Scathingly Brilliant Idea or Busy Work?

I'm toying with a new thought for organizing my writing.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you know that I print out monthly calendars and mark which day each chapter takes place on as I write. This keeps my timeline intact and accurate. It also saves me some huge headaches.

Huge!

I recently wrote a side project where I thought I had the timeline lodged in my head only to discover when I went to mark up the calendar that I royally messed up. It took quite a bit of work to fix it.

I'd like to think I learned my lesson, but I'm sure this will be temporary because I've learned this lesson multiple times before. :-)

But to get to my scathingly brilliant idea, I started to think what if I printed out my calendars on sticker paper and put them into a hardbound notebook? I have a bunch of B5 sized notebooks and this way I wouldn't have lose copy paper pages with calendars on them floating around my office, waiting for me to misplace them. Much harder to lose an entire bound book.

Although, with my ADHD, anything can get lost. Still, I think it would be easier to keep track of an entire book, especially if I put it on the shelf above my desk.

This would only be for completed books. Like I'd have the first eight books of the Paladin League series in there, but not book nine. Book nine, Wicked Attraction, would still be recorded on a paper calendar and only added to the book once it was finished and I knew things weren't going to move around.

I've already worked out that I need to print the calendar PDF at 80% to fit it in the B5 notebook.

I'm tempted to do this, but then I started wondering if this is really something I should spend time on or not. I currently have all the Paladin League calendars in a binder and they're secure. I also know where the binder is.

Who am I kidding? I'll probably end up doing this. If it works? Scathingly brilliant idea. If it doesn't work? I wasted time. Gah! 

Juniper Update

I thought I'd do a quick update on the juniper project.

The new sprinkler head was installed in a timely manner. The other sprinkler heads were adjusted and the entire patch of new sod is being watered. Yea!

The place where it's bare dirt because they ran out of sod? It's still bare dirt and we are three weeks, going on four weeks, past when the original sod was installed. That means the bare dirt is no longer bare, but covered in weeds.

My one week delay in sod being laid? Ha!

I had stuff going on that prevented me from keeping on top of it, but I finally contacted them during week three without sod and they promised to come out in week four. I will update as to whether or not they actually show up.

On the plus side? I love the new sod! I love having those damn junipers gone, gone, gone! So much nicer looking than that damn mess I was dealing with previously.

The new gardenia bushes I had installed to replace some dead and dying bushes are also looking really good. This yard update was worth the cost. 

Wicked Tempation Is Out!

Wicked Temptation is officially released as of July 1!!!

This is Cal "Baggs" Baggnell and Iona Desmond's story. You met both of them in the last book when Io's identical twin sister came to Puerto Jardin to find her missing sister.

This is book 8 of the 10 book Paladin League series. I'm about to start writing book 9 for 2027 release.

Book Blurb: 

He’s always been a protector. She’s strong enough to fight on her own. This time, survival depends on each other.

Special Forces Sgt. Cal “Baggs” Baggnell walked away from Iona Desmond. Carving out his own heart hurt—but watching the woman he loves charge headfirst into danger hurt even more.

Iona loves Cal with her whole being, but she couldn’t change the core of who she is to fit his protective nature. He knew exactly who she was when they met—the need for adventure is in her DNA.

Now, their paths collide in Puerto Jardin, where Iona has talked her way into Cal’s op. And he’s been assigned to work with her.

Their bait: the Lost Treasure of Trujillo. Their target: arms dealer Jorge Torres. Their problem: Torres isn’t the only predator closing in.

With ruthless drug lords, rival treasure hunters, and a powerful Russian mob lieutenant obsessed with finding the billion-dollar fortune, Cal and Iona must put their past aside. The deeper they dig, the deadlier the game becomes.

As betrayals mount and enemies tighten their grip, survival depends on one thing: Trust. If they fail, they won’t just lose their second chance—they’ll lose everything.

 

Wicked Temptation is a stand-alone romance with a HEA. There are references to events that happened in earlier books, but it's not necessary to read them to enjoy this story.

Indulge in a protective Special Forces hero and a heroine who works undercover for the Paladin League as a photojournalist. This story features a second-chance romance, identical twins, and a kick-butt heroine.

2027 Writing Planner

I know it's not even close to 2027 yet, but planner season is starting! Some brands already have their pre-orders up or will have them up shortly and that means decisions must be made.

For 2026, I have two different writer planners going. One is a pocket-sized horizontal and the other is a 7X9 dashboard planner.

I knew I didn't want another dashboard planner because the full week is on one page and instead of going down the left column and then down the right column (which makes total sense to my brain!), this planner goes left, right, left, right, left, right.

While I love stickers, I'm less of a fan of being forced to buy them to correct a layout issue that makes me insane.

The second option I'm using was more tempting for 2027. The small size is nice and it's portable so I can slide it in a pocket if I want or put it in my purse, although I don't generally take my writing planner out of the house.

I also considered a daily duo, which is a planner that has a horizontal and vertical spread for each week of the year. I'm intrigued by that layout, but I'm not sure I need that much planner for what I keep track of.

And the final option on my possibilities list was a planner that has only the weekly pages and next to zero notes pages. It's called the Core planner. For 2026, it was vertical only and vertical is not a layout that my brain can use. I was hopeful, however, that this year it would come in a horizontal option, too.

So where did I end up?

This year, I also bought a monthly 7x9 planner. This is basically just a monthly calendar spread with blank notebook pages behind it. I actually had a plan for it this year, but I didn't write that plan down, and while I waited for a sale and waited for the planner to arrive, I forgot my plan. I still haven't remembered what I thought I was going to do.

My plan for 2027 is to re-date the 2026 monthly planner and create my own weeks pages on the blank notebook pages behind it. The calendar is a Sunday start which I would re-date anyway because I prefer a Monday start. The funny thing is that by changing to a Monday start, the dates all fall correctly for 2027 so all I need to do is re-label the days of the week.

It also gives me the flexibility to create a mini-bullet journal on the blank pages. I started with an elaborate setup for my current writing planner, but it included sections and information that I wasn't keeping up with and wasn't using. That means I only need to create something simple and I think this will be fun.

I hope. 

The Juniper Solution

Every spring I have a landscaping company come out and freshen up my yard. New pine straw, new mulch, some clean up. This year, though, I had a project.

The side of my yard next to the driveway is juniper bushes. This swath of the stuff continues into the backyard, too.

I hate the things.

They end up full of weeds, which can't be sprayed by the company that comes to treat the lawn. That means I have to deal with that. Since there's no chance I'm climbing into the junipers, this means using a hedge clipper to cut the weeds down and walking into my neighbor's yard to reach the top half.

The backyard patch? I can't get the backyard patch at all because the fence prevents me from getting to the back side and even with the tree clippers, I can't reach.

Last year, my neighbors who also had the junipers had theirs removed and replaced with sod and my eyes lit up. I decided then and there to do the same thing and started saving money for the project.

That's what I had done.

(You can see from this picture how ugly the junipers are and how difficult it is to deal with them.)

You know there's a story, right?

First, I had to get the estimate. If it was more than I had budgeted, I wouldn't be able to do it. This ended up being right in line. Yea!

Second, HOA approval is required to make any changes. Have I mentioned how much I hate having an HOA? I wish I had a neighborhood without one. This took three weeks. Sigh.

Third, now I have to wait for the landscaper to schedule me. This took another month. They come the week where it rained every day. That meant they took everything out on Monday, but didn't come back until Thursday to put down the sod. I sweated bullets about getting written up by the HOA for having exposed dirt. I'm still not 100% sure that I won't get a letter, but I'm hopeful.

Fourth, they didn't have enough sod to finish the job and will have to do the patch in the backyard later. Okay, as long as the HOA patrol doesn't see it, I don't care.

Fifth, the readjusted sprinkler is hitting the side of my neighbor's house. Not cool. Landscaper came out to readjust and said they'd have to add another sprinkler head. That's fine. I do not want my neighbors complaining about the sprinkler.

Nothing was quick. Nothing was easy. And as I write this, we're still not 100% complete.