My March IWSG post is HERE. I think I’m ready to jump the WordPress ship, so this will be my last post on this site. It’s kind of sad, but I don’t see another way to take care of this mess that will be less expensive in time and money. Hope you’ll follow me over to Substack!
Don’t Miss My Substack Post!
This month’s post is very “newsy.” Stop in subscribe (it’s free) and stay in touch.
Follow Me, I’m Moving…Slowly… But Surely!
I’ve started packing my bags, filling the dumpster with unwanted stuff, and moseying over to Substack. Join me there by subscribing (it’s free) and we can stay in touch.
A Relay Station Post this First Wednesday
If you’ve visited this blog in the past, you know that I’m having some technical difficulties with my WordPress site. I’ve given up trying to fix the issue, since it keeps coming back like a bad virus.
I’m slowly transitioning from here to Substack. My IWSG First Wednesday post is there, and if you subscribe, you’ll be alerted to my future posts at this new address. The subscription is free. I have no plans to add a paid subscription to my regular monthly posts.
J.Q. Rose And Her New Book
TAG LINE: Your life with Jesus guides you in penning your sacred story and invites you to journey into a deeper faith experience.
FROM EARLY REVIEWS
“well-organized, easy-to-understand writing guide”
“Biblical references with prompts are excellent”
“topic aimed at women from a Christian perspective”
“content engages the reader to recognize the power of her own stories”
The purpose of this Christian-based book, Your Life with Jesus, is to spark memories of your life experiences so you can use them when writing your spiritual memoir. This book guides you in penning your sacred story and invites you to journey into a deeper faith experience.
Sharing your sacred story is not only a gift to your family and others, but also for you, the author of your life story. When viewing your life through the lens of time, you will be aware of God’s presence in your world and discover revelations about your life as you create videos or write your life story.
Best-selling author and workshop leader, J.Q. Rose, guides you through the elements of storytelling to keep readers turning pages. With her wit and warmth, she offers clear explanations, examples, and exercises to discover how to write your story.
Part One of the book includes information on ways to ignite your memories and tips on writing stories readers will want to read. Part Two suggests forty topics for journaling. Each topic, designed to awaken your life experiences, is accompanied by a verse from the Bible and a writing prompt. Not every topic will resonate with you. Select the ones that stir you.
This book will open your heart to know God is speaking to you as you pray, plan, remember, and compose your stories.
Take the time now to create your spiritual memoir. Download your copy so you can preserve those special memories of Your Life with Jesus.
***
About J.Q. Rose
J.Q. Rose is a multi-genre author writing fiction and non-fiction books and articles. Weaving words together delights her whether writing a mystery, how-to books, or memoir.
Janet is a life storytelling advocate encouraging everyone to write their life stories through her workshops and books. Your Words, Your Life Story and Your Life with Jesus offer information on how to get started writing a life story or memoir. They include many ways to spark ideas to develop into stories their families and future generations will cherish.
She penned her best-selling memoir, Arranging a Dream: A Memoir, a feel-good story about the first year she and her husband opened their floral shop and greenhouse business in a small town in Michigan.
Blogging, photography, Pegs and Jokers board games, and travel are the things that keep her out of trouble. She and her husband spend winters in Florida and summers up north with their two daughters, two sons-in-law, four grandsons, one granddaughter, four grand dogs, four grand cats, and one great-grand bearded dragon.
Connect with J.Q. online:
J.Q. Rose blog http://www.jqrose.com/
Facebook http://facebook.com/jqroseauthor
J. Q. Rose Amazon Author Page http://tinyurl.com/aeuv4m4
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jqrose
Let the Holiday Season Begin on this First Wednesday in November…
but not here. I’ve jumped over to Substack for today’s post because WordPress is cranky and won’t let me do what I want. I’m growling, but lucky for you, there’s no soundtrack available.
Hope to see you at this new space today!
This, of course, is a rotten time for WordPress to act up, since I’m about to launch a new book. I’m not surprised, however, it has let me down a lot of times when I really needed it. If you don’t journey over to Substack, I’m looking for bloggers interested in hosting me. I expect to see the book out in late November or early December, but don’t have a date yet. If you can help me out, leave me a message in the comments here or on Substack. Many thanks!
Welcome the Year of the Rabbit on this First Wednesday
(Better late than never? I’m not sure what went wrong with WP this time, but I’m really fed up with it. It either won’t publish scheduled posts, or it won’t publish at all–which was the case this month. I may revert to Blogger to make my life a bit easier. Anyway, here’s the post that should have gone live yesterday.)
The last Lunar Year was all about Tigers and big changes. 2023, the Year of the Rabbit, is going to give us a change of pace. In these coming months thoughtful action is going to be rewarded, and big risks, not so much. Think peace and patience!
I’m all for that! I’d love a little peace, and I really crave patience…I need it.
This is going to be year to check-in with our emotions, connect with our feelings and embrace them.
Right now, my emotions are set to high anxiety. I’m dealing with a lot of storm damage and clean up. Each time I think I’ve got everything under control…guess what? Something else happens that puts me back to square one. Patience required!
Are you a rabbit? Quick, but sweet in nature? I hope your year is a great one for you.
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
The awesome co-hosts for the February 1 posting of the IWSG are
Pat Garcia, Jacqui Murray, Gwen Gardner
Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.
Remember, the question is optional!
If you are an Indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish trad, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?
I’m in both camps, and I have a different story about cover selection for every publication, so instead of going through all of my publishing experiences, let me just say that each book offers me a chance to go through the process as if it were my first. In other words, to get it “right.”
When I do it traditionally, I usually have input into my covers. The publisher will offer me some options and I can weigh in. Most of the time, I really like what the artist comes up with.
The three Indie books that I have out, I contracted with a cover artist, and I was totally impressed by what he came up with. After only a couple of tweaks, I had the covers I liked. Below is one of my Indie books.
Quote of the Month: “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” — Oprah Winfrey |
Good News For Superman
One thing about taking a break from what you usually do daily is that your mind likes to take mini excursions into places it doesn’t often have time to visit. So while I was lolling around the house in December, it strangely and suddenly occurred to me that Superman was in deep trouble. He might still be leaping buildings in a single bound and peering through the walls of the bank vault with his electromagnetic spectrum vision, but where is he changing from Clark Kent into the super flying hero?
I haven’t seen a phonebooth outside of period movies in a decade.
I know. This sounds like the lead into a Jerry Seinfeld joke, but I couldn’t stop wondering. And then just last week, I discovered the answer. It’s what I call a Zoom Booth. Yes. It’s about the size of a phonebooth, but it’s soundproof and kind of sIeek with its metal and glass design. It appeared in my newly refurbished gym just when I was about to give up finding an answer to my question. What do you think? Is this the perfect 2022 replacement for Superman’s old changing room, or what?
Now, I admit that I haven’t seen the Superman & Lois series, so maybe the changing room issue has already been solved by the writers for that show. You can let me know, but if the writers haven’t come up with something as clever as the Zoom Booth, I feel I should let them know.
Now moving on to something totally unrelated, but important to me…
For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you’ll know that for two years I’ve been setting “virtual” destinations and walking to them. Walking every day for 3 or 4 miles (sometimes more on good days), was a substitute for not having access to my gym due to Covid.
My first challenge in 2020 was from the San Jose area to LA and back. That was a total of 696 miles. When I started, it was more of a joke than anything because I really didn’t expect to even get out of the town limits, but I was surprised how daily walks (almost daily…I wasn’t that strict) added up.
In 2021 I did a couple of challenges one was to Yosemite and the next was to Lake Tahoe, which meant I had to include a lot of steep trails if I was going to be “semi-accurate” in my virtual journey. The total miles were only 330, so I added deadlines to each trek to make the challenge more exciting. I didn’t make my first deadline, but I did just make my second one.
The benefits? I saw things on foot that I never saw from the window of my car. My calves became ready to take on just about any trail, and I gathered a rooting section along the way. One follower kept track of my mileage and my deadlines. That was really sweet.
So now I’m back at my gym. Back at a full schedule of Yoga and cardio. I still want to walk, but I’m going to have to create a different walking schedule. I just can’t do those daily miles. I need a new destination, and I’m excited about my walks in 2022!
I rambled on today, but sometimes it’s nice to set down what’s on my mind which might seem to have little to do with writing, but actually, it does. In December between thoughts about Superman’s predicament, I finished the first draft of a new book. And on all of those walks, I came up with ideas for stories or ways to fix ones I was working on.
Quote of the Week: “In the first place, you can’t see anything from a car.”
― ed abbey, author & essayist
Adapt And Thrive or…
I have a strong conviction that we should all have a place at this table of life. One of the ways to help that be a reality is through reading. If we read about people who are different from us, there’s a chance we can come to understand them and appreciate them for who they are.
The other side of that coin is reading about people who are just like us, and through their stories, identify with their struggles and come to know we’re not alone after all. People who identify as “disabled” need those stories as much as any of us, and those stories should be as honest as possible.
My grandmother was one of the disabled people in my life, and I drew a lot on her experience while writing this book. I watched her lose her eyesight, fall into depression and despair because she couldn’t read or sew—her two favorite pastimes. Then slowly she rebuilt her life. In the end, she returned to the strong woman she’d always been, and she adapted to a different way of living. I think memories of her journey from sighted to blind might have contributed to the creation of Shattered.
Also available for purchase here:
Amazon . B&N . Kobo . Smashwords
I’m now at the housecleaning stage of my launch: Sending books to winners of signed paperbacks and eBooks. I’m doing blog tours, sleeping off the effects of publishing, and reading more books. I’m a greedy reader, so when writing and publishing take most of my time, I get a little cranky. I thought I’d share a few of my reads from my Goodreads Challenge of 40 books this year which I completed last month. I think I have to up my challenge next time around.
- Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
- Dead Wrong by Vannetta Chapman
- Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger
- The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
- Reaching for Family by Jemi Fraser
- The Seventh Tapestry by Beth Camp
- Finding Tessa by Jaime Lynn Hendricks
- The Wife Upstairs by
- Against All Odds by Jacqui Murray
Quote of the Week: “I cannot change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Jimmy Dean
The Cure by Patricia Josephine
She’s heard about a cure locked away in a lab in Upper Michigan, and she plans on retrieving it. To do so, she needs a zombie. Not just any zombie, though.
Zee is Erin’s link to the lab. His connection to the living world is her bargaining chip. But only if she can teach him to control his mindless impulses.
Can a zombie be trained? Or will Erin be Zee’s next meal and become a zombie herself? The fate of humanity rests in her hands.
Excerpt
I rose with the sun. A yawn shook me as I wiped the sleep from my eyes. Before the world ended, I wasn’t a morning person. Most days I woke closer to noon. My job as a freelance writer allowed it. Like an idiot, I took it for granted. Now, if I wanted to get anything done, I had to do it while the sun was up and visibility was good.
Damn, I missed sleeping in.
I dragged my feet as I headed to the deck. Sunlight cast golden rays across the river. Waves lapped gently at the yacht’s side. The air was crisp, and my breath fogged.
I cracked open a bottle of water and took a sip. What I wouldn’t give for a cup of coffee. I used to have a canister of instant coffee, but I ran out three months ago. I was still chastising myself for not rationing it better. Later, I would go to the Soo Locks Park and stock up on supplies. I could barter for more there.
Acquiring coffee had to wait, though. My new friend needed to be checked on.
I scarfed down a breakfast bar before grabbing my shotgun and a backpack and clambered into the raft.
A moan pierced the air as I reached land. I secured the raft and darted to the base. I entered a small reception area.
A waist-high desk was near the door with a computer sitting on it. A few chairs were set in the center of the room.
Notifications hung on a cork bulletin board. Silence hung in the air as if the room was a bubble that somehow escaped the apocalypse. I almost expected to see Coast Guard personnel walk through the door and demand to know what I was doing.
I shook the feeling off and strode to the red cooler under a window. Flies swarmed around it. When I opened it, a sour stench assaulted my nose. I gagged, barely holding down my breakfast, grabbed a dead rat, and slammed the lid shut.
I walked to the tarp, removed a cinder block, and lifted the edge. Snarls greeted me. The zombie clawed at the sides of the earth. Hunger lit its eyes like fireworks. I lifted my shotgun and pointed it at its head. It stilled.
“That’s a good boy.” I lowered onto my knees. “You’ve been dead long enough to develop your basic instincts. How to walk and run. I’ve heard stories of zombies who forgot how to do that.”
The zombie watched me with narrowed eyelids. The color of its eyes had dulled to a muddy brown, and the whites were tinged yellow. Was it trying to figure out how to get out and eat me?
I smirked. “You should know how to hunt by now. Zombies sometimes hunt in packs. You aren’t as mindless as movies made you out to be.” I dangled the dead rat above it.
The zombie snarled, and spit flew from its mouth.
A surge of bitterness rose up my throat. The skin on my knuckles turned white from how tightly I clutched the rat by the tail.
This could’ve been stopped. Lives and the world could’ve been saved. She might still be here.
Take a Test…Will you survive the zombie apocalypse?
You wake up and find the zombie apocalypse has started. What do you do?
A: Take stock of anything you can use as a weapon, secure your home, and take stock of what food you have and how long it will last.
B: Get closer to look at a so-called zombie. This can’t be real.
C: Barricade yourself in your home and freak out.
Which of the following weapons would you use to kill zombies?
A: Gun.
B: Knife.
C: Baseball bat.
You’re making your way downtown in hopes of finding supplies. Along the way, you see a group of 4 zombies. They appear to be eating some unlucky sap. How do you get around them?
A: Backtrack and take a different route.
B: Run in with guns blazing and take them out.
C: Throw something that makes noise and causes the zombies to follow it.
Someone you love is now a zombie. How do you react?
A: Shoot them and put them out of their misery. It’s what you’d want if the roles were reversed.
B: Sob.
C: Capture them and put them somewhere secure in hopes of someone finding a cure.
You’ve found a group of survivors, but they don’t trust you’re not infected. How do you gain their trust?
A: Put your hands up and back away to show you are no threat. Leave. It’s not worth trying to reason with them.
B: Strip and show to show that you are not infected, setting all your weapons aside.
C: Insist that you are not infected, motioning to visible skin and lack of blood on your clothing.
Results
If you answered mostly A then you’ll survive. You take survival seriously and don’t take unnecessary risks. You’ll either do it alone or find people you trust. You may even end up the leader of the group.
If you answered mostly B then you are screwed. You don’t take stock of your surroundings, don’t exercises caution, and think you are invincible. And now you’re a zombie.
If you answered mostly C then you have a chance. Sure, the concept of the zombie apocalypse freaked you out, but you’ve calmed down and you’re hoping with enough gumption you’ll make it. If not, you at least plan on taking out as many as you can first.
Giveaway!
Ends August 31st.
About the Author
Patricia never set out to become a writer, and in fact, she never considered it an option during high school and college. She was more of an art and band geek. Some stories are meant to be told, though, and now she can’t stop writing.
Patricia lives with her husband in Michigan, hopes one day to have what will resemble a small petting zoo, and has a fondness for dying her hair the colors of the rainbow.
Social Media Links:
Website – http://www.patriciajosephine.com
Newsletter – http://www.patriciajosephine.com/newsletter
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13460894.Patricia_Josephine
Amazon Author Page – https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00UH7GAK0
Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/pjlauthor