Of course I had to try it! Not only does it sound like delicious fun, but I also kind of view it as a lesson in waiting for good things. Making a Rumtopf takes almost a year. There’s something to that that our culture seems to have forgotten. We want things now. As soon as possible. Instantly. Yet there’s a prolonged, muted pleasure to watching the Rumtopf come together. An excitement to adding each fruit. A reward around Christmas that makes the celebration all the sweeter.

Are we robbing ourselves of this joy simply because we don’t practice waiting?

Anyway, enough deep philosophical ponderings. Here’s an update on my Rumtoph.

A few months ago, our neighbor excitedly dropped by with a gift. She’d found a true Rumtopf at a secondhand store and instantly thought of me. Her timing couldn’t have been more perfect. No sooner had I transferred the rum, fruit, and sugar mixture to the new jar and the old, glass one cracked across the bottom. I would have lost several months of preparation if I hadn’t transferred it all.

Thank God for wonderful neighbors and unexpected gifts!

Since July, I’ve added blueberries, peaches, raspberries, and pears. I tried for plums but hit the season too late and the fruit was grainy and tasteless.

Now, the next part starts. Now we wait until Christmas time and see what kind of magic happens!

Blessings,

The post Now We Wait appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Three Things I’ve Learned

One:

I suspect a good chunk of why the outline is working is because the world is already built. I’m not sure how well it’d go with a completely new fantasy world that I’m transcribing from my head. But for Na’rina and Icarus, I’m not discovering the dryad’s trees or Icarus’ werecat community, I’m following their growth and the new personalities entering their world. I don’t have to explain how trees can talk and so forth. The groundwork is there.

Two:

Having an outline keeps me from being overly wordy. My word goal right now is 130K words. That’s a really arbitrary goal based off of how long Quaking Soul and Theos Rising were in finished rough draft form. What I’m realizing, however, is that there’s less left to write than I’d expect at this point. Having the outline is giving me leaner scenes.

I’m wondering if some of the wordiness I usually have will come back when I fill in sections I’ve glossed over for the rough draft, but it’s too early to tell. Where it might save me is in the massive amount of editing I usually have to do. If this is the case, I’m super excited to have found something that finally works.

Three:

Word counts are definitely a motivator for me. At first, I figured I’d write a scene a day. It felt motivational and still concrete enough to move me forward. This worked right up until I hit one of those heavy, really long scenes that packs soooo much into the story and requires a lot more time. Then I got bogged down realizing I barely finished a scene in a week.

When I switched back to targeting a specific word count each day, this changed. It allowed me to feel the progress without trying to shove those big scenes into single days. It’s taken me years to accept this is one of my best motivators but that’s part of this journey. Every bit learned is a step forward.

Currently:

HMIII is sitting at 52% complete based off of the 130K word goal. Considering my above-mentioned outline and what I’m seeing, I may actually be well over the halfway mark but it’s too early to change the goal yet. I suspect by the end of November, I’ll have a solid answer on that.

Thank you for joining me in this writing adventure! The Hidden Mythics series is so dear to me. These are stories that have been floating around my head for over fifteen years. I started Quaking Soul in a journal back in January of 2010. At the time, I had no idea Na’rina and Icarus would live in the minds of others ten years later. Or that their story would continue beyond Quaking Soul. I’m incredibly blessed to look back and see where we’re at now. So, thank you again!

Blessings,

The post HMIII October Writing Update appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Back then, I was terrified of sharing my writing, but I was passionate about seeking my dream, and so I stepped out in faith. It was a nerve-wracking but thrilling step. To a certain extent, I’m still nervous every time I post but I’ve come to expect that as part of being real when I’m sharing with the world.

And I’ve learned a lot from the last fourteen years.

When I imagined my dream of being a full-time writer, I thought of the big moments. Holding the physical book in my hands. Doing book signings. Talking with readers. These are all important, highlight moments but they’re not what made my dream come true.

The things my imagination didn’t conjure up were the small, but immeasurably important, steps. Showing up more often than not. Steadily writing for years. Putting in words over the long haul. Month after month after month.

It’s not glorious or shiny or fun to post about but it’s what truly carries my dream along.

There’s some conventional writing wisdom that says you have to put in somewhere around a million words before your writing voice starts to emerge. There’s the underlying implication that this is when you start getting good. When you’re a “professional.” I’m not sure how many words are actually required, it’s probably different for each writer, but I do know the longevity matters.

I think this is true no matter what skill you’re trying to master. Writing, running, crocheting, singing. You name it. Although social media encourages us to uber focus on the hightlights, I’d encourage each of us to pay closer attention to showing up more often than not and enjoying the process. Others might not see those unglamorous hours, weeks, months, or years, but they’re the secret sauce behind the shiny moments.

Blessings,

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I loved it. If I were to characterize each, one would be a sleek wood nymph with an open, highland palace and the other a woodland queen with a fortress of majestic grand firs and snowy foliage.

When I moved to South Carolina, I yet again found a forest completely different from what I knew. The woods there were a hoary crone draped in Spanish moss and weaving spiders’ webs. 

Now in Germany, I’m waiting until I visit the Black Forest to really decide on what I think but from what I’ve seen, it’s unique as well. 

What I didn’t expect, but should have, was how different the Alps are compared to the Rockies. 

I grew up in the Rockies. They’re massive and tall and you don’t have to go very high to find the vegetation around them growing thin. The air is thin, the growing things are thin, the mountains are sprawling and heavy with granite boulders. The view from the top shows that sprawl under a robin’s egg blue sky. You might be able to see a handful of other peaks that boast shoulders as broad. 

The Alps, however, don’t rise as high. I’d never considered what this might do to change the landscape. There’s greenery all over the lower slopes of the Alps. Thus, why you get the sheep herds grazing and the super picturesque mountain and rolling field pictures. That picture, though, is deceptive for what you’ll find from the top! We visited the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany, and stood on its viewing platform. From there, we could see dozens of knife-edged peaks jutting into the sky.

If I were to characterize the two, one would be a troll with a heavy stone club. He’s broad shouldered, tall, and boasts craggy teeth but he doesn’t tend to bring his friends close. The other would be a sneaky bandit goblin with sharpened knifes. He hides in flowing green robes until he’s ready to show you his true colors and then, when you truly see him, you realize he brought all his knife-wielding friends along too. 

(I could have gone more majestic with both of these, but troll and goblin are fun, so I’ll roll with it!)

And now I want to write these characters into a story like I did with Na’rina and her Colorado Aspen grove! Hmmm , writing ideas are rolling. 

Blessings,

The post The Mountains Have Personalities appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Every time the season changes, my approach to writing shifts along with it. I used to fight it, wanting to harness the high-energy, super thrilled me that loved the spring sunshine. I wanted to capture that energy. Maybe I could bottle it and drink small sips through the winter to sustain me. Yet, I’d wrestle trying to maintain focus while dealing with a muzzy brain, viewing the shift as a detriment when my bottled energy was long gone. 

I’m not sure when I started approaching the changing seasons as a boon instead of a detriment but, at some point, I realized that I needed the change. It’s healthy for my brain to be high energy for a while, and then settle into a more relaxed, drink-a cup-of-tea, state. And the shift, if I don’t fight it, actually helps my writing. 

I can crank out a lot more words during the sunshine. It’s great for getting a story on the page but it’s like skipping a stone across a pond. It might travel far but it won’t go deep. I can dig much deeper while the rain is falling and the mood strikes me. I’ll explore the pain in a scene by focusing on the lonely cup of coffee or the wonder in a drop of dew on a leaf and a tiny footprint on the flagstones. I slow down enough for the rich details.  

How about you? Does the change in seasons cause a noticeable shift in your moods? Does fall help you slow down a bit? 

Blessings,

The post Writing Mood appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Little images lodge in my brain like bees and, at this point, I almost have too many bees to pick from!

Just like living in Washington or South Carolina influenced details about trees and hurricanes, Germany is sneaking into all sorts of things as I craft Hidden Mythics III. The trick now is to keep the bees from overwhelming the story because there are soooo many things that would be fun to add. 

The Fae Court, in particular, may be taking shape based off of certain palaces I’ve seen since being here. A hall of mirrors. A grand balcony. Frost covering the stone railing. Little details that I’m really excited to sprinkle in while Na’rina marvels and worries at seeing frozen rose bushes and Icarus holds in irritation because the mirrors might not be benign. 

Last month I talked about my weird half editing/half writing as I blend what I wrote in 2025 into what I’m writing this year. I have only a couple more scenes like this and then it’ll be entirely new material as I move forward. Excitement adds a tingle to my fingertips. This is when the story really starts taking shape. I’m over 50K words in and lot of the groundwork has been laid. Now I get to play! 

All the little crumbs I’ve laid into the story start to lead somewhere. The material I had from last year helped boost my September word count. So I suspect October will be a little less impressive (plus we have family visiting for a couple of weeks.) However, the new stuff should be really exciting to write, so that may also encourage me write longer each day. We’ll see! 

Blessings,

The post HMIII September Writing Update appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Watch your thoughts, they become your words.

Watch your words, they become your actions.

Watch your actions, they become your habits.

Watch your habits, they become your character.

Watch your character, it becomes your Destiny.”

-Frank Outlaw (Maybe? Several people are credited with saying it.)

During college, I had this written on a piece of paper and taped above my desk. I’m starting to think that maybe I should write it out and tape it up again because the truth in it is still as relevant today as it was then. 

Recently, when our car troubles started, I found myself blaming the situation for my bad mood and for not keeping my writing schedule. I kept going to bed frustrated that I’d spent all day playing shuffle the cars to get either Squeak or Laylana to the shop for repairs. Remembering this quote gave me pause.

I was letting the situation drive both my thoughts and my actions. It was a humbling realization. I was giving the situation the power to decide whether I was content.

Yet, we humans have this amazing capacity to own such situations with our thoughts. I didn’t have to hand over the keys to my writing or my contentment to random car issues. Even writing for five minutes at the end of the day would have been enough to keep moving forward. 

Maybe some days even five minutes isn’t an option. That too is okay. I still have the power to decide how it affects me. The situation doesn’t get to decide that I’m frustrated. It doesn’t get to own all my time. I can accept that we’re having frustrating car issues and still enjoy dinner with my husband and go to bed with a smile.

Past experience tells me that owning my thoughts like this isn’t easy, especially after allowing the situation to drive me down ugly roads for a while. But it also tells me that it’s possible. I just don’t get to be lazy with my thinking anymore.

Anyway, I’m rambling now, so I’ll kick my pondering soap box back in the corner and leave it at that. I just needed a reminder that I do, in fact, have a choice about how I think. And I thought I’d share because I doubt I’m the only one who finds situations driving your thoughts down roads you don’t want.

Thankfully, we have a choice

Blessings

The post Watching My Thoughts appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

One day my home room teacher has a great idea. She’s got a problem student who needs some coaching, so she places the guy next to me and says I’m now his tutor. Panic sets in. I can barely read and she wants me to tutor one of the cool guys? It’s a dreadful idea. Like ice cream on the face humiliating. 

But I’m also terribly shy. The idea of speaking up is just as terrifying as tutoring. 

Next thing I know, she’s passing out the day’s quiz. On our answer sheets we’re supposed to write the number of the quiz and the word “quiz.” That should be easy, but my brain does that thing when you stare at something long enough, it doesn’t look right. So, I try adding an -e on the end of the word. 

It’s at this point that the kid I’m supposed to be tutoring glances over and sees what I’ve written. He adds an -e to his paper as well. 

I immediately know that it’s spelled wrong. But then, I’m still shy, so I let it ride and we both turn in our quizzes with the first word misspelled. 

He never trusted me after that, and my teacher soon moved our seats again. 

***

Sometime later, my sister’s boyfriend hands me a book he’s excited to share. He doesn’t know that I can’t read it and I’m still too terribly shy to speak up. Plus, he’s cool. Like I tag-along-as-a-third-wheel-any-chance-I-get kind of cool. So, I take the book home. (We’ve since debated if the book was Eye of the World by Robert Jordan or one of David Edding’s books. You’d think I’d remember such an important detail, but I read them so close together that the timeline has blurred.)

Anyway, I take the book home and attempt to read it. 

It’s fantasy. It’s really long. It somehow starts to paint pictures in my head. 

There’s a condition called aphantasia where a person can only conceptualize an object, person, or scene. For instance, they can’t actually see an apple in their mind, but they can conceptualize that it’s round and red.

I am not one of those people, and this was when I found that out. I’m not Hyperphantasia either. I don’t have photographic memory and faces tend to give me issues. But describe a scene to me and I’ll fill in vast details. 

For the first time in my life, the words on the page disappeared and I was seeing the forests and the swords, the fancy dresses and the castles. 

It was magic I’d never encountered before. I loved it. 

When I finished the book, I asked my sister’s boyfriend for another to read. As I hinted before, I sped through the Wheel of Time series (what was available at the time) and all of David Eddings’ books as well. I went from a third grade reading level to post grad in a year. 

After dozens of tests to see if I was dyslexic or had some other reading disorder, it finally clicked and I still don’t know why. This might be why I never assume reading is beyond a person. Maybe they just haven’t picked up the right book yet. 

This is also why I write. I want to paint pictures, create magic, and hopefully help others read because the stories are just that interesting. 

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. Some of you might recognize this story. I’ve written about it before but, since it’s been so long, I thought I’d share it again with a slightly new part of the story. Here’s the original post.

The post Quiz -e appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Although I could name dozens of tidbits, here’s two lessons that really stand out. 

1. Having the “Perfect” writing schedule is an illusion. Having the “Right” writing schedule for right now is possible. 

Perhaps there are people who find the “Perfect” schedule, and it consistently works for them. After reading my past posts, I must confess I am not one of those people. Time and again I’ve reworked, updated, and reorganized to figure out something that works for me. And for a time, that new schedule will run great.

But then something happens to totally upend my plans. For some reason, I’m picturing what snowboarders like to call a “yard sale.” Since this is such a strong picture in my head, I’ll run with it. 

A “yard sale” is when you catch the edge of the board and fall, and all your gear ends up scattered across the mountain slope. Your hat is half buried a dozen yards behind you, your goggles somehow ended up around your neck instead of on your face. One glove is still sliding down the snow like a runaway kitten. 

It takes time to recover. And when you start moving again, you find things don’t quiet work the same way they did when you started. 

This is my writing schedule. I’ll get down the mountain and mostly have a blast doing it, but I may have needed to recalibrate how I move midway through the run and I left my beanie behind because the effort to recover it is way more than the effort of just finding a new hat. 

I now hold any schedule with an open palm and try to have an idea of what takes priority because not everything from my to-do list may get done. Maybe the hat needs to be left behind.

2. Roll with the Punches

Life likes to toss in surprises now and then. It’d be really easy to get frustrated and beaten down because I somehow found a chunk of ice in the snow and now I’m staring at the sky. In writer words, something diverted me from a day of writing like our vehicle troubles have recently.

But I’ve found the frustration steals more from my writing than the mishaps. It doesn’t help me to dwell on the time lost. What does help is laughing at the absurdity of the overall situation, writing about it, and moving on. 

So, I didn’t get the 1,500 words written that I’d scheduled. That’s okay. It’s the accumulative over a longer period of time that matters, not the speedbumps that happen on any odd day. The trick is to keep moving.  

There’s so much more I could talk about but that would make this post reallllyyy long, so I’ll stop there. How about you? Are you able to keep a steady schedule? How do you handle mishaps that mess with your plans?

Blessings,  

The post Journal Lessons appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

I still love living here but the awe-novelty factor has dimmed.

This reminded me of some writing advice that I sometimes have to lean into. I don’t remember who coined the term, but I remember it as, “The Curse of Familiarity.” It’s basically the idea that we tend to overlook the things that feel normal to us, assuming those things won’t be interesting to others.

In writing, this looks like leaving out the detail about how the grilled zucchini turned to mush because it got left too long in the foil packet. Seems blah. But it adds texture and something concrete to the writing. I can imagine the squishy look, the slightly acidic smell, and the bitter taste of over grilled zucchini. Something so simple can bring the world to life. 

It’s good then to sit back and purposefully take in such details. For one, it helps me slow down to savor life. For two, it helps bring small details to my writing that add depth. 

Even if you’re not a writer, I encourage you to see your life through the eyes of a visitor. I might suggest looking at something other than mushy grilled zucchini but there’s just something that brings perspective and appreciation when the things around you aren’t written off because they’re familiar.

Blessings,

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