June - a Month of Turning Points and Reassessing ........................ by Delsora Lowe

Hard to believe we are moving into the half-way point of the year. June is known as a month of celebrations; a month when a person celebrates milestones. What comes to mind as visible milestones are weddings and graduations.

I did get married in June, many, many, many years ago. My graduations from high school, and my college associate and bachelor’s degrees, however, were both in late May. So, for me, June is not only about celebrating milestones, but is more about reassessing where I am mid-way through another year. What do I look forward to for the rest of the year, and how do I plan where I want to go (as in both work goals and fun adventures) in the second half of the year.

Some of my June rituals are weekly or bi-weekly visits to the farmers’ market, filling my deck with colorful potted flowers, a tomato plant or two, and a variety of herbs, that grow from seedlings to full-grown plants that I can use throughout the summer in cooking. The grill gets use starting in June, unless we have a few magical, warm weather days in May…or December (HA!). The hum of lawnmowers permeates the air—and at times, the noise snaps me out of drafting an absolutely brilliant piece of writing.

Hey, I have to blame something on the reason why my brain tends to turn to mush as we ease into the summer months.

But, speaking of work, part of my June tasks is to reassess my productivity from January into June. And perhaps tweak my annual goals. Have I edited enough, written first drafts, released books, or kept up my monthly schedule (of which I have a month-by-month grid with story topics,) for producing and submitting 5-minute, sweet romances.

This year, sadly, I have lost a lot of my creative brain. But making a list for the 2^nd half of the year, helps me try harder to actually consult said list and…stick to the plan.

Is it time to reassess my annual goals? ALWAYS! And will I be able take a well-deserved bow at mid-point and celebrate my accomplishments of staying on track as dictated in my new year annual goal plan that kicked off in January? Yes, goal reexamination is part of my personal agenda in June. Is the plan I set out to accomplish this year, reasonable, doable? Or, for sanity’s sake, should I reboot?

But my plans aren’t all work and no play. They also include looking forward to the fun parts of the upcoming summer—my daughter’s family visiting from Colorado in July or August. Spending more time with my grandson here in-state, despite the fact his summer is usually as busy as the school year. And best of all, I'll rejoice in time spent with family and friends, revel in the season of warmth, and applaud the bursts of color that paint our world.

Despite the dreary day as thunderstorms move in, my little corner of the world is ablaze with the color of irises and azaleas and an assortment of flowering trees.

 

What is your favorite part

about

the month of June?

 

The Love Left Behind

A HARTFORD ESTATE (wedding venue) Book

Amazon
(also available in print)

Books2Read  

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/

Images:
Celebrating: celebration clipart images - Google Search
Graduation: Free Vector | Free vector graduation poster (freepik.com) 
TimeFlies: Free Vector | Time flies concept illustration (freepik.com)
FrownieFace: Download | FreeImages / Image by Freeimages.com
Flowers: photo by author

 

Editing and Writing

“Style means the right word. The rest matters little."—Jules Renard

“Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk—away from any open flames—to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.”
                                                                   --George Singleton

"Half my life is an act of revision."

—John Irving

"Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up."

—Jane Yolen

 “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is … the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

—Mark Twain

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs." =Stephen King

I hope you have enjoyed these quotes and memes on writing and editing.

Rolling in the Dough?

by Courtney Pierce

When I was in my twenties, success was defined by having a million dollars in the bank—cold cash, not this artificial Bitcoin stuff we have now. The amount sounded like a lot of coin to me at the time, though. Thirty-five years ago, it was. And a pound of bacon was well under two bucks back then. Have you priced a pound of bacon lately? How about an artichoke? And when did a six pack of cheap toilet paper top ten bucks? I’m wiped out when I go to a grocery store. It’s an extortion racket!

So how does one get that cool million in the bank? Lottery tickets were never a sound investment for

me, but I must admit that I dreamed of that scratch-off moment with the winning news. My heart raced at the thought of what I’d do. Fantasies about that sexy car were hard to resist. I can still recall the imagined aroma of hand-stitched leather. Then I figured I’d have to spend a lot on a lawyer and a tax adviser, even before I had my picture taken with that oversize Styrofoam check. Heart-racing visions of winning the lottery quickly dissolved to those of predators: charities, friends I’d never known, and those who checked in at the Why Me Inn. Dang! I’d give it all away, anyway, to assuage my guilt of receiving money I hadn’t earned.

Back to work. That was the key to financial security.

Pesky word “work”. Right through my forties, the term signified a sense of accomplishment, self-pride, and climbing the ladder to show my worthiness. It was about that million dollars too. Along with my ego, the monthly statements of accounts became a measuring stick of success. My accountant wanted me to be insatiable because his growth depended on mine. Don’t get me wrong. I love my accountant like my own father these past thirty-eight years, but he’s getting ready to retire too. Now what? Do I have enough? Had I earned the right to freedom?

The closer I get to that magic age of sixty, the less fear I have of turning my back on the corporate world. I’m not razoring through my fingernails over the thought of retirement. My husband and I will only do something different and personal, like writing full time, growing and hunting our own food, and hiking the trails of Glacier National Park. We want to make experiences our goal, not buying more stuff. Besides, we’ll be cutting way back on our expenses in retirement, so our monthly nut should go down.

I take a deep breath and relax. Snow-capped mountain vistas. Mist drifting over the surface of the lake. Loons call for us to paddle the canoe in the morning hours.

Panic shoots through my spine, shattering my fantasies.

Wait just a darned-tootin’ minute! A million dollars is what my accountant says I need just in my retirement account to step away at sixty-six (preferably at seventy-two to maximize Social Security). I brace myself for battle. My fight-or-flight reaction retreats and my shoulders drop in defeat. All plans of a frugal retirement are eclipsed by the destinations on our bucket list: Roman walls in England, castles in Scotland, mountains in Peru, fishing in Portugal. Have you priced plane tickets lately? The baggage fees alone are more than the cost of a ticket used to be.

Back to work. I’m no boomer with a Trust fund. No one is going to will me a million bucks when they die. Everyone I know plans to bounce the last check they’ll write.

And my husband is so right. He says they wouldn’t call it "work" if it wasn’t.

Photo: Loma Smith

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Oregon, with her new family. She writes for baby boomers. By day, Courtney is an executive in the entertainment industry and uses her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor and mystery. She has studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, she is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and She Writes. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal. 

Check out all of Courtney's books at:

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com. Both print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com

The Dushane Sisters are back in Indigo Lake. More laughs, more tears...and more trouble. Protecting Mom's reputation might get the sisters killed―or give one of them the story she's been dying to live.

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

Colorful characters come alive in Courtney's trilogy about the Dushane sisters. Beginning with The Executrix, three middle-age sisters find a manuscript for a murder mystery in their mother's safe after her death. Mom’s book gives them a whole new view of their mother and their future. Is it fiction . . . or truth? 

Get out the popcorn as the Dushane Sisters Trilogy comes to a scrumptious conclusion with Indigo Legacy. Due out in summer, 2018.

Claiming My Bliss

Working for myself has been a dream of mine for a very long time. When I was

younger my grandfather, a landscape designer, retired from working for an employer at age 65 and started working for himself. He loved what he did for a living, and he relished the freedom of working on his own time and in his own way. With a drafting table set up in the basement, he worked hard—sometimes in the morning, sometimes at night—making his vision for a design come to life with pencil and marker. It was an example that made an enormous impression on me.

My ultimate fantasy, of course, is to be a full-time writer—to earn my income and spend my days weaving stories and plotting happy endings. However, I’ve never been able to convince my husband to let me quit my day job based on the hope that I would one day become a wildly successful published author. I always tried to view his reservations less as a lack of faith in my talent and more as the practical views of an accountant. I decided to be practical too. If I wanted to work for myself, I’d have to diversify my skill set.

So two years ago I took my dash of artistic ability, no doubt inherited from Grandpa, and started taking web design and development classes at my local community college. The classes were all offered online, so I could balance them with my day job and the scattered hours I spared for my writing. In order to practice what I was learning, I began creating book covers and other graphic design items for authors, at first for free, just to build up my portfolio. 

Now, two years later, I have finally left my day job and work for myself full-time at my design venture, Gilded Heart Design. It has been a lifestyle revolution for me, forcing the development of skills beyond design. Every day I am honing my abilities related self-discipline, time management, and organization. I try new things and discover what works for me. Learning efficient and simple processes is my new obsession.

And something strange has happened. I am working longer hours than I ever have in my life. And I’m happy about it. I am also carving out regular writing time in a more focused and productive way. My only complaint is that there isn’t more time in each day to keep working and writing.

I’ve always believed in the call to “do what you love.” I just never lived it before. It has been a scary step and my husband is still dubious it was the right one. But I am doing what makes me happy, work that feeds my soul. I have claimed my bliss, and I never want to go back.

How have you claimed your bliss?

Christy Carlyle