The time has come for a change with regards to my blog. My eventual goal is to have a fantabulous website created but until then I plan to tinker with WordPress, narrowing down what I would like in this fantabulous website I envision for myself. I’ve already spent a significant amount of time changing templates and obsessing over whether the text was just right. Yes, it’s pretty crazy, but I gotta be me.

I’ve also embarked on a blogging collective with my good friends Billy London and Nikki Winter. We have dubbed ourselves The Trifecta and decided to introduce the masses to our special brand of literary debauchery. Weyward Thoughts will be an opportunity for fans to check in and see what we usually keep behind closed doors (smirk).

If you are already starting to miss those lovely posts from my old blog, never fear, I won’t be shutting it down. Change is gradual after all.

Janet

Hello Lovelies,

If you’ve been a devoted follower of mine you’ll have noticed I’ve changed the blog again. If you’re not, well, it’s still a surprise for you too. Not only have I changed it BUT I have a very lovely banner designed by my very talented friend Bree Archer. I’m super excited because it makes one feel quite like a proper author. The excitement doesn’t end there of course, because the Contemporary Romance I wrote with another very talented friend of mine, Reana Malori, has had a cover make over and is up at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I’ve included it in the blog for your viewing pleasure along with the blurb.

Here’s a hint though, when it comes to make overs, there are still more surprises to come. *smirk*

Janet

Camden Turner has his life right on track. He lives in a great town with a small business that keeps him in the black, doing what he loves. He’s convinced he has everything he wants until he realizes he doesn’t have what he really needs, Lexie Martin.

Lexie Martin has left the hustle and bustle of Bay Area California for the quiet simplicity of Falling Falls, Colorado. Her small business is often times more play than work and she couldn’t be happier until she realizes, happiness is subjective until you have someone to spend it with.

Will Lexie and Camden realize that falling into love isn’t as painful as it sounds or will they keep on their separate paths?

Hello My Lovelies!

If you’ve been following me on Twitter and Facebook you’ve read about the shenanigans author Nikki Winter and I have had over the past week. I love my city (Los Angeles) and having folks come to visit is always fun. Our week long excursion through the city and eventual trip to Disneyland got documented and as always sharing is caring.

Janet

Hola Beautiful!

It’s Mother’s Day and I’m patiently waiting to get the day started with my own dear mother. I’ve been fortunate that, even with the trials and tribulations of adolescents, and some differing of opinions on that thing called life, my mother and I can still enjoy being with each other. That may be an odd thing to reflect on when it comes to the person that gave you life (I include adoptive mother’s in that term because the care and nurturing of a child is life giving) but at the end of the day we are two individuals that make a choice to build a relationship with each other. I’ve known quite a few people both personally and professionally that can’t say the same. Their relationships are often built on guilt, shame, or obligation and at it’s worst, severed because loving one’s child or mother is based on a condition that doesn’t acknowledge the unique autonomy of each individual.

So, though my mother may drive me crazy and I may drive her to tears on occasion, we can still laugh and look at who we have become together, and enjoy that process and the one yet to come. I wish all the people in the world that have been blessed to have that experience of still choosing your mother a joyous day, and for those that don’t physically have her with them, a joyous day as well, for honoring the choice you were able to have.

I’ve included a poem I wrote for my mother last year and I hope it brings you as much joy as it brought that wacky lady I still call “Mommy”.

Happy Mother’s Day!!

Janet

My Mommy

Unedited and copyrighted by Janet Eckford

Greetings lovers of the world.

Valentines Day is here and if you follow me through any of the varied social media accounts I’m attached to you know I’m usually quite meh about the day. After all my birthday is the day before and I find it hard to get excited about a day that centers around love when still experiencing the afterglow of being adored and worshipped. BUT I eventually play along and acknowledge the hearts and Cupid’s arrows flittering about and decide to throw my hat in the ring.

As I type this I’m standing in an airport about to embark on one of the many trips I take for work, watching the people around me chit chat, sleep, or any number of the things travelers do while waiting to leave on their trip. Frankly there isn’t much love in the air and my muse has risen up to the challenge, whispering a little interlude between lovers. I present it to you all with good wishes and blessings for love and happiness.

Janet

Unedited and untitled Valentine’s Day Story

When I open the front door I’m greeted by a plume of smoke and a harried cat fleeing the confines of the house. The sound of classic rock streams out closely after the smoke and my lips hitch up in a tiny smile. I have had a hard day, that is just an extension of a harder week but the burnt aroma of food seems to lift the cloak of exhaustion that has settled upon my shoulders.

Stepping over the threshold I see the living room has been tidied and the hardwood floors are shiny. Someone has been busy and my heart warms at the effort that was taken to accomplish this. We are a busy couple that is always picking up and going to some part of the country or world for work and today I didn’t expect it to be any different. Cards with red hearts and sappy poems are usually exchanged with dinner and wine. If we are in the same place there may be lovemaking but more often than not one or both of us are content with a peck on the cheek and warmly spooned bodies snuggled under the covers. It seems there are prices to be paid for professional success but we are confident in the unit that we have created and solider on with what needs to be done

As I walk further into the little house that has become our pride and joy, see the large bouquet of wild flowers and the candle arrangement sitting in the middle of our dinning room table, I realize that I’ve missed these little niceties and wonder why we have started cutting corners.

My love rushes out of the kitchen and halts abruptly once he sees me.

“You’re home early.”

The accusatory tone of his voice cause me to chuckle. I step forward and am immediately folded in his arms. He smells of the burnt remains of whatever he was trying to cook in the kitchen and it is the sexiest he has ever smelled to me.

“I had it all planned out,” he sighs softly.

Rubbing the tip of my nose under his chin, I smile at how sweetly foolish this man is.

“It’s perfect,” I whisper before I kiss the underside of his jaw.

“That’s because you love me,” he chuckles.

“No, it’s because you love me,” I pull back and look into his eyes.

It seems tonight there will be more than a peck on the cheek and warmly spooned bodies.

Hello Lovelies,

I’ve been a busy bee with the day job and feel as if I’ve had to neglect my alter ego and all the zany things I get into while being Janet Eckford. BUT because I’m a bit of an over achiever I still found time to write a very short short for Ms. Shara Azod and I know y’all (I’ve been spending time in the south) will enjoy it.

Check it out!

Janet

Sometimes the typical Happily Ever After isn’t what you’re looking for. Sometimes you want it quick. You want it erotic. You want it dirty. Sometimes you. Want. It. Now. Sometimes, you want something to make you sWet.

Hungry. Mia’s so hungry. Every moment that passes is a silent but deadly battle to leash her darker side, to resist the urge to return to her old life where all that mattered was the hunt; where she reveled in being the very definition of a predator. She’s managed to succeed in locking her primal needs away. That is, until Galen finds her again. Now not only is her need to hunt being tested but so is her need to be caught…by him…

Hello Dear Readers,

In my exuberance to release a book that was darker and longer than most of my other stuff I realized I’d jumped the gun. After almost three years of writing and rewriting and placing the story on hold I realized in the edits that it still wasn’t where I need it to be. Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t going to drag out forever but I looked at it and thought, this could be better. It’s a bit disappointing for me because I’m all about immediate gratification and once I’d written The End I wanted it to be the end. No more laboring about word choices, no more pondering if that scene or that scene was good. When I’m done I’m done and eagerly await my next literary adventure.

But it seems one of the things I will continue to develop this year is patience, particularly when it comes to my writing. I have all these great stories that ramble around in my head but when I go to sit down and write them my ADD tendencies kick in and I go for the easy fix and cut them down to the least amount of words I need to get to The End. It’s not really fair to my creative process to continue doing this and as I’ve looked at what I want to accomplish in 2013, I’ve decided I’m going to have to stop approaching my writing process like a first grader hyped up on Pixy Stix. Therefore, patience is a virtue I plan to cajole and woo until she decides in fact we can be hommies. Probably not besties but folks that can get together for a glass of wine and pleasant conversation.

I’ve included the picture of the cover as well in this blog because if I find it difficult to hold myself accountable during this process, I’m sure having this blog and subsequent picture staring me in the face screaming, “Oi! Get this finished!”, will definitely do the trick.

Janet

Hello Lovelies,

Well Hello!

Hello Lovelies,

I’ve been quite the busy bee with the job that pays the bills, traveling across the country, sitting in airports and on planes. Traveling is both a blessing and curse because I do enjoy the people watching and the few hours of solitude that being in a plane or crowded airport afford but inevitably I catch a bug and have to spend a few days recouping. I was fortunate this time because I brought a good book along that I was able to start while traveling and finish up while being sick. The title is Handling the Undead and the author is John Advide Lindqvist and the book has left me feeling pleasantly melancholy.

I was pretty sure I’d feel this way because his other book, Let the Right One In, left me with a similar feeling but this one seemed to sink closer to home. The premise of exploring the livings connection to the dead resonated strongly with me because it seems I have begun to pick away at the threads of my past, in hopes a clear link to my present and future could be seen. I’ve become quite obsessed with searching out pictures of family that I’ve known and loved but aren’t tangible to me in the same way that a photograph is, and putting them on display in my house as a reminder of their existence.

Summarizes the book seems far to complex for me because I’ve housed myself so deeply into the narrative of the story that it’s hard to disconnect the two. Of course it’s not the surface story of the dead rising but the deeper meaning of what does it mean for the living if our dead came back to us that I feel strongly connected to.  It seems a funny coincidence (or not considering the psychic connection I share with my mother) that when I was in a particularly emotionally part of the story my mother called to read a card she’d received from my grandmother several decades ago. It was a simple card, full of the tender endearments my grandmother was great at imparting, and as my mother choked up I could see how all three of us were connected and even though dead my grandmother still lived. She was in my mother and me and as my mother softly sobbed telling me how much she missed her mother, I realized that one day I too would cry with a broken heart for the loss of my own.

I think I’m going to sit in this happily sad place I have discovered for a bit longer and reflect on the beautiful simplicity of this story that has caused a well of emotion to churn inside of me. I may even look at pictures of my grandmother and read little notes I’ve tucked away from my mother. Text my sister, kiss Sig Other, and find a Christmas gift from my father. Revel in all the great little pleasures that come with being alive. Because now that I’ve had a chance to mourn the dead I really should focus on the living.

Janet