Mindy Hardwick's Blog, page 42

Valentine Blog Hop and Giveaway

Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m participating in the Celebrating Saint Valentine Giveaway Hop hosted by Reading Romances Blog.

My favorite memory of Valentine’s Day is when my Mom sent a hand bell choir to my studio apartment. I was in college and Valentine’s Day was not my favorite holiday. During my first year of college, my boyfriend broke up with me three days before Valentine’s Day. That year, I watched as flowers and gifts poured into the dorm. By my junior year of college, I was living in my own apartment, but I still didn’t have a boyfriend on Valentine’s Day. Mom wanted to make the day special and so she sent the hand bell choir over to cheer me up. They piled into the third floor apartment and “You Are My Sunshine” rang to the rafters of that third floor apartment.

My sweet,  contemporary romance novella VINTAGE VALENTINE, is also a story about a mother and a daughter on Valentine’s Day.

STORY BLURB: On Valentine’s Day, Hailey returns home to the Elmheart Hotel with her ten-year-old daughter. After years away, Hailey is happy to help celebrate her grandparent’s golden wedding anniversary. But, when Hailey finds former, high school boyfriend, Patrick, working as the hotel’s chef, she will have to find a way to tell Patrick the secret she has kept for ten years in this sweet contemporary romance short story.

Find out more about VINTAGE VALENTINE here.

 

Now, what can you win on this blog….as a part of the Celebrating Saint Valentine Blog Hop? Well….one of the items of jewelry which are worn in VINTAGE VALENTINE are heart earrings. So, in the spirit of VINTAGE VALENTINE, I am giving away these beautiful glass heart earrings!

The glass heart earrings  are made by Belinda Morrison. Belinda Morrison grew up in South Africa and now lives in America, Her experience living in South Africa has given her a great heritage of the diversity of art, color, and design. Colonial English, African, and American have influenced her creativity. Visit her Etsy store and learn more about Belinda Morrison here.

I’m a big fan of glass art. My upper middle grade novel, STAINED GLASS SUMMER, is about artistic mentorship in glass art. (This is a great story for those tweens ages 8-12 and has a little bit of a first crush as a part of the story!) Find out more about STAINED GLASS SUMMER here.

Now, all you have to do to enter the giveaway for the glass heart earrings is leave me a comment below and tell me one Valentine memory. Please include your email address with your comment. This blog’s prize is open to U.S. residents only.

Then once you leave me a comment, don’t forget to visit the other blogs on the Celebrating Saint Valentine Day Hop.  You can find all those blogs listed here. You can also click on the banner at the top of this post and it will take you to the list of all the blogs participating!

Good luck!

Valentine’s Day Book Signing Event

I will be signing PRINT copies of young adult novel, WEAVING MAGIC, on Valentine’s Day at Uppercase Bookshop in Snohomish, Washington at 3 p.m. Uppercase Bookshop is located at 1118 First Street in downtown, Snohomish.

Blurb: He loves magic. She loves romance. But the biggest illusion is the one Shantel and Christopher perform together.  Sixteen- year- old Christopher fights to stay sober while fifteen-year-old Shantel struggles in the aftermath of her mother’s death and seeks refuge in a fantasy world. But the unacknowledged roots of their problems refuse to stay buried and soon, the two are headed toward a deadly magic trick. Can Shantel and Christopher move beyond magical illusions to find love? WEAVING MAGIC is based on my experience writing with teens in juvenile detention and is a great choice for ages 13-15.

And…. signing books with me on Valentine’s Day at Uppercase Bookshop in Snohomish, my good, long-time writer friend, Pamela Greenwood, will be signing copies of her new book, IN DISGUISE: UNDERCOVER WITH REAL WOMEN SPIES. This is a great non-fiction book and perfect for middle school girls! Pamela will be sharing with us all about her new book in a March interview on this blog! The book releases on February 13!

Blurb: Spanning more than 300 years and numerous countries, In Disguise! details the lives of some of history’s most daring women, all of whom risked their lives to stand up for their beliefs. Originally published a decade ago, this fully updated and expanded edition of In Disguise! profiles twenty-eight daring international secret agents, from Harriet Tubman, who freed hundreds of slaves during the Civil War, to Eva Wu, who hid secret messages in her hair to aid the Chinese Revolution, to the modern-day exploits of former CIA agent Valerie Plame. With riveting narratives, fun quizzes to determine if you have what it takes to go undercover, secret-agent trivia, and short spotlight bios, In Disguise! is sure to engage and inspire.

We hope you will join us on Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Romance Anthology

VINTAGE VALENTINE is now published in a Valentine’s romance ebook anthology. The anthology, VALENTINES SAY I LOVE YOU  is a collection of five, short romance stories. Anthologies are a great way to be introduced to an author and I’m very happy to be included.

VALENTINES SAY I LOVE YOU is available here.

VINTAGE VALENTINE is still available as a 99 cent single short story here.

The Elmheart Hotel–Vintage Valentine History

When I was asked to write a Valentine romance story, I knew it had to be a very special story.  So, on Christmas night, my Mom and I sat down in front of the fireplace and brainstormed possible ideas.  After about thirty minutes, I liked our characters and story conflict, but, I was still at a loss for where to set the story.  When I got home, I started looking in files for possible writing ideas. It was there I found the first idea file I ever created for writing. Although, at the time, I’m not sure I knew it was an idea file.  In college, I was in love with an old hotel on Lake Ontario–The Elmheart Hotel (pictured below). I started collecting clippings and stories about the hotel with dreams of one day restoring it.

(Photo credit: Rochester’s Lakeside Resorts and Amusement Parks, Donovan A. Shilling)

I first wrote about the Elmheart Hotel in college. One of my first publications in my college literary journal, THE ANGLE, was an essay about the Elmheart Hotel.  By that time, the hotel was still standing, but just barely. Here I am in front of the hotel during college. It looks a “little bit” different than the picture above!

The Elmheart Hotel was a hotel on Lake Ontario during the late 1800’s.  The hotel was the last stop on a trolley line that ran from Rochester, New York to Manitou Beach. Fredrick Odenbach built the hotel in the early 1890’s. However, the Skinner family, who owned the land next to the hotel, claimed the hotel was on their land. They took Odenbach to court. The court ruled the land belonged to Odenbach.

The Skinner family still thought the hotel belonged to them, and they took Odenbach to court again. This time, the ruling was in favor of the Skinner family.  The mix-up in ownership happened over a surveyor mistake in 1802. The property line was declared at an oak tree. But, the tree was really an elm tree. After the court ruled in favor of Skinner, he gave the hotel the name The Elmheart Hotel.

In 1903, the hotel was sold to Michael Olaughlin and George Weidman.  A room fire in 1931 forced George to stop renting rooms to guests. However, during the depression, George built a dance hall next to the hotel. Big bands played in the dance hall and the hotel was kept open only as a bar on evenings and weekends. After George’s death in 1986, there was talk of building a restaurant and restoring the hotel. But, due to a lack of sewer systems, the plans never moved forward.

In 1990, a boyfriend took me to see the hotel. The windows were boarded up, the paint peeling and the yard was filled with weeds. However, the old ballroom was still intact. I fell in love with the Elmheart Hotel and envisioned how it could be restored. The hotel burned in 1992 and my dream never materialized. Arson was listed as the cause of the fire. I hope this story, VINTAGE VALENTINE, restores the Elmheart Hotel and gives it a happily-ever-after.

(Research Credit: Rebecca Hardwick)

Vintage Valentines–The Story Behind the Story

The title of my latest sweet, contemporary romance is VINTAGE VALENTINES.

In the story, ten-year-old, Kaitlin, is given a box of old valentine’s from her Grandmother.  I, too, was given a box of vintage valentines which once belonged to my Grandfather.

One of my hobbies is collage art and art journaling. When my Grandparent’s house was cleaned out, my Aunt discovered a box of old valentine’s. She thought I might like to use them for my collages. When I opened up the box, I found valentine’s from the 1920′s. The valentine’s were a bit yellowing and some were torn, but they were still amazing. Inside the valentines were the names of my Grandpa’s classmates as they wrote messages to him.I didn’t have the heart to use them in my collage work.

So, instead of cutting them up for collage, I bought small, photo albums and created three photo albums with the vintage valentine’s.  I took the larger valentines, which were stand-up decorations, and placed each one in a plastic bag. I keep the whole collection in a large box and around Valentine’s Day, the valentines come out and I decorate my house. This year, I added one more valentine to the collection. I added the valentine I received last year from my grandfather. It was the last valentine I received before he passed away in August. I thought that card should have a home with all of the other special valentine cards. Maybe someday, a future generation will find my card and place it on the mantel as a decoration, too.

When I sat down to write Vintage Valentine, I found those valentines crept into my story!

Here are some pictures of the Valentines.

(Stand-Up Decoration)

(Stand-Up Decoration)

Valentine Cards

Arts Connect Hilltop Artist Program

The other day, I met with the program director, Lauren Appel, of the Arts Connect Hilltop Glass Art Program.  We were talking about the workshops at Denney Juvenile Justice Center and working with teens in detention. The Hilltop Glass Art program came onto my radar when I was working on the research for STAINED GLASS SUMMER. 

The Hilltop Program is a program created specifically for court-involved girls, ages 11 – 19, living in Pierce County. Pierce County Juvenile Court partners with Hilltop Artists to run the program and girls are referred to one or more sessions by probation or diversion officers.

Staff works closely with probation officers to enroll girls in 10 to 12-week sessions held at community sites. Staff, teaching artists, and a probation officer co-facilitate these weekly three-hour classes. Hands-on art projects are generated from discussions about identity, society and healthy lifestyles. Each week snack is provided and a family-style dinner is served. Participants may arrive up to an hour early to work on homework or talk with adults and peers about the week’s ups and downs.

At the end of each session family, friends, judges, probation officers and the public attend a showcase event in which participants exhibit their artwork. At the showcase participants also inform the audience about their service learning/philanthropy project. For each service learning/philanthropy project ­the participants identify a topic that is meaningful to them, invite a guest speaker from a community organization addressing that topic to class, and create art that benefits the organization.–From the Hilltop Arts Connect Website

The following is a video about the work the girls do in the program. It’s an inspiring video and I hope you’ll watch it.

Valentine’s Day Romance is Published

Every romance writer needs a story for Valentine’s Day, and I’m happy to announce that VINTAGE VALENTINE is now available for purchase as an ebook.

Story Blurb: On Valentine’s Day, Hailey returns home to the Elmheart Hotel with her ten-year-old daughter. After years away, Hailey is happy to help celebrate her grandparent’s golden wedding anniversary. But, when Hailey finds former, high school boyfriend, Patrick, working as the hotel’s chef, she will have to find a way to tell Patrick the secret she has kept for ten years in this sweet contemporary romance short story.

Vintage Valentine takes place in the Elmheart Hotel on Lake Ontario. The Elmheart Hotel was a hotel during the 1800′s. It was the last stop on a trolley line that ran from Rochester to Manitou Beach. In 1931, a fire caused the rooms to be closed to guests. However, during the Depression, a dance hall was built and big bands played in the dance hall. In 1993, arson brought the hotel to ashes. It was a dream of mine to restore the hotel, and although that could not take place, I hope this series of stories about the Elmheart Hotel brings it back to life.

I will be sharing a little more about the Elmheart Hotel in another blog post, soon. And there will be more Elmheart Hotel stories later this year.

You can find VINTAGE VALENTINE at Amazon here. It will be coming soon to Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple, and other ebook stores.

Audio Book Giveaway

The Reading Lark Blog interviewed me about STAINED GLASS SUMMER. You can read that interview here.

As a part of the interview, they are offering a giveaway of ONE copy of the audio book of STAINED GLASS SUMMER. The audio book winner will be selected randomly. If you are the winner, you will receive a code to download the audio book from Audible (Amazon’s audio book store).

STAINED GLASS SUMMER audio book can be played on computers, tablets, ipods, and MP3 Players–just like music!

To enter the audio book giveaway, scroll to the bottom of the Reading Lark Blog interview here.

Good luck! The giveaway ends on January 28.

Good Reading Choices

I go through stages with my reading. Sometimes, I am reading a lot. Other times, not so much. Lately, I’ve been reading quite a few good books, and I wanted to share them.  

SLAMMED, by Colleen Hoover

Blurb from Amazon:

Following the unexpected death of her father, eighteen-year-old Layken becomes the rock for both her mother and younger brother. She appears resilient and tenacious, but inside, she’s losing hope. Then she meets her new neighbor Will, a handsome twenty-one-year-old whose mere presence leaves her flustered and whose passion for poetry slams thrills her.

Not long after a heart-stopping first date during which each recognizes something profound and familiar in the other, they are slammed to the core when a shocking discovery brings their new relationship to a sudden halt. Daily interactions become impossibly painful as they struggle to find a balance between the feelings that pull them together and the forces that tear them apart. Only through the poetry they share are they able to speak the truth that is in their hearts and imagine a future where love is cause for celebration, not regret.

I first heard about SLAMMED on Goodreads. SLAMMED was self-published in January 2012. Colleen Hoover ran a couple of Goodreads giveaways to generate interest. Then, in March 2012, a couple bloggers picked up the book. It took off like hotcakes.  By summer, it hit the New York Times Best Seller list and Simon and Schuster picked it up. You can read the whole story about the book’s journey here.

I was interested because of the poetry aspect in SLAMMED. I love poetry slams.  Every week long workshop I do with the teens in detention, I always show them clips from slams. In the spring, I try to attend the Youth Speaks Poetry Slam in Seattle. I wish the teens in Everett had a few more opportunities to attend poetry slams closer to home. I think a lot of them would really find the slams are a way to express their voices.

The book did not disappoint. It’s a fast read. A love story. A story about secrets. A story about poetry slams and how poetry gives us a way to tell the truth about our lives. I’m going to recommend it to the kids in detention, and am now starting on the second book in the series, POINT OF RETREAT.

Some are classifying this as YA, I’d say it’s more in the New Adult category as the characters are 18 and 21.

Memoir of the Sunday Brunch by Julie Pandl

Blurb from Amazon:

For Julia Pandl, the rite of passage into young-adulthood included mandatory service at her family’s restaurant, where she watched as her father—who was also the chef—ruled with the strictness of a drill sergeant.

At age twelve, Julie was initiated into the rite of the Sunday brunch, a weekly madhouse at her father’s Milwaukee-based restaurant, where she and her eight older siblings before her did service in a situation of controlled chaos, learning the ropes of the family business and, more important, learning life lessons that would shape them for all the years to come. In her wry memoir, she looks back on those formative years, a time not just of growing up but, ultimately, of becoming a source of strength and support as the world her father knew began to change into a tougher, less welcoming place.

I enjoyed this memoir for a couple reasons. The first was the structure of the book. Each chapter could be a stand-alone short story as well as a chapter to the book.  The story links together by the relationship of Julie Pandl with her Father. It’s a fascinating inside look at the restaurant business and how the Sunday brunch, as well as other meals, work from the inside.  But not only is it a good story, it is also a well-written story.  I’d recommend this to those looking for a good memoir.

WILD: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Blurb from Amazon:

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.

 

Strayed faces down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

This book popped onto my radar because my bookgroup is reading it this spring. I requested it for Christmas, and copies appeared everywhere under the tree. By the time we were done, my Mom, sister, and I all had a copy! I started reading this book on New Year’s Eve day and couldn’t put it down. It’s an amazing story of one woman’s hike on the Pacific Coast Trail.  The most amazing part is Cheryl is not a hiker when she sets out on that trail. She’s comfortable in the outdoors because of her homesteading growing up experience, but she’s not a hiker. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and although I love my beach walks, and an occasional hike through Moran State Park on Orcas Island, I can not imagine setting off on a trail as strenuous as the Pacific Coast Trail having little to no hiking experience–but that’s what Cheryl does and it’s a fascinating read!

What are you reading on these days of January?

Author Interview–Scott R. Caseley

I’m very pleased to have Scott R. Caseley on the blog! Scott has a young adult new book out, ISOSCELES.

Blurb: When he finds his best friend Trey Goodsby dead and almost completely submerged in a bathtub filled with bloody water, Sean McIntyre is determined to find out if it was an accident or suicide. If it was suicide, why did he do it? And, did his death accidental or intentional have anything to do with Madeline Edwards, the woman who came between them constantly through their thirteen-year friendship? Isosceles, a coming-of-age mystery romance begins with the death of Trey Goodsby, and explores his relationships with family, friends, his romances, and which of the circumstances he found himself in that led to the tragic event, and the repercussions for those he left behind.

You can buy ISOSCELES on Amazon, the MuseItUp bookstore or Bookstrand

Scott R. Caseley was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. He gained an interest in writing in elementary school in nearby Hudson. Growing up, he carried a small notebook or pen on family trips making observations and frequently turned them into poems or short stories. While attending Franklin Pierce University, he co-wrote and co-directed a student film. After graduating, he wrote and directed a dramatic feature, co-wrote and directed a documentary and conducted interviews for an online magazine. He’s also passionate about acting, and he’s enjoyed performing on stage, in bit parts on film, and is also a trained voice actor. In addition to his creative pursuits, he is passionate about healthy living. He follows a fitness regimen consisting of several activities such as; weight training, walking, swimming, yoga, and hula hooping. He complements this by cooking several nutritious examples of international and American cuisine. Last, but certainly not least he also enjoys just spending time with family and friends until the early morning hours with plenty of laughter and coffee.

Thanks for joining us today, Scott!

Can you tell us a little bit about ISOSCELES?

It’s about a friendship that spans a thirteen-year period between two boys Sean McIntyre and Trey Goodsby and a girl Madeline Edwards. The boys are as different as night and day, this is what draws them to one another, but also cause them to be at odds at times and also why the girl, Madeline Edwards is constantly caught in between the both of them.

What inspired you to write this story?

I was thinking about what friendship really means, and the lengths we go to protect our friendships and whether it is a blind trust or if it is deserved. Then I thought about when people die, many times they are remembered at two extremes, either very positively or very negatively. I asked myself a number of questions. How does one make peace with the flaws or the attributes that we revere which were most apparent about the person who has died? Are our own opinions on a person changed when we discover how they were thought of in life or how they are remembered after their passing? How do you think your friends, your family, etc. see you?

What were the challenges you encountered writing the story? How did you work through the obstacles?

My main obstacle was how to make these three individuals who appear very different from the outset get along, but not just get along, fall into love with each other, not just the romantic love, but platonic love as well. What causes the spark to grow into a friendship or a deep love from early childhood and last many years from there? The challenge was to keep the three unique, but also show how they could reach common ground on certain things, be it consciously to them or otherwise.

What is one piece of advice you would tell a teen who wants to write?

We all have stories within us waiting to burst out from our minds and hearts. They can be told in a great variety of ways. It can be just a sentence, a song, a poem, a short story, screenplay, or novel. Tell the story the way you want to tell it, it’s your story after all. Don’t worry about it sounding perfect right away, just let it out. Writing can be a very fun experience, and if it’s a sad story you have inside, if you let it out, it may make you feel better afterward. Even though you may hate it, the story may be what someone else needs to hear, to laugh, cry, or feel from your words. But, bottom line, believe in yourself, it may take a lifetime, but you’ll get there when you let your story be heard.

What are you working on next?

I have these two characters, a young man and a young woman that first encounter one another in an incident during their first year of college that leads her to high profile embarrassment and him to the hospital. As they both recover from the trauma of the experience, they catch wind of a way that though risky, could very well save her reputation and his life.

Where can readers find you?

My Amazon author page is https://www.amazon.com/author/scottrcaseley, plus I’m available at https://www.facebook.com/ScottRCaseleyWriter. I have a blog/website at www.scottrcaseleyauthor.com. You can follow me @scottrcaseley on Twitter. Or if you’d like to email me, it’s SRCaseley@Gmail.com . Plus, I will be doing a tour with World of Ink (http://www.worldofinknetwork.com) in March and April.

Thank you so much for the interview, Mindy, this was a lot of fun.

Thank you, Scott! Best of luck with your book!