Sara Burr's Blog

We have a winner! Thanks to everyone who participated. So far, this series has been a fantastic success for Amber, and I hope it continues to do so. I’m happy I got to play some small part in its beginning. Congratulations, Jen. Enjoy your book!

To the rest of you, don’t forget all the rest of the free stuff! And I think today is the last day to get Winter Queen (the first in the series) for $0.99. Now’s the time!

This morning, I am giddy to be posting a spotlight for Summer Queen by my friend and mentor, Amber Argyle. I’ve featured her books on my blog before. She’s definitely one of my top five faves. Well, a few weeks ago, I was asked if I wanted to participate in the blog tour for this new release, and I was so excited to hop on board. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but when I do, a review will follow. Let me just say this: What I have read so far is just fantastic! They say an author’s first million words are practice. I’ve read some awesome debuts and it always makes me wonder how an author could possibly top that. Well, let me tell you, if you liked the Witch Song series, you’re going to love this series.

Speaking of Witch Song, it’s currently free wherever you can buy e-books, so if you haven’t read it, you have no excuse!

Today’s book, Summer Queen, is the second in the Fairy Queen Series. The first book, Winter Queen, is currently on sale for $0.99. I’m excited. I haven’t read it yet, so it’s going on my Kindle today. You can get it at this price for 4 more days, until April 17th. Here’s where. There is a companion story to the series, called Of Fire and Ash, which is also currently free (for a limited time), and can be found here and here. Okay. That’s a lot of free and cheap reading, and it’s quality stuff. But let’s move on to the star of the show. Summer Queen.

Nelay never wanted to be queen.

Poised to become the most powerful priestess in Idara, Nelay doesn’t have time to become a pretty bauble for the king. She’s too busy saving her people from the invading army sweeping across her kingdom.

But in defeat after defeat, Nelay begins to realize a bigger power is at play than that wielded by mere mortals. Only she can stand between the cinders of her once-great nation and the vengeance of a goddess.

Excerpt:

Nelay slipped down alleys, went through a bar and out the back entrance, and twisted down two more blocks to make sure she hadn’t been followed. She climbed up a wall, using a windowsill and beams as steppingstones, before hopping onto a roof.

She crouched, staring at a man of the desert tribes. Though she’d contracted with him to smuggle her out of the city, she’d never met him. They had communicated only through her spies, so now she scrutinized the man who held her life in his hands. He wore the robes and headscarf similar to that of an Idaran, but in muted colors that blended in with the deserts. With his veil tied up, only a thin slit of his eyes showed.

The skin around those eyes crinkled in amusement when he saw Nelay. “So, this is the woman willing to pay a king’s ransom to slip behind enemy lines.”

“I don’t owe you an explanation, Rycus.” She didn’t want him to say anything that would give away her identity to any listening fairies.

He tugged his veil down under his chin, revealing a surprisingly young face, only a couple years older than her. His nose was a little on the big side, and his forehead reminded her of a shovel. But he had liquid eyes the color of sand at midnight and a nice smile, with brilliant white teeth against his dusky skin. This was the most renowned smuggler in two kingdoms?

“No,” he replied, “but we’ll be sharing close quarters for two months, so we might as well be friends.”

Nelay had enough experience with criminals to know they had their uses, but they were also incredibly unpredictable, and therefore dangerous. “I don’t need friends,” she said.

“Everyone needs friends.”

“If I’d known you were going to be this talkative, I would have picked someone else.”

Rycus grunted. “No you wouldn’t have. You wouldn’t have settled for less than the best.”

Nelay tossed him the bag of coins she’d received in exchange for two of her ceremonial rings. When the high priestess found out, she’d be furious, but Nelay would deal with that later. “We must hurry—the Immortals are nothing to be trifled with.”

Rycus pushed the bag into the folds of his robes without counting the money. He would receive the other half when he returned her and her family safely to Thanjavar. “You don’t have to come with us, you know,” he said.

Nelay snorted. He might have a reputation as a fair man, but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t cross her—say, if the king offered more money. “I already told you. It’s not a place marked on a map.”

“I could figure it out,” Rycus replied.

“No offense, but I don’t trust you.”

He shrugged. “And afterward, you’re sure you wish to return? Whatever has you running away will still be here then.”

“That is not your problem.” She might be Suka’s favorite, but even the high priestess couldn’t overlook what she’d done. Nelay’s only hope was to stand in the public bethel and announce herself the next high priestess. Then she had to beat Suka in the game of fire, the winner of which would become the next high priestess. King Zatal wouldn’t dare touch Nelay then.

And if she failed . . . she shuddered. She’d have the wrath of a king and a high priestess to face.

“What are you running from?” Rycus questioned.

About the Author:

Amber Argyle is the number-one bestselling author of the Witch Song Series and the Fairy Queen Series. Her books have been nominated for and won awards in addition to being translated into French and Indonesian.

Amber graduated cum laude from Utah State University with a degree in English and physical education, a husband, and a two-year old. Since then, she and her husband have added two more children, which they are actively trying to transform from crazy small people into less crazy larger people.

To learn more about Amber, visit her blog at http://amberargyle.blogspot.com

To purchase Amber’s books, find her at one of these links: Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Amazon.

To find her online, you can look in any of the following places: Twitter, Facebook, Her Blog, Pinterest, or Goodreads.

And this last link is a pretty cool one. if you’d like to join her street team, which involves helping spread the word about her books in exchange for awesome prizes and sneak peaks, you can check out the Argylers Street Team, here.

Want to win a free drop box copy of Summer Queen? Enter through this Rafflecopter by finding Amber on social media.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also, if you really want to win a copy, I’d totally suggest following Amber on some sort of social media to get the rest of the schedule for the blog tour, because there may be more giveaways, and you should also be able to find some reviews. 

Today, I’m spotlighting fellow debut Clean Reads (formerly Astraea Press) author, Wendy May Andrews. Her new sweet regency romance book, The Duke Conspiracy sounds a little bit like a cool twist on Romeo and Juliet. It tells the story of two people who are not supposed to fall in love because of a family feud, but are driven together by circumstances.

Let’s have a look at the beautiful cover:

A spying debutante, a duke, and a conspiracy. Can love be found despite their feud?

Here’s the back cover blurb:

Miss Rosamund Smythe, the only daughter of a baron diplomat, is finding the Season to be a dead bore.  After her stint at spying while in Vienna with her father, she wants a higher purpose in life than “just” being a wife.

His Grace, Alexander Milton, the Duke of Wrentham, wants a quiet life with a “proper” lady as his wife after the tumultuous childhood he had.  His parents had fought viciously, lied often, and Alex secretly wonders if he was even his father’s son.

Rose and Alex grew up on neighboring estates and have been best friends since she was four years old but a family feud has torn their friendship apart.

At a Society event Rose overhears a plot to entrap Alex into a marriage of convenience.  Her loyalty to their old friendship as well as her knowledge of the conspirator, Sir Jason Broderick, causes Rose to overcome her aversion to Wrentham in order to warn him of his danger.  Alex’s complicated childhood has caused him to despise all forms of deception so Rose avoids telling him how she knows so much about Sir Broderick.

When Rose is abducted by Sir Broderick to prevent her interference, Alex must deal with his own conflicted feelings to help her rescue herself. Can they claim their happily ever after despite the turmoil?

And an excerpt:

Alex gazed at his old friend in admiration. If anyone had ever told him he would be standing in Burlington House surrounded by Elgin’s Marbles debating with Miss Rosamund Smythe about who might be conspiring to entrap him into marriage, he would never have believed such a claim. But here they were. And she looked mighty fetching as she gazed up at him expectantly. He had to make an effort to remember what she had said. Oh yes, something about ideas to investigate. He wondered absently what she could possibly know about investigations and clues and all that. But she was right. They needed to have a direction. The only trouble was he was drawing a blank about any possible ideas.

All he could do was shrug helplessly. “I am so sorry, Rose, but I have absolutely no idea where to start. To the best of my knowledge I have never had any dealings with Broderick. I developed an instant dislike of the man upon first making his acquaintance, but I cannot even tell you why, as we have barely conversed.”

The duke was clearly flabbergasted over this development and was even slightly ashamed to not have a ready solution. Rose must have realized this. She hastened to reassure him. “Never mind about that. We both agreed earlier that the best place for us to start is with Lady Anne. That will have to be my job, as you will just be walking straight into their plot if you try to do anything about it. Now, I really must be going, so we must hurry and establish another appointment to meet up to discuss any of our findings. In the meantime, you should speak to your solicitors or man of affairs or whatever you might have along those lines and see if they are aware of any issues Broderick might have with you. Those gentlemen might know more on the subject than you.”

“How did you get so smart about such things?”

Alex was intrigued by the blush that spread over her face at this unanswerable question. The only thing she could offer was “My father is a diplomat,” with as much dignity as possible.

Alex allowed the moment to pass and was rewarded by the look of relief on her face. He hurried to make an appointment as they saw her maid approaching. “Would it be remarked upon if you come here again tomorrow or the next day?”

“Probably not,” Rose answered. “My mother never rises before noon and is really only concerned with how I spend my evenings. But you had best give me at least one day to try to make the acquaintance of Lady Anne, so let us say the day after tomorrow. That gives me a day and a half to gather as much information as possible. I shall start with my friend Lady Elizabeth. She is a font of knowledge about the ton, as well as being friendly with Lady Anne.” While she was speaking she fumbled with her drawing supplies, finally tucking them under her arm. “Wish me luck,” she concluded as she once more faced the duke.

The duke watched a myriad of emotions chase themselves across his companion’s face. He was unable to identify most of them, but he thought she looked rather wistful as she offered him a brief curtsy before she hurried away without another word.

Alex stood in the same spot for several moments, watching her retreating figure, wondering if she would look back before exiting the building. He was unprepared for the profound disappointment that swept over him as she strode away with purpose, never once glancing back in his direction. Slowly bringing his focus back to the statue she had been sketching, the duke allowed the entire interlude to play itself out in his mind. Giving his head a shake to rid himself of the melancholy that had befallen him, he followed in her footsteps and strode from the hall.

Wendy May Andrews has been reading whatever she could get her hands on since the age of five. She has been writing for almost as long but hasn’t been sharing those stories with anyone but her mother until recently. Wendy lives in Toronto with her own real-life hero. When not writing or reading, they love to travel wherever the mood takes them.

You can find Wendy online on her website here, Facebook here, or Twitter here.

You can buy her book at Amazon here or Barnes and Noble here.

And remember, new authors depend on reviews to gain momentum, so if you like her book, let her know by rating and reviewing her book through the vendor where you bought it.

Today I’ll be spotlighting the sequel to an adorable children’s book I had the pleasure of reviewing on audiobook last month. The Spotlight is for Daniel the Camp-er, which is the sequel to Daniel the Draw-er, by S. J. Henderson. Daniel the Draw-er was so much fun to listen to, I often laughed out loud, which would necessitate a rewinding of the recording so my kids could hear the joke without my earbuds in. Despite the fact that this book is aimed at younger kids, like my first grader, my seventh and eleventh graders loved the humor in it, too. It’s like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, with less potty humor. I found it to be very witty, and look forward to buying both books for my youngest son. Daniel the Camp-er is longer than it’s predecessor, so I think these books will also grow with your child.

So, what are the stories like?

Daniel the Draw-er tells the story of a boy, Daniel, whose best friend is a girl, Annie. His mom wants him to make more friends, and he doesn’t understand why. Annie is the only friend he needs. He continues on in his own way until one day, he finds a magical pencil that brings his drawings to life. When he tells Annie, she wants to borrow it, and he does NOT want to share, so they have an argument, and Daniel finds himself friendless — just what his mom feared. The story tells about his adventures with his drawings, but also teaches kids about the value of friendship, sharing, caring about other people’s feelings, and loving people for who they are, rather than who you think they should be.

S. J. Henderson has struck gold with this series. I can’t wait to see what Daniel the Camp-er will bring!

Here’s a taste:

There are a few simple rules Daniel follows.

Rule One: never let an adult see your weakness. Daniel made that mistake and look where he ended up—summer camp.

Rule Two: never make fun of the person who feeds you, unless you like Miss Gunderson’s peppery pancakes and green hamburgers.

Rule Three: stay away from girls who love Glitter Ponies. They have cooties, after all.

And Rule Four: never, ever lose your magic pencil.

But Daniel has broken all of his own rules. Now he’s stuck and starving at Camp Bigfoot with the school bully as his bunkmate and an ooey-gooey girl who won’t leave him alone. If all of that wasn’t bad enough, his prized possession, a pencil that brings his drawings to life, has gone missing and wacky creatures are popping up all over camp.

Can Daniel survive Camp Bigfoot and find his magic pencil before it’s too late?

Excerpt:

Annie catches up with me as I creep closer to the edge of the forest. Her eyes grow wide. “Why is there a moose wearing a cowboy hat here?”

“He likes soccer?” I shrug. “And that’s a sombrero, not a cowboy hat.”

“Whatever it is, I know you did this, Daniel. Are you crazy?”

“I didn’t mean to, but I must’ve grabbed the wrong pencil when I was getting my things ready. Oops.”

“Yeah, oops.” She rubs her face with her hands. “At least he looks friendly and doesn’t shoot laser beams from his eyes.”

I cringe. “Oops.”

“What do you mean, ‘oops’?” Annie latches onto me with her fingers and squeezes so tight my arm goes numb for a second. I wish people would hurt me in other places besides just my arms. There are lots of other parts of my body they could pick, but no. Everyone picks the arm, which gets super-sore, and then I start drawing stuff like a-moose-that-should-be-a-bear. So, if you ask me, this isn’t my fault.

The moose lifts up his head and snorts, sending balls of green flame into the dirt.

“Oops,” I say again, flashing a guilty smile.

Annie ducks behind me to protect herself from the moose’s attack. “Erase it, Daniel.”

Which is what I mean to do, really. I have the eraser on the pencil line making up the moose’s right nostril when he looks me right in the eye and says, “Stop! Please!”

S. J. Henderson is the author of the DANIEL THE DRAW-ER series, as well as several not-yet-published Young Adult novels.

S. J. lives in Michigan with her husband and four wild boys. When she is not writing about talking cats and magic pencils, S. J. can usually be found riding one of her family’s horses or drinking a little bit of coffee with her creamer.

About the Series:

DANIEL THE CAMP-ER is the second book in the DANIEL THE DRAW-ER series. The first book in the series, DANIEL THE DRAW-ER, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and as an audiobook on Audible and iTunes.

Although Daniel’s adventures were written for boys and girls between 6 and 12, readers of all ages have found themselves swept up in these silly and imaginative stories.  Fans of Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid will appreciate the humor in the DANIEL THE DRAW-ER books, and parents and teachers will appreciate the lack of potty humor and themes of friendship and loyalty. And fun. Can’t forget fun.

You can find the book on Amazon here and Goodreads here.

And the author is doing a Rafflecopter giveaway, which is one of my favorite games ever. Enter to win a $10 gift card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

When I opted to write under a pen name, it was because my previous writing wasn’t really conducive to young adult books. You see, I’ve written a lot about childhood cancer. I felt like that difficult of a subject should be kept separate from the light, airy fiction that I was writing. But, it turns out you write what you know, and since the original drafting of Underground Rose, I’ve come to know childhood cancer intimately. Although I never intended for it to happen like it did, the next story fell into my mind in one fell swoop while driving one day, and I was not surprised to find that cancer was integral to the plot.

So, if I’m going to write about it, I might as well write about it.

I am a cancer mom. This is a title I freely give myself. Yet, four years ago, the thought of such a horror would have been unimaginable. Although my son’s prognosis is good, I grieve the loss of what once was; what could have been. And grieving people need an outlet. Mine is the written word. Studies show that the parents of cancer patients go through the stages of grief. Some will even suffer from symptoms of, or full-blown, PTSD. In the months and years since my family joined this awful club, I’ve processed my grief through writing, and I feel like I’m coming out of the end of a very long, dark tunnel. But this experience will always be a part of my family’s history; a part of me. I don’t think it’s going to work to try and silence it, when I still so actively fight for something better for the next generation of children with cancer.

Today is a day that I have a hard time not blogging about childhood cancer. You see, I have this friend who writes under the name Mary Tyler Mom. Her daughter Donna died from an aggressive brain tumor, and for years now, she’s been a relentless advocate for better treatments, more funding for research, and a better quality of life for children with cancer. She also runs a 501c charity called Donna’s Good Things that helps underprivileged kids in all sorts of circumstances to live a more joyful life. Donna was a very joyful child, and Mary Tyler Mom wants other kids to have an opportunity to experience that kind of joy, too.

Every year, Donna’s Good things hosts a humongous event through St. Baldricks. People come and shave their heads in honor of kids fighting cancer. Other people donate money for the fun and privilege of seeing people come and shave their heads — and also because they know that this money is going straight to St. Baldrick’s, which is the largest non-government organization that funds research for pediatric cancer in our country.

Basically all the bloggers she knows then get together and blog about it, share with their readers, and hope for the best. More than $230k proves that it has worked very well so far. That is enough to fund a study that could be THE cure for at least one kind of cancer. That’s something I can’t not be a part of.

One of the bloggers said something so poignant that someone already made a meme poster out of it.

So, mothers are the only thing more relentless. Boy, Mary Tyler Mom proves that. She just keeps going.

At first, I read it without the first period. Read: “I have only seen one thing more relentless than cancer mothers.”

That leaves the implication that cancer wins. But cancer doesn’t win. Cancer never wins. Cancer is a loser and a jerk, and only love wins. Only. Love.

The original version of the quote is much better. Mothers are more relentless. We never give up hope, even if the unimaginable things happen. Mary Tyler Mom helped me wrap my mind around that through my own dark days.

How does one choose hope when their child is already gone? They hope that they can help stop it from happening to other children. How do I choose hope now that my son’s treatment has ended? The same: I hope that I can help stop it from happening to other children. Over the last four years, I’ve had an understanding come over me about research. Leukemia (which is what my son had) was once thought to be the impossible mountain to climb. The Mount Everest of cancers. If there was no tumor, how were they to get the cancer out? Only through research were they able to understand and treat it. Because of families who enrolled their children into studies that they knew were unlikely to save their child, my child lived.

That bears repeating. They knew the studies were unlikely to save their child, but they enrolled anyway. And that action, repeated thousands of times by thousands of families, saved my son’s life. I’d like to make sure that the next mom who has that realization looks back at the nameless, faceless me, and thinks of how grateful she is that her child has easier treatments or fewer lasting effects because of our choices. This desire to make it better for the next generation runs deep in a cancer mom’s (and dad’s) blood.

My son’s prognosis is good. In fact, it’s pretty much the best you can get among childhood cancers. Even so, the forecast for his general health is not so good. According to St. Baldrick’s, he will be very unlikely to avoid serious health problems earlier than he should have them in life, due to the harshness of the treatment that gave him his good prognosis. St. Baldrick’s has provided a handy little infographic that explains it quite nicely.

And somewhere in the world, a child is diagnosed with cancer every three minutes. So, in the time it’s taken me to write this post, roughly 20 families have received that devastating news. One out of every five will not live beyond five years from today.

Pediatric cancer is grossly underfunded, receiving only 4% of government money dedicated to cancer research. Compounding the problem is the fact that fewer children than adults get cancer, which results in a lack of interest from drug companies. Because they see no profit in the endeavor, they are also not interested in researching new and innovative treatments for pediatric cancers. Drug companies account for a massive portion of new developments in cancer treatment for adults. These two items mean that pediatric cancer research is left in the dark ages.

The drugs that treated my son’s cancer were old. One was actually the very first chemotherapy drug ever invented — more than 50 years old — and he took it in pill form every day for more than two years. In contrast, adult cancers that have better funding receive new types of treatment sometimes yearly, providing major breakthroughs often. This is wonderful news. This saved my mother’s life when she had breast cancer. I would like to see this applied to some of the pediatric brain tumors with survival rates of 0%. Something should be happening to move those kids’ chances forward. Something!

Besides the tiny 4% that the government allots for all types of childhood cancers, the only real money going into research comes from private organizations, such as St. Baldrick’s. These folks are working hard year after year to do something more. They provide another avenue for these tenacious moms to pour their energy into fixing this problem for the next generation of families who will face childhood cancer. Because the truth is, I’m not really doing this for my son anymore. His treatment is over. Now, I’m doing it for yours. Or maybe your neighbor, or your niece, or your granddaughter. Whoever you know that will be the person who never thought it would happen to them.

Do you want to help? This is the home page for the Donna’s Good Things St. Baldrick’s campaign. You can shave your head if you want. You can donate money if you want. Any amount is fantastic, even just a dollar. It all adds up. http://www.stbaldricks.org/campaigns/dgt

And for good measure, this is a picture of the beautiful Donna. I genuinely believe she knows all the good things that are done in her name.

My blog hop has a winner: bn100. Thank you all for participating! It was such a fun two weeks.

It was really fun to see my posters and my trailer being shared on Facebook and Twitter, and the tweet about my book. Thank you for telling people about my story. It has meant a lot to me.

Amber’s book is genuinely one of my favorites. Last night, we were having fun with posters and quotes. Here are some of the posters I came up with. Even if you weren’t the winner, you should consider buying her books. These are just a few samples of how powerful her writing is.

I hope bn100 will enjoy.

Sara

I’m participating in a blog hop. This is a new and exciting thing for me!

What is a blog hop? Funny you should ask. A few days ago, I had no idea either. A blog hop is link posted on multiple blogs, which allows people to easily “hop” from one to another. Sometimes, it allows you to find blogs with a similar theme, or to find specific information more easily. In this case, the purpose is for a giveaway.

At least 70 authors, both in the US and internationally, have banded together under a single blog hop to discuss our favorite books and to host a giveaway on each of our blogs. Here’s the link that will take you to the master list:

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

The blog hop will run from February 1st through the 14th, and the theme is Favorite books.

On that note, I wanted to tell you a little bit about one of my favorite books. I can’t pick just one: as Danielle De Barbarac said, “I could no sooner choose a favorite star in the sky.” However, somewhere in my top five is Witch Song, by Amber Argyle. This book is the beginning of a series, and I’ll be giving the entire series away as an eBook boxed set.

My book is about witches. Not like Hermione is a witch, but also not green and warty; something in between those two. When Witch Song was new, I was looking for other books like mine, particularly by local authors (I love supporting local authors — I see it as being similar to supporting small businesses). This is how I stumbled onto Witch Song. Since that time, it has rocketed into best selling lists over and over again.

Coincidentally, as I got closer and closer to publication, I became more active in the local writing community and got to know Amber Argyle. We became friends, and she became a great mentor to me. She has been instrumental in my process of building a career as a writer, and I’m honored that she considers me a friend (instead of a crazy stalking fangirl).

I couldn’t be happier for the chance to share her book with my readers. Witch Song will always be one of my all-time favorites, and not because I like the author. I liked the book first. =)

My rafflecopter gives you four chances to win the boxed set. The contest ends February 14th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you for participating, and check out the other blogs in the blog hop. I’m sure there’s a ton of stuff to win!

So, what’s it like being a published author? Well the first couple of days, it felt like I was trying to nail Jello to a tree. It was sheer insanity. The first day, I was told by other author friends that it would most likely take Barnes and Noble a couple of days to get my book online, but Amazon would be pretty quick. In my case, Barnes and Noble had it up there bright and early, and Amazon took until almost midnight, my time, which is in the Mountain time zone. Talk about anxiety! My son had a doctor’s appointment with a specialist in another city, so it was a four hour chunk of the day, and I was checking my phone like a crazy person. Good thing the doctor knows me, and knows that I’m normally not such a spaced out mom.

Things did not slow down until at least day three. There were blog tour dates to arrange, and I was still trying to get my website up and running, and every person I know wanted to talk with me about the book, and it was all very exciting and fun. Meanwhile, my other son had to go to the orthodontist (also in another city – because we live in a tiny town).

By about day four, I was completely exhausted. But very, very happy. I can not believe the overwhelming amount of support that came pouring in from every corner of my life. Thank you.

This adventure has been seven years in the making. I started writing my book by hand in a notebook in 2008. I didn’t know anything about writing then. I just knew that I needed an outlet. After I had a few chapters which I knew had potential, I started doing the real work. I studied a lot. I met other writers. I accepted lots of critique, and I learned how to critique others. I learned a lot about what it takes to write a whole book, what it takes to find an agent (should you want one) or a publisher (again, should you want one). I did not look into self-publishing, because I never intended to do that. I just need more guidance than that on the business end. I wrote the whole book, then re-wrote it twice, and I did at least 15 edits (conservatively), but maybe as many as 25 or 30 — I honestly have no idea. Four edits alone were for my publisher.

In the last week, I’ve had a lot of friends come to me and ask me how to do it, and that’s my basic advice. Just start. Don’t worry that you don’t know how — yet. Write. Write every day. Then seek out others who do the same and become part of the communities that are out there. In those communities, you can ask your questions one by one as you have them. Spend time studying English in a serious way, but don’t be a snob about it. You want people to like you, and not everyone has this talent, so don’t judge. We all have different talents. I can barely sew a straight line, and I hate it when people judge me for not being a good homemaker. I always say I can’t cook or do crafts, but I can put in an IV or write a book, so there’s that. Study the art of storytelling, which is just as important as the mechanics. There are a lot of books that will help you do this, like a whole section at the public library, probably. Read them. Also, read the kind of book you want to write. Read lots of that kind of book. And read the kind of book you don’t want to write. And everything in-between. You should always be reading something. This is a form of studying, trust me.

So, my adventure continues. I’m trying to pull the strings together to write my next book, and I’m finding more and more time to work on it again.

Thank you, friends and fans for an excellent opening week. It has been unforgettable!

Today I’m spotlighting the adorable Lydia Winters, and her book Wishing on Baby Dust. Is that the most darling title you’ve ever heard or what? Lydia is just as darling, I assure you. Just read on and see:

About the Author:

Lydia Winters decided in first grade that she’d grow up to be three things—a mom, a teacher, and a writer. She’s lucky enough to have accomplished all three tasks. Lydia received her bachelor’s in history education from Utah Valley University. Soon after leaving her teaching career behind, she became a mother to adorable twin boys, who guarantee her life is never dull.

Lydia is married to the most supportive man in the world. He regularly takes care of the twins and cooks dinner so she can escape with her laptop to chase her dream of being a writer. When she has time for hobbies, Lydia is a reality TV junkie, loves to cross-stitch, and sometimes even finds time to play the piano. She eats way too much chocolate and wishes she liked things like running or yoga.

Wishing on Baby Dust

Infertility stinks. No one knows that better than Megan. After six years of insanity-inducing hormone drugs and desperate prayers, all she has to show for her efforts are enough negative pregnancy tests to fill a bassinet. All around her women are accidentally getting pregnant—like her star piano student—while Megan remains hopelessly barren. Megan’s never felt so alone. But she’s not the only one struggling.

Christina has just entered the world of infertility, made worse by the fact her husband isn’t ready to be a father. Their marriage, already hanging in the balance, is being torn apart.

Then there’s Kyra, the mother of a precocious three-year-old. She’s shocked to be struggling with secondary infertility. A baby is priceless, but sometimes Kyra feels like she’s being forced to choose which commandment to keep: stay out of debt, or multiply and replenish the earth.

When Megan and Christina are assigned as Kyra’s visiting teachers, they all realize that what you see isn’t necessarily what’s beneath the surface. Some secrets aren’t worth the cost of keeping them.

To find Lydia online, she has provided a plethora of options:

Facebook |  Twitter  |  Pinterest  |  Website  |  Goodreads  |  Amazon Author Page

To find Lydia’s book, click on your choice of the links below:

Amazon |  Barnes and Noble |   Goodreads

Today I’m thrilled to be spotlighting fellow Astraea Press author, Catherine Bennett. Her new book, Devon’s Choice, looks adorable.

Devon’s Choice

Faith, love and a cup of coffee, can change everything.

Life holds no surprises for Devon Murphy. Her life consists of keeping tabs on her aging Irish father, working part time at a coffee shop, and building her online graphics design business. Devon’s only tricky situation is a shallow relationship with the pampered and affluent Michael Turner, who sees her as just another woman to conquer.

Following his father’s death, Brandon’s only goal is to expand the family business and live life on his own terms. That is, until he walks into the coffee shop one snowy evening and meets the enchanting, red-haired barista behind the counter. But can Devon and Brandon’s attraction for each other be strong enough to help erase their deepest disappointments and renew their faith in God?

Excerpt:

Devon complimented everything he’d cooked and commented on his expertise with the barbecue.  Brandon nodded, chewed and considered the way the edges of her mouth crinkled at the corners when she smiled and how she’d look up and away before answering a question.  This woman across from him was the same one that he’d known for the past several weeks, but now he felt like the Grinch whose heart grew two sizes in one night.

About the Author:

Catherine Bennett lives in her home state of Ohio. Her first book, “The Trouble With Charlie”, and her newest release, “Devon’s Choice” is published by Astraea Press. Catherine has two grown sons and resides with her husband and two Labrador retrievers.

You can find Catherine online at:

Website: catherinebennett.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCatherineBennett

Twitter: https://twitter.com/author_cbennett

Buy Devon’s Choice on Amazon | Buy Devon’s Choice on Barnes and Noble