C.J. Fosdick's Blog, page 2
November 23, 2018
GAMING CHRISTMAS! by Cj
Moving beyond the Santa Claus stage means entering a new phase in celebrating Christmas. The kids have grown into teenagers, college students and beyond. No more transformers, doll houses, rocking horses and bicycles. No more home visits by a family-designated costumed Santa. At least not until there are grandkids. A practical gift exchange and dinner or buffet now tops the home agenda of many families celebrating Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
However, tearing those older kids away from thei...
October 23, 2018
WAS IT THE ROAD TRIP FROM HELL?
WAS IT THE ROAD TRIP FROM HELL
?
Not if God, Garmin, and a determined hub could help it! Covering over 4300 miles (round trip thru 14 states), our trusty Rav4 maneuvered us through 2-6 lanes of speeding traffic, and around hundreds of semi’s, detours and construction zones to destination—California! The InD’tale Writer’s Convention at the Marriott Hotel in Burbank was a 3 day respite--if you could call it that--for 3 weary passengers...<![endif]--><!--[if gte vml 1]></div>
August 7, 2018
BAKING in KEYWORDS by Cj Fosdick
Every published book, like every other marketed product, has keywords that identify its genre and basic content—kind of like ingredients in a recipe. They affect ranking, sales and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Keywords for my Accidental Series are Time Travel, Romance, Suspense, and sometimes, even Western. I like to think my books offer even more ingredients: a good pinch of humor, a cup of comparative culture, a pint of history, a box of animal cracke...
July 12, 2018
CHARACTER NAMES THAT SING! by Cj Fosdick
Uriah Heep, Pippi Longstocking, Ichabod Crane, Ebenezer Scrooge, Holly Golightly, Huckleberry Finn, and Katniss and Primrose Everdeen. Who can ever forget character names that singin the classic stories and films we all love? No doubt the authors who created them set out to tweak memorable impressions of the characters they named, as well as the titles of their books. Would their novels be less memorable…or less successful with more pedestrian names and titles? Is th...
June 11, 2018
MORELS & MORALS by Cj Fosdick
June is blooming with both. MOREL mushrooms poke through Minnesota earth in wooded areas and around deadwood that surrounds our home each spring. My eagle-eyed daughter—who once could spot a 4 leaf clover while sitting atop a horse—has not lost her uncanny talent. Mid May, she quickly filled two plastic bags with the brainy-looking fungi while I spotted only freckled mushrooms that were big as dinner plates. Google and FB to the rescue! My dinner plate mushrooms were called pheasant bac...
June 5, 2018
Morels and Morals
MORELS & MORALS by Cj Fosdick
June is blooming with both. MOREL mushrooms poke through Minnesota earth in wooded areas and around deadwood that surrounds our home each spring. My eagle-eyed daughter—who once could spot a 4 leaf clover while sitting atop a horse—has not lost her uncanny talent. Mid May, she quickly filled two plastic bags with the brainy-looking fungi while I spotted only freckled mushrooms that were big as dinner plates.
Google and FB to the rescue! My dinner plate mushrooms were called pheasant backs, according to a FB friend who suggested the edges were more edible than the middle. (Breaded and fried, the morels are a gourmet favorite for us—and most upscale restaurants when in season.)
Connecting some dots with MORELS in mind, I was already deep into research—reading Irish fairy tales for Book 3 of my Accidental Series. Of course, fairy tales are known for their MORALS—silly or serious. And the Irish are definitely noted for their enchantment with leprechauns and faerie folk—the sidhe who star in their tales and superstitions.
Sometimes, themes in fiction also drip into the morality pool. And if the moral in The Accidental Wife is that a grieving woman can be transformed in a summer of time travel to find her soulmate in the 19th century, the mirror image of that plot is the soulmate can spring ahead to reunite with her again in the 21st century sequel, The Accidental Stranger.
(Time travel is a nifty plot filter when a man loves two nearly identical women and a woman loves two nearly identical men in the same family—each a century apart.) I’ve considered an alternate MORAL in both books: The transforming power of love bridges time—with twists and turns—to find that sweet “forever.”
Here’s hoping a cool drink, good summer reads and gourmet mushrooms are on your menu! I just added a cherry to my favorite summer pie: The Accidental Stranger is a RONE FINALIST in the Time Travel category!
Click HERE to sign up for Cj’s newsletter to receive book news, Accidental recipes, & freebies.
JUNE SALE: Both Golden Quill eBook finalists selling for .99 this month only
on Amazon, Wildrose Press, B & N, iTunes..
June is blooming with both. MOREL mushrooms poke through Minnesota earth in wooded areas and around deadwood that surrounds our home each spring. My eagle-eyed daughter—who once could spot a 4 leaf clover while sitting atop a horse—has not lost her uncanny talent. Mid May, she quickly filled two plastic bags with the brainy-looking fungi while I spotted only freckled mushrooms that were big as dinner plates.
Google and FB to the rescue! My dinner plate mushrooms were called pheasant backs, according to a FB friend who suggested the edges were more edible than the middle. (Breaded and fried, the morels are a gourmet favorite for us—and most upscale restaurants when in season.)
Connecting some dots with MORELS in mind, I was already deep into research—reading Irish fairy tales for Book 3 of my Accidental Series. Of course, fairy tales are known for their MORALS—silly or serious. And the Irish are definitely noted for their enchantment with leprechauns and faerie folk—the sidhe who star in their tales and superstitions.
Sometimes, themes in fiction also drip into the morality pool. And if the moral in The Accidental Wife is that a grieving woman can be transformed in a summer of time travel to find her soulmate in the 19th century, the mirror image of that plot is the soulmate can spring ahead to reunite with her again in the 21st century sequel, The Accidental Stranger.
(Time travel is a nifty plot filter when a man loves two nearly identical women and a woman loves two nearly identical men in the same family—each a century apart.) I’ve considered an alternate MORAL in both books: The transforming power of love bridges time—with twists and turns—to find that sweet “forever.”
Here’s hoping a cool drink, good summer reads and gourmet mushrooms are on your menu! I just added a cherry to my favorite summer pie: The Accidental Stranger is a RONE FINALIST in the Time Travel category!
Click HERE to sign up for Cj’s newsletter to receive book news, Accidental recipes, & freebies.
JUNE SALE: Both Golden Quill eBook finalists selling for .99 this month only
on Amazon, Wildrose Press, B & N, iTunes..
September 28, 2017
PUSHING THE 'WRITE' BUTTONS
“My avocation was a spark ignited by sugar.”
Remember Candy Dots? Sometimes called buttons, those little rows of rainbow sugar were easily peeled off long white strips of paper. (I always ate the cherry rows first.) Penny candy and nickel chocolate...
August 9, 2017
STILL FLYING!! by Cj Fosdick
Thirty years ago I attended my first Writer’s Conference in Rochester, MN. It was a weekend mecca for birds of a feather--hopeful writers flocking together to learn from two famous Minnesota authors. Frederick Manfred and Jon Hassler are both deceased now, but their writing was alive in 1986, and they actually read and evaluated the excerpts that were turned in. Mine was one of them. I had already won a short story contest and been published in a few mag...
July 15, 2017
REVIEW RATINGS-- RISK or REWARD?
Every writer knows that word of mouth and reviews can propel a new book into success. (At least six reviews are recommended for debut day.) So you enlist your best friends, beta readers, critique partners, and family members to review your baby. Pretty safe odds love rolls in for the “newborn!” LOW RISK only to biased honesty. No time to bask in the lovelig...
REVIEW OPTIONS...RIFE WITH RISK??
Every writer knows that word of mouth and reviews can propel a new book into success. (At least six reviews are recommended for debut day.) So you enlist your best friends, beta readers, critique partners, and family members to review your baby. Pretty safe odds love rolls in for the “newborn!” LOW RISK only to absolute honesty. No time to bask in the lovel...
