Sophia Sinclair's Blog, page 2

What's In It For Me?

It's the Deal of a Lifetime!

OK, that's a lie. It's a pretty good deal, but probably not the deal of a lifetime. 

But if you love to read, do sign up for authors' newsletters. Not just mine, but everyone's. 

Most authors today do have a newsletter, and we typically offer you a deal: You give me your email address, and in return I will give you things like a free prequel to my current series, or a discount, or a chance to win a gift card, or perhaps just heads up on new releases. 

Why are authors anxious to have you subscribe to our newsletters? For the same reason we write blogs and post frequently to social media: It is no longer enough just to write books. Back in the good old days, that was all we had to write. Just books. It must have been nice. But today, we have to hustle hard. Millions of books are published each year. Some are dreadful. Some are wonderful. Some books, which are exactly what you love to read, you'll never see. It's hard for authors to find the writers who love just their style of books. And if you love a certain style of books, it can be hard for you to find the author who wants to spend her life writing just what you're looking for. 

But once you've found each other, never let go! Sign up for her newsletter. Follow her on social media. Read her blog. Leave reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and everywhere else, because every good review means better algorithms that make the book more visible to other potential readers.

And if, with your help, your favorite author gets enough attention and sales, a magic thing may happen: She may be able to quit her day job and write full time. Just for you. Well, just for you and for the other people who find her particular books to be their jam. 

I'm hard at work writing a prequel to the Small-Town Secrets. I'm really pleased with it so far, and I think you'll like it, too. As soon as it's done, I'll send it FREE to everyone on my mailing list. Are you willing to click here and sign up?

Thank you! And now, back to writing the prequel and No. 6, tentatively called The Laws of Attraction.

Hope to see you on my newsletter list! 

Romance Scenes I Do Not Write

All Men Fart

If you're in a relationship, you might compare yours with the ones in your favorite romance novels. 

But doing that is very much like comparing your life to the lives of others on social media.

You know what I'm talking about. Your friend confides in you that her marriage is on rocky ground, but her social media shows them on vacation, having fabulous meals, adorably playing with their toddler, whatever. She does not post pics and video of one of them crying or slamming doors or sleeping on the sofa.

We all know that people's social media is not an accurate reflection of what their daily lives are. How many times have you cropped a photo to avoid the basket of unfolded laundry or the messy coffee table before posting the pic on your social media? Anybody would assume your house is always neat and tidy and maybe it is, but mine isn't. I only wish my house was as put together as it usually appears on my social media.

Similarly, in Romance Land, you see a specially curated version of romance. Sure, we romance novelists share scenes of The Big Misunderstanding and other obstacles to true love. But I've yet to read a scene in which she walks into the bathroom and discovers he didn't flush. Or he farts all night after a few too many bean burritos. Or she starts her period in the middle of the night and the bed looks like a murder scene in the morning. Sometimes, your morning breath is foul, and you just don't want to kiss passionately until a thorough brushing has taken place. There are so, so many very unromantic moments in a real relationship. We just edit that stuff right out, just like you edit your life on social media. Both tell fictional stories.

Give your guy (or gal) a break. It's OK to fall short of the perfection displayed by the hot people in romance novels. But in the spirit of accuracy, I'm considering adding a few farts into my next work. If nothing else, that might make you look more kindly upon your partner, right?

Just kidding. Even if all men IRL fart, I can promise you that none of my leading men have ever done such a thing! 

Have you read Crazy Little Thing yet? Sign up for my newsletter and never miss another new book!

Good Books Alone, But Better Together

 

Read the book that started it all!

All the books in the Small-Town Secrets can stand alone, but like peanut butter and jelly, they are better together.

When you read the books in order, you'll really get to know Fairview. You'll learn the best place for pizza (Sorrentino's, of course!) and where to go to get a drink (The Clipper, obviously!)  

You'll get to know the characters well, because people you meet in an earlier book will pop right up in later books. You'll meet their children, who grow up as the series progresses. 

The first book is all about Molly, the library director at the Fairview Public Library, a hard-working single mom who isn't even looking for a relationship until a sexy stranger with a compelling back story walks into her library. He's smitten immediately, probably because he saw a bit more than she intended when she climbed the ladder to put away a book on the top shelf. Oops.

The great thing about Fairview? There are no presidential politics. There's no Covid, What is there? Great people and places and enough small-town steam to power your whole house.

Click to read Worth the Wait now. It's the break we all need from the real world right now.

Who Likes Free Stuff?

Waiting For The Big Time

There are a handful of authors out there who make the big bucks. Everybody loves their books. I'd go hungry if necessary to buy the hardback of Diana Gabaldon's latest, to give one example. 

But there are thousands of fantastic books written every year that go unread. What do authors do to try to get noticed?

We give our work away. It's what creative people do, I'm afraid, because the same thing is true of singers, artists and photographers. While nobody ever asks insurance salespeople or doctors or lawn care company owners or roofers to give away their work, it's just accepted that creative people will give it up for free. And you know what? We absolutely will, because we all hope that eventually, if enough people read our book/listen to our songs/look at our paintings, we will eventually have enough fans that we can make a living with our art. 

That might not be true of most of us, but dreams die hard. So here's the deal: I need people to read my books and, if so moved, leave a review on Amazon. That's what helps me pay my bills (and afford to buy books). How to get a free Advance Reader Copy? You can email me at sophiasinclairromance@gmail.com, or you can work through these two fine websites:

https://booksprout.co/arc/47873/crazy-little-thing

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/eq7dmt6x3c

Either way, I thank you! And if you're so inclined, you can also sign up for my mailing list: http://eepurl.com/hcE4nb

Crazy Little Thing now on pre-order!

Now It's Ashley's Turn

If you've been reading the Small-Town Secrets series, you've "met" Ashley a number of times. She's everyone's favorite bartender at The Clipper, and she knows everything that's going on in town. But her own plans have been a big secret.

That's about to change:

Ashley Butler is everyone’s favorite bartender at The Clipper. She’s seemingly always there to remember your favorite drink and offer a sympathetic ear. But Ashley has plans that go far beyond bartending. She has been quietly working on a major project for years, and she’s just about to make her move.

When wealthy developer Maxwell Bishop makes a stop at The Clipper, he’s utterly captivated by the beautiful, intelligent, self-assured woman behind the bar. When he accidentally throws a monkey wrench into her plans, he tries to make it up to her.


Ashley accepts his offer and their attraction heats up, but they are from such different worlds. She was raised by a poor single mother. He was born to wealth. So she has a counter-offer for him: Spend a week in her world, living the life of a poor, small-town bartender. As Ashley’s dream project takes off, she faces a choice between the life she’s worked so hard to build for herself and the life of privilege Maxwell can give her. Is there a way to have both?

Want to read it in advance, for free? Now you can. Just click here. If you'd care to leave a review, you can!

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The secret lives of small towns

Enjoy your visit to Fairview

It’s the sort of place you’ve driven through countless times. Just another small town. The local dive bar does a good business. The old downtown is struggling, but a few brave entrepreneurs have opened cute little coffee shops or boutiques a few shuttered storefronts down from the local businesses your parents tell you have been there as long as they can remember.

There’s a library and a small hospital, which still hangs on even though a lot of people will drive to a bigger hospital in the next city if something is really wrong. 

Houses are known as “the old Williams house” or “where Joe Fisher used to live” even though two other families might have lived there since the last Williams or Fisher passed away or moved on. If you go to the local cemetery, you’ll see the same last names over and over again. It’s a place where families stay for generations, although that’s starting to change now.

Maybe you grew up in such a place. If you did, you know there’s a lot more going on that people who are just driving by or maybe stopping for a bathroom break would ever guess. Or maybe you grew up in a city and formed your idea of small towns from reruns of The Griffith Show. 

Fairview is where our stories take place, and it’s where you’ll find some of the most interesting people you’ll ever meet. Does it really matter if they only exist in the Small-Town Secrets series? Unlike the small towns you drive through, you get to watch every move the people here make. You will even know their thoughts. 

Molly is the director at the Fairview Public Library, and the very first person you’ll meet here. You’ve known women like her before. She had big plans for her life, but here she is still living in her hometown, raising her three children without much help from her ex, Hank. Hank isn't a bad guy, but he always had a little trouble keeping his pants on, so Molly is on her own. She’s given up on all her dreams and focuses on giving her kids a good life and doing her best to make the library a welcoming place for everyone, especially children. The youngest Fairview residents remember Miss Molly reading to them every week at Story Time. Aren’t you just dying for a good man to appreciate her? Everybody who reads Worth the Wait absolutely loves Molly!

Molly’s best friend is Lori. She’s a gorgeous woman and damned good nurse who works in the Emergency Room at Fairview Medical Center. Molly lives vicariously through Lori’s amorous adventures. Lori always has a new boyfriend that she hopes will be The One. Problem is, nobody looks past Lori’s carefully done hair and makeup and party-girl persona and appreciates what a caring person she is. Yes, she likes to have a good time, but if you look past that, she’s someone you can count on. Why has she always been overlooked? Some people who read Kiss and Tell dismiss Lori at first, but as they get into her head, they see what a dedicated and caring person she is under her glitzy surface, and they can’t wait to see what man will be the first to realize what a gem of a woman she is.

Catarina of Twice Shy spends her days mostly alone, working in the upholstery store her father started before returning to the old country. She has a complicated family history and an unsuccessful love life, and very few people get to know her well. Her childhood friend, Tanya, is one of the few people she ever socializes with. Tanya has also chosen solitude. She was married to the love of her life until she lost him and their unborn child in a traffic accident years ago. When one of Catarina’s European relatives, Veda, shows up out of the blue one night, it changes everything for both Catarina and Tanya. Sometimes you just need a crazy cousin and a touch of fortune-telling to shake things up. Catarina never quite decides whether she believes in fortune-telling or not, but as you’ll learn in the coming books, everything Tanya and Veda see in the tea leaves eventually comes true.

Julie likes to help bring babies into the world. She started out attending her older sister’s births, and liked it so much she became a certified doula. Now she’s studying to become a midwife, and she’s busy helping her sister cope with her large family alone. Julie’s former fiance left her hanging after getting another girl pregnant, so is it any wonder that Julie has concluded she’d rather help deliver babies than have any herself? And doesn’t it just figure that when she finally meets a guy she likes, he’s the type who can’t wait to become a dad? Somehow, even though they want different things in their lives, Julie and her new love are a Perfect Fit.

Ashley is the bartender at The Clipper, the dive bar where everyone in Fairview hangs out. She’s just a local girl who remembers everyone’s favorite drink. Everybody knows who she is, but even though everyone tells her their secrets, she keeps her own to herself. She’s been planning something for a very long time, though, and even meeting a wealthy man who would willingly whisk her away to a life of ease won’t stop her. The whole town is in for a surprise in Crazy Little Thing.

Kelly left town right after graduation. She felt she had to, after being blamed for a scandal she had nothing to do with. A decade later, she returns to Fairview, feeling she’s wasted her youth. It will take everything she has to get her life back on track. She will learn, however, that even people who on the surface appear to have it all together might not really be happy with their lives, either. The Laws of Attraction shows two people who took very different paths converging toward the same future. 

Each new book takes up with the former one left off, and you can read them as one very long epic tale, although each book also can stand alone. You’ll meet each character again. She’ll show up sooner or later in a subsequent book, attending another character’s wedding, having a drink at The Clipper or maybe delivering a baby. 

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