Inspiration in Imagination: A guest post by author, Denise Grover Swank

When I learned to read, an entire world opened to me. I didn’t just read books. I devoured them. In my first grade class, each student got a caterpillar with little bubbles we could color for each book we read. My teacher had to keep getting me more sheets. My caterpillar stretched to the side and around the corner. By the end of the year, I’d read 187 books.

As I got older, I always had a book in my hand and it wasn’t uncommon for my mother to find me hiding under covers reading with a flashlight instead of sleeping. (Some things never change. I’m still known for not going to sleep at appropriate times.)

By the time I was a teen, I’d blown through Judy Blume, Madeline L’Engle, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. (Which produced a semi-obsession with all things pioneer related and inspired me to create sunbonnets out of baby dresses. See? I had a wild imagination even back then.) I moved onto adult books. Barbara Cartland, Stephen King, LaVerle Spencer, J.R. Tolkien, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Robin Cook, T.H. White Do you notice a trend here? Yeah. Me neither. There is none. I literally read everything I could get my hands on. During the summer, it was common for me read a book a day. The library became my best friend.

When I started a family, my reading time decreased, although I would often cook and bathe kids with one hand and have a book in another. But my genre hopping still continued, now moving onto to Patricia Cornwell, Janet Evanovich, Michael Crighton, Mary Janice Davidson, Stephenie Meyer. (So I actually own up to that one. Sue me.)

Lately, I’ve gone through a paranormal romance and young adult craze. And let’s not forget the Game of Thrones marathon reads. But my current favorite author is Sarah Addison Allen, who writes adult magical realism. She was actually a partial inspiration for my humorous southern mystery, Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes. Her books are sweet and southern with a dash of paranormal thrown in.

Here’s the fact: I like change. I thrive on it. If I spend too much time reading one genre, it becomes stale. And if I was chained to a single genre to write, I’d probably gnaw my limb off to get away. Because even though writing is the most fun career I’ve ever had, it’s also the hardest. If I start writing stories that don’t excite me, then I might as well hang it all up. The only way I know to keep it fresh is to keep moving around.

Besides, I never know when and where inspiration for story ideas will strike next. It just might be in my next great read.
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You can find out more about this talented lady at the following:
Denise's website
Blog
Goodreads Author Page
Facebook
Twitter

If you leave a comment on Denise's blog tour page, you are entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card.

When Books Become Movies: A guest psot from author Kathleen Kole

When Books Become Movies

When writing my books, there’s no question I have a mental image of my characters in my head. It’s pretty much impossible to write without that mental image, as it allows me to give meaning and depth to their movements, expressions and conversation.

That being said, I think it becomes great fun to take things one step further and ask the question, “Whom would I cast in each character’s role, should this book ever see the light of film?” Thankfully, I was given the opportunity to share my vision with you, as Michelle was kind enough to offer me the chance by asking me to write my guest post about this very thing!

Here is a list of actors I could see stepping into my character’s shoes and bringing them to life on screen. Let’s see if you happened to visualize the same people, or at least individuals who are a very close match. Here we go!

April:
When I first began writing April, I hadn’t assigned any one known female to represent her in my thoughts. However, upon reflection, I’d say Drew Barrymore would absolutely fit the bill to bring April to life. Drew has that girl-next-door quality I imagined in April, is about the same build and has shown herself to be able to adapt to many different roles and make you believe in whomever she is in that moment.




Kevin:
Kevin is definitely a man who would be called handsome, as opposed to pretty. He’s a great looking guy, but would make an ugly woman. He’s strong and solid and carries himself with confidence; thus I believe the actor, Nathan Fillion, would be a perfect match to portray him on screen.



Gerritt:
This character was an easy one for me. Gerritt is charming, lean, unconventionally good looking, worldly - who better than Isaiah Mustafa to bring him to life?




Jessica:
April’s sister took me a while to match to a current actress in her mid-thirties. It was actually my husband who was able to give a face to her character and I think he did a great job. The talents of Christina Hendricks seemed the ideal match to Jessica. She matches Jessica’s curvy build and comes across as a strong and intelligent woman - just like Jess.



Carol and Deborah:
Almost from the inception of this book, I had an image of both Carol and Deborah in my mind’s eye. The talented Edie McClurg would be the perfect person to breath life into Carol’s character and Parker Posey would possess and bring fantastic animation to the role of Deborah.





Denise and Heidi:
I believe Margaret Cho would be brilliant in the role of Denise. As her sidekick, Heidi, I’d happily cast Melissa McCarthy - both of these actresses are funny and charismatic, exactly what I believe these characters would need when on screen.





Ed and Bob:
And, finally, the husband’s of Carol and Deborah. I think it would be fun to see Carol’s husband, Ed, embodied by none other than Jeffrey Jones. (Yes, for all you “Ferris” fans, it would be a fun hat tip and that’s an added bonus in my world!) As for Bob, I believe Kevin James would be spot on to bring to life Deborah’s patient and slightly downtrodden husband.





Well, I think that wraps it up - or not! Don’t for a moment think I’ve forgotten the unique and smile worthy Thomas! I would love to see Thomas brought to the big screen by the talented and charming Craig Ferguson. Imagine Craig "aged up" by approximately ten years with unruly Einstein hair, a Van Dyke beard, eclectic clothing and charming Scottish brogue - what fun it would be to see that!



Okay, that really does wrap this post up. A huge thank you to Michelle for giving me this fun opportunity. If you already had character ideas of your own in your mind’s eye, wonderful. If not, then I hope these actors will breath an added dimension of vitality into the book as you read.

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Kathleen Kole was born in Edmonton AB and graduated from college with a Diploma in Radio and Television Arts. Her career path has included writing in the fields of advertising, television and newspaper - and most recently novel writing. Kathleen relocated from Edmonton to Kelowna BC and resides there with her beloved husband, adored son and their happy-go-lucky dog. Dollars to Donuts is Kathleen's second published novel and she is currently working on her third, to be published in December.

Visit Kathleen at her website and on twitter.

Guest Post: Inspired From The Heart by author, Heather Hummel

Inspired from the Heart

Heather Hummel

I was just nine years old when I had open heart surgery. As a third grader, this was naturally quite traumatic, especially in 1974 when medical advances weren’t near what they are today. I missed a significant amount of school due to the surgery and recovery. And yet, the fall of ‘74 signifies my earliest memory of focusing on being a writer. Certainly my writings were youthful in nature. Some were journal entries; some were short stories and poems. Yet, these were the beginnings of my interest in writing, and signified the pieces that I shared with the one writer who inspired me.

My grandmother, Dorothy Crispo, was not your typical fuzzy-top, spaghetti making grandmother. She was a dynamic, international traveler and business woman who spent much of her youth and early adult life in the 1940’s through ‘60’s between California, New York and South America. But it wasn’t until she put her suitcase down and picked up a pen that her writing career was defined. Though she penned two books, it was her gag writing that set her apart from other writers. As one of the top “gag writers” in New York City in the ‘40s and ‘50s, she wrote a newspaper column titled Dear Dorothy that was akin to Ann Landers, but with a saucy, spunky twist. The top cartoonists of those times sought her out as their gag writer for their submissions to periodicals such as the Saturday Evening Post. Her gag writing even launched the careers of comedians such as Joan Rivers.

It was this writer, Mima to me, who inspired me because she didn’t conform to one genre. She wrote from the heart, using wit and substance at the core. With seven fluent languages to her tongue, Mima,a stunning, elegant blond, whose wit was as sharp as her wardrobe was later a translator in the California court systems, hence her book How to Speak Everyday Spanish. Mima wrote about topics that inspired her, and in turn, that is what has inspired me.

There are authors who influence us, and there are authors who inspire us. Quite a distinct difference. For example, John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley is a book, among two others, that has influenced my newest novel $1 and $100. When $1 and $100 is published, I will be traveling much like Steinbeck did to talk to people of all walks of life about $1 and $100’s theme: how do you relate to money? Like Steinbeck, I too will be on a cross country voyage with my dogs (my eighth, their fourth), as I develop a documentary to balance the novel’s message.

As someone who has been inspired to follow her heart as a writer, I have taken on projects that range from my own novels to celebrity ghostwriting to my own nonfiction book. My career started out when I became a feature writer for a family magazine something I did while I taught high school English. Since those days, I have managed to find consistency in the seeming melting-pot of my career. I, like my grandmother, write from the heart. And, this governing theme became the core of my novel’s series…Journals from the Heart. The first two novels WHISPERS FROM THE HEART and WRITE FROM THE HEART focus on journal writing from the heart. From a high school English teacher who inspires her students through journal writing (WHISPERS) to a single woman who uses her journals as a reflection on lost loves and as anticipation of her future (WRITE), the essence of writing from the heart remains pure.



Certainly there are modern day authors whom I respect many whose works I’ve read, enjoyed and have even been influenced by. But, since I was inspired at an age and a time when I didn’t know if I would even see my teen years (due to my heart condition), let alone excel in adulthood as an author, the role model of my grandmother during my youth is singly my one inspiration.

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Thank you, Heather, for such a beautiful guest post. And thank you to Samantha, as always, for inviting me to participate in this blog tour.

Heather Hummel is the author of the Journals from the Heart Series. She is an award winning author and celebrity ghostwriter.
Her published works include:
Journals from the Heart Series: Whispers from the Heart (2011 eBook) and Write from the Heart (2011 eBook)
Nonfiction: GO BIKE & Other Signs from the Universe (2011 eBook) and Gracefully: Looking and Being Your Best at Any Age (McGraw Hill, 2008), - Merit Award of the 2009 Mature Media Awards,

Heather's books have appeared in newspapers such as: Publishers Weekly, USA Today and the Washington Post; and in magazines that include: Body & Soul, First, and Spry Living, a combined circulation of nearly 15 million.Visit Heather at her website
You can also find her at:
Heather on Twitter
Heather on Facebook

Leave a comment on Heather's blog tour page to be entered to win a $10 gift card to Amazon: Blog Tour Page
If you purchase your copy of Whispers from the Heart from October 7- 31 and send your receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, you will get five bonus entries!**

Guest Post: To Know and To Love by Shannon Hart

To Know and To Love

I’ll be completely honest here, when I found out I was doing a guest post, I was jumping up and down in my room for about five minutes until I realized I didn’t know what to write about. Then, panic started to set in.

I knew I had a bit of time, but still, my mind was racing searching through corners of my brain to find a so-called brilliant topic to write about, something that would blow readers’ minds away. I went to my dear friend Samantha, asking her if she could give me some tips as well and she came up with much better ideas than I had, of course, but then I realized why those ideas were so good: they were about things I knew well.

I don’t know about other writers, but for me, before I wrote Until the End of Forever, I was hopping from genre to genre, looking for my niche. There was this phase that I had where I was writing children’s stories but then I would always start one, get stuck, and stop. Then, I went on to writing Young Adult stories. Short stories were fine, but when it came down to trying to write a whole 70,000 words novel, I couldn’t get past chapter 16! The voices sounded young, the characters were dynamic and exciting, but the issues were issues that I wasn’t sure today’s youth would get. I had to finally admit that I wasn’t young anymore (and cry about that for a few hours), and that I wasn’t that in sync with what the young one’s were dealing with these days. And being a mom to two toddlers didn’t really help either. The problems they were dealing with were more about what to watch and what to play than anything else. I kept all the chapters, but I haven’t touched them again since – and probably won’t until I get to actually spend time with real young adults and understand what matters to them most these days.

Then, on one magical night… Scratch that. Sounded way too corny. One evening, when I was feeling a bit of pressure on my own marriage because of some silly fight we had (I don’t even remember what it was about anymore but it was probably ridiculously lame), I decided I knew exactly what I should have been writing about all along: marriage. Not necessarily about my own marriage, but seeing as that I had been married for quite sometime, and since I was (and still am) a member of a married couples group, the amount of knowledge I had about marital issues exceeded the knowledge I had about almost anything else. When I started writing about my main characters’ – Rob and Sarah – relationship, I started with just background notes scribbled on an old notebook listing who they were, what they were like and how their personalities could potentially end up in conflict and from there, everything was smooth sailing right down to the end.

I developed a personal relationship with all my characters. Call me crazy or whatever (my husband certainly thought I was, he just never said it out loud), but at times, I felt like I was watching the two of them in a movie in my head. I watched how Rob and Sarah met, their wedding, and even their magical wedding night – though that part didn’t actually make the cut and ended up being edited out.

My point is (yes, there is a point here, I promise), when you write what you know, you’ll love your work even more because that’s what you’re passionate about. That sense of satisfaction when you read the final copy before it goes to print is just so overwhelming because you know what you’ve written is something so close to your heart.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with challenging your abilities and writing out of your comfort zone either. This is great for those who can power through the difficulties and just do it. If you can, by all means, go for it! But for other writers, who know they have a voice but just can’t seem to get it together that first time around, I say (humbly), go back to the drawing board and start putting together things that you know; things you love; things you care about. It just makes it a heck of a lot easier. Not to say that writing should be easy, of course, but it builds your confidence and that’s important because at the end of the day, you have to love what you have written. And don’t worry about bad reviews because you know what, everything is so subjective. Everything they say about your story is just a matter of opinion so even though some may not like it, others will. Don’t think about how what you write has already been written before because hey, is there really anything new in this world? The issues are all still the same. It’s just a matter of packaging it differently and adding twists to it. Personally, and I emphasize here that this opinion really is personal, if writing is truly your passion, then you’re writing for you, not for anyone else. So really, what matters is what you love.

A very special thank you goes to Michelle Bell for welcoming me on her wonderful blog and giving me this opportunity to post, and to Samantha Robey, my friend, my editor and my kick-ass blog tour coordinator who is nothing short of a miracle worker. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you’re the best!

Thank you so much, Shannon, for such a delightful guest post and I'm so honored to have hosted you on my blog during your blog tour!

Come say hello to Shannon at the following places: website, blog, or twitter.

For something totally fun, if you leave a comment on Shannon's tour page, you will be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card.

Inspiration: A guest post by Lacy Camey

Inspiration comes in many forms for many different people. Some are inspired by the moment, others are inspired by an idea, others by a person, a muse, but I find inspiration for me comes from within.

You see, if I won the lottery tomorrow and was awarded 100 million dollars and was told, “Do whatever you want with your life” – I would write. Of course I would travel, but while I would travel, I would write.

And sure I’d go to quite a few spas and relaxing places, but while maybe on the exterior I’d be relaxing, I couldn’t help but think about stories, characters, dialogue, ideas. I would just have to write.

Put me in a cave without paper or pen, I’m sure I would figure a way to transcribe a story.

It’s just in me to write and tell stories! Does that mean I’m just itching to write your research paper or article for work? Um, no! Haha. I think there is a difference for me. I have inspiration and a strong desire to write stories and be a story-teller and to not write academic books.

I feel like if I didn’t write stories, something would feel missing. It would be as if I had this terrible itch and it would never go away

It’s like a singer born with the gift to sing. It doesn’t matter who hears her, she has to sing. She sings in the shower, in the car on the road, at the store, it’s just what she does.

The joy I feel when I write is so self fulfilling and satisfying. Besides the innate drive inside of me to write, I find inspiration in the end result, as well.

I love meeting people, hearing what they are going through in life, encouraging others and connecting. I love conversations and meeting new people. It’s one of my favorite things. I also love being able to make a difference with my book revenues-helping orphanages and making a tangible difference.

I love making people laugh and smile. When someone tells me they had fun reading my book, that’s the greatest compliment ever.

As far as making a career out of writing fiction for the rest of my life, the thing that inspires me the most is knowing I have chosen a career where, when my husband and I decide to raise a family, I will be able to be home with my future children. That’s very important to me and always has been.

Being cozy also inspires me to write. That warm cup of coffee and tea, cozy clothes, soft blankets, my warm cuddly cat. Too bad I live in the deep south where it never snows! I think maybe if I lived a little bit more up north, I would be inspired by the cold weather. Speaking of weather, thunderstorms inspire me to write as well. Water inspires me, too. Ocean, lake, river, fountains. There is something very creative about water.

Art is a very beautiful thing. Art is like adding color into the world. Writing is a literary art and I hope the color I bring to the world through my stories is bright turquoise.

Thanks for having me. Whatever you decide to do in life, let your inspiration guide you into bliss and peace.

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Thank you, Lacy, for such an inspiring post. And thank you to both you and Samantha for including me in your blog tour. I loved your book and can't wait for the second in what is sure to be a highly successful career for you!

If you want to get to know the talented and lovely, Lacy Camey, you can do so at the following:

Lacy's website
Lacy's twitter
Lacy's Facebook
Amazon Link
Barnes & Noble Link

Win a $10 Amazon Gift Card! From now until the end of Lacy's blog tour (Oct 10th), if you leave a comment on her blog tour page, you are entered to win: Lacy's CLP Blog Tour Page. That's all you have to do! If you buy the book and email a copy of the receipt to Samantha at CLP, you get a bonus entry!

Guest post: Thoughts on friends with benefits by Meredith Schorr

The title of my book is Just Friends With Benefits. Did you hear about the new movie called Friends With Benefits starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis? So did I and, no, there is no association between my book and the movie.

I cannot tell you how many people have said that to me, a chuckle in their voice or an "LOL" at the end of their email, like they are SO funny and original and like I'd never heard it before. Stating for the record, I've heard it before and it's not that funny. No offense.

Anyhoo, yes the title of my novel is Just Friends With Benefits and my main character, Stephanie, sleeps with her old crush from college who is also a friend. He labels it "friends with benefits." She plays along but secretly wants more.

I had obviously heard the phrase "friends with benefits" ("FWB") before I wrote the book. It's pretty popular these days and I used it in my title hoping to entice readers to buy the book. I've never, however, had a FWB myself. I just don't know if I could handle it. I'm pretty selective about who I sleep with and need a certain amount of physical attraction. I'm also pretty selective about my friends and only befriend people I genuinely like and enjoy spending time with. So, the way I see it, if I'm attracted enough to want to sleep with a man, yet like him enough as a person to call him my friend, chances are, I'm going to want him to be my "boy" friend and having sex with him regularly is probably going to make it worse. And I'll keep hoping that the FWB status will segue into a relationship, it probably won't (since my life is not a romantic comedy movie), I'll waste time, get my heart broken and likely lose my friend in the process. No thanks.

The FWB concept does not work in the movies either. The characters in No Strings Attached took their friendship up a notch and became friends with benefits. Then they fell in love. I haven't seen the movie yet but would be willing to bet my next royalty check that Justin and Mila's characters in Friends with Benefits eventually fell in love too. If the FWB status worked for them, there would have been no desire to upgrade to boyfriend and girlfriend. Although I'm aware that No Strings Attached and Friends With Benefits are fictional stories, I suppose real-life FWBs sometimes become boyfriend and girlfriend too, but more likely, I think one of the two is quietly praying for an upgrade and like my main character, feeling bad about herself that her "buddy" doesn't want to be her boyfriend. (And I'm sure in some cases it is the man who secretly wants more.) And while I would not be able to blame my FWB for any wrong doing since the rules of a FWB relationship are clear, anyone who makes me feel not good enough, purposely or not, should not be allowed to see me naked. I truly believe a one night stand makes more sense for me than an FWB. And that statement should not be taken to mean I have regular one night stands. But it would be more likely than a FWB. I just don't think it works most of the time.

It's worth noting that my opinion comes from my own stage in life as a single, never-been-married woman who is still looking for "the one." It would be different if a guy friend and I starting dating with the best intentions and it didn't work out. I could live with that since no relationship comes with a success guarantee, but I'd be afraid to get too caught up in a no-strings sexual relationship with someone I might honestly see myself getting more serious with. But I can see some situations where it could work. For instance, when two people enjoy each other's company and are physically attracted to each other but, due to extraneous factors such as physical distance, know that being in a serious relationship could never work. Or two people who have already been in serious relationships, not interested in going there again and are truly just looking for companionship with no strings. Maybe people in different stages of their lives, ex. older woman and much younger man who have nothing in common aside from a mutual physical attraction could make it work. Or even married couples who have agreed that sexual relations outside of the marriage are allowed. There are exceptions to every rule and I'm sure the FWB actually works in some cases, but for single people like myself who are actually looking for something more, I'd be very surprised if, in the majority of cases, both parties to a FWB situation are truly satisfied. (And I don't mean "sexually" satisfied!)

Anyway, that's my opinion on the subject for what it's worth. But, hey, did you hear about that book Just friends with Benefits by Meredith Schorr? It has nothing to do with the movie, but you should read it. It's good!

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Thank you so much, Meredith, for dropping by my blog with such a great post! I most definitely recommend Meredith's book "Just Friends with Benefits"!

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ChickLit Villains: A Guest Post by Britney Bronte

ChickLit Villains

To some extent I’ve touched on this in other blogs. When you talk about Chicklit heroes, you can’t get away from villains, because within this genre the guy who looks like the prince is often the toad. Working out which is which can form a massive part of the story.

The genre is unusual, in so much as you don’t need a villain to create the plot. It helps but it’s not absolutely necessary. Chicklit bad boys seldom tie the heroine to railway tracks or blackmail her or poison her relatives, though sometimes we wish he would. Often, he’s a classic example of the kind of man fallen for and never understood; the man who acts interested but then doesn’t text back, the guy who dumps us without a reason, or the love of our life who tells us he can’t commit, then marries a finalist from America’s Next Top Matchstick.

In general, the key to a chicklit villain is that he doesn’t care, or he cares in a way that makes us unhappy. He is always charming and on some level false. Once we know what he’s like, we ‘re generally shouting at the heroine to stop loving him, only she can’t because he represents something she lacks. And that’s a situation we all understand..

Of course, the enemy is not always the male who doesn’t care. Check out The Devil Wears Prada, where the obvious nasty is our heroine’s boss, Miranda Priestly. From bitches to witches, bad girls are just as much fun as bad boys. Whoever your villain is, don’t let them get too heavy; remember Sex and the City, where Aleksandr hits Carrie and gets his just desserts from Mr Big? That’s the point at which the romcom element is almost over, and something more serious is taking its place. It may be a lot of things, but it’s not funny.

Usually, chicklit life is a comedy of errors. In Do Not Lick The Phones, it’s the funny circumstances and mistakes that make the story. If there’s any real danger at all, it lies in what Britney may become if she lets herself. There is a tiny element of seduction…but I’ll leave that for you to discover.

So when it comes to villains./villainesses of course they should add flavour and plot, Let them be as real and recogniseable as it takes to be ridiculous. If they spark you up, chances are the readers will feel the same. Love them, hate them, laugh at them, but most of all, enjoy them. Treated well, they’ll make your story pop!

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Thank you, Britney, for the delightful post!

For more on Britney Bronte and her debut novel "Do Not Lick The Phones", you can visit the following: her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

The Art of Writing - A guest post by author Lennie Ross

People always ask me what it’s like to write. I say it’s like playing with a Rubik’s cube the size of a house with tiny little squares the size of a postage stamp. We move words around until they make some sense, accurately reflect the images in our mind, and hopefully strike a chord of emotion in the reader.

I love to write. I started writing when I was fourteen. I wrote a book of poetry. I have no idea where that book is—probably in a tattered cardboard box in my mother’s attic collecting dust—but I would love to look at it again. The beautiful thing about all forms of writing is that they act like a time and date stamp of our thoughts and feelings at a certain moment in our lives. I guess that’s why so many people keep journals.

Like all artists, I have struggled to get paid for what I do. I have written copy for brochures selling everything from dental equipment to retirement living. I have written about local building projects, water contamination, and community fairs for small local newspapers. I have written TV movie projects inspired by real life stories of dying mothers looking for someone to care for their children and women who survived physical and sexual abuse, which I pitched from one network to the next until there was nowhere left to pitch. I have written erotica scripts where every ten pages there is a simulated sex/love scene. With all of these projects, I managed to get paid to some degree, but I have never made a living as a writer.

I know a few successful writers who make upwards of a million dollars a year doing what they love. I am not one of them, though I do hope that a little of their good fortune might rub off on me. A few years ago I became so disenchanted with writing due to my lack of financial success that I stopped writing for two whole years. It was the most foreign experience for me. I missed it. I craved it. I felt guilty for not writing, but I could not handle the disappointment and pain of not being financially successful at that which I loved.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I thought my mind was going to explode with ideas. Writers write; whether we are compensated financially or not, it is just something we have to do. So, I chose a new medium: the chicklit novel. With a new medium to explore, I was faced with endless new challenges: How long should it be? What voice should I use? Where do I find an editor? How do I find an agent? How do I self-publish? Throughout the process I found myself asking, “what do I do now?” Nobody was answering, so I just figured it out on my own. It was just another piece of the puzzle that is writing.

Two years later, after endless challenges, I have my first published chicklit novel, “Blow Me”. It’s a tale of three women’s struggle with sex and love in the City of Angels and one women’s struggle with being a writer.



Lennie Ross can be found on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads

Guest Blog: How the written word affects my life by Kathleen Kole

When Samantha with Chick Lit Plus Blog Tours asked me if I would be interested in not only reviewing Kathleen Kole's "Breaking Even" but in having her do a guest post, I was more than happy to agree. Kathleen's debut novel is a charming read (review is in the post below) and her guest post, my first hosted, is absolutely wonderful! Thank you, Kathleen, for such inspiring words.

How the written word affects my life.

I am by nature a fairly high energy person. Sitting and focusing for long periods of time is not my usual state of being. The only exceptions are when I am reading, or writing. Then, something in me shifts. I am transported away, I forget about my physical state and time can fly by me without the merest hint of notice.

I discovered the reading/stillness/transportation connection in grade school. I could launch myself into a “reading coma”, to the point that my Mother was often forced to bellow at me: “Put the book down and save some for later!” That mantra became the norm in our household for many years as I dove again and again, into story after story. Bless her for her willingness to repeatedly cajole me from the pages, so I didn’t miss out on the living end of things.

The awareness of the writing connection didn’t come until much later. It’s power to still me was strongly present, I just didn’t consciously realize it. I loved to write, took it for granted that I did, even set my course in college to learn more about it and, still, had no mindful grasp of how it affected me. If I am to be completely honest, I would hazard to guess I didn’t become cognizant of its power to still me until six years ago. And, the only reason I did so was, when I was forced to take long breaks as a result of parental obligations, I became cranky and unfocused. Something was missing and, suddenly, I put two and two together to get ... Ah-ha! Light bulb moment! When I write, I have an outlet. When I don’t, “Cranky-stein” shows up.

Simply put, I cannot imagine a life without writing, or reading, in it. For me, they both have magic and I feel everyone’s life needs a healthy dash of magic to keep it interesting. I sincerely hope you have some sort of magic in yours.

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You can find more about Kathleen here:

Kathleen Kole's website
Kathleen on Twitter
Kathleen on Facebook