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And Then There Were Two by Kitty Bucholtz

July 22, 2023 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing tagged as Kitty Bucholtz, middle-grade fiction, self-publishing, writing

When I got married 33 years ago, I knew there would be a lot of combining things in our lives. John taught me to enjoy comic books and Dungeons & Dragons. I helped him discover a couple chick flicks he could watch multiple times.

What I didn’t expect to share was my identity as a writer.

At first, it was really difficult for me, a middle child, to share a place I’d carved out for me. (Middle children out there, I bet you understand.) But over time I not only got used to the fact that my animator husband had started writing middle grade superhero stories, I decided to help him get them published.

Insert long story here about sending the book out to agents. (Many of you know this story.) So John decided he’d follow me and self-publish.

And since I’m a book coach and help people not only finish their books, but self-publish their books…yup, I had another client! (This one pays with kisses and backrubs and…ah-hem…moving on!) So as we insert another long story here, I’m now officially a publisher since I publish two authors. Whoa!

Let me know if you’d like to know how that’s working and I’ll make a point of writing it all down and posting it here. Meanwhile, I’m doing the publisher thing and promoting a book! 😀

Life as a Teenage Superhero is free through the end of today, Saturday, July 22, 2023, on all Amazon stores that sell ebooks. (I never thought I’d have to add those last three words, but the new Amazon store in Sweden doesn’t sell ebooks yet!) If you enjoyed the Harry Potter books, you might love Life as a Teenage Superhero. And if you have kids or grandkids from about 8 years old and up, they may love it too! (Also available in Kindle Unlimited for the next 90 days.)

We’ve got John’s second book in the 11-book series, Get a Half-Life, up on pre-order on Amazon with new books in the series coming out every 2-4 months. One of the new things I’ll be doing this year is creating a second print edition that is specifically for dyslexic readers! It’s a busy and exciting time to be a writer — and a publisher!

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Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger Featured Authors

July 21, 2023 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author of the Month, Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as 1950s Crime novels, Author Interviews, Chatting with Authors, Janet Elizabeth Lynn, The Skylar Drake Murder Mystery Series, Will Zeilinger

July Featured Authors

Janet Elizabeth Lynn was born in Queens and raised in Long Island, New York. She is the author of murder mysteries, cozy mysteries and with her husband Will Zeilinger, 1950s hard-boiled detective mysteries.

Will Zeilinger has lived and traveled the world and has been writing for over ten years. His novels range from mystery to romantic comedy and those 1950s hard-boiled detective mysteries with his wife Janet.

Partners in Crime

Together Janet and Will write the Skylar Drake Mystery Series. These hard-boiled tales are based in old Hollywood in 1955. They have an E-book How it Began: The Skylar Drake Mysteries available from Smashwords.

Their world travels have sparked several ideas for murder and crime stories. In their next adventure, they will team up using the penname E.J. Williams for a new mystery series set in the 1960s. Their first novel in the International Crime Files, Stone Pub is in the works.

Chatting With Authors

In addition to writing novels, Janet and Will have a YouTube Channel, Chatting with Authors featuring informal Zoom interviews with authors of various genres. We encourage readers to check out all their videos.

This creative couple lives in Southern California . . . and yes, they are still married, and they even blog together at The Married Authors.

The Skylar Drake Mystery Series

SLICK DEAL

GAME TOWN

STRANGE MARKINGS

SLIVERS OF GLASS

DESERT ICE

STONE PUB: An Exercise in Deception

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🍉 Sweet Summertime

July 15, 2023 by Renae Wrich in category Writing

Greetings, Orange Peeps!

My family is entering a rare period of the year where we don’t have any youth sports or activities. It only happens twice a year – In Christmas and late July.

My oldest daughter’s softball team just wrapped up their season by taking third place in their state tournament. Woo hoo! #ProudSoftballMom

My youngest daughter is finishing up her dance intensives this week with hopes to join a competitive dance line next year. Fingers crossed! #ProudDanceMom

Youth sports definitely has its not-so-glamorous moments that almost always resides with adults. Take your pick- Parents screaming at umpires over a call, or seasoned dance moms glaring at the incoming kids who are just hoping to make the team.

Despite this, I find that there are some pretty spectacular lessons that can be learned from kids in sports. For instance, my daughter’s softball team was one of the youngest teams in their class. After winning all of their games last year, they were bumped up as a ‘C’ team in the next class. The girls would get so deflated every time we would lose against a B team.

“We lost because they were a ‘B team’.”

But then one tournament, they beat a B team. From that moment on, they didn’t let the letter matter to them.

You should have seen this team battle through their state tournament. One game went into triple overtime and I had to pinch myself to remember that these little humans are only nine years old.

Similarly, the day before my daughter’s dance intensives, she decided she no longer wanted to go through with it. I was shocked! I said, “What are you talking about? You love dance!”

She explained to me that she was nervous. “I’ve never danced Jazz before, Mom!”

I reminded her to just have fun and show the instructors the things she knew from ballet and tap. And that’s exactly what she did. That little firecracker danced her heart out and her love for dance was practically seeping from her pores. I could not have been more proud.

Reminder you are more than the category people place you in, and you truly love something it will always shine through. ❤️

Our sport-free period will consist of lake time, beach time, boating, golfing, bonfires, and (hopefully) some writing. Can’t wait!

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Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger Featured Authors

July 14, 2023 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author of the Month, Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as 1950s Crime novels, Author Interviews, Chatting with Authors, Janet Elizabeth Lynn, The Skylar Drake Murder Mystery Series, Will Zeilinger

July Featured Authors

Partners in Crime

Chatting With Authors

This creative couple lives in Southern California . . . and yes, they are still married, and they even blog together at The Married Authors.

The Skylar Drake Mystery Series

SLICK DEAL

GAME TOWN

STRANGE MARKINGS

SLIVERS OF GLASS

DESERT ICE

STONE PUB: An Exercise in Deception

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The Dog Days of Summer, Birthdays, and Buttered Noses

July 13, 2023 by marianne h donley in category From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group tagged as birthdays, buttered noses, dog days, Family, grandparents, hot, Summer

The Dog Days of Summer isn’t just an expression that indicates summer days so hot dogs are driven mad. It’s an actual astronomical event when, Sirius, the dog star rises in conjunction with the sun. The Dog Days are listed as starting on July 3rd and continuing through August 11^th.

In my family, the Dog Days of Summer marked the beginning of birthday season. I have three brothers and three sisters. Then there are my children, nieces and nephews, in-laws (or as we insist out-laws) and now the grandchildren and grandnieces and grandnephews. A significant number of them have birthdays in July and August.

Birthdays

Birthdays around our place were always a bit different. With so many relatives we seldom had friends to our birthday celebrations. We rarely severed cake but rather baked from scratch (including the crust) birthday pie. There were favorites – quite a few apple pies, pumpkin (made three days ahead of the feast and refrigerated to the proper coldness), lemon meringue, peach, and rhubarb for my mother.

And when my mémère (French for grandma) was alive, if it was your birthday, you got your nose buttered. It was supposed to make you side through the year to your next birthday.

Now Mémère assured us this was an old French custom, but I never met any other family who practiced nose buttering–even the few friend of mine when we were growing up who also had a mémère and

Buttered Noses

So, a few years ago I googled it. Sure enough, other families butter noses, but the articles I read listed the custom is either Scottish or Irish. I suspect Mémère would be upset by these claims as she was very proud of her French ancestry even though the family arrived in the New World well before there was a United States. She and Pépère spoke French at home, and my dad and his siblings didn’t learn English until they went to school.

I must admit that she frequently got things wrong. For example, she was also very proud of being born on June 13^th and every year would tell us that she just missed being born on Friday the 13^th (it happened to be a Saturday that year because it was a leap year). But when she died my aunts found her birth certificate. She wasn’t born on June 13^th, that was the day she was baptized. She was really born two days earlier and forever celebrated her birthday on the wrong day.

Wrong day

My aunts were upset, but I would like to think Mémère would not have cared if she had ever noticed. She was happy to have a pie baked by my mom, and she would laugh her head off when we would sneak up and butter her nose so she could slide through another year.

Does your family have different birthday customs? What are they?