Coming Soon! A Cowboy Celebration - New western romance anthology from Prairie Rose Publications by Kaye Spencer

Fireworks, fried chicken, and true love…

What kind of Fourth of July cowboy celebration is going on at Prairie Rose Publications? Well, hold on to your Stetsons, because they're bringing out another hot-as-a-firecracker bunch of stories that take place on American Independence Day.

This collection will contain some great Fourth of July stories for everyone, along with the mention of a “special recipe” in each story. The recipes will be included in the back of the book. Prairie Rose Publications had great success with this in the past—and this time around, the stories will include a tasty dish that might be taken to a Fourth of July picnic. These western historical romances have a happily-ever-after ending just in time for an Independence Day release.

Rugged cowboys, daring heroines, and a Fourth of July holiday in the mix are a sure-fire way to get ready for a hot, hot summer.

For the latest information about this upcoming release, visit the Prairie Rose Publications website: http://prairierosepublications.com/

Until next time,

Kaye

Lassoing a Mail-Order Bride #anthology - Kaye Spencer #westernromance

 This collection has four wonderful novellas from Prairie Rose Publications is about women who find themselves in the odd circumstance of needing themselves a husband, and grooms who must have a bride—or else! A woman would have to be loco to become a mail-order bride…wouldn’t she? Leaving everything behind and starting fresh in the untamed west is the answer to a prayer for these ladies! A beautiful socialite needs a husband fast—but her husband wants a bride for life. A pregnant young lady becomes desperate—almost as desperate as her soon-to-be husband, who just inherited his sister’s kids. A man is in love with a woman he can’t have—or can he? A woman’s reputation is tarnished and professional career compromised—she runs, but she can’t hide. Will they all find love with strangers they’ve never met who are set on LASSOING A MAIL-ORDER BRIDE?
 

The four stories are:

THESE ROUGH DREAMS—Cheryl Pierson
A pregnant mail order bride. A groom with three orphaned children. Some dreams get a rough start

HER HURRY-UP HUSBAND—Tanya Hanson
A beautiful socialite needs a husband fast—for just one month—but the rancher wants a wife for life!

THE BIG UNEASY—Kathleen Rice Adams
A man in love with a woman he can’t have. A woman engaged to a man she doesn’t love. A secret in common could destroy them all.

A PERMANENT WOMAN—Kaye Spencer
He needs a wife to get custody of his grandchildren. She needs a fresh start and a new reputation. Desperate men—and women— sometimes take desperate measures…but can she be A PERMANENT WOMAN?

Lassoing a Mail-Order Bride is available in print and digital format at these online booksellers:

Amazon     B&N     Smashwords

Until next month,

Kaye

www.kayespencer.com
Twitter - @kayespencer

A Holiday Anthology, Genesis of a Story, and NaNoWriMo from Kaye Spencer

November was a darn good month writing-wise for me, and that feels fabulous after nearly a year of sailing around in the writing doldrums. As you read on, you’ll notice I’m a bit ‘link happy’, and I apologize for that, but I just have so many wonderful places for you to visit. ;-)
 
So, first on my happy writing list is how excited and honored I am be a part of an anthology of 15 winter-themed, family friendly stories that are offered as a FREE download on Smashwords. The anthology is A Holiday Anthology, Volume 1 from the international author group, Exquisite Quills. Rose Anderson, Exquisite Quills author, compiled the stories, and Carey Abbott of E-Book Cover Designs by Carey designed the gorgeous cover.

 
Romance author Victoria Adams invited me to her Blog to talk about my anthology story, Gifts to Treasure, which is set in America during the Great Depression: http://victoriaadams.blogspot.com/2013/11/kaye-spencer-shares-snippet-from.html 
 
As a way to help all of the authors in the anthology do a little promoting, I created a book trailer. Watch it on YouTube: http://youtu.be/yTph6-UV7mg
 
Now, for the most important link… Download a FREE copy of the anthology on Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/374815
 
For the second point on my list, on November 28th, I shared my "Genesis of a Story", on the Exquisite Quills Blog (Genesis is a weekly feature). I shared the influences and inspirations for my first published novel, Lonely Places, which is a western romance. This book is published under my other pen name, A.L. Debran.

 
Read my 'Genesis' here: http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-genesis-of-book-lonely-places-by-al.html

And, finally, my third point is I made it through another National Novel Writing Month. Since I’m still writing madly, because midnight hasn’t arrived at my house yet, I’m anticipating I’ll cross the finish line with around 35,000 words—just a tad shy of the 50k goal—but that's all right. I'm just tickled to be writing with more and more forward motion again.

Until December 30,

Kaye

Fall in love...faster, harder, deeper with Kaye Spencer romance

www.kayespencer.com

Twitter: @kayespencer

A little fun with Word Clouds

Greetings One and All,

I had a little fun today with playing with several on-line 'word cloud' generators. Without identifying the ones that didn't work for me, these are the general issues I had with them:

1. I didn't want to change my firewall settings to gain access to the program's features.
2. I also didn't want to grant access to my Facebook account including my photos, friends/contacts list, etc. in order to save/download the word cloud.
3. There is a 'tag' generator that accesses a specific url and generates a word cloud from tags, which wasn't what I wanted.
4. On yet another one, the terms and conditions didn't appear to be appropriate for posting on social networks as it is geared specifically toward elementary educators, parents, and students, although I really liked how easy it was to use.
5. I didn't want to create an account with user name and password.

So, the one that met my particular needs is called WordItOut. There are options for layout, fonts, font colors, and size.

 

I was able to save my image to my computer and on-line (with only verification that I'm a 'real' person - no username/password). I had the choice to make my WordItOut private or public. I went with private for the time being.

 

Here is the word cloud I made for my western historical romance, Lonely Places.

 

 

(Just in case you'd like to purchase Lonely Places: Amazon.com Kindle Store - Lonely Places )*wink*

 

This is the WordItOut website: http://worditout.com/

 

This is the 'private' link to my Lonely Places image: http://worditout.com/word-cloud/237963/private/81218c1a4d5b2e2e0e42dad87cf792dd

 

Nifty, huh? Just for fun, I'm going to make one for each of my books and put them on my website.

 

Until next time,

 

Kaye

 

Fall in love...faster, harder, deeper with Kaye Spencer romances

www.kayespencer.com

What books 'caught' you as a kid?

I grew up surrounded by people who read anything they could get their hands on. I liked to be read too, but the independent reading bug didn't bite me until 4th grade, and then it was, "Put that book down and come to supper!" after that.

It all began with my teacher reading aloud at the end of the school day. She opened up a world of adventure for me with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie series. I got my hands on the Trixie Belden books soon after. There was a book called Broomtail that I read over and over. Louis L'Amour came into my reading life when I was in junior high. Then I encountered an English teacher in 9th grade who introduced me to Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Bronte sisters, Victor Hugo, and Alexandre Dumas. I soon discovered the fantasy world of King Arthur through Mary Stewart's  Merlin series, and I dabbled in the era of Jacqueline Susann (Once is Not Enough may have been my first "dirty" book) and, of course, Harold Robbins.

For the fellow Trekkies reading this, remember in Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home, when Kirk and Spock are discussing Spock's attempt at swearing?

Kirk: That's simply the way they talk here. Nobody pays any attention to you unless you swear every other word. You'll find it in all the literature of the period.
Spock: For example?
Kirk: [thinking] Oh, the complete works of Jacqueline Susann, the novels of Harold Robbins....
Spock: Ah... The giants.

Makes me laugh every time.

So, what book(s) turned the reading light on for you (pun intended) when you were in school? And do you ever go back down memory lane and re-read them?

Until next time,

Kaye

Fall in love...faster, harder, deeper with Kaye Spencer romances
www.kayespencer.com

Retirement and Writing

As of June 1st, I am officially retired from a 23-year career in education. During those years, I worked as a...

• special education teacher
• preschool through 12th grade principal
• school psychologist then the director of special education for 13 school districts in a 7500 square mile area
• substitute teacher
• and for the last seven years, as a secondary English and history teacher while also teaching community college classes

Whew! I was busy.

It was bittersweet making that last, long look at my empty classroom, but I have no regrets about leaving (although the picture brings to mind the Les Mis song, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables). I'm ready to devote my time to my writing.

Seven years ago, my first book, Lonely Places, a western romance, was published by a brand new ebook publisher, Cobblestone Press, and a little while later, another new ebook publisher, Breathless Press, also published one of my western romances (Gambling with Love). I'm so grateful to my publishers for taking me in as one of their authors (Sable Grey and Deanna Lee at Cobblestone and Justyn Perry at Breathless Press).

It seemed that teaching had become a 24-7 job just trying to meet all of the requirements of the state and federal departments of education plus writing lesson plans, grading papers, and spending the extra time at school sponsoring, etc., that when I actually had time to sit at my computer and write, I was too tired—mentally and physically. By January 1st of this year, I was in the writing doldrums, floating aimlessly on a sea of unfinished manuscripts. I was afraid I'd never write again. Then my dad died on April 4th and, until this past weekend, I was absolutely convinced I'd never write another word, because my heart was so full of loss and anger.

Thankfully, as June 1st gets closer, I'm feeling tiny sparks of creativity returning. With my mom adjusting little-by-little to my dad being gone, I've had more time to myself, which I haven't had in nearly two months.

I want to have two of my unfinished manuscripts completed by the time I'd normally return to school in mid-August, and one of them somewhere in the publication process.

Time and inspiration will tell, I suppose.

Until next time,

Kaye

Fall in love...faster, harder, deeper with Kaye Spencer romances
www.kayespencer.com

Using Life Tragedies as a Conduit to Stronger Writing

My dad passed away April 6th. Surgery was successful. Recovery was not.

His death was totally unexpected—one of life’s curve balls that comes at you from out-of-nowhere and leaves you wondering what hit you.

The past 24 days seem like a surreal episode in my life. I constantly revisit those last heart-wrenching hours spent at his ICU bedside willing him to live by telling him childhood stories to keep him with us until other family members could get there in time to say goodbye.

There is consolation that he went peacefully and not in pain while holding my hand, but I have a new understanding of what bittersweet really means.

What does this have to do with my writing?

About a week ago, it came to me that I’ve written a scene much like the one I experienced with my dad. My heroine holds her father in her arms as he dies from injuries sustained in a freak accident. My heroine tries to keep her father with her through the stories she tells him, but she is ultimately unsuccessful to stave off the inevitable.

My story is a finished, but unpublished historical family saga that I put aside three or four years ago because it just didn’t quite feel complete even though I’d typed The End on the last page of 120,000 words.

Now I know why.

The characters have been waiting for me to deepen the death scene. It’s a critical scene that changes the heroine’s life. It is her darkest moment. The characters knew I could make that scene rip the readers’ hearts out once I personally experienced the angst, hopelessness, and heartbreak of losing my own father. I had to know those emotions—wallow in them, rail against them—before my characters could own them.

I’m going to revisit that story and rewrite that scene while my own hurt is heavy in my heart. My characters deserve it, and I need it to help come to terms with some of my anger and sadness.

I even know who to dedicate the book to now.

Rest in peace, Dad.

Until next time,

Kaye

Fall in love…faster, harder, deeper with Kaye Spencer romances
www.kayespencer.com

My month of NaNoWriMo-ing 2012

Greetings!

Last month, I said I'd post an update on the status of my National Novel Writing Month endeavor. Well...

Less than 24 hours remain to make it to the 50,000-word finish line, and I'm not clearly not going to make it.

I'm at 38,922 and holding. But this is okay with me, because I wrote. I created. I fleshed out a story that I will finish because I'm deeply into the characters and plot now. When this historical romance ends, it will surpass the measly 50,000-word goal for NaNoWriMo. :-)

Yes, I had family interruptions this past month, illness, my demanding day job to contend with, and overall exhaustion, but I still persevered. I had been in a writing slump on November 1st, but I'm pumped with writing adrenaline now, and I have the creative steam to see this story through.

So, I'm content with my performance. How did you do with your NaNo 2012 novel?

Until next time,

Kaye

Fall in love...faster, harder, deeper with Kaye Spencer romances
http://www.kayespencer.com

Story-crafting Elements

Greetings from Kaye Spencer!

Today I'm going to share my thoughts on character development. I believe the most important element in a story is "character". Characters are the people in the story. These are the people you're writing about. They are the hero and heroine in a romance or the protagonist and antagonist in any genre. Your setting may be exciting and exotic, your conflict may be deep and gut-wrenching, but without carefully crafted characters, you have no story.

 It is your job as the writer to develop their personalities, mannerisms, beliefs, greatest fears and deepest desires. You give them longings, joys, idiosyncrasies, and flaws. Generally, you'll make the reader fall in love with the hero and heroine and despise the villain. Sometimes, the protagonist and antagonist are not clearly defined and the reader will be torn over this. This is good. You want readers to throw themselves emotionally into your story. In order to make the reader remember your characters, you must make them come alive to the reader so the reader will care about the characters' dreams, fears, and frustrations just as if they were real people in everyday life. Don't overlook the importance of secondary character as critical elements to the development of the story and a tool in which to help define the main characters. It is not unusual for an author to write a spin=-off story for a secondary character.

You accomplish all this through characterization. This is the process by which authors communicate their characters' personalities, idiosyncrasies, and behaviors to readers. There are two types of characterization:

1) Direct characterization occurs when the author tells readers about a character directly.
2) Indirect characterization lets readers draw their own conclusions from clues in the story, such as a character's appearance, tone of voice, or behavior.

A word of caution regarding character development... Readers in general tend to expect a likable protagonist and a dislikable antagonist. In romance, if you write a whiny, obnoxious, helpless heroine who doesn't grow and mature throughout the book, your readers won't like her and won't look forward to your next book. It is likewise with the hero. He can be cocky, over-bearing, self-centered, and insensitive (classic characteristics of the Alpha Male Hero), but you'd better balance those traits with ones that eventually endear him to your readers.

Bottom line is this: The Number 1 Characterization Rule - People are not one dimensional, so make sure your characters aren't either.

Until next time...

Fall in love...faster, harder, deeper with Kaye Spencer romanceshttp://www.kayespencer.com