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Chautona Havig

Chautona Havig

Using story to connect YOU to the Master Storyteller

This Gal Breaks My Heart & Makes Me Laugh

by Chautona Havig · 3 Comments

Supposedly there is some TV show about gals in Jersey.  Me?  I’ve got my own reality show playing out in my launch team’s private Facebook group.  Two Jersey gals keeping me laughing, joking, and on my toes. Barb from yesterday is all about the cars (she’s a NASCAR fiend.  Forgot to tell you that), the dragons, and the books.  But today’s Jersey gal is more about the books, the art, and the cats.

Oh, yeah.  I swear she subliminally inspired Wendy Nabity in Christmas Stalkings.  And if not, she definitely inspired the quote below.

Christmas STalkings quote

Today’s Crazy Cat Lady from Jersey?

Meet Florence!

This Gal Breaks My Heart & Makes Me Laugh

Note: links in this post may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.

In her spare time, of which she has much since she’s currently unemployed, Flo enjoys a variety of hobbies including:

READING!!!!,  Myst like computer games, binge watching movies and TV shows with hubs, crocheting, gardening and yard work, but most of all pottery and making art in all different mediums.”

But that unemployment thing has also encouraged Flo to branch out a bit.  When I heard she’d decided to try to go freelance instead of back to the 9-to-5 grind, she said:

Trying to emerge from being enclosed in office jobs for too many years, I’m actually trying my hand in a number of different areas.  I know people say “focus,” but Michelangelo, my favorite artist of all time was encouraged to diversify. His mentor told him that to only work in one area would not provide for when jobs in that field were scarce and for when he had a creative block in one area, he could work in another.”

Well, that’s pretty cool!  I like that.  And not just because I’m always working on multiple things!

Now, of course, we needed more specifics than that, so Flo obliged:

This is some of what I can do right now to work with you to help you with the tasks that keep you from the thing you love to do (use my UpWork link below – setting up an account is very easy. After you do that, click on my UpWork link or look for me Florence W (there’s two of us – I’m in the United States) and invite me to your job – please remember, no job is too small):

  • Review and help edit articles, web pages, books  –  I have a good eye for spelling, grammar and format.  Maybe someday I’ll add editing courses to my “iron fire”.
  • Organize contact lists
  • Photo editing and refining
  • Article writing
  • Bookkeeping
  • QuickBooks, Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office Suite, web site maintenance, research, social media (Twitter, FaceBook, Pinterest etc.)  illustration and design

Other irons in my fire are:

Creating and submitting textile designs to Spoonflower.com, learning website building,  making pottery, blogging, maybe virtual art lessons for homeschoolers.”

Now THAT is one dangerous fire!  She’s juggling tons of hot irons!  Hopefully, she won’t get burned!  Hee hee.  To find Flo, you can go to the links below (Spoonflower & blogs are sparse today but that’ll change)

  • UpWork profile
  • Spoonflower Shop
  • Out of a Fire Blog: Note: this is one amazing story. You want to read this!
  • FloCat Blog
  • FaceBook 

I totally cracked up at Flo’s response to my question about the coolest place she’s been.  She said:

Oh my, I’m so boring … is this in reality or in my imagination while watching TV or movies – imagination wise, probably traveling with Dr. Who in the TARDIS.  In reality, Aerosmith’s Rock n Roller Coaster at MGM Studios in Disney World.”

But she WASN’T very forthcoming on that favorite authors thing:

Oh man … come back to me on this one … too many 🙂

So, since I’m obviously not one of her favorite authors, I did have to wonder why she chose to join the team…

It would be crude to say “free books!!!” hahahahha … but seriously, because I wanted to help promote Chautona, as her writing is so rich and good and wholesome and intriguing and the romance is not full of all that “tingling, electricity, butterflies in the stomach gobblety goop”  (not that I don’t like romance, I just don’t like the physicality of it to be so much a part of the story, kind of takes me out of the story when I have to read through so much of it).”

And that’s another reason that I love her, folks.  She gets me and my lack of “Stick-your-head-in-the-freezer kisses.”  I leave those up to folks like Pepper Basham.

Flo has been with me since I started—back with Carol and the Belles!  WOOT! And she did kind of break my heart with her answer on which book she’s looking most forward to.

Look what she said:

SHHOOOOT!!!   I just looked at the Coming Soon list and thought …can I say all of them except the Legacy of the Vines one?   Don’t get me wrong, on the scale of 1 to 10, they are all 10, but the Legacy one, meh about 8, so still up there, but not way up there :-)”

My poor, dear, Avelino.  It’s okay, Avie… Dacia loves you.  🙂

Past Forward CollectionShe made up for it, though. 

Guess who ELSE is a Past Forward fiend?  Yep. On the “pick a side” question she said:

 You forgot Willow – so I’ll stick her in here.  I’m definitely “TEAM WILLOW!!!”

Um, Flo.  I’m not hip on all things modern, but I’m pretty sure that gets a hashtag.  #TeamWillow.

As for the rest:

Alexa or Madeline?  –  Madeline
Mac or Luke?  –  Luke
Joe or Keith?  –  Keith
Cassie or Kaye?  –  Kaye
Wynnewood or Legends?   WYNNEWOOD!!!!

Then she said:

If you put Leo on here I’d say “Team Leo” too, because he was a good boy who looked like a bad boy … my favorite kind 😉  hahahahaha!!!”

Okay, you  TOTALLY are forgiven for dissing my dear Avelino.  Because I think Leo is the bees knees, too!  I think it’s time we get to see him hold a little daughter…

Flo made things extra fun.  She asked:

Question:  How do you keep all these stories, all these people and scenarios and ideas  organized?

Dear, dear, Flo.  I love that you think I do.

Okay, no. Seriously.  I have this giant folder on my computer.  It’s called “Books.”  In “Books” there are 25,867 Files, 1,341 Folders.  30 GB.  Now some of the things in there are fonts, pictures, and book covers.  Music for trailers.  But there are a few specific files that probably would interest you most.  There’s:

  • Books in Print
  • Completed- In Editing
  • Ideas
  • In Progress
  • Series in Progress
  • Recordings (this holds all my audio plotting for books I want to do)

The system isn’t good.  It really isn’t.  The reason it isn’t is because it’s so easy to forget stuff that I’ve come up with.  But it’s what I have for now.  If anyone has a GENIUS idea for better organization, I want it.  I so want it!

So, two Jersey girls down, tomorrow:  Lucinda (she’s got a character coming, too… 😀 )

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Filed Under: Guest Post, Interviews, New Release Tagged With: Past Forward

Previous Post: « Every Team Needs an Authentic Jersey Girl
Next Post: Whose Name Inspired an Exciting New Character? »

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Comments

  1. Cathe Swanson says

    August 27, 2017 at 6:40 am

    Hello Florence!! <3

    Reply
  2. Lucinda says

    August 27, 2017 at 4:58 am

    And….in the middle of a meet and greet, Chautona tosses out a teaser. Leo and a daughter? Something else to anticipate! #TeamLeo

    Reply
    • Chautona Havig says

      August 27, 2017 at 5:25 am

      Hee hee…

      Reply

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The Because Fiction Podcast

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Episode 448: A Chat with Nancy Naigle
byChautona Havig

 I fell in love with Nancy’s writing with The Shell Collector. Imagine my joy when I discovered she has a SEQUEL! Eeep! Listen in and discover which characters you’ll find in To Light the Way Forward and what’s coming next for one of America’s favorite authors!

note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.

It’s been three years since Nancy and I had a chance to talk, and in that time, she’s been BUSY.  So in addition to falling in love with her character, Tug, and wanting to give him his own story, she’s written a small-town duet (and maybe we talked her into a third?) as well as a romcom duo!  Think we can talk her into a third of that series as well?  Because… SPOILER ALERT… we’re getting a third Shell Collector Series book, too! EEEP!

To Light the Way Forward by Nancy Naigle

A novel of overcoming deep loss, taking risks, and learning that life—and love—often surprises you when you least expect it, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Shell Collector. “Bringing to life characters you can’t help but fall in love with, Nancy Naigle goes straight to the heart with this story of tragedy turned to triumph. A poignant reminder to never give up hope.”—Sheila Roberts, author of The Best Life Book Club Feeling adrift after the loss of her husband, Rosemary sets out to visit an old friend on Whelk’s Island, undeterred by the threat of a hurricane. Before the storm hits, she finds herself at Tug’s Diner where she quickly connects with the owner, Tug. But the storm destroys the diner, compounding Tug’s grief from losing his love the previous year. The longer Rosemary stays, the more she sees Tug’s deep sadness and resolves to help him. Together with Tug and friends Amanda and Paul, they all pitch in to help the close-knit community recover and rebuild. As Amanda and Paul reconnect after losing touch during the storm, their plans to take things slow seem increasingly impractical. While Rosemary and Tug help the young couple navigate their relationship, they also find themselves building a friendship that begins to restore them both. But can that friendship convince them that love is possible for anyone who’s willing to take a risk—even those who never hoped they’d find it again?

Learn more about Nancy on her WEBSITEand follow her on GoodReads and BookBub.

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