The Insanity of Promotion.

There has never been a time in my life when I've felt as overwhelmed and behind as I do now. Even with four children going twelve different directions when they were home and in sports, clubs, and going to school and I had a part time job, I didn't feel like I was floundering like I do now.

I was told once the children leave the nest, you have more time. Not so for me. That's when I picked up the writing gauntlet and charged full steam ahead to try my hand at becoming a published author. I made the published part and am still trying to feel like an author and not a writer.


As a reader, how much publicity or what kind brings you to an author you've never read before? Every time I hear about a new place to put up my books either for sale or for promotion I feel like I should do that, but there goes a day of writing.Then there are blogs. My own and the group blogs I feel will attract more readers to my writing. That takes my time away from my WIP(work in progress). And all the other promotion "fun" I think up takes time.

I've attended two reader conferences and haven't noticed any correlation to sales from those. So I'm thinking not worth my time and money even though they were fun. I teach at several writer conferences. I like helping other writers as I was helped. And they usually allow us to sell books and some pay for a night or two of the motel rooms or a free entry to the conference.

So readers, I ask again, how does an author get noticed in the millions of books out there?  Any ideas or suggestions? I need to narrow my publicity down to a more manageable level.  Or should I go with the most common piece of advice I've been told, "Just write the next book"? I'm thinking that may be my motto for 2014 and not do any publicity just to get a couple of series finished and to see if not doing anything but writing does more for me than all the other hoopla that takes me away from writing.

Next year watch for the third Isabella Mumphrey book and the next two books in the upcoming Halsey Trilogy.

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

WEATHERING THE STORM OF WRITER'S BLOCK

By: Ashley Kath-Bilsky

We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and “X” never, ever, marks the spot.” ~ Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark)

It never ceases to surprise me how a certain quote from a book or movie will surface from a distant memory out of the blue. This particular quote by the fictitious archaeologist/adventurer Indiana Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, has been replaying in my brain for days now. Why, you might ask? Well, perhaps to remind me that reaching one's goal is never easy, and that no matter how I may have mapped out a book in my mind (or charted its course in detail on paper), I still can get lost. In many ways, a writer is like the captain of a ship called Creativity and the book you are creating is the journey.

Currents shift, the winds change and you suddenly find yourself in the midst of a storm (let’s call it a wicked migraine). Try as you might to stay on course, the pounding of the waves from the storm batter both you and your ship. There is nothing you can do but ride it out. Finally, dawn breaks and you anxiously return to the helm, only to realize your ship has been drifting for days. You fix your gaze on the horizon and wait for the wind to rise and fill the sails. But there is no wind, only a strange silence…as if you and your ship are in some kind of limbo. And much to your surprise, a certain character (let’s call him your hero), is being unusually quiet. You don’t know if he’s hiding below deck or decided to jump ship.

Nautical metaphor aside, I am talking about the dreaded curse of ‘writer’s block’. Various degrees and different causes are often attributed to ‘writer’s block’, from being distracted by family obligations or illness (that can temporarily affect the discipline and rhythm of your writing), to the pressures of another job, publisher deadlines, or creative problems within the story’s structure itself. Perhaps an author may suffer from 'writer's block' because of insecurity or fear of failure, especially if a previous book was highly acclaimed. This type of 'writer's block' happened to J.K. Rowling, who said: "I suffered writer's block badly once, and that was during the writing of Chamber of Secrets. I had my first burst of publicity about the first book and it paralyzed me. I was scared the second book wouldn't measure up, but I got through it."

A scientific explanation was also served up to explain the problem. In 2004, a book titled The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain, author and neurologist Alice W. Flaherty wrote “literary creativity is a function of specific areas of the brain, and that block may be the result of brain activity being disrupted in those areas.” So what’s a writer to do?

The solutions to the problem are just as varied. Some suggest taking a break, going for a long walk, or doing something other than stare at a blank page. You might try some free-writing exercise; asking the proverbial ‘what if’, might unclog the cobwebs of your mind. Others suggest, especially if you feel you’ve hit a wall with your writing, to brainstorm with a critique partner or friend about alternate plot threads, or even skip ahead in your story to a different scene then double-back later to the problem area.

There is comfort (at least for me) in the knowledge that most writers experience this ‘disruption of the creative mind’ at one time or another, including famous authors. And we all work our way through it somehow. But here is what some of them had to say on the subject of the difficulties of writing and/or advice about 'writer’s block'.

“Put it aside for a few days, or longer, do other things, try not to think about it. Then sit down and read it (printouts are best I find, but that’s just me) as if you’ve never seen it before. Start at the beginning.” ~ Neil Gaiman

“Pretend that you’re writing not to your editor or to an audience or to a readership, but to someone close, like your sister, or your mother, or someone that you like.” ~ John Steinbeck

“Stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck…your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

Whether you are a writer or not, life is a journey. We are each captains of our own ship. Its timbers are crafted from our hopes and dreams, as well as perseverance, education, experience and training -- all joined together to make the vessel we need to achieve each goal we set before us. Needless to say, it isn't always smooth sailing. It's often a ‘learn as you go’ process. Sometimes there are no obstacles, no ill wind to blow you off course. Yet if there should be delays and obstacles, storms that batter you every which way, frustrating as they might be, perhaps learning to cope with those storms will make us all stronger in the end. I hope so.

Thanks for stopping by today. As for me and the status of my ‘writer’s block’, I am once more aboard the ship of Creativity. This particular journey may be slow going, but I believe it will be worthwhile in the end. In closing, I leave you with an inspirational quote from Elizabeth Edwards:

“She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her away, she adjusted her sails.”

Happy writing…and reading! ~ AKB

Stories Behind The Story

Getting To Know The Story Behind The Story 

When I pieced together the story of Alexandra Morrison and Grayson Brooks in Running To You, I had no idea that it would become a series and carry over into Two Sides of a Heartbeat. In fact, the last thing I thought about was Grayson having a twin, Harrison, or that I would even be writing a story about Harrison. But, that is exactly what’s happening and My Confession, will hopefully release in December.

Sometimes, I think I’m weird. Seriously. These characters talk to me. What they forgot to tell me happened to be that most readers do NOT like cliffhangers in their romance novels. So, I suppose I could sound even weirder by writing that my characters played a nasty trick on me. Running To You ended in a cliffhanger. Two Sides of a Heartbeat picks up exactly where Running To You left off. I’m not certain that I will ever do this again, because I’ve been listening to the readers and trying to give them what they want.

While I tried to wrap their story up in one novel,  it didn’t happen that way and I’m so glad it didn’t. Two Sides of a Heartbeat is featured in a new box set, 9 Ways To Fall In Love currently climbing the charts and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be included with such great company.

 

In Books 1 and 2, Alexandra’s character has a day job like my own, a medical sales rep. I encounter many physicians yearly, and have only encountered a handful that I was certain had taken ASSHOLE 101, twice!

I tried to give Grayson a bit of that edge: Difficult to encounter, tough office personnel to navigate through and a rough exterior with a soft interior, like many endearing physicians that I have come to adore professionally.

 

What I didn’t expect happens to be the outpouring of requests for stories involving the side characters of the series: Harrison and Cooper, so I’m working on Harrison’s story now.

Last weekend, I attended a book festival in Atlanta, GA. I couldn’t have been more excited to have readers approach our booth and exclaim “I have your book on my Kindle.” This put me over the moon. I'll never get tired of that!

What's coming up:

• Chasing Air will be out in October, a stand-alone novel
• My Confession will be out in December, Book 3 of the Running Series
• I'm also working on a Bartender Series, titled Bad Boys 'n Bars.

I look forward to delivering more stories that readers love. I love to hear from you. Please reach out to me.

Virtual hugs,

DeLaine

www.delaineroberts.com    @delaineroberts   www.southerncomfortromance.com

New Orleans Strange But True

Mardi Gras. Bourbon Street. Voodoo. Jazz. Food.  Sin. The Vampire Lestat…

Chances are, I need not say anymore, and you’re thinking New Orleans. People often ask me why I chose the Crescent City as the setting for the Midnight Dragonfly books. In truth, there wasn’t any choice involved. I dreamed the opening scene: a group of teenagers sneaking into an abandoned Garden District mansion, once the site of extravagant parties but now rotting in squalor, each with their own agenda. By the time the last runs screaming from the house, a nightmare they never imagined has begun….

Why did I set the books in New Orleans? Simple. The city is as much a character in the story as Trinity, Chase, Jessica, and Dylan!

A Louisiana native, I grew up visiting New Orleans several times a year. I crept through houses believed to be haunted, skipped along streets once lined by the dead, and played in cemeteries. It was no big deal: that was just New Orleans. It wasn’t until I graduated from college and moved away that I realized how unique The Big Easy is…..

Here are just a few reasons why:

• Situated along the Mississippi River and nestled among thousands of centuries-old oaks, New Orleans is frequently called America’s Most European city. The architecture is a unique blend of Spanish and French, the French Quarter is almost three hundred years old, horse-drawn carriages still trot down cobblestone streets, the food is unbelievably fantastic, music throbs twenty-four hours a day, and art flourishes. Of course, there’s also that whole below sea level thing. Probably not the greatest idea.
•  The food. OMG, the food!
•   In New Orleans, no one blinks if you mention seeing a ghost. In fact, people are more likely to look at you funny if you state that there’s no such thing as ghosts!  That’s one of the reasons why New Orleans is called America’s Most Haunted City.  Over the years, disease, war, and natural disasters have claimed many New Orleanians before their time, leaving their souls restless and confused, trapped between two worlds.
•  That’s how Jazz Funerals got their start, mourners wandering aimlessly through the streets with a drummer or horn player in front, in order to confuse the spirit of the departed, so they are so disoriented they don’t know how to get back home.
•  It is said that in New Orleans, the dead outnumber the living 10:1 (4,000,000:400,000)
•  Some of those dead are Irish immigrants who succumbed to Yellow Fever in the 1800s while working to build the New Basin Canal. For simplicity,  most of those workers were buried where they fell. The canal served the city until the 1950s, when it was filled and turned into an expressway. Yep. People now drive over what amounts to a massive cemetery…
• Malaria is another culprit for all those poor restless souls. In 1853, for almost 2 months, up to 200 people a day died. During the summer, the bodies were placed on the sidewalks of the extremely wealthy who left the city to avoid the unbearable (and disease). Carts would make their way through the neighborhoods to collect the bodies. At least, that was the plan. Sometimes the carts never showed. Um…yeah.  
• But it wasn’t just disease. A port city, New Orleans had (and has!) its fair share of crime. No visit to the View Carre is complete without visiting the quaint Jackson Square, with its manicured lawns and graceful old oaks beneath which artists and psychics gather, the fence of wrought iron, the pigeons, and of course, the beautiful St. Louis Cathedral. Of course, few realize that this same place was one the site for public hangings…

• But while in the French Quarter, you quickly discover that anything can be purchased--ANYTHING. Especially stuff you didn’t know existed. I mean, where else can you be strolling along and stumble across Reverand Zombie’s Voodoo Shop?
•   Yep, the Disney folks behind The Princess and the Frog weren’t exaggerating or being all that creative. Voodoo is still practiced in Big Easy. Talking about spells, curses or gris gris doesn’t make anyone blink, not even the devoutly Catholic, of whom there are many.
•  With all the craziness going on, it’s not surprising that New Orleans holds the distinction of having the highest number of missing persons cases since those statistics began being tracked.
•  Museums are a tourist attraction in almost every city, but in New Orleans, many of the most popular museums are…cemeteries. Because of that whole below sea level thing, New Orleans entombs its dead in elaborate, hauntingly beautiful, above-ground crypts, referred to as Cities of the Dead.

•   Speaking of cemeteries, on All Saints Day, picnics are held for the dead—IN cemeteries, including wine, music, and dancing.
• Still speaking of cemeteries, in St. Louis #1 you’ll find the crypt of New Orleans’ most famous and celebrated voodoo queen: Marie Leveau. It is said that even from The Beyond, she still grants favors, which is why her tomb is always adorned with dried flowers and votives. Legend has it you should knock three times when asking for a favor, and once the favor has been granted, return to the crypt and either mark an X or chip the brick.

•  STILL speaking of cemeteries, a few rows over you’ll find a glowing white pyramid of concrete, ready and waiting for its future inhabitant: (the still very much alive) Nicholas Cage. Yep.

• Speaking of Nicholas Cage, he once purchased New Orleans most haunted residence, that of the former socialite Delphine LaLaurie.  Some Very Bad Things happened there: Google it and see!  

(For the record, Nic no longer owns the property. No one does for long. Over the years it’s been a high school, a music conservatory , a tenement, a refuge for young delinquents, a bar, a furniture store, and a luxury apartment building!)

•  Speaking of Hollywood….there really was a street car named Desire. The line folded in 1948, giving way to a much less evocative bus line. But streetcars do still run in New Orleans including one named…Cemeteries!
• Perhaps no other city in America could have adapted so quickly following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. In addition to over a thousand dead, the city lost 30% of its population, people who fled the storm only to realize they had nothing to go back to. Walk the streets of the French Quarter and the Garden District and little has changed since Before The Storm (that’s how locals refer to it), but venture out a little further, and even now, the post-apocalyptic feel lingers. Much of the city stands vacant and waiting, from rotting houses to vacant strip center, shopping malls, movie theaters, a huge and beautiful Art-Décor style hospital, even an amusement park.

Given all this, it’s easy to see why all the nicknames are true: The Big Easy. The Crescent City.  The City that Care Forgot. City of Mystery. Paris of the South. The Birthplace of Jazz. America’s Most European City. America’s Most Haunted City

It’s also easy to see why no other city could have played such a vital and spooky role in Trinity’s story, the story of a teenage psychic who sees horrible things before they happen...

DeLaine Roberts, Author: 9 Ways To Fall In Love

DeLaine Roberts, Author: 9 Ways To Fall In Love: 9 Ways To Fall In Love A fantastic BOX SET of eBooks from 9 Best Selling & Award Winning Authors! All 9 for the launch price of .99 ...

An Interview with Burke O'Shaughnessey, star of Sleight of Heart

Burke O'Shaughnessey

star of 

Sleight of Heart

by Jacquie Rogers

Special thanks to author and critique partner (translation: slavedriver and friend, albeit a bit goofy—oh, wait, that's why she's my friend) Judith Laik, author of Sentimental Journey, a short story in her WWII romance series, who interviewed Burke O'Shaughnessey, star of Sleight of Heart, exclusive this month  in the 9 Ways to Fall in Love box set.

About Sleight of Heart: Starched-up Lexie Campbell, more comfortable with neat and tidy numbers than messy emotions, must find the man who ruined her little sister and make him marry her. When his lookalike brother Burke appears, she greets him with a gun and forces him to help her. Smooth-dealing Burke O’Shaughnessey, riverboat gambler and prestidigitator, must find his brother Patrick to claim the family fortune. But when Lexie shows an astounding talent for counting cards and calculating odds, he figures she might be useful after all. Can he resist the queen of hearts?

Judith: You look pretty good for a 158-year-old man.  Would you care to share your secrets?

Burke: You’re a good-looking filly, too.  Want to share yours?  {Buys her a sarsaparilla.} I resemble my father and brother.  My brother, Patrick, is four years younger than I am but from a distance most people can’t tell us apart.  And the Indian salve doesn’t hurt—keeps my hands in good shape so I can feel the cards.  Not that I’d ever deal seconds, at least, not in a square game.

Judith: For your debut as a hero, you’re featured in a nine-book boxed set, 9 Ways to Fall in Love.  Have you any comments about your fellow heroes?

Burke: I’m a thoroughbred gambler.  You would think a man in such an esteemed profession would be on top of the deck.  All I can say is that when you ladies get to my book, you’ll win the jackpot.  Besides, I know when to raise the stakes, and I’ll be the star of my own show November 1 when Sleight of Heart will be released in print and ebook.

Judith: Times have changed in the 130 years since the events of Sleight of Heart.  Being a professional gambler was an individual and freewheeling way of life back then.  Now poker tournaments are on television—was yours a better time?

Burke: Any time’s a good time to play poker.  I wouldn’t mind being on one of those newfangled talking picture shows—a few of the players are good enough to make money in my time, and a couple of those might even be tough enough.  The problem is, they don’t seem to have fun.  Gambling is a true delight, not to be taken seriously.  Nor is money—if you have it you might as well spend it, if you don’t have it, well then, go make some more.  Simple as that.

Judith: Have you been back to visit your old stomping grounds in Colorado?  There’s still a narrow-gauge railroad that travels between Silverton and Durango, which offers thrills for acrophobic tourists.  What are your thoughts about how Colorado has changed?

Burke: Colorado will always be one of my favorite places—it’s beautiful even though there are people all over the place.  But no matter where I travel, the concept of fairness is taken to the extreme.  People aren’t responsible for their own decisions anymore, and I find that downright baffling.  In my lifetime, if someone skinned you, you learned from it and didn’t let it happen again.  Nowadays, being gullible seems to be all right, and they call in the law.

Judith: Any ideas about who should play you in the Sleight of Heart movie?

Burke: Timothy Olyphant might do all right if he loosened up some and bulked up a little.  My scribe says I’m a combination of James Garner, Clint Walker, and Houdini, with a little Steve Martin thrown in.  I’d rather play myself, but tell me who you think would be the best actor to play me.  I’m curious.

Judith: I'll leave that one for the commenters. ☺ Thank you for talking to me today.  I must confess my heart was going thumpetty-thump at the prospect of actually getting the chance to interview you.

Burke: You’re most welcome, Ms. Laik.  {kisses her hand}  Enough business—would you like to go dancing?  Maybe buck the tiger later?  

♥ ♥ ♥

Lowly scribe here: I hope you enjoy Burke and Lexie in Sleight of Heart.  For you western historical romance lovers, Caroline Clemmons' The Texan's Irish Bride is also included in 9 Ways to Fall in Love.  There's something for every reader—contemporary, romantic suspense, paranormal, and of course our westerns. :)  At 99¢ for nine full-length romance novels, you can't go wrong!

Join our Facebook Party and you could win prizes all month!

So tell me—who do you think could play Burke O'Shaughnessey?

OUR PARTY AND WHY WE WRITE BOOKS

WooHoo! What a terrific NINE WAYS TO FALL IN LOVE Launch Party we had on Facebook on September 1^st!  Special thanks to the over 250 readers who attended our party. Don't forget that we'll be giving away prizes every day of September, some days more than one prize.

Brandy Crownover Dillon is the winner of the Kindle Fire donated by author DeLaine Roberts, whose book TWO SIDES OF A HEARTBEAT is in NINE WAYS TO FALL IN LOVE. Congratulations, Brandy!  

P. J. Nusbaum won a download of the Men of Stone Mountain trilogy from Caroline Clemmons (moi). My book THE TEXAN'S IRISH BRIDE is in NINE WAYS TO FALL IN LOVE. Congratulaions, P.J.! 

WHY WE WRITE OUR BOOK FOR YOU

Now, I’d like to remind you readers why we write and why we push our books so hard. Yes, that assures us of a royalty payment. I won’t pretend that’s unimportant. Most of us need that money.

While it’s true we would write even if we made no money, most of us can’t afford to spend our days working for free. We have the same expenses as others. Many of us have a “day job” and only write evenings and weekends. Fortunately, I am able to write full time and thank God for my good fortune!

But why we write is about so much more than money. We have these stories in our heads and in our hearts and we can’t rest until we write them.  So, even though we couldn’t spend as much time writing if we didn’t get paid, we would write regardless. We simply can’t help ourselves. 

There is no 12-step program like Alcoholics Anonymous for writers. There is no way to break this wonderful curse we bear—the one where the people in our heads become real to us. Where we "see" these people as if they were on the movie screen or a small mental screen. By the time we complete a book, those characters are like our friends. We like to write series so we can visit our characters again and again.

Yes, it sounds crazy. Maybe we are, but it’s a wonderful madness. We live for it, as much as we breathe the air. You can see why authors adore readers. We need you! Don’t pity us; just buy our books and leave nice reviews. When you enjoy reading a book, tell your friends. 

In return, we’ll write more and more books. We will fuel your need to read. We know your reading is also a habit that is impossible to break because we are doubly cursed. In addition to writing books, we are also readers.

All this month, join us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/567696843290957/ for the continuing launch party of NINE WAYS TO FALL IN LOVE. You can enter by commenting on our Facebook Launch Event Page or by signing up for our newsletter at www.southerncomfortromance.com. 

I hope by now you’ve purchased NINE WAYS TO FALL IN LOVE from Amazon. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can get an app for almost any reader via Amazon, or you can use Calibre free to convert the download for you.

Buy your boxed set of NINE WAYS TO FALL IN LOVE now at Amazon while the price is still only 99 cents http://www.amazon.com/Ways-To-Fall-Love-ebook/dp/B00ERAREBW/ref=sr_1_11?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1377740637&sr=1-11&keywords=caroline+clemmons