Lyn Cote-Why Do You Read Romance?

To purchase, click here. Heartland Courtship (Love Inspired Historical\Wilderness Brides)

That’s an important question to me, a romance author.  I’m going to share my ideas and I hope you’ll share yours and tell me if I’m nuts or right! :-)

Over a decade ago I received a letter from a man in Australia. He’d just read his first Love Inspired Romance. It was Hope’s Garden my third, (2000). He said that he’d recently buried his wife of 66 years (That’s SIXTY-SIX YEARS) and that he began to read romance to remember her.

WOW. That letter was an eye-opener.

Authors know readers read fiction for emotion.
Romance readers read for a special, a specific emotion--romance.

Why?
Why do we like to read about romance?

Tell me what it is that draws you back to romance?
The Happily Ever After?
The intense conflict between hero and hero?
Experiencing the physical attraction between hero and heroine vicariously?

My latest Love Inspired Historical, Heartland Courtship, is I hope really romantic.  A frontier community, a brave independent heroine and a drifter hero with a dark past--how does that grab you???

What? Tell me. Authors want to know what you read romance to find!--Lyn

Bucket List

Jenna Mindel here, and proud to report completion of one bucket list item.
The weekend before Christmas my husband and I went with friends to a Green Bay Packer game at Lambeau Field.  They played Pittsburgh on a cold and snowy Sunday that was such a blast, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!  Now, I'm a Detroit Lion's fan but I've always wanted to go to an NFL football game and last month was my chance.
My husband says there's no better place to experience football than at Lambeau and despite my limited exposure to such things, I'd have to agree.
What a great time we had and a good game too, even though the Packers lost.

My husband and me   

So, what does this have to do with writing?
Well, maybe not a whole lot, but I believe my creative well was refreshed and who knows, a character might develop out of the experience.

Do you have a bucket list and if so, how many items have you checked off so far?
  

Storms of Life

Susan Sleeman here.  The weather has been in the news so much lately and it’s on everyone’s mind. The brutal cold. The excess snow. And here in Oregon our weather has been unseasonably dry. It rains most days here from October to July, but we’ve had few rainy days. I love the sunshine (translated I’ve been able to continue to garden and stay dry), but I also know we need the rain.

This week it’s been very windy and my thoughts shifted to the hero of my March Love Inspired Suspense release. Derrick Justice lives in a houseboat—or as they call them here in Portland a floating home—and as I felt the wind buffet our house, I wondered how Derrick would be faring with the crazy winds.

I’ve never lived in a floating home, but I rented a houseboat in Kentucky once. This is not the same thing as a floating home at all so my experience isn’t the same, but it gave me a taste for living on the water. During the night, we had a major storm that scared me. As waves crashed against the boat, I was afraid we were going to capsize and didn’t sleep a wink until the storm passed.

I could never get used to living in a home that moved. What about you? Do you think you could live on a houseboat?

DARK TIDE

MISSION: PROTECT BABY
Gina Evans knows her brother was murdered—even if the police won’t believe her. After catching a quick glimpse of the evidence her brother had gathered, the same criminals are after her and her baby niece. And Gina’s only hope is the man she left behind.
Despite the painful memories, private investigator Derrick Justice won’t fail Gina and her baby. Yet now, the woman he never stopped loving and the baby he’s come to adore are in a killer’s crosshairs. But can Derrick trap the cold-blooded murderer before he strikes again?

Pre-order it now for Print and E-book


» Read an Excerpt

---

SUSAN SLEEMAN is a best-selling author of inspirational romantic suspense and mystery novels. Her first romantic suspense title, High-Stakes Inheritance earned a spot on the ECPA bestseller list and her Garden Gate Mystery series, which features Nipped in the Bud, and Read Between the Tines has enjoyed time on Amazon bestseller lists as well. And The Christmas Witness was named a finalist in the 2011 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. In addition to writing, Susan hosts the popular internet website TheSuspenseZone.com. She currently lives in Oregon, but has had the pleasure of living in nine states. Her husband is a realtor and they have two beautiful daughters, a very special son-in-law, and an adorable grandson. To connect with Susan outside of her – Website visit any of these social media sites-

---

Victorian high tea with Danica!

Danica Favorite is here in California with me and we went to Victorian high tea! The special that month was a Downton Abbey tea and it was delish!

This was the currant scone and blackberry and brie cheese salad:

This was the finger sandwiches and chicken, artichoke, leek soup. It was SO yummy!

Anyone been to tea lately? Any favorite teas you’ve had?

You're Invited: Love Inspired Reader Luncheon

Debby Giusti here, and I've got an invitation for each of you!

Have you heard? Our wonderful publisher, Love Inspired, is hosting the FIRST EVER Love Inspired Reader Luncheon! I’ll be there, along with Missy Tippens, Lenora Worth, Carol Post, Marty Johnson, Jessica Nelson, Renee Andrews, Lynette Eason, Louise Gouge and Patty Smith Hall! 

The event is a warm and welcoming way for readers to meet their favorite authors and chat during lunch. Each author will host her own table so lots of time to mix and mingle, get autographs and snap photos as well as make that special connection with the authors you love to read.  Plus there will be giveaways, and each person who attends will go home with a huge bag of books valued at $75!

The Reader Luncheon will be held Thursday, January 30th, from 11 AM to 2 PM at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Tampa, Florida. 

For more information go to the website:

http://harlequinblog.com/2013/12/love-inspired-reader-luncheon-coming-to-florida-in-january/

Space is limited! Call Harlequin Customer Service at 1-800-847-8270 to order tickets while quantities last. Be sure to let us know if you plan to attend. 

We’d love all our readers to join us for the day!

See you in Tampa!

Debby Giusti

www.DebbyGiusti.com

www.seekerville.blogspot.com

THE SOLDIER'S SISTER, the fifth book in Debby's Military Investigations Series, is still available. Watch for THE AGENT'S SECRET PAST, on sale March 2014.

THE AGENT'S SECRET PAST

By Debby Giusti

THREAT FROM HER AMISH PAST 

Eight years ago, a drifter destroyed Becca Miller's ties to her Amish community—and murdered her family. Now a special agent with Fort Rickman's criminal investigation department, Becca knows her past has caught up with her and doesn't want to relive it. She's convinced that the killer, who supposedly died years ago, is very much alive and after her. Special agent Colby Voss agrees to help her investigate. Yet the closer they get to the truth, the closer the killer gets to silencing her permanently. 

Pre-order at Amazon. 

Conversations with a Child or Where do you get Ideas?

Ideas are everywhere, but surely the best ideas come from children.  I've long wanted to write a book set on the Titanic.  Right now would be the perfect time as my eight-year-old is enthralled with the ship and its sinking.  So, we watch the movies (the old Barbara Stanwyke, one from England, and of course the epic Jack and Rose).

Yesterday was church.  My son had a lesson about Adam and Eve in his third grade classroom (If I'm keeping count, it's Adam and Eve lesson number 15.  Kids learn about Adam and Eve every six month.  Hmmm, maybe their the equivalent to Jack and Rose... No, we'd have to make Noah and the ark the biblical equivalent, and I don't DON'T want to picture Leonardo as Noah.  Kate as Mrs. Noah is fine with me but Leonardo...no, no, no)

So, back on topic.

My son asks me as we're driving home, "Mom, if Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, would we be naked today?"

This is what I get for telling him to LISTEN in class.

"Ah, maybe."

He's not done.  "Mom, if Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, would all the people on the Titanic have been naked when the ship went down?"

So, yes, this conversation will appear in a book someday.

And so you have one more chuckle.  My son got the Lego Bible for Christmas. (Anything so he'll know the Word.)  He's flipping through it and comes to a photo of a lego man with someone holding a sword over him.  My eight year carefully sounds out the word cir cum cise.  He looks up at me, points, and says, "Mom, this is just wrong."

Your turn LOL.  Do you remember your kids giving you new and improved Bible messages after church heheheh

  

Allie Pleiter on Lists

January is a list month.  There are “Best of” lists, resolution lists and lists of things we want to accomplish in the new year.  If you’re like me, you make a list of what you want to get accomplished every day.  I admit, I’m a compulsive list-maker. I find that lists keep me calm and focused, especially when I’m stressed.

Today I’ll share my favorite strategy for moving a list on paper to action in the real world:

NUMBER YOUR LIST

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  Most of life’s more powerful truths are simple, I’ve found.  Ordering your tasks—or your priorities or whatever comprises your list—does two important things:

it forces you to think about what’s most important, most urgent, or must come first to make other items on your list possible

It frees up your attention to focus on one thing at a time and then smoothly transfers your attention to the next thing when the first is accomplished

Did you see that?  I made a little list, right there in front of you.  It’s that simple.  So the next time you have a whopping work load staring you down—and who doesn’t these days???—take a moment to write down your tasks and order them in a numbered list.  This simple process can yield big results in your peace and productivity.  And that’s a great way to start a year, don’t you think?

What about you?  Do you make lists?  Do you number them?  Share your experiences.

Are all Writers Crazy? by Leann Harris

Yes, is the answer to the question.  How would you classify a group of people who talk to imaginary people and tell you what they are doing?  Well, that what I first thought after my first major writer's conference.  The information was great, but I ran into writers who said their characters would talk to them or do this or that.  They created their characters, so what gives?  I was worried about these 'folk', but I couldn't criticize since I only thought of stories with dead bodies, which worried me about my mental health.  What kinda of person could only think of stories with dead bodies?  (I've now expanded my stories about heroes and heroines and their journeys without dead bodies.) 

I held onto that 'lofty' ideal that I could control my characters until I had a hero refuse to act the way I thought he should at the black moment.  I simply stared at the computer, trying to write that scene but nothing came.  He wouldn't cooperate. When I realized I wanted him to act against his nature, things resolved themselves and he got his way.

Well, I had that experience again.  In Redemption Ranch I had a female Army captain, Captain Brenda Kaye, taking equine therapy for wounds she suffered in Iraq.  Once she appeared on the page, she wanted to take over the book.

Each time I opened my manuscript to finish writing Redemption Ranch, (Tyler and Beth were the hero and heroine) Brenda popped into my head.  I wrestled with her for more than a week before I promised her her own book.  After that, she left me alone.  Of course, Brenda had her secrets, and I when I started writing her book, she wasn't willing to share. (What nerve.)  The first thing I learned is she didn't want to be called Brenda.  She thought of herself a Kaye.  Writing A Ranch to Call Home was adventure.  My hero, Caleb Jensen, a pick-up rider in the rodeo, had his share of secrets, too, and his backstory came as a complete surprise to me. I teared up learning about him, but he was a survivor and took care of his younger brother. But writing their story was a joy and learning experience.

I hope you'll enjoy Kaye and Caleb's story.  They are characters who won my heart and I hope yours. It is a March 2014 release.

Caleb

Life Is Not a Race

Life Is Not a Race

By Margaret Daley

I read what Rick Warren said about having margins in your life. I thought about it a lot since then and realize how important that is. Having boundaries in your life means having breathing room, taking time to relax and enjoy life. Americans are too driven. We work more and sleep less. We are wearing out our bodies and mind. We run from one thing to the next.

                       

I am going to work this year to put margins into my life. I know that situations change and some margins I plan will suddenly disappear but that’s what margins are for. If I have a book deadline and a family crisis happens, I hope that I have built in some extra time so I won’t panic on top of having to deal with the crisis. That just adds more stress on top of stress. And stress is not good for our bodies. I discovered that when I ended up in the emergency room with skyrocketing blood pressure.

So take time to breathe, enjoy life and put some boundaries in your life. Learn to say no when you need to. 

My next book is Book 2 in the Witness Protection Series, 2014 Love Inspired Suspense. Blurb for The Baby Rescue:

OPERATION BABY RESCUE 

To rescue an abducted infant from a baby-smuggling ring, U.S marshal Colton Phillips has to work with FBI agent Lisette Sutton. But their tactics couldn't be more different. The too-pretty agent goes by the book, whereas Colton breaks rules to get the job done. Colton vows to keep his heart out of the job, but his unwanted attraction to Lisette lowers his guard. Now Lisette—and an innocent child—are in grave danger, and Colton will stop at nothing to save them. 

Witness Protection: Hiding in plain sight

Poll - novellas?

Camy here! I saw an interesting poll on Goodreads.com from an author asking about novellas, so I thought I’d post my own poll here for the Love Inspired readers!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

If you have any other comments, feel free to leave them below! Thanks for participating!

Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. She’s working on the next book in her Love Inspired Suspense Sonoma series, which will release in 2015. She is a staff worker for her church youth group, and leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. Visit her website to sign up for her quarterly newsletter.

Happy New Year!

Jenna Mindel here, excited about a new year. And really excited about my new release.

Season of Redemption opens with Ryan Marsh in trouble and court ordered for a substance abuse evaluation. Of course, my heroine is an intern that fills in for and facilitates that assessment and the rest is history as they say.

Writing Ryan Marsh's story came together after many failed attempts. I knew Ryan was a tortured soul when he first showed up in Season of Dreams (Feb 2011). But he really developed as the bitter brother in Courting Hope (June 2013). And now finally, he gets a book of his own.

I've always loved reading books with connected characters, so when I began writing way back when, it seemed natural to discover the next hero or heroine from my current work in progress. How bout you? Do you have a preference for books in a series or completely unrelated tales?


A Fresh Start
After a night of mistakes and misunderstandings, Ryan Marsh thinks he's back on the road to redemption. All he needs to do is convince the court-appointed counselor that he's just fine. But when counseling intern Kellie Cavanaugh sees the stark pain in Ryan's eyes, she knows that without her help he's headed for disaster. Soon it's Kellie who's in trouble. She can't get personally involved, no matter how drawn to Ryan she might be. When they end up volunteering for the same community project, Kellie can't deny her growing feelings. Will she land exactly where she shouldn't…in love?