Jaye Marie's Blog, page 40

Serenity Sunday…

I am spending the weekend in relaxation, just because I can, really. It’s good to close the door on work and duty for a change. Back in the saddle on Monday, batteries fully charged!

Just in case you are still soldiering on, I am including one of my favourite quotes from Tiny Buddha.com…

So, consider yourself hugged, everybody!

The post Serenity Sunday… appeared first on Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes.

Poetry

Poetry

The post Poetry appeared first on Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes.

A Cure for Stress?

Life has been tough lately for everyone.

Problems everywhere, and people not coping at all well with any of them.

My problems have been mild compared to some, but the stress and tension have been widespread, trying to derail or upset applecarts. Some Planet must be in retrograde or something, and all I can say is I hope is that it doesn’t last too long!

It occurred to me the other day that I haven’t been doing the one thing that always used to balance the mood books, if you know what I mean. I’m talking about crafts. Any kind of crafts really, but my all time favourite has always been crochet. I like to knit too, but this has become problematic, because the patterns seem more complicated than ever.

I don’t need a pattern to crochet, and its the perfect pastime for the evenings when the family watch TV.

I have been crocheting for two evenings now, and have put my world to rights while doing it. I have wanted to make granny squares for ages, but no idea what to do with them. Somehow, that doesn’t seem to matter though.

what would you do with them?

In two days I have gone from an ageing, not coping very well, worrier, to someone I recognise again. Calm and confident, capable, I think! of almost anything…

I might try some pencil sketching soon, something I haven’t done for a long time. Yay!

The post A Cure for Stress? appeared first on Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes.

Toast and Yoghurt…

Good morning, peeps. I had no idea that today would be a good day when I opened my eyes.

The arthritis was already making itself known, so as far as I was concerned, it would be another stressful day.

I started my day with the emails. Nothing to write home about there, or anything that need my attention.

Then I checked into our website, and for the first time in ages, I was pleased with what I saw. There was nothing annoying, or wrong, or missing. What was going on?

It took a while for me to realise that today would be a good day.

Good days always have a weird effect on me. I tend to do weird things, like tackle awkward jobs that have been hanging around forever. I didn’t give it much thought, just enjoyed the peace and serenity that had invaded the office. At least until breakfast time.

I always eat breakfast at the computer, usually while I play a game, so nothing odd there. Toast and yoghurt, like always. Then I wondered why I was eating them separately. Seconds later I was munching on yoghurt on toast and it was delicious!

Anita took one look and said ‘yuck!’ but then she doesn’t like yoghurt anyway.

Would my day get any stranger? I hope so, for there has been too many of the boring and frustrating days lately…

While I wait for something else to delight me, how about one of Anita’s lovely poems?

Have a lovely day too…

Chaos is Leaving the Building… #PeaceReigns

Chaos is slowly leaving, at last!

When the going gets tough, the tough get going, isn’t that what they say?

I normally just keep trying harder. And that’s what I have been doing for nearly a week now, trying to improve our website. I tried my best, but all I managed to do was turn my brain inside out.

I don’t normally give up or give in, but in the end, I had to, for it was slowly driving me insane.

Now, I am back to the old theme, one I can handle while still leaving time for other things, like writing. And yes, I am starting a new story. A new idea started nagging me, so I am doing a lot of research and making notes.

I didn’t expect this to happen so soon, as I still have plenty of work to do on Folly’s End, like a paperback version and possibly a trailer.

Thanks to all of you for being patient while everything was in chaos, my timing couldn’t have been worse.

And huge thanks to the Happiness engineer who really helped save my sanity and restore my original theme, which I thought lost forever.

Today, I want to introduce Angie, the other sister in The Mystery of Folly’s End.

Hi, I am Angela Watson, the black sheep of our family. Younger sister to Charlie Fletcher.

After what I did all those years ago, I never thought I would ever see my big sister again.

Stealing the love of her life was unforgivable.

It was a nasty thing to do to anyone, but I couldn’t help it. I was lonely and needed someone to love me, and Tom just happened to be there. I am not as strong as my sister, and I remember being very jealous of the two of them.

I don’t accept all of the blame either, as there were two of us in that sad situation. If I’m honest, he didn’t take much stealing.

Through all the years we have been apart, I have really missed my sister and all the fun we used to have.

When Tom didn’t come home from work that day, I didn’t know what to do. Eventually, the food and money ran out, and the kids were hungry. I had to ask my sister for help.

If she didn’t come to help me, what would I do?

I didn’t deserve her sympathy, but I prayed she would forgive me enough to come to my rescue for the children’s sake.

Well, she did turn up, but all was not well between us.

Can we bury the hatchet?

Could I swallow my pride and accept her help?

Don’t forget, The Mystery of Folly’s End is just 99p until Sunday! Get your copy HERE…

Call for Writers: Guest Blog Posts (with audio version)

Call for Writers: Guest Blog Posts (with audio version)

The post Call for Writers: Guest Blog Posts (with audio version) appeared first on Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes.

Such a Good Day…

Yesterday was launch day for my latest creation, The Mystery of Folly’s End, and promised to be a great day.

On sale for 99p for just one week! Amazon

I was up early and was enjoying my first cup of tea when I heard a lot of flapping going on out in the yard.

I peeked out of the window, wondering what was going on. Two young magpies were visiting my bonsai and looked utterly ridiculous. Birds in proper trees look normal, but these two looked like giants against my small trees!

Normally, I don’t get the time to grab my camera, as birds don’t stay long enough, but I took the chance and grabbed it anyway.

If you see two magpies together, they say it’s “two for joy,” and I hope that’s true. They certainly made my day a lot more special…

The post Such a Good Day… appeared first on Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes.

Roberta Writes – Guest post: The Mystery of Folly’s End by Jaye Marie #readingcommunity #newbook #fiction

Roberta Writes – Guest post: The Mystery of Folly’s End by Jaye Marie #readingcommunity #newbook #fiction

The post Roberta Writes – Guest post: The Mystery of Folly’s End by Jaye Marie #readingcommunity #newbook #fiction appeared first on Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes.

Meet the Gang!

Tomorrow, on the new moon, my latest masterpiece goes live on Amazon.

I am trying not to hold my breath, hard to do when you are repeatably wishing it all the luck in the world, but I have everything crossed, just in case.

I thought I would introduce you to the stars of the show, and include an excerpt.

Excerpt from The Mystery of Folly’s End

Across the table from me, Charlie was being cautious, only asking safe questions, none of which I had answers for. I couldn’t tell if she believed me; her face gave nothing away. The coffee had long gone cold, so I decided to make more. I had barely stood up, the coffee mugs in my hand, when she spoke, her voice harsh.

‘Where are you going?’

Judging from the expression on her face, she was on the verge of being very angry. I waved the mugs at her. ‘I need a drink, and coffee is the only poison around here…’  I didn’t finish the sentence. I felt her eyes on my back as I walked to the kettle.

The relief I felt when she arrived was fading fast; there was nothing she could do to help me, and we were possibly heading for the granddaddy of all rows. When I came and sat back down after making the coffee, I knew I should just tell her to go home. She probably wouldn’t, but I said it anyway.

The pause that followed seemed weird. Just for a moment, I thought she would stand up and leave. Her face gave nothing away, and she wasn’t looking at me. This triggered my temper, and I wanted to throw my coffee all over her. Just when that impulse had grown impossible to ignore, she looked at me.

‘Why are you always such a bitch, Angie?’

I didn’t know what to say to that. My bitchiness was legendary, as I’m sure she remembered. I toyed with my coffee, still tempted to throw it across the room.

‘I wouldn’t throw that…’

‘Why not? What will happen if I do?’

‘You might get that punch in the face that I owe you.’

‘I thought you’d gotten over that; it’s been a while.’

‘You don’t get over having the love of your life stolen.’

I snorted. I couldn’t help it. ‘As it happens, Tom wasn’t worth the trouble, sis.’

She stared at me, obviously hating the sight of me. Her hands, gripping the coffee mug, were bone white with the pressure. All the air in the kitchen seemed to have been sucked out.

‘Okay, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.’

Her hands left the mug and vanished under the table, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Crisis averted.

‘We’re not going to get anywhere like this,’ she said and waited for me to agree.

In the absence of alcohol, I didn’t feel like talking. If I was honest, I wanted to die…

and for one week, reduced to .99 !

The post Meet the Gang! appeared first on Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes.

We Have had Better Days…

I just can’t help myself.

I tried to improve our website and ended up ruining it.

I recently discovered that the theme we have been using for years does not have an editor or allow much customisation. This means we can’t have a homepage. A page to welcome our visitors and tell them all about us and what we do.

This is where ‘how hard can it be,’ usually announces itself. I didn’t have to wait long and there it was. The challenge was set. All I needed was a new theme.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

But this was when confusion walked in and took charge of the situation.

There are hundreds of themes to choose from, and to cut a long, tedious story short, I chose one only to find it was worse than the one we already had.

I chose another, with the same result. We are now on our third theme and I’m not exactly happy with it. When I asked those Happiness Engineers for advice, they did their best.

But we are no nearer to the perfect theme than we were before.

So, apologies all around for the fun and games, but at least we can still post…

***

They said it would rain, but there’s no sign yet. The blistering heat continues, and we are sitting around like limp lettuce.

I have never liked the heat, but I seem to be coping better than my sister, who is suffering and looks ill. And bad-tempered, did I mention that?

The heat has also had an odd effect on my patience. Normally never-ending, it has become wafer thin. It must be something about the extent of my current problems, which are running at a higher level than I am used to.

I would love to describe my retirement as ‘easy-going, doing mostly well-loved activities with plenty of me time.’ Who am I kidding?

Unfortunately, I decided to change the theme on our humble website, not knowing just how complicated it would be. I should have known, for technology has never been a friend of mine. For three days, I struggled, bashing my head against the wall of my inadequacy as I tried to understand the mechanics.

The times I almost gave up did little to soothe my raging but ineffective brain.

Apparently, this heat has no effect on stubbornness, so when it all began to make sense, the ever-present hopeless depression lifted, and I could think clearly again.

At one point, I thought my blogging days were over, so I’m glad I managed to figure most of it out. I still have a few things to sort out, but I should mention the help and patience I have had from the Happiness Engineers. They have more than earned that title…

The post We Have had Better Days… appeared first on Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes.