Pets in Books

1. Ella Fitzgerald

I don't post all my videos on my blog (you can find any you missed on YouTube), but this one was so much fun. You get to meet my dog, Ella Fitzgerald and we talk about her rise from cover model, to movie star. Okay, what Susan and I really talking about is pets in books, but that's not how Ella sees it! LOL

Speaking of Susan, we're filming more Trippin' videos tomorrow. If you have any questions for us, or topics you'd like us to discuss, please feel free to send them to me!

Holly

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Short Stories: A Reader's Country Video

I've talked before about why I write stories of different lengths. For me, short stories are a country video—they can pack a wallop quickly. Novellas are a made for tv movie. There's more meat on the bone, but (once you factor commercials in) in under and hour and a half, they tell a bigger story. Finally, novels are full on, go to the movies, get your bucket of popcorn and settle in sort of movies.  I tell all three because I love all three.  My very first romance sales were short stories.  And for me there's a sense of coming home.

Yesterday, The Moments came out on Amazon, Kobo and Nook. It's a sequel to Briar Hill Road. And Able to Love Again (my first story with a cowboy!) came out on Amazon, Kobo and Nook. The heroine worked for Alice, who readers met in These Three Words and Between the Words. I loved Alice and this was a great chance to see her again.

Yes, I love giving old characters cameos in new books. As a writer, I want to know how they're doing. And I'll confess, I feel such a sense of delight when  readers spots an old character in a new storyand shares my glee!

So on this cold, polar vortex day stay warm!! And pick up The Moments and/or Able to Love Again. I hope they warm you up!

Holly

PTA Moms: the Collection

Between the Words

Briar Hill Road

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PPS.
Have you missed our most recent Trippin' with Holly and Susan? You can catch up with them all on YouTube.

On Writing: Writing Lengths

A video version of last week's Family: Ties that Bind post.

It's like a novel going to a movie...it changes things.

For a long time, I've used that analogy to compare the books I write.  

When I write a short story, it's like a music video.  I try to encapsulate a complete beginning, middle and end in a handful of pages.  

When I write a novella it's a movie of the week.  Again, there's a beginning, middle and end, but I have more room to flesh things out.

Finally, when I write a full novel, it's a in-the-theater movie.  No commercials and even more room to drill down to the heart of the story.

That's why I still write all three...I like the variety and the different way of looking at a story.  

I was in the studio one day, working on some ceramic wooden spoons and had the idea for a story.  It was short and to the point...I named it Spoons: A Love Story.  LOL (Those are my ceramic wooden spoons on the cover.)  Then there was the day I bought a book and found the inside was carved out....it became The Book.  I blogged about it a couple months ago here.  As a writer, my focus in a short story is focused on a couple and generally one pivotal moment. I don't have time for any peripheral incidents or people...there's just not room.

I hope when a reader picks up a short, it's a quick break from the real world.  I'll confess, sometimes reading a short story is all the time I have.  I put a collection together in Short Stories for the Overworked and Under-Read.  I think that title says it all! LOL  Speaking of which, there's one novella in that collection which segues into...

Novellas.  Like a short, I'm still focused on one couple.  If there are other characters, they don't get much word-time.  And I'm still looking at a tight time-line.  That novella in Short Stories for the Overworked and Under-Read was a very specific timeline...the title is 13 Weeks.  LOL I guess that says it all.  After I wrote Christmas in Cupid Falls, I had an idea for another story for one of the Amish Cupid Falls' characters.  I had sketched in another full book, and this one nagged at me...it became A Simple Heart and carried on the Cupid Falls legend from the book.

When I'm writing an entire novel, I have a lot more time to play with secondary characters and world building.  Well, I don't build worlds...I build towns, or neighborhoods, but I love fleshing those out.  I'm working on another cozy mystery right now, and the community my heroine lives in is almost a character in its own right.  There's a few of those on sale this month:

Hold Her Heart
Just One Thing
Everything But...series
Fairly Human
Pickup Lines

That's how I look at what I write.  I think it's a good explanation.  If you're a writer, I hope this gives you something to think about.  I'd love to know what you think.  And if you're a reader...I hope you'll check out one of my  shorts, novellas and novels (or more) and get back to me with your thoughts!

Thank you to all my new followers!  If you just dropped in, you can look at the top right of this blog and find a subscription button.  I hope you'll subscribe or just drop in from time to time.  I talk about books, writing, going back to school, renovating the cottage (I'm putting pictures up next week) and...just my crazy life in general. 

Holly

Confessions of a Party Crasher

This is one Party you don't want to miss!
Read, Confessions of a Party Crasher!

Reviews:"...a funny tale of falling in love when you least expect it, best friends, and off-beat mothers..." We Write Romance

"...a sweet, entertaining romance..." ~RT Bookclub

"Hilarious situations, deep emotions, and lots of love make this one party you won't want to miss." ~Cat Cody, Romance Junkies

"Confession of a Party Crasher is an entertaining frolic. I know whenever I see Holly Jacobs name on a book I can be guarantee that I am are going to have one laugh after another..." Lydia Funneman, Writers Unlimited

"Confessions of a Party Crasher is a book about relationships and life. As always, Holly Jacobs uses plenty of zany humor to enhance the story and make it dazzle." ~© Kelley A. Hartsell, May 2006. All rights reserved. 

"CONFESSIONS OF A PARTY CRASHER is a charming romantic story, where love is made even more special with laughter." Amelia Richard, cataromance.com 

The Dance

I'm getting ready for my Ceramic Artist presentation this week in class.  My ceramic assignments are all done.  I'm just waiting for the last two to come out of the kiln.  So this presentation will be my final grade.  And yes, we've discussed that I'm hoping to get an A (I tried not to care too much about grades, but it turns out I do! LOL), but there is something I hope I leave the kids with this presentation.  This is the quote that made me decide that Rob Barnard would be "my" artist...
“In an effort to explain to me what separated pedantic and indifferent ceramic art from the kind of ceramic art that makes us reflect on the very nature of our existence, Yagi held up his index finger and pointed it straight up. This represented, he said, the predictably beautiful; then he turned his finger 90°, parallel to the floor, saying that this position represented what we all commonly think of as ugly. The two positions have a tendency to be fixed in culture, but—and he moved his finger to a position 45° between those two points—it is here, he said, where real Art takes place, vibrating between the beautiful and the ugly.”  (Between Points in Clay, by Rob Barnard, Ceramic Monthly June 1995)    
I loved that description of art.  But there's more.  When I write a book, or an artist creates their art, it belongs to us.  We bring our intent and vision to the book/piece.  And then we're done.  At that point we turn it over to our readers/observers.  They own it at that point.  They bring their own vision to it.  They like it, they don't.  They hate it, they love it.  They see something totally different in it than the writer/artist intended.


Even if the readers/viewer feel they're completely alone in experiencing the book/art, they're not.  The person who created it is a part of their experience.  Even if what they are taking from it is totally different than intended.

That interaction between the creator and the observer is a dance and it takes place somewhere between Yagi's beauty and ugliness in art.

That's what I'm hoping to leave the kids with at the end of my talk.

Literature and art are important.  They have a function.  They make us all look for ourselves in someone else's vision.  And when we find that piece of ourselves in someone else's work, maybe we realize that we are not alone.  That we're all connected.  We are all part of that dance.

Thanks to all my new followers here at Hollyworld, and as always a special thanks to all of you who've supported me and hung out with me all these years!

Happy Holidays!

Holly