Step Away From the Keyboard

I'm blogging over at Novel Spaces about a writer's need for perspective. If time away from a work benefits Stephen King, I figure it'll work for me, too!

Stefanie

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Some writers outline and plot, others “wing” their stories. Some need silence to create, others rely on music to set a mood, or field trips to develop a scene. Personal styles and craft techniques run the gamut of approaches among authors. Yet, I’ve found one practice common across genre and experience level: stepping away from the story.

I think I happened on the tactic accidentally with my first novel. I’d finished the book and so I set it aside to focus on getting it published. When I started getting feedback on the manuscript, I revisited my story and found myself reading it like it was the first time I’d seen it.

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Enter the HeavenSent.com contest today!

To celebrate the release of my novella, HeavenSent.com, in the Holiday Brides anthology, I'm giving away books, gift cards, and beautiful keepsakes!

There are two ways to enter and yes, you can enter both ways.

Reader Thank You Prize Pack:

Sign up for my newsletter and you'll be entered to win a $10 Barnes & Noble gift card and a signed copy of my backlist books, Where Souls Collide and The Holiday Inn. Three lucky readers will each win one of these prize packs.

Grand Prize Pack:

My heroine, Brenna, has decided that the only way to make good on her mission to find a man is through online dating at HeavenSent.com. For a chance at the Grand Prize Pack, you need to sign up for my newsletter AND write your own online dating profile! It can be funny or serious. Please keep to 50 words or less. I'll pick five to be highlighted on my web site, here on my blog, and on my Facebook and MySpace pages. Two winners will receive a grand prize pack that includes a $20 Barnes & Noble gift card, signed copies of my backlist books The Holiday Inn and Where Souls Collide, and a gorgeous souvenir ceramic tile from Detroit's nationally renowned Pewabic Pottery studio.

Click here to enter the contest!

**Contest ends midnight, January 1, 2010

Holiday Brides is now available!

It's release day for Holiday Brides! Woo hoo! I've been celebrating around the blogosphere, promoting my novella HeavenSent.com and talking about the writing life. I'm also enjoying the reviews that have rolled in so far, including this one from Ramsey's Reviews:

4 1/2 stars!
"HeavenSent.Com is a sensuous and compelling read. Stefanie Worth has conveyed a splendid, romantic and angelic story with a happy ever after ending. She has a unique gift for portraying lifelike characterizations which radiate true emotions and designing a plot that is as charming as the story itself. I am sure any reader will find this a delightful and inspiring short story."

I have to admit that this release day is pretty much as exciting as the first was for Where Souls Collide, except that today I've topped the occasion with a wee bit of anxiety. There's a different pressure to produce now -- precisely the kind I've longed for -- that keeps the thought of "I have to get back to writing" on the fringes of my celebration.

That is why I do this after all; so that each release day leads to new readers and new reasons to keep writing. I love being an author and count myself blessed to have another book to share with the world.

About HeavenSent.com in the Holiday Brides anthology:

The holidays aren’t so festive when you’re celebrating by yourself. But with a little luck and a lot of love, three single women find their soulmates and get the holiday weddings of their dreams.

Brenna has a list, and she’s checking it twice. But unfortunately for her coworker Evan, she just doesn’t seem to see him as anything more than a friend. Can an online dating site and two guardian angels change her mind before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve?

Read chapter one

Watch the trailer

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