S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 56
January 1, 2020
2020: The Year I Lead A Happy Creative Life
It’s 2020! Can I just say, holy forking shirt!? How is it 2020? When I was a kid, I was sure 2020 would be totally sci-fi, flying cars, and a robot in every home. Lol. It’s pretty different but also still very advanced and full of wonder. Despite the lack of hovercars, I am not disappointed.
So, as usual, I am declaring a theme for this year.
2015 was The Year I Say No.
2016 was The Year I Give No F*cks.
2017 was The Year I Have Fun.
2018 was The Year I Don’t Compete.
2019 was The Year I Improve Myself and My Business
2020 will be…
The Year I Lead A Happy Creative Life
It’s time to make a shift! I was listening to Joanna Penn on The Creative Penn podcast and she said she just wants to have a “happy creative life” and I thought, “YES. That’s exactly the phrase I’ve been looking for to describe what I want out of my next decade.”
Because I don’t want to be a career author anymore. A career author in this market means writing to what readers want (all the tropes, all the trends, all the stress), and that’s just not me. I understand genre expectations and writing to market, both of which I think I do better now than six years ago. But I do not want to write to trend just to make money. I don’t want to focus on advertising or hitting an income bracket or any of that stuff. I’m done with that. It’s been nothing but stress for me since it seems it’s not something I can work hard at and actually succeed in doing.
I want to live a creative life, full of writing, knitting, cooking, blogging… CREATING. If there’s value in any of that on a monetary scale, it doesn’t matter to me. Now is the time to live a happy creative life!
And with all of that in mind, let’s get to the goals for the year!
Writing and Publishing Goals
I will finish the Flyght Series. Book 5, SILENT FLYGHT, is written and with my first readers. Book 6, STOLEN FLYGHT, the last book of the series, is ready to be written! I actually put 400 words into it the other day before holidays took over. Once that book is written, the series will be complete!
I will finish the Hikoboshi Series. There are a few readers out there who want to know what happens with Yumi, Rin, and everyone in the Hikoboshi System. My goal this year is to go back and re-read all the books I’ve written, plot out Book 4, write, and publish it. I have a cover for it already. I might make it a huge book even!
I will plan out the final book to the Miso Cozy Mystery Series. I have this idea of how I want to conclude Mei’s story arc. But I’m not sure if I’ll get to writing this book this year. We shall see.
Business Goals
I only have two goals and they’re…
Continue to periodically advertise my books. I set up a schedule in Evernote and I have things already in motion here. No PPC ads. Just periodic features in bargain book sales newsletters like Fussy Librarian and Freebooksy. I have most of these already booked through March. Then there will also be group promos with Bookfunnel too.
Continue to build my readership. Through blogging and sites like Booksprout. I have my awesome PA, Lola, handling the Booksprout and Goodreads for me, and if I think of other things I can have her do to help me build my readership then I’ll get her on those too!
Blogging Goals
I will continue to update my blog on a regular basis. I did well with this in 2019 and I hope to continue in 2020. I’d like to continue to update with 2-3 times per week and have a discussion post about once per month.
I will continue to update the back posts of the blog. Maybe this year I’ll be better about this! I need to setup a game plan and just work through it.
Creativity Goals
I will continue with pottery. Gotta get signed up for the next class! I learned a lot in the fall and I hope to keep learning this spring.
I will watch more TV and movies. I know this seems strange. Most people would give up TV in favor of going outside more or reading or something. Lol. But for the past six years I have burned the candle at both ends. I have always given up relaxing in favor of work. It burned me out once. I don’t want that to happen again. Plus, I find that my creativity peaks when I watch more. Now that we have Disney+ and plenty of other streaming through my Fire Stick, I plan to take advantage of it and blog about what I’m watching.
I will attend my Masterclasses! I bought the Masterclass All-Access pass and plan to watch as many of these as I can this year. I want to learn everything! Not just writing. So I added all the cooking and science masterclasses to my watch queue as well.
I will read and listen to more books this year. In 2019, I read 14 books (plus lots of my own work) and listened to 13+ books (the Forward books were all short so I kinda think of them as 1). That’s not enough. I’m going to make a plan to read at least 25 ebooks and listen to 20 audiobooks.
I will knit more. I got stuck in a rut of one knit this year. I’m close to finishing it, but it’ll be a long slog. Once it’s done, I want to knit two new shawls this year. And I already have the yarn for them!
I will try one new recipe each month. I have all of these cookbooks and recipes pinned in Pinterest. It’s time to try new things! I will blog about them, of course.
Personal Fitness Goals
I will learn to speedwalk/racewalk. As silly as racewalking looks sometimes, I think it’s a good fit for me. It’s not as hard on joints as running, and it’s more challenging than just walking. I’m going to watch some videos and learn more then see if I can get into it in the spring.
I will pay attention to my goals on my Apple Watch. There are these goals for exercising, moving, and standing, plus you can do workouts and everything syncs to the health app on my phone. I’m going to be using this instead of Runkeeper going forward. I’d like to close out the goals daily if at all possible.
I will start stretching daily. I wanted to do this last year and I did until I broke my leg. I’d like to pick it back up again.
I will work on my posture. I also want to get back to this! It was a goal for last year, and though I made some progress, I can do more.
And that’s it!
I’m sure more ideas and more goals will present themselves as the year goes on, but this is a good start! I will reassess them in June, and see how we’re doing!
Want to share your 2020 goals with me?
Comment and let me know what you’ll be up to in the new year!
Viber
The post 2020: The Year I Lead A Happy Creative Life appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.
December 31, 2019
A Look Back At 2019 – What I Accomplished, Set Aside, or Changed
It’s the end of the year! Again! And there’s so much to look back at for 2019. I can hardly believe we’re already at 2020. This is a year I thought we’d have flying cars and robots on the street. Yet, it’s the same old same old. Lol.
We started out the year pretty easily around here with family nights, walks outside, healthy eating, and more pottery from me. The Emperor and Empress Emeritus of Japan attended their last sumo tournament. I turned 43 and saw in my new year with dinner out with the family.
March was going really great until I broke my leg. I can still close my eyes and see that moment that everything changed for me. I can still hear my own leg breaking and remember the horror of setting my own leg. Oh my god, thinking about it now while writing this is making me break into a cold sweat. Yes, I still have some PTSD from the incident. I hope the memories fade with time. But I started bread baking again and we sealed the deck to make it usable all year round.
May and June were a bit of a blur. I was just trying to get through my pain and become a whole human being again. I worked on SFR Station and did a little writing. I attended my family’s annual cousins’ reunion and threw a belated birthday party for my oldest daughter. Plus, there were donuts. Lots of donuts!
During July and August, I started to feel a lot better. We went to South Carolina to visit my parents, ate great food, and hung out with friends, went to the beach every day! Then once we were home, we went to the pool a lot and I rested and went through physical therapy. My youngest daughter turned 9 years old and I got the paperback copies of FIRST FLYGHT!
September it was back to school for my kids! And the launch of FIRST FLYGHT, too. My husband and I went to dinner at Nobu Downtown and saw Vampire Weekend at Madison Square Garden. Then we went to Le Bernardin for dinner to celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary. But the biggest thing to happen in September was our foster and adoption of Lulu Ninja Assassin. Ah, she’s been such a bright light in our house since then! October brought another book launch, BROKEN FLYGHT, and then a fun Halloween.
And November and December have brought more fun with Lulu, in the snow and traveling for Christmas. There was more pottery and Thanksgiving with my family. I attended my cousin’s baby shower, and I launched the third book in the Flyght Series, HIGH FLYGHT.
Let’s look back at my goals from the year…
The Year I Improve Myself and My Business
This is also the year I failed miserably. Did I improve myself? Barely. If anything, I slid WAY backwards after breaking my leg in late March. I gained weight because I wasn’t moving as much, and now I’m even less flexible than I used to be. Am I bummed about this? Yes, a whole lot. It’s really hard to look at this year and be happy with it. Did I improve my business? No, I did not. But at least, here, I really did try. I worked hard at ads that all failed. Then I launched a new series that’s not done any better than any of my previous series. By the end of 2019, I knew I had to throw in the towel. I have decided that I cannot sustain an author business anymore. That I’m no longer a “career author” and this is only my hobby now.
Writing and Publishing Goals
I will finish writing Daydreamer 5. I did this! I’m very happy with how it turned out too.
I will publish Daydreamer 5. Done!
I will write Books 3, 4, and 5 of the Flyght Series. Done!
I will publish FIRST FLYGHT in September, then Book 2 in October, and Book 3 in November. Done!
At least all my writing and publishing goals went really well! I also updated the covers on the Nogiku Series and the Miso Cozy Mysteries series.
Business Goals
I will return to advertising. I did return to advertising this year, and each time, I failed. I tried Amazon Ads again, and I lost about $500 advertising there over the course of 3 months. I tried Bookbub PPC Ads later in the year with a little success but nothing worth noting. I tried Facebook Ads again and those ones failed as well.
I will make REMOVED free again. This is free again and it’s doing moderately well. I advertise it a few times per year and get new people into the series.
I will continue with Pinterest. I did continue with Pinterest through most of the year, then around September, something changed. None of my pins were getting views anymore and traffic to my website dropped off. Even after changing things up, the situation didn’t get any better. So I discontinued my regular pinning and canceled my Tailwind subscription. I’m no longer considering Pinterest a viable way to bring traffic to my blog.
I will use video more. I did not end up using video more. In fact, I realized I do not like video, so I stopped doing any of it.
I will redesign and relaunch SFR STATION. This is the one thing that has gone really well this year. My redesign and relaunch of SFR STATION was so much fun and it had brought in affiliate revenue each month, helping to keep me afloat. I’m really proud of all the work I’ve done there.
Blogging Goals
I will continue to update my blog on a regular basis. I did this! I feel like my blog stayed current all year.
I will continue to update the back posts of the blog. I did some updating this year, back when I was laid up due to my broken leg. But not a lot and not as much as I had hoped for.
Personal Happiness Goals
I will continue with pottery. I’m very happy I continued with pottery! It’s been such a great class!
I will go greener at home. I did go greener at home. I got rid of a lot of single-use items and started reusing more. I also am composting more now!
I will explore Tarot. I didn’t get around to learning Tarot this year. Maybe next year?
I will continue to knit, read, and listen to audiobooks. Per usual, I did do this! And I’m happy with what I did read and listen to, but I’m way behind on knitting. Sigh.
Personal Fitness Goals
I will walk 750 miles this year. FAILED. Due to the broken leg.
I will conquer the stairs this year. Also, failed due to the broken leg.
I will start stretching daily. Mostly failed due to the broken leg. I am stretching more again, but not as much as I had hoped.
I will work on my posture. This is a mixed bag. Somedays I’m good about it, other days I’m not. And walking with a walker, then a cane, then a limp did not help.
I will save sweets for the weekend. Lolololololol. I hate to blame this one on the broken leg as well, but I gained weight because sweets were my only way to relieve the depression of not being able to move. Hence, the gained weight.
And My New Mid-Year 2019 Goals Were…
Walk once around the park in one go. I’m glad to report that I’m back to walking several times around the park! So at least there’s that!
Keep building up my Instagram presence. I am enjoying my time on Instagram a lot. I’m not there all the time, and I only post to my Stories about once per week now, but that’s fine. I’m happy with the content I put there.
And That’s It For The Year!
Tomorrow, I’ll be back with my goals post for 2020! I hope you all have a safe and happy new year!
Viber
The post A Look Back At 2019 – What I Accomplished, Set Aside, or Changed appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.
December 29, 2019
Sunday Update – December 29, 2019
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 quite a week and I don’t remember most of it due to the holidays, so this will be brief!
On Monday, my husband went into work, so I took the girls and a friend to see Frozen 2 in the middle of the day. It was a fun movie! And we all enjoyed it together. I went on a walk in the morning with the dog and then dropped her off at home with the kids so I could walk even farther. It was so nice to get out!
Christmas Eve was Tuesday and we had a great day together as a family. We baked cookies and watched our usual Christmas movies.
Christmas Day was stressful but fun! After opening presents in the morning, we took Lulu with us to go to Long Island to see family. She finds the car super stressful. She just stands there and pants the whole time. I hope that gets easier for her as she gets older. At my in-laws, she had the run of the house! My in-laws have two large Standard Poodles and they had their room in the back. Lulu kept going to the gate to see the two big dogs and sniff them. It was really cute. Otherwise, she just wandered around the house and sniffed people until she passed out on my husband’s lap. I’m really pleased that she did so well! She didn’t pee inside once! 
Boxing Day was pretty chill. There was lots of soccer during the day, and then my husband and the kids left to go skiing for a few days. I stayed home with the dog and binge-watched LOST IN SPACE on Netflix.
Friday I was supposed to have tea and lunch with my cousin. But I got to her house and we were sitting and talking when she got a call that her mom was sick and in the hospital! There’s a really bad stomach flu / norovirus going around. So I left there and went grocery shopping. My aunt was sent home not long after being at the hospital which was good news. They stopped the nausea and gave her fluids. But that evening at home, Lulu kept waking me up at night. She was up from 11 to 2am! Ugh.
So on Saturday, I took her to the vet for a usual appointment and they saw she had an ear infection! Well, that explains why she was up all night. Poor thing. She got her usual shots, they cleaned out her ear, and then they gave her drops for her ear. She was tired all afternoon and we missed our afternoon walk. She slept fine at night.
Today, my family is back home from skiing and I’m making pasta sauce and taking care of work stuff. Time to get back into the swing of things with writing and publishing! Everybody goes back to school and work on Thursday.
What else happened this week?
Let’s start with Lulu. She enjoyed her Christmas presents, visiting her cousin dogs, and sleeping through most afternoons.
I got an Apple Watch for Christmas and I love it! I also love the new Watch band I bought for it. It’s elastic and, of course, purple.
My park had a lot of downed trees after the ice storm we had last week.
Christmas Eve was Tuesday so it was also Taco Tuesday!
And finally, here are all the sugar cookies we made this year! This batch turned out perfect.
Viber
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December 27, 2019
Book Chat #52 – Blake Crouch, Carysa Locke, and Neal Shusterman
It’s our last Book Chat of the year and last Book Chat of the decade too. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that concept. It’ll be a new decade in only a few days…
Anyway, these are not the last books I’ll read/listen to in 2019, but I’ll roll any last books into the first 2020 Book Chat next year.
True to my word, once I had read the Forward story by Blake Crouch, I immediately went out and got more of his work. I borrowed RECURSION from the library and absolutely loved it. It had everything I wanted in a great story, and it kept me guessing and guessing. If you love a good time travel novel, wrapped up with intrigue, real science, a little romance, and a whole lot of wow, then you’ll definitely want to read RECURSION.
After RECURSION, I also got DARK MATTER from the library which I totally devoured over the course of a weekend. This book had the same feel as RECURSION, except where RECURSION was about time travel, this one was about alternate universes. Blake Crouch is so good at setting up a story and keeping the reader guessing. I didn’t know how it was all going to resolve until the ending was right there and I was experiencing it. Fantastic writing!
I’ve been looking forward to PIRATE THRONE for ages! I was so happy when it hit my kindle, and I was not disappointed to read this fabulous book in the series. In this installment, we get to learn a lot more about how the pirates came about and more about Mercy’s past. Everything in this book felt necessary and right, leading us to the inevitable conclusion that there’s a big fight ahead, a war. I especially loved all the details Locke included in this book. I felt like I learned so much!
Neal Shusterman is, hands down, one of my favorite authors now. He weaves such a great tale into every single one of his books. This was a great ending to the series, and if you haven’t read SCYTHE or THUNDERHEAD, you must go do so now. These books are so rich, so full of depths that make you think and leave you in awe of Shusterman’s storytelling talent. I love the way this book ended the series, in the only way it COULD end. I won’t give anything away, but it was very satisfying. Ahhhh. I’m sorry this series is over, but I’m glad I got to read it.
What have you been reading lately?
Viber
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December 26, 2019
Cozy Mystery End of Year Sale – Cozy Mystery Promo
Hey, there. Psst. I know you have some gift cards that are burning a hole in your pocket from Christmas gifts. Now would be a great time to spend them on some cozy mysteries, and I have just the sales promo for you to check out! Drop by this sale and load up your e-reader with something fun!
Check out the Last-Minute Cozy Mysteries Promo!
I hope you find something here to read and enjoy!
Viber
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December 25, 2019
Merry Christmas 2019!
We had a lovely day celebrating Christmas at home in the morning and then with our family on Long Island. We even took Lulu with us so she could meet everyone, and she was such a great dog. She didn’t like being in the car at all, but I’m hoping that will change with time and more exposure to the car and traveling. I was especially fortunate this year to get an Apple Watch, an Amazon Fire Stick, and some other great things from my family.
Lulu got a plastic chicken for Christmas (and a few other things), and at my in-laws, she met her cousin dogs, Molly and Buddy. We separated them for most of the day and then Lulu and Molly played together for a while.
The opening of presents!
Our annual cookie bake!
And my Apple Watch with the Mickey Mouse face. This pleases me greatly. I had a Mickey watch as a kid and I loved it. Now I can have it again!
If you celebrate, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! I’ll be back on Friday with my last Book Chat of the year.
Viber
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December 22, 2019
Sunday Update – December 22, 2019
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 week before Christmas break!
Monday I took the kids for their annual doctor checkup and vaccinations. Everyone is in good health and growing. No problems there!
Tuesday we had a day of freezing rain and I wasn’t able to go anywhere or do anything.
Wednesday was cold but I still managed to make it out with the dog in the afternoon. The kids had tennis but my older child didn’t go because she had play practice. She came home and dog-sat and I took the younger child to tennis. Worked out well!
Thursday was BRICK COLD here. Lulu did not want to go out. I tried to bring her out but she just stood there and shivered. She has a very thin coat so winter has been tough on her so far. I ran errands and to the pottery studio to pick up my pieces from class. Then I played a lot of fetch with Lulu inside for the rest of the day.
Friday, my husband worked from home so I suggested we go to the dine-in theater for lunch and Star Wars. We got great seats and enjoyed the movie! It was the kids’ last day of school before Christmas break so they had fun with friends there.
Saturday was a usual day around here. My oldest daughter went to a holiday party with her friends and we did stuff around the house.
Today I’m going to bake bread and get my SFR Station work done.
In writing news, I haven’t done much except plot out the first 10 chapters for Flyght 6. I hope to start writing on it tomorrow and I will probably write plenty over the break.
What else happened this week?
Turns out that if I want to immobilize my dog, all I have to do is put her coat on her and she’ll just stand in one spot. Lol.
Here are my last pottery projects of the session. My lidded bowl and dark brown/red bowls.
Lulu loves to sleep on the couch with us while we watch TV at night, especially on my electric blanket.
Here she is snoozing away in the pack & play while I walk on the treadmill. (I took this photo from the treadmill.)
I’ve trained Lulu to wait by the front door when it’s time to go out for walks.
And here are some photos from our ice storm this week. Today, we should have a high in the mid-40s and everything is melting. I’m happy it’s not lasting very long.
Have a great week everyone!
Viber
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December 20, 2019
Last-Minute Cozies for Christmas 99 Cent Sale – Cozy Mystery Promo
Happy Friday everyone! We’re cruising into Christmas week with less than five days to go before Santa’s arrival. So why not pick up a few cozy mystery books to enjoy by the fire! Here’s another great cozy mystery 99¢ promotion for you…
Check out the Last-Minute Cozy Mysteries Promo!
With Christmas next week, posting to the blog will be scarce, and then I’ll pick back up in the week after to share a look back at 2019 and my goals for 2020. Be sure to drop by Instagram to see what I’m up to there!
Viber
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December 15, 2019
Sunday Update – December 15, 2019
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 busy week! December is flying right on by.
On Monday, I had brunch with my friend Amy and then spent the rest of the day working on edits to Flyght 5. My husband had a dinner in the city so the kids and I stayed in, ate pizza, and watched Flash and Supergirl together.
Tuesday was my busy day and thankfully my husband worked from home. I went to my youngest’s school in the morning to help with their Secret Shoppe then I went right to my dentist office for a cleaning. I had lunch at home with my husband and the dog, and then we all excepting my youngest had dinner together while my youngest ate dinner at a friend’s house.
Wednesday, I walked on the treadmill in the morning and went to my chiropractor for an adjustment. I’m sorry that I don’t have acupuncture anymore but I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it to seek out a new practitioner. In the evening, we had tennis and picked up dinner on the way home.
Thursday was a long day. The kids had a makeup half day because of the snow day the previous week. We did all of our usual things and then I spent the evening with the kids and we watched Supergirl and The Flash together.
On Friday, I was busy all day. In the morning, we went to my youngest’s holiday concert and saw her play a solo on her trumpet. Then I did some Christmas shopping and grocery shopping. Then I spent the rest of the day working on the last of my story-pass edits on Flyght 5 and finally got them off to my first readers right before bed. I was so tired by the end of the day!
Saturday, I decided to take the day off from walking because my leg was in some pain. My husband and kids took care of Lulu for the day while I sat and read as much as possible. I made some Japanese food for the evening! Braised daikon, stewed kombucha seaweed, rice, and salmon. It was all delicious!
Today we got our Christmas tree and did all of our usual stuff.
What else happened this week?
There was a huge full moon this week. It seemed to disrupt everyone in the house!
The secret shoppe this year was another success! The kids had a great time.
The Christmas tree is up and decorated. Lulu has her own stocking on the mantle now too!
Speaking of Lulu, here are my weekly pics of her. She saw Santa come on the fire engine and they gave her a milk bone treat! She’s been eating some kibble from her treat puzzle, and she’s been having treats from her lick mat. Plus lots of napping.
The kids did a great job in their holiday concert!
It was nice cooking Japanese food for dinner on Saturday.
I spent an afternoon this week finally tackling our linen closet… This is before and after.
We got more snow this week and it’s already gone.
And finally, after my story-pass edits, Flyght 5 is ready for my first readers. It’s now the longest book in the series. :)
Have a great week everyone!
Viber
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December 12, 2019
My Books Are Now Available On Smashwords!
As we move into a new decade, it’s time to expand the horizons for my books and get them on more retailers worldwide. So I started with Smashwords! All of my single title novels are now available there for purchase, as either an ePub or Amazon Mobi file.
And as a welcome gift to Smashwords, you can purchase any of my books for 30% off through Christmas (12/25)!
Want to check out my books? Head on over to Smashwords to pick up something new or browse the books on my website and click/tap the Smashwords button on the book’s page to purchase.
Use the coupon code…
TS74E
On Smashwords to get your discount.
Visit S. J. Pajonas’s Smashwords Store
Have a great week everyone!
Viber
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