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IT’S NOT PERSONAL, BUT IT SHOULD BE

December 15, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , ,
This morning I received three emails.
One was from a lady who in Scotland who read one of my books and joined my fan page. She wanted me to know how much she appreciated waking up and finding that I had responded to her messages.
 The second was from a man in Australia who sent me a list of things he liked about Silent Witness. He highlighted sentences that he particularly liked, but at the end of his note he said “thank you for making Hannah so intelligent.”
The third was from the woman who wrote me my first fan letter. We’ve been pen pals for 28 years. Now we communicate on the computer, but every once in a while we still send one another a card, remember birthdays, the holidays and share information on grandchildren (hers since I only have a grand dog).
The point is that what authors do is extremely personal. It begins with our characters. If we don’t feel them in our souls and translate that feeling into words on the page, our books will be enjoyed but not treasured. When we do make that magic happen and a reader reaches out, opening a personal dialogue with them will make a reader into a fan. In some wonderful instances our efforts also create a friend. 
Here are my top five rules of engagement:
1)   Know the personal history and habits of every character in your book and write as if you live and die with them.
2) When a fan writes, write back with more than a thank you. Acknowledge that you appreciate the time they took to write to you. I am always excited when someone takes the time to read my work; that they go the extra step is like having a cheerleader in my corner. I want them to know that.
3) Start a personal dialogue slowly. There are those fans that would like more of your time than others and those who wish to have a more personal relationship than you might be willing to enter into. It is up to you to set the parameters. For the most part, though, these relationships will be casual, fun and fulfilling for both sides.
4) If a reader contacts you about something in your book that touched them, expound on what got you to that place. For instance, Hostile Witness was inspired by a case my husband handled. As a criminal judge, he sentenced a sixteen-year-old boy to life in adult prison. The character, Hannah, and the plot of that book were based on this experience. It is a bit of personal information that is not too intimate but is interesting to readers.
5) Truly enjoy your interaction with readers, other authors and reviewers. Never look at it as a chore.
We are, perhaps, the luckiest people in the world. Despite the fact that our profession is solitary, the result of our labor is a book that reaches hundreds and sometimes thousands of people. When they reach back, that is the hallmark of success. Embrace real life dialogue; it is part of the joy of writing.

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A Soldier’s Italian Christmas Video Debut by Jina Bacarr

December 11, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,
UPDATED: A full 11:32 minute excerpt from Chapter ONE of A Soldier’s Italian Christmas!


A Soldier’s Italian Christmas: Excerpt from Chapter One from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.

A web debut: I just finished this video trailer for my holiday novella. I’m debuting it here!!

“A Soldier’s Italian Christmas”

O’Casey Brothers in Arms 1

December 1943
Italy

 

He is a U.S Army captain, a battle-weary soldier who has lost his faith.
She is a nun, her life dedicated to God.        
Together they are going to commit an act the civilized world will not tolerate.
They are about to fall in love.    


A Soldier’s Italian Christmas from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.

 

Making videos is a labor of love…choosing the photos, the music, editing, cutting, transitions, effects. This one is filled with visuals that I believe bring the story to life in a different way. Giving you a sense of place but it’s the emotion that tells the story…
 
Words or video. You gotta feel it.
 
Writers write to tell a story. At Christmas, that story can make you laugh, sigh, or wish you had that hunky Santa coming down your chimney.
 
My holiday novella takes on a different tone. It’s a sweet romance filled with the spirit of Christmas in a time when soldiers paused to remember the night of the birth of the Christ Child in a time when they wondered if they’d be home for the next Christmas…
 
Captain Mack O’Casey is one such soldier. You’ll meet him in my video and in this excerpt. He first met Sister Angelina dressed in men’s clothes when she was on a mission to steal food from the Nazis. This is the first time he sees her in a nun’s habit:
 
He never spoke about it, how sometimes he didn’t want to keep going. Keep killing. And then they stumbled into this place, giving him the chance to renew his spirit, get back the faith in God he’d lost. He felt whole again, believing there was still good left in the world. That knocked the hell out of him. He’d even whistled a tune this morning he heard in the canteen back in the States about carousels and wishing wells.
Damn, it wasn’t right for a man to feel these things in the middle of a war. It tore at his gut. Men were getting killed or wounded, groveling through mud and booby traps for every foot closer to victory. And him thinking about home and apple blossoms and the smell of spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove. Rich tomatoes and oregano sifting up to his nose until he couldn’t stand it any longer. His younger brothers fighting over who got the first taste from the smooth wooden spoon.
Mack ached to go home, to sit by the fire and warm his cold feet and have a beer, but that wouldn’t happen until this war was won. Hell, since coming here, he felt like he could win it single-handed. Thanks to Sister Angelina. He felt a bond between them that could only happen in wartime. He wanted to tell how he felt, but when he awoke this morning, Sister Benedetto told him she’d gone to the chapel to pray. He couldn’t leave without seeing her again.
The rustle of heavy skirts alerted him to her presence as a gentle waft of roses tickled his nose. Yellow roses. He sucked in the clean, fresh smell deep into his lungs, praying it would kill the smell of death he’d lived with for so long. A wild anticipation made him sweat and set off feelings he had no business admitting to in a place of worship.
For her.
He uttered a prayer of contrition. He needed forgiveness for what he was thinking. His mind and body scarred and wracked with pain, all that changed when he first saw Sister Angelina that night. Daring, beautiful. An angel with invisible wings. Her presence filled him. Mack felt a stirring in his groin. He prayed he’d be strong enough to resist temptation.
“I assure you, Captain,” he heard her say behind him. His chest expanded, his lips curved at hearing her voice. “There are no Nazis here.”
“Have you checked the rat holes?” he said, turning around. A wild, blinding light hit him in the eyes. My God, who was this saintly creature? He didn’t expect her to, well, look like a nun.
She wore the black habit of her order with the long veil trailing down to her knees, wide white collar, full black sleeves, and skirt down to the floor. A stern white band hugged her forehead, bringing out the beauty of her dark upswept eyes. A rigid tightness locked every bone in his body. The sight of her holy state hit him hard, as if someone had dumped him into a cold river.
He must look like a fool standing here, staring at her.
“They wouldn’t dare enter the house of our Lord without His permission,” she responded in a serious tone. If she noticed his surprise, she gave no indication. “That includes the four-legged ones.”
He grinned. A nun with a sense of humor. He liked that.
Rain pounded on the roof giving him a moment to collect his thoughts. Deal with the insanity that had overtaken him. And, in spite of himself, smile. “You’re right, Sister. No man can compete with the will of God. You taught me that.”
His words made her take a step backward, grab onto the pew. She understood and nodded, though slowly. His heart broke when he saw an amber light in her eyes flicker wildly. Then, as if by sheer determination, the light dimmed.
“You’re a strong man, Captain,” she said, “even if you profess to be a pagan.”
Her words surprised him. Was that what she thought of him? Had he grown so hard that no humanity was left in him?
“You’re the one who is strong, Sister Angelina. This pagan is made of flesh and bone,” he said, keeping his voice calm. “I don’t have your courage.”
He swore her hands trembled before she hid them in the deep pockets of her habit. But it was her face that held his attention. Clean and untouched, her cheeks flamed. She bowed her head, her long eyelashes fluttering. “I have little choice. I must obey His will.”
“Is that the only reason you hid the sergeant and me in the orphanage?” He had to know the answer. Then he could hide his feelings away in the shadows of war and not feel the pain of wanting her.
“No,” she said softly. “My vows prohibit me from saying more.” She stared at him, daring him to cross the line they both knew couldn’t be crossed.
Telling him what he wanted to know, but that nothing could come of it.
 
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A Soldier’s Italian Christmas (O’Casey Brothers in Arms 1) is the story of a soldier and a nun who discover forbidden love in war torn Italy during the winter of 1943.

It is a sweet romance 35,000+ word novella and is now available as an e-book on Amazon…

Happy Holidays!!
Jina


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If your Christmas reading is on the spicier side (as in erotic), check out A Naughty Christmas Carol about a modern day Scrooge named Nick Radnor. A New York Wall Street hottie who has it all…except the woman he loves.


Can three sexy female ghosts save his soul on this naughty Christmas Eve?

Find out in A Naughty Christmas Carol.
www.jinabacarr.com  
www.facebook.com/JinaBacarr.author
https://twitter.com/JinaBacarr
http://www.pinterest.com/jbacarr/

 

Cover Design for A Soldier’s Italian Christmas and A Naughty Christmas Carol by Ramona Lockwood
www.coversbyramona.blogspot.com
http://www.romancenovelcovers.com/
 
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5 Time Management Tips for the Holidays by Kitty Bucholtz

December 10, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , , ,

During the holiday season, I always struggle to keep up with my writing routines while also adding in extra time with family, parties, Christmas events at church, additional baking, and more. Over the years, I’ve found a few things work well for enjoying the holidays with less stress without quitting my writing job for a month or two.

  1. Do a little less of everything. There are only 168 hours in the week. If I add in a full day of hanging out with my godchildren, I need to figure out what I’m going to do less of. If I decide to make several kinds of Christmas cookies, where am I going to find the time? The answer that works best for me is to do less of everything else – writing, watching TV, reading, etc. – in order to have some time to add in these other seasonal favorites. If, in January, you schedule less writing time for the following December, it won’t be time “lost” but planned for.
  2. Multi-task. During the rest of the year, when I put brownies in the oven, I will probably fiddle around the kitchen, or check email and read Facebook. But since I’m going to do a little less of everything in order to have a bit more time, I plan to use chunks of time better than I usually do. Every batch of brownies takes 25 minutes to bake – the perfect amount of time for me to get a solid chunk of writing done. The ten minutes cookies take in the oven is a good time to brainstorm, or write in snatches, thinking about what I’m going to write again in a few minutes when I get the next batch in.
  3. Say No. Sadly, I can’t do everything I’d like to do, especially at the holidays. What is most important to me? What won’t happen again for a year (or more depending on how often you get to go away or have company in for the holidays)? What can wait for next month? Some of my writing deadlines are time sensitive for now. Some can wait a few weeks. I need to plan my month so that what needs to get done in my work, does. And what I want to do with friends and family, I have time to enjoy.
  4. Take a time out. I’ve found that time outs are not only great for toddlers, they’re great for writers. Depending on how stressed I’m beginning to feel, I’ll take 30 seconds to do some deep breathing, forcing my shoulders back down from around my ears, or I’ll take an hour out of my “important work” to watch TV with my husband. The people closest to me run the risk of getting the least of my time and attention during the holidays because “I know they’ll understand” if I hide in a corner with my laptop, working. What are they doing that they enjoy and that they’d most enjoy my company? What do they want to do that they won’t mind if I’m not there? (No one ever seems to mind when I grab an hour to work while they watch a football game.)
  5. Consider opportunity cost. When you think of all the things you could do with X amount of time or Y amount of dollars, and then you choose ONE thing, the rest is opportunity cost. The cost of me hiding away from the family for an hour while people are sitting around talking is high – this is when we connect and feel close. It’s lower when I work while they watch football. The cost of missing the Christmas pageant is higher because it only happens once a year, while missing the showing of “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” is lower because I have it on DVD. The cost of missing Christmas sales from your book is higher, but is it as high as missing out on roughhousing with your nieces and nephews who may otherwise remember you as too busy to play with them?
I hope you and I both manage our time this holiday season in such a way that we feel good about our writing work, and are filled with joy and peace and laughter in our personal life. Merry Christmas!
Note: For more time management and project management tips for writers, enroll in my online class, Going the Distance: Goal Setting and Time Management for the Writer. It’s only $30 for four weeks, January 13 – February 8, 2014, twelve lectures that come straight to your email Inbox. If you’re an OCC member, you get it all for $25. Sign up today!
If you live in Southern California, attend my live workshop in Carlsbad on Saturday, January 25 – Write Your Book in 2014! In one day, we’ll break your book into pieces and plot it out on your calendar, so that you have a completed book ready by your deadline. The 8-hour workshop is only $49, but is limited to 15 people, so sign up soon! Email me at Kitty AT KittyBucholtz DOT com for questions and more information on either of these classes.
Kitty Bucholtz decided to combine her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher. Her first novel, Little Miss Lovesick, came out in 2011. Her new novel, Unexpected Superhero, book one in The Adventures of Lewis & Clarke humorous urban fantasy series, is now available in print and ebook format. Love at the Fluff and Fold, book one in The Strays of Loon Lake romantic comedy series, will be released soon. Her short stories can be found in the anthologies Romancing the Pages and Moonlit Encounters, available in both print and ebook formats. “Superhero in Disguise” is a free short story at Amazon, iTunes, Smashwords, and other retail sites.


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That Finished Feeling

December 5, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , ,

I hit submit. On the last weekend of November, when so many members in our chapter were finishing up their NaNo works, I completed my latest novel.
And let me tell you, it feels good.
First, major congratulations go to those members who “won” National Novel Writing Month, which means completing a 50K novel in one month.
Christina Alexandra
Kim Baccellia
Alison Diem
Nancy Farrier
Rebekah R. Ganiere
Rose de Guzman
Claire Hoffman
Mary Kowsloski
Debra Mullins
Samantha Oughten
Jesse Pearle
Nikki Prince
Maria Seager
Tiffany Tran
Beth Yarnall
Joyce Ward
Those same people also finished their Book in a Year! (If that’s what they were counting as their book.)
For those who signed up, but didn’t finish – think of all those new “words” you got that you didn’t have at the beginning of the month! If I missed someone, it wasn’t intentional, send me a note and plan to be recognized at the December meeting.
For me, this book was the first time I was late on a deadline, and not by just a few days. I communicated with my publisher, and everything was all right on that end, but personally: Ugh! That backlog seemed to clog up all the other writing I was supposed to do, and it became a mental chant of “once I finish.”
Funny enough, I liked this book, too. It’s not that the writing process was particularly difficult this time around, it was the time to do it in. The challenges of the past year, family members and friends lost, and my work schedule, finally caught up. Honestly, it felt like it would never get done. So how’d I eventually push through? Basically knowing that I hadto complete it, bundled with Thanksgiving weekend and a few 2 a.m. nights.
The key is getting that butt-in-the-chair, as they say. Many people talk about writing being an isolated experience. For the most part, it is. The wonderful thing about organizations such as our chapter, and RWA, is that common unity and support.
Thank you to everyone who made 2013 such a great year, and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in store in 2014. Hmmm, and maybe how many of those finished projects will get published!
— Louisa Bacio

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Manly Tools

November 24, 2013 by in category Archives

No, no, not that one!

I’m talking about manly housework tools…

For example, it’s the season of leaf blowers for those of us that live in a world with trees.  For me, they are one of the more seasonally irritating aspects of urban dwelling.

Leaf blowers create an environment where your day is spent listening to a constant whine or roar that goes on for hours as some guy blows leaves from one bit of the pavement to…why, yes, to the next bit of the pavement and so on, ad infinitum.

Mostly, leaf blowers are used where a broom or rake would work fine, and rarely involve actually collecting the leaves & placing them into a receptacle to be removed.

Mostly, they just get blown into the neighbor’s yard, the sidewalk, the street.  Where, naturally, they can just get blown back to wherever. Progress!

In fairness, there are places where a broom or rake won’t work—plantings, or fragile growth areas that might need to be de-leafed in the fall.  But for that, there are leaf suckers—yes, they do exist—that vacuum the leaves into a bag, so they are active a small fraction of the time leaf blowers are on (because they actually remove the leaves).

So I’m thinking: Why?

And the realization strikes that no self-respecting guy would want to take a broom to the sidewalk.  Women’s work!  But when it comes to marching about with a giant dongle waving about in front of you (nearly reaching the ground!  How cool is that?) and making a lot of noise, it’s acceptable.  Even desirable & fun.

Think about the creativity that has gone into lawn mowing equipment—the advent of the riding mower transformed cutting the lawn into a macho experience.  What male wouldn’t like to sit on a big, vibrating, noisy machine that gets driven around the Indy 500 track of your front yard?  Beautiful.

So for those women who wish men might contribute a bit more to household chores, the solution is simple: guy-ify the appliances.

Imagine if the dishwasher had a starter switch like a outboard motor pull?  Ideally it would be a bit fussy, perhaps requiring a certain weight within the dishwasher (like, there have to be some dishes in there & soap).  A couple of strong yanks, a loud whirr, and they’re off!  There would not be a dirty dish in the house.

And how about a washing machine set close to the ceiling, where clothes have to ‘make’ the basket?  The floor around could be weight sensitive and a robo voice (like the self-help supermarket monitors) would make rude remarks about their skill, forcing them to pick up misses.  Now detergent comes in little tossable balls too, so that could work well.  Another outboard pull or perhaps some drumming patterns that activates the starter.  I think it’s viable.

So instead of trying to reverse Henry Higgins famous line: Why can’t a man be more like a woman? we need to re-engineer our attitude and create the ultimate housekeeping video game…

Vive la différence!

Isabel Swift

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