Riding a train in my imagination seems so romantic and adventurous. I’m not the only one who feels that way. Mary Owens wants an adventure like the ones her aunt has taken. Once she gets it then she’ll marry because that’s her father’s wish, though she is sure she can change his mind if she can take one adventure and return home safe. After that he will see she can handle anything that comes her way.
Love finds an Outlaw is on sale for .99 through Nov. 30th. It’s also a part of a big promotion of historical series starters all on sale.
When did you get excited about connecting letters to make words?
My love of reading came from my mom. She spent hours reading to me. I have several favorite memories of reading time.
Mom took me to the library as much as she could. Sometimes we had to walk because there wasn’t a second car.
One book became my favorite and I can’t remember the name. Instead of illustrations it had photos of real children. That amazed me– people could be in books! I wanted to be in books.
That may be when I segued into become the character I read about and now it is the way I write.
She helped me learn to read through Rubic books. If you aren’t familiar with those they put small pictures in place of words like house, dog, bike, and before you know it you’ve learned to read the small words because you’ve practiced them and those big words don’t scare you. At least that’s how I remember it.
Mom read tough books to us, big thick ones like The Yearling, that took all summer because she read to my brother and me while we rested in the hot (unairconditioned) house with the fan blasting on us.
We read side by side on the porch swing.
We read before bed.
We read on the couch, the floor and soon I was reading alone. But I was never alone because if I looked I could find mom reading too!
She gave me a gift that has let me travel, laugh, cry and learn.
Planning a June wedding should happen like a year before the wedding if not even further back. When we were planning ours it was not as easy as we thought it would be.
The idea was a small wedding, my church and book a banquet hall. Neither of us wanted to go crazy with spending money because this was our second marriage. We were both widowed and knew what weddings were really about. Music and food for the guests. Hopefully not overcooked, cold or so strange no one would eat it. So we went for simple–hey we had three kids between us. Simple meant that they ate.
That wedding happened 31 years ago. I can barely remember the wedding. I was as scared as I was the first time I’d said yes to a man I loved at that altar. What I do remember was Ed’s smile, the love in his eyes, and our youngest son saying, “that’s my mom” when I walked down the aisle.
Then there was that beautiful double rainbow when we left the church and it hadn’t even rained.
It was a perfect wedding. Happy Anniversary Ed. I hope we have many many many more.
So if you like books with brides check out this month long promo. It’s full of weddings, happy endings and romance.
It occurred to me as I was making my new favorite snack candied ginger that the process is a lot like writing a novel.
A book idea is one big knot with a lot of possible roads to take to writing ‘The End.’
Ginger has a palm (at least I think it does) and fingers all in different lengths and thicknesses. There are even knuckles which makes peeling ginger tricky.
A character is like one of those fingers. There are stubborn spots like the ginger’s knuckles that fight against discovery. It takes effort to peel it and find the true spice which brings the heroine or hero to life.
Once you get your ginger peeled it has to be boiled in sugar water (stevia for me) until it’s just right. It takes patience to wait, the ginger spice aroma floats through the kitchen and you just want to be at the end of the process and snacking.
With the book, as the author I almost always know the ending way before I get to it. I want to rush through with my story so I can get it to my readers. But I can’t. I must use patience or the end result will be unreadable.
Once the process of boiling the ginger and coating it with sugar or in my case Trim Healthy Mama gentle sweet (stevia and erythritol), then baking it in the oven you get this delight.
If this makes you hungry search Pinterest for some recipes. I can’t give you mine because it’s copyrighted. I hope you try making this because ginger is good for you and candied ginger is as satisfying as a good book.
As for books? These are the process of taking my time and discovering the character’s story.
There is something about the shorter days and cooler air that has me grabbing research books, my kindle and my kindle fire. Yes, I am one of those reader/authors.
I love to read but I’ve discovered it’s hard to keep my books in one place. There’s the physical of course but what about ebooks. I use my kindle fire for my business/research books. My kindle gets my fiction love and sometimes my ipad and iphone kindle apps get called into action as well for research books.
This is my spot in the winter. As close as I can possibly get to the woodstove without igniting.
The book is Seeking St. Louis. It’s huge and I can only read a little at a time because it is so full of information. I haven’t used it yet in a book series but the time is coming. I want to be ready.
Are you out of books? Try finding some new reads here. One of mine, Hearts on the Road is on sale for 99¢.
What are you looking to read? Since I’m in the middle–okay only 1/4 of the way through of writing Book 3 A Bride’s Choice in Central City and it’s a historical, I’ll be reading contemporary books?
Now what would I do that? Shouldn’t I be reading historical? Maybe, but I’m always in fear that some clever line or a bit of dialogue that I read will stick with me and I’ll use it! Not on purpose of course but I’m pretty sure I won’t be using one of Julie Carobini or Kirsten Billerbeck’s cute sayings in a historical. Can you imagine? A woman in 1872 picking up a cute designer purse? Or wearing wedges? Me either, and that’s why it’s safer to read contemporary while writing historical fiction.
Are you often looking for a new author to read? Me too!
Check out this page for new releases! I am. I’m excited to see what’s available.
What are you waiting for? Join me! Click the graphic and see what’s available this month!
What do you feel like when you grab book 1 of a series and have to wait for the next one?
I”m usually sad because I personally have no–let me see what does my husband call it? Oh yeah, lack of impulse control and patience. I don’t want to wait I want it now like a 2 year old.
I don’t throw tantrums I promise. I just want it and don’t want to wait.
Here’s some good news! All of these books are on sale and they are series! Yes! Books 1-3 or sometimes more are packaged together for those of you like me that really wants to know what happens in the next story!
These are all Christian Romance! I’m super excited to pick up some I haven’t read. My set A Time to Love is also in the $2.99 sale. Usually book one is $2.99. It’s a great deal! Go shop!
How big do rewards need to be to give you satisfaction?
Do you ever finish a project that takes forever and think, now what?
That’s me.
A Bride’s Journey to the Colorado Territory is done… at least the first round of edits are finished. There are many more times to go through it. I had a big plan for when the book was ready to purchase and that looks like it will be on July 30th. At this time, I’m not sure if my plan will be possible with traveling or finances.
I have been thinking it was hard to get to the end of that book. I was working part time at the preschool and then being at home has taken an emotional toll I didn’t expect. After all, I am an introvert and love being home. That took me by surprise, and I had to adjust. Then an extended family member came down with Covid-19 and was on a ventilator for a long time and didn’t make it.
Big rewards didn’t seem as fulfilling any more.
So what’s a writer to do?
Do it anyway.
First, let me say that small celebrations when you complete a difficult task are important. The thing is they don’t have to be giant expensive rewards. One thing I have always known but have come to understand well these past few months is the importance of what I have.
Sure, I’d like a new laptop. That would be an amazing reward, or maybe a keyboard that doesn’t stick on the letter zzzzzzz—even though I haven’t pushed it. Or someone to clean my house—like deep clean it, outside and inside windows, and baseboards that I never seem to get to.
I took a step back and thought about the small things I could reward myself with that I could use and enjoy. A teacher appreciation gift I received contained an envelope of zinnia seeds. I love flowers! All I needed was a warm day to plant them and we had frost last week.
Today I planted them! I can’t wait to see them grow!
The other thing I’ve been wanting for quite some time but didn’t get was a set of measuring spoons with the ‘donk’ spoon. That’s 1/32! I’ve been using pure stevia instead of sugar for a long time. It came from Trim Healthy Mama with a tiny plastic spoon. The handle broke, and I’ve kept on using it. I decided it was time for a reward. I ordered the spoons. They were under $10.
But why would you care what I choose to reward myself with or that I did?
Because I want you to do the same.
You might be homeschooling like my daughter-in-law who is doing an amazing job even though it’s not what she loves. She is a numbers person and an engineer. Every Friday she should honor her work, even if it is with a book and a soak in her tub. I don’t know if she does that, but she should.
Maybe you started a garden and you have no idea what you are doing, but you did it anyway. Reward yourself! Get a glass of tea and sit outside and admire the beautiful work you did.
Or perhaps you great at sewing and now you’re making masks. Not something you love, but you are putting your skills to work. Reward yourself! Spend some time sewing something you love—if your shoulders and back can take it! I have a friend who has made over 85 masks in one week. I hope she does something to make her smile.
Not every reward has to cost a lot of money. Think about it. What can you do for yourself that would give you a feeling of satisfaction? An ice cream cone? That’s my husband’s favorite reward. A bike ride? A walk in the park? What about phoning a friend?
Tell me your ideas in the comments. We can all benefit from growing our reward list along with our to-do lists. Because life is difficult and no one else can pat us on the back right now for a job well done.
Possible new Christian book for you in all genres.
This one is great if you have Kindle Unlimited as the books listed are all available with the KU subscription.
Planning is not my favorite word but I am learning to like it a lot. Turns out I didn’t have the right planner for the work that I do.
Looking back at 2019 I realized as many of us do that the year sailed by too fast. Many of the things I wanted to do didn’t happen, like writing book 2 a Bride’s Will. Now by using this planner I have a solid plan on how to get it done and possibly a second book.
I took the photo of both planners with my postage scale to remind me that every activity I choose has weight. I have to decide if that ‘weight’ is right for me or will it pull me to the ground and keep me there?
Blocking out the times I know it will be impossible for me to work on my writing like working at the preschool allows me to see what white space is left. Once that’s done I can then fill them with what’s the next important thing on my list.
This planner doesn’t just give you pages to fill out there are quotes and instructions on how to make it work for you.
This year I’m using the coil-bound version. Last year I bought the bound version and decided before I even opened it I didn’t need to plan. So wrong. Bad choice or as my grandkids say RED CHOICE!
If you aren’t a writer, this is probably not the planner for you but find one that does work. Don’t let 2020 disappear without you accomplishing your dreams.
Writing a book is a lot of fun for me and maybe for you too. But planning out how to write, market, keep track of finances and oh yes, just life has always been a huge problem for me.
For 2020 I’ve decided to change up how I do things. Instead of letting things happen to me I was going to show up prepared.
This planner may not be for you if you aren’t an author but you are alive so planning is still a good thing. 🙂
One of the features I love about this planner from Audrey Hughey is its size. The pages are big enough to write what I need to remember. If you are planning your year make sure the one you choose has writing space, not just pretty pictures.
I’ve tried bullet journals, calendars, online calenders–I do still put critical personal and business dates in my online calendar so I have it with me at all times.
This year I’m using The 2020 Author planner because there isn’t another one like it that has a place for everything I need to do in my business. It was put together by an author for an author.
Have you ever decided to make a social media calendar and then think I should do this every month but wait I have to recreate that table? No need with this planner there is one for every month.
Here are some of the features:
Track daily and weekly word counts– yes, please
Map out writing and publishing plans for an entire year–not as scary as it sounds
Manage and track monthly expenses–you know you need to do it
Develop an editing checklist –ugh did I use the word so that many times?
Plan social media marketing, book promotions, and advertising–when was the last time I applied for BookBub? Posted a photo of one of my books?
Sketch out ideas for author newsletter and track open and click-through rates– What should I write this month to my newsletter?
Have space and flexibility to plan your days and weeks according to your own unique lifestyle and schedule.–Self-care? Yes, you need to schedule it or you won’t do it.
Where can you get one of these? Glad you asked because it means you’re one step closer toward an amazing year as an author.
