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Trains, Planes, and my new Boldwood Adventure by Jina Bacarr

July 11, 2019 by in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as , , , , , ,

I have a long history with trains.

Ever since I rode with my mom in a fancy private train compartment overnight (my dad’s company was paying for it) when I was a kid, I’ve loved train travel. The mystery, intrigue, the lulling clackety-clack of the train rolling down the tracks, taking you to a new adventure.

This time my love of trains is taking me on an adventure with BOLDWOOD Books. You’ll be hearing more about this fabulous opportunity in the coming months. Here’s my Author Page at Boldwood.

I’ve ridden on fast trains, slow trains, subways here and abroad, always enjoying the journey itself. So it’s no wonder I wrote a time travel where the heroine goes back in time aboard a train.

Travel back in time on the “Mistletoe Flyer”

I’m in the middle of finishing up the edits, so time is a bit scrunched this month, but I wanted to share with you this “blast from the past.” I believe I was on a Swiss train in the picture, but the only old train ticket I could find quickly was a ticket to Paris when I lived in Pisa.

Here is an Instagram post I thought you might enjoy.

And I’m participating in a promotion this month with Aileen Harwood’s Bookwrapt promos. Here’s where the planes come in: my novella in the book fair is COME FLY WITH ME about a girl who meets a guy at 30,000 feet on New Year’s Eve and sparks fly! Just 99 cents. Some fabulous prizes! CLICK HERE for info and to enter.

Gotta go back to editing…exciting times ahead!

Jina

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Christmas in June…seriously? by Jina Bacarr UPDATED

June 11, 2019 by in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

Can’t wait to tell you about my exciting new adventure with this fab publisher!

I’m sitting here at my computer with thoughts of sugar plum fairies dancing in my head…

Hearing jingle bells as I type.

And drinking hot coffee with a cinnamon stick.

No, I’m not lost in the Twilight Zone. I’m traveling back in time to the holiday season during WW 2…

I can’t reveal all…yet.

More as it happens…

Jina

PS I’ll update the page as I get more news.

UPDATE: Tuesday June 18, 2019 is the day the publisher will be making a formal announcement re: their upcoming books!!

I’ll be able to reveal my story then…stay tuned.

2nd UPDATE:***************June 18, 2019 PDT

I’ve been on London Time for days and this is my first chance to update my post…Yes, London. Like in William and Kate, Harry and Megan — because I feel like an American royal! My new publisher is London-based BOLDWOOD Books.

It’s so exciting to be a part of this new adventure.

So hold tight and I’ll give you all the fab details.

————-

Here’s the scoop about Boldwood Books with all their wonderful authors…including me!

Amazing…

I feel like an American royal!

 

My first book with Boldwood is a WW 2 Christmas story about love lost and time travel…what if you could go back in time and save the man you love from being killed on a secret mission in France?

My heroine, Kate Arden, gets that chance.’

Kate travels back in time aboard a magic Christmas train

More on “Christmas Once Again” and the amazing Boldwood Books next month!

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It’s A ‘Short And Sweet’ Mother’s Day!

May 12, 2019 by in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby, Writing tagged as ,
Blog Post title graphic It's A Short and Sweet Mother's Day by Denise M. Colby

Today is Mother’s Day. I was very excited when I realized my monthly post fell on this special day. I knew immediately what I wanted to write about. So first, I want to wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day, whether you are a mom or you have a mom (which we all do, even if they are no longer with us!)

This is my first Mother’s Day since my mom passed.

I have to admit, it’s really weird. But as a mom myself, I’m celebrating with my kids and my mother-in-law, and thinking about my mom in so many ways.

A quote for Mother's Day by Mitch Albom - Behind all your stories is always your mother's story. Because hers is where yours begin

I’ve actually written a lot about her this past year. Writing is therapeutic, so maybe writing about her has been part of my healing process. So given it’s Mother’s Day, I figured you wouldn’t mind if I wrote about her, again.

After all, she is my mom!

Book Cover for Short and Sweet's Family Album By Susan Cheeves King. Article #47 Thank You Mom by Denise M. Colby
A collection of stories with special emphasis on mothers, fathers, and grandparents.

Even though I miss my mom, I have much to be thankful for this Mother’s Day, including a new article published in the 6th edition of the Short and Sweet series, titled Short and Sweet’s Family Album. All of the articles and poems are written about family members and each article is in one word syllables.

My article is all about my mom, titled Thanks To Mom

I had originally wrote it as a poem a few years back (which I posted last July in the post Smile and Be Grateful In The Little Things when my mom passed away). 

Since it was not included when my first article was published in the 3rd edition, which I wrote about in this post, I was quite excited to be contacted for this issue.

The back cover of the book Short and Sweet's Family Album by Susan Cheeves King, Includes article by Denise M. Colby titled Thank You Mom
60 authors wrote each piece using only one-syllable words or words of fewer than six letters

The editor asked me to rewrite it in prose vs a poem, so it’s completely different than the poem, even though the underlying theme is the same. I was even able to include a picture of my mom and myself.

It’s special to me, that I’ve been able to write about her in such a permanent way.

And it’s special to me, that I have yet another publishing credit to my name! I love being a part of the Short and Sweet family.

And Mother’s Day is a perfect time to celebrate both my mom and my writing.

Have a blessed day!

Denise

A quote for Mother's Day by Abraham Lincoln - all that i am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother

Books by Denise Colby


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My First Audiobook Experience

January 12, 2019 by in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby, Writing tagged as , ,
My first audiobook experience Denise M. Colby blog post at Slice of Orange

I know I know. I ‘m late to the party. Audiobooks have been around for a while now and I know several people who prefer listening to reading, due to several reasons. And for just those reasons I’ve been wanting to try out an audiobook.  I just hadn’t had a moment to sit down and figure out which book, which app and what I would do while I listened.  

Some have asked me why I don’t just play a CD in my car, but our CD player has been broken for years, and most of the time the radio is off as I’m picking up and dropping off kids and having conversations with the family. Rarely am I in my vehicle long enough to get into a chapter or even a scene while driving.

So, I finally asked a friend who listens to books all the time to help me out. That accountability helped me to commit to trying out this new way of “reading”.

I decided to try the new Libby app from my library.

I was giddy with glee when I selected a book. I mean my house was a mess and I planned to listen while folding laundry and cleaning up things with the goal of wowing my husband while getting in a good story. All good plans, right?

With loads of excitement and anticipation, I opened the file and pushed play….and immediately picked up something to look at. 

My first audiobook experience blog post by Denise M. Colby on Slice of Orange

My eyes could not, not look at something. They felt lost. They were so used to being the medium with which I take in and process information, they didn’t know what to do with themselves.  

I found it actually quite weird. 

And funny.  

So it took me a bit to get going.  

And as I kept going, I kept picking things up to look at and it would take me out of the story. So I had to learn to not take in things with my eyes. At one point I thought this might be a good sense stretcher for me in not being so dependent on my eyes. I tend to need to see something in order to remember it.

Listening is harder for me.  And this exercise confirmed it.

And then my mind couldn’t get used to the voice. It sounded completely different than how I read in my head. I’ll admit, since it’s my first one, I didn’t know if they all sounded like this or not, but I do know when I read, I say phrases differently. 

So that took some getting used to as well.

My first audiobook experience blog post by Denise M. Colby on Slice of Orange

The whole experience was not what I was expecting.

Quite frequently, I would get focused on my task and not quite hear the phrase read, but then I had no idea how to rewind. By the time I figured it out, the story had moved forward quite a bit, and I didn’t know how far back to go. I found myself not remembering the story as well, either. 

When I come across brilliant writing, I love to read over the passage a few times. Savor it. Let it sink in. Slow. Fast. It varies based on how my brain absorbs it.

Again, with listening, I was past the section before I knew what to do about it. I finally figured out I could tap my app and back up 10 seconds, and I tried the rewind a few times, but it just didn’t have the same affect for me. Also, I still felt challenged as my hands were busy while I was listening, and I found I couldn’t get to my phone fast enough. By the time I did, the story had moved on. Again.

But I felt I missed something. Deeply.

The first day, I got a good way into the story (and caught up with my laundry) and looked forward to the next session. But I found out that when you don’t have a habit you have to be very purposeful to keep doing it. I needed my headset handy, my phone charged, no one in need of anything and all of it to come together for me to connect again. It seemed the times I had available to listen, I couldn’t get those things all to line up together. It made it a bit challenging, but I persevered.

There were several things I noticed:  

My First Audiobook Experience blog post by Denise M. Colby on Slice of Orange

1. Showing me how much time I had left to listen to the book made it feel more daunting.

Like a chore.

When I read and tell myself, “Just one more chapter”, I may take a long time but I’m not really keeping track. But the app? It told me right there — you have four more hours!

And I already spent four hours already. That’s like me pointing out to my boys when they watch videos. “You spent 25 minutes on that one video? That’s 15 minutes you could be working on your homework or cleaning your room.”

Yep, that voice! It was now yelling at me!

My First Audiobook Experience blog post by Denise M. Colby on slice of orange

2. I’m a fast reader, but when I sped up the voice, it felt rushed to me. 

Which made me laugh out loud.

The voice didn’t get higher pitched. It was still quite clear. Which made it sound like speed listening. And alas, I couldn’t process as well, which leads into…

3. I found it harder to process through my ears.

I can read a book with my eyes and tune something out but still be able to hear things. I couldn’t hear anything else when I was concentrating on the story in my ears. I guess I’m not a verbal learner. Also I like the voice I hear in my head. I envision a certain sound and what it sounds like. But with audio, you end up with the voice of the book in your head and I felt it took away for me. Not the fault of the voice actor, just it was so new and different for me to get used to.

My First Audiobook Experience blog post by Denise M. Colby on Slice of Orange

4. I felt like I was purposely tuning everyone out, not to enjoy my book, but so I wouldn’t hear them. 

It’s hard to have a moments peace in my house.

The dog wants out, the kids are asking a question. Unless I was home alone, I really couldn’t put my headphones in and just listen and absorb the book.

Also, I mostly read at night before I go to bed. It felt funny to me to put my headphones in with my husband in the room. It was like I was purposely tuning him out.  Shouldn’t be a big deal but it felt like it was.

I really didn’t want to read another book while listening to this one, but there were times it was just easier to pick up a book.

So I did. Then one day I went to listen and the book had gone back to the library.  It had been three weeks already! And I wasn’t even half way through.  I borrowed the book again and was able to keep plodding along to the end.

All in all, it took me much longer to get through this book than when I read. And the amount of time spent was there right in front of me.

I realize now, I prefer not knowing how much time I spend reading. To me, that’s part of the magic of reading. You get lost. Time gets lost. There’s no one keeping track.

My first audiobook experience blog post by Denise M. Colby on Slice of Orange

All in all I found the experience enlightening. I will do it again at some point, but my first choice is still picking up a book and reading it with my eyes.


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5 Tips for a Bewitching Halloween by Jina Bacarr

October 11, 2018 by in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as , , , , , , ,

Read about my speed date with a vampire at Charmed Connection on FB coming this Halloween

Got your Halloween costume? Not yet?

Whether you’re going out with a gorgeous man or with your girlfriends, it’s a time to shine. Once you have your costume, here are 5 Halloween tips for the big night:

1 – Pick a costume that reveals enough of you, but not too much. As a famous stripper once said, “It’s not what you take off, it’s how you do it.” It’s all about the tease.

2 – If you enjoy a cocktail or two, any alcohol at all, this is a no brainer. Don’t drive. That’s what Uber is for.

3 – Eyelash glue – pack an extra tube. There’s nothing more humiliating than your date finding your soggy false eyelashes in his brew or stuck on his forehead after that big kiss. Bring a tiny bag with your makeup essentials that you can wear unnoticed on your costume or around your wrist.

4 – Carry a small amount of cash—in your bra, strapped to your thigh—along with a credit card even if you have a date (in case he turns out to be a ghoul).

5 — Shoes. Wear the stilettos, but somewhere have a pair of comfy but cute flats stashed. In your car, his car, a Halloween-decorated purse. Your feet will thank you at the witching hour.

I love Halloween and I’ve had my share of crazy dates. So when the Charmed Writers headed up by the fabulous Tari-Lynn Porter-Jewett decided to have a Facebook Halloween Event over at
The Charmed Connection Halloween Event 2018
https://www.facebook.com/events/2356229577739205/

Hosted by Tari Lynn Porter-Jewett

I signed up to write Flash Fiction. My story is called: My Speed Date with a Vampire.
We’re still finalizing the details, so I’ll update here as we get closer to Halloween!
Till then, Happy Halloween!

Special treat: here’s a video I made with a Halloween twist for my erotic romance Spice novel, “Naughty Paris.”

Amazon: Naughty Paris
by Jina Bacarr
Link: http://a.co/d/hB9zdBG

Music: “Duet Musette”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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