Looking Out the Window: K Dawn Byrd Talks about Writing Books in Thirty Days and Her Latest Book

She'll give away a download of her new book, This Time for Keeps. To enter to win leave a comment and email address.

Many writers grew up with a love of reading. Were you an avid reader as a child? What did you read? I was such an avid reader as a child that mother has said many times that I was so quiet she never knew I was even in the house. Nancy Drew was my absolute favorite.
Why do you write? I first began writing seriously about four years ago. I write because it's more than a hobby, it's a passion. I can't NOT write. I write because the words bubble up inside me and I have to get them on the page.

Tell us about your latest book. Here's the cover blurb from This Time for Keeps:
India McGuire's peaceful life is shattered when on the night of her engagement to David Richards, she comes face to face with Chase Porter, a long lost love. India must come to terms with her overpowering feelings for Chase and choose between David, the neighbor who says he loves her, and Chase, the man who broke her heart.
Chase's plans of leaving quietly turn to disaster when he finds that it's impossible to disappear without seeing India one last time. Feelings begin to surface that he believed buried forever and he finds himself fighting to win her back even as David struggles to hold onto her.
India longs to follow her heart, but she's been hurt too deeply. Who will she choose? The neighbor who can provide stability or the man she vowed to love forever who may once again heed to the call of the open road?
Where do you get ideas for your books? My ideas for my books come from everywhere. Newspapers. TV. The internet. I recently saw an article about a homeless man who had inherited millions. I'm using the idea for my December 2012 release in the Zoe Mack Mystery Series.
In three words describe your style of writing. Fast. Frantic. 30 days. (Sorry, I don't count the 30 as a word. It's a number. LOL)
How do you get to know your characters? I fill out character worksheets in order to get to know them better and I'm constantly asking myself if my characters would say this or do that as I write.
What is your writing schedule and where do you write? I write every book in 30 days. I'll plot out how many words I need each day on a calendar and use it to keep track of where I should be. I write in my favorite room in the house. It's a small den without a TV, but it does have two 55-gallon fish tanks. I take breaks from time to time and watch the fish swim.
Are you a plotter or a pantzer? I'm a plotter. In order to write a book in 30 days, a pretty thorough plot is a requirement. That's not to say that my characters don't sometimes take me down roads I hadn't planned, because they do and that's okay too.
What are you working on right now? Right now, I'm about 75 percent finished with my April 2012 release. It's called Shattered Identity and is the sequel to Mistaken Identity, my first young adult novel release. Several readers wrote me asking me to tell Lexi's story and Shattered Identity was born.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers? Don't write for fortune or fame because it may never come. Write as I do...for the simple joy of placing words on the page.
Visit K Dawn's Web site at http://www.kdawnbyrd.com/
and her blog at http://kdawnbyrd.blogspot.com/

Looking Out the Window: Memories on the Heart

Several weeks ago my husband, Rick, and I ate at a restaurant we frequent fairly regularly. The cute, young waitress who usually waits on us took our orders for burgers and fries. I’ll call her Mandy. As usual Mandy’s smile and bubbly personality brightened our day. We giggled and confessed to her that we shouldn’t eat the fries, but we were going to do it just this once. She joked. “Okay, you’re being bad today.” Not long after we got our food a couple came in and sat in the booth behind us. Mandy walked up to the table with her big grin. “Hi, how are you?” she asked. The man, who had salt and pepper colored hair and a pudgy face, spoke in a harsh tone, “I want the steak.” “Sure, which one would you like?” Mandy asked. “I don’t want you to put it in the microwave. That will make it tough. Do you understand?” Mandy’s lips turned down. “Yes sir, which one do you want to order?” “I want it medium rare. I don’t want blood oozing out of it. I want it cooked right.” “Yes sir, which steak di

Looking out the Window: Bible Study Leader Kristi Neace Says God Won't Fail Us and Introduces Us to Her New Book, Pathlight to Praise. Free Bible Study Coming Soon.

A Warm Welcome to Kristi Neace Kristi shares a devotional. She will start a new Bible study on Facebook in July. Watch for the announcement, giving the exact date and time on her Facebook Page Scriptural videos also available. See below.* In a Pit? Psalm 40:1-3‚ “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.” Can you think of a time when God helped you out of a low place? Perhaps something had caused you to spiral downward, or maybe like the Old Testament character, Jonah, you had run away from God so as not to have to do what He was asking of you. Through this passage, we see that David was experiencing this first-hand. He was in a place of despair, yet God was gracious, and after some time, placed David in a new area of serv

Looking Out the Window: Brandy Heineman Talks about Writing and Her New Book, Whispers in the Braches

A Warm Welcome to Brandy Heineman Photo credit: Copyright Emilie Hendryx of E. A. Creative Photography, 2014. Hi Brandy, lots of writers enjoyed reading as a child. How about you? If so, what did you read? Oh, yes. I always loved to read. I adored mysteries— The Dollhouse Murders and Behind the Attic Wall come to mind—and of course I had my Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley High phase, my Roald Dahl phase, my Judy Bloom phase . . . I was quite a bookish child, I’d say! About Whispers in the Branches In 1942, Ruby lost something. In 2012, Abby found it. Abby’s love life, career, and faith are in shambles when she first hears Great Aunt Ruby’s claims that the family home is haunted. Abby moves in, determined to shake out a ghost, but the secrets she discovers there aren’t the ones she hopes to find. Whispers in the Branches is my first novel. It was released earlier this year by Elk Lake Publishing. Buy Whispers in the Branches on Amazon Where

Peering Through Life's Window

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