Mid-Week Inspiration

Anyone need a mid-week writerly kick in the pants? I sure do. So today just sit back, grab a cup o' joe, and be inspired. Oh yeah, and feel free to steal these and spread the inspiration around.

Free Book!

Yeah, you read that right. My publisher is running a hot spring sale today and tomorrow -- hot as in el freebo. You can get the ebook version of OUT OF THE FRYING PAN right now, right HERE.
And just in case you don't have one of them there fancy newfangled ebook reading gadgets, no worries. You can always download it to your computer and read it from there -- or if you're super lazy, install text reading software and have your computer read it back to you. Easy peasy.

Here's what RT Book Reviews has to say about it:

"A laugh out loud mystery with quirky, lovable characters who find themselves in all sorts of trouble. The storyline is believable and comes with descriptions of mouth-watering food, which makes for a delicious plot! A cohesive and fast-moving novel." 4-Stars! RT Book Reviews

And here's a blurb:

Murder in Paradise whips life into a froth for FERN and ZULA HOPKINS. When the retirement center’s chef is found dead, the two ladies get folded in with the case. Their zany attempts to track down the killer land them in hot water with Detective JARED FLYNN. Should he be concerned about their safety—or the criminal’s?

But there are deadly ingredients none of them expect. Drugs. Extortion. International cartels. And worst of all…broken hearts, especially when the Hopkins sisters’ niece KC arrives on the scene.

Life at Sunset Paradise Retirement Village will never be the same.

If you haven't read this one, give it a whirl. You've seriously got nothing to lose. And if you have read it, thank you and spread the word.

National Library Week

Pull out your wing-twingler horns, bang on your whoopdedoodle drums, and let's have a big round of applause for National Library Week!

I grew up going to the library several times a week . . . which is quite a statement on my social life. But nowadays not even book nerds are hanging at the library. Information is accessible online. Amazon is just a click away. As a result, local libraries are visited less and less. 

So besides stuffing your face full of Peeps this weekend,  let's do our part to celebrate libraries. Pay yours a visit.

Another fun way to celebrate is to pop over to Out of Print Clothing. Besides snatching up yourself a sweet book-related tee-shirt, this company is responsible for donating 2.5 million books to communities in need and literary programs. And in honor of National Library Week, they've launched some fun collections.

Out of Print’s mission is to celebrate literature through fashion while spreading the joy of reading - - especially to those without access to books. By unearthing and licensing iconic book cover art to tell a story on fashion and lifestyle merchandise, Out of Print has developed a passionate following online and in stores across 80 countries.

Springtastic Easter Giveaway

I’ve teamed up with more than 45 fantastic inspirational historical romance authors to give away a huge collection of novels to 2 lucky winners, PLUS a Kindle Fire to the Grand Prize winner!

You can win my novel The Captive Heart, plus books from authors like Tamara Alexander and Erica Vetsch -- and a whole host of other awesome writers.

Enter the giveaway by clicking HERE.

Even if you don't win, you'll have a great list of authors to check out, some of which might be new to you.

Writing Isn't Magic

I just typed THE END on my twelfth book. Or is it the thirteenth? I don't know because I'm too busy writing the next one to stop and count what I've done. I didn't break out a bottle of champagne. There were no confetti parades or big balloon drops. There wasn't anything magical about it except for the satisfaction of finishing yet another project.

The truth is, folks, that writing isn't magic. It's work.

Granted, there are sometimes when the words flow and it's all mystical and dreamy. You feel like you're one with the muse and you can conquer the world with your pen.

But that doesn't happen very often. Most of the time writing a chapter is about as exciting as vacuuming up the dog hair on the carpet or hauling out the trash. If you're under a deadline, it's just something that needs to be done every day.

Magic is capricious and elusive. You can't expect to produce much writing if you only write when you feel the magic. But take heart . . . just because you feel like you're having a bad writing day doesn't mean your writing is necessarily bad -- just like if you think you're having a good writing day doesn't guarantee your writing is stellar. The main thing is to write, whether you feel like it or not.

What to Do Before a Research Trip

Just because you write fiction doesn’t mean you can make up everything. But other than dozing off in dry non-fiction research books, how else can you discover the information you need to know to make your story come alive?

A research trip, silly rabbit!

Whoa, there. Before you go packing your bags, you've got some pre-research trip planning. I know. All you spontaneous types out there just flinched. But here's the dealio . . . **steps up to the mike, clears throat, manifests the most motherly tone possible**

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

But you can’t even formulate a plan until you figure out some basic information. It’s worth it in the long run if you sit down ask yourself 3 key questions:

1. What are you looking for? 

What’s the whole point of this research trip? What do you want to find out? Your trip hinges on the answer to this question. Let’s use my research trip for The Captive Heart as an example. I wanted to know what life was like in the late 18th century in the rural south, especially for an outsider (as was my heroine). Pinpoint what it is that will be important for you to know in writing your story. Don’t gloss over this because your entire trip orbits around the answer to this question. This is your prime objective.

2. Where are you going?

It’s a big world out there. You can’t tromp around all of it for the sake of a story. You have to decide exactly what geographical location will best suit your trip. Going back to my example, the rural south is a large area. Even South Carolina where my story takes place covers a lot of ground. So I narrowed the area down to about a hundred mile stretch that included where my characters would’ve roamed.

3. How are you going to find what you want to know?

Once you’ve figured out why you’re going and where, it’s time to figure out how to discover the information you want to find. Remember to keep your prime objective in mind while doing this. Back to my example, I brainstormed a list of possibilities like hiking the area, hitting up museums, visiting reenactment historical sites, making an appointment with a curator, stopping by at an Indian reservation. Yeah, that’s quite a big list because at this point in the research trip stage, the sky’s the limit. Dream big. You might not get to do everything you’d like, but at least you’ll have a plan.

So, now you have an idea of what, where and how, but what comes next? How exactly do you pull it all together into one coherent research trip?

Figure Out Your Budget

I’m great with words but money? Not so much. Okay, not at all, unless it comes to spending it. Still, budgeting is a necessary evil if you don’t have unlimited funds. You’re going to have to crunch numbers sooner or later, and the first number you need to figure out is how much money you have to invest. This will determine the other thing you need to budget: your time. How long you stay on a research trip hinges on how long you can stay—and you won’t know that until you have a dollar amount. Just a little heads up: it will never be as much as you want and you’ll never get to stay as long as you want. But don’t panic, even if all you can manage is a weekend jaunt, or just a day trip, whatever you can do is totally worth it. 

Draft an Itinerary

Remember all that brainstorming you did? Now's the time to figure out if doing all those things is feasible. Map out your days. I suggest you don't do more than 2 things in a day. If you can squeak in more, fabulous. If not and you can only get to one, hey, that's better than nothing, right? This itinerary is a guideline for you so that you don't waste your time once you arrive at your destination. If you discover other things to do that pique your interest more than what you'd planned, then go for it.

Pray

The last thing to do before you step foot out your door on your research trip is to pray. I know. Sounds a little holier than thou. But this is an important step. Not that you’ll be calling down the heavens to bless your trip, though that’s not a bad idea, but think about asking God to prepare the way ahead of time to bring people across your path that you can be a blessing to. There’s no reason in the world your research trip can’t also be a missions trip. It’s not all about you or your story all the time. Pray that you’d be mindful to see opportunities to be the hands and feet of Christ while you’re in a different place.

If you take the time to put all these pieces into place before you go galavanting off into the sunset, I predict your research trip will be a rousing success.

Graphics For Authors

There's more to being a writer than just words -- especially in today's cut throat market. An author is expected to promote their own material. The easy way out is to hire a publicity firm to do the dirty work of selling for you. A valid option . . . but an expensive one. So most authors I know opt to slap on a graphic design hat and wing their way through hacking up a few ads on Facebook or Twitter or what have you. Thank God for web sites that make that a hair easier.

Normally I use Canva. It's an intuitive site to create sweet ads or invitations or whatever it is you want. It's free. It's easy. I love it. But (and I've always got a big but) the problem is I've exhausted a lot of their standard freebies. I could pay for more elaborate or new graphics, but my marketing budget is about as big as my new shoes budget. Translation: not much. I've tried other sites, but most of them are confusing or the learning curve is just too great for me to devote that much time to. So I've been using Canva simply by default.

Until today.

Recently I received an email request asking me to review a new graphic site. I put it off because I am crazy busy with deadlines, but I finally got around to playing with it today. Whoa baby. Canva just met it's match.

Allow me to introduce you to the new kid on the graphics block: FotoJet. Here are the pros and cons as compared to Canva . . .

PROS:
New templates to play with
A photo editor
A photo collage creator
Easy and intuitive to use, quite reminiscent of Canva

CONS:
No infographic templates (would really love to see a site include this)
Not as many ad /social media templates to choose from as Canva

Here's what I created in the space of a half hour:

Overall I think FotoJet is an awesome tool to put in your writerly tool box. You know you're going to have to promote, you might as well make it easy on yourself and give this one a whirl.