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Patricia Johns

~ Bestselling author

Patricia Johns

Tag Archives: romance author

My dollhouse reading nook

15 Thursday Oct 2020

Posted by Patricia Johns in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Amish author, dollhouse accessories, dollhouse furniture, Kensington romance author, love inspired author, romance author

I absolutely love all things miniature, and recently I have taken the dive into dollhouse furniture. I’m doing my best not to go overboard, but it’s harder than you’d think to keep these things in check. 😉

I’ve added to my little dollhouse reading nook–a little cushy chair!

Isn’t it adorable? It’s just perfect for the space. I have a few other little pieces I want to buy for the nook, but I’m trying to pace myself, and when I do an Amazon order when I need to bump it up over $35 for free shipping, I know what to add on! 😉

Isn’t it the cutest little nook? I’ll keep you updated as I add little things to the scene. 🙂

What is it about tiny things that hooks me in like this? ❤

We all need something that sparks some joy, don’t we? 🙂 And I hope you’ll keep my latest releases in mind when you’re out treating yourself to something cozy to enjoy!

***

Tin Man

27 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by Patricia Johns in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

harlequin author, Kensington author, romance author, writing life, yoga

I’m not a naturally bendy person. I never have been, and having a sedentary job doesn’t help. But I never did anything about it! I just sort of accepted that this was how my body was, and silently felt grateful that I was a grown woman now who didn’t have to do a PE class or anything if I didn’t want to.

But then an editor posted on Twitter about a stretching app she was using that was making her so much more flexible after a few weeks of using it, and I started to think… Being locked down, we were all finding ways to do things at home. Being an introvert, doing something new without an audience was ideal. The last thing I want to do is join a yoga class and try to twist myself into uncomfortable shapes with people watching.

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So I gave it a try.

I don’t always go through a full set of exercises. Sometimes, I just do a few that I find helpful. I’m a lot more flexible these days, and I’m finding that I’m able to do things without thinking that I could never do before. Every day I do some of the exercises behind a locked door. There is nothing less comfortable than having someone walk in on you mid-stretch! 

So the pandemic has had some silver linings–like trying this new app.

My attitude these days is this: We can’t control the fact that there is a global pandemic, but we do have control over what we do with this time! I want to come out the other end of this alive, to start with, but I also want to grow.

Maybe I’ll be more flexible. Maybe I’ll be a better cook. I’ll certainly have written more books. The time will pass, and when things get back to normal again (hopefully sooner than later!) I want to have made the most of this strange, uncertain, tumultuous time.

And I hope to be a little more bendy. 😉

***

Don’t forget–you can find my bestselling Amish romance at Harlequin’s Love Inspired as well as Kensington Books! And all of them are sold at Walmart, Target, and at booksellers everywhere. 

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Happy Birthday to Me!

17 Thursday Oct 2019

Posted by Patricia Johns in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

aging, Betty Boop, happy birthday, harlequin author, Kensington author, romance author, Sleeping Beauty

Do you ever wonder how Betty Boop would have aged? What would she have been like in her forties?

250px-Betty_Boop_patent_fig1In the cartoons, we see her when she’s young and very aware of her nubile sexuality, but that’s a short stage in life–a very short one. After that realization that your feminine wiles have power, comes the realization that your feminine wiles also draw some very unwelcome attention, too. And after that, you learn that you have to fight back (sometimes) and that you have to be cautious.

In her forties, I imagine her very differently. She’s still beautiful, she’s still sexy, but she now has a law degree and hefty bank account. No one dares to whistle at her now, and the man to slap her heinie will find himself slapped with a lawsuit. She might even offer to represent his wife in the divorce. She strikes me as the type to get even.

She’s married, I think. For the second time–because the first one was probably a dud. She learned hard lessons from that marriage, but she chose better the second time. He’s smart, and he’s wildly attracted to both her body and her mind. She’s got daughters, and she sits them down and tells them the honest truth about the dangers out there, and about what they bring to the table.

“Don’t waste it,” she says. “You’re so much smarter than you think.”

“And if those boys try anything, I’ll deal with them,” her husband says. He’s very protective of his daughters.

“Don’t be silly, that’s assault,” she said with a her trademark wink. “You let me take care of it.”

~~~

sleeping-beautyWhat about Sleeping Beauty? She was so willing to please, so eager to be loved, so trusting. Youth is like that, but what would she have been like twenty-five years after that fateful kiss?

I think she would still have been kind, but that kindness would have sunk deeper. She’d have a better understanding of men now, a better understanding of evil, too. That would have turned her into a compassionate woman, but also a demanding one. She knows that magic is real, and that it has a dark side she’d rather not tangle with again. She hates apples now–won’t even touch them. I imagine her with sons, and the advice she gives them is different: “Find the right woman, but get to know her. Your dad was bloody lucky I wasn’t a witch, myself.”

She doesn’t become queen and not grow into her power, as well. Her prince, now a king, will love her not for her beauty and innocence any longer, but for her mind and insight. And her beauty, too, of course. But he’ll have grown into a deep respect for her, too. He can’t imagine ruling without her.

~~~

I turned 41 this week, and I was wondering what I would write about. I like this decade–it’s a satisfying one so far. All too often, our books and movies revolve around the young. Of course, it doesn’t feel all that long ago that I was 21, pretty and still rather naive about the world around me, but twenty years fly by.

I’m different than I was in my youth. I’m stronger, I’m wiser, I love more deeply now than I was ever capable of before. I’m more flexible. I married the right guy, and we’re growing together. We bring out the best in each other–compassion, thoughtfulness, more patience than I come by naturally. And we have a son who forces us to grow in whole new ways together as a family. Kids do that.

There is so much to enjoy on this side of 40, and I’m settling in nicely.  Youth is wonderful, memorable, magical… but I think I prefer experience.

 

Bounding toward you like an excited puppy

27 Wednesday Dec 2017

Posted by Patricia Johns in Uncategorized

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Tags

harlequin author, heartwarming author, how to write a book, love inspired author, romance author, western romance author

Every once in a while I see something so dumb that I fume about it for days, and this time, I saw the dumbest “inspirational” line on Twitter, and I rolled my eyes so hard I nearly lost them! It was this:

never-chase-what-you-want-elevate-your-game-until-what-13945639

 

Ironically, this was on an entrepreneurial Twitter feed that someone else shared. I don’t get how an entrepreneur would get anywhere at all if they didn’t chase what they wanted! I mean, they might make it appear like buying their widget was your idea, but come on… they’re chasing it night and day!

Now, I understand why people WANT to believe this. It’s appealing, isn’t it? Don’t do anything, just “elevate your game” and whatever you want will come bounding toward you like an excited puppy. This is the sort of thing a fourteen-year-old will tell you because it works well for their social lives in middle school. Ignore your peers and they’ll like you more. But in the real world, no one is waiting to chase you down with good things. Unfortunately.

Sometimes life can be incredibly unfair. There are people who have to work way harder than others to get the same outcome. There IS such a thing as privilege. But if we take the cards we’re dealt, and we’re the hardest worker in the room and don’t get distracted, our chances of success go up exponentially. Shy of a rich daddy with influential friends, there isn’t an easier path. Just plain old hard work.

For me, the most important thing is to find joy in the process. I’m grateful when good things come my way and never take it for granted. Not quite so sexy, is it? It’s hard to say “Boom” after advice like mine, but in my humble opinion, it’s more reliable.

It also doesn’t fit onto a little meme square very well. What can I say? 😉

 

A lot more like a circus than you’d think!

19 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by Patricia Johns in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

circus, harlequin author, inspirational author, love inspired author, romance author, travelling circus, unicycle, writing process

With a book about to be released, a manuscript submitted and waiting on the edge of my seat to hear back about another manuscript which I should hear about any second now…. I’m in a weird limbo.

I might try and make novel-writing into a 9-5 sort of job for the sake of my family, but it isn’t. It’s more like a traveling circus, where you put down your stakes and pour on the energy, bring out the clowns for the length of one novel, then shove it all back into a box and move on again.

CircusTent02

Don’t get me wrong–I love this! I’m just not a very graceful in-between person. I love having a book on the go, and when I’m sitting around planning (or waiting for the answer to hit me), it feels awkward. Fingers to keyboard is a lot more comfortable than wandering my house talking to myself, saying things like, “So why? Why does she need him?”

I can procrastinate like a pro when I have a book set up and ready to write! In fact, I have a lot going on this week. My son had a birthday, I have family coming from out of town to help us celebrate, and we’ve all gone down with one truly appalling cold that’s left us run down and medicated. So if I had that book primed and ready to roll, I’d sit back in complete comfort–or as much as this cold will allow–and forget about it.

But I don’t. So I can’t. I do NOT have a big pile of work waiting for me right now. So how can any logical person expect me to rest?

That is the neurotic mind of a writer. We’re the tortured sort. If life doesn’t torture us, we torture ourselves. 😉 So don’t be alarmed. I’ll be fine. It’s this kind of twisted work ethic that creates the soothing stories you read before sleep. LOL!

Photo by Usien

Photo by Usien

My tail bone wasn’t harmed in the making of this blog post

19 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by Patricia Johns in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

canadian winter, Christian romance, clean romance, harlequin author, icy road, icy sidewalk, love inspired author, romance author, sweet romance

Outside, the sidewalks were shiny with ice. Shiny! If you live somewhere that freezes, you know what that means. White with ice means it’s like an ice rink. SHINY with ice means that it has a slick of water on top. It’s a bit suicidal.

When I dropped my son off at school, the kids were going down like bowling pins on the slick of ice in front of the door. It was actually pretty comical, all these snowsuited kids just tipping over into piles. If I’d fallen, I would have considered it less comical. I have further down to go… and I’m less bendy than they are.

So walking home after dropping my son off, I decided to take the short route (instead of my usual long walk meant to ensure that this sedentary author actually gets a bit of physical exercise) and count the teetering, slipping, back-wrenching wobble back home as cardio. You know, like when your heart speeds up at the thought of landing on your tail bone. 😉 It counts–I swear!

Photo by Trevor Rickard This isn't my street, but you get the idea!

Photo by Trevor Rickard
This isn’t my street, but you get the idea!

Anyway, I did arrive home, tail bone intact, and settled in to write. I’m working on a book tentatively called A Second Chance at Forever, which has a deadline that is coming up quickly! I’m loving this book, and I hope you will, too.

I don’t have time to fall on my tail bone right now. I have to sit on this tail bone and get my work done. So there you have it. The life of a writer. Inordinately worried about the health of her tail bone. 😉

Little pitchers and big ears

24 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by Patricia Johns in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

christian, clean, community of women, female community, group of women, growing older, harlequin author, inspirational, love inspired author, romance author, sweet

My grandmothers are all gone now. They died when I was very young, so I never got to see how they grew older, how they aged. I do have my mother, but she is decidedly young–under 60–and she’s showing me the ropes.

  • Use Oil of Olay every day after 30.
  • Don’t forget to put cream on the backs of your hands and your neck–spots the young forget.
  • Enjoy your figure while you can, because in ten years, you’ll look back on old photos and wonder what your problem was.

It’s funny how none of us know how to do this getting older thing. We remain these awkward adolescents, in a way, trying to figure out how to dress, how to do our hair, how to keep our weight under control as our bodies mature and change.

The women around me probably don’t know it, but I look to them to see how they do it. The women in my church who sit next to their husbands, or sit alone, the backs of their heads holding my attention. They’re hitting these milestones before me, and I don’t even know what they are! But these women have experience–invaluable experience–that I wish I could learn from.

Congressional_Secretaries,_1920

And while I sit with my husband in the pew, there are probably younger women looking at the back of my head, wondering the same things about me. Except that we’re all very self-sufficient, and we don’t ask. But we watch. Yes, we most definitely watch! Sometimes I feel like I shouldn’t… like if they knew about my scrutiny, they’d say something about little pitchers and big ears and hush right up.

But how else are little pitchers supposed to figure all of this out?

Instinctively we know that the answers don’t come from a solitary experience, but from a community. I’m still growing my own community of women–many of whom are online–but I know what I need to do, and that is to reach out. We are in this together. And little pitchers have a lot to learn.

1024px-GalsNightOut1949

I totally deserve a Mustang

19 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by Patricia Johns in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

harleqin author, love inspired author, Mike and Molly, Molly the author, romance author

Are you a fan of Mike and Molly? I really enjoy this show! Due to my own frustrating relationship with the PVR in my home, I missed almost all of this season, so a friend of mine decided to catch me up.

Bless her.

episode-image-320x180

So you might have noticed that Molly is now an author–a fun twist! I really wish I lived in TV Land. Molly, a previously unpublished author, was able to get a book deal based on the blurb of an unfinished first draft. And her advance was enough to buy a brand new Mustang.

It isn’t realistic, obviously. TV Land never is! And while that shouldn’t bother me, it kind of does! Why? One very simple and shallow reason: when people who know me ask, “Ahem, so…. how well do you do on these books?” I look like a loser who doesn’t have a Mustang, that’s why! 😉

So just so you know… and in case you know any authors….

Mustangs are not the rule with which you should measure your local romance author. 😉

Constantly sweaty in a half layer too many

03 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by Patricia Johns in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

canadian winter, Christian romance, clean romance, harlequin author, inspirational romance, love inspired author, romance author, winter 2014

We don’t have snow. This is news! I see Facebook friends posting about first snowfalls in the US, but here in the Great Brown North, we’re above freezing. Still. We got a skiff in September, but that doesn’t count when the kids don’t need snow pants for trick or treating!

I shouldn’t complain. It isn’t often that a woman in northern Canada gets to brag about how crazy warm it is while everyone else gets a blizzard, but there it is.

Except… See, I don’t have many “in between” clothes. I have the Mother of All Winter Coats in my closet, and I’m ready for the layering and bundling to come, but… it hasn’t come yet! Our Fall is normally about two weeks long, so I have summer clothes, and I have winter clothes, and I have a few things for the two weeks of Fall and the two weeks of Spring, and I’m kind of confused. It’s like waiting for an ax to fall that just won’t fall. You’re constantly cringing, and then your neck muscles just start to get tired.

Right now, I’m sitting around in long johns and an apron, unsure of exactly how to dress the next time I venture out. Five degrees above freezing is purgatory! Not cold enough to bundle, not warm enough to enjoy. You’re just constantly sweaty in half a layer too many.

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Just end it already! End this beautiful in between weather and put me out of my misery! LOL! But see, having said that, I face the wrath of my fellow Albertans. The S-word is like swearing around here, and if you’re heard breathing it before there is actual S-word on the ground, you’ll be blamed for the ensuing winter weather.

So if you see me and I’m dressed like a confused person, there is a reason for that! We don’t normally have this much of an “in between” season, and my wardrobe isn’t prepared for it! And if you find me tarred and feathered, well, you’ll know why that happened, too.  Shh. I didn’t say a thing. 😉

So carry on, my wintery American friends. Enjoy your snowfalls, and be thankful that at least you know how to dress!

DSC03306

Full Grown Woman

06 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by Patricia Johns in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Christian romance, clean romance, inspirational romance, love inspired, Love Inspired romance, romance author, wholesome romance

When I was a girl, I couldn’t wait to grow up. Being a grownup would be fantastic! I could do what I wanted. I could wear grown up lady clothes. I could go the bank by myself (the ultimate in my childish fantasies) and talk with authority. I would lay in bed at night, picturing my grown up life…

Doris_Day_-_1957

And then I grew up.

Ironically, I found myself in a world that idolizes childhood. Women are encouraged to look as young as possible for as long as possible. Women who dress their age in Hollywood are called “matronly.” Oh, and that isn’t a good thing. Women are pressured on every front to act younger, look younger, and feel younger. Our childhood dreams of growing up are met with derision.

You don’t want to be… matronly… do you? Heaven forbid you look like a grown woman!

640px-SandraBullockMay09Call me matronly, but I no longer feel like I’ve achieved something if a complete stranger across the street thinks I’m alluring. There was a time when I took pride in drawing a few looks, and while I do still think I’m beautiful, I’m past trying so hard for it. I’m mature enough to know that beauty lies deeper. While I don’t think it’s my responsibility to be a “hot mama,” it IS my responsibility to be a good mother, a devoted wife and a noble person. My power no longer comes from flirtation, it comes from intelligence. I’ve grown up.

I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this, but I’m a grown woman who enjoys being a grown woman. I like walking into a bank without supervision, and I do talk with authority. You know why? Because I’m a grown woman who has some life experience, who has achieved her own dreams and worked toward something. I have something to offer the younger women coming up behind me.

And that’s a good thing. There is nothing wrong with growing up. In fact, there is everything right about it. I highly recommend it.

 

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Patricia Johns, Author

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