Along the way, though, I plan to release box sets of both my completed series. “Taking His Measure: The complete Bendixon Sisters Series” may come out as early at next month, while I plan to launch the box set of the Silverberry Seduction Series this fall. So don’t worry – you’ll still be hearing from me this year! PG Forte has a special release coming next week, so you know she’s on the job. Hop over to her blog to see what else she has planned for 2024!
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In a lot of ways, September feels more like the start of a new year than January. I’m sure it has to do with the decades of years either going to school or shepherding my children off to their new classrooms. Even without kids at home, though, the end of summer and the start of cooler nights signals a “back to normal” vibe that hasn’t faded. Which is what makes this week’s topic on the Romance Writers Weekly blog hop rather appropriate, I thought, since the beginning of a new year often means setting goals and resolutions. What are your goals for the next six or even 12 months? What books are you working on? What's next for you? At first, I thought I’d have only a couple things to mention in answer to this question. I’m not currently writing anything, which is where I usually focus my goals. But while my brain seems to have declared it is taking a writing sabbatical, I’ve realized I still have a lot on the go for the next several months. Here the (not comprehensive, because I’m sure I’ve forgotten something) list…
Then hop over to Leslie Hachtel and see what she has lined up in her future!
This week’s Romance Writer’s Weekly topic is both super easy and super hard. Create a bucket list of the places you want to visit, the new experiences you want to try, or the goals you want to achieve before reaching a certain age or before you kick the bucket. The easy part is there are so many. The hard part is where to start! Therefore, in no particular order, here are ten things on my Bucket List (though you can assume there are many, many more!)
Obviously travelling is high on my list and experiences slightly lower. But as I said, there are so MANY things I want to do I couldn’t list them all, and these are just the ones that were top of mind this morning. How about you? What’s on your bucket list? Let me know in the comments below, then hop over to Leslie Hachtel for the next stop on the RWW Blog Hop. My next release will be featured in the anthology A SEASON FOR LOVE featuring contemporary romances with characters in their forties, fifties, and beyond. Pre Order now to have it arrive on your e-reader March 1.
Check out Leslie's romantic suspense, Murder Most Notorious. A beautiful homicide detective and a sexy cold case guy have to team up to find a vicious axe-wielding killer. Brutal murders have shocked the city and all the evidence points to a twin sister once thought dead. So many twists and turns in this action packed romantic thriller. And so much passion! Get it now! Last week we looked ahead at what a shiny new year might bring. This week we’re looking back. Our topic is: How did you get to where you are today? Share the story of your professional journey, the roadblocks you encountered along the way, and your strategy for overcoming those obstacles. When I first read this challenge, I was a little deflated. To me, it was directed at someone who had already achieved their goals, had already become a success (as defined by them, not others). But upon reflection, I realized it is also directed at someone like me who is still on the journey. I have what I think is a reasonable goal for my writing career – that each book I publish pays for its own hard costs within a month of release. It is a little disheartening to admit I haven’t achieved that yet. But when I look at where I started, I can see how much I have achieved, and that dollars aren’t the only gauge of success. I’d always wanted to write a book. I was 44 years old when my first romance was released…and now I have 10 published books with 3 waiting in the wings. That is definitely a win! It's amazing what writing 500 words a day can do! I have made wonderful author friends along the way, authors who are generous with their time and talent and advice. I’m not in this crazy business alone. I have learned craft and studied structure and discovered that writing is as much an art as it is a skill. And from day one I’ve had the support of my family. My children tell their friends their mom is a writer, which makes my heart burst. My parents read every single book. My husband bought me my first laptop, reads early drafts of each of my stories, and is a constant source of encouragement. I have cousins and in-laws and friends who read my stories and tell me how much they like them (admittedly, sometimes with surprise in their tone, but I’m okay with that LOL!) I don’t think I’ve experienced any true roadblocks on my journey. I’ve certainly taken detours and occasionally had to backtrack and try again, but I don’t consider those events roadblocks. They are just part of the journey, like take a shortcut that ends up in a totally different place than you’d expect. My strategy from the start has been simple: Write the best book I can. Publish it. Repeat. I’m still enjoying the journey. And I’m so glad you’ve come along for the ride. Be sure to hop over to A.S. Fenichel to learn more of her story. I am thrilled to be included in this upcoming box set. A SEASON FOR LOVE is available to pre order now! Sometimes forever begins after forty. A collection of fiery and passionate contemporary romances featuring characters in their 40’s, 50’s and beyond. These authors don’t close the bedroom door on the good stuff, so be prepared to get hot and bothered in the best of ways. After all, lust has no age limit! From billionaires and alpha military heroes to nerds and single dads, this limited-edition collection of sensual and sexy stories will keep you up all night and daydreaming all day! The one thing they have in common? They’re about to discover it’s never too late to fall in love. Including Stories from: USA Today bestselling authors Stephanie Morris, Phoebe Alexander, Krista Ames, Debra Elise, Dawn Brower, Melonie Johnson As well as: Simone Leigh, Jami Denise, PE Kavanagh, Judy Kentrus, Karen Nappa, Brenda Margriet, Shai August, Lisa Wood, Jordan Elizabeth, PG Forte Jennie Kew, Allyson R Abbott, Mellanie Szereto Congratulations, A.S. Fenichel! Today is VENGEANCE release day! The final book of the Demon Hunter series if finally here. The demon master is out for revenge, and the gates of hell are flung wide. Only the purest love can force him back… After a debilitating injury leaves Brice Lambert in agony, he's relegated to teaching others to hunt demons. He knows all the secrets of the demon war and plans to die for the cause. Never did he expect his dreams of a loving wife and big family to come true, but the very witch who healed his leg is capturing his heart. Abigail Higginbotham's extraordinary power elicits fear and mistrust from the very people who should love her. Instead, they shuffled her around, depriving her of family and coven alike. Joining the Company of demon hunters brings her the closest thing to a family she has ever had. Forbidden to love, she risks losing everything for the man who has loved her for many lifetimes. Together, they must find the key to seal the gates of Hell and lock out the demon master forever. Fail, and mankind is doomed. Succeed, and face death in the pit of Hell. A small price to pay for eternal love. Get it now! I just spent fifteen minutes writing and discarding introductions to this week’s topic. I give up, so I'm just going to dive in. This week on the Blog Hop, A.S. Fenichel says: December seems like a good time to tell us all about your writing plans for next year. Tell us what’s upcoming and why you’re excited about it. I am really hoping to finish my current work-in-progress before Christmas. That means I will have worked on three manuscripts this year, which for me is amazing. That includes AFTER WORDS, which I completed in January and published in September. The other two stories are what I am planning to release to the world in 2021, and I am very excited about both of them! RICHLY DESERVED will be the second in my TIMELESS Season Romance Collection. I need to write the formal description still, but here’s the gist: Claudia owns a frame shop and is opening a private gallery. Titus is the artist she lures into doing her grand opening exhibition. They become involved in a mystery that involves Barkerville gold miners and long-lost artwork. I just sent the second draft off to my editor, and I’m hoping to release this in March of next year. THE ROOTS OF THINGS will by my third seasoned romance. It revolves around the search for a child given up for adoption sixty years ago. Aubrey and Phillip, the main characters, are the daughter and nephew of the birth parents, now in their 80’s, who are reunited in a seniors residence. They have their own troubled past, and I am having a lot of fun exploring their relationship. The plan would be to release this book in September 2021. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that plans can change at a moments notice. But having goals is healthy, as long as you can roll with the punches, be flexible, and look for the positives. Now hop on over to Jenna Da Sie to see what fun she has in store for next year! Make sure you don't miss out on any book announcements by joining my newsletter! I usually only send it out once a month unless I have really exciting news. You get a free short story just for signing up, will be able to tag along on my dog-walking adventures, find out what I'm reading when I should be working, and other randomness…along with all my writing news, of course! Just click here. Welcome to 2020, and another year of the Romance Weekly Blog Hop. This week, Elizabeth Schechter rather creatively asks: “New Year, Who Dis?” Obviously, she wants to know about our New Year’s plans and resolutions LOL! If you joined me from Clair Brett, welcome! I’m not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions, or, to be honest, in any kind of goal setting. Most of my life I worked in a job that had firmly defined deadlines, so I am more used to working to a specific date than an overarching result. That’s going to change this year. As of January 1, 2020, I am no longer working for anyone else – I am working for me. I’m focusing on my writing and trying to make this author gig pay for itself – and maybe a few other bills, too! Here are a few of my goals and intentions (not resolutions) for this year:
I signed my first contract with a publisher in February 2012. Since then I’ve released seven books, which, considering I also had a full-time job and a busy family, I am very proud of. But those two things have also been excuses (reasonable ones, of course, but still excuses) for not doing more with my writing career. Well, now that all my children are grown and I no longer have another job, there are no excuses. 2020 is my year to see if I can do this thing I love and make it pay. What about you? Do you have big goals this year? Let me know below (I'll be sure to reply to your comment). Then hop over to AJ Andersen Author and see what plans she has for 2020! Mountain Fire is 99 cents for a limited time! Later this month, Mountain Fire is moving to Kindle Unlimited. Right now, it is available for just 99 cents at all retailers. After January 15, it will no longer be available anywhere except Amazon, so if you haven't picked up your copy yet now is a great time to do so. You can read an excerpt here, or all buylinks are here. This was my first ever published book. When I re-published it in 2017, I added scenes and made a few minor revisions. I hope you enjoy it! We’re back! The Romance Writers Weekly Blog Hop starts up a gain for 2019, and I’m leading things of. This is the time of year to set goals. But I think it is important make sure those goals are realistic and achievable, or all we do is set ourselves up for failure. What achievable goals are you setting for yourself this year? If you joined me from Dani Jace, welcome! Many of us have heard the term SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. I think this is where a lot of people fail in their New Year's resolutions—they make them too broad (I’m going to exercise more this year) or so difficult they immediately fail (I’m never going to forget the kids at school) (Okay, maybe that last one isn’t THAT hard) that they give up almost before they’ve started. When I am writing a new manuscript, my goal is 500 words a day, seven days a week. If things are going really well, I let myself have one day off. I came up with the number by analyzing how long I wrote each evening (I only have so much energy after the day job and family chores) and also by my long-term goals for my writing. Since I don’t do it full time, I only expect myself to complete one manuscript a year. At 500 words a day, I can complete an 80,000 word novel in about five and a half months, which allows plenty for revisions, beta reading and more revisions within my one year timeline. I haven't released a new book since April 2016, as I’ve been working on a trilogy of romances about the Bendixon Sisters. While Book Three is still in revisions, Books One and Two are done from a writing standing point. This year, I’m setting myself the following goal: Release Bendixon Sisters Series in 2019: Allegro Court in March, Gateway Crescent in June, Crossroads Corner in September. Bonus Goal: Release an e-book Box Set in December. I’ve now independently published three books, so I know how much work goes into each. I have to line up reviewers to read advanced copies, hoping to have reviews pop up on my release day. I’ll have to buy some advertising to let people know what’s going on. I need to reactivate my newsletter. And there’s so much more. But all those things are subsidiaries to the main goal of releasing all three books this year. If I can do that, I’ll have achieved my goal, and have something solid to celebrate. What about you? What achievable goal are you hoping to reach this year? Leave a comment below, and I'll send you a sneak peak of the cover of Allegro Court before I reveal it on social media. And don't forget to keep the hop going with Leslie Hachtel - she's up next! This week on Romance Writers Weekly, it was my turn to set the topic. I chose:
What are you most looking forward to this year? Are you planning special travels or celebrations? If you joined me from A.S. Fenichel, welcome! Last year was a big year of travelling for Mr. C and I. We went to Europe with my parents and spent time in Belgium, the South of France, and Paris. Then, for my 50th birthday, we flew to New York to see Billy Joel at Madison Square Gardens. So it might be expecting a bit much for us to do any major travelling this year, wouldn’t it! That being said, we are planning on doing a lot of camping around our area. We have a travel trailer and love to spend time in it. One of our favourite campgrounds is Purden Lake. The sites a large and private, and the lake just the right size for our little boat. On the writing side, this will probably be a quiet year for me, at least on the publishing front. Since April 2017, I’ve released two new novels and a revised edition of my first. I have been working on a trilogy throughout that time, as well. In that series, the first has been critiqued and betaread. The second is done from my point of view but still needs to be critiqued (I’m just getting my courage up) and I’m about 20,000 words into the third. My big goal this year is to finish the third and get the second up to snuff. I think that’s enough for me for now! But no matter what else, the biggest event of our year will be the marriage of our oldest daughter. She and her fiancé are planning their wedding for late August, and we are very much looking forward to celebrating with them. What about you? What are your plans for this upcoming year? Let me know, and then hop on over to Jenna Da Sie to see what she has planned! Welcome to 2018, and the first Romance Writers Weekly Blog Hop of the year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Here in Northern BC we had very cold weather (even for us) which brought beautiful bright blue skies, so it was a worthwhile trade off. Three turkey dinners and numerous family visits later, it’s time to get back in the swing. Leslie Hachtel starts off this year with an oldie but a goodie: Let’s talk about your New Years’ Resolutions. If you joined me from S. C. Mitchell, welcome! I’ve been seeing a lot of TV interviews about resolutions recently (shocking, I know!), and there seems to be a recurring theme this year – make them achievable! While this may seem like common sense, I totally get why we all need a reminder once in a while about making goals that are within our control. Bear with me, here. I will be taking a long and roundabout route to my resolution, and will be sharing some honest details about my writing career, but I'll get there. For years and years, I had a goal – finish a book. I didn’t even have a particular book in mind (I started many during those years that have been lost in the mists of time). I just wanted to say I’d written a book and it was done. And I did. In 2011, I finished Mountain Fire, and, of course, my goals changed. Now I wanted it published—and I wanted to write more books. I’ve achieved both of those goals since—and my goals changed again. Now I want to make money selling my books. Like many authors, I also have a full-time job. This means I have a limited amount of energy to put into writing, editing, publishing, and promoting my books. Unlike many authors (it seems) I need a full 8 hours of sleep and a decent amount of downtime, too, so this limits my writing and its related work even further. Even so, I still achieved a respectable amount last year. I finished my sixth full-length manuscript and gave that first draft a full edit, as well as revised Mountain Fire and handled its re-release since I received the rights back in October. What I didn’t achieve was making a profit at my writing. I have to admit, that started to weigh on me. This isn’t a hobby for me. I want to make a career out of this. I don’t have to be rich and famous, but I’d like to make enough money to have it be my “retirement job.” You know, the one that supplements our savings, keeps me active and involved, and makes me feel good. Did I put as much effort into my writing career last year as I could have? Maybe not. Will I try and do better this year. Again, I answer—maybe not. And this is where we get to my New Year’s Resolution. I need to have a career/life/writing balance that works for me. And if that means writing comes third some days, then so be it. And if writing comes third, then marketing and promotion comes even further down the list. And if you don’t market and promote, you don’t make sales. That’s something I’ll just have to live with, and learn to accept. Which, to be honest, nine days out of ten I am perfectly fine with. But those tenth days can be soul-searchingly tough, sometimes. My New Years Resolution, then? To remind myself I write because not writing is not an option. I feel better about myself every day I put words on the page, even if they’re bad words, even if there are few of them. Will I still worry about making money at this? Of course I will. Like I said, it’s not a hobby. But I resolve to remember the reason I write. Because I love it. How about you? Do you have a plan or a project that isn’t quite coming together the way you’d hoped, and yet you can’t put it down? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Then be sure to hop on over to J.J. Devine and see what challenges she's set for herself this year! I find this week's topic very relevant. A.S. Fenichel asks: The year is half over! OMG! Tell us how you organize your world? Do you keep a day planner? Do you use your phone? Is organization important to you or is your life in total chaos and you love it? If you joined me from Jenna Da Sie, you'll know how that busy mom keeps her days straight. As for me… Holidays have a way of disrupting the time-space continuum in my life, and with a couple weeks away I'm finding it hard to get back in the flow of things. People who know me well (waves a hand at Mr. C) know that I do best with a set schedule. I prefer knowing what's happening well in advance. I like to think I'm more flexible than I used to be—having three children, two of whom are a lot more laid back than I am, will do that to you—but I am most happy and contented when I have a clear plan. That being said, I don't feel like I'm an obviously over organized person. I don't use coloured tabs in notebooks or have post it notes all over the place. At my day job I use Google Calendar, as I have to share schedules with other people, and I love the ease of that. But personally I only mark it on the calendar if I'm truly worried about missing something important. In my writing, I'm a plotter. I like to outline quite substantially before I get started on a new story. But when it comes to setting time to write, I don't have it on a planner, because it always happens at the same time. And I have a daily word count, so that takes care of itself. When I'm not working on a new book, I use that time for editing or publishing duties. So far, it's all seemed to work out just fine! If I'm looking at the year as half over, I'm feeling pretty good about how I've organized things. I released a new book in January, pretty much on time. I finished the manuscript I was working on at the end of May, before heading off on holiday. That had always been the goal, but I had to really up my word count in the final month to achieve it, so I was really pleased I made it. I'm getting the rights back on m first novel this fall, so my job over the summer is to get that ready for release, and I'm pretty confident with that. So all in all I think my organization plan is working out! How do you get organized? Do you keep a beautiful day planner with your notes all written in a stunning copperplate? (That's what I wish I did, but my handwriting qualifies me for med school.) Or are you a technogeek with your iPhone or Android leading the way? I’d love to hear from you! Then, be sure to hop over to S. C. Mitchell and see how he keeps on track! |