The Last And Most Festive of the "Ber" Months...

Happy December!

We're nearly halfway through December and I just realized I hadn't put up a blog post for this month. OOPS! But, to be fair, I've had plenty going on.

Personally: We are still minus a Christmas tree. No, we haven't gotten it up, yet. But I'm hoping this weekend it will happen! We don't usually take this long, but we've had some things going on. One of those things was that we had to replace our washing machine. Our previous one decided that it had enough of our household and no, thank you it would not work properly any longer. Poor thing limped along until it wouldn't drain out the water in the clothes (I had to squeeze them the best I could and pop them in the dryer for longer). But that's at an end since we now have a brand new washer, which we've had for about a week and it's doing okay so far.

Not long ago, Averie Cat (that's his social media nickname) had some health issues that made me quite concerned about him. Fortunately, he seems to have gotten past them and the vet was wonderful. Averie Cat is 7 years old, and therefore, I expect to see more health stuff than I did when he was younger. The vet switched him to a prescription diet and he actually seems to like the food pretty well, which is a blessing.

Professionally:  I continue to query Sugar & Frost. I love, love, love this story and I do so hope it gets out to you, darling readers, one day. I really do. I had so much fun writing it and I also enjoyed editing it.

Christmas/Holiday: My shopping is not done. Nor have I sent out ANY Christmas cards, but I'm hoping to remedy that in the next few days to the next week. I had thought I'd write a Christmas letter this year, but I'm not sure that will happen.

I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays (I know there are several this month) and Happy New Year. 

I hope December is a lovely month for you.

Have a Fantastically Festive Friday!

November, The "Middle Child Syndrome" of The "Ber" Months...

 Happy November!

The months need to quit changing just when I get used to one! 

I meant to post this post earlier in the month, but I forgot! 😬

Let's see...

I continue to query Sugar & Frost. Responses often take a while. I love this story so much that I'm hopeful it will do better in the query trenches than my other manuscripts, but only time will tell. I did make an "Agent's Guide" (which has been something that I saw pop up on X/Twitter and decided it might be fun to have one for S&F). The words on it might be a little hard to see in this condensed version of it, but maybe if you click on the graphic it'll be easier to read.

I've got some other graphics I've made for Sugar & Frost, too. Some I've used, some I've done just for fun.

November is an interesting flurry of election, Thanksgiving, and Christmas things all happening at once. I'm not sure what our Thanksgiving plans are, yet. In terms of Christmas, my husband has the week of Christmas off, which I'm delighted about because he also has some days after Christmas Day off, which is good because sometimes we have out-of-town family come in after Christmas Day and this means we have some flexibility in our schedule.

It's kind of funny because in a lot of ways November is, in fact, in the middle of the "ber" months and in some ways gets a tiny bit overlooked with the packing up Halloween decorations and exchanging them for Wintry and/or Christmas ones. But, as I told my eldest, it's November, I can sing Christmas carols if I so choose. (At which point, eldest declared that I was wrong and my husband backed me up. I knew I loved Husband!)

Whatever your plans for the last couple of months of 2024 are, may you have a blessed rest of November.

Have a Marvelously Merry Monday!

The First of The "Ber" Months, October...

 Happy October Everyone!

I'm posting this later in the day than I normally would. But, sometimes it's fun to do something a tiny bit different. (In this case put up a blog post after 4pm my time, when it would normally be up early in the morning).

October always used to give me a sort of "giddy" feeling when I was growing up. I guess because my birthday is this month (Oct. 15th). But sometimes, on rare occasions, my part of Texas would start getting cooler. I always liked the little nip in the air that hinted at the holidays to come. The day I'm writing this post it was 88 degrees Fahrenheit earlier in the day, but now is up to 90. Hardly autumn-feeling weather.

I'm going along querying Sugar & Frost (the manuscript's "mood board" is the image in the center). I do hope an agent gives me an offer. I love this story so much! It's fun and whimsical and definitely romantic.

Sugar & Frost's Mood Board

Some people call "romance-forward" Fantasy stories "Romantasy" so, one could call it a YA Romantasy or a YA Fantasy Romance. Either is true because it is romance-forward (the romance plays an integral part of the story) but fantasy elements are important, too. I had a blast writing this story. I really enjoyed myself. Even editing was fun.

One of the inspirations was Frankenmuth, Michigan, which I've visited at least 2-4 times. It's a great little place. I fell in love with Bronner's (a Christmas store of epic proportions and one of my "happy places").

Bethany Averie at Bronner's

I hope your October is fun. :-)  Have a Festively Fun Friday!

P.S. On a more serious note, I've been praying for the victims of the recent Hurricane Helene. God bless all who have been negatively affected. If you can donate and/or help, please do.

Ready For "Ber" Months; Here's September...

Happy Friday Everyone!

September has arrived! For some reason August seemed a little slower than other months, but then I thought how about how school days started back up and I was like "Wait...didn't we just enter summertime?"

Let me think....August was busy. Some things that have been important to my family over the years have closed. Whether price, attendance, or whatever, they closed. One of those has been resolved, while we work on others.

As for writing...yes, progress is being made. I've been editing Sugar & Frost and I still love it. I've been editing for a while, now, but polishing my manuscripts the best I can before querying is important. I really hope readers will like it / love it, too. It's such a fun story!

I've also made progress on other things I need for querying. Major work on my blurb is done, thanks to the help of my long-time critique partner. When I sent it to her, and she sent me back her suggestions, ideas started coming. I think it's much better now. Yet another reason for polishing and editing! The synopsis has been drafted and I'm working on that as well. So, things are coming together. :-)

As for the month of September itself...I'm all right with some cooler weather, but I will / have already offered up at least one prayer for us not to have ice or snow. In 2021, we had what I dubbed "Snowmeggedon". While I do like the remodel on our kitchen, I'm not in any hurry to remodel anything else or have any other problems. We've had quite a few things we need to fix this year already, so a break would be nice. I wouldn't turn down 55-65 degree weather, though. That sounds nice. For those of you who do get snow regularly in the winter, maybe one day my story will be available to you during those wintry months and you can wrap up in a warm, soft blanket, with your favorite hot beverage, a fire in the fireplace and enjoy my story. That would be a wonderful thing as far as I'm concerned. :-)

In any case, wherever you are and whatever the weather, I wish you a lovely September!

Have A Fabulously Fun Friday!

The August Month Is Here...

 Happy August!

Wow, it's the beginning (or, rather continuation, if you go by what the stores have had in stock for awhile) of back-to-school activity...already. Didn't summer begin like yesterday? Somehow this year has seemed to zip past me at a rate I didn't expect. Then again, I've had plenty to fill my days.

Auto insurance issues continue for the Averie clan. I won't go into detail, but let's just say I'm not impressed. 😑 Oh, and car issues aren't fun, either, but whatever. Just gotta keep going and trust that the Lord will pull you through (the only way I know how to manage).

Hurricane Beryl barreled through my part of Texas and we were without power for about 3-4 days. Not long when you consider how some people were out for at least 2 weeks (maybe more?) But, luckily it wasn't worse. (Someone in my neighborhood had a tree fall on a car! We saw them working on it, they did manage to get the car out. I don't know if it was damaged...it looked like it was mostly okay, though). We had some damage, but not as much as others, which is nothing short of a miracle, for which I do thank God.

I continue to edit Sugar & Frost. I'm going relatively slowly, which is okay. These notes I got back have been helpful and I'm getting some other edits done in the process. I still have at least one more pass (although, likely more than one) left before I feel it is at all ready. But publishing isn't about being fast really, it's about trying to put out your best work. Nobody is perfect, but you try your best.

My husband had some time off, which helped give me more space to work than I would've had, so that's good.

I don't have any major plans for August. Just keep going with what's already going on in my life. Do you have any special plans for the month?

Hope everyone has a great August!

Have A Fabulously Fun Friday!

Time For July...

 Happy Tuesday Everyone!

It's...July? Yep. July. Can you believe it? I know I often say this, but it feels like the month went by very quickly. Or maybe it just seems that way because of all the weird things happening in my life. And, yes, it's hot. (But when isn't it during June and July in Texas?)

Real Life: At the end of May, lightning hit my car (at least, that's what we think happened, didn't SEE it, but based on what we know, that's what we think). Nobody was in it, but the car got damaged and wouldn't work properly. Insurance had it towed and thus began a saga (which is still going on at the time of the writing of this blog post). It's been about 3-4 weeks. We had a rental for a few days, and then had to return it. Then my husband's car had a problem and had to be towed to the dealership. So, husband talked to insurance and told them we were getting a rental because we needed transportation and he needed to get to work. Hopefully all this gets resolved SOON.

Writing Life:  I'm currently not working on writing a novel. But I've been editing Sugar & Frost and it's getting critiques, so I'm excited about that. I love this story. I really do. I feel it's very whimsical (purposely so) and sweet. Yes, there is some serious stuff in it, but mostly I'm hoping my readers will leave with "warm fuzzies". I do have other WIPs (Works In Progress) to be written, but for now this is most of my focus. (I did take some time off from it for a couple or so days just to not get too burned out and be able to find where I need to tweak/adjust/take out, and/or add stuff).

Querying:  I still have a couple of queries out. As for what I'll do with The Forgotten, I haven't made a complete decision. I did some edits on it, but right now I'm just taking a "wait and see" attitude with that one. Who knows? Maybe something will come of queries/pitches for it.

Other Author Stuff: So, I found out about a new pitching event on  X/Twitter called #UnhingedPit. This was incredibly fun. It was meant to be completely unconventional--so you didn't pitch your manuscript the way one normally would and you used older comps (generally comparison titles are ones that were released 5 or less years from present day), so the comparison titles for #UnhingedPit were ones that were older. So far I haven't gotten any agent likes on my pitches for that, but I did have fun with it and I made some new author friends, so to me, that was a success. There are other pitch opportunities coming up (I'm planning on participating in at least one) but this was a fun thing to do.

Blogspot is being weird about font color, so if you're seeing black for some parts of the post and purple for others, I apologize. I tried to make it all purple.

The 4th of July is coming up for the United States. So, Happy Birthday, USA! 

Plans for the July? Pretty much what I've been doing.

Do you have any fun plans for July?

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Hope your July is Joyful!

June Has Arrived...

 Happy June Everyone,

June is here! Yep, it's here. May was more eventful in my real life. So, off we go:

Writer's Life Updates: 

Nothing fun to report on the query front with the YA Fantasy I've been querying. I still have a couple out.

Editing:

I've got a YA Fantasy with a Christmassy theme to it. I'm enjoying getting it polished. I hope to start querying it, soon. I'm not sure what 'soon' is, yet, though.

Writing:

WIPs (Works In Progress) that I'm writing are on hold (for the most part) while I edit.

Other stuff:

I fixed up my Mood Board for the YA Fantasy (Christmassy) story and that's up on my social media accounts (Facebook, X/Twitter, and Instagram).

As for real life...strap on your safety belts: it's a wild ride!

There have been several storms in my part of the world (especially in May). We're all safe, which I thank God for that. 

One particular storm did something strange (well, strange for us, it's never happened before to us!) I was working on edits. Thunderstorm blows up. I listen for a bit and decide it's not too bad and should pass over quickly. No big deal. Then BOOM! Big ole crack of thunder--seems to be right above my house. I felt myself jump. I calmed myself down, backed up my files and shut off the computer.

Later, after both my husband and eldest checked on the car, my husband came in to tell me something was up with it. What he told me baffled me, so I went out to check it out for myself. One of the headlights was on. A small headlight on one side was missing (no clue where it was--didn't see it anywhere). I got in the car and tried to start it. The brake pedal started vibrating/shaking and the engine wouldn't turn over. I tried again. Same thing. Radio came on, but nothing else was really happening. The headlight that was on wouldn't turn off. So, we locked it up, and went inside. Husband called insurance.

Everyone I've talked to has been baffled. All we can think is that lightning hit the vehicle. There were no burn marks or anything anywhere else. The side mirror's glass was hanging from a wire out of the holder, and there was some glass on the ground, but other than that, nothing you could really see. Very grateful to God that none of us were near the car or in the car when this happened.

So, I'm hopeful that June is less weird and doesn't have quite so many storms. So far, we've at least one, but it wasn't bad.

I wish all the fathers a Happy Father's Day and hope everyone has a nice June.

Have A Fabulously Fun Friday!

May It Be...

 Happy Thursday!

It's May....which means the year is almost half-over. Wow. Well, my May is shaping up to be pretty busy:

QUERYING: So, I'm querying one of my YA Fantasies. (If you keep up with X(Twitter), or Facebook, or even Instagram (I don't post on Instagram often, but I updated it). The Forgotten is the story I'm querying. It's a fairytale. I've got more-recently-published comps (that is, books that are

similar somehow to it) in my query letters, but if you're a fan of Once Upon A Time, I could see you liking The Forgotten. We'll see what happens there. But it's close to my heart for a variety of reasons.

EDITING: Saturday, April 28, 2024 I finished writing my Christmassy-type YA Fantasy, Sugar & Frost. This was a fun one to write as I leaned more into a whimsical type approach (although there are some serious moments). I played with some of the Christmas-themed stories (Kringle, Jack Frost, little
Christmassy type town). (Fun Fact: This one is set in contemporary time period, but it has an all 80s Playlist...why? When I decided to do that, I just thought it would be funny, but then, after I wrote my dedication, it all made sense). But now it's entering the polishing (aka editing) part of the process.

WRITING: Yes, I have another project (well, more than one). I'm keeping it (and the others) under wraps as I like to do in the beginning. But, yes, I'm writing other stories, too.

NEWS: Me and my husband's anniversary is this month. Mother's Day, at least one birthday, and a sibling's anniversary are this month, as well.

And, yes, I've been reading books, as well. In fact, I just finished 2 books recently. Both good.

So, that's my May so far. Just keep plugging away!

Hope your May is wonderful.

Have A Marvelously Meritorious Monday!

April Hopping and Springing In...

 Happy April Everyone!

April has sprung or arrived or hopped in (whatever image suits you). The leaves are returning to our trees and I've seen some flowers around in different places. How about you?

My Easter was very nice. We went to Mass (Catholic Christian liturgy). I really like the joy involved. It was beautiful. In the evening, we went over to one of my sister's house and had dinner with her and her family, my parents, and one of my aunts who had come into town. It was fun. My father made apple pie (one of his specialties) and my sister cooked (delicious). 

Updates? I think I've mentioned this before...I've been working on a Christmassy-mythology inspired type of novel. It's a YA Fantasy (of course...because I like to incorporate fun type of magic in my work). It's going pretty well. I'm getting closer and closer to the end of writing the manuscript and then I can move into edits. It's mostly whimsical and light, with some serious moments.

I'm enjoying the fact that it's not horribly hot (yet). We've had some beautiful days (with nice breezes, too!) so I'm happy to not be sweating buckets (like I said, YET...I know it's coming).

I hope your spring has been nice and enjoyable. Comment below with your favorite current reads and/or shows. :-)

Have A Fantastical Friday!

March, Titles, Etc...

Happy Thursday Everybody,

It's March! 

February seemed a little long to me (and not because of Leap Day) so on March 1st I was like "Oh wait...it's is March. I need to flip my wall calendar."

So, what's going on? Let's see...I continue on the query road (nothing I'm ready to report, yet). As for writing, I decided to take one of my WIPs (Works In Progress) and write it with a completely different plot. And then, I got another idea and had to work on that!

I try to focus on one WIP at a time because it helps me move forward, but sometimes you gotta get that other idea going before you can finish the previous manuscript. Sometimes the new manuscript becomes the one you finish first. 

When I started with this blog post I was at a loss as to what I should say--not that I didn't have things going on, it's just that when I'm querying a manuscript, I don't say much about the process publicly. The same is true for when I'm writing a manuscript. I don't say a lot about it until it's further along and/or finished (in which case I only say a tiny bit until it's either got a contract, or about to be published, or is published).

The beginning of the month I just didn't feel inspired regarding a blog post. It wasn't until recently (i.e. today, March 14, 2024) that the idea popped into my head (sometimes you gotta let things sit and simmer).

On one of my WIPs I'm having a hard time coming up with a title. Titles aren't exactly my strongest talent, but I'm not completely unable to think of something (I came up with the title of the manuscript I'm querying--and some of my other WIPs have titles). This one, for some reason, is proving difficult. I'm somewhat still developing the story on one end (although a problem I'd had, I think I've got a solution for, now). So, I thought I'd talk about how I, as a writer, come up with titles.

Titles, in general, have been an up-and-down type journey for me. With my first published work, I had a title I used when querying, but when I signed the publisher's contract and we began the process of polishing and working on it, I was asked to come up with a new title. This situation is not unique to me. A lot of times titles get changed before publication. But I blanked out. So, I turned to my long-time critique partner, Tess St. John, and we brainstormed. Eventually an idea came forward, and my publisher accepted the new title.

So, how does a writer go about figuring out a title?

I can't speak for all writers, just for me. My process is generally: "Okay, what is this story about?" and then I go from there. If I'm still working out the plot I may focus in on an aspect of the story, or a particular character trait or something I've yet to put into the story, but I know is coming. If I'm really blanked, I talk to someone. After that, it goes into my manuscript file at the top of the manuscript on the title page and as well as part of the header of each page (as well as my name, and page number). 

Some authors don't come up with a title until the story is written. I like to have one while I'm working on the story so that I'm not sitting there with a file that says "Story about--" or "Inspired by--" because that's a long file name, generally; plus, it helps the story feel more "real" to me. Like it's coming together.

One of my WIPs, I came up with the title almost as soon as I came up with the plot. I love it when it works out that way because then I can just focus on writing and editing. However they come, titles are important. Not only do they give you something to call your manuscript, but oftentimes they give a clue to the reader what the story is about, or even the genre.

What are some of your favorite titles (whether you liked the story or not, if it was clever, funny, or interesting)?

Before I forget...

Easter is coming at the end of this month, so I wish everyone a very Blessed and Happy Easter!

Have A Thrillingly Terrific Thursday. :-)

A Leap Into February...

 Happy February!

Okay, for the first time in a while I can say that a month didn't zip past me at lightning speed. I don't know if that's good or bad. Just that January didn't seem to go by quite as fast as most of last year seemed.

Perhaps the lack of "zipping by" has to do with the fact that my eldest had a bacterial infection near the end of December and then 2 weeks later had Covid and a week later I had a bacterial infection (different one from eldest). So for awhile there, it was a bit crazy at my house. Luckily the rest of January was pretty healthy.

This February has a couple of particularly interesting things about it...for one, there are 29 days this year for this month (most of the time it's 28) so Happy Leap Year!

Query news...not really anything I'm ready to report on, so I'll let you know when there is.

Writing news:  I have several unfinished manuscripts and after some revision work that I did for like 2-3 months, I'm back to them and reacquainting myself with these stories. They need to be written and edited.

In my non-writer life (my personal life) I've got some family birthdays and at least one anniversary this month. So that's fun. :-)  Another interesting thing about this February is that Ash Wednesday is on St. Valentine's Day (February 14), so that's a bit different than previous years. We'll attend an Ash Wednesday service and observe the Catholic Traditions of fasting and no meat on that day.

Some people I know have amazing trips planned (for their personal privacy I won't mention details) and I can't wait to hear about their trips.

As for me, most of my trips consist of either within my state or within the USA. The only other country (that I recall) I've been to that wasn't my own, was Canada (and I can't remember how many times I've been, but it's been a long time since the last time I was there). I've been to St. Croix, but that's in the US Virgin Islands, so I'm not sure it counts as going to another country (but it was a fun trip!) I do have ideas of places I'd want to go outside the USA, but haven't really gotten to doing that. Maybe someday.

Fun Fact about my trip to St. Croix:  It was for my honeymoon and the way I came to choosing it was that author Lurlene McDaniel had mentioned it in her novel, For Better, For Worse, Forever. The descriptions of St. Croix in this novel made me want to go there. So I made a decision (either this was Middle School or beginning of High School) that when I got married that's where I'd go on my honeymoon. When I told my husband where I wanted to go, he said that he was all for going to the Caribbean, and we enjoyed our time there (particularly a restaurant that apparently isn't there anymore, but it was a really lovely outdoor one).

For those of you unfamiliar with Lurlene McDaniel's books, she's a retired YA author (according to a Google Search she retired in 2019) who wrote about teens in tough situations. I've loved many of her because she wrote them so well. For Better, For Worse, Forever is the sequel in a 2-book set that starts with Till Death Do Us Part.

Have you ever decided to go somewhere based on a book you read? Did you enjoy it?

I hope you all had a good January and that February treats you well.

Have a tremendously terrific Tuesday!

January 2024 Is Here...

 Happy January, 2024, and Friday!

If December snuck up on me, January just blew right in without me being ready to be done with December. Christmas cards got mailed Wednesday (as in January 3, 2024!) Yeah, I was that behind. But I think my close friends and my family members are a forgiving bunch and won't mind getting their Christmas cards a little late.

My Christmas was fairly nice. I had a sparkly red dress this year (see my Instagram for a photo). I love sparkles. I don't always wear them, but I do like them. I did refrain from purchasing glittery eyeshadow for Mass (Catholic Christian Church Service). A little sparkle at Mass is okay, but I don't need to be attention-grabbing there. Later in the week we ate Christmas dinner at my sister's house (no, not on Christmas Day because we were waiting for one my brothers and his family to arrive in town and they couldn't get in any earlier because of their responsibilities at home). The weekend of New Year's my eldest got a bacterial infection, so eldest had to celebrate New Year's in a bedroom (which was fine, since my husband had to go to work on January 1st and we weren't planning on staying up for the new year--but he was off from Thursday after Christmas through Sunday).

The New Year has been okay so far. Other than some health stuff that I've had to deal with on and off since the beginning of December, it hasn't been too bad. I'm still trying to grasp that it's January 2024. When I'm dating my files for my backups, I keep wanting to put 'December' and then I keep wanting to put 2023, so I have to remind myself that it's January and 2024.

I'm working on revisions on a manuscript that didn't get done before the end of December and thinking of my unfinished stories still waiting for me. It's a process. Some pages I'm not making many changes, while others I'm rearranging things, or taking stuff out, or putting something else in. But that's how revisions and editing goes (generally speaking).

I've no idea what this year will bring--but I do know there is always good and bad in every year and I try to find the blessings and the good amid the hard/bad stuff. Sometimes it isn't easy, but for me, it helps.

I hope your Christmas went well and wish you a blessed 2024!

Have A Fascinatingly Fantastic Friday!