Jennie Bennett, Romance Author

It's almost Christmas, and one of the best parts of Christmas is giving gifts! Rachel Schieffelbein had the genius idea to get together some of her favorite writers (and critique partners) to do an awesome give away! (Thanks Rachel!) One winner will get a bundle of a bunch of amazing ebooks! The bundle will include an ecopy of   and Secondary Characters , by Rachel Schieffelbein Effortless with You , by Lizzy Charles (Never)Again , by Theresa Paolo Unexpectedly You , Riley Janes and Mia Josephs Friday Night Alibi , by Cassie Mae   Fraction of Stone , by Kelley Lynn and (perfect for the holidays!) The Spirit of Christmas ! which includes short stories by Me, Jessica Salyer , Kelley Lynn, and more! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Let's be honest here. I've seen a lot of these "lists" going around with cute notebooks and pens and books and such. Writers do like all those things. They're fun. They're not bad ideas in the least. But it's not what we really want. In my house pens get lost and notebooks get doodled on by my kids. Books are awesome too, but I'm low on shelf space (as in, I don't have any more) and kindles are more convenient (kindle gifting is encouraged). Besides, a lot of writers *cough* just me *cough* are really unorganized. It's better not to get us stuff that makes us feel like we have to be organized. Then the guilt is too much. Better if you don't spend money at all. I'll tell you what writers really want for Christmas. This, I believe is true of every writer out there. I don't care how successful you are. What writers want for Christmas is this: More time to write Well, that and a muse who lets the words flow better than t...

It's that time of year, the time you look back at what you've accomplished and look forward to the future. I can't believe how much has happened this year and how quickly it's all flown by. Blogging is great becasue you can look back at your old posts and remember your mindset when the new year started. I remember making a list of goals at the beginning of this year, knowing full well I might not stick to them or that life would change. I didn't expect to be living in Texas. Just goes to show how much time warps perception. Looking back, some of my goals seem laughable, but they were important to me at the time. Still, most of what I set out to do I accomplished. Let's look back on them, shall we? 1. Finish writing my current unnamed YA romance novel. It's called What Not to Do When You're Falling in Love, and I'm pretty sure I finished it last January. 2. Polish Stealing the Stars , My NaNo novel. HA! That's hilarious! I never did ...

Today I'm happy to let Michelle Argyle take over my blog for her Out of Tune tour. Isn't her cover so pretty? I asked her to write a post about music and writing, and boy did she deliver! Enjoy :) Can you believe that a long time ago I would have told you music was way too disruptive to writing? Nowadays, if I don’t have an absolutely silent room, music is the only way for me to focus on my writing. I’ve also found that more and more, I actually pick music over silence. But it’s always something different depending on what I’m writing. For my newest novel, Out of Tune, it was obviously country music. I had to immerse myself in country to make my characters and story feel authentic. For other novels, it has been other genres. I think the key to using music as a muse, however, is to become familiar with the music first. At least for me this has been the case. I like music so much that if it’s something entirely new to me, I’m more distracted by the music than anythi...