New Cover Reveal for Author Lisa Swinton

Lisa Swinton is a friend of mine and fellow writer's group member. She writes adorable sweet romance books and is coming out with her next novel - On The Corner of Heartbreak and Love. I've been able to read snippets of the book and can't wait to read it when it comes out! The cover itself is super cute! Here is more info about it:

On the Corner of Heartache & Love

Cover Reveal!

Coming September 2016!

About the Book

After three years, Maren Summers is elated to finally have her dream wedding to her dream man, Kevin Bryant. In her sights is the promotion to Weddings she’s worked so hard for at the newspaper. Happily ever after is within her grasp…

Until Kevin jilts her at the altar, elopes with another woman, and becomes her boss. Devastated by the twisted turn of events Maren moves in with her best friend and notices the not-so-homeless guy on the corner, Zane Whitfield. As his heart-wrenching tale unfolds—his vow to wait a year on the corner for his lost love—Maren sees his compassionate human-interest story as her ticket away from 

Kevin, weddings, and her heartache.

But as the New Year approaches, is Maren headed for heartache again when Zane's lost love returns or has time changed more than one heart?

About the Author

Lisa Swinton caught the romance buy early by way of fairy tales and hasn’t been able to cure it yet. She feeds her addiction with romance novels, films, and chocolate. A doctor’s wife and busy mom of two, she enjoys putting her musical theater degree to use at church and in community theater. She enjoys researching her family tree, painting her house, and baking. She loves to travel and all things Jane Austen. In her next life she’d like to be a professional organizer.

You can visit her at:

http://www.lisaswinton.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLisaSwinton

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HXNXDCO

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7796962.Lisa_Swinton

InD'Tale Review

InD'Tale reviews indie and small publisher romance books across all the different fiction genres. It's nice, because they also rate the different books with "steam kettles" so you can know how steamy the romance is. I really like to know stuff like that when I pick up a book so I can be warned, you know?

I submitted my book for review a while ago and they just put it up!

You can read the review here: The War Between Us

Fantastic News!

A lot has been going on around our house. We went to our first WWII reenactment as a family. I had a display on wartime rationing while my husband and kids were dressed as 1940s scouts - Scoutmaster, Brownie, and Cub Scout. It was a lot of fun!

But the really happy news is that when we got back from our weekend away, I got an e-mail notifying me that the History Novel Society had reviewed my book and it had been chosen for their Editor's Choice Award! In addition, my book has been long-listed for their 2017 Indie Book Contest! This is some thrilling news! It is such a satisfying feeling that all my hard work, hours of research, and rewriting and editing paid off! What makes me even more happy is that this exposes my book to hundreds of new readers. It really is a little-known aspect of WWII that I'd like to spread within the History community and among History readers.

You can read the review here.

Looking Back

I wrote this a while back, but never got to post it until now:

I'm beginning work on chapter 33. When I first started out writing this book, I didn't take into consideration the emotional stamina it would take to write it. These last few chapters have a lot of sadness and I've had to muster a lot of strength in order to get through them. My story does have a happy ending, but my characters have to wade through their challenges, sadness and sorrow before they can come through to resolution and eventual happiness. And then there's one of my characters that I had hoped would grow and change in the course of the story, but I have found that she is one of those types of people that refuses to change, which is one of the saddest things of all.

Looking back after publishing my book, that last emotional push it took to finish writing the hard stuff at the end is very memorable. It was some of the hardest writing I've ever had to do and I procrastinated a lot. It might have been because after writing my characters on their journeys, I'd become really close to them. It might have been because I was writing about some really emotional things, and I had to dig deep to do it. (That's really hard to do when you've got wife, mom, homeschooling, church, and house duties pulling at you too!) Or maybe it was because I just couldn't bring myself to write another fight scene, to put my characters through even more hard things, to bring troubled relationships to a head. I have to admit that writing those last difficult scenes made me cry.

I read once that if the writer doesn't laugh, the reader doesn't laugh. If the writer doesn't cry, the reader doesn't cry. How you feel as you write seeps into your writing.

I remember writing this one Harry Potter fan fiction years ago, called Ronald the Great. I had so much fun writing it. Every night after work, I couldn't wait to get back to my computer to work on it. It was such a fun adventure, and I think it comes through in the story. It's a good lesson to remember.

"The War Between Us" Review

JoLee over at the book review blog "Intellectual Recreation" has just put up a very nice review of my book, The War Between Us. You can check it out here, and while you're there, check out JoLee's other really great posts about all things books!

Americans in Korean Dramas

Kim Soo Hyun from
"My Love From Another Star"
wikipedia

You  may not know this about me yet, but I love watching Korean dramas.

You might be wondering what the heck they are, or you may be lucky and have already seen a few! My first reaction when I learned a friend of mine watched them while exercising was, "Weird!" In my mind, I pictured her on the treadmill watching something akin to kung-fu fighter movies or something. When I finally got around to watching one, I was not prepared for how awesome it was. No kung-fu either! (though quite a few have some great fight scenes in them!)

That first one I saw, "Master's Sun", launched me into an ongoing love affair with TV that was other than American. It was so refreshing! Less sex, less drugs, not necessarily less violence, but less WOW factor that Hollywood is known for, and more emphasis on developing a story. The unique thing about these dramas is that they run like a mini-series. They have a set number of episodes and they're done. No dragging on into endless seasons without any promise of a resolution. *ahem* Once Upon a Time!

I've watched, um... 45 dramas in 2 1/2 years. Yeah, I know it's a lot, but I've learned quite a lot of things from watching these shows--like how amazing Korean food looks, common Korean expressions & words, and elements of the honorific system in the culture and language.

The one thing that I've found really fascinating is the portrayal of different nationalities in one country's media. Take America for example and our portrayal of Asian men. Most of the time they are either side-kicks, the smart-guys, or the bad-guys. Women are a little bit different, but they usually don't stick out. Well, it's only fair to go to the flip side. How do Koreans portray Americans? As the side-side-kicks, the nefarious bad guys, or the unstable ally. They're also obnoxious, sly, and sometimes the smart-guys. It's pretty amusing, actually. But what really gets me is who plays the Americans: Australians or Russians with really bad accents. Rarely does an American actually play an American and even then, they're awkward and stiff. That's okay, I guess. It's when the drama is set in California and the "side-kick" American is the most amazingly terrible actor you've ever seen and the most annoying druggie beach bum is where I have to draw the line! (Heirs. Don't watch it!)

A recent drama, "Oh My Venus," got me really, really excited. One of the characters was a Korean-American which I don't think I've ever seen. And the amazing thing was that his accent actually sounded like he was a Korean American! (The actor, Henry Lau, is actually Canadian whose native language is English, but close enough, right?) His character was one of my favorites of all time. Sure he was a bit over the top, called women "Ma'am!", and was really huggy and loud - are Americans really like that?? But he used this awesome fusion of English and Korean, was funny, and could actually act. Kudos to the people who did the casting on that one. Henry, you're totally cool!

This last drama has left me with some hope. Maybe the Korean TV industry is picking up on how many Americans watch and love their shows. And that there are Americans (or native English speakers) who can actually act. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of that in the future, because it made watching the show that much more fun. I definitely felt more of an affinity with the show, because I felt that they'd made the effort to draw Americans in with a character they could better relate with.

We'll see what the future holds for Americans in Korean TV. In the meantime, check out my Korean Drama tab to see what I've watched and which dramas I've totally loved.  It might sound weird, but you'll have to give them a try to see what I mean!

Published!

I finally published my book December 14, 2015! 

You can check it out on Amazon and on Goodreads!

My eBook just went live too. You can buy a copy here!