L.M. Nelson's Blog, page 45

Spring

Spring

Yellow is a bright sunny day,

Little baby ducks at play.

Green is full of life in spring.

A joyous tune echoes

From every tree as yellow birds sing

Their song of life.

Brightly colored yellow daffodils

Pop open their lively petals.

Their noses protrude, smelling the fresh scent

Of the newly mowed green grass.

Yellow canaries chirp in the sun,

Flying from budded branch to budded branch,

Enjoying the green scene before them.

Yellow monarch butterflies

Flutter by the leaves of green

Soft breezes blow over the pond

Where the green frogs play

In the warm sun all day.

Children sell yellow lemonade

Collecting dollars, green in their pockets.

Yellow bees buzz, buzz,

Green grasshoppers hop about,

While I dance around joyfully

To celebrate the season.

My yellow hair glows in the sunlight;

My green eyes feast upon the day.

Joy and beauty fill the air-

Greens and yellows everywhere.

-L.M. Nelson

 

Lost Inside My Head

Why do I get my best writing ideas at the most inopportune moments?  Someone should invent a device that transcribes writer’s ideas into meaningful notes so we don’t lose the great ideas we come up with.  I guess this is why I carry a notebook and pen around with me everywhere I go. But it’s not the ideas I get when I’m ready for them that I’m talking about.  It’s the ones I get when I’m driving or in the shower that I can’t write down–those are the ideas that seem to get lost inside my head somehow.  It’s not until weeks later when the lightbulb comes on, the idea comes back to me, and I find myself saying, “Oh yeah.  That’s what I was going to do with that scene.”

How To Procrastinate

Free Sample of Scrubs

To generate more interest for my series, I am posting a free Kindle sample of my first book, Scrubs.  The second book in the series, Sand and Sutures, is set to be released before the end of April.

Getting To Know Me

Interview with L.M. Nelson

What are yo ur favorite books, and why?

There are several book I love. Among my favorites are Seize the Night and Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz. I like this series because I love the characters. Christopher, Bobby, Sasha, and Orson are all unique and interesting characters that I can read about over and over again. To me, character is everything. Good characters make a story, and bad ones can break it. As a writer, I focus on creating unique characters that my readers can relate to, and as a reader, I must enjoy the characters or I quickly lose interest in the story.

I also enjoyed reading The Outsiders. I originally read this book back in Jr. High and have re-read it several times since then. I was instantly drawn to the characters and I enjoyed the way the author made the book from Pony Boy’s point of view. The added twist at the end of the entire book being his English paper really grabbed me. Love this book. It tells a great story with interesting characters.

Who are your favorite authors?

Dean Koontz, Nicholas Sparks, S.E. Hinton. I’m not tied down to a specific author or genre. If the book blurb intrigues me, I’ll most likely give the book a try. I enjoy books from pretty much any genre and from many different authors. To me it’s all about intriguing characters and a well-told story.

What is your e-reading device of choice?

I own a tablet and do read Kindle books, but in all honesty, I prefer to hold a real book in my hands.

What book marketing techniques have been most effective for you?

Personal connections. Although I have promoted via various social media platforms, I have sold more books to people face to face than through any other method. Marketing is challenging. It’s difficult to make yourself stand out in a market of billions of books.

Describe your desk.
Haha. Messy. Sticky notes and notebooks everywhere. Sketches of maps, character descriptions, and timelines. Stacks of writing reference material, a thesaurus, and a dictionary. Various pens, a laptop, and pages and pages of notes I’ve jotted down so I don’t foget story ideas as they hit me. Proofs of my novels with post-it notes sticking out of them. It’s a nightmare for my OCD husband, but it works for me.

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?

I grew up in California and the Pacific Northwest. My writing has been influenced by this because I set my books in these locations. My Scrubs series begins in California, the San Francisco/ Berkeley area to be precise, and continues in Seattle, WA and Santa Monica, CA. The last book in the series partially takes place in New York City, although I’ve never been to the Big Apple itself, I have been to upstate New York.. My husband i from New York and both of my kids have been to NYC, so I use them as references when I write scenes in New York.

In a fantasy book I’m working on, the imaginary world I created is a reflection of what I know about the Pacific Northwest, with mountains, trees, rivers, forests, and the beautiful green landscape.

 

When did you first start writing?

As a child, I always loved writing. I loved creating stories and making up characters, and wrote down song lyrics and lines from poems I liked. In Jr. High, I received several awards for research papers I wrote, and in high school I began a love affair with poetry. I began writing poetry my freshman year and had several poems published in my high school’s literary magazine. I earned a college scholarship for a poem I published in a national publication. I also began playing around with writing fiction in high school. I started off just creating stories in a notebook, most of which I don’t even have anymore. Once I graduated, I continued to write stories in notebooks. That’s where the Scrubs series began. I started it in college, just as a hobby more than anything, and kept the entire story in a notebook, hidden from anyone else’s eyes. Over the years and added to it. It wasn’t until a few years ago that a dear friend of mine read the entire series and convinced me to publish it.

The Scrubs series has grown with me. I wrote the four different books during different stages of my life. My writing grew, and the characters grew, as I did.

To this day, I still love to create stories in my head. I write them down and save them now, and wish I would have kept some of the stories I wrote when I was younger. I probably could have used some of those ideas to generate more novels.

 

What motivated you to become an indie author?

I wanted my stories to be mine. I didn’t want anyone else to tell me who my characters should be or what story they should tell. I’ve heard too many stories about writers who went the traditional publishing route and were forced to change things in their books, even though they didn’t really want to. I didn’t want to have that hassle. I want ownership of my work and I want my characters to tell their story their way.

What is the greatest joy of writing for you?

The biggest joy I get from writing is the escape. I work 50+ hours a week in a very high stress job. Writing is my escape from that, my stress relief. I can tell when I go a day without writing. Anxiety kicks in and I get cranky.

What do your fans mean to you?

Everything. I am an introvert, and putting myself and my work out in the public eye not only took a ton of convincing, but is also very difficult for me. It makes me anxious and nervous. People who are introverts will understand that. Having someone read my work and like what I’ve done makes the journey I’ve taken through this whole writing/ publication process worthwhile. Fans offer support and encouragement, and knowing I have that is the best feeling in the world.

What are you working on next?

As soon as the entire Scrubs series is published, I actually have two project I’m working on. One is a middle grade/ YA fantasy book that I’m 5 chapters into, and the other is an adult crime fiction novel that is from the first person point of view of a Seattle firefighter. Both of these are very different from the Scrubs series, but I’m excited to get back into them. I have adult an action/ adventure book brewing in my head, but won’t tackle that one quite yet.

The Book That Will Change Your Life

Book Signing in Austin

I will be at Malvern Bookstore in Austin this Saturday (4/16) from 2 – 5 p.m. signing books for the Drop Everything and Read Texas Event.  If you’re in the area, stop on by.

Brain to Books Cyber Convention Romance Blog Tour – Author Bios

Welcome to the second stop in the Brain to Books Cyber Convention Romance and Erotica Blog Tour.  Check out these authors.

Marie Johnston:

Marie Johnston lives in the upper-Midwest with her husband, four kids, and an old cat. Deciding to trade in her lab coat for a laptop, she’s writing down all the tales she’s been making up in her head for years. An avid reader of paranormal romance, these are the stories hanging out and waiting to be told between the demands of work, home, and the endless chauffeuring that comes with children.

Her first series about wolf-shifters, “The Sigma Menace,” includes five books and a short story and spawned two spin-off series. Demetrius, book one of the “New Vampire Disorder,” will be available April 12, 2016. Regal Claim, book one of “Pale Moonlight,” stays in the shifter world and will be released on June 2016.

You can connect with her through her website, Goodreads, Facebook, or Twitter.

L.M. Nelson :

L.M. Nelson is certified teacher and CPR/First Aid instructor.  She enjoys poetry, music, photography, gardening, reading, and nature walks.  Aside from her debut novel, Scrubs, she has written Sand and Sutures (book 2 of the Scrubs series), and several poems, some of which have been selected for literary magazines and published in a poetry collection entitled World Treasury of Great Poems, Vol. II.  She co-wrote the article, ‘Gifted and Talented Education at the Close of the Decade of the Brain’, which was published in the educational journal Perspectives: Idaho Association of School Administrators, Vol. XVI, No. 1.

L.M. Nelson grew up in California and the Pacific Northwest, but currently resides in South Central Texas with her husband and two children.  She is a member of the Texas Association of Authors and the Texas Authors Institute.

You can visit her website  or connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Goodreads.

 

B.K. Rivers:



BK Rivers grew up riding through rolling fields of grain on horseback, driving hay trucks and catching frogs in a silver creek.  She traded country life for the big city when she married the love of her life, but the heart always returns to the country.

BK, her husband and three children live in the Phoenix suburbs on their own mini farm surrounded by crowing roosters and the low nicker of horses.  When she’s not writing, she can be found baking anything sweet, in fact it’s been said her brownies are so good they save marriages.

The inspiration for her novels comes in many forms, but mostly from her Gotye channel on Pandora.  She writes young adult and new adult novels to the beat of Gotye, Snow Patrol and many others.

You can connect with her via her website, Goodreads, Facebook, or Twitter.

 

Annjea Morgan :

Annjea Morgan Llewor is a mother, sister, daughter, and animal lover in Southern California.  Her passions are people, new experiences, and enjoying everything amazing in life.  Look for her at the local karaoke club, dance spot, dog park, or wherever the action is.

You can connect with her on Goodreads, Twitter, or Facebook.

 

Emma Alisyn:

Emma Alisyn writes paranormal romance because teaching high school biology wasn’t like how it is on television. Her lions, tigers, and bears will most interest readers who like their alphas strong, protective and smokin’ hot; their heroines feisty, brainy and bootilicious; and their stories with lots of chemistry, tension and plenty of tender moments.

Check out her website or connect with her on Goodreads, Twitter, or Facebook

For more information about these authors and their books, follow the next stop in the Brain to Books Romance Blog Tour.

 

Blog Tour Announcement

April 8th through 10th, I will be a featured author on the Brain to Books Cyber Convention Romance Blog Tour.   Stop by and check it out!

 

Authors Supporting Our Troops 2016 #ASOT2016

January 1st 2016 kicks off the third Authors Supporting Our Troops event, and we’re hoping it will be the biggest year yet to collect author-signed books! #ASOT2016 has a modest goal: beat th…

Source: Authors Supporting Our Troops 2016 #ASOT2016