The Things That Always Cheer Me Up . . . . . . by Delsora Lowe

I am lucky, I have many things that give me a lift every day.

Reading…

Whether it is reading a good book or watching a romcom movie or a sitcom that will take me away from the reality and horrors of our world, each gives me a sense of peace and happiness. I can bask in the message being portrayed in that media and lock away my worries for the time it takes me to read or watch an uplifting book or program.

Writing…

I also write romance. So, writing positive content definitely gives me a feel-good vibe. Even when getting the couple together at the end may take a turn for the worst, know that in order to proclaim a book’s place in the romance genre, a happily-ever-after or a happily-for-now is a requirement. So, they always have a feel-good component at the end.

Friends…

Another thing that makes me happy is seeing a friend in person. Yes, these days ZOOM makes it easy to keep up with friends. I also keep up with many over the phone or through email or other forms of social media but getting together with friends in person is the best! There’s nothing like cradling a cup of tea, while looking directly into a friend’s face who is sitting across the table from you. Or slurping down an ice cream cone while walking the boardwalk with friends. That in-person contact makes a huge difference.

More Writing…

Going to my local weekly writing group grounds me every week. We each write a piece that takes 5-minutes or less to read out loud. The writing can be in any genre, which is fun for me, since my “job” is writing romance, whether a 5-minute romance I want to submit to Woman’s World magazine or a romance novella or full-length novel that I will eventually publish. Writing outside of my preferred genre gives me a different prospective on life, my town, my relationships with family, or any other topics, such as the environment, recipes I love to cook, etc. It frees up my brain to be creative in a different way.

What Things Give You a Lift and Make You Feel Happy? 

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 (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 2025.

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

What I Pay Attention to?

Hi, I’m Judith Ashley, author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, soul nourishing romantic women’s fiction with light paranormal elements. My stories show you what life could be like if you had a place like The Circle where you are unconditionally accepted, supported and loved. And where, with this support, you make choices to overcome the darkest nights of your life to choose love and light.

When the Blog Queens, Sarah McDermed and Judith Ashley, get together to brainstorm blog topics/themes, their creativity runs wild and ideas pour forth. This is one of them inspired by The Ides of March, the day Brutus killed Julius Caesar. Perhaps if Caesar had been paying attention to his surroundings a bit more, he could have escaped being stabbed?

However, although there is not as much peace in the world as I’d like to see, I’ve found for my own mental health I do not spend copious amounts of time worrying or agonizing over what is happening in another part of the world. It isn’t because I don’t care about other people, it is more that I’m reserving or perhaps saving the energy I do have for issues over which I have some control.

I’ve written an entire blog post for The Glasser Institute for Choice Theory©- US on The Ides of March – Power and Self-Worth. It should be up by March 7^th. You can read it here.

Other things I pay attention to in no particular order are:

My Family – How are they doing? Pictures of my great grands always brighten my day.

My Friends – How are they doing? At my age, I’ve lost several over the past few years.

Weather - I know I can’t change it. And yet I do want to be prepared for the winter storms, possible power outages, excessively cold or the increasingly hot temperatures of spring, summer and fall.

My Health – Actually this could be the first item on the list. I’ve found as the years go by, my vision of what I’d be doing now was off a bit. That is an adjustment I find more difficult than I thought it might be.

Traffic – I swear people are driving faster, running red lights and jumping green ones. I’m very careful to enter major arteries at traffic signals and if I’m the first in line, I wait for a few seconds and make sure ALL vehicles are stopped before I start into the intersection.

And one last item here:
Commercials – yep, television commercials. Why? This summer one of the themes Genre-istas can write about are Favorite Commercials. I’ve got a few that I enjoy watching. Can’t always remember the product though. Those that I Really Do Not Like? I can tell you the product and I do not purchase it. 

And I no longer watch the commercial. Mute is my favorite button on the remote and it gives me the opportunity to get up and move around, something that is a positive for My Health.

There is a longer list of things I’m aware of. I do what I can here like recycle, vote, keep a few of the essentials on hand.

Climate change
Politics
Supply Chain issues
When geraniums are in stock at Costco
When the daffodils bloom (they are several inches tall right now)

Looking at that list, now I’m wondering...Should the Geraniums at Costco be moved to the Pay Attention to list?

You can find my books at your favorite e-book vendor as well as through my website www.JudithAshley.net and Windtree Press. Print books are available at Jan’s Paperbacks in Beaverton, OR and Arte Soleil in Portland, OR. Get the addresses from my website. And be sure to ask your library if you’d prefer to read my books through that resource.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshley.net

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB! 

© 2024 Judith Ashley

The Writing Journey!

 By : Linda Conrad

Hi Everyone!  Nice to be invited here.  Thanks!

        I gave a group of writers advice once that all it took to make it in this business was hard work, persistence, and a little luck.  No one wanted to hear that. Newbies want the “secret” to publishing.  But since then, I have changed my mind. Oh, it still takes lots of hard work and persistence. There is no magic secret. But I have come to the conclusion that you can make your own luck. The one thing I learned over the years is that making friends in the business: other authors whom you trust to critique you, people you meet at conferences and meetings, and many others who just make you happy that you are a writer are the real “luck” for anyone who wants to become a best seller.

            I started to write soon after my mother passed away nearly thirty years ago. She’d reminded me that I had always wanted to write and that I made up terrific stories. It took me several years to grieve and then to figure out what I wanted to write. Did I want to write non-fiction? No. Not me.  Then what about those stories?  Mysteries? Romance?  I joined a local romance writers’ group and never looked back. 

            It took several years of hard work and going to classes, conferences, and just talking to the people I met for me to come up with my first best seller.  It’s still selling around the world twenty years later, by the way.

 

With Heather Graham (QA with her on the 24th via Zoom)

            Along my road to success, I watched others and learned.  I saw writers who wrote book after book for many years before they hit the right one. I was impressed with their persistence and patience.  And I learned from it.  I also tentatively started wonderful  relationships with fellow writers, some of whom have become lifelong friends.

 

            Good writers of fiction are good listeners. They observe the world and people around them. That’s how they write characters that seem like real people.  That’s also how I made my own luck.  I listened to other authors and editors. I saw people who seemed to be “at the right place at the right time.”  But it turns out that they were at that place (or their book was there) because another author had paved the way, or suggested it, or pushed them to write the best they could.

            The other thing good writers do is learn to accept editing of their precious words. I have watched other writers suffer over that one. The story should be an author’s main concern, but how it’s told is the trick. Writing, writing, writing makes you better. But working with good critique partners and good editors can make you the best.

 

            So, I always try to thank all the people who helped and pushed me along the way.  They are invaluable.  Writing is a wonderful vocation and avocation. Writing stories can soothe your soul.  But it’s the people you meet, other writers, editors, even readers who make this the best way to spend your life.

What is Spring to you?

 by Diana McCollum

What is spring to you? 

Are you a Love is in the air believer, or do you start thinking about travel or are you looking forward to family time  or are you just done with winter and ready for spring and being outdoors?

Here are some pictures and quotes to usher in Spring season.

“A single rose can be my garden; a single friend, my world.” – Leo Buscaglia

“In springtime, love is carried on the breeze. Watch out for flying passion or kisses whizzing by your head.” – Emma Racine deFleur

Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.

--Gustav Mahler

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” — Pablo Neruda

“Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade” – Charles Dickens

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”
― Gustave Flaubert

Hope you've enjoyed the pictures and quotes!

(Credits: roses and coffee-Antone Matyukha-Deposit Photos,

Woman Holding bouquet -Dmitry Poch-Deposit Photos,

Man sitting outsidel-ArutaImages-Deposit Photos, 

Father and daughter-EdzBarzhyvetsky,Deposit Photos

Senior couple with map-HalikRedke, Deposit Photos

Wedding couple-Edzbarzhyvetsky, Deposit Photos

Happy Easter-VadimVasenin-Deposit Photos)

February is Known for Relationships … by Delsora Lowe

One of the first things that comes to mind when February rolls around, besides it being one of our coldest months in the northeast, is Valentine’s Day. This is a celebration of that special love relationship between partners.

But there are other relationships, and other ways to build those relationships. 

Since the start of the pandemic a few years ago, and the rise in usage of social media and meeting apps, we now build new or rekindle old relationships virtually.

For example, my second cousins who I usually hear from around the holidays via a card, all got together on ZOOM to chat after my mom passed away. Mom was the conduit between all of us. Their mothers and my mom were best friends growing up in a small town. And later the three cousins married and moved to big cities. My mom to Washington, D.C. and my mother’s two cousins to New York City.

Us kids all saw each other in the summer when the “girls” (mom and her cousins) all met back in their tiny hometown west of NYC. They grew up a block away from each other. But we, the second cousins once removed, grew up, moved to various parts of the country and only stayed in touch through holiday cards or letters written to my mom. The ZOOM chat was the first time we’d seen each other face-to-face (electronically) in many years. In a way it was a bit unusual, as we were by now virtually strangers.  But in another way, the ZOOM gathering was wonderful to catch-up and talk about our parents and the times we spent together as children. And then to find out all we were doing now as adults with our own families.

All of us have dear friends, as well as relationships / friends in the workplace. In my professional life, as an author, I saw the state members of my local writing chapter, monthly for meetings.

 

But my state is large and many who live farther north or south, rarely attend monthly meetings. I joined my home chapter in 2004, so many are now close, close friends, as well as colleagues. And now, my local chapter also has many “long-distance” members from other states. Many are friends I have made over the internet and through personal meetings at conferences.

Some of those farther away are able to attend our state’s annual writing retreat, where we all spend the night in a hotel and attend workshops, writing sprints, and enjoying meals together. What a treat to see each other in person. Lots of hugging and chatting and sharing about writing—a truly inspiring weekend.

I belong, as a long-distance member to several out-of-state writing groups. The highlight each year, was traveling to other states to the writing conferences and seeing those I only saw once a year. But those conferences have gone by the wayside.

Enter ZOOM and other virtual media sites, and we are now able to see each other again. Granted, we are chatting to a bunch of small boxes with faces. But we are chatting real-time. And that has helped keep relationships going. And allowed us to build new relationships with people we haven’t met in person. It might not be the same as sitting down to a meal together, or chatting it up in the cocktail lounge, or at the conference table. But it is the next best thing to keeping our friendships and working relationships strong.

What tips do you have for building and maintaining relationships?

 

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Moonlighting-Serenity-Harbor-Novella-Starlight-ebook/dp/B075TK7KYS/

Books2Read

books2read.com/u/mZ5eop

~ 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, and the novella The Love Left Behind, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine. Recently released were two Christmas stories: The Inn at Gooseneck Lane and Holiday Hitchhiker.

 

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:
Writers: Free Writing Book Cliparts, Download Free Writing Book Cliparts png images, Free ClipArts on
lipart Library (clipart-library.com)
Heart: free hearts images - Google Search
Family: Free Clip Art Family, Download Free Clip Art Family png images, Free ClipArts on Clipart Library (clipart-library.com)
ZOOM: Zoom meeting free clip art - Google Search
Map: Free Map Cliparts, Download Free Map Cliparts png images, Free ClipArts on Clipart Library (clipart-library.com)
Laughing Friends: ladies laughing clipart - Clip Art Library (clipart-library.com)