Another week – another chance to talk about something POSITIVE!!!!
So, this week I wrote every single day in my new WIP and hit a goal of 1000 minimum per day!!! YAY to me.
Tell me, what’s something good that happened to you this week?
Tag Archives: #Iwriteromance
Happy Valentines Day 2020!
As much as I like learning about how things came to be, I really didn’t want to do a deep dive into the history of Valentine’s Day for today. I’m sure it’s amazeballs stuff, but…no.
Instead, this day of the year more than any other solidifies in my mind why I love writing romance so much – to the exclusion of all other fiction genres I could pen.
If you know me you know I always say everyone deserves their own HEA ( Happily Ever After) story. I really believe this with all my heart – no VDay pun intended!
This past Wednesday I had the honor to speak in front of a Woman’s Group at a local church. It was their monthly luncheon meeting and their annual Valentine’s day celebration. Over 65 beautiful women of all ages from their 40s to 90s gathered together in fellowship and love to enjoy one another’s company and to hear me speak. I was told by the program director that this was the largest group they’d ever had for a luncheon. No pressure there, folks!
My talk was titled MY SECOND ACTS JOURNEY but it was really a treatise on why it’s important that we show love, give love, and share love with one another, especially in the times we live in, which can be so dark for so many.
I made them laugh with the ridiculous tales of my journey to publication and my crazy family stories. I made them think about their own lives when I explained why it’s important we all have that one person whom we can trust beyond all else to “cover our 6.” And yes, most of them did get the NCIS/GIBBS reference (!) I talked about the gift of words to express our feelings to one another and why it’s important we tell those we love that we do. Often. And with meaning. I explained my love of journaling and why I felt it was so necessary. I even told them that story about my first lock and key diary, the little book that solidified in my mind I wanted to be a writer. After the luncheon, one of the women came up to me and told me she was going to buy a diary/journal for her 8 year old granddaughter because of what I’d said. I have to tell you, that warmed my heart is ways too big to express.
Laughter, nodding heads, smiling faces and eyes staying open and not drifting off in boredom when you look out at a sea of faces, is something every speaker wants to see from behind the podium. Luckily, I did! No one fell asleep; no one didn’t appear engaged.
Win for me!
These beautiful women, most of whom I’d never met before and who didn’t know me as me, Peggy Jaeger- mom and wife – or as a writer, Peggy Jaeger, Author, were accepting, open with their questions, and receptive to what I had to say. True fellowship on display on this day devoted to love.
I guess the real purpose of this post is to simply state that although it’s Valentine’s day, a day typically devoted to candy hearts, Hallmark cards, and flowers, the concept of love, the act of loving one another, and being there for those you do love, is something that should be a daily, if not hourly thing.
Jesus’s entreaty, Love one another, is one request I think we can all, and should all, get behind, and practice without thought, argument, or discussion. Actions speak louder than words, but the words are so important to say and hear, too.
So on this day devoted to love, tell those people in your life you love them, that you have their 6, and that they mean the world to you.
And then do it again tomorrow, the next day, and the next……
Until next time, peeps ~ Peg
Filed under Romance
#WinterGames starts 2.1.2020 Have you signed up yet???
If you love to read, Winter Games is for YOU! A one month reader Challenge with games, prizes, signed print books, swag, and tons of freebies. PLUS, you’ll meet some amazing authors and party with them in a live Q & A!
All books will be FREE to you as a Winter Games Participating Reader. Some may be listed as $0.99, but no worries, we will gift you those books through Amazon!
And don’t worry––all directions and details will be explained before the Games begin!
Join Winter Games on the official sign up form today and be ready for an amazing ride! WINTER GAMES SIGN UP SHEET
I’m participating in this wonderful challenge and the book I’m offering is IT’S A TRUST THING. This is your chance to read it for free if you haven’t yet. All that’s required is once you do, you MUST post a review on Amazon!
So fill out the reader sign up form and have fun!!
Filed under It's a trust thing, Romance, Romance Books, Uncategorized
#L&SR #WednesdayBloggingChallenge 3.13.10 A DAY IN THE LIFE
Well, a day in MY life, is the actual prompt for today.
Okay peeps, ready to be bored senseless? Hee Hee
I’d love to tell you I rise from a bed with sheets as soft as clouds, a skylight of sunshine raining down on me, waking me with its soft, warm kiss to start my day.
In reality I’m up hours before the sun ever thinks to wink open its eyes or that proverbial cock has a notion and a tickle in his throat to crow. Somewhere between 2:30 and 3am is the time my body says “Hey! Get the hell up and start working.”
So I do.
Hours 3-5:30 are spent in my attic office scheduling all the social media promos I need to for the day, after first getting a bottle of Diet Mountain Dew and a cup of tea to fortify me. And yes, it takes me that long everyday on promotion. I write for several blogs and they need to be promoted. I’m usually involved in one or two giveaways each month so those need to be promoted, and right now I’m having a sale on my debut book and I need to get the word out there about it, so THAT needs to be promoted. This is the time I answer, or send, emails, too, plus it’s the time of day I typically write and post my Netgalley book reviews and/or write my blogs.
After all of that is done I get washed and dressed for the day and head to the gym. Since I spend upwards of 8-10 hours per day sitting on my butt – and I’m not as young as I used to be, so all that stuff about ass-spread when you reach a certain age is real, peeps – I need to do something physical and strength train-y to make sure I’m strong and healthy for the next hundred years.
After the gym, back home to the lap top where I write for about 3-4 hours on my current WIP. I’ll answer emails at this time, private messages that come through, and retweet anything my writing sistahs send me to. At 11 am every day I take my lunch break to watch The View. Love those ladies, every one of them!
Since all my friends still work at outside-the-home day jobs, and I work from my home, there aren’t any people I can hang out with during the day who will call and try to distract me from what I need to do: write.
After the View and lunch it’s back to writing for another 4-5 hours depending on what time I need to get dinner started. If it’s a late night for my hubby at work I start dinner about 6 ( most days are late nights for hubby!)
By 7:30 pm my eyes have had it with looking at a screen most of the day so I veg with some mindless Real Housewives television.
Now, in between all that writing during the day, I do a bunch of adulting things. Laundry doesn’t wash, fold, iron, or put itself away, so if Hubby and I don’t want to walk around with smelly clothes, or – GOD FORBID – naked, I need to wash our dirty clothing. Groceries don’t magically appear in the cabinets delivered by quiet elves after midnight, nor do I have a life-in chef who prepares all our meals for us. And the dust bunnies who silently reside in every nook and cranny of my home need regular round ups. Floors get washed, rugs get vacuumed, and things get put away where they belong.
I’m also the primary caregiver/driver for my elderly parents now who live 25 miles away, so once a week I shop for them, cook for them, and clean their house, in addition to chauffeuring them to doctor appointments and anywhere else they need to go.
Before slipping into bed I typically check my email again, address what needs to be answered, then make a list of all the promo that needs to be done in the morning.
In bed, I’ll call up my latest Netgalley download for read and review on my kindle and read until my eyes start to bleed with fatigue. Lights out and the day starts all over again 2 -3 hours later.
See? Boring.
Let’s see if any of the other authors in the blog challenge have a more exciting life ( because you know they do!!!) Long and short Reviews Wednesday Blog Challenge
Looking for me? I’m usually here:
Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// BookMe // Monkey me //Watch me
Here’s the link to my TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DAMN BOOK podcast interview, just in case you missed it: TMAYDB
and the link to my recent interview on NewHampshirePublicRadio
Filed under Author, author promotion, Long and SHort Reviews
#L&SR Saturday Seven
Another week, another list of 7 things! Today, I’m writing about 7 book series that I love! And by love, I mean LOVELOVELOVE!
In no order, here they are:
JD Robb, InDeath Series. From the very first page of the very first book in this series, I was hooked and hooked solid! Lt. Eve Dallas and Roarke are a love affair for the ages. In each book, they have grown as people, in their marriage, in their jobs, even in how they navigate through their tortuous pasts. JD Robb is a master plotter and every single story is a masterclass for authors who want to learn how to write witty and spot-on dialogue and banter, plus be guided in how to weave a story to a perfect ending. Start at the very first book, Naked in Death. Guaranteed, you will be hooked just like me. The InDeath books are on “auto-buy” for me at Amazon.
Janet Evanovich. Stephanie Plum Series
If I was ever going to write myself a best friend, it would be Stephanie Plum. In her thirties, with one disastrous marriage behind her and a crazy family by her side, Stephanie is a bail-bondswoman -and not a very good one, at that. But what she is, is hysterically funny. The cast of regulars in the books from her work BFF Lula, a retired “Ho” to Stephanie’s grandma Mazur, a gun toting, funeral-gawking octogenarian with the body of a 100 year old and the dirty mind of a teenaged boy, and even to the two men in Steph’s life, Pete the detective, and Ranger the security expert, you will always find something to laugh at. Evanovich has created a heroine anyone could see as their very own book BFF.
Jill Shalvis. Lucky Harbor Series
I first became a Jill Shalvis groupie when I read the first book in this series, Simply Irresistible. Witty banter, great secondary characters, sex(!) This book had it all. So did the upteen more that came after it, all revolving around the residents of Lucky Harbor. Do yourself a favor: if you’ve never read a Shalvis book, start with this one, Simply Irresistible. That’s what the series will be to you: Irresistible!
Lauren Layne. The Wedding Belles
I discovered my first Lauren Layne book, TO have and to Hold, on Netgalley. Liking the blurb I decided to request a copy and give it a shot. I devoured the entire book in one sitting and then went straight to Amazon and bought the rest in the series, plus her entire backlist. Set mostly in Manhattan, the characters and setting were as familiar to me as if Layne was writing about my friends. With an engaging writing style and dialogue that I read out loud because it is so spot-on, she is another one of my auto-buy authors. Start with To Have and to Hold, sit back, and prepare to fall in love with her characters and with Lauren Layne herself!
Nora Roberts. The Bride Quartet
There’s something about a wedding, a bride, and a romance book that just pulls at my heart! Nora’s The Bride Quartet tells the story of 4 girlfriends since the womb who support one another, lift each other up and would give up all they have and are for the other. The men they let into their inner circle must be strong and know they can never come between the friends. Each story builds on the one before it until the very last, where all the girls find their own HEA, Each journey is rife with emotion, conflict, and some hot loving!
Marianne Rice: The Rocky Harbor Series
I met Marianne at a writing conference and from the moment we started talking I knew I needed to read her books. This girl truly is my sister from another mister!! Her Rocky Harbor Series, set in Maine, revolves around a family of adopted, troubled kids who all grew into wonderful human beings due to the loving influence of their adoptive parents. Each book could be a stand-alone, but when read in succession, you feel as if you’ve become a member of the family, too! The emotions are raw, the conflicts are real, and the love is everalsting.
Kari Lemor: Love on the Line Series.
I love me a good romantic suspense book, especially one where the characters on the page are real and the stories are so true to life you feel like you’re watching a movie unfold instead of reading words on pages. Kari Lemor’s Love on the Line books are my idea of a perfect romantic suspense series. Each is a separate story and you don’t have to read the one before it to be “caught up.” But my adice? You should! Read the first, WILD CARD UNDERCOVER and then move on to the next. You will not be disappointed!!
When I’m not reading my favorite authors, you can find me here, writing :Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// Book Me
Filed under Uncategorized
#RWA17, Fan girling….it’s a thing
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.
Fan girling. 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!
Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, Romance, Romance Books, RWA
Peggy Jaeger, Author 