Category Archives: Articles
Yoga for Writers
* HEALTH FOR WRITERS series
By JEANAN GLAZIER
Tired eyes? Been staring at your computer screen for a long time? Relief is in sight! (Pun intended!)
If you wear glasses, then please remove them. If you wear contact lenses, then it really is best to remove them.
Can you comfortably sit on the floor in some cross-legged position with your back reasonably straight? The key word is “comfortably”. Some people can easily sit on the floor; many cannot. If sitting on the floor is not comfortable for you, then sit in a chair with the straightest back you can find.
Wine Labels: Secrets of the Universe Revealed
* WINE 101 FOR BEGINNERS series
By GRACE DRAVEN
“In vino veritas (In wine there is truth)”, or so Pliny the Elder has been credited with saying. He would have been even better served if someone had slapped a wine label onto the amphora. Wine labels reveal the secrets of the universe.
Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration; however, wine labels can tell you a lot when considering what bottle of vino you want to buy for that romantic dinner, gift for a friend, etc.
There’s a lot to know about wine, such as varietals, proper storage, styles versus grapes, oak versus unoaked and why it is a seriously bad idea to fill your pool with Champagne and go for a swim, no matter how rich you are. Instead, I’m going to concentrate on the humble label. This way, when you’re standing in the wine aisle, staring at the 8,000 varieties of wines and feeling like you’ve been pole-axed, you can decide what to buy based on something more than a name like Honeysuckle Sweet or Batty Old Tart.
Somebody That I Used to Know
By EMILY RYAN-DAVIS
If you listen to the radio in the car, read Forbes magazine, watch Glee, or tweet, you’ve heard—or heard about—the hit duet featuring Gotye and Kimbra. And you probably know what you’re listening to, whereas up until about two weeks ago, I had no clue. No clue that I could nail down, anyway, because I existed in a pop culture void for the last four months, learning to live with a newborn baby. While in my void, the one predictable element was the opening melody of “Somebody That I Used to Know”, which popped up on the radio every time I got in the car.
After four months of telling myself to remember the lyrics and look up the artist, I finally did…and had “A Moment”.
Top Ten Reasons to have a Big Wedding
By ELYSA HENDRICKS
With spring in the air a young man’s fancy turns to love, but a young woman’s eye lands on an entirely different prize – a wedding, preferably a BIG one.
May and June are the traditional months for insanity – I mean weddings. So what is it about planning a wedding that turns normally rational people – Mom and Dad – into psycho parents? How can formally calm, basically boring people become raving lunatics? Turn Moms of the brides and grooms into overbearing frantic control freaks. And Fathers into misers who complain loud and long about every itty bitty expense? Like:
“Who needs a $10,000 wedding gown? You can only wear it once!”
Author of the Month, Grace Greene
In the midst of her personal disasters, Beth is called back to her hometown of Preston, a small town in southwestern Virginia, to settle her guardian’s estate and runs smack into the mess she’d left behind a decade earlier: her alcoholic father and the long-ago sweetheart, Michael, and the poor opinion of almost everyone in town. As she sorts through her guardian’s possessions, Beth discovers that the woman who saved her and raised her had secrets, and the truths revealed begin to chip away at her self-imposed control.
Michael is warmly attentive and Stephen, her ex-fiancé, follows her to Preston to win her back, but it’s the man she doesn’t know who could end, forever, Beth’s chance to build a better, truer life.
It’s February. The view from my desk shows leafless trees and, except for hollies and evergreens, the landscape is brown, brown and more brown. Days are short and sometimes the wind rattles the house and cold sneaks through the cracks.
I turn on my computer, open my most recent WIP and suddenly, I’m in a different place. The locale is usually warm and sunny and exciting stuff is happening – a little romance, a little danger. It’s a world I’ve built, can change at will, and have populated with the characters of my choice. Is it any wonder that I love to write?
So, it’s February – the month of Valentines and lovers. It’s the time for mid-winter revels of the heart. Flowers, syrupy cards and chocolate – for everyone. From the time our chubby little fingers can clutch a pair of safety scissors and cut a rough heart from red construction paper, we are in the game.
Love is joyful.
I’m not a romantic, except in my novels. What about you? Do you remember important dates, send flowers, find special gifts throughout the year for your loved one? When you prepare a meal, do you pay attention to the lighting and the ambience? Do you smile sweetly and hold your punches when you want to clobber him?
Love is patient.
What about a new love? Are you brave enough to risk rejection and possible humiliation? Are you able to bounce back and willing to try again? When it comes to romance novels, Valentine’s Day celebrations apply to the beginning and the end – and while everyone loves the sweet, happy stuff, it’s the anguish in the middle that drives the story and keeps us reading.
Love is tough.
In my newest release, KINCAID’S HOPE, Michael slipped a paper heart into Beth’s backpack when they were children. Beth kept it and two decades later, it resurfaces, and so does Michael. But the old issues are still there and without forgiveness they’re stuck in the past where love can’t flourish. KINCAID’S HOPE is about timing – how each piece of life, the elements of our living, has its own time. A true life and genuine love can’t be fabricated or forced, but if your heart and head are open and free of bitterness, you might be able to recognize the real thing when it happens.
Love is worth the effort.
My debut release, BEACH RENTAL, also deals with love in its many types. I mention it here because BEACH RENTAL has a Valentine scene set at a real event: the Carolina Chocolate Festival in Morehead City, North Carolina. Chocolate and charities – hard to beat that, but if you’re interested, you have to move quickly because the festival happens the first weekend in February and is a delightful jumpstart to a month of Valentines and lovers of all kinds.
My Valentine to you is an excerpt from both books, KINCAID’S HOPE and BEACH RENTAL, at this link: http://gracegreene.wordpress.com
Also, (and this is the first time I’ve ever done this!) to celebrate the release of KINCAID’S HOPE, use the coupon codes below to save $1 on the purchase of BEACH RENTAL (eformat) at Smashwords or at the Turquoise Morning Press Bookstore! The coupon codes are valid through February 15th, 2012.
Save $1 on BEACH RENTAL at Smashwords: TF98J
Save $1 on BEACH RENTAL (eformat) at the TMP store: BEACH25
Here’s a short synopsis of KINCAID’S HOPE:
Beth Kincaid left her hot temper and unhappy childhood behind and created a life in the city free from untidy emotionalism, but even a tidy life has danger, especially when it falls apart.
In the midst of her personal disasters, Beth is called back to her hometown of Preston, a small town in southwestern Virginia, to settle her guardian’s estate. There, she runs smack into the mess she’d left behind a decade earlier: her alcoholic father, the long-ago sweetheart, Michael, and the poor opinion of almost everyone in town. As she sorts through her guardian’s possessions, Beth discovers that the woman who saved her and raised her had secrets, and the truths revealed begin to chip away at her self-imposed control.
Michael is warmly attentive and Stephen, her ex-fiancé, follows her to Preston to win her back, but it is the man she doesn’t know who could forever end Beth’s chance to build a better, truer life. (Sweet, Mild Heat)
KINCAID’S HOPE is available in trade paperback and e-formats at these links:
Amazon Print Amazon Kindle B&N Print B&N Nook Smashwords TMP Bookstore – Print TMP Bookstore – eformats
Grace Greene writes fiction with romance, suspense and inspiration, always with a strong heroine at its heart and a happily-ever-after ending. Her debut novel, BEACH RENTAL, released in 2011 and her second novel, KINCAID’S HOPE, released in January 2012.
Grace is also an artist and photographer and these interests show up on the pages of her books. She lives in central Virginia.
Contact Grace via her website:
www.GraceGreeneAuthor.com and on Facebook and her Twitter handle is @Grace_Greene
Spotlight On, Nancy Naigle
Nancy Naigle writes love stories from the crossroad of small town and suspense. After spending most of her life on the Virginia coast, she and her husband left Tidewater for greener pastures a little further inland in Southampton County. They now live on a 76 acre goat farm where Nancy spends every spare moment working on her next book.
To learn more about Nancy, visit her online at:
www.nancynaigle.com
When Romance Divas was kind enough to invite for the Spotlight a few months back we talked through the standard questions. How long had I been writing? How long did it take to get published? You know, that kind of stuff.
Well, that was fun, but this time I thought I’d just share a little about me. My first novel came out this summer. SWEET TEA AND SECRETS is the first in a series of books with ties to the small town of Adams Grove. When you read a little bit more about me, I think you’ll see why I write small town stories.
My daytime job is with Bank of America, but I’m one of the lucky Americans that enjoy a job with a company that allows telecommuting. I used to work out of the Norfolk, VA office. That was an 80 mile commute each way so you can see that having no commute has added hours to my week that used to be spent on the road.
My husband and I own a goat farm here in Virginia. He is a full-time goat rancher, and I confess I have about one of the prettiest views around. Especially in kidding season. There’s just nothing cuter than a pasture full of young kids making their momma’s nervous as they race each other up and down the hill. We breed boer-cross goats. The boer color makes our herd fairly consistent. Most look very similar to the kid in my arms in the picture to the left. White with a red head is considered color correct for this breed. Goats have a 5 month gestation period and the does usually have twins. We have had quintuplets before, but we usually end up having to bottle feed to help the momma out when that happens.
Last weekend I announced the Market Goat Show at the Virginia State Fair. This is the sixth year I’ve done it and the show just gets better and better each year. It’s fun to see the future producers of our state compete to win the prize and represent the industry with such high standards.
I’ve always had a love for small towns. The peace I find on the drive through the rural areas to get to the town is almost treasure enough. I’d much rather spend the day rambling through a string of shops in a small town than in a big trendy mall. And you can’t beat a small town diner for a good home-cooked meal either.
They say write what you know. Well, I’m writing what I love and that’s small towns and stories that I can escape my hectic day to day in. I hope you’ll escape in them, too.
The name of the town in my books, Adams Grove, is a real town here in Virginia, but there’s no bakery, flower shop or Main Street like there is in my stories. I took the best of all my favorite small town visits across the nation and made Adams Grove the town anyone could escape to. I hope you’ll pay a visit to Adams Grove in Sweet Tea and Secrets and then keep an eye out for the second story with ties to that small town. OUT OF FOCUS will be out on November 14th.
Here’s the blurb:
Kasey Phillips thought her biggest problem was deciding whether to accept the job to photograph Cody Tuggle’s honky-tonkin’ tour, until an accident on Route 58 claims the life of her husband.
In a desperate race against time as a hurricane threatens the eastern seaboard, they search for her three-year-old son who is missing from the wreckage.
Family and friends rally to help, but someone knows more than they are telling.
What’s your favorite thing about small towns? I’ve been having fun with a hashtag on twitter #WhatILoveAboutSmallTowns It would be great if you’d share your thoughts here and on twitter.
Hugs and happy reading,
Nancy
