Sunday Smatterings

Happy Sunday, friends! I feel like I start so many of these blogs with “What a week!” But truly, this one has been extraordinary. Obviously it’s been exceedingly hard to work without unplugging the router from the wall and putting the phone in another room. (Actually, the universe did that for me three days in a row in the form of rolling power outages which rebooted my iMac multiple times a day. This baby isn’t young and takes AGES to turn on and run properly, so it’s been an exercise in frustration trying to accomplish anything.) Election days are hard ones for us to do anything but stay glued to the statistics. When day turn into days with the possibilities of weeks, well, I’ve forced myself to look away and ask those I know who are still glued to the moment by moment coverage to text me when something happens. 

Finding flow during a time of great distraction is nigh on impossible without some sort of external accountability. I have several layers of this in place naturally, deadlines and the like, and I’m a self-motivated person in general, but 2020, with the pandemic and the chaos and the constant background noise, has tested me.

The only way to conquer this, of course, is to work through it. I have become an expert at creating places and scenarios that shut out distractions so I can work.

I took this week to start getting a handle on what’s to come for the rest of the year creatively.  I started the new book. I worked on the short story. I had a nightly check in with some of my writer besties to share what I’d done and what I planned to do the next day, and they shared their accomplishments and plans as well. There is comfort in accountability, yes, but even more in community. Knowing everyone is sharing the same set of uncertainties and is finding their paths through it keep me on track.

If you ever need to get through something, recruit some like-minded friends and hold each others’ feet to the fire. It really works.

And so, that’s it from me, because if I can’t share that I’ve touched the book today, I’ll be in all sorts of trouble this evening!

Onward!

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That’s it from me. Find some accountability this week, and let me know how you do! I’ll see you next Sunday!

Peace and hugs,
J.T.

Sunday Smatterings

Happy Sunday, friends! It’s Jameson and Jordan’s 7th Cativersary today! We brought home our little minions on November 1, 2013. Good grief, it feels like yesterday. Their story is a fascinating one, and we are so blessed in their company. Sweet, sweet girls, both.

If you’ve ever renovated a house, or even done a major home improvement project, you know how disruptive that can be. Boxes. Dust. Strangers in the house at all hours, many of whom down gallons of coffee to wake up and then embarrassingly need to use your facilities. (Pro tip: don’t schedule any appointment before 10 am...) The uncertainty that results from the paradox of choice—you can do ANYTHING to your home now, in any style, with any design, color, or detail. Choosing between 14 incredibly similar but totally different French country-style dining tables can be a bit...overwhelming. Add in coordinating schedules of multiple vendors, making plans to lock up the pets, and the added stress of COVID safety measures, and it can be a wee bit challenging. 

The house we bought needed a LOT of work. But, having renovated our last house, we knew we were up to the challenge. We focused on the envelope first—foundation to roof, then moved inside: restoring the hardwood floors, painting everything a neutral gray, re-carpeting a few rooms, installing new bookshelves, and designing a master bath. I’ve acted as our general contractor inside, Mr. E handled outside. We’ve been blessed with incredible craftsmen the whole way—you know a project is only as good as the contractors and vendors you’re working with. 

Meanwhile, we were staging/selling our house, which involved moving out half the furniture and all the books, then moving what we needed to live and work into the new house while leaving behind the bulk of the furniture, then, because the closing moved up 2 weeks, getting out entirely, quickly, hiring and directing movers, and finally, bringing to the new house all the things we moved out to stage the old. 

This was not the easiest path, nor the measured and thoughtful retreat we had in mind when we set ourselves upon these stormy seas, but it’s nearly over. We’re a week away from completion, and that is only an hour job once things arrive. Everything we own is at long last in this new house. The cats have found the places they like to sleep. My books came today, and that makes me oh so happy. The end of the chaos is upon us.

So, since I am, at last, expecting no one, I am taking the next week off. I am going to hunker down and do a week-long writing retreat to kick off my new creative life in our new home. I plan to stay far, far away from anything that doesn’t serve my current story. It is going to be a difficult book to write, and I need to sink into its warm waters and soak myself. 

Wish me luck, and be good to each other. We’re all we have. 

Onward!

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That’s it from me. Don’t forget to vote, and I’ll see you next week! 🇺🇸

Peace and hugs,
J.T.

Sunday Smatterings

Happy Sunday, friends! How are you this fine day?

I’ve been looking at the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year, curious to see how I’ve done meeting, exceeding, or failing to launch. Obviously, many plans have gone awry thanks to the pandemic, but I’ve still accomplished most of what I set out to do. I’ve written 150,000 words so far, with a goal of 200k. I’ve read 50 out of my 80 books. I’ve definitely pulled back on my social media time. My move streak is at 140 days, so I’m getting more exercise and fresh air. I’ve kept up with my Smatterings, and I’ve made strides into reclaiming my work/life balance. 

2020 was dedicated to the word ENOUGH. When I wrote my annual review, I was saying ENOUGH OF THIS

Now, I’m saying it slightly differently. “Enough” means it’s time to make changes. 

And with change comes loss.

This—with change comes loss—has become  my 2020 mantra. I have changed a lot about my life, both professionally and personally. I have changed dramatically this year. Things that used to bother me to the point of distraction are now totally irrelevant. Shallow concerns have been replaced with much more serious actions to ensure our bodily safety. We even went so far as to take advantage of an opportunity to move so we would be safer, and more secure.

As we forge ahead into an uncertain fall and winter, I take the habits I’ve built over the past several months into my new office. I sit at my desk with my steaming hot cup of tea and start to write as the morning sun spills into the room. It feels good, this new day, this new view, this new perspective. 

I suspect this is the same for most of us, considering. When is a pandemic a blessing in disguise?

And with that, I say, onward!

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That’s it from me. Look at your goals for the year, give the kids and furkids a hug, HYDRATE, and I’ll see you next week!

Peace and hugs,
J.T.

Sunday Smatterings

Happy Sunday, friends! I hope today’s missive finds you well.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about creative passion. 

I purposefully took off the month of September to get us prepared for the move and get the new house renovated. It was good timing—I’d just finished the revision of HER DARK LIES and knew it would be in production for a few weeks at least before I got copyedits. I also knew that as much as I like to pretend to myself that I finish one book and immediately launch into another, my actual pattern of behavior is finish one book, immediately start another, then spend a month messing around while the new idea pushes away the previous one. There’s a real period of grieving every writer must go through when they finish a book. You’ve lived with these characters and this story for so long, it’s hard to simply shut the door and walk away without a proper goodbye.

I decided to take advantage of my month of lying fallow and accomplish something instead of surfing the web letting the new idea work its way into my subconscious. And for the most part, I’ve accomplished my goal. As with all great plans, I neglected to budget an extra 25% of time to accomplish all I set out to do, which is why it’s mid-October and we’ve just moved, the old house still has a few things to be cleared out, and I haven’t gotten past the first chapter of the new book. But I’m here at my desk, and I worked on a short story yesterday, and I know how it ends, so that’s nothing to sneeze at.

All of this to say... I’ve ben itching to get back to writing. This break feels much too long. My writing muscles haven’t atrophied, but they’re sore from disuse. Which brings me full circle to the creative passion thing.

Wanting to write isn’t enough. Thinking about writing isn’t enough. Talking about writing isn’t enough. If you actually want to be a writer, to have a career, to sustain yourself financially, to have a modicum of success, however you define it—you have to write. You must create. You must let YOUR passion for YOUR work drive you to the keyboard or pen every single damn day. It doesn’t matter if it seems too hard. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think it will get published. It doesn’t matter if you’re worried about reviews or reader response or how much money you can get out of it.

No more excuses. Just do it. Stop worrying about the business side of writing, and get to work on the business of writing.

Just write. 

Onward!

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LEGENDBORN by Tracy Deonn

What a magnificent book. I've spent the past week recommending LEGENDBORN to everyone I know. It's got everything: a complex new magical system, grounded in Arthurian legend; a sassy protagonist who is destined to become an iconic hero in her own right; important, thought-provoking themes; and a burgeoning love triangle that feels inevitable but right. Seriously, y'all, this book is a blast! Tracy Deonn is now on my always pre-order list.

What are you reading?

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That’s it from me. Clean out your junk drawer, buy some shelf liners and clean your fridge, write something, even if it feels hard, and I’ll see you next week!

Peace and hugs,
J.T.

Sunday Smatterings

Happy Sunday, friends!

Many of you know Jameson, the smaller of the two thriller kittens, managed to get a chunk of toy mouse lodged in her duodenum and needed a surgical intervention to remove it. She is currently asleep by my side on her heating pad, dressed in a surgical suit (aka an infant onesie) and healing well.

I have a new appreciation for the phenomenon I’ve heard about that second babies are easier than the first. We went through this five years ago, when, on New Year’s Eve, we returned home from Christmas at my parents only to have to rush Jameson to the emergency vet. That was a full blockage caused by 6 inches of Christmas ribbon and a chunk of plastic. She’s malingered for so long she was put on ten days cage rest. She was in an E-collar,  and every three hours I had to feed her, hold her tail whilst she used her cat box, feed her pain medication, and otherwise try to love and entertain a two year old torpedo without letting her rip her stitches. 

It was like having a newborn. Except after ten days, it was over. Mad props to you new parents out there, BTW.

But the second time around... the onesie is a VAST improvement over the E-collar. She has a donut collar for overnight which acts like a pillow, and she likes that. She is not on cage rest, nor does she need me to hold her tail. The pain meds are every 8-12 hours, which means sleep is possible. It’s been easier on all of us. 

But my GAWD, will she ever learn? 

It’s good timing for moving. I will not be bringing any of her old toys that have any kind of plastic or chewable parts to the new house. We’ll be able to find the hundreds that have been lost (or partially digested) over the years and dispose of them. If you have any suggestions for all natural soft, edible cat toys, do let me know! I’m going to put her back on crunchy dog bones for something hard to chew on. 

You can imagine how much writing I got done this week. But I’m not worried. I’m cogitating. Lots going on in the background means lots of words getting ready to spill out.

Onward!

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This Goodreads giveaway of HER DARK LIES Advanced Reader Copies ends this week. (US only.)

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CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45 by Lisa Unger

I've been a fan of Lisa for years, because she just keeps getting better and better at her craft. Last year's awesome THE STRANGER INSIDE blew me away, and this new one, CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45, didn't disappoint either. Fans of the long con will love this book, and those of you who think everything is okay at home will rethink every interaction you have. A wonderful, twisty, engaging read.

What are you reading?

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That’s it from me. Burn some leaves, play with your fur babies in a safe and responsible manner, and I’ll see you next week!

Peace and hugs,
J.T.