Let’s Take a Shelfie

by Joanne Rock

So I’m in a position where I need to reorganize my bookshelves. I realized that so much of how I organize books depends on how much space I have. When I have lots of room, I can afford to have more keeper shelves and maintain a broad collection of books from all my areas of interest. I have many shelves of the books I’ve written, the books I’ve written that are translated to other languages, shelves of friends’ books, and signed books. Plus there are books I organize by interest—medieval culture, castles, knighthood, medieval literature, the courtly tradition, the Pre-Raphaelites, mythology, psychology, world religions, literary novels, poetry, and the list goes on.

I love my bookshelves! Browsing is a joy, and I continually find old gems I haven’t looked at in a decade. If I had my choice, I’d leave them as is. But I’m consolidating homes after living in a few places of the last decade, and that means merging collections—and, worse, losing the home of the biggest, best bookshelves.

One of several shelves I had to dismantle.

Minimalist sensibilities might say that’s a great thing. Do less with more! And if it was anything in my life except for books, I’d agree with that idea. But we love books, don’t we? Parting with them is like saying goodbye to old friends.

First to go were books that weren’t favorites—works I’ve only read once and didn’t feel called to read again. That wasn’t so bad. But then there was the pairing down of my own foreign editions, which was hard because I had hoped to keep one of everything. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible, so I mailed books to libraries all over the country, re-homing them.

Now, I’m in a period of stasis, trying to figure out what can go next. Most days I contemplate building more bookshelves in my new home to accommodate all the volumes. But in my more productive periods of organization, I try to choose the “best of” books from each favorite category. I don’t need all the books I have on mythology, so I pick my top two or three choices, and so on.

We’ll see if this yields a more manageable collection. For now, I can say that I have renewed appreciation for cyber bookshelves like those I have at Goodreads. Even if I no longer possess the physical copy of the book, I can keep track of what I’ve read there—when I remember to enter it. I also like that I can put a book on multiple shelves so that it’s not just a book poetry, it’s also a book by a friend and a book I read for book club. Having the ability to sort books into topical categories and specialized fields makes it easy for me to look up all the books I’ve read for book club or all the books I’ve consulted on Avalon.

But I’d love to know what you do! Do you keep track of books in a platform like Shelfari or Goodreads? Do you use a notebook and paper to list books you’ve read in a year or by series? And how to you keep your home shelf or shelves organized? Share with me here and I’ll give one reader a print copy of my Texas Playmaker story, THE PERFECT CATCH. Book #2 in that series is now available - GAME ON!

Downsizing... Sort Of

by Joanne Rock

My July book is The Forbidden Brother!

I’d never make it in a tiny house.

I’m clearing out my home this month as I’m contemplating a move. I’ve got furniture for sale to thin down what I own, and I’m dragging boxes out of storage to get rid of everything I don’t need. It’s so much tougher than it sounds.

Last week, I assured one of my sons that I wanted to get rid of everything I had boxed up in the attic. I figured if I didn’t look at it, I couldn’t get sucked into nostalgia or into thinking I might need something again. I had a vague idea that the paperwork was all from former jobs before I started writing romance. There were graduate school papers up there too, work that I’m proud of but since I probably won’t re-enter the academic world, it’s nothing I’ll need. Yet I feared that if I started looking through the boxes, I’d find things I wanted to keep. Sentimental memories of trips taken, friends that I don’t see anymore, you know the drill. So I gave an executive order to toss it all.

A few hours later, my son came downstairs with a photo of his brother as a toddler, the cutest picture imaginable. He said, “Are you sure you don’t want to check in the boxes first?”

There went my resolve! I had to dig through the old things, fearing I might throw away something vital. Yes, it ended up taking hours of my time, but it was really fun to walk down memory lane. I found photos from graduate school and remembered fun classes I took with people I haven’t seen in eons. A photo of a bear that I apparently saw in person in the Smoky Mountains and have no memory of. How could I forget photographing a bear in a tree? On the back of the photo, I wrote in ink, “The infamous bear!” Well apparently he was only infamous briefly as I’d forgotten all about him.

Thankfully, I did end up throwing away most of the box. Brilliant essays gone forever! All my carefully archived press releases written for my first job. All my memories from the time as a TV promotions director—in the recycle bins now. It would be easier if I could tell myself that I’ll always have the memories in my head, but if the bear is any indication, I actually don’t have a good mental record of the past! Maybe I should be glad that my life has been so wonderfully full I simply can’t recall all of it.

Win the follow-up to
The Forbidden Brother

I learned that it pays to have a strong son to help my cleaning endeavors. Also, that executive orders aren’t always a good idea given my faulty memory. And, as I sit here with a file folder full of old photos, I have learned that I’d never be a candidate for life in a tiny house. Who knows, there might be a book waiting to burst out of these old images, after all. I don’t want to miss out.

*** Tell me whether or not you’d be game to try living the tiny house trend, and I’ll give one random poster a copy of my August release, Wild Wyoming Nights! Learn more about all the McNeill Magnates stories at my website, and while you're there, make sure to enter my monthly contest.

#WriteTip: On Meeting Goals

So it turns out I'm a bit of a procrastinator. This really shouldn't have been a surprise to me because I've always worked well with deadlines - not getting done ahead of deadline, but rushing around and finishing a task at the second that deadline bell rings.

That working well under pressure thing isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does lead to more stress...and it can take away from the fun parts of my job as a writer. It's hard to enjoy a Facebook party or a conference or an afternoon curled up with a favorite author's new book if I know I've got three days to write 20,000 words.

I've been on a bit of an organizational tear for the past few months. I bought a new planner, I've re-organized my office, I've set up my days according to a plan...and yet there were still times when I didn't meet my goals. At the beginning of this year, I decided to try something in addition to the daily goals and monthly goals: I set progress reminders that ping my phone and email. These reminders, I've found are the key to staying on-task.

Here's how I'm not setting up my planner and organizing my organization:

First, I look at the big picture. I can write a book in 6 weeks, depending on length. So if a book is due
May 13, for example, I know I need to start writing by March 31. That means writing, not research or plotting...the actual writing starts March 31. So I mark both of those days in my calendar like this:



Once I've looked at the big picture, I break down the weeks and days...this is where reminders come in. When I ordered my new planner I intentionally chose one with a vertical layout - my days have big Morning, Afternoon and Evening sections...that doesn't mean I only write in the afternoon or that all evenings are family time. Instead I usually washi over the dividers and set up my days according to Family, School/Errands and Writing. The top (morning) section includes grocery lists or bank runs or stuff at bebe's school. The middle (afternoon) has my daily writing goal, and the bottom (evening) holds movie night stuff or bebe's swimming and choir schedules.

After I've broken out the big goals and the daily goals, I set a couple of reminders. When I'm drafting,

I'll set 2 additional reminders in my online calendar. They are literally 'check progress' goals - I look at my deadline, I look at where I'm at in the book and I figure out what needs to happen each day and week between the reminder and the deadline so that I'm not hopped up on caffeine and not sleeping during the week leading up to deadline. I sometimes write the reminders in my physical calendar, too, but usually I keep the reminders only in my online calendar because my paper calendar gets full just with deadlines and family stuff and school things.

I'll also set reminders about new project research, when I want to get sample chapters of uncontracted work to my agent and things like that.

So far, I'm loving not only my new planner, but the setting reminders addition to my planning - I'm staying on task, I'm more relaxed, and I don't feel guilty for taking a little extra time here and here for myself and my family.

Are you on an organizing kick? What do you do to make sure you meet those deadlines? 

Kristina Knight's new release, Protecting the Quarterback, is available for pre-order now, and

will release May 1, 2016.

This is more than just a game...to her

Sports broadcaster Brooks Smith has always been more involved with the game than the players. But after she shares the spotlight at an awards ceremony with tabloid sensation Jonas Nash, one night of letting her guard down around the infamous quarterback spirals into many heated days and nights together when she gets assigned to the story of the year….

The hottest player in professional football is hiding a secret that could end his career for good. Now Brooks is caught on the sidelines between the job she loves and the man she is falling in love with.

Amazon    B&N    iBooks    KOBO    Harlequin

You can find out more the book and Kristina on her website, and feel free to stalk follow her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. 

Getting Organized for 2016

one of my favorite prints inspires me every day

Hi, everyone! I'm Kristina Knight, and although I have blogged here a time or two before, I'm really excited to be here as a regular! I'll be here on the 23rd of each month, talking about writing and books I've read and whatever else pops into my head. What's on my mind today?

Office space.

Since we moved into the new house (6 years ago, but I remember the boxes like it was yesterday), my office space has been a giant layout desk from my father-in-law's newspaper. It was over six feet long which gave me a ton of room to spread my mess my writing out, figure out plotting or characterization points and edit. The only problem was that desk was in our living room so any time people would come over I would have to shove everything into drawers or boxes...and things never came back the same. Add to that an inquisitive toddler-now-elementary student and you can imagine all the writing time I spent...well, not writing.

My goal for 2016 has been organization. I have a new planner (the Happy Planner from MAMBI), I needed a space that was just for my writing, not my writing and dinner parties and game nights and homework. RadioMan's office has been located in our extra bedroom since the move, but he's now working mostly outside the home, so I suggested a switch. And he bought it, bwahaha.

So the day after Christmas, we decided to start the move by just packing up some extra 'stuff' we both

had around our desks...and eight hours later his office was in mine and mine was in his. Yeah, we don't do things in small steps around here.

One of my favorite features on my new office is my new desk. Actually his old desk. I'd had plans to build a standing desk/craft table, and had we actually planned out the big switch I might have, but so far I'm liking this desk. It's a corner desk with a top shelf. It's got plenty of room for my folders and story notes...but when I want to craft (I love sewing/quilting), it's a simple thing to move everything to one side and quilt on the other.

my filing 'cabinet' is made of upside-down picture easels

My other creation is my new filing system. I don't know about you, but if I actually put things in a filing cabinet, I forget about them. And five years later find a dusty file and think - oh, yeah, that would have been a great project! So, I nixed the filing cabinet option for my business stuff (files on my WIPs, future story ideas, revision notes from my editors, etc) and created an 'open' filing system on the side of my big bookcase.

Added bonus: the files are now part of my decor and I love it! I just hung three small picture easels upside down so that the files would fit inside them. Very crisp and clean, and yet still a bit girlie and fun.

Inside the bookcase I have all my tools - a salted caramel candle, my Big Bang Theory LEGO set, various office supplies, and my 'ego' shelves - framed covers of all my books.

My office isn't perfect, but it is mine, and already I am noticing a difference in how I approach every writing day.

What about you? What organizational things are you doing this year?

Let's Make A Deal

By Jenny Gardiner
My girlfriend calls my purse the Let's Make a Deal purse. Remember that game show? Monty Hall would go into the audience filled with people dressed in ridiculous costumes like life-size lobsters and gigantic fuzzy dice and lugging enormous bags full of nonsense, and ask for the most unlikely item. Invariably at least one woman would have it along: the tube sock, the box of Creamettes macaroni and cheese, a jock strap. That woman would have been me.

Purses and me have a long and tortured history. I take my crap-toting very seriously, and over time, as I went from single to married to momdom, my purse-content hauling has ebbed and flowed with the years and demands of life. There were times when my shoulders were slumped from the weight of my purse like a deeply discouraged human being in line at the soup kitchen. And other times when life's burdens seemed to lift from my very shoulders with the elimination of the vast stash of junk I ditched from my pocketbook. Although really, let's be honest. The word "pocketbook" suggests petite, and rarely has petite been in the vocabulary of my purse world.

I'll tell you a great one, one of my purse-hauling high points (well, really, a low point), from back in my single-but-seriously-dating phase. Wayyyy long ago. Standing in line with my teensy-weensy single girl purse at this totally hip-happenin' Georgetown bar. Had to rifle through the mini-sack to find my i.d. And while I rifled, what falls out onto the ground, in front of the bouncer, the boyfriend, the line of desperate bar-goers (oh, and Val Plame. Remember her? Spy girl? I knew her from college and she happened to be in line behind me that night at the bar)? The Sponge. Yes, one of those less-than shining moments in life, when it seems as if everything freezes in place but for you. Everyone is looking at you, at your ever-so-sad contraceptive of the 80's, there, front and center on the cigarette-butt-strewn-discarded-chewing-gum-encrusted pavement, symbolic of nights past at that very bar, no doubt, and evidence of intent for all to see. Thank goodness for low illumination inside bars, as I was able to slink away into the cavernous darkness once past the chuckling bouncer without too much permanent destruction of my pristine reputation, able to mercifully hide my beet-red countenance like a slug hiding beneath a rock.

Alas, soon enough, my Sponge days were replaced with diapers, wipes, ointment, goldfish, animal crackers, juice boxes, baby food and masking tape (no, not to tape over their mouths; masking tape is the best-kept secret of moms the world-over: give your kids some masking tape and all is right with the world): The ingredients of the mom-purse.

Eventually, liberation came. Three kids, diaper free. No more needing to lug the necessities. I saw my purse as a statement of my life and chose to schlep around as little as humanly possible. It lasted for a few humble months. My mini-purses groaned at the snaps and popped open at inopportune moments, spilling the modest contents (mercifully Sponge-free, however).

Soon I realized I needed to size up my purse, especially with the onset of the electronics era: cell phones, iPods, Palm Pilots and the like. I'd taken the extreme approach and it was indeed most impractical. Hence I started increasing my purse size, bit by bit, as I added electronic paraphernalia.

And then one day I realized my purse had taken over. Nearly as large as it was when it served as diaper bag-cum-survival satchel. Only now it's all full of my what-ifs. What if I need a book to read? What if I am stuck shopping at the grocery store and can't stand the Muzak and absolutely have to listen to that new song by Cake on my iPod? What if I'm exposed to the sun for too long and need that SPF 45 lip balm? What if I'm suddenly thrust into a book store at which my book is in stock and I simply have to sign book stock? I mean, I have to have the hot-pink sharpie marker. The "signed by author" sticker. The Sleeping with Ward Cleaver book marks: all accoutrements of one's booksigning venture. Yep, it's all in there. And then some.

The biggest problem is that my current purse is a disastrous compartment-free monstrosity that is a famished creature ingesting whatever goes in, never to be seen again. When I need to find my phone, my keys, all of those necessities of life? Nada. I dig and dig and curse and dig and eventually, sure, I find the stuff. But often it's stuck onto a piece of overheated chewing gum that has dislodged from its secure wrapper. It's tangled in the cord from that unravelled tampon. It's hidden beneath the tissue I cried into at my son's graduation. Nothing is ever where I put it and is always where I least expect it.

Truth is, there's not a purse in existence with enough compartments to contain my disorganization. But a few pockets would provide needed salvation. And once I get past this writing career, I'm fixing to venture into functional pocketbook design (note, I didn't say purse. I'm aiming for reasonable sizing). I know I'm not the only gal out there frustrated with the lack of managerial-orientated purses.

This, of course, is on my to-do list. Right after I finish my WIP. And revisions, and the seven freelance deadlines. And that screenplay I was gonna work on. And then once the house gets cleaned, the dishes washed, the laundry done. You get the idea.

Until then, here's what I deal with. It's not a pretty sight. It's frustrating and non-functional. But I have to admit, the leather is really soft and that's a big plus. What can I say? I'm a tactile kinda gal.

Okay, so here's a run-down of my purse contents.
cell phone
key chain (pared down from about 15 unidentifiable keys to about 3)
a DVD of Sicily (need to return to my Italian teacher)
a copy of Sleeping with Ward Cleaver (you never know when you'll need it!)
The book I'm reading
The book I'll read after I finish the book I'm reading
Save the Cat, a fabulous book on screenwriting
bookmarks
business cards
tampons (I think there are about 12 in various states of undress)
chewing gum (probably 3 packs, in various states of undress as well)
lip stick (3)
lip gloss (2)
tissues (probably 7 or 8, used and unused, but all fuzzy with wear and tear)
the tattered ziploc bag full of discount cards (you know, buy 10 cappuccinos and get one free, that sort of nonsense)
pens, pens and more pens
my book-signing stash (sharpie, etc)
tic tacs (at least 3 half-empty containers, all missing in the bowels of the bag)
iPod
camera
Mojo sweet and salty trail mix bar, crushed beyond recognition
reading glasses (and accompanying bulky case)
sunglasses (and accompanying bulky case)
Altoids raspberry sours (way better than cough drops)
post-it notes
credit card receipts, mostly for gas
emery boards (3)
Advil
notebook
Mojo peanut butter and pretzel bar, looks as if run over by 18-wheeler on very hot pavement
sewing project (needed to get supplies next time I'm near fabric store)
notes, notes of notes, and yet more notes
to-do lists
one very fat overstuffed wallet (stuffed with pictures, receipts and nonsense, no money)



I do hope you've enjoyed this sad little moment of disorganization at its finest. If only you could send your purse pictures for me to laugh at!

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((¸¸. ·´ .. ·´Jenny-:¦:-
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