Friday Reads
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June is flying by and I hope it's included plenty of good books, whether in the comfort of your home, at the pool, or on a memorable vacation.
What are you reading this weekend?
Archive
- Sunday Smatterings 216
- links 110
- Journal 73
- book news 40
- News 32
- Smats 28
- Writing 26
- 7 Minutes With... 24
- A Word on Words 23
- books 23
- reading 23
- Taylor Jackson 22
- writing process 21
- The Cold Room 19
- A DEEPER DARKNESS 18
- writing habits 18
- LIE TO ME 17
- Catherine Coulter 16
- book releases 16
- Annual Review 15
- Tuesday Funny 15
- WHERE ALL THE DEAD LIE 15
- Links 14
- Productivity 14
- sale 14
- Edge of Black 13
- Two Tales Press 13
- Creative Entrepreneur 12
- Lie To Me 11
- New Releases 11
- No One Knows 11
- The Immortals 11
- WHEN SHADOWS FALL 11
- All the Pretty Girls 10
- TEAR ME APART 10
- The Kerr 10
- Zeitgeist 10
- short stories 10
- Author Assistant 9
- DEAD ENDS 9
- book sale 9
- contests 9
- creativity 9
- giveaway 9
- social media 9
- writing tools 9
- Friday Reads 8
- GOOD GIRLS LIE 8
- Nashville 8
- Nicholas Drummond 8
Sunday Smatterings
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Hello, chickens! Happy Father's Day to my daddy, and all the other awesome dads out there!
What a week we've had. Assistant Leigh and I have been cooking up lots of social media goodness, I made some decent strides on the Brit in the FBI book, and the secret project I've been working on over the weekends is almost ready to announce. And then there was the great spider invasion of 2018.
I hate spiders. They're my kryptonite. And there is a size and situational threshold that I take very seriously. I know they do good, and if they're outside and not attacking me, they get left alone. But when they're the size of half dollars and perched in my foyer? Oh hells no.
It all started when husband said "Wow, this is a big spider. And you know it's big if I say it's big." Then, thwack! and "Babe, bring me a paper towel."
I, approaching with trepidation, arriving with the savior paper towel to see a monstrous THING on the floor... and tons of tiny dots surrounding it. And then they started to MOVE. Yes, it was a mom with her babies -- and yes, I know, but IN MY HOUSE!
Took a good ten minutes of smashing and thwacking to restore order. Husband, nonplussed, went to bed, and I was about to join him when Jameson started pouncing on something. Assuming it was more babies, I approached with a shoe, only to see a brown recluse. Um, no. Husband thundered down the stairs in response to my screams and dispatched the beast. Nightmare scenario for this arachnophobe.
And five minutes ago, the cats were playing with something that turns out to be another, smaller recluse. So they're in the house, and there's more than one, and I am freaking out. I may work at a cafe today. I mean, really.
So on that cheery note, on to the links... Here's the latest news and bookish goodness!
Here's what happened on the Internets this week:
Why It's Important To Work Hard. Hint: it’s not all about getting rich. Being fulfilled, knowing you've done your best, given it your all, is so satisfying.
Focus Starts With Self-Care and Unplugging. I love my Freedom app— and Leesa Renee Hall speaks a lot of truth about how to keep yourself focused, and why you should.
Speaking of focus and discipline, my coauthor Catherine Coulter expressed it perfectly this week:
“I was thinking about discipline and realized you really can't succeed without it. For example, writing, dancing, accounting, preaching, exercise -- anything you name -- you have to be disciplined and discipline means you must do the activity at the same time every single day (or let's get real and say 5 or 6 days a week -- I write 5 days a week and only on weekends when there's a deadline.) So if you want to have the chance to be great at your chosen metier OR if you want to have a fit healthy bod, then you must be disciplined and that means being scheduled. Never forget, you control the horizontal and the vertical, no one else.”
Soy Is Not A Health Food. Important piece by Randy Ellison. Full disclosure, the gentleman with the byline is my husband, and I have witnessed this firsthand. As a GF/celiac myself, I have to say soy and it's byproducts are our next true health crisis.
The Kids Are Writing School Shooting Fiction. "There, on a site usually dedicated to painting innocent fantasies about being Harry Styles’s girlfriend, teens and preteens are living through a culture so dominated by guns that fears of their schools going on lockdown and fantasies of martyring themselves to save their friends have seeped into the stories they tell."
Work It: Prioritizing Your Life. I absolutely LOVE this conversation about boundaries and saying no. My default answer for the rest of the year is NO.
17 F*cks You Should Finally Stop Giving When You're A Grown And Mature Person. A-f*cking-men.
My Number One Productivity Tip. Simple but great advice. When I worked I used to do this -- when I travel I always do this. One less important decision to make. What’s yours?
An Eater’s Guide to Nashville. There are a lot of inside jokes in Nashville, but one is about the restaurant scene. People ask what is our favorite or the best restaurant in town, and we all look around and shrug, say well, I don't know, I never go downtown. (Downtown Nashville is a pain to reach for a casual night out, traffic, crowds, tourists, make it really difficult.) So if you're coming to town, here's a list!
And closer to home:
Enter to win a copy of LIE TO ME, plus more than 45 crime fiction thrillers! That's not enough? BookSweeps is giving away an ereader too. We're in such good company here. Good luck!
And the June newsletter went our Thursday night, with a fun recipe and other goodies. If you don't have it, check your spam filters, and if you want it, you can sign up here.
That's all for now! Run through a sprinkler, drink some lemonade and watch the fireflies, and we'll talk again soon.
xo,
J.T.
Friday Reads
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Happy Friday, y'all! It's time once again to chat about what we're reading.
What are you reading this weekend?
How an Author Chooses What to Write Next
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I’ve been in a strange sort of limbo for the past few years. My last 4 solo books were planned and written a couple of years prior to release. NO ONE KNOWS was five years in the making, LIE TO ME was started back in 2014. FIELD OF GRAVES I obviously wrote ten years ago, as it was my first, and the new novel, TEAR ME APART, was originally conceptualized in 2011, replanned in 2016, and brought to life during a brief writing stint last year.
Add in a Catherine book every year since 2012, and the long-standing Sam book to follow up WHAT LIES BEHIND (which is still sitting in its Scrivener file with 15,000 words written), it’s been a long while since I’ve had to develop and plan for a new novel.
(Yes, I do plan to finish the Sam book, and yes, Taylor is in it. I swear to you, it will happen, and soon.)
I thought for the longest time I would write a standalone or two then dive back into my franchise series, but I’m finding the standalone world quite seductive. There are pros and cons to series and standalone writing — mainly, the challenge with a standalone is developing an entire world construct and wrapping all the threads versus the series in which your world is already built and it becomes a bit like paint by numbers, plugging in new plots to people who are already established. One is not better than the other; in my mind, they’re both fun.
But since I’m writing a big international series with Catherine, it’s been easier to write standalones on my own. I have another series idea. And another series idea. And a few more book ideas based on previous characters who’ve appeared in novels and short stories. All of these have been in the idea file for years, though.
Full circle back to what’s possibly next:
I was watching International House Hunters this morning, and the family was moving to Surrey, England, so the husband could teach at a private all-girls school. The building was so charming, with its Gothic spires and red brick front, my latent brain starting churning.
I like the idea of doing something totally new, fresh, different. Something I plotted recently… Perhaps…
A boarding school. Dark. Gothic. Nasty. I kinda like the sound of that.
I’ve ALWAYS wanted to write a boarding school novel. I went to an all women’s college that required the students (except Prime Time—older/married students coming back to school) to live on campus. We lived behind the “Red Brick Wall” and our buildings were attached by covered trestle bridges, so we could literally move from dorm room to class room to dining hall without ever going outside. The school was haunted, as all good boarding schools must be. We even had a staircase painted blood red, because legend had it a girl died in the stairwell and they couldn’t get her blood out of the concrete, so they painted it to match.
Yeah......
The moment the show was over, I opened my Day One app, titled a Story Idea entry (this is how I file ideas and things that don’t have titles), and pulled a plot out of thin air that actually might have promise. It will take a lot of work, but I may have a line on my next book. And in the subsequent days, bits and pieces are floating toward me out of the ether. It's cray cray.
Interestingly, the last time I had a "gut feeling" about a novel like this, I felt compelled to write a haunted house book set in Scotland, and I ended up with WHERE ALL THE DEAD LIE...
So… since this is getting to be an actual possibility, a little help please? What’s your favorite boarding school novel?
Sunday Smatterings
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Hello, chickens! Where does this Sunday find you? I am cuddled on my couch, exhausted, and a wee bit sick with a lovely, I've overdone it summer cold. I had a busy, busy week, with a surprise last minute edit of TEAR ME APART. That happens sometimes. The release date moving up means all our regular dates got thrown out and we're all working double-time to get the book done and in your hands. But it is DONE! And I think it's actually pretty good. I'm a terrible judge of my own work, and this one's been playing mind tricks on me for months. But with the help of my fantastic editor Nicole, we've got it together.
So with that, on to the links! Here's the latest news and bookish goodness!
Here's what happened on the Internets this week:
Neil Nyren Spotlight: Owen Laukkanen. I’m looking forward to reading Gale Force—and hello Neil Nyren, byliner. There's nothing more fun than seeing a fabulous editor finding a second career!
An Affable Canadian Author With a Penchant for Murder. Always lovely, always a joy, even when she’s breaking your heart. That’s Louise Penny for you. Class act, all the way around.
Being Bored Is Fun and Good, Sorry. OK, this is hysterical. I agree that boredom is a great thing, and necessary, but this essay takes it to a new level.
Gillian Flynn, Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson Aren’t Afraid to Tackle Big Topics. It’s going to be an important year in books and film portraying women and emotional darkness. My own book, TEAR ME APART, goes to some very dark places, and is a study in women's friendships, mothers and daughters, sisters, the works. I'm excited by the timing, because I think it's time to start addressing these issues.
The Best Mystery Audiobooks for Road Trips. Great books on this list! I am such an audiobook convert!
A Librarian’s Top 5 Tips to Help You Build a Home Library. "As a librarian, I have a particular soft spot for geeking out about building a DIY home library, so get ready: this is some next level bookshelf and bookcase nerd." Say no more!
And closer to home:
Some exciting book news - the paperback and ebook of STORIES OF THE NIGHT: FOUR SHADOWY TALES is ready, and the audiobook will be out this week!
A writer finds a cave keeping a dark secret for nearly a century.
A ghost in a Scottish castle seeks blood on a wedding day.
A student abroad loses herself in a dreamy art dealer and his dark painting.
An undercover cop searches for the lover who’s haunted him for years.
These four stories from New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison reveal what happens when we allow ourselves to step toward the darkness—and find ourselves consumed with regret and doom.
Features my newest short story “Catwood,” as seen in DEAD ENDS: Stories from the Gothic South!
The German translation of NO ONE KNOWS is here! (yes, again...) It's available in ebook and paperback. It's a new edition, too, so if you already purchased, please update your file!
And don't forget: Goodreads has a giveaway for TEAR ME APART. Good luck!
And speaking of Goodreads... please consider adding TEAR ME APART to your bookshelves. You doing so really helps raise awareness for the book.
Oh, speaking of awareness... the June newsletter is coming out this week! FYIs.... If you're not signed up, I'd love to have you.
That's all for now! Here's hoping this next week treats you well. Make something -- a poem, a cake, a bed. It will make you feel good.
xo,
J.T.
