Tuesday, January 26, 2016

A love affair with cows


 
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If  bliss is the feeling you get when something hits your soul like glimmering silver then my love affair with cows qualifies. I didn't meet many cows growing up in D.C. But on our drive south after my first marriage my new husband tutored me in the brands/species/breeds of cows.

I can now recognize Holsteins, Charolais, Brama, Jerseys, Guernseys, Angus, and a few others. Then one of our Louisiana neighbors started breeding Galloways and I wanted to cuddle one. They look like fluffy little oreos with legs. So I was thrilled to get to meet these little guys and pet their parents. Crazy huh? I get to drive by them everyday and still take pictures of the newborns when they are at the fence in the Spring.

Besides puppies and kittens do you have a blissful connection witho any Animals?

Blogging all month in the A-Z Challenge. Check out our other bloggers.

(Oh and I have a free book today on Amazon if you like fantasy. Eve of Chaos, bk3 in the Destiny Paramortals)

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Thursday, January 21, 2016

F is for Friends

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They come in all shapes, sizes, occupations...species. They are people you went side by side with in school, others you played with in sports that you reconnected with. The person who listens to you everyday at lunch, or just when you really need somebody and they don't even ask to share their load with you.

It can be a stranger who becomes more on a an airplane or in the concourse or passing through your business. A special friend can develop from a chat room, a Facebook group, an author loop or conference and the bond grows.

And no one should cheapen the value of those pets who move through our lives. They leave a mark as deep as any human friend even if they can't talk back - maybe especially so. ;)

DO you have a special friend who gives you a blissful feeling just knowing he or she is in your life, or was?

Check out the other bloggers on the A to Z April Challenge

Friday, January 8, 2016

HEAs and HFNs in #Romance #IARTG


 
If you’re t a romance writer you’re probably not familiar with the acronym HEA, It stands for happily ever after. There’s a another one that’s gained prominence since the rise in popularity of continued series. HFN or happily for now.

Many have criticized the romance genre for being formulaic and they can be. I remember one historical author years ago who wrote some of the first books in which the heroine became intimate with more than one ‘hero’. Her plots were structure so similarly that you could literally do a find and replac e for the names and setting and have nearly the same book.  Still they were popular, because of the HEA.

These days because ofgroups like RWA and strong online support and education , most serious writers in the genre have studied the craft of writing – plotting, characterization, dialogue, Goal Motivation and Conflict… the same elements and standards as other genres. But the one thing that sets them apart is HEA and HFN. Romance is dependent upon either a happy ending or a satisfactory ending with hanging threads, usually in the fantasy sub-genres. There is always a knowledge, not a wonder, that things will eventually turn out okay for the heroine and hero.

In Storm Crazy, book one of my Destiny Paramortals series based on Storm Lake,  things get pretty dicey at the end with a cliffhanger thread but the reader doesn’t have to worry that I’ll kill offo the hero or heroine. I’m not George R.R. Martin and this isn’t mainstream fantasy or literary fiction. It’s romance.

What they get to enjoy though is a series of books where the characters’ arcs and the paranormal aspects of Destiny grow and new characters enter the picture.  I just released the Storm Lake box set 1(Destiny books 1-3) with book 4 completing one of the story arcs in June. No worries, the main characters will live, but doesn’t anything in life remain exactly the same???? We’ll see.

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