My Favorite Thing About Spring!

Judith is the author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual practices that nourish the soul and celebrates the journey from relationship to romance.

You may not have noticed but I choose a theme for my monthly blog posts. Last month I posted on the change in seasons or the turning of the wheel of the year to spring. This month I’m sharing a few of my favorite things.

One of the joys in my life is watching the change in the seasons from my office window. Even though my yard is mainly low maintenance, I do get my share of birds including hummingbirds when my Armistad salvia, geraniums and fuchsia are in bloom.

Note gnarly, rough textures.

Starting to needle out - so soft!

Currently I’m engaged in watching my dwarf Diana larch come back. Larch are needled but they drop their needles in the fall. Winter finds their gnarly branches framed against the snowy landscape or the grey sky. This time of year, the needles grow back. As far as I know it is the only needled tree that is not an ‘evergreen’. This winter I lost a couple of branches so my original plan to “raise” the tree (prune the lower branches) has been postponed.

The honeysuckle that I planted over forty years ago is still going strong. It does need to be heavily pruned back (missed my chance during the winter because of the snows, etc.) because it is going to grow into the siding on the house. Not a good thing.

Along my driveway I have a planting bed with one of my favorite flowers—clematis. This year the two plants are thriving even with the harsh winter! New growth appears to be leaping into the world—an inch or two or more each day.

Oh, and I didn’t mention my Daphne. The short trip to my front door is wrapped in the fragrance of Daphne Odora.

There is much more I could include. Violets, hyacinths in the spring, fuchsia, geraniums in the summer and salvia in the fall. Seeing the seasons change through the flowers in my yard, the birds (robins are already here as are the scrub jays) and other critters. Sighted a raccoon yesterday morning. (It is mating season for them so they are out and about day or night and more aggressive than usual). My yard is regularly visited by flickers, woodpeckers and hummingbirds. And the occasional peregrine falcon or bald eagle can be sighted floating overhead looking for a tasty unsuspecting treat.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe I live in the middle of the city! Oh, and coyotes are sighted every now and then. Not sure we’ll see them so often if the chickens across the street are moved.

Sophia reflects my love of the land, the tracking of the seasons through my yard.

And you can still get a FREE copy of Lily if you sign up for Connections, my newsletter.

What is your favorite thing about Spring?

Learn more about The Sacred Women’s Circle series on her website.

Follow Judith on Twitter: @JudithAshley19

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB!

© 2017 Judith Ashley

My New Life - Publishing Stories

Judith Ashley is the author of The Sacred Women's Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual traditions that nurture the soul.

I’ve been writing about my birthday month and my new life and about changing my image. Below you will find a third photo of me in a different pose.

You may notice that my 11/14 post did not show up on 11/14 but not until 11/18. It was on my ‘to do’ list last Sunday to decide which of the head shots I’d add to that post before publishing—

And then I remembered that I’d submitted both Gabriella and Sophia to Windtree Press and my RWA chapter's Newsletters as New Releases! And they weren’t yet released!!!

Sunday through Wednesday I worked hard to get them finished and published. Gabriella was really ready to go except for uploading to Jutoh and compiling for the versions for Amazon and everyone else. Oops! Jutoh had been upgraded since I last used it to publish Hunter last year. I remember reading the notice when I first logged in but then something happened. My frantic brain didn’t register the information. Thirty minutes later as I struggled to do what had always been simple before, it did register. Duh!

As soon as I processed that there was a new version, and took the time to see what was new, everything went smoothly. I can attest to the reality that the new version is even easier to use than the previous one.

Now on to Sophia. I had feedback from my editor, Kelly Lynne Schaub, on one scene. I even emailed her for clarification. Another sigh (actually several of them). I really liked that scene! So, I called and talked to Sarah Raplee and emailed my #ftb group (FinishTheBook). More sighs…they all agreed with Kelly. So, back to the drawing board. I wrote a new scene, Sarah made it better and Kelly said it was what she was talking about.

On to Jutoh with Sophia.

Oops! Links!!! Yep, newsletters like to put links to your books in the announcements. Another scramble because I’m using Universal Book links now. When you go to my website and then click on books as you scroll down the list you’ll see “Buy Links”. When you click on one, it will give you a list of e-retailers where my books are available. Pick one. Click and you are at the e-retailer and can purchase the book. The Universal Link program keeps track and when you click on another book, it will take you immediately to that e-retailer. Pretty cool!

My new life this week has been consumed with publishing tasks. I’m grateful they got done!!!

Here’s my latest professional headshot. What do you think?

Check back next week and vote for your favorite.

You can learn more about The Sacred Women’s Circle series on my website.

Check out my Windtree Press author page.

Follow me on Twitter: @JudithAshley19

I’m also on Facebook

Cover Reveal!!!

Cover Reveal!!!

Judith Ashley is the author of The Sacred Women's Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual traditions that nurture the soul.

Finally the covers for all seven books in The Sacred Women's Circle are complete - thanks to the creativity of Christy Caughie's Gilded Heart Design.

Sophia is the story I'm writing as I schedule this post. I know Sophia because she has been in every book since Lily. She sent out the flyer that brought this group of women together. From diverse backgrounds, they found a way to create a spiritual practice that nurtures their individual souls.

An underlying theme in many of the books is food. Jackson, the hero in Lily, makes a killer spaghetti sauce and home made ice cream and toppings. Grant, the hero in Hunter (book five) enters into a contest with Jackson to determine who makes the best ice cream. Giovanni, the hero in Gabriella, first appears in Lily. He shows up in the other books in competition with Jackson. An Italian by birth and still living in Italy, Giovanni whips up his own version of spaghetti sauce, fresh pasta, homemade bread.

However, the most consistent cook is Sophia. She is known for her decadent peanut butter and chocolate cookies, brownies, pecan sticky buns, cinnamon rolls and a chocolate cake that is to die for. The aroma of fresh baked bread, homemade soups and stews permeate the air and delight the taste buds of everyone who enters her house.

In addition to her cooking, Sophia has a garden. Her over-sized lot is eighty percent garden and more than half of the space is dedicated to fruits and vegetables. One of the blessings of her prolific garden is she shares. Throughout the year, she gifts not only the members of The Circle with flowers and produce but others as well.

Working in her garden, Sophia sees the Wheel of Life turn. Seeing the new sprouts, the new buds, the new signs of life coming back each year feeds her on every level. I'm eager to see how she deals with the hero, a jaded, cynical cop who has lost the ability to see the good in the world around him.

You can learn more about The Sacred Women’s Circle series on my website.

Check out my Windtree Press author page.

Follow me on Twitter: @JudithAshley19

I’m also on Facebook

© 2016 Judith Ashley

Inspirational Images

Judith Ashley is the author of The Sacred Women's Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual traditions that nurture the soul.

I’m what’s known as an organic writer. I have a general idea of the story and some scenes are clear to me. What I know is if I start writing, the story will appear on the page. I have written six full length novels, over 600K words total and five short stories, over 50K words total for a grand total of over 650K words that way.

However, when it comes to writing blog posts, my process is somewhat different. I don’t turn into a plotter with outlines, charts, and character studies but I do have more than a general idea of what I want to talk about.

For example: I did a series on Relationships and another on Making Your World A Better Place. Most recently I wrote four posts on Peace. You can read these posts by scrolling down or using the Archive feature on the right. 

This month I’ve started talking about aspects of being a writer. At Romancing The Genres, I’ve a post on my book covers.

I’ve a post here also about the covers.

Today I’m showing you inspirational photographs. These pictures help me stay connected to the spiritual thread that runs through all my writing.

Originally I thought the apples would be on the cover of Sophia but after seeing a draft I knew they didn’t work. You’ll see the final Sophia cover in a couple of weeks!

The spruce cone is from a tree in the yard of my long-time friend, Judith, who lives in Ohio. When I visited her in 2015, I had finished Hunter. Since sacred geometry plays a role in Gabriella it was important to me to have a visual that spoke to me. As soon as I saw the cone, I knew I had to bring it home with me.

Although the bird on Sophia’s cover is a blue bird, Gabriella’s power animal or totem animal is the blue jay. The characteristics of these birds are not similar at all. If you are interested in the energetic differences there are books you can read or you can observe them on your own and see what messages come to you. Also, I’ll share my perspective another day.

I’ll share a funny story about blue jays on Wednesday that will give you a clue as to their personality.

 

You can learn more about The Sacred Women’s Circle series on my website.

Check out my Windtree Press author page.

Follow me on Twitter: @JudithAshley19

I’m also on Facebook

© 2016 Judith Ashley