Nicki Elson's Not-So-Deep Thoughts

Congrats to Debra Anastasia on the release of THE REVENGER! As you'll see, it's a different kind of superhero story. I dare you not to be intrigued after this blurb, trailer & a short excerpt... The real hero of this story is dead. You should have met him. He was a beautiful man. The love of my life. I didn’t deserve him. Now what’s left are the jagged edges of the person I am without him, and what I have to do to get by. This isn’t even a story about love. Not really. It’s a twisted tale of revenge and hate—a happily never after. The only man in my life now is the one I have to kill. I’m Savvy Raine. I used to be a wife. I used to be a mother. Now I am the Revenger. Excerpt “What the hell are you?” He searched frantically for the door latch, his panic making him oblivious to the open top of the Jeep above him. He didn’t deserve an answer, and he wouldn’t get one. Only in her head would she respond. She pulled him from the backseat and held him aloft...

Congrats to author Aria Glazki! Yesterday was the re-release of her debut novel, MENDING HEARTSTRINGS! Here she is to give us a little more insight into the book (you'll be positively shocked by the question I asked her ... or maybe not.) Take it away, Aria... When we were discussing my visit here on her site, the lovely Nicki Elson asked me to name one song that captures the essence of Mending Heartstrings . While I can't quite do that, because a book usually runs through far more emotions than one song does—especially a book with a musician!—there is one song that absolutely always brings to mind the first chapter and how these two first meet. Sabella and Kane meet when she's on a research trip to Nashville. They literally bump into each other at a bar, and at first the brief introduction that follows seems like that will be that. But Kane's charm and a few drinks and the beauty of the city at night keep drawing out the time they spend together until they ev...

Holy schmoly, January's already over and we're barreling ahead straight through 2016. But my fear of time is more appropriate for a different kind of therapy group. Today we're talking writing. Last fall I faced something that, upon reflection, I think very well had the potential to cripple me as a writer. I dug into my original novel with an aim to make a few changes (you can get the full scoop in my January newsletter ), and while I was in there, I figured I'd clean out some adverbs & whatnot. But what I found inside was much, much worse. I'm one of those writers who doesn't read her books once they're out in the world. I know it'll only cause itchy fingers to tweak more. After a whirlwind editing process on this particular novel, all I'd ever read were small excerpts pulled for promo. With the full manuscript cut open and once again in front of me, I saw not only excessive adverbage; I found way too many dialogue tags and repetition in the...