The Reader and Writer Connection

Susan and I talked about Perfection, which led to us talking about creating and letting go this week on our Trippin' with Holly and Susan video series. I'd done a blog post about it not too long ago. That idea of making then letting go is one I think every writer and artist grapples with.

I had an English teacher years ago and we kind of disagreed about books' meanings. She'd say, "The author was trying to say..."  I didn't agree. I might find a certain meaning in a writer's words, or in a painting or piece of ceramics. But I'm bringing my own experience and bias to it. If you read the same book or looked at the same piece, you might see something entirely different. So unless the teacher had a written explanation of intent from the author or knew them, she could only know her opinion. Each of us brings our own experience and bias to any art. We see what we want to see...sometimes what we need to see.

That's the beauty of creating. I create with intent. But once I let a book go, you own the story. It speaks to you in whatever place you happen to be.

That's a beautiful, symbiotic relationship.

Thanks to everyone who's partnered with me in the past! I hope you'll come back and check out my new Hometown Hearts series!

Holly

100 Episodes!

Last week, Susan Gable and I posted our 99th episode of Trippin' with Holly and Susan! That means tomorrow we'll be posting our 100th episode!! Have you seen them? We try for a nice mix of videos about writing, books, reading, tv shows, movies, Erie PA tours...

Basically, no topic is off limits! Well, almost no topic! LOL

As we approach finishing up the first 100, we're looking at the second 100 and asking for your help. We'd love to know what you'd like us to talk about. So please send us questions or suggestions for topics. Or send us places in Erie you'd like us to visit and take you along for the ride!

I know most of you watch them on Facebook, but I have been busy parking them at YouTube. So if you've missed an episode, or (eek!) haven't seen an episode, you can always find them there! You can post any suggestions here or on Facebook, or send them to me at HollyJacobs1 (at) gmail.com.

Thank you all for trippin' with us! And for helping to fill the tank by buying our books!

Holly

October Sales:

Salespalooza!!
Are there any you've missed? Now's the time to get them!

Hold Her Heart: https://amzn.to/31bbYKP

Steamed, Maid in LA Book 1: https://amzn.to/2olr0Af
Dusted, Maid in LA Book 2: https://amzn.to/2AVmniR
Spruced Up, Maid in LA Book 3: https://amzn.to/2MozA9i
Swept Up, Maid in LA Book 4: https://amzn.to/2LRuPWT
Polished Off, Maid in LA Book 5: https://amzn.to/2OtOptY
Once Upon a Thanksgiving, PTA Book 1: https://amzn.to/35fit2k
Once Upon a Christmas, PTA Book 2: https://amzn.to/2LS7TH4
Once Upon a Valentine's PTA Book 3: https://amzn.to/2nowNEF

Got Questions or Topics?

This week, Susan Gable and I posted our 95th episode of Trippin' with Holly and Susan! Have you seen them? We try for a nice mix of videos about writing, books, reading, tv shows, movies, Erie PA tours...

Basically, no topic is off limits! Well, almost no topic! LOL

As we approach finishing up the first 100, we're looking at the second 100 and asking for your help. We'd love to know what you'd like us to talk about. So please send us questions or suggestions for topics. Or send us places in Erie you'd like us to visit and take you along for the ride!

I know most of you watch them on Facebook, but I have been busy parking them at YouTube. So if you've missed an episode, or (eek!) haven't seen an episode, you can always find them there! You can post any suggestions here or on Facebook, or send them to me at HollyJacobs1 (at) gmail.com.

Thank you all for trippin' with us! And for helping to fill the tank by buying our books!

Holly

PS Check out my summer of Rom Com:

The Makeover (a bad makeover...and a fun comedy!)

How to Catch a Groom (a science geek and a romantic makes for a lot of fun!)

How to Hunt a Husband (a fake-stripper with a heart of gold and her fake-biker boyfriend try to fool their meddling mothers!)

And September Sales:
Laugh Lines (a book with the ugliest cover ever but a lot of comedy!)
Bosom Buddies (the opening scene is based on my years as a lactation consultant...and it's a comedy!)

Trippin' with Holly and Susan—12

Susan Gable and I have done a series of videos about writing and books...and today's release, about where we set most of our books, Erie, PA.

Yes, Erie is Eriesistible! It's the setting in so many of my books, but more than that...it's home! Come see why we love it so much in today's trip!

You can go back and check out the first eleven videos on YouTube on my aptly named, Trippin' with Holly and Susan playlist.

We had so much fun making these videos and we'd love to have you come along...so climb in the backseat and come trippin' with us!

Holly

PS. Carry Her Heart is on sale, along with the 2nd book in the series, These Three Words.

Polished Off

And don't forget my new release Polished Off: A Maid in LA Mystery is out! Check out Quincy's newest adventure!

Join in the fun at:

Amazon

B&N

Writers Who Lunch

  
   Writing can be an isolated profession. Most of what we need to do happens somewhere between our heads and our fingers and most of the talking we do is with the characters who inhabit our heads and our stories.We can spend hours, days, even weeks in our writing spaces creating our works and never actually speaking to another human being. Sometimes, when we do interact, it's hard to remember we must speak our words to them and not just think them! LOL! 

   To combat this separation from reality and people, many writers I know have little support groups, or even critique groups with whom they can talk - about writing or stories or just about life. Since most people in real life don't understand the emotional process of creativity, sometimes it's just nice to have peeps who do. 

  I'm part of a little group that we call simply 'Writers Who Lunch'. We meet up - some or all of us - monthly and have a nice visit -- talking about writings, publishing, editing, children, grandchildren and lots of other things. But, for us the focus is on writing and the issues of a writer's life and work. It is so great to breathe the same air as the wonderfully talented authors in my little group. Oh, we're a mixed bunch - from actively published authors to former writers to indie authors and all in between. The common ground, it turns out, is not the writing, but the struggle to continue to write and create among all of our other worldly challenges and commitments. 

I know we're not alone in this need. I know hundreds of other authors who do the same kind of thing. But I also know there are lots of these little groups in every walk of life -- my coworker's husband has a group called the ROMEOs -- retired old men eating out! It may sound silly but those men are each facing the same challenges of dealing with the changes in their lives because they've retired. So, I understand how these 'eating out' men are getting more out of their encounters than just food.

 I've heard of crocheting/knitting groups, women CEO groups, mothers-of-twins groups and more. How about you? Do you have a 'writers-who-lunch' group in your life? Who's in it? And, more importantly, what do you get from it?  Please share it with me -- and I've got a little trinket/giftie from my trip to Ireland for one commentor! 

Terri is currently working on book 3 - BLAZING EARTH - in her new Novels of the Stone Circles series from Signet. She'll be doing some events and signings to celebrate book 2's - RAGING SEA - release in October. Stop by her website for lots of info! Or friend her on FB or her FB page to keep up-to-date!
 

The Zone Authors Crave....

As I begin to compose this post, I realized -- and really for the first time since I started posting here -- that my scheduled day IS the beginning day of all four seasons. I never noticed that before! Uh-DUH!!  Worse, I just checked my last post and it was on the Spring Equinox - in MARCH! 

So -- apologies for once again falling off the face of the earth! Since March, I've written another book -- my next Harlequin Historical - Scotland, Highlanders, brave and brawny men and the women who bring them to their knees! All good!  Since March, I suffered the first and second-worst asthma attack of my life -- spring allergies killed me. And since March, I spent 17 days in. . . this place. . . 

Standing Stones at Drombeg

Cliffs of Moher

Poulnabrone Passage tomb

Waterford Castle

Kilmalkedar Church

View from Slea Head

 I spent 17 wonderful days in Ireland -- mostly to see places I need to use in an upcoming book, but also to see Ireland. I spent the first 5 days on my own - driving my little Irish car on LITTLE Irish roads, visiting standing stones, burial cairns and any megalithic site I could find in the north-west coast. Poulnabroune, Knocknarea, Carrowmore and more -- all magical! 

Then I joined up with writer friends to see the south-eastern and central areas - and then we headed for a writers' week on the Dingle peninsula. It was simply incredible - the views were unmatched and I watched some of the most beautiful sunsets ever. We visited neolithic and medieval sites and ruins AND, in a serendipitous twist, spent several hours interviewing the leading archeologist of the area! My thanks to Eileen Dreyer, author and tourguide extraordinaire!, for arranging the "50 Shades of Green" trip....it was everything I could have wanted on my first trip to Ireland. 

But the zone authors crave is not really visiting the location of the next book - though that IS wonderful. It is finding that place in our creative brain where and when the story magic happens. It's the place where the voices stop screaming and begin to tell the story and reveal their secrets. It's the place, for me, where the book writes itself. 

And whether brought on by the magical trip to Ireland and/or the deadline pressure, I came back from my trip and wrote half the book in 2 weeks! The characters spoke to me. The scenes unfolded before my eyes. And best, I reached a place in the story when I had to stuff tissues in the neckline of my pjs because I was crying so much while writing the scenes! I love that place! Writing friends have asked me to take a selfie of it, but that won't happen...! LOL! 

So, my question to you as Summer 2015 begins is - do you have a 'zone'? It could be while doing something you enjoy - reading, a craft, your work? It could be a place you go to 'zone-out' - the beach, the mountains, vacation. It could be any place or space when you lose yourself and just live in that zone.  Post a comment and tell me about it and I'll pick a couple of people who will receive a book and a souvenir from Ireland....! 

 Terri is home now and writing her next book - Blazing Earth - the third in her Stone Circle series for NAL. BTW - the 4th and final book will end at Drombeg Stone Circle in a cataclysmic battle between good and evil for the future of humanity! Visit her website or her FB page or profile for lots more info! 

Happy Summer Solstice to you all!