Category Archives: #throwbackthursday

March 21, 2024 · 12:04 am

#tbt 3.21.24

So this year, on Thursdays, I’m taking a look at some of my older blogs to see if they have any relevance today. Here’s one about reviews.

Published July 3, 2020.

title: WORDS HURT and REVIEWS can be Crushing…

I really have had some weird – but exact – blog titles lately, haven’t I? Hee Hee

I’ve talked about book reviews here many times – the good, the bad, the mean. Today I’m going to add confusing to that short list.

WOKE released the other day to good (mostly – 95%)  to excellent reviews. I’ve come to realize that the people whom I know personally are always kind even if they don’t like one book more than another, they always say kind words in their reviews. But I know a book is good if reviewers I don’t know from Adam ( or Eve) say something wonderful.

For an example, this review was put up on Bookbub and Amazon by a reader I don’t know:

Drugged at her 21st birthday party, Aurora nearly died, then spent 10 years in a coma. She moves forward after waking, thanks to her devoted mother and their housekeeper, to the point of training to run the NYC marathon, and meeting and dating someone she met at a fundraiser. AJ, as she’s now known, wants to know what happened, and goes in search of someone who can help her. I’ve read two other books from this author, both very nice romances. But holy crapoly – I had no idea that Ms. Jaeger could write such a captivating and suspenseful romance. This story roped me in at the beginning, and never let up. The romance is wonderful. Cade and AJ are just perfect together, until he omits something that she might think to be important. Her mother is a bit overprotective at times, but considering all that AJ went through, fairly understandable, and Mom is supportive. Maeve, their housekeeper, has worked for the family since she came to the US, and she’s so much more than just “the help” – she gave up her chance at forever to take care of AJ when she was comatose. Nick, the detective who worked her case, is a really great guy, and I love AJ’s matchmaking attempt. Best quote in the book: “Forgiveness is a gift, according to Maeve, that should be doled out often, and without incurring interest.” She gave it 5 stars

Great review, right? I think so and it made me feel I’d done my job as a writer well.

Then there are the confusing ones. The reviews that makes no sense to me, like this one, for example:

The plot had its engaging moments, the characters were interesting and their secrets were gradually relieved throughout the story.
It had mystery and twists, single pov, nicely paced.
Regarding the solution of how and why was Aurora poisoned, it was neither brilliant nor mind-blowing. It was far-fetched and spoiled whatever my mood was.
Is there a part two??? Where was the epilogue???? Where was the hea???? There was a hea, but for a secondary character!!! I was left dumbfounded, looking for an epilogue that never appeared and I could not believe how abrupt the story ended!!! 😲She gave it 2.5 stars.

I didn’t promote this book as a romance because, to me, it really wasn’t one. It was more a woman coming to grips with the hand of cards she was dealt in life and trying to learn how to grow from it. The book ended when it was appropriate to end. It didn’t need an epilogue and why does this reader think it does??? See? Confusing.

There certainly are days when I wonder why I ever wanted to be a professional, published writer, that’s for sure…

Oh well. Today I start writing Book 2 in my Pride of Brothers series. Different genre, different voices. I’d better just concentrate on that and forget about the confusing world of reviews for the moment.

Happy 4th, American peeps. Until next time ~ Peg

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February 15, 2024 · 12:28 am

#throwbackthursday 2.15.2024

This little gem is from June, 2017…

Recently on Facebook, I saw a post that was shared hundreds of times called THE DECLUTTER CHALLENGE,  a 30-day challenge to get rid of clutter and stuff in your life. A random sampling of the days’ tasks includes: purging 2 kitchen cabinets (day 7); cleaning out your wallet (day 9) and your purse ( day 10); cleaning out the freezer ( day 18); donating unused toys ( day 25). The challenge ends on day thirty with the simple task of CLEAN. I guess what you clean is up to you, but I took it to mean, clean your house.

This challenge, naturally, got me to thinking about how I could declutter my writing.  All writers have catch words or phrases they like to use, especially when writing dialogue. If we actually wrote how we spoke, the readers would be bored out of their gourds. For instance, would you seriously want to spend money on a book where every dialogue started like this:

#1. Hey, Bill. How are you?

#2. Fine, Jim. How are you?

#3. Can’t complain. How’s the family?

#4. Doing well. Yours?

#5. Same, same. So how, about those Red Sox?…

you get the idea. This is drivel. We may speak like this in real life, but in fiction, it’s a death knoll.

So that’s one way to declutter your work: check the dialogue. Can you get the idea across without all the folderol of “hi, how you doing’s?”

Another way I know I personally clutter up my writing is by using too many extraneous words to convey my thoughts. A quick search of my current work in progress yielded this:

the use of THAT – 89 times

the use of To her/to him/ for her/for him -56 times

the use of adverbs ( the bane of my writing existence) 91 times. EEK!

I really need to work on decluttering these words, don’t I! Hee hee

Other things that writers should declutter are phrases like “seemed to,” “tried to,” “began to.” Writing is much stronger and moves quicker when sentences are declarations and use an active tense.

For example: Her natural, spicy scent seemed to surround her body.

Better example: Her natural, spicy scent of ginger and peach, surrounded her.

Other words that can probably be eliminated a fair amount of time and still allow the sentence to convey what it needs to are:

move, push, reach, bring, pull, went, brought, press and came( to denote going  or coming from somewhere)

It’s a good practice to utilize the SEARCH for options in your word processing program to nit pick and eliminate words you use excessively after your first draft is written. This will make the editing process more about the story line and capturing what you intended to say instead of needing to remove excess words.

Oh, about that 30-day Declutter challenge. yeah, I survived for three days. Then I was exhausted. Maybe I should develop a 12 month declutter challenge. You know…do one thing a month instead of 30 in 30 days? Thoughts? LOL

When I’m not decluttering my life and my writing, you can find me here:

Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triberr

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February 8, 2024 · 12:44 am

#tbt 2.8.2024

Each Thursday I’ve been revisiting a blog post I did back in the day.

Today’s #TBT is one of the top 5 days of my life. Read on and you’ll find out why….

From August 7, 2017

At 57 years old, you’d think I’d be beyond hyperventilating when I see a “celebrity.” Yeah…not so much.

My very first RWA in 2014 I actually burst into tears when I met and spoke with Nora Roberts. Not one of my finest, adult moments, but there was truly so much emotion stored up in me concerning her that when I actually got the chance to speak to her, I lost it. Like a two-year-old. She was gracious, lovely, and held my hand. I don’t think I washed it for 2 whole days!!!, but that might not be true because I blacked out after meeting her! and have no memory of the rest of the day!!

You can just make out the tears still wet on my cheeks in this picture her lovely assistant, Laura, took.

Anyway.

Fangirling. Yeah, it’s a thing.  A real thing. Even though I’ve been to 4 RWA conferences and 1 RT, I still get a little queasy butterfly feeling in my tummy when I see my writing idols casually walking around a hotel as if they were, well, normal people, not romance icons. Here are just a few of my absolute meet-favorites from this year. And I’ll tell you honestly, I really struggled not to cry when I met each of them.

First, one of my newest favs, Lauren Layne.

If you haven’t read any of her Wedding Belles series, or any of the Stiletto books, get yourself over to Amazon and get a bunch. You will not be disappointed.

Next, the amazeballs, uber-talented Jennifer Probst. I actually carted her book WRITE NAKED with me to Orlando because I knew she was going to be there and I simply had to meet her to autograph it.

I sat in on one of her workshops as well, but don’t ask me what she said. I was too busy pinching myself because I was sitting in the same room with her!

And look what she wrote to me!!!!!!

Okay, this next picture makes me giggle every time I see it! The incredible, sweet, absolutely lovely and funny Jill Shalvis was sososososos gracious when I basically interrupted her from eating at the Rita’s and begged – yes begged – for a picture.

 Can you see how giddy I am??!!!

And at the Literacy signing I bothered, er, spoke, to her again when she was with another of my favs, and Jill’s BFF, RaeAnne Thayne. Honestly, these two women are graciousness incarnate!!

last but certainly not least, I was able to “hang” with another of my favorite authors, Marianne Rice, who was attending her first RWA. We were having a good natured contest between us to see how many “big names” we could get to take selfies with us. Marianne WON, hands down!!! She got the fabulous Rachel Gibson!!!!  And Susan Elizabeth Phillips!!! Le sigh….maybe next year.

So, don’t ever be upset or embarrassed if you’re a fan girl, because we’ve all been there!! Some of us still are, despite our —ahem--senior ages!

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January 25, 2024 · 12:39 am

#throwbackThursday 1.25.2024

So today’s blog throwback is from 2017. I was going to be presenting my first workshop for my local chapter of RWA and I was…to say the least…a basket case about it!

So this past Saturday I gave my first ever PowerPoint presentation to my local chapter of RWA.

To say I was nervous would be to do a disservice to the knocking in my knees and the way my heart was shooting extra beats.

I’ve spoken publically before, — hell, I use to teach Nursing to undergrads! – but I haven’t spoken publically in a very long time. In fact, I haven’t done anything publically in a very long time, not since I retired and started writing full time.

I think I was nervous because  I didn’t want to screw up, be boring, or deliver a topic that didn’t appeal to the audience. I didn’t eat anything all day because I was terrified I’d hurl!

I’m sitting here to report (1) I did not hurl, (2) I was absolutely starving the minute the presentation ended! (3) my audience laughed, repeatedly and freely in all the appropriate spots (4) there was discussion about the topic – a lot of discussion, so YAY!, and (5) my audience seemed to genuinely like the presentation.

So, again, YAY!!!

Now I just have to get my nerve up again, because I’m giving this presentation again next month to another group.

But I’ll think about that…tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day.

When I’m not being overly dramatic, you can find me here:

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January 11, 2024 · 12:06 am

#throwbackthursday 1.11.2024

So I’ve been re-reading some of my earlier in my career posts and thought it would be fun to put a few up to see how different things are now.

This one is from September 2019 ( and why does that seem like sososososos long ago?? Lol)

I posed the question: What are the 5 things you couldn’t live without?

My answers remain the same to this very day…

We’ve all played the game if you were stranded on a deserted island, what would you have to have with you in order to survive?

The routine answers are fresh water, toilet paper, shelter.

I think if you ask millennials, they’d say their iPhones and electronic devices before anything else.

But, assuming you have the things you need ( water, shelter, etc). what would be the 5 things other than the necessities you could not live without?

For me, the answers are easy.

#1 Diet Mountain Dew.  I’d need to have my daily fix

#2 My skin care products. I’m not going anywhere without my RetinA, sunblock, body moisturizers, and eye cremes

#3 Unlimited paper and pens. I can’t be stranded without something to write the tale of my deserted island experience about on.

#4 Flashlights with long-lasting batteries. I don’t like the dark. Or things that crawl and creep in the dark, like on a deserted island.

#5 My Kindle, loaded with 5000 books. Hey, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna be bored, so books are the best friends that you can take anywhere!

What are the 5 things you couldn’t live without??

Until next time ~ Peg

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