Rollercoaster of Life

Wow! What a ride it’s been!

Hello my lovelies, it is I, Ellie.

 

I know, you began to wonder if I had been abducted by aliens, or captured by enemy spies, or had run away with a rich sugar daddy to a tropical paradise.

Well, the aliens never showed up, the spies captured some younger person assuming they had more information -the fools, and my sugar daddy has to request his time off like all of the other employees. Nevertheless,  a lot has transpired since my last confession, er, I mean post.

I am titling this one, Rollercoaster of Life because, well I’m sure you will figure it out.

I think I shared with y’all that my Mother In Law had a hemorrhagic stroke in March. For several weeks we spent most of our time going back and forth to the hospital, rehab center, and doctors. I’m happy to report that she is home, at her home, using a walker, not a wheelchair, and has made a remarkable recovery!

I missed my self imposed deadline for Fury. I am very frustrated with myself, yet at the same time, it is what it is. Life throws you some curve balls at times. We adapt, we overcome. I’m working on it still,  just had to pick myself up from the doldrums I was stuck in for several weeks.

By the way, a cure for the doldrums is to get a job that is demanding and has you trying to figure out when you can fit in the other things, like housework, laundry, writing, and maybe something fun.

Welcome to the Rollercoaster. You must be at least 48 inches tall to ride, or accompanied by an adult who is taller than 68 inches. Lower lap bar to the locked position.

My biopsy proved to be negative for cancer –  that was a total relief!

I had oral surgery the first week of May –  that was horrible for a few days, then there was the soft foods diet. BLECH! Anyway, all is healed from that just in time to go back for phase 2, the implant procedure. Yeah, not looking forward to that yet it needs to be done.  I had to get bloodwork done, which my A1C is below the diabetic ranger, and my daily glucose level is within range. However, my triglycerides were off the charts.  You win some, and lose others.

The last week of May, I started a new job. A new thing – totally different from any of my other things. This job is not in cartography.  I am still doing maps for commissioned work if anyone is interested, contact me on Facebook. This job has nothing to do with mortgages or financing, although I still have my license.

I have to do twice the work in physical labor that I did to get the same pay as a mortgage officer,  but the job satisfaction is multiplied by ten!

I have been working as a nurses aid, or personal care provider for a home health company. This is not anything I ever thought I ‘d be doing but, I can honestly say –  I Love it!  The job satisfaction, the feeling of being needed, appreciated, and valued is irreplaceable.  I’m caring for elderly patients that can no longer do things for themselves. For some it is fixing meals, doing a bit of housework, laundry, and company. For others, it involves more care such as transfer and mobility, bathing and hygiene.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the elderly. Maybe it’s from losing my grandparents when I was young, maybe it’s respect for my parents and grandparents. I get upset when I see teens and young adults mocking elderly men who walk with a cane or are stooped, shuffling slowly as they make their way through a store.

This is not the path I would have chosen. God always knows better though, doesn’t he? I needed this.  I needed to be needed. I needed to feel valued.

Part of the reason for this is,  we are now empty-nesters.  This is taking some adjustments. I’m happy for my daughter to be taking the next step in her life,  but at the same time, I miss her. I miss our conversations throughout the day.

So, with the new job,  the first day after training I had a 14-hour shift, with several 12 hour shifts to follow. At least 2 days a week are 12-hour shifts. It’s not a demanding 12 hours though, there is some downtime. For instance, if the client takes a nap, I can write in my notebook.  I have filled one notebook and am starting on the second one.

Today, I added 11,000 words to a new story thanks to Dragon software transcribing.

I guess, in summation what I’m trying to say is I’ve been busy. We are learning to adjust to a new schedule of care for my Mother In Law, requiring more frequent check-ins. I’m adjusting to the new job averaging 37 to 46 hours a week. I have been writing, but not in my usual manner at the computer.

Speaking of computer, I am happy to have my most cherished computer back.  It was running slow, acting goofy and I took it to the shop to see if there was a virus or something –  turned out I just needed to defragment the hard drive. INexpensive fix, but getting to the shop to pick it up when I worked until 8 in the evening has been difficult.

So, anyway. That’s been my life in a nutshell.

I will be sharing some authors new releases, including my bestie’s!!!  I plan to share a few new recipes – sugar-free ones that I ‘ve mastered. Maybe, I’ll even include a few vlogs here and there now that I am on a more regular schedule for the next 2 months. Keep your fingers crossed or better yet, say a prayer that I will manage my time better and get my writing completed!

I hope that everyone is having a fantastic summer! I need a tan myself. I’ve spent most of my days indoors caring for others. On the days when I’ve been off,  the weather has been so hot and humid, I couldn’t stand being outside.

For anyone who has been wondering where i disappeared to this time,  there you have it. What have you been up to?

Write on my friends, write on! 

Ellie

A New Season

Much like the weather, our lives tend to run in seasons. We have seasons of growth, where we learn new things, such as our college years, or learning to care for an aging parent.  We have seasons of winter, where things seem dead, cold, brittle. Perhaps just after a breakup, the death of a loved one, or even the death of our dreams. We have seasons of a long hot summer, where things seem to drag on, the heat gets to us,  but we keep going and try to keep our thirst quenched.

My husband and I are coming out of a season of summer. You do the things that are necessary because they need to be done, and after a while the long hot days can wear you down. We’ve been plugging along, not making much gains, doing life as it comes, and being responsible – or in other words, adulting. Let me tell you, adulting sucks! Being responsible sucks. Being a responsible adult isn’t fun, but on the flipside, being a responsible person, or people, we can’t accept the consequences of not being responsible therefore we continue in our responsibilities. Does that make sense?  It made sense in my head.

In March, my Mother in law had a hemorrhagic stroke.  This has not been fun, but this is one of those things life throws at you and you have to deal with it.  MY friend Emily’s fiancee was in the hospital for his heart and had to postpone her wedding and their trip to the US. These are things life throws at us that we don’t sign up for.

These are the unexpected crisis that demand our attention, and we either learn to cope,  have a fall apart, or some combination of the two.

However, we can see the sunlight after the storm.  My Mother in law has made a lot of improvement and the doctor thinks she will continue to improve, and possibly regain her independence.  Hallelujah! I start a new job at the end of the month after Memorial Day, in a totally different field than what my degree is in,  but it’s something that sounds exciting to me, certainly more exciting than crunching numbers doing mortgages!

Our eldest daughter finished her last full semester of college, all that remains for her to graduate is her student teaching, and she got an assignment at a premier school district in St. Louis. In a few weeks, we will move her back here, or rather up the road a little further to share an apartment with one of her good friends.

Our youngest daughter just changed jobs, is ready to purchase a car and is talking of moving out sometime in June to share a house with a few of her friends.

I have other news pertaining to writing that is fantastic, but I can’t share it just yet. It’s good news though.

I shared with Misty, “You better pinch me, I think I’m dreaming. It’s like everything suddenly is falling into place, the storm is clearing and the rainbow is in the sky.”

It has been a long hard summer for us, in our lives. The stress has gotten to me on more than one occasion and I’ve crumbled under emotional strain, reverted to bad habits, cried, pouted, and lots of other things I won’t even mention.

A part of me is looking around, wondering when the other shoe will fall. I keep trying to tell that part to shut up, and stop expecting the worst. Isn’t it about time we deserve a break? Isn’t it about time we start reaping some rewards and have some good in our lives?

Anyone else ever feel like that?

I’m not saying that our lives suck, because they don’t. We have plenty of good things in our lives. The thing is though, we’ve been under a lot of stress for what seems like a looooooooooong time. It’s sort of like after the storm passes, and the sky is brilliant blue. There are some branches or twigs scattered across the lawn,  water is flowing across the driveway, and the relief is tangilbe that the storm has passed. The only thing left is to clean up the debris and celebrate that we survived.

That’s kind of how I feel right now, like we need to celebrate for making it through the long drought summer, but we can’t celebrate too soon because some of the things haven’t actually happened yet. Soon, but not yet.

We are definitely entering a new season. We may be entering a season of sandwich – with one adult child at home and possibly an aging parent in our home. That is undecided yet – and potentially she can go back to her own home.

I’m starting a new job that I see as rewarding, exciting, and is something I am fully confident that I can do. I am entering the world of caregiver – for pay. I did it for my mother without compensation, I raised my kids, it seems like an easy fit to me and the way  the job came about is an odd story in itself. Not looking to get rich, but have a little cushion with all of the medical bills I’ve accumulated.

Our plans to move were put on hold yet again. Once we know  where things stand with his Mom, we can move forward again.

It’s all good! I feel like we should be singing that song from Wizard of Oz, “You’re out of the woods” or Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing”.

I’ve heard people refer to my mother as a tough ol’bird, well I guess I take after her a lot more than I’d like to admit because I’m one tough chick!

On another note, I tend to do better with fitting my writing in when I have to have a schedule – point being – I have little to show for my writing since becoming unemployed in December. Whether from pouting, wasting time, going through stuff, or just making excuses to explain away my lack of productivity, I did much better without an open ended schedule.

I’d be willing to bet that there are many of you who are coming out of a dark dreary season, and are relieved to see the post storm rainbow in the sky. I know I can’t be the only one.

Write on my friends, write on!

 

Music Soothes the Savage. . . #MFRW Writer?

Week 8 – MFRW 52-week Blog Challenge  #MFRWAuthor

Week 8:  What music, if any, do you prefer to write by?

First off, I can’t believe it’s week 8 already, and I have only managed 3 of the previous seven posts. I think I will add in other days of the week some of the previous ones that I have missed.

Anyway, Happy Friday and welcome to the MFRW blog challenge post!

vector illustration with neon line abstract music background

I’ve shared on here before that I love music.  I love listening to music while I write. Depending on the genre I am writing, or the scene,  my choice of music changes.  Music helps me to stay engaged and helps to channel the mood that I am trying to convey in a scene.  It soothes the savage beast of ADD and anxiety within this writer.

I used to make a playlist of my favorite songs but I don’t do that anymore.  I found myself singing along with the music, and typing in the lyrics. DOH!

Do you have any idea how frustrating and hilarious it is to proofread the story you’ve been typing away on to come to a part that reads:

Drake brushed the strand of hair back from her cheek, caressing the back of his fingers along her jawline. Her cheeks were instantly flushed with heat and a soft sigh escaped her. He clenched his jaw to hold back the groan as he felt his inner fires growing. Gods he wanted this woman,  but he knew he had to go slow.

She was not familiar with their ways and he didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable in any way.

Wake me up inside. Wake me up inside. Call my name and save me from the dark. Bid my blood to run before I come undone, save me from the nothing I’ve become. Now that I know what I’m without, you can’t just leave me. Breathe into me and make me real. Bring me to life.

At first, I thought, wow, Dragon Naturally speaking really messed up that day. What on earth was I really saying? It took me a bit to realize it was the lyrics. In fact, not until I got to Bring me to life.  This wasn’t the only incident of doing this either.  I found myself inserting Shakira, Pitbull, Heart, Annie Lenox, whomever I was listening to into my manuscript. Nowadays, I listen to instrumental music while writing.

Deadmau5 is a favorite because it’s upbeat with no lyrics. I have found various instrumental tracks on Youtube and I have those running in another tab while I write.

It’s true that you can’t think one thing while you are saying something else.  This was an exercise I have used in the past for changing negative thoughts. When that inner monster is screaming things to you – YOU SUCK being a big one, I have a laminated piece of cardstock with 40 encouraging affirmations. that I will speak out loud.  It shuts down that inner voice and the act of speaking it out loud helps your brain to accept the affirmation. It’s more powerful when you speak it yourself than to listen to a recording.  This is scientifically proven, involving the reticular formation in your amygdala. You can look it up if you want.

But, the point is, it makes sense why I was typing the lyrics, because I was singing along with the song, and then that’s what started coming out in my writing.

What do you listen to while you write? Or are you one that needs silence to hear your thoughts clearly? I have one daughter who needs silence, and the other is like me, needs some background noise for me to focus best.

Share your thoughts in a comment below! IF you want to hear what other authors have to say about this –  go check them out HERE.

Write on my friends, write on!

Research Pitfalls

I got a brilliant new idea. (See video from 2/5/19 post) However,  I don’t really know enough about the subject to write a believable story. I  would be willing to bet that you know what my time has been spent on the past few days, right?

Yep, research. Google can be an amaze-balls tool or a dangerous chasm of unhelpful information that never ends. Have you ever followed the search to those pages listed at the bottom? 2, 3, 4, 5, . . . 18? Talk about falling through a rabbit hole.

To be honest, most of the time I stick to the first page because those are the closest to my search words. If I don’t find what I want, I change my search words. This time, I clicked through the pages, finding the most helpful site on page 6.

I saved it to my bookmarked pages so that I can go back and reference it when I need it. More helpful than any site however was my friend. She answered questions I had, explained some terminology that I didn’t understand and walked me through the various forms of magic, witchcraft, spells, and all things witchy. At least I understand enough to get me started and I will check back with her frequently.  it helps that she is one of my beta readers so this time around, she will be my alpha reader and my consultant.

It’s more enjoyable to converse with someone who understands the subject you are interested in than visiting a static website. Live interaction trumps dry research any day. I wish we lived closer, although she would probably tire of me wanting to come over for coffee and talk her ear off daily.

I know several authors who have gleaned their information from people rather than researching online. Also, vice versa.  There are a few pitfalls when you rely solely on the internet or on books. Real life implementation of the topic may not actually be the same as documented. For instance,  if you are doing a police procedural and you are basing your story on what you’ve seen on TV,  you could be way off.

All I need to do now is reference a book of shadows. I happen to know where I can get my hands on one,  then I will be discussing it with my consultant.

How do you like to do your research? Do you think research is an important part of writing? Leave a comment below and click like,  if you like this post!

Go to Youtube to catch my latest vlogs as I often forget to upload them on here.

Write on my friends, write on!

Tuesday Teaser of sorts

Hello my lovelies!  What’s going on in your neck of the woods?

We have some warmer weather here in the midwest, The expected precipitation will be coming down in the form of rain and not snow – so relieved.

Here’s the brunt of what I wanted to say today.

A slight correction,  it’s Wizard Con not Comicon. I feel that is secondary to Jason Momoa!!!!!

Write on my friends, write on!

Reading, Writing, or Living? #MFRW

This past week,  I think my answer would have to be – *drum roll*

LIVING.

I  admire my friend Vicki’s work ethic.  She is diligent to get her writing time in every day. EVERY SINGLE DAY. I don’t. My goal is to write for an hour five days a week and spend my weekends with family and taking care of those domestic things.  It is treating writing like a business, a business that I work five days a week.

However, I know many authors who say you should write daily to stay in the habit.  There is definitely something to be said for maintaining a good habit.  So what about those parts related to an author’s life that aren’t exactly the drafting or writing stage? What about proofreading? What about editing? What about the brainstorm sessions for a new idea, or trying o figure out your plot?

There is a lot more to writing than the first draft. Here, in a nutshell, is the summation of my week.

Authors are just like everyone else.  Our lives consist of numerous aspects. Somebody has to do the dishes, the dish fairies never show up! Someone has to do the laundry, the laundry fairies don’t show up either.  Of course,  this is the part of life we often omit in books because who wants to see the character folding laundry? Nobody!

What have you been up to, reading, writing, or living? Let me know in the comments.

Write on my friends, write on!

 

Inclement Health Delays – Break Line

Greetings!

You know how the districts will call off school for the day for inclement weather? Well, I’ve postponed my blog, writing, OK,… my life due to inclement health.

If any of you reading this has had a bout of this year’s flu,  you have my sympathies. I had the flu shot by orders of my oncologist. It wasn’t enough.  A couple family gatherings over the holidays and I picked up the prevailing germs.  Lucky me.  I’m still not at 100 %, but compared to how horrible I felt,  this is amazing!

So, enough about me being sick, that’s not why y’all are here. Happy belated New Year’s!

I had scheduled the following to go up on my birthday –  January 2nd – so let’s just start there.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RELEASE BLITZ for BREAK LINE

Title: Break Line

Author: Ellie Mack

Release Date: 1/2/2019

Cover Designer: Nemo Designs

Genre: Contemporary Romance

BLURB:

Former Marine Nathan Fletcher had to get away. Everything was crumbling under the constant pressures of coping with PTSD, and he had to regain control. When opportunity knocked to relocate to paradise, he couldn’t pass it up. He had it all – paradise, family, and the career of his dreams. Nathan even had the best therapy in the world: the ocean. His life was perfect.

Tragedy strikes, taking more than his leg with it. His confidence is shattered leaving fear in its place. If it weren’t for his cousin and new best friend Kai, he might give in to the demons of his past and present.

Fate seems to be mocking the once cocky marine when a petite Hawaiian beauty becomes his physical therapist. She pushes all his buttons ten ways to Sunday! Nathan is torn between irritation with Kini Okana, and his desire for her.

Can Kai and Kini help him overcome the trauma that has turned his world upside down, or will Nathan let the tragedy rob him of his future dreams?

 

BUY LINK:

Amazon: 

http://a.co/d/3BJBHvc

 **Will be available on Kindle Unlimited. 

 

TEASERS:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Contemporary romance author, Ellie Mack, is a former columnist outside of St. Louis, Missouri where she resides with her husband and daughters. Her works have earned her nominations in the Indie community for best debut romance and best ugly cry in 2017. Recently, she has “dipped her quill” into the realm of Norse mythology with her title The Awakening.

As a breast cancer survivor, Ellie encourages others with the diagnosis to keep fighting and to always have hope.

“If there’s life, there is hope.” -Stephen Hawking

Ellie has also won both the Liebster and WordPress blog awards for her blog Quotidiandose. When she’s not working on her next book, Ellie enjoys journaling, crocheting, and practicing her skills in the kitchen.

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” -Vivian Greene

AUTHOR LINKS:

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/EllieMackwordsmith

Twitter:

Tweets by Mack_Ellie

Pinterest:

Website:

https://quotidiandose.wordpress.com

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/mack_ellie/

HOSTED BY:

Lip Services PR

@Lip Services PR

 

 

 

 

 

TRUST ME  – I wanted to share this on January 2nd. I am so very grateful to Maria at Lip Services PR.

I have several more things I want to share.  One things for certain,  not getting the words out of my system means more blog posts to come! Thank you all for your patience.

Write on my friends, write on!

Whirlwind I tell you, a whirlwind!

Did I read that right???

Was it really August 31 when I last posted????  OMG! I knew I was in a funk but seriously? Holy Moly!!

Wow,  I really don’t even have an excuse for that except the funk and I’ve had my head down, trying to work amongst other things.

So, if there are any of you out there still following . . . THANK YOU!

We have a lot to catch up on,  so settle in,  get your coffee, tea, soda, beer, scotch on the rocks,  . . . or whatever rocks your boat.

I guess I got some ‘splainin’ to do!

The short story – it’s been hell trying to overcome the side effects of the cancer meds,  which apparently have a cumulative effect that worsens over time.

the longer-ish version:

I basically decided that my limited energies needed to be focused on writing and preparing for Penned Con, and the newest one, which you will hear about tomorrow and other requirements with the day job.

Alright Misty, fine! I’ll give a few more details for those who are curious if there is anyone listening anymore. It’s been a whirlwind!  A whirlwind I tell you!

August was difficult.

September:

Trying to get my books ordered in time for Penned Con turned out to be a bleeding nightmare! First off, if you all recall I had this beautiful cover:

My great niece Savanna was the cover model whom I planned to use for the entire series. However,  the image became pixelated in print with my ARC copies. Obviously, that wasn’t going to work.  Then,  there was the whole Createspace transitioning to KDP fiasco.  So of course,  I needed a new format file.  It wasn’t just me,  but every author transitioning to KDP.

I’m hoping to still use some images of Savanna in the future,  but had to let this one go with great regret. However,  my cover artist did a redesign and I love it.

Gorgeous, isn’t it?  Then there were issues with the interior files,  my computer was having a big crisis with running out of memory.  Like I had time to transfer files and delete files while trying to meet a deadline!  Why do computers pick the worst time for their breakdowns?  I mean it isn’t like it doesn’t get enough attention daily!

Ergghh! September is the time they do maintenance on the pool at our local gym, so I had to find alternate forms of entertainment, I mean exercise!

September 9 through the 15th was our long-awaited vacation. I cannot tell you how badly I needed this! Well,  I can. I needed it like I need air! Like a fish needs water! So the perfect combination of course,  is the salt air!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course,  do you think I got a complete reprieve from feeling sick?  I wish!  Wednesday was spent in bed at the hotel room.  At least I could look out the window to the ocean and remind myself that feeling sick in Florida was better than feeling sick in the Midwest sauna we call home.  I gotta be honest here,  I thought when I finished radiation that it would be a relative straight line to wellness.  Was I ever wrong!

Back home in the suburbs of St. Louis,  I had a few days to pack and prep for Penned Con! On Tuesday my books still had not arrived and I was beginning to think this was going to be a waste of time, but they arrived on Wednesday!

Guess what else happened on Wednesday?  Go ahead,  you’ll never guess.

I drove my sister to the eye doctor, the retinal institute in South County area of St. Louis.  While I was in the waiting room I got the notice that my books arrived – Yay!  Then I looked outside at the blackening sky.  It was so dark,  the street lights came on at two in the afternoon. The wind was whipping around like crazy, and I was driving ridiculously slow because visibility was very limited.  I told my sister we are going to have to pull off somewhere soon because I couldn’t see.  ( She is blind in one eye and they had given her a shot in the other basically making her fully blind at that point)

The rain let up a little,  but since it hadn’t rained in a while,  I knew the roads would be slick so I was being extremely cautious. Then all of a sudden,  there are cars stopped in the road in front of me.  I hit the brakes!  I managed to stop before hitting the car in front of me – whew!  But then, an SUV hit me from behind/driver’s side pushing me into the third lane, which pushed me in the path of a tractor-trailer. As if that wasn’t enough, a pickup rear-ended me, then we felt a few more bumps as the cars behind him piled up. You can’t make this stuff up –

20 Car Pile-up on I-55

 

What was left of my car.  It was a total loss.  Both my sister and I got a very expensive ride in the ambulance to the ER.

Thank God we are both relatively OK aside from the trauma,  bruises and anxiety, and well,  the loss of my car.  This was before the paramedics arrived, a nurse who had just got off work rushed to us to see if we were ok.

NOT HOW I WANTED TO SPEND THE REST OF MY DAY!

Well,  that brings us up to the day before Penned Con 2018, and a good place to leave off.  I’ll catch you up more the next time.

Until then,  here’s a DEAL for you:

The Awakening

Write on my friends, write on!

Gearing Up

Hey guys! Whassup?

I’ve been gearing up for this year’s Penned Con. Sadly, I won’t have book 2  of the Valkyrie’s series done in time. Darn it!

I’ve been working a lot on the day job,  got my office decorated finally. I”ll bet you haven’t seen another mortgage loan officer’s office like mine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purple walls- what are you going to do with that? It wasn’t my choice of colors, but I worked with what I was given. this has become my place of solitude to write uninterrupted.

I’d like to say I had a completed project to share with everyone,  but I don’t.  I have been organizing my files,  going through duplicate files, making print copies of each story so that I had a reference point, and writing out my main storyline and plot points.

In Kiss of the Dragon, for instance,  I pantsed that one. It didn’t have a viable plot, other than romance, but they meet they fall in love,  they work their way towards the big deed isn’t exactly a plot, now is it?  In the meantime,  there are five different things going on in their world that involve them.  I had to sort it out to make sense inside my head before continuing. The first book, which I wrote during Nano many years back,  I wrote over 100K.  Sadly,  much of that will either go into other books of that series or it will be thrown in the virtual trash bin.  I have four or maybe even five books planned for that series.  It’s just a matter of whether the mage parts can be included into the other books or not. Which, is why I was working on writing out my plot points.

For those who have followed me for a long time, you know that I have multiple projects in the incomplete file. I’ve really been trying to focus on just one at a time like my friend Vicki Locey has advised. If I could get to where I can crank out the writing at even half the pace she does,  I might stand a chance to get all of my books completed!

In the meantime, I’ve been packing and decluttering my home. So far this month, I’ve removed over 300 items, whether it has gone in the trash, recycling, or to charity. It’s liberating, but man I got a lot more to do in the dungeon, errr basement.

So, aside from all of that,  I’ve been gearing up for Penned.  I wanted to share over the next few days some of the past interviews I’ve done with attending authors.

The first one,  Mr. Rick Miles, organizer of the event. (This one is from 2016 – my God, I was huge!!!)

Next, is AnnaLise Grant, author of the Lake, the only book I have read of hers yet.  I have others,  I just haven’t read them yet.

I surprised Nikki Jefford,  she  commented that she almost came downstairs early in her pjs,  but she was glad that she got clothes on when I surprised her.

She looks completely together to me! So last year,  I made an invitation to the Penned Con group and was overwhelmed with responses.  Sadly, I greatly overestimated my energy level and was unable to get to everyone that I had signed up to do an interview.  Please don’t hate me guys  – I blame cancer! Yes, I’m pulling the cancer card on that one, because I was drained after treatments.

But here are a few from Penned Con 2017.  First. Laura Hawk!!

IF you are into military romance, have I got the author for you!  Meet Shannon Nemecheck!

Well, that’s all you’re getting for today,  I have to get back to work on these darned edits, which will require more coffee.

Y’all have a great day and come back to find out who else I’ve interviewed tomorrow. Or the net tomorrow, we’ll see how it goes.

Write on my friends, write on!

Connections

IN case you wondered, I”m not dead!

My internet has been. We had a series of storms come through and it knocked out power. When we got our power back,  we realized that we didn’t have any internet. It’s been weeks!

I didn’t realize how dependent on the internet I had become. Yes,  I ‘ve had very real withdrawal symptoms. I’ve had to go to local businesses to use their wifi in order to finish work related business. I’m not trying to be overly dramatic about this. I’ve had to budget my time a little differently is all.

It’s still not working correctly,  but my husband has managed to “redneck fix” it. NO duct tape was involved.

This couldn’t have happened at a worse time.

My new book just released. I’ve not been able to get on to order print books to have available. I ordered a few for prizes from release parties,  but that’s it. Then I find out that 2 recipients did not receive their prize packages –  but USPS tracking says they were delivered. I get it,  we have our mail delivered to wrong addresses all the time. It’s still frustrating though.

You’d think with all this time offline,  I’d have volumes written,  but I don’t.  I have made progress on the second book, and I’m in chapter 6.  I may start sharing some snippets from both – don’t even know if anyone would be interested in them.

I’ve taken my connections for granted, I’ll be the first to admit. I like having my wifi connections.  I like being able to scroll through my tablet from the comfort of my sofa.  I like being able to check facebook with my morning coffee.  I like being able to write a blog post when I have something to say – which is often. OF course, you’d never know it from the past few weeks, now would you?

So, I plan to get back into the saddle as soon as things get straightened out,  but in the meantime,  I have to budget my online time between the library and our local YMCA. After spending an hour and a half in my aquacize class, spending another couple of hours sitting in their lobby is not my idea of a good time. Besides,  I’m hungry after the classes!

Until next time,  be thankful you have internet!

Write on my friends, write on!