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Writing Time Literally Going to the Dog

August 12, 2023 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as Denise M. Colby, writing life

We have a new puppy, so my free writing time is literally going to the dog right now.

So instead of writing some great blog post, I thought I’d share some cute pics of our puppy.

But first, being the historical writer that I am, I looked up the phrase, go to the dogs, just to make sure I had its meaning correct. And sure enough, the summary meaning is becoming ruined.

Although it was originally tied to bad food that wasn’t good for human consumption. For this post, I thought I would write a fun, cute article that basically says my writing time has been ruined. That I’m distracted by the dog. Hence, all my writing time is going to the dog.

Meet the new dog

So, without any further ado, let’s meet our new puppy, Ace.

Denise Colby new puppy named Ace which is where all her writing time is going

This is the first day we brought him home from a lab rescue group. About five months old, he’s super sweet and pretty easy going.

Writer Denise M. Colby with her new puppy Ace — Writer Denise M. Colby with the family’s new puppy

Of course the call came in the week of my son’s high school graduation, so things were pretty chaotic. But we had to go with the flow if we wanted to adopt him. My word this year is change, and although I knew there would be a lot of change this year, getting a puppy wasn’t on my radar! But he’s stolen our hearts and we love him.

Naming the Dog

Now, it took us about a week to name him. This is mostly our son’s dog, so he had some cool names he was coming up with. A huge 80’s music fan, Huey was at the top of the list, as well as Elo, and a few others. But what tipped the scales was when my other son threw out the name Ace. As in Batman’s dog Ace (from the Justice League cartoons). Being a batman fan, that one became the winner and thus our dog is named Ace.

photo of Ace the Bat-hound from the DC universe website justice league to illustrate why we chose the name Ace for our dog — This is Ace, the Bat-Hound from Justice League. Photo taken from the DC website

So of course, we had to have a photo shoot with my son wearing his Batman costume so we could introduce Ace to everyone on social media. We even found a dog toy with the logo on it. Such cute photos.

Batman is the theme with the dog's name Ace

Why My Writing Time is Going to the Dog

We have had middle of the night wake-ups, and other puppy antics too. Like chewing. We can’t really leave him alone too much right now. Which makes it difficult to dive into my manuscript.

Ace is a chewer and this must keep on eye on him which is where all her writing time is going

We are now in puppy training class, which also teaches us humans on how to behave with the dog. As you can see, we have our hands full. It won’t last forever, but this is what we’ve been doing this summer. I hope to show him periodically in my Author social media. So follow along on my instagram at denisem.colby I’ll leave you with this last pic so you can say awww.

Ace, Denise M. Colby's new dog, loves playing with balls. Denise M. Colby loves throwing the balls for him which takes away from her writing time — Ace loves playing with balls. And I love throwing balls for him, which takes away from writing, but gets me outside.

Denise Colby loves to write about her word of the year. Each word builds a new layer in her writing journey (and her life). In 2022, her word was Work. This year, her word is change.

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Revealed: what novels inspired me to write French historicals that led to me writing ‘Sisters at War’

August 11, 2023 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as Confessions of a Podcast Goddess, histoicals, writing

When I was making this video, I found an old photo of me ‘studying’ back in the day at university. I was sitting outside what we called the ‘student center’ near the science building on campus. A friend captured the moment and I kept the photo in my college yearbook. [college photo in video]

Yes, we wore dresses and I remember those black suede shoes. Low heels. I started out wearing 3-inch heels — red, of course — but that didn’t last. The campus was vast and hilly and I had to trek across the campus from the humanities building to the library and then to the science building.

A different time.

I lived in Laguna Beach steps from the ocean, got my first surfboard, and had a wonderful mentor from the golden days of Hollywood. A charming, older lady who helped me with my singing.

I’ve come a long way… but I’ll always remember those days sitting on the beach and reading my ‘Angelique‘ books.

And studying French and German.

I made it through college, then went to live in Europe, and embarked on the adventures that eventually made it into my novels. Especially ‘SISTERS AT WAR‘. The story of the Beaufort Sisters in Paris 1940 when the unthinkable happens to one of them… a violent sexual assault… and how it affects them both.

More later… and how I added my own life experiences to the story.

Jina

#BoldwoodBirthday Boldwood Books

Bold Book Club

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CONFERENCE PREP Part One

August 8, 2023 by Tracy Reed in category Writing

Happy August. It really feels like time is zipping by on a bullet train.

Let’s get down to it. In case I hadn’t mentioned it, I’m excite to be signing at the inaugural Steamy Lit Con later this month. This is my first mega signing and I was surprised at the amount of prep it required.

I had a lot of questions. At the top of the list,how many books to take? Followed by what kind of swag to take and how much?…What titles to take so I could set up a preorder?…Table decor…what to wear?…Can I bring an assistant?

It seemed like the list of questions was endless. Then I started noticing in the author group people were talking about exclusives. My mind was buzzing. I didn’t have an exclusive book or product.

I was growing overwhelmed with each post I read. I finally reached out to couple of veteran mega book signing authors for clarity because the answers I was getting were all over the place.

Check out some of the questions and answers.
How many books to take?
50 – 100 copies per title
200 per title
Don’t take every title, but take about 20 – 40 per of the ones you bring

What Swag to bring?
Postcards
Buttons
Bookmarks for sure
Pens, Stickers and bag clips
Magnets

Signage…
You definitely need a sign
I only do table top signs
I hate those retractable banners
I use a custom table cloth or drape

Forms of payment…do you charge tax?
PayPal
Cash
Venmo
CashApp
Square
Get a QR code
My website
Bring a lot of change
Yes, charge tax
Figure tax into the price

Do you discount your books?
Yes
No

I’m not exaggerating when I say it took me about a month to come up with a plan. Originally, based on some early information, I thought I was going to need A LOT of books. I was basing this on what I’d seen on various social media posts. If I’d stuck with that plan, I was going to order a few books every month so I wouldn’t have to do large orders. Well that never happened.

So here’s what I did.

Selected a show inventory.
I have a few titles and knew I didn’t want to bring everything. I knew I wanted to take my most popular series, The Good Girl and The Alex Chronicles. I also wanted to take my duet, A Southern Gentleman. I hadn’t intended to take my other series Generational Curse, but it’s going…I’ll explain why later. Plus I wanted to take my stand alone.

Let me explain. If this weren’t a local event and if it weren’t the first time I’d be meeting these readers, I’d have take fewer titles. My two main series have five books each. When you add in the duet and stand alones, it begins to look like a book store.

I did a preorder.
I did this because it would help with figuring out what to order. I was hoping for a lot of preorders. I received three…technically it was four. My mom/show assistant was generous to place a preorder. This was two more than the last time I did an event with a preorder. I understand the low number is because I’m a relative unknown…I’m working to change that.

Two of the preorders came from books I was on the fence about taking. I figured if I got preorders on them, I’d take them. That’s how I ended up taking the Generational Curse series and the anthology I was in earlier this year. For the record, I always intended to purchase a few copies of the anthology. I just hadn’t gotten around to doing so. The other reason I wasn’t too eager to bring Generational Curse, is because I’m going to do an update. But that changed.

How many books did I order?
I took the advice of the veteran authors and focused on the first book in the series. No matter how much I want people who have never read me to buy the entire series, I couldn’t order based on that. Instead, I ordered 20 of the first two books in each series and the first in the duet, five of everything else. This was a game changer. I write big books and if I’d gone with the other advice, it would have cost me a few thousand dollars.

I’ll stop here, otherwise this post will begin to resemble a novella. I hope this helps as you prepare for your next book signing.

Tracy

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Featured Author Renae Wrich

August 7, 2023 by Renae Wrich in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author of the Month tagged as Featured author, Mac and Cheese, renae Wrich

A born and raised Minnesotan, Renae Wrich is a lover of hot dishes, lakes, and snuggling up with a good book on a cold winter day. Renae holds a B.A. in English from the University of Minnesota Duluth. She lives in a suburb of Minneapolis with her husband and two children (who love macaroni and cheese). Mac and Cheese, Please, Please, Please is her first book.

Visit her website at www.renaewrich.com to learn more.

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A Break from Writing? Not Really.

August 6, 2023 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as Between drafts, finishing the book, Linda O. Johnston

What does a writer do between drafts of a story? Well, that depends.

I finished a first draft of my upcoming fourth story in my Shelter of Secrets series for Harlequin Romantic Suspense. It still needs some work, but it’s currently in the hands of my excellent beta reader.

So what am I doing while I’m waiting? I have another book under contract that I could begin, but for now I’m trying to play catch-up in some things I’ve been ignoring while I worked on that draft, and also attended the Romance Writers of America Conference.

I won’t get into what kinds of things they are, but they definitely needed to be worked on. Will I resolve them all now? Not hardly, but I hope to at least make a dent in them.

Meanwhile, I’m also making some preparations for Bouchercon, the mystery conference I’ll attend at the end of this month and beginning of September.

So how about you? Do you ever get a chance to take a break, however short, from your writing or your other kind of job? If so, how do you decide how to handle it?

I hope you’re more organized than I tend to be these days. But hey, I’m always amused when my interruptions come from my puppy!

Hope you all enjoy the last half of 2023. I intend to!