Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September, 2011

40 is the New 30

Fellow author Hannah Downing is turning 30! To wish her a happy birthday I wrote a guest post over on her BLOG exploring the consequences of aging. Please stop by and weigh in on the pros and cons of getting over the hill! And it's also time for the Omnific Blog Bounce. Authors and readers, join in! Read instructions HERE .

On Best Behavior Update and Blog Hop

Book Three of The Con duct Series ( On Best Behavior ) is coming along nicely. I grabbed my laptop and accompanied my swimming friend Beth to Starbucks yesterday, and she made fun of all the expressive faces I make while I write. Embarrassing! Do other authors do that too? I'm trying to get inside the characters' heads to feel their emotion, and I guess my face says it all. To give you a little teaser I went to wurdle.net and entered the text of the manuscript to produce this beautiful word salad. Wurdle is a really cool site allowing you to see the most prevalent words you use as an author. Obviously the romantic leads--Grant and Sophie--are my most used words. Being in love, their EYES are often ogling each other, touching hands or getting to "know" each other better. If you look closely you'll see the return of several secondary characters (Ben, Kirsten, Anthony "Tank", Roger, and Lucas). On Best Behavior will also introduce some new charact

Understanding Addiction

Look familiar? Whether you're addicted to Twitter, chocolate, or another compulsive behavior, we all have some sort of addiction plaguing us, like alcohol or other drug dependence, gambling, eating disorders, sex, etc. As a psychologist/author (psycho author),I find addictions positively fascinating, and love to write about them. An addiction can give your characters conflict and depth. Authors, if you choose to torture your characters with addictions, how do you write those behaviors authentically? Readers, how do you explain why your favorite characters continue to engage in behaviors that clearly hurt them? I want to share one simple model of addiction to help answer these questions. 1. This model starts with feeling negative emotion , like anger, hurt, fear, stress, shame. We don't like feeling this way so we try to change the feeling. 2. Sometimes we turn to addictive behaviors to change the feeling. For example, I'm feeling really anxious about people liki

Winners and Author Blog Hop

Thanks to all who entered the 500 follower giveaway! And the winners are . . . AIK and RORO ! Congratulations, ladies. You win your choice of With Good Behavior , Bad Behavior , or Summer Breeze . If you didn't win, there's one day left on the giveaway at Megan's BLOG . I just finished reading the autobiography Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder, exploring the disturbing world of bodybuilding and steroids. It got me thinking about addictions and I'll post soon about the cycle of addiction (alcohol and other drugs, gambling, hoarding, shopping, sex, eating disorders, body image disorders) to help authors portray addiction accurately in their stories. A rainy day AND a Monday? Humph. Meet an Author Monday Blog Hop will have to brighten my spirits! Visit Lisa Sanchez's blog for details of how to join.

Blog Bounce

As we pounce and flounce on Thursday's Blog Bounce, it's time to alert you to a few events: *TWO chances to win my books! I'm giving away With Good Behavior or Bad Behavior at: 1) Scroll down to the next post for the 500 Follower Giveaway or click HERE or 2) Visit Megan's BLOG Reading Away the Days to enter. (Both giveaways end 9/20/11) * Readers, have you ever penned a thoroughly detailed book review, taking your valuable time to write a careful and thoughtful analysis of plot and characters? If so, I love you! As an author, I would LOVE to receive a review like my friend Belinda Kroll received for her novel Haunting Miss Trentwood. Check it out HERE . Reviewer Lazaraspate from the Dear Author BLOG wrote a fantastic review that is every author's dream, especially if that author wants to improve her writing. And now time for the bounce! Head over to Omnific Publishing's Blog to become part of the Blog Bounce.

500 Follower Giveaway!

I started this blog a little over a year ago, and it's been such a fun ride chatting with readers and writers. To thank those who follow and comment, I'd like to host an international giveaway. Old and new followers can enter the giveaway simply by leaving a comment with your email address. Up for grabs is a print copy of your choice of three books I've authored or co-authored: * With Good Behavior (The Con duct Series #1) * Bad Behavior (The Con duct Series #2) * Summer Lovin Anthology : Summer Breeze (including my YA short story Swim Recruit ) Check out my Goodreads author page to learn more about each title! If this blog reaches 500 followers, I'll add a second prize to the giveaway--an e-book of the winner's choice of the same selection above. The giveaway ends Sunday, September 18th at midnight EST. I'm writing book three of The Con duct Series ( On Best Behavior ) and am excited to announce Omnific accepted my first Young Adult nove

Jumping in the Fray to YA

I'm excited to report Omnific Publishing has accepted my Young Adult novel, currently titled Against the Tide . YA is hot right now, and I hope to attract some new readers via this genre. The story is a military murder mystery combining my loves of swimming, dysfunctional families, redemption, and healing. Writing YA is a bit different from writing adult novels. Please visit Megan's blog Reading Away the Days where I discuss those differences. We're giving away an e-book from The Con duct Series!

Three Daves by Nicki Elson!

Today I have a special guest, Nicki Elson, talking about her fun and sexy 80’s romp Three Daves . This novel has a beautiful new cover and we want to tell you all about the story! Take it away, Nicki: Since the main character in my novel Three Daves is named Jen, I thought it would be fun to have three Jens host a guest post for each of the Daves. Lucky for me, I know three lovely Jens who readily agreed, including the darling Jennifer Lane. :) This Jen read Three Daves and posted a marvelous review a few months ago (you’ll note that I’ve gotten a rockin’ new book cover since then. :)). Thanks, Jen! The first Dave we meet in the story is David, our sensitive loner. He’s Mr. Alternative and endears himself to Jen with mix tapes featuring bands such as The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, and The Replacements. He’s the one who rescued her from Top 100 bands like Hall & Oates and Wham (not that there’s anything wrong with that), and he’s the one she knew as a friend before they be

Giveaway & Interview with Jessica Subject

Today I’m interviewing author Jessica Subject. I met her through her great blog Mark of the Stars and really enjoyed her short story Celestial Seduction (see my review HERE .) The story reminded me a little of the Jeff Bridges movie Starman . Simply leave a comment on this blog to enter the giveaway for your own copy of Celestial Seduction ! The giveaway ends Friday 9/9/11. Jennifer Lane (JL): Welcome to the blog, Jessica! I'm intrigued by your journey to publication. How did you become a writer? Jessica Subject (JS): Thank you for having me, Jennifer! :) I was on maternity leave with my second child with my first child in school. My oldest was learning how to read, but struggling and fighting with us every day. I thought if I could write a book about something she was interested in, it might give her more encouragement to read. The story I started for her turned into something more geared for adults, so I ended up writing a different book for her about her stuffed unico

Happy Endings

I hope those of you in the northern hemisphere are having a happy ending to your summer. I'm in denial about the last days of my favorite season, defiantly planning a pool party for this weekend. Take that, September! Speaking of happy endings, I definitely prefer them in novels. I don't need everything tidied up in neat perfection, but I do want to feel some sense of hope at the end, especially if the author has tortured the characters (as I like to do). Recently I finished the popular novel Little Bee by Chris Cleave. The story covered some painful territory, including death and torture in Nigeria, and I was hoping for some kind of meaningful, hopeful ending. Unfortunately my hopes were dashed. It was a very well-written novel but the less than satisfying ending made me view the story less positively. See my review HERE . How about you? What kind of endings do you prefer? Today Omnific Publishing is hosting a new blog hop, celebrating several events, including the re