Location, Location, Location!

Real estate agents tell you it's all about the location when you buy a house. I'm no real estate agent, can't even imagine doing it, but from my own writer's perspective I'll agree with them. For me, a book's plot begins with location.

As a lifelong traveler (I was born in the Caribbean to American parents, grew up in South America and joined the U.S. military before retiring to travel full time in a recreational vehicle), I can't seem to stay in one place for long. Given my itchy feet, it's no wonder that when the first inklings of a story come to me, they are always inspired by the beauty around me. From the majesty of alpine peaks in national parks to the untamed beauty of Alaska to the warm turquoise waters of the Caribbean and the sugary sands of the Gulf Coast, I'm compelled to begin a book with location. The characters and plot serve only to dress up the story! I believe that's what they call "setting as character."

I'm just one post on the Classic Romance Revival's Blog Carnival http://www.classicromancerevival.com/blog/?p=688. Please stop by the carnival at the blog to visit with the other writers. I believe some are giving gifts away. Here are the rules for the contest.

CONTEST - RULES AND HOW TO ENTER

This is a Classic Romance Revival GROUP event. You MUST have commented on EACH and EVERY blog in order to qualify for a prize.

Visit each of the blogs and leave your comment
Don't forget to add your email and name so we can contact you if you're a winner!
You may comment more than once.
The contest runs from now until Saturday 13th June, 12noon EST.
At the end of the contest THREE best comments will be selected from each blog.
These will then be judged, and the 15 WINNERS will receive an ARC download from one of our participating authors
These 15 winners will then go through to the FINAL DRAW for our Grand Prize.

In honor of my fellow bloggers and writers of "classic romance," I'm giving away a free e-book set in the beautiful Caribbean, "Caribbean Dreams of Love," to one name which I'll pick from those who leave a comment on my blog by tomorrow at 12 noon Central Standard Time. Tell me how you feel about the importance of settings in books!


Bess McBride
www.bessmcbride.com

Caribbean Dreams of Love..A Pirate Story...But Not THAT Kind of Pirate!

It would be just my luck to have a book about pirates released...just about the time when the news of real-life poor bandits like Somalian pirates seemingly take the "romance" right out of the word. And admittedly, piracy has never been a good thing...even in the Caribbean. Thieves and/or murderers...but on the high seas! And I hate stealing. We just had our bikes stolen the other day. Argh... Any idea of glorifying piracy is nuts and untrue to my values! And yet, I wrote a romance novel with pirates. What can I say? It's fiction! HOWEVER...I'll clue the reader in... Okay, I'll give the story away. No, not the book, just the plot. My "pirate" isn't all he seems to be. There! I've said it. Try to picture him in something other than a raft. Here's a bit about Caribbean Dreams of Love, one of my favorite books. It's the story of a lonely woman and her precocious teenage daughter, a Caribbean cruise, a ghost, a pirate, a legend, a mysterious musician and a curse. Please see the video trailer below, plus the blurb and excerpt. I hope you enjoy!

Blurb: Daisy and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Lily, are embarking on a Caribbean cruise. She isn't looking for anything special on the cruise other than a pleasant break from her humdrum existence as long-time divorced single mother to a busy teenage girl. She certainly isn't prepared for an enigmatic man named Peter whose idiosyncrasies in dress and speech mark him as an eccentric person to avoid. But Daisy can't avoid him. In fact, she begins to obsess about him from the first moment she catches him staring at her in the cruise ship terminal. Peter remains elusive and mysterious throughout the cruise. She catches sight of him occasionally, never often enough to please her, and they connect one wonderful night as he sweeps her into his arms for a waltz. A waltz? On a Caribbean cruise ship? While Daisy's dinner companions share nightly tales of the legends of cursed pirates, Daisy dreams of the mysterious man who has captured her heart.

Excerpt:

Bjorn glanced at his enrapt audience and took a deep breath. Daisy cringed. Something was coming.

"And with his last ounce of strength, Captain Smith grabbed his sword and plunged it in Gentleman Jones' heart."

A stab of pain seemed to knife through Daisy's own heart, and she involuntarily put a hand to the painful spot just below her left collarbone.

Even Becky was speechless, her jaw hung open. Lily took a breath and asked the question uppermost in Daisy's mind.

"Did he...does he...?"

"They say he still wanders the Caribbean, alone and lonely, a ghost with no hope of dying or returning to the living."

Bjorn's voice drifted away. He scanned the faces of his audience solemnly.

He shrugged. "But it's just a silly story, one of many. Who knows if any of them are true?"

And in a surprise move, he picked up his fork and resumed eating. Johana smiled demurely and took a sip of water before she too resumed eating.

Bjorn's stunned dinner companions stared at him. Lily, Daisy and Becky exchanged saddened glances.

Jim broke the silence when he started laughing and clapped Bjorn on the back. Bjorn choked slightly and put his napkin to his lips.

"Well, you sure had us going. I'll give you that. So...no truth to the story?"

Bjorn leaned slightly away from Jim and shrugged once again. "I find the Caribbean folklore fascinating, but many of the stories are just that. Stories. I heard this tale from a man in a museum in Nassau once. I liked it." He gave the group a sheepish smile.

"So, it's just a fairy tale?" Becky asked.

"Not a fairy tale," Bjorn smiled slightly. "Just an old legend. If the story were true, we would have to believe in ghosts...and I for one do not care to think about such things." He picked up his knife and fork again and began to cut his food, seemingly no longer interested.

"Just a legend," murmured Johana. She shook her head in amusement. "A story. Bjorn has many."

"Mom, what are you doing? Are you okay?"

Daisy turned to meet her daughter's eyes. Lily nodded toward Daisy's hand still dramatically clutched to her chest.

She colored and dropped her hand. The pain had eased.

Such a sad story!

Video Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEfgJ8Ng7lo

Buy Link: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1083&zenid=158e2bb07c492a5af9aa0e192c694c7f

Bess McBride
www.bessmcbride.com

Will Travel For Work!

I cannot tell a lie. This author is no longer even thinking about traveling for romance (at least for the present). I'm much more interested in traveling for a job. And with that in mind, I have applied for every job I'm eligible for in a 3000 mile radius. I recently took some continuing educations classes to renew my mental health counselor's license, and lo and behold...sitting around with all those other (well-paid) social workers, psychologists and mental health therapists gave me the bug to return to counseling. And wouldn't you know, I happened to find a dream job being advertised in an organization I used to work for. I may not get that job for reasons beyond my control :-) but I'm determined now to return to work full time. I know what you're thinking...the economy...lots of people out of work...the nerve! And that would be why it has taken me four months so far to get something, but I will get something...I just don't know where. I've applied for jobs in many different states because, as you all know, I am always willing to travel... And just think! If I get a job, I'll have more money to travel! Though less time. :-)

I'll keep you all posted. I see me now, working full time, fussing about how much time I don't have to work on my manuscripts. I can't wait!!

Talk soon.

Bess McBride

Ask An Author!

Ask An Author & Win!

I'm excited to announce a new promotion I'm involved in with members of the Historical Romance Club called Ask An Author.

Beginning on Monday, April 13th, you'll get to learn some interesting facts about some of the newest and brightest stars in the Romance Industry...

Have you ever wandered what Phoebe Conn's favorite "guilty" pleasure is? Or if Michelle Beattie could travel back in time, what Era she'd visit? Have you ever wandered what's the coolest thing that has ever happened to Nancy Haddock?

For the next ten weeks, you'll learn some funny and interesting secrets about these romance writers:

Kate Alister
Donna Alward
Michelle Beattie
Terry Irene Blain
Elaine Charton
Phoebe Conn/ Cinnamon Burke
Michele Dunaway
Nancy Haddock
Kelley Heckart
Ingela F. Hyatt
Paty Jager
Elizabeth L'Inconnu
Sherry Lewis
Carrie Lofty
Bess McBride
Shelley Mosley/Deborah Shelley
Jacquie Rogers
Patricia Sargeant
Patti Shenberger
Elizabeth Sinclair
Roxanne (RG Willems) Snopek
Michele Stegman

PLUS each week you'll get a chance to WIN Romance novels!

All you have to do is leave a comment with our authors, or ask a question of your own (which could be used in the next Ask An Author segment). The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win. Just click on the link below at Ingela Hyatt's blog.



Watch for Ask An Author, starting April 13th, for your chance to discover new authors, and win fabulous prizes!

Bess McBride

Keeping Up With the Jones' Blogging or Traveling

The problem with blogging...though some might say the "fun" of blogging...is keeping up with it. Before I started blogging last year, I took a peek at the Dummies or Idiot's Guide to Blogging. Apparently, once you (I, we) start blogging, we have to keep it up...every day or every other day, once a week at the very minimum. It's sort of expected. Now, that doesn't mean that a body should post 1000 word blogs every day, but something should be noted...something of interest to the readers. Sort of a howdy-do...

And that's where I fell off the blogging wagon. I simply ran out of interesting things to say. As many of you know, I hit the road two years ago...sold my house, bought an RV, told my significant other he was coming with me (okay, it didn't happen quite that smoothly, but he's here, and off we went...me working summers with the National Park System and writing on the beach in the winter.) But the truth is...I lost the romance in RVing. True story. Don't get me wrong! I still dream of the RVing life...just not the way we (I) are/am doing it.

You see...we're not moving. We're not traveling. We sort of stuck in one place while my significant other works full time. I made the decision last fall. Based on the economy and the difficulty picking up jobs that pay decent wages for a bill-paying man, I decided I would forgo moving in the summer of 2009 to take up work in a National Park so that my significant other could hang on to the job he has. I hated to see him struggle last summer to find work in Montana in a stagnant economy. It hurt him...and us...financially, set him back for months.

So, now he works... And my retirement income doesn't allow any extra money for side trips. It takes care of the space rent, insurances and storage. There's no extra money for plane rides, no runs into Florida to say hi to the alligators, no cruises to the Caribbean though the nearest cruise ship is only a 35 mile drive away. We are as stagnant as the economy, and now....I'm pretty sure I have nothing interesting to say. I kid you not! Basically, I'm trailer parking it at this point. I mean...after all, what is a fifth wheel that hasn't moved in months and isn't planning on going anyhere soon? It's not a "recreational vehicle" any more, is it? :-)

And it's affecting my writing. Staying in one place too long certainly takes the traveling out of "Will Travel for Romance." Daily, I read blogs and loop posts about fellow authors cruising or touring the United Kingdom or South America or various other exotic places... And yes, I even hear about authors "stationed" in Iraq.

Oh, don't get me wrong. "I'm" going somewhere. My feet are just too itchy to stay still for long. Having said that, I think returning to work full time is the best way to "get back on the road again." Make sense? Some of you know it does. It's true. I am applying to return to work full time, and it will require a move if I'm hired. Wish me luck! Luckily, there are openings in my field, so I hope to be able to find something, though bureacracy does seem to be taking its sweet time.

My neighbors in the RV next door are gone again...for the weekend, I guess. For all that their RV is fixed in place from November to April (they're extended snowbirders, don't ya know), they travel a lot. They just take the truck and go. I think they have more money than I do... :-) Plus, neither one of them is working. Sigh... Maybe I'll get it right in ten years when I'm eligible for Social Security. Yeah, yeah...if it's still there. I know.

Talk soon, folks!

Bess McBride