As I have been doing for the past couple of weeks, I have two free books up for the next 5 days as my small way of helping people cope during this difficult time. I know it's not much, but if I can help entertain and help cheer people up for a small amount of time that makes it all worth it. I am happy to say that over the past few weeks I have given away over 150 ebooks to people! And here are the two new ones available:
mybook.to/Looted
mybook.to/PortStoneDangersSwamp

Sorry it has been awhile since I blogged. As all of you know, times have gotten a bit crazy of late and I just didn't have it in me to blog, or really write in any way. I am coping the best I can, trying to stay in and self isolate as much as possible even though I still have to work the day job. Still working and not being able to social distance has me worried, but I am trying to be as safe as I can. I hope that all of you are as well.

For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to do my part to help people cope and maybe even entertain them as they are at home. Every 5 days or so I am putting two of my books up for free. I realize I should have been blogging each of these times, but as I said writing has been hard while giving is rather easy.

The two free books for the next 5 days are two of my popular releases, two holiday themed paranormal romances that will hopefully distract you for awhile.


mybook.to/NotSoSilentNight
mybook.to/VeryFriendlyBeasts

Sorry that I have been silent for a couple of weeks, I was sick recently. Not with Covid-19, but with a regular code that lingered on. Not going to lie, this was a terrible time to be sick. I was worried if I had the novel virus. I am still worried that I might catch it. I have a compromised immune system at the best of times. My spouse and I still have to go to work. We are not able to isolate, though I am trying to stay in other than work and necessary trips to the store.

These are certainly crazy times we are living in. The stores are bare half of the time. People are hoarding all the toilet paper. I am lucky enough to have tp and food for a couple of weeks with the exception of needing to go out for milk and fresh fruits and vegetables. That does not mean that I am not scared. If I get sick and use up all my paid time off, well I am not sure what I will do. If I run up a huge hospital bill, I don't know what I will do.  And I know a lot of people are feeling much the same.

So what do we do in these crazy times? I wish I knew. We try to be healthy. We do what we can to be safe. We wash our hands. We stay in as much as possible. We try to help each other out when we can. We need to stop hoarding food and goods. Take what you need and leave some for others. We need to urge stores to open an hour in the morning for seniors only so they can shop and be safe. We do what we can to stay sane while home in times of stress. For me that means art, reading, writing, and exercising. You need to do what you can to stay safe, healthy, and sane. And we need to treat each other with kindness and dignity. Be safe everyone.

Today I want to talk about flexibility. Not in the body, though I did think of this topic while doing yoga, but in mind. I am on a journey to better myself this year and I am trying to learn to not be so hard on myself, to be more flexible if you will. I have a pretty busy life and I often put pressure on myself to do it all. I work a day job that pays most of the bills so of course that has to be a top priority. I am passionate about keeping myself healthy and in shape, so passionate that I have become a personal trainer and am continuing my education and starting a whole new adventure that will hopefully become at least a side business. I like to create art. I have a spouse and a pup to spend time with, plus friends and a social life. And of course I write. Here on this blog and in the books that I create. I often set expectations to try and at least touch upon all of these activities every day. This leads me to become overwhelmed on a daily basis. If I don't check off everything on my daily to do list I beat myself up. That is not a healthy or realistic way to live. 

So what is the answer? To cut myself some slack. To be flexible when it comes to my to do list, in my expectations of myself. Some days are going to be busier than others. Some days I may have a chance to create art, but not to write. I need to learn to be okay with that. Life is about finding balance, being flexible, being content and happy. This is something that I am still working on but at least I think that I am moving in the right direction.

How about you? Are you flexible in your own life? Are you too a work in progress? In truth we all are. Always learning and growing each day of our lives.

This week I have been struggling with a topic that would be relevant to this blog. Then it hit me, why not something that is relevant to everyone? Like stepping outside of your comfort zone, no matter in what context. What had me thinking about this? Well this year I have been pushing myself out of my comfort zone a lot in order to learn and grow as a person, an author, a professional. We have to step outside of our norm in order to grow. Yes it is scary and unsettling, but also exhilarating at the same time. That is what happens when you dream big and chase after them.

Take me for instance. This year I have already become a certified personal trainer. This was way out of my comfort zone. I had not studied for anything in a long time. I was so nervous the day of the test. But I passed with flying colors and have already taken some continuing education courses to further my knowledge. This experience has given me more confidence in myself. I feel great to have accomplished this when I thought it might be too hard for me. This has in turn helped me with my own workouts and I am feeling better physically than I have in a long time. I am in the process of getting my YouTube channel and website for training up and running and this too is scary but so exciting at the same time. Who knew that at this point in my life I would find a new passion and a new direction to travel in?

This year I am also trying to push myself as an author. I am trying new genres, like science fiction. I am pushing for longer works, rather than staying in my comfort zone of being a novella queen. I am playing with the idea of releasing a book of poetry, something very personal and scary, but I think that it will benefit me to be scared of what I am releasing. All of this is scary for me, but I think this is what will take me to the next level as an author.

So what are you dreaming about but are a little scared to try? What is the worst that will happen? Why not give it a try and see what happens, see what you learn in the process? 

I'm back! Even though I have cut blogging back to once, maybe twice a week, so far this year it has been a challenge. Part of the reason is because I am unsure on what I should be blogging about. This is my author blog, but I don't have any new releases coming up soon. Should I just give writing updates? Writing tips? Life updates? Talk about chasing goals of all sorts, writing related and more? I am choosing the later for the course of this blog, at least for right now. Plus I hope to have more guest blogs from other authors and reviews too. This blog, like me, is a work in progress.

So with that very lengthy and rambling intro, today I am going to talk about still moving towards your goals even when times are tough. Last week for me for instance, was a tough one. My dog had to go in for surgery on Monday and it was a rough couple days recovery wise Monday night and Tuesday. (He is much better now. He still has stitches and is not happy about having to wear a t-shirt to cover them, but he is back to normal and doing great!) I had some work related stress. My health decided to make me miserable for a bit. All in all not a great week.

It was just a rough week and let me just say that I did not get as much done as I had planned or would have liked. My writing word count was so low I don't even want to post it. I didn't finish editing a collection of essays that I want to send my editor. I didn't get as much art done as I planned (I consider painting miniature for gaming art as well and I am trying to finish my Age of Sigmar army at long last). I took 4 days off from all exercise for health reasons. All in all I felt like I was not moving towards any of my goals and that frustrated me.

Then I took a step back and looked at my planner. Yes there were a lot of things not crossed off, but there were things that I did manage to do. I worked the day job and hey that pays the bills. I got back to exercising and managed 3 good days of workouts once I was feeling better. I read. I did finish one painting of a miniature. I took a continuing education course on Type II diabetes prevention and management for my personal trainer certification. I did do some editing and a little bit of writing. All of these seem like small steps, but hey they each took me closer to my goals. I think that is what we all need to remember. Small steps are what help you make the greater gains.

What goals are you working towards this week? This month? This year? What steps have you already taken to reach your goals? I bet if you look back over even just a month and a half that you have already made some great progress! If not? Well this is a great day to take a small step.

Since we are still close to the beginning of the year, I have been focusing a lot on the goals that I have for the year. As I have already talked about, I have reached one huge goal already by becoming an ACE Certified Personal Trainer! I am currently working on getting set up to start my YouTube channel and getting my website up to continue on with that goal. But that was just the beginning of my goals.

However one lesson that I learned by studying got my personal trainer is the benefits of concentrating on one goal at a time. When my test date got close, studying was my main priority (after the day job and life stuff) and it certainly paid off by helping me pass my test and pass easily. Now I am usually one to have a ton of things going on all at once. And truly that is not going to change much as I still have a lot of goals in different areas of my life. That said, I am going to try to only focus on one goal at a time in each area of my life. I want to give my all to each of my projects and I think doing one at a time will be quite helpful.

So that means one writing project at a time, something that is going to be super hard for me as I am usually have at least three stories going at once. This of course means that no one is my main focus. So this month I am going to work on getting a collection of non-fiction essays to my editor. Then I will work on a contemporary romance that is half written. Then when that is finished I will move on to my next project. Writing one thing at a time will be a challenge but I really hope it helps my productivity and quality too.

For my personal training business, I will work on my website first. Then getting all the equipment that I need for my YouTube channel. Small steps will lead to big success eventually. And that is the process that I am going to take with all the goals I have in my life. Small steps towards success!

Over the weekend I celebrated yet another year of being alive. As my best friend says, I am now 21... times two. lol So is she by the way. Now I am not one that does not necessarily enjoy my birthday, too many not so pleasant birthdays in the past. I try to keep it low key, yet depression still seems to set in on my birthday. This year my spouse and I had a lovely day out. Walking, shopping, art, good food and wine, and each other. Still my melancholy would not leave.

But now that my birthday, and the long and harsh January for that matter, are behind me, I am truly looking forward to the new year! I have lots of plans for this year and I am trying my best to be positive and optimistic for the coming months. Last month I sent one novella off to my editor, this month I will get a collection of essays off to her, and hopefully next month I will get a romance off to her as well. I have also started a sci-fi novel that I am pretty excited to be writing. So things are looking good on the writing front.

I am also excited to put my personal trainer certification to use! I need to get things set up for my YouTube channel, but I am working on a list of videos I want to shoot and I am working on my website already. I am also available for in person training now, though I specialize in functional fitness for people with illness and/or recovering from injury. I will have my website up soon for online consultation. And of course soon there will be free YouTube videos for all. This is all very exciting for me and something that I have been working hard for.

I am also excited to keep making art and experimenting for new art forms, though I think I am only going to produce art for art's sake, no more art shows for me for the foreseeable future. Still I will be showing art here on my blog and website. I will also be working on finishing my Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar armies too.

And of course I still have a Harry Styles concert to look forward to this summer. I can't tell you how excited I am! All in all I can just feel that this will be a great year!

This year I am making an effort to share more from other indie authors. This week I am featuring one of my favorites, Leona Bushman!  I thought that I would feature one of her paranormal romances, one of her specialties!

Wolves are their mortal enemies, and she's mated to one.

Sabrina, a witch, had grown up on tales of the horrors of werewolves. She'd never thought much about it, never having met one, until one bit her against her will, seemingly proving her mother and the rest of the coven right.

Now, she had to face them at the yearly pilgrimage to Avebury from Stonehenge. On her way, her mate found her. Now she had his life to worry about too.

Treyan found his mate, but was confused that she had no idea about her pack... Then he discovered her real heritage. A witch. Of all the people to be mated to, he had to find a witch, the mortal enemies of the werewolves for half a millennia.

And on a supermoon month. He vowed to help protect her, even from her own coven if necessary. But would it be enough against centuries of prejudice, or would they both die in a fiery maelstrom by the coven's hand?

Re-edited version from out of print Magic and Weres anthology. 15% bigger.
​Only .99 cents!!
Link: mybook.to/WitchyWolf

How can the first month of 2020 almost be over already? Time sure flies when your January is packed and full of stress I guess! This has indeed been a busy and pretty stressful January for me. This past weekend I had my personal trainer exam and I am happy to report that I passed with flying colors! I spent most of this month studying hard and my hard work paid off! Now I can embark on a new challenge, setting up a YouTube channel and website for my personal training career. I am so proud of myself and am excited to move on in this career!

Now that I am no longer cramming for a tough test,  I can start to refocus on other goals in my life. Back to working out for my own health, I hate to admit that last week was so packed with studying that yoga and cardio fell to the wayside for me. Ironic considering what I was studying for. I can also get back to writing! I have a few more days in this month and I plan on getting my Christmas novella off to my editor before the end of the month! I also have had time to think about submitting a non-fiction essay collection to her and have even thought about putting out a poetry book this year! Not to mention that I have a contemporary romance half written and I have the third and last book in the Port Stone series to finish! So it is still going to be a big year for me as an author as well!

The year is just beginning, but I feel like I have accomplished a lot and the rest of 2020 will only get better from here! At least that is the hope!

How has your January been? Let me know in the comments!