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!

New Year life lessons from a cat

OK – so will someone tell me how it got to be January 12^th?  I’m sure it was only – what – a couple of days ago that I was  shopping frantically for food  for my family to enjoy over Christmas.  I must have blinked and then I find myself with all of  that food eaten (well – not quite all – I always think my son and his  fiancée will eat more than they do!)  and here it  is, 12^th January and time to write my blog.

Is the 12^th of the month, -  the 12^th day of this New Year of 2015 -   too late to write about New Year Resolutions?  My  friend  thinks it is, my DH   believes  any time is time to make  ‘resolutions’  - he’s been assessing and rethinking his approach to life for a few months now.

I’m inclined to agree with him.  I’ve never been a great believer in the fact that a small change in the date  - from 2014 to 2015  - can make such a great difference.  If that change in numbers was all it took, you could have a ‘new’ period each time the date changed – a new month, a new week . .  .  hmm,  I could go with that. I believe that any time is a time when you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off –and start all over again.  The dark, cold (I’ll say that again COLD) wet days of January  like the one we have here in Lincolnshire UK are perhaps not the best times to try that sort of  New Year New You type of programme.

So I’ve never been one to make ‘resolutions’.  Besides, 2014 was a difficult sort of year for me and some of mine.  Health problems, family problems, the loss of one of my dearest friends, all contributed to making it the sort of year to get through so that I wasn’t overly sad to see the back of it. And I have to admit that I feel like being rather gentle with myself and those I love rather than putting myself through a strenuous improvement boot camp.  Besides, I’m not the sort of person who like new for New’s sake.  Looking back at my time as a writer, for example – as I celebrate 30 years of being published as a romance writer, I think  there’s a lot to be happy about, rather than want to pull up my socks and try to push out more.  More. That’s another word I’m not too fussed about right now either.

So, if I don’t do resolutions, people wonder what I put in their place. I put one word. That’s right, just one.    One year the word was resolute – almost the same as resolution but not at all the same thing.

This year’s word?

BALANCE.

It’s a word I learned from my kitten Ruby. Well, she’s not quite a kitten any more – she just had her first birthday - but her approach to life is the same. Every morning she wakes up  in the same sort of  mood. She looks at the dawn, at the world around her and her whiskers quiver, her tail goes up.  ‘It’s a DAY!’ she seems to be saying.  And she uses her day well. She finds time for the things that matter, eating food she enjoys, running around the garden, climbing trees, grooming, pouncing on her brother Charlie the Maine Coon, snuggling on to my lap when she can, and sleeping through the night curled up next to my feet.  So that she’s ready to start tomorrow with that same attitude – It’s a DAY! She does the things that matter to her.

Sometimes when I look back at past years I see and feel that there

hasn’t been enough balance. Too much work/not enough work/not enough time with friends and family/not enough relaxation /not enough filling up the well of my imagination with reading etc.  And if there’s one thing the past year has taught me it’s that you can’t rely on things to stay the same and, sadly, people to stay around.   You need to find the balance that makes you happy to curl up and sleep at night and wake up bright-eyed and  crisp-whiskered  (well, perhaps not the whiskers) the next day.

So I made a list of things I want to keep – and  enjoy – in my life – friends, family, books, theatre, teaching the courses I enjoy  (if there are any I don‘t  then they’ll have to go. Writing – but not in the ‘must do more’ must meet this deadline – and this way  - it can sometimes become. Because then I don’t enjoy writing either. (Ruby doesn’t bother much with writing. She thinks the keyboard is a very boring thing – and the new books, when they arrive are only fun because they  come in a big cardboard box that she can hide   and jump out onto Charlie when he walks unsuspectingly by.)

So Ruby doesn’t think she needs to become New Ruby, or that she should do more. And I think she’s right.  So I’m taking my New Year life lesson from my very wise and  intelligent little cat – I’m looking at each morning and thinking ‘It’s a day!’ and trying to make sure I have the best sort of balance in the way I spend it.

What about you? What word would you use to describe your approach to 2015?  Or are you making lots of resolutions – how are you doing with keeping them?

I don't yet know what the UK cover of my next book - Olivero's Outrageous Proposal -  will look like - but I can share the Harlequin Presents cover with you today

My latest releases are two reissues -  first there's Kept For Her Baby which is out in the 3 in 1 By Request  called Secret Love -Child.  

And coming up next, there's the reissue of The Konstantos Marriage Demand  again in a 3 in 1 collection - His Revenge Seduction.

And the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance is now available on Kindle

You can catch up with all of Kate's news on her website  or on her blog.  You can also find her on her author page on Facebook.

The Writer's Life

I’m often asked, what is your writing routine, when and where do you write, and what’s your ideal writing conditions.

Over the years, this answer has changed with the genre I’m writing. When I wrote historical romances, I always listened to movie soundtracks, and surrounded myself with plenty of photos from magazines as inspiration. Making the switch to contemporary romance, I nixed the music. Probably because I couldn’t find anything modern without lyrics that wouldn’t be distracting. I still kept some photos of actors/actresses handy to describe my hero and heroine, but as for settings, I was living in modern times.

My current work in progress is set in the 1950s to the present day. I’ve written up to the early 1960s. I’ve bought a lot of books that have really great pictures for references, I’ve read a lot of journals and biographies, too. I also am a member of several Facebook sites on historical Los Angeles, and the San Fernando Valley. They’re great with posting photos from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Since I’m now describing the 1950s and 1960s, I will listen to that era music on my XM stations and draw some “mood” from it. I had one scene where it was pivotal to have just the right song playing. I found a Johnny Mathis ballad and played it over and over as I wrote the scene. The lyrics helped make the literary image I was conveying have more meaning.

I’ve always preferred to write in the evenings. I think because when my daughters were born, I spent my days with them and could only work after I put them to bed at night. As they grew up, I still ended up having more motivation at night to write. I never write at night now because I prefer to spend my evenings with my husband. It’s been difficult retraining myself to be more time-disciplined during the day. But once I get that first sentence down, I’m fine to dig in for a while.

I take frequent breaks to walk around or do some household task. I think the longest I’ve sat continuously has been two hours. I never drink tea, just coffee. Never worked in my pajamas. Always dress and put shoes on, fix my hair and make up—treat the home office like a normal office. I wouldn’t dream of eating at my desk.

I’m ridiculously organized. I keep a big binder with every character study, research note, photo, and map sectioned in tabs and ready for easy access. I edit with a mechanical pencil and never a pen. Never work on my book unless it’s on my desktop. Don’t use a pad of paper for longhand. I always buy my research books so I can have them. Two years after I purchased it, I still haven’t fully figure out Word for Mac on my “new” computer.

My dog keeps me company in her little pink bed.

I don’t ever put a fall or winter scene on my computer as a desktop background. I like the summer heat! Speaking of which, my series To Protect and Serve, Heroes in Uniform have two very hot men on the covers! An Igniting Attraction and An Arresting Attraction are available in ebook format for your favorite eReader. Since these covers are smokin’ hot—and it’s too cold in Boise right now, let’s warm winter up!

If you “Like” my Facebook page in the next three days, I’ll randomly draw a name to receive a free downloadable copy of An Igniting Attraction and An Igniting Attraction. Good luck! 

Book at the beach - Kandy Shepherd

Look at that lucky book of mine! I wish I were sitting on that beach towel with it in beautiful Byron Bay in northern New South Wales.

Sadly no such luck—A Diamond in Her Stocking is with my daughter as she takes a break from her university studies. It’s summer Down Under and the long summer vacation still stretches out in front of her. She’s having so much fun I doubt any reading is being done!

Meanwhile I’m at home writing. I had three books for Harlequin Romance released in 2014 and hopefully the same number for 2015. That’s why I’m writing, writing, writing and not lying on the beach. But I’m also rejoicing that I work from home, my time is my own and I’m doing what I always wanted to do—writing romance.

When I left my “day job” I thought I was sliding into semi-retirement when what I really did was head into another fulfiling job. It was a change I’m so very glad I made.

I’m not great on New Year resolutions. It’s a tad too embarrassing when the year rolls on and the ridiculously unachievable resolutions still haven’t happened. But I find the new year is a good time to think about change.

This year I really am thinking about making regular exercise an indispensable part of my daily routine in response to all this time sitting in front of the computer. So far, so good because it’s summer I’m able to swim which is no hardship at all! (I just wish I was at that beach with my book!)

Have you got change in mind for this year? Or did you make a change last year that turned out for the best?

Whatever you live you live in the world, whether the new year starts in winter of summer I hope you’re enjoying a fresh start to 2015!

Kandy’s third Dolphin Bay story for Harlequin Romance, A Diamond in Her Stocking, was a December 2014 release and is available 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.

New Year, New Books!

Happy New Year!

I'm so thrilled to be blogging here monthly.  I hope you all will enjoy it too.  I'm one of those people who loves writing down resolutions each year.  And--please, don't hate me--I'm also one of those people who usually has checked them all off by the end of the year.  It's just my nature to make lists and check things off.

This month the last book in my Holiday Heat series from Harlequin Blaze is out.  It's my New Year's Eve themed book and I couldn't resist adding a resolutions list to the beginning of the book.

Here's a snippet of the scene:

“What food do you want to try next year?” she asked, reading from the list and hoping that she could keep her courage until midnight. Only another fifteen minutes. She wanted him. She wanted this New Year’s Eve to be different from all the rest.

“Food, eh?” He wrinkled his forehead. “Not sure. I’m going with one of my cousins on a trip in Iceland to see a reindeer farm. So maybe reindeer?”

“I bet it doesn’t taste like chicken,” she said with a half smile. “When is that trip?”

“In the fall. It’s a Northern Lights trip. We spend three weeks up close to the Arctic Circle living with the locals and watching each night for the aurora borealis.”

That sounded...cold, but intriguing. “Have you done anything like that before?”

“Nah. This is the first year that I’m not competing anymore.”

She looked at him in surprise. “What? Why not?” If not for her reconstructed knee, she’d still be training and focusing on four years from now. The next winter games.”

“I have gold medals and more titles that one man could ask for. It’s time to set my sights on something else.”

“Such as...?” she asked, leaning closer. This is what she was searching for. What came after competing the way they had for most of their life? It was different for Carter because he’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. A little rich kid who got whatever he wanted. But that had only carried him so far. She knew that he’d worked as hard as she had to get to the winter games.

“Not sure. But this is my year of adventure. My year to find out. I’m working on that charity you’re involved with to help kids get started in winter sports, because that’s new for me. The old man is glad to see me giving back. Can you believe he said that to me?” Carter scowled. “I’ve given back a lot over the years.”

For a moment she caught a glimpse of the real Carter. “You have. I’ve heard about the board you developed. It changed snowboarding.”

“Yeah, that was nothing,” he said, flashing a grin at her. And the real man disappeared behind that flirty facade. “So what new food are you going to try?”

“Nothing exotic like you. I have a thing about dairy and have usually not eaten cheese. I know that sounds silly but this year I think I’ll give it a try.”

He lifted a brow. “Cheese?”

“Yes.”

“You seriously don’t eat cheese?” he asked.

She had friends who acted the same way when she mentioned it. “I don’t like dairy stuff usually.”

“Cheeseburgers?”

“Nope.”

“Pizza?” he prodded.

“Pesto-based pizza with fresh tomatoes. No cheese.”

“Weirdo,” he said.

“Like you’re normal!”

“Who wants to be normal?” he scoffed. “Okay...all kidding aside, what new thing are you really going to try?”

She looked at him for a long minute before the two lemon-drop martinis and her courage finally caught up with her mouth. “You.”

Click here to read more.

What about you?  What's something new you want to try this year?

Leave me a comment to be entered to win all three books in the Holiday Heat series. 

Kathy :)

New year, new broom...

The new year has been a bit up and down for me so far. I did manage to finish the revisions on my latest book, Vettori's Damsel in Distress (out in July), but I had medical dramas with the dh, too, so it wasn't a Snoopy Dance moment. More a wheez, cough, ouchy start to 2015 involving paramedics and a trip to the emergency room. He's recovering (having kindly passed on the bug that laid him low) and things are beginning to crank back up to some level of normality and I'm working through the sneezing.

I've fixed a load of pictures to the "mood" board for a new series I'm creating. It's going to be set in a seaside town on the south coast of the UK - a busy place, pretty enough to attract visitors and artists, with a sheltered creek for yachtsmen, a  fishing fleet and the castle that gives it it's name - Castle Creek.

Lots of potential for stories and I'm having the most fun putting together their backstories before bringing them onto the stage.

Watch this space!