Peggy Jaeger, Author

what we can all learn from this amazing athlete.

By now you’ve all seen this picture and/or the video of Alysa Liu winning the gold at the Milan 2026 Olympics

20 years old and one of the wisest, smartest humans on the planet.

Why do I say this?

If you don’t know her story, you should Google it. After a disappointing showing at the last Olympics, she hung up her skates, stopped skating altogether, and did what a normal teenager should do. She hung out with friends, started college, and basically took a mental health break away from the grueling competition mindset because she couldn’t find the joy in skating any longer.

Alysa loved ice skating since the moment she went on skates. But that love became tarnished when the stress of always being in competitive mode took a toll on her. So, she stepped away and rediscovered her life, and eventually, her love of skating again just for the sheer joy of it.

If you watched her performance last week, you saw a confident, happy, strong – both physically and mentally – young woman who was doing what she loved and didn’t care if she won a medal or not. She is a true performer, and you could see how much she loved her sport and how much she was enjoying herself while she skated with billions of eyes on her. Throughout her program she never lost her smile; her sass; her absolute euphoria at skating.

And for the girl who didn’t care if she medaled or not, she took home the biggest prize of all ( and I don’t mean just the gold medal, which of course, she won). She took home the fact that when you take time and simply enjoy what you are doing because you love it more than anything else, you will always be a winner.

We’ve seen this attitude before.

Remember Simone Biles at the last 2 Olympics? She quit one because of the mental stressors coming at her from every angle. She lost her focus and desire to compete and began doubting herself. So she stopped competing, took a break and just took time to be Simone Biles, young woman, not Olympic gymnast. And with time, she regained her love for the sport, came back, competed, and won – both physically, mentally, and, of course, medally!

What have these two beautiful, talented, and strong women shown us?

First and foremost, your mental health is everything. In any part of life, be it competition, your job, your marriage, anything, if you are struggling with stress, depression, fear, you will not be the best person you can be or experience happiness.

Second, it’s okay to step away. Ignore the critics who say you are copping out. They don’t live in your head. Ignore the nay-sayers. Get over the disappointment on the faces of people. They don’t get to shame you for something you are struggling with. Surround yourself with the people who truly believe in you- you the person, not the athlete, or writer, or any other profession.

I have struggled often in the past 11 years with my writing career. No sales, poor reviews, not feeling motivated to put myself out there to do all the social media crap and publicity authors need to do to get their work in front of readers. Lost revenue from events where I paid out thousands and didn’t sell one book. I struggle daily with anxiety that I am not good enough, my writing sucks, and there’s a monumental reason no one is reading what I write.

But I haven’t stepped away. I’ve barreled through because that’s what I was always told to do. My generation ( gen Jones) were pushed by parents, teachers, bosses, and told to “buck up” and “get over it,” and all that has done is increase my anxiety.

This is why I say Alysa Liu is one of the smartest people on the planet. She walked away from something she loved when her joy abated and her spirit was stressed. I don’t consider what she did a fault at all. I am proud of her and anyone who makes this decision. The world right now is a dark, sad, frightening place. I struggle daily with trying to write light and fluffy romance to help bring a few hours of happiness to readers, a few hours of escape from the issues surrounding us all when I am in constant fear of my rights being torn away and my granddaughter havinga future where she doesn’t have autonomy over herself and her body. I never thought I would need to escape those issues, too, but Alysa and Simone, although they are generations and decades younger than I am, have taught me it’s okay to stop; to say no to more pressure; to take care of yourself when no one else will. And in doing so, you can come back on your own terms, hopefully with your joy restored and your focus sharp once again.

Who says you can’t teach an old dog – or a post menopausal romance writer – something new?

~ peg

and I’m not talking about the weather.

Living in the northeast, where the winters are long, cold, dreary, and snowy, can cause lots of mental health issues, not to mention work ennui. Since I work from home, writing, this can hit hard. One way to stay motivated for me is to have writing challenges.

This March, typically the worst month for depression and weather where I hang my hat, the New Hampshire Romance Writers of America is sponsoring a month-long 31,000 word writing challenge that I am not only participating in, but co-chairing as well, called the MARCH WINDS WRITING CHALLENGE.

From March 1 until the 31st, you will have the opportunity to write 31,000 words. This mean if you are starting a new book, or finishing one up, editing, or revising, you can dedicate the entire month to the challenge. There will be daily motivational memes to tickle your funny bones and get you started on your writing day, and also daily cheering from our writing volunteers, MOI included!

If you’re looking to get motivated on your writing journey, or stay on course, this challenge has your name all over it. Click on this link to join us: ENTRY FORM

I hope to ‘see’ you in March!

I hate winter.

This is no secret to anyone who knows me. Why I elect to live in one of the snowiest, coldest states in America is a question I ask my husband every single year when cabin fever starts to take over my soul.

I have ways to help me get through it, though that don’t require me to get dressed in 15 layers of clothing or do ridiculous outdoor sports I will never do with any kind of mastery. I mean, I DID break my ankle ice skating in my 40s if that tells you anything about how poor of an athlete I am. Alysa Liu has nothing to worry about from me.

During these long, cold, dreary ( you get the picture) months of deep winter, I usually hibernate and write almost nonstop during the day. But after a while, this gets old too. So I need motivation to get those words on the page.

This year and this month, that motivation has come from the New Jersey Romance Writers in the form of their 30,000-word writing challenge. The premise is simple: write/edit 30k in the month of February 2026. And just the other day, I achieved my goal, going over the 30k line in 19 days.

I’m proud of myself because I really dedicated myself to finishing up one of the books I’ve got slated for publication later this year. I am still writing it, but the end is so close that I am celebrating early!

So, thank you NJRW for the motivation! And to everyone else doing the challenge: Way to go! You can do this!

~Peg

I am so proud to be an official RWA MENTOR for 2026! My Mentee ( a fabulous writer) and I will be deep diving into her unpublished manuscript to get it ready for presentation to editors, agents, and readers.

This is just a wonderful way for published authors to lift new authors up on their shoulders, and encourage them to pursue their writing goals.

We were all, once up a time, neophyte writers with a dream to see our words, our stories, our babies, in print, published, and for people to read and enjoy. We all know what it feels like to experience the ting of rejection, the hurt of being told “this story just wasn’t for me” from agents and editors, and the disappointment that another query gets returned with a form letter rejection.

Having a mentor program is a way to help the pre-published writer travers some of the issues with writing industry and get them to a place where their work will be polished and profession and seen and evaluated fairly.

I am honored to be a mentor and am determined to see my mentee through this entire process.

To0day we wrap up the MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN series with little sister Maureen, in BAKED WITH LOVE.

“Oh my God, Maureen.” My sister Colleen’s voice rose a good two octaves from its normal sultry timbre. “are those…penis pops?”

Great first line, right? LOL.

BAKED WITH LOVE

Innkeeper Maureen O’Dowd lives to cook and bake, spoils her family and friends, and is an expert at keeping secrets, especially about the man who’s held her heart for years.

Police Chief Lucas Alexander is dealing with an aging father and a moody teenage son, and he’s in love with a woman who only wants to be friends.

How can these two fiercely private people reveal their feelings for one another without destroying the friendship they already have? And if they’re successful, will another secret, if revealed, drive a wedge between Maureen and Lucas that can never be repaired?

Another Best book rating from Long and Short magazine with a BEST SERIES rating to go along with it. I’m not too proud, lol!

Baked with Love by Peggy Jaeger

When I first started out in my writing career 11 years ago, I was a traditionally published author, meaning that a publishing house, WILD ROSE PRESS, published my first books. After that, I signed with Kensington/Lyrical Press, Limitless Press, and Magnolia Press at varying times. In all that time I felt safe and secure, knowing a publishing house had my back with editing, copyrighting, and distribution.

But there were and are drawbacks to being a traditionally published author without a big name in the industry. No advertising dollars get thrown toward your book, so you have to do all the marketing by yourself. The bigger names get the advertising bucks. You don’t get any kind of advance on your work, so you can go years with no royalty income. You have no say in your cover art. You can’t pick your editor and have to hope they have the same vision as you do for the book. Many times this is not the case. The biggest drawback to me is the time it takes from first view by an editor to actually getting your book into print and into the hands of readers. With some houses, it can take up to two years.

A lot can happen to a person in two years, no? So that time frame started proving prohibitive for me, and I made the brave ( foolish?) decision to go the indie author route and began self-publishing my books.

Drawbacks: same as with trad pubbing in the marketing department: I have to do everything and pay for everything. I have to pay for editing, cover design, and formatting. I’ll tell the truth and say I learned to do all those things myself so I could cut down on costs.

Better outcome: Independent publishing schedule means I can get my books in front of readers faster.

Best outcome: all the royalites ( such as they are) are mine. I don’t have to split with agents, publishers, ect.

One of the things my publishers never did was put my books in Kindle Unlimited, the subscription service of KDP/Amazon. The reason is because so little money is made for the publishers, even less for the author, with most of the money going directly to Amazon in the way of subscriptions from readers. So when I went indie, I put all my indie books into this service. I figured it was a good way to get my books and name in front of readers who ordinarily wouldn’t know who I was, what I wrote, or in what genre. If they didn’t have to pay, independently for my book, they just might want to read it more since I was an unknown author to them. This was the entire premise behind the KU subscription platform for me: get my books in front of readers who didn’t go searching for my books or name, independently.

It is safe to say I never made a killing in KU. I never even got to 100,000 page reads in total for all my books, which is a benchmark for writers. I had my books in KU for almost 6 years and never picked up any traction. Then, Amazon decided to change the rules of KU and allow readers to share digital copies among themselves with no reimbursement to the author.

So people could now read our book with no financial recompense to the author.

Can you say: HELL TO THE NO??!

Before this rule went into effect, I pulled all my books out of KU and did what we writers call “Go wide,” which in effect means I put all my books into Draft 2 Digital, where the service published them to Barnes and Nobel, Kobo, Smashwords, a few other divisions and libraries, like Hoopla and Overlook.

The amount of money I now make by going wide isn’t even comparable to what I was ( or wasn’t!) making in KU, so it was a wise publishing decision for me.

Is it a pain the neck to have to manage all these different publishing divisions all by myself? Yup.

Is it a time suck to get all the books formatted correctly and uploaded into the system without problems? Yup.

One of the drawbacks to D2D is that once you upload you can only make changes to your manuscript every 30 days. So if you find a typo and submit a new manuscript and then find another one, you have to wait 3 months. In KDp you can do it endlessly.

Is it worth it in the end to be a discoverable author on more than just amazon? YUPYUPYUPYUPYUP!

So, for me, pulling out of KU was the right thing to do. Maybe it isn’t for every author, and that’s okay. But for me? It was totally the right thing to do and I have zero regrets having done it.

If you are an author, I would like to hear your thoughts about KU and whether or not you utilize the service. Or if you don’t, why you don’t.

If you are a reader, I would like to know if you subscribe to KU, why, and if you feel it is worth the expense to you – or if it isn’t.

I don’t regret my decision to pull out of KU in the least.

Where do you think they’re going??

Preorder: VENDETTA

Today’s first line comes from book 2 in the MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN series, TODAY, TOMORROW, ALWAYS.

“Cathy, don’t forget you’ve got the historical society luncheon today,” my secretary-slash-office-manager-be-all-end-all Martha told me as she placed a client brief on my desk.

TODAY, TOMORROW, ALWAYS

Lawyer Cathleen O’Dowd wants to break free from her boring image. Widowed young, she’s toed the good-girl line but now wants a little fun and laughter in her days…and nights. Living in a small town, though, she can’t do anything that would tarnish her professional reputation.

Mac Frayne’s tragic past has turned him into a sullen loner. In town to write a book on the city’s founder, his plan is to get it done, then head home to his solitary existence.

When circumstances force them to work together, their opposing personalities clash, but the sexual attraction between them is palpable.

Can a simple affair with an end date be just the thing to brighten up their lives?

THIS book earned a BEST BOOK RATING from Long and Short magazine.

Today, Tomorrow, Always by Peggy Jaeger

What do you think are on those polaroids??

preorder VENDETTA here: preorder

So, are you looking for a little sweetness this Valentine’s Day that doesn’t involve thousands of calories in chocolate or allergy-inducing floral arrangements? If so, I’ve got a deal for you.

3 WISHES is my Valentine’s Day romance and it’s the first book featuring the San Valentino family.

Valentine’s Day is chocolatier Chloe San Valentino’s favorite day of the year. Not only is it the busiest day in her candy shop, Caramelle de Chloe, but it’s also her birthday.

Chloe’s got a birthday wish list for the perfect man she pulls out every year: he’d fall in love with her in a heartbeat, he’d be someone who cares about people, and he’d have one blue eye and one green eye, just like her. So far, Chloe’s fantasy man hasn’t materialized, despite the matchmaking efforts of her big, close-knit Italian family.

But this year for her 30th birthday, she just might get her three wishes.

The ecopy is just 99cents, or if you prefer print, 5.99

Either way you read it, it’s a nice way to celebrate Valentine’s Day without and excess calories! Heehee