Julie Regency Romance

I have never understood couples who cannot come up with a name for their babies before the birth. I'm not judging, I am just comparing it with my own experience. The minute I know I'm pregnant I am thinking of names, testing how they sound, making sure the name cannot be mutated into something horrible on the third grade playground. And let's not forget the initials. One friend's daughter named her child and the initials were BMW - so they nicknamed her Beamer! Cute. I actually love the thrill of finding the perfect name, one that sits in my brain and brings complete and utter satisfaction. I am a traditionalist. I choose my names from the 'approved list'. That is the list I deem to be approved names. With the name chosen, the baby takes on an identity even before birth. It is the same with new characters. I relish the search for the perfect name. Of course, in Regency England there was an approved list of names. Parents were expected to use traditional name...

I am not an extensive planner when I write. Ironically, in real life I am a conscientious planner. So when I first began to write seriously, and attended some lectures and conferences, I thought that I must be the type of writer that planned the whole book down to the last detail because that was the type of person I was.     After one lecture, I gathered a deck of 3x5 cards and wrote chapter numbers on each card and then wrote scenes on separate cards for each chapter. It was a disaster!  It was so artificial and boxed me into a writing cell of sorts. Thankfully, I realized pretty quickly that this was not a method that was for me ( though it is for many writers ) and threw the cards away. This liberated me to write with creative abandon and it was amazing to witness the story pour itself onto the page. I was often surprised and excited by how events developed, since I didn't know beforehand how things would work out. This is described in the writing world as being a 'p...

I am a small fish in a rather large pond. Name recognition is one of the goals of any new author as we struggle to compete with the big names. This is where reviews are so helpful. Do you buy anything anymore without looking at the reviews? I don't. If you read a book by any author and love or like it, give the author a virtual hug by writing a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If star reviews are silver, written reviews are gold! It doesn't have to be long or wordy, just a short blurb to encourage others to read it.

It has been a week since my book was released! People have been so nice! I have been walking on cloud nine all week. I'd like to thank all the people who encouraged me and helped me. About 18 months ago I happened to be at a place to hear Brandon Mull talk about breaking into publishing 'Fablehaven'. I got up the courage to go and speak to him about it after. He was so encouraging and supportive and told me not to give up. He was soooo nice! He gave me the boost I needed to go for it, along with my friends and family. So dreams can come true.

My book is out on Kindle already and the hard copy book will be out June 12. I thought it would be fun to run a contest for free signed books. Post pictures (your face does not have to be in the picture) on my FB author page of you reading the book in exotic places you might travel to (yes, your local public pool is considered eligible). The most intriguing will win a signed copy of my book. Deadline will be August 10th, 2018. Happy reading!

Present day authors are marketers too. It is just the nature of the industry today. I took a class about 'Writing to Market' at the writers conference. The presenter had fascinating procedures for writing to maximize revenues. She backed up her presentation with data. Write what people want to read as shown by analytics. She earns a decent salary from her writing and it is growing each year. I felt her energy and was excited but after the class I realized that that is not the way I want to write. I will probably use some of her techniques in the future but I'm never going to write five books a year and I don't want to write to someone else's formula. It works well for her but would not work well for me. And that's okay.

I just read about an author who is the mother of 10 and wrote 13 books in one year! Whaat! So now I feel like a slacker! One book a year seems like a dereliction of duty. I can't begin to imagine how she does that and start to panic but then the rational side of me says, "Wait a minute, you are not her and it is not a competition." Phew, thanks for walking me back from that cliff! I think there is a saying that says 'Comparison is the thief of joy.' If there isn't there should be. The pace I write at works for me and writing is still a joy. If I wrote at that pace it would become a drudgery for me as it would keep me from doing other things I love to do. Like watching my son beat his personal best in the high jump. Perhaps for you one book a year is more than you can handle. Set your own pace and don't compare yourself to others.