Hi everyone,
I’m delighted to share that I’ve been invited to participate in Round Lake Area Public Library’s Creative Romance program. Join me and other local romance authors as we discuss fun and flirty ideas to show that special someone how you feel. I hope you can come out, I’d love to say hello!
Everyone recovered from the holidays?
I have to admit, I love the entire stretch from October through January 1st, but it takes a lot out of me too. Early in the calendar year tends to be my most productive writing time as I settle in with a hot beverage and a warm blanket in my laundry room/office and start typing.
In case you missed my update, my Golden Shores series is now available on Kobo, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble, along with Amazon. I’m continuing to share excerpts and character interviews from the series over the next couple months. Today I’m sharing fifteen facts about the entire trilogy, I hope you enjoy!
More than any other series, this has become the go-to for inside jokes.
2. Lizzie’s house is my parents’ actual dream home.
3. In my family, we are all dog owners. My dog is in another book. Scooter is modeled after my cousin’s dog. He was one of the sweetest and goofiest souls ever to grace the earth.
4. Like Lizzie, as an adult, I signed up for tap dance lessons for several years. I hadn’t tapped since childhood but needed a break from my very stressful job. I enjoyed class but our twice-yearly recitals did leave me feeling a bit ridiculous.
5. Miss Rose’s tracksuits were based on very real active wear I couldn’t convince my mother to leave on the rack in the 90’s.
6. In my books, everyone drinks a lot of coffee. What can I say? Art imitates life.
7. I worked as an assistant for a wedding planner for a while. It’s a fascinating balance of organization and emotional counseling. Lizzie takes on far more than I think I’d ever be able to handle.
8. The series is called Golden Shores, both an homage to the nickname for the location, the Golden Isles, and a reference to the older cast of supporting characters
9. I hope I’m Miss Rose when I grow-up, but I think I’m more like Miss Marie
10. The tiny airport featured at the end of the book might seem impossibly small, but is very much real
11. The building that is converted into condos in Coastal Erosion has been repurposed (just not quite in the way I imagined)
12. My grandfather owned a bar with his brother-in-law (started by my great-grandfather)
13. I wrote and re-wrote the first draft of Tidal Patterns several times. I liked the concept of a woman at the start of her career in a place where most people retire. Finding the balance of past tragedy and hope, however, was tricky
14. I like to write about older brother-younger sister relationships because I’m a younger sister with an older brother and I think our bond really shaped my childhood and who I am today
15. If you are on St. Simon’s Island, (home to the 2017 HGTV dream home) you have to stop at Palmer’s (mentioned in the first book). My mouth is watering just thinking about their food
I stopped making New Year’s resolutions a few years ago. Instead, I stopped settling for excuses and (amazingly) found I achieved my goals.
I have big goals for 2018. I have a few stories on submission to publishers at the moment. I have a series I’m passionate about on submission. If this series is passed by the publisher I’m targeting, I will be self-publishing at the end of the year.
The first half of 2018 will be a waiting game. As those novels are tied up, however, I will be working on more.
My goal is to write two novels in a planned trilogy (first is on submission). Write a follow-up to another novel on submission, either a full-length novel or a novella, not sure yet. Write another novella for Sariah Wilson’s Kindle World (a companion to my current story). And ideally, come up with even more stories.
I’ve been very impressed by the yearly word counts my fellow romance authors posted for 2017. I’ve never tracked my word counts (beyond participating in NaNoWriMo or Camp NaNoWriMo) but I started on January 1st. I’ll post updates each quarter on how I’m progressing. I’m a plotter, I’m a planner, so this is really quite thrilling for me to set out another system to monitor productivity.
Cheers to making 2018 a great year!
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Rachelle Paige Campbell 