Yes, it’s that time of year when authors of all ilks, walks of life, and publishing status attempt the annual NANOWRIMO ritual of penning 50,000 words ( or more ) in the 30 days of this month. For the seventh year running, I am a participant.
This can be a grueling endeavor for many writers, especially those who don’t have writing full time presently as their career choice. Writing between the office and home, at kids soccer practices, when at the dentist’s office waiting for an appointment are all the norm to most writers who still need to work at alternate jobs to keep food on the table. But even writers who work full time from home can find the prospect of writing a minimum of 1670 words a day – every day – daunting.
The first time I participated in NaNo I was still working full time. Writing that amount every day wasn’t something I’d ever done before. But I accepted the challenge and…did it! I wrote later at night, early in the morning, on lunch break, while dinner cooked. I wrote marathon sessions on the weekends. And it all paid off because at the end of the month I had the rough draft of a 75,000 word novel.
These days I’m afforded the luxury of writing all the time,but I still like the challenge of NaNo because it focuses me and makes me hone in on a specific and measurable word count goal every single day for a month.
Psychological theory tells us it takes about 21 days of consistent behavior to make a habit. Well in 30 that habit should be ingrained.
Writers write. That’s what we do. And making it a habitual part ofyour daily life is beneficial for so many reasons, not the least of which you can be more productive with product, namely, books.
Are NaNoWriMo-ing this year! Good luck if you are.
Pregnant and divorced, successful artist Trix Warden returns to Dickens to raise her child surrounded by family. To do that, she needs to renovate a horse barn into a gallery/market for other artists.
At 36, her baby is an unexpected miracle that is hers alone. Determined to get everything done before Delivery Day, she hires widowed single father, Jon Carpenter to do her renovations.
As they move through the work, they spend time together enjoying the holiday season. Trix helps Jon through tricky times as a parent of teens, and he offers support throughout her pregnancy.
Their friendly business relationship blossoms into mutual attraction, and on Christmas Eve, when the baby comes early, Trix trusts Jon with her secret and her heart. But the secret Trix reveals creates a deep divide between them as Jon struggles to accept the decision Trix has made.
Trix is afraid her secret Christmas baby, and her choices, may tear their newfound love to shreds.
July 3 – Dickens
“I’m getting a divorce.” Those words had seemed like a dreadful announcement to give her family last Christmas, but she’d weathered the storm. The combined Moore and James families had rallied quickly and supported her through the whole messy business. Dale, her husband of too many years, had left her for his much younger receptionist.
It still pinched that she was the first divorcee in her family. Trix Warden, loser at marriage. Last Christmas she couldn’t imagine anything worse.
Until now, today.
Because today she got to say the words, “I’m pregnant. I’m a pregnant divorcee.” She winced because that wasn’t the worst of it.
She smoothed her flowy white blouse and denim shorts as she walked the hall in Gram’s house.
Everyone had gathered for the Fourth of July weekend. From the kitchen she saw them on the patio, sitting on chairs in a semi-circle, cold drinks in hand. Her cousins Kayley and Brenna sat beside Brenna’s husband, Jett. He wore his usual expression; besotted. Not only did he love her cousin he was wealthy and generous. Kind, too. They’d only been married a few months having met right here in Dickens last Christmas.
She’d overshadowed their budding romance with her horrid divorce announcement, but that couldn’t be helped.
She sucked in her belly and plastered on a smile. Her Egyptian cotton top was long and roomy. It was perfect for July heat. This morning, without warning, she’d been unable to zip up her best pair of shorts, so she’d dug through her ‘big’ clothes and cut off her pre-divorce jeans above the knee. She needed to give her blossoming tummy more room.
Trix drew in a breath and slid open the screen slider. “Hi everyone. I finally made it. Getting out of Brooklyn was a bear.”
has been writing all her life, starting with a poem about Santa suffering with gout. She was seven, Santa was a thousandteen years old. Delighted with writing, she went on to write family sagas, humorous contemporary romance, romantic suspense, erotic paranormal ghost romances and more.
She may jump around within romance, but all her stories come with a tear, a laugh, and a happy ending. Published by Kensington Books, Harlequin Books, Carina Press, and Robinson (UK) Bonnie’s stories stretch from short stories to novellas and novels. Now, she’s happy to be publishing her work herself.
With over 35 titles to her credit, she has been translated into several languages and sold books worldwide. Aside from standalone romances, she has 4 ongoing romance series, Tales of Perdition, The Brantons, and Love at Christmas. Contemporary family sagas find a home in Return to Welcome. She’s hard at work on a new series releasing in August 2021. Learn about more exciting releases and get a free romance by subscribing to her newsletter, Bonnie’s Newsy Bits
Another of my favorite Dickens’s authors, MADDIE JAMES, has just released her newest addition to the second season of the DICKENS HOLIDAY ROMANCE BOOKS, THE LAST CHRISTMAS AT HOLLYHILL INN. This is actually the third book in the HOLLY HILL INN stories.
The newest story, THE LAST CHRISTMAS AT HOLLY HILL INN is available now.
Can a couple on the verge of divorce find romance again during their last Christmas holiday at Holly Hill Inn?
“I can’t do this, Will. I can’t fake my way through the holidays just to make our families happy. We both know our happily-ever-after is a farce.” “You could if you tried, Ava. It’s not that difficult to be nice to each other. We used to do it all the time.” “We used to be in love, Will.” “We still could be.” Ava stared at him. “What are you saying? You want to call off the divorce?” “I’m saying that I don’t think we are through, Ava. Not yet.”
Will and Ava Cohen were wildly in love—five years ago. Today, they are ships passing in the night, two professionals driven to reach the pinnacle of their professions. When Will steps in the door of their restored brownstone in Brooklyn each evening, Ava is already on stage at the Gershwin, playing the role of Glinda in Wicked.
They are calling their marriage quits—but not until they spend one more Christmas holiday together with their families at Holly Hill Inn. Traditionally, the family arrives in New York, and they all take the Christmas train to Dickens together. Will and Ava plan to share their news on the train ride back home.
That was the plan, anyway.
As the Christmas spirit of Dickens and Holly Hill Inn spins around them, Ava and Will begin to look at each other differently, and both wonder if they’ve been too hasty in deciding to divorce. Have they really thought this separation through? But the train is about to leave the station, and they are unsure if they can halt it—or if they should.
Will this really be their last Christmas at Holly Hill Inn?
Maddie James writes to silence the people in her head. If only they wouldn’t all talk at once….
From flirty contemporary romance to darker erotic titles—often mixed with a dash of suspense or a hint of paranormal—James pens stories that frequently blend a variety of romantic sub-genres. The happily-ever-after, of course, is non-negotiable.
Affaire de Coeur says, “James shows a special talent for traditional romance,” and RT Book Reviews claims, “James deftly combines romance and suspense.” Maddie is the award-winning author of over fifty titles of fiction—from short stories to novels.
You all know how much I lovelovelove having my Wild Rose Press sistahs come visit me. This year. the WRP has a new series titled CHRISTMAS COOKIES, and one of my favorite sistahs, Maria Imbalzano, has a new addition to the series that just released yesterday: RED VELVET CRINKLES & CHRISTMAS SPRINKLES. The book sounds as delicious as the title implies!!!! Maria is stopping by today to tell us all a little about the book.
Maria…
Hi Peg: Thanks so much for having me. I’m thrilled that my newest novella “Red Velvet Sprinkles and Christmas Sprinkles” has been released this week. It’s part of the Christmas Cookie Series published by the Wild Rose Press. This is the first Christmas story I ever wrote and I loved writing it almost as much as I love the Christmas holidays. One of our family traditions that I follow every year, is baking Christmas cookies. I always did it with my mom and now I do it with my daughters, although my cookies never come out as good as my mom’s did. I’m a little casual with measurements for ingredients and I don’t always have everything I need, so I substitute. The heroine of this book, Bella Simonetti, is very similar to me in that regard and there are some funny scenes where she and her mom don’t see eye to eye in the baking department. Despite that, Bella has a plan to help transform her parents’ failing business, just in time for the holidays.
Competitive, work-obsessed Bella Simonetti has just been fired from her high-paying job at a Manhattan law firm. At an all-time low, she returns home and helps her parents at their small-town gift shop, but the business is failing and may not make it past the Christmas holidays.
Successful landscape architect Dean Jackson is like a son to Bella’s parents. But he’s a persistent annoyance to her—he seems to have forgotten his unforgivable blunder thirteen years earlier.
When Bella transforms her parents’ gift shop into a cookie cottage, Dean’s generosity and magnetic smile are hard to resist, and those feelings of unrequited adolescent love come rushing back. But can Bella let go of the past and accept Dean for the man he is today?
Just then the bell over the door signaled a customer. Bella glanced up to see if their guest was here to browse or needed help, but no customer materialized. It was her dad with Dean in tow.
She had to admit he was even more striking than in high school. His light brown hair, sweeping from left to right in a perfect wave of silk, still had sun streaks from the summer, no doubt enhanced while playing on the links. And those green eyes had always been like flashing gemstones that sucked her in. But the best was his roguish smile—half teasing, half serious, but permanently heart-stopping.
Her best bet would be to prevent any cause for cheerfulness. Yet his intense frown was also mesmerizing. Staying away from him altogether seemed the ideal solution, but her parents had different ideas. Of course, her surliness toward him might make him rethink his charitable desire to help.
“Hi, Bella. How’s it going?” Even that simple greeting came with a full-blown smile.
She was screwed. “Fine.” She got right to the point—no friendly chitchat. “If you and Dad bring the boxes up front from the storeroom, Mom and I will take care of the decorating. You won’t have to stay.”
“Are you kidding? I love to decorate for Christmas. I’ve been helping your parents do it for the past few years while you’ve been AWOL.”
She blew an errant strand of hair out of her eye. “I wasn’t AWOL. I was working. In New York. I couldn’t up and leave on a Wednesday afternoon to come home and decorate.”
There came that half-teasing, half-serious smile. To avoid it, she started pulling Christmas balls hung on red-and-green silk ribbons from the large box she’d brought out.
“I can help you hang those in the window. I hid the hooks above the molding last year so we don’t have to remove them every year.”
“Clever.” Her sarcastic tone couldn’t be mistaken.
“We’ll need a ladder,” he determined. “I’ll get it from the back, then you can hand me the balls, and I’ll attach them.”
She slitted her eyes at him. “I want to hang the balls. You can do something else.”
“Fine. But it takes two for this job. You don’t want to be going up and down the ladder each time you hang a ball. It’s inefficient.”
He had a point. She’d have to bury her reluctance to work with him at the risk of coming up with some other childish excuse.
Once Dean brought the ladder to the window, she climbed up three steps and took the first ball from him. Not a well-thought-out plan since her butt was now at his eye level.
“Can you stand over here, please?” She pointed to the other side of the ladder.
“It’s better if I stand behind you, to spot you. In case you lose your balance.” His grin emerged, and she gritted her teeth to prevent a growl.
Inhaling, she reached up to tie the ribbon on the hook. Her sweater inched over her midriff, giving him a view of her torso. This day just couldn’t get any worse. If she hadn’t been so stubborn in demanding that she hang the ornaments, she’d have the pleasure of staring at his physique, not the other way around.
is a retired matrimonial lawyer who now writes full-time. Instead of drafting motions, legal memoranda, and briefs, although fascinating, she now spends her days creating memorable characters and taking them on their emotional journeys through her contemporary romance novels.
Her novel, “Unchained Memories,” won the Wisconsin Romance Writers Write Touch Readers’ Award and the ACRA Readers’ Choice Heart of Excellence Award. “Sworn to Forget,” the first of the four-book Sworn Sisters Series was a finalist for the illustrious RONE award as well as the Book Buyers Best Award. Two of her novellas, “The Blueberry Swirl Waltz” and “A Song For Another Day” won first place awards in their categories in the NEST (National Excellence in Story Telling) contest. Both of these novellas were also finalists for the Beverley Award.
Today, I have a fun surprise to share with you…I’ve teamed up with 45+ fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of Steamy Romances to 2 lucky winners!
Oh, and did I mention the Grand Prize winner gets a BRAND NEW eReader? 😁You can win my novel BALANCE
plus books from authors like Piper Rayne and April Canavan.
Gobble, gobble . . . Do you hear that? It’s the international calling for booklovers, courtesy of the persnickety turkey. It’s time to fill up your e-reader and/or device with spectacular books (e-copy and audiobooks) and this giveaway is a great place to start. N. N. Light’s Book Heaven has gathered new releases as well as wonderful backlist books in one giveaway. There are also a few Amazon gift cards up for grabs. The list is long and personally, I’d love to win myself but alas, I can’t. So, I’ll just live vicariously through the lucky winners. If there’s a particular book or prize you’d like to win, be sure to say which prize you want when you enter via Rafflecopter. Enter below and good luck!
Another wonderful writer I had the pleasure of working with on last Christmas’s Dickens Anthology was Lucinda Race. This season, Lucinda has not one new story to share from Dickens, but 2! The first. HOLIDAY HEART WISHES has already been released and is a novella. Here’s a little about the book:
Holiday Heart Wishes
Can a Christmas wish come true…
When social media director Vera Davis loses her job in the city, she takes her adorable, goofy rescue pup and heads home for the holidays, to her sweet hometown of Dickens. She’s hoping to move in with her mom and start a new business. But her drive is interrupted when she rescues a handsome, snowbound stranger stranded by side of the road.
Newspaper reporter Tony Barbee may be a stranger to Vera, but Dickens is his hometown, too. He’s come to spend Christmas with the uncle who raised him. But Vera and Tony are in for a surprise when they find her mother and his uncle living together. Aren’t they moving too fast?
Tony and Vera share something besides relatives in a blossoming romance: a tradition that when they see the Christmas tree in the gazebo on the village green—a scene right out of a Norman Rockwell painting—they should make a Christmas wish. Though they resist their own growing attraction to one another, Christmas is a time of surprises and gifts, and the unexpected answer to a heartfelt holiday wish may bring Vera and Tony the greatest gift of all…
Jillian Morgan, single mom and flower shop owner, once had a promising career as a women’s hockey player. Instead, she now has a precocious six-year-old daughter who loves hockey as much as she did. Jillian’s focus is her daughter and the busy upcoming holiday season in the small town of Dickens. Then a newcomer stops in for flowers. He might be good-looking—no, great looking—but Jillian doesn’t need a complication of the male variety.
Brett Parsons hasn’t held a hockey stick in ten years, not since an injury ended his dreams of being an NHL star. He’s moved to Dickens to help his newly widowed mother. With a recently broken engagement, and still unpacking while looking for a job as a physical therapist, he doesn’t have any interest in dating. But he might make an exception for the pretty blue-eyed florist.
Brett’s delighted when he takes a job coaching the local youth hockey group and finds Jillian’s daughter on his team. Jillian’s not the average hockey mom, and Brett’s looking forward to discovering her secrets. In spite of the attraction, Jill’s wary. It’s easier to stay single than to have her heartbroken again. But both of them know life rarely turns out as planned. In a town that cherishes Christmas, hockey pucks and holly berries might just lead to kisses under the mistletoe.
Award-winning and best-selling author Lucinda Race …
is a lifelong fan of romantic fiction. As a young girl, she spent hours reading romance novels and getting lost in the hope they represent. While her friends dreamed of becoming doctors and engineers, her dreams were to become a writer—a romance novelist.
As life twisted and turned, she found herself writing nonfiction but longed to turn to her true passion. After developing the storyline for The Loudon Series, it was time to start living her dream. Her fingers practically fly over computer keys as she weaves stories about strong women and the men who love them.
Lucinda lives with her husband and their two little dogs, a miniature longhair dachshund and a shitzu mix rescue, in the rolling hills of western Massachusetts. When she’s not at her day job, she’s immersed in her fictional worlds. And if she’s not writing romance novels, she’s reading everything she can get her hands on. It’s too bad her husband doesn’t cook, but a very good thing he loves takeout.
When divorced mother of two, Carole Kelley, moves herself and her children to Dickens, she figures the most difficult thing she’ll have to face is providing a perfect Christmas for her 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son.
What she doesn’t count on is Jaxon Matthews, Wil-Bar Toy’s attorney and quite possibly the most infuriating man she’s ever met.
Jax wants nothing more than to finish up his current workload within the next few weeks so he can pack his bags and leave for his usual solitary Christmas on Grand Cayman Island. His plans are quickly derailed when a big contract falls through, forcing him back to the negotiating table less than a month before the holiday.
His plans are further delayed when he meets Carole Kelley. Despite his best intentions to steer clear of any romantic entanglements, he can’t help but be drawn to the beautiful woman and her infectious holiday spirit… something he hasn’t felt in years.
Once he realizes getting to know Carole means competing with her two children for her attention, he’s ready to give up on furthering their relationship. What he doesn’t count on is the power of family, and the magic of the wish stick.
Downtown Dickens
November 24th
“Momma, are we there yet? Will Millie be there? Are we going to have Thanksgiving at their house?” Lila’s questions came in rapid-fire succession. “Will I get to sleep in the tent in her room like last time?”
Carole Kelley shifted in the front seat of her minivan and glanced in her rearview mirror. Her daughter was fighting sleep with the stubbornness of a seven-year-old diva.
Her four-year-old son Jake, on the other hand, was sound asleep in his car seat, not a care in the world.
“Yes, sweetie, we’re finally here. At least in Dickens proper. It’ll take a few more minutes before we reach Barrett House. As for where you’ll sleep, that will be up to Rick and Cassidy.”
“And Uncle William?”
“Yes, dear, him too.”
“Are we going to live at Barrett House? I want to ride the horses like last time.”
Carole released a long, weary sigh, then pulled in a much-needed breath. “No, dear, we won’t be living at Barrett House, as much as I’m sure you’d love to.”
“They have lotsa bedrooms,” Lila pointed out.
“Yes, they do. However, we don’t want to impose any longer than necessary. We have a nice apartment waiting for us in the same building where Cassidy and Millie used to live.”
“Is that where the lady lives who’s going to watch me and Jake when you’re at work?”
Gripping the steering wheel, Carole stretched her back and craned her neck, working out the kinks from the eight-hour drive, before responding. “Yes. Miss Frances comes highly recommended. Millie says she’s the bestest babysitter ever.”
“Are you excited about your new job? Will it be like the job you had back in Chester?”
“It’s not exactly the same as my last job, but I’m sure I’ll love it. Who wouldn’t love working in toy factory, even if it is in the office?”
“Will Jake and me get to see where the toys are made?”
Where was that blasted Sandman when you needed him?
“I suppose, but not right away. They’re way too busy to host tours, even for family.”
“Do you think Uncle William will give me another Princess doll for Christmas?”
“I guess it will depend on how good you’ve been this year.”
“I’ve been really good,” Lila insisted. “Really, really, good.”
“Yes, Lila dear, you have been very good, and very helpful with your little brother.”
Carole negotiated the last of the three turns in the road leading from town to the outskirts, finally pulling into the driveway at Barrett House.
Once she’d parked at the front door to unload her children and their overnight bags, she pushed the button to slide the rear door open only to find her daughter had finally fallen asleep. Just when she didn’t want her to be.
Nancy published her first book in 1996 and hasn’t stopped since. Her 100th book will be released on her birthday in April of 2022.
When not writing (which is almost never), Nancy dotes on her five wonderful grandchildren and looks forward to traveling and reading when time permits. Nancy lives in Atlantic Canada where she enjoys the relaxed pace and colorful people.
I love sharing my short stories with you all and Kindle Vella has made it so easy. My newest series, DEATH BETWEEN THE PAGES is all about retribution, revenge, and taking back your life after a tragic incident.
The newest story, SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN, was released today. You can read it for free on the Kindle Vella app.
Here’s a little snipper to whet your mystery reading appetite:
An early evening Mass was in session when Halley entered the church and found an empty pew halfway up to the altar.
She heard his voice before she saw him. She’d never forgotten that voice. It had a rugged, robust timbre that resonated throughout the church, bouncing off the stone pillars and sailing to every parishioner’s soul. It commanded, demanded, rapt attention. Halley knew the strength behind the voice; the seduction of words meeting air, splicing together to make heads and hearts swim. She remembered how that voice had affected her.
And she remembered what the person behind the voice had done to her.
Then she saw him. He was much the same as her memory allowed. Older, of course, but with age, more appealing physically than before. Gray streaks shot out from
his temples, worming their way behind his ears. His eyes hadn’t changed at all. Ice blue orbs shaded by the blackest of lashes. Eyes that saw into your very core. Eyes that could twinkle with the merriment one moment and ignite with the flames of desire the next.
Halley had been witness to both extremes.
As she knelt and made the sign of the cross, a sudden qualm of doubt at her mission and its ultimate goal fired through her. Just as quickly, reason overtook doubt. She had to do what had been planned; complete what had been started. Hers wasn’t the only life in the balance here. There were the others to consider. They had put their faith, their trust, and their hopes in her. She would not let them down.
Last weekend I had a ball at the FILNE held in Boxoborough, MA. I wasn’t able to attend last year because….Covid. But this year? Yeah, I went with bells on and pulled out all the bells and whistles for my missed year.
Recently. the conference made the news and spotlighted myself and author Linda Kepner. We are both NHRWA chaptermates and live near/adjacent to Peterborough.
