Back to School Time!

I'm getting excited about fall approaching! How about you? We've had unseasonably mild temps in Texas for August and it has all of us aching with Autumn Fever! Who doesn't love crisp leaves, autumn fires, slow crock pot meals and football on Sundays?

With fall comes back to school for all the kids and I'm really excited this year because I've just released my anti-bully kid series for ages K-5! The first book released over the summer and the 2nd book will hit shelves this Christmas! Just like drug prevention, I believe we have to start at a very young age when teaching our kids. With teen suicides on the rise because of school bullying, this topic has reached an all time high so when a very talented artist, Alicia C. Mattern sent me drawings of her cute school aged zombie characters, I just knew I had to write the stories and join this fantastic journey to fight bullies worldwide!

NEW RELEASE!!! NEW RELEASE!!!! NEW RELEASE!!!

Princess Kathy here letting everybody know that my latest book, Losing Cassie, is available now. Here's the back cover copy and an excerpt to tempt you.

Welcome to Destiny's Desire Lodge, where The Fates can manipulate the threads of life at their whim and the Fate-Keeper battles to unite the predestined souls of true love.

Firefighter Jake Stone lost the love of his life when his high school sweetheart disappeared. The arrival of a mysterious letter promising answers draws Jake to Destiny's Desire.

Cassie Daniels has been running for seven long years. At Destiny's Desire she might finally have a chance for a happy future, if she can face the evil from her past.


When Fate and Destiny Collide . . . Can Love Survive?

Amazon

Amazon paperback version:

SMASHWORDS

Below is an excerpt from Losing Cassie.

EXCERPT FROM LOSING CASSIE by Kathy Ivan

Michelle Miles: One from the Archives

I've been super busy so here is a blog post today from my archives. Enjoy!

Have Whip Will Banish

I bet you thought this was going to be about something kinky, didn’t you? That’s why you clicked on it. You dirty-minded thing, you. ;) 

Actually, today I’m writing about those ugly Doubt Demons. You know the ones. All writers suffer from them, whether we’re published or unpublished. (By the way, I wish I could take credit for the title of this post but it came from the most awesome Misty Evans.)

Mine looks like a big, hairy beast that stands six feet tall with a lot of sharp pointy teeth, horns coming out of his forehead, and an upturned nose. He’s ugly. Definitely ugly. And he smells like rotten eggs and sour milk. He stands behind me, drooling, telling me what an awful writer I am, how I’ll never be published again and that I should just give up because I’ll never be good enough or smart enough. He’s nasty and he snarls a lot.

“But I am smart enough,” I tell him.

And he laughs this ugly, guttural laugh and drools on my shoulder. It’s slimy and gross. I cringe.

“I am good enough!” I affirm.

He laughs again. “No, you’re not. You know that rejection you got the other day from your dream publisher? That’s what you’ll be getting from now on. You suck.”

Can you believe this guy?

@VickiBatman : Ponders You Made This, crafty girl?

You made this?

I like to do needlepoint. I'm not the world's best. I've seen those intimidating grand prize winners at the State Fair. The crafters do the fanciest stitches in the tiniest silk threads on intricate canvases.

I'm more a paint by numbers kind of person.

I find a painted canvas and match the colors in the project to the cotton floss found at the local craft stores. I'd tried wool and bits of fiber found my eyes and nose. A huge sneezing, itchy fit followed.

Floss is affordable; so I splurge on the fabrication. When my creation is finished, I head to the nearest needlepoint store to make a pillow, handbag, stocking. I'm always a little nervous the clerks will snicker about my project, but they never do. They always, always say the nicest things. And when I pick up the finished product, I'm totally amazed. They make my work look even better.

But the paint by number thingy, Vicki? Surely, someone as creative like you can do more?

#PlottingPrincesses welcome @GeriFoster on Conference fun!!

Geri Foster is the PP gals guest today. She's a fabulous romantic suspense writer and here's a chance to get to know her better. Welcome, Geri!!

Conference Fun!!

This year I went to the Romantic Times Conference and RomCon for the sole purpose of meeting and engaging with readers of Romance. I had a wonderful time and met many delightful people while at these two conferences. I also had the privilege to meet several of my favorite writers and became a fan to some I’d never read before.

The whole experience was career changing. I returned home determined to write more stories, have deeper plots and develop compelling characters if it killed me. I wanted to be better for those wonderful readers I’d met, and I wanted to be equal to the outstanding writers I’d came in contact with.

That’s true inspiration.
As writers we’re often alone in a dark room in the middle of the night pounding on our computers. We rarely see the end result of our hard work except when we receive payment for books bought. That’s a very cold way of doing business. Yet we don’t own shops where customers come in and browse and we get to know them in the process. With no face to face contact we have no idea what a reader really wants from a writer.  We only have a paycheck and reviews to gauge our success. With only a few tools to work with, we write hoping our readers will like what we’ve spent months writing. If they do, and they let us know, we’re thrilled. If they aren’t happy with our story, we languish for days on how to get better at our craft.

I think the way to write the stories readers will love is to love what you write.

#PlottingPrincesses : Only TWO More Days! until our 2nd Anniversary Party!!

Is Coming August 10! For more information, connect with our newsletter at:

 

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Childish Writing by Karilyn Bentley

I'm sure you've read interviews with authors that when asked how long they've been writing they reply since childhood. That's the case with me. One of my first stories was similar to Nancy Drew, a mystery where the sleuth found a key trapped in tree roots from a century before that unlocked some chest holding some treasure. I'm not sure what ever happened to that story, perhaps Mom has it hidden in her closet. <g>  But I did find another story I wrote in sixth grade and thought it might be fun to post parts of it here. Hopefully my writing has improved since then. <g>

This is the story of my childhood dog that I wrote for an English writing assignment. And as you can see in the pix above, I typed it on our ancient typewriter (that's me on the couch and my bro smiling for the camera while Mom pets Tasha). My teacher liked it so much she let the principal read it. His comment was: "Sprightly is a word that I think I have never used ('til now). I can think of no other which so fittingly describes this." The teacher said she loved the humor. After reading it now, I cringe at all the exclamation points. Yikes. Anyway, here goes the condensed version with all the exclamation points left in (get ready to cringe):

Hi! My name is Natasha Golden Amber, but they call me Tasha for short. I heard that you wanted my life story. Did you? I'm glad to hear that! I'll tell you all about me!