S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 77

September 2018 Goals

August went by in a blink! I was just thinking back on New Year’s Eve the other day and it feels like yesterday. Sigh.

What Happened With August’s Goals?

Take a break from writing. I did this mostly. Near the end of the month, I did do revisions on the new book in the new series I’ve been writing this year, mostly so I could get it off to new readers before September. It wasn’t a lot of writing.

Get through the launch of DESTINATION: MURDER. We did it AND we made the USA Today Best Seller list!

Clean up the website. I made significant progress on this goal! Yet, there’s so much more to do. More posts to clean up, more pinterest images to make, more content to schedule evergreen campaigns for. I’m going to continue with my full site audit through September and October while I do other things.

Set up my direct store. Done! I’m selling all of my work direct now. I’ve even pulled down all the short stories, FACE TIME, and SUMMER HAIKUS and I’m only selling those direct.

Take a break from my sales. I did pretty good with this. I stopped checking my sales constantly but I still checked them more than I would’ve liked, mostly because I was in KDP and Createspace a lot this month. KDP to pull books down and unpublish them, so I checked my sales while I was there. And then Createspace because they’re shutting down and now all of my paperbacks will be through KDP Print whenever they port them over.

Continue to keep away from sweets and keep practicing intermittent fasting. I did better with intermittent fasting this month, but with days spent at the pool, there was lots of ice cream involved. Mmmmm.

Finish my knitting project! I’m not done but I have made SIGNIFICANT progress. I’m almost to the final section. I hope to get there this weekend.

More of the same: walking, yoga, reading. Enough walking, plenty of reading, but hardly any yoga because there’s been no alone time this month. As soon as the kids are back in school!

A Look Back At August

Business Goals For September

Start writing Flyght Book 2. Time to get back to writing! I’ve been brainstorming this book and I’m looking forward to getting down and into it. I hope to get it halfway done by the end of the month.

Publish MATSURI AND MURDER. The DESTINATION: MURDER box set will be complete in a week’s time which means MATSURI AND MURDER comes back to me. I plan to publish it on September 14th.

Continue website maintenance. I just need to keep plugging along at this, do an article or two every day.

Set up evergreen campaigns through October. Now that I have a bunch of blog posts cleaned up, it’s time to get them into MissingLettr and schedule campaigns for them. I can start two per week, Mondays and Saturdays, which is usually when I don’t schedule any other campaigns.

Deal with my paperbacks on Createspace. I’m hoping I won’t have to do anything here. There’s the possibility Createspace will just port over my paperbacks to KDP Print, I can buy some proofs, and be done with it. But I doubt it’ll be that easy.

Work on a trailer for the Miso Cozy Mysteries series. It’s my intention to make videos for all of my series. Something I can add to all of the book pages on my website. I would like to plan out and buy the stock video for the Miso Cozy Mysteries series at the very least.

Personal Goals For September

Continue to keep away from sweets and keep practicing intermittent fasting. I have a better shot at accomplishing this this month.

Finish my knitting project! I’m so close to actually finishing that I know I can do this this month.

More of the same: walking, yoga, reading. With the kids back in school, I’ll have more time for walking and yoga. I can’t wait!

Have a great September everybody!

The post September 2018 Goals appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Get Foxy At Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Shrine – Traveling In Japan 2018 Series

Most of you know how much I love foxes. Remember Fox Watch 2018? That happened not too long before I left for Japan! They’re my spirit animals. They love the nighttime (so do I). They love to play. They’re careful and watchful. They’re everything I love about the animal world.

This fox is watching you, judging you…

So when I finally made it back to Kyoto, I knew I had to visit Fushimi Inari Shrine, the shrine totally dedicated to foxes! I decided it would be the first place I’d go on the Saturday morning of my Kyoto trip. I wanted to make it there before the crowds got too packed. But what I soon realized was that doing anything in Kyoto at any time of the day on the weekend is going to be packed with people. I tried to take video at Fushimi Inari Shrine, but there were just so many people, I couldn’t get a clear shot of anything. Boo! Someday I’ll have to go back on a Tuesday morning when it’s quiet.

Arriving at the shrine, I was treated to big, red torii gates right away. There’s no missing this place. It’s right across the street from the Fushimi Inari station. Very convenient to get to from Kyoto.

This shrine is dedicated to Inari, the fox god (kami) of fertility, rice, tea and sake, of agriculture and industry, of general prosperity and worldly success, and one of the principal kami of Shinto. Being the god of worldly success, I bought a fox charm from here that’s supposed to bring me success. We’ll see if it works!

This is the shrine you’ve probably seen in many Japan travel photos. Looks familiar, right? There’s the passageway up the mountain, also named Inari, that’s just torii gates piled on top of each other. Merchants and manufacturers have traditionally worshiped Inari as the patron of business, so the torii gates you see in these photos have been donated by a Japanese business. Their names are printed on the sides. I walked up the mountain through these gates with hundreds of other tourists wishing I was alone. Lol.

At the 1/3rd point, I stopped to buy a placard for my family and write a wish on it for us to hang on the wall with all the others. I asked for peace and prosperity for us. I chose the fox design, though the red torii gate design was available as well. Then from this point, I hiked up the second 1/3rd of mountain through more red torii gates to the red bridge.

Such a beautiful quiet place in the mountains! And cool, too, on such a hot day as it was.

From here, I walked towards the downward paths and stopped to get matcha ice cream.

It was late morning, but I couldn’t say no to ice cream. Lol.

After my trek was completed, I stopped to buy some souvenirs in the little adjacent shopping district and then I also treated myself some inari udon. I needed to eat after walking all over!

I really loved my trip to Fushimi Inari despite the crowds. I was enamored of all the foxes and felt the peace that comes from such an old and venerated place. If you love foxes and temples, this place is a must see!

The post Get Foxy At Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Shrine – Traveling In Japan 2018 Series appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Top Ten Non-Fiction Books On Japan

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted every week by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s theme is “Back to School” so I decided to send you all back to school with some knowledge of Japan! These books are all ones I’ve read or referenced in order to write all of my books. Over the years, I’ve had plenty of education from talking directly with Japanese people, observing Japanese in Japan, watching Japanese movies and documentaries, and experiencing Japan myself. But books will always be a top reference for me.

So, here we go!

A MODERN HISTORY OF JAPAN: FROM TOKUGAWA TIMES TO THE PRESENT by Andrew Gordon

An excellent book if you’re looking to learn more about Japanese history. I gained insight into battles and family clans from this book that I used mostly in the Nogiku Series.

JAPANESE PROVERBS AND SAYINGS by Daniel Crump Buchanan

This book was really helpful for inspiration in the Nogiku Series. Many of the sayings or mottos in the books from Mark Sakai came from this one. I also learned a whole lot about the Japanese group psyche just from reading these, then researching any of them that sounded interesting. It’s where I got “Duty knows no family” which I use in many of the promotional materials for the series.

ASK A NINJA PRESENTS THE NINJA HANDBOOK: THIS BOOK LOOKS FORWARD TO KILLING YOU SOON by Douglas Sarine and Kent Nichols

Such a fun book! And lots of great information on ninjas, what they did, and how they did it. I used plenty in here for Jiro in the Nogiku Series.

IZAKAYA: THE JAPANESE PUB COOKBOOK by Mark Robinson and Masashi Kuma

When I needed inspiration for food in my books, this izakaya cookbook saves the day. I pulled several ideas from here for every book I’ve written.

MAKING OUT IN JAPANESE: REVISED EDITION (MAKING OUT BOOKS) by Todd Geers and Erika Geers

Sometimes the polite Japanese words just will not do. When I need people to swear or be rude, this is the book I go to first. Then I double check it with my regular dictionary and ask a few Japanese speaking friends to make sure I get it right.

THE ART OF JAPANESE SWORDSMANSHIP: A MANUAL OF EISHIN-RYU IAIDO by Nicklaus Suino

I knew nothing of Iaido before reading this book and watching YouTube videos on it. Between the two, I was able to construct real kata for Jiro to use when he was training Sanaa in REMOVED.

GEISHA by Liza Dalby

This is a favorite! It’s so well written, researched, and photographed. A must-have if you are interested in geisha or the geisha world. And let me tell you, it’s nothing like the depiction in MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA.

DIASPORA AND IDENTITY: JAPANESE BRAZILIANS IN BRAZIL AND JAPAN by Mieko Nishida

This is new to my collection. I’ve been wanting to read more about Japanese who live outside of Japan and the cultural differences between Japanese in the diaspora and those at home in Japan. It’s been a fascinating read so far, and I hope to include some of what I read here in my new series next year.

YOKAI ATTACK!: THE JAPANESE MONSTER SURVIVAL GUIDE (YOKAI ATTACK! SERIES) by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt

In THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE RETURNS A FAVOR, Mei likens herself to a shojo, which is a mythical Japanese monster/witch/creature. I learned about tons of yokai from this book! And the author, Matt Alt, is one of the co-hosts of Japanology Plus on NHK World.

THE BOOK OF KIMONO by Norio Yamanaka

Writing about my characters getting dressed in kimono, I realized I needed to learn a whole lot more about the garments and their accessories before really describing them. Between this book and more YouTube videos, plus purchasing my own kimono and accessories, really helped me craft the right prose for those parts of the books.

And that’s it! Hopefully you find plenty here to keep you informed and entertained for some time.

The post Top Ten Non-Fiction Books On Japan appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – August 26, 2018

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 week of staycation! Or the best we could do in staycation mode when work still needed to be done. My husband got called away from the family fun for work, and I spent most of the week putting all of my books up in the Payhip/Direct store. But we made sure to get the kids out and about every day.

My husband took the kids into Manhattan on Tuesday for fun at the MOMA and the Empire State Building. There was pool. There were cupcakes. There was the beach! All in all we had a great time, we got a lot done, and now we have one more full week left before the summer is over.

My work on the Payhip/Direct store is complete. All of my current books are available for sale there and I added a monster Nogiku box set as well. There’s a 20% off coupon for the direct store if you’re interested. I plan to put some more box sets up there soon. Hopefully in September.

My site update continues apace. This week, I’ll be updating all of the book pages on my website. Adding review snippets and Pinterest pinnable images. Updating the FACE TIME trailer. Then planning trailers for the rest of my first-in-series books and the Kami No Sekai books. Once all those are done, it’s back to my website audit because in September I need to focus on writing again.

What else happened this week?

We woke up to 4 deer chillin’ in the yard one morning.

My park is still quite soggy from all the rain we had this summer. I could’ve sworn I was living in the Northeast, not the tropics.

The day at the beach was fabulous, though I didn’t go in the water, sat in the shade and read all day.

I can’t say no to red velvet cupcakes.

Turtles hanging out in the park’s lake.

Plenty of time spent at the pool.

We had Italian lunch out with my mom today since she was in state to visit us all and her family.

And last but not least, my post on Friday was my 900th post on the blog! I will definitely have to think of some way to celebrate my 1000th post when it comes around.

Coming up this week on the blog: Top 10 Tuesday and a Japan post (finally).

The post Sunday Update – August 26, 2018 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

S. J. Pajonas’s Books Are Now Available Direct! 20% Off Thru Sept 10!

I’ve been working hard all month, and especially this week, to provide you with another alternative to buy my ebooks online. And now I’m able to present my direct store! (Psst, it’s up there in the top nav and a button on every book page now!)

A lot of people have asked me why I’ve bothered setting up a direct store when so many people use Amazon. In fact, many authors do not even publish outside of Amazon! So they looked at me perplexed when I said this was what I wanted to do.

The answer is quite simple: options. I like to have options, and I like for my readers to have options as well. Sure, for most authors, Amazon, Nook, iBooks, Kobo, and even Google Play are enough. But I’ve had other readers tell me that they want to use PayPal to buy books, and only some of these places take PayPal. They want that option to buy.

I’m also bothered by how much Amazon and the other vendors take from me to do nothing but deliver a book to a reader. Let’s face it. I’m not a big name author (though it’s great to have hit the USA Today list with some of my fellow cozy mystery authors) so they’re giving me no special promotion when I list a book with them. Yet, they take about 30% of books priced between $2.99 and $9.99. Amazon even takes 70% for books less than $2.99 and greater than $9.99! This is why you’ll never see a large box set of mine at Amazon.

Now, when I sell direct, I keep 95% of the retail price! And when I have a few titles that only sell 5-10 copies per year (if that), the extra percentage can mean quite a lot. If more people buy direct in the future, I may actually be able to pay off my advertising spend! I may even be able to make minimum wage! Think of what a huge difference that could make for authors in general.

Why should YOU buy direct? It’s actually pretty easy now. I had a Selz account in 2014, remember that? It was hard to keep updated, it cost me money every month, and it didn’t handle side loading ebooks. But now? Now I have more options to sell direct.

For my direct store, I have chosen to use PayHip, which is a company out of the UK, to host and deliver my files. When you purchase, you’ll get both the Kindle Mobi file and an ePub. Read them however you like. If you don’t know how to use these ebook formats, a second email from BookFunnel comes after purchasing which will load the book onto your e-reader or mobile device or tablet. I’ve timed it. You can buy and be reading within 5 minutes. Isn’t technology amazing?

If you have more questions about buying direct, read the Buying Direct FAQ. I plan to offer all of my books direct, and now, some of my books — the Kami No Sekai short stories, FACE TIME, and SUMMER HAIKUS — are ONLY available direct. I will also be offering other box sets and new releases direct-only. It’s a whole new paradigm!

Want to try out the direct store for yourself? Here’s another thing I can do: offer coupons! You can get 20% off everything in my direct store until Sept 10, 2018 with the following coupon code.

Check out the PayHip Store!

20% Off! Just use 058MIV4848 at checkout!

I hope you take advantage of this! Especially with my larger omnibuses also on sale. Have a great weekend everyone!

The post S. J. Pajonas’s Books Are Now Available Direct! 20% Off Thru Sept 10! appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Featuring ALL THAT DOESN’T By Tracy Krimmer

As you probably know well by now, my critique partner, Tracy Krimmer, is one of my most favorite people ever. And she writes lovely books as well. I’ve seen her come a long, long way, and I’m really enjoying this ALL THAT series. In fact, she just sent me Book 3 the other day, and I’m so looking forward to reading it!

So today, on its release day, I have Tracy Krimmer on the on the blog to feature her book, ALL THAT DOESN’T.

I asked Tracy, “What inspired you to write the ALL THAT series?”

She replied…

This series came to me at the oddest time. I was with my family at the movies watching Zootopia. Judy Hopps was on the monorail on her way to Zootopia to start a life completely foreign to her. She’d be on her own for the first time. The Shakira song came on, “Try Everything.” Every lyric to that song resonated with me and I found myself in tears. I started to think what it would be like to not only try something new but almost completely start over. That’s the challenge I gave to Dory, a no-longer-relevant country music star, when her ever-so-popular-star husband dumps her on national television. I loved writing this series. Book 2, All That Doesn’t, brings on new challenges as she fights to not only rekindle her career but deal with an unexpected guest. Let’s not forget about Harris, her long-lost love she’s now with and the struggles he faces as a divorced dad of a grade school child. The final book, All That Matters, will be out October 22nd and bring a wonderful ending to the series.

“Starting over” is always such a great theme for a book and it works great in this series. I love watching Dory grow and learn how to find love and happiness.

After a devastating end to her marriage, Dory Walker has rebuilt her life in her hometown of Sycamore Bay. She’s left her music career behind and is only looking forward to her future with her rekindled love, Harris Malone.

Single dad Harris is doing his best to guide his young daughter and take the reins of his soon to be retired dad’s hardware store. With Dory by his side, he can do anything.

But just when Dory thought she had it all, a surprise visitor turns her world upside down with a revelation that threatens to tear her family apart. She turns to Harris for help, but he’s caught up trying to save his relationship with his daughter. Can the bond between Dory and Harris survive these turbulent times?

Check out ALL THAT DOESN’T on…
Amazon iBooks S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – August 19, 2018

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.

Well, this week was better than last week. We had a lot of rain, and too many days at home, but at least the basement was dry! The kids had their last week at pottery camp, and it was a lot of fun for them. So much so that I signed them up for classes back there in the fall! Now we’ll all be taking pottery! My house is going to be full of ceramics. Lol.

My full website audit continues. I’m finding tons of old posts with broken images, unfortunately. There was a time when I linked to photos on Flickr or Instagram, instead of hosting the images myself, and that has turned out to be a big mistake. I recently completely deleted my Flickr account when Yahoo sold it to some other company, so all those images are unavailable and broken. I still have the images, but finding them back in my archives is proving to be a lot of work. More than I bargained for. And Instagram, at some point, stopped allowing people to hotlink to their images on Instagram’s servers. So all of those are broken too. That compounded the work issue. Regardless, this is something I have to do, so I’m doing it and just plowing on. I’m not giving up.

The good thing is that I’m finding all of this great content! And I will be scheduling it in Missinglettr from September onward, plus tons of stuff to pin to Pinterest. I’m really excited about it going forward.

This week I’ll be focusing on setting up my direct store and updating all of my book pages on my website. Once that’s done, it’s back to the audit!

What else happened this week?

Pottery camp is over! Here’s what the younger child made. Yes, that’s an evil bunny mask AND a monster eating a bunny. Don’t know what was up with bunnies this year.

And here’s what the older child made!

I made salsa verde with all the leftover tomatillos we got from the CSA and other CSA goodies like the red onion and garlic.

I attempted to make eggplant jerky. The first batch turned out good. The second was just okay. I need to work on the recipe.

These tomatoes and cucumbers came from our very own garden!

We got a ton of lemon basil and I’m looking forward to using it.

Lots of rain means the ants are back. Ugh. I called the exterminator right away.

The kids got really interested in friendship bracelets for like 8 hours. Lol. Then they got frustrated with them and I ended up having to make them.

I got some reading time in at the pool.

And last but not least, I bought yarn for myself for the first time in over two years. I hit a summer sale at Sunshine Yarns and purchased dark and light colors to complement the colors I already have in my stash.

Coming up this week on the blog: Tracy Krimmer’s newest release will be featured tomorrow and a Japan post. This is vacation week, so expect posting and commenting to be light!

The post Sunday Update – August 19, 2018 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Cozy And Paranormal Cozy Book Sale – 99c And Free!

Happy Friday! Today, I’m bringing you a cozy and paranormal cozy mystery sale! Stock up on books for the weekend. This sale technically starts tomorrow, but I checked, and the vast majority of these are already on sale or free. Hope you find something to enjoy! I already purchased a few of these for my week off.

Check out the sale now!

I’ll be off most of next week with just the Sunday Update and one other entry posted. Have a great week everyone!

The post Cozy And Paranormal Cozy Book Sale – 99c And Free! appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Dusk In Pontocho And Gion, Kyoto – Traveling In Japan 2018 Series

After a day of sightseeing all over Kyoto, I was really close to just calling it a day and passing out in my hotel room. But after a shower and something to eat, I decided I really wanted to see some of the old areas of town while my day-long bus pass was still active. I got on a cross-town bus and made my way to Pontocho and Gion.

Most people have heard of these areas of Kyoto, even if you know almost nothing about the city. This is where the geisha/geiko do most of their entertaining! Pontocho is well-known for its alley of restaurants and Gion is where most of the tea houses are located.

I would go into all the history of the place, but you can get that pretty much anywhere online. Instead, I’m going to treat you to some photos!

The Kamo River, which runs north to south between Pontocho and Gion, is lined with the restaurants of Pontocho. It looks so enchanting at night.

This is the narrow Pontocho corridor. So many people were out! It was a Saturday night, after all. Everyone was looking in the windows and at the menus, trying to decide where to eat. Look at this couple up front, holding hands and laughing. I wonder where they ate that night?

Down these side alleys, people waited for tables or the restaurants waited patiently for their customers to arrive.

The Gion area had all of these little shrines on corners or tucked away between buildings.

And by the time the sun set, everything just became a hundred times more beautiful.

I’m glad I left the comfort of my hotel room that night to do a little exploring. I often think back on that evening when I need a little peace and tranquility. Hopefully the images will inspire lots of daydreams as you read my books!

The post Dusk In Pontocho And Gion, Kyoto – Traveling In Japan 2018 Series appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

DESTINATION: MURDER Is A USA Today Best Seller!

I’m happy to announce that the DESTINATION: MURDER box set, which includes MATSURI AND MURDER, is a USA Today Best Seller! I’ve never been involved with anything that’s a best seller before. This is my first time getting a #1 Best Seller orange flag in several different categories on Amazon, and my first time ever being on the USA Today list. I owe it all to you, awesome readers!!

It was a Herculean effort to sell this box set hard and push for the list. All 8 of us authors in the set chipped in money for advertising and we all worked hard to get the set the visibility it needed to soar! I’m really proud of everyone coming together to make DESTINATION: MURDER a success.

What did I do to celebrate? I made friendship bracelets with my kids, we had a “toast” at the pool with ice cream, and now I’m enjoying a drink for the evening.

Thanks to all of my readers that purchased this box set and helped us reach our goals! It’s most appreciated!

Have you picked up your copy yet? It’s still on sale for only 99¢!

Order Now For Only 99¢!

Amazon iBooks Nook Kobo

MURDER NEVER TAKES A HOLIDAY!

Pack your bags and buckle up! We’ve got eight exciting tales of mystery and murder, each with a twist you won’t see coming. Destination: Murder is a limited edition, cozy mystery boxed set with eight full-length, never-before-published novels.

The post DESTINATION: MURDER Is A USA Today Best Seller! appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.