One Author's Arduous Research...or how a writer suffers for her art!

I've got a new trilogy starting in April (just a few weeks now) and I thought I'd share a bit about the arduous, really difficult research I did while working on this series.  (I wrote this right after I went on my tour, so it's over a year old, but I thought you might enjoy seeing how writers suffer for their art!)

The hero of the third book, A Walk Down the Aisle, owns a vineyard and a small winery. In the interest of setting the tone, I went and toured Lake Erie Wine Country. Yes, it was difficult research...but somebody had to do it, right?

I can almost hear you now... What? Lake Erie has a wine region? The answer to that is a resounding, yes! It just so happens we're on the same latitude line as some of the finest wine growing regions of France. And we have Lake Erie to stabalize the temperature. The new trilogy is set in the fictional Valley Ridge, New York. In my head, it's set between North East, PA, and Ripley, New York...two towns that are part of the Lake Erie Wine Region. So, here's where I started my day...

Floyd (my orange Vibe) and I started our research at Penn Shore Winery. Not that I wanted to play favorites...all the wineries in the area are great. It's just this one has the small, personal touch that I visualized for my setting.

Jeff Ore, the owner, offered to show me around. He pretty much runs the show with the help of his wife, and some summer help. Here he is at his vineyard...an acre and a half of Noiret grapes.

In the bitter Erie winters, those vines need pruned. In the spring, he keeps the small suckers from growing at the base of the vines...he wants all the plants energy going into the grapes. Around about September or October, it's time to harvest the grapes.

Noiret Grape

Here are some of the stainless steel containers where the grape juice and yeast ferment.

Sorry about the glare on this, but Jeff ran some wine through the bottler for me to see. This one machine not only puts the wine in the bottle, but also puts on either a screw on cap or a cork. The dry reds do better with corks, the sweeter wines and whites benefit from being hermetically sealed in a screw on cap.

The lab.

Penn Shores tasting bar. I'll confess, I had to try some wine...it was research after all! LOL I made sure I tried the Noiret since I'd 'met' the vines!

Me and Jeff.

This is me with Julie Pfadt. She works for the Lake Erie Wine Country organization. The website has info all the wineries in the area. It's a helpful way to get a taste for what the area has to offer. An even better way to get a taste is to...get a taste! LOL

After Penn Shore, it was time for lunch on the deck at South Shore Wine Company. What a beautiful view, and there was a great lake breeze. And look at the stonework in the wine cellar!

When I finished lunch, I went into downtown North East. From Erie (where most of my books are set), North East is about a twenty minute ride east, and another five minutes to get to the border of New York. Ripley, NY is another few minutes into New York. Now, I realize this doesn't leave a lot of room for my fictional town of Valley Ridge, NY. So, we're going to pretend, Ripley's a bit farther from North East...okay? Valley Ridge sits neatly in between the two towns and has the feel that you'll find in North East. (I set one other book in North East, Here With Me.)

Here's Gibson Park, in the center of town.

As I start to write  this is the kind of house I envision for the local bed and breakfast that is in the 1st book.

These next few are just some of the beautiful buildings that house a lot of the local businesses.

And here's the kind of house my heroine in the first book might live in with the three kids she's taking care of.

I left North East and headed back to Erie. I stopped at one of the area's newest wineries, Courtyard Wineries. Beautiful, isn't it?

Here's the vineyard across the street.

My final stop was Presque Isle Wine Cellar. They've got a beautiful little creek next to the building.

This winery is very picturesque!

It was a long day, and I've got a year or so of book writing ahead of me (Okay, so it's behind me now.  There were moments I wasn't sure I could finish four 85,000 word books, but I did and I'm so happy with the results!). I imagine I'll have to do more research. Yes, I suffer for my art! LOL You can check out the Lake Erie Wine Country page to find out more about our wine region!

Now, after a long day of arduous research, guess what I did? This is the Noiret wine that Jeff made from the grapes in his vineyard...and let me just say it was awesome!  (I'll confess, I've gone back for more since that day's tour!)

A Walk Down the Aisle

You Are Invited

April Showers

 (Writing this in in March '13...I want to add, I've had to make a few more trips to North East to make sure my research was...well, spot on.  And like a wine that aged in it's barrel, that tour with Jeff paid off and the finished product for me...is the Valley Ridge Wedding Trilogy! It starts in April '13.)

Monday Glee!

Since my kids started school years ago, I've loved Mondays!  After loud, chaotic weekends, Monday is a moment of ahhh.  It's quiet.  It's hot coffee.  It's the newspaper.

 It's Glee.
Today's Glee is even greater because I turned a book in on Friday.  So, I know your next question is, what do you do when you've finally turned in a book?  Marvelous vacay?  Day at the spa?

Uh, I cleaned my office.  When I'm in the midst of a book, I'll confess, the office tends to suffer the most.  The rest of the house I keep up with, but that office...well, there's a corner of my desk that tends to be the file-pile.  It's the place where everything waits for me.

 I posted pics on FB afterward of my desk, but I got a couple notes from people who wanted to see the rest of the office.  So, here are more pictures.

When we moved here nine years ago, I lost a lot of office space.  It didn't bother me as much as it bothered my husband.  He had a master carpenter come by to build the two walls of shelves for me.  It really maximized the space.  And really, that is a husband who knows his stuff.  Some women might swoon over diamonds or pearls.  But give a bookworm shelves.  I adore the man!

A few points to notice in my pictures.  That elephant on the sewing table in the middle picture?  My daughter covets it and keeps trying to talk me out of it.  I get that.  Ganesh was my mom's and I loved it.  She gave it to me as a gift.  Thanks again, Mom!

That big painting over Ganesh?  That's a Pino original from my first book for Precious Gems.  Still loved it.  I do identify with a heroine who wears holy jeans and flannel shirts!  The closet door and what little wall space that's left has other covers, as well as awards.  All in all, I adore my office...but I adore it most when it's cleaned!

Wishing you all Monday Glee!

Holly

Nothing But Heart...Free on Amazon

Free today and tomorrow! This is book 2 in the Nothing But... short story trilogy. And while the series has featured mainly dogs, this one showcases the fact that a lot of cats need to find their forever homes...and some have very specific thoughts on who it should be with!

Nothing But Heart

Monday Glee: Dual Flush...or how my reality impacts my fiction

A couple years back, we renovated the back bathroom.  Gone is white counter top with it's speckles of gold.  Gone is the brown sink and toilet.  Here are pictures of the results:

 All the artwork on the walls is Erie inspired.  One day my niece told her mother that Lou Tullio was Erie's only 5 term mayor.  Her mom asked how she knew that.  "Aunt Holly's bathroom."  My sister-in-law was amused and I was proud that using my bathroom is so educational!  LOL

But beyond the art and the lack of gold sparkles, the thing that delights me most about the back bathroom is the toilet.  It's a dual flush.  You press one button for "little" jobs and .6 gallons of water flush it.  You press the other button for...uh, larger jobs.  More than twice the water flushes it.

I spent months talking about my toilet to friends, who indulged me.  It's a little green thing, but so many of the changes I make in the house are just small changes (LED lightbulbs, water barrels...).  Easy changes.  I keep adding them on, one by one, and slowly, our costs have crept down, and our environmental impact goes down with it.

I'm just finishing up my November '13 book, A Valley Ridge Christmas.  It's a follow-up to the April's You are Invited, May's April Showers and June's A Walk Down the Aisle, my Valley Ridge Wedding trilogy.  And here's where my reality impacted the story...

The hero and heroine are renovating a house.  And there's a scene where she's trying to unbolt the old toilet from the floor in order to put in her new...dual flushed toilet.  The hero falls a little more in love with her as she rhapsodizes about that toilet.  Yes, my first Harlequin book, I Waxed My Legs for This? dealt with a heroine who discovered waxing hurts...a lot.  Now, my 35 book for Harlequin  (Yes, you read that right...my 35th Harlequin book...my 50th book overall!) will have a toilet scene.  Unless my editor asks me to cut it.  I can almost hear her saying, "Holly, dual flushed toilets are not romantic."  All I know is it gave me glee to write that scene.  Basically, my reality has impacted my fiction from book one to book 50!

Things that give me glee on a personal level frequently end up in my books.  I have a huge fondness for Erwin Schrodinger and his Cat-in-the-Box theory.  So, when I gave my scientist geek hero a cat in How To Catch a Groom, of course, he named his cat Schrodinger.  I told my editor how hysterically funny it was that the cat's name was Schrodinger.  I'm not sure she laughed about it, but she didn't ask me to cut it!  And when that book went to Japan and was turned into Manga, Schrodinger the cat made the cut!  (That's the Manga cover. I didn't get an author's copy of it, so I had to order it myself from a Japanese site to the tune of $40...but it was worth it!! I asked my son if the fact I had a Manga book made me cool...he said no.  SIGH.)

In that new Valley Ridge Wedding trilogy, I have a character whose parents own a CSA (community supported agriculture) in Ohio.  It was inspired by my reading A Dirty Life, by Kristin Kimball.  I loved including my love of local produce in the book.  We've been getting a lot of our local produce and eggs from a local farmer, Liz and George's Farms.

 And by now you all know that I love my dogs...well, all dogs.  My Everything But a Dog book and the three short stories (Nothing But Love, Nothing But Heart and Nothing But Luck) all deal with animal rescue and romance.  And of all the stories that deal with my glee, the fact that my dogs inspired the cover for Everything But a Dog makes me so overwhelmingly happy!  (That's Ethel and Ella on the right with me, and then the cover on the right.)

Nothing But Luck

Nothing But Love

Nothing but Heart

People who know me tell me that they see a lot of me in my books.  I think there's a chance that means that people who don't know me in real life know a little more about me after reading my books.  To be honest, some of my characters do things that do not give me glee at all, but you'll find little bits of my reality embedded in all of my fiction.

Now, as for my dual flush toilet, it works great, and although sometimes people need a brief explanation of how it works before they use it, I love it enough that when we renovate the front bathroom, I'll be installing another one!

Holly

Confession of a Cookbook Addict

I've got a confession, I'm addicted to cookbooks, cooking magazines, recipes on Pinterest and I've recently started following a few cooking blogs.  And I've got a shopping cart full of cookbooks.  Yep, I think I've got an addiction.

See the folders on the top left of the picture?  Those are filled with recipes I've cut out of my Cooking Light Magazine and other sources.  (Speaking of Cooking Light,  I get a bit giddy when a new issue arrives.  I can't wait to dive into it!)

Now, if I were following all these recipes, it might be one thing.  But mainly I read them like a book of fiction and then try to incorporate some of their ideas or tips into my cooking.  Or, I try a recipe and tweak it as I go along.

I'd like to tell you that I've examined my cookbook shelf and have decided I have enough recipes housed there that I don't need any more.  Alas, that would be a lie.  One of my new cooking blogs mentioned that they have a new cookbook (Mennonite Girls Can Cook) and it is in my shopping cart, along with their old cookbook.  (Mennonite Girls Can Cook, and their new Celebrations cookbooks.)

I could try to tell you that those were the last new cookbooks for a while, but instead, I'll say if you have any favorite cookbooks you think belong on my shelf...let me know!  Some of my newer additions are the Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook, Griswold Cast Iron Cookbook, Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day...

Holly

PS See the flour sifter on the right hand side of the shelf??  Watch for an upcoming blog on my kitchen gadget addictions! LOL

Act Locally

There's a saying...Think Globally, Act Locally.

I try to put that in action.  I'm not talking big things, but rather a series of little things I do. I have my own bags I take shopping.  I try to shop at local farmer's market's in season.  This year, I made friends with a organic farmer there who said he could still supply my eggs this winter.  I've been driving the extra five minutes to get those eggs there.  Now, you might think that extra drive wastes gas, but I reasoned that I ultimately saved money because those eggs didn't need to be transported from an mega-chicken farm to my store.  And I was supporting local enterprise.

Like most everything in life, it's all about finding a balance.  We have a garden. We've worked at controlling our heating costs by lowering the thermostat, dressing in layers and using the fireplace.  We've worked at controlling our electric consumption with simple things like turning off lights, using energy efficient appliances...  The last few years I've concentrated on water.  We have a dual flush toilet (which still gives me glee!) and last year I put in a water barrel.

But as I shoveled my neighbor's sidewalk the other day, I thought, there, my little corner of the world is clear.  I realized that I put that saying — Think Globally, Act Locally— in action in more than my greening of my life.  I do it around my own neighborhood.  I try to look after older neighbors.  I know the neighborhood kids and pets by name.  I feed the birds.  None of them are huge matters, but I like to think my little corner of the world is nicer for it.

So, maybe while the "act locally" mentality appeals to my green and thrifty side, there's more to it.  Maybe acting locally relates to being a good neighbor.  Helping where you can, offering a smile or friendly hi.

I think that sense of neighborliness comes into play in a lot of my books.  The new trilogy that starts in April (A Valley Ridge Wedding) has that sense of community.  Neighbors don't rely on Twitter or Facebook to know what's going on in town...they go to MarVee's Quarters (which once was the Five and Dime, but when Marilee and Vivienne bought they renamed it because of inflation).  One of my heroes helps an elderly neighbor when her mailbox is vandalized.  Neighbors help clear fallen trees not because they had to, but because they need cleared.  The people in the town comfort those with broken hearts and the cheer for true love to find a happily ever after.

I'm working on the fourth Valley Ridge book now, A Valley Ridge Christmas.  The heroine lives by the motto, I Can't Change The World...But I Can Try.  I think the world would be a nicer place if we tried to live by it, and spent some time acting locally when we can!

Holly

Valentine Gifts!

I couldn't find a way to send you all flowers...or even chocolate, but I wanted to do something to wish you all a Happy Valentine's. I'm so lucky to have such great friends and readers.  So, on Monday and Tuesday, Nothing But Love (a Kindle short story) is free again, and on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Nothing But Heart (also a Kindle short story) is free.

It was so much fun to try to combine my Everything But... series and my WLVH Radio series in this short story trilogy.  I got my start writing short stories and it's been a number of years since I've written one.  It was fun to go back to it.  It's really a very different way to tell a story.  Especially a romance.  In just a few thousand words, I can't give you a believable Happily Ever After, but I try to leave you with a potential HEA.

So Happy Valentine's!

Holly

PS And keep an eye out in March...the last book in the Nothing But... Trilogy, Nothing But Luck, will be out in time for St. Patrick's Day!

PPS The free stories are available at Amazon stores in other countries—Canada, UK, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Brazil...

Looking for Glee

Erie in February

I've built a name for myself looking for glee, but I'll confess, this last week there have been a few moments I haven't found much.  As I bundled up to go out in the frigid weather to snowblow for a third time in day because the snowplow came by right after I finished clearing three drives, I was a bit less than gleeful.

But those moments are fleeting.  I  look at scenes like this and I remember that even at it's worst, winter can be beautiful.  

As I sat in the house yesterday next to a roaring fire watching my cardinal couple at the feeder, I felt not only glee, but contentment.

There are so many moments in an average day when glee is there, just waiting to be found.  I hope you all look for your moment...and find your glee today!

Holly

Monday Glee

I know that some people have always questioned my sanity when I say that Mondays are my favorite days of the week. (Frankly, that's not the only reason they question my sanity!) I've gained a reputation for finding glee in so many things, but Monday Glee is my speciality.

Here's my reasoning: After an action-packed, frequently loud weekend of chaos with the family here, it's nice on Monday when they all head back to school or work.  The house gets very quiet.  Ahhh.

Now, I'm not saying I don't adore my family (I do) and I'm not saying that I don't have fun in the midst of the chaos and noise (I do), but at heart, I'm someone who needs some quiet time.  And as you can imagine that having a  big family sometimes makes that hard to find.  So on Mondays, when the house gets very still and quiet...I'll confess, I get glee.

Of course, by the time they come home, I get glee seeing them because I missed them.

I'm such a fickle person!  LOL

Hoping you all find glee today.  Whether it's in a moment of quiet, or a bit of fun chaos...whether it's in a cup of coffee, or having the newspaper waiting on your porch despite the rain and ice (we have the most awesome kid who delivers our paper)...or whether you find your glee in the simple fact that JJ Abrams will be at the helm for the next Star Wars (I know, how awesome is that??)  I hope you find some moment today that makes you smile!!

Holly

WLVH Radio & Everything But... Short Stories!!

I got my start writing short stories.  I think I've sold almost fifty now.  I'll confess, I haven't written one in a long time.  But when Montlake started reissuing my WLVH Radio series, and my the Everything But... series, I had a niggle of an idea.  So, I wrote three short stories that combined both series.  And I had a blast!

 The difference between short stories and a full length romance is with a short, I don't try to get a happily-ever-after.  I just want to leave the reader with the couple having a potential for a HEA.  The short story is a vignette.  Just a snippet in their romance.  I really love that sense of potential!

With these three shorts, I showcase a new WLVH disc jockey and Everything But's Nana Vancy.  They joining forces to rescue pets...and inadvertently help three new couples find love.

The first one, Nothing But Love, came out at Christmas.

I just got the covers for the next two yesterday.  Nothing But Heart will come out at Valentine's and Nothing But Luck for St. Patrick's Day.  Aren't they beautiful?  Kim Van Meter designed them.  Yes, she's a heck of a writer and has a great eye.  I think they're perfect!

Keep an eye out on my FB or Twitter pages...I'll be offering the two new books free for a few days around the holidays.  It's my way of saying thank you to all of you for all the support over the years!

Holly

I have a dream, too...

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.


Happy Martin Luther King Day!  He had a dream, and slowly (sometimes too slowly) we're moving in that dream's direction.

For years I've shared my conference motto with anyone who will listen.  When I go to conference there are only two types of people...those who know me and love me, and those who don't love me but will love me.  If you go into a conference with that mindset, it makes mingling so much easier, and frankly, it makes the conference so much more fun. 

But today, reflecting on that MLK quote, it occurs to me, that maybe that isn't the just the secret to a successful conference.  Maybe it's a secret to a successful life.  And maybe there's a second part to that motto.  There are only two types of people in the world...those I know and love, and those I don't know but will love.  

Okay, that's a hard directive.  I try, but I don't know that anyone can like everyone.  But we can love them. We can find something redeeming in the meanest of people and cling to that.  Love that.  

Right now, I'm writing a heroine whose motto is, I can't save the world, but I can try.  I think she'd agree with my conference/life motto.  I think MLK would, too.

So, today, I have a dream...a dream of a world filled with love and with glee!  I think one feeds off another and every time any of us can manage to find either one, we leave the world a better place.  

I wish you all love...and glee!

Holly

New SuperRomance Covers

I got my second '13 cover yesterday and I'm so excited!  I love SuperRomance's new look for its covers.

Covers are always a crapshoot!  Most of them I've liked, some of them I've loved and a few...well, not so much.  I'll confess, so far, I'm really liking the Valley Ridge covers.  You are Invited is an April release.  April Showers, May.  I'm just waiting for the final book in the trilogy's cover.  A Walk Down the Aisle will be out in June.

Looking at the new covers got me thinking...how important are covers to you as a reader?  Are there things you like to see?  Things you hate to see?

How close to the character's descriptions in the books do you want the covers to be?

And finally, what do you think about the new Super covers??

I'd love to get your opinion!

Holly

Weaving a Story.

When I reopened this blog, it was mainly in order to have someplace to post my "Dog Blogs" for Everything But a Dog's release.  Then it was New Year's, so it seemed like a good place to post my word of the year.  (Which is STOP, by the way.  Stop and just enjoy the moments.  Stop and take a breath.)

I'm enjoying that blogging gives me a longer format that FB or Twitter allow, so I've decided to try and post a new blog at least every week.  There's a good chance the subjects will meander all over the place.  From books, to cooking, to basket weaving, to glee!

So, today, let's talk about my hobby...

Many of my online friends know that I've taken up making baskets in the last couple years.  I like the creativity that goes into each one.  You might have a pattern in front of you, but yours will never turn out like anyone else's.  It's unique.

I enjoy the rhythm of the weaving.  Over, under, over, under... keep repeating until you're done.  Really, if you can remember that, you can weave.

Writing's like that.  People have asked me since my first book was published what my secret is.  I tell them write...write something, anything, every day.  Make it part of the rhythm of your life.  I know they want some big secret when they ask.  But it's really that simple.  And that difficult.

I guess the best things in life are like that.  Beautifully simple...and really, really hard.  And maybe that's what drew me to basket weaving.  With both writing and baskets, there's a rhythm.  A creativity.  There's some swearing during the tough parts, and there's a lot of fun in the rest.  And when you're done, you look at the finished product with a sense of wonder that you made it!

Whether I'm weaving a basket or a story, I love that moment of wonderment and glee when I've finished something!

Hope you all find some Monday Glee!

Holly

PS. You can see more of my baskets at http://pinterest.com/hollyjacobs1/basket-by-holly-jacobs/