Happy Anniversary to Me and my Hubby! by Paty Jager

Today is my-our anniversary. My hubby and I tied the knot on this day, a Saturday, 39 years ago.  It's hard to believe we've been together that long! It seems like yesterday when we met at an Under 21 Club.

I was 19 at the time and a friend, younger than me, insisted I had to go with her to the club. We went and I had pimply faced 15 and 16 year-olds asking me to dance. I was 19 had a year of college under my belt, and scanned everyone who came through the door.

There he was! A tall, broad-shoulder young man who shaved and had curly hair walked in the door. I have never been one to walk up to anyone and start a conversation, but that night, I did. I asked him to dance. We did and he followed me back to the table where my friend and I were sitting. He said, he was supposed to come with friends and they all bailed on him at the last minute. We talked and discovered we a quite a bit in common. Though I didn't like his name. He said he was Albert and it didn't fit. I asked what his middle name was and he said Albert. His first name was Gerrit. I said I liked that better and that's what I have called him ever since and he has started going by his first name.

Backstory here: His parents came to the U.S. from The Netherlands in the 50's. They lived in a Dutch community until moving to Oregon. My hubby grew up speaking only Dutch until he was enrolled in school, at which time the teachers put on his report card for 2 years, please speak English at home.

Back to the name- when his mother enrolled him in school and when she said "Gerrit" they thought it sounded like carrot. He didn't want to be called carrot so they used his middle name Albert which sounded close to the same. And we now know if someone calls and asks for Albert they are someone who went to school with him because after he met me he goes by his first name.

I became side-tracked again! Anyway, he offered to take me home. We walked out to the parking lot and he

Cruise on our 30th Anniversary

had a flat black 1957 International. We had to both get in the passenger door because the driver's side didn't unlock from the outside. There was blue angel hair hanging from the roof and the outside was covered in cow manure. He worked at a feed lot when he wasn't driving a semi.

We went back to the duplex I shared with a friend. She wasn't home and he came in to "talk" some more. He became handsy and I told him to leave.  He left.  I didn't have a phone number and didn't know how to contact him. I figured after throwing him out, I'd never see him. Three nights later there was a knock on the door. It was Gerrit. He asked if I wanted to go to a movie. He told me if I hadn't of been a good girl, which he considered wife material, he wouldn't have come back. He'd liked a lot about me, but wouldn't have wanted someone loose for a wife.

It wasn't long before we were talking long term commitment. But his mother told him he couldn't marry until he was 21. He turned that in April and we married in May. He is a momma's boy!

Three children and now 10 grandchildren we are pretty happy with our union and having fun as we play in the alfalfa and take short trips to places we've always wanted to see.


Because it's my anniversary- I feel like giving something away!  How about one of my books? Comment about how you met your significant other, or a date gone right and your name will go in the drawing for your pick of my books.

Don't forget the Wild Deadwood Tales Anthology is now available and all proceeds go to the Western Sports Foundation.

WILD DEADWOOD TALES Anthology

Rodeos and romance, Old West adventure, and even a few ghostly tales. Deadwood's wild past and exciting present come alive in seventeen original short stories written by USA Today and Amazon bestselling authors to benefit the Western Sports Foundation. Contributing authors: E.E. Elisabeth Burke, Zoe Blake, Paty Norman Jager, Teresa Keefer, Megan Kelly, Sylvia McDaniel, Amanda McIntyre, Peggy McKenzie, Angi Morgan, Nancy Naigle, Jacqui Nelson, Terri Osburn, Ginger Ring, Maggie Ryan, Lizbeth Selvig, Tina Susedik and A.C. Wilson

Proceeds from this limited edition collection go to benefit the Western Sports Foundation, an organization providing critical assistance to athletes competing in Western lifestyle sports. Whether they need help recuperating from an injury or planning for the future, WSF is there for them.

website: http://bit.ly/DeadwoodTales

Here are the links to the book:

Amazon http://bit.ly/WDTales
universal Link https://www.books2read.com/WDTales

Apple  http://bit.ly/WDTApple

Nook  http://bit.ly/WDTBN

Kobo  http://bit.ly/WDTKobo
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/…/sh…/39739914-wild-deadwood-tales

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 32 novels, 6 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.This is what readers have to say about the Silver Dollar Saloon series: “Paty Jager brings her characters to life, right off the pages of her book. You will laugh, cry, be sad and get angry right along with the characters.”

You can find me at these places. Paty's Posse is my western romance newsletter. 

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

Royal Wedding Fever by Susan Sheehey

I'm enamored by everything royal. With the upcoming royal wedding between HRH Prince Harry & Meghan Markle, I'm on cloud nine.
Even more so with the recent birth of Prince William & Princess Catherine's third child, Louie.
The world could use more of that beauty and wonder.
I once read an article somewhere that the second Princess Catherine stepped out in her wedding gown, designers had it copied in less than thirty minutes. Ready for sale online, to fill dress shops the world over.
Wow, to have that kind of influence.

Her fashion style and sense is something I admire. Much like Princess Diana's.

I wrote a royal romance series several years ago, the Royals of Solana, and just finished my own Royal Wedding novella from that series. It releases Monday. Sorry, shameless plug. But I love royals that much.

All the royal television shows and movies are my crutches. Game of Thrones, Reign, and The Crown are just a few of my favorites. Grace of Monaco starring Nicole Kidman has been all over Netflix recently, and everything in that film is so beautiful.

A massive influx of royal related romances and fiction has surged onto the market recently, as well. Care to share any of your favorites?

How about your go-to binge-worthy shows and movies? What enamors you?

Susan Sheehey writes contemporary romance and romantic suspense. Visit her at www.SusanSheehey.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, BookBub, and Amazon.

Voice - The Everlasting Search

When you walk into a museum or a gallery and see a painting, sometimes you can just 'tell' who painted it.

Blurred strokes, waterlilies, dreamy colors...
Monet, right?
(We have this painting here in Honolulu)

Stars, watered-down images, directional brush strokes... Van Gogh? You got it!


But, that's not 'just' it. Artists go through their periods, they have their subjects and their 'signature' pieces, but one kind of image is not always all have to say or communicate to their audiences.

Sometimes it takes years for them to discover their styles and what subjects that become their well known work. Some never live to know what the public react to, but I can imagine that they were always searching for new ways to bring their creative vision out in their work.

How to convey the emotions they were feeling.
How to breathe life into a medium that by nature is flat and two dimensional.

To create a personal style and voice that you can see when the 'usual subject matter' is replaced.

Top: Monet 

Bottom: Van Gogh (it's one that we have here in the Honolulu Art Museum)

More beautiful works to appreciate!

Now, I'm not trying to say that I'm a master of writing like these two painters are at their craft, but I believe that an author's voice is created in a similar way. Years of writing, writing, and yes, more writing. And while you're writing you start to realize things that 'feel like you' and then readers comment on things that they can count on in your writing/stories/etc.

And through all of that practice and feedback, you build a confidence in certain aspects of what you do/use to communicate your messages to your audience. And hopefully that style of communication appeals to a wide audience of readers. 

I hope that my voice does develop throughout the years and while the elements that go into different sub-genres are different, I hope that there will always be one element that doesn't change... that's me. 

- Part of the reason I wrote this post is that I picked up a year pass to the Honolulu Art Museum and the Waterlilies Painting above and the Haystacks Painting sit side by side in the Impressionists gallery of the museum. There's a lovely couch facing them and I like to go in that room and write on my phone. I have spent many an hour absorbing their beauty.

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Manuscripts and Mascara

Manuscripts and Mascara 

by 

Carolyn Hector

We all know by now I am raising my four nephews and my son... all teenagers now... all under 18. I once heard an author... I believe the great Sherrilyn Kenyon reference to owning a rake since she has boys. I now know what it's like.

OMG the things they shove under their beds.  But I tell ya, there's never a dull moment around here. The 25% rule is still going on for the one kid.
Slight backstory- my 13 and 14 year old boys earned $15 each one day helping out people in the neighborhood. The first night the 14 year old wanted to immediately go up to the convenient store.. probably to buy chips and a soda. I told him we had everything the store has and it wouldn't cost him a thing....I tried to explain that shopping at a convenient store isn't a wise investment of his money since the price of everything is like 4X as much. I told them if they can hang on to it until the field trip that I would double it. Excited, the boys  realized they could earn more money by not bringing their group of friends along, realizing they only had to split their money 2-ways rather than 5-ways.
Last Monday my 14-year-old remembers he had more money he wanted to put in his bag.. but took the bags into the other room...and then brought it back. He asked of he and his brother could go to their friend;s house who lives way on the other side of the neighborhood.

After the 14-year-old gives me the elaborate story.. he then says... the kids were outside now and that they were going to walk around and make money doing chores. 

If it doesn't sound right..
It probably isn't. And yes.. I did drive up to the convenient store in my pj's and stand behind him in line and ask him where he's supposed to be. Again.. if that's what he wanted to spend his hard earned money on...sure.. but it was the lie that got me.



So last month I was all in my feelings.... thanks for the support! I wasn't the only one who felt the pain and backlash of folks looking at the covers of our books and passing them by without a second glance just because the color of the models' skin doesn't match theirs, same thing as editors passing up our books when submitted. Like.. so what If write about beauty queens... One of the predominately white events... It's like folks pass my books like...

I'm still in that mixed feeling about writing. Aside from my planner-scheduled writing I cleaned out my makeup drawer...I didn't need a rake like I did with the under the boys' beds but it has been something I've been

meaning to do for a while. Do y'all have one? I have a collections of mascaras that I cannot get rid of. It seems like I am in search of the perfect lash..Stiletto, volume, thick, illegal lengths...I've tried false lashes.. eh.. I'm not so graceful... Either way, they're all water-proof because I am one of those folks who cries when happy or sad or excited for other people. You could really hire me as a professional crier.

But anyway... I also I broke out a spreadsheet of manuscripts I have completed, sorted them by completed, completed with proposal, query, pitch... then if not complete, do I have the proposal and first three chapters. Some are standalone, a few category, some action adventure.. but at the end of the .. well, book... There is a HEA. I went a step further to make a check sheet of which publishers/editors who said they are interested in diversifying their house.

I used this spreadsheet and got serious with crafting pitches. By afternoon I started hitting send on like a 1/2 dozen manuscript pitches. If you followed #DVpit mmm like 2 weeks ago, I totally felt like I killed it with a few of my manuscripts that I pitched. 

I got a bunch of 💓's on my pitch. I'm feeling all

THEN! In the MIDDLE of getting all these likes that have me feeling all confident and what not!

I get my rejection from Presents proposal 💔

I get my rejection from Presents proposal 💔

I get my rejection from Presents proposal 💔

I got  a rejection on my  Presents proposal 💔

I got  a rejection on my  Presents proposal 💔

I got  a rejection on my  Presents proposal 💔

I got rejected for Presents proposal 💔

I got rejected for Presents proposal 💔

I got rejected for Presents proposal 💔

I followed the guidelines. He was a prince, uber rich, she was high glitz with a dash of moxy

Technically it was a revise/resubmit to a DIFFERENT line... this other line has no sex and along with my proposal I submitted the first 3 chapters and it ended on a sex scene. 👀😕

Back to the #DVpit...A lot of my 💓s on pitches were from editors from the same house as my editor.. AND my editor even 💓-ed my pitches. I'm so confused.

So alas, the search for the perfect mascara and a home for my manuscripts goes on. like my kiddo with the 25% .. I am going to stop doing 25% of work when it comes to publishing.... I'm going to make sure that the novels that didn't have the ✔ next to them are 100% ready to go (

In the meantime... I have a book coming out just in time for summer weddings.

Follow my Once Upon a Tiara Series with, Tempting the Beauty Queen starring Ramon Torres and Kenzie Swayne.... excuse me... Dr. Kenzie Swayne. She's more than just a beauty queen.

Well, according to my planner, my time is up with blogging Happy Day after Cinco de Mayo

xoxo 

Carolyn 

The Perfect Hero #western #romance @JacquieRogers

The Perfect Hero 
Much Ado About Mail-Order Brides
And Other Nonsensical Musings
by Jacquie Rogers

Usually it takes me a day or two to decide what to write in my SGRR article, but I have so much going on right now that I'll just shove it all in here.  I'm like that.

First of all, I have a new release scheduled for May 11th.  This is the sixth book in the Hearts of Owyhee series, Much Ado About Mail-Order Brides (may not be live yet--just wait an hour or so), available for preorder on Amazon.  Here's the cover:

Bram McKinnon has been in two other Hearts of Owyhee books, Much Ado About Miners and Much Ado about Mustangs.  If you've read the series, you know that he's perfect.  Yes, perfect.  But now it's his turn to be the hero, so this book is his.

Only thing is, he's perfect.  The first "rule" a writer learns when embarking on the journey of writing genre fiction is that your characters, especially your hero, must have flaws.  But Bram's perfect, I tell you.  So it took quite a while to figure out what kind of story would work.  Finally, it came to me.

Poor perfect Bram will be plopped into a situation where there's no "right" way out.  None.  Here's the blurb.

Three mail-order brides, but his heart belongs to another. What’s a man to do?

A man with a plan
Blacksmith Bram McKinnon always has a plan.  Now that he’s turning 30, it’s time to marry, so to check that off his list, he orders a bride.  Unbeknownst to him, his mother and sister also order brides for him and all three show up!  Now his perfect plan goes up in smoke, and what’s worse, the cute waitress at the new café sets his heart aflutter.  She’s the one he wants, but with three brides already in line to share his bed, how can he convince himself to listen to his head and not his heart?

A woman with a past
Café owner Mellie Emerson long ago escaped the traps of young love and has established a comfortable living for herself and her two boys. The last thing she needs is Bram turning her inside out and waking up a passion she doesn’t want to feel. But every time he comes into her café, her heart betrays her good sense. When a man from her past shows up who knows her deepest darkest secret, she fears he’ll ruin all she has worked to hide. Can Mellie trust Bram enough to protect her from the past and not break her heart in the future?

Join Bram in his quest to find the perfect wife in the sixth book of the Hearts of Owyhee series!

This book is long overdue and has pushed back my publishing schedule for my next Honey Beaulieu book, so what did I do?  Threw in with some of my favorite authors to write an extra book that wasn't on my schedule.  To be fair, I never claimed to have good sense.

This next week, I have to write a thousand-word excerpt for the anthology that I'm in with a few other SGRR authors (more about that later), go to an RV show (yes, we want one), pack (the theory is that we'll be moving in September, but I have other plans), and come up with a plot for Honey Beaulieu's fourth book--and on top of all that, create two workshops for my visit to Idaho May 12 to 21.

Meantime, you can preorder Much Ado About Mail-Order Brides, or on May 11th, read it for free on Kindle Unlimited. 

Jacquie's Website | Amazon author page | BookBub

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HAVING A SUPPORT NETWORK

How wide is your support network? No matter your profession, each of us needs encouragement in his or her life. Even the strongest of us can use others cheering us onward in our life’s journey.

How wide is your support network?

Most authors are in a solitary profession. A few writers I know write on their laptop at a coffee house or in front of the television with family coming and going. The majority seclude themselves in an office (or dining room or bedroom—wherever they write) for hours and hours of solitude. I’m the latter and write in a tiny, tiny office we call my “pink cave”. Spending so much time alone makes having encouragement all the more important.

This would be me if the
background was pink and
the cat was black and white

My most faithful cheerleaders are my family. Hero has been supportive through all sorts of my crazy schemes, but especially my writing. Among many other things, he formats and publishes my books. Both our daughters assist me in various ways as well. We're our own small publishing conglomerate. More importantly, my family members give me confidence to continue. Hero also does the cooking and cleaning so I can spend more time writing—something I appreciate every day!

Fans are a great source of cheer. A good review or an email saying a reader enjoyed my book is a huge boost to my morale. Even a poor review can be helpful if the criticism is constructive. Several fans repeatedly send emails or messages to let me know they want me to continue writing and many leave good reviews. Thank you!

Laughing with friends--who knew
it was like medicine for body and soul?

Friends—both online and face-to-face—are so valuable. For instance, my book club is made up of women I consider the cream of the crop. We’ve forgotten how long we’ve been together, but at least fifteen years. We started with twelve members but attrition has us down to six regular members now and one who comes when she can. We meet at a restaurant for a late lunch. These women make me laugh each time we meet. You probably know that the endorphins released when we meet with friends and laugh elevates our mood for up to three days.

Book Divas book club--Mina Bruner, La Dana Morris,
Karen Roades, Linda Box, me, Edwina Steele, and
minus one important member, Karren Lucas

Occasionally I’m able to lunch with one or several author friends. We laugh and commiserate and get those endorphins flowing. Who better understands the problems of being an author like another author?  

Carra Copelin (blog member), Bea Tifton,
me, and Jacquie Rogers (blog member)
sharing lunch while tired Sassy rests on table. If
Jacquie and I look tired, we are. During her visit
neither of us had much sleep. 

Whatever your life entails, I hope you have a strong support network. If not, I urge you to establish one, either online or face-to-face. There are so many opportunities--church, civic groups, book clubs, charities, and more. You’ll enable yourself to accomplish more and you’ll enrich your life.

My business life right now is writing a time travel romance trilogy in which a woman from the past comes forward to now. The first, TEXAS LIGHTNING, http://amzn.to/2H2N1rF,  was released March 17 and has a heroine who comes from 1896. TEXAS RAINBOW, http://amzn.to/2JOppZE,  was released April 18 and that heroine comes from 1921. TEXAS STORM will be released on May 25 and has a heroine from 1943. These time travels have been a lot of fun to write but they've meant a lot of research for each. The last one is kicking me in the patootie, but I think I like it best of the three. Then it’s back to traditional romances and a full schedule for the rest of the year. To keep up with releases, contests, and giveaways, sign up for my newsletter here.

Don't Forget Those Secondary Characters by Suzanne Rossi

Hi everyone.

Well, the sun is shining, the temperature is forecast to be in the mid-upper 70s, and I'm chipper. Guess winter is finally a thing of the past.

It's also that time of year when I get the urge to read new authors. I'm always on the lookout for a good summer read and love seeing new blood enter the writing world. Unfortunately, sometimes I come away with a flat feeling. Something just didn't click. Maybe the plot was predictable or contrived. Occasionally, the hero or the heroine aren't logical with their actions. But more often than not, the problem lies with secondary characters.

Now unless your main characters are on a desert island or in the middle of the Sahara or the wilderness of the Northwest Territories, they have to have other characters with which to interact. There are three types of characters in a book--the hero and heroine, individuals the aforementioned talk with on a regular basis, and what I call walk-ons--people like waiters, bartenders, and the like that show up once and are then gone.

The hero and the heroine need backstory, but so do the secondary characters. They need personalities, goals, motivation, and conflict, too. And of course, they must appear frequently in the story. Their lot in life could be anything from a best friend to a sibling or other family member to a person the main character trusts. Since I write romantic suspense, my secondary characters are often villains and villainesses. In my first book, Along Came Quinn, I had four secondary characters--a couple of guides the MCs interacted with on a daily basis, and a villain and villainess who don't do that until the end of the story. However, their previous actions formed the inciting incident that threw the hero and the heroine into the story. Am I making sense?

However, authors must make sure the secondary character remains secondary. Don't give them so much personality or too big a role in the story that they take over the book. I experienced that in The Reunion. I loved my secondary character, Suzanne. She was a total be-yotch. Snarky, sarcastic, and defensive. Yet in the end, she learned humility.

Not only did she have backstory that set the stage for what happens in the book, I gave her a strong personality to go along with it. She dominated. It got to the point where she was more interesting than the heroine, which allowed the romance angle to also get lost. With so much Suzanne, there wasn't a good way to let Meghan and Zach's relationship grow.

So, I had to do what every writer hates. Edit. A lot. I cut whole scenes and tons of dialogue that featured Suzanne. I toned down her personality and her bitchiness, which seemed to work. The book got some very good reviews and I had a few people suggest I give her a shot at being the heroine in another book. Haven't gotten around to doing that yet.

Actually, I love writing secondary characters. In my Snoop Group series I have a critique group that solves mysteries. My main character is level-headed and a leader. But I have so much fun with the rest of the women. I tried to make them realistic to my friends' personalities, so one of them is a bit sarcastic and impatient. She doesn't suffer fools gladly and speaks her mind. Another is on the ditzy side, but somehow comes up with solutions to problems through her rambling conversations, and still another is constantly frazzled trying to raise five kids under the age of eight, do household chores, and write erotic romance. Sound familiar? Who doesn't know people like that?

So the next time you pick up a book, pay attention to the secondary characters. Do they make you laugh? Do they supply an important flip-side, so to speak, to the heroine or hero? Does the logical heroine learn something from her ditzy friend? Something she hadn't thought about with all her focus on logic? Ask the same questions of these characters as you write if you are an author.

Hope you enjoyed this today and have come away with some insight into characterizations. I've been a member of this blog for two years and love writing for it. So until next month, have a nice Spring.

Suzanne