Author: stephaniehurt

Stephanie Hurt lives in Georgia with her husband Tommy and their son Hunter, along with two dogs, Daisy and Jake. When Stephanie is not lost in one of the worlds that she creates, she's an accountant and children's minister. She has been writing the stories that fill her mind since she was a teenager. The moment a story comes into her mind, she's mesmerized and soon she's diving into the story with a cup of hot green tea and a notebook. Before long, the story has bones and is ready for the laptop. She happily types away in the early morning and at night. You can always find her with a notebook full of stories that have yet to come to life. Follow her journey in each of her over 40 published works! Stephanie Payne Hurt loves to hear from fans and hopes that she's helped them go to another world for at least a while! Connect with Author: Twitter: https://twitter.com/StephanieHurt4 Email: https://stephaniehurt4@gmail.com Website: www.stephaniehurtauthor.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StephaniePayneHurt Sign up for my newsletter at www.stephaniehurtauthor.com to keep up with upcoming events and new releases.

Writing for fun or money…

How do you see your writing? Is it a hobby or career? I’ve talked to several writer’s lately that say they write for fun, but they do enjoy the royalty payments. Most writers work a full time job and fit their writing in where ever they can.

I love my writing. It’s so soothing and spirit lifting. I do work a full time job. Actually I own a Accounting business so I stay pretty busy, along with being a Children’s Minister and parent. My writing carries me to another world. It’s in my writing that I can get lost and leave the worries and stress behind.

I have to admit that it’s fun when the sales reports update on the various sites where my books are. And I would be crazy if I didn’t say I’d love to get a huge publishing contract. But I’d be happy to see some nice sales reports. I’ve been really happy so far with my sales. My writing takes the forefront in this scheme of things. It’s the passion that spurs me on.

As we discuss sales, I’ve been telling you about the audio books. It’s been so fun going through the auditions. If any of you do voice overs for audio books, send me an audition. I’m trying to get those published this week if possible. I’ve got to make a decision. It’s funny how you know what you want it to sound like.

Don’t let slow sales or the need for more to conquer your passion for writing. Keep putting pen to paper or fingers to keys. If you let your dreams die, it will affect you in a bad way.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Saturday writing time…

I’ve been looking forward to Saturday since last Saturday 🙂 Saturday morning is house cleaning time at me house. I do laundry while mopping, vacuuming, scrubbing bathrooms and straightening our week long mess.

But Saturday is also a time for writing. As a writer you try to find time to write. Sometimes when you work a full time job and have other obligations and passions, it’s hard to find enough time to put words in your laptop. Well, I love to write on Saturday. After the house is clean and everyone is ready for a nap, I’m ready to write.

Today is no exception. I always start with checking my book sites and social sites. That way I’ve got everything behind me as I start work. As I sit in my swing on the front porch, a light breeze blows across lifting my spirits. It’s not too warm yet here in the south.

With this being a holiday weekend, I plan on doing a lot of writing.I have several works in progress. There’s one thing to know as a writer, the only way to sell it is to finish it and publish it. The more you publish the more you have to offer.

So, hope you have a great weekend and hope it’s very productive.

As always, Good writing and May God Bless You…

Writing Emotion

How do you write emotion? To someone that doesn’t write you may think this is easy. Well, it’s not easy to put emotion on paper. In life we feel so many emotions. We feel happy, excited, angry, grief, depressed and the list goes on. But how do you put it on paper? How do you get the reader to feel the emotion themselves?

I’ve read books that made me laugh, cry and even get angry. But how do you relate that feeling in your own writing? It’s all in the way you describe it and put all you have in it. Make sure you put every detail in so that it brings the reader into the situation. If you leave out some of the details it could make the reader become detached.

The words you use to make the description more vivid is key. Go for the gusto, use a Thesaurus if you have to, but make every word count. When making someone cry over a sad part, tell how the tears streamed silently, or their lip trembled as they held back the sobs. Don’t just say they looked sad. To bring about the emotion, you need to describe the facial expressions, the feelings they have and how it’s affecting those around them.

I had a fan tell me that one of my books made her cry from sadness at one point and then from deep happiness by the end. In her review she put to have a box of tissues close by when reading it. I smiled broadly and realized that I’d done my job.

So, don’t forget to fill in the descriptions and if you laugh as you write or cry, you’ve probably achieved your goal.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

The lure of Romance…

In today’s world of divorce, affairs, depression, terrorism, disasters and just plain out life, we’re looking for a way to escape. A lot of people use reading to do this. A large percent of the books read are romance. Maybe it’s the thought of true love, untainted love or even that dream of another life.

When I sit down at my laptop I try to get lost in the moment. I want my reader to feel the same way. If you can’t get lost in the moment as a writer, then how can you get a reader lost in the moment? I want to get my reader into another world and away from the worries of life. Just for a moment to give them something to dream about…

Romance has always carried me away to another place. Sometimes it’s to another country, another time period or just to see life from someone else’s eyes. As I read a book, if it’s a good descriptive book, I try to immerse myself in the story. I try to get lost in the lure that’s romance.

Everyone needs a little romance in their life. Maybe it’s not your thing. I spoke with a friend not too long ago that said she can’t stand to read a romance. She reads only mystery and science fiction. She said she wanted to read my books but was afraid she’d be too critical. I talked her into reading one of them. Well, she’s now into the third one. I smiled as she told me how she liked the first one. “I thought it would be just oozing with silliness and lovey dovey stuff.” I laughed and told her that not all romance books are that way.

Some people do put a stigma on romance books. They think that only housewives and lonely people read them. They’re so wrong. Some of my best fans are business women, teachers, and even some men. The men are the funny ones. I have to say that I was surprised at the amount of men that read romance. So, as I say everyone needs a little romance added to their life.

So go out and pick up a romance novel today and add some spice to your life, your marriage or just to be taken away from the business of life for just a moment.

As always, Good writing and May God Bless You…

Time… A writer’s Nemesis…

Time. We all wish for more time in the day. I don’t know how many times I’ve been working on something and wished for 25 hours in a day instead of 24. Someone told me the other day that I had too many irons in the fire, but I don’t agree.

I love to be busy. It’s a good thing since I’m a wife, mother, Accountant, Children’s Minister, Author and self publisher. Wow, what a list 🙂 Sometimes it’s overwhelming, but then again it’s rewarding.

Everything I do is because of a passion. I’m not the type of person to jump into something that I don’t like to do. Some aspects of my passions are not my favorite things to do, but that’s the nature of the beast.

As a writer you need a little time everyday to put pen to paper or fingers to keys. I love writing and don’t always have those precious minutes to write. I usually write at night when my son is watching television or playing his musical instruments. My husband is usually reading or watching television as I tap away. Some people say, how can you write when the television is blaring in the background, well it’s easy. I go into a world of my own when I write. It’s really scary sometimes how immersed I get.

So, make a plan. Sit down and work out a schedule of your passions. Make sure you give ample time to each one. That’s my goal this week to set up a schedule for writing. I’m going to set aside a little time each day to get that done. It may sound crazy, but in my busy life I need this to stay sane…

First and foremost I have to make sure to put in time for my family and especially for my faith. I have a prayer time everyday which helps me to get through my day. If you don’t you need to try it. It sets the tone for the day.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

P.S. Continue to pray for Oklahoma.

Honors and Prayers

First and foremost let’s get to the prayers. If you’ve been listening or watching the news you know about the tornadoes that hit Oklahoma yesterday. It’s so tragic in the fact that lives were lost and homes destroyed. I sat and cried last night and this morning after seeing the devastation. It always affects me more when children are involved. They were so young. Please pray for those precious souls and their parents. Pray for the heroes working diligently to help. Prayer is what they need now.

As for honors, I was given a very special honor yesterday. I was asked to be a sponsored author in the July issue Southern Writers Magazine on their Magnolia Corner page. The book that will be spotlighted will be “Rekindled Flame”. I’m really excited about this opportunity.

Hopefully this post finds all of you well and safe. As storm season get’s into full swing, please heed the warnings and keep safe.

As always good writing and May God Bless You and those in our thoughts today…

A Smile is Worth a 1000 Words

Yep, that’s me with Country Music start John Berry. Now you know why I’m smiling. He honored our small country Church, Friendship Church, with a concert last night. If you weren’t there you missed a huge blessing.

I’ve been a fan of his for a long time and seeing him live in such an intimate setting was EPIC. Am I still smiling this morning, well yes. My cheeks hurt from smiling. He’s such a down to earth person and so nice. His wife was just wonderful. He had his son on drums and he’s just adorable. The bass player and sound guy were awesome too.

Sometimes when you meet someone famous they’re just so snobbish and above you that you feel like an ant in their presence, but not the case with him and his gang. They felt like down home family and you felt like you’d known them all your life. He got right in the throng of it and hugged, shook hands, gave autographs, and just smiled. They were so overwhelmingly nice. We even spoke to him about a repeat performance next year.

The music was so beautiful and soul filled that it brought several including me to tears. His music is not your everyday country, but an upbeat calming sound that brings your spiritual soul to a new level of worship. The whole place was in awe.

If you haven’t experienced John Berry what are you waiting for? He’s just as awesome today as he was when I became a fan so many years ago. If it’s possible I became even more of a fan last night. Check him out, you won’t be sorry. His music is so heartwarming and spiritually filled that you will get such a blessing.

May God Bless him, his family, crew, and career.

What does you character sound like?

You may be saying, what is she babbling about now 🙂 It’s simple really. What voice would you put with your main character if you had the chance? Well, I had to figure that out this week and let me tell you, it was a blast!

What I’m talking about is audio books. An author recently mentioned I ought to try it out, so I did. I went to ACX.com and set up an account. It’s really easy and may I say extremely fun and exasperating too.

After you give them your general information, then the fun starts. You have to put your book information in and an excerpt that you want someone to read for an audition. Yep, you heard me right, an audition. You actually have people sending you auditions on the account. But the fun starts when you have to put in the settings you want. Here are just a few of the things asked.

1. Style of voice: This was a huge list of things like soft, loud, funny, sad, gruff, gravelly, and the list goes on.

2. Gender: Male or female. This part was easy for me.

3. Region of Voice: In the site it has a different name but you get the idea. These included Southern, Northern American, Irish, English, Oriental, Cajun and the list goes on. This one was hard.

After you pick these out you need to tell the producer a little about the way you want it expressed. Then you put why you picked this excerpt.

Then the fun part begins. You can listen to the different styles of voice in the next screen. This is where you can change your choices which is a good thing. This was hilarious. I had to change most of the settings I’d picked. My editor would just looked at me and shake her head laughing.

The strange part is I’ve always known what my character would sound like if she could talk. I listened to a couple of people that had general auditions and found a voice I liked. Then I’ve started receiving auditions. This is going to be hard. I’ve received some that really sound right. A couple sounded like they were in pain, so no. But it was so invigorating to hear my book being spoken by someone other than myself.

So if you want to hear your book, go to ACX.com and try it out. They take royalty percentage or pay per hour. I went with royalty percentage. It’s a no brainer really. They distribute the finished audio book to Amazon, Itunes and a couple of other places.

As always, Good Writing and May God Bless You.

Reviews

Reviews can be fickle things. Some people pay big bucks to get reviews added to their books. Well there’s nothing wrong with that if they’re honest reviews. I’ve seen books that have several raving reviews but their sales ranking in terrible. Makes you think, was it worth the money?

I’ve searched out sites where you just send out your book to a reviewer and that’s all it costs is the book. Do you have some sites that you use? Right now I’m not in the position to really pay for reviews, but it would be nice if some of the people that have read my books would give a review.

I’ve been receiving several reviews on the Barnes & Noble site and Kobo, but not many on Amazon. Some advice on how to get more on Amazon would be great. I’ve gone in and changed my categories on Amazon to those that don’t have thousands of books already listed.

Are reviews that important? I think they are important to most readers. If you don’t have reviews on a book, then most people just scan right over it. I’ve noticed that some people now just give you a star rating and no comment. Sometimes that can be a good thing, but as for me, I love to hear what you liked or didn’t like. Just always be nice.

One of my books on Barnes & Noble has received several reviews. What’s funny is someone posted a nasty review and it was followed almost immediately by three really sweet reviews. Of course this reviewer has popped up on several of my books and it’s always the same. Unfortunately for that reviewer their review is not real credible as the review did not follow the book. It’s sad that some people get their kicks from downgrading us authors. Oh, well if you can live with yourself that’s up to you 🙂

Hope all is well with you and your writing. If you have comments on reviews and such, send a response. I love to hear from everyone.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…