Stephanie Hurt – Romance Author
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Happy New Year! Hope all of you have a safe New Year’s Eve. Well, I will start the new year with a new book, since I was unable to complete it today. Oh well, life goes on. I will chat with all of you in 2013. That sounds so weird.
As always, good writing and God Bless!
Well, I spent my morning taking the decorations down from every corner of the house. It was sad to see it all go. I love Christmas and every aspect of it. The Christmas tree just lights up the room. As I took each ornament off the tree I smiled. Especially the ones my son Hunter has made over his 13 years of life.
It was then that I looked at the mangled boxes littering my living room floor and I sighed. Well, it’s over and I’ve got to get this mess up before I go nuts. So I pushed forward and managed in a couple of hours to have everything packed in boxes and put into the attic. I looked at my clean house after much vacuuming and dusting. Amazing how dusty everything gets when it’s covered with Christmas things. Even the artificial tree had shed all over the carpet. Go figure…
Well on to other less exciting things. Since I’m an Accountant I have to meet my requirements set forth by the IRS. This year they set forth new testing deadlines late in the year. I have to complete 15 credit hours of testing before the end of 2012. I spent a good part of Friday and today finishing that up. Wow, I had forgot how much I hate taking tests. Especially tests on Tax law and regulations, many of which I will never have to deal with.
Needless to say I’ve had to push my writing aside for a couple of days, but no worry. I’m back in the groove and ready to finish the novel that was supposed to be finished over a week ago. Yeah I know, get with the program Stephanie. Well, hopefully everything will come together tonight and Monday morning my editor will have it out and ready to go. Fingers cross 🙂
As always, good writing and May God Bless You!
As I start this post I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was wonderful. Now on to the clean up and take down and enjoying time with my son. My husband says it looks like Christmas threw up in our house. So I like to decorate. What? On to the post…
Where does your writing take you? It can take you to different countries, different lives and let your dreams come true at your fingertips. When you are writing open up your heart and experience it.
As I write I usually try to throw in a fantasy or something I love. That way I get to live the fantasy and make it come true for my characters. I get to do the things I wouldn’t dare do in real life.
Through my characters and lots of research, I get to go to places that I have dreamed of going. It’s so much fun to experience the places through my characters. If you put enough descriptions you can carry your reader off to places beyond their Kindle, Nook or paperback. You can take them to exotic destinations with the sun dancing on the clear blue water or even take them to snow covered chalets with crackling romantic fires.
The sky’s the limit when writing. Â Give your reader and yourself an adventure, you both deserve it. So get writing and live your dream through your writing. Go to that place, or do that thing you want to do, live the dream.
As always, good writing and May God Bless You!
This is a wish for all to have a Merry Christmas and a safe one. Remember the reason for the season. “For Unto this day a child was born, Christ Jesus”.
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It was the Night Before the Night Before Christmas and all through the house everyone was stressed. The Christmas tree was almost bare of needles and the Angel on top was leaning. Dad was rared back relaxing and mom was busy cleaning. The air was filled with the smells of baking. Presents were piled all under the tree, while the kids giggled and smiled with glee. In a little over 24 hours Old St. Nick would be making a visit. It was almost too much to bare.
Well, it’s been a couple of days since my last post, but I’ve been busy catching up with Christmas errands. I’ve finally finished with shopping and wrapping. Was going to finish with the baking tonight, but forgot to buy extra eggs at the store, so I guess tomorrow will find me baking and cooking.
Friday night was our traditional get together with my two step children and step grandson. We do this every year. It’s a time of lots of sweets, hot chocolate and Christmas movies. I always make a loaf of homemade bread that I time to come out of the oven at just the right moment. It was a lot of fun. Our son always enjoys this time with his step siblings and nephew.
Hope all is well with everyone as they gear up for Christmas Eve!
As always, good writing and May God Bless You!
AMEN!
As I eat my apple cinnamon oatmeal and  savor my second cup of coffee I muse over my newest manuscript. Writers block, well not really writers block, more like writers laziness has took over. I think it stems from way too much on my plate.
I did something yesterday that I really hate to do. I went shopping. It’s Christmas time and it was inevitable that I would have to hit the mall. I ordered as much as I could online, but I had to break down and jump into the frying pan of shopping. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate to shop, don’t know why, but I do. Of course my mom went with me as she loves to shop. We were stuck in traffic at a dead stop for over thirty minutes. That made the experience even happier. By the time we got to the outlet mall I was just a little stressed.
But while my mom stood in line in the store, I took my packages out to the sidewalk to sit and people watch. As a writer I get a lot of good ideas by people watching. I watched this elderly couple get out of their car and he helped with her coat. You could see the immense love shining in his eyes. They were so adorable as they walked to the sidewalk and started walking hand in hand. They would look at one another and smile, with eyes twinkling. It made things seem a little better.
It got me to thinking about romance and how you keep it alive through the years. You can love someone with all your heart, but not have romance. It happens everyday. But as I watched this elderly couple, i was in awe of the romance that just seeped out of them. It was obvious to anyone that just watched them that romance just dominated them. It inspired me to get busy writing. I was humbled too by the thought that even at their age they could keep the spark alive.
So as always, keep the romance alive. If you don’t have romance in your life, it’s not too late. Cook your sweetie a romantic dinner, light some candles, and sit in the candlelight talking. Don’t talk about the finances or the problems of the day. Just talk about each other. Make it special. You won’t regret it. Maybe send him a little note on his phone, but do make sure that he is the only one looking at the text. (Been there and it was so awkward explaining it to my son who read the text for his dad that was driving. Needless to say, he now waits til he gets where he’s going to read his texts. 🙂 )
As always, good writing and heightened romance. May God Bless you!
When you start a new manuscript your mind is on the content. Which it should be, but there comes a time when you have to polish the writing. A time to create a cover that will represent your words.
A big polish is the editing. Is it important? Well, yes. If you just write the book and publish it without going back over it, that would be writers suicide. I’ve found throughout my short writing experience that the first read through after finishing a manuscript usually prompts changes, additional wording and even total chapter eliminations. It can really open your eyes for character changes and minor tweaks.
After the editing is done, are you happy? If you are like a lot of writer you may never be completely happy with your work. I know I’m my worst critic. I over analyse my work. Even after it is published I’m constantly saying “I wish I would have written that part differently.” My editor just shakes her head and laughs at me. I can’t help it, I can be a worrier.
Then you have the almost impossible task of writing a paragraph that will sum up the whole book. How on earth do you describe your book in just a couple of words? This is harder than writing the whole book. If you don’t say just the right thing will people even give it a second look? Will you be able to express the real feeling of the way the book should be perceived? The next time you read the back of a book, remember the author had only so many words to describe their whole piece of work, don’t judge a book by it’s description.
Also, sometimes don’t judge a book by it’s cover. When you select your cover art you have to put into one cover the whole feeling of the book. If you write romance you have to express a feeling pulled from the book into the cover. If you write horror you have to put some of the fear into the cover to pull in the reader. But you have to be careful not to show the end results of the book. You have to leave some mystery.
Well, that’s just a few of my writing ramblings. Maybe some of this helped you, maybe not. It’s just the opinions of one writer.
As always, good writing and May God Bless you!
My heart is heavy as I write this post. The news of the tragedy in Connecticut is devastating. Why would someone walk into a school and kill innocent children? Those children had done nothing to that gunman. They were just going about their day with Christmas on their minds and innocence in their heart.
When I picked my son up at school today the first thing he said was “Mama why?” How do you explain to your child the reasons behind someone insane? How do you explain the senseless murder of children? I put my hand on his and told him that unfortunately in this world there are really bad people. He said their school was on lock down today. It made me feel good that his school was being proactive even as far away as we are. At least knowing his school is taking measures to keep them safe makes me feel somewhat good, but those parents in Conn. sent their children to school this morning thinking they were safe too.
As we go about our lives this weekend, take a moment to say a prayer for the children and adults who lost their lives. Also say a prayer for the parents who have to bury their children before Christmas. I can’t even imagine to understand how they must feel tonight. I grieve for them and pray that one day maybe they can come to grips, but I doubt they ever will. I don’t think I could. The anger is so real in my heart and I’m not the type of person that gets angry easy, but when you mess with children it angers me.
Please hug your children and thank God they’re safe. I know that’s what I did.
May God Bless you and your family!
Stephanie Hurt - Romance Author 