with the first book in Pets in Space). The Kimura Sisters Series is all novellas so I have to decide if getting shorter audiobooks will be worth the cost. Maybe if I make audio sets of them, it'll work out. We'll see.

Anyway, I hope this will come as welcome news to you all! I wanted to let you know before I go on vacation.

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Sunday Update – June 27, 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.

Last Sunday Update until August! I’m taking July off from the blog…

Finally! School is over! This last week was super stressful. There were plenty of end-of-the-year things for my kids to do, including a graduation ceremony for my oldest kid who graduated 8th grade. Next year she’ll be in high school! Where does the time go? She was just a baby yesterday, I swear.

I also started working in the bedroom, which is my new office. Y’all know how much I’ve struggled with sleep for the last decade and a half. One of the things sleep professionals always say is that your bedroom should only be for sleeping and sex. And I took that very seriously for years. We don’t have a tv in our bedroom and I don’t use it for much other than sleeping or the occasional exercise. But now that we’ve decided not to move for more space and my husband is still home taking 10 hours of conference calls in a row most days, I can’t let the bedroom space go to waste. I have started going in there every day, closing the door, turning on some of my music, and getting work done. People, I got more work done in the bedroom in 3 days than I did in an entire week. I could cry. I wish I had done this months ago. I spent yesterday cleaning out under my bed to make room for a collapsible desk too. Now I can either work on the bed or at the desk.

Writing is going well. I’ve finally hit my stride with this book in the late second act. I know what’s happening and where the story is going. It feels good to be cruising along.

I joined TikTok. Yes, I was NOT going to join TikTok. In fact, I was very much against joining for a long time. BUT, but, I like data. And I want to see how TikTok handles stuff because everyone is saying it's a great place for books and authors. And so far, I like most of what I'm seeing. If you are on TikTok, you can follow me there at @spajonas. I don't know how “cool” I'll be with it. I'll probably post a few times per week, a combo of personal stuff and book stuff. We shall see what happens and if it's worth my time.

In July, I’ll be working on this book, starting the next book in Skylar’s series, and working on Book 4 audio of the Flyght Series, along with going on vacation. More about that in my upcoming monthly goals post!

First up, thank you to all my readers who left reviews or ratings on Crash Land on Kurai! It has finally reached 50 reviews on Amazon! And it has a great rating too. If you haven't left a review of this books, I'd love it if you clicked this link and left one today. :) Thank you!

I crossed the 9000 minutes of working out on Peloton this week!

I also crossed the halfway mark on this book I'm writing. That felt good.

My new office… the bedroom.

When I finish my work early (wow, what a concept!) I can go outside and play fetch with Lulu.

Fresh peas from the CSA.

Some nights dinner doesn't work out, and then there's popcorn instead.

Lots of outside lunches lately, at home and at the pool.

Sometimes dessert is what you make of it. Lol.

I finished watching The Handmaid's Tale this week and this line from this scene made me burst into laughter. Thoughts and prayers, this is something Americans are supposedly good at.

And finally, my new headshot. I took over 100 photos of myself with my good camera and hated every one of them. So I went into the backyard with my iPhone and snapped this pic instead. A little editing later, and it's my new headshot. This goes to show you that sometimes simple is best.

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

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Miss Sherlock and The Handmaid’s Tale

I've finally been watching some TV again! I had stopped for a bit to concentrate on work and reading, but then my husband and I picked up a show in the evening, and I started watching TV during my lunch breaks.

Crime, Drama, Mystery | 2820min | TV Series (2018)


6.9










Summary: The show pays homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic literary character, Sherlock Holmes, with bold interpretations of the iconic characters, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. MISS SHERLOCK is set in modern-day Tokyo and both lead characters are Japanese women - Dr. Wato Tachibana (or Wato-san), a surgeon recently returned from a volunteer doctors' mission in Syria, and Sara Shelly Futaba (nicknamed Sherlock), an eccentric investigation consultant to the police department who solves bizarre and difficult cases. Throughout the series, the pair solves mystery after mystery with Miss Sherlock's extraordinary observation and reasoning skills.





Photos


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Source: imdb.com

Miss Sherlock was a super enjoyable Japanese take on the Sherlock Holmes franchise. I liked the Japanese spin to this one (even the fake CGI samurai splurting blood which made me laugh) including naming the inevitable sidekick Wato and then calling her Wato-san. Get it? Wato-san, Watson. ANYWAY… The mystery was really great and I figured it out right before Sherlock did, which is always fun. I was looking forward to a new season and hoping it might come out soon. But then I ran across an article about how the actress who played Sherlock, Yuko Takeuchi, died in September 2020. What a loss. She was so great. So, I still recommend this because they solved the major mystery in the first season. Though they left a small cliffhanger, you can still watch the season and be satisfied. If you enjoyed my Miso Cozy Mysteries, you may enjoy this, too, though it's a little more gory.

Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller | 60min | TV Series (2017– )


8.4











Summary: A religion-based autocracy has taken over most of the United States, renaming the country Gilead. In this country women are second-class citizens. Anyone trying to escape is punished. One such person is June, who is captured while trying to escape with her husband and child and is sentenced to be a handmaid, bearing children for childless government officials. As a handmaid, June is renamed Offred. This is her story. Written bygrantss





Photos


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Source: imdb.com

I finished watching season 4 of The Handmaid's Tale just the other day, and WOW. This show pulls no punches. It made me cry several times but kept me engaged and pulling for everyone. I think it possibly has one more season left in it before it just becomes too grim to take. This season ended in the most satisfying and heartbreaking way. June is angry, and rightfully so. But she is going to need a lot of therapy to become a whole person again. Damn Gilead. I hope it burns to the ground. This is some of the best TV out there. It's worth the discomfort. I promise.

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Sunday Update – June 20, 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.

Is June over yet? Ugh. There are still another 10 days left in this month. I used to love this month because of the weather, but now as an adult with older kids, it just means end-of-school stress. And seeing as how our school district decided to go almost all the way to the end of the month this year, it’s now worse than usual. 

I piled on a lot of stuff to do this month, and most of it is done, though! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just need to get there.

This past week we FINALLY had the end of softball season. So many games had been rained out that the season went many weeks longer than usual. I’m so glad that’s done. There were a lot of errands to run and things to do but I got them all done. This weekend we’re spending a lot of time at the pool because the weather is finally nice.

I’m pulling way back from Facebook. That place has become a productivity trap and I’m tired of listening to people complain there. I’ve stopped visiting the author groups and stopped helping people. They ask for help but don’t like the answers they get, so why bother? I’m spending more time on Instagram with friends and posting occasionally to my Facebook author page.

The last of softball knitting and eating dinner in my car.

Wild animal sightings this week! A family of deer were hanging out at a house we were touring. And then I dropped a friend of my daughter's at her home, but she came running back to my car! There was a bear in the yard next door! So cute. We waited until he moved on and then she ran inside. Lol.

Lots of Lulu this week! I love the photo of her sleeping with her BFF at daycare. Lazy doggos!

My husband made homemade falafel. It was super yummy!

I've been working working working. I need to concentrate on me and my business now, and stop helping authors online who don't really want the help anyway. I'm tired of everyone so desperate to sell their books that they'll chase every SHINY and NEW thing out there. So much desperation, people. I'm going to concentrate on writing quality books and doing my own thing. (No, I am STILL not on TikTok.)

And finally, this was a well-deserved martini. WHAT A WEEK.

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy!

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