Happy Tuesday All, Normally I'd have this up and running in the beginning of the day, but I got behind. In my adventures as a writer, I come across people who say "I want to write, but I don't know how to get started." The really simplistic answer to that is "Just write." That really is a key part of writing is actually writing . But sometimes they want more information, or ideas of hints and help, etc. So here's a basic, general breakdown: 1. You have to write . What are you interested in? What story do you have to tell? Do NOT worry if it seems stupid or whatever to you. Just get started. You can always edit later. 2. Check out your favorite authors. A lot of authors have websites and/or blogs, etc. Some are on social media. Check them out. See what they say about the writing process and getting published. Find out what worked for them and see if it's something that'll work for you. 3.  Find a writer's group. Very helpful and you...

Happy Monday All, Like I've said before, my posting on here is inconsistent. Blog topics are hard to come up with and my life is full of being mom, wife, and writer. But enough of excuses! I'm gearing up for RWA Nationals 2018. I think I've been gearing up for it since Nationals ended last year. I can't help it. I had such a blast in Florida, I'm looking forward to what Colorado will bring. I'm also excited to see some friends I haven't seen in a long time. Particularly one who was a year behind me in high school. We hung out in the same social group and had one class together my Junior year. She's a sweetheart and I've missed her. We're going to get manicures and hang out. I think it's going to be a ton of fun! Nationals is a great way for authors (particularly Romance authors) to get together, find out what's new in the publishing world, and network. Publishers, agents, and other industry professionals come from all over as well...

Happy Tuesday Everybody, I'm going to put this out there. Other authors have posted about it on Facebook, and I've mentioned it from time to time: Readers, you have tremendous power. YOU hold the key to an author's success. How does an author become a bestseller? He or she has readers getting and enjoying his or her work. Readers tell other readers, who tell other readers, and soon you have a hit. Word of mouth is terribly important to authors. I'm no different. If you like a novel--if you like any of my novels--please consider leaving a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, and any Statue in the Botanical Gardens in Springdale, Arkansas other website where the author's work appears. It doesn't cost you anything and it has the potential to help the author. (Including the potential of helping this author!) However, the most important way you can help an author is by telling other readers about him or her. Talk about their work. Let others ...

Happy Thursday All, So sorry I've been away--there's been a lot going on over here, so I've been very busy. Allergies are a little better--thank you to everyone for your good thoughts/wishes/prayers. The other day I mentioned my RWA (Romance Writers' of America) chapter, the Northwest Houston Romance Writers of America  is having its annual Lone Star Contest for writers. There are several categories to enter, everybody. There's great prizes available and an opportunity to get your work in front of editors and agents. One year I was a coordinator for one of the categories and I saw some really talented writers come through. This is a chance to show people what you're doing with your work. It's fairly easy to enter, and it's not real expensive either. Please go to the contest web page and check out further details . The category chairs (coordinators) are all really nice people and the person who heads it up is so helpful. Have A Thrilling Thursday...

Happy Wednesday All, Okay I'm late on reporting this (Bad Bethany!!) but, hopefully it's worth the wait. My wonderful critique partner, Tess St. John has put out a brand-new novel, Angel Eyes . For anyone who's read Don't Let It Show and Eyes Of Jade , this is Roy's story! Also, you can get for free, the prelude/prologue short story to Angel Eyes called Violet Eyes (which I've read and helped critique...it's really good. I helped critique a little bit on Angel Eyes --I remember I liked what I read). Most of her books are available on Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook, and some of her previous titles are available in-print through Amazon. Violet Eyes is only available through Tess's website, you can download it for free here on her book portion of her homepage . Lately I've been re-reading Alex Flinn's Beastly (one of my favorite re-tellings of Beauty & The Beast ) and she put out on E-book Beastly: Lindy's Diary (which...

Happy Friday All, Congratulations goes to Nikki N. for winning the Kerrelyn Sparks giveaway yesterday! Kerrelyn will mail your copy of BE STILL MY VAMPIRE HEART, soon. Today I want to talk about outside-the-business-support/encouragement for writers/authors. A writer can have his or her critique group, but what about outside the business support? Some authors don't have a lot of people outside their critique/writing groups supporting/encouraging them. Some people have a misconception about what writing and publishing actually entails. Some people don't understand the emotions that surround a writer as he/she works on their craft. Writing and publishing are real jobs. It's not always lucrative financially, but it's still a career. It take time, talent, energy, and dedication. There are writers who work 12-14 hours a day writing and editing to get their work in on time to editors, agents, and publishers. There are writers who suffer health issu...

Happy Monday Evening, I'm sorry I've been MIA. There's been a lot going on in my world, so the blog got a bit away from me, but I promise I'll be making a come-back. This week I'm going to be posting my November Author Interview! I'm excited about this one because the book that made me want to interview the author had me really thinking. It's a very imaginative premises and I can't wait to share it all with you through the interview. Offspring got ill over the weekend so that put a wrench in what I thought I was going to do this morning...so I'm playing a little bit of catch up. I hope all is well with you all and I'll do a better job at keeping this up :-) Have A Merry Monday Evening!

Happy Monday Everyone, This past weekend the illustrious Christie Craig gave a special workshop to the Northwest Houston Romance Writers of America , which, I'm proud to say I'm a member of this awesome group. The workshop was called "High Tea & POV" although, I don't know how many people actually consumed tea (I had water), but we sure listened in rapt attention as Christie talked about getting into your character's heads. In fact...that's precisely what POV is. POV--point of view. Which character is telling the story? Is it your heroine? Then you see, feel, hear, smell, taste, experience intuition and thoughts of that character. These are things that I've talked about with my C.P. but I'm not always consciously aware of them while I'm writing. When I'm writing I'm imaging how the character reacts based on what I know about the character. I'm reacting and visualizing. When I go back and edit I'm looking at the dialogu...

Happy Friday Everyone, Also, Happy September--yay, Fall is on its way! Not only am I late posting this during the day, but I'm also behind on blog posts. I've been working hard on edits and a bunch of things going on in my life, so I had to put blog updates on hold. I don't know what next week will bring in the way of blog posts, but I'll try to post more. I'm not the only busy one around here. While I'm hiding under the editing rock, the world keeps spinning around me (which is a good thing!) So, I'm going to tell you to what's going on in the order I heard/found out about it: In October I'll be posting another official book review. This is one where the author has asked me to do this. I've started the book in question and I'll be setting a date, soon. Adult Romance author, Robin Badillo's Whiskey Road is now available on Amazon Kindle . My book review of Christie Craig's new release (adult Romance), Don't Mess With ...

Happy Friday All, *EDIT as of 10:50 a.m. (Central Time):  I forgot to mention tomorrow (Saturday, August 27, 2011) is Christie Craig's booksigning for her new release. I wrote a post about this awhile back. Please, if you can make it, go and support her. Whew, what a week! This has been a week of appointments and all kinds of things going on. My body decided I needed to relax so I had to make sure I did that. But the good news is, it looks like I'm finally getting more to where I want to be. Edits are coming along. I finished my round of edits and now have gotten started on the ones from my critique partner. I got my registration mailed out for the Lone Star Conference and reserved my hotel room...yay! So, God willing, I definitely will be there. (For those of you going to the conference and wanting to reserve a hotel room, just click here: http://www.nwhrwa.com/conference.htm ). Anyway, I know I've been away for several days...I have a lot going on but I shoul...

Happy Tuesday Everyone, Bet you never thought you'd see that on my blog, huh? "Bethany runs with lions? What in the world? Is she a safari fanatic and just didn't tell us?" No, I'm not a safari fanatic. In fact, I've never even been on a safari. It's just a reference to my novel, Surreal , which brings me to today's questions: Who do you run with? Who's company do you keep? What type of characters do you have running around in your head? Whether you're a reader, a writer, or both, you have all kinds of characters running in your head. Those characters are the people/creatures you run with. They are your company and companions through a story. They are your safari tour guides and help you navigate the world of the book you're either reading or writing. Sometimes those tour guides are all contemporary human beings. Sometimes they're extraordinary humans, like for example, knights in shining armor, wooing a damsel--the onl...

Happy Friday All, I'm a bit late posting this. Last night my Internet went nuts and decided to see if I was paying attention.  Today I got it to work despite electrical sockets deciding to go on vacation and not work for me. (And we just had the electrician come and check out these same sockets!) Anyway, I got this idea from a blog post that Shannon Hale did about an interview she had with Stephenie Meyer . Here's what I came up with: You get to ask ME questions. What do you want to know about me? ( Please note:  I reserve the right to not answer any question I deem too personal--this includes information on my age, personal information on family members and my sexual life ). However feel free to ask about my writing, inspiration, the NWHRWA, reading, movies I like, and things like that. You can also tell me if there's something in particular you want me to blog about or ask me about author interviews--make suggestions if you'd like. So whatcha wanna know? ...

Happy Wednesday Everyone, I promise, even if I don't update this blog every day, I'm not really gone. I'm in the midst of finalizing edits, also I have the demands of my daily life. But, I promise, I'm not completely absent. I'm doing my best to stick around and keep posting regularly, but if I seem a little silent, those are the reasons. Meanwhile, what's going on with all of you? Have A Winning Wednesday!

Happy Thursday All, You  might have noticed the lack of posting on my blog this week. I've had an unexpected occurrence happen...my son got sick. Monday morning he was not doing well. He threw up in the doctor's office, found out he had an ear infection and went home. Tuesday and Wednesday he developed a cough and then Wednesday night he woke about 3 times sounding bad. So, back to the doctor's office we went (today). Found out he's fighting croup. He should be better soon and the doc said we were doing what we could do. Of course, all this going on means I'm walking around with my brain barely functioning. I've been reading--which has helped keep the imagination alive to keep those creative juices flowing for editing and writing. I think today or tomorrow I might actually (drawing on my faith here, praying that nothing else happens) get to seriously focus, rather then sitting there staring at the computer screen thinking "Why am I at the computer...

Happy Tuesday All, Something interesting happened to me during Agent Scott Eagan's talk on Saturday (which I talked about in this post ). What happened was Scott brought up having been a Composition teacher at one point. Now there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. That isn't what invoked the flash back. What invoked the flash back was when he was talking about having "3-5" of something (I think it was publishers). His advice was very good. (Sure, I cringed, but that was when he was talking about goofy mistakes people sometimes make). I winced during him talking about those 3-5 things...but not because of having to come up with those things (although at first I was worried about what to do about it, but I'm not anymore, I've managed to figure a few things out since the talk), but because of what was running through my head: I was remembering Junior year of high school...the dreaded term paper (worth 2 grades because it was one paper for 2 cla...

Happy Friday Everyone, Before I get to today's post, want to wish fellow USA-ers a Happy 4th of July Independence Day! Have a happy and safe holiday. Now onto the topic at hand... Normally these things appear in a published book...the finished product of what we writers toil and imagine and work on for hours and days and even years at a time. But, I was thinking about a fellow NWHRWA member who recently got a short story published in Suspense Magazine and how happy I was for him. Then I got to thinking about the different "cheerleaders" in my life. The people who have encouraged, prodded, supported, laughed with me, read over my work (and listened to it) and helped me learn and helped me get on this road, that I just have to name them. (And in the comment section, you can name anyone YOU'D like to thank!) So here's my list of people, whether they'd appear in the Acknowledgements of a published story by me or not, I'm still grateful to them (in n...

This post is for Monday but I'm posting early because it's been running around in my head for awhile. Hello Everybody, An interesting subject came up when I was reading a blog (unrelated to writing, but a topic I'm interested in). The question of women being mothers and career women came up and I happened to mention I was a writer. The person I was talking to through the comments said that I was "doing it all"; b ut other things she said reminded me of the misconceptions people have about writers. The ideas I had when I was a teenager, before I got to really educating myself on the writing and publishing world. This big misconception is that we writers don't have to spend as much time as other career-paths or even full time students on what we do. That at the very least it's a hobby sort of drive at the very most it's a few hours a day. Well, I'm here to blast that myth into oblivion . Okay, maybe not all writers are spending 8-10 hours...

Happy Tuesday Everyone, I haven't drunk all my coffee, yet, so I'm waiting for my brain to "kick into gear". Lately you've probably noticed my posts are very short and not as much information in them as in days past. There's a very good reason for that: I'm in editing...my brain is in editing, except when I'm reading, tending to my family or doing some other thing like emails, helping with a contest or doing email interviews. I'm not going to neglect the blog, but if there's a day I don't blog, it's because I'm tending to some of the other things I have going on. As you know, the writing process can take time. So when creativity is in process, we have to respect that. The good news is, if the author is lucky, the story gets published, then we get to enjoy it. :-) Anyway, wherever you all are at in the creativity process I wish you success and hope it goes smoothly! Best wishes :-) Have A Terrific Tuesday!

Happy Wednesday Folks, So...okay..like I said, I have a goofy sense of humor, and I thought a fun post just for the sake of laughter. I'm asking your opinion this time on some "just for fun" questions: What happens when a writer has too much coffee? Do their characters end up dancing some weird Twister / Funky Chicken / Hokey Pokey dance because the author's so hyper they can't make sense? Is there such a thing as too much chocolate? (I think so...I've eaten things where I just felt it was too much...but this is your chance to voice your opinion). Would sleep deprivation be called a requirement for a writer? Are weird ideas just weird ideas or jumping off points for a good story? What do you think? Have A Wondering Wednesday!

Happy Tuesday Folks, Thank you to everyone who expressed condolences and sympathy regarding my uncle's death. I truly appreciate all the kind words and support. Thank you everyone for the fabulous comments regarding the interview with Elizabeth Pina . It was great the way everyone supported her. I was hoping I was asking good questions to help folks and glad to know that through her answers both myself and Elizabeth were able to do you all a helpful service :-) In visiting with my brother and his fiancee recently we got to talking about writing and their own kind of writing. They're music composers (and musicians ). She's working on her Doctorate and my brother is finishing up his Masters before he starts his Doctorate. My brother was explaining his Thesis music composition to me and half the terms went over my head. That's got me thinking about how in the writing world we have our own terms that others might not understand (I had someone outside the writing business as...