author | Jennette Marie Powell

by Jennette, May 31, 2015

Aside from one evening, this week has been an uneventful, yet busy one. I’ve had a little more energy lately in the evenings, so I’m trying to get back into a habit of decluttering, starting with the kitchen. The clutter finally got bad enough that I decided I’m tired of living in CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome*), so it’s time I did something about it.

I started with the countertops, which had become a dumping ground for STUFF (“Something That Undermines Family Fun*) we were being too lazy to just put away. And as FlyLady suggests, I gave the sink a good cleaning and am also working on a habit of making sure it’s clean before I got to bed each night. Wow, did those two things make a difference! Even DH is now putting things away, because he likes it tidy, too. And it’s so much easier to fix a meal in a kitchen that’s not full of clutter!

Of course, the cabinets and cupboards still need work–lots of it!–so I’m going through and decluttering one a day. Typically, this takes no more than fifteen mintues–FlyLady’s recommended amount of time to spend, so we don’t get burned out. I highly recommend FlyLady’s website if you want to learn to get your home under control using baby steps. I discovered her many years ago when I was laid off, and had my house looking really nice before we all slacked off and started letting clutter accumulate. I will admit it’s easier when one doesn’t have a full-time job and a second, part-time one (my writing), but it’s still doable.

Friday night was a quiet occasion. A good friend’s sister passed away, so we went to the funeral visitation. It was one of life’s sad ironies–this woman had beaten breast cancer twice by age 40, when she’d been given a low chance of surviving another year. She was 42 when she passed–from an accident on an ATV. It’s the kind of thing that really makes us think of our own mortality, especially given my husband’s two close calls last year.

Saturday morning, Isis had a play date–our next door neighbors are dog-sitting for their son, so they let his dog run around our backyard with Isis for a while. They both totally wore each other out! I did not get any pictures because every time I got my phone out, they ran around the other side of the garage, or were just moving too fast!

What I read this week: Into the Savage Country by Shannon Burke. This a bit of an aside from my usual fare, a Western/historical fiction about a young man’s adventures as a fur trapper in 1820s America. A writing friend recommended it to me, and since the hero of my upcoming book is also a fur trapper (albeit 70 years earlier, and about 700 miles east), I read it partly for the time period, and partly for the research. It started out kind of slow and episodic, but got better as it went. The characters and their relationships were complex and well-developed, and used the same inventiveness and determination that got them into trouble, to get out of it.

ROW80 Update: My goal last week was to rewrite/tweak the blurbs for all of my already-published books. I did that for one, but decided I would rather focus on one book at a time and instead worked on reformatting it (my publisher wants to upgrade the interior look of their older ebooks, and I do this for them as a contractor). That took a while, and it’s not out yet (I need to do more testing and tweaking), but so far, it looks much better. I also did some website stuff that isn’t ready to roll out yet, but will be soon. I consider it a win, and plan to continue in this vein this week. So this week, my plans are to finalize that book and get it to the publisher, then reformat another, probably the short story.

What about you–how has your week been? Have you worked on developing a new habit lately? Have you read anything outside of your usual type of books lately, and if so, how was it? How are you doing on whatever goals you might be working toward, whether writing-related or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

* Definitions for CHAOS and STUFF are FlyLady’s.

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

by Jennette, May 25, 2015

Isis waits patiently for playtime

We’re not supposed to work on vacation, right? Except I did–because in this case, “work” was something fun–writing!–and I didn’t go anywhere.

On Thursday, DH and I saw our daughter off to Germany, where she’s doing a study abroad for two months (Heidelberg and Berlin, if anyone’s curious). Then DH took off on his motorcycle for his annual pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., where he participates in Rolling Thunder, one of the largest rides in the U.S., to honor POWs, MIAs, and other vets.

I took Friday off of work, hence “vacation” for me, too. I took Isis for her daily walk and went out to dinner with my parents, but otherwise, I stayed home and spent time writing. I also played a lot of ball with Isis. Let me say, it’s a challenge to get editing done when a dog is dropping a ball into one’s lap every thirty seconds!

What I read this week: Still working on the novel I started the week before, but also read–wait for it!–MY upcoming release! I will post a cover reveal and tell all about it here once it gets back from my editor.

ROW80 Update: I finished my revision, and did a read-through. And it was a good thing I did, because this book was written more out-of-order than any I’ve ever written, and there were quite a few piddly little continuity errors. The more I catch before handing off to the beta readers, the better. I actually enjoyed reading my own book, which is good, since I write the books I want to read! It’s now off to the beta readers, so that’s something to celebrate. So the remainder of this ROW80 Round, I plan to focus on marketing tasks. Up this week: rewrite the product descriptions (i.e., blurbs, or back cover copy) for my existing books, as well as the upcoming book. I hope to get more done than that, but I also have a cover design to do for one of my beta readers, so any other marketing tasks will be a bonus.

What about you–did you do anything fun this holiday weekend? Do you consider it a vacation for you, too, when your partner goes out of town? Do you work when you’re on vacation? And if you’re a writer, do you read (and enjoy) your own books? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, May 17, 2015

Dog Shaming Short post today, because this was Birthday Week. No, I don’t celebrate mine all week long like some people do, but my birthday fell in this week, as well as my husband’s. We also celebrated Mothers’ Day late, as our daughter came home from college on Friday.

There was also a bit of Dog Shaming going on, as you can see in the photo. Isis has perfected “the pout.” She also got into the trash tonight, and chewed up a glasses case (just a cheap one), but no one thought to take a photo.

What I read this week: I started two novels. Normally I don’t read more than one fiction book at a time, but one was a library book that didn’t come in until I had already started the other. I’m not far enough through either to discuss, though.

ROW80 Update: The writing went well this week! I knew the week would be busy, between the family get-together, daughter coming home from school, and the birthdays, so I set a low goal of typing the revisions in to two chapters. I got twelve–half the book! This week will also have some busy, as the daughter leaves for her study-abroad in Germany soon, and there is shopping and other preparations to do, but I’m still hoping to get the type-in finished, and the book off to the beta readers next week. We’ll see how that goes!

What about you–how has your week been? Got any good dog-shaming stories to share? Or pics, maybe? Please share in the comments (links are ok, too!). I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, May 3, 2015

This week has mostly been about the writing, between times of fatigue and headaches. I got a ton done last Sunday, but after that, the week started out slow (as in, nonexistent) on the writing front.

I was mad, because I had no one to blame for that except me. You see, I was playing too much Clash of Clans, figuring “oh, I’ll just go do one raid, then write.”

Except I realized that usually turns into “just one more raid” and “huh, let’s check out the clan war” and “hmm, I wonder how he did that” and watching replays of other people’s battles. Then the next thing I know, it’s midnight.!

So I decided that writing must come first, then raiding, if at all. That worked out as long as I felt well. (This has not been a good week, but I’m thankful that today was an improvement.) And yes, I did get a couple of good writing days in throughout the week, in fact, I got to the writing computer before dinner a couple of times (that helped a lot).

What I read this week: Still not quite done with the novel (though I’m really enjoying it!), which I will wait again to go over, but I also picked up a craft book that ties in well with this week’s efforts in upping productivity: Write Better, Faster by Monica Leonelle. There were a ton of great ideas in there about how to more effectively use time tracking to gauge where you are, and where you want to be, and also went over how this author writes a first draft of each scene by going from outline to draft in four steps. So if you are a writer who’s vehemently opposed to outlining, this book will probably be a lot less useful for you than it was for me, but I think there will still be some good tips in there. I am an outliner, but I still find some useful tips in books that are geared toward not outlining. What was interesting about this book is my approach is similar to hers in that I first do a very brief outline, then I sketch in each scene before I write it in with full details. The main difference with this author is that she breaks the “sketch-in” into two steps, and sketches out the whole book at once. She also emphasizes that every author works differently, and analyzing our own process like she did will help us find what works for us, and do that. She is also a big proponent of the Pomodoro Method of focusing and keeping on task. I tried writing in 25-minute increments, and that helped me immensely.

ROW80 Update: I only wrote four days this week, but with what I did today (I counted last Sunday’s work for last week), I still managed to add over 2600 words, which would have been more since I also deleted a good bit here and there (some of the scenes I worked on were mostly revision). So I see that as a win! This week, I want to finish one short scene I broke out of another, and revise two more.

What about you–how has your week been? Do you ever find yourself having a hard time staying focused on a task? Have you found anything to help with that? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or not? Please drop me a note in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, April 26, 2015

For lack of a better title, that’s what this past week felt like. I’ve binged on several things this week, some good, some not so good, including:

Isis on April 25, 2014

Isis cuteness–of course! And throwing the ball to her, as always. To top it off, Facebook informed my husband on Saturday that it was one year ago that we brought Isis home.

We joined Costco and binged on spending money–though less than if we’d spent it elsewhere! Especially since most of what we spent was on new tires for my Camaro.

Headaches–rainy weather always brings them on for me. 🙁

Playing Clash of Clans, because it’s fun, and easier to do with a headache than write.

Tastes like the Ohio State Fair! That would be Fire and Ice Cheescake at Frisch’s. It’s a piece of frozen cheesecake rolled in crushed cornflakes, deep fried, and drizzled with honey and chocolate. It’s right up there with deep fried Snickers and Oreos. See why one piece feels like a binge? Mmmmm….

Working on my website. Nothing to show here yet, since I work on my computer before uploading new stuff, but I did spend a good bit of time working on things to add based on the marketing workshop I signed up for last month. And I disabled the anti-spam plugin, as it was still blocking people whose comments I want! So you shouldn’t have any more problems if you try to comment, but if you do, please email me!

And yes, writing. It didn’t happen until today, but I wrote over 2,000 words to finish the scene I’ve been trying to get to for a good couple of weeks.

What I read this week: I started a novel near the beginning of the week, and I’m really enjoying it, but am less than halfway through, so I’ll discuss after I finish.

ROW80 update: I finished that scene, so I’ll call it a win! This week, I have one more new scene to write, so that’s my goal. Also want to do one more thing from my marketing tasks list.

What about you–have you binged on anything lately, good or bad? If you had the time and money, what would you like to binge on? I would love more writing days like today if I had the time! Do you think the Fire and Ice Cheesecake sounds good? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, April 19, 2015

This has been one of those weeks where not a lot has been going on, and… not a lot of writing, either. Not really any reason for it other than just slacking. One thing I did was meet with my fiction writers group on Saturday.

It is always fun to see my writing friends, and one thing we talked about was our writing process. As one might expect, there were as many, or more, different processes as there were writers in attendance. Some of us outline; some don’t, some do sometimes and not others. One has recently found that her process lends itself much better to flash fiction (very short stories, of 1000 words or less). One friend writes groups of scenes, but not in order otherwise, and has to figure out what stays, what goes, and in what order. “I would not recommend this process to anyone,” she says. One friend has a different process for every book – some were written with no outline and just an idea; others he wrote with a very detailed outline. Still others fell somewhere in between.

I am for the most part an outliner. However, my outlines are not very detailed, and there are always gaps in them. The gaps are where cool stuff shows up, a place for ideas that will make the story better. Not that I slavishly follow what I’ve outlined, either–with each book, I find that the outline is more and more just a guideline, and can (and should) be deviated from whenever a better idea occurs to me. This is where I really take issue with people who say outlining is not creative; I would say it just isn’t in their case. It’s especially not un-creative when I start by simply writing everything I know about the story, in a sort of free-form, free-flow brain dump where I never fail to find surprises in what comes out, and what I do know.

Last night, my husband was out of town, and you’d think I’d have gotten a lot done. Nope. It was really strange when I went to go to bed–I couldn’t find Isis anywhere! I knew I’d just let her in, and looked all over the house, most places twice. How easily can a Rottweiler hide? Then I heard a scratch on the patio door, and there she was, outside on the second story deck! I hadn’t seen her out there and had shut the door. Boy was I glad to find her! I was also glad to see DH when he got home this morning. Isis certainly was, as you can see here:

Isis hottub

What I read this week: Huntress of the Star Empire, Episodes 9 & 10 (yes, I get them in advance! :)) by Athena Grayson. All I can say is wow! This series keeps getting better and better. Even better than that, she’s informed me there will be a Season 2, though that’s a way off. Which is just as well, because I just finished the covers for Episodes 10-12. They are fun to do, but Athena knows I can use a break!

ROW80 Update: As you can tell from above, nothing to report. So same primary goal as last week: finish the current chapter.

What about you–did you do anything fun this week? Have you had nice weather where you are? Ours has been great, maybe that’s why I’m slacking! If you write, are you an outliner, or a just-sit-down-and-writer? And how are you doing toward whatever goals you might have, writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, April 12, 2015

It’s been a good week, despite rainy weather for most of it. Much better than cold! And though I wasn’t able to send some of that rain to our friends in southern California, it did leave just in time for the weekend. I also made some good progress with my writing, so good all around!

The rain did let up enough on Monday for us to take Isis to Dog’s Nite Out at Ritter’s Frozen Custard. As always, she enjoyed her complimentary cup of doggie custard (vanilla with a dog biscuit on top):

Isis eating custard

After she finished, she wanted ours. Failing that, she made a some new friends:

Isis at Dogs Nite

You can do my nails now

The goddess in all her glory

Later in the week, DH took Isis to Wash Your Dog, where she got the goddess treatment: a warm bath with Black Sheen shampoo, then a blueberry facial! (No, I’m not making that up.) Finally, our friend who works there gave Isis a pedicure and the “Furminator” to loosen shedding fur.

DH learned last week that dogs are welcome at Lowe’s, at least the one near us, so he took Isis there this morning to get a new trailer hitch for his truck. He found out that taking Isis is not the thing to do if he expects to get there, get what he needs, and get out quickly, because it seemed everyone in the place wanted to stop and pet her, and talk to him about her! Of course, Isis was eating up all the attention!

I have also been working on my website, mostly behind-the-scenes stuff that most won’t notice (I hope). One thing I did was add an anti-spam plugin, and wow is it ever effective! This is a self-hosted WordPress site, and spam now does not even get through to Akismet. Only problem is, with a recent update, it’s a little too effective, and a few legitimate commenters have been unable to comment. The developer has been spending a lot of time trying to fix this, but we’re having trouble pinning it down, since neither he nor I have any problems. It’s really hard to fix something when you can’t reproduce the issue, but I really don’t want to stop using this plugin because it’s SO good otherwise. So if you try to comment, sign up for my newsletter, or use my comment form and see an error message, I would soooo appreciate it if you could email me to let me know. If you don’t mind, please visit www.whatismyip.com and send the big number in the blue box to jen at this domain. (The number will be in format ###.###.###.###). Email can be a little wonky too, and will sometimes bounce with a “mailbox is full” error when in fact it’s not. Something else I need to work out, in this case, with the hosting provider. In addition to that, I need to do more tweaking to speed this site up…

What I read this week: Huntress of the Star Empire, Episode 7 by Athena Grayson. This series just keeps getting better! This episode had some nice twists, especially a secret the hero found out about the heroine that even she doesn’t know. I also spent some time this weekend designing the covers for episodes 10-12. Those will post here when I read them!

ROW80 Update: This was a good writing week. I worked on my WIP 5 out of 7 days, and completed two added scenes for over 3,000 words. This week, I’d like to finish another two scenes, from one that needs more material and will become two. I swear, when this book is finished, I need to get a goddess treatment for me! I’m thinking Square One Salon and Spa… 🙂

What about you–do you give yourself an occasional god(dess) treatment? If you have a dog (or were to get one), would you bathe him or her yourself, or go somewhere like Wash Your Dog? Did you know you could take dogs into Lowe’s? Read any good books lately? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might have, writing or otherwise? Please let me know in the comments–I’d love to hear from you! (And please email me if you can’t comment!)

by Jennette, April 5, 2015

Hope everyone who celebrates Easter had a good one! We went to my brother’s, where there was plenty of good food, and good times with family.

Isis tried to make a new friend, but he wasn’t interested

I also had put together a pretty Easter basket for my college kid, then forgot to take it to the gathering. D’oh! I think my brain’s still a bit fried from what I’ve been working on all week: making this site mobile-friendly. It took some doing, since this theme wasn’t originally intended for mobile, but I like this site’s look and wanted to keep it, so I got it done. So now you can pull it up on a phone or tablet, and won’t have to wait for all the big graphics to load, and there’s now a simplified menu just for mobile users that slides out from the side. If you try it out and see anything wonky, please let me know!

I also have some exciting news: the cat story anthology I designed the cover for is now out! Cats on the Keyboard: Real Life Cat Stories by 14 Historical Romance Authors is a collection of true cat stories, written by cat-loving historical romance writers, and compiled and edited by one of my writing friends and editors, Michele Stegman. Enjoy the stories and take a look at the excerpts from each author’s book. (I was included because I write historical time-travel.) Since I don’t have a cat, my contribution to this one is how my parents ended up with their cat, Q.T. Pi. It also includes a sneak peek from my current WIP and upcoming release, Time’s Best Friend, which features a dog. Best of all, Cats on the Keyboard is free on BarnesandNoble.com and Smashwords.com. If you’d like to get it for free on Amazon, please visit its page, click “Tell us about a Lower Price,” and enter the Barnes & Noble link above, so they will lower the price to free. If you prefer to get your ebooks from iTunes or Kobo Books, it will be available at those retailers soon.

If you gather from the above that I didn’t get much writing done, you’d be right. I decided to take the week off and just get the mobile website done. I did do some reading though.

What I read this week: Huntress of the Star Empire, Episode 6 by Athena Grayson. Getting better and better! I also finished–pretty much–an interesting nonfiction book I started for research several weeks ago, The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan. The subtitle pretty much says it all: “The Untold Story of the Women who Helped Win World War II.” What I especially liked about it was that it focused on all the behind-the-scenes people who did all the un-glamorous jobs at Oak Ridge, but who all contributed to the cause. I especially liked it because I learned not only about who worked on “The Project” and what it was like, but also about the ordinary lives of ordinary people in an extraordinary time. My kind of thing!

ROW80 Update: It’s time for Round 2, and a new set of goals! Well, mine aren’t really new, as I didn’t get as much done last Round as I’d hoped, so the major goal from Round 1 are pretty much being rebooted for this Round. That would be to finish the WIP and revision, and get it to the beta readers. Ideally, it will be published by the end of Round 2, but since my saying it seems to have a way of making it not happen, we’ll just hope for the best. Also, publishing it is not fully in my control, as there are editors, my publisher, etc. I also spent a lot of time on the marketing workshop this past Round, so my other main goal for this round is to put what I learned into place. Getting the mobile-friendly website design implemented was the first step there.

What about you–if you celebrate Easter, did you have a good one? Do you like pet stories? (If so, go get Cats on the Keyboard!) Got any pet stories of your own to share here in the comments? If you’re participating in ROW80, or even if you’re not, what are some of your goals for these next three months? Please tell us about it below–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, March 29, 2015

ROW80, “The Writing Challenge that Knows You Have a Life,” ended its first Round of the year this past Thursday. Since I only post on Sundays, it’s time for a wrapup, and review of how the quarter went for me and my writing goals.

Isis takes a rest in HER spot

Looking back, my goals were pretty ambitious. Actually, they were really ambitious, given my fatigue issues and the fact that I work full time. I didn’t do much toward this week’s goals either, though for different reasons. Mainly, my daughter was home from college, and that’s a major routine disruptor. One I was happy to have; just one that made not much writing get done. I will also admit that I made the mistake of getting caught up in a computer game, and spent too much time doing that. Writing is fun, but so is gaming, and my husband has been playing this one for a while, so now it’s like family time. Family does come first, after all. 😀 I got about 2000 words written on a new scene, but that’s about it.

Here were my goals for the quarter/Round, and how I did:

Finish the WIP, get it revised, and out to beta readers – Nope. This book has fought me every step of the way, refusing to be written in order (my usual M.O.) and continually throwing new scenes and ideas that need to be worked in because they’re making it better.
Prep work for next one, which includes a self-directed workshop – No, see above.
Make changes to the Love’s a Beach anthology for my publisher – No. (It’s still available, and therefore this is low priority).
Read one craft or business book – Done, plus read two more!
Take one online workshop or video series – Done, although with a different workshop than I’d planned, and haven’t gone through a bunch of extras yet, but I will eventually.

Now on the other hand, I ended up doing a few things that weren’t on the list at all. Three of my friends/cover art clients decided to release new work that needed covers. One is for an anthology and was fairly simple; the other was for a serial, so basically is four different covers (we’re reusing each one for three of twelve episodes). I have the anthology cover and three of the serial cover sets done. My other friend just decided to go indie with a project a couple weeks ago, so here’s hoping I’ll get to that one soon. I have a great idea for it, so it will be fun!

I’m also in the process of making my website more mobile-friendly. More and more people are viewing sites through phones and tablets, so this is becoming more important.

And the workshop I ended up taking was more time-intensive than the one I had originally planned to take. All worthwhile, so all is good!

ROW80 Round 2 starts back up on April 6, so I’ll be back on the 5th with my second quarter goals. If you’re a writer, consider joining us! Just click the ROW80 logo or the link at the top of this post for more info.

What I read this week: Smith’s Monthly #9, by Dean Wesley Smith. Not my favorite of these so far, but still entertaining. Ironically, one of my favorite covers, although definitely one that’s more about the “feel” of the story rather than its actual contents. As a cover designer, it’s much more important to capture feel than exact characters or scene, though it’s fantastic when a cover does both. Still liked this one! I also picked back up on Huntress of the Star Empire, Episode 5 by Athena Grayson, which keeps getting better and better!

How about you–do you ever shoot for goals that are way too much? How are you doing on whatever goals you might be working toward, whether writing-related or not? Does your dog take over the sofa? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, March 22, 2015

I did not get much done on my writing this week, and at initial glance, I wasn’t sure why.

Then I looked at what else I had going on over the week. Early in the week, I designed a cover for a writer friend who’s putting together an anthology of true stories about cats. I’ll post the cover when she’s ready for a reveal. Yes, I have an entry in it too, the story of how my parents got their cat! I’ll announce more when it releases.

I did more work on the marketing course, and also worked on a mobile version of my website (anyone who’s hit this site with a phone knows it’s not very mobile-friendly).

And Thursday was a special day–my wedding anniversary! Since we took a trip last year, we kept it simpler this year–DH and I just went out for a nice dinner that included steak, lobster, wine, and chocolate lava cake. 🙂

On Friday, my daughter came home for spring break, so lots of time spent catching up with her. We do talk on the phone regularly, but it’s not the same. Yesterday was more good weather, and our first fire in the backyard. And finally, today’s post went up late because she and I went to see the musical South Pacific at a local dinner theater with my mom, so more good family time.

And of course, there’s always this:

Isis catching ball

I did manage to get some reading done, but not much, so I’ll share that next week.

ROW80 Update: I keep getting fooled by the changes I’m making, thinking there’s less to them than there are. Last week I had one new scene turn into three; this week I had one scene that I thought would be an easy revision, actually needs to be entirely redrafted, due to changes I made earlier in the story. I outlined that, but it still needs to be written. I also had one complete scene that somehow never got printed out, and therefore never went through initial review and markup, so I did that. That seems to have been the MO of this story all along. So not much progress there, though not for lack of me trying. This week may be busy, with today mostly gone, my daughter home, and possibly some other family stuff (good stuff) later in the week. With that, I figure any progress will be good, though I’m going to try to get the one scene redrafted, and the next one marked up. It’s also the end of ROW80 Round 1, so I’ll give a recap next week.

What about you–how has your week been? Had one lately where one thing after another kept you from something you wanted to do? Here’s hoping it’s like mine–good stuff, so can’t complain! How are you doing on whatever goals you might be working toward, whether writing-related or not? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

Life and Love in Four Dimensions

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