Who doesn’t love Tupperware? I’m hosting a Tupperware Facebook party this evening from 8 to 9 CT. Please join me for games, giveaways, and special deals!!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/212332342659381/
Who doesn’t love Tupperware? I’m hosting a Tupperware Facebook party this evening from 8 to 9 CT. Please join me for games, giveaways, and special deals!!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/212332342659381/
Filed under Uncategorized

Disclaimer: All of my tips are suggestions, and are only my opinion. And, for the most part, there are exceptions when going against my advice will make your story read better. Take what works, leave the rest.
NEW RELEASE – Now Available
(Click on the cover to be taken to the Amazon Buy Page)
*** If you would like to send me a few sample pages (around 7500 words or so, even though I will not edit that many on the blog. It just gives me more to choose from) for me to edit and share on an upcoming blog post, please do so in the body of an email to AliciaMDean@aol.com. Please use the subject line: “Blog Submission” This is for published or unpublished authors. In the email, please include whether you would like me to use your name or keep it anonymous, and whether or not you would like me to include any contact info or buy info for your books. Also, you can let me know if you would like for me to run my edits by you before posting on the blog. Please keep in mind, this is for samples to use for blog posts. I will not edit or use samples from all the submissions I receive, but I will use as many as possible.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

How to write a novel? That is the question. There are probably as many answers to that question as there are people who ask it.
Wanting to write and actually doing it are two very different things. I am well acquainted with the sometimes grueling process of churning out a story. Over the years, I have tried many methods for creating and completing manuscripts, and have tweaked and honed it down to a workable (for me) process.
Using specific examples from one of my own novels, Without Mercy, I share my method in this mini how to book. The first eight steps actually deal with plotting while the last two are designed to help expand your outline into a well-developed draft. There is no one, perfect way to create a story, but there will be a method, or methods that work for you. I’m not sure if this is the one, but it works for me. Only you can decide if it also works for you. Fingers crossed that it does!
*** Warning – Please do not purchase without reading a sample. (This is solid advice for any book, fiction or non. If you are not intrigued in the sample, you will likely not enjoy the book)
Amazon: Click Here
Filed under For Writers, Promo Tips, Tips from an Editor, Tuesday Two-Minute Tips
Participate in the Rafflecopter by sharing/liking/following and visiting each of the reaper writers below for your chance to win a $100 Amazon Gift Card! Every time you participate you earn another chance to win!
And, for a chance to win an additional prize of a $10 Amazon Gift card – Please answer in the comment section.
A winner will be chosen on October 31st.
What first piqued your interest in writing about reapers?
I wanted something different from the standard fare of Vampires, Shifters, Witches, and Werewolves. I’ve always been fascinated/creeped out by the idea of Grim Reapers. And, if something creeps me out, I love it! 🙂
What makes your reapers different?
My Reapers exist along with humans, but more or less on a different plane. They can watch over humans, and they are supposed to take them when it is ‘their time.’ However, there are a select few humans who have a ‘reaper sense’ and, if they have a near death experience where they come in contact with reapers, they will be able to communicate with them, to see them from then on. My books are set in Boon Springs, Oklahoma, which is a town with more than its share of tragedy, so the town contains a higher number of reapers than most other locations.
Are your reapers Heroes or Villains?
Yes. 🙂 One thing that I found so much fun about writing this first book was that my hero is a Grim Reaper, and my villain is as well. My villain does not follow reaper rules; he takes people who are in jeopardy, even if it isn’t their time.
She spent her entire life fighting death. Now she’s falling in love with him…
Audra Grayson became a nurse in order to help save lives. But one night after a brutal beating, she almost loses her own. The near-death experience opens a door between the world of the living and the world beyond. Two Grim Reapers invade her life. One is charming, with the angelic blonde looks of a saint and the black soul of a psychopath. The other is dark, dangerously attractive and, in spite of her distaste for his reaper duties, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him.
When Audra’s patients begin to die unexpectedly and her loved ones are threatened, she will risk her life—even her soul—to save them. But can she risk her heart to an inhuman being whose very purpose is to take those she is trying to save?
Excerpt:
A crash and a scream sounded over the noise of the crowd.
Audra shot to her feet and stared in the direction of the commotion. At a Gyro stand near where Jaxon stood, a small group of people had started to move frantically, some in one direction some in the other. Between the sea of bodies, Audra glimpsed a toppled chair and the prone figure of a man.
A male voice shouted, “Give him room, people. Back off. Someone call 9-1-1.”
Jaxon rushed over to the source of the uproar, and Audra grabbed their belongings, heading to join him as quickly as she could, although her progress was slowed by her limp and the rush of people. Several had vacated their seats and were also moving toward the action, trying to get a glimpse of what was taking place.
Keeping an eye on her target, Audra was pushing her way closer to Jaxon and the hubbub when she spotted the blond ghost. She halted, her breath stalling in her lungs. What the hell?
He was closer to whatever was happening than Audra was. She peered through the mob and, just as she feared, the dark stranger was there, too. He moved through the crowd easily, which was no surprise. After all, ghosts weren’t hindered by mere solid objects. Anger contorted his face, his dark brows drawn over his piercing blue eyes. Forgetting the potential victim for a moment, Audra changed her course and headed toward the dark man, who was nearer to her than the blond. Once and for all, she would get some answers.
When she was within earshot, she shouted, “Hey, you!”
He whirled at the sound of her voice, his eyes momentarily widening in surprise, then he turned away and continued his course.
“Stop!”
Some of the people nearby cast her puzzled glances, probably wondering who she spoke to, but most of them were focused on the drama unfolding next to the Gyro stand.
She was almost upon the man now. “I said stop. You have some explaining to do.”
He barely spared her a glance. “I can’t talk now,” he bit out, still striding toward where Jaxon was administering aid to the ill man.
Before he’d covered half the distance, he came to a sudden halt, his fists clenching next to his sides. “Son of a bitch!”
Audra followed his gaze, and her brow creased in confusion. Through an opening in the crowd, she saw Jaxon crouched next to the fallen man, giving him chest compressions. The blond stood just behind Jaxon, his arms outstretched. Even from this distance, Audra could see an expression of complete rapture on his handsome face.
She looked back at her companion. Unlike the blond’s, his expression held abject despair, his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered again.
“Someone,” Audra whispered next to him, “had better tell me what the hell’s going on.”
**************************************************
Filed under Entertainment, For Writers