Sleepy, but writing! Dawgs Win!

Good morning! Sipping my coffee as I write this post. Some days coffee is needed more than others. If you’re a Georgia Bulldog fan, then most of you need a lot of coffee this morning. It was a late night, but a good one. But with the morning light, I have some words to put in before I head to the office.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve I sat down and made my writing schedule for the year. Of course, it can change in the blink of an eye. Kind of like that score last night. I have two new series coming out this year and will be finishing up In Harm’s Way. So, it will be a busy year.

What are you up to this cold morning? Have you penciled in your writing schedule?

As always, good writing, and May God Bless You…

Toss a stone… Watch the ripple…

As I sit here, sipping my coffee and getting my mind ready for the day, I’ve been thinking about my current WIP. It’s been such a refreshing new project that I’ve enjoyed working on.

Now, I could have stayed with my usual genre and kept the water smooth and ripple free. But, that wouldn’t be fun. I’ve been writing romance for several years. My genre ranged from sweet romance, to paranormal. So, how is my current WIP different?

My current WIP is a Christian Suspense Romance. What is that you may be asking? Well, it’s a clean romance that has Christian elements, along with suspenseful and thrilling parts, but as always that some romance sprinkled in. And with it being Christian, you know that it won’t be too over the top gory or crude.

So, I went from keeping the waters calm and smooth, to tossing a pebble and wrecking the calm waters. And it’s the best move I’ve made in a long time. I can’t wait to get it out to my readers because I think they’ll fall in love with the characters and be glued to the story. It won’t be anything you expect either.

Ripple the water… Make a change… Get a refreshing new look at romance…

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Sunday Morning Blessings…

We finally have a sunny, beautiful Sunday morning. The rain has been looming around for weeks, messing up the weekend. I’m thankful for the blessing of a nice weekend. It may be cold, but the sun is bright.

Here’s a little word for you on this beautiful Sunday morning. Live each day as though it was your last. Love with all of your heart. And Laugh until your sides hurt. Make it count people because you only get one chance at this thing we call life.

I write to release everything. All of the pent up stress just flows away when I begin to type the words that fill my head. And with that release, I can live, love, and laugh a little stronger. Try it!

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Wednesday Coffee Ramblings…

We’re halfway to the weekend, so that’s something to smile about. Have you noticed how fast this year is already going? Or is that just me? It seems like we just said, Happy New Year, and now we’re almost to February.

With that being said, my newest release comes out tomorrow. What! Double Take at Mistletoe Ranch releases tomorrow. As I sit and sip my coffee, I’m thinking about all of the trouble Denver and Maddy have gotten themselves into. But they’ve also found the most amazing love. Their story is so sweet and I’m honored to get to be the one that brought to life.

If you’ve ever read any of the Mistletoe Ranch books, you’ll laugh, cry, and sigh as you read this last installment. It’s such a sad time as I say goodbye to Denver and Maddy, but as a writer, you never know when they might get revisited one day. Hey, stranger things have happened.

So, as you get your day started… Sip some coffee, you deserve it… Take the time to enjoy the morning… Tell someone how special they are to you… And just focus on having a wonderful day. You’ve got this, so go out there and be the best you can be.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

Let the light in…

Good Tuesday morning! Grab a cup of coffee and settle in for a beautiful morning!

After a short stint of writer’s block, the words are flowing in. As I told you in a previous post, the outlining part of Scrivener has helped. I’m keeping my focus and know where the story is going. Actually, the process is making it flow faster than ever. Not to mention, I’m not straying off on little detours that will derail the story.

I feel like the light has been let in and everything is clear. It’s a great feeling and I can’t wait to share this story with everyone. So, have you let the light shine in on your story yet. Tell me about your breakthroughs in writing.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Pumpkin Spice, Grey’s & Outlander, Oh my!

Good Friday morning everyone! Smile people, the weekend is almost upon us. This has been a crazy week, well, actually it’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Sorry, I’ve been a little awol, but life sometimes takes over along with two books that need finishing…

Oh, yeah, not to mention that two of my favorite shows had their season premieres. Yes, I’m talking Grey’s Anatomy and Outlander. No, I’m not doing any spoilers here, so don’t be afraid to read on. Last but not least, pumpkin spice everything is back. And if you’ve followed my blog for any amount of time, you know how happy that makes me.

As I sit here, sipping my pumpkin spice flavored coffee and watching the newest episode of Grey’s Anatomy, I’m noticing that it is still dark at 6:47 here in Georgia. Although Fall is one of my favorite seasons, I don’t enjoy the dark mornings. It makes it hard to wake up. I’m not a morning person, to begin with, but I do need the sun to get my eyes open. Of course, the older I get, the earlier my body wants to get up.

So, what’s your favorite pumpkin spice flavored thing?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

National Pancake Day!

Pancake

Good morning! I do hope you’re having a great Tuesday so far. Me, so far so good.

It’s National Pancake Day! Who comes up with these special days? Of course, I love pancakes and it’s special at our house when I cook pancakes for breakfast or dinner.

For me, I love buttermilk pancakes with strawberry syrup. Yep, that’s a lot of calories, but it’s oh so good. When I was younger, I’d eat buttermilk smothered in strawberries and whipped cream. Yep, those were the days when I could eat things like that and not count those calories, but now, that would throw me over my daily count in one meal! LOL!

So, what’s your favorite pancake?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Cloudy Morning Writing…

Good Tuesday morning! It’s one of those, ‘I want to stay in bed longer’ kind of mornings, but alas, I had to get up and fix breakfast then lunch for my son before school. Now, two cups of coffee later, my eyes are still heavy. Menopause, I blame that for my lack of sleep.

Now, the good side of not sleeping and lying awake; story ideas! As I lay there in the middle of night, refusing to get up and read, I worked on part of my pirate romance that was stumping me. In my mind, I had it figured out. The funny thing is, when I did drift off to sleep, well, I dreamed about pirates. That’s not a bad thing, I like pirates.

So, this morning as I start back on the manuscript, I’ll put the newly thought out part into words. I’m so loving my new pirate romance. It’s pulling me into the story. But of course, all of my books pull me in and envelope me. That’s how I keep my head in the work.

With the cloudy, dreary morning, I struggle with my sleepy eyes, but hopefully, the third cup of coffee will do the job. Especially since I have to get my act together and get to the office in a couple of hours!

As always, good writing, and May God Bless You…

Outlines, good or bad…

I’ve been telling you about my surprise manuscript for a couple of weeks. As I sit here enjoying my coffee and the morning sun, I’m going over the outline for the new work. It’s a complete outline that goes to the words ‘The End’.

Some writers say they can’t work from an outline and others, well they can’t work without one. I’ve written several books using a outline draft, but it sometimes changed through the process. My new work is coming along well with the outline. This outline seems to flow with the way I see the story in my head. But I wonder if it will stay the same.

Here are some good points to using an outline…

1. The outline keeps you focused on the story and where it’s headed.

2. Outlines are not written in stone and can change.

3. If you have a detailed outline, all you need to do is make a chapter out of each line.

Since my outline goes to number 29, that means it’s looking to be a really long book. The details are there, all I need to do is pull each chapter from the lines I’ve written. With this outline I was able to pull the story that’s running around in my head out. When a story comes into my head, usually the whole thing comes in a rush and I can’t wait to get to the end. With my outline I was able to get the story on paper so that I’m free to fill it all out.

So, do you work with outlines? Have you ever tried? What was your experience?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Coming out of the rain!

Good Tuesday morning! It’s wonderful to look outside this morning. The sun is streaming in through the windows and everything looks great. We’ve had rain and dreary weather for over a week, so the sun shining this morning makes me smile. Although it’s a little cool this morning, I’m not complaining one bit.

As a writer I go through many phases of writing. Some days I feel like it’s raining in my brain and the floods of thoughts seem to overtake me. It can be overwhelming, but then the sun comes out and the writing begins. I’ve been coming out of the rain for the last couple of days. During the busiest part of tax season I had so much going on in my mind that I couldn’t get a hold on my writing.

Now that the sun has come out I can’t seem to write enough. Of course I still have to go into the office and do accounting, but my mind is still focusing on the stories that cross back and forth. I’m a major multi-tasker so usually I have a note pad handy for those moments when I can’t get them to stop screaming at me. Some days as I do data entries which usually I do this automatically after over twenty some odd years I can do these in my sleep, I use my dictation app on my phone and write as I work. Yep I’ve got it bad.

If you’ve been following my blog the last couple of days you know I’m doing a fun giveaway of Ridge. This is because Oakley is coming out really, really soon… So keep up with all the news and subscribe to my website at stephaniehurtauthor.com for updates. Also, watch out for the questions that help you rack up points for chances to win a copy of Ridge.

I hope you enjoy your day and make the best of it!

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Here’s a little reminder of the giveaway rules and today’s question:

Do you prefer a moonlit stroll in the country or on the beach?