S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 36

Free and 99c Romance – Promotion

Looking for something new to read? This free and 99¢ romance promotion has a ton of great paranormal, fantasy, or sci-fi romance books on offer! I even see a few authors in this one that I've had on SFR Station. I hope you find something to read and enjoy!

Check out these Free and 99c Romance books!

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Sunday Update – April 11, 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 was a busy week here and I slept poorly for most of it. Especially last night. Lulu cried in her crate at 1am, and just wanted to be out and playing. No way, dog. I love you, but no. I let her out to pee and then I put her back in and told her to be quiet. It took me forever to go back to sleep after that. I think I only got about 4 hours. Sigh. I think she got an update from the Mothership this week, though, because she was also barking at herself in the mirror on Friday night, and she's NEVER done that before. So, something's up. I hope it passes quickly.

My kids went back to school this week! Their cohort was Tuesday and Thursday this past week so they only went two days. They will go three days this coming week. All in all, it went well. I think it's a little more stressful for them but I'm sure they'll get the hang of it.

I finished my knit, which I posted to the blog, and started a new one. I also worked on my Pets in Space novella, had a breakthrough on Friday, realized I was (basically) writing the wrong sister in the series, and I'm starting over on it tomorrow. That's okay because I'm planning a whole series around these characters and I can still use what I wrote. No big deal! It's all coming together.

Softball season has started again, so this means lots of sitting and knitting or reading. Possibly writing too.

I take a lot of photos from this spot on the couch BECAUSE I AM ALWAYS HERE.

My husband is still making sourdough bread…

And cookies!

Here is the same tree, two days difference between the two photos.

How is this comfortable?

Still exercising, going hard on the hard days, easy on the easy days… and I hit 200 rides on Peloton!

It was foggy during our morning walk today… then it rained.

And finally, I ate this “ramen” from Immi Eats and reviewed it on Instagram. Head on over there to read the full review!

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

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April From the Void – Promotion

Hi everyone! I have another great promotion for you today. 30+ science fiction books! These books are available widely, meaning they are available on all the major storefronts! If you don't shop just on Amazon, then I'm sure you'll find something here to enjoy.

Check out April from the Void!

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Plumpy Shawl – Knitting FO

I started this project last summer during the lull of the pandemic. At that point, I just needed something interesting and surprising to keep me going, and I thought, “HEY. I have never knit brioche before. Maybe I should do that?”

Oh, Stephanie. You sweet summer child. Why did you think something complicated was the best idea to take on during a pandemic? I'm not sure now what came over me. But since I'm a serial monogamist when it comes to knitting, I couldn't just set this aside and move onto something else. I had to finish it, come hell or high water.

And for about 70% of the knit, everything went okay. I got the hang of the brioche pretty quickly. The pattern itself alternates between brioche and garter stitch, so I got periods of rest between the harder bits. I only made a few errors until the very last section… when I made several in a row and couldn't figure out how to fix them. It started to become incredibly frustrating, and I just wanted it over with. Then I ran out of yarn in the last section! Ugh. I subbed in some of the contrasting color and did the best I could. Then when I blocked it, I found a dropped stitch WAY back in the first half of the knit. ARGH! I had to do some creative weaving and fix that too.

Let me tell you. I think I need to concentrate on simple knits from here on out. Garter or stockinette, a few colors, some stripes, some basic shaping, and that's it, folks. I run 5 businesses (this name, my pen name, SFR Station, my web development business, and an anthology) and it's too much to expect brain power at the end of the day. I need MINDLESS KNITTING. This Plumpy Shawl? Not so mindless. I should have known better, and I certainly do now.

I loved knitting with this yarn, though! How could I not? It's La Bien Aimee, from my good pal, Aimee in France. The yarn was squishy and pretty and just delightful. I will definitely order from her again.

All the details about yarn and needles and more images are all on Ravelry.

View Plumpy Shawl on Ravelry

I've already cast on for my next knit and I feel confident that I'll be able to handle this one. :)

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Sunday Update – April 4, 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.

Happy Easter to all those who celebrate it! The Easter Bunny made his way into our house last night and left eggs and baskets for the kids (and Lulu). Today, we are planning a carb feast! Pasta and homemade bread tonight, plus decorating Easter sugar cookies. I miss seeing our families for the holidays. Sigh.

This was our Spring Break week here and it flew by despite doing nothing really. The kids slept in as much as possible. I did my usual work all week, usual Lulu walks and Peloton workouts, and usual everything else. My husband took off Thursday and Friday. He baked a wonderful pumpernickel bread and bought himself a new guitar. I finished my knit finally! And I’ll have that on the blog this week.

I’ve been having a crisis of confidence about the novella I’m writing for Pets in Space. I wondered if it wasn’t sci-fi enough or that it may not be taking the correct path. I’m still unsure about it. I’ve been reading what I’ve written already and trying to make it work. I need to get back on track, write, and finish it before I give up on it. Writing is never easy but this one is especially hard.

My husband bought some new gin for us to try!

I was closing in on the end of my knit when I did run out of yarn. So I decided to go back and use one of the contrasting colors at the top for the last bit. Then that yarn ended up a big mess. It took me an hour to untangle enough for me to use.

Here is the shawl before blocking..

Then I washed and laid it out and found a dropped stitch! Son of a bitch… I had to then fix that. Ugh. This knit has been cursed.

I bought new yarn to make me feel better. Lol.

Let’s move on to Lulu who continues to be the goodest girl.

And I enjoyed some of my husband’s lovely sourdough pumpernickel bread. Yum!

Finally, here I am, tired but warmed with my handknit from last year.

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

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CRASH LAND ON KURAI is Free! Download This Space Opera Romance Today!

I’ve decided to make CRASH LAND ON KURAI free! I have no idea when I’m going to take it off free and make it a paid book again… or if I ever will. I’m being very wishy-washy about the details because I’d like to make my life easier by keeping it free. It may be better to make it paid at some point, though… Anyway, my point here is to get it while you can! And maybe in the future, once you’ve read and loved the whole series, it’ll still be free so you can tell your friends. ;)

I remember writing this book and having a lot of fun with it. It has more action adventure than my other books and includes an interesting take on corporations running a whole world. This series is also an ode to all the science fiction I loved growing up. You’ll see callbacks to Blade Runner and Isaac Asimov’s robot series, among other greats. Hopefully, you’ll find it fun too! Plus, there’s a slow burn romance here that even my brother loved. Yumi and Rin have so much going on, both in and out of the bedroom. There’s lots of fantastic reading ahead for you!

You’ll find all the links on the CRASH LAND ON KURAI page, but just know that Amazon is DRAGGING ITS FEET making this book free in all the international markets. I am constantly writing to them and asking them to price match to free (this is the only way they allow long-term free books on their platform) but they don’t always comply. It’s currently free on the dot com store and a few others. IF IT IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR FREE IN YOUR MARKET, please download using the Direct button. When you download Direct, you can get the book on your ebook reader via my Direct store and Bookfunnel.

When a space journalist crashes into a deadly intra-colony war, her hunt for the truth will either save her life or sentence her to death…

Starship journalist Yumi Minamoto’s hot temper makes turning around her poor reputation an impossible challenge. While on a mission with her brother Shintaro to investigate a neighboring colony, her vessel comes under vicious attack, leaving her bleeding and disoriented. During the battle, Yumi’s boss hands off a data device with secret, valuable information inside, just before her escape pod slams into a nearby moon.

Clinging to life and desperate to find her brother, Yumi and her fellow survivors emerge into an alien civil war with unknown agendas and honor codes. Navigating their differences is treacherous, and everything becomes more complicated when one of the natives takes a keen interest in her that Yumi can’t say no to. As she’s captured and used as a pawn in negotiations, the journalist has a hunch something on the device could help her and the crew… if only it hadn’t gone missing during the crash.

Can Yumi use her truth-seeking skills to ally with the right side and recover the data before her life is torn apart in a battle for planetary supremacy?

CRASH LAND ON KURAI is the first book in the fast-paced Hikoboshi Space Opera Romance Series. If you like high-tech futures, ancient Japanese honor codes, and character-driven action, then you’ll love S. J. Pajonas’ thrilling sci-fi adventure romance.

Download CRASH LAND ON KURAI for free!

I hope you enjoy CRASH LAND ON KURAI!

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Rainy Day Reads for April – Promotion

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve had some promotions to share here, so I got into Bookfunnel and signed up for a few this month. This Rainy Day Reads for April has over 50 Romantic Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Dark Romance with Fantasy/Sci-Fi or Paranormal Romance books to choose from. If you’re looking for something new to read, you’ll want to check out what’s on offer here!

Check out Rainy Day Reads for April!

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April 2021 Goals

Where did March go? I have no idea. It literally FLEW by. So, here we go April!

What happened with March’s Goals

Reveal cover and pre-order for THE RISE OF SHIROI NAMI. Done! All set up!

Finish off final edits of THE RISE OF SHIROI NAMI and prep for publication. Also, done! Final files have been uploaded to stores that have pre-orders going.

Setup promos for a free run of CRASH LAND ON KURAI. Mostly done. Some places don’t take promos until you’re within 30 days. So I’m going to set those up now. But CRASH LAND ON KURAI is free most places!

Continue to write my anthology novella. I did not get as much done of this that I wanted to. And then I decided to take the novella in a different direction.

Brainstorm my first Skylar novel, the beginning of the Amagi Series. No brainstorming because I was working on the novella.

Finish my freelance build. This is done! I just have a few plugins to install, a few tutorials to make, and then bill my client.

Build my anthology website. This did not happen. Too much going on.

Continue on with SFR Station. Did this.

Figure out what I should do with my pen name. I’ve decided to just leave the website as-is and just let the pen name gather newsletter subscribers as it does, very infrequently. I’ll decide what to do with it all in 2022.

Finish the Power Zone Pack Challenge and move onto my own strength calendar. Done! I am riding and doing strength on my own.

Continue with fasting. Going good! I am doing 18:6 or 19:5 most days, and on Tuesday, I did OMAD (One Meal A Day) for the first time, which equates to 20:4. I will do extended fasts in April.

Audiobooks, reading, and knitting. Did all of this and I’m almost done with my knit!

April Goals

Publish THE RISE OF SHIROI NAMI. I haven’t published a book in over a year. I don’t know what I’m going to do with this launch except to put a post on the blog and social media. That’ll probably be it. I don’t give my money (or data) to Facebook anymore so I won’t be boosting posts there or doing ads.

Promote CRASH LAND ON KURAI as free. I plan to post this in some FB groups, on the blog, and maybe get it into a Bookfunnel promo, and that’s about it. I might leave the book at free too. We’ll see.

Write my anthology novella. I want to write and finish this book.

Start Skylar’s novel, the beginning of the Amagi Series. It’s my intention to have this book started before the end of the month.

Build my anthology website. This needs to happen this month.

Continue on with SFR Station. The usual needs doing here.

Complete Pelofondo 50 miles. I will be riding 50 miles on April 17-18th. I’ve never done a long-distance event like this. I hope I can get it done!

Start the Spring Power Zone Pack Challenge. The new challenge starts on the 19th! Looking forward to it.

Continue with fasting. This month I’d like to try some two-day fasts to help jumpstart some more weight loss.

Finish my Plumpy Shawl. I’m in the home stretch with this! Almost done!

Audiobooks, reading, and knitting. I need to continue my commitment to read every single day this year. Audiobooks for walks and knitting every weekend.

That’s it! Have a great month everyone!

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Sunday Update – March 28, 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.

Where did this month go? I swear it was the beginning of March just yesterday. But considering that last year March went on FOR DECADES, I’ll take this.

The biggest news of this week is that my husband and I got our first Covid-19 shots! We managed to get into the local vaccination facilities run by the county on the same day. I went first in the morning and his was in the afternoon. Our county is giving out Moderna vaccines so I had no choice there and that’s fine. Any vaccine is better than no vaccine. I had a sore arm for two days and there’s a little bruise where it was administered. No big deal. I took Tylenol the second day because I was tired of it being in pain, but otherwise, no other side effects! I’m sure the second shot will be worse, so I’ll keep you posted. I got the shot and then cried happy tears. I said to the nurse, “I’m so relieved, so happy.” And she responded, “I know. 2020 was a dark time for us all.” Yes, yes it was.

I’m back to writing my novella for the Pets in Space anthology! So far the writing is going well, if a little long. I think I’m going to have to edit out stuff in order to stay in the anthology guidelines. Lol. But better to have too much than too little. I got proofreading notes back on THE RISE OF SHIROI NAMI, and my ARC readers have the book now, too. I should be able to make the final file this week and upload it. I really wanted to make a map for this series so I downloaded a map-making tool, but it has a steep learning curve. Sigh. I’m not sure I have time to make a map before this book goes live. I’ll have to think on it.

Lots of photos this week! I’m back in the swing of updating Instagram more regularly. I was just too busy this last month and let it go.

My husband got a bee in his bonnet about making sourdough bread. So I suggested he use the recipe from my friend, Erin (brooklynsourdough), and he got going with that. It required a bit of extra work to get the starter going, but he made his first boule yesterday! It was pretty good! I can’t wait for the starter to get really sour. I just love that flavor.

We’ve had some good meals this week. I made Japanese curry, and my husband made sweet and sour shrimp on the grill using the grill basket.

After a rainy day…

After my first covid-19 vaccine…

Lulu sleeping and on the move.

She “buried” her pizza crust in the bathroom. Great job, Lulu! No one will find it there!

I’ve been doing a lot of knitting because I want to be done with this project like YESTERDAY.

Enjoyed outdoors afternoon decaf coffee TWICE this past week! Yay! I love spring!

And finally, I pulled down the shutters on my Twitter account. I made all my tweets private, unfollowed everyone, and forced everyone to unfollow me. It was time. I hadn’t updated there in two years. But I’m keeping my name there in case anyone wants to tag me. My main social media now is Instagram and then my FB page. I don’t do anything on my FB page but post from my blog and Instagram, though. Instagram is where I’m most active if you want to follow me.

That’s it for this week! Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

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Book Chat #69 – Books by H. Y. Hanna and T. J. Klune

I’ve been getting a lot of audiobook listening done lately while knitting!

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE CRUST by H. Y. Hanna (Audiobook)

I’m cruising through the Oxford Tea Room mysteries and still enjoying them. This one had an interesting murder and a great side story about Devlin’s mom. I kept wondering who the killer was, and I guessed wrong! I love when that happens. The only thing that drives me nuts about these stories is Gemma’s inability to say no to things. It’s painful sometimes to watch people continually take advantage of her because she doesn’t want to put someone else out. JUST SAY NO! But it’s an English thing, I guess. Unfailingly polite. Lol. So not American, that’s for sure!

THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA by T. J. Klune (Audiobook)

This is a knitting book club read! And it was super enjoyable. I loved all the funny quips and different personalities of the children on this island and the way Linus got to know both them and himself along the way. He’s there to do a job, to evaluate this orphanage, not to have fun or sympathize with the children or, God forbid, fall in love. I think that Thalia was my favorite of all the magical children. She made me laugh over and over. And the ending was just lovely. I first started this book as an ebook, but then decided to buy the audiobook and listen to that while knitting. The audiobook was so wonderfully narrated that I just kept up with that. All in all, very fun and enjoyable, and the kind of fantasy I was able to get into right away!

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