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.  Note our new email address and please send your emails to Seekerville2@gmail.com

Monday: Erica Vetsch brought the post, asking readers to evaluate their 2019 goals, habits and mindset as we enter the final third of the year.

Wednesday: Cate Nolan was all about the Persistence! 

Friday: Seekerville gave the nod to school starting, fall is in the air and all things ending the summer season. Delightful chats and stop by next WE for the list of winners of all the giveaways!

Monday: Seekerville is closed for Labor Day

Tuesday: Mary Connealy has a novella release to talk about!

Wednesday:  Mindy Obenhaus offers enchanting stuff to think about! She's not sure what that's going to be yet, but rest assured that she'll be raring to go.

  

Friday: DiAnn Mills is dropping by to talk about pursuing a writer's holy grail, plus giving away a copy of her new release, Fatal Strike!

What to go on a blind date with a book? JustRead Publicity Tours would love to set you up on a blind date with a book (or two or more) to read!  Just fill out our Blind Tour Compatibility form and once we match a book with you, we'll get in touch. All we asked is for you to post a review and submit a link to us.  Easy peasy, right?! Join now at: http://bit.ly/JR_BlindTours.

FREE!! FREE!! FREE!! FREE!! FREE!!

In All e-book formats!

Book #1 of the Cimarron Legacy Series

No Way Up

Kindle

Nook

Books #2 and #3 are on sale!

Long Time Gone

Too Far Down

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Novella Release!

Thankful for the Cowboy

I call this one

Windmills and Sandhills

But it's real title is

Thankful for the Cowboy

With so much fuss about Christmas, I teamed with six authors to celebrate Thanksgiving

Hero Tom MacKinnon rides up driving a wagon with a second wagon trailing him. He and his sister want to be hired to build windmills. They’ll ask for very little money and, in exchange heroine, Lauren Drummond, newly widowed mother of four nearly grown sons, will help them learn to survive in the Sandhills of Nebraska. What to grow, what to hunt, how to build a sod house.

Tom’s windmills will save her ranch. Lauren needs three windmills on this drought year or her growing herd of cattle is going to die of thirst. She agrees to teach him the ways of the Sandhills, and to give him fifteen head of cattle.
She’s not ready to think of another man. But Tom changes her mind. His little sister and one of her sons find love together before Tom and Lauren do.

Thanksgiving Books and Blessings Series #2

Book #1 Texas Tears by Caryl McAdoo

Book #2 Mail-Order Misfire by Davalyn Spencer

Book #3 Thankful for the Cowboy by Mary Connealy

Book #4 Blizzards and Blessings by Samantha Bayarr

Book #5 Spring of Thanksgiving by Liz Tolzma

Book #6 These Great Gifts by Allison Pittman

Publishers Weekly...a very nice review for Aiming for Love, coming in October.

Mindy Obenhaus's Reunited in the Rockies releases in ebook format 
Sunday, September 1st!

And this week is just filled with book releases! Jan Drexler's Christmas novella collection with authors Leslie Gould and Kate Lloyd will be available on Tuesday, September 3rd. Don't forget to order your copy!

Order from Amazon here!

Also from Jan, Book 2 in The Amish of Weaver's Creek series is coming on October 1st, and it's available for pre-order!

Pre-order your copy here!

What Makes You Love Your Main Character? by Julia Munroe Martin at Writer UnBoxed

Three Reasons Why You Aren't Reaching Your Potential by Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic at FastCompany (thanks to Cate Nolan for including this link in her post last week)

How to Use a "Truth Chart" to Figure Out Your Character's Arc by K. M. Weiland at Helping Writers Become Authors

8 Tips on Balancing Work and Writing by Evan Ramzipoor at Fiction University

Reclaiming the Creative Spark in Troubled Times by Tiffany Yates Martin at Writers In The Storm

12 Mary Shelley Quotes for Writers and About Writing by Robert Lee Brewer at Writer's Digest

End of Summer Blockbuster Giveaway!

Missy Tippens

School is back in session for many, and about to start for others. As summer is winding down, we thought we'd throw a party!

It's been a while since we've fed you around here. So come on over to enjoy a good southern cookout. On the grill, we've got hamburgers, hotdogs, marinated chicken, and marinated portobellos with Vidalia onions. Also, grilled corn on the cob (yum)! And grilled Georgia peaches topped with homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Once your tummy is full, we'd like to take stock of the blog and ask for your input. What post topics would you like to see in the future? What questions would you like us to answer? We want to hear from you!

Oh, and don't forget the giveaways today from all our bloggers...

From Missy Tippens... A Bullet (Dotted) Journal

From Erica Vetsch...a copy of Mail-Order Mishaps

From Mary Connealy... a copy of her upcoming novella, Thankful for the Cowboy

From Winnie Griggs...a copy of her Love Inspired 2-in-1 releasing in September

From Annie...a surprise stack of books


From Pam Hillman...one of her Natchez Trace Novels: winner’s choice

From Ruthy Logan Herne... a copy of Back in the Saddle

From Audra Harders...a Bullet (Dotted) Journal

From Debby Giusti...a copy of the first book in her Amish Protectors series, Amish Refuge

From Mindy Obenhaus...a copy of Reunited in the Rockies

From Carrie Schmidt...a $5 Amazon gift card


From Jan Drexler...a copy of her upcoming release, An Amish Christmas Kitchen, a collection of 3 novellas by Jan, Leslie Gould and Kate Lloyd

From Cate Nolan...a copy of an Australian version of her book, Christmas in Hiding, in a 2-in-1 version with Carla Cassidy

From Beth Erin...winner's choice of one title from her book stash OR a $5 Amazon gift card 

From Glynna Kaye...a $5 Amazon gift card

We're so grateful to all of you for hanging out here with us! Enjoy the party and please stick around to chat.

Please leave a comment about blog topics or guests you've particularly enjoyed in the past or topics you'd be interested in for future posts. Commenters will be entered for the giveaways! Winners will be announced in the September 7th Weekend Edition.

Another "P" Word = Persistence

A few months I did a blog on the P word – procrastination.

Today, I’m back to talk about a different P word, the one that determines the possibility of success – Persistence.

I have two quotations that have guided my writing career for as long as I can remember.

The first is:

  

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. (Often attributed to Richard Bach, bus he supposedly disavowed saying it.)

I have read a lot of differing opinions about that quote ranging from arguments about what constitutes a professional writer to what determines the level of success required to claim writer status. I’m not really interested in any of those arguments. In my mind, it comes down to this – writers write. So whether you do it for a lot of money or none, if you haven’t quit yet (or have and came back to it), then you’re on the right/write track.

The second quote follows naturally from that. 

She wrote what she loved, until she loved what she wrote, and she sent it out one more time.

I have no idea where this quote came from. I have it on a scrap of paper that is so old it’s turned yellow and brittle.

When I tried to Google the source of that quote, I got a bunch of links to Taylor Swift’s new album. It’s really tempting to tag Taylor in this post and see our views skyrocket. I have no idea why that quote triggered Taylor's name, but when I thought about it, I was glad it had.

 A lesson in procrastination vs. persistence

The other day, I was supposed to be writing, but when I signed on to Twitter to join my #1k1hr group, #TaylorSwiftonGMA was trending. I very easily got sucked down a rabbit hole of Taylor Swift videos. 

Avoiding that kind of rabbit hole is a constant struggle for me. My husband used to drive me crazy flipping channels on the television. It seemed he’d stay on something just long enough for me to get hooked. He would move on, but by that time, I would be begging him to turn it back (to some show I'd probably be embarrassed to admit watching), because once I'm hooked, I need to find out what happens.

Which is what happened last Thursday on Twitter. First there was a video about Taylor's father handing out pizza to the people who waited on line overnight. Then there was Taylor singing a song from her new album. Then... and so on.

It's important to note here, I've never particularly been a Taylor Swift fan. I was just curious about what all the fuss on Good Morning America was about. My interest had been piqued. 

Am I alone in this? I know we joke about going to Facebook to check one thing and discovering we've spent an hour instead of the scheduled 5 minutes.

As it turns out though, watching Taylor Swift videos for an hour wasn’t without some benefit. One of the clips on GMA gave a history of her career starting as an 11 year-old girl determined to make it in Nashville. She explained that her mother and little brother waited in the car while she delivered karaoke demos she’d made. She talked about walking up and down Music Row knocking on doors.

"I would say, 'Hi, I'm Taylor. I'm 11; I want a record deal. Call me."

I cannot imagine having that kind of dedication at my age, let alone at 11. 

But the story didn't end there.

I found an article on ENews that included this:

"She came back from that trip to Nashville and realized she needed to be different, and part of that would be to learn the guitar," Andrea told EW. "Now, at 12, she saw a 12-string guitar and thought it was the coolest thing. And of course we immediately said, 'Oh no, absolutely not, your fingers are too small—not till you're much older will you be able to play the 12-string guitar.'
"Well, that was all it took. Don't ever say never or can't do to Taylor. She started playing it four hours a day—six on the weekends. She would get calluses on her fingers and they would crack and bleed, and we would tape them up and she'd just keep on playing.  ENews

What intrigues me is how someone has that kind of drive to succeed - especially at such a young age. 

Taylor is not unique in her work ethic. We hear stories all the time about athletes and their superior dedication to their sport, practicing endless hours until they can sink that three-point shot flawlessly, or lead a team to another Super Bowl victory.  

What can we, as writers, learn from this mindset?

That question has really been on my mind a lot lately. Writing is not a career for the faint of heart. It requires a lot of hard work, is often solitary, and you can go many years honing your craft before you manage to snag that contract.

And when you do, you just get to do it all over again.

Some writers succeed brilliantly, and others, as in my quote above, never rise to that professional level for one reason or another.

Why?

I found some interesting thoughts on that topic in an article at a teaching workshop I attended this week. I'm going to link the article. Take a minute and go look - it's short.

Three Reasons You Aren't Reaching Your Full Potential

The article states: The question, then, is why some people are better at developing their potential than others. 

What intrigued me about the answer was the psychological analysis. I'm just going to share a couple of key quotes that intrigued me. They will all make more sense if you read the article.

The trouble is that most people don’t seriously want what they say they want.
’I want’ means, ‘if I want it enough I will get it.’ Getting what you want means making the decisions you need to make to get what you want.”

In other words, few of us are willing to do what it takes to achieve what we desire.

Some aspirations are simply superficial desires for status, not declarations of will followed up by action.

Real motivation is the key ingredient. Those who actually succeed at getting better are obsessed with their goals, turning that motivation into genuine talent over time.

These thoughts hit home with me, because throughout my life, whenever I was working on something that I cared passionately about, I was unstoppable. My energy was boundless, nothing could stand in my way.

When I find myself faltering, it's usually because some little voice in my head is whispering, Do you really want it enough to work this hard?

Obviously adolescent Taylor Swift did.

Do you?

Is writing something you feel passionately about and are you ready to make the decisions you need to succeed. Are you willing to put in the time to develop the talent? Are you ready to bloody those fingers?

If you’re not a writer, is there something else that you are passionate about to this level?

Let's chat.

Three Things to Evaluate as We Move into Fall

How has your summer been? For me, it seems to have passed in a blink. Some traveling, some writing retreats and weekends, some weeks at home editing and writing, and all of a sudden, I'm staring down the barrel of September, the start of a new school year, the season of pumpkin-spice everything. Since my younger child graduated and I am not homeschooling anymore, I am no longer ruled by the tyranny of the School Calendar. The rhythm of my days is not changed much with the turning of the leaves…and yet…perhaps it should be. 

The changing of a season is a good time to reevaluate our goals, habits, and mindset where our writing is concerned. Did you set some goals in January? We’re 2/3 of the way through 2019. Perhaps now is a good time to take stock of what we've done and what remains to be done this year for us to stay on track.

Did you set a word count goal for 2019? Or a number of submissions you wanted to get done? Agents queried? Books released? Some other writing goal? How are you doing with that? Do you need to reassess? Perhaps your goals weren’t lofty enough? Have you surpassed any benchmarks you set for yourself? Are you perhaps a little behind? What are you going to do to catch up?

 


Where are your writing habits after the summer months? How is your discipline? Are you writing often, or are you just thinking about writing? What changes will fall bring to your writing time? Will it be harder to squeeze in, or will having kids in school free up more time to write? Are you taking time to learn more about the craft of writing? Reading some good books, listening to podcasts, browsing good blogs? What habits need changed, and what should you keep doing as we head into the cooler months?

How’s your mindset these days? Are you dreading the coming of shorter days, brisker temps, and busier schedules? Or do you embrace a structured format? Are you excited about writing, or does the thought of actually sitting down and sinking into a story world give you anxiety or dread. Can you use this change of seasons to reset? Mindset is perhaps the writer's greatest strength and possibly greatest weakness. How is your attitude about life in general, and how is that trickling through to your writing?

For many, the coming of fall and the start of school means a drastic change in routine. Gone are the carefree days of summer where sleeping in is normal, unplanned adventures are an everyday possibility, and bedtimes as flexible as pool noodles. It’s time for backpacks, homework, after-school activities, and a ramping up of church commitments. Such a change can rock the writer's world, or it can be the catalyst they need to reassess, readjust, and rejuvenate their writing goals for a push to the end of the year.

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 at online  https://www.facebook.com/EricaVetschAuthor/ 

where she spends way too much time!

Journey along in the Old West as four women travel to meet their husbands-to-be and discover that nothing is as it was planned. Eve’s fiancé is in jail. Amelia’s fiancé has never heard of her. Zola’s newlywed husband is dead. Maeve’s travel is misdirected. Can these brides can find a true love match?

The Galway Girl by Erica Vetsch
Kansas, 1875
A mail-order mix-up sends Irish lass Maeve O’Reilly to the Swedish community of Lindsborg, Kansas. Will Kaspar Sandberg consider it a happy accident or a disaster to be rectified as soon as possible?

You can order your copy of Mail-Order Mishaps today by clicking HERE.