PJL's Write Life

I'm back to working 2 jobs. It will be good for getting the bills all covered for the summer, but it also means I have less time for much of anything else. I may be posting very sporadically or just enough to stay on the list and my visits might be short, sweet, and slow. Not much I can do about it. I'll just have to make it up come winter time. Until then, happy summer and IWSG. Make sure to write lots on my behalf.  PS: The job hubby had interviewed for went nowhere. Still on the hunt. Today's post was part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group .  Created by the ninja captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh, it's a group for writers struggling with writing insecurity (AKA all of us) to gather and discuss their fears or to celebrate writing victories. If you are a struggling writer or need encouragement and friendship, join us. (Someone might have cookies!) Remember to visit the co-hosts and give them a shout-out for helping.  Jenni Enzor, Jemima Pett, Jamie of Uniquely ...

Writing is hard when you can't clearly see your screen. Just figured I'd throw that out there for those that don't know or missed my last post . I had an appointment and found out my normal eye doctor left the practice so I had to deal with a new doctor. Which stressed me out. I have trust issues with doctors and it takes time for them to earn mine, so having one that had earned it sucks. He checked my eyes and saw some inflammation and put me back on the steroid drops I usually use when I have issues. But my right eye is still acting up. Sometimes it seems like it's getting better and other times I'm squinting at everything because it's blurry. This might be a sign my next normal eye appointment will end with a stronger prescription. But there is dryness mucking things up as well. All this to say is not much writing gets to happen right now. But I also have to admit, not much writing has happened lately anyways. I got my monster hunting posts done for my newsle...

Well, February was a month. I didn't get much more written as my right eye decided it hated looking at screens and my vision in it got blurry. Hopefully, by now I have set up an eye doctor appointment because I can only spend a little time staring at my laptop screen and reading is almost flat out for the moment. I'm squinting too much and it's giving me a headache. This is gonna be a short post as a result.  We also had water leaking in the kitchen due to ice dams. That's been sorted as we hired a company come to remove as much as safely possible. Some warmer weather helped but then we got around a foot of snow dumped on us again. But we've been keeping the roof raked so the ice dams can't reform. The problem is the insulation in the attic and we got an estimate on how much it will cost to replace. On a plus note, hubby talked to a recruiter and a company about a position. But we haven't heard back, so it wasn't a very big plus. I did get one newsletter...

Since I was mostly focused on declaring war in January, I really didn't get to think much about my goals for 2026. It didn't help that I was exhausted already. I had 3 days off from the day job and two of those days I spent about 2-3 hours each shoveling snow. On top of it I had a sick husband. Not a relaxing way to start the year. When I wrote that post, I knew there would be a chance I'd be working two jobs again this year. Two day jobs really took a lot out of me last year, and I fell behind on a lot of things as a result. I knew I couldn't let that happen again, so I've been formulating a battle plan. First, I picked three books I have ready to publish. MLK Jr Day I had a three day weekend and not a lot of snow, so I devoted time to keyword research, checking the files were correct, uploading, and even scheduling a pre-order. ***  Side note: That book, Balance of Love , released yesterday. It's a novella, so it won't consume your entire day. (Is that a ...

You know, a new book is supposed to be exciting. Normally, I’m chomping at the bit for it to release after setting a pre-order. But my enthusiasm has been dampened, quite literally. Because today, we discovered this. That’s the bottom of our kitchen cupboard and it’s dripping . Now, a few hours later, the paint at the top of the cupboard is getting wrinkly and water damaged. I just submitted a claim to our house insurance. Cross your fingers for us that whatever is going on is covered and we aren’t just paying Progressive for fun. I’m not even getting into the MI DHS letter I also got that claimed my husband didn’t fulfill his work/job hunting requirements for SNAP. Never mind nothing on the website asked us to upload said requirements. I haven’t told him yet as I don’t have the energy for his reaction. I already had to deal with that over the dripping water and another more minor incident. All this sob story to say is I really, really really want you to go buy my books now. Because i...

I tend to declare war on problems. Slugs eating my plants? WAR! The one donation room at work a mess? WAR! Squirrels digging up my seedlings? WAR! Ice dams on the entryway roof? WAR! There's been a few things in our house that has cropped up and we have no money to hire someone to fix it. That did not deter me. I got Youtube, dammit. I'm gonna figure out if I can do it myself. So to start of 2026, I am declaring war on the year. YOU ARE GOING DOWN 2026. I do not care what sort of BS you try to throw at me. I will defeat you out of pure spite. I still hit publish on books even though I suck at marketing and get too shy to tell people I have a new books. I'm no stranger to rough times. I've gone without plenty of times. I've endured I want to die pain . Life's a bitch and then you die as my mom says. But remember: I take that as a challenge. So, yeah, I'm starting the year determined to get through it by the skin of my teeth. I have no idea what to expect in ...

I'm not sure how December crept up on me so quickly. I swear yesterday was October and I was prepping for the November Christmas craft shows. Yet here we are. This month tends to be quiet as many people are busy with holiday activities. I have my fair share of activities as well, but I wanted to pop in and end the year with a big thank you. Thank you to everyone who helped me and hubby out this year. Thank you for every word of support and encouragement. Thank you for all the prayers and good vibes. It's been a trying year, but a strong support group makes it easier to bear. I really hope I can come here soon with good job news from hubby, but for now, it's one day at a time. Thank you again for everything. See you next year.  Today's post was part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group .  Created by the ninja captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh, it's a group for writers struggling with writing insecurity (AKA all of us) to gather and discuss their fears or to celebrat...