Book Winners

FEBRUARY WINNERS!

We had five authors giving away books in February.

I don't have all your email addresses. Please either leave your email addresses in the comment section or contact me at siamckye@gmail.com with your physical address.

All addresses are kept strictly confidential.

The winners are as follows:

JUDI FENNELL:

LuAnn

Tetiwe

TERRY SPEAR:

Elli Rossi

Anna Shah Hogue

AMANDA FORESTER:

Tomi
Mason Canyon

DONNA GRANT:

Chellyreads

Sue A

DONNA MACMEANS:

Vivian Archer

Congratulations!

Be sure to contact me so we can get your books to you.

Getting There

Debut author, Joanne Kennedy, is my guest Over Coffee today. Joanne writes romantic suspense with a little bit of humor stirred in to keep it interesting. She lives in Cowboy country so it's no surprise her debut is about those tough and sexy American icons, the cowboy.

Joanne's talks about the need to love what you do. Reaching your goals when you love the work is a joy. When you love your work, climbing the steps isn't a hardship. Each level brings new goals to achieve and even when you *get there* you still have steps to climb.

The road to publication is a long road, paved with rejections and frustration—but I made it. I’m finally “there” – but now that I’ve reached my goal, I’m surprised to find that, in the words of Gertrude Stein, “there is no ‘there’ there.”
When you first start writing, you think to yourself, “If I could just finish this…”

You finish it. Then you hope to win a contest. Then you begin the long process of submission, aiming for goals like getting requests for partial manuscripts, then fulls, then getting offers of representation from agents.

When I signed with my agent, I really thought I was “there.” And I was close—closer than a lot of writers get with their first agent, because I was lucky enough to strike gold the first time out and sign with a really good agent who’s also a fine human being (actually, I think she’s a goddess). But even with her knowledge and contacts, it took over a year, many revisions, and finally a second manuscript, to make a sale.

And now that Cowboy Trouble has hit the stores, there are still goals ahead of goals and more goals. I hope the book sells well. I hope it gets good reviews. And if it does get good reviews, I’ll be worrying about the next book—will it live up to the first?

I can always find something to worry about.

But in some ways, that’s a good thing. No matter how well the book does, I’ll always be reaching for the next milestone. Bestseller lists. Awards. Making a living if I’m lucky, and then a better living.

The striving never ends—and that’s good. Life loses its flavor when you have nothing to aspire to.

But that realization showed me that the ultimate reward writing offers doesn’t lie in any of these achievements. The real reward is in the writing itself—the good days when the words flow freely, the triumphs when I solve a particularly gnarly plot problem, the weird, almost mystical joy of creating a world and characters who inhabit it and make it real, and even the satisfaction of knuckling down and getting the job done on a difficult day.

If you don’t take joy in the simple act of doing what you love, forget the other goals. Because if you think achieving any of them is going to complete your life, you’re wrong.

Whether your talent lies in writing, painting, teaching children, or running a business, you’re lucky if you’ve found what you were meant to do. Doing what you love is a privilege and a joy.

In the all-consuming quest for success, it’s easy to forget the biggest blessing of all: you have a talent that only you can offer. You have a place in the world.

So for all you aspiring writers out there, and everyone else who is always aiming for some elusive goal, take heart. When you sit down at your desk or your piano or your word processor, take a deep breath, and light into the day’s work, you’re already “there.”

What do you love to do? What are your goals, and how would achieving them change your life?

COWBOY TROUBLE

Fleeing her latest love life disaster, big city journalist Libby Brown's transition to rural living isn't going exactly as planned. Her childhood dream has always been to own a chicken farm—but without the constant help of her charming, sexy, cowboy neighbor; she'd never have made it through her first Wyoming season.

Handsome rancher Luke Rawlins is impressed by this sassy, independent city girl. But he yearns to do more than help Libby out with her ranch…he's ready for love, and he wants to go the distance. When the two get embroiled in their tiny town's one and only crime story, Libby discovers that their sizzling hot attraction is going to complicate her life in every way possible…

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Joanne Kennedy has worked in bookstores all her life in positions ranging from bookseller to buyer. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and won first place in the Colorado Gold Writing Contest and second place in the Heart of the Rockies contest in 2007. Joanne lives and writes in Cheyenne, Wyoming. For more information please visit http://joannekennedybooks.com/.

Pit Bull Approach to Writer’s Block

USA Today Best Seller, Catherine Mann, is my guest today. She’s a frequent speaker at RWA conferences. Writes emotional packed tales around some hot military heroes for Harlequin and Berkley Sensation. You may have read her Dark Ops stories with Berkley.

I’ve often wondered how authors handle deadlines around writing several books a year in more than one series. How do they keep it fresh? How do they handle the normal writing blocks when on deadlines?


Cathy shares how she handles it.

People often ask how I combat writer’s block when penning four to five books a year. My answer? I step away from the computer and search out new ways to clear the cobwebs. Although I never could have foreseen that this week’s cobweb clearing journey would lead me to Doga Class with a pit bull.

Yes, you read that right. Doga. Pronounced Dough-Guh. In essence, it’s yoga with a dog, or in my case, doga with a pit-bull.

I’ve never participated in yoga or mediation before. But I’m an active supporter of my local Humane Society, including fostering motherless puppies. When I heard that my local shelter was starting a monthly doga class, I was smack dab in the middle of a huge plot snarl and doga seemed like a great way to nab some cobweb clearing time. (Photo to the right Cathy with foster pups)

I had read up a little on doga and knew going in that the purpose for shelter dogs is to help them become more adoptable by:

1)Relaxing tension/aggression in a dog stressed from being penned up.

2) Relaxing nervous/timid dogs who need confidence.

Doga incorporates chanting, massage, acupressure, as well as reflexology with the paws. (Probably more than you cared to know - pardon my digression!)

Arriving at the shelter, I asked them to pair me with a dog that needed help rather than me just picking a doggie partner. Ask and ye shall receive.

Meet Tayler:

Now, I’ve fostered bulldog puppies before and have a deep affection for the breed. They’re sweet dogs by nature, and are sadly often misused by their owners. (Don’t EVEN get me started on the evils of dog fighting.) Yet knowing all of this, I was still nervous about finding my center and oneness in a lotus position with a huge animal I didn’t know, an animal clearly unhappy about being penned up.

Boy, was I ever in for a surprise. After only a little heart-to-hound Mudra and some Downward Facing Dog, Tayler was a regular pussy cat, resting her chin on her paws, rolling on her back, covering my hands and face with doggy kisses. She was totally mellow - and also apparently majorly into aroma therapy!



By the end of the doga session, my writer’s block had cleared. Thanks to Tayler, I realized I simply needed to look at the plot problem from a different angle and enjoy the unexpected path.

So this week when folks ask me how I combat writer’s block, I just smile and say, “I took the pit bull approach.”


For a chance to win an autographed book by Catherine Mann, simply post a comment. Three winners will be chosen, winner’s choice of HOTSHOT (Berkley Sensation) or BOSSMAN’S BABY SCANDAL (Silhouette Desire.)

• CURRENT RELEASE:

MORE THAN WORDS: STORIES OF HOPE, an anthology by three bestselling authors: Catherine Mann, Diana Palmer and Kasey Michaels, Harlequin, March 2010.

• Catherine Mann, Touched by Love
• Read an Excerpt

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USA Today bestseller Catherine Mann writes action-packed military suspense for Berkley Sensation and emotional, steamy romances for Silhouette Desire. With over two million books in print in twenty countries, she has also celebrated wins in both the RTIA and Bookseller’s Best contests. A former theater school director and university teacher, she holds a Master’s degree in theater from UNC-Greensboro and a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the College of Charleston. Catherine currently resides on a sunny Florida beach with her military flyboy husband and their four children. FMI check out her website at: http://catherinemann.com