C.D. Hersh's Blog, page 18
September 26, 2024
Friday Feature new release for Stella May
Multi-published romance author Stella May is elated to announce the release of her latest novel New Life, Book Three in the Rostoff Family Saga! Here’s the blurb and an excerpt to pique your interest.
In a kingdom held together by secrets and lies, the truth could heal—or destroy.
The queen is dead. But the damage Elizabeth Rostoff leaves behind to lives, hopes, and relationships lives on.
Seven years ago, Peter Rostoff severed all ties with his family—including his sister, Kat.
But at his father’s insistence, he reluctantly returns for the funeral worn thin by his FBI position and burdened by a secret shame. But mostly by one haunting mystery—why the woman he loved like a mother disappeared…
All those years ago, Natasha Sokolova thought abandoning Dmitry Rostoff and the children she’d come to love as her own was the right thing, the only thing, to do. Resurfacing after Elizabeth’s death isn’t the healing experience she’d prayed for, but a gut-wrenching discovery of yet more secrets, and news that could destroy her for good.
Kat Rostoff lives in a bubble filled with her doting father and a mentor that helped mold her into a world-renowned artist. Yet nothing can fill the empty space, and a vague sense of guilt, left behind by the mother figure she barely remembers, and the brother who fled Paris seven years ago without looking back.
Four lives, set on diverging paths with only a glimmer of hope for reconciliation. But will the queen’s evil reach out from beyond the grave to destroy it for good?
EXCERPT
A candid snap of a teenage girl, beautiful in her budding femininity, smiling shyly in the camera. Hair of true platinum color, a rare Nordic shade, long and silky, and eyes the color of a sky before it rained. Katie… His beautiful princess, his baby sister… No, not a baby anymore. Peter sighed.
Ekaterina Rostoff, a famous artist, sculptor, celebrity.
His salvation. And curse.
Just thinking about her made his heart melt and sigh and stutter.
And burn with shame.
Peter lifted his hand, then dropped it down without touching her beautiful image. With a helpless oath, he turned away, pulled at his hair with both hands. Defeated, he dropped into a chair, and closed his eyes. As if conjured by his unruly imagination, her face swam before him. Peter fisted his hands.
Dammit.
Seeing Katie in Zolotoe Selo took a toll on him. For almost seven years, he deliberately stayed away from her, from California and his grandmother’s estate where they grew up. If not for Elizabeth’s funeral, he would never have returned to that place.
That estate and the monstrosity of the manor house repelled and attracted him at the same time. Two days ago, as soon as he saw it again after all these years, the memories ambushed him. Bittersweet and poignant and heartbreaking.
It made him feel again like a lost little boy from so long ago.
Or just yesterday? Two decades seemed to shrink to just two days. Or even minutes. His imagination played a nasty trick, as the painfully familiar face of a young woman swam before his eyes. Red curly hair, impossibly green eyes, petite frame. And the voice, deep and velvety, like raw honey drizzled over milk. Natasha. His first adolescent crush, his best friend, his second mother.
With an effort, he banished her image from his mind, shut a lid on his memories. Eighteen years ago, Natasha vanished into a thin air after accepting a hefty check from Elizabeth. She never reappeared again.
Her betrayal still hurt. It always will. He forced himself to stop wondering where she might be, or worrying if she was alright. No point to dwell on it. He wished her well.
But dammed if he was able to forget or forgive.
Even the vivid reminder of Natasha paled in comparison with meeting Katie.
She stole his breath the very first time he saw her. Just a tiny baby, to him she seemed the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. That moment etched into his memory forever. The gazebo in his grandmother’s estate, the small cradle, and the tiny baby with a mop of a silky hair. She slept with her cherubic mouth half-open, covered in a pink blanket. And when she opened her eyes, blinked, and smiled at him, she claimed his young heart. Forever.
Almost two decades later, she still remained the most beautiful thing under the sun. And still every time she aimed her pewter eyes at Peter, his heart broke.
Katie. His princess. His greatest joy.
His worst nightmare.
AMAZON BUY LINK
Stella May is the penname for Marina Sardarova who has a fascinating history you should read on her website.
Stella writes fantasy romance as well as time travel romance. She is the author of ‘Till Time Do Us Part, Book 1 in her Upon a Time series, and the stand-alone book Rhapsody in Dreams. Love and family are two cornerstones of her stories and life. Stella’s books are available in e-book and paperback through all major vendors.
When not writing, Stella enjoys classical music, reading, and long walks along the ocean with her husband. She lives in Jacksonville, Florida with her husband Leo of 30 years and their son George. They are her two best friends and are all partners in their family business.
Follow Stella on her website and blog. Stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
September 24, 2024
Wednesday Special Spotlight A Writer’s Fork in the Road
What happens when you get the notice that your publisher of 12 years is closing?
First you sit in a fog for a day—or maybe longer, if this is your first go-round on losing a publisher. You’ve been comfortable with this publisher’s editors, artists, and the whole process. So comfortable in fact, because the publisher is author friendly, that you’ve boldly asked for certain things and pushed back on edits you didn’t agree with. I mean, really, how many new authors are willing to do that and how many publishers would be willing to accommodate you?
As the fog of shock wears off, the questions begin to tumble in your mind: Am I getting my rights back? Will I have to create a new cover? What’s going to happen to my published book babies? How can I save my Amazon reviews? Can I even find a publisher to reprint my books? Or, should I look for an agent, or even self-publish? If I self-publish what is this going to cost me? And it will cost something, because, as a traditionally published author, your publisher takes on all those costs, and all the risks associated with books that don’t do well. Or is this the time to throw my hands up in the air, and give up writing because I don’t want all the hassles?
So many questions. So few answers.
We know, because we’re living through this dilemma.
Here are a few things we’ve learned as we searched for our path.
• Do you have network of fellow authors? If so, query as many as you can find, especially the ones who’ve be been through a publishing house closing. Ask if you can pick their brains, See if they can offer any advice or information about houses they know who might be open for submissions, or will do reprints.
• Talk to or email as many self-pubbed authors as you can find. They know about self publication. You’ll be surprised at the authors who are willing to share their experiences and expertise. I know we were.
• While you’re waiting for those colleagues to answer your call of desperation, start searching for any information you can about publishers you think might be a good fit for your books.
For us, taking what seemed to be the easy route, we decided do a search for a new publisher. After all, for many authors going the traditional route, where the publishing house does all the work, after you’ve written the book, and handles royalties and such is where you wanted to be originally. That was our goal when we first started out writing. And that’s where we started looking.
If you’re considering traditional publication, do you want to broaden your horizons by going international? A few days searching the internet for publishers revealed thousands of hits, at home in the USA and internationally. Every house has its own set of submission rules, and many houses only take submissions from agented authors. The query process starts all over again. If you want to be traditionally published this is something you need to take into consideration. It took us a long time to find our perfect, dream publisher. The thought of starting all over again gave us great pause.
The more we searched, the harder we discovered it might be to find a publisher willing to take on a reprinted version of our books. Most wanted information about our current book idea, not a reprint on a book. We weren’t ready yet to give up on the pre-published book babies.
Some of the houses we were interested for possible republication weren’t taking submissions at the time and had no future date when they would be open. That raised another question in our search: Did we want to wait indefinitely to get our books republished? Our answer was no, because we’d just had a new paranormal romance time travel book, Ghosts and Gardenias, published in April and didn’t want to lose any momentum. This publication search, along with some life issues, had already slowed work on the next book in the series.
Another publisher was interested but just had a year contract. By this time we’d discovered that any reprinted book had to be released as a 2nd edition. After consideration we decided that if the book was released to us in a year, we’d be back in the same spot, but this time with a third edition of the book. We gratefully declined the offer, explaining why.
By now, several self-pubbed authors had answered our plea for help. Their general consensus was self-publishing wasn’t as hard as you might think. Sure, it has costs. You need to find an editor to edit the book, pay for a professional cover, buy your ISBNs, copyrighting, pay for formatting (for both print and eBooks), and the ever present marketing costs.
This sent our thoughts spinning in a direction we had not anticipated. We have some of the things we need to self-pub already. So, why not?
Stay tuned as our adventure continues: A Writer’s Fork in the Road
September 23, 2024
Tell Again Tuesday What’s on your bucket list?
Rethinking Your Bucket List AccomplishmentsBy Terah Shelton Harris
In my previous post for Writer Unboxed, I wrote about defining success, prompted by a friend’s question about my first book: Was your book successful?” I examined how success can be defined differently and how it varies from writer to writer. But since then, I’ve come to realize that my exploration of the topic wasn’t quite complete.
In the year since my debut, I’ve learned a hard truth: The metrics I once considered indicative of success didn’t turn out to be as significant as I originally thought. Despite not achieving many of the lofty goals I had envisioned, such as . . .
For the rest of the blog go to:September 19, 2024
Friday Feature Bad Writing
Top Ten Ways to Recognize Bad Writing (tongue in cheek)
10. When u lk at it u c something tht lks lke txt—I 
u 
.
9. there is no capitalization—anywhere.
7. The characters all laugh, comment, and argue their dialogue, when a simple said would suffice.
8. There are no tags—dialogue, identifying, or action—on any dialogue.
6. The page blooms with purple prose and author intrusion.
5. There’s no white space on the page.
4. There are very very long run-on sentences with very little punctuation in them to give the reader a break or clarify the meanings just a period at the end of the sentence and it looks a whole lot like this.
3. There is so, so, so, much punctuation, commas, semicolons, and, colons, on every line, and, or, every page, that, in a matter of only a few seconds of reading, you lose track of what’s being said, as well as your train of thought.
2. The word was appears 20 or more times on a page.
And the Number ONE way to recognize bad writing:
1. You didn’t write it.
Which one made you laugh? Let us know in the comments.
September 17, 2024
Wednesday Special Spotlight Writings Pleasures
Guilty Pleasures for Writers Who Work From Home
1. Your office is a tax deduction, as long as it’s just your office.
2. You can work in your pjs, or grunge clothes, or whatever you choose.
3. You don’t have to shower to come to work, although the family might appreciate it.
4. Office hours begin and end when you say so, or when the kiddos need an ambulance.
5. You don’t have to deal with a boss. You are the boss.
6. You don’t have to deal with coworkers, just a blinking cursor on a, hopefully, not blank page.
7. You don’t have to share your Godiva chocolates with the office chocoholics, but be sure to find a good hiding place from the bottomless pit called family.
8. There’s always an excuse for not doing the housework…deadlines, marketing, book sales (yeah!), those pages you owe the critique partners.
9. No one is watching to see how many breaks you have or how long a lunch you take.
10. No one cares if you eat or drink at your computer, unless you spill soda on the keys. Then you are probably a bit upset.
11. You don’t have to wear perfume, or make-up, or curl your hair. No one but the family is going to see you and they love you just the way you are.
12. You can exercise as you work by sitting on a balance ball while you type. That has to be easier than jogging, right?
13. You can keep your AC as cold as you want or the heat as high as you like. You can’t do that at the office.
14. You can claim your reading time as work time. After all, a well-read writer is a well-educated writer.
15. If you write 20 pages a day you can tell your spouse the family is going out for dinner since it took all day to write those pages.
16. You get to surf the internet and call it marketing research.
17. No one minds if you talk to yourself as you work. In fact, they figure the wild gesticulations and stream of comments means you are really getting into your story.
Agree or disagree? We’re sure it’s all dependent on the writer. Any other pleasures you can think of please share with us in the comments.
September 16, 2024
Tell Again Tuesday Shakespeare notoriety
How Famous was Shakespeare in his time?By Tony Dunnell[image error]
Credit: Edward Gooch Collection/ Hulton Archive via Getty Images
When we think of William Shakespeare today, we picture a literary colossus who is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist — and arguably the greatest writer — who ever lived. His works have shaped not only the literary world for centuries, but also the English language itself. But how famous was the “Bard of Avon” during his own lifetime, from 1564 . . .
For the rest of the blog go to:September 12, 2024
Friday Feature Eleven Rules for Brainstorming
At a loss for a topic to write? Try brainstorming ideas. Here’s some rules to follow that we’ve found to be very helpful.
1. Everything is fodder for an idea, no matter how bad it might sound at first. If you tweak it enough, you might be able to use it.
2. Two heads, or even three are better than one.
3. Invite a non-writer to participate. They might have a different take on the subject.
4. Ask “what if…” , then ask it again, and again.
5. Set the first five thoughts aside. They were the easiest to come by so they may not be the best solutions. Come back to them after a while, see #6 and 11
6. Don’t permanently delete a brainstorming thought. You never know when it might come in handy for something else.
7. Keep good notes. Scribbled shorthand, or half written sentences might not mean much if you don’t get writing right away.
8. Make sure you have snacks, and water on hand. All that thinking and talking makes one hungry and thirsty. Besides, feeding your brainstorming participants is only polite since you’re picking their brains.
9. Ask why? Why would he do that? Why doesn’t the idea work? Why can’t the sky be green?
10. Think outside the box, turn it upside down, on its side, or dissemble it to find new solutions and ideas.
11. Reread what you already have. The solution to the problem may already be hidden in those pages.
Now when you finish brainstorming settle into a comfy chair and check out our books on our book page, under the menu at the top of the page or on our Amazon Author Page
September 10, 2024
Wednesday Special Spotlight COVER REVEAL for STELLA MAY
Acclaimed romance author Stella May is elated to announce the cover for her soon to release novel New Life, Book Three in the Rostoff Family Saga!
Here’s the blurb and an excerpt to pique your interest.
In a kingdom held together by secrets and lies, the truth could heal—or destroy.
BLURB
The queen is dead. But the damage Elizabeth Rostoff leaves behind to lives, hopes, and relationships lives on.
Seven years ago, Peter Rostoff severed all ties with his family—including his sister, Kat.
But at his father’s insistence, he reluctantly returns for the funeral worn thin by his FBI position and burdened by a secret shame. But mostly by one haunting mystery—why the woman he loved like a mother disappeared…
All those years ago, Natasha Sokolova thought abandoning Dmitry Rostoff and the children she’d come to love as her own was the right thing, the only thing, to do. Resurfacing after Elizabeth’s death isn’t the healing experience she’d prayed for, but a gut-wrenching discovery of yet more secrets, and news that could destroy her for good.
Kat Rostoff lives in a bubble filled with her doting father and a mentor that helped mold her into a world-renowned artist. Yet nothing can fill the empty space, and a vague sense of guilt, left behind by the mother figure she barely remembers, and the brother who fled Paris seven years ago without looking back.
Four lives, set on diverging paths with only a glimmer of hope for reconciliation. But will the queen’s evil reach out from beyond the grave to destroy it for good?
Amazon Buy LinkStella May is the penname for Marina Sardarova who has a fascinating history you should read on her website.
Stella writes fantasy romance as well as time travel romance. She is the author of ‘Till Time Do Us Part, Book 1 in her Upon a Time series, and the stand-alone book Rhapsody in Dreams. Love and family are two cornerstones of her stories and life. Stella’s books are available in e-book and paperback through all major vendors.
When not writing, Stella enjoys classical music, reading, and long walks along the ocean with her husband. She lives in Jacksonville, Florida with her husband Leo of 30 years and their son George. They are her two best friends and are all partners in their family business.
Follow Stella on her website and blog. Stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
September 9, 2024
Tell Again Tuesday Love appears 2,191 times
Shakespeare’s wife was named Anne Hathaway
The actress Anne Hathaway is well known for starring in hit films such as Les Misérables, The Princess Diaries, and The Devil Wears Prada, but what’s less well known is that she was named after the wife of famed playwright William Shakespeare.
Lebrecht Music & Arts/ Alamy Stock Photo
That Anne Hathaway was born in 1556, and grew up on a large farm in the village of Shottery, England, about a mile and a half away from Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were married in 1582, after which Anne. . .
For the rest of the blog go to:September 5, 2024
Friday Feature The Promised One
Blurb for—The Promised One (The Turning Stone Chronicles)
In the wrong hands, the Turning Stone ring is a powerful weapon for evil. So, when homicide detective Alexi Jordan discovers her secret society mentor has been murdered and his magic ring stolen, she is forced to use her shape-shifting powers to catch the killer. By doing so, she risks the two most important things in her life—her badge and the man she loves.
Rhys Temple always knew his fiery cop partner and would-be-girlfriend, Alexi Jordan, had a few secrets. He considers that part of her charm. But when she changes into a man, he doesn’t find that as charming. He’ll keep her secret to keep her safe, but he’s not certain he can keep up a relationship—professional or personal.
Danny Shaw needs cash for the elaborate wedding his fiancée has planned, so he goes on a mugging spree. But when he kills a member of the secret society of Turning Stones, and steals a magic ring that gives him the power to shape shift, Shaw gets more than he bargained for.
EXCERPT:
The woman stared at him, blood seeping from the corner of her mouth. “Return the ring, or you’ll be sorry.”
With a short laugh he stood. “Big words for someone bleeding to death.” After dropping the ring into his pocket, he gathered the scattered contents of her purse, and started to leave.
“Wait.” The words sounded thick and slurred . . . two octaves deeper . . . with a Scottish lilt.
Shaw frowned and spun back toward her. The pounding in his chest increased. On the ground, where the woman had fallen, lay a man.
He wore the same slinky blue dress she had—the seams ripped, the dress top collapsed over hard chest muscles, instead of smoothed over soft, rounded curves. The hem skimmed across a pair of hairy, thick thighs. Muscled male thighs. Spiked heels hung at an odd angle, toes jutting through the shoe straps. The same shoes she’d been wearing.
The alley tipped. Shaw leaned against the dumpster to steady himself. He shook his head to clear the vision, then slowly moved his gaze over the body.
A pair of steel-blue eyes stared out of a chiseled face edged with a trim salt-and-pepper beard. Shaw whirled around scanning the alley.
Where was the woman? And who the hell was this guy?
Terrified, Shaw fled.
The dying man called out, “You’re cursed. Forever.”
If this piques your interest, then settle into a comfy chair and check out our books on our book page, under the menu at the top of the page or on our Amazon Author Page
