We made it through January! A big pat on the back and congratulations to all of you who posted and linked every day for Just Jot it January. It’s not easy for everyone to post every day, so if you fall into that category, well done!
And if you just linked once in a while, or even once, or if you went into the comments and read posts of other participants, I appreciate that too.
To celebrate our accomplishment, no matter how big or small, I’ve made a participant’s badge. Please feel free to take it and post it on your blog. If you’d like to write a post to congratulate yourself and others for completing the challenge, feel free to link back here.
I’d also like to offer this as an opportunity to drop a link to one of your JusJoJan posts into the comments below. I encourage everyone to visit at least one blogger who you might not have read before.
Most of all, let’s keep this community going! Keep in touch, visit one another. Have fun!
Welcome to The Escapist Coloring Club prompt! If you’d like to join the club, all you have to do is post pictures of your own colouring, your kids’ colouring, or that of anyone you know and have permission to share. This is a month-long prompt, which means you have all of February to link back here.
I’d like to get my mid-month reminders going again, mostly so I can link back to those who have completed their projects by then. Because I didn’t do it in January, here’s a post from each of the wonderful colourers who linked up last month:
As for me, I actually completed a colouring project last month! *pats self on back
My new calendar isn’t nearly as detailed as the last one. It’s almost as though they knew I was struggling. Haha!
Here’s what it looked like before I started.
And here are bits of the finished product.
And here’s the entire thing.
I look forward to seeing all of your wonderful projects in the coming month!
Please find the “rules” below.
1. This prompt is designed for relaxation. As such, I encourage you to take your time to link your own post here, BUT, when you comment, please click the “Notify me of new comments via email” button. That way you’ll receive a notification when someone else links their project and you won’t miss anything. As with all the prompts, the more you visit others, the more your community of like-minded people grows.
2. Ping back! It’s important so that I and other people can come and read your post. To execute a pingback, just copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into the body of your post. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
3. There will be a prompt on the first of every month. I will try to post the prompt here on my blog at 9:30am -5 GMT. The prompt will simply be photos of my own colouring project. If you would like to host this prompt on your blog on another week during the month, either once, occasionally, or on a regular basis, please e-mail me at hilllindagmaru at gmail dot com and we’ll get you set up. All I ask is that you have an active blog and that you regularly reply to comments and visit other blogs.
4. Feel free to use The Escapist Coloring Club badge in your post.
Hello! We’re back with your regularly scheduled Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! It feels like ages since December’s last prompt, doesn’t it?
Today’s prompt is a bit different, as it doesn’t come from me. It was a suggestion by M. Oniker during Just Jot it January. She actually has a blog dedicated to SoCS posts! You can find her last post here. Drop by and say hi! Here’s your prompt for today:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “affirm.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!
To make your post more visible, use our pretty SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
Aaaand, it’s a wrap! The year that was January 2019 is but hours away from its completion here in my corner of the world. Will February be better? I damned well hope so. Having said that, my mother is still in the hospital with pneumonia. I believe it’s going to take her a while to recover from this. I just spoke to her on the phone: she can hardly breathe.
I’m not sure I have a favorite part of this month, other than you all here. All of you who helped me make Just Jot it January a success for the fifth year in a row. I appreciate everyone who linked up to the prompt, even once. And of course a special thanks goes to all of you who helped choose this year’s prompts! I couldn’t have done it without you. 🙂
I had a lot to be grateful for last year. Career-wise, I had my July Bookbub Featured Deal that had me give away 25K copies of The Magician’s Curse. I signed up for it thinking I’d have no chance whatsoever getting it. Bookbub deals are like the lottery. I was flabbergasted when I got the acceptance email!
However, it could have been a disaster: if there’s one piece of advice I’d give anyone submitting for a deal, it’s to make sure it’s not your only book, especially if you’re giving it away. Had The Magician’s Blood not been ready to publish, I’d never have made my money back. Bookbub deals are expensive! But so very worth it.
One other piece of advice for anyone thinking of having thousands of strangers read your book? When it’s free, some will pick it up and read and review it even though it’s not a genre they enjoy. Not everyone is nice, unfortunately, so make sure you’re wearing your thickest of skins when you read what people have to say. Having said that, I do appreciate (almost) all my reviews! Even the negative ones. The exception being from those who didn’t even read the whole thing before giving it one star.
I’m grateful that everyone in my family survived 2018, all of them healthy except that little bit at the end. And even that was temporary.
And that’s pretty much it.
I’ll be back tomorrow with the participation badge and an opportunity to leave links in the comments. More details about that in tomorrow’s post.
Until then, stay warm if you’re in the northern hemisphere and cool if you’re Down Under.
This is it! The final day of Just Jot it January 2019! It’s been a bit of a hectic month for me, but I pulled it off, at least getting the prompts out there and jotting every day. More about all that later.
If you’d like one last look at the “Rules” post, you can find it HERE.
Your prompt for JusJoJan 2019, January 31st is “your favorite thing/part/blog post of last year or last month.” Talk about what you did or discovered that gave you happiness and/or success. Have fun!
Here are the rules:
1. Please be sure to link back to THIS POST for January 31st, 2019.
2. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list) counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
3. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section.
4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
6. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s JusJoJan prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list of prompts below. Remember, you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you. NOTE: Please state either in your title or very early on in your post if it’s NSFW.
7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
When you realize that you said and heard many one-liners in the last week and you should have written at least one down because you’re gettin’ old and forgetful.
Here’s a random picture of summer, so I can remember what grass looks like.
Here are the general rules to follow for Just Jot it January:
1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. I’ll post the daily prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5), every day except for Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness (SoCS) prompt–you’ll find that one on Friday morning at 9:30am. That daily post (i.e. this one) will be where you leave your link for others to find in the comment section. There will be a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday.
2a. Since today is Wednesday, I challenge you to make your JusJoJan post a one-liner. If you don’t care to, or if you’ve already written your post, no problem. Remember, with One-Liner Wednesday you can write anything – it’s only a prompt to write one line, not necessarily to keep to the same theme as mine. The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
(i) Make it one sentence.
(ii) Make it either funny or inspirational.
(iii) Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.
(iv) Enjoy yourself!
(v) Use our One-Liner Wednesday badge.
#1linerWeds badge by Cheryl, at dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/
3. As long as your blog is on WordPress, you’ll be able to link via pingback. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! If you’re participating from another blogging host, just drop a link into the comment section. Note: The newest pingbacks and comments will appear at the top.
4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
6. The prompts are here both to remind you and to inspire you to write. However, you don’t have to use the prompt word of theday. You can link any kind of jot back here. Note: If it’s 18+ content, please say so in a comment with your link or close to your pingback.
7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
I’m currently writing the second book of what I hope will be a trilogy that’s set, in part, in a pub that features male strippers. While most people might consider that a book about strippers must be inherently dirty, I’m trying to make it clean inasmuch as everyone is consenting, the characters are just normal people, and there’s nothing forbidden or illegal about what they do.
In other words, I’m trying to keep it classy.
At the same time, I have to put my characters through some sort of moral torture, just to keep things interesting. I love a story that’s brimming with dilemma, human choices, and all kids of emotion. Though these books are meant to be funny, they’ll be filled with real life situations–maybe not ones that most normal people get into, but that anyone can relate to.
It’s a challenge, but a fun one.
You know what else is a challenge? My shower.
My hot water keeps shutting off without warning or reason, usually between five to ten minutes in. Usually while I have soap in my hair. It comes back on for a minute or two if I shut it off and on again, but because of the positioning of my tankless water heater, it takes a while to warm up. In the meantime, the water is so cold, it hurts.
So while I’m not dirty, I have a hard time convincing myself to brave the shower these days.
Because while I might be writing books about male strippers, I don’t need a cold shower, thank you very much.
The prompt word, “dirty,” for today’s post is brought to you by Jim! Thanks, Jim! To find his “dirty” post, click here. And say hi while you’re there!
This is it! Your final guest-suggested Just Jot it January prompt of 2019! On one hand, it seems like it was just yesterday that we began, but on the other, this feels like the longest month in recorded history already. Don’tcha think?
To see the (almost) complete list of prompts, check the “Rules” post HERE. The list is at the bottom of the post. I’m still trying to figure out what to do for tomorrow–please check back, and hopefully I’ll have it written in early today.
Your prompt for JusJoJan 2019, January 29th is brought to you by Jim! Click here to find his last post and say hi while you’re there! Jim’s word for our prompt today is “dirty.” Use it anywhere in your post or make it the theme of your post. And remember, if it’s not safe for work, please mention that fact either early on or in the title of your post. Have fun!
Here are the rules:
1. Please be sure to link back to THIS POST for January 29th, 2019.
2. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list) counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
3. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section.
4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
6. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s JusJoJan prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list of prompts below. Remember, you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you. NOTE: Please state either in your title or very early on in your post if it’s NSFW.
7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
It’s been more than a year since I secured (and paid for, twice so far) my editing website. I have a price schedule set out, and I have testimonials from a few authors. Like, people who would testify that I know how to grammar and everything. (Please don’t judge me by that last sentence. I’m joking.) And yet, I’ve been too busy–editing, mostly–to complete the website. I have return clients lined up who will potentially keep me working for the better part of the year, though I’m not precisely sure when they’ll call on me.
But it isn’t only being busy that’s prevented me from setting up shop. My home life gets so chaotic sometimes that I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep up with the demands of the job. Which is a completely unfounded fear, because aside from the instances when my clients haven’t delivered their work on time, I’ve never missed a deadline. My own doubts are preventing me from expanding my horizons, so to speak.
So that’s that–that’s all the news on that front.
And it gave me an excuse to use the word “testify.”
Happy Monday! And welcome to the Just Jot it January prompt! We’re coming in to the home stretch of the challenge. Let’s make this last week count!
If you’d like a peek at the upcoming prompts, check the “Rules” post HERE. The list is at the bottom of the post.
Your prompt for JusJoJan 2019, January 28th is brought to you by Dan! Click here to find his last post and say hi while you’re there! Dan’s word for our prompt today is “testify.” Use it anywhere in your post or make it the theme of your post. Have fun!
Here are the rules:
1. Please be sure to link back to THIS POST for January 28th, 2019.
2. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list) counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
3. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section.
4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
6. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s JusJoJan prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list of prompts below. Remember, you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you. NOTE: Please state either in your title or very early on in your post if it’s NSFW.
7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
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