Happy Mardi Gras!

Since Fat Tuesday was yesterday and today is the beginning of Lent, I wish you a merry belated Mardi Gras and a happy Lent!

New Orleans has always held a special place in my heart, maybe because it is a short trip from Houston and was a frequent destination for me in my youth, and also because I met my husband there, right in the Pat O's courtyard where I was sipping a mint julep in front of the flaming fountain.  I have always found the Crescent City to be especially intriguing and mysterious, with its ancient, moss-dripping trees, its clanging streetcars, and its French and Spanish history - a great place to set a work of fiction.  

The food's not so bad, either.  In fact, I am currently drafting a short story set in New Orleans, so what better inspiration than the Mardi Gras season?

Although NOLA has plenty of events and festivals throughout the year, I think it's safe to say that Mardi Gras is its biggest and most well-known.  Mardi Gras extends from the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Twelfth Night and Epiphany Day), up until Mardi Gras or "Fat Tuesday," the day before the start of Lent.  The first Mardi Gras is said to have occurred in 1699 when French explorers Iberville and Bienville landed in Louisiana.  They camped about 60 miles away from where New Orleans is now, and dubbed the spot Pointe du Mardi Gras since it was Fat Tuesday when they arrived.

There are not many Mardi Gras celebrations going on out here on the West Coast, but Tom and I like to remember it in our own special ways, usually with a shrimp pie and a King Cake for dessert.

The King Cake takes its name from the three biblical kings, celebrating the Epiphany and the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child.  It is traditional for a plastic baby, representing Jesus, to be baked into the cake.  Whoever gets the piece with the baby inside is supposed to throw the next party or bake the next cake.  This never seems to happen in our house when Tom gets the baby, however.  He usually tries to stuff it into another part of the cake, but he's not fooling anyone!  

When we first moved to San Francisco and Mardi Gras season rolled around, I called several bakeries asking if they carried King Cakes.  None of them knew what I was talking about and one of them even asked me to spell it.  I was forced to take matters into my own hands and make my own.  Since you can find anything on the internet, I found many recipes and settled on an easy one that I can handle as a non-baker.  

This year, we were invaded by a flock of masked ducks who helped us celebrate.  And I added a new tradition to our celebration - King Cake coffee!  

Do you have any special traditions for Mardi Gras or Lent?  Do you plan to give up anything for Lent?  Let me know in the comments!

#NewRelease -- FLAME -- #Giveaway

The National Cheyenne Rodeo holds promise to seasoned rodeo contestants and fans of a grand finale for the season. No one expects one of the leading contenders for team roping, Randy Murray, to lose his life in a freak accident in the final round.

Devastated by her husband’s death, Cindy Murray faces life-altering decisions. How can she deal with the sudden death of the high school sweetheart she’s planned a life with? What will she do with the ranch that had been the dream she and Randy had shared? And, most importantly, how will she deal with the pregnancy she had never expected—alone?

Cindy faces another crisis when she finds a pregnant horse dying in a trap. Can she save FLAME, the orphaned colt? Life is fast becoming overwhelming for her—but she has to do what’s right. From the ashes of her hopes and dreams, a new beginning becomes possible.

Have you ever competed in or watched a rodeo? Shelby will give an e-book of her new release to someone who comments on today's post.

Excerpt

(Cindy has lost her young husband to a rodeo accident. Now she's faced with being forced to ride just a few short days later, competing in the barrel racing events against her best friend in order to have the money she needs to pay for her husband's funeral and the upkeep of their little ranch.)

“Fourteen point two!” Helen announced, riding up to us and dismounting. “That’s my best time, ever. Good girl, Starlight.”

“Wow! Good job,” I said. “I guess that means I’m up.”

I mounted Ginger and headed out to the arena.

I waited in the holding area for the timer to go off and signal the start of my ride. The few seconds I sat in there felt like hours as my thoughts raced. This was the most nervous I had ever been before competing. It seemed like everything was riding on this. My ranch, Randy’s funeral expenses, all my payments I would have to make between now and next season…that would all be taken away if I screwed this up.

BUZZ!

I was off. I turned around the first barrel at a furious rate. I slowed as I pulled on Ginger’s reins into the turn. I kicked, and did the same around the second—and off to the third. I rounded it. I was pretty sure my time was good so far. I kicked and whipped Ginger to go faster to the finish line.

All of a sudden, I felt dizzy. Everything was starting to go dark. I couldn’t tell where I was anymore…or what I was doing. I felt sick, and then…everything went black.

Find Flame here:

Amazon  •  Barnes & Noble  • Apple  •  Kobo  •  Smashwords

Debut author Shelby Anne Watts is a nineteen-year-old junior at Northeastern State College in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where she is a science education major. She lives in a small rural area in southeast Oklahoma with her brand-new husband, horse Snowy, a rescue mule named Molly, two dogs, and a cat.

It's All About Love

As writers, we are encouraged to “know your genre.” We must know what genre we are writing in order to ensure our stories meet the conventions that readers expect. For example, a writer can call his or her book a romance, but if it doesn’t have a happily-ever-after, or at least a happily-for-now, reviewers are going to skewer the author, leaving him or her curled in a fetal position, sobbing into their Wheaties. Hell hath no fury like a reader scorned.

The journey to knowing my genre lead me to a surprising discovery. When I first made the move from fan fiction to original works, I considered myself to be a sci-fi/fantasy girl. I knew the stories that I wanted to write, but, try as I might, I couldn’t get the pieces to fall into place. One day I read a blog post about knowing your genre and decided that I needed to take a good long look at what I had already written. I logged into my fan fiction account where my gaze was drawn to the categories that I had selected for my stories. They were:

Romance/Adventure

Humor/Romance

Hurt/Comfort/Romance

Humor/Romance

Romance/Hurt/Comfort

Romance/Drama

It didn’t take long for me to see a trend. I was a romance writer! When the realization struck, I was horrified. What would people think? What was I going to do? Romance novels, as well as those who read and write them, get a bad rap from, well, virtually everyone. Once the initial wave of dizziness passed, I decided to look at my situation from a new perspective.

I adored the fan fiction that I had written and some of my stories seemed to resonate with readers. As a matter of fact, it was their positive feedback that had given me the courage to begin writing original stories. For me, the growing love between the main characters is what made the story work – everything else revolved around it. Once I realized that, I practically heard angels singing. The romance was what was missing from my sci-fi/fantasy stories! Once I added it into the mix, all of the formerly disparate pieces began falling into place.

Once a reluctant romance writer, I am reluctant no longer. Romance novels are the best-selling genre. Obviously, happily-ever-afters resonate with many, many readers. I’m honored to be a part of the romance writing community and proudly hold my love banner high. I hope that my stories make readers laugh, sigh, and feel better for having read them. After all, isn’t love what makes the world go round?

Tell me, dear readers, what do you love about romances?

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#NewRelease -- SNOW SOUNDS -- #Giveaway!

Three years ago, heartbroken nurse Melaine Landa found escape from her painful divorce in handsome Tanner Harris’s arms. Their one magical night is behind them, but the memories and feelings they experienced resurface when they come face-to-face again. Tanner heads the ski patrol, and Melaine has been hired to run the health clinic at a ski resort in California. But this job is important to Melaine for a reason she’s shared with no one else—her young step-daughter lives nearby. 

Melaine can’t look at Tanner without remembering the precious hours when he was her everything. Desire for this complex and sexy man still simmers inside a heart that is vulnerable, unwise, and reckless. 

Tanner is determined not to let his emotions get the best of him where Melaine is concerned. She’s said he didn’t understand—and he still doesn’t. Things seem more complicated now, and there’s even more at stake. 

But when the mountain rumbles and a deadly avalanche comes rushing down on them, everything changes. Love, living, and being together are all that matter, in these SNOW SOUNDS…

EXCERPT
     The mountain waited. It could be patient for the blan-keting snows that turned Mammoth Lakes into a mecca for California's skiers. For tens of thousands of years, the seasons had played their songs on rock and trees and water and earth. Antlike people scurried about its base, putting last winter behind them and preparing for the next. Those who toiled to control the mountain might not have ageless perspective, but the mountain did. Long after these intruders left, the songs and seasons would continue.

     Although this wasn’t her first time here, Melaine Landa couldn’t imagine looking up at Mammoth without being touched by the mountain’s power. Until a few seconds ago, she’d been filled with awe and peace, the sense that she’d come home.
     But that was until the builder of the nearly completed first-aid clinic she stood in had said the one name she hoped she’d never hear again.
     Tanner Harris.

     Now, there was only the name. And the memories.

Be sure and leave a comment for a chance to win a free ebook!

BUY LINKS    Barnes and Noble     Smashwords     Kobo 

New Release -- LOVE, COME TO ME: Boxed Set For New Adults -- 99 cents

LOVE, COME TO ME is a wonderful collection of love stories from different time periods that is sure to make you long to read each one to the very end without interruption.  Each story is heart wrenching in its own way, guaranteed to have you falling in love with the characters and the stories of their lives. Take a look!

KISSING COUSINS—DIANA TOBIN

Augusta Thompson has lost everything—her parents, her husband, her home…and now, her only child. If she can share her grandmother’s old home with handsome Olympic contender Charles “Web” Webster for one year, she will inherit it.

As time goes by, Web realizes Augusta’s heart and soul have been wounded by her ex-husband. Can Web’s love for Augusta heal her broken heart and allow them a future together? Will the conditions of the inheritance prove to be a help or hindrance for these KISSING COUSINS?

SHATTERED VOWS—LINDA LAROQUE

Annie and Stuart Rayburn’s lives are idyllic until their baby dies of SIDS, and Annie falls into a deep depression. In a moment of weakness, Stuart turns to another woman.

When the “other woman” is killed in a car crash, Stu learns his night of infidelity produced a baby girl—and he now has custody. He begs Annie’s forgiveness but Annie must face her demons and make her decisions. Can she forgive Stu and love the innocent child? Or will she divorce him and move on without the only man she’s likely to love?

WHO IS ELIZABETH?—PATTI BOECKMAN

Pit a feisty, she-cat against a reluctant interloper and watch the sparks fly.

When Elizabeth McDaniel's reclusive, sheltered existence on her grandfather's farm is invaded by Derek Huston, she cannot imagine the result of his intrusion into her life. Derek is soon enchanted with the lovely, spit-fire redhead.

A budding romance, the flowering of Elizabeth's musical talents, and Derek's acceptance into the family follows their first clash of wills. But Derek has a hidden agenda that, when revealed, turns Elizabeth's world upside down.

Is there any hope that Derek can regain her confidence and her love?

FAMILY SECRETS—ZINA ABBOTT

Jennie Howell has a secret, including being thought of as a loyal wife to her husband serving in Afghanistan, a husband who has demanded a divorce.

When Jennie begins to explore her genealogy, family members make it clear they won’t be a part of it—from Grandpa Mike, who wants the biggest mistake he ever made to remain hidden in the past—to  family members Jennie never knew existed.

Is Jennie willing and emotionally strong enough to learn what her family has kept hidden?

THE VIOLIN—SARAH MCNEAL

Genevieve Beaumont is haunted by dreams of a drowning man and her helplessness to save him. When she buys a violin at an estate sale, her life is changed forever. The pictures inside the case are of the man in her dreams, and the news clippings detail his death.

She travels to the small town where he died 90 years earlier, and steps through the threshold of time. It's 1927 all over again, and she has only days to prevent John's death—if she's able. THE VIOLIN has brought Genevieve into the past, and now she must make the decision of a lifetime. Will she return to her life in the future, or stay in the past with John? No matter what she decides, she must find a way to keep the dream of his death from becoming a reality...

FIRE STAR PRESS is proud to offer this wonderful boxed set, chock full of a variety of authors and stories that we know you are going to love. And the price?  Hold onto your hat! You’ll be getting FIVE FULL LENGTH NOVELS for only .99! That’s right—this wonderful boxed set is one we know you’re going to enjoy, and the fantastic price is only one of the reasons why you’ll be glad you snapped up LOVE COME TO ME!

THE WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF by Mollie Hunt

 

 “Suspension of disbelief or willing suspension of disbelief is a term coined in 1817 by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who suggested that if a writer could infuse a "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgement concerning the implausibility of the narrative…” ~Wikipedia

 

Without what is known as the suspension of disbelief, there would be no story. At least there would be no fiction, and I bet a good percentage of essays and memoirs would take a hit as well. Suspension of disbelief is the leap of faith the reader must take to enter into worlds not their own.
 

Without suspension of disbelief, old ladies could not be young again in the arms of the handsome prince, stranger, outlaw, bad boy, bad girl, or alien. Without suspension of disbelief, space ships couldn’t zoom across space “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” Without suspension of disbelief,  a small New England town couldn’t sustain a murder a week for 12 years. Without suspension of disbelief, zombies couldn’t apocalypse, heroes couldn’t save the world, cats couldn’t talk, and pigs couldn’t fly. You get the picture.
 

 

 

How does a writer achieve suspension of disbelief? It’s far more complex than tossing out a quirky plot to see where it lands. A reader must be drawn in gently as if into a trap, inch by inch without ever realizing they are being led. That requires a preliminary foundation, baby steps down the rabbit hole.

 

 

FANTASY FAIRY KITTEN CATS

by Artist Cyra R. Cancel

 

In my sci-fantasy series, Cat Seasons, I need my reader to believe cats can save the world from alien and otherworldly threats. To do that, I first must convince my reader that cats can talk - within the first chapter! I personally have no problem accepting miraculous cat behavior – I wait longingly for Tinkerbelle or Little or Red to say something! Anything! It doesn’t have to be profound or prophetic, just a hi, how are you would be fine - but some readers need more convincing. It turns out my protagonist does, too. As the cats convince her, they convince the reader as well. It’s not just dialogue, though – “Hi, I’m a talking cat” doesn’t cut it. There has to be more. Environment, a dream-like state, an intense sensitivity to scents and sounds,  and a sprinkle of deviant moonlight all help to persuade. I try to create a picture so compelling, the reader wants to believe.

 

In my Crazy Cat mysteries, I parallel  a truer universe, one where people work and volunteer and pay bills and go to the bathroom. But then suddenly the path takes a twist into the unfamiliar, landing the reader in the midst of murder and mayhem, where hopefully, they don't in reality go.

 

 

Mystery Cat by LadyTashigi

 

Suspension of disbelief is in the details, the mix of fact and fantasy. It’s in the description, both what is offered on the page and what is left out. It’s in the presentation of evidence that, unlike law, is not beyond reasonable doubt. It is the miracle of possibility.

 

Do you believe? Do you want to?

 

 

Elf Ranger by cypritree

 

 

Check out more blogs by Mollie Hunt at:

Mollie Hunt: Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries and more

 Happy reading!



 

Commas and FANBOYS

I have discovered one of the difficulties of becoming a professional writer later in life is someone, somehow, has changed English grammar.

In eighth grade back in the dinosaur days, I aced English grammar. I was still of an age where I was comfortable with “rules.” Like math, where two plus two always added up to equal four, if there was a hard and fast grammar rule, I ingrained it in my brain. Through the years I’ve fallen back on those rules to get me through my school term papers, my creative writing efforts (which were few and far between while I raised my six children), to correct my children’s term papers, my business correspondence on my jobs, and my reports and grievance files as a union steward.

Then I started writing fiction—novelettes to full-length books—only to discover someone along the way has changed the rules, especially in regards to the use of commas. I first noticed it when a ran across either a blog post or Facebook discussion about it no longer being necessary to use a comma before ending a sentence with the words “too” or “also.” Example: “I want to go to the store, too.” is now written as “I want to go to the store too.”

WHAT?!? That comma in the sentence is a rule. That has stuck with me from dinosaur days until now. However, after doing a little research, I discovered that current style manuals have declared that little ol’ comma is no longer necessary.

My most recent line editor just shattered for me another rule. It involves FANBOYS. What are FANBOYS? That almost sounds a little risqué. No such luck. It is an acronym for:

For

And

Nor

But

Or

Yet

So

I don’t recall any rules about FANBOYS from my eighth grade grammar class up through college. I was kindly told by my latest copy editor friend there is a reason. In the “old days” coordinating conjunctions which joined independent clauses always had a comma before them. Example: “I went to the store, and he insisted he go with me.” Now those commas before the “and” (or any of the FANBOYS conjunctions I might have used in its place) is no longer necessary unless the author wants to place them there for effect, or to create a pause for emphasis, or as part of a character’s speaking style.

WHAT?!? We can be creative? There are rules, but we don’t always have to stick to them? My thirteen year-old grammar ace self would not have found that acceptable. Neither would have my eighth grade English teacher.

And, it used to be a big no-no to start a sentence with any of the FANBOYS. Nor, did you use a comma after a FANBOYS at the start of a sentence because starting a sentence with a FANBOYS just was not done. But, it may be done now for effect. Yet, if the author wants to use a comma for effect, he or she may. Or not. For "someone" have changed the rules. So, someone like me who loves to start sentences with FANBOYS conjunctions finds that particular change in the rules to be a good thing. 

But, any writer who wants to be published needs to find out what set of grammar rules their editor or publisher prefers and write in a style acceptable to that publishing house.

In other words, find out what style manual your publisher uses and how hard and fast said publisher sticks to it.

I actually have a style manual in my possession I purchased decades ago. It is the one published by Merriam-Webster. Unfortunately, I have never hear of anyone declare they use that style manual. Several publishers like The Chicago Manual of Style. The rules in the various style manuals will be similar, but not always the same, because someone, somewhere, somehow has changed some of the grammar rules in the last half century.

Or, if you are really lucky, your editor may rely on what she learned in her eighth grade grammar class back in the dinosaur days.

Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. Her novel, Family Secrets, was published by Fire Star Press. Her novelette, A Christmas Promise, along with the first two novellas in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine and A Resurrected Heart, was published by Prairie Rose Publications.

Please visit and follow the Zina Abbott’s Amazon Author Page by clicking HERE.