Connie Lacy's Blog, page 2

Cheesy? The pits? What we ate in ’62

by Connie Lacy

When my new novel comes out later this year, one of the things you’ll notice about 1962 is the food they ate. One of my personal favorites, which my own mother fixed for a weeknight supper, was tuna roll-ups with cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup for gravy. You have to understand that my mom made roll-ups with biscuit dough, spread the tuna on thin squares of dough, then rolled them like a croissant before baking them to a golden brown. Accompanying the meal – mashed pota...

"Sista-bun" - and now "Brotha-bun" - the origin of a nickname

(Note: This blog post was first published in October of 2019. My update is at the end.)

When I was a kid, my family lived in Japan and later, on the Japanese island of Okinawa where my Army dad was stationed.

While living in Japan, when my brother, sister and I were little, we were exposed to Japanese language, songs and a few customs from the loving Japanese woman who babysat us occasionally. We called her Nonny. Later, living on Okinawa, we were taught Japanese culture at school. I can stil...

Early sixties fashions for my next book

As I write my next novel I’ve been researching fashions of the early 1960s – the setting for my forthcoming book. Many readers jump to the conclusion that when you say 1960s, you mean bell bottoms, hippie styles, long hair for men, etc. A good number of fashion history websites make the same mistake – characterizing the period between 1960 and 1969 as homogenous when it comes to fashion. Not so! The early sixties and late sixties were like two different decades.

The early sixties was largely a...

A spooky fantasy podcast!

My friend and fellow author Leah Noel is living proof that what may at first seem like a detour in life might turn out to be the road you were meant to travel. After publishing her first novel in book form she is publishing her second one as a weekly podcast. Here’s my fascinating interview with the lovely Leah:

,Give me a thumbnail bio of yourself.

I am a novelist and storyteller, who has—through a sort of Lewis Carroll-esque journey—found myself a podcaster, narrator, and voice actor for my ...

Learning to create Book Trailers

https://youtu.be/-paYJYYFyys

In my quest to promote my books and reach more potential readers, I’ve recently dived into the world of book trailers. My latest effort is the trailer for The Time Capsule that accompanies this post. Like movie trailers, book trailers are intended to spark interest by giving potential readers a tantalizing glimpse of the story.

Of course, to produce a video trailer you have to create a video. Which means you need images or video to dramatize your story. Since I can’t...

How my book covers are born

Above, on the right, you see the cover of my latest novel, "Livvy and Enchanted Woodland." I'm super pleased with how it turned out. Here's how my book covers are created.

Since I'm not rolling in the dough, I only hire a graphic designer to do the final rendering of my covers after I select images and create a mockup of what I want. He polishes it up and creates a high resolution image for my book covers - both eBook and paperback - that I can upload to the platforms where readers can buy my b...

Electricity in 1918. No electricity in 1930. How can that be?

My forthcoming novel is set in the year 1930. The main character lives on a farm in rural Georgia in the southeastern United States with no electricity. Nobody in rural Georgia has electricity in 1930 even though folks in Atlanta and other large Georgia cities have had electric power for years. In fact, Hannah Myers, the main character in my book “The Time Capsule,” lived in a couple of rooming houses in Atlanta in 1918 which both had electricity. So why did city folks have electricity back in 1...

Books that resonate

Sometimes books really resonate with readers. I’ve had that experience myself. So it was gratifying to hear from a woman recently who read my Young Adult novel The Time Telephone. In the story, a teenage girl whose mother was killed covering the war in Afghanistan discovers an antique telephone that allows her to call her dead mother in the past. Of course, Megan wants desperately to prevent her mom’s death. It's not your typical time travel story. It’s a YA novel that appeals across generations...

My Top Ten Time Travel List

As a writer of time travel fiction, I was asked recently which eras I would personally like to visit. With a couple of important caveats, this is my top ten list, assuming I wouldn’t get hurt and that I wouldn’t change the course of history or cause someone’s death, illness or injury. Call me a sissy, but I don’t want to put myself or anyone else in danger.

1 – 1935 Madison County, Georgia so I could visit the grandmother I never got to meet, visit my great-grandparents and other relatives & se...

Before the sewing machine

The main character in my new time travel historical, A Suffragette in Time, is a twenty-first century woman who must adapt to life in the mid-1800s. One of the many things she learns is to sew by hand. Imagine sewing an entire dress – full length, billowing skirt and intricate bodice – by hand! That’s what Sarah does. She even sews her underwear.

But sewing machines were just around the corner. In 1814 a Viennese tailor produced several early sewing machines but never put his idea into producti...