Another Novel Freshman Experience Lesson...from the mouth of babes.

Sometimes kids just melt me.

My little minions are...er active.  But sometimes they stop and are so sweet I forget that I just timed them out.

I brought home all my ceramics from class (pics here if you missed them) and was critiquing them.  Sort of mumbling to myself as I got them out of the box. I UGHed one of them. One of the minions corrected me, "They're all beautiful," as he picked them all up gently and checked them all out.

I've been thinking about that moment ever since.

Sometimes we're our own worst critic. And while some of my pieces weren't quite as successful as I hoped,  I smiled and whispered "They're all beautiful," to myself as I finish taking notes on them.  

Yes, I've mulling the minions words and I've realized that he was right.  Every piece I produced this year in class was beautiful, even if they weren't what I envisioned, if only because they all left me with something.

Each taught me what to do...or what not to do.  Either way, I will build off both the successes and the less than successful pieces.

As a writer, I've faced those kind of moments.  Some of my earlier books have been rereleased. And while I still feel their a good story, I know that if I wrote that same story today, I'd have crafted it very differently.  Because I've grown as a writer.  And that's a good thing.  If I'd stayed stationary all these years, I'd be doing something wrong.  So if  (when) you pick up an earlier book, I hope you enjoy the story.  But afterwards, I hope you pick up a more recent story and that you think, yeah, that's better.  LOL

Holly

PS. 
I mention picking up books because I do hope you all give them a try.  I hope you mention them to a friend (or a bunch of friends) and I hope you'll go leave a review on your favorite online site because those reviews are how other people find my books.   I occasionally give a workshop called,  My Writing May Be Art...but My Kids Need Braces.  That about sums it up.  I hope you'll pick up a book because that's how I make my living.  My grandmother would be aghast that I mention it.  She was aghast that I talked about hairy legs in I Waxed My Legs for This? too.  But it's the truth.  (It's also true that I won't ever wax my legs...ouch!)

There's a sales-palooza right now...
Just One Thing
Everything But series
Pickup Lines

(That's right...a newer tearjerker Romance+,
an older Hungarian grandmother who curses her family to bad weddings and HEA's series,
and the oldest of the bunch...rom com that's set in the front seat of a truck!)

Granola—Cooks and Books #3 with author, Holly Jacobs

Hey, it's time for the 3rd Cooks and Books video!  Today we're making Granola.  Well, I'm making granola.  But maybe after you see how easy it is, you will be, too??!!

Holly

PS. There are a few March sales still going on:

New Release: Short Stories for the Overworked and Under-Read.  And on Sale: My Award-Winning book, Carry Her Heart, is on sale for 99¢.  Also on sale...my WLVH Radio series!   Pickup Lines Lovehandles Night Calls Laugh Lines And I didn't forget my friends on the other side of the pond! In the UK NEW RELEASE:  Short Stories for the Overworked and Under-Read  ON SALE:  Just One Thing on sale for 99¢.

Coming in March, one of my early, classic romances is finally coming out as an eBook! Watch for A Day Late and a Bride Short! (It's available for pre-order now.)  It's a modern day MOC (marriage-of-convenience).

Salespalooza Throwback Thursday!

My Newest Release...Carry Her Heart

It's a salespalooza on Amazon!!  I've been talking about my newest release, Carry Her Heart, for a few weeks, so it's fun to do a Throwback Thursday about some of my older books...books that are all on sale today!

Pickup Lines 

 This book is an oldies but (hopefully) goody.  We have a radio station in town that ran a series of contests.  It got me thinking...what if?  Yes, I know, those are a writer's most important tools! So in Pickup Lines a woman (who's a bookworm...I don't know where I came up with that one??  LOL) who NEEDS a new car, and a man who's a pharmacist (here's an Easter Egg...I have a number of pharmacists in the family!) and wants it to promote his store have to live in a truck.  Last one in wins it.  A man and a woman stuck in a truck...let the fun begin!

Spruced Up: Novella

Swept Up

I had an idea...a maid who went to LA to become a movie star. Instead, she ends up a mother of three and owns a cleaning service.  It might not be the life she planned, but it's a good life...

And then one day she accidentally cleans a murder scene.  Yes, she found a dead body in the first book, but I gave her some other mysteries to solve.  You see, I didn't want to Murder She Wrote her...I mean seriously, if you were tripping over a dead body every time you went out, who'd invite you over???

I loved writing Quincy Mac's series.  You can find all four books here.  Spruced Up: Novella and Swept Up are on sale this week!

Bosom Buddies 

 Cinderella Wore Tennis Shoes

Finally, two of the earliest books are on sale.  At the very beginning of my career, I wrote Bosom Buddies and Cinderella Wore Tennis Shoes for Kensington's Precious Gems line.  They were only available at Walmart.  Now they have a new life as eBooks.  So another Easter Egg...I worked with breastfeeding moms for years.  And the opening scene in Bosom Buddies was inspired by that work.  It was an odd little scene. I thought about rewriting it and making a more traditional opening. In the end, I just let it be because I liked it.  The editor called me after she'd read just that scene and said to let her finish the books, but she couldn't stop laughing, so yes, she was buying it!
I call these "Holly Jacobs' Classics" just so readers know they're some of the earliest books I've written!

So there you are...Throwback Thursday's Salespalooza!

Holly