Blurb:
Ahh, Thanksgiving… complete with ghosts of holidays past. Those being humiliating memories of last year's revelry gone wild: jail cells, a tattoo and rose left on Kristi James pillow by someone she can't remember.
Toss in two brothers who, while loving, had needled her with vivid
imagery on what might have happened during that fateful rendezvous at the local
HoJo's. Seriously, what's a girl to do? She'd run like hell from Harpers Ferry
back to her apartment and job in Alexandria.
She's praying this year's holiday ends a bit more traditional. But
between exploding turkey's, cranberry fights, and the winter storm threatening
to lock them all together for God only knew how long, she's fairly certain her
Norman Rockwell hopes have flown the coop.
Adding another layer to this casserole
of disaster, the high school boyfriend—who'd cheated on her two days before
prom—returns, claiming to have made a horrid mistake all those years prior.
Amid all this, what has her heart flip-flopping is catching her best
friend Simon getting cozy with his latest girlfriend.
Thing is, she isn't sure why its bothering her so badly.
Sometimes it takes coming home again... to
discover how lost we’ve really been.
Buy Link for An American Holiday: http://www.amazon.com/American-Holiday-Bobbi-Romans-ebook/dp/B00ODC88HI/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1413424073&sr=8-14&keywords=An+American+Holiday
*Available in BOTH
Ebook & Print*
2. New Release Plotting
and Planning--a #Writing Manual, Just in Time for #NaNoWriMo! By Suz deMello
Blurb:
Another engaging, witty writing primer from
Suz deMello, whose Write This, Not That! was an Amazon
bestseller. Plotting, point of view, character creation, conflict and much more
are examined in this brief but pithy writing manual. A must for the
serious writer who wants the basics without boredom.
Excerpt:
How does an author write a book?
Unfortunately for aspiring authors, this is not an easy question to
answer. It's tantamount to asking, Where
do authors get their ideas? which, believe me, is our least favorite
question. I often tell people I get them at Sears—they're sold by the dozen in
the basement between the barbecues and the bikes.
In reality, I get my ideas from almost anywhere. Maybe a magazine
article about a place or event. Perhaps someone I meet or something a person
says may trigger a train of thought that will eventually lead to a book. Maybe
travel to someplace new ignites the creative spark that will inspire me.
Here's a better question: What are
the building blocks of plot and story?
Buy Links: http://tinyurl.com/deMelloPlotting
3. Something a little different.
The
characters from Denise
Grover Swank's THE CURSE KEEPERS will be on The Character Couch
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the
action-packed movie “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” are a husband and wife who don’t know
each other are assassins. The movie opens with these two sitting in front of a
therapist, squirming with discomfort. We guess this is as much from the
possibility of having to bare their souls—something an assassin can’t do—as
from the idea of talking about a marriage that has obviously been filled with
lies. Either way, it’s going to be entertaining. And, oh, yes, the therapist
kicks off the session with a bang.
“How often do you have sex?” he asks.
“I don’t understand the question,” Angelina Jolie returns, dead-pan.
“Is this on a scale of 1 to 10?” Brad puts in.
“So is 1 very little,” Angelina continues, “or is 1 nothing? Because,
technically speaking…zero would be
nothing.”
So it seems that Brad and Angelina haven’t been having sex for a
while.
We can hardly believe it.
The episode is funny, touching, and intriguing, which is exactly the
tone of my reader-focused website, The Character Couch (www.charactercouch.com), where fans can suggest their favorite
romance couple to be brought into a lively therapy session. Yes, this is
therapy, but these sessions are anything but angst-ridden. They are written in
the same spirit as “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” drawing us in to be a fly on the wall
and sneak a peek at something we normally wouldn’t be able to see.
Will there be amusing bantering in these sessions, a sense of firm,
quiet resolve, poignancy? Sure. All of it. Every session is different, but
always attention-grabbing.
Don’t you find that the best books always stick with you long after
you’ve turned the last page, leaving you hungry for more? I know I go crazy
waiting for the next novel in a series to come out, and I figured other readers
felt the same. So I came up with an idea that would combine my two loves—of
doing therapy and writing romance—in a way that would provide innovative, free
entertainment for fans.
Today, I share about my unique endeavor.
What could we expect to see if you had “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” on The
Character Couch?
LOL. Well, I think first you’d see the therapist secretly getting
moon-eyed over Brad Pitt! And could we blame her?
I’ve had so much fun creating Therapist Regan Malloy. I’ve already
morphed her to fit a multitude of romance sub-genres. She’s been a French
ex-pat from a time travel romance, a bespeckled Brit from a contemporary
romance, a saloon mistress in America’s old west, a wizened crone facing down a
couple of vampires, and more.
I also think it’s interesting to have Regan bring her own struggles
into the session, whether that’s fear or uncertainty, confusion about her
clients, or maybe just a verbal blunder of some sort. Each month the therapist
is as different as her clients.
It’s all about keeping the site dynamic and entertaining!
That does sound like a great deal of fun for readers.
Oh, definitely. I always pose questions at the end of the session,
too, because fan involvement adds an extra layer of enjoyment to the
experience. Readers get a chance to join the “analysis” and tell me and the
participating author what they think. This month for New York Times Bestselling
author Denise Grover Swank’s New Adult romance, THE CURSE KEEPERS, the hero and
heroine are mired down by a lot of guilt, so the discussion has centered around
how these two can get past that to have a relationship. I’m impressed at how
thought-provoking and insightful people’s comments can be.
It’s a fantastic time.
It seems that this site also benefits authors.
Without question.
Readers want a more in-depth look at their favorite characters and
authors want an innovative way to talk about their books, so The Character
Couch is fun for everyone.
This month Denise Grover Swank launched the third book in her Curse
Keepers trilogy, THE CURSE DEFIERS, so it was a great time for her to be
discussing a book in this series.
The procedure for readers to nominate their favorite books is very
user-friendly, too: people can just click on the “Suggest A Book” icon in the
side bar of the site and input their choice.
Make a suggestion this month, in fact, through the Rafflecopter
on site, and you’ll earn a chance to win one of Denise’s Curse Keepers books!
How does a session typically end?
Oh, there isn’t a “typical” with these sessions, except that the
happily ever after is always assured. Every month it’s a new journey, and you
never know at what point you might laugh or get a clench of emotion in your
chest. Or where a surprise might pop out at you.
Like the ending of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”
During the course of the movie, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have
discovered that each other are assassins. With the truth out, there’s hope for
their marriage now. They end up in front of the therapist again, recapping,
still spouting off to each other, but in a way that makes us chuckle; we know
they’re going to be okay. The therapist seems to agree, talking about how
marriage takes work, but—
Brad interrupts to say, “Ask us the ‘how many times did you have sex
this week?’ question again.”
“John,” Angelina Jolie scolds
quietly, while Brad Pitt proudly flashes ten fingers outside of Angelina’s
sight lines.
Oh, yes, expect fun surprises!
* * *
Buy Links: Amazon http://amzn.to/18XDygs
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