Changes at The Write Way Cafe

As 2019 comes to a close, we at The Write Way Café have mixed feelings announcing that today is the last day for our blog. Starting January 1, we are moving in a new direction, and we hope you will join us on that adventure!

We want to thank everyone who has blessed us with their input, their sharing, and their support over the past year. So thank you to all authors, readers, and visitors. We have truly appreciated doing our part to bring you all together.

As we review the journey we've been on since The Write Way Café debuted in 2012, we think back to our primary goal of establishing an inviting space where writers and readers could engage, share, vent, and celebrate. We had no idea when we started how many authors would touch our lives with their stories. To date, we've featured more than 180 authors, some more than once. It's been our treat to get to know the breadth of authors, and come to call some friends.

But things always change, and we, HiDee and Lynn, have decided it’s time for change at The Write Way Café. We need to evolve personally and devote more of our time to our writing.

Please join us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheWriteWayCafe/ and Twitter at https://twitter.com/writewaycafe2, where we plan to continue promoting books for our fellow authors.

Authors: please continue to send your book information (Title, genre, buy links and preferred social media links) to us at thewritewaycafe@gmail.com and we will post on our Facebook page and Twitter. How often we post will depend on how many submissions we receive, but we sincerely want to continue helping you by promoting your books.

Again, a huge thank you to all the authors we've featured at The Write Way Café, and to all the visitors and readers who have taken time to share and support the blog and our authors. We hope you will continue to support this circle of life in our writing world!

Best wishes and happy reading!

HiDee and Lynn

Writing is an Adventure by @lcrandallwriter

I write.

Yes, I’m a writer. I can say that out loud.

I love writing and presently write primarily romance. I like to write about relationships and the conflicts, obstacles, growth that go along with them. I have about fifteen books and novellas published. I say about because I’m afraid I might miss one or two in my calculations. And I’m not done. I have a plan. It’s written down on a blue piece of thin cardstock and in my journal. I created that plan a year ago, and at this point, have accomplished some of the seven projects planned. When I put it down on paper and considered it, I thought it would be something that would take me through about five years. And who knew what would occur after that?

Then something happened.

My list contained projects for books in paranormal, fantasy, and contemporary romance, a screen play (what the hell?), and women’s fiction. But a quirky-for-me thought popped up. The idea of writing a sci-fi romance tickled my imagination. Whoa! How fun, I thought. That thought was followed by the fairly new phenomena that keeps suggesting trying new things with a, Why not? (similar in nature to the What the hell? sentiment.) At that point, a favorite author of mine spoke up, reminding me of something important.

              “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, 
I am large, I contain multitudes.” –Walt Whitman

My friend Walt was right. I have many parts. One of them wants to write sci-fi romance, and her name is Kelynn Storm. So while she is me, author Lynn Crandall, it is fitting that I give her her own name, my pen name, and follow a new interest. I have research to do and brainstorming to get busy with – as soon as I complete two more books in my new contemporary series, Love in Dunes Bay – but Kelynn will have her story. In fact, though not a sci-fi, she wrote her first story for the Common Elements Romance Project, which features the stories of more than seventy authors and five common elements in each one: a key, a stack of books, a character named Max, a haunted or presumed to be haunted building, and a lightning storm. Kelynn’s contribution is a novella titled Touch of Breeze. Here’s a blurb: 

A rare white were-jaguar, she’s on a mission to save her twin brother from certain death. She didn’t plan on teaming up with a Jag Guardian who would just as soon break her heart.

Mortician London Satos works with the dead by choice. Using her were-jag ability to witness their final moments, she helps them pass over in peace. Those special moments contrast greatly with the life she leads haunted by an ancient Japanese spirit with revenge on his mind. On top of that, her twin brother is missing. Just when she thinks she has enough on her hands, Breeze Dawson stumbles into her path. Compelled by a guilty conscious, she thinks she must help him survive the evil spirit, but it doesn’t stop there. She is forced to team up with him to rescue her brother from an evil madman intent on using him to fulfill a diabolical prophesy.

Recently suspended from his job as a Jag Guardian, were-jaguar Breeze finds himself looking for anything to distract him from his troubled life. So when the beautifully captivating mortician needs help fighting battles on several fronts, he finds himself embroiled in a murderous plot that not only threatens his Guardian team but the supernatural community in general. Together, Breeze and London race to locate the mad man’s stronghold where he’s holding London’s brother, all the while fighting mutual attraction that will only complicate everything.

I hope you’ll pick it up and give Kelynn’s voice a try. She’ll show you that writing is an adventure. For me, a pantser, there isn’t much set out for what’s ahead in a story. For me personally, it seems to be the same. So one thing I would like to emphasize for writers and just anyone living: never say never. Never say you would never be able to give a presentation or write women’s fiction or create a podcast or anything else. Stay open and let all parts of you express their desires. You might just add something entirely different to your list of things to try and have fun doing it.

Follow all the stories in the Common Elements Romance Project as they release by visiting the website, and sign up for monthly giveaways. Learn more about my writing on my website. Find images related to Touch of Breeze and all my books at Pinterest. Follow me on my Amazon Author Page and Kelynn Storm's Author Page, Bookbub and Kelynn Storn's Bookbub page, and Goodreads. Interact with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @lcrandall246 . I'm always eager to hear from readers.

Happy New Year!

Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play. 

– Henri Matisse

Tuesday Special: Cruising for Love

Cruising for Love: 4 Shipshape Romances 

by R.C. Matthews,‎ Cait O'Sullivan,‎ 

Angela Adams,‎ and Peggy Gaddis

Set a course for adventure with these four couples as they take to the high seas only to find new romance.

Little White Lies: (R. C. Matthews)
Attorney Madalyn Russell may have dumped her fiancé at the altar, but no way is she rejecting the honeymoon cruise. Unfortunately, she didn’t cancel the newlywed package, and now she’s stuck as a single in a lovebird world. That is, until a devilishly handsome man with a secret, Royce Spencer, offers a deliciously indecent proposal: He’ll pose as her husband in exchange for companionship during the cruise. She can’t deny their attraction, but will their little white lies make too many waves when Royce’s past finally catches up with him?

Romancing the Seas: (Cait O’ Sullivan)
When a relationship gone bad sinks sous-chef Pippa Renshaw’s plans, she swaps her job in a prestigious London restaurant to become the head chef on a cruise ship sailing around New Zealand. It’s a great escape plan until a mix-up means she has to share a suite with her new boss, the delectable Jonathon Eagleton, who is no happier about the circumstances. These two can handle the simmer… but when the heat turns up, is it a recipe for true love?

Magic Moment: (Angela Adams)
Shortly after the FBI brings in Laura Roberts for questioning regarding activities at the warehouse where she keeps the books, a gang of thugs snatch her off the street. Chase Donovan boarded his boat intending to spend a few peaceful days getting his head together, but instead he finds trouble when he interrupts two men assaulting a woman in his cabin. What’s more, they claim his father told them to do it. Chase doesn’t want to believe his father could hurt anyone. Laura doesn’t understand why she’s a target. Can they put their mutual attraction and time on his yacht to work to discover the truth before someone dies?

Reach for Tomorrow: (Peggy Gaddis)
Nurse Claire Frazier was devoted to her fiancé, until he threw that love back in her face. Disillusioned and burning with shame, she books passage on a world cruise, along with an intriguing collection of fellow passengers: an attractive second officer, a detective, and a confidence artist. Is love waiting once again at the next port of call?

Sensuality Level: Sensual

Amazon       Barnes & Noble       iTunes

Google       Kobo       Books-A-Million

About Angela:  Writing and reviewing contemporary romances, Angela Adams’ work has appeared in Romance at Heart, Oysters and Chocolate, Whipped Cream Reviews, Long and Short Reviews. Her short story, “Burgers and Hot Chocolate,” was featured in the anthology, Winter Wonders published by Whimsical Publications. Her romantic suspense novel, Magic Moment, was published by Crimson Romance.

     Angela is a member of Romance Writers of America. Growing up in Philadelphia, PA, her passions are reading, strolling through Philadelphia’s Historic District, and cheering for the Philadelphia Phillies.

You can find her at www.authorangela.blogspot.com

Follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/authorangela

YesterCanada: Historical Tales of Mystery and Adventure

The Write Way Café welcomes author Elma Schemenauer. In her book YesterCanada, she shares unique history of Canada, and answers questions, such as, Who put a jinx on Alberta’s lost Lemon Mine?

“Who wants to move to Canada?” asked my grandfather, Jacob Peter Martens. He glanced around the table at his wife and five children. Were they willing to leave their familiar Mennonite village in Russia and sail across the Atlantic to the new land?

“Yes, Canada!” the children chorused. Their mother shook her head. The majority won and the Martens arrived in Saskatchewan in May 1926. At first, they lived with relatives in the Swift Current-Herbert area. Later, they settled in the Elbow-Loreburn area, where I was born and grew up.

Life in the new land was challenging, but my relatives’ prevailing attitude was “Yes, Canada!” That’s my attitude, too. Love for this country and its history inspired my book YesterCanada: Historical Tales of Mystery and Adventure.

Published by Borealis Press of Ottawa, the book presents 30 historical tales spanning this great land and the centuries from the 1200s to the 1900s.

Some mysteries in YesterCanada involve eccentrics whose motives puzzle people to this day. One was a Finnish farmer who built an ocean-going ship near Macrorie, Saskatchewan, far from any ocean. Another was a hermit obsessed with the beauties of Niagara Falls.

Other mysteries in the book involve the supernatural, or seem to. For example, who rang the chapel bell in Tadoussac, Quebec one foggy April night in 1782? What mysterious power told an Atlantic Sea captain to change course and “sail to the nor’west?” Who put a jinx on Alberta’s lost Lemon Mine?

I’ve always been interested in faith, values, and the adventures they inspire. Stories in YesterCanada that especially reflect such themes include “Dr. Elizabeth of Onion Lake, Saskatchewan,” “A Nova Scotia Noah and His Ark,” “Lily of the Peace River,” and “Abigail Becker, Heroine of Lake Erie.”

I’m also interested in animals. Among those in the book are Manitoba’s haunted horse, the ten-armed monster of Newfoundland, and the camels of British Columbia’s Cariboo gold rush.

The narratives in YesterCanada are based on Canadian history, biography, folklore, and Aboriginal traditions. The bibliography in the back of the book lists my sources for each story.

YesterCanada: Historical Tales of Mystery and Adventure is a 248-page paperback with 30 illustrations, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-88887-650-8. Ask for it in a store or library. You can also order it online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo,or Borealis Press. For more information, please visit http://elmams.wixsite.com/elma .


About Elma:  Springtime on the prairie was the topic of one of the first pieces of writing Elma (Martens) Schemenauer did as a child. Writing has been her passion ever since. She's the author of 77 books including YESTERCANADA: HISTORICAL TALES OF MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE and the 1940s-era Mennonite novel CONSIDER THE SUNFLOWERS. Elma was born in Saskatchewan. She taught there and in Montana and Nova Scotia. Then she spent many years working as an author and editor in Toronto. She now lives with her husband on a sagebrush-dotted hillside in Kamloops, British Columbia.


Website      Facebook       Twitter       Blog

Amazon      Goodreads (YesterCanada)      Goodreads (Consider the Sunflowers)

AuthorsDen      Library Thing

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Writing a book is an adventure: it begins as an amusement, then it becomes a mistress, then a master, and finally a tyrant.

- Sir Winston Churchill

It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To. . .

We all need a good cry now and then, some of us more often than others.  I'm usually a glass half-full type person, preferring to see the positive side of things, to see the good in everyone.  That doesn't mean I'm stupid – I've been disappointed when the bad has overcome the good I wanted to believe in.  But sometimes the unfairness that is life builds up and overwhelms me.

I reached that point recently.  I was a wimp.  I let things I can't control get to me, and I had a meltdown.  I'm not afraid to admit that it felt darned good to cry – it released so much stress I had been holding inside.  I vented to a couple of good friends and to my hubby, and then I moved on.  There was nothing I could do to change what happened anyway.  Hubby is fond of saying "It is what it is."  In this case, he was right.  (Don't tell him I said that!)

When my eyes quit swimming in tears, I picked up a book and settled in my chair.  Reading is my escape – one of them, anyway.  So what if I was weepy?  Getting lost in a book is good therapy for whatever ails you!  Well, that and a good piece of chocolate.

I love to read.  I'm rarely without a book.  Every purse I own is large enough to hold a paperback.  I even keep one in my van, just in case I need it.  Reading relaxes me – it's an armchair vacation.  My favorite authors lure me into the pages of their books, making me care about their characters before I realize it.  They take me along for the adventure of their characters' lives.  I can escape for minutes, if that's all the time I have, or I can escape for hours.  I can ride the emotional roller coaster and end up feeling satisfied, rather than disgruntled at life.  What's not to like about reading?

Readers want various things from books.  Some of us want to laugh, some want to escape, some want to be thrilled, or maybe even frightened.  Those of us who are also writers may read to learn how another author has handled some aspect of writing, or maybe we just like to read something different than we write.

Our lives are so busy, so filled with living that we sometimes forget we NEED a break now and then.  We need some down-time.  Turn off the phone, turn off the computer.  You don't have to be connected all the time.

Pick up a book (or your e-reader).  Tune out the noise around you and get lost in the pages.  Immerse yourself in the lives of the characters.  Ride the roller coaster of their emotions.  Escape.  It's good for you!

Do you like a book that makes you laugh out loud, or do you prefer one that scares the living daylights out of you?  I'd love to hear what emotions you like to experience when you read.  Share?