What on Earth Are We Saying? by Hannah Rowan #RomanceGems

Writers, of course, have an affinity for words and too much curiosity, which can send us spiraling down some weird mental pathways. So when my fellow Gems chose April showers as this month’s theme, “raining cats and dogs” immediately popped into my head.

What kind of crazy thing is that to say, anyway? Off I went on a Google search that informed me of two very disturbing situations. Apparently in 17^th century England it sometimes rained so hard and so long that the bodies of dead animals, including cats and dogs, washed up in the streets. Ick! Then again, some people speculate that in a heavy rain the bodies of small animals washed out of the thatched roofs of the cottages, landing on the heads of the hapless inhabitants. Either way, I’d recommend umbrellas and boots.

While the British cling to the somewhat factual cats and dogs, people in other countries use different expressions to describe heavy rains.  The most common seems to be pouring buckets or being doused by a watering can, which is kind of boring but sensible.  The Cantonese, however, say it’s raining dog poo, no kidding! We should all probably stay away from that part of the world, or at least remember that umbrella.

Since we’re discussing the origins of expressions, and I’m sure most people never wonder these things at all, I’ll admit that while calling bingo at the assisted living facility where I work, I tend to say “by George, you’ve got it” when someone calls out the correct winning numbers. But one day someone wondered…who the heck is George?

Sure, Henry Higgins said that in My Fair Lady, but why? He couldn’t have been the first person to use that expression.

Inexplicably, “by George” is a battle cry uttered by soldiers before charging into battle, again originating in Britain.  Or if you believe other sources, “by George” is a substitute for saying “by God.” I’m not satisfied with either explanation.

Again with the bingo crowd, because bingo leads to deep thoughts, people who are off by just one number often bemoan the fact that they “almost” won. Inevitably someone else will comment that “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”

Why? Naturally, I had to look it up.

Maybe I’m the last to know, but it seems in horseshoes as long as your horseshoe is close to the stake it doesn’t have to actually encircle the stake. Or the person closest to the stake wins. Or something.

The hand grenade thing is self-explanatory.

And by George, maybe I shouldn’t think so much.

 

April Showers—when it rains it pours by Jan Scarbrough

When I heard the theme for April, I immediately thought of my book Kentucky Rain. After all, showers are on the cover!

I-64 between Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky

Sheets of rain pummeled the windshield, the steady flap-flap-flap of the wiper blades filling the silence of the SUV. Kate Lawrence gripped the steering wheel, unsure whether her blurred vision came from the glare of oncoming headlights reflecting off the rain or from the tears welling in her eyes.

It had been a month since her divorce was final, and tonight was the first time Jerry had taken their daughter. Visitation was an ugly, ugly word.

For the first time since my divorce years earlier, I was ready to write about it in Kentucky Rain. “Exchanging children” had been a staple of many Friday nights and Sunday afternoons.

Kentucky Rain is the last book in an eight-book series called Bluegrass Reunions. Each book is set in Kentucky and most stories deal with a reunion or second chance at love. Most books have a single mom, but she is a mom for various reasons. Not until Kentucky Rain did, I write about the aftermath of divorce.

When I received my rights back from the initial publisher of the series, I was able to revise each book. My editor looked at each one. I bought new covers to consistently rebrand them. Then my husband published the series on eBook sites for me. Being able to publish these books myself allowed me great freedom. They were better books after another review and edit.

That’s the joy of self-publishing. It’s plenty of work, but it’s worth it because I can write what I want to write. And when something doesn’t work out, I can make a change.

That’s what’s happening to another series of mine. My first three western romances are getting a new series title. I’ve revised each one of the three books. My editor has done her redlining. I have new covers. I’m ready to rebrand the stories of Brody, Mercer, and Liz into The Dawsons of Montana. Who knows? There may be a fourth book in the works. Big happy face.

All three books are on Kindle Unlimited for a limited time.

It's time to go Barefoot! by @amiedenman

While parts of the world are enjoying a slow spring awakening 🌺 and April showers--our theme for this month--the Gulf Coast of Florida is hot and sunny!🌞 Just last week, I released the newest of my trademark beach romances. Truth? I ADORE FLORIDA!! I love everything about it. Humidity, crowds, orange groves, beaches, theme parks.🍊

In my mind and in my books, Florida is a magical place and the Gulf Coast is perfect for romance. 💘Welcome to Barefoot Key, a formerly sleepy beach town experiencing a revival. I first explored Barefoot Key in The Gull Motel (my bestselling book) and recently returned with The Barefoot Beach Rental.

Here's the story on The Barefoot Beach Rental: (in which I included my love of cake 🎂 and cats 🐈)

When a down-on-her-luck baker moves into the Barefoot Beach Rental for a month, she brings the heat to her sexy landlord while also finding a sweet spot of her own.

Ava Bottoms dreams of owning her own bakery where elaborate wedding cakes and custom creations abound. She has baking talent and experience, but she’s mixed romance with business a few too many times, so she’s starting over at the wise age of almost thirty. Burned out of a home and kitchen due to a recent incident with a flaming dessert, Ava checks in to the Barefoot Beach Rental for a month. The brochure promises a gourmet kitchen where she hopes to finish writing The Year of Cake—the book that will bring her the fame and fortune she needs to achieve her bakery dream. She’s sworn off distractions of the male kind, but it’s tough keeping her oven mitts off the sexy owner of her beach rental.

Dalton Neverly checks guests in and out at his Barefoot Beach Rental. Most guests stay only a week, and he savors temporary relationships. Six years after his divorce, he can still hardly look at the gourmet kitchen in rental unit two without remembering what his ex-wife cooked up with a visiting chef. Dalton loves his beach lifestyle, but when Ava moves in next door for a month and tempts him every day with sweets, he wonders if it’s time to feel the heat again.

 

I hope readers will love a trip to the beach--perfect for curling up inside during those April showers! I'd love to connect with you on social media or through my newsletter. Just click on the links below! 😍

Twitter

Facebook

Website

Newsletter

Goodreads

I'm also participating in a Romance giveaway on BookFunnel all month. "April Happy Ever After Romance" includes almost 200 free downloads of romance novels! Find it here!

 

The Things Authors Say by Nancy Fraser

As authors, we often look to other writers for inspiration. I thought I’d share some of my favorite writing-related quotes.

Writers on Writing

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. - Douglas Adams

I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork. - Peter de Vries

If you start with a bang, you won't end with a whimper. - T.S. Eliot

There are three rules for writing. Unfortunately, no one can agree what they are. - Somerset Maugham

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book. - Mickey Spillane

If the sex scene doesn't make you want to do it - whatever it is they're doing - it hasn't been written right. - Sloan Wilson

Writers on Editing

Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good. - William Faulkner

It is perfectly okay to write garbage--as long as you edit brilliantly. - C. J. Cherryh

Never throw up on an editor. - Ellen Datlow

 Writers on Critics/Reviews

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs. - Christopher Hampton

It's none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way. - Ernest Hemingway

 Writing Self-Deprecation

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous. - Robert Benchley

I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within. - Gustave Flaubert

Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publication. - Fran Lebowitz

A Writer’s Obsession

We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. - Somerset Maugham

When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: 'House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.' - Neil Gaiman

A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing. - Eugene Ionesco

Just for Fun

He was such a bad writer, they revoked his poetic license. - Milton Berle

~ ~ ~

Until next month, stay happy, healthy and well read!

 Nancy

April 3, 2021 by Karen Whiddon

 It's finally here!  April, and the month my 50th Harlequin book is out!  Look, look!  

 

Please excuse my excitement, but it seems like just yesterday when my 25th book was out.  I couldn't attend the Harlequin party at Romance Writers of America's national conference, so they mailed my pen to me.  I told my husband no matter what, I planned to attend for my 50th.  Then came Covid and no conferences and....  Well, I guess they'll mail me whatever you get for 50 books, lol.

I love this story, I love the cover, and I truly enjoyed working again with my wonderful editor Patience Bloom.  I adore writing in the Colton's continuity too.  

If you'd like to purchase this book, you can do so here Amazon    I really appreciate your support. 

Mood Music for Love by Joan Reeves & Friends #Romance Gems

Welcome to our first Round Robin!

A Round Robin interview means each person answers the same question.

This Month's Question for Authors

What song helped you set the mood for a great love scene in one of your  books?

Music has always been an important part of my life. I grew up listening to every kind of music and still have eclectic taste in music. I'm happy listening to Afro-Euro rock, Japanese koto music, Bob Seger, Mozart, Caught A Ghost, Santana, Los Lobos, The Eagles, Asleep at the Wheel,  some hip hop—well, you get the picture.

Don't get me started on soundtracks like Streets of Fire! I listen to classical when I'm writing except when I'm gearing up to write a special scene, like a love scene.

Then I listen to a song that make me think of my characters or the situation they find themselves in or fits the intensity of the mood. Sometimes I listen over and over. Drives my Darling Hubby crazy.

As I write this, I'm listening to Tom Waits sing "Heartattack and Vine," a song Hubby and I have been dancing a little West Coast Swing to. In many of my books, characters listen to music, probably because I do. 

In April Fool Proposition, my latest book (on pre-order, publishing April 4), I have a scene where the hero, Travis, is dancing with the heroine, Brenna, to the song Wicked Game by Chris Isaak.

Travis asks, "Is that what you're doing. Playing a wicked game with me?"

(There's a lot of music in this novella. If you want to know how his question is answered, April Fool Proposition is at the New Release price of 99¢.)

I love Wicked Games. It's one of my favorites ever. Isaak's voice is as haunting as the lyrics.

Judge for yourself. Here's a YouTube link to Isaak singing Wicked Game. Turn the volume up because the way he's singing it is as if he's whispering to his heartless lover.

Kathleen Lawless: What song helped you set the mood for a great love scene in a book?

Wicked Games by Chris Isaak 

It started off as the ultimate reunion… Cassidy’s chance to get revenge for the way Sloan broke her teenage heart.

Her Unwilling Cowboy was originally titled Wicked Night Games, so this song always fit perfectly. [And still does.]

[Note from Joan: Great minds think alike.]

M.J. Schiller: What song helped you set the mood for a great love scene in a book?

In my latest release, Rocked By Love, Book Two of the Love and Chaos Series, my heroine, Mia Love, actually does a sort of private strip tease to this song for the hero, rock star Rafe Santiago.

The lyrics don't apply in any way, but the beat is great to dance to.

Check out Gold Digger by Kanye on YouTube, but be warned it's a bit risque.

When rock star Raphael Santiago jumps in the crowd at one of Just Short of Chaos' concerts to defend a woman whose boyfriend has gotten physical with her, he meets the woman's cousin, newspaper reporter, Mia Love. 

When Rafe extends an invitation to Mia to meet him backstage after the show, he is rebuffed, which is a first, and it starts a hot, sometimes friction-filled relationship between the two.

Nancy Fraser: What song helped you set the mood for a great love scene in a book?

Seduced by the Handyman

Can he fix more than just her rusty pipes?

The song is "The End" by JPolnd which is used in Bridgerton during the Daphne takes hers scene.

I've used this song for the steamiest scenes in the last three books. The music is haunting, but the lyrics even more so.

Check out The End on YouTube.

As I've compiled this, I've listened to all of the songs my friends mentioned. 

I think authors listen to music to "set a scene" because music is emotion. It digs deep into our psyches where we store our pain and our love, our triumphs and our tragedies. Music helps us excavate those emotions and put them into our stories.

Hans Christian Andersen said, "Where words fail, music speaks."

Join us again on May 2 for another Round Robin interview with Romance Gems Authors. It may be about music or something entirely different. 

Like They Say in Hollywood, "That's a wrap."

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April Showers by @JoanReeves #RomanceGems

Better grab those umbrellas and get ready for April Showers, that's our theme this month.

Remember the old joke from childhood?

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?

Furniture.

Hey, when I was a tiny tot, I thought that was hysterically funny.

Okay, okay. I suppose we've all grown a more sophisticated sense of humor in the ensuing years. 

Giveaway Alert

To welcome M. J. Schiller, our newly-minted Romance Gems author, I'll give away 1 ebook copy of her book, To Hell in a Coach Bag. 

I picked that title because it tickles my fancy. 

To enter the Giveaway, leave a comment in answer to the question I'll pose at the end of this post, along with your email addy written out, not as a hot link.

Comments can be entered between now and Friday, April 2, so tell your friends. I'll select the winner using Random Name Picker over the weekend.

Winner will be notified no later than Monday, April 5.

April Spotlight Shines on Cheryl Bolen

Cheryl and I have known each other over 30 years. I'm pleased to shine the April Spotlight on her.

Be sure and visit Author Spotlight and read about Cheryl's career, some personal info, and see the gorgeous covers for her two new releases.

Updates on the Blog

The Bookstore is open with all authors who participated represented. Just click on the author who interests you and you'll be taken to where all of her books can be found.

You'll find a lot of new videos in the Movie Theater, and there are new quotes and graphics scattered around the blog for your amusement. 

Scroll arouond and see if something makes you smile.

I just finished April Fool Proposition, another story in my A Moment in Time series. It is 99¢ New Release price, and it publishes April 4. This started out as a short story and ended up as a 30,000 word short novel. I just couldn't let go of the characters! I lost some days I should have been writing on the next book. I'll complain more about that at a later date. *LOL*

Coming Soon: Last Chance Beach Romance

That next book I should already be writing is to be the first book in Last Chance Beach Romance, a series of full-length novels united by the setting of Last Chance Beach.

If you're a longtime reader of this blog, you will remember Last Chance Beach was the island paradise I created last year for a box set of short stories.

Actually, I came up with the premise and an overview of Last Chance Beach and wrote The Legend of Last Chance Beach, about how the island paradise received its name. I then turned my baby over to the wonderfully creative authors in the box set who helped it grow to toddler-age.

What we all created ended up being a place we loved—and readers loved it too as was mentioned in nearly 50 5-star reviews. A second box set didn't seem in the cards so Nancy and I took the island and came up with a different idea for using it. You'll learn more about that in the coming weeks. My book cover is partially revealed above.

Amazon Kindle 99¢ 

Giveaway Question to Answer

The post opened with umbrellas so, of course, this question is about rain. Actually, I'm going to give you 2 questions.

When my daughter was little, she loved to walk in the rain so I outfitted her with a little raincoat, rain boots, and her own little pink umbrella. 

If the rain was gentle with no thunder and lightning, we'd walk in the rain.

Now that's she's grown, she buys her own raincoat, fashionable rain boots, and matching umbrella. She still likes the rain.

Q1: Do you own a raincoat and rain boots?

Q2: Do you like walking in the rain?

 Leave your answer and your email in comments. I can't wait to see what everyone has to say. This Giveaway is open to RG authors too if you wish to reply to win.

 

Like They Say in Hollywood, "That's a wrap." 

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Subscribers are the first to know about New Books and Giveaways.

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