Books We Love's Tantalizing Talent ~ Author Roseanne Dowell

While working as a school secretary, Roseanne Dowell took a correspondence course, writing for children. It didn’t take long to realize that even though she had six children, it took someone special to write books for them. That’s when she moved on to romance novels. But they sat in the attic with her poems and journals. 

In 2002 at a Book Club meeting, she confessed regret about not pursuing a career in writing. That’s all it took.  Her friends convinced her it wasn’t too late. She decided they were right and took another writing course. Within a few months, her first article was published in Good Old Days Magazine. Since then, she’s had articles published in several magazines. 

In 2006, Roseanne’s first book, Satin Sheets, was published and sold over 35,000 copies. Since then, she decided to go the way of the future – E-books.  She writes various types of romance – paranormal, contemporary, mystery and women’s fiction. Her heroines range from their early twenties to late seventies. Yes, seniors need love, too.  

Roseanne has 16 books available from Books We Love

 

All’s Well That Ends Well

All in the Family

Love on the Rocks

Entangled Minds

Trouble Comes in Twos

Deadbeat Dads

Another Day

Geriatric Rebels

Ring Around the Rosy

Elusive Mission

Time to Love Again

Secrets, Lies, & Love

Shadows in the Attic

It’s Only Make Believe

Love on the Rocks

Special Edition

Amazon

All in the Family - Book 1 of Family Affair Series 

Taking over the police chief’s job in her hometown should have been easy for Callie Johnson. At least that's what she thought. After working in a big city, small town crime would be a breeze. What a surprise when she arrives to find her grandmother, the judge, accused of murder. As if that wasn't enough she’s attacked while walking to her car. Between criminal investigations, her nutty family’s antics and her Aunt Beatrice Lulu's matchmaking, Callie has her work cut out for her. Will her grandmother be exonerated? Can Callie ward off her aunt’s unsuitable suitors? What other surprises were in store for her? More importantly, can she find the person who attacked her?

Amazon

All’s Well that Ends Well – Book 2 of Family Affair Series 

Aunt Beatrice Lulu is back and creating more havoc than ever. When a body falls out of a chimney in their newly purchased cabin, she takes it upon herself to investigate. Just because her niece is Chief of Police doesn’t mean she should mind her own business. Even her husband can’t control his busy body wife. It doesn’t end there, too many things happening for Beatrice Lulu to overlook. She’s bound and determined to figure things out on her own. 

Find Roseanne's titles here: http://bookswelove.net/authors/dowell-roseanne/

Bill Bryson et.al.

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     On page 38 of his new book, The Road to Little Dribbling, Bryson, “a best-selling Anglo-American author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and science,” says and I quote, “The world is full of shitty things that should never have happened. Look at Sean Hannity.” I know Hannity is a political news commentator so why is he slammed in a travel book?

     A similar thing happened in John Baxter’s book, The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: a Pedestrian in Paris, the difference being, Baxter was born an Australian, moved to France, and dissed the whole United States—again, in a travel book. The dissing also popped up in a book by a popular Scots writer though, when I happened to have a chance to ask his why the little cracks about America, he denied them and turned his back on me. I contend they were there, but—whatever. My point is, two of the books are travelogues and one is low-key fiction, so why the politics?

     Because I am currently focusing on historical fiction writing and generally read non-fiction for research, have I missed a new trend in writing or are people—and that includes authors—just pushier about their beliefs than they used to be? Now, here's the thing: a good writer can convey beliefs by the actions of his (don't bite me, it used to be more generic) characters and making those actions sympathetic. Seems to me, that is a lot more persuasive than calling someone "shitty" because apparently you're so important your opinions must be shared in an inappropriate way and in an inappropriate book. Mr. Bryson doesn't like America, he has acquired British citizenship, but I'll bet his dislike doesn't extend to refusing our royalties,

     It's hard to get a grip on the book-buying public. Amazon created a map tracking best selling political books and conservative titles outsell liberal titles virtually everywhere. That was the only info I could find. Book sales depend on the genre and according to freelancewritinggigs.com from most sold to least sold, the list is as follows: children's fiction, fantasy, mysteries, classic literary fiction, modern literary fiction, magic realism, historical fiction, and  young adult fiction. And I see I have rambled a long way from political criticisms expressed in inappropriate books.

Suffice it to say, Mr. Bryson is very successful and I am a fledgling writer; but at least I'm not arrogantly rude.

    

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Bonfire of the Business Casual by Gail Roughton

I've never been a clothes horse. I don't even like to shop. I mean, how many blouses or dresses can you flip through on the racks before they all run together and look alike? And slacks? Don't get me started. Maybe all black pants aren't created equal but after flipping through five or six of them, let alone ten, they sure seem to be. At least to me. Consequently, I frequently leave a store empty-handed after spending hours of careful consideration on what goes with what and what would work with what's already in my closet. Bleh. 


But praise the Lord and pass the biscuits, that's not something I'll have to worry about too much in the future 'cause I'm no longer a working woman. At least, not in the get up and go to the office sense of the word.  I'm retired.  I know everybody's getting tired of hearing that and I apologize but it's something I worked and waited for for so long I just can't stop myself. And one of the greatest fringe benefits of that is not getting up and sorting through the dreaded business casuals of my closet so as to walk out the door looking both semi-professional and feeling comfortable. 'Cause I tell you what, pants suits and business suits in general, not to mention dresses, let alone heels and I parted company a long time ago.  Nowadays, because spring has sprung down South,  it's jeans and tee shirts and Nikes. Soon to be shorts and tees and sandals, 'cause full summer's peaking its head over the horizon. When fall and winter approach, it'll be jeans and sweatpants, flannel shirts and sweatshirts. 

I actually considered burning the business casuals that I've worn ad nauseum for the past several years. And a couple of pieces probably need it, 'cause they've been worn to death.  Still, the practical side of me spoke up and reminded that occasionally I'd probably still need to dress "appropriately", so I restrained myself from building an actual bonfire and settled for an imaginary bonfire.  Good thing, too, because yesterday I ventured out of the country and drove myself into the big city to meet "my" girls for lunch.  (I think that's maybe the third time I've actually driven in the last three weeks and the other two times were just up the road and still inside the city limits of little ol' J'ville.) Even then, I didn't go full-blown business casual, I paired white jeans with a nice top and "real" shoes. And you know what? I actually enjoyed being semi-dressed up again. It's really nice every now and then, even if it's something I'll never miss on an everyday basis.  That thought made me more sympathetic toward one of my heroines, Tess Ames of Vanished. Talk about a culture shock. I mean, there she was, an up and coming career business woman on the fast track, all decked out in her power suits. A dense fog in the Bermuda Triangle, a plane crash, a different world. Literally. Talk about a bonfire of the business casual...

Find all Gail Roughton titles at

Books We Love

Amazon

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

You can also visit at her Blog and on Facebook

Sugar Detox...part one by Jamie Hill

The Blame Game Boxed Set at Amazon

I've been cooking for one for the past four months. And by cooking I mean mostly driving through fast food restaurants, because my late husband was the chief cook and grocery shopper at my house. (Notice I didn't say bottle washer-- that was always me!) He LOVED to wander the supermarket aisles and then come home and try all kinds of new recipes. Personally, I would rather have a root canal. 

I've managed to keep myself alive, but just barely. It's not that I don't know how to cook. I ran a daycare for twenty-one years and did my share of cooking. I just don't LIKE it. (Did I tell you he LOVED it?) I've gone in spurts. One week I'd plan, shop, and stick to my meal plan for a couple solid days until my fast food craving kicked in and I'd have to swing through McDonald's. (Please don't judge. Like the tagline for my favorite new show, Bloodline, says, "I'm not a bad person, I just did a bad thing.") Some weeks I'd only eat out. The price tag on that approach got hefty.

Now that my work clothes are getting tight and spring is in the air, I've made the decision to turn this ship around. (Anyone else calls my rear end ship and I'll deck them.) I found a twelve week challenge online which is actually part of a widow's group I've been following. The kicker is they are all about CLEAN eating. My idea of clean eating is not dripping ice cream on my chest. Apparently it means a whole lot more than that.

Come to find out, it really means eating whole foods, not processed, with no extra sugar. In fact, I'm supposed to be detoxing from sugar for the first three weeks. Mind you, I read that little factoid while I was finishing off a bag of Bob's Sweet Stripes soft peppermint balls. The bag said they were Kosher certified so I took that as healthy. (Just kidding!)

My new lifestyle program consists of lean protein, complex carbs, fruits and veggies. And exercise. Somebody put me out of my misery now.

The thing I am excited about is the community of members and the support I'll be getting. There was a fee to join the challenge so hopefully that will motivate me to keep at it. When the month is over, I hope I won't have spent as much on the program and clean food as I did the way I was eating. But time will tell. I'll report back next month.

Find my novels including The Blame Game boxed set pictured above on my Books We Love page: http://bookswelove.net/authors/hill-jamie/