BookingIt

First, Congrats to Lisa Jordan ! My two year old drew your name so e-mail me with your address and I'll get Tailor-Made Bride out to you. :-) I'm running around this week doing all sorts of things so I'm taking a week off of blogging. I hope wonderful things happen for all you this week and I'll see you next Monday!

Jericho "J.T." Tucker wants nothing to do with Coventry, Texas's new dressmaker. He's all too familiar with her kind--shallow women more devoted to fashion than true beauty. Yet, except for her well-tailored clothing, this seamstress is not at all what he expected. Hannah Richards is confounded by the man who runs the livery. The unsmiling fellow riles her with his arrogant assumptions and gruff manner while at the same time stirring her heart with unexpected acts of kindness. Which side of Jericho Tucker reflects the real man? If I saw this book in the bookstore, I'd pick it up because of the title and cover. I loved them. It was great getting between the pages and realizing that the outside reflects the inside. Karen Witemeyer's debut historical romance is a sweet, humorous story that I enjoyed reading. The heroine Hannah is both funny and smart and I liked J.T.'s gruffness. Even though the plot felt a little on the predictable side to me, the characters...

The more I write, the more I realize good writing isn't enough. I've heard the saying, "Story trumps all." It really does. If you're starting a new story, or even halfway through, I'd suggest looking at your story first, editing and revising that (story structure, pacing, hooks, etc) before worrying about craft-like things such as POV, adverbs, dialogue tags, backstory, etc. Solid writing can be concrete. You can look at a sentence and "fix" it. Find the adverb. Delete the dialogue tag. Add a comma. Some people notice great writing. But if there's not a great story to go with it, the writing doesn't matter. On the other hand, a great story doesn't need great writing to suck the reader in. Which authors suck you in with their prose? Which authors tell such a great story that you don't even notice their prose? And if you had to choose, which author would you be?

A category romance is a shorter romance (45-60k, depending on the line, up to 75k if it's historical) that has a one month shelf life. Harlequin is the main category publisher though I think there are others who have category-like imprints.( Barbour and Kensington ) Single Titles are all the other books you see sitting on the shelf. They're usually 75k-110k and the plot lines include more subplots than a category. For the past few months I've been turning my category into a single title. It's hard! Do you know if there's such a thing as western categories? What size books do you enjoy reading? How long is your WIP?

My day is filled with cleaning and children. What are your plans for today?

For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. (NASB Psalm 139:13 ) As I was putting away laundry the other day, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. No make-up, hair pulled away from my face...I looked ugly. I felt ugly. Then I remembered how God made me, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that I'm fearfully and wonderfully made . After that, I looked at myself and knew that I'd been crafted with love. This made me think of our stories. Perhaps they're considered ugly (rejected). Maybe they're not perfect (don't follow writing "rules") But think about how you wrote that manuscript. Think about the love and the wonder and the awe of creating a story from your heart. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. What is one part of your body that you think is beautiful? What about your first manuscript?

I do most of my blog reading in the morning. I know I miss out on posts because I have to stop scrolling through my dashboard after breakfast is done. For me, if you post in the morning there's a better chance that I'll be commenting on it. What times do you schedule your posts for? Do you think the timing matters?