Grow For Me

After the success of my sunflower garden last year, I’ve decided to expand my garden.  This year, along with sunflowers, I’ve also decided to grow tomatoes, bell peppers, and milkweed (AKA butterfly weed).  Tonight, I plotted my tomatoes and bell peppers because they need to grow inside before they’re transplanted outside.

I’m particularly excited about the butterfly weed.  Monarch butterflies are very close to being put on the endangered list.  I love monarchs and want to do all I can to help them and raise awareness.  I’m hoping my butterfly weed is successful in attracting and feeding and nursing them and I encourage others to do the same!  They’re not seeds you’ll typically find at your neighborhood grocery store, so I ordered 5000 seeds off of Amazon.

I begin planting these seeds outside within the next few weeks.  It’s still a little cool and early in the season.

Happy gardening!

Photography Friday

Today, I thought I’d take a break from expressing my oh so important thoughts and opinions and instead, just share some pictures.  Enjoy!

All Photographs and Images Copyright © 2015 Jacqueline E. Smith

Sunflowers and Swimming

Hi, friends!

I’ll be honest with you. This past week, I have not been a very good blogger. I haven’t been a very good writer either. I’ve worked on my two books a little bit, but for the most part, I’ve just been swimming and taking a lot of pictures of my sunflowers. These next few days are supposed to be rainy though, so I should have plenty of time to get back to my normal routine of actually being a writer.

Next week, I won’t be updating at all. My sister and I are going to the BEACH and then, the day after we get back, I’m off to Oklahoma for a paranormal convention to hopefully sell a few books!

As much fun as I’m having with Between Worlds, I can’t forget about my first book. After all, I don’t want people reading the second book if they haven’t read the first! Where’s the fun in that? It’s like reading The Goblet of Fire before reading The Prisoner of Azkaban, which, okay, I did, but that was only because I looked everywhere for that book and I could not find it. I needed more Harry Potter. Not my fault.

Cemetery Tours and Between Worlds have both been selling pretty well since the latter was released. I’m still hoping for a few more reviews, but so far, I’m thrilled with how well they’ve both been doing. I don’t remember if I’ve shared this review or not, but it’s one of my absolute favorites that I’ve gotten so far, so I thought, what the heck? If I have shared it, then I can share it again.

http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2014/06/cemetery-tours-jacqueline-e-smith.html

Oh, and also, I made a Pinterest board for my sunflowers.

July Photo Album

I realized something last night. Amidst all this eye trouble I’ve been having (it is getting better, FINALLY!), I have been throwing myself a major pity party. Seriously, even though I had so much fun over the weekend, I spent most of it feeling sorry for myself because I haven’t been able to read clearly or wear my contacts. Granted, being able to read and write is a HUGE part of my life, but I can still do it. It’s just been a little off. So I apologize for being such a stick in the mud.

My Fourth of July weekend was incredible. Three of my friends and I took a day trip up to Texoma for some hiking, visiting camp, and all around lakeside shenanigans. It was one of the funnest days ever.

I love nature and I love hiking. I would take a day in the woods over a night in a club or a hotspot any day. During our hike, we went to the Cliffs, which are made entirely of sandstone.

We all carved our initials into the stone.

Several meters and three bottles of Gatorade later, we decided it was time to cool off at the lake.

Afterword, we were heading back up to the main camp and we stumbled across a turtle who was struggling on the side of a rocky hill.

So we took him to a shallow pool that feeds into the lake.

We also paid a visit to our friends, Darwin the Lizard and Killer the Ball Python.

Finally, we returned to the lake to enjoy the sunset.

The next day, my dad, my sister and I drove back up to Lake Texoma for a JB and the Moonshine Band concert. It was probably the most Texan thing I’ve ever done in my life.

The bar there was a boat. It was awesome.

Then the next day, two of my sunflowers bloomed!

I also saw a dragonfly.

Finally, the first review for Between Worlds is in and it is AWESOME!

That’s all, folks! How was your weekend?

Seeing Things Clearly

I know what you’re thinking. This “Seeing Things Clearly” blog post is going to be filled with revelations and things about the world that I now understand.

Nope. I’m not that deep.

Remember that eye strain that I told you about a while ago? Well, it never got better. So I went to the eye doctor this afternoon. As it turns out, I do not have an eye strain, so I can continue to happily abuse my eyesight and my computer use for years to come.

However, something (most likely a speck of dust beneath my contact lens) scratched up my poor cornea, my cornea flared up like a Fourth of July firecracker, and lo and behold, I can’t see a thing. Okay, I can still drive, and obviously I can still type, but it’s all thanks to my left eye. My right eye is just about useless, even with glasses. Therefore, I am now on two separate eye drops (one prescription, one over-the-counter), and I am not allowed to wear my contacts until further notice.

That means I will not be looking cute at the Fourth of July concert that my sister and I are taking my dad to. Oh well.

The good news is the rest of my eyes are perfectly healthy. My doctor said that for someone with such bad vision, my eyes themselves are remarkably healthy. It’s just that darn cornea.

Hopefully, though, with the use of the eye drops, my vision will be back to 20/550 in no time!

For the record, I don’t know if that’s my actual eyesight. I just know that my contact prescription is -5.50 for one eye and -6.00 for the other.

In other news, Between Worlds is still selling well. Yay!

Also, my sunflowers are growing and on the verge of blooming! Most of them are as tall or taller than I am now!

Creating a post on WordPress is different now.  Interesting.

Anyway, that’s about all I’ve got for this evening.  I hope you all have a great rest of the day!

The Countdown is On

Hi, friends!  What’s up, what’s up?

I know I haven’t been as active here as I should be.  To be honest, my days are consumed with getting the new book ready to go IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!  AGH!

Seriously, it does not feel like it’s that close.  I feel like I have all the time in the world when… I don’t!  I know that as an independent publisher, technically I don’t have to answer to anyone and if I wanted to postpone the release date, I could, because, let’s face it, I answer to no one. Mwa ha ha.  But the thing is, I am a professional, I want to be a professional, and a professional keeps her deadlines, especially her self-imposed deadlines.  That’s all there is to it.  I want my books to be just as high quality and on time as though they were coming from a big time publishing company.  And that means sticking to deadlines!

Unfortunately, thanks to all the computer work and reading and what not, I have developed a strain in my right eye.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but my eyesight is terrible.  Like, God-awful.  Without correctional lenses, I can’t even see the giant E at the top of the letter pyramid.

My dad has a history of genetic eye diseases which I am more likely to pass on to my son than he is likely to pass on to me, but at the same time, my oldest sister has the disease so, you know, stuff happens.  The point is, I have to take good care of my eyes, and unfortunately, I’ve chosen a profession with a lot of reading and a lot of computer time.  I haven’t been posting as much or as active online as I usually am.  Trying to give my poor right eye a rest.

What else is new? Well…

My sunflowers are beginning to actually look like future sunflowers!

Cemetery Tours is now up to 45 reviews on Amazon!  Just five shy of my goal for July 1!

And I had the best snow cone I’ve ever had in my entire life.

How has your week been so far?

Seedlings

Good news, everyone! 

MY SUNFLOWER SEEDS ARE OFFICIALLY SEEDLINGS!

They are brand, brand new, less than a day old.  I’m so excited to see them, though!  I hope I can keep them alive long enough to see them grow into big, strong, beautiful sunflowers!  

In other news, I’m still super busy getting ready for the readings and signings this weekend.  I’m really excited, but really afraid I’ll forget something or somehow end up doing something wrong.  I’m not sure what I could possibly do wrong, but nothing is impossible.  

Anyway, this is going to be a short post, but I will get back to regular blogging soon!  

Good and Bad Day

Today has been busy and productive.  I like those kind of days.  I feel like I’m getting a lot accomplished, things seem to be heading in the right direction, and I’m pretty excited about a few new opportunities coming my way.  I got the new manuscript to my editor and I’ve gotten several new lovely reviews on Amazon.  I also bought some sunflower seeds.  I haven’t planted anything since I was about eight, so I want to give it another try.  And I just love sunflowers.  

 

I’ve also started researching my next book.  I’m pretty excited about it.  I’m tempted to start working on two new ones, but I know that eventually I’ll have to pick one over the other.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!  It feels strange not to be writing every day, so I want to get back to it as soon as possible!  

The reason it’s been a bad day, however, is pretty lousy.  My very oldest friend (seriously, we’ve been friends since we were three) lives in Lubbock and is married to an absolutely wonderful man who, unfortunately, has had his fair share of health problems.  He is back in the hospital, and while I don’t know details, I know that they’re both having a really rough time and it kills me that I can’t be there for her.  It’s weighing pretty heavy on my mind right now, so again, this will be a short post.  

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!