S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 42

Sunday Update – November 1, 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.

It’s November 1st! Which means a lot of things around here…

One, it’s the beginning of the month, so I have a lot of stuff to do today. I need to switch over the SFR Station site to the new month’s New Release promotion, all the links, and set up all the social media campaigns for it. I also need to set up the BookFunnel promotion for this month.

Two, it’s a new month so a new Monthly Goals post will be up tomorrow.

Three, it’s National Novel Writing Month! Also known as NaNoWriMo. I’ve participated a bunch of times over the last 7 years and I’ll be doing it again with Hikoboshi Book 4. I have 10,000 words on it as of today. By the end of the month, I’ll have at least 60,000 words, and then hopefully I’ll be in the final stretch of finishing it in December.

Four, it’s close to the end of the year! This means I need to go through my possible sales and promotions for my books in January and February and schedule those.

Five, it also means I’m close to the blog tour for The Flyght Series! Yes! There will be a blog tour for the Flyght Series, and I have content I have to write for that. Ideally, I’d like to write 5 blog posts for that tour, so I need to sit down and brainstorm up some good topics for posts.

Basically, there’s a lot to be done around here this month. Posting to the blog will be light! I will update still every Sunday and I hope to share some work on WIP Wednesdays during the month, plus a check-in at the halfway point of NaNoWriMo. I also plan to update a lot on Instagram, so if you don’t follow me there already, please hop over there and hit that Follow button.

What happened this week? Not too much. We had a long, dreary week with a lot of clouds and rain. Lulu wasn’t herself for a few days, and we suspect it’s because she ate some foreign poop on one of our walks (yuck). Then yesterday, she ate a stick of lip balm. Yes, she ate a whole Chapstick (gross). She licked the plastic clean and hasn’t really been hungry since. Gee, I wonder why? Ugh. Dogs.

I’m just trying to get through every day. Some days are harder than others. This week was harder than usual. My neighbors are getting their walkway replaced so it’s been a lot of sawing and hammering and SO MUCH NOISE right outside. I’m down, thinking about the election constantly, and just overall I’m in a funk. I’m hoping I snap out of it in a few days. I could really use a vacation! But with COVID on the rise again, that is out of the question. Let’s all ask the universe for a break, shall we?

Just needed to write a little more to get to 10,000 words. Got there today!

Halloween in this house was pretty chill this year. Carving pumpkins the night before, and even the dog got into the spirit!

I really, really, really love my Peloton bike. I rode 3 times this week. I also walked on the treadmill, walked the dog, and did Peloton yoga! I was active and closed all 3 rings on my Apple Watch EVERY SINGLE DAY this month. I did not take a day off. I probably should have had a rest day. But instead, I had harder cardio days and then lighter recovery days. Maybe I’ll take a rest day in December. I plan to have another perfect month this month.

I eat a lot of salads and some days the salads are prettier than other days.

Rain, rain go away… We had the remnants of Hurricane Zeta go through here on Thursday and Friday.

Thank goodness for martinis. I did not drink this week until Friday!

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe and healthy.

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Sunday Update – October 25, 2020

It was another long week here but I’m sure that won’t come as a surprise to any of you. All the weeks seem long now with summer activities to get us out of the house. I miss just sitting outside in the heat and sun.

We also had a very gloomy week weather-wise around here. Every day we woke up to fog that lasted at least until the afternoon, if it wasn’t outright raining. The girls missed a night of field hockey practice because of the rain. Any time the sun came out, I tried to appreciate it. I was awfully jealous of my parents and their Charleston weather, that’s for sure!

Thursday, I had a nice lunch on Zoom with my cousin Kate, and Friday was my Mother’s birthday. We didn’t Zoom, just talked, and we bought her a year of Netflix since my parents finally joined the 21st century and got a Roku stick. Lol. Last night, Saturday, I spent the entire evening outside at two field hockey games. It was FREEZING! And then the lights went out on the field at 9pm, even though the game was still on. Everyone went home early disappointed. Sigh.

In writing news, I joined a 5-day Plot A Novel Challenge, which helped me get some ideas down for Hikoboshi 4! Then I actually started writing! Right now, I’m not setting any goals or daily word counts. I’m just writing until November when I’ll HAVE to set goals in order to win NaNoWriMo. It feels good to be back in this world and boosting Yumi’s confidence.

Lulu loves to snuggle and find places to hide her bone.

I enjoyed some carrot cake jam this week. Delicious!

The home gym is all set up!

Scenes from around town.

Getting some writing done.

Knitting and listening in on an Apple Books webinar.

And finally, a cold night out at the field hockey games.

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What I’m Watching – Away and Emily in Paris

Posting to the blog will be light the next couple of weeks as I’m writing Hikoboshi Book 4, so let’s talk about more tv I’ve been watching.

I really enjoyed Away (Netflix), so I was a bit heartbroken this week to learn that Netflix canceled it and won’t be greenlighting a second season. I belong to a lot of Expanse fan groups on Facebook, and a lot of the hard-core science dudebros in those groups did not like Away. They thought it was boring and centered too much on the characters. They called it This Is Us in space. And you know what, I totally didn’t mind this at all. Maybe it’s because this is the kind of sci-fi I like to write? Real relationships in space are my jam. Now, I have read like a bajillion astronaut biographies, and I understand how NASA works, so I had to suspend my disbelief for a lot of this show. Parts of it were seriously predictable too. But overall, I really enjoyed it and wanted to see another season. As a stand-alone, one-season show, Away is a good time. I still recommend it.

Emily in Paris was a delight! (Netflix) I zipped through this show and loved every moment of it. As a fan of Sex and the City, this show filled that current gap in my life. It was fun and witty. I loved Emily. She was confident and capable. She knew what she wanted and she went out and got it. There was so much to love about this show. Emily’s friend in Paris, Mindy, was a hoot, and she has a story all her own too. Paris was beautiful, and it was so nice to be there when everything is crappy at home. I know this show has not gotten the best reviews, but those reviews are wrong. People online are talking about American narcissism and how this show is an embarrassment to French culture. Lol. Just let all that go and have a good time! I’m tempted to watch it again. I really hope we get many more seasons.

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Sunday Update – October 18, 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 a better week, even though it felt a million years long. I think it might have to do with our jam-packed schedule around here. Lots of field hockey and school stuff and outdoors gatherings (with masks and distancing, of course) that are keeping us busy around here. I changed up my meds situation for sleep and it’s been a little better. Not a lot because I think that life stress and hormones are playing into how well I sleep at night.

The big news this week is that we got our Peloton! It arrived on Monday morning and two guys came in and set it all up. I went for my first ride on Wednesday morning and I really enjoyed it. My butt was pretty sore the next day though! Lol. Not the muscles, but the bones. Ouch. So I bought some riding shorts that have padding and they arrived today. We’ll wash them tomorrow, and I can hopefully get on the bike again on Monday morning. My plan is to ride Monday and Wednesday mornings when I don’t have to take Lulu for walks because she goes to daycare. Then Tuesday and Thursday mornings I walk Lulu. Friday and Saturday mornings will either be Peloton or walking outside or on the treadmill. Sundays are also for walking Lulu. So I basically have exercise planned out for every day!

This week we had some rather rainy days, both Monday and Friday. We also had some really beautiful days on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, I went to visit my cousin and we sat in her front yard on chairs ten feet away from each other and talked in the sun. Thursday was so beautiful. I sat outside with Lulu and let her play fetch until she was exhausted.

In work news, I published the manuscript changes and covers to the Hikoboshi Series (all except Barnes & Noble Nook because they got hacked and imploded and STILL haven’t published my changes after a week of waiting). I’ve been brainstorming what I’m going to write for Hikoboshi Book 4. And I took a few days off from work so I could relax a little. Monday (tomorrow!) I start writing again.

The Peloton is in the house! Yay!

Lulu will sleep just about anywhere.

Just when I sit down to get something done…

Window painting complete! This one is entitled “Ghost Party.” I love the disco ball and the ghost puking rainbows. Lol.

Some days are so busy, I have to eat lunch in the car, on the run.

Keeping warm with my handknits!

The leaves are changing here early this year.

And finally, on Friday, Terry Virts, NASA Astronaut, did a live webinar for my 8th grader’s class. He was really cool and had a great presentation for the kids. I sat in to watch and was really impressed by the questions asked by the kids too.

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

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What I’m Watching – The Kominsky Method, Kim’s Convenience, and Raised By Wolves

There’s been a lot of TV watching since I last updated here in this category. In fact, there are more shows than this, but I’ll save that for next week.

We decided to watch the Kominsky Method based on recommendations from my family. (Netflix) At its most basic story level, this is a heartwarming comedy series about older folks living and loving. Considering how many seasons of Grace and Frankie I watched, it should come as no surprise that I loved this show. Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin were a hoot. The dry and sarcastic humor really worked for me. It was fun seeing Michael Douglas, Danny Devito, and Kathleen Turner do a few episodes too (Romancing the Stone fans will love this). I wish there had been even more episodes for me to binge! My husband enjoyed this one too.

We’re still working our way through Kim’s Convenience. (Netflix) This show has a lot to love. The humor is always spot-on without being too cringey. And I love the immigrants experience in Toronto. My husband and I watch this together and we always make fun of the fact that it’s ALWAYS SUMMER ON THIS SHOW. Like wow. They make Toronto look like paradise when they cut out the 8 months of winter every year. Lol. Angry Appa is our favorite. We have picked up all his catchphrases at home. And Shannon is so funny. I really think this is going to be an all-time favorite show someday.

Raised By Wolves is a new HBOMAX show, so you need their app to watch it. I am torn about this show. I thought I would LOVE it. It’s sci-fi! It’s Ridley Scott! It’s a dystopian/post-apocalyptic future! It’s the atheists vs the religious! It’s androids! But something about it is very weird. Like it took a few too many turns that made no sense to me as a storyteller. Then the ending! Anyway, I won’t give it away, and I also won’t give up on it either. I think it has potential and there are probably some good stories to tell in the second season. I really did love the acting of the androids, Mother and Father. And the kids were also well-represented. But the actor who plays Marcus was a bit over-the-top with his portrayal of religious delusions. And everyone’s hair! OMG. It was like the whole cast used a Flobee to cut their hair. Lol. Anyway, a bit of a mixed bag for me, but ultimately, it has a lot of potential. I’ll keep watching.

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It’s Cover Reveal Day for the Hikoboshi Series!

I’m super excited to announce that it’s cover reveal day for the Hikoboshi Series! I’ve been working on this redesign of the whole series for a few months now. Between getting new covers from my awesome cover designer, Najla Qamber, and editing the manuscripts, it’s been a lot of work. I’m so glad it’s done!

The Hikoboshi Series has always been my black sheep of the family. It has a really solid story and world-building, but the romance is slow-burn, and it used to not fit squarely into my portfolio. If I marketed it as just sci-fi, many were unhappy with the romance part, but I didn’t feel like I could call it sci-fi romance either. So, in an effort to bring it further into alignment with my other work, I decided to some revisions and rebranding.

I really wanted to highlight the slow-burn romance and no longer try to just shoe-horn these books into straight-up sci-fi. They really are sci-fi romance! Especially once I made a few adjustments to the first book to better show off Yumi’s feelings. The romance will be even more apparent in the last three books of the series when I put everyone to the test!

As a little gift to you all, I’m giving away some free copies of CRASH LAND ON KURAI, the first book of the series, all edited and prettied up! You can download it from BookFunnel, and I don’t even require an email address or anything from you. If you enjoy the story, please pick up the next two books and stand-by for even more to come!

Download CRASH LAND ON KURAI Now For Free!

Only 100 copies available and only until October 31st!

If you haven’t heard already, I’ll be writing Book 4 of this series (I already have the cover!) starting next week and into November for NaNoWriMo! I’ll be sure to share snippets of my WIP throughout the month. Thank you! And I hope you enjoy CRASH LAND ON KURAI!

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Sunday Update – October 11, 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.

A fully exhausting week. I am so tired this weekend that I’m cranky and on the verge of a meltdown. I haven’t slept well in months now, and it’s starting to take its toll. I do what I can to get shut-eye, but like last night, sometimes I’m just awake in the middle of the night for no reason, and there’s no going back to sleep. And even if I do get a good night’s sleep, I have such a huge deficit now, that there’s no earning my way back to normal.

Maybe that’s not what you came here to hear this week, and for that I’m sorry. But I’m trying to be more honest about the price of this pandemic on people. Some of us pulled the covers up and hid away. Some denied the pandemic, went out, and defied everything for normality (and paid the price). Some of us, like me, are powering through and trying to continue on with work and family at home on very little reserves. It is what it is, and I don’t know how to fix it.

In real life, we had a long week of virtual school here. We’re living on a routine to keep us sane. Lulu continues to go play with the other puppies every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I get my CSA veggies and additional veggies every Tuesday. There are nights of field hockey and games to attend. There’s news to despair about, and the constant election talk, even though I’ve already voted.

The only good thing is that my brain is also occupied by thinking about my books and writing the next Hikoboshi book. I love this series and I’m excited to keep going with it. It’s the only bright spot on this horizon.

Lulu continues to love us despite being boring people who stay home all the time. Lol.

This is where she spends most of her time, snuggled in right next to me. Unfortunately, you can plainly see just how tired I am in this photo. The black marks under my eyes are permanent now.

Continuing to work on my edits to the first three Hikoboshi books so I can write the fourth.

And finally, I found some sun outside to sit in. It was needed but not enough to recharge my batteries.

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

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Book Chat #63 – John Scalzi

Since my kindle is occupied by an ARC read and DUNE (yes, I am re-reading it!), I thought I would pop on here to tell you about this awesome audiobook I just finished earlier this week!

MURDER BY OTHER MEANS by John Scalzi (audiobook on Audible only)

MURDER BY OTHER MEANS is an Audible exclusive story, so sorry to all of you out there that don’t shop at Audible. I expect it to eventually be out as an ebook, just like the first book in this series.

I really love this world that Scalzi has developed. For those that didn’t read the first book in this series, the premise is that one day, suddenly, the ability to murder someone disappeared. Anyone who was murdered appeared back in their homes after the deed was committed… unless something goes wrong. But then there are Dispatchers who come along and are legally allowed to murder in order to save someone’s life. Funny and brilliant, right?

In this story, Tony Valdez, the Dispatcher, gets involved in some shady business and someone actually dies in the middle of an unrelated crime. The mystery here kept me listening in all my spare time. I looked forward to every walk, and I set aside beloved podcasts to listen to this instead. Zachary Quinto did a fantastic job with the narration. Again, I love his voice and the way he delivers the sarcasm of the story. I hope he does more audiobooks! I wish these stories were a bit longer. I’d love to settle into this world a little more. But I’ll take what I can get.

As usual, I recommend anything by John Scalzi highly. This series is bound to be a winner!

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Preptober 2020 – Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo

Over on Instagram, I’ve been updating about once per day with plans for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November. I skipped NaNoWriMo last year because we were traveling and super busy with a new dog, and I missed it. I really did. So, this year, I’m excited that I’ll be able to participate again! We’re not traveling at all this November, for obvious reasons, and I doubt we’ll even go to see family for Thanksgiving. This is going to give me a lot of time to write.

What will I be working on?

I mentioned what I’ll be working on in my Monthly Goals/Writing Updates posts, but I’ll talk a little more in-depth about it here.

It’s finally time to get back to the Hikoboshi Series and finish it off. You know, I think that once I was done with Fukusha Model Eight, I needed time off to grow and understand my goals as an author. I had ideas of what to do with Yumi, but they were all too depressing and mean to her. Lol. I pride myself in torturing my characters, but I also want to lift them up and tell a great story too. I wasn’t sure how to do that with this series, so a break was in order. Honestly, I was nervous about leaving a series for so long, but it was important to me that I figure out the kind of ending it deserved. Funny enough, that required me to write the Flyght Series and find my voice for my characters there before I could apply it to the Hikoboshi Series.

So I will be writing the 4th book in the Hikoboshi Series for NaNoWriMo. It is titled THE RISE OF SHIROI NAMI and I already have the cover for it, which I’m super excited about. When we left Yumi, she was practically alone with just Rin and a few people she could count on. In the final 3 books of this series (Books 4, 5, and 6), Yumi will learn to trust new people and build a team that she can count on. The people of Hikari are looking for change, and she’s about to open their eyes. It’s exciting! She has a lot of physical problems, though, and plenty of enemies, so accomplishing her goal will not be easy. We’ll see what’s going to happen!

My NaNoWriMo goals

My goal for this book is 80,000 words. I don’t want to push it that much higher, as that means more sub-plots that have to be opened and closed. I want to give a more precise look at this story in the last 3 books and keeping the word counts below 100,000 will be paramount. I plan to start writing on October 15th and then through November with some overlap in December. The important thing is that I write the bulk of the book (50,000 words) in November.

I will be introducing a goal for the characters to accomplish, delivering on that goal, while still leaving the story arc goal open to accomplish in the last 2 books. This Book 4 has a lot to do, but we must always be moving forward to the light at the end of the tunnel, the finale of the series.

By the time NaNoWriMo is over, I hope to have clear goals for the last two books of the series as well. It’s not enough to just write this book; planning must happen as well. It’s my wish to finish off this series sometime in 2021 (or early 2022, depending on world events). So having a plan to move forward is best.

More prepwork needed

As part of my preptober work for this book, I have been re-reading FUKUSHA MODEL EIGHT and familiarizing myself with Yumi’s current situation before she’s gets to business. Next week, I’ll be relaunching this whole series with new covers and a stress on the romance of the series too. This series is the one that has the least amount of romance, but that’ll be ramped up a bit in the last part of the series. It’s slow burn romance, so hopefully more people will pick it up if my blurbs are clearer. Be ready for a cover reveal next week!

With the whole story of the first three books fresh in my head, I’m looking forward to diving back into this world again soon!

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Sunday Update – October 4, 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.

Another week that felt like it lasted forever, despite the kids having both Monday and Friday off from school. Monday, they had off for Yom Kippur. Friday, their school had a teacher in-service. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all crawled along. I barely took any photos and I was busy the entire time. I think I even took a nap one day because I was exhausted.

It was also a full moon and that meant that Lulu was out of sorts, not wanting to chill out in the evenings and crying in the middle of the night. I’m still tired from sleeping poorly two nights this past week. I feel like sleep is elusive.

I’ve been working on a few things, work-wise. I’m almost half-way through my re-reading of FUKUSHA MODEL EIGHT. Getting lots of great ideas to move forward with the series. I’m prepping for NaNoWriMo in November, too. I’ll do the bulk of my writing then, but I’ll get started this month.

I’m also working on a quick re-design of the SFR Station website. I’m so pissed that the template I chose last year from Tesla Themes broke when I updated the site to WP 5.0. It’s only a year old!! FFS. So I’m updating it quick and dirty. I’m using the same theme I use on this website and my pen name, Neve Pro, and Elementor to build the dynamic pages. I’m making a few coding changes to the individual book pages and that’s it. Today I switch over the site, and I expect it to be a little dodgy for a day or two, but it’ll be faster and better with my updates.

This made me laugh so I had to include it here this week…

This has been my life lately. Lots of field hockey.

Thank goodness for afternoon coffee/tea or I’d be dead in the water. I wish I could nap, but I just can’t. Instead, it’s more caffeine. (I know it’s not healthy but it’s required right now.)

Zooming with my knitting buddies and we all changed our names to our original knitblog names from WAY BACK in the day.

And finally, walks with Lulu require lots of stops to sniff EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING.

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay away from Rose Gardens.

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