It's a sad day. The world lost the author of one of the all time great children's stories. Maurice Sendak, author of "Where the Wild Things Are" died at 83 from complications with a stroke. My son Max absolutely adored this book. I pray he is in a better place. God bless.

ASIN: 0060254920 Where the Wild Things Are     Product Type: Book          List Price: $ 17.95          Amazon's Price: $ 10.77          You Save: $ 7.18 Buy Now!

I woke up this morning with the urge to write. What an amazing feeling. I could've went back to sleep after my son left for school, but the muse whispered in my ear. Maybe this is the end of the slump. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

French vanilla Cappi steaming in my WDC mug and MS Word open .... let the creativity flow.

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My debut novel, CLUB JUSTICE, became available tonight on Amazon in paperback! The e-book version should be live by tomorrow! This has been a huge dream of mine. The butterflies are dueling! LOL This has been a dream of mine for so long. I can't believe it is finally happening. I certainly have to thank WDC for all I've learned here and the amazing support of its members! I hope you will give my baby a shot and let me know what you think!

ASIN: 1475007736 Club Justice     Product Type: Book          List Price: $ 12.99          Amazon's Price: $ 12.99 Buy Now!

ASIN: B007O0AYUA CLUB JUSTICE (The Trinity Falls Series)     Product Type: eBooks          Amazon's Price: Price N/A Buy Now!

Berenstain Bears co-creator Jan Berenstain died Friday. I remember reading the Berenstain Bears books when I was a child. Books like this helped fuel my love of reading, and I'm sure that of generations of kids. The article I read talking about Jan's death said that more than 260 million copies of the popular books have been published. She will be missed, but her legacy lives on.

 

Conflict is paramount in a good story. As much as we love our characters we must put roadblocks in their way, creating hardship and drama, to write a compelling tale. In thinking about the plot for the second book in my Trinity Falls Series this week, I've been pondering crisis and climax, looking for "THE BIG ONE," and then real life reared its head and threatened to bring a friend to her knees. While my heart broke, it reminded me that sometimes it's the little things that pile up and tumble like dominoes.

I'm sure most of you have had those times in your life when you throw up your hands and ask yourself "What else could go wrong?" "Could things get any worse?" I know I always knock on wood after asking that last one. It always seems things can, and do, get worse before better. Your problems don't have to be big things. Maybe alone none of them would even be a blip on the radar, but combined, they bury you. The same is true for your characters. Stop and think about consequences. You make one mistake and everything snowball’s from there.

An everyday example could be making an accounting error in your checkbook. What starts out a simple mathematical error causes a check or more to bounce. Each bounced check results in a thirty to thirty-five dollar overdraft fee. When you're short of funds to begin with, this just adds insult to injury. The fees add up, cutting into the money you have for the next week’s bills and make you short. If this is your story, what happens then? Does your hero/heroine bounce more checks in an effort to catch up, piling on the fees? Maybe there's no money for groceries. Without gas money they can't get to work, which puts them further in the hole. How embarrassing is it when the school starts calling because there are no funds in your child's lunch account? Does your character's electric get turned off? Does the bank threaten to repo their car or foreclose on their house? It is the domino effect.

This is just one example, but I think you see where I’m going. One tiny error and you can lose everything. If you can see the reality, so can your readers. Create conflict that they relate to. Your readers will bond with the characters as they go through trials and tribulations that they themselves have been through or fear. Building this connection will draw your audience in and invoke their heart, and that is what makes for a great story.

Love & Creativity!



 

I'm very excited to announce that I launched my new author website today!

S. L. Britton recently published her ebook, "Blood Feud" on Amazon! It is a vampire/human romance involving a modern day VanHelsing as your heroine. You can check it out at the link below and don't miss the fabulous cover art by our very own iKïyå§ama !

ASIN: B006GDX08Y Blood Feud     Product Type: eBooks          Amazon's Price: Price N/A Buy Now!

I've been busy this past week with preparations for both Christmas and Club Justice. My family will all be home this year! My youngest brother is a MP and just returned from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He will be stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri now, but will be bringing his wife and two sons home to Indiana for a visit. The second to the youngest will be coming in from a more tame local of Houston, but we will be happy to see him just the same! LOL The other three of us just stayed right here. *wink*

Between the phone calls, emails, and texts that surround this time of year I have found little time to write. Don't think I have been idle though! I commissioned a book cover made for Club Justice that I can use to publish it in ebook format and in part for print through CreateSpace. So part of those emails flying was looking at mockups, requesting changes, and trying to bring the vision/dream in my head to fruition. I also spent a lot of time looking into CreateSpace. If anyone has any experience with it I would LOVE to hear about it, bad or good.

Other than that ... I've sent the MS to a trusted friend for a read over for story line and have spoke with another who is very good at proofreading for both content and technical aspects. I don't expect anyone to have time until after the first of the year, but it feels good to be shuffling forward in my quest. So that is my update. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and are gifted with family, love, and creativity.

Love,


 

Yes I have been writing something, just not BLOG entries! LOL 87,608 words of blood, sweat, and tears! Finishing felt AMAZING! I was on top of the world. I read through it, start to finish tweaking and editing, and loved it! *Thank God I trusted my writing partner in those moments of doubt* Call it vanity, but it is a good feeling to read back over your work and enjoy it.

So, with that finished, I have a couple people that have agreed to read over it and offer their thoughts and expertise. *hugs!* However, what no one warned me of ... now comes the hard part. What do I do with my baby now? Do I go for ease and instant gratification and put it up on Amazon through the KDP program, or do I shop it around to try and find a publisher interested? It doesn't fall easily into a genre category. The tale is of family and love. It involves drama, crime, & passion. Maybe the encompassing mainstream? Ughhh I'm in uncharted waters here people. Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated!

I lost my beloved brindle Pitbull/Boxer this morning. I had let him out this morning and the goofy thing bolted into the field. I figured he would go for a run and be back at the door with his tongue hanging out by the time I was ready to take my son to school. He didn't come back. I found him along the road when I went to pull out of the drive. I loved Keller more than any dog I've ever had. I'm heart broken. There will never be another like him. RIP my Keller love.

I have been working on a Novel on and off for the past three years. More off then on it seems as I realized I had just 15k at the beginning of 2011 and here I am at 81k and nearing the end. LOL The funny thing is that I've known all along that the main male character's name was wrong. I know, right? How can that be? I don't know, but it was. The crazy thing is I have also wrote several short stories, a back and forth with another writer that ended up around 200k, and started two OTHER longer pieces that probably total another 100k ... ALL with these characters.

Over the three years I've considered a lot of names, but never found one that was just right. As I've gotten closer to finishing the novel I've started obsessing over the NAME. I looked at webpages of baby names and made lists and still I couldn't find that name that clicked for me and this character. FINALLY ... I went to bed Tuesday night with a name in mind that I was fairly happy with and plans to make the change on Wednesday, my day off and big writing day. Wouldn't you know it ... I was almost asleep and THE NAME popped into my head!!! *Does the Snoopy dance*

I was so excited that I woke my poor husband up to tell him. As he has to get up at 4:00 am ... his excitement was a bit restrained, but he tried. LOL I tried to lay back down and go to sleep, but that was a no go. Then came ... What if I didn't remember the name in the morning? Surely I would. But what if I didn't. Maybe send myself an email by text message. What if that doesn't go through for some reason? Okay ... maybe I will just get up, go to my desk and write the name on a sticky. Uhhh huhhh

I ended up firing up the lap top and doing a Find and Replace to finally give my main character the name he deserves. For those that know him ... Clay is now Zeke. There you have it. I hope that those of you who have come to love Ginny and her husband will understand and love Zeke as I do.


 

If anyone is looking for a good read to curl up with as the weather turns, check out author, Chevy Stevens. I had purchased her debut novel,"Still Missing," this summer on a shopping trip and never got around to it. I read it last week and it was amazing! I picked her 2nd book, "Never Knowing," up from the library yesterday afternoon and finished it today. It was that good!
 

Tough times ... we all have them. Why is it that it seems when you are down the problems pile on? The past year and a half my husband and I have worked hard to turn things around. Bills were being paid on time, no credit card bills, and we even managed to have a tiny cushion in the bank. They say most of us are an unexpected expense away from financial hardship. They aren't wrong. My hubby had to have knee surgery. Suddenly we had to come up with $1500 upfront. There went the cushion. He was off work for 2 1/2 weeks and we still haven't seen a disability check. We get his check today from his first week back and it is $90 light because they took out 3 weeks of insurance deductions instead of the normal one. I have a stack of medical bills and 1/2 of this months regular bills left and it's the 30th. I had to let the landlord know that they won't have rent on the 1st. That hurt. Living paycheck to paycheck catches up with you when there is no paycheck. The stress builds until I just feel like I am crawling out of my skin.

Lord, but I miss the days that I could lose myself in my writing and just escape. What changed? When I write the stress is still there. I find myself agonizing over every word and piece of punctuation. ( THE DAMN COMMAS!!! ) When did writing stop just being fun? Am I treating it like a job because I dream of having a novel published? Is it the stress from life bleeding over? I'm not sure. All I can say is I miss the days when I couldn't wait to get to the computer, when I gobbled dinner after work and ran for my desk. I've never been a fast writer, but I could churn out 4-5 pages in an evening without problem. Lately I've failed to even make one. What's changed? I wish I knew.
 

Ever have one of those stories where the title just eludes you?? I would love reviews on my newest piece to get some opinions and if anyone has any suggestions for a better title I would be grateful. If I use your idea I will send a little reward your way for creative input!

ID: 1806544   (Rated: 18+) Fate & Family  Fate brings two women together as friends and so much more. ~8/2011 Short Shots Winner by Mara ♣ McBain

It was a bittersweet day ... bitter for my 14 year old son who went back to school today and SWEET for me who had the whole house to myself for a productive day of writing!
 

The Erotica Quarterly that contains "The Kiss of Leather"  and "Blind Need"  is out and available on Amazon!

ASIN: 1617061158 Erotica Quarterly (July 2011)     Product Type: Book          List Price: $ 9.99          Amazon's Price: $ 4.69          You Save: $ 5.30 Buy Now!

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.~~Arthur Polotnik