We Are Blessed

It’s the day before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, and people are in a mad scramble to get everything done so they can celebrate the holiday with family, friends, and loved ones.  The hectic roller-coaster ride of rushing to stores, climbing into cars and driving sometimes hundreds of miles, or jumping onto planes and flying across the country has begun. 

Let’s slow our roll for a bit, shall we, and take a moment to reflect on the things we’re thankful for.  The big things like, health, wealth and happiness naturally spring to the forefront of our minds.  Many of us are blessed with a prosperity we oftentimes take for granted.  We’re so busy keeping up with the Jones’s that we’ve forgotten everything we truly have accomplished in our mad dash. 

Instead, let’s pause a moment and take look around.  Do you have a roof over your head?  Be thankful.  Not everyone is so fortunate.  Do you have food in the pantry and in the refrigerator?  Be thankful because many go without  How about that one special friend who’s always there for you, no matter what stupid stunt you’ve pulled?  Yep, be thankful they are in your life, even if it’s to stay I told you so. 

As a nation, we are blessed with an abundance of riches, and we often forget how much we have, and the costs associated with it.  Our Armed Forces don’t get to pack everything up and head home to their families for a big home-cooked meal and football on the TV.  Instead, they are out there, on the front lines, protecting us—so we have the freedom to sit down to that home-cooked meal and watch our favorite teams go for that game-winning touchdown. 

On a personal note, I am thankful to be able to do a job I love, and write stories that hopefully keep the readers on the edge of their seat, turning the page to figure out who the villain is, and if the hero will save the girl (or if the heroine will save the guy). 

My wish for you is a very blessed Thanksgiving holiday, and remembrance of what we have, big and small. 

For the holiday weekend, Deadly Justice (part of my New Orleans Connection Series) is on sale for only 99 cents.  (How’s that for a shameless plug?  

Buy Links: 

Amazon:  http://amzn.to/29AZWVj

iBooks:  https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/deadly-justice/id1135004741?ls=1&mt=11

B&N:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/deadly-justice-kathy-ivan/1124104184?ean=2940156940479

Kobo:  https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/deadly-justice-3

To Series or Not to Series...by Kathy Ivan

Sometimes as a writer, I’ll get an idea for a story, and immediately want to write it.  (Fitting it into my hectic schedule is a whole other ballgame.)  There’s enough of a story for it to be what’s known as a standalone book, meaning there will only be the one book which doesn’t connect with any other books that author has written.  No other books will come from this story idea.  And that is perfectly fine. 

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But other times, I will get a kernel of a story.  When I start thinking about it, and begin writing, there’s so much going on, not only with the main characters (the hero and heroine), but with the secondary characters, I feel the need to tell their stories too.  Some of them have stories that are equally as interesting as the people you are writing about—so much so they almost steal the story away from your hero and heroine. 

When that happens, it almost becomes imperative to write an ongoing series.  Writing a series can be done in many ways, but the two most common are:

1.  The hero and/or heroine will have multiple books about them.  This individual’s story arc will carry across from one book to the next (a perfect example is Julie Moffett’s Lexi Carmichael series).  These books revolve around the main character, i.e., Lexi, and her many adventures, including solving a mystery in each book, as well as surviving the ups and downs of maintaining a romantic relationship.  This works extremely well for cozy mystery series.

2.  Another example would be the series where there are cross-over characters, but each book has a different hero and heroine (or hero/hero, heroine/heroine depending on the genre).  An example of this would be my New Orleans Connection Series.  Each book can be read as a standalone book—meaning you don’t have to have read any of the other books in the series in order to read and hopefully enjoy any single book.  The characters will cross over into other books in the series, and readers seem to love when that happens.  It’s like catching up with old friends you came to care about in other books. 

These are just two examples of writing series versus standalones.  Neither one is right or wrong, or better or worse than the other.  It’s all up to the writer, and ultimately the reader, to decide their reading preference.  And that’s part of what I love about writing (and reading).  There’s a vast amount of choices out there—all you have to do is pick one and dive in. 

Happy Reading! 

Kathy is busy writing her New Orleans Connection Series, a romantic suspense series, set in and around New Orleans.  Her latest release, Deadly Justice, is available now.  Her next book, Wicked Obsession, releases in September 2016.  For more information on Kathy’s books, click on:  www.kathyivan.com/books.html  

Swapping Genres? by Kathy Ivan

First off, let me say that while I'm a bit waterlogged, everything here in North Texas (at least in my neck of the woods), is fine and we're drying out.  Though I'll admit, I haven't seen this much rain since I lived in Florida—during hurricane season. 

I've been thinking about my suspense writing a lot recently.  Why?  Because I haven't done any—not for a couple of months.  Oh, I'm still writing, and I have a series of books coming out that are contemporary romance—without any smidgeon of suspense or mystery in sight. 

It's been a bit of a palate cleanser, to be honest.  Most of what I've written over the last few years has been romantic suspense, writing and building up my New Orleans Connection series.  But when I had the idea for this new contemporary romance series, there wasn't any place to fit in a good mystery.  It was strictly hero and heroine romance (of course with a happily-ever-after).

And strangely enough, these stories flowed quickly and easily.  I think it's because I didn't have to contemplate and plot about laying a trail of red herrings and false clues to divert suspicion from the villain. 

Truthfully, I think the break has done me a world of good, because I'm currently working on the next romantic suspense book in my New Orleans Connection series, and it feels fresh and exciting again.  So for me, taking a little bit of a genre break worked.  I can't promise it will work for everybody, but if you find yourself feeling the blues over your latest work in progress, consider a writing palate cleanser and write a short story in a different genre—even if it never sees the light of day once you finish.  You may find it stimulates your creative juices in new and exciting directions.

I'll never leave behind my romantic suspense roots, I can't.  I love it too much.  Being able to weave elements of mystery into the books, the adrenaline rush you get in creating those life and death situations—no, I'll always write that.  But every once in a while, don't be surprised if you see me working on a little something "extra." 

P.S.  I threw in the picture of Nathan Fillion, because, hey, who couldn't use a little something pretty to look at on a Friday?

Kathy Ivan can be found at her computer, drowning in Diet Dr. Pepper and writing her next book.  Check out her books at your local e-retailer on her website at www.kathyivan.com.