Dinner on Primrose Hill

Jodi Thomas Returns!

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Ancient Chinese Curse: “May you live in a time of change.”

I’m hopeful change will come. Soon. But for now, welcome to the past year. I’ve been waking up lately thinking I must be stuck in Groundhog Day. Just when I thought we were beginning to win the fight against Covid, everything is right back where we started. Again. We’re all adjusting to a new not-so-normal. Still not much shopping. The shelves are pretty bare anyway. Not much eating out with friends. No arguments over politics. (I’m being delusional.) No traveling to exotic places to have wild affairs. (Sorry, that one was my imagination talking.)

I’ve been hibernating. Again:

  • Waking up and putting yesterday’s clothes back on.
  • Having to ask my phone what day it is.
  • Talking to myself and sometimes getting in an argument.
  • Watching movies that don’t have plots.
  • Waiting for the mailman then reading the junk mail
  • Driving around for no reason at all.

Same as the first time around, for a few months I did nothing productive. I binged series on Netflix and cooked. My favorite saying, if I’d had anyone to say it to, was:

“I don’t suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.”

Yep, I’m living the crazy loop of Groundhog Day! Then, one day it occurred to me that I had imaginary friends to play with. I spent a week reading a book a day. Then, characters started lining up in my mind. They all wanted to me to write their story. Fiction was suddenly my place to go.

Last month I visited a quilter’s meeting as a guest. I gave my little talk about writing about quilting, then they all gave me a dear gift. Each one had brought a quilt passed down in the family, and each quilt had a story. We might have been 10 feet apart, but we were sharing.

One lady ended her talk by looking straight at me and said, “I’ve got to tell you that your books were my joy this year. When I got down, I could step into a Jodi Thomas book.”

Writing is a lonely career sometimes, just as Covid is a very lonely time, but I realized I can help in a small way. This crazy imagination I’ve been blessed with, and sometimes haunted by, can take readers on a journey.

So, I’d better get to work creating a world anyone reading can step into. A place for a time, you can relax, sit among friends, and talk about living.

And always remember, you are the main character of your life, and your story isn’t finished.

Three lucky winners will win one of my new releases. To enter, leave a comment about something that brings you joy during the hard seasons of life.

As an added bonus…your name will be entered twice if you can tell me where I got the title of my story “Father Goose” in The Cowboy Who Saved Christmas!

Enjoy some time to read,

Jodi

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It’s Picnic Time with Jodi Thomas

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Jodi Thomas

                                                      Check below to see what Jodi is giving away!


Everyone knows writers live in other worlds inside their minds. Characters chatter, people get shot, couples fall in love, all surrounded in a make-believe world.

Then the doorbell rings or your cell chimes and the writer has to step out of one world and step into reality. The only way I can explain the fast change is it’s like changing trains while both are going 100 miles an hour.

So, as a writer for thirty years, I’ve become accustomed to jumping from racing trains. Only lately, I’ve been writing more because I’m staying home. More books, more fiction, more worlds to live in.

Right now I’m promoting one book, PICNIC IN SOMEDAY VALLEY.  I’m doing edits on DINNER ON PRIMROSE HILL and writing Book 4 in the series.

Since I have about twenty-five characters in each book, that is 75 people running around in my brain.

People ask me if I’m lonely during this time. How could I be?  There is a party going on in my study.

When a writer’s brain begins to shatter, what happens?  Nothing. It’s just part of the job. I don’t need TV. I’ve already got too many channels in my head.

And, I love it. I never get my characters mixed up but I wouldn’t be surprised if one day I don’t call my son by a character’s name.

Last week my agent called and asked if I had an idea for the next series. I smiled and opened another channel.

I hope you’ll grab your favorite food and drink and enjoy a picnic with your family and friends. Let me know which character from any book you would love to have a picnic with. I would love to give away a copy of PICNIC IN SOMEDAY VALLEY to one lucky winner. Giveaway rules apply.

Enjoy,  Jodi

 

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