For the Criminally Inane

When I first started writing ten years ago, I was in the midst of the "baby years." I had two kids about four and two. I yearned for a time when I would be more free to write. I'm here to tell you, it just doesn't happen. Yes, now that I have three kids, two of them teenagers, and it doesn't get easier. I have play practice and sports practice and after school things and football games and their social calendar. Maybe that sounds discouraging. Maybe it gives you hope. Writing is something you have to make and take time for. It doesn't just fall in your lap. Even now that all the kids are in school and I can write all day, other things come up. I volunteer at the school, at my church and recently now the HOA. There will always be things that claim your time. It's easy to say someday I'll have more time. I'll write then. In the future, I expect to travel to see my grandkids, be there for when my kids have babies and continue my voluntee...

Happy to announce the updated cover for Baker's Dozen! My publisher was so understanding and even asked me why I hadn't asked to have it changed before. People may be asking why the change. Well, as much as I loved the first cover with the city-scape of  St. Louis, I wanted something to reflect the funny, flirty tone of the book. Other updates! I found out last week that I'm a Whitney Award nominee! Thank you to all who nominated me, who believed my book worthy of such a title. If you want to read more about what the Whitney award is, click HERE . Also, I'm trying to be more consistent with my blogging and will try to update once a week on Wednesdays!  Topics I still need to share, the LUW conference, my latest title submission and conference wins! If you'd like more up to date info, subscribe to my newsletter or follow me on social media. Anyway, sure love you all! Amey

Baker's Dozen is featured on the BookSweeps giveaway !  Win free books and download freebooks. I was a little skeptical, so I went to the site and signed up. All the books look so interesting and fun! I had to click on all the authors. So check it out! This won't last long! Be sure to sign up for author newletters and download some free books!

I'm going to share my marketing plan so that others can see what I'm doing and why. Most of your promotion should be done before your book is released. You want to build hype before the book comes out. You can also host mid-year sales, and anniversary sales.  Step one : Develop a marketing plan by asking and answering the following questions Who is your audience? Define their ages, (don’t say 18-99--the more specific the better) What other books are they reading? What hobbies do they enjoy? What do they not like? What appeals to them? What kind of images would attract their attention? Where does your audience hang out? Where do they live in cyber world? Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? Book review blogs?  What’s different about your book? Step Two : Create a brainstorm cloud with your book in the center. Now add all the ways you can reach your defined audience. Other bubbles include: Your newsletter Your blog Your Youtube channel Your Twitter account Yo...

Deep POV is one of my favorite things to write in. It's close. It's personal. It's deep. It heightens the emotion of the character and brings the reader closer. I just turned in my second romantic suspense. A sequel to my Baker's Dozen romantic suspense mystery. My editor sent me a guide of words to eliminate in my writing. Here are my top favorite to avoid. 1. Saw If your point of view character saw something, just say what he saw. Alan saw Margret brush a stray hair from her eyes. vs. Margret brushed a stray hair from her eyes. 2. Thought If you are in your character's head, you rarely need to mention he thought something. We want to stay close to the writer's sensibilities, almost mimicking his thought. Alan thought there had to be a better way than this. vs. There had to be a better way than this. 3. Felt  If you have to tell us she felt something, then it destroys the sense of closeness. Margaret felt angry. vs. Margaret beat ...

I've had this philosophy lately to give up my fear. It first started in my twenties when I served as a missionary in Switzerland and France, talking to people about their deepest fears, their hopes and dreams for the future. The President of my mission said to me, "Get rid of your stress, worry, anxiety and fear; those will keep you back." Up to that point I'd always seen stress or worry as a form of mental energy progressing me to a solution, but in reality, it was exhausting me and paralyzing me. Ten years ago, I decided to put away my fears. My fears of never becoming a writer, my fear that I would never be good enough to publish, my fear of not getting out all these wonderful stories I had tucked inside my heart. My husband told me to sit down and write something. So I did. I had this scene in my head about a girl who got poison ivy because I had just been through a rash of it. And she was a young girl, and I found out that beer can help offset the affects o...

Pinterest is a great social media tool for introverts. It's less social than many other platforms. What I love about Pinterest: Any post can be seen by all users In other social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook etc, only your followers can see your posts. Pinterest is unique because it's basically a huge search engine for pulling information. (More about "push" and "pull" later.) Posts have a long shelf life I started Pinterest years ago and people still "repin" my posts. Shelf life of Twitter is a few seconds, IG and Facebook are a little bit longer, but the staying power of Pinterest is unbeatable. Archival Everything can (must be!) be categorized and stored for Pinterest to work. That's good news for those creating pins. They last and are easy to find. Media You can use all sorts of different media: movies gifs, jpegs, images, recipes etc. in your pins Use to discover and save new ideas and link back to ...