Tag: MFRW

Daylight Saving Time: Bleh! #MFRWauthor

Daylight Saving TimeI might be one of those few people who really things the great outdoors is overrated. I don’t particularly enjoy being in the bright sunshine (I have to worry about a lady’s fair complexion), I’ve never been one for sports or strenuous activities, picnics only attract insects, and sitting out in the late evening with a cup (or glass) of an adult beverage has me swatting mosquitoes and wishing I were inside on my recliner. In other words, having an extra hour of afternoon sunlight has never been important to me.

In the natural course of the seasons, the sun is going to rise and set differently regardless of what humans do. God made it that way. God should be the only one to change it. And God knows, when He does change it, we won’t be able to escape the change!

I don’t like the whole Spring Forward scenario. I feel tired for days afterward for missing that hour of sleep. And even when we Fall Back, I actually feel like the day should be over long before it is. It’s not good for a body to have to adjust like that. Cows agree with me. They want to be milked when they want to be milked and be damned what the clock says. You know that’s right.

Plus, there’s always one clock or two that doesn’t change automatically.Changing time Or one that doesn’t backup, only changes by going forward and you have to go through a whole day’s worth of hours in order to get it set properly. One year I forgot how to change the time on my car’s clock and had to keep the correct time in my head by mentally adjusting it back until I was relieved by the fall’s change. Such a pain!

Therefore, I protest Daylight Saving Time. Do away with it! To heck with the amusement and entertainment world and the retail outlets who want that extra daylight for people to come and spend money. There’s plenty of time for fathers and mothers to get home from work and cut grass and barbecue without changing the Course of the Clocks. Down with Daylight Saving Time!

Do you agree?

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee
Burning Bridges by Anne Krist: old letters put the lie to Sara’s life. Now, mending her past mistakes while crossing burning bridges will be the hardest thing she’s ever done.

One Woman Only
Only a Good Man Will Do
Naval Maneuvers 

I’m weird #MFRWauthor

It might mean I’m weird, but I enjoy editing.

There. I’ve said it. I always like reading over my work after I’ve let it sit for a while, and editing lets me do that. Before I started self-publishing, I almost never read my work after it was published because I saw mistakes that I couldn’t go back and correct. But when an editor sends back suggestions/changes, it gives me a chance to see the book from someone else’s perspective. That’s usually helpful.Editor

I remember the first book I wrote, Impatient Passion. The publisher had told me how much she enjoyed the book. The first thing I read from the editor was what a great book she thought it was, and how there were not many edits. Yippee, I thought. The book is good and there are only a few changes.

Then I turned the page.

There were so many Track Changes markups I could hardly see the text. What would a book look like that had many edits? I wondered.

Fortunately, I soon got the hang of what I was supposed to do and thereEditing aren’t so many changes marked by editors now. Impatient Passion was the first time I’d ever been edited, excluding school where “editing” meant being graded. I didn’t view it as a fun experience then. Since then I’ve come to accept that it’s a part of the writing process—a good part!

What is your experience with editing?

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee
Burning Bridges by Anne Krist: old letters put the lie to Sara’s life. Now, mending her past mistakes while crossing burning bridges will be the hardest thing she’s ever done.

One Woman Only
Only a Good Man Will Do
Naval Maneuvers

The best laid plans… #MFRWHooks

This is a blog hop. Be sure to check the link at the bottom to see posts from other authors!

Blurb:
Only a Good Man Will Do by Dee S. KnightSeriously ambitious man seeks woman to encourage his goals, support his (hopeful) position as Headmaster of Westover Academy, and be purer than Caesar’s wife. Good luck with that!

Daniel Goodman is a man on a mission. For years he has striven for perfection, fighting for the pinnacle achievement in his world of academia, Headmaster of Westover Academy. Westover, established before the American Revolution, is still one of the most prestigious schools in the country. They accept only boys whose parents fit a certain mold and only those teachers who hold to a stringent set of mores, on and off campus. His brother Jonah considers Daniel a prig. Daniel sees himself as doing his best to serve his students. How much better can he serve them as headmaster? That is what he seeks to find out.

Suddenly, into his cut and dried, strictly black and white life of moral and upright behavior, comes Eve Star, formerly one of Europe’s foremost exotic dancers. Her life is anything but cut and dried, black and white. Bad enough that she’s enrolled her son in Westover Academy under false pretenses. More, she runs the town’s most disreputable bar. Worst, much to Daniel’s dismay, he finds himself drawn to her like a kid to chocolate. Nothing good can come of this attraction. Or can it? He is after all, a good man.

Buy link:
Amazon Kindle Unlimited

MFRW Book Hooks

Excerpt:
Daniel walked into the parlor of the headmaster’s house Saturday afternoon seeking first the food table and second, his friend, Stan Baxter. He spotted them both near the front window.

“You’re late,” Stan said.

“Lots of people wanted to chat.” Parents’ Weekend, when teachers sat in their classrooms to meet their students’ mothers and fathers, meant mandatory tea afterwards for all professionals at the Academy. Board members and parents attended at their own discretion, and the boys—the reason the school existed and they were all there—mostly stayed out of sight and hearing.

“Fortunately for me, a good many parents now have grabbed their progeny and left campus, so I have access to the snacks unimpeded,” Daniel said, examining the finger food on display before making his selections. The challenge was always how to load his plate while appearing to take a socially acceptable portion. “Did I miss anything?”

“Only an angel.” Stan turned toward the window. “Holy Mother! Look at that,” he muttered.

“What?” Daniel asked, fitting a cucumber sandwich beside the smoked salmon-topped cracker on his dessert plate. “Am I missing a table of fare? I swear, every year the offerings at these teas are more meager than the last.”

Stan chuckled and answered in the same low voice, “Is your stomach all you think about? I was talking about another kind of dish. One you can have fun eating in bed, if you catch my drift. And she just slipped out onto the lawn.”

“Is your libido all you think about?” Daniel bit a carrot stick in two and sighed. Only three more hours and he could order a pizza. With all of his charges gone from the dormitory for Parents’ Weekend, he had a rare, private, two-day holiday ahead of him. With the tiny plate full, he joined Stan at the large windows. “Where is this goddess?”

“There. In the red dress and hat.”

Daniel saw nothing but the shapely form of a woman walking away. Slender ankles topped three inch heels. A dress of some kind of lustrous material hit her mid-calf. The style was soft and feminine, and berry red. Not many women showed up at Westover in a color sure to make them the focus of attention. Not that most of them didn’t expect to be the focus—didn’t demand it, in fact—but they usually weren’t so obvious. The breeze at her back molded the material to the curves of her hips and ass, and fluttered the dress’s full sleeves. A wide-brimmed hat hid her hair, but based on what was visible, Daniel easily imagined a long column of neck designed for kissing.

At that moment, a young boy wearing the school uniform and a big grin ran up to the woman. She bent to catch him in her arms. When she straightened, she ruffled the boy’s hair. His expression and his wagging finger showed that he chastised her, but then he laughed and finger-combed the mussed hair back into place. She took his hand and they walked toward the circle where most of the parents parked. Looking up at the woman, the boy’s lips moved the whole while, carrying on a steady monologue.

Something in her actions captured Daniel’s attention. They were artless, performed naturally and with unabashed love. The child fairly skipped beside her and the frequent turns of her head showed she looked at him as though hanging on every word he spoke.

“How wonderful,” Daniel murmured, impressed with her total attention to the boy. “Did you see that?”

“Oh, yeah. I didn’t think her hips would ever stop swaying, and it’s a crime they make hemlines so long.”

Daniel laughed. “You’re such a hedonist.”

“And proud of it. But looks like she’s a student’s mother and off limits for dating. Damn the luck.”

For once, Daniel agreed with his friend. But not just because of the woman’s obvious good figure. More because she seemed to love her son and didn’t care who knew it. He normally kept his distance from flashy women, as this one appeared to be, based on her dress color, but her easy manner with the boy would be enough to make him ignore his own inclination toward the conservative. If she weren’t also a patron of the school. Assuming the gods smiled on him and he became headmaster, he and the woman would be on business terms, and nothing good ever came from mixing business with pleasure. Pleasure is what every male instinct in him screamed she would be.

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Not so cute meet #MFRWHooks

This is a blog hop. Be sure to check the link at the bottom to see posts from other authors!

Only a Good Man Will Do by Dee S. KnightBlurb:
Seriously ambitious man seeks woman to encourage his goals, support his (hopeful) position as Headmaster of Westover Academy, and be purer than Caesar’s wife. Good luck with that!

Daniel Goodman is a man on a mission. He aims to become headmaster of Westover Academy. For that he needs a particular, special woman to help him set high standards. Into his cut and dried life of moral and upright behavior, comes Eve Star, formerly one of Europe’s foremost exotic dancers. Her life is anything but cut and dried, black and white. Daniel is drawn to her like a kid to chocolate. Nothing good can come of this attraction. Or can it? He is after all, a good man.

Buy link:
Amazon Kindle Unlimited

MFRW Book HooksExcerpt:
“Michael is upstairs.” She pushed open the screen door and held it for them, giving Daniel his first clear view of her.

He knew right away that one look wouldn’t be nearly enough. She was gorgeous. Her casual stance and even more casual Levis and long-sleeved tee shirt showed she wasn’t working to impress. White sneakers covered her feet below the faded jeans.

At least five feet ten inches tall, she was also slender. Chestnut colored hair wildly cascaded over her shoulders and her eyes were the shade of melted chocolate. He’d been so wrong earlier. If the woman had one bit of makeup on, he’d gnaw on Jeffrey’s lacrosse stick. And yet, her eyes stood out like beacons in her face. He didn’t dare let his gaze linger on her breasts or hips for fear of forgetting why he was there. There was nothing was more appealing in a woman than natural good looks, or less appealing in a man than ogling.

“You should be in bed,” she said to Jeffrey then cast a glare at Daniel as though he was negligent for bringing the child out into the night. Which, of course, he was.

He’d noticed her voice on the phone, and now the low warmth of it washed over him again. Good God. If he closed his eyes and listened to this woman talk he’d have a hard-on in no time.

Better not close his eyes.

“He was in bed until I received a call from you. I want to see Michael.”

“Follow me.” She let them enter the vestibule, then closed the door and locked it. Another closed door faced them and stairs rose to their right. That’s where she led Daniel and Torrington.

It was then, even with Jeffrey on the steps between them, that Daniel noticed the curve of her ass and the sway of her hips with each step.

Well, damn! Daniel was following the Lady in Red!

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Family memories #MFRWauthor

Navy was my dad's lifeI have a very small family. I’m an only child. In Jack’s family, his parents had his brother and him, and neither Jack nor his brother aspired to having children. So if I want to ask about memories, I have few choices.

Of those few people, there are some interesting experiences. My grandfather came from Lithuania when he was a baby, and through Ellis Island. My grandmother spoke nothing but German until she went to school and grew up in the farming communities of South Dakota. On my dad’s side, his parents grew up and married deep in the mountains around Asheville, North Carolina, when horses and wagons were the mode of transportation for getting farm products to town. But I think the person I’d like to talk to again, given the chance, is my dad.

He got his sister to sign enlistment papers so he could join the Navy before he was 18, and he stayed in for more than 20 years. That’s what I’d like to ask him about. Growing up, I rarely heard him talk about anything Navy related. He really much for talking at all, really. But I would like to know what standing watch was like, how did it feel in the middle of the ocean, knowing there was nothing but water for hundreds of miles, in any direction. How did it feel in a storm? What did he feel when he rose in the morning to a sunrise over the sea, or think about the adage “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailor take warning”? Is that true?

Dad worked as a boiler tender, deep in the bowels of the both destroyers Destroyerand aircraft carriers and far below the water line. Did he ever have any harrowing experiences? What was it like working in those conditions? How did he sleep in an area filled with other guys, and did he get homesick?

Dad was on ships that cruised both the Atlantic and the Pacific. I wonder what was different about them, and how it felt visiting ports of call all over the world. There’s so much I’d like to know now. Why didn’t I ever ask him about his life and memories? I guess because as a child I wasn’t interested, and as an adult I figured there would always be time.

So, whose memories would you like to probe (or wish you had probed)? If you still have the chance to ask questions, don’t let the opportunity pass!

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee
Burning Bridges by Anne Krist: old letters put the lie to Sara’s life. Now, mending her past mistakes while crossing burning bridges will be the hardest thing she’s ever done.

One Woman Only
Only a Good Man Will Do
Naval Maneuvers

Finding that One Woman Only #MFRWHook

One Woman Only by Dee S. KnightAs one of a set of triplets, Jonah Goodman has always stood out as the least academic—and the last one to take the world, or commitment, seriously. Thing is, that’s not really who he is. But who can he convince of that? Not his family, who see him as they always have. And maybe not his one love, the sweetheart he left behind in high school but with whom he is now sharing an erotic holiday. Will he get his second chance to prove to Kelly that he is a loving man who wants more than a sensual few days, but a real relationship with the woman he lost once and doesn’t want to lose again? With that chance and Kelly’s love, Jonah knows that a “good man” can become a better man.
Buy link:
KU mybook.to/OneWomanOnly

MFRW Book Hooks

Excerpt:
“Asheville is a good place to live. I’m glad things are working out for you,” Jonah said.

“Eve and I will be going after the weekend to find a temporary place to live while we look for a house, and to get Tim enrolled in school. Then we’ll be there, getting used to the town and getting a feel for the school.”

“You’ll do great, Daniel. They’re lucky to have you.”

“Thanks.” Daniel stole a glance over Jonah’s left shoulder. “Looks like you might be lucky, too.”

Jonah turned to see what Daniel was talking about, just in time to see Kelly’s RAV4 turn the corner. His heart rate skipped with that little bit of contact. Damn it. She didn’t even see him. Didn’t wave or honk the horn. And still his heart knew her. And wanted her.

Just like other parts of his anatomy.

“Don’t you have to move this heap that’s blocking my classic? If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say she was coming from her home and going towards The Emerald. It is lunch time.”

“She might not be going to the diner.”

“Right. She might not be. But don’t you have to move that heap anyway? Check it out, dude. Jeez, do I have to tell you everything?” He turned. “Come on, Son. Let’s go get some boring old vanilla ice cream.”

Tim came flying across the yard. “Can I have chocolate, Dad?” he shouted.

“You can have anything you want,” Daniel said, and gave Tim a big kiss as he lifted him into the air.

Tim wiped it off and scrunched his face again. “Boys don’t kiss, Dad.”

“Oh, yes they do.” And he smothered Tim in kisses until the boy shrieked with giggles.

Jonah had to turn away. He loved that Daniel had found such happiness but seeing him like this filled Jonah with a feeling he’d never known before. Jealousy. And he didn’t like it.

“Okay, see you guys soon,” he called over his shoulder.

“Good hunting,” Daniel called back.”

“Is Uncle Jonah going to hunt something? Is it a bear?”

He didn’t hear Daniel’s reply. Instead his mind zeroed in on one goal. Finding Kelly Shepherd.

Find Dee here:

Dee
Burning Bridges by Anne Krist: old letters put the lie to Sara’s life. Now, mending her past mistakes while crossing burning bridges will be the hardest thing she’s ever done.
One Woman Only
Only a Good Man Will Do
Naval Maneuvers

See some other great excerpts from other Book Hooks!

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You never forget your first #MFRWHooks

Impatient Passion was my first book, published in 2003 on Valentine’s Day. I had no idea what I was doing–I was just trying to “write a book.” I did it in a month, sent it to Liquid Silver Books (in the process of folding now, sadly), and they accepted it. I was bitten by the writing bug, for better or worse! 🙂

This is a blog hop. Click the link at the bottom and see what other authors are posting!

IMpatient Passion by Dee S. Knight

Blurb:

Austin D. Gardner, an award winning web designer in San Francisco, has just faced the fact that she is going to turn thirty-five years old on Saturday and her life is nowhere near what she dreamed it would be. She needs to make big changes.

On the crowded bus trip home, Austin is pushed into a man. Instead of trying to move away, he pulls her to him. Austin is shocked at first, but then lets fate take her by the hand. An anonymous adventure on a crowded bus might be a safe way to break out of the dull life she is living.

Tyler Birch spent years waiting for Austin to give some indication she would welcome getting to know him better, but time is up. He decided Monday to stop being passive. That afternoon he finds himself pressed against her on the crowded bus trip home. Not one to turn down an opportunity when he’s presented with one, Tyler accepts the chance to mount a two-pronged plan of attack. One as the anonymous stranger who can set Austin  fire with his touch, and the other as Tyler Birch who can touch her soul.

MFRW Book Hooks

Excerpt:

In the years Austin had worked for Bay Web, her contact with Tyler had been limited, just the way she liked it. She glanced at him and found he was looking at her.

“You look as though you’re having a conversation with yourself. Want to tell me what about?” The look he gave Austin was open, friendly.

“No.”

He grimaced at her terse response. “Fair enough.” Tyler got up and closed the door, which worried Austin. She had never been alone in a closed room with any of the staff there. Even Henry, when he was arguing with her over designs, left the door open. What was this about?

“Ms. Gardner, or Austin, if I may call you that?” She nodded, and he gave a half smile. “Austin, you’ve been working on the Ron Morris project haven’t you? How do you think it’s coming?”

“I’ll have it ready for Henry to look at by end of day Wednesday. That should give him plenty of time to familiarize himself before Friday’s presentation. Is there a problem?”

“No. How do you feel the work is going? I guess what I mean is, how do you feel about what you’ve done?”

“Good. I think I’ve captured what Mr. Morris wants, and I think he’ll be happy with the results. Why? What’s going on? I’ve given Henry the preliminary drafts.”

“Yes, and he showed them to us at the executive meeting this morning.” He stopped and regarded her with a frank expression. “I’ll get right to the point. Austin, I want you to handle the presentation on Friday. Can you do it?” Tyler leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs and tapped his fingertips together, forming a steeple with his hands.

Austin was stunned. Presenting her own work to the client was not something she had ever done. In fact, not being able to do so had irritated her more than once, because she felt Henry might not have given her work the pitch he should have. She knew that part of being a backbench employee was being behind the camera, so to speak, not up where the client action was.

However, this account was really important to her, and she had hated the thought of turning it over to Henry, especially since he hadn’t shown much enthusiasm for her ideas. He wanted flash and lots of action on the screen instead of her more unadventurous, calm design. She quickly made up her mind. She looked up to see Tyler staring at her, quietly waiting for her response. “Yes, I can do it.”

“Good. I hoped you would say that. I liked your prelims and I think you can best explain them to Morris.”

“My only concern is Henry. This won’t go over too well with him.”

“Let me worry about that. Now,” he said as he uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. He rested his elbows on the desk and looked at her intently. “I hope you won’t take this the wrong way. I know we’re a very casual company-this is California, after all, and what’s California if not casual? But for this level of client dealing, I like the staff to be a bit more formal. No offense, but you look like the college kids out there.” He waved vaguely toward the cubicle area. “I’d like you to represent the adult side of the firm on Friday. Will you come in to work dressed a little more formally and with a different hair style?”

Austin bristled, and Tyler could obviously tell. “Now, don’t go getting all huffy. This isn’t anything I wouldn’t ask of a man if he normally came in every day dressed for the beach.” Austin opened her mouth and he held up his hand. “Which you don’t. That’s not what I meant.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, what exactly is wrong with how I look?”
Tyler stood and walked around his desk. He took her hands in his and forced her to stand. Austin was struck speechless as he casually appraised her, front and back, then motioned for her to sit again and went back to his chair. He leaned back and looked at her, still saying nothing.

Tyler sat quietly because, truth be told, he couldn’t speak quite yet. He thought Austin was beautiful. Had thought so since she started working there, but had been very careful never to reveal his thoughts. She had gorgeous blonde hair that she kept in a horrid braid. If it was loose, falling over him… He cleared his throat and forced his mind off of that track.
“With how you look? Nothing. With how you dress? Plenty. Bagginess is fine for sitting in a cubicle in front of a computer screen, but not for client presentations.” Tyler saw Austin tense and a flush spread up her neck and across her face, but he continued. “You have very nice hair, but this is a San Francisco business, not Little House on the Prairie. Something a little more suitable to your age and responsibility would be good.”

Austin caught her breath, and Tyler saw her eyes sparkle with tears. Fortunately, they didn’t fall, but he immediately softened his tone. Leaning forward, he said a little more gently, “You have beautiful skin and you’re one of the few women I know who doesn’t need makeup. Your eyes are amazing, even behind those gosh awful glasses you wear to see the computer screen. But tennis shoes don’t go with the image I have of the corporation, Austin.”

He looked at her steadily, and saw that she had control of her emotions. No tears for her, he thought. She’s pretty brave to sit through this and not lose it. He tempered his criticism with the next statements. “You’re a valuable employee. Your work is excellent and has brought the company recognition. I take you seriously, and I want others to take you seriously too.” He could see that his last words had an effect on her.

He lowered his head slightly and regarded her through his lashes. “I don’t mean to be harsh. For here at the office your regular dress is okay. If it’s a problem making a few changes for Friday, I understand. But I really wanted you to handle the presentation.”

There it was. The challenge. Would she give in to his request or give up control of her work? “I’ll do it,” she said in a low voice. “Is that all?”

Buy link: Amazon

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Gardening and other tortures #MFRWauthor

My husband once told someone that I kill silk flowers. And sadly, he’s right.

GardeningI truly admire people who garden. They make the world a brighter place, a happier place. I could sit for hours surrounded by green plants and brilliant blooms…and talk to the person digging in the ground. But ask me to dig and pull weeds and plop a tiny seedling into rich loam? I’d destroy the whole setting in a matter of hours. I can’t tell a weed from a begonia. I don’t know which roots go shallow and which go deep. I can’t differentiate between a creeper and a tall plant that needs support. In short, I’m hopeless in a garden. Please don’t ask me to help in any way.

When my mom, aunt, and I went to England and Scotland several years ago, I was astounded by the yards, first in Edinburgh and then throughout the rest of our trip. Front yard might measure 10×12—not much compared to a lot of American yards. But every inch, save the walkway, was chock full of plants. The roses were spectacular, and every yard had some variety. I English gardenmade the comment to my mom and aunt that I wondered how one particular yard had such beautiful, big blooms, and a woman I hadn’t seen standing there said, “It takes a lot of work.” I imagine so!

But it would take me no time to wipe it all out—and I wouldn’t even try. Without touching anything, I went on my way.

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee
Only a Good Man Will Do: Seriously ambitious man seeks woman to encourage his goals, support his (hopeful) position as Headmaster of Westover Academy, and be purer than Caesar’s wife. Good luck with that!

Naval Maneuvers: When a woman requires an earth-shattering crush of pleasure to carry her away, she can’t do better than to call on the US Navy. Sorry, Marines!

To clone or not to clone…? #MFRWauthor

A friend as characterBy cloning here, I mean using traits of friends or family as part of your characters’ personalities. It’s a touchy thing, for sure!

I wrote a blog post years ago about five of us friends working at a company in New Jersey. I felt so close to these women—they were work sisters. One of the group died of cancer at a very young age and I wrote about how I’d first met them (they were already a working team when I joined). My first impressions were of “a blonde,” a “woman with big hair and pictures painted on her nails,” and “an aloof woman who I thought hated me.” That was exactly how I pictured them when we first met. I didn’t know them. I didn’t yet know how smart, caring, beautiful they all were, inside and out. That wasn’t the point of the blog post, either, but when they read it and responded, I had to see the post from their perspective. One woman wrote and asked was her hair really that big? Another asked “So I guess I’m the aloof one?” I felt terrible!

Now granted, a blog post isn’t the same as using friends as a basis for a book character, but the result can be the same. I have a friend whose friends asked her to make them characters in one of her books. She used different Angry friend names but some physical and personality features as secondary characters, and two out of three were angry over how she’d portrayed them. They didn’t like the parts in the book she assigned them, didn’t like how she portrayed their personalities, didn’t like… Well, you get the picture.

Another friend told me that she based a cheater and womanizer on a former boyfriend and that he would recognize himself immediately. I advised her against going that route! No need making enemies on purpose when life throws enough roadblocks our way to begin with.

In Passionate Destiny, I broke that rule. I used a former boss as the basis for Margaret. If he read the book (which I’m certain he did not), he would have recognized himself in a skinny minute. The difference is, he would have laughed! He was the nicest man in the world, but he did have a snobbish side and he wasn’t afraid to show it. That’s what I drew on for Margaret as she moved from a professorship at a New Jersey college to rural Virginia, where people have to pump their own gas and folks chat at the grocery check-out counter. So maybe the trick in having characters resemble friends or family is to be sure they have the temperament to laugh at themselves.

Creating charactersWe all view people around us—their looks, their quirks, their actions—as fodder for rich characterization for our books. We can’t help it! But when it comes to those closest to us, maybe have a talk about what you have planned before writing.

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee
Only a Good Man Will Do: Seriously ambitious man seeks woman to encourage his goals, support his (hopeful) position as Headmaster of Westover Academy, and be purer than Caesar’s wife. Good luck with that!

Naval Maneuvers: When a woman requires an earth-shattering crush of pleasure to carry her away, she can’t do better than to call on the US Navy. Sorry, Marines!

Break out the champagne! #MFRWauthor

For me, typing The End (literally or figuratively) has always been reason to celebrate. I love my characters, I love my plots, I love writing a book that I’m happy Celebrating The Endwith. But the thing I love the most? Getting to the end! By the time I’ve told their stories, my characters go away. I’ve never been interested in carrying on their stories into other books. A reviewer once asked me to write a sequel to my paranormal erotic romance Passionate Destiny, and while I’ve considered it, I haven’t made a move on it (yet).

Sometimes, “the end” can be something sad or distasteful. The conclusion of a relationship, for instance. Or the end of the circus parade, if you’re a Elephantscleanup person Often, “the end” means the unknown, which can be pretty scary. Is that light at the end of the tunnel something good, or the The end of the tunnel or a train?headlight of a train heading right for you? You might not know until it’s too late!

But the end of a book? It represents the completion of a creative process, the culmination of a lot of work and maybe a few tears. It’s something to be proud of—something not all that many people can do! Typing The End should be a celebration. It should be a chance to sit back and enjoy the moment for all that it means: the good, the triumphant, the zenith of writing a book.

Or maybe, as with a sequel to Passionate Destiny, it could mean something else. *sigh*The dreaded sequel

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee
Only a Good Man Will Do: Seriously ambitious man seeks woman to encourage his goals, support his (hopeful) position as Headmaster of Westover Academy, and be purer than Caesar’s wife. Good luck with that!

Naval Maneuvers: When a woman requires an earth-shattering crush of pleasure to carry her away, she can’t do better than to call on the US Navy. Sorry, Marines!