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Hi Readers,

Ready for the winter and to win prizes? I’m one of the sponsors of the Night Owl Reviews Winter Wonderland Scavenger Hunt .

During this event I’m going to help you find some great new books. Make sure to check my featured title, TWELVE NIGHTS, out along the way. To enter, you need to the fill in the blank from the featured book’s blurb. I’ll put the blurb for Twelve Night’s below.

The grand prize is a $100 Amazon Gift Card. The total prize pool is $1,300.
GOOD LUCK!!
Enter Now at:��

True love waits forever��

For Erik Lindholm, it’s been a long climb to the top of his company. Now, as president he has the power to bring his vision to life and speed his company in bold new directions. If that means a complete staff overhaul, so be it. If that means firing the woman who left his heart in tatters fifteen years earlier, it’s a business decision, not personal��

Beryl Foster is highly competent and respected by everyone at the office. But rumors of a big shake-up are rampant and—surprisingly, scarily—Beryl’s job as CFO is on the line. Fifteen years ago she made a decision to put her career before everything else. It was also the last time she and Erik shared a life together. Every Christmas is a reminder. This one could be a second chance��

Tomorrow I’m celebrating the release of Twelve Nights (), a romance novella and part of my Blue Moon Lake series.

The Facebook “kick off�� event begins on 11/10 at 11:30 EST, with nine other guest authors with Christmas themed books appearing until 6:3o, but stop by any time up until the next day, around mid-morning. Prizes will be awarded then so the fun can go on all night long!!

True love waits forever��



For Erik Lindholm, it’s been a long climb to the top of his company. Now, as president he has the power to bring his vision to life and speed his company in bold new directions. If that means a complete staff overhaul, so be it. If that means firing the woman who left his heart in tatters fifteen years earlier, it’s a business decision, not personal��

Beryl Foster is highly competent and respected by everyone at the office. But rumors of a big shake-up are rampant and—surprisingly, scarily—Beryl’s job as CFO is on the line. Fifteen years ago she made a decision to put her career before everything else. It was also the last time she and Erik shared a life together. Every Christmas is a reminder. This one could be a second chance��

Buy Links:

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About the Author:

Sharon Struth is a bestselling and award-winning author who believes it’s never too late for a second chance in love or life. When she’s not writing, she and her husband happily sip their way through the scenic towns of the Connecticut Wine Trail. Sharon writes from the small town of Bethel, Connecticut, the friendliest place she’s ever lived.

SHARE THE MOON, book one in the Blue Moon Lake Romances, is a finalist for a RONE Award and a Chatelaine Award for Romantic Fiction! Look for series book two, Harvest Moon (12/22/15), and Twelve Nights, A Blue Moon Lake Christmas Novella (11/10/15).

Excerpt:

Beryl perched on the tips of her sling-back pumps and tried to catch an early glimpse of whoever had followed Saul inside. Nothing stood out but familiar faces. She returned to her normal stance as a knot twisted tight in her stomach.

“In selecting my replacement, I asked myself one question. Who could take the top-notch crew I have here now and guide Global to great heights in the future? Although we possess huge talent within our fine organization, I wanted a fresh take on the business and decided to search outside of our four walls.��

Disappointment rushed through Beryl. Time to update her résumé, just in case.

“So, without further ado, I’d like you to welcome the new president of Global Business Solutions—believe it or not a former employee of our firm—Erik Lindholm.��

Beryl’s body numbed. Loud applause faded in the background as his name pounded inside her skull. It couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible.

Erik stepped up to the platform and shook Saul’s hand. Beryl blinked, thinking this might be a bad dream, a hallucination, or one too many trips to the bar.

Darcy touched Beryl’s arm, ruling out the first two. “A former employee?��

Beryl was too stunned to speak or even nod. Erik’s dirty-blond hair was still parted on the side and worn short, with thick wisps sweeping his high forehead. He smiled, making the dimpled cleft in his chin deepen and softening the rugged angles of his sculpted face. Old emotions bubbled to the surface. Love. Happiness. Anger.

Erik shook hands with employees seated near the podium, his smile still as confident as it had been years ago. Last she’d heard, Erik worked in Chicago and teetered at the top of the corporate ladder with the Holder Group, a competitor of Global’s who could never quite beat her firm’s status as number one in the industry. The same firm Erik had gone to after they split up nearly fourteen years ago.

“Did you ever hear of this guy before?�� Darcy whispered in Beryl’s ear.

Beryl nodded, her gaze stuck on the man she’d almost married.

��

A repost of a halloween memory I’ve never forgotten, where a six year old’s princess dreams were destroyed by the temperature��

Source:

I’m thrilled to have the very awesome L.D. Rose visit today, who is my local RWA chapter mate��and a����author. Her book looks intense and filled with some great conflict.��Without further waiting, I’ll let her take it away��

Hey there! My name is Linda, writing as L.D. Rose, and first off I want to thank fellow (AWESOME) CoLoNY member Sharon Struth for having me on her blog today! My debut dark paranormal romance, RELEASING THE DEMONS is now available on Amazon and I want to give you three reasons why you should check it out if you’re into Paranormal Romance and urban fantasy. ;)

BOOK BLURB:

Blaze Knight has been through hell and back, but the nightmares aren’t over yet.

Five years after Blaze was maimed by Cyrus Chimola, a powerful vampire with a penchant for torture, he’s still trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. As a genetically engineered mercenary with the ability to bend fire to his will and to see in infrared, Blaze’s mission is to protect what’s left of humanity. When Chimola and his crew return to the Bronx gunning for Blaze’s blood, Blaze is forced to face the demons of his past. Hell-bent on revenge, he seeks the help of Valerie Medeiros, an NYPD detective who manages to steal his heart and save his life in more ways than one.

Motivated by her sister’s gruesome death, Valerie has made it her life’s goal to bury every vampire in the ground where they belong. When she brings in Blaze Knight for suspected murder, she discovers he’s not only innocent, he isn’t a man at all—he’s a half-vampire hybrid working with a band of brothers for the U.S. military. Valerie has a hard time trusting anything with fangs, yet she quickly falls headlong into Blaze’s life, a life full of darkness and horror she can’t even begin to fathom. The bodies are stacking up, but Valerie can’t seem to let go of this hybrid, a beautiful monster filled with pain, rage, and passion unlike anything she’s ever known.

In a world where the line between good and evil is blurred, Blaze and Valerie will find danger at every turn, risking everything they’ve come to know and love, including one another.

NOW, the three reasons why you should read this book:

#1 ~ The circumstances where both Valerie and Blaze meet aren’t very ordinary. Blaze is a prime suspect in a horrific murder and Valerie is one of the lead detectives on the case. The moment Valerie sets eyes on Blaze, she deems him a monster (which isn’t far from accurate) and she arrests him on the spot. Blaze, of course, is innocent and now he must prove this to Valerie in order to convince her to help hunt the real murderers, Cyrus Chimola and his crew, a group of powerful vampires who’ve returned to the Bronx for Blaze.

#2 ~ Blaze is a former prisoner of war and is still trying to put himself back together. With Cyrus’s return, Blaze watches all of his hard work at recovery fall apart as he hunts down each and every one of his torturers and serves them the karma they deserve. He constantly wrestles with both the leech and the human inside him and he isn’t quite sure which one will dominate his desires, particularly around Valerie. Initially, Valerie has a hard time trusting Blaze, but she quickly grows to trust him after a few of their “adventures.��

#3 ~ RELEASING THE DEMONS is about reaping vengeance and falling in love at the most unlikely of times. Although many of the scenes throughout the story were difficult to write, they are real, raw and brutal, plopping you firmly into a dark world where nothing but love is sacred, whether that love is between friends, brothers or lovers. The action is nonstop, keeping you questioning how far Valerie and Blaze will go in order to stay together in a world where fate is desperately trying to tear them apart.

Have you ever made sacrifices for a loved one? Looking back now, are you glad you’d done so or do you regret it?

EXCERPT:

“Cyrus used to have a hideout underground,�� Blaze offered hesitantly, switching into the high-speed lane. “I doubt he’d go there again, but I can always take a look.��

“Underground? Where?��

“Grand Central.�� Memories fought their way to the surface, but he kept them at bay, focusing on the road.

“Grand Central? How? It’s completely destroyed.��

“The tunnels and platforms are still preserved. Cyrus gained access to them and took his nest down there a while back. He was there for at least a year. Maybe two.��

Valerie turned toward him, giving him her full attention. “How do you know this?��

Blaze shifted uncomfortably, his heart pounding. He stared straight ahead, unable to look at her, and set his jaw. “Because I was down there with him.��

She stilled. 3 Doors Down sang quietly in the background as the Caddy hummed along the Bronx River Parkway. A fist clenched around Blaze’s stomach, his muscles tense as iron, encasing the trashcan of his guts. He was dying for nicotine, anything to calm him down. He turned up the AC instead, still unable to look at her in fear of what he’d see. Dark voices of the past whispered in the back of his mind, pushing against the recesses of his skull.

“You were a prisoner?�� she finally said, the words cautious, low.

A morbid urge to laugh bubbled up inside him. “That’s putting it nicely.��

“When did this happen?��

“Five years ago.�� Five years, three months, and twenty-four days.

“How did you get away?�� Her tone became soft, gentle. He couldn’t decide if he liked it or hated it.

“Dax . . .�� he trailed off, his voice failing him, sucked into the back of his throat. Then, without warning, Valerie cupped her hand over his, where he tightly gripped the gearshift. He glanced down at it, her small, smooth, feminine hand atop his big, scarred, leather-bound fist. He wished he could feel it.

Wished he could feel anything.

Blaze cleared his throat, resettling himself. Her touch balanced him somehow, infused a little more courage into him. “Dax found me. Cyrus vanished. I’ve been hunting him down since. Now he’s back for me, I know he is. The messages, the murders, all of it—he’s out for my blood. All of this is because of me.��

“It’s not your fault.��

“The longer he’s out there, the more people will die,�� he pointed out. “I know my brothers can take care of themselves, but it’s everyone else. People like Bianca, like Homes, Elena. And you.��

Her hand fell away from his. He glanced at her. She stared at him intently, if a bit indignantly. He pictured her green eyes flashing, maybe darker, maybe brighter. He’d guess brighter. “I chose to be part of this, Blaze.��

“But you don’t have to—��

“But I want to. What, you think I’m just going to cower in a corner and hide until all of this passes? Hell no. You should know me better than that by now. You think I’m going to let you do this alone?��

“I have my brothers.��

“I know your brothers have your back, but they’ve got the rest of the city to protect, too. I want to be part of this. And no offense, you’re not getting rid of me, whether you like it or not.��

BUY LINK:

BIO:

L.D. Rose is a neurotic physician by day, crazed writer by night, and all around wannabe superhero. She writes paranormal romance and urban fantasy, but she’s been known to delve into horror, sci-fi, and medical suspense on occasion. L.D. Rose is a member of the RWA, FF&P, NEC-RWA and CoLoNY. She currently lives in Rhode Island��with her studly hubby, her hyperactive boxer, and her two devious cats.

Where to find her:��

Website: writerldrose.com

Facebook:��

Author page:��

Twitter:��

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Pinterest:��

Tumblr:��writerdoc.tumblr.com

We had a blue moon the other night. Since my contain a lunar reference or two,��I was curious what I’d see outside my window that night. At bedtime I peeked out my blinds and witnessed a��stunning, vibrant��moon casting its glow on the dark night. A sight with the majesty and magic��of any other full moon.��So I did a little research and��learned a few facts��about blue moons:

The modern day definition of a Blue Moon is when there are 2 full moons in one Month. A full moon occurs roughly every 29.5 days and on the rare occasions when the full moon falls at the very beginning of a month there is a good chance a Blue Moon will occur at the end of the month.


Over the next 20 years there will be about 15 blue moons. ��No blue moon of any kind will occur in the years 2011, 2014, and 2017.

Blue moon�� appears to have been a colloquial expression long before it developed its calendrical senses. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first reference to a blue moon comes from a proverb recorded in 1528:

If they say the moon is blue,

We must believe that it is true.

In the 19th century, the phrase until a blue moon developed, meaning “never.�� The phrase, once in a blue moon today has come to mean “every now and then�� or “rarely.��

This week is the re-launch of SHARE THE MOON, where Book One in the series gets a second chance to shine.

Besides the new cover, inside you will find chapter excerpts for the next two books in the Blue Moon Lake Romances, both available for preorder:

Twelve Nights-A Blue Moon Lake Christmas Novella �� (Nov. 2015)

True love waits forever��

For Erik Lindholm, it’s been a long climb to the top of his company. Now, as president he has the power to bring his vision to life and speed his company in bold new directions. If that means a complete staff overhaul, so be it. If that means firing the woman who left his heart in tatters fifteen years earlier, it’s a business decision, not personal��

Beryl Foster is highly competent and respected by everyone at the office. But rumors of a big shake-up are rampant and—surprisingly, scarily—Beryl’s job as CFO is on the line. Fifteen years ago she made a decision to put her career before everything else. It was also the last time she and Erik shared a life together. Every Christmas is a reminder. This one could be a second chance��

Series Book Two

Harvest Moon �� Series Book Two (Dec. 2015)��

Getting past the librarian’s guard��

��

��Trent Jamieson isn’t one for virtual romance, but there’s something about the intriguing woman he meets on the Internet he can’t resist. Then the small town bachelor discovers the mystery woman who shares her secrets with him online is the laced-up librarian in his self-defense class! Veronica Sussingham may just be his toughest student yet. Because how can he show the vulnerable beauty that some men are worth letting your guard down for?

Veronica returned to her hometown seeking shelter for her shattered spirit. The last thing she needs is a

blue-eyed charmer who wants to show her how to live—and love—again. Then she discovers Trent is not just another admirer, but a man who knows her deepest secrets. Now Veronica must choose between running from her past—or finding future happiness with the kind of man she swore she’d never fall for��.

SHARE THE MOON EXCERPT:

“Now, gently swirl the wine.�� A slight twist of Sophie’s wrist rotated the glass.

Duncan copied her moves, realizing she made the gesture fluid, easier than his attempts.

“This gives the molecules a little nudge to entertain us. I mean, who doesn’t like to be entertained.�� She waved a playful brow. “Once you get them moving, stick your nose up close and take a whiff.��

Sophie brought her straight nose close to the rim. Her lids dropped, as if prepared to receive a scent from heaven. She inhaled. Passion-filled concentration dominated her expression, leaving him mesmerized, unable to stop watching even as he lifted his own glass. He copied her movements, contemplating the aroma in a way he’d never done before.

When he opened his eyes, she’d been watching. “Anything stand out?��

He took a second, shorter whiff. “Pepper, I think.��

Her mouth turned into a half-surprised, half-pleased smile. “Very good.��

A sensation fluttered in his gut, her approval an unexpected joy.

“I smelled some kind of berry too. Now take a decent taste. Let the liquid coat your entire mouth. It’ll feel different on your tongue versus the roof of your mouth or the inside of your cheeks. There are all kinds of hidden flavors. Some bold, others more subtle.��

She brought the glass to her lips then stopped, leaned across the counter, and placed her soft palm over the hand where he held the glass. A sweet floral scent drifted from her hair. She dropped her voice, now low and sexy. “A ready guy like you should take your time with this one.�� She cocked a loaded brow. “Really work hard and you’ll detect the wine’s secrets.��

�� Heat crept up his neck again.

�� The microwave buzzer sounded but she kept her gaze on him as she tipped back her goblet. Her full lips brushed the rim with the delicate touch of a first kiss.

REVIEWER ON��SHARE THE MOON:

“Sharon Struth has woven a tale of suspicion, mystery and the complete emotional breakdown of two people searching for love and restoration of their past lives. The plot is refreshing and will definitely keep the reader turning page after page. SHARE THE MOON is a book that restores faith in human nature and the ability to again find love.�� –Fresh Fiction

AVAILABLE AT:

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Somewhere between my last birthday and this one, I kind of lost track of my age.

The older I get, the more I seem to struggle with holding onto that��new magic number. It seems ��irrelevant in light of current events and more important matters–like NOT wanting to��think about how I’m getting older. But when pushed into��offering a number, a simple calculation allows me to easily figure out the number–my age is one year less than my husband (and we even share a birthday month, making it super simple.)

A��few months after my 2014 birthday, I found myself readily sharing my age, though. Like some old-timer who had advice for others that only a well-lived live can��provide. ��I’d quip comments like “Well, at fifty-six, I’m not worrying about eating that extra piece of chocolate.�� or “Fifty-six, sixty-six�� it’s just a number.�� Yet I’d wonder how I got there so fast. It was like I’d missed something. Fifty-six actually terrified me. One step closer to the big…no, I won’t��even say it.

Then one day��I walked past my husband, who worked at the kitchen table, and for some reason started to tease him about��being fifty-seven.

“No.�� His eyes stayed focused on his computer. “I’m fifty-six.��

“No you’re not. Because I’m fifty-six, a year younger.��

He looked up and shook his head. “You’re wrong. Do the math.��

And I did. I’d been��telling everyone the wrong age…for about six months. My missing years, found easier than the Ponce de Leon’s ��excursion for the legendary fountain of youth!

Relief barely described how I felt at that moment. The rest of the day, I had a lightness to my steps, a smile on my face. Truly, I wasn’t as close to sixty as I’d thought! Only–for the life of me–I couldn’t imagine how I’d lost total control over my age to begin with.

Today I��hit the milestone I once embraced almost a year too early.�� Luckily, it’s not��too bad. I think later I’m going to have ice cream cake :-)

So I ask any of you folks over the age of forty–do you remember your age or have to really think about it?

��

Today I’ve got a visitor! I’m thrilled to have my good friend and historical fiction author ��here��to talk about��some of those not so perfect guys we read about in novels, but who add a great deal to the story. Plus, she’ll give us a sneak peak at her upcoming release. Take it away, Shey��

On not being the hero by Shehanne Moore.

Seriously I googled this in the hope of getting some fancy quote about how crestfallen these guys feel, these guys who don’t get to run into the building and save the heroine. But the best I could come up with is the fact they’re not alone. Look at some of the famous love triangles in books—Now, I am not talking ménage here—heavens not on Sharon’s lovely blog which she was kind enough to invite me to today, thank you Sharon, I am talking triangle.

There’s Heathcliff, Gatsby, Jacob Black and please, let’s not forget Scarlett O’Hara’s strange passion for Ashley Wilkes. Didn’t Rhett rescue her several times? Also wasn’t he better looking? In fact so were the others. Secretly guys we ladies were always rooting for them. But let them have the heroine and we have no story.

Anyway, I’ve noticed that in each of my books there’s another guy. And he’s not the hero. He might not even want to be. Or, maybe he would since in three of these four books he’s dead, or dying.

Take Thomas, the heroine’s husband in The Unravelling of Lady Fury. ��(Yes do, take him far away, he’s a wife beater) how did he know Fury wasn’t really that in to him? Because at the start of the book she’s keeping him in a box in the cellar. Correction. It’s his corpse actually she’s keeping, after she pushed him down the stairs.

I think it would be difficult to give Thomas tips on how to have won the heroine, but I’d say that generally being nicer, an all round good guy, might have avoided this end. What’s that? They say women like bad boys better? Well, maybe they do. So maybe that approach wouldn’t have worked?

Next up, Lachlan from His Judas Bride.��Well, Lachlan was an all round nice guy but the heroine’s father �徱���’t think so, so he killed him off. I think I’d say here, if you wanted to get the heroine then maybe you shouldn’t have got her up the duff when her father wanted to marry her off to someone else.

That brings us around to Gil Gressingham, deeply in love with Sapphire, the heroine of Loving Lady Lazuli. Unfortunately for Gil, although this pair went back a long way and he happily looked out for her on more occasions than she could count, she just wasn’t that into him. He was a bully, a blackmailer, a representative of everything she hated and saw everything as something to be stolen. Of course it �徱���’t help him that he dropped dead half way through the book. Had he visited a doctor now, or stayed out of drafty establishments, he might have well gone onto to do battle Lord Devorlane Hawley for her. But it was a sort of no contest, despite Hawley being a troubled drug addict, non universe to a spot of blackmail himself.

In my forthcoming release, The Viking and the Courtesan, we have Cyril. ��He’s quite a dish and he’s also the heroine’s husband. I’ll tell you now Malice admits to liking him. Loving would be a bit strong, although there was a time she did love him. There’s also bits where she believes she can make a go of things with him, despite being involved with another man, which is interesting as Cyril, the proverbial bad boy steals from her, he abandons her.

Why don’t they end up together? Because Cyril cannot ever love her. And the reason for that is?

Something I’m not going to reveal here.

Blurb

In 898 AD she wasn’t just from another land.

Wrecking a marriage is generally no problem for the divorce obtaining, Lady Malice Mallender. But she faces a dilemma when she’s asked to ruin her own. Just how businesslike should she remain when the marriage was never consummated and kissing her husband leads to Sin–a handsome Viking who wants her for a bed slave in name only?

She came from another time.

Viking raider Sin Gudrunsson wants one thing. To marry his childhood sweetheart. Only she’s left him before, so he needs to keep her on her toes, and a bed slave, in name only, seems just the thing. Until he meets Malice.

One kiss is all it takes to flash between two worlds

But when one kiss is no longer enough, which will it be? Regency London? Or Viking Norway? Will Malice learn what governs the flashes? Can Sin?

Where worlds collide can love melt the iciest heart

Excerpt from The Viking and the Courtesan

���������������������������������� She glided closer. She had come to speak with him, wife to husband. And she had chosen here to do it because it was public. Those who thought the sun shone from the backend of his brown velvet breeches had a lot to learn.

���������������������������������� “My lord.��

���������������������������������� Of course, she might have known Cyril would be more interested in looking at her breasts than her face. Maybe she should have ventured in here topless? Still, at least he was looking at her.����

���������������������������������� “Cyril. Husband.��

���������������������������������� Now that jerked his chin up. If ever there was a way to bring a dog to heel, this was surely it.

���������������������������������� “I knew I should find you here before me, my dearest. And involved in a wager too. My lords, you must excuse Cyril, especially when he does not possess the money to pay any debts. And, we are shortly to require every penny we own.��

���������������������������������� “Malice?�� He peered at her closely. “Malice? Is that you?��

���������������������������������� “Most certainly it’s not Aunt Carter’s silver teapot, my dearest husband.��

���������������������������������� She would keep with the endearments for the time being. It would not do for anyone here to think she was anything less than fond—the sole reason she clasped his arm. “I know you find every time you see me like a first time, but caution yourself. It is not seemly to behave in this manner here.��

���������������������������������� “Malice, what the hell are you doing here? Let go of my—��

���������������������������������� She lowered her voice to a whisper. “When I have come to talk divorce, I advise you to stop tugging. I will let go when I am good and ready to let go.��

���������������������������������� “Divorce?��

���������������������������������� One little word to guarantee complete obedience from the damned dog.

���������������������������������� He cleared his throat, elegant in the fall of lace. Then he stood up. “You want to talk divorce? Divorce with me, Malice?��

���������������������������������� “I am looking, but I don’t see any other man here I was married to. Do you?��

��

PREORDER AT:

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Bio��

When not cuddling inn signs in her beloved Scottish mountains alongside Mr Shey, Shehanne Moore writes dark and smexy historical romance, featuring bad boys who need a bad girl to sort them out. She firmly believes everyone deserves a little love, forgiveness and a second chance in life.

Shehanne caused general apoplexy when she penned her first story, The Hore House Mystery—aged seven. What �徱���’t she work at while pursuing her dream of becoming a published author?

Visit her blog to find out about past releases and hear more about her forthcoming time-slip historical, The Viking and The Courtesan.

www.pinterest.com/shehanne/

https://twitter.com/ ShehanneMoore

com.weebly.com/

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When the media went crazy with news over a new book by Harper Lee, I was as pleased as the rest of the world. Only as the controversy surrounding the book’s publishing spread, one particular line I read in a piece made me consider this literary triumph through a writer’s eyes.

“Go Set a Watchman�� would have been Ms. Lee’s literary debut, if her editor had not rejected it. She finished the novel, which takes place 20 years after “To Kill a Mockingbird,�� in the mid-1950s. But her editor, Tay Hohoff, told her to write a new version from Scout’s perspective as a young girl. (New York Times, 2/8/15)

The creation of fictional characters is hard to describe to people who don’t write books. Characters don’t always come to us as the finely tuned individuals a��who appear in the final version of any story. It’s what we call rewriting (and yes, writing really is rewriting).

(Photo: LARRY BURROWS )

Rewriting is what both seasoned and new writers endure before a reader sees their final work. One of my favorite accounts about the art of rewriting comes from Ernest Hemingway��told during a 1958 interview��by the :

Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do?

Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.

Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?

Hemingway: Getting the words right.

Now back to Harper Lee, who back in the mid-1950’s was told by her editor to continue to rework her story, telling it from Scout’s perspective. I imagine��Harper returned to her typewriter and did what we writers must do…she rewrote. Considered her tale through the eyes of a young girl, reframing how each character appeared to the reader, ultimately giving us Atticus Finch; fair, reasonable, moral. Thanks to her editor’s suggestion, Lee penned a story worthy of ��a Pulitzer Prize. Would��Lee’s��original attempt��at��this story have achieved this feat? Who knows.

But the idea the original story was rejected is��why all the things surrounding this release just bother me a little. I don’t know Ms. Lee and surely can’t speak to her current state of mind. I’d say somewhere between all the he-said-she-said quotes found in the newspapers lies the truth. Maybe she did want this published. Maybe she �徱���’t. But more important, there was a reason the publisher �徱���’t want THIS story in the first place. Something Ms. Lee’s writer’s instincts probably realized was true after the rewrite. Something I understand happens because of my own experience with the craft.

Nearly every writer I know (including me) has an early work sitting somewhere in a drawer or on a computer. It was written before they got the story told in the best way possible. Maybe the characters were weak, their motives uninspiring, the goals shaky. Or their overall writing later improved, making the story read better. At the end of the day, though, it’s a story they’re glad �徱���’t appear before the��eyes of the public.

Right now, I’m undecided about reading Harper Lee’s��latest book. Especially because for most of her life, she never tried to publish the work.��Thus, my reluctance is out of respect for the process.

Yet part of me is��curious, wondering if this��story, told decades after To Kill A Mockingbird takes place, is simply a valid story into its own right. A story about a young women taking a look at her past, and no longer seeing it through the eyes of a child.

How do you feel about this new release?

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So, I’m a few days late with the second day of��the Three Quotes, Three Days Challenge, a nomination I got from my friend and fellow writer��

Day two will be a brief snapshot from a christmas novella in the Blue Moon Lake Romances��called��, now available for preorder.

Here’s a blurb:

True love waits forever��

For Erik Lindholm, it’s been a long climb to the top of his company. Now, as president he has the power to bring his vision to life and speed his company in bold new directions. If that means a complete staff overhaul, so be it. If that means firing the woman who left his heart in tatters fifteen years earlier, it’s a business decision, not personal��

Beryl Foster is highly competent and respected by everyone at the office. But rumors of a big shake-up are rampant and—surprisingly, scarily—Beryl’s job as CFO is on the line. Fifteen years ago she made a decision to put her career before everything else. It was also the last time she and Erik shared a life together. Every Christmas is a reminder. This one could be a second chance��

My friend and Scottish author has named me in the Three Quotes, Three Days Challenge. If you like some good ol�� fashioned hamster fun, check out her quotes and website. She always gives me a reason to smile.��

I’ve decided over the next few days to showcase an excerpt from each of the��three books in the Blue Moon Lake Romances, starting today with a brief snapshot from book one in the series, .

(click on photo to enlarge)

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I’ll also tag fellow authors , ,, and to play along if they’d like.

BUY LINKS FOR SHARE THE MOON:

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