Rainy day in the South

Well, I woke this morning to the pitter patter of rain. A very cold rain. It’s dark and dreary outside, but inside it’s warm and cheery. My writer’s mind is writing it as a sunny, beautiful day. That’s the fun thing about being a writer. I can rewrite the day in my pretend world. You may be saying, Stephanie, honey, your writing is not life. I’m well aware of that, but writing is part of my life. You make your feelings the way you want to.

If it’s drab outside you can control how you feel about it. You either let it get you in a crabby mood or you smile and say it’s a beautiful day. It’s the same with writing. You are the one that chooses the feeling of it. It can be sad, happy, scary, or whatever you want it to be. As I sit and work on finishing a sad to happy book it’s a good day to write the happy part.

You’re in control of your life. Well most of the time. Don’t let emotions control your life. I used to struggle with this. I’d let the day control me. If it was raining I’d be down and out. But I realized one day that I could control that. No I can’t control the weather before you ask, but I can control how I react to it.

It’s the same with my writing. I control the destiny of the characters. If they’re happy or sad it’s up to me.So as I sip my warm coffee, laced with pumpkin spice creamer I smile and say rain, rain, go away, come back another day. But I smile. Live every day with a smile. Come on, you feel that smile coming, just let it out.

I hope every one of you stay safe in this rolling storm system because of the icy side of it.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

New Release and the holidays…

My new Christmas book is up and running. This has been a joy to work on. As you all know I love the Christmas season and adding cowboys and Switzerland which is on my bucket list just adds to it. I’ve been researching Switzerland for many, many years and to get to use some of that in this book has been awesome.

What’s funny is this was supposed to be a stand alone book, but this writer’s heart just couldn’t stop it at that. It’s going to be a whole series on romance in the Alps. I’m really excited about this series as it explores the country I’d love to visit. Since I will probably never visit this beloved country, I’ll live it through fiction.

I do hope everyone is enjoying this week of Thanksgiving. Don’t forget to thank those you love and those you need to love for the many things they do. I hope those that don’t have romance can find romance. It’s wonderful! Everyone needs it in their lives.

Here’s an excerpt from Open The Heart – Alpine Christmas Romance:

When she emerged from the bathroom thirty minutes later totally refreshed, she saw lying on the bed a Christmas ball. She giggled. Where had he found a Christmas ornament?

She opened her bedroom door and found bright red tinsel stretched all the way to the stairs. She picked it up and rolled it up as she walked. She glanced over the balcony and found him elbow dip in a huge box of Christmas decorations. She let out a laugh that echoed across the high ceilings.

The look in his eyes when he looked up was like a young boy waiting on Santa. She joined him on the floor by the fire. “I thought you didn’t celebrate Christmas.”

“I said I hadn’t celebrated in a while, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have decorations. These were some my mom had given me the year before…” He trailed off. Then he cleared his throat and turned toward her. “I’ve loved Christmas all my life. I just stepped away from it for a while.”

She grinned and looked in the box. They had everything to decorate the house and a tree. “Do you have a tree?”

He laughed and stood up, grabbing her hand. He pulled her to her feet. “That’s a funny question. We have a whole mountain of Christmas trees. I have one of the horses saddled and a cart attached just outside the door. The snow is falling lighter right now, so we’re going hunting.”

She giggled in excitement. It had been years since she’d been out in the woods hunting a tree. “Do you have an axe?” She gave him her most serious expression.

“Oh, you’re funny. Don’t you think I’d think of that first?” He hugged her and pulled her hat up and tied it under her chin. “Let’s go get a tree before the next storm hits.”

This is just a snippet of the fun these two have in their snow filled Alpine Christmas adventure.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Here’s the 2 links already up and running:

http://www.amazon.com/Open-Heart-Alpine-Christmas-Romance-ebook/dp/B00GW6T6AQ

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/381389

Exploring your heart…

I’m a hopeless romantic and if you haven’t gotten that through my blogs where have you been? In my writing I express the romance and love that’s in my heart. I hurt when my characters hurt and laugh when they laugh, of course my son thinks I’ve lost my mind much of the time. I’ll just laugh out as I’m writing. He just looks at me and shakes his head. Oh well, I have to be a little crazy to be an artist, right.

Since I’ve been working on my Christmas romance I’ve experienced many feelings. I’ve been angry, happy, sad, mournful, cold, and then excited. This book runs the whole lot of feelings. I’ve tried to carry my reader into a new world. Hopefully one that they will want to explore further with the second book. Whoops did I just give away a secret? Yes I did. Well the cats out of the bag, There will be a book two for The Alpine Romance. It’s funny how it just hits you when something needs to be carried to another plateau.

I’ve also been working on finishing book two in the “Lean On Him” Christian series. This one has to be visited in spurts. The book has taken a toll on me emotionally. A couple of months ago I put an excerpt on Avon Romance submission pages and a kind lady came in to tell me how emotional that scene made her. It brought a smile to my face. My editor read the first chapter and when she turned to me she had tears in her eyes. Yep, it’s going to be a emotional romance. I just hope it inspires my readers to find romance and hold on to it, because you never know when it will slip away. Sometimes we lose the love of our life, but there’s always the chance to find love again, you just have to open your heart.

So to me, writing romance explores your own heart. Can you write romance if you don’t believe in it? I really don’t think so. I think you have to believe with all your heart that romance is real and that love can be found in the oddest places. Every book I’ve written has taken a different angle of love. Maybe it’s the love lost, then found again, or new love found, but held away by force. Whatever the way, the love always shines through. That’s what makes romance one of the top genres right now. We all need something to hope for, to wish for, and to know it exists if only in fiction.

My challenge to you is this. Explore your heart to find the part of it that expresses how you feel. Pull on it until you’re just drained and then you’re ready to pour it out in fiction. Some days when I close my laptop I’m exhausted, but content. I’ve explored the many emotions of my characters and made it through. That’s what draws in the reader, the pull of your heart to theirs.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Living my dreams through writing

If you’re a writer you know where I’m going with this. As a young, starry eyed, very impressionable, soft hearted, dare I go on, teenager I started reading romance novels. As I picked up the first one I opened it with excitement. This was a new era for me. I could smell the new paperback smell, which of course is Heavenly. The book drew me in and pulled out the romantic in me. After that I was hooked on romance.

This started my desire to be a romance writer. I’d sit for hours writing, that’s handwritting for those that don’t remember that, many manuscripts. I kept most of my old manuscripts. Of course now they’re old and yellowed now, but I still pull them out and read them now and then. Actually a couple of my books started from those old teenage dreamy romance manuscripts. Of course I had to do some changes to get them a little more up to date.

Through my writing I can live out childhood dreams. I’ve always loved horses. If you’ve read any of my books you will usually read about a horse or two. I have to say it’s helped with my desire to own a horse. I get to own them in my writing, even have a horse ranch in my writing. Sound crazy, hardly, just writing from the heart.

Then there’s my dream of traveling to Switzerland. I’ve had that dream for as long as I can remember. When I was in school I actually did a report on Switzerland. I even went as far as writing to the Swiss travel center and they sent me a whole package of information. I still have that package. In my newest book, Open The Heart – A Alpine Christmas Romance, I travel to Switzerland. I’ve enjoyed researching every aspect of it. It’s been my Christmas present to myself to revisit my dream through my writing. It comes out this weekend and I hope you will check it out.

What are your dreams? Do you work on making them come true or do you write out your dreams? Sometimes your dreams can inspire you in many ways. Mine inspire me to write. Writing from the heart is the best kind. It shows your true colors and your true heart. So as the Christmas Season gets into full swing do something from your heart. Make a dream come true for either yourself or someone you love.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

I’m back, did you miss me?

Well, I’ve been with internet since Monday afternoon. It came back up yesterday long enough for me to pay bills and bloop there it went. It’s just come back up this afternoon so I’m quickly doing a post before it goes again. Hopefully it won’t because I have a Christmas book to get published.

Hope everyone has been doing well this week. I can say this that I was able to really knuckle down and finish my Christmas book and now to the edits for a 2nd run through. I’m so excited about this one. I can’t wait to share it with all my faithful readers.

As for writing I’ve been piddling with a couple of other stories as usual. Also working on my Valentines book which is the sequel to The WInner Is Love which was last years CHristmas Romance. I’ve had several people asking when it was coming out and now I can tell you that it should be out in January or early, early February, just in time for Valentines Day.

If you get a chance run over to Avonromance.com and check out the many Christmas romances they have to offer. I think you’ll be well satisfied.

I will do a longer post tomorrow, that is if my internet is behaving.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

Check out my blog post on Southern Writer’s Magazine Blog

http://southernwritersmagazine.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-do-you-balance-full-time-job-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SouthernWritersSuiteT+%28Southern+Writers%3A+Suite+T%29

The Writing Process Blog Tour

This blog tour is where writers and authors answer questions about their writing process and I was honored to be a part of this cross promotion. My friend and fellow author Ana Calin posted hers last week. You can check out her writing process here: http://anaatcalin.com/2013/11/11/the-writing-process-blog-tour/

On with the questions…

What am I working on?

I am currently working on a couple of things. The one closest to the finish line is “Open The Heart – A Alpine Christmas Romance” and it should be out before Thanksgiving. This is a book close to my heart as it hits on one of the items on my bucket list – going to Switzerland. It’s a heartwarming story of love that is unexpected. Also I’m working on a sort of time travel romance “Finding The Right Time”. I hope to have it out before Christmas.

I’m working on several other manuscripts that are still in the works, but very exciting time.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I feel like my writing is different because of the style. I write from the heart and of course most authors do. My romances are clean, yet passionate, but your teenager would be safe reading these. I try to make the characters real, not something that comes out of a box. I want my readers to relate to them on a natural level. They have everyday problems and solve them in everyday ways.

Why do I write what I do?
I write romance because I’m a passionate person. I’ve been reading romance novels since I was 13 and fell in love with them. I love to help my readers feel like it’s possible for them to be happy, or even find happiness in the relationship they’re in. Maybe my writing will carry them away for a moment or two. I also want them to realize that you don’t have to be rich, or a beauty queen to have romance. A lot of writers only write about billionaires and people that are superficial, but I try to write about real life people.

How does your writing process work?
My writing process is quite simple. A lot of my ideas come to me as I lay awake at night, but also when I’m people watching. I love to sit and just watch people. After the inspiration hits I immediately sit down and outline the story out from start to finish while it’s still hot in my mind. Then I expand each line of the outline into a chapter or two. Sometimes as I write I change up my lines, but the story stays on the same course as the original inspiration.

Hope everyone has a great Monday.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Foggy Fall Morning

When I woke this morning it was foggy outside. To me a foggy fall morning is beautiful. The fall colors become a soft emerging color through the fog. It’s as though you’re alone in the world as the fog closes in around the house. As I sit here looking out the window I can only see a little ways and then you meet a gray wall. For some reason when it’s foggy as when it snows everything is quiet. It’s as though the creatures outside are afraid to make a sound or maybe they’re just in awe of natures shadowy appearance.

Hopefully the foggy morning will not seep into my brain. I plan on doing some writing today. I need to get Open The Heart out and ready to go. Also, I need to do some promoting for Monday. I will be featured on Southern Writer’s Magazine’s Blog page called Suite T. This is so exciting. They’ve been so wonderful to me and my writing. If you’re a writer you need to subscribe to their magazine. It’s very inspirational and informative.

I’d also like to recommend a website that’s very good for a writer and a reader. If you’re like me and grew up reading Avon Romance books, then you need to visit http://www.avonromance.com. It’s a great site to catch up with other romance readers and get to know their editors and authors. I’m proud to be able to contribute to their wonderful website. I recently went through some of my old romance books in the attic and was surprised at how many of them are Avon Books. When I was young I would look for the Avon logo on the spine and that always told me what was inside would be great.

Avon Books carry some big author names. If you haven’t checked them out, then you’ve been missing out. I’ve found several new authors to read and recently was excited when I saw an older author of romance write a post on there. It’s funny how much I enjoy the posts on this site. Some of the posts even give you interesting insights into their world.

As for me, I’m feeling pretty good this morning. I was able to spend a couple of hours last night with my nieces. One of them is my editor and cover designer. She’d been away at University of Georgia. I was so glad to get to talk with her and catch up. I was able to surprise her with a paperback copy of Victoria which was the last book she designed for me before she left for college.

Wishing everyone great writing, and May God Bless You…

The Fear Of Failure

Who’s ever had a fear? Come on, you know you’ve had some kind of fear in your lifetime. We all do, but how do you handle that fear. When I started writing many, many years ago, the biggest problem was I had a fear of publishing. Why? Well, think about it, it’s putting yourself out there. You’re putting your name out there, your reputation and sometimes your creativity.

Ok, so I have fears. I’ve had so many writers message me about this. They’ve written one or more manuscripts, but they fear publishing it. I always tell them to go with their heart. If they get some people to read their work and they like it, then go for it.

Here’s a list of reasons I feared publishing and sometimes still have a couple:

1. I feared what others would think. (I’ve gotten over that. Now I just don’t worry about it as much. I’ve learned to just write what I love and put it out there.)

2. I feared putting my name on something that would go all over the world. Actually it’s been a blast. Have only had a couple of weird encounters, but mostly have gotten over this one.

3. Crazily enough, a fear I still have every time I hit publish is that I’ve accidently downloaded the wrong file and it will be the character list or outline and not the manuscript. I did actually put the wrong cover on CreateSpace one time, but when I did the file check I discovered it and made the correction. That was a close one.

4. Reviews. You may think this is the same as #1, but it’s not. This is the fear of the dreaded bad review that just makes you feel so deflated. But I’ve learned to deal with those also. I’ve only had a couple of bad reviews and fortunately if anyone reads the review they’ll realize that in some instances the person didn’t read the book to begin with. One bad review was because the characters names were the same as one of my older books. Really! One fan said a negative review of one of my books actually caused her to get the book and she loved it. Funny how things work out.

5. The fear of complete failure. It’s so real in every author’s mind when they publish their work. What if nobody buys my book? I had that fear at first, but as the sales went up I realized that maybe that wasn’t a fear worth having. I’m not a bestselling author, but I’m pleased with the sales I’ve had. Since I’ve only been publishing for a little over a year, I can’t complain.

Well, what’s your fear when publishing, writing or even blogging?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Amazon Associate – Yep I’m on board now.

I’ve looked into the Amazon Associate program for a while, but hadn’t decided to jump until this week.Well, I’m now an Amazon Associate member and have a Amazon Store. I like having the actual buy links to my books.

Of course, since I’m not the most computer literate person, I’ve been unable to attach the buy links to my WordPress Website, but I do have them on my Blogger website over at http://stephaniehurt-author.blogspot.com/. I know I’ll figure this out for my WP website, but after a couple of hours of reading help pages and trying everything, I had to step back.

As for thee program itself, it’s fairly easy to set up. If I can do it, then most everyone can do it. So if you get a chance click over to my new Amazon Store and let me know what you think. http://astore.amazon.com/stehuraut-20.

Now I’m just going to sit here by the crackling fire and sip my coffee as I finish my Christmas book. I’m so excited about this one. Can’t wait to give you a little snippet, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…