It’s a memorable Monday morning…

For starters, today is my son Hunter’s 15th birthday. At 8:30 this morning he will officially turn 15. It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years. He’s such a blessing to us. Since we almost lost him when we lost his twin during the pregnancy we thank God every day for him. He’s a great son and the sky’s the limit for him.

Today also marks the release day for Finding The Right Time. I set this release date for today because this book is special to me. It’s my first time writing a Time Travel Romance. This book was a joy to write because it came to me in a dream and flowed out freely. I took my time writing this one. Usually it takes me only a month or two to write a romance, but this one took over 6 months from start to finish. Of course the cover was completed well before the book, I just knew what it had to be.

When you love writing and the story comes so clearly, it just makes the process so wonderful. Around the middle I ran into a road block as far as the plot. My mind and my heart had a war of the road to take, but my heart won out and I love the direction it went. The ending was the most fun. I knew the ending before I ever started the first word of the first chapter. It’s so frustrating sometimes when that happens. Why you might ask? Well, if you know the ending, that’s where you want to start, but you can’t do that. The story has to be told first and it can be frustrating when you can’t get it done fast enough.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

As always, good writing and May God Bless you… 

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Talking With Romance Author Stephanie Hurt

Talking In The Barn

This week I talk with multi-talented cowboy romance author, Stephanie Hurt. She’s a writer with a big heart that loves horses and I think you’ll see that in the interview.

Tell me a little about yourself & your family. 

Well, I’m a busy woman. I thrive on staying busy. I’m a wife, mother of a 15 yr. old son, Accountant, Children’s Minister and a romance Author. Not to mention I run a publishing service.  I’ve been married to my wonderful hubby, Tommy, for 20 years. We live about 50 miles south of Atlanta on land that has been in my family for over 150 years. We live in the country and that makes me really happy. I’m a country girl to the bone.

What type of books do you write and what led you to write those types of stories? 

As for my writing, I write mostly cowboy romance. Since…

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Monday is Release Day!

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This is the full book cover for Finding The Right Time. The official release is Monday. The Preorder is up until Sunday night. It is only .99 until the official release. 

For an author release day is huge. As a reader it can be huge also. If you’re a fan of someone and they release a new book you usually get really excited. I know I do. If you’ve preordered the book, then guess what you have on release day, you have the book on your device and ready to read. 

Release day can be riddled with excessive promotional posts (Yep, get ready because Monday it will hit) and then you have the excitement of seeing how well the preorder did. 

Well here’s a little bit about the book. It’s a step away from my normal writing, but it was so exciting to write. This book is a Time Travel Romance, which makes it a fantasy lived out in a fictional book. Who hasn’t wanted to go back in time to redo something or undo something? 

One of my favorite quotes in the book is:

He bowed his head and shook it from side to side. “I don’t understand how a man that’s been dead for over one hundred years can just take over your heart. How can you even think about going back to him? If you love me, how can you love him too?”

To me this is a pivotal part of the book. It’s an example of the emotions that are challenged in this book. Since I love romance, this book has such a strong pull to it. It shows that through everything, true love shines through. We’re all given a chance to love, it’s how we treat that love and nourish that love that makes the difference. If you don’t meet it halfway and give it a chance, how will you ever know where it could go. Sometimes we have to follow our instincts and most definitely our dreams. 

This book was a long work in progress. I worked on this one for well over six months which is longer than my normal work time. It really pulled at me emotionally and kept me on my toes. When you step a little away from your normal genre a bit, it challenges you. I love a good challenge.

Here’s the preorder links available until Sunday night at midnight:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/413534

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/finding-the-right-time-stephanie-hurt/1118861344?ean=2940045730792

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/finding-the-right-time/id830991170?mt=11

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Guest post from Sonya Loveday

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First off, I want everyone to meet my friend and fellow author Sonya Loveday.  Sonya Loveday, first and foremost is a reader, an avid one. It is of that love that brought her to the realization that this was the answer to the nagging persistent feeling that ‘there’s got to be something more’. The dream came alive in 2009 when she purchased her laptop and began the tedious step of becoming a published author. When she’s not reading, she’s writing. When she’s not writing, she’s reading. And when she’s not doing either of those things she’s sleeping, shuttling her children back and forth to school, letting the dogs and cats in and out of the house for the umpteenth time in the last hour and dreaming of a clean house. You can find Sonya Loveday on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and WordPress on the links below: http://www.facebook.com/sonyalovedayauthor?ref=hl http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/11660396-sonya-loveday https://twitter.com/SonyaLoveday – @SonyaLoveday http://www.sonyaloveday@wordpress.com

Now I want to give you a look at her newest book which will be released officially March 31st. If the cover doesn’t draw you in then the description will. I just love her covers.

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This looks to be an awesome book. But let’s not forget the 1st book in this series. Casted came out July 2013.

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If this doesn’t pull you in, well you need to go back to the start of this post and try again. Let’s go out and support Sonya. 

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

 

 

Writer’s Insomnia…

Imagephoto credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/cristianagasparotto/10941256573/”>Cristiana Gasparotto</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>cc</a>

Good Monday morning. It’s definitely a 3 cup morning. I woke at 3:55 this morning and tossed and turned until after 5. When the alarm went off at 6 I groaned and slapped the clock groggy and grouchy. But if you know me well, you know the grouchy part left after a couple of sips of coffee, but the groggy stayed.

Writer’s Insomnia is real, that is if you’re a writer. Insomnia is bad enough, but writer’s insomnia makes you crazy. It causes you to sleep with a pad and pencil beside the bed. What’s even worse is you can write several chapters in your mind as you lay tossing and turning trying to get back to sleep, but the story keeps prodding your brain.

Most of the time you end up getting up and typing late into the night. Sometimes it’s the best time to write because it’s quiet, but deep down you know you need to get some sleep. As you type or write long hand the story that plagued you while you tried desperately to sleep, your brain tells you that you need to go back to bed. But unfortunately the story fills that sleep space.

Have you ever fought the bed while a story poked at you? What do you do to get past it? Does warm milk work or do you give in and get up to fill the need to write?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

Friday, Friday, Friday…

Good Friday morning… Well, it’s here folks. It’s finally Friday and it’s gearing up to be a gorgeous day here in Georgia. I feel like it’s been Winter forever. The sun is happily streaming through my windows this morning. As I sip my 2nd cup of coffee, I smile. It’s nice to see sunshine for a change. It’s actually supposed to feel like Spring today.

Friday’s are exciting. It’s the last day of the work week for most and it’s date night for others. Since it’s tax season for me, Saturday is my end of the work week. Oh well, that’s life. Since life has been crazy my writing has been sporadic. As most of you know I have several books in the works, so this is hard for me. I don’t get home until late in the evening and by the time I sit down to relax, I can’t get my head to work on the latest manuscript. I usually just sit and stare at the screen. I did manage to get the outline finished for one of my works in progress, which is exciting. 

How’s your writing going? Are you in the middle of a deadline? Are you in a writing slump? What’s up? 

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

It’s Spring! I’m so over Winter!

Well, today around lunch time it will become officially Spring. Of course that doesn’t mean that Winter has let go of it’s grip here in the US. Here in Georgia we’re looking at cold temps next week and yep, a hint was given about a possible snow scenario coming really close to us next week. Really, we live in the South and for some reason Mother Nature has forgotten that. Oh well, we’ll deal with it as it comes.

When you think of Spring you usually think of Spring cleaning and refreshing everything around you. For me it’s crunch time in tax season and that means I’m up to my elbows in tax returns. My writing usually suffers some during this time of the year. I can’t keep my brain solidly on a story line when I finally get back into the house at night. But I think maybe I can go through my old manuscripts and do some refreshing. 

I’ve spoken several times about revising older releases and making them new. Usually when you do this you change the cover and give the book a new outlook. I’m planning on a couple of revisions in the next couple of weeks. I’m also following some advice from a couple of my reviewers. 

Also, this is a good time to clean up your files on your computer. In the Winter we get bogged down in the Winter time slow down of our brain. We let junk emails pile up, we let old, unuseful files pile up. Well, let’s clean up that computer and get ready for the Spring/Summer inspiration that comes to most writers. I write more in the Spring/Summer time period. So if the computer is clean and ready, you can write unhindered.

So, how are you Spring Cleaning your writing?

As always, Good Writing and May God Bless You…

Talking with fellow author, V. Steele

Good morning everyone… I do hope you’re having a great day so far. Today I’m talking with fellow author, V. Steele. We actually met well over a year ago through my blog. It’s crazy the way we just clicked. She writes racier books than I do, but we have the same concept of writing. So, without further ado, here’s the interview that we did over the weekend.

S: Good morning V. 

V: Morning Steph, how’s it going with you?

S: It’s great. Let’s get down the nitty gritty. When’s the 3rd book coming out in the My Prodigy Trilogy coming out? I love this Trilogy, so I do have a personal reason as well as professional to ask this.

V: (Softly laughs) Well, it’s coming out early summer. I’ve been working on another manuscript that is part of the Chasing Cowboys series. But I do plan on working on the 3rd book soon. The cover is in the works now.

S: I can’t wait to see it. Hope to get a sneak preview when it’s done. Tell us a little about your work in progress. I do love cowboys.

V: Cowboys are fun to write about. The newest book in the series is called “My Obsessed Cowboy”. This has been such a fun book to write. It’s the story of a young woman and her cowboy. She loves him but he takes it too far. She can’t take the obsessive behavior so she leaves town. But as with any obsession, it doesn’t stop there. It’s going to have an interesting conclusion that hopefully leaves you excited and ready to find a obsessed cowboy.

S: That sounds pretty interesting. When should we expect to see this book published. I can’t wait to see the cover design.

V: I hope to have it out this Spring. This cover is also in the works. I’ve played with a couple of different ideas, but ultimately it’s the designer who works the magic with my ideas. 

S: Since I’ve had the chance to read some of this manuscript, can you give us just a little sliver of the story without giving away too much?

V: Oh yes, that’s a great idea. Here goes:

That night when he took her home she decided to tell him they had to cool it. When he pulled up to the walkway in front of the house she grabbed his hand as he went to get out. “Kyle, let’s talk a minute.”

“Alright babe, what’s up?” He caressed her hand and she had to close her eyes to keep her body from overtaking her brain yet again.

“Kyle, we need to take a break from one another.”

His head snapped up. “What do you mean, a break? Who is it?  Who’s trying to sneak into my territory?” He moved closer and the look in his eyes was murderous.

“There’s nobody else, we just need to take a breather.”

“Why? I thought you enjoyed our time together.” Suddenly she saw something different in his eyes. She couldn’t figure it out, but she knew it was dangerous.

“I have enjoyed the time we’ve spent together, but truthfully I can’t handle your possessiveness.” She had to be truthful.

“I’m not possessive. Is it wrong to love so much that you want to keep that person close. That’s how much I love you Tess.” He kissed her hand and squeezed it.

“Kyle you don’t realize that you’re acting possessive when you say I can’t talk to another man. We have several cowboys that work on this ranch and they are my friends.”

“I don’t like you talking to other men because I don’t like to share.”

“You’re not sharing anything, they are just friends.”

“I see the way they look at you. I’m not blind Tess.”

She pulled her hand out of his and opened the truck door. “Just think about what I’ve said.”

He opened his door and ran around to where she stood. “Baby, don’t walk away like this.”

“Like what Kyle. I’m just going home.” She threw up her hands in frustration.

Well, that’s a small snippet of a pivotal point in the first of the book.

S: Since I’ve read past this point, I can tell you this does pull you into the story. I want to thank you for this interview and the snippet from your newest work. 

V: Thanks for this chance to talk about my work. Also thanks for the help with all of my publishing questions that I’ve bombarded you with over the last year. 

S: It’s been fun. I can’t wait for the new releases. 

 

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed a small look into what’s up with V. Steele. She has several books out and many more to come. Check her out at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and many other retailers.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

What’s behind the spike in Romance Novels?

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What’s behind the spike in Romance Novels? Could it be the world we live in? Could it be that we need some type of hope? I don’t know about you, but I love to sit down with a great romance and just get lost in it, if only for a couple of hours. It makes you think about possibilities, takes you to another world and makes you laugh, cry and smile.

Romance novels have always been a draw, but it seems as though lately there’s more of a need for them. Several years ago if you said you were a romance author, people would just laugh and say ‘you can’t find anything substantial to do with your life.’ But it’s not that way now. When you say you’re a romance author people sit up and congratulate you. The romance genre has exploded in so many directions. You can find a romance that fits your every need, really every need…

Here’s to hoping the romance genre stays popular. By the way, don’t forget to wear green today, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

As always, good writing and May God Bless You

It’s Finally Friday!

If you haven’t looked at your calendar, yes it’s Friday. This has been the longest week in many ways and then again it’s been really short. I was blessed this week to have my assistant home from UGA for a couple of days to help me in the office and with some covers. We finally finished the paperback cover for Finding the Right Time. It’s awesome and I’m so excited for it’s release March 31st.

Along with good, usually a little bad comes. One of my clients and good friends found out she had cancer this week. It was such a blow when she called. It made me think about a lot of things. This was such a shock to her and her daughter. But she’s handling it with such strength and positive thinking. I would hope I could do the same thing in such a situation. My prayers are lifted up to her today.

As for my writing, I received some wonderful advice this week about writing. It helped me to think about some of my previous releases. Did you know that even the most famous writers go back to their first releases and revise them? It’s funny when we first start out writing it’s a learning process. The more we publish the more we learn. I’ve learned so many things over the last couple of years through writer friends and lots of research. So, when I get a little time between manuscripts, I might revise some of my earlier works. We’ll see how that goes, especially the time between manuscripts 😉

It’s Friday and I hope you are planning a fun weekend. It’s supposed to be a rainy last half of the weekend here in Georgia. I’ll be working on tax returns, but I do have some time scheduled in to work on the book that’s currently taking over my brain. I’ll give you a snippet later on, but for now, I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

As always, good writing and May God Bless YOU…