Winner: Stop and Smell the Roses

Thanks so much for joining me Monday as part of the Stop and Smell the Roses Bouquet Blog.

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winner. Yesterday went crazy on me.

Drum roll: And the winner of her choice of a pdf of one book from any of my titles at The Wild Rose Press is..... Christine Clemetson.

Christine, please contact me betty@bettyhanawa.com and let me know what title you want.

Thank you, everyone, for joining me Monday.

Stop and Smell the Roses

In LOVE THE DAY, my recent release from The Wild Rose Press, Lucy Moon had once been a handmaiden to the goddess Artemis. When she angered Artemis, she banned from Mt. Olympus and given immortality to wander the earth and live among humans forever. In addition to immortality, she ended up with another curse from Artemis. Through the centuries, Lucy learned to cope and enjoy her life among humans. She learned to savor each day for its unique moments, to enjoy each person for the differences that were special to each one. She learned to stop and smell the roses.

When I wrote this story, the boat Lucy and Benedict stop to see was still visible and was part of the inspiration for this story. My husband and I made a recent trip north on South Padre Island and the boat is no longer visible. It's been buried by the sand.

A bit of set up: The story takes place on Padre Island and in the town of South Padre Island. The hero, Benedict, owns a bar/restaurant where he has met Lucy Moon. They're driving north of the town on the Gulf of Mexico side of Padre Island to have a picnic supper.

Love the Day is copyrighted by Elizabeth Hanawa writing as Betty Hanawa and is available from The Wild Rose Press. Following passage may differ slightly from the final product.

Benedict spotted the shrimp boat, wrecked and pushed onto the tide line during a winter storm, now almost covered by sand. The masts stood about the waves, nearly the only part still visible. He parked the truck and then joined Lucy at the wave edges.

She studied the battered shrimp boat as though it was the finest piece of sculpture she ever saw.

“It’s just a wrecked boat.”

“No,” Lucy said firmly. “Look at it. Watch the way the waves hit the masts. Watch how the spray flies off the rigging and scatters in the sunlight.”

Benedict watched the surf come in and hit the boat. The spray didn’t look special to him. It was just water bouncing off the wires angling down from the masts.

The waves foamed with a crashing slosh. Seagulls quarreled and called. Time stretched while they stood quietly watching the sea and sand slowly bury the boat deeper with each wave.

Lucy lifted her camera and began taking photos. “I saw the photos of this boat at your bar. Did you name your bar The Sinking ship after it?”

“No, I named the bar months before this happened. A friend took and framed the picture. He thought I needed some local color in with all the pictures of famous boats that have sunk.” He watched the wind plaster Lucy’s skirt against her rear.

While he spent the day touching Lucy as much as he was able to get away with in public, she only occasionally touched him. He definitely needed her help putting on sunscreen, all over his body.

“Why did you name the bar, The Sinking Ship?”

Like a lovesick hound dog sniffing after a female in heat, Benedict followed Lucy around the water’s edge while she took photos from different angles. He watched her handle the camera, adjusting focus and the zoom attachments like a pro. He wondered if he might ever feel her fingers dance along his skin as decisively as they twiddled the length of the camera lens.

No, first he wanted her for a friend, he ordered his body. His pulsing shaft called him a liar.

Resolutely, he reminded himself he had a brain, not just a shaft. He also promised her he wasn’t going to push her for sex today. If he wanted Lucy for a friend, he needed to ignore his hormones and reengage his tongue before he started drooling. What had she asked? Oh, yeah.

“Just thought it sounded good. At lot of people come into a bar thinking their lives are out of control and they’re standing on the deck of a sinking ship.” Like me, Benedict glumly thought. “In the bar, they relax, enjoy the other people and forget their troubles for awhile.”

“I go to visit with people.” Lucy stowed her camera back into her bag. They went to the truck.

“You always look like you’re having fun. People like to be around you.”

In the truck, Lucy refastened her seatbelt. “I like people. No one is the same and very few people are totally unlikable.”

“You really seem to enjoy life.”

“I try to enjoy each moment. Every moment is different. Every thing is different. It makes life more enjoyable when each moment is savored for its uniqueness.”

Love the Day is copyrighted by Elizabeth Hanawa writing as Betty Hanawa and is available from The Wild Rose Press.

I'll be giving a pdf of the winner's choice of my titles at The Wild Rose Press to one commentator on today's blog. I hope you enjoy The Wild Rose Press "Stop and Smell the Roses" Blog Day. Be sure to visit the other Roses who are blogging today. Check back here on Tuesday to see who won a copy of Love the Day.

Other authors from The Wild Rose Press who are blogging today are:
Amber Leigh Williams

Author's Studio

Christine Clemetson

Find a Great Romance

L.M. Gonzalez

Teri Wilson

Rebecca Savage

Hywela Lyn

Jennifer Johnson

Joyce Moore

Liana Laverentz

Linda Hope Lee

Laurie J. Edwards

Dawn Deanna Wilson

Susan Vaughn

Tanya Hanson

Tina Gayle

Laura Hogg

Bess McBride

Love the Day, June 17th!

Once upon a time, Lucy Moon was a handmaiden to the virgin goddess Artemis. Now she wanders the earth, determined to remain celibate rather than subjecting any more men to the death curse attached to her immortality.

“Love the Day” is being released on June 17 from The Wild Rose Press. This story is set at one of my favorite places on earth: South Padre Island, TX. I love sitting on the beach, burying my feet in the warm sand while watching my husband fish in the surf and my schnauzer try to catch seagulls and chase the pelicans’ shadows. Listening to the sound of the surf and breathing in the ions brings me a measure of contentment I experience no where else.

To celebrate the release of “Love the Day”, I’ll be giving away copies to two members of my Announcement Group on June 30^th.

Join me on my blog on June 29^th, when I’ll be participating in “Stop and Smell the Roses Blog Bouquet” with other authors from The Wild Rose Press. There will be twenty authors involved on June 29^th with another twenty earlier on June 22^nd. Each participating author will be giving a prize to one commentator on each blog. For more information and my prize, see my website.

Beast Within RELEASE Today!!!

Dylan Gomez wakes from a blackout, horny as hell, naked and stuck in a cage. Adding to his frustration is the sight of sexy wildlife officer Haley holding a gun on him. Even though he thinks Haley is crazy to insist the cage held a rescued wildcat, Dylan’s grateful to wake from another blackout in her home.

 

Haley wants to enjoy Dylan’s hot body but must force the former Special Forces officer to accept the fact that he changes into a jaguarondi. Haley wants the passionate man, not the wildcat, and devises an erotic game to teach him to control the shifting.

 

Hating to be submissive, Dylan knows he must trust Haley to train him to command the beast within.

Check it out at Ellora's Cave! 

NaNoWriMo, Anyone?

Anyone else up to the NaNoWriMo challenge this year?

National Novel Writing Month kicks off November 1st. It's an intense month with the goal of writing 50,000 words (yes, you read that right: Fifty Thousand words) in 30 days. It comes down to 1667 words a day, a bit less than 7 pages.

This is the tenth anniversary of NaNoWriMo. It started with 21 participants, most of whom knew each other from the onset and lived near each other. Six made it to 50,000 words. In 2007, over 100,000 people participated from countries all over the world. By midnight November 30, 2007, over 15,000 of them had turned in the magic number of 50K words.

Here's the scary part. You start with a blank page.

This is not a time to pick up an older novel and rewrite it. This is for a fresh idea, a new challenge. A new book by the end of November. Some people come into NaNoWriMo with an outline, character sketches, scads of research completed. Others come in with a vague idea, put hands on the keyboard, and start writing. Both systems lead to results including sales of books written in rough draft during NaNoWriMo.

The goal is to write. Don't edit. Write.

Yes, it's a raw rough draft. Yes, you'll write a lot of garbage. But this is not the time to get mired down in "the plot doesn't work" and "my character's an idiot." Don't go back and reread what you wrote the day before. Just keep writing. You can fix it later.

Yes, November is a busy month. But you know the cliche about busy people. "If you want something done..." I've set myself daily writing goals with at least four pages on the busy days and nearly triple that on the less busy days. I'm cleaning my house this week (also because our kids are coming to visit on Friday). Next week I'll make some double meals, with one going into the freezer for November. I'll also stock things that can be cooked in the crock pot and pre-made frozen entrees.

If you want to take the challenge, here's where you can find out more at NaNoWriMo. If you sign up or have signed up, I'm registered under Betty.Glasgow.Hanawa, if you want to be my buddy.

As far as what I'm going to write... well, I'm one of those heading into November 1 with a vague idea and some research done. But having written Turquoise Dreams in this way, I think I can do it again.

Will I make the 50K? I've told so many people about it, I'll be embarrassed if I don't. I just need to keep myself from getting distracted.

Book Up for an Award!

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My book Less Than Perfect Family is up for an award. http://www.longandshortreviews.com/LASR/recentrev.htm

Last week I came in third, but first was only three votes ahead of mine. If you voted last week, thank you and will you please vote again? If you didn’t vote last week, will you do so, please? It only takes a couple of minutes.

Secondary Characters

I love secondary characters, not only for the insights and richness they give to main characters, but also because of their own personalities. Secondary characters, the friends/relations/pets of the heroine/hero, give the main characters depth and a sounding board for events during the story.

Often, though, a secondary character is intriguing enough to warrant a storyline, either within the ongoing novel or in a follow up novel. These days, I read the JD Robb “In Death” series as much for the secondary and minor characters as for the story. I know Eve Dallas, with Roarke’s help, will solve the murder and put the killer in a cage. But I also want to know what Peabody and McNab, Charles and Louise, Mavis and Leonardo are doing.Sometimes the secondary character tries to take over the whole book.

The first time it happened to me was during the writing of what eventually became Less Than Perfect Family.


In an original draft, Sam’s financial adviser, Martha, began to take over more and more of the book. Finally, I cut or copied all the scenes with Martha and put them all into a folder with Martha’s name. “Back off, Martha. You’ll get your own book.” When I started Martha’s story, I needed a hero for her and there was Sam’s best friend Phil suddenly telling me, “Martha’s my ex-wife and I still love her. I want her back. Please?” Hurmph, not Martha, Phil, or even Sam had told me during the first book Martha and Phil had been married to each other. Martha and Phil’s story became Balanced Heart.