Karyn Good's Blog, page 30

Romance, Suspense and Autumn Fun

Smart, Sexy Suspense

Summer is over and the season of pumpkin everything is upon us! On the Canadian Prairies fall comes early and leaves early. It’s a very short season in which to pack in a lot of fun.

Last year’s corn maze fun!

Obviously, we made it out alive. No small feat considering I’m generally lacking any sense of direction. Thank goodness I had these two lovely ladies and a friend with me. No white flag needed.

So much fun! Have you ever tackled a corn maze? I’d forgotten how tall the corn grows!

Latest News

November 7th, the release date for Off The Grid approaches. I can’t wait to share this story with you. It’s set in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Canada, which is infamously known as Canada’s poorest postal code. In it Sophie Monroe, an inner city doctor and activist, and Caleb Quinn, a high-priced Family Law lawyer, join forces to save a victimized, pregnant teenager.

Jason Drummond might not be as invincible as he’d like to think.

Excerpt:

Just who is Jason Drummond?

Jason Drummond was toying with his prey. But Caleb hadn’t gotten to the top of his game by snapping at any old bait. Jason oozed arrogance, occupying as much space as possible. The faint derision he wore like spray cologne an offensive maneuver. Too bad his nerves showed in the occasional spin of his wedding ring. They’d played poker together enough times for Caleb to know his tell.

*If you’re interested in reviewing Off The Grid let me know and I’ll hook you up! karyngoodauthor at gmail dot com

So excited! It’s also the first book in a three part series. In Book Two: The heroine is part of the rich and famous set. The hero owns a private security firm that specializes in protecting them.

Other News

I’ve signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press for my novel Exposed! No release date yet. But coming sooner rather than later in 2015.  This is the second Aspen Lake book and Kate and Seth’s story.

Sneek Peek:

Kate Logan figured hiking the long road back to self-respect, which included two stints in rehab and twenty extra pounds, sucked at the best of times. These were not the best of times. She pushed aside the yellow crime scene tape. Not even close. Her fingers tightened over the shattered wood frame of her boutique’s backdoor. A nasty splinter stabbed into her thumb. Karma wasn’t done with her.

Work In Progress

I’m hard at work on the third and final book in the Aspen Lake series. Constable Michael Davenport and Grace Bighill try to figure out a decade old crime. And each other.

I am having so much fun. Been in tears twice. And I’ve only written 43 pages.

Rough copy:

“I can handle it,” insisted Grace.

“I know you can. You can handle damn near anything. Including me.”

     The way Michael said it gave her pause. She blinked up at him wondering what he’d do if she gave into the urge to push him up against the wall.

     “Do it and find out.”

     “What? You’re a minder reader now?”

     “Your eyes. Everything is right there. Every thought. Every sideways turn. Do it. Handle me, Grace. See what happens.”

Other News

At the end of this month I’m attending the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. I’m so excited. This is my first writing conference!

There you have it. All the latest news! Take care and hope you find time to be out and about and enjoy the change of seasons.

The Lure of Starting A New Project

Before you’ve finished the current one. For some reason this always happens to me when I’m almost finished. When I’m this close to being done. And I don’t know why. Although, in all honesty, I’ve never delved too deep into why that is.

And right now the lure of starting a brand new story is almost impossible to resist. But resist I must. Because try as I might I can’t work on two books at once. Just can’t.

And I’m this close!

And I guess that’s the thing. Once it’s done and submitted it’s out there and things are out of my control.

Which I find scary.

Always knew I had a lot in common with hobbits. So, off I go to finish my quest.

How about you?

Grouchy Pants

Ugh. Why are they always a perfect fit?

 

What’s that? You don’t care? Come back when I’ve got it together?

Fair enough. No one wants to hear about my grumpy business.

But what to do when one cannot even tolerate one’s self?

First, acknowledge your grumpy! Okay, done that.
Get moving! Next on my list.
Smile!
Clear clutter! It’s easier to throw stuff away when you’re feeling evil.
Listen to (upbeat) music!
Talk to a friend! Hi, there!
Write down the good stuff! Like how it’s FINALLY sunny! Yay! Or how I went out to lunch and didn’t have to cook!

 

Or

Read a book!

What a good idea! I’m busy reading through Vivian Arend’s Takhini Wolves series. Must say I’m enjoying them!

What’s your favorite method of getting rid of the grumps!

Feeding Your Ego

A road trip with girlfriends is a good thing! Listening to one of my favorite celebrities speak at the end of it is even better. Jann Arden is a seriously talented singer, songwriter, and author. She’s is also one funny individual. She talked about many things Monday night at The Silver Spoon Dinner with Jann Arden event. That’s the wonderful thing about Jann Arden. Her honesty and the feeling your making a personal connection with her through her very personal stories.

Jann talked about finding your passion. The thing that fills you up. She talked about letting your spirit guide your actions not your ego. About redefining your goals by reaching out instead of looking inward. Ego is about survival and battling for the future insist you see for yourself. Spirit is about effecting change in the world around you and letting your future find you.

 

I get stuck in the rut of thinking about others egos. Scoffing and muttering over others who seem to wear it like a comfortable coat. But what about my own ego? Am I catering to it and harming my creative process?

Ego is not all about a negative boosting of our confidence and creating an over inflated version of our worth. Ego is also the thing that worries about what other people think of our efforts. It’s the measuring stick of worth that often comes up short. It stifles the creative process with a wet blanket of this isn’t good enough. Been there, felt that.

Jann gave me lots to think about. When we truly listen, when we open up to connections with others and their ideas, when we interact with the world around us in a meaningful way we are less on our own. When we pay less attention to our mind’s worries but settle ourselves and feel more with our gut we’re on the right track.

So I’ll work on it and worry less and create more. May the rest of the week be kind to you. May you find peace in a way that fills you up.

Tilting At Windmills

Sanity is a slippery slope at times. We all know this. We’ve all fought our share of four armed giants and lost. None of us as innocent as when we started out. Certainly, as supporters of the romance genre, whether as reader or writer, we’ve defended against countless giants in the form of cynics and naysayers. Some might say we are the Don Quixote of the literary world. The laughingstock. The discounted. The delusional.

Romantic ideals don’t put food on the table. No matter the ideal is food for the mind. Reality must be dealt with. But how we deal with it is up to us.

I saw Man of La Mancha at Globe Theatre last night. Can you tell? In case, like me, you’re unfamiliar, it’s a play within a play. Tax collector, writer, soldier, and unfortunate poet, Miguel de Cervantes, is tossed into prison and is waiting his hearing by the Spanish Inquisition. First, however, he must defend himself against his follow prisoners to save his most precious possession. His unfinished novel, Don Quixote. The trials and tribulations of a mad knight.

Don Quixote is a lot bonkers. He’s read too many books about chivalry and knights and romance. Poor sot. Determined to resurrect the notion of chivalry, he sets out on a journey.

I shall impersonate a man. His name is Alonso Quijana, a country squire no longer young. Being retired, he has much time for books. He studies them from morn till night and often through the night and morn again, and all he reads oppresses him; fills him with indignation at man’s murderous ways toward man. He ponders the problem of how to make better a world where evil brings profit and virtue none at all; where fraud and deceit are mingled with truth and sincerity. He broods and broods and broods and broods and finally his brains dry up. He lays down the melancholy burden of sanity and conceives the strangest project ever imagined…. to become a knight-errant, and sally forth into the world in search of adventures; to mount a crusade; to raise up the weak and those in need. No longer will he be plain Alonso Quijana, but a dauntless knight known as Don Quixote de La Mancha. – Miguel de Cervantes, Man of La Mancha

Yeah, there are days I’d like to lay down the melancholy burden of sanity too. Then again, I am a romance writer and reader. So…there you go. Fortunately, I haven’t read so many romance novels my brains have dried up. Or given me unrealistic expectations, a familiar taunt and most insulting insinuation by the way.

Here’s the thing. You know he’s nuts. But…you can’t help but root for him, even if there’s a little pity mixed in. He sees the world, not how it is, but how he wishes. In this age of text messages and the illusion of 750 Facebook friends, why not dip your toe into the pool of delusion. Not as a full time job, of course.

I come in a world of iron to make a world of gold.- Don Quixote, Man of La Mancha

I loved this play. It inspired me to think and wonder. I’m not quite sure I understood it all, but that only makes me want to see it performed again. Because, you see, I couldn’t help but relate to Don Quixote. And that’s the thing about this play. There’s a little Don Quixote in all of us. Reality can break a person. Therefore, we must bend it a little to suit ourselves.

Which loops me back to romance. Romantic fiction is necessary. Stories filled with sole purpose of traveling the winding, uphill road to a happily-ever-after are important.When reality presses in, pick up a romance novel. Immerse yourself in modern acts of chivalry. Spend some times with heroes or heroines who you know will fight to figure it out. Let them inspire you. Give you a few precious moments of peace. Of adventure. Turn the pages, dream the impossible dream. At least for awhile.

When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!  - Miguel de Cervantes, Man of La Mancha

If you get a chance to see Man of La Mancha I hope you take it. I hope it inspires you. I hope it brings out the Don Quixote in you, my fellow travelers.

 

Happy Hump Day

It’s Wednesday. Even if I refused to believe it first thing this morning. I was sure it was Tuesday.

So true!

Food, Family and Holidays

One of my favorite things about holidays is all the good eats. I enjoy food. A little too much, but whatever. This past week in hot and sunny Arizona was no different. We partook in our share of wonderful meals while we were gone, home cooked and restaurant style.

It was so nice to sit on the patio at my in-laws winter home after a record-breaking cold winter back in Canada. They went all out for us, as usual. We ate lots of wonderful meals outside, during the day with the hummingbirds, or in the warm evening air. We were thoroughly spoiled. I didn’t lift a finger. I almost feel guilty about that…

I was lucky enough to tag along with my mother-in-law on her community group’s spring fling lunch at the Arizona Culinary Institute. (See, totally spoiled.) The company was delightful and the food was delicious. Lovely setting and the food was almost too pretty to eat. Almost. From the Sweet Chili Shrimp appetizer to the sea bass main course to the out-of-this-world chocolate cake.

 

Grandpa and Grandma spent an evening with their granddaughter dining on her favorite food of cheeseburgers and hotdogs and Jack and I treated ourselves to an evening out at SOL Mexican Cocina restaurant. A little bit of Baja California served in the desert. Oh sweet mercy, it was delicious. Bonus, I enjoyed with the best margarita EVER. If you love tequila this is the place for you! 60 artisan tequilas. No wonderful my margarita was extra yummy. Definitely recommend this one!

We also ate at a place called Wally’s American Pub and Grill which was served great food. Also, recommend. And a fabulous pizza place that I can’t remember the name of for the life of me. But when I get it I’ll add it in!

Food and family make for a wonderful combination. Especially when someone else is doing the cooking. Now it’s time to detox. Have a favorite meal you’ve eaten lately? Any restaurant recommends?

Baton Blog Hop

I’ve been invited to the Baton Blog Hop by JB Lynn, who writes laugh-out-loud suspense and mysteries, along with goosebump-raising thrillers. Sounds good, eh?  The extra great news is she usually has a contest running and now is no different so check out her Contest Page and enter to win!

Time to answer a few questions!

1) What am I working on?

I’m working on my second Aspen Lake novel. Life is small town Aspen Lake is heating up again, on the streets and between the sheets. Kate Logan, boutique owner, is fighting to get her life back on track. Seth Stone, starving artist and carpenter, is leaving reality behind to start again. But when a extremist religious group move to Aspen Lake and make it their mission to shut down the annual Gothic Revival Festival Kate is organizing, trouble brings them together.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I guess it differs because it’s my voice telling the story. Hopefully, what you’ll find is everyday men and women who don’t have all the answers and are looking to find their place in the world. Along the way they find their happily-ever-after. Also, Aspen Lake is a small town in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. Not many of those around, LOL.

3) Why do I write what I do?

I write romantic suspense because that’s what I love to read. I love torturing my characters. I love strong male leads, and smart female heroines. But I also love a good villain. I not sure what that says about me…

4) How does your writing process work?

Gosh, it’s all over the place. I fit it in when I can, but I try to write everyday. Therefore, I write in chunks. My writing groups holds three or four writing challenges a year. I love those and writing long side and being inspired by writers I admire.

Passing the baton.

Meet Elizabeth Lang, who I have privilege of knowing! Elizabeth is a science fiction and fantasy writer and author of The Empire series. Lucky you, you can check out some free stories and other things here.

Happy Reading Everyone!

 

Jana Richards’ Burning Love and A Chance To Win

If you like giveaways this is for you! My publisher, The Wild Rose Press is giving away $10 gift certificates. We want you to read our books. For a chance to win all you have to do is enter the rafflecopter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Need a recommendation? How about Jana Richards’ Burning Love.

A lovely novella found in The Wild Rose Press’s Faery Rose line.

After causing three cooking fires in her apartment, Iris Jensen finds herself evicted. She lands on Riley Benson’s doorstep, looking to rent a room in the beautiful old home he’s restoring. It’s only for six weeks until Iris leaves Portland, Oregon for her new job on a cruise ship. Firefighter Riley knows firsthand what a bad tenant she can be. But he needs money to finish the work on the house he loves. And something about Iris pulls at his heart…

Meanwhile, in Heaven, two angels watch over the young lovers. Angelica and Hildegard work in Heaven’s Relationship Division, where angels match mortals with their soul mates. The angels believe so strongly in Iris and Riley’s love that they break Heaven’s rules to help them. Can the angels convince them they belong together forever before time runs out?

Buy Link: Burning Love by Jana Richards

The Wild Rose Press.

Good luck!

Inspired.

Love this quote on Tumblr. Loved it immediately.

There’s too much “I need him, he completes me” and not enough “I complete me yet I want them along for this journey”

 

Also this!

It’s March and here’s a lovely quote by Charles Dickens. Even though plump white snowflakes are falling as I type and there’s not a ray of sun to be found.

Channeling all these thoughts and using them to inspire in me as I revise away. We all know certain lines, often the cheesiest one in the bunch, get all the glory. But it’s what surrounds them and holds them up to the light that make the story. The quote by C.S. Lewis makes me question the lines I’ve written, encouraging me to see if there is truth in them or I’m merely making assumptions. Finally, my stories would no doubt ripen and flourish with a touch more imagery. The Charles Dickens quote inspires me to color my words.

Those were some of my thoughts this week. What inspired you?