Here’s a quick link to my blog today over at Moments from Menopause. I’m talking about skin…issues!
or you can copy and paste:
https://momentsfrommenopause.blogspot.com/2018/01/menopause-skin.html
My 2018 #ReadingChallenge
It’s that time of year again…Goodreads is going to start their yearly reading challenge and I need to set my book goal for the next 365 days.
Last year I did really well. My goal was 150 books and I managed to read 168. This year I don’t know that I’ll have as much time I can devote to reading. Since I’m a Netgalley reviewer I have a certain number of books that I review for the site, plus all the ones I read on my own – which are many, let me tell you!
Reading challenges have been dear and near to my heart ( and mind!) since I was a kid. I was that student who never balked when the teacher gave out summer reading lists and challenges, and then required proof you read anything in the form of book reports due day 1 of the new school year.
Yeah, I know. Book nerd was a term invented for me.
As an adult, I still love the thought of a reading challenge and the rush that blows through me whenever I can add another finished book to the tally.
So……200 seems like a few too many. Maybe halfway between 150 and 200, so I think I’m going to set my challenge at 175 books this year.
Check back in 2019 and see if I’m still alive and if my eyes haven’t fallen out of my head yet!
And do an author a favor: sign up for my newsletter.
There was a link when you first opened this blog piece, so pleasepleaseplease ( yes, I’m not too proud to beg) sign up. The first one goes out on 1.7.18 and there are some freebies and goodies attached to signing up this month. I promise!!!
While I’m readingin 2018 you can find me here: Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// Book Me
Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance
One year ends, another begins…..
Making a New Year’s resolution is something a lot of people do once that clock strikes midnight on 12.31
Lose weight, exercise more, be present and not preoccupied, put down those devices and engage personally. Those are just a few of the ones my friends have told me they are going to resolve to make in 2018. They, like about 85 percent of the population, make resolutions and then don’t follow through for the entire year. The reasons? Varied, but ranging from boredom to maybe making resolutions that were unattainable, or too hard, or not specific enough.
Why am I talking about this, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you.
I’ve stopped making resolutions because I fall into that 85 percent. I start the year all gung-ho, losing weight, writing more, not getting so preoccupied. By about January 15th I’m already tired of it all. It’s too much work, too mind draining, I’ve got other things to do. These are all the excuses I give myself as an “out” for the resolutions. Besides, I still haven’t gotten into the habit of writing the new year date instead of the previous one on checks!
So last year I stopped making resolutions and began making goals. Calling my new behaviors goals instead seems to make me want to stick to them more, and even propels me to do so.
Last years’ goals were to write 5 times per week on this blog, finish 4 novels and get to the gym 5-6 times per week and to learn to compromise when asked to do something instead of giving a knee-jerk “no.’
1, 2, and 4 I did. #3 I had a little trouble with due to injuries and my arthritis flaring up.
This year’s goals are:
- Finish my current WIP by the end of January and submit.
- Write 2 more books and 1 novella by December 31, 2018
- write this blog 2-3 times per week and my menopause blog once a week.
- get FIT!!! I have to go on a cruise in the summer and I swear I am not going looking like I do right now. So it’s off to the nutritionist and the gym for me.
- Bump up the social media posts. I haven’t been on SM this week due to a death in the family and I’ve already lost 15 Twitter followers.
- Be present and engaged more. You know I’m a hermit in the winter. I vow not to be one this year. Still haven’t figured out how, though!
So, check back with me periodically in 2018 to see how those goals are going for me and if I needed to revise, revamp or even renege on a few of them!
Be well, Happy New Year and I’ll see you in 2018!
in 2018 look for me here: Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// Book Me
Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, Life challenges
Lift a glass to a wonderful woman…
To say this past week has been difficult is the proverbial understatement. Difficult doesn’t come close to describing these past seven days.
On Christmas Eve, after a period of failing health and with two of her six children at her bedside, my beloved mother-in-law, Peggy Jaeger, passed away.
I’ve been trying all week to try and come up with the words to describe how much I loved and adored this woman. Nothing seems enough.
My daughter wrote a loving tribute to her grandmother she posted on Facebook and that I reposted. You can read it here. The fact that she chooses to remember the funny, sometimes hilarious, instances that she shared with her grandmother have made what I want to say as tribute easier.
So….
I could tell you that this was a woman who always put herself second to her husband and family. Their needs, their happiness, their desires and wants came first. To explain this, my mother-in-law waited until her last child was in college to go and pursue her own dream of a college diploma. She graduated with a Fine Arts degree, majoring in art, a subject she always loved—and—which she was talented in.
I could tell you this woman didn’t have the easiest life growing up. Parental abandonment, then being raised by an aged uncle who had no knowledge of children, their needs, their emotions wasn’t easy. In her early 20’s she was stricken with Guillain Barre syndrome, a condition so severe she was given supreme Unction by the Church ( for those of you who aren’t Catholic, that’s Last Rites.) Through all this and many more travails, she remained a warm-hearted, loving, and genuinely happy woman.
I could tell you my mother-in-law was a selfless person. This is evidenced by her long-term commitment to hospice volunteerism. In fact, she was awarded Volunteer of the Year due to her numerous hours she gave of her time freely and selflessly.
I could tell you all that and more, but….
I want to tell you about what she meant to me, not just as a mother-in-law, but as a person, a woman, and a role model. She taught me to love unconditionally, live selflessly, and laugh daily.
The two words that I think best describe Peggy Jaeger (and YES! We are both Peggy Jaegers!) are Kindness and Faith.
My mother-in-law was, without doubt, the kindest woman I ever had the pleasure to meet. She had a perpetual smile on her face, a kind word for everyone she came in contact with and was truly liked by everyone who knew her.
When her oldest son and I got engaged, we went out to dinner with my soon-to-be in-laws and she asked me, “Now what are you going to call me after you get married?” She had no idea that the name I wanted more than any other to call her was “Mom.” I looked to her as the quintessential mother. Six children, all raised with love and discipline, faith and honor. Not a rotten apple among them. She ended that question with, “I really hope you want to call me Mom.” I fell a little more in love with her that day than I already was and I cried happy tears.
My mother-in-law’s faith in her Catholic religion is exemplary. She not only practiced her religion, she lived it day to day. She walked the walk and talked the talk of the Commandments and Jesus’s teachings. My sister in law shared a lovely remembrance at the wake. Once when we were all gathered around the dinner table, someone posed the question, “What would you do if you had a million dollars?” All around the table were responses of buy jewelry, buy a mansion, take a world trip. When it came time for my MIL to respond, she said, “I’d find 10 needy people and give them $100,000 each.” Of course, that was the perfect answer to the question and showed how this woman’s mind and heart work.
She had 6 children, 9 grandchildren when she died. Yes, the wake, Mass, and burial were emotional torture for all of us, but at the remembrance luncheon that followed there was nothing but laughter at all the fun and funny memories her lifetime left us with.
My MIL’s favorite drink when we’d have parties was a Mai Tai. In honor of that, her 9 adoring grandchildren all lifted a Virgin version of the drink in her honor at the end of the day.
Here’s to you, Margaret Patricia Wood Jaeger. Peggy, Mom, Grandma. Mrs Jaeger. Whatever you were called, you were loved, honored and cherished and will be missed.
Filed under Uncategorized
I don’t like to give advice, but……
Number 51! We’re almost done with an entire year of blog posts. Today’s topic is a goodie — but then I’ve thought they were all goodies!
So, like my title says, I don’t like to give advice. The reason is simply because I don’t like to get it! Especially unsolicited.
But…(You knew that was coming, didn’t you?! HeeHee)
What advice would I give to New Authors? Well, it’s simple really. DON’T GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAM. EVAH!!!
I was 55 years old when my first book was published. A time when people are thinking towards retirement, and I started a whole new career. I had many naysayers when I first submitted to publishers and entered contests at the age of 54.
“You’re too old to start, now.”
“You’re not the right age or demographic or personality to write and be successful with romance writing.”
“You’ll never make it. It’s a young person’s market.”
“You’re going to get your heart broken with all the rejections you’re going to get.”
I heard it all.
But I still dreamed I’d be published. I listened to those comments and then just as quickly forgot about them.
Yes, I’d had a few things published in my 20’s and 30s’ — mostly short stories in literary magazines that no one ever read, and professional nursing journals where a few people did see them. But nothing I could support myself with. The dream to be a published book author always stayed with me, though, despite that.
And yes, it took me until I was middle-aged, menopausal, and slightly neurotic before I ever saw a book of mine in print, but… and this is the key… I stuck to my dream and saw it fulfilled.
So, new writer who is hopefully reading this, if you want to write, write. If you want to be a published author, go for it. Don’t give up. Ever. EVAH!
I wonder what the other authors in this blog hop want to tell you? Stop by their sites and see:
|
3.
|
|
Filed under #Mfrwauthors, Author, Contemporary Romance, Life challenges, love, MFRWauthor, Romance, Romance Books, Strong Women
How to really celebrate the Spirit of Christmas
Every year I make a list of the things that I want to do during the holiday season. Christmas isn’t just about getting presents for me — it never was. My childhood wasn’t filled with things like most American kids have nowadays. I was lucky if I got new underwear or pajamas from Santa some years. The Christmas season was more about experiences. Visiting the Rockefeller Tree. Attending the Natale festival in Little Italy. Midnight Mass. These are my memories of Christmas. As an adult, I expanded my list of experiences and I want to share them today, because I think everyone should remember what the real spirit of Christmas means. It’s not about getting a new iPad or the latest must-have toy. It’s about experiencing the joy, hope, and love the season embodies and helping others feel the same way.
Here are a few things on my list to do this year:
- Volunteer. Those Salvation Army bell ringers don’t grow on trees! It takes a well-coordinated volunteer army to man those kettles you see around stores, in the mall, and on street corners. Give the gift of your time. Usually, shifts are 2 hours. Surely, you’ve got 2 hours you can donate to a worthy cause.
- Attend a local holiday concert. Every year my town has a holiday concert put on by the local Pops Choir. They’re usually a fundraiser, so admission goes toward funding a local charity such as the food bank or a women’s shelter. Kicking back in an auditorium filled with like-minded people who want to enjoy some holiday music sung by people who should – in my opinion – be on American Idol(!) is a great way to spend a wintry, cold afternoon. Sit back, listen and enjoy, and know you are making a difference in someone’s life with the cost of your admission.
- Support Toys for Tots. I know I said Christmas isn’t about the presents, but kids, especially kids in foster care, those who have to spend Christmas in the hospital, those whose mothers or fathers are serving in the military thousands of miles away, THOSE kids deserve to get toys and presents. My daughter is an adult and I haven’t bought her a toy in quite some time. But I still toy shop during the holidays so I can hopefully make another child’s day a happy one.
4. Volunteer at the local food kitchen or deliver food to shut-ins. This one is so self-explanatory I don’t need to define it, but I will, with this thought: Think of the meal you have with your family, friends, loved ones every Christmas. I’m sure your table is packed with more food than you all could possibly eat in one sitting. The house is decorated and warm. Everyone is relaxed, happy and glad to be alive. Now think about that family where the dad just lost his job, or the single mom who left an abusive relationship and took her kids with her. They live in a shelter. They worry if they’ll even get a meal a day, much less a holiday one.These are the people food kitchens were made for. Why don’t you take an hour out of your time and volunteer to serve these people. Spend time with others who don’t have what you do, probably through no circumstances of their own making, and help them see that people really are kind and giving and the world isn’t a terrible, lonely place.
5.Attend a holiday craft fair. I lovelovelove receiving home-made gifts. This is a great way to support local crafters AND do some holiday gift shopping
6.Give blood. This may be the last thing you think of doing during the holidays, but believe me, it’s needed. This is the one selfless act that truly means giving because you’re literally giving the gift of life to another human being.
I’m sure you can think of many more worthwhile ways to make your Christmas a happier, more soul-fulfilling experience. I wish you all the most joyous of seasons, and my hope is that after reading this blog today, you’ll go out and make someone else’s life as happy as yours is.
Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// Book Me
Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance
Christmas/Holiday Traditions
Growing up in the 60’s, times were different. We didn’t have the Internet, Facebook, or any social media, so staying in touch with people who lived far away was usually done during the holiday season with the sending of the yearly Christmas card. Nowadays, we can keep in touch with relatives and friends a dozen times zones away much easier – and for no postage costs! People still do, though, send out holiday greeting cards, a custom that was started around 1843 by a civil servant in England called Henry Cole. He and his friend John Horsley designed the very first cards and sold them for a shilling each. As the quality of printing improved and people earned more money for “extravagant” items, Christmas cards became more popular. Again, back before the cyberuniverse ruled the world, the postal service did the majority of its delivering during two holidays every year – Christmas and Mother’s day.
I’m going to be honest and tell you I haven’t sent out holiday cards in years. The people I want to keep in touch with, I do, all year round. Facebook has made it possible to connect and keep up with people much more easily than ever before. I simply don’t have the time or the inclination to sit down and send a card to someone I spoke with yesterday! IF that’s a little Scrooge-y, okay. I’ll own that.
Another thing that was different when I was growing up was the Christmas tree and the ornaments we decorated it with. I don’t have one memory that isn’t filled with the tree being filled with those awful and cheap glass ornaments in a variety of colors. they were horrendously made and produced — I feel — simply to shatter. Truly. If you walked near the tree a ball would fall to the floor no matter how well you’d secured it, and shatter into ten thousand shards of glass that was almost impossible to completely sweep or vacuum up. I distinctly remember walking in my living room when I was eight in July and getting my foot pierced by the sharp remnants of a fallen, broken ball. The very first decorations put on trees when they became popular in the 18th century was apples, oranges, and -God Help me!– lit candles. Hallmark began producing specialized ornaments during the 20th century to depict all manner of thing and today, most homes in America that put up a tree, have at least one Hallmark-inspired or made ornament. I’ve been honest on my Instagram account and share pictures of the 4 trees I have in my home. Almost all of my ornaments – except for the tree filled with ornaments from the countries I’ve traveled to – are Hallmark ornaments.
Do you put a candle in your window during the Christmas season ( or one in each window!!)?
This tradition means different things to people of different faiths. Christians liken a lit candle to the Star of Bethlehem, guiding the wise men to the manger. The lights from a Menorah symbolize the miracle of Chanukah when a single jug of oil burned for 8 solid days. Irish Catholics used to put candles in the window to denote that the house was safe for Priests to enter during the Protestant uprising when Priests were in danger of being put to death. I like candles in the window because to me they symbolize that the way home will always be lit for whoever wants to journey there. The Alabama song Candle in the Window exemplifies this thought.
There are so many traditions that people hold fast to during the holiday season. I think that’s what makes our shared humanity so wonderful. Different cultures and diverse religions bring many things to the table. WOuldn’t it be nice if we could all respect, honor, and enjoy one anothers traditions?
So ( you knew this was coming!) what are some of your favorite Holiday traditions. I’m going to pick one person who comments and send them an ecopy of my Christmas book A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. So….talk to me.
Throwback Tuesday
Okay, okay. I know it’s supposed to be Throwback THURSDAY, but bear with me….
So Facebook is unusual sometimes. Sometimes. Cue the sarcasm.
Anyway, the other day on my FB page, I got one of those Your Memories on Facebook reminders and it was for my Moments from menopause blog, so I decided to occasionally resurrect it. Click on the previous link to see my newest entry and read some of the other ones. I was pretty funny ( read, Snarky) back when I was writing the blog because I was – literally – stuck in menopause symptom Hell!.
Other places you can find me these days: Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// Book Me
Filed under Uncategorized
Christmas and Music
I think I’ve mentioned before that I don’t listen to music when I write or make a playlist for my books because I have distraction syndrome. Now before you all start running and Googling that, it’s not a real thing. It’s just what happens to me when I hear music. I stop what I’m doing and get totally into the beat, the lyrics, and I channel my inner rock diva and forget what I’m supposed to be concentrating on. I don’t listen to the radio when I drive anymore because that Carpool Karaoke thing? Yeah. It’s a real thing. James Cordon can do it because he’s not really driving, he’s being hauled by a starter car. If I drive and carpool karaoke myself into a stupor, hands waving, eyes closed in music ecstasy, accidents will abound, fenders will bend, and dashboards will be destroyed.
But… ( you knew that was coming, didn’t you!!)
The one time of the year I allow my self to be distracted is at Christmas. I love me a holiday song be it an old standard, a Holy Christmas carol or a modern pop favorite. I’ve weeded my top songs for Holiday listening down to five and thought I’d share them with you today.
In no particular order, here they are: (click on the titles to view and hear them)
The Little Drummer Boy – David Bowie and Bing Crosby
Have a Cool Yule – Bette Midler
All I want for Christmas — Mariah Carey
Do They Know It’s Christmas – Band Aid
O Come, Emmanuel – Pentatonix
So….listen and relax this holiday season. Music soothes the soul, warms the heart, and can inspire us all with its beauty and truth. Take a little time for yourself to unwind, kick back, and….listen.
Filed under Uncategorized
My biggest Accomplishment
Wow. It’s hard to believe that an entire year of blogging is almost complete! This is week 50. Just 2 more to go.
Now, since this is a writing blog for romance writers ( mainly) you might think that my biggest accomplishment is something…literary. Maybe it’s the fact that I got a publishing contract for my first book at the age of 55. Or that I’ve won several awards for my books. It might even be that I’ve been lucky enough to get 10 books published in 3 years – and none of them were indie/self pubbed. While all those accomplishments were ones I’ve, well, accomplished, none of them are what I consider my biggest and best accomplishment to date.
The answer may surprise you, but my biggest accomplishment is my marriage and the fact that it has survived 30 years.
I’ve written extensively about how I was raised in a contentious, divorced family. Both parents remarried, but they continued to be bitter about the other and take it out on me – whether intentionally or not — until I reached maturity and cut off contact with them. My mother’s second marriage was no better than her first, the only difference was I was older and a witness to the emotional abuse it wrought. With this as my example, I truly felt marriage was the worst thing in the world and I was never going to do it.
Then I met my man.
He was raised in the diametrically opposite family life that I was. Two parents, a shared religion and commitment to one another and their children, financially stable, and educated to my 4 parents, sporadic religious practice, labile commitment and a working class poverty. The phrase one paycheck away from financial ruin was the theme of my childhood.
I didn’t believe in marriage because I’d been shown how horrible it was. My man believed in it because he’d been shown how wonderful it was. Once I met his parents, I had to agree. My previous thoughts that all marriages are horrible flew right out the window.
Now, I’m not an easy person to live with at times, and can be moody, isolationalist, and cutting if provoked. I knew living with me would be no picnic. But we endured. Somehow, by the grace of God, we endured. And I truly learned what it meant to love someone else so much that you’d do anything for them to make them happy.
I think some people regard the word commitment conditionally. They will commit and pledge to another, but the first time adversity or hardship comes through the door, that commitment gets broken. In our house, commitment is the end all be all. It’s for life. Whether we sink or swim, are successful or not, we made a vow to one another to see it through. Marriage vows are written for a reason. That phrase in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, through good times and bad MEANS something. I tend to think many people these days don’t get that.
Anyway, December 26th I will be married 30 years, Here’s looking forward to the next 30!
Drop by some of these other authors to see what their biggest accomplishments are!
Filed under #Mfrwauthors, Author, Contemporary Romance, love, MFRWauthor, Romance, Romance Books
Peggy Jaeger, Author 