writing

Spring Fever Giveaway :: Day 1 with Barbara Ellen Brink

February 28, 2018February 28, 2018 Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

A couple weeks ago I was invited to join several Christian fiction authors in a Spring Fever giveaway and it starts TODAY!For the next 10 days, discover great deals on books, and get to know amazing authors. Stories of redemption and grace, romance and mystery, and much more. There are tales that will take your mind off the bitter cold and long, dark days of winter until the thaw has begun and spring has finally sprung!

Unless you live in the South like me and you’re already experiencing a thaw and dreaming of hammock days. You’ll need a book or two for those.

With 10 Christian fiction authors involved, you have at least 10 chances to win awesome prizes! Plus, extra chances to win by entering the “Word of the Day” (found within each day’s posting), answering a simple poll, or tweeting about the promo!

First up on the Spring Fever docket is Barbara Ellen Brink.

An award-winning author, Barbara writes action-packed mysteries brimming with suspense and interwoven with a thread of romance. She grew up on a small fruit farm in Washington State, but now lives in the mean “burbs” of Minnesota. In her spare time, she likes to take her motorcycle for a spin, hang out with friends, or go hiking with her husband and their spoiled dog. She is currently working on the 4th book in her Double Barrel Mysteries series, and the 3rd in her Christian romantic suspense series, Second Chances.

Running Home is FREE at Amazon thru March 2nd (reg price 3.99)
Split Sense is on sale for .99¢ at Amazon (reg. price 4.99)

Here is a little about Barbara’s TWO book deals:

In Running Home, Ivy’s husband disappears in a cloud of suspicion and leaves her and the children to pick up the pieces of their lives and move on without him. Back in her hometown she dreams that everything will be better. She can start over and hopefully not make the same mistakes she made in the past. But her philandering husband left her with more than bills to pay and children to raise. He left her in a world of trouble. The FBI thinks she knows something and the bad guys think she has something.

When her husband is found murdered, special agent Samson Sinclair is assigned to keep an eye on her. He’s willing to take a bullet for her, but can she trust him with her heart? Ivy’s attempt to assemble the broken pieces of her life is proving harder than she anticipated. Will her husband’s secrets push her over the edge or into the arms of grace?

Split Sense is a Christian thriller that interweaves the lives of two families, twins separated at birth, and two different but unbelievable gifts that each child discovers which impacts their lives and others in startling ways.

Connect with Barbara online:
Facebook
Twitter
Bookbub Author Page
Webpage

The 3rd book in the Second Chances series will be (fingers crossed) coming soon! Barbara’s first grandbaby is due to arrive in a couple of weeks, so she won’t make any set-in-stone promises, but visit her webpage and/or sign up for her newsletter for all the newest updates!

***Sign up for Barbara’s newsletter on her webpage and get a FREE copy of Entangled!***

For another chance to win in the Spring Fever promo, enter the secret Word of the Day: blatherskite

Here’s the Spring Fever giveaway link: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Come by tomorrow to meet prolific author Brenda S. Anderson!

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Banana Bread

January 29, 2018 Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

Delighted to be featured on Historical Nibbles today!

writing

My Favorite Bullet Journal Stuff

January 8, 2018January 8, 2018 Lindsey P. Brackett1 Comment

Thanks for hanging out with me on Instagram today and talking all the bullet journal love–and despair. Because getting overwhelmed with anything is so easy. Believe me, I’m an expert.

If you decide the BuJo is for you (or not and that’s okay) I encourage you to remember these three things:

It’s supposed to work FOR you.
There’s no right or wrong way to organize your life.
The beauty of the bullet journal is its analog simplicity. So don’t get caught up in the, well, beauty.

Here are the products and folks I mentioned on today’s Instagram Live. You can still catch the video if you follow me on Insta: @lindseypbrackett.

Journal

Most recommended–Leuchtturm1917 (I have it in blue with lines)

So Pretty–Lemome Dotted Hardcover (comes with bonus gifts)

Pens

Start–Triplus Fineliner 10-pack

Erasable–Pilot Frixion Gel Roller (pretty colors and go ahead and make a mistake)

Splurge–Triplus Fineliner 36-pack (because I love purple best)

Trying Next–iBayam Fineliner Pens 24 Colors (I’m a sucker for the orange bestseller flag)

Book Signing–Pentel EnerGel Needle Tip

Extras

As in, I think these things look awesome but I know I’d buy them and never use them but maybe you’re a more organized person than me. Except for book darts. I have the love.

Calendar Tabs

Washi Tape

Stencil Set

People I Mentioned

Modern Mrs. Darcy

Bullet Journal Official Site

Kristi Ann Hunter

Joshilyn Jackson

Florida Christian Writers Conference

Petals of Joy

Christy by Catherine Marshall

I adore this book. It is wonderfully written and tells the story beautifully.

And of course, in case you’d like to help fund my BuJo (and other real needs) you can purchase Still Waters on Amazon or support you local indie and request it!

writing

What I Learned in November (from John Grisham to Bullet Journaling)

December 4, 2017 Lindsey P. Brackett1 Comment

There’s something thought provoking about taking the time to dwell on what I’ve learned. My entire fall has been all consumed by book knowledge and know-how (or which I have little) so settling on a few simple things for November gave me some much needed perspective.

In no particular order, here’s what I learned:

1. FB Live is more fun–LIVE. The lovely and talented Pepper Basham met up with me last week to host a little giveaway and interview via Facebook Live. I’ve done a couple of these during my book launch, but y’all, talking to my phone in a coffee shop in Franklin, NC is just so much more fun with a friend. Our giveaway is over, but you can still catch the video–and all our shenanigans and grandmother wisdom.
  https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpepper.basham%2Fvideos%2F10214857581173769%2F&show_text=0&width=267
2. I can handle social media–if I have a plan. The #12daysofbookstagram challenge by Modern Mrs. Darcy on Instagram not only gained me new followers, it made me realize something very simple. If I have a list, I can check it off. You’d think I’d know this by now. Basically, I’m just applying my don’t-go-to-the-grocery-store-without-a-list philosophy to social media. Which, when being used for marketing and branding, is absolutely necessary. (I’ll still be really random over on my personal Facebook page but my kids are getting older and less inclined to be shared publicly.)
3. Speaking of plans, marketing goes better with one. I haven’t written a formal marketing plan just yet, but I did spend a couple hours a week or so ago hammering out my plan for the next six months in my beloved bullet journal. Small publishing means small marketing budget but it DOESN’T have to mean small sales. I hope.
4. Speaking of small, John Grisham sold A Time to Kill out of his car. Who knew? Apparently Grisham’s debut novel (and I would argue still his best) was bought by a small publisher. He did most of the marketing–pre-social media days–himself with a southern bookstore tour. He sold the first 1000 copies out of his trunk. Literally. Since I’ve sold a good many copies of Still Waters out of my old (and now my new!) minivan, I’m feeling right up there with Grisham. Right?
5. When something isn’t working just right, tweak it. I’m a creature of habit. See the grocery store post if you think I’m kidding. So when I find something that works good enough, I stick with it. But when I actually admit that thing could be better with a few changes? Wow, the difference. I adopted this weekly spread (courtesy of a friend) and suddenly the journal I was already liking a lot became my new BFF.
6. Coffee is for serious writers. Seriously. At the Ohio Christian Writers Conference earlier in November, they gave out samples of Cool Chicks Coffee Serious Writers blend. I’ve become a coffee snob in the last few years (blame the coupons that used to get me free Starbucks) and I loved this blend so much I put it on my Christmas list. You can put it on yours too. Best part? Read the origin story and be amazed at what this homeschooling family has accomplished.
7. Advent just got easier. Well, easier-ish. My kids still argue over who’s going to do what. So much so that we’ve got four calendars going so everyone has a job every day. Luckily they’re all simple countdowns because I am not put together enough to have a gift for everyday. (If you are can you please come over to my house and decorate next year?) Lucky for me Ann Voskamp released an interactive version of her family devotion, The Greatest Gift. The included devotion is much simpler and shorter than ever before. I love Ann, but she loves words. More than me. That’s saying something. But this? This we can handle and it all folds up, easy peasy, for reducing the already overwhelming amount of Christmas clutter in my house.

Joining in the link up with some of my favorites: the other Anne and Emily. If only I was talking about L.M. Montgomery characters…

What did you learn recently?

writing

About NaNoWriMo & Lowered Expectations

November 17, 2017December 13, 2017 Lindsey P. Brackett1 Comment

Chances are if you’re NaNoWriMo-ing (writers love to make up words), you’re halfway through and you might’ve hit that wall. The first five days it’s all bliss and world-building. You’re as smitten by your characters as they may be with each other.

Then this story has to actually go somewhere.

You’re halfway in–maybe you’re even on track to hit the 50K goal. Or maybe you’ve already missed a couple of days and figuring your deadline is shot, you settle in for a Netflix binge promising yourself, next year. Next year, you’ll exceed expectation.

Can I give you some advice?

Just lower your expectations for this year. For right now. This moment. NaNoWriMo or motherhood or Christmas or whatever you’re figuring has to be done a certain way in a certain time frame to get a certain t-shirt.

Me? I’m only pretending to NaNoWriMo. I’m finishing the next novel in my Edisto series and it hit the sand dune at about 50K. So I promised myself, if I just wrote 500 words a day, every day in November (which is the whole point of National Novel Writing Month’s challenge), then I would be at a point so close to the end, I’d be able to see it.

500 words a day. That’s 15,000 words in a month in case you’re wondering.

Some of you write that in a day. (I am not your friend but good job.)

My usual writing goal is 1000 words a day on whatever my creative project is at the time. Then there’s blog posts and newspaper columns and social media. I don’t know about you, but my words have been running dry. I couldn’t make 1000 words a day on this novel. I could barely get motivated to crank out a scene every 3 or 4 days.

But when I lowered my expectation, something happened. Psyche no doubt. Related to my need for achievement, I’m sure. But at 500 words a day, I could suddenly write 800.

And I could finish my novel.

Whatever’s pushing back on your expectation, give yourself some grace to maybe not go at it so hard. Set your expectation on reality–not the castle in the sky–and see if you don’t find yourself climbing higher than you’d ever imagined.

This sequel I’m writing? It’s even better when you’ve read Still Waters. Right now every purchases benefits my fundraising efforts for Dancing with the Stars for Hope. If you’re already one of my faithful readers, consider leaving a review on Goodreads or Amazon. Much love and thanks to you!