FAMILIAR SAYINGS

By Caroline Clemmons

Do you ever wonder where some of the little rhymes about life originated? This is the sort of thought that pops into my head when I’m trying to go to sleep at night. Yeah, it’s annoying. 

Sure, this is how I look.

Here are some of those I recall:

"Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.

Red sky at morning, sailor take warning." 

Although she knew nothing about sailing, my mother-in-law used that saying to predict storms.

 

There is so much good in the worst of us

and so much bad in the best of us,

that it should remind all of us,

not to criticize the rest of us.

 

Another one my mother-in-law must have heard. In all the time I knew her (since I was 12) I only heard her criticize someone once, and come close to criticizing three other times. 

"Red and black, friend of Jack.

Red and yellow, kill a fellow."

We had to learn this in Girl Scouts, even though I never heard of a coral snake in West Texas. However, this is important to remember if you live where there are coral snakes! Though rare in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (favoring farther east), they’re here—and have red and yellow bands touching. The scarlet king snake, red rat snake, and others have red and black bands touching. 

Coral Snake
 

"If you can’t fight, flee

If you can’t flee,

Go with the flow."

 

When Hero was having too much stress at work, our youngest daughter made him a little sign of this and told him to flow. He thanked her and told her it wasn't at home he needed the sign, but at work. She made him another sign.

"Early to bed and early to rise

Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

Now, wait a minute! Hero has followed this lifestyle when working conditions permitted. He is the most intelligent person I've ever met, but he is neither healthy nor wealthy. What's wrong with this picture?

George Bernard Shaw is credited with this saying, which I've heard many times:

"We don't stop playing because we grow old.

We grow old because we stop playing."

Benjamin Franklin said, "Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days."

Fishing photo by Tom Fisk

"Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime." Lao Tzu

What are some sayings you've hears?

If you're hankering for a great sweet historical western romance to read, let me entice you to get the first two of my new Texas Hill Country Mail Order Brides Series. 

Book 1 is GENTRY AND THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE. Gentry's late partner willed his mail order bride to Gentry.

https://www.amazon.com/Gentry-Texas-Country-Order-Brides-ebook/dp/B0B6YN6QHK

Book 2 is JESSE AND THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE. Rosalin Arnold risks a daring escape from evil by becoming a mail order bride to a Texas sheriff.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BD64JC1D?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420

Stay safe and keep reading!

HOW I WRITE TRULY STRONG HEROINES By MICHELLE PENNINGTON

So often when I hear people discussing female characters, they always say that they want more strong heroines. Most writers, including me, want to write strong heroine. However, so many storytellers miss the mark.

I'm always hearing movies, books, and shows touted as having "strong heroines". More often than not, I'm left supremely disappointed. Why is it that so many storytellers--in various mediums--fail at something that should be so easy?

My conclusion is that they failed to understand what makes a woman strong.

For example, is it having equal strength or physical prowess to their male counterparts? Is it being tough, cold-hearted, and independent? Well, they can certainly have and be all those things, but I would argue that those things don’t make male characters “strong characters” in the way people mean either.

When Disney's live-action “Mulan” came out, I was incensed that their idea of making the titular character “stronger” was giving her super-powers that made it unnecessary for her to work hard, grow, or overcome anything hard. She started out powerful and stayed that way.

If you'll remember the animated movie, Mulan was physically weak, struggled with endurance, and had no fighting skills. The things that made her strong were her courage and willingness to sacrifice for her family. Those two qualities meant something because she had truly difficult circumstances and enemies to win against. And she did. In the end, we adored her because of how she earned the title of a kick-butt heroine.

Just recently, a new version of “Cinderella” came out on Netflix. I won't go into a full review of the show or anything, but I want to point out that in this instance too, in trying to make Cinderella a more powerful, girl-boss kind of female character, they watered down almost everything from the original story that made her BECOME the strong character she was.

 

Poverty, bullying, social class, and being an orphan were the obstacles she had to climb over to get to her happily-ever-after. The only thing they left in was gender inequality, and even that was done in a weaker way. Believe me, most of us would have been bitter, petty, greedy, and lazy if we'd had to live Cinderella’s life, but she wasn't! Marrying the prince was NOT the victory in her story.

When watching “Shang Chi” with my husband—which does have strong female characters by the way—he turned to me and murmured that he was frustrated that the big, bad monster was beaten so easily.

I whispered back, "This movie wasn't about slaying the dragon."

"Oh, you mean it's about the metaphorical dragons."

Yes!

Heroines don’t have to slay dragons to be strong, though of course they might do that. Even if a prince comes in to protect and defend them, it doesn’t necessarily strip them of their power, courage, or resilience. In fact, there is nothing better than strong male and female characters working together and complementing each other.

Strong characters begin with weaknesses, flaws, and obstacles that they have to overcome. It's the internal journey of growth that makes characters resonate with us. It's seeing them struggle, hurt, fail, fall down...and then pull themselves to their feet again that makes us cheer for them and love them.

It’s just like developing muscle, which you can only do by working them repeatedly and breaking them apart so they can come back…stronger. Also, it’s important to note that there is no one, single way to be strong. Ways to be strong are as varied as the challenges that we face.

What we really want is for fiction to reflect what we see in the real world—because strong women are all around us. I saw it in my mother as she worked so hard to raise her five kids on her husband's teacher's salary—canning, sewing, making everything from scratch, and counting her pennies to buy birthday and Christmas presents. I've seen it in my mother-in-law when she was battled with breast cancer and grieved the loss of her husband. I've seen it in my sister when she struggled with infertility—and in the resilience and courage of her daughters that she adopted through foster care. I've seen it in my own daughters as they've faced bullying, insecurities, and losing friends to suicide. And when I give myself credit, I even see it in myself.

Strong heroines aren't hard to find in real life. The reason so many stories fail to deliver them is that the writers failed in the most important step...recognizing what it is that makes women strong. Because of that, they usually make things easier for them.

This is why I’m not afraid to give my female characters weaknesses, flaws, and struggles. Making life hard for my female characters will make them as powerful and courageous as the women I love and treasure in my real life.

Michelle Pennington writes clean, heart-pounding, sigh-inducing romance across multiple genres: romantic comedy, young adult, contemporary, Regency, and fantasy. The genre might change, but her characters will always be falling in love. Find out more about Michelle at https://www.michelle-pennington.com

LET'S "MARCH" FOR THE IRISH!

 By Caroline Clemmons

Top o’ the morning to you. (Cue: You’re supposed to answer, “And the rest o’ the day to yourself.”) 

My daughters and I think of March as Irish-American Month. You can bet we’ll be wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day. We might also be involved in shenanigans. It's been known to happen. Just sayin'...

Millions of Irish came to America from 1845 forward, hoping to escape the terrible potato famine. They chose relocation over starvation. Some found the new chances they’d dreamed. Most found only more hunger while they eked out barely a living. Ah, but many optimistically chose to go west, counting on fulfilling their dreams.  

Are you an optimist, a pessimist, or a realist? I suppose most people in any of the three categories think they’re realistic. Not me. I’m an optimist. I know times get bad—but they're sure to get better soon if we plan and work.

My late friend’s mother used to say, “We’ll do that when things get back to normal.” My friend said she never knew what that “normal” would be, but the family never experienced it. I told her “normal” is simply a setting on the washing machine.  We have to plan for better now.

And that’s what we authors do. We plot and plan and write and edit and… well, you get the idea. We are optimists at some times and exclaim, “This is my best book yet.” At parts of the same book, we may cry, “No one will want to read this. Why do I bother?” Me, smiling over the same book’s end, “That turned out pretty well. I hope readers enjoy it.”

Even though I’m a confirmed optimist, I admit to sinking to pessimism’s fear no one will want to read my darling baby. Fortunately for me, the feeling passes as I near the end of the book. I’ve had several people ask me to let them feed me ideas and then I’d write the book and we’d split the royalties. First of all, I have way too many ideas as it is.

Readers, the middle is the hard part!

Oh, dear, I wandered off on a tangent. Back to Irish-American Month.

Hero and I enjoyed our two tours of Ireland. We were treated so well—as family who’ve come home to visit. If you haven’t been to Ireland, I hope you can go there at least once. In the meantime, watch some Irish movie like Amy Adams in “Leap Year” or Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne in “The Quiet Man.” Read Irish romances (like Joan Reeves’ LIAM’S WILD IRISH ROSE, a short story for only 99 cents) or my full length THE TEXAN’S IRISH BRIDE or short book, O’NEILL’S TEXAS BRIDE.

Have you read a book by each of the Smart Girls Read Romance authors? If not, treat yourself and enjoy a diverse set of books sure to please devoted readers.

Whatever you do, have a great March, stay safe, and keep reading! 

Best Laid Plans by Paty Jager

In December, I had planned to work only on my mystery books this year- flash forward 6 months. After writing four mystery books back to back and finding myself mixing up the names of the characters in the different series, I decided to "clean my palate" or in this case, brain, by writing a contemporary western romance novella in between the mystery books.

I have ideas and plans for many more mystery books, but I think my brain needs a chance to switch from mystery to something else for a bit before I dive into another mystery book.

But that also means, I had to reread the novellas in the romance series to reacquaint myself with the family members this series is set around and the fictional area. I already had the next three books in the series planned out, so it was a matter of sitting down with the first stories, figure out where the MC of this new story is at at the start, and fill out a GMC chart- that's Goals, Motivation, and Conflict.

GMC for the hero and heroine of the story are something I always start with. It helps me to
1. see them more clearly in terms of where they are coming from and where they want to go.
2. how to put them together
3. what is the conflict that keeps them apart
4. how to bring them together for the HEA- Happily Ever After

This story is titled Collateral Love- It's about Lee MacIntyre who has purchased half of his family's ranch with every penny he had and he wants to get a loan to purchase rough stock livestock- this is bulls or bucking horses to rent to rodeos for the bucking events. Only the local banker he goes to, doesn't think he can make it starting off as a person who has never done this before. BUT his daughter happens to already have a slowly-growing clientele for her rough stock operation. However, she's about to lose her land because of her deceased husband's bad money handling. The banker suggests the two go in as partners.

That's as far as I am in the story so far. The conflict...The two went to school together. Josie, the heroine, bested Lee at everything! She won the FFA tractor driving contest, the speaking contest, and beat him out for salutatorian behind his best friend. He's not sure he wants a woman who is always trying to best him sharing his ranch. And she, isn't sure she wants this man she always beat to see  how far she has fallen. After all, she couldn't keep her husband from wasting their money or getting himself killed.

So look for that in a couple of months. The next Shandra Higheagle Mystery is coming out the end of July. Capricious Demise has a new life chapter starting for Shandra and Ryan, if you are following their HEA in the mystery series.

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 45 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

This is what Romance Junkies has to say about the Tumbling Creek Ranch series: “There are twists and turns to the story with a nice flow and a depth to the characters. The vivid scenic descriptions made me feel like I was there… I hope to return to Tumbling Creek Ranch over and over again.”

blog / website /  Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter / Pinterest   / Bookbub

HAPPY LABOR DAY!

By Caroline Clemmons

Happy Labor Day! Labor Day celebrates the millions of men and women who are in the U.S. workforce. This holiday is also the traditional end of summer celebration. Even though our temperatures are still hot here in North Central Texas, leaves are falling from the trees. If you are one of the many who has today off work, I hope you are enjoying the day doing what you love.

Writing is what I love and that's what I'm doing today.  Most writers work every day, rain or shine, holiday or not. I work in a tiny office the family calls my pink cave because...well, it's pink and I tend to hibernate there.

Actually I have a large
flat monitor.

There are several good things about my office:

1. My commute is only a few steps from the bedroom

2. My office is close to the kitchen for Cherry Dr Pepper refills

3. I can work in my pajamas or old sweats or odd long skirts if I want to—and I do.

My daily assistants, a.k.a. the cats, sometimes try to help. Cozy but I’d rather they didn’t. Sebastian wants to sit on my left arm. He's fascinated by my cell phone. He weighs twenty-one pounds and it’s hard to type with him laying on my arm. In addition, he wants me still with no fingers moving. Needless to say, he soon becomes disgusted and leaves his post.  He also doesn’t like for me to stay up late, which I do. I think he may be channeling my late mom.

Sebastian supervising the household.

Max is our Manx cat. Often he is content to sit beside my keyboard and that’s fine. It’s when he wants to play with my fingers that I mind him being in my office. Then, he tries to bite my fingers to keep them still. Or, maybe he wants me to move over so he can write his own book. You never know with cats.

Max ready to pounce on my fingers.

Jasmine is content checking on me occasionally. When it’s mealtime, she calls her special little yip and leads me to the kitchen. I mean it, she does not meow. She yips almost like a dog but not at all like a cat. She's very sweet and affectionate even if she's a little shy. 

Jasmine offering critique.

From my feline assistants and me, have a safe and happy week. 

By the way, if you're looking for an entertaining book to read this week, let me tell you about AN AGENT FOR MAGDALA, The Pinkerton Matchmaker Series book 37. It's set briefly in Denver and Santa Fe but mostly in San Antonio, Texas. I love visiting San Antonio and hope you'll love reading about old San Antonio in 1871. A lot has changed and a lot is still the same. Twenty-two 5-star review. Only $2.99 or free in KU. It's also available in paperback.


Buy link:  https://www.amazon.com/Agent-Magdala-Pinkerton-Matchmaker-Book-ebook/dp/B07V3G4QHY

The cover is by Virginia McKevitt, who has done beautiful covers for the entire series. This cover model has the hair I'm sure I was intended to have. Sigh. No such luck.

WHAT NEXT?

By Caroline Clemmons

Hero and I have always been voracious readers. We read and enjoyed all the books of a particular author. However, she had two main themes she varied slightly. When we got one of her books, Hero would ask me, “Is this Plot A or Plot B?” In spite of that, we kept reading her work.

I hope readers won’t say that about my books. I try really, really, really hard to have a new twist in each book. The more books I write, the more difficult coming up with something new is. I marvel at the authors who have written over a hundred books. After a few over fifty titles, I am combing my brain for new twists.

Characters and their stories don’t puzzle me. I have enough of those to write hundreds of books. More pop into my head each week. With my books, readers are guaranteed a happily-ever-after. But, what about the external conflict? The adventure? The action?

For instance, in the book I just completed, the hero had to rescue two people from a boat before it exploded. Then, the heroine had to rescue the hero. I’ve never used that before. I did have an explosion cause the mouth of a cave to be blocked. I hope the two are different enough that no one accuses me of using Plot B.  I’ll learn at the end of April when ALEXANDRA’S AWAKENING is released.

In the meantime, please watch for MONK’S BRIDE, Kincaid book 5, on April 12^th. You can preorder it now and it will magically appear (or so it seems to me) in your e-reader on the 12^th. The universal buy link is http://mybook.to/Monk

GROUP PROJECTS

Recently, I have become involved in two group projects—one is an anthology titled UNDER A MULBERRY MOON and the other is a book series titled WIDOWS OF COUGAR CREEK. I’ve done anthologies and series before but these brought out the difficulty of conjuring up a series that involved multiple authors.

When I do my own series, of course I’m in control of everything. Bwahahaha. I get to decide who, what, when, where, why, and how. I keep a bible so each character's description doesn't change in the series. (I goofed once and changed a character's nickname. I've written around 45 titles, though, so please cut me some slack.)

Having numerous others involved in a project means coordinating and compromising. The series this time was originated by Charlene Raddon, who lives in Utah. For obvious reasons, she set the series in Utah. 

Charlene is also designing all the covers for the series. Each book is titled with a woman’s name and a similar background behind the woman but in varying shades. I think this is a nice touch. See for yourself with the covers Charlene has made for me. Those for the other authors are similar and just as lovely.

Basing her fictional series, Widows of Cougar Creek, on factual historical accounts, she set up the parameters. Here’s where things get confusing. When setting up a series, there are a gazillion things to consider.

You think I exaggerated but I assure you it’s not by much. One can’t just set the time and place. That would be too easy. Minute details must be decided. A town map is needed. 

In this case, a mine explosion in 1884 left many widows. The motivating incident was the mine owner deciding he’d only allow businesses to remain if owned by couples, thus shutting out the widows.

Fat chance, mister. These widows in Cougar Creek aren’t going to lose their homes and businesses because of a misogynistic, crooked mine owner. So, here come the men and the stories—but wait, as they say on television ads, there’s more.

So many questions arise that must be settled unanimously. For instance, we needed a railroad so in what year did one come to that area of Utah? In what order do the books get released? These and a lot more questions have arisen. Fortunately, the authors involved are harmoniously deciding the details Charlene had not set initially.

Other than Charlene Raddon and moi, Widows of Cougar Creek authors include Zina Abbott, Cait Braxton, Mary Connealy, Shirleen Davies, Keta Diablo, Sylvia McDaniel, Kit Morgan, Cissie Patterson, and Cynthia Woolf. Isn’t that a great line-up? This list includes several of my favorite authors. 

The first book will be released August 15^th and a new book will be released on the 1^st and 15^th until the end of the series. This promises to be a great series! I’m fortunate to be included to write two of the books, BLESSING (to be released September 15, 2018) and GARNET (to be released in 2019). I’ll reveal more later this summer.

You can see that with this many authors a series will be complicated. From the discussions we've had so far, I am eager to read the books. They sound like fun with exciting adventures. I love series in the first place. Don't you love finding a book you love and learning it's part of a series?

When you read a series, do you keep up with the details in the books? Do you enjoy seeing characters from earlier books appear as secondary characters in later books. Next time you read a series, please consider all the thought that went into keeping it consistent.

TYPING THE END OF THE BOOK!

The End

I don’t actually write those words at the conclusion of one of my books, but I definitely think them, followed by “Yay!” I recently completed DANIEL McCLINTOCK, book four of the McClintock series. (Which can be preordered at http://a.co/37QmqYD. Hint, hint) I am excited about this book and hope readers will be entertained and love Clara and Daniel as much as I do.

But that’s not The End. Now I dive into my next project. Or projects. At the end of 2017, I made a plan for 2018’s writing. Sticking to the plan is not always easy.

You see, writers hear voices in their head. This is not a bad thing—unless the voices tell us to go haywire and engage in violence. Fortunately for me (and those around me) the violence in my life is committed by the villain in my latest book. And, I get to make sure he pays for his crimes. Writing is the best job!

I suppose each profession or hobby is the same. As soon as one project is completed, up pops the next to consume our time and engage our creativity. Here I go, diving into a new trilogy. This one is a time travel series in which women from the past come forward to today.

In my opinion, coming forward is more of an adjustment than going back in time. To go back, you would retain the knowledge about that era. You could definitely cash in on stocks and real estate, right?

Imagine coming forward. Almost everything is new. I did this with OUT OF THE BLUE, available at http://a.co/7M8vrt6, in which the heroine was an Irish lass from 1845 . She helped a contemporary detective solve a series of murders. Writing that book was fun.

Whatever your passion, I hope you are able to engage in that activity this year. Be kind to yourself.

Caroline Clemmons is an award-winning and Amazon bestselling author. Find her books on her Amazon Author Page. Join her newsletter list for a free book, contests, and news of new releases.

  

P is for Planning.. not Pumpkin

So here it is … 109 days before Christmas. I’m playing Christmas music via headphones

.  ... as if I am some Christmas junkie hiding my secret in shame.

It’s for work... yeah! That’s it! My WIP will be released Fall 2018... and when I think I fall I automatically jump to Christmas.

School is back in session

Football has kicked off

And most importantly… it’s Pumpkin Season.

 
Maybe it’s something about the scent and celebration of the arrival of pumpkin that brings on the festive move. These are the fastest few months of the year.

I’ve got my ear out for my monster-boys and the things they want for Christmas .. I’m making a list and placed things on alert when the go on sale.

I have my recipes printed out for the meals I want to try and experiment on the family for football games. It’s Florida... This is football country.

 I have my address list ready for Christmas cards.

I have this planned. The holiday season is when I feel I’m the most productive.

So here I am with all these lists and order for everything in my life besides the one P I need to work on.

Promotion!

When it comes to promotion, hey! I can re-tweet, share, or post your stuff. But when it comes to my work… I suck at it. I just want to write. If I’m promoting and submitting stuff… I’m not writing. Have you ever seen the Eddie Murphy/Steve Martin movie, BOWFINGER? There’s a scene in there that reminds me about having to promote and get the word out. Here’s my favorite scene. 

I am nowhere near the point where I can have someone do work for me. My kids—with all their savvy techno stuff have 0 interest in helping me... but that's cool...

I only shuttle to football games, cross country, track, swimming now, soccer, and now soccer-coach. Let's not even talk about the Jordans, the Abercrombie & Fitch.. the other trendy clothes they want. I am not bitter.. I don't hold a grudge. I can’t really travel to promote because of you know.. the 5-kids obligation… and I think I might be the only person in my city who writes romance. BUT ANYWAY.....I won't freak out about this.. I'm sure there's a pill for it..

So I have to rely on planning out a day or one morning to make sure I do my promoting. I can do this…right?

How do you other writers work in promoting yourselves? My eyes and ears are always open for suggestions.

  

Well.. I have to prepare for Hurricane Irma. I hope everyone stays safe. 

Happy Reading! Happy Writing 

You can find me and buy my work here 

Have a great month!

xoxo 

Carolyn

PS....