Wednesday, September 9, 2015

SPECIAL BUYS AND NEW RELEASES FROM BOOKS WE LOVE





If you haven't visited our main website in awhile you'll notice some exciting changes, especially the lineup of bargain books.  Here you'll find some of our most popular selling books priced between .99 cents and $1.99, and, best of all the books are easy to purchase in any format you need for your eBook reader.  Simply click the book cover and you'll be taken to the book description page where you can make your choice.   The pictures below represent a few of the exciting books being offered in our bargain store.   Make your way to http://bookswelove.net   and while there, be sure and click the Contest Button, where you can enter our contest to win your choice of any one of three popular eBook readers: Kindle, Nook, Kobo.  AND, if you'd like to be the first to purchase one of our fall new releases click this link where you'll find the latest Books We Love New Releases.

http://bookswelove.net/new-releases/



 




 

Monday, September 7, 2015

Domino Theory by Tia Dani

                                             Click to purchase from Amazon



Self-editing is tricky. For example as the author you are so familiar with your story you could absentmindedly forget to include information along the way...say an important point you thought of but, without thinking, left out.

Keep this point in mind while editing, a reader knows only what you have actually told (or shown) them on paper.

When we go back through our stories during the editing process we try to remember this and work together to make sure that we haven’t left out important details and confused our readers.  Plus, we don’t want our writing to be choppy and sound like there are two writers. We have worked very hard to create the Tia Dani voice.

We call this particular part of our editing process the Domino Theory.



Imagine you have spent hours, aligning hundreds of dominos, narrow-end up, across a flat surface. You’ve placed the black, shiny tiles perfectly so they form an intricate and unusual pattern. Once finished, your finger is poised at the beginning. You tap the first domino lightly. With pride you watch as the line tumbles gracefully, one clicking against another, until the formation comes to a glorious end.

Writing a well-designed story is very much like setting up the dominos. Each sentence, paragraph, scene, and chapter must be aligned in your intricate formation. The writing dominos you work with generally are combinations of showing vs. telling, description, view point, senses, mood, voice, plot, dialogue, characterization, humor, and motivation. If any of the writing dominos are off-centered or missing entirely, your beautiful story will falter or even fail.

Writers who understand the power of correct placement look upon their manuscript as an exciting challenge. They instinctively study a newly finished scene and ask themselves what needs adjusted, added, or deleted. Will they need a domino from their bag of writing tricks for a missing slot? Or carefully adjust an off-centered tile so it aligns perfectly with the others?

For beginners (and for those who haven’t yet developed this gut instinct), condition yourself to recognize what a missing or an off-centered domino looks like. If time is available, put the work aside, return later and reread with fresh eyes. Or have a trusted friend read the scene and ask if anything seems unclear. Don't ask them to edit, just read for clarity. After while you will begin to see a pattern of how you misaligned your work or left something out entirely. The bottom line here:  Knowledge comes with practice, hard work, and common sense. It is also called pay-attention-to-what-the- reader-sees.

For examples, let’s look at some obvious missing dominos.

Problem:  Imagine paragraphs one through twelve has Katy in the house washing dishes and talking to her mother on the phone about her lack of boyfriends. Suddenly in paragraph thirteen Katy is outside washing the car and talking to her dog about going for a walk.

Solution:  Transition Domino. Add a short paragraph between twelve and thirteen to show why Katy ended mom’s phone call and went outside with her dog. Voila! You’ve filled in the missing slot.

Problem:  Veronica is home, alone, with only a dozing cat for company. She’s just finished reading a romantic love scene in one of her favorite books and is staring dreamily into the fire. Suddenly Veronica throws the book across the room and jumps to her feet, dislodging the sleepy animal from her lap. She mumbles something under her breath then walks slowly into her darkened bedroom to get ready for bed.

Solution:  Motivation Domino. Let’s say the author used the correct dominos needed to build a believable scene; such as the five senses, description, and mood. However why did the character suddenly throw her book? The author neglected to explain poor Veronica hasn’t had a date for over a year and she feels that her chances of meeting an interesting man are nil to none.

Problem:  A scene takes place outdoors. The day is sunny, horribly hot with no wind. The characters walk and engage in a captivating conversation which has drawn the reader in, yet something feels not quite right.

Solution:  Off-centered Domino. The characters appear to be totally unfazed by the high temperatures. This scene requires one of the five-senses realignment. With a few short sentences the author can adjust the scene to show perspiration dripping from HIS brow or SHE rapidly fans her face with her hand.

Problem:  Envision a scene where Charles is hiking and has stumbled across a rattler. The snake coiled, ready to strike. Yet paragraph after paragraph, the author goes to great detail in describing the beauty of the reptile, the sound of the animal’s ominous rattle and the texture of the sand surrounding it.

Solution:  A 'mis'-aligned domino. The detail, though well-written, is not pertinent to Charles view point. Charles would not be noting sand textures here. The snake is about to strike! Try going back over the scene and weave in some extra dominos so that the emotional dominos and descriptive dominos form a dance in time with each other. It might take some work but will be worth it when completed.

Here are some important points to remember.

* A domino line can be fixed at any time by concentrating on one very important rule. For every action there must be a reaction. Use it as a mantra.

Beverly Petrone                   Christine Eaton Jones



Tia Dani is the writing team made up of good friends, Christine Eaton Jones and Beverly Petrone. Together they create endearing and realistic characters, humorous dialogue, and unusual settings. 






To find out more about the writing team Tia Dani and our books visit us at:

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Countdown to Seenager! By Gail Roughton


Sometimes Facebook really nails it.  That poster says it all, doesn’t it? In eight months, one week (as of the date of this post), that’s going to be me!  And I can’t wait for glorious retirement.  While I’m waiting, though, I’ve heard from both sides of the early retirement versus the “What would I do if I retired? I’d be bored to death! And broke!” factions.  

“But…but…you’re only 62! Why don’t you wait and retire when you can get full benefits?”  That’s the most common question.  My answer?  “Because, sugar.  By then I might be dead.” I hope I’m not, you understand.  I certainly don’t expect to be, but then, I don’t think anybody does. I’m blessed in not having any health issues, neither does my already retired husband (well, that’s not exactly true on the already retired part, seeing as how he’s “Granddaddy Day Care”, the man really earns his keep) and trust me, I know how fortunate I am to be able to say that.  It’s cause for celebration, and what better way to celebrate it than to retire and enjoy it? 

“But…but…nobody else can do my job the way I can! I don’t know what my boss/company/firm would do without me!” My response to that?  “Darlin’, I don’t care what my boss/company/firm is going to do without me.”   Let’s face it. If I (or anyone else) should be killed in a car accident this afternoon, another warm body would be at my desk (or anyone else’s) the next day. Because no one is irreplaceable. I’ve spent the last forty years in a law office as a legal secretary/paralegal.  I’m good at my job. I’ll go further than that.  I’m very good at my job. I do the best job I can under all any circumstances. I always have, and I’ll do that until the day I walk away. That doesn’t mean nobody else can step in after me and do the same thing. Maybe not as well, not at first.  But they’ll learn.  Who knows?  Maybe they’ll even be better at it than I am. And the world will keep right on turning in its assigned orbit, now won’t it?

“But…but…I’d be bored!”  Really?  My sympathies. Because I won’t be. Oh, granted, I have the small advantage of being a writer, and being a retired Seenager will finally give me the time I don’t have now to dive right into that next plot waiting over the horizon, or that one over on the side that’s been brewing for these last few years, or that one that just sprang up, full-blown, from a chance conversation overheard in the check-out line at the grocery store. I have not one but two coming soons, covers over on the side of this paragraph, that have been coming soons so long  my fans (yes, I really do have one or two) don't even ask when anymore.  (But before I retire, I promise, I'm workin' on 'em, I'm workin' on 'em,) But even without that—because writing’s definitely not the only way I’ll be spending my time—I have growing grandchildren two miles away to play with, a husband to go shopping with in the middle of the day if we want to, pets to nuzzle my face with wet noses, television shows and movies to watch, sunsets to marvel over, hoot-owls and crickets to listen to in the evening twilights. Again, I’m blessed.  And I know it. And again, what better way to celebrate such blessings than to enjoy them?

“But…but…I can’t afford to retire!”  I’ll admit that’s a personal decision no one can make for another, and whether that statement’s true or not for any individual depends to a great extent on personal preferences and lifestyles. Me, I’m a simple country girl. I always have been.  If my dream retirement consisted of world travel, well, no, I couldn’t afford to retire. Of course, I couldn’t afford to do that if I didn’t retire, either, so that’s kind of a moot point.  Fortunately for me, I don’t even like to travel. We have the home we always wanted which is comfortable, but not fancy, set squarely in the middle of a fifty-acre wood we couldn’t have afforded if we lived in any other area of the country.  In short, I have everything I ever wanted and I don’t want anything I don’t already have. Blessed.


Would I turn back the hands of time and do things differently if I had that magical power?  Change my life? Nope. I wouldn’t be a day younger than I am right now if you paid me.  Because everything that’s ever happened in my life has made me who I am, right now, at this precise moment in time. And being a Seenager is going to be a lot more fun than being a teenager! Bring it on! 

Find all Gail Roughton titles at
You can also visit at her Blog
and on Facebook


Saturday, September 5, 2015

Cheese it! It's the Cops! by Jamie Hill

http://store.payloadz.com/details/2356976-ebooks-romance-family-secrets.htmlI write about cops. I love to write about detectives, uniformed officers, even US Marshals, who are not cops, specifically, but they carry guns and badges so close enough. I enjoy putting myself in their heads to do their jobs and solve cases. It's like I'm right there in the squad room with them, figuring out the details alongside Danny and Jackie in true 'Blue Bloods' fashion. We talk about bad cop shop coffee and joke about the cop-eating-donuts stereotype. I'm comfortable writing about, and dare I say, thinking like a cop.

So why, then, does a jolt of fear zing through me when I'm driving down the road and a patrol car pulls up behind me? Feelings of guilt flood through my mind. Did I do something? Is he after me? Does he have any possible reason to pull me over?

It rarely happens, and I always breathe a sigh of relief when the officers pass me by. (They usually pass me because by that time I've slowed down to a crawl, way slower than the speed limit.)

I had a couple of speeding tickets in my teens, and paid minor fines. By the time I got married at nineteen, I was informed that I probably ought to lighten up that lead foot because further tickets wouldn't be cool. Being a new bride, I took the comment more seriously than I probably would today. (Sorry, dear.) 

I've been pulled over twice in recent years. Once for using my cell phone while driving, which is illegal in my town. I was actually sitting at a red light and I checked messages on my phone, multi-tasker that I am. He spotted me and could tell what I was doing. The nice young officer gave me a warning, which I appreciated. I totally understand about no texting and driving and while I thought I was being innocent by just doing it at a red light, I was wrong, and I learned my lesson.

The other traffic stop occurred as I was heading to a drugstore, just ready to pull into the parking lot. A cop I hadn't even noticed whipped in behind me and flipped on his lights. I pulled into a stall and he came in at an angle behind me, as if trying to keep me from fleeing. (Very Blue Blood-ish!)

He sat in his car for a moment while I attempted to recall how fast I'd been driving. When he finally approached me he said, "I'm sorry, Ma'am. We'd been advised to keep an eye out for a white Explorer. I see you're driving an Expedition. My bad."

I simply looked at him. My bad. Seriously? He looked about twelve, and his language confirmed it. I really wanted to say something goofy back to him but I was so relieved that he wasn't after me that all I could do was nod and thank him profusely. I went into the store on shaky legs as he drove away. Sheesh!

I've given this some thought, and have decided a couple of things. One, because I write romantic suspense, I'm constantly plotting original ways to kill people or steal things, and cast suspicion on someone else. Maybe the guilt from these thoughts is showing on my face. All I can say is the same thing I tell my husband, "I'd never really do it, sweetheart. I just want to know how it might be done."

Second, while the odds are super great that none of these cops will ever read my work, in the deepest recesses of my mind I think one day someone might call me out on something that I had a cop do which he might not actually do that way. But how cool would that be, honestly, to have a cop pull me over and when he reaches my window say, "Hey Mrs. Hill. I pulled you over today because in your last book your detective carried a Glock handgun. I wanted to let you know that Magnums are now the choice of more police departments in the United States. Just thought you should know. Have a nice day."  LOL!

Find my 'A Cop in the Family' Series as well as my 'Witness Security' books at most online booksellers and in bookstores by request. And find all my titles here:

Stay safe out there!

~ Jamie Hill



 



Friday, September 4, 2015

The Differences of Research data: Mata Hari by Katherine Pym



Mata Hari Performing
As an author of historical fiction, I spend a lot of time researching. Usually, my research centers on London in the 1660’s. Once and awhile, though, I run across some information that doesn’t center around my time of expertise, but find it too interesting not to share.

NOTE: The source I am using differs from most, especially Margaretha’s early life but I cannot ignore this, which gives more dimension to her character. I will let you decide which to take home to your family by making clear the variances in the below text.

Mata Hari was born in Holland on August 7, 1876 as Margaretha Geetruida Zelle. Her parents were religious; she grew up Roman Catholic and was sent to a convent at the early age of 14. Other sources say: “Her mother dead and her adored father bankrupt, teenage Margaretha was sent to train as a kindergarten teacher, only to be seduced by the headmaster.” And another source: “Following her mother's death, Mata Hari and her three brothers were split up and sent to live with various relatives.

At 18 while on holiday in The Hague, Margaretha met a Scotsman named MacLeod and married him. He was a drunk and a wife abuser. He didwell you knowthe typical things brutal men do to women so I won’t bore you with them. Other sources say: “Disgraced and bored, the girl answered a newspaper ad to meet and marry a career colonial officer twenty years her senior who would be soon returning to the Dutch East Indies.” My source continues: He took her to Java where he continued his savagery plus he was a bounder and unfaithful.

Margaretha in Java
No longer a wide-eyed, postulant schoolgirl, her experiences caused Margaretha to deviate from her chaste background. She studied books in the art of sensual love performed in Buddhist temples. She was also introduced to the evocative ritual dances that eventually made her so popular. (Some sources don’t mention this at all.)

Usually, life takes strange turns we never expect. Margaretha endured the savagery of MacLeod, studied sensual love—it’s not recorded if she used this on him or anyone else for that matter while in Java—as her husband gadded about with other women. Some were jealous he was married. One was their nurse who took care of Margaretha & MacLeod’s young son. MacLeod rejected her and in revenge the nurse poisoned their son. Another source: “The marriage dissolved in a nightmare of drinking, gambling, and vicious hatred following the death of their son...”

From now on, I will continue with my source.

Margaretha emerged from this a changed woman. She never showed outward emotion but went forth in life with a face etched in steel. She hated men and she hated MacLeod whom she blamed for the death of their son. Without remorse she reportedly strangled the nurse.

Back in Europe, Margaretha lead a life of the narcissistic.

In France, Margaretha became Mata Hari, a woman born in “...India within the sacred caste of Brahma”. After the birth of two children, her body wasn’t the svelte one of her youth, but that did not stop her from performing naked on stage in Paris. She spoke in a soft, seductive voice and danced erotic dances, some graceful, others lewd, only before seen in Buddhist temples.

She was a sensation throughout Europe. Men begged to have her in their beds. She would oblige them for no less than $7,500 a night. Her lovers listed in the Who’s Who of the times; prime ministers, princes, high up men in their governments.  She demanded luxurious apartments in Paris, had milk baths to keep her skin young and supple. When her influential lovers lost their money, she would kick them to the curb and take another.

She enjoyed sex and would visit brothels (probably not for $7,500) even as she hated the men who bedded her, using them for her gain. She was vain, self-indulgent, cruel and ripe to be approached by the Germans. They sent her to spy-school in Lorrach and gave her what is now known as a pre-war code number.

Mata Hari was relentless. She slept with men then betrayed them. She learned of their plans and sent those plans to the Germans. The figures speak for themselves. It was declared by the judge at her trial she was considered responsible for the deaths of 50,000 allied troops but this number seems trivialized. Other sources say the number is closer to 100,000.

In the end, the Germans betrayed Mata Hari, but she did not think she would die. Too many of her lovers told her of their plans for her escape. When those failed, it was suggested she plea pregnancy, but by now realizing her doom was fixed, Mata Hari refused to see the doctor.  

Vincennes: At the age of 41, Mata Hari was tied with "crimson ropes" to a young tree stripped naked of leaves and branches. She refused the blindfold, did not wince or show emotion when the firing squad cocked their rifles. Several of her lovers watched from the sidelines, some perhaps part of the squad.

She did not utter a sound, but smiled when the major barked the final command to fire. Mata Hari, once a postulant in a convent, her name Margaretha Geetruida Zelle died at 5:47 AM on October 15, 1917, a hated and loved legend of her time.

Many thanks to:
Main source: The People’s Almanac by David Wallechinsky & Irving Wallace, Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, NY, 1975.

All pictures come from WikiCommons Public Domain: his media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1923. See this page for further explanation.

~~~~~~
For more reading, please see Books We Love website: http://bookswelove.net/ 

Or, for a good read set in London 1664:

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Wednesday, September 2, 2015

PLOTTING AND DEVELOPMENT - HISTORICAL ROMANCE - MARGARET TANNER


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(Also available at any of your online retailers)

HOW DO I COME UP WITH  A PLOT AND DEVELOP MY CHARACTERS

Because I love Australian history, in fact all history, plots abound in my fertile imagination, but I do seem to get my best plot ideas in the middle of the night. I write them down, (pen and paper by my bed), so I won’t forget them. I usually take a historical event to use as my main background and then manufacture some catastrophic, life changing event for the main characters. What could they do to stop it? How will it change them and those around them?

I develop my characters to fit in with the era I am writing about. I normally don’t write character profiles, except for the briefest of outlines, but I try to walk in their shoes so to speak, and to get inside their head.

My heroines are resourceful, not afraid to fight for her family and the man she loves. I want my readers to be cheering for her, willing her to obtain her goals, to overcome the obstacles put in her way by rugged frontier men. For my heroes, I like them to be dark and tortured. They might be seeking revenge, trying to consolidate their fortunes, but all of them will have something in their backgrounds, some dark deed that has tainted their lives. As for my villains, I like them to be evil with no redeeming features. I want the reader to dislike them like I do.
If a reader contacts me to say how she despises some villainous beast of a man in one of my stories, it pleases me. I don't know why, but the villains in my stories are mostly men. Perhaps it is because men in the eras in which I set my books, had total control over their daughters, sisters and wives, and many of these men used their power to dominate the women in their lives. Sad but true. But, never fear, in my stories the hero always comes to the rescue of the damsel in distress.


FALSELY ACCUSED
1820’s England. Robbed of his birthright and falsely accused of murder, American Jake Smith, is exiled to the penal colony of Australia.


Margaret Tanner’s Website:  http://www.margarettanner.com/


http://bookswelove.net/authors/tanner-margaret/
           

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

LIFE ON THE FRONTIER by Shirley Martin


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Frontier can mean many things. As I use the word here, it refers to the settling of western Pennsylvania after 1760.

The early settlers who came to western Pennsylvania were tough, resilient people. They had trudged from the eastern part of the colony through the gaps in the Allegheny Mountains with all of their belongings and perhaps a cow. They came to unsettled country where there was nothing and no one to greet them.

We have a tendency to romanticize historical periods, but so many challenges and hardships faced the early settlers that a man and his wife were worn out and exhausted by age thirty-five. Wolves might devour their cows and pigs. Squirrels and raccoons ate their corn crop.

In a historical novel I read years ago and whose title I've forgotten, there is a scene where the male protagonist plans on taking his new wife to the recently-opened Ohio country. His mother instructs him on delivering a baby. This must have happened many times on the frontier, whee pople lived in isolated cabins, and a man had to deliver the babies.

Life was indeed primitive for the early settlers. Until their log cabin was built, they lived in the open. Their log cabin was usually twenty feet by thirty feet and two and a half stories high. The interior of the cabin was dim, relieved only by the gray light through the one greased paper pane, and in summer, by the sunlight that came through the open door. Rats and snakes were frequent visitors.

In the better equipped cabin there were gridirons, skillets, broilers for rabbits and small game, braziers and waffle irons. Pots and pans and all other utensils that didn't hang from hooks were very long-handled to protect the hand from the heat.  Until 1834, the only means of making fire was by flint and steel struck together.

For the most part, the men of the frontier adopted the dress of the Indians. They wore hunting shirts made of jean or linsey or deerskin. In cold weather, he wore linsey in preference to deerskin since deerskin was cold and clammy in winter weather. All through fine weather people went barefoot. In the winter they wore shoepacks.

Any finery was impractical for women. They wore dresses made of homespun linsey-woolsey. Clothing was so scarce that old dresses were re-dyed again and again and often willed to another generation. Every pioneer woman could spin, knit, weave and sew.

Indian corn was a staple crop for the settler. The men hunted deer for venison and fished for pike, perch, and trout in the rivers. They also hunted wild turkey, grouse, and quail. Everyone, adults and children alike, drank whiskey.  Bread was a rare commodity.

Housewives began their day early, around four in the morning.  They built the fire in the fireplace, hauled water, gathered ingredients from the kitchen garden and slaughtered and cleaned food.  There was little leisure time for the frontier housewife. Unless she had a candle mold, making candles was an arduous all day affaie.

Indian attacks were an everpresent danger. The primary tribes of western Pennsylvania were the Shawnee and the Lenni Lenape.(Delaware.)  The Shawnee was especially fierce. When a brave returned to his village with a captured white man, one of the women greeted him by saying, "You have brought me good stew."

We are naturally sympathetic with the Indians.  The land was theirs; they had lived on it for centuries. On the other hand, the settlers had originally come from Europe--mostly the British Isles and Germany--where only the aristocracy owned land.  In times past, a man could lose his oculos et testiculos for poaching on the lord's land to feed his starving family. Here in western Pennsylvania, a man could acquire land for virtually nothing.

As the settlements grew and people came to know their neighbors, often a frolic would relieve the monotony of their days. The frolics usually occurred in the fall, after the crops were in. In my time travel romance, "Dream Weaver," which takes place in 1763, I took a bit of literary license and placed the frolic in early summer. The fiddle and flute would play the music, and young people danced to lyrics such as this:

     If I had as many lives
     As Soloman had wives
     I'd be as old as Adam
     So rise to your feet
     And kiss the first that you meet
     Your humble servant, madam

In time, the settlements of western Pennsylvania grew, creating the major industrial center of Pittsburgh.


Born near Pittsburgh, Shirley Martin began writing historical novels centered around that area. Later, she blossomed out to paranormal and fantasy novels. Her books are sold online and at Barnes and Noble.

Please check out my website here:  www.shirleymartinauthor.com
My Books We Love page:  http://bookswelove.net/authors/martin-shirley
My FB page:  https://www.facebook.com/shirley.martin716970
And Twitter:  https://twitter.com/mshirley1496


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