Klarissa said:
"Highland Honor is an exciting historical with lots of passion and danger. I felt drawn to Callie and Colin's lives and wanted to learn about them. With some questions unanswered Ms. Young leaves it open for more stories with these great characters. If you love Highlanders, you'll love Highland Honor."
Read the entire review.
Buy Highland Honor from Awe-Struck Publishing.
http://awe-struckreviews.blogspot.com/

The readers luncheon in Portland yesterday was a great experience. Jane Porter's speach was wonderful, a little funny, poignant and eye opening. Every time I hear anyone speak of their experiences growing up and the difficulties they had to live through I am grateful. I wonder how there are so many disfunctional families and people in the world. Yet I teach. And I see the children and it is so hard for me to understand how people can be so cruel and unfeeling. Is there a way to fix this? I wonder. Our wonderful politicians seem to think that all families have money and live the way they do. Yet we see time and again how disfunctional they are. Are we all so flawed?

Title: Dakota's Bride

Authors: Christine Young

Genres: Historical, Romance

Available: Feb 18, 2010Online Link:

http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nightowlromance/reviews/Review.aspx?daoid=5969Score:

4.25 / 5

Review:

Emma St. John is on the run from a very dangerous and evil man, her stepfather. Upon her mother's mysterious death after a long illness, Emma overhears her stepfather discussing how he systematically poisoned her mother until she died. After hearing this devastating news, as well as hearing her stepfather's horrible plan for her, Emma decides to run away taking her younger sister Clare with her. They are both now on the run and Emma's stepfather has accused her of murdering her own mother, kidnapping her younger sister and stealing her own inheritance money.

Emma has an older brother, Jacob, who left years before their mother died, to make a life of his own away from their stepfather. The only resource Emma has is to follow the instructions left by her own brother in a letter on the day he left, telling her that if she should ever need help to seek out Dakota Barringer for assistance. Paying for passage on the paddle wheeler boat owned by Dakota, Emma and her sister have a room aboard the ship; however, Emma is expected to work as a serving girl to the many men on board. By the turn of luck she ends up assigned to serve at Dakota's table, but before she has the time to let him know who she is and what she needs, their chemistry for each other, and a little wine, do the trick to bring these two together in other enticing ways.

Betrayals, hidden agendas, dangerous Pinkertons looking to collect on the reward offered for Emma's capture and an endearing love story outline this unforgettable tale. I followed along the trails with Emma and Dakota eagerly awaiting the resolution of their story. This is definitely a page-turner you will not want to put down.

Purchase ebook or print at: http://www.roguephoenixpress.com/

Sunshine Award Paty Jager

gave my blog a Sunshine Award.

Thanks Paty!

According to the guidelines, now that I picked your blog you need to:

Put the logo on your blog in a post.

Pass the award onto 12 bloggers. Link the nominees within this post.

Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blogs. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award. So here are my twelve Sunshine

Award nominees:

Rogue's Angels

Genene Valleau

Alice Sharpe

Anne Patrick

K.J. Dahlen

Kevin Voglino

Melody Tink

Nickie Flemming

Preston Sexton

G.L. Loyd

G.L Didadelusky

Clay Renick

Scene writing 101:

Even if you are a panster, like me, plotting each scene is way too important to forego. I go through many steps when I decide what will happen in my scenes.

First: I make sure I know whose POV I'm in.

Second: I write the first sentence and try to write the last sentence. Knowing how the scene will end and making it a cliff hangar sot the reader will keep turning the pages is important.

Third: the scene has to be set.

I always include the internal and external conflict. The hurdle that has to be jumped as well as the character change. Every scene must move the characters forward on their journey.

Knowing who your characters are and how they will react to everything is of ultimate importance. Your characters cannot grow through the story unless the author knows where they came from. Their past will create their future.

Have fun writing scenes but if you're a panster like me, you should still take a real look at plotting your scenes if not the entire book.

Dakota's Bride,

I'm celebrating the rerelease of Dakota's Bride. Twelve years ago in December, Dakota's Bride was released by Kensington. It was my first published book and I had the great honor of Kate Duffy editing my book. Kate was a legend in the field of publishing. She passed away this last fall and the writing world mourned her loss. She was great fun and had a fantastic sense of humor.

Dakota's Bride is the first published book in the series that began with a book called Ghost Dance. Other books in the series include: My Angel, The Locket, The Talisman, and Forevr His.

www.roguephoenixpress.com

Trends in Romance,

Mind boggling doesn't come close to trying to figure out the trends in romance writing created single-handedly by the big publishing houses. When I first began to read romance, my favorite historicals were centered around the War Between the States. Suddenly this was taboo. The houses were not accepting these stories. "Write something else they would say." Then as an after thought they would mention that the author had to be passionate about thier story, "Write from the heart" LOL. As I progressed in my writing skills and publish a western romance, I discovered that now they (the big pub houses in New York) wanted highland sories. So, I picked up my pen--keyboard--and wrote three highland stories. They sold well, but they were turned down by my previous house and picked up by an epub. But the epub wanted regencies. So, once again, I tried my hand at this time period. I went to London, bought numerous books, and studied them. I'm not sure how these books will do. I have one at awe-struck and another one about to be published. Time will tell :0).

Oh, and I forgot to mention loving pirate stories. And they to have seen thier time. It has come and gone--but I think they may have come back. By the time I write them they will probably no longer be a trend. Thank goodness for epubs. One can truly write from the heart and be passionate about the story.

January 20th, high school swimming is over for the year. And what a rewarding year. The girls team did a great job! I am so proud of them. As a team we finished 4th. My wonderful year round swimmer finished her high school career with an unprecedented 8 state championships swims. Our relays finished 3rd and 4th. I am so proud of them.

Last night while they were all shopping I was able to work on my St Patty's day anthology. I revisted my characters and started developing the bad guy. I love my bad guys as all my readers will know. They are my favorite to write because I don't have to be PC. I can pull out all the stops and make them just as bad as their evil hearts.

What fun. Now I have several months to decide if I will do this all over again, (coach swimming). Ah... it is so much fun when all goes well. And I have such a hard time thinking about giving up the team I built from the ground up.

Book signing was a success.

On Valentines Day the Angels had their first booksigning at the humane society, donating a dollar a book. We had a lot of fun with friends, family and new friends. Libby, a black lab, drew names for the door prizes. We will be planning our next signing for the year 2011 on St. Patty's day.

The Angels: Allana, Cinnamon, Sable and Amber.

District swim meet.

Prelims at districts were awesome. Cascade girls and boys swam great. Lots of personal records. The girls are hoping to win the meet tomorrow. If they do, I'll get wet. Wouldn't have it any other way though. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they will all swim as well tomorrow as they did today. After tomorrow we are all looking forward to State.

Then more time for writing and publishing. I am so looking forward to the spring, sunshine, free time, Annaheim and the next Young to come on the scene sometime in June.

Writing today and trying to figure out how to put the time machine into play. Can I send the villain back to the future? Perhaps. I may have to see what my other anthology partners think about that.

Busy day, Super Bowl Sunday, a Bridal Shower, a Rogues Angels meeting, Sunday Dinner, and we were supposed to have Brian and Kari for lunch/brunch but she had to work. It must be tax season. Who has to work on Sunday?

Hoping to see them soon, maybe we'll treck down to Eugene for a dinner with them.

New Goal:

My villain is waiting to be heard. I have had his scene in my head for over a week and have had virtually no time to write. This weekend he will be put on paper as well as the pagan fairy godfather who is directing the poor young man's misdeeds. Oh how I love to write the villains story. I can do anything that pops into my head. What fun awaits.

The covers--

I wanted to thank everyone for helping me by advice and opinions. I believe we, Genene and I, have decided which cover we want. Of course there will always be a few tweaks to the covers. The heart cover popped. But it seemed, as Jenee and a few others said, a bit of a cliche. But the book is historical romance. As Alice said, maybe all we needed on the other cover was to bring the hero and heroine more into focus. With that done, I believe we have a cover. I can hardly wait to have Dakota's Bride re-published. It will be fun to have the book out again.

The heart cover? or the cover with the bracelet of bells?
Or one of the new ones?

I have a cover for the second release of Dakota's Bride. I am looking for input and would like to know your opinion. Dakota's Bride will be released by Rogue Phoenix Press March 1st. Please take the time to vote. All votes will be put in a drawing for a POD of Dakota's Bride. Be the lucky winner.

Casey and Kelly have taken one more step forward. Kelly realizes he is in love with Casey and wants to spend his life with her. He is awe-struck gazing into her eyes. The fae folk feel victorious. Unfortunately they also realize there are two huge stumbling blocks the star-crossed couple must climb over before they can marry. The feud and thier religion stand in their way. If it isn't enogh for the families to hate each other, one is catholic and the other protestant. With the help of Moya and Oran their faierie godmother and godfather I am sure they will over come every obstacle put in their way.

I have set a writing goal for myself. I fully intend to do my best to keep these goals. I am sitting down now at the computer and will read another ten pages of the new anthology. Hopefully I will start writing on the anthology by the end of this week. Setting goals are so important to me. I have always set goals and I don't understand why I stopped. I achieve so much more. My goals are tiny ones. I'm taking baby steps.

I am also intrigued by the story. Last night is the first time I've visited Casey and Kelly and the family feud that may keep them apart. Are they star crossed lovers? Will they end thier lives as Romeo and Juliet did. I don't think so since I have always been a fan of happy endings. But these two lovers will find it difficult to convince their families that theirs is a strong and true love, one that will survive through time.

I want to write, I want to write, I want to write. And I would love to teach if there weren't so many obstacles standing in the way. Why can't everyone love to learn? Learning is fun! And exciting! I think most writers love to learn, they love to research and create new lives through thier imagination. I love to learn everything. It doesn't matter if it is how to do a new type of math problem, something historical, or just something I can take home and tell my husband. Learning keeps the brain cells alive. That and fish. I guess that is why my family loves trivial pursit. We pursue all kinds of knowledge even if to most it is trivia. Why don't people care enough about themselves to try? Some psychologists might say it is because of low self esteeem. How does one have this condition when there are so many people who insist there are no consequenses for actions? I know the answers are convoluted, it is just that I have a burning need to vent today. After two horrendous days when the moon isn't even full, I am trying very hard to stay positive. If anyone is out there listening, thank you.

My daughter doesn't like my background. What does everyone out there think. Obviously, I really liked it. But she thinks it's scary. Where does one find backgrounds for blogs? As far as my resolutions have gone, I haven't done anything. I did ask my husband to find Ghost Dance on one of our archaic computers but he has been so busy with taxes that I think he probably forgot. I'll ask him in a couple of weeks. I have thought about my St. Patrick's Day story but I haven't looked at it. I need to read it again. It shouldn't take too long to get into the swing of things.

Crazy, crazy and it's not even a full moon, but I walked into swim practice today and got yelled at for absolutely no reason. I'm still not sure why. I'm a nice person. I don't try to take advantage of situations. And I always, well almost always, follow the rules because I'm always the one that gets caught if I don't. But this lady lit into me for no reason at all. And then when she called the mangager of the pool she found out I was right. So did I deserve an apology? Of course I did. Did I get one? Of course not. And to top it off she raked me over the coals for talking to my swimmers wrong. I just told them we could only swim for an hour today instead of an hour and 5 minutes. Go figure. I don't thin it is any of her business what I say to my swimmers. I guess I'm still ........

Resolutions:

Resolutions are like goals. We all have them either in our mind or written on paper somewhere. I've found that writing goals down will help me keep them. Goals have to be specific and time bound. They are short term and long term. So what are my goals for the new year?

To begin with I have to finish my St. Patrick's Day anthology story. I had hoped to finish it last summer but only managed to write about a third of it. Now, I have to start from the beginning. This is a good and a bad thing.

Second, I would like to pull Ghost Dance from the mires of my very old computer, reread it, edit it and submit it to RPP for publishing.

Then I would like to finish the third book in the 12 book series I began several years ago. Allura being the first book, The Wager the second book, and A Marriage of Inconvenience would be the third.

And I would like to publish at least one post a week on all of my four blogs. (Maybe I can do this one too)

Realistically though, I will be happy to just finish the St. Patty's Day story.

So goals vs. resolutions? Hmm are they one and the same or are they different?

Warm Ups:

It seems everything we do has a warm up. I coach swimming and we warm and we warm down. So it can also go in writing. To get the best writing during a short amount of time many of us warm up. When I'm writing daily, I like to warm up and/or warm down on my blog by giving a brief run-down of what is happening in my manuscript on that day. Many use writing drills to warm up and improve writing skills.

My favorite, a technique I use not only to warm up but to improve my writing.

Challenge: write 26 sentences begin each with a different letter of the alphabet. Make sure you write them in order beginning with 'A' and of course ending with 'Z'

What is your favorite warm up or drill?

Happy Dancing: Another great review Long and Short reveviews gives Forever His 4 books.

A captivating and intriguing story that sucks you in and takes you back into 1895 with a timeless tale filled with high drama, a ruthless criminal and two lovers who are intended to be together. If you want to keep on the edge of your seat , turning pages and wondering what will happen next or if Etta and Jacob will make it through all of their troubles, then this is the book for you.

Check it out the entire review at: http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.com/2010/01/forever-his-by-christine-young.html

I'm hoping to find some time to write this winter break. But I'm not sure there will be time until this summer and possibly not until I retire. With RPP I'm trying to get a little bit ahead of the game so I won't feel so pressured as swim season picks up and finally come to a close in the middle of February. My faeries in the St. Patty's day anthology are waiting to play again as I read other people stories, hunt for comma mistakes and delete over used words. This can be frustrating and rewarding. I love it when I send a story to reviewers and it comes back with great comments and high reviews. Even though a story will never appeal to everyone, I have begun to appreciate other genres and I feel as if I am growing as a writer. I would also love to get back to the third story in my set of 12, A Marriage of Inconvenience. So you ask when will The Wager be published? I haven't heard. I alos haven't seen the new cover. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

I will be writing on my other blog tomorrow. Oh, I'm looking forward to the Oregon State game tonight. Go Beavs!!!

What makes people visit a blog? I am a member of serveral online loops. Sometimes I check on the blogs and the promos but I rarely leave a comment. How should someone aspiring to entice bloggers to read your blog and leave a comment? Do contests work? Does it help to have other authors become part of your blog? I'm really not too sure. I've studied a few and can never really decide what would be the best way to get people to particiate on my blog. I love to have readers leave comments. It is fun to have them turn up on my email and I always race to my blog to see what has been said. However, most of the time they are my friends and while I love that my fellow friends and authors leave comments I would truly like to hear from more people. And then, how does one know if they are successful of if the blog led to a sale of a book? Is all this just extra work?

Any one out there with comments? I'd love to hear from you.