Valentine’s Day is for my Instagram short story “Virgin Kiss” by Jina Bacarr
February 11, 2019 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as Chekhov, kiss, romance, Valentine, Valentine's DayValentine’s Day is Thursday — a time for romance, chocolate and . . . kissing.
But what if your first kiss was just plain awful?
Meet Riley Murphy. She’s a kissing virgin, waiting for the right guy to come along. Until she joins the Drama Club at Holywell High and has to kiss the class dweeb on stage in front of the whole school on Valentine’s Day.
Virgin Kiss is a short story I wrote that I’m serializing in 1-minute segments.
I’m inserting my video intro here and Parts 1-5 of my story (which will be completed on Valentine’s Day). Check back for the entire story as I update this post every day including V-Day!
Virgin Kiss Instagram 1-minute posts (text on audio is included in IG comments). I hope you enjoy my time travel trip back to high school!
Just added Part 6:
Part 7 of Virgin Kiss (you can read the text from the audio on Instagram in the comments section)
Part 8 of Virgin Kiss
Part 9 Virgin Kiss
Dating Lessons from WALL-E
February 12, 2018 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as Dating, Disney, teens, Valentine's Day
Dating Lessons from Wall-e
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I thought covering a special Disney couple would be fun. Our family loves all Disney movies and WALL-E is no exception. We’ve watched it several times and the last time, several things struck me about the way WALL-E and EVE find their Happily Ever After. So I started writing down what I observed. Yes, they are cute and all the antics are quite entertaining, but with three teenage boys in my house, I asked myself would I want them to follow WALL-E’s path to love?
♥ Approach a girl and she fires at you, ignores you and then breaks your things.
♥ Show her something beautiful and she takes it and doesn’t give it back.
♥ Try to teach her to dance and she throws you against the wall.
♥ Be romantic and get no response. Zip. Zilch. Natta.
♥ Try to hold her hand and get hurt in the process.
♥ Chase her and she’ll carry you out of your world.
♥ Help her save her world and lose yourself in the process
♥ And then finally, she rushes to save you. And when she kisses you – the spark is large enough that your old self comes back again.
I love it when Eve finally sees all that Wall-e does for her and how it changes her view of him. We all want someone to see the true us. And love us for who we are. Wall-e never wavers in his caring for Eve. And in the end, they both grow and change and open their hearts and find their Happily Ever After.
I think the stories we write are a lot like this. Our poor characters are pushed and pulled through some rough times, but in the end they change and grow and their world is a better place because of that.
I’m just not sure I want to watch my boys go through all that in real life…well, maybe if they find someone who loves them as they are and brings out the best in them and they have a happily ever after. Then, maybe I would.
Happy Writing & Happy Valentine’s Day Blessings!
Denise M. Colby
From Stranger than Fiction and Home Improvement to #PleaseSayYes
February 10, 2018 by Tari Jewett in category Charmed Writer by Tari Lynn Jewett tagged as romantic comedy, Romantic Comedy. Boxed Set, Valentine's Day
One of my favorite movies is the 2008 comedy/fantasy Stranger than Fiction. In the story, Will Ferrell plays Harold Crick, an IRS agent who wakes up one morning and finds that a voice is narrating his life. Every swish of his toothbrush, every step that he takes, every experience he has is being narrated. Harold decides that he must be part of a story that’s still being written, he seeks help from Literature Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) for help. After asking him several questions, Professor Hilbert informs Crick that “the last thing to determine conclusively is whether you’re in a comedy or a tragedy”. This line has stuck with me since I heard it.
Personally, I’d classify my own life as a romantic comedy. And often a television sitcom (think Home Improvement). So, I’m very excited that my first book to be published will be a romantic comedy.
#PleaseSayYes is a light, sweet and I hope fun little novella about how social media can influence the search for true love.
With 3 young sons, my oldest Gerrod just recently married, and the younger 2 Jayson and Joey (see I told you Home Improvement) still in the dating game. I’ve seen how social media has changed the way couples meet and interact. Sometimes it’s crazy, sometimes it’s scary…and sometimes it’s a comedy.
So, my Valentine’s offering this year is my first published fiction #PleaseSayYes. The story of a sweet school teacher who would rather read romance than look for love, and a young business owner who admirers her from afar. Until, family, friends and social media take matters out of their hands. I hope you’ll check it out and let me know what you think. It’s available for preorder right now and will release on February 13th in the Love Me Tender boxed set with a dozen other sweet romances for you to enjoy.
And if you haven’t seen Stranger than Fiction yet, you might want to buy it for Valentine’s. I’ll let you decide if it’s a tragedy or comedy, but it’s definitely a romance.
Happy Valentine’s!
Tari Lynn Jewett lives in Arizona just off Route 66 with her husband of more than thirty years (aka Hunky Hubby). They have 3 amazing sons, and 2 beautiful grandsons. For more than fifteen years Tari wrote freelance for magazines and newspapers, wrote television commercials, radio spots, numerous press releases, and many, MANY PTA newsletters. As much as she loved writing those things, she always wanted to write fiction…and now she is.
Tari writes light, fun romcoms, but she is also working on a historical women’s fiction series set in the Los Angeles area, spanning from the late 1920’s to the ‘50’s. These are darker, edgier full length novels.
A voracious reader, Tari’s favorite treat is to turn off her phone and computer and curl up with an un-put-downable book.
She also believes in happily-ever-afters,
…because she’s living hers.
Website: http://tarilynnjewett.com/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/tarilynnjewett
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/tarilynnjewett
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/tari-lynn-jewett
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tarilynnjewett/
Facebook Group Tari Lynn & Friends: https://www.facebook.com/groups/501972056849831
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tarilynnjewett/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TariLynnJewett
Everyone Wants to Write a Book by Connie Vines
February 13, 2017 by A Slice of Orange in category Writing tagged as Connie Vines, Cowboys, Free eBooks, Valentine's Day, writing
Topic for February: Everybody wants to write a book, but most do not.
Writing is hard work
. What got you started, and what helps you get through a complete story?
How many times have you heard someone say, “Someday I’m going to write a book?” Many a time, I”m certain. However, most do not.
Why? Because writing is hard work.
What got me started? Like most children, I loved reading, drawing, and listening to the oral family history spoken by my grandparents. I also like to write stories (not particularly good stories) but for a second grader I did have a handle on the concept of plotting. Thinking back, I unnerved adults with my pointed interview questions, and thoughts about the meaning of life and life-after-death vs death-after-death. Picture: Tuesday Addams wearing glasses and constantly grumbling about receiving yet, another stupid doll instead of a filling cabinet for her birthday.
When, exactly, did I start and complete my first novel?
While I wrote short-stories, nonfiction articles for publication during my twenties, I didn’t get serious about completing a novel until thirties. My children were in school and I worked part-time. That gave me a block of free time to write (vs the scribbling on 3 x 5 index cards when I was cooking dinner or a note pad during a child’s 1 hour nap). I was serving on my church board when the choir soloist told me her sister was a co-president of the Orange County Chapter of RWA (Romance Writers of America). At the time, I hadn’t every thought of writing a romance. I wrote for the YA and middle school market and dabbled in historical fiction, but Shirlee convinced me that the networking and workshops would be beneficial to me. She was correct.
Attending monthly meetings/workshops, exchanging rough drafts with my critique members during lunch, and input from the multi-published members gave me the confidence to persevere. It also made me crawl out of bed after my husband left for work (at 3:00 in the morning) and write before getting my children off to school.
I also discovered that I couldn’t give up my YA stories while I found my footing in a new market.
“So, what did Connie do?” you ask.
I work two novels at once which I still do to this very day.
Crazing making? Yes!
Writing romance isn’t easy. Strong, well-developed characters, good plot (and multiple subplots), sharp dialogue, and emotion-lots of emotion.
Writing is addictive. The story unfolds, the characters present themselves, and away the writer goes into a new Universe.
What makes me complete my novel/story?
The best way for me to describe the feel is I am driven to finish the story. Native Americans say the story chooses the Storyteller. It the Storyteller’s responsibly to bring the story to life.
Happy Reading and Happy Valentine Day!
My Rodeo Romances (Lynx and Brede) are on sale this month (click on my Amazon Author Page link). Even Zombies need love. Indulge in a little Zombie Valentine Romance. For FREE!! Here Today, Zombie Tomorrow on Amazon.com
Connie
Here Today, Zombie Tomorrow
Planning Your 2017 Calendar by Kitty Bucholtz
February 10, 2017 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing: It's a Business tagged as It's Worth It, Kitty Bucholtz, time management, Valentine's Day
It might seem in December when the new year is looking bright and shiny and empty that you can get everything done you ever imagined! But when you look back over the last year, you may realize that you are often overconfident about what you can do.
Being disappointed in yourself erodes your confidence for the next year, which erodes it for the following year, etc., and I want to help you keep that from happening. So this is what we’re going to do: go get a calendar. Any calendar will do, but one you like and can use easily will be the best one for you.
Starting in January, cross off every day that you know you won’t be able to work on your goals. For instance, if weekends are always for family, cross off all the Saturdays and all the Sundays from the year. Your 365 days just came down to 261 – poof! Just like that!
About how many days were you home sick last year? How many days were you taking care of someone else who was sick? Plan a few sick days into your calendar, subtracting them from the total days left but leaving them “available for use.” There is no point in feeling guilty about being sick, and we both know that a good rest will often get you back to work sooner and better than trying to work through it.
Now look at your list of the 5 to 10 goals you wrote down since last month. You can either plan forward or plan backward. To plan forward, look at each goal and figure out about how much you can accomplish per day on that goal. Then plot it out on your calendar to see what date that last day lands on. Put a sticky note on that date with the goal. The sticky note is so that when things come up, you can move the goal without scribbling all over your calendar.
Or if you already have a goal date in mind, you can plan backward. Say you want to finish the first draft of your next book by May 1. How many days do you have left on your calendar, the ones that are not crossed out, between now and May 1? And how many words do you expect your first draft to be – 50,000 words? 100,000 words? Take the word count and divide by the number of days. This is your daily writing goal.
Continue in this way, planning forward and/or backward for each goal, until you’ve plotted everything out on your calendar. Now look at each of the twelve months. Is it challenging but doable? Does it make you break out in a cold sweat? Do you need to move a few things around? Did you schedule in a little down time, “you” time?
Kitty Bucholtz
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 superhero books for women and romantic comedies are available wherever ebooks are sold, as well as in print and audiobooks. Check out her new Valentine’s Day novella, My Bullheaded Superhero Valentine.
