Thursday3Some: Baby It's Cold Outside by E. Ayers

On this cold January morning, I'm having coffee with my Authors of Main Street buddy, E. Ayers.

About E. Ayers

E. Ayers is a multi-published and best-selling author of western and contemporary romances. Her books are never too sweet or too hot. She writes down the middle. She says: "I love a good book and I believe in true love. Combining a life and true love seems simple, but it's not. Within the industry, it's called slice of life. I write about the romantic slice and with it comes everything else that life throws our way."

Find E. Ayers Online

Website * Blog * Authors of Main Street Blog * Newsletter Signup * Twitter

About Baby, It's Cold Outside

Three wonderfully wintry tales of true love: A Cowboy's Holiday, Christmas at Mariner's Cove, and The Charity Auction.

A Cowboy's Holiday: With no plans for the holidays, Hannah joins her friend Jeremy for Christmas at his family's ranch. More than snow is falling as two friends discover romance between the snowflakes.

Christmas at Mariner's Cove: It was just a little fib. Celine Colburn wasn't expecting Prince Charming because that was the stuff of fairy tales. But when she met Frank Cresson, she found herself instantly drawn to him. Just as they were getting to know each other, she becomes a witness to a horrendous motorcycle accident that leaves him unconscious. And lies have a way of growing.

The Charity Auction: Elke prepares herself for a disappointing night after getting conned into being part of a holiday fundraiser until Jeremy’s bid proves to her that good girls sometimes do finish first.

1. When did you write Baby It's Cold Outside?

I did it over several years. I had characters that just poked and prodded me to do something with them. The Charity Auction was actually a mistake. Several years ago, I was asked to be part of an anthology, but our stories had to be under a certain word count. Well…no one will ever accuse me of being a person of few words. Deep into that story, I realized I was going to be way over the word count. So I finished it and tossed it to one side and wrote another for the anthology. Too small to be a book of its own, it's collected cyber dust, except for the few times I've taken it out and dusted it off for some competition. It's won all sorts of kudos.

2. What was the spark that gave you the story idea?

A Cowboy's Holiday is a combination of sparks. Jeremy is one of the minor characters who run through my contemporary westerns. He's been that good teen with his sights on becoming a veterinarian. The kind of guy every mother wants her son to be and every young woman wants to date. Jeremy wanted his own story so he poked me.

I grew up where snow was normal. The day I got my driver's license there were several inches on the ground and flurries in the air. But driving through blizzard conditions is different. It's happened to me twice. The first time I was the driver and the second time my husband was driving. These are not hard snows but extremely dangerous storms. I wanted to push Jeremy to the max emotionally and really challenge this young man who has always been that fun loving, easy-going kind of guy.

3. Why do readers buy Baby It's Cold Outside?

It's so new that I'm going to have to take a guess and say at this point it's because they've read my other books. But there's something for almost every taste in contemporary romance. The Charity Auction is big city, A Cowboy's Holiday is a western, and Christmas at Mariner's Cove is a small New England cove town. I think certain settings appeal to all of us, but identifiable characters are what keep us reading.

Add Baby It's Cold Outside to your Library

The collection is currently available at Amazon Kindle International. It's also a Kindle Unlimited so you can read for free if you're a subscriber. A print edition will be available soon.

Takeaway Truth

Yes, it's cold outside so snuggle under the covers with this collection from E. Ayers.

Review: Something New

Something New, a movie with a story that just might be a perfect romance, is now on Netflix. Can you tell it's a favorite of mine?

Something New is not just a great story, it's superbly acted. In case you don't subscribe to Netflix, you can
stream it or buy the DVD/BluRay from Amazon.

Blurb

Kenya McQueen (Sanaa Lathan) is an over-achiever from a family of the same. She's beautiful, smart--a CPA up for partner--and unhappy. You might think this is just another story of a woman looking for a man, but it's more than that. She's looking for freedom to be herself, but she doesn't know that yet.

When challenged to "let go and let flow," she accepts a blind date, but she's plainly stunned and dismayed to find that the man is white. He's just the opposite of what her ideal man is: handsome black men who is a professional of some kind. Brian Kelly (Simon Baker) works with his hands. Through some rather amusing incidents that follow, she ends up hiring him as her landscape architect.

The Outcome

As one might expect when you get two single, appealing adults of the opposite sex together, attraction follows. Brian challenges herself to really leg go--of her hair weave, her insistence on clothes that are black and a home that's beige. A life that is beige!

Even as she's falling in love with this adorable man who dotes on her, she uncomfortable and embarrassed by the fact that he's black. After she's lost Brian and met the man who meets all her criteria--portrayed by the always-handsome Blair Underwood--does she realize what she has lost.

Sanaa Lathan is perfect in this role of an uptight woman professional, and Simon Baker matches her performance. At the end of the movie, when he kisses her it just looks so "real" as if he doesn't care what's going on around him, he's entirely focused on her. For Kenya, at the end, she's relaxed, smiling, and like a new woman because she really has received everything she wanted--and everything she didn't know she needed.


The Cast

Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker headline a cast composed of Alfre Woodard, Earl Billings, Katharine Towne, Stanley DeSantis, K.C. Clyde, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Golden Brooks, Taraji P. Henson, Marcus Brown, Russell Hornsby, , Danny Wooten, Mike Epps, Lee Garlington, Tonita Castro, Matt Malloy, David Monahan, Gabriel Tigerman, Donald Faison, and Tanisha Harper.

The fabulous Alfre Woodard is Kenya's mom who has rigid ideas about how her daughter should live her life. Wonderful Earl Billings who has been in just about everything in his 30 years on the stage, movies, and TV,  is her father, a man so full of wisdom that steals the show with a scene in the ladies' restroom in which he encourages her to follow her heart. Like Ms. Woodard, he's just good in everything I've ever seen him in.


Takeaway Truth

This isn't just a good romance movie. It's a good movie about how life can change in an eyeblink--just as dreams and expectations can.

Writing Reality No. 3

During January, I'm posting about some writing realities or truths you should recognize if you want a career as a writer. Today's Writing Reality Number 3: Not every good book you write will sell.

Previously posted:

• 1 Writing Reality
•  Writing Truth No. 2

Let's read that again. Not every good book you write will sell.

Once upon a time, back before indie self-publishing was so easy, authors consoled themselves when books didn't find a publishing home with the fact that they had company in the form of thousands of other authors who couldn't sell books that were well-written. All of us accepted that the competition was really stiff so we just wrote another book and tried again.

Well, the gatekeepers like editors and agents who turned down most authors have been replaced by readers. That's right. Readers are the new gatekeepers for those of us who self-publish. Now instead of trying to "sell" to an editor or agent, we're selling directly to readers.

Unfortunately, that doesn't make it any easier to sell books. In fact, since just about every person on the planet has discovered how easy it is to self-publish books, it actually makes it harder to sell.

With thousands of books being published every week, how do you get your book noticed? That's the big question now, and that's why the Writing Reality No. 3 is still true.

Not every good book you write will sell.

 When I say sell, I mean thousands of copies, not a few here and there. Selling a couple of copies every day won't pay a mortgage or put food on the table. So accept the fact now that not every good book you write and publish will sell well.

If it's not selling, then don't bemoan and get depressed. Write another book. Get more inventory out there. As you write, devote some time each week to learning more about effective marketing. Bite the bullet and pay for advertising. The only thing you truly control is the writing and publishing part of the process. Once it's out there, you control nothing.

Takeaway Truth

It's always better to know the score so you won't waste time bemoaning the lack of sales. That puts you ahead of the game and toughens your resolve.

Need Some Inspiration?

Try Little Book of Sunshine

Available at most ebook sellers including Amazon Kindle.

8 Resources Jumpstart Your Blogging

At last, this year I'll publish my blogging book

Do you hate to blog? More specifically, do you feel at a loss because you can't think of anything to write about? A lot of people dread having to blog.

Anyone trying to establish online name recognition is told to blog often, but many have no idea how to consistently create topics so they have new--and interesting--content all the time.

Writers and others with products to sell often fall into the trap of talking about their product until their blog begins to sound like an infomercial. Readers don't want a "buy my book" of "buy anything" promotion every time they visit a blog.

Readers do want to be entertained and maybe learn something when they visit blogs. So blogging about interesting or relevant topics is a good strategy. Now, how do you find those interesting and relevant topics--day after day after day?

8 Go-To Resources to Jumpstart Your Blogging

1. National Day Calendar

This website lists what each day of the month commemorates. For instance, today is January 4 which is:

• the 1st Monday in January this year
• National Spaghetti Day
• National Trivia Day
• National Thank God It’s Monday Day

Okay, right there you have 4 possible topics or jumping off points to lead your imagination to a topic.

You can right about Mondays as the worst day of the week, the best day to get going on success, or anything dealing with the day Monday, etc. Or, you can talk about spaghetti--eating it or cooking it, give a recipe for spaghetti, give the history of spaghetti, talk about regional food, or any number of other topics.

You can talk about National Trivia Day from the aspect of trivia games, i.e. board games, TV shows, trivia games on cruise ships, or you can give trivia questions and answers.

National Thank God It's Monday Day...this may go back to the first Monday of the entire year being either great or terrible. Do you know anyone who knew that there was a TGIM Day? You could do a poll among readers or other bloggers about this. You could write a post with suggested ways to celebrate.

Honestly, the sky is the limit! In fact, the sky is the limit if you let your imagination soar with any of the following that I list.

2. Birthstones By Month

This website lists the birthstones for each month and has a link to The Healing Power of Birthstones which explores some of the myths and legends about them. There are many such websites dealing with birthstones, flowers, signs of the zodiac, etc.

3. This Day in History

This website is sponsored by The History Channel. There are many other such websites, but I subscribe to this one. On each day of the calendar year, something significant happened, someone famous was born, and someone famous died. Some of these events or famous people may have particular resonance for you. Blog about it. Or you just might find the event particularly interesting. Blog about it.

For instance, on this day in 1999, "...for the first time since Charlemagne’s reign in the 9th century, Europe was united with a common currency when the “euro” debuted as a financial unit in corporate and investment markets."

Also, on this day in:

1785 Jacob Grimm was born
1847 Samuel Colt sold his 1st revolvers to the U.S. government
1896 Utah entered the Union
1964 the Boston Strangler killed again
1965 Poet T.S. Eliot died in London
1974 President Nixon refused to hand over the secretly-recorded tapes
1996 GM announced their first electric car,

Surely, there is something in the above list that stirs your imagination.

Try a dictionary or word/phrase resource. There are many covering quotations, proverbs, and other linguistic devices. Try these to start...

4. The Book of the Cliches

5. The Sports Cliche List

6. Portent Content Idea Generator

Just enter a word, and this cool website generates ideas about it.

7. Google Trends  or 8.  Google What's Hot

Find out what people are searching for on Google or what's currently hot. For instance, after the football games Sunday, these were the main topics on Gooogle What's Hot: Broncos, SteelerNation, GoHawks, KeepPounding, Vikings, FeelTheBern, NewYearsResolution, COTW (Character of the Week), and Texans. If I had checked an hour later, I'd probably find different topics.

Takeaway Truth

When thinking something about blogging, be careful not to overthink. Sometimes, the harder you rack your brain about what to write, the more elusive the ideas become. Use a resource like the ones above to kickstart your blogging.

Writing Truth No. 2

Writing Truth (or Reality) Number 2. Writing is hard work physically.

Yes, writing is hard mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Mentally

Read widely, not just in your chosen genre, so your imagination is always nourished by ideas. The brain is like your bicep muscles. What happens if you stop using your arms? The muscles slacken and grow weak.

In older people, it's easy to see what happens when they age and don't exercise. They grow weaker.

That will happen to your brain if you don't keep it stimulated.

Emotionally

One cannot write without being in touch with emotion. your emotional landscape is what informs your writing. How can you write about love if you do not love? How can you write about loss if you have not grieved?

A lot of people try to shove their emotions down--to pretend they don't feel the pain of losing a love or a loved one. If you do this, you never grow. If you stifle your emotions, you can never let another know you intimately. Your writing will show this barren emotional landscape because no matter how hard you try, pieces of yourself invade everything you write.

Physically

If you've worked at a computer for a year or more, you probably know how it can put kinks in your body.

I should be the poster child of how working at a computer can twist your body into a pretzel and give you muscle spasms that seem encased in cement. I've suffered pinched nerves and muscle spasms for too many years. Yet, I often ignore the pain signals from my body in order to finish a project.

Do yourself a favor. Make a habit of stretching before, during, and after a bout of writing. A few minutes at the top of the hour and at the end an hour will keep you writing and pain free.

Make a commitment to some form of exercise every day in addition to the writing/stretching routine.

It's easier and so much cheaper to prevent problems like p;inched nerves, back spasms, sciatic pain, and carpel tunnel than to cure them.

You know the old saying: "You are what you eat?" Well, you also are what you think about, what you feel, and how you use your physical body.

Takeaway Truth

If you ignore all aspects of your health, you will be miserable and eventually fall apart.

1 Writing Reality

With the start of the New Year, let's focus on what it means to be a successful writer. Let's explore 1 Writing Reality.

1. Writing success requires a consistent commitment.

Success: Noun meaning the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

Consistent: Adjective meaning unchanging in achievement or effect over a period of time.

Commitment: Noun meaning the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc.

During the holidays, my darling hubby and I watched When the Game Stands Tall Movie, the story of Coach Bob Ladouceur, the winningest high school coach in California history.

Jim Caviezel believably portrays Coach Ladouceur. The movie was so good that I sought out the book by Neil Hayes on which it was based.

Coach Ladouceur didn't just train his teams to play football. He trained them to be men--the kind of men who were honest, accountable, and who could be depended on by the world with which they interacted. He taught them to be honorable, to do the right thing. He instilled the values of family, brotherhood, and commitment.

At the beginning of each football training season, he had the players write their commitment on index cards. Commitment to practice, commitment to physical training, commitment to the game, etc. With each commitment, the players had to list a goal: practice goal, training goal, etc. (I also ordered Chasing Perfection: The Principles Behind Winning Football the De La Salle Way by Bob Ladouceur.)

Bob Ladouceur knew how to create life success as well as football success. Guess what? The same kind of principles that he taught about winning football games can be applied to any endeavor, such as writing.

1 Writing Reality: Writing success requires a consistent commitment.

Giveaway

Leave a comment on this post (like your writing commitment for this year) and receive a free copy of Little Book of Sunshine: For Readers and Writers

Takeaway Truth

Today, right now, sit down and write out your commitment to writing. How often will you write? How long will each writing session be? How will you train to be a better writer? For each commitment, write a matching goal.

Wishing You Bountiful Blessings in the New Year!

Auld Lang Syne means for the sake of old times.

In this New Year, let's remember the best of the past, and let the worst go.

Let's take a cup of kindness yes, but let's also give a cup of kindness in a literal way--let's be more kind to family, friends, and strangers too.

It's a new year...a new chance to get it right...to make a difference...to bring joy to the lives of those you love...to bring understanding and peace to those you interact with.

Takeaway Truth

Happy New Year.