This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Bernadette Marie will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
There is a common question that I get from those who want to write a book but have yet to commit. “I want to write a book. Where do I start?”
The first thing I tell a wannabe author, or even a new author feeling the waters, is meet other authors. Get to know those who are likeminded and share the same passion. I don’t mean that if you write fantasy, you should only converse with those who write fantasy, on the contrary, mix it up.
Authors have a kinship that is easily shared. Most authors I know want to share their journey with anyone who is forging their own path. And every journey is different. Some authors have million-dollar publishing contracts on their first book ever. Other authors will pen one hundred books and make pennies. The point is, each author is passionate about their storytelling process, and they will share that with you.
Where do you meet these likeminded people? Writing groups are phenomenal for this kind of networking. They have local and national groups from every kind of genre, for fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting, you name it. Check out a local chapter. Go to a conference. Meet an author at a book signing and see who they’re affiliated with. Take a class from an author. The possibilities are endless.
Whether you have written an entire series or have yet to put a word down on paper, feeding that passion with people who understand your thought process and your dreams in invaluable.
My next piece of advice for a new author would be to write. I know it sounds like that would be a normal step, but authors sometimes like to get in their heads too much. You can spend years plotting out a book, or making character sheets and spreadsheets to follow. Sometimes, authors know every aspect of the book so well they’re living and breathing the details, but they’ve yet to get the whole story down.
Write that book. Write it from start to finish. It’s going to suck—that’s called a first draft. You’re going to massage it and make it better, that’s called editing and revising. So don’t be fearful of the words you’re putting down, just get them out of you. And when you go to a conference and you’re sitting with seasoned authors, they will commiserate with you. Because they too had to go through that same process to get their first book down on paper too.
Enjoy the process!
Saying goodbye is sometimes the beginning.
Craig Turner was Coach Diaz’s star player, back in the day. He was held in high regard, until he broke the rules and dated the coach’s daughter. Young and stupid, his affection for her lasted until graduation, and then it was time to face the real world–but his love for her would never leave him.
Rachel Diaz became who her father wanted her to be, a well educated, well traveled, successful woman, but she holds a well full of secrets from the outside world. As a high school therapist, she uses her past traumas to help others overcome their own.
When the Fabulous Five arrive at Coach Diaz’s funeral, to pay their respects, a rekindling happens between them all—and between Craig and Rachel.
Is Rachel woman enough to face her demons and is Craig man enough to accept them? Or will their encounter be as brief as the affair they had a decade ago, behind her father’s back?
Enjoy an Excerpt
“Dr. Olivia Chasen,” Santa’s jolly baritone popped her mental fuzzy bubble.
She stopped as she struggled to whirl around. “Me?” She touched her chest with a dramatic flourish she didn’t know she possessed.
A powerful spotlight illuminated her; its heat burned her already flushed face.
She pressed a clammy palm to her chest. “How do you know my name?” The haze in her mind was paralyzing all cognitive function.
“My dear girl,” Santa chuckled, “you should know by now that Santa knows everything and everyone,” he tapped an index finger to his temple.
Santa Claus turned to address the waiting line. “Girls, Boys, Moms, Dads, everyone, if you don’t mind waiting for a brief moment, I’d like for Olivia,” he pointed a white gloved finger at her, “to please come up here on stage, and tell me what she wants for Christmas.”
She stood dumbfounded as the audience and the people in line clapped and chanted her name, “Olivia! Olivia! Olivia!”
Oh no! What was she going to do? She couldn’t possibly go up onto that stage. She was far too shy to address a theater full of people.
But if she didn’t go that would be so unexciting and so like the old Olivia.
But she wasn’t unexciting! She was the new Olivia, and she was exciting! And she wanted to have fun! Correction: She was determined to have fun. Besides, she’d never see these people—her fellow passengers—ever again.
About the Author: 
Bestselling Author Bernadette Marie is known for building families readers want to be part of. Her series The Keller Family has graced bestseller charts since its release in 2011. Since then she has authored and published over thirty-five books. The married mother of five sons promises romances with a Happily Ever After always…and says she can write it because she lives it.
Obsessed with the art of writing and the business of publishing, chronic entrepreneur Bernadette Marie established her own publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing, in 2011 to bring her own work to market as well as offer an opportunity for fresh voices in fiction to find a home as well.
When not immersed in the writing/publishing world, Bernadette Marie and her husband are shuffling their five hockey playing boys around town to practices and games as well as running their family business. She is a lover of a good stout craft beer and might have an unhealthy addiction to chocolate.
Buy the book at Amazon.
From grieving widow…
Rachel lives in a small town near Bath, England. She is the author of over 25 published novels including the Ladies of Carson Street series, the Shop Girl series (Aria Fiction) and the Templeton Cove Stories (Harlequin).
I was DONE! I ditched graduation, dumped my repressed college boyfriend, and dropped my sexual insecurities for a wild ride with Destiny. Unpredictable Fate beckoned with a European adventure!
As a Special Education teacher, I became fascinated by the English language. I still marvel at how it changes and expands over time. My most pleasurable teaching moments were showing children how a wondrous story can take their imaginations to other times, places, even other worlds. When the pandemic began, I started my first foray into publishing⸺ a nonfiction book, The Sensible Parent’s Little Homeschooler Handbook.
Founded by five unmarried and enterprising Amish maidels, the new Morning Star Marketplace in small-town Missouri is preparing for a joyous Christmas season. But will the holiday also bring
In 1983, Charlotte Hubbard sold her first story to True Story. She wrote around 70 of those confession stories, and she’s sold more than 50 books to traditional or online publishers. A longtime resident of Missouri, she’s currently writing Amish romances set in imaginary Missouri towns for Kensington. She now lives in Omaha, NE with her husband of 40+ years and their Border collie, Vera.
I am Rosemary Morris an English novelist. I live in Southeast England where I enjoy organic gardening, cooking vegetarian meals and living near my family 
What was it like to live at a time when love was not a reason to marry, and husbands had the right to thrash their wives with a rod no wider than their thumbs? Spirited, compassionate, seventeen-year-old Grace is about to find out if her marriage will be made in heaven or hell? Her mother, Countess of Cassio, arranges for her to wed Jocelyn, Lord Lovat, Baron Montford. Grace knows marriage only founded on romantic notions is unacceptable. She agrees to tie the knot with Jocelyn to increase her family’s prestige and political alliances. Nevertheless, she is terrified of sharing a bed with the stranger she will be wed to on the day after they meet for the first time. 
Rafe Audley detests his father, the Duke of Bentley, for abandoning his family. Born illegitimate, he has worked the mines his whole life to care for his younger siblings. Edwina Dalrymple has spent her life making a name for herself as an instructor in etiquette, and she has yet to fail in preparing her charges for Polite Society. When Edwina is tasked with teaching Rafe the ways of a gentleman, she soon learns that Mr. Audley is no ordinary charge. Rafe is wholly uninterested in joining the Gentry, making his lessons Edwina’s most difficult undertaking yet. Taming the unruly man would surely elevate her status, but can Edwina put her own feelings aside in order to get the job done? As the bold teacher and stubborn pupil work to sabotage each other at every turn, Edwina and Rafe will learn that while opposites attract, the unlikely pair have more in common than they think.
Christi Caldwell is the USA Today bestselling author of the Sinful Brides Series and the Heart of a Duke Series. She blames novelist Judith McNaught for luring her into the world of historical romance. She enjoys torturing her couples before they earn their well-deserved happily ever after. Originally from Southern Connecticut, Christi now resides in North Carolina, where she spends her time writing and being a mommy to an energetic little boy and mischievous twin girls who offer an endless source of story ideas. 
