Real Life Versus Writing Life by Joan Reeves #AoMS

I’m late publishing this post today because I came up empty in the find an entertaining subject category. I just can’t think of anything except how down in the dumps I feel. You see I’m tired and real life is hell-bent on interfering with my writing life.

Do you ever feel that when you set goals, the universe throws all the storms of life at you to keep you from achieving them?

That’s how I feel. I had all these ambitious plans for finishing out my various series this year plus writing some special Christmas projects.

Real Life laughed and said, “Think again.”

Even though my time is being used for a good cause, and my time away from writing won’t be forever, it’s still a let-down to watch the days slip away with nothing done.

All week I’ve been frustrated by not following through on my goals–even though it’s not my fault. Rather than bemoan my lack of sleep and lack of time, I decided to remind myself of something I wrote in an email to a couple of friends who were aspiring authors whose energy was flagging on the long journey to publication.

This is good advice regardless of what you’re trying to achieve.

Feel as if you’re pushing a boulder uphill?

Good Advice If Trying to Achieve Something Amazing

Nothing great was ever created quickly. To develop a great scientific discovery, to paint a masterpiece, to write a book, to become a minister or a college graduate–to do anything great or different requires time, patience, and perseverance.

Goals are achieved by degrees, little by little.

Michelangelo did not paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling in a day. Mozart did not compose his most famous work in a day, Milton did not write Paradise Lost at one sitting, nor did Shakespeare create Hamlet in a day.

Just as the most famous musicians begin with basic musical notes and artists first draw with Crayons, the greatest writer who ever lived began with the alphabet. With words. You too must start there.

Whatever your chosen goal, begin with baby steps that will lead you to giant steps.

To do anything great requires time, patience, and perseverance. Accept this and get started.

That’s my good advice for all of you, and for myself today.

99cents Sale

In my romantic comedy APRIL FOOL BRIDE, on sale for only 99cents, Maddie has a goal and is determined to achieve it.

Oil heiress Madeline Quinn needs a husband by the time she turns twenty-five in order to claim her full inheritance. Mad Maddie, as the tabloids christened her, has learned the hard way that men only see dollar signs when they look at her.

Maddie decides a marriage of convenience is the only answer. She turns to the one man in the world she can trust, her housekeeper’s son who always treated her like a little sister when they were kids growing up together.

Jake Becker hasn’t seen Maddie since the night she tried to seduce him. Why should he help the woman who changed the course of his life? Simple. Revenge.

Or is it something else? Something hot and smouldering that will not be denied?

Post Script

I’d be delighted if you’d follow me on 1 or all of these: Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Triple delighted if you sign up for WordPlay, my email list/newsletter for readers so I can give you a free book.

Parents And Problems by Joan Reeves

I’m slow to get this post up today because I’ve been on the phone a long time counseling my oldest kid. He’s going through that difficult time: raising a teenager. He bemoaned how hard it was to deal with his teenager.

*ROTFL* I remember how he was when he was a teen. Oh, my! It really is true. What goes around, comes around.

Difficult Relationships

That made me think about all the parental-child relationships in my books. There are some where the heroine has a great relationship with her parents. That’s based on personal experience because that’s a reflection of our relationships with our kids.

Then there’s the heroine dealing with a difficult mother. Sadly, that too is based on personal experience. My mother was the poster child for difficult, but that didn’t mean I didn’t love her and do everything I could for her. That’s often the way it is with these relationships. You just do the best you can and learn from the experience.

Romeo and Judy Anne

I suppose when I was creating the mother in Romeo and Judy Anne, I was mirroring part of my own relationship. Some readers have posted reviews for this book saying Judy Anne was a wimp for putting up with her mother. I disagree. She was just doing what she could to support her mother until her mother “grew up” and could move on in life.

In the book I wrote, that was part of the resolution of the story. Judy Anne’s mother did manage to accept what had happened and become able to stand on her own rather than clinging to her daughter for everything. That’s one reason I love being a writer. I can make everything work out whereas in real life, it usually doesn’t.

Romeo and Judy Anne, a romantic comedy, has eccentric small town characters, a bratty niece, an overbearing school board president, and the temptation of a secret lover. Judy Anne has all she can do to keep her passion for her Romeo from turning into the biggest scandal little Clayton Bend, Texas, has ever seen.

Review

The multi-generational aspect of the story brought a very realistic dimension to this romance, and I appreciated the challenges Judy Anne had in this arena of her life. Of course, it would be hard to resist the sexy, music-loving, full-of-surprises Roman/Romeo for long, wouldn’t it? Watching the two of them discover, define and work out their relationship was delightful from start to finish.~ Amazon Reader Review

Add Romeo and Judy Anne to Your Library: All Romance eBooks * Amazon Kindle * iBooks * Kobo * Nook * Smashwords.

By the way, you can buy the Kindle edition and get the audiobook from Audible at a greatly reduced price. (The audiobook is WhisperSynced with Amazon.)

Post Script

Joan Reeves is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary Romance. Available as ebooks and audiobooks, her romance novels all have the same underlying theme: “It’s never too late to live happily ever after.” Joan lives her happily ever after with her hero, her husband, in the Lone Star State. Sign up for WordPlay, Joan’s email list/newsletter for readers and receive a free ebook.

 

Christmas in a Galaxy Far Away by Joan Reeves

I bet you thought this was going to be a review of the new Star Wars movie. Nope. We aren’t seeing that until Christmas Day. (We have a date with our younger daughter and her husband–both are complete Star Wars fanatics.)

This is about another galaxy far, far away…a time when I was a child with my nose stuck in a book. I’d been that way a couple of years since I’d learned to read rather early in life. I was very young and was already a total geek and wanted only to read.

Amazing Gift

Then Christmas came, and I awoke to find a record player under the Christmas tree along with a half dozen 45s.

Yes, kids, jump in the Way Back Machine and head to the Dark Ages…before digital music, iPods, and CD’s. Before cassettes. Before 8-track cartridges.

Even though I was too young to know what was cool and what wasn’t, I still recognized that all those 45 records would appeal more to my parents’ generation than mine. With one exception. A little gem of a song by Alvin and his chipmunk buddies Simon and Theodore with some ineffectual blustering by an adult named David Seville according to the record label.

Wow. I loved that song from the minute the round black vinyl made its first few revolutions on the turntable. I literally wore that record out. Thinking back on the months that followed Christmas and realizing how many times I must have played The Chipmunk Song, I now see how extremely tolerant my parents, especially my mother, were. They never yelled, “Cut that damned thing off.” (I confess, I wasn’t as tolerant with some of my daughter’s alternative or rap or hip hop tunes.) Nor did they try to sneak it off the turntable and consign it to the trash.

The Chipmunk Song by Alvin and The Chipmunks was produced by Liberty Records and first appeared in 1958. It had already been around and popular by the time I received the record. The whole thing was created by Ross Bagdasarian aka David Seville. He was a pioneer with the multi-speed record player and became a millionaire by fiddling with those speeds. You may have heard of his first hit, a little ditty called Witch Doctor which sold over a million copies.

A million copies might sound like a huge hit, but it pales in comparison to The Chipmunk Song, actually titled Christmas, Don’t Be Late. He wanted to use a gimmick to represent animal voices, and his children suggested chipmunks. In the end, Bagdasarian did all four voices including the David Seville character. He named his chipmunks after Liberty Records executives. Si Waronker became Simon, the good chipmunk; Ted Keep was Theodore who was kind of silly, and Al Bennett was the memorable Alvin.

You can get a copy of the original Chipmunk Song as well as videos of the subsequent television show or books, but the song remains the best of the lot, in my humble opinion.

As I’ve been writing this, I’ve listened to a CD my daughter gave me a few Christmases ago. After receiving it, I promptly loaded it into my computer. The album is a Christmas mix she put together of some of my favorite Christmas songs. Track 1 was, of course, The Chipmunk Song by Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. It’s nice to know I raised my daughter to appreciate the finer things in life. *snicker*

Christmas Romance

I haven’t used The Chipmunk Song in a story yet, but I may. In the meantime, I have 2 Christmas romances for your consideration.

LuvU4Ever, a holiday short story romance, is free! (If Amazon and Nook still haven’t reduced it to FREE, get it from one of the other sellers listed.) Nobody’s Cinderella is reduced to only 99 cents.

LuvU4Ever (Free)

This Christmas, Noelle faces the biggest decision of her life.

LuvU4Ever. That’s what was engraved on the gold heart David gave her when he proposed. They’ve shared 10 years of joy in what she thought was a forever love.

I told you never to call me at home.

Can nine little words destroy her forever love? What will Noelle do? Will she walk away? Or dish out some payback? Or will she choose love?

Available at All Romance Ebooks * Amazon Kindle (Amazon has NOT price matched so it’s still showing 99 cents there.) * iBooks * Kobo * Nook (Nook has NOT price matched either so it’s still showing 99 cents.) * Smashwords and other ebook sellers.

Nobody’s Cinderella (Reduced from $3.99 to 99 cents)

Darcy Benton is the oldest cliche in the world—a woman in love with her boss. Other than that, she’s no-nonsense, practical, mature, and sober. She’s just the kind of woman Chase Whitaker wants as head of accounting for his company. She’s definitely not the kind of woman he wants in his bed.

Enter Darcy’s meddling, matchmaking best friend who has a plan to transform Darcy into a hottie designed to attract Chase’s interest. All it takes? A couple of little lies…and a wish on a Christmas star. Darcy should have heeded that old advice: be careful what you wish for.

Available at All Romance Ebooks * Amazon Kindle * iBooks * Kobo * Nook * Smashwords and other ebook sellers.

Wishing you all the happiest of Holidays and a glorious New Year!

Post Script

Joan Reeves is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary Romance. Available as ebooks and audiobooks, her romance novels all have the same underlying theme: “It’s never too late to live happily ever after.” Joan lives her happily ever after with her hero, her husband, in the Lone Star State. Sign up for WordPlay, Joan’s email list/newsletter for readers and receive a free book.

Cherry Pie-Cake, Easiest Holiday Dessert Ever by Joan Reeves

Less than a week to Thanksgiving, and I’m in the holiday mood. I’ve been cleaning, sprucing up the guest room, and hanging the rest of the art that has been stacked in an upstairs closet for almost 2 years. With all that done, my thoughts turned to food. Yum, my favorite part of planning.

I have a dozen guests arriving next week so I started thinking about the menu—not just for Thanksgiving Day itself, but for the day before and the days after.

I like to have a dessert each evening, but I like something that doesn’t take a lot of preparation and work. I’d rather spend time with my visitors than stuck in the kitchen. So here’s my family’s favorite go-to dessert for one of the dinners before the big feast day.

Cherry Pie-Cake

This is a dump cake. I call it a pie-cake because it’s not quite a pie, but not quite a cake either. It’s just a delicious, super easy dessert. Your guests will love it. Serves 12-16.

Ingredients

• 1 Duncan Hines Yellow cake mix
• 1 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple in syrup (must be syrup)
• 1 can Cherry Pie Filling
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 stick of butter, cut in slices

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease a 13x9x2 sheet cake pan or a pretty casserole dish.
• Dump the undrained crushed pineapple into the pan and spread evenly over the bottom.
• Spoon the pie filling over the pineapple and spread it as evenly as possible.
• Sprinkle the box of dry cake mix over the layers and spread it out evenly.
• Sprinkle the pecans over the cake mix layer.
• Place the pieces of butter around the top.
• Bake for 48-53 minutes.
• Serve warm or cooled.
• Prepare to collect the compliments!

Need a Break from the Festivities?

Consider JANE (I’m Still Single) JONES, a romantic comedy all about family and friends. Reader Review: “These are two of the most delightful characters on the printed page.

“Jane thinks she’s worldly NYC but is very much the Louisiana belle—and Morgan…well what can you say, the perfect all grown up, hunky former nerd.

“Joan Reeves is at her very best with these two and the entire small town of delightful characters. It’s delightful, delicious, sexy and adorable.”

JANE (I’m Still Single) JONES is available in ebook at: All Romance Ebooks * Amazon Kindle * iBooks * Kobo * Nook * Smashwords. Also available in audiobook at Audible and iTunes.

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and showers of blessings for which to give thanks each and every day.

Post Script

Joan Reeves is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance. She lives her “happily ever after” with her husband in the Lone Star State. Visit Joan at her Amazon Author Page;  SlingWords, her blog; and sign up for Wordplay, her email mailing list.

Writer Problems…What’s Your Name Again?

There are a lot of issues that strike authors throughout their career. Deadlines, an over active imagination, days where a story you aren’t even working on interrupts your WIP or days when not a single person living in your head wants to come out to play. So, from writer’s block to multiple personalities – we all have issues.

Recently, I have developed a new tick, of sorts. It is a regular part of my job to create people, to decide what they look like, their mannerisms and silly quirks, and then I name them. Whatever I want to call them, so shall it be!

This is Thad, he is a smooth talker and a loyal friend. He has a crooked smile and what some might call a devilish grin; all held together with a heart of pure gold and a wicked sense of humor! I named him. I couldn’t imagine him with any other name.

I adore him! I better get back on topic, he is distracting to say the least. 🙂

Back to my new-found problem, a lot of times when I see someone I get an idea of what their name “should” be, you know if I was writing their life. Unfortunately, this is not always the name they actually have. When I am introduced to said person, I am now having a hard time remembering their actual name and instead want to call them the name I feel suits them best. Like the kid on my son’s baseball team who looks like a Jake to me, his name is Logan. Or the high school basketball who I call Todd, even though his name is Josh. It has gotten so bad that my son now knows who I am referring to when I use their name improperly – because it happens so often. LOL

I am not saying that I prefer my imaginary world to the real world; no, no, I would never say that. 🙂 It just seems to bleed over more and more the longer I do this and the more books and characters I have under my belt!

On the bright side it makes life interesting for me and new people I meet and gives my son one more reason to shake his head at his crazy MOM! ❤ Good thing he loves me and has a good memory for names! 😛

Speaking of characters, Thad and the rest of his wedding crew are all on sale this month of March. Each book in the One Day at a Wedding Series is 99 cents each or you can buy the entire collection for $3.50, which also includes a BONUS STORY, When Cassie Met Thad. It’s a peek into the early days of Cassie (Book One) and Thad’s (Book Three) friendship and why their loyalty and love is so unshakeable and PLATONIC! LOL

$3.50 eBook on Amazon, Barnes&Noble,Kobo and iTunes Paperback $9.26-11.99     (Prices Vary at retailer discretion)

Signed copies are also available on my website, www.kellyraebooks.com in the shop! :O)

Thanks for stopping by today and at the very least I hope you get a good chuckle at my expense or maybe even smile knowing you do the same thing. If you have a funny quirk that you have gotten due to your work or life, tell us about it and we can all compare notes. 🙂

Wishing you well, in Fiction and real life!

Kindly,

Kelly Rae

Titles Should Be Short—Or Long by Joan Reeves

Lots of southern charm, a 10-yr old betrayal, and a man and woman who should have ended up together.

There’s a rule that says book titles should be short. There’s another rule that says book titles should be long enough to attract attention. Sheesh! That’s the trouble with rules. No one can decide what the rule should be.

Readers will tell you that a great title attracts them. So how can an author come up with a really great titles? Some authors have a knack for this, and some struggle endlessly. Some authors have editors at publishing houses who decide what the title will be based on various factors.

Some of those factors might be previous use of the same title, some words in the title that the editor or someone in the editorial department doesn’t like, something in the title that was trendy or not trendy, etc. In other words, an author’s chance of using his own title was very small.

My first published book, Summer’s Fortune, which I’ll bring out as an indie published title next year, carried my title. No change. That was highly unusual.

Just One Look was my second traditionally published book. (Available at most ebook sellers; audio edition at Audible and iTunes.) That book’s title was changed 3 times. The third time proved the charm when the editor decided on Just One Look.

The only other title of mine that I was allowed to keep was Jane (I’m Still Single) Jones. I felt I had a good chance of keeping the title since it was highly unlikely that there were other published books with the same title. Plus, the editor liked the title a lot, and the title fit the story perfectly.

Popular Wisdom

The general opinion is that short titles are best — the shorter the better. Short titles can be memorable. Dean Koontz — or his editor — chose well with Phantoms, Lightning, Watchers, and so many other titles in his booklist. If you’ve read those books, you know those titles fit the books perfectly. Most of Mr. Koontz’s books bear short titles.

It’s hard to find an evocative 1 to 3 word title that gives a glimpse of even one of the important elements of a novel: the premise, plot, characters, theme, setting, etc. That’s when you start playing around with more words.

Long Titles Can Be Glorious

Forget short titles. Sometimes long titles just resonate with readers. Some authors gravitate to long titles over and over. Long, evocative titles that just sing like lyrics in a song. Who doesn’t love these titles?

Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke

Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson

Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Ecco

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen

and my friend Cynthia Wicklund’s In the Garden of Temptation which began her Garden series.

Let’s not forget the thrillers by Stieg Larsson that made such a splash a few years ago:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played With Fire.

None of the books above could possibly have a short title as evocative and memorable as the name they ended up carrying.

The Short & Long Of It

For the most part, I’ve had success with the titles I’ve chosen. They all say what the book is about, and they’re “catchy” and attract attention. (Leave a comment today with your email address and win a copy of Jane (I’m Still Single) Jones, my longest-title book.) I do know that I leave no word unturned in my search for the perfect title.

What do you like? Short? Long? Somewhere in between?

( Joan Reeves makes her home in Texas with her hero, her husband. She writes sassy Contemporary Romance with the underlying theme that is her motto: “It’s never too late to live happily ever after.” Her books are available at most ebook sellers and audio editions at Audible and iTunes. Joan publishes Writing Hacks, a free subscription newsletter for writers, and WordPlay, a free subscription newsletter for readers. Find Joan online: Blog, Website, Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.

Small Towns and Humor by Joan Reeves

I love small towns. Because I grew up in a small town, I know a lot about these unique communities — the social structure, the economics, and, most importantly, the people who live in small towns.

Favorite Setting

A small town is my favorite place to set a story, and many of my contemporary romance novels are set in small towns. Small towns are like characters in a book and give color and depth to the story.

Even though I spend the week in a townhouse in Houston, we have a country home too so I don’t lose touch with my roots, and I even subscribe to the weekly newspaper in the nearby town that has a population of 719. My goodness. That makes my hometown where I grew up look huge with its boasted population of 5,000+. I also subscribe to my hometown’s newspaper.

Homage to Leno and Carson

One of my favorite segments when Jay Leno and Johnny Carson were the stars of The Tonight Show was where they would read the unintentionally funny items from newspapers and advertisements sent in from viewers.

Never fear! Since I subscribe to 2 small town newspapers, I see funny stuff in print all the time. Of course, it’s not supposed to be funny!

I just about fell out of my chair yesterday when I read in one of those papers about the man who planted a bomb in his wife’s car. No, that wasn’t funny, but the comment from the Sheriff’s Department (deputy’s name withheld to avoid embarrassment) was.

The small town reporter asked the Deputy about the explosive device. The Deputy replied: “The explosive device did not explode, and we can’t tell whether it was homemade or not.”

Excuse me? Homemade or not? Are there stores that actually sell car bombs? I mean, aren’t all car bombs, by their very nature, homemade?

Life Is Just Different

The following isn’t particularly funny, but it’s so far removed from urban life as to appear amusing, and a bit endearing, if you’ve ever lived in the oil patch as my husband and I did when first married.

Sign on a restaurant: We deliver to surrounding oil fields.

And I don’t mean Domino’s or Pizza Hut.

Life really is different in rural and small town America. The people seem more patient and kinder. It’s almost as if there are stock characters, and every town is required to have its requisite number of them.

The pace is definitely more relaxed. My Romantic Comedy series Texas One Night Stands is all about small town life where you sneeze and someone across town says, “God bless you.”

To Sheriff’s Deputy Susannah Quinn, the heroine of The Trouble With Love, that’s suffocating. She’s tired of the town knowing everything about “poor little Susannah” and plans to escape as soon as she can. The only thing standing in her way is tall, dark, and too darn sexy for her own peace of mind.

In the second book of the series, Romeo and Judy Anne, high school principal Judy Anne Palmer is tired of being up on that pedestal of respectability. She kicks over the traces one night in Dallas. When her one-night lover shows up in her hometown, she’s afraid her night of passion will end up being the biggest scandal her little town has ever seen.

Both of these books, along with my others, are available at most ebook sellers; audio book editions are at Audible.com and iTunes.

Book 3 of Texas One Night Stands

Next month, I’ll begin writing a book that I’ve been salivating over! It’s the third book in the Texas series, Forever Starts Tonight.

Allison Platt, from The Trouble With Love, adores Alton County, Texas, where her cousin Hogan first met Susannah Quinn and where Allison hangs out a lot. Ten years ago, when she was 18, Allison was married and divorced. She says, “It was the usual case of ‘young and stupid’ —  I was young; he was stupid.” While traveling in Mexico, things go horribly wrong. Allison’s father recruits her ex, Donovan Platt, to bring her home.

Maybe I’ll have Allison deliver lunch to an oilfield while she’s hanging out in Alton County.

But Wait! There’s More!

Small towns? Like? Dislike? What do you think about books set in small towns? Leave a comment with your email address, and I’ll send you a coupon code for a free copy of Old Enough To Know Better. A woman with a past. A man who wants to be her future.

Post Script: Joan Reeves makes her home in the Lone Star State with her hero, her husband, but you can find her online at: her blog SlingWords * her website * Facebook * and Twitter. She lives the philosophy that is the premise of all of her romance novels: “It’s never too late to live happily ever after.”

Readers, sign up for WordPlay, Joan’s email list/newsletter, and receive a short story, not published elsewhere. Writers, sign up for Writing Hacks, Joan’s free newsletter, and receive a free copy of a nonfiction book.

Looking for Love by Joan Reeves

This wedding season has been bountiful for romance readers. I hope you’ve been enjoying the 11 novellas, or short novels, of Weddings on Main Street.

Wedding: Ultimate Love Story?

In today’s world where couples live together and often have children without marriage, getting married seems to have become the ultimate commitment. Weddings are celebrated publicly in ceremonies ranging from small, family-only events to splashy galas costing as much as a house.

It wasn’t always like this. Ancient history tells us that marriage was first a private, domestic affair. According to Curious Customs of Sex and Marriage by George Ryley Scott (available at used book outlets), the basic function of marriage was to multiply and replenish the earth. Marriages were simply a way of regulating procreation.

It may come as no surprise, to women at least, that men in many cultures weren’t inclined to sign on for the concept of marriage. Perhaps that explains why so many nations (remember, just about all society was patriarchal) experimented with
Polygyny, a form of plural marriage in which a man is allowed more than one wife, and Polyandry, a form of polygamy whereby a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time.

Eventually, in most civilized nations of the world, monogamy was accepted almost universally, at least in theory, as the perfect form of marital union. Well, as we all know, nothing and no one is perfect, but monogamy was probably what kept the world rocking along for a couple of millennia—dragging all of the customs and superstitions created along the way into our modern world.

Bottom Line

Many marriage customs continue, with some slight alterations. Although some may still practice Marriage by Capture, that’s usually performed in an altered version called Elopement. Betrothal in Infancy and Arranged Marriages still survive as do matchmakers. Even Marriage by Purchase survives elsewhere. In our culture, cynics assert that it’s alive and well here too because wealthy sugar daddies are always looking for sexy young sugar babies. Or maybe all of them are just looking for love like the rest of us.

Post Script

I’m giving away a copy of Weddings on Main Street. To be entered to win, leave a comment with your email address (write it out don’t leave as a hot link for the web crawlers to gather). Also say whether you want it for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or iTunes. The winner will be notified by email no later than Sunday, July 20.

(Joan Reeves writes funny, sexy Romance Novels, available at most ebook sellers, with audio editions available at Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. Joan publishes Writing Hacks, a free subscription newsletter for writers. Find Joan online: Blog, Website, Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Always remember Joan’s Motto: It’s never too late to live happily ever after!)

Summertime Madness

San Diego, CA

Summer is here and I couldn’t be happier, days of sun and swimming lay ahead, for the kid and me.  Like most, we have plans to travel a bit. Our first trip will be in full swing, when this post goes live, on Independence Day! We will be in gorgeous Southern California, with family watching fireworks near the beach. Hooray!

As we travel, by car, from Oregon down into California, we will be making stops from the top to the bottom of the state. Along the way we get to attend a 1-year-old birthday party, see for the first time a new baby to our family, visit every grandparent my son has (there are a lot of them), go swimming in pools and oceans, eat good food and catch-up with our loved ones. I wonder if it will all be exhausting as it sounds? Ha!

Golden Gate

Unfortunately for me, this will be somewhat a working vacation. Oh the dangers of being your own boss – you forget to schedule REAL vacation time! 🙂 The good news is that I have so much going on, in my writing life, that I will need to work a little each day in order to stay on track. I have promoting and fine tuning to do on my novella series, One Day at a Wedding. The first of which was released with the wonderful ladies here on Main Street in our newest boxed set Weddings on Main Street.

I would love to hear about your vacation plans for the summer or just in general what kind of vacation style do you enjoy? Our first trip is all about visiting family and friends. Check out our poll and share your faves with us, feel free to comment as well and start a discussion about your best vacation ever!

I would also like to take a moment, this being Independence Day, to wish everyone a happy holiday, may you spend it with those you love and cherish most. USA! USA! USA!

Wishing you only the best in fiction and in life.

Kelly Rae

 

 

All of the lovely stories below are available in the newest Authors on Main Street Boxed set! We are all so proud of the entire set and hope that those of you who have read it would consider writing a review and letting others know what you thought of our collection of weddings!

What Hooks Readers by Joan Reeves

All the lovely covers of the novellas comprising Weddings on Main Street

As a reader, what about a book hooks you? The author’s name? The cover? The Book Description? The first sentence?

Chances are it’s a combination of the elements above. For me, the first paragraph I read will have me clicking the buy button. Or not.

When book shopping, I always open a book—whether that’s in a bookstore or online with the “Look Inside” feature—and read the first paragraph. This small amount of text should be crafted to capture a reader with an intoxicating first sentence, first paragraph, first page–followed by equally addicting pages to the very end.

Crafting a Compelling Opening

Each time I start a manuscript, I spend a lot of time thinking up the perfect opening sentences for the story and the character. In a couple of sentences I want you to meet the character and glimpse something about her personality, attitude, and emotional condition that will make you want to read more.

I measure my opening sentence against the yardstick of great story openers created by my favorite authors. Excellent opening sentences capture the reader’s attention–makes readers curious or elicits an emotional reaction: laughter, excitement, sadness, etc.

Sampler of My Opening Sentences

My most recent work is April Fool Bride in the Weddings on Main Street Box Set.

The first day of spring in New York featured the kind of weather Madeline Quinn most hated. Cold, gray, wet, and miserable— which made it perfect because that’s exactly the way she felt.

Still The One (I’m fairly certain every woman has fantasized about what she’d do if given the chance to show someone from her past how she has grown from an ugly duckling into a swan.)

Ally Fletcher had waited six years for this opportunity. Six long years. There was no way a mere thunderstorm was going to stop her. Of course, in Texas, calling this a mere thunderstorm was like saying a Texas tornado was a mere puff of wind.

Just One Look (Is there a woman who won’t identify with this paragraph?)

Jennifer Monroe shivered and rubbed the goose-bumped flesh of her arms. A meat locker would be warmer than a doctor’s examining room! Why do they have to keep it so cold? And why do they act as if you have nothing better to do than sit around clad only in a piece of paper and your birthday suit, and wait?

JANE I’m-Still-Single JONES

When she found the person responsible for this, she would make them pay. And pay big!

Nobody’s Cinderella

Darcy Benton wondered if she needed to check into a hospital. Her nervous system seemed to have shorted out, producing feet that felt like blocks of ice and hands that perspired as if it were July rather than December.

Old Enough to Know Better

If you can’t trust your friends, then who can you trust? Stormy Clarkson planned to pose that question to her soon-to-be ex-friend Libby the minute she saw the conniving woman.

Romeo and Judy Anne

By the time most people reach the eve of their thirtieth birthday, they’ve developed a philosophy of life, shaped by the experience of living. Judy Anne Palmer was no exception. She had a philosophy of life, shaped by life’s hard lessons and honed by the last eight years to a stark two-word declaration. Life sucks!

SCENTS and SENSUALITY

Men looked at Amanda Whitfield and thought she was a hot blonde who knew how to have a good time. Hot? Sizzling. Sexy? Undeniably. Men figured she knew all about flirtation and lust and sex. They were wrong.

The Trouble With Love

Every woman makes mistakes. Susannah Quinn glared at the door to the sheriff’s private office. Yep, every woman makes mistakes, but most women didn’t have to put up with a constant reminder of their not so brilliant actions. And most women didn’t have their mistake showing up at their office, flaunting tanned muscles and polluting the environment with clouds of testosterone and male arrogance.

The Yardstick By Which I Measure

Here are some favorite opening sentences that intrigue or tease with a sense of anticipation, evoking curiosity and/or an emotional response in the reader that can’t be resisted.

“Last night I dreamt I went to Mandeley again.” Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

“I never knew her in life.” The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

“Nobody was really surprised when it happened, not really, not at the subconscious level where savage things grow.” Carrie by Stephen King

“Death was driving an emerald green Lexus.” Winter Moon by Dean Koontz

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

My Confession

The worst thing about reading another writer’s sparkling prose is that I despair of ever being as good. The best thing is that I’m motivated to keep working on my writing, from the first sentence to the last.

Do you want to know the truth? Even though it’s hard work, I can’t think of anything that’s more fun! I’m so lucky. I make my living by writing stories about love, laughter, commitment, sex, romance, and all the funny, crazy things that happen to a man and a woman who are made for each other—but who just don’t know it. Yet.

Post Script

(Joan Reeves writes sassy, sexy Contemporary Romance. Her books are available at all major ebook sellers with audio editions available at Amazon, Audible.com, and iTunes. Joan publishes Writing Hacks, a free subscription newsletter for writers, and I LUV Books, a free subscription newsletter for readers. Find Joan online: Blog, Website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.