Finish It

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

New York Times best-selling author Chuck Wendig offers this timely advice in his book, Damn Fine Story:

Always finish it.

No matter how unsure you are. No matter how unsteady it makes you feel.

The only way out is through.

Finishing the work teaches you how to finish the work. An ending is one of the most important parts of a story, and you only learn to write them by writing from the start to the finish.

Bonus: Finishing what you begin feels good. It gives you a little dopamine release. It offers a tiny widdle brain tickle.

If you have problems finishing a big story, first try to finish a smaller one. Learn the pattern. Build a ladder out of what you finish.

Don’t worry about failing. We all fail. The way you lose is by quitting.

Source: Damn Fine Story, p. 226.

Beyond Spilled Milk

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Today is National Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk Day, a day set aside to move beyond past disappointments and setbacks.

In its oldest form, the proverb was “No weeping for shed milk,” first coined by James Howell in 1659. While the proverb has evolved, it still retains its original intent: One cannot change what is done and crying over it serves no purpose.

Here are my Go-To quotations whenever I encounter setbacks:

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. Aristotle

When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in. Kristin Armstrong

Life is all about setbacks. A life lived without disappointment is a life lived in a cocoon. People have recovered from far worse setbacks. Tony Clark

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. Thomas Edison

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
Martin Luther King

The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire, the size of your dream, and how you handle disappointment along the way. Robert Kiyosaki

What do you do when disappointment comes? When it weighs on you like a rock, you can either let it press you down until you become discouraged, even devastated, or you can use it as a stepping-stone to better things. Joyce Meyer

The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality. Conan O’Brien

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.
Beverly Sills

Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it. Eliza Tabor

Do you have a Go-To quotation? Please share in the comments.

Five Quotes that Will Calm Your Mind When You’re at a Crossroads

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

A long-time fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to reading their emails and blog posts. Here are five inspirational quotes from a recent email:

1. Talk like you are blessed. Walk like you are blessed. Think like you are blessed. Work like you are blessed. And you will be.

2. It’s often our own thinking that hurts us the most. There’s no reason to imprison yourself. Don’t think outside the box. Think like there is no box.

3. Letting go isn’t forgetting, it’s remembering without fear. It’s stepping forward with a present mind and a lesson learned.

4. Our character is often most evident at our highs and lows. Be humble at the mountaintops, strong in the valleys, and faithful in between.

5. It’s funny how we outgrow what we once thought we couldn’t live without, and then we fall in love with what we didn’t even know we wanted. Embrace life’s gradual evolution…

Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Marc & Angel’s website.

Ten Favorite Travel Destinations

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome back Wild Rose Press author Margot Johnson. Today, Margot shares her favorite travel destinations and her new release, Let it Melt.

Here’s Margot!

Let it Melt is book Two in the Merilee Tours series.

Merilee reinvents her boring life by launching a tour business which leads to fun adventures and surprising romance. In Let it Snowball, she takes her guests to bakeries in three different towns to sample Christmas cookies. In Let it Melt, she hosts a Valentine’s Sweetheart Tour to a country restaurant and to a café in another town for dessert.

Merilee’s tours are based around the fictional town of Goldview, Saskatchewan, the Canadian prairie province where I live. Like Merilee, I love to visit different places whether close to home or farther afield.

Here are ten of my favorite travel destinations, many of them in SK, Canada’s sunniest province!

1. Moose Jaw, SK – a city with a small-town feel, I set my first book, Love Takes Flight, there. Legend has it that Al Capone hid out in tunnels under the city, and it has a great mineral spa for a relaxing soak.

2. Waskesiu, SK – This touristy town sits on the shores of a lake in Prince Albert National Park in northern Saskatchewan. Our family visits every year to breathe the fresh, pine-scented air, hang out at the beach, and watch for wildlife. Elk often cruise the town, and you might see a bear along the road.

3. Madge Lake, SK – Another beautiful lake setting in Saskatchewan where our family has started an annual holiday tradition.

4. Eastend, SK – This small town is best known for the nearby discovery of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton nicknamed “Scotty” in 1994. We stayed in a country cottage and had fun exploring the area.

5. Niagara Falls & Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario – The falls and scenery are amazing, and the area is full of tourist attractions, historic sites, and quaint shops.

6. Quebec City – My daughters and I holidayed there and soaked up some history, sampled poutine, and practiced our French.

7. Prince Edward Island – I only made a short stop there partway through a business trip, but I’d love to return. It’s the setting for the Anne of Green Gables books, and it boasts distinctive, red soil.

8. New York City – Rick and I honeymooned there, and I’ll never forget the excitement of attending Wicked and Jersey Boys on Broadway and seeing all the famous sights in person.

9. Disney World, Florida – Because who doesn’t love nonstop fun—with or without kids.

10. Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico – There’s no better place to escape winter than this peaceful area with its beautiful beaches and perfect weather. I can’t wait to book tickets when it’s safe to travel.

Blurb

How on earth did Jill, a single divorcee, land on a romantic Valentine’s Sweetheart Tour for couples? Worse, she’s paired with Jack, her daughter’s brash father-in-law, and everyone thinks he’s her valentine. Stranded in a Canadian prairie blizzard, how soon can she kiss this awkward evening goodbye?

Long divorced, Jack would love to charm Jill with his toned body and dynamic personality, but his wisecracks and obsession with fitness get in the way—especially when he nabs a post at the same school where she teaches.

Even the most romantic month of the year can’t melt their differences and sweeten Jill’s feelings…or can it?

Read/Buy Links

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | Goodreads

Author Bio and Links

Margot Johnson writes feel-good stories of dreams, family, and romance.

She is the author of two sweet romance novels, LOVE TAKES FLIGHT and LOVE LEADS THE WAY, and two novellas, LET IT SNOWBALL and LET IT MELT. Her characters can’t possibly find their happy endings…or can they?

Before turning her focus to the fun writing life, Margot held leadership roles in human resources and communications. Her motto is “Dream big and work hard.”

When not writing, she loves to connect with family and friends, volunteer with SK Writers Guild, and walk at least 10,000 steps a day (except when it’s minus 40!)

Margot lives in the Canadian prairies with her amazing husband and adorable golden retriever.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Blurb Blitz: Flower Girl

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome back Merida Johns. Today, Merida shares her new release, Flower Girl.

Blurb

Everyone wants to believe they can hold on to their anchor, the light of their North Star, and live their truth . . . Suzanna Jordan did too until she fell for a man with a movie-star presence and a dark alter ego. Losing hope of salvaging her life and gaining her freedom, an unlikely source serves up a platter of just desserts that even Suzanna’s treacherous abuser might not evade.

Excerpt

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1984

It’s five o’clock in the morning. A waterfall of worries washes over me, but one remains, one I cannot ignore, one that means my life or death—do I have the courage to stop this nightmare?

I hear muffled voices and hasty footsteps fading away in the distance. My crisis, already old news to them, cataloged on a forgotten document. They have abandoned me and left me alone with my fear.

Rolling to my side, my legs dangle off the bed, and gravity pulls my five-foot-five, slender body toward the floor. My feet rebel. They scream and cramp in pain as they hit the cold cement. My insides shake, and my body wobbles. My eyes blur, and my hands reach out to find the bed. I steady myself and count under my breath, “One, two, three . . .” The agonizing muscle spasms in my feet start to unwind.

My world plays in slow motion. My eyes drift across the brackish-beige walls, swamp-green curtain, stainless steel instruments, and electronic gadgets—my stomach knots, my heart falls, my mouth goes dry. Helplessness hits me like an animal in a snare.

I spot my possessions, swathed in clear plastic, in the chair’s seat in the corner of the room. I hobble over and open the bag and poke through it—a Victoria’s Secret midnight-blue lace bra, an OSU red T-shirt, a pair of Gloria Vanderbilt denim pants, a Coach purse, and white Reeboks. I loosen the ties of the rumpled steel-gray gown; it slips off and falls to the floor. Dressing in fancy lingerie is absurd, so I toss it on the chair and throw on the shirt and jeans.

I look down at my sneakers and stop. In my mind, I see my husband’s squinting eyes and hear his haunting disapproval. Quit wiggling your feet over the counters of your damn shoes, Suzanna. You’ll ruin them! I shake my head, clench my jaw, and disobey.

I have no strength to bend over and tie the shoelaces. Jonathan would have a nasty comment about this, too. I ignore him. My eyes close in victory. “Cherish every step. Each is a grand slam toward deliverance.”

My fingers run through my disheveled hair, soaked with sweat—my muscles loosen, my brain fog lifts, and the ache behind my forehead fades.

I pull back the curtain circling the bed and grimace—the overhead lights jar me. I pump myself up—One, two, three, go. I take off.

I shuffle through the corridor between the beds bordering the room and reach the doorway to the waiting area. If people are here, I do not notice them. My eyes fix on the escape at the end of the room—the pulsating red exit sign. The floor-to-ceiling doors open, allowing my aching body to limp toward daybreak. The heavy morning breeze hits my face, and the sickening, sterile scent covering me blows away. I clutch my heart and silently sob, Thank God I’m alive.

But the joy vaporizes into the humid air. The war has only begun. Clutching for courage, I console myself. You’ve gotten this far. You can make it! You can live your truth.

I look up above the horizon, and I see it! There’s my North Star, its five points shimmering in the dawn and guiding me toward my purpose—But before I can help others be their best, I must help myself be my best.

Outside the sterile walls of a hospital emergency room, I hold my own. I put a stake in the ground. I swear that the fight to flee my abuser’s snare, save my life, and follow the guidance of my North Star is worth it.

Author Bio and Links

Merida Johns writes about the human experience—that often is messy—and how ordinary people tackle challenges, live through sorrow and betrayal, struggle with doubt, but despite this, gather the strength to act on their aspirations and achieve flourishing lives.

“My insight into the power of fiction came during a conference call in late 2017 with a group of fellow life coaches when I asked, ‘What would it be like to help people achieve a flourishing life through storytelling instead of another self-help book?’

After that phone call, I got started answering that question. Almost three years later, the result was my debut novel Blackhorse Road, a heartfelt story of womanhood and the power of choice, gratitude, and forgiveness that was published July 21, 2020, by Coffee Cup Press. Now, I’m thrilled about the upcoming release Flower Girl—a story of a woman who must make sweeping changes in her life to live her truth.

Before writing fiction, I was a professor and author of health informatics and leadership textbooks. Later, I put my experience to use as a leadership coach, focusing on helping women break the glass ceiling and fulfill their leadership and economic potential.

My husband and I reside in the beautiful Midwest countryside. This is where I find the serenity and space for bringing to life the stories about everyday people who face and overcome extraordinary challenges by finding and following their North Star.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Giveaway

Merida Johns will be awarding a $30 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow Merida on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

Experiment with Your Back Burner

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

One of my go-to books for inspiration is Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. Here’s one of my favorite passages:

The back burner of your mind works in the same way as the back burner of a stove. While on low heat, the cooking process mixes, blends, and simmers the ingredients into a tasty meal. The way you prepared this meal was to throw the various ingredients into the pot, mix them up, and leave them alone. Often the less you interfere, the better the result.

In much the same way, we can solve many of life’s problems (serious and otherwise) if we feed the back burner of our mind with a list of problems, facts, and variables, and possible solutions. Just as when we make soup or a sauce, the thoughts and ideas we feed the back burner of our mind must be left alone to simmer properly.

Whether you are struggling to solve a problem or can’t remember a person’s name, your back burner is always available to help you. It puts our quieter, softer, and sometimes most intelligent source of thinking to work for us on issues that we have no immediate answer for. The back burner is not a prescription for denial or procrastination. In other words, while you do wat to put your problems on your back burner, you don’t want to turn the burner off. Instead, you want to gently hold the problem in your mind without actively analyzing it. This simple technique will help you solve many problems and will greatly reduce the stress and effort in your life.

Source: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson, pp. 63-64.

Make Meaning on The Other Side

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In a recent post, author and coach Brad Stulberg shared five research-based strategies that could help us cope with (hopefully) the last long winter of this pandemic. Here’s the strategy that resonated with me:

During hardship it can be helpful to release from any sense of this has to be meaningful or I need to make the most out of this in favor of being kind to yourself, being where you are, and just getting through. If you pay close attention to what is happening inside of you during these liminal phases, and do so without judgment, the right choices and actions tend to emerge on their own. Gradually, you progress from disorder to reorder.

We tend to look back on challenging periods of disorder in a much more productive and meaningful light than we experience them. In other words, sometimes growth doesn’t happen until you get to the other side, and that’s okay. During especially rough stretches, there is no need to put extra pressure on yourself to “make the most of things.” When you are in the thick of it, your job can be as simple, and as hard, as just getting through.

Read the rest of the post here.

Virtual Book Tour: The Shoe Diaries

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome author Darby Baham. Today, Darby shares writing advice and her debut novel, The Shoe Diaries.

Advice for Writers/Writing Tips

It is only when you open your veins and bleed onto the page a little that you establish contact with your reader. — Paul Gallico

I remember hearing this quote about what it takes to be a writer long before I ever knew who said it or fully understood what it meant. At the time, I probably thought, man that sounds hard, but it’s only for people writing memoirs or heavy, deep content. However, in the decade plus that it took me to write The Shoe Diaries, I have learned that no, this is good writing advice for anything you write. Good writing, meaningful writing, requires that you dig deep and write about things that make you feel vulnerable at times, because that’s what other people connect to.

Here are five other tips I’ve learned along the way:

*You have to love it! Writing is a labor of love. You can be the most skilled and talented writer, but you will inevitably go through the same cycle we all do: loving and hating what you wrote until it’s done, and then loving and hating it while you’re editing, and loving and hating it when it’s being published. It’s not an easy process, but if you love it, if writing is in your bones, every bit of it is worth it.

*You have to make the time for it. If you have a deadline, you don’t always have the luxury of just writing when you feel in the mood to do it. There will be times where you have to set aside designated time to write so that it gets done! I won’t say that you have to write every day, because maybe that doesn’t work for you. It doesn’t work for me. But ask yourself, “What is a schedule that pushes me, but doesn’t mentally drain me?” When you have the answer to that question, it will make things a lot easier. Some people like setting aside an hour a day to write, others enjoy spending one full day a week where they write for hours and hours. It’s a process of trial and error. Figure out what works for you, and then commit to that time.

*Don’t be afraid to get it wrong. I spent years trying to make the first three chapters perfect because someone somewhere had told me that those were the most important chapters to getting you an agent. And it’s not that they were wrong, but I took that and didn’t make it past chapter 3 for years. So here’s what I learned: it’s not going to be perfect at first, you just need to get something on the paper. Don’t get stuck in the rut of editing while you write, because you’ll likely end up frustrated and won’t write as much as you were probably hoping to. If you’re holding onto “it has to be perfect” you’ll never get it done.

*Get okay with rejection. No one likes to be rejected, but the reality is you will likely get far more nos than yeses on this journey to becoming an author. One of the hardest things I dealt with was hearing from an editor a while back just how bad my version of The Shoe Diaries was at the time. It hurt. A lot. But he helped me, too, because it pushed me to dig deeper and try again. Just remember you only need one yes. Stick to that, and you’ll be golden.

*All the things you’re scared of in your real life, put them into the book. To be fair, this is my own version of the “bleeding yourself on the page” concept, but I think it’s slightly more direct. Everyone else is probably scared of those things, and that’s what they will be able to relate to. It’s the scariest thing to do, but it’s a beautiful way to create connection with your audience. People can’t connect to your book if you are guarded and holding back on things you don’t want to address, and yes that means in your romance novel too.

*Bonus: Read! Read! Read! You become a better writer by reading good writing.

Blurb

It’s never too late to put your best foot forward

From the outside, Reagan “Rae” Doucet has it all: a coveted career in Washington, DC, a tight circle of friends and a shoe closet to die for. When one of her crew falls ill, however, Rae is done playing it safe. The talented but unfulfilled writer makes a “risk list” to revamp her life. But forgiving her ex, Jake Saunders, might be one risk too many…

From Harlequin Special Edition: Believe in love. Overcome obstacles. Find happiness.

The Friendship Chronicles/Book 1: The Shoe Diaries

“Reminiscent of Sex and the City and the Shopaholic series in the best possible way. Her stories are a lot of fun and yet she still tugs at your heartstrings.”–Gail Chasan, Special Edition Editor

Excerpt

Love of Shoes

October 28, 2019

“It was barely 7:00 a.m. when I heard my alarm blasting the sounds of Nicki Minaj’s “Pound the Alarm.” “Not yet, Alexa.” Groggy and yearning for at least five more minutes of sleep, I stretched my arm over the length of my bed and pressed down on the snooze button with my eyes still closed. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to get up, necessarily; it was just that the cocoon of my comforter in my queen-size bed felt so much better than whatever could have been waiting for me outside it. I pulled the cover over my head as an extra protection against the sun.

“Pound the alarm!”

“Agh!” I screamed out as it went off once more. “Fine, fine. I’m up now.”

The music still blaring, I finally acquiesced and rolled myself out of bed, one leg coming free from my cover cocoon, then the next, and made my way to my closet for what had become my daily routine: pick out shoes for the day, figure out the outfit that goes best with them, take a shower and then, of course, post my #shoeoftheday photo to Instagram before heading to work. Conveniently, I passed right over the red pumps that spelled disaster for me the night before. “Hmm, now what do I feel like wearing today?” I questioned, dancing to my closet and scanning all the shoes I own with my eyes, from my flats to my heels, boots to sneakers, in every color one can imagine. They were all intricately displayed on the shelves—heels facing out to show the length and style of the pump, flats facing forward to make it easier for me to see if it was a peep toe, curved toe, pointed toe, or square. “Oooh, these!” Something about my deep red, almost maroon peep-toe heels from BCBG caught my eyes, and I knew they were the ones for the day. The shoes were adorned with a silver buckle on the side of each peep toe and would go perfectly with my red-and pink floral blouse, black pencil skirt and peplum blazer to match. It was amazing how the rest of an outfit could come together for me once I picked out the shoes, and today was no exception. These might even be the ones to help me finally convince my boss to let me do the article I’d been pitching to him for months. Excited about my choices, I laid them out on my bed and hopped in the shower, continuing my best rap impressions as my playlist toggled through my favorite female rappers.

It was 9:00 a.m. when I walked into work at Washington, D.C.’s premier political news online magazine, my heels clacking on the linoleum floors they must have purchased just to make it that much easier for women to alert everyone of their comings and goings in the office. Seated at her desk already was my always-early, no-holds-barred freckle twin, and the best IT specialist in the office, Rebecca, her reddish-blond hair pulled up into a loose bun and a smile on her face the size of a kid in a candy store. “So…” she said, dragging out her first word. “Tell me about last night.”

Author Bio and Links

Darby Baham (she/her) is a debut author with Harlequin Special Edition and a New Yorker of five years who sometimes desperately misses the sprawling shoe closet she had while living in Maryland. She’s had personal blog posts appear in The Washington Post’s relationship vertical and has worked in the communications industry for more than two decades. The New Orleans, LA native is also a lover of big laughs and books that swallow you into their world. Her first book, The Shoe Diaries, debuts in 2022.

Author Website | Linktree | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

NOTE: Here is the link to subscribe to receive books specifically from Harlequin Special Edition — https://www.readerservice.com/content/series/harlequin-special-edition/

Darby’s book will be included in the January edition.

Darby Baham’s Washington Post Bylines

I had the perfect date dress. Why did it hang in my closet unworn for more than a year? — March 2016

When it comes to relationship advice, sometimes it’s best to ignore your friends — February 2016

I’m the oldest sister in my family and I’m single. And that’s okay. — March 2016


I was afraid to say ‘I love you.’ Here’s how I found the courage. –

The Shoe Diaries Sales Links

Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million | Harlequin | IndieBound | Google | Target

Giveaway

One randomly chosen winner via Rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card. Find out more here.

Follow Darby on the rest of the Goddess Fish tour here.