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…

Storms…Thunder…Lightning…

Here in Georgia we’re waiting on the storms to roll in. As we need the rain desperately it’s an excited wait. For some though the thought of storms rolling in makes them uneasy and with good reason. For me, I enjoy a good summer storm, not bad mind you, just a little thunder and rain. It cleans the air and rejuvenates the plants.

I told in an earlier post about regrowing my lettuce. Last night my hubby and I planted my six starters. Since we’ve got an 80% chance of rain it’s the best time to plant them. Of course the kid in me went to the french doors that lead to the back patio first thing this morning to see if they’d grown. Yeah, I know I only planted them last night, but it’s exciting.

Several have asked how Chase is coming along. I have to say really well. He’s an interesting character to write about and maybe one of the most versatile in my writing world at the moment. I’ve learned a lot about the rodeo while writing this one. It’s been eventful to say the least. I hope to have a release date in the next week or so.

I’ve been playing with the idea of entering a book in the Mills & Boon RoWriLife contest. The contest will take a self published book that’s already been published, but since they have to be at least 70,000 words, well that means if I’m to enter I’ve got to get busy writing a new manuscript like ASAP! The fun thing is it will be a challenge. The first chapter and synopsis is due mid July and the winners announced in mid August. The winner then has until September 30th to produce a finished manuscript to turn into Mills & Boon. I’m planning on taking that challenge and yes I realize that if by some wild, off the beaten path chance that I get to the top choices, I’ll have to complete a full novel in just under three months. It’s possible and I’ve completed two books in that time that added up to a little more than that so I know I can do it.

If you’re wondering what the book will be about, let’s just say it’s in the outlining stage and has a couple of chapters under it’s belt. This book will step completely out of my normal realm of cowboys and delve into another type of sweet romance. I’m combining several of my loves into this one. The idea for the story came to me months ago and I’ve been lulling it over for a while, but we’ll see how it goes. If I could write it by just looking at the paper and let my mind project it out, well it would be complete. LOL! We’ll see…

What’s your plans for the day? Something fun I hope.

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?

As the fog clears

This is the view from my front porch this morning. The temperatures have finally warmed up and the threat of rain looms, but you can’t tell by the gorgeous sunrise. The fog is starting to clear and is barely visible in this photo. I feel inspired as the vibrant colors stream through the front windows.

As most of you know from reading my posts I try to get in my word count every morning. This morning as I woke at 6:00 my body and brain felt heavy and filled with inspiration zapping fog. I dragged myself out of bed and fixed breakfast for my son. As I poured the coffee and the delicious aroma steamed up to my nose I smiled. Yes, I need several cups of coffee. Since the time changed the sun comes up later and that always makes it hard for me to wake up. But one look at this beautiful sunrise I feel inspired to get to work. I can do this is the feeling it inspires.

Does a beautiful sunrise inspire you? As for me, I’m off to get in a couple thousand words before a warm shower and then on to the accounting office. I may need that third cup of coffee while I type…

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Monday and the rain begins…

As we slowly transition into Spring the rain starts. Here in Georgia we’re looking at rain until Sunday. Of course it’s better than ice, but it’ll make a long, dreary week. In the back of my mind I wonder in the threat of cold weather is gone or if this is just a tease. At least we had a gorgeous weekend which helps with this dreary Monday.

The clocks moved forward this weekend and hopefully you changed yours, if not you might be late for work, just sayin’. It always throws my body into a crazy frenzy when the time changes. I feel tired and sleepy, but am trying to meet my word count goals this morning. For those that have been asking what I’m working on, well it’s Oakley. This book is really fun to write. It’s been humming along nicely. I’ve received so many nice emails and calls about fans enjoying Ridge and I know you’ll enjoy Oakley. This series is beginning to become one of my favorites. I’ll be releasing some snippets before the release date is revealed.

Now, back to the lousy weather this Monday morning. How does the weather affect your writing? Do you write better when it’s snowing and cold, wet and miserable or sunny and delightful? As for me it’s a toss up. I love to sit by the fire when it’s cold and write, but on sunny, warm days it’s nice to sit outside and write. But I do have to say that sometimes the rain puts me in a blah mood, but sometimes it gives me the right mood to write.

Hope everyone has a great Monday and don’t forget to scoot over to my website to see what the March Madness Sale for the day is… stephaniehurtauthor.com.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Summertime writing inspiration!

Does this picture inspire you? It inspires me. I could go in so many directions with this one picture. Since it’s alread hot and balmy here in Georgia and it’s only 10:30 in the morning, this mostly inspires me to run across and jump off the end into the cool, blue water.

For some reason when the seasons start to change I get inspired. The changes always give me a little food for thought. I love the way God just makes things happen and the beauty that abounds around us. It’s breathtaking. Even in the hottest summer days it is breathtaking.

Does a good summer storm exhilerate you? Maybe it’s just a me thing, but I feel exhilerated as I watch the thunderheads loom in the distance and the lightning flashing through them like tiny explosions. I sit on my porch or back deck and watch from a safe distance. Hey I do have some sense enough to get out of the storm. The air always feel electric and exciting. As the storm nears you feel the deep vibrations of the thunder rumbling. Then the first pitter patter of tiny rain drops that turn into big drops. Oh, the fun of a summer evening storm. They come and go quickly, but the power is evident.

Maybe it’s the excitement that inspires me to write. What inspires you? Do the seasons give you reason to write?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

It’s raining outlines…

Here in Georgia we’ve had a years worth of rain in just weeks. When we walk in our yard we have to slosh through puddles. The grass is spongy. A little sun would be a nice reprieve. I know I saw the animals pairing up this morning 🙂 (Just a little Noah humor). Yep, I need to see some sunshine and soon…

As I sit on the couch with the recliner out and my laptop in my lap, I watch the rain. The lightning moves in and out daily. It’s good writing weather as we can’t go out and lounge in the pool or sit in the sun. Even working the garden is a chore due to the Georgia red clay.

But the blog is about outlines and writing. I know I’ve talked about them before but this is a little different. As I hinted before I’m working on a historical romance and it’s based around the Civil War. Well, I had to do a outline of the timeline of the Civil War. But that’s just the start.

To keep up with the family tree which is going to get tricky, I’ve started a type of family tree outline. As this is going to be a Saga and go through to today’s time I’ve got to make sure to keep the mamas and papas and kids straight. Now as a writer this can get crazy if you’re writing and forget who belongs to who.

Well, then there’s the outline for the story itself. I definitely need this to keep me straight. I don’t need to kill anyone off that’s important for future parts to the Saga.

By the way, it will be named the “Women of Magnolia Hill Saga” and the first book is “Victoria”. I’m already almost 20,000 words in and only part of the way. This is going to be a long one, so get ready.

So far I’m up to 3 outlines for this story. Usually I only have one, so this is a record breaker for me. Do you use outlines? If so, have you ever had multiple outlines for one book?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

It’s Spring, here comes the weather…

Well, living in the South you kind of get used to the crazy weather. We had possible tornado’s around our area yesterday evening. Got to spend some time at my brother’s house as he has a storm area in his basement. Thank goodness he lives next door. Luckily we didn’t have any damage, but several in our County did have damage. It was bad enough that school was canceled for today which made my son extremely happy.

Here is 5 things I love about Spring and 5 I don’t

1: I love the budding of the trees and the rebirth of everything.

2: I love the flowers and planting my flower beds.

3: The feeling in the air is so serene and it inspires me to write which is a good thing.

4: I love to watch a Spring rain with the sun dancing through as rainbows appear in the sky.

5: I love the nice temps as it can get pretty warm here as Summer approaches.

Now what I don’t like

6: Tornado’s which seem to plague us here in the Spring.

7: Pollen oh I don’t like the pollen.

8: Bees and snakes start coming back out. Not a big fan.

9: Spring brings on the end of tax season and my busiest time in the office.

10: It means that we didn’t get any snow and have to wait until next year. I love the snow and it’s always a waiting game to see if we’re going to be graced with it’s pristine beauty.

I have to admit that my two favorite times of the year are Spring and Fall when the air is just warm enough to lose the coat but still cool enough where you enjoy the fresh air. Especially no air pollution until the warmer weather hit.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You!