Tag: Writing

Stepping out of a hole…

It’s been such a wonderful September with the Romancing September Across the World with my friend across the pond, Rosie Amber. I’ve learned a lot from the different authors. It’s crazy how different all of us are, but in so many ways we’re the same. We all face the same hurdles and somehow we jump them and run toward the next one, but what happens when you jump one hurdle and fall in a hole on the other side?

I just recently released Emma Rose. It was a challenge to me for many reasons. If you’ve never written historically relevant material you might not understand this, but let me enlighten you. I’m constantly reaching for my timeline to keep dates correct and world happenings. You can’t put the cart before the horse so to speak. Well that wasn’t the only challenge with Emma Rose.

Emma Rose presented another problem. When I started out I was headed in a certain direction, but when I got to a crossroads I floundered, in exhaustion I went down the wrong road that took on another persona. I wasn’t happy, but I was too far in to go back, or was I? As I neared the words The End my heart kept telling me it was totally wrong. The story completely lost it’s meaning to me. I had jumped one hurdle and landed in a bottomless pit, falling into writer’s oblivion!

The Saturday before the release date on the upcoming Friday I took a leap that helped me to see the light at the top of that dark hole. I went back to where the story meant something, over thirty word document pages. I highlighted them and saved them in another file and then I did something drastic. I hit delete. As my finger hovered over that ominous black key I struggled with indecision, but finally did it. I deleted 5 whole chapters of a manuscript I’d stayed up late and got up early to finish before the deadline.

I sat for a long while staring at the void in my manuscript I’d just created. I know I saved it but that didn’t lesson my fear. I knew deep down that if I was planning to meet my deadline I had to get scrambling to repair the void. I stepped back, worked on something else that was going along pretty well.

When I came back two hours later it was clear. With determination and some fear I started that section over. The words flowed freely from me as they didn’t when I’d first worked on this section. The story became clear. No longer was it unfocused and dull, it was crisp and clear with a purpose that blowed me away. I knew where it had to go and when I did eventually type The End I was satisfied and teary eyed.

I’d jump a authors worst hurdle, fell in the dark hole and made my way out with exhuberance. It left me totally at peace with the decision and now I know that when it happens again, it’s for the best and just do it.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

What if the words stop…

I’ve been asked many times where the words I write come from. Most people come up to me and just simply ask, ‘What if the words stop coming?’ For a writer that would be horrible, a nightmare come true. But the funny thing about a writer’s brain, it runs on overdrive most of the time. Sometimes we might have a hiccup in the process, but the words flow continuously.

Some have asked how I work on so many books at one time. How do I keep focused enough on each one to make the individual stories work? **Smiling broadly** Well it comes from too many stories going through that if I don’t get them on paper as they go through I’m afraid my brain will explode. If an idea comes through for a new story, well it has to be written out. I love to sit with a pad and pencil and just let the words flow through me. It’s exhilerating, but sometimes when you have a deadline working you have to push the others to the side. Of course that story still nags at you constantly.

But then I wonder if one day the words might stop. Of course for me they’ve been coming at me since I was a teenager and that’s been a long time. No, I’m not saying how long, but it’s been a while. If one day I develop some sort of problem where the words stop I don’t know what will happen. It’s been such a big part of me to put a story together in my mind that I think I might stumble some.

Then again I get a lot of my inspiration from music lyrics, people watching and life, so I guess in my mind, I’ll always have a story coming through. But if the music stops, the people disappear and I stop living, then the story would probably stop. Life has added so many stories in my head that I don’t think I’ll ever run out of material. I’ve experienced life through so many eyes and lives that I always have a new spin on a topic that I’ve touched on before.

What if the words stop… Let’s just say I hope they never do. I’ve come to love my characters that flow in and out of my head. They’re a part of who I am and that may sound crazy, but if you’re a writer you know where I’m coming from. After you spend hours with a character and their life, well it’s as if they’re your best friend. A couple of my books touched me so much that I was an emotional wreck during the process, but the words flowed even as the tears and the memories that spurred the story on came crashing through. Some memories never stop flowing through and they conjure up many stories that fill the books I write.

So, have you ever wondered what would happen to you if the words stopped? Scary thought…

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Emma Rose is now available!

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Good Friday morning! I’m excited to announce that Emma Rose is finally available. It’s been a long and harrowing journey, but she’s out. This was a book that brought about many changes. I’m ready to move forward with the next installment of the Women of Magnolia Hill Saga. It will be out in early 2015.

I hope you’ve checked out the Romancing September tour that Rosie Amber and I have been doing all month. It’s a great way to help support other authors and find lots of new books for your TBR list. Mine has grown so much that I should be good for a long time.

Another exciting thing to put out here is the upcoming western romance series that I’ll start as soon as I get a couple of days rest. Who am I kidding? I’ve already started the new series. It’ll be 5 books and each one is another aspect of the family of 5 Oaks Ranch. They’re full of family drama, humor, love, romance and just down right good clean, exciting fun. I’m so excited about this series. I’ll be posting little snippets as it goes. The covers are all completed, but nope, I’m not going to give anything away just yet, but I will tell you there’s a little something, something at the end of Emma Rose regarding this series.

Oh yeah, before I go back to writing, I have another announcement. Yep I’m full of them today. I have a Christmas romance in the works and it will be part of my Christian Romance series Lean On Him. This will be a very hard book to write, not that it’s not coming to me, but it’s about a hard subject. I’ll tell you more later, but let’s just say it will be a different side of romance from my normal writing. But it’s a subject that’s close to my heart. Ok, that’s enough of that for now.

I hope all of you have a great weekend and don’t forget to pick up a book. Be kind and give the author a review. We love hearing from our fans.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

Sleepy Friday Morning

It’s overcast here in Georgia. The temperatures have been amazing the last couple of days. But today starts a seven day trend of ran, storms and just plain out nasty weather. The overcast darkness makes me sleepy and it’s hard to stay awake.

My night consisted of fighting with the bed for about two hours, then going to the den to curl up in the corner of the couch to read for about thirty minutes (actually read for 2 hours) and then going back to bed and finally drifting off to sleep. For some reason my sleeper was not working last night. Don’t you just hate those nights when you’re sleepy but once your head hits the pillow it goes away.

So this morning may be a pot of coffee instead of just a couple of cups. I have managed to get in about 850 words this morning so I guess that’s a good thing. Of course my current WIP may be one of the reasons I’m having problems sleeping. The characters keep screaming in my head. I’m at a pivotal point in the story and it’s exciting…

So how’s your Friday morning going? I hope you’re planning a fantastic weekend. For me I have a wedding to attend tomorrow and you all know how I love weddings. They inspire me as a romance writer. 

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Over worked? Over stressed? Write it out!

Some days are just hard to get through. You sit behind your desk and wonder if you’ll live through the stress of the day. You’ve gone far past your normal time to get off, but you keep going. Well, what are you doing about it?

For me I’ve worked really hard over the last twenty years building my accounting business. It’s been really hard and I’ve put in a lot of long hours. When I was younger it was nothing to put in 12 hours a day, then go home and put in a couple of hours cooking and doing laundry. No problem back then, but the older I get the less I want to spend long hours behind a desk. I guess that comes with age, not sure…

About 5 years ago my stress level was at the breaking point. I was spending a lot of time in my office making sure everyone was happy. I spent a lot of time making sure everyone in my life was happy, but I wasn’t happy. I was overworked and overstressed. One day I sat down and did a inventory of my life. Why was I miserable? Duh! I was the reason I was so unhappy. I was trying to please everyone but myself. Get real with yourself and realize you probably do the same thing yourself.

I took a couple of days and went through my office, clearing the backlogs that hindered my organization. As I was clearing it all out I ran up on some floppy disks, yes I said floppy disks, and they were filled with manuscripts that were unfinished. Also, my assistant found the printed copies and asked to take them home. She came back the next morning with so much excitement that it was contagious.

I picked up the manuscripts and read them that night. The excitement surged in me and I knew my new path to a happier me. I began going through the manuscripts and working out the details. Suddenly I had a purpose again. I could put all my stress into my writing. I wrote it out. It cleared my head. Every night after work I’d sit with my laptop and write. It was calming. 

So, if you’re overstressed, then let it go to writing. If you don’t write novels or have a desire to do so, just start a journal. Write your daily stress out and leave it in the journal. Believe me, my stress level is so much better and I know I’m easier to live with 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Changes make all the difference…

Yep, I’m doing a happy dance this morning. With All My Heart (Revised Edition) Is doing really well on Amazon. 

You may be wondering what I did as far as changes. Well, I did a couple of things to change this book from the original edition.

Here are the changes I made:

1: I updated the cover. The original cover was awesome, but as one author explained to me, if you change the manuscript and republish you have to change the cover.

2: I went in and changed the voice slightly in this edition. I also added a couple of elements that made the story flow better.

3: I changed the categories that the book was put into. Amazingly enough, as the numbers above tell the tale, it worked.

I’m in the process of revisiting a couple of my older published books. As my writing becomes more refined and I learn new techniques it causes me to think of my earlier works. Now when I go back over them I smile. Things have changed with my writing voice and I have to make sure that all my work changes with me.

So if you have older works that maybe need a facelift, then go for it. It’s been an awesome thing for With All My Heart. Of course this book has done well in the past, but the numbers from just the last two days have been, let’s just say, awesome!

I also want to thank my Twitter friends that took over the post from the other day regarding the republishing. They spread it like wildfire over the Twittersphere and I’m humbled by their wonderful comments and promotions. It’s amazing the support I’ve received from so many, so thanks to you from the bottom of heart 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You… 

 

Insomnia – Not a writer’s best friend…

For the last two nights I’ve written until time for bed. Which you might be saying, that’s good, you’re getting in writing time. But there’s a problem. I have a couple of characters that are pulling at my sleep strings. As soon as I put my laptop down and head to bed my mind wonders to them. 

Monday night I laid down and picked up my Kindle to read a little before bed. Of course my eyes got heavy and not from boredom with my reading selection, it’s really good, but I was tired. So I turned out the light and lay my head on the pillow with a contented sigh. The problem started at that moment of contentment. The characters in my pirate romance were telling me to get up.

I quickly tried to push them to the back of my brain. I do run a busy accounting business and sleep is something I need. But they were persistant. I rolled to my other side and tried again, but guess what, they were on that side too. Finally about an hour later and really wound up sheets I got up. You’d think I would pick up my laptop, but I refused to give in to the characters demands.

I carried my Kindle to the couch and turned on the lamp beside me. I situated myself comfortably in the corner of the couch and settled in to read until I could go to sleep. The characters kept up at the needling. I knew that if I gave in to them I’d be up the rest of the night writing.

Have you ever wondered if your characters haunt you? Well, I’m here to tell you they do. Every time I would get into my book a noise would happen in the room that I couldn’t explain. One time something shifted in the corner and I almost jumped off the couch. I turned toward said corner and frowned. I refused to answer their call.

Then it happened again last night, but this time I refused to give in. I tossed and turned. The good thing that came out of last night’s insomnia trip was I rewrote one of the scenes in my head. This morning I changed it and was pleasantly surprised with the results. The chapter flowed so much better with the changes. SO maybe the insomnia was worth it. But of course my tired, blood shot eyes this morning don’t think so. I so need a nap, but I’m not going to tell my characters, hopefully they’re tired from their constant nudging.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

With All My Heart republished!

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Yep, I threw one in on you this weekend. It’s amazing when the inspiration hits and you just go with it. I’ve been wanting to revise With All My Heart and it just hit me Friday and bam there it was. So I started reading and revising.

If you’re a fan of the Lean On Him series then you’ll enjoy this revision. I changed the writing some and added a couple of new lines to change some of the scenes. As you notice in the above picture, the cover changed also. I’m excited about the changes and can’t wait to finish the revision of Ghost Lover and Tender Flame. I think these are the only two that will be revised in the near future.

For those waiting on Emma Rose, yes she’s coming along really well and will be out soon. Also Safe In The Pirate’s Arms will also be out this summer. Writing historical romance is really fun since I love history. But don’t worry, I’ll be back to my cowboys really soon. You know me and my cowboys, I have to slip them in.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

TBT – “Field of Dreams”

It’s Thursday and as I sit here watching the Today Show I’m in awe. Why? Well, they’re talking about Field OF Dreams being 25 years old. I dearly love this movie for many reasons. It’s such an inspirational movie.

Even if you don’t like baseball you’ll love this movie. I just love Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones. The movie takes you to another place where dreams come true and make you think. The main character makes his dreams a reality through many hardships and a lot of criticism.

It makes me think about my dream to be a writer. My niece who is also my partner in our publishing business told me that if I write the fans will come and she was right. I compare my writing to the baseball field. When I publish a book I’m always amazed at the people that come out of the darkness and write to me about the book. Some call them inspirational and others say they love the clean way I bring about romance without having to go too far.

I guess you could say my writing is my very own field of dreams and it’s been a dream come true. Yes I do meet some criticism, but I have a tough skin and let it roll off my back. I’m lucky that I have a great following and so many new friends from all over the world that support my writing, my blog and my craziness. Thanks to all of you for helping me make my dreams come true. 

As always, great writing and May God Bless You…

How’s your editing?

One of the hardest things for most authors is the editing process. It’s a very important part of the writing process. Some authors hire editors and leave it all up to them, but is that enough? 

I recently read an article in a writer’s magazine and it opened my eyes to several things concerning editing. A bestselling author was talking about editing and she was astonished at what readers caught in her latest work that was missed by both her editors. Do we only skim over the work while editing? 

One author said that she read the work again after the editor finished, but she found about 20 errors that were completely missed. So, when has your book been edited enough? If professional editors are missing the errors what do we do as writers? For me I read and then read again. It’s amazing the errors you find on the second read through. 

When writing usually I’m so into the story that I don’t even realize the english that I use. But what if the story needs the bad english to make the point at that place in the book. Will the editor catch that or will they change it and in that one change make the paragraph lose it’s meaning? This happens so many times to writers. Sometimes the way you state something to make a point might not be the best english, but in the situation it makes perfect sense.

So, how’s your editing skills? Do you need help? If you’re not sure about your editing skills, check out having your book looked at by more eyes before you publish. My company, Horseshoe Publishing helps authors get their books publish ready, including intense editing.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

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