author | Jennette Marie Powell

by Jennette, January 19, 2014

That’s better than two steps backward and one forward, right? Although until yesterday, that was what my week was shaping up to be. Nothing bad, it was just one of those weeks where I had a steady case of the blahs. I was tired, grumpy, and didn’t feel like doing anything after I got home from work except watching mindless television or playing mindless computer games. Writing? Hah! I got a couple of sessions in, to the tune of 1500 words, but not what I’d wanted. Exercise? I did well to get on the treadmill at all, though I did manage to get my workouts in–short ones. It was like I used up all my energy and creativity at work (what little there was, that is). Yes, programming is creative, although in a different way than writing, so it usually doesn’t sap me. Yes, I have some minor health issues, and yes, I’ve seen a doctor, so no worries there. It’s just frustrating that anything that might help takes a while, and sometimes, we just have to deal with this stuff.

Yesterday was a bit better because I had the whole day. The fiction project I’ve been working on lately is a novella where I tried not outlining beforehand, just sitting down to write. But after being pretty much stuck for over a week (the 1500 words were on the other project), I’m reminded once again that I need a plan. So yesterday I sat down and wrote almost 2,500 words of story notes. With that on top of the 1500, I’ll consider my writing goal made for this week.

After that, I did my formatting project, and got that into a nice epub form. Which leaves my ROW80 results as follows:

Format anthology as ePub – Done
2500 words on TT or SS#3 – Done
Fitness 3-4x – Done

Not bad for a week where I didn’t feel like doing anything for most of it, huh? 🙂

So I’ll stick with that for this week. I do want to ramp up on the wordcount eventually, but not just yet.

Format anthology for print and proofread
2500 words
Fitness 3-4x

What about you–do you have weeks where you just don’t feel like doing much of anything? How do you kick yourself out of that? (I’m really not sure what I did.) If you’re doing ROW80 or working toward other goals, how are you doing? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

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, January 12, 2014

Love's a Beach cover The weather here in Ohio has been crazy the past couple of weeks! Around zero a week ago, up in the fifties yesterday morning, and almost that today, only to drop back to a more typical twenty-something later this week. Luckily, the folks at Mythical Press have been busy getting something ready that should warm up even the coolest soul, if only figuratively: Love’s a Beach, an anthology of stories of summer love by members of the Ohio Valley Romance Writers of America.

Yes, the anthology is finally going to happen, and yes, there’s something in it for everyone who likes a little romance, including those who’ve been waiting for something new from the Saturn Society! This is the long-time-coming first installment of Time’s Tempest, my serialized novel that takes place in a parallel timeframe to my WIP Saturn Society Book Three. In my story “The Storm,” a headstrong handyman on his first trip to the past winds up in the storm of the century, on the run from a madman from the future, with a woman he doesn’t remember meeting—or falling in love with.

I’m doing the formatting for Mythical Press on this one, and that means I’m getting a sneak preview of the other stories in the book, too. And wow! Are they fantastic! There are a couple of humor-laced romantic suspense tales, some sweet contemporary stories, office romances, and a historic story (which interestingly enough, takes place in the early twentieth century – the same time period as “Time’s Tempest: The Storm”). There are also a couple of lovely poems by Ann Gregory. The release is slated for the first of February, and I’m especially excited to see this anthology finally come out after seeing what else is in it! Here’s the official blurb:

Warm up your winter with this anthology of stories of springtime and summer love by members of the Ohio Valley Romance Writers of America. From heartwarming to mysterious, comical to suspenseful, these romantic tales show that there really is someone for everyone. Whether it happens today or a hundred years ago, from the Atlantic shore to the American West coast, there’s something magical about the finding love when the warm breezes blow.

More info on the publisher’s site.

Doing the work on that has kept me busy this week, but getting the formatting ready for Smashwords was one of my goals, and I met that. I also got my fitness in. I did not get as much new writing done as I’d hoped, adding only 1500 new words, rather than the 2,500 I wanted. So here’s the plan for this week:

Format anthology as ePub
2500 words on TT or SS#3
Fitness 3-4x

What about you–what’s the weather like where you are, and have you had enough of it? What do you think of releasing a “beach reads” anthology in the winter? And whether or not you’re participating in ROW80, what have you been up to this week, and how did you do? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, January 6, 2014

I used to think New Year’s Eve was a silly thing to celebrate. Mostly, it was Amateur Night for drunks (still is). But as I got older, and got more about setting goals and including a time component to them, I realized there’s something to that changing of the calendar.

It’s a chance to hit reset, to start over, begin anew with new, or revised goals.

Not resolutions – I don’t do those, as they always seem doomed to failure and fizzle out by mid-February (or March at the latest). But the turning of the calendar gives us a reminder to press pause, evaluate the last calendar, see where we went and what we did–or didn’t do–and then see what we could do this year.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like I did much with my writing last year. I do formatting, cover design, and print book interior layout for my publisher, Mythical Press. One of my big goals last year was to do this for an anthology that included a Saturn Society short story, as well as works by five of my local writing friends.

Initially, I was supposed to get the materials by May. Due to editorial snafus and who knows what else, I didn’t end up getting the last of the submissions until the end of November. I had the e-book cover already designed and could have busted my butt to get the rest done last month, except I was already committed to other things, like my relative’s e-commerce site (which did get completed, though they’re still tweaking the product descriptions, etc.). Also, it was the holidays, which is hard enough to keep up with…

So that did not get done. I also wanted to get one other novel written, which also did not happen.

But when I look at what did happen, it’s not too bad:

Hangar 18: Legacy was finished and published
I outlined and wrote 75,000 words on a new Saturn Society novel (my original plan was for something else, which would be finished at this length, but SS novels are long)
I won NaNoWriMo with the above (the other 25, 000 words were written before and after November)
Took two online workshops
Designed cover for the anthology

In addition, I did several things that weren’t on my list:

Wrote “Time’s Tempest: The Storm” for the anthology (wasn’t originally on my list, because I wasn’t sure I’d put something in that anthology). “Time’s Tempest” is a Saturn Society story featuring different main characters, though it does tie into novel #3. This is going to eventually be a serial novel, in 7-8 parts, each of which I think will be about 20,000 words – a long short story/short novella.
Took an additional workshop
Developed new website for Mythical Press
Designed six book covers for writing friends
Cover designed for the work-in-progress SS novel
Wrote 10,000 words on a follow-up “Time’s Tempest” novella

Sometimes we really need to press pause to see how much we really did accomplish.

So what’s up for 2014? ROW80 does a nice job of breaking it down into quarters, so we’ll start there.

Format, design print cover and interior of anthology for Mythical Press
Finish first draft of “Time’s Tempest #2” (about 10,000 more words)
Research for Time’s Tempest #3
10,000 words on SS novel #3
Finish first draft of Time’s Tempest #3

I’m all for keeping it simple. For this week, that breaks down to:

Format anthology for Smashwords upload
2500 words on TT or SS#3
Fitness 3-4x

What about you–do you like the figurative hitting reset that comes with a new calendar year? What are your big goals for the year, whether or not you participate in ROW80? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, December 22, 2013

I finally got those Christmas cards out last week.

As in yesterday. Saturday.

I suspect some of my recipients won’t get theirs until after the holiday. At first, this bothered me, but then I remembered that I always get a few after Christmas each year, and I really don’t think much about it, so no big deal.

2009’s Christmas Card – my favorite!

Christmas cards are one of those things that it turned out I stressed about more than I needed to. I used to design mine myself, did up some really cool ones in years past. But this year, none of us had any cool pictures taken (my family is not a big photo-taking bunch) so I couldn’t think of anything cool to do with them, nor did I have any special photos to use on a Shutterfly card (which I’ve also done in the past). So I kept putting it off, hoping something would come to me.

Nothing did. Finally, early this week I threw something together with a picture of our dogs that we’d used before. I wasn’t thrilled with it, so I printed one out and set it aside.

By Wednesday, I knew I had to do something. I’d also realized that I wasn’t quite done with shopping, and I mentioned to DH that I was feeling really stressed. Awesome guy that he is, he asked what he could do. I told him to make moonshine (not real moonshine, just store-bought stuff with flavoring added, but very good), which I’d promised to some of my coworkers. He then took a big load off. He said the Christmas card I’d printed out was fine, so why not send them out.

You see, he was the one who’d always made a big deal of the designed cards, and had been disappointed the year I used Shutterfly. So that was a lot.

I printed them out. Then realized I only had eight envelopes for 8-1/2 x 11 paper folded in quarters. Not a size I can just run down to the corner drugstore to buy. ::headdesk::

So I took off work a couple hours early on Friday, bought a box of cards, and sent those out, along with eight of the homemade cards.

But it all makes me wonder, how much of our stress comes from our own expectations of ourselves? How many of us put a ridiculous effort into extensive decorating, fixing the perfect holiday dinner, buying the perfect gifts–when those they’re supposed to be for don’t expect it, and are just happy we’ve done whatever it is for them?

Which brings me around to the rest of my ROW80 goals. I certainly expected too much of myself, thinking I’d get any writing done with everything else that needed to be done. Here’s the details:

2,500 words on combined WIPs – No
Keep up with writing workshop assignments – Done (and the workshop is done)!
Website: figure out custom programming needed on product page – No
Fitness 4 times – Done!
Get Christmas cards out, complete rest of shopping – Done!

I figure I did well to get done what I did. This week will be better. I still have to wrap gifts, am hosting dinner, and my house is a disaster, but I have help if I need it, i.e. DD is home from college. I need to put in a few hours at work tomorrow, but am otherwise taking off until after New Year’s–my yearly present to myself. 😀 I think this Round officially ends on Christmas, but my goals are weekly, and I plan to work on the non-holiday goals Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so here goes:

Wrap Christmas presents, and finish everything else needed for the holiday
2,500 words on combined WIPs
Website: figure out custom programming needed on product page

What about you–do you expect more of yourself than others, once you think about it (or ask)? If you celebrate Christmas, are you ready for it? And if you’re doing ROW80, did/are you hitting your goals? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, December 15, 2013

Awakening-ebook600 A few weeks ago, I blogged about designing a book cover for a writer friend. It’s out now, and I’m about 2/3 through reading it, and WOW! Winterjacked: Rude Awakening by Athena Grayson about what happens when the Winter King–who doesn’t quite know who he is–is going through a mid-life crisis. There’s romance, mischievous fey folk, seasonal mayhem, and yes, holiday magic. So if you think you might enjoy an urban fantasy that’s definitely different, pick this one up NOW! The ebook is on introductory sale for a limited time for just $2.99. It will be out in print soon too, for those who prefer paper.

I am really pleased with how this cover came out, too–even more so as I read the book, because wow, does it go with it perfectly! I can’t take credit for that–the author gave me excellent direction, and also helped find some of the stock photos. She also listened to me when I explained why some of the photos she found wouldn’t work, and together we came up with a winner IMNSHO!

But enough about me. Here’s what Rude Awakening is all about:

Sometimes you reinvent yourself…Sometimes you redefine reality.
Jack Winters lost his perfect, upwardly-mobile life (along with the perfect, upwardly-mobile wife) when it intersected with a pack of fantastical creatures. He’s spent three years determined to ignore the Things that want to call him Master, and kept his failures frozen under a thick layer of isolation from even his closest friends. But when a holiday reunion presents him with the woman who Might Have Been, suddenly the impossible doesn’t seem so improbable anymore…

Lin Sanada thought she was long over her college crush and the missed connections that kept her and Jack Winters “just friends” for nearly twenty years. She’s moved on, and left wishful thinking behind. But when a winter night, a full moon, and a little magic lead her into a very real relationship with the man of her dreams, she finds a reality far more fantastical than her wildest imaginings…

To the young, impossible dreams are magic. At forty, they’re a mid-life crisis.

If Jack wants to earn a new chance at a future, he’ll have to confront all the raw wounds failure left on his expectations. And he’ll have to choose: keep clinging to the shreds of his old life…or make a whole new reality.

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble (other retailers coming soon)

That was in my ROW80 goals a few weeks ago. As for this past week’s goals:

2,500 words on combined WIPs – Done!
Keep up with writing workshop assignments – Done!
Test and refine shipping calculations and Paypal integration for website – Done!
Fitness 4 times – Partial (3x)
Pick out Christmas cards, figure out rest of gift list, complete online shopping – Partial – online shopping complete, but still no cards

For this week, we’re going to keep down the same path:

2,500 words on combined WIPs
Keep up with writing workshop assignments
Website: figure out custom programming needed on product page
Fitness 4 times
Get Christmas cards out, complete rest of shopping

What about you–have you had a plan come together lately? If you celebrate Christmas, how are your plans coming together? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, December 1, 2013

Yesterday, I pasted the text of my novel (with a bit of the secondary novella tossed in) into the NaNoWriMo word count verifier. It told me I was a WINNER! I also got to see a funny video of the NaNoWriMo office staff cheering. It was a great feeling. So yes, one big goal accomplished.

But what about all those who signed up for NaNoWriMo but didn’t write 50,000 words last month? That’s where I take issue with the whole “winner” thing. IMO, if someone stated a challenging goal, whatever that might be, and achieved it, that person’s a winner. Same if someone’s not a writer–that goes for other goals, too! And for those NaNoWriMo participants who may not have hit 50,000, but got a lot more written than they might otherwise have done, that’s a great accomplishment.

I will admit, it was nice to see that, and good to hit that goal! Here’s how the rest went:

Finish out NaNoWriMo by writing 11,000 words on either story or both: DONE!
Review remaining lessons for Promotions workshop: DONE!
Finish Shopping Cart and Checkout pages for website: Partial–not done, but made progress. Top priority this week.
Fitness 4 times, even if short: Partial–got 3x in.
Survive Thanksgiving: DONE! And it went very nice, until my dog jumped on a friend and twisted his leg (the dog, not the friend), and later, my mom slipped on ice at the edge of our porch and wound up with a fractured kneecap. She was just thankful it wasn’t worse, and it happened after the meal.

So what’s up for this month? Survive Christmas, obviously. Again, small family makes that easier, though some are tricky to buy gifts for as they have everything. I also plan to keep working on my WIPs, though at a much slower pace: 300-500 words/day, and get that website done! I also have another one to do, but this is just porting an existing design into WordPress, and won’t be difficult. Oh, and I’m taking another online workshop–normally not something I’d take on in December, but this is the last time they’re offering it, so I really wanted to get in on it. With the reduced word count, it should be OK to fit in, especially as I was able to keep up with the other one during NaNoWriMo. We’ll see! Here’s the plan for this week:

2,500 words on combined WIPs
Keep up with new writing workshop & assignments
Finish Checkout pages for website
Fitness 4 times, even if short
Figure out what I’m doing for Christmas cards and gift list

What about you–have you WON any big goals lately? Or maybe even some not-so-big ones? If you participated in NaNoWriMo, how did you do? And if you’re in the U.S., how was your Thanksgiving? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, November 24, 2013

Sometimes, you get stuck on a project. You’ve tried powering through, you’ve tried researching possible solutions, you’ve tried banging your head on the keyboard (or whatever), and you get to a point where the only thing left to do is walk away.

And this can be the best thing to do. I don’t mean permanently, but just take a break and go do something else. Later, I’ll usually come back to the first project with an a-ha solution to whatever was blocking me!

This is something I’ve internalized years ago at the day job (I am a web developer), and it works for other things, too–graphic design projects, sewing, even restoring a car (my husband’s current hobby project). This week, I was reminded that it’s great for the writing, too.

The “something else” we walk away to doesn’t even need to be something entirely different–it can be a different project of the same type. A different web development project, a different part of the garment I’m constructing, a different part of the car in restoration–or a different story.

I didn’t think I could work on two stories at once, but I tried it yesterday, and my wordcount added up fabulously fast!

It might be because the project I switched to is related to the primary project–a short story in the same world, and almost functions as a subplot, so while it was different, it wasn’t too different.

So I met the writing portion of my ROW80 goals by doing something seemingly counterproductive–by walking away.

Here’s how the rest went:

12,000 words on WIP: split between 2 WIPs, but I’m calling this one Done!
Review video lessons for Promotions workshop first three weeks and take notes: partial–got through 2-1/2 weeks.
Refine layout of Shopping Cart page for family member’s web site: Partial–worked on it, but it’s not quite finished.
Fitness 4 times, no matter how short: Done!

Here’s what’s up for this week:

Finish out NaNoWriMo by writing 11,000 words on either story or both
Review remaining lessons for Promotions workshop
Finish Shopping Cart and Checkout pages for website
Fitness 4 times, even if short
Survive Thanksgiving–yes, it’s that time! And yes, I’m hosting, but this won’t be difficult, as my family is small and others contribute.

What about you–have you had to “walk away” from a project lately? Did you come back to it with renewed vigor and ideas? If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, are you on track to hit 50,000 words by Saturday? If you’re in the U.S., what are your plans for Thanksgiving? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, November 17, 2013

This week served as a reminder of something I’ve blogged about before, but tend to forget on occasion: the best way to manage my to-do list is to not put too much on it in the first place!

This was one of those “took on too much” weeks. Not horrendously so, but there were things I simply did not get to. There are only so many hours in a day, and when a fixed amount of them must be spent on the paycheck job, and a necessary amount spent doing things like sleeping, and eating, that’s an even more limited time for the “other stuff,” which in my case includes writing, book cover designs, promotion of my writing (which I do next to none of anyway), projects and gifts for family and friends, spending time with those family and friends…

I read a business/productivity book not too long ago that suggested dividing the to-do list into an A-list, B-list, and C-list. The A-list are things that must be done that day, and should contain no more than three or four things. The B and C lists are nice-to-haves, with the B being the higher priority of the two, and both of these should ideally only contain one thing.

I have my three lists, but they’d grown longer than they should have. So this week, it’s back to basics.

One of those basics for me, of course, is writing, and my writing often necessitates research. I ran across an interesting tidbit a while back that I considered using, but decided wouldn’t fit. Still, it’s interesting enough to share here:

My Town Monday Fun Fact: Dayton’s First Murder and First Unsolved Death

Dayton was settled in 1796, but the frontier town managed to avoid the most heinous of crimes for its first ten years. That changed on November 20, 1806, settler/farmer John Aiken beat his wife to death. No one had seen it coming–the Aikens had been good, upstanding citizens who paid their bills and got along with everyone, including, at least to all outward appearances, each other.

Aiken went to trial only five days later, speedy even for those days. He was a blubbering mess and couldn’t even speak for himself, so an associate (who’d also been charged with helping to cover up the crime) helped him hire an attorney. The men posted bail, and the trial was rescheduled.

John Aiken never made it out of the courthouse–he literally collapsed and died on the spot. There are no records to indicate why or how. The case against his associate was later dropped due to lack of evidence.

For more on this and other tales of historical bad-assery in Dayton, check out Spilt Blood by Curt Dalton, who operates Dayton History Books Online, one of my Best. Research. Sources. Ever. Mr. Dalton has published Spilt Blood, and several of his other wonderful books in their entirety on the site.

ROW80 Update:

Here’s how last week shook out. Not bad considering how much I’d loaded on:

12,000 words on WIP – I actually only got 10,700, but I’m still on track for NaNoWriMo since I banked some words early in the month, so I’m going to count this as Done!
Keep up with lessons and homework for Promotions workshop – Done!
Refine layout of Shopping Cart page for family member’s web site – This was the one I just. Didn’t. Get to.
Fitness 4 times, no matter how short – Done!
Book cover design – still have to make a few tweaks, but I’ll consider this one Done!

This week’s goals are a little different, since the workshop wrapped up. Also, I’m spending the day Saturday with some out of town friends, so I really need to bank the words for that, as I don’t have any more banked for NaNoWriMo. We’ll see how it goes!

12,000 words on WIP
Review video lessons for Promotions workshop first three weeks and take notes
Refine layout of Shopping Cart page for family member’s web site
Fitness 4 times, no matter how short

What about you–have you found yourself taking on too much lately? Are you afraid you will next month, with the holidays on the way? If you’re doing NaNoWriMo and/or ROW80, how are you doing? Or if you’re not, how are you doing on whatever goals you might have? Do you know anything about the first murder to have happened where you live? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, November 10, 2013

I have had one of those weeks where I’ve forgotten everything, it seems. I forgot two people’s birthdays–one of my best friends’ from college, and a relative who’s also a writing friend. (Still need to contact the relative… 😳 ) I forgot about Election Day, until Mr. Goodwrench reminded me of it the night before. Luckily, there wasn’t much on our ballot, so I read up on the items at work and stopped by the thankfully-deserted polls on the way home. I would have forgotten a get-together with former and current coworkers if one of them hadn’t texted me earlier that day. I would have forgotten to pick up my Market Day food order, if the coworker who runs it hadn’t mentioned it, and I hadn’t entered a reminder in my smartphone (thank you, Cozi!).

But one thing I haven’t forgotten is my writing. NaNoWriMo has gone well so far, though it’s been a push at times (and isn’t it supposed to be?). Maybe my brain’s so full of fictional people and events that they’re taking over the real world stuff? Or is it just the fact that I’m getting close to “a certain age?” Enquiring minds, you know…

Luckily, I did not forget my ROW80 check-in either, so here it is:

12,000 words on WIP – Done!
Keep up with lessons and homework for Promotions workshop – Done!
Refine layout of Shopping Cart page for family member’s web site – Partial–this ended up being more extensive than I thought, but I made good progress.
Fitness 4 times, no matter how short – Partial (I got 3x in)

Since those are working for me, but still challenging, I”ll stick with the same goals this week. Oh, and add one more: A book cover design. This is for someone who’s not only a good friend, but also my Ideal Reader, so it’s a must. It’s also going to be a fun project, and she’s given me some excellent direction, so I’m looking forward to working on it.

What about you–do you find yourself forgetting things when one becomes more dominant in your life, or do you think it’s just age? If you’re doing ROW80 and/or NaNoWriMo, how are you doing? If you’re not, do you have other goals you’re working on, and how are those going? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, November 3, 2013

My mom has been working on some massive decluttering for the past few years. Some of it is her stuff, but most came from her mother, who passed away a few years ago and had the classic depression-era “collector” mentality. Mom has some health issues, so it’s been slow going at times, but when she’s able, she works on one pile of stuff at a time. Eventually, a pile gets cleared, then a stack, then a whole corner of a room.

She’s still working on it, and it may take a while, but baby steps really do get the job done.

The same goes for our writing, as many of us embark on NaNoWriMo starting this week. For the uninitiated, that’s National Novel Writing Month, a challenge in which the goal is to write 50,000 words–the equivalent of a short novel–in one month. I’ve done it–and won–twice. But it sounds daunting if you’re not a writer, or if you’ve never done it. And indeed, it’s a lot, and it takes dedication. But so does decluttering something like what my mom’s working on, and the same approach can work to getting through a big goal like NaNoWriMo.

Just write a sentence. Then the next. And the next. And the next thing you know, you’ll have a paragraph. A page. A scene. A chapter.

Baby steps really do get the job done.

To that end, I break my NaNoWriMo goal down into weekly goals, as part of my ROW80 goals. This week’s goals were:

4500 words on WIP – close! I got 4,000. I’m happy with that.
Keep up with lessons and homework for Promotions workshop – I got the lessons done, will do the homework today (it’s due tonight).
Refine layout of Shopping Cart page and individual product page for family member’s web site – No
Fitness 4 times, no matter how short – No

Looks like I need to get back into that baby step mentality for the website and fitness. We’ll work on that this week:

12,000 words on WIP
Keep up with lessons and homework for Promotions workshop
Refine layout of Shopping Cart page and individual product page for family member’s web site
Fitness 4 times, no matter how short

What about you? If you’re doing NaNoWriMo and/or ROW80, how are you doing? If not, are you working on some other goal? Have you tried the baby step approach? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

Life and Love in Four Dimensions

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My Town Monday Fun Fact: Dayton’s First Murder and First Unsolved Death

ROW80 Update: