The World of Sophia Sinclair

The Reader Magnet is Coming! Do you know what a Reader Magnet is? We writers make a deal with you. We agree to give you a free short book, and in return, you give us your email address. Win-win for everyone. If you sign up for my newsletter, I'll sent along my newly finished reader magnet. It's working title, so far, is Carol Ann Drinks Her Coffee . It is a prequel to the Small-Town Secrets series, and when I finished writing it, and explained the plot to my husband, I cried. You see, Carol Ann is an older lady who likes to make a cup of coffee and people-watch from her porch or through her living room window. She's a widow, and we learn all about how she and Archie met and married. Archie had my career (newspaper editor) and many of my bad habits, so it's almost like Carol Ann was married to a curmudgeonly male version of me, (although I never went off to fight in the Korean War and left behind a pregnant wife, so there's that). All my newsletter subscribers will g...

Tell Me Another Story! We all love stories. Our ancient ancestors told stories around the fire at night. That was their entertainment, but it was also their oral history, which was the only history they had at that point.  We all still love stories, whether it's reading a book or watching a movie. But it would be a mistake to think stories are only entertainment. They are, but they're also so much more. My little granddaughter loves to hear stories about Queen Fluff and her cat kingdom. Incidentally, the cats in that kingdom cannot get enough asparagus. They grow and harvest it and then feast on various asparagus dishes. Queen Fluff's Favorite is an asparagus dish made with pasta and parmesan cheese. Do I have to tell you that my granddaughter loves asparagus now?  When I started a job at an advertising and marketing agency, I was taught to "tell a story" with my ads, and I realized I had been marketing asparagus to my granddaughter all along. I don't work at ...

It's the Deal of a Lifetime! OK, that's a lie. It's a pretty good deal, but probably not the deal of a lifetime.  But if you love to read, do sign up for authors' newsletters. Not just mine, but everyone's.  Most authors today do have a newsletter, and we typically offer you a deal: You give me your email address, and in return I will give you things like a free prequel to my current series, or a discount, or a chance to win a gift card, or perhaps just heads up on new releases.  Why are authors anxious to have you subscribe to our newsletters? For the same reason we write blogs and post frequently to social media: It is no longer enough just to write books. Back in the good old days, that was all we had to write. Just books. It must have been nice. But today, we have to hustle hard. Millions of books are published each year. Some are dreadful. Some are wonderful. Some books, which are exactly what you love to read, you'll never see. It's hard for authors to...

All Men Fart If you're in a relationship, you might compare yours with the ones in your favorite romance novels.  But doing that is very much like comparing your life to the lives of others on social media. You know what I'm talking about. Your friend confides in you that her marriage is on rocky ground, but her social media shows them on vacation, having fabulous meals, adorably playing with their toddler, whatever. She does not post pics and video of one of them crying or slamming doors or sleeping on the sofa. We all know that people's social media is not an accurate reflection of what their daily lives are. How many times have you cropped a photo to avoid the basket of unfolded laundry or the messy coffee table before posting the pic on your social media? Anybody would assume your house is always neat and tidy and maybe it is, but mine isn't. I only wish my house was as put together as it usually appears on my social media. Similarly, in Romance Land, you see a spec...

  Read the book that started it all! All the books in the Small-Town Secrets can stand alone, but like peanut butter and jelly, they are better together. When you read the books in order, you'll really get to know Fairview. You'll learn the best place for pizza (Sorrentino's, of course!) and where to go to get a drink (The Clipper, obviously!)   You'll get to know the characters well, because people you meet in an earlier book will pop right up in later books. You'll meet their children, who grow up as the series progresses.  The first book is all about Molly, the library director at the Fairview Public Library, a hard-working single mom who isn't even looking for a relationship until a sexy stranger with a compelling back story walks into her library. He's smitten immediately, probably because he saw a bit more than she intended when she climbed the ladder to put away a book on the top shelf. Oops. The great thing about Fairview? There are no presidential p...

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...

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...