Posts Tagged ‘Happy New Year’

Wishing Everyone a Delightful and Happy Gregorian New Year

Sunday, January 1st, 2023

A very Happy New Year to all who observe the Gregorian calendar.

On New Year’s Eve here at Jewel HQ, yours truly went to bed at 6:30PM and snuggled up with the dogs and cats while I horrified myself watching episodes of Hoarders and reading the news. The neighbors were shooting off guns and fireworks starting at 8:00PM. I was too tired to stay up until midnight. I get up at 5:00AM and midnight is just waaaayyy past my bedtime. I had some time off while my son was here and I was staying up later than my usual to hang out with him so my sleep schedule got a little out of whack.

Caught in the Southwest Disaster

My son ended up being here extra days because his return flight to Seattle was on Southwest and got cancelled. He wisely came and got me up as soon as he got the cancellation text and I was able to book him a flight out of the local airport on Friday. The local airport is a 30 minute drive from us (instead of an hour plus to Oakland) but it doesn’t accommodate jets, only commuter style prop planes. Most of the flights were REALLY expensive, but there was one that didn’t make me want to cry. He had to call work and let them know he was stuck here for additional days, but he was back in Seattle on Friday. To be honest, I think it’s possible that considering the cost and time of getting to Oakland Airport (which I prefer over SFO) the higher flight cost of the local airport can come close to a wash. You also don’t have to factor in the possibility of TSA line delays. I think in future, I will be more carefully considering flights out of there.

2022: A Review

tl:dr: could have been way worse. Wasn’t great.

2023: Predictions?

None. I just hope it’s better than 2022. Okay, I have one prediction. I will put out the revised versions of the first two My Immortals books before the end of February. I say that because if my publisher continues to stonewall me, I won’t have the last reversion until end of January and I need time to get ducks in a row so Amazon doesn’t give me grief. Sending them the reversion in advance has helped with other books. I also expect to complete Bound in Smoke and have it out this year. Once again, I am re-covering Scandal. Amazon gives me grief over the cover I love and the current cover just doesn’t work as well as I’d hoped. Stay tuned for that cover reveal.

In the meantime, have a wonderful New Year.

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Hello there 2019!

Tuesday, January 1st, 2019


Happy New Year to everyone who observes the Gregorian Calendar. As I write this, Maybelle, our one-eyed rescue chihuahua is scavenging vegetables dropped by the macaw. This is how food environments work, and I’m pleased to see it in effect before my very eyes.

The parrot drops bits of vegetables when he has breakfast and animals lower in the canopy clean up the mess. Maybelle is on a strict diet because she has deep seated food issues from having been in a hoarding situation where food was scarce. The vet says she can have all the vegetables she wants so this works out well.

Mouse, the new cat, is improving. I brought her home from the shelter the Friday before Christmas. According to my vet, she is closer to 10 or 11 rather than 8, and she has diabetes and a urinary tract infection. Both those last two were undiagnosed at the shelter, so it’s good she’s getting treatment now.

She’d been at the shelter for a very very long time, and had been returned once by someone who wanted a more affectionate cat. I just can’t take her back. She’s a sweetie and it turns out giving insulin injections is easier than I thought. So . . . we will find a way to manage. Plus, she’s already doing much better.

Freddie the Macaw has added to his verbal repertoire and now calls for Bella, the other dog, in my Dad’s voice. He also barks like Maybelle which causes people to run around trying to figure out why Maybelle is barking. Freddie and I are good friends now.

For anyone who stuck it out this long, I hope to have Bound in Smoke to my editor shortly. I’m in the final stagings of my revisions. I have seen the first draft of the cover and it’s pretty awesome so stay tuned!

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Greetings from 2018

Monday, January 1st, 2018

Wishing everyone the happiest of New Years.

 

A Dahlia that is just barely opening.

To The Future

 

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Happy New Year

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

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Tulips by Nature, Photo by Yours Truly

Best wishes for a lovely 2013

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A New Year

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

Picture of two glass balls

Happy 2012, everyone.

My resolution was going to be something along the lines of not waiting until the last minute.

I think it’s a record for broken resolutions.

Nevertheless, I wish you the best and happiest 2012!

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Happy New Year Thoughts

Friday, December 31st, 2010

Happy New Year to all my blog readers. Thanks for stopping by from time to time, and for everyone who’s left a comment, thanks! I do enjoy reading what you have to say.

May everyone’s 2011 be full of joy and great books to read!

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Bright and Shiny!

Friday, January 1st, 2010

Happy New Year to everyone!

It’s a bright and shiny start to the year. Any day you can start off by sleeping in is a win in my book. I didn’t get myself out of bed until 10:30. Then I had lemon meringue pie for breakfast (home made by yours truly!) AND Darjeeling tea my brother brought from India.

Now that’s a good breakfast.

Even better, it’s Friday so I have a weekend in front of me with total denial about the day job locked in for an extra day. GRIN!!

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions because they’re always the same, I just roll them over from the previous year. I’m on a 10 year roll. Heh.

I ended up taking a mini-break from writing from shortly before Christmas to now, and I’m must say I’m feeling refreshed and ready to go. I’ve been dreaming about writing, though, which in interesting. I have two big projects to get cracking on and well, yes. I am blogging instead of writing.

  • Revisions for My Beloved Assassin need to be done.
  • Final pass through Regency short story
  • Need to get going on The Next Paranormal
  • Must write up a different Historical proposal

So, yeah. Stuff to do in this bright and shiny year of 2010. How about you guys?

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I’m on a list!

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Happy January 1, 2009 folks!

It’s been a lazy day of doing not so much actually. The highlight pretty much has to be the hot chocolate I had, which I made with extra chocolate stuff so it was especially yummy. I did a lot of tweaking and revising then went out and took some pictures. Made my son dinner, and yeah. That’s about it.Inside a pink bell shaped flower taken with my spiffy new macro lens

Then I discovered that My Wicked Enemy made The SciFi Guy’s list of Favorite Urban Fastasy/paranormal Debuts which is pretty awesome.

Tomorrow I have to go to work. Sigh.

Now I’m going to get to the end of this one particular chapter and then watch some Shakespeare Retold. Much Ado About Nothing and if I’m feeling frisky and it’s not too late, MacBeth.

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Remains of the Year

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Somehow it got to be the very last day of 2008. And here I am, still ticking. A good thing, indeed. And all you get in this post is the remains of my thoughts.

Writing in 2008

All the hard writing work of 2007-2008 will be showing up in 2009. I’ll have 3 books out. Three!

February: Scandal
June: My Forbidden Desire
October: Indiscreet

That’s going to cost me a fortune in promotion and RITA entry fees. Yeah, I often wonder if I can afford to write novels. Apparently I am a writing fool since I will, whatever happens, keep writing.

Technology in 2008

Twitter-like birdTwitter gets my vote for the application that actually added value to my life. More than mySpace, more than Facebook, probably even more than email. I’ll have a separate post on my website about twitter in the new year.

iPhoneThe iPhone gets my vote for the gadget that blew me away. I heart my iPhone. It’s worth every dang penny it costs. I can check and reply to my email! I can twitter! I don’t need an eBook reader or an iPod (or mp3 player). A free book I downloaded (about how to read tea leaves) sparked a major plot thread in my October historical Indiscreet

I made the move from PC to Mac when I got an iMac. Technically that happened in late 2007, but the primary usage has been in 2008. I am now saving to replace my PC laptop which is old and getting clunky. I’ll get a Mac laptop.

Thoughts about 2009

  • I will be writing proposals. ::shudder::
  • I hope to write my Dark Elf book which is the book proposal my agent loved (before she was my agent)
  • February will see the release of Scandal which is the historical proposal that my agent (before she was my agent) said would have been an automatic rejection for her. This is the same book she read (after she was my agent and I rewrote it) and called a tour de force. Seriously.
  • A year of uncertainty and hope. That’s my take on 2009.

Have a safe and happy New Year everyone!

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