Sunday Sips-November 29th, 2020

Good Morning and thanks for joining me on this lazy Sunday after Thanksgiving!

I hope you had a wonderful week with lots of relaxing and/or shopping with all the sales going on.

Today I’m enjoying a new tea called Breakfast In Paris by *STASH TEA* and I got in a *SIPSBY* box. It’s got high caffeine which i am all about right now. Seriously i cannot bounce back with the energy lately. 34 why did you do this to me?? I thought we were supposed to have a good year together but you stole all my energy the other years in my 30s didn’t! Anyway this tea is a rich black tea with aromatic lavender and bright bergamot. After a somewhat hectic week with Cyber Week sale in my own Etsy shop and Thanksgiving which I cook everything from scratch for my family of five, I’m all about relaxing with a mug of warm tea today. I sweeten mine with real maple syrup and a splash of milk too just to enhance the flavor.

I finally had a breakthrough with my characters in Marc’s book (the third and final book in my Creekwood series). Mainly the female lead was giving me trouble for a while, meaning she kept changing her mind, appearance and back story. She was so slippery it was hard to write the story so after I finished writing Changing Lanes, I wrote a completely different standalone instead. Now that I’m finished with that one and almost done with the editing phase of Changing Lanes, I’m solely focused on Marc and his leading lady and after a few chapters with each individual character I’m happy to say: I’ve got my girl. She has revealed her true self to me and OMG I’m thoroughly enjoying writing her POV now. Like sometimes I don’t even want to give Marc his chapters because I can’t get enough. It’s been fun to get to that point where my character trusts me with their story. Also I think it’s some of my best writing so far. I loved writing (and reading, and rereading) Beckett’s story so much that i worried I couldn’t top it but I showed a teeny tiny peek to my beta reader the other day and she told me she was thinking of having some of it tattooed on her so…that should tell you something. I still don’t have any clue on a release date for Marc yet since I’m only in the beginning stages of writing his book and the last book I wrote during this pandemic took me 7 months. Remote learning zaps my energy as well. I used to write until 12am or 1am every night then the kids started doing schooling from home in March and I was just too worn out so I had to sneak in writing at other times. It was…not a great balance but I do feel it’s better now though since I’m not as hands on with my youngest with her having her own device and a full time remote teacher on meets with her throughout the weekdays. My two others have also picked up a routine where I’m able to be relatively hands off as well so it’s smoother and gives me a bit more freedom but not for long lengths of time usually. I’m not complaining though, I just don’t know where that leaves marc’s story being in the public’s hands. 2121 is what I’m hoping for. For right now I’m just trying to write when and if I can while focusing on releasing Beckett’s book which I just finalized his cover and HOLY SHIT. You’re not ready. It is stunning and perfect! I can’t wait to show it off. January?! Are you ready for us?? Cuz I am so ready for you.

If you’re in the market for a gift for any bookworms this year, my Etsy shop full of watercolor bookmarks is still having a 20% off all regularly priced bookmarks. It ends December 2nd though so get those orders in!

Signed Paperback copies of Detour are also 20% off but that sale ends tonight at midnight. It was only for the weekend as I have a limited amount. It’s first come, first served so be sure to check soon if you’re interested. Signed Paperbacks make great gifts too. Just saying. I can personalize them or simply autograph, just make a note specifying at time of purchase.

Even though i’ve been dying to read some historical romance I have yet to actually do so. This week’s been busy! Maybe Christmas time I’ll be able to get some words in that aren’t mine lol

My kids are all out of the toy phase I feel like even though my youngest is only 6 so this year I think I’ll be focusing on meaningful gifts. Books, small shop finds, personalized gifts, that’s what I’ll be searching for the next couple weeks. Also it’s about that time for me to start watching my fave holiday movie “Love, The Coopers” again. I usually watch it nightly all of December but we’ll see if that happens this year. With my kids in remote schooling, they stay up later at night which pushes my free time back while simultaneously shortening it too. It’s a whole thing. If you missed it, i posted some holiday movies all in one graphic a couple Sunday Sips posts ago. Check it out for some good ones.

I think that’s it for me this week. I’m off to laze about while scrolling the internet looking for some unique gifts for this unique year. Thanks again for joining me and I hope you have a great upcoming week.

Ashley