A Year Without Television: A New Year's Resolution Fulfilled!

I fulfilled a New Year's resolution in 2014 that I am considering for 2018. In 2014, I vowed to spend twelve months without television. Betting and joking immediately ensued among family and friends on how long I'd last. I was addicted to crime sitcoms ["Castle," "Major Crimes," "CSI," "Elementary," "NCIS," "Law & Order SVU"] and fantasy ["Once Upon a Time," "Warehouse 13," "The Librarians"] and political thrillers ["Person of Interest," "House of Cards," "Covert Affairs"], well, you get the idea.

These twelve shows were not the only shows I watched. Add news. With a degree in journalism, being a news junkie is a given. Add movies. Add the occasional documentary and talent competition. I've watched absolute garbage after channel surfing because nothing else was on. Addiction and inertia held me captive.

"My wakeup call was reading a statistic from the Parents Television Council that children in America watch between four and eight hours of television a day." 

They spend more time staring at a blinking box than in school! No wonder America has an epidemic of overweight, undereducated children and teens. And what are they learning? Bad behavior from reality television shows and talk shows? Egad. Four to eight hours a day is enough time to master a second language or learn new hobbies and skills. Righteous indignation rose in me about this monumental waste of our most precious asset--time. I asked my daughter how much time my darling grandchildren spent in front of the television per day.

And then she asked me how much time I spent.

blink. blink. blink.

So 2015 was a test. A cure for my addiction. I wish I could tell you it was easy, that my iron willpower helped me stroll by the big-screen in the living room without temptation. I wish I could say with a straight face that hearing others talk about the shocking season finale of any of my favorite shows didn't knock the wind out of me. When book club pals asked if I was going to watch the new shows "Sherlock," "Bosch," or "Outlander" my resolve quavered dangerously on the edge of quitting this mad personal quest.

Spending a year without television allowed me to read 35 more books in 2015 than in the previous year. I traveled to: Charleston (SC), Jacksonville with my girl pals, San Juan, St. Kitts, St. Barts, Las Vegas, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, New York City, Naples (FL), and multiple trips to North Carolina.







In April, I worked as a stringer/reporter for General Aviation News at the SUN 'N FUN Fly-In. You can read my articles by clicking on GA News. It was a joy to combine my journalism training with my aviation hobby and get paid for it! What rewarding joy!



Handsome and I also learned gun safety and enjoyed target practice under the watchful eye of a friend from church who had served in the Marines. Getting off the sofa has been rewarding after all.
Perhaps many of you will also opt out of television viewing for a year.

Imagine all those mean political ads you'll miss...and the books you will have time to read. Ahem. My third book will be coming out in late spring. So expect to hear more about the book in the coming months. And, yes, it will be available in print for those readers who refuse to read on a tablet, like my mother and mother-in-law.



So let the bets be covered. I survived a year without television! Woot Woot. Okay, so I didn't learn another language or discover a cure for cancer, but I wrote more, played more, and spent more hours each day toward my lifelong goal of publishing novels.

Remember time is your most precious asset. Tell me, what would you do with four extra hours a day?

Happy Christmas Adam!

Happy Christmas Adam! (If the 24^th is Eve, our kids decided long ago the 23^rd was Adam)

I thought about writing something profound for today, reflecting on the season. Instead, I found myself looking back at an astonishing year and forward into the Great Unknown.

Mostly I thought about our mountain property.

I wrote my very first blog post (ever) almost exactly two years ago - I Didn't Get a Tractor for Christmas.

Since then, I've shared bits and pieces about our adjustment to rural life. My husband and I actually enjoyed clearing the property (for a while there, we were in a close personal relationship with the guy at the county dump!) and loved watching the birds and critters who showed up on the new paths through the woods or at the pond and river. We've met most of the people in our valley and enjoy the genuine friendships that aren't looking to further a career or do anything other than get to know you.

This fall, we've begun working on house plans. Sure, we have a small weekend place that will one day be a guest house (fabulous for the two of us). It'll be interesting to have both kids, spouse, and multiple dogs here for several days. Let's just say the sleeping arrangements will get creative. :)

The further we got into the planning process, the more the reality of the transition took hold. In order for us to live here full-time, my husband has to take early retirement. With my day job, I can work anywhere, as long as I can access the internet. Not possible with my husband's career.

That Next Great Transition is what taps at the back of my head as I wrap the last presents, grocery shop and plan meals. Part of me leaps at the opportunity for travel, for not being tied to his work schedule. Another part worries, have we saved enough money. And another part thinks, Oh my (fill in your own blank), he'll be home All The Time.

So, what transforming events do you see on your planning horizon?

Writing news update – the MysteryThriller Horror Box Set is still on the Amazon Top Ten in its category and For Love or Money will be included in Entangled Publishing's Valentine's Day.

Boxed Set, releasing January 27,


Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

Driven to Distraction

by Janis Patterson

For my birthday last year The Husband gave me a wonderful new car. It has special lights, all kinds of gizmos and enough electronics to run a small city. I love it. I absolutely love it.

As a writer, I hate it, and all like it.

You see, my new chariot isn’t all that unusual. There were a lot more goodies we could have added but didn’t, but even the few we got are enough to make modern cars marvels for their owners – and hell for a mystery writer.

Who hasn’t read (or written) a mystery where the hero or heroine is in a car trying to get away from the bad guys, so they turn into a convenient driveway or forest or whatever, put on the parking brake, turn off the lights and lie down across the seat to make the car appear invisible or at least parked – but of course keeping the engine running for a fast getaway. Once the bad guys speed past, our hero backs out, and speeds in the opposite direction – usually without turning on the lights until they’re way off the bad guys’ radar.

Just try that in a modern car. Lights go on when you just unlock it or open the door. More lights go on when you start the engine. There is no way to just stop the car, engine running, without the thing being lit up like a Christmas tree. Even after the engine is turned off there are still lights, usually on a timer probably so the driver can reach his front door safely – all of which is great for a real life driver, but a trial for a mystery writer.

Worse, even if you can get around the light problem in one way or another, there are the various forms of electronic assistance programs, which are really little more than trackers. In real life they can be wonderful, as in the case of a young friend of mine who recently had a nasty car accident. Before her car had stopped spinning the assistance program was activated, with a voice asking if she needed the police or an ambulance. For her – and all real people – I delight in such life-preserving technology.

As a writer… not so much. How can I have my victim stuck in the bottom of a ravine so long that it can’t be ascertained whether his demise was the result of accident or murder? Or however I want to kill him? I can’t always have my characters driving old cars without all the electronic bells and whistles, and I don’t always want to write in an era before this.

I’m sure technology has always been a trial for writers. Probably some poor writer bemoaned the loss of the buggy whip and the (relatively) speedy pace of the Model T, to say nothing of the instant communication of the hand-crank telephone. Nothing changes, really – just the props. No matter how we try to adapt, how we twist our stories, there’s always a bigger, badder bit of technology just waiting to challenge us. But as writers we will win. We can always out-think a machine.

At least, I hope so.

Just don’t get me started on cell phones!