Saturday Six: Finally Saturday

1. This week my husband has been away on a business trip, and he is coming home late today. I'm so glad. While things went pretty smoothly, I still missed him like crazy. And I know I wouldn't want to do this long-term. I really admire single parents, it's tough to be the one that is on all of the time. Really tough. Fortunately, my kids were good this week--really, really good. Amazingly good.

2. How do you decide when to keep going or when to give up? I've been working hard on writing since 2008. That's six years. I love it. I want to keep doing it, but I'm starting to wonder if the sacrifice and cutting into time with my family is going to pay off. I don't want to quit, but I definitely think I need to find my balance.

3. I am listing about looking for some new books to read. Do you have any suggestions? I have a lot of author's that I love whose books are coming out over the next month or two, but in the meantime, I'm having a hard time. I am very much in a contemporary romance kind of mood.

4.  I grew up as the oldest of six kids. I had a conversation with one of my sisters about horrible things we did to each other growing up. I admit I was a big tease and sometimes it was cruel. I look back and there are things that I would do differently. And there are things I wouldn't change. I know I broke my mom's heart when I told her I wish I were an only child. I was 12. My mom had just had my littlest brother a month before, one of my sister's had just broken her jaw, and was getting ready to have surgery. And I had graduated from elementary school and wanted extra attention. But looking back I would never trade one of my brothers or sisters. They have all taught me so much.

5. I know that is sappy, so I'll try to come up with something more random to share. I'm having a hard time. It's Spring Break next week. I've got activities lined up for them all week long. This year though, I feel like it is our third spring break, since we've missed so much school for snow and ice and other nonsense this year.

6. Today it is drippy and gloomy. I love the sunshine. I never appreciated growing up in the desert where we would run out and play in the rainstorms because they were so rare. I love the green here and the way things grow, but on drippy days I miss the hot sun, the cool nights, the sounds of the sprinkler systems turning on as I head to bed.

Books I Love: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

I read this book shortly after it first came out. I got it at the library, and then I bought it, because I knew that I would read it again and again. I love Anna and I loved her love interest St. Clair. I loved the setting. I loved the conflict in the book, and basically I just loved the book. I also really enjoyed her second novel Lola and the Boy Next Door. And then as I've reread it, I've come to love it just as much Anna and the French Kiss. 

I think Stephanie Perkins does Young Adult contemporary really, really well. If you want to escape into a great love story,  (and it is clean), you should try this book. Her third book Isla and the Happily Ever After is scheduled to come out in August, and I'm super, super excited about it.  Have you read any of these books?

Friday Five: Why Can't Winter Be Over?

1. In years past I used to be very goal oriented. This year, I keep wanting to write down my goals, but I put it off. I have made some goals without writing them down, and I'm definitely making progress. (Like updating this blog three times a week--not perfect, but progress). Part of it is that I feel overwhelmed with all that I want to accomplish and finding/making the time to make it happen. If I want things to change, I've got to do it.

2. I think I've figured out the spiral down for my main character Steve. And now I'm worried that it's too much or off. I don't know. I'm still thinking about it. I thought it through while I was showering and then I actually wrote it out. I still like it. But it feels preachy maybe. I don't want preachy. So I'm letting it sit.

3. This made me think of the times when I come up with plot solutions or twists. Usually it is when I'm doing something else that doesn't take a lot of concentration like exercising, showing or doing the dishes. The key to making it work is taking the time to write down the solutions that I've come up with. I need to do better at doing this.

4. This week the kids missed another day of school because of an ice storm. Frankly, I am so done with winter. I live in the South, which means mild weather, very few storms and hardly any days missed of school. At least that's how's it been the 14 years I've lived here. But this year is just throwing that assumption out of the window. It looks like we have a chance of snow/wintery mix (which means no school--we live in the south)  for next Tuesday again. It's the last week of March, we are usually hanging out in the 70s every day by this point. We have the shorts out and ready to go. This year I haven't even thought about it yet.

5. So this weekend I need to do some major cleaning. Spring cleaning kinds of things. I plan on getting a lot done, but we will have to see if that actually happens. I have three solid goals that need to happen, and hopefully from there we can get motivated to do the rest.

Review of Home Matters by Julie N. Ford

Tour Schedule

Home Matters by Julie N. Ford According to her mother, Olivia Pembroke was born to be a star. But how is she supposed to be famous when she can't even get a decent acting gig? Her lucky break comes when she lands an audition for a wildly popular home improvement show. Even though she has no design training and has never even held a power tool, she refuses to let that stop her. She's confident that her destiny is finally within reach. When her affections are torn between her heartthrob co-host and the irritating, yet somehow endearing lead contractor, does she continue to reach for the stars? Or does she design a new happily ever after? One that leads not to the fading lights of fame and fortune, but to a love that will burn forever.

Amazon * Kobo * Barnes & Noble

My Review

This is a promising new series out by six different authors. The books are each connected by a character or characters from the previous book appearing in the next book in the series. This is a super cute premise where the girl gets a job on a home decorating show and falls in love with someone else working on the show. I was super excited with the premise. I love this type of show and thought the idea sounded really fun.

This is a clean romance, which I am always on the hunt for, but can have a hard time finding. While the book was clean, and cleanly written, I would have liked to see more actual interaction between the main character and the love interest. In the end they just didn't spend enough time together to really make the story work the way I wanted it to. The book is a great path of self discovery and figuring out who you are and what is most important, but it was a little bit short on the romance aspect. However, the rest of series is very promising. You should definitely check it out if you like home decorating repair shows, and look for more books in this series.

The Ripple Effect Romance Novella Series Enjoy this exciting new series of clean novellas by six critically-acclaimed authors. "Like a pebble tossed into calm water, a simple act can ripple outward and have a far-reaching effect on those we meet, perhaps setting a life on a different course—one filled with excitement, adventure, and sometimes even love."

 Book 1: Home Matters by Julie N. Ford
 Book 2: Silver Linings by Kaylee Baldwin
 Book 3: Righting A Wrong by Rachael Anderson
 Book 4: Lost and Found by Karey White
 Book 5: Second Chances 101 by Donna K. Weaver
 Book 6: Immersed by Jennifer Griffith

Tour Giveaway

$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 3/31/14   Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Inspired Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY a Rafflecopter giveaway

Books I Love: The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne

The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne

Hester Browne is one of my favorite authors. Her books are so much fun. She has the Little Lady Agency trilogy, The Finishing Touches, and, Swept Off Her Feet. All of her books are really good. All of them. But my favorite is The Runaway Princess. It is a sweet love story and I liked everything about it. Everything.

If you want to just really enjoy a love story (very clean) that is about getting swept off your feet and staying true to yourself, you will love this story. You should read it right now. I'm always looking forward to her next book.

Have you read any of her books? What did you think?

Friday Five: Birthdays

1. First, as I was perusing the blogs I follow, this article really stood out to me. Here's What Plotting and Pantsing Both Miss: The Real Story. And it got to the heart of the matter with what I'm struggling with in my next novel. Steve's internal conflict. I've got Aimee's down. I know what she needs to do and how she needs to change. But not Steve. He's broken---he has to be for the book I'm writing. I know what happened to break him. But I don't get how exactly he's broken. I don't know exactly what he needs to do to change yet. I've got a lot of the surface detail ideas, but the story won't work without the bigger conflict for him. Hopefully, I'll figure it out this weekend.

2. Tomorrow is my birthday. I hate getting older. I certainly don't feel old, but I look at the big personal goals I have for myself, and I wonder if I'm getting any closer to actually reaching them. Am I improving myself and putting in the time that I need to in order to do it?  So that's where I'm at on that. I'm not giving up.

3. This week I've been thinking a lot about showing versus telling. I've read several books where it was tell, tell, tell. And hardly any showing. Oh!  I liked the story line, but there was always this distance between the main character and me. And I liked the plot lines. Then I started thinking about my writing, do I do this? Have I fixed the parts of my novels that slip into this? How do I handle flashbacks?

4. On the other hand, I've been really looking at the books that make it work, and draw me in. There are some really gifted authors out there that manage to pull you into a story and make it really work. I love picking apart a book and listing the things the author nails to get it right. Then I can look at my own writing and see what I can learn to improve it.

5. So this is a pretty random thing, but my daughter is reading some book on the Titanic for middle school.  I don't know why they are reading the book in sixth grade. It's boring, it was written fifty years ago and it feels like it. None of the teachers actually read the book before they chose it. And it's making the kids hate reading. Which is just stupid because there are SO MANY good books out there. They need to read something historical. Considering I taught sixth grade language arts for awhile, I could march in there and hand them a freaking list of better books.

But that is not what I was going to talk about--ironically there was a novel written about a big boat sinking because it was hit by an iceberg called the The Wreck of the Titan, and it came out about fourteen years before the Titanic happened. And I feel like we are watching a real life Lost unfold with the missing plane. How do you lose an entire plane?

Putting on a New Set of Glasses

This weekend I got a new set of glasses. It's been more than five years since I updated my glasses, and the lenses were extremely scratched. I am fairly blind without them, and I need the thinner lenses, which set me back about $500.00 whenever I do get glasses, and that is with insurance covering the frames and a portion of the lenses. So I'm loving Warby Parker, which means I can get new glasses much more often. But the metaphor to writing. I put on the new glasses and I was immediately shocked at how crisp and clear everything was. Then I started to notice that the mirror was a bit dirty than i though, and I can now see spots on my computer monitor that weren't there before. The glasses really helped me to focus and find new things. I remember when I was younger I got a new pair and I could see the trees on the mountains, which I'd never been able to do before. It can be life changing. Putting your manuscript aside and coming back to it is a lot like putting on a new pair of glasses. You are better able to see both the flaws and the good things about the story. I just reread the end of Lexy. It made me realize I needed to get back out there with the querying. It's a good story. A new perspective can really make a difference. Sometimes that means you need to step away from a project for awhile and focus on something else. Sometimes that means that you take a break (hopefully short) from writing at all and you come back refreshed and ready to write. I feel that way about Steve and Aimee. My Knight in Shining Armor book. I've had a break from writing, and it is so refreshing to be writing again. To be excited about a project again and to have all of those possibilities stretching out in so many directions. How do you gain perspective on your writing?