Lucy Score's Blog: Lucy's News, page 8

Claire Kingsley and I met via Facebook when a reader pal messaged me saying she thought I would be the right kind of writer friend for her friend Claire. And boom! A commiserating, sisterly writer bond was born. We both write romance full time, both love the beach, both of us have hubbies who are unbelievably handsome and supportive. I mean, we’re basically the same person.

Except Claire gets way more done in a day than I do. She homeschools her three kids and whips out high quality, funny, sweet, hot reads faster than I can drag my ass out of bed in the morning.

Lucy: Give us a nutshell view of your life (family, hobbies, etc).

Claire: My life is a little bit crazy. I’m married and I homeschool my three kids. That keeps me super busy—but it’s good busy. Other than that, I love to read (although I don’t make time for enough of it), and I’m a fan of geeky stuff like Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and superhero/comic book movies.

Lucy: What kind of an effect did publishing your first book have on you?

Claire: That was a badass moment. I decided I wanted to be a writer a long time ago, but I spent a lot of years focused on other things (having babies not the least among them). I wasn’t sure I was good enough to even finish an entire novel, and I carried that fear around with me for a long time. So when I not only finished my first novel, but went through the entire feedback, revisions, editing, etc. and then publishing process, it was amazing. It was like I’d kicked that doubt to the curb and proved I could actually do it.

Lucy: What does your writing process look like? How much swearing is involved?

Claire: All the swearing.

My process is messy. I start with brainstorming and lots of note taking. I have a few people I like to brainstorm with; kicking around ideas with another person is really helpful for me. I figure out who the characters are, what sort of backstory they have, the theme(s) I want to explore, the sources of tension and conflict, and so forth. Then I start outlining actual scenes/chapters. Usually I get partway done with the outline and start writing. From there, I go back and forth between writing and planning/outlining. Sometimes I write stuff completely out of order, simply because I have ideas in my head and I want to get them out. I’ve been known to write endings before I’ve even gotten to the middle of a story. Or I’ll write a little bit of dialogue for a scene and go back to it later. It’s very non-linear, but somehow it seems to come together at the end.

Lucy: What’s one thing that you think you should do but don’t/aren’t/never will?

Claire: This is a hard question! I can’t think of anything big or important. For the most part, I think I should be better about creating a schedule for work/family/life, but I’m bad at routines and schedules, so I probably won’t.

Lucy: A case of writer’s block hits. What do you do?

Claire: Depends. Writer’s block usually means one of two things for me. Either the story or scene is broken and I need to figure out why, or I’m getting burnt out.

If it’s a story issue (this is usually why I get stuck), I have to spend some time figuring out what went wrong. If there’s something that doesn’t work in the story, I can feel it. Maybe there’s a piece that’s inconsistent, maybe I’m going off on a tangent that doesn’t work, or maybe it’s just boring because I haven’t figured out how a particular element moves the story forward. I’ll talk it out with one of my brainstorming people. Sometimes just explaining that part of the story to another person is enough for me to figure out what’s not working. If not, usually pinging ideas back and forth will help me fix what’s broken.

If I’m burnt out, then I just need a break. I tend to write every day and I don’t take days off very often. Usually that’s fine—I love writing and I get twitchy when I don’t. But there are times when my brain gives me a big, fat NOPE and I need to give myself permission to take a real break.

If I’m only a little burnt out—fatigued, maybe—changing scenery helps a lot. If I’m at my desk, I’ll take my laptop to another room. Sometimes I’ll go for a drive by myself—listen to music and clear my head. That kind of thing.

Lucy: What’s the biggest adrenaline rush you’ve ever had?

Claire: Probably downhill mountain biking. My husband likes to do crazy stuff like that. We went to Stevens Pass (ski area in Washington) in the summer and rode the ski lift up, then biked down. That was intense.

Lucy: If you weren’t a writer, what else could you see yourself doing?

Claire: At this point in my life, if I wasn’t a writer, I don’t think I’d have a different outside job. I’d still be staying home with my kids (and theoretically have actual free time, LOL). Other than that, I honestly don’t know what else I’d do. I had a corporate-type career before I had kids, but that feels like a lifetime ago, and it’s not something I’d go back to. I think if I didn’t write, all that spacey daydreaming I do would just go to waste.

Lucy: What do you admire most about your hubby?

Claire: I love how he’s unapologetically himself. He doesn’t spend a lot of time or energy worrying about what other people think. He is who he is, he likes what he likes, and other people’s opinions don’t matter to him very much.

He’s also very random and spontaneous. I’m one of those people who needs to mull things over (sometimes too much—I’m a terrible overthinker). But he can just make decisions on the fly and roll with it. He keeps life fun.

Lucy: Favorite trope in a romance novel?

Claire: That’s a tough one. Friends to lovers is a big favorite. I love it when one of the characters (the hero, especially) is crazy about the other, but thinks they can’t be together. There’s so much angst in that type of unrequited love—spending time together, having to watch them date other people. When it’s done well, the payoff when they make it to their HEA can be really rewarding.

I love the opposite too—enemies to lovers. There’s so much room for the characters and the relationship to grow when they start out hating each other.

Lucy: What drives you insane and/or murders your soul?

Claire: When people are shitty to each other. Life is hard enough without making things difficult for other people. I like to take the immortal advice of Bill and Ted to heart: be excellent to each other.

Claire’s newest release, Hot Single Dad, is a swoon-worthy standalone that you should grab immediately!

“I loved this book from the beginning. I couldn’t get enough. This is literally one of my all time favorite books now.” ~ Sassy Southern Book Blog

Catch up with Claire on Facebook and in her reader’s group Alpha Ever After. If you need more mancandy in your life, you need to be an Alpha!

To see her impressive backlist, check Claire out on Amazon. And don’t forget to sign up for her newsletter. Subscribers get a free book!

The post Author Profile: Claire Kingsley the Book Boyfriend Queen appeared first on Lucy Score.

My reader friend Nishi and I met on Facebook through a shared love of books. Her comments about her life caught my eye and I thought she would be the perfect person to kick off my Reader Interview blog series. We’re both Aquarians and share an obsessive appreciation for the Sweet Valley High books and Beverly Hills 90210. She’s well-traveled, organized, and has excellent taste in books. Speaking of books, her bookcases in London are going to give you a serious case of bookshelf envy. Scroll down and check those babies out.

Lucy: Give us a nutshell view of your life (family, hobbies, work etc).

Nishi: I am 32 years and live in London though currently relocated to Sri Lanka. I always travel between London and Sri Lanka as I have family living at both ends. I am a very bubbly and happy person in general and a proper Aquarian at heart. No, I don’t think I am Jennifer Aniston but I do so in my dreams sometimes. I love the simple things life and I do believe life is definitely an adventure. I have a sweet, bossy sister that I would die for, who keeps me in place in life. She is my safe place. My mom and dad are retired and run a B&B in a coastal area of Sri Lanka, which I help out at when I come on vacation. We are a close-knit family and there for each other any time or day.

I currently work as an event planner mostly doing destination weddings in Sri Lanka and running the B&B as well. After finishing my hospitality degree I worked in world class hotels in London such as Hilton, Four Seasons, and Claridges for almost 15 years. So, after a continuous loop of working and no life, I just wanted to take some time off and enjoy looking at the sunset. My hobbies are reading, travelling, photography, and reading.

Lucy: When did you first fall in love with reading?

Nishi: I was introduced to reading from the age of 8 by my granddad who I always saw asleep with a book. I thought that was awesome, but I wasn’t in to it as such until I was about 12. This was when I was introduced to The Famous Five, Secret Seven, and when I grew in to my early teens Sweet Valley High. I loved Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield and thought it would be so cool to have a twin (not how I looked then but maybe now

Looking for your next book hangover? I’ve got just the thing: Gannon King.

I always like to do a blog about my new book right around its release date. But thanks to a vacation, a move, and a really great launch, I dropped the ball on the blog! But you’re all too busy reading Mr. Fixer Upper to care about a blog post, right? Right!

I don’t need to blab all about all the reasons I love this book. So let me give you the highlights.

Gannon King is the grumpy, fiery kind of hero that I LOVE. He reminds me a bit of Mr. Lucy if you know what I mean

So, I did it. I wrote and gave away a free, full-length romance novel to my newsletter subscribers. And man did it feel good!

Voila, Where It All Began, the Blue Moon prequel made its debut.

The idea started last year when a handful of readers came to me and where like “Yo, Lucy! We want to read John and Phoebe Pierce’s story.” I, of course, was like “Uh, y’all know that John dies, right? And Phoebe gets remarried and lives HEA. How am I supposed to write John??” They were like, “You’ll figure it out. Do it!”

And damn if they weren’t right.

I decided to write the book as an experiment to see if a) it could be written and b) if it should be written. And as soon as I started it, I realized this was the perfect story and the perfect time for it. There were so many overlaps to the rest of the Blue Moon series, so many connections between John and his sons, and Blue Moon circa 1985 to present day.

I got to really dig in to why this community is so much more than just a collection of neighbors. And I’m so happy and grateful and blown away that you guys asked for this book… and that I delivered. *patting self on back*

Anyway, if you haven’t read it yet, here’s what I want you to know:

You’ll probably cry. I did. A lot. But I think there’s enough funny and enough happy and enough hope in there to still feel really good when you close the book.
You get to meet all your Blue Moon favorites as much younger characters. I.E. The barf fest on Pierce Acres and that time John had to have THE TALK with his boys.
If you like the show This is Us, you’ll probably like this book. 
This is the prequel to the Blue Moon series, but you don’t need to read this first or read the other books in order. They’re all standalones.
Did I mention it’s free? Sign up for my newsletter and you get this book!

Here’s What Readers Are Saying:

It is 2:20 AM and I just finished Where It All Began… Tears trickling down my face. THANK YOU Lucy for something that is truly a very special, emotional story…a once in a lifetime book for me as a reader. — Caroline

Holy cannoli what an amazing blue moon book. Got up super early so that I could let the tears flow without my family staring at me like I’m a nutcase. I love this series to the core. Thank you for taking us back to where it all began. —Robin

Damn you Lucy Score!! You made my heart full today and of course you made me laugh and cry too! — Clair

Ready for your free copy?

Sign up for my newsletter and your welcome email contains the link to the book and instructions. I hope you read it and love it and fall as deeply in love with Blue Moon as I have.

xoxo

Lucy

The post You’re awesome. Here’s a free book. appeared first on Lucy Score.

It’s Father’s Day in the U.S. and what better time to give all the dads and stepdads and stand-in dads out there a shout out?

You are our non-fiction heroes. Whether you’re coaching disastrous kid sports teams or working overtime or answering the seventeenth “Hey, daddy?” in five minutes, you and your big hearts are my inspiration.

Special thanks to my dad for—among many other things—

coaching our soccer teams
making our stuffed animals steer the truck
chasing us up the basement stairs until we all developed fears of stairs
pay day hoagies every Friday
introducing me to John Wayne movies
cooking dinner every night
reading every single one of my books
shooting that mean turkey with your slingshot when it was chasing me
enjoying excellent novelty t-shirts

And for all you readers out there who are missing a father or a father figure today, I hope warm memories brighten your day 

You guys are getting a free book on June 23!

When you’re a writer and your readers come to you and say “We really want you to write this,” you have to at least think about it. That’s what I did when a handful of readers decided they’d like a prequel to the Blue Moon series that followed John and Phoebe–the parents of the hot, irresistible Pierce brothers. So I thought about it. And then I said, “hell no.”

How can I write a love story when everyone already knows (SPOILER ALERT) that John dies? His only appearance in the Blue Moon series is through the essays that he wrote. Did I mention (ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT) Phoebe has since happily remarried?

My readers have a lot of potentially misplaced faith in me. They insisted. So, one week from today Where It All Began will be hitting the inboxes of every newsletter subscriber I have. It is my gift to all of you who have read my books voraciously and badgered your friends and family until they too agreed to read me. I appreciate you all so very much. Because of you, losing my job was barely a blip on the radar when Pretend You’re Mine came out. Because of you, I can’t wait to open my email every morning. Because of you Blue Moon has continued past the original three books that I was planning. I hope you’ll love John and Phoebe as much as you’ve loved everyone else in that looney bin of a town.

Make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter so you can get your FREE Blue Moon novel. This is the only way to get it!

John Pierce has plans for these two hundred rundown acres. He sees a farm, a family, a future. He’s not about to drag someone in on the ground floor, not before he’s put in the work to turn rubble into home. The grad student he agreed to take on for the summer was supposed to lend a hand. Hell, he was supposed to be a man. Not an opinionated, smart-mouthed woman who does nothing but distract him from dawn to dusk.

She’s ruining his nice, quiet life. And he can’t wait for her to finish her thesis and get out of his hair.

What You Need to Know:

This is the prequel to the entire Blue Moon series and it’s set in 1985. Imagine this, the town rooted in the 1960s is dabbling in stonewashed jeans, blue eye shadow, and like totally bitchen vocabulary.
This is a novel (60,000+ words). So, I’m not gifting you some teeny itty bitty novella. I want you to have the good stuff!
You will receive an email with instructions on how to get this puppy (book, not an actual puppy) onto your Kindle or eReader.

xoxo,

Lucy

 

The post Where It All Began free book appeared first on Lucy Score.

I don’t know if I’m a complete weirdo, or if everyone envisions their perfect day of just the right amounts of family quality time, productivity, health consciousness, and relaxing. When I took complete control of all the hours in my day (24 to be precise), I failed miserably in all arenas. I thought not being at work for nine hours a day would magically turn me into the productivity fairy, sprinkling creative writing dust around my home office while laundry and dishes and dinner took care of themselves.

Yeah, that was total crap. Apparently, if I don’t have a plan and deadlines and a list and alarms on my phone, I get zilch done. I don’t even know what I do with my time! I have a feeling vast amounts of hours were being sucked up by social media and articles on how to be productive and opening my fridge 37 times to see if anyone had put anything new in there in the last 15 minutes.

Finally, when I realized that having the time didn’t mean I would use it effectively, I had to get tough with myself like a parent of a teenager with self-destructive tendencies (aren’t they all self-destructive?).

My perfect day now looks something like this.

9 a.m. Get ass out of bed.

9:10 a.m. Cheerfully scamper down to the home gym and workout for 45-mins to an hour. Feel human.

10 a.m. Enjoy a protein shake full of delicious fruits and veggies would be ingested as well as 10 to 15 minutes of meditation practiced

11 a.m. Answer emails, hang out with the readers on social media, catch up on whatever non-writing stuff needs addressed.

Noon. EAT! Best part of the day. Also, remember to take my a.m. vitamins.

12:30 Start writing in one-hour increments and hit 1,000 words an hour. My word count goal is 3,000 every day so on my PERFECT days I can be done in three hours of writing.

Afternoon between hour-long sprints. Prep dinner, throw in a load of laundry, respond to texts, put away clothes, yell at the cat, go outside and smell flowers.

5 p.m. Triumphantly save my work in progress in three places, slam down the lid of my laptop, and cockily announce to Mr. Lucy that I’m done for the day.

5:05 p.m. Walk back in my office, open the laptop and tackle anything that came up since my morning perusal of the world. Return phone calls. Drink a martini. Shop online for things I’d resent if I had to leave the house for. Hone my craft by reading blogs and books and articles. Take care of normal human being things like yelling at my insurance company, calling my parents, activating credit cards. Really at this point in my perfect day, the world is my oyster.

7:00 p.m. Either make dinner or go out to dinner. Remember to take the rest of those vitamins that give me nice fingernails and regular heart beats.

9 p.m. Hit the couch (or bed) with a book and Mr. Lucy (just Mr. Lucy) and entertain ourselves (do “research”).

Midnight: Wind down before official bedtime. More meditation and the satisfaction of a day not wasted.

Perfect day, right? OK, so here’s how my day actually goes (which should be noted is a VAST improvement over 2016). What can I say? I’m a work in progress.

9 a.m. Ignore alarm.

9:30 a.m. Check texts, email, and social media through the one eye that deigns to open in the morning.

10 a.m. Drag ass out of bed. Trip over cat on the way to the bathroom. Then make the fatal mistake of sitting down at my computer before working out. Get distracted.

11 a.m. Drag ass downstairs to work out.

Noon Feel marginally better. At least I accomplished something. Even if I did have to skip meditation. Maybe I should give it five minutes… Nope! Now I’m starving. Stuff face or say “Yes, please” when Mr. Lucy suggests going out to lunch. (That’s also a fatal mistake because we tend to procrastinate really well together so a lunch out can last up to four hours depending on how many tasks and errands we can come up with to keep us from our actual work.

2 p.m. Start writing. Battle for the first hour. Feel dejected. Wonder why I don’t know what I’m doing yet. Whine to Mr. Lucy about everything. Then remember that I left load of laundry in the washer three days ago.

3 p.m. The washer is running again. And it’s time to write. It goes much better because my self-loathing tells me I can’t possibly be a writer with the way I use my time. “Oh, yeah?” says my rebellious streak (the only thing stronger than that obnoxious self-loathing). “Watch this!” I write like it’s a job that I’m really good at. Take a few breaks to wink suggestively at Mr. Lucy.

7 p.m. Wrap it up. Immediately wonder if I wrote anything decent or if it’s all a steaming pile of crap. Who cares? That’s what the second draft is for! Celebration ends when I realize I forgot to schedule my oil change, put the clothes in the dryer, figure out why I can’t log into my credit card, and water the plants AGAIN. OMG, dinner.

9 p.m. Pretend I’m super cool and urbane for eating so late. Hope I don’t get heart burn when I go to bed.

10 p.m. Collapse on couch. Remember that I forgot all my vitamins. Eat a frozen Snickers and take half of the vitamins. Plan to do better tomorrow.

The post My Perfect Day vs. My Actual Day appeared first on Lucy Score.

To the mamas, the mothers, the moms, and mommies,

To the moms who have experienced heart-breaking loss and still get out of bed in the morning.

To the moms who wanted to but couldn’t.

To the moms who just need one good night’s sleep or a week… or a month…

To the moms who birthed or adopted or aunted or mentored.

To the moms who just can’t get it together.

To the moms who are breaking on the inside.

To the moms who go it alone or have help.

To the moms who make mistakes.

To the moms who are too scared to let go.

To the moms who love and give until it hurts.

To the moms of cats and dogs and goats and fish and every other kind of non-human kid.

To the moms who spend six months planning the perfect birthday party.

To the moms who Google math homework and prom hairstyles.

To the moms who teach hard lessons.

To the moms who work in or out of the home.

To the moms who need a damn break.

To the moms who don’t think they’ll survive the terrible 2s, the threenagers, or the teenage years.

To the moms who think they’re doing it wrong.

To the moms who let their kids make mistakes.

To the moms just barely getting by.

To the moms who just can’t any more.

To the moms who slaved for hours on the perfect meal… that your kids refused to eat.

To the moms who went through the drive-thru or reheated dinosaur chicken nuggets.

To the moms who drove to Target just so they could sit and read in the quiet.

To the moms who trust their kids.

To the moms who can’t trust their kids.

To the moms who carve out a sliver of time to give themselves what they need.

To the moms who just don’t get their kids.

To the moms who still make time to text a friend.

To the moms who can’t remember the last time they saw their friends.

To the moms who just need a “thank you.”

To the moms who are amazed at the people their children are turning out to be.

To the moms who haven’t showered in four days.

To the moms running businesses and committees and fundraisers.

To the moms who don’t remember what it’s like to pee alone.

To the moms who try so damn hard every damn day.

To the moms who were terrified their teenage daughter would never really get it.

To the moms whose only escape is a good book.

To the moms who are scared what the future holds for your kids.

To the moms who count down to college.

To the moms who don’t want their baby to grow up.

To my mom and my grandmothers, aunts, cousins, sisters, and friends.

To the beautiful, smart, skilled, interesting, amazing women who run this world…

I see you. You’re doing a great job. You’re beautiful. You’re fucking incredible. I think you’re amazing. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you out there.

xoxo,

Lucy

 

The post To the mamas… appeared first on Lucy Score.

People I didn’t pay called me brilliant and then I choked on my own spit. Just a typical launch day for Lucy Score and That’s What She Said Publishing.

Yesterday was the release of Not Part of the Plan, the fourth installment in my small town romance Blue Moon series!

It was a day of good cheer all around, especially the part where I choked on my own spit during a Facebook Live video. See my face below. 

Get ready to head back to Blue Moon, folks!

There’s a new release heading to Kindles everywhere. You can expect to download your copy of Not Part of the Plan onto your Kindle on April 11!

Let’s talk details… this is the fourth book in my Blue Moon series. Each book can be read as a standalone, so if you haven’t picked the first ones up yet, you can jump right in with Not Part of the Plan.

For the record, Blue Moon books are sexy AND hilarious. They’re set in the small, idyllic town of Blue Moon Bend in upstate New York. Taken over by wandering hippies after Woodstock, the town still clings to its sixties roots with a heavy dose of nosey small town mixed in. The men are sexy alphas and the women are complicated, confusing, and charming.

In this sweet and sexy story, Nikolai Vulkov is a famous, womanizing fashion photographer whose life has suddenly lost its appeal. He decides an extended vacation with his best friend Summer Pierce and her husband Carter will be just the cure. Spending a few weeks on a farm in the middle of nowhere with twin one-year-olds? If that doesn’t make his old life more appealing, nothing will.

And speaking of appealing, when Niko meets Emmaline, the fiesty, no-nonsense brewery manager, he senses a challenge.

Emma’s not into bad boys or flings and lets Niko know it. She likes an orderly life, a plan, a direction. But once in the friend zone, Niko works to wear her down. Emma starts to wonder just how bad could one night with him be? How good could one night be?

The rest of Blue Moon reassembles for this book, picking up their stories nearly a year after the last book ends. Catch up with your favorite Pierce brother and all of your eccentric Blue Mooners and their hippie ways. There’s a Knit Off, Clementine the goat strikes again, and everyone’s favorite dead head Fitz reveals a very interesting side career.

Here’s a handful of my favorite snippets from Not Part of the Plan…

“What’s a dildo, Mama?”

 

“Crap. Four seconds in my house and we’ve already ruined your very nice Tom Ford. Sorry about that. Fluids just fly constantly around here,” Summer apologized.

“I figured that’s how you got twins,” Niko joked.

 

Carter glared at him and stroked a hand through his own beard. “I thought you hated facial hair.”

“Where did you ever get that idea?” Beckett asked innocently.

Carter threw his cards down on the table. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because of every snide comment you’ve ever made about my beard in the past five years?”

“What are you talking about?” Beckett feigned confusion. “I’ve said nothing but nice things about your beard.”

“Bullshit!” Carter shouted, pointing at his brother. “Bull. Shit. ‘Don’t get beard hair in my food, Carter.’ ‘You look like a wookie, Carter,’” he mimicked in a falsetto voice. “Bull fucking shit.”

Check out Chapter One here to wet your whistle! Can’t wait for April 11th! Sign up for my newsletter here to make sure you never miss a hot, new release.

xoxo,

Lucy

The post Book News: Not Part of the Plan appeared first on Lucy Score.