Do you ever pay attention to reviews others have left for books you read? Authors tend to watch them more carefully than we sometimes should, but they can be such a help to letting other readers know what to expect from our story. Author Shannon Dunlap is here today to talk about one review that caught her off-guard. See what you think. “Hilarious Story!”
“LOL a minute” “a complete HOOT!” “HYSTERICALLY FANTASTIC” Love Overboard began with a television feature I saw about a woman in her eighties who skipped the retirement home to live on a cruise ship. The idea captivated me. What if there wasn’t just one? What if a group of them spent their later years sailing the Caribbean? And what if they spent their days matchmaking the young people? The story experienced the growing pains of cuts, edits, pitches, and acceptance before it finally released in May.
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Is your hometown known for anything special? Any spies? Ever read a book set in someone else's hometown that makes you want to go visit? Today, fellow author Ellen Withers is sharing about her hometown setting in her mystery series. And it sounds fascinating. No wonder she set her books there! See what you think. Learning and reading about spies active during the Civil War is fascinating to me. Historians have discovered several of these spies were women. Some conducted their spying activities as a normal woman from the times, while others enlisted in military service and passed as a male soldier. In writing a book that includes the history of the Union Army’s occupation of my hometown during the War Between the States, I wanted to create a fictional spy within their midst and have an ordinary woman help gather evidence of the spy.
It's time! Time for the next book in our Stained Glass Legacy series to release. Regina Rudd Merrick is guesting on my blog today to talk about the memories and research done to write a book set in the time when she was a little girl. Do you think you could do the same? When I began writing Window of Peace, all I had was a story outline for the Stained Glass Legacy series, of which mine is second. Heather Greer’s Window of Opportunity is book one (1920s), mine is book 2 (1970), Amy’s Window of the Heart is book 3 (current day), and Erin Howard’s Window of Time is book 4(dystopian future).
How hard could it be? I was alive in 1970. I remember it well. Tip #1. When you think something’s going to be easy, hold that thought. Yes, I was alive, but I wasn’t an adult in 1970, like my characters. I was six. Six years old. My PARENTS were in their 20’s! I started researching the time period. The clothes, I remembered. I’d just been going through old photos of my family, so that wasn’t hard. Because author takeovers are fun, and because this month has been so busy for me, so I gladly offered up extra spots to my friends, you're blessed with another guest blogger today. Rachel Herod is one of my dearest friends, and she and I have been celebrating her first release. She's talking about the recognition her characters ... and she ... are both hoping for. Read on. One of the most exciting aspects of writing is creating characters. Not just the way they look, but other facets of their personalities, too: their beliefs, their tendencies, their nuances. Sometimes characters are born that resemble friends and loved ones, beloved personas in other works of fiction, celebrities, or the author herself. And sometimes we create cast members who exhibit characteristics we wish we had. To write someone you want to emulate can be helpful in your spiritual journey and even cathartic at times. In the town of Buskerton, there’s an annual awards ceremony. Votes from all the townspeople are tallied, and local businesses are awarded a flowing banner to hang outside and show everyone they are the winners and the very best in their categories. The winners of what, you ask? Well, the winners of the Buskie awards, of course. As everyone knows, a Buskie award banner proves you’re the very best at what you do. Doesn’t it? Everyone wants a Buskie banner outside their front door, right? Ready for another author takeover? Today, Heather Greer is here to chat about a character too easy to hate. Do you like Love-Hate relationships? Have you ever had a love-hate relationship with a character? Maybe you see their potential, but their personality rubs you the wrong way? Will Forrester was that character for me when I wrote Cake That!. He was rude and abrasive. Arrogance seeped from every pore. Will was a great baker, and he knew it. He also managed to alienate himself from every other competitor in the contest. But as much as Will wasn’t the nice guy in the competition, just under the surface of what he allowed everyone else to see, I saw something more. Will wasn’t just a jerk. There were reasons he’d adopted those attitudes. And while I gave insight into those reasons in Cake That!, I wanted to give Will a chance at redeeming himself. For almost a month now, I've been giving sneak peeks into MY story in the novella collection releasing TOMORROW! But today, I'm passing the torch and letting Heather Greer post about her story and why winter is such an intrinsic part of it. Be sure to read to the end so you won't miss the next clue in our scavenger hunt! Spring is too wet and the ground is a big muddy mess. Summer is too hot and not even the draw of a great glass of lemonade can make it less so. Autumn is perfect. Always. Winter is often cold and dark.
Why, then, did I choose winter for my novella, Sugar and Spice? While the temperatures may leave something to be desired, I cannot deny the beauty of the season. Despite the cold, there’s beauty in winter. When snow blankets the bare branches of trees and rests on the needles of evergreens set against a wintery blue sky, the result is breathtaking. When sunlight hits the snow-covered ground creating an ocean of sparkling diamonds out of the field behind my house, the two sights blend with the unique hush accompanying snow to evoke a sense of serenity. |
This is a place for me to tell you about what I'm writing, talk about the process or where some of my ideas came from, or even have other authors come in and talk about their books.
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