What happens when…

Good Tuesday morning! Well the main tax season is almost over and I’ll be back to my regular blogging schedule. But this week will be majorly busy for me. I’ve been fitting in a little writing here and there, but not enough for my sanity. So here’s today’s thought for the day, What happens when…

What happens when you want to write but you don’t have your computer handy, well you pick up a pen and paper. I started a new manuscript the other night and was too tired to get up and grab my laptop, so I picked up my handy spiral bound notebook and started writing. It felt amazing to put pen to paper again. Of course I know those pages upon pages of handwritten words will have to be put in the laptop, but for now I’m content do it the old fashioned way.

What happens when you have a deadline for one book but have to start another one so the characters will let you sleep. Yep I started a new historical romance two days ago and yes I know Oakley is due out really soon! Sometimes you have to just give in to the loudest voices in your head.

What happens when figure out toward the end of the book that you accidentally renamed a character midway of the book. Yep, guilty as charged. Well, you can either stay with the new name and go back to make changes or you can search all the wrong name entries and correct. But I’m sure glad I’m now using Scrivener so that I have a character list, especially for those that don’t appear many times.

So what do you do when this happens to you?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

If your story falls apart, use duct tape?

Duct tape is a house staple, just as salt, sugar and flour are food staples. For many years people have fixed almost everything with duct tape. At Church we even fixed a broken Christmas tree with duct tape, no really we did. It’s strong and durable. Also you can get it in any width and color so it’s versatile.

What if you’re story is falling apart? We all have those manuscripts that start out really good and we have a phenomenal ending planned, but the middle has so many holes and fractures that it puts a real stink on the beginning and ending. Well, put a little duct tape on it. What am I talking about? Well, here goes the answer in a nutshell.

By duct tape I mean sit down with your beginning and ending. Then really look at it. Where is the character headed? The middle needs some suspense or issue that needs to carry the reader over the hump to the end. It needs something that only the ending can shed some light on. This is where the duct tape comes in.

As I said above, duct tape is strong and durable with lots of versatility, so the middle of the book needs to be taped up neatly. But be careful not to just add fluffy filler that makes the reader fall asleep with boredom. If the first of the book is power packed, then make the middle explode with tension. This is the strong duct tape. Add an element of complete surprise. Let the main character have a major problem that needs solving, or maybe a secret that is threatening to come out, but the secret has to be life altering.

But make sure that it can mesh with your great ending. I did this one time and a book that started out being only around 30,000 words went over 50,000 words with a little duct tape application. Crazy, but true. I had this really great beginning that pulled you in and the ending left you breathless, but the middle was just a bunch of fluff. As I did my first read through I was almost dozing and that’s not good. I sat down and spread out the beginning and ending, then totally restructured my characters. I added a whole new dimension to them that took them on an adventure that meshed well with the ending and soon I had a complete story that I was proud to hit the publish button on.

So, get you some duct tape and pull that story together. If you use the right duct tape it will hold together nicely.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Saturday morning writing…

Good morning all! It’s really cold here in Georgia. I’m sitting by the fire with my second cup of coffee and checking my posts. I love this time when I’ve got a little time to write posts, post on sites and work on my writing.

Today I’m working on Ridge, which is the first installment of the 5 Oaks Ranch series. I can’t help but smile as I write each part. As you know me well, I’ve got the outline completed and know basically where the story is headed. Some days I’m so excited that I go ahead of myself. No actually I do. If a certain part is calling out to me, I’ll create a separate word document and get it down. When I actually get to that part, just copy and paste. It helps keep the overcrowding of my brain from completely taking over.

Ridge is a special character to me. He’s got this rough edge that just makes him pure cowboy. The time he spent in Iraq during his two tours of duty have given him a edge that will cut the most unwilling intruder into his world. His only soft spot is his little sister Maggie. The smile she gives him makes some of the stone around his heart chisel away. But the fun part starts the minute he meets Mallory, the new ranch vet. Their sparring will keep you wondering where it’s headed. The fun part is how Ridge avoids things that are unavoidable. Can she break the ice that’s totally Ridge?

For the next couple of weeks I’ll be working on his story. If everything goes well you’ll be able to meet Ridge before New Year’s but let’s just see how it goes.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Writing in Sections

As a writer I’m constantly trying new ways to organize me thoughts for books. Some days my mind is riddled with different scenes and it’s hard to concentrate on just one part. So I’m trying a new way to do things that I’ve read other authors do.

Since my mind seems to want to go ahead of itself, I’m letting it. When I start a book now I also start another word document that I name Segments of “book name”. In this document I write the scenes that are later down the road, that way I don’t lose the thought process and also it helps with the current parts. I know where they’re headed and can keep everything flowing in the right direction.

I’ve noticed that my mind seems less tangled when I do this process. I guess getting the parts that are screaming at me on paper helps the words flow better without obstacles. Try this process out and see how it works for you. But don’t forget to label each section so that you can copy and paste it in when your writing gets to that point. It really helps!

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Stepping out of a hole…

It’s been such a wonderful September with the Romancing September Across the World with my friend across the pond, Rosie Amber. I’ve learned a lot from the different authors. It’s crazy how different all of us are, but in so many ways we’re the same. We all face the same hurdles and somehow we jump them and run toward the next one, but what happens when you jump one hurdle and fall in a hole on the other side?

I just recently released Emma Rose. It was a challenge to me for many reasons. If you’ve never written historically relevant material you might not understand this, but let me enlighten you. I’m constantly reaching for my timeline to keep dates correct and world happenings. You can’t put the cart before the horse so to speak. Well that wasn’t the only challenge with Emma Rose.

Emma Rose presented another problem. When I started out I was headed in a certain direction, but when I got to a crossroads I floundered, in exhaustion I went down the wrong road that took on another persona. I wasn’t happy, but I was too far in to go back, or was I? As I neared the words The End my heart kept telling me it was totally wrong. The story completely lost it’s meaning to me. I had jumped one hurdle and landed in a bottomless pit, falling into writer’s oblivion!

The Saturday before the release date on the upcoming Friday I took a leap that helped me to see the light at the top of that dark hole. I went back to where the story meant something, over thirty word document pages. I highlighted them and saved them in another file and then I did something drastic. I hit delete. As my finger hovered over that ominous black key I struggled with indecision, but finally did it. I deleted 5 whole chapters of a manuscript I’d stayed up late and got up early to finish before the deadline.

I sat for a long while staring at the void in my manuscript I’d just created. I know I saved it but that didn’t lesson my fear. I knew deep down that if I was planning to meet my deadline I had to get scrambling to repair the void. I stepped back, worked on something else that was going along pretty well.

When I came back two hours later it was clear. With determination and some fear I started that section over. The words flowed freely from me as they didn’t when I’d first worked on this section. The story became clear. No longer was it unfocused and dull, it was crisp and clear with a purpose that blowed me away. I knew where it had to go and when I did eventually type The End I was satisfied and teary eyed.

I’d jump a authors worst hurdle, fell in the dark hole and made my way out with exhuberance. It left me totally at peace with the decision and now I know that when it happens again, it’s for the best and just do it.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Emma Rose is now available!

Good Friday morning! I’m excited to announce that Emma Rose is finally available. It’s been a long and harrowing journey, but she’s out. This was a book that brought about many changes. I’m ready to move forward with the next installment of the Women of Magnolia Hill Saga. It will be out in early 2015.

I hope you’ve checked out the Romancing September tour that Rosie Amber and I have been doing all month. It’s a great way to help support other authors and find lots of new books for your TBR list. Mine has grown so much that I should be good for a long time.

Another exciting thing to put out here is the upcoming western romance series that I’ll start as soon as I get a couple of days rest. Who am I kidding? I’ve already started the new series. It’ll be 5 books and each one is another aspect of the family of 5 Oaks Ranch. They’re full of family drama, humor, love, romance and just down right good clean, exciting fun. I’m so excited about this series. I’ll be posting little snippets as it goes. The covers are all completed, but nope, I’m not going to give anything away just yet, but I will tell you there’s a little something, something at the end of Emma Rose regarding this series.

Oh yeah, before I go back to writing, I have another announcement. Yep I’m full of them today. I have a Christmas romance in the works and it will be part of my Christian Romance series Lean On Him. This will be a very hard book to write, not that it’s not coming to me, but it’s about a hard subject. I’ll tell you more later, but let’s just say it will be a different side of romance from my normal writing. But it’s a subject that’s close to my heart. Ok, that’s enough of that for now.

I hope all of you have a great weekend and don’t forget to pick up a book. Be kind and give the author a review. We love hearing from our fans.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

Are things getting too easy?

In the world today everything is digital, electronic, wireless, the list goes on and on. But when I sit and think about only ten years ago I realize the changes have been dramatic. We’re making things too easy to do. Of course we’re busier than we used to be, aren’t we? Or we’re just too plugged in and it looks like we’re too busy.

Take books for instance, only ten years ago when you wanted to read a new book you went to the brick and mortar store to purchase that book. Now most people just go to their reading device, either their tablet, phone, reader, etc and they just download it in minutes. No need to leave the house, just click and read. What happened to the feel of an actual book in your hands?

Then of course there’s the new gadgets where you no longer have to take a wallet with you. Are you kidding me? Now you just pay with your phone app. Really? Have we gotten to the point where we can’t even pull out cash and pay? Yes we have. We’ve made things too easy.

Guess what? With the easy comes the criminals. We use our debit cards at the gas pump to save a 10 second walk to the counter. Then someone uses a portable reader and steals your number. The next day your account is empty and you’re thinking “Now what?”. Yep, that’s not a good feeling.

Oh and then you have everything wireless. No longer do you have wires connected to all your computer components. It’s amazing that I can sit in my den and print in my office. If I wanted to I could just work in my house and occasionly walk out to the office to collect printed pages.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love some of these easy things. They’re making it possible for us to do more in less time, but with that easiness are we getting lazy? I don’t know, but it’s something to think about. I started reading a book series this week that’s actually paperback, yes people, paperback. I’ve actually enjoyed holding an actual book. But as I usually read with my reader, yep, I’ve pressed my thumb to turn the pages several times and then realized that I actually had to turn the page physically.

So, my question is this, “Have we made things to easy for us?”

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Getting to the Heart of Romance

As most of you know, I write romance. I also blog about romance and the need for more of it in our lives. As I’ve said many times, romance helps in so many ways.If you’re married, you need sprinkles of romance in every aspect of that marriage. If you’re in a relationship and it’s leaning toward love, well you need romance. It just helps out with even the most tense moment.

I’ve read hundreds, dare I say thousands of romance novels. Sometimes I have to laugh at the lengths a writer will go to when trying to tickle a readers ears. I know all about those lengths. I do it everyday in my writing. Are we giving people false hope? I don’t think so, but I recently read an article on just that. The writer talked about teen girls today expecting to find that one man that will give them the romance and life they’ve read about in novels. She talked about having a trend of romance novels that actually talked of real life interactions.

This made me think about my writing. Could a romance novel written from real life interactions make difference? Would the couple waking up with morning breath, totally avoiding one another until they’ve freshened said breath make a difference? What about those unglamorous moments when you have no make up on and your hair is scraggly? Do you write about that? Will it sell or will people laugh you right out of business?

If you take a long look at your own life, how many times have you had a muscled man rescue you and sweep you away to a beautiful location to propose and give you a huge diamond ring, then kiss you into oblivion? Really, how many times? What about a virile cowboy sweeping you off your feet and taking you away into the sunset on his horse? I know, I’m being a little far fetched, but let’s get to the heart of real romance.

In real life it’s the simple things. Maybe it’s a flower picked from the yard, a card to say I’m sorry, maybe it’s just a loaded dishwasher after a long day of work, but let’s get real about romance. For me it’s that look across the dinner table or simply a quick kiss as he passes me in the kitchen as I fix dinner. But in order to sell books, sometimes we have to go beyond the simple and blow the romance up to a higher level. But that’s what sells books, so we’ll continue to do it.

I can say that I haven’t heard of anyone being swept off their feet by a sexy vampire or shifter. But it makes for fascinating reading.

As always good writing, and May God Bless You…

Friday morning writing

Good Friday morning everyone! Yes, it’s finally Friday. As I sit here sipping my coffee I think about the work at hand. I have a couple of books in the works, but which one do I work on for the next hour before I get ready to go out to the office?

Some days I can’t decide which book to work on. When you have several going and they all call out for attention, what do you do? This morning is one of those times. I’m almost completely done with one, but I just started another one that’s crying out too. Of course I have the outline ready for two more that have been running around in my head. I even dreamed of one of them last night.

Two of these books are 2nd books in various series and I really need to get them out soon.

How do you figure out which one to work on when all of them are crying out for attention?

I hope everyone has a great Friday. Now on to the manuscripts…

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Interview with F. J. Thomas, Author

Good Saturday morning. This morning I have a guest author interview. I met F. J. Thomas several months ago through social media. She’s a southern girl like me and also has a tremendous love for horses as I do. I know you’ll enjoy getting to know her a little better. So here goes:

1: Give us a bio on you, tell us what makes you, you…

I work full time in the healthcare industry and live on with my husband on my horse farm in East Tennessee. When I’m not working to pay the feed bill or writing, I’m judging horse shows, giving riding lessons, or competing in anything from barrel racing and cattle sorting to hunter and halter. Horses have always been a huge part of my life and honestly I think that’s a big factor in what makes me who I am. They have taught me to never quit.

2: When did you start writing and why?

I started out writing poetry for a competition in high school and actually placed well in a State Competition. It just kind of blossomed from there. In my late twenties I started writing horse articles and started a couple of books. With age comes discipline and it took me ten years to actually finish a book!

3: Tell us about “Lost Betrayal”. What inspired it?

In a nutshell, Lost Betrayal is about a gal who loses her horse in a tornado and the journey that brings them back together. It’s a big story that has drama, suspense, and romance. The inspiration for Lost Betrayal came from watching severe flooding during Hurricane Floyd on the North Carolina coast several years back. I became indirectly involved in some rescue efforts and that’s when I learned that large animals are the last to be rescued in a disaster and they receive the least publicity about their needs. It’s not uncommon for animals to be missing weeks or months on end and that gave me the idea for the story. I’m hoping that Lost Betrayal becomes a vehicle of awareness to the plight of large animal rescue efforts.

4: Who is your favorite character and why?

That’s a hard one! The heroine, Sage is a strong character that never gives up no matter how bad it hurts. That’s admirable in itself. What’s not to love about Garrett who is not only a real cowboy but has the heart of a gentleman and is good looking to boot? There’s a lot of interesting characters in this book that are partly based on real life so it’s hard to pick just one!

5: Have you got another book in the works? If so tell us a little about it.

I always have several projects in the works, mainly because my mind is always working over time! I just started a new novella, Lost Doesn’t Exist, that’s about a writer that’s lost all hope. I’m hoping to have it finished in a couple of months. I’ve also started another western romance with a paranormal element that the basis for the story actually comes from the New Testement. It’s turning into quite the book!

6: Where’s your favorite place to write?

In my sunroom on the back of my house. It’s a magical place to write because it’s just a few feet from my back pasture and also over looking our woods so I get to hear and watch the horses and all the critters while I write. It’s a dream come true!

7: Some authors have music playlists, do you and if so, what are some of the songs?

I love all kinds of music from country and bluegrass to hip hop and classical. But when it comes to writing I love to listen to songs that break my heart or speak on a much deeper level because I think it brings out deeper feelings for my writing. I love listening to the Steel Drivers for that reason. Their music speaks to me on a totally different level and I just love it!

http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Betrayal-F-J-Thomas-ebook/dp/B00ISGUJRC

Then here’s the link to my author blog –

Talking In The Barn


			Talking In The Barn Talking to authors, artists, competitors.
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My horse blog –

MUSINGS FROM THE LEADROPE


			MUSINGS FROM THE LEADROPE Daily life on Fairweather Farm as we try to work full time, work part time in the horse industry and get a little writing in!
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