Celebrating Family and the New Year with Sparklers and Music

Editing with my favorite view...Fred.

Hola! Jolene Navarro checking in form the Texas Hill Country. This is my writing view this weekend.

My life inspires my writing...I can imagine not writing about family and the crazy life that surrounds bigs families.

January has been a great start to a new year. I celebrated my birthday on the 2nd and it seems to be a gathering of friends one weekend after another.

For New Year's Eve, my kids started a tradition a few years back. We buy tons of finger foods (mostly tasty junk food) and tons of fireworks then build a bonfire.

Before we set off the fireworks they use the sparklers to write out the new year. This year might be the best yet.

It starts with a spark.

Happy 2019!

Then we headed downtown the theSan Antonio River Walk to celebrate my niece's 19th birthday. Eating at Casa Rio Mexican food and dancing to the mariachis!

Fred and London dancing to Mariachis at Casa Rio


If you going to have an awesome kick-off to the year you have to have at least one writer's retreat. So, on to Rio Bella Resort, I went with seven other writers and man did we write.
There was quiet time to focus and time to talk and enjoy the company of other writers.






This last week of January we were back at the Frio River, but this time with Fred's family. One of his older brothers (9 boys and 2 girls) was celebrating 50 years of marriage and of course, there was lots of food, music and fun.



Fred signing along.




All the Navarro siblings and their first sister-in-law.

7 of the 9 brothers.

So far my 2019 has been full of family, friends music food and lots of words on the page. Tomorrow I will turn in my 11th book to Love Inspired. It will be out in November. 

I have a cover and title for my  June release (10th book) that is starting a new series: The Cowboys of Diamondback Ranch. I hope readers love the De La Rosa family as much as I do. 

I have a story story in the works and an Anthology coming out in February with a group of San Antonio authors all about Fiesta! (and I've lost weight.) 

My words for 2019 was RENEW and RECLAIM.  I'm feeling good about these. lol

Wow! 2019 has already been packed with love and creativity.

Do you already have 2019 highlights or some in the works?

Do you have focus words for the new years? 

Oh, do you want to see my new cover that is coming out in June?

 The Texan's Secret Daughter.

Can this rancher make up for his past?A Cowboys of Diamondback Ranch romance.

Turning his life around was the hardest thing Elijah De La Rosa ever had to do—until his ex-wife, Jazmine Daniels, returns with their young daughter he didn’t know existed. Now this successful rancher will do anything to be a good father. But can he forgive himself for the past…and turn their second chance into a family for always?

https://www.amazon.com/Texans-Secret-Daughter

Ask Elnora--About Words??? Lenora Worth

Hello, beautiful friends. We've been talking about words. That makes sense, because we are writers. Writers love words. Elnora discovered words at a young age. I learned how to spell my name because my older sister kept drilling it into my head. Then I learned I could actually make up stories in my head and talk to people who weren't really there. I learned I had a vivid imagination that was filled with words. Then one of my older sisters (Glenda, who died in 1991 because of a drunk driver) took me to the library and got me a library card. I'll never forget the smell of the Carnegie Library. It smelled a bit old and musty but it also smelled pleasant and safe. It smelled like words--fresh and stuffy, new and old, tired and energized, happy and sad. The rows and rows of books looked like rows and rows of all things bright and exciting. I couldn't decide which books to pick first. I attended story hour each Saturday and we got to take home books and bring them back the next week. I couldn't believe I could actually take the books home and hold them and read them. It was such a gift. Somewhere in all of that excitement, I found a certain comfort in having books around me. Elnora learned so much from all those books--how to dream, how to express myself, how to dress, and how to act (or not act). I cried with "Charlotte's Web" and "Ol' Yellow" and "Sounder". I became an amateur detective with "The Hardy Boys" and "Nancy Drew". I went back in time with "Anne of Green Gables." And ... wonder of wonders ... I survived the war with Scarlett in "Gone With the Wind." So the word comfort always comes to mind when I think of books. I have books all over my office. On shelves, in cubbyholes and corners, stacked high against the wall. I have books on my nightstand and on the floor by my bed. Sometimes, I just hold a book and marvel that I actually know the writer. Then I giggle because I have books with my name on the cover. It's a delightful joy that never gets old. I have a closet full of clothes and shoes, and I enjoy shopping. But my books--those are my true treasures. Elnora learned as the youngest of seven, you are never really alone when you have a book in your hand. My word for this year is LOVE. But the one true word that makes me feel safe and happy and loved is ... comfort. Books bring me comfort. So that's the question. Why do we love books so much? Why do we love words so much? And aren't we blessed to be able to sit underneath a tree and read? Or sit by the fire and read? Or ride a bus and read? Or to hold a slim electronic contraption in our hands and hit buy and wait a few minutes and then, like magic, have a book right there in our hand? Words bring me comfort. How about you?

Sometimes words are hard to find--Lenora Worth

This is my fourth blog in the last two weeks. I'd like to post something pithy and profound but all I can think about today is the horrible tragedy in Arizona. A Congress woman has been shot and six others have died. When such events happen, it tends to paralyze us. The news is constant and always updating. If we sit and watch, we have to relive this tragedy over and over. I can't imagine how the family members must feel.

But in times such as this, writers need to remember that our words can help people escape for a little while. Sometimes, we might think what we do is frivilous but our stories have a place, even in times of national tragedy. We saw this with the horrors of 9/11. I remember a lot of us in the tight-knit writing community found it hard to get back to our stories. What was the point?

The point of course is that we have to keep moving. We have to continue with our work, great or small. Because if we give into the pain, then the bad guys win. We can't let them win. Our job is to give our readers a means to get away from all the ugliest in the world for just a little while. Right now, words are hard to find. How can we express our pain, our sympathy and our sadness. It's not easy. But we all get those letters that tell us what we do matters. Our readers depend on us to deliver our stories. And that has to be the focus during these times of sadness and disbelief. My heart goes out to all those who lost loved ones in this tragedy. And we will not forget. As much as we believe in happy endings, we know that is not alway the case in real life. And yet, we will not give up hope. Ever.

The Perfect Shell

My daughter’s favorite activity during our recent vacation was collecting seashells along the shore. A true beachcomber like her mom, she was up at the crack of dawn because that’s when the best shells are available. Also like her mom, she also doesn’t realize that vacations are meant for sleeping in, hanging out by the sea or pool and not doing much of anything.

Another perfect morning dawned as the tide ebbed in and the sun’s rays stretched across horizon, staining the sky a bright blue. We had the beach pretty much to ourselves, except for the lone jogger playing tag with the sea. Strolling through the rocks and sand, we found all kinds of fascinating shells. Some whole, most not because of years of the pounding surf. Some still had creatures inside that we had to take back and toss into the sea when they stuck their black legs out and took a stroll along our condo balcony. My personal favorites were the corkscrew shells, but most of them were still occupied and had to be left behind. My daughter’s favorite was pretty much all of them.

“Look, Mommy. I found one.” My daughter holds up half a clamshell covered with some sort of black growth.

“No, Emily. That shell is broken. Let’s throw it back.”

“But I like it. I want to keep it.” Into the bucket it goes.

“Really, darling, we can’t keep all of them. See? It’s broken and not very pretty.” I pick up a shell, shake my head and for affect, look it over, show her the flaw and throw it back into the tide pool.

“Why not? We found them.”

Good point. Score one for the seven year old.

“Because its not perfect. We need to pick and chose the best ones.”

Good point, Score one for mom.

“I don’t care. I like them all.” She picks it back up and drops it into the bucket.

Okay, maybe I’ll find a use for it after all.

This conversation with my daughter got me to thinking about the perfect shell—and the perfect word. How many times have I struggled to find the right word? Said could be written as growled, or whispered, or muttered. It all depends on what feeling I’m trying to convey. I toss around a few more options and throw the ones back that don’t seem to fit, just like the shells that don’t fit my criteria for going into the bucket.

Picking the perfect word is as important as making sure I don’t find an unexpected guest on my patio later. I have to look inside and all around, hold the shell up to the light and run my fingers around the edges. In my manuscript I have to test out the word, and see how it flows in the context of the sentence. Does it convey what I really want to say? Is it pretty? Is it the perfect word to compliment my manuscript or the perfect shell to grace my bucket?

My daughter wants to be a writer when she grows up. I sincerely hope she figures out some day that there are differences in words and shells and that not all of them are as perfect as we sometimes think they are. Sometimes it might take a few tries to get it right, but in the end we will find the perfect word and the perfect shell.

What will I do with all the shells we collected? I plan on gluing them to a picture frame and putting a family photo from our vacation inside. What will I do with all the words that simply can’t be used? Throw them back for now and let the sea of sand and time mold them into something that can be used at a later date.