What I Love About a Small Town ~ @AuthorKristina Knight

Some of my favorite books - ever - are set in small towns. From childhood favorites like the Little House books to my friend Liz Flaherty's  Back to McGuffey's or One More Summer. As much as I love La Nora's city-based In Death series, its the books that are set in small towns - like Northern Lights or her Bride Quartet - that keep me coming back for more. I could list more small town authors, but I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. I love a small town romance.

I’ve finished up a 4 book series set in a small Missouri town on a lake...very similar to the town where I grew up. There are dairy farms and orchards around it, the lake type of stuff, and there are five men who grew up together. Each of them left town for a while, but they've all come home, and are finding that even life in a small town can be filled with twists and turns.

I’m getting started on a new 4 book series, also set in a small town, but with a hint of danger and suspense - and I’m super excited about it. 

One thing I started doing differently with my first small-town-series is keeping a series bible going - there are character lists and business lists and some general plotting information. I'm going to include blurbs of the different books when I get to that stage, too.

Setting up my town with the series bible is always one of my favorite parts of putting a series together. Figuring out how the town is laid out, where things were located, how those locations might feed into the plots of the different books...there is always a moment at the beginning where it’s just plain overwhelming, but once the town has its boundaries, I find it's much simpler to write without overthinking the location of the local bar or the grocery store in relation to the heroine’s neighborhood or how the residents would get from downtown to a local nature preserve.

I'm also having fun setting up my pinterest boards and finding hero (and heroine!) inspiration for the new series...I've also found some housing inspiration that is making me consider more real-life home renovations for next spring!

Mostly, though, I'm finding myself falling back in love with small towns and farmers and orchard owners...and all the lovely and cantankerous and (sometimes) obnoxious people who live there...and I can't wait to share the books with you all!

Are you a fan of small town romances or do you prefer big cities and a more jet-set lifestyle? And, in either case, what keeps you invested in the hero and heroine?

Kristina Knight’s sweet romance, Moonlight Match is available now! 

Moonlight Match is part of the Resort to Romance continuity project ~ 10 sweet romances, all set during a week-long matchmaking event in the Bahamas! 

Aster Harrington believes in love but love doesn’t seem to believe in her. She’s hoping Goldie and Ginny, the matchmakers who’ve matched on two generations of Harringtons, can work a little love magic for her…

Some call Ethan Talbot rigid, but he prefers to think of himself as prepared. Unfortunately, when he’s matched with Aster Harrington at Joy Island’s Matchmaking Week, all those carefully prepared plans go out the window. He can get back to finding a suitable wife once he’s home in New York. After all, how much damage can one week in the Bahamas do to his plans?


Kristina Knight is a contemporary romance author, part-time swim-kid wrangler, and full-time ThinMints enthusiast. You can find out more the book and Kristina on her website, and feel free to stalk follow her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

The Great Christmas Tree Tour 2016 Kicks Off!

The Great Christmas Tree Tour has become a popular tradition for readers, writers and even editors! I just love seeing how others decorate and hearing about their family customs, and plenty of you enjoy it too, because it's my biggest traffic event all year.  

Once again this season I have a great line up of trees and Christmas decorations you are going to love. You'll want to visit every day to see who has shared their lovely Christmas tree.

I have a few spots left if you'd like to participate. All that's required is a photo and a big dose of Christmas spirit. 

email me at SaintJohn@aol.com for available dates.

Here's how to participate and see your Christmas tree on the web: Take a photo of your tree as soon as it's up. 



or:
Take a photo of a tree you particularly enjoy, for example at a museum, a lobby or mall.
Send me the photo as a .jpg attachment. Include anything you'd like to share: a family tradition, something about the ornaments.

If you're an author, include a cover and a brief blurb about your current book, so readers can learn more about it and you.

Check back in the morning to see Laura Chapman's tree and a GIVEAWAY!

Cover art -- Kandy Shepherd

 Covers are so important, aren’t they? For books and magazines they are the first meeting between publisher and reader and do a lot to entice readers to buy the book—or at the least pick it up.

In my former life as a magazine editor-in-chief I was fanatical about covers, knowing what an influence they had on sales. We spent so much time on getting covers as right as we could get them. Our circulations people who would let the editorial team know in no uncertain terms why they thoughts sales had dipped or peaked.

When I edited a gardening magazine we had to plan our covers a year ahead. If, for example, we wanted to feature lilac on the cover we had to photograph a lilac cover in spring one year to feature on the next spring cover. The production cycle being what it was, we were getting those covers ready in the winter when lilac bushes were totally dormant! Same with rose covers (often best-sellers!), pansies or tulips.

Roses go well on the covers of gardening magazines (these are from my garden)

On food magazines, we had to do the same thing with seasonal fruit and vegetables. Cherries were a particular problem. Cherries are a favorite fruit at Christmas in Australia (Christmas is in summer Down Under) and we really liked to have fresh cherries in our Christmas recipes. So again, cherry covers had to be shot a year ahead. Christmas issues are usually worked on in September. There is not a fresh cherry to be found in either hemisphere of the world at that time. I know from experience!

You have to plan ahead for cherries on a food magazine cover (also from my garden) 

When I self-published novels I was determined to have good covers. I’m sure The Castaway Bride would not have been the best-seller it was without the lovely cover! (It was designed by the amazing Kim Killion at the The Killion Group.)

 I have truly been blessed by the cover gods for The Tycoon and The Wedding Planner my July 2014 release from Harlequin Romance. I just love this cover. To me it is deeply romantic and sensual in a subtle way. I love the way the cover models represent the story and I especially love the heroine’s gorgeous hair.

The Australian edition of the novel used the same image in a slightly different way. Again I love it!

The UK cover is also romantic and lovely and beautifully represents the story inside

How important are covers to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts! I’m giving away a signed copy of The Tycoon and The Wedding Planner. To be in the draw, please include your e-mail address in your comment.

Kandy’s second Dolphin Bay story for Harlequin Romance, The Tycoon and The Wedding Planner is on sale now.

Kandy Shepherd is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook and Twitter

Crowing about roosters — Kandy Shepherd

“Do you think we have enough rooster and chicken stuff in this kitchen?” my husband asked when my new placemats arrived in the mail.

Perfect for my country-style kitchen (even hubby agrees!)

He made me think. When we first bought our little farm, the country-style kitchen had a very cute border tile of farmyard poultry that we loved. It seemed to be a good starting point for decorating the room.

The kitchen tiles that started it all

Our friends certainly thought so. Our first rooster-themed things were gifts—ornaments and dishtowels.

Italian, but purchased in San Francisco when the Romance Writers of America conference was there

I enthusiastically picked up on the theme. I’m a lover of gadgets and knick-knacks anyway, and love to bring back souvenirs of my travels. So over the last few years the collection has grown.

The gorgeous girl in the middle was bought in Reno, Nevada when the RWA conference was held there, and came home in my hand luggage on the plane

Two years ago, a house fire destroyed most of our kitchen and severely smoke-damaged everything else in the cottage. Most of those border tiles went, only a row around the chimney breast (we have an old-fashioned wood stove in the kitchen) remained. Try as we could to find those tiles to use in the rest of the kitchen, they couldn’t be replaced.

I use this cute timer often, I found her in Mendocino, California when I was doing location research

Thankfully the other chicken-themed stuff remained. I like them even more knowing they survived the fire.

Bowl from a flea market, eggs courtesy of our chickens

The latest purchase is some beautiful placemats and coasters, exactly what I want for my wooden table. They’re easy to clean and look smart. I love them!

I didn't need it,  I just thought it looked cute by the fireplace! 

I’m sharing some of my treasures here today, but there are others. Too many? I don’t think so. My eye is too easily caught by a rooster or two. (And yes, I am writing a story with a rooster in it!)

We have real chickens, too. Thirteen Isa Browns at the moment who look wonderful in the yard and give us beautiful brown eggs—perhaps my favorite chicken-themed items of all!

Meet Ginger, we rescued her from the jaws of a fox and my daughter nursed her back to health

I have friends who collect owls, dolphins and cats. My daughter loves anything with Audrey Hepburn on it. It makes gift-giving so easy! What about you? Do you have a favorite theme for collecting? Anything unusual? A theme you’ve grown tired of? Please leave a comment—I’d love to hear about it!

Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction.

Her new contemporary women's fiction e-book, Reinventing Rose, is available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, and other e-book retailers. 

Kandy’s romances include the Amazon bestseller The Castaway Bride, Something About Joe, and the award-winners Love is a Four-Legged Word and Home Is Where the Bark Is.

Watch out for her first release from Harlequin Romance in 2014.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Guilty Heroes - Kathleen O'Brien

Forgive and forget.


Great words. Words to live by, to love by. But pretty tough to follow.

I was thinking about them today, as I worked on my new novel. My hero and heroine are facing some difficult issues. In the past, he was a rat. She’s burned and bitter. Now what? Can I get them beyond this barrier?

Ironically, a romance novel is only about a third "romance." (I made that number up, of course.) Most of the book is about conflict. It's not a sweet, sexy list of little blue diary entries covered in hearts and exclamation points. It's an exploration of a couple’s struggle to overcome the obstacles that stand between them and a happy ending.

So, paradoxically, the best romances are the ones in which those hurdles are really big and bad. But there's the hitch. How bad is too bad? Is there something a hero could do that you, as a reader, couldn't forgive? Is there that one action that's an absolute deal breaker?

Think about Daphne du Maurier’s timeless classic, Rebecca, for instance. Max de Winter…. No, wait. Should I issue a spoiler alert, even though it came out in 1938? Well, here it is: If you haven’t read it, stop here. I’m going to reveal the ending.

Max KILLED his first wife. As in murdered. Really. Not falsely accused, not an accident, not an over-active guilty imagination. Gun. Shoot. Dead.

I’ve loved Rebecca for half my life. It has always had (and always will have) a place on my bookshelf-right next to the picture of my brilliant, sharp-minded mother, who introduced me to it.

When I first read the novel, as a teenager, I completely accepted that the black-hearted Rebecca had manipulated Max into shooting her, and he wasn’t really to blame. When I re-read it decades later, though, I wasn’t so sure. Something hard inside me just wouldn’t melt.

Then I realized that my only reason for not forgiving him as easily was completely illogical. I wasn’t feeling merciful because he was such a thoughtless beast to his naïve and vulnerable new wife.

Yes, he’s haunted. Yes, he hates himself. But why couldn’t he be nice to the poor girl? If only he’d said, just once, “Look, honey, I know I’m moody as hell and hard to live with. But it’s not your fault.” That might have helped. But he didn’t. He just kept brooding and barking and making her feel like dirt, which her “companion,” Mrs. Van Hopper, had already been doing for years.

And that’s when I realized I could maybe, just maybe, forgive him for snapping once, fatally, under the pressure of Rebecca’s manipulation. But I could not forgive his self-indulgent, bad-tempered, day-in-and-day-out cruddy behavior toward the second Mrs. de Winter.

Illogical, but there you are. Being unkind to the innocent new wife was the deal-breaker for the grown-up me—not the murder of the first one.

What is it for you? Infidelity? Violence, gambling, drinking, lying? Not being there when the heroine needs him? Not caring as much about her as he does about work or money or keeping up with the Joneses? Not respecting her family? Being distant or unkind to her children?

All of the above? Where is that line in the sand...the one even the best writer can't coax you to step over?

Romance Stories--Just What The Doctor Ordered

The most common description of a romance novel is the Happy Ever After. The courtship of a couple has a satisfying ending that speaks of a lifetime of romantic bliss. Whether the romantic themes in a novel inspire fantasies of real life experiences or soothe our souls, these stories have a purpose beyond the obvious.

Recently there was a CNN article titled: Unhappily Ever After: Why Bad Marriages Hurt Women's Health. The premise is that the stress of a bad marriage causes physical symptoms in women that lead to overweight in the abdomen, rise in the blood sugar, and high blood pressure. As women, we focus on the relationship and suffer deeply when it's not working.

The CNN article isn't advocating that more couples should divorce. Instead it shows that, if a relationship is hazardous (physically or mentally), then there will be physical consequences that are more likely present in the woman, than in the man.

Here's my take, as a non-medical or non-psychiatric, romance author. While exercise and counseling are advised and I wholeheartedly agree with such a remedy, I would also offer the average romance novel as a supplement.

The romance novel is like a power-packed, multi-vitamin. A woman would read a story that suggests ways to appreciate her mate and how she should be respected and not be taken for granted. She would read about sensitive heroines who trust their mates with their secrets, who aren't afraid to say what's on their minds, who share what they want in life, in bed, or in their hearts.

A woman could see a heroine who mirrors who she is or at the very least, some part of her. Maybe that heroine is who she wants to become. Immersing herself into the story, the woman can learn solutions to challenges that will test any union. She can seek that mentor, best friend, supportive extended family that provides a sounding board or good counsel.

But on the most basic level, a romance novel allows for a few hours to escape and enjoy a story that makes her sigh with satisfaction. What better way to de-stress.

Share your thoughts on the role of romance novels. A lucky winner will receive my March release - Only In Paradise. Read an excerpt on my blog.

Michelle Monkou

ALL IN THE NAME OF RESEARCH

As writers we get to do lots of things in the name of book research.

Some of those things fall into the category of "work." Hunting down people with certain expertise who are willing to talk to you after you tell them you're writing a book (these folks usually fall into two categories, those who are totally enamored with the idea of helping contribute to a work of fiction; and those who eye you suspiciously, looking for how you might be conning them.) Combing through thousands of websites on Google searches (at least this work pays off when the ten-thousandth one yields the tiny nugget of information you've been looking for).

Some of those things fall into the category of a good excuse to read a dozen books about a topic you've recently discovered fascinates you.

Some fall into the catetory of a really good excuse to travel to a location in order to breathe the air and walk the ground of the place your setting your book. I've used this one several times; but I'm thinking my next locale needs to be something tropical and exotic and unaffordable.

There are those that we do just because we need to see the colors as a gasoline fire burns, or understand jus thow dark the woods are at night and feel the sting of branches and stab of rough ground on our bare feet as we try to run through the woods in the middle of the night (yes, this was me working on PITCH BLACK -- don't tell my husband, or he'll start locking me in at night).

And then there are those that lead us to places totally unexpected, have us doing things we never imagined we would. I had the fabulous experience of working with Indiana Task Force 1, FEMA search and rescue dog team. Oh my gosh, those dogs are amazing. Their handlers are so dedicated, most of them train more than one weekend a month (this is a for-the-love-of-it occupation). After my initial observation of their training (in the fifty degree rain, in a dangerously overgrown and landfilled gravel pit they aptly call Devil's Den), my daughter and I volunteered to be "victims" for their traning exercises. What an experience! We slipped into crevaces in this huge pile of concrete rubble and the SAR teams were shuttled to the site in a Blackhawk helicopter (so the dogs could get used to flying right before they had to work). These dogs work on scent alone -- just looking at you isn't reason for them to alert, they have to smell you. Talk about dicipline. I was in a place where the rescuers actually had to send in a tiny camera to see me once the dogs said I was there. They found me all but one time. They found my daughter every time -- and this is a n area that covers acres and acres!

I wonder where my writing research will lead me next?

How about you other writers out there? Any unique experiences you want to share? Fabulous castles in Scotland? Riding in a fighter jet? Touring the AFT or FBI facility?

Just Like Family - Elizabeth Boyle

I got an email from a reader the other day wondering how two characters were doing. Had they resolved their disagreements and were they friends again. Of course the smarty pants part of me wanted to email her back and say, "Sure they are! Why they just went bowling the other day . . . " But then after a few moments I had a different sort of response--I was truly and honestly touched that a reader cared enough to ask about one of my characters. That these two men from my stories had entered her heart, just as they'd come out of mine and become family.

Who was I to joke about these characters taking on a life of their own, when I collect my characters around me and spin their stories and delve into writing huge, convoluted, inter-connected series and love every minute of it, simply because it allows me to revisit the folks that I can't let go of, i.e. Temple and Diana from Stealing the Bride. I've even dedicated part of my books and website to proudly displaying their family trees.

And those are just the family trees I show off in public. My writing files are filled with notes about the Danvers, the Marlowes, the Langleys and Knolles. The family trees I've mapped out and filed away for future books--like this one of Thatcher's family (the hero of Love Letters from a Duke.) Before he became the Marquess of Standon, two uncles and a brother held the title. To me these were important facets in creating his character, but they also brought his family dynamics to life.

I like to think that these families represent every family out there--well, minus the wealth, power, titles and servants--but they represent the families we come from--from the uncle who embarrasses you at family weddings by singing Danny Boy off key and too loud, or the grandmother who can't help meddle in your love life--I had two of those!--or the incredible loyalty a family can show when one member is struggling, sick, or just plain in trouble.

So in answer to my wonderful fan, yes, Alex and Jack are still friends. Best of friends. Just like family ought to be.

What do you love about books built around families? Series that continue? What makes you stick with them?