Friday, November 21, 2014

Winner of the International Digital Award for Contemporary Short Novel

It is with great excitement that I announce Be Mine This Christmas Night won the amazing IDA award for short contemporary novel.


From what I've heard the competition was stiff and the entries numerous.

Thank you International Digital Awards and the Oklahoma Romance Writers of America for this incredible honor.



Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Five Secrets From Author Mary J. McCoy-Dressel



Today we learn Five Secrets from Mary J. McCoy-Dressel 
or as she calls them,"subtle secrets". 
Have to tell you, a tear came to my eye as I read them.
  Welcome Mary.

Bio: Mary writes sensual contemporary western romance with strong family ties, an occasional paranormal romance, and at times romantic fiction outside of the western genre.

She’s the author of four novels in the contemporary western romance genre with more books to come in each series. Two time-travel romance novels are now out of print. Some of her novels are emotional and compelling, and the characters don't have an easy time getting what they want, but their reward is sexy and sweet. In a lighter style she prefers to write more romantic and sensual love stories without all the conflict and drama.

Mary has two grown sons and an Australian Shepherd/ chow mix fur baby dog. She lives in the Great Lake state of Michigan, U.S.A. Her career job was in education working with children with learning disabilities—at elementary and middle school levels. She has taught creative writing for a college leisure program.

Mary loves photography, reading, going to the opera and dinner with friends, and also likes to travel. Loving books as a child, and growing up an avid reader, she is still inspired by other writers who have taught her to keep her eyes on the goal. Now she writes full-time—her dream come true.
  
Hi Mary, please tell us Five Secrets we may not know about Cowboy Boss and his Destiny or you, but will after today!

Hi, Leslie. Thanks for having me today. I have no major secrets to give away in this book. In fact, it was hard to come up with these five. Let’s call them subtle secrets. :)

1) Nora, Destiny, and Tristan star in Cowboy Boss and his Destiny. When this book was planned, Destiny’s original age wasn’t what you see in the book. She’s four, but turns five shortly after the story begins. When I began planning, Destiny was sixteen-months old. She remained sixteen-months-old until about page two when she told me she wasn’t a baby. Our characters are almost always right. (I love it!) Why did I change her age? I wanted her to interact in her world, with her dad, and with the rest of the family. To have her own opinions. No doubt she has opinions, and she also has her own fun personality. Destiny adds to the story and it was a great decision to make her older. In the “bonus book” #1.5, a short novel I wrote as an addition to Cowboy Boss, I noticed a change in her attitude.

2) Tristan calls Destiny Baby Cakes. I’m a widow now, but when I met my husband his daughter had just turned eight. He called her Baby Cakes. I didn’t call her that, because it was special between her and her dad. In Cowboy Boss and his Destiny, Nora won’t call Destiny “Baby Cakes” for the same reason. In fact, no one else in Destiny’s family calls her by that nickname.

3) This one surprised me in the beginning. Nora uses the color teal or turquoise at times for her carpet, bedroom colors, or clothes. Most of my heroines mention something in this color. This goes all the way back to the first book I wrote. Teal is my favorite color. It wasn’t planned in the beginning, but once I realized some of my heroines liked the color, I went with it.

4) The reason Tristan drives a Dodge Ram pickup in this book? I had my very own Ram pickup and I loved that truck. I guess that was my adult Tomboy stage. :-0 This type of truck fits my hero. If it brings me good memories, heck, why not give one to a hero? Mine was red and your basic pickup. His isn’t basic in any way. He’s a rancher and his truck fits the need, plus he has fun with the built-up engine. Tristan’s isn’t red.
  
5) The original idea that I can contribute to Cowboy Boss and his Destiny is a post office box I used to have. Once, years ago, I’d often see the same guy picking up his mail when I picked up mine. My mind automatically saw this as a way for my characters to meet. Is this how Nora and Tristan meet? No, not exactly. But through the years I kept going back to that idea. When Tristan came to me, he also came to me with the same predicament he’s found in, in the beginning of the book. It happens to be at the post office in a roundabout way. They would have met inside like my imagination showed me, but the scenario changed when I realized Tristan was a single dad.

These are my Five Secrets about Cowboy Boss and his Destiny, the first book in the Double Dutch Ranch Series: Love at First Sight. It can be read as a standalone. Heartbreak’s Reward, book two is available. The “bonus book” #1.5 I mentioned above is coming late 2014. More books will follow.

Blurb :
Tristan Carlson does the best he can to raise his four-year-old daughter on his own. His mother remains on the Double Dutch to lend a hand—giving him the ability to maintain the ranch, tend to his horses, and keep up his small-time ranching magazine. His pretty, new assistant is everything he wants in a woman, including her ginger-red hair. But from his experience with women lately, he’s learned that some don’t want a ready-made family. This one seems different, and he’s falling hard. But, there’s his little blue-eyed girl, and he’ll protect Destiny’s heart with everything within him. Until he knows for sure…

Living the good life in a big city for many years, Nora Trinity ends up a statistic after the magazine she works for makes cutbacks. Despite a family betrayal from her past that still needs mending, she moves back home to the small town of Canyon Junction, Arizona, with forgiveness on her mind. When she is hired by a local rancher to help with his ranching magazine, she finds herself profoundly attracted to him. The thing is, her sexy boss comes as a package deal, and his little girl is immediately drawn to her. It’s not just about two hearts taking a chance now—or two people falling in love. 

Buy Links:

Find Mary:


Monday, November 17, 2014

Screenwriter Robert Gosnell on What It's Really All About - Part Two




What It's Really All About - Part Two
 "If there were only one truth, you couldn't paint a hundred canvases on the same theme." - Pablo Picasso
How about that? I share something in common with Pablo Picasso! Who'd have thunk it?
If you read my previous column on the Master Theme, you've already gathered that I, too am an advocate of theme, not as it applies to painting, but as it applies to story telling.
Every story has a theme at it's core. Sometimes, the theme is simple to identify, such as "love" in a romantic comedy, or "survival" in a disaster film. Other times, in a story of more complexity, it can be tricky to nail down. But, it's there, and everything relies on it.
If a story is not relevant, in some way, to the human condition, then there is no story. It's that simple.
However, the Master Theme, once identified, is only the first piece in the theme puzzle. It's fine, to know what the overall theme of our story is, but we now must determine what we're going to do with that information.
That's where the Active Theme comes in. This gets us down to the nitty-gritty of telling our story, because we now must take a position, and reflect that position in the story we want to tell.
That is the subject of the following excerpt from my book, "The Blue Collar Screenwriter and The Elements of Screenplay." It is the second of three excerpts dealing with the exploration and application of theme. Next time, we'll get into the "Characters Take on the Theme," to demonstrate how our Active Theme is reflected by the characters in our story. 
The Active Theme
Once you've determined your Master Theme, the human value that will be explored, you now must decide what your story will say  about that value.
What is your story's position on "love," for instance? Love is blind? Love conquers all? Love makes the world go 'round?
Simple stuff, but it can go much deeper. There is physical love, dysfunctional love, obsessive love, family love, destructive love, love of self, love of home, love of country, love of ideals, and on and on. So many ways to go. And, any of those variations can provide your Active Theme.
Let's take a common genre that does double-duty as a Master Theme: War.
Now, you might not consider War to be a value, since it also doubles as a genre, but there is a human value inherent to it, and that is conflict. Since the act of war is the highest level of human conflict, it is rife with thematic possibilities.
Within the War theme can be many common Active Themes. As we've seen in the examples of "Gone With The Wind" and "Saving Private Ryan," Active Themes within the Master Theme of War can be as varied as love and sacrifice.
Let's look at some classic war films, and the thematic choices made by the writers and filmmakers.
Most war movies made in the 40's and 50's were basically propaganda films. John Wayne, Audie Murphy and stars of that ilk were always the "good guys" while the enemy, be they Nazis, Japanese or whoever were not only "bad guys," but they were portrayed as less than human. Evil for evils sake. Beyond redemption. Unfortunately, this level of blatant bias reflected the morals and politics of the time.
Our leads, the "good guys," were always heroic, righteous and victorious in a just cause. The message they sent was that War is noble. War brings honor.
War makes heroes of men.
Now, enter the 70's, when attitudes began to change, thanks in large part to that nasty Vietnam conflict. Movies like "Apocalypse Now," "Platoon," and later "Full Metal Jacket" delivered just the opposite message of the earlier rah-rah war stories. They showed us the "dirty" side of war, and what it does to those immersed in the conflict; how it hardens them and brings out the worst in human nature. They told us that...
War makes monsters of men.
Same Master Theme, but completely different Active Themes.
Here's yet another take. "Catch 22" and "MASH" told us that war is ironic, even laughable; worthy of ridicule. Insanity forced upon the average man against his will. In other words...
War is absurd.
Some genres have obvious Master Themes, and a good example is Romantic Comedy. In this genre, "love" is always the Master Theme, otherwise, it isn't a romantic comedy. It isn't a romantic anything. The Active Theme, however, is more flexible.
In "The Graduate," the story faithfully hit all of the required Rom Com beats: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. The ending, however, was a far cry from the warm, fuzzy, "happily-ever-after" endings we had grown used to in the earlier films of the genre, from the 40's and 50's.
The ending of "The Graduate," in fact the entire film, was bittersweet; a struggle, emotionally, physically and morally for our leads. The ending didn't tell us that Ben and Elaine would live happily ever after in wedded bliss. It told us they were taking a huge chance, throwing caution to the wind. Don't believe it? Watch the film and look at the uncertainty creep over their faces as they ride away on that bus.
Love is risky.
It was risky throughout the entire story, and it was still risky at the end.
Now, take a look at "There's Something About Mary." Everyone loved Mary in some warped, dysfunctional way. Not your mother's romantic comedy. The Active Theme, here, was...
Love is obsessive.
But, the Master Theme is still love.
"Slasher" films also embrace simple, basic Master Themes. In a slasher film, it's either about survival or revenge, depending on who we're rooting for; the killer or his victims. Therefore, the Active Theme isn't likely to vary much in this genre, either.
Perhaps a character learns that only by enlisting the help of others can she defeat a crazed killer, telling us that...
Survival is achieved through unity.
Another approach might have our hero fighting back to stay alive, concluding that...
Survival is achieved through conflict.
The messages remain pretty simplistic and familiar in slasher films, but there is always a message.
Hollywood studio pioneer Samuel Goldwyn once quipped:
"If you want to send a message, call Western Union."
I suppose, today, it would be "send a tweet." With all due respect to Mr. Goldwyn, every story has a message, whether we intend it to, or not. It's part of the package. Even Jerry Seinfeld's "show about nothing" was always about something. The Active Theme, what your story has to say about your Master Theme, is your message.
There is usually more than one Active Theme being played out, within a story. "Rocky," while primarily a story of redemption, also contained a Love theme in the subplot between Rocky and Adrian."The Wrestler" explored the same two themes, Redemption and Love, except as a tragedy. In both films, our central protagonist was attempting to overcome long odds to make a comeback, and in both films, love was a sub-theme. In "Rocky," our hero succeeded in achieving redemption and winning love. In "The Wrestler," Randy "The Ram" failed at both.
Believe it or not, the same two themes were explored in the classic 40's noir film "Casablanca." In this case, Love was the dominant theme, while Redemption the sub-theme. In "Casablanca," Rick won redemption, but lost at love. Once you start playing with those combinations, you unlock a Rubik's Cube of possibilities.
***

Robert's book, "The Blue Collar Screenwriter and The Elements of Screenplay" is currently available at:
Amazon digital and paperback
CreateSpace 
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords
Find Robert at:
Website (with information on classes)
Email
IMDB Page

A professional screenwriter for more than thirty years, Robert Gosnell has produced credits in feature films, network television, syndicated television, basic cable and pay cable, and is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of Canada.
Robert began his career writing situation comedy as a staff writer for the ABC series Baby Makes Five. As a freelance writer, he wrote episodes for Too Close for Comfort and the TBS comedies Safe at Home and Rocky Road. In cable, he has scripted numerous projects for the Disney Channel, including Just Perfect, a Disney Channel movie featuring Jennie Garth. 
In 1998, he wrote the Showtime original movie, Escape from Wildcat Canyon, which starred Dennis Weaver and won the national "Parents Choice Award." Robert's feature credits include the Chuck Norris/Louis Gosset Jr. film Firewalker, an uncredited rewrite on the motion picture Number One With A Bullet starring Robert Carradine and Billy Dee Williams, and the sale of his original screenplay Kick And Kick Back to Cannon Films. Robert was also selected as a judge for the 1990 Cable Ace awards, in the Comedy Special category.
In 1990, Robert left Hollywood for Denver, where he became active in the local independent film community. His screenplay Tiger Street was produced by the Pagoda Group of Denver, and premiered on Showtime Extreme in August of 2003. In 1999, Denver’s Inferno Films produced the action film Dragon and the Hawk from his script. In 2001, Robert co-wrote the screenplay for the independent feature Siren for Las Vegas company Stage Left Productions. His feature script Juncture was produced by Front Range Films in March of 2006.
Robert is a principal member of the Denver production company "Conspiracy Films." He is frequently an invited speaker for local writers organizations, served on the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference in 2002, and in 2007 was chosen to participate as a panelist for the Aspen Film Festival Short Screenplay Contest. Robert regularly presents his screenwriting class "The Elements of Screenplay," along with advanced classes and workshops, in the Denver area. 


Sunday, November 16, 2014

Kayelle Allen's ~ A Romance For Christmas

A Romance for Christmas

A sweet holiday romance showcasing love, loss, and the spirit of giving.


A cop at the door on Christmas Eve brings an unexpected gift.

It's Christmas Eve, and the end of a year in which everything Dara loves has been lost. Everything but her little girl and a fierce determination to survive. When a cop brings Christmas to her door, he brings another gift she never expected to get.






Buy Links:

Barnes and Noble http://bit.ly/1wpYfL2
iBooks http://is.gd/sdSfMT
CreateSpace http://is.gd/gazeza

Video: http://youtu.be/Dzr6lv5DzgsMusic: O Christmas Tree, piano performed by Vladimir Sterzer, licensed by Jamendo.com. Images courtesy of PhotoXpress.com and RGBstock.com

GiveawayPeek inside the book for background on the story, the reason for the names, excerpts, buy links, and more: http://is.gd/rom4cmaspeek

About the Author:
Kayelle Allen is a multi-published, award-winning author. Her unstoppable heroes and heroines include contemporary every day folk, role-playing immortal gamers, futuristic covert agents, and warriors who purr.