A SLICE OF LIFE

If you’re a native of West Texas, it never leaves your soul. It’s haunting, isolated, ugly, beautiful and alluring all at the same time. Some people call it the Big Empty. I grew up there and my life there is not only the most powerful memory I have, it influences me to this day. I was a “country” kid. My family were farmers and ranchers.

Besides drilling rigs everywhere we looked, one of the things I remember is that the only drinking water we had was what fell from the sky. Every home had gutters attached to the eaves of the house that fed into a cistern when it rained. During droughts that often occur in West Texas, everyone worried. Since I’ve been an adult and away from there, I look back on those days and ponder what we would have done if the cisterns had gone dry. There was no such thing as bottled water then.

Our cistern was tall, made of thick concrete and had a large reservoir. One good thunderstorm could keep us going most of a summer. When it rained, besides the sound of rain on the roof, the pleasant echoing sound of water falling into the cistern filled our house. In fact, that sound still lives with me.

We *never* used the rainwater from the cistern for anything but drinking, cooking and washing our hair. In my great-grandpa’s house, he didn’t even like to see us use the cistern water for hair-washing.

We had windmills that pumped water from wells, but only livestock drank it. We called is gyp water. It was cloudy and tasted salty. The only person I can recall drinking it was one of my wild aunts who lived in the city and would show up for an occasional visit. She always put a jug of gyp water to chill in the refrigerator for her to drink during her visit. My grandmother thought she was crazy.

The gyp water ate up plumbing so rapidly, it was almost easier to do without it. It wasn’t that good for doing the laundry either. When we gathered the dry clothes off the clothesline, the pants and towels in particular would be stiff as planks. We didn’t have white blouses because after a few washings, they would be tan. Gyp water wasn’t great for watering grass or plants either, but there was no other choice.

Occasionally, we would draw a bucket of water out of the cistern and a dead bird or animal would be in the bucket. I can’t remember if my grandmother boiled the water. I just remember that we thought nothing of it. We had to drink it.

Even now, West Texas is challenged by a lack of good water.

No doubt all of you have childhood memories that are indelibly attached to your memories. Which ones do you think about the most? Which ones influence your life, even now.

This memory of life in West Texas takes me to the latest e-publication I’ve uploaded. It’s a 3-book set called The West Texas Series.

These three books, SWEET WATER, SALVATION, TEXAS and SWEET RETURN are all set in fictitious towns sort of in the middle of West Texas, somewhere between Dalhart and Alpine. It was fun writing about locales I know so well. The stories are romances, but I tried to weave the setting into them so the readers can experience it.

Romance or Romantic Elements by Paty Jager

 The book I'm currently working on is the third in an action adventure series. I originally toted the series as action adventure. When the first book, Secrets of a Mayan Moon, was finished, it was hot and steamy and not just because it was set in a Guatemalan jungle. The hero and heroine in the book had a combustible chemistry I couldn't ignore.

This combustible chemistry ended up making the book more an action adventure romance and less the action adventure with romantic elements, I'd started out to write. There's nothing wrong with the book being hot and full of romance, with the perspective that it could also be called a romantic suspense, and therefore, I was able to get more readers, particularly romance readers, to take a serious look at the book.

Then the second book came along. It was a fun book to write with the heroine of the first book now having an added occupation that put her in the thick of the DEA hero's assignment. In Secrets of an Aztec Temple there were many scenes where the two were apart, doing their own thing, and then coming together not only because of their chemistry but the plot that was thickening. ;) The chapters of only one character's point of view without the other main character around, made this book more like my initial idea for the series. Which brought this book back to my original, action adventure with romantic elements.

Now, I am working on the third book of the series Secrets of a Hopi Blue Star. After writing the brief synopsis which lays out the plot points, this book will have even less interaction between the hero and heroine. Making it more along the lines of an action adventure book. The hero and heroine start the book with a heated scene and they separate one going to the NE corner of Arizona and the other to the Arizona/Mexico border. Then they meet up a couple chapters later for a steamy night and then go their separate ways once more for the rest of the book until, the end. There will be scenes with both characters, but more with the heroine. After all, the series is titled: Isabella Mumphrey Adventures not The Isabella and Tino Adventures.

Do you readers feel disappointed if you start a series and the book is hot and steamy romance, then as you read more books int eh series with the same characters the romance gets less and less lines on the page?

Blurbs for the two published books in the Isabella Mumphrey Action Adventure Series:

Secrets of a Mayan Moon 

(Readers Crown Award)

What happens when a brilliant anthropologist is lured to the jungle to be used as a human sacrifice

Child prodigy and now Doctor of Anthropology, Isabella Mumphrey, is about to lose her job at the university. In the world of publish or perish, her mentor’s request for her assistance on a dig is just the opportunity she’s been seeking. If she can decipher an ancient stone table—and she can—she’ll keep her department. She heads to Guatemala, but drug trafficking bad guys, artifact thieves, and her infatuation for her handsome guide wreak havoc on her scholarly intentions.

DEA agent Tino Kosta, is out to avenge the deaths of his family. He’s deep undercover as a jaguar tracker and sometimes jungle guide, but the appearance of a beautiful, brainy anthropologist heats his Latin blood taking him on a dangerous detour that could leave them both casualties of the jungle.

Secrets of a Mayan Moon is available at Windtree Press, Kindle, Nook Kobo .

Secrets of an Aztec Temple 

Revenge is not always sweet…

Isabella Mumphrey can’t leave a puzzle alone. This time she attempts to use her anthropology knowledge to uncover who is stealing priceless artifacts from an Aztec Temple in Mexico City. She believes the discovery will prove her worth to the World Intelligence Agency. 

Tino Constantine is also in Mexico City. He has infiltrated a drug lord’s organization to find enough evidence to not only prove the man’s illegal activities, but to bring him down for numerous deaths. Namely those of Tino’s family. When the love of his life, Isabella, strolls into his enemy’s home, Tino is challenged with the choice of saving her or fulfilling his revenge.

Secrets of an Aztec Temple is available at:   Windtree Press     Nook    Amazon     Kobo 

www.patyjager.net
www.patyjager.blogspot.com

MAKING EACH WORD COUNT...RIGHT FROM THE START

By Ashley Kath-Bilsky

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much are the first words you read in a book worth to you? How much importance do you hold on the opening line of a book? The first paragraph? The first page?

In this day and age when more and more people are purchasing books from online booksellers, I often wonder what is the motivating factor for readers to purchase a book? Provided it is not an author they are already familiar with and whose work they enjoy reading, what compels someone to purchase a new book from an unknown author?

Is it the cover? The genre? The blurb, or brief description written about the book’s premise? The reviews posted by other readers? No doubt, one or all of the above might play a collective role to influence someone to buy a book. Then there is the fact that many readers purchase books based on the recommendations of friends and family. Others faithfully follow the New York Times Bestsellers List or are influenced by a slick full-page ad in a national magazine.

As a reader, I gravitate toward specific genres. And I'll be honest; if a cover catches my eye, I will examine it and even admire it. Still, I have long believed in the old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover."

Despite the increasingly popular trend of online shopping and e-books (most of which cost substantially less than the print version of the same title, and which can download within seconds onto hand-held electronic devices), there are many readers who still prefer to visit a bookstore, and to hold an actual book in their hands before they buy it. These rather old-fashioned book buyers (like me) often adhere to a special system or criteria they have followed for years when deciding whether or not to purchase a specific book. And the mainstay of my criteria -- believe it or not -- remains reading that first line.

[Photo Credit: gary yim / Shutterstock.com]

For me, it is like sitting in a beautiful theatre waiting expectantly for the play to start. When the heavy velvet curtain gracefully rises on invisible strings, the audience gets their first glimpse of the stage, and when the first line is spoken or the first action takes place, the adventure begins.

In fiction, an author creates the scene, the character(s), the emotion, action, tension, plot elements, and dialogue. Granted, it would be impossible to convey all of this in the opening line of the book, but that line will (if done correctly) entice the reader and give them the 'story's promise'.

Ultimately, it isn't just the genre, the cover, advertisement, or the premise of a book that intrigues me – it’s the writing. I want to get a feel for the writer’s voice, their pacing and their craftsmanship. A cover isn’t going to tell me this, and neither is an ad or the blurb on the back of the book. Reviews are just one person's opinion, and I try not to be influenced or biased based on them. There are books I love that other people don't, and vice versa. And although some people may place little importance on the first line of a book, for some reason – I still do.

For many people, the first line in a book has such an impact, it has never been forgotten.

I can still remember when my mother gifted me with a leather-bound collector’s edition of REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier on my 12th birthday. A voracious reader who loved books, I held the grown-up novel in my hands, admired the beautiful leather binding, then opened the book to carefully pull back each pristine page until I could read the first line of this book.

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” ~ Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938)

This first line did not tell me the name or anything about the character speaking. It did not describe where this person was, or even the time period in which the book took place. However, it was a compelling opening and immediately captivated my interest. I wanted to know more about this mysterious Manderley.

Some authors write very fast-paced, especially in suspense thrillers, and can capture the reader’s attention and imagination with very few words.

“It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.” ~ 1984 by George Orwell (1949)

Others write with an elegant, almost lyrical, descriptive style, very often found in classic literature and today’s historical fiction.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” ~ Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)

Some books may open with a line of dialogue or an internal thought in a specific character’s point of view, such as:

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages shall show.” ~ David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850)

“I am an invisible man.” ~ The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952)

Some may open with a long first line, the dreaded run-on sentence that your English teacher scolded you about, and yet Charlea Dickens conveys so much with this opening and hooks the reader.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” ~ A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)

As a writer, I often struggle with the first line of a book. I cannot say how many times I have opened with a descriptive line of narrative that I absolutely loved, then switched to a simple line of dialogue. Although they will not likely be memorized by a reader, I hope my first lines capture the reader’s attention, curiosity, and beckon them to take an adventure within the pages of my book.

From the first line, to the first paragraph, and every line of narrative and dialogue that the writer sets within the pages of their book, each word should count...right from the start. For me, the first line is a promise to the reader, and promises must always be kept.

Thanks for stopping by today. I would love to know what influences you to purchase a book. And if you have a favorite first line of a beloved book, please share it with me. ~ AKB

What's A Cover All About

If you've seen my covers, you know I'm a fan of attention-grabbing covers. I like 'em sassy!

2014 has brought about a new adventure for me in the way of cover design. Something out of the blue and clearly unexpected. 

I've had all of my covers professionally shot utilizing a local photographer. Recently, I was asked by a few friends to help them with their covers. 

I'm not a newbie to electronics, so I thought I'd give graphic arts a try. It's like crack people... And I'm addicted. 

Here comes the fun part: What's In a Cover?

Most folks think of what's "on" a cover, but in reality, it's the message in a cover. 

That ain't so easy! As I utter under my Texas drawl. 

I write Contemporary Romance and my mind is plagued by a gazillion options for covers. Right out of the gate I receive an opportunity to do a Sugar Skull themed cover for Blue Remy. I was thrilled... And terrified. 

What goes into a cover relays a message to the masses. It's the first thing that a potential reader sees before they pick-it or click-it. 

No pressure here people... None, naddah, nope. You believe that, right?

I took a deep breath, googled sugar skulls and fell in love. From then on, it was magical. I was creating visually about something I knew nothing about. That's because I was being inspired by what I saw, just like a reader would. 

I've now learned how to do more, not just eBook covers. I'm now designing cover flats and the like while embracing cover art for all genres of writing. 

As I write this, I've just put the finishing touches to my own cover for "My Confession" that will release on Valentine's Day. 

I challenge you to start 2014 off with trying something new and different. You never know when you might fall in love with something really rewarding. 

Wishing you a fabulous fourteen (2014),

DeLaine

  

50 (or so) Shades of New

By Ellie James

The day after Christmas, I sat down with pencil and paper and all these words started pouring out of me. Quickly I realized I had the guts of a blog, including an awesome title: New Year's Confession. I still like that title--a LOT. Just think what a great novel that could be...!

But then I saw a segment on The Today Show about, instead of setting traditional New Year's goals, (such as the standards lose weight, exercise more, read more, stop saying Amazing!, etc.,) choosing a word instead. One word. That was the challenge. Choose one word you'd like to define the coming year...that you'd like to define you. And commit to that word.

Immediately I was intrigued. I started brainstorming words and came up with some terrific ones (patience, explore, create, present), but every time I tried to latch onto one of those really wonderful and inspiring words, another word whispered through me.

And that's where my New Year's Confession comes in, all those words that poured out of me the day after Christmas. I love writing and I always have, way back as long as I can remember. But, professionally, this past year has been hard.  I started 2013 feeling down and I spent the majority of the year in that same place. Being a professional writer is a dream come true, but there's so much more involved than simply giving voice to the stories living in your heart. There's the business side--the dollars and the cents, the contracts and competition, the marketing and promotion--and this past year, that's what knocked me down. Knocked me down hard. And since then, the shadow of disappointment has followed me everywhere.

For a while, I couldn't write. Worse, merely the thought of writing made me sick to my stomach--and my heart. Especially my heart. I'd get that awful tight chest feeling. I felt so lost and alone. And the words wouldn't come. I tried. I tried everything I could think of. But nothing worked. I told myself to stop being a baby and put my big girl panties on. I ordered myself to. But everywhere I looked were reminders of my disappointment.

Days...weeks...months. They rolled by, rolled together. There were times when things got better, when I focused on--made myself look to--the future. What came next instead of what was already done. But it seems something always crept in to throw me back to that deep, dark, cold pit of sadness.

Over the past several days, I've asked myself if I really want to share all this. If I'm seriously going to post something so personal. Generally I don't shout out my good or carry on about my bad. But you know what?  We live in such a photoshopped world. We live a life of greatest hits. Our messages are carefully crafted to be all Wonderful! and Amazing! But the truth is we all have B-sides. We all have junk. We all have stuff. And unless we can be real about the B-sides, in many ways we're doing everyone a disservice, setting up this false equation where people inadvertently find themselves comparing the raw, unvarnished truth of their own lives to Glistening Public Images of everyone else's. So I've decided to be real about this. To be authentic. To talk about a B-side, no matter how uncomfortable it is.

Now here I stand, at the threshold of a new year, and I'm committing myself to turning the corner, too, to leaving the "blue" where it belongs--in the past. I'm committing myself to 50 incredible shades of new: a new year, a new perspective, a new me, a new beginning. (Okay, that's only four, but one new leads to another, right?)  

Right here, right now, I'm committing myself to....

What word will define YOUR year?

Titlemania

Much Ado About Book Titles

by Jacquie Rogers

Titles are important. They, along with cover art, are the first things we see when we browse the book shelves or an online store. And they’re danged hard to figure out, too. I struggle with titles, and generally call upon my friends for help early on with the process. It’s true—no friend is safe while I’m trying to think of a title!

When I wrote Much Ado About Marshals, single titles were king and few authors wrote series—New York publishers said series didn’t sell in the romance genre. It turns out their wisdom wasn’t so on target when the industry shifted toward ebooks (it’s still evolving), and series took the throne.

The first three books in my Hearts of Owyhee series were written as single titles, even though they contained crossover secondary characters and were all set in Owyhee County, Idaho Territory. But once Much Ado About Marshals was released, readers asked for the second in the series. I’d written another book, The Comfort Palace, which had finaled in RWA’s Golden Heart contest, so I used that for the second book and changed the title to Much Ado About Madams, since it’s set in a brothel. The third book was originally titled Roped, Tied, and Married—featuring a woman in a non-traditional role. That one became Much Ado About Mavericks.

No fourth book was planned, but readers wanted me to write Iris’s story. Much Ado About Marshals starts off with the hero, Cole, shot while attempting to thwart what he and the bank teller (Iris) thought was a robbery attempt. Cole’s the hero in that book and Daisy, Iris’s sister, was determined to marry him because she thought he was Oreana’s new marshal. So when Iris shot Cole, the die was cast—she had to have her own book. And you know it has to start with her shooting the hero. That book’s title is Much Ado About Miners. Are there any miners in it? Sorta. Kade McKinnon’s family owns the Ten-high Straight Mine, and there’s another miner character, too, but that’s about it.

Now, it’s time to write the fifth book, and I’m forever on the search for M words. Here’s the thing—when you start a naming convention, it’s a really good idea to make it a bit flexible. Okay, lesson learned. But now I’m stuck with Much Ado About M words. And there just aren’t that many Old West M words. The fifth book might be named Much Ado About Misses (or maybe Maidens) and I’m thinking Bram McKinnon, Kade’s older brother, will be the hero in that one. Haven’t figured out the heroine yet. The sixth book, tentatively, will be Much Ado About Mustangs, and Josh would be the hero in that one. I do a little setup in Much Ado About Miners for him.

You can bet that when I start another series, I won’t ride into a box canyon with my titles—they’ll be much more open. Troy Smith has done a good job with titling the books in the Wolf Creek series (written by a collaboration of authors under the house name Ford Fargo). Book one is Bloody Trail, book two is Kiowa Vengeance, book three is Murder in Dogleg City, etc. When we pick up Night of the Assassins, we know it’s set in Wolf Creek and we know who the characters are, because it’s part of the Wolf Creek series, same as A Wolf Creek Christmas or the next book (in which I contribute chapter 1, to be released in March), Stand Proud.  None of the titles have any similarity and all describe very well what to expect in the novel.

I have a few more series planned, all novella series. One is the Soiled Doves series, a spin-off of Much Ado About Madams. One is The Muleskinners, and the first story, Judge Not, is in the anthology, Hell on the Prairie. I get the rights back on that soon, so I’ll reissue it and then publish the second story in a few months. Another series is the High-Stakes Heroes series. None of these will be titled so similarly as the Hearts of Owyhee books, which everyone calls my Much Ado series. Well, that’s not the series name!

Give me your take on titles. Do you prefer similar titles, as in the Hearts of Owyhee series, or would you rather have totally different titles, such as in the Wolf Creek series?

Happy 2014!  May this be your best reading year ever. ☺

Jacquie

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♥ Hearts of Owyhee ♥ series, ♦♣ Sleight of Heart ♠♥

'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (Wolf Creek, Book 9: A Wolf Creek Christmas)

A Gift for Rhoda (Wishing for a Cowboy)

Coming soon: A Flare of the Heart (Hearts and Spurs)

A BLESSING TO START YOUR YEAR OFF RIGHT!

By Caroline Clemmons

Now that the holidays are over, we can get back to what we do best. I hope you are busy reading the books of the Smart Girls authors while we launch into a new year of writing. We can’t help ourselves—we are happiest when we are pounding on the keyboard to create new books.

I'm working on the next Kincaid novel, GABE. Usually I work on one project at a time, but an opportunity arose for me to participate in a collection of western historical romance short stories, and I seized the chance. The collection will be released mid March. My story is a prequel to THE TEXAN’S IRISH BRIDE, and is about that hero’s parents, Houston McClintock and Gentle Dove Tall Trees, known as Dovie. I loved writing THE TEXAN’S IRISH BRIDE, Book one of the McClintocks. Oh, incidentally, the woman on the cover is my vision of the way I was supposed to look. I am still ticked off at fate because that isn't at all the way I appear now or at any time in my life. ☺

Revisiting the McClintock family reminded me of my extensive research about Irish superstitions and blessings. Heroine Cenora Rose O’Neill’s father, Sean O'Neill, has a toast for every occasion—for he is far better at talking than working. Dallas McClintock finds Cenora's countless superstitions annoying. I loved reading about both.   

My family is mainly Scot-Irish, so I’ve always been interested in Ireland and Scotland. My grandmother would have denied being superstitious, but she was. The only time she ever scolded me was when I opened an umbrella in her living room. She said I would "cause trouble to rain down on the house." That scared me and I worried for days that something would drop from the sky and fall through the roof. I was a kid, okay?

She also had “the sight,” although she called it a curse. To my knowledge, the only time she was wrong was when I was in high school and she thought she would die soon. Instead, it was her second husband, my step-grandfather, who passed away. Grandmother had pneumonia each winter, but otherwise she was tough and lived to be 91. After my step-grandfather died, she told me she saw death hovering over the house and thought she would be the one to die.I could tell she was puzzled. She had even taught my step-grandfather to make cornbread for lunch and biscuits for breakfast, which he believed he had to have each day.(Supper was leftovers.)

When I was a girl and collected Storybook Dolls, my favorites were the dolls representing Ireland and Scotland. Sadly, all the dolls were ruined by a leaking storage building roof, so they have gone to dolly heaven. 

My love for Celtic things continues. So, to start your New Year off on a good foot, let me share this blessing with you:

May you always have these blessings—

A soft breeze when the summer comes

A warm fireside in winter

And always—the warm soft smile of a friend.

And I'll add: 

May you always have a good book to read!

Happy New Year to you and yours!