Meka James's Blog, page 2

A Thin Line Blog Tour

Happy Friday y'all! I'm excited to be taking part in the blog tour for DL White's book A Thin Line. DL took time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions so we can get to know her a little  better.

 
What is something unique/quirky about you?  
I’m kind of a super boring person… I normally say that I can read upside down and backwards. Aside from writing, those are my only talents!

Tell us something really interesting that's happened to you!  
So, remember Mark Furhman, the LAPD Detective in the OJ Trial? I used to work with him. After that trial he moved to the Northwest, where I used to live. I’m in his book about Robert Lee Yates, Jr, a serial killer in my hometown. Mark pretty much solved that case, then wrote a book about it. He also co-hosted a crime talk show at the radio station where I worked and when he would come in once a week, I’d greet him with, “well, it must be Thursday. Mark’s here. Dude wore the tightest jeans ever and cowboy boots. He never gave me any issues, but we kept a wide berth of social distance, LOL.

  What are some of your pet peeves?  
 Late people. Wasting my time. Treating me like I’m stupid.

  Where were you born/grew up at? 
I’m an Air Force kid, so we moved around some. Spent some time in Rapid City South Dakota (COLD!) and Spokane Washington (not Seattle, near Idaho, also COLD) and moved to Georgia in 2003 because it is not cold here.

  What do you do to unwind and relax?  
I do a lot of reading. A LOT of reading. I read about 150 books a year and pretty much always have a book going. I also watch a lot of Law and Order, the original series.

  Describe yourself in 5 words or less!  
 Direct, passionate, calm, funny, personable.

  When did you first consider yourself a writer? 
I’ve never not considered myself a writer. I considered myself an author when I pubbed my first novel and got an author account at Amazon/ Goodreads.

  Do you have a favorite movie? 
Not really but if Steel Magnolias, The Shawshank Redemption or Remember the Titans comes on, I’m watching it. Commercials and all.

 Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie? 
 I mean any of them would be fun. Curl & Dye would be super cute, I imagine it like Beauty Shop/Barber shop with a little enemies to lovers, second chance romance story line.


A Thin Lineby DL WhiteGenre: Romance



Angie Blake and Preston Reid are oil and water, fire and ice. Whether it's in the courtroom, where they're always in opposition, or in their personal lives, they don't mix. Nearly two decades have passed since they were high school sweethearts and split in an emotional firestorm, but their best friends are dating, and now engaged so they haven’t had a moment’s peace from each other. And they won’t get one since the soon to be newlyweds have roped Angie and Preston into planning their destination wedding. They've been tasked with organizing the most romantic, memorable event of their lives without tearing apart the lifelong foursome in the process. Angie and Preston are wise to this game. This clever ploy to push them back together in the hopes that their long-dead romance will rekindle couldn’t possibly work. Could it? There’s a thin line between love and hate.

  **Only .99 cents May 22-24, and then only $1.99 May 25 – 29!!**

Goodreads * Amazon






DL White is an Atlanta based author of women's fiction and romance, centering Black men and women. She began seriously pursuing a writing career in 2011. She has a deep and abiding love for coffee and Sunday Brunch, especially on a patio, but her true obsession is water— lakes, rivers, oceans, waterfalls. By day she is an Executive Administrative Assistant for a billion dollar beverage brand. By night, when not writing books, she devours them and blogs reviews and thoughts on writing at BooksbyDLWhite.com. 
  Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads * YouTube
$50 Amazon gift cardFollow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway! a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
Hope you enjoyed getting to know about DL and her latest book. Be sure to grab your copy while it's on sale. You don't want to miss out.Have a great weekend! 
Until next time~Meka

#AuthorToolBoxBlogHop - Just The Facts Ma'am

Holy moly it’s May. With everything going on in the world, time has been wonky for me. Today is the official last day of school for my kids, although finals for the two that had them were last week so they had nothing to do these last three days. I’m glad to be done with the digital learning. I know they are as well.  This is the third Wednesday of the month, so new #Authortoolbox blog hop. As I’m attempting to write my first full length novel in a while, I knew what I wanted to post about today. My last three book releases have been novellas. All three are books that are 20k or less in word count. There was a time I didn’t think I could write a book that short. My first attempt at a novella ended up being a short end, yet still full length novel ending at like 57k.
I’m wordy.
Want to know how much? My first book…200k+ the second 100k+…yes you are seeing those numbers right and no they aren’t epic fantasies.
But I needed to learn how to tighten the story. Hence the much shorter one but was still longer than expected at 57k. Then came the Carina Dirty Bits line. I’d not started a book wanting a to write a specific trope, I didn’t think about the stories that way. But that line gave a list of what they wanted to see AND (this is the most important part) a word count limit! The stories couldn’t be more than 25k and since I was writing this during the time I was on the query train I had to stick to the guidelines.It was hard folks!
And let me just say that writing short doesn’t mean writing faster, at least not for me.  But what I learned from writing that first novella—Being Neighborly—was I had to…
Keep it simple.
Which is where the post title comes in. Just the facts ma’am. I couldn’t give extra back stories, and side plots. The angst is super low if there is any at all. Figuring out how to make these people well round instead of cardboard cut outs with no depth took some gymnastics. Giving them friends, family, hobbies, but making sure I didn’t make it into an info dump. Wanting to let their personalities shine through individually while also building their relationship, I had to choose the most dynamic parts to share.
Need just the meat of the story.
Writing the novella meant I had to narrow down all of the stuff that bloated my first two stories. Not that those stories didn’t require a ton of words, but I probably could have cut some, especially from my debut novel. There couldn’t be long drawn out descriptions of things that probably didn’t matter. I didn’t need to share that childhood memory of how she got the scar on her knee that the love interest seems to take interest in. It had to be A and B get together. Flirt, have some sex, maybe have some small issue to deal with, and get to the believable and satisfying HEA or HFN ending.
The pace needs to be faster.
I’m not a fan of insta-love, but at the very least we need insta-lust. There isn’t room for long wooing to take place. I write romance, so the characters have to meet, have that attraction, and act on it much sooner. No slow burns here. Which was something that was hard for me. I liked taking the reader step by step so see the whole process of them falling in love. It takes time. But with a limited word count, that couldn’t happen. I had to figure out that chemistry sooner and rely it in a way that felt real and not rushed so that the reader wasn’t missing anything.
But the biggest thing I learned from writing a novella, is that I COULD write one. I seriously had doubts in my ability to craft an interesting story in such a short word count. Remember, I’m wordy. But somehow I did. Now as I attempt to write a full again, I’m applying some of these lessons to that project. How well that turns out is yet to be determined, but I do know it won’t be another epic novel at over 100k. I don’t set limits and I’ll wait to see how many words the story needs (#pantser) but I’m hoping with the new lessons I’ve learned it will top out at the “norm” for contemporary romance 60-80k.
That’s it for me. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the moth.
Until next time~Meka

IWSG - Marketing Merry-Go -Round

Image by Jazella from Pixabay 

How is it May already? The days are blending together, yet seeming passing by in a blur all at the same time. Madness I tell ya. But since it is a new month, that means it’s time for another IWSG blog hop.On Friday I would have released my seventh book. SEVEN! While that’s not a big number to some, it’s kinda huge for me simply because each book I actually complete comes as a surprise to me. LOL Not only is it the 7thoverall, it’s my 5th indie release. Even bigger surprise that I keep putting myself through that stress. Haha
Jokes aside, having done a handful of these now, you’d think I’d have a process in place right? That by now I’ve worked out some sort of system that is my “go-to” on how to get these things done. Especially when it comes to marketing. But you’d be wrong.
The truth is, each new book is like I’m brand new to this business. I know, I know, it’s horrible to say. But these posts are about sharing our truths good or bad right?
As I barrel toward releasing Being Cordial to the world, I am reminded again that I have no idea what I’m doing. I try to research options, but at the end of the day when I think about marketing I’m going round and round and getting nowhere.
My fallback of tossing graphics up on social media don’t really make headway. Blog tours are hit or miss. Reading up on tips from more established authors don’t seem to get me off the ride. It’s dizzying to tell you the truth. And yes I know marketing is about more than screaming buy my book into the world wide web. Real interaction/engagements is what I strive for. I mean just take a look at my Instagram. It’s tea, wine, and dogs mostly. I’m not staging pictures so they are pretty and I sure as heck don’t have an aesthetic to that account.
There is this rule, 80/20 I think something along the lines that 20% of your online stuff should be about selling. I’m sure I’m butchering that. Hahaha it’s what I do. But you get the picture. It shouldn’t all be about sell, sell, sell, and I get that. Striking a balance is another part of the never ending puzzle. But sometimes I just want off the ride.
Sadly, however, there is no off. Much like editing, marketing is a necessary evil. So, I stay on the merry-go-round. Moving in a never ending circle
I hope you’ve understood the point to this rambling mess. Seriously between the home-schooling, having to constantly be on at all times, and general life stresses of the moment, me attempting coherent thought can be a struggle some days.
I’m going to stop while I’m ahead (if I’m ahead). Stay safe. Wash your hands. And be kind to each other.
Until next time~Meka

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.
The awesome co-hosts for the May 6 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Beverly Stowe McClure, Mary Aalgaard, Kim Lajevardi, and Chemist Ken!

#AuthorToolboxBlogHop - Caution! Warning Ahead

Happy April. I hope everyone is staying safe and in good health. I’m getting this out later than usual because honestly I forgot. The days are bleeding together. I’m home-schooling the kids. It’s just been a lot. But, I remembered when I got up, so here we are. A new #Authortoolboxbloghop.Today I’m talking content warnings on our books. Depending on how active you are on social media, you’ve probably seen the debate pop up every so often. There are usually two camps: yay or nay.
The main reason the nayers seem to be against content warnings are spoilers. They feel that giving a heads up will somehow ruin the reading experience. I saw one person comment that if readers couldn’t handle whatever then they shouldn’t read the book. **Insert major eye roll**
If a person doesn’t even bother to give clues in the blurb that the story may contain triggering content, how is a person supposed to know to avoid it. And believe me I’ve seen some deliberately vague blurbs and later read the reviews and get hit with some whoppers.
So, yeah, I’m camp yay. Content warnings aren’t spoilers. They are a polite thing sort of like movie ratings. If you see a rating that says R for sex, violence, etc, then you know you can avoid that movie if those aren’t things that appeal to you.
And I get it, you never know what will be upsetting to readers and therefore can’t account for everything. That’s when you have to use your best judgement. It won’t be perfect. I had a friend that wrote a story and there is a passing mention that the heroine’s mother *may have* died of cancer. This character is never on screen, and that really is the only time it’s brought up. Her death was secretive as part of the overall plot. My friend got dinged in a review because her story didn’t have a content warning about cancer. It was not depicted, only mentioned, and yet that was enough to bother someone.
My feeling is, when in doubt, warn. Now, when you’re an indie author you have more control over this. My book Anything Once has a subplot dealing with infertility. I knew that is a sensitive topic so I wanted a warning. It wasn’t as easy to get as you’d think it should have been.
I’m rambling. Sorry. Let’s bring it around. How do you know what you should warn about? Well, these are a few things that come to mind for me. Your mileage may vary, especially depending on what genre you write.
Sexual Assault Death (especially of a child)InfertilityAbuse (including animal abuse)Drug/Alcohol *this isn’t if the friends are having a drink at happy hour, but more if addiction is a central part to the story)Violence (including domestic violence)Eating disordersSelf-harm
Again, these are just a few, but from the circles I’m in, seem to be the biggest ones talked about. How you word your content warning is up to you. Take a look at how others do it to get an idea. This is the one I have on my first novel, Fiendish:
Fiendish is a dark and twisted take on Beauty and The Beast. This story contains mature themes meant for readers 18+. The story contains sexually explicit scenes, some that may contain dubious and non-consent, adult language, and graphic violence and may be considered offensive to some readers.
I put this at the end of the blurb on the product page so it’s upfront and can’t be missed.
This is the one on the inside of my book, Anything Once:
This novel deals with issues of infertility. This is a subject that can be sensitive to some readers. It is a matter that each couple handles and reacts to differently. Sensitivity readers were used, and I did take the feedback offered under advisement when crafting those parts of the story and tried to give it the care and attention required.
I wanted this on the blurb, but instead it’s on the inside of the book just after the table of contents. Two different warnings, but give the necessary information without “spoiling” the book. As writers I think it’s the responsible thing to do if you’re writing about tough topics to make that clear to the readers. Sure, jokes can be made about this being a “soft society” but I don’t feel that way. Now days people aren’t as quiet about what hurts them emotionally and mentally as in days past.
Not every reader cares about whether there is a warning or not. Subject matter doesn’t get to them and that’s great. But it doesn’t take much more additional time to add a sentence or two in order to give a little extra protection to those it may bother.
That’s it for this month. Hope you found this helpful.
Until next time~Meka

IWSG - Positive Thoughts

Good morning and happy April. Seriously is it a new month. 2020 has been a year man, and we’re just 4 months in. I’m tired. LOL Since the world is collectively on fire, I decided to do something different for this IWSG post.I hope everyone is hunkered down and in good health. I’m not made to be around anyone 24/7 including he who I married and those I gave birth to, but alas that is the current situation. Only a mild case of cabin fever kicking in.
It’s seriously feeling like we’re in a bad outtake of The Mummy. Time to scream “you must never read from the book” though it appears someone had. Until Brendan Fraser and Oded Fehr show up to save us, let’s start a positivity train.
Not writing related, just all the good things that remain bright spots in these troubling times.Sure, my family is driving me slightly batty, but there are here and healthy. My extended family is all in good spirits and we talk more now than we probably did before.

I have an amazing community of friends. Yeah, they live in my computer LOL, but I talk to them daily. We chat about all things, not just writing and we help support and keep each other from falling into the abyss of negative thoughts.
My pups are getting extra love and only grumble about it sometimes. They can get quite attitude-y when they want to be. They are loving so many people home all day since normally it would be me and I can only give so much attention to the lot of them.
My husband is keeping me supplied with emergency chocolate. The man knows how to keep me calm-ish. Like I said, I’m not built for 24/7 togetherness. Only 2 meltdowns so far. That is a huge positive, especially considering we’re doing the homeschool thing.
Speaking of homeschooling, my county has been great so far. They have been providing free lunch to the students which is so helpful. And they make it easy to get by having the buses do delivery. We are in strange times. The best we can do is to be kind to our fellow human. Wash your hands. And stay home as much as you can.
Let’s keep this train going. In the comments, post one positive thing happening for you right now.
The awesome co-hosts for the April 1 posting of the IWSG are Diane Burton, JH Moncrieff, Anna @ Emaginette, Karen @ Reprobate Typewriter, Erika Beebe, and Lisa Buie-Collard!
Until next time~Meka

#AuthorToolBoxBlogHop - Totally Judging

Happy-ish March folks. Back again for another #Authortoolboxbloghop. I’m sure we’re all stuck in our houses and maybe going a little stir crazy. Sending be well vibes out into the universe. I hope you’re all feeling okay and trying to weather this storm as best you can. After taking last month off, I came back with a topic that is near and dear to my heart.
Covers.
In my own writing, the creation of the cover is the most exciting part. I like seeing my vision for the story and what it encompasses come to life. As an indie author, I have a little more control over that process. I’m also starting the venture of being a hybrid, the process is a little different and not having final say was an idea I had to get used to. This post, however, will focus on the indie aspect.

For me they make or break the decision if I want to move forward with reading a book. Like with books that people enjoy, what makes a “good” cover can be subjective. Beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that jazz.

I’ve seen some covers that have given me pause and made me wonder “what in the world were they thinking” and there are others that make me say, yes, let me learn more. This is not a “shaming” blog post by any means. Instead, I’m going to point out things that *to me* are things I consider when thinking of covers.


Characters matching description in the book
This is a biggie. I know it won’t be exact, that I get. But if the story says the person is blonde with blue eyes, don’t go slapping a brown eyed brunette on your cover. Think I’m joking? I’m not. Again, this isn’t about “shaming” so there will be no examples of said covers, but it happens.

Worse if you have a character that is of an ethnic background, don’t have two non-ethnic models on the cover. If you’re lead is a “curvy” gal or guy, why is the cover model not reflective of that?

And I get it, finding decent stock photos is HARD!!! I wrote an interracial romance. Black man, white woman. Finding romantic stock that depicted that, in a way that represented my characters, didn’t happen. Because of that limitation, I had to go a different direction with the cover of my book. One thing I wouldn’t compromise on, hair color. My female had red hair, the model picked needed  the same.


Keep it simple
There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Especially if it comes to a book cover. We’ve all seen the ones with what I call a dual scene. You’ll have the “floating couple” on one half of the cover and the other half usually has some sort of location reference. A meadow, city scape, etc. Those I get, but when you start adding too many elements it confused the eye. You have the couple, the location, an animal or a baby. Maybe an animal and a baby. Then some other special effects in the background. Don’t go photoshop happy on your cover.

When you’re thinking about what you want to represent your book, think of something important from the story. Can that be pulled to put on the front? What is the feel you want your cover to give off when people look at it? List out your top three to five things and pick two, max to focus on for the cover.

I write romance, when people look at my two covers, they don’t scream romance. Having your covers reflective of your chosen genre is important, but I also feel having it reflect your story to be equally important. My hope in having my covers designed was that after people read them, the mood and meaning behind the cover became clearer. For Fiendish, I wanted the dark, gothic-ish feel because the story is darker in nature. Not Broken was the next step, it was about a new day, and the picture is relevant to a part of the story.


Font choice
Fonts are important. The first time someone sees your cover it is thumbnail size. If you’ve used font that is too thin, or too swirly, things along those lines, it can be hard to see. And I’ll add in color along with the font choice. The color of the font needs to stand out against the background, but not be too hard on the eyes. You want people to be able to see and read your title and your name without squinting.

I updated the cover of my first book, Fiendish, for a few reasons and font choice was one. I’ve learned a lot from when I first published that book to now. While it is legible for the most part, I knew the fonts can be cleaner. Plus, I’m working on branding, so I want my author name across all my books to be the same. Something else to consider. Even if your title fonts change, find a font that you love for your author name and keep the same style across the board.

As an indie, all upfront costs are on your shoulders. People say editing and covers are where you should spend your money.  Everyone’s budget is different so what might be inexpensive for one, could be a stretch for another. Because of that, outsourcing your covers may not be an option. Don’t worry there’s help for that.

If you’re going to make your own, there are sites like Canva that can help folks like me that aren’t techy or artistically inclined. It’s free to use, has templates and is a good place to start, for ebooks at least. Finding images are important, but be careful. Don’t just Google something, you don’t want to get caught up in a legal issue for using a copyright image.

There are free sites like Pixaby and Unsplash that offer royalty free, common use images for no cost, or you can buy pictures from any of the dozens of stock sites. Canva also offers free and low cost images. FYI all the mock covers shown were made by me in Canva using images from the site. There’s a reason people say don’t judge a book by its cover, because people totally do. It’s the first thing potential readers will see. Before the blurb, before the first look at the online retailers, it’s the cover. You want yours to draw readers in. Now, I’m no expert, this is simply my humble opinion, but I hope it will help you in your future endeavors.

 Until next time
~Meka

IWSG - A Turtle in a Hare World

Happy March. Are you hoping spring is around the corner like I am? I’m so over the cold, but I know all too soon I’ll be complaining about the heat. I really need to live in a place that has mild-ish temperatures year round. But we aren’t here to chat about the weather.  A new month means a new IWSG blog post.Let’s get right into things shall we. I’ve had my struggles throughout my time in this group. I mean it’s to be expected right? And I’m sure I will continue to have them because it’s who I am. I’ve written before about how life can be harder (sometimes) for the indie writer and that’s what this post will touch on.
I don’t know when the tide turned and expectations of production increased at the same time for “demand” of lower prices, but that’s where we seem to be. Some seem to think the boom of Amazon in the book mark along with the invention of Kindle Unlimited had a lot to do with it, but that’s a discussion for another time. I’m focusing on the production aspect for today.
I’m a turtle. In fact, about two years ago I made an offhand comment about being a #turtlewriter and it snowballed into a whole thing. It’s great to have a community of fellow slow poke writers, but for me, being slow I think is just one more thing that puts me behind the eight ball.
It’s easier to say don’t compare yourself to others, but it’s harder to actually follow that advice. I realize my process is different from others, but that doesn’t stop me feeling like crap because my production is so low. That feeling is the start of a spiral that makes it even harder to concentrate because then I start to wonder what’s the point.
I follow plenty of authors and when I see some putting out three or more books in a year I have moments of wondering if baby stepping along is worth it. In a time when there are so many books to be read. By all accounts it’s “easier” (only in how to get them out in the world sort of way) to publish books. Getting your foothold is harder than ever.
I don’t write a series and I don’t write fast and both of those things make me feel like I’m shooting myself in the foot. I’ve said it before, I’m a mood writer so if my mood is in the dumps it’s hard as hell for me to write, especially considering I write romance.
People tell you all day long, you have to have a thick skin for this business. Granted most times it’s in relation to less than stellar reviews you may or may not get, but it applies to other things as well. The imposter syndrome is real! And I fully admit to being my own worst enemy. It’s things I know, but at the same time seem to be unable to stop.
So, what’s a turtle to do in this hare world? For now, keep turtling along I guess. I’m a glutton for punishment. LOL I don’t know how to change my process so that I’m more productive. And no amount of pep talks stop the feelings of inadequacies that hang around with me on a daily basis.   Boy this post turned out to be way more depressing than I imagined when I first started writing it. LOL #PantserLife But it is what it is. Me putting my feelings/insecurities out in the world.
Happy Spring to everyone and hope y’all have great months.
Until next time~Meka

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.


The awesome co-hosts for the The awesome co-hosts for the March 4th posting of the IWSG are Jacqui Murray, Lisa Buie-Collard, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence! 

IWSG - Picture It

Whew. One month of 2020 is already down. Time is already flying, or it could be my feelings of getting nothing accomplished. LOL But…we won’t get into all of that now. Today is the first Wednesday of the month so that means a new IWSG post. So this month I was going to talk about all the woes, but frankly I’m tired. Tired of being annoyed about the static nature of things for me. Tired of never feeling like I’m making any sort of progress and gaining any ground in this whole endeavor.
Instead, I’m gonna take it a little easy and simply answer this month’s optional question.
Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?
I get inspiration from all sorts of places. Dreams, random conversations, songs, etc. You get the idea, but I can’t say that a picture ever inspired a story per se. However, with my writing squad we liked to do a thing called “Man Candy Monday” LOL which is exactly like you’d expect, we would find pictures of men we thought were attractive and post in the group. I mean hey, we’re romance writers, character “inspiration” is always a good thing. Hahaha
Anyway, this guy was one of my contributions. I was intrigued by the eyes first and then I liked the sprinkling of gray in his beard and hair. But mostly the eyes. When the ladies challenged me to move from simple contemporary romance over to erotic romance he became my first character. The rest of the story formed around using this image as my male lead.
After that, I needed to find the inspiration of who would be his leading lady and the story took shape from there. This story ended up being one I had the biggest love/hate relationship with for various reasons. It’s also the first story I queried. And the first story I got an offer on.
I still have a love/hate relationship with it, but it is what it is. The story is complete. Is it a great seller? No, but then again none of my books are so it fits right in, in that regard.


So, if you ever read Anything Once, this image is what inspired Ian Faraday.
That’s it for me. Have a great month.
Until next time~Meka
The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.

The awesome co-hosts for the The awesome co-hosts for the February 5th posting of the IWSG are Lee Lowery, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes, Cathrina Constantine, and Tyrean Martinson!

Books, Booze, & Bubbles - Dalliances & Devotion

It’s Thursday! The weekend is almost here and it’s the perfect time to kick off the first review of the year. This is a book that came out last year, but I’m slow, y’all know this by now. LOL Anyway, let’s get to it. The wine: I picked this wine for two reasons. 1) It had David in the name and that is the hero of this story. 2) It’s a Kosher wine. Why does that matter? Well, because Dalliances and Devotion is a Jewish romance and I was thrilled to find a wine that would fit in.

However it’s hard to describe how I feel about this wine. It’s not great and it’s also not terrible. It reminds me of the wine you’d get at Communion (if you ever did that). Mostly grape juice so overly sweet, but has a little bit of a bite just enough to remind you it’s something else. Yeah, that’s what this tastes like. Not something I’d try again and I won’t be finishing this bottle.

The bath bomb: It’s the Lucky Cat from Lush Cosmetics. I picked it as sort of a nod back to book one which features the heroine’s parents. Ursula (the mom) had a ton of animals and I thought that would be a fun combo. Not to mention the color goes well with the book cover. It smelled divine and tuned the water a pretty pink. The scent lasted long after it dissolved which is always nice. Best part, unlike some, it didn’t leave a lot of residue after the water drained.
Now the book
A change in course can be refreshing…when it’s done together.

1871

After two disastrous marriages, beauty columnist Amalia Truitt’s life is finally her own—well, it will be if she can get herself back to Delaware and demand access to her share of the Truitt family fortune. After all, the charity she’s organized for women who can’t afford their own divorces won’t fund itself.

However, not everyone wants her to reach her destination. When her family learns she’s been receiving anonymous death threats, a solo journey is out of the question.

Enter David Zisskind, the ragtag-peddler-turned-soldier whose heart Amalia broke years ago. He’s a Pinkerton now, and the promotion he craves depends on protecting his long-lost love on the unexpectedly treacherous journey across Pennsylvania.

That their physical connection has endured the test of time (and then some) is problematic, to say the least.

In very close quarters, with danger lurking around every curve, with each kiss and illicit touch, the wrongs of the past are righted. But David can’t weather another rejection, especially with his career in jeopardy. And Amalia can’t possibly take a lover, never mind another husband…not with so much depending on her repaired reputation. Not when she’s hurt David—her David—so badly before.

Publisher’s Note: Dalliances & Devotion contains content that some readers may find challenging, including PTSD, depression, war, sibling death and antisemitism.
***My Review***5 Stars
As I mentioned, this is book two of Ms. Grossman’s Truitt series. It’s a second chance romance also set in America like book one. I LOVE that it’s America set since so many historicals are UK or something.

I don’t read a lot of historical romances. They just aren’t my jam and that could be because they are usually European set and deal with Dukes, and Earls, and really I can’t get into all of that. The societal “norms” they try to set with the gender roles and all that, yeah I can do without. What I loved about the heroine in this book is she is different in that regard. Amalia is divorced! Not just once, but twice. Something that is (in my limited knowledge) unheard of in a historical romance. LOVED IT! Not only that, she runs an organization devoted to helping other women get divorces without being left destitute. BRILLIANT!

But…like with any good heroine, she has her flaws. Some of them could put her in the “unlikable” category, and that is okay. When a lot of emphasis is put on being “not like other girls” Amalia embraced being exactly that. So what if she loved dresses and makeup. So what if she put time and thought into her appearance. She was proud of who she was and what she did, no matter how much people tried to talk down to her and tell her it was silly.

The hero, David, well I admit he got on my nerves a little. LOL I have been known to be tough on the guys. What can I say, I like my dudes to be devoted to their ladies and not give them a hard time. He spent a lot of the time acting on things he believed without bothering to get confirmation. That colored a lot of his interactions and behaviors and made me want to pull my hair out a time or two.One thing he was devoted to was doing his job. He took pride in his work and would not be deterred no matter how much his longing for Amalia tried to distract him. They were perfectly opposite and it was so fun to read how they fed off each other, good and bad.

There is danger and a mystery. That dreaded miscommunication issue that always irks me, and some steamy sexy scenes. Overall this was an excellent follow up to her first book.

Where to buy
Amazon Barnes & Noble Kobo Apple Books Harlequin

#AuthorToolBoxBlogHop - Picking A Pen name

Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays however they celebrate! It’s 2020 and time to kick off the first #AuthorToolBoxBlogHop of the year. As with last year I struggled with trying to figure out what I wanted to discuss in this post. Pretty on brand for me.Then I was scrolling through my Twitter feed and saw a post with someone subtweeting a “hot take” they didn’t agree with: Using a pen name was a cowardly thing to do. This person and others that commented did not agree with that statement and I am also in agreement.
Pen names are not something new that came about in recent years, they’ve been around for probably longer than the Tweeter of that bad take. The reasons a person chooses to or not to use one is up to them, but going with a pen name is far from cowardly!
Those of us on this hop are at different points in our writing journey, so ones with books already out may not find this post as helpful. But if you’re a newbie and still in the beginning stages, hopefully some of the tips here will help you if you decide a pen name is the way you want to go.
Meka James is a pen name and I picked one for two reasons. 1) when I started writing, my daughter was in high school and at the time was mortified her mom wrote “those” kind of stories. LOL (FYI my boys really don’t care either way) 2) the name I married into is hard to pronounce and spell for some. I wanted to make things as easy as possible should someone want to find me. Reason two was the bigger deciding factor rather than my daughter’s possible embarrassment that her mother wrote sexy romance novels. And it’s my first tip.
Make it easy to search
You want to be found, it’s important in selling your books that readers can remember and spell your name correctly in those search bars on retailer sites. Alessandra Torre in one of her videos mentioned pen names and how the one she picked probably wasn’t the best in hindsight. I mean it’s worked out for her now, but in the beginning, those extra “s” and such could have tripped people up.
Keep in mind spelling and how easily what you picked could be possibly misspelled. Especially if you’re going for something really different or unique to help yourself stand out.
Make it something meaningful
To me this is important with helping get attached to your new persona, but that’s a totally personal take. I mean you could use some online name generator or put things in a bowl and pick randomly, but I think having a name you’re going to be using a lot mean something to you helps.
My name for example, Meka is because for all of my life people have mispronounced my real first name. I decided to own it since it was something I was used to hear being called anyway. The hard part is NOT correcting people when they say it because that has been an automatic response for so long. LOL James I picked because of the husband. It was my nod to keeping a “married” aspect in all of this.
I have a friend that picked her name because she wanted her initials to be “AF” as sort of a fun inside joke to herself. For those that may not know, “slang” for as fuck is sometimes written as “af” and it was something she wanted in a playful way.
Her meaningful is different from mine, but both are super valid and played an important role in the choosing of our names. Think about what you want your name to represent and go from there.
Do your research
Once you’ve decided on a name or three (because options are good) toss them into the retailer search bars and see what comes up. Just like book titles, the name could already be out there. Not that it’s a bad thing, but if you can avoid some overlap then you might want to.
If you’ve picked Renee Jones and you write fantasy, then put in the search bar and come up with another Rene Jones that also writes fantasy, well you may want to pick a different name. Even with the spelling being slightly different (one “e” opposed to two).
Now if Renee and Rene write in two different genres, you might be okay. Readers would have to take a moment or two longer before one clicking to check out covers and blurbs if both names come up on the search. I would suggest going with your back up option in any case, but it comes down to how attached you are to the name.
These are just some starter tips if you’re considering using a pen name. There is zero shame in doing so, and if you go that route have fun with the process. It’s all part of the journey. Make a poll if you have more than one and can’t narrow it down. I did. I had four possible name combos and I made it a full family affair in picking out which would be my persona. Hubby, kids, and my siblings all weighed in. Practice saying each one as well if you have others. What rolls off the tongue better?
We create characters for a living, the name you go by is simply another one of them.
That’s it for me.
Until next time~Meka