#IWSGbloghop Controversial Topics in Your Writing?

 

Hello and Welcome to the Focused on Story Blog 
AND the Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop

Always on the first Wednesday of the month.

#IWSGbloghop

Happy IWSG Blog Hop Day and Happy Springtime!

What is the Insecure Writer's Support Group?

Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database, articles and tips, a monthly blog posting, a Facebook and Instagram group, Twitter, and a monthly newsletter. To find out more, click this link:  Insecure Writer’s Support Group

The purpose of the group is 

* to share and encourage. 

* Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. 

* Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. 

*It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! 

You're invited to become a member of this supportive group. Click here to sign-up and join.

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April 7 question - Are you a risk-taker when writing? Do you try something radically different in style/POV/etc. or add controversial topics to your work?

I don't do anything "radically" different in my mysteries, but I do like to set the locations (funeral home) and characters (the daughter of a funeral director)in peculiar places. LOL. 

When I wrote my memoir, I touched on the debate between working

Arranging a Dream: A Memoir

moms vs stay-at-home moms. How does this affect a child? How does juggling a job and a home affect the mother?  In the 70s, the discussion could get pretty heated. Nowadays, lots of moms work from home.  

I also mentioned in the 70s, AT&T had to hire minority and female workers to meet a quota set by the government in order to win contracts. My husband, a white male, decided to quit working at the company because he saw no future for him. That was the situation that spurred us on to pursue our dream of becoming entrepreneurs by owning and operating a greenhouse. The flower shop was not a dream but came with the business. 50 years later we are still trying to figure out how to achieve equality and diversity.

I look forward to reading your comments below and answers in your blogs.

Click here to visit the participants in today's blog hop.

Thank you for stopping in today!

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WRITING UPDATES:

Last month I asked for some book titles for the update on my MG non-fiction book for girls, Girls Succeed! I appreciate everyone who suggested a title.

Click here for last month's blog post. 

When I asked for advice on whether I should create a new book with a new title, the Draft2Digital rep suggested I upload the new file to my existing page rather than make it a new book. They don't do second editions. So I uploaded yesterday after working out a few quirks with the ms. 

So, I did not change the name of the book. Do you think I should add a note in my book description about the updates and new content?

Have you published second editions for your books or published an "older" book under a new title? 

Please leave your thoughts in the comments below. Thank you!!

Here's the new book cover. 

Girls Succeed! Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women
by J.Q. Rose
Pre-order and Book Launch Special Price--99 cents!!
Click here to pre-order from your favorite online bookseller. 
The official release day is April 14!!

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Do you know Smashwords is having a HALF-PRICE SALE THIS MONTH?

J.Q.'s Mysteries on Sale at Smashwords

My publisher has put the books from BWL Publishing on sale for half price. You can pick up my mysteries AND my new release, Arranging a Dream, for $1.49!! 

Click here to grab some wonderful reads while sitting on the beach or in the AC this summer!!!

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The Rose Courier

Stay in touch with updates from JQ--packed with articles, freebies and photos in the Rose Courier!

Click here to sign-up for delivery once a month.

IWSG Blog Hop: Friendship, Bruno Mars Video

 

Hello and Welcome to the Focused on Story Blog 
AND the Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop

Always on the first Wednesday of the month.

#IWSGbloghop

Happy IWSG Blog Hop Day!!

and an Early Wish for a Happy Valentine's Day!

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What is the Insecure Writer's Support Group?

Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database, articles and tips, a monthly blog posting, a Facebook and Instagram group, Twitter, and a monthly newsletter. To find out more, click this link:  Insecure Writer’s Support Group

The purpose of the group is 

* to share and encourage. 

* Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. 

* Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. 

*It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! 

You're invited to become a member of this supportive group. Click here to sign-up to join.

The awesome co-hosts for the February 3 posting of the IWSG are Louise - Fundy Blue, Jennifer Lane, Mary Aalgaard, Patsy Collins at Womagwriter, and Nancy Gideon!

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Question of the Month

February 3 question - Blogging is often more than just sharing stories. It’s often the start of special friendships and relationships. Have you made any friends through the blogosphere? 

Friends
Image by Мария Ткачук from Pixabay

The answer to the question is yes! I have made friends through IWSG as well as writers in  FB groups and publishing houses. When I was first published I was astounded by the generosity and support from experienced authors. I thought we would be competitors but that never occurred. Having my horizons broadened by meeting folks from around the world is an opportunity I cherish.

I am happy to be friends with three authors whom I met through my first publishing house in 2010. In fact, we are planning on gathering together at Mackinac Island, Michigan, in October 2022! The authors are from Wisconsin, Texas and England and I am in Michigan. 

I am grateful to IWSG friends who have hosted me on the Arranging a Dream: A Memoir Virtual Book Tour this winter and to those who will give my memoir a shout out this week.

Feb 3 Ellen Jacobson

Feb 4 Pat Garcia

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Click here to receive all the news once a month from JQ Rose plus freebies, articles and tidbits.

Click here to visit more participating bloggers

Now I leave you with this peppy song about friends performed by Bruno Mars

Thanks for stopping by!!!

YouTube VIDEO: Count on Me--Bruno Mars

IWSG Blog Hop: COVID 19 Reveals Our Humanity

Hello and welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group Blog Hop!

Always on the first Wednesday of the month.

Happy IWSG Day and Happy April!! 

🌷🌷🌷🌷

What is the Insecure Writer's Support Group?

Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database, articles and tips, a monthly blog posting, a Facebook and Instagram group, Twitter, and a monthly newsletter. To find out more, click this link:  Insecure Writer’s Support Group

The purpose of the group is 

* to share and encourage. 

* Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. 

* Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. 

*It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! 

You're invited to become a member of this supportive group. Click here to sign-up to join.

🌷🌷🌷🌷

COVID 19 Brings Out Our Humanity

Heart
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay 

I have faith we will get through these hard times. Remember that the “worst thing is never the last thing.” Surely, we will glean something good from this harrowing experience. Here are a few examples of people helping people now.

• Stories of people helping people are already in the news--neighbors bonding together every night to dance in the street while keeping their social distance,
• schools and organizations preparing and delivering food to those in need 
• teachers keeping in touch with their students in many creative ways, 
• our heroes in the medical field and first responders fighting to save lives, 
• wonders of wonders our Congress working together, 
• and publishers, authors and distributors giving away or discounting books and digital products to help readers pass the time while staying home.

 In these dark days, our humanity shines to reinforce our faith in each other. 

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When you're stuck in your house, every monotonous day melts into another day with no plans to see your friends and family or even go out for dinner. I decided to help folks escape from the bad news and sadness. I collected five of my quirky short stories written for the quarterly Storytime blog hop spearheaded by Juneta Key. I enjoyed re-visiting and revising the stories and saving them into a PDF of about 5000 words. 

I plan to give away the PDF's using mailerlite, but I didn't figure out how to do it, yet, in time for the blog hop. I will have it done in time for the Rose Courier delivery late next week though! I also plan to put the link on the blog. You're invited to come back and download it. 

***Do you put the link in Onedrive or Dropbox or Google for readers to download it? If you have some ideas, I'd appreciate them. 

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The Rose Courier delivered to you once a month

If you haven't signed up to receive the Rose Courier in your inbox every month, please enter your email address at the top of the page under The Rose Courier image located in the right sidebar or click here to get this jazzy update every month. Thank you!!

Stay well and safe!

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IWSG: Writing Fiction-- It's All Because of My Mom!

IWSG Blog Hop---the first Wednesday of every month.

Hello and welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group Blog Hop! 

Always on the first Wednesday of the month.

What is the Insecure Writer's Support Group?

Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database, articles and tips, a monthly blog posting, a Facebook and Instagram group, Twitter, and a monthly newsletter. To find out more, click this link:  Insecure Writer’s Support Group

The purpose of the group is 

* to share and encourage. 

* Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. 

* Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. 

*It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! 

You're invited to become a member of this supportive group. Click here to sign-up to join.

***

Happy IWSG Day and Happy New Year 2020!

Question for January 8

January 8 Question 

What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write?

My mother started me on my writing journey. Not because of her love of reading or writing nor because she thought I was a smart kid and adorable (which I was--wink wink). I began writing to stay out of trouble. My mom was my second-grade teacher--a long story. She taught a split class of second and third graders. 

I must admit I was a bit of a social butterfly and liked to "talk" to my fellow classmates when I finished my assignments. I was usually the first one done.

 My mother thought I was keeping my friends from finishing the assignments and distracting the class, so she found other things for me to do when I finished. She piled up books to read, math problems to solve, worksheets, drawing sheets and of course, a tablet(such as lined pages, not the electronic kind of tablet we know today). I filled those pages with stories and loved sharing them with the class. I'd found my passion.

Many many many years later, I made the decision to try writing fiction for fun. After writing so many freelance non-fiction articles for papers and magazines, I chose to write mysteries. I gobbled up the alphabet mysteries, Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone series e.g. A is for Alibi, and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, e.g. One for the Money. I loved to try and figure out whodunit, but I also marveled at the humor as the story played out. So entertaining.

Their writing styles influenced my storytelling so I added light, funny scenes in my novels to break up the dark murder mystery.

Here's an excerpt from my romantic suspense, Dangerous Sanctuary, Chapter 10--I hope you'll get a giggle out of it...

“The detective practically accused me of killing William, right there, right in the park.” Sitting on the screened-in porch at the rear of the parsonage, Christine expected Lacey to be as angry as she was at such a ridiculous idea.

Instead, her friend held her slice of pizza midway from the greasy box to her mouth long enough to ask, “Hey, you didn’t tell me you were at the park with Detective Stephens this afternoon. How’d that happen?”

“What? You’re more interested in why I was at the park instead of being accused of murdering William? Come on, Lacey.” Planting her feet firmly on the cement floor, she stopped the gentle rocking of the glider. “Don’t you get it? I could be tossed in jail for something I didn’t do.”

“Don’t be silly. You’re innocent. You know it, and so does everyone else.” Lacey popped the last morsel of pepperoni in her mouth. “Anyway, tell me how you met Cole Stephens at the park. He is super cute.” Her friend licked the pizza grease from her fingers and then grabbed the thin paper napkin to complete the grease removal from her lips.

“Excuse me, Lacey. Some people in this town are spreading rumors that I did kill William. I wouldn’t be surprised if it weren’t some of my own parishioners involved in spreading them. There were several folks who weren’t too happy to have a young woman for their pastor.”

“You don’t think they would spread malicious lies to get you out of here, do you?”

“I would hope not.” Christine sat back on the glider and sipped her light beer. She was too upset to eat the pizza Lacey had brought over.

“I guess we could always do our own investigation, eh?” She threw it out there to get a reaction from her friend.

“Sure, Sherlock.” Lacey laughed. “We could go to William’s house to see if someone left a note telling us who killed him.”

Christine sat bolt upright. “You’re right! We could run out there and investigate.”

“I’m sure the police have already done that. There’s nothing left to check out.” Lacey piled the paper napkins next to the half-empty pizza box on the patio table.

They sat in silence for a few minutes allowing the peaceful twilight to restore tranquility. Christine couldn’t let go of the idea of checking out William’s home. After all, William had shown her where the key was if she needed to get into his house in case of an emergency. I think trying to find William’s killer could qualify as an emergency.

Christine moved to the patio table. “We’ve got to go to William’s house and look for clues to his killer.”

“We can’t even get into his house.”

“Oh yes, we can. I know where he hides his house key. Come on, let’s go.”

“Hey, what about the pizza?” Lacey asked as Christine swooped up the pizza box and bottles.

“I’ll store it in my refrigerator for a midnight snack. Let’s go now. “ Christine was fired up to prove her innocence. Sitting back and waiting to find out who murdered William was no longer an option. She needed to take action toward solving this mystery, so she and her congregation could deal with it and move forward.

Dangerous Sanctuary by J.Q.Rose

Romantic suspense

Pastor Christine Hobbs never imagined her flock would consist 

of a cat, a pig, a kangaroo and a murderer.

Click here for more about Dangerous Sanctuary on sale now for 99 cents!

Click here to order a paperback book.

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GOOD NEWS: I finally figured out, I think, how to send the Rose Courier out to subscribers. The inaugural edition will be in your inbox on Thursday, January 9 IF you signed up for it. Please enter your email address at the top of the page under The Rose Courier to get this jazzy update every month. Thank you!!

IWSG Blog HopSummer Fever

IWSG Blog Hop---the first Wednesday of every Month.

Hello and welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group Blog Hop! 

Always on the first Wednesday of the month.

What is the Insecure Writer's Support Group?

Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database, articles and tips, a monthly blog posting, a Facebook and Instagram group, Twitter, and a monthly newsletter. To find out more, click this link:  Insecure Writer’s Support Group

The purpose of the group is 

* to share and encourage. 

* Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. 

* Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. 

*It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! 

You're invited to become a member of this supportive group. Click here to sign-up to join.

***

I'm spending time with my ten-year-old granddaughter this week, so I'm re-posting a popular IWSG blog post from Summer 2016. Just for fun.

Happy IWSG DAY!!

SUMMER FEVER by J.Q. Rose

Writing is Easy...

Spring fever interferes with my writing. So, after the Memorial Day holiday and school closing for the summer, I will be dealing with summer fever. I don't recall having fall or winter fever. The long days and warm weather lures me away from my laptop, but ideas for writing stories are always swirling in my head. 

Woolly Sheep
Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.com
by khunaspix

Right now I am just woolgathering. Yes, that's a real word in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It means "indulgence in idle daydreaming." I'm sure I'll discover a golden nugget in the wool to spark an idea I can use for my future forays in storytelling. 

How about you? How do you deal with Summer Fever? Have you found ways to overcome it?

Thank you for stopping in at the IWSG blog hop. Click the IWSG page here to find more IWSG bloggers to visit and an opportunity to join the group.

* * *

Please follow the colorful arrows pointing to the top of the sidebar and sign up to receive a notice when a new article is posted on the J.Q. Rose blog. I promise, No Spam. 

Insecure Writers Support Group: Stretching My Creative Muscles, Dr. Bob Rich's Free Book Edit Contest

IWSG Blog Hop---the first Wednesday of every Month.

Hello and welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group Blog Hop! It's my pleasure to share co-hosting duties this month with these awesome bloggers. 

Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor, 

Ann V. Friend, 

Elizabeth Seckman.

Click on the co-host's name to take you to her site. Please like, comment and/or share.

What is the Insecure Writer's Support Group?

Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database, articles and tips, a monthly blog posting, a Facebook and Instagram group, Twitter, and a monthly newsletter. To find out more, click this link:  Insecure Writer’s Support Group

The purpose of the group is 

* to share and encourage. 

* Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. 

* Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. 

*It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! 

You're invited to become a member of this supportive group. Click here to sign-up to join.

November 7 question (optional)

How has your creativity in life evolved since you began writing?

I was in a pretty creative job before I started my writing career--floral designer. My husband and I owned and operated our full-service flower shop, greenhouse, and garden center business for almost 20 years. When I got home after work, I had not one ounce of creativity left in me. 

I didn't start writing seriously until we sold the shop. Seriously--meaning writing for money. I wrote freelance articles using mycreativity to develop a story from the facts. But after several years of "just the facts, ma'am" I yearned to stretch my non-fiction muscles into writing fun, made-up stories with quirky characters and situations.

Luckily, I have enjoyed publishing fiction for readers through a traditional publisher as well as continuing to write non-fiction eBooks as an indie author. The self-publishing side has led me to formatting eBooks and creating book covers. (You know, the best advice is to have a professional design the book cover and I agree. But I do have fun playing around with making them too.) 

I enjoy using canva to use my photos and royalty free photos and videos from Pixabay and Pexels to design graphics for my blog and social media. I can spend hours fussing over the right color, the right font, the right mood. I re-discovered the fun of Photofunia just recently. Not too much creativity needed for that, just silly fooling around. Loved the Halloween selections. Here are a couple of "fun photos" they offer.

Autumn bookmark

Happy Halloween greeting--used for my author FB photo

Do you enjoy taking photos? Please leave a comment below. Thank you.

Now I look forward to visiting other participating bloggers. I'm sure there are a lot of creative blog posts in this group. 

Use the list below to meet new bloggers and re-connect with old friends

GOOD NEWS: Dr. Bob Rich is offering a FREE BOOK EDIT for the winner in his current contest. I'm thrilled to discover my entry, Looking Through Rose-colored Glasses, made the short list! You can read the 1000 word submission along with the other entries at his blog, Bobbing Around. Click here to see the 10 entries. Vote for 3 of your favorites. Deadline for voting is December 23.

COMING UP on the Focused on Story Blog

The Five W's Guest Author Event
You're invited to share the who, what, where, when and why of your story on this blog.
Contact me for more information.

November 14--Guest author Sandy Carlson shares the Five W's in her MG tale, The Tales of the Lost Schooner.

Tales of the Lost Schooner by Sandy Carlson