Words of Wisdom to Andrew Lincoln, George Clooney, and Russell Crowe from me...by Jamie Hill

There's been much hullabaloo this week over my favorite 'The Walking Dead' character Rick Grimes, actor Andrew Lincoln, shaving his beard in a recent episode of the hit cable series. The beard furor got me thinking, have I ever written a character with a beard? I write contemporary romance, and while I'm sure many heroes in historical romance had beards, I can't think of many in contemporary settings.

Most all of my heroes have what I like to call a 'three-day beard growth'.  This works great in fiction, but in real life it's impossible to maintain for longer than a couple of days (depending on the rate of beard growth of course.) Some mens' beards grow quickly and they end up looking like Gandalf or Santa Claus.

 

 

This was the fate of Andrew Lincoln's beard in The Walking Dead, I'm afraid. A touch too long there at the end. A clean-shaven Rick was a shock, though that shower scene was pretty hot for regular TV.

 

Which do you prefer of the many stages of Rick?

 

 

I have to admit, I still prefer the three-day growth look. But I like beards! I think George Clooney and Russell Crowe can also rock the beard and to me, they look better as they age.

I might consider giving my hero a beard in an upcoming novel. It'll have to be a fairly closely cropped, neat looking thing. No Duck Dynasty crumb catchers, just enough hair there to tickle.

What's your opinion? Barely there or totally bare? Do you dig beards? I have to admit I do. And if I could offer some words of advice to the actors above I'd say totally keep the beards. These guys know how to rock them.

Jamie Hill ~ Romantic Thrills ~ Suspenseful Chills

Find my beard-free titles at Books We Love: http://bookswelove.net/authors/hill-jamie/

or on my clean-shaven website: http://www.jamiehill.biz/

 

Follow my 'possibility of a beard in a book' writing progress on Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jamie-Hill/135137799867321

That's Egregious! by Jamie Hill

In preparing my blog post about reviews, I was looking for a word that meant something was both good and bad at the same time. (I still haven't put my finger on the word, so if you know what I'm trying to say, hit me up in the comments!) I stumbled upon egregious, which is such a fun word I had to look it up. 

Egregious 

adjective

1. extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant:

an egregious mistake; an egregious liar.

Synonyms: gross, outrageous, notorious, shocking. 

 

Egregious is also good for 11 points in Scrabble and 14 points in Words With Friends, bahaha

 

It's not really what I was after, though. Some reviews are certainly egregious. Some are just plain stinkers. Some are so wonderful they can leave an author floating on air for days.

 

When I first started writing, reviews were much harder to come by. There were a handful of review sites and they generally had a lengthy waiting list of books to be reviewed. At that time, the e-publishing world was just breaking loose and suddenly there were more books than any site could handle. 

Individuals with a love of reading and the ability to use Blogger discovered they could become reviewers, too, and many of my best reviews have come from these smaller sites and/or individuals. Many of them had a code, if a book was a stinker they'd just let it go and not post a really bad review. I appreciate them for doing that, because the bottom line is reviews are subjective. Purely subjective.

Some of the most popular books have gotten plenty of negative reviews, yet they've gone on to become movies, video games, action figures, etc., and earn the author millions. *sigh*

The past few years has shown a rise in the reader reviews at sites like Amazon. It's nice to allow readers to give their opinions, and I don't think there's an author out there who would criticize a genuinely thoughtful review. It might sting, but it might also bring up something for the author to keep in mind when writing the next book.

Family Secrets came out in 2006 the first time, and both of the main characters smoked. It wasn't as big of a deal ten years ago, but man, oh man, are people on me about that now. Many of the reader reviews mentioned how much they hated that Jack and Crystal both smoked. They were serious about it! (I got a little flack about the sex in the book. Okay, most of that was from my mom, but some from readers too. Yet the smoking seemed to be a much bigger concern.) In book two, my hero Brady started out as a smoker and quit by the end. And book three had no main characters who smoked. Zero. My mama didn't raise no dummy. (But I'm still a bit smuttier than she'd like.)

 

The negative side of Amazon reviews is that a 'reader' doesn't have to have read the book to post. I got one review on a book that's no longer available giving it one star because it was so short, the reader didn't even read it. *Blink* Excuse me?

 

Here's a couple of reviews for my novella On The Edge. It has several four and five star reviews like this one:  

 

"Surprisingly full story-line for such a short novella. I enjoyed this sweet romance with a good dose of suspense thrown in." 

Then there's a one star review that says:

"Hated it. Don't buy it. Worse published book ever. Don't buy this trash. Also very short......BAD. Big disappointment
I read a lot of books and this was the worst."

 

Her grammar aside, I believe there's a compliment in there somewhere. Amazon has over a million books published at this very moment. If mine is indeed the 'WORSE PUBLISHED BOOK EVER', I want a plaque somewhere with my name on it.

Seriously, what good does a review like that do? Does it tell you why she didn't like the book (which she probably got free on one of the book's promo days)? Does it say anything about the plot or the characters? Or does it, perhaps, say more about the reviewer, who chooses to hide behind the name 'Amazon Customer'. Original, gal. Creative.

 

My publisher has started a campaign that whenever she sees a nonsense review like the one above, she marks it as 'unhelpful'. This makes it drop lower in the list of reviews and lowers the reviewers 'helpful' percentage. It's not much, but it's something we can do to say that while opinions are subjective--stupid, unhelpful reviews don't have to be tolerated. An author needs to overlook them and move on. Or blog about them for a little comic relief. 

 

I'm still waiting for my plaque, by the way.

 

Find Family Secrets, On The Edge, my newest novel, Time To Kill, along with my other titles at Books We Love: http://bookswelove.net/authors/jamie-hill/#

Visit my website: http://www.jamiehill.biz/

Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jamie-Hill/135137799867321

 

 

Favorite Covers by Michelle Lee

Jamie Hill's two cents:

BWL's Art Director has asked us to share our favorite cover and why. I had a horrible time narrowing it down to two. In fact, I could easily choose one favorite for each BWL author! But since we're supposed to choose one, I took the liberty of choosing two.

Heart Throb by Janet Lane Walters

Cover by Michelle Lee

http://amzn.com/B0057AGQ4W

Without reading the blurb, this cover gives you a good idea what this story is about. Romance, with a medical twist. I love the graphics Michelle has weaved through the text including the the heart between the words Heart and Throb. To me, this is a beautiful, sexy romance cover.

Jack Shadow by Graeme Smith

Cover by Michelle Lee

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00904HKQE/

This is a quirky mystery story and again, without reading a blurb you can tell that from this cover. I love the man, the rain, the font choices and of course the tagline. Now go read the blurb. It'll definitely make you want to read the book!

I could go on and on about my favorite BWL covers but there are simply too many to choose from. My own included! But don't take my word for it...check it out!

Jamie Hill

http://bookswelove.net/authors/jamie-hill/#

Coming Soon from Kat Attalla, Jamie Hill, and Books We Love

The Prince and The Working Woman
The Desert Prince Series, Book 1 by Kat Attalla

THE ROYAL PRINCE OF TOUZAR BELIEVES EVERY WOMAN HAS A PRICE…
Prince Hamid Khalid is not looking for love. Since coming of age he has watched a carnival-like parade of women vie for his attention. But they are more interested in his title and bank account than his sardonic personality.
 

...UNTIL HE MEETS A WOMAN WHO CAN’T BE BOUGHT
Amanda Wilkes, abuse survivor and hard-core feminist isn’t looking for love either. Especially not with a sexy chauvinist like the prince. Opening an international community center under his direction in the exotic Middle Eastern country, however is a job of a lifetime.
 

While working in close proximity an attraction develops. The two decide to share a purely physical, unemotional, relationship. The affair works well until the unthinkable happened.
CAN TWO STUBBORN LONERS ADMIT TO THE LOVE NEITHER BELIEVES EXISTS?

Available Jan. 31, 2015. Pre-order your copy now!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQR9V0A 

Time To Kill
Witness Security, Book 2 by Jamie Hill

US Marshal Jordan Burke is happy for her partner when he takes a month off for paternity leave, but she's not happy about her substitute partner. Nick Pierce worked for the Topeka Witsec office years ago and left under less than the best of circumstances. When he’s asked to fill in he hesitates, but curiosity about Jordan makes him accept the job. The minute he sees her again he doesn’t regret his decision. From Atlanta to Los Angeles, Jordan and Nick discover that danger, and help, can come from the strangest sources. While they struggle to protect their witnesses, the bigger challenge seems to be keeping each other alive. And there’s always the possibility that they might kill each other first.
 

“Ms. Hill has the gift of knowing what the reader wants and then hitting you with an ending you certainly don’t expect. Two thumbs up!” ~ Val, You Gotta Read Reviews

Available Jan. 31, 2015. Pre-order your copy now!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQRKB68

Have You Considered Bone Marrow Donation? by Jamie Hill

The caption for the video below reads, "Less than 500 people in the United States have Diamond-Blackfan anemia, a life-threatening blood disease. One family in St. Louis County represents four of those cases, the children of Tim and Maggie Murry. All four of the Murry's sons, Sean, Patrick, Danny, and Timmy were diagnosed with the disease at birth. All of the boys will need bone marrow transplants as the only hope for living long, healthy lives."

Tim Murry was a classmate and friend of mine in elementary and high school. I wasn't aware of his children's disease until a few years ago when Tim asked for help organizing a Bone Marrow Drive in my town, (where he grew up and I still live.) I agreed and called upon several other friends and former classmates to help out. We held the drive at three local churches one Sunday morning. It was relatively easy, a matter of helping people fill out some simple paperwork and showing them how to swab the inside of their cheek. There's an age limit, donors must be between 18 and 55 years of age, so lots of people older than that donated money instead.

Later we found out that three matches were made from our drive, though sadly none for the Murry brothers. Their loving extended family continues to organize bone morrow drives across Kansas and Missouri in hopes of finding a match. I believe they told me that one match could help two of their boys with similar blood types (or something along those lines.) The boys are smart, sweet and stinkin' cute. How can anyone resist wanting to help after you watch the video below? (It's only two minutes long.)

 

My heart goes out to the Murry family. I'm proud to call Tim and his pretty wife Maggie my friends. I gladly swabbed and encourage everyone within the age bracket to do so. It can be done by mail in the privacy of your own home if there are no drives near you. Find the details at: http://www.deletebloodcancer.org/

The goal is to save lives. With your help, that goal is possible. So com'on! Get swabbed!

Jamie Hill

Books We Love Author and Marketing Director

http://bookswelove.net/authors/jamie-hill/#

A Sweet Potato Thanksgiving by Jamie Hill

November is a good time to reflect on things for which we’re thankful. Thanksgiving dinner is something I’ve always taken for granted, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to understand that not everyone is so fortunate to have a big, bountiful meal. (I hope that those of us who do get to partake will keep the less fortunate in mind and donate as we’re able to our local food pantries.)

Canadian Thanksgiving has passed, but we’re just gearing up for it here in the states. Thanksgiving seems to me sort of a forgotten holiday, sandwiched in between two others that are much more fun for children. For many adults, Thanksgiving boils down gathering together whatever family and friends you can and enjoying a big meal and lots of leftovers.

In my family we go the traditional route with turkey, potatoes and gravy, and sage dressing (cooked in a separate dish, never in the bird.) My favorite vegetable is green bean casserole and my second favorite is a sweet potato casserole topped with brown sugar and pecans. It tastes more like pumpkin than sweet potatoes and is sweet enough to be a dessert, but we serve it right along with the meal. Homemade rolls round out the first course and pumpkin pie with whipped topping comes out about an hour after dinner has settled.

If I’ve kept up with the pots and pans as I went along it’s just a matter of loading plates directly into the dishwasher and finding enough plastic containers (with lids that fit) for the leftovers. They’re piled in the front of the fridge because just a few hours later we’ll drag everything back out for a repeat of the same meal in the evening.

Friday noon we’re still eating turkey but by that night, we usually order pizza because we’re ready for a change. On the weekend, the leftovers are either consumed or frozen because we’re all tired of them by that point.

Once Thanksgiving weekend has past it’s full speed ahead to Christmas. Ho! Ho! Ho! But we’ll talk about next month. For now, I’m making my grocery shopping list and checking it twice. If I close my eyes I can smell Thanksgiving dinner cooking already.

Please enjoy our family’s sweet potato casserole recipe, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweet Potato Casserole

2 pounds sweet potatoes (boiled and mashed)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup butter or margarine

4 eggs (beaten)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup sugar 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all above ingredients with electric mixer and pour into buttered 9 x 9 casserole dish.

Topping:

3 Tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 cup soft margarine

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup pecans

Mix topping ingredients together and pour over top of sweet potatoes.  Bake 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. For sweeter taste, double topping ingredients.

  

Find Jamie Hill's titles including her latest release, Pieces of the Past, here: http://bookswelove.net/jamiehill.php

Jason Voorhees, Jaime Lannister and Me by Jamie Hill

Ah, October. Leaves are changing color, and everyone is talking about football, or the return of The Walking Dead. (YES!) Halloween is just around the corner. As a child I loved everything about Halloween from making decorations to dressing up to trick-or-treating and bringing home a mountain of candy. I didn’t particularly like being scared, but a little bit was okay—the kind of scared when I knew I was really safe, such as a tour of a haunted house, or going to a scary movie. (These days, the prices of the ‘good candy’ alone are enough to scare me!)

We love scary movies in my house. I married a man who grew up watching Vincent Price and shows called Chiller and Thriller and even Twilight Zone. Movies back then used to advertise that there would be a doctor in the theater for those who might find themselves in need of one. One oldie I watched even had flashing lights and a clanging bell when something scary was about to happen, in case the viewer wanted to avert his or her eyes. *snort*

On our first date, my future husband took me to the drive-in movies to watch Friday the 13^th, the first movie starring villain Jason Voorhees. It scared me sufficiently that I spent the second half of the show much closer to my date (possibly his ulterior motive for choosing that movie?) My mother nearly passed out when we told her later. Much later.

That was the beginning of our relationship, and our joint love of scary movies. We’ve seen a good share of them. Many were really awful. Some were just gory. A few were top notch, such as the first Halloween movie. (The sequels slowly went downhill.)

Hubby doesn’t like demonic or satanic themes, so we don’t watch those. I don’t like violent gore-fests where bad things happen to good, innocent people for no reason. (This does not include those teenage camp counselors in the Friday the 13^th movies. Those kids should have known better.)

These days we are slightly choosier about what we watch. We know many scary movies are going to be silly and/or stupid, and if we don’t expect too much going in we aren’t disappointed. That’s part of the fun of it. 

I am guilty of recently watching the 2013 supernatural thriller Mama because it starred Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones). But that’s a whole ‘nother topic, right there. And don’t even get me started on The Walking Dead. Best zombie show ever!

Happy October and Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it!

Jamie Hill

www.jamiehill.biz
http://bookswelove.net/jamiehill.php 

Location, Location, Location by Jamie Hill

I like to set my books in real cities because I believe readers relate to places they know, live, or have visited. My cop series is set in Wichita, Kansas, which is a large enough city that they probably have plenty of crimes and good cops to solve them. Actually, around the time I was writing the first book, Family Secrets, the BTK killer had just resurfaced in Wichita and was soon apprehended. I added a mention of him, a "Did you work on that BTK case?" type of thing, for a touch of realism. But that's as far as I went with him. His crimes were horrible and touched the people of Wichita deeply. I didn't want to remind them too much.

I asked several people from the Wichita area about neighborhoods, locations by the river, various aspects of the city that I could include. I tried to steer clear of actual addresses because I didn't want a reader saying, "That's my address in Wichita!" And that's the very reason I make up business names, Like Moe's Diner and Sister Theresa's Shelter. If I wanted to make Sister Theresa the bad guy (or nun, so to speak) in the end, I didn't want the real Sister Theresa saying, "Hey now!" So while the story is set in Wichita and a few of the main streets are mentioned, as well as neighborhoods, the rest is purely fictional. Recently a reader told me she was from Wichita and while I changed the names, there was indeed a diner and a shelter like the ones I wrote about, and she could picture them as she read.

Mission accomplished.

My Witness Security series is set in Topeka, but the city won't play a major role. These people are in hiding and generally aren't going to be out doing the town. They'll also be traveling to other locations, in the first book they went to Chicago. Book two takes the characters to LA. Both towns I've visited and hopefully am able to capture their essence.

I took a different tactic with my Blame Game series, creating a fictional town for the characters to live in. I had a certain real town in mind and gave the fictional town of Marshall features of that place I knew well, but I had the freedom to jiggle them around as I desired. What I like about a fictional setting is as long as I'm consistent, I can create any details I want. No one can write me and say, "Excuse me, Fifth Street never intersects with Prospect Blvd." In my fictional town, maybe it does.

Find the first book in each of my series' here:

Family Secrets, A Cop in the Family: http://amzn.com/B004478IN6 

Pieces of the Past, Witness Security: http://amzn.com/B00K5XAGY2

Blame it on the Stars, The Blame Game: http://amzn.com/B00EOA5G3I

Jamie Hill

http://bookswelove.net/jamiehill.php

http://www.jamiehill.biz/