Peaceful Pilgrims Series, Book 4: Hearts Ablaze


Book Description

Peaceful Pilgrims Series is set in Karen Wiesner's fictional town of Peaceful, Wisconsin, a small community with old-fashioned values and friendly people you'll want to get to know and visit often. Sometimes trying to have it all with no quarter given means losing what matters most... Riley Levi works hard toward success as a flight attendant and longs for love to set her heart ablaze. In order to speed up the timetable of her career aspirations, she takes an ill-advised shortcut that could have lasting ramifications. Riley's husband, Liam "Blaze" Blazel, lives in their hometown of Peaceful, Wisconsin, serving as a police officer. Blaze and Riley married six months ago. He believes marriage means a husband and wife live together, sleep together every night, and eventually raise a family together. The last thing Riley needs is to be in a committed relationship with a man who wants to ground her. Perhaps the most damning thing of all is that they love each other passionately. There's simply no happy medium that could make this thing work...




Adventures in Amethyst Series, Book 12: Unlucky in Love


Book Description

Unlucky in love and unable to count their blessings during the Thanksgiving holiday, Layla and Adam find themselves jilted at the same time by the person they assumed was their soulmate. Heartbroken, snowed in and forced to share the only available cabin in town, they have no choice but to re-evaluate everything they've ever wanted in life...and love.




Bridge of Fire, Part 3: Into the Sun


Book Description

For the ten generations since the evil first came to Woodcutter's Grim, the Guardians have sworn an oath to protect the town from the childhood horrors that lurk in the black woods. Without them, the town would be defenseless...and the terrors would escape to the world at large. A shape-shifting goat, William Gruff escaped being bound to the evil pervading Woodcutter's Grim, the sole shelter for supernatural creatures. Years later, he and his pregnant wife, Adaryn Azar, a phoenix, have no choice but to flee there themselves. But just one phoenix can exist in the world. Will the powerful magic Liam wields consume him before he can build the only bridge that can take him and Adaryn into the sun of Eternal Paradise?




CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction: A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plots, and Relationships


Book Description

Characters: Do your characters have no obvious signs of life, nothing that gives them unique personality, perspective, and passion? Plots: Are plots and conflicts created spur of the moment with no set up, build up, curiosity, or tension? Relationships: Are your characters merely going through the motions with each other? All of these and more are signs of dead or lifeless stories. The three core elements of story--Characters, Plots, and Relationships (CPR)--need to be developed three dimensionally. To truly be living, characters aren't simply existing and going through the motions. They possess fully developed external and internal conflicts. They're interacting in dynamic, realistic, and believable relationships. They have multidimensional character attributes that give them both vitality and voice. Finally, they're engaged in what makes life worthwhile with definable goals and motivations. This resource teaches writers how to identify dead or lifeless characters, plots, and relationships; establish proper setup; plant the seeds early with in-depth sketches; and pinpoint weak areas in CPR development. The only one-stop, everything-you-need-to-know 9-1-1 for deep, multifaceted Character, Plot, and Relationship development!




Woodcutter's Grim Series: Volume II {Classic Tales of Horror Retold}


Book Description

For the ten generations since the evil first came to Woodcutter's Grim, the Guardians have sworn an oath to protect the town from the childhood horrors that lurk in the black woods. Without them, the town would be defenseless...and the terrors would escape to the world at large. A four-book miniseries within the Woodcutter's Grim Series, dealing with the curse on the Shaussegeny family. Moonlight Becomes You (Book 4) {romantic paranormal} Very loosely based on "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse". When her child becomes deathly ill and none of the doctors and specialists can help him, Heather Rowe rushes to Woodcutter's Grim, hoping the boy's father can explain what's happening. But Lance Shaussegeny both intrigues and terrifies Heather as much as what he's told her of his hometown does. She soon learns that nothing in Woodcutter's Grim--including Lance--is what it seems. Bewitched (Book 5) {romantic paranormal} Very loosely based on "The Little Mermaid". Glynnis Shaussegeny becomes bewitched by the mystery man who appears out of nowhere on the abandoned property across the lake from her family's estate. But does Aric Sayer have even more dark secrets than she does? One Night of Eternity (Book 6) {romantic paranormal} Very loosely based on "The House That Jack Built". The curse pronounced on the Shaussegeny clan for all time was very clear: "Because the Shaussegeny name has long been synonymous with faithlessness, even unto your own chosen mates, only one chosen mate will be allotted to each of your kin henceforth. These chosen mates must also fall under the family curse, but these pairs will know true peace when they become one. Herein lays your salvation--and your damnation. Only if each of your clan remains faithful to their chosen mates in word and deed for all of their days will they have blissful contentment. Apart, mates shall be restless and forever unsettled, gripped by a sadness and despair unlike any other. A terrible fate will come upon the one who breaks the mate covenant." Gavin Shaussegeny has broken the covenant with his wife, Marnie, by cheating on her, and the betrayal carries a harsh penalty and punishment. Although Gavin regrets his faithlessness and loves his wife more than anyone or anything else, the house that he's built for himself is rapidly beginning to tumble down around him. There is only one chance for salvation for him now: Only his mate's undeserved forgiveness will free him from his punishment to re-live his betrayal over and over for all time. Beauty is the Beast (Book 7) {romantic paranormal} Very loosely based on "Beauty and the Beast". The Shaussegeny family curse came with one final pronouncement: "And now there is but one manner in which this curse can be broken and obliterated entirely: That beauty falls in love with the beast and vice versa, that evil loves good and good loves evil. If this should happen, your family shall be released from each aspect of my curse and your alliance with evil shall be ended." Ransom Shaussegeny attempts to cure the family of the curse they live under. Instead, he becomes a werewolf trapped in his beast form and isolates himself inside the family fortress. When he meets Tess Moore, a beautiful enchantress, and falls under her spell, Ransom no longer knows who or what is real--or whether the evil in Woodcutter's Grim is about to have the last laugh by dooming him, the woman he loves, and his family for all time...




Writing Blurbs That Sizzle--And Sell!


Book Description

Make your book fly off the shelves! Every author knows what a back cover blurb is, but crafting an effectively good one is no easy task. Many writers outright dislike writing them or dread the process because so much is at stake if the blurb fails to engage. A sizzling back cover blurb needs to convince readers they absolutely have to read the story inside the pages…or they'll set the book down without ever opening it. Additionally, a powerful series blurb can sell not just one book but all of them in that set! High-concept blurbs are necessary in every author's marketing to provide intriguing "sound bites" that sell books and series'. Writing Blurbs That Sizzle--And Sell! is the definitive guide on how to craft back cover, series, and high-concept blurbs.




Home


Book Description

Peaceful Pilgrims Series is set in Karen Wiesner's fictional town of Peaceful, Wisconsin, a small community with old-fashioned values and friendly people you'll want to get to know and visit often. Small-town girl Ayodele "Della" Flynn lives in a city she abhors, where danger seems to be lurking around every corner. When her husband dies very unexpectedly, she's confronted with figuring out where her home is with her young son River and trying to come to terms with the loose ends her husband left their lives in.




Briar's Patch


Book Description

As a teenager, Roman "Bud" Marasek was shy and withdrawn, a farmer's kid who grew up to be a farmer himself. The first girl he loved was Briar Sankey, a popular girl with big, beautiful eyes and a wild clothing and makeup style. It took him years to work up the courage to ask her out, and their date was the best night of his life. But, when she never answered his calls after that and started dating the star athlete, he'd realized he'd only been wishing for the moon. Years passed, Bud fell in love with Evette, had a daughter, and his wife died unexpectedly. Raising Harper hasn't been easy alone, but at forty-seven he feels completely unprepared for being both father and mother to a moody teenage daughter with too many boyfriends and life-and-death meltdowns. He turns to Briar for help. Briar is running her mother's restaurant, has finally toned down her style, and, unbelievably, has never married and seems content to be alone. Looks are deceiving... Briar had spent her life confident she had all the time in the world to make a life for herself and any choice she wanted. At forty-seven, she no longer has the same choices. With both of her parents gone, she's the only one left to run the restaurant, her mother's legacy to the small town of Amethyst and what she considers her "patch" in the big, wide world. Additionally, the few eligible men in the area don't interest her. Letting slip an unintended faux pas, a friend of both Briar and Bud reveals to Briar that Bud has had a thirty year crush on her. Suddenly his reason for coming by the cafe nearly every day of his life takes on startling meaning. In truth, she'd barely noticed him most of the time. When he asks her for help with Harper, she can't refuse. And suddenly she's seeing Bud in a whole new light...and falling in love with the sweet, shy man who's been there all along.




Hunters Blues


Book Description

For the ten generations since the evil first came to Woodcutter's Grim, the Guardians have sworn an oath to protect the town from the childhood horrors that lurk in the black woods. Without them, the town would be defenseless...and the terrors would escape to the world at large. Loosely based on "Little Snow White" by the Brothers Grimm. The year is 2093. When the evil in Woodcutter's Grim unleashed with a vengeance fifty years ago, humans turned into ghouls that avoided the sun and water...and had the innate instinct to contaminate others with their evil. In no time at all, the evil spread and wiped out most of the world's population before the Protectorate--the guardians sworn to protect Woodcutter's Grim and those outside against the evil pervading it--came up with a way to hold the threat at bay, not completely but enough to save those few left. In these years, everything has changed, from occupations to marriage. A curfew has been imposed and all live within the heavily-fortressed walls on the Shaussegeny Estate. Few children are born and those that are have a mutated form of dwarfism that makes them barren. Protectorate hunters patrol the world outside in the daylight. They are the last of humanity with no idea how much future they actually have left. Unofficial Guardian and hunter, Reece Pallaton, wonders what it's all for and whether he'll lose everyone he cares about in this endless battle. Fellow Protectorate Brethren, Mishell "Shell" Anderson insists that they can find a cure, a way to survive and push back the evil, that life will someday go back to normal. But Reece is beginning to believe that the battle he and what's left of humanity are waging can never be won...until he discovers the source of the evil, the mirror that's only the opposite half of the "glass darkly" world he lives in, and his own terrifying connection to both.




Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series, Book 7: Bone of My Bone


Book Description

Nestled on Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin is a small, secluded town called Bloodmoon Cove with volatile weather, suspicious folk...and newly awakened ghosts. Don't close your eyes... How to bury what won't stay dead...? When Bennet Ryan was eight years old, he met Ice and fell for her. Yet who Ice was and where she came from was an enigma she adamantly concealed. When they were 19, Bennet demanded she entrust her secrets to him or he'd move on. Every year since he met her, she'd disappeared at the end of September. After Bennet left her, he'd worried she wouldn't come back within two weeks the way she always had before. His worst fear materialized when she didn't return. Now, at 20, Bennet is the new deputy sheriff in Erie County. Still grieving a year after her disappearance, he's floored when Ice reappears. As they fall in love all over again, September is approaching rapidly. Bennet is compelled to solve the mystery of Ice. The deeper he delves, the more certain he is that the hole the Mino-Miskwi elders tore in the veil between the living and the dead a century ago has created a maelstrom of twisted horror. How can he possibly save the woman he loves from an entity that wears the name of creation's first murderer, bears an immortal seal, and made a pact with the devil himself?