If only...

Most of us will find times where we think "If only.."
Sometimes this will be because we wished we had done things differently. Sometimes we wish people who have passed on were still here to discuss things with.
At the moment I'm in a situation where I think "If only there were more hours in the day, or more left-over time"
The trouble is, at the moment I have a full-time job to content with. This seriously impacts on the time I can spend on my writing and most days since the start of December I have had little or no time at all to write. I'm talking serious withdrawal symptoms here.
So, what can I do about it? Lose the job? An option I guess, but I don't think my boss and husband would thank me for it (they are one and the same).
No, I think there is only one option. I need to reorganise my life in such a way to leave time for writing as well.
How? I'm not quite sure yet. Perhaps all that is needed is to get up a little earlier. I have been lying in a little lately. Only getting up at six am to get my husband's lunch ready before he leaves for work and to do some of the necessary housework. Occasionally it leaves me some time to sort out marketing (read tweeting and re-tweeting etc) but there is no time left to write.
Today I got up at half past four. After the ironing was done I finally had a chance to take the Christmas tree and decorations down. Yes, I know, it's a disgrace it was still up. When the family is in the living room it's not so easy to get that sorted.
With that job out of the way the only time left was to check any messages/tweets/emails and write a quick blog post. I will need to leave for work in fifteen minutes again. Another busy day will likely lay ahead and we'll see what it will bring. Our youngest son also needs to be picked up from school and this means I certainly won't get home until half past five.
Then it will be time to prepare tea, eat, do the housework and put the bins out. If I'm lucky, I might be able to check emails before it's bedtime again.
Tomorrow I'll get up at 4.30 am again. Hopefully, now that the big housework jobs are out of the way, I'll have a little time to write tomorrow. We can only hope.

And what will I be writing? Tomorrow it'll be time to work on editing my sixth book. Remember to get in touch if you would like to become a beta reader. I would love to have you on board.

Joni

Still looking for beta/advanced readers!

Evening all,

I'm still looking for beta/advanced readers for the two books that are nearing their completions.

The first is a non-fiction book entitled 'Diary of a Female GP' and describes a week in the life of a female GP (family doctor) in the UK. Although it does not contain any real life cases as such, all these cases are examples (mixtures) of cases a GP would see in real life. In this book you can read about the work life and the private life of a female GP as you follow her during a typical workweek.

Please, don't hesitate to contact me if you would like to read, review and comment on this book. Your comments could be exactly what helps the book become polished enough for publication.

The second book needs a little further work to it. Another chapter or three to be written before editing. Once this is completed, I will also require beta/advanced readers for this book. This book is the sixth in the 'Friends, family and love' series and continues where 'Holiday Love' left off.
Freya and Joshua developed a relationship during a holiday in France where they unexpectedly ran into each other. Their love flourished and 'Holiday Love' ended on a bit of a cliff hanger.
A little surprise throws their relationship in the balance and what will happen next? Will this surprise break them or make them stronger? You can read all this and more in 'Growing Love', the sixth book in the series. All books in the series are written in such a way they can be read as stand-alones. However, you probably will enjoy them more if you read them in the correct order.

And for this book I would also love it if you would get in touch with me.

You may think, "What's in it for me?" So here are the benefits for my beta/advanced readers:

• You get to read the book before anyone else
• You get to read the book for free
• You can have a valuable role in polishing the book for publication
• Once the book(s) are published, you will receive a free mobi version of the book as thanks for your help.

Ways to get in touch:

1. Contact me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/joni.martins.543)
2. Leave a comment below.

Joni

Update as stress levels soar.

Stress levels are rising steadily over the last few days of October. Soon the first of November will be here and that means #NaNoWriMo aka #nanowrimo2018 is due to start.
Although my project for this is fully outlined and the prospect of starting this project does not scare me nor stress me out, the fact that I want to finish the first draft of 'Growing Love' before November does.
This sixth book in the 'Friends, family and love' series is progressing slower than I had hoped. The words flow from my fingers quite easily, that is not the problem. The problem is, more words emerge than I would expect and the chapters are longer than I anticipated. The grand total of words at the moment stands at 105411 and I'm nowhere near finished. Another 10 chapters are waiting to be written before the book is completed, well the first draft. Is that possible to do in the remaining days of October? I have no idea. Only today and tomorrow are left and I will need to see how fast those chapters flow from my fingers onto the screen.
Perhaps it doesn't help that the draft edit happens as I go along. In other words, I write the scenes in yWriter 6, copy and paste them to ProWritingAid and tidy them up, then double check in HemingWay Editor before copy and pasting them back to yWriter 6. Grammarly also checks at the same time. At the moment I'm averaging around 7000 words and 2-3 chapters a day. This does not bode well for completing the first draft in time and it seems likely that I'll have to work on both projects at the same time.
Perhaps at least doing one chapter of 'Growing Love' daily and two chapters of the project for November each day. It will be hard work, but I'm sure I'll love it.

In case you need a reminder, here are the covers of the books I'm talking about.

 


And here is a little excerpt from the first draft of 'Growing Love', hope you'll like it.

Right at that time, a doctor and a nurse entered the room, “Morning everyone, hope you are all doing well.” The doctor looked around the room, “There seems to be one patient too many in here, one of the wrong gender.” He raised his eyebrows at Joshua.
The nurse shuffled her feet a little, “Sorry doctor, I allowed this gentleman to come in for a short period this morning to check in on his girlfriend before he needs to go to work.”
A smile appeared on his face, “Don’t worry nurse, I’m only pulling your leg. Let’s get started with the ward round, shall we?” Then they walked to the other two patients in succession first.
After a few minutes, the doctor came to my bed, “Morning Freya, how are you this morning?”
“Doing okay, thank you. When can I go home?”
He raised his eyebrows, “One step at a time, young lady.” He turned towards the nurse, “Can I have a look at this lady’s charts, please?”
The nurse handed the clipboard at the end of the bed to the doctor and he leafed through the details, making noises as he did. “Okay, this appears okay. Blood pressure normal, temperature normal, pulse normal as well. Ah, not drinking much yet, I notice,” he turned towards me, “Have you tried to drink some fluids? Or eat something?”
When I told him I had tried a little, he nodded, “That is great. Only little bits, but keep trying. Once you are able to keep your fluids down and are hardly sick any longer, we can consider letting you go home again. At the moment, I would suggest continuing as we are for now.” He turned towards the nurse again, “Can you arrange an ultrasound so we can check on the pregnancy and confirm how far along this young lady is? Thanks.” 
The doctor and nurse left and Joshua and I were alone at the bed again.

Love, 

Joni

Some help needed choosing a cover for my next novel.

Maybe you lovely people out there are able to help me choose the new cover for my next book 'Growing Love', a book where we continue to follow Freya and Joshua after they find out about the little surprise that has entered their life. I have four options and wonder which one you feel is the best one. Your help is very much appreciated.

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

Option 4:

Love,

Progress report on book 6.

How is 'Growing Love' doing?

So far, I have done the basic outlining of the book and I came across some surprises I had not envisaged yet until I got there. This story continues where my just-released book, Holiday Love, ends. We will see how Freya and Joshua will cope with the surprises that are put in their path. I'm itching to get started on writing the book but at the moment. I will first need to finish the more detailed outlining of the book. Then, the fun will start. Yeah!

I love just letting the thoughts flow through my fingers on to the keyboard and into the document that will become the book. It's a really satisfying feeling when the story comes together and you achieve what you wanted to achieve.

In summary, the outlining of the book is coming along nicely, I still have to start the proper writing though.

Have a great weekend everyone, I'm looking forward to some more writing this weekend.

Love,

Time for a progress report.

'Holiday Love' was published 5 days ago and this means I have to get my skates on and get back to writing. Yesterday I managed to get most of the outlining of the book done, I will continue that this afternoon. This morning I have only done the housework and the gardening and now I'm updating everything that needs updating.

So far I have noticed any sales yet for my latest book. I hope someone will soon start to have a look because I believe it to be the best one in the series yet.

There was an enormous amount of sales of 'Freed Love, censored' yesterday, the largest one I have seen yet. A grand total of 30 books were sold and 2 of 'Captive Love' as well. It looks like the marketing and networking are finally starting to pay dividend and maybe there will be more new readers of my work.

This is obviously not the main reason I started publishing my books. My main reason is the fact I love writing, it is just great to see people buying my books (even if they are free) and I hope this means they are enjoying it as well.

Once I have updated everything that needs updating I will go back to outlining the sixth book which will be called 'Growing Love'. I can't wait to get back to writing, my fingers are itching in anticipation. You may think, "What are you doing now if not writing?", but this is more the marketing and keeping my followers and readers updated aspect of the 'job'.

Well, I'll love you and leave you and get back to work again. Have a great day and don't miss out on the free offer of 'Freed Love, censored'. Today is the last day to grab it for free (although always free on Kindle Unlimited). (books2read.com/u/brG1YA)

Love,