Happy Samhain...er...Halloween....er...All Saints' Day Eve.....er BOOK BIRTHDAY!

October 31 is a busy day around here. 

Halloween, of course, comes to mind first. And the original Celtic celebration of Samhain. The religious holyday of All Saint's Day is also in the mix. 

I try each year to not think about or look forward to the Christmas holidays until long after Halloween. I don't care if the stores have already brought out their holiday merchandise or if the Christmas shopping adverts have begun. . . I ignore the whole Christmas business until its time.  

Um. . . until this year, that is! Yes, in a small way, I've been thinking about Christmas for some months now. I've been living in the Highlands with the winter snows swirling around me as I wrote a lovely Christmas story about the magic and hope of the season. In my defense, the Christmas festivities in the medieval Highlands is completely different from the way we celebrate them now.

And now, the true conflict happens today -- my Christmas book is available on Halloween! Yes, I have to begin celebrating the Christmas holidays today. I mean, there's nothing more exciting than when a book is released and gets into the hands of READERS! Book birthdays are THE BEST day! 

This story - A Highlander's Hope in CHRISTMAS IN KILTS - is very special to me. 20 years ago, while writing my first series - the MacKendimen Clan series - I always wanted to give a particular character her own happily-ever-after. But, for many reasons, I never wrote that story. Then, a few years ago, I planned out the novella for Robena MacKendimen, and again, never got the chance to write it. So, when St Martins Press/Swerve (then) editor Lizzie Poteet asked me to write a holiday story, it was this one I really wanted to tell. I'm thrilled that they gave me this chance to tell this emotional, sexy story of a man who knows what/who he wants and a woman who deserves happiness and hope in her life.  I hope that readers will enjoy it as much as I did.

As a reader, I always glommed the Regency Christmas anthologies each year. For me, they were the perfect length for the busy times when I had little bits of time to actually read. I could read a novella in a few hours and enjoy a complete story. Rinse, repeat over and over throughout the crazy, busy end-of-year festivities. How about you - do you like to read Christmas stories now? Or do you save them for closer to the actual holidays? Do you like full-length or the collections of shorter works better? 

Post a comment and I'll pick 3 people to receive a digital copy of ONCE FORBIDDEN, the story that leads into A HIGHLANDER'S HOPE... 


 Terri is working on new stories for Harlequin Historicals and a few surprise projects, too. You can always find news and updates about her stories and events on her website or connect with her on Facebook.

A Year of Learning – Donna Alward

This year has been a year of learning.

I’m one of those people who loved it when a new school year started. The smell of fresh paper and pens…new textbooks, trying to make my handwriting neat as I organized my class notes. These days my learning is less structured, and very different, but at the end of the day I feel energized, like I’ve expanded my brain somehow. There’s a sense of accomplishment with learning that sometimes isn’t quantifiable in data or dollars and cents (but hopefully, since most of my learning is about my business, it does translate a little!).

I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction books, which have helped me understand myself, my working process, and publishing better. Since January I’ve read Show Your Work by Austin Kleon, Approval Junkie by Faith Salie, Deep Work by Cal Newport, and Become a Fearless Writer by Nina Harrington. The six months before that I read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson, Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott, and The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield.

Then there are the blogs and articles that I read each week – usually sent to me by my “inner circle” – Barb Wallace, Susan Meier, and Selena Blake. And let’s not forget the podcasts. Driving back and forth to my daughter’s university so she could come home for holidays meant a four hour drive by myself, usually listening to The Art of Charm sessions.

All of those things make me think and evaluate and focus my mind on my objectives, as well as understand why I think and work the way I do.

A lot of my learning has been “as I go”, too. Authors are small business owners as well as creators, and we can’t always afford to outsource. When I started writing I knew nothing about blogging, designing a website, running newsletters, social media wasn’t the giant it is now, and I certainly couldn’t design graphics. I’ve done all those things now, and I had to learn on my own. A lot was trial and error, and I get a lot of help from other authors, because that’s what we do. I do all that AND write books. There’s a reason why indie authors are confident: they’ve shown themselves that they can learn and self-start and be successful at it, all the while keeping a bigger royalty percentage. Romance authors have a certain level of confidence and versatility, and when it’s paired with the generosity inherent in the romance fiction industry, it really makes us empowered.

But there is always more to learn, and new challenges to be met. This year I’ve served as the RWA PAN Steering Committee Chair and the committee has worked to put together a really dynamic program. It was incredibly enlightening to work with members of the workshop committee as well as RWA staff to book speakers and find topics that provide high value to our members, whether they’ve published their first book or their hundredth. There were a few moments of frustration, lots of moments of excitement, and in the end, I feel like I learned a lot and understand much better what goes into planning an event of this size.

In a few weeks it’ll all be over for another year, but man, am I looking forward to sitting in on those sessions and figuring out ways to take my business to the next level.

www.donnaalward.com

New release: The Playboy Prince and the Nanny, SMP Swerve, August 1 

Addison Fox: Zigging and Zagging

I love writing. It’s such a fundamental part of who I am and I feel incredibly grateful that it’s something I’m able to do both for my own personal enjoyment as well as for publication. While the things I love about writing is generally far too long to list, one of the items that ranks near the top is that every book I write is a different experience. The act of story telling never gets old for me because it’s never the same.

The characters are different. The setting is different. And I’m different.

That last point can’t be understated. With every book I work on (and I’m linear enough that I work on one book at a time), I’m older, I’ve had additional experiences and I’ve had an opportunity to continue on life’s journey.

I’ve been formally published since 2010 and actively writing since 2002 and with each book I also realize that I never know all I think I do before I begin writing. For me, it’s virtually impossible to truly imagine a book until I’m deep into it.

Never has this been more true than the book I have coming out this week, JUST ONCE. This is the second book in my Brooklyn Brotherhood trilogy for St. Martin’s Swerve and before I began writing it, I expected the book would be fun and light-hearted. In the early stages of the writing I was even going to make the story a pretend relationship story, complete with ensuing antics between my hero, Landon, and heroine, Daphne.

And then something happened.

I wrote the first few chapters and realized that whatever light-hearted story I imagined had morphed into a serious, rather heavy story about my characters’ journey to finding each other. Landon is one of three adopted brothers and where he comes off as the easy-going, laid back brother, it’s a front for a deeply serious, deeply scarred man still struggling to overcome the pain of his childhood.

I agonized over this book. Would I do Landon’s story justice? Is there still enough fun in the story to keep my readers with me? Did I pull it off? In the end, the answer to the last question will be in the hands of the reader, just as it should be. Once the book leaves my hands it belongs to my readers and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

But what I can say is that I am happy with Landon and Daphne. They didn’t take the journey I expected them to take, but they became the characters they were ultimately meant to become. And for me, that makes all the difference. They may have zagged where I expected them to zig, but the journey to get them there made me grow as a writer.  And for me, that’s a happy ever after.

Thanks for joining me today!

XO,

Addison

Despite early ambitions of being a diver, a drummer or a doctor, Addison Fox happily discovered she was more suited to life as a writer. She lives in New York and - thankfully - doesn't have to operate on anyone. You can find her at her home on the web at www.addisonfox.com. Her next release, JUST ONCE, the second book in her Brooklyn Brotherhood trilogy from St. Martin’s Swerve, is out February 7. You can visit her at her website at www.addisonfox.com