Jennifer Crosswhite's Blog

Monday morning I woke up and went through my usual routine. I put my phone at my desk, went to get some tea, and came back and sat at my desk. I touched my phone to wake it up.

It didn’t wake up. I hit the button again and again. I’m starting to feel that weird, what-is-going-on feeling. Maybe somehow it really didn’t recharge last night. I plugged it into another charger.

And wait. Fifteen minutes later I repeat all the steps and nothing happens. Surely at least the low battery icon would have shown up. I’ve never had this happen before. Sigh.

I look up cell phone repair shops and start calling. It’s President’s Day and they are all closed. Really? Who goes anywhere for President’s Day? Apparently cell phone repair shop owners.

I finally find a guy who runs a shop out of his house. I’m a little worried but the Yelp reviews are great and I’m desperate. My other option is a one-hour drive to the Apple store. Luckily, we have a landline that runs through our cable company because we have lousy cell service at the house. No one ever calls on that line except telemarketers so we never answer it. I don’t even know the number.

I call and get his voicemail. And like an idiot, I leave him my cell phone number out of habit. It takes me a few minutes to realize what I did. Just as I think I should go find the landline number, it rings. I look at the number. It’s the guy I just called. I answer. He says, “Hi, you just called me?” So glad he just hit redial instead of listening to his voicemail.

I explain the situation and he asks if I can come right over. Of course. What else can I do until I get this resolved? I print out a Google Map and head out. I arrive at his house, and he takes my phone to examine it. When he comes back, it’s not with good news. He shows me the guts of my phone and points to the problem. A chip that had a catastrophic failure and took some others out with it. It’s not repairable. Major sigh.

He buys my phone for parts and gives me some ideas of how to find a good used phone. He even offers to check them out for me. I head home in the silence since I can’t play podcasts like I usually do. Instead, I look at the scenery, wishing for my camera. I’m grateful that I have all Apple products and that my phone constantly backs up to my computer. I have no data loss.

I decide to pick up lunch and reach for my phone to text my son to ask him what he wants. Except I can’t. So I get what he always gets. He’s a teenager. He’ll eat whatever I bring him.

When I get home, I deposit the food on the table and head upstairs to the computer, my only technological lifeline. How can I even tell people I don’t have a phone if I don’t have a phone? I put a message on my Facebook page, for whoever will see it. People could Facebook Messenger me. But not everyone will see that. Probably not even most people.

I can text people with iPhones via my iPad. So that means I can contact my folks. A good thing or they would worry.

And since I have Google Voice, I get an email if someone calls and leaves a message. So there’s that.

I find my exact same phone on eBay for $150 less than I paid last year for it. It’ll be here in five days with a rush delivery charge.

All right. I can do this. Somehow, this will all work out. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

But I find myself reaching for my phone anyway. I need a calculator, an alarm clock, my reminder to stand at my desk. All of which are on my phone. Not to mention my camera, my GPS, my podcasts.

I had planned to text a group of friends to see about dinner this weekend. But I don’t know who has iPhones and who doesn’t. And I probably don’t have their emails because who emails when you can text? And if I call on the house phone, they won’t recognize the number and won’t pick up. So I give up on the dinner plans.

For the most part, I think I’ve got it handled. I Facetimed with a friend I normally call. She’s got an iPhone so we could arrange it via text. I let my parents know what was going on so they didn’t think I was dead when I didn’t answer the phone. And I was grateful for Google Voice that let me know the guy who was coming to look at my leaky windows was waiting to hear from me. Luckily, he picked up when I called from the landline.

But the next day I ran into a snag. I hadn’t clarified with my daughter if she was picking up my son after school. As it got closer to that time and she didn’t come home, I tried to call her from the landline. I left her a voicemail but I was dubious if she’d even listen given she didn’t recognize the number.

She did try to call me—she hadn’t see the call I made. And I saw it come through Google Voice on my email. This time when I called her, she did pick up but she wasn’t planning on picking up her brother, so she had to backtrack. But if she hadn’t picked up, I would have had to go get him, not sure if she would be there or not. No way to communicate with anyone.

I also had planned to make a drive to go to a friend’s book signing, but it was at night and over two hours away. I couldn’t find anyone to go with me. If something happened, I had no cell phone and no way to even call AAA. Pay phones no longer exist. I decided to stay home.

I also realized that I know no one’s number. I wrote down key phone numbers and put them in my wallet.

But there are many things I do each day, like check my bank account balance. I realized I couldn’t order an Uber or send money via Zelle. I got locked out of Instagram on my computer because I couldn’t enter a two-factor identification code that was sent to my phone.

My hairdresser doesn’t take cards. She takes cash, or I pay her via Zelle on my phone. Which I realized the night before I went to see her. Time to hit the ATM.

While I don’t like being always reachable on my phone, society has changed. People expect you to be reachable. Apps are designed to be used with a phone. The technology ship has sailed and there is no going back to the way things were.

When my phone finally came, I was up and running pretty quickly. I did have to find all the passwords for my apps and get those entered in, but there was no data loss. But now, I’m reachable and have no excuse

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and if you’re like me, you want to do something that’s more meaningful than commercial. I came up with this gift that can work for anybody special in your life. 

I used a fun font on my computer to create a list of fun (and cheap!) things to do. This could be a list of activities to do with your kids or things you enjoy doing as a family. You could fill this with coupons for your kids or write things you admire and/or are thankful for about someone. There are a lot of possibilities.

Make sure you put enough space between lines so you’ll be able to cut them out. I then printed these out on red, white, pink, and patterned scrapbook paper and cut them into strips.

I put the strips in a mason jar. I cut up some of the paper scraps into confetti and put that in the bottom of the jar. And I decorated the jar with scraps I had in my scrapbook bag, plus I made a “Great Date Ideas” label to glue to the front.

Finally, I made a card, again from things in my scrapbook bag.

It’s a great way to use up those things you bought but have never used. You can also use leftover art and school supplies or find them on sale or with weekly coupons available at craft stores. Yes, it takes more time than buying a present, but it is loaded with meaning because it came from your heart, something everyone appreciates.

And something for you! I’ve joined up with other writers to offer our readers a special Valentine’s Day countdown with giveaways. Each day will be a post by another author so check the link each day! Most of us will do a giveaway each day plus a grand prize giveaway–a $50 Amazon Gift Card. Check it out!

Comment below for a chance to win an ebook version of my Valentine’s book, Be Mine. The fun only lasts until Feb. 14th! And checkout this link for the grand prize giveaway plus links to other authors who are participating. https://www.jackiecastle.com/valentines-countdown.html

If you get my newsletter, you’ll already know all about this. But for those who don’t, big changes are coming, and I want you all to know about it. And this takes a little explaining.

Back in the day, if you went to the bookstore to find a book, you’d scan the shelves. And if you didn’t quite get the author’s name right, that was fine because you could just browse around until you found it. You just had to get close.

But now when you shop online, everything is run by algorithms. And there are two parts of that that are relevant to this discussion. One, you have to spell the author’s name exactly right. That’s fine if you have a normal name. It’s not so fine if people don’t know if your name starts with a V or a Z or a B because they heard you on a podcast. They also don’t know if there are spaces in your name or where they are. On the Dutch Amazon site, they have my name as van der Klip. People also don’t know if there is a K or a C or one or two P’s. Needless to say, it’s creating a problem with my discoverability.

The funny thing is, I had always planned to publish under my family name, Crosswhite. But I got some bad advice ,and now I am trying to fix it. More on that later.

The other part about the Amazon algorithms is that they are all about the customer. They want to serve up to the customer the product or book they think the customer wants. So if a book buyer is looking for a historical romance, the algorithm will look to see which books look like a strong fit. Part of how they do that is by looking at what other book buyers have done. In my world, these are called “also boughts.”

That also creates a problem for me because I write in two different genres: romantic suspense and historical romance. So that confuses Amazon.

After talking to people in the business and other author friends, I am rebranding and changing my name. For romantic suspense, I’ll write as JL Crosswhite. For historical romance, I’ll write as Jennifer Crosswhite. And for contemporaries and nonfiction, I’ll write as Jen Crosswhite. Variations on a theme, but easy to type, remember, spell, and Amazon will see them as different entities.

Which leads us to the book I finished. Flash Point is book two in the Hometown Heroes series. It follows Protective Custody, though they can be read in any order unless you’re OCD like me and must read books in the proper order. Anyone else like that?

It will release January 15, 2019 under JL Crosswhite. So I have a lot of work to do to switch over websites, newsletters, etc. Which is why I wanted to give you a heads up. So stay tuned!

My best Christmas memory doesn’t have much to do with writing or editing. But it has a lot to do with a few people who reached out to a struggling single mom and her two kids to make Christmas special and to show them the love of Jesus. And it is that mom and her struggles that I keep in mind when I’m writing, hoping that my words carry her away for just a few minutes—because that’s all she has for herself—to a place where she can join someone else’s world and forget about hers for a moment.

Here’s her story.

It had been a hard year. She had told the kids not to expect much for Christmas. She hadn’t been getting any child support. One of her clients and gone under and hadn’t paid her. A significant amount of money that was not only supposed to go towards Christmas, but December and January bills as well. She could get her kids one gift each and the bills still wouldn’t be paid.

She got a call from the church secretary saying someone wanted to adopt a family for Christmas and would they be willing to be adopted. She was a bit surprised because she hadn’t shared much of her story with anyone, but a few people knew they’d had a hard year. So she agreed, but she didn’t tell the kids. She didn’t want to get their hopes up in case it fell through.

The church secretary called back a couple weeks later to ask when she wanted to pick up the gifts. There were eight boxes.

“Oh, that’s nice,” she thought. “The kids will get four presents each. That’s really sweet.”

“Eight boxes two feet by two feet,” the secretary continued. “The pile is up to my shoulders. Plus they’re bringing you food for Christmas dinner.”

She was so stunned she couldn’t speak.

She finally told her kids that someone had adopted them for Christmas and that they were going to pick up the gifts at church. When they walked into the room, Sissy’s face lit up. “Mom, this is exactly what we prayed for! God took care of us!”

The mom started to cry.

It took two trips with a hand truck plus several more trips carrying food and their little Jetta was overflowing. Food sat on the back window and under the kids’ feet. They couldn’t have gotten one more thing in that car.

When they unloaded the presents and put them around the tree, they had to be stuffed into every nook and cranny. She’d never seen so many presents in all her life.

What was amazing was how much time and thought was put into the gifts. It wasn’t just a matter of spending money. Clearly whoever bought the gifts knew her kids enough to know their tastes. Plus, there were homemade cookies and hand-knitted afghans for each of them. They even got gifts for the mom.

We always hear how it’s more blessed to give than receive. But in Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller makes the observation that it can be hard to receive because it implies need, and we don’t like to be needy people. We like to be the ones who have the surplus to give from.

It’s hard to accept other people’s help. But the Bible says to tell of the Lord’s wonders and faithfulness. Psalm 78:4 says, “We will not hide these truths from our children but will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord. We will tell of his power and the mighty miracles he did.”

Because, bottom line, this is about God and His faithfulness. He provided. Not just for their needs, like He’s promised to do. But for some of their wants as well. And abundantly. What a wonderful lesson for those children.

And me too. Because I was that mom.

It’s humbling to receive generosity, even when you need it. I’d like to think that with every book I write, I’m giving a little bit of that back to every mom out there who is where I was, to anyone alone and struggling and hurting. Especially this time of year.

Take a moment to give someone a hug, a plate of cookies, a warm drink. Look around to see if you can meet a need. Or accept a bit of generosity. Take a sacred pause in the middle of this busy season to give, to receive, to bless, and be blessed.

I don’t know who adopted us for Christmas. I do know they will be rewarded in heaven, but I also hope they’ll get some little reward here on earth too.

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, I thought I’d share this with you all. I bet some of you moms can relate.

Our kids need us in so many ways, even if they act like they don’t. While this post was inspired by my daughter, who suffers from juvenile arthritis, it’s certainly is applicable to all of our kids.

When my daughter was 15, she was struck with a particularly debilitating flare up of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. She ended up spending seven weeks in a rehabilitation hospital. I was a single mom at the time. Our days cycled through early morning hospital visits, school and work for my son and me (all-day physical and occupational therapy for my daughter), grabbing a frozen meal made in bulk by our wonderful church group and heading to the hospital to eat said frozen meal, do homework (my son) and work (me) while visiting with my daughter. Go to bed. Wake up. Repeat. Our personal Groundhog Day for seven weeks.

Sitting next to your child’s hospital bed will give you time to think. My daughter was fifteen, but she still wanted her mom with her. So I spent as much time as my job, and my son’s needs, allowed. And while I was sitting next to her, holding her hand, encouraging her through the pain of physical therapy, comforting her, or letting her beat me at mancala, I was struck by how much she just needed me to be mom. She had people to help her to deal with her disability, but no one but me could be her mom.

As a single mom then, much of my time was consumed by being the provider for my kids, putting a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs, and food on the table. I spent hours each day making sure everything at work was functioning properly so books and Bibles got published on time. Much of what I had wanted to accomplish with my life and my time had to be set aside for the time being. And I was reminded of the importance of that when I ran across this quote by GK Chesterton.

How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone? No, a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. (What’s Wrong with the World, quoted in Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge, Nelson Books)

The last two lines are my favorite because, especially when my children were small, I was everything to them. I am still their world, and the import of that can be staggering. I am continually grateful that I was able to stay at home with them when they were small. And now that they are older, they still need me greatly. Though instead of wiping noses and tying shoes, I’m helping with homework and making sure chores are done. And sitting by my daughter’s hospital bed while she learns to walk again. No matter how much your teens may act like they don’t need you, no one can take your place.

I have many titles: small business owner, editor, church member, friend. But the one that means the most is simply mom.

Hi all!

Earlier this year, I participated in a Booksweep promo with Coming Home for Western Historical authors. This time I have two opportunities for you: Inspirational Historical authors (I’m putting up Coming Home) and Christian Fiction (I’m putting up Protective Custody). Scroll down to find the one you are interested in and find some great new authors!

Enter to win more than 45 Inspirational Historical Romances, including books from authors like Tamara Alexander and Sarah Sundin, as well as fellow PencilDancers Diana Brandmeyer and Liz Tolsma and a Kindle Fire! This giveaway ends soon, so make sure you hurry and enter! Good luck!

GO HERE TO ENTER > bit.ly/inspy-hist-rom

You can win my book Protective Custody, plus books from authors like Rosemary Hines and Dan Walsh and over 30 others as well as a Kindle Fire. This giveaway ends soon, so make sure you hurry and enter! Good luck!

Join the fun here: bit.ly/christian-fic

Protective Custody won Clash of the Titles for February releases! Thanks to all of you who checked out the site and voted. I’ll be popping on various blog sites next week to talk about my book. I’ll let you all know about those here so you can join in on the visits.

I’m on Clash of the Titles this week. In case you don’t know what this is, it’s a fun site that pits new releases against each other based on covers and a two-sentence blurb. Go check it out and vote (for Protective Custody–hint, hint!

I’ve teamed up with over 50 fantastic WESTERN HISTORICAL ROMANCE authors to give away a huge collection of novels, PLUS a Kindle Fire to one lucky winner!

You can win my novel COMING HOME, plus books from authors like WENDY LINDSTROM and KARI TRUMBO, MARGARET BROWNLEY and KAREN WITEMEYER.

Enter the giveaway by clicking here: bit.ly/western-hist-rom

These contests are a great way to discover new authors that you might enjoy. As always, when there is a large group of authors, these books can range from sweet to spicy. If you decide to try out a new author, please read the book descriptions carefully to ensure you are getting a book that is at your comfort level.

The contest runs from February 6-13, 2017.

Good luck and enjoy!

My first romantic suspense novel is releasing February 8! And you can get it for a special pre-sale price if you act soon! Click here.

Also, if you sign up for my newsletter, you can read the first TWO chapters now!