J. Kenner's Blog, page 31
November 15, 2018
JK Recommends… Nov. 16! Your weekly weekend reads recommendations!
Welcome to JK Recommends … the weekly weekend reads recommendations for all the book lovers and avid readers out there!!
I hope you enjoy this week’s recommended reads, books I’ve either read or from authors I love! And … this week, including one of my books! Because Wicked Grind is in the FREE Winter Nights anthology! And guess what, since Winter Nights has so many authors, it’s like you’re getting recommendations for twice as many books. Yay!
So many good books to choose from this week. Just click on the covers below…
Who did I miss… what was your favorite release this week? Comment below…
Come back next FRIDAY for more of my recommendations!!
Thanks for visiting this week’s edition of:
JK Recommends… Nov. 9! Your weekly weekend reads recommendations!
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November 14, 2018
Writing Wednesdays: Crafty inspiration!
I put together a workshop recently, and in doing so, I pulled (and culled) some of my craft books. Today, I thought I’d share with you some of my favorites for crafty inspiration! All are great for different reasons, but if you’re new to writing, I suggest reading Goal, Motivation, Conflict (though it’s also great if you’re a seasoned author!).
If you’ve been writing for a while, see if you can find Theory and Technique of Playwriting by John Howard Lawson – absolutely fascinating reading.
These are only a small portion of the books I love — I have many others in print and still more in digital format — but if you’re looking for craft books, these won’t steer you wrong!
Here are some links if you want to grab your own copies!
Theory and Technique of Playwriting by John Howard Lawson
Making A Good Script Great by Linda Seger
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne & Dave King
Creating Unforgettable Characters by Linda Seger
Theory and Technique of Playwriting by John Howard Lawson
Goal, Motivation, Conflict by Debra Dixon
Looking for more crafty inspiration… You can check out my other Writing Wednesday posts here!
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November 13, 2018
10 FREE BOOKS! YES 10!
I’m so excited that Wicked Grind is part of the FREE Winter Nights anthology — available only for a limited time! Check it out and grab your copy while you can!
HEAT UP YOUR NIGHTS! 10 steamy books from bestselling authors fill this limited-time winter boxed set! If you love alpha heroes and sexy romance, this one’s for you…
Author’s Note: WINTER NIGHTS is a brand new boxed set for the season as a gift to our readers and to introduce you to new series to love!
TEN BOOKS INCLUDE:
Carter Reed by Tijan
Elements of Chemistry by Penny Reid
Wicked Grind by J. Kenner
Feeling Hot by Elle Kennedy
More Than Want You by Shayla Black
Survival of the Richest by Skye Warren
The Space Between by Kate Canterbary
Her Seductive Dare by Lena Hart
Black Edge by Charlotte Byrd
Bidding on Brooks by Katy Regnery
Grab your copy now:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2qB7m0F
B&N: http://bit.ly/2z3SJaL
iBooks: https://apple.co/2AVO9ww
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2FfjsH4
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2zHhAkj
The post 10 FREE BOOKS! YES 10! appeared first on JKenner/Julie Kenner.
November 8, 2018
JK Recommends… Nov. 9! Your weekly weekend reads recommendations!
Welcome to JK Recommends … the weekly weekend reads recommendations for all the book lovers and avid readers out there!!
I hope you enjoy this week’s recommended reads, books I’ve either read or from authors I love! I’m super-psyched that Larissa Ione and Suzanne M. Johnson have a cookbook with bonus content out!!! Suzanne is a genius with food and Larissa is amazing with stories, so you definitely don’t want to miss that! And I’m psyched to see Laurelin‘s new book hitting the shelves! I just saw Laurelin last Saturday at the Origin’s signing!
Lots of good stuff this week. Just click on the covers below…
Who did I miss… what was your favorite release this week? Comment below…
Come back next FRIDAY for more of my recommendations!!
Thanks for visiting this week’s edition of:
JK Recommends… Nov. 9! Your weekly weekend reads recommendations!
The post JK Recommends… Nov. 9! Your weekly weekend reads recommendations! appeared first on JKenner/Julie Kenner.
November 1, 2018
JK Recommends… Nov. 2nd
Welcome to JK Recommends… the weekly recommendations for all your weekend reading needs for all the book lovers and avid readers out there!!
Wow. This is one of those weeks where you wish there was NOTHING else to do but read. Doesn’t that sound like a little slice of heaven? Which book would you start with? Me, it’s a hard choice as they are all from wonderful authors that I love, but I think this is a Muffin Top kind of weekend. I’m writing–and have been writing!–some pretty intense books lately, and a curl-up-with-wine-romantic-comedy sounds like just the thing, and Avery Flynn is sure to make you smile.
XXOO
JK
Haunted Be The Holidays – Heather Graham
The Boy I Grew Up With – Tijan
The Darkest Star – Jennifer L. Armentrout
Dirty Sexy Bastard – Laurelin Paige
Dangerous Exes – Rachel Van Dyken
Who did I miss… what was your favorite release this week? Comment below…
Come back next FRIDAY for more of my recommendations!!
The post JK Recommends… Nov. 2nd appeared first on JKenner/Julie Kenner.
October 31, 2018
Writers’ Corner: Do your research
It’s Halloween, so today’s blog is a short and sweet one.
Originally, I had a much longer plan to write about characters, but then I stumbled across something that got my back up in a book I’m reading … and it sparked the need for a Don’t Do This post.
What did I see? Well, it’s really a question of what I didn’t see: I didn’t see evidence that the writer of a bestselling book did research. Research on something key to the story. Research on something that would have been so, so, so easy to find, either online or with one simple phone call.
I’m not going to call out the book. Suffice it to say that it’s a book that was traditionally published with a lot of pre-publication support by the publisher and has had a long shelf-life on the bestseller lists. And this isn’t a situation wherein the author intentionally changed things up (for example, creating an investigative agency specifically so that the book didn’t have to conform to the rules of the FBI, or “inventing” a gizmo that the government secretly uses but doesn’t actually exist). No, this mistake is a basic one at the heart of a sporting activity. Something that one call to an instructor in that sport could have fixed. One visit to a storefront specializing in that activity.
And yet it’s clear from the mistakes in the story that the author did neither of those things. These weren’t intentional adjustments of reality to serve the story. They were simply mistakes.
So, writers: Don’t do that. Do your research. Mistakes happen, sure. But if you put in a little bit of time and effort, they’ll happen a heck of a lot less.
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October 25, 2018
JK recommends… Oct. 26th
I’m starting something new on the website. Every Friday I’ll be posting Weekend Read recommendations. These are books that I’ve either read or that have been recommended to me by a trusted source, or books from my auto buy authors! I’ll link through in the newsletter to remind you, but you’ll want to be sure and check my blog on Fridays for the post! Today, we’re posting early to get the ball rolling, so you can get a peek at this week’s recommendations…
Angel Payne’s Conquered – Amazon
Meghan March’s Reveling In Sin – Amazon
Kristen Proby’s 1001 Dark Nights Novella, Tempting Brooke – Amazon
Kristen Ashley’s Loose Ends – Amazon
Gena Showalter’s Shadow And Ice – Amazon
Jennifer Probst’s A Brand New Ending – Amazon
Come back next FRIDAY for more of my recommendations!!
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October 24, 2018
Scenes, Sequels, Causes, and Effects
Therefore…she found the treasure!
But … she forgot to draw the map!
I’ve been on a craft kick lately, as in I’ve been attending a lot of workshops, watching a lot of videos, reading books on craft, etc.
Partly because I’m actually writing some short books on various aspects of craft (yeah, you’ll hear more about that later!), and so it’s a good way to get into that headspace. But mostly because craft is the architecture of story, the piers and beams, concrete and rebar, that keep your story from falling over and trapping your poor characters under a pile of rubble.
Also, even after 100+ books (holy freak that sounds like a lot), I constantly learn something new that I can apply to a current project. More than that, thinking about craft gets the juices flowing, and inevitably some new story concept will come to me in the process.
Craft is sort of like riding a bicycle. You can just learn. And what you learn will become ingrained. Get your story-telling chops and you’ll be able to hop on and start pedaling and come up with a solid, satisfying story. But if you want to really kick it up, you’ll want to understand more about what you’re doing and why it works–you’ll want to dig deeper into cadence and power and all that good stuff. You’ll want to grow and push yourself. (Why, yes. I did recently set a cycling goal…funny you should ask.)
When I first started writing, one of the first books I read was Scene & Structure by Jack M. Bickham, a title that never sticks with me because I always think of it as Scene & Sequel, because the concept of stuff happening after a scene was one of those things I sorta kinda innately got … but when I read that book, it was an aha moment. There’s a scene in which stuff happens. And as a result other stuff happens. Pretty basic, right? Cause and effect.
But you would be surprised how many times an author will write a story where something happens. And then another thing happens. Then something else. Almost as if the author (or screenwriter–you see this a lot in unsatisfying movies) has checkbox style list of set pieces and is dutifully going through and marking Xs.
But here’s the thing: Stories aren’t about a string of events. Stories have movement. Stories have choreography. Forward motion toward a goal (and obstacles along the way). And that motion is driven by action followed by reaction. A scene, then a sequel. A cause, then an effect.
That’s how I’d thought of it for the nineteen years of my career. And I stand by that analysis. But I recently saw a very short video of Trey Parker and Matt Stone speaking to a class, the creative minds behind South Park, and I absolutely love the way they summed it up. Simply. Brilliantly. What did they say? Well, basically, if your story is “and then” you need to go back to the drawing room. You want your story to be full of “therefore” and “but.” Seriously, check out their video. (Really. It’s not even three minutes. Go on. I’ll wait.)
I absolutely love the simplicity of their explanation of this aspect of story structure. And thanks so much to (one of the White Collar co-creators) for sharing the video.
And you know what? That’s how I want my life & career to be, too. Not a random string of events. But forward motion.
Don’t you?
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October 20, 2018
Another peek at Lost With Me and Damien Stark!
Just a few more days until more Damien Stark in Lost With Me!
Here’s another peek for you!
“Hurry,” I beg, because this isn’t about making love. This is about sex. Connection.
About need and fear and loss and escape.
Escape. God, yes. Right now, that’s what I need from Damien, and I whimper in frustration when he takes his time sliding over me, his cock right there at my entrance, but not inside me. “Please,” I beg. “Take me. Take me hard.”
For a beat, he looks at me. Then he grabs my hips and tugs me down the bed. I gasp when he flips me over, the orders me onto my knees, my head down, my forehead on the mattress.
He’s behind me, his hands on my breasts, gripping me so tight it’s almost painful, and I close my eyes, relishing his touch, wanting exactly this. To be used. To be his.
He pulls one hand away long enough to slide his fingers over my core, readying me before thrusting his cock hard and deep inside me. Then he’s bent over me, his chest to my back, and he’s thrusting hard inside me, the entire bed moving, hitting the wall, probably echoing through the whole damn house. But I don’t care.
This is what I need. What I crave.
This. This connection. It’s what will give me the strength to survive. I know that. And Damien knows it, too.
Grab LOST WITH ME here:
Amazon http://jklinks.co/lost_amz_aff
iBooks http://jklinks.co/lost_ibooks
Kobo http://jklinks.co/lost_kobo
B&N http://jklinks.co/lost_nook
GPlay http://jklinks.co/lost_gp
And be sure to follow me on Goodreads and Bookbub —and subscribe to my newsletter!
— so that you never miss a thing!
The post Another peek at Lost With Me and Damien Stark! appeared first on JKenner/Julie Kenner.
October 19, 2018
Damien Stark coming Tuesday! Here’s a peek!
We’re getting close to more Damien Stark, and I’m so excited!
You can pre-order LOST WITH Me here:
Amazon http://jklinks.co/lost_amz_aff
iBooks http://jklinks.co/lost_ibooks
Kobo http://jklinks.co/lost_kobo
B&N http://jklinks.co/lost_nook
GPlay http://jklinks.co/lost_gp
And be sure to follow me on Goodreads and Bookbub —and subscribe to my newsletter! — so that you never miss a thing!
“I’ll see you at home,” he says, taking another step back, and this time I don’t mourn the distance. On the contrary, I need it. Distance and time if I’m going to pull myself together by the time I get to Santa Monica.
I turn, taking his hands as I look into his face. It’s the first time I’ve looked straight at him in days, and I revel in his beauty. The raven-dark hair. His dual-colored eyes, one black and one amber. That lean, muscled body that seems to have been designed for a tailored suit, but looks damn perfect without one.
But it’s not his looks that make him so compelling. It’s his bearing. His confidence. As if there’s nothing in the world that he wants that he can’t have. Including me.
The thought makes me smile, and as always, I’m struck as much by the beauty of this man as by the love for me reflected in his eyes. “I’m glad you came.”
“But I didn’t,” he says, managing to keep a straight face.
I bite back a laugh, then flash him a stern look. “Mind out of the gutter. You know what I mean.”
“I do,” he says. “And we’ll take care of my interpretation later.”
I flash a coy smile. “Is that a promise?”
He hooks a finger under my chin, his eyes locked on mine. “Baby, it’s a demand.”
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