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| 3 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.
Posted in Amazon.com, Baer House Inn, blogging, books, breakfast, Christmas, Family, Fiction, Holidays, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, On Common Ground, Vicksburg, weird, writing, tagged busy, crazy busy, Cyber Monday, dark glasses, Diva, Hallmark movies, hostess, January, Kentucky Derby, orange juice, pageantry, pajamas, sunglasses, Thanksgiving, toasting on December 2, 2019| 13 Comments »
I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and you survived the travel and stress of the long holiday weekend. To me Thanksgiving is really just the start of 6 weeks of chaos that is known as the “holiday season.” I don’t know how others feel, but this time of year often causes me great angst. I’m always glad when January rolls around and things settle down a bit. Not that I don’t love Christmas and all of the pageantry that accompanies it, but everything seems to be operating at hyper speed through the end of the year. (more…)
Posted in Autumn, dessert, desserts, Family, food, friends, Holidays, humor, Jansen Schmidt, pumpkins, sports, travel, watching tv, writing, tagged America, American history, first Thanksgiving, history, holiday traveling, Mayflower, Minnesota, parade, pilgrims, Puritans, Santa Claus, slow down, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day Parade, time, travel, traveling, venison, Wampanoag on November 25, 2019| 8 Comments »
Well, here we are again people. Thanksgiving and the cusp of the holiday gift-giving, shopping, binge eating season. It’s true what my parents always used to say, time goes by too quickly. Slow down and enjoy life.
Posted in authors, blogging, books, Family, Fiction, friends, humor, inspiration, Jansen Schmidt, motivation, resolutions, social media, success, writers, writing, tagged authors, book reviews, books, brave, bravery, courage, courageous, Cowardly Lion, critisicm, Dorothy, failure, intimidation, query, scary, success, Wizard of Oz, writers on November 18, 2019| 14 Comments »
“Alright, I’ll go in there for Dorothy. Wicked Witch or no Wicked Witch. Guards or no guards, I’ll tear ’em apart. There’s just one thing I want you guys to do…talk me out of it.”
We’re all familiar with the sweet cowardly lion from the movie, “The Wizard of Oz.” I mean who didn’t smile when he raised his big fluffy paws and said, “Put ’em up, put ’em up?” Or when he said, “I do believe in spooks! I do believe in spooks! I do, I do, I do, I do!” and yet he soldiered on with the rest of his oddball gang. How could you not love his devotion to Dorothy? And didn’t you just melt at the end of the movie when he said, “I never would have found my courage if it hadn’t been for you?” (more…)
Posted in Autumn, blooms, books, bucket list, cowboys, desert, deserts, Fiction, inspiration, Jansen Schmidt, mystical, On Common Ground, On Hallowed Ground, travel, vacation, words, writers, writing, tagged American Civil War, Arizona, Battle of Picacho Pass, cacti, cactus, Civil War, cliff dwellings, Confederate States, copper mines, copper mining, Copper State, evergreen trees, Flagstaff, forests, ghost towns, Gleeson, Goldfield, Grand Canyon, history, horseback riding, horses, Jefferson Davis, Jerome, mountains, Oak Creek Canyon, On Common Ground, On Hallowed Ground, Picacho Pass, Sedona, silver mining, snow, veterans day, western states, winter on November 11, 2019| 8 Comments »
The last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieved statehood on St. Valentine’s Day, 1912. It is part of both the western and the mountain states. It is the 6th largest and 14th most populous of the 50 states in the United States of America. The southern most part of the state is desert, with extreme high temperatures in the summer. The northern part of the state is mountainous and often sees significant snowfall in winter. (more…)
Posted in Amazon.com, authors, blogging, Carnival cruise, cruise, drinks, Family, Fiction, humor, Jansen Schmidt, laughter, travel, vacation, writing, tagged art, art at sea, art auction, art gallery, artists, at sea auction, auction, cheaters, contests, cruise ship, galleries, gallery, gift cards, gifts, guessing, hiatus, paintings, prizes, sculpture, ship on October 28, 2019| 4 Comments »
My blog is again on hiatus this week. I know, I know, I’m letting you down. But, I’ve been sort of crazy busy with other creative stuff and that’s more important right now. I do promise that I’ll be back next week with more of the same excitement you’ve grown to crave.
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 authors, Autumn, Baer House Inn, blogging, breakfast, Fiction, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, night time rituals, travel, vacation, Vicksburg, weird, writing, tagged bed, bed & breakfast, breakfast, check-in, credit card, disappearing, gates, gone missing, hello, innkeeping, inns, invisible, keys, missing, rooms, strange, what happened, what's up, why, windows on October 14, 2019| 16 Comments »
That’s right folks, you read the title correctly. I had some guests who simply – disappeared. They were here and then – they weren’t.
Posted in Autumn, Baer House Inn, blogging, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, laughter, travel, vacation, writing, tagged baggage, creativity, downstairs, elevators, heavy baggage, historic homes, historic inns, luggage, old houses, random, staircase, stairs, suitcase, technology, upstairs on October 7, 2019| 6 Comments »
In case you haven’t figured it out already, I own an historic home. It was built in 1870, which means, it has stairs. It also means it has no elevator. Because, guess what? There were no elevators in 1870. The first electric elevator didn’t come into existence until 1887. (That’s your history lesson for the day.) (more…)
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!
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