Tag: romance novels

I Can’t Stop

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This past week has been full of good and bad, I think if you’ve been following along, you’re pretty much filled in. Today everything caught up with me and I had a physical meltdown in the form of a nasty migraine. Took meds which eased head but made me sleep most of the day so got no school work done. When I’m feeling really down, my back up plan for pain relief is food. Today I just ate and ate and ate some more. Now it’s dinner time, I’m not at all hungry, and the migraine is knocking again.

I could go to my other “make it stop” activity, drinking a glass or two of wine, but no. Instead I made dinner for Al and checked Twitter, where I read a very nice review of Blue Heaven. This cheered me up. I looked at my bank balance, which cheered me up even more. I made just under $3 for my writing last quarter. Yep, you got that right. $3. That’s from my publisher. Amazon sends money to the bank when I sell $10 worth, and I didn’t have one of those.

Yes, this writing business is making me rich:) But I can’t stop. I don’t even want to. I love to write and now there are a few people in the world who love to read what I write. That makes me happy, damn the stupid migraine!

Finally, Something For You:)

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BlueHeaven_w7796_300I’ve already announced that from October 1-5 Blue Heaven will be free for everyone on Kindle. You don’t need a Kindle to buy it, you just need the app, which is free on iTunes.

As is my tradition, in my blog birthday month, I like to give presents to my readers. I finally figured out what I want to send to the first four of you who comment on this post with a specific suggestion about what I should post next. I need four different ideas, folks. What would you like to read about here going forward?

As I transitioned from writer-seeking-publication into published author, I knew the blog would have to change from what it had been. I’d reached the goal I’d been pursuing for so long. I have a great publisher who has put out two of my three novels; they are willing to grow with me beyond romance into women’s fiction. Blue Heaven is the first in the “Blue Lake” series about a small tourist town on a big lake. And don’t worry, for me women’s fiction just means I get to tell two (or more!) love stories instead of one. I’m a die-hard romantic and am having so much fun creating stories about the people in Blue Lake, both newcomers and those with deep roots.

It took me a while to figure out that now I need to write for readers and maybe not so much for writers anymore. After eleven years, there isn’t much left to say about the writing process except if you want something NEVER give up. That’s how I snagged my dream.

Onto the prize. I now have three books in print: Your Words, Your Story, The Paris Notebook, and Blue Heaven. Well, Blue Heaven is set for world-wide release and print sometime in November. What I will do is send out all three print editions to the first four people (Sorry, USA only. Foreign postage is really expensive.) who present me with a great topic for a post in the comments. You will get the prizes when I get the Blue Heaven print editions, but the little contest starts now.

Runnin’ Down a Dream

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Yes, I am a die-hard Tom Petty fan. His lyrics often reflect how he deals with creative juice. That and Love capital L are his two stand-out themes for me. There is a kind of love brewing in me now. It wants to spill into the novel I’m writing, or maybe take me off-track altogether. I just don’t know yet, because I haven’t let out the words.

As a writer who has published five books, I know how to put my nose to the grindstone. It’s never easy for me to write the sad stuff, the bad stuff. The last time I left off, I’d just had my character hit bottom. Now he’s heading for a confrontation with his ex-wife over custody of their children. And all I want to do is write about Love.

The ex-wife is in love, she’s got it bad, but she’s totally torn. She doesn’t see a way to have a future with this man who has her heart. So, I’m thinking, let the new lovers have a little interlude of dizzy pleasure before everything goes to hell. What’s the harm? Readers, especially romance readers, love the romantic parts of novels. That new love feeling is difficult for me, since next month I’ll have been (mostly happily!) married to Al for 28 years. Or it was until I met someone from my past who made me remember what it feels like to be in love.

So, since in real life I’m not going anywhere,  I can sublimate my recently ruffled feelings by putting them on paper. Just like Tom Petty, I’m going to listen to my heart. It’s gonna tell me what to do as I run down this dream the only way I know how. By making it happen in a book.

Thank You!

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This morning I woke up determined to try to contact and thank as many reviewers of The Paris Notebook as I could find. I knew a few of them and guessed on one, correctly I hope, but the other reviewers remained a mystery. I am about as inept as Deena from TPN when it comes to detective work:) But I tried and think I’ve got them all but one. That would be the lovely Scarlet.

I thank Scarlet again. She’s only posted two reviews, both of my books, so she must be an angel who wishes to be anonymous.

Then there are the review sites, so important for ePublished writers. I tried once to get reviewed through a site I know on Twitter and nothing came of it. Trying to get a novel reviewed is not an easy task and I abandoned it in favor of writing after that one aborted attempt.

Thanks to the marketing magic of Lisa, who does PR for The Wild Rose Press, The Paris Notebook got a couple of reviews from sites I’d like to thank here. Fern from Romance Reviews Long & Short  wrote a very nice review on that site and also posted to Amazon. And Nikki at Storm Goddess gave me 5 lovely stars at that site and also posted to Amazon.

As a former book reviewer, I know these people write for little more than love of books and I am grateful and humbled by their kind praises.