Moving on!

I have a newly redesigned website and as such this blog is moved over there as Archived. Please check it out and find new posts under the blog heading.

Thanks!

Prologues and epilogues: a good idea?

Prologue and Epilogue. Do they have a use? Should they be used? Can you have one without the other?

What an interesting topic and one I hadn’t really thought about since neither is a permanent part of my writer’s toolbox. I have used the prologue twice, in both instances when only a short blurb was necessary to set the rest of the book.

In T’s Trial, I needed to show the hero’s depravity and ego in order for his redemption to be all the more worthy. In Wedding Belle Blues, I needed an intro to the five part book set-up and to give it a fairy tale entry, a ‘once upon a time’ lead-in that, of course, totally falls apart before the first chapter is ended!

I’ve used an epilogue only once in order to tie up all the loose ends of One Year Past Perfect. I needed to skip time, which seems to be a main purpose of epilogues, to show the Happily Ever After for all the parties concerned.

Can you have one without the other? Well, I obviously think so.

The only time I get a bit sideways with prologues is when they give us a terrific hero/heroine in distress moment and then—wham!—take it away from us by going back a day or two. Or a year. Yes, it grabs my attention. Sometimes, it holds it. Not guaranteed. Now this happens a lot in episodic TV also, when you think you must have missed an episode because you don’t remember the characters having been left dangling from a rope over a canyon with a train about to cross the bridge they’re affixed to. Then, it says, ’24 hours earlier.’ I can handle that transgression a bit better. And, of course, being TV, it’s over in an hour, not 300 pages later.

Please check out the other participants in this blog tour, all answering the question of prologues and epilogues.

Participants:

Margaret Fieland
Skye Taylor
Dr. Bob Rich
Marci Baun
A.J. Maguire
Diane Bator
Victoria Chatham
Anne Stenhouse
Helena Fairfax
Beverley Bateman
Connie Vines
Rachael Kosinski Rhobin Courtright

Amazon Giveaway for Ron's Run

It's that time again, mid-month and another Amazon Giveaway, this time for a chance to win a copy of Ron's Run, the fourth of my Bone Cold--Alive novels, but a standalone in hero and heroine.

From the back cover copy:

"Guilt drives him away…

Drummer Ron Gregory isn't responsible for the tragedy which encompasses his family when he's a teen, but they make him feel like he is. He runs away… to New Orleans, to gambling, to a life of irresponsibility. It's a sorry combination, easy living and bad luck. Now he's broke, in danger, and hiding at band manager Levi Fletcher's Texas cabin.

She shouldn't feel guilty…

British fashion photographer Bettina Montgomery is shocked to learn that her biological father is Levi Fletcher. Temptation may drive her to his cabin, but her quick reflexes give her the photo of a lifetime: a nude Ron Gregory! She won't give it up until he straightens out his life, even if that means risking her heart all across Texas.

Which will be surrendered first: the photo, her secret, or the end of Ron's Run?"

This will run until Jan. 5 or all copies are won. As always, no purchase necessary. Give it a try!

The link and official rules:

See this #AmazonGiveaway for a chance to win: Ron's Run: A Bone Cold--Alive Novel (Kindle Edition). https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/3e5fb79ffc22d5ab NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Ends the earlier of Jan 5, 2017 11:59 PM PST, or when all prizes are claimed. See Official Rules http://amzn.to/GArules.

A Chance to Win Tib's Temptation

It's that time of month again, when I offer another Amazon Giveaway. This time it's for Tib's Temptation, the third book in my Bone Cold--Alive series. Jilted beau Tib and embittered Sara take a chance on each other and find redemption along the way. The Giveaway lasts until all the copies are won or Dec. 7, whichever comes first. Here's the link for a chance to win.

Falling into Fall

It might have been the astronomical autumn since Sept 22 or thereabouts, but our temps have only slowly declined. So slowly in fact, that it is the first week of November and I can finally feel like fall has come. And I know this because:

We turned the a/c off in early October and haven't been tempted to turn the heat on.

We're still using the ceiling fans but the box fans are off.

The windows are open.

I pulled a blanket out to cover my feet as I huddled under the summer quilt.

The laundry is switching from whites and creams to browns and blacks.

The hall tree, bare since May, has accumulated two jackets.

And finally, I know it's fall when I find my house shoes!

Another Amazon Giveaway

Can't believe it's been a month, but it's time for another Amazon Giveaway, this time for C's Comeuppance, Book 2 in the Bone Cold--Alive series. This time, it's Eddie T's twin who has his love life in a huge tangle, as he's caught between a woman his body wants and one who steals his heart.

The details:

Again, you're entering for a chance to win. No purchase necessary and it ends Nov 4 or whenever all the prizes are awarded. Good luck!

Encyclopedia me!

The first set of encyclopedias I can remember in my home growing up was purchased volume by volume by my mother at the grocery store, one a week. I was fascinated with them and would pull a volume from the shelf and start reading. I did this with the dictionary too, especially the one from Reader's Digest which proclaimed to be a Great Encyclopedia Dictionary. I know that's what it's called, because I still have it.

When we married, my husband and I bought a set of Encyclopedia Britannica. Now, that was an expense! But we valued the knowledge contained within. Plus, the Internet in all its glory was a good 25 years away, had we even thought such could exist.

But I still love encyclopedias and when someone donated an 1891 set to the library for the book sale, I bought it. The covers of the eight volumes were all off, some holding on via Scotch tape. The pages were rough around the edges. I really wanted the beautiful old maps. Antartica hadn't even been explored when this book was written! I know that for several reasons, not the least of which is the notation about that continent of: Supposed Antarctic Continent.

I thought I would go through it page by page and relieve this set of its drawings of birds and mammals, historical places, anything of interest. Eventually, I'd find something to do with my ill-gotten gain and make some money for the library. I didn't expect to start reading again.

It has a decidedly English bent to it, and as the first edition was published in Edinburgh, that makes sense. It also explains that Scotland has its own map and is not part of the one of England.

So what have I been distracted by? Zulu. Texas. Kangaroo. (No drawing!) Indians, America. And Henry Stewart Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and interesting, according to the book, chiefly on account of said marriage. Also, and this is the part I've committed to memory: he was "fatally destitute of all moral and intellectual power."

You just can't write that any more.