The Bethlehem Writers Roundtable 2022 Short Story Award Extended Deadline
March 31, 2022 by marianne h donley in category Contests, From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group, Writing Contest tagged as #TheBWG, Bethlehem Writers Group, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award, Short Story Award, The 2022 Short Story Award
Good news for procrastinators!
Deadline for the Bethlehem Writers Group short story contest, “An Element of Mystery”, has been extended.
Contest Deadline is now April 30, 2022.
The theme is An Element of Mystery (broadly interpreted).
BWG is seeking never-published short stories of 2,000 words or fewer.
First Place will receive $250 and publication in the upcoming anthology: An Element of Mystery: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales of Intrigue or in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable.
The final judge of the 2022 Short Story Award is New York Times best-selling author Kate Carlisle.
Here is the link for more information on the 2022 Short Story Award. Scroll down for the entry form.
Books from Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC
The Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC (BWG), founded in 2006, is a community of mutually supportive, fiction and nonfiction authors based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The members are as different from each other as their stories, spanning a range of genres including: children’s, fantasy, humor, inspiration, literary, memoir, mystery, paranormal, romance, science fiction, women’s fiction, and young adult.
See the schedule of meetings and events here.
Brand New Spring Romance: DESPERATE DAUGHTERS and CLAIMS OF THE HEART
March 28, 2022 by Alina K. Field in category Quarter Days by Alina K. Field, Writing
Spring is in the Air!
I’m back with a Quarter Days’ post to tell you about a bevy of new Regency romances for your reading pleasure. Desperate Daughters, A Bluestocking Belles Collection With Friends releases May 8, 2022, and Claims of the Heart, the third book in my Macbeth Series, releases April 12, 2022.
Desperate Daughters includes my novella, Lady Twisden’s Picture Perfect Match.
And good news! You can preorder the collection and my standalone full-length novel today for only 99 cents each.
Desperate Daughters
Love Against the Odds
The Earl of Seahaven desperately wanted a son and heir but died leaving nine daughters and a fifth wife. Cruelly turned out by the new earl, they live hand-to-mouth in a small cottage.
The young dowager Countess’s one regret is that she cannot give Seahaven’s dear girls a chance at happiness.
When a cousin offers the use of her townhouse in York during the season, the Countess rallies her stepdaughters.
They will pool their resources so that the youngest marriageable daughters might make successful matches, thereby saving them all.
So they start their adventures in York, amid a whirl of balls, lectures, and al fresco picnics. Is it possible each of them might find love by the time the York horse races bring the season to a close?
Lady Dorothea’s Curate: by Caroline Warfield
Employed at a hotel, Lady Dorothea Bigglesworth had no use for a title. It would only invite scorn, or, worse, pity. Plain Miss Doro Bigglesworth suited her fine. Ben Clarke dedicated his life to helping the neediest. It gave his life meaning. He tended to forget the younger son of a viscount went by “Honorable.” Neither saw the need to mention it to the other, until they were formally introduced— in a ballroom in York. Shocked.
Concerto: By Mary Lancaster
At the age of 27, Lady Barbara has long accepted her position on the shelf. She is thrilled to put aside her music-teaching in order to help her beautiful young sisters find eligible husbands. But then, a chance encounter with an unconventional and mysterious young piano tuner has her heart in a spin. Can she trust him? And can she save him from the lethal threat hanging over them both?
The Butler and the Bluestocking: By Rue Allyn
On arriving in York to visit his godmother, the honorable Malcolm K. Marr did not expect to find her house locked and empty. Nor did he expect to have to break in to the house to find shelter. Least of all did he expect to be awakened at mid-day after the break in to find a woman with the bearing of an Egyptian goddess demanding to know what he was doing in her house.
The Four-to-One Fancy: By Elizabeth Ellen Carter
Fate has given twins Ivy and Iris Bigglesworth a season in York. They vow to marry only brothers so the sisters will never be apart. But what are the odds of finding and falling in love with two eligible brothers? Hearts race when they meet two handsome cousins who are betting their future on a risky racing venture. Soon the twins learn there are more than fortunes to be lost on a four-to-one fancy.
I’ll Always Be Yours: By Ella Quinn
All her life Miss Harriett Staunton believed she was the natural daughter of an earl. In the merchant society in which she was raised, that only garnered improper proposals. Knowing she would never wed, she moved to York, far away from her London family.
Lord Sextus Trevor needs to wed. Unbeknownst to him his father has arranged a marriage. But before he is even told about the betrothal, he’s whisked off to York, where he meets Harriett Staunton and must find a way to defy his father.
Lord Cuckoo Comes Home: By Jude Knight
Dom Finchley only came to York as a favor to his half-brother, who asked him to attend a meeting there. After a devastating break with the Finchley family followed by ten years at war, he is keen to get the favor done and then leave to build the home he’s never had. A place to call his own.
Then he meets Chloe.
Chloe Tavistock is past the age for the marriage market, and unfashionable in her shape, her opinions, and her enthusiasms. She is not going to find a husband in York, whatever her fond brother might think.
And then she meets Dom.
Two people who have never fitted in just might be a perfect fit.
Lady Twisden’s Picture Perfect Match: By Alina K. Field
He’s not just a perfect image of a soul-stirring hero, but a perfect-for-her match.
After years of putting up with her late husband’s rowdy friends, Honoria, Lady Twisden has escaped to York where she can paint, investigate antiquities, and enjoy freedom. Then her stepson appears with a long-lost relation in tow. Promised York’s marriage mart and the hospitality of his cousin’s doddering stepmother, Major August Kellborn is shocked to find that his fetching hostess is the one woman who stirs his heart.
A Duke For Josefina: By Meara Platt
Lady Josefina would much rather spend her time studying plants and their healing properties, but her father, the Earl of Seahaven, has died and left the family impoverished. Marriage seems her only alternative until she meets the handsome Duke of Bourne in an apothecary in York’s ancient Shambles. He offers her an intriguing proposition, a fake betrothal and a king’s ransom as reward if she returns with him to his estate and finds a cure for his sister’s illness. But will the true reward be his heart?
A Countess to Remember: By Sherry Ewing
Sometimes love finds you when you least expect it…
Patience, the young Dowager Countess of Seahaven cares for a bevy of stepdaughters, and a Season for each to find husbands seems out of reach. There’s been no chance for romance herself but fate intervenes in the form of Richard, Viscount Cranfield, in York for his sister’s Season. Will Patience allow herself time for love?
Find an excerpt from Lady Twisden’s Picture Perfect Match on my Desperate Daughters‘ book page.
Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bMwL17
Claims of the Heart
Claims of the Heart, a brand new full-length novel, is the third story in my Macbeth series. If you read Fated Hearts and wondered what became of Macbeth’s daughter Lucie, this is her story:
Since a perilous fall, Lucie Macbeth has been seeing more than a settled future as the heiress to a Scottish barony. The visions plaguing her include a man—one far above her class and breeding, and English to boot. He’s engaged to a duke’s granddaughter as well, and thus wholly inappropriate. Though she can’t marry him, and she won’t become any man’s leman, when the Sight warns her of danger to him, her conscience and her heart tell her she can’t walk away.
Since returning from Waterloo, Major Lord Rudgwick has been rusticating in the country teaching himself how to live as a man with only one hand and pondering how to end the engagement he contracted before his world turned upside down. But then a letter arrives from an old army comrade, requesting Rudgwick’s aid for his daughter, Lucie Macbeth, the woman he met one year earlier, the woman whose claims on his heart he can’t deny.
Reserve your copy of Claims of the Heart today, only 99 cents:
I wish you all happy reading, and I’ll see you in June for some Midsummer magic!
Deep Roots by Neetu
March 26, 2022 by Neetu Malik in category Poet's Day by Neetu Malik tagged as children, Family, love, Neetu
Deep Roots
I will weave you garlands of dazzling wisteria twine the flowers with stems of love growing from roots seeded strong and deep where the ground stays warm and evergreen. © Neetu Malik Poem written for my children, 2019.
Some of Neetu’s Books
Author Laura Drake releases The Road to Me
March 24, 2022 by Jann Ryan in category Jann says . . . tagged as romance, Western romance, women's fiction
Laura Drake is a New York and self-published and author of Women’s Fiction and Romance. Her debut, The Sweet Spot, was a double-finalist, then won the 2014 Romance Writers of America® RITA® award. She’s since published 12 more books. She is a founding member of Women’s Fiction Writers Assn, Writers in the Storm blog.
Laura is a city girl who never grew out of her tomboy ways, or a serious cowboy crush. She gave up the corporate CFO gig to write full time. She realized a lifelong dream of becoming a Texan and is currently working on her accent. She’s a wife, grandmother, and motorcycle chick in the remaining waking hours.
Author Laura Drake is a woman of many talents. In addition to being a wife, grandmother and motorcycle chick who loves to flyfish, she’s my friend. Her books reach in and grab your heart and soul. Let’s see what Laura has to say about her latest book and her love of writing.
Jann: How important is the setting, themes, plot in your stories?
Laura: VERY! I’m writing Women’s Fiction now, so themes really resonate there. I’m so not a plotter, but so far, I’ve managed to bumble through. Settings – especially important in my Western Romances.
Jann: Congratulation on the April 19, 2022, release of your Women’s Fiction book, The Road to Me. I love the tag—Trouble with the Curve meets Peace, Love and Misunderstanding. Did you have this tag when developing the book or did it come to mind after?
Laura: After – and it’s the first book I’ve had a tag for!
Jann: Tell us about your characters, Jacqueline Oliver and her grandmother, Nellie, and their story. What major conflicts do they need to work through?
Laura: Oh my gosh, so many. See, Jacqueline was raised by her barely functioning alcoholic mother. Her grandmother would sail in, shower them with love and gifts, and then sail out, a few days later. Jacqueline thinks it’s because her grandmother didn’t care…but she’s wrong.
Jann: You were introduced to the rodeo world and Pro Bull Riding. You sold your Sweet on a Cowboy series after several years of submitting to agents and editors and finally to Grand Central(Forever). I remember how excited you were to receive a three-book contract. And to top it off, the first book in the series, The Sweet Spot, won the 2014 Romance Writers of America RITA for Best First Book. What a thrill it must have been for you. Tell us about the book and your experience winning the award.
Laura: The agony of defeat – until the thrill of victory! I was rejected 417 times over the course of 3 books (but who counted?). I was so desperate, because I knew this book was special. It wasn’t until an editor came to town, and I think it was YOU that asked me to pick her up at the airport and bring her to a scheduled dinner. She was stuck with me on the Orange Crush for TWO HOURS. Eventually, she asked what I wrote, and I pitched her my book. She asked me to send the beginning to her. I reached in the back seat and handed it to her (hey, I said desperate, right?) She was a bit surprised but promised that she’d read it on the plane home. Sure enough, Monday, she contacted me and said, ‘The first thing we need to do is get you an agent.’ Yeah, like I hadn’t thought of that…
I was stunned when my name was called…my agent and I just screamed for it seemed like minutes. Nora Roberts presented it to me (squee!) and whispered in my ear, ‘This is the best RITA.’ I sure wasn’t arguing! One of the best memories of my life.
Jann: Did winning the award advance your writing career?
Laura: You know, I was shocked. I was sure it would be the start that would launch my career. So after, I contacted my editor and said, ‘Okay, now how do we take advantage of this for marketing?’ She told me that the award mattered to authors, but didn’t mean anything to readers. Wow. But sadly, she was right.
Jann: You have published five more western romances and four small town romances. Your first Women’s Fiction, Days Made of Glass, published in November, 2015. Would you tell us about the history of this book?
Laura: I self-published it, because though all the editors who read it loved it, they said that there wasn’t enough of an audience for a Western WF. They were right – but I didn’t care. It’s the book I wrote for my sister, who I lost at 32 to cancer. Nothing in the book is autobiographical, but the sisters’ relationship ours. Many readers have told me that it’s their favorite of all my books, and it has the highest star rating. That’s all I care – that it touched them.
Jann: What do you want readers to come away with after they read your books?
Laura: ALL the feels. Laugh, cry, and everything in-between.
Jann: Love the picture on your website for The Road to Me. Is it a road somewhere on Route 66? It reminds me of California Highway 395 on the way to Mammoth Lakes.
Laura: It’s not 395 (I so love that road), but somewhere in Arizona, I think.
Jann: What are you working on now? Can you tell us about your next project?
Laura: I just turned in my next Women’s Fiction to my editor. Tentatively titled, Amazing Gracie, it’s about a woman soldier returning from Afghanistan with heavy guilt. She takes her nine-year-old sister on a road trip to save her from the mother’s boyfriend, but her sister ends up saving her.
Jann: I know you love road trips on your motorcycle and fishing? Do you have any adventures planned this year?
Laura: Always! I’m lucky to now live within 15 miles of two lakes and a river and am fishing at least once a week (weather allowing). We’re planning on several motorcycle trips this year.
Jann: What kind of writer are you? A page a day or a burst writer?
Laura: My daily word count goal is 500. Yeah, not much, I know, but I work until they’re good words. I write every day, so they add up. It takes me 7 months to write a romance, 9 to write a Women’s Fiction.
Jann: Are there any words of inspiration on your computer, in your office or in your mind when you write?
Laura: I have a chunk of fossilized dinosaur poop on my desk. It reminds me that anything I’m worried about today won’t matter in a million years. And, not to write crap.
Jann: Do you have a website, blog, twitter where fans might read more about you and your books?
Laura: I have a Facebook group that is full of snark, wisdom and interaction—come join us! It’s Laura Drake’s Peace, Love & Books. Twitter & Instagram – @lauradrakebooks and my website is Laura Drake Books
I love doing Author Q&A’s and doing one with a good friend is great. Thanks Laura for giving our readers a peak into your writing, books and life. Good luck on the release of The Road to Me!!
The Double D’s: Dynamic Description & Delicious Dialogue
March 23, 2022 by marianne h donley in category Ages 2 Perfection Online Class, Online Classes tagged as Aged to Perfection Online Class
Presented by: Laurie Schnebly Campbell
Date: April 23, 2022, 9AM PT, 10AM MT, 11AM CT, 12PM ET
Pricing: A2P Member fee: No Charge
Non-A2P Member fee: $10
About the Workshop:
Everyone tends to be better at writing one of the big D’s. (If you’re fabulous at both, you don’t need this session!) What kind of dialogue makes your characters real? What kind of description works best for your voice? No two writers will use the same techniques for these key elements, but having new tools to choose from can make writing description and dialogue easier and more fun…not only for you, but for your readers as well.
About the Presenter:
Laurie Schnebly Campbell loves giving workshops that draw on her background as an advertising copywriter, a counseling therapist, and a romance novelist who beat out Nora Roberts for “Best Special Edition of the Year.” Her favorite books are those created in the classes she teaches for WriterUniv.com, with 51 first sales so far.CLICK TO SIGN UP
