I am really excited about the month of February as I am scheduling my podcast author guests, and the snow is drifting outside. They represent different genres, but romance will definitely be in the lead.
FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS PODCAST with host EMMA PALOVA
Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy in the podcast book giveaway.
Lisa Jacovski, Let’s Talk, Learning to Bowl, Feb. 9
Janet Glaser, Feb. 10
Tana Jenkins, Love Rescued, Feb. 14
Diana Kathryn Plopa, A Tryst of Fate, Feb. 17
Sponsored by Doc Chavent, The Lowell Ledger, Modern History Press
Pages Promotions Virtual Book Festival
Several things will be happening all at once: Pages Promotions Virtual Book Festival will kick off the month with the Mystery of the Missing Manuscript. You really don’t want to miss out on any of the evenings with authors, suspects, and detectives. Register on Zoom by 6:30 p.m.
I believe that our past sets us up for our future. However, we can only master the present.
January
The year started strong with a full For the Love of Books Podcast author guest list focused on diversity. This year in January I will be focusing on marketing, lifestyle changes, and author events.
I also worked on the revisions of Shifting Sands: The Lost Town. This year I will be finishing the sequel The Quest for the Lost Town.
What is lost can be found.
Unknown
We were in full production mode at @Moravian Sons Distillery stilling plums and apples. Check it out.
The podcast was all about romance. This year the podcast will be all about the romance because love or the quest for it never dies.
We flew to Venice, Fl for winter break, and met up with our French family. This year I am still undecided. I will be participating in Pages Promotions Winter Festival 2023 organized by the one and only Diana Kathryn Wolfe-Plopa.
My first physical author’s event will be the Lansing Women’s Expo on Feb. 10, 11 & 12.
We kept stilling at Moravian Sons Distillery.
March
My podcast theme was and will continue to be spring. Michigan has long winters, and the anticipation of spring is important. I always start my seeds in the sunroom.
In March, I added to my author guests the amazing UP authors thanks to author Mikel Classen and publisher Victor Volkman.
We celebrated our son’s birthday on March 1. This will continue. March also marks Lent. Each year during Lent I do tons of Lenten readings. The catholic religion has always inspired me with its mysteries and dogmas.
I will be participating in the Grand Rapids Women’s Expo from March 17 through March 19 at DeVos Hall.
April
Easter in Czech Republic, Vizovice, Moravia
Our fifth grandchild Henrik was baptized on Easter Sunday April 17 at St. Rose’s church in Hastings.
I started writing for The Lowell Ledger. I’ve been writing for our hometown newspaper on and off for the last 27 years. The paper is one of the sponsors of the podcast show featuring Indie and small press authors.
My comeback story was Torched in Lowell (LOL). I have just modified the headline; it was actually Torched Glass Art Studio opens in Lowell. My second one was Ripple, and what a ripple it has been. Maybe the headline should have read Rippled in Lowell (LOL).
The definition of ripple is the continuing and spreading results of an event or action. After less than a year in business, the restaurant is closing its door this Friday due to unfortunate circumstances, to say the least. No kidding, another Mexican restaurant opened next door in the old Backwater Cafe building. I have yet to do a story on this bizarre sequence of events.
May
My birthday at Cedar Springs Brewery with our fifth grand child, Henrik
It is my second favorite month after June. My birthday marks this month since I was born on the Czech national holiday to the shooting of fireworks. The new regime changed the holiday to May 8. Go figure. We always manage to celebrate somehow, only the Covid years shut down my birthday celebrations.
June
People for Palmer Park in Detroit.
Palmer Park Art Fair 2022
June starts my summer cycle of authors’ events. I was at the Art in the Park in Palmer Park Detroit on June 4 & 5. This year we’re planning on attending the Czech and Slovak Festival in July instead to present our traditional fruit brandies.
Muskegon Lakeshore Art Festival wasn’t as productive as in previous years due to high gas prices and inflation kicked in. Hopefully, this will taper off by the time LAF comes on June 24 & 25.
To be continued………..
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I crossed the 40,000-word mark today in the NaNoWriMo 50k word challenge. It always amazes me how I got here?
The answer is simple, writing every day, and making it my number one priority of the day. My hope is to carry this beyond the challenge into the upcoming months which is easier said than done.
With the holidays upon us, it seems impossible, until it isn’t. NaNoWriMo organizers enabled everyday writing tracking even after the challenge ends on Nov. 30.
I will be at the Lowell Area Historical Museum, station k, 325 W. Main St. from Friday afternoon through Sunday, Nov. 20 with my books from the Shifting Sands series.
NaNoWriMo continues
The adventure to find the lost city of Singapore continues with an average daily log-in of 2,000 words. I find that it is optimal to keep up the pace of the story, and not lose the storyline.
Any extremes above or below that count, are just that, extremes that will catch up with you. We discussed this in yesterday’s Halfway NaNoWriMo Breaking Point Podcast with authors Jean Davis and Vera West. Check it out.
The word build-up of 3,000 words tends to dwindle away if you slack off the next day. Trying to make up for the required 1,667-word daily login is almost impossible. It’s a big chunk of text.
No, smooth sailing through these two days filled with focused writing. After I got over the halfway hump on Friday and Saturday, the ride on the NaNo 50k word roller coaster got bumpier.
It must have coincided with the drop in temperatures in West Michigan as we chilled down, and the skies got cloudy. Our driveways are now lined with stakes with snow in the forecast.
So I introduced the Tower of Breese into the story about the search for a lost town. That helped to further establish the enemy. However, I got stuck again on Monday morning and added another layer to one of the protagonists deepening the conflict.
What’s the next step? The protagonist has several options and doesn’t know which road to take. I should map it out for him on the beat sheet plotting method.
Christmas through Lowell 2022
Setting records this year the tour has 61 locations and I am on one of them, station k on the CTL tour map aka Lowell Area Historical Museum in downtown Lowell located at 325 W. Main Street.
In my other role as a reporter for The Lowell Ledger, I wrote like crazy on a Sunday afternoon about the upcoming Christmas through Lowell tour this weekend, Nov. 18 through Nov. 20.
Christmas through Lowell, Nov. 18 through Nov. 20
In my role as the Director of Operations for Moravian Sons Distillery, I am going to our first meeting of the Michigan Craft Distillers Association at DeVos Hall in Grand Rapids. I am psyched. There will be a bunch of other distillery newcomers.
In another role yet as the producer and host of For the Love of Books Podcast, we will bring you insights in the special episode “Breaking Point” about getting halfway through NaNoWriMo.
I can’t wait for authors Jean Davis and Vera West to share their insights because you can still jump on the NaNo ride.
Copyright (c) 2022. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
It was an awesome writing day split into two sessions. I logged in 3,277 words for a total of more than 20, OOO words. I am working on a sequel to The Lost Town.
ChristmasthroughLowell
In my other role as a newspaper woman, watch for the upcoming story about Christmas through Lowell featuring vendors and artists in The Lowell Ledger.
I will be on the tour as well inside the Lowell Area Historical Museum in the industrial room with my books from the Shifting Sands Series plus the Konecny Family memoir.
Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to meet a local author and shop for lovely gifts.
Copyright (c) 2022. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
In the first week of NaNo, Day 7 I logged in a total of 13,650 words. On top of that, I wrote for the Lowell Ledger logging in 1,841 words with stories about Milo’s Consignment, Station Salon Celebrates 10th Anniversary and the Lowell Arts Artist Market. That would put me at 15, 491 more like my buddies. Writing is writing, my buddy Diana says.
Lowell Ledger stories gallery for Nov. 9
Stay tuned for these stories in the upcoming issue of the Lowell Ledger
Tori RunstromNancy DeBoerJanet Teunis
In the NaNoWriMo 50k word challenge, we met our nemesis on the first climb of the roller coaster plotting method. I am still thinking about switching to the 15-beat sheet method, but on the other hand, I like the tension of the unknown.
Blast from my communist past in former Czechoslovakia
Nov. 7 was another mandatory holiday, when we paraded with lanterns in the streets of Gottwaldov, now Zlin, to celebrate the Soviet holiday of their October revolution known as VRSR.
Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia. I will write more about this when I have time.
The October Revolution, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution or (according to the communists themselves) the Great October Socialist Revolution,[2] abbreviated VŘSR or Great October, was the second phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, following the February Revolution.
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The wind picked up in the afternoon blowing leaves and sweeping my gardens, so I skipped the daily walk..
I am definitely a morning writer through and through no question about it. Whatever I don’t get done by 1 p.m. doesn’t get done. Even the characters in my stories know that. They stop cooperating.
I logged in 2,063 words and I am sending the protagonists off into the unknown, not without a fight, both in the story and real worlds.
Now stilling pears
Our son Jake with his family came over to work in our Moravian Sons Distillery. This is our second production season. First, Jake and Ludek had to unload the non-pasteurized apple cider from Hill Bros Cider Mill in Sparta, our major supplier. It was a total of 450 gallons of sweet and tart apple cider that will turn into hard cider.
Halloween is the eve of All Saints Day followed by All Souls Day. In some traditions, Halloween is viewed as a “thin space” where souls slip back and forth between this world and beyond.
Listen to these amazing authors Andrew Allen Smith, Craig Brockman, Matthew Hellman, Robert Williams, and ghost author Stacey Rourke on For the Love of Books Podcast with host Emma Palova.
Psychic Liotta from Rourke’s ‘Corpse Queen’ sees the beast in the crystal ball as she leads the way into the darkness.
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