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Linda Barrett

Linda Barrett

Linda Barrett

Starting Over ~ CELEBRATE!

CELEBRATE! — A five story anthology plus a novella about holidays we celebrate throughout the year. All written by award-winning authors of On Fire Fiction.  fw2

I love presenting this series of posts to you because my writing friends are some of the greatest people I know. Always willing to listen and give advice. Never afraid to ask for it either. Just as with other friends, these are relationships based on trust. I’ve known most of these gals for many years, and I can say without hesitation that they work hard and love creating stories. When they get emails from their readers…well, that’s the whipped cream on the cake 🙂

I’m very pleased that my guest today is Debra Salonen, a California girl whose very first published book was released about the same time mine was. We met each other at what was our very first

Deb Salonen Yoga, anyone?

Deb Salonen   

writers conference in July 2000. Turned out we had the same editor! One of the qualities I admire about Deb is her ability to turn off the stress. Hiking and yoga are her secrets. Another quality I admire is her willingness to try something different with her writing. She came up with an adorable but naughty four book romantic comedy series for the “55 and better” generation called Screw Senility which sets a very different tone from the traditional romances she’d been writing. This is hot!  But she still managed to give her heroine a happily ever after!

What holiday did Deb choose for her story? CHRISTMAS! Here’s the story behind the story in Deb’s own words:

Kindness gets to me every time. Maybe that’s because my mother, Daisy Bagby Robson, was one of the kindest women I ever met. I have numerous memories of her generosity, including once when she decided I wasn’t using my bike anymore, so it should go to a poor child I’d never met. As I recall, I reacted as any spoiled baby-of-the-family might. I threw a fit. She patiently described this other child’s circumstance as it compared to mine…in other words, she guilted me into agreeing. 

I wish I could say I instantly became as giving and generous a my mom, but that would be a lie. Still, the memory stuck, and when my children were very young, I wanted to share the essence of this memory in a way that might teach and entertain. I wrote “My Christmas Angel.” Longhand, on lined paper. I read it to them every Christmas for a few years, then tucked it away in my files.

A year ago, my daughter asked me, “Didn’t you write a Christmas story once? Where is that? I’d like to read it to Daisy (my granddaughter).” 

Ah…life comes full circle…courtesy of epublishing.  I pulled out the story and read it. And, as happens with writers, I immediately wondered what happened to Abigail and Dickie–the little children in the story. Why…they’d be thirty-some years old by now. All grown up. With children of their own…and so the story begins.

STORY TITLE:  My Christmas Angel

FIRST LINE:   “Read me your story, Mommy. Please. Before you go. Plee…ase.”

Oh, yeah. I recognize that ploy…and I bet you do, too. One more story, Mommy. Another glass of water.  Someone doesn’t want to go to sleep. Someone doesn’t want his mom to leave. In the next paragraph, we quickly learn about young Ben and his divorced mom who was on her way to a holiday party given by her ex-sister-in-law.  Deb Salonen manages to draw us into the lives of these two lovely people very quickly and we want to know what happens next.

What’s next on Deb’s writing agenda?

“I’m back at work on my next project: a 3-book romantic suspense series called K.A.B. (Karma’s A Bitch) Investigations.”

Find out more about Deb Salonen and her books at:   www.debrasalonen.com

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This is the cover of Book 4 in Deb’s Screw Senility series. Adorable, no?

 

As always, thank you so much for stopping by. You’ll meet another of my author friends at the next edition of Starting Over.  Hope to see you then.

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POST A COMMENT AND YOUR NAME WILL BE ENTERED INTO MY AUGUST CONTEST. THE PRIZES ARE A CHOICE OF ONE OF THE SELECTIONS BELOW AND A $25 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO AMAZON OR BN. YOUR CHOICE!

UnsuitablyPerfect_zps11428b3bLove Me Some Cowboy - 5 book package

Starting Over – CELEBRATE!!

CELEBRATE! holiday stories with the authors of On Fire Fiction–

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This month I’m joined by five other authors with Fingers on their Keyboards. Those fingers have been tapping away, helping their creators bring you brand new, never before published stories. Together, my friends and I have given birth–definitely a labor of love–to an anthology of holiday stories plus one stand-alone holiday novella. We’re celebrating holidays throughout the year – winter, spring, summer and fall.

We’re glad you book lovers are here to join the fun. We’ve got first lines–and you know all about that now if you read last week’s blog– and some interesting background info to share. When you combine romance, family and happy endings….what’s not to like?

Karen SandlerFirst up is KAREN SANDLER who describes herself as a genre conflicted writer. She’s interested in so much–romance, mystery, sci-fi, young adult, and horses (definitely horses) –and she’s so good! She’s published 17 romances, a young adult science fiction series, and the soon to be released Janelle Watkins mystery series. Poor Karen. She can’t make a decision.

But wait! I’m wrong. She did make the decision to select Hanukkah as her story’s background. And speaking of backgrounds, here’s a bit of Karen’s and why she chose the holiday she did:

Karen says:

When the idea of a holiday anthology was first presented, I knew I wanted to do Hanukkah. I have very fond memories of celebrating Hanukkah when my boys were young. Although my father was Jewish (as was my maternal great-grandmother), it wasn’t until I married my Jewish husband that we started celebrating the holidays.

Of course, Hanukkah was the boys’ favorite. The loved lighting the candles and saying the prayer. They both wanted to do the last night so they could light all eight candles. We started trading off with them each year so they could get an equal chance of saying the prayer on the last night.

The teddy bears described in the story were an actual prizes my younger son won at one of the community Hanukkah parties we attended. He apparently has one left of the two from that night and my grandbaby plays with it now.

Linda interrupts – Readers!  Do you see the makings of a family story here? From generation to generation?  This is what we’ve talked about and shared examples of recently.

I’ve asked all the authors participating in the anthology to submit the title and first line of their stories.  Here’s more about Karen Sandler’s story:

Title:   The Eighth Gift

First Line:  As Sarah Meyer watched the Greenville County sheriff’s deputy tap on the screen of his iPad, she hugged herself to stave off her fear. 

Now I want to know what Sarah was afraid of…a ticket? Or something more?  And could the deputy be her love interest?  I am a nosy reader, and I bet you are, too.

Karen’s book, TILL THE STARS FADE is also available now.  The genre? Science Fiction Romance!  The reviews are awesome. Here’s one from RT Book Reviews:  “it was action packed, fast paced and most definitely a page-turner.”   And another: “This book has something for readers of both genres. The writing is exceptional…Good job, Ms. Sandler.”  From: Under the Covers.

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 Check out Karen’s website at:  www.karensandler.net

 

 

 

 

As always, thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed meeting Karen and hearing about her story for the holiday anthology. You’ll meet another contributing author at the next edition of Starting Over. Hope to see you then.

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POST A COMMENT AND YOUR NAME WILL BE ENTERED INTO MY AUGUST CONTEST. Prizes are a choice of one of the selections below, all stories written by the award-winning members of On Fire Fiction as well as a $25 gift certificate to Amazon or BN. Your choice.  OH, look. Karen’s got a story in Unsuitably Perfect 🙂

Love Me Some Cowboy - 5 book package

UnsuitablyPerfect_zps11428b3b

Starting Over ~ Fingers on the Keyboard

GRAB ‘EM AND DON’T LET GO…        

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That’s the advice authors get about snagging the reader’s attention with the first lines of their stories. Coming up with just the right first sentence is one of the reasons authors stay up at night. If you don’t catch a reader’s attention immediately, she’ll put the book down. You’ve worked hard to bring this baby into the world, and she’s just about ready…she’s almost ready…but…oops! What about that very first line? Is it strong enough, evocative enough, exciting enough to urge the reader to the second line? A third? How about a full paragraph? Better yet, the complete first page.

That’s quite a job and a lot of responsibility for the first line of a story.

Just for fun and some thought, take a look at some of the most famous first lines in literature and see if they pull you in. Some are very short and pithy:

Call me Ishmael.  – Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)      Three words. Probably the most famous first line of all. It catches our attention because this fella is talking directly to us. “Hey, you guys. You can call me Ishmael, and come on over. Have I got a story for you!” Is his name, itself, important? Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Hagar, a woman who lived with the family. Hagar and Ishmael were sent away after Sarah finally gave birth to Isaac. Some scholars say this is important.  But… others question if Ishmael is even the narrator’s real name. We never find out. So maybe we should call him Stanley.

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Movie poster for Moby Dick, starring Gregory Peck.

 

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Elmer Gantry was drunk. – Sinclair Lewis, Elmer Gantry (1927)   So what? There could be a hundred drunks in town. Curious minds want to know why Gantry was important enough to be singled out. And, oh my God, we sure find out. 

Mother died today. – Albert Camus, The Stranger. (1942)    Ah…a day of change. What happens next?

Some first lines are quite long:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

Yeah, yeah. I know.  No one ever keeps on going after the first two phrases. But the man really did set the stage: England and France, 1775. And because he set that stage, he promised you a story, a big story, about people and events and the choices made. What greater contrast than hope and despair?

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. – J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)  

Wow! That’s Holden Caufield, talking in his own voice. Telling it like it really is. His personality and style is directly in your face–whether you like it or not. This is one of the best known openings in American fiction.  

And some first lines are right in between, a medium length. Here’s one to make you romantics out there smile:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. – Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)    Is it really universally acknowledged? Or just in the mind of Mrs. Bennett who wants to marry off a daughter to a wealthy man?  She’s shown us her goal and set up the story for us to enjoy.  It is universally acknowledged, by the way, that Jane Austen is considered the mother of the romance novel.

Here’s a recent one reflecting more current times:

I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. – Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (2002)    Born twice. First a girl, then a boy. If that doesn’t raise your curiosity, I don’t know what will.

And finally, these two openings from contemporary women’s fiction captured my attention. No explanations needed:

I never wanted to be a mother. – Emily Giffin, Baby Proof (2006)

Here is one way to say it: Grief is a love story told backward.—Bridget Asher, The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted (2011)

First lines set the stage, the tone and the story.  During the next few weeks, I’m going to introduce file0001398207570you to the authors and opening lines from an anthology called CELEBRATE! This volume is a collection of short stories highlighting several American holidays in different seasons of the year. The stories involve romance, family and second chances. They provide happy and hopeful endings.  Also guaranteed to put you in a feel-good mood.

77176_513659958675780_1566414408_aWho are the contributing writers? They are five authors of On Fire Fiction, including moi!  You’ll be able to enjoy brand new stories, never before published anywhere. The collection will be available on October 1st  for 99 cents at all on-line retail outlets.  The price is small, the enjoyment large.

Do you have any favorite opening lines from stories you’ve loved? Let me know.

POST A COMMENT AND YOUR NAME WILL BE ENTERED INTO MY AUGUST CONTEST. Prizes are a choice of one of the selections below–all written by On Fire Fiction authors– as well as a $25 gift certificate to Amazon or BN. Your choice.

 Love Me Some Cowboy - 5 book package

 book coverUnsuitablyPerfect_zps11428b3b