Meriam Wilhelm: August Featured Author of the Month
August 1, 2018 by Meriam Wilhelm in category Writing tagged as August, Author of the Month, Featured author, Meriam Wilhelm, Witches of New Moon Beach
Meriam Wilhelm: August Featured Author of the Month
For thirty-five years, Meriam Wilhelm worked in education. From high school teacher to college dean to her favorite job of elementary school principal, she took an excitingly non-traditional pathway, always passionate about shaping young minds.
When she retired, something magical happened. Wilhelm was bitten by the writing bug and her chosen genre was paranormal romance – specifically of the witchy persuasion. Now, six books into The Witches of New Moon Beach series, she is bringing her passion for learning to her new profession.
A world traveler, Wilhelm has researched the history and culture of witchcraft and found inspiration as far away as Bergen, Norway and as close as her home town. A Redondo Beach resident, she decided there was no better location for her family of witches to reside than the beaches outside her own front door. “I think there is magic in everyone you meet,” Wilhelm says. “You just have to look for it.”
In her case, you also must write about that magic. Currently, Wilhelm is working on book seven, The Witch of Bergen. She is the recipient of the Paranormal Romance Guild Reviewers Choice Award. She is married and the mother of three grown children and a brand-new grandma. When not writing or traveling, Meriam Wilhelm can be found at her sewing machine, at yoga class or, of course, reading.
Book Review: The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian
July 27, 2018 by A Slice of Orange in category Writing tagged as Beauty and the Beast, Cat Sebastian. gay romance, Regency romance
In this captivating Regency romance, Cat Sebastian crafts a many-layered love story reminiscent of a rejuvenated tale of Beauty and the Beast. The story of Radnor and Georgie delights with winsome, finely-tuned prose that renders the narrative sexy, dashing, funny, and deeply poignant.
From the book description:
An earl hiding from his future . . .
Lawrence Browne, the Earl of Radnor, is mad. At least, that’s what he and most of the village believes. A brilliant scientist, he hides himself away in his family’s crumbling estate, unwilling to venture into the outside world. When an annoyingly handsome man arrives at Penkellis, claiming to be Lawrence’s new secretary, his carefully planned world is turned upside down.
A swindler haunted by his past . . .
Georgie Turner has made his life pretending to be anyone but himself. A swindler and con man, he can slip into an identity faster than he can change clothes. But when his long-dead conscience resurrects and a dangerous associate is out for blood, Georgie escapes to the wilds of Cornwall. Pretending to be a secretary should be easy, but he doesn’t expect that the only madness he finds is the one he has for the gorgeous earl.
Can they find forever in the wreckage of their lives?
Challenging each other at every turn, the two men soon give into the desire that threatens to overwhelm them. But with one man convinced he is at the very brink of madness and the other hiding his real identity, only true love can make this an affair to remember.
When I was in college, my drug of choice was not pot or beer – it was Beauty and the Beast. The Disney cartoon. I would watch it on a loop as I pulled an all-nighter or pop it into the VCR when I needed to relax and remember sanity. While I was always aware of what bothered me about the story, I successfully muffled my misgivings. Like the whole kidnapping angle, for instance. Not an auspicious start to a romance. And quite frankly, the theme of the whole story raises my hackles – a boorish male kidnaps a young woman and treats her terribly, but they fall in love and then he turns into a handsome prince. Just writing it out makes me feel a bit sick. Because let’s face it, a boorish man who treats you terribly tends to get worse, not better, as the relationship progresses. And thinking you can change a beast into a price is a dark road to go down.
So why do I love the story so? A line from the song “Beauty and the Beast” by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken best explains my love for this story: “Barely even friends, Then somebody bends Unexpectedly.” I love the unfurling of the relationship, the quiet thrill of two characters discovering one another, and realizing what is most essential about the other person. Is there a book-loving woman alive who doesn’t swoon when The Bet presents Belle with his entire library?
The most wonderful thing about The Lawrence Browne Affair (and there are MANY wonderful things) is that it tells a Beauty and the Beast story without all of the disturbing elements. The Beast – the “mad” Earl of Radnor, does not kidnap Georgie and then scream and yell and frighten his victim just because he is so angry at his own bad choices and where they have led. Yes, Radnor is gruff with Georgie, a secretary he did not invite – and does not want – in his home. Radnor’s manners can be gruff, but evidence of his life-long decency and compassion reveals itself throughout the story. And far from kidnapping Georgie, Radnor has Georgie foisted upon him and once Georgie is there, he just won’t seem to leave.
Once they are together in the crumbling mansion, each man’s personality, history, and motives become less murky, and as they begin to fall for one another, these characters crystalize into unexpectedly brilliant gems. And Sebastian keeps the twists coming throughout the book, as more and more gets revealed about each character, and as the life of each man evolves in tune with the other.
Sebastian has written many books, and I confess I love them all. The Lawrence Browne Affair is my favorite. Each book of hers if sexy, funny, richly poignant, and so deftly written! Each of her books in a stand-alone read and the books in Cat Sebastian series do not need to be read in order. If you are looking for a new author to binge-read, I dare say, you might just have found her. Happy reading, indeed!
Smile And Be Grateful In The Little Things
July 12, 2018 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby, Writing tagged as #amwriting, Be Grateful, poem, Smile, writing life
I had planned to have completed the third post in my “How to Maximize the SEO Potential of your Website Images” this month, but things got a bit derailed for me when my mom’s health took a turn.
Instead, I found myself sitting in her nursing home room with lots of family and nurses coming and going at all hours. Even though I lugged my backpack back and forth, I never pulled out my laptop. I couldn’t write. No quiet, no time, and my mind was just mush.
How did I come up with this post, then?
I rented a car to drive home and had over 6 hours by myself. So I made good use of the time with my handy voice recorder in my Notes APP where I preceded to share my thoughts about all that happened.
I’ll call it writing words with my voice.
I’d talk until I had nothing, then turn up the radio and sing a song. Then more would pop in my head and I’d talk some more. There was a lot. I hope to edit it and share it some day, but right now it’s pretty raw.
And once I got all my thoughts about my ailing parent and all that comes with this chapter of my life expended, my mind started to open up on my work in progress, and blog posts, and ideas for social media, and….I think you get the idea.
Remember, I had six hours.
And I probably could’ve used more.
One brainstorm was to write about enjoying the little things—like the color of my rental car.
It was green. And small. And quite cute. It made me smile, which was good because I needed to balance out the tears that kept flowing every time I thought about my mom and all that transpired.
Isn’t It Cute?
The rental car guy even joked that no one should hit me because they couldn’t see me.
I found myself wanting to have good driving behavior because I was the only green car on the road.
I stood out.
And it made me smile.
When I stopped for a snack, I smiled. Whenever I changed lanes, I smiled. When I stopped for gas….yep, I smiled.
We need to smile at the little things. Sometimes that’s all we can do.
I find a smile leads to a grateful heart. And I am immensely grateful to have had my mom in my life for as long as I did. Yes, my mom is no longer with us, her body no longer mangled and in pain. And she is finally reunited with Jesus and my dad. And that makes me grateful, which makes me smile. Or maybe it’s the other way around. It makes me smile and then I feel grateful. Both ways work for me.
My mom and her dog with my boys in 2008
I wanted to share a poem I wrote last year in her honor. It’s all written in one syllable words, which was quite fun to put together.
Thank You, Mom by Denise M. Colby
To be a mom is hard work. More than I thought it would be.
It was not till I was in the role, did I know by how much.
The trials. The hurt I take on for my child. The times I have to stay strong.
Now that I know, I want to say thank you to my mom.
For all she did. For all she gave. For the love she gave me.
Her words were kind, she backed me up when I had tough days.
She taught me how to read my bible and pray.
Her love meant more than just words to me.
She poured her heart and life into all I did.
She had pluck, pep and punch. She shared in my joys and woes.
She was there for me through it all.
She told me I made her proud to be my mom.
She held my hand. She hugged me and told me she loved me. I didn’t doubt it one bit. I knew.
My mom did cool things. She was fun. She showed up to all my acts and cheered me on.
I was in awe of her and looked to be like her when I grew up.
I hope I am.
She told me she loved me, hugged me, prayed with me.
She is my mom and I love her. And I hope she knows how much I thank her each day.
Thank you, Mom
Love you Mom.
My mom & me, 2008
The Power of a Restart – by Kitty Bucholtz
July 9, 2018 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing tagged as Goal Setting, Kitty Bucholtz, time management, Writing Goals, writing life
Since it’s early July, I’ve been thinking about and talking about and podcasting about hitting the Restart button. How have we been getting on with the writing goals we decided upon six months ago?
I know that I am way off from what I expected. Moving to another country will do that to you! So I’ve been thinking about how I want to adjust the year to finish with strong, achievable goals. I did a live broadcast presentation for the Yosemite Romance Writers in May, and decided to use the recording for a mid-year podcast. Here’s the link to the audio, and here’s the embedded video.
Right after I posted that episode, it occurred to me that it might be a good time for a personal goal review as well. When I started thinking about that for myself, I realized I had some changes to make in my life if I wanted to accomplish my new/biggest goal for the year – recovering from burnout.
Here is the link to the audio. And here is the video with my self-discovery. 😉
I’ve been getting a lot of feedback from people about the episodes where I’ve talked about my firsthand experience with burnout. (Here’s the embarrassingly honest look at my journey in audio and in video.) Now that I see how much it affects other people as well, I’m going to bring on more guests to talk about how to recover and how to avoid it. I hope my willingness to talk about both burnout and restarting helps others – you included! 😀
0 0 Read moreThe Author Store [Part Two]
July 5, 2018 by Tracy Reed in category Writing
Happy July…smile.
Last month I started talking about my Author Store. I finally have it up and running. That’s the good news. Now for the bad or not as good as I would like it news. No sales, yet. However, there’s been plenty of traffic. Last month the store had almost one thousand visitors. YEAH! But no sales so far.
I have to admit I thought this would be easy, especially because I come from a retail background. What I forgot is this is a new venture and most new ventures need time to garner momentum.
So what’s my plan? Post about the store on social media. Run Facebook ads and possibly reach out to some bloggers and do giveaways.
I’m also working on a marketing campaign for the boxes. The Facebook ads are great and so are the blog posts and mentions, but it’s that in your face mentality that will hopefully generate sales.
Here’s a little info on my Author Store. I’m using Shopify. I already have a store on Shopify and feel comfortable with them. They have amazing customer service.
Before I switched to Shopify, I designed my own site in Adobe Muse. I liked it, but when I decided to offer signed print books as well as set up a store, I knew I had to switch to a shopping cart system. I could have gotten Shopify Lite, which would allow me to add a cart to my existing site for only $9.99 per month. It was too complicated to attach my old site to this vehicle. Instead, I opted for the basic Shopify plan which gave me more options.
Switching to Shopify gave me access to some really amazing templates and things I wasn’t able to do with Adobe Muse. One of the cool things about using one of their FREE templates, is you can adjust it for your needs. I did some minor tweaking to a free template and was very surprised when Shopify complimented me.
Another added perk to using Shopify, is the KIT VA Bot. This is one of my favorite tools. Kit sends me data based on internet activity and how it might relate to the products in my store. As well as marketing suggestions. I’ve tried Kit on Facebook Ads, but they weren’t as targeted as I’d hope. However, Kit is good for social media posts. Shopify also offers pretty good analytics. They may not be as detailed as Google, but they’re pretty good. There are other website hosts you can use, but Shopify happens to be my favorite.
So what’s in my store? I have curated a small selection of items to start: A mug, book plates and subscription boxes. In the next few months, if not sooner, I’ll be adding exclusive print books. I don’t want to overload my readers with a lot of choices in the beginning. I want to keep things fresh, which may mean rotating the inventory.
In the beginning, there will be a lot of trial and error and much needed feedback as to what to offer. But I believe my Author Store will become a valuable and profitable asset for me.
If you’d like to see my store, stop by www.readtracyreed.com.
Have an amazing month.
0 0 Read moreFeatured Books
A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN
"A woman walks into a crowded Manhattan bar and meets a nice southern gentleman." That sounds like the beginning of a bad joke or the beginning of an intriguing love story.
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