 So, here I am, like every other author, doing my annual year-end round-up of my writing-related experiences and favorite reads. I hope you've had a lovely year. Mine had some stressful moments personally, but overall was a better year for my family than 2017. I'm grateful for that. I stayed away from doing any theater the first half of the year and focused solely on writing. Due to this, I was able to be involved in a couple anthology projects and got more work published. Normally, I'm a person that works on one project at a time. This year was the opposite for me. My main writing project was interrupted multiple times for other more pressing deadlines and ideas. It started right before New Year's Eve last year when Fellowship of Fantasy (a group of indie fantasy writers on Facebook that I'm part of) announced that they were putting together an anthology of stories with the theme of magical doorways. I knew I had an old story like that. So, I stopped writing my novel and spent a few days cleaning and pruning that old story. It got accepted into Mythical Doorways which came out early in 2018. Cleaning up "The Hallway of Three Doors" reminded me that I had several of these old original fairy tales, and I decided I would clean them all up and release them as a series of novelettes. I got right to work on the first one The Royal Deal and released it at the end of January. My plan had been to get these out quickly, but the revisions took a lot longer than expected, and the next one, The Tomato Quest, didn't come out until summer. Also, one of my old stories, which was a retelling of an old Grimm Brothers fairy tale got chosen for the Fellowship of Fantasy anthology Tales of Ever After.  Technically, the box set of The Juniper Sawfeather Trilogy came out in December, 2017. I started back on writing my novel and then, of course, was interrupted with rewrites to my editor's notes and proofreading of my newest YA novel release, Lost on the Water - A Ghost Story, which was published by Fire and Ice YA Books in July, 2018. Along with that, I had my novel No One Needed to Know narrated as an audiobook by Allie James and had to proof that. I also got the digital rights to that novel returned from the publisher and released the book as an ebook. Lots of stuff going on. Oh, and hey! Two books of mine won awards this year. The anthology Winter Wonder, which features two of my short stories, won 1st place in the 2018 Purple Dragonfly Children's Book Awards for Best Anthology. My novel Lost on the Water - A Ghost Story won 2nd place in the 2018 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards for Best Young Adult Fiction. So that's fun. I finally got back to work on my novel... and then I was asked to direct a play.  The second half of my year was full with theater. I directed Steel Magnolias for The Larry Keeton Theatre in Nashville, which ran in August. I wrote a blog post about that experience. Then my husband, step-daughter, and I were all cast in A Christmas Carol, the Musical. They were fun experiences, and totally worth interrupting my writing schedule. I tried to sneak in writing on my novel between rehearsals, but it was slow-going. I also experienced some serious writer's block on that novel (definitely due to the stopping and starting). It's the first time this has really happened to me, and I'll blog about that sometime soon.  I had a few fun in-person experiences as an author this year. I did some school appearances and special events in April (Autism Awareness Month) to talk about my novel No One Needed to Know. My favorite (and most successful) events of the year were the Rocket City Author Event in Huntsville, AL, the Taste of Wilson County in Lebanon, TN, and doing a signing for Lost on the Water at Button Willow Coffee House and General Store. This event was extra fun because it was in the small town where some of the novel takes place. We sold a lot of books there, and I had to return another day to replenish their supply. Another fun day was when my daughter, husband, and I went to Center Hill Lake (where the story is set) to hike around and take lots of publicity pictures for the novel. I hope to go back next summer, too.  I can't say for certain what in store for 2019 yet. I DID finally finish writing my novel. It's called All the Love You Write and is a full-length YA romance that expands upon my previously published novella Passing Notes. I sent it to Fire and Ice YA Books yesterday morning, so I'm waiting now to see if they like it, want to publish it, and when. In November, I signed a contract for my very first picture book. It's called Matching Costumes. I don't have a release date yet, but I expect it will be in 2020. My next project is to work on the next of my original fairy tales. It's titled A Voice of Desire. It's a bit darker than the other two, and I hope to release it in February. Here's a little sneak peek at what I'm planning for the cover (this may change). At the moment, I've agreed to direct a play in May. I hope to do something theatrical in the fall, too. My daughter is graduating from high school this year, so I'm trying to keep my calendar clear for all her senior year events.  As for my reading? According to Goodreads, I read 42 books this year (although it says I read one more than once.) I think there are a few books I didn't include in my challenge, too. I continue to mostly read YA and MG books, and half of the books I 'read' this year were audiobooks. Typically, I 'eyes-on' read more indie books and authors I've met (whether in person or online) and listen to the books from the big publishers. My Favorite Books of 2018 My Favorite Book of the Year was Caraval by Stephanie Garber. Which also makes my favorite series of the year being this and the sequel Legendary. Caraval had an amazing, magical setting with a complex plotline that kept me riveted the whole time. Gorgeous!  Best Book from a Big Publisher (not including Caraval) was Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. I listened to 3 of the 4 books of this series and then needed a break. I haven't gotten back to the final book yet. The second book in this series is BY FAR the best. It's so romantic and full of action. It's sexy, though, so I don't recommend it for YA readers (even though it's sold on YA shelves.) Runners up were Stalking the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco and What Happened to My Sister by Elizabeth Flock  Best Book from a Small Publisher was Before I Found You by Daisy White. This is the second book of this 1960s New Adult mystery series, and there is a third one out now waiting on my Kindle. I'm drawn to the atmosphere and setting of these books as well as the characters, and the mysteries are solid. White has become one of my favorite writers, She writes quickly, though, so I can't keep up with her. I have 3 of her books on my TBR list for 2019. My runner-ups in this category were The Gemini Connection, a cool YA scifi by Teri Polen, and Barn Shadows, a YA ghost story by Laura Wolfe.  Best Self-Published Book. I actually didn't read very many of these this year. Sorry, my indie friends. I'll do better. I bought a lot of them, if that counts. I'm actually going to vote for Tales of Ever After, published by Fellowship of Fantasy. (This is a cooperative author group, not a publisher, so it fits in this category). I know I have a story in this book, but I didn't read the other ones until the book came out. It is my favorite of the FoF anthologies so far, and I truly enjoyed every story. I recently wrote a blog post about it if you want to scroll down a little and read more of my thoughts about this little (did I mention free?) gem.  Best Local Author Book was Freefall Summer by Nashville author Tracy Barrett. I'm a big fan of Tracy Barrett's work, and I enjoyed her first YA contemporary novel. It was a fun, spirited, coming of age novel with a unique activity as the backdrop.  Best Audiobook was definitely End of Watch by Stephen King. It was read by Will Patton (who also narrates The Raven Boys). He is an amazing actor, and his gravelly voice was perfect for this terrifying mystery/horror series. I actually started watching the TV show of Mr. Mercedes and couldn't get into it because Hodges didn't sound like the Hodges I knew. I just loved these audiobooks. Creepy as hell, though. Be warned. Runner up is What Happened to My Sister by Elizabeth Flock and narrated by Cassandra Campbell. I don't know how she did it, but Campbell managed to change her voice from an 8-year-old dirt-poor girl from the hills to a suburban Southern housewife and made me believe every second of it.  Favorite Grown-Up Book. (This includes nonfiction as well as fiction.) Life is Like a Musical by Tim Federle. I bought this book as a gift for my daughter, a musical theater actress and fanatic. I'm a fan of Federle's fiction, and he's a doll on Twitter. I knew I was going to love this book of uplifting advice and autobiographical stories from his Broadway life. Yes, it's targeted toward theater nerds like me, but I think there's something in it for everyone. It has a positive, optimistic tone that is so refreshing right now. I can't recommend it enough. I would love to hear from you. What are some favorite books you've read this year? Can you recommend any? Please leave a comment. (And feel free to roam around my website to find all the excerpts from my books.)
 I'm popping out a quick blog post mostly because I haven't done one in a month, and also because it's my birthday. Someone said to me the other day, "Welcome to the Golden Years." Oh my. Did you hear that, Pony Boy? I'm finally golden. I feel like I should have awakened this morning with some King Midas skills, but, alas, nothing I've touched so far has turned golden. (I've got some revising to do in a minute, so maybe it'll be a figurative talent.) I'm 50 today. I'm not shy about that. I'm not one of those people who's all, "It's not polite to ask a lady's age." Nope. I'm fine with it. I'm mostly fine with it. Okay, I'm a little wobbly about it deep inside. I'm a person who only wears makeup if I have to, so I'm not trying to hide my wrinkles. Yet, in a moment of vanity weakness the other day, I was convinced by a savvy saleswoman to buy some skin products to reduce those wrinkles. I am a woman sighs at images of the thin and wrinkle free person I was twenty-five years ago, but I'm also a woman who's pretty okay with looking the way I do now. I'm embracing it, and I'm grateful to have many friends my age or older who are excellent role models of how to be awesome in the second half of life.  My blog is mostly about revision. Yes, revision with regard to writing, but why not about everything. Sometimes we need to take a good look at our lives and see what could use a fix. Adjust this. Move that. Scratch that thing that doesn't work and replace it with something else. This is where I am in my spirit. I'm proud of my accomplishments, but I'm also ready to do more things, new things. I'm feeling like I need to be braver and challenge myself harder than I have before. Why not? I'm seriously considering writing a novel for adults next year to try a new path. I want to do more directing, because directing Steel Magnolias last summer was one the best experiences I've ever had. I want to take a real vacation next year, and I'm going to figure out a way to make it happen. I'm hoping to find more readers for my books - somehow.  What I won't do is allow the number to rule me. To think that somehow my best days are behind me. I refuse to allow the concept of aging to bring me down. Tonight I'm spending my birthday singing and dancing in a musical of A Christmas Carol. I thought that would upset me when I got cast - doing a show on my birthday (again). Now, however, I'm really glad it's happening. It verifies everything for me, the idea that I can still do something cool and fun, something I've done and has given me great joy my whole life, and that moments like these aren't coming to an end. There are many more ahead. Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment. It would be super awesome if you'd take moment to travel around my website. I've got lots of info and excerpts for all of my books. They'd make a great gift for someone on your gift list. It would also be an awfully nice birthday gift for me to see them being purchased. All the best to you, and have a lovely holiday season. (BTW, If you are looking for something Christmassy, I do have two fun Christmas stories based on characters from my Juniper Sawfeather Trilogy and my book No One Needed to Know in the anthology Winter Wonder. The ebook is free!)
 Photo by Ally.is.Reading on Instagram. Tales of Ever After is an anthology of fairy tales published by Fellowship of Fantasy. It came out this summer between the releases of my novel Lost on the Water - A Ghost Story and my novelette The Tomato Quest. It is the 3rd FoF anthology to feature a story of mine. I FINALLY had time to finish reading the other stories in this collection. It is absolutely my favorite of the anthologies so far.  Tales of Ever After features 16 stories by different fantasy authors. Each story is an original fairy tale or a new take on an existing one. For example, my story "KIng or Beggar" is a retelling of the lesser known Grimm Brothers tale "King Thrushbeard". Of the stories in the book, mine is the most faithful to the original version, but it embellishes the plot and adds details, changing a story that was only a couple pages long to one that is nearly 10,000 words. But I don't really want to talk about my story. I want to talk about why I liked the other stories so much.  I'll confess that in the other anthologies from this group that I've read (Fantastic Creatures and Mythical Doorways) there has been at least one story in each book that I just didn't care for or couldn't get into. Not every story appeals to everyone, and these books are packed with different styles of writing. It is one of the charms of reading an anthology. You discover new authors you like, and you can skip the stories that don't hold your attention. In all fairness, I've read reviews that clearly stated that my stories in those book were not favorites, and other reviews that listed them at the top of their favorites list. Everyone has unique tastes. However, in Tales of Ever After, I liked every single story without reserve. Yes, I had some favorites, but none of them bored me or made me skip ahead. Why is this? I've put a little thought into that question. I think it has to do with the concept of the books. Each Fellowship of Fantasy anthology has a theme. Editor and accomplished author, H. L. Burke, puts out a call for stories, and authors write to the theme by a certain deadline. The submissions are judged for content (they have to be clean fiction), theme (they have to stick to it), word length, and quality to be selected. So, when the theme is 'fantasy creatures' or 'portal stories', a pretty wide range of styles appears from high fantasy to urban fantasy to science fiction. There are two more FoF anthologies I haven't read yet: Hall of Heroes and Paws, Claws, and Magic Tales. I'm sure these books also feature a wide range of writing styles. Tales of Ever After is different from the others, because the theme is a genre. 'Fairy Tale' rather than something to include in a story like 'cats', 'heroes', 'doors', or 'creatures'. Fairy tales have familiar tropes and patterns that are what make them the kind of stories that they are. So, while the authors contributing to the book have different writing styles and flair, the structure of each story is similar. The book has a little more flow than the others. Nearly every one of them was about a character going through some kind of adventure or challenge that changed them for the better.  I took a class on fairy tale literature in college. In that class I learned that the original oral tradition of folk tales and fairy tales was to teach lessons, but these lessons were usually not positive. The old, old versions of fairy tales had dark tones to them because they were told by poor people struggling to get by in a feudal system. They had messages of 'lie, steal, cheat - do whatever you have to in order to get ahead in life.' The Grimm Brothers took a lot of those stories and moralized them. Thanks to them, fairy tales began to have happy endings. They kept the strife, though. Bad things happen before good things can, and if a princess is good, a peasant boy is brave, or a prince is humble, they will eventually find their way to success. These are the messages that roll throughout Tales of Ever After. Goodness will prevail. I love this, for I am on a mission to spread kindness, and this book fits in with that mission. There are several princess stories where the princesses aren't sweet and need to learn a lesson or two before they can have their dreams come true. "Princess and the Stone Picker", "The Loathly Princess of Edimor", "Beeing Seen", and "King or Beggar" are among those. There are some handsome heroes that have their work cut out for them to find their true loves, including "Quest for a Wide Awake Princess", "The Greatest Adventure", "Wake the Moon", and "A Week After Midnight". There were some that had some surprising elements to them like "The Girl Who Talked to Birds", "Believing in Fairy Tales" and "How to Hide a Prince."  My favorite of all the stories, was the most unique in the group. "At the Corner of Elm & Main " has a lamppost as its main character. This lamppost is sentient and lonely. It dreams of having a life beyond this corner, and then its wish comes true. It has one night to be free. It is a beautiful story. It's the kind of story that I could see being animated into one of those short films before a Pixar movie. (And hey, before you wonder about it, not all Grimm Brothers stories were about people. There are several about inanimate objects. One adorable story of theirs was "The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean".) So, long story short (see what I did there?), if you like fairy tales, stories with surprises and happy endings, a touch of romance and sentimentality - pick up this book. I mean, why not? The ebook is free at all the ebook vendors. And hey, nearly every author in this collection has a fantasy or fairy tale book of their own. If you like their style, you can go read some more. Hoping you have a happily ever after reading list! I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I'd love to hear from you. Do you have any favorite fairy tales? Do you have any favorite fairy tale retellings? Leave a comment below. You can learn more about Tales of Ever After and the other anthologies I've participated in on the Short Stories page of my website. Also, learn about my series of fairy tale novelettes Chasing the Romantics, a Series of Original Fairy Tales.   I haven't been doing a lot of writing these past two months. I had big plans this summer to finish my current novel and release my newest fairy tale novelette The Tomato Quest. This didn't happen. Why? Well, my other creative passion came calling. Theater. When she whispers in my ear, it's really hard to ignore her, especially when it's a great opportunity. This time around, I was asked to direct a production of Steel Magnolias at The Larry Keeton Theatre, a popular dinner theater in Nashville where I have performed over a dozen times. I couldn't resist the call and agreed to do it. So, I wound up spending all of July staging this play, and it opened last weekend for a three week run. My husband is stage managing, and I have decided to stick around and help with stage crew. I like staying involved, and it's fun to work with my husband (as you might tell from this silly picture of us on the set).  I've had an amazing cast, and directing this show has been a wonderful experience. I'm very glad I did it and have no regrets about taking time away from my writing... Well, let me think about this a little bit. Have I taken time away from my writing? I mean, it's true I haven't created any new words on my manuscript since June, but there are other aspects to being a writer besides the actual output of verbiage. A lot of it has to do with simply using my mind creatively with relation to telling a story. As I think back on the past month and a half of putting together a play, I notice that there are many similarities between writing a novel and directing a play. The main thing that is similar is how both of these creative outlets challenge my brain to think.  Blocking rehearsal for Steel Magnolias. I think about story and plot. What is Steel Magnolias about? What happens? What is the best way to make each important moment in the play clear so that the audience will follow along and accept it all without question? When directing, I am interpreting someone else's writing, so these choices are made through blocking: moving the characters around on the stage to make interesting pictures, keeping the actresses' faces visible, varying the activity between serious and light moments, and adding business (what the actors do besides just reciting lines). The goal is to keep the action from being stagnant and boring the audience. As a writer, I use these same tools. I decide when and where my characters will stand, sit, or move. I carefully choose moments to share what they are doing with their faces, arms, and bodies. I try very hard not to make these movements random and to keep enough description so the reader can always visualize the scene and stay invested.  A beauty shop needs "hairdo" pics. This show is set in the 80s, so I couldn't resist putting my old 1989 Glamour Shots and one of my actress's old headshots on the wall. LOL! I think about the scenery. Steel Magnolias is set in one location - a beauty shop in the 1980s. Still, it has locations within it, such as the hair stations, manicure station, hair dryer, sink for washing hair, and exits. Based on the demands of the script, I chose how I wanted this shop to look, and then my husband and a team of workers built it for me. For Steel Magnolias, I wanted the set to be as realistic looking as possible, to make the audience feel completely involved in the show. As a writer, I make all of those same choices. I decide how the scenery looks - whether it's a teen girl's bedroom or a haunted rowboat in the middle of a dark, vast lake. I don't have anyone to build these sets for me, so I have to describe these locations in a way that the audience will be able to visualize it and stay connected to the story.  The set before we added any props or decoration. Boy, did it change! I think about properties. There are tons of items that the actresses have to use throughout the play from hair curlers, towels, mirrors, and nail polish, to extra stuff like magazines, pom-poms, candy, purses, and a tin of cookies to name a few. I had a wonderful woman helping me gather the props and decorate the set with them. She has a keen eye for things like this. Ultimately, though, it was my decision what we absolutely needed and how they would be used. Again, this is an important part of writing. I must decide when to mention something a character is holding or using. I describe it purposefully. The more attention I give the item, the more value it has to the plot or the character's identity. There is no point in introducing an object in a story or novel that is unnecessary. For example, if my main character uses a purse, that purse needs to suit her. In the play, Shelby's purse is pink and glittery, because she proclaims multiple times that she adores pink. "It's my signature color!" In my current work-in-progress, my main character's purse is small and plain because she doesn't like to draw attention to herself. Dannie, in Lost on the Water - A Ghost Story would never use a purse, preferring pockets, and Juniper Sawfeather chooses a messenger bag to take on her adventures.  Dress Rehearsal for Steel Magnolias. Then, ultimately, I think about the characters themselves, their motivations and intentions. I was blessed to have six incredible actresses to work with on Steel Magnolias. They have wonderful instincts and skill, and often I would wait to see what they would come up with on their own in rehearsals. Then, I just needed to shape it with some suggestions to alter the tone or delivery of a line. Or I might correct something that I interpreted differently. Sometimes I'd give an idea that would sharpen a comedic moment or prevent something from falling flat. In some ways this process of directing is more like revising a finished manuscript. It is no joke when authors say that characters often decide what they are going to say and do on their own. This happens to me all the time while writing first drafts. So, when I go back in to revise and rewrite, that's when I nudge that dialogue into place. It's often the time when all the 'he said' and 'she said' tags get changed into action lines or phrases that give more understanding of how the characters feel about what they're saying. So, in a sense, when I'm revising, I'm directing my characters to give their best performances. Perhaps that's why I prefer revising to writing first drafts.  If you're in Middle TN and want to see this, click on this image. I think there are still some tickets for the final weekend. The final similarity I will point out is when the book is published or when the play is open, I sit back and wait for the response, crossing my fingers that people will like the finished product. I'm so proud to say that the response to Steel Magnolias has been awesome. One of our less forgiving critics in town praised it in his review, the ladies are getting much-deserved standing ovations, and the show is selling out all of its performances. I'll sum up by simply stating that directing this play has been an experience I won't forget. I'm not sure if being an author helped me be a better director or if being an actress/director helps my writing. A lot of people ask me which I prefer: acting or writing. I often joke that I like writing better because I get to play all the parts. This kind of goes for directing, too. Thanks for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it and were able to take something away from it. If you did, please feel free to leave a comment. Also, take a moment to scroll through my blog or visit the other pages of my website. I had a bunch of new stuff release this summer, including an audiobook, a new novel, a story in a free anthology of fairy tales, and my newest fairy tale novelette The Tomato Quest, releases next weekend.    A collection of books I've seen about haunting in Tennessee and other southern states. This summer I've invited authors to share ghost stories on my blog to celebrate the release of my new novel Lost on the Water, A Ghost Story. They've been sharing excerpts from their novels or real encounters they've had. Today, I thought I'd share a couple of my own experiences. I've witnessed ghosts a handful of times in my life. I don't consider myself a medium or to have any extra-sensory powers, but I have experienced a few things that can't be explained by anything else except paranormal phenomena. Most of my ghost encounters have been since I moved to Tennessee. Not surprising. Everyone says the South is haunted.  I always thought it was funny that all my pictures of the house came out fuzzy like this. It wasn't a foggy or overcast day. When my daughter was about 7 or 8, she came into the living room to find my husband and I watching Ghost Hunters. (Yes, I'm crazy about true ghost stories, if you haven't guessed that yet.) At this impressionable age, she asked, "Mom, are ghosts real?" I looked her in the eyes and lied. "Of course not." Then I explained how fake the show was. I didn't tell her that the house we'd just moved out of had ghosts in it. They were children, and they were often laughing and playing in our yard. I didn't tell her that the theater where we did (and still do) most of our shows was haunted. My husband and I had a rehearsal interrupted by one of them wiggling a doorknob to the room we were in and peeking in through the square window. I didn't tell her that the 150 year old building that used to house the child care center where I work was filled with ghosts who liked to turn on toys, slam doors, and entrance the babies in my care. (No kidding, they all would zone out and stare at the exact same spot in the room and then start smiling or giggling at whatever was up there. We named that ghost Duncan. A woman who now works in that facility recently visited us at our new location and said she has often heard the clicking of heels walking around in the hallways after hours.) My daughter didn't need to know about ghosts just yet. I wanted her to sleep at night. The truth is that I do believe in ghosts. Five years ago, for my husband's 50th birthday, we decided to do a 'bucket list' challenge and participate in a real ghost hunt. We signed up for the Ghost Hunt Weekend retreat at the Thomas House hotel in Red Boiling Springs. My husband has family in that area, and has known about the hotel his whole life. This hotel was built in 1890 over some natural hot springs and was once a popular attraction. Even Teddy Roosevelt stayed there once upon a time. For the ghost hunt, they gather everyone together and told the history of the building and all the ghost stories surrounding it. Then they split us into groups and took us around the property to see if the ghosts would reveal themselves.  Our haunted room at the hotel. In the dining room, they set up so we could hear Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP), and we heard voices of a couple children and then a stern man's voice telling them "no" and to not talk to us. Later, in the restaurant area, they had a laser grid shining around the room, and we saw figures running through it. It was after 3:00 in the morning when we finally retired to our room. I still couldn't sleep, because they had told us about the ghost that haunted our particular room. I was certain she was there. It was a fun but nerve-wracking event. I used the memory of it in a scene in Lost on the Water, A Ghost Story. The setting of this book is less than an hour away from The Thomas House. I have a scene where the boys in town are sharing all the Tennessee legendary ghost stories they know with Dannie. Here's a bit of that scene: Jasper said that he and his brother spent the night at a hotel up in Red Boiling Springs and did an honest-to-goodness ghost hunt, just like they do on TV. They stayed up all night and listened to the spirits of children talking through EVPs and watched for shadows in the corners. “It was freezing, and you know how they always say places that are haunted are super cold. I couldn’t sleep at all.” “Yeah,” Brian teased, “but that’s because they said some lady haunts the room we were in and watches people while they sleep.” “That’s creepy,” Jasper said, defending himself. “Depends,” Chris said. “Is she a hot ghost?” I had to ask. “How do they know the hotel is haunted?” “Lots and lots of deaths there,” Jasper said. “They don’t call it Red Boiling Springs for nothing,” Brian added. Lamont tapped me on the shoulder gently and said, “There used to be these hot mineral springs up there. People came from all over the country to soak in them, thinking the hot water would heal them of illnesses. The hotel was built on top of them.” “And they’re red because of all the blood that spilled into them over the years,” Brian said as dramatically as possible. “Ooooooh,” Chris added, his hands flying in front of him like he was a blind ghost. I wished he would walk into a tree.  None of my characters are wearing life-jackets in my novel. It is terribly irresponsible of them. Lost on the Water is not a horror novel despite A Ghost Story being part of the title. It is a contemporary coming-of-age adventure story. There is ghost in the story (more than one depending on your definition of 'ghost'). The novel takes place at a real location, a lake in Tennessee called Center Hill Lake. This lake is vast and winding and surrounded by forest, an easy place to get lost if you're in a rowboat and don't know your way around. It is a popular vacation spot for boating and fishing trips. It is no surprise that there is at least one death per year. This is also a man-made lake. The Army Corps of Engineers built a dam on the Caney Fork River in 1948. The lake is 62 miles long, with 415 miles of shoreline and covers land in three counties. Apparently, when the lake was created by the dam, the water completely covered some small towns and the cemeteries within them. They say the bodies were exhumed and moved elsewhere, but I've seen Poltergeist and I have my doubts. At any rate, I found out that there is a Haunted Canoe ride that happens every November. Apparently, they tell you all the scary stories about the lake, and then you go out on the water in canoes and paddle right over one of the old cemeteries just fifteen feet below. Well, it's my 50th birthday at the end of this year, so I think we're going to have to do this canoe trip so my husband and I will be even-Stevens on our ghost encounter birthday trips. I'll let you all know how it goes.  Click on this image to learn more about the Haunted Canoe trip.  Lost on the Water, A Ghost story is on preorder now and releases everywhere on Tuesday, July 17th. You can find all the links and read another excerpt from it here. If you're a fan of stories like Stephen King's "The Body" (the movie is Stand By Me) or you're looking for a fun summer themed book, give this novel a look.
As always, I'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below or share a haunting experience of your own. You can join my mailing list here. And if you're new to the blog, scroll on down and enjoy the other posts. Thanks for stopping by.  This June and July I have invited authors to share ghost stories on my blog. The stories could be excerpts from their novels, stories of ghosts they've encountered in real life, ghost legends from the region where they live, or whatever other paranormal activity they'd like to share. My hope is that you'll read their books while you wait and get pumped up for the release of my newest novel Lost on the Water, A Ghost Story. Today's guest author is Leslie E. Heath. She is an author of fantasy novels. Her day job is working as a nurse in an old haunted hospital. But I'll let her share more about that. I know this post is a little longer than usual, but if you like real ghost stories and sightings and things that go bump in the night, it's worth it. **All names have been changed to protect the privacy of the nurses involved. I work as a night-shift ER nurse in one of the oldest hospitals in the United States. The original building was constructed in 1832 over a Revolutionary War Battleground. Unsubstantiated rumors say the old building was used to hold prisoners of war during the American Civil War, and the hospital hosts tours of the dungeon beneath it during the Halloween season. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have reported unnerving experiences on these grounds. I’ve worked in this facility for nine years, mostly on nights. These are a few of my own personal encounters. *** During hurricane season, it’s not uncommon for the staff to stay on hospital grounds when a large storm threatens the area. One such night, I stayed in the hospital, even though I wasn’t scheduled to work until the next day. The hospital at that time had three units that weren’t open due to staffing concerns and low patient census, so the staff were assigned to sleep in the rooms lining those abandoned halls. Exhausted by the stress of preparing my family to weather the storm and packing my belongings to head to the hospital, I fell asleep quickly in my private room. At some point during the night, I got hot and kicked off the blankets, as I often do at home. I awakened again with a shock as someone pulled the covers up to my chin and tucked them around my shoulders. I hadn’t heard the door open or close. Shaking, I pressed the light button on the bedside controls. I was alone in the room. I convinced myself it had been a dream, something my over-tired mind had made up, and I turned the light back off and tried to will myself back to sleep. The room was still uncomfortably warm, so I kicked off the blanket and rolled up in the sheet. I lay there for what seemed like hours, though I have no idea how much time actually passed. Before I could fall back to sleep, someone whispered in my ear, “There now. You’ll be all right. Now, get some rest,” and tucked the blanket back around my shoulders. This time, I knew I wasn’t dreaming. I sat up in bed and pressed the light back on. The room was empty. Goosebumps erupted over my arms and neck, and I threw my belongings back into my bag. I figured I’d sleep in one of the empty ER beds where my friends would be nearby. I pulled the door open, ready to flee down the hall, and ran straight into one of my co-workers. “Someone’s in my room,” she said. Her face had none of it’s normal color. Speechless, I nodded and grabbed her arm. “Mine, too.” We proceeded down to the ER together, and neither of us slept in the abandoned wards again, even though whatever spirit was in that room clearly had no wish to do me any harm.   Though we rarely interact with the spirits within the hospital, we see them much more often. Most of the time, they’re passing through the hallways in the dead of night and I see them when I’m heading in the same direction. One such night, the pneumatic tube system we use to send lab specimens and paperwork throughout the hospital was broken, so I had to walk my patient’s blood to the lab. This is a fairly common occurrence, because the maintenance crew likes to take systems down late at night to minimize interruptions to service during the peak business hours. This particular night, housekeeping was also stripping and waxing the floors in the main hallway, so I had to take a series of side passages to get to the lab. I turned yet another corner in the winding maze of the old building and stopped in my tracks. There, in the middle of the hall, a semi-transparent figure in a white antique nurse’s uniform floated down the hall toward me. I could clearly make out the details of her pristine blouse, skirt, and hat, but her face was blurred and I couldn’t see anything below the skirt. No legs. No feet. She moved toward me without acknowledging my presence, so I ducked back around the corner and pressed myself against the wall. I stood there, frozen, until I saw her pass by. I stepped out of my hall and watched until she turned another corner. When she was gone, I sprinted to the lab to deliver the blood I still held clenched in my hand, and I had a member of maintenance walk me back to the ER even though I knew he couldn’t do anything about the floating nurse.  After those experiences, you’d think I would have known that the hospital is haunted and would have stayed to the “safe” areas where I work regularly. Or not. One summer night, we had no patients in the ER. We’d been empty for hours. I finished all my annual trainings, and so did my friends and co-workers. A small group of us got bored and decided to go explore the old building, the original hospital that’s now only used as offices during the day. Even maintenance won’t go in there at night. The old building is attached to the new one by a walkway on the second floor, so we didn’t have to go outside in the rain to get to it. Four friends and I took the elevator up one level and walked side-by-side down the empty halls to the connecting bridge, our medical clogs clacking against the linoleum floor and echoing down the corridor. Had I been alone, I would have turned back at a dozen different points down that walk, but even the pressure of my friends couldn’t stop me from trying to back out when we reached that walkway. The lights in the bridge were dimmed for the night, and the lightning outside flashed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting a deathly glow on the white stone of the old building. Two of my friends grabbed my arms. I could feel their hands shaking through the fabric of my scrub jacket. “I changed my mind,” I said. “I don’t want to go over there. Not tonight. We can check it out in the morning.” I didn’t care anymore if they thought I was a coward. “It’ll be boring in the morning,” Cheryl said. “We’ve all been in there a thousand times in the daylight. Let’s see what it’s like at night.” I let them pull me forward across the bridge, though every fiber of my being wanted to flee. The old building is a hollow square, with stone halls and offices encircling an inner, open courtyard. At some point in the building’s history, someone renovated and added elevators at the corners. We linked arms at the end of the bridge and continued to the right, toward the elevator. We had decided to go down to the first floor to see the grand entrance hall, which I had never seen before because it was on the opposite side of the building from the nursing offices. As soon as we passed from the bridge to the stone floor of the old building, the mood changed. The air in that space was icy cold—colder than air conditioning could explain on a stormy southern summer night. This time Cathy decided she wanted to back out. Again, the others grabbed her arms and convinced her to go on. We continued toward the elevator that would take us down to the main entrance of the hospital, where generals and administrators had given speeches, held ceremonies, and addressed the media for nearly two hundred years. We piled into the tiny elevator, and Elizabeth pressed the button for the first floor. Nothing happened. The doors stayed open. The button didn’t light up. Elizabeth pressed the button again, harder this time. All the buttons lit up. “Going up,” the cheerful automatic voice announced. “No!” We all yelled. Elizabeth pressed the first floor button again, several times in quick succession. The doors closed, and we went up. And up. All the way to the fifth floor. The top of the hospital. The old operating suite. During the day, the glass dome focused the light onto the center of the room, where the operating table had been in days passed. The room had been turned into a museum, or so I’d heard, though I had never seen it. The lights in the elevator flickered. The doors opened. Beyond the open door, a velvet blackness filled the room. A cold, rotten stench filled the elevator. It stank of blood, infection, and death. I gagged. So did Cheryl. “Down, dammit,” Elizabeth said through gritted teeth, pounding on the first floor button again. In the blackness, something moved. Papers shuffled. Boots scraped across the floor. “Down!” Elizabeth yelled. Part of me wanted to run, out of the elevator, down the stairwell that ran beside it. The rest of me was frozen in abject terror. “Why?” A raspy voice whispered from the darkness. “Why did you do this to me?” I closed my eyes, sure I was about to die. The elevator door slid closed with a creak. It dropped with alarming speed to the first floor, where it jolted to a stop so hard that it knocked us all to our knees. As soon as the doors opened, we ran from the elevator and out the front door. I can’t say I saw anything of that grand room we had hoped to explore. We sprinted together through the pouring rain, around to the back of the new building, where the bright red sign announced the entrance to the emergency department. I’ve never set foot in that building again. Whenever there’s some business that would normally lead me to one of those offices, I find another way to handle it. I email, call, and even snail mail.  The portico of the Portsmouth Naval Asylum (Naval Hospital), designed by John Haviland (1827). By unidentified HABS photographer - Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5730413 Wasn't that the best? I love a good ghost sighting, and now I feel a trip to visit this hospital is necessary and added to my bucket list. Added to my TBR list is Leslies newest novel. If the story telling she shared here is any indication of her writing, I'm going to love her books. Also, she needs to get these ghost stories together and write a horror novel asap. Right? Here's a blurb about her latest book:  Sometimes the only way to prevent a war is to meet it head on. Alija's village has known peace for twenty years, but only under the tyrannical rule of Tavan and his guards. Stripped of all weapons, the villagers know to keep their heads down. But when one of Alija's group suffers merciless punishment after they are caught with weapons, he and the others decide Tavan and his men must go. It's the only way to prevent a repeat of the village's violent history. How far will they go to gain their freedom––and are four untrained men enough to bring down an army? Available at Amazon Kindle  Leslie E. Heath is a wife, mother, runner, animal lover, nurse and writer. She resides with her family and a number of rescued pets in a quaint North Carolina town, near the Outer Banks. When Leslie isn't cozied up at home writing, she finds inspiration for her work by spending time basking or running at the nearby beach or trails. Her love of writing began when she was ten years old, fueled by her love of reading. Her affinity with fantasy allows creativity when it comes to character development, settings, and a little magic. *Note: She lives in North Carolina and works in Virginia, because she lives close to the state line. It’s not a terribly long commute, even though it’s a different state. Website Facebook page I hope you enjoyed Leslie's guest post. I have more guests with ghost stories on the way, so keep coming back. My novel Lost on the Water, A Ghost Story releases on July 17th. Only a couple more weeks! I'm also running my other ghost story, Passing Notes, for free until then. Please leave a comment for Leslie or myself. It's always great to see who's visiting the blog.
 This June and July I have invited authors to share ghost stories on my blog. The stories could be excerpts from their novels, stories of ghosts they've encountered in real life, ghost legends from the region where they live, or whatever other paranormal activity they'd like to share. My hope is that you'll read their books while you wait and get pumped up for the release of my newest novel Lost on the Water, A Ghost Story. Today's guest is author Teri Polen. I originally met Teri through her book blog Books and Such, where she has reviewed most of my books. I got to meet her in person at the Southern Kentucky Festival of Books last year, which was so awesome. In 2016 she approached me about reading her YA horror novel Sarah before publication and letting her know what I thought of it. I thought it was awesome! It's really spooky, and has a sense of humor as well. It's a great ghost story. She put a quote from me on the book's cover, and that made me feel really important. I'm so glad people are discovering her book. Sarah also was a horror finalist in the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Here is a blurb about the novel:  Seventeen-year-old horror fan Cain Shannon thought helping a ghost find her killers would be the supernatural adventure of a lifetime. Now, he just hopes to survive long enough to protect his family and friends from her. A bet between friends goes horribly wrong, resulting in Sarah's death. When she returns to seek justice against those responsible, Cain agrees to help her. But when he discovers Sarah has been hijacking his body, he realizes she wants retribution instead of justice. Terrified of what could have happened when he wasn't in control, Cain commands Sarah to leave his house - but exorcising her isn't that easy. She retaliates against her murderers in bloody, horrific ways, each death making her stronger, then sets her sights on Cain. With the help of friends, Cain fights to save himself and his loved ones and searches for a way to stop Sarah before she kills again.  Excerpt: I knew she was here because of the drop in room temperature, but I felt Eby tensed up at my side, surprised he hadn’t dashed out of here. I let out a huff, rolled over and sat up, figuring she was going to do what she wanted anyway, and sleep would have to wait. She was standing at the foot of my bed, light from the street lamp creating an aura around her. But something was different. Watching various nature shows over the years, I knew some animals sensed when a predator was near, their self-preservation instincts the strongest they possessed. That’s exactly how I felt right now. I was the prey. Sarah looked nothing like the innocent, victimized, shy high school girl she liked to portray. She was the embodiment of evil, her black eyes reflective pools of malevolence, hands stretching towards me as if reaching for my throat. As she cocked her head very slightly to her left, a confident, victorious leer stretched across her face. Everything inside me said to run, but I couldn’t get to the door without going by her and knew I’d never make it. With my hand on Eby’s back, I felt a rumble go through him as he growled at Sarah. Crouched on all fours, his body was rigid and I figured he was as nervous about running by her as I was. Sarah slowly rose off the floor, and I felt the muscles in Eby’s haunches grow even tauter in anticipation. What happened next was over in the blink of an eye, but I saw everything as if in slow motion. Sarah shot toward me like a bullet out of a gun. Simultaneously, Eby leaped in front of me, attempting to block Sarah from reaching me. Although a valiant effort, Eby had no effect on Sarah and sailed right through her semi-transparent shape, but I loved my brave furry friend for trying. When she hit my chest, I felt it at my core, like a wrecking ball had plowed into me. But she didn’t just hit me, Sarah was inside me again and I could feel her moving, as I felt myself fading, my life energy being drained. When Sarah had been a passenger within me before, I’d never felt her presence. This feeling was completely foreign to me. She was something palpable, not like an internal organ, but more of an extension of myself, an extra arm or leg. Just before my world went black, I had a brief connection with Sarah’s corrupted mind and the atrocities I saw made me welcome the darkness as it enveloped me.   This is a good horror story for readers 13 and older. So, if you're looking for a scare this summer, go pick it up. Available through Amazon Nook or her publisher Black Rose Writing. She also has a brand new YA science fiction novel The Gemini Connection out. It is definitely on my TBR list.  Click on this image to get to her website. I hope you enjoyed this visit with Teri Polen and will go download one of her books to enjoy over the next month. And remember, Lost on the Water, A Ghost Story publishes one month from today! (7/17). If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment for Teri or myself or share the link with your friends. You can always sign up for my mailing list here.
 This June and July I have invited authors to share ghost stories on my blog. The stories could be excerpts from their novels, stories of ghosts they've encountered in real life, ghost legends from the region where they live, or whatever other paranormal activity they'd like to share. My hope is that you'll read their books while you wait and get pumped up for the release of my newest novel Lost on the Water, A Ghost Story. First up on the Write and Rewrite guest list is author Laura Wolfe. Laura has an amazing two-book YA mystery series about a teen girl and champion horse rider who has an ability to see ghosts. I absolutely loved book one, Trail of Secrets, and I have book two, Barn Shadows waiting in line on my Kindle. I can't wait to read it.  The ghost story Laura Wolfe is sharing today is from Barn Shadows. Here's a blurb about the novel. A year after her tumultuous exit from the prestigious Foxwoode Riding Academy, seventeen year-old Brynlei returns determined to confront her demons and win Foxwoode's elite Top Rider Award. When she stumbles over an antique doll at the construction site of a new barn, a series of inexplicable occurrences force her to question whether her condition as a "highly-sensitive person" is to blame or if something more sinister is at play. As Brynlei becomes consumed with discovering the history of the unearthed doll, the bizarre happenings escalate to dangerous levels. She soon realizes that someone close to her is lying. But who? Could a decades-old tragedy and the threatening events at Foxwoode be more closely entwined than she ever imagined?  Excerpt Brynlei lay awake in her bunk, once again staring at the wooden slats above her. Anna slept, her steady breathing interrupted only by an occasional chirp or hoot from animals outside. The fan rattled in the window, but its shallow hum didn’t block out the myriad nighttime noises that could infiltrate a cabin in the woods of northern Michigan. The other girls seemed to be asleep, too, except for Grace who tossed and turned on the other side of the room. Brynlei closed her eyes and envisioned the doll in her suitcase. She pictured the black-and-white image hanging in the dining hall. The photo from 1965 had yellowed at the corners, its subjects stiff and discolored. The girl pictured with the doll would be somewhere around sixty years old today, if she was even alive. How had she been at Foxwoode the other night? It didn’t make logical sense, yet Brynlei was certain it was the same girl. Her dress, her hair, and her stature were all identical. Plus, when Brynlei had told Caroline about someone separating from the group during the scavenger hunt, Caroline had insisted that they’d all been together. The faint glimpse of understanding Brynlei had been trying to ignore now gleamed before her, refusing to dim. No one else had seen the girl because she was a ghost. The flashlight’s drained battery, her bathroom items repeatedly being knocked off the shelf, the mysterious fleeting figure in her mirror, the clocks blinking 4:29, and the brushes positioned in a semicircle all percolated in Brynlei’s mind. Each incident taken alone had seemed odd but meaningless. She had explained away each peculiar occurrence, not wanting to become embroiled in another ghost hunt. Taken together, however, the evidence of paranormal activity seemed overwhelming. Maybe the girl needed to tell her something. Perhaps the girl’s life had met with an abrupt ending. She could be stuck in the physical world because she was clinging to unfinished business. Brynlei had researched the subject of paranormal occurrences at length after she’d seen her dead grandma sitting in the living room armchair. Her sightings hadn’t occurred frequently, but they did happen. Even before her diagnosis as an HSP, Brynlei had known that ghosts were real. She’d seen them. There was her grandma, of course, but there’d been others, too. Like Mr. Brentwood, the man her parents called her imaginary friend. She’d played with him for hours in the backyard when she’d lived in the house on Hill Street. Even though he always wore a charcoal suit and a burgundy tie, he didn’t mind digging in the sandbox or rolling on the grass with her. He pushed her on the tire swing and ate picnics with her under the oak tree. He preferred tea with his cake and always thanked her for the extra effort. Mr. Brentwood’s eyes crinkled in the corners and glistened whenever he told Brynlei how she reminded him of his daughter. Brynlei had been young then—only three or four. She’d concluded that her parents couldn’t see Mr. Brentwood because he played hide-and-seek whenever they came around. She’d cried when they’d moved from Hill Street to their current house. Mr. Brentwood had explained that he couldn’t travel with her. The day they moved was the last time she ever saw him. Back then, she didn’t understand why Mr. Brentwood stayed in the house on Hill Street, but she had since learned that spirits who remained in the physical world were usually trapped there because of unfinished business, tethered to the place where they’d died. Their spirits lingered in the spot where their lives had ended and, sometimes, tried to send a message—or a warning—to others.  This series is perfect for readers 13 and older, especially if you LOVE horses. But add in mystery, a ghost, and a spooky doll? Sign. Me. Up. You can get these books at Amazon or wherever books are sold online. They are published with Fire and Ice YA Books.  Laura Wolfe is a lover of animals and nature. When she is not writing, she can be found playing games with her highly-energetic kids, riding horses, growing vegetables in her garden, or spoiling her rescue dog. Laura's YA mystery, Trail of Secrets (Dark Horse, Book One), was named as a Finalist in the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards—First Novel category. Barn Shadows (Dark Horse, Book Two) was shortlisted in the 2018 Chanticleer Paranormal Book Awards. Laura holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan and is an active member of multiple writing groups, including Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, and the SCBWI. For more information on her upcoming books, please visit: www.AuthorLauraWolfe.com So, go download Laura's wonderful books and enjoy them over the next month or so until Lost on the Water comes out. Please leave a comment for Laura or myself. We'd love to here from you. Share this blog post if you enjoyed it. And you can always sign up for my mailing list here.
 It's time! I've had all of these covers ready for a while now, but I've been waiting to share them with you. As you see, I've got a lot going on this summer. Two new books and two audiobooks are all coming out one right after the other. And to think, I auditioned to be in a musical this summer. So glad that didn't work out. Sometimes my desire to sing makes me abandon my common sense. I mean, I can always sing in the car or the shower, right? Do people really have to hear me? I'm a teacher, but I work at the kind of school that doesn't shut down for summer break. So, I've taken this coming week off to get all of my plans for these releases in order. I hope you will join me in reading or listening to these books, leaving reviews, and encouraging your friends to read them too. BTW, I'm on the lookout for early readers who are willing to leave a review at Amazon and/or Goodreads the day the books are released. If you'd like to be one of those people, shoot me an email and let me know which book you're interested in reading. I'll put you on my list and let you know when the ARCs are ready.  I'll start off with the biggest project first! If you're a fan of the movie Stand By Me (based on Stephen King's short story "The Body") or you're looking for a good campfire read this summer, you'll enjoy my YA novel Lost on the Water, A Ghost Story. It's scheduled to release on July 17th! This story is about a girl from California who has to spend a couple weeks with her grandma near a lake in rural Tennessee. She sneaks out to try to join an 'all boys' campout on an island in the middle of the lake (where legend says a ghost shows up every summer) and soon gets horribly lost. You'll enjoy this adventurous and sometimes spooky tale. Learn more and read an excerpt. Lost on the Water is published by Fire and Ice Young Adult Books (an imprint of Melange Books). They also published my Juniper Sawfeather Trilogy and Passing Notes. The cover design was by Caroline Andrus. My last blog post features an interview with her about her work at F&I and as an author. In keeping with my revision theme of this blog, I'll share with you that this book has been through so many rewrites since its original draft in November, 2009 that the only thing that has never changed in the story is that there is a grandma, a lake, and a rowboat. Ha ha! I hope you like the way it finally turned out. I've worked very hard on it, and I think it's a lot of fun.   It's been a fairy tale year for me. Well, in real life not so much. But in my imagination, yes. In January I published The Royal Deal, which was the first book of my series of original fairy tales called Chasing the Romantics. In April, I had another fairy tale "The Hallway of Three Doors" published in the Fellowship of Fantasy anthology Mythical Doorways. And now, finally, I plan to release my second fairy tale novelette The Tomato Quest this summer. (I'm aiming for late June). I've had to put it on the back burner a few times to work on other projects, and the revision from its original short story version was a little more extensive than I had planned. I think the end result is worth it. This story is about Dash and Lillian who are forbidden to marry because he is the son of a gardener and not of the noble class. Dash is given a ridiculous and impossible challenge by Lillian's father, and even though he can't possibly succeed, he is going to try. Lillian plays her part by striving to stall her engagement to someone else in order to give Dash time. There is some adventure, romance, and a fair bit of magic in this sweet story. I hope you'll enjoy it. Learn more about my fairy tales here.  Getting a book published is a feeling unlike any other. Holding a finished print copy in your hands for the first time is a joy that never fades. I have to admit, I have now found an experience with publishing that has brought me a new thrill - hearing my book read to me by a talented voice-over narrator. Wow. Getting audiobooks produced is so much fun! This summer I'm releasing audiobooks of two of my novels. *5/29/18 update - this audiobook is now live at Audible.com The first is my award-winning middle grade novel No One Needed to Know about autism acceptance and school bullying. The narrator/producer is Allie James. The recording is complete and approved. It should be releasing within the next week or so. This book is targeted toward 8-13 year old readers. You can learn more about No One Needed to Know here.  The other audiobook I'm having recorded this year is Cry of the Sea, the first book of the Juniper Sawfeather Trilogy. The book is being narrated/produced by Courtney Parker. I've heard the first chapter so far, and it's terrific. The audiobook is scheduled to be released in August, so we have a bit of a wait still. Courtney is a popular voice over artist, so I had to wait my turn to have access to her talent. If you're interested in learning more about this novel and the Juniper Sawfeather series, visit this page. So, that's what's going on with me this summer. I'd love to know what you think of these cover designs and if they get you excited about reading (or listening) to these books. Leave a comment below.
Please take a minute to sign up for my newsletter or follow me on facebook or twitter to stay up to date as the books get released and find out what other projects I'm working on. If you do, and you leave a message that you read my summer cover reveal post, I'll send you a free ebook copy of Passing Notes.
Welcome to day 3 of the Peace YA/NA Blog Tour! Today I'll be sharing an interview with author Caroline Andrus and a review of her young adult contemporary novella Peace in Flames.
I've known Caroline for about five years now. She is the head of acquisitions at Fire and Ice Young Adult Books (imprint of Melange Books) and does the majority of the cover art for their titles. She has personally selected all of the books and stories I've published through them and done all of the cover art for my books. I knew that her dream was to have her own work published eventually, and she has been working hard to write her own material. We both had stories published in the Satin Romance anthology Second Chance for Love, and hers was one of my favorite stories in the collection. So, it wasn't a big surprise to find that I enjoyed her new novella Peace in Flames. I'm looking forward to reading her other book Summer of Peace as well. I'll start with the interview, so you can all get to know her a bit better. Stick with this blog post, though, because I do have a review below, links to get your copy of the book, AND there's a rafflecopter with prizes!!! 
D. G.: How did you get involved with the Peace novella series?
Caroline: In fall of 2016, author S.H. Pratt came to myself and two other writers via Facebook group chat with an idea for a multi-author novella series. She had written a contemporary romance novella set in a fictional town in Montana called Peace. She asked if we would be interested in being a part of this project. I've never done anything quite like this before. I'd never even written anything as long as a novella worth publishing. I thought this could be a really great challenge for me. So, I signed on. D. G.: Did they give you parameters for your story? Character names? A bible of the other stories? I saw on the website there is a map of the town. Caroline: Most of the guidelines were voted upon by the members who initially agreed to participate in the series. There were a few that S. H. Pratt set in stone from the beginning, such as no scene breaks, no F-bombs, and no graphic intimate scenes. (Behind closed doors was totally okay, just nothing "on camera".) And, of course, every novella title had to have the word Peace in it. Each participating author created their characters and listed them in a group file on Google Drive. If one author wanted to use a character that another author created, they just had to talk to the original author to make sure they were portraying the character correctly. As each story was written, more locations were added to the town map. I personally created Generic Eric's Sandwich Shoppe and Soda Fountain as well as The Craft Corner. Eric's plays a big part in Peace in Flames and both locations show up numerous times in my follow up story, Summer of Peace. D. G.: Are there characters in your novella that overlap in the other books? Caroline: Some stories have more character overlap than others. In Summer of Peace there's a cameo by Jim Harwood, who is the star of Love in Peace by Krysi Foster. Dray Parker appears in both of my stories as well as numerous others, he's a sheriff's deputy created by S. H. Pratt. I also name drop Kadaisha in both my stories. She's the celebrity pop star alter-ego of Lynn Dyer who stars in Peace and Harmony by Lisa Ann. I honestly don't know if my main characters appear in any of the other stories! (I haven't had a chance to read them all yet!) I know the waitress at Eric's, Tammy, makes an appearance in at least one other novella in the series. D. G. : Peace in Flames can be read as a stand-alone. The website suggests reading the books in order of publication. Does that make a difference? Are there things I would know more about if I read the whole series? Caroline: The books truly do stand on their own. We suggest reading them in order simply because there may be minor spoilers to the previous books. The only spoilers in mine are events from Peace in Flames are alluded to in Summer of Peace, but nothing is spelled out. We all really tried to keep the spoilers to a minimum. The benefit of reading the whole series would really be to have a clearer view of this little Montana town. D. G. : You have second Peace book releasing. Tell me about that. Will we see these characters again? I really love Liam. Caroline: Yes! Summer of Peace is my follow up to Peace in Flames. Flames takes place during Valerie's senior year and focuses on her and Liam. Fast forward about eight months and it's the summer after graduation. Summer of Peace is Valerie's best friend JoJo's story. JoJo is featured in Flames, but in Summer she gets to shine. While Valerie is preparing to leave for college at the end of summer and spending most of her free time with Liam, JoJo isn't quite sure what she's doing with her life. Add in the return of Valerie's older brother, and the one guy JoJo has been in love with since boys stopped having cooties, and things get interesting. Summer is a much more straightforward romance. I've labeled it New Adult, but honestly, it's right on that edge where it could be YA or it could be NA. It is clean, though, so upper YA readers could totally read it. D. G.: In your author note at the end, you wrote that you didn’t intend to write about sexual harassment. At what point did you decide to take the dark turn with Chris’s character. That scene is terrifying, by the way. Caroline: I wish I had the answer to that. Chris is definitely a dark character, he has a lot of issues going on. I think he has a narcissistic personality and no moral compass. He's a big bully and nobody saw him taking things as far as he did. I think as I started to write the events, I just thought, here's this guy who is used to getting everything he wants. Throw some alcohol in him and how far would he really take things? Is it wrong that I'm glad the scene is terrifying? It was very emotional to write. I second guessed everything, but if other readers feel the same, I think I've done it justice. D. G.: Nope, not wrong to feel that way at all. The theme of my blog is revision, so share a little about your revision process for this book? Were there any scenes you had to rewrite? Is there an editor for the series? Do you use beta readers? Caroline: This particular book didn't have a whole lot of rewrites. I actually started writing this one, got stuck, then wrote an entire 20k draft of Summer, hated that draft and scrapped the entire thing, then went back to what I had started for Flames and just wrote. The only thing I remember going back in the end and adding were a few details that I'd left out that really needed to be there for the whole arson-angle. Each author was responsible for their own editor for their book. My editor is always Nancy Schumacher from Melange Books. Before the book even gets to her it goes through beta readers and multiple reads on my own. For Peace in Flames I think I had five readers. I received some really good insight from those beta reads. I specifically put a call out for a sensitivity reader who had been sexually assaulted herself. I didn't feel comfortable putting a book of this nature out without hearing that opinion first. She was extremely helpful. One of my readers also gave me a list of "watch words" - words that are weak and can easily be changed to make my writing stronger. Wow, that list has made a world of a difference in all of my writing since Peace in Flames!  Click on the image to learn more about these books.
D. G.: Nancy Schumacher is the best! She just finished proofreading my newest book. You are a book cover artist. Did you do your own book cover? Do you do book covers for others in the series. (I did notice that your chapter headings use the same font as the covers of my Juniper Sawfeather novels).
Caroline: I did design both my covers for the Peace Series. I also designed the cover for Peace of Work by Rachel Walter, and Peace and Harmony by Lisa Ann. (Rachel and I worked together to create a great cover, Lisa told me exactly what she wanted and I did it.) We were given specifications for our covers so that text-wise they were all uniform. I actually didn't even have the Peace font (which is called Digory Doodles) until I got involved with this series, and it looked so good when I tried it on the Juniper Sawfeather novels I couldn't not use it for those! D. G.: You are the head of acquisitions at Fire and Ice YA Books, head cover designer for Melange Books and its imprints, you hold two jobs, and you have a family. How do you make time to write? What do you have to sacrifice? Caroline: I write very, very, very slowly. Most of Peace in Flames and the first draft of Summer of Peace (which, as I mentioned above, was scrapped entirely!) was written last summer during my kids swim lessons. I had about half an hour while kid #2 was in her lesson, then I had about another 45 minutes during kid #1's lesson. At that time, I would sit with my little Bluetooth keyboard in the stands overlooking the pool and write using Dropbox on my Kindle. I've since moved to writing on my iPhone using Google Docs. Sometimes I use my Bluetooth keyboard, sometimes I just type on the screen. Whichever is most convenient. I also make use of downtime at work when there's absolutely nothing else to do (or when I've been working my butt off and have earned a break!) If I’m waiting for an appointment (doctor, dentist, orthodontist, etc.) I'll pull up Google Docs and write on my phone. When I'm caught up or, dare I say ahead with my work for Melange, I'll "slack" a little and spend some time working on my own books. I'm trying to train myself to not feel guilty for working on my own projects. Fortunately for me, I'm not the kind of person who enjoys going out and doing things. My idea of a good time is a night home writing or reading. (Or binging Netfilx while doing work for Melange!) D. G.: That's funny. I wrote the first draft of my YA novella Passing Notes during my daughter's swimming lessons. Many people ask me why I choose to publish with a small press instead of self-publishing. I often tell them it is because of my relationship with you and Nancy and the other Melange authors. There is definitely a feel of ‘family’ to this group. Why do you think authors should choose small indie presses as opposed to self-publishing? What do you see as the benefits. Caroline: That's a great question! When you self-publish you are responsible for everything! You need to find a quality editor and pay them, you need to hire a cover artist and pay them, you need to do absolutely everything yourself. You're footing the bill outright and there's always a chance you'll never recoup that investment. When you work with a publisher, whether small-press like Melange or traditional, you're covered. They're going to take care of the cover art and editing. All you need to worry about is marketing. (HA! As if that's not enough work, am I right?!) Some people have the funds available to hire everyone needed to publish a book. Others don't, and it's beneficial for them to give up a percentage of their book sales royalties. I don't think one way of publishing is right for everyone. Every author is different and has different needs. I do think that working with a publisher does give you that awesome relationship with other people in the business, not only with the publisher but also with your fellow authors. You can definitely get that self-publishing, but you have to find them, they're not just thrown at you like with your publisher. (Melange has a great private Facebook group for both the staff and our authors where we invite all of our authors to ask questions and advice. I'm not sure if other publishing houses have this, but I personally love it!) D. G.: As head of acquisitions for Fire and Ice YA Books, what’s on your MSWL right now? Do you have any advice for submitting authors? Caroline: Omigosh! I'm so in love with YA contemporary romance right now, I can't get enough! It seems like we mostly get submissions for fantasy and paranormal, which is great and there's definitely a place for them, but I'd love to see something different. I'd also really love to see some more New Adult submissions. If I had to make a wishlist, contemporary romance both YA and NA is at the top of the list. I'd also love to see more fairy tale re-imaginings and superheroes. My advice for submitting authors, no matter where you are submitting, is to make sure you're following the submissions guidelines for that particular house. If they want the first 3 chapters in an attachment (as we do), do not copy and paste it into the body of the email. There is nothing more annoying than trying to read in email. I send all of the submissions to my Kindle and read there. BUT, before you even GET to the point of submitting your manuscript, edit and revise. Then edit and revise again. Run it through spelling/grammar check. This is your first impression, don't be sloppy. Take pride in your work and show you're serious. D. G.: Well, I've been working on a YA contemporary romance, so it sounds like I better get it finished. I also need to start reading Summer of Peace, because it sounds yummy! 
Obsession and jealousy can be dangerous.
The Peace High School date auction is supposed to be fun, but Valerie Todd is dreading it. She knows who will win her date—Chris Burkeholder, the boy who’s been obsessed with her for years. New in Peace, Liam Sloan doesn’t know that Chris is used to getting his way. When Liam outbids Chris for Valerie’s date in the auction, life gets more dangerous for the new couple. Will Valerie and Liam survive Chris’ anger and jealousy?
My review of Peace in Flames
This is a short book packed with action. Caroline Andrus has written a novella that keeps you turning the pages to see what happens next. It starts out as a simple teen romance - new hot boy moves to a small town, and he's a bit mysterious. The local rich kid/stud has made his claim on Valerie, but she doesn't want him. Oh, but the book turns dangerous after this point, and the plot keeps you on the edge of your seat right to the end. I will admit, I got angry with Valerie for not coming forward about what happens to her. It's important to the plot, but in this time of "me too", I wanted her to nail the guy right away. I think this book is a great choice for people who have read Speak or Faking Normal and are looking for something else with a similar themes about teen sexual harassment. This novella is one of a series about the town of Peace, all written by different authors. I'm interested in learning more about this series as a whole and Caroline's follow-up novella Summer of Peace. I think the concept is fascinating. I recommend this book for readers 13 and older. 
About The Author
Caroline Andrus was born and raised in the St. Paul suburbs where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and Henry McCoy—a wild cougar trapped in the body of a house cat. She divides her time between writing, Facebook, designing, and managing her household. Since 2011 she has been second in command for indie press Melange Books. She is head of acquisitions for their YA imprint, Fire & Ice Young Adult books, as well as web designer, formatter, and head of their cover art department. In her minimal spare time she enjoys reading, rocking out to the radio, and binging TV shows on Netflix. She is passionate about both reading and writing teen fiction, and is pretty sure she will forever be eighteen at heart. You can find her online at: www.carolineandrus.com www.carolineandrus.com/blog https://www.facebook.com/CarolineAndrusAuthor/ https://twitter.com/AndrusCaroline https://www.amazon.com/Caroline-Andrus/e/B010P9ZO0Q/ www.goodreads.com/carolineandrus www.bookbub.com/profile/caroline-andrus Newsletter sign up: http://eepurl.com/c8q8OP
So, if you're not rushing off to grab a copy of one of her new books (as you should be) or prepping your YA or NA novel for submission to Fire and Ice YA Books, please take a moment to leave a comment below. You're also always welcome to browse through previous posts, sign up for my newsletter, or visit the other pages of my website. Thanks for visiting!
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D. G. DriverAward-winning author of books for teen and tween readers. Learn more about her and her writing at www.dgdriver.com Archives
March 2023
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Author D. G. Driver's
Write and Rewrite Blog
“There are no bad stories, just ones that haven’t found their right words yet.”
A blog mostly about the process of revision with occasional guest posts, book reviews, and posts related to my books.
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