Instead of looking ahead in this January post, I’m going to reflect back on 2011. In many ways it was a banner year for me.

January started with a bang. I celebrated the ringing-in of the new year with Debbie and Sandy at the lake working on our books. Also that month my husband and I went to the college football championship game in Phoenix, Arizona. Auburn won. Big, big deal at our house.

February brought health issues for me and a snow skiing trip for the family.

 March was the month my youngest had jaw surgery. He is downright pretty now. He also celebrated 20 years with a heart transplant. Amazing kid, but don’t tell him I said so. I also celebrate a birthday. I’m glad to have them the alternative isn’t pleasant.

In April, I spent some time at the beach and visiting with a friend. 

During May I made a road trip with Sia and Tammy to a conference in Florida. Learned a lot and did some great brain storming. A book we worked on is my work in progress.

June saw me receiving my first romance book contract. I was thrilled with a two book deal. I took my mother, daughter and …

 
Witness to An Earthquake
by Stephanie Bond
It’s not often that a person is witness to a shift in an entire industry, but that’s what happened to me at the Romantic Times (RT) booklovers conference in Los Angeles in April 2011.

When I arrived at the hotel, it was clear from the buzz in the hallways that the topic of the conference was going to be the tsunami-like rise of self-e-publishing, both by brand new authors and authors who were veterans of print publishing. The news bomb had just been dropped that in February 2011, for the first time ever, ebooks had outsold print books. The atmosphere was positively electric, and there was a sense that something big was about to happen. On the first day of the conference, I sat in on a panel on the state of publishing which featured a dozen senior editors, executive editors, and other higher-ups (including a representative from my own publishing house), as well as one high-profile agent. The audience sat rapt while the moderator served up the first question about the seemingly cataclysmic move from print …

Have the Courage to Never Give Up
by Judy Lynn Hubbard

It takes remarkable courage not to give up on your dreams; don’t let anyone ever tell you that it doesn’t.

Take my writing career for example. I’ve read stories, blog posts and seen interviews with various writers who have had their first novel bought by a major publishing house after one submission, writers whose manuscripts editors thought were perfect and required no rewrite and writers who have signed multi-deal contracts for seven-figure sums. Of course, none of those things happened to me—I just don’t have that kind of luck, karma, whatever you want to call it and that’s okay because what I do have is resolve, perseverance and belief in myself and my work.

From the time I started writing seriously years ago with the goal of publication by Harlequin Romance; I knew in my heart that it wasn’t going to be a fast, easy journey. People told me I was being unrealistic to set my goals so high. They said I’d never receive a contract from Harlequin—the biggest publisher of romantic fiction. I simply smiled at them and said, “We’ll see.” Now my friends weren’t deliberately trying to be cruel; they just didn’t want me to set myself up for what they thought would be imminent failure. However, I believe in dreaming big or not dreaming at all and I’m not afraid of hard, exhausting work, so giving up wasn’t an option for me.

The first question I asked myself was did I really want to pursue a writing career; was it something I just had to do? The answer was yes;

By Darcy Crowder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve all been there, plugging along at our WIP (work in progress) then life interrupts – don’tcha just hate that? – and when we finally get back to it, there’s something missing. The spark, the excitement, dare I say JOY, has just evaporated.  Now the phrase work in progress has taken on a whole new meaning.

 

 

It’s time to take the muse on a play date.

 

 

So often, as writers, we hear about refilling the creativity well.  Ideas abound:  Read a good book.  Take a long drive.  Go shopping with a friend.  Get your hair or nails done.  Get a massage.  Give your muse a fun-filled day and she will
give you back the JOY in your WIP tenfold.

 

 

Recently, I took an excursion that not only refilled the well, it had my muse practically giddy with excitement as ideas and new, fully-fleshed scenes rushed to my fingertips faster than I could write!  Let me pause here to say that I LOVE
waterfalls.  I’ve made it a personal goal to visit all of them in the state of …

Poor Boy Genius. I dragged home another dog. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my pet situation, BG has barely survived it. There’s Turbo who disdains him, Tempi who regards him with naked suspicion, and, until recently, there was Jessica who treated him like a minion.

Although, to be honest, my grouchy mare treated everyone like minions. We considered it part of her charm.

Anyway, accusations were made when I showed up with Tag and, in BG’s defense, he’s right. I did agree we didn’t need any more animals. But, in my defense, he should have known I was lying when I said it.

It’s not like I intended to bring home another dog. It just kind of…happened. My mom was looking for a rescue to keep her two golden retrievers company and The Humane Society had recently picked up a litter of puppies and their mama from the county dump.

Pitiful, right? Yeah, hold that thought, I’m coming back to it in a minute.

The puppies were kind of feral, the volunteers explained, and all of them were pretty bald from a bad case of Mange, but my mom and I thought we’d take a look anyway. We cruised over …

By: Judi Phillips

The medinas in Morocco and, in other cities I’ve visited in North Africa, are the oldest part of a city, built in medieval times with a high wall encircling the perimeter as a defense against invaders.  The streets were intentionally narrow to prevent the entrance of chariots. And doorways were low to keep out men astride horseback.

These are the dry facts. They don’t begin to convey the magic and excitement of being there. There are shops of all kinds, shoes, traditional clothing, poufs (we would call them hassocks), antiques and souvenirs. Each medina has a different feel.

Originally named Mogador, Essaouira was first a Phoenician trading settlement, followed by Cretan, Greek and Roman settlements. The present medina is relatively new, having been built in the 18th century. Parts are covered over with narrow passageways. Other streets are open and wider. In this picture, you can see the wall on the right. There are several restaurants, cafes and coffee bars as well as many small shops.

The medina in Fez …

 

~Getting to know the Petit Fours and Hot Tamales Crew~

January’s Spotlight is on Susan Carlisle

 

Who are the ladies of the Petit Fours and Hot Tamales Blog?  Why should you spend your precious time reading our daily posts?  Why do we want you to follow us and read our books, our personal blogs, our FB status updates and our Tweets?  Let us tell you why…

 

Once upon a time ~ ~

I wanted to be a lawyer but found out I didn’t like school that well.

 

How many “careers” have you had throughout your lifetime?

Worked in a paper mill, worked in two medical records departments in two different hospitals, and have worked as a substitute teacher for 17 years. Now I’m a writer. That would be 4 but that doesn’t count  raising 4 children which adds about another 10 positions         .

 

What is your current “day” job?

I write. I still substitute teach but not as much. With two books coming out this year and another three in the works, I’m writing …