Fall In Love With A Cowboy Collection

Ok, I’ve listened. Lately several of my fans have contacted me regarding putting these three stand alone books together. So here it is in one neat little download. All three are Cowboy Romances and now you can get three cowboys wrapped into one for only $8.99. It’s available on Amazon ony for the moment. I will be expanding it’s reach when I see how it’s received.

Hope everyone is having an awesome Sunday. As for me today is our Fall Festival at Church. I’m excited and ready for the challenge. We’ve got food, games, inflatables, prizes, and lots of worshipping. So if you are anywhere near Milner, GA come by Friendship Church and check it out. I’d love to see you there.

It’s such a beautiful day in Georgia so get out and enjoy a festival or just a walk outside today. Get some fresh air.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Falling for Fall

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. This is the time of year that I feel like shedding my problems as the trees shed their leaves. I feel like it’s time to go dormant and rewaken refreshed in the Spring. I love the beauty of this time of the year. The many colors are the work of God’s hand and he really shows out this time of the year.

As the colors change I get inspired to write. As the air starts to get crisp I feel the need to express it. Soon a fire will crackle in the fireplace. I’ll curl up by the fire and type out my thoughts. As the days grow shorter and Christmas nears I get the excitement of a child. During Christmas I keep a smile on my face and a giggle in my throat.

Today I’m going to the Church to decorate with my fellow members for our annual Fall Festival. We will have games, food, a 64′ obstacle course and just plain out Christian fun. I get so excited. I’ve been getting my supplies together for a couple of weeks and as the time nears me heart swells with the excitement of the moment.

So go out today and enjoy the day. It’s a fleeting time we have on this earth, so enjoy every day…

As always, great writing and May God Bless You…

Is your main character perfect?

For as long as I can remember I’ve been a reader. The trend I’ve seen over the years and I won’t be saying how many, has been that the hero or heroine was perfect. They were always beautiful, handsome, flawless and a perfect body. That’s what people wanted to read.

Well, I’ve noticed a new trend. I’ve read a couple of novels lately that had not so perfect main characters. I think it’s refreshing because we’re not perfect. We have flaws, it’s just a fact. One of the books even stated that the leading man was not overly handsome, actually the writer went on to explain that his beauty came from his heart. I think that’s what we all need to hear.

Take Jane Eyre for instance. She’s not perceived as a beautiful woman. She’s more let’s just say severe. But you still come to love her for her heart that eventually warms. It’s one of my favorites because I love the stories of a plain, poor girl getting the rich flawed man.

So, how does your main character look? Is he ruggedly handsome or does his beauty come to you from his heart? Is she gorgeous and built like a model or does she need to exercise to stay at a maintained weight?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Never Give Up Your Dream…

Well, the SYTYCW2013 emails have been sent out and I didn’t receive one. I’m not sad or mad or upset, just gives me more drive. There was 640 really good entries and the editors had to choose only 50 to go on to the next step. I don’t envy their job. But you never know, my work was read by an editor at Harlequin.

I had a really nice message from a fellow author that’s published with Harlequin and she gave support and her experience. She entered last year and she too did not get picked. Well guess what, she still heard from one of the editors and now has published a couple of books through Harlequin. They told her that all though for the contest they can only pick 50 that doesn’t mean that they don’t look seriously at the others.

So, I still have hope. Anyone that knows me wil know that I’m resilient. Writing is a dream passion of mine and it’s been such a crazy year and a half. I’ve been featured in two magazines and several blogs. Also this week I’ve been honored with being featured as the Must Read of the week in the Southern Writers Magazine blog. Here’s the link: http://southernwritersmagazine.blogspot.com/. Scroll down and I’m on the right. Then when I was on a Children’s Ministry website getting a game for last night I noticed a Barnes and Noble advertisement. I had three of my books featured in the ad along with some other great reads. Needless to say I did a happy dance. So I’m still on a high right now.

As we move on from the drama of the contest wait, there’s always some writing contest going on and our name is out there. Let’s focus on what we as writers do best, let’s write. You never know when that call might come in saying, “We want you to write for us.”

Good writing and May God Bless You…

How to draw out a story

Have you ever been writing a story and suddenly you’re at the end and only have a couple thousand words. You sit there going, “It seemed longer in my brain.” Well, it could be. This is when you open it back up and you read over it. Look at the descriptions. Have you given the read enough to imagine the place or the real character?

A lot of times we get the story down and forget that the reader can’t see it in their mind. We as writers have got to show the reader the story around the story. Meaning, if the story takes place in a small town and that’s significant, then let the reader know about this small town. Give it life.

If the character has a flaw, bring it out in descriptions, the reader won’t know unless you let them know. Remember this story that you can see clearly has to be brought out vividly to the reader. They can’t jump into your brain and see what you see. I had to learn this. My first couple of books needed more descriptions and one day they’ll get them.

So give your character a life, home and description, not only a name.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Still waiting on SYTYCW2013 decisions to be made. Keep fingers crossed and good luck to all entered 🙂

When stories fill your head…

It’s crazy how a writer’s brain works. Of course I’m working on a deadline that’s looming pretty quickly. As my vacation helped knock some of that out, I still need to finish the manuscript. The funny thing is another story is filling my brain.

I was watching a movie Saturday and suddenly I was inspired. No, I’m not going to write about the story that I was watching or copy what that show was about. It was someone in the movie, or rather the job that they held. As I watched the romance unfold on television, the story was unfolding in my brain.

What made it even worse, I had my laptop in my lap working on my manuscript with a deadline. My hands were just laying on the keyboard as I daydreamed about the story going through my head. So in the next couple of weeks I will fill you in on the story, but for now I’ll get back to the work at hand. Oh, and waiting to hear if I made it to the next level of the SYTYCW2013 Harlequin writing contest.

Hope you’re all having a productive Monday…

So, good writing and May God Bless You…

Cleaning out the cobwebs

Well today is the last day of my vacation. It’s been a great one. I’ve written over 12,000 words this week. Yesterday was spent getting all the winter clothes out of the attic and cleaning out the closets. That’s a job. I’ve cleaned out more cobwebs this week. It’s amazing how active the spiders are this year.

But that’s not the cobwebs for which I speak. I’m talking about those that cause that pesky thing call writer’s block. We’ve all had it at one time or another. You don’t even have to be a writer to have cobwebs crowd the brain. I was stuck a couple of times this week in the cobweb, but I worked my way out somehow. Sometimes our words get caught in the web.

Then you have the lovely editing cobweb. You’re reading along and bam there it is. It looms over you like a black widow waiting to pounce. You start to sweat, your heart races and then nothing. You don’t remember why you wrote a certain part, why you added a certain character. You know you had a reason at the time and it could have been a good one or so it seemed. I have that problem. If I don’t write down my characters as they’re added and their purpose, I have an issue either later in the story or when editing.

So, have you cleaned out the cobwebs in your brain. Maybe it’s as simple as stepping back. That’s what I did yesterday. I cleaned house, then shopped, and then had a nice yogurt will all the trimmings at the frozen yogurt shop. That’s enough to inspire you. It was yummy.

So, great writing and May God Bless You…

Romancing the Card

You may be scratching your head regarding the title of this post. Let me explain. Are we too dependant on debit/credit cards? I went to the grocery store yesterday and when I swiped my trusty debit card the clerk looked at me and said those dreaded words ‘INSUFFICIENT FUNDS’. Well, at first I made her repeat it. As an accountant I know in my head what I have in every account.

My first thought was that the card didn’t read correctly. So I told her no problem and handed her my credit card to complete the transaction. I immediately went home and asked my hubby if he’d used his debit card. Since he hadn’t I got online with my account and I broke out in a cold, outraged sweat. There it was. The thing you dread. Fraud!

Of course I didn’t know how bad it was until I called the bank. The fury escalated to a heated level. Apparently this clever little thief had wiped out my checking and since I have my main checking attached to my savings for emergencies, they proceeded to wipe out my savings. Yep, someone had a good time yesterday at our expense.

You know we work hard to save money for a rainy day, in our case to pay our taxes. Then someone comes along and takes it away. The Fraud department at our credit union have been awesome. They immediately stopped my card, (Of Course it was my card that was hit) and the accounts are being monitored. As an accountant the first thing I did was Google all the companies that showed up because I did not recognize any of the names and was aware that some were foreign. All of them are located in Pakistan.

Of course we will get our money back, but not until all the paperwork is complete which could be late next week. What’s sad is that person was able to enjoy our money and never worked a second for it. Do we rely on our cards too much? When did we get too lazy to write a check? The last time I wrote a check the clerk sighed in frustration. So I reverted back to my debit card. Just one swipe and you’re out the door.

I can say this, the anger erupted in a furious writing frenzy last night. I pounded the keys and took out all my frustrations in my latest manuscript. Of course I will be reading that over this morning to make sure it went with the story line. Check your accounts daily and make sure you can account for everything.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Getting lost in the story…

Have you ever been so into a story that you got lost? This could happen either when writing the story or reading the story. You know when you’re reading a story and get lost, well the author has done a good job. When you’re writing a story and get lost, well, maybe you’re doing a good job.

The story I’m working on now has me immersed in the story. I just love romance and especially the build up to a relationship between the characters in my mind. It’s funny the architecture of a story. First you have to build the characters to let the readers know a little about them. Then of course you have to work on the story. It’s amazing how into a story you can get.

I love the build up. Sometimes I get ahead of my fingers in my mind. I have to be careful when doing this. It’s difficult to slow down my brain when the story is pouring out. Yesterday as I typed my mind was overflowing. That’s a good problem to have when you’re a writer.

I hope all of you are lost in a story. It helps you to get out of this crazy world for a little while. As I finish this post I will open my manuscript and continue the story. The outline is clear and now we’ll just see how the story fills in the blanks. Have a wonderful Thursday and enjoy the crisp Fall air.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

2nd Cup of Coffee and Cool Fall Morning

I just love this time of the year. It’s so cozy curled up in the corner of the couch with my throw and coffee. I feel invigorated. The leaves are on the verge of change and the air is so clean. It’s amazing what God has given us.

I am nursing my second cup of coffee as I type this post. Yes, I’m still on vacation, so no hurry to shower and get dressed. I actually typed 4000 words yesterday. It was a very productive day. I have my outline beside me now and am pumped about today’s word count. If you’re a writer you know what I mean. It’s fun when the story is just spilling from your mind to your fingertips. The only problem I have is I want to get to the happenings of chapters ahead of where I am. Funny thing about a story is it unfolds sometimes in a crazy order. I can see the last act so clearly and it guides me through the middle story which leads you up to the final words.

I’ve taken some advice from a fellow blogger and writer that has helped so much with this manuscript. I am so guilty of editing and proofing as I go. It’s a slow process when you do it that way. I’m bad about going back and rewriting parts or correcting spelling or grammer. As she said in her post, don’t do that until the first draft is complete. It does hinder your rhythm as you work. If you stop and go several times your brain gets in a fog. I typed yesterday continuously and refused to go back and edit even though at times I wanted to sooooooo bad.

How do you write? What’s the pet peeve of your writing? If you have a finished piece of work and need some help with the polishing, go to the Horseshoe Publishing tab at the top of my page and check out our polishing services. Your hard work needs to be out there, so get it polished and shiny and ready for the public to ooh and awe over it.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…