Bev Pettersen's Blog, page 76

THE PROFESSIONAL HOLIDAY VICTIM CHECK LIST.

THE PROFESSIONAL HOLIDAY VICTIM CHECK LIST.

You may be a professional victim if you:

Leave your car unlocked.

Carry every credit card known to man when you shop.

At night park in an unlit area of the mall and walk to your car by yourself.

Walk to your car with ear buds in and music blaring.

Leave packages in your car where they can be seen.

Put packages in the trunk and don’t lock the car.

Leave your purse and keys in an unlocked car. Even if it’s in your driveway.

Leave your home unlocked...

Director’s Cut by Jacqui Jacoby

The director’s cut, a movie released several years after the original, giving us a look into scenes and story we missed when the film was in the theaters. Aliens, released in 1986, the director’s cut coming out in 2003 with roughly eighteen minutes of a movie that really should have been in the first. Boondock Saints II, All Saints Day, twenty-two minutes that made it practically a different film.

These directors knew what they were doing. They knew what cut to make it still work and then the...

Fangirl Friday – December 4th Edition

Happy December! Tis the season for some great deals and great reads, boys and girls! Here are the new releases and discounted reads from the Rubies this week. As always if you have (or know about) other new releases or discounts and you want to share in the comments, go for it! We’re all about sharing the love.

NEW RELEASES:

In the mood for some holiday cheer? You’re in luck! Hope Ramsay has a new Christmas short available now!

A Midnight Clear by Hope Ramsay

Dr. Tom Crawford isn’t feeling t...

It’s Confession Time: NaNo 2015!

I don’t know about you, but December 1 felt like a crash landing. Head down. In an unfamiliar dumpster. November’s over already? Another NaNoWriMo has come and gone?

If you’ve been around the Ruby blog awhile, you probably know I have a complicated relationship to the wild ride that is NaNo.

I LOVE NaNo always, unambiguously, in a frenzied “we’re going to the amusement park and I’m gonna get on all the roller-coasters and stuff my face with all the cotton candy and win a seven-foot-tall stuff...

Writing Fearless: A Christmas Tale

I admit it. I am guilty of studying tropes and trends, because I know that readers like them and my publisher expects them. And also, being familiar with tropes and trends is helpful.

But early this year, when my publisher asked me to write yet another Christmas novella for the 2015 holiday season, I was less than enthused. Honestly, if I had to write another:

a) Retelling of the Gift of the Magi (I did that in my novella I’ll be Home for Christmas),

b) Take on Scrooge (I did that...

WHERE DO WRITERS GET THEIR IDEAS FROM?

The final day of NaNo is upon us and tons of new books will soon be shared around the world! WOOT! Having sat in on several write-ins this month and getting lots of questions from the casual observer,I thought I’d share my thoughts on the oft-asked question of where writers get their ideas from.

Here is MY answer, but I hope other writers chime in and let our lovely readers know where they get their ideas from. Okay, here is the short and sweet of it: We steal them from other writers. Just...

Fangirl Friday

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and our minds have turned to cyber Monday and shopping.

First, being a historical romance reader, I have to mention the seasonal historical romance anthology list Madeline Hunter has in her USA Today column HEA this week.http://ow.ly/V2HiA Some of the Ruby sisters have novellas mentioned.

Jacie Floyd has this bit of wisdom for us I found helpful. How To Give an eBook as a Gift:

Do you know how to give an ebook as a gift on Amazon.com? Share books by your favor...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Today the Rubies are spending time with families and loved ones, feeling grateful for the many blessings we have, even in these complicated, unpredictable times. If you have a moment, please share in the comments below about one thing you’re grateful for in your life.

Tis the Season for Reading!

Happy Thanksgiving (a few days early)! I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge sucker for holiday traditions. Right now I’m off over the river (Pacific Ocean) and through the woods (rain forest) to my grandmother’s house to begin the holiday merry-go-round. I know it may be early to be talking about Christmas, but I’ve already put up my first tree (of the three I will help decorate this year) and wrapped my first three presents (for my niece and nephews, of course, so they can anticipate them...

Fangirl Friday

The Conspiring Woman by Kate Parker debuted this week. The fourth Georgia Fenchurch/Victorian Bookshop Mystery goes into late-Victorian London in search of a missing child and his mother. Georgia is almost alone as this case begins. Aunt Phyllida is nursing a friend through pneumonia. Emma is on her honeymoon. The Duke of Blackford has traveled to America to check on his investments.

And then Georgia discovers more well-to-do women are missing. Vanished without a sign. While she searches for...