Surprise! ANGEL IN THE SHADOWS...

Happy Thursday All,

Sometimes you come across an intriguing read in the bookstore. Sometimes the library. Sometimes while you're perusing the internet. And sometimes you didn't realize someone you knew had an intriguing read out until you see them talking about it. That's what happened to me recently, and boy am I glad I was paying attention...

Because I almost missed out on a gripping read.

Angel In The Shadows by Amy Deason is one of those snuck-up-on-me-and-sucked-me-right-in. Big time. (note: the genre for this novel is Romantic Suspense).

I took a peek at the reviews and the blurb to get a feel for the novel, and decided to go ahead and try it out. She made me laugh-out-loud on the first page. Right away I was hooked. Anybody who can make me laugh on the very first page is bound to grab my attention.

And then Amy hit me with the action and suspense. And I was sucked in.


The novel is about an operative named Seth Reynolds who works for a company called The Perfect Order. They're out to get rid of Vance, a true A-word jerk (and that's me being nice). But when Madison Sinclair is at the wrong place, at the wrong time (and sees something she wasn't supposed to) things go topsy-turvy and the innocent photographer finds herself on the run from Vance and his hired assassins.

Seth finds himself Madison's unwilling hero in this whole fiasco. But can he keep her safe in spite of herself until The Perfect Order has a chance to deal with Vance? Can he do it without falling for those brown eyes and defiantly independent attitude?

Time is running out.

Everyone's lives are on the line.

The whole thing teeters on the choices Seth and Madison make about themselves, each other, and whether or not they can keep one step ahead of Vance.

Who will win?

If any of this has piqued your interest in Amy Deason's novel, I recommend you head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of Angel In The Shadows.

Have A Thrill-filled Thursday!

Doing That Networking Thing...

Happy Thursday All,

Lately I've been working on a couple of new projects. One of them has to do with one of my published novels, and the other one is a WIP. Both projects are moving along pretty well and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with them.

One of the projects deals with another side of writing that's often talked about, but some authors struggle with--networking.

It's funny, but I get asked about this more often than I thought I would. I really don't consider myself an expert on the subject, I'm pretty much doing what everyone else does--picking which social

Me with the amazing Christie Craig
If I didn't open my mouth and network
I wouldn't have gotten to know this gem of a person

media works for me, going to writer's group meeting, attending the annual conference, talking to readers, seeing what opportunities open up for me.

A lot of authors are shy and/or introverts. Some aren't, but the majority I've come across actually are. I count myself one of them. 

"YOU?!!" people cry in total disbelief, while assessing me to make sure I'm not having a mental breakdown. (Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but their expressions make me wonder if they think that I am having one).

Me and the very talented Teri Thackston
We've enjoyed many a fun conversation
and she's an imaginative author to boot.

"Uh, yeah," I answer, wondering if I just said something taboo. (Is it wrong to say you're shy? Does this somehow mean I'm not as good as someone who isn't?--yeah the questions circle my brain sometimes).

"But-but you talk all the time! You approach people. You're no introvert and you can't be shy." (Somehow being an introvert translates to people are incapable of talking or approaching others ever in their lives. Which makes me wonder how would we interview for a job or pitch our novels or meet our spouses if we didn't open our mouths once in a while?)

I usually smile and/or laugh and say "Oh, I am, honest." (Because it's true).

Unless they know me really well, they never believe me (or rarely believe me). However, my Girls' Night Out ladies do.

One of them I've known since the 4th grade will flat out tell you I'm

Authors Jennifer Bray-Weber & Stacey Purcell
such sweet encouraging ladies
So much talent!

shy.

Another one of the ladies I've known 20+ years and she'll be like "Bethany? Oh yeah, she's introverted and shy. Definitely."

And the other, who is like a little sister to me--I've known her several years (although not as long as the other two). She'll say, "Oh, yeah, she's an introvert and shy."

You see, they've seen the woman who gets quiet the more people there are around her. They've seen me go several minutes without saying a single word. In fact, sometimes they ask me if I'm okay. Generally I'm fine. I'm just thinking about things. Reviewing stuff or daydreaming. I'm a writer, so those daydreams are potential novel material.

The reason most people don't accept this about me is because they

Me, Christie Craig, and Thriller-author, Will Graham
Christie & Will are such awesome people
extremely good writers, too.

rarely (if ever) see it. By nature, I'm a talker. I love conversations and getting to know people. But it does take a lot for me to approach people.

However, I grew up in a house where learning to talk to people was part of living in the family. I'm one of eight kids. We talk to each other our, parents, relatives, friends. So yeah, I know how to verbally communicate reasonably well.

Then of course, my parents were active in the community. They did a lot of work for the church and they had many friends (they still do). So we'd have open houses and parties and family reunions. I had to be able to carry on conversations, even know how to do "small talk". 

Over 30 years of doing all this, I've developed a motto. It goes like this:  "You have to take your shyness, put it under your feet and stand on it." That is, you can't let it get in your way. So yeah, you

Cows on a friends' ranch, because, why not?
They don't seem like they'd make good conversationalists, though

go up to that person you're considering saying hi to and you chat them up. Sometimes you luck out and make a new friend. Sometimes they barely say 2 words to you and you walk away analyzing every last thing you said and wonder if you said the wrong thing. Sometimes you do that even if you said all the right things. But you have to make that move even if it's hard.

As an author the main person who will promote me is me. How else will people know about the new projects I have going? Or what books are about to be

Because it's Throwback Thursday...
Me, senior year of high school. Eek!

published? Not every reader in the world follows me on social media and who knows what new readers I can gain. My existing fans want to know what I'm up to and if I can't promote it, how will they know (unless they're checking Amazon a million times a month to see if I've published something new or checking my website all the time).

The really cool thing is, most of the conversations I strike up end up being really good. People are usually supportive and interested. They like the idea of having met the author personally and hearing

Me, with authors Kerrelyn Sparks, & Christie Craig

about the books straight from the author him or herself.

So, take a deep breath, put your shoulders back, paste a smile on your face, and walk up to someone and say, "Hi! Can you believe the weather we're having? Hot, then cold, and rain. Yuck." (well, if that's the weather you're having, anyway). Once you've engaged them, you can say something like, "Do you like to read?" and go from there. You never know--they might even want your card or bookmark or website address. You don't know if they will get your novel, but they definitely won't if they don't know about it.

When I meet editors and agents at my RWA's chapter's annual conference, I generally open with "Welcome to Texas. I hope you're

My editor, Debby Gilbert from Soul Mate Publishing,
and me at the 2014 NWHRWA Conference

enjoying your stay." and go from there. (Speaking of which, my chapter has its annual conference coming in October--Saturday, October 1st. Check for details here).  Editors and agents are people, too, and you never know which ones will want what you're writing, if you don't talk to them when the opportunity presents itself.

I understand it's not easy. It really isn't easy for me, either. But it's doable and sometimes you're pleasantly surprised.

Best wishes!

Have A Tremendously Thrilling Thursday!

Updates & What's Up...

Happy Monday All,

I've been wrapped up in my WIP (Work In Progress)--which you can find out more about on my official website. I've also been

working on another project, which I'll talk more about when it's finished.

In all of this, I keep up with the Wife and Mommy gig--two lifelong vocations that take most of my time. However, lucky for me, I have a husband who believes in making sure I get time to write and work on things in my writing career.

This means, though, I don't get on the blog as much. It's not because I've forgotten about it, it's because my life is full of these other projects.

However, this doesn't mean I've totally disappeared. I recently updated my website, and I'm on Facebook and on Twitter.

What's going on with you?

Have A Magically Merry Monday!

A Magically Romantic Night...

Happy Friday All,

My heart is dancing today (well aside from being slightly tired because Youngest had a bit of a rough night) but I won't let that ruin why I'm on an emotional high.

Last night, as an early anniversary present to ourselves, my handsome Real Life Hero (my husband) and had a rare night out

Picture of the program we got
at the performance

and went to see the musical of Disney's Beauty And The Beast.

Not everyone dresses up at this theater, but I was brought up that fancy places like the one we went to, you wear something dressier than jeans or khakis and a top. So I wore a floral pleated skirt, a dressy black top, my new sparkly low-heeled

sandals, sparkly necklace and bracelet. And, with the help of at least a dozen bobby-pins, I put my hair up (all by myself, which is really something since I'm completely uncoordinated with fixing hair. I'm lucky I can do a simple bun and low or high ponytails. I can't even really braid my own hair or operate a curling iron. I know that's kind of sad and pathetic for a woman of my age, but it's the truth!)

Real Life Hero wore a new black suit, dark green shirt, tie, and dress shoes (he looked so handsome. But,

Real Life Hero and I at the performance

 I'm not sharing him. You want a hero, you'll have to choose someone else. LOL :-)  ).

We arrived with enough time to hang around the areas outside the main part of the theater. Husband got a Sprite, and I got a bottle of water. Then it was time to get to our seats. We were up in the gallery, so I was a little dizzy, but it was okay. Real Life Hero lived up to his hero status and kept me steady.

Before I get into the details of the performance, from my personal point of view and opinion, despite the number of children we saw, both Real Life Hero and I agree the musical is for more mature audiences. Some of the humor, acting,

Me inside the theater.
I'm not sure why I look so serious,
I was having a good time.

and at least one of the songs isn't exactly geared toward them. This is me and my husband's opinion and not to start any debate. Each parent has to decide what's best for their kids, we're just giving our input.

The musical opens much like the movie. Our version didn't have any stained glass windows for this part like the movie, but that does NOT take ANYTHING away from the performance.

Some of the main differences (aside from humor, innuendo, and music being more mature) is that there are more musical numbers, and some things expanded on, and other things changed to suit the venue. In movies you can do things you can't do on a stage and vice versa.

One of the songs that isn't in the movie, and one of my new favorites, is If I Can't Love Her, and the Reprise. I loved seeing more into the Beast's emotions in a way the movie doesn't show as much. It also put me in mind of a little of how Monroe sometimes

feels in my novel, All's Fair In Love & Lion.

Also, the lessons the servants give the Beast (Sam Hartley did an awesome job in this role) and the way he tried to implement them were hilarious. At one point he was repeating to himself "Act like a gentleman. Act. Like. A. GENTLEman." It was cute and heartwarming.

Brooke Quintana gave a lovely performance as Belle. She can belt out some of those notes, too. It was amazing! I really enjoyed one of the new songs they had for Belle called Home.

Speaking of Gaston, Christiaan Smith-Kotlarek was superb. He played up the arrogance even more than the movie, and sang extremely well.

In the movie, LeFou (Gaston's sidekick) is a bit of a bumbler. In the musical they played this aspect of his personality up with a ton of tumbling. Both me and Real Life Hero were extremely impressed with Matt Dasilva's performance.

You can get the full cast information here.

The Be Our Guest musical number was impressive (and got a ton of applause). The Beast's transformation was also done well.

There's a Gaston song called Me. Given the time period of the story (probably early 1700s) it illustrates much of the mindset of a woman's role in society and how they were often viewed. It's not the most flattering toward women type of song, but when taken in context, it makes sense.


All in all, if the musical is coming to your area, I highly recommend going. It's romantic, funny, fun, and definitely worth it.

I plan on getting the soundtrack at some point. I really enjoyed it.

Have A Fantastically Fabulous Friday!

How Do You Do It?

Happy Wednesday All,

Whew. I'm tired, are you? For one thing, Texas is back to yucky weather. Luckily it's not supposed to be as bad as a week ago, but it certainly wasn't fun to be woken at 4:30 a.m. with a Tornado Warning.

Now, I appreciate the National Weather Service (NWS) doing its best to keep people safe. In fact, I'm grateful, and I respect what they're doing. Honestly, I do. What I don't like is the fact that after being woken at 4:30 a.m. (when I finally was able to sleep after dealing with Youngest waking up every 1-2 hours because Youngest is going through a rough patch right now--something all people go through and it's not dangerous, just hard) is that I couldn't go back to sleep for the longest time! I finally conked out

around 6ish, I think. Only to wake up again around 6:30 or so. Then I went back to sleep until Youngest decided that at 7:27 a.m. sleep was a rotten idea, and it was time to get up (this was after Youngest had been a little restless here and there).

Now I've been in the very little/no sleep position as a Mom before. This is NOT my first sleep deprivation rodeo. However, it's not any easier than any other time. In fact, any time it happens is harder than before because I'm older now than I was before. (That's the funny thing about the years passing, huh? You get older!)

Does sleep deprivation kill the writing side of my life--the creativity? Sometimes. Not always. It really depends on where I am

in a story or what's going on. Currently the incredibly talented and awesome Stacy Hoff is looking over one of my WIPs (Works In Progress) so I'm not really working on it too diligently. My husband teases me because I've been working a little on several stories at once. He thinks I need to focus on one story at a time. He might be right, but I figure if I have an idea for something, get it written so that I can focus. 

In fact, I got an idea for one story that I'll be implementing while I'm waiting for Stacy's comments. (Speaking of which, Stacy's novels are fun and imaginative, I urge you to check them out. Particularly her Desire series. The television network in her stories is just itching for lawsuits! LOL).

A lot of people ask me "How do you do it?" I write whenever I can grab a minute--or whenever Real Life Hero (my husband) takes the

Offspring and I have a flash of inspiration. I think about my stories and work almost all the time. Laying in bed at night, I'll contemplate scenes before falling asleep.

When writing is what you want to do--really want to do--you find a way. I've learned that whatever you have a passion for you will make time to do. As a mom, I have a responsibility to my Offspring to be Mom to them. I love them, and want to provide for them. So, I find ways of doing it. I love to read, so I find time to do that, too--even if that means reading off my E-reader apps on my phone. You have to be flexible. But if I didn't have the passion

for these things, I don't think I'd make the time. It's not easy and if you're doing one thing other things will suffer (like housework) but you have to find a balance (if you can, sometimes you don't find a good balance, but you have to do your best)--and sometimes you just have to accept the bad with the good. Some days are good, some are bad. I think that's what any mom or person goes through with whatever they do. I don't think it's exclusive to Moms/Dads who are writers. Based on what I've seen/heard, it's just life.

Anyway, I hope your week is going well and if you're in Texas, stay dry!

If you cross paths with Stacy Hoff, tell her I said hi. :-)

Have A Wondrously Whimsical Wednesday!

Motorcycles, Deep Characters, & More...

Happy Friday One & All,

And also, Happy April! It's April 1st. No, I'm not going to play any April Fool's jokes on you. Just a straight post, so no worries.

Today, though, is a surprise book review! No, the author didn't ask me this time, this is just me telling you about a book I read this week.

On Tuesday, March 29, YA Contemporary author, Katie McGarry's newest Thunder Road series book, Walk The Edge came out. I had pre-ordered an e-book copy and it arrived on Tuesday. I finished it at 11:38 p.m. (between family, and my own writing demands) I finished it.

Razor and Breanna are excellent characters--complex, emotional, and deep.

Katie's writing has a sense of honesty about it. I can't exactly explain it.

Her characters are "broken" and/flawed, but want what's good and right in the world. They have a strong sense of justice. Even if they're down a bad or dark path, they want what's good. They want something right, they just don't always know what the right thing is or how to get it.

Her stories are gritty, and pull no punches.

I've been following Katie's career with great interest (and have read everything she's published) since her first novel, Pushing The Limits (one of my favorites) was first released. (You can read about how I met Katie here).

I also appreciate the amount of time and research she puts into her work.

So, if you're in the mood for motorcycle clubs, emotional story lines, and complex characters, I recommend you head out to Amazon and Barnes & Noble and get yourself a copy of Walk The Edge.

Have A Fabulously Fun Friday!

Get Sucked In...

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 person past tense, but it wouldn't come together. I really had to do what worked for the story.

 Book One of my Immortal Dreams Trilogy, Divine Love, was a totally different experience. This one ended up having 18 year olds as the hero and heroine duo of the story and I pulled from my love of Greek Mythology. I also decided to just in a sense, "kick off my shoes, and put my feet up". It was some of the most fun I had while writing. I enjoyed coming up with Jason's arrogant-but-lovable personality, and Laney's seemingly quiet and shy, but actually able to totally kick butt persona. Writing Hades as a humorous gatekeeper of the Underworld, and Cupid & Psyche as cheesy love-birds was so much fun.

Working on Book Two, Astral Love proved a new challenge. I had to write a sequel and I had to do it in a limited amount of time. Not

only that, but I had to leave an opening for Book Three. What draws me to this story is that I took a deeper look at the hero, Jason Magnus. Plus you also find out more about the heroine, Laney Alberts.

When I got to Book Three, Immortal Love, I knew I'd have to "up the ante". As the last book in the Trilogy I wanted the story to end

with a bang. I threw everything I could come up with and imagine at Laney and Jason. I went over descriptions in two places to try and make it as big as I could. I was drawn into the fact that Laney and Jason were now in a place where they were comfortable in general with their circumstances. So I had to make them as uncomfortable as possible. I enjoyed expanding upon their relationship and the world of the Immortals. It was hard to say goodbye to them at the end, but I was happy I had written their story.

I love all my novels and characters for different reasons. Some are easier to write than others, but each one drew me into their world for their own reasons.

The novels I'm currently working on are new stories that I hope my readers will enjoy as much as I enjoy creating them.

So, tell me, as a reader (and/or writer) what draws you into or toward a story?

Have A Tantalizingly Tremendous Thursday!