Thinking About White Space, by Karla Stover

 

To purchase books by Karla Stover click this link

As if writers didn't have enough to worry about, what with plots, settings, likeable / believable characters and other stuff, along comes WHITE SPACE. 

There are a number of definitions for whitespace, but for fiction writers, it's "the emptiness between paragraphs."

An explanation from author Cheryl Kaye Tardiff  posits that the "space helps the reader process the information in the story / work, gives the reader's eyes a break, and keeps them interested. Look at each page as if it were a work of art," she says, adding that "some sentences will have more impact on their own" She also says, "the sentences closest to the white space are the ones most remembered." Her article on https://writeitsideways.com/ consists of two short paragraphs and two one line paragraphs. They alternate.

The article also has two examples: one from Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge  (no white space) and one from Melissa Bank's The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, so much white space it felt like a Dick-and-Jane book though the article refers to it as a "relaxed narrative."

When used, white space is supposed to "draw the reader’s attention to the words on the page, make the print easier to read, and improve comprehension." It's also supposed to make it easier for a reader to remember where he / she left off.

According to writerswrite.co, when properly used, it also makes the page appear "uncluttered and calming."

However, novelmatters.com has another opinion. "White space," is says "can be used to build suspense and tension in a story. It's use is tantamount to squeezing the hand of the person next to you in the movie theatre. A wordless summary that, yes, things are about to get worse, and [ provides ] a space for the reader to anticipate just how conditions will worsen."

 Author Deborah Swift says, the use of white space is particularly helpful "in historical fiction when you don’t want to describe decades in which nothing new actually happens, but it's necessary to show the passing of time. Transitions are often hard to achieve," she says, "but the white space does it effortlessly. It signals that we have switched to another time, location or point of view."

In researching this topic I used four different search engines and looked at dozens of articles, and other than the two above and no matter what criteria I used, I couldn't find any examples. People were apparently just too busy offering up opinions to do any actual research. I'm guessing that Dickens probably never thought about making the pages of his novels easier on the eyes. And I don't think it's much of a consideration in non-fiction, at least, not in the books I read.

"inmotionhosting.com" asks the question: "without whitespace, how easy is it to glance at a page and in 5 - 10 seconds, get a general idea of what it is about? ( The article doesn't clarify what "it" is, either the page or the book ).

"kontra.agency/white"  however, feels the need to remind writers that "excessive white space can create a low information density on the page."
 

The other day I went through my massive collection of books looking for some to donate to a fund raiser ( I whittled out 10 ). I don't know how I ended up with a Zane Gray book but it was surprisingly well-spaced. Not true of Annie Dillard's The Writing Life.

I guess the bottom line is to ignore all the advice and write the kind of pages you would want to read. After all, Solar Bones, which won the 2026 Goldsmith Prize was only one sentence.

On Parade

 

Find all my books at Books We Love

Last month I talked about the love lock bridges found around the world. The idea of a specific bridge or sculpture designated or created in a town reminded me of other creations I have seen throughout the years that make you immediately know your location. Now I could be talking about things such as the gigantic “bean” in downtown Chicago, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Statue of Liberty or worldly famous Ethel Tower or Pyramids. But let’s think a little more obscure.

What about super large cowboy boots, cows, pigs, rearing horses, and even Jayhawks? Instead of a single artistic wonder, let’s think in multiples, scattered throughout the town so visitors are taken on a sort of scavenger or treasure hunt. Once I started researching the ones I actually knew about, I found there are similar “art parade projects” everywhere from Anchorage, Alaska to Washington DC; even in Europe. While many were started as fundraisers for various city projects, some were created for the love of art or as a way to showcase a particular aspect of their city. There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason behind why a city started their art project. 

My grandson in Cheyenne  

And so our tour begins in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Scattered throughout the town are twenty-five 8-foot tall, hand painted boots depicting aspects of the state’s history-- everything from gambling and outlaws to governors. The project began as a fund raiser for the Cheyenne Depot museum with businesses sponsoring a boot and local artists doing the decorating. “These Boots Are Made for Walking” display even has a downloadable brochure with a location map and information about how to call up an audio program telling about the boots.

Now if you’re going to wear cowboy boots, you might as well have a horse, right? Travel to Rochester, NY, where in 2001, collaboration between local public relations & advertising firm Dixon Schwabl and Genessee Brewery used the horse theme to engage the community and showcase the talents of local artists by organizing sponsorships of 150+ life-sized, fiberglass horse statues. Once the project was done, the horses were auctioned off and the money raised went to various local charities. But twenty-one years later, some of the horses are still seen around the area. Horses on Parade: Where are They Now? — emily malkowski is one website with more information about the remaining horses and their background stories.

According to some, the idea that started an apparent copycat frenzy in the US was COWS ON PARADE in downtown Chicago, begun in 1999 with over three hundred fiberglass bovines let loose across the city with every imaginable theme painted on their backsides. And that, according to business owner Peter Hanig, was because of a “cow parade” he had seen in Zurich, Switzerland while on family vacation. Though not on permanent display, the cows are rounded up every ten years or so and corralled again for tourists’ pleasure. https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/museums/ct-ent-cows-on-parade-20-year-anniversary-ttd-0701-20190628-zjz2qwbfrncgnlvaioqdyqtkae-story.html. New York also does a Cows on Parade, the last one being in 2021, again the proceeds going to charities in the five boroughs, but the cows aren’t on permanent display.

Probably the most weird “on parade” I came across was the “superlambanana” creatures in Liverpool, England. The original Superlambanana is a large yellow statue in Liverpool created in 1998 which has become somewhat the icon of Liverpool. The mini Superlambananas were sponsored by local businesses and painted by area artists and displayed in 2008 before being auctioned off to raise money for various charities.

There appears to be three different viewpoints with regard to “Art on Parade” projects. Some, like the Cheyenne boots, are a permanent part of the city, promoting tourism. Others began as city promotions, like Rochester’s horses, but after being auctioned off are still part of the city landscape, though scattered and not always catalogued. And third, we have those like the cows and superlambanana that were created, displayed and enjoyed, then auctioned off and either never heard from again or only brought out every ten or more years.

Personally I like the permanent displays the best. After all, if you want people to visit because you have a unique attraction, that attraction needs to always be available. Such is the display of hot air balloons in Indianola, Iowa. Though not as many or as large as some, these art sculptures tell a story. Originally begun as a money raising project for the annual National Balloon Classic, the majority of them can be found in front of the National Balloon Museum, National Balloon Museum | Indianola, Iowa, a fun and interesting place to visit. Others, such as the Crouse Café balloon, can be found in front of the business.

Yet another “on parade” are the Jayhawks in Lawrence, KS, home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks. Jayhawks on Parade offers a fun scavenger hunt around Lawrence | Arts & Culture | kansan.com These sculptures began as an event a decade ago that was to last five months, but many of the original thirty Jayhawks can still be seen around Lawrence and the KU campus.  Some have flown away with KU supporters as far away as California.

Does your town have an “on parade” art exhibit that highlights something unique about its history or people? If it doesn’t but you think it should, what would you use as the base for the art – lighthouses, salmon, pigs? The possibilities are endless. I think I would choose books; perhaps ten foot tall books decorated to portray local authors or history. Maybe an open book designed like a park bench but with a cover displaying local items of interest. Whoops, that’s been done. With Bright Benches, London Shows Off Its Love Of Books : The Two-Way : NPR.

Still, wouldn’t it be fun to have benches scattered around town for people to sit on and reflect about what makes your town so special and how happy they are to be there?

All Best Wishes,

Barb

http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin

https://bookswelove.net/baldwin-barbara/

 

 

 

 

Ready? Set? How to Start a Book! by Vanessa C. Hawkins

 

 Vanessa Hawkins Author Page

I have so much going on this month I think my brain is going to spontaneously combust! Which, now that I think about it, may be for the better because it's been so cold here that a little inner fire may finally warm me up. Has anyone else been enduring the chill winter frost to the point that're holding out on the chance that they may randomly explode in a fiery inferno? Just me? Darn these Canadian winters!

But back to the point, which is that this month has been a flurry of things whirling about my head demanding my attention and seldomly seeing any of it. Why? Well, because I got a new gaming system from my husband and I've been furiously hacking and slashing at baddies all month, but also because I have been trying to get a submission done for a writing contest. 

Now usually, I don't put a lot of effort into writing competitively, but I really just got the gumption to try it out this year. I am pretty cynical about my chances of winning, mostly because I am submitting an erotica and I think the judges may be too stiff to consider it thoughtfully. 

HUR HUR... stiff...

But during my foray into competitive writing, I was asked by a lovely individual-- who reached out to me curious about starting her first book--how to begin writing a story! 

Well... as you can imagine, at first I was flattered. I mean, someone was asking ME how to write a book, which would infer that SOMEONE also THOUGHT I knew how to write one! A human being, who IS real, I'll have you know! Was asking me how to start writing a book because she believed I was learned enough to give advice!

I'm so touched...

But then I wondered... well... how DO you start writing a book, Vanessa? And I had to pause, because honestly I just flew from the seat of my pants when it came to writing. I had an idea--thought up in the shower, or while pretending to poop while my husband looked after our toddler--and then I sat down and let my fingers dredge it up from the pit of my stomach onto some word document that I'd either trash later or let simmer until it condensed into something tangible. 

But... that wasn't very good advice! Oh no, I thought. I'm a fraud! A con! I don't deserve this nice woman's faith! I can't possibly tell her to go have a poop and see what pops in her head... what do I do? 

What Would Picard Do?

So I asked her first what she was writing. It helps to know what genre you're getting yourself into. Conjuring up stories on the John is all well and good, but if you're writing historical non-fiction, you may have to go number two at the library. Regardless, the best thing to do is to have some kind of outline at some point. I've talked about pantsers before, and how some people just write by the seat of their pants--

Ahem... Me.

--but it IS good practice to at least write something down in terms of getting all your ducks in a row. I mean, compiling notes and character profiles and plot points is good, when you want to make sure everything is cohesive in the end. If Scarlet Fortune, the hard-boiled detective, is off to fight crime at the beginning of the book, it may be best to ensure she's not running off in Wonderland to find the white rabbit at the end. 

Does that make sense? ...No? 

Well your story should. So having a basic outline is usually good at some point. Like I said, I tend to start off spontaneously, wait till the plot begins to form into something I can work with, then go back and scribble an outline to build upon. I mean, there are always outliers to this method. Virgina Woolf's stream of consciousness as displayed in her lighthouse book doesn't seem to follow this rule, but I personally hated that novel and wouldn't recommend it to anybody. 

But at least 'Gina finished her book, right George?

I will spontaneous combust before I ever get to read 
Winds of Winter...

 So I suppose the best advice I can give about how to start a novel is to just start it. Write some stuff down, see how you feel about it. Write some more. Erase. Plan some--or not, if that's how you roll. Write more. Succub to your own self-doubt. Cry. Write a lot more. Be proud of what you've accomplished. Finish. Then gulp down a glass a wine of four to celebrate! 

Because ultimately the easiest part of writing a book is writing it. So, sorry if this is bad news bears... but when it comes to editing, publishing, MARKETING--which is the devil, by the way--that's where things get pretty messy, and complicated. 

But writing is art! And art is nebulous. Some people like to draw things and their drawings look like the things they look like, and other people throw up on a canvass and sell that to the highest bidder. 

Shhh... I'm making art...

 So my advice is to just write. Whether you plot it first, have to do eons of research or compile photographs, the most important part of starting a book is making sure all 26 letters of the alphabet are levelled out on the page in some kind of pattern that is at least pleasing to you, the author. Worry about all the other stuff later. 

Because you can do it. 

You can do the thing!  

 

Typewriters by J. S. Marlo

 

 

Seasoned Hearts

"Love & Sacrifice #1"

is now available  

click here

 

 

The Red Quilt

"a sweet & uplifting holiday story"

click here

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

As a child, we had two mechanical typewriters in the house: a 'modern' blue one and a vintage black one that my father restored.

I learned to type on the blue typewriter, first with one finger, then two, then with most of them in a very un-elegant and un-professional way. To be honest, I still can't type LOL

It was a good little typewriter. It had a black ribbon that needed changing from time to time, and a correction ribbon. If I had typed the wrong letter, I could go back, erase it, then type the right letter. The correction tape didn't help much if I made a mistake in the first sentence and only realized it at the bottom of the page--and it didn't help at all if I had already removed the sheet of paper from the roller. There was no way to completely realign a sheet of paper once it was out. Trust me, I tried.

Having to retype the same page more than once, or more than half a dozen times for me, was annoying, but that was the way it was. The most annoying thing was actually the keys jamming together. It happened every time I pressed two adjacent ones quickly one after the other, or pressed a key but also pressed its neighbour by accident b/c my finger was off to the side. I then had to stop and unstick them with my fingers. Sometimes, they were really stuck together, then I would get black ink on the tip of my fingers... just annoying.

I never questioned why the keys were where they were and why the letters weren't in alphabetical order--until a few months ago. As long as the typewriter worked, I didn't care, but I have to admit it would have been easier to find the right letters if they had been in a logical order.

So what made me google typewriters and keys? My seven-year old granddaughter when she complained about not finding the letters on my laptop when she tried to write something. "Why aren't they in ABC order, Grand-maman? That would be so much easier."

The first typewriters were invented in early 1700s. They had various keyboards, some of which had the letters in alphabetical order. A common problem was the keys jamming together. The solution to reduce the jamming was to put the most common letters far apart.

In the late 1800s, Christopher Latham Sholes, the inventor of the first modern typewriter, came up with the QWERTY layout.

QWERTY (pronounced KWEHR-tee) refers to the first six letter on the upper row of the keyboard. Some said the layout sped up typing, but other argued the opposite. I'm guessing it depends on the typist.

The QWERTY layout is still used today on both typewriters and English language computer keyboards, even though the jamming problem no longer exists. By keeping the same keyboard layout, typists could effortlessly switch from the old mechanical typewriters, to the new ones, to the computer keyboards, without having to relearn how to type.

I get that not having to retrain anyone is a huge advantage, but I also get my granddaughter's point.

As for me, I was typing in French on my little blue typewriter, so QWERTY wasn't the best suited layout to keep the most common French letters apart, which was probably why I had so many jamming problems.

My laptop has an English QWERTY keyboard, and we get along very well.

Happy Reading & Stay Safe!

JS

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

 

The Importance of Family Stories by Eileen O'Finlan

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Click here to visit Eileen O'Finlan's website

On February 25, 2022 my Aunt Joan passed away. She was 88 and had been living in a nursing home in Vermont for years while her Alzheimer's progressed. A few days before her passing, she fell and broke her hip. Her condition made it impossible to operate as she would not have lived through the surgery so the only option was to keep her comfortable. On the evening of the 25th, she died peacefully in her sleep.

My aunt's passing means that out of a family of seven kids, my mom is the only one left. She, too, is in a nursing home. At 95 and stricken with dementia, she is unable to comprehend that she has lost her last sibling. Knowing this, we have made the decision not to tell her. The necessity of that decision made all the more profound for me the wealth of family lore that is now gone. I know many of the family stories, but until I no longer had anyone to ask, I didn't realize how many questions I have about them. For years, we'd been asking my mom to record her memories. She'd always promised to do so, but somehow never got around to it. Now it's too late.

Family stories are important. They tell of a shared past, of lives lived, relationships built and cherished, sorrows endured and shared, and joys celebrated. They express the things that were important to a family. Pay attention to the stories that get handed down, told repeatedly. Commit them to memory or, better yet, write them down. And ask all the questions you can think of while you still can.

I remember one day when my mom and I were washing dishes together. She was in a reminiscing mood so I heard all about the time when she was thirteen years old and her mother was hospitalized for weeks with a serious illness caused by drinking contaminated raw milk. As the second-to-oldest child and the oldest girl, it fell to her to run the household and care for her younger siblings while her mother was in the hospital and her father was working. This story was told to me only a few years before her dementia progressed to the point where she had to go to a nursing home, but unlike many family stories it was the first time I'd ever heard it. She also regailed me with details of how she and her mother worked in a factory together during World War II. They were working on a project for the U.S. Navy, but each group of women was making a different part and none of them ever knew what it was they were building. I thought about how many of the events from my mom's life would make great stories, but I have so many questions. I've no doubt a lot of them will find their way into my future novels, but I so wish I had the opportunity to ask all the questions that come to me now when I ruminate on them.

My aunt's passing and the inevitable day when my mom follows her, signals the end of an era in our family. But the stories will live on as best as we can continue to share them. No doubt we'll add new ones of our own for future generations. I hope they ask a lot of questions.

Rest in Peace, Aunt Joan

 

Elizabeth Goudge Best Selling Author ~ 1900 - 1984 by Rosemary Morris

To learn more about Rosemary and her work please click on the cover.

Elizabeth Goudge – Best Selling Author -1900-1984

By unknown. Original publication The Joy of The Snow by Elizabeth Goudge immediate source scanned from book.

 

Recently I re-read some of Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge’s acclaimed novels, which include The Little White Horse that J.K. Rowling selected of her favourite books and one of few with a direct influence on the Harry Potter series. (The novel won Goudge the annual Carnegie Medal of the Library Association, as the year's best children's book by a British subject. It was her own favourite among her works.) I have also re-visited my copy of Elizabeth’s autobiography, The Joy of The Snow. “For the millions enchanted and inspired by Elizabeth’s THE JOY OF THE SNOW will be an enduring monument to her life’s work. It is more than an autobiography. She tells us, in poignant, candid detail, the story of her spiritual, and physical journey from a golden Edwardian childhood…and gives a glimpse of the deeply personal inspiration behind some of the best loved writing of our time.”

Elizabeth’s parents were Reverend Henry Goudge, who taught in the cathedral school in Wells, Somerset, and Miss Ida Collenette, who met in Guernsey. Elizabeth loved her holidays at her maternal grandparents’ home on the Channel Islands. She lived in Wells until eleven years old when her father became a canon at Ely Cathedral and principal of the Theological College. Ely, was Elizabeth’s “Home of homes.” In 1923, her father accepted the prestigious post of Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and she was uprooted from Ely.

First educated at home by a governess, then sent to a boarding school in Hampshire in 1914, she was taught ‘how to run a big house, arrange flowers and be presented at court.  However, she had a teacher who introduced English literature, especially Shakespeare. It also familiarised her with the New Forest and the sea marshes at Keyhaven, fodder for her novels. There were few genteel ways for a young lady to earn a living so her parents insisted on her attending an Art College to learn crafts she could teach to others. She liked weaving, leather work etc., and wrote in her spare time.

The only child of a loving family, Elizabeth enjoyed a privileged life, but was neither well-educated nor prepared for the onslaught of the 20^th century, yet places where she had lived, would be the settings in her books. Her first published novel, Island Magic, set in Guernsey, was a great success in England and America. I enjoyed it as much when I read it for the second time as I did when I read it years ago. It incorporates Elizabeth’s invalid mother’s memories, island’s folklore, and myths. In the novel she describes St Peter’s Port where her maternal grandparents lived until they moved to a farm close to one which gave the fictional name Bon Repos. Her characters Rachel and Andre, who live there, are based on those grandparents she adored. The protagonists’ children, whose external and internal lives, hopes, and dreams Elizabeth portrays so sympathetically and vividly, that they almost leap from the page.  

A founding member of The Romantic Novelist’s Association, her next novel Green Dolphin Country published in 1944, brought her fame, won a Literary Guild Award and a special prize of £30,000 from Louis B. Mayer of MGM before being filmed.

Elizabeth’s gift of changing the commonplace into a magical, wonderous world inhabited by unique characters enthralled her fans. Her realistic, fantasy or historical fiction intertwines, legend and myth, spirituality and love of England that add to their appeal; She stated “As this world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and materialistic it needs to be reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that imagination is of value, that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and that the blue spring mist that makes an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as the street itself.”

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

 

bookswelove@shaw.ca 

 

Ending a Book Series by Diane Bator

 

The Conned Lady, Book 5 Wild Blue Mystery series

I hit send on Valentine's Day and submitted The Conned Lady, Book 5 of my Wild Blue Mystery series. As all writers know, every time you hit send on a book, it takes a little piece of you with it and stirs up a jungle of butterflies. This book was exactly like that – but different. The Conned Lady is the last book in the series that started my writing career.

To tell the truth, I’ve thought about ending a series for a while now but there were so many unknowns:

·       How would I do it?

·       What would happen to my characters?

·       How hard would it be?

·       Will my readers be upset?

·       Will that mean I can never revisit those characters again?

When I started writing Book 5, I hadn’t intended to end the series just yet. I had plans for one more book but the characters had other ideas. This one wrapped up so many things that it left me no option! Once I got to the final climax, the next move was for them to all live happily ever after. Who was I to argue with an organic, natural ending to the series?

What would happen to the characters? Life will go on even though the readers and I will no longer be a part of it. Working out what would happen to them next was so easy. The last chapter truly wrote itself.

I truly hope my readers are not upset. I was prepared to struggle with that last chapter and saying good-bye to a long list of old friends that I’ve worked with since I first started writing about their adventures around 2010 then published in 2013 when Books We Love took a chance on The Bookstore Lady. Characters definitely become a part of your life and it’s hard to imagine not having a next book to follow them around and see what they’re up to. At the same time, I still have the freedom to use those characters in future short stories or novellas or even a new book or series should the vision arise.

I guess for me, I think of ending this series much like going home after a vacation. You’ve had a great time with friends but it’s time to go home and get back to work on something else. Since I do have more series in the works, there will always be more endings. Hopefully the next series ender will be as smooth as this one.

Happy reading!

Diane Bator

http://bookswelove.net/bator-diane/

Make Believe World

 https://bookswelove.net/dowell-roseanne/

 I live in a make-believe world. Okay, not literally, but vicariously through my characters.  I decide where they live, name their towns, or sometimes I let them live in a real city/town.  I prefer small towns, maybe because I’ve always wanted to live in one. I especially like towns with Victorian houses and apparently so do my characters, because I use them a lot.  I often say I must have lived during the Victorian area, probably as a mean old nanny. I’m sure I wasn’t the lady of the house, and by house I mean mansion. Queen Anne Victorian homes are my favorite. I love the round turrets, all the gingerbread, and wrap-around porches. It was always my dream to buy one and restore it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be and I’m past the point of wanting one now.

Back to my make-believe world. I’d like to say I choose my characters, but truthfully, they choose me.  Sometimes I even get to name them, but if they don’t like the name, well, believe me, they misbehave until I change it. And, yes, that’s happened several times. Just because I like a name doesn’t mean they do. The last time it happened it wasn’t even a main character. She was only in the story for a short time, but boy was she stubborn. She refused to talk to me and anything I wrote was garbage, better known as dreck in the writing world.

As I’ve said previously, I write many different genres, from Women’s Fiction to Romance to Mystery and even Paranormal. Most of my books are a combination of romance and another genre. As a reader, I’ve always favored mystery and romance, so it only made sense to combine them.  Mine would be classified as cozy mysteries, the gory stuff takes place off scene.

 I also love ghost stories – not evil mean ghosts though. One such story is Shadows in the Attic and another Time to Love Again. I’ve always been fascinated by ESP, hence my story Entangled Minds – previously published as Connection of the Minds.

My character’s ages range from their mid-twenties to middle age and into their seventies. Yes, seniors need love, too. Geriatric Rebels is a favorite.  It’s fun working with different characters, and I especially like when they add a bit of humor. I really form an attachment to them. Once a character chooses me, I make a character worksheet so I know everything about them, not just what they look like.

I love creating my characters, picking their careers, anything from housewives, authors, teachers, floral designers, and interior designers. Sometimes their careers play a part in the story, sometimes not. The character in my work in progress (WIP in the writer’s world) is a former teacher. It’s not a big part of the story, but it’s something I needed to know. She’s a real character in the true sense of the word. She came into being in a previous story, All in the Family. It started out with her having a small part, but Aunt Beatrice Lulu (ABLL) grew into a big part of the story. Once I finished that book, she popped up again and demanded her own book. Problem is, she takes fits and goes into hiding every so often, which is where she’s at right now and has been for some time. Sometimes she pops up for days of writing. Other times, I get a paragraph or two. I’ve never had a character do that before.

Oh, I’ve had writer’s block a time or two, but once I’m over it the writing flows. Not so with ABLL.

  It’s also fun describing my characters, their hair and eye color, height, even their weight. I’m often asked if I’m a plotter or punster. I tried plotting once and ended up blocked for almost two years. For me, plotting doesn’t work. I usually know the beginning and end of my stories. What happens in the middle is as much a surprise to me as it is to my readers. ABLL is full of surprises. What that woman doesn’t get into. So even though she goes into hiding, it’s generally worth it when she reappears. I’m not sure where she came from, but I’m sure enjoying working with her. Okay, I’ll be honest, a little bit of her is me, a little bit my sisters, and even my mother. She’s a combination of all the people I love and it’s so much fun living in her make-believe world.

You can find my books at https://bookswelove.net/dowell-roseanne/

BWL Publishing Inc. New Releases, books to take your mind off all the Roman troubles and the Ides of March

 According to Wikipedia,  In modern times, the Ides of March is best known as the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of the Senate.  This meeting is famously dramatised in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to "beware the Ides of March."^[20][21] The Roman biographer Suetonius^[22] identifies the "seer" as a haruspex named Spurinna. Some fascinating historical research presents itself for our historical authors.  

But at BWL Publishing March is another one of our Release Dates, and to take your mind off all that doom and gloom from the Romans we're delighted to present four more fabulous BWL Releases that we're positive you're going to enjoy.

NEW RELEASES FOR MARCH 2022

 

Musgrave Landing is located on Salt Spring Island in the Pacific Northwest. This small village is serviced by a ferry from Vancouver Island. Isolated, everyone is interested in everyone else’s business and apparently someone is capable of murder.
Eccentric romance novelist Mimsy Lexington has a secret. When she approaches Katie Mullins to help find details around her late husband’s death, Katie and her boyfriend Danny Walker are drawn into a web of lies and deceit. The deeper they dig, the more they realize the biggest dangers may lurk close to home and need to suspect everyone—including Mimsy.
Living with survivor guilt ex-soldierJared O’Connell craves forgiveness from his childhood friend for the death of her brother in Afghanistan. To get himself emotionally fit before he sees Mardi, he relocates to the coast to renovate his family home. Close to finishing her studies, Mardi James can almost taste success. Her world crumbles following an alleged assault resulting in partial memory loss which may end her long-term career plans. Recovering at her family’s coastal holiday home, she is approached by a man who apparently knows her, and calls her by name. Jared is devastated when Mardi doesn’t know who he is. An opportunity to seek her forgiveness and move on with his life appears lost to him.
Villages have idiots. Peladon? Peladon is a country, so it has an Idiot. The day job? Getting blamed for things other people did. The other job? When the world’s about to end (or the washing up won’t get done—whichever comes first), who you gonna call? When nothing else has worked, you call the Idiot. Because some things? Some things, only an Idiot would try. This is his story.  Segorian Anderson used to be an Idiot. Now he’s a King – though his wife tells him there’s not much difference. And there isn’t. Because somebody always hasto get the blame. Like now. Not just because of the naked girl floating on the Royal bedroom balcony, screaming. And not because everything’s going to hell. But this time? This time, it might really be his fault.