Seasonal Changes and Mid-Year Review

The temperature may be 90 degrees outside and the A/C is definitely cranked down inside, but there are signs everything is about to switch over to a new season. I’m ready, are you?

(my house and I know we aren’t there yet, but hey…!)

When I was at the grocery store a few days ago, the magazines are touting “soups to warm you” and “easy casseroles for tailgating,” and snuggly quilts to make for those chilly nights. Covers display autumnal designs with pumpkins and warm colors of gold and orange. Domestic magazines are encouraging us to take our families on the ghost tours. In other words, Summer may have us firmly in her grasp but Autumn is pacing in the wings and she’s not far away.

Which is why I thought now was a good time to catch up with a mid-year review with what’s news and include what’s happened to be sure we’re ready for a change season.

UPCOMING NEW RELEASE: First, the July newsletter gave subscribers a first look at the new book cover! I followed this up with a release on Facebook, first on the Cover Me Darlings page and then on mine. Now you get to see the final front cover:

I’m completely crazed for this divine cover by Marisa-rose Wesley of Cover Me Darlings. The upcoming events are wonderfully captured. Hoping to for a SEP 21 RELEASE. No pre-order info yet.  If you want to be ready for the new book, then begin with the prequel, THE GYPSY THORN. Here’s a teaser and a link.
LATEST CHAT: I’ve done a Live Chat every month. Hope you’ve been listening. The latest one promised exclusive content for newsletter subscribers. August will begin those surprises. Catch up on the latest video here.  Newsletter subscribers can sign up here.

INSTAGRAM: Are you following all the pens I’ve been showing every Monday on Instagram? Here is the one for this week — you’re seeing it here the same time I’m posting on IG. Only two left after today. What a cool year of pens it has been. You can always scroll back through my IG and revisit them.

UPCOMING EVENT:  Find me next at Book ‘Em North Carolina, an author signing designed to fight against illiteracy. This will be my third time with them. The event is Sep 22, Robeson Community College, NC and the event is FREE. All you pay for are the books you buy. There are about 35 authors and publishers scheduled to attend. Plus there will be some panels and those are free too. Hope to see you. Here is the website with more info. Come by and mention this blog post and you’ll get a little something extra with my compliments.

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ON THE HORIZON: I was given a great idea and I am going to implement it right away. The suggestion was that I do some specialized videos about each of the books in my Evening Bower series, to include information about the characters plus read a snippet from each book. 

I like that idea and so I will begin this information right away! The first video will appear soon and be about Midnight Assassin. The second will be at the end of August and cover The Gypsy Thorn. The third will be about Time and Blood and appear around mid September. In the vids I will introduce you to characters, give you information about the plot and read something from the book. I will mention particulars about the characters that may enhance your experience with the story.

All this will be in preparation of the newest book’s release. Just before it comes out, I will do a teaser video (TBA) and mention some secrets that have never been discussed. Sound like fun?

Exact dates TBA in the newsletter, in here, and on my Facebook Author page. It’ll be FUN!

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There’s MORE!  FAN FICTION WRITERS!

My special book, Vampire Vignettes is planned for late spring 2019 (guessing). This book will be scenes that never made it into the regular novels of the Evening Bower. I have planned scenes between Drahomira and Franklin, Destin and Reaper, Rhea and Cooke…and so many more. But here’s where YOU come in.

I’m going to offer readers of the series a chance to have their fan fiction vignette INCLUDED in this book. You won’t be paid royalties when published, but you will have your own chapter in the back under Fan Fiction and you’ll be a published author too! Thinking right now up to three stories. More info on this coming.

If you have read the novels and plan to read the new book, then you will have all the information you need to do a fun vignette (of course I will happily answer any questions). Lighthearted is the key. They may be dark but they have to have some quirk to make me smile and must capture the established flavor and voice of the character. Look for specifics by the end of the month. I’m VERY excited about this and look forward to helping you out too.

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With the upcoming change of season, I’m changing too. I love the longer nights and the darker shadows.  New books keep me excited and the prospects ahead are as moonlight from a full moon. The changes make me want to write more….more….more!

Thank you for stopping by. Watch my newsletter and Facebook author page for updates, and of course, the Monday posts here. 

I remain always, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

WELCOME TO THE BIRD FEEDER NEIGHBORHOOD

The calendar said it was Spring but this year I’m happy to say Winter has a firm grip and isn’t letting go. We’ve had snow flurries three times this month here, and poor New England is buried after four Nor’easters. I can’t say I’m happy for those up north but I’m delighted to be lingering under a blanket with hot tea, watching cold rain fall while I either read or write. Very satisfying.

My writer’s mind is always working but seems to work overtime during the fall and winter months. I suppose that’s why I enjoy doing National Novel Writing Month in November because it suits the weather and my “spring” fever that only comes in Autumn. When Winter arrives, I write and read like a mad woman, though much of what I write doesn’t ever see the light of day. Still, satisfying.

One thing I can tell you about writing every day is this opens your mind to new ideas and new ideas brings you more prolific moments. You know I like to take real life and turn everything into an opportunity for scene work, character development, or world building. Real life moments are what make me a better writer. Even dark and dank, (ma)lingering Winter ones.

For example, recently we put up a new bird feeder. This has been a never-ending source of incredible excitement for the local songbirds. For my husband and me too. We watch out our kitchen window as the cardinals and their mates (or potential mates) flitter and fuss over fallen seeds, the bluebirds, wrens, and sparrows becoming regular patrons. Doves rarely came to my yard before and now two pair seem to have moved in. And a gorgeous red-headed woodpecker that I saw once or twice a year is now a daily friend.

The squirrels are like potential shoplifters. We had to grease the bird feeder pole to keep one particular squirrel from climbing and pilfering the seeds. He seemed oblivious to the local bluejay security guard so we solved the problem. Just like a greedy kid, the squirrel will have to manage like everyone else. I’m keeping an eye on him.

I liken this whole moment to opening a new apartment building. Suddenly you get all sorts of people moving in and out, strange and beautiful. Dating and mating and married for life-ers. There are the fussy, the troublemakers, the slow movers, and the ones always in a hurry but going no where.

And just like real life, you get the ugly moments too. A raccoon died in the road out front of the house. A black vulture dragged it to the end of the driveway. Then into the side ditch. Then back onto the driveway. Then UP the driveway. That’s when the friends showed up. For two days, we watched this go on and then when the raccoon ended up in the middle of our drive, hubby loaded it onto a shovel and tossed it into the neighboring pasture (that’s called passing the buck). Now we see the vultures from a distance. Close enough to see them manage their meals but far enough away that the gruesome factor is mitigated. Let those demons attack elsewhere, right?

Same as it would be for my neighborhood apartment building. Death in the streets is a natural occurrence. Robbing and dragging. Gangs showing up for spoils.

The rains are back. The birds are scattering. They too need time in their cozy nests. I hear a redtail hawk overhead. Squirrels run for cover. Like sirens screeching by in the road, these sirens in the sky warn of danger and accidents. Like me, like people, the birds and animals know.

A doe and two young fawns make their way over barbed wire fence (what separates me from the neighboring pasture) and come to feed on unborn tulips and fallen bird seed. The birds scatter at first, then return, realizing the diner is big enough for everyone. It is a peaceful neighborhood and diversity is possible. Deer, dove, large birds and small. Oh look! A bunny. Ah, that was a nibble on the run much like young folks who are too busy to stop and chat.

(Not my pic, but funny)

Like a true diner, the bell over the door is silent but when the diner is open, it serves many and all.

Life is happening outside my window and in my writer’s mind it is a world not dissimilar to the one I live in. Even in the darkness, when I know the “others” come – the fox, the coyote, the possum, and raccoon – the 24-hour diner continues to serve, their world turns and life is a cycle of comings and goings, birth and death. But this “local diner” is now the hub of activity and feels comfortable.

Uh-oh, there’s the black cat that lives somewhere around here. I think of him as the mafia don, always looking for a payment. Everyone has fled and the cat sits atop my firepit surveying the scene. He’s looking mighty plump these days so business must be profitable. From the tail twitch, someone’s going to pay up soon. When he’s gone, the small birds return. Life goes on.

Thrones, anyone?

That’s the way our book series work, too. We build a world, make the lives, stay with them day in and day out, get comfortable with our characters, look for them, get to know them, need them.

Even when Winter has to let go for Spring, life around the diner will be a never-ending story to savor. I’m certain that’s when I’ll finally see the falcon who gives the hawk competition. Of course, the owl who cries “whooooo” as the police on patrol, lets me know all is well in the neighborhood.

Let the life outside your window give your imagination fodder for your characters as mine does. You’ll writing will sparkle with realism because it will reflect the life’s truth in microcosm. And the fun you’ll have is endless.

We’ve put up a hummingbird feeder close to the window. It’ll be like going to ballet. I can’t wait for that show to come to town. When Spring is allowed to arrive, that heralds the butterflies and bats, and finally Summer’s fireflies. It’s like waiting for the circus.

We’re putting in a birdbath soon. My own neighborhood bathhouse.Stay tuned! And keep writing.

I remain, Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry

P.S. Look for my poetry contest!  Rules at the end of this week. 

Happy Halloween Eve! Are you ready for the boo-tiful ghosts and goblins to visit? Have you prepared so not to anger the spirits? Ha! I’m stocked with chocolate and ready to watch scary movies, eat pumpkin pie and gorge on Hershey bars. My inner kid is looking forward to The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and then some delicious version of Dracula.

My childhood memories are so tender and precious about Halloween. I looked forward to the changing leaves (in Illinois) and the cooler nights. We dressed warmly under our costumes and dashed out in the twilight to threaten our neighbors into surrendering their candy. “Trick or Treat, smell my feet, gimme something good to eat!”  (The implied threat was if you don’t, we’ll be mean to you.) Then the neighbors would either recoil in mock fear and pass out candy OR first insist that we perform a trick, which meant do a dance, sing a song, tell a joke or some such thing, and then handed over the candy. How we lived for this one night of uninhibited wild joy. We could be anyone and anything we wished.

And when the night was over and we’d robbed  visited every house, we gathered at my house (or someone’s) where parents watched us dump our haul and trade as parental watchful eyes looked out for anything strange in our goodies. 

I miss those days when we could play in masks without drug dealers, pedophiles, drive by shootings or kidnappings, gang’s on corners or any fear whatsoever other than would we miss out on the best candy at Mrs-so and so’s house. 

But I still enjoy the holiday and I decorate and remember, share little goodies with friends and act just as crazy this time of year as convention will allow. I am, after all, a Halloween lover and I think it influenced my stories and books. And speaking of books…..

So now to your treats! On my monthly live Facebook chat Oct 28, I reminded watchers of some upcoming events. First, my vampire poetry, By Light Betrayed, is on the last days of its sale. You can get this in ebook for 99 CENTS! And the book has color photography. On Nov 1, the ebook returns to $3.99 and will NEVER EVER go on sale again. So now is the time. My treat to you.

Next, my new book, Time and Blood is available to pre-order. This is the first book in my new paranormal romance series, Evening Bower.  The prequel was The Gypsy Thorn and sets up the events in the new book. You can pre-order TIME AND BLOOD and be sure of the sale price of 99 cents.

And here’s my treat — the first five people who comment (with more than just a hi) can receive A FREE Time and Blood ebook!!!!!  But you have to comment today, Oct 30!

I also promised some drink recipes. So let the spirits soar!  Here you go:

**Vampire’s Kiss (a personal favorite)**

3 oz Cranberry juice (unsweetened)
2 oz. Chambord
2 oz Raspberry Vodka (Cherry works too)

Shake gently, add a couple ice cubes and pour into a martini glass.

 **Dracula’s Brew (men like this one especially)**

 2 oz Applejack
1 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz red grenadine syrup

Combine in a shaker, add ice, shake, pour!

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Books! During my chat I mentioned some good Halloween reference books for authors looking for references of extra, unique info. Here are four links.

The Deluxe Transitive Vampire.  Gypsy Magic.  Wicked Plants.  Tarot for Writers.

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There you have it. FREE ebooks! Great drinks. Cool books to add to your library.  And More ——

AUTHOR SIGNING:  I will be in Columbia, SC for Authors Invade Columbia book event/signing on Nov 11. COME OUT/COME DOWN. I’m looking forward to seeing you. Tickets are $12 but I may be able to get a free couple tickets if you comment and tell me you’re coming and you need one. Do it FAST.

AUTHOR RADIO Appearance! I’ll be on Yvonne Mason’s OFF THE CHAIN blogtalk radio on Nov 2 at 8pm. Tune in for the hour as I talk with Yvonne about the new book, the prequel, and anything else that makes us laugh or strikes our fancy. She is the best and you’ll love listening to her. Call in to ask questions too!

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Don’t forget, November is National Novel Writing Month – if you want to follow along with me, I will be reporting my DAILY progress on my Facebook Author page. And I will give you my weekly progress here on the blog, every Monday. Or buddy up with me on the website and I’m poetphoenix. I hope you’ll join me on this adventure in writing.

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Now, go out and enjoy the Halloween season. Listen to the leaves as they whisper the secrets of Autumn. Listen as the wind whispers to the trees. Let your inner child laugh and play. 

Happy Halloween, readers. I’m blowing candy kisses!
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry