“There comes a time in a man’s life when to get where he has to go—if there are no doors or windows—he walks through a wall.”
~Bernard Malamud

And of course a picture of a wall is boring, so maybe I have a door after all…
Point is, when you’re feeling blocked—by whatever—get creative about how you break out!

I lost a whole day! I had a procedure scheduled. Ahem, it involved roto-rooting and you get it every 10 years when you reach a certain age… Anyway, it started three hours late. The drugs lingered, and lingered, and lingered. I mostly slept on the long drive home. When I got home around five, I headed straight to bed and didn’t stir until the early morning hours, thus I am writing this blog a little after midnight, but I think it still counts as yesterday, so I didn’t miss my post!

Good news? I’m healthy for a 60-year-old. Or so the doctor told me, probably to make me feel better about the fact I have to go seem him every three years now! The nurse did a double-take on my age. I told her “fat don’t crack, but I really am 60.” I had three polyps, which he removed, and I have a couple small developing diverticula—so no more popcorn or poppy seeds for me. Sucks, because I LOVE popcorn. 🙁

What’s Saturday going to look like? No clue. There’s fencing to replace (mu SIL and sis will tackle that) and my dd has to have her hot water heater replaced (I’ll be with her for that because she’s weird about having strangers in her house (everyone has a phobia, right?). But here’s hoping I can get something done!

So, speaking of phobias… Mine is a fear of heights, although I did manage to rappel quite often during college and basic. Not sure how I managed without Xanax. What’s yours?

I wrote very few pages this month. Good news? It was a short month. I’ll have a chance to redeem myself in March.

February was complicated with my dad in the hospital for another stint. He’s home now, thank goodness. House repairs. Illness. Appointments. Life. Lots of excuses. None of them good enough.

What did I actually get done?

• Edits on two other authors’ works
• Revisions and more pages on a project for Entangled
• Selections for Stranded stories made, announcement, contracts sent

Yes, February was that pathetic. With no release! Which means, if I want to get back to the plan, March will be horrifically busy.

This is the list:

• Two novellas and a short story (Yeah, just shoot me.)
• Edits for Stranded stories
• 2d round edits for two authors’ manuscripts
• 1st round edits on a partial story for another author
• Box set collated and published

Yes, that’s quite enough. Too much. Something will fall off the calendar. I hope not multiple somethings.

The issue is focus and energy. Maybe I’m dragging ass because it’s nearing the end of winter, and the lack of sunshine is finally taking a toll. Maybe the problem is that I’m letting family insert themselves with no pushback from me. I have to set boundaries, and then I have to be the first one to respect those boundaries. They don’t nag; I simply start thinking about what I might be missing, and I close out the screen, telling myself I’ll work later, but later never comes. So, it’s really all my fault. And I tend to work best in my “manic” phases, when I start to panic over the lack of productivity and what that means to sales. Having to support myself is a huge motivator. Not so different for you, right?

So, any ideas how I can keep my BICHOK–Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard?

This has been one helluva month.

With everything happening on the home front, I haven’t been able to get pages written, so the release of the book I promised this month, Big Sky Wedding, is delayed. So, what’s going on? Too many things, family-related, to go into, but the big thing is my dad’s deteriorating health.

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that he broke his hip last year and went through surgery and rehab. He has other health-related issues—heart disease, kidney failure, diabetes, etc.—so, any new issues are always exacerbated. While in rehab, he developed ulcers on his feet. Since November, he’s been treated by a wound doctor and has had to remain off his feet, which hasn’t helped his hip surgery recovery. My dd and I have pitched in to clean and wrap his feet daily. Everyone’s pitched in to get him to his appointments. Sometimes, he’s on a walker, sometimes in wheelchair, when we take him to dialysis or his many appointments. Well, recently, he complained that he couldn’t breathe. Yes, too much fluid in his chest and around his heart. We’re pretty sure this is it. The fact he’s lived so long—he’s in his 80’s—has been a testament to his stubbornness. Right now, he’s back in the hospital, and my mom and aunt are staying nearby (the hospital is an hour-and-a-half away). I’m holding down the fort at home and preparing for them coming back soon, we hope. Anyway, that’s where we are with all of that, which has put me in a state of flux so far as work is concerned.

I have edits due on a story I wrote for Entangled. I have edits due back on two other authors’ projects. I have that book to write and a new collection to edit now that I’ve made the selections of the stories that will go into the volume. And that’s really what I’d like to take about now…

In case you didn’t see the notice I posted on my Collections website, I am pleased to announce the final lineup of authors who will be part of the Stranded: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology! Congratulations go out to:

A.C. Dawn – The Kiss of a Stranger’s Flame
A.J. Harris – Shelter From the Storm
Ara Geller – Reviving Artemis
Delilah Devlin – Quincy Down Under
Kenzie Mathews – Hourglass
Kimberly Dean – Out of This World
Kimberly Lithe – Burning Stars
Lucrecia Christina – Switching Call
Melanie Jayne – A Change of Predicament
Michal Scott – Put It in a Book
N.J. Walters – Undercover Lover
Sam Heathers – Too Deep
Sukie Chapin – Going Down

UPDATE: The winner is…Laura LeCapelain!
*~*~*

Can you believe January is almost gone? I’m old enough I still can’t believe we’re 19 years into the new century!

January zipped right past me! And what did I accomplish? Not as much as I’d hoped, but I was still pretty darn productive…

January’s Work

First, I wrote and published Animal! Woot! Book 7 of the Montana Bounty Hunter series! Feels so strange to say that because I feel like I just finished Reaper (Book #1!).

I edited two fellow authors’ stories. One a novella, one a very long novel! I’m actually wrapping up that one today!

I’m teaching a plotting bootcamp with some very shy authors who haven’t taxed me nearly enough with questions!!!! So, time-wise, I guess I’m getting off lucky there.

And lastly, I’ve been reading, reading, reading stories for my Stranded anthology. Wish I could say I have my decisions all wrapped up, but I don’t. That may take me another week. 🙁

So, it was a busy, productive month for this very tired and stressed-out author-editor-teacher… I did manage to make time for some fun treasure-hunting trips (thrift store shopping!) with my dd, so it wasn’t all work and no play!

February’s Goals

February looks horrendous!!!! I’m almost scared to turn the calendar page to think about it. I have one novella to write (Big Sky Wedding), another to finish (Hot Zone). I have at least three editing projects booked. (Doesn’t sound like much, but when I bookend them with my own writing schedule… Gah!) And I have to finish a short story before the end of the month, because I want to wrap up the With His SEAL Team mini-series. We’ll see… And I do have to wrap up the Stranded stories and begin editing that whopper of a book!

Aside from the writing/editing gig, I want to re-open my Etsy store, so I’m hoping to make time to sit in my craft room and make pretty things. I don’t make any money doing it—certainly, not enough to pay for my passion—but it’s stress relief, and I need more of that! I want to add things other than jewelry to my Etsy store, like painted boxes, junk-store refurbs, etc. Fun things that will help make some of my thrift store hoard dwindle!

I hope your January is ending with a bang and that you managed to check off some of the items on your To Do list!

Contest

Tell me what things you checked off January’s To do list for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

My dd and I are best buds. Wasn’t always so, but these days, we could be together 24×7 and neither of us would get annoyed with each other. It’s a lovely thing to discover that we actually have so much in common.

Her hubby is away at the Police Academy for the next few months, and I do my best to spend extra time with her, keeping her spirits up. She was edgy today, because he had to qualify with his weapon today or be booted, and although I didn’t think he’d have any problems at all, she’s my worst-case-scenario girl, so when she asked whether I’d go shopping with her this morning, I dropped everything to keep her company. Of course, our favorite type of shopping is thrift store and flea market shopping. Not that we’re super cheap, we just enjoy hunting for hidden “treasure”.

The picture above is my haul from the two junk stores we hit today. And before you go, “Gah, it all looks like sh@t,” let me tell you what I see!

Starting from the left…

See the beige-colored pot? Well, I’ve been looking for something to hold all my paintbrushes. It’s in perfect condition, and once I fill it with dried beans, I’ll stand all my brushes inside it.

The ruby-and-diamond-colored crystal bracelet draped over the side? Well, if one of my granddaughters doesn’t want it to wear (they’re getting to the age where they love to wear jewelry, but I’m reluctant to buy “real” stones and gold because they lose shit all the time), then I’ll use it to decorate a box or take it apart and string it in an eclectic bracelet.

The large orange things at the bottom are part of a bib necklace. My dd loves retro costume jewelry, and with her long red hair, she can pull off a big gaudy piece like that, but if she never wears it, I’ll pluck apart the large plastic orange circles and use them to decorate a box. (Nothing goes to waste!)

See the turquoise letter holder? Well, the color doesn’t match anything of mine, so I’ll paint it with some Chinese red chalk paint and use it to stand my stencils in my art room inside.

Those flowers at the top are old enamel clippie earrings. I love them! They will either be glued to blanks to make up a charm bracelet or they will end up as drawer pulls on a small cupboard.

The two retro rhinestone necklaces? One of them has missing crystals, so I’ll cut it up to use for boxes or to add to another bracelet.

The one that’s intact, I’ll probably give to my dd, because again, she loves to wear retro fashion.

The two gold pieces in the center with the flowers? Those are huge gold-tone hoop earrings. My dd will wear those, and if she doesn’t, I’ll take them and bend them up to use in a leather bracelet.

The white Chinese bottle? I collect old snuff bottles. This one’s missing its stopper at the top, but I couldn’t resist it because it depicts two dudes smoking opium.

The neutral-tone tin box on the right will be cut up to make disks for earrings. And the leather bracelet on top of it will go to my granddaughters.

So, not junk at all. Treasures, all! And I didn’t pay over $20 for the lot. My daughter leaves the refurb-able (I know it’s not a real word!) jewelry to me. She loves to pick up small pieces of furniture to recover, repaint, and repurpose. So, it was a perfect morning for us! Now, it’s back to work!

Question: Do you love to go junking?

JOY. A simple three letter word, which can hold so much. Joy. Every year I choose a word for the year and my word for 2019 is joy. I made this selection and not long afterward saw on Pinterest where someone was making a joy jar.

What is a JOY Jar? It is a jar where you collect joys for each day of the year.

Making a Joy Jar easy to do. Take a jar. Decorate it if you wish, any way you wish. Write down one of your joys onto a paper and place it in the jar. Do this every day. At the end of the year, open the jar and read all the joys you collected in the Joy Jar in that year.

I loved this idea so much that I had to make one. I headed to meet one of my BFF’s for a Joy Jar making, 2019 planner day. I’d been looking for stickers, which said Joy and couldn’t find even one in any of the stories I searched. I was looking for joy and was surprised it wasn’t easier to find. When I arrived at my friend’s house and told her I couldn’t find Joy stickers anywhere, she said I have something I made for you. She went into the other room and came back holding white a red heart she’d knitted for me. It was the perfect thing to glue onto the front of my Joy Jar.

You know how when you buy a new car suddenly you are seeing cars just like it everywhere? Well that is how is has been with me with the word joy. The more I look for it, the more I find it. The word joy has been popping up and I am more aware of my joys each day. What we focus on often increases.

My challenge to you is, make a Joy Jar and start adding to it. See how it enriches your life this year and keep your eyes and ears on the lookout for joy.

One of my joys is writing. I’ve got seventeen books out now in various genres of romance and have many more to share with my readers. If you follow me this year, you are going to be hearing a lot more about my joys and hearing the word joy a lot.

Here are my pages and links to follow. Thank you to Delilah for inviting me to visit and share some joy!

Debra Parmley’s Links:
Website: www.debrapamley.com
Newsletter sign up link: http://eepurl.com/ZUyC1

Social media:
FB fan page: https://www.facebook.com/authordebraparmley/
FB personal page: https://www.facebook.com/debra.parmley.7
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Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/debraparmley/
Goodreads Lamplighters fan Group: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/213745-debra-parmley-lamplighters
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/DebraParmley
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DebraParmley
Writing Blog: https://threadingtheweb.wordpress.com/

Book sales pages:
Amazon: https: https://www.amazon.com/Debra-Parmley/e/B002BM9H4A/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1509300092&sr=8-1
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/debra+parmley
Audible audiobooks: http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_pd_Romanc_c2_1_auth?searchAuthor=Debra+Parmley
ITunes for eBooks and audio:
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/author/debra-parmley/id411082477?mt=11
EBooks on Kobo:
https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/search?query=debra%20parmley
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/debra+parmley
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/debra-parmley

Interviews:
Link to my old radio show Book Lights: http://bit.ly/BookLights
Cover Model Corner interview: https://covermodelcorner.wordpress.com/