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.

Friday…almost the weekend!

It’s Friday! Yes, I’m ready for the weekend. It’s been a busy week and I need a little down time to process. Also, I need to do some word count catch-up.

If you’re a writer, have you focused on your work as you should? Hard question? Well, yes it is. Especially if you’re not a full-time writer. If you have another job, it’s hard to stay on your word count, but you push forward. Yes, it’s hard to do, but if you focus on the goal, you’ll achieve the word count.

My suggestion to help with this focus. Start a calendar and figure out how fast you can achieve 1000 words. Maybe you do it in an hour, maybe less, maybe more. Then set aside that time every day or at least a couple of times a week. If you need to complete a 50,000-word manuscript, then you need 50 days of writing. Makeup the days you miss. This is what i do on the weekend, I make up the days I miss and try to get where I should be.

Set goals too. If you do this, you’ll come closer to achieving your word count. Try it and let me know how it works.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

Throwback Thursday! Tender Flames…

Tender Flames revised cover

It’s hard to believe this book came out in May 2012. Wow, times flies when you’re having fun. Since this release so much has happened in my writing career. I’ve been featured in Southern Writers Magazine multiple times, I’ve published over 20 books, I made it to the top 55 in the 2015 Harlequin So You Think You Can Write contest, and this year I signed a publishing contract with Solstice Publishing. It’s been such an amazing ride.

Tender Flames is the 2nd book I published and the first one to make me ugly cry while I was writing it. I actually had to stop and compose myself so that I could finish one part. This book will take you on a roller coaster of emotions, from laughter, grief, excitement, anger and so on. I revised it last year and reinvented the cover, which by the way I love. I’ve had a lot of response from this book, which makes me smile.

Get your copy of Tender Flames and start the journey of the love triangle that will leave you smiling…  https://www.amazon.com/Tender-Flames-Revised-Love-Book-ebook/dp/B0084USOE2

Book Trailer:

Hope you enjoyed the trailer!

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

Lost in the words…

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Good morning! The week is half over. I realized that I haven’t put a post on here in several days. But my head had been in my current manuscript.

So, with that thought, have you ever got lost in the words? I’ve been busy catching up on my word count. For about a week I didn’t write much and my word count suffered. If you’ve read many of my blogs you know that’s important to me. I have a set word count on the calendar and if I miss a couple of days, well, I go into a frenzy to get caught back up. But when you miss more than a couple of days, it’s almost impossible to get back on track. Notice I said almost impossible.

The characters have been running around in my head, forcing their way out. So, Sunday afternoon I sat down and let the characters take over. Let’s just say, I almost caught back up to where I should be. Hopefully this morning I will get back to task and be on track.

As a serious writer, you have to stay focused. Unfortunately, life slips in and things come up that interrupt that focus. When that happens, I sit back, look at my deadline, then divide it out by the days left. That gives me a new goal that has to be met. Which usually means a higher word count per day until I’m finished.

And as you know, I always have a couple of manuscripts in the works at all times, so get back to where I should be, I’ve put all of them aside to get back on track. The funny thing about doing that, the characters of the other manuscripts scream loudly in my head. Does that make me certifiably insane? No, that just makes me a writer!

Hope everyone is well and staying on track.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

Sunday Morning Reflections…

Zee Monodee

Yeah, I wish I was sitting here right now, but I’m not. Here in Georgia, it’s really hot and humid, which means you go outside for just a few minutes and you feel sticky. So, I choose to stay in as much as possible.

SO, on to today’s post. I’m working on the last book in my ‘Lean on Him’ series and it’s hard. As a writer, I become comfortable with my characters and my series. Although most of this series doesn’t contain the same characters, but it does contain the same message about Faith and how it can heal you. This one is like a soul searching piece of work and sometimes when we dig too deep, it reveals something about us.

Have you ever written a manuscript and it made you think, really think? I love when a manuscript touches your heart. That means it will touch the reader and that makes me smile.

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and stay cool.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

 

 

Friday Ramblings…

So, it’s Friday! It’s a three day weekend!!! Everybody is excited about three days off work, but as a writer, we get excited that it’s a three-day writing palooza. Yes, I said palooza!

I sat down at 5:30 this morning, yes, I was up that early. Menopause will be the death of me, but anyhoo, I was up looking at my writing schedule and figuring out my word count for the three day weekend. Well, let’s just say I’m behind on one and ahead on another. So what does that tell you? Yep, I got so into writing on one manuscript that I totally avoided the other one. That’s not good because that puts me behind schedule. Of course, after I thought about it, if I finish one of them early, I’ll have time to finish the one lacking in word count. Yea!!!

Ok, so I’m a little giddy about the thought of writing for three days straight. It’s a writer thing. When we get a chance to write without our day job getting in the way, it makes us writers smile.

And if you wonder if I have holiday plans, yes I do. I’m heading to my mom’s lake house for the 4th, but I’ll be home writing and outlining for two days!

What are you up to on this long weekend? Working on anything exciting?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…