What I’m Reading Fridays with @meganslayer ~ The Guardians by John Grisham

I’m a sucker for John Grisham books. I look forward to when the next one comes out and when they do, I’m right in line to get a copy.

I’ve been a little disappointed by some of the latest Grisham books, but this one looked different. So…I gave it a shot. I’m glad I did. I liked the main character, Cullen, even though he’s flawed. His heart is in the right place. Plus, I liked the character of Quincy. I liked how the story twisted and turned in directions I wasn’t expecting. If you’re a fan of Grisham of old, then this is worthy of a read. If you’re considering coming back to Grisham, then try this one. There’s a gory scene a little less than halfway through, but it’s vital in explaining the story. Give it a shot.

https://www.amazon.com/Guardians-Novel-John-Grisham-ebook/dp/B07MYLK9FP/

In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues. There were no witnesses, no one with a motive. But the police soon came to suspect Quincy Miller, a young black man who was once a client of Russo’s. 

Quincy was tried, convicted, and sent to prison for life. For twenty-two years he languished in prison, maintaining his innocence.  But no one was listening.  He had no lawyer, no advocate on the outside. In desperation, he writes a letter to Guardian Ministries, a small nonprofit run by Cullen Post, a lawyer who is also an Episcopal minister.

Guardian accepts only a few innocence cases at a time.  Cullen Post travels the country fighting wrongful convictions and taking on clients forgotten by the system. With Quincy Miller, though, he gets far more than he bargained for. Powerful, ruthless people murdered Keith Russo, and they do not want Quincy Miller exonerated.

They killed one lawyer twenty-two years ago, and they will kill another without a second thought.

How My Family Survives My Writing – #evernighties @meganslayer #writing

Find the other #evernighties posts by searching the hashtag on social media.

I’ve been thinking about this prompt for a while. How does my family survive my writing. It’s an interesting thing to ponder. Surviving. I never thought what they have to do is surviving. But maybe it is.

I’m a quirky writer. I like to be left alone. I want noise when I write, but I need to be left alone. That tends to mean I have a television or the laptop making noise while I write. I can write at my desk, but I also write while sitting on the couch. I don’t think I force the family out when I write, but I do know they scatter when they know I’m under deadline. But I don’t force them to go. The tot spends his time making his movies and DH watches the shows he’s recorded and hasn’t had time to watch.

Is that surviving? I don’t know. They do enable my love of notebooks. DH enabled my love of pens and bought a beautiful fountain pen for me. I love it.

They respect that I write and encourage me, but you’d have to ask them if they feel it’s surviving. I’d like to think they’d say it’s not, that it’s existing, but you’d have to ask them.

While you’re here, check out my latest Evernight Publishing story, Soft Steel!

Soft Steel by Megan Slayer

Celestial Mates, Book 6

Contemporary Paranormal, Fantasy LGBTQ Romance

M/M, Anal Sex, Cross Dressing

Novella (21,000 words)

From Evernight Publishing

Cover Art by Jay Aheer

Celestial Mates, 6

Valermo Dax wants to be loved. He doesn’t fit into societal molds and he’s fine with that. If he can find a guy who adores him as-is, even better. Stripping isn’t getting him noticed by the kind of guys he wants to date—until Corey walks into the club.

Corey Blumenthal knows who he wants to see at the club—Val. Ever since they shared a biology class four years ago, he’s crushed on the sexy man sporting glitter and those sky-high heels. He finally winds up the courage to take Val home, but things don’t go as planned. A curse, shouted in anger, turns their world upside down.

Can these two men find the strength, courage, and love they always knew they had in order to save each other? Or will the curse change them forever?

Be Warned: m/m sex

 Available at Evernight Publishing: https://www.evernightpublishing.com/soft-steel-by-megan-slayer/

And wherever ebooks are sold:

https://books2read.com/u/3npQ8B

https://bit.ly/33ELi6W

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/986340?ref=draft2digital

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/soft-steel

#evernighties #iamwriting #rituals @meganslayer @evernightpub #writing

Find the other #evernighties posts by searching the #evernighties hashtag on social media!

I think I’ve touched on this before, but this week I’m blogging about my writing rituals. I can honestly say I don’t have many. I really don’t.

I’m the weirdo who likes to take a notebook everywhere because I never know when the story might speak to me. Is it a ritual? I don’t know. I call it being prepared. I used to have to keep a pen, any pen, with me to write said ideas down. Now it’s a sharpie. I don’t know why. It just is.

One thing, this might not be a ritual, but that I tend to do and seems more frequent right now, is that I have to write the story in a notebook longhand with a sharpie. It was with a pen, but I guess that’s a ritual. The story has to go down, first draft, in a notebook. I was asked why and the answer is simple. I can’t corrupt a notebook, it can’t be hacked and I can’t accidentally delete it unless I throw it away.

This isn’t a ritual per se, but one thing that tends to happen when I’m writing is that my dog, a rescue with attachment issues, must sleep in what we call her Peggy Pocket. She has to curl up between my knees, like she’s in a pocket. As long as she’s safe in her pocket, she’s good. So when I’m writing, that’s where she is.

Do you have any writing quirks? Rituals? Let me know!

While you’re here, try my Evernight book, Soft Marble!

Soft Marble

Celestial Mates, Book 1

Contemporary, Paranormal

M/M, Anal Sex

Short Story

Evernight Publishing

One touch from his lover and this marble will come to life.

Kratos, God of power and strength, has been imprisoned in pure white marble for more than two centuries. His lover can break the spell—if only his lover would find him.

 Andy Green knows his ancient artifacts. He spends his days restoring works of art. When the sculpture of Kratos enters his studio, he can’t hide his attraction. Will he be able to free the god or will forces beyond his control destroy everything he’s earned?

Available from Evernight Publishing!

From Evernight Publishing: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/soft-marble-by-megan-slayer/

From Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079KV1C88/

Amazon IT: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B079KV1C88/

Universal Link: https://books2read.com/u/bWZ2EG

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/soft-marble/id1346823042?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/soft-marble-megan-slayer/1120029697?ean=2940155125525

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/soft-marble-1

Writing and Knowing with @meganslayer #writing #craft #pitfalls #potholes #iamwriting #meganslayer

What is something you wish you’d known when you first started writing, is an interesting question. It can pertain to my craft or career.

I’d like to hit a point or two on both. There a lot of things I wish I knew when I started in this crazy business. Some things seem rather simple and like everyone should know. The thing is, not everyone knows those simple things.

One craft thing I wish I knew when I started writing was finding a beta reader. This probably seems simple. Duh, have someone else read it before you send it. But I didn’t know that. I *assumed* authors wrote something, sent it to an editor and poof! They were published. Yes, I knew the editors did work on the MS, don’t get me wrong. But I had no idea there should be beta readers in the mix. I also didn’t know you have to be SUPER touchy about who beta reads for you. I don’t mean finding someone who will tell you the story is great. That won’t help you at all. I mean, finding someone you can trust. See, that trust thing, another thing I didn’t know right off, is something you need. If you can’t be sure that person won’t be truthful and not steal your work, then you probably shouldn’t be working with them.

On the career front… I have a couple thoughts here. One is never ever engage, especially to the negative, with reviewers. Now, I’ll admit, I do engage with some reviewers. Why? I’ve met them in person or they’re fun people. That’s no biggie. I don’t expect reviews from them, and if I get them, fine. What I’m talking about is the negative stuff. There will always be people who don’t like your work. You can write the greatest novel out there, but someone will hate it. That’s life. What I learned very early in my career is don’t engage. Seriously. Don’t. Why? You might think, if I’m nice and talk it out with them, they might change their mind. That’s probably not going to happen because they aren’t reviewing YOU. They’re reviewing YOUR BOOK. Second, brow beating them because they said your book wasn’t fabulous only makes you look bad. Reviews are there for criticism—constructive or otherwise. If you don’t want to look at negative reviews or they aren’t constructive (Like saying your work is crap and you should never write again), then don’t. I didn’t know that was a thing. I thought authors should clamor for any and all reviews. You can, but you don’t have to.

Another career thing I came to understand and wish I’d known to start with is this is a crazy business and connections are vital. But it’s also a SLOW business. It’s not quite as slow now that self-publishing is in vogue, but if you’re with a publisher, don’t expect the book to come out tomorrow. It won’t. It takes time for edits, cover art, final edits… It’s not all fast. Oh, and promotion is mostly on you. I wish I’d have known that. I might have done financing a little differently. But again, that’s on my end. I should’ve known. Right?

Those are some things I wish I knew when I set out in this business. I don’t regret making the leap to becoming a published author. I love what I do. But it might have been nice to know where the potholes were before I hit them and wrecked a few tires.

#evernighties 4-25-2019 @meganslayer #favoritegenre #romance #iamwriting

Check out the other #evernighties posts on Twitter and Facebook!

This week’s prompt is kind of hard. I’m all over the place when it comes to reading and writing romance. When I started, I was told to write JUST in one genre. I thought it was too constricting, especially since the characters showed up and weren’t in one genre.  So I followed my heart and the characters and write what I want. Rather, I write what they tell me to write – they being the characters.

So which one is my favorite to write? All of them, but mostly paranormal romance and contemporary –LGBTQ, straight or menage all possibilities within those genres.

Then what’s my favorite to read? The same ones I write in. I know. I’m boring in that respect. The thing is, I like to read biographies, old Hollywood and rock-n-roll are my go-tos. I’d list my favorite authors, but the list is too long. Grin.

What about you? What are your favorite genres to read?

#Evernighties Post 4-11-2019 @meganslayer #blogchallenge #addingyoutoabook #meganslayer #evernightpub #iamwriting

Be sure to check out the other #evernighties posts. Find them on twitter and facebook under the #evernighties hashtag.

This week’s challenge is rather funny. I’m notorious for putting my friends and relatives and pets (oh my!) in my books. I do. I’m not the be careful or you’ll die in my book kind of author. I’m the you’re my friend and I like your name so I’ll put you in a book type.

So I have three stories about putting my circle into my books.

The first one involves putting my pets in books. My series Must Love Dogs features dogs (I know, duh, huh?) and the first book, The One I Want has a black lab. Why? Because I have one, but he’s the size of a small pony. The book Ever Fallen in Love features a woman who owns a German shepherd and a basset. The basset was named after my dog (a basset-beagle), but I didn’t have her yet. I wrote the story and said if I got a basset, I’d name her after that character. I did and I did.

I named the character Jacen in Blurred Reality after one of my favorite editors. 🙂 Beautiful Music Together has the name Benny in it because I love Benny Goodman.

As for family, I don’t name characters after my immediate family. I just don’t. I’ve named baddies after certain folks I wasn’t fond of at the time, but I never make it super obvious.

I did have a story told to me today (I know, today!) that will go into a book and Mary will definitely be the character that’s named in the situation. Lol!

Would you ever put your family, friends or pets in a book? Which one? Why? Let me know. I’d love to know.

#evernighties Thursday Blog Challenge 1/24/19 @meganslayer #evernightpub #romance

This week’s feature for the #evernighties challenge is one I’ve thought about often. What would I do if I couldn’t be a writer…

I have a confession to make. Before I became a writer, I was a teacher. I loved teaching, but due to downsizing in the school district where I worked and not much demand for art teachers, I got out of the business. I miss teaching, but yet I don’t. I loved the classroom setting and loved the kids, but the politics in the school district wasn’t much fun.

So if I were going to stop writing, although I don’t see that happening, I’d probably go back to teaching.  I’m a mom, too, so I might stick to that. Okay, I’ll always be a mom. Toting cross-country gear, driving from meet to meet and making sure those spikes fit is actually pretty rewarding.

What about you? If you’re a writer, what would you do if you couldn’t write? If you’re a reader, what do you do?

In the meantime, here’s a little bit about my latest, award-winning, novella from Evernight Publishing, Soft Clay!

Soft Clay by Megan Slayer

book 4 in the Celestial Mates series

#paranormal #romance #kindle

Celestial Mates, 4

Two souls trapped—can they find freedom in each other’s arms?

Nike, the goddess of speed, can’t move. She’s the goddess of strength and she can’t shatter her curse. The goddess of victory has lost her weapons—her shield and spear. She put her faith in a human, only to be cursed. Can another human be the key to her salvation and freedom from the clay?

Charlie needs someone who can understand him. A person to cherish him. Male or female, he doesn’t care. He’s intrigued by Nike’s statue. Call him infatuated. But she’s a statue and they don’t come to life from true love’s kiss, do they?

Get your copy at any of these locations:

https://www.evernightpublishing.com/soft-clay-by-megan-slayer/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HZ4RKFC/

https://books2read.com/u/mvKVO2

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/soft-clay/id1437983747?mt=11

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/soft-clay

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/soft-clay-megan-slayer/1129679363?ean=2940155832409

#evernighties Thursday Blog Challenge 1/17/19 @meganslayer #evernightpub #romance

I didn’t forget about the #evernighties post for this week, but with the day I’ve been having, things got away from me.

So the topic is how much of myself is in my writing… a lot. I mean it. I’ve written about teachers. I was a teacher. An art teacher. I’ve written about second chance romance. I know about those because DH and I have had our ups and downs. I write about small towns. I live in one and have lived in them most of my life. Runners and cross country are parts of my life right now. Being a parent to a teen is something I know a bit about, too.

I don’t know a place called Cedarwood, but I would love to visit there. I don’t know any statues that have come to life, but there are a few I’d love to have do just that. Imagine the stories they could tell. I don’t know any vampires or shifters, but hey, I’m game to meet one.

So yes, my life has factored into my work a lot. What about you? If you’re an author, do you have your life in your work? Readers, what real life thing would you like to see more in books?

Now for my latest Evernight novella, Soft Clay!

Soft Clay by Megan Slayer

book 4 in the Celestial Mates series

#paranormal #romance #kindle

Celestial Mates, 4

Two souls trapped—can they find freedom in each other’s arms?

Nike, the goddess of speed, can’t move. She’s the goddess of strength and she can’t shatter her curse. The goddess of victory has lost her weapons—her shield and spear. She put her faith in a human, only to be cursed. Can another human be the key to her salvation and freedom from the clay?

Charlie needs someone who can understand him. A person to cherish him. Male or female, he doesn’t care. He’s intrigued by Nike’s statue. Call him infatuated. But she’s a statue and they don’t come to life from true love’s kiss, do they?

https://www.evernightpublishing.com/soft-clay-by-megan-slayer/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HZ4RKFC/

https://books2read.com/u/mvKVO2

The Write Thing with @meganslayer #writing #advice #suggestions #iamwriting

I was asked recently, what is the one piece of writing advice that has stuck with you and why?

This is tricky. I’ve been given a lot of advice. Some has been good and a lot has been bad. I’ve been told to ‘try this _________ because it’s surefire’. I’ve learned that what works for one person doesn’t always work for everyone.

That said, one bit of advice I got very early on that has stayed with me. Think before you post something online and before you say something because you’ll have to answer to it for the rest of your life. Nothing’s ever gone from the internet. If you keep your message positive, then you’re golden.

This stuck with me because it seems like it would be an easy thing. Be positive and think before you hit post. But it’s not. Individuals get into trouble all the time for things they wish they hadn’t posted or said on social media.

As an author, your presence on social media is your brand. I don’t know about you, but I want to keep my brand positive. I don’t want readers to think of me as someone who complains or someone who doesn’t have a goal. I want them to see this person is having fun. I might not be rich, but I’m having fun writing and I’m following my heart. Do I manage to post every day on social media? Nope. Most of the time, my blog gets sadly ignored. Sucks. But I try.

That’s my advice. Be positive and think before you hit post. Diamonds and posts on social media are forever.

The Thing About Edits… with @meganslayer #iamwriting #iamediting #writing #authorlife #edits

When I set out to be a writer, I had this odd notion that the first thing I wrote would be wonderful and edits weren’t important. Boy! Was I wrong? You bet. Way off. I need edits and at least one or two sets of eyes on my work before it’s ready to go places.

A lot of authors, though, fall into that trap. My work is great without editing. Unfortunately, it’s wrong. We need edits. The first thing we say isn’t perfect and the first thing we write isn’t award winning.

I’ve had authors and those wanting to get published ask me why I bother with edits. I’ve given them the above reason. Practice sure does make better, but no one is a perfect writer and certainly not straight out of the gate. I can’t tell you how many teh and hte I’ve had in my manuscripts. Now I can hear you saying, um that’s what spell check is for. True. But when you’ve been writing and you’re tired and you mix your there, their and they’re… spell check won’t catch that.

But truly an editor is your best friend. They can help you mold a rambling story into a tight-knit tale. They can help you find your voice by snipping the unneeded bits out. They show you where you shine and where you could use some work. A good editor is a gem.

Which brings me to why I’m writing this blog post. Easy. I’m procrastinating. Snicker. Yep. I have an edit to do, know I should be doing it, but I needed a break. The edit will make the story better and needs to be done, but I need a couple minutes. It won’t be a painful edit, but…a few moments will help.

So what are you up to today? Are you procrastinating, too?