S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 40

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays 2020! Get 35% Off In My Direct Store!

It’s Christmas Eve, and I just wanted to pop in here and wish everyone a Happy Holidays. It’s been a long, hard year for many of us. I’m sure we’re all happy to see the backside of 2020 as it makes its way out the door. Let’s all try to enjoy this holiday and gear up for 2021.

Next week, I’ll be back with a few posts. I’ll be wrapping up 2020 and then welcoming in 2021 with a whole lot of Yearly Goals. I’m looking forward to seeing you back here then.

In the meantime, I’ve set up a flash sale! You can get 35% off in my Direct Store on all Onigiri Press titles (this includes S. J. Pajonas and my pen name, Steph Gennaro). Just use the coupon code below at checkout. It’s an unlimited coupon and it expires on January 9th, 2021.

WINTER2020

Check out all the books in my Direct PayHip Store

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Sunday Update – December 20, 2020

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.

The beginning of winter is tomorrow! That means we’re just that much closer to spring, thank god. We got a big snow fall this week and I hate snow already. My kids had a snow day on Thursday (no remote school), and I had to shovel a lot because our snow blower decided not to work. Ugh. I am not a fan. So that’s our biggest home news of the week around here!

In other news, I finished writing Hikoboshi Book 4! I plan to have a cover reveal for it at the beginning of February when I put up the pre-order for it. Now I’m taking off from work through January 1 (even SFR Station), and then I will start revisions on the Skylar series prequel. I plan to have that done within two weeks, and I can then start on Hikoboshi 4 revisions in late January.

Otherwise, around here, I’ll be knitting, reading, exercising, and relaxing. Annnnnd cleaning out my youngest daughter’s room. I’m determined for her to go into 2021 with a clean and organized room. It will most likely kill me, but it’ll be worth it in the long run. And easier for her to keep clean, hopefully.

Coming up on the blog in the next two weeks, expect a Christmas greeting plus a direct store coupon from me on Friday! Then the end of the year round up, and my yearly goals post…

We had some backyard visitors this week! They were so pretty.

Getting a lot of reading done on my kindle…

A recent fortune cookie fortune…

I spend a lot of time here in my ugly basement on my Peloton.

Some recent food! My husband made a Impossible burger meatloaf with roasted potatoes and I made a pizzadilla! I basically took two low-carb tortillas, put mozzarella and Italian herbs between them, and made a quesadilla on the stove griddle. Then I topped it with pasta sauce, olives, and more cheese and baked it. Came out AWESOME. I will do that from now on when it comes to pizza night.

More Lulu. Sleeping peacefully, and riding co-pilot.

Enjoying my Friday martini.

Zoom lunch with my mom, cousin, and aunts.

And finally, Lulu and me. I made this black and white for Instagram and swapped it in for my profile picture. I love my dog!

Have a great week and happy holidays everyone!

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Book Chat #66 – Books from Brigid Kemmerer and V. E. Schwab

I was going over my list of read books for the year and I realized I never added A HEART SO FIERCE AND BROKEN by Brigid Kemmerer! And I read it in February!! Gah! Let’s start with that…

A HEART SO FIERCE AND BROKEN by Brigid Kemmerer (ebook)

This delightful tale is the second book in the Cursebreaker series and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was so interesting to see what Grey made of his life after leaving the Emberfall kingdom in a bid to protect his long time friend, Rhen. We’re introduced to new magical beings and new kingdoms. But most of all, I really loved the heroine, Lia Mara. She had just the right mix of determination and strength and angst. Enough of everything to keep the story moving and exciting to read. The twists in the story kept me guessing and wanting more. I can’t wait for the next book in this series to be released in January!

THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE by V. E. Schwab (ebook)

This is my first V. E. Schwab book and I assure you it won’t be the last. Victoria has been a guest this year on one of my favorite writing podcasts so it was interesting to hear her talk a little about this book before I had ever picked it up. The writing was lush and real. She tugged at my heart with almost every page. This story spans some 300 years but to never felt long-winded or tiresome. I looked forward to every shift, to see where Addie was next. At heart, it’s a love story, but it’s also a story of survival and wits. It’s both a selfish romance and a selfless one as well. Honestly, it’s hard to explain! I loved every minute of it. Just do yourself a favor and read it.

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The Impermanence of Social Media

Over the weekend, I got a nasty little scare when Pinterest deactivated my account for “spamming.” At the time, all I could say was, “Huh?” How does pinning my blog posts twice a day and posting my Instagram photos constitute spamming? It wasn’t spam, so I appealed.

Sure, if this were 2018, maybe they could have said that. All 2018 I worked on building my Pinterest audience and I tried to use it to reach new readers by pinning just about everything I could. I stopped in 2019 because Pinterest changed its algorithms and suddenly I wasn’t getting views or followers anymore. I felt like it was a breakup with an apathetic boyfriend, to be honest. Pinterest no longer wanted my business so I spent that money elsewhere. Fine by me. But I still went to Pinterest for recipe inspiration and I had a board with thousands of recipe pins. I didn’t want to lose that!

This all highlighted the impermanence of social media these days. Any one of these accounts could be taken from me at any moment. Facebook especially could be gone in a blink. They’ve shut me down before and I could see them doing it again someday. Instagram, too, could give me a hassle if I’m not careful. Twitter, I already left that place two years ago. But most of them could be here today, gone tomorrow.

Because of the ephemeral nature of these sites, I have been rather careful about having backup plans for most of these. Every photo or story I post to Instagram gets saved to my phone and then backed up to Amazon photos. On Facebook, I have fallback people to help admin groups or my pages should I get locked out. It’s important to have backup plans. This website and blog are where I’ve always done the majority of my updating and business because I have full control over it as long as I pay for my hosting.

Pinterest was the only place I hadn’t ever considered losing but you better believe I’ll be doing something different there. They reinstated me on Monday but I no longer trust them so I have decided to stop using them. My boards will all stay there but I have removed all follow links from my website. I will be backing up recipes using an app called Paprika that came recommended. And I’ll just use Pinterest for searching now, not as a place to find readers.

It’s important to own your primary space in which you do business, like I do with this website and blog. Everything else is temporary and could be gone at any moment. Remember to not rely on one thing (same goes for those authors only in Kindle Select/Kindle Unlimited) and always have a backup plan.

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Sunday Update – December 13, 2020

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 felt incredibly long! I was saying so to my friends on Friday night, and they all agreed. This week was unnecessarily long. Lol. On Thursday night, I was on the couch getting some work done when my youngest daughter asked me, “Why aren’t you talking to your friends, Mommy?” “Because it’s Thursday, not Friday,” I reminded her. We all felt the week had just dragged and dragged.

First I want to thank Lola from Lola’s Blog Tours for putting together a nice blog tour for the Flyght Series this past week. The whole series got some great reviews and I was able to see a few of my guest posts get published as well. There were plenty that did not make it out to the blogs though, so I will be featuring them all on my blog throughout January. Stay tuned!

Hikoboshi Book 4 is almost done! I am about two chapters from completing it. It needs A LOT of work, but I think it’ll be strong by the time I’m done with revisions. I hope to be in revisions in February, and then I have a tentative early April release date in mind. I’m also in the middle of a tiny sale for the second book of my pen name’s cozy mystery series. That’s going well too, so no complaints there.

This week I concentrated on getting on the Peloton or working out every day. I also am on Section 5 of 8 on my knitting! So I’m past the mid-point of that project. And I’m also making great progress on reading my current book. I’m sure I’ll be done with it by mid-week.

I have some bad news though, and I’m hoping it’ll turn around. Pinterest deactivated my account for suspicious spam activity. Considering I only pin my blog posts there 2-3x per day, send my Instagram photos there, and pin recipes a few times a month, I find this hard to believe. Maybe it’s the blog posts? I don’t know. The only posts I send there are my Book Chat and Author Feature posts. It’s possible I may not get this account back. I’ve been a Pinterest member since the first month it launched! I have thousands of pins there including boards for all my books! I spent an entire year building up my Pinterest presence, and for them to take it away from me… I’m just disappointed. I’ve appealed but I hear they are unresponsive. This news totally ruined my day on Saturday. I’m hoping the situation can be rectified. I will let you know how it goes.

Holiday Pups Portraits! Lulu posed for my oldest daughter who took great photos of her.

Lulu all snuggled up in the blanket next to me.

I think she’s comfortable around us, no?

This month’s Bark Box was all Snoopy themed!

We got our Christmas tree last Sunday!

We got a very light dusting of snow this week too. It was gone within a day.

And finally, I tried a Perfect Martini this week and enjoyed it!

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and stay healthy!

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What I’m Watching – Call the Midwife and The Queen’s Gambit

No spoilers, people! We’re coming into the end of the year where all I’m doing is exercising, watching TV, knitting, reading, and writing. So nothing interesting is happening outside of those things. Let’s talk about what I’ve been watching.

Call the Midwife (Netflix, PBS/BBC) was one of those impulse watches that had been on my to-watch list forever and I just hadn’t gotten around to it. Now that I’m staying up in order to sleep better, I either work, like I am now, or I knit and watch a TV show that’s just for me. I’m pretty sure my husband would not be interested in this show so I decided to watch it on my own. I’m really enjoying it so far. I’m in season 2 and I’ve gotten to know the characters well enough that I look forward to spending some time with them. I know the cast changes over time since there are a ton of seasons already, so that’s something to look forward to as well.

I’m also learning more bits and pieces of England’s history. I’ve looked up several things already and I keep my phone nearby for more researching on things like workhouses and chilblains. Lol. Overall, the stories are bittersweet. Most are laced with sadness because of the poor conditions of the neighborhood in which the midwives work to deliver babies. And I mean, EVERYONE was having babies. The premiere episode was about a woman who had over 20 kids! There was very little in the way of contraception, for sure. But then there are sweet, happy moments too. All in all, the mix keeps everything in the story running, and it keeps me watching. I plan to watch an episode after finishing this blog post!

My husband and I are watching The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix) together in the evenings and we’re almost done with it. Wow. What fantastic storytelling, sets, costumes, THE WORKS. I really know very little about chess so I’m not following along with any of the games, and it doesn’t matter. The rest of the story is what I’m enjoying.

Beth’s life is crazy to behold, and she goes through a lot during the course of the story from being an orphan, to adopted, to a chess champion, to a drunk, and more. The actress who plays her has us captivated. It’s incredible character work. I love all the characters but I think that Jolene may be my favorite. :) This show is totally worth the hype everyone is giving it online, so if you have Netflix, you should definitely check it out.

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Sunday Update – December 6, 2020

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 was the first week of my new sleeping schedule adjustment and I think it went rather well. I am now staying up every night until 1am and then sleeping through to around 6:30/7am. This was instead of going to bed at 10:30pm, waking at 2am, not going back to sleep until 4am, and then tossing and turning until 6am. Sleeping straight through is much more preferable than all broken up all night. Plus, I can either get a ton of work done or watch something I want to watch once everyone goes to bed. Everyone, including Lulu! It is truly ME time.

Things got a little turned around this weekend though. I woke up on Saturday to a very rainy day and a ton of head pressure and congestion. I did not feel well. I still exercised though and did what I could. But eventually I had to take Advil Cold and Sinus, take it easy in the afternoon, and go to bed early. It was the opposite of my sleep schedule for the week, but I have to learn to be flexible.

I used a Klova sleep patch last night and slept 9 hours straight! Definitely what I needed to recharge! Today, my head is still congested, but I haven’t gotten any worse, and I think some more Sudafed will clear me up.

The week for us as a family was same-old same-old. The kids are still doing remote school, my husband is still working from home, and I’m still doing the same schedule as always. I took it easy late in the week with exercise because my Peloton bike seat was too low and it was bothering my left knee. That’s all fixed now. I made the seat higher and did a ride on Saturday that went well with no pain.

This week I took two days off from writing and then got back to the end of Hikoboshi 4. I’ve been struggling with this ending, not really liking any of my ideas, so I’ve been slowly pantsing it and just figuring it out as I go. Then boom! One good idea came to me, and slowly, more are coming as I write. Sometimes I just need to get into the weeds of the story to figure out what to do. This is why I’m a terrible plotter! Hopefully I can finish it up in another week.

First up, Lulu, in all her sleep and lounging positions. Lol. My youngest snuggled her up in a blanket last night. So cute.

NaNoWriMo winner! I know I mentioned it last week, but here’s all the evidence. Including the shirt! Which I pre-ordered and had on hand for the winning moment. (I knew I would win somehow, barring a major injury or illness.)

For my husband’s birthday, he made dosas and they were SO GOOD. OMG. What a treat! We all enjoyed them. Even the kids.

And that’s it for this week! Have a great week, everyone! Stay home, stay safe, and stay healthy.

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Book Chat #65 – Books from Frank Herbert and Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

It’s not often that I re-read books. I only re-read a book every 4-5 years, maybe less. So, today is a special treat!

DUNE by Frank Herbert (ebook)

I often tell people that DUNE is one of my favorite books of all time. Certainly it’s in my top 5, and it will remain there after this reading. In fact, I have a reader that’s related to Herbert! (Hello, friend, if you’re still out there!) Anyway, with the DUNE movie set to hit theaters and HBO MAX soon (just announced yesterday), I figured it was worth it to re-read this sci-fi classic. This is the first time I have re-read this book since I became an author myself, so I definitely put a more critical eye to it than I have in the past.

Overall, the story is still very strong and resonated deep in my heart. Arrakis still holds all the mystery and wonder that it did upon first reading, and the world Herbert built is equally fascinating, loving, and cruel, all at the same time. The flip-flopping omniscient narrator was a little tough to get used to this time around. I don’t think it’s a writing style used very often anymore. Late in the book, the viewpoints seem to stick harder per chapter, and that felt more natural to me. I didn’t remember that there’s a huge time jump of many years in the book, and I felt a little sad that I didn’t see Paul and Chani’s relationship bloom on the pages. I just had to trust that their feelings happened whether I saw them or not. Possibly the only thing I found annoying was the constant use of the word “presently.” I swear it was in there at least one billion times! This time around, I also paid more attention to the use of Arabic names and places and the borrowings from Middle Eastern culture. For the time this book was written, that was probably a very bold choice.

I always thought it was interesting that Herbert chose to end the book on a quote from Jessica about marriage and wives. It makes a strong statement for what the book is actually about — not Dune/Arrakis, not the Fremen, not the relationships between the houses, but instead, it’s about family, chosen or blood, and the love that binds them together.

Presently, I’m looking forward to the movie!

SALVAGE CREW by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (audiobook)

Yudhanjaya is a Facebook friend of mine, and when he announced this book was out, AND it was narrated by Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame, I knew I would have to spend a credit on it and listen right away.

This was such a creative and interesting science fiction story! From the premise to the Buddhist flavor, I loved how non-Western it was. Really, it was great not to be stuck in a world where everything was based on a Christian worldview. May you be born into the next life as…! The crew all had their own vaguely mysterious backgrounds, but it was the mystery of this planet that the salvage crew ends up on kept me guessing and guessing. And I guessed wrong, which is always nice. Lol.

But the AI all took the center stage of this book. The character of the Overseer, with his sometimes-interesting-sometimes-awful poetry and whacked sense of humor, made me chuckle on several occasions. It might have been Nathan’s dry delivery of the sarcasm, but he really brought that Overseer to life. And Ship too! Well, Ship had its own personality too, that made me laugh.

I listened to this on a few walks, some meal cooking, and while knitting. It made a great companion during my down time. I have other Yudhanjaya Wijeratne books on my Kindle, and I hope to get to them in 2021.

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Check Out New Books To Read in the Reverse Harem Advent Calendar!

It’s December! And that means advent calendars are all the rage for the next few weeks, and I have one for you to check out! This advent calendar will open a new door every day, so be sure to bookmark the website and come back to check it each day. Books are only guaranteed to be free on the day they’re revealed. Some may be free for longer, but I recommend checking the calendar every day so you don’t miss any books.

Visit the RH Advent Calendar

If you’re wondering… yes, I have FIRST FLYGHT in this calendar. Can you guess which day?

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December 2020 Goals

And here we are in the last month of the year! Soon I’ll be wrapping up 2020 here on the blog and setting goals for another new year. But first, we all still need to get through December.

What happened with November’s Goals

Win NaNoWriMo! Done! I got over the 50k finish line on Saturday, the 29th, ahead of the deadline. I still have plenty to write in this book, but I’m in the final act, and now it’s a race to the finish.

Send out a newsletter for my pen name. Done! And I will do the same on Friday as well.

Write 5 blog posts for the Flyght Blog Tour. Five blog posts are done and all the supporting images too. I sent these off to Lola over the weekend.

Schedule all of my promotion ads for January and February. Almost done. Sorry to say that there are a few promotional email companies that don’t let you schedule far in advance. So I have reminders in my calendar to take care of the last of these this month.

Take a break on SFR Station. I did and it was really nice. I’m glad I did it because it left me time to really concentrate on my writing.

Continue with my Apple Watch exercise streak! The perfect month exists! At least in Apple Watch’s world, it does. I crushed it this month, even hitting my Move Goal at 300% on Thanksgiving.

Continue my Peloton riding. Also done! I am consistently on the bike on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. This month I also rode on Thanksgiving, which was one of the hardest rides I’ve done yet.

Continue with my good eating. I’ve mostly avoided the candy and the Thanksgiving leftovers will be done within another day or so. I have increased some of my calories per day, mostly because I’m burning so many more and the Peloton bike makes me HUNGRY.

Audiobooks, reading, and knitting. All of this is going well. I’m knitting almost every day, listening to my audiobooks, and reading before bed.

December Goals

Finish Hikoboshi 4! I’m almost done with this novel! And I think I know how the book is going to end. It won’t be pretty. We’re going to have to break a few things before we can put them back together. But I promise there will be a happily ever after for Yumi and Rin at the end! Definitely happier than Sanaa and Jiro.

Send out a newsletter for my pen name. I’m making this a thing, the first Friday of every month.

Finish scheduling all of my promotion ads for January and February. This is almost done. Just need to finish it off.

Comment on all the blogs and social media posts from people who participate in the Flyght Series Blog Tour. I will post the tour information once it begins and I will share blog tour posts on my Facebook S. J. Pajonas Page.

Send out all of our holiday cards. This is always a chore. But this year, I’d like them in the mail by December 10th.

Continue with my Apple Watch exercise streak! I’m aiming for another Perfect Month because I’m hoping for a Perfect Year next year. All three rings closed every day, and a workout logged for every day. This includes…

Continue my Peloton riding. I want to workout on the Peloton 3x per week every week. I have a streak now and I want it to continue.

Continue with my weight loss. I’m 3 pounds away from another major milestone. I know I can get there if I just maintain my good eating habits and keep exercising.

Take off the last two weeks of December for SFR Station. Yep. I’m taking off the last two weeks of this month for SFR Station. I haven’t had a vacation since February because of COVID, so it’s time to give myself a breather…

Take some time off. The last two weeks of the month will be strictly time for me. I plan to cook, bake, knit, read, hang out, recharge. We won’t be going anywhere for the holidays, so this is a chance for me to unwind. Because January will be strong on the work front. I’ll have a lot to do then. I’ll need the recharge.

Audiobooks, reading, and knitting. Keep up the good work here!

That’s it for December! Have a great month everyone!

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