Nicki Elson's Not-So-Deep Thoughts

Hey gang! I'm going to start posting links to my monthly newsletter at my blog. If you'd like to have Nicki's News  delivered right to your very own in-box, you can sign up here . This month I'm sharing a super awesome summer playlist plus 5 things that are real in VIBRIZZIO & 5 things I WISH were real. Read Nicki's News for June 2015 (or click on the stack o' tapes to go directly to the awesome playlist) On a total side note - have you seen JURASSIC WORLD yet? I just did last night & it's soooo good. So, so, so good. When my kids were toddlers they'd watch our VHS tape of JURASSIC PARK over and over and over again, so it was super fun to sit w/ them as almost-adults to watch this proper sequel. I thought it did a great job of being fresh while still giving nods to the original. I already want to go see it again.

Some of us first met Susie Salom as as the Girl Wizard. She's also Suze from the former Subliminal Coffee blog. (You can now find her on Twitter as  @Susie_Salom .) Those of you who kept up on her blog were let in on many of the trials and triumphs of her writing journey. In case you haven't heard, here's the latest triumph---and it's a big one: THIS was announced a few weeks ago . Scroll down at the link to see Susie's pretty face and  read the details of the big announcement in  Publisher's Weekly :  Cheryl Klein at Scholastic's Arthur A. Levine Books has acquired world rights to  Kyle Constantini Finds Her Way , a middle-grade novel by debut author  Susie Salom .  Hooray!!! This absolutely wouldn't have happened if Suze had let earlier discouragements kill her dream and belief in herself. She's truly a testament to never giving up. I asked if she'd share a bit about her writing story, and this is the wisdom she poured forth: From Susie ...

Congrats to Nancee Cain , who's debut novel, SAVING EVANGELINE , is out today! It's already  getting great reviews . I asked Nancee my favorite release day question: If you had to choose one song that best captures the essence of SAVING EVANGELINE, what would it be and why? Here's what she said:  "Given to Fly" by Pearl Jam because of its feeling of being down, persecuted and yet rising above it to live and love and finally being free. Such a cool song! Evangeline is the town pariah. Everyone knows she’s crazy and responsible for the death of her last boyfriend. Even her mother left her and moved cross-country. Lonely and desperate, Evie decides to end her life. Rogue angel Remiel longs to return to earth. There’s just one problem. He tends to invite trouble and hasn’t been back since Woodstock. The Boss sends him to save Evangeline, but there’s a catch. He can’t reveal his angelic nature and must complete the task as Father Remiel Blackso...

The marvelous Nick Wilford has a release today! A CHANGE OF MIND AND OTHER STORIES is a collection of short speculative fiction. If you read any of Nick's flash fic during A to Z, you know he's a wizard with words. We're all in for a treat with this brand new collection of stories with a twisted edge.  SPECIAL RELEASE DAY PRICE: Only 99 cents ! Nick took time out of his busy schedule to answer one, simple question for me: Me: If you had to pick one song that best captures the essence of A CHANGE OF MIND AND OTHER STORIES, what would it be and why? Nick: I don't normally write with music in mind, but I kept coming back to Radiohead's "Karma Police". Apart from being a great song, I think the lyrics fit with my novella quite well. The chorus to me means "this is what you get if you mess with who we are, i.e. try to be someone you're not" ... and of course Reuben "lost himself" too! Nick:  It's quite an...

I'd be ever so delighted if you'd join Lady Liz Blocker and me at her esteemed blog for a spot of tea and an exclusive excerpt in which I'm told LOL's are to be had. You can find us here . You can also stop by My Crazy Corner's Romance Blogfest to learn how VIBRIZZIO all began.

TROUBLE ME , the much anticipated sequel to RITA nominee  FIX YOU  by Beck Anderson , releases today! Congrats to Beck, a really cool person and a gifted writer of realistic romance that tugs at the heart in all the right places. Read the blurb below and then scroll down to listen to the most righteous 80's tune of the same title---which isn't an accident. Beck has always loves the lyrics of the song, and they fit nicely with the emotion of TROUBLE ME, the novel. In  Fix You , movie star Andrew Pettigrew (Andy to his fans, Andrew to his friends) somehow found the level-headed love he was looking for in young widow and “regular girl” Kelly Reynolds. Now, as they work to mesh their growing relationship with his gold-statue ambitions, things go a bit sideways, in true Hollywood fashion. Though they’re still wonderfully in love, it’s challenge enough for Andrew and Kelly to decipher what it means to be a family—and a growing family at that—between takes on set. But A...

Well, well, well, here we are again. Welcome to the May 2015 edition of Insecure Writer's Support Group , brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh . I keep blah blahhing over a little intro to this month's post, but I've been writing for nearly 12 hours straight for my day job and I appear to have used up my daily quota for decent words. So here, go read this guy's words. They're not only reassuring, they're inspiring. "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner's reassuring Life Advice for Struggling Artists . The article caused me to think harder about some words I heard spoken by a talented young woman on the speech team with my son. These are from Dolly Parton's book, Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You.  "Do not confuse dreams with wishes. There is a difference. Dreams are where you visualize yourself being successful at what's important to you to accomplish. And dreams build convictions. Because you work hard to pay the price to make sur...