All These Things That I Love - September 2017

...to Taylor Swift. Yes, I’m basic. So what. Yes, people are now on the Taylor hate train. Well, so far, I’m still Team I HEART TS. The two singles she’s put out went instantly on my writing playlists for my current WIPs.

 Get Taylor's music here --> Amazon | iTunes

...with Yayoi Kusama, the internationally renowned Japanese artist, known for painting, um.. polka dots.

A few weeks ago my darling Alexandra Haughton invited me to the Dallas Museum of Art’s exhibition of Kusama’s pumpkin room.

The experience was… wild. You go into a small mirrored room and for forty-five seconds you just stare at the glowing polka dot pumpkins and the reflections of glowing polka dot pumpkins. 

Yeah, we do pumpkin season in a sophisticated fashion round here.

What I’m obsessed with though, is that this woman has dedicated her life’s work, almost the entirety of her art to polka dots. And you can laugh at how ridiculous that sounds but then when you see it? It strangely makes sense at a very atomic, elemental level.

Obviously, it’s weeks later and I’m still thinking about polka dots and what *my* polka dots are. Cranky sexy heroes? Murder by stiletto heel? Liberal consumption of gin and tonics?  Don’t laugh. I could be in a museum one day.

I mean, that's a statue that should be in a museum. Me with Cheryl Etchison's RITA award. For law of attraction purposes.

And of course, I’m still obsessed in the last week of the third annual #ReadWritePlan challenge on social media. Follow the hashtag #ReadWritePlan for all the planner peeks and inspiration.

Loving Trader Joe’s for my liquids these days. Their grapefruit-flavored sparkling water gives me life.

And this TJ’s wine is very drinkable. I forget how much it was, definitely under $10. But hubs and I have pretty much become total Paso Robles converts so I shouldn’t have been surprised.

There’s still time to enter our #ReadWritePlan giveaway here. We're giving away a Kindle Fire, a May Designs gift card and books!

One more note… Since I’ve started my podcast, Women With Books, a lot more of my time is eaten up and I’m considering moving a lot of my blog content to my newsletter. If you like my reading lists and my recommendations like above, please consider subscribing to my newsletter because all this might be exclusive to subscribers by the new year.  Maybe. I’m still trying to figure all this out, y’all. Productivity is hard. 

Speaking of which, back to the books. xoxo

All These Things That I Love - August 2017

To Kesha's Rainbow

I’ve got Kesha’s new album on repeat here. If you love fun, feminist pop with a country twang and rock swagger, this album is for you. I’m loving Learn to Let Go and Woman (fair warning, there’s quite a few F-bombs so I fast-forward for the little Emorys) on my playlist for my current WIP.

Amazon | iTunes

With Micron ultra fine pens & Gray Mildliners. And when I say “ultra fine” I mean .25mm. ULTRA FINE, y’all. Somehow using these pens and a gray highlighter were the last key to total planner peace. You know, that zen-like calm when you have the perfect system in the midst of life’s craziness.
 

Are you a paper planner?  Alexandra Haughton and I are hosting the third annual #ReadWritePlan challenge on social media. Follow along for all the planner peeks and inspiration.

Buy Microns on Amazon

Buy Mildliners on Amazon

Peeling Feet Booties.

It’s that time of year again. After a few months of summer sandals, I need another foot peel. I’ve blogged about it here and seriously, if you have summer sandal feet, just trust me and get a few for you and those you love.

Buy on Amazon

Project Runway is back!  My girls and I love watching this show together (I’ve blogged about the similarities between publishing and fashion here) and this season, they’re featuring models with a variety of body shapes which is inspirational and just good business sense for anyone wanting to get started in today’s fashion world.

One of my favorite mantras, courtesy of the amazing Tim Gunn.

I'll be talking about books I've read and loved lately in my newsletter this month, so if you're not already signed up you can do so here. Subscribers who open the newsletter within three days of me sending it are automatically entered to win a monthly giveaway!  Or if you just want to hangout and chat on my Facebook page (about peeling foot booties? Kesha? Project Runway?) join the party here! 

#RWA17 - #SquadGoals4Life

For some reason, this year’s post-convention wrap-up is particularly hard to write. 

RWA Nationals was last week in Orlando and it felt like a wonderful dream, one that I didn’t want to wake up from. 

Why?

My tribe, y’all.

Ride or Die Friends

The OG HBICs are my family away from my family. No one can empower me or make me laugh, cry, create like this crew.

So leaving them on Saturday? It hurt, to be honest. Physically.

More than these five ladies, I met and reconnected with more amazing kindred spirits - Frannie, Kate, Amber, Violet, Ainsley, Laura, Tamsen, Tina, Cheryl, Elizabeth, Kristin, Megan, and so many more.  In a world that so often encourages women to take each other down, to compete  with each other, to judge and to mock, for four days in July, women writers from all over the globe join together and talk about making the world a happier, more hopeful place.  And the women I met are at the vanguard of this bodice-ripping movement (in the most Diana of Themyscira way).

So, yeah. It was hard to leave this beautiful wonderland. 

So fun to celebrate Jeffe Kennedy's RITA win on the dancefloor!

Like all the HBICs, Alexis and Julia stayed until the music was over.

For one brief, shining moment, RITA was mine... until Cheryl Etchison took her away.

The best roomie ever - saved me from total disability.

Me & VonHottie singing beautifully.

Because dance parties. And golden statues. And sparkly shoes. And books. And best friends. These are the best things in the world. 

If you’re coming home from #RWA17 and want a game plan for working through all that you’ve got running through your head, subscribe to our HBIC Nation newsletter for an exclusive post-con workbook. Because we can change the world together. 

Best Books to Read Now: July 2017

Reminder/ Caveat/ Disclaimer: This is my (hopefully) monthly list of books I’ve read and enjoyed. These are not reviews, I do not include books I didn’t enjoy because life is too short to speak badly of books!

An Extraordinary Union - Alyssa Cole

Amazon | iBooks

This was totally my catnip book. Spies, Civil War, a woman with extraordinary mental abilities (the heroine has a perfect memory!).  A great start to a series and a great book to read during the patriotic season!

The Day of the Duchess - Sarah MacLean

Amazon | iBooks

In the middle of this, I was comparing it to my favorite Sarah Maclean, (Yes, I always mention it. Temple’s book, No Good Duke Goes Unpunished) because my heart was clenching in that oh-so-painful-but-good way and I realized it was because they’re both stories of second chance love.  There’s also more of SESILY, a secondary character who’s been in at least two or three of this series and I’m really hoping that Ms. MacLean puts us out of our misery and gives us the Sesily (and the American?) book that we’ve been dying for.

Slightly South of Simple - Kristy Woodson Harvey

Amazon || iBooks

This was my book club pick for the summer. I told my book club that I was picking a book with a beach on it, so I did, and so I read it by the beach when we were able to get away to Mexico last month. This is a great, easy read, about sisterhood, second chances and summers gone by.

The Deep End- Julie Mulhern

Amazon || iBooks

I’ve had this on my TBR list for a really long time, and was finally in a place where I could read a straight up mystery (I don’t like reading it when I’m writing it) and I give this an enthusiastic two thumbs up (I think I’ve already hand sold a few more copies). It’s set in the 1970’s, in a Kansas country club set. The time period isn’t too much, and as a writer, I appreciated that the setting allowed Ms. Mulhern to write mysteries where no one could call the police on their cell phones, which really changes plots these days.  A start to a five book series, I think, so you’ll have a lot to binge!

On the Lindsay Emory books front, if you’ve been following along on my Facebook page, you’ll see that I just wrote a BOOK IN A WEEK.  At the end of the week, I had a first draft of my Mistletoe Key Christmas novella, hopefully releasing in November 2017!  Go check out the posts (and unedited snippets!) and then sign up for Mistletoe Key updates and giveaways here.

Or sign up for my general monthly newsletter here. I love sharing the highlights of my month and doing a monthly giveaway for subscribers.  HOPEFULLY, I will have a big announcement later this month (or early August) so please, check here or sign up for my newsletter so you can squee with me. 

Or if you just want just-the-facts book news, Bookbub (that site that sends you your favorite books on sale - if you're not subscribed you want to be) has a way for you to follow me and they'll update you on when my books are released. Just click follow and easy peasy: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lindsay-emory

True Life: I wrote a Book in A Week

I’m an idea person. I’ve always gotten these crazy ideas and then lately, I’ve been convicted to follow through on them.

So when I got the idea to write my Mistletoe Key** novella in a week and - even better - to post updates on Facebook all week - I thought hey, why not? What’s the worst that could happen?

The worst that could happen, I reasoned, was that I got a big chunk of the first draft done. A lot of work is still a lot of work, even if my full word count goal wasn’t reached. 

But here’s another fascinating thing about my personality. I’m competitive. It’s not something most people identify about me, since I’m not an athlete or a salesperson. But I like to win. I really, really don’t like to lose. 

So even though I was preparing a concession speech, I knew deep down that I was going to do everything in my power to full this damn thing off.

And so I did. I wrote the entire first draft of my Mistletoe Key novella - 25,000 words- in 7 days. And I even took a day off in the middle of the week to take my kids to the water park. 

I’m tired. My wrists hurt. My ankles are swollen. Here are some things I learned.

• Writing 4000 words in a day, every day is doable, full time job doable, occasionally hard work doable.

• I would prefer to write 3000 words a day. Maybe 3500 when the kids go back to school.

• Setting public goals for myself works, big time.

• I’m still an introvert who would prefer not to film myself on Facebook every day.

• Squirrel brain is real.

• I’m still learning to trust myself, my intuition and trust that the words are inside me.

• Walking is really important.

• It feels amazing when I meet my hefty word goals for the day.

• Rewards are important.

• Caffeine is less important than I would have thought.

• Getting up early before the family wakes up is essential to getting all the work done.

• I can’t wait to write the next thing.

• I’m going to write my next book in three weeks…. Maybe.

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Sign up for the Mistletoe Key Newsletter to be the first to see the cover, to get an early review copy and find out when this amazing book goes on sale.

**Mistletoe Key is a magical place in the Florida Keys where Christmas is celebrated 24/7/365. My book and more books will be set here starting in 2017...!