Happy Monday Everybody, Last week on Facebook I revealed one of the songs from Hailey Banks' play list . Hailey's story is the one that's releasing in early summer/late spring this year. To get to know Hailey, read the Immortal Dreams Trilogy-- Divine Love , Astral Love , and Immortal Love , she's Laney's best friend. Play lists can reveal some of the moods of either the author, the scene, and/or the characters involved. To see the play lists from my Immortal Dreams Trilogy, click here . Music has a way of inspiring a lot of writers. When I wrote my stand-alone Fantasy Romance, All's Fair In Love & Lion , I listened to a lot of Chris de Burgh 's music. There was something so beautiful and stirring in his ballads. Interestingly enough, I didn't listen to very much of his music for the Trilogy (except for one song for Immortal Love ) but that's because Immortal Dreams  novels are a different story. All's Fair In Love & Lion is s...

Happy Tuesday All, This is the beginning of a very special blog series I'm doing with two other authors. Please be respectful of all those involved. Thank you! There are young people in the world struggling with learning differences (sometimes called learning disabilities) who may or may not feel they aren’t as good as those who don’t have these disabilities/challenges. The three of us—Bethany Averie, Ryan Jo Summers, and Christie Craig—have all faced learning disabilities/difficulties and based on our personal experiences, and what we see in the world today, were inspired to share our own stories with you. We’ll be posting each author’s Q&A style on all our blogs for the next few weeks, starting with Bethany Averie. The next week will feature Ryan Jo Summers, then the following week will be Christie Craig. The same interview will appear on each author’s blog, for example—Bethany’s interview will be on her own blog, Ryan Jo’s, and Christie’s for the first week, the...

Happy Thursday All, What makes you love a novel? Is it the writing? The characters? The atmosphere? The genre? Or all of the above? As a reader, it depends on a lot of things. Sometimes the writing is excellent and I'm in raptures. Other times the characters are amazing, even if the writing isn't the very best I've ever seen. And sometimes, I just get drawn into a story and I can't really say why. In terms of my writing, it depends on what type of inspiration strikes. With my standalone Fantasy Romance, All's Fair In Love & Lion , I was into brooding male leads, and fairy-tales. I took the two and came up with a lion shape shifter and an orphaned English teacher (Sasha loses her parents when she was 15, although in the novel she's much older than that). I wrote it with adult audiences in mind, even though the heat level is more Sweet Romance than hot. Writing first person present tense wasn't a plan of mine, either. I tried writing it third pers...

Happy Friday All, I hope your week has been awesome. Yes, as I said, Jason and Laney (from my Immortal Dreams Trilogy) are still playing around in my head. "Awesome" is one of Jason's favorite words. If you asked him, he'd tell you HE'S awesome. And, in some ways, he was subconsciously modeled after my husband (I never intentionally model any of my characters after anyone I know). Here's proof (this is from a conversation we had a while back): Me:  I think I subconsciously modeled Jason after you. Husband (grinning): That's why he's such an awesome character. Me (in a dry tone): I shouldn't have told you that the first time I told you. Husband just continued to grin and laugh. Go figure, right? But I can't deny my husband has some pretty awesome qualities. He's a really good Dad, and pretty considerate of me. He'll take the Offspring somewhere just so I can write. He goes on walks and things so I can nap (whenever he...

Happy Tuesday all, No, I'm not back from hiatus (yet), but I did want to mention something. Book Three of my Immortal Dreams Trilogy, Immortal Love is now available for preorder on Amazon Kindle. The official release date is April 8, 2015. You can preorder the novel and it will be downloaded to your Kindle when it releases. As a special gift from me to my readers, I have an author's note at the end of the story that you won't want to miss! Because I'm on hiatus I'm not sure what I'll do about a giveaway, but I'll probably either do something on Facebook or on a blog post. I'm going to be a guest on a couple of blogs and I'll try to find a way to get this blog updated so that you all will have the links to those blog posts. Anyway, here is the blurb and link to preorder Immortal Love (PLEASE NOTE: reading Books One ( Divine Love ) & Two ( Astral Love ) would be very helpful to you as a reader BEFORE diving into Book Three, so that you get the...

Happy Friday All, If I don't update this very much or for several months there are several reasons for that. One of them is edits and getting ready for the release of Immortal Dreams Book Three: Immortal Love . The other is preparation and eventual arrival of Baby Averie.  I appreciate all your support and encouragement over the years. Please continue to check back here on occasion for when I return. Also, watch Amazon for the release of Immortal Love ! Have A Fabulously Fun Friday!

Happy Tuesday All, Excitement abounds in the Averie Household...if it's not every day things (new toilet seat for the master bath, pregnancy, being a parent, writing, editing, you name it) it's other excitement: I got some of the notes back from my proofreader, so I've started in on those notes. It's going well so far, so I'm glad about that. Proofreader is almost done with Immortal Love , and has pronounced it "a rip-roaring and imaginative story." Which made me smile. It's definitely got a bunch of action in it. I did my best to throw everything I possibly could into this novel, especially since   it's the final book in the Trilogy. Another exciting happening is that Immortal Dreams Book One: Divine Love got a wonderful review from Coffee Time Romance . You can read the 5/5 cup review here . So, what's it like coming to the end of writing a trilogy? A myriad of emotions. Sometimes it was sad. Other times I...

Happy Thursday All, Smokey Mountains in Gaitlinburg, TN, 2013 In writing, editing, critiquing, and being a judge (yes, I've done a little judging for a contest) there's a few things about writing that are true all the way across the board--no matter what genre, no matter if you're a newbie, or best seller, or somewhere in between. Or if you're a "pantser" or a "plotter". And that's organizing your story. Every writer is different and every writer does this differently. I call myself a "half-in-half" writer because I do a little plotting and I do a little pantsering. But the main things every writer needs whether they do it before they write the first draft, or in the editing process are for every important/main character(s) in one's novel: Me, at the NWHRWA Lone Star Conference, 2014 Goal, motivation, conflict. Yes,  GMC that leads to the actual plot. Whether you're writing the hero, heroine, villain, whatever...

Happy New Year Darling Readers, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year's. The Averie Household continues to be busy. I'm still working on getting Immortal Love ready to turn into my publisher (although, getting closer--thank goodness!) Christmas was nice. We went to Church for the vigil on Christmas Eve, and enjoyed the rest of the evening as a family. The next day presents were opened and we headed for my parents' house for more presents and Christmas dinner. My father made gluten free chocolate chip cookies and a gluten free apple pie (thank you, dad!) which were both really good. The ham was awesome, too (I can't eat turkey, I'm allergic to it, so Dad had turkey and ham--yes, he loves me!) We hung out with some friends of my folks and family members. The next day (Friday), one of my brothers made it into town and we saw them Saturday for dinner. Sunday we relaxed at home. This week has been mostly hanging out at home, but bu...

Happy Thursday & Friday All, Because of editing, I won't be posting again this week . However, I did promise something special, and I'm delivering. As you all know, the Immortal Dreams Trilogy is coming to a close. (please don't cry!) Book One, Divine Love , and Book Two, Astral Love , are both available on Amazon Kindle . I'm hoping Divine Love will go to paperback hopefully soon, but I don't know when. I've enjoyed taking this journey. Laney and Jason have become like old friends to me. And, I think they complement each other well. Jason encourages Laney's strength and bravery, and she keeps him grounded and gives him a reason to be heroic. Which is good, because in Book Three, they're going to need each other. I mean, they seriously, really will, without-a-doubt, need each other.  I've thrown everything I could come up with at these two in this final installment and they refuse to give up. No matter what they're facing, no ma...

Happy Wednesday Everybody, Tomorrow the post I mentioned yesterday I'd be guest posting on Erin Bevan 's blog will go "live".  I'm looking forward to sharing about my Grandfather's storytelling. There's a lot going on in my life. As some of my readers know, I'm pregnant with the newest character which will be joining the Averie   Household sometime in 2015. So, there's been a bunch of pregnancy stuff. Luckily so far (please God, let it stay this way) I haven't vomited. I've been extremely grateful for that, especially how bad I felt in the beginning, and how I've had indigestion/acid reflux issues (yes, I do take something for it, no, it hasn't gone all the way away). Sleeping has been up and down--some nights okay, some nights not okay. (And people wonder why I stay up so dang late, well...now I have a good reason, other than the fact I write, and do blogging, and watch TV movies LOL). I'm still trying to finis...