Hey all! Well, it’s been a minute. Actually, it’s been a year! (Ok, not exactly a whole year, but we did change years!!) I hope everyone had a great holiday season, January and so forth. I had made a resolution to write more on the blog this year and I have so far, failed miserably. But here I am, back at it and hope to keep up with it as much as possible.

I have been dealing with some crazy life stuff which has led to a strange case of writer’s block. Why strange? Because I haven’t been able to come up with a post for here but have managed to start several stories that are now sitting in my docs as unfinished pieces. I get inspired by something I’m reading and then start typing away only to stop and not pick it up again. I have thought of many things to write for here and yet, actually sitting down to type them out has been a no-go. Ever get this way? I believe it is all part of my ADD since I can’t concentrate on anything for more than a minute these days. Except for reading. I just get lost in my books. But life? A whole other story.

Speaking of reading, I’m still going through books like they grew on trees. (Too soon?) I continue to add to my TBR lists as fast as I am reading the pile that sits next to me. I had decided to keep the Winter/holiday theme for a while longer to keep the spirit going and had saved a bunch of holiday books for January…my most hated month of all.

Let’s talk about that for a moment shall we? Why is it that we go from the most colorful time of the year, September thru New Year’s Eve (ironically, also my favorite time of the year) with all of the decorations, colorful lights and leaves and then start the new year with dull, gray January? I am pushing to have people leave their lights up throughout the month to take away the blah. I mean, there is no law that says that holiday lights HAVE to be taken down at the rolling of the calendar year, right? So I say, leave them up! We do! We keep our lights up pretty much all year long. We just switch them up for the seasons…and yes, that includes baseball season as well. We just want to bring some life into the nights and remind folks that it is ok to be colorful. 🙂

Annnnnyway, now that it is February, it is still cold and snowy, but I’m ok with that. I’m a cold weather girl and I’m at my most comfiest when wearing hoodies and boots. Valentine’s Day is next week and I’ve just been getting my shops ready for the shoppers…or rather…adding stuff to my shops hoping for shoppers. When you deal with jewelry and gifty-type stuff, your idea of “holiday” is all about making sure you have customers. Now that we are a little over a week out, I get to relax a little on it and not push so hard for sales. I have been coming up with new ideas to create for one of the shops, hoping to have some more crafty/artistic items listed this year but again, ADD and Amazon don’t play well together and looking up supplies has led to some funky searches, mostly new books to buy.

Speaking of books, I went to my library’s recent book sale and made out great! I found a few by authors I had started reading in the last year and fell in love with this one book set in Nantucket. I read it super fast and wanted more. Then I found out it was book 3 of a series! I have mentioned before that I am not a series person. I like one and done and move on to the next types of books.( Although, admittedly, I have been loving the Laurie Gilmore Dream Harbor series.) This one as well has been changing my mind and I’ve just started book 1 on my way to going through all 9 with a smile on my face. What is nice about these particular books is that the first one I read, read independently. Had I not looked it up, I never would have realized it was part of a series. 

I have also just finished a few others based in Michigan and now find myself watching YouTube videos on the areas mentioned, looking for the places that the stories are based around and making bucket lists of places I want to go to when I get the chance. I want to look for Petosky stones along the shores of Lake Michigan, see the Tunnel of Trees, hit the Cherry Festival, go to the Goodhart General Store and see the mammoth ice caves formed by the lake itself. I’ve even found myself looking at real estate listings there ‘just in case’ and that is really saying something for this die hard New Englander! 

I have been on a roll with the reading and this month I am also doing another Read Every Day Challenge fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. I have done two previous ones and love doing this. I have talked about going through my own cancer situation and so this one is a personal one for me. Plus, I’m already reading every day so why not put it to good use!

As for my own book, I am in editing hell. I like to write, not edit. But I know that this first official draft needs work before I can find an agent and every day I look at this small forest of paper and get mad at it. It seems to stare at me, letting me know I need to do this but my inner denial angel keeps thinking it will somehow get done on its own and it will just magically get done. In the meantime, it looks like a rainbow threw up on the pages with all of the post-its, notes and flags I have on the pages color coded of course to let me know how much needs to get done once I’m done with the read through.

As of this writing, I have read 6 1/2 books so far this year and yet when it comes to my own, as much as I think it is pretty good (if I do say so myself) my critical self is stopping me from picking it up and getting past chapter 7 of editing. Ridiculous? You betcha! It will get done. I’ve set an internal deadline for when I want it completed and ready to be sent out. But I am one of the many procrastinators out there that works better under pressure. Not one paper in school was written early…but they were turned in on time regardless! So why is this any different? Just because this first book could potentially change my life? Ok, sure. There’s that. And I think that’s the problem. I am worried about the reception it will get. Will it be accepted? Denied? Ridiculed? Will an agent like it? Will I end up self publishing because I wanted it out there like yesterday and ready for Summer reading people or as this year’s holiday gift of the season?

I will say this, and frankly, I suggest this to other writers out there looking to break into getting something published…I read every single acknowledgement at the end of a book. Especially the authors I truly can’t get enough of. Why? Because if my book is going to hold up in a similar genre, then I want to know where these books were published. Who their agents, editors, assistants are. I have found great information this way. I am a research junkie and the more I look at the ends of books, the more I look up. Are their publishers taking submissions right now? Are their agents available for inquiries? Are they indie or large houses? Inquiring minds want to know!

I recently saw another author talk about this and she said the same thing. This is how she found her current agent. By innocently looking at who the author thanked at the end of their novel. You never know where your spark of inspiration is going to come from, so be sure to look at author’s ‘thank yous’, their websites, their social media posts.you may just find what you are looking for whether it be a new agent or a little tidbit about how they came up with their story. You’d be surprised at how much you learn and no classes needed! Hell, it’s even free information!

I will leave it there. This post has been months in the making and I never meant to be away for so long. I still have so many plans for this site including a more organized bookshelf page. I have read so many books since the last time I was here and still need to add them to the page for you to check out. But I’d like to do a bit of an overhaul or at least break up the “On the Bookshelf’ section into years instead of throwing them all up on one long page.

In the meantime, thanks for still being here. Hope you’ll stick with me and who knows what will come next! Happy 2025 all. Let this be a good one!! 🙂

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If you’d like to donate to my Read Every Day in February Challenge fundraiser for the American Cancer Society: Click Here and Thank You!! 

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Books read so far:

Bright Lights, Big Christmas – Mary Kay Andrews

A Wish for Winter – Viola Shipman

The Secret of Snow – Viola Shipman

The Wishing Bridge – Viola Shipman

Big Sexy Love – Kirsty Greenwood (No, it’s not porn. Get your head out of the gutter)

Nantucket Inn – Pamela Kelley (book one of the Beach Plum Cove series)

Nantucket White Christmas – Pamela Kelly (book three of the Beach Plum Cove series)

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Hope you will follow my page on Facebook! I post free phone wallpaper designed by me, (no AI) to download each season as a thank you for following. 🙂

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If you’d like to shop with me, I deal with vintage and estate jewelry, click the ebay tab: linktr.ee/stuffwefind

And also have my creative shops on etsy (hopefully not for long there) as well as Redbubble, Zazzle and Teepublic. The etsy shop has items designed and created by me the others are designs and print on demand shops with tons and tons of items to choose from. You can find all links here: linktr.ee/stuffwemade

Both linktrees as well as my personal one all link to each other. So no matter where you start, you’ll find ALL of my links!

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