Updating my site and not enjoying it

Hi All,

Today my dad would have been 98! What’s amazing to me is that he lived only three years short of a century! Imagine all the changes he lived through during that time.

I spent most of the day painting at the studio. Now, here I am trying to update my site and finding it to be quite exasperating. I apologize for if you came looking for any information that was in my right side bar – which has disappeared, much to my dismay! Everything that was on the left is now on the right. Not what I’d intended. Yes, I have revealed myself to be a klutz at this. I’m sorry to say it took me hours to get it the way I wanted it before this update. Now I have to try to make it better again.

I sure hope you are having a better time on here than I am of late. The Happiness Engineers are good at what they do, although passing it on to me was not the best idea even with their instructions.

I’m not giving up yet; just feeling a good movie or time spent reading The Fellowship of the Ring is a better decision for the rest of this evening.

Please bear with me! It has got to get better, right?

Blessings to you all.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!

Updates, reminder, & be thankful

Hi there everyone!

Just a quick note …

Updates: I have added information to some pages: Writers’ Helps, Suicide Crisis Lines, and Books I read in 2017 – frequent updates there. You’re welcome to visit often and see what’s new.

Reminder: On November 30 I will be drawing a name from the comments on THIS POST and that person will win one of Janet Sketchley’s exciting suspense novels. Be sure to leave a comment, and please pass the news on to your friends. You might want to mention it on Twitter, Facebook, and anywhere else you have friends who could be interested. Spread the word about Janet’s books!

And be thankful:

“Be kind. Be thoughtful. Be genuine.
But most of all, be thankful.” —Unknown

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada, the United States, some of the Caribbean islands, and Liberia. It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. So, Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends. (Our Canadian Thanksgiving was in October.)

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! :0) ♥

Updates and my word for 2017

It’s been a busy start to 2017. Besides the ‘normal’ – and extra concerns of – daily/weekly family things that go on, and trying to keep up with my writing, I’m attempting to figure out a level of activity that I can handle and in which I’ll make progress. It’s time to push past my comfort zone a little more — and not panic!

It’s also time to get back into writing book reviews here on my blog, however brief they may be. I’ve been reading a lot more books, as you can see if you scroll down on my bar to the right, and I want to share some of them with you. For almost all of them I write a short blurb on Goodreads and also on Amazon. I also will be setting up a new page – books I read in 2017 – to keep a recorded count and maybe introduce you to books you haven’t read. Have you checked out my 2016 reading accomplishment? I read 219 books! Only 38 of them aren’t picture books, but 219 total! I’m happy about that.

This month I’m working on Storystorm ideas and have twelve so far. A couple I have are more than just a phrase or title; they’re more-rounded story ideas – and I think they might be worth developing.

I’ve joined 12×12 in 2017 and feel very upbeat about it this year. I know I have to work harder to get anywhere with my drafts and manuscripts, so that is going to be where “pushing past my comfort zone” comes into play.

Now that the busyness of the holiday season is past, this week I will happily reconnect with my writing coach. Starting tomorrow I’ll also be meeting with my new writing/accountability partner once a week for brainstorming, sharing, and encouragement – apart from the local writers group that usually gets together each week.

Hopefully, I haven’t set myself up for failure as I aim for progression this year. That is my word for myself in 2017. PROGRESS. It can be used as either a verb or a noun. I heard it for myself as a noun, PROgress, but in order to make PROgress I have to proGRESS. 😉 For me it feels like a push and coaxing along.

What is YOUR personal word for 2017? What are your writing and reading goals?

Don’t forget to enter my January 18 draw HERE for a copy of The Man Who Was Thursday. (I plan to read my copy of it this week, by the way, as it was recommended to me by a friend more than once — which is likely why I bought it more than once! lol 🙂 )

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂 ♥