Creating Sparks That Last & All Things Relationships

Grab it With Arms Open Wide When life propels you forwards, be sure to grab it with arms open wide. I could never have imagined the life that my novella, Love & Laughter, has taken on all of its own accord. The secret to the novella's success? Community. Creating genuine connections and friendships is the answer to lasting support from your circle of influence. But this will never happen with fake and shallow engagement. To feel part of a warm environment of belonging, we have to encourage each other wholeheartedly. Okay, let me explain. My life cycle on Instagram began as a nonfiction writer-turned-self-published author with the advent of a close-knit network called, Nonfiction Network. In that tight circle of support, we shared each others' work on a weekly basis, then bi-monthly, and now monthly. You can check out our community at this hashtag: #nonfictionnetwork What has this got to do with my novella, you might ask. It is that same community of nonfiction writers and a...

  Welcome to our first blog post for 2025 Cover design by  @ambergrosjeanwrites January is a very busy month in our family with four birthdays thrown into the mix of Christmas and New Year. It makes for a very festive holiday season and is wonderful to catch up with everyone.  I hope you have had an amazing start to 2025. It's been a big one for many people already, so I do hope you are keeping well. Book News: In exactly two months' time on 13 March 2025, I will be releasing my next book! It's been a whirlwind time getting everything ready over the holiday season - note to self: never a March release again. I'm releasing a romcom novella called Love & Laughter (and other disasters). It is 32000 words in length and provides a fast-paced introduction to the characters in short story style. Love & Laughter follows a group of midlife yogis in the village of Pelican Cove. As they develop feelings for each other, some couples go from friends to lovers, while others a...

And How to Escape Them Here are my Top 3 Tips for escaping Silly Season Antics: 1. Deep BELLY breathing Main takeaway: JUST BREATHE 2. Solitude  Main Takeaway: Find solitude, even if it’s in the LOO 3. Journaling - But it must be handwritten. Here’s the correlation between handwriting and your wellbeing: Benefits of Handwriting  - Psychology Today It can be as simple as: All is well today. If you have time for more, all the better. Main Takeaway: Journal just a FEW WORDS   If you can’t manage all 3 tips, just one of them will help.   BONUS TIP: Something we can all do. Set a reminder on your phone to take a moment. Just a moment to reflect. Here’s mine: I’ve set my reminder for 15.00 daily (I know, the list calls itself Morning Intention), for the ENTIRE month of December. I’ve sent myself some pink love hearts to remind me to take a moment to reflect. And that, my friends, is how you escape Silly Season Antics. Please share these tips with your friends. We could al...

New Books and Free Books for You Hello Readers, we could all do with some good news right? I'll get straight to it. I released a new book last week and have so far given it a 'soft' launch. The reason for this, is that I met with an obstacle in the printing process and have tried to figure out how to change things. Long story short, I can't. Change things, that is. At least not in this instance because it involves Amazon and I simply don't have that kind of power...yet! Here's the issue. Amazon Australia cannot print internal pages in colour, and that is where my book is printed from. However, I can print a colour version in most other countries where Amazon delivers. The biggest hurdle was having to make it a hardcover book because paperback format kept replacing the black and white version already available. As you know, hardcover books are expensive. Although the book in question will make a lovely gift for someone special in your life. What is it you ask? We...

The Couples Adventure Guide This super fun book disrupts the dating scene in that you get to measure the success of each date as you go.  Plus, there is a section to include a photograph, movie ticket, receipt or other paste-ons in the book.  What I Loved About the Book: The author, Jennifer Ocean, offers straightforward dating ideas; no wading through reams of pages desperately searching for 'the one.'  Simple, achievable date ideas.   Not only that, the dates are divided into three segments:  at home,  outdoors,  places to go   You get to choose. What I Didn't Love About the Book: This is subjective, I'll admit, but I felt the dating suggestions were primarily aimed at younger adults.  🏎️🏎️ For example, I wouldn't go go-karting on a date, however, in my thirties I did go on an Advanced Driving Course date, so there's that. Why I Would Recommend this Book: Each segment is guided by cost, with plenty of free, affordable, or extravagan...

The How and The Why of Letting Go You've heard it before, but today, I'm giving you the HOW and the WHY of letting go. September brought about massive growth for me in both my business and personal capacity. This spilled over into the first week of October where growth became epiphany.  And that, I just had to share with you. I'll start with the easier business achievements to record and move on to the more complex areas of personal growth after. Every year I choose a word to embrace for the season of my  CURRENT journey I'm experiencing, in order to expand on that in the best way for me, in the coming months. This year my word was COMFORTABLE and it has served my expansion so very well. BUSINESS GROWTH As a recovering people-pleaser, I finally had to embrace the notion that I simply could not please everyone, in other words, I had to grow into the idea of being COMFORTABLE being disliked. To start this rollercoaster off, I enthusiastically sent many of my manuscripts ...

Broken: An Autobiography by A.R. Grosjean Last month we introduced author, A.R. Grosjean, a fiction writer who has turned her hand to nonfiction in her reveal-all autobiography,  Broken .  🎉 Today is release day for her enigmatic story 🎉  Let’s hear from Amber as she answers our questions below:   BROKEN: An Autobiography by A.R. Grosjean Tap the link for buy options I have posed four questions for A.R. Grosjean which she has answered in her signature refreshingly honest style of writing.  Author Questions 1. How did you manage your mental health while writing this emotive story? I was told that telling my story would help me heal. I’ve been in therapy off and on my entire life and it did help sometimes to talk through things. As I told my story, I kept telling myself that it was going to help me get through the pain from my past. I do feel a little more relieved getting things off my chest. I can say the name the kids called me without crying, which kind o...