My husband and I are going into week 3 of semi-isolation. My husband’s employer mandated that the casino and hotel where he works shut completely down on March 16th. Since then he’s been back twice to finish up a couple of unfinished tasks, but the place is basically abandoned. Only the security crew has to stay on property during the shut down. The Baer House, too has been pretty darn quiet. We’re not on lock down, but nobody’s traveling. We have been getting daily cancellations since the second week of March. We currently have no reservations at the inn until the very first part of June. (more…)
Archive for the ‘grammar’ Category
Help – I’m Stuck In A Rut And I Can’t Get Out!
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…)
The P Is Silent
Posted in authors, Baer House Inn, blogging, Family, Fiction, grammar, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, weird, words, writing, tagged baby names, children's names, grammar, kids, name variations, names, odd names, phonetics, pronunciation, spell check, spelling, unusual, variations, weird names, women's names on February 3, 2020| 8 Comments »
Words are weird. I’m not sure who originally decided how a word should be spelled, but sometimes I just shake my head. Seems like very few words are actually spelled like they should be. I’ve always been a pretty good speller and my grammar is probably better than average, but there are still those stupid words that jam me up every time. I stumble over words that end in le or el. Angel is not the same thing as angle. And you can’t rely on spell check to catch those mistakes. (more…)
Creative Space
Posted in authors, Baer House Inn, blogging, books, Fiction, fingers, goals, grammar, humor, inspiration, Jansen Schmidt, motivation, On Common Ground, On Hallowed Ground, reading, resolutions, success, words, writers, writing, tagged candles, comfortable, crafts, desk, desk chair, fountains, gentlemen's parlor, incense, ladies parlor, music, office, office space, office supplies, parlor, parlors, private space, scents, sherry, tea, whiskey, writing space, zen on December 9, 2019| 6 Comments »
I kind of have an office now. Sort of. For the past couple of years I’ve been writing either in the kitchen or the basement, neither of which are really conducive for writing. It’s been working, but it’s not comfortable. Or pretty. Sometimes you need pretty.
Workshops, Webinars & Awards Oh My!
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…)
The Things You Find In The Name of Research
Posted in acting, authors, beach, blogging, books, camera, Family, Fiction, friends, grammar, humor, Jansen Schmidt, laughter, social media, travel, words, writers, writing, tagged discovering, facts, funny, funny songs, funny video, Google, learning, parody, rabbit hole, research, time suck, wasted time, Youtube on July 15, 2019| 4 Comments »
As a writer I spend copious amounts of time researching. Yes that’s right. Even though I write fiction, there are things that still have to be researched because, unless I’m writing about a completely made-up world, people are going to know if I’m not describing a person, place or thing correctly. Ergo – research.
I Could Be A Double Winner!
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…)
Toto, We’re Not In Kansas Anymore
Posted in authors, Baer House Inn, blogging, books, breakfast, Christmas, Family, Fiction, food, grammar, health, hill billy, Holidays, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, redneck, sports, travel, Uncategorized, Vicksburg, words, writing, tagged chicken, chicken dinner, chitlins, cracklins, Faulkner, food, football, Halloween, hunting, hunting season, kale, Kansas, kumbachu, Mississippi, pork rinds, quinoa, unexplained, weird, Welty on March 4, 2019| 12 Comments »
I’ve lived in Mississippi for almost 4 years now and there are still some things that I just can’t comprehend. Mostly I love the laid back way of life and southern hospitality. I love the charming small town feel of a lot of places in this great state. Other things, I don’t get. At all. (more…)
In With the New
Posted in Amazon.com, authors, blogging, books, Family, Fiction, goals, grammar, humor, Jansen Schmidt, reading, resolutions, short story, social media, success, writers, writing, tagged advertising, authors, books, computers, Facebook, Facebook ads, marketing, marketing plan, novel, photos, photoshop, pixels, sales, software, technology on February 11, 2019| 7 Comments »
So I’ve been spending a LOT of time lately learning how to market my book. For those of you who are not writers, let me just say that when you write “the end,” you’re only about a third of the way done with that story. Next comes rounds of editing and proofreading to get it exactly right and then comes the selling part. This is the hardest, yet most important part. After all, what good is a really good book with an amazing cover if nobody knows how to get their hands on it? (more…)
Jansen Schmidt Author
Pinterest
Twitter Updates
- RT @CJBurright: Escape the real world for a while and find your next favorite contemporary romance book! books.bookfunnel.com/contemporaryro… https://t.… 14 hours ago
- 3 of 5 stars to This Gun for Hire by Jo Goodman goodreads.com/review/show/32… 14 hours ago
- bit.ly/OHGNook - bit.ly/OHGKobo #IndieApril #IndieBooksBeSeen #sale #booksforsale twitter.com/JansenSchmidt/… 15 hours ago
- @slkpcme amazon.com/Common-Ground-… #IndieBooksBeSeen #IndieApril 15 hours ago
- This is my husband's favorite flavor of Bush's beans. #APRIL #AprilFoolsDay #tricks https://t.co/YBspl5Yt3o 17 hours ago
Goodreads
My short story anthologies
Writing on the Walls anthology
Writing on the Walls Anthology-
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
Meta
Awards
Kreativ Blogger Award
The Sunshine Award
Word Bloggers Award
Liebster Award
Follow Us
Has It Been That Long?
Posted in authors, blogging, Family, Fiction, friends, goals, grammar, humor, Jansen Schmidt, social media, success, words, writers, writing, tagged analytics, blog followers, blogging, blogging anniversary, comments, first blog, followers, history, knickerbocker, new tricks, no way, patterns, technology, titles, words on November 4, 2019| 13 Comments »
While I was composing my blog for this week, I was having trouble coming up with a clever, cute, catchy title. I don’t know why because usually the title is the least of my blogging woes. But, for some reason I just could not decide on a title. So, I decided to scroll back through my previous posts and see if I could see a pattern or find an old post that I could resurrect or change the title a bit. And that’s when I found something I just couldn’t believe!
(more…)
Read Full Post »