Tuesday, February 25, 2014

OH NO An Author Blog Chain!

Chain Blog jump on board

Many of you I'm sure have received chain letters.  Well now chain letters are coming to blogs. They are a lot like blog hops.  If you like to read and learn about new authors then just jump in.  The Chain may end with me but I will offer a couple of other authors to jump on board. Their links will be below.



The person that tagged me, is Alana Woods.  Here is her link from her part of the chain. HERE 

Alana Woods and I are great friends  even though we’ve never met in person. We have  hung out on Google Hangouts and got to know each other pretty well through another author friend’s Facebook group (Jason Matthews How to make, market and sell ebooks, all for free) and his weekly Indie AuthorsTV show which you can catch on YouTube. 


Alana was born in the UK but is an Aussie in heart and soul-- although she's now rediscovering Britain because eldest daughter lives there and the lure of family is irresistible. As is walking! She and husband John found a new passion in July 2013 doing the Coast to Coast walk. Next one is the pubs of the Cotswalds.

Alana's fiction work includes two published novels, both literary suspense, and a collection of short stories. Her non-fiction work includes two works. One is a guide to writing good fiction: 25 essential writing tips: guide to writing good fiction. Learn more about her life and how things started out for her as a writer on her website. Here


The Blog chain has us asking these questions below and I hope that you enjoy my answers.  


1. What am I currently working on

Right now I'm working on editing two novels.  Book two in the California Love Trilogy.  Book one was Maid for Martin, and book two will be Surprise Engagement. I'm also working on book four in the Street Justice Series called Mending Fences.I'm also always dabbling in cover design and have finished two covers this month.  If you'd like to learn more about my novels I write Clean Romance and Christian Mystery.  I enjoy writing and wish that I could write and get books out there as fast as people can read them. 
These books are not available yet but I'll share the covers with you. 





2. How does my work differ from others' in the same genre

I suppose that we each have our own way of looking at things. For one my novels will always have a happy ending. I think that life can be hard at times, and I want to uplift and give people a happy ending in my novels. I guess most of the time we write what we enjoy reading so I like romance, a little detective work, and humor now and then. I focus on real life situations, and my characters like me are not perfect. They make wrong decisions, and they sometimes pay for those.  I do show that life can be hard but if we try we can be a light in a dark place under any circumstances. I write under two pen names Samantha Lovern and Samantha Fury. I love images so below are the images of the novels I have out to date.




3. Why do I write what I write?

This is an easy question. I write what I write because I just love it. I love the stories that come into my mind. I wrote for years. Since I was 8 I've played with the people in my mind, and spent more time with my imaginary friends than I did the people around me. I was very happy to learn that this is normal for an Author.  For years I thought I was strange or that there was something wrong with me.  Finally when I was about 35 I realized that I was normal, for an Author. 

I love writing. I love my stories, and the people that come to me in my mind. They normally come to me as if they were born being a part of me. They are my best friends and I enjoy watching them grow and mature.  They are real to me, and I finally understand why when Louis Lamour talked about Chick Bowdrie, he talked about him as if he was real.  Our characters are real, they are alive in our minds, and that is what helps us to create such interesting true to life stories.  Here is one of my favorite images of me and my Boys!


4. How does my writing process work.

I normally get a novel idea from a dream that I have.  I feel that God gives me these dreams and expects me to take the small plot lines and turn them into stories. Sometimes ideas will come to me in other ways, but most of the time a series will start with a dream. After that a most of the time it just comes from sitting down and tossing out some names on a piece of paper.

After I start writing about half way through a plot will just appear, and before I know it the story just wraps itself up.  It really does amaze me at times how it all comes about.  Then comes the hard part the editing process. I've yet to find an editor that I just feel works perfectly with me. That's not to say I have not had some great editors, but I'm still searching for the one that I feel is my other half.


Thanks for jumping in and joining us on our blog chain.

Alana also tagged Jason Matthews. Feel free to check out Jason's links below.

Jason Matthews—Jason is also a friend. I mentioned him in my introduction to Samantha. We met a couple of years ago when I chanced across his Facebook group How to make, market and sell ebooks, all for free and joined. It’s about 2000 members strong now and growing exponentially, and that’s because it’s one of those rare forums that work, where we actually exchange information, support and help. As well as being a talented author in both non-fiction and fiction, Jason’s a great facilitator, hosting among other events a weekly YouTube Indie Authors TV show which focuses on all aspects of writing. I've had the pleasure of reading and reviewing several of Jason's books and also interviewing him recently for my Sunday author interviews.

Next Sunday I hope that a few of my friends will join in and I'm posting their links below. You can check out their blogs and work at any time. 

 http://elkjerkyforthesoul.wordpress.com/

Mary C. Findley
Best-selling historical fiction titles include Send a White Rose and Chasing the Texas Wind. Highly-rated nonfiction and home school titles also available. 



http://betrovia.blogspot.com/

Dave King, retired high school English teacher, married for over 30 years (to the same woman!), and father of three children was born and spent most of the first half of his life in Topeka KS.
In 1990 he and his wife, along with their two very-young children, left KS and spent the next five years in Taichung, Taiwan. Before moving back to the States in 1995, they had gained another child.
Since 1995, the author and his family have lived in the Jefferson City MO area.
The Land of Betrovia trilogy:
Betrovia: Summer 2011
Lycentia: Harrak's Scrolls: Summer 2012
Ahnak: Edelin's Revelation: Spring 2013






Sunday, February 9, 2014

Welcome to our Blog Hop. Our Valentines day blog hop is all about love. It's about God's love, Romance, you'll just have to hop from blog to blog to see what our other great authors are talking about and what they're giving away.


In love with Love
I have always been in love with the idea of being in love. When I was a kid I was crazy about little Jimmy from Puff & Stuff. I didn't know how to write novels or stories then so I just played with my imaginary friends.  Mom had to set a plate for Jimmy, had to talk to him, I'm sure I drove her crazy. I had no idea what love was I just knew I enjoyed pretending that I was a part of Jimmy's world.

As I grew up things didn't change and at the age of 8 I wrote my first story, it wasn't called, The Day The Sky Turned Green. Now it would be labeled Sci Fi.  I guess my interest in sci-fi and fantasy came early.  I also hadn't forgotten about cute guys and romance. This was easily seen in the shows I loved.  Land of the Lost and Holly's cute brother, then later on Captain Kirk on Star Trek.

                                                                       

A Fan of Romance Romance has been a part of me as long as I can recall. I love romance! Movies, novels, Bible stories. I love the story of Rachel and Jacob.  I love songs about Romance. Toby Keith is known for his drinking songs, but he has some of the best love aching, my heart's breaching songs around.

I think we all, married, single, old and gray, will have our favorite Romance stories we think back on. They may be something personal or it could be a favorite novel like Pride and Prejudice, or a movie like You've got Mail or a favorite Soap or TV show. I think many of my generation was hooked on Bo and Hope.


Soap Opera Blues
Days of our lives was a part of what brought on my romance writing. I don't recall what storyline it was, maybe Bo & Hope, but whatever, I didn't like the way things were going so I started writing things the way I wanted to see them go.  I had the habit for most of my life, of  pretending or telling myself stories, but I'd never started writing them down on paper.

I found it amazing how much I enjoyed writing and everything I wrote was about the perfect couple falling in love.  I like happy endings, and I love reliving first kisses.  It's so much fun to fall in love over and over. That's what romance authors do, we love falling in love, and we love writing about it.



Reality Check
I will say you must have a reality check, and don't ever expect your husband or boyfriend, to match the cute handsome, can do no wrong, men we write about.  Real life can be romantic but its' not as perfect as writers make it out to be.  Men can be loving, but they can also be a pain, and not only can they cause you to fall in love but they can break your heart right into.

It's good to have a reality check and pull our noses out of those books and take a hard long look at the men in our life, smile and know that they are not the perfect Martin Taylor or Angel Morganson that I like to write about. They are human and they are not going to hug us at the right moment. They are not going to brag about how good supper was if we burnt it, and they are not always going to want to hold our hand and kiss us when we cry.



Love Is 
I think if you understand Romance is entertainment, a way to escape and not something that we should compare our real life to, you'll be okay. I love romance and I love falling in love over and over, but I  understand there are limits and rules that we as Christians should abide by.  We are to also read the Bible along with those romance novels we love.

We are to treat our husbands with respect and love them even when they are not perfect, and we are to not focus too much on things we can't have, but learn to enjoy our real life and the gifts God has given us. 


BLOG HOP PRIZES
I hope you enjoyed my Love Is Blog Hop please run over to our Blog Hop Page (link below) and check out our Grand Prize.  I also have a few things to give away in honor of Valentines Day.   From the 14th to the 17th I am running Maid for Martin a California Trilogy FREE. It will be Free for three days so feel free to grab a copy or tell a friend about a great Free clean read. Also I have a few audible codes for the New Audiobook Maid for Martin.  If you'd like to be entered into a drawing to win a Free Audible version of Maid for Martin just comment in the comments below. 

Maid for Martin Free from Feb 13 to 15 Only be sure it's free before you hit that buy button.
Buy or use code here for Audible Version of Maid for Martin 


Check out our blog hop Grand Prize and Other Blogs.

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