JB Lynn

Hijinks, Hilarity and Heart

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Holiday Gift Recommendations

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First of all, let me just say that ebooks are the BEST last minute gift idea. You click a button and like magic (no wrapping, no shipping hassles) the recipient has their present. And what’s better than sharing with someone you care about something you love?!?!

Also, they make guilt-free gifts for yourself, so don’t forget to preorder

But, we can’t live on books alone, so here are a few gifts that I’ve either given or received that have been particularly appreciated.

Cozy treats…a snuggly throw, a beautiful candle, some hot chocolate. (Seriously, who doesn’t like receiving the fixings for hot cocoa?!?! I’m not even a chocolate lover and I love it.)

At home experiences…there are so many subscription kits for crafters, foodies, and self pamperers.

Your time…an offer to compile a family history, or to babysit, or to just have a one-on-one visit, or to finally learn how to make Grandma’s prized recipe…can be priceless.

The pleasure of unexpected detours

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I LOVE Fall.

While there’s lots to like about living in Sarasota, FL, I really dislike that no leaves change color in autumn. (And it’s still HOT, with temps in the mid to high 80s.)

So last month I went to the mountains of North Carolina to get away from the heat and enjoy nature’s art show.

On the way, I made a totally impulsive stop at a state park in Georgia. It was a beautiful day, I saw the sign, and I decided to make the last-minute detour. (This is the beauty of a solo road trip…I can stop wherever, whenever, and for however long I want to.)  I had no plan. I knew nothing about it and took me thirty minutes out of my way, but I felt compelled to visit.

It was a truly wonderful way to start a vacation. I got to see my first changing leaves, tromp through some fallen ones, and hike a beautiful trail.

I even found a picnic table with a great view to have lunch at!

 

Plus the unexpected stop gave both myself and my traveling companion a much-needed break from the long ride.

 

 

 

A new release means it’s time for a….

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Writers can be a superstitious lot and I’m no different.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be running out to the nearest Panera Bread to pick up a spinach and artichoke soufflé.

Why? Because that’s my release day ritual for the Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman series and book 21 THE HITWOMAN AND THE FALLEN ANGEL will be out.

I eat a soufflé from Panera because years ago I was eating one when my dear friend, Cyndi said, “You should write with that voice” because I’d said something snarky. Now it’s my equivalent of a baseball player wearing lucky socks.

I’ve enjoyed writing each and every adventure. There are moments when I laugh, others when I cry, and I’m constantly surprised by the twists and turns Maggie’s life has taken.

Most of all, I’m grateful to the readers who’ve gone on this wild ride with me. Thank you!!

 

!Cover of The Hitwoman and the Fallen Angel by JB Lynn

 

Even a good man makes mistakes…

In Maggie Lee’s topsy-turvy world, Angel Delveccio is one of the good guys, but now it seems he’s gotten himself into some trouble. Can she get him out of it?

It’s not like she doesn’t have enough problems of her own. She’s struggling to pacify both the people and pets of her household — all of whom aren’t shy about voicing their litany of complaints and demands about their new home.

Stretched thin, Maggie attempts to broker familial peace while simultaneously contending with an external threat that revolves around a human skull.

And let’s not forget that a certain mobster has tasked her with keeping his nephew out of hot water.

Can Maggie protect Angel while keeping her family safe and together, or will someone be lost?

 

On this writer’s desk, October 2, 2019

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This is how the desk, where I do the bulk of my creative work, looks today.

(Natural light only, which is why the picture is so dark.).

Today my focus is on the first draft of the second Psychic Consignment Shop Mystery. It’s about a third done and housed in the purple “in progress” notebook.

And there’s my trusty recorder for dictation!

And these are the tiny notebooks I use to track my current projects. Right now in addition to the Consignment Mystery, I’m working on the 21st and 22nd books in the CONFESSIONS OF A SLIGHTLY NEUROTIC HITWOMAN series.

 

I took this picture in the lull between my morning and afternoon pots of coffee. Hence, no coffee mug, lol.

Writing as a passion AND a job

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The other day I took a midmorning break and met a friend at a park (Red Bug Slough if you’ve read One Woman’s Junk) so that we could walk our dogs together.

Toward the end of our visit she asked, “What will you do for the rest of the day?”

And I answered, “I should finish the first draft of Hitwoman 22.” (for the record, I came close, but didn’t finish it until the following morning)

“How do you know?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked, totally confused.

“How do you know you’ll finish it? How do you know when it will end?”

“Because I’m scheduled to do the last few chapters,” I explained.

“You know how it will end?” Her disbelief was evident.

“I don’t start a book until I know how it ends,” I told her. “And I’m scheduled to finish it today.”

I then had to launch into a whole explanation about how writing is my passion, but it’s also my job and I treat MOST of my projects as such. (That said, I’ll freely admit that I’m usually working on one or two “passion” projects that I don’t really expect to ever sell. They’re my “fun” stuff. My reward for doing the work.)

So in case you’re wondering, as of today, I’m currently working on the story edits for the 21st  Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman book, the second Psychic Consignment Mystery and a couple of passion projects. Make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter to keep up-to-date on my new releases.

And check out this great pic my friend took at the park of my tree-climbing dog  🙂

 

 

When you work from home

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Tell people you work from home and they inevitably have one of two reactions.

  1. Aren’t you lucky?!?!
  2. I could never do that. I don’t have that kind of discipline.

They’re both pretty accurate assessments.

Yes, I AM lucky.  I pretty much get to set my own work schedule. (Except for those pesky deadline times when I’ve inevitably estimated incorrectly how long something is going to take me OR I’ve come up with a new, “brilliant” idea that I must incorporate into a work that was all but finished.) I’ve got no commute. Not only can I light as many candles as I want, I can  refill my coffee as much as I desire without being judged. Not to mention, it’s perfectly acceptable, and way more comfortable, to not have to wear a bra or pants. 😉

If you follow my instagram, you know that I’m big on getting outside in the middle of the day (in the morning and evening too, lol) and my work set-up allows me to do that AND get to the beach to watch the sunset.  So yes, I am really, really lucky.

But what you won’t see is that I offset my daily distractions and diversions by working strange hours. If I go to watch the sunset, I’ll most likely come home and work until ten or eleven at night. Or like today, I had a friend over for brunch and am just sitting down to work at three on a Sunday afternoon because I’m trying to finish a project before Wednesday.  That takes some discipline. Some people can do it. Some people can’t.

It’s perfectly okay to know what you are capable of…and not.

Working from home is not for everyone. Neither is working for yourself, but that’s a whole other topic for another day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So many names….so many projects

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There are three index cards on my desk right now. Each of them contains a list of names.

(No, these aren’t potential targets for Maggie to knock off.)

They’re character names for the THREE projects I’m working on right now. I don’t need reminders of the names for my main, or recurring characters, but for those who are minor or new, I need a cheat sheet. Or three.

 

Otherwise someone from the CONFESSIONS OF A SLIGHTLY NEUROTIC HITWOMAN world might wander into a PSYCHIC CONSIGNMENT MYSTERY.

What a mess that would be! Can you imagine the arguments God and Him could get into?!?!

 

Tweaking my writing process

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“Writing is like reinventing the wheel — over and over and over and over again, because each story you tell is different.” JB Lynn

This year, I’ve been using dictation/transcription to get the first draft of my books done. I plot out a book in broad strokes, do a slightly more detailed chapter-by-chapter outline and then dictate it, one chapter at a time.

Some days I swear it’s better than my “old” method, some days the “old” method seems better. For the record, my “old” method was constantly changing too. I’ve handwritten entire books, utilized speech recognition software (MOST frustrating method) used an Alphasmart word processor (still one of my preferred methods if I’m stuck) and of course, written on my computer.

When I get the transcribed chapters back, I edit them. When the book is “complete” I edit them again.

That’s where I am in the process today. I’ve just finished editing the “completed” version of the 21st (!!!) book in the CONFESSIONS OF A SLIGHTLY NEUROTIC HITWOMAN SERIES.  

Now it will go to my story editor. Once I get it back, I’ll edit the story content yet again.

In the meantime, I’m scheduled to work on the second book in the Psychic Consignment Mystery series.

BUT I’m dying to work on Hitwoman 22.

What to do?

If I dictate one and type the other, would it be possible to write some of both each day?

Or is that taking the tweaking a bit too far?  I’m going to experiment and see!

Kids, pizza, screen time and reading

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Last week ONE WOMAN’S JUNK, the first of the Psychic Consignment Mysteries, was released. Here’s my favorite line from an Amazon reviewer:

“Let’s just say my kids were in Heaven because they had pizza and all the screen time so I could read this book straight through because putting it down was not an option.”

Isn’t that awesome?!?! Who doesn’t love getting lost in a book like that?

Letty wanted her ashes scattered under a full moon at the beach, but she couldn’t have known about the lightning strike….or did she?

When their beloved godmother dies suddenly, the Concordia sisters converge on the beach town of Sarasota, Florida to mourn the passing of the woman who raised them. While there, they must scatter her ashes as instructed and decide what to do with her consignment shop, One Woman’s Junk.

Navigating her relationships with her older sisters is hard enough for Beatrice, but after they’re all struck by lightning, things get more complicated in the land of sun and sand. With the power of a newly inherited crystal ring, Bea is suddenly assailed by psychic visions when she touches certain objects.

When her godmother is posthumously accused of having stolen a designer purse (which Bea knows darn well is a knock-off – thank you very much), Bea becomes obsessed with proving her innocence.

Contending with a physical injury, challenging family dynamics, and business headaches, Bea struggles to harness and understand her visions.

With the help of an unusual new “friend” and the sexy carpenter next door, she’s determined to clear Letty’s good name.

But doing so may be a bad decision.

One that could cost her not only her relationship with her sisters…but her life.