Romancing the Genres: continuous learning

Showing posts with label continuous learning. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

What I Look Forward to As I Age ... by Delsora Lowe

It’s finally September! My favorite time of the year is fall, despite the fact that soon cold weather will descend and with it snow and ice and… Well, you get the picture. I’d much rather enjoy warm sunny days that cool off at night.

I’d rather enjoy colorful leaves and fall flowers and harvesting vegetables and picking apples.

And, my birthday is in the fall, reminding me what one year older can bring. I remember teen years when I couldn’t wait to go away to college, not realizing how fast time flies, the older you get.

I remember summers, when I juggled several jobs while raising kids. I couldn’t wait for autumn to arrive so the kids, now old enough, would be back in school all day, so I wasn’t running from job to nursery school to pick up kids, dropping them at the sitter and back to job number two.

Now, I look back and realize how much I missed as my children grew up way too fast. But now I have grandchildren who are doing the same. One is looking at colleges. The other two sophomores in high school. All busy falling into young love, working hard at studies, and excelling at various sports teams. Of course, they are excelling. They are MY grandsons.

Oldest Grandson - now 17 - My Dad's 90th Birthday - 2009

It seems like yesterday, they were lying on the floor, playing with tiny cars and making zoom, zoom, zoom sounds, learning to count to one-hundred, and excited when they got to nibble on favorite snacks—my youngest grandson loving chunks of cucumber and olives with the holes where the pits were. He would put an olive on each fingertip and methodically eat each olive, one by one. Or the special events like coloring Easter eggs at Grammy’s table. Now they are self-sufficient.

To me, those memories of my own days in high school and college seem so far away, yet just like yesterday.

So, what do I look forward to as I age?

Top of the list? Not feeling as though I am aging. Also…keeping busy, communicating with others, not isolating, learning new things.

This is where writing comes in, as I can accomplish all of the above through writing.

Learning and Hanging with Writer Friends Through Zoom

I belong to four virtual writing groups in Maine, Rhode Island, New England, and New Jersey. Each group of romance writers meets monthly. It used to be in person. Now it is through ZOOM. The cons, I miss seeing my writer friends in person, but there are times in a year, when we meet up at writing conferences. The pros are without ZOOM, I would only see my writer friends once a year at the aforementioned conferences. Now, I see them and hear their voices and have actual conversations monthly. Sure, we don’t get to hug each other or gather around a table and enjoy a cocktail and chatter. There is nothing that compares to face-to-face.

A few years ago, after retiring, I joined a local organization that has programming for both teens and those of us over 55. The organization has a group named Write on Writers. We have anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five who attend weekly. Each of us writes a 5-minute or less piece, whether fiction, non-fiction, or verse of some sort. We then read aloud our work at each session. And we can submit our work to appear in the monthly organization newsletter that gets distributed around town.

The fun of this group is that I get to try different types of writing, than my normal romance novel writing. And every now and then, I will write a 5-minute romance story and submit for publication
. But I can also read those at my local group. And now, I have over sixty 5-minute romances I have written since 2010. Those I am editing and expanding to collect into a short romance anthology...SOMEDAY!

So, what do I look forward to as I age. Meeting weekly with my writing group. Continuing to write both short stories and longer works to release as books, hanging with my grandchildren and trying to figure out a way to stop their growth and aging so I can keep them close forever.

Okay – if anyone has ideas on how to do just that, let me know. Because, if they don’t age, neither will I!

Oh, as you can see, in spite of the slowing down and the need to nap I’m also trying to figure out how I can live forever, because right now, I’m having a ton of fun with this aging business.

No matter our age, we all continue to age on a daily basis. What words of wisdom can you impart when you think about what you have learned over a lifetime?

Amazon (also in print)

https://www.amazon.com/Love-Left-Behind-Hartford-Estate-ebook/dp/B08L5N5DS9/

Books2Read books2read.com/u/mglVqK

~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires burning ~

Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet and spicy romances and contemporary westerns, from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.

Author of the Starlight Grille series, Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, and the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine (most recently, an Easter romance in the April 1, 2024 edition.) The Love Left Behind is a Hartford Estates, R.I. wedding novella with Book 2 on the way. A Christmas novel (The Inn at Gooseneck Lane) and novella (Holiday Hitchhiker – the youngest brother of the Mineral Spring’s ranching family) were the most recent releases. Look for book 3 of the cowboy’s series, as well as book 2 of the Hartford Estates series, to be released in late 2024 or early 2025.

Social Media Links:
Author website: www.delsoralowe.com
Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/delsoraloweauthor/community/
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Delsora-Lowe/e/B01M61OM39/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Books2Read Author page: https://www.books2read.com/ap/8GWm98/Delsora-Lowe
BookBub Author Page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/delsora-lowe-93c6987f-129d-483d-9f5a-abe603876518
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16045986.Delsora_Lowe
Instagram: #delsoralowe / https://www.instagram.com/delsoralowe/

Photo Credits:
Delsora Lowe

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Goals and Self-Forgiveness ... by Delsora Lowe

Goals: Am I setting myself up to learn something new, OR setting myself up to fail?

Every year I set a goal vowing to pay attention to social media. That includes updating my website, which I do so infrequently that, each time, I have to relearn how. <SIGH>

Then there is reengaging on Instagram, which I always enjoyed, and learning TikTok, which I still haven’t tried to tackle. And forget learning how to work on Twitter – See!?! That is how long it has been since I thought about conquering what is now X. Even my FB engagement lacks, and that is what I use the most.

I haven’t just learned that I am horrible at staying caught up on any type of social media. I have been reminded of that defect in my character—HA—year after year, when I have to assess my old goals and reaffirm new goals for a new year. To me, navigating social media is like trudging uphill, one plodding step at a time, and never reaching the top.

So, as you probably guessed, social media is my least favorite goal to achieve.

I recently wrote a writer friend of mine about proclaiming goals to achieve THE WIN, versus setting hopeful expectations for a new year. If you consider every goal accomplished as a win, then what is the opposite? A Fail?

I have always considered goals to be about hope. Expectations you seek to attain. A mission. Something you write down and tell others, so that you’ll make a concerted effort to achieve, either by yourself or as part of a team or coordinated with workplace colleagues.

Seeking Forgiveness:

Some goals, in the workplace or in your community, are important or essential to attain no matter what. But personal goals… Well, my philosophy is life gets in the way. If something comes up that is more important—a make-or-break, a family emergency, or a task in your day job that will affect the next steps of a project, or even changes in a writing project—well, those intervening tasks must be attained. And at times to the detriment of achieving other goals.

When setting personal or writing goals, I believe there is room to delay reaching that goal. And, in some cases, it is perfectly fine to say this goal no longer seems top priority or necessary to achieve this year. Or this goal can just as easily be pushed forward to achieve at a later date.

Hence, my need to just hit DELETE on Social Media goals. I hope by taking this off my list, I will just wander into achieving that now, unspoken goal, without feeling the pressure. <SHRUGS> One can hope. But one can also be relieved without that added pressure.

Although, in reality for 2024, I believe I have set myself up to most likely “fail” in tasks I have never tried before. It all depends on my energy to learn something brand-new to my toolbox of writerly skills. But they are also skills I have always been intrigued to try. If I can’t conquer how to achieve leaning these skills, at least I will have tried.

Yes, I am setting myself up to learn something new. And yes, my chances of failing or not totally achieving 5-star competence, is high. But hey, I’ll still learn something—anything—new. One step at a time… And, no pressure.

The exciting part of setting “reach” goals is that I know I’ll probably need a little help along the way from my writer friends. So, watch out—I might be needy in 2024.

Do you like the idea of setting annual goals? Or does committing to accomplishing
a long (or short) list
of annual goals give you “hives”?

Moonlighting

Starlight Grille ~ Book 3

A blast from the past, a ten-year old matchmaker with a valentine wish, an omission, and a villainous man…a recipe for disaster? Or love against all odds?

Amazon Kindle (only in print as a collection: Starlight Grille)

Books2Read

Starlight Grille

A Serenity Harbor Maine Collection

Welcome to Serenity Harbor, Maine, a small coastal town where the Starlight Grille is a favorite meeting place. This sweet, with a touch of heat, collection includes a new bonus short story and a Starlight Grille recipe.

Amazon: (also in print)

Books2Read

~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires burning ~

Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet and spicy romances and contemporary westerns, from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.

Author of the Starlight Grille series, Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, and the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine. The Love Left Behind is a Hartford Estates, R.I. wedding novella. A Christmas novel (The Inn at Gooseneck Lane) and novella (Holiday Hitchhiker) were released in late fall 2022. Look for book 3 of the cowboy’s series, as well as book 2 of the Hartford Estates series, in 2024.

Photo Credits:
Free Goals Cliparts, Download Free Goals Cliparts png images, Free ClipArts on Clipart Library (clipart-library.com)
free clip art shrug shoulders - Search (bing.com)
Pin on Education/School - Clip Art Library (clipart-library.com)