It's Summertime Once Again!

Hello friends of the interwebz! Can you hear the birds chirping? Can you feel the sun shining? That's right...It's SUMMER!

As a full-time teacher, I am incredibly happy for summer vacation. I need time to refresh and renew, especially after final exams and writing report card comments.

As a part-time author, I am ECSTATIC to have time to brainstorm new story ideas, edit old stories, and contemplate future ventures in publishing. #SummerAuthor

I've had a contemporary YA story sitting in my computer for quite a while now and need to do something with it. I have a half-baked idea for a YA fairy tale in a writing journal that I actually need to start typing up to see if it grows into anything else. I have a couple of picture book ideas that I can noodled around some more. And then there's the epic rewrite of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE that Jessica Grey and I started a few years ago and haven't completed. I really want to work on that one.

On my summer reading schedule, I have a few new books to read for the next school year (specifically, a King Arthur story that is suitable for 7th graders). I picked up a copy of DOCTOR THORNE from the library and I'm looking forward to that because I enjoyed the mini-series so much.

We don't have any big vacations planned but we'll have a few "stay-cation" trips around Southern California. (I really really really want to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios with my kids.)

How are your summers shaping up? Any books that you recommend for me to read?

HWJ: Will You Be Mine?

Hello friends!

It's time for another book from the ladies of HOLIDAYS WITH JANE!

When we first came up with this idea, we decided that we would each take one of Jane Austen's novel (she wrote six and there were six authors*) and write a holiday themed story inspired by the novel that we picked/were assigned.

Our first anthology of short stories was CHRISTMAS CHEER.

After that, readers were asking us, "What holidays are you going to highlight? Is this going on forever?" We answered the first question with:

SPRING FEVER

TRICK OR SWEET

SUMMER OF LOVE

THANKFUL HEARTS

and our newest....

WILL YOU BE MINE?

Book Release is very soon! (I'll keep you posted!)

(Aren't the covers AMAZING?! Thanks to Victoria Austen-Young for such great work!)

The answer to the second question is...we didn't want to "go on forever." There aren't *that* many holidays that are interesting enough to base a story on. (Arbor Day? I don't think so.) It's bittersweet that we're done writing but we have these amazing collections that we can share.


The order that I wrote my stories for HOLIDAYS WITH JANE were:

"Mischief and Mistletoe" (NORTHANGER ABBEY) - HWJ: Christmas Cheer

"Whine and Wineries" (SENSE AND SENSIBILITIES) - HWJ: Spring Fever

"Emma Ever After" (EMMA) - HWJ: Trick or Sweet

"Twice Upon a Sea" (PERSUASION) - HWJ: Summer of Love

"Construction of a Heart" (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE) - HWJ: Thankful Hearts

"Concealed Spark" (MANSFIELD PARK) - HWJ: Will You Be Mine?


I'm going to write about how I approached writing each of these stories next week. Some were easy and some were hard. And one was absolutely horrid during the process but I think hope it was successful.

~~~More about WILL YOU BE MINE? during our book release week extravaganza!~~~

*Kimberly Truesdale contributed to the first three books. Nancy Kelley contributed to the last three books. Jessica Grey, Jennifer Becton, Cecilia Gray, Rebecca M. Fleming, and I contributed to all six collections.