Piedmont Island Trilogy: 12/01/2011

The Visionary by Pamela Thibodeaux

My guest today is award-winning author Pamela S. Thibodeaux.

She is the Co-Founder and a lifetime member of Bayou Writers Group in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Multi-published in romantic fiction as well as creative non-fiction, her writing has been tagged as, “Inspirational with an Edge!” ™ and reviewed as “steamier and grittier than the typical Christian novel without decreasing the message.”

Welcome to Piedmont Island, Pamela. It’s a great day to sit by the fire and chat about writing and books. Let’s not waste a precious moment of our time together.

Anne - Tell us about The Visionary.

Pamela - A visionary is someone who sees into the future, Taylor Forrestier sees into the past but only as it pertains to her work. Hailed by her peers as “a visionary with an instinct for beauty and an eye for the unique” Taylor is undoubtedly a brilliant architect and gifted designer. But she and twin brother Trevor, share more than a successful business. The two share a childhood wrought with lies and deceit and the kind of abuse that’s disturbingly prevalent in today’s society. Can the love of God and the power of His grace and mercy free the twins from their past and open their hearts to the good plan and the future He has for their lives? Find out in…The Visionary ~ Where the awesome power of God’s love heals the most wounded of souls.

Anne – Would you share an excerpt with us?

Pamela – I’d love to.

Trevor hovered in the place between wakefulness and sleep, darkness and light, heaven and hell. He could hear his sister’s voice, but he couldn’t see her, couldn’t find her in the darkness, and couldn’t reach her in the red haze of pain and fear. He was hot, so hot. He burned with anger and shame and shook with the fear that kept him bound, unable to get to her. He felt trapped, helpless. She called to him again, but it was the sound of a little girl whimpering. He mumbled her name, assured her he was there, that he’d save and protect her. It wouldn’t happen again, he promised and struggled to jerk his hands from their restraints, to break through the darkness and rescue her.

Anne – That’s riveting, Pamela. It’s a perfect example of why your books are “inspirational with an edge”. What do you enjoy most about writing? What part do you loathe?

Pamela - I love the creative process and have come to enjoy the editing and promoting - what I loathe is time it takes between writing and publishing and the seemingly endless process in between.

Anne - Of all the characters you’ve created, does one hold a special place in your heart? Why?

Pamela - The hero in my novel, The Visionary, Alex Broussard holds a special place in my heart because out of all of my heroes, he is the one who most reminds me of my deceased husband.

Anne – I’m sure I’m not the only one with a tear in my eye, Pamela. What a wonderful way to honor your husband and the love you shared.

Do you have any words of advice for struggling, unpublished writers?

Pamela - Never give up. Keep growing, learning and honing your craft. Be flexible and open to advice from those who’ve been where you are and share your knowledge and experience with those coming up behind you. Stay true to your voice and your characters--afterall, it is their story, you are just writing it down. Don’t quit -- writing is a gift and a talent, don’t bury your talent or hide your gift.

Anne - Outside of writing, what accomplishment are you most proud?

Pamela - Being a wife and mother is by far & foremost accomplishment I’m most proud of.

Anne - Have you experienced writer's block? If so, how did you work through it?

Pamela - I doubt there is a writer on the planet that hasn’t experienced writer’s block to some degree. For me, this malady usually occurs when I’m under tremendous stress in some area of my life or when I’m trying to write the story my way instead of paying attention to what God is showing/telling me. I work through/overcome by taking a break and spending time in prayer and quiet meditation.

Anne - Quick. Your five favorites – author, actor, movie, song, quote.

Pamela - Nora Roberts, Melissa Gilbert, Pretty Woman, any song by Third Day, “When the going gets tough, the tough get on their knees.”

Anne - To what or whom do you credit your success?

Pamela - Many people have a love/hate relationship with their muse. My muse is the Holy Spirit and I accredit every ounce of success to the grace of God because without HIM I seriously doubt I could write a single word, much less stories that bring hope and healing to so many.

Anne – I can’t believe it’s time to wrap this up already. I’ve enjoyed our time together and want to thank you for dropping by Piedmont Island, Pamela. I also wish you every success with The Visionary. Before you leave, I have one final question. Where can readers reach you online?

Pamela – At my website, Blog, Bayou WritersGroup, FaceBook and Twitter.

Anne – Thanks again, Pamela. Readers, your comments are welcome and appreciated. Become a follower to ensure you get every interview, announcement and/or blog post. Last, but certainly not least, have a super day and happy reading!

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Eclectic Writer Double Feature

It's not often an author gets to visit a blog two days in a row, so when it happens it's special.

Fellow Vanilla Heart Publishing author Janet Lane Walter recently invited me to drop by her Eclectic Writer blog, and I jumped at the opportunity.

Her regular Friday post "How She Does It" focuses on how writers write. The fascinating thing (at least to me) is every author's method and process is different. To read how my story ideas get from inside my head onto the page, click HERE.

Janet's "Saturday's Reads" post is a super follow-up to Friday's topic. How an author writes is one thing. What she writes is another. Read an excerpt of my romantic suspense DEFENDING GLORY, book 1 of the Piedmont Island Trilogy, HERE.

Happy reading!

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Setting, Scenery, & A Pen for Your Thoughts

By definition, setting is the locale or period in which the action of a novel takes place. It is, of course, more than just scenery. It establishes mood, creates conflict and causes turmoil. It impacts and changes the characters. It can (and should) move the story forward.

I'm guest blogger today at A Pen For Your Thoughts. and surprise, surprise, I'm talking about setting! Leave a comment to win an e-copy of Defending Glory, book one of the Piedmont Island Trilogy series where trouble outnumbers residents!

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Breathless by Kathryn J. Bain

My guest today is Kathryn J. Bain. She has been writing for more than ten years, has two daughters, one a professional photographer, and the other a student the University of West Florida. Kathryn’s President of the Florida Sisters in Crime, Public Relations Director for Ancient City Romance Authors, and she enjoys critiquing for the new members of American Christian Fiction Writers. To survive and pay bills, she has been a paralegal for approximately twenty years and works for an attorney who specializes in guardianships, probate, and estate planning. She moved from Idaho to Jacksonville, Florida in 1983 and has lived in the sunshine since. AND, her latest release, Breathless, will be released on Friday!

Welcome to Piedmont Island, Kathryn, and congratulations on Breathless. It’s a little chilly in northern Minnesota today, so let’s sit by the fire. And please, help yourself to a hot beverage of your choice…ah, the wonders of cyberspace. Gotta love it. Okay, is everyone comfy? Perfect. Let’s talk writing!

Anne - Do you have a fear, phobia, or habit you’d rather no one knew about?

Kathryn - I am terrified of heights. I live in Jacksonville, Florida where there are bridges all around. I try to avoid them as much as possible or go over the ones least likely to give me a heart attack. If I have to go over them, I play my music real loud and sing on the top of my lungs to try to distract myself. It’s funny, but when I’m in the car alone, I sound like Carrie Underwood. But when someone joins me, I turn into Elmer Fudd.

Anne – LOL! What do you enjoy most about writing? What part do you loathe?

Kathryn - I love coming up with new stories and throwing my characters into predicaments to see how they’ll get out. Sometimes they surprise me with their ingenuity. I hate the proofing part. By the time I’ve read my story over the 5th time. I’m done. I can’t take anymore. It drives me crazy, but it’s something you have to do.

Anne – Yes, it is. J Of all the characters you’ve created, does one hold a special place in your heart, and why?

Kathryn - I would say of all my character’s Teddy Federline in Beautiful Imperfection, the manuscript I just completed, is my favorite so far. She’s dealing with the aftermath of breast cancer. She taught me so much. By the time I got done with my research, I realized just how heroic these women really are.

Anne – She sounds like an inspiration, just like the survivors themselves. Tell us about the defining moment when you felt as if you’d finally made it as an author.

Kathryn - My defining moment came in an e-mail. It was when I got the contract for Breathless. It had taken eight years, but I finally felt validated. Before the contract, I was a writer. I wrote and wrote and wrote. After, I became an author. It’s AWESOME!

Anne – Funny how that little piece of paper makes all the difference, isn’t it?! Any words of advice for struggling, unpublished writers?

Kathryn - Never stop learning. There are so many changes going on in this field that you need to keep reading and taking courses. But be careful who you learn from. Make sure it’s someone who can actually teach you what you need to know. There are a lot of self-promoters out there who aren’t even published in the genre they teach. A lot of books on how to get published in fiction are written by people who’ve only written self-help books. If they knew how to get published in fiction, they’d have done it. What they’re doing is helping themselves to your wallet.

Anne – Congratulations on the upcoming release (tomorrow, actually!) of Breathless. What is it about?

Kathryn – Lydia Frederickson is afraid to answer her telephone. Widowed and alone, she only wants to get through another anniversary of her husband’s death without falling to pieces, but a stalker isn’t making that goal easy. The disturbing calls are becoming increasingly personal and threatening, and everyone who knows her is suspect. The only person she knows isn’t making the calls is her new ponytailed, tattooed—and breathtakingly handsome— minister, Matthew Winters.

Former-narcotics-agent-turned-minister Matthew Winters knows he’s not what the town expected in their new pastor, but he’s up for the challenge. What he doesn’t expect is the sudden attraction he feels for parishioner Lydia Frederickson. When he discovers she’s the victim of a stalker, he feels God’s intervention has led him—both a cop and a preacher—to her. Matthew knows he’s falling for the beautiful widow, but a secret from his past may undermine their future.

Anne – It sounds like a great read, and I wish you every success with Breathless. Where can readers reach you online?

Kathryn – At my website. I’d like to thank you for inviting me to Piedmont Island!

Anne – It’s my pleasure! You’re welcome anytime…maybe when Beautiful Imperfection is release?!

As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. By the way, if you want to ensure you don’t miss a single Piedmont Island Trilogy post, please become a follower. It's as easy as a click, and it would certainly make my day. (Thank you in advance.)

Until next time, happy reading!

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Jayne E. Self's Murder in Hum Harbour

My guest today is Jayne Self. In her own words, Jayne is “a middle-aged blonde, a pastor’s wife, mom and grandma. I’ve worked as a telephone operator, chambermaid, grocery store clerk and nurse, but my involvements in church music and writing are what I love most. I’m a small town girl who’s lived coast to coast in Canada. Trips to Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana and Disney World, have spiced up my humble life, but I am always glad to get home.I am also a member of The Word Guild, a Canadian Association of Writers and Editors who are Christian, and Crime Writers of Canada.”

Welcome, Jayne! It’s always a pleasure to chat with another author, and a traveler! Tell us about your latest release.

Jayne – It’s Murder In Hum Harbour: A Seaglass Mystery.

Gailynn MacDonald is what most people would consider an underachiever. She’s content living in the same Nova Scotian fishing village she grew up in, and has no desire to leave—even for a holiday. As part-time jewelry crafter, and part-time medical receptionist, she thinks she knows everything about everyone in Hum Harbour. That’s until she finds her employer, Doc Campbell, dead aboard his beached yacht, and her sister-in-law becomes the prime suspect. Gailynn vows to catch Doc’s killer.

After five years in

Somalia

, Geoff Grant, Doc’s handsome replacement, moves back to Hum Harbour looking for peace and healing. What he finds instead is quirky, over-excitable Gailynn.

Disaster, humor and romance ensue as he tries to calm the discord, and mitigate the conflicts her well-intentioned sleuthing unleashes. And in the process he helps Gailynn discover that catching a killer is a lot like crafting her seaglass jewelry… it’s all in the details.

Anne - What do you enjoy most about writing?

Jayne - I love the creative process. I love closing the door and losing myself in my characters. I love spinning stories and surprisingly, I enjoy writing confrontations. Maybe it’s because I am so not confrontational, but I find writing arguments totally fun!

Anne - What part do you loathe?

Jayne - Honestly, I haven’t found an aspect of writing I loathe. But approaching folks to promote the finished product makes me extremely uncomfortable.

Anne – I’m okay with the approaching people, part of my background in sales, I suppose, but it’s the time it all takes afterward that wears me down! What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about yourself from writing?

Jayne - When I look back over the five books I’ve written, I see a recurring theme: belonging. I’m adopted, and I always thought I was very well adjusted. No deep seeded issues coloring my world view. Surprise! The flip side, though, is that I get to explore those issues from the safety of my computer. I watch my characters grapple with their need to belong, and I learn from them. It feels a bit like cheating, but I’m okay with that.

Anne - How many rejections have you received?

Jayne - I had planned to paper my bathroom with them, but editors started corresponding via email. It seemed a supreme waste of paper to print off all those no thank yous. My most memorable rejection was probably my first personal one. The editor was so nice, and positive about my manuscript, I thought he couldn’t possible mean me. Of course, my book still “didn’t fit their publishing needs” at that time, but he assured me it would find a home some day. I’m still looking.

Anne - Any advice for struggling, unpublished writers?

Jayne - Persist. Don’t assume that if your first piece doesn’t sell, it’s curtains for you. No matter who you are, or how great your idea, chances are your writing can be stronger. So make it stronger! Use all the resources at your disposal. Accept criticism. Write. Rewrite. Send it out again. Write something new. Just don’t give up.

Anne - Outside of writing, what accomplishment are you most proud of?

Jayne - My family. I know that’s not an accomplishment, but God has blessed me with such wonderful husband and sons, daughter-in-law and grandson, that I am simply thrilled to be connected with them. Wealth and fame might be good, too. But my family is more than enough.

Anne – Your 5 favs: author, actor, movie, song and quote, please!

Jayne - Author: Dorothy Dunnett, Actor: Russell Crowe, Movie: Doctor Zhivago, Song: Here With Me by Mercy Me, Quote: 1. “He’s going over the waterfall!” Random mall customer referring to my toddler in the food court fountain. (Should I mention my hubby was watching the kids while I picked up the food?), Quote: 2. “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Matt 28:20. Which it might have been, had my husband not jumped into the water, and fished our son out.

Anne – LOL. What a lovely story! Too funny. Okay, back to the task at hand. :) Would you share an excerpt from Murder In Hum Harbour with us?

Jayne – Certainly!

I learned something new about myself the day I found Doc Campbell. Dead bodies freak me out.

A cold fog shrouded the world that morning and after the weekend storm, the silent waves nuzzling the shore seemed insanely gentle. I kept my head down, studying the wet gravel as I walked. Anywhere, at any moment, a brilliant sliver of sea glass might catch my eye. Sea glass is a treasure to be gathered, hoarded and sparingly used in the jewelry I create. I spotted a slice of violet and crouched low, unable to believe my good fortune. Violet sea glass is among the rarest of jewels.

Beyond Hum Harbour’s breakwater a foghorn sounded, its eerie echo raising the fine hairs on the back of my neck. A breeze whispered among the invisible evergreens on the hillside above me, and I looked up in time to see the fog shift ever so slightly.

I’d reached the end of the beach where ancient granite rocks guard the harbor mouth. They rise like a giant whale’s back above the low tidal waters. Impaled on their slick black surface I saw the ghostly silhouette of a large boat. Stuffing the bit of violet glass into my gathering bag, I crept close enough to make out the shredded bits of sail clinging to its mast.

“Hello? Anybody there?”

The whole spooky scene seemed more fitting of a movie than my daily stroll along the beach, and my heart beat faster. Nothing seems alive on a foggy day. I usually find the sensation comforting, even cozy. But this morning it unnerved me.

“If you’re there, please say something. I’m coming up to see if I can help.” It might sound crazy warning a derelict cabin cruiser boat I was approaching but I didn’t want any nasty surprises.

And surprised I was, because when I got close enough and read the name painted on the boat’s hull, I knew whose boat this was.

“Doc? Are you in there?”

Doc Campbell is, or was, Hum Harbour’s only doctor for the past thirty-some years. He’d just retired. In fact, his bon voyage party was Friday night, and he’d set sail for the Caribbean at the crack of dawn the next morning. So what was his boat, the Medical Convention, doing here, on the rocks, on Monday?

Slipping, sliding, I scrambled up the rocks until I was above her and could see into the boat.

“Doc? Can you hear me?”

I tried to make sense of what lay before me. Wedged firmly on the rock, the Medical Convention listed badly to port. Several inches of water pooled in her lowest point, otherwise the deck looked neat as a pin. Crates were safely battened down, the tiny lifeboat securely fastened along the stern. The only sign of trouble, apart from the boat’s obvious position on dry land, was the oddly-shaped lump propping the cabin cruiser’s door open.

Once again an errant breeze lifted the torn fabric. I leaned closer. Doc Campbell lay face down in the pooled water, his pewter hair plastered against his skull, his broad shoulders motionless.

Heart in my throat, I ran.

Anne – Love that excerpt, Jayne! Thanks so much for chatting with us today. It’s been a pleasure and Murder in Hum Harbour is definitely going on my TBR list!

Happy reading, folks! As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. Btw, if you become a blog follower, well, hey, I will be eternally grateful!

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More Is Less, Or Is It?

It's been years since I've celebrated the new year. I'm quite content to stay at home with my hubby and sit by the fire. I do, however, get caught up in the excitement and hopefulness of what another year might bring.

I also make resolutions (even if I rarely make them a reality!) Sigh.

My goals for 2012 are (1) write more, (2) eat less, (3) exercise regularly, and (4) spend less time online. In the past I would have thought the last item would be a breeze, but no more. There are days I fear I'm as addicted to social media.

Being an optimist, however, I refuse to admit defeat just yet!

Re writing more: Rachel Aaron explains how she increased her word count from 2000 words per day to 10,000 words per day. Her advice about being excited about what you're going to write hit a nerve.

Re eating less and exercising each day...well, that's up to me, isn't it?

Re spending less time online: Ivana Milakovic suggests shorter blogs are better for both the writer and the reader.

What do you think? Is it possible to write 10K in one sitting? (I did once and felt as if I'd run a marathon!) Are shorter blog posts sweeter? What are your goals for 2012?

Your comments are always welcome and appreciated, as is your option to become a follower. (Thanks!)

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