Bev Pettersen's Blog, page 3

Save the Date! Winter Writing Festival Starts Monday!

Hear ye, hear ye!  The New Year has begun and that means the Winter Writing Festival is right around the corner!  Get ready, writer friends!  It’s almost time!

If you’re new to the festival or would like a refresher on how the festival works, be sure to check out the Winter Writing Festival overview, sprint schedule, and “how it works” pages.

Camaraderie! Encouragement!  Prizes!  Don’t miss the chance to get tons of words on your latest project and have fun doing it through the darkest part of ...

Watch This Space! The Winter Writing Festival is Coming!

Hello, writing friends!  You may have noticed that the Rubies have gone dormant for the last few months (it’s been a year, hasn’t it?), but that is all about to change.  The Winter Writing Festival is coming!  Running from the second week of January through the end of February, the annual online writing festival is a chance to get fired up for a BRAND NEW YEAR and lots of brand new writing goals.  Get motivated, get your words in, share your writing highs and lows, and take part in writing sprin...

Rethinking Success

How do you measure success?  When will we feel successful?

I know we’ve had this conversation before here at the blog.  It seems to keep circling around – and that only makes sense, because success is often a moving target.  We work toward one goal..and as soon as we reach it we’re working toward the next, sometimes even forgetting to celebrate the fact that we conquered that one goal.

I’ve been thinking a lot about success and that ever-changing destination this past week as I have a new book o...

Publishing a Book When the World is On Fire

INTOXICATE ME was a difficult book to write—not because of the book itself, but because of what was happening in the world during the time I was writing it.

Without getting too deeply into politics, my ability to concentrate flew out the window during the run-up to the 2016 American presidential election, and everything that’s happened in the world since then certainly hasn’t reduced my anxiety levels. To borrow a phrase made popular by Queen Elizabeth II a couple of decades ago, 2020 has been a...

A Very Ruby Christmas

One of the greatest joys of reading romance novels is the opportunity to escape for a few hours, to smile when people find love and head toward their happily-ever-after.

The world has had a hard year. We’re all in need of cheer, optimism, peace. We need a little Christmas. The Rubies have holiday books to share. Some will release in September. Others are available now.  We hope that, whatever winter holiday you celebrate, you’ll find a story of comfort and joy from here.

Releasing this fall!

 ...

INTOXICATE ME – Cover Reveal and E-book Sale!

Underbelly Chronicles Book Five, Intoxicate Me, is finally ready for the world! E-books officially go on sale Tuesday, Sept. 22 – pre-sale links are live! – and a print version is coming soon.

For those familiar with the series, it’s finally time for Jack and Sasha to deal with the attraction they’ve been fighting for years.  Fire + water = STEAM. I hope you think the wait was worth it.

Flash Fiction Friday

It’s that time again!

Whoa! What could be inside the bag? A death certificate? Weapon? Launch code? Photograph? Would the change be for better or worse? Something that would cause a personal or global effect? In 25 words or less, describe what it is and what it could change.
Let’s play! One commenter will randomly be chosen to win a $5 Amazon gift card.

Mentorship Monday – August Edition

Hello and welcome to another edition of Mentorship Monday!  Where we throw the comments open for discussions about any questions you might have on the writing craft, writing business, or writing life and the Rubies chime in with their thoughts.

Ask away!

I’ll also kick it off with my own question.  I’m gearing up for a new series launch. The first book of my small town Pine Hollow series with Forever, The Twelve Dogs of Christmas will be coming out on September 29th and I’m trying to figure out...

Why This Story?

Hello and welcome to the fifth Wednesday here at the blog where we talk about goals, the writer’s life, and the care and feeding of the writerly types.  It’s been a complicated few months and not fixing to become any less complicated, but I’m not going to wade into that today.  Instead, I’d like to talk about motivation – and not just what drives us to write, but what drives us to pick the stories we work on.

I was listening to a podcast recently (which will come as a shock to absolutely no one ...

Brainstorming the Gates

I have a critique group that gets together every few months (except recently).  And the best part of this group is that we talk and brainstorm about our various plot and characterization problems.  It’s utterly invaluable.  And I haven’t connected with my gang since January.