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Monday, March 23, 2015

Monday’s Inspiration–The Greatest Inspiration of All: Babies

@GlenysOConnell

Louisa & Caleb, one week oldI’ve been a bit haphazard in my postings recently, and I’m really late with today’s Monday’s Inspiration.

But for a very good reason. I am so full of emotion, so inspired, that it’s actually hard to think and write.

A little while ago we welcomed a new grandson into our family. It wasn’t the easiest of deliveries and two sets of grandparents, an aunt and two uncles paced the waiting room for hours, stopping only to take a quick peek in at the mom to be, our daughter Louisa, check on progress and mutter encouragement.

Our son in law, Jeff, was by her side every minute, except for brief forays to the waiting room to deliver whatever news there was – or no news at all. And he was there, too, to hold her hand as the baby was delivered by C-section.

So it was with tears of relief and joy that we welcomed eight pounds of joy, Caleb Adrian, into our arms and our lives. Congratulations to Jeff, Louisa, and their beautiful son, now settling back into their own home again.

And thanks to the lovely staff at BGH for their care and kindness.

Can you think of anything more inspiring than the arrival of a brand new life?

Monday, March 16, 2015

Lá Shona Fhéile Pádraig! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Irish & Scots Book Event from Tirgearr Publishing!


 
@ GlenysOConnell

The Celtic Rose Blog -- http://thecelticroseblog.blogspot.com
shamrockTIRGEARR PUBLISHING and THE CELTIC Winters & Somers ebook coverROSE BLOG EVENT

March 17 and 18 March

Join us over at the Celtic Rose Blog -- http://thecelticroseblog.blogspot.com -- on the 17th and 18th and help us celebrate St Patrick's Day in style.
Tirgearr Publishing authors are featured every hour from the top of the hour through the day, starting at 1am PST/8am GMT on 17 March, St
Patrick's Day. Enjoy some awesome Irish stories on Ireland's national
holiday.
Join us again on the 18th from 12am PST/7am GMT for more awesome Celtic
reads set in Scotland and Wales.
Tirgearr books will post every hour on the hour from 1am PST/8am GMT

* Schedule *
Tuesday 17 March - St Patrick's Day (all Irish set books)1amPST/8am GMT - The Gun by Daithi Kavanagh
2amPST/9am GMT - Where the Shamrocks Grow by Cathy Mansell
3amPST/10am GMT - I Will Sing My Songs for You by Harry McGilloway
3amPST/11am GMT - Ireland: Hidden Guide by Christ Christy Nicholas
5amPST/12pm GMT - Winters and Somers by Glenys O'Connell
6amPST/1pm GMT - The Kyklos Trilogy by David Toft
7amPST/2pm GMT - The Matt Costello Mysteries by Brid Wade
8amPST/3pm GMT - A Sure Thing by E. H. Ward Author
9amPST/4pm GMT - Going Against Type by Sharon Black
10amPST/5pm GMT - My Husband's Sin by Mary Bradford
11amPST/6pm GMT - Five Days on Ballyboy Beach by David O'Brien
12amPST/7pm GMT - One Night in Dublin by Kemberlee Shortland
The Celtic Rose Blog -- http://thecelticroseblog.blogspot.com
Wednesday 18 March - (all other Celtic books)
12amPST/7am GMT - The Highland Chiefs Series by Kate Robbins
1amPST/8am GMT - Awakening by Scarlett Valentine
2amPST/9am GMT - What the Future Holds by Joan Fleming
3amPST/10am GMT - Scotland: Hidden Guide by Christy Nicholas
4amPST/11pm GMT - Midwinter Masquerade by Romy Gemmell
5amPST/12pm GMT - Dark September by Brendan Gerad O'Brien
6amPST/1pm GMT - Looking for Charlotte by Jennifer Young (pre-order)
7amPST/2pm GMT - Clan Ross series by Kristi Ahlers


The Celtic Rose Blog -- http://thecelticroseblog.blogspot.com
shamrock
shamrockLá Shona Fhéile Pádraig!
Happy St Patrick's Day!

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Saturday Snippets–First Pages: Saving Maggie

@GlenysOConnell

 

Saving Maggie CoverSaving Maggie is the first book I had published through Crimson Romance, part of Adams Media/ F+W Media, and also my first experiment with adding a touch of paranormal to my romantic suspense. I loved it!

This book came from another confluence of What If’s?

What if a woman found her mind linked to that of a psychopath – and what if the lost souls of his victims called to her to find them and bring them home?

What if that psychopath thought this was a sign she was to be his forever?

What if a woman running from her past finds that the only way to save the man she loves is to stand up and face a madman – and risk losing her own life?

BLURB:

Newspaper reporter Maggie Kendall has a psychic gift - or a curse: The missing violently dead call for her to find them. Her ability incites a serial killer to play games with her, sending her an invitation in a pink envelope every time he kills and daring her to find his victims.

But when the killer moves the bodies without leaving a trace, Maggie is denounced as the worse kind of charlatan - a psychic fake who feeds off the pain of other peoples’ tragedies.

Just the sort of person that Detective Joshua Tyler hates the most. He’s been hounded by reporters and fake psychics since his emotionally disturbed wife disappeared two years earlier. He reacts angrily when Maggie offers a message from his wife. But he can’t help being attracted to her even as she infuriates him.

The killer believes that Maggie is that one special person he’s been searching for - someone who can read his mind. Only her death can bind them together forever.

Maggie knows he’s going to kill her, and she knows why. But how can she make Tyler believe her? She needs him to join her in a race against an experienced and determined killer to save her life . . .

Sensuality Level: Sensual

FIRST PAGE:

The woman in the sexy little red convertible looked perky from behind. Her glossy long hair was pulled up in a careless ponytail and swayed from side like a cobra charmed by an Indian flute as she bopped to the music from the car radio.

Even at a car’s length away, the driver behind her thought this was the sort of hair a man could run his fingers through and grasp playfully. He wished now he were piloting his own expensive roadster rather than the sedate brown sedan he’d rented especially for this trip. His own car was the sort that would impress the kind of girl who drove a bright red convertible with the top down on a windy spring day.

He imagined himself overtaking her, seeing her look over at him, her eyes widening in admiration as she took in his expensive ride and wealthy, groomed good looks.

Then she’d remember him and smile…

He gunned the accelerator and with a disdainful purr the rental spurted forward, pulling alongside her. He glanced over, hoping to catch her eye. But she stared straight ahead, singing along to some mindless pop music and oblivious to his look of longing.

He didn’t matter to her. She didn’t remember. She didn’t smile.

Irritated now, he jabbed the accelerator and zoomed past her. He knew soon they’d meet again.

Then he’d refresh her memory.

* * *

Maggie Kendall was just leaving Fried Heaven with two cups of the diner’s delicious coffee balanced in her hands, when a tall, dark-haired stranger pushed open the door so suddenly that it caught her, and hot coffee sloshed wetly down the front of her white silk shirt.

“I am so sorry!” His handsome face flushed with embarrassment as he grabbed a wad of paper napkins from a dispenser on the nearest table and began to mop at the spill. His touch on her upper breasts was electric—it sizzled all the way down to her toes, leaving her breathless. Brushing his hands away, she snapped: “You’re making it worse. My office is just across the road and I can clean up there.”

The man snatched back his hand as he realized the inappropriate intimacy of his touch. Blushing, he tossed the damp napkins onto a table and jammed the offending hands into his suit pants pockets. “I…at least let me pay for your dry cleaning,” he stammered, but Maggie was already halfway out the door.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it,” she muttered, avoiding his gaze. A second later she was gone.

 

***Saving Maggie is available as a stand alone read here or onRunning to Love your Amazon site or at Crimson Romance’s site here. You can also find it in a super bundle of ten books from Crimson Romance called Running to Love. You can see both books on Amazon, too!

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Wednesday’s Writing: Hook Your Reader-Cliffhanger Endings

@GlenysOConnell
womanwritingHello, Dear Readers – I’ve been lax with my blog for the last week or so, and I am so sorry. Sometimes things happen…but more about that in the next Monday’s Inspiration Blog!

Meanwhile, I talked about hook beginnings to grab your readers, and how they should happen at the start of chapters and scenes as well as the beginning. In that blog I promised to talk about the all important endings that make your reader want to read on from scene to scene, chapter to chapter. So here goes:

Each chapter starts with a hook, flows through the middle, and ends with a 'cliff-hanger'.

The term 'cliff-hanger' dates back to the old black and white movies - does anyone remember The Perils of Pauline? We've probably all seen references to these early adventures, although my guess is most of us are a bit too young to have seen them first run-through!

Pauline was the heroine in a series of movies where she went
through many trials and tribulations. At the end of each movie
Pauline was left in dreadful straits - tied to the tracks in front of a speeding train, hanging over a steep cliff by her fingertips, trapped in a runaway car speeding towards a flooded river……..


Each week faithful fans returned to the movie house to find out how Pauline was rescued from the latest terrible situation. And, of course, she was always rescued - she had to be back in her starring role the following week!

cliffhanger
That's what we call a cliff-hanger ending. You can probably already see why one of these at the end of each chapter would seduce your reader to glance at the first page of the next chapter to see how it all worked out - and the hook at the beginning of that chapter will keep her reading towards the next cliff-hanger….the next hook….and on into the wee small hours of the night!


It's a crafty way of keeping the tension up and drawing the reader more deeply into your story. The hook that follows a cliff-hanger does not necessarily have to be the segment of story immediately following the cliff-hanger - or the bit where Pauline is rescued. You can go to another thread of the story, but you must use a hook so the reader continues reading seamlessly as she knows she is being led to the moment when all the threads are pulled together at the end.


One caveat, however. The cliff-hanger ending does not apply to the very end of the book. This is where all the reader's questions are answered, and while your characters may not be guaranteed a happily ever after, they are at least generally out of danger, emotionally on solid ground again, and ready to get on with the next phase of their lives, having changed for the better due to the events and lessons they learned in
the story.


In other words, while the end of a chapter is meant to be exciting and raise questions about what happens next, the final end of the book is calming and answers all those questions.


Once you get into the habit of thinking of your chapters like this, it will come easily to you. Like magic!


Again, this blog is an excerpt from Naked Writing, the No Frills Way to Write Your Book! in the UK, or here for Canada, and here for the US, or in your region’s Amazon store.