PJL's Write Life

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...

Today I decided to crowdsource some ideas. With it now being over a year of hubby job hunting, you can imagine he's racked up the rejections. For writers, it's no big deal. If you can't deal with rejection then you don't get into writing. It's expected to happen. It happens more often than not. But for a regular job seeker? That's a different story. The hope and goal is to get a job and get it quickly. Rejections happen, but not on the scale of writing. It can be soul crushing and hard to over come. Hubby has been struggling with it the stack he's gotten. I've done my to help him out and talk to him about how I deal with it, but I thought why not pose it to everyone at IWSG. Between us all, I can't imagine how many rejection letters have accumulated! What is your methods for dealing with lots of rejection? How do you get back up and get on the horse after being hit with a slew of rejections? What pep talks do you give yourself? I look forward to your...

Well, I am pleased to say that after last month's post I have written more. After that initial story, I had a nice 3 days streak of micro-fiction writing. Then I got too tired and didn't write much more. Then I got a second job at Sault Historic Sites as a cashier at 1 of 3 museums that meant a 6 day work week. I was certain that meant no writing was going to happen for a bit then. But this new second job is different than other jobs I've had. It's the first time I've had a job where I didn't spend the entire shift running around like a chicken with my head cut off. In the past, I've mostly worked restaurants as a line cook. If you've held those sorts of jobs, you know there is not much downtime and if there is, well, you're boss probably said, "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean." Meaning if you weren't serving customers, you were cleaning some part of the restaurant. Breaks were often cut short because of orders. Restaur...

Last month , I talked about the energy my brain requires to write and how the majority of mine has been channeled into finding ways to make ends meet and get the bills paid. I was getting to the point where I was starting to get curious just how long I'd go without writing some fiction. Because my brain can be a jerk like that. I once signed up for Nano only to have my brain decide I shouldn't write a single word out of pure spite for Nano. I can fully see my brain deciding to see how long it can keep the no writing streak going just for the lolz. Then I did a little interview with a fellow writer over on Substack, Natalie Philips , and would you look at that. A little creative spark flew to live in my noggin' and I opened a WIP and wrote a little 200-word story. It may not be much, but after a 3 month dry spell, it feels like I just climbed a mountain. It feels amazing. Despite life being lifey (coming up on 1 year since hubby got fired) I still have the words hidden insid...

I almost didn't have a post for this month. If you recall last month , I said life was lifey and with hubby's continued lack of job, writing had taken a back seat in my life. I haven't written anything outside of some newsletter posts, but the night before IWSG, I had something to talk about so here I am. And that's how I don't really see much discussion on how writing takes energy. In the writing community, we like to joke, "Butt in chair and write." I often feel like its said in a way that implies that because you are sitting down to write, you are not exerting energy. That couldn't be farthest from the truth. At least not for me. The main reason my writing has ground to a halt is because I don't have the spare brain power for fiction. All my noggin energy is going to figuring out how to get the bills paid for the month. We are now at the point where we have to start drawing from savings. I don't work enough at Salvation Army to cover even ha...

I had a completely different post written for June about how May went for me. (Spoiler, there was no fiction writing and little other writing. Life was lifey.) Then I watched this video from Becca Syme and her words really resonated with me. I have definitely been missing a lot of joy when it comes to writing. My assumption was it was because of my two day jobs. If I combine both, I am pulling 10 hour work days and on my feet for both with one having a lot of people interaction and running around. I routinely get over 8,000 steps in at Salvation Army. By the end of it, I am out of gas and I fall asleep on the couch after dinner. But then Becca started talking about life's stakes and how those can derail the best writing plans. I realized, I was living in a very high stakes moment.   Hubby is still job hunting. His unemployment is long gone. We've just about used up the money from our tax refund. What we have in savings is going to start draining because I don't work enough ...

The other day on Substack, a post was going around of someone who had complied their list of top fiction writers. It was a solid list with lots of good writers. And I wasn't on it. Which stung, but also, my newsletter isn't solely fiction so I can't say I was that surprised. But I did feel pretty cruddy for a bit. Luckily, I did the smart thing and left the computer. Hubby and I went for a walk. We went down to the pet store and checked out the animals. Then we wandered into Goodwill and I ran into a coworker and others I knew. It made me feel better. It also reminded me of a moment when I was in college. I was an art major and the walls were often papered with student projects. Some might have looked and felt motivated, but I had the complete opposite reaction. I felt so demotivated by the displays. I wasn't good enough to be picked. And the thing is, even back then, I knew that was irrational. Art is something you practice and get better at. I also knew I didn't n...

 Have I ever mentioned how much I love this group? It's one of the few places on the internet that hasn't gone down hill. I've been a part of it for years and the support people give never wanes. Especially given last month was quite venty and not very writerly. But you rallied around me, shared your own struggles to let me know hubby and I weren't going it alone, and assured me things will pick up. I completely forgot to reply to comments, so consider this one big reply to everyone who popped in: THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORDS. Before I get in to the writing thing I want to talk about (because I really didn't feel like having a 3rd month in a row where I asked for good vibes for hubby. Especially because it's helping. Recently, hubby got a reply back from a company and he's been interviewing. I'm writing this before his interview so hopefully I won't have to come back after it and update with bad news because as of this week, hubby's unemployment has ...

I really wish I could say things are turning around since my last IWSG post . I WISH. But I can't. In fact, the hits keep coming. On top of hubby still being out of a job and looking, we've had a leak in a front closet and had to have someone come assess it and the ice dams that were above it. Turns out the access points to the attic are just plain pieces of ply wood with no insulation so we've basically been heating the outside a bit all winter. Not quite sure why the inspection guy didn't note that when he did his inspection or why everyone before him just ignored that fact. But given there's still a few feet of snow on the ground (we've gotten over 180 inches of snow this winter) any repairs have to wait until. Our repair guy noted we should just do it by next October, so while it sucks, it's not an OMG we need this fixed now like our furnace last year when we bought the house. We still spent a good chunk of time with an ax hacking at the ice dams to shri...

I'm not happy with 2025. Hubby is still out of work and his unemployment is about to run out. He's gotten 2 interviews and that was before Christmas. Since then, any resume he's sent out has been ghosted. Of course, none of that matters to the bills, (and we've cut basically all non-essential stuff) so.   If anyone would like to buy some knitting or books , I'd be ever grateful. Alternatively, you all buy groceries, right? I've been using an app called Receipt Hog to earn points because every little bit helps right now. It's nice because you don't have to clip coupons like with Ibotta. If you want to check it out, they gave me a referral code and I'll get extra points. You can check it out here . It's my Endometriosis surgery anniversary . I'm at 4 years now since getting my health back. It'd be nice to say I've been crushing the writing since I don't have to deal with crippling exhaustion and pain anymore, but life keeps throwing...

I am happy to say my November writing break was a success. Now, I can't claim I wrote a ton of words, but the few I did get down, I felt excited about. I felt excited for writing. That tells me the recharge was needed. Which is funny because I really resisted doing it. I felt bad for wanting to hit pause. That was because a mixture of pressure from myself and outside pressure. Mind you, know one was pestering me to write, but listing to others talk about writing made me feel pressure to keep at it too. It was like a fear of being accused of not actually being a writer because I took a break.  I feel like that is a big problem online, too. We see others doing the thing we do and seeming to do it well, so when we don't stack up, we start guilting ourselves or impostor syndrome kicks in. We often need a constant reminder to not do that. I guess it's because the thing we might be taking a break from is something we are passionate about. We don't like the idea that, yes, we ...

Last month, I decided to take a break from writing. I had finished a collection of 200-word stories and with Christmas craft show season starting, it was perfect timing as I'd need more time to knit. As with other times when writing has taken a back seat, I expected some guilt. Or to get a bout of inspiration that drove me to write despite me declaring I was taking a break. But I didn't feel any of that. Instead, I felt... Relief. This year has been eventful. Hubby and I bought our first house. I painted almost all of the interior. I cleaned up and planted some little garden beds. I went back to work at Salvation Army and got a year around position. When school started I went back to crossing guard. Hubby lost his job and we lost health insurance and all financial security. We've had some family deaths. It's been a lot. I feel like so much has been piled on my plate. (Some of it self-inflicted, mind you.) To take something off was a relief. All year, I've been strug...

It may not be 2020 but nothing messes things up like a bout of Covid. Yup, that and an ER visit got piled on top of all the other crap life has put there . IF anyone would like to know what it feels like when you're on the verge of passing out, I can tell you. #youknowyoureawriterwhen Anyway, so yup, my October went off the rails. I'm definitely used to it happening by now . As a result, I didn't get much writing or knitting done. But it did happen. A tiny bit when I had some spare energy, which wasn't much because my body was putting most of it into fighting off Covid. I was so hungry the entire time and I slept so much. (When I could. Current CDC guidelines meant I didn't have to be negative to go back to work, so I didn't get many days off before having bosses ask when I was able to come back and that tends to trigger my people pleasing tendencies. Looking back, I feel like I should have put my foot down and said no. I did not get to rest and recover much. Th...

So, my husband got laid off at the end of September. I don't need to tell you that's bad, but it's particularly bad in our case as his job paid about, oh... 100% of the bills. And gave us health insurance. I am trying very hard to not say very mean things about his former employer. As you can imagine this has ground my writing to a near halt. I've managed a few 200-word stories, but I haven't had the mental energy to attempt another chapter of Arctic Curse . And I have been okay with that fact. I used to get eaten up by guilt whenever life got out of control and shrank my writing time. I would lament not being able to write under pressure like other writers I knew. I hung my head when I had no word counts to post on Twitter. The guilt was so heavy, and as a result, I'd write even less . Too much mental energy was being consumed by the guilt. Learning to let that guilt go and tell myself that it was okay not to write helped me to write during tough times. It was...

So, I released a book at the end of July. I bet you didn't know that because I didn't do any hype. I didn't ask for help. I just decided to hit publish and took action. The only thing I did was send a newsletter out with the announcement and shared it over on Substack Notes the next day. It was probably my best release ever. I had KU reads. I got paperback sales (people got their copy before I got my box of copies.) I sold 11 copies. And the best thing? I didn't feel like I had to beg for any of it. Usually, I put the book up for pre-order and I send out a call for help. Then I spend the next month or so sharing the book and feeling like I'm having my teeth pulled. Pre-orders trickle in and when release day rolls around, I have friends sharing the news and celebrating with me, but not much happens sale-wise. The pre-orders show a nice little spike on my dashboard, but I can't say many new sales join them. It makes for a weird day as I try not to focus too much o...

Last month I purposefully missed IWSG. There were a couple things I could have written, some drafts I had saved, but instead I opted to skip out. I gotta be honest. It was refreshing. Don't get me wrong. I love this group. Your support is amazing and motivates me to keep going. I probably would have quit writing if not for my fellow writers. I may be an introvert, but it is human nature in all of us to need some form of comradery. When we find something we love, we want to share it with others who love it too. Then during the low parts, we have friends to turn to. But taking a break from posting here was still nice. I'm back to work at Salvation Army and I've been going at gardening full throttle. It's worn me out because I keep forgetting I'm not in my teens or twenties and acting like I am. Top it off with a family get together and a friend's dad's memorial, I had no spare gas in my tank for IWSG. There's been days I haven't bothered turning on the...

There was a time when I'd think about not being able to write because I got hit by a bus or was somehow incapacitated. Panic would grab me. I'd feel a burning fire to get writing because life is unpredictable and I may not be able to get all the stories I had inside me out. In a way, it was FOMO. Lately, that FOMO doesn't feel the same. There isn't a panic in me anymore that I won't have time to get all my stories out. Instead, the panic is about not being able to experience life. The stories will remain in my head. They aren't going anywhere. But my chance to take hubby to the Grand Canyon? I gotta get on that before it's too late. This shift is another thing my Endometriosis and surgery caused. Being free of that pain means I'm more able to, well, flat-out live. I don't have to schedule things around when the pain flares will hit. I'm not so exhausted that if I do go out and do something that I have to spend a few days recovering from it. If I...

I have a question for you. Well, a few, actually. Do you love aliens and outer space? Conspiracy theories? Science fiction stories? But are you also: short on time? Struggling to get some reading into your busy day? Do I sound like a cheesy sales pitch? You don’t have to answer that. I know I do, but that’s because I have exciting book news. I have a new book that contains all that! If you have been enjoying my 200-word stories , then A Quick Tale is the perfect book for you. 45 tales about aliens, outer space, science gone wrong, and conspiracy theories. (I’m not only about vampires.) Each story is told in 200 words. You can read them while standing in line at the grocery store. Or picking up your kid from school. If you’re waiting to see your doctor…well…you can probably finish it then. (Seriously, why are wait times so long for a 5 minute visit?) ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY FOR 99 CENTS! Did I make that big enough? I can go bigger. ORDER TODAY FOR 99 CENTS! I’m getting a little silly her...

I started writing on a whim back in 2010 or 2011. The exact date escapes me as I'm rubbish at making mental notes of things like that. I knew next to nothing about writing, but that is classic me. Dive in and learn as I go. But I'm also the type that will need things spelled out. I might take things too literally sometimes. I recall as a child being very confused by the do not pass signs on the road. We always passed them. But they say do not pass! Another confusing moments was in Return of the Jedi . I never understood why Palpatine was afraid of the Death Star being operational. That's what he wanted, wasn't it? So, as I learned to write, there were things I really struggled with. It took me longer than it should have to figure out keywords could mean more than one word for example. When I'd see people suggest squeezing in writing wherever you could manage, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the advice. I need time to sit down and get into the groove to wri...