On the Road with The Men (Fred & Hugh).The Music.The Show

Hola! Jolene Navarro checking in from all over Texas.

On The Road Again. Traveling Texas

June has been a wild ride. (1687 miles to be exact)
On The Road Again has been playing in my head.

Tea at Boas & Tiaras 

Tiara's should be standard Sasha Summers,
Candace Havens & Jolene Navarro Fresh Fiction

It started with tea at Fresh Fiction's Boas & Tiara event with the amazing Candace Havens and Sasha Summers.
I now have a box of tiaras in my car for emergencies.




http://freshfiction.com/



Then on to Canyon, Texas to have the best week of a writer's life....summer camp with other writers at West Texas Writer's Academy with Jodie Thomas. Last year my current release, The Texan's Secret Daughter was brainstormed with these great ladies in my class.

Every writer needs a tribe. 

The ladies reading The Texan's Secret Daughter
they helped plot.

http://www.wtamu.edu/academics/eod-writing-academy.aspx

Fred & I celebrating 30 years of marriage

Then on to Houston to celebrate 30 years of marriage.

1987 in Houston, Fred Navarro asked him to marry him. I was 19. Then June 17, 1989 at 21 years-old I pledged my life to him and he to me. It was the best discussion I ever made in my life. It has been 30 years of an amazing journey full of bumps and growth (and four great kids).


Fred has always encouraged me to pursue my dreams even when they seemed way beyond my reach. This ranch boy from the Texas Hill Country even moved to Houston so I could finish school. To say it was out of his comfort zone would be an understatement.


I'm not one to get caught up in celebrities, but there is one that for some reason I have developed an weird and strange connection too....Hugh Jackman. Maybe not so weird...but intense. lol

The Man. The Music. The Show. Hugh Jackman

When he announced his first live show, The Man. The Music. The Show. would open in Houston June, 18 my husband bought front row tickets for my birthday. See how amazing Fred is?

So thirty years later we headed back to Houston to watch Hugh sing and dance. It was amazing. First his wife and children came out and walked right in front of us. I adore her and the way they support each other.
He is so much more than a movie star. He gave everything to each dance and song. He told us stories of his childhood and being called a sissy by his older brothers and almost being fired from X-Men. He was open and authentic in a way that went above my expectations. 

If you saw The Greatest Showman, then you would recognize the captain of Hugh's dance crew. So much energy was in every move they choreographed. They were amazing. They sang, danced and included sigh language in one of the contemporary numbers.

The Man. The Music. The Show. Hugh Jackman

He went on to add songs from Beauty and the Beast (Hugh played Gaston on stage). He played a little piano and sang songs from and The Boy From Oz.

The Man. The Music. The Show. Hugh Jackman

It's the musical about Peter Allen. An Australian singer/song writer that wrote Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do), Don't Cry Out Loud, I Go to Rio and I Honestly Love You.

This is the role that won Hugh his Tony. 

One of my husbands favorites is I Honestly Love You because it was sung by his first crush Olivia Newton-John. Something he has in common with Hugh. LOL

The Man. The Music. The Show. Hugh Jackman

When Hugh was talking about his Olivia poster in his bedroom my friend, Sonomi Kennedy, yelled that she had a poster of him in her room ...that got his attention and he chuckled and when she raised her hands he came to the edge of the stage and shook it.

The Man. The Music. The Show.
Hugh Jackman shaking Sonomi Kennedy's hand. 

He did a great job of interacting with the audience. You could tell he loves preforming live.

The Man. The Music. The Show. Hugh Jackman

The Man. The Music. The Show. Hugh Jackman

The Man. The Music. The Show. Hugh Jackman

The performance of One More Day from Les Miserables was breathtaking.



He did a full set in honor of his wife and family then left the stage to hug her.
It went from big performances to small quiet moments sprinkled with stories.



He did a tribute to 42nd Street with a full tap routine then went crazy with drums to AC/DC and Van Halen...It was AWESOME.



https://www.hughjackmantheshow.com/

He has added San Antonio to his tour and it so happens that Fred and I had our first date in October 1986 so we are going again. If you get a chance you should see the show. The performance is so big that just about any seat will be good.


How is your summer going? Is there a celebrities you would want to meet? Have you been to or plan to go to The Man. The Music. The Show. Hugh Jackman?

Writer's Block and Other Stuff - Jolene Navarro

Jolene Navarro here. Checking in from the Texas Hill Country. School is out and I don't have a schedule. LOL. The calendar has no meaning to me. For these two months, I get to be a full-time writer and get lost in my stories for hours at a time.

The other day I hosted a workshop at my local library. A question comes up that I hear often. What happens when you get writer’s block? When it became difficult the brain will look for things to do that take less energy.

One of the best teachers I’ve ever had in my writing career was the fabulous Alexandra Sokoloff. Her advice was to make a list. List work great.

Jolene Navarro, Jodi Thomas, Alexandra Sokoloff, Sasha Summers

If I get stuck I make a list of the things that could happen next – at least twenty. I know the first few are obvious, the next might be a little too crazy but by the time I get to the last five I usually have something new and fun to work with.

Alex also breaks down story structure in movies.  When I was writing a Texas Historical (Lone Star Bride) where a girl disguises herself as a boy to go on a cattle drive I studied Tootsie. What happens at the turning points and how they were handled. On the surface, my Texas cattle drive and Dustin Hoffman’s Tootsie doesn’t have much in common. But they do share a common problem. The main character is in disguises in order to get a job they want. I think it’s better if the genres don’t even match.

She also suggests having a question about your story and think about it before you go to sleep. Your brain loves working on problems while you are checked out. There are those wonderful mornings I’ll wake up and want to get back to the story right away.

In my upcoming story, Lone Star Christmas I was struggling with the heroine's guilt. I knew what it was but had to find a way to show it without hitting the reader over the head. My couple knew each other as teenagers and wasn't sure where they met was working. Some discussion and options and it all fell into place. It's like the sun popped out from grey skies after weeks of darkness. The choir sings and your story clicks. 

My favorite was of getting back into my story in meeting with other writing friends. We can talk over the phone, meet for a meal, meet at a library or bookstore. The best is when we get to go on a weekend write-in (or lock-down). Brainstorming and talking through the problem with other writer’s is the best. This will always get my writing moving forward again.

West Texas Writers' Academy 2018

The first week of this month I was in Canyon Texas at the West Texas Writers' Academy. A full week of brainstorming and writing. Best vacation ever.

If you want to learn more for Alexandra Sokoloff she shares some great advice on her page

http://www.alexandrasokoloff.com/for-writers.php

What do you do when you get distracted from your goal? Do you have tricks to keep you focused?

https://www.amazon.com/Jolene-Navarro/e/B00CGBRMCA/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1