Tag: Romance

Cold Monday, warm writing…

First off this morning, I want to express my sadness at the loss of David Bowie. Since I’m over 40, his music filled my radio during my teen years. He was an amazing singer and will be missed.

Ok, on to today’s post. It’s really cold here in Georgia. My outside thermometer is registering 20. Burrrrrr!!!. Thanks to my hubby, I have a warm fire to write by and extra wood. It’s nice and cozy as I sit and write this, but just a look outside and it’s frigid.

At least, I have something warm to write. As you know I’m finishing my over 40 romance, “Seaside Beginnings” and since it’s set on a beach in Tybee Island, Georgia, my mind is convinced I’m on the beach. So, right now I’m sinking my toes into the warm sand and listening to the waves caress the beach, or so my mind thinks.

Here’s a little snippet of the book, hope you like it! Just a note about this part of the book, Maddy and Caden are remodeling the bed and breakfast. Do take into mind, this is from the first draft, so no editing yet!

Maddy looked up at the wallpaper and figured that would be a good place to start. She grabbed her punch roller and the fabric softener she’d put in a spray bottle. The paper came off fairly easy at first, then when she got to the higher sections, she had to use the ladder that Caden had brought inside when he first arrived.
She hooked the spray bottle on her belt loop and climbed the ladder. Whistling a happy tune as she worked, not realizing how far out she was leaning until hands wrapped around her waist, lifting her from the ladder.
“Do I have to watch you every minute? Don’t you realize how dangerous it is leaning out that far from the ladder?” His hands were still on her waist, but neither noticed as he continued to argue with her. “You could’ve fallen from the top and broke every bone in your body, or worse.”
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.” Her gaze went to his bare chest, they were too close for her comfort. She pushed his hands off her and turned to grab her bottle of water from the step beside them. Getting her mind off him was the best thing she could do right now. The moment he lifted her off the ladder and brought her close to him, everything in her mind shifted. It had been a long time since she’d felt that way.
“Just try to be more careful.” He shook his head as he walked back out to finish replacing the boards on the porch. When he’d seen her reaching out, the ladder tilting, he lost a couple years off his life. He knew that a couple of extra gray hairs had popped out. What was he going to do with her? Then thinking better of that line of thinking, he went back to work, because that had been on his mind for a couple of days. He thought about her more than normal and deep down his heart told him something wonderful was budding out.
Maddy thought about how he’d continued to hold her, even when the danger had passed. Something inside of her jumped at the feelings that came to mind, but she quickly pushed them away. This was not the time to be thinking in that way. Too much needed to be done and complications would only hinder them. Shrugging, she moved the ladder over and continued to remove the wallpaper.
Caden came back in to check on her. She was unaware of his presence and dropped a wet piece of old wallpaper on his head. “Hey, Hey.”
Maddy looked down to see him struggling to get the large piece of paper off his head. She giggled and covered her mouth to suppress the laugh that bubbled up.
“Oops, sorry.” She tried to look sorry, but the laugh came out instead.
He put his hand in the sticky mess that covered his hair. “Well, that’s nice. Do you have any towels handy?”
She climbed down and walked into the kitchen where she’d placed several towels to use for cleaning. “Here, lean over the sink and I’ll help you wash it out.”
“That’s alright, I’ll just use the hose out front.” He grabbed the towel and left. All he needed was her running her fingers through his hair.
She giggled again as he walked out the door. The rest of the day they worked in separate areas of the house. By the time they left just before dark, a good start had been made.

I’m enjoying the banter between Maddy and Caden. It’s been a fresh, new way of writing for me. Although I miss my cowboys and horses, I’ll go back to that soon, but for now, I’m a beach bum 😉

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Don’t forget “Seaside Beginnings” is up for preorder at most  ebook retailers!

Seaside ad

 

Best Assistant…

kaleigh

Good Saturday morning everyone! Hope you’re having a good start to the weekend. Today’s post is about my writing and accounting assistant, Kaleigh.

Some of you, especially if you’re part of my street team, have met her through posts. She’s the person in the background that takes care of my website, my covers, my book designs and my sanity. It helps that she’s my niece, so she has a little of me running through her veins.

Kaleigh attends the University of Georgia and is finishing up her Poultry Science degree. I’ve had her with me again for the last three weeks, but sadly yesterday was the last day at the office for us for a while. But she takes care of me from afar, somebody has to.

She is the one that keeps me grounded, reminding me of release dates, word counts and such. A lot of times she has to get stern with me when it comes to my manuscripts. When she sees something that doesn’t work, she’ll tell me, but sometimes I push back. But in the end, we compromise and make the changes needed. Another issue will be sayings I use or names that make her laugh and shake her head, telling me no I can’t do that.

Everyone needs an assistant like her, because it makes things easier. I probably don’t tell her enough, but I appreciate everything she does to keep me on the right track.

Take the time this weekend to enjoy yourself. We’re not promised tomorrow.

As always, good writing and may God Bless You…

 

Taxes & Writing on my!

Good morning, it’s already the 6th day of the year, wow times flying. If you’re an author then you’ll want to read this post, and even if you’re not and you file taxes, take a few minutes to check this out.

Here’s a list of expenses that you can claim as a published author if you have royalties to claim as income.

Expenses:

Writing program expenses (Ex. Word, Powerpoint, Scrivener, etc.)

Subscription Fees (Ex. Writing Magazines, Writing Site fees, etc.)

Dues (Ex. Romance Writers Associations, Writing Associations, etc.)

Computers/Laptops/Printers

Pens/Pencils/Paper/Journals/Notebooks

Postage (Used to mail books, letters to editors, etc.)

Advertising

Swag expenses

Book Signing expenses

Labor paid to a writing assistant

Editing fees/Cover Design Fees

Website design fees/Domain fees

These are just some of the expenses that some authors forget when they sit down to do their taxes.

Now remember to make sure you get all of the 1099 forms from all the places where you sold books this year. I always print a summary of sales report on all of the sites my books are on, that way I don’t leave out anything.

If you have any questions as you prepare to do your return, email me and I’ll help. Check out my accounting website for more information at http://hurtsbusiness.wix.com/hurtsbusiness

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Seaside Beginnings

Seaside Beginnings front cover

“The moment she stepped out of the SUV, she took a deep, cleansing breath. A smile spread across her face as the smell of sea air filled her to the core. She followed Dan up on the porch, noticing the splintered boards and wicker furniture that was falling apart. Once she walked inside the front door, a feeling came over her and it wasn’t a hot flash, it was the feeling of coming home.”

 

When Maddy loses her husband, she has to start her life over at 45. She decides to follow her dream of buying a Bed and Breakfast, and quickly learns its more work than she thought. The infuriating contractor she hires to help out is stubborn and hard headed, and they quickly become best friends. But will Seaside Beginnings bring them closer or tear them apart?

 

Now available for preorder at Amazon.com

Maggie’s Release!

Maggie front cover

Maggie will be available by tomorrow morning! I can’t wait for you to meet the last Cauthen sibling. She’s sassy, loving, adored by her brothers and has a secret…

You’ll fall in love with her story. It’s a story of secrets, love, and family.

So, have a happy Monday and remember, get Maggie before the Christmas edition comes out the end of this week.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

 

Saturday coffee is always better…

6966818869_b6d7e9fb3c

Why is Saturday coffee better than any other day? It’s the same coffee… I think it’s the fact that you get to sleep a little later so it’s not just for pulling your lazy self out of sleep. Or maybe it’s the fact that you can actually sit down and enjoy it.

For me, it’s the fact that I can sit, relax and sip my coffee, not just gulp it.  Coffee pulls me from sleep into the day time. Only I have a bad habit of writing and sipping coffee until I’ve down three or four cups. When I’m writing I can go through half a pot before I know it. Especially on Saturday morning.

This morning as I sip my coffee and reflect on 2015, I can hardly believe that it’s almost over. Last night I finished the last book in the Five Oaks Ranch series. It’s been a busy year, publishing six books in a series, but that’s the goal I set and I saw it through.

The last book, A Christmas to Remember was such a sweet story. I cried during some of it and I hope that the readers will feel the nostalgic pull that I tried to put into it. It contains recipes at the end, but you’ll get the reason why as you read the book.

So, here’s to a great Saturday of writing and May God Bless You…

 

Throwback Thursday Cowboy!

Ghost Lover Advertising

This is the cowboy that started it all, my writing career that is. It’s hard to believe how long it’s been since Ghost Lover was published. 2012 was an exciting year, I took the leap into publishing my writing.

Let’s take a look at the book that led me down this wonderful road as an author.

Ghost Lover letter

I know, this was a sneaky thing to do, but this is one of my many favorite parts of this book. The letter that took them to a whole new world. Go by and check out Ghost Lover. I know you’ll fall in love with the love story of Jessie and Jared, I did!

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…

 

Picking the tree…

My son took me to the local Christmas tree farm Thursday. It was cold, but we had a long walk to the tall trees. We actually had an amazing time, laughing as we went from tree to tree, trying to find the perfect Hurt family tree.

As we walked among the trees, looking at aspects of the trees, it reminded me of editing a book. When we look at our manuscript, it’s with anxious eyes. We search for the holes in the story, like the holes in the tree that ornaments and lights can’t hide.

Then, of course, we look for the best branches to hold our ornaments. Same way with editing our story. We have to make sure that it’s a strong story and doesn’t fall off the edge of interesting. That’s a hard one, because we’re close to the story and love it. My editor assistant always finds these easily.

Oh, and don’t forget the straight stump! If you get home with a curved stump, well, it’s a disaster. If your manuscript doesn’t get the story straight, if it curves away from the story line, you’ll lose the reader.

So, today I’ll finish decorating my tree and yes, I’ll post many pictures. This is my favorite time of year, so my house looks like it threw up Christmas (my son’s words, not mine). I love my Santas, Snowmen, Angels, and Christmas village. So, I deck the halls!

As always, Great writing and May God Bless You…

Happy Saturday!