Birthdays: William Saroyan (1908), Kenneth Oppel (1967), DuBose Heyward (1885), G. Willow Wilson (1982), William Shawn (1907), Stephen Coonts (1944), Blake Nelson (1965)

Tip: When you get to the point where you’re doing book signings, some places you’ll be sitting there twiddling your thumbs and at others, you’ll have a line. Even if all you get asked at the dead one is directions to the bathroom, be nice. Smile. Engage the person as you point to the restroom sign. Perception is everything and if you come across as a curmudgeon, you’ll get a bad reputation.

Thought for the day: “For me the hard part of writing isn’t coming up with ideas — it’s shaping and developing an idea into a good story. I find writing very hard work, and I write and rewrite my stories many times before I’m happy with them. I think inspiration is a small part of the writing process; perseverance is equally, if not more, important!” – Kenneth Oppel

Jumpstart: What kind of garden would a vampire plant? What about an evil magician?

When Tessa’s big-city plans take the A Train to disaster, she lands in her sleepy hometown, smack in the middle of the most unlikely love triangle ever to hit Pennsylvania’s Amish Country.

Hot-shot Dr. Richard Bruce is bound to Green Ridge by loyalty that runs deep. Deeper still is Jonas Rishel’s tie to the land and his family’s Amish community. Behind the wheel of a 1979 camper van, Tessa idles at a fork in the road. Will she cruise the superhighway to the future? Or take a slow trot to the past and a mysterious society she never dreamed she’d glimpse from the inside?

Buy links:

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Wendy Rich Stetson is a New York City girl who still considers the Central Pennsylvania countryside to be her home.  She grew up road tripping in a 1979 VW camper van, and she keeps a running list of favorite roadside attractions from coast to coast.  Now an author of sweet, small-town romance, Wendy is no stranger to storytelling.  She’s a Broadway and television actress, an audiobook narrator, and a mom who likes nothing more than collaborating on children’s books with her teenage artist daughter.  Wendy lives in Upper Manhattan with her family of three and rambunctious Maine Coon kitty.  Follow Wendy’s journey at www.wendyrichstetson.com

Social Media Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StetsonRiches

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WendyRichStetsonRomance

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendyrichstetson_author/?hl=en

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/wendy_stetson/_saved/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58504083-hometown?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Svcjev2iMD&rank=1

Bookbub  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/wendy-rich-stetson

Birthdays: Mary Shelley (1797), Virginia Lee Burton (1909), Helen Craig (1934), Camilla Lackberg (1974), Guy Kawasaki (1954), N.H. Kleinbaum (1948), Theophile Gautier (1811)

Tip: “Try and” vs. “try to”: “try and” do something is incorrect grammar. The correct usage is “try to” do something.

Thought for the day: “I’ve always viewed myself as a brand. When I started 10 years ago, that was very controversial. ‘Marketing’ and ‘PR’ were dirty words for the literary world, but that has changed. Once the book is finished, I want as many people as possible to read it.” – Camilla Lackberg

Jumpstart: He smiled sadly as he looked at the picture she held. “That was taken when we…”

Birthdays: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749), Sir John Betjeman (1906), Janet Frame (1924), Rita Dove (1952), Robert Duvoison (1904), Allan Say (1937), Tasha Tudor (1915), Jack Vance (1916), Robertson Davies (1913), Leo Tolstoy (1828), Vonda McIntyre (1948)

Tip: Learn what a contraction is and how to use apostrophes with them: it’s (for it is) vs. its (possessive form – belonging to it).

Thought for the day: “The less a writer discusses his work and himself the better. The master chef slaughters no chickens in the dining room; the doctor writes prescriptions in Latin; the magician hides his hinges, mirrors, and trapdoors with the utmost care.” – Jack Vance

Jumpstart: If you think this place is all happiness and smiles, you’re so wrong… so, so wrong. Appearances can be very deceiving. Let me tell you…

Birthdays: Theodore Dreiser (1871), C.S. Forester (1899), Ira Levin (1929), William Least Heat-Moon (1939), Lisa Yee (1959), Suzy Cline (1943), Ann Rinaldi (1934), Sarah Stewart (1938), Antonia Fraser (1932), Jeanette Winterson (1959), Jill Lepore (1966)

Tip: Learn about singular, plural, and possessive nouns: The cat scratched at the door (singular). Three cats showed up on our porch (plural). She was playing with the cat’s toy (single possessive). She was playing with the cats’ toys (plural possessive).

Thought for the day: “The clue to book jacket photography is to look friendly and approachable, but not too glamorous.” – Antonia Fraser

Jumpstart: It’s the future and everyone has a “gem” embedded in their wrist. It monitors your movements, your health, everything about you. Green is perfect; yellow is a problem; red is serious. Yours suddenly turns black…

Blurb: 

Dee Walker can kick your ass. At least she thinks so and isn’t afraid to say it.

A no-nonsense spark plug, Dee keeps everyone around her hopping. When she meets fellow field hand, Arthur Taylor, her colorful world becomes even brighter when she makes him an offer he can’t turn down.

However, this story of a bright explosion of color in a monochromatic world isn’t what you might imagine, as Dee’s life doesn’t exactly turn out like she thinks it will.

This novella is the life story of Dee Taylor, the feisty and eccentric grandmother of Finn in the Heaven & Earth series. Her bright colorful muumuus and big floppy hat are her trademarks, and this story will tell you how it all began. She also has this little ability to see future developments. Oh, and commune with the greatest Greek family in history, but she just doesn’t know it… yet.

Jeny Heckman is an award-winning fantasy paranormal romance author best known for her Heaven & Earth series, an award-winning fantasy-paranormal series. Jeny loves working with her charities, which include Hospice of the Northwest, the Michael J. Fox Parkinson’s Foundation, the Seattle Children’s Hospital, and the American Cancer Society. Jeny lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over twenty-eight years.

My Website Link to Book: https://jenyheckman.com/books-2/dees-cornucopia/

Character Interview: Youtube https://bit.ly/3y8sHQ1 

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/jeny-heckman/episodes/Who-is-Dee-Taylor-e156r1j

Purchase Links

Amazon

Purchase the book: 

Amazon Kindle: https://amzn.to/2TCPJzH 

Paperback: https://amzn.to/3jIRyWs 

Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/3xt6vj9 

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3xlNwqA 

Target: https://bit.ly/JenyTarget 

Booksamillion: https://bit.ly/373lll0 

Waterstones: https://bit.ly/3y6xTUM 

Google Books: https://bit.ly/3i4aptZ 

Tales: https://bit.ly/2Tztv1s 

MightyApe: https://bit.ly/3i4eE8P

All Author: https://bit.ly/2WmKOE3

Kobo Japan: https://bit.ly/3iRcad5 

Birthdays: Curtis Sittenfeld (1975), Edgar Lee Masters (1868), Nelson DeMille (1943), William Ernest Henley (1849), Willy Russell (1947), J.V. Cunningham (1911), Norbert Blei (1935), Robert Irwin (1946), Melanie Rae Thon (1957)

Tip: A metaphor compares two dissimilar things, but utilizing the word “like”: He was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm.

Thought for the day: “Writing doesn’t leave much time for hobbies, unless you consider that I began writing as a hobby and have made the hobby into a profession.” – Nelson DeMille

Jumpstart: He stared at the bodies in the room – there were at least a half dozen. In the corner, she stood watching him, wiping her blade on her shirt. “You’re late…”

Birthdays: Annie Proulx (1935), Diane Setterfield (1964), Dorothy Parker (1893), Kate Christensen (1962), Peter James (1948), Ray Bradbury (1920), Kurt Anderson (1954)

Tip: A simile is a figure of speech where two very different things are compared to each other, usually denoted by the word “as.” For instance: She had a heart as big as Texas.

Thought for the day: “What I find to be very bad advice is the snappy little sentence, ‘Write what you know.’ It is the most tiresome and stupid advice that could possibly be given. If we write simply about what we know we never grow. We don’t develop any facility for languages, or an interest in others, or a desire to travel and explore and face experience head-on. We just coil tighter and tighter into our boring little selves. What one should write about is what interests one.” – Annie Proulx

“You fail only if you stop writing.” – Ray Bradbury

Jumpstart: The storm rattled the windows, slashing at them as if trying to get past the thin glass to the inside. I knew if it did…

Under “Romance”, Wendy Stetson has a new book “Hometown” – a 4 Sparkler sweet romance with an Amish twist and a surprise ending.

Teresa has two new book/movie tie-in reviews:

The Spider’s Web (1960). A standalone with Glynis Johns
The Cornish Mystery (1990). A David Suchet Poirot.

Enjoy!