July Updates

Quickie check-in with updates, though the main one is that I'm about halfway done with editing and polishing my upcoming release, DISTANT FIRE, which is Book 2 of THE JOYFUL NOISE SERIES. Very possibly won't be releasing Book 3, FOR THE LOVE OF SUMMER, until September. That will conclude this Christian romance novel series, and then I'll be working on another Christian mainstream, very different than my previous books, and probably a period piece.

Don't forget: In case you haven't read Book 1 of the series yet, UNCONDITIONAL is a perma-free book. Get yours now!

That's the writing/books update.

On the personal front, I've become quite the baker! Thanks to Pinterest, I *finally* found a sourdough starter that I liked and didn't mess up, and here it is. Plus, I lucked out and found a wonderful sourdough bread recipe, and you'll find that here. That was a hit with my family, especially my granddaughter, Aubrey, who wanted some to take home with her.

An interesting note: I had no eggs available when I made the bread recipe and substituted 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce. My husband, Bill, didn't know that and was pleasantly surprised, saying it had just a hint of sweetness. Just FYI, in case you want to skip the egg when making this one! It was easy and the dough was less sticky than some I've seen, easy to work with, though you do need about 3 to 4 hours for rising/baking.

While we're on the subject, want something light, healthy, summery and a great side dish for lunch or dinner? Here's a fabulous tomato & cucumber salad! And again, I made a change to it by replacing the feta with about 1/4 cup (but you can certainly use more or less) of grated Asiago cheese.

One more note: Thanks to K9Instinct, I also did some baking for Piper and Lassie. With no coconut flour on hand, I made it with all-purpose flour, the type I always have on hand. The girls LOVED it. Note: Thanks to a friend of mine, Mary, for the tip to freeze half the recipe, since these are fresh and made without preservatives, so you can take them down when you need them for your furbabies.

So there are my July 2014 updates for books-on-the-way...and yummy things to whip up in your kitchen.

Background for ONE SWEET DAY

Thanksgiving and Christmas both slowed me down a bit, but with the first draft of ONE SWEET DAY finally done, I'm able to give a background--and a bit of a disclaimer, too--for this book.

Firstly, I've always had a passionate interest in the study of Christian end-time prophecies, or Christian eschatology. And yet when the Lord first placed it on my heart to write this book, even before I wrote GREETINGS FROM MY SANDY DREAMS, my response to Him in prayer was, Lord, I'm not a scholar. I'm not qualified to write a book about what happens in Revelations!

So I delayed with not one but TWO books before writing this one. I published the beach read but my laptop battery died when I was at the last fourth of the second book, a paranormal called THE VAMPIRE'S MERMAID BRIDE. The following day, at lunchtime, I started writing ONE SWEET DAY by hand, since I couldn't get to the other book, and I figured I would start with an idea that had begun to brew. When I came home that evening I asked my husband if I could borrow his laptop to type out what I'd written. He told me, "Babe, go ahead and use yours--it's working now."

What?? I'd tried for an hour to get the battery to charge. I'd even already started searching for places to buy a replacement battery for a decent price. And Bill just plugs it in and it works, on the same day that I, at last, do what the Lord inspired me to do?

Some may see that as a coincidence, but I took at as a push forward to step out on faith. My campus pastor's wife, only a few weeks later, while speaking about something else at our women's retreat in Myrtle Beach, said the quote, "God doesn't call the qualified--He qualifies the called." That really gave a lot of my beautiful Christian friends at the retreat great encouragement, and that included me.

As it turned out, I had fretted and doubted for nothing. This book is about average believers, spanning about forty years in their lives, their trials, their growth, their sorrow, their joy, as they wait for the Rapture. I never had to worry about which came first--the Antichrist (actually called "The Beast") or the seals being opened or the vials being poured out as documented by the Apostle John during his exile on the island of Patmos. The book only deals with believers watching, praying and waiting for "the blessed hope" while living, growing and learning in this life.

Okay, now you have the background. Here are the disclaimers!

Obviously, I do believe in the Rapture of the Church. Many argue that the word rapture appears nowhere in the word of God. However, you will find the word, harpazo, in the scriptures. It is Greek and it means: to seize, carry off by force; to seize on, claim for oneself eagerly; to snatch out or away.

PLEASE note, too, that ONE SWEET DAY is a work of fiction. I'm not saying it will happen like this, exactly; it's the depiction as I saw it in my imagination. This book is more to encourage and to uplift than to teach about prophecy.

May it bless you right down to your socks! Once again, it will be available January 2014.

Where Stories Take Place

Location, location, location! I don't know who first said that quote, but WHERE a story takes place plays a big role in telling that story. After all, you wouldn't write about a famous surfer and then make his address somewhere in, oh, let's say Iowa, and you wouldn't plop an 1880s cowboy in the middle of St. Croix. (Actually...that last one could be interesting.)

I got to thinking about the settings for my stories while writing Greetings From My Sandy Dreams, due out this month. Besides being my first "beach read," this book bears the distinction of being my first book set in the sunny state of Florida.

You might be rolling your eyes at that one, thinking, "That's not so remarkable." It is, when you consider the role the Sunshine State has played in my life, and after over 20 books, this is the first time it shows up as an address for my characters. After escaping Communism in Cuba in 1959, my parents settled in Miami. My mom returned to Cuba--briefly--in 1960 for my birth, and that was the last time she would ever see her parents. A month later, she returned with me to Florida, where we lived until my parents' divorce. Though my mom and I moved to New Jersey after that, I visited my dad and sister often in Miami.

Oddly enough, I've never used Florida as a setting before now. The people in Greetings From My Sandy Dreams call Sandpiper Beach their home, a fictional town based loosely on the real New Smyrna Beach, but located closer to Homestead.

Now, New Jersey, which was home to me for most of my life, has been  the setting for various books and short stories. Not only is Little Bay, the setting for my first published YA, The Ghost of Little Bay, a fictional town (based on a real town called Ocean Grove), but I even made it a fictional exit on the Garden State Parkway!

New Jersey figures, too, in Salsa Kiss, written under my pen name of Consuelo Vazquez. Daniel and Odalys and the rest of the characters lived in the real-life town of North Bergen, with much of the action taking place around Hudson County. Florida is mentioned, if not specifically showing up in scenes!

Glimmers of Heaven? Also Hudson County, New Jersey, though I'm not real specific as to what town is home to Hayley and Zach.

Then we head across the river to New York...that is, Long Island. Never specific here, either. All you know is the mischievous Suburban Vampires, Dylan, Jesse, and their friends all live somewhere in Nassau County.


In Sea Siren, you have to travel further to Suffolk County in Long Island. Then there's Leading Lady, which is mostly taking place in the burroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Then there's my Christian series. More Than Sparrows, The Christmas Waltz, and Forever in My Heart all take place in the fictional Pennsylvania town of Larkspur Valley, loosely based upon the actual town of Aliquippa, from where much of my husband's family hails. I love stories about small towns!

Then there are locations that are stars in their own right. I really enjoyed Montana as a setting for And Then Came You. Rumor Has It was the only time I used Vermont, but if figured quite a bit in the story. Maine was also very prominent in The Cop and the Mermaid. After visiting Gatlinburg and the Smokey Mountains, I chose Tennessee--though I don't name a particular town, but the action takes place around that same area--as the location for 'Twas the Spy Before Christmas.

My husband and I love Greenville, South Carolina; we make sure to visit it as much as we can. It was also natural that it would be the town where Kara Childers, the heroine of Champagne Taste and her hero, Gil Parsons, have an address.

Our son, Joey, on a hike in NC

And despite having lived here for over six years now, I have yet to use North Carolina as a setting. A friend of mine was lamenting about that when I told her I'd used Tennessee. A pride North Carolinian, Leigh Ann asked me, "Well, what about North Carolina?"

I agree! North Carolina, with its beautiful and mysterious Blue Ridge Mountains, plus its rich history, easily lends itself as a romantic setting. So, okay, I'm in. At least we know where the next book takes place!

Writers Write & New Cover

What's that they used to say about women? That it's our prerogative to change our minds?

Well, I'm taking advantage of that privilege! Here's my new cover for my new title, FOREVER IN MY HEART, which has definitely been pushed back to an April 2013 release, my first book of the year. More info to follow very shortly.

PLUS a tease for my summer book, which may be on its way to your Nook and Kindle by June!

And I know it's been a while since my last post, but FOREVER IN MY HEART has been my priority, writing-wise. Since it's the final book in The Larkspur Valley Series, I'm devoting my time to crafting and polishing it. We writers spend so much time promoting--tweeting, Facebooking, blogging, and all that other good stuff. In a matter of the last decade or so, things have gotten so high tech. An author can do most of their promotion while wearing their PJs, as my granddaughter calls them, and their feet up on the living room coffee table. Amazing.

At the end of the day, though, we're writers. We write. Our stories, our characters, our craft comes first. There has to be a book for there to be promotion, and the focus has to be on writing a book that speaks to the reader and is worth their time in reading it. A book that brings the reader pleasure and, in the case of an inspirational book, touches their hearts.

So you like the new cover? I'd love to share a little bit about the summer beach read, but...nah! Better to leave a little suspense!

Writing Words of Wisdom

Since my first short story was accepted for publication in 1995, I have been writing professionally now for 17 years. I believe that earns me the wonderful title of "Established Writer!" Also grateful I've made it this far.

When I saw the little graphic at the left--and you gotta love the typewriter face, for all of us old enough to have actually worked on one of those things you'll only find in an antique store--I thought about how many times over the course of those nearly two decades that I've written/typed out those words. As a writer, you also have to count the books that never made it past that first chapter, or even the ones that got to page 151 before you, as the author, realized it wasn't a book you loved enough to share with readers.

I consider it an accomplishment that I'm still here, all these years later, and I encourage other writers, especially those newer at this game, to hang in there. One of the best pieces of advice I received as a newly minted writer had to do with perseverance and success.

These are the things that I've learned over the years, the best advice and truths I've received, that have kept me going.

1. PROTECT THE WORK. During a particularly difficult time, a writer friend wrote these words to me in an email, just like that in all capitals, citing Jennie Crusie, who apparently had also received this bit of valuable advice. Here's the essay Ms. Crusie wrote, with a better explanation than I can give. It is one of the TOP words of wisdom that has helped me over the years.

2. WRITE EVERY DAY. This came from Stephen King's book, On Writing, which I think of as the best book on the subject that I've ever read. Since then, I give that advice to everyone. Too, I've learned that could mean as little as 500 words per day. This goes hand-in-hand with the next point...

3. SHOW UP AT THE PAGE. It doesn't matter if you feel inspired or not. The muse will come if you show up. Sometimes she's late. You be a faithful lover and show up for work. That's the way the writer's mind works, though I'm sure psychiatrists will never figure out what makes writers tick.

4. THE ONES WHO MAKE IT ARE THE ONES WHO STAY. This is not a word of advice; this is a truth. It is also incredibly, awesomely true. There are as many writers out there as there are stars in the sky. Here's a hint: The ones who want fame and fortune as their main goal aren't the ones who will be around in ten years. The ones who love to write, who do it because they can't imagine their lives without writing, who thrive on others reading and taking pleasure from their work, are the ones you can count on making it.

5. NEVER LET OTHERS TELL YOU WHAT SUCCESS MEANS. Success, I've learned, is subjective. To some, it's a seven-figure contract from one of the legacy publishers. To others, it's writing what you love and sharing it with others.

6. PUT YOUR DESK IN THE CORNER, AND EVERY TIME YOU SIT DOWN THERE TO WRITE, REMIND YOURSELF WHY IT ISN'T IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM. LIFE ISN'T A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR ART. IT'S THE OTHER WAY AROUND." Self-explanatory and also credited to Mr. Stephen King. Go out and live. All of life is not writing. Life enhances and enriches your work. Go out for a walk on a gorgeous day, have a conversation with your beautiful and funny three-year-old granddaughter, have a romantic dinner with your husband. Your characters will be there when you get back. Guaranteed.

And, last but not least,

7. WRITE FOR YOUR OWN PLEASURE. This is last but not least, the top advice, which came from my Madrina, which means godmother in Spanish, my aunt Consuelo. (Yes, I was named after her!) I remember long before I was published, telling my aunt I was beginning to send out my work and feeling discouraged, how I was thinking about quitting. She said, "Yes, but you'll always write, because you write for the pleasure it gives you." Honestly, the worst thing has to be writing something you could care less about, but you're doing it for money's sake. Writing in someone else's voice, usually for the sake of money, is equally draining. Always write something that YOU love, that moves YOU, that makes YOU laugh or cry. That's the only way to know it will be a work that someone else will love, that moves them, and that will make them laugh or cry.

And there is a lot more advice that I've been blessed to receive over the year, by other Established (and Phenomenal) Writers, but these are my treasures! Keep them in your heart, too.

Gadget Lovers

Right now I'm wearing my Kindle. Future Kindle, that is. I don't have it yet. Saving up for it, but I used what I would have saved at an excursion to get my nails done. Boy, that's a clutsy sentence for a writer!

I'm one of those gadget lovers. In my purse there's a Sony Ebook Reader, which I've had now for about a year. It's a great little thingy, and I've got a couple of books stored and waiting, plus the Bible (which I am reading on it. Now THAT'S a new experience), and also stored on it is John Grisham's The Confession for my husband's reading pleasure. But the Kindle is all the rage among my friends at work, so now I'm seriously but seriously coveting one.

It got even more enticing when I brought my Ereader in to show a friend, who then asked, "Does that one read to you?" I just did a double-take at her and asked, "W-w-w-what?" Apparently that little thingy reads to you while you're fixing the roasted potatoes and veggies for dinner. Que chevere, baby! So now I'm even more jazzed to save up for one.

Only I'm wearing mine. For now, since I spent the portion of my weekly allowance, which I would have set aside for the Kindle, at that little nail shop in town. My nails do look pretty nice, though. Look at it this way: I can be grateful for my Ereader, which is the loyal little gadget that I DO own right now.

And anyway, I should have enough saved up for the Kindle--and then some--by the time I get through reading the Bible!

New Review for SUBURBAN VAMPIRES!

This week I got a special surprise and learned that Aurora Reviews gave SUBURBAN VAMPIRES 4 1/2 suns!!! Woo hoo! You can check out the review by Begonia right here.

More blogging later this week!