Will Travel for Romance

Winter Wonderland Web Hunt

2011-12-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

Join me at Night Owl Reviews for the Winter Wonderland Hunt. What you'll do is pop into my web site at
www.bessmcbride.com and find the answer to the question: "Where is the train headed in A Train through Time?" Then, you'll scoot over to Night Owl Reviews at http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nor/Pages/winterwonderlandWebHuntEntry.aspx and list the answer on my entry. You'll do that with as many authors as you want. The prize packages are located at this link: http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nor/Pages/WinterWonderlandDetails.aspx.

Happy Hunting!!

Bess.

In Love with "Lost in Austen"

2011-11-25T03:13:00.000-08:00

As I struggled to finish the final chapters of my latest novel, "Jenny Cussler's Last Stand," a new obsession took hold of me. Jane Austen's "Mr. Darcy." More specifically, the movie "Lost in Austen."

I don't know about other authors' experiences with distractions from a work in progress, but I find I have to stay in the "genre" of the book. That is to say, if I'm writing about the love between a modern Native American man and a European-American woman set on a Native American reservation, then it's best I not start watching historical dramas...or anything Jane Austen.

But I did. I watched "Lost in Austen," and fell in love with Mr. Darcy all over again. Maybe I've never been out of love with him. Have any of us, girls? :-) For those of you who haven't seen "Lost in Austen," it's a wonderful little British time travel where a Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett fan switches places with Elizabeth Bennett, and finds herself not only falling in love with Darcy (destined to marry Elizabeth), but the discovery that Darcy is in love with her. That that, Elizabeth, we crow! We love you, but you gotta share Darcy!

The good news is that I had the first 150 pages of a time travel to the Regency era already in progress, so I should be able to reinvigorate that manuscript...if I can stop mooning over "Lost in Austen's" Darcy, that is.

The soundtrack is exquisite; however, unfortunately, it was never released.

So, what say you, fellow authors? Keep your focus on your genre while you have a work in progress?

I did finish Jenny Cussler's Last Stand and submitted it. We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck. And I'll say hi to Darcy for you!

New Review for "Across the Winds of Time"

2011-11-19T12:54:00.000-08:00

I'm so pleased to share a lovely review of my latest release "Across the Winds of Time" with you by Robin at Romancing the Book at http://www.romancing-the-book.com/2011/11/review-across-winds-of-time-by-bess.html#more . Robin said it reminded her of "The Ghost and Mrs Muir." What a wonderful compliment!! Thank you, Robin.

Bess McBride

Blogging at the Rose of Prose

2011-10-26T19:35:00.000-07:00

Given my penchant for ghosts and cemeteries (see my books Across the Winds of Time, Caribbean Dreams of Love, Love of My Heart, On a Warm Sea of Love), I blogged about cemeteries at the Rose of Prose. Check it out. They're having a wonderful month of "spooky" stories.

http://www.rosesofprose.blogspot.com/

Bess

Well, I've been traveling for romance all right, but back and forth across Washington State to see my new baby granddaughter!

2011-10-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

And a true romance it is! I am definitely traveling for love. Love of a new baby! I can't tell you all how touched I am that my daughter and son-in-law named the baby after me...Amelia Bess... :-)

In other news, I'm wrapping up a story I started several years ago, and hope to be able to submit it to a publisher within the week. It's a contemporary love story set on a Native American reservation in Washington State. I'm not sure where I'll be submitting it yet. I do enjoy working with my current publisher, but the story may not fit their guidelines.

I have a hankering to watch "Somewhere in Time" again. In fact, it's in the DVD player and ready to go, but I've got to hold off until I finish the contemporary romance. I know myself well enough to know I'll become so enmeshed in the early nineteenth century again, that I'll want to start another time travel to the area...which is a good thing actually, but it might distract me from finishing my contemporary romance.

Talk soon, friends! I'll keep you posted on the contemporary!

I'm back in the saddle again... Ooohhhh, I'm back in the saddle again....

2011-10-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

After a rather long (and unwanted) break from writing, I'm working on a contemporary romance set high in the mountains on a Native American reservation. I started it several years ago, but got distracted around page 340 somehow. It lacks only the last two or three chapters, which may...or may not be the hardest... :-) I have a vague idea of what will happen, and I know the outcome will be happily ever after, but I'm not sure how my couple will live happily ever after. It's so much fun to find out where my fingers or subconscious take me. :-)

I look forward to finishing the story, finding a publisher and seeing it contracted. Fingers crossed!!! Nothing is certain.

I'll keep you posted! Talk soon!

New web site and blog design!

2011-10-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

Check out my new web site at www.bessmcbride.com designed by Rae Monet and her team. It's beautiful, isn't it? You can check out the rest of her work at www.raemonetinc.com. She also changed the background on my blog site to match my web site. :-)

I look forward to promoting my work on the web site and blog, and frankly, saving myself the headache of fighting with code. :-)

Please stop by my new web site and feel free to look around.

Bess

Travels, birthdays and babies

2011-10-02T23:40:00.000-07:00

So many things have been happening over the past few weeks. I just returned from a trip to England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland in mid September, and my daughter had a baby shower, baby delivery and birthday on the following successive weekends! I'm nearing the end of my time at my daughter's house as I have to return to work. She's only a 6 hour drive away, but I'll miss seeing the baby on a daily basis. I'm looking forward to sharing some of my experiences in a story. Lots of inspiration in the United Kingdom and Ireland... Lots!

Bath, England

"Across the Winds of Time"

2011-09-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

Who wouldn't love to have a "helpless" nineteenth century man fall right into one's lap? I know I would!! If you can't "do," you write books. So, that's what I did...while I'm waiting for my nineteenth century man to travel forward in time for me.... :-)

While on a genealogical research journey through the Midwest, Molly Hamilton impulsively buys a 100-year-old Victorian house in the middle of a cornfield, and falls in love with the house’s owner...the original owner, that is. Can he be a ghost? The handsome, intriguing attorney certainly feels solid—and somehow her soul knows she has always loved him.

Darius Ferguson has no idea how he has come to present-day Iowa. The last thing he knew, the year was 1880, and he had just buried his fiancée, who happens to look exactly like Molly. He cannot separate the two women in his heart—to him, they are one.

In spite of being drawn to him, Molly thinks Darius is unhinged. Darius wonders if he has joined his fiancée in purgatory. If time travel is possible, will love be enough to build a future together?

(Time Travel)
Rating: Sweet
Page Count: 308
Word Count: 89994
Print ISBN: 1-60154-970-9

Excerpt:

“Molly, wait!”

I froze in place for a moment. It was definitely a man under the tree though I couldn’t see his face...and he knew my name.

“Do I know you?” I called in an unsteady voice. It seemed, though, as if my words were taken by the wind. Who was this man? And how did he know my name?

He moved away from the tree with a tentative step. His clothing was formal—a dark suit and white shirt—as if he had just been to a funeral. I hadn’t remembered seeing a canopy for a funeral on the grounds, but I wasn’t about to take my eyes off the stranger for one instant to confirm that suspicion.

I thought I saw a flash of white teeth from under his dark mustache, but he was still some distance away. Golden highlights in his chestnut hair caught the sunlight, and my mouth dropped open. He was undoubtedly one of the most handsome men I had ever seen in my life. My stomach rolled over at the sight of him, though not exclusively with admiration of his good looks. Cold sweat broke out on my forehead, and I put my hand to my mouth as if to hold back the morning’s breakfast...if I’d had any.

For here—in the flesh—was the man of my dreams. Not just any dreams. More specifically, my dreams of the previous evening. Yet I couldn’t for the life of me remember ever seeing him before until this moment.

“Be careful what you wish for,” I muttered behind the hand that covered my convulsing mouth.

“Molly, do not be frightened. I can see that you are. I do not want to scare you.” He took another step forward and held his hands up palms out...as if to show me he wasn’t armed, I thought hysterically, or to calm me down. Either way, it wasn’t working.

Buy link: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=177_139&products_id=4621

Blowing into the Midwest

2009-08-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am, dear friends...in the Midwest...specifically, Nebraska, home of my paterfamilia. Did I use that right? :-) It is only a coincidence that my father grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska, and his father before him not too far away in Western Iowa. I was offered a job here, and I took it! It's my insatiable desire for money, don't you know! :-) Actually, there is no coincidence to my being here. In the process of applying for a bazillion jobs over the last six months, I put in for the one here in Nebraska because I'd passed through the state on my way down to the winter grazing grounds, and I really, really enjoyed it. It doesn't hurt that I have lots of relatives buried around here...and apparently a few live third cousins as well with whom I've corresponded but not yet met. It's almost like...almost like...dare I say...home? Hmmm...I don't know. That might be a stretch for me...the eternal wanderer. That's actually one of the toughest questions for me to answer...and yet such an easy one. "Where are you from?" Cough, stutter...ahem...hmmm..."Well, uh...nowhere really." I guess I could say "Venezuela" where I lived out my childhood, but that seems like the complicated answer. And then folks would wonder why I don't have a Spanish accent, etc.

When we were here last fall, the wind blew. It blew hard one night during a storm. It blew with gusto when I stood on a hill in a cemetery where no one related to me was buried. It blew a tree right over the tombstones of my great-great grandparents in neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa. And I loved it. Not so much the fallen tree as I had to call the city clerk. (Sadly, they ended up cutting the old dear down I find out.) But I loved the wind...loved the way it sways the limbs of the trees and blows through my hair and rustles the leaves in the oaks. The wind is blowing today, and I love it...

True to my blog name, I have traveled once again for romance...the romance of finding a "home," or of finding my family, or of finding a place where the wind blows the worry from my mind.

Talk to you all soon!

Bess

Stop and Smell the Roses Blog Boquet

2009-06-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

Speaking of stopping and smelling the roses! I have definitely traveled... As some of you might know, I've left the full-time RVing life and landed smack dab in the middle of the Heartland in Lincoln, Nebraska...home of my father's alma mater, the University of Nebraska Lincoln. I'm not from Nebraska but my father and his father and mother were. I was lucky enough to be offered a lovely job, moved here and am training, training, training. I'm looking forward to getting settled so I can get back to romance writing.

I signed up to participate in a "Stop and Smell the Roses Blog Boquet" with my publisher, The Wild Rose Press. Each of the authors below will be giving out a prize 24 hours after their posting to some lucky person who leaves a comment on their blog. The same is true with me. I'll be awarding an e-book of my latest romance, Caribbean Dreams of Love, to a name I draw from those who leave me a comment on this blog by 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, June 30, 2009. I may be far from the Caribbean right now, but it will seem so much sweeter when I get a chance to visit some time during the winter months. Meanwhile, I'm going to get back to a story I started last fall after making a geneaological pilgrimage through the area looking up the homes and final resting places of my paternal ancestors...kind of a "Ghost" meets "Little House on the Prairie." :-)

I hope you enjoy your visit to everyone's blog!

Bess McBride

June 29nd Group of Participating blogs

http://amberleighwilliams.blogspot.com

http://authorsstudio.blogspot.com

http://bettyhanawa.blogspot.com

http://christineclemetson.blogspot.com

http://findagreatromance.blogspot.com

http://www.freewebs.com/lesmora/apps/blog/

http://freewebs.com/teriwilson/apps/blog/

http://grgiall.blogspot.com

http://hywelalyn.blogspot.com

http://jennfrancesca.blogspot.com

http://joycemoore.blogspot.com

http://lianalaverentz.blogspot.com

http://LindaHopeLee.blogspot.com

http://lje1.wordpress.com

http://noveltrails.blogspot.com

http://plotsandthoughts.blogspot.com

http://tanyahanson.blogspot.com

http://tinagayle.blogspot.com

http://traveltheages.blogspot.com

http://willtravelforromance.blogspot.com

Location, Location, Location!

2009-06-05T07:59:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-05-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

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

Winner of Bess McBride Romancing February Blog

2009-03-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

February???? you say! But it's March already, Bess. Where in the world have you been?

My apologies, dear ones. I was knee deep in catching beads at Mardi Gras parades and chasing an 18-month-old baby (okay, toddler) around and subsequent pouting after my family left. But I'm back.

My winner of the Romancing February blog is Dena. She wins a download of my latest release, Caribbean Dreams of Love. Thank you all for stopping by!

Bess McBride

Romancing February Blog!

2009-02-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today is my day at the Romancing February Blog! And I'm holding a contest in celebration. I'll pick a name from anyone who comments on the blog by midnight Sunday, February 22, to win a download of my latest release, Caribbean Dreams of Love, which has gotten some really lovely reviews!

It's Mardis Gras time here on the Gulf Coast! I've already been to my first Mardis Gras parade and have about four more to hit! Bead necklaces, moon pies, hooting and hollering...a girl just cannot get enough Mardis Gras.

The nights are cool, and the days are warm. I'm heading off to the airport in a few hours to pick up my daughter, son-in-law and 18 mo granddaughter who are flying in from Washington State for a visit and some Mardis Gras action! Happy Days!

Don't forget, leave a comment by midnight, and you'll be in a drawing for my latest release, Caribbean Dreams of Love.

Next stop on the Romancing February blog is Beth Caudill at http://bethcaudill.blogspot.com on February 22!

Bess McBride, www.bessmcbride.com

Romancing February Blog!

2009-02-01T08:46:00.000-08:00

ROMANCING FEBRUARY

28 romance authors invite you to participate in a month-long event of love and laughter. Each day starting Feb. 1, 2009 an author will throw a romance party at her blog and host a contest with a prize. The link to the next day's blog location will also be provided at each location. Just drop by and enter the contest. And get ready to heat up the cold wintery days of February. You could win a prize a day!

On February 28th, one person will be awarded the grand prize of a $75 WRP gift certificate. All you have to do to enter the grand prize contest is make a list of each author in this blog event and name one title she has available. Submit your list to Christmasrideblog@live.com by midnight CST, February 27, 2009. The winner will be announced on February 28th--just in time to warm up that person's February. Visit http://www.amberleighwilliams.blogspot.com on February 1st to begin.

Bess McBride

I HEART Libraries!

2009-01-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

I’ve been fortunate to spend extended periods of warm(er) winter weather along the beautiful Gulf Coast of Alabama for the past two years as what some might call a snowbirder. So, when the time comes to promote my new releases, I can’t really call upon “my community” for a press release or “my friends” to promote my books in the local bookstores. But, some time last year, I read a blip on one of the many loops (I cannot remember which one) from a writer/librarian who suggested we “dontate” a copy of our books to the local library and ask them to catalogue it, which ensures that it goes into a large library database.

And with that, I traipsed down to the local library in Gulf Shores, Alabama, donated a copy of my book and asked them to catalogue it. I asked if they offered anything like a book signing, and I was fortunate enough to arrive at the correct library, because the warm staff there accepted my books gladly, catalogued them, and scheduled me for their book discussion club February 6^th at 6:30 pm and a book signing to follow. Another local library down the road has failed to respond to my queries, so I know how lucky I am. In fact, I’m so fortunate, that the book club coordinator ordered copies of my first two releases for their book club! J

With that success in mind, I trotted up the road to another library in the town of Foley, Alabama, and popped in for a visit with the library director who was extremely enthusiastic about setting up a book “talk” and signing. In fact, having joined the local Gulf Coast chapter of Romance Writers of America, I actually invited several other local authors to join me, and we’re going to have a four-author event there on February 11^that 6 pm.

Moral of the story: Use your libraries for promotion. Even if the one closest to you feels they’re too busy to accommodate you, the next one up the road might be pleased to provide a venue for your sales. And be sure and donate a book to them while you’re at it. It seems only fair! :-)

Bess McBride

www.bessmcbride.com

A "Fantastic" Review for Caribbean Dreams of Love

2009-01-09T09:43:00.001-08:00

I'm tickled to see that my recent release, a light paranormal/fantasy called Caribbean Dreams of Love received a Fantastic Review from Amy at Writers and Readers of Distinctive Fiction. Here is what she has to say:

"This is such a heart warming book! It tells a story of a woman who gets another shot in love and romance. The story catches my interest from the start and keeps me going till the end. It's just hard to put down this book and I just could not stop reading.

Bess McBride writes a fantastic story in Caribbean Dreams of Love....This is a must read for dreamers and to those who never stop looking for true love. Thumbs up!"

http://blog.lyndacoker.net/2009/01/08/wrdf-review-of-caribbean-dreams-of-love-by-bess-mcbride-2.aspx

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?"

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

"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

Blogarama 2009

2008-12-31T09:29:00.000-08:00

Well, for goodness sake, wouldn't you know it? I signed up to participate in CataUniversity's 2009 Blogarama where all participants will share their goals for 2009 on their blogs, and I haven't even set up a post or even any goals!!!! Yikes! Gotta get going.

Okay, here I go...

Goal #1...Make more money.
(Easier said than done). Right now, my published works are not supplementing my income so I think it is time for me to return to work full time. That will cut down on my free writing time, but I'd rather have money to travel and "inspire" my writing than have all the time in the world and little inspiration. And as many of you know, we can always find time to write. The less time we have, the more creative we are about using it!

Goal #2...Get a NY publisher or get an agent.
Loft goals, of course. Most people want that. But I've been flying under the radar, taking the safe road and not expanding my horizons. It's time. I've been writing and published for two years now, and it's time to head back into the arena and push myself to take my career out of "coast."

Goal #3...Go to a conference.
Doesn't matter which one. I have to get myself out there, shy writer that I am!

Goal #4...and this has as much priority as goal #1.
Lose weight. Life is too short and so am I to carry too much extra weight. :-)

And those are my goals for the year! Wish me luck! And as always, stop by and visit at my web site at www.bessmcbride.com

Bess

And The Winner of The Drawing for Caribbean Dreams of Love is...

2008-12-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

Stephanie! Congratulations, Stephanie! And thanks to everyone for playing. Don't forget to stop in at all the blogs and submit all the song titles to Christmasrideblog@live.com by midnight CST on December 31st to win the grand prize!

Happy Holidays to all!

Bess McBride

Christmas Ride Blog and A Drawing!

2008-12-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

All aboard the Christmas Ride Blog! Today is my day on the Christmas Ride Blog, and it just happens to be one day after the release of my newest romance novel, a light paranormal called CARIBBEAN DREAMS OF LOVE!

Is that not the most beautiful cover? Don't you want to spend Christmas there? CARIBBEAN DREAMS OF LOVE is available now at The Wild Rose Press http://www.thewildrosepress.com in e-book format, print to follow in Mar 09. It's quick and easy to download, no waiting, no fuss, and there on your computer or e-reader or Kindle in a flash!

Happy Holidays to all... Please leave me a comment by 8 a.m. Sunday, December 14, to enter a drawing for a free download of Caribbean Dreams of Love!

Here are the instructions for the Christmas Ride Blog!

One lucky person wins a $75 The Wild RosePress gift certificate. All you need to do to enter is attend each day's blog post, identify the carol, and make a complete carol list to submit after the final blog post of Christmas Eve. Don't forget to check the list twice. Send it to Christmasrideblog@live.com by midnight, CST, December 31, 2008.

Here is the clue for my Christmas Carol...

"I've warned all my friends and neighbors
Better watch out for yourselves
They should never give a license
To a man who drives a sleigh and plays with elves."

Each day, the link to the next blog destination will be posted. But if you want to enter to win the grand prize, you can still catch up...here's the link for the first blog post...Nov 29 http://plparker.blogspot.com

Next stop on the Christmas Ride Blog...December 14...Sky Purington... http://www.skypuringtonwrites.blogspot.com

Good luck and have a great time!

Bess McBride
www.bessmcbride.com

Caribbean Dreams of Love Video Trailer!

2008-12-10T22:25:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's true....I'm just nipping in at the last minute with the video trailer for my upcoming release (Friday), CARIBBEAN DREAMS OF LOVE, a light paranormal featuring a lonely woman on a Caribbean cruise with her precocious teenage daughter, a mysterious musician, a ghost, a pirate, and nightly dinner tales of legends and curses. I had great fun with this video, especially taking the pictures!

Video Trailer:

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

Bess McBride
www.bessmcbride.com

Five Angels for A Train Through Time!

2008-12-02T11:59:00.000-08:00

Five Angels from Fallen Angels Reviews!

Yahoooeee!!! Five Angels from Whitney at Fallen Angel Reviews for my recent release, A Train Through Time!

Here's a bit of the review.

Bess McBride’s A Train Through Time takes a very modern woman and drops her smack into the tail end of the Victorian era. Ellie is independent, vegetarian, and a feminist, and it is fascinating to watch her try to deal with the differences between the society she was raised in and that of 1901. Her struggle with wearing a corset is most entertaining and had this reader imagining the discomfort that such a device would cause. This story contains a lot of detail and appears to be well researched, and I certainly enjoyed the trip back in time to the Seattle of the Victorian era. The story also does a good job of teasing the reader with an element of suspense: Is this entire adventure a dream, or has Ellie really traveled in time? For Robert and Ellie’s sake, I hoped that the time travel was real, but there is just enough of a suggestion that it’s all a dream to raise a doubt. For this mix of historical detail, romance, and suspense, this reader found reading A Train Through Time a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

For the rest of the review, follow this link: http://www.fallenangelreviews.com/2008/November/Whitney-ATrainThroughTime.htm

Bess McBride
www.bessmcbride.com

A Train Through Time is Out in Print Today!

2008-11-28T14:06:00.000-08:00

A Train Through Time, my time travel set on a train to the late Victorian era of Seattle, is out in print today!. I love the book and had a great time writing it. I hope you enjoy! The book trailer link is below as well as blips from a few lovely reviews!

Blurb: College teacher Ellie Standish thinks she’s on a sleek modern train heading to a conference on women’s studies in Seattle, but she awakens from a night’s doze to find herself on a bizarre historical train full of late Victorian era reenactors who refuse to come out of character. When the leader of the group—one handsome, green-eyed Robert Chamberlain—finally convinces her the date is indeed 1901, a skeptical Ellie decries any eccentric theories of time travel and presumes she is smack dab in the middle of a very interesting historical dream. She turns the directorial reins of her dream over to one smitten and willing Robert, only to realize that dreams cannot last forever. Someday, she must wake up to reality, though Ellie no longer has any idea what reality is. She only knows that Robert must play an important part in her future. But how can he...if he’s only a figment of her imagination or worse yet...a man who belongs to an era long past?

Excerpt:

“I’m not going to marry an eighteen-year-old girl, Grandmother.” Robert turned away and strode to the bay window. He stared down onto the city below.

“Robert, be reasonable. You need to marry sometime. Don’t you want a wife? One young enough to give you children? Any one of your sister’s friends would be quite suitable.”

“I’m afraid not, Grandmother. I’m waiting.”

“Waiting for what?” Mrs. Chamberlain muttered.

“The right one. She will come along. I know it.”

“For goodness sake, Robert. Where will you find her? You never appear even to look.”

Robert continued to stare out the window with his hands clasped behind his back. “I do not think I have met her yet, but I feel certain that I will know her when she does finally appear.”

“Robert, what nonsense! You are usually so sensible in all matters except when it comes to this subject. It seems my son’s wife raised a silly romantic,” the older woman muttered.

“Perhaps she did, Grandmother. Perhaps she did,” he murmured with a smile.

“Give me great-grandchildren, Robert. I cannot live forever.”

He turned away and grinned at the frail appearing silver-haired woman resting on the green velvet settee.

“Yes, you will, Grandmother. You will outlive us all.”

“Hmmppff,” she muttered looking away. “The house is quiet. We need children in it once again.”

“Perhaps my sister can do the honors in a few years, Grandmother. All she lacks is a suitable husband.” He consulted his pocket watch.

She eyed him with a piercing stare.

“Have you become a confirmed bachelor, Robert? Has time passed you by then?”

Robert laughed and bent to kiss his grandmother’s pale cheek.

“I hope not, madam. I did not intend to remain a bachelor for the rest of my life.”

“Then why do you wait? Give me a practical reason, none of your romantic musings.”

He straightened and grinned. “I can only assure you once again that I wait for the right woman. I know it sounds foolish, but it is the truth.” He turned away toward the door. “I must go into the office to see to a few things before we leave tomorrow. I look forward to riding the train. I always do.”

Book Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ifu1wIKlAs

Buy Link:

The Wild Rose Press: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=931&zenid=32dbbdc8c97221d858bda948d812dfd3

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Train-Through-Time-Bess-McBride/dp/1601543018/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226938299&sr=1-3

Five Hearts and a Recommended Read from Night Owl Romance!

"I would definitely recommend this pleasant time travel story to other readers and this is a definite keeper in my library. Don’t pass this one up!"

Here's a link to the rest of the review: http://www.nightowlromance.com/nightowlromance/reviews/Review.asp?ReviewId=1967

A Fantastic Review from Writers and Readers of Distinctive Fiction

"You don’t want to miss Bess McBride’s perfectly titled, completely engaging, attention grabbing work. She’s on a professional roll."

Reviewed by Rebecca Savage

For the rest of the review, follow this link:

http://blog.lyndacoker.net/2008/08/30/wrdf-review-of-a-train-through-time-by-bess-mcbride.aspx

Four and a half books from Long and Short Reviews!

"A completely engaging story, A Train Through Time sucked me right away... You won’t want to miss this sweet, time travel romance filled with just enough sexual tension to make your heart skip a beat. Congrats to you, Ms. McBride! This is one I will be recommending to friends."

For the rest of the review, follow this link: http://www.longandshortreviews.com/LASR/1108/ATrainThroughTime-BM.htm

Bess McBride, www.bessmcbride.com

She's Back!, A Signing Fool, I Heart Libraries and Rescue Me Said the Doggie to the Fly!

2008-11-20T14:54:00.001-08:00

L-R, Anna Kathryn Lanier, Bess McBride, Betty Hanawa and Linda Mooney at Boomerang Books, League City, Texas

Hello, fellow romantics and travelers!

And I'm back! Blogging on my own dear "Will Travel for Romance." I've enjoyed blogging at "RVRomance.com" but I miss talking about things that pertain only to writers, so I'm crawling back on my hands and knees and hoping that a reader or two will come visit me here at Will Travel for Romance.

I'm bursting to tell someone the good news, and why shouldn't it be you, my fellow romantics? The local public library where I'm spending the winter on the Gulf Coast of Alabama requested 5 copies each of LOVE OF MY HEART and A SIGH OF LOVE to give to their book club as a Christmas present! (I'd say the name of the library, but I'd better wait until they give their gifts out at the beginning of December.) Isn't that the greatest news? Well, it is for me, anyway. They were going to order them from Baker and Taylor, who don't carry any in stock but have to order them from the printer, so they contacted me, and I just happened to have some available, don't you know! :-)

In addition, I'll be meeting with their book club in February and doing a book signing at that time. Wish me luck!

I just returned from my very first book signing at Boomerang Books in League City, Texas, an 8 hour drive one way. I know, I know. Craziness, eh? But I had a great time...especially chatting and visiting with my fellow authors, Betty Hanawa, Linda Mooney and Anna Kathryn Lanier. And a few other authors from my publisher showed up to cheer us on. I loved it! I'm hooked on book signings, I tell you! Hooked!

Literary hugs and kisses to all!

P.S. Remember to get your next pet at the animal shelter or from a breed rescue adoption program!

Bess McBride
www.bessmcbride.com

Visit me Over at RV Romance

2008-09-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

I should have told you some time ago that I moved over to RV Romance at www.rvromance.com. I'm still keeping this blog because I think I'll be back someday, but for now, keep up with me over at RV Romance.

Bess McBride

Galleys Aren't Just Kitchens, Location is Everything and Wishing the Best for Wolves

2008-04-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends!

Two galleys in the mail. Can you believe it? After months of having four books under contract, I received two galleys at the same time...both due back in 10 days. I've never had a deadline from any of my editors, so I was quite surprised. And this coming in as I plan my return RV trip to the Northwest amidst the highest gas prices ever!

But review the galleys I did, word by painstaking word, page by lengthy page. Authors out there will know how crazy it is to still find typos and mistakes after the manuscript has been reviewed a bazillion times before submission and edited another bazillion times by two sets of eyes...four eyeballs!

These galleys were for A Trail of Love, my contemporary romance set in Glacier National Park, Montana, complete with a woman hiding from her past in plain sight, a handsome bear ranger, grizzly bears, and love, love, love; and A Train Through Time, a time travel featuring a lonely modern day college instructor of women's studies who starts out on a sleek silver train from Chicago to Seattle but ends up on a vintage train and in love with a handsome Victorian man who thinks time travel is possible! Here are the covers, the first by Angela Andersen and the second by Tamra Westberry. They're beautiful, aren't they? They represent the imagery and scenery that I love to put in my books.

As many people know, I choose my settings first, then create the love story. Most writers are known to begin a story with either characters or plot, but there are some like me who prefer to start with location. You know what they say! Location is everything!

As I mentioned, I'll be heading north on a 2500 mile journey in my recreational vehicle soon...this weekend, in fact, back to Glacier National Park where I'll work my summer job and dream up new stories. Wish me luck on the road.

And romance writers and readers, especially those of you who celebrate wolves in your stories, don't forget to help the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rocky Mountain wolves which were delisted from the Federal Endangered Species act just about a month ago allowing the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming to set up hunting policies. The "excitement" of the hunt is unbearable to me, someone who has heard the mystical howl of wolves in the early morning hours of a Yellowstone morning. Wyoming has adopted a shoot-on-sight policy for 88% of the state. Seventeen wolves have been killed already. The Governor of Idaho said he would be the first to get a permit to shoot wolves. These policies cater only to trophy hunters and ranchers and do nothing to honor the desires of wildlife conservationists and animal lovers. The states need to be reminded that these wolves belong to everyone. Here is a link to Defenders of Wildlife and the federal Fish and Wildlife Service where your voice can be heard. Together, we can come to a sensible resolution for everyone, including the wolves themselves.

Thank you, friends.

Talk to you soon!

Bess McBride, http://www.bessmcbride.com

"Death of a Druid" and Changing the World One Wolf at A Time!

2008-04-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

Good morning, my fellow romantics!

I want to direct your attention this morning to an e-mail I received from Defenders of Wildlife the other day called "Death of a Druid." Now, I know I have the attention of at least some fantasy readers and writers. "Druid Peak Pack" is the name of one of Yellowstone's famous wolf packs. As many of you might know, the federal government stripped the wolves of their federal protection in the Greater Yellowstone area, and in the first 26 days of delisting the wolves from the federal protection, at least 17 wolves were killed in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Idaho changed their state law the very day they were delisted to allow anyone to kill a wolf near livestock or domestic animals. I remember when I lived there just last year, new Governor "Butch" Otter said he hoped to "shoot the first wolf once the Idaho Department of Fish and Game implements a wolf hunt." "Former Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns described the return of wolves as being “like cockroaches in your attic.” Defenders of Wildlife says that in Wyoming, one group tracked a wolf for 35 miles on snowmobiles before shooting it dead.

The "Dead of a Druid" focuses on the killing of wolf 253M, "Limpy," so known because his back legs were mangled as a youngster. He was almost 8 years old, apparently a senior citizen among wild wolves. And he was shot in Wyoming on the first day that the wolves were delisted from the Federal Endangered Species Act.

I lived in Montana when they brought wolves down from Canada to reintroduce them into Yellowstone. The subject was very emotional for ranchers and animal welfare activists. The ranchers have won this round. Big money usually does win.

For those of you who feature wolves in your books, who read romances based on wolf mythology, who just plain love animals, join me in doing what we can to stop the slaughter of wolves in the Rocky Mountain States. Remember, one group tracked a wolf 35 miles by snowmobiles before shooting it dead. Fair play does not come into this!

Most animal welfare groups need monetary donations to help their campaigns. I can't help with money, but I can help with letters to congressman, to senators, to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho Boards of Tourism, to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. These are the things that Defenders of Wildlife is trying to do:

"Fight for our wolves in court;
Confront flawed state wolf policies with science and common sense;
Help ranchers reduce conflicts with wolves using non-lethal methods;
Debunk the myths and misinformation about wolves through on-the-ground education and outreach"

Join me, my fellow romantics, in trying to save these mythical creatures from the hands of "enthusiastic hunters." I seriously doubt big business ranchers would drive 35 miles in a snowmobile to hunt down a wolf. That's sport! But not my kind... Flying a kite on a windy beach is all the excitement I need!

I believe wolves belong to all of us, and there are other resolutions to the problem of a peaceful coexistence between wolves and "livestock." Here is a link to a list of actions you can take.

As writers, we have a voice. You have your blogs, your stories. We all have access to MySpace, to the windows of our cars to paint messages. We can change the world, one Wolf at a time.

Talk to you soon!

Bess McBride, http://www.bessmcbride.com/, http://www.rvromance.com/

Belated Blogging, Promoting and Publishing and Saving Seals

2008-04-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

Spring in Alabama

Good morning, friends, authors and readers!

I cannot tell a lie. I've been remiss in posting to my personal blog here and devoting my time to building a readership for my "hosted" log, "RV Romance" at http://www.rvromance.com/.

Life has gotten very busy with the advent of the blog. When I first began writing in July 2006, I could sit at the computer from 9 to 3 and type, type, type. In fact, I wrote four books in that first year, all but the first are published or contracted (and I'm determined to rewrite the first and see it published!) :-)

Along with having a published book came promotion, especially so for those of us in the world of "small presses," where our books are not automatically put on bookstore and grocery store shelves. Promotion is taking a lot of time, and I blogged about that recently. How much time is too much time?

Now that I've begun a blog (or two) :-), I'm finding I have even less time to write fiction. I don't think my interests have changed so much as I find it necessary and advisable to blog almost every day, especially if I want to keep a readership. At least, that's what the "how to blog" books say! :-) In addition, I'm probably excited about the new challenge of "maintaining a blog," that is to say, writing fresh "content" (ideas) every day.

So, I promise to keep this blog up, though I'm going to keep my focus on issues that I know my fellow romantics, readers and authors, will appreciate. Except I've gone and meddled around in the layout and lost all my sidebar information such as my links, my profile and my favorite causes! I'll have to find out what happened! Computer coding does not come easy to me... :-)

I can't sign off without asking you to join with me in signing petitions, sending e-mails and letters to newspapers and the Canadian government to end the brutal spring hunt for 275,000 two-week and older helpless harp seal pups! It is an tolerable travesty of humanity.

HSUS MySpace Page Get web badges

Talk to you soon!

Bess McBride, www.bessmcbride.com

Cheerful Contests, Working Full Time, Promoting Pitfalls and A Humane World

2008-04-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

First of all, I want to say congratulations to Crystal B. and Crystal G, my winners of the Spring Cleaning contest!

I'm involved in another contest going on right now in celebration of Mother's Day! It's a scavenger hunt and here are the details:

MOTHER'S DAY Contest

It's that time of year where mothers are revered. We want you to at least get flowers for Mother's Day! Twelve artists are going the extra step to celebrate for our readers. All you need do to be in the pot to win one of the 21 fabulous prizes, plus be eligible for the Grand Prize, is to visit each of the 12 websites and locate the 12 bouquets of flowers left for entrants to find. The bouquet will be the same on each website. Visit the following websites to locate the bouquets:

http://www.jcortipetska.com/
http://www.donnamichaelsauthor.com/
http://denisemcd.wordpress.com/contest/

http://www.bycorinda.com/

http://www.bessmcbride.com/

http://www.heatherhiestand.com/

http://www.phyllismariecampbell.com/

http://www.aklanier.com/

http://www.skhyemoncrief.com/

http://www.skypurington.com/

http://www.nitawick.com/

http://www.kyannwaters.com/

Make a list of each author's page where you locate the bouquet. Send the list to happyendings2007@aol.com by midnight CST on Mother's Day.

I hope you enjoy! These authors give out great prizes!!

I'm getting busier and busier with blogging and promoting and finding less time for writing. I touched on the subject on a past blog. When is too much too much? How can you gauge the results of promotions? It's difficult to say. I don't have any of these answers, and I'm not sure anyone really does, but I've joined a few Yahoo groups where folks share their marketing and promoting tips. Publishing and Promoting, Writers Promo Tips and Marketing for Romance Writers are three groups I've found particularly useful as well as "listening" to my fellow authors on loops dicuss their own promotional activities.

In less than a month, we'll travel 2500 miles to the Northwest, and I'll begin my job at Glacier National Park. It's 40 hours a week, shift work, and a half hour to the park each way. I'm going to have to really knuckle down and condense promoting time to leave some time for writing. Of course, I don't get to see my significant other because he gets weekends off, and I do not, but I do get to write full time on my days off, so....

Don't forget to help the Humane Society end the hunt for infant harp seal pups. Click here to sign a petition to the European Union to support a ban on the importation of baby harp seal furs. The death toll is about 95,000 right now, the quota 275,000. The numbers are staggering. Harp seals only have one pup a year. Theoretically, a mother could lose a pup every single year. Imagine, my fellow romance writers and readers, imagine...how devastating that must be!

HSUS MySpace Page Get web badges

Take care and happy reading and writing, friends. Talk to you soon.

Bess McBride, http://www.bessmcbride.com/, http://www.rvromance.com/

A Different Kind of Honesty, E-Books, Amazon Kindle, Works in Progress and Baby Harp Seals

2008-04-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

Howdy everyone!

Rumor has it that my friend, Jane Richardson, is "experiencing" the release of her debut novel, A Different Kind of Honesty, tomorrow. It will be available at The Wild Rose Press tomorrow and at the Amazon Kindle store.

Look at this cover! I ask you. Is that not fabulous? You know this book is going to be good. It's available right now in e-book format, print in six months.

If you haven't tried e-books, think about them, especially for some of my traveling friends out there. Imagine storing all your favorite books on one small machine, whipping it out while you wait one hour and forty minutes at the doctor's office. It's the wave of the future. Get on board now!

Hey, and while you're nosing around the Amazon Kindle store, feel free to download a copy of my recent release, an Alaskan romance called "A Sigh of Love." You know...as long as you're there buying Jane Richardson's book. :-)

I'm plugging away on my current work in progress. It's going slow because I'm distracted by our pending cross country trip back to Montana where I'll be working at the National Park for the summer, and my new blog over at an RV Travel site called RV Romance. I really hoped to have this new work done before we left for the Northwest, but I think that will not happen. No matter. I get a lot of work done while I'm working at the Park because I take the late shift, so I can write in the mornings. It works out just fine!

Two of my books, "A Trail of Love," and "A Train Through Time" are finished with edits and ready for galleys (the final product before the final... :-) ) and another one has gone into edits, my long awaited "Caribbean Dreams of Love," my pirate story! So, things are hopping over here!! The covers are stunning for all of my books. Be sure and visit my web site at http://www.bessmcbride.com/ to see them.

And before I forget, I want to congratulate Jodi and Beth, the winners of the "For Love of An Irishman" contest to celebrate the release of my modern day/Victorian book set in Tacoma, Washington, "Love of My Heart."

Don't forget to visit my traveling blog at RV Romance. Drop by and leave me a comment.

The hunt for the baby harp seals goes on!! This year's hunt will end within a few weeks, thankfully. But it will happen again next year and the year after if we don't take action. As you know, action to me means signing petitions, writing legislatures, the fashion houses of Europe who buy the infant sealskins. Here's a link to sign a petition to stop the hunt and further tips on what we can do!

HSUS MySpace Page Get web badges

Until we meet again, friends, take care and stay safe!

Bess McBride, http://www.bessmcbride.com/, http://www.rvromance.com/

RV Romance.com, Blogging, Romancing the Review, Beautiful Breasts and Pups

2008-04-06T07:02:00.000-07:00

Good morning, friends!

And a fine morning it is. I wanted to share some interesting news with you about my blog. A few weeks ago, I was brainstorming new ways to promote my books (don't we all...??), and I decided to contact a few recreational vehicle web sites to see if they would be interested in linking to my blog. Lo and behold, the first one I asked, RV Travel.com said they would be interested in hosting my blog. Hosting? Hosting? What does that mean, I said? I, who have just barely figured out how to post to a blog.

Well, what that means is that my romance writing travel blog will now be at RV Romance, a blog on the RVTravel.com web site. And the site is going up as we speak. Their webmistress has been working on it over the weekend. Apparently, I will no longer be struggling to figure out how to post codes and links to my site. She will take care of all of that. The blog is in WordPress, which I have to admit I find a lot more difficult than Blogger to deal with. But that's the beauty of it! I don't really have to deal with it. She will.

I worried... Will I lose creative control? Can I talk about anything I want? I think to a certain extent I will have to link each blog to something of interest for folks who RV... Yes, RV has become a verb. I'm not sure whether the verb RV means to "recreational vehiculate" or what. :-)

And I might not be able to say anything I want. That remains to be seen. There's a big difference between chatting with romance writers/readers and chatting with people from all over the United States who do not necessarily share an interest in romance writing!

The other big change is that the blog is going to be more commercial. RV Travel.com is having me add Google AdSense and Content Link. At first, I panicked when I saw certain words in my blog linked to commercial adverstisements, but I think I can get used to it!

I'll be keeping this blog and posting to it as often as ever, but the content will veer away from RVing and more toward writing, romance and some of my favorite things. I hope you'll visit my blog at http://www.rvromance.com/.

In writing news, I'm excited to tell you about a wonderful review I got from Romance Junkies for my recent release, the Alaskan romance, A Sigh of Love. I'd like to quote just a short paragraph from the review.

Scarlet says "A SIGH OF LOVE is a heartwarming story; a believable romance for two very lonely and deserving individuals. I was captured by the descriptive power of the author to bring the people and scenery of Alaska to vivid life on the pages. I felt like I was a part of this great state and got to know the characters as if they were new friends. Abbie and her loneliness touched a familiar chord in me; the desperation she felt at being humiliated by George and how much Alaska seemed to heal her spirit. Her bravery in traveling to Alaska despite being rejected earned her kudos from this reader. Touching, sweet, romantic and poignant, A SIGH OF LOVE has it all. This is a beautiful love story, one I will read again."

Sigh...music to my ears! To every writer's ears. "One I will read again." Yes, yes, yes!

In other news, I hear that the Breast Cancer Site is not getting enough visits. It's just a simple click to donate, and all you donate is the click. Sponsors from ads send money to charities who fund mammograms for woman. How easy is that!

I just wanted to drop you a quick note this morning to update you on my happenings! As always, don't forget to sign a petition to save the harp seal pups at the Humane Society of America.

Talk to you soon!

Bess McBride
http://www.bessmcbride.com/
http://www.rvromance.com/

An Auction for a Trip to Hawaii, Perennial Promotions, Charities Galore, Fur Foibles and What Oprah is Talking About

2008-04-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

Less than a month left on the sunny Gulf Coast before we unfurl our sails and take our land ship of a recreational vehicle up north. Sigh...

In other news: Author Brenda Novak is holding her annual Online Auction for Diabetes Research, and I've contributed a couple signed copies of Love of My Heart. It all started like this...see... Ms. Novak was actually doing a Romance Writers of America Ask-An-Author online feature for a week, and due to a scheduling error, folks didn't know Ms. Novak was on that week, and the list moderator e-mailed us and asked us to contribute questions. Shy as I am (you all know me), I couldn't remember what had been asked, so I threw in a question on time spent on promoting. Wherein Ms. Novak gave me a wonderful answer and kindly suggested I donate several books to her online auction for diabetes research as an excellent form of promotion.

Uh huh! That's how it happened! Pretty slick of that gal, wasn't it? I'm happy to donate the books and glad to participate in the cause that she holds dear. Click on the link below to look around! It looks like there are lots of goodies for everyone. A trip to Hawaii??? I'd say so.

So, how much time do we spend on promoting our books? I've seen a lot of messages on the loops over the last few days on that very same subject. Some people are feeling drained by promotions...finding no time to write. I'm one of those people, but I know that I have to keep getting my name out there if I want people to find my books. And that is my number one goal! Finding readers!

Some folks are thinking of backing off on MySpace (nothing personal MySpace...I'm just repeating what I heard), Facebook and other sites because they feel it's taking too much time from writing. I don't find MySpace to be that much of a chore. I read one author who felt that MySpace afforded massive promotion opportunities through the use of the bulletins. That could be true.

Me, myself, and I are finding keeping up with the myriad of loops draining. I'm of the opinion that in order to get nice things, I have to give nice things. That is to say, if I want people to read my reviews and go to my links, I have to read their reviews and go to their links. That is taking a lot of time. When I go back to work full time this summer, I'm going to have to make some adjustments. Keeping up with the loops, the congrats messages and the wonderful for you messages is going to have to be sacrificed to the blog, my website, my publisher's loop, and writing time.

By the way, I asked Brenda if she thought a 60/40% writing/promoting schedule made sense, and if I recall correctly, she said it differed with everyone, there was no rule of thumb, but she thought 80/20 writing/promoting was about right. She was adamant that we not let readers down by not "delivering" what we have promoted. If the work begins to suffer, then you cannot be successful, so definitely spend most available time on work.

I must say I have not been abiding by that! I have two books out, four more in edits and under contract, one in submission land somewhere and one in the oven, but I'm spending less and less time writing and more and more time promoting. All righty then! Back to the drawing board for me! Let me get my calculator out.

Let's see...33 hours in the day. 80% of 33 is 26.4, leaving 6.6 hours for promotion... Wait! Something's missing. What could it be? Something...nagging at my subconscious. Food! I forgot to factor in eating!!! What was I thinking? :-) Zzzzzzz....

And if that weren't enough charity for the week, it's March of Dimes time...only this year, they're calling it March for Babies! Isn't that cute? And to that end, here is my daughter's logo for her march. I was just looking for a logo to support March for Babies, but this was all that was available. They've made it very easy to sponsor folks and donate this year. The baby is...ahem...my granddaughter, now six months old and cute as a button. Isn't everyone's? The website for March for Babies is http://www.marchforbabies.org/. Too cute!!

That's it for me today. I'll leave you with one of my favorite logos. This is my particular cause today, this week, this month until the brutality ends. Support the Humane Society in trying to save these little guys and gals. No one should kill an infant animal for its fur and no one should be proud to wear the skin of something so young and helpless. Sign a pledge!

HSUS MySpace Page Get web badges

By the way, I'm hardly one to promote watching the talk show of one of the richest women in the world, Oprah, since she hardly needs my promotions, but she's going to have the head honcho of the Humane Society on tomorrow on her show, and they're going to do a piece on puppy mills!

May the wind be always in your hair and may the road be soft on your feet when you're stranded and have to walk three miles. (I'm just saying... It could happen!)

Bess McBride
http://www.bessmcbride.com/

A Misspent Youth, When I Began to Write, Freaking out in School and Misfitting In!

2008-04-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

Howdy friends and neighbors!

One of the most common questions an author gets asked is "When did you start to write?" A fairly common response is "I've wanted to write ever since I was a little girl...boy... No, I've only heard girl...so "I've wanted to write ever since I was a little girl."

I've wanted to write ever since I was 14. You see, it all began like this... What? All right, I'll wait. Get yourself a cuppa... Waiting... Are you back yet? For Pete's sake! I'm not married to you. Just sit down and listen. Okay, so you see, it's like this...

Somehow, when I was 14, I decided I didn't belong in school. Don't get me wrong. I was a good student as far as academics went, but I was a total misfit. I DID NOT BELONG. So, in an effort to avoid going to school, I decided to run away... I managed to stay gone a whole weekend that time. There were more "spontaneous trips away from home," but I'll stick with that one. My father decided to take this troubled youth to a social worker. I liked her. She seemed nice. As a form of therapy, she suggested I write my life story. I set to the task, and when I turned it in, she read it and sprouted the idea. She said "You should be a writer." I'm sure she was just trying to give me validation, approval and a direction. Little did she know, she'd created a writing machine.

I promptly left her office, shut myself in my bedroom and "keyed in" the first part of a manuscript on an old clackety manual typewriter. It was a time travel set in the Caribbean wherein my heroine would travel to the past and fall in love with a pirate (a nice, handsome one, of course). Obssessive as I was about all things, I would sneak out of the bedroom at night and hit the refrigerator for tapioca pudding. Yes, siree, pirates and tapioca pudding. Summer ended and so did my writing career...for a while. One of my biggest disappointments is the eventual loss of that little manuscript.

Continuing on with my misspent youth, I quit high school twice, but eventually I "saw the light," whatever that means...went back to school, took correspondence classes, night classes and summer school to graduate a year late. Now, I have both a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree.

What's the point, you say? I've forgotten... Oh, I know. "When did you start to write?"

But my real point is: "Kids, you should stay in school." Nah!! Just kidding. Not about staying in school. Of course, that's the best way to graduate...and you really need a high school diploma...if not more, to get by these days.

No, my real point is: Lots of us feel like freaks in school. The days seem long and endless. Maybe everything seems like a black hole, like it will last forever! You think your life will never change. I thought mine wouldn't. I could not see the light. I couldn't see the future shining before me.

But it does... The future will come, if you let it. And when you emancipate, when you turn 18 and finally have some control over your life, you'll know a freedom to be yourself, to direct your destiny. The feeling is priceless. You may be broke, but it will be your choice...

There is light at the end of the tunnel, even for misfits like us. We all grow up, and though we remember the hard times of our youth, if we can survive those years in one piece...and we can, knowing good times will come, we can be anything we want to be, do anything we want to do...if it's legal and kind to people and animals, of course.

That's my speech for today. From one misfit to another, hang in there. You're probably going to grow up to be the most beautiful woman in your neighborhood or the most successful man you know. Misfits really do turn into swans!

And no, I'm not going to give up promoting the fight to ban the clubbing and slaughter of 275,000 infant harp seals in Canada... Just click on the link and sign a petition. Join the Humane Society of America as they fight the good fight at www.hsus.org! If you don't have money (like me), then give web site time, blog time or just time to sign a petition.

Bess McBride

http://www.bessmcbride.com/

Giving till it Hurts, Book Trailers, Amazon and Printing, Jellyfish and What Would You do for $5000?

2008-04-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

Happy April Fool's Day!

No one has played a trick on me yet today! Okay, well, maybe...

A neighbor in the RV park came up to me and said my significant other had given her one of my books and that she absolutely loved it, stayed up late reading the whole thing, couldn't put it down. Music to my ears! I was so flattered. I'd never really met a real live reader of one of my books before. It took me a few minutes to catch on to the "he gave me your book" part. No wonder she was grinning.

The dear man, in his enthusiasm to promote me, gave away one of my author copies...though the woman had only asked for a business card. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Hey, the guy supports you and your writing, doesn't he? How lucky are you? Would you believe my XXX doesn't support one single thing I do?"

Mmm hmmm, I'm hearing your pain. I am lucky...broke, but lucky! :-)

I think it's about time I did a little bit of promoting on my behalf, so I'm going to toss in link to a video trailer of my first release, Love of My Heart... I love doing book trailers. Finding the perfect music to accompany my work is almost as thrilling as seeing the book released. The music on this particular trailer is exquisite. I hope you enjoy it. (Feel free to buy the book if you like it!) Shameless self-promotion!

I've given you a link to Barnes and Noble on line because of the recent news that Amazon will now only carry print on demand books printed by their own printing company, Book Surge, thereby leaving a lot of small presses, who use another more popular and less expensive printer, Lightning Source, wondering what to do. Smacks of monopoly, but what do I know. I'm just a little guy. Perhaps they'll also start making all the baby toys and products I've been buying from them. No, wait, those come from other companies.

I'm not sure what my publisher plans, but I know I'll have to discontinue advertising for Amazon through my web sites, blogs and links. Just until they come to their senses!!! I'm sure Amazon representatives will send me a personal e-mail when that happens. :-)

The RV park has emptied out. Spring break is over and apparently so is winter. The snowbirds are returning home. We don't leave for Montana until the first of May. I have to say I'm loving these off season months of November and April. The town is quiet, the beach is uncrowded, and the Portuguese men of war have arrived! What?? What's that you say? Who's going to war?

No, no, Portuguese men of war as in jellyfish, sort of. I hear they're not really jellyfish, but you get the drift. The news reported excessive Portuguese men of war in the local waters, and were suitably shocked to see the little purple/blue plastic bubble looking things on the beach. The thing is...I've seem them on the beach many, many times since I've been here. I'm not sure why the news station acted like it was unusual. At any rate, the little guys are still toxic even when they're dead, so "we" should never, never poke at them or step on them...like I see so many people do, like I watched one little boy do yesterday while his father watched... He didn't get stung that time, but...you can imagine.

You didn't think I was leaving without a comment about the harp seals, did you? I've taken up my own advertising, an idea I got from the http://www.harpseals.org/ web site. What do you think? Pretty snazzy, huh? Nothing fancy, but now I really do stop at stop signs and take my time driving so everyone can read my message.

I've read the hunters only get a few thousand dollars for the season. 275,000 harp seal pups...brutally slaughtered, their carcasses carelessly wasted. What is the value of life?

The average income for a Newfoundland family is $33,000. That's not much below anyone else's average income in North America. It's above mine! I ask myself, what would I do for $5000? I'm not starving. The hunters are not starving.

What would you do for $5000? Think about it. Would you prostitute yourself? Your daughter? Would you club an infant animal to death? How about the family dog? What's the difference?

Would you do anything for money?

I wouldn't, and I won't. I'd love to hear from you.

Bess McBride
http://www.bessmcbride.com/

Stingrays, Humanity, Harp Seals, Alligators and Blogging to Change the World...One Animal at a Time

2008-03-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends, family, readers, authors and fellow RVers

Even in the midst of my angst and unusual determination to do what I could to end the brutal hunting of harp seal babes, I was pleasantly surprised today to find some humanity in a world seemingly gone mad!

My significant other and I walked the beach here on the sunny Gulf Coast today. A fisherman took a long time to reel in his catch. It must have been something big. We stopped to watch him as did others. I cringed, hoping against hope it wasn't a stingray, for all their reputation as killers, very gentle creatures that my daughter and I have held in our hands, pet, fed and yes...even...kissed. Avoiding the stinger at all times, of course, and only in the company of an experienced stingray "wrangler."

Why was I afraid it was a stingray? Because three weeks ago when my daughter and my beautiful 5-month-old granddaughter were here visiting, we walked the same coastline, and came upon two men who had five stingrays lying in the sand...one bleeding and dying a slow, painful death... I think the older man even kicked it. Near them was a woman with two children, ages approx 9 and 11, also fishing, with another five or so stingrays lying about in the sand, a bucket sitting on top of one in an ungraceful end for such graceful creatures. There was no evidence they were going to eat the stingrays. If they were, they wouldn't have left them to rot on top of the sand. The wanton destruction so angered my daughter that she spat harsh words at both the men (one of whom laughed at her distress) and the woman (who ignored her and happily fished on...showing her children good values and kindness for living things.)

That's why I was afraid. Indeed, the man finally hauled out a good sized stingray. The crowd moved in to watch. I held my breath, hoping he would treat it well, whatever he decided to do with it. I saw him bend over, the people crowded near... Then the stingray was gone. My significant other tried to pull me away. My daughter's apple did not fall far from the tree. I approached the crowd and asked my question. Did he release the stingray? Yes, they grinned. Did it swim away? Yes, they nodded and smiled. I told them of the waste of all the stingrays we'd seen weeks before. They were shocked. I was happy to see the shock. Shock over waste and destruction of life is good. I approached the man and asked my questions. He said he did not take anything he didn't eat. He'd even returned a catfish that he wouldn't keep. I told him he was a "good fisherman." He said thank you. I was happy. He seemed pleased.

I couldn't wait to share this on my blog. I couldn't wait to share it with you!

We managed to get a nice picture of one of the local alligators, and I'm thrilled to share it with you. Isn't he or she a beaut? He or she even opened his or her mouth and "yawned" or "smiled" or something. Contrary to what the picture suggests, the little gator could hardly keep its eyes open, lazing about in the sun as it did. The small alligator is much further away into the pond than it appears. This photo was taken with a zoom lens.

In the face of such freedom and protection as this alligator has, the world of the harp seal pups should have seemed far away, but it has stayed with me all day long as I have taken small steps for mankind but giant leaps for me to do what I could to stop the seal hunt this year and in the future.

I went to the Humane Society site and e-mailed everyone the group recommended. I went to http://www.harpseals.org/ and followed many of their recommendations. I e-mailed Canadian newspapers, ministers, U.S. legislatures, all the stores I frequent (and I got some responses), even the fashion desginers who buy the seal furs. You know them: Dolce and Gabana, Prada, Versace, etc., etc. I posted to my blog, to MySpace, to my web site. I gave people links to follow. And I studied the situation from both sides as best I can. And I believe that tourism to the harp seal nurseries is a far better commercial enterprise than their slaughter. Harp seals only have one pup a year, just one. And I'll ask my fellow RVers to question the hunt when they travel north to Canada for the summer as RVers often do. Ask questions! Suggest alternatives! You're tourists...with money! Tell them what you'd pay to go see a harp seal nursery thriving with living pups and mothers.

And I asked my reading and writing friends to help me. This is what I said:

"Blogging to Change the World...One Animal at a Time"

I read Mary Pipher's "Writing to Change the World" several years ago, and I loved the premise. It made so much sense. If something is wrong, we as writers can use our tools--our words--to change the world. Yes, yes, yes! I try to do it every time I write a romance novel, one small concept at a time.

I heard some bad news today which I blogged about at my Will Travel For Romance site, http://willtravelforromance.blogspot.com/. And I wrote to "change the world."

I'd be thrilled if you would take a look at the blog. Especially for my fellow animal lovers.

Thanks...for everything."

So, people looked at my blog, and they made comments, and they in turn made contact with organizations which can teach us how to help.

My next plan is to paint a sign on the back windshield of my truck. It won't say "Just Married" or "Class of 2008." It will say "Stop the Seal Hunt. Contact www.harpseals.org." And I'll advertise that way until the hunt is over for this year. And I'll do it again next year!

That's what I can do as a person and as a writer to change the world. Thanks, Mary Pipher!

Is there something you feel so passionate about that you want to change the world...one blog at a time? You can do it!

May the wind never ruffle your feathers and may the road never meet you head on!

Bess McBride, http://www.bessmcbride.com/

The Beauty of Harp Seal Pups, We Can Make A Difference, "Writing to Change the World"

2008-03-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

Hi friends, readers, family, fellow writers and RVers!

As author Mary Pipher reminds us in her book "Writing to Change the World, we can make a difference!

I thought I was upset to hear that the gray wolves are being removed from the Federal Endangered Species Act, and that Idaho is set to begin hunting them until my daughter told me that the hunt for the Harp seal pups is on in Canada. I thought that brutality was over long ago...in fact most of us thought it was over, didn't we? We haven't seen footage or news coverage. That's because no journalists are allowed out to film there this year. I've seen the film clips before and I made myself watch them again. Nothing has changed. The hunt is brutal, tortuous and horrendous for the two to three week old baby seals. I wondered what I could do. I don't have money to donate. What could I do? I went to the Humane Society website. They're doing all they can do, and they gave me (us) a list of things we can do, people we can contact--stores, restaurants, government officials. We can make a difference.

The majority of the fur is sold to Europe, and the EU is debated putting a ban on the import due to the inhumane nature of the hunt. Believe me, I saw the footage. In the rush to gather as many of the 275,000 pup skins as the Canadian government is allotting this year, the hunters are haphazardly rushing onto the ice and brutally slaying the pups with clubs and gaffs. There is no mercy for the youngsters and or the mothers who naturally try to protect their pups.

You can sign a petition to the EU. You can temporarily boycott seafood from Canada. Temporarily... You can convince the hunters that they're making far, far less than are the furriers who are selling the product. Writers can use their voices for good.

In addition, this year, Canada is disallowing the filming of the hunt by journalists. I won't make judgment on the government because I have friends who come from Canada. I can only ask that we all do what we can to stop this slaughter. I made myself watch the film clips today. It is as barbaric as ever, shooting, clubbing, and the pups are dying agonizing, sometimes slow deaths. So someone can wear their fur???? No!

I can't donate money, but I do have the power of the written word. Please help me with your power! We can end this. There are alternative industries for the people of the north!
This is the website to show you how you can help! The Humane Society!

https://community.hsus.org/campaign/protectseals/forward2

Bess McBride

http://www.bessmcbride.com/

Edits, Production, Obfuscation, Galleys, Parenting and Drinking

2008-03-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

Hey, hey, friends, travelers and readers....

I've just finished final edits on "A Trail of Love," my contemporary romance novel set in Glacier National Park, complete with grizzly bears, a handsome bear ranger, a woman running from her past and love, love, love. Hopefully, it will now be ready to go into production, and I'm saying that like I have any clue what that really means. Production is a weird term that publishers and editors throw around to confuse authors and obfuscate matters. That's right, obfuscate. (Man, I hope I used that word right.) Anyway, to me, "production" means the draft goes away double spaced and comes back single spaced and in small type. This is called a galley, and we are then required to proofread the entire manuscript in the smallest type in the world...after having already read the book at least eight times. Pity us, dear readers! You only have to read the book once!!

Mind you, I've managed to get through my edits while listening to the spring breaking, camping, and drinking past midnight around the campfire folks next door. No...these aren't college kids. These are parents with children. I haven't actually seen them without a beer in their hands since they arrived. It's a safe bet their children will be toting those same blue cans in sleeves around as soon as they get the chance. Say age fifteen or so?? Did I happen to mention I'm an adult child of two alcoholics who have long since passed away? Yup, Mom had a beer can in her hand all the time, too. Very impressive. I'm not sure I ever knew her when she wasn't high. How would I have known if she was sober?

I have to say...I wish the "neighbors" had gone somewhere else to camp. Since we're actually full timers, we don't normally crank up the logs in a tightly packed RV park, smoke out our neighbor's "homes," and party hardy till past midnight on working nights. My significant other says I'm getting old. I ignore him...naturally... :-) and insist it shows a definite lack of consideration for others. I get the "We're on spring break thing." Well, actually, it's their kids who are on spring break from school and probably don't have the slightest clue as to the nature of their parents true identities since those folks probably have a buzz on morning, noon, and night. Did I say I've never seen the four adults without blue cans in their hands? Maybe the drinking water is tainted. Who knows?

I wish the children well. I shared a few of my favorite memories with you and then I deleted them as "rehashing the past." I wish the children well. Can't say it enough times. The parents are having a great time. Good luck to a youngster trying to get one of them to sit down for a sober discussion of college goals or how to handle the "mean girl" at school.

Luckily, I have my "white noise" fan, and the steady hum makes the world a better place. :-) And spring break will surely come to an end!

Good night all. May the wind blow the cobwebs from your brains and may you stay out of your vehicles and off the roads if you're carrying blue cans in sleeves...unlike some other folks.

Bess McBride, http://www.bessmcbride.com/

Loopy Loops, Map It, Work of Fiction and a Thank You

2008-03-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

So, y'all remember I told you I joined a bunch of new loops the other day, both for networking and...well...networking. I joined several new RV loops, and am now loopy from reading the loops. One site had some problem with fact that I use a signature block which includes my web site and this blog address. The moderator was kind and diplomatic but wanted to make absolutely sure I did not intend to try to sell my wares to his flock! He's actually a pretty good moderator. I just removed myself from one writing loop which seemed to have no moderator and allowed daily additions of "Looking for Girls" types of messages. Hardly fitting for a writing loop. In fact, the moderator checked my messages for several days after I signed up and pronounced himself reassured that I wasn't spamming his group and was interested in RVing matters. Seems he'd had a few authors try to join just to find a captive audience to sell their books. Imagine that!! :-)

Yes, it's true, it's just a smidge over four weeks before we are due to leave the sunny Gulf Coast and make our way back to the wilds of Montana for my summer job at Glacier National Park! And I haven't mapped the trip yet. We're going back the same way we came. Sadly, the price of gas/diesel precludes us from traveling by anything but the most direct route between Point A and Point B. I know what you're saying. Not mapped it yet??? Are you insane? Do you know how many people will be on the roads? Filling up the campgrounds? Where do you think you'll stay for the night if you don't have reservations? Stop screaming at me. I know, I know... I'm on it.

There's a small blurb in the front of most fiction books which reads: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places...product of author's imagination...used fictiously...resemblance...entirely coincidental. Such a dilemma. I'm working on new manuscript set high on a mountain (can't reveal) in a certain state (better not say) on a Native American reservation (uh uh, especially if said reservation is governed by a corporation), and I get the feeling that things are not going to go well if I use the real place. I've contacted the tribal attorney, who is out till Monday, but my sense is that I'm not going to be able to use the proper name of the tribe and reservation. However, I'm not one to make up a fictitious tribe (that's just silly and inauthentic), so I think my best bet is to move the story to another place where the tribe's name is so generic as to be unimpeachable. It's a good story, told with the utmost respect, but I gotta protect my assets. :-)

Anyone else have this problem come up?

Thanks to all the folks who've been visiting my blog. E-mail me at bessmcbride at gmail.com (omit the spaces). I've love to hear from you and exchange some e-mails. You know me! I love chatting....

Talk to you soon! May the wind tickle your fancy and the road glisten after the rain.

Bess McBride

http://www.bessmcbride.com/

Royalty, Royalties, Irishman, E-books and Contests!

2008-03-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

Royalties to be exact are what an author (and other entertainment sorts) receive from the use or sale of their books, music, etc., after an advance is "earned back." In the world of smaller presses and e-books, we don't usually get advances, so we are at least spared the pressure of waiting to see if we "earned back" our advance. I'm not sure I could take the worry.

Royalty is such an odd word, isn't it? Doesn't it suggest prestige, power, even wealth? That's what I thought when I first heard I would be getting "royalities" for my published books. ROYALTIES! A quick search of the etymology of the word suggests it did originate with rights granted by a sovereign to an individual and ultimately evolved into payment to an author or composer. But I digress. Royalties from small presses and e-books? It turns out they ain't much after all, but it's still fun to throw the word around. Seems to dazzle those folk not associated with the business of trying to climb up the royal ladder to reach the throne.

Hey, if I haven't...ahem...mentioned before, I'm involved in a couple of contests. Isn't every author? I know, I know what you're thinking? Contests? But yes, it's the going thing. I'm enjoying them frankly. I love getting personal e-mails from contestants and readers.

So, here's my little number:

CONTEST: FOR LOVE OF AN IRISHMAN

In my recent release, Love of My Heart, Aggie dreams of a forbidden love between the daughter of a wealthy English family and her Irish lover. What is her lover's first name?

You can find his name on my website at http://www.bessmcbride.com/ in the blurb/excerpt of Love of My Heart.

E-mail me with the name of the Irish lover at bessmcbride@gmail.com by midnight on April 8, 2008. I'll pick two winners to receive a surprise gift in green.

And here's the other one.

SPRING CLEANING CONTEST

The days are growing warmer. The robin's perched in your windowsill. And you're climbing the walls. It's time to shake out those curtains, clean out the closets, and don those walking shoes. Spring is here! What better way to celebrate than to find some inspiration? Ten authors have noted their favorite inspirational quotes on their websites. All you have to do is find them in order to win some fabulous inspiring prizes! Make a list of these 10 quotes and send them to happyendings2007@aol.com by midnight CST April 10, 2008.

http://www.skhyemoncrief.com/
http://www.alishapaige.com/
http://www.aklanier.com/
http://www.kyannwaters.com/
http://www.bessmcbride.com/
http://www.aithnejarretta.com/
http://www.meaganhatfield.com/
http://www.phyllismariecampbell.com/
http://mizging.blogspot.com/
http://highlandlassiesreviews.blogspot.com/

So, join in, my friends. Folks seem to love these scavenger hunts. I'll give you a hint about my inspirational quote. I'm a vegetarian and an ardent animal lover!

Talk to you soon!

P.S. The RV got a bath today! It was more like washing a house with a sponge mop than washing a car!

Bess McBride

http://www.bessmcbride.com

Promoting, Yahoo Groups, the RV Life and Romance Junkies

2008-03-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon my fellow readers, writers, travelers and homesteaders from the sunny Gulf Coast!

Well, I see it's sunny outside. I wouldn't know, since as a writer/author, I'm chained to my computer in a dark dungeon of writing despair and a vow of silence, chastity and poverty. :-) What?? I'm kidding...really...about everything except the chaining, dungeon, and all three vows. Otherwise, just funning ya!

I'm on a promoting kick again today! Why? Because it's easier than actually writing a story. For those of you who write or want to write, you'll recognize the symptoms of procrastination. Surfing the net, promoting, posting messages on loops, congratulating people you don't even know, studying the latest marketing info, perusing a bestselling author's web site, joining more Yahoo groups, and posting long blogs.

Yup, I've joined at least ten new groups today bringing my grand total up to...more than I'd care to tell you about. I keep my loops on digest, but still I open my computer to far too many messages in the morning, and I take a peek at all of them just to make sure I'm not missing anything important. Today, I joined some RVing loops. I haven't been on any up to now and wonder if I've been missing out on the full time RV life by not following the experiences, tall tales and stories of other RVers. I've got a lot to learn. Plus, it's another avenue for me to promote my work.

I've seen the snowbirding life...in fact, I'm probably living it since we've gone from north to south, but most of these folks are living in a stick built home up north, pulling the RV out of storage and heading south in the winter...often to the same places for nine, ten, eleven years in a row. (By the way, it's way cheaper than renting a condo...I'm just saying. We've asked around.) Anyway, I think I'm not getting enough exposure to those full time RVers who live in their RVs all year long (like us), and I'm anxious to hear what they have to say. Those are my peeps! My kin, my soulmates, kindred spirits! You get the idea.

I also joined a loop about working out on the road. (I'm not talking about a flagger here (though I hear they make some nice coin), but someone who works while they travel in their RV.) I'll be anxious to see how that ties in with my romance writing. I haven't been able to see the messages yet because I'm not yet "approved," but I'm excited. My significant other takes carpentry jobs in construction wherever we decide to roost, so we have to park for a while--five or six months--to allow him to make some decent wages. The pace is a bit slower than I'd like. I envisioned living in places for three or four months at a time...enough to get a feel for the community and the way of life, but not so long that I grow roots and find it hard to leave. A gypsy's dilemma. Always longing for home and never knowing where that is... :-)

In fabulous writerly news, I found an interview I did some time ago (December I think) posted on the Romance Junkies site

http://romancejunkiesreviews.com/artman/publish/interviewarticles/Bess_McBride.shtml

and they picked my recent release, an Alaskan romance called A Sigh of Love, and featured it on their yahoo site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RomanceJunkiesReaders/. I love interviews, and it's a thrill to see my book "up there in lights!"

I'm plugging away on my current work (not that you can tell by my procrastinating techniques and blogging), a contemporary romance high on a mountain on a Native American reservation. It's going smoothly, thank you very much. I'm enjoying the process but deliberating on changing the location, reservation and tribe to a fictional place...just to avoid any unforseen complications, though somehow, I don't think the book will work if I can't use the real details.

I'm off to write. May the wind be always at your back, tie your hair so it doesn't blow in your face, and if the road isn't rising to meet you, turn around and go another way!

Bess McBride, http://www.bessmcbride.com/

Book Signings, Starving Authors, The Flight of the Snowbirds, and E-Books

2008-03-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Hi fellow RVers, romance readers, and gypsies!

I've been trying to set up my first book signing at a nearby small, independently owned but prestigious book store, but have run into some snags and road blocks. I don't know if you knew, but most bookstores require a hefty percentage of book sales, (I've heard figures of 40%), making book signings lucrative for the stores but hardly cost effective for authors. Just so you know, most print book authors make approximately 6-7% on print books, e-books slightly more...around 35% on average. That's not a lot of money. Now, there are some authors who sell thousands and thousands of books, but those folks are really the exception. Most authors sell nowhere near a tenth of that amount. And in the e-book industry, we sell even less, certainly not in book stores, because most bookstores are not partial to stocking what are called trade paperbacks (what e-book to print is often called...usually a larger book), unless it's erotica.

Sooo, if the author makes 7% royalties on a book that sells for $10 (the trade paperbacks are more expensive), then...let's see...calculating...that's a whopping 70 cents, and the bookstore takes 40%...calculating...oh dear...can this be right?...$4, and the publisher and printer take the rest.... Well, you can see an author's dilemma. Why would we even do book signings?

Well, some folks do them just to say they've done one. That's my goal! I want to be able to say, "Book signing? Oh yeah. Done one! Not all they're cracked up to be. Really. Met a lot of nice people though." Or, maybe we want to sign books just like we've seen authors do in the movies. That's the epitome of famous. An autograph. And if my signature were legible??? Wouldn't that be fabulous? Sigh.... P.S. I've already signed some books but never with an adoring fan actually staring at me while I do...not yet...yet, I said!

Which leads me into just a brief discussion on starving authors. Now, you know after reading my blurb that the majority of published authors do not make a lot, and the works of the majority of published authors aren't even found in traditional bookstores. Not everyone can make the big bucks like John Grisham or Nora Roberts. Don't you just want to calculate their royalties? Let's see...20% (because the big guys and gals get more though I don't know how much) times a bazillion including foreign sales = more bazillions! :-) Hence, we're all starving...or living on the beach eating coconuts...or mooching off friends, family or a significant other...or working full-time jobs to support something that doesn't pay a lot, but gives us immense personal satisfaction. To hear someone say, "I love your book!" It's fabulous, a dream come true!

The snowbirds are lifting off in preparation for returning to the north though the weather continues to be bad with flooding in the midwest. Still, they're flapping their wings (or awnings...I can't tell which...sounds the same), ruffling feathers (or closing slides and lowering antennas), and taking a last dip in the warm water (read washing the rig before her big road trip). Some birds are lagging behind, unwilling to face the continuing bad weather, and chirping and quacking about April, but it's my best guess, they'll fall out of formation and miss their spot in the inverted V if they don't stick with the flock. I'm just saying...

Don't forget, my fellow RVers, buy e-books. It's the wave of the future. You can't keep lugging all your books around with you. Get yourself an e-book reader or an Amazon Kindle (when they lower the price), download the books and carry them around with you. You'll be glad you did.

Signing off for today. May the wind be mild and soft and be always at our backs, and may the road rise to meet us but at a mild 2% grade to avoid using too much gas.

Bess McBride, www.bessmcbride.com

Pictures, Promotions, Defrosting and Romance

2008-03-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

Good morning, fellow romance readers, RVers and Free Spirits

I had a comment on yesterday's blog "hinting" that I should post pictures of Montana. Rest assured, I've already posted several pictures of Montana and Glacier National Park. Those are the ones with the big "mountains" in them. I gotta tell ya I'm not sure if I'm going to be taking any new photographs at Glacier when I return to work there this year. It doesn't change that much. The mountains seem to stay the same--beautiful, lush, green, panoramic, but pretty much the same once the snow melts. However, if I finally...finally...finally get to see a grizzly bear or black bear or moose while I actually work at the park, I'll try to get a nice photo. I spent the entire summer there last year...five days a week at the park...and didn't get to see any of the bears or the moose that everyone else seemed to see. :-( . One day, a visitor asked me, "Will I see any bears?" I said "Well, if you're lucky." And lo and behold, the person said, "Oh look, there's a black bear crossing the road." "Where, where?" I shouted. Okay, I didn't shout, but by the time I turned my head the bear was gone. Gone, I tell you. Argh... I did see a lot of deer, early in the morning at work in the park. It was wonderful! One beautiful buck regally strutted across the empty highway, his breath steamed in the morning cold. I'll never forget that.

Promoting my books is taking its toll. It's a lot more work than I thought it was going to be, and it takes time from writing...a lot. But promoting itself is only half the struggle. It's the following up that'll kill you. Well, not you...me. I cannot believe I'm going to have to set up a "suspense system" to track my requests for interviews, news releases, promotion requests, etc. And you all thought writing romances would be...um...romantic! So did I! It's getting to be too much like a job! Yikes! There's really only one thing you can do to help me, and I know you hear the angst (= whine) in my voice. Everyone buy all my books and let me live a life of luxury on the royalties. I am not kidding!

I'm defrosting my little RV refrigerator/freezer while I write this. For those of you who don't live in a small tin can (wouldn't give it up for the world), you should know that the refrigerator is...oh...about six feet from the dining table which is where I do my writing and work. It takes only a second to stop writing and run to the fridge for a snack...while I'm thinking about the next romantic scene. I thought when we bought the RV and took off to see the United States like gypsies that I'd left housework behind. How dirty can one little tin can get anyway? But nooooo, dust still manages to find it's way into the RV. My spring cleaning plan is to hitch up the fifth wheel to the truck, open all the doors and windows and blow out all the dust on the highway (kind of like "blowing the carbon out of your car") as we sail 2500 miles northwest to Montana. If anyone sees good reason why I should not do this, speak now or forever hold your peace!

Romance novels have been getting a strange reputation these days. For the record, my kind of romance is the emotional kind, the stuff you can read and either laugh or cry over, but you won't be running to take a cold shower. I've been following a thread on a writing group I belong to, Sweeter Romantic Notions, wherein an author has come out and very bravely said she does not equate "hot sex" with "romance." She'd like to retire the word "hot." I'm with her there. First off, I think it's a word for the younger generation, you know--teens, college students. And next, I see "romance" as full of emotional passion, not the explicit description of physical love. I think that belongs in the "intimacy" of the bedroom, the word intimate suggesting "private." As defined by one dictionary: "very private; closely personal: one's intimate affairs." I'm not a prude and I'm not a zealot, but just a gal who likes my "private" private and my "romance" romantic.

So, if you pick up one of my books, you'll get sensual, but you won't get explicit! Be forewarned. Or maybe I should say: Yes, you're safe with me. I won't take you anywhere you don't want to go! :-)

Talk to you all soon.

Bess McBride, www.bessmcbride.com

Spell Check, The Price of Gas, Editing and The First Day of Spring

2008-03-20T08:08:00.001-07:00

I know what you're thinking. What can all those things have in common? Exactly! I was wondering the same thing myself. Well...what they have in common is...me!

To wit:

1. I've noticed some typos in my previous posts and am in search of the spellchecker for this blog. I'll find it or him or her (she says with determination) or I'll actually take a few minutes to read through the posts. Gasp! Surely not. Proofreading??? Where's my editor???!!!!

2. We'll be hitting the road again at the end of April and the price of gas for the RV is going to kill us...such that we're wondering if we're going to find ourselves stranded in the middle of the United States standing on street corners with cardboard signs that say "Will work for gas for my RV!"

We've got a 2500 mile trip coming up as we leave the warm Gulf Coast and head back to the mountains of Montana where I'll be working for the National Park Service at Glacier National Park once again. I don't know if I mentioned, but I worked there last year, and we headed east and south to spend the winter, with the thought that I would find a park in the east this year. Alas, my heart's desire (though I've never been), Great Smoky Mountain National Park didn't need anyone this year in my particularly job, so when Glacier offered me the job again, I jumped at the chance. I enjoyed my time there last summer. It is an exquisite park with panoramic scenery as you might never see anywhere else. And I incorporated it in a novel, my upcoming "A Trail of Love." I'll have to write another story about Montana this summer while I'm there! Want to be in it???

Wish us luck on the road and stop and throw a sandwich our way or something if you happen to see us begging along the highway! Come on! Fellow RVers gotta stick together. If you see me flattened out on the road by a passing semi, feel free to pick me up and prop me alongside the road again.

3. One of my editors sent my time travel, "A Train through Time" back to me for edits. If you're not a writer, you might think that's a bad thing. I realize it sounds...not good. But for an author, it means his/her editor is (1) alive and kicking, (2) still employed by the publisher, (3) working hard on author's book, (4) moving the book closer to publication, and (5) still talking to the author after a volley of back and forth comments such as "I'm not making those ridiculous changes," or "This is my story, Madam Editor, not yours," or "What's a comma?" or "Change this, my @%%$#%$@, take that!" or "Is she kidding?" or "Not another diva author, save me!" or "I can't believe I contracted this author. She can't write for @$$@$@@@!"

So, with that in mind, the receipt of a manuscript with edits is a good thing!

4. This is the first day of spring! Although I'm actually a fall person, I'm not going to turn my nose up at a good dose of spring. It's my second favorite season, and the promise of new things, a new life, new adventures, maybe even a new world order! Flowers and baby birds and tiny squirrels! (Hold that thought! I've never actually seen a baby squirrel, have you?)

Here's hoping the wind is always at your back! Happy Spring!

Bess McBride, http://www.bessmcbride.com/

Thank You, Friends, for The Warm Welcome to Blogland

2008-03-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks for al the nice comments to my opening blogs. I'm encouraged! And I found this wonderful little garbage can thing that allows me to delete any negative comments! Isn't that great? Not that I've had any negative comments...yet! I'm sure time and my hasty tongue (or keyboarding) will take care of that.

Spring break has sprung a leak. It's raining and pouring down here on the Gulf Coast...all over the masses of folks who came to hang out on the beach. The rain went sideways just a few minutes ago, but it has slowed to a more normal vertical drizzle. The waves have been high and red warning flags have been out to warn folks not to swim in the treacherous conditions. My sympathies to the sunlovers...but hey, look, one less trip to the dermatologist when you hit 50 to freeze a few of those precancerous booboos on your skin. That's right! The cup is half full...of rain.

I've lived a lot of places in my life as any of you who have checked out my web site might know, but never near a coastal or resort town where weather really mattered. These folks down here lose money when the weather is bad...it's just that simple. They get hurricanes and tornadoes, 20 degree freezes and 100 plus degree sultry heat waves. Still...there are those special days, when the temperature is 70 and dry, the sky is clear, the wind is calm and masses of (unbroken) seashells have decided to laze about on the sugary sand to tempt beachcombers into kidnapping them. Nothing else compares.

Lots going on in the writing world. I've gotten three more book covers in over the last few weeks. I haven't promoted them particularly because the books are either still in edits or have not begun edits, and I've had experience with jumping the gun on promotions. Timing is everything!

Still, I'd like to post my three newest covers on my blog. The cover artists at The Wild Rose Press are great, and they seem to love what they do. It shows. I do seem to have a theme going on. I always ask for scenic themes because all my books will be inspired by a location, somewhere I've traveled to or somewhere I wish I could go.

Before I post these beauties, tell me, readers...how important are book covers to you when you choose a book? Can you judge a book by its cover? Should you (knowing the writers has very little to do with the selection of the cover?

I'll confess. I know better, and still, I do tend to judge a book by its cover. :-)

A Trail of Love, a contemporary romance set in Glacier National Park, Montana

A Train through Time, a time travel set on a train to 1901 Seattle

On a Warm Sea of Love, a light paranormal set on a cruise in the Caribbean

Talk to you all soon!

Bess McBride

Spring Break, St. Patrick's Day, E-Books and RVs

2008-03-18T08:00:00.001-07:00

Spring break is here, that one week break from school that seems to last from March through May since apparently no two schools take it in the same week!

This sleepy beach town has increased in size to cope with large families with children and bikes, college spring breakers (surprisingly docile), and the snowbirders who are finding it too cold to return to the north just yet. Oh, and lest we forget, the patient and long suffering residents!

I arrived down here on the Alabama coast in November last year when my summer seasonal work at Glacier National Park was done. I thought I'd found Paradise. No one was around! The beaches were empty. It was just the great blue heron and myself. Yes, that's him or her. I never figured out which.

But the folks from Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario rolled in around the first of January, and it's been fairly busy down here ever since. Well, the pharmacy and the oyster houses have been filled to capacity. Though I've read the town actually swells to 25,000 on weekdays and 75,000 on weekends in the summer. I cannot imagine. Won't have to imagine.

A spring break visitor, a man and his young daughter, marched up and down the streets of our RV park yesterday blowing a tune on their bagpipes in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. I instantly e-mailed my friend in England who is a native of Scotland. She snorted (by e-mail). I guess ya gotta be separated from the mother land to appreciate it. Or you don't grow up listening to bagpipes five times a week. I wonder if she did. She's a Scot by birth, surely they awoke to the sounds of bagpipes, right? Like reveille? Or was that bugles...

And that transitions us right into e-books. Isn't that clever how I did that? (You didn't see the segue? Hmm....)

As y'all know, I'm a romance author, and I'm published with what's called a "small press." In my case, that's The Wild Rose Press, and they publish full length novels and short stories in e-book format. All full length novels go to print in six months.

I've had people say the following to me:

"You're a romance author?"

"You must make a lot."

"I don't read romances... That's just all sex."

"What bookstores carry your books?"

"I'll wait till it comes out in print."

Let me address all of those comments.

1. Yes, I am a romance author. I get to call myself an author because I've had a book or story published. Yeah! Otherwise, I'd be called a writer. But you can call me a writer too. Call me anything but late to... Speaking of which, I love to eat. Did I tell you that?

2. No, I don't make a lot. I only make royalties from the books that are sold, and here in the world of small press, we have trouble reaching those folks who would rather brave the snow and cold to browse a bookstore than recline on the bed in the luxury of their toasty homes and surf the internet on their laptops for an "instant" download of an e-book. Did I say "instant?" As in gratification? I'd make a lot more if more people would buy my books. :-) I'm just saying...

3. Those who don't read romances are really missing the boat. I've had periods where I said in just such a way, "I don't read romances." Well, what should I read? More hard news, more real world grief and suffering? Can't get enough of that, that's for sure. I'm all about escapism, entertainment, and as a licensed mental health therapist (story to be continued on another day), I highly recommend healthy doses of escapism...I said "healthy" doses.

Oh, and the "it's just all sex." Forget it! There's plenty of sex in books, not just e-books. But not in mine. I write sensual romances with fade to black lovemaking. That's what I like to read and that's what I write. Same goes for movies too. Please just fade out and let me do the imagining, thank you very much. I cannot tell you how uninterested I am in how "X" male actor and "X'ette" female actor look when they're...uh... pretending to make love in front of a camera.

4. My books (and all e-books) are available online at all the larger bookstores, Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/, Barnes and Noble at www.barnesandnoble.com , etc. Sometimes we can get them placed on bookstore shelves if we have a personal relationship with the bookstore manager, but that is not a common practice...yet. Bookstores have only so much room.

5. By all means, wait for the book to come out in print! I love my print copies. They're beautiful, sleek and colorful, and I can run my hands up and down the silky covers (of the books). They are a little steeper than what is called "mass paperbacks." Small press usually have books printed in "trade paperback" size and they're a little larger. The more to hold, my dear!!!!

Mind you, you'll have waited six months to read the story, but I'll be able to autograph the print version for you.

And last but not least, fellow RV'ers! You know we cannot drag these paperbacks and hardback books with us around the country as we travel...especially with the price of gas so high. Think about heading for e-books for entertainment. It's the wave of the future. Even the big NY publishing houses have seen the light and are putting a lot of their books into e-book format.

Here's a link to a wonderful article on e-book publishing I read today. It's from the March 2008 issue of a fun little magazine called EMuse. http://www.emuse-zine.com/page35aa.html I hope you enjoy.

Take care and happy travels!

Bess McBride

http://www.bessmcbride.com/

Better Late than Never

2008-03-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Hello friends ....

I dash into the room and come to a screeching halt! I'm here! At the encouragement of a friend and my own (apparent) narcissistic desire to talk about myself, I've decided to begin a blog describing my travels throughout the United States in my recreational vehicle while I write romance novels on the side...or maybe I write the novels and travel on the side. I'm not sure. Stay with me now....

I should have started the blog last May 2007 when I sold my house in Boise, Idaho (in a strange ongoing...never ending phase of my midlife crisis), bought an older truck and a fairly beat up but newer recreational vehicle (a fifth wheel from a now defunct company) and convinced my significant other to give up all job security and hit the road with me.

But lest you think I'm completely insane, I did have plans to work for the National Park Service during the summers and write romances in the winter in some sunny, beach-like location. Now, don't get me wrong. Writing romances sounds...well, romantic, but it doesn't always pay much. In fact, for most of us, it pays very little, especially if one is not published by the big NY houses. Only so much New York to go around. Still, I love the writing, I have a small press that is willing to publish my work (so far), and I do have a teensy, weensy military retirement that helps take the edge off absolute destitution. :-)

Fast forward, and we have completed our first summer and are nearing the end of our first winter...which still seems like summer. I'm so confused! I worked at Glacier National Park in Montana for the summer, and we drove many, many hundreds...nay, thousands of miles to the sunny Gulf Coast of Alabama where we've stayed the winter.

Glacier National Park

Gulf Coast of Alabama

The time has come for me to start applying for jobs for the summer, and although I enjoyed my stay at Glacier, we thought it was too far (2500 miles) and too expensive to return to. We made the trip down here with all the speed of a covered wagon on The Oregon Trail!

I had my heart set on Great Smoky Mountain National Park this year, but alas, they didn't need anyone this year. A lot of the parks are remote...that's why we love them so much, but remote means there's no town large enough for my significant other to find work as a carpenter, and I promised him he'd be able to find jobs while we travel the country in a caravan like gypsies.

As the job openings came and went and still I couldn't find anything just right, Glacier National Park called me and offered me a job. I said no... Visions of a summer of starving and chasing sand crabs for food while I lapped salt water popped into my head, and I immediately called them right back and said yes...oh yes, please, and thank you very much.

So, that's it. We're about to get back on the road at the end of April and make the long journey back toward the West. We did make reservations to return to "Paradise," Alabama next winter (looks like summer), and I hope we do. Mardis Gras is not to be missed.

And the romance writer in me got three or four books written down here and saw four contracted with The Wild Rose Press, currently in editing. Yes, one is set in Glacier National Park and is called "A Trail of Love." I finished a romantic suspense, my first, to celebrate my stay here in on the Gulf Coast and submitted that to several houses, so we'll see how that goes. Root for me!

Feel free to check my website out at www.bessmcbride.com. You'll find lots of information about my books, where to buy them, reviews, interviews and my e-mail if you want to get in touch. I'm looking forward to hearing from folks, fellow RVers, other travelers and gypsies, romance authors, writers, and readers.

So, let me ask you friends! How many of you share my dreams of wandering and how many of you share my dreams of becoming a published author? I'd love to hear from you!

May the wind be always at your back!

Bess McBride