Pass the Optimism, Please

by Joanne Rock

As we close out a year and a decade, I’ve already started thinking about what’s on my To Do list for New Year’s resolutions—New Year’s Goals, really, since I tend to think about where I want to head next whenever the calendar changes.

The past year was a rough one for me, leeching away some of my hopes and faith in people, leaving holes in my heart. I’ve spent months trying to patch myself back together, pushing away old hurts to breathe deep and focus on the things I can control in life—my perspective, my projects, the people I let close to me. Sometimes, that’s all you can do after a loss. Put one foot in front of the other and keep moving.

But as the year comes to an end, I find I want to do more than just keep moving. In 2020, I’d like to patch up my weary soul and restore some of the optimism I seem to have lost. Unfortunately, that’s a goal that doesn’t come to fruition just by speaking the wish aloud. How do I recapture the old joy after a year of hurts?

First, I plan to unplug. Not right away, as I have work commitments to honor and I need to be online while I see those through. But once the bulk of my professional obligations have been met, I hope to take a hiatus from social media and even my phone. Remember the days before cell phones when you could go for a hike in the woods without anyone knowing where you were for the day? Granted, there is a reassuring sense of safety that comes with a cell tower signal. But there is also a sense of anonymity and adventure that is lost by being reachable 24/7. I think it would do me good to turn off the phone, disconnect, and just BE for a little while. I’ve looked outward for a long time, reaching my hand out to others whenever I could, and I’ve enjoyed that. But while I’m refilling the emotional well, I think focusing on just me could be helpful.

After that, I plan to re-nest. I’ve moved a lot in the past few years, and I think the merry-go-round of homes is a tangible reflection of the pieces of myself I’ve misplaced. I’d like to regroup in a physical way even as I regroup emotionally. I plan to find a home and lovingly remake it into my own space for a new phase of my life. My bedroom will be a place to invite good dreams. My workspace will be a place to invite stories in a way to encourage my Muse. Old things I don’t need will be re-homed and I want to store away as a little as possible. I’m going to create a clean, lean space that reflects me.

Next, I plan to travel, but not so much with a focus on places as on people. I have made many wonderful friends over the years, and some of them I haven’t seen in decades. I plan to reconnect with people I love by showing up in their hometowns and asking them to hang out with me. I’m calling it my Grand Tour. I don’t know how many people I’ll get to see this year, but even just seeing one or two friends so I can enjoy those old connections again feels like it would be spiritually renewing. I can’t wait for that part of the plan to happen.

Finally, through it all, I hope to be present to all the little moments I can be. My sons are grown, so I can now focus on me in a way that I haven’t in years. I loved my time with my boys at home, but now I will need to start loving this new phase of my life as it presents me with different opportunities and different people. I’m going to embrace the newness and find out what I can do to make the world a better place, or a happier place, with my time and talents. I’m trusting the universe to put those opportunities in my path.

Available 2/1/20

That’s my 2020! A new adventure. A new decade. A soul renewed. But it all starts with giving thanks for what I’ve learned up to this moment—even down to the hurtful things that have taught me what I’m made of. No one gets through this life unscathed, even optimists like me. Today, I feel weary. But I know that by year’s end, I will have wonderful new things to be thankful for, and it all starts with a plan for change. Cheers to you in the New Year, my friends. Thank you for reading my books and sharing my stories. I hope 2020 brings you all good things.

**What are you doing New Year’s Eve? Will you be mulling over the year to come? Smooching a loved one at midnight? Share with me and I’ll give one random poster an advance copy of RULE BREAKER, book 3 in my Mesa Falls series from Harlequin Desire.

Happy New Year....er....There Goes January!

What's that quote about the road to..somewhere being lined with best intentions? Yeah...that one.  I'm the kind of person who ends a year and begins the new one with the very BEST of intentions - about life, health, practices and commitments--but it doesn't take very long before I fall or drift away from them.

This year, 2017, it took me less than 3 days. Pitiful, right? My first resolution was to make sure to send out/actually mail physical birthday cards to my family and closest friends. Well, my son's birthday is January 4th and let's just say, no card was in the mail!  And I can neither confirm nor deny that my daughter-in-law's birthday card was in my purse until yesterday...

In my defense, I can say I have not been sitting around eating bonbons! I've been recovering from the holidays (which were wonderful!), writing A LOT (lots of stories needed words!), handling some family issues and working with my new website designer to get my new website ready for its launch! I've also been launching that website and holding an almost-month-long celebration of the site that ended yesterday.

Now, I'm looking at the end of January, what's next? Well, more writing, of course! I am in the middle of a new contract with Harlequin for more sexy Highlander romances (and the next one is underway). I'm also working on several other special projects that I can't really reveal just yet! Sorry to be a tease, but things are still in the works and once they're of
ficial, I'll share them widely and loudly. (very exciting stuff coming!!)

The best thing has been watching my grandbabies getting bigger by the day! Princess Alexis is 2 now and has unleashed her babbling - she's talking to everyone and everything but I'm lucky to understand every 10th word! The funniest thing is that she can clearly say 'aubergine' rather than eggplant. Princess Sydney is 14 months now and has discovered her favorite places to sit in their house -- the windows in the dining room and the ledge in the refrigerator!  They are both the exactly right height for her to back up to and sit down. Too cute!



So, what's been happening in your life since the holidays and the New Year?  Good intentions carried through? Or miserably failing like me? More important - what good books have you read lately? I have managed to do that! I got an advanced copy of Kerrigan Byrne's THE DUKE (it comes out in February) and wow-oh-wow this is not to be missed! If you like dark and tormented heroes, along with a sexy, smart story that makes you swoon and cry and cheer, you should give her series a try!   

Terri is thrilled to release UPON A MISTY SKYE, her novella from the USA Today Bestselling anthology ONCE UPON A HAUNTED CASTLE. Available on all retailers today, it's the story of a forbidden love between enemies and the ghost that helps them! 

The next will be UPON A HIGHLAND MOOR in the anthology FORBIDDEN HIGHLANDERS  coming on April 18 - available for preorder now!   Visit my website for all the latest news!

Christina Hollis: Things That Go Bump In The Night?

The eye of a living dinosaur?

I love reading, but I don’t have much time to sit and concentrate. Things changed over the holiday season, as my daughter gave me a book for Christmas which kept me glued to its pages. Although it wasn’t my normal sort of reading matter I managed to finish it in only a few days days. That was despite needing to jump up at regular intervals to walk the dog, feed the poultry and visit the bees, not to mention running the house! 

The book was about the study of mysterious creatures (Cryptozoology), and I’d never thought of buying for myself but it was an absolute winner. Short, illustrated and exciting, Cryptozoologicon Vol I, by John Conway, C.M. Kosemen and Darren Naish, turned out to be a great present.

Scientist Dr Darren Naish and his fellow contributors set out to shine a light on what they call the sloppy and wishful thinking that brings the study of mysterious beasts into disrepute. Cryptozoologicon gives details of what is known about twenty-eight shadowy beings such as BigFoot.  The available sightings and reports are examined in the light of the authors’ idea that;

"...cryptozoology should be seen as a mixture of sociology, psychology and ethnology as well as zoology." 

Go down to the woods today—you're sure of a big surprise...

If you're fascinated by why legends are born and develop, and how humans always try to explain away the unusual, this is the book for you. Each of the weird and wonderful creatures is examined in detail, and illustrated.  The Chupacabra in particular stopped me going out into woods after dark for a night or two, I can tell you!

Like all the best books, Cryptozoologicon produces nuggets of fascinating (and genuine) information where you least expect it. If you've ever wondered how bats evolved or why there aren't any large, water dwelling marsupials, this book offers some suggestions.

This was a new reading experience for me, and it’s encouraged me to look beyond my usual genres in the new year.

Have you made any reading resolutions for 2017?

The resolution route - Kandy Shepherd

Happy New Year to all my lovely Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs friends! Whether you’re sweltering in heat-waves like we are Down Under or delighting in record snow falls I wish you all the best for 2017.

Did you make some New Year resolutions? By January 9 mine are usually well and truly broken so this year I decided not to make any. They’re inevitably the same anyway: lose weight, get fitter, budget better etcetera, etcetera. I know I want to do all that stuff but I might succeed if I look at them in a less punitive way! My dietician-in-training daughter is telling me it's all about mindfulness and I'm investigating that too.

But of course the one thing I do intend to do is to continue to enjoy writing romance novels—and reading them too!

What about you? Are you a resolution maker—or not? Have you ever made a resolution you were very glad you made? Do make a comment as I’d love to hear about it.

(If you're in the mood for relaxing rather than making resolutions, my fun, sensual holiday novella, Millionaire Under the Mistletoe is at e-retailers for just $0.99.

Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest

Kate Hewitt: Reading to Escape

 

As a reader as well as a writer I have different moods. Sometimes I’m up for a weighty, thought-provoking read, and at other times I prefer something to simply sweep me away. Lately life’s stresses and sorrows—my father died five weeks ago—made me want to escape with a good book into a world where a happy ending is guaranteed. I ended up reading several of Lucy Diamond’s chick lit books, which are not froth-only as they deal with some weighty issues, but do so with a light hand and a happy ending, and they were definitely the balm I needed.

There sometimes is an attitude in our culture that reading to escape is wrong, a ‘guilty pleasure’ it is often called. I’ve met countless woman who dismiss their reading choices as light or unimpressive with a shrug of their shoulders and a downward gaze, as if they’re ashamed they’re not reading War and Peace or the latest nonfiction bestseller every other day. I’ve even found myself doing it—when asked what I’m reading, I’ll pick the weightiest book I’ve read recently rather than the bit of frothy fun I’ve just devoured. And even worse, I sometimes do it as a writer, especially with some of the academic-types I meet living close to Oxford and its prestigious university.

‘What kind of books do you write?’ someone will ask me, and I will shrug my shoulders and dismiss my career as ‘the kind of book you find in the supermarket’—as if that makes it a lesser thing.

One of my (many!) New Year’s resolutions is to stop this bad habit of semi-apologizing for my reading and writing choices. Reading to escape, and writing to offer that escape, is not only acceptable, it’s necessary. 2015 was one of the most difficult years of my life and if I hadn’t had the reprieve from reality offered through various novels—Harlequin Presents, chick lit, and other ‘light’ books—I  think I might have exploded with stress. I’m grateful to the writers who give me books that take me away from my current worries and leave me with a smile on my face.

And if you’re looking for a new escapist read, you can try one of my releases: The Emigrants Trilogy is the kind of historical saga that hopefully sweeps you away, and my March release, Falling Hard, kicks off a series set in small town Upstate New York.

Also if you a book you’ve read recently that you’d like to recommend, let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear about it!

Happy Reading,

Kate

New Year life lessons from a cat

OK – so will someone tell me how it got to be January 12^th?  I’m sure it was only – what – a couple of days ago that I was  shopping frantically for food  for my family to enjoy over Christmas.  I must have blinked and then I find myself with all of  that food eaten (well – not quite all – I always think my son and his  fiancée will eat more than they do!)  and here it  is, 12^th January and time to write my blog.

Is the 12^th of the month, -  the 12^th day of this New Year of 2015 -   too late to write about New Year Resolutions?  My  friend  thinks it is, my DH   believes  any time is time to make  ‘resolutions’  - he’s been assessing and rethinking his approach to life for a few months now.

I’m inclined to agree with him.  I’ve never been a great believer in the fact that a small change in the date  - from 2014 to 2015  - can make such a great difference.  If that change in numbers was all it took, you could have a ‘new’ period each time the date changed – a new month, a new week . .  .  hmm,  I could go with that. I believe that any time is a time when you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off –and start all over again.  The dark, cold (I’ll say that again COLD) wet days of January  like the one we have here in Lincolnshire UK are perhaps not the best times to try that sort of  New Year New You type of programme.

So I’ve never been one to make ‘resolutions’.  Besides, 2014 was a difficult sort of year for me and some of mine.  Health problems, family problems, the loss of one of my dearest friends, all contributed to making it the sort of year to get through so that I wasn’t overly sad to see the back of it. And I have to admit that I feel like being rather gentle with myself and those I love rather than putting myself through a strenuous improvement boot camp.  Besides, I’m not the sort of person who like new for New’s sake.  Looking back at my time as a writer, for example – as I celebrate 30 years of being published as a romance writer, I think  there’s a lot to be happy about, rather than want to pull up my socks and try to push out more.  More. That’s another word I’m not too fussed about right now either.

So, if I don’t do resolutions, people wonder what I put in their place. I put one word. That’s right, just one.    One year the word was resolute – almost the same as resolution but not at all the same thing.

This year’s word?

BALANCE.

It’s a word I learned from my kitten Ruby. Well, she’s not quite a kitten any more – she just had her first birthday - but her approach to life is the same. Every morning she wakes up  in the same sort of  mood. She looks at the dawn, at the world around her and her whiskers quiver, her tail goes up.  ‘It’s a DAY!’ she seems to be saying.  And she uses her day well. She finds time for the things that matter, eating food she enjoys, running around the garden, climbing trees, grooming, pouncing on her brother Charlie the Maine Coon, snuggling on to my lap when she can, and sleeping through the night curled up next to my feet.  So that she’s ready to start tomorrow with that same attitude – It’s a DAY! She does the things that matter to her.

Sometimes when I look back at past years I see and feel that there

hasn’t been enough balance. Too much work/not enough work/not enough time with friends and family/not enough relaxation /not enough filling up the well of my imagination with reading etc.  And if there’s one thing the past year has taught me it’s that you can’t rely on things to stay the same and, sadly, people to stay around.   You need to find the balance that makes you happy to curl up and sleep at night and wake up bright-eyed and  crisp-whiskered  (well, perhaps not the whiskers) the next day.

So I made a list of things I want to keep – and  enjoy – in my life – friends, family, books, theatre, teaching the courses I enjoy  (if there are any I don‘t  then they’ll have to go. Writing – but not in the ‘must do more’ must meet this deadline – and this way  - it can sometimes become. Because then I don’t enjoy writing either. (Ruby doesn’t bother much with writing. She thinks the keyboard is a very boring thing – and the new books, when they arrive are only fun because they  come in a big cardboard box that she can hide   and jump out onto Charlie when he walks unsuspectingly by.)

So Ruby doesn’t think she needs to become New Ruby, or that she should do more. And I think she’s right.  So I’m taking my New Year life lesson from my very wise and  intelligent little cat – I’m looking at each morning and thinking ‘It’s a day!’ and trying to make sure I have the best sort of balance in the way I spend it.

What about you? What word would you use to describe your approach to 2015?  Or are you making lots of resolutions – how are you doing with keeping them?

I don't yet know what the UK cover of my next book - Olivero's Outrageous Proposal -  will look like - but I can share the Harlequin Presents cover with you today

My latest releases are two reissues -  first there's Kept For Her Baby which is out in the 3 in 1 By Request  called Secret Love -Child.  

And coming up next, there's the reissue of The Konstantos Marriage Demand  again in a 3 in 1 collection - His Revenge Seduction.

And the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance is now available on Kindle

You can catch up with all of Kate's news on her website  or on her blog.  You can also find her on her author page on Facebook.

Kate Hewitt: Christmas Blues and New Year’s Resolutions

A few days ago my family and I were all sitting round the dining room table, toasting the holiday and reveling in good cheer. Fast forward to December 27^th or 28^th and the scene is a little different. Everyone is over-sugared, overtired, and grumpy because Christmas is over. Toys that were exulted over on Christmas Day are now kicked into the corner, forgotten.  Children bicker over who gets to use the last AA batteries in the house, or who gets to play the Wii first, or who hit whom. The dog hasn’t been walked, the toddler is teething, and I’m already looking at the calendar, wondering how long it is until they’re all back at school.

Does this sound familiar?

If it doesn’t, then I clearly need some tips from you! The week after Christmas, in our house, has traditionally been one of the hardest weeks of the year. The expectation and enjoyment has been replaced by dissatisfaction and disappointment. It doesn’t matter what the presents are, or how much family time we have, or even what we do. Dragging all the kids out on a walk sometimes has a restorative effect… for a little while. And then it’s back to the blues.

Which leads me to my New Year’s resolutions. I’m not going to resolve (usually fruitlessly) to lose weight, exercise, eat better, or anything like that. No, my New Year’s resolution is to enjoy life more. And by that I don’t mean to pursue things only for pleasure, or live for leisure, or something along those lines. No, what I mean is I want to live in the moment more—and enjoy it, for what it is. I want to enjoy peeling carrots for dinner while my six-year-old acts out Frozen around me. I want to enjoy cuddling my only-wants-mummy toddler. I want to enjoy life as a full-time writer and mother of five children whose husband works seventy hours a week. Does that sound like a difficult task? Maybe, but I do believe attitude is important. My attitude this week hasn’t been that great. Instead of being in the moment, I’m slogging through it. And I want to change that. This is the life God has given me, and I’m very grateful for it. I’m so very thankful for healthy children and a loving spouse and a career I love, writing books that people love.

What about you? What is your New Year’s resolution? Do you have any tips for living life in the moment?