In the City

Hello, friends!  Just a quick update!  I may not have any more deadlines for a while (Yay!) but life is still as busy as ever!

I’ve been enjoying a wonderful few days, celebrating the impending Christmas season with friends and family.

A few of my girlfriends and I had a Christmas crafts night.

Then my mom and my sister and I took a trip downtown to see the world premiere of the opera Becoming Santa Claus.

And life is only going to get busier!  Tonight, my friend and I are taking my sister out to celebrate her birthday.  Tomorrow night, a group of my friends from high school and I are going with our English teacher (our Mr. Feeny, if you will) to see MacBeth.  Thursday night, I’m going to a bachelorette party and Saturday is the wedding!  So much fun and merriment and all the while I keep thinking, “Oh my goodness!  I have to get the new book out!”  Then I remember it’s already out and I think to myself, “Oh, yay!  I love it when that happens!”

The new book is doing great.  And Boy Band is getting some new love because of it!

I’ve had two reviews in the past week that I particularly love.  One is from a new friend down in Mexico named Bryan.  You can check out his review here!

He also took this fabulous picture and I’ve got to be honest, it’s one of my favorite book portraits ever.

The other is a review I believe I already shared, but I love it so much, I’m just going to share it again.

I love all my readers and reviewers and friends so, so much!  I don’t know if you realize it, but you make so many dreams come true just by doing what you love!  Thank you, thank you!

I hope you all are enjoying this most wonderful time of the year.

21

Today, my little sister turns 21.  I could very well make this a sentimental post about how she’s my best friend in the world and how she’s crossing a major milestone and how I’m so thankful to have her in my life, and all of that would be very, very true.  I don’t know where I’d be without her.

In honor of her birthday, I decided to release my new book, Backstage, the sequel to Boy Band, a day early on Kindle.  I did this, in part, because she loves the first book so much.  We’re both big boy band fans in real life, and she was the one who really pushed me to finish the first book and to publish it.  She enjoyed Cemetery Tours also, but not like Boy Band.

That being said, I hope you all enjoy the second book!  I did my best not to end it on as BIG a cliffhanger as the first one, but rest assured there is a third one in the works!  Sam and Mel’s story isn’t quite finished yet!

Love you all!

Backstage on Kindle

 

Making it Through

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day.  I won’t go into details.  All I will say is that I’m glad it’s over and I’m hoping that everything will work out for the best.

Today is already turning out to be a better day.  The weather is finally feeling cool and crisp, One Direction released a new song (YAY!), and I’m really beginning to feel like the holidays are on their way.  I’m so ready.  I’m ready for Christmas lights and hot chocolate and Christmas sweaters and the smell of fresh balsam and firewood.

I’m ready for my family and friends to get together for Thanksgiving and Yuletide festivities.

I’m ready for parades and good food and drink and laughter.

 

I’m ready for Christmas music and snowflakes and winter’s chill.

I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet.  Trust me, I’m excited for Thanksgiving as well.  It brings just as much warmth and joy and laughter with it as its December counterpart.  But after yesterday, I need this dose of holiday cheer.  I’m ready.  I’m so ready.

Changing the Weather

I’m sure all of you are really tired of me complaining about the weather.  I know I’m tired of me complaining about the weather.  Unfortunately, the weather outside is very complaint-worthy: cold, wet, dreary, dark.  You know, horrible.  I haven’t seen the sun in over a week.  That’s not okay.  I love the sun.  I love heat.

Today, I’m writing to tell you that I have finally realized that complaining about the weather doesn’t actually change the weather.  If it did, the weather would have changed about a week and a half ago.  So, instead of falling to my knees and invoking the weather gods, I’m going to country music and spread pictures of spring.  Let’s face it, there really isn’t much more to be done about this stupid weather.

On a brighter note, however, you can totally zip on over to Danielle’s blog and read an excerpt of Cemetery Tours and its sequel, Between Worlds!

https://danielleelisemiller.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/blogiversary-between-worlds-by-jacqueline-smith-excerpt/

All images Copyright © 2015 Jacqueline E. Smith.

Monday Announcements

Okay folks, here’s the deal.  Apparently, Winter is getting back at me for that little breakup letter I wrote yesterday because this morning, I woke up congested, chilled, and with a killer sinus headache which I am still trying to get rid of.  I don’t know how I could have caught a sinus infection since I’ve been about as active as a slug the last few days (thank you, Winter), but I guess stranger things have happened.  The point is, even though all I want to do is lie on the couch and watch Disney movies and feel sorry for myself, I have waaaaaay too much going on this week and in the weeks to come to take a day off.  For the record, though, I am on the couch, in my PJs, and feeling very sorry for myself.  I’m just not watching movies.  Yet.

My first order of business is to tell y’all that I am totally honored to be a part of Danielle Miller’s third blogiversary celebration! Follow her, like her posts, reblog her posts, and stay tuned for lots of really awesome giveaways (including eBooks of both Cemetery Tours and Between Worlds!).  She is so awesome and I’m thrilled to be her first featured author!  Please check her out: https://danielleelisemiller.wordpress.com

Secondly, I’m hosting another Giveaway of my own!  My new YA book, Boy Band, will be out April 21, and in celebration, I’m giving away five signed copies!  Please enter and spread the word!  https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/129034-boy-band

Finally, I’m back to work full force, not only on Cemetery Tours 3, but on Boy Band 2 and a new idea for a book I had just last night.  I’m not kidding you when I say I have ideas for at least twenty books in my head right now and I wish with all my heart that I could just write all of them at once.  I always kind of thought that I had to focus on one book at a time and have that be it.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized, hey, I went through four years of high school and six years of higher education, and all ten of those years, I worked on dozens of different projects at the same time.  Why can’t I do that now in my professional life?  I mean, it will probably be a lot easier to buckle down and concentrate when I’m not fighting off a sinus infection, but whatever.

I think that about covers my Monday Announcements.  I might have a few more as the week progresses.  Then again, I might not.  Until then, enjoy your Monday!  I’ll be curled up in a ball with a hot wash cloth pressed against my face.  Ugh.

A Breakup Letter

Dear Winter,

I know just a few short months ago, I professed my love for you.  Well, maybe.  I might not have gone that far.  True, I do appreciate you, especially around Christmastime.  But Christmas is over, Winter.  It’s been over for a while, now.  I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but I think the time has come for us to part ways.

It’s true, we did have some good times together.  We had a great Christmas, and you know, snow can be fun and all for a few hours.  I like scarves and jackets for about a month or so.  But I have needs, Winter.  I need sunlight. I need warmth.  I need flowers.  I’m a girl.  I love flowers.  I know you’re just being yourself and I can’t fault you for that, but I need more than you can give me.

I don’t want you to get the wrong idea here, Winter.  You know a part of me will always love you.  I was born in the middle of a snow storm, after all.  We will always have a special place in each others’ lives, and I can’t forget that.  But you and I, we’re just too different.  You’re bland and cold and you really like brown and white and gray.  I like adventures and colors and blue skies.

You’ve also become kind of clingy.  I hate to call you out online like this, but I need space!  I need freedom.  Thanks to you, I have no social life.  With all your snow and freezing rain, I can’t even get out of the house to go buy groceries!  Face it, Winter, you’re smothering me.

For example, I can never dress the way I want to around you.  This is a real problem for me.  Yeah, jeans and jackets do have a certain element of style, but after Christmas, I want to wear shorts and skirts and sandals.  You know me, Winter.  I hate shoes.  And yet, you force me to wear them.

So don’t you see, Winter?  It’s not that I don’t appreciate you as a season.  It’s just that you and I, we don’t work well together longterm.  I never said I wanted a commitment, but you seem determined to hang on to a relationship that ran its course on December 26.  I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to remind me of how I’ll be pining for you and talking about how much I love you in about eight months.  But you forget, Winter, I always say that my affection for you is temporary.  I love you, but only until Christmas.  After that, I can barely tolerate you.  I’m sorry to be so harsh, but it’s how I feel.

I want you to be happy, Winter.  But I also need me to be happy, and as long as we’re together, I don’t see that happening for either one of us.  It’s time for you to leave and head on down to the southern hemisphere where you belong.  I’m sure they’ll be glad to see you down there.  In the mean time, I’ll be happily running back into the arms of Spring and Summer.

Love,

Jackie

Snowfall

Hi, friends!  Today’s post is not going to be a long one because I have a few projects that need to be finished by tomorrow.  That being said, the new manuscript is in the hands of one editor and flying off to the second this afternoon.  Yay!  So excited!

So, instead of a lengthy post, please enjoy some pictures of the snow that fell yesterday morning.  Expecting more tomorrow.  Oh joy.

Weekend Recap

Hi, friends!

I hope you had a splendid weekend and Valentine’s Day full of love. And if not love, then at least full of chocolate.  Since my boyfriend, Richard Armitage, is out of town shooting a movie or something, my mom and I had a Valentine’s Mother Daughter Date to the bowling alley!  It was great.

It also got me thinking that a bowling alley would be a REALLY cool place for a book release party!  I’m seriously considering it for the release of Boy Band.  But then, I also have a lot of cool ideas, decoration-wise, for the party, so it probably won’t happen in a bowling alley.  But still.

Sunday, I celebrated Galentine’s Day with my BFF, Jessica.  We went out to dinner and then went back to her place to watch a Disney movie and drink wine.  Unfortunately, she does not have very good wine openers so I ended up prying the cork out with steak knives.

The lesson to be learned here?  Nothing stands between an Episcopalian and wine. Nothing.

Yesterday was a blast.  My other BFF, Hannah, flew in from California to visit her parents and their new farmhouse.  I hopped in my car and drove the two hours to see them.  I love being out in the country.  It’s so free and open.  No traffic.  No big buildings.  Just Earth and sky and road.  Love!

Anyway, their land is amazing.  It reminded me of how much I want a getaway cabin one day.

I love Texas.  But you know what I love more than Texas?  This puppy.

His name is Krager and he is the cutest, sweetest, most lovable dog you will ever meet.  I wanted to steal him so bad.  Sadly, my kitty would NOT approve.  She likes being an only child and would probably try to banish me or something if I brought home a dog.  Otherwise, Krager would have been mine.  I would have found a way.

So, now that my weekend of adventures is over, it’s back to work.  And I do mean WORK.  I HAVE to get these revisions finished ASAP.  I’m also in the process of helping my friend Paula format her first children’s book, which will be released very soon.  You can keep up to date with her writings here: https://paulawalkerbaker.wordpress.com

Tomorrow is also the first day of Lent.  I’m aiming to make some big changes in my life.  We’ll see if that actually happens.  But I’m going to try!  But more on that tomorrow.

I hope you all have a fantastic Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras.  Go eat some pancakes!

In the Bleak Midwinter

Christmas is in six days.  My general rule of thumb is that I like the cold and the gray and the winter weather (or at least pretend to) until Midnight on December 26.  Once Christmas is over, I can go back to openly hating the winter chill as much as I darn well please.

Okay, so there are a few things I like about winter.  I like hot chocolate.  I like snuggling with blankets.  I love Christmas.  And I actually do like snow as long as I don’t have to drive in it.  It’s pretty.

Ice can even be pretty.

The only problem with pretty scenes like this is that they come with temperatures like this…

That is too cold.  When it’s that cold outside, my face often looks like this…

Or more accurately, like this…

Every year I start off thinking that I really do like the cold.  I was born in the dead of winter, in the middle of a snow storm.  I feel like I should like I owe it to winter to try to like it.  But once the initial Yay-It’s-Cold-Outside-I-Can-Wear-Boots-And-Scarves excitement wears off, winter gets really old really fast.  The worst part is IT’S NOT EVEN TECHNICALLY WINTER YET AND I’M ALREADY SICK OF IT.  As far as boots and scarves go, guess what?!  I wear boots and scarves all year round!  I’m a writer who lives in Texas!  Boots are a given and scarves are kind of a thing for some of us.

I’m beginning to feel, in a weird kind of way, that by professing my “love” for winter and denying my love for all things summer, I’m in a way denying a part of myself.  I’m supposed to be listening to Christmas music, but I’ve been sneaking listens to my summer iTunes playlist for the past two weeks.  Even as I write this, I’m singing along to Summertime Guys from the movie Aquamarine.

But when you think about it, all of this is really to be expected.  I’m from the South.  Southern girls love summer. We thrive on sunlight and open-toed-shoes and the smell of coconut sunscreen.  Summertime is also the time for colors and being outside and swimming and flowers.  Honestly, how could it not be my favorite season?

In my mind, summer equals freedom, and as a writer, as a creative mind in general, freedom is all that I want.  It’s all I’ve ever wanted.  Winter is fine, but I so often feel confined and limited in the cold and the gray.  And come on, shoes?  Who actually likes having to wear shoes?  My feet, like the rest of me, like to be free.  One of my favorite memories is of my first Fourth of July working as a summer camp counselor.  My co-workers and I spent the evening at our friend’s lake house and as the sun set, we ran around playing Ultimate Frisbee in our summer clothes and bare feet.  It was the best Fourth ever.

Winter, I guess, reminds me too much of the real world.  Summer is a fantasy.  It’s a time for adventure.  It reminds me of what I want out of life: mountains and oceans and gardens and hiking and swimming and running and forests and open fields of tall grass and flowers.  I realize I must sound like the biggest hippie right now, but that is what my soul craves.  That’s what it needs to survive.  If I can’t have that during the winter months, I at least need my summer music and pictures to keep me going.  Of course, I have my writing also, which definitely frees me, but I also like to experience these freedoms and moments for myself.  It’s not enough to just write them.  You’ve got to live them too.

So for the next six days, I will love and savor what’s left of Christmas, but in the back of my mind, I’m still anticipating the summer sun.

One Day More

I just read on the Weather Channel that although we (as in all of North Texas) are under a freezing rain advisory until tomorrow at 6 PM (yay), the following days should be all sun and highs in the upper sixties!

I can not even begin to tell you how much I hope that that’s true.  With Texas weather, you can never really know.  I’ve seen days where Texas decided we needed tornadoes in December.  No, Texas.  No one ever needs tornadoes.  Especially in December.

However, I would be lying if I said I didn’t prefer thunderstorms to whatever the heck we’ve had for the past week.  It’s been gray and foggy and drizzly and COLD every single day, and as much as I don’t want to admit it, it’s getting to me.  I’m not sure I’d go all the way to say I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, but it did used to bring me down a lot.  Now, I’m older (and on anti-anxiety medication), so maybe that’s helping a little.

But even if it’s not affecting me mentally, it’s starting to get to me physically.  I’ve had almost no energy this past week, and although I’ve been keeping up with the new book, somehow forcing myself to punch out words on this blog has been a nightmare!  That’s not to say I don’t love you!  I do!  That’s why I want to keep writing here as often as I can!

There have been times in the last few days I honestly thought I was getting sick, and part of me almost wanted to.  That at least would have explained the no energy and the overall feeling of yuckiness.  Last week, I was convinced I was getting sick because of how achey I felt and because of all the pressure in my sinuses.  But you know what?  I think I’m as healthy as a horse.  I really think it’s just the weather.  I got a text from my best friend yesterday.  She’s an accountant and she’s right in the middle of busy season.  She told me the all the stress combined with the weather was about to put her over the edge.  Now, being an author is not NEARLY as stressful as being an accountant (not yet, at least…), but I could totally empathize.  I told her I wasn’t sad or stressed, but I just felt sick.

I guess thinking about it, it could be a mental thing.  Just because it’s not affecting my mood, doesn’t mean my brain can’t send out some weird signal to the rest of my body saying, “Okay, you’re not sad or grouchy.  But you need to react to this weather somehow.  I know.  I’ll make you feel like crap.”  The brain is a really fascinating thing.

And now for some other things that have been on my mind recently but I haven’t mentioned because I’ve been too busy griping about how cold and gray it is even though we actually really don’t have it all that bad down here.

1) I really wish people of the world would STOP posting their injuries on Facebook.  It’s gross.  I’m sorry you busted up your knee skiing and I’m sorry you were stupid and you accidentally sliced your finger open on a wine bottle, but I really do not need to see pictures.  Just stop.  Please, stop.

2) You know what musical I really hate?  Annie.  Seriously, it is the worst musical ever.  The Disney remake is only tolerable because of it’s adult cast (Kathy Bates, Victor Garber, Audra McDonald, Kristen Chenowith).  The reason I’m bringing this up is because for some reason, people around the office where I work have decided they need to start singing “The sun’ll come out… tomorrow…” like, pretty much every day since the cold and gray first started.  It’s not bad enough that I have to endure this awful weather, now I have to suck it up while you sing one of the most annoying songs in musical theater history?

3) I mentioned before that my sister and I had a pretty good chuckle over JK Rowling announcing that she regrets Ron and Hermione ending up together.  I guess the reason it was funny to us was because we never really cared all that much about if they got together or no.  To be honest, I was still too sad after JK killed off all my favorite characters to care about who got married in the end.  Still, I knew a lot of people were really upset about it.  A few of my friends, in fact, were just beside themselves.  I really didn’t get it.  Then, completely out of the blue, my sister texts me, “Oh my gosh.  Do you know what I just saw on Twitter?  Someone just wrote, ‘For those of you who don’t understand why we’re all upset about Ron and Hermione, imagine what it would be like if Suzanne Collins suddenly said she regretted having Katniss and Peeta end up together?'”  Oh boy, that did it.  That would not be funny at all.  I think I’d be heartbroken.  I wouldn’t know what to believe in anymore.  I love Katniss and Peeta!!!  So, to all you Ron and Hermione fans out there, I, as an Everlark fan, apologize from the bottom of my heart.  I can’t imagine what that might feel like.  The good news is that they’re still canon and unless JK wants to write us more books, there’s nothing she can do about it.

Honestly though, I want more books about the Four Founders or the Marauders or the Weasleys.  Or all of the above.

4) 93 people have either reviewed or marked Cemetery Tours as to-read on GoodReads!  My goal for the end of February is to get that number up to 100!    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18470430-cemetery-tours

5) I finished Chapter 25 of the sequel last night.  I’m loving it, guys.  I really hope readers love it also.  Cemetery Tours is 28 chapters long, but I know that the sequel will be a little longer.  However, the sequel is just at 60,000 words and CT was something like 78,000.  We’ll see, though.

Again, stay warm.  Find a good book.  Light a fire.