Claudia Pemberton | "LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND" - A CREED OF HONOR AND INSPIRATION

First of all, I wish a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone who happens upon my blog. I’d also like to thank the folks at Fresh Fiction for being so gracious and supportive of my debut novel, "Love Leaves No One Behind."

I spent several hours contemplating on what my topic of choice would be for this golden opportunity to speak to such a large gathering of readers, and after some heated debating with myself, I decided to do what I do best …and that is to simply just start talking, and see what my heart has to say.

A few years ago I decided to try my hand at writing. I knew that my endeavor would challenge my intellect (and most certainly my patience) but I had no idea of the impact it would have on my heart and soul.

My story began, believe it or not, as the result of a dream … yes, an actual dream. I remember upon awakening, thinking what a great plot said dream would make for a novel. Convincing myself that attempting to write a book was a grand idea, I set about the daunting task of creating my characters and storyline. At a certain point, I concluded that my heroine needed a friend, and by that I mean a true friend … not a love interest … but a trusted male friend. Without a moment’s hesitation, I decided that her friend would be a military man. After all, who better to represent friendship than a person who is willing to (and often does) lay down his own life for his friends? That is where my entire storyline changed … and so did my heart.

Although a work of fiction, I wanted my characters (especially my military guy) to be as authentic as possible, so I began researching the military and its soldiers. After stumbling upon a copy of the U.S. Army Ranger Creed which declares that an Army Ranger will never leave a fallen comrade behind, my “friend” came to life in the form of U.S. Army Ranger Jesse Daulton.

During research, I read about such heroes as: Jason Dunham, Paul Smith, Gary Gordon, Randall Shughart, Donald Ballard, Robert Ingram, and Roy Benavidez to name but a few. I was heartbroken with respect and admiration by their stories of selfless bravery and honor, but at the same time strengthened by their courage. I was hit with a heavy dose of patriotism, and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same. I hope not anyway. I believe patriotism is a condition of the heart … and once it’s discovered, it can never again be denied, silenced, or ignored.

To make a long story short, when I began embracing the military and its heroes (to my pleasant surprise) they embraced me right back. I was invited to participate (alongside Deborah Tainsh, award winning author of “Heart of Hawk”) in the God Bless Fort Benning Day festivities, in Columbus, Georgia on November 17, 2007. God Bless Fort Benning Day is an annual celebration to honor America’s military with more than 20,000 people in attendance. At this prestigious event, I was lucky enough to get to meet hundreds of soldiers in person, and got to speak directly to our soldiers deployed to Iraq by way of a “live feed” with Bob Calvert and "Talking with Heroes.com." That was an awesome privilege … to get to speak to (and thank) our soldiers personally for their service and sacrifice.

To sum up … I’m often asked how I went about writing and publishing my novel. Most of the people asking this question feel as though they have a story in them somewhere just waiting to be told. I tell them to roll up their sleeves, prepare for grueling, long hours in front of a computer screen, don some thick skin (and quick) because you’re going to take some pretty hard hits when it comes to finding a publisher and/or agent … and then prepare for the greatest experience of your life … writing a novel. I highly recommend it! Just close your eyes, open you mind, and in many instances, just let your heart speak. Not only is it a discovery of words and storytelling … often it’s a discovery of something even more worthwhile … an awakening within yourself.

www.writingsbyclaudia.com/

www.myspace.com/writingsbyclaudia

Coming Soon: The sequel to “Love Leaves No One Behind.”

Anna Jeffrey | SWEET RETURN

SWEET RETURN was fun to write. I enjoy creating tough guys who get their comeuppance when they meet a strong woman. I have found that many tough guys might appear to be tough and rough on the outside, but they have gentle hearts. That’s the character I tried to present in the SWEET RETURN hero. Dalton is a man who has made an occupation of witnessing the worst of humanity, but he still had a good heart.

The heroine, Joanna, manages to make a living self-employed in a small, rural community, a challenge all its own. I wanted to create a woman who could equal Dalton in strength of character and independence. I figured he could never be happy with a wimpy woman, just as she had never been able to find a successful relationship with a man weaker than she.

So there you have it. As one reader put it, a hard-headed man and a strong-willed woman.

At the same time I was creating this conflict-driven relationship, I tried to keep a light tone to the story. It struck me as humorous that Joanna would be engaged in 3 businesses as diverse as owning a beauty salon, owning a wholesale janitorial supply business and raising chickens and selling free-range eggs.

The idea of a heroine as an egg farmer was sort of floating around in my head because of the current trend toward organic eating and I had watched some features on TV about free-range chickens. …. Growing up around farmers and ranchers, I know a little about chickens. As a child, every day of my life for many years, I accompanied my grandmother to the chicken house where she would select 2 pullets and wring their necks. Then we would clean them and cook them for dinner. In the late afternoons, we would go to a different chicken house and gather eggs.

Now mind you, I don’t remember a lot about raising chickens. Mostly I recall my grandmother saying, “Don’t play in the chicken house. You’ll get mites.” So I had to do research. Of the many new things I learned about chickens, one thing I discovered is that the principal book on raising chickens for egg production was written in 1902 and is still the foremost compilation of information for that particular endeavor. ….. I also learned that different breeds of chickens have different personalities. Who knew?

Hope you’ll have as much fun reading the book as I had writing it.

Anna Jeffrey

www.annajeffrey.com/
www.dixie-cash.com/

Brenda K. Jernigan | Christmas and Other Stuff

OK – I do have a new book out - Southern Seduction by Alexandria Scott, so I probably should talk about the book first.

It’s what I call an old time romance. Remember the ones you read that made you sigh once you had finished because it gave you such a good feeling? Well that is what Southern Seduction is and yes I felt just that way when I finished reading the galley. Here is a short intro into the book.

Between desire and surrender lies a new beginning – and that is just what Brooke Hammond has to do – start over.

They didn’t start out to be whores. But sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way one plans, so you do what you must in order to survive.

As Brooke Hammond, Shannon McKinley and Jocelyn Rutland stand at the ship’s rail; they smile at the new life that awaits them. It’s their chance to put the past behind them and start a new life.

However when Brooke arrives at Moss Grove plantation she discovers a devilishly charming, infernally arrogant obstacle named Travis Montgomery, co-owner of her estate. So begins a contest of wits and will and winning the battle may mean losing everything that matters ….

I will add that there is a nice Christmas scene in Southern Seduction, which brings me to my other topic. . . Christmas

How many of you love Christmas and love to decorate? Christmas has to my favorite time of the year and it goes by too fast. If everyone could be in that cheerful mood all year – wouldn’t that be nice? I also love to decorate and have enclosed a picture of my Christmas tree last year. This year is not up yet. We’ll go and get the tree Saturday, and then it will take me 2 days to get it up because my trees are never small. Twinkling trees always takes my breath away. How do the rest of you feel about Christmas?

When the big day has come and all the presents have been opened and you have nothing else to do, I hope you will be able to settled back with Southern Seduction and be swept away and by the end of the day I hope you smile just like I did.

Merry Christmas

Melissa Walker | Violet on the Runway

I’ve always been stuck in my teen years—and I love it.

I’ll admit it: I loved high school. Okay, I didn’t love getting up at 7am for Chorus class or the emotional drama of liking the same guy as my BFF, but I did love my friends—still do—and I have lots of good memories. Please don’t hold it against me.

Fast-forward college writing classes, and I found that I was still focusing on high school love, the most intense emotion I’d ever felt. 22-year-old crushes seemed more practical, more attainable—and somehow not as searing or sweet.



Teen magazines became a way for me to re-live those years, and as I worked as an editor at ELLEgirl, I interviewed teenage actors, musicians and real girls who were doing amazing things. I felt so close to 17 again that I couldn’t believe they actually paid me!

That’s why getting into the head of Violet, the main character in Violet on the Runway, was pure fun. I wanted to write about a real girl from a small town, one who had real insecurities and flaws, one who would go into this crazy, dark, beautiful world of fashion unsure of herself and come out having realized her own inner strength.

Book 2 in the series, Violet by Design, comes out in March, and I hope everyone enjoys reading Violet’s adventures as much as I enjoyed writing them. And yes, there’s a little bit of me in her, but I was never a supermodel—I swear!

Melissa Walker

melissacwalker.com

myspace.com/melissacwalker

Susan Mallery | I Like...

I like fruitcake. Yes, there it is. I’ve said it in public. I like it. It’s cake with fruit and nuts, which means it’s practically a health food. If my slice is big enough, it should count for at least two of the nine fruit and vegetable servings I’m supposed to have in a day. There’s enough sugar to keep me wired for at least two hours. Where’s the bad?

I also like wrapping presents. I have a ritual…I wait until everything is bought, then stack them by the table, get out all my wrapping supplies, put in the original Star Wars movie and wrap. I actually try to match the right wrapping paper to the gift or the person, I use all kinds of ribbons and little toys on the packages. Some years I’m done in two movies, but most it takes me all three. I wipe up the last of the glitter just as the wookies are doing the happy dance at the end of the third movie.

I like the fact that I’ve joked so much about not being a good cook that my sister in law won’t trust me with anything more than putting out rolls for our big family dinner. I wash the “good” dishes at the end of the meal, which turns out to be great fun. Everyone wants to keep me company (possibly out of guilt that I’m doing the clean-up, I’m not sure.) The kitchen is noisy and bright and there’s plenty of left-over wine to speed the process.

This year, I like that my book Accidentally Yours will be out the day after Christmas.

Books are supposed to be like kids—as writers, we shouldn’t have favorites. But this is one of mine favorites. I love everything about this book. I love Kerri, my heroine, who is determined and tough and vulnerable and willing to do anything in the world to get the job done. I like that Nathan, my hero, is so sure he’s a heartless bastard, when in truth, he’s terrified of loving and losing again.

Accidentally Yours is one of those special books writers talk about. A book of the heart. It just came to me over take-out, while my husband was out of town and I was trying to decide which chick flick to watch. I can’t explain the process by which a book arrives fully formed in my head, I only know I wish it happened more often. There was something so easy about writing this book, as if I knew everything that was supposed to happen. It felt a little like magic.

During this special time of year, I wish you and yours the very best of everything. May the new year bring you happiness, good fortune, health and fruitcake! And if you’re looking to add a little sparkle to your holiday season, give Accidentally Yours a try. I think you’ll love it!

If you get a chance, please visit my website http://www.susanmallery.com/. We’re having a “12 Days of Christmas” contest, with a prize being given away every day!!

Happy Holidays,

Susan