WiP Wednesday, er Friday

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

What are you reading or writing this weekend?

Yeah - had a great idea for a novel and must have dropped water on it because like a bunch of gremlins, I now have 7 novels in the works. They're all in the same town and have overlapping characters, but goodness! The creativity - thank goodness - never ends! I have one Lit Fic, but the next 6 are all romance novels coming to life.

WiP Wednesday has come and gone, but here's a book update. And no - nowhere near publishing yet, but I'm making great strides.

Wayward Guilt - 113,191 words - Grant's Crossing Novel - Lit Fic - About 90-95% through the initial draft. Don't Call Me Sugar - Steve and Tara - Grant's Crossing Romance - Working on edits / revisions / cuts. So many cuts.

(Beta readers = Invaluable, wonderful, awesome people!) Okay to Fall - Logan and Nick - Grant's Crossing Romance - 2-3 chapters in. I may save this for NaNoWriMo 2022 End of a New Life - Callie and Derek - Grant's Crossing Romance - Outlining / drafting / this one's weird, but I love it! Warm Drink on a Cold Day - Kiro and Celeste - Grant's Crossing Romance - Outlining / Drafting Romance #5 - Emerson and Aimee - Grant's Crossing Romance - Outlining / Notes Romance #6 - Tim and Jenna - Grant's Crossing Romance - Outlining / Notes If only I could win the lottery and head off to a cabin in the woods somewhere. Of course, it would need to be catered, or at least have someone come in to do the dishes. I have needs.

Take care and happy reading, and I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

 - Heather 

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown

Follow me on Facebook

Twitter - @GrantsCrossing

I Did It!

 I DID IT!!! 

I finished Tara & Steve’s story in my Grant’s Crossing series of romance novels. Theirs is one of the first stories to tell, but holy cow did it feel fabulous to type the words “THE END” at the end of my epilogue. 

Don’t get me wrong, it is far from ready. I haven’t even run a spell check on it yet, but I’m going to take a few days off then delve into the editing process. 

Yes - starting with a spell check!

I’ll be doing a few rounds of self-edits this month and then running things by my beta readers starting the end of May. Once I make it through that, it’ll go to the editor. 

In the meantime - I FINISHED MY FIRST BOOK!

Happy reading everyone! 

- Heather


Instagram - @GrantsCrossing

Goodreads - HMS Brown

Twitter - @GrantsCrossing

Review - The Wedding Ringer

I love surprises! OK fine. Not always, but...with this gem of a romance novel, I was happily surprised to learn this delightful story was set right here in Columbus, Ohio!

Enter The Wedding Ringer by Kerry Rea, a local, Columbus, Ohio romance author. 

From the back cover: 

Once upon a time, Willa Callister was a successful blogger with a good credit score, actual hobbies, and legs that she shaved more than once a month. But after finding her fiancé in bed with her best friend, she now spends her days performing at children's birthday parties in a ball gown that makes her look like a walking bottle of Pepto Bismol. Willa dreams of starting fresh, where no one knows who she used to be, but first she needs to save up enough money to make it happen.

Maisie Mitchell needs something too: another bridesmaid for her wedding. After a chance encounter at a coffee shop, Maisie offers to pay Willa to be in her bridal party. Willa wants nothing to do with weddings--or Maisie--but the money will give her the freedom to start the new life she so badly desires.

Willa's bridesmaid duties thrust her into Maisie's high-energy world and into the path of hotshot doctor Liam Rafferty. But as Willa and Maisie form a real friendship, and Liam's annoyingly irresistible smile makes her reconsider her mantra that all men are trash, Willa's exit strategy becomes way more complicated. And when a secret from Maisie's past threatens to derail the wedding, Willa must consider whether friendship--and romance--are worth sticking around for.

From my Goodreads review:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and until I started reading it, didn't realize it was set in my town! GAHHH! 

The bulk of the story was set here in Columbus - where I live - and a lot was also in Dublin - where I work. OMG! The story starts with the main character working a pathetic job as a fairy princess for a totally spoiled brat. 

Enter abject humiliation. 

The story continues with her meeting someone who, on the spot, needs her to pretend she's the friend she's meeting for coffee. 

Enter a great start to a wonderful friendship.

Maisie asks Willa to be her bridesmaid for her upcoming wedding. As the story progresses, we learn more about Maisie and why she needs friends here in Columbus. We also start getting away from all the self-sabotaging that goes on with Willa who is understandably devastated after finding her best friend and her fiancé together. (Yes, they make an appearance later) but eventually, Maisie's upbeat and positive attitude rub off on Willa. 

The story about Willa and Maisie's developing friendship is just lovely to read. The romance between Willa and Liam...enter Dr. Dreamboat, is really nice, but didn't seem to be the main focus of the book itself. I liked it though. 

The story itself was set in and mentioned lots of (real) places in and around Columbus such as the drive up Riverside Drive - i.e. the way I go to and from work every day, and the Candle Lab and the bridal shop and Condados and other various places that are absolutely wonderful and terrific and awesome in the fantastic city of Columbus, Ohio! 

I listened to this on Audible over the course of a day and a half at the office and absolutely enjoyed it. Can't wait to read the next book by (local to me) author, Kerry Rea!

Learn more about Kerry Rea at her official website and be sure to follow her on Goodreads. The Wedding Ringer is available wherever you find your books. Goodreads - Barnes & Noble - Amazon

Happy Reading! 

        - Heather

Twitter - @GrantsCrossing 

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing 

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown - for this and all my book reviews

Grant’s Crossing Update - Overall for June

I’m making progress on Joey’s book. I’ve added close to 20,000 words since the beginning to June. 

I don’t actually have titles yet for the books I’m currently writing, so I’m naming each one by the main character whose story, or stories, I’m writing. Joey has been speaking to me lately. He has a good story to tell. 

CALLIE/DEREK     142K (It’s a mess = Editing / Rewriting / Dropping a lit match on it)

ABE     12,203K

JOEY     34,465K

KIRO/CELESTE     9,622K

Happy reading! 

 - Heather

Twitter - @GrantsCrossing

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown

Review - The Man From Darke County

This book was awesome! 

Have you read The Man From Darke County by N. Sullivan? If you haven’t, pick it up today and read it this week. It’s a fun, super quirky, well-written detective novel that touches on a bit of the paranormal. And, it’s set right here in Ohio.

Last summer, I just wanted to read a few pages so I could reference this book in my own book that I’m writing and two hours later, I’d read the whole thing. I couldn’t put it down it was so much fun to read. 

The Man From Darke County was an enjoyable read that did not at all go a direction I expected it to go, which is probably why it was such fun. 

A detective, deemed crazy by his fellow policemen, is pulled off suspension to join in with a police detective from a neighboring county filled with a most unusual populace. 

Be warned: there’s a lot of snark in the dialogue which is part of what appealed to me. Anytime an author can fill a character’s dialogue with copious amounts of sarcasm, I’m a happy camper. 

If you like detective novels and are looking for something a little different, I highly recommend you read this book. 

As for me, I’m looking forward to reading the sequel!

Find N. Sullivan online at Amazon - Patreon - Twitter 

If you’re unfamiliar with Patreon, as I was, it’s a digital subscription service that allows you to support your favorite indie authors with their audio stories, podcasts, behind the scenes footage, and all sorts of other fun content. You’re welcome to support at a variety of levels established by the various hosts. I encourage you to follow the link above and learn more. 

Read my original Goodreads review.

In the meantime, thanks and happy reading!

     - Heather 

Twitter - @GrantsCrossing

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown

First Draft Complete!

HOLY COW! I WROTE A BOOK!

I just finished my first draft of Grant’s Crossing!

Sure, I’m still obsessing over it, but now I’m going to print a hard copy of the manuscript and will start reading it from cover to cover for my first full round of edits. 

It goes to my actual editor next month. 

I actually did it! Wow! 

Happy Reading! 

        - Heather

Twitter - @GrantsCrossing 

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing 

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown - for this and all my book reviews

Keyboards and Spin-offs

Things have been pretty quiet on the blog front since I’ve been doing so much writing of late. Plus - working a lot of hours for my day job! 

My book is coming along really well. I’m about 87,000 words in which is roughly 300 pages of writing. Crazy, right? I never though I could come up with a fictional story on my own - probably because I’ve never tried, but here I am. I love where it’s going and have been doing a lot of research on various subjects so that I may portray them more realistically and more honestly. Yes, the story is fiction, but the professions of my characters are not, so I want to be true to those who work them in real life. 

As a result of meeting with one professional this past week, I’m working on some corrections and rewrites. I’m learning a lot in the process of writing a book and am loving every step of the way so far. Now - whether or not I’ll love trying to market my book, that remains to be seen, but the writing portion - is fantastic!

My book started when my challenged me to write my own after having read a couple of bad romances. (Don’t ask me the author - I don’t even remember!) I’m really getting into this because I have ideas already for a sequel or two as well as a book set during early last century. Plus, my biggest and most amazing surprise, is a young adult spin-off book that I’m creating with my nephew. He helped me come up with some of the names in my book and then told my mom, his grandmother, that he wanted to help me write a book. (He’s in high school). 

Well - we both came over to my mom’s for dinner (She’s the best cook ever!) and while I was expecting him to want to talk about it for maybe 20-30 minutes, we ended up planning out characters and story lines for 3-4 hours. I’m so excited by this! 

Watch for more details, but I’m hoping to have my current draft done later this month or next and then work on the YA spin-off book during November for NaNoWriMo. We’ll see how it goes! 

In the meantime, I’ve been working at home since the lockdown, so I was amused when I looked at my keyboards. This is probably far funnier to me than the rest of you, but I thought it would be fun to share, anyway! 

It seems I always shift with my left hand and use the space bar with only my right hand. I tend to wear down the same letter keys as well.

    1st-my writing keyboard for my iPad.

    2nd-for my day job.

Apparently I wear down the same keys on each! Lol! 

Anyhoo - there’s my writing picture of the day. 

Be well and take care! 

Happy Reading! 

        - Heather

Twitter - @GrantsCrossing 

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing 

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown - for this and all my book reviews

Grant’s Crossing

I’m happy to say that my first novel, Grant’s Crossing, is really coming together. At over 18,000 words so far, I think it’s safe to say that my story and her characters are developing quite nicely. 

This past week, I’ve had a couple of rough days at my day job because I’ve awakened early in the morning with a great idea in my head that I just had to write down. I started writing and then, all of a sudden, a few hours had gone by and it was time to get ready for work! Who needs sleep, anyway, right? 

While writing more chapters and developing my characters, I’m also still working on how to describe the book itself. Like the story, that’s a work in progress, too! 

Here’s what I have so far. Bear in mind, I may change this 50 more times between now and publication, but I think this is a great start. 

I’ll start with the short version.

Grant’s Crossing

A woman in need of answers

A man living on the edge

A town in need of hope

And the longer version...

A journalist who relentlessly pursues the truth still can’t answer the one question that matters to her the most. 

An EMT who dedicates his life to helping others yet still lives his own life on the edge.  

A small town hit hard by addiction still needs that one catalyst that can bring them hope. 

So what do you think? 

Happy Reading! 

        - Heather

Twitter - @GrantsCrossing 

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing 

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown - for this and all my book reviews

Home

I wrote this while serving in the Peace Corps and after having moved around a lot as a kid growing up - and since then as an adult. 

HOME

Where is my home? What is my home? 

I look for it now, but can’t find it. 

Home is not a place, 

Nor something I see.

Home is a feeling.

It is abstract. Intangible.

Home is where my family is.

It is where my friends are.

It is where we all feel comfortable.

It is where I can see myself, 

Where I feel accepted. 

Home is here. 

Home is where I am.

Home is a state of mind.

Home is a state of being.

Welcome home. 

What is home to you? 

Thanks for reading! 

        - Heather

Twitter - @GrantsCrossing 

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing 

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown - for this and all my book reviews