Raine Balkera - Romance Author

Hello, and welcome back for Week 36 of the MFRW 52-Week Blog Challenge. This week's challenge topic is Managing My Writing Time And, I have no idea how to respond. Other than to say I really, truly envy those who are able to manage their lives in a way that is productive! I also envy those who can start writing first thing in the morning, then have the rest of the day to themselves. If I could 'manage' to fall into that type of a 'routine', I wouldn't be as apt to feel so guilty about wasting so much of my time doing anything BUT writing! Anyway... After thinking about it all week, I've yet to come up with a single thing in my life that is 'managed'. There is 'routine', and I'm a pretty routine person so I can say I follow a daily routine with rare, if ever any, deviations. Honesty forces me to admit to being unmanageable. That has everything to do with my inability to follow or abide by rules, guidelines, and ove...

When life feels more like a sport in which you suck at, everything tends to get skewed (make biased or distorted in a way that is regarded as inaccurate, unfair, or misleading), as I'm sure most are already aware. As Moses once said, "I am but a voice crying out in the wilderness." For me, that wilderness is Social Media . Being my own worst enemy, there always comes a time in my writing endeavors when I stop typing, pull back from my efforts, and start to see things in that skewed vision. I feel like Moses in the desert. For several years now, I've made countless attempts at reaching out to people, making friends, and learning how best to 'market' myself in order to attract people to me and my novels. With zero in the way of progress. Facebook seems like a bowling alley now... abandoned, hollow, and aged. Tumblr fell in on itself once the SJW crowd took over and left zero in the way of space for any other type of 'socializing' or...

Transition Week With my 2003 Hyundai Elantra finally repaired, insured, and road-worthy after nearly two years sitting idle in the driveway, I am once again a Road Warrior as well as a Weekend Writing one. And with that awesome fix comes new job opportunities. I started a new ParaPro assignment at another Preschool, but this time the students are not special needs so... no biting, kicking, punching, random screams to induce heart attacks, and no child's general lack of social engagement. However, one of the three educators I help has a very bad attitude toward the parents of these At-Risk preschoolers, which is sad, but I'm learning how to ignore negative vibes. New News I have a new camera (Nikon), so on overcast days I'll be back to my old habit of hunting down the ideal images to shoot, and with Fall in full swing now, this should be an exciting and (hopefully) impressive endeavor. Also acquired a new work space. Which isn't nearly as clunky...

THE WEATHER It's raining here in SE Michigan, and after a severe drought that began in late May and lasted until late August, RAIN is a welcome weather occurrence. Except when it lasts for days (like it has) and causes flooding (which it is). please ignore the word EPIC The clouds are rolling in not from the West but the East to bring Atlantic moisture, which means heavy downpours (since Wednesday). It also means clean, fresh air that smells semi-tropical, and I love that. Of course, this puts a "damper" on my nightly sky viewing pleasure, and it's also being reported that the Northern Lights (aurora) may be visible as far south as here for the next few nights. In other words, once this Low moves off to the east in a few days, the sky will clear and the Aurora sightings will have passed. It's a bucket list item, and one of these days I'm going to head WAY up north with camera in tow, hopeful about catching a glimpse of ...

I stumbled across this Challenge today and thought it might be fun to participate. As most challenges (and I) go, sticking it out to the very end (after coming in part-way) will prove to be  . . . a challenge. I'll try to do this every week. Today, and every Friday through December, I'm expected to blog about the topic assigned (which you are welcome to do, too, and each is explained in the image posted below). Your only obligation is to use the hashtag #LifeBooksWriting and remember to include the below-mentioned image with each post. My Recent Book The last publication for me was Love Over Time , which is currently in 2nd Edition stage, but for today's post I'll discuss the book and include an excerpt I hope you will enjoy. This is a Contemporary Romance with a Fantasy element that includes the ability for one of the two leads to see the past transgressions of her ancestors. Characters Kaisa Dalen is a freelance photographer on assignment in ...

It's the first weekend in August, 2016, and even though it is still hot, muggy, and drought-inducing dry here, this particular weekend always triggers a whats-to-come feeling in me. I anticipate ominous weather reports about a Canadian Cold Front sweeping down across our state to switch seasonal gears and make all the hotness go away . . . for good. But according to our weatherman, it isn't the case this time around. It'll continue to be hot, muggy, and DRY through next week, so maybe it will happen then, or the week after that. Still, I'm thinking about autumnal colors, parkas and jeans, and how best to decorate for Halloween this year. The stores are filled with a lot of the stuff I go nuts over, like notepads, lined paper, gel pens, markers, and neon sticky-note pads. Discounts on the overly cool hardcover lined-paper 'books' I used to buy by the half-dozen and write story after imaginative story. Using colorful gel pens, of course. I s...

Of the seven Deadly Sins, invidia (envy) is probably high on my for-shame list. And despite what you've been told, it happens to be a 'healthy' emotion and not as you're-going-directly-to-hell as most want us to believe. As long as the person feeling this way doesn't act on the negative outcome, that is. Although voodoo dolls are an acceptable form of anger management whenever the green-eyed monster rears it's ugly head. Pictures used as a Dart Board are okay, too. Anything else and you risk being labeled as petty or sounding like sour grapes. Unlike most other negative personality traits, Jealousy is probably as easy to control as it is easy to let get out of hand. As with ALL vices, though, it depends on you and how you deal with it. No, it isn't. J ealousy can become an issue of self-confidence if you lack self-control -- which can be said for everything else in life that is difficult to overcome. Overcome it we can, but it...