Writing while Vacating

 You know, the word VACATION has the root word VACATE.

I have currently vacated...my brain.

Except you know what, yes I give myself days off, but mostly not. Mostly I plan to write 1000 words a day everyday of my vacation. I don't even think it'll be hard because I am right now powering through the black moment, the ending explosion, the wild, exciting (My Opinion, okay!) ending of my current work in progress. 

When I sit down to write my 1000 words it's going FAST.

I know exactly what I intend to do. I've got a clear vision of the GRAND FINALE!

It's really a fun action scene, fighting for life and death, hanging from the cliff, you know, the usual. But I'm having fun writing this so I suspect if I get the laptop open, the book document open, I'll just zip through those 1000 words. 

No Problem.

So I'm playing all day as hard as I can. Surrounded by lake water and boats and grandkids.

And even with that, yep. I plan of writing my 1000 words. If I fail a few days (which I definitely do on occasion) that's where I grant myself forgiveness. And the next day go right back to work.

So a quiet little blog. I'll give away a couple of copies of A Man with a Past to try and earn YOUR forgiveness for my little advice column today.

Do you take days off? Does work meets vacation ruin both?

Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for a signed copy of A Man with a Past.

 

Falcon Hunt awakens without a past, or at least not one he can recall. He's got brothers he can't remember, and he's interested in the prettiest woman in the area, Cheyenne. Only trouble is, a few flashes of memory make Falcon wonder if he's already married. He can't imagine abandoning a wife. But his pa did just that--twice. When Falcon claims his inheritance in the West, Cheyenne is cut out of the ranch she was raised on, leaving her bitter and angry. And then Falcon kisses her, adding confusion and attraction to the mix.

Soon it's clear someone is gunning for the Hunt brothers. When one of his brothers is shot, Falcon and Cheyenne set out to find who attacked him. They encounter rustled cattle, traitorous cowhands, a missing woman, and outlaws that take all their savvy to overcome. As love grows between these two independent people, Falcon must piece together his past if they're to have any chance at a future. 

http://www.maryconnealy.com

Sunday Scripture & Prayer Requests

Ancient mosaic uncovered at the 
site of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. [PD-US]

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?” 
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
you are looking for me not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you. 
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” 
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” 
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” 
So they said to him,
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? 
What can you do? 
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
    He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.” 
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

John 6:24-35

The Seekerville bloggers are praying for YOU and for our entire blog community. If you have any special intentions that need additional prayer coverage, leave a request for prayer in the comment section below. 

Please join us in praying for our country!

God Bless the USA!

We are so grateful for all of you—for your friendship and your support! 

May the Lord bless you and keep you safe.      

Weekend Edition

  

If you are not familiar with our giveaway rules, take a minute to read them here. It keeps us all happy! All winners should send their name, address, and phone number to claim prizes.  Please send to Seekerville2@gmail.com. If the winner does not contact us within two weeks, another winner may be selected.

Monday: Erica Vetsch brought us a post on how pre-orders help authors out!

Wednesday: Cate Nolan brought us Part 1 of her discussion on Stephen King's classic On Writing.

Friday: We have multiple winners today! For an audio copy of Braced for Love,  Pat W, Vince, and Angeline. For an audio copy of A Man with a Past, I'm giving the same people a copy of that one and adding in Glynis and Anonymous. Thanks so much for stopping in at Seekerville.

Monday:  Mary

Wednesday:  Mindy will be talking about her new release, A Future to Fight For.

  

Friday: Surprise!

Available Now!

All their dreams will come true…if they can work together.

Widow Paisley Wainwright’s so close to taking her Texas event-planning business to the next level by turning Renwick Castle into a wedding venue. Only one thing stands in the way: her longtime rival, Crockett Devereaux, who wants the castle to become a museum. When the building’s owners insist they collaborate to implement both plans, can Paisley and Crockett put their differences aside…and fight for their dreams together?

Read the first chapter here!

Get your copy here!

Why Writing is Like Pie by Tiffany Yates Martin at Writer UnBoxed

Template Ideas for Action-Adventure-Thriller Book Ads by LA Sartor at Book Brush Blog

3 Steps to Make Time to Write by Kris Maze at Writers In The Storm

The Danger of Info Dumps by Janice Hardy at Fiction University

Ideas for Getting More BookBub Followers by Diana Urban at BookBub Blog

How to Write a Powerful Foil Scene by Lewis Jorstad at The Novel Smithy

Find Your Writing Process by Esther Wildman at NaNoWriMo Blog

Characters are Not Part of the Story, They Are the Story! at Writers Helping Writers 

What's the Difference Between a Synopsis, a Pitch and a Blurb? by Paige Riddiford at Writer's Edit

Writing Ritual and Routine by Sue Coletta at Kill Zone Blog

Dipping The Quill Deeper "Be A Fish" by Eva Marie Everson at The Write Conversation

The Sword in the Stone: Knights of the Writing Table by Peter Leavell at Learn How To Write A Novel

Listen up!

By Mary Connealy

 Today I've scored a special extra day on Seekerville.

I've got a giveaway-palooza for you all.

I have been given multiple audio copies of my most recent series Brothers in Arms.

So today I'll be drawing names for winners.

These are NOT what you call Audible, that's the Amazon thing right?

It's something different but the instructions include how to get them. (I hope!)

I don't know much about audio books. I've listened to some of mine and it's always the same woman and she does a good job but wow, imagine having to read a whole book OUT LOUD with no mists. No hesitation. No stumbled ers, uhs, ums. 

Surely she has to stop all the time and back up a little then forge onward?

Anyway, not a skill set I possess. 

I've been listening to Father Mike Schmidts Bible in a Year podcast and it's the same thing. I wonder how long he works to get through the daily reading? He makes it sound so smooth, so easy. 

And all those Old Testament names and he just glides along.

Readers like that make it sound so easy but I suspect it's not, unless they're just naturals somehow. 

All my books (well most!) are available as paperbacks, large print hard covers, ebooks and audio books. 

I'll include here an excerpt here from the moment Falcon Hunt realizes he has no memory.

It was an aspect of this book that was really fun to write. Hard but fun.

A Man with a Past

He looked around, studied the water racing below him. Had he scratched his head somehow?

Been clobbered by a rock?

Most likely something of the sort.

He lifted his head, aware of something bothering him, more than the crease on his neck. More than drowning. More than the terrible chill and the terrible pain.

He couldn’t touch on it for some reason but it was there, it’d come to him. For now, one step at a time, he’d get himself out of this mess and track down the why of it later.

Edging back along that trunk, he reached the muddy bank and kept right on crawling until he was on dry land.

As he stood, he looked around and saw woods and mountains. That hollered ‘home’ and ‘safety’ for some reason. And he felt sure it was important for him to find safety. He just wasn’t sure why.

He staggered toward the dense woods, realized as he got close his vision was blurry and sometimes he saw two of a thing, sometimes one. He gained the trees and leaned against the first one he got close to. He walked along the edge of them, leaning when he could, staggering when he couldn’t, listening for anyone coming.

Before he could be caught out, he found a game train so thin he had to think it was made by rabbits. He turned into the woods, following it, heaving a sigh of relief to be out of view.

Then he plowed into a low hanging branch and knocked himself over backward.

Lying there, breathing hard, he had a flash of reason that told him why he was in such an all-fired hurry to find a safe haven.

He didn’t remember anything that had brought him to this moment.

Why was he in that stream? Why did he feel hunted?

And then as he chased those thoughts around a real big one hit him hard.

He realized he didn’t know his own name.

His thoughts echoed. His head empty and in agonizing pain. Who was he? How did a man go on if he had no idea who he was?

Lying there, looking up through the dappled leaves, he wondered if he knew a thing about how to go on. Touching his holster, he knew his gun was gone. In fact, just knowing he’d had one, for that matter, what a gun was, was a lot of remembering.

But he couldn’t remember his own name. Putting two hands flat on his face, he knew nothing of his own looks. He felt the scratch of a few whiskers on his cheeks. But no beard.

He looked at his hands and felt no recognition. The impact of realizing it, almost knocked him sideways and it might’ve if he weren’t already lying flat on his back. He stayed right where he was to think.

~~~~~~~~

Leave a comment and mention if you'd like to win a copy of an audio book and I'll put your name in the drawing.

And tell me if you're into audio books and if not, do you have an ereader? Or are you a print book purist?

What else have I got around here to give away? I might think of something. And right now I mean like today only or maybe still tomorrow...

The Accidental Guardian is on sale in all ebook formats for $1.99. It'd be a fun book to have around on your ereader even if you've read it before.

Click Here to Buy the Accidental Guardian

Cate's Favorite Craft Books #6 and some vacation photos

 It's the end of July, and I've spent the last three weeks in Maine, so it seems only appropriate that I choose a book written by an author from my new home state as this month's favorite craft book. 

Ask writers to list their top ten craft favorite books on writing and inevitably their lists will include Stephen King's On Writing. 

 I first read On Writing in the early 2000s, shortly after it was released. I remembered really enjoying the book. I'd never read Stephen King before - not a fan of the horror genre - but I was immediately impressed with his storytelling ability. 

As I prepared to write this post, I borrowed a copy from the library because my old copy was unavailable due to being in the middle of a move. I have to admit, although I remembered liking it a lot, I had no idea what it was about (other than the obvious - writing), so when I began to look through it for a refresher, I immediately got caught up in reading it. The book begins with an irreverent look back at King's childhood which left me somewhat aghast but also hanging on every word. As I was rereading it  I was struck by similarities to Roald Dahl's Boy: Tales of Childhood. Both books really make you see just how the experiences of their early lives fueled their imaginations and provided fodder for their stories. 

Because I'm A) in the midst of a move, and B) helping my daughter who just got out of the hospital, I didn't have time to finish rereading the book, so August's post will go more into the actual writing advice part. 

In the meantime, I'll leave you with some photos of Maine, the state that inspired much of King's writing.  It's rained almost every day of the three plus weeks I've been here, and when it wasn't raining, the fog settled it. But I love this kind of weather, so I'm happy. 

We have had some bursts of sun, and Fenway seems happy with his new home.

My daughter and I recently "hiked" up the mountain (in our car). This was the view from the top.

The harbor is gorgeous on a sunny day...

There has been so much rain, that toadstool villages have emerged! 

The webs spun by grass spiders have totally intrigued me. If I was a children's book author, I'd just have to spin a tale of tiny creatures living under the toadstools and leaving sparkling webs on the dew-laden grass.

Good thing I love the foggy days because there have been a lot of them this summer.

Somewhere at the end of the breakwater is the lighthouse. We could hear the foghorn, but the lighthouse wasn't visible, and if we turned and looked back toward shore, this was the view.

So back to writing, have you read On Writing? Does it top your list of favorites? We'll talk more about it in August, but please share your thoughts or tell me about how your summer has been going.

How Pre-orders benefit your favorite authors.

Did you know that pre-ordering a book is one of the most helpful things you can do for an author? Here are a few of the benefits, in case you wondered:

• The publisher is watching to see if there is any pre-publication buzz...and if there is, they are more likely to put even more marketing effort/dollars behind a book to build even more buzz.

• With so many books coming out all the time, hopping into your local bookstore and asking them to pre-order a book sends them a signal that something good is coming out. They often order two or three in addition to your pre-order to have it in the store on release day. 

• Pre-order sales are added into the first week sales when the book is published, and all of those pre-orders can be just what is needed to get a book on a bestseller list. That "Bestseller" cache is a big one for authors. Whether it's the NYT, USA Today, ECPA, or Publisher's Weekly, hitting a bestseller list garners attention for the book, which can generate even more sales.

• Whatever weird math makes up the Internet, when there are pre-orders and buzz about a book, the mystery algorithms pick up on that buzz and spread it farther. Online retailers pick up on those mystery algorithms and promote the book on their sites.  

• Asking your library to pre-order a book is HUGE! Authors love libraries. Libraries get authors' books into the hands of so many readers, and many true book lovers will investigate a new author via the library, and if they like the stories, will go out and purchase the author's whole backlist.  

• Pre-ordering has a couple upsides for readers, too. You often get the book before the publication date if you order a print copy. Amazon often ships before the pub date. Also, pre-ordering means you order now, pay when the book ships. And, if you pre-order, you won't miss the release!

As authors, we thank all of you who read our books, whether you pre-order, get it through the library, share books with friends, print, ebook, or audio. We're just glad you're reading our stories and enjoying the bookish life!

Best-selling, award-winning author Erica Vetsch loves Jesus, history, romance, and sports. She’s a transplanted Kansan now living in Minnesota, and she is married to her total opposite and soul mate! When she’s not writing fiction, she’s planning her next trip to a history museum and cheering on her Kansas Jayhawks and New Zealand All Blacks. You can connect with her at her website, www.ericavetsch.com where you can read about her books and sign up for her newsletter, and you can find her online at https://www.facebook.com/EricaVetschAuthor/ where she spends way too much time!

Jane Austen meets Sherlock Holmes in this new Regency mystery series

Newly returned from finishing school, Lady Juliette Thorndike is ready to debut in London society. Due to her years away, she hasn't spent much time with her parents, and sees them only as the flighty, dilettante couple the other nobles love. But when they're lost at sea, she discovers she never really knew them at all. They've been living double lives as government spies--and they're only the latest in a long history of espionage that is the family's legacy.

Now Lady Juliette is determined to continue their work. Mentored by her uncle, she plunges into the dangerous world of spy craft. From the glittering ballrooms of London to the fox hunts, regattas, and soirees of country high society, she must chase down hidden clues, solve the mysterious code her parents left behind, and stay out of danger. All the while, she has to keep her endeavors a secret from her best friend and her suitors--not to mention nosy, irritatingly handsome Bow Street runner Daniel Swann, who suspects her of a daring theft.

Can Lady Juliette outwit her enemies and complete her parents' last mission? Or will it lead her to a terrible end?

Best-selling author Erica Vetsch is back with a rollicking, exciting new series destined to be a hit with Regency readers who enjoy a touch of mystery in their love stories. Fans of Julie Klassen, Sarah Ladd, and Anne Perry will love the wit, action, and romance.

Pre-order your copy here: https://smile.amazon.com/Debutantes-Thorndike-Swann-Regency-Mysteries/dp/0825447135

Sunday Scripture & Prayer Requests

 The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes,
James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum, 1886-1894. [PD-US]

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. 
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. 
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples. 
The Jewish feast of Passover was near. 
When Jesus raised his eyes
and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip,
“Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” 
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do. 
Philip answered him,
“Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little.” 
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?” 
Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” 
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. 
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. 
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted. 
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.” 
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments 
from the five barley loaves
that had been more than they could eat. 
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
“This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” 
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

John 6:1-15

 The Seekerville bloggers are praying for YOU and for our entire blog community. If you have any special intentions that need additional prayer coverage, leave a request for prayer in the comment section below. 

Please join us in praying for our country!

God Bless the USA!

We are so grateful for all of you—for your friendship and your support! 

May the Lord bless you and keep you safe.