Sharing a Couple of Things Today

The week has definitely gotten away from me, so today's blog post is going to be a quick one. 

First, I want to share the news that, due to popular demand, we're revving up the publication schedule for my back list and all the Dancing on Coals workshops, We'll be doing one workshop and one work of fiction every month until all the workshops and the books on my back list I can re-release are available. 

To that end, one of my most popular workshops is now available on Kindle. 

Why, Why, Why? Mastering Character Motivation is a writing craft workshop focused on helping you create strong, realistic motivation for the characters in your novels.

Motivation is one of the key elements of any novel. Strong, believable motivation can drive your story from page one to the final scene, while weak or unrealistic motivation can be the kiss of death. In this workshop, we discuss how to avoid clichéd and contrived motivations and how to build on your basic characterization to create characters that actively push your story forward. We also tackle that dreaded nemesis of so many writers—author intrusion. 

This is a great follow-up to Creating Characters with Character, our workshop on characterization, but can also stand alone, especially if you've already some preliminary work with your characters. This workshop has been presented in part at various writer’s conferences, including Romance Writers of America annual conference in Washington, D.C. (2009) and an excerpt from it was published as an article in RWA’s trade journal, Romance Writers Report.

I haven't decided which workshop will come next. I'm trying to decide between Plotting the Organic Way, Avoiding Author Intrusion, and Dodging the Dreaded Saggy Middle.  I'm going to be conducting a poll on the Dancing on Coals Facebook page on Friday, so please stop by and offer your opinion. 

Also, for those new here, I'm featuring one book every week from my back list of books still available for purchase. This week's Book of the Week is: 

Picture Perfect 

(originally published as Call Me Mom)  

You can read an excerpt here and also find buying information if you'd like to pick up a copy. 

I think that's it for today. Hope everyone has a fabulous week! 

Release Day! A Time to Dream

It's up! It's here! It's ready to download. 

I'm really excited to share this book with you again after all this time. It was a lot of fun to write, and the characters still have a special place in my heart. It was fun for me to reconnect with Zacharias, Agatha and Shelby. I hope you enjoy visiting them again or meeting them for the first time. 

Originally published by Jove Time Passages in 1999, A Time to Dream remains a reader favorite. 

Hannibal, Missouri, 1999​ -- While trying to save two historic houses from an ​u​ncertain fate, ​caretaker ​Shelby Winters is whisked back in time--and into the body of Zacharias Logan's estranged wife​...​​​ 

Hannibal, Missouri, 1871​ -- ​Becoming Agatha Logan is​ no walk in the park​ for Shelby. ​Agatha has secrets she hasn't shared with anyone and her marriage to Zacharias is all but over.​ ​ 

Shelby​ is ​undeniably attracted to Zacharias​, but he has secrets too. Even in the past, Shelby doesn't know why Zacharias built two identical houses or why his marriage to Agatha is in trouble. If she is to preserve the houses, she must mend the marriage and get back home before she loses her head--and her heart--completely...

Click here to buy your copy. Also available on Kindle Unlimited.

No Place Like Home

Book #2 in the Fred Vickery series is now available in Kindle format! Click on the title to get your copy of No Place Like Home today.

To an outsider, the peaceful town of Cutler, Colorado seems untouched by the troubles of the modern world. But Cutler is as good as any big city at guarding its secrets. And it takes someone who’s lived there a lifetime to unravel its many mysteries. Someone like Fred Vickery.

Seventy-three years haven’t dampened Fred’s enthusiasm for life or his pride in his children, no matter how foolish they may sometimes act. Take his impetuous son, Douglas, for instance. Since his divorce, Douglas has ignored all of Fred’s sage advice about moving on with his life. Douglas is determined to reconcile with Suzanne, even though she’s not at all interested in getting back together.

Now Douglas is the only suspect in the murder of Suzanne’s new boyfriend. But there’s no way Fred is going to sit back and let his son take the rap for murder—no matter what his daughter, his doctor, and the sheriff say. Desperate to clear Douglas of suspicion, Fred turns to the one source that he knows will eventually reveal the truth—the small-town gossip mill.

The book was originally published in 1996. Also available: No Place for Secrets. 

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original photo credit: epSos.de via photopin cc

The Adventure Begins!

Okay, so I didn't quite make my goal of getting this book online by October 31 of this year. One thing I've learned about goals is that it's unproductive to spend time on regrets, Wouldas, shouldas and couldas can eat a person alive. 

So yesterday I uploaded my first work of fiction onto Amazon and thus begins the real adventure into self-publishing. Earlier this year, I put up one of my workshops for writers and that's been selling pretty well so far. My next project will be to get another workshop on Amazon. But my first love is writing fiction, so in my head this is where it really starts to count.

Oh, I know I'm a bit late coming to the indie dance, but I'm here now and that's what matters, right? Not only is this the first work of fiction I'm publishing on my own, it is literally my first work of fiction. It's the book that started it all when I got an offer from a publisher back in 1993. No Place for Secrets is the book that launched my publishing career 20 years ago, so it will always have a special place in my heart.

In an effort to figure out the world of independent publishing, I've spent time researching and reading what others who've gone this route have already learned. I've weighed the pros and cons of every choice and then I've tried not to agonize over the choices I've made. I thought about changing up the titles, but after brainstorming new titles for several weeks, I finally decided to stick with the original ones. I found a slew of titles I liked, but none that worked for good old Fred, Doc, Enos, and Margaret.

Over the past few weeks, I read through the manuscript again and made some minor revisions. I thought about updating the story and making it more current, but at the request of readers I opted to leave Fred and his friends in the mid-1990s where they belong. In fact, other than shaving off a few of the rough edges I found in my writing style, I left the story alone.

So it's up there on Amazon and now it's time to step back and let the story do the work. If this series is new to you, I hope you'll give Fred and the good folks of Cutler a try. If you're one of the many readers who considers these characters friends, I hope you'll enjoy going back to visit them as much as I did.