Month: June 2019

MJ’s Musing: Word Nerd

There used to be a board game called PROBE. Used versions on Amazon are shockingly expensive. When my parents cleared out their games a couple of years ago, I “called” PROBE, but one of my nieces ended up with it.

The purpose of the game is to come up with a word (using letter cards, face down on a rack) and other people guess the word, letter by letter. There are blank cards, too, a player can add to the beginning or the  end of the word.

To this day, I will see a word and think, “Oh, that would be a great word for PROBE.”

Some of my favorite words are: gypsy; rhythm, awkward, squirm, swarm.

I confess: I am a word nerd.

 

 

 

MJ Monday-MJ’s Manuscript: BETRAYED BY THE MOON

My book comes out on Wednesday! I am very excited. This is book one of a three-book series, SERVICE FOR SANCTUARY.

With their packs’ very existence at stake, can two fated mates find the courage to love?

For generations, werewolves have lived under the protection of service-for-sanctuary treaties with the government. Now amid growing unrest there is a movement to abolish those treaties, risking the survival of werewolves everywhere.

Werewolf Ethan Calhoun’s mission to save the treaties means winning a powerful congressman’s support. He never expected to meet his life mate—and to discover she’s engaged in a life or death battle with the same politician.

Despite knowing she and Ethan are fated to be together, Selena Wolfe believes she’s too damaged to ever be anyone’s mate.  As they fight to save her pack, Selena wrestles her need for Ethan while he struggles to win her trust.

Working together they must confront an evil Ethan never imagined and Selena can never forget.

MJ’s Musings-Book Bingo: Art for Love’s Sake

Art for Love’s Sake. I read Barbara Freethy’s Don’t Say a Word. and used it for this square.  Lots of art in this romantic suspense: heroine is a DJ, hero is a photographer and the son of a photographer. There are ballerinas involved in the story, too. The arts abound. The first clue is a photograph. Nothing is as it seems.

I really wanted to use Fiona Davis’s The Masterpiece for this square, but it isn’t a romance. It’s the story of two women, fifty years apart. Clara is an artist and teacher in the Grand Central Station School of Art (this was a real thing) in the 1920s; Virginia is a woman in the 1970s who is working to save the building from demolition. Both are hobbled in their pursuits by being women. In many ways, Clara was far more liberated than Virginia, but Clara had a clear sense of self and her goal. Virginia, a recent divorcee, was drifting. Having come of age in the 1970s, there were many times in the story when I wanted to scream at Virginia for her naivety. Wanting to scream means I cared.

Both books were good reads.

MJ Monday: MJ’s Music-Playlist for BETRAYED BY THE MOON

I create a playist for every book I write. I listen to the music whenever I can: driving, writing, alone time. The songs help keep my head in the story.

Here are the songs behind the story of the book coming out on June 26.

 

 

MJ’s Musings: The Creativity of Writers

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Sometimes an author’s creativity isn’t in only her writing.

Twice a year, I go out of town on a long writing retreat. A fellow author’s family has a cottage on a creek in the woods they let us use.

The first time we walked in (and oohed and aahed )and noticed there wasn’t much shelf space–certainly not enough for the wine. One of my companions turned to me and said, “Did you bring a baby?”

“No.”

“Neither did I.”

I wasn’t sure what she meant–until I spied a wooden high chair in the corner. That became our wine bar. For many years.  I have  lost the photo I took of this innovation.

This year, we didn’t bring as much wine as usual for many reasons. We no longer needed the a wine bar. But I was deep into revisions and needed something to prop my printed pages so I could input my changes.

The high chair-wine bar became something totally different.

Wedging the bottom of my binder against the tray while using the back to prop it upright worked like a charm.

But the high chair isn’t the only thing with multiple uses.

The weather turned wonderfully balmy and most of the attendees opted to write outside. Most also prefer to stand as they write. Enter: the Grill.

That’s right. The arms on either side of the gas grill are the perfect size and height for laptops  and writing.

The heat of creativity isn’t only on the page.