Happy Endings… they come in many genres (and some where you might not expect to find them)

They might not always be “happily ever after” but even the premise of a couple beginning their life together can be a happy ending.

What of the ending of a crime novel? The criminal is caught, the police have done their job. Not a happy ending in the strictest sense but a good resolution. And if you love reading crime fiction then that could be considered YOUR happy ending.

And the most unsuspecting place I think you can find a happy ending is in the horror genre. Good triumphs over evil… how much happier can you get than that?

Okay, I confess, I have some strange ideas when it comes to places to find happy endings.

And as long as you feel good, satisfied at the outcome, and put a book away and not feel cheated… doesn’t that make a happy ending?

So before I alienate my romance writer friends and readers, I still love to pick up a good romance novel. And more importantly, I write in that genre – although I still remain pre-published, I remain hopeful that one day I’ll be a featured on an interactive website as fantastic as http://loveahappyending.com/

A lovely Sunday Afternoon walk

After making the Father’s Day rounds – cemetery to leave flowers for my Dad, out to the house to deliver my step-Dad’s gift (which ended up being left between the doors because he wasn’t home), my husband and I walked from our house to the supermarket at the far end of the high street. After getting home from the writing workshop last night and catching up on other things, I hadn’t taken any meat out of the freezer for supper, and if we wanted to eat tonight, we had to go to the store. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and almost brutally hot if you weren’t in the shade.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take the time to put a sensible pair of walking shoes on before we left. On our way back, when we got to our street, I slipped off my sandals and walked the rest of the way in my bare feet… except when I had to cross one street. The sun-kissed concrete sidewalk was hot enough on the bottoms of my wee tootsies.

Yesterday’s Brian Henry Workshop

Brian’s How to Write a Bestseller workshop was fantastic! Like all his workshops I’ve attended, it was intense but presented in such a way that I wasn’t overloaded with information. I learned lots of tricks and tidbits that I can’t wait to try in my own writing.

After the lunch break, Kelley Armstrong gave an interesting presentation from an author’s perspective and experiences. Again lots of good stuff, I can’t wait to try.

All in all a good day.

 

 

How to Write a Bestseller – Brian Henry Workshop Saturday, June 18, Mississauga

Here’s the scoop on the workshop I’m attending on Saturday in Mississauga. I’ve attended a number of Brian’s workshops in the past and have thoroughly enjoyed them and come home from them energized, inspired and ready to write.

With book editor Brian Henry & New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong

Saturday, June 18
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Chartwell Baptist Church
1880 Lakeshore Road West, Mississauga (Map here.)

This workshop will give you the inside scoop on what gives a novel best-selling potential. You’ll learn how to get readers emotionally involved in your story, how to raise tension, control your pacing and keep your readers turning the pages. But you won’t just hear about some of the best secrets of the trade; you’ll learn how to apply them to give your own writing a sharp new edge.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing teacher for more than 25 years. He has helped many of his students get published, including guest speaker Kelley Armstrong…

Expected Cover for Counterfeit Magic

Kelley Armstrong lives in Aylmer, south of London, Ontario, with her husband and three children. She used to program computers and attend Brian Henry workshops. Now she writes international bestsellers. Kelley has hit the New York Time’s bestseller list with both her supernatural thrillers for adults and her urban fantasy for teens.

Kelley’s principal publishers are Random House Canada, Bantam U.S., and Warner in Britain. To date, she’s published two dozen books, most recently Tales of the Otherworld (all proceeds for which go to Literacy Canada) and Waking the Witch.  By June, she’ll have two more out: Counterfeit Magic and The Gathering.

 

Check out Kelley’s website here.

Fee: $38.94 + 13% hst = $44 paid in advance
or $42.48 + 13% hst = $48 if you wait to pay at the door
To reserve a spot now, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

For information about all of Brian Henry’s writing workshops and creative writing courses, see here.

Night Watcher by Chris Longmuir featured on June 15th on Sinclair Books

Night Watcher by Chris Longmuir

Chris is being featured on this month’s Book of the Month in Alex Sinclair’s blog, Sinclair Books. Alex features one of the books each day and her slot is on the 15th.

In addition to being featured tomorrow on the blog, you can vote for her book to be the “book of the month”. To vote you need to click on the book title Night Watcher, which is about the middle of the list of books that go down the right hand side, then click on vote button at the bottom. Here is the link that will take you there. http://sinclairbooks.blogspot.com/?zx=405fec9b25c68a1d

Although Chris’s book is featured tomorrow, you can vote at any time during the month. At last update she had 15 votes and is trying to get that increased as there are other book on his site with lots more.

Come on folks, lets make Night Watcher Alex Sinclair’s book of the month for June 2011.

House of Silence by Linda Gillard

I finished reading this earlier today. I first saw this title on the Festival of Romance Online. The cover immediately drew me in. Dark, gloomy sky and English manor house. The fact that it was set in Norfolk was an added bonus for me having travelled through there in 2005.

House of Silence
House of Silence
by Linda Gillard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting read. Plenty of plot twists kept me wondering exactly what currently was happening behind the closed doors of Creake Hall and what had happened there in the past.

View all my reviews

Behind Blue Eyes Trilogy

Audrey Hawkins, who writes as Joanna Lambert, makes her home in south-west England near Bath. While she loves the city, her heart remains in the country where she grew up in a small village on the edge of the Salisbury plain – well known for its World Heritage Site – Stonehenge.

According to her author website, Audrey describes herself as a Saga Writer.

Her Behind Blue Eyes Trilogy began its life as one rather large manuscript with the working title “In Sunshine or in Shadow”. Now the story is told over the course of three books, the first of which is “When Tomorrow Comes”.

Book 1 is set in 1967 and introduces the reader to eighteen year old Ella Kendrick.

Loves, Lies & Promises, the second in the series, begins at Christmas 1968.

The final book in the trilogy, The Ghost of You and Me, takes place after the birth of Ella’s baby. But that’s all I’m going to say for now.

 

I’m the associate reader for this author at http://loveahappyending.com/

The Behind Blue Eyes Trilogy can be purchased from the following locations in paperback or Kindle format:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/
http://www.amazon.com/

or at the following…
http://www.authorsonline.co.uk/
http://www.tesco.com/
http://www.whsmith.co.uk/
http://www.lovereading.co.uk/

Last night’s (June 8, 2011) storm

Looking out my front door

This photo doesn’t really do it justice. The trees behind the neighbour’s house were blowing like crazy from all directions at almost the same time. The rain was coming down almost horizontally, the wind was so fierce.

I have a small roof over my front door – similar to those in the photo – and I was getting wet standing in my front hall, foyer, vestibule whatever you prefer to call it!

I shot this picture with my Blackberry and had it held tight against the screen so that the camera wouldn’t focus on the mesh. Not bad but…

Still pretty freaky sky. I was only home from work about ten minutes when it all started. It was really black north of the 401 and I watched the sky darken in my rear view mirror the closer I got to my wee house.

First it was the wind. Violent. Then the rains came. Then the thunder and lightning. Mostly just rumbling thunder but every now and then, to keep a body on their toes, there was a huge boomer!

Storms don’t bother me. I’ve sat outside and watched many a good thunderstorm over the years. And after the power goes out, what else is there to do? That isn’t to say that an unexpected loud clap of thunder doesn’t make me jump – it does. But unlike some people who have a real phobia when it comes to storms, I’m not that phased by them. Luckily, our lights only flickered a couple of times and the worst was over in time for us to cook supper on the BBQ and better yet, it didn’t interrupt my viewing of Coronation St.

june 8 2011 storm video I shot a video using my Blackberry from out on the covered portion of our deck overlooking the back yard. Because our yard slopes downhill away from the house, the effect of the storm wasn’t nearly as dramatic. The biggest event that happened was my disused, rusted out metal clothesline pole came down. I was hoping that when I was shooting the video I would have captured some good lightning flashes or loud thunder claps but alas, I wasn’t so lucky. However, I did manage to capture some emergency vehicle sirens… in addition to the water pouring out the end of my gutter.

Again tonight there’s a chance of another thunderstorm. Call me weird, but I can’t wait.

 

My Scottish roots and writing by Melanie Robertson-King