Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Writers need exercise - by Vijaya Schartz

Sitting at a keyboard all day, every day, is not conducive to inspiration or good health. Unfortunately, writers tend to just sit and type, so engrossed in their stories that they forget there is a world around them. Unaware of time constraints (except for deadlines) they remain sedentary. Even when they do not write, they are still sitting, promoting on social media, writing blogs.

Sometimes it's difficult to find the time or even the energy to move or go outside. We all know we should exercise, but we find excuses, mostly valid and logical ones, for postponing and procrastinating. One day, I will exercise. When this book is finished... when I'm done with this series...

There was a time in my life when I traveled a lot, exercised a lot, climbed mountains, jumped out of planes, surfed, practiced Martial Arts. Of course, I was not published at the time and had no deadlines, or obligations. I enjoyed accumulating the experiences that now enrich my writing.

For me, it has been over a decade since I practiced any physical activity on a regular basis. So, this fall, I decided to break out of my funk and take care of my body. Nothing drastic, nothing extreme. I was looking for regularity, something I could stick to. Something with buddy support. Two writer friends recently started Tai-Chi classes near my residence, and I joined their class. One of them goes hiking on Sundays, and I decided to join her as well. Yes, it's the right season for hiking, since I live near Phoenix, in Arizona.

I also had to establish a writing schedule around these activities, to make sure my writing would not suffer. I quickly discovered that having a regular schedule encouraged me to write faster. I write mornings, while my mind is fresh and agile, and it's my first priority of the day. Then I exercise, promote, and fulfill my other obligations as a writer.

Since I started exercising again, I discovered that I am more prolific, and inspiration comes easier. I'm glad I established this routine. I already feel better, stronger, younger, more energetic, and I love my life. So, this January, stop making excuses, and start taking care of yourself. You will like living healthy.

And as a reward for reading this, PRINCESS OF BRETAGNE, Book 1 in the Curse of the Lost Isle medieval fantasy romance series, is free in kindle through today. If you like immortal strong women, the Viking invasions, or Celtic legends, don't miss it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007K1EGAM

And this series will be complete with the release of Book 8, Angel of Lusignan, in January. That book is already in pre-order at Amazon HERE

Check out the entire series on its new page on Amazon HERE

Vijaya Schartz
 Blasters, Swords, Romance with a Kick
 http://www.vijayaschartz.com
 Amazon - Barnes & Noble- Facebook



Sunday, December 25, 2016

Books We Love's Winter Releases

These are the fall and winter releases from Books We Love. 
 

 
 
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New releases from Books We Love
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FEATURED GENRE FOR DECEMBER
SWEET HOLIDAY ROMANCES

Friday, December 23, 2016

Finding History In Canada by Victoria Chatham






In school, history was never my favorite subject. I couldn’t remember dates.1066 and 1492 are ingrained in me, but don’t ask me about the succession of kings or when the Industrial or French Revolutions began.
It wasn’t until I was in my late twenties that I read Jean Plaidy’s The Sun in Splendour. What a difference that made. I could see the characters in history, the people behind the words on the page. I scrambled to read all I could, both fact and fiction, about the Plantagenets, the Tudors and the War of the Roses. My history teacher would have been proud of me.
Today I write historical romance set in my favorite eras, the Regency and the Edwardian, but I still read historical novels from any period. History comes alive for me between the covers of a good book but I do understand that it is subjective.
What happened yesterday, a minute or an hour ago becomes history and we all have our own. My history is growing up in Clifton, a suburb of Bristol, England. Today it’s known not only for its Regency era architecture but also the palatial homes built by the merchant venturers of Bristol, a society of businessmen formed in 1552.
When I immigrated to Canada in 1990, I frequently had people tell me ‘you won’t like it here, we’re not old enough’, or ‘Canada has no history’.
I will admit my ignorance at that time. After all, what did I know about Canada other than it’s a very big country, the Mounties always get their man (or woman) and it’s cold in winter. After nearly twenty-five years I am happy to beg to differ with those early and misleading statements. Well, maybe not quite so happy about the cold.
While Canada may not have 8th-century churches and medieval castles, it has its own history. I’ve been lucky to see some of it first hand; black and ochre pictographs on cliff and canyon walls, dinosaur remains, glacial erratics and First Nations teepee rings, hunting grounds and totem poles. I’ve visited restored forts and trading posts and learned that the Hudson’s Bay Company, incorporated by Royal Charter in 1670, extended every bit as far and wide as did the East India Company, established earlier in 1600 also by Royal Charter.
I’ve had a trail guide point to a stretch of prairie and tell me to close my eyes and picture it not green but brown, a veritable tsunami of thousands of snorting, bawling buffalo. He also told me about the African-American cowboy, John Ware. Renowned for his ability to ride and train horses, Ware was also known for his strength and work ethic. He drove cattle from Texas to Montana and then, in 1882, further north into what is now Alberta where he and his wife settled.
I’ve visited forgotten mining towns to wonderful little back-road museums and loved those magical Heritage Minutes, those sixty-second vignettes illustrating important moments in Canadian history. Who knew that in 1789 Britain and Spain nearly came to blows after disputing their settlements in Nootka Sound? Or that one thousand years ago the Vikings settled L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and Labrador? Or that in 1857 Queen Victoria chose Ottowa (formerly known as Bytown) as the capital of the Province of Canada?
And then I discovered Canadian authors. Having been brought up on Shakespeare, Austen, and Dickens, these new-to-me authors were like a breath of fresh air. Starting with Pierre Berton, I devoured Klondike Fever, The Last Spike, and The Great Lakes. I read Margaret Attwood, loved Margaret Laurence’s characters Hagar Shipley (The Stone Angel) and Morag Gunn (The Diviners). I learned about life on the prairies from W.O. Mitchell and at a book-fair picked up The Whiteoaks of Jalna by Mazo de la Roche. It, and other titles in the series, gave as a good a picture of life in Ontario from the 1850’s to the 1970’s as did any of R.F. Delderfield’s books of life in England for much of the same era. And then a helpful librarian recommended I read Alice Munro.
Jesse Kornbluth, writing in the Huffington Post in October 2013 says of Munro, ‘The lives of little people. We see them on the street, and, if we are curious, we wonder about their lives. Alice Munro does our homework for us -- she inhabits those lives. Her judgments are sure. And tough. And also... human.’ That humanity is what gets to me with every Munro story I have read and re-read.
Canada’s history is as rich and varied as anywhere else in the world and I had only scratched the surface of it when I began writing my Canadian Historical Bride book, Brides of Banff Springs. I delved into the history of 1930's Banff as I used it and the Banff Springs Hotel as my setting. The librarian at the Banff Public Library not only allowed me to use her surname for my heroine, Tilly, but also suggested reading materials. So much so that I went home with two bags of books.
Early summer was spent reading and researching. I had no clear idea of what I wanted, only that if I had a good understanding of what went on in and around the town of Banff at that time, some of it would gel enough for me to pick the right information and events to flow together into a story. I tried to include some of the social problems of the times without dwelling on them too much, but the primary focus of the book is the bride, so I had to work in the romance. By the middle of the book, Tilly and her sweetheart Ryan, had become real, living breathing characters and I couldn't wait to get them married off. 
I now have my first print copies of  Brides of Banff Springs and can honestly say I am absolutely thrilled. Cover designer Michelle Lee did a marvelous job of blending the bride's image with that of the Banff Springs Hotel. I am now looking forward to reading all of the books in this series and learning more about the country I call home, cold weather and all.



Thursday, December 22, 2016

The Muse Inside (Or How Come I'm Not Locked Up Yet?)




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The Muse Inside (Or How Come I'm Not Locked Up Yet?)

People ask why I write or where I get the ideas for what I do write? Well that is a complex question to an author. Anyone ever ask Beethoven why the 5th symphony and where did that come from? Or did anyone ask Charles Schultz what possessed him to put a beagle on a rooftop with a typewriter and a little birdie as a sidekick? 
I’m sure most would reply it’s the muse that whispers to writers and artists inside their heads. Perhaps this is our constructive way of dealing with voices inside our heads, which for most others would get you locked up, sedated and the key thrown away.
I was recently asked why, as a Caucasian do I write novels involving first nations, native gods and legends? The dedication I wrote for my next novel, Thunderbird’s Wake might answer that question.
“In honor and memory of all the ancient native oral storytellers the K’aygang.nga (Haida), and the Sway’ xwiam (Sto:lo) before us. The few whose words were recorded on the carved lips and eyes of the totems and monuments still remaining and have gone on to become the echoes in the forest and the hush of mists sliding along mountain slopes.
Voices that now whisper to the minds of some of us listeners (Gyuu k’iiga) still today.”
I remember in one of my first visits to BC and Victoria, back when I lived in Alberta. I went to the provincial museum and simply stared at the carved totems and log poles there. My wife at the time had wandered off and all I could hear as I stood there by myself was voices. Whispers and tales all around me. I remember asking her, “do you hear those voices in the background?” She thought I was nuts. But all the way back to my campsite and on the journey home I could see the ovoid eyes and the wooden lips whispering.
The Haida mount on most of their totems, three squatting figures, they call the Watchmen, who are meant to watch out for enemies approaching. But I recon they also silently call out to those that hear, those that have the muse inside, “come, tell us about they that dwell under us and listen to the voices of those that have preceded us.”
          So later when I heard the bizarre news story about a rare golden spruce tree cut down in protest of logging, the whispers became nudges and twitches of a pencil that couldn’t remain quiet any longer. Guided by ghosts of legends from a culture that only had oral storytellers and no written language. Somewhere in the air all those whispered words circulate and somehow they call to me, from there came the novel, Raven’s Lament.  Yeah, maybe like my first wife said, I am nuts. Don’t care, I write; the tales come. Simple. That is what dwells in my soul. Words awaiting to come out.
This spring my next novel to be published by Books We Love, Thunderbird’s Wake, comes out. Another tale of a nuttier man than me that breaks into a penitentiary in order to deal with an awakening god.
That and a native sprite that needs a human to bring justice to her soul.
Have a Great Christmas and to all of those writers reading this.
May the muse reward you with lots and lots of whispers. So keep those pencils sharpened over the holidays.
Sincerely
Frank Talaber

Frank Talaber’s Writing Style? He usually responds with: Mix Dan Millman (Way of The Peaceful Warrior) with Charles De Lint (Moonheart) and throw in a mad scattering of Tom Robbins (Even Cowgirls Get The Blues).
PS: He’s better looking than Stephen King (Carrie, The Stand, It, The Shining) and his romantic stuff will have you gasping quicker than Robert James Waller (Bridges Of Madison County).
Or as is often said: You don’t have to be mad to be a writer, but it sure helps.


Writer by soul. Words born within. 
Karma the seed. Paper the medium.  
Pen the muse. Novels the fire.

My novels on Amazon are at (copy and paste link):  https://www.amazon.com/Frank-Talaber/e/B00UC407R0


https://www.facebook.com/Frank-Talaber-805296946204873/
Twitter: @FrankTalaber







 Thunderbird's Wake (out this spring from Books We Love LTD)
 A penitentiary is a dangerous place and into the world of the criminal enters a saint. Well, bearing rattles and guardian beasts, the native born find him a saint. To the rest he's more nuts than a squirrels winter stash. There's a god asleep, awakening. Humans that seek justice and a sprite that needs justice from humanity.
So what makes you want to break into one? You can ask Charlie, but he ain't telling. And if he did you wouldn't believe it in a dozen lifetimes. Come enter, the madness this spring.




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Shuttered Seduction
No woo woo stuff here, just a good old fashioned romance. Well except for the grizzly bear and the bungee jumping. 

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