Contests,Blitz’s and so much more

Wow, it’s Monday. Where did the weekend go? Time flies when you’re working all weekend and get only a little bit of down time. Oh, but I can see the end of the tunnel and I’m running as fast as I can toward the light 😉

As far as my writing, I’m trying desperately to keep up with my word count, but I can see that next week while my office is closed for some much-needed r & r, I’ll be writing, writing, and writing some more. “A Light Upon My Heart” is now in my editor’s hands for the last and final edit before publication, yeah!

In among the tax returns and accounting, I’ve somehow managed to enter a couple of pitch contests. I received some good advice from an editor that helped me with one of my pitches. I’m working on another Blitz entry, but that will save until next week.

Do you get into the pitch wars or blitz’s that publishers do? Have you ever thought about it? I can say it’s a definite rush and so much fun. I suggest looking into the pitch contests on Twitter, even if you don’t get a request, some of the editors will come in and give you pointers. It helps!

Hope everyone has a great Monday~ I have one more week of tax season, then I’ll overload this site with posts, so get ready. I’m almost back to normal…

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Cinnamon in my coffee…

Good Friday morning! Yes, I said Friday… Although I’ll work through the weekend trying to finish the tax returns on my desk, I still have a writing deadline looming. But, to keep things exciting, I added cinnamon to my coffee this morning. It’s good, you should try it.

But, now on to my post and the cinnamon is part of it. Adding the cinnamon just gave me a different taste and that’s what I’ve been doing lately. I was given the pleasure of becoming a guest blogger on the site Reading As My Therapy and I’ll be a regular on Melissa’s site. It’s an exciting new place to give authors a voice and place to showcase their work. It’s also available on Facebook, so come by and follow here on WordPress to keep up, but don’t forget to go to Facebook too for a follow.

Here’s the link to my first post: https://melissacl.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/a-light-upon-my-heart/

Things are getting exciting with my writing career and I can’t help but smile at the response to my work. I’ve met so many wonderful people that added cinnamon to my life, in other words, all of you make my life special, just as the added spice to my morning coffee. I thank you from the bottom of my heart…

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Putting it in perspective

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Good Wednesday morning! Today’s the day I find out if I made it to through the 1st phase of the #manuscriptmatch writing contest for Love Inspired Historical from Harlequin. Keeping fingers crossed and saying many prayers!

Do you organize your writing? By that I mean, do you put it into an organizer and set up your writing schedule? As you know from other posts, I’ve began to organize my writing so that I’m more aware of my deadlines and word count needs.

Of course, I have my handy journal calendar that has my deadlines for things like, word count daily requirements, also I have to give my manuscript to my editor, when it needs to be put into Amazon to meet the preorder requirements and when it officially releases. But this past week, I went one step further. I made a file for all of my releases for the next eight months. I now have a place to put research that I print, outlines, and a page with all of my important dates regarding the manuscript. I can even put a copy of any ads I’ve run on that one book.

It may seem like a lot of work, but it actually cuts down on the workload. I have all of the files in this nice, vinyl accordion file that looks nice and keeps all of the paperwork from cluttering my writing space. Try it, you won’t regret it. This is especially helpful when you also have a full-time job. I now have everything at my fingertips. Of course, I have a lot of this in my Scrivener program too, but this way I can do plotting without opening my computer if I don’t want to.

As always, Good writing and May God Bless You…

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/58612482@N07/12551866924″>02.07.2014</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/”>(license)</a>

What’s coming up…

Lily Release ad!

As most of you know, I schedule my books and try to stay ahead of myself. Well, this year I’m way ahead of that. My 2016 writing is scheduled down to the date the manuscript has to go to the editor, the day the preorders have to be on each site and the release dates. It’s kind of exciting to know what’s coming up.

So here’s a list of what’s coming up for 2016:

Seaside Beginnings front cover Seaside Beginnings – February 17, 2016

Lily front cover Lily – March 27, 2016 (Book 3 of the Magnolia Hill Saga)

A Light Upon My Heart – April 30, 2016

The First Mate’s Lady – June 5, 2016 (Continued from Safe in the Pirate’s Arms)

Finding the Heart – July 1, 2016 (Book 2 of the Alpine Series)

Sowing the Right Seed – August 5, 2016 (Book 4 of the Lean on Him Series)

Georgia – September 5, 2016 (Book 4 of the Magnolia Hill Saga)

That’s just through September, but wow, this will be a busy year for me. How exciting! So, how’s your schedule going for this year? Have you thought about scheduling things to make it easier for you?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Happy Endings…

It’s Monday, already! I don’t think I was ready for Monday, were you? Over the weekend, I turned one book into my editor and started a new book, so it was a fairly productive weekend. But this morning, I’m just not feeling it…

Happy Endings… Does every book end with a Happily Ever After? Not all of them, but in the romance genre, they need to end on a happy note. Of course, if it’s a series that continues from one book to the next, then it might not be a happy ending, but the final one should be if it’s a romance. Why is that? Well, let me explain.

Did you know that most editors, well the big publishing house editors, have in their submission guidelines for romance that it has to have a happy ending, if not, they won’t even look at it? Have you ever thought about it? Romance is a special genre, well, in my opinion. When someone picks up a romance novel, they’re wanting that good feeling that a romance can give them. They want to be taken to another world, away from the one they’re in. Romance novels should move you, give you hope, maybe make you cry or laugh, but when it gets to the end, well, the guy should get the girl. That’s why it’s called romance.

Now sometimes, if you’re writing a series and the book ends on a cliffhanger, then the happy ending will come at some time, but the series should end on a happy note. It’s just a reality of writing romance.

Have you ever read a romance that ended badly? I have and it left me feeling horrible, not the usual feeling at the end of a romance. I was stunned, to say the least. I could have expected this at the end of maybe a science fiction, or other genres, but not romance. The guy didn’t get the girl and at the end, they went their separate ways. All I could do was think, ok, there has to be another book coming, but that wasn’t the case. I felt empty inside.

So, does your romance have a happy ending? Does your reader have that satisfied feeling? Think about it, don’t you spend the whole book trying to get these two together, so why would you throw that out the window at the end?

Just a little food for thought on this Monday morning…

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Introvert, yes or no?

Good Monday morning everyone! Can you believe the weekend is over? Of course, today is a holiday for many, but sadly, if you’re an Accountant or Tax Preparer, well, you’re hard at work. Of course, I’m on holiday in my mind, which brings me to the point of this post.

Are you an introvert? The Huff Post did an interesting article recently with several points to think about. As I went over each one of them, I got the confirmation, I’m legit. I have almost all of the symptoms, but that’s alright. It’s not like I’m crazy or anything, well, let’s just say I’m not ready for the straight jacket, not yet.

I don’t go out a lot, which is alright with me. Actually, my husband is the same way, which works really well. I’m perfectly content, sitting at night by the fire, writing. I slip into the world of my characters and don’t need the world outside the house. Many worry about me, saying I need to get out, that it’s not normal to be content staying home. But, that’s me. Others have to have the outside world to feel normal or find happiness. I don’t and that confuses people.

As most writers can tell you, we see more of the world in our writing than most see in their lifetime. Just last Summer, I went to Tuscany in my writing world. It wasn’t crowded and had no lines to wait in. I got to experience it through the eyes of my characters and it was wonderful. Let’s just say, I had a craving for Italian food while writing this one.

Just because I enjoy the solitude of my home, doesn’t mean I’m antisocial. I’m with people a good bit of the time. I don’t avoid business meetings, Church, family get together’s or anything like that. I just don’t need to go out, just to go out. I’ve made my home a place where I’m completely content spending my free time. It’s beautiful and feels me with happiness to just sit and enjoy life. By the way, I do enjoy life to the fullest and don’t feel like I’mo missing out on anything, no matter what anyone says. I love my life!

So, are you an introvert? If you’re a writer, then 9 times out of 10 you are. Embrace it!

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-real-reason-introverts-dread-small-talk_56854922e4b06fa688823798?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

A Character’s Character…

Good Tuesday morning! It’s still cold here in Georgia, but it’s January so it’ll feel like Spring by the end of the week, then back to Winter within a couple of days. That’s just the fun of living in the south.

A character in your book has many dimensions, or I should say, must have many dimensions. If your characters are only one dimensional, then what will the draw be? Let’s take, for instance, my Five Oaks Ranch characters. Each has their own personality, but inside each personality, they have many, many dimensions.

I’ll pull out the oldest brother, Ridge, for example. He’s a very complex man with many facets. One the one hand, he’s a loving brother, caring deeply for his family. Then he’s the hardened soldier that’s had two tours in Iraq, which has him edgier than he was before the war. Ridge was always the toughest of the five Cauthen’s, but now he’s withdrawn.

But, once he meets the woman of his dreams, he’s softened to a teddy bear. Although he fights it all the way, in the end, he gives up and lets his heart lead him. SO, let’s list his character traits, he’s a family man, hard-edged soldier, hopeless romantic want to be, not to mention that he loves deeply and forever.

Would he have been a great character if he’d just been a hard-edged soldier and nothing else? Maybe, but most probably not. He needed the extra facets to pull the reader in and to keep the reader guessing. Only one facet and the reader would lose control within a couple of chapters.

So, do your characters have character?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Happy New Year!

Ok, so how many of you have made a New Year’s resolution? I’ve made a couple of the normal ones, better health, lose weight, better organization. We’ll see how that goes. Also, I’ve made a couple of writing resolutions. I have a list of books and release dates that I plan to keep to the date.

Tonight I’ll celebrate the New Year with my Church family. We always have finger foods around 9, then music until close to midnight. Then we’ll all join around the altar, holding hands and praying in the new year. It’s such a special way to bring in each new year.

How do you celebrate? What are your resolutions? Hope I bring more romance to the world, one book at a time 😉

Happy New Year to all my friends and family! Wish all of you a prosperous and healthy new year!

As always, great writing and May God Bless You… See you next year…

It’s almost Christmas!

Good Monday morning folks were you ready for Monday yet! Me neither! As you know, I love my coffee, but this morning it’s not good at all. Since I was half asleep when I put the coffee together last night, it’s highly likely I put one too many scoops in the filter. Oh well, I’m still gulping it down with a cringe. I’ll probably be running on high octane in about an hour.

Can you believe that Christmas is almost here? It’s in a couple of days, are you ready? I have a couple of gift cards to purchase, then I’ll be ready to go.

I’m pleased to announce that I did what I promised myself I’d do, I finished the Five Oaks Series before Christmas. All 6 books came out this year! Whew, I’m exhausted, but happy with the results. The Christmas book actually rounded the whole series out, with little bits of everyone’s life joined into one book.

Since the series is complete, I’ve been taking a couple of days to take a breath and go over my schedule for 2016. Can’t wait to reveal some of the books in the works, but my assistant would have a coronary if I tell everything 😉

Speaking of my assistant, she’s home from college for Christmas, so she’s busy creating wonderful covers for upcoming projects and yes, I’ve promised to keep them secret, but it’s so hard. She even talked me into this really cool calendar/journal. It stays beside me all the time. All my publish dates, finish dates, proofing dates, etc. are in there!

I just love it! The things inside of this fancy cover are top secret, well for a little while, but I’ll sneak some stuff out when I can.

So, are you finished shopping? Have you finished what you wanted to this year? If not, hop to it, the end of 2015 is almost here.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Monday planning…

How many of you make lists? I make them all the time. It helps me to realize my goals, finish tasks and stay somewhat organized. I make grocery lists, to-do lists, cleaning lists and my favorite, writing lists.

Writing lists? It’s my way of keeping up with what I’m working on, future projects and the maybe-one-day projects. Here’s how I go about making the writing lists…

Now projects list: This is the list of things in the hopper now, like the manuscripts that are due out soon. They are already outlined, just waiting to be completed. I keep a current list so that I don’t lose track and it also keeps me in focus on my release dates.

Future projects list: I love this list. It’s the list of projects that maybe are already outlined, but are on the back burner until my now project list is whittled down some. These are the books that I can see the whole story in my mind. This list gets a long look each week as I long for the characters and their unfolding lives. I have to strive not to dip into this list until its time.

Maybe one-day projects: Here’s where I play sometimes. All writers will understand this one. You’re sitting, playing with story ideas and something sneaks in, but the whole idea isn’t quite there, just yet. I put these in this list for future writing. If the story suddenly and without warning comes through and into focus I bumped it to the future projects list.

Included in all of these lists are items like finished covers, finished blurbs, characterizations, etc. Usually, I just mention that these items are saved in the books dedicated file on my hard drive.

Funny how the mind of a writer works. Mostly I’m just willy-nilly and let the characters take over where they may, but for the sake of my sanity I try to keep up with what’s happening. So, I do lists…

Hopefully one day I’ll be doing lists for a big publisher or I’ll be doing writing lists that will fill my day with writing, not just accounting and taxes mixed in 😉 A girl can dream, right?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…