Turn the light on…

Inspiration… Such an intricate word. How do you get? How do you keep it? Is it the right inspiration?

1: How do you get it? – Well this can happen in lots of ways. Inspiration can come in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes I’ll be just simply watching people going about their normal lives and bam! I’m inspired to write about it. Daydreaming can inspire you. Use past experiences and expand on them, change them around and in some instances make them fly. Listen to music. I get inspired by certain types of music. It’s according to what mood I’m in.

2: How do you keep it? – Ok, so you’re inspired, but can you keep the inspiration going all the way to the words, ‘The End’? Well, make notes, extremely descriptive notes of what inspired you, the feelings, the sights, the sounds. Every time the inspiration starts to flee, pull out the notes and read them. Close your eyes and picture it. If it’s music that inspired you, replay the same song or songs and get lost in it.

3: Is it the right inspiration? – Have you ever been inspired to do something, but then realized it was not what you wanted to do in the first place? It happens all the time. Maybe the inspiration is coming from the wrong source. You may be saying, what? I’m talking about when you’re writing a book and it’s going a certain way and then you get the inspiration to take the book into another realm. Is that what your book needs to do? I was working on one of my published books and had a sudden inspiration to change the middle and ending completely from my original plan. Now sometimes this can work out, but as I neared the ending I realized that I’d totally messed up the whole meaning of the book by going with the new inspiration. Just go with your gut and usually your original inspiration is right.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

If it goes to your head, you could lose!

If you’re a writer you know how hard it is to get you ideas on paper or in the computer. Then to get it edited and polished. Then you have to get it published and make a sale. It’s hard work.

The joy of a writer is getting published, but don’t let that joy get to your head. It’s really hard not to sit back and say, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m a published writer’. Then you make your first sale and your mind goes crazy. Well, keep a level head. Don’t push yourself past what you can handle. Take it slow and enjoy the time.

It’s the same way in any kind of leadership, goal achieved or book sale. If you let the power go to your head, then you could easily make a bad decision that could cost you a lot. If you use the power to manipulate others for your own cause, then you can easily lose that power. It’s the same with book sales and goals. Don’t manipulate the power you have.

As you know I own a business and I could easily let it go to my head. I’m proud of my accomplishments, but I also know that it could easily hit rock bottom and go under. I have to keep working hard to keep it alive. I treat it like a start up business daily.

I also treat my writing business like that. Sales can be up today and crash tomorrow. Never over look down falls. They can happen at the drop of a hat.

Leadership is the same way. If you overstep your authority it can trickle down the line and then your leadership is worthless. Keep a level head and don’t use your authority to get your own agenda up front. Use leadership as an honor and use it for good. Use your leadership whether its in your business, writing, or any other place as a way to teach, not to let it go to your head.

As always, this is just thoughts running through my head. I’ve seen so many writers let their success go to their heads, then it takes over. I’ve seen it happen to business owners. They let the success of their business make them soft, then they let the business slip through their fingers and then they’re out of business.

Good writing friends and May God Bless You…

How’s your writing attitude?

In life we show a lot of different attitudes. Bad or good is up to you. As a writer I’ve noticed a lot about my writing that goes along with my attitude. Here are a couple of things I’ve noticed.

When I’m in a really good mood and my attitude is peppy and upbeat I do a lot of writing. It seems to pump me up and get me going with ideas. When my mood is not so good I notice that I’m not as into my writing as I need to be. When I’m in a thoughtful mood I can really put words on screen. It’s amazing how our attitude or mood can affect the writing we do.

I had a bad attitude not long ago, which is not usual for me. I usually have a good attitude, but that day I was just not a happy camper. I sat down with my laptop and re wrote the same line three times. Nothing sounded good and I almost gave in to the bad attitude. Then I noticed the list of my works in progress and one of the titles caught my eye. I opened the file and read the couple of paragraphs that had been hastily written a couple of months ago. Something in my attitude slipped. My mind suddenly went to a new plateau.

The point I’m trying to get at is this. In my little world, sometimes my writing can bring me out of the bad attitude or help to conquer a low attitude. It’s like therapy in a laptop or story. Usually it takes a new manuscript. Especially if I’ve been at a loss on another manuscript that I’ve been steadily working on. Just going into something new and fresh helps. So next time you are stuck in a bad or low attitude try opening a newer manuscript and refreshing your mind. It could help out and you may even finish the new one.

So as always good writing and May God Bless You…

Are revisions sometimes a good thing?

I’ve been playing with the idea of revising two of my novels. Tender Flames and With All My Heart are two of my novels that I published last year.

Tender Flames was one of my first attempts at publishing and I’m proud of the results, but I feel like I need to listen to my readers. I’ve had several great reviews on this book but I’ve also had some good,but enlightening reviews. Some of the readers made suggestions that they thought would make this a novel to be reckoned with. So, I’m planning on doing a revision and then packing it with the second in the series “Rekindled Flames” which is doing great. I plan to sell the both together in a package deal.

Then there’s With All My Heart which is my Christian romance. I’ve had some great reviews on this one. So many have said they wished it was longer, well that good come to reality. As the release of the second book in this series is coming soon, I also plan to release the lengthened edition with the new book. The new book will also be released separately.

So, as I’ve seen several authors do this and have great success, I hope to make them even better. I’m actually excited about reliving these novels. As a writer you live the lives of your characters while your writing, so I get to revisit old friends and make them even better.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Crying doesn’t show weakness, but strength…

I’ve talked several times about how I cry easily. It’s just a trait I have. A sweet love song, a romantic movie, a faith filled gospel song, or just a memory brought back to life.

In my opinion crying never shows weakness, but the strength to endure. When a song brings on a memory it’s the strength of heart to let your emotions open up. When a sweet romantic scene in a movie brings on emotions, it’s the strength of that emotion that brings on the tears.

Sometimes a sweet memory gets brought on by a smell, a song, a person, or just memories in general. This can bring on a silent tear that also comes from the strength of the memory.

Maybe you think differently, but I can tell you this, it’s the strength that we hide that brings on the tears. The strength of the memory that pours out as life’s sweet tears.

A good author can bring on tears in just a few words. I’ve cried reading before. A book that brings on tears usually get’s read several times and put to memory.

So let those tears flow and show your true strength.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Weddings, a romance authors inspiration…

It’s a beautiful day here in Georgia. The sun is shining brightly, the air is clear, and the wind is blowing like a small hurricane. Well, my son had a bass club fishing tournament today so the house is all mine. I actually slept in this morning which is a luxury that I normally don’t indulge in.

Also today is a wedding at our Church. I love weddings. It’s so exciting to see the vows exchanged, the smiles of love, and the promise of forever. So many weddings today end up in divorce. I always say a prayer for the couple and hope that their union will be forever as it should be.

As a romance author I’m finely tuned into the feelings and atmosphere. I try to catch every ambiance and put it into my treasure chest of inspiration. A wedding is so romantic in it’s simplicity or in some cases it’s extreme elegance.

Romance is such an intricate part of our lives. I can’t imagine not having some type of romance in our lives. You may be sitting there thinking that romance is dead, but it’s not. It’s in everything we do, you just have to open up to it. Even the most simple thing is romantic if you’re open to it. My assistant says I could find romance in a bag of frogs 🙂 Well sure, haven’t you ever heard of kissing a frog to find the handsome prince.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Saturday. Enjoy the day and remember to stop and smell the romantic roses. Live as though it’s the last day you have.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Amazing! Have you tried this?

As writers we try everything to get our work noticed. We go on sites and follow other established writers to see how they do it. We put our name everywhere. I’ve put my name in some of the most unlikely places. Some have worked and others have just plain out flopped around like a dead fish.

Well I’ve found a couple of avenues for my work and I wanted to share them with you. Some of you may already be using these channels and if so I hope it’s going well, if not I hope this gives you some new advantages.

1. The Independent Authors Network

I’ve been playing with the choice of paying for a space on this network. I researched it and noticed that some of the authors I love are on there and it’s relatively reasonable. It’s a $24.95 one time fee for a basic membership and $74.95 a year for a Gold membership. I chose the basic. It’s like a author family of sorts. The network sends out your info periodically on their social media and other authors or readers send out your links and you do the same for them. I’ve noticed a real change in my sales since joining. My author page, yes I got an author page shows six of my books and some of the links that are clickable for purchasing my work.

2. Romance Writers of America

I wanted to join this earlier than I did, but the entry fee kept me held back. I’m really glad I decided to join this wonderful organization. I get a magazine monthly and newsletters periodically. They both provide some great advice and instruments I can use in making my author platform more sturdy.

3. allromanceebooks.com

This is one of the sites where you can sell your books. It doesn’t cost anything to set up a publisher/author account and have your books sold on their site through Paypal. You can put as many books as you want to on their site. It’s fairly easy to put your books on their site and they take several formats. Actually they recommend publishing them in several formats. I set this up and was able to put five of my books on there yesterday and already have had sales. You get 60% royalty. I figure that’s pretty good especially since it’s another avenue for my books to be seen and it’s FREE.

Maybe this will be helpful for you or just old news, but it helped me. My objective is to let others know when I find a great way to get my work seen. These are not my only avenues, but are my newest. If you use other sites, please list them and send to me. It could warrant a whole new blog post of what others use to market their work.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Your Heart! Is it protected from your writing?

You may be saying, what??? What I’m saying is simply this, as writers we put our whole heart into what we do, or at least we should. To me it’s like pouring out my soul when I write. I sometimes finish a writing session as feel so drained and other times I’m cleansed from the incessant chatter in my head by characters that just have to be heard. Writers, you know what I mean 🙂

When you pour your heart into something and then it doesn’t go well, how do your heart feel? Sometimes it really bothers me when sales are down and then an upturn starts and I smile. But my heart does a flip flop and sometimes I wonder if it stops for a second to bask in the good fortune.

My newest novel has been doing really well, which is exciting. The funny thing is and maybe it shouldn’t surprise me, but it seems that people are buying it and the first book in the series together. The sales are coming in twos. One day I did really well and the sales were even on both books in the series. Maybe I should do more series, ummm,,,

So back to the heart of writing. If you go into your writing with both feet forward and your heart encased in the whole process, make sure that you’re ready for some aches and pains. Writing is a process and sometimes it doesn’t go like we want it to, but other times it goes better than expected. My heart stays on a constant roller coaster. i just hope it’s up to the challenge 🙂

In romance writing you have to put your heart in it. Sometimes it’s a lot of your own heart that you write about. Your fantasies, your flops in the love department or just what you’ve experience in the heart department. Some of my favorite writing has been from my own experiences, changed a bit for obvious reasons. Don’t want anyone to think I’ve lived a fantasy life.

So on this Saturday as you go about your house cleaning, your chores, your errands and hopefully your writing, put your heart into it, but put a protective hedge around it. Don’t let the downs affect your heart, keep the heart pumping and keep writing 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Today’s post is all about my wonderful friend Rosie Amber. We met through my writing and it’s been a wonderful friendship. It’s nice to be friends with fellow authors because you can share ideas, bounce things off them and just talk. I wanted to share her current book with you and I hope you’ll check it out. You will not be sorry. So here’s more about her:

When the police have been seen at school on the second day of term, fighting breaks out amongst parents and gossip about individuals threatens to spiral out of control, can Mrs Hardy, the Headmistress at Moortulk Primary keep control for another school year?
Sophie Grey lands a self-made job where she is in a prime position to hunt out the inside story. Is this an idyllic English village school? Or is it on a par with St. Trinians?

ASIN No: B008HE75PO

In the UK check out;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Talk-of-the-Playground-ebook/dp/B008HE75PO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1359794204&sr=1-1#_

In the USA check out;

http://www.amazon.com/Talk-of-the-Playground-ebook/dp/B008HE75PO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359795400&sr=8-1&keywords=talk+of+the+playground

Rosie Amber was brought up in a beautiful Hampshire village; she is married and has two children. She combined her love of writing with a desire to embrace social technology. Talk of the Playground evolved from a spark of an idea from her experiences as a parent in the school playground. Rosie had fun writing the book and hopes it makes you chuckle and brings laughter into your life.

X Rosie

How do I finish this when that is in the way?

I have a problem. I’ve got a manuscript that I should have finished a month ago 🙂 That’s only part of the problem, well it’s still going, the problem is that I have 5 other stories crying out to be finished. Every time I get my head back into the current manuscript my mind goes nuts. Yes, I said it, my mind goes nuts.

To someone that’s not a writer this may sound like a great problem. You may be saying that’s great that you have so many stories waiting in line to be completed. Well, here lies the problem. These stories don’t want to wait in line, they want to break in line. They’re getting down right ornery. They’re taking up my sleep, my extra time and most detrimental my writing time.

Oh well, the life of a writer. I guess that’s just the problem with having an overactive imagination, which if you think about it, that’s the key to being a writer. Sometimes my imagination runs away with me 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless you.