Posted in authors, awards, blogging, books, Fiction, friends, goals, grammar, gratitude, humor, Jansen Schmidt, motivation, On Common Ground, On Hallowed Ground, positivity, reading, resolutions, romance, words, writers, writing, tagged 5 star review, 5 stars, awards, book awards, contests, InD'Tale Magazine, Indie authors, Indie books, novels, publishing, reader votes, reader voting, recommendations, reviews, romantic suspense, RONE, RONE award, self-published, self-publishing, stories, suspense, thriller, voting, writers on May 11, 2020| 8 Comments »
Collectively the world has suffered through a pandemic of enormous portions. For the most part, everyone has taken precautions to stop the spread of this virus. Together we have made a difference.
Now, I don’t know about you guys, but I sort of feel like a grizzly bear just waking up from a long hibernation. I’m ready to go out into the world, stretch my legs and explore. Spring is well underway here in the South and the world is full of rebirth and promise. (more…)
Posted in authors, awards, blogging, books, Family, Fiction, goals, grammar, humor, Jansen Schmidt, mystical, redneck, romance, success, words, writers, writing, tagged book covers, characters, cults, forest, free photos, Indians, kidnapping, marketing, men, Mexicans, photos, pictures, rut, stock photos, stuck, task force, vision on March 2, 2020| 11 Comments »
Okay, the title is a little misleading. I’m not really in a rut so much as I’ve been focusing on the same thing for too long that now I can’t see the forest for the trees. Have you ever been there? It’s kind of frustrating. Here’s my problem: I need to come up with a book cover for my next book and I’ve got nothing. (more…)
Posted in authors, awards, blogging, books, Family, Fiction, goals, grammar, Jansen Schmidt, reading, romance, short story, social media, success, words, writers, writing, tagged #amwriting, #writerslife, awards, classes, cliches, computer classes, different, education, learning, membership, seminars, story tropes, tropes, unique, webinars, workshops, writing awards, writing classes, writing groups, writing organizations on October 21, 2019| 4 Comments »
As a writer I’m always challenging myself to learn new things so that I can keep things fresh in my writing. I have this fear of running out of clever new ideas or that somewhere down the road my books might end up coming out looking suspiciously like some of the other books I’d previously written. Or worse yet, like someone else’s book. This popular saying come to mind, “There are no new stories, just new ways of telling them.” I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but most people in the business of writing tend to feel that way. (more…)
Posted in April, authors, awards, blogging, books, Fiction, friends, goals, grammar, humor, Jansen Schmidt, reading, romance, success, words, writers, writing, tagged awards, contest, finalist, literary award, On Common Ground, please help, please vote, RONE awards, vote, vote for me, western romance, western writers, WILLA Awards, winners, winning, women writers, Women Writing the West, writing contests, writing groups on April 29, 2019| 4 Comments »
That’s right folks, I could very well be a winner in not one, but two contests. A couple of months ago, I entered my book On Common Ground in the Willa Contest. What is the Willa Contest you ask? I’ve never heard of it, you say. Well, neither had I. Here’s the blurb from the Women Writing the West (WWW) website: (more…)
Posted in awards, Barbie, blogging, camera, Christmas, dogs, Family, friends, Holidays, humor, Jansen Schmidt, sports, toys, Vicksburg, writing, tagged Barbie, bikes, children, Christmas presents, cute, funny letters, kids, letters to Santa, newspaper, presents, random, Santa, Santa Claus, sweet, Xbox on January 7, 2019| 8 Comments »
So the holiday madness is behind us and all that’s left is the clean up. Yeah, that’s the part nobody really likes. I’m the person who likes to have everything cleaned up and put away by the end of the day on January 1. It doesn’t always work out that way, but it’s my goal. Not that I’m ready for the pretty sparkling lights to go away – because I’m not – but because I usually have an entire day on January 1st with nothing pressing to do, so I undecorate before the madness of “real” life settles back in. (more…)
Posted in awards, blogging, breakfast, dessert, desserts, dieting, drinks, Family, food, health, humor, Jansen Schmidt, resolutions, soup, travel, vacation, words, writing, tagged adventurous, all-you-can-eat, buffets, burgers, comedian, dieting, dining, food, funny, funny video, humor, John Pinette, losing weight, meat, New Years Resolutions, overeating, pizza, potatoes, restaurants, taste buds, Youtube on December 17, 2018| 10 Comments »
I don’t know about you, but I love to eat. I like all kinds of food and I like to try new foods. I know there are a lot of people, some of my readers included, who are basically burgers and pizza kind of people, but I’m adventurous when it comes to trying food. Oh sure, I like meat and potatoes as much as the next guy, but I also like to try stuff. Within reason. Some things I’m pretty sure I won’t eat. (more…)
Posted in authors, awards, blogging, books, drinks, Family, food, friends, goals, gratitude journal, health, Holidays, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, resolutions, success, travel, vacation, writers, writing, tagged clean-up, fallen tree, found items, good deeds, honor, integrity, left behind, lost items, mail, packages, returning things, silent deeds, thank you on December 10, 2018| 11 Comments »
I’m sure we’ve all heard this philosophical question at some point in our lives: If a tree falls in the forest, does it make any sound? There are arguments for those in the yes camp and arguments for those in the no camp. Is anybody right? I suppose we’ll never know.
Posted in Amazon.com, authors, awards, blogging, books, Family, Fiction, Free book, friends, grammar, humor, Jansen Schmidt, reading, resolutions, romance, short story, social media, success, words, writers, writing, tagged authors, Barnes & Noble, Book Bub, book buying, book recommendations, book reviewers, book reviews, e-books, Good Reads, Kindle, library, new authors, recommendations, star ratings on September 24, 2018| 18 Comments »
I know a lot of folks like to read. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say, there are a lot of folks who LOVE to read. I’m one of those folks. Most writers probably are. Everyone has their favorite authors, books, series, genres, etc. Me? I like to read lots of stuff. The only things I don’t read are science fiction, horror, and books that “preach” at me about anything. (more…)
Posted in authors, awards, blogging, bucket list, drinks, driving, Family, Fiction, friends, goals, Holidays, humor, Jansen Schmidt, reading, resolutions, success, vacation, words, writing, tagged 50 states, bucket list, games, guessing, guessing games, prize, prizes, traveling, winning on June 4, 2018| 7 Comments »
Today we’re going to play a game. I don’t know about you, but I love to play games. As in actual games with rules and prizes and stuff, not the emotional games game. I don’t play those games. Those are hurtful. But I digress. (more…)
