Saturday, April 6, 2019

All of the Exciting New Releases and Features from BWL Publishing Inc. for April

Be sure and visit our BWL Publishing Inc. website for more details and information on these fantastic new releases.  http://bookswelove.net   


BWL PUBLISHING'S APRIL RELEASES
       

April is also Historical and Time Travel month at BWL Publishing. Be sure and visit us and click any of the book covers for details on all the great  historical and time travel novels we have available for our readers.




       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
 

Friday, April 5, 2019

Imagination by Rosemary Morris


Click on the cover to discover more about Rosemary Morris and her work.

Imagination

Sometimes. I can’t decide whether novelists are blessed or cursed by their vivid imaginations.
During a recent holiday at the coast, after we finished a meal at a beachside cafĂ©, my daughter went up the road to the shops, and leaving me to look after my nine-year-old granddaughter. “I’ll be back just now,” my daughter assured me.
Time passed. I looked at my watch. When I consulted my watch again, another half an hour had gone by.
By the time she returned to a very warm welcome, I had imagined she was injured in a car crash, had either been mugged, or some other disaster had occurred. The creative part of my brain had worked overtime to convert the possibilities into material suitable for a novel.
My imagination is constantly fuelled. While I am out and about I automatically scrutinise people. In my mind’s eye I place them in different historical periods. For example, the young man, with long, black wavy hair, seated at a nearby table in the restaurant could be a royalist. An older man with inch long hair could play a roundhead’s part in a novel. Perhaps they could be relatives divided by politics, religion and the sword. I’m not planning to set a novel in the English civil war, but I might want to write one in future. To remember my thoughts, I set them down in my notebook.
Places also spark my imagination, so I have trained myself to concentrate on the road when I am driving. When the car is stationary I look at houses. Who lived in interesting ones? Later I jot down more notes.
To be brief there is little around me that does not suggest something I could make use of.
I write romantic historical novels in which I delve into the past. While reading non-fiction, either a fact or a small detail catches my attention. What if? I ask myself. The answer triggers an idea for the plot and theme of a book. With great enjoyment, I write the first paragraph and plunge into the story.
By and large, I think my imagination is a blessing because, as Victor Hugo stated, “Writing is the Painting of the Voice.”

Novels by Rosemary Morris

Early 18th Century novels: Tangled Love, Far Beyond Rubies, The Captain and The Countess

Regency Novels False Pretences, Sunday’s Child, Monday’s Child, Tuesday’s Child, Wednesday’s Child and Thursday’s Child. Friday’s Child to be published in June 2019

Mediaeval Novel Yvonne Lady of Cassio. The Lovages of Cassio Book One

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk
http://bookswelove.net/authors/morris-rosemary




Thursday, April 4, 2019

Greendale, A Fond Memory by Katherine Pym


Buy Here
Buy Here


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A Young Greendale, City Hall
A Young Greendale, City Hall

Nostalgia comes from memories and our minds burgeon with them, overflow onto our current visual space (writers use these for their stories, and anything else that one can find in the larder :D). As we gather new memories, we merge them with the old. 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately of the town where I grew up. It was one of the greenbelt projects FDR initiated during the Depression. We lived in the Greendale community. 


It put men to work, building a country hamlet with the amenities of a city. The people who lived there had to make a certain income. My dad was short by a few dollars. He had someone vouch for him. 

Greendale Theatre, Only 10¢ for Sat matinee
We had a grocery store, a Five & Dime (run by two harridan spinsters), drug store, theatre, dentist and doctor offices. When mom took me to the doctor for a smallpox vaccination, I didn’t cry, so the doctor inoculated me again. The nurse was a big boned woman who walked all over town, visiting homes and administrating cough syrups. Her hair was stone grey in a thick braid that she wound around her head. Even as a young child, the town’s nurse made an impression on me. 

There was a public school, grades kindergarten to 12, police department, a tavern called the Village Inn, with a bus line into the city, and churches scattered throughout. It was a good place to grow up.

I’d walk outside into the cool breezes and smell fresh grass clippings, raise my head and listen to robin’s song. When the summer nights were gentle, our windows would be open. As dawn lit the bedroom, robins began their day. It was a balm to my ears and I’d sigh. I’d be reminded life was good. My parents protected me and kept me safe. 

New houses, New streets, New everything
I’d explore with my brothers over rutted paths with puddles from last night’s passing shower. If I were a pioneer and thirsty, I could drink from the puddle to survive a long trek across country. Tommy would point and yell, “Let’s explore that field over there. Maybe, there’s hidden treasure.”

We ran up a hill where a big tree had fallen over, branches and bracken tucked about. It made a good fort. My brothers settled in with their boy scout knives and began to form swords, bows and arrows while I pretended to work in the kitchen, the old tree stump being my countertop. 

Later, after we moved from Greendale, new memories joined with the old. 

When I see fluttering wings of butterflies, it reminds me of the bright afternoon when, in a moment of quiet serenity, thousands of monarch butterflies blanketed our backyard, resting before they started again on their migration. I can still feel the hot sun on my shoulders as I stared out the back door. I did not move, afraid I might jar them into flight. 

Greendale today
I went to my son’s room where he had just been put down for a nap but he was asleep. I could not rouse him. When I returned to the back door, the butterflies were gone. 

Nostalgia can give you a nice afternoon, away from the thunder of violence that seems to have pervaded our world these days. It’s like a good book. We can escape into past memories for a while but we don’t want to get lost. When the story in the book says, The End, we close the book. We reenter the world of our lives that can be tumultuous, difficult, and far away from our sweet memories. 

~*~*~*~*~

Many thanks to my memories, & WikiCommons, Public Domain



Wednesday, April 3, 2019

The WHO, What, Where, Why and When of Writing - Part 1


April 3, 2019
Walking tends to make my creative brain ramble with ideas I generally forget fifteen minutes later, especially when I get caught in the rain and have to hustle. But this concept for a series of blogs stuck. When we think of the five Ws, we immediately think journalism. In this case, however, I’m applying it to writing.
Who – as in Who are YOU as a writer?
What – for What do you want to write?
Where – location, location, location.
Why – what drives you?
When – what the best time to write?
Over the next few months, I’d like to expand on those ideas because those are the questions I see a great deal on social media questions and answer pages for writers, new and experienced. We all have this curiosity about other writers as well as our own creativity and what makes us tick.
So let’s start with the WHO.

Who am I?
When I was a kid, my dream was to be on the Oprah show. To get there, I planned to become one of two things:  An actor or a writer. Fast forward a few years later (Ha!). Oprah’s show is over. I am not an actor, but I work for a live-stage theatre.
And I am a writer.
I’m not famous. I may never be, but I’m doing what I love to do even if I’m not able to do it full time just yet.

How long have you been a writer?
This question comes up a lot on forums. For me, I started storytelling when I was little, before I could write. Then learned how to put those stories onto paper so others could read them.
I’ve stuck my passion in a drawer for years to satisfy someone who called it a waste of time, then dragged it back out when I had kids and never looked back.

Are you one of those people who has always loved books and capable of survival if locked in alone in a library for a long weekend?
With a stash of water and food, I’d be in Heaven! Not that all writers would survive without full access to computers or paper to work on!

Have you always had an itch to write the next great novel or do you dream of being wealthy and famous beyond words?
In all honesty, it’s not easy. Those writers like J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, and the like, they’ve had their share of rejections and have had to work hard to get to where they are. All writers do.
Most will never get that kind of attention or notoriety...

Can you type?
That one may seem silly on the surface, but these days all books are submitted via email to agents and publishers. No one will accept a handwritten stack of loose leaf papers.

Do you LOVE to write?
I’ve been told to get a real job many times. That’s never stopped me from writing. Even John Grisham wrote between court cases.
I write between my full time job, raising my kids, and trying to lead a normal life. I write because I have a passion for words, books, for creating stories that no one has ever heard before.
Writing, for some of us, is like a disease that wakes us in the wee hours of the morning. Or distracts us in a board meeting or while on long walks.
We can’t live our lives without a pen in hand or a computer screen beckoning.

Do you have a thick skin?
People can be mean. They criticize and condemn even if they’ve never actually read a word we’ve written. They tell us our dreams are silly and not worth the paper they’re written on.
If you are open to constructive criticism, there are many people out there who will genuinely be able to help you improve your skills.
Listening and learning only help us grow.

Do you have a sense of curiosity in how you see the world around you?
Perhaps another silly question, but it’s how we see the world that makes us writers. We question. We experiment. We have a curiosity about “What if” which is what compels us to create.
Our stories may be based on world events, life events, anything that strikes a chord deep within and makes us wonder what might have been.

Are you addicted to collecting pens, paper, and sticky notes?
Yes, some people prefer paperless, but a lot of writers I know live for the smell of freshly printed books, colorful notebooks, and multi-colour pens which we carry in every pocket and bag we own.
A writer without a pen is like a smoker without a lighter.

One last question for you before I’m off to work on my own book… Are you willing to put in the work?
Writing is indeed work. You need to do research, create a rough draft, edit that rough draft, submit to editors, agents and publishers, do more edits, cry a little, do even more edits.
Then the work begins. No one will market your book for you. You must spend time telling the world what a brilliant person you are and how you’ve written a great story.
You have to organize and do book signings, attend writing events, take workshops to develop your skills, attend more events, do interviews both online and in your community, join writing groups and online groups…

The list never ends. There are so many ways to reach your audience.
The short of it is, you cannot just write a book then sit back and let it take on the world.
The world will never know it exists without a little help from its creator.

Diane Bator
Author of Wild Blue Mysteries; Gilda Wright Mysteries and Glitter Bay Mysteries
Mom of 3 boys and 2 cats



Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Anachronism by J. S. Marlo


Who hasn't watched the movie Braveheart? It stars Mel Gibson as 13th-century Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace. In the movie, Wallace wears a kilt, Scotland’s most iconic piece of clothing. The only problem is: the kilt wasn't invented until the 18th-century. Ooops!




When I started writing my current novel, a historical/paranormal romantic suspense, I knew I would need to do more research than usual. Don't take me wrong, I love research...I love it too much. Discovering new facts is fascinating, and more often than none, I spend too much time searching details I don't need. Still, I'm trying to avoid the obvious and not-so-obvious "ooops".

My story takes place in 1941 during the war. Rationing wasn't enforced till 1942 in Canada, so I don't need to worry about food stamps. I discovered that less than one on four Canadian own a refrigerator, less than half use an electric or gas stove, and more than a third didn't have running water in their house back then. Needless to say, my heroine doesn't own a dishwasher, and when she injured herself, she didn't have access to antibiotics, but she could spend the night in a motel room for $3, which she didn't have. No credit cards.


All of the above were facts I knew I would need to research, but I didn't expect I would start questioning many of the words and expressions I take for granted. I'm constantly asking myself: Did they use that word in 1941? Did that expression existed back then? You could become very angry in 1941, but nobody went ballistic until decades later.

As a result, writing this story is fun and interesting, but it takes twice as much time than I had anticipated. I'm happy to report I crossed the halfway mark, but it won't be finished by Easter, not unless I lock myself in a hotel room at $150/night, which I can't afford either.


The challenges I encounter are giving me an even greater appreciation and renewed admiration for my fellow historical writers. I've read three books of the Canadian Historical Brides Series so far--nine more to read--and I bow to the talents of these writers. They researched every aspect of their story, in some instances every single sentence, and created compelling and accurate historical tales. Well done, ladies!!!
JS

Monday, April 1, 2019

April 1 and BWL Publishing Inc. is excited to share with you all of our new releases.

Be sure and visit our BWL Publishing Inc. website for more details and information on these fantastic new releases.  http://bookswelove.net   

BWL PUBLISHING'S APRIL RELEASES


       

April is also Historical and Time Travel month at BWL Publishing. Be sure and visit us and click any of the book covers for details on all the great  historical and time travel novels we have available for our readers.




       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
 

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