In July 2013, I started the Second Acts series on my blog. My original intention was to feature the reinvention stories of twelve women as part of the launch to my debut novel, Between Land and Sea, Book 1 of the Mediterranean Trilogy.
I was pleased with the response and decided to extend the timeline. Almost three years have passed, and the Second Acts keep on coming.
Continue reading on the Soul Mate Authors blog.
I’m visiting S.D. Skye’s blog and chatting about my writing journey and A Season for Killing Blondes.
If you have a few minutes, drop by Starla’s blog.
I’m happy to welcome author Erin Bevan to the Power of 10 series. Today, Erin shares the meaning behind rose colors and her latest release, Text Me.
Here’s Erin!
Valentine’s Day is over and done with now, and I’m sure your local florist is reaping the benefits of the lovely holiday. Were their red roses sitting on your counter top from the holiday? Or what about pink or white? Have you ever stopped to think about what the color of the roses represent?
Well, think no more. I am going to tell you. Here are ten lovely rose colors and their meanings.
Red– Romance. (I’m sure we all knew that one!)
White– Purity, Innocence, Secrecy. (I feel a story coming on with white roses! Some deep dark secrets involved. Taps tips of fingers together and laughs-Mwa Ha Ha Ha!)
Dark Pink– Appreciation or Gratitude.
Light Pink– Admiration or Sympathy.
Yellow– Joy, Delight, Friendship. (Maybe this is why everyone considers yellow a “happy” color?)
Orange– Fascination or Desire.
Peach– Appreciation or Sincerity.
Coral– Desire (Mmm… I think I gave my kid’s teacher coral roses once. Oops!)
Lavender– Love at First Sight or Enchantment.
Yellow with Red Tips– Falling in Love (Aww!!)
Which color would you prefer to get? I think dark pink would be nice. Everyone likes to feel appreciated every once in a while, right? Next year, when you send out your flowers, use this little cheat sheet as a guide. Don’t be like me and send roses of desire to your kids’ teachers! Unless, you do desire them, then I say go for it!
Blurb
When Erika’s ex becomes her boss less than a year after dumping her by text, she gets desperate to find a date to the corporate Valentine’s dance so he doesn’t suspect she still has feelings for him. Though not a fan of texting for the obvious reason, she doesn’t have much choice but to tap the keypad in order to gain the attention of the only viable candidate from the classified ads.
Grayson made the mistake of listening to his brother a year ago and has regretted what he did to Erika ever since. But his brother’s next suggestion just might be his salvation when he takes out an ad for a Valentine’s date…and Erika answers.
Using a pseudo name and keeping contact to text messages only, Grayson’s plans to make Erika fall back in love with him appears to be working…until the date of the dance draws near, and she pushes a meeting—face to face.
Excerpt
Valentine’s Day.
She sank deeper into the couch. What was she going to do? She couldn’t show up alone to the company dance. Not with the chance of Grayson being there. No way.
“Maybe go to another speed dating session?” She grabbed a tissue off the coffee table and wiped the excess slime from her fingers.
“My hairdresser’s single. You want me to ask him?”
“Your hairdresser’s gay. I don’t think he’d be interested in me.”
“Really?” Megan gave her a funny stare.
“Really.” Erika snorted. “Have you not seen the picture of him and his ex-partner at his station?”
“That was his partner?” Her friend’s mouth gapped open. “I thought it was his brother.”
She shook her head. Her friend was one of the smartest people she knew, but common sense eluded the girl.
Megan popped more hearts in her mouth. “That explains so much now,” she mumbled around the candy. “No wonder my hair always looks good.”
“Yes, it does.” Erika sipped her wine.
Her friend swallowed. “Well, I’m sorry, honey. I don’t know any single guys. If I did, I’d try to date them myself.”
“That’s okay.” She sighed and slumped back onto the sofa.
“Is Grayson single?”
“I don’t know. Why are you asking?” She narrowed her gaze. “You want to date him?”
“No.” Her friend said “no” as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.
“I’m thinking about you. You wouldn’t go back out with Grayson again, would you? Please say no.” Megan’s shoulders sagged.
Go back out with Grayson. She never thought she’d be given another chance. Would she go back out with him after the way he treated her? Of course not. She deserved better, despite how wonderful he had been.
“I don’t think so. He really hurt me. I can’t give him that privilege again.”
“Good for you.” Her roommate perked up and patted her on the back. “Stay strong. You’ll find someone.”
“You’re right. I’m going to have a date for that corporate Valentine’s dance, even if I have to search the classifieds.”
“Surely, it won’t come to that.” Megan held up her glass for a toast.
Erika clinked hers with her friend’s. “Yeah, surely.”
Her roommate sat her glass down on the table and reached for more hearts.
“Here, give me one of those.”
“I love reading the little sayings.” Megan passed her a heart and tossed her dark hair behind her shoulder. “What’s yours say?”
She flipped over the candy to see the phrase. Bright pink letters stared back at her. Oh, you can’t be serious. “‘Text me’. Seriously?”
Megan burst out laughing.
“You would find that funny.” Erika popped the heart in her mouth and obliterated the little saying she had grown to hate so much.
Bio
Erin Bevan is a wife and mother of three. An avid reader, one day she decided to try her luck in writing stories of her own, and the idea paid off. She spends her days deep in the heart of Texas, fighting mosquitoes, cleaning dirty faces, and writing when the kids nap. If it’s a really good day, she even finds time to brush her hair.
Where to find Erin…
Banana bread is one of my favorite comfort foods. It is so versatile and can be eaten at almost anytime of day. When I’m running late, I have yogurt and a slice of banana bread for lunch. It’s also a good snack idea when those hunger pangs hit in mid afternoon.
Try this quick, easy-to-prepare recipe:
Ingredients
1¾ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2¼ tsp double acting baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup margarine
2/3 cup sugar
¾ tsp grated lemon rind
2 eggs, beaten
1¼ cups ripe banana pulp
Directions
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Resift flour, baking powder, and salt together.
• In a separate bowl, blend the margarine, sugar and lemon rind until creamy. Beat in the eggs and banana pulp.
• Add the sifted ingredients in 3 parts to the sugar mixture.
• Beat the batter until smooth.
• Place the batter in a greased bread pan.
• Bake the bread for about one hour or until done.
• Cool before slicing.
I’m thrilled to welcome Guelph author and editor Donna Warner. Today, Donna shares tips on series writing and her debut novella, Targeted.
Here’s Donna!
Creating a book series can be both rewarding and taxing for an author. Some considerations before taking the plunge into these murky waters are summarized below:
• Your personal time line. Series books are usually released by publishers a year apart. Are you prepared to immerse yourself into the fictional world of your protagonist for many years?
• An intriguing concept should be at the core of every conflict. Will your series be open ended or have a predetermined shelf life? Will the series be a collection of stand-alone books or will each be a continuation of the previous story?
• Which Point of View (POV) will you utilize for each book?
• Character, plot driven, or both? There should be a perfect marriage between plot and characters to sustain the strength of a series.
• Character Roster. Will all characters move through all the books or only the main characters? Do you plan to add new characters as the series progresses?
• Main characters must be memorable and have activities thrust them into situations to test their courage or resolve. Through the course of their adventures, personalities should evolve. Make every crisis relate to their inner development.
• Setting is a time period and space. This is the world you give your characters to dwell in or visit. Decide whether the setting is an integral part of the story or just a backdrop. Once you determine this, you can create a setting that is interesting and believable in the mind of the reader.
• Plot the timelines when you write the first book in the series. Will story timelines be concurrent, consecutive, or will there be overlap?
• Be consistent with the genre of each novel or readers’ expectations won’t be met. Maintain a similar tone or style throughout the series.
• Be thorough with fact-checking. If you have a lot of research material, excess can go into subsequent books.
• Keep readers guessing – avoid getting stuck in a formulaic pattern. Plant clues and connections for future stories within each book. Make notes about how characters, events, and location may intersect and influence each other. Plot high points and incorporate other tension points such as internal conflicts between main characters, secondary characters getting into hot water, or past traumas popping up to haunt the protagonist(s).
• Introduce new questions to deepen mysteries across stories but ensure each book has its own story question, conflict, and resolution. Don’t solve the big questions or resolve all the conflicts in the first book.
• Order of stories. Will it matter if they are read out of order? This will happen so ensure each book is both dependent on and independent of the other books.
• Will the climax of each story leave readers with a different feeling? What about the ultimate climax for the series?
• Each previous book is backstory. Excess backstory can stall the current story’s momentum. Pretend each sequel is the first in the series to avoid the dreaded info dump and avoid repetition when relating snippets of backstory.
• Hook readers’ interest within the first paragraph of each novel. Some authors repeat one book’s closing line as the opening in the next book or provide a sneak peek of the sequel.
• Keep track of essential details. Develop a “bible” of vital statistics or a style sheet of your main character(s), world settings, timelines, etc. Create a draft synopsis for each novel, as you write.
• Become a sketch artist when creating fictional or real settings. Mapping out rooms or crime scenes where your action takes place can help you keep details straight. Tools like Google Earth are helpful to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, etc.
• Be creative with each book and the series’ title. The title will be what represents your work to the rest of the world, now and forever. Aim for interesting, easy to remember titles, appropriate for the genre. A number of famous writers create titles that follow a pattern unique to their series of stories.
Books have personalities. Enjoy the time you spend creating memorable characters and weaving interesting threads to connect your novels. With advance planning, an eye for detail, and a little luck, readers will relish spending time with your series’ character(s) the same way you enjoy immersing yourself in a T.V. series.
Blurb
What could be better than a week of sipping rum cocktails, basking in the sun, and listening to waves lap against a Caribbean beach? Nothing, according to Jordan Blair and her friend, Ellie. Until their vacation takes a sinister turn.
The former occupant of their hotel room has vanished and the charming resort manager is unconcerned. He suggests the woman has taken off for a romantic interlude with a sailboat skipper. Given the visible police presence, Jordan doesn’t buy it.
An enigmatic guest, Darcy Piermont, attaches himself to Jordan and Ellie, but his covert activities arouse Jordan’s suspicions. Could he have been involved with the woman’s disappearance?
Plagued by unanswered questions, Jordan trusts the wrong man. Now, she and Ellie are running for their lives. Will her survival skills save them, or will their return flight home be in body bags?
Purchase Links
Amazon (Canada) | Amazon (US) | Black Opal Books | KOBO | Barnes and Noble
Bio
Donna Warner’s debut novella, Targeted was released Nov. 2015 by Black Opal Books. This mystery thriller, set in the exotic Caribbean setting of Roatán Island, Honduras, is co-authored by award winning mystery author, Gloria Ferris.
Donna’s prior careers were in education, communications, and management. She taught adult education courses; owned a private vocational school; was communication manager for the Canadian Network of Toxicology Centres; and provided freelance editing consultation.
When not attempting to outsmart fish at her cottage, home is a country property near Guelph, Ontario, Canada. She enjoys tutoring English as a Second Language students and trading writing, editing, and publishing war stories with members of local writing groups. She is a member of the International Thriller Writers and Crime Writers of Canada.
Where to find Donna…
Author Website | D. J. Warner Consulting Website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest
I’m happy to welcome Stella Marie Alden to my blog. Today, Stella shares her co-authoring experience and her upcoming novel, Dark Vortex.
Here’s Stella!
One might ask, how in the world, after publishing just two books, did you find a co-author?
I met Chantel Seabrook, on Goodreads. She was asking for people to review her book. As I always do, I checked out the first pages posted on Amazon. I was astonished. I really love her book, Cara’s Twelve.
My first book, How to Train Your Knight, came out about the same time and we started to compare marketing notes. Did you try this? What about that?
Soon, we started a Goodreads romance group together, and then we co-hosted a Facebook Group. We shared our tools, gave encouragement, and read each other’s next beta copies.
One day, she said, “We should write a book together.”
I had a paranormal novel in my computer that I’d written three years ago. The plot was good and the characters good, but it needed some serious help. The sex scenes were blah, the antagonist was a caricature, and my writing had not yet matured.
I knew, working full time, and with one more Medieval in my series to write, I might not get back to the paranormal for years.
I asked if she would like to co-author it.
At this point, I had to bury my ego and trust Chantel to be kind. It’s hard to show someone work that is not your best. I told her it was like having someone stop by, while in my PJ’s, no makeup, and not showered.
She laughed and read while I held my breath.
“I LOVE IT.” She pinged. “I can edit this for you.”
“No,” I chatted back. “Definitely not. Don’t edit. This is fifty-fifty. Make it yours as much as it is mine. Do whatever you want with it.”
We signed a contract, so as to remain friends, and she had it on pre-order in less than three weeks.
DARK VORTEX will be available on March 9th. We’re already talking about the next novel in the series.
I’m discovering what is needed for self-publishing, and about writing more concisely.
She’s had fun, with all my descriptions. She says it’s easier to remove some, than make it up.
The synergy is amazing. Funny? We both have husband-editors.
Also, we bring two fan bases to our book and have already hit the top 100 in our Amazon romance categories!
We encourage each other when the rankings are low.
We continue to tweet, post, raffle copter, and Facebook party.
We lol as we bounce ideas off from one other. We answer each other’s texts like an old married couple. Often, when we touch base, we’re researching the very same thing.
Most of all, we share our passion of writing together.
I have a new virtual best friend.
It’s awesome.
Blurb
Shameless Cravings. Wicked Pleasures. Can she survive a bond more powerful than love?
For the survival of his clan, Jack Fialko needs to mate with a witch of equal power before the end of the solstice. He finds the perfect woman, except for one serious flaw. She has no idea how to engage in the dangerous magical foreplay–the duel for sexual equality. The task of training her in two days seems insurmountable, especially while other warriors are trying to kidnap her.
Zoe is a warrior-healer hybrid. The trouble is, she has no idea what that means. It’s all a harmless game until one night a dominant, brooding, sexy-as-sin warrior touches her and ignites a shameless craving to mate. Zoe must decide if the scorching chemistry between them is worth fighting for.
Can love and lust exist together in an exhilarating magical combination? Or will their bond combust?
WARNING: Book contains mature themes, steamy, sexual scenes and graphic language.
Where to find Stella…
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Pinterest
I’m happy to feature Soul Mate author Mandi Benet’s writing journey and her new release, To Rome with Love.
Here’s Mandi!
I’ve always been in love with words. The power they have when strung together has always shocked and delighted me, particularly considering they are mere static symbols on a page. And they never seem to lose their edge. At least not for me.
I grew up in England, and loved reading from an early age. Not because there wasn’t anything else to do, but because that is practically the only thing I wanted to do. Sure, I also wanted to wear trousers, makeup and stockings, smoke cigarettes while lying flat on my back in a field of buttercups, and kiss a boy—all prohibited at the draconian boarding school I attended. Which is why I did every last one of them. But books were my secret addiction, an addiction for which I’ve found there is zero cure.
Admiring other writers’ words and stories, however, didn’t prompt me to think that I myself could become a writer, or that I would be any good at it if I did. Without really meaning to, I published my first short story in a local magazine when I was twelve, and still I never considered writing as a life’s work. After high school graduation, I went to law school at a university in England. I’d thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but one term of contracts and torts quickly disabused me of that notion. My sister, who had just moved to the States, suggested I try journalism school there. I applied and loved it, and after I got my degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, I moved out to California and started my journalism career, writing for a wide variety of publications including the Los Angeles Times, W magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Town & Country magazine and Travel & Leisure magazine. I covered everything from the Democratic Convention to the Oscars, and interviewed everyone from Sophia Loren to Hillary Clinton. It was the perfect mixture of learning and doing.
When I left my newspaper job I decided I wanted to start writing fiction—a kind of writing that is as far from journalism as you can imagine. I wrote a couple of literary novels which went nowhere fast and then a women’s fiction novel, The Blasphemy Box, which several big New York agents requested to read. They passed, sending me the requisite number of rejections most writers experience.
Looking for a professional organization to join, I discovered the Romance Writers of America’s San Francisco branch. I had never considered writing romance but the more I learned about that sector of the market the more vibrant a genre I saw it was. A friend looked at me quizzically when I told her what I planned to do. “If you’re going to write romance novels,” she said dryly, “you might want to read one.”
I did, and, frankly, I was surprised. Who thought the cowboy on the cover of that first book I read: a sculpted, shirtless, Stetson-wearing guy with a panty-melting smile, would be so smart and sexy and funny and witty and— hot?
Hmm . . .
So I read more romance novels, many of them erotic romance, which I hadn’t known existed but am so grateful to have found. I discovered that while there was a lot of schlock out there, many romance novels were interesting and intriguing with good plots, fine writing, smart characterization and moving stories. And kept my interest.
I wrote—and rewrote— my first romance novel, and started sending it out. I got a publisher and To Rome With Love, Book 1 of the Love in the City series, debuted on February 10. I hope you enjoy it.
Blurb
When Gaby Conte’s Italian husband abandons her for a young Peruvian waitress at a restaurant they co-own in San Francisco, Gaby seeks refuge in Rome with her best friend Maria. There, she swears off romance for a long while and Italian men forever.
Then, she meets Silvio, who belongs to an old, aristocratic Roman family and lives in a palace alongside the best private art collection in Rome. Silvio, who is the cousin of Maria’s husband, is going through his own divorce. He’s gorgeous, of course, which Gaby doesn’t tell him. And arrogant and condescending, which she does. The last thing Gaby needs is more Italian trouble, but the attraction is instant and powerful, and against the backdrop of one of the world’s most romantic cities, both try—and fail—to resist the chemistry between them as they figure out, to paraphrase Dorothy Parker, that lips that taste of tears are the best for kissing. Gaby and Silvio, however, have made a rule never to make the mistake of trusting in love again. Will they realize some rules must be broken?
Where to find Mandi…
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon
In Between Land and Sea (released in September 2013), I introduced Isabella of the Mediterranean Kingdom aka Barbara Davies. She returns in The Coming of Arabella.
Before starting to write, I like to interview the characters. Here’s what Isabella/Barbara had to say…
Continue reading on Carly Jordynn’s blog.
Joanne Guidoccio 