Hale and Hearty Words

February 27, 2012 · 6:00 am

Welcome to my new home!

Welcome to my new blog!

I’m so excited to reveal it to you. I’ve got lots of great posts planned, and now that I’ve updated everything I’ll be able to get your feedback and you’ll be able to follow.

I really appreciate you, faithful readers!

I’ve created this new site so that I can blog more effectively, plus get out information that I think you’ll find interesting and helpful (check out the pages on the site).

If you’re here for the first time, you can find out more about me by checking out the “About” page at the top.

I hope you’ll consider following me in at least one of several ways that you’ll find in the sidebar to the right. Add my blog’s feed to your reader, follow by email, even follow me on Twitter! I really appreciate your participation in what I’m doing and I hope you’ll benefit from it. I look forward to your comments and getting to know you via this little spot on the Web!

Because I’m so excited about launching this new site, I’ve decided to do a fun giveaway to get things kicked off!

One of the things you have to know about me is that I’m a hopeless romantic. Jane Austen being the epitome of hopeless romantics, I’m a big, big fan.

Giveaway Giveaway Giveaway Giveaway Giveaway Giveaway Giveaway

I’m giving away a copy of A Jane Austen Devotional!

(Thomas Nelson Publishers)

A beautiful devotional, brimming with the wit and wisdom of Jane Austen and the timeless truths of Scripture.

The works of Jane Austen can transport a reader to a world that exudes beauty, peace, wisdom, wit, and love. Captivating audiences for 200 years, the works of Jane Austen continue to capture today’s readers in droves.

This daily devotional includes short excerpts from the Austen classics, and a devotional thought and Scripture that meaningfully translates to women’s daily lives. Offering temporary transport to a simple and peaceful place, women will love taking a moment to revel in the beauty and truth of a Scripture paired with excerpts from Northanger Abbey, Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and Emma.

(from Amazon)

This book is beautiful. The cover is cloth and makes me feel wistful and romantic just holding it. And putting together the words of Jane Austen and the words of God? Inspired genius. I.love.this.devotional.

So I think you should have a copy.

If you’d like to win this book, please leave a comment below in one of the following ways:

– If you are a returning follower, tell me what you like about my new web home.

– If you are a new follower, tell me a little about yourself and how you came to find my blog.

(If you’re a dude and you can’t think of a good reason why you should enter because you don’t want to win this book, enter anyway. If you win, this book would make a great gift for a special lady in your life!)

All names will be put into a hat and one name will be randomly selected.

The contest will remain open until Tuesday, March 6th, and the winner will be announced via my post on Wednesday, March 7th!

So tell your friends and family, Twitter followers, Facebook friends, other bloggies, and anyone you can think of. You’ll be helping me gain new followers for this site, and you’ll have a chance to win this beautiful book!

Thanks everyone, and good luck!!

Share with me: Leave a comment below to enter to win a copy of A Jane Austen Devotional!

33 Comments

Filed under Just For Fun, Writing

Tagged as contest

February 10, 2012 · 6:00 am

Maybe It’s Good That I Never Win

I never win things. Okay, almost never.

There was this one time, about a thousand years ago, when I tried to call a friend of mine who worked at a local radio station. I dialed the main station number, but I must have been seriously confused and mixed up the promos I heard on the radio that give the phone numbers, because when the phone was answered, here’s how it went:

“Rock 103, do you know the answer?”

“Ummmm….I have the wrong number.” I distinctly remember the heat in my face because I knew I was live on the air.

“You have the wrong number? What?”

“Yeah, sorry. I was trying to call a friend at another station.”

Huge guffaws of laughter. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah. He works at B one-oh-…”

“Wait! Don’t say another station’s name live on our air!”

“Sorry.” Swallow. Hang up. Just hang up.

“So you don’t know the answer to our trivia question?”

“No. What’s the question?”

More laughter.

“Well, you didn’t find your friend, but how about this? Congratulations! You’re our winner for this hour!”

What.Is.Happening. “Really? Uh, thanks.”

“Yeah. You’ll have a prize pack made up of a t-shirt, a mug, a bumper sticker, some promo cards for the station and a demo CD of Pearl Jam. Nirvana. Toad the Wet Sprocket. Radiohead.Vertical Horizon.”

“Ummm…..Thanks…?”

“What station hooks you up with all that stuff and the best rock in the valley area?”

Okay. This is the part when I’m supposed to say the station call-sign thingy, and I can’t remember the station I called. Holy cow. “Ummm…Sunny 100?”

Dead silence on the air for way longer than they are supposed to allow dead silence.

“Uh, no.”

“I’m sorry. I have the wrong number.”

Yes, I did go pick up my prize pack. 🙂

Share with me: For a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card, tell me about a time when you won something, or if you’ve never won anything, tell me about a time you did something really embarrassing. One commenter will be chosen at random to receive the prize! The drawing will be open until Thursday, 2/16/12 and the winner will be announced in a post next Friday! Good luck!
Oh, and, feel free to check out some of my other posts while you’re here. 🙂

8 Comments

Filed under Just For Fun

Tagged as amazon gift card, contest, giveaway, radio

February 8, 2012 · 7:05 am

Are You Writing to Your Character’s Love Language?

My Sunday school class recently started a new study– The 5 Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman.

Some of you have probably heard of this book/study. It’s been around for awhile and has pretty much become a staple for anyone getting married or working to improve their marriage. (Aren’t we all?)

Although I’ve known about this book for years, I had never read it. So when my Sunday school teacher announced that this would be our study for the quarter, I was really excited.

I really wanted to get into the nitty gritty of what my love language is and what my husband’s is. And once we both took the quiz to discover that information, I was not at all surprised by the results. It pretty much pegged us.

We were discussing the results in class a few Sundays ago when our teacher recommended that we try to discover the love language of our children.

And I had an ah-ha! moment.

Why not use this material and apply it to my characters? I am a romance writer, after all.

A little light bulb turned on over my head.

I started thinking about my WIP and almost immediately I knew what love language each of my lead characters communicated in. Because of that, I knew how he and she should respond to each other–what needed to happen for them to “feel” loved and how they would communicate their love to one another.

In case you aren’t familiar with The 5 Love Languages, they are as follows:

1. Words of Affirmation
2. Quality Time
3. Receiving Gifts
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch

According to Dr. Chapman, each of us falls into one of these categories–this is what we need from our spouse or significant other in order to feel loved–this is also most likely how we communicate our love.

In order for a lasting relationship to happen, we need to understand what language our partner needs, learn to speak it, and have our partner return the favor.

I scored a perfect 100% for my primary Love Language to be acts of service. I wasn’t at all surprised by this. I don’t need diamonds or fancy dinners out or lavish vacations (although those things are nice!). What I need is for my hubby to occasionally fold the laundry, run errands for me, bathe our children, etc. Thankfully my husband speaks my Love Language pretty well. 🙂

My husband’s primary Love Language is physical touch. I wasn’t surprised by this, either. He likes to hold hands, hug a lot, put his arm around me. And he needs me to respond to that.

So, how can this information be applied to characters in a romance?

Think about your heroine. Among all the other things you consider about her at creation, how will she respond best and feel most loved and cherished when your hero comes a-callin’? Will it be the moment when he repairs the roof of her house? Will it be his silver tongue, laced with words of love that wins her? Or how about when his lips meet hers? Will she respond best to a box from Tiffany’s to know that she’s loved, or maybe just a walk on a beach at sunset?

What does she need to feel loved?

When considering my heroine, I knew right away that her love language was words of affirmation. She needs to hear them–she needs to be valued verbally. The more Hero praises her, builds her up, encourages her, the more she falls for him. Yeah, she likes the kisses. She likes the time they spend together, but she needs those words.

What does my hero need to feel loved?

For him it’s physical touch. He needs to feel her respond to him. He needs to know that when his fingers linger on her hand, sparks are flying. He needs her to want to be close to him.

Yeah, I can totally make that happen. 🙂

Let’s look at an example from pop culture. I give you the Love Languages of Bella and Edward.

It is possible for a person to have more than one love language. For Bella, I definitely think she’s a mixture of quality time and physical touch. I mean, for Pete’s sake, she nearly went nuts when Edward vanished in New Moon. In all the books, his proximity to her body is what she needs to feel like he loves her. The more he’s around, the more time they spend together, the more she feels loved. Yeah, this sounds like she’s needy, but it’s just her love language–it’s part of her makeup–what she needs to feel loved.

And Edward. His love language is words of affirmation. This should be glaringly obvious, I think. He needs to be told over and over and over and over and over that he’s not a horrible creature, that he’s not hurting Bella, that she truly does love him, that he’s a good person/vampire/humanesque creature. He needs to hear it–words that affirm.

Who agrees with my analysis of these two?

Focusing a little attention on your characters and their love language helps develop not only the backstory (why does she need words of affirmation?) but also helps you to create the romance.

Not every girl falls for the man who buys her fancy things. (Crazy, right?)

Not every guy needs to spend every waking moment with his girl to know that they are in love.

Develop your characters around this concept– that they each speak a Love Language, and you’ll develop a lasting romance.

Share with me: Can you think of characters in a novel that have easily identifiable Love Languages? What about your characters? Can you identify what Love Language they are speaking?