Welcome to all the folks who signed up for the newsletter from the Christmas in July contest! I hope you enjoy it. If you’d like to check out old editions for some reason, you can find them here.
And now, on with the show.
As you can see, I’ve waited until almost the last possible minute to get this edition of the newsletter out. The reason is because I’ve been busy, but also because I’ve been intentionally trying to make myself less busy and actually enjoy summer this year. I love summer and spent the vast majority of last year holed up in my office writing. This year, because we have a very short summer here in Regina, I decided I needed to purposefully slow down so I could get outside and enjoy it.
Here are five things I did/am doing to make that happen:
Only work on one thing at a time.
Normally I’m working on a novel and a novella or a novel and an outline or a novel and a short story or even a novel and another novel. This summer I have vowed to stick to revisions of Love, Julie and ONLY work on something else when I’m done with the revisions and they’re being reviewed. And despite how much I want to start working on my new thriller idea, that “something else” will be my novella Waiting in the Wings: Hattie’s Fifth Act because that’s more important. And, also, it’s fun.
Say “yes” to deadline extension offers
I have this thing where I not only don’t ask for help, but I also don’t take the offer of help when it’s given to me. I also, not only have to hit the very strict deadlines I give myself, but I also feel like I fail if I don’t complete a deadline early or get MORE done in the allotted time. No wonder I have anxiety. In any case, I was given some tough news this summer and my publisher graciously offered to extend the deadline for my Love, Julie revisions and, rather than saying, “No, no, I can handle it, and, actually, how about I give it to you three weeks EARLIER?” as I would normally do, I accepted the offer and adjusted my schedule, giving myself more time to do what I needed to do and also some much-needed breathing room.
Decreasing social media posts
I’m not even sure if this makes a difference to my audience. Like, have any of you even noticed? It has, however, made a difference to my sanity. It takes a lot of time and brainpower to think of what to post on social media and, frankly, I don’t have a lot of either of those things right now. For summer, I have committed to three posts a week and I’m not being too hard on myself if I don’t achieve that (this week). I also haven’t yet dug into Threads or Bluesky even though I should. I will be saving that until September
Make reading books more important
I am a giant nerd, and it will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me well that reading is my absolute favorite thing to do. I love books. I love reading them. If I could just read books all day I would be very happy. I’ve also read that reading books is very important if you’re a writer so it’s basically a key part of my second job. All that said, except for reading before bed, I typically only read during the day as a “treat” for having accomplished something like cleaning my house or mowing the lawn, or whatever. This summer, however, I have bumped reading way up in importance, both giving me more relaxing time and more time when I’m doing something I really enjoy. Plus I can read outside on my deck which is a bonus.
Join a writing community
I joined the Sask Writers Facebook group and took part in one of their weekly writing circles and it was great! Everyone joined by Zoom and said what they wanted to accomplish, and then we all wrote for an hour and a half (cameras on for accountability) and we ended by telling everyone how we did. I had low expectations of me actually sticking to an hour and a half of writing, mostly because my brain doesn’t typically work that well in the evenings, but I did it and it went by so fast! I will definitely be attending another.
So, that’s it. That’s what I’ve been doing. And it’s been working! I’m really enjoying my summer this year. I am currently at the end of a week’s vacation during which I was supposed to be going on a holiday but my basement flooded and took all my money, so I decided to just stay home and “get stuff done.” And I did do that. I got a lot of stuff done. But I also, because of my new “slow down for summer” mentality, got a lot of relaxing done which I really needed. I haven’t been able to take a true holiday from my day job in a very long time and, because I was able to this week, I turned off all my alerts and that part of my brain, and used my full brain to write and revise and read and garden and make muffins and watch movies and do all the things that I used to do on weekends before I started writing books. It was glorious. And best of all, I barely spent any money — mostly because I don’t have any — but also because I didn’t have to!
I’m feeling like I might have to take another week off in August.
Updates
Love, Julie
Guys, the cover reveal of Love, Julie is coming soon! I’ve seen the first draft and I love the look and feel. Both my publisher and I gave the designer some feedback and we’re currently waiting on the results. I’m super excited to see what he comes up with.
Get Lit with Jamie
If you want to be one of the FIRST people in the whole world to see the cover reveal, join my new Facebook group, Get Lit with Jamie. It’s the place to be if you want to be first to see new stuff, enter contests, win swag, become a beta reader and all sorts of super fun things. I just created it so there isn’t much going on right now but, once the promotion for Love, Julie gets up and running, it will be exploding with fun, I assure you.
Book Reccos
Here are two books I’ve read this summer that I unexpectedly loved and would highly recommend:
Despite her immense popularity, Louise Penny was never really on my “must buy” list. I got this book as a gift and, man, I loved it. It was really well written and packed with action, but also super interesting and fun to read. I hope they plan on writing a sequel because the characters were really great. There were also some cheeky references to the current political climate in America which I really enjoyed.
I like Jodi Picoult but, again, not really on my “must buy” list. Also, when I heard this book was about COVID I was like, “Nah, I’m good.” I’m so glad I gave it a chance though, it was great. It was unlike her other books (which are often told in dual or multiple POVs) in that it was just one person’s story. And what a cool story. I don’t want to say too much, but it was probably my favorite book of hers so far. And, boy, it sure brought back what it was like to live during the height of the pandemic. For someone who vowed that she would never take the small joys of life for granted again and then promptly did so when everything opened back up, this was a good reminder for me of how serious things were and what is really important in life.
Shameless promos
If you’re looking forward to the launch of Love, Julie and haven’t yet read Someone to Kiss, there’s still time! (Lots of time). You don’t have to have read the first to enjoy the second, but you will get some insight into some things that others who haven’t read Someone to Kiss won’t.
If you dumped all your money into fixing your house like me, never fear, you can read Running from Christmas for free! I mean, it’s still Christmas in July for two more days, right?
You've certainly learned how to organize and enjoy your time! A valuable lesson to learn and profit from, you know, health-wise and happiness-wise! Good for you, Jamie! Congrats!