Time always appeared as a predictable element. Seconds into minutes. Minutes into hours. Hours into days, on into a lifetime. He couldn’t stop it or slow it down, rewind it or influence its course. It was a simple fact: Life keeps moving and one must move with it.
~Across Oceans, Hope or High Water series Book 1
Latest News
Happy Halloween to my readers and a very happy one it is!
After ten months of researching and drafts, it’s finally time to edit Broken Lines! Let me just say, I love editing. Absolutely love it. Writing for me is the hard part; give me a red pen any day. It’s a truly incredible experience to see a horrid first draft turn into a beautiful final product. If you’re a writer, go find the first draft of the first project you ever wrote and pick any part. Then read the same part in the final product. Now read your favorite part of your current work in progress. Believe me, your mind will be blown at how far you’ve come. And if you’re working on your first project now, don’t give up! Keep writing, keep learning, and focus on what drives your passion. Remember, every book you see on the best seller list was once an awful error-filled first draft. One day, you’ll be glad you stuck with it too.
If all goes according to plan, I aim to spend the next two months immersed in edits with plans to distribute a draft to beta readers in January. Estimated publication date is late March or early April.
Recommended Reads
If you’ve followed my page for a while, you know I’m a fan of Julie Lessman’s edgy inspirational novels. Last year, I reviewed her Daughters of Boston and Winds of Change series (found here), but realized I hadn’t yet reviewed her Christmas novellas. I know it’s Halloween, but the Christmas season is right around the corner, so if you’re looking for a quick read with some steamy yet (mostly) clean inspirational romance with a holiday flare, I recommend giving one of the O’Conner Christmas novellas a try. While the series focuses on the four sisters from the original novels, you do not need to have read them prior. In fact, if you haven’t read any of Julie Lessman’s books yet, a novella could be an excellent place to start.
What I enjoyed most about these stories is that, while they are technically romances, each one centers around a relatable marital issue rather than a new romance. In A Whisper of Hope, the conflict stems from a desire for more children (or less), A Dream Fulfilled deals with outside friendships, The Best Gift of All centers around time devoted to children versus time devoted to one’s spouse, and A Gift Like No Other is about when the romantic spark fades and how to find it again. Even the best marriages have their troubles and sometimes any one of these topics can quickly leap from tiny concern to monumental issue. Often, like the characters discover, one may not even know exactly how they ended up there. While I enjoyed all four, I think The Best Gift of All was my favorite, and would recommend it to all married parents especially.
One note on A Gift Like No Other. While all of Julie’s novels contain romance steamier than typical inspirational novels, this novella’s subject matter lends itself to a higher level of written romantic passion.
For more information, visit julielessman.com
Upcoming Events
University City Library Local Author Event – February 25, 2020
PennedCon Writers Conference – September 17-19, 2020
Do you know of an organization, book club, fair, coffee shop, book store, etc. that would be interested in hosting an author talk, book signing, or needs an event speaker? I’m working on my schedule for the upcoming year and would love to meet some new faces! If so, send me a note via the contact page.
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This month’s main event was PennedCon, 190 authors and around 1,000 readers coming together to raise money for charity. Thank you to everyone who came out for the conference, whether you purchased my books or not. This year you helped raise $13,366 for Action for Autism. More incredible, on the final day of the conference, an anonymous donor matched that amount for a total of $26,732, bringing the conference’s six year total to over $89,000! That’s simply amazing! We’re helping change children’s lives all through love of reading.
With Halloween coming up next month, I decided to feature The Broken Girls by Simone St. James. Part murder mystery, part ghost story, this dual timeline novel follows journalist Fiona Sheridan in 2014 as she searches for answers to her sister’s murder over twenty years ago. Juxtaposed with her story is that of four friends in 1950 at Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for troubled girls and also the location of Fiona’s sister’s murder. Although the convicted killer sits in jail for the crime, Fiona can’t shake the feeling that there is more to the story. As she digs deeper into the mystery, she discovers long buried secrets within the school and learns that she may not be the only one seeking justice.
I also jumped into my PennedCon purchases this past week. Wanting something fun, I chose Chris Cannon’s The Dating Debate, the first in her Dating Dilemmas series. In short, it’s about Nina, a teenage girl who doesn’t believe in Valentine’s Day, loves books, and is searching for someone who is fluent in Harry-Potter-nerd-speak. And wouldn’t you know, the perfect guy just happens to live next door! Nina and West are cute and humorous together and have some equally entertaining sidekick friends (who are the leads in the next book). Although most of the novel is not mentally taxing, the author does address the issue of mental illness through West’s mother’s hoarding. The scenes where he discusses how her illness influences his life actually took me by surprise and were some of the most moving of the book.
It feels like this summer flew by, doesn’t it? Much of my time this month has been spent getting back into the swing of regular school days and the excitement of matron of honor duties for my friend’s upcoming wedding. For part of her bachelorette party, we painted wooden signs, and I’m pretty pleased with the results.
A Man Called Smith
Windsor, a couple who according to the novel, often seemed more interested in parties and appearances than the problems of their people.
This fall I will be attending PennedCon, a three-day writers and readers conference and two-day book signing that takes place September 12-14, 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri. This conference helped me navigate the beginnings of wide world of publishing and introduced me to many new authors, several of whom I’ve had the chance to connect with personally. This will be my fourth year attending, but the first as part of the signing room, and I’d like to offer you and a friend the chance to attend for FREE.
