Someone Worth Protecting is Finally Here!!!

And it’s only 99cents until Sunday 8/25! So grab your copy today! Get Someone Worth Protecting and 24 other amazing stories in this incredible collection! https://books2read.com/SweetestObsessions By some fluke, he’d managed to land on top, pinning her to the ground with her arms above her head. Her breasts strained against the thin material of the …

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An Excerpt from SOMEONE WORTH PROTECTING

Get your copy Here! “I’m sorry. I’ve been too busy living in a world with real action, actual bad guys who try to kill me with real bullets, and dodging explosions that literally blow things to pieces, to watch you play grown up while your adoring fans eat popcorn and dream about licking melted butter …

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New Book News!!!

I have a new book coming soon!!! August 20th to be exact. SOMEONE WORTH PROTECTING will be part of the SWEETEST OBSESSIONS romance boxset with 22 other books. The boxset just went on preorder today at iTunes, Nook, and Kobo! Kindle preorder will be available in May. Check it out! There’s something for every reader. …

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Family Life Friday

I have 2 daughters and I want more than anything for them grow up knowing they are strong, independent, and capable of anything they set their minds to. Sometimes that seems overwhelmingly difficult while raising them in a world that feels chaotic so often now. There are so many messages out there for them to take …

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Someone Worth Protecting is Finally Here!!!An Excerpt from SOMEONE WORTH PROTECTINGNew Book News!!!Family Life Friday

Mar
23
2011

SOLD! I Finally Got “The Call”

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I can barely believe that I’m even writing this post! But it’s true…I got “The Call” last Sat night. Well, in actuality (and lots of you out there already know this first hand) the call is really “The Email.”

So, DH and I were waiting for our table at P.F. Chang’s after having been shopping on our date night. The bar was packed too, so there was no choice but to sit and wait around in the lobby. We were pretty content to sit and wait since shopping was successful, but tiring and sometimes it’s just nice to sit and relax without worrying about which child is trying to hurt themselves by doing something stupid. Ah, child-free moments… As we’re sitting and patiently waiting, albeit starving, I check my email to see if there’s anything interesting in my inbox. I’ll admit, since starting this whole writing and submitting thing, I’ve become a bit of a email addict. I have to check it. A lot. Often. All right, all the time! So I checked my email and found “The Email.” It went a little something like this.

Inbox: So and so on Twitter is now following you

Inbox: So and so on Facebook commented on something you posted

Heather: Blah, blah, blah…Oh. Wait a minute. What’s this?

Inbox: Submission: Love and Lattes

Heather: *sigh* Great—rejection on date night. Awesomeness.

Inbox: Thank you for sending your wonderful book “Love and Lattes.” We would love to publish it at Silver Publishing!

Heather: “publish it at Silver Publishing!….blah, blurry words, blah, more blurry words, blurry phone.”

Heather: *mouth drops open, tears spring to eyes, holds phone out and points desperately at the screen for DH to read, starts shaking, and laughing, and wiping tears.*

Seriously, the people around us in the *very busy* practically shoulder-to-shoulder lobby must have really wondered what I’d just read on my phone. There’s just nothing quite like being lost in a moment. Then we spent the rest of the night enjoying dinner and drinks, going to a movie and generally gushing over my email and my new status as published author!

I took a couple of days to let all the excitement settle and to read the contract. But last night I sat down and signed it! Took me a while to figure out how to digitally sign a contract. I said I could write, I never said I was tech savvy! Thank goodness for my awesome, tech-savvy DH.

This morning I found a new little nugget of awesomeness in my inbox: Welcome to the Silver Publishing family!

*smile*

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Mar
16
2011

Idea Development

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Now that I’m officially done project number three, it’s time to move on. Ah, I love a clean slate, a blank page, a white computer screen staring at me as the little black line blinks at me. *Write something, write something, write something.*

I’ve been getting better coming up ideas as I go about my daily life and now have a collection of random situations and characters gathered in a folder on my virtual desktop. And now it’s time to choose which little gem I’ll turn into something more. Which idea is ready? Which ones still need to more time to simmer on the back burner as the possibilities come together and the story takes shape?

For me, once I’ve picked my next idea I seem to go through three stages. I think of a tiny idea. Then I write it down in point form, just simple one line sentences that hit the main beats of the story. The key points. Then if I think the idea sounds good and fun and interesting, I sit and write out a full outline. I mean full. Like 10 pages of scenes all done in little paragraphs that describe the situation, what has to happen and by who. Sometimes I’ll have a thought about the dialogue as the character’s voice starts to speak to me. Once I feel like I have the whole story down in the outline, then I review it for key things—Is there conflict? Do each of the characters arc and change throughout the story? Is there enough internal conflict for the characters to overcome? Is the resolution/climax of the story satisfying? Does the story start in the right spot? Once I feel like I’ve answered those questions and I know what I want to accomplish and how I want to accomplish it, then it’s time to sit down and start writing—that’s a whole other set of stages!

That’s my process. Well, at least right now that’s my process. Maybe I’ll do things differently in the future, but right now this is what works for me so I’m sticking to it.

So now I want to know, how do your ideas go from a little thought bubbles you have in the shower or while driving to the finished product. How to you get to the end?

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Mar
08
2011

Social Media

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Ever feel like you’re drowning in social media?

It seems like there’s so many things you have to figure out as a writer—or well, inspiring writing in my case. One of those things is social media. But there’s so much of it. How do you know what to be a part of and what to ignore? Do I need to have a blog, website, twitter, and facebook account? Really? All of them?

I think the short answer is yes. Now the real question is when. When do you need to have all of these pieces in place?

Obviously, I’m still new to all of this. I’m still unpublished although I hope that this is the last year I say that. I have a blog that I try to maintain and use regularly. *Hi blog visitors!* Blogging is something that I’ve been comfortable with. I like sharing stories about things I learn or what I’m going through at any particular moment—case in point.

Twitter. Ah, twitter. I never ‘got’ twitter before I started using it. It just didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t know how to use it or why I would need to use it instead of facebook. Well, I have completely changed my mind now that I have started using it! Twitter is the best! I don’t really use it for friends, that I keep on facebook mostly. But for industry news, it’s invaluable! I follow writers (some new, some established, some best sellers!), publishers, editor, and agents. Every single day I learn some kind of little tidbit about what an agent/editor is looking for specifically. Sometimes I learn what publishers want or don’t want to see in submissions. And everyday I connect with awesome writers to share in their successes and set-backs. If you are not on twitter and you want to be privilege to insightful industry news, you need to get yourself on there pronto.

That leaves me with facebook. <sigh> It’s my newest concern. I have always used facebook as a way to connect with friends and family far away. But now that I’m trying to create a name for myself (to grow into at this point) I’m having more and more trouble keeping my private life separated from my writing life. So I created a ‘fan’ page. Ugh. That feels *so* weird. I have a fan page, yet I am not offering anything for people to be a fan of. Yet. To me it seems to be the best solution for right now. It allows me to connect with new friends on facebook while still maintaining my other account to stay in touch with my friends and family. Good, right? Ugh. Right?

Figuring out the right decisions to make for all things concerning trying to become a writer and using social media is causing me sleepless nights. How do you all manage it?

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Mar
01
2011

Ask An Author!

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If you could ask an author any question, what would it be?

Would you want to know serious stuff about the industry, business, and craft of writing? How they first got their start? How they snagged an agent? Their first sale? How they keep their writing fresh and interesting?

Would you rather ask silly stuff, like, whether they prefer potato chips or chocolate? Early-bird or night-owl writer? Bubble gum or breath mints? Boxers or briefs? *kidding!*

I want to know what you want to know, so leave me comment with your question. Maybe, just maybe you’ll see your question answered by an author in the future right here on this very blog. Cool, right? Come on…that’s awesome! You ask and I’ll try to find an author to answer! Sweetness.

Authors—what questions do you *wish* readers would ask?

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Feb
25
2011

Treading Water

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Ever feel like you’re just treading water? Suspended somewhere in the middle—neither reaching the goal you set nor falling short.

Yep, that’s me right now. Treading water. Suspended in the middle. I have multiple submissions out, some nibbles on each piece and still I bounce around like a buoy in the open water just waiting. I stay afloat by two things—hope and persistence. I hope I’ll find a match for my current submissions soon and I persist with writing new work because even if what I’ve already written never sells, the next thing might.

I wonder how long I’ll have to tread water? Will it be a few more days? A few more weeks? A few more months? Or a few more years? Oh lordy, if it’s a few years, I’m going to need to invest in some good moisturizer for when I finally climb out of the water since my skin is bound to be pruney! But I’ll probably have a rockin’ body by then, huh? There’s always an upside.

So how long did you tread water before you got your first bite—that first sale? Are you still treading? Do you need some moisturizer recommendations because you’re finally climbing out of the water after the long haul? Let me know. I’d love to hear your story!

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