Getting Inspired

I've told you a little about my writing process, so you now know that I get most of my crazy ideas right as I am about to drift off to sleep. I decided to take go one step deeper and make my storm of ideas into a Pinterest board.  Frozen: a Winter Anthology released yesterday (wahoo!!), so to celebrate, I made an inspiration board for my contribution to the anthology, Falling on Ice.  I hope you enjoy it!  My original thoughts about the town of Rigby, some of the settings for important scenes, and the main characters are all there for your visual enjoyment.  Check it out, and follow me on Pinterest.  http://www.pinterest.com/besskingsley/falling-on-ice/
Stay tuned for a Chasing Storm Pinterest board.  In the meantime, you can purchase Frozen and read my story here.

Satin Romance
http://www.satinromance.com/authors/anth/2014/frozen.html
Smashwords
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/486761
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OR2AGLK
Barnes and Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/frozen-nicole-angeleen/1120667083?ean=2940046374803

Have a delicious Halloween!

How I Write

Here is a glimpse into my writing life. For the most part, I write late at night. A cup of tea, some music, and my laptop. I like to make a playlist using google play (which is awesome!) when I get an idea. Then I make a "sort-of" outline, including character sketches with pictures (I love this part.  Channing Tatum may or may not be a character inspiration for a character in the new book I'm writing. Eye candy!).  I use Scrivener for this. It's a wonderful program. Other times I like to write in the morning at a coffee shop. I generally write about 2000 words in a sitting, and try to average that per day. I like to read passages aloud as I edit on hardcopy, but sometimes I do it on screen.
I get my ideas mostly when I am getting ready to go to sleep, so I keep a notebook to write down everything.

How many books can you read for $65? #Enter the #giveaway for 2 x #GiftCards from Amazon or Barnes&Noble now! http://t.co/88zvEsbwC7

— Charmaine Pauls (@CharmainePauls) October 10, 2014

What I Am Reading-October Edition

Let's see...I finished Ocean at the End of the Lane. Loved it. It was literally perfection.  Not a romance really, but it was magical, horrible, and exquisite all at the same time. I'm still thinking about it.

Also, I really liked I Want Candy, which featured the world's longest sex scene, that was pretty hot, but also kind of weird. I can't decide if it was hotter or weirder. A tie, I guess. But still a very fun book.

Okay, so now for this month.

The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand

Okay, so I l didn't love the cover, but I loved this book. It was a different kind of romance set in an amazing restaurant in Nantucket and the descriptions of menus and imagery were really fabulous. I felt like the characters were believable, the loyalty in the story was just...sigh. My only sort of criticism is that there was a long part toward the end that I felt like kind of dragged out a bit, and then the resolution was sort of dealt with too quickly and incompletely. Even so, I really liked this book. It left me hoping for a sequel. Elin Hilderbrand is a wonderful writer.  She almost made me forget that my only experience with Nantucket was a police officer accidentally accusing me of being nude when I was wearing my light pink J. Crew bikini on a trip there in high school.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

 One of my delightful book-club friends picked this book for our read this month.  It's really interesting. I was hooked right away. Secret codes, ancient tomes, hackers. Um, yes. Sign me up. I'm not too far in but I'm sort of hoping it's going to be like Alif the Unseen meets the DaVinci Code.

Love in a Nutshell by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly

 I'm about halfway through this and I'm not loving it. If I have an extreme change of heart, you might here more from me, otherwise, eh.

And below are the Bookbub deals I got this week (FREE! Yay!) and will read this month as soon as I'm done with the rest of the group.  I'm really looking forward to them all.  They're totally different from each other and should be quite entertaining.

It's Almost Time...and a Giveaway!

My story Falling on Ice comes out in Frozen A Winter Anthology on October 29th!  To celebrate we are holding a giveaway!  The prizes are pretty great, so enter and share with friends!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

We're also having a facebook party with more games and prizes and a chance to meet the authors.  Don't miss out!  Search for New Release Party-"Frozen" on Facebook and put it on your calendar.

A New Kind of Story

I've been working on something different. It's a love story of sorts, but not in the traditional way, and I'm really enjoying the departure.  It's beautiful and painful and very slow going.  Anyway, that's why I've been so quiet. I am completely lost in a world of mysteries and lost love and redemption.

I'm not ready to share yet, and about this story, I may not share until it's ready to come out in print.  But I promise lots of juicy tidbits from my other romance pieces soon. For now, I will just leave you with this quote, by Margaret Atwood.  She said exactly what I want to say.

“When you are in the middle of a story it isn't a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard powerless to stop it. It's only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all. When you are telling it, to yourself or to someone else.”

― Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace