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Showing posts from September, 2020

Who Likes Free Stuff?

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Waiting For The Big Time There are a handful of authors out there who make the big bucks. Everybody loves their books. I'd go hungry if necessary to buy the hardback of Diana Gabaldon's latest, to give one example.  But there are thousands of fantastic books written every year that go unread. What do authors do to try to get noticed? We give our work away. It's what creative people do, I'm afraid, because the same thing is true of singers, artists and photographers. While nobody ever asks insurance salespeople or doctors or lawn care company owners or roofers to give away their work, it's just accepted that creative people will give it up for free. And you know what? We absolutely will, because we all hope that eventually, if enough people read our book/listen to our songs/look at our paintings, we will eventually have enough fans that we can make a living with our art.  That might not be true of most of us, but dreams die hard. So here's the deal: I need people

Crazy Little Thing now on pre-order!

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Now It's Ashley's Turn If you've been reading the Small-Town Secrets series, you've "met" Ashley a number of times. She's everyone's favorite bartender at The Clipper, and she knows everything that's going on in town. But her own plans have been a big secret. That's about to change: Ashley Butler is everyone’s favorite bartender at The Clipper. She’s seemingly always there to remember your favorite drink and offer a sympathetic ear. But Ashley has plans that go far beyond bartending. She has been quietly working on a major project for years, and she’s just about to make her move. When wealthy developer Maxwell Bishop makes a stop at The Clipper, he’s utterly captivated by the beautiful, intelligent, self-assured woman behind the bar. When he accidentally throws a monkey wrench into her plans, he tries to make it up to her. Ashley accepts his offer and their attraction heats up, but they are from such different worlds. She was raised by a poor s

The secret lives of small towns

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Enjoy your visit to Fairview It’s the sort of place you’ve driven through countless times. Just another small town. The local dive bar does a good business. The old downtown is struggling, but a few brave entrepreneurs have opened cute little coffee shops or boutiques a few shuttered storefronts down from the local businesses your parents tell you have been there as long as they can remember. There’s a library and a small hospital, which still hangs on even though a lot of people will drive to a bigger hospital in the next city if something is really wrong.  Houses are known as “the old Williams house” or “where Joe Fisher used to live” even though two other families might have lived there since the last Williams or Fisher passed away or moved on. If you go to the local cemetery, you’ll see the same last names over and over again. It’s a place where families stay for generations, although that’s starting to change now. Maybe you grew up in such a place. If you did, you know there’s a l

Kiss and Tell: New Cover!

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Here's the new cover for Kiss and Tell. It tells the story of Lori and Jake. We met Lori in Worth the Wait, where she was Molly's best friend: Lori is a beautiful nurse who is never seen without perfect hair and makeup. But nobody has ever fallen in love with her, and she’s starting to worry that nobody ever will.  She is powerfully affected by a tragedy in the ER one night. It’s time, she realizes, to stop waiting around for a man and to embrace the single life. She starts with buying her first house. Enter the gorgeous but seemingly shallow real estate agent, Jake, who has the nerve to hit her up for business even as she’s caring for his injury. Their attraction is undeniable, but Lori is determined to avoid getting entangled with the wrong sort. So is Jake. Soon, but not soon enough, they realize how badly they have misjudged each other. Is their love and passion strong enough to overcome hurt feelings and misunderstandings? Kiss and Tell is racier than Worth the Wait, becau

New covers!

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  This new cover was "Worth the Wait"!  Writing well isn't enough. The world is full of great books nobody ever reads. If I had known, when I started writing the Small-Town Secrets series, how much I would need to learn about formatting, graphic design and promotion, I'd never have attempted it. But here I am, with fresh new covers coming and a new book out very soon! This cover is for the first book in the series. I'll share the others soon. It's worth noting that I had the same feeling after becoming the editor of my small town's daily newspaper many years ago. That job had so much responsibility and required so many different skills. Not just writing and editing but managing a staff and keeping to a budget, dealing with union issues, placating angry subscribers ... I felt just the same with that job. "If I had known it was going to be this hard, I'd have been afraid to have accepted the job." But I managed to develop every skill necessary.

Better Than the Real World

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When I was a child, adults accused me of always being in my own little world because I was always daydreaming. Was that supposed to be an insult? I didn't take it as one. Now I have a little world where others can join me: the little town of Fairview, the setting of the Small-Town Secrets series. A collection of unforgettable characters fills these small-town romance novels. Each book builds on the previous one. We meet new characters in every book, but we always go back and revisit past characters and catch up on what's been happening in their lives. The whole series can be experienced as the world's longest romantic movie. We start with Worth the Wait, where we first meet Molly. She's a single mother who is raising her three children alone on a librarian's salary when one day a man whose relatives were murdered decades ago shows up, intending to take up residence and solve the murder. He just happens to be gorgeous, charming and smitten with Molly. In Kiss and Tel