September...God's gift to New Englanders by Peggy Jaeger

I moved to New England in 1994 by way of Wisconsin, and before that, New York City. Three very different geographic and meteorologic topographies, to be sure.

As a kid, I'd never experienced a New England fall, as it was called by people I knew. In NY, the leaves turned color for a few weeks, then died. End of story. In Wisconsin, we typically had snow fall when the grass was still in bloom, so I never saw the trees shift colors once in the seven years we lived there.

Not. Once.

All that changed when I moved to New Hampshire.

My first autumn in New England was one of the most beautiful times in my memory. We bought a house in the woods and every single day I watched the colors in the leaves go through their annual metamorphosis.

I never knew that reds could be so vibrant or oranges ( a color I typically do not like) so rich and deep. Gold, yellow, sage, browns tinged with amber. All these colors were new to me and I simply adored walking in my woods every day just to see what new color combos had erupted.

Back when we first moved to NH, I painted for pleasure. Not well, mind you, but I needed something for my creativity to come out. One year I did a painting of the same scene in each season. It was from my dining room and looked out on the back acreage of our property, which was the entrance to the woods surrounding us. Wasn't a surprise I liked the Autumn one the best.

My Match in Heaven romance series is centered in the fictional town of Heaven, NH and the first book, DEARLY BELOVED, takes place in the autumn. As you can see by the opening scene in this book trailer, the time of year is gorgeous:

It's so easy to fall in love with New England during the fall... and if that isn't the perfect segue for my next sentence, I don't know what is. Hee hee. This October ( DURING FALL IN NEW ENGLAND) I will be attending the Fall in Love With New England Readers and Writers conference in Nashua, NH.

I am one of the authors hosting the event and will be giving/leading 2 workshops. This is a reader-centric conference, that culminates in a 40+ romance author book signing on Saturday, October 19 at the Holiday Inn and Suites in Nashua. I'm one of the authors signing, and there are a good number of the ROMANCE GEMS who will be there as well. The signing is open to the public. For a list of the authors who will be present and signing their books, click here: authors.

If you've never been lucky enough to experience a new England fall, what we call LEAF PEEPING SEASON, you should really gift yourself a trip one of the years to see it first hand. Pictures only capture a moment. The season's colors should be seen in all their glory, up close and personal.

Until next time ~ Peg

Do you #Read your books or #listen to them? by Peggy Jaeger #RomanceGems

I was the first person I knew who bought a Kindle back when the retail price was $349.00.

Now they're what? $39? 50 dollars? Since I flew so much and always had 3 or four books packed into my luggage, adding to the cost per pound of air travel, I figured the investment was worth the convenience. And it was. I lovelovelove my Kindle, still, to this day. Ereaders are still, apparently, popular even though real honest-to-God-books are making a comeback.

But...

I was recently exposed to the world of audiobooks and I have to tell you, I think the future in books is in this rapidly growing industry.

Have you heard of AUDIBLE?

I never had until one of my publishers, The Wild Rose Press notified its authors they were offering us the option to have our books uploaded to audio. At first I resisted. After all, I wrote books. Book were made to be, well, read. Not listened to. And besides, I arrogantly asserted that no narrator but myself could do my words justice. I wrote them. I was the one who knew how they should sound, not some anonymous narrator who wouldn't do the work any justice.

Arrogant, thy name is Peggy.

Then, one day, I met a woman who changed my opinion forever. A patient of my husband's, the woman was sixty-eight, housebound for the most part, and blind since birth. She knew I was a writer and asked if any of my books were available on audio tape. She was a great "reader" of books in Braille, but she'd been afflicted in the past few years with debilitating arthritis and could no longer use her fingers to read. Her daughter had gotten her a subscription to Audible and now she could enjoy her favorite author's again by listening to their newest books.

It's not often I am struck speechless. I think I can count of the fingers of one hand and still have 4 left over the times I have been. So, I did what I usually do when I'm exposed to something I'm unfamiliar with: I researched.

According to a report issued by the Audio Book Publishers Association, audio sales jumped 22.7 % in 2017 to just under $2.5 billion in sales. Another published in AP, states that book publishers are embracing the format more and more. Then I spoke to several of my author friends. Unanimously they agreed that offering your books in audio was a great way to get your books in front of people who couldn't read in a conventional way.

So...
I have now begun offering my titles on audio. Next month I'll explain the process, but for now, I'm thrilled to announce the following titles are currently available on Audible.

During the next few months, two more titles will be added:

I hope to have the rest of my books uploaded within the coming year as well.








Next month for me: what goes into getting your book available in Audio. Until then, don't forget the March Romance Gems giveaways:
 There are three different ways you can win. See all the prizes on the Monthly Giveaway page. GOOD LUCK!

Comment & Win:

Leave a comment on any post in March + Your Email Address—written out, i.e. Mary at yahoo dot com. (We need your email to verify you are who you say you are and to contact you.)

The more comments you make; the greater your chance of winning. Winner selected by random draw from eligible entries.

Prizes: $5.00 Amazon Gift Card at the end of each week beginning March 8 for a total of 4 Amazon Gift Cards.

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To enter, send your friends to visit us. When your friend visits and reads a post, she should (1) leave a comment with her email address written out (2) leave the name and email of the friend who referred her. (Readers, coordinate this with your friend.)

Both names/emails will be entered in Friends Tell Friends Giveaway. The more friends you bring; the greater your chances of winning. Winner selected by random draw from eligible entries at end of March.

Prizes: Romance Readers Tee & Audiobook by Nancy Fraser

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1st Grand Prize Winner

The Honor of Naming a Female Character in an Author's upcoming Book plus $10.00 Amazon Gift Card.

2nd Grand Prize Winner

The Honor of Naming a Male Character in an Author's upcoming Book plus $10.00 Amazon Gift Card.

Other Rafflecopter Prizes are shown on the Monthly Giveaway page.

Enter the Rafflecopter and the other Giveaways often. The more you enter; the better your chances to win.

Click to enter LUCK O' THE IRISH Romance Gems Giveaway

Is Pinterest the new Writer's Vision board? by Peggy Jaeger #RomanceGems

I'm a very visual person. I'm that annoying girl who can remember the exact color of a dress someone wore to a wedding twenty years ago, or how long someone's hair was on such and such a day in high school. I see, and navigate through, the world in colors, shapes, hues. Considering I can't remember what I had for breakfast today ( did I have breakfast today??) this is a good trait for a writer to possess.

When I start to pen a new book I usually see the entire story in my head first, like a full length movie, and then I set about putting words to describe what I've seen. When I first started writing fiction ( 175 years ago!) I made Vision Boards. Armed with a blank poster board, I'd save all my fashion mags for a few months and then meticulously pick through them looking for the faces of my hero and heroine, the setting of the story, secondary characters, and anything else pertaining to the book I was about to write. It took forevah!! All the searching, choosing, cutting, pasting, taping, arranging, aligning. It got to be almost a second job at times!

Imagine how elated I was to discover PINTEREST

No longer do I need to troll through magazines and periodicals searching for the perfect visuals to capture my story's essence. Now, with a few clicks and a well worded search, I can plot a book in pictures in half the time - maybe even less. And having Pinterest on the computer is great because when I'm stuck trying to remember if my hero has blue eyes or steely grey, one or two clicks and  I've got my answer in full living color. It's so much easier now to describe people, settings, objects, since I have innumerable choices to view.

For my new bridal series A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN, I originally did my standard vision board for all three books.

As you can probably tell from this picture, the poster board is a tri-fold, stands three feet tall, and has over 100 images on it. Imagine all the fun ( and I say that with heavy sarcasm attached) I had cutting and pasting all those images in a coherent manner for me to understand my story, one book at a time. There are 3 books planned with a 4th I may throw in for a holiday story.

Now, compare the above to my Pinterest boards for the same book series: O'DOWD, Cathleen & Mac, Izzy's Shower ,  Nanny Fee and Maureen's Aprons. I can't even begin to describe how much easier it's been to just refer to those boards whenever I need to remember an item, a heroine's outfit for the day, the color of a wedding palette.

Bliss. Pure and total bliss. Plus I'm saving a fortune on paper, poster board, tape, magazines, and time!

I can devote so much more time to actually getting the movie I saw play in my head written down on my laptop so it can be read by romance readers everywhere!

My darling daughter recently got engaged and has set up wedding boards on her private Pinterest account. Oh, how I wish I'd had this available to me 150 years ago when I wed!!! I spent the equivalent of a small country's gross national product on bridal magazines back then. I'm not kidding. Not even a smidge.

Book 1 in my MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN series, DEARLY BELOVED is out now and tells the story of  36 year old single-and-looking Wedding Planner, Colleen O'Dowd and Financier Slade Harrington. If you like opposites attract, oil and water characters, this book has your name on it! Click on my Pinterest boards again if you've read the book and you'll understand the meaning behind all the images I picked.

Book Trailer

Remember : To be entered in Comment & Win, all you have to do is read the post of the day—or any post you may have missed. Then leave a comment with your email address written out. That means like Mary at yahoo dot com. (Don't leave your email as a "hot link" or web crawlers will harvest it and flood your Inbox.) The more comments you make; the greater your chance of winning. Grand Opening Rafflecopter Be sure and enter the Rafflecopter for a chance to win a Kindle Fire and Ebook Gift Bundles.

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