Stephanie Hurt – Romance Author
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Take a little time for yourself everyday. It only takes a few minutes of sipping coffee or tea and a little relaxation to get yourself back up to speed. During tax season I try to take a moment to just sip my afternoon coffee and breathe.
ENJOY YOUR DAY… LIVE LIFE… AND LAUGH…
As you start the first full week of 2021, make a difference…
Make a difference in your own life… Start each day with a happy thought!
Make a difference in someone else’s life… Give someone a smile and/or kind word!
Make a difference in your family… Show them love, compassion, and Faith!
Wow, the last Wednesday of 2020. That’s crazy. It’s hard to believe this year is almost over. So, what’s my tidbit of wisdom that I’d like to give to you before the year ends.
This one is for writer’s, but you can use it in anything you do. And it’s really simple…
JUST BE TRUE TO YOURSELF!
When writing, always write what makes you happy. If you are trying to please someone else, then your heart won’t be in it. It’s the same in life. If you’re just going about life trying to make someone else happy and never thinking of yourself, then you’re missing out of life.
So, be true to yourself. Write what makes you happy and you’ll see a big difference in your writing. Have fun, enjoy life, and love with all of your heart.
That’s my Wednesday Wisdom…
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
Good morning! Writing… Writers block… Publishing… The life of a writer. It’s a roller coaster and not for the faint of heart. Here are the top 5 things every author needs to know about starting to write and publish…
I could keep going, but you need to get back to writing and so do I. But I hope this helped you a little.
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
Why are Sunday evenings so hard on us? For one, we know Monday is just hours away and our weekend is almost over. But why do we let it take away from the joy of those last hours of our time off?
I love to write on Sunday evening. It’s like my mind begins to just speed up as though it too knows that the work week is about to begin. I do tend to get in my best word counts on Sunday evening. Strange…
And if you’ve had a busy weekend, you sit and wish for just one more day to rest and recoup from the craziness. Let’s just face it, Monday’s come whether we wish for them to wait a little longer or not. Sunday evening should be spent enjoying life because it’s still the weekend until that alarm clock goes off on Monday morning. So, focus on family, writing, or whatever makes you happy.
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
It’s Thursday, but it feels like Monday! Some days I wake up and just want to go back to bed, cover my head and sleep. Today is one of those days. But guess what, I’ve got a business to run and way too much to do for all of that. So, I managed to drag myself out of bed early so I could meet my morning word count. Did I meet it? Well, let’s just say I’ll have a writing lunch…
So, what is your day like? Recently I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Southern Writer’s Magazine, which will come out soon. It was eye-opening as I wrote out my answers to the interview questions. I realized that every day I manage somehow to schedule in some stress-relieving words. You may be saying, didn’t you already know that? Some days I think I don’t get enough time to write, but then others I get more than enough.
Yesterday I caught myself daydreaming about a character that has filled my head lately. Before I knew what I was doing, I was filling up stick it notes with character traits. Thank goodness I was waiting on a file to download, or I would’ve gotten behind. Then, the rest of the day, my eyes would go to those notes, wanting to write the story. Well, hopefully, today I’ll get to put a little work in on it.
Life steps in, but writing is part of that life, so make some time to focus on your dreams. This life is short, so make the most of it. Don’t forget to get up and walk some, it’s good for you and many writers don’t realize this. But that’s for another post.
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
Good Saturday morning! So, I’m sitting here, scanning social media, liking posts, commenting, sipping my second cup of coffee, writing this post… But what’s wrong with that? It’s Saturday morning right? I should just sit here, relax and be, right? Wrong! I have a deadline!!! Yep, I need to be finishing the story before posting the final preorder copy, but why am I procrastinating?
It’s simple… I don’t want the story to end. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, once characters get in your head, they’re like part of the family. When I type the end this time, it will be the end of the Magnolia Hill story. So, I’m procrastinating. I need to just get up now and do my housework, go pick up my groceries, then write, unhindered.
Why are so many writers plagued with procrastination tendencies? It’s just part of the thing we love, writing. Not to mention the little plot bunnies that seemed to bounce around in our head, usually in five different directions…
So, what are you up to this morning? Anything good, or are you doing like me, procrastinating?
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
Good morning everyone! Today I want to talk about the main character in Breakwater Lane, the first book in the Wishful Harbor series.
Let’s me introduce you to the spunky, strong willed woman that brings Breakwater Lane to life. Her name is Jordan Reed. She was born in Georgia, but when her parents divorced, she moved with her mom to Denver. But as a child, she spent a couple of weeks every summer with her grandfather in Wishful harbor.
She’d enjoyed those summers. They’d cook together, go to the beach and climb the steps to the top of the lighthouse, then laugh as they reached the top. She’d gained her love of cooking while standing by her grandfather in his deli. Then, when her parents divorced, her mom moved her across the country. She no longer was able to spend her summers with her beloved grandfather.
But she carried on the love of cooking by going to culinary school and becoming a chef. Although her dream was to own a restaurant, she thought it was just a whim. Then when her grandfather died, she was called into a lawyers office for the will. Her grandfather had left her the deli. She was overwhelmed.
Upon arrival in Wishful Harbor, she wondered if she could live in a small town again. Would she be able to get by without the hustle and bustle of Denver? Then she set eyes on Skyler Evans and things began to fall into place, but there was something brewing in the small town of Wishful Harbor that would put everything she’d ever known to the test.
Ok, so, I can’t go much farther without giving away too much of the story, but as you can see, Jordan is a spunky woman with big ideas. You’ll have a love hate relationship with her. Tomorrow I’ll do a character sketch on Skyler Evans.
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
It’s Friday! Hope you have something great planned this weekend. As for me, we have VBS at Church next week, so I’ll be busy setting up this weekend, then Sunday we’re having a huge celebration to kick it off. I love the excitement that surrounds all the preparations, but I really should lay off the coffee when designing the decor for VBS.
Dreams… We all have them… I’m not talking about the dreams you have while asleep, I’m talking about the ones that push you forward and make you strive to do what you love. When I was a preteen, all I dreamed about was being a concert pianist and playing at concert halls all over the world. I spent at least two hours a day practicing. Also, I took piano and organ lessons for several years. I was lucky enough to be offered the chance at a full scholarship in music, but at the time, I was engaged and turned it down. (And I’m no longer with that man, so that was a bad move) But, everything has a reason. If I’d gone through with that, where would I be today? I often wonder that.
Another dream as a child was to write. Well… I’m living that dream now, although it took me a while to realize this dream. When I was a teenage girl, I’d lay across my bed and fill notebooks full of stories. Some were crazy and unbelievable, but others, well they had some merit. Ghost Lover, my first published novel, and my first bestseller was based on one of those stories penned by a dream filled teenager.
Some days I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not literally dreaming. The stories still fill my head and some days I sit in a daydream, living out the stories in my mind. But, isn’t that what a writer does. To me, the stories take on real life. The characters become important and like old friends. My daydreams then spill out of my fingers onto the pages of the books I’ve published. It’s such an exciting thing when you write. Your daydreams come to life.
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
Highlander’s Son is coming in just days…
Good morning! Hope everyone had a great, productive weekend. Let’s make the best of the week ahead.
Life as a writer is sometimes crazy. There are stories running through our heads at every turn. Some days it’s hard to do my day job because a character is knocking on my brain, wanting out. But, when I finally sit down to let the character out, they are stubbornly sitting there with arms crossed refusing to come out.
Then, when you get a couple of days to do some serious writing, everything else has to be done. I try to do social media posts and write on weekday mornings. Of course, I need to train myself to wait on the social media posts until after I’ve written my designated word count for the day. Social media is like a leech, it sucks the time out of the morning.
What’s fun is when you have a great story come into your mind, but you’re in the grocery store… LOL! That’s why I have notes on my phone. Usually, I’ll stop where I am and at least get the basics down, if not, I’ll forget them until a much later time.
Oh, and then you have a deadline, but also a list of things to be completed. That’s when you get creative with your time. Even eating breakfast while typing. Ok, so my laptop has crumbs in the keyboard, but it still works.
So, how do you juggle things?
As always, good writing and May God Bless You….
Stephanie Hurt - Romance Author 