Purse Project with D.R. Grady

June 19, 2016June 9, 20162 Comments

Thank you MJ for helping me unearth…uh…discover the treasures in my purse!

Here’s my current purse. I got this on sale for the season – a creamy white St. John’s Bay crossbody bag. I have two requirements for a purse. It must be a crossbody, and it must have tons of pockets! This one fits my requirements. I do change my purse out for fall/winter and spring/summer.

What’s inside:

The two outside pockets contain my keys and my phone.

Inside the main compartment you’ll find a few other essentials. Regular sunglasses for when I wear my contacts and prescription sunglasses for when I’m wearing my glasses. Lip balm, phone and glasses cleaner, and eyedrops. Oh, and my wallet. I bought this one a few years ago and still really like it. The back slot of this wallet is perfect for carrying my author business cards and I do hand them out!

Next up is a hodge podge of other “essentials.” I’m usually thankful for these when I need them. As a writer, I would be horrified to not have pen and paper, and the stylus comes in handy sometimes. Hand cream is a year round must. A Leathermen because you need scissors sometimes, cuticle stick, stain and hand cleanser, a nail file, and Advil.

The second picture shows the pile of coupons that are usually in my purse. They’re there to taunt me when I leave the store, purchased the item, and forgot to use the coupon…(eye roll)

I’ve only ever used the umbrella once. I still it carry it everywhere…. The Five Crowns cards are a favorite that I also forget about unless a family member reminds me. I like to keep at least one snack in my purse. It helps quell chocolate withdrawal crankiness. (big smile)

The stevia drops are a must because I’m addicted to coffee and iced tea. They live in the back pocket with some tissues and cough drops.

That’s everything! I try to keep what’s in there fairly light. I add a bottle of water if I’m going to be away for a while.

The Dragon Chronicles Book 3: Healing

Ewain Douglass and Marissa Mays are dedicated healers who work together, and live together, in tight confines. Too bad they set sparks off each other. They might struggle to remain professional to each other, but they’re working on it. Then the enemy sets his sight on the unmated, and targets Marissa with a vengeance.

Meanwhile, Lindy and Alex, the dragon and her controller, are still seeking to learn all they can about their abilities and their future. They tremble once they learn the identity of an enemy no one wants to face. One only the dragon has a chance to defeat.

The dragon has called her allies together and many have come. Paranym soon becomes crowded with the family members of family members. A war for their very lives looms.

Ewain and Marissa don’t have time to declare it on each other.

Available at Amazon.

D.R. Grady lives with her husband near Hershey, PA. She adores chocolate, laughing, collecting bags, books, and shoes, and writing stories that resonate with others.

Website: www.drgradybooks.com

Twitter: @drgradybooks

Amazon Author page

Faceboook Page: D.R. Grady

Google+: D.R. Gradybooks

National Smile Power Day with Author Ryan Jo Summers

June 15, 2016June 2, 20167 Comments

Today is National Smile Day. The significance of that got me to thinking.

A smile can be one of the most quickly observed feature on a person, alongside eyes and hair (according to studies and polls). Personally, I’ve always been self-conscious of my smile. All my school pictures show more of a forced grimace as the photographer tried in vain to get me to flash my pearlys. There are few photos in existence that show me truly grinning. Blame it on years of coffee and tea or blame it on my malformed choppers, it’s just not something people will notice about me immediately. Well, perhaps the lack of a big, beaming smile.

That being said, how does it transcend to my characters? Writing romance, there has to be a quick, initial attraction and eyes and hair only go so far. I tend to believe the heroines will notice a smile—or lack of a smile—before they can tell what the hero ate for breakfast or shampoo he showered with.

With few exceptions, my heroines are strong, independent women. They are successful business owners and career gals. They don’t need no stinkin’ man! They might, however, want one if he has a pleasant, heart-racing smile. My heroes are normal guys. They tend to come from blue collar occupations, are devoted to family and their lady love, and oftentimes are lower than the heroine in the pay scale. So what does he have to offer her?

Well, himself of course! Some of my ladies find themselves stuck in some precarious situations and the hero comes riding to the rescue, armed with a disarming smile to quickly earn her trust. Some ladies are content in their station in live and when ‘this guy’ shows up to interrupt her status quo, his charming and polite smile can melt her defenses.

Of course, there are also the other kind of smiles, you know the kind: sardonic, strained, mocking and others. I am guilty of using those in both real life and print, because I tend to be sarcastic and stressed a fair bit of the time. (No, really, it’s true) And I enjoy using a less-than-adoring smile between characters (not necessarily the main h/ h) to create some cool tension.

Used properly, a smile can irritate, upset, cause dread, warm the heart, establish trust, and cement bonds or a host of other emotions. Smiles are a catalyst to create an emotion—positive or negative. Think about that next time you meet someone and flash ‘em a grin.

Tossed together by happenstance, fleeing for their lives and falling in love under the Caribbean sun as paradise turns deadly.

New York Fashion designer, Piper Kincaid, just wanted a pleasant visit with her cousin down in Florida. That was before she and handsome beach bum, Kade Wyatt, become the targets of a

gang of robbers and killers.

Kade simply wanted some fish for his pet seagull. Now he and the lovely exec from out of town are caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse. He’s busy concentrating on Piper when he should be focusing on keeping them alive.

Fleeing for their lives aboard Kade’s houseboat, ‘The Hightide’, they experience risk, surprises, mystery and romance during the Great Caribbean Boat Chase. However, the biggest surprises are waiting for them back at port.

Upon the Tide now available at Amazon.

Ryan Jo Summers is a North Carolina author who specializes in writing romances with a twist. Love stories blended with inspirational, paranormal, suspense or time travel–or several at once. She also writes non-fiction for regional periodicals. Ryan’s dad is a songwriter and his aunt wrote poetry so she claims she came by her writing skill honestly. Apparently it’s in the genes.

Her hobbies include bird-watching, houseplants (50 ish and growing), poetry and yard work. She loves to gather with friends, hike in the forest with her dog, paint ceramics and canvas and work on wiggly word find puzzles. She lives in a 1920 cottage with a menagerie of pets. Living in the mountains, she dreams of the shore and frequently uses the water as scenes for her stories.

More about Ryan Jo can be discovered at:

Loving Day: Getting Political

June 12, 2016May 30, 2016

I try to avoid controversy/politics in my author persona.

Today, I make an exception.

Today is Loving Day, which may not be precisely what you think.

On June 12, 1967, the US Supreme Court struck down laws in 16 states which forbade “interracial” marriages. The defendants in the case were Richard and Mildred Loving, a black man married to a white woman, who were arrested because their marriage was illegal in the state in which they lived.

Their surname was appropriate to the situation.

I am a romance author.
I believe in love.
Love should not be legislated.
The person you love is none of my business.
I am happy for you because you’ve found love.

Best Friends

June 8, 2016May 30, 20161 Comment

Today is National Best Friends Day.

I’ve had many friends over the years. I’ve stayed in touch–or gotten in touch again, thanks to social media–with many of them. I’ve been blessed with wonderful people in my life.

For the past 15–and that’s an estimate–years, my best friends have been members of my writing community. My tribe. They’re the ones who understand the frustration. The joy. The women who respect my process and who share their processes as we all muddle through this thing called writing books.

An author’s best friends respect her need for solitude. Respect her need for last minute brainstorming. Her need to celebrate the victories and mourn her setbacks.

During interviews, I’m often asked what advice I would give to aspiring authors. My opinion on this never changes: find your writing community. Find your tribe. Find your best friends.

Killing Your Darlings with Author Janis Lane

June 5, 2016May 30, 2016

“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair—the sense that you can never put on the page what’s in your mind and heart.”

“Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again. You must not come lightly to the blank pages.” Stephen King

In my opinion there’s nothing more terrifying than facing those blank pages. There’s also nothing more exciting. I have learned to flash my vocabulary in the first write, but after I read Mr. King’s memoir on writing, I learned how sparse should be my identifying adverbs or adjectives. It hurt, but limiting those modifying words forced me to strengthen my nouns and verbs. It’s an exercise in discipline. Not particular fun, but necessary.

Where do those wonderful words go?

A particular florid paragraph can be saved. (I looked up the definition of florid. When I read ostentatious, I got excited. I love big words.) I tuck them into a file called “little darlings.” Don’t know who coined the phrase, but we all know what it means. Occasionally I check them out. You never know when those pearls that dropped from my mind will come in handy. They never have, but you never know, and it makes me feel better that they weren’t completely wasted.

Meanwhile, and hopefully, the dialogue is strengthened and to the point. It feels brutal, but after all, it’s no more than getting a hair cut. Grooming your manuscript is a necessity.

WHISPERS of DANGER and LOVE

When Cheryl realizes her new next-door neighbor is someone she loved as a young girl, she immediately puts the brakes on her emotions. Never again would she allow the gorgeous hunk of a man to break her heart.

Ruggedly handsome Detective David Larkin isn’t used to pretty ladies giving him a firm no. He persists, even as Cheryl fights her own temptations. The two struggle to appreciate each other as adults, even as they admit to deep feelings from their childhood.

Available on Amazon.com

Janis Lane lives in Western New York near a small town on a few picturesque acres with her ever patient husband. They own and operate a small herbtique which keeps their days busy and interesting during the summer months. She writes Cozy Mysteries as Janis Lane and Regency Romance as Emma Lane.