M.J. Fredrick's Blog, page 51

Goals the Week of Valentine's Day

This week some alert person scheduled testing. All week. Including Valentine's Day. Now, where you are, Valentine's Day might not be a big deal in elementary, but in our school, it's a Very Big Deal. We get balloon and pet deliveries from parents. We have so much food at our parties we can't eat it all. The kids will not be able to concentrate. At least we had the dance last week (and I got $200 to spend in my classroom–yes! Xylophones!)

So, this week:

1) Testing 4 days. Which means jeans all week, but crazy schedule.

2) Finish edits on Bluestone 2. It needs to go to the formatter Wednesday.

3) Read a Rita book.

4) WRITE! I missed three days of writing last week.

5) house/exercise/cook

I really really hope that's it.

Do You Remember When You Started Writing

I had dinner with an old friend this week. He wants to write a novel, has been writing professionally for a magazine, but he doesn't know where to start.

I don't remember that feeling. He seems to have a need to write, but it's nebulous, something he can't grasp. Vaguely, at the edge of my memory, I can remember the need to write, but as I recall, I always had an idea about what to write. I always knew I wanted to write romance, and I remember mostly always having an idea. Maybe I didn't, though.

Do you remember when you started? Did you always know just what you wanted to write?

And the Winner of The Devil Has Dimples Is…

Gayle Cochrane! You know where to find me! Let me know what format and where to send it!

Introducing Indie Author Pepper Phillips!

I've followed Pepper's career for a number of years. I judged her book The Devil Has Dimples in a contest and LOVED it! I'm so glad she decided to publish it! She also ran the contest diva website (maybe still does, but I don't aim for the list like I did!) that kept track of all contest winners all year! I still have the certificate she sent me!

Please comment for a chance to win this fun romance!

Where did you get your idea for the book?

I'm a Nursing Home Administrator, and one of our patients was in the local hospital, dying.  She was one of those ladies that I pictured as the perfect grandmother.  Fluffy, white-haired, brilliant blue eyes, a peach tone to her wrinkled skin, she was the grandmother pictured in all the books I read as a kid.  She was lying in the hospital bed with her eyes closed, her family around her, and I bent over and kissed her on the forehead and whispered in her ear, "Mom, come home, we miss you."  I stood up, her eyes snapped open, startling the daylights out of me.  Three days later she was back in the nursing home.  I figured that she heard her family talking about her demise and thought she was dying.  The day she came back to the nursing home, her daughter was talking to my Director of Nurses and myself and made the comment, "We have to change out the pig in the freezer."  My D.O.N. and I looked at each other, wondering what she was referring to, and we had to ask.  The explanation was that the family kept a roasting pig in their freezer so that when their mother died, it would be roasted for the funeral.  We were both speechless.  I went back into my office and thought for a moment, grabbed one of those 4×6 pads with advertising and wrote the beginning of The Devil Has Dimples.  The excerpt is those five pages fleshed out over the years.  It took me six months to write the last line, 'The next day, the daughter no one knew existed showed up in Boggy Bayou.' and that's when the story really started

2. What's next for you?  -  I'm in the final edits of converting a screenplay into a novella.  "Unconditionally" will be available in February.

3. When you're procrastinating, what do you do?  – Email, reading, a little housework, emphasis on 'little'.

4. How many books in your TBR pile? -  LOL, I'm so bad.  I love books.  I know there are over a thousand in my Kindle alone, not to mention all the paperbacks in my four bookcases.  If I stopped everything and read, I don't believe I'll finish them all before I croak.

5. What's your biggest guilty pleasure?  – Dove Dark Chocolate in the red foil.  They melt in your mouth, and Dove puts a nice little message inside the wrapper, such as…'You don't need an excuse.  You just need a moment.'  How 'sweet' is that?

6. Name 3 of your favorite things.  -  I have a camouflaged sweatshirt, that is so huge the sleeves fall six inches beyond my hands, that I love to wear.  My Kindle.  My Writer's baseball cap that has my breast cancer pins around the rim.

7.Where can readers find you? – http://pepperphillips.com

The Inspiration Behind Bluestone

 

A couple of summers ago, I went on my first plane ride by myself to visit my dad and stepmom in Minnesota. Fred and the boy couldn't get off work, and I was on summer vacation. I flew up there, we drove the three hours north of Minneapolis to their lake home on Lake Wilkins. I was treated like a princess. We went out on the boat, and sat on the deck overlooking the lake, and paddled the paddle boat. On the way back to the city, we passed a big log-cabin looking building and my step-mom said, "That guy's been trying to sell that place forever." She went on to explain that the recession hurt the towns that depended so much on sports fishermen and such because people wouldn't spend the money on the gas to drive up from the city. Lots of vacation homes remained unopened year after year because it was just too costly.

By the time we reached Minneapolis, I'd made pages of notes and realized it would have to b a series of books, about a town trying to draw people back or risk dying. I created my own town and populated it, worked out the order of the books (the bar owner who's been trying to sell is the third and final book) and made lists of what they could try to do to bring people back to their home.

I had so much fun writing that I would lose myself in Bluestone and have to pull myself out of that fictional world! I do love writing the small towns!

 

Goals for the Week Before Valentine's

Not sure what was wrong with me this week. I barely wrote, I barely read. I'm getting used to Scrivener and am having trouble with the different files. I used to write that way, a different file for each chapter, but now I do word count and it's hard to remember from file to file. Still, I like the program, especially for series.

 

School dance Wednesday. Yes, elementary school. It's a BIG moneymaker. The fifth graders are asking each other and experiencing their first rejection, a little young, if you ask me. Not even sure what it means because I don't think they dance together.
Dinner with my husband's best friend from high school.
Update my website
Send out a newsletter about Bluestone
Review the Bluestone proof I should be getting from Create Space.
Blog for…someone. Don't remember. Need to check the calendar.
Read a Rita book. 5 down, 3 to go.
Oh, and write. You know. That little thing.
Exercise/keep up house/cook–figuring out what to do since my son is on a vegetarian kick. One can only have so much spaghetti and chalupas, ya know.

Winner of Barbara Phinney's Book!

MANY apologies for being late. We had a special breakfast at school and I was so worried about remembering the coffee cake! I remembered in the car, and forgot to do it once I got to school.

Without further ado, the winner is Renee Ann, commenter #7! Renee, contact me with your email and which book you'd like and in what format and I'll hook you up.

Again, sorry for the delay!

Welcome to Self-Published and Traditionally Published Author Barbara Phinney!

Barbara Phinney is another prolific indie author who writes under her name, and also under Georgina Lee. She's written for Love Inspired and Intimate Moments, but has dipped her toe in the self-publishing waters.

As always, comment or tweet using the hashtag #52weeksofindie for a chance to win Souvenirs.

Here's Barbara!

 

1)      What was the inspiration for this book? I was at the beach one day, watching people, and mulling over what I could write about, and wondered if there was anyone who ever found a body there. (Suspense writers often have this muse, trust me.) My husband had recently returned from Bosnia. Though he was fine, I thought of those who had both physical and emotional scars. The story just blossomed from there.

2)      What's next for you? Right now, I am polishing off an espionage/romantic suspense story, one with no faith elements, but set in South America.

3)      When you're procrastinating, what do you do? I check my email, Twitter, Facebook, my sales, anything that can keep me at the computer, but not working.

4)      How many books in your TBR pile? Oh, I don't want to even think about that!  I probably have about 30 books waiting to be read, but most are on my Kindle, which allows me to read faster than a paper book.

5)      What's your biggest guilty pleasure? This is a dangerous question!  It's somewhere between wasting time surfing the internet, to reading a really good Medieval novel with a bit of spice. I don't write anything spicy. I'm not very good at that, but I don't mind reading it. It's part and parcel of the human experience.

6)      Name 3 of your favorite things. Well, shortbread, my family, and writing, are all very enjoyable to me.

7)      Where can readers find you? The best place to connect with me is either at my blog, http://barbphinney.blogspot.com/ or on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... or Twitter @BarbaraPhinney My website is static and I'm waiting until I get some more books independently published, in order to get it updated.

The Big Reveal

I've decided to self-publish the Bluestone Lake books. In fact, the first one should be formatted this week, and up by this weekend. And look at this cover! I hired Kim Van Meter and she did it fast, and even better than I hoped! Check out the "Welcome to Bluestone" sign! Love it!

I found the couple myself. They're pretty perfect, actually.

Trish is reading Bluestone 2 once her deadline is done, and I hope to have that up by March. Then she has to read Bluestone 3, and I need to find just the right couple for Quinn and Lily.

Think Alex O would pose for me?

Goals for the Week January Finally Ends

I know we've had really warmish weather but January has been a lonnnnnngggg month. Not that February will be more exciting, with testing and a school dance (I know-elementary school dances. Go figure.) And I don't want to wish the year away, but…

Anyway, busy week again. Will be this way awhile, I think.

 

Celebrate baby brother's birthday
Make coffee cake for our school's cowboy breakfast Friday
Get paperwork together for accountant/taxes
Get to ¾ point of novella
Read another Rita book and a half.
More action on Bluestone
Blog for Lisa Mondello
Exercise
House/cook