Happy New Year – 2023

Hello and welcome!

The past year has been hard on many of us, but I still feel hope that there will be some good times coming… for all of us…

My wish to you…

My wish to myself…

I hope you enjoyed my posts and looking forward to see more.

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Until next time, happy reading / listening!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hello and welcome!

First I would like to wish you and yours…

Happy New Year

Boldog Új Évet

Bonne année

Hauʻoli makahiki hou

Frohes neues Jahr

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

Felice anno nuovo

¡Feliz año nuevo!

Gott nytt år

Gelukkig nieuwjaar

Maligayang bagong Taon

Photo by Javon Swaby on Pexels.com

Sending positive vibes and healing hugs to those who are sick.

Keeping those who lost loved ones in my thoughts, there are no words that can comfort, but I know time is a great healer. I know it helped me by remembering the good times.

I love the song, REMEMBER ME beautifully sang by Josh Groban…

Remember
I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory
…
I am that warm voice in the cold wind
That whispers
And if you listen
You’ll hear me call across the sky
…

We were all affected in some way, I know many are affected mentally including me and I consider myself a strong person, a survivor and I have to believe it will be better, that there is hope yet.

Here is to a way better year filled with happy moments, great books, health and love!

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Until next time, happy reading / listening!

Merry Xmas!

Hello and welcome!

Would like to wish you and yours a happy, bountiful Christmas holidays.

Hope you got some time off, indulging in some good food, drinks and a good book.

For those of you who have to work, THANK YOU!

If you are not celebrating Xmas, celebrate life and toast your loved ones, hug them if you can,
call them if you can’t. Life is short and too many good ones leave us too soon.

I appreciate all of you for being here and cheering me on in doing what I love spreading the word about my BBF and BGF in the books I love and the authors dreaming them up.

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Until next time, happy book reading / listening and don’t forget to show your love by leaving a review!

To Julie

Another bright star has passed away and my heart is breaking. My condolences to her family… and to her daughter: Words are not enough and will not lessen the pain you feel right now, but celebrate her life and remember the good times.

My friend Julie, who I have known for many years on-line. A great friend and bright soul, her wicked sense of humour and dead-pan comments made me laugh out loud many times. I love her name, if I had a daughter, her name would’ve been Julie.

She shared my passion for books and she sure loved her SEALs, cowboys and the rogues too. Julie was a big supporter of my blog from the beginning, she shared and commented on all of them.

Another opportunity to meet in person lost. We talked and planned to meet up with her when going over the pond to visit my niece, but that didn’t happen either.

I will miss you Julie! Many friends will miss you, will remember and laugh thinking of big buckles…

New Year Wish – 2020

Hello and welcome!

Thank you for the kind words, the shares for this past year. I hope my posts made you smile and that you found new stories you enjoyed.

Happy New Year

Boldog Új Évet

Bonne année

Hauʻoli makahiki hou

Frohes neues Jahr

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

Felice anno nuovo

¡Feliz año nuevo!

Gott nytt år

Gelukkig nieuwjaar

Maligayang bagong Taon

See you next year, until then happy reading/listening!

Christmas Wishes – 2019

Hello and welcome!

A short message to wish you and yours…

Boldog Karácsonyi Ünnepeket!

 

Merry Christmas!
Fröhliche Weihnachten
Joyeux Noël
¡Feliz Navidad!
Mele Kalikimaka
Nollaig Shona Dhuit
Nadolig Llawen !
Buone Feste Natalizie
God Jul
Glædelig Jul
Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Sretan Bozic
Kala Christouyenna
Feliz Natal
Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva s Novim Godom
Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
Suk sarn warn Christmas
Chuć Mưǹg Giańg Sinh

May the good times and treasures of the present become the golden memories of tomorrow.

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Until next time… read a book, listen to a book and don’t forget to show your love by leaving a review!

KaLiCon 2019 – thoughts and a giveaway

Hello and welcome!

As some of you may know, I attended KaLiCon this year again with M. A. Abraham, if you missed my intro post you can check it out here.

Only the 2nd year and the event Kali Willows, Kacey Hammell and their kickass team organized was absolutely amazing. I enjoyed it all.

the registration bags and the swag received…

the ELVEN GAMES 2.0 Thursday afternoon where I got to help out, we had so much fun. Among other contests, I got them to do sock monkeys, they are not easy to do and was impressed with them. The pink one got first prize!

the double feature movie night on Thursday in our PJs. We had some LOL moments when some of the gals got their stuffed animals to be naughty, Sharon’s poor teddybear got traumatized by the monkey 😀 … my red dragon felt left out though 😉

but got some cuddles from two other cute teddybears 😉

Murder Mystery Dinner with full production on Friday night

the book signing was FREE to the general public on Saturday

the Halloween party where everybody dressed up on Saturday night … and danced our tushies off 😀

The food was great at all meals.

I won this beautiful table arrangement at one of the lunches, made by The Briers Edge. One of my friends at the table liked it so much, I gave it to her.

The silent auction was even more successful than last year, so many great items donated, the proceeds went to the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign.

I won the bid on this art made also by The Briers Edge, depicting C. A. King‘s  book, “Miracles Not Included“.

Oh the laughter… the awesome conversations… the dancing… the shenanigans … we had a blast! Great memories!!! Finally got to meet Andi Lawrencovna and she is such a delightful person to be around, lots of fun too. Got to see again some old friends, meet new ones too from which I know there will be a few that will be long lasting friendships.

There was a contest for the readers for which I entered too. I didn’t win, but had a blast writing the short story, fan-fiction in my fave world, the Elven Chronicles, where my ultimate BBF took me to the masquerade ball at KaLiCon. I had no idea would be that hard to let the story out of my hands. I don’t know how authors do it, like letting your baby go out into the wild world LOL the few that read the story so far say they enjoyed it.

I was really good this signing, bought only a few books.

I recommend Pépé G. Woodman‘s “The Dragon Within“, it is such a heartfelt and inspirational book with lots of beautiful photos. The author will be chatting with me in the new year here on the blog. Hope you will join us then.

For more info, check out the KaLiCon website, Twitter and Facebook. Hopefully there is another event planned next year.

And now the giveaway … a bag with all kinds of swag, a copy of “Invited, A Dinner to Die For” I bought an extra copy just for you and got signed by the authors. Also two signed books generously gifted, “Mythic Iron” from Kali Willows and “Guarding Midnight” from Kacey Hammell.

Tell me what are you reading/listening to right now. Sexy Mr. Random will pick the winner from the comments, after 3pm EST on Thursday, December 26, 2019. Open internationally! GOOD LUCK!

Until next time… read a book, listen to a book and don’t forget to show your love by leaving a review!

The GYST challenge – week 3 & 4 – update

Hello and welcome!

I didn’t forget about the challenge, I just didn’t post the updates. LIFE!!!

This post will be a mix mash of things, you’ve been warned!

I did tick off tasks from my lists I made during October. Not as many as I would have liked but still more than I would have without joining… about 70% of it. Work in progress I say, lots more to do. You know when you start a project and then you think of other things that need to be done.

At top of that list there is an on-going task, I call it the mental GMST (get my shit together). Not sure if it comes with age or just people around me are getting more … how to say it delicately? hmmm …

I see more people not using common sense, and respect is a forgotten art, no regard to what the consequences actions or words have, accepting no responsibility.

I was talking to a friend earlier and what she said made me pause. “Maybe the problem is you!” Hmmm…

When did society became so complacent? If I speak up, I am rude!

I keep joking, but I will make a t-shirt with “COMMON SENSE IS MY SUPERPOWER”. I tell my DS all the time…. This, pointing to his head, is not for decoration! USE IT!

Back to the challenge… yes I am learning to stop taking the burden of other people’s actions on myself. I am learning to control my reaction to them. Making myself ‘DUH-WTF-proof’ and let it roll off me. Deep breathing exercises and wearing my “BS blockers” listening to audiobooks help. Changing perspective helps too.

That is another task from the list that I worked on, posting my reviews for books I read/listened to, in progress … behind by about 50 books … gasp

With my birthday in a few days and trying to figure out how to go forward in many areas in my life I find myself lost in thought, some go to the past, some go to the future. I know it is not good to dwell in the past and got rid of many ‘baggages’, but there are a few that still linger … probably until I find the right ‘eraser’. As for the future, I have no idea… I used to fret. I try not to anymore, will cross the bridge when I get there.

Purging the house is still going on, last weekend I took a bag and a box to Value Village, also gave some of the clothes where I knew were needed. Started another box for donation to the local Women Shelter.

Teaching my DS to cook his fave dishes is another ongoing task, he is actually enjoying it. He forgot that when he was little he used to enjoy being in the kitchen with me, I made it fun even though there was a lot of cleanup after our cooking sessions with flour on the floor, spaghetti sauce on the wall, pancake stuck to the ceiling or the jello fights LOL fun times I am hoping to bring back.

Did you join in the challenge? Did you do any tasks? Would love to read your comments. In the meantime I will press pause, pull myself back from everything and see what I come up with.

Until next time… read a book, listen to a book and don’t forget to show your love by leaving a review!

The GYST challenge – week 2

Hello and welcome!

Last week I joined the “Get Your Sh*t Together Challenge”. Missed my post? Check it out here.

Weeeelll… I made my list on the 1st, one small thing for each day, but… you know how life is, right? I didn’t do all the tasks from the list, but I did other tasks so that maybe balances it out.

I made my DS clean out his closet of the clothes he’s outgrown, it only took 6 months LOL now I have to find a good home for them, most of them are brand new. That will be a task for this week.

I cleaned out the fridge of things that I bought thinking let’s try something new, but never used. I am adventurous when it comes to cuisines, I like to try new things (within limits) but my DS is a picky eater so it is hard to get him to even taste new stuff, but slowly I am introducing him to new foods, just have to catch him on a good day. 16 is hard let me tell you 😛

One of the tasks was to spend at least one hour with my DS each night chatting about our day or things that he is interested in without phones, iPads nearby or the TV on. He surprises me again and again on how much he understand of things in general or even more complex things. Accomplished 4 out of 7, so that is not bad, right?

I made 250 swag bags for KaLiCon, it took about 9 hours EEEEK but I finished one audiobook and half way thru the 2nd one … WIN-WIN … right?

The ‘clear the clutter from the coffee table‘ task, was 75% successful, but didn’t last long.

Email cleaning – ACK during book signings or busy days at the office when I can check my email only sporadically, emails pile up. So I cleaned out over 8,000 emails in the last week and I am staying on top of it, until the next books signing that is LOL

One of the more daunting tasks is to go thru a pile of papers (3 plastic bins and one wooden chest worth) and shred the papers that are not needed anymore. Since my home shredder gave its last breath a few months ago, I’ve been putting it off, but this week I’ve been bringing small bundles and get them shredded at work. I wish I had a backyard, I could make a beautiful bonfire LOL

The one task that was on my list and wanted to do last week is cleaning the computer desk, didn’t get to it yet, but I am adding it to this weeks tasks. Has to be done, the things came close to tumble off when my DS was looking for an eraser because he could not find the other 4 he has eye roll

How did you do? Did you make a list? Did you start? No worries if you didn’t. You will when you are ready.

A new week start today, wish me luck. Tonight is ‘teach the DS the art of deep scrub of the bathroom’ task.

I will be posting in a week and give you my results. Drop by and tell me what YOU did.

Until next time… read a book, listen to a book and don’t forget to show your love by leaving a review!

Get Your Sh*t Together Challenge

Hello and welcome!

I joined the ‘Get Your Sh*t Together Challenge’ 😀

I first heard of it on Rosanna Leo‘s blog post, followed the link to the original creator of the challenge, Herding Cats & Burning Soup blog. An interesting post and it came at the right time.

I was chatting with my BFF last week when I said that things come to me when I need them, I just have to believe. I need little reminders when I am ready to throw in the towel.

So yes, I AM JOINING in because I need to do something about the colossal to-do-list. I always kick myself when a deadline is looming and I procrastinated each day with tomorrow is another day, although I’ve been dealing with some medical issues and pain is not conducive to do anything. Breaking it down will help me overcome the panic that creeps up on me when I think about it. Lots of the tasks are about getting rid of stuff that brings sad or painful memories. So I am looking forward to getting rid of mental and physical junk, also getting my health back.

Check out the post, there is a printable list that you can use to get ideas and things checked off.

Today I will sit down and make a plan for the next 6 days, each day tackling one small task. So I challenge you to pick one thing to change this week, what will it be?

I will be posting in a week and give you my results. Hope you will drop by and tell me what YOU did.

Until next time… read a book, listen to a book and don’t forget to show your love by leaving a review!