Little Things Give Me Glee

Carry Her Heart, 4/15

Last year I wrote an article about writers and creativity.  Most writers have other ways of expressing their creative soul...from knitting to my personal favorite basket weaving.  Okay, so I have another source of creativity that's giving me untold glee...hang on, here are some examples:

Carry Her Heart, 4/15

Christmas in Cupid Falls, Holly Jacobs

Just One Thing, Holly Jacobs

Those are my knees...and my favorite jeans.  My daughter made me throw them out, but now they'll live on forever!  I'm having so much fun using my pictures as a way of talking about things that are important to me, and my upcoming books.  I'm no photographer, and most of the pictures are ones I took with my phone, but it's so much fun taking an image and finding a way it relates to life or a book.  So a morning sunrise as I walk, or a sunset on the peninsula all become fodder for a new book.  And of course my dogs (Ethel Merman and Ella Fitzgerald) also frequently find their way into my pictures.

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It's not just books...

My dog Ella and my personal philosophy

I like to play with my photographs and some personal life philosophy and bits of glee... 

Outer Banks

Ella

Ethel

My backyard..and another good idea!

Ethel

My dogs, the peninsula, a trip to the outer banks...I've played with all of them!

Ethel is difficult to photograph, but sometimes I manage a good one!

Farm land outside Erie

This shot is a farm out near out camp.  It's about a half hour from Erie proper...somewhere between Union City, PA and Waterford, PA.  This is the area I set Just One Thing and Christmas in Cupid Falls in.

Ethel and Ella

We rescued Ethel and she came with...issues.  One of the biggest was separation anxiety. So we bought her a dog...Ella.  It's obvious that Ella takes her job seriously!

View on a morning walk

 So all these shots become ways to showcase a book, or something I believe.  Some are serious, some silly...but they basically are fun to play with!

I hope friends and readers online have fun with them as well!

~Holly

Presque Isle, PA

Ella

Presque Isle, PA

Happy Valentine's Day - when it comes!

I hope you all have a lovely day, with or without romantic cards, red roses, or chocolate.

So how does a romance writer celebrate Valentine's Day - well, actually, with none of the above!

No - you don't need to be shocked because, as I've said - quite often I believe - I'm not a fan of the commercialised 'romance' that comes into the shops on Valentine's Day. I don't actually like red roses - much prefer the golden ones I had in my wedding bouquet. And, besides, we're heading for Wales this week - in fact just as soon as I finish typing this!  - so any expensive flowers would be wasted as I wouldn't be here to see them.I'm not a huge fan of chocolate either and as I struggle with my weight it's the last thing I need.

But I do have a beautiful pair of rose quartz heart-shaped earrings. And,as I said, when we head for Wales and the Fishguard Writing Weekend, the Babe Magnet will do all of the driving so that I can arrive there rested and ready to teach (and talk . . .and drink a little wine . . .Did I mention that we rarely sleep on these weekends?)   No  - we talk about writing  - and life - and writing . . . And when the weekend is over I crash - until the next course of course!  (Which will be  in Leeds next month - should I worry about the fact that both my spring courses begin on Friday 13th?)  So  the fact that my husband does the driving to get me there is something I appreciate and value hugely.

Anyway,the point is that  for Valentine's Day the Babe Magnet and I will in fact be separated most of the time. I'll be teaching - and giving one-to-one help to my students and he'll be walking on the Welsh hill, lingering in coffee shops  and doing some talking and writing of his own.

And that will be just fine with me.  We'll  be giving each other what we want and need and enjoy on this day for lovers.  Which is really what Valentine's day is all about. Isn't it?   It's about Romance in the best sense of the word.


 Because the one thing I do believe is that true romance means thinking about he person and finding what they would like. Not just handing over cash for some mass-produced gift like the ones I saw piled up in the shops yesterday.  I've  no doubt that as we travel across the country we'll see even more of them.  But no, I don 't want a teddy bear holding a heart. I son;'t want cushions with love embroidered on them.  What I do want is a true love that has been there by my side for  years - but who still makes that extra effort for me (and me for him) when it's needed.

After all, Saint Valentine himself didn't send chocolates or even mass grown red roses - if I remember rightly - he was martyred  -- beheaded for his beliefs!

So as I say I'm wishing you a truly happy Valentine's Day with all the love and happiness you could wish for - chocolates if you want them -  red roses if you like them. But most of all the joy of knowing that the one you love cares about you too - however you decide to show it.

 My next Presents title  - Olivero's Outrageous Proposal will be out at the end of March /early April.

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.

Where do you like to read?

I was thinking back to the late 1970s when I read my first romance novel by Kathleen Woodiwiss. Shana. It was recommended to me by a co-worker, and the rest (as the classic cliche goes) is history. I was hooked! I read everywhere. On my lunch break, sunning myself on the patio, loafing around in bed on a weekend afternoon, doing laundry, soaking in a bubblebath, the beach, on an airplane, in a hotel room. I simply could not put a good romance down.

Over the years, I've changed my reading habits. I have to have complete quiet, no distractions, and I have to have good light. No longer can I read in the sun without my prescription sunglasses, and no more bathtub reading unless my bifocals are handy. And if I'm using my iPad for an ebook, the tub is a huge no-no because I'm afraid I'll drop the device under water and there goes that.

Recently, I spent a week in Maui and I brought several books with me to escape in. I didn't open a single one. Beach reading just doesn't seem to happen anymore. I'm easily distracted by the sunshine and wind, the lapping of the waves, a sunrise or sunset.

Contemplating the surf in Wailea.

Whale watching from the balcony at sunrise.

I spent my days swimming and just relaxing, thinking about those books in my keeper cupboard that I could read with one eye on the print and the other doing a side task without missing a single word. I certainly love a good romance, and a happy ending! So I will keep bringing books with me, and I'll keep buying them, and I'll start some today, and some tomorrow!

How do you read? Where? At night before bed? First thing in the morning? What have you read lately that you just can't put down?

If you post your thoughts/answers on my Facebook page, I will enter you in an ebook giveaway for the two books in my series, To Protect and Serve: Heroes in Uniform. I'll pick a winner on February 16. Good luck!

Growing a Story : : Anne McAllister

A couple of weeks ago I finished what I hope are the last revisions on a book that has seemed to me to be the veritable redwood of books. It grew and grew and grew. And then it got pruned, cut back nearly to its roots, and grew again. And grew and grew.

I pruned it back again, determined to get what was probably an 80,000 word story into a 50,000 word format.  Eventually it cooperated. To say that it is spare in some places is apt. But it had a backstory that needed to be front and center to make sense of what was happening in the now -- and why it had such an impact.

These are things I didn't think about when I was setting out to write the story.  I almost never think about things like that because, well, because that isn't how story comes to me. It comes via characters, via little details in a conversation that goes on without me while I am pondering . . . what if . . . 

It rarely comes with a plot built in. It almost never comes with a "promise" attached (see editorial guidelines if you don't instinctively know what that means).  It just happens . . . which is not very satisfactory from an outcome standpoint on occasion.

That is when rewriting is king, when you strip back the story to its essence (having written it, you now know what it's all about. You hope.) and see how you can bring it to life again without all the stuff you wrote to figure out where it was going in the first place.

Let me assure you that it's do- able. But it's not something you want to do a lot of.  And you never know when you start out that it's going to happen. Trust me, if you knew, you wouldn't start!

So . . . here I am again . . . starting out.  While I was rewriting the last one I wrote another book in the middle that took six weeks start to finish. Go figure. I could use another one of those -- not another one of the redwoods.

So I'm preparing the ground for the seeds -- reading, thinking, jotting notes.  Trying to get my characters to say something so I can learn more about them.  I know more about the hero than the heroine. At least he's had a name -- Clint -- for a while. She just got hers last night.  I tried at least fifty which she summarily rejected. Why? Who knows. They weren't 'her.'  

But this is her -- she's called Ramona.  Why? I don't know that, either.  But while I was trying to think of names, suddenly she seemed to simply tell me her name, as if she was tired of waiting for me to try to guess it.

I think that's a hint of her character. She's impatient with people who don't get things done as quickly as she wants them done.  She doesn't faff around. She cuts to the heart of the matter.  Somewhere along the line she decided she had to make decisions for herself; no one else was going to make them (or do a good job if they did).  I think Clint is going to have his work cut out for him!  

I'm getting excited now, thinking about them.  Like Ramona, I'm getting impatient. But if I start too soon, I might end up with another redwood.  One per forest is enough.

When the redwood has a title and a definite pub date, I'll let you know.  Right now it looks like probably autumn 2015. If so, there better not be more revisions necessary!  It's an Antonides book -- Lukas's story.  Trust Lukas to have needed to learn patience, too.  

At least this is a good time of the year to be planting story seeds and watching them take root and start to grow.  There's still snow on the ground here, but I've started some seedlings inside -- and I've got Ramona and Clint going as well.

And Clint's brother, Cole, who was the hero of my Last Year's Bride, is not only out as an ebook, but also as Love Me, Always, a trade paperback with Sarah Mayberry's Great Wedding Giveaway book, too. 

Images:

1. "Sequoia sempervirens Big Basin Redwoods State Park 8" by Allie_Caulfield from Germany - 2012-02-04 02-05 Capitola, Big Basin 118 Redwoods State Park. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sequoia_sempervirens_Big_Basin_Redwoods_State_Park_8.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Sequoia_sempervirens_Big_Basin_Redwoods_State_Park_8.jpg

2. "Arnica montana MHNT.BOT.2011.18.5" by Roger Culos - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arnica_montana_MHNT.BOT.2011.18.5.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Arnica_montana_MHNT.BOT.2011.18.5.jpg

Celebrating romantic love - Kandy Shepherd

I baked this cake for my husband’s birthday a few weeks ago and people are suggesting I make it for him again for Valentine’s Day. But I most likely won’t—because we don’t tend to make much of a fuss about Valentine’s Day.

My husband believes Valentine’s Day is only for unmarried people—and as we’re coming up for twenty-seven years together that kinda counts us out! There’s also the fact that February 14 falls between his birthday in late January and mine in February and Valentine’s Day seems to fall through the cracks.

It’s not that my husband isn’t romantic, he’s known for his thoughtful gifts. One memorable one was the heart-shaped amethyst ring he bought me for our tenth wedding anniversary. (Okay, so I had pointed it out in the jeweler’s window accompanied by a big hint, so he had help!)

Amethyst is also my birthstone (February) and purple my favorite color so I have lots of reasons for loving this ring. Interestingly enough, the Christian Roman martyr St Valentine, remembered for supposedly conducting clandestine weddings for soldiers forbidden to marry, is said to have worn an amethyst ring. So my heart shaped amethyst ring seems truly symbolic of romantic love and a Valentine’s reminder all year round. That said, I certainly appreciate flowers and heart-shaped chocolates!

What about you? Is Valentine’s Day important to you? Romantic? Over-commercialised? Exclusionary or exciting for single people? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I can’t gift you with cake or jewelry for Valentine’s Day, but I can share a copy of my latest Harlequin Romance A Diamond in Her Stocking.

Make a comment to be in the draw for a signed copy of A Diamond in Her Stocking. Please include your email address in your comment if you want to be included in the draw.

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.

Watch out for Kandy’s next release for Harlequin Romance From Paradise to…Pregnant! in June.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook and Twitter

Add a little romance...

My latest title is Seduce Me Tonight from Southern Born Books.  The hero Sterling Powel pulls out all the stops to mance Alexandra. 

 

Here are a few of his tips:

Flirting --this is one of the oldest forms of romance, start with a coy little smile, a gaze that's held longer than necessary or a gentle touch.

Compliments--take a moment to tell your partner what you like best about them every day.
No Television/internet/social media--during meal time prep leave the t.v. off and put on some music instead. (Need ideas? See list below)

How are you?--take a moment to ask this question every day.

Here's a sample from the playlist I used while writing the book. If you like what you see and want the whole playlist, you can access the iTunes playlist here.
:: Let's Get It On ~  Marvin Gaye:: You're Beautiful ~ James Blunt:: Fix You ~ Coldplay:: Speed of Sound ~ Coldplay:: Where Is the Love? ~ Black Eyed Peas & Justin Timberlake:: I Knew I Loved You ~ Savage Garden:: Iris ~ Goo Goo Dolls:: You and Me ~ Lifehouse:: Kryptonite ~ 3 Doors Down

How do you add romance to your life?

Whatever happened to...?

Have you ever found an author that you loved? Read her second book and then nothing?

I was updating my Goodreads page this week and discovered that Amazon would remind me of the books I'd bought and there, in front of me was Sophie's Bakery for the Broken-Hearted by Lolly Winston.

I bought this book back in 2006/7 when because of a promotional card put in the goody bag at the Romantic Novelists' Association conference (so don't ever say that a postcard won't sell you a book). It was the title that grabbed me, and the cover and I totally loved the book. Her publishers released it with a new title - Good Grief - in the USand a woman wearing bunny slippers on the cover. Huge mistake. I would never have bought that book.

I gave it to my daughter when she visited  and she yelled at me when she got home because it had made her cry on the train (apparently I should have warned her, although I thought the title was the giveaway). I gave a copy to my daughter in law and she loved it too.

I bought Lolly's next  book as soon as it came out and although I didn't enjoy it quite as much would have snapped up another.

But then nothing and when I looked on Amazon today that was it. Her website gives no clue, her Facebook page is blank. Did she get sick? Did she discover the hard truth that it's tough to make a living writing full time (and was so even before pirate sites offered books that may have taken  a year to write for free) and go back to the day job?

I hope with all my heart that it was nothing bad.





 

Addison Fox: Do You DNF?

I read a fascinating article last week that’s stuck with me. Apparently, like every other digital device we’re attached to, our ereaders are a wealth of information about our habits.

While I’m not quite ready to envision a future where instead of receiving a set of edits, I get a detailed list of where readers left off in my last book, the article does make several interesting points.

What makes readers stop reading?

Can that be treated as a data point that can be fed back into your next book?

Are there some books where the buzz and copies sold has nothing to do with reader enjoyment?

Personally, I don’t have all the answers but I do (as I’m prone) have a heap of opinions. Most especially, what struck me personally was that there are lots of reasons I don’t finish a book and, quite often, it has nothing to do with whether or not I’m enjoying it.

I purchase roughly 3-4 books a week. It’s an addiction and a sickness and one I gladly own. I love books. And I’m constantly purchasing stories that pique my interest. There’s the authors I have on auto-buy. The series I read a great review or blog post on. The book a friend said I had to read. The books written by friends. Books I already own in printed form that I’d like to have in digital. On and on, there are these reasons and so many others.

Amazon, for example, recently did a sale on the first eight In Death books by J.D. Robb. I own the entire series (I am now the lucky owner of Naked in Death in paperback, hardcover AND e) and likely will skip around in my digital versions of those titles to passages I love or as a way to pass the time one afternoon. Very little rhyme or reason to the reading itself, but its certainly not for lack of enjoyment of the work.

I’m curious to know what others think. I do know I’m a bit of an odd reader. I have books stashed all over the house. There are books next to my bed, in my office, in the kitchen, in the living room, in my purse, on my phone, on my tablet….they are EVERYWHERE! I pick books up and set them down, jumping into where I left off, sometimes hours later and sometimes months. There’s very little that’s predictable about my reading habits.

So I’d love to hear what you think. Am I the outlier, or is the idea of keeping track of where readers start or stop a book not nearly as valuable as whether or not they continue to purchase them?

Thanks for joining me today!

XOXO,

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 Dallas and - thankfully - doesn't have to operate on anyone. You can find her at her home on the web at www.addisonfox.com. Her latest book, SILKEN THREATS, is out now from Harlequin Romantic Suspense in February 2015. You can visit her at her website at www.addisonfox.com

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

Even though I live just across the border in Charlotte, all of my books are set in my home state of South Carolina. In my bones, I know I belong there, preferably somewhere around the gorgeous Charleston Lowcountry. Just get a load of Middleton Place pictured below!

I’m not alone in my adoration for all things Charleston. It’s also the number one wedding destination in the world and second in the US to Vegas. In 2014, Conde Nast Magazine proclaimed it the number one city in the US four years running, and number two in the world, behind Florence, Italy. And no wonder. 

The food is otherworldly. From the nearby beaches to the Battery and Rainbow Row and everything in between it’s gorgeous and romantic. It’s no wonder Cosmopolitan Magazine named it the perfect place to kiss a guy.

My favorite Lowcountry spot is just north of the city on the Isle of Palms, which is the setting for my novella, She's the One, from TulePublishing Group. Melissa Bliss loves the island every bit as much as I do and she has just set a personal record. She's matched up 49 couples, and she’s just itching to make it 50. While most days find her working at her Isle of Palms vacation property, Island Bliss, her true passion lies with matchmaking, a gift handed down through generations. Melissa cherishes using her gift to find the perfect match for friends, lonely hearts visiting the island and anyone but herself.

Shane Carver has wanted to make a match with Melissa since he met her six months ago. Trouble is, Melissa’s believes Shane’s perfect match is the tall, stacked brunette who’s new in town. While Melissa admits she has strong feelings for Shane, going against her matchmaking gift when all signs point to a different soul mate for Shane, isn’t an option.

To prove that Melissa’s the one for him, Shane will have to convince her to go against everything she thinks knows about true love and perfect matches and for once to listen to her own heart.  

I'm so proud She's the One is part of this Valentine's Day bundle by bestselling authors! 

Thirteen stories from fabulous authors for just .99 for a limited time!  

Amazon, B&N, Kobo,  & Google Play

So, what’s your favorite locale? Where is the place you feel like you most belong?

CJ Carmichael: Rise And Shine

Some people wake every morning with a smile on their face, anxious to start the day. Others take a little longer to ease into a wakeful state. But we all need a reason to get out of bed each morning. What is it for you?

Children or pets who need you?

Your job?

A commitment to exercise?

Or maybe just the allure of breakfast and that first cup of coffee?

When you’re self-employed—as I, and many other writers are—the motivation to rise every morning and attack “the work” has to come from within. There is no child that will cry until you start writing, or boss to tap her watch and raise her eyebrows at you.

And sometimes it’s hard.

We work because bills must be paid, but we also want to feel that our labor is fulfilling a larger purpose, whether it’s helping others, keeping the peace, making the world a healthier, cleaner, more educated place.

Throughout my career as a writer I have struggled with the question of whether my stories matter. Will they make a difference to the lives of the people who read them? Perhaps more crucially—will people read them? Stories have no impact if the words lie unseen on the page. If they don’t win prizes—the Pulitzer Prize, the Booker—were they still worth writing?

The one way I can clear my head from these worries, is by heading out to the mountain to hike, ski or snowshoe. Sometimes you have to climb the peaks, to rise above the fog in the valley.

Unfortunately I don’t come home from these treks with new wisdom and insights about the world. But I am refreshed and healthier. I realize that my stories must contain my truth—what I care about and what I believe. Sounds pretty, but what is that, exactly? What matters to me?

Sure, there’s chocolate. Good coffee. And pretty shoes.

More importantly there are people. My family and friends. Neighbors, colleagues, and Molly at the grocery store who always smiles and asks me if I’m having a good day.

I care about my city, and my country. Yes, I worry about the economy. But also, is constant growth sustainable? And is it possible for humans to ever live in peace with one another and the natural world around us?

Turns out there are so many things I care about that making a list isn’t really helpful in deciding what I should write about. I can’t tackle everything.

I’d love to write an epic, world-changing novel. Something that would make the entire literary community shake their heads with awe and wonder. But I don’t know how to do that. So, I start small. I pick a place. A couple of people. A small, fictional world begins to form…

And it turns out that what I really care about are relationships, all the nitty gritty problems that are part of living and loving. I’m fascinated by the good and bad in all of us. And the struggle between these powerful forces.

So, if that’s what I care about, what do I believe in? If you’ve read my books you already know: The power of love and truth to resolve conflicts.

The message is simple, nothing you haven’t heard before. I’ll have to leave the Pulitzer Prize winning literature to others. My stories may be small, but when I receive a review or email from a reader saying they stayed up all night to finish, that they cared—laughed and cried—that the story felt so real, then I know my message may not be original. But it’s something people need to keep hearing.  And believing.

***

I love connecting with my readers and fellow writers. Please tell me what gets you out of bed each morning. I’d really like to know!  One random commenter will be chosen to receive a $10 Starbucks Gift Card.