My first crush...

My husband (aka Himself) knows how to woo me.  For years I've said my favorite present from him was a pair of a steel-toed boots. (He'd seen me splitting wood and flipping a piece that landed on my toes which made them sweet.)  But yesterday's gift might win.  An entire collection of leather-bound, acid-free paper Robert Heinlein's book.  Oh, be still my heart.

My first real crush was on Heinlein's character, Lazarus Long.  So that's where I went first. I opened Methuselah's Children.  Oh, wow.  Reading a beautifully bound version is a different experience than reading my beat up paperback.  It was lovely!  Adding to the experience was seeing Himself occasionally glance over at me happily reading and smile indulgently.  

It might seem strange to non-book people to have a first crush be a fictional character, but readers get it.  I have a crush on all the heroes I write.  And I want to be best friends with all the heroines.  If I didn't like them that much, then writing the book wouldn't work.  I've been writing Romance+ stories...books that are more than a romance, they're a story of a woman's journey that includes a romance, but romantic love isn't the reason for her journey, nor is it the only destination.  My Words of the Heart series is first person in the heroine's point-of-view.  So I get to know those heroes through the heroine's eyes.  But at the end of Carry Her Heart, Ned gets a small word in edge wise...and every time I read it, even though I wrote it, I tear up.  He comes back in Hold Her Heart and opens the book...and again, he gets me every time.  As I sat reading Lazarus last night, I looked at my husband and understood why Ned's small POV's get me...it's because he gets his heroine, Pip.  He understands her and loves her in spite of her quirks.

Himself gets me like that and proof is in a pair of steel-toed boots and a set of Heinlein books.

Holly

PS The first two books in Words of the Heart are on sale.  Come meet Ned for yourself.

Carry Her Heart

Hold Her Heart

These Three Words

Can't Find NoBODY

Happy New Years everyone...well, happy new year +11 days!!  I hope you had a lovely holiday, surrounded by family, friends, love and of course Glee!! I've got a new (old) release for a new year!!  Can't find NoBODY!!  It was originally published as Found and Lost. I am so happy that this ebook version is going back to my title.  I mean, a disappearing dead body romance...could there be any better title than Can't Find NObody???  Nope.  I wrote this book for Harlequin's Flipside line...but the line was on its way out by the time the book came out, so this might be an older book, but there's a good chance it'll be new to you!  Here's more about it... ~~~ Fans of Holly Jacobs' bestselling Maid in LA Mysteries are in for another zany who-dunnit. This time there's a disappearing (and reappearing) dead body. As she hurries out the door on Monday morning, Markie Walkowicz trips over a body. A very dead body. She calls 911 from her closet, because what sane woman would stay on the porch with a dead body and a potential murderer hanging around? To make a bad Monday worse, the cop who shows up is Detective Zac Marshall--her longtime (former) friend. He announces there's nobody...uh, no body on her porch. Over the next few days that body in its orange and green plaid suit keeps turning up—but never sticks around long enough for Zac to see it. Will he have to hang around full-time before he believes her? Markie eventually admits that having Zac hang around isn't that bad. Even if she can't find no body, maybe she has found her somebody. Read Can't Find NoBODY Reviews: "Holly Jacobs' latest . . . is a delight. A darkly comic whodunit, it's her best book yet."  ~RT BOOKclub "Ms. Jacobs delivers a sweet love storyfilled with humor to enchant her readers . . . prepare to be thoroughly entertained."  ~Love Romances "Holly Jacobs is the master of humorous writing."  ~Writers Unlimited Reviewer "Holly Jacobs hits the laugh track again with this fabulously funny tale of love and mystery."  ~Romance Junkies ". . . an exceptionally humorous and delightful tale."  ~CataRomance Reviews

Here's my new cover for my second release in 2017  Not Precisely Pregnant.  I pitched this romantic comedy to my editor as Shrek meets Pollyanna!  It features two reporters...one who covers hard hitting news stories and one who reports using the tagline Nice News Matters. To be honest, I do love nice news and think the world could use more of it!  It's out February 7th!  But you can preorder it now!!

My books World Travels: Carry Her Heart went going to Turkey. Dad Today, Groom Tomorrow went to Spain. Once Upon a King went to Portugal. A Valley Ridge Christmas went to France...for a second time. Ready, Willing and Abel? & Raising Cain are going to Spain. I love taking Erie, PA all over the world! I've got to confess, I love the idea that readers in other countries are reading about Erie!

As always, thank you everyone for all your support!  2016 has been an amazing year!  September's Hold Her Heart has been on the bestseller list and the first book in the Words of the Heart series, Carry Her Heart, is a bestseller in Turkey.  And Just One Thing passed 100,000 books sold!  And I know that every one of those successes is because of you! So again, thank you! I've signed on for blogging here for another year!  You can catch my posts on the 13th of every month! Holly PS.  The dead body in Can't Find NoBODY appears...then disappears. I set the book in Philadelphia not Erie. Why? Both get cold, but Philly doesn't get the snow we do. And everyone knows, if you're dragging a body, frozen earth is so much better at preventing drag marks than snow is! Can't Find NoBODY

Hold Her Heart...What makes a family?

Last time I blogged here, I talked about heading to New Jersey...and I made it! I thought I'd share the highlight of my trip with you!  I had such a great time at the conference.  I traveled down with my pal, Susan Gable.  She shot the awards presentation.  You'd think, as a writer, I'd have prepared a speech.  Uh, obviously I didn't.  LOL  But I meant what I said, thank you to the New Jersey Romance Writers group, and to everyone who's picked up one of my books!

My big news...my new release, Hold Her Heart is out!!  

One of my all time favorite reviews is, "With books like this, if you aren't a Holly fan, you're likely a robot." ~S. Stone   It's part of my bestselling Words of the Heart series.  All the books are stand-alone, and yet they all tie together.  

This book, like so many of my books, deals not only with a romance, but with the question...what makes a family?  It's a theme that I write about again and again.  You'd think that the question would eventually be answered to my satisfaction, but here's the thing...families are made in so many ways.  I'm pretty sure I could ask that question for the rest of my writing career and never fully answer it.

I look at my own family. It's diverse and always growing.  And to date, my heart has never run out of room...and I don't anticipate that changing in the future!

I've been calling the books in this series (along with Just One Thing), Romance+ books.  They're definitely romance, but they're more than that.  They're a woman's journey...a journey that includes romance but isn't the reason for her journey.  Yeah, I tried to coin the term Womance (women's fiction + romance) but for some reason that didn't take off!  LOL  Romance+ seems to be doing better!

Some other Hold Her Heart reviews:

I will definitely be adding this to my must re-read list. Five stars doesn't come close, but that's all they give us. Please add this to your collection and enjoy.
By Literature Litehouse on September 14, 2016

Thanks for another beautiful story, Holly. And thanks for how you've woven these stories together. I an looking forward to the next one.

Published 12 days ago by Amazon Customer

This was a great addition to Holly's works of literature. She reminds us of the treasure of family, life and love. Another great read!

Published 25 days ago by Beth Anne

This is a realistic story of a child given up for adoption and she had a normal and happy childhood. Her mother's husband comes searching for her due to his wife's illness.

Published 1 month ago by Hcquarles

Hold Her Heart was an absolutely beautiful and emotional read. I cried my eyes out. Holly Jacobs truly played the emotion card when writing the follow up to Carry Her Heart. 

Published 1 month ago by Carolyn

A few readers read the opening and got worried...so I'll reiterate my promise here: There is a Happily-Ever-After.  Honest.

Other news...I started using Instagram.  Come visit if you have a minute!  

Holly

Holly Jacobs: Books are like Children

Today is the release day for Hold Her Heart.  It's the sequel to my award winning Carry Her Heart.  And I'll confess, I'm first-day-of-school excited. There's a big similarity to having kids and writing books.

Now, if you're a parent, you'll understand first-day-of-school excited.  I have four kids and I love and adore those kids.  But they are not quiet.  Even as they've gotten older, they're still not quiet.  And I'm a writer who writes best in quiet.  I know some people enjoy music or noisy coffee houses while they write.  But I just don't work that way.  I like silence.  My favorite place in the world to write is out at camp.  I love having no sounds other than the birds.  So you can imagine my love of the first day of school.  I'm like this:

It's a mixture of happiness for me, but also there's an element of excitement for my kids because I was that nerd kid who loved going back to school and I always wanted my kids to feel that same excitement.  I loved the sound a brand new text book makes the first time it opens.  It's a creak of the binding that says you are going to learn so much in me.  I loved the way the school smells.  I loved...  I really enjoyed school! LOL

But how is a new release like having a kid? you ask.

Here's the thing...as much as I felt that Staple's Dad's glee on the first day of school, and as much as I remembered my own love of school, there was still a bit of worry over my kids.  I wanted to get a teacher who not only taught, but inspired a love of a subject in my kids.  I wanted them to see old friends, but also make new ones.  I wanted them to be happily received on that first day...and the other 179 days of their school year.  I love my kids so much and I wanted everyone else to feel that love and joy in them.

That's how I feel about having a new book come out.  Like I said, today it's Hold Her Heart.  In Carry Her Heart, I introduced Pip...a woman who gave up a daughter and then built a life around her.  In the These Three Words, you caught a glimpse of Pip's daughter and knew there was more to Pip's story.  Hold Her Heart is that more.  What happens when that mother and daughter meet after a lifetime apart?  More importantly, it forces the characters to ask, What does home look like?

I'll confess, I cried every time I read the opening scene.  And I know it was absurd.  I was writing/wrote the book.  I know there's a happily-ever-after at the end.  Still I cried...I cry.

As I send the book out in the world, I'm hoping that everyone who picks it up feels as strongly as I do about it.  I hope it makes them laugh...and cry.  And if you think about it, that's exactly what kids do...make you laugh and cry, and make you fall in love all over again on a daily basis!

Happy Reading!

Holly

Bee Gleeful!!

Today, I thought we'd talk about some of my personal truths.  Let's start with...

 Yeah, I really try to find the glee in life and remember to be thankful for what I've got.  But sometimes life gets tough...no worries, I have the solution!

I know, that was baaaaaad.
I had a character who had a habit of saying little mottos...pick anyone of hers. 

I think they're all spot on!

I not only write books, but I'm a lifelong reader.  Here's why I do both...

And this is definitely a truth 
every dog owner knows!!

Do you have any personal mottos you live by??Hope you're having a wonderful summer!!

Holly

PS Carry Her Heart's on sale this month!  $.99 for Kindle and $5.99 for the paperback!  And Same Time Next Summer comes out on the 26th.  You can preorder it now!

Family

This summer I was at a conference and a friend attended a workshop where they asked the authors, "What is at the core of all your stories?"  We sat around the table discussing it and when it came to my turn, I answered without hesitation...family

I find the idea of what makes a family fascinating...there are endless variations.  In my Whedon, PA series, the family came together because of adoption.  In my Valley Ridge series, family was formed through friendship and happenstance. In August's Her Second-Chance Family, my heroine is a foster parent.

But April's award winning book was a bit different.  Carry Her Heart isn't about a family that's formed, but rather the family that's left behind...specifically the birth mother who gave a child up.  And even though her child went on to be raised by another family, ultimately the story still is about family.  It's about a mother's love for her child.  And it's that love, more than blood that makes her that child's family.  Like so many of my books, that book is built around the idea that a family is formed...not necessarily born.

And in my newest two releases, there are no children involved, but they both deal with family.  In 13 Weeks: A Novella, the hero is losing his grandmother...the last of his family.  He learns that those who pass on aren't truly lost...not if we have our love and memories to keep them alive in our hearts.  And in These Three Words (which is out in 11 days...but who's counting??) my hero and heroine are a couple who's been torn apart.  I came up with my tagline for the book early on and I held onto it as I wrote:  Sometimes the greatest loves aren't discovered...they're rediscovered.

Family.

For me, it's everything.  When I started writing I decided that for me, family came first and writing came second.  Everything else just squeezed in where I could manage.  All these years later, I think that was one of the best decisions I ever made.  I've watched my kids grow into such amazing human beings.  And I'm thrilled to confess, they've grown into my best friends.

So as we sit down to Thanksgiving soon, I'll be thankful for many things.  My writing is right up there.  But at the top of my list—at the very top—I'm thankful for my family.  They're my inspiration.  To be honest, they're at the heart of everything I do.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Holly

PS last year's holiday book, A Valley Ridge Christmas, and Carry Her Heart are both on sale this week for $1.99.

Becoming Real...

I've always loved The Velveteen Rabbit and that idea of becoming "real."  As a writer, I've always endeavored to make all my characters are "real" as I can.  One of the biggest compliments a reader can give me is to tell me that they felt as if a character was a neighbor, a friend...they felt they were so real they could imagine that sort of connection.

And it's not just that I want readers to fall in love with a hero, or want to be friends with a neighbor, but I want them to feel that connection with my secondary characters.

I wrote Nana Vancy for the Everything But...Series.  In the first three books, she accidentally cursed her family to bad weddings.  After she broke the curse in the last book, readers kept asking for more. So, Nana Vancy tried her hand at matchmaking (alas she wasn't very good at it LOL) in three more books.  She found her calling matching dogs up with their real forever homes.  And in that capacity she has had a few cameos since that last book. She showed up in Christmas in Cupid Falls and even in Carry Her Heart.  

I was so thrilled this week to find out that Nana Vancy's first books, Everything But a Groom was included on Booklist's Top 101 Romances in the last 10 Years.

As a reader, do you have characters who've become "real" to you??

My first real crush was with a character from a number of Robert Heinlein's books, Lazarus Long.  He was snarky, wore kilts and had red hair.  What's not to love?

So how about you?

Holly

Views of My Garden

Most of the time my books are influenced by my life.  But sometimes, my life is influenced by my books!

My most recent release, Carry Her Heart, has a garden that almost became a character.  I'll confess, I had a bit of garden-envy.  Especially Piper's milkweed and the butterflies it attracted.  So this spring, we put in a butterfly garden here.  My husband tried to tell me I didn't have room for it.  Ha.  There's always room for more gardens!  No monarchs yet, but it is attracting a bunch of pollinators.  I caught some bees in action the other day.

My favorite lines in the book were inspired by Piper's garden...
“Maybe we live our lives constantly becoming and rebecoming. Maybe we’re always in the process of metamorphosing into something new.”

We have a big garden, and most of the plots are dedicated to plants that provide food, but I think that any garden can benefit from plants that provide beauty and inspiration.  More than gardens, I think any person needs them as well!



I have always been a reader, and so many of my favorite books have inspired me to change.  I didn't expect the books I write—books that come from me—to change and influence me as well.  But they do.  In so many ways.

How about you?  Is there a book (or books) that have changed you??

Have a great Monday!!

Holly

Holly's current release, Carry Her Heart, is on sale at Amazon this week!

Memories

"How many of our memories are truly of an event
and how many did we rewrite simply by the telling of them?
 Until they became a memory of a story, more than of an actual event." 

 ~These Three Words 11/15 

I love family stories. When I was growing up, brothers kept things interesting.  One of my favorite stories is the time two of them started a fire in cinder block and when someone was coming down the drive, one of them sat on it.  (Please note, I'm not naming names here!  LOL)  But there my brother sat, smoke billowing out from under his butt, thinking that was going to hide the evidence of the fire.  Uh, it didn't.  I wonder how many of my memories are accurate and how many have softened and altered with the telling?  I suspect more than a few because now I get to listen to my own kids repeating our family stories and I can see slight variations.

I think it's kind of like something reflecting in a pond.  The real picture is there if you really look at it, but its slightly distorted in the reflection.  Sometimes other things show up in the reflection.  Sometimes a big fish swims by and sends ripples through it.  But if you look hard enough, you can see what's really at the core.

I guess, maybe in the end, it doesn't really matter if a memory is  accurate or if it has softened with time.  I think what really matters is the feelings that go with it.  When my kids look back at our family stories and someday share them with their own children, I don't think I'll care if the story is totally accurate.  I'm not concerned about the ripples and the additions.  I simply hope that when they look hard enough they see that the core of most of our family stories is...love.

I just sent my editor back These Three Words.  It's another of my women's journey/romances.  It's a story in which the heroine is forced to look back at her memories and her family stories. And even though I've hit send, it's still with me as I write this blog.  I suspect that this is a story that's going to stay with me a while.  And I suspect, next time I hear one of our family stories, I'll think about it.

How about you?  Do you have a favorite family stories?

Holly

Current Release:

Carry Her Heart

Carry Her Heart

Blurred Lines

Sometimes my real life creeps into my books.  For instance, I have two dogs, Ethel Merman and Ella Fitzgerald.  I'd written the Everything But... trilogy about a Hungarian grandmother who'd accidentally cursed her family to bad weddings, then she started a second trilogy where she was playing matchmaker.  I needed a way to end the series and...I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say Nana Vancy started matchmaking homeless dogs to their forever families!  She's made a couple cameos in other books fixing up families with dogs.

The dogs even made the cover...

That's just one of the many ways my real life infiltrates my writing.  I call those pieces, Easter Eggs.  They're sprinkled throughout my stories.  Some only I recognize, but some are pretty blatant so readers can find them.  Just One Thing takes places mainly on Mondays...that was an Easter Egg for my social media friends who know all about my Monday Glee!

So imagine my surprise when lines blurred and suddenly my fictional story crept into my real life!  In my new release, Carry Her Heart, the heroine has a wild garden in her backyard.  I wrote a scene I fell in love with where she's planted some milkweed and is reflecting on life in general..."Maybe we all repeatedly curl up in a chrysalis and emerge as something else entirely."  I loved that entire scene.  Frankly, though I have a big garden here, I fell in love with Piper's milkweed.  Which might explain why I found myself at a Master Gardeners' plant sale last weekend.  I have my own butterfly garden plants now...we're starting to dig them a new home today.

I'm used to my real life influencing my fiction, and when I started writing this blog, I thought I'd end by saying that now there are blurred lines and my fiction is influencing my real life...but as I wrote this, I realized that's wrong.  My writing has influenced my real life in so many ways.  There's a saying about most people live one life, but readers live hundreds (or more).  The same can be said of writing.  Whether I'm writing romantic comedies like Everything But a Dog, or emotional women's fiction/romances like Carry Her Heart, those characters live with me for months as I write them.  I literally walk a mile (or more) in their shoes.  That can't help but impact my life.

I'll keep you all posted on the butterfly garden!

Holly

Countdown!

In two weeks and one day (not that I'm counting—who am I kidding, I'm counting) Carry Her Heart will hit the shelves...and Kindles...and your MP3 player!

This is my second not quite traditional romance.  Just One Thing was the first.  When describing it I said, "It's women's fiction with romance."  But in the nine months since its release, I've been thinking about that definition and decided that a woman's journey that includes romance is closer.  When Just One Thing came out, more than one person said, write more like that.  I hope Carry Her Heart is what they wanted.

It's the story of Piper George.  She got pregnant in her teens and gave the baby up for adoption...then built a life around that child she only held for an hour.  She lives a quiet, but meaningful life. When a new neighbor moves in, things change...maybe for the better.
As always, I slipped a few Easter Eggs in for friends and regular readers.

Yes, she wears holey jeans, hates shopping for new ones (hates shopping for almost anything) and...  Well, there are a few more foibles that Piper and I share. LOL

I hope you'll watch for Carry Her Heart and take a journey with Piper!

Holly

PS. Piper's notebook is an ongoing theme in the story, so to celebrate, I'm giving away a journal at the end of the month!  This is my year of the reader, so I'm giving away something each month to readers.  If you get my newsletter, you're already entered.  If not, you can sign up for it here: newsletter.

The Perks of Being Fictional

Holly RWA '06

I posted on social media this week about July's RWA Conference.  I'm so excited that I'll be attending...I'll get to see my friends.  My kids refer to my writing friends as my 'invisible' friends.  Once when I mentioned an out of town friend, a particular child asked if they were with us now...was I talking to them?  Implying of course, that my friends are fictional.  

You'd think I'd be insulted.  But I do understand their confusion.  I've been known to talk about characters the same way.  I spend months invested in these fictional people's lives, and they do feel like friends.  As I write them, they get a bit more real and take on a bit more autonomy.  It's not unheard of to have a character do something that I totally didn't expect.  And like friends, I miss them when they're gone.

Last year, I wrote Carry Her Heart, a book about Piper and Ned—two everyday people who fell in love.  Piper has a garden that puts mine to shame.  She's forever puttering around it, adding new plants.  The rest of her house is very organized and neat, but her garden...it gives the Secret Garden a run for its money.  Ned...well, I describe him in the book as an every-man sort of guy.  He's a put-one-foot-in-front-of-the-other kind of guy.  They're just two average people who come together and find something that's anything but average.  It's magic.  When I finished the book, I realized how much I missed them both.  And then I realized...there was more story to tell.  It's not actually Ned and Piper's story.  It's someone else that you'll meet in their book.  But Ned and Piper will be a part of the new story.  I got back from vacation a week ago and I've started working on the new book.  It's like coming home...like going to a writers' conference and getting to meet up with all my 'invisible' friends.

I guess the idea of fictional (and invisible) friends seems natural to me...I grew up in books.  My first real honest to goodness crush was on a fictional character!  I reread some books so often, the characters did feel real...like friends.  I don't think I'm the only one.  Have you ever loved a character so much they feel real to you?

Holly

Happy New Year...okay, well, the new year is almost two weeks old, but I'm still celebrating!!

This is the time of year to look at who you are and decide who you want to be.  Every year I try to move a little closer to my ideal self.  And rather than New Year's resolutions, I've using a word of the year as a touchstone.  I've been using a word of the year for...well, years now!  It's nice to see that the trend is catching on!  Yep, that's me...a trendsetter!  LOL

I've had words like last years, Step as well as Optimism, Change, Awareness, Moment...   I pick a word, post it prominently on my desk and try to use it as a focus for the year.    I've been mulling 2015's word for a while now and hit upon it last night as I was drifting off to sleep.  Drumroll please.  The word is...STRETCH.  Like last year's Step, the word has both physical and mental applications.  Physically, I'm hoping to try to add a bit of yoga to my daily 10,000 step routine (btw, I did make my 10,000 steps every day last year!!).  I'd like to become more limber and flexible.  I'd like to become more limber and flexible in my inner life as well!  I want to step out of my comfort range and try new things.  I want to expand my way of thinking and try to look at things from a new perspective.  

Yes, I like the word Stretch!  It makes a great word to center my year around!   I think I'll need that limberness as I look at my year's schedule!  I've got three releases (Carry Her Heart in April, Her Second Chance Family in August, and The Way We Used to Be in November).  I've started scheduling speaking gigs...there's Ohio and NY so far.  I've got a lot of books to write for 2016.  And I have some family trips planned...a cruise and in the fall, my husband and I are meeting my best friend and her husband in Florida!  Yep, I think that a bit of limberness is in order!  How about you?  Do you have a word of the year??  If not, you've still got time to find one!

Holly

PS 2015 is a year of giveaways for my subscribers! Not a subscriber?  You can sign-up here and be automatically entered in the year's giveaways!