Hello, I finally found the blog!

Celebrating the Holidays (Z Minor)

I must admit my favorite holiday is Christmas. I decorate every room in the house. The principal rooms; living room, dining room, TV room have the most decorations. I have numerous boxes of decorations and seem to add a few more items each year. I always find a place for everything. When I moved to Kansas, we downsized our home. So some stayed packed in their boxes.

There are many items I received as gifts from relatives who have passed away. One I received from my favorite aunt a green candy dish – when I was still in high school. Another I received from an uncle – a homemade sled. I cherished these items and no matter the condition they will always be on display.

My children and grandchildren live on the west coast so I don’t get to see them for the holidays, but I do talk to them. My most fun is buying presents for my family, especially my grandchildren. I try to find novelty gifts. One year it was screaming monkeys. The kids thought they were great. The parents not so much. Still makes me laugh when I think about it.

Christmas is a time for family, friends, and remembering the reason for the season. May each of you have a beautiful, blessed, Merry Christmas and a safe, happy New Year. 

Z. Minor

Author of Historical Romantic & Contemporary Suspense Novels.

Holiday Traditions (Kathy Pritchett)

Ah, holiday traditions. Family wars have begun because someone dared to change something so sacrosanct. In my family, however, we have always had to adjust the days we celebrate because either my brother, my husband, my nephew or my son was working as a firefighter or EMT. We had to await coinciding days off and travel plans to get together.

               Once my kids left home, celebrations became even more difficult. The Christmas my first granddaughter was born, we gathered by phone call from Vietnam to the rest of us in Kansas. Once my daughter began working at Dollywood, she couldn’t come home until after the season closed in January. When the Army transferred my oldest stateside instead of Hawaii, we started the tradition of Christmas in January. Sometimes we gathered at my son’s house in Maryland, sometimes at their timeshare in Tennessee to visit Kellye at Dollywood.

The year my son and his wife announced their pregnancy during a game of Catchphrase (the one tradition that has remained constant), we were at the Presidential Suite in the timeshare in Colonial Williamsburg. We visited Jamestown and ate lunch at a tavern in Old Williamsburg. We had the pool and mini golf to ourselves and watched deer frolic in the meadow. Logan’s first meeting with his cousins was at Ft. Lauderdale (because it was cold in Maryland, Virginia and Tennessee). I scheduled my daughter’s and her husband’s flight to coincide with Casey and Kim’s connections. Kellye and Chaz met them getting off the first plane and were seated across the aisle for the second leg of the trip.

Then last Christmas, due to the Dollywood schedule, we had to delay Christmas until Valentine’s Day so Kate and Alex (and their mother Beth, their teacher) could be out of school. That week the East Coast suffered record cold and a foot of snow. That was fun, had the snow not snarled air traffic, leaving us stranded overnight in the Dallas airport with a two-year-old. So this year, in addition to our new tradition of meeting in Tennessee for Labor Day because the rest of the family could not wait till Christmas to meet new grandbaby Scarlett, we are having Christmas in Tennessee in April.

  

              As for my characters, Richard and Terra have yet to celebrate a Christmas together, but that will play a role in their next tale, Convergence. And Scott is facing a Christmas alone. Stay tuned for more developments there.

Happy Thanksgiving! (Z Minor)

This is November already! Can you believe it? For me, the year has flown by. Seems to me the older I get, the faster the time goes by. The whirl of activity picks up the pace during the holiday season. Always too much to do and not enough time to do it. Seems I never get everything done. There is always that little something I either have forgotten or just never get to it. I bet you have done the same? I want to wish my fellow writers at WARA and the readers of the WARA blog a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving. 

We all have so much to be thankful for. Everyone has their own list which might include; family, friends, careers. Most important to me is living in a free country. Take this time to enjoy all your blessings. Until next month - take care and be safe.

Describe yourself, a character and your book in 5 words or less.

This has to go on record as the shortest blog I've ever written.  Honour's Debt is the first book in my Honour Series and Bellaport and Maddie are the main characters.

Joan Vincent-- resourceful, persistent, loving, positive, sensible

Honour’sDebt -- unacceptance, rollercoaster, danger, risks, romance

Quentin Bellaport, Viscount Broyal --brave, dependable, resourceful, quick-witted

Maddie Vincouer--audacious, resourceful, brave, dependable, tenacious

Five Words or Less? (Katherine Pritchett)

Anyone who knows me knows that I have never used less than five words for anything, from the time I was tiny till now! But I’ll give ‘er a shot.

Myself: Verbose, thoughtful, witty, challenging, THIN. (Rules didn’t say they had to be ACCURATE words. So can I throw in rich and famous?) Actually, words have always fascinated me. As a kid, I used to wonder, “Why this word and not that one?” to describe a thing. And who gets to choose? When my family would go out to eat on Saturday nights when I was little, I would chatter away, entertaining diners around us. Dad would shake his head and put his finger to his lips to shush me. When that didn’t work, he would try to nudge my leg with his foot. So I moved my legs and kept on talking. I know, I’ve changed so much!

My favorite character? That would have to be Richard Matthews, hero of More Than a Point of Honor and The Judas Seat. Richard: persistent, altruistic, empathetic, intelligent, sexy. Or maybe I like Terra McIntyre more: smart, resourceful, brave, sarcastic, loyal. Together they make a good team, though they strike sparks on each other from time to time. But can they overcome their many differences to make the long haul with so much against them?

For the book, I’ll go to the just-released What the River Knows: Murder, relationships, past, transformation, surprise. Scott Alyward is also a complex character: ADD, youngest, pleaser, runner, persistent. He’s flawed, but aren’t we all?

This was a fun exercise. Can’t wait to see what the rest of our bloggers write. By the way, I’m guest blogging November 11 on my editor’s website: http://aliciadean.com/alicias-blog/ Every Tuesday, she posts a Two-Minute Writing Tip. With several books to her credit and a job as an editor for The Wild Rose Press, she gives some good advice.

Do I have authors who have inspired me? (Z Minor)

The only inspiration I ever got from a story was to keep reading to find out what happened to the characters. Did the mystery get solved? Did the people in love actually get together, and did the bad people get their just desserts?

I started reading while in grade school and yes, it was a long time ago. I would sit reading the latest Trixie Belden or Nancy Drew story while I somewhat listed to American Bandstand on TV. My mother said most of the time my feet were thrown over the arm of the chair and my head kept time to the music. Meaning when she called me to set the table I didn’t hear her. I was known to finish a book in one day – if it was good.

I can’t recall any of the stories, but I remember I pictured myself transformed into them and along with the characters I helped solved the mystery, etc.  I remembered early Barbara Cartland’s romance novels – her daughter became Princess Diana’s stepmother in real life.

Many of the author’s names I can’t recall nor do I remember their stories in great detail. I just remember they took me to another place or another time. I couldn’t wait to finish them and get another book, so I could once again be transformed into another adventure.

I like books that make the characters seem real; good, bad or in-between.  I am not fond of horror or Sci-Fi. Yet, I have read a few Sci-Fi books that I really enjoyed. I could never get interested in horror no matter how hard I tried or how much someone recommended them to me.

If a book doesn’t peak my interest in the first ten pages, I put it down and don’t usually pick it back up. I can look past print errors I notice now because I too am a writer and know how hard they are to find no matter how many times I proofread my stories.

I still read a lot of books, fiction and non-fiction. Our library has had books sales and I usually purchase a couple of grocery sacks full and read them within a week or two. The price is right -$4.00 a bag. My taste in my reading hasn’t changed Just give me great characters, a believable plot, and I am hooked.

Happy reading and if you are a writer – happy writing.

Z. Minor

Author of Historical Romantic & Contemporary Suspense Novels.