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Showing posts from January, 2021

Stories With Barbara: The Watchers in Exile

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In case you missed the announcement yesterday, THE WATCHERS IN EXILE, the second book in my epic fantasy trilogy, is now available.  If you were anywhere near Greer, SC last night, you might have heard me squeal in excitement. Why? This book hit #1 in New Releases on Amazon yesterday!. I didn't expect that, and I'm still trying to grasp this truth. Thank you for purchasing and spreading the word about The Watchers of Moniah series! During the last week of the month I record a YouTube video of one of my stories. In honor of this week's book release, I decided to share part of Chapter One from THE WATCHERS IN EXILE with you today. Below the video, you'll find the back cover description and links to purchase both books. Note: the video was filmed on launch day and shared privately with newsletter subscribers first. If you want to receive advance notice of events and prizes, consider signing up for The Watcher Tribe newsletter . Who do you trust, when everything falls apa

My Not-So-Overnight Success

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Image courtesy of Pixabay & anaterate When many people first hear about a book, they often think the writing and publication happened overnight--an overnight success. I started writing  The Watchers of Moniah   several years ago, but, with all three books of the trilogy coming out in a three month period, it might appear that it truly did happen in very little time. It did not. I got the idea for the story in the 1990s. It's cliché, but the idea came from a dream. I didn't start writing the story until several years later. In 2007, I joined a local writing group. I'd written 50k words at that point. The typical novel runs 70-80k, but in the fantasy genre books often run 90-100k words. Thanks to the motivation of meeting with other writers, I completed the book in 2008. It was a whopping 103k words. I went through several edits and got feedback from beta readers, my writing group, and agents and editors at conferences. Beta readers and my fellow writers loved it. Agents

When Life Gets In the Way

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Do you have those days when you wonder if you'll manage to get anything useful done? Or is just me? Last week, my Wednesday-Saturday gave me this feeling of too many errands, not enough time, leaving me to ponder whether 2021 wants to outdo 2020. Luckily for me, one positive surfaced in those few days. My publisher sent me the cover art for THE WATCHERS IN EXILE. It's beautiful, isn't it? Many thanks to Jake Clark of J Caleb Design for once again providing an amazing cover for my book. Here's the front cover: Thank goodness for blessings, no matter how simple they may be. I needed it more than anything because I wasn't managing to get any real writing done. Not because I couldn't think of what to write. No, that wasn't it. I couldn't find the time to write. If you've read any articles or books about writing, you'll know they abound with advice, but almost all of them include this one: No matter how many words you write, you should write each day

2nd Chance Drawing of the Book Launch Prize

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Wow! January 2021 is here, and there's so much going on. I'm looking forward to meeting several of you tomorrow night during my Virtual Book Discussion event with Fiction Addiction. It's Jan. 5 at 6 pm EST, and if you haven't registered, you can do so here . If you subscribe to my newsletter, you know I celebrated the launch of THE WATCHERS OF MONIAH with a Book Launch prize giveaway. On Dec. 18, I spun  a wheel with all of my newsletter subscribers' names on it to award the prizes. Unfortunately, I was unable to connect with the grand prize winner or the third place winner, so I'm spinning the wheel again. Check it out in the video below to see if you won! As mentioned in the video, I'll be participating in a Virtual Author Event with Fiction Addiction on Tuesday, Jan. 5 at 6 pm EST. Registration is free, but you must sign up   to participate. I'll be talking about the book, giraffes, and answering your questions.