Category: personal growth

Life, Motivation, personal growth, Positivity, Success

Live Your Best Life

katjorgensen

Are you living your best life? It’s hard to do in pandemic times. But I hope you are really seriously thinking about your future and all that you want to accomplish. We get one life. We should be filling our days with things to make us feel good about ourselves and our accomplishments.

This year I started out with one novel and one book that needed to be edited. Since then I have written two full novels and a novella that is half the length of the full length books. I’m hoping to squeeze a good chunk of writing the next book into the remaining months of this year. When 2020 ends, my goal is to have 5 books published. With more on the way in 2021.

For the first time in a long time, I feel like I am living my best working life. If we weren’t in the midst of a pandemic that might also extend to my personal life as well. But for now, I need to be content that I am doing well with my work life. I am fulfilled and I am totally satisfied. I feel like I am finally putting my talents to good use.

So are you living your best life? Why or why not?

It all starts with a vision. What is the one thing you want to accomplish with your time? To be married? To find love? To have a family? To find freedom to live your best life unencumbered? To play an instrument? To make an impact on someone else’s life? To learn a new skill? To travel? To learn a new language? To take better care of yourself? To exercise? To help others?

Figure out what you want. That’s the first thing to do.

Once you have your priority figured out, then you need to think of ways of getting to your goal. Start brainstorming and writing your ideas down. Don’t initially discount anything. You might surprise yourself.

Narrow your list of possibilities down until you have made yourself a roadmap to achieving your goal. Then put those steps in order.

Soon you will find yourself well on your way to achieving your dreams and living your best life. One step at a time.

I’d love to hear about what you want to accomplish. 2021 will be here before we know it. It’s already autumn and winter will be coming soon. Just a few more months left in 2020. Figure out your goals now. Make your plans and then implement them. By the time 2021 rolls around you will be well on your way to success.

I’m cheering you on.

Kat

Books, Life, personal growth, Success

Finishing a Book; Starting a New Project

katjorgensen

Yesterday I finished the draft of my 4th book in the River City Mystery series. Today I’m on a self imposed vacation.

Sadly, I’m not in the Maldives as the picture above depicts. But I’m home. Enjoying some downtime.

Writing is hard work. But it is also very rewarding. I am so pleased with this latest book project. My characters are all in a very good place at the end of the story. I’ve revealed a series secret or two and I have seen a lot of character growth.

One of my personal pet peeves in reading series from any genre is when the characters do not grow. We all grow in our lives from day to day. Why shouldn’t our characters? So that’s something I always try to work on with my story people. And I have to say, I’m pleased. And they seem pleased as well.

I don’t have a hint of what my cover will look like for this book. I hope to get some glimpses of it in early October. My cover artist always surprises and delights me. This story will be available in both e-book and paperback.

After this book is published, I will have two months until the end of the year. Originally, I thought I’d work on one of my unfinished projects or start a new series. But I always try to listen to what my characters want too.

Your Addiction is Deadly, this 4th book, had all of the characters telling me – don’t stop now. Pull out your notes for book 5. We want to be the next project in your line up. So they have spoken and I have listened. The last two months and into the new year will be book 5 in this series. And then I’ll see where we will go.

I know there will be at least one more book in The River City Mysteries. But I haven’t thought much more after book 6. So time – and my characters – will decide on that.

But I do have two or three other series just waiting for their chance to shine too. It’s a great problem to have.

So while I’m taking some much needed time off I’m going to do a few things around the house, some knitting and crocheting, walking in the fall weather and chilling out with some movies. But I’d rather have this as my view for the next week.

Hope you are enjoying the start of the autumn season. And I hope you are challenging yourself with new projects and even managing some downtime. We need work and play in our lives to stay balanced.

Kat

Books, personal growth, Success, Writer, Writing

Excitement and Fun

katjorgensen

I’ve been diligently writing this year and I have a lot to show for it. The prequel to my River City Mysteries, Your Jig is Up came out just this week. Here’s the cover.

buy here

The story is a stand alone mystery, but it also explains how Becca, the main character in my series, ends up living with her Granddad and his cranky tuxedo cat Higgins. And how she ends up working for the psychiatric group of Daley & Palmer here in Richmond, VA. But she also gets involved with a murder. Here’s a little blurb about the story.

Join Becca Reynolds in Your Jig is Up as she starts her life over after a nasty divorce and inadvertently launches her career as an amateur detective in this prequel to the River City Mystery series. 

A new life.  A first job.  And an unexpected death at that job.  Is it an accident or is it murder?  When things don’t add up and a seemingly innocent person is charged with the death, Becca appoints herself the unofficial investigator.  Can she unmask a killer before he or she strikes again?

Find out in the novella that started the series. Join Becca, Granddad and Higgins in a new humorous cozy mystery.

After writing the book, I decided to give it away to newsletter subscribers as my way to say thank you for supporting my writing endeavors. If you’d like your FREE copy, simply sign up for the newsletter here at katjorgensenauthor.com. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

This week I will be releasing the third book in the series, Your Lights are Out. Just waiting for official approval from the retailers. Here’s the cover for that book.

And a little about what the book is about.

Hohoho!  It’s Becca Reynolds’ first Christmas at the psychiatric firm of Daley & Palmer.  To cheer up the clients, as well as herself, she has decorated the office for the season complete with a fully festive tree.

But when she discovers one of the doctors dead under the tree with a string of holiday mini-lights tightly encircling the unlucky therapist’s neck and the other end peacefully resting between her Granddad’s cranky cat’s paws, she knows it’s up to her to investigate yet another murder tied to the hapless firm.

Surely Higgins isn’t responsible for the death?  But who is?

Can Becca solve the case and bring the killer to justice?

Or will it be a blue, blue Christmas in River City?

I have to say that I am making very good use of my pandemic days. I am so very thankful that I was able to return to my writing before all of this started. My days are busier than ever. And I’m happy with my writing.

Hope you are finding ways to express yourself creatively and that you are growing and learning during these very challenging times. Let me know what you are doing. Add a comment. I always enjoy hearing from you.

Kat

Life, Motivation, personal growth, Positivity, Success, Writer, writer's block, Writer's LIfe, Writing

Writer’s Block

katjorgensen

How many of us have sat in front of a blank sheet of paper? How many of us can identify with crumpled up pieces of paper? How many of us have suffered from writer’s block?

I have. I went through years of writer’s block. I tried and tried to get words down on the page. For the most part unsuccessfully. It was brutal. Ideas were in my head. Characters were talking to me. But there was a huge disconnect going on from my brain to the keyboard. Can any of you identify with that? I hope not, but I suspect I’m not alone in what I went through. Sad to say, but it happens to most writers at one time or another.

But I continued to try to write. There was a lot more crumpled and discarded paper going on.

Oh, I’d have brief moments of success where I’d start a new project and get maybe 50 or 75 pages into it before doubting myself and my abilities and putting it aside. The inability to write was painful. And frustrating.

It’s heartbreaking to have a passion for something and you just cannot sustain it. I had gotten to the point where I had almost resigned myself to the fact that I’d never write again.

Almost.

But before giving up, I decided to confront my demons once more. Could I beat this thing?

I’m happy to say I have.

So how did I do it?

First, I searched for a writing coach/mentor. Someone who would hold me accountable. Someone I’d pay for the service. I’d tried to do the whole accountability thing with friends, but I had no penalty factor in play. With a paid coach, if I wimped out, I’d lose money.

Second, I set goals. I know I harp on goal setting a lot. But if you set realistic goals for whatever you’re trying to accomplish and steps to reach those goals, it really does work.

Third, I paired with a dear writing friend and asked her for help and accountability too. And this time this did work for me. We do daily check-ins on what we actually get accomplished. We also review our monthly goals with a FaceTime meeting and assess how we did for the past month. And declare our goals for the coming month. This helps to keep me pushing forward.

Because my writer’s block was so strong and of such a lengthy duration, my final step was to work with a therapist to get to the root of my problem. My issue stemmed from the loss of my husband. Things are sometimes connected in ways we’d never think they could be.

And all of my efforts have paid off. I now write every day without fail. I’ve completed two full length mystery novels already this year. I have plotted out two more. And I have concrete ideas for several more books and series. My goal is by year end to have five books for sale. I’m well on my way.

My latest novel is the second book in The River City Mysteries, set in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. Your Time is Up. It gives me great joy to see readers buying it and to hear from many who take the time to write to tell me how much they are enjoying it.

The first book in the series, Your Eight O’clock is Dead, is enjoying a new cover and new life as readers discover the story and the series all over again.

What’s stopping you today from pursuing your dreams? I suggest you sit with that for a bit and see if you can write down anything that comes to mind – no matter how far-fetched it might be. I know I discounted a lot of things that really were connected if I’d only taken the time to figure them out.

Do you set goals for yourself? Do you have someone with who you are accountable? Do you review your goals and revise them as needed to get where you want to go? Are your goals realistic? Unrealistic goals will sideline you quicker than anything. Are you prepared to do the hard work? Perseverance can take you far in writing and in life. Giving up or giving in gets you no where.

The key to your success is waiting for you. Pick it up. Figure things out. Get a plan. Implement your plan with concrete actions. Reach for your dreams each and every day. And never give up.

I wish each of you success and happiness in whatever you do.

Kat

Life, Motivation, personal growth, Positivity, Writing, Your Best Life

Stay Busy and Carry On

katjorgensen

Most of us are staying in place and practicing social distancing, washing our hands and not touching our faces. Working from home. Practicing new daily routines. But what else are you doing?

In times such as these it’s easy to let yourself be a target for fear and anxiety. None of us knows how long the pandemic will last, not even the experts. So what can you do to keep yourself positive?

First, I think this is an excellent opportunity to use our time wisely. Is there something you’d like to study or do that you simply haven’t had time to do before now? Or do you have a hobby you’ve been neglecting or one you’d like to take up? Go for it.

Or maybe you’d just love to have time to kick back and relax. Read more books. Garden. It’s spring in the Western Hemisphere and everything is starting to bloom. Now is a great time to get outside and work in your flower garden. Or maybe plant a food garden. Or take a walk. Spend quality time with your family if you are fortunate enough to be quarantined with them.

If you live alone, make sure you are staying in touch with others daily via social media, emails, and video chats. Loneliness can lead to depression and that’s something none of us needs to deal with on top of all of our other challenges right now.

As for me, I’m using this time to write. I’ve finished my second book in The River City Mysteries and have moved on to writing the third book in the series. I hope to have all of the books for sale sometime this summer.

I would really love to have you subscribe to both my blog and my writing newsletter. Newsletter signup can be found on this website’s home page. Right now, you have to go out of the website and sign back into katjorgenseauthor.com for the subscribe button to appear. I’m working on that. I will never share your email and you will hear from me about writing related things – new releases, contests, giveaways and inside scoops.

The Mona Lisa and I are both wearing our masks for the times when we do have to be out and about. I encourage you to do the same. Stay well, Stay safe. Be kind to one another. Think about a donation to a food bank to ensure those less fortunate have food. Or find other ways to donate to our first responders, healthcare workers, and those on the front line. We are all in this together.