I've got to admit, I'm sort of tired of the recreation of movies that were already made. You know what I mean. The way certain movie companies are taking all their animated films and making them into "live-action" ones. It wouldn't be so bad if the movies weren't almost exactly the same as the one they're redoing. Only a few have any changes.
But this latest one, when I saw the trailer, I was excited. It looked beautiful, for one. For another, I was neck-deep in doing my own version of a Snow White retelling too. So, how could I not be thrilled to see another version?

When I started writing Rendersella, I had no idea it wasn't going to be a stand-alone book. The idea came to me fast and furious and all I knew was I was going to write it. Of course, my muse likes to trick me and suddenly have me realize there were two more books to go with it. Because why not?
The further into Rendersella I wrote, the more I realized her friend Teresa was Snow White. And her stepsister was supposed to be the heroine in a Beauty and the Beast retelling. Right. So, two more books, it is.

It was a case of mistaken mail ...
​I'm thrilled to have Sarah Anne Crouch on my blog today, chatting about her newest story, which is dear to both of our hearts. It's so exciting to see this book finally coming into the world and I know you're going to love it as much as I do. After all, how can you not love a story that starts with mistaken mail? Read on to see what I'm talking about.

​On Tuesday, my new novel A Homecoming in Shady Springs will be released into the world! I’m so grateful to Amy for editing (multiple times over the course of multiple years) this novel and the whole series.
I thought I’d share with you the very first spark of an idea that inspired Henry and Catherine’s story.

Do you have a bucket list place to visit? After reading two of Terri Wangard's novels, I'm leaning toward Brazil and Iceland! Maybe not, but she does make them sound amazing. She's my guest today to talk about some of the amazing landscapes in Iceland and how she used it to shape her newest book. I think you'll be as intrigued as I was.

​Where in the world would you like to go? Paris? Tahiti? Monaco? How about Iceland?
I like to set my World War II stories in unlikely places. Book One of my series, Seashells in My Pocket, is set in Brazil. Did you know Brazil played a role in the war? Brazil wasn’t completely foreign to me. I’d spent a day in Rio de Janeiro at the end of a South American cruise. Of course, the book was set farther north in Natal, but that’s beside the point.
 For Book Two, No Leaves in Autumn, Iceland won the honor. While researching my first series about B-17s based in England, I frequently found references to refueling stops in Iceland. Much more occurred there than the busy gas stations.

Do you like birds? How about books with empty-nesters as the main characters? well, Jen Dodrill has some stories for you! Read on to find out why she chose to use a quetzel in her latest cozy mystery.

I often get told – “You must love birds!” since my cozy mystery series is about a woman who starts a birding group. But really, I don’t know much about them. My dad and stepmom were avid birders, and I got the idea for the series when I stayed with them a few years ago.
What I do know about is being an empty nester. That’s why the series is the Empty Nesters Cozy Mystery series. I wanted to write about women in my age group—women of a “certain age”—who were going through the same stages of life I was.
Now I may be a bit older than the main character, Peg, but her mother-in-law Hazel and I are definitely the same age group. I just had more kids than Peg and was older when my last was born. None of that matters though, because being an empty nester is challenging, regardless of age. You raise those kids for years, then they leave, fly, take off.
​Just like birds.

Contemporary Romance doesn't require much research. Not really. But every now and then, I want to know more about something I'm writing about. Especially if it's food. Ha. Maybe I'm a book foodie.
In my Snow White retelling I'm working on, I have it set in Brunswick, Georgia. I set it there because I've visited several times and love the area. It's where we honeymooned. But I love to dive into travel blogs and pinterest sites to find out about things I might have missed, even if I have been to an area.

Even though I write romance, I love a good fantasy novel every now and then. And Dawn Ford writes a good fantasy novel (or six). She has two different series for different age groups, and they're both wonderful. I can't wait for you to learn more about them as we chat with my friend Dawn in the monthly author interview today.

How do you find a balance between the light and dark in your fantasy stories?

The balance between light and dark was the central theme to my current series’ overarching story and character arcs. Our heroes are charged with the mission to balance good and evil—light and dark, in their story world that is being besieged by an evil pied-piper character. Each book in the Band of Unlikely Heroes four-book series focuses on one hero/heroine and their struggles to overcome both their own shortcomings and fears. In the end, it will take them all, working against the big bad, to set the balance of good back into place and dispatch the evil that has been plaguing their kingdom for generations. I kept the ending in mind as I wrote the darkest scenes, pulling the guts out of my characters and then helping them learn invaluable lessons along the way—becoming an indomitable force when they finally come together. Light always wins over the dark, good triumphs over evil.