FINDING IDEAS

My guest today is romantic suspense author, Stacey Joy Netzel. She writes about rugged heroes, resilient heroines, and heartwarming romance. Her latest book is part of her Colorado Trust Series.

Her topic is something I think every reader has asked an author; where do you find your ideas? Stacey shares where she found ideas for several of her books.

This is an often-asked question of many writers, so I thought I’d share how some of my books came to be. Ideas can come from anywhere…a bad situation, a good day with family, and an overheard conversation at the next table while at the coffee shop. Writers are notorious for people watching and listening.

My Christmas novella, Dragonfly Dreams, was born after a conversation that I participated in at one of my parents’ rummage sales. A man told us about when he was a kid; he’d been paid for some yard work for an older woman with an old rifle of her late-husband’s. He in turn took the rifle to a pawnshop and was thrilled to get an awesome price. (I vaguely recall it being around $100-150). Not long after, he and his family read in the paper that the pawnshop owner had sold a mint-condition WWI rifle for over $200,000.00. I took the idea of the story, of how losing that much money could affect someone in a desperate situation, but changed the details by using an antique broach and then added different historical twist.

This next book came about a bit backwards. I heard the Milwaukee area country band Chasin’ Mason and thought it’d be a great title for a book. All I had to do is figure out who Mason was, and why was someone chasin’ him? I then dedicated the book to the band. Someday, I’ll even get a copy to them.

For another book, I drew upon personal experience. Almost fifteen years ago, on my first (and only) international trip, I was left on the side of the road in Italy by my traveling companions…my brother and sister. See, I was busy with my new video camera, and they were more concerned about getting to our hotel. They finally came back after more than twenty nerve-wracking minutes (remember-first time out of the USA and I didn’t speak Italian), and I had a story to tell for life. People still can’t believe they just drove off without me and it took them over ten minutes to realize I wasn’t in the back seat. You might think it was revenge for something I’d done when we were kids *grin*, but really, my sister was crying when they got back, because she was afraid they’d dragged me as I was trying to get into the car. Nope, I was still filming swans on the lake as they zoomed off into traffic. The book isn’t published yet, so I won’t go into detail except to say the heroine had a much more exciting adventure than me. She’s kidnapped by a movie star and her family is held for ransom by the real bad guys. Tentative title: Lost in Italy.

Trust in the Lawe is a sequel written to my very first romance, so nothing too exciting there other than wanting to stay connected to my ‘friends’, Joel and Britt. But the characters in the next book, Shattered Trust, were partly shaped by a work negotiation training that I participated in for my day job as a Travel Agent. I learned different power techniques during negotiations that can give people an edge, so I made sure that my heroine applied them when the hero unjustly fired her and then had to go back to apologize and offer her job back.

If Tombstones Could Talk, a paranormal novella, came about from me seeing a local event in the newspaper about a cemetery walking tour, and most recently, I heard about one of those strange laws in a local town that when you hear it you think, “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” It gave me an idea for the beginning of the story, and though I’m still working out the details, I plan to get writing soon!

Ideas abound in just about anything we see, do, hear, and even dream. This is a great thing; it means the well should never go dry. But on the other hand, sometimes I get so many ideas I don’t even bother writing them down because I know I’ll never have the time to write them all. The ones that really catch linger in my mind get written in a notebook. Someday I will get to them.

Question: If you're a writer, where do you get your ideas? Readers, have you ever had an idea you'd love to see written as a book or movie?

Stacy has to work today but she will be stopping by once she's finished.

Trust in The Lawe Blurb

Kendra Zelner has three brothers: Eight-year old Noah she's determined to protect, Joel who has no clue she exists, and Robert who wants her dead.

With reason to be distrustful of cops, she takes Noah and flees their Manhattan home for Joel's ranch in Colorado. Under the pretense of needing a job, she plans to hide out until her twenty-fifth birthday, when she'll inherit her trust fund and legally gain custody of Noah away from Robert's greedy hands. Unfortunately, her brother's sexy, infuriating ranch manager insists on demolishing her defenses and digging into her past.

Colton Lawe has good reason to suspect Joel's beautiful, long-lost sister isn't what she seems—the little liar stole from him! He silently vows to expose her secrets, but long hours together on the ranch fosters a closeness and fiery attraction neither of them expects. Can Kendra trust Colton with the full truth before Robert finds them? Excerpt and  Night Owl Top Pick Review.

Buy: Amazon. Barnes and Noble

Wisconsin native Stacey Joy Netzel fell in love with books at a young age, so for her it seemed only natural to graduate to writing them. A member of Romance Writers of America and Wisconsin Romance Writers (WisRWA), she credits her parents for encouraging her dreams of becoming a published author, as well as the very talented friends she’s made in WisRWA since joining in 2004. TRUST IN THE LAWE is the first release in her ColoradoTrust Series. Next up is Shattered Trust (print available now, ebook available Mar. 30th) and Shadowed Trust, release date TBA. She also has two e-book novellas available online: If Tombstones Could Talk and Dragonfly Dreams. Her three full-length books include: Welcome to Redemption, Chasin' Mason, and Mistletoe Rules. Set in Pulaski, WI, Mistletoe Rules took first place in WisRWA's 2010 Write Touch Readers' Award.

An avid reader and lover of movies with happy endings, Stacey still lives in WI, with her husband and three children, a couple horses and some barn cats. In her limited free time she enjoys gardening and canning, and visiting her parents up north at the cabin on the lake with the whole family.

You can keep up with Stacey and her writing: Facebook and Website.

Monday Musings: Grappling With Spring Clean Up

Spring brings storms. Lots of storms as the ground prepares for the growing season. Aside from the storms, spring brings lots of extra work. We have weeding and preparing those garden beds for planting, cleaning up the debris of winter rains or snow, and working on the outside buildings and the house itself. Finally, we see the yard clean and looking good. Granted it’s still bare bones but it’s ready for the next step, beautifying it.


The work we did in the past, the planting and pruning, is now showing evidence of growth. Shoots from the bulbs we planted are pushing through the dirt. We can almost see what everything will look like when it’s done. We’re not done but we’re on the way. Now comes the mulching, trimming, and weeding.


Isn’t that just like our writing? The initial work is showing promise but there is still much clean up we have to do. Trimming, weeding, fertilizing, and mulching. Not always the fun part but necessary if we want it to match our vision.

I've been writing this winter plus I’ve pulled out some of my older manuscripts and I’m analyzing them. Some are good stories and have good bones but the execution is poor. Editing, pruning and weeding, is necessary. Some are close to the query stage and actually I’ve had some good feedback on them.


Now it’s a matter asking myself questions. Am I telling the reader the story, or are am I putting them on the spot to feel and see things unfold. I learned quite a bit by some of my recent 5 star reading.

• The Second Duchess puts me in Barbara’s mind and environment so I trying to answer the same questions she is. I had no warning that a certain dish would kill a character close to Barbara, but I was there and felt the shock when it happened. My mind was reviewing who would or could have done it and why.

• The Dawn Country puts me in each scene and again I’m there on location as the story unfolds. I’m running with Koracoo and Gondo. I see by their actions they’re terrified as to whether they will be too late and the actions of their guilt for being unable to protect their children. I watch in horror with the kids as their captor orders the death of a twelve-year-old child.

• Rock Hard doesn’t tell me Sed is a controlling man, the author shows me and allows me to see and draw my own conclusions. Ditto with the fact Sed has a heart of gold. I’m in the scene so I’m seeing him pull on the SOB persona to protect his heart. Jessica demonstrates by actions her distrust of Sed and his motives and her own.

Each of these authors has a different writing style and choose different words and phrases to place me there, but all three are highly skilled at showing me the inner character by their actions and connecting me emotionally to the characters. None of the three bog me down in info dumps, their characters are distinct, and everything done moves the story to the next level without losing the momentum or the richness of the setting. To me, that ability is a five star read, or like a friend mine who is also a contest judge, says; that’s a winner.

I want to be a winner too. That means I have to look hard at what I’ve written. I have to step back and not be emotionally attached to what I’ve written. As with my garden, if it’s meant to be for lilies then the daisies, as pretty as they are, don't belong there. I can move them to a place it fits better. So it means being able to analyze the theme of each flowerbed or, in this case, chapter, and pulling out what doesn’t belong or detracts from the theme I’ve developed.

So, I’m grappling with manuscript clean up and questions:

• Am I starting the story in the right place? How do I know? Do I have a hook that draws the reader forward? Do I have a hook at the end of the chapter to make the reader feel they just can’t stop here they have to see what happens?
• Is having your character reflecting on something that happened an info dump? Could I show that worry in a better way? Like my friend said, a well thought out sentence can signal the problem better and give the necessary clue to the reader there is problem without a page or so of reflection.
• 
  
• The contest judge says, “Goals, motivations, and conflicts are laid out in the first 7000 words, without TELLING and without infodump/backstory. They are simply integral to the character descriptions.” Have I done that?
• 
  
• “Each of the characters has a unique voice, that's conveyed mostly through subtle turns of phrase, word order…” Do mine? Or is the reader lost without tags?
• 
  
• What the heck is an inciting incident and how do I know if mine is a valid one?

Ah, spring brings a lot of work, both with my gardens and with my writing.

What are you grabbling with? If you participated in Nano, as I did, what are you doing with your Nano entry?

Up coming guests, Stacy Netzel, Linda Wisdom, and Olivia Cunning and her Sinners



REVIEW: Demons Are A Girl’s Best Friend

Linda Wisdom
Sourcebooks
April 1, 2011


A BEWITCHING WOMAN ON A MISSION…

Feisty witch Maggie enjoys her work as a parnormal law enforcement officer—that is until she’s assigned to protect a teenager with a major attitude and plenty of Mayan enemies. Maggie’s’ never going to survive this assignment without the help of a half-fire demon who makes her smolder…

A HOTTER—THAN—SIN HERO WITH AN AGENDA…

Declan is proprietor of an underground club and buys demon portal. No way he’ll allow his demon race to be blamed for the malicious acts of some crazy evil Mayans. But he’s already got his hands full when the sexy witch offers him a challenge he can’t refuse…

Amidst the rising flames of their steamy love affair, Maggie and Declan are damned if they do, and even more damned if the don’t…



My thoughts:

If you enjoy fun paranormals it’s a must read. I didn't want to see the end!

This is the third book, by Linda Wisdom, I’ve read. If I had to classify her writing I’d say she writes sexy humorous stories with sparkling characters, a hefty dash of danger, and a serious thread of kick ass heroine. Some of her stories are more kick ass than others and this was one of them. I’d say it was my favorite of the three I’ve bought and read.

Maggie is in law enforcement. Like her counterparts on today’s forces, she is a well trained in defense, the use of weapons, and working undercover. Maggie is also good at her job in both research and connecting the dots to bring down the bad guys. The tedious parts.

However that’s where the similarity between today’s law enforcement officers and Maggie end. She works for a secret branch of para law enforcement called The Hellion Guard. They police otherworldly creatures and keep humans and other creatures safe from bad guys. Instead of Kevlar she wears fabric enhanced with protective spells and a diamond encrusted Black Widow Spider with ruby eyes. Looks like a kick ass tat but is very much alive and part of her arsenal. Did I mention she was also a witch?

Maggie is a serious career girl, hasn’t had a date in way too long to remember, and feels she hasn’t a maternal bone in her body and doesn’t want one. She has very little trust for demons as most of them have an agenda and usually on the receiving end of her brand of justice.

Ms. Wisdom then throws her into the worse case scenario and fun begins. Maggie reluctantly becomes a godmother to one of her team member’s newborn—has to be there at the birth (eww and nausea). She’s assigned to be a loving guardian of a teenage girl (I can’t print her reaction here) who’s all mouth, attitude, and just so happens to be #1 on the list for a Mayan human sacrifice designed to free a major bad guy. And worse of all, her libido starts doing the hallelujah chorus when she meets Declan who is half demon and redefines hot sexy male and is her partner in protecting said teen. Yowza.

The only predictability in this story is good guys winning over the bad guys. How that happens leads the reader into a labyrinth of unexpected twists and turns and a very satisfying dénouement.


This is truly a fun, fun story told by a talented author who seamlessly blends paranormal, danger, humor, and love.

5 stars

Linda Wisdom will be my guest on, Wednesday, April 30th. Be sure to stop in and say hi.

Wednesday, April 23rd, Suspense/thriller author Stacy Netzel, author of Trust In The Law.


*

FIFTY BOOKS, CO-AUTHORS, AND STILL MARRIED?

Another engrossing winner from Kathleen and Michael Gear!

I'm please to have as guests, Kathleen and Michael Gear.

I discovered them way back when I read this interesting sci-fi book called Warriors Of Spider. I'll admit, one of the things that drew me (aside from the premise) was the fact the author had the same first and last name of my brother--we use don't have an "a" in ours. Fast foward to the 90's and The People Of The Wolf came into my hands and I fell in love with these authors storytelling abilities. I've always loved history and stories which present the culture of the time period. So I was eager to get the next one, People Of The Fire. They didn't change their storytelling and in fact really loved that one and really hated Heavy Beaver and wanted to be like Tanager. While I won't tell you I've read every book the Gears have written I've read a great many of them and am particularly drawn to The People series. Excellent series with fascinating stories, lots of action, and a nice dab of romance. It's magical.

Both Michael and Kathleen (a fine Celtic lass) write individually and have been successful. As co-authors you get the best of both. What's the cost? I ask that because there are very few people I could be a writing partner with. You take two professionals, roughly in the same field, married, and write together? And both are alive and well as is their marriage? How do they manage this, you might ask?



Probably the question we’re most often asked is: “How can two authors manage to live together, and write together, arguing plot, creating characters, sifting through thousands of archaeological and historical facts, and not wind up at the end of the day with your hands around the other’s throat?” While there are days when it’s tempting, generally the answer is simple: trust, love, and respect. If one of us writes something and the other says it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t. That’s the trust part. We believe in each other’s talent and judgment. Our goal with every novel is to create a fluid mix of prose—the perfect blending of our styles--that allows readers to seamlessly drop into the story, and not want to come out. If readers are still emotionally connected to the story days after they’ve finished the book, then we’ve done our jobs.


Do we ever disagree? Absolutely. Michael claims he has written passages so profound, obtuse, and remarkably clever, he knew he was a shoe-in for the Pulitzer. Then Kathleen read it, and said, “This is so clever you have to live on another planet to understand it. Get rid of it.” After stomping around for a while, it succumbs to the backspace key.


Co-authoring when you’re married is an interesting experience—more than just all the backspacing. When we are deep in a story, we’re rewriting each other’s writing every day. We discuss plot and characterization every morning over breakfast and read what the other has written every evening after dinner. The process of creation is so powerful and intimate that it binds us together in that fictional world in a way that’s hard to explain. We literally live inside each other’s heads, and watch the story move in the other’s eyes. There’s such a sensual quality to our creative relationship that we wonder how people ever write alone?


On occasion, we also disagree about the interpretation of centuries old archaeological information. Since we are both professional archaeologists—we’ve owned our own archaeological research firm for over thirty years--it’s important to us to recreate the past as faithfully as we can. But that isn’t always easy.


For example, THE DAWN COUNTRY is book two in the People of the Longhouse quartet. The books are set between the years of A.D. 1400-1460, and chronicle the development of the League of the Iroquois. Obviously, there are no written records of this time period, so we have to rely on other things to reconstruct what might have happened. To accomplish this, we use three things: the archaeological record, Iroquoian oral history, and early historical records. This was a time of war, a time when the Iroquois say they almost destroyed themselves, and the archaeological record certainly supports their stories. The brutalized bodies that date to this period show ax wounds, arrow points embedded in bones, cranial depression fractures--caused by being struck in the head by blunt objects, probably war clubs--and the dismembered remains of children.


The warfare was extreme. But from the flames of the violence, a Peacemaker was born. His name was Dekanawida. There are three great heroes in the Peacemaker story, Dekanawida, his best friend Hiyawento, and a powerful clan matron named Jigonsaseh. The dilemma we argued about for two weeks was which versions of the oral history to use as the basis of the novels? The Five Nations who would join together to form the League, the Onondaga, Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, and Cayuga, each have different stories. In fact, there are hundreds of versions, often contradictory, that chronicle the lives of the three main figures, and very few of those discuss the childhoods of the heroes. For a time, we were locked in combat trying to decide if we should start the quartet with Dekanawida and Hiyawento as children, or only cover the better-documented lives of the adults? We finally opted to begin at the beginning—with the lives of the children. Why? Sometimes we make story decisions based upon the scientific information, and sometimes we make decisions for literary reasons. In this case, it was the latter. Seeing war through the eyes of children brings the horror home in a way that seeing it through the eyes of adults never can. And rising above that experience to create a democratic alliance that would literally serve as the political framework for what modern peoples call The Free World…well, that’s the stuff great heroes are made of.


We truly believe that our disagreements, scientific or literary, are the creative dissonance that leads to better storytelling. In the end, we are more together than the sum of our separate talents. It’s the twining of our two minds, souls, and dreams that we hope adds magic to our writing.


The Dawn Country

Young Wrass is being held captive, along with several other children, in Gannajero’s camp. Wrass knows he can’t wait to be rescued. He has to organize the children for an assault on Gannajero’s warriors. Even if he dies, someone has to escape, to carry the story back to their Peoples. It’s the only way to stop the evil old woman.



But Koracoo and Gonda have not abandoned their search. They’re coming for the children, and they have allies: a battle-weary Mohawk war chief and a Healer from the People of the Dawnland. Together, they will find the children and destroy Gannajero. But not before many of the children have been sold and carried off to distant villages—and lost to their families and homes forever...Excerpt

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders

Bestselling authors and award-winning archaeologists Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear are renowned for their novels on North American prehistory, a series that melds the latest archaeological findings with sweeping dramatic narratives and strong Native American tradition. The “North America’s Forgotten Past” series educates readers about our continent’s more than 15,000 years of prehistory and brings to life its natural and cultural heritage.

Kathleen is a former state historian and archaeologist for Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska for the U.S. Department of the Interior. She has twice received the federal government’s Special Achievement Award for “outstanding management” of our nation’s cultural heritage.

Michael hold a master’s degree in archaeology, has worked as a professiona’ archaeologist since 1978. He is currently the principal investigator for Wind River Archaeological Consultants.

The Gears, whose First North American series hit the international as well as USA Today bestseller lists, live in Thermopolis, Wyoming. To learn more about Michael and Kathleen, be sure to visit their website http://www.gear-gear.com/
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Monday Musings: Spring Is Springing



Apple blossoms from one of my trees

 Ah, spring is springing here in Missouri.

Snow is gone. Thank you God. But as the flowers and long days increase so do ranch responsibilities.

Spring is renewal for me. The long winter and being confined to my house unless there is a four wheeled vehicle or a horse and sled, has been bleck and then being sick enough to have to go to the hospital, has made the longing for spring that much more intense.

Spring brings all sorts of things beside my daffodils opening and bird song. It also brings chores out the ying-yang, since all the snow and ice wrecked havoc with several things here on the ranch. Seeing as I now can move without coughing up a lung and few toenails, there are chores to be done.

On Friday, we had in a huge dump truck with a load of gravel for our mud bog, otherwise known as our driveway. Now normally, these guys can spread gravel two inches thick without any trouble. But wait, this my house. So I do have gravel and I also have places where it’s eight inches thick and not two. So now we’re talking spreading by hand and using buckets to even a dump load where it needs to be. I’m not quite well enough to haul five gallon buckets hither and yon but I can fill them while watching my guys do the hauling and sweating in almost seventy-degree weather. By the end of Friday afternoon the driveway looked much better and will have to do until the neighbor can come down with his tractor and blade to thin and smooth it more.

I have no idea what happened to the gravel that had been dropped here three years ago. I think it’s a case of paranormal activity. See, my theory is most of it was swallowed by an underground monster so it can produce what Missouri is good at growing—chunks of rocks. Lots of them, which makes projects such as putting in a new tree, shrubs, roses, or a flower garden is a major thing. Not to mention having enough rocks to use as a rock border around whatever you’re putting in when you’re finished.

 

Back of my house from the pasture and the whole fence line needs replacing.



Did I mention the need to redo two hundred feet of fencing that separates the back yard from the pasture? And a hundred feet (that’s the short side) of one the Great Danes running pens. Sigh. Then there is the drive through gate (which you can't see in the above picture) that has been wired shut and I think there is a bit bubble gum and lots of prayer holding part of the fence up right there. One of my horses decided to rub her big old rear against the pole the gate closed against and snapped it two and took down part of the fence. Since the ground was frozen, we had lots of fun driving in a T poles to hold the fence in place until spring. There are times having a strong teen son are a blessing. At least from MY point of view—I think his is a bit different. Lol!

New fencing material will be delivered next week. I’m going to have a cookout and invite my nephew in law up to help my son and I put in the fence. They can do the pole pounding while his wife and I clear the garden areas and set in a few new flowering shrubs so I don’t have to worry about annuals being planted in those areas. The knees just don’t do well when I have to pull weeds and the cats refuse to do it and while my house Dane loves to dig, she also tends to remove the flowers, and the horses? *Snort, they just eat them. What’s a girl to do? I’m all for simple and pretty this year.

My front yard oak-2 years ago.

I also have a huge oak tree in the front yard that has to be at least a hundred years old and is about four-five feet round at the base. I have a raised rock garden surrounding it filled with tulips and daffodils for the spring and Hostas and shade loving perennials when it’s full of leaves in the summer. Due to surgery, I haven’t done anything with that area for two years. We need to add another layer of large rocks to return it to its two-foot high glory and add more soil before the Hostas and shade flowers start growing. So the kid and I are going rock hunting. They’re usually found on the side of the gravel county road we live on. Trust me, within two miles of the house we will be able to collect all the large rocks we need.

We’re putting in new water tanks for the horses and Danes, a new water line to fill them easier in the winter along with deicers so I don’t have to carry water by buckets and break the ice. I’m so over that winter chore, lol! And there will be new feeders. So this coming winter should be much easier on me. I like that.

That’s just part of the list of outside chores needing to be done around here as spring unfolds here in Missouri. Don’t get me started on the list for the inside or writing projects in need of completion, lol!



Right now, I'm dealing with lots of rain and my pond is
overflowing

 But it’s all-good. At least we will be having lots of sunny days and mild temps between the spring rainstorms.

• What kind of projects do you have earmarked for the spring? Writing or otherwise. 

Be sure to check back Wednesday when I’ll be having the Gears—Michael and Kathleen O’Neal visiting with their new Dawn People series. Some other upcoming guests:  I have a couple of different thriller/suspense writers, Stacy Netzel, Joel Goldman, then there is para romance author Linda Wisdom and erotic romance author Olivia Cunning and a few more.

The Wide, Wide World

It’s my pleasure to have debut author, Liz Michalski, visiting with us Over Coffee. According to Liz, in her previous life, she wrangled with ill-tempered horses and over sized show dogs. These days she chases after small children and a medium-sized mutt.

Anyone who has wrangled “oversized” show dogs, even a medium sized mutt, is okay with me. I wonder how she does with Great Danes? Oh, wait, she’s wrangled horses too, so she’s already been trained. I plan on calling her the next time I have to give a bath to my pack, lol!

 Liz is a wife, mom, critter owner, and freelance writer and has written hundreds of articles. If that's not enough to make your head spin she has now embarked on a career as an author. Her book is set in rural Connecticut with dogs and cats, a bit of heartbreak, love, and a ghost.

Liz is very familiar with sitting in front of a computer screen for hours. She shares how she balances the butt in the chair times with things that recharge and refresh her for yet more work.



Most days I worship at the altar of the electronic god. I sit, glued to my laptop, waiting for the next e-mail to come in, typing out a few pages of my manuscript, surfing the internet to see what my fellow writers are doing. I bathe in the glow of the screen from early morning until late at night. Of course, I do other things: I make breakfast, do housework, read, feed the dog, volunteer, visit with family and friends. But because I'm a writer who works at home, the computer has somehow taken on a central importance. It has become my boss, my colleague, my electronic water cooler all in one.

I live in New England, and it's been a long, cold winter this year. In some places, the snow drifts in my neighborhood are well over my head. (Granted, I'm only 5'2, but still.) The computer has served as a particular life line this year, my portal to the outside world when the view outside my window is unyielding white.

But still.

Too much time in front of the screen makes me feel vaguely claustrophobic, as if this World Wide Web is actually shrinking my domain. I know others feel the same -- I've read about resolutions to cut down on screen time this year, to use software to lock out the internet so real work can get done, to banish the computer to another room for a time out.

For me, these strategies aren't enough. To counteract the computer's spell, I need time outside, in the real world. So at least twice a week I bundle up and head for a hiking trail. I take the dog and sometimes a friend and tromp through the snow, which oftentimes has come up over my knees. (I keep meaning to invest in snowshoes....) Because my chances to do this are limited, I go no matter what the weather. In snowstorms, it's often so quiet I can hear the hiss of the snow as it falls against my jacket. Last week, it was freezing rain, and I debated staying home, but the dog looked so woe-begotten I pulled up my hood and we set off. Deep on the trail, the rain fell more softly, blocked by the trees. It was both a peaceful and a strenuous walk and when I'd finished I was glad I'd gone.

I've seen deer on these hikes, rabbits, even an owl, perched at the top of the tree like a lump of wood. He turned his head a few times, blinked sleepily, then closed his eyes against the racket we were making. I've seen the dog bounding in snow so deep it looked as if he were swimming. I've had thoughtful conversations with friends about the lives we live now and the lives we once imagined, about our families and our dreams and goals, conversations that would be impossible in e-mails or IMs. Mostly, though, I've listened to the silence and appreciated the view around me. On my favorite walk, there's a bend where the pine trees tower overhead like the ceiling on a cathedral. The path turns sharply, so you can't see what's ahead or much of what's behind. There's only this space, so small but yet so immense at the same time, and each time I come across it I stand still for a moment and try to impress it upon my memory so that when I'm back in front of the computer I can recall it and remind myself that the world really is wider than my 15-inch monitor.

• How do you recharge after spending time in front of the computer?  

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books.a.Million, Borders, Indiebound 

EVENFALL Blurb:
That's what they say in Hartman, Connecticut, where the Murphy women are known for their beauty, willfulness, and disastrous luck with men. No one knows the truth of this saying better than Frank Wildermuth. Fifty years ago, he fell in love with Gert Murphy, but through fate and bad timing wound up married to her sister. He spent the rest of his life quietly regretting his mistake. Now Frank's dead -- but not quite gone—and it's time to do some haunting of his own.

All Andie Murphy ever wanted was to get out of town. But she’s back to settle Evenfall, her Uncle Frank’s estate, where some things never change -- and some things have changed a lot. Aunt Gert, for example, still drives her crazy. On the other hand, Cort, the wide-eyed farmboy she used to babysit, is all grown up -- with a whole new definition for the word sleepover.

But if you're a Murphy woman, love never goes smoothly. As Andie struggles with her feelings, Frank sees a chance for redemption -- one that could cost his niece dearly. They'll both need to decide --

Is true love really everlasting? Is home just an address, or a place you carry in your heart? And if you truly regret your mistakes, can the long-buried dreams of your youth come alive again? Excerpt 

She's been a reporter, an editor, a freelance writer, and has written hundreds of articles for newspapers, magazines, and private corporations.

In her previous life, she wrangled with ill-tempered horses and over sized show dogs. These days she chases after small children and a medium-sized mutt.

She likes dark chocolate caramels, champagne, and licorice tea (preferably not all served at once). In summer you'll find her visiting farmers' markets and trying to talk her family out of making her swim at the Connecticut shore.

The rest of the year she's home in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and son, hard at work on her next novel.

You can find Liz: Website,  Facebook, and Goodreads

How to Keep Fit without Leaving the Flat

My guest is romance author, Talli Roland. She hails from London, UK. She can be a bit of a cheeky monkey—I got to say I love that about her!


Talli is also one of my favorite blogging buddies. As I've gotten to know her, it's easy to see this English beauty is as lovely inside as she is on the outside. I do love to see what she’s up to and her take on normal every day things. Talli has a way of making me laugh and those are special people for me. Her sense of humor is fun and bit tongue in cheek, as you’ll see with her article below.

Enjoy!


As a full-time writer, I’m lucky that I don’t need to go out to work – or brush my hair, get dressed, and endure getting up close and personal with someone’s armpit on the Tube. No, I can roll right out of bed, throw on my fluffy slippers and robe, and head straight to my desk for another day within the heady proximity of the fridge. The only downside to this Nirvana? The threat of an ever-expanding butt.

To combat this, I’ve developed a handy set of exercises for writers. No need to embrace the great outdoors – or even get off your chair! Now, you too can have the svelte frame of a commuter, without the commute! Are you ready? Here we go!

The five-fingered salute. Every so often, lift your fingers from the keyboard and make a fist. Open and close your digits several times in quick succession. This is even better when performed near a window in proximity of passers-by to encourage social interaction.

March like you mean it. The ideal exercise to release any frustration when your characters just don’t behave. Sitting on a chair, lift one knee in the air and bring your foot down firmly on the ground, then do the same with your other knee. Repeat for five minutes – or as long as your downstairs neighbours will allow. When you’re finished, you won’t care anymore about your characters’ misdemeanors. You’ll only care about impending repairs needed to the floorboards.

The burning butt-clench. Designed to encourage circulation after long periods of sitting, this exercise has the added benefit of making anyone around you question your need for the loo. Sitting comfortably, lift one buttock off the chair, and clench the cheek that’s touching the surface. Hold for twenty seconds, then repeat with the other butt cheek. You should feel a burning desire never to do this exercise again.

The navel gaze. Tilt your head slowly downwards until your chin touches your chest. Hold for thirty minutes – or until you drift off. This position allows observers to believe you’re engaged in deep thought, while elongating your neck muscles. Repeat until observers get bored and depart.

So there you have it! My tried and true methods to maintaining your shape while keeping your manuscript moving ahead!

The Hating Game

When man-eater Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she's confident she'll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she's perfected from years of her love 'em and leave 'em dating strategy.


After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £200,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it's revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes.
Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end.


Who will win The Hating Game? Excerpt

Buy: Amazon, Chapters Indigo

Talli lives in London, UK, where she savours the great cultural life (shopping and cupcakes).

When not hunched over the keyboard or staring out the window, she drinks coffee.

Talli Roland’s debut novel The Hating Game is available in paperback today (it's selling fast), and is also available as an e-book. The Hating Game is her first novel.
 
You can find Talli at her blog, and follow her on Twitter. She can also be found Facebook and Goodreads.