Jennifer Lyon

Archive for May, 2016

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Friday, May 13th, 2016
Happy Friday!

Another lightning quick week! I’m working in my usual insane fashion, desperately trying to write Ethan and Ana’s novella. As I’m writing this blog, I love the story so much I can hardly stand it. However the day before, I was banging my head on the desk and telling Wizard I quit. You know, in everything else I am streamlined, organized and efficient. But writing a book for me is a crazy-ass process that no amount of threats, wine or self-discipline has yet tamed!

However, I think this is what having true passion for our work looks like. It’s not all sunny happy days filled with puppies and chocolate rainbows :-) There has to be struggles or it’s not worth it.

Now let’s get to the weekend. Today I’m probably going to the movies with Wizard.  Saturday will be work and Sunday I’m going to lunch with Biker Witch (my sister) to catch up.  And I’ll work…because this novella now owns me until I get this draft done.

What are your plans? Whatever they are, hope you have a great weekend!

 

Wednesday, May 11th, 2016
Wednesday Worthy

You guys know what day it is! Hump Day! Which means it’s time to evaluate our Worthy Candidate! So while I’m (A) going to the gym in my battle with the bulge (the bulge is winning) and (B) writing the Novella With No Name, you all can take a gander at this guy:

 

Young muscular man with open jacket revealing muscular chest and abs.Portrait of a muscular young man in hood jacket posing on black background.Young man with athletic body posing on black background

What do you think, is he worthy?

P.S, I noticed that this guy is totally winning the battle of the bulge, not that I’m jealous or anything :-)

Monday, May 9th, 2016
Weekend Roundup

My weekend was awesome! Each of my kids either came over and spent time or called and talked (that was middle son who was out-of-town, but made time to call which made my day even better) It was all lovely and a perfect way for me to de-stress. I won’t go on and on (trust me, I can passionately talk about my kids and their amazing wife/girlfriends for hours). But I will mention that these Hot Fudge Cheesecake Brownies–

Hot fudge brownie cheesecake brownies, cut

–are KILLER GOOD and so rich they might just be deadly. Part of my Mother’s Day weekend was to take time off from writing on Saturday to test this recipe. It’s something I enjoy doing, I blast my Pod in my kitchen and bake. It’s really my happy place. Anyway, they came out soooo good! The only adjustment to the recipe I made was for the 3/4’s cup cocoa– I used a 1/2 cup regular Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa, and a 1/4 cup Hershey’s special dark unsweetened cocoa. I think it added a nice depth to the brownie portion of the treat. But you have to be a die-hard chocolate lover to enjoy this brownies. I begged Wizard to let me toss them yesterday to get the remainder out of the house, but he couldn’t bear to part with them. So after my totally indulgent weekend, I now must go back to practicing self-control :-(  Today I’m resuming my Weight Watcher’s program.

So an interesting thing happened as I spent a good portion of the weekend NOT thinking about the novella…I had great ideas to really develop and push my characters and create more tension in the plot. This almost always happens in this exact fashion. I do all the hard work developing the characters and plot, spend energy writing and rewriting, then for some reason step away. And it all begins to gel in my head. I still have work to do but it’s so much more fun now!

And lastly, my visit to the Social Security office Friday went fine and I should have my verification this week that the simple correction was put through (Fingers crossed on that!)  I had originally told Wizard not to go with me, but then he mapped where this office was located, and said, “I’m going.” As it turned out, he was right. Not an area I’d want to be alone in. So another point for Wizard, LOL.

Okay now I want to hear how YOUR weekend was!

Friday, May 6th, 2016
Happy Friday!

I’d like to take a moment to wish all the moms out there, every single one of you who have a child or who loves a child with that heart of a mother, I wish you all:

happy mother`s day

 

The weekend should be nice, but today…well don’t be jealous but Wizard and I are off to the local social security office to ask for a correction of a typo on my file. Sounds fun right??? Honestly this should be easy, just fixing a typo that no one ever caught in years and years. I’ve filled out forms and have all the documentation anyone could possible think of. But since we couldn’t even get through by phone to talk to a live person, and they don’t do appointments there, my hopes aren’t high for a quick and easy fix. We’ll see!

Otherwise, I’m planning to splurge this weekend by making the cheesecake brownies. Plus we’re going to dinner Saturday night with CPA Boy and Special K. I’m looking forward to it.  Other than that, I’m trying really hard on this novella. I still need a title too.

What are your weekend plans?

Wednesday, May 4th, 2016
Wednesday Worthy

I took a break from writing yesterday and watched Unique Sweets (LOVE that show) while I ate my plain boring snack of healthy almonds. Wizard was doing something on his computer when I asked: “So if I call in a bomb threat to a hotel, would they evacuate? Like the whole hotel?”

Wizard said, “I’d think so. They’d have to for liability.”

“But you don’t know?” I was agitated as per usual when writing. Obviously I was thinking about my book plot.

“Not a 100%.”

I frowned. “Should I call a hotel and ask?”

Wizard finally looked up and smirked at me. “Absolutely you should. Let me get the phone for you. Do it now.”

“Haha.” I turned off the TV and stomped back to my computer. “Never mind, I’ll just go blow something up. I really need to blow something up.”

“Can you say that again, I wasn’t recording.” He called after me and laughed.

And that’s why I’m not talking to Wizard anymore. Well at least I wasn’t up until he brought me a glass of wine at my computer and then helped me cook dinner :-)

So it’s Wednesday Worthy. I did my best, but you know, I was distracted.

Portrait Of A Very Muscular Sexy Man In Underwear At Swimming Pool

So the question is–would you let him save you from drowning? How about give you mouth-to-mouth?

Monday, May 2nd, 2016
Weekend Roundup

I blinked and it’s Monday again. Wow! So my weekend–Friday Wizard and I went to the movies and saw Mother’s Day. It had a couple funny moments but I’d wait for it on Netflix. Not really a spectacular movie. Then we had an early dinner and I came home to a revision letter from my editor on Savaged Dreams. Okay guys, get ready with your I told you so’s. First, there’s a lot of work to do on the book, that’s a given. The reason I hire Sasha to edit my books is that she’s tough but all her comments and suggestions are truly about developing the story and telling it in the best way possible. So this is an 18 point revision letter, definitely not for the faint of heart :-) But, the best part is right up front in the letter when Sasha says: “First, I have to tell you…I think this has the potential to be the best book(s) we’ve worked on together. You have a really great story here, fascinating characters, dramatic back story for each character that’ll hook readers” I love that so much! Especially since Sasha says exactly what she means. She went on to talk about being excited to read the next two books, confirming my decision to make this a three book series. I struggled so much with that and now feel validated. Sasha is my toughest critic–exactly as she should be.

However, before I tackle that, I’m going to try to get a little more done on this novella. After my Month of Darkness where I just couldn’t write, I’m connecting to these characters and want to get a very, very rough draft done. Then when I go back to revise, I’ll know the heart of the book.

I’m not going to give any release dates yet, all this is taking time, and as usual, I’m giving it my all.

Now I’m going to touch on something else. Many of your might have seen Elizabeth York’s FB posts about a reader who was buying and returning her books to Amazon, then sent Elizabeth a message, essentially demanding free books. This kind of stuff happens. You can see the original post here and then it devolves into something uglier here . I’m sure all of us have crossed paths with people like this (NOT Elizabeth! I don’t even know her, but I hear she’s lovely. I mean the woman demanding free books), and it’s very sad. But what I wanted to say is that most readers are nothing like this, and for that I am profoundly grateful. So thank you guys just for being you! Your support means so much to me, and to every single author I know. 

And as a side note, I’m not signing petitions and getting into the battle about returns on Amazon. That is a whole separate issue. It’s my view that returns are a cost of doing business. We need to remember that most readers are not abusing the system. And that a few rotten apples will always abuse the system. That’s the simply reality. I’m not going to push to make things more difficult for the majority of readers who might return a book for a genuine reason. Additionally, Amazon is a business too. The run their business the way they see fit, just as I run mine as I see fit. There are people out there who strongly disagree with my choice to have two of my books available for free (at the time I’m posting this blog and subject to change at any time). But it’s my business, and I can choose my marketing strategies.

And I think that’s enough of my rambling for this Monday! So how was your weekend?

 

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