Guest Post

HAVE A BOOK TO PROMOTE? Lyrical Pens welcomes guest posts. Answer a questionnaire or create your own post. FYI, up front: This site is a definite PG-13. For details, contact cjpetterson@gmail.com cj

Sunday, December 1, 2024

NaNoWriMo What's Next and a call for submissions

cj Sez: NaNoWriMo writers, raise your fingers. The race to finish the National Novel Writing Month challenge is over.


  Now that you’ve reached your 30-day/50,000-word goal, or some portion thereof, the NaNoWriMo organization has some tips on what to do with your incredible manuscript: Take a breath and . . . “Step 1. Wait.”

https://blog.nanowrimo.org/post/180591717410/what-to-do-with-your-manuscript-in-december 

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Chicken Soup for the Soul has submission calls for 2025 anthologies out right now. 

  Here’s the link to find out more:


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  Jennie Liu, a young adult and middle-grade readers author, asks “Is it necessary to write an author’s note?” and answers “No, but some genres and categories naturally lend themselves to further discussion.”

  She goes on to explain why, if you don’t already do so, you should consider writing what she says might be “an arduous task.”  Read the post here:  


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 With this year of turmoil coming to a close, I’ve been thinking of the quietude of home and people I miss dearly—all year long, but especially at this time of year.

  I think of childhood-me sleeping next to an open window under a warm quilt in the chill of a country starry July night in West Texas. 
  I think of adult me sitting around the kitchen table harmonizing some favorite old hymns with my mother and my sisters. 

  Precious, precious memories.

  Where do your precious memories take you?

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  Okay, that’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Raising prayers for a happy and safe you and yours.

cj

  Tis the season for holiday shopping but forget Amazon. Shop local. The best gifts are closer than you think (think your local indie bookstores), and books are gifts that don’t need charging and keep on giving. 

  To order one of my novels or a book by any author and support a small business indie bookstore, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us

  Blatant Self Promotion: Books are gifts that keep on giving year-round, and anthologies are even better because there’s more than one story to read. With that in mind, let me help you out with a couple of ideas. The stories in these Christmas anthologies may have a holiday theme, but each one is a year-round enjoyable read.  

Christmas Through a Child’s Eyes

  
You’ll find 70 short stories written by adults recounting their extraordinary childhood holiday memories.

  My story, written under my maiden name of Marilyn Olsein, is titled “Dancing with Daddy,” and relates how six-year-old me reconnected with my Swedish-born father after a thousand-mile, years-long separation.

  The anthology is available on Kindle click on ( Amazon.com : Christmas Through a Child's eyes )


Finally Home

  This anthology gifts you with eight Christmas stories, all about our four-legged friends and the special people who rescue them. From funny, to sad, to romantic, there’s something here to tug at everyone’s heart strings.

  In “Puppy Love,” I write a tale about a woman who is passionate about giving abandoned kittens a second chance at happiness. My character’s carefully curated life is disrupted when she becomes a foster hu-mom to a puppy with an amputated leg. Then she is surprised by an even harder challenge when the man who broke her heart asks for a second chance, too.





  My fast-paced novels, The Dawgstar and Death on the Yampa, are available on Amazon or through your favorite e-Tailer and bookstore.

  Nota bene: Angela Trigg, the RITA Award-winning author and owner of The Haunted Book Shop has a few signed copies of my paperback books in stock. TO ORDER, contact: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us 

➜ Follow me on        
➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page
➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6

 

 

 

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Thanksgiving! And words to the wise

cj Sez: Since we won’t be together for the Thanksgiving Day holiday . . .

  In the Did You Know Department: 

  In 1621, the Plymouth colonists from  England and the Native American Wampanoag people shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies.

  For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. 

  It wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.

  “As an annual celebration of the harvest and its bounty, Thanksgiving falls under a category of festivals that spans cultures, continents, and millennia. In ancient times, the EgyptiansGreeks and Romans 
feasted and paid tribute to their gods after the fall harvest. Thanksgiving also bears a resemblance to the ancient Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. 

  Finally, historians have noted that Native Americans had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting and merrymaking long before Europeans set foot on America's shores.”


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  Doubters, this post from Wrangling the Doubt Monster: Fighting Fears, Finding Inspiration (Bancroft Press, 2025) by Amy L. Bernstein offers hope on how to deal with those negative thoughts.

“What do we have here?
  A doubter’s manifesto. An article of affirmation. An artist who says: I see you.
  The hope is you see yourself, realize you are not alone, learn that doubt is not your assassin.”

Click the following link to read the post: 

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  Okay, that’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Raising prayers for a happy and safe you and yours.

cj


  Tis the season for holiday shopping but forget Amazon. The best gifts are closer than you think (think your local indie bookstores), and books are gifts that don’t need charging and keep on giving. To order a book by any author and support an indie bookstore, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us

  Blatant Self Promotion: Here are a few books to put on your shopping list. The stories in these Christmas anthologies may have a holiday theme, but each one is a year-round enjoyable read.

Christmas Through a Child’s Eyes

  You’ll find 70 stories written by adults recounting their extraordinary childhood Christmas memories.

  My story, written under my maiden name of Marilyn Olsein, is titled “Dancing with Daddy,” and relates how six-year-old me reconnected with my Swedish father after a thousand-mile, years-long separation.

  The anthology is available on Kindle.




Finally Home

  This anthology gifts you with eight Christmas stories, all about our four-legged friends and the special people who rescue them. From funny, to sad, to romantic, there’s something here to tug at everyone’s heart strings.

  In “Puppy Love,” I write a tale about a woman who is passionate about giving abandoned kittens a second chance at happiness. My character’s carefully curated life is disrupted when she becomes a foster hu-mom to a puppy with an amputated leg. Then she is surprised by an even harder challenge when the man who broke her heart asks for a second chance, too.




  My fast-paced novels, The Dawgstar and Death on the Yampa, are available on Amazon or through your favorite e-Tailer and bookstore.

  Nota bene: Angela Trigg, the RITA Award-winning author and owner of The Haunted Book Shop has a few signed copies of my paperback books in stock. TO ORDER, contact: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us 

  P.S.: Pop on over to my Amazon Central Author Page for links to anthologies in which I have a short story.

➜ Follow me on        
➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page
➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6