[Cover Reveal] Am I "The Next Big Thing?" #bloghop #workinprogress #authors

There are the books everyone has heard about: Twilight, Hunger Games, Fifty Shades of Gray. But what about all those books written by people you’ve never heard of? Some of them are treasures, just waiting to be found, and that’s what this blog hop is all about: the books you might not have heard about, but that you might end up loving.

This blog hop is like a game of tag. One author posts and tags five other authors who link back to their website the next week and tag five new authors. If you follow the blog hop long enough, you’re bound to find some books you’ll love! Maybe you’ll even discover a book that ends up being the next big thing.

I was tagged by Jennifer Madden. You can learn more about her book Embattled Love on her website.

This blog hop includes ten questions to help you learn more about an author’s current work in progress, so here’s a little info about my current project and

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

I'm also revealing the cover!
(Cover by Tracy Stewart of All About the Cover)

1: What is the working title of your book? Love By Design, Book one in the Love By Series

2: Where did the idea come from for the book? Love By Design originally started as a single stand alone book idea in 2006 or 20007 when I was brainstorming ideas. I'm not sure where I got the idea, other than knowing that it felt like a rom-com type story with a clumsy interior designer fighting her attraction to a playboy actor who hires her to decorate his fixer-upper.

3: What genre does your book fall under? Contemporary romance with a touch of humor, but I like to believe that all my stories aren't just romance novels, but Life stories with heart. Their pasts aren't always spotless and sometimes it comes back to haunt them. Sometimes it's just a matter of the hardships they face that get them to their Happily-Ever-Afters.

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? When I was writing LBD I envisioned Matthew McConaughey as Derrek Martin and Sandra Bullock as Jasmine Galloway.

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Jasmine Galloway's had it up to here with wannabe actors, so when Hollywood's current blockbuster playboy seeks out her business to decorate his new home, he manages to gets under her skin and put his own designs on her heart.

6: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I plan to self-publish the Love By series in the next few months and follow it with the 2nd series, Pryce of Love, which centers around four of five brothers (the 5th brother is the hero in the 4th book in the Love By series)

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? Approximately a month or so of self-imposed "NaNo-like" determination and reckless abandon. I didn't write this one for NaNoWriMo, but I did set myself to the standard 50K/30 days. I still have more editing to do though before I put it out there. (plot holes, grammar, etc)

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? I'm honestly not sure. There are so many wonderful contemporary authors out there but I'm not sure who I could compare my own stories to. As I said before, it does, for me have a very rom-com movie feel to it though.

9: Who or What inspired you to write this book? The characters themselves. As the ideas for the story (as well as the other sisters) started to take shape, Jasmine and Derrek began to really come to life for me and I just had to get their story written. Sometimes they would interrupt my sleep, or my attempts at sleep, trying to tell me about what was going to happen next. (not as bad as Jasmine's sister Juniper, who insisted her story be the 2nd one, though I'd originally planned to write Blossom's 2nd. Juni would NOT shut up.)

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? I took a "virtual plane ride" because I spent a LOT of time studying airplane flights, time zone changes and what certain bookings would be like and actually "plotted" out what a trip from LAX to Indianapolis would be, including layovers, and driving distance for Derrek and Jasmine's trip to Derrek's childhood home in Smalltown, Indiana to pick up his sister and pack furniture to move to California in a U-haul while writing this. I've never actually been on a plane. Not sure I ever will, but it was fun to pretend! :)

Here is a list of authors who will be joining the hop for week 27 on December 24th. I hope you’ll visit their blogs next week and learn more about their books. Maybe one of them will become your new favorite author!
(I don't have anyone yet, but if you want to be listed, you don't have to do it during the holidays- you can pick up Week 27 afterward, if it would be more convenient! Just email or leave a comment and let me know!) 

1 Teresa Reasor is also participating in The Next Big Thing over on her blog, where she's talking about her current work-in-progress, Breaking Away, the 3rd book in her Seal Team Heartbreakers Series. Go check out her answers about what she's working on!

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#sixsunday Six Sentence Sunday- Smells Like Freedom

(click above image to read MORE Six Sentence Sunday excerpts)

(Check out more by looking up hashtag #sixsunday on Twitter)

Welcome Sixers! Today is the first time I'll be showing up on the official list for Six Sentence Sunday. I wasn't sure how to do the linksy thing so I figured I'd give it a try for this Sunday. (I'm #150).

For those who might not know here's what 6 Sentence Sunday is all about-

Pick six (6) sentences from anything you like (it can be from a Work in Progress (WiP), something you recently sold, something you hope to sell or even something already under contract and available for purchase – and don’t worry, Six Sentence Sunday is for published AND unpublished writers). Then post them on your blog on Sunday. That’s all there is to it!

You can add yours link to their official list by signing up before midnight the Saturday beforehand.

Today, we're heading back into—

Love by Design

Jasmine Galloway sees beauty in all things but it’s not a thing of beauty when she meets Derrek Martin, a shallow, arrogant playboy celebrity. When her sister Juniper, a blockbuster actress, recommends her interior design business, Décor Dreams, to Derrek, it’s sure to be a disaster. Jasmine is uncertain she can hold her tongue and get the job done, but she takes it, never one to let her opinions of others stand in the way of professional success and she’s not about to let some pretty boy win her over whose ego is as big as his blockbuster movies. It isn’t long before Derrek’s gentle, affectionate manner and country boy charm gets the better of her. She curses herself for allowing the tabloid fodder to contaminate her impression of a man who might well put his designs on her heart.

Derrek Martin counts himself lucky his acting career took off shortly after his arrival in California. Even more since his parents’ deaths left him the guardian of his little sister. The new house is nice, but it needs a woman’s touch before he brings Paige out from Indiana to live with him. He knows his reputation in the tabloids depicts him far from who he really is, but he has never met with a more chilly reception than the moment he meets Jasmine Galloway, Interior Designer to the Stars. He’s sure she has read everything bad ever published about him and disregards all the good. His private life is simply that, private. Derrek intends to keep it that way—until he meets Jasmine.

Her blatant dislike for him pushes a button no one else ever has and Derrek finds he’s desperate to prove that he isn’t what the tabloids make him out to be. More than that, he’s determined to make her his leading lady, but will an ex with a secret steal the spotlight away?

****

Today we're heading back into Derrek's POV. He recently bought a house, a place he will call home with his little sister and a place that is not in the center of a bustling city-

He enjoyed the sounds around him. Creaks and pops reverberated through the old house as it settled for the night. He could almost feel the distance of the neighbors’ homes from his, setting him apart in a way that made him feel independent and alone, in a good way.

It was almost like being back in Indiana as a kid. The cool evening breeze stirred the curtains and blinds of the front windows while the aroma of flowers and foliage wafted in. It smelled like freedom.

 If you missed previous Six Sunday posts from Love by Design and would like to check them out-
Plastic and Fluff
Led Astray
Intrigued
The Wonderful Wizard of...
Visions
Smiling Back
That Girl is a Hot Mess!
Overzealous Puppy

From one of my other finished manuscripts in the other continuing
Pryce of Love Series- Perfect Recipe for Love-
Sunni Gives It Some Thought...
Ample Distraction

#Writerly Wednesday- My next #WIP & Merc in Retro-Perils of the Universe #writing

I'm eager to start on my next novel, Heart of the Surf, the 4th and final book in my Pryce of Love series. Centered around the youngest of the Pryce brothers, and also the last to find love, the story will be a journey for Mark and Alexa Stevens, both of whom have their eyes on the prize of the elite and exclusive surfing competition. Little could they know that their love of sand and surf would also throw them together in another way. Already, I'm gleaning background information about my main characters at odd times, like while I'm showering. I learned a little something about Alexa's grandmother yesterday, so I can feel life being breathed into the story and the characters already.

But....

Mind you, I've never been surfing, never even been to a coastal beach, so this book will be a challenge and there will be research to do, so what better timing for research than just as Mercury is about to go Retrograde.

You see, silly or as superstitious as it might seem in me- I don't start new projects when good ol' Merc's in Retro because I have no desire to "redo" anything later. Not in a big way. There will be enough to be done with edits and polishing once I finish writing the story. Not to mention that I need time to research anyway before I start rattling on about things I know nothing about, but I'm intrigued by the idea of the life of a surfer, so the desire to learn is there.

Of course, writing will be easier still if I wait until after Mercury goes direct again anyway shortly after August begins and my children are back in school. The quiet writing time will help tremendously. It's honestly hard to work and concentrate on writing, to fall deep into my storytelling, when I have someone constantly asking me "Mommy, what's for lunch?" "Can we have a snack?" "Again, why can't we go outside in this triple digit heat?"

(Sandwiches, string cheese or yogurt, I don't want you to resemble the scorched grass in our yard that looks more like bits of hay than living green foliage)

Add to that, I'm also still researching self-publishing, so I have that on my plate, as well. Oh, and the weird dreams- so many of them lately, but I won't bore you with the bizarre and wacky details. I think it's a side effect of the planetary changes. I can feel in my bones. It always opens locked doors to the odd and unusual within me.

And so, I'm also settling back into our routine normalcy around the house after being gone to visit my family and friends in my hometown for 3 weeks. I'm still feeling sluggish today though my mind is racing that I have things to do, people to contact, etc...I can hope to find the balance, but not sure I ever will.

Hope you're having a great Wednesday! I can see the weekend

(and a lucky Friday the 13th) from here!

#SixSunday- Six Sentence Sunday- Sunni Gives it Some Thought...

 Click the link above the check out more 6 Sentence Sunday Authors!

Check it out on Twitter with #sixSunday

Hello Sunday Sixers! I'm back again!

Last week in my excitement to share for the first time, I forgot to explain what 6 Sentence Sunday is, for those who might not know- here are the rules~

Pick six (6) sentences from anything you like (it can be from a Work in Progress (WiP), something you recently sold, something you hope to sell or even something already under contract and available for purchase – and don’t worry, Six Sentence Sunday is for published AND unpublished writers). Then post them on your blog on Sunday. That’s all there is to it!

You can add yours link to their official list by signing up before midnight the Saturday beforehand, but I'm simply sharing. Here's another 6 from my current WIP, Perfect Recipe for Love- Here are few of Sunni's thoughts after meeting Mr. Ben Pryce, who we met last week on the SSS and couldn't keep his mind off her "ample distractions."

She had to admit, Ben Pryce wasn’t completely repulsive, not by any means. Getting out into the world and mingling had never been very high on her list of priorities, but it seemed someone or something had thrown Mr. Pryce in her path.

He was sexy, albeit arrogant.

And he thought he could get her in the sack.

He didn’t have to say it, vanity rolled off him like a loud perfume. He thought he could win her over with his smirk of a smile and those deep brown eyes.

 

Six Sentence Sunday~ Ample Distraction #sixsunday #WIP #contemporary #romance

Six Sentence Sunday
clicking image above will take you to the official site
where you can find even more great Six Sentence Sundays
On twitter, check out hashtag #sixsunday

This will be a first for me, and though I'm not getting on the official list, I just wanted to try this out and see how I liked it and whether my visitors would like to see me do this more often.

I'll share an excerpt from my current work-in-progress, Perfect Recipe for Love.

The scene set up is this- Ben Pryce, a restaurant owner in California, is meeting with Sunni Fields, who lives and at a commune that supplies organic vegetables to markets and the public, so they can discuss her ideas for a rootop garden to help his business "go green." His instant attraction to her has muddled his thoughts with pleasure rather than business. Hope you like it~

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“There are several routes we could go.” Sunni leaned across the desk, pointing at the first blueprint design she had laid out for him to see. The rise and fall of her pert breasts were directly at eye level.

Ben took a deep breath and stood, intent to turn his attention to the words coming out of her mouth and not the curves taunting him at every glance.

This is important, man. The distraction of her ample firm breasts and her round bottom isn’t going to get you anywhere.