Thankfulness

As I sit here on the day before Thanksgiving, I'm thinking about all that I have to be thankful for.  My salvation, my family, my friends . . . the list goes on and on and on.  I have been so blessed, in good days and bad.  I'm so thankful for what God has so graciously given to me.  I'm well aware that I do not deserve His blessings, yet He still gives lavishly - out of His mercy and grace.  In return, I try to give Him all of me!  He deserves no less.

As I sit here on the day before Thanksgiving, I'm thinking about all of you and how thankful I am for each and every one of you!  You make my writing worthwhile.  You encourage me to continue.  You push me forward.  You help me improve.  You can make my day with kind words that make my spirit glow.  Thank you so very much!  I can't say thank you enough!

As I sit here on the day before Thanksgiving, I'm thinking about how I was able to finish, not just one book, but two!  Dress for Success has been available for a couple of months now and I so enjoyed learning more about Brooke.  Her story will be on sale for $0.99 starting Thanksgiving Day!  I guess it's my own version of black Friday.  I've also completed my Christmas novella and it is now available on amazon.com as well.  It is called Christmas Angel and follows an heiress named Gloria Herald as she goes on her Christmas mission with the help of Ryan Remington who could stand to learn a little bit about generosity.  I hope that it helps get you in the Christmas spirit.  Both books can be found by clicking on the links below.

I hope that you are able to count many blessings this year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas Angel

Dress for Success

A Long Overdue Update

Again I've been letting my blog go unwritten.  Mostly because I had nothing to say.  I had finished editing my novella and sent it on to my editors and was waiting to hear back from them.  This week, I got all of their editing back so I can go through the manuscript and make the corrections I need to make.  I also have ordered my book cover and I am anxiously waiting to see the new cover art!  Since this book is not connected to the KW Consulting series, I'm really interested to see what they come up with for the cover.  The other books all had a similar look to tie them together, but this one will have a look all it's own.

I'm also excited about what my editors had to say.  My mom said, "I LOVED it!" and Ashley said, "Loved it!  Wonderful!  So heartwarming and touching!  Brought tears to my eyes a lot!"  Meghan said, "I loved it so much!  It totally got me in the Christmas mood!"

So now, I need to finish the editing, but I think it's safe to say that it should be available for purchase next week!  Just in time to really get in the Christmas spirit!

Busyness

I haven't written a blog post in a long time.  Not since the beginning of October.  My excuse is simple.  Just pure busyness.  An overused excuse perhaps, but valid.

Soon after my last blog post we went to Disneyland to celebrate my sister's 30th birthday!  It was so much fun with my family, my sister's family, our parents and our dear friend, Meghan.  I brought my computer along.  I thought I might have time to write, but it was no use.  We got up early to get to the park as soon as we could after it opened, stayed until the park closed and fell into an exhausted sleep almost as soon as we got back to our room.  It wasn't a relaxing trip, but we had a blast!

After getting back I focused on finishing up writing my Christmas novella.  I wanted to get it finished by the end of October so that hopefully I could have it edited and published by Thanksgiving.  I wrote in any free moment I had which sometimes did not seem like nearly enough.  My house is evidence that I took moments that weren't really "free" because I should have been doing laundry or dishes, but instead I was writing.  However, I got it finished this week!  I need to go through and do my editing before sending it off to be edited further, but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  This is always the exciting part where I can see the fruits of my labors ripening.  Soon they'll be ready for harvest.  (Seems like an appropriate metaphor for fall, doesn't it?)

It's been interesting to see how I can write more quickly with each book.  My first book, Best Laid Plans, took five years for me to write (and is the shortest of all the KW Consulting books by a lot!).  I wrote Smell the Roses in a year and I've written Dress for Success and a Christmas novella this year.  It makes me wonder what I might be capable of doing next year!

Here I am with Ashley and Meghan in front of a "Frozen" backdrop at Disneyland.

What do you write?

Whenever I mention that I just published a new book or that I have published books, the next obvious question is, "So what do you write?" I kind of dread this question.  In fact, it makes me feel embarrassed about my writing.  When I reply, "Christian romance novels", I always duck my head and mumble it.  I love to read the genre and I have so much fun writing these books, but I dread the reaction that I'll get for three reasons.

Christian
As soon as the word "Christian" come out of my mouth, I have people completely shut down.  I can see the look on their face and it says, "I wouldn't touch your book with a ten foot pole".  Or even worse, a feeling that it isn't a "real" genre or book.  Yet Christian novels can have interesting, deep characters as well as secular novels.  Their stories can be as varied and interesting.

Romance
The reaction I get from this is mostly from men.  It's a look of "Aw, how cute."  If I wrote mystery, suspense, drama - almost anything else - they would be impressed, but romance?  Of course a girl would write romance.  Inevitably the teasing will begin as images of the covers of romances in the grocery store come to mind with the bare chested male with the helpless damsel clinging to him.  I hate telling men that I write romance novels.  The common view seems to be that they're the easiest to write and the least important of all the genres.

Novel
I don't get nearly as much negative reaction from this, but there are a few intellectuals out there who would be much more impressed if I wrote theological commentaries or history books.  Instead, I write novels.  The feeling I get is that only untalented writers, nonintellectual writers would write novels - and especially romance novels!

I was realizing how much I dread answering this question as it came up over and over again with the publication of Dress for Success.  Yet, I also get support - mostly from women.  I have women respond with "That's my favorite genre!" or "I love Christian romance!"  Those answers keep me from being completely discouraged.

While thinking about these things, I was reading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.  Jane Austen got lots of criticism for being a woman author and an author of romance novels at that.  In this book, she says that the main character, Catherine Morland, read novels and followed that statement with this one.  "Yes, novels; for I will not adopt that ungenerous and impolitic custom, so common with novel writers, of degrading, by their contemptuous censure, the very performances to the number of which they are themselves adding: and scarcely ever permitting them to be read by their own heroine, who if she accidentally take up a novel, is sure to turn over its insipid pages with disgust.  Alas!  If the heroine of one novel be not patronised by the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard?  I cannot approve of it. . . . "And what are you reading, Miss - ?" "Oh! it is only a novel!" replies the young lady; while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame.  "It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda"; or in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language."

And so Jane Austen encouraged this new writer nearly two hundred years later.  I will never write a book that becomes a classic like Pride and Prejudice, or works that last for centuries, but I enjoy what I write and I have readers who enjoy reading it.  I strive to get better with each book.  I know I have more to learn.  But I will no longer be ashamed to claim to be a writer of Christian romance novels!  (At least I'll try).

If you are one of the readers who love to read Christian romance novels and you haven't seen my books, you can find them by clicking on the links below.

Best Laid Plans
Smell the Roses
Dress for Success

Dedication: Dress for Success

My third book had to be dedicated to my sister, Ashley Beaulieu.  She's one of my best friends and one of my editors.  She also happens to be one of my biggest fans.  She is more insulted than I am when I get a negative comment and she is always pushing me forward to keep me writing because she's anxious to read the next book.

Ashley and I often get asked if we're twins.  We're not. There are four years between, and Ashley would be quick to tell you that I am the older one.  We're often seen together.  We say the same thing, at the same time, with the same inflection - evidence that we spend a lot of time together.  People will often call us by the other one's name and we don't correct them any more.  We'll just go to each other and say, "So and so thought I was you."

Ashley and I have been blessed to serve together in many capacities.  We used to teach the four and five year olds in Vacation Bible School every year.  I would teach and Ashley would help.  We were able to co-direct VBS together this year and right now we serve in the same small group for ladies Bible study.  We work well together.  As the oldest, I tend to be the leader and the one who takes charge, but Ashley has a lot more contacts as the younger, more outgoing one.  I can delegate things to her easily and she's always willing to help out.  We're a good team and we balance each other out nicely.

When I got back her editing notes for Dress for Success, she had written on the first page, "LOVED IT! P.S. I cried a lot! :)"  She encourages me all the time and will list me as one of her favorite authors, which always makes me smile.  The thing that I love about it is that I know she's being sincere.  She's not saying that just because she's my sister.  She genuinely enjoys reading my books.

We didn't always get along as well as we do now.  When we were growing up and she would irritate me, my mom would remind me that I had prayed for a sister and God had given me one.  I didn't think it was very fair to remind me that I had wanted a sister.  I often thought that if I had known what a pest a little sister was, I wouldn't have asked for one.  But now I can't imagine my life without her.  God knew what He was doing when he gave me a sister and a best friend rolled up in one amazing person.  I love you, Ashley!

Switching gears a little bit, I want to thank everyone who has purchased Dress for Success.  I hope you enjoy Brooke's story as much as I enjoyed writing it.  If you haven't purchased it, you will be able to find it by clicking on the link below.

I also wanted to quickly update you on my Christmas novella.  It's coming along and I'm really enjoying writing it.  It's not part of the KW Consulting series so I've been able to develop all new characters which has been a lot of fun.  I think it will be a nice Christmas read when it is finished. I still have my eye set on a Thanksgiving release date.

Dress for Success

Dress for Success

Here it is!  The cover for book three, Dress for Success!  The book has been edited, formatted and is now ready to publish!  It should be available for purchase tomorrow, September 16th, in the afternoon sometime.  You can find it at amazon.com.  

Dedication: Smell the Roses

After my husband, the next most obvious people to dedicate my book to was my parents.  I dedicated Smell the Roses to both of my parents because I couldn't possibly choose one over the other.  When I first told my parents that I was writing a book, they were both excited and supportive.  It would have been so easy for them to think that I was wasting my time or to warn me that the likelihood of my ever getting published was not good.  Instead they acted like it was completely natural for me to be writing a book and that they would fully expect to one day expect to see a book with my name written on the cover.  Their reaction gave me confidence to continue and see where it went.

Both of my parents have helped with editing my books, although my mom is more active in that aspect than my dad.  I know that I could go through my book ten times and still miss errors simply because I know what it's supposed to say.  I'm so thankful to have fresh eyes take a look at my books and catch those errors or those phrases that don't make sense.

I know my parents are proud of my writing.  My dad actually has read my books which says a lot and I can honestly say that I am the only romance author he has ever read.  My dad likes to tell people that his daughter is an author and I can hear the pride in his voice when he does.  My mom enjoys reading my books and she loves to tell her friends that are looking for a new book to read that they should try my books.  I appreciate her willingness to "advertise" for me.

My parents taught us the value of hard work by example and taught us that we should serve the Lord, not to gain us "brownie points" or to get noticed, but to thank God for all He's done for us and to spread the Word.  I can't remember my parents ever going to church and not being involved in some sort of ministry.  I appreciated seeing them serve and then later they brought me alongside them so that I could learn from them how to serve.

My family is close.  We just enjoy spending time together.  I love the times that I can cheer on our favorite sports team with my parents, or play board games.  I can talk to my parents for hours.  My dad and I have always been close.  My mom and I are so much alike that we understand each other better than anyone else.  This makes her someone that I can go to when I'm struggling because most likely, she's been there too and she understands.  

Thank you, Dad and Mom, for all your support and help!  I love you!

Now for a quick update.  Mom has finished editing and is going through a second time to double check.  Meghan thinks she should finish up sometime this weekend.  Which means that hopefully I can start the final edit either this week or next!

If you haven't read the first two books, you can find them by clicking on the links below!

Best Laid Plans
Smell the Roses