Tag Archives: writer’s life

Foot in Mouth

17 Thursday Jan 2019

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I’m new to being forty, but I’m liking it! I’ve noticed that Facebook’s algorithms are choosing a different type of ad for me now. Instead of diet fads and beauty hacks, they’re sending me adds for slippers and mukluks.

They finally get me! Because I’d actually like to buy a decent pair of mukluks now that I’ve seen multiple ads for them. šŸ˜‰

The one thing I’m not very good with is realizing how old I look. In my head, I look a lot younger, it seems. And I’ve proven that by suggesting a 35-year-old woman was “my age.” This was not because she legitimately looked 40. She’s beautiful and really does look like a tight, well-maintained 35. But in my head, so am I! I immediately apologized when I realized my error (and she looked at me aghast) and told her that it it only reflects on how delusionally young I think I look still… Here’s hoping there are no hard feelings, because she’s kind of extended family, and I really like her.

Follow your dreams

 

But my forties are treating me well. Here are a few things I’m enjoying about them:

  1. No one expects me to be to be thin anymore. “Good Lord, she’s in her forties. Leave her alone.”
  2. Nothing is marketed for me. Except slippers and mukluks. And life is cheaper when the barrage of marketing passes you by!
  3. I’ve been working at my writing career seriously for almost twenty years, and that hard work is paying off. It feels good!

So there you are–I’m enjoying forty, but I’m still putting my foot in my mouth. Because apparently, Ā that’s my MO. šŸ˜‰

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Have you picked up my book yet? You can get it online or find it on the shelves in your favourite bookstore all this month. šŸ™‚

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Two stubborn hearts. One ranch.

Could Montana Twins unite them?

With orphaned twin infants to care for, Casey Courtright hoped to buy the ranch he works onā€”but he canā€™t match Ember Reedā€™s offer. Nevertheless, Casey agrees to show Ember the land she plans to use for her therapy center, but only if sheā€™ll help him with the babies. And as the twins draw them together, Casey might just find that Ember is his perfect partner.

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Housekeeping tips for writers

12 Monday Nov 2018

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When you work from home, there is the unique challenge of keeping your mitts off the messes in your home, and actually doing your work. It’s harder than it looks to balance it out. I’ve been writing full time for about ten years now, and I’ve realized that I have a choice–write full time, or clean full time. Pick one.

It might not surprise you to know that I’ve chosen the writing option. šŸ˜‰ But that doesn’t mean that keeping up with everything else is easy! So I have a few tips for you work-at-home types.

  1. Delegate! You are not the full-time housekeeper. You are a writer, and your working hours are sacred. That means you don’t have time to do all the things people hope you’ll do. Learn to delegate jobs to other members of the family to make that workload a litter fairer.800px-Patsy_Grimm_helping_to_do_all_the_housework._8d29104v
  2. Wait before you clean the bathroom… just a bit. With your long hours of writing, there is nothing more irritating than rushing around cleaning up, to have nobody notice or recognize just how heroic your efforts are. That is why I recommend waiting two days longer than you usually would to clean the bathroom. I can guarantee that not only will your family notice when you clean it, they will thank you for it. You’re welcome.Doing_housework_(1993-1997),_bathroom,_1
  3. The dishes can wait. If you were in an office across town for 8 hours a day, you wouldn’t worry about the cereal bowls sitting on the counter. And neither should you worry about them during your writing time. Dishes, laundry, the carpet… whatever it is that irritates you just to see it–turn your back! You have a chapter to write. Get to work.800px-Housework_(5978829002)
  4. Don’t forget to rest. When your work hours are over, turn off the computer and spend that time with your family. It’s too easy to let work take over when it’s just a matter of sitting down at your computer and doing a little blogging or emailing to catch up. You love these people, remember? They deserve your time, too.

 

And there you have it–the best housekeeping tips I’ve got. You can tell that my writing hasn’t been going well when my home is sparkling. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t clean your home, but I AM saying the you and your family should do that cleaning outside of work hours. Because at the end of your work day, you can have a chapter written, or a clean floor/stove/kitchen/whatever. One of those is going to feel more satisfying to you. You have to decide which one you want.

Best of luck!

It smells so good!

17 Monday Sep 2018

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I got this little package from Kensington books. It had about twenty of these book covers–not the whole book, just the unattached covers. I don’t know what you call them… if you do, let me know!

But I have to tell you… they smell amazing! It’s that printing press smell of ink and paper. It’s intoxicating. Even more so when it’s your own book. šŸ˜‰

 

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And it’s exciting, because this is my official cover for my very first Amish release through Kensington books. Can’t wait to see this one on the shelves in May!

Book signing! :)

13 Monday Aug 2018

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This weekend, I did my very first book signing. I was definitely intimidated. I’ve never done a book signing before, and since I’m 17 books deep with Harlequin, I figured it was high time. At the very least, it’s good for character, right?

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And now, I can tell you about my amazing friends. I didn’t exactly hide that this scared me to death, and friends from all sorts of different corners came out and found me, bought a book and made me feel loved.

So to all my friends who came out and supported me, a HUGE thank you! And to the one non-friend who bought a book–thank you, too! ā¤

I took a selfie with my two local writing buddies. On the left you have my friend who is currently working on getting published. (And I have no doubt she’ll get there very soon!) And on the right, you have Taryn Leigh Taylor who also writes for Harlequin and lives down the street from me. They’re both great–and showed up at the same time.

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So there you have it–the book signing that didn’t kill me after all. LOL!

I have some really great people in my life. Just wanted to let you know. ā¤

Little Coco

25 Monday Jun 2018

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I’m a bird person. I’ve had pet birds since I was a girl, and I get so very attached to them. They have their own personalities, and they’ll bond to people quite easily, if you know how to talk to them.

Well, recently, our little yellow budgie, Coco, had to be put down by the vet. It was a really hard choice to make, but she was getting sicker and sicker, and I think she’d just gotten to the end of her life span. I didn’t want the poor thing to suffer. So I made an appointment with the vet and brought her in.

The vet told me it was the right choice, so I made the painful decision to say goodbye.

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That was a few weeks ago, and I recently got a sympathy card in the mail from the vet’s office, and while I know that they do this for everyone who loses a pet there, I thought it was a really sweet gesture. All the staff signed it, and they even called Coco by name. It was thoughtful of them.

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Our Quaker parrot has been grieving the loss of his little friend, too. He asks for Coco on a regular basis, and I’m not sure how you’re supposed to explain death to a bird. I was hoping he’d forget her after a while, but he hasn’t yet. From time to time he’ll go over to where her cage used to be and ask me repeatedly, “Coco? Coco?”

We all miss her, even Pichu the Quaker. She was such a sweet little bird, and she’s left a hole. Isn’t it amazing how much we can love one little yellow budgie?

Small Town, Alberta

04 Monday Jun 2018

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When I first got married, my husband and I were living in downtown Toronto, Ontario. Toronto is Canada’s largest city, and the place where I went to university, so I really loved it there. It was just… home!

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But my new husband was looking at the job market in his field in Toronto versus in Alberta, and we decided it was probably better to head out to where the jobs were. It was just a better start to married life.Ā So we moved about four months after we got married, and I left my family behind in Toronto and we headed west.

In some ways, it was really good for us–we had to rely on each other and figure out who we were as a couple. In other ways, it was hard because I’d always been close to my family and really missed them a lot.

We visited them, and they visited us, and there were lots of phone calls, but it’s not really the same as living in the same city.

Thirteen years of marriage later, we’re still out in Alberta, but FINALLY, my parents are retiring and heading out here to be with us! In fact, they’ll be here this month. It’ll be so nice to have them close by at long last–more grandparents to spoil our son rotten, and just family to be close by.

This months, we’ll all be together again, in small town, Alberta. ā¤

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They politely never speak to us

28 Monday May 2018

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In the spring, I like to sleep with the window open. It’s nice to have a cool breeze and a warm blanket. When it gets too warm, I replace the open window with the blast of an air conditioner, but for a few weeks, it’s the perfect sleeping temperature.

Mr. Johns and I lay in bed talking and listening to the outdoor sounds of our neighbours. We’re in an apartment, so it’s not exactly romantic ambiance, but it’s entertaining. We’re early to bed people, and where we live, it stays light a really long time. (We’re pretty far north.) So other people stay up a lot later with the sun, and their voices will filter over to us.

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We don’t normally hear anything interesting. There will be some teenagers walking down the sidewalk–and that’s normally just laughter and unintelligible banter. Sometimes there will be the murmurs of the neighbours smoking in the evening across the way. It reminds me of our city days, when we used to live in downtown Toronto, and you knew way too much about your neighbours, and politely never spoke to them.

I like that time of day when Mr. Johns and I enjoy that cool breeze. We talk, vent, dream, joke about things that amused us that day… and I sometimes wonder if there are other people with their windows open who listen to the fragments of our conversations, too.

If they do, they abide by the Close Quarters Rules of Etiquette and politely never speak to us.

 

The formula for books

24 Thursday May 2018

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I can’t be everything. That is my newly earned wisdom.

I feel like life keeps teaching me the same lesson over and over until I finally get it. And this time around, it’s that I can’t be what other people want me to be. I can only be… this.

And I’ve recently stopped feeling badly about it.

Everyone expects something from you. When I get busy and tired, those expectations get heavier, and I get more resentful of them. Generally, these aren’t huge things. They’re just little things that pile up that are most likely linked to the fact that I’m introverted and most of the world isn’t. Things that feel like an invasion to me, are likely just friendly Ā gestures by an extrovert.

Here are a few things that are not negotiable about me:Ā 

I don’t drink. I tend to stay in on weekends. I’m not fun at a party. Ever.

I hate babysitting. Like a lot. So things that work for other moms like swapping babysitting just don’t work for me. No matter how convenient it would be for that other mom.

I’m busy. Really busy. And my priorities start with my family and my writing, leaving not a whole lot left in the wake.

I’m celiac, and that doesn’t mean that I get a mildly upset stomach when I eat a piece of toast. That means I get very ill for months on end from a trace of gluten.Ā I can’t just eat at someone’s home. I can’t just eat at a restaurant, either. It complicates social interactions.

Villers_Young_Woman_DrawingBut there are a lot of things I DO do:

I write books.

I can focus like a fiend on whatever project I’m working on, and I’m rather prolific because of that ability.

I love my family with everything I’ve got, andĀ I have a few close friends who are as introverted as I am, and who don’t feel bad when I cancel on them. (I also don’t feel bad when they cancel on me!)

I enjoy my quiet time because it recharges me. My husband and son are both introverts, too, so we all need that quiet time.

I blog, I keep up with people online, and I’m grateful for the relationships I form with people that way.

I might not be able to eat out, but we often bring our friends over to our home to eat.

I’ve realized lately that I have to say No a lot to a lot of well-intentioned people. I don’t like disappointing people who are just trying to be friendly, but I can’t change what I have to offer. I can’t be everything. I can just be the best version of this that I can.

Besides, this is the formula for all those books! šŸ˜‰

The here and now

22 Sunday Apr 2018

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Life never turns out quite like we imagined, does it?Ā I think it would be boring if it did!

I’m a real goal-oriented person. I’m never quite so happy as when I’m aiming at something higher. And when I’m aiming up, I think, “It will be so amazing when I get there! I’ll have really arrived. I’ll be able to sit back and enjoy it.”

But I don’t. I arrive, and then I look around myself and realize, “Huh. Nice view. Not exactly what I thought it would be, though… But you know what? Up there! That’s what I need!”

Sometimes I don’t quite hit the mark, and I’m left a few feet short, feeling frustrated. It wasn’t supposed to end up like that. They say if you aim for the moon, if you miss, at least you land among the stars. But there are millions of light years between stars, my friend! But what can you do? I pin my hopes and all my effort onto the next goal, because… that’s just me.

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While there are perks to being a hard working go-getter, I think there are also perks to being able to sit back and enjoy the here and now, whether it’s a few feet shy of those ambitious daydreams or not. Because at some point, I dreamed of this. Or something very close. I might not always hit the moon, but I’m sure as heck off the ground!

So don’t get me wrong, I’m totally going to keep aiming at the next goal. I mean, why not? It’s fun! It keeps things interesting. And frankly, it’s an integral part of my personality. But sometimes there’s a long work period until you achieve the next level you’re aiming at. Sometimes the moon is so close, yet so far… So I’m going to do my best to enjoy the here and now, too.

Because I do love my life! ā¤ And view from here is gorgeous.

That next decade

02 Monday Apr 2018

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I remember being in my twenties and thinking about my thirties. Thirties were still young, and I saw this decade as being “awfully adult” and fraught with things like a mortgage and retirement savings. My twenties were spent graduating from university, getting married, moving across the country with my husband, having a baby…. lots of big beginnings. Your thirties are your years when you pull things together. I had my son at 29, so my thirties have been child-rearing, career-growing and getting comfortable in my own skin.

And now 40 is around the corner, so I’m thinking about that next decade.

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The thing is, I never really imagined being in my forties. That seemed “old” somehow, and now that I’m nearly there, I’m mildly offended with my younger self. Because I’m not old! And anyone older than 39 will roll their eyes, too. But in this decade of my forties, my son will graduate high school, start university… A childhood will end. That gives my heart a little squeeze.

They say in your forties, you stop caring what people think in a whole new way–it’s a wild freedom. I like the sound of that!

And then, the next next stop is 50. Ack!

Decades go so fast, don’t they? In my fifties I may become a grandmother. It’s entirely possible! In my fifties, my husband is planning to retire! How can so much change in the space of ten years when it flies by so quickly?

I always thought of “life is short” as a poetic sort of thought, but holy cow, people, life isĀ literally short! I’m glad I don’t have regrets yet–stuff I didn’t do and wish I had.

I’m glad I wrote the book, then wrote another one, and another one. I’m glad I took the wild risk of marrying a guy I didn’t know half well enough. I’m glad we had a baby, even though we could barely afford him at the time. They say if you wait until you’re ready, you’ll never be ready.Ā I think if you wait until you’re ready, you’ll find another decade has slipped by.

But I have to say, looking at the beginning of a brand new decade is exciting, too. Oh, the possibilities!

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