Jaclyn M. Hawkes

2011-09-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll, with my new book, we've been making some changes and I've changed the domain of my site to a new host. In all honesty, I haven't a clue what I'm talking about, but the bottom line is, you need to do one of the following to find my awesome new official website, because this isn't it anymore, but your computer might automatically take you here because you've been here before. Try refreshing your browser, or removing cookies, or just type in the whole url as follows. http://jaclynmhawkes.com It's weird, but it works. The new site is similar but different and has some great new treats! Thanks, Jaclyn

2011-09-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

Hey, here is an awesome snippet from Michael Hyatt's blog (he gleaned it from David Schwartz's The Magic of Thinking Big. -Great book!) Here are seven steps to thinking big:Imagine the possibilities. Give yourself permission to dream. I remember doing this when I was writing my first book. I imagined what it would be like to be a bestselling author. I thought about what it would be like to see my book on the New York Times best sellers list. Write down your dream. This is the act that transforms a dream into a goal. Amazing things happen when you commit something to writing. I don’t fully understand how it works, but I have experienced it first-hand again and again. The phenomenon is explained in a very compelling book by Henriette Klauser called Write It Down, Make It Happen. Connect with what is at stake. This is your rationale. Unfortunately, it is a crucial step that people often omit. Before you can find your way, you must discover your why. Why is this goal important to you? What will achieving it make possible? What is at stake if you don’t? What will you lose? Your rationale provides the intellectual and emotional power to keep going when the path becomes difficult (which it will). Outline what would have to be true. Rather than merely asking how to get from where you are to where you want to go (strategy), I like asking what would have to be true for my dream to become a reality. For example, when I set a goal of hitting the best sellers list, I realized that I would have to write a compelling book, become its chief spokesperson, get major media exposure, etc. I started with the dream and worked backwards. Decide what you can do to affect the outcome. This is where you transition from the big picture to daily actions. This is where people often get derailed. They can’t see all the steps that will take them to their goal. So rather than doing something, they do nothing. You will never see the full path. The important thing is to do the next right thing. What can you do today to move you toward your dream? Determine when this will happen. Someone once said that a goal is simply a dream with a deadline. A deadline is one way to make the dream more concrete—which is exactly what thinking big is about. A deadline also creates a sense of urgency that will motivate you to take action. Force yourself to assign a “why when” date to every goal. (If you get stuck, ask yourself, What’s the worst that can happen if I don’t hit this?) Review your goals daily. When I was writing my first book, I reviewed my goals daily. I prayed over them. I determined what I needed to do today to make them a reality. It gave me a laser focus, especially when the dream looked impossible—when the publisher called to cancel the contract, when my publicist told me no one was interested in the book, when the publisher ran out of inventory right after the book hit the best sellers list. Don’t listen to that mocking little voice that tells you to be more realistic. Ignore it. You can either accept reality as it is or create it as you wish it to be. This is the essence of dreaming—and thinking big.

I survived Family Home Evening

2011-09-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

It began as a great idea. Really. I wouldn’t kid you on such a serious medium as a blog. For Family Home Evening Monday, my eighteen year old son was going to give an overview of the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Now, tell me: What family can’t use more friends and influence? Unfortunately, things went south relatively quickly. The problem started when he began to give the overview using a Czechoslovakian accent. (You don’t even want to know how long it took me to find out how to spell that word correctly and it isn’t even called Czechoslovakia anymore!) Okay, maybe that isn’t really when the problem started because during our opening prayer, the 13-year old, that was, for some reason unbeknown to me, torqued off at the 18 year old, prayed thus, “And please help that SOME PEOPLE will learn to be more Christlike. And please help SOME PEOPLE not to kick other people under the table during the prayer.” Etc. Etc. I’m sure you know what I mean. Or does that only happen in my home?Anyway, the Czech accent was seriously, hysterically funny, if not overly conducive to learning, which may have had something to do with the fact that sometimes it was a trifle hard to understand him, in an Ahnold Schwarzenegger kind of way. (I didn’t even bother trying to figure out how to spell that one correctly.) As the lesson was being taught, the new (ugly) German Wirehair puppy was bounding about, alternately begging, which is against the good dog manner rules, and trying to shred the unfolded laundry, which is also against the good dog manner rules. Did I mention that this puppy is ugly? So, my dear, nearly-perfect husband, bless his heart, was trying to soothe the 13-year old, quietly contain the (ugly) misbehaving puppy, (in the hopes that someday his wife would come to not mind having her house completely destroyed by the new, wild, -ugly- puppy), and trying to figure out how in the heck to win Czechoslovakian friends. He’s incredibly competent, but still, this could stretch even the most talented spiritual leader.At the same moment, the chronically sunny 11-year old was busy writing a new song. She does that occasionally. She frankly couldn’t care less about having Czech friends, because everyone, except her brothers, already adores her anyway. The lyrics were something about her alabaster skin and hair of chocolate brown that makes the prissy world go round. I swear I’m not making this up! The problem with the song, other than the fact that we were supposed to be having a Family Home Evening lesson, was that it started on approximately high E and went up from there. But hey, if you can’t actually hit the note, just make up for it with volume. No one will notice. (This is especially effective if there are multiple people hollering at an ugly puppy in the background. Not to mention that irritable 13-year old brothers simply crave high pitched squeaky singing.)Not to be left out, our 19-year old, who is home from school right now, for some thoroughly twisted reason, thought the whole episode was hopelessly funny. She kept looking around the dining table and giving this dainty little belly guffaw that only egged the others, including the ugly puppy, on. (I know, I know. Dangling participle. It wasn’t the only thing dangling, let me tell you. Our entire eternal salvation was right there dangling with it!)Now, I try to be patient at times like this. I knew when someone like me married someone like my husband, that it was probably going to be a nutty journey, but really! I wasn’t sure whether to laugh, or swear (which I’ve truly tried to keep to a minimum now that they’ve called me to be a youth leader), or pray, or give up and send them all to bed and put myself in “time out” for the rest of the night. (I’ve actually done that a couple of times. It’s quite refreshing, but doesn’t cut it as far as counting as a real Family Home Evening. Few people ever learn the great eternal lessons of life when the mother is in “time out” because they just revert to things like video game systems and long, young-adult fantasy novels. It’s rarely a touching spiritual experience.)At this point, I looked around wondering if God has a sense of humor, or if the adversary was giving someone a high five in the underworld about what was going on in the Hawkes’ household. It was hard to tell. I just know that in the future, I may consider bringing in a camera crew to film it. Who knows? There could be a reality show about weird Family Home Evenings. We could be rich! It could happen. And I know that some of you know just exactly what I mean. I’m not the only mother who has occasionally experienced stuff like this. You know who you are. Someday, if I ever have the I Survived Family Home Evening t-shirts printed, I’ll let you have one. In the mean time, enjoy the insanity. After all, you could have just had a plain, old lesson. BORING! Jaclyn

2011-03-01T16:04:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! Check out the new "Reviews" tab on the website and see what people are saying!

Also, I recently did an interview with Cheryl from A Good Day to Read.com and it was great! Here it is:

http://agooddaytoread.com/category/author/interviews/

Thanks!

Email Subscription

2011-02-21T12:11:00.000-08:00

If you want to have posts sent directly to your email when I write them, please get me your email address. Thanks! - Jaclyn

Weight the Positives

2011-01-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

Is anyone else stuck in that midwinter black hole? You know. That vortex in January between New Years and President's Day when it's cold and gray and there isn't a holiday in sight, and you have to go from a letter size pad to a legal size pad for your to-do list, and your sister comes to your house and tells you you need to clean your range hood and you just don't even want to deal with her?
She really did, bless her heart. She sited some ridiculous statistic about home fires. Like anyone's house really burns. (Ours actually did, when I was 8 and she was 5, but it wasn't the range hood that started it, so I don't see what her concern is.)
Okay, so I shouldn't joke about house fires and I truly do know this from personal experience, but there's still that black hole issue.
My dad actually taught me how to deal with the midwinter astronomical blahhhhs. In fact, that is the point of this blog. I'm sharing one of the great truths of the universe.
You have to weight the positives.
In the middle of January, you have to find something, anything, to be the slightest bit enthusiastic about and then latch onto it with gusto!
The time my dad was teaching me this concept, he was encouraging me to buy a cantelope melon worth a small Hummer, but chocolate will work just as well and is cheaper. Mid winter rodeos are also good monotony breakers. They usually have one in Ogden about now and even if it's just bulls and I have to hide my face a good portion of the time, or suffer the "Mom, don't scream!" admonition, rodeos can perk you right up!
A good Julie Coulter Bellon does wonders too. I tried that last night and it was positively therapeutic! And now that I'm published, I can actually say, "Sorry, I need to read. Gotta keep up with what's going on in the literary world, ya' know?"
How great is that? Hey! That's another positive that I hadn't thought of today!
This works! I'm telling you! Just keep finding the positives. Give them unfair amounts of attention and ... Ta duh! February will be here and the Black birds will start to buzz and you can ski in your t-shirt and you've made it through another blaahhhh! Nice going! Jaclyn M. Hawkes

The world needs more knights in shining armor and stemware at breakfast!

2010-11-19T08:02:00.000-08:00

It's been a week. Holy Moly! I'm thinking of getting another "I survived" T-shirt. The only thing is, no matter how hard I pedalled, it was relatively thankless and I'm sure that I'm even further behind for all of my efforts. (Whining, whining. Aaahhh!)
So... I've been thinking. You know that old piece of advice about using the nice sheets and wearing nasty underwear because life is short? Okay, so it's not a direct quote, but you know what I mean. Well, I always use the nice sheets because, well, duh! (Please don't tell my children that I said that word.) And my derwear isn't truly negotiable, but today, I used the stemwear for breakfast! It was positively liberating!
And, guess what outlandish thing I'm going to do next! I'm going into my secret chamber and I'm going to fire up that magical fairy writing implement(my laptop). I'm going to transport myself into the fourteenth century and hang with with Sir Peyton Wolfgar, hunky warrior of the kingdom and his intrepid love, Chantaya Kincraig! They are so much more fun than reality!
In case you weren't aware, I'm working on my first medieval book. I think you'll love it! I do! I've decided that the world needs more knights in shining armor. And stemware at breakfast. Life IS short, even when the week feels like a year. Maybe tomorrow morning I'll propose a toast! Jaclyn

Oh man.

2010-10-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

I got on-line this morning and was so sad to see that Chip McGregor has decided to stop doing his blog. Dang it! He's been one of my all time favs and has been invaluable to a blithering idiot newcomer like myself. Some bloggers are all about selling you something, but Chip was great to just give of his wisdom. Not to mention that he has an incredibly funny sarcasm at times, (typically aimed at blithering idiot newcomers). I will miss it immensely. But, you gotta do what you gotta do. At least he's going to leave everything up. Thanks for all your input, Chip and good luck in what's ahead. Jaclyn

Attitude

2010-10-12T07:19:00.000-07:00

I have this marvelous old red horse. He's 20 and he has arthritic knees and navicular disease and laminitis in one foot and he's a great old beast. I slept at the barn the night he was born and I love him dearly. I need to put him to sleep this fall before really nasty winter sets in and that's a horrible thing to have to do. He must have begun to suspect or something because yesterday he actually trotted across the field with his other old buddy to greet the other horses. He doesn't trot much these days. And today... Holy Toledo! He came loping across that field like a two year old! It was awesome!
You know, in this life, sometimes we just have to have the attitude of a two year old. It's a beautiful thing! It can give you a whole new lease on life! Literally!
So kick up your heels today! The other horses love it! Jaclyn

Living here in the Emerald Isle

2010-10-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

We've gone way past monsoon here in Oakley. It's been raining for more than a week off and on and I am LOVING IT! We're talking the coolest thunderstorms ever! Yeah, it's looking a lot like Ireland out there. I think we'll be green here right up until we're buried in snow -which may be soon. Thousand Peaks got it last night.
Don't worry, I just gather all my little chickens under my wings by the fire and... Well, I mean after football practice and soccer and achievement day activities and, oh, are there any hunts going on? Oh, that's right. I was wondering what had happened to all the men I love. They can hunt all they want. Predation is a guy thing. Us feminine chickens are going to sit by the fire and listen to the thunder. Maybe read a good book! Hope you all have a great thunderstorm to fall asleep to. Jaclyn

2010-09-14T10:13:00.001-07:00

Aaaahhh! My "Webmaster" went off to college and my site keeps crashing. Please be patient while I figure out how to do all of this. Thanks, Jaclyn

It's official!

2010-08-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

Finally!!! I finally got my first copy of my first published book Journey of Honor A love story day before yesterday! It was so awesome! It's been a long time coming. Yesterday was my first ever book signing and it was great! I got to sit beside Jack Weyland! Yes, THE Jack Weyland, the legend!
I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing most of the time, but it's been fun to meet people that are so excited about my writing! Now I just need to settle down and begin to get a better handle on marketing. My website looks great, but it's stuck somewhere in web neverland where I can find it great from my secure log in, but I can't get it to pop up by just typing in my URL. AAAaaahhh. So much to do and still be a decent wife and mother. Have a perfect brightness of hope day, Jaclyn

The Latest Book Available from Jaclyn M. Hawkes: Journey of Honor

2010-07-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

A Journey Through The Refiner's Fire

Disowned, she came to America anyway. Attacked and left pregnant by a vicious mob, she still pressed on. Finally, in spite of being accused of theft by the vilest of her attackers, Giselle tries to remain as upbeat and uncomplaining as a prairie wildflower as she travels to Zion.

Thoroughly disillusioned with the ugliness and cruelty of slavery in the South, Trace Grayson leaves his young medical career to go west, hoping to leave bigotry and hatred behind. He begins taking goods by teamster train to sell in the territiories. However, this fourth time across, in July of 1848, he's stuck in St. Joseph, Missouri, waiting for enough wagons to join the train so that they can leave.

Knowing that if they don't start west soon, they'll be caught by snow in the mountains, Trace is thrilled when the final wagon signs on. Then, when the beautiful, young Dutch girl traveling with the last wagon is falsely accused of stealing and is detained, the whole trip is jeopardized. Thrown together by circumstance, Trace and Giselle team up to begin to figure out just how to make this epic journey across a continent a success.

With a deep sense of honor and an equally strong sense of humor, together they learn to deal with everything except the one trial that neither one of them can overcome.

Buy Journey of Honor by clicking on the Granite Publishing link to the right.