Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts

Monday, December 4, 2017

Dreaming Too Big?

Posted by Susan B James on 1:13:00 PM with No comments
December is full of exciting, wonderful things. I am affirming it will all go well. This weekend I gave my annual Gingerbread parties.
Monday. I have knee arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus.
Tuesday I have work on the series The Middle (episode 913 Mammapaloosa)
Wednesday is a day of rest.
Thursday is a haircut and blood test and PitMad. (a scramble to find an agent for Kate's Hero.)
Friday Maybe This Time comes out in paperback. (Happy Limp) and It's the annual Bunco Christmas Party.
Sunday I have critique group and the LARARWA final meeting of the year.
It feels like a lot to do while my knee is joyfully healing, but I believe it will work. 
Please give me  the name of a good book to read while I heal.
Since I have to leave for surgery in twenty minutes, I will cut this short.
Wishing you a joyful and productive week.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

12 Days of Christmas for Writers

Posted by Susan B James on 3:00:00 AM with No comments


This post comes from Julie Jarnagin whose latest book Engaged by Friday, book # 4 in the Matched online series is available on these venues
B&NKoboiBooks                                                                                                                                                                                                 
Julie Jarnagin

Happy reading and writing everyone. See you in 2017.
http://juliejwrites.blogspot.com/2010/12/12-days-of-christmas-for-writers.html
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
12 Days of Christmas for Writers



On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

12 Fulls Requested

11 Muses Musing

10 Plots-a-Flowing

9 Bloggers Blogging

8 Hours-a-Writing

7 Editors Editing

6 Tweets Retweeted

5-STAR REVIEWS

4 Best Sellers

3 Query Letters

2 Agents Calling

And a Contract to Fill you with Glee!

Merry Christmas to all my wonderful writing friends!

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Christmas in Haven Point with RaeAnn Thayne. #Giveaway.

Posted by Susan B James on 3:00:00 AM with 2 comments
Snowfall in Haven Point is the newest addition to NYT Best Seller RaeAnne Thayne's Haven point series. and I have a copy to give away. Why? I got an ARC, my friends and having enjoyed it, I am ready to share it.
I've got to tell you, this woman gives good Christmas Story.


Andie Montgomery's goal is to give her two young children a wonderful to Christmas to make up for all the sadness they've experienced in the past two years. And Haven Point is just the place to do it. This small town full of friendly folk has made her feel at home. Especially her new best friend Wyn Montgomery befriended her and Andie considers her  her savior. So when Wyn who is away at school asks Andie to look in on her brother Marshall after  he's been the victim of a hit and run accident, how can she refuse. 
After a rocky start, Marshall and Andie are reluctantly attracted to each other. But Marshall's got a secret and an enemy whose out to injure him. And Andie's determined not to give her heart to another lawman. But fate and small children and Christmas have other plans in store. 
This heartwarming holiday romance is as good as a cup of rich hot chocolate on a snowy day. Bravo, Raeanne Thayne.

Blurb:
It's been two rough years since Andrea Montgomery lost her husband, and all she wants is for her children to enjoy their first Christmas in Haven Point. But then Andie's friend asks a favor--to keep an eye on her brother, Sheriff Marshall Bailey, who's recovering from a hit and run. Andie will do anything for Wyn, even park her own misgivings to check on her grouchy, wounded bear of a brother.

Marshall hates feeling defenseless and resents the protective impulses that Andie brings out in him. But when a blizzard forces them together for the holidays, something in Marshall begins to thaw. Andie's gentle nature is a salve, and her kids' excitement for the holidays makes him forget why he never wanted a family. If only he and Andie can admit what they really want--each other--their Christmas wishes might come true after all
Interview with RaeAnne
What makes you laugh?
RaeAnne: My husband. Always. I was first attracted to his sense of humor and twenty-nine years later, he can still make me laugh, even in the most stressful of moments.

Where do you get your inspiration?
Where don’t I get inspiration? Magazine articles, talking to friends, television, museums, walking in the mountains, listening to my children play, seeing an elderly couple struggle hand in hand together through the grocery store. Life is my inspiration.

What do you do when you get writer’s block?
 Writer’s block to me usually means a scene isn’t working right. I give myself permission to do something else for an hour — read a book that moves me, listen to favorite music, take a walk or write something else — but then I force myself to sit back down and figure out where the story has gone off the rails.

 Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
I have three amazing children but I would have to say my middle son has influenced me most. He is seventeen now and was born with severe disabilities (cerebral palsy, global developmental delays). I am his primary caregiver and every decision in our lives the last seventeen years — from where we live to the car we drive to our vacation destinations — has centered around the challenges (and privileges!) of caring for him. I am a much different (better!) person than I would have been without him in our lives.

 You’ve written over 40 books. How do you continue to keep your ideas fresh?
 My problem is not coming up with fresh ideas, it is finding time to write them all! I do have consistent themes I tend to return to — family, community, learning to reach out and help others — but since the characters and the situations differ dramatically, the stories are different too. I love discovering where my characters want to take me!

You keep a busy writing schedule in addition to having three children! What do you like to do when you have some spare time? This is a rhetorical question since yousprobably can number your spare minutes using your fingers.
I love to hike and bike in the beautiful mountains near my Utah home. I love to read (mostly romance, of course) and I am a passionate beader, thanks mostly to the research I did for my Hope’s Crossing series, which started in a bead store. I also love to travel — any time, anywhere — and find it enriches my writing and my life. I would love to visit every country in Europe, though to date, I have only hit Italy, Spain and England (and Morocco in northern Africa!) so I have some work to do.

Your brand identity is that you write “Stories of Hope, Healing, Heart”. Why is this important to you?
RaeAnne: During my years working as a journalist, I felt surrounded by the inherent negativity all around as I sifted through the world’s events of the day to decide what would run in my newspaper. There is so much hatred, darkness, ugliness everywhere around us. Sometimes it seems those clamoring voices drown out everything courageous and bright and good in the world. I want to write stories that lift people, that show it is not only possible to fight through the ugliness with dignity and strength but is absolutely necessary in order to have a fulfilling, meaningful life.
You have said you find it inspiring to write about people who have faced difficult times and overcome them. What do you hope your readers take away from these kinds of storylines?

Nobody makes it through this life without experiencing heartbreak or loss. It is as inescapable as the changing of the seasons. I hope to show my readers through my characters’ struggles that even after times of what might feel like unendurable sorrow, eventually the sun always comes up again. My characters inevitably discover the world can still be a bright and beautiful place filled with hope, joy, love. Perhaps as a reader going through a tough time watches my characters soldier on through their fictional problems, it might give her a little bit of strength to struggle through another day. I have a sign in my office that says “I may not change the world, but I can change someone’s afternoon.” That’s all I really want — to make someone’s day a little brighter, their burdens feel a little easier, if only for a moment.
Well I certainly fell brighter after reading Snowfall on Haven point. Actually after reading any of your books. Thank you for the interview. Beloved readers enter below for a chance to win the paperback. US only for this one. Happy Reading



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Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Goodreads Giveaway and and a Christmas poem.

Posted by Susan B James on 3:00:00 AM with 1 comment

Happy season of Hope and Miracles and Good stuff. 

I'm doing my first Goodreads Giveaway. 5 paperback copies of Time and Forever. If you haven't read it, please hop on over and enter. https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/167111-time-and-forever
If you have read it, please share the giveaway. 


I hope you make some wonderful memories this week.  Here's a Christmas poem for you. Blessings.

 Twas The Night.

                                                  by Susan J Berger

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,

Each creature was reading. Yes, even the mouse.

In a nest made of cotton that used to line pills,

he read Mouseman Saves Christmas and shivered with thrills.

 

 Miss Padpaws turned pages of  Elf off A Shelf 

And purred as she read it aloud to herself.

Bad Dog, on the hearth, was devouring a book.

He'd chewed up five chapters and turned them to gook.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

reading books, with the covers pulled over their heads.


Mamá was engrossed in her latest romance.

I nodded o'er Dickens and fell into trance.


Not one of us heard jingle bells on the roof.

No prancing and pawing of each tiny hoof.

Santa slid down the chimney and only Bad Dog, 

looked up and woofed softly at the man on the log.

 

"Good Bad Dog," said Santa, and opened his pack.

He pulled out a bushel of books from his sack.

Picture books, YA, some Midgrades for Simon,

Thrillers, romances and even Neil Gaiman.


Geronimo Stilton, he gave to the mouse.

A copy of Archie, he left for the louse

He patted Miss Padpaws and handed her Cats.

For Bad Dog, a cake book that tasted like Brats

 He filled every stocking with poems and prose.

Then ate all the cookies; brushed crumbs from his clothes.

 

On Prancer! On Dancer!"  Sleigh bells jingled bright.

"Happy Reading to All and to All a Good Night".


Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Merry Christmas to All and a Joyous New Year.

Posted by Susan B James on 12:00:00 AM with 3 comments
Last year I turned 70. (I know I should spell that out, but I like writing 7. It's my lucky number.) I know this is a lucky decade for me. I think my first year of the decade has proven that in spades.

In January I traveled to Portage, Michigan for my granddaughter, Eleanor's second birthday. As you can see, her parents are raising a reader.
Two days after her birthday, my debut romance, Time and Forever came out. You know what a gift that is.

Blurb:
1969. Love was free, man walked on the moon, and Sherry and Lorena found the loves of their lives. Sherry shared a kiss that dreams were made of, with a stranger on the tube in London, and ran away. Lorena found the love of her life in Los Angeles and married him.
2014. Sherry’s a successful businesswoman with two grown sons. Lorena’s an actress on a popular sitcom. Sherry’s husband dumped her for a younger woman eighteen years ago. Lorena’s husband died of cancer. Sherry wants a second chance at love. Lorena can’t imagine loving anyone but Dave.
When Lorena finds The Castle, which specializes in Virtual Reality adventures to any point in time, they both jump at the chance to play. But when the door opens to 1969’s London, it’s apparent they’ve walked into more than just a game.

I started sending it out for reviews. So far I have 44 with a 4.9 star rating. I am over the moon about that.

I came home to Los Angeles and took my first course in Musical Improv from UCB's Tara Copeland. I fell in love with the form. My son, Christopher Corbin, decided we would be the only Mother/Son musical improv group. We hired a coach and did our first show. Chris belongs to the Musical Improve group, Meaningful Touch. Stephanie Bentley, one of his team mates, read Time and Forever and loved the characters so much that she offered to do the narration for the audio book.
I think she did a wonderful job.


In May I began traveling, First to Chicago for  a wedding, then back to Portage to visit my granddaughter. From there I went to Burlington for my cousin's graduation from college. She's 79 and has already started graduate school.

Luiz Guzman and Ansley Carnahan
On Memorial day weekend, my critique group staged a reunion at our partner, Lupe Fernandez's wedding.
Pen and Ink and adjunct correspondents.
Victoria Krol, Lupe Fernandez,  David Krol, Susan Berger, Kris Kahrs, Angel Fernandez, Hilde Garcia Krol and Sam Krol
I had two months to concentrate on writing and revising. before leaving again.
I submitted a picture book, Mom Is There A Santa? to Guardian Angel Publishing and Lynda Burch accepted it. Hooray. One of my favorite illustrators, K.C. Snider will be illustrating.

In July I went to Brazil to see John of God with a group from my church. A profoundly lovely experience. After that, in rapid succession, I went to Honolulu for a memorial service for my beloved friend, Cynthia Mooney, Seattle, where I attended a Jayne Anne Krentz book signing and Port Angeles to visit my sister, Kelly.

When I came home, I attended the SCBWI Writers retreat - One of my favorite writing events.
I attended the meetings of my local RWA chapter, LARA and met some wonderful encouraging fellow authors. And I discovered some great new reads.

This year I learned that my best revision tool is reading aloud. This tool helped me through the latest revision of my multicultural mid-grade MS, Tasha the Magnificent.
I submitted my WIP, Kate's Hero,  to four people. Biggest lesson: My story starts five chapters in, I finished a second draft during NaNoWriMo. There will most definitely be a third draft before I send it out into the world to Beta Readers,

On December 9th I flew to Baltimore to be my friend Donna's chemo partner for nine days. I am amazed at how well she handles it.
While I was there, Time and Forever came out in paperback. I immediately ordered a copy for Donna. She is a voracious reader and prefers real books. Donna had already been through the first fifteen books I sent her, She read the book in two hours! If I could read that fast, my life would be a lot simpler. Donna had read a beta version and wasn't impressed. I am happy to say this time she loved it. I loved holding my first paperback.







On December 18th I flew to Portage to spend Christmas with Jim, Mary and Ella.  We are having a wonderful, but tiring time. Ella's sleep schedule has turned erratic.

If you'd like a Christmas bit of Doggerel, I also post at Pen and Ink and this week, it's my turn.


I wish all of us Holidays touched with magic and a bright and creative New Year.
Of course I have a giveaway:

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