Liz Flaherty is a reader favorite!
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...it's hard to be creative everywhere you need to be creative, so here's my attempt for Word Wranglers today. Please forgive me and know that ultimately, you'll be glad I put the effort in Book 2 of the Langes Brothers series... Sure appreciate your patience!
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| The plaque I keep close to my computer. Determination is my word. |
It’s my turn to answer the Five Questions posed by Nan. Some of the questions are easier to answer than others, and some I’ve never thought of before. I hope you enjoy my answers!
1. Writing can be an emotionally draining and stressful pursuit. Any tips for aspiring writers?
Having a writing “tribe” or group of friends is really helpful. Nan and Liz talked about the importance of bouncing ideas off each other. Only another writer will understand the importance of tiny points of plot that make the difference between an okay story and great story. Writer friends can help you see your story more clearly.
Writer friends also share ideas about marketing and provide useful information about publishing. One of my writer friends gave me vital information about self-publishing, and I would have had a much harder time releasing my self-published books without her help. You can also commiserate with writer friends when things go wrong. They understand the ups and downs of this business better than anyone.
2. If you could be mentored by a famous author, who would it be and why?
Jane Austen. I don’t write Regencies (at least not yet!) but I admire the way Jane Austen was able to comment on the social conventions of her time, often making fun of them, while telling beautiful love stories. Her ability to make us laugh is also something I want to emulate.
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| Some of my writer friends. |
3. At what point do you think someone should consider themselves a writer?
I think you can call yourself a writer when you first begin to write. But I don’t think you can call yourself an author until you let others read and judge your work, whether that’s by letting writer friends critique it, submitting it to publishers or self-publishing your work and allowing readers to decide what they think of it. Either path is great; it all depends on what you want from writing. If you’re happy to write for your own enjoyment and no one ever sees it, that’s great. If you want to reach many readers and pursue publication, that’s good, too. Whatever makes you happy.
4. If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
Determined, family-oriented, tolerant. I’m not sure if these are the best words to describe me, but it’s what I’ve come up with today. (Just saying, it’s not easy to describe yourself!)
5. You are the publisher and the choice is yours--what is your new romance imprint going to be?
In her Five Questions, Liz talked about reviving the Next series that Harlequin used to print about older heroines finding their second act. I definitely second that motion. I’d also like to revive another defunct Harlequin imprint: Duets, a line of romantic comedies. I think we can always use some laughs, although I’ve got to say that writing comedy is way harder than it looks. But good romantic comedy is sublime.
Kitty Berry Books, LLC. is excited to announce the 2nd RomantiConn author event coming on July 24, 2021! It’s a fun-filled event where authors and readers share their love of fangirling, book-boyfriends, and all things related to books and romance. RomantiConn offers a day to get away from the stress and spend time with friends
https://romanticonn2021.
When I was a little girl, I loved the story of Rapunzel, and the modern version of it, Tangled, captivated audiences as much as the earlier version did. Throughout the story, we all sympathized with the poor girl’s plight; being locked in a tower year after year, while longingly wishing to venture out into the world beyond. As the story goes, the maiden is eventually set free and lives happily-ever-after, thanks to her liberator. And, as is often the case of life imitating fiction, this past year has made Rapunzels out of the vast majority of us. But, now that we have more freedom to step out into the world again, thanks to our liberators—Moderna, and Pfizer,—many of us are doing so with some hesitation, if not down-right trepidation. Ah, how quickly the new normal becomes the comfortable normal, and how slow we are to return to the old normal even though the tower walls are crumbling down around us.
Much like being in the midst of a winter storm in Minnesota, when the pandemic hit, we closed ourselves safely away in the warmth and safety of our homes, put on our most comfortable clothing, tried our hand at new culinary delights, and learned how to make a Zoom call, then we pretty much stayed that way for most of the year without having to apologize or feel guilty for staying put. And, while we did that, we also found different ways of coping with a newly scripted way of life.
I was talking with a friend the other day and telling him how my husband and I had found new ways of enjoying ourselves while having to keep the world at bay.
“Jersey Mike’s has been a saving grace for us,” I explained. “Each time we go down to check out the progress on the building of the lake house, we get take-out at the sub place and then eat in the car. To tell you the truth,” I laughed, feeling a little silly, “it’s been really nice—kind of like being on a date.”
“That’s eating between the lines,” my friend nodded knowingly.
“Huh?”
“Eating between the lines,” he repeated, as though saying it a second time would make it all clear to me. Obviously, the look of confusion on my face let him know I hadn’t a clue. “You park your car between the lines and eat,” he explained. “Eating between the lines! My wife and I do it all the time and thoroughly enjoy it. And we usually do it after taking a ride down some half-hidden little side road we never took much notice of before. We’ve discovered some pretty cool little places, too. It’s been a great little escape.”
I knew exactly what he meant, and I knew how badly we’ve all needed that. But, I also knew that after taking a little discovery trip down those roads less traveled and eating between the lines somewhere, I was usually ready to go on home.
During this pandemic, home has taken on a whole new role. Though it was always a safe haven, and one I looked forward to returning to after a busy day “out there”, coming back to my brick and mortar womb has somehow become even more comforting; for it’s there that I can leave behind an oftentimes unrecognizable world and enter a place where my footing feels familiar, solid and sure.
I have filled my home with many lovely pieces of artwork over the years (most of which were locally made by our tremendously gifted artists in the area), and I have countless flameless and real candles sitting in numerous cubbyholes, on tabletops and shelves throughout my house. I often play light, almost ethereal instrumental music on my satellite TV, and have numerous bookshelves filled with a vast assortment of books that can always take me anywhere I want to go without passports, money or fear of some strange pandemic zombie-fying me. I have surrounded myself with those things that comfort and lift me; things that act as a kind of counterbalance to those things beyond my control outside my door that so easily wear us down today.
As I’m slowly reemerging into a semi-recognizable version of Old Normal Land, I can’t help but think of the usual little quip people often make when a baby’s due date comes and goes without the slightest contraction: “Well, the kid knows what kind of world it is out there and is happy to stay put!” I’m finding that so many of us aren’t in too big of a hurry to leave our brick and mortar wombs either. Perhaps it’s because we’ve just simply gotten out of the habit of constantly running around and allowing our days to be controlled by a calendar filled with very specific times to be at very specific places. Or we’ve come to realize that our homes are more than just a giant battery recharging station that allows us to re-energize before bursting through the front door again the next morning. Maybe we’ve found that the place where the best things in life can be found is right in our own backyard—literally—, and the home that rests upon it will continually be there for us, welcoming us in, like a beautiful beacon in life’s many storms.
