Month: June 2014

Discover the real you!

Do you know who you are? Do you really? Sometimes events in our lives shape the person we are. Maybe something happens that causes you to think about what you’re doing with your life. There are so many aspects of my life that have been shaped by fate. 

I sat Saturday afternoon writing and thinking. I was caught up in the storyline and suddenly I was in deep thought. The character was having a personal battle and it hit me. We’re all in a battle of wills. We wake up with a plan for the day, well sometimes we have a plan, but life steps in and those plans can change.

We go through life making plans, changing plans and seeing them through as best we can. We have a life plan, but do we really expect all of it to happen. Life changes constantly, whether it’s a death, marriage, birth, career change or just something as simple as traffic. We all have life changes that send our plans in a different direction.

For me things have changed many times. As a child I had it all planned out. I’d be a horse owner and have a huge ranch. Then as I became a teenager and was introduced to romance novels I wanted to be a writer. But then I went to college and changed my major from business to Accounting and became an Accountant. After losing my son’s twin before he was born my life changed drastically. I realized how fragile life is and my want for more children were dashed with one word from the doctors. So I became a Children’s Minister to help children find their destiny in life. 

Well, some of the aspects I mentioned above have come to life. I’m now a romance author with many published books and I realized my dream this weekend of appearing on the bestseller list at Amazon. I work with children two days a week by helping to shape them into good Christian adults and showing them how to live a positive life. But no, I’ve not yet achieved the goal of becoming a horse ranch owner, but I have written many novels about that and lived my dream through my work. For now that’s good for me.

So, have you discovered the real you or are you still searching?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Advertisement

Changes make all the difference…

Yep, I’m doing a happy dance this morning. With All My Heart (Revised Edition) Is doing really well on Amazon. 

You may be wondering what I did as far as changes. Well, I did a couple of things to change this book from the original edition.

Here are the changes I made:

1: I updated the cover. The original cover was awesome, but as one author explained to me, if you change the manuscript and republish you have to change the cover.

2: I went in and changed the voice slightly in this edition. I also added a couple of elements that made the story flow better.

3: I changed the categories that the book was put into. Amazingly enough, as the numbers above tell the tale, it worked.

I’m in the process of revisiting a couple of my older published books. As my writing becomes more refined and I learn new techniques it causes me to think of my earlier works. Now when I go back over them I smile. Things have changed with my writing voice and I have to make sure that all my work changes with me.

So if you have older works that maybe need a facelift, then go for it. It’s been an awesome thing for With All My Heart. Of course this book has done well in the past, but the numbers from just the last two days have been, let’s just say, awesome!

I also want to thank my Twitter friends that took over the post from the other day regarding the republishing. They spread it like wildfire over the Twittersphere and I’m humbled by their wonderful comments and promotions. It’s amazing the support I’ve received from so many, so thanks to you from the bottom of heart 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You… 

 

Insomnia – Not a writer’s best friend…

For the last two nights I’ve written until time for bed. Which you might be saying, that’s good, you’re getting in writing time. But there’s a problem. I have a couple of characters that are pulling at my sleep strings. As soon as I put my laptop down and head to bed my mind wonders to them. 

Monday night I laid down and picked up my Kindle to read a little before bed. Of course my eyes got heavy and not from boredom with my reading selection, it’s really good, but I was tired. So I turned out the light and lay my head on the pillow with a contented sigh. The problem started at that moment of contentment. The characters in my pirate romance were telling me to get up.

I quickly tried to push them to the back of my brain. I do run a busy accounting business and sleep is something I need. But they were persistant. I rolled to my other side and tried again, but guess what, they were on that side too. Finally about an hour later and really wound up sheets I got up. You’d think I would pick up my laptop, but I refused to give in to the characters demands.

I carried my Kindle to the couch and turned on the lamp beside me. I situated myself comfortably in the corner of the couch and settled in to read until I could go to sleep. The characters kept up at the needling. I knew that if I gave in to them I’d be up the rest of the night writing.

Have you ever wondered if your characters haunt you? Well, I’m here to tell you they do. Every time I would get into my book a noise would happen in the room that I couldn’t explain. One time something shifted in the corner and I almost jumped off the couch. I turned toward said corner and frowned. I refused to answer their call.

Then it happened again last night, but this time I refused to give in. I tossed and turned. The good thing that came out of last night’s insomnia trip was I rewrote one of the scenes in my head. This morning I changed it and was pleasantly surprised with the results. The chapter flowed so much better with the changes. SO maybe the insomnia was worth it. But of course my tired, blood shot eyes this morning don’t think so. I so need a nap, but I’m not going to tell my characters, hopefully they’re tired from their constant nudging.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

With All My Heart republished!

Image

Yep, I threw one in on you this weekend. It’s amazing when the inspiration hits and you just go with it. I’ve been wanting to revise With All My Heart and it just hit me Friday and bam there it was. So I started reading and revising.

If you’re a fan of the Lean On Him series then you’ll enjoy this revision. I changed the writing some and added a couple of new lines to change some of the scenes. As you notice in the above picture, the cover changed also. I’m excited about the changes and can’t wait to finish the revision of Ghost Lover and Tender Flame. I think these are the only two that will be revised in the near future.

For those waiting on Emma Rose, yes she’s coming along really well and will be out soon. Also Safe In The Pirate’s Arms will also be out this summer. Writing historical romance is really fun since I love history. But don’t worry, I’ll be back to my cowboys really soon. You know me and my cowboys, I have to slip them in.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

IN BETWEEN SEASONS BY CASSANDRA GIOVANNI COVER REVEAL

COMING JULY 31, 2014 From Show n’ot Tell Publishing NEW ADULT POST – APOCALYPTIC ROMANCE SERIES In 2021 the world as we know it changed. The government collapsed, and the worst characteristics of human nature were shown as the world fell into ruins. Years after The Fall, the Tribes that were established are still at war. They still fight to keep what they pillaged, and most of all, they fight to keep their lies a secret. In a world filled with deception, nothing is as it seems. I was born into this world. Hunter Marks was molded into this world; a General— a person cold and harsh. A person meant to kill me. We were told to just believe. We were taught to never question. We’re supposed to be robots, and accept our roles in this altered society. Too bad Hunter and I don’t follow the rules. And we’re a hell of a lot stronger than they ever thought possible. They’ve been searching for the world’s deadliest weapon. It’s me. And I’m not following the leader any more.

Cassandra doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t writing. In fact, the first time she was published was when she was seven years old and won a contest to be published in an American Girl Doll novel. Since then Cassandra has written more novels than she can count and put just as many in the circular bin. Her personal goal with her writing is to show the reader the character’s stories through their dialogue and actions instead of just telling the reader what is happening. Besides being a writer, Cassandra is a professional photographer known for her automotive, nature and architectural shots. She is happily married to the man of her dreams and they live in the rolling hills of New England their dogs, Bubski and Kanga. Cassandra Giovanni is published by Show n’ot Tell Publishing based out of Connecticut, USA.

TBT – “Field of Dreams”

It’s Thursday and as I sit here watching the Today Show I’m in awe. Why? Well, they’re talking about Field OF Dreams being 25 years old. I dearly love this movie for many reasons. It’s such an inspirational movie.

Even if you don’t like baseball you’ll love this movie. I just love Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones. The movie takes you to another place where dreams come true and make you think. The main character makes his dreams a reality through many hardships and a lot of criticism.

It makes me think about my dream to be a writer. My niece who is also my partner in our publishing business told me that if I write the fans will come and she was right. I compare my writing to the baseball field. When I publish a book I’m always amazed at the people that come out of the darkness and write to me about the book. Some call them inspirational and others say they love the clean way I bring about romance without having to go too far.

I guess you could say my writing is my very own field of dreams and it’s been a dream come true. Yes I do meet some criticism, but I have a tough skin and let it roll off my back. I’m lucky that I have a great following and so many new friends from all over the world that support my writing, my blog and my craziness. Thanks to all of you for helping me make my dreams come true. 

As always, great writing and May God Bless You…

How’s your editing?

One of the hardest things for most authors is the editing process. It’s a very important part of the writing process. Some authors hire editors and leave it all up to them, but is that enough? 

I recently read an article in a writer’s magazine and it opened my eyes to several things concerning editing. A bestselling author was talking about editing and she was astonished at what readers caught in her latest work that was missed by both her editors. Do we only skim over the work while editing? 

One author said that she read the work again after the editor finished, but she found about 20 errors that were completely missed. So, when has your book been edited enough? If professional editors are missing the errors what do we do as writers? For me I read and then read again. It’s amazing the errors you find on the second read through. 

When writing usually I’m so into the story that I don’t even realize the english that I use. But what if the story needs the bad english to make the point at that place in the book. Will the editor catch that or will they change it and in that one change make the paragraph lose it’s meaning? This happens so many times to writers. Sometimes the way you state something to make a point might not be the best english, but in the situation it makes perfect sense.

So, how’s your editing skills? Do you need help? If you’re not sure about your editing skills, check out having your book looked at by more eyes before you publish. My company, Horseshoe Publishing helps authors get their books publish ready, including intense editing.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

Can you write sadness out?

As a writer I can write about happy things, sad things or bad things, but if I want them to go away I can just erase them and start over. In life we can’t just write it out of the program. Life happens and keeps going whether the sadness stops or not. Today I received a really hard call. One of my long time clients and a really good friend lost her battle with lung cancer last night. When I talked with her before her last trip to the hospital she was so positive. Her attitude was that she was going to kick cancer’s butt. She was a woman of faith and she knew everything would be alright either way. We often talked about our faith and the hope of tomorrow. She knew where she was headed and was at peace with it as all Christian’s should be. Her wish was not to suffer and cause her family to suffer and she did receive that wish.

Sometimes in life we just want to hit the backspace and try to go back over everything so that we can change things. That’s what I’d like to do right now. I want this to be one of my manuscripts where I can just erase it and start again. But I know what my friend would say, she’d tell me to quit being silly and to remember who she was, not what she had. She was a special woman with such a sweet spirit. 

Life is hard to take at times. I channel my emotions through my writing. I’ve sat for hours pouring over my writing to get emotions to ease or a problem solved. Someone that’s not a writer might not understand this need, but if you’re a writer you’ll know what I’m talking about. I guess you could say that writers use some extra chromosome or something to that nature to channel our emotions. That’s what makes us writers because we do have extreme emotions. 

As I sit here writing this post, I know that my friend is well again. She’s probably laughing at me and shaking her head as she often did. I know that death is part of life and we all will go down that road one day, but when it hits close to your heart it’s as though time stops for a moment as you register what just happened. You’ve lost a segment of your life. 

All of us experience loss in our lives. It’s inevitable if you live long enough. Everyone expresses grief in different ways. Some people go forward and ignore it until the pressure builds, while others cry and get it over with. I have to admit to shedding some tears this morning. It helps to relieve the pressure valve. When I start on my writing this afternoon, I know it will be a powerful writing session as I write the emotion out and try to come to grip with my sadness. 

This is wishing all of you well and hoping you have a sunny day. 

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Not a cowboy in sight…

Well my pirate romance is coming along nicely. I’m actually enjoying it immensely. Since pirate romance novels were my favorite when I was younger it’s like going back in time. I have suspense mingled in with romance and a lot of sea air. I want the reader to feel as though they’re on the ship.

Captain Caleb Tanner is not like most pirates. He’s got morals and does things for others. But he’s been dubbed as a pirate and he’s alright with that. The first time he sets eyes on Serena Wilimgton, he’s smitten and wants to know more. He’s a great reader of people and he sees something is not totally right with things.

Serena Wilmington loves the sea and everything that goes with it. When her mother dies suddenly, leaving her dying wish for Serena to leave quickly from her childhood home to stay safe, she goes where her heart leads her. The only thing is her heart has led her to stowaway on Caleb’s ship. It gets crazy when she boards a pirate ship as a boy, but Caleb figures her out. Just wait till you see how it goes. It definitely doesn’t go as Serena thinks.

I will be doing a cover reveal soon. It’s still in the works, but the bones are there. The book is coming along quickly. I did well over 5000 words this weekend. 

So, do you like pirate romance? 

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

Giveaway of free Audio Books…

I’ve been working on two of my latest manuscripts a lot lately. I know I’ve been blogging only here and there. These two books have demanded my complete attention and I’ve been giving in to the calling. But I do have a special message for all my readers and friends. Audible.com has given me 25 codes to the audio book for Open The Heart. 

If you haven’t had time to read Open The Heart, then why not listen to it? So, here’s the deal. All you have to do is message me at stephaniehurt4@gmail.com and the first 25 to send me a message will get the code to unlock your free audio book.

So run, don’t walk to your email and send me a message.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…