The Official Post On What Is To Come in January

I started this blog for the sake of my writing career. I wanted to have a platform specifically to showcase the details of my writing and future publishing endeavors. My book review blog could be used for that, but I wanted to separate the two.

The last few months in my real life have been very chaotic to say the least. I quit my job of 6 1/2 years and started a new one the following week (both as a pharmacy technician). It meant working an extra 10 hours a week, which was fine by me, but it meant I had to reschedule other things in my life. That wasn't easy to do, and it's still a bit tough managing my free time. Two weeks this month, I worked 6 days in a row to help out with a massive project inputting data for nursing homes in the computer, one of those weeks logging in 50 hours.

Needless to say, this blog ended up falling by the wayside. It was unfortunate considering how much I wanted to keep this up to keep my followers updated. But, now that we're heading into a new year, it's time to get back on track again. Here is what you will be seeing on this blog soon...

1). Weekly updates on my writing every Friday.
2). Occasional posts related to writing.
3). Details on If Only We for beta readers and review requests, and the cover reveal.
4). The completion and publication of my novel If Only We.
5). An announcement of the next novel I'll be writing.
6). Another announcement of another writing project.
7). Occasional Music Monday posts whenever I've been inspired by a song.
8). The occasional personal post on some important non-writing things that are going on.

I will also be setting up an official writer Facebook page sometime in January AND possibly getting a redesign on the blog.

So, that's about it! I just thought I would let you guys know that I am still here and I'm working on some big things to keep this blog updated and getting somewhere with my novel. A huge thank you to those who have been sticking around! *hugs*


♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥


PS: A very warm welcome to all of my new followers! Thank you so much for following! XOXO!

Normal like a FOX!

Instant message conversation between myself and my best friend Rebecca after she suggests an idea I've mentioned off and on over the past couple months as an alternative to the situation at hand...


Jessica: You got that right!

Rebecca: Of course, I learned from the best.

Jessica: Oh yes. I am a troublemaker. And a bad influence. And I'm awesome.

Rebecca: Which is exactly why I love you.

Jessica: And the fact that you appreciate that about me and that you're the same way too is why I love you!

Rebecca: We make an awesome pair don't we?

Jessica: Why yes. Yes we do.

Rebecca: Our poor families....

Jessica: Hahaha, oh yeah. Definitely. That's why they think we're crazy... haven't they figured out that we're the normal ones and they are crazy? Talk about crazy...

Rebecca: I know right? Because you know that crazy people are the normal ones now? Statistics prove it.

Jessica: I am so normal. Normal like a FOX!

Rebecca: LOL! Didn't see that coming.

Jessica: I didn't either, what the crap did I write?! OMG I am giggling under my breath. What the crap.

Rebecca: OMG you ARE slap happy.


This is why I shouldn't be let outside the house when I'm tired.

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Friday's Letters #7

Friday's Letters comes from Ashley at Adventures of Newlyweds.


Dear dreams, Thanks for the scene ideas. Again. And for the really cute guy I got to meet. Again.

Dear online sales preparation, I want to be done with you so I can just list everything, sell it, ship it, and get it out of my room. I'm crossing my fingers that it will all be over with soon.

Dear person who bought one of my handmade bracelets yesterday, You are awesome.

Dear shopping trip from last Saturday, You were a lot of fun. I found some pretty cool things, including a hoodie and jacket I can't seem to stop wearing. It was a very LONG but great day.

Dear the fact that we're nearing the end of 2012, Not that I didn't like you, but I can't wait for 2013 to start. I have a lot of things I want to do and change (some of which will be on this blog). It's just a bit frustrating to not have enough time to take care of everything. Once December hits, that will begin the plotting of a new improved Jessica's life plan. That sounds more important than it is. It's just a bunch of small things honestly.

Dear If Only We, I am sorry I have been neglecting you again. You know I don't want to. I want to write you. You're a great story and I want the world to read you. I promise that you will be complete very soon.


Have a great weekend everyone!!! 

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Express Yourself #4: What are a few inspirational quotes you'd like to pass along to others?

Express Yourself is a weekly meme hosted by Jackie at Bouquet of Books and Dani at Entertaining Interests. The purpose of it is to get us to talking about the things that inspire us to write and inspire us in general in life. Check it out!

This week's question: 

 

What are a few inspirational quotes you'd like to pass along to others?

I adore quotes, so this may be hard to narrow down into one post...

"Be fearless."
"Any given moment can change your life. You just have to be there."
"Give me some hope to follow and I will run." ~Jarrod Gorbel
"My thoughts create my world." ~Megan McCafferty
"You’ll turn out ordinary if you’re not careful." ~Ann Brashares
"The person you see before you today would not be here if it weren't for the mistakes of yesterday." ~me

How about you? I'd love to know!

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Friday's Letters #6

Friday's Letters comes from Ashley at Adventures of Newlyweds.


Dear Marie, Congratulations on publishing The Game Changer! It is a must read book for everyone. I am so proud of you! <3

Dear Saturday shopping trip, I am crossing my fingers that I can find some goodies to add to my wardrobe. I've been clearing out my closet and drawers of the stuff I don't wear anymore. It's time for something new! Let's do this!

Dear Twinkies, I'm going to apparently have to purchase you in bulk and store you in a freezer if Hostess goes out of business forever. How could I ever live without you?!

Dear people at work, Thanks for being so nice and funny. You make work more enjoyable and lots of fun, even when it's busy and somewhat stressful. Also, thanks for appreciating me. :)

Dear Sunday, I'll be using you to (hopefully) finish cleaning up my room. It is driving me nuts to not have the time during the week to even do a small section. Expect a random playlist and occasional outbursts of choruses and giggles. I am determined to get this done!

Dear If Only We, You will be getting some more revising this week because I am anxious to get to these scenes... Can I do another 1700 words this week? I sure hope so.


Have a great weekend everyone!!! 

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Express Yourself #3: Post a picture of your work area.

Express Yourself is a weekly meme hosted by Jackie at Bouquet of Books and Dani at Entertaining Interests. The purpose of it is to get us to talking about the things that inspire us to write and inspire us in general in life. Check it out!

This week's question: 

 

Post a picture of your work area; cubicle, writing area, etc. Then explain what it is you do.

Okay, I'm a writer, an aspiring author. I write in a moon chair on a laptop in the middle of a gloriously messy room. As you can see, I have piles of everything everywhere. That is a Castle DVD on top of my Nook and my poetry notebook. in front of the laptop on a box is a pile of a couple notebooks, one is my If Only We notebook for ideas and mapping out chapters, one is my poetry brainstorm book, and there are TWO thesauruses. I am always in need of finding the right word.

And this is me, sitting in my moon chair recently. Yes, I am listening to music. It was most likely Three Days Grace that day.

How about you? I'd love to know!

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Friday's Letters #5

Friday's Letters comes from Ashley at Adventures of Newlyweds.


Dear Three Days Grace, We had a good run the last couple weeks and I've memorized the whole album but it's time for me to listen to something new. I'll come back to you though, I promise.

Dear overtime on Wednesday, I'm not a fan. Especially when I'm already exhausted from working the night shift the day before. I came home and collapsed on the floor. Then proceeded to laugh at things that weren't really that funny. As amusing as that part is to look back on, I don't think I'll be willing to take you on again anytime soon. So, please don't come up again? Okay, thanks!

Dear books, There are too many of you to read, and I don't have the time like I used to. Slowly but surely, I'm plugging away at the to be read pile. I wish I wasn't an adult sometimes. Then I could read like I did when I didn't have all these responsibilities.

Dear blog post ideas in my head, You need to be typed up. Like now. Because I'm going to forget what I want to say.

Dear Steph, I am so excited to come out and see you and Brennen Saturday. I shall be coming bearing gifts AND Black Sheep on DVD for us to watch. Nothing could be better than seeing my schoolgirl crush looking adorable as ever... and chuckle silently over how weird everyone in school thought I was to have a crush on David Spade at 12 years old. You were the only one who understood.

Dear new followers, Thank you so much for following my blog! There's not much to write home about yet, but I am glad to have you along for the journey. I am working on making this a fun place to stop by, not only for writing related things (like those blog post ideas in my head from above and a weekly writing update), but also other cool and amusing stuff. Like my conversation post from last night with Rebecca.


Have a great weekend everyone!!! 

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Inventing more weekends and changing the world

Instant message conversation between myself and my best friend Rebecca tonight...


Rebecca: What time you working tomorrow?

Jessica: 11:30-5:30 or maybe 6:00 depending on how busy it is. How about you?

Rebecca: 7:30-2. Then weekend.

Jessica: Oh joy! Yay weekend! I can't wait for the weekend.

Rebecca: Me neither, weekends are amazing. We need more of them.

Jessica: Amen to that!!!

Rebecca: We could go somewhere with this idea....

Jessica: Invent more weekends?!

Rebecca: Totally! People would love us!

Jessica: They so would!

Rebecca: We may get a high school named after us! Personally I would prefer a cafe but whatever.

Jessica: Yeah, a cafe would be better. Or a candy store.

Rebecca: We could get a cafe AND a candy store, they could be next door.

Jessica: Yes! Next to our two bedroom/two walk-in-closets-that-are-really-bedrooms house.

Rebecca: Yes! I'm liking this a lot.

Jessica: Me too. We need to cancel everything we have planned for the next month and get this started.

Rebecca: Yeah.... how about the month after? We got that shopping trip.

Jessica: True. Scratch that. Maybe we can get it done before the new year. Then 2013 can be known as "The year Jessica and Rebecca changed the world as we know it" and they would have a parade every weekend.

Rebecca: That would rock! Can we have a giant panda bear balloon at the parade?

Jessica: Of course! They would give us anything we wanted. ANYTHING. Because they will love us that much.

Rebecca: Awesome! We could even get a giant lemur balloon.

Jessica: Lemur balloon? I want a lemur!

Rebecca: Maybe they'll get you a real lemur?

Jessica: They better. I gave them more weekends for crying out loud.

Rebecca: True dat!


The things we come up with sometimes...

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Express Yourself #2: What would your playlist sound like?

Express Yourself is a weekly meme hosted by Jackie at Bouquet of Books and Dani at Entertaining Interests. The purpose of it is to get us to talking about the things that inspire us to write and inspire us in general in life. Check it out!

This week's question: 

 

  What would your playlist sound like?

~Writer: WIP or MS Playlist~

For If Only We, here's a sampling of some songs I've played while writing and revising. I don't necessarily have an official playlist laid out for this novel. It kind of just comes and goes depending on the scene. I really do need to narrow it down to the ones that really inspire the novel.

1. "This Time (Klaas Remix)" by DJ Antoine
2. "Dreaming Wide Awake" by Poets of the Fall
3. "Broken Hearts Club" by Silent Drive
4. "Stolen" by Dashboard Confessional
5. "Back In Time" by Huey Lewis and the News
6. "What Happened To Us" by Hoobastank
7. "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye
8. "Denial Waits" by Ashes Divide
9. "Love Song" by 311
10. "99" by Toto
11. "Product Of My Own Design" by Trapt
12. "Amazing" by One EskimO

How about you? I'd love to know!

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Friday's Letters #4

Friday's Letters comes from Ashley at Adventures of Newlyweds.


Dear friends participating in NaNoWriMo, You can do it! I know you can! Keep those words coming. You'll reach the 50,000 before you know it.

Dear poetry, Holy crap, I didn't realize how many unfinished poems I had started in my brainstorming notebook! I now have, I believe 6 new poems written this week alone thanks to that.

Dear new story idea, I really do love you. But, could you please stop inspiring me just for a wee bit longer? I need to finish just one story, just ONE, and then I can sit down and outline you. Oh heck. I may outline you anyway. You're just that awesome.

Dear new winter coat, You are coming in handy, and just in time too. My brother told me that you look like a coat Kate Beckett wears. Talk about a bonus in awesomeness. Maybe I shall get myself a Richard Castle as well, hmm?

Dear me, You shouldn't have stayed up until one in the morning four nights in a row this week. You may not need to get up as early as you used to, but you still need to be able to function.

Dear Julianna at Dreamless Designs, Thank you so much for designing my book blog! It looks absolutely amazing. I adore it so much. <3


Have a great weekend everyone!!! 

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Friday's Letters #3

Friday's Letters comes from Ashley at Adventures of Newlyweds.


Dear Weekend, Finally! It is time to catch up on all this stuff that has been piling up for weeks on end without me even realizing it. Not only that, but Sunday will be an awesome day where I can hang out with my BFF and watch Mean Girls (which, she has NEVER seen... HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!) and catch her up more on Season 3 of Castle. Ah... good times...

Dear If Only We, You may get neglected this week so I am apologizing in advance. But never fear, I am not forgetting about you. I just need to take care of a few things, then you'll get my undivided attention the following week.

Dear Scarlet Read-Along, I can't wait to get you started. I'll be spending tonight and tomorrow getting all these posts set up. It's getting exciting. (PS: If you're interested in reading A.C. Gaughen's Scarlet, check out this post and sign up!)

Dear NaNoWriMo, Sorry I'm not participating this year but I want to thank you for last year. I'll never forget you or what you've done for my writing. If Only We also thanks you.

Dear Marie, You're just such an awesome person. I'm always wishing I could just hop in my car and drive to your house anytime I felt like it. Well, I could, but that would be quite the daily drive. ;) Talking to you and plotting out all these fun things is the best. I can't wait to read Scarlet with you. It's going to be so much fun!

Dear Rebecca, Thank you so much for being there in so many ways and showing me what true friendship is. It's strange how one can have a horrible day then discover the things their friend is willing to do to help and suddenly everything feels right with the world. I'll never forget it.


Have a great weekend everyone!!! 

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Friday's Letters #2

Friday's Letters comes from Ashley at Adventures of Newlyweds.


Dear work week, It was nice to have Thursday off instead of working 5 days straight. I was able to get caught up on things, which is ALWAYS a good thing.

Dear me, You need to stop talking to yourself all the time when you're alone. It is funny though.

Dear headache, It's time for you to go away. It has been a long day at work and I want to relax.

Dear Conan O'Brien, You never cease in making me laugh out loud. Thank you for posting your monologues on YouTube. I could sit around all day watching them. And sometimes I do.

Dear autumn, I love you. When I realized I had to work on Wednesday, the most gorgeous fall day I've ever seen in a long time, I was sad. It won't be long until your beauty is over, so I am determined to savor every minute I can when I step outside to see you.


Have a great weekend everyone!!! 

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Express Yourself #1: What language would you like to speak and why?

Express Yourself is a weekly meme hosted by Jackie at Bouquet of Books and Dani at Entertaining Interests. The purpose of it is to get us to talking about the things that inspire us to write and inspire us in general in life. Check it out!

This week's question: 

 

What language would you like to speak and why?

There are several, but I still fall back on the following two: French and American Sign Language.

When it comes to French, I've always been drawn to that language. It's so romantic. I tried to learn some of it myself when I started to homeschool but all I really did was learn a bunch of words and how to pronounce based on placement of letters and accents. So, if you would hand me a sentence in French, I may be able to pronounce it correctly, but I would have no idea what I'm saying. Lol.

With ASL, a friend of mine taught a class years ago that I took for about a year. I found the language (and the culture) amazing and fascinating. I loved learning it. There's something about it that just makes me feel so great. I didn't get to continue learning it but I've been wanting to pick it up again and maybe someday actually take courses at a college and become fluent.

How about you? I'd love to know!

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Friday's Letters #1

Friday's Letters comes from Ashley at Adventures of Newlyweds.

Dear new job, I seriously love you, even when it's busy and I'm running around the pharmacy like crazy, because you are awesomer than my old job. I actually don't mind going to work anymore!

Dear book blog, I promise I will get back on track soon. I'm working on some reviews and articles. I will have them all written and scheduled by the end of the weekend.

Dear If Only We, I want to finish writing you so badly, I get the urge to just start running around the house in frustration. The current chapter I am on needs to just be done because I want to start on the next one before the words stop piling up in my brain.

Dear dreams, I am begging you, please, keep being amazing. You have given me the chance to be around Nathan Fillion two times, and Ed Westwick once, not to mention another cute guy. Oh, and thanks for the story ideas.

Dear weekend, I am so glad you are finally here for two reasons: #1, I'm tired and I need to catch up on things and relax; #2, Sunday is my favorite day of the year--Apple Butter Fest! I get to see a bunch of people I hardly ever see and walk by the river and the canal. It's going to be legendary!

Dear weather, Could you warm up just a little bit? My nose and fingers would thank you.

Dear Marie, Thank you for joining my giveaway hop! Even though it's going to just be the two of us on Monday, I still think it will be great. XOXO!


Have a great weekend everyone!!! 

♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥

Welcome to my official writer (soon-to-be author) blog!

Hello everybody!

You may know me as the Jessica from the book review blog Thoughts At One In The Morning. I have posted off and on about my writing endeavors on there--updates on word counts, epiphanies on scene structure, etc. Although I plan on continuing to post little tidbits on there, I wanted to make things more official. So I decided to get to work on an author blog.

Of course, I am not an author yet, but it is my goal. I am working diligently to finish my first novel, If Only We. I first started writing it during NaNoWriMo 2011. That first 50,000 word draft is making its way through revisions. While I got a lot of the story started there, it has evolved into something much better than I intended. I've developed better characters over the last 9 months and certain scenes have come to me since then that have filled in pieces I didn't know I was missing. It's been quite an amazing journey, and one I never imagined I'd ever follow through on. So I am thrilled to be on it!

This blog probably won't take off completely until the time comes for beta readers and blog tours. In the meantime, I'll try to post once in awhile with any updates and new items to share.

I thank you all for your support and for following this blog to keep up with my writing!


♥ Jessica Sankiewicz ♥