Category: WIP Wednesday

Date Your Mate Month

May is Date Your Mate Month.

MoonlightSerenade Final Cover with Quote

Tokarz de Lobo Garnier didn’t date Delilah Tenney before he claimed her as his mate.

(Moonlight Serenade, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.)

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Stoker Smith delayed claiming Lucy Callahan, but not for long. Nor did they date in the interim.

(And Jericho Burned, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.)

Omega Moon Rising

Their single date is what got Luke Omega and Abigail Grant into trouble.

(Omega Moon Rising available at Amazon)

I guess dating your mate doesn’t include werewolves.

The Importance of Story

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I consider myself a storyteller, first and foremost.

One of my earliest memories is of lying in bed, telling myself what the cowboys on the wallpaper were doing.

cowboy wallpaper

 

A year or so later, my dad took me into the local department store to choose wallpaper for my bedroom in the new house he was building for us. I chose this, because it had letters , and I knew I needed letters to write my stories, and there were toys about which I could make up stories.

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Even at aged 3 (yes, 3), I knew I was meant to tell stories.

For me, the story is  about which  books, movies, and even songs should be. One of my husband’s cousins is into film. He runs a couple of prestigious film festivals. For him, movies are about texture and other visual things. Story isn’t even secondary. What is the point?

One of the reasons I love baseball is because it is rich in the “feminine tradition of oral history,  story telling, and gossip.” (Breaking into Baseball by Jean Hastings Ardell) “Baseball loans [sic] itself to story telling.” (Jeff Gellenkirk)

Story pervades every aspect of our lives. From religion to the memes we read on social media, our business plans to our successes (and failures). Story is everywhere.

Today is National Tell a Story Day.

Don’t just tell a story today. Celebrate one.

 

 

National Get Over It Day with Author Ryan Jo Summers

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  When you are handed a shocking diagnosis, with horrible and scary images and then left with more questions than answers, it’s a lot to be expected “to just get over”. The future is suddenly uncertain while worry and fear become your new best friends. Dealing with a chronic medical condition is not something one “just gets over”. It’s impossible to when all they can do is look forward to an unknown future.
                But what if you also suddenly fell in love? How does that piece fit into the puzzle your life has become? Now you are asking for someone new to join in this uncertain future with you. Isn’t that asking a lot? Family, sure, we expect to mold around our new life, but a romantic partner?
                My character, Kasey Griffin, in Glimpse Eternity is coping with Multiple Sclerosis. She’s doing so-so with it overall. Then hunky musician Ben Salem rolls into town and their chemistry is perfect. And undeniable.  Kasey has seen how her father loved her mother before the MS took her and wonders how Ben will react for the long haul.
                While Kasey can’t ‘get over’ her MS, she can work past her fears of its uncertainties if she wants to have a future with Ben.  The question is: will she? Or will she allow them to drive Ben away?

Glimpse Eternity is a sweet contemporary romance novella:

Kasey Griffin is determined to prove a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis isn’t going to ruin her life or define her expectations. She is dedicated to her pregnant sister, her pets and operating her bookstore, ‘The Next Chapter’. She has everything she needs to have a full and satisfying life–the daily challenges of her condition notwithstanding.
         Then hunky musician Ben Salem rolls into town. Ben’s subtle charm quickly reminds Kasey she is more than a woman with a disease, she is also a woman with a heart. And Ben wants it.
         Will Ben still desire her once he learns the terrible details of her condition?
Glimpse Eternity is available at Amazon and Smashwords.
Ryan Jo Summers is a North Carolina writer who likes to pen romances with a twist. Love stories blended as inspirational, with paranormal, suspense or time travel–or several at once. She also writes non-fiction for regional periodicals. Her dad is a songwriter and his aunt wrote poetry, so Ryan came by the writing gene honestly.
Her hobbies include poetry, bird watching, houseplants and gardening, gathering with friends, hiking in the forest, painting canvas and ceramics, and working wiggly word find puzzles, mah johngg or chess.  She lives in a 1920 cottage with a menagerie of pets. She often daydreams of the shore and frequently uses water as settings in her stories.
Follow Ryan Jo on her website, her blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and Romance Reviews.

Nat’l Snack Food Day with Erin Bevan

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Today is National Snack Food Day, so I asked author Erin Bevan about her favorite snack food.

ERIN: Holy Moly! You would ask me this when I am on the biggest diet EVAH! I think my favorite snack food is COOKIES! Oh, how I miss them.

MJ: What’s your favorite kind of cookie?

ERIN: OMG, must I chose? Chocolate chip, shortbread with royal icing- yum, yum yum! White chocolate macadamia, and the list goes on and on and on.

MJ: If you could be any snack food, which one would you choose?

ERIN: I think I’d pick a candy cane because they are my daughters’ favorite sugar sweet, and they smell so good. So different form my normal gym funk sweat smell!

MJ: You have a new book out, based on the things written on Valentine candy hearts. What a great premise. Tell us about Text Me.

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ERIN:  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.

MJ: This sounds like a really fun read. Where can people buy it?

Erin: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, All Romance Ebooks, Book Strand, and the Wild Rose Press website.

MJ: And how about your social media presence?

Erin:  I have a website and a Facebook page. I’m also on Twitter–@erinbevan.

MJ: Thanks for joining me today, and good luck with your book!

National Disc Jockey Day

Today is National Disc Jockey Day.

I create my own music mixes for every book I write.

Here is what’s playing for my current WIP:

  • Break Down Here (Julie Roberts)
  • My Town (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
  • Who’ll Stop the Rain? (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
  • Home (Blake Shelton)
  • When Eyes Meet (Joanne Shenandoah)
  • My Little Town (Simon & Garfunkel)
  • My Hometown (Bruce Springsteen)
  • Small Town (John Mellencamp)
  • Thick As a Brick (Jethro Tull)
  • Home (Daughtry)
  • My Town (Montgomery Gentry)
  • Red Dirt Road (Brooks & Dunn)
  • Song of Union (Joanne Shenandoah)
  • Bring on the Rain (JoDee Messina)
  • Free Man in Paris (Joni Mitchell)
  • Home (Sheryl Crow)
  • Angie (The Rolling Stones)
  • Walk Away Renee (Vonda Shephard)
  • Who Says You Can’t Go Home? (Jon Bon Jovi & Jennifer Nettles)
  • Home (Phillip Phillips)

Anybody see a theme here?