Holidays: Three Things That Bring Me Joy

 

Image credit: Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Love it or hate it, the holiday season means a lot of things to a lot of people. As for me—a famously hermit-like writer who abhors the cold—I always focus on what I enjoy about this or any time of year. Below are three things about the holiday season that always bring me joy.

Lights

It’s no secret: I love holiday lights! There’s nothing like driving around the neighborhood enjoying the twinkling lights with a nice travel mug of cocoa. My neighbor across the street seems determined to outshine Clark Griswold, though my husband does give him a run for his money. Our local park also does a Dr. Seuss-themed display, and it is gorgeous. We go every year!

Of course, lights aren’t limited to the winter holidays. At my house we put up lights for Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, Memorial Day, and for any other occasion we think of. Hmm, maybe I should work on creating a book-themed display.

Image credit: Michelle_Maria from Pixabay

Baking

I bake year-round (even in the sweltering hot summer months) but there’s nothing like a holiday for an excuse to go all-out. This year I’m making cinnamon star bread, brioche dinner rolls, and vanilla bean cake with my special chocolate icing—and that’s just for Christmas! For the rest of the week I’ll make a few different types of breads, some for immediate consumption and some for freezing. 

Here’s a writing tip: if you’re stuck on a plot point or a bit of character development, nothing helps you work out the kinks in your story like a solid session of kneading. Just imagine that blob of dough is your unruly characters, and all those frustrations get worked out.

Image credit:  Couleur from Pixabay

Downtime 

I typically take the last ten to fourteen days of the year as down time. This means no writing deadlines, no social media obligations, and definitely no editorial meetings. It gives me a great opportunity to reflect on the past year, relax with my family, and eat all those baked good I’ve been churning out like a madwoman. Which leads me to my bonus fourth favorite thing: planning!

Image credit: Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Planning for the Next Year

What’s that old saying—if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail? I wholeheartedly believe this, and let’ face it, failure is not an option. I make several yearly plans, organized under household goals, writing/publishing goals, and the like. For instance, one of my main household goals for 2023 is to finish painting the porch ceiling; I’d run out of paint, and by the time I got more it was too cold to finish the job. Well, that’s what next spring is for.

As for writing goals, I’ll be releasing two full length novels, a special edition hardcover, and I’ll be attending my first two in-person events since before the 2020 lockdown. Yes, I definitely need to plan for all of those events. I’ve also got a few new books in the works, and by setting aside time in my planner to flesh out and refine each individual story, I am confident I’ll be able to give them the attention they deserve.

Image credit: StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

What about the holidays brings you joy? Tell us in the comments, and as always, happy reading!

Jennifer Allis Provost writes books about faeries, orcs and elves. Zombies, too. She grew up in the wilds of Western Massachusetts and had read every book in the local library by age twelve. (It was a small library.) An early love of mythology and folklore led to her epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Parthalan, and her day job as a cubicle monkey helped shape her urban fantasy, Copper Girl. When she’s not writing about things that go bump in the night (and sometimes during the day) she’s working on her MFA in Creative Nonfiction. Get to know Jenn at https://authorjenniferallisprovost.com. Jenn’s latest release, Oleander, is available here: https://books2read.com/poisongarden-oleander

Joy Times Three

Tis the season to remember that joy needs attention. It requires focus. Joy is a little like a butterfly - beautiful, fragile, but persistent and capable of astonishing feats. Held too tightly, it crumbles. It arrives when conditions have been cultivated to attract it - like planting milkweed in the garden attracts monarchs. You can also chase joy across continents and into dark jungles if finding the rarest kinds intrigues you. I am one of those people who needs to be reminded to allow myself to stop and let joy arrive. Three things help do that.

1. Cats. Living with little obligate carnivores who have massive outsized personalities is a delight. Each cat has his or her specific routines and every day, I'm gifted with a few minutes with each of them. Perceval wants to nap in my lap. Arya wants me to brush her and then throw her favorite toy. Peseshet wants me to come out to the lanai and pet her while she rolls on the bricks in the sun. Crow wants to lounge in my lap each evening. Raven needs a milk bottle cap slid along the floor for him to chase and fetch back to me. And Corvid needs a cuddle in one specific rocking chair in the house where he can flop over and pretend to nurse against my stomach. There's a lot of cute (and weird) but there's something warm and lovely and joyful about being a safe place for these creatures who share my home.

 

2. Boats. This one is cheating a little because it hits so many joy buttons for me. Nature. Stories. Freedom. Adventure. Getting to go new places and see/experience new things. Silence. Broad swathes of stillness and time. Sailing requires that you make room to simply stop and be. I love the sun on my skin and a good breeze filling my sails and the pull of water on my wheel or tiller. Feeling my way into the groove where wave and water and boat all work together. It isn't always possible. Conditions aren't always right for that. But the times it all aligns, challenging conditions turn into a sleigh ride that takes you from point A to point B in relative ease. It's a metaphor that extends well past taking the swells on the quarter and a 25 knot wind slightly aft of abeam.

3. Tea. Tea is a trip in a cup. It's a simple ritual that invites you to slow down, close your eyes, breathe in the fragrant steam rising from a set of wet leaves that grew half a world away. 

Joy Bringers

I make a conscious effort to find joy every day. Big or small, and especially when I’m feeling down. So it was difficult to narrow it down to three for our week’s theme of Three Things That Bring You Joy!

Exploring brings me boundless joy, especially when I talk my whole family into it. Hiking trails, or making our own, is something we do in all weather. And it never fails to trigger images of characters traveling on quests or spy pieces that could be on another planet. 

Like chocolate and peanut butter, it’s wonderful when two good things combine into something even greater! My husky pup, Ullr, accompanies me when I slip out to my greenhouse to play with plants. Even on days where it’s negative fourteen Fahrenheit, playing with my plants makes me happy.

Last is one thing that helps spread smiles across my face. Yoga and meditation. Being able to clear my mind and stop the thoughts from bombarding me constantly helps my dopamine and helps my writing. And yoga gets me some zen and keep me limber after long writing sessions. 

There are a few of my favorite things. How about you? What are some of your favorites that bring you joy?

Jeffe's Three Joys

 

This week at the SFF Seven, we're talking joy!

As in, three things that give us joy. As many of you know, I'm a big fan of making decisions based on what will yield the greatest happiness. Thus choosing the happy means a lot of things in my life bring me joy. But I'll try to keep it finite.

1. Shiny new books
   While Christmas shopping yesterday, I bought myself a present - this Fairy Atlas! It's technically a children's book, but it has a lot of cool stuff in it from around the world that I'd never seen, and I love the illustrations. Perfect for what I'm writing now! And it looks pretty on my desk.
   
   
2. Friends
   I'm so blessed in the community of my wonderful friends, many of whom check in on me daily and remind me of what's important. From friends who've been part of my life for years to people who entered my world in just this past year, I am rich in companionship of simply amazing hearts and minds.
   
   
3. My profession
   Like any career, being an author presents its trials and it can be easy to focus on the difficulties, but this kind of poste offers an opportunity to step back and truly appreciate that I am able to wed my passion, my avocation, with my vocation. Making my living as a writer is a tremendous privilege and the realization of lifetime goal.

I am so blessed. 

 

Trio of Joy

As we putter closer to the end of 2022, we're asked:

Holidays: Three Things That Bring You Joy
(anything from art to recipes, to books, to yoga poses)

Pi
That's not contrition.
That's mayhem seconds
before launch

First and foremost must be the resident SWMBO, my pupper Pi. With a permanent wink and an expression of "let's do mischief together," she brings me love and joy even when she is the most pesty. It's been four years since I adopted her from the rescue and I wouldn't trade her for the world.

The second thing of joy: Limitless playlists. Whether it's Bryn Terfel singing a rousing ditty about hippopotami or the Helsinki Vampires (aka the 69 Eyes) asking if they're scary enough for me, there is always music streaming somewhere around me. Gone are the days of having to flip the tape or reload the CD changer (shhh, I'm old, I know). 16 hours a day (24 if you include the sound-soother rainstorm pattering throughout the night), I'm reveling in the joy of all kinds of music all the time. 

Third thing: Illustrations. Artists, man, I am continually amazed and thrilled by their skills. From comics to covers to stand-alone commissions, whenever I need to be in a particular emotional headspace, I go to online galleries. Often buying prints of the pieces that move me, I've accepted that unless my home magically spawns extra wall space, I must rotate the pieces regularly in order to reap the benefits of my collection. While the prints haven't outpaced by TBR pile, they're doing their damnedest. 

Cheers to a very merry holiday season!