My life

What was Your Favorite Holiday Binge?

/ rosettabloomauthor

We’re a bit into the new year, and, for me, I’m just now starting to get back into the flow of a regular work week. I took off that week between Christmas and New Year’s, ate gloriously, stayed up late, and binged all sorts of shows.

I think I’m finally getting my normal sleep habits back so I can wake up for work in the morning and not feel completely addled. Now that I’m in that place, I think I can squarely lay the blame for my difficulties from staying up late binging holiday flicks like Bridgerton (and then reading the first couple of novels).

Rege-Jean Page is smoking hot as the duke and the whole series was a lot of fun, and so very rich. Upon reading the first couple of books afterward, it was disappointing not to see so much of the richness of character they clearly pulled from the later books. Because the Netflix show was a series, they gave you so much more of the Bridgerton side character siblings that it was really fantastic.

In addition to Bridgeterton, I also watched a bevy of other romantic films with a holiday vibe (California Christmas, Holidate, Holiday Calendar, This Christmas, 12 Dates of Christmas).

It was nice to just sit back and watch some fun, lighthearted things, even if they weren’t all perfect movies, but they were fun.

Of all the stuff I binged over the holiday, Bridgerton was definitely my favorite. What was your favorite show to binge over the holidays?

A new year, a new hope

/ rosettabloomauthor

After a rough 2020, 2021 has finally arrived and many are viewing it as a new hope. After a year with a monstrous pandemic, there is hope that 2021 has to be better. That the year could not possibly be worse than 2020. I hope that logic holds true. I definitely need 2021 to be better than 2020. Personally, it’s been an incredibly hard year for me.

But 2021 is not a panacea. It does not wash away all the lingering effects awfulness of 2020 just by the turn of the calendar. We are still suffering the consequences of 2020s badness. A pandemic is still raging, people are still dying, the U.S. is more partisan than ever, and those who were plunged into a depression over all the losses of 2020 are often still there.

However, the good news about 2021 is that we are seeing light, finally. There is hope there is an end to this tunnel. The vaccine will help, as will competent leadership. But we also need each other to help. We need to show compassion and love to our fellow man. We have to remember that societies function when people work together and care for each other. We have to remember that we, literally, are all in this together.

One of my favorite stories as a kid was the Little Red Hen. It’s about a hen who lives with three other barnyard animals. She asks them for help turning wheat into flour–particularly for cutting the wheat, bundling it, taking it to the mill–and then baking a cake with it (or bread, depending on the version). Each animal refuses to help, and so when the hen finishes, all the animals who refused to help show up wanting a piece of cake, and she tells them no. However, after that, the animals always help the hen when she asks.

And I think that’s the part people forget. The animals learn, and afterwards, they help in the future. Whatever has happened has happened. It’s time for everyone to forget about whether they got cake or not and pitch in to help in making 2021 the best year.

-Rosetta B.

P.S. Don’t forget Winner Takes All is available on Amazon. If you enjoyed the book, leave a review.

What are you thankful for?

/ rosettabloomauthor

It’s almost U.S. Thanksgiving (I see you Canada, with your celebration last month). As it’s the time in this country to spend time with family and be thankful for what the year has brought us.

So, I thought I’d take a minute to say a few things I am currently thankful for:

  • I have not gotten coronavirus
  • I am pretty healthy
  • My family is all fairly healthy
  • I have a home still
  • I have a job still
  • There is much love in my life

I’m sure there are other things I could be thankful for, but I wanted to be brief and catch the most important things. In so many ways, 2020 has been an awful year. Too many people have lost their lives from this deadly virus. And for their families, this marks their first holiday without those souls. I am sure it is incredibly difficult for them. I wish them grace in these difficult times.

Given how much was lost this year, I am keenly aware of how much I have to be grateful for. I am looking forward to my Zoom Thanksgiving and probably Christmas, happy that everyone I want to be there is alive and well.

So, what are you thankful for as we head into Thanksgiving in the US?

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

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Source: Pixabay (The photos I took with my phone weren’t very good, so I found these contortionists, which gave a feel of the kind of stuff we saw.)

Authors get this question a lot.  And it’s a question that it’s easy to kind of shrug and say,  “I don’t know. They just come to me.”

But that’s probably not the answer most people are looking for.  And since I had a great idea for a story this weekend, I thought I’d talk about the most common place that authors, particularly me, get story ideas from: life.

I live in the Washington, DC, area, so over the weekend, I took my daughter to the American Folklife Festival, which focused on circuses. It was a great deal of fun and while we were watching a flying trapeze act, I though the circus would be a great place to set a romance novel.  I’ve got some ideas percolating at the moment, and hope to be able to write something for the fall. The point is, a lot of ideas are like that. They simply come when you’re out enjoying life and you see something interesting and go, that would make a great story. Once I had that in mind, I watched and listened for anything useful I could glean. We attended a great session on the language of the circus, and learned some interesting phrases that are particular to the circus, as well as customs. For example, you’re never supposed to enter clown alley (where the clowns put their makeup on) without permission. If you do, they’ll pelt you with powder socks (the appliques for their makeup). So, that kind of thing was quite interesting and full of fodder for a book.

In terms of my fairy tales, which are retellings of old classics, I obviously look to old classics for inspiration. The tales are old and they’ve traveled so well because the base of the story is excellent. I just add a few finishing touches to make the story different for those who loved the original, but want to see a slight twist on it.

That’s all for today. Hope you’re having a fabulous week.