Countdown to Turkey Day with The Knight Agency: Pamela Harty
UPDATE: The winner of 10+ books by Knight Agency authors is donnas. Congrats! Please email your physical addy to Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net.
It's the final day of our Thanksgiving countdown, and Knight Agency vice president of sales, Pamela Harty, has written our final send off for the holiday.
We hope you enjoyed hearing from our authors during the last several days, and we encourage you to come back after you've stuffed yourselves to the gills with sweet potato casserole, turkey, dressing, ham, rolls and macaroni and cheese to check out some fab contests and blogs we have planned for the end of the year. (Oh boy, I think I just gained 5 pounds from writing the previous sentence. LOL.)
Final Giveaway! Leave a comment to win 10+ books from Knight Agency clients for your holiday reading enjoyment. The winner will be announced on Monday, November 29th.
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Gratitude is an Action Word
I am always a bit intimated to post on our TKA blog. Working every day with such amazing writers, I know just how much my own writing pales in comparison. That being said, it may sound funny that my blog post title is Gratitude is an action word knowing full well gratitude is a noun.
But for me, as this holiday season kicks off I plan to make a conscience effort to make my gratitude apparent to everyone by both my actions and my attitude.
On a professional level, I have so much to be grateful for beginning with my most basic ability to see and read the written word. So first off, I am thankful for my eyesight and my 2.0 reading glasses.
I am thankful for the Internet, high speed connections, my laptop and blackberry – all of which make my work accessible, portable, and allow me to do my job from any spot in the world any time of the day.
I am grateful for my Kindle and the inroads that have been made in the digital publishing world this year. I am thankful that with the click of a few buttons I have thousands of books available to me.
I am thankful for our submissions box and knowing that any day the most amazing manuscript might come in and possibly be our next best seller. I am thankful to Melissa who does an extraordinary job staying on top of the mounds of incoming material. Thank you, Melissa!
I am thankful for my other wonderful co-workers and the skills that they each bring to the table making The Knight Agency such a special place to work.
Thank you Elaine for running such a tight ship and your willingness to talk over lunch. And Jamie for all those questions you answer and checks you send out. Thank you, Jia for always having a smile and helping me with every random computer issue I have. Thank you Nephele for west coast updates and Lucienne for your diligence and hard work on all things Dorchester. You are all amazing ladies. Thank you for all you do!!!
I am so thankful for Deidre and Jud and all that they have done to grow TKA. Deidre is a giver of time and talent every day. I am grateful that I can make a living doing something so much fun with people I love.
And finally, I am thankful for my awe inspiring clients whose talents and imaginations are amazing. In an industry where rejection is as common as the winter cold, I say thank you to my strong, smart, funny, creative, quirky and lovable clients. You keep me on my toes. In this competitive marketplace you understand the power of both a good rewrite as well as a strong sense of humor. You people are such professionals. You know who you are. Thank you, thank you.
Yes, for me I hope to make gratitude an action word this season! Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Countdown to Turkey Day with The Knight Agency: Jenna Kernan
UPDATE: The winner of a signed copy of HIS DAKOTA CAPTIVE by Jenna Kernan is Shoshanna Evers. Congrats! Please email your physical addy to Contests@KnightAgency.net.Leave a comment to win a signed copy of HIS DAKOTA CAPTIVE by Jenna Kernan. The winner will be announced tomorrow morning.
Tools to Make Me Thankful
In this season of gratitude, I would like to show my appreciation for an eclectic list of gizmos and software for which I am truly thankful. And though none of them will bring world peace, they bring peace to me and that is a good start.
1. TextAloud Program: This has been a Godsend. This software speaks my words back to me. I guess I’m an auditory learner, because my manuscript can say: He it form Mars. But because I remember writing, He is from Mars, I often don’t see the mistakes. But Crystal and Mike read only what is written. Crystal and Mike are the voices I purchased with the program. Crystal reads my heroines POV and Mike reads my hero’s. Because of Mike and Crystal’s hard work, I have many fewer mistakes in my writing. In fact, when I finish this blog, they will help me proof-read it. They are not perfect, as they can’t tell REED from READ, and they don’t sound exactly human, but I love them both like family and would gladly invite them to my Thanksgiving table if I could.
2. Handheld Dictation Tape Recorder: I’m embarrassed to admit this one as I heard on the radio that Sony has stopped producing the Walkman and the host wondered aloud if anyone in the world still listened to cassettes. I do. I buy books on tape (real tape, mind you) at yard sales, book stores, church bazaars and other odd places. Everyone is getting rid of them, so I have dozens of wonderful stories waiting for me. I also listen to CDs, but I can’t stop them and get back to exactly the same place. Boy, if you pause that cassette, it is there waiting in the exact place you stopped. I listen in the car, in the tub (and since there are no ear buds I don’t have to worry about getting them wet) and when I’m getting dressed. All times when I couldn’t read. This particular cassette player was designed for dictation. The speaker is built in and it has the odd feature of being able to speed up or slow down the speed of the recording. Since I am a New Yorker, I set the speed just a little faster than normal to hear more story in the time I have to listen. Isn’t that pathetic?
3. MP3 Player: For listening to podcasts during the day. The variety of options are endless. I also listen to downloaded audiobooks. In addition, it has become a sleep aid. When I have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep I click over to Joseph Conrad’s, HEART IF DARKNESS. “The horror. The horror!” Yes, I have listened to it awake, but something about the reader’s voice and Conrad’s long sentences makes this a perfect sedative for me and for thousands of students in 10th grade English class. It also makes a nice flashlight in hotels to help me find the bathroom at 3 AM. I know, there’s an App for that, but honestly, I still don’t know how to use my cellphone, so give me a break with the Apps.
4. Post-Its: One more tool I can’t live without then editing or revising a manuscript—Post-its and if you visit my website News page at www.jennakernan.com you will see why. It’s not pretty.
So there you have it. These are the gadgets/software that makes my world a happier place. In this season of thanks, let us not forget the useful tools that aid us in our work, calm our soul and are often much better company than our relatives.
What software or gadgets rock your writing world?
Or
Would you rather spend two hours on Thanksgiving with your laptop or your Aunt Marge?
Countdown to Turkey Day with the Knight Agency: Renee Bernard
UPDATE: The winner of a surprise book from Renee Bernard's backlist is Johanna R Jochum! Congrats! Please email your physical addy to Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net. :-) To win a surprise book from Renee Bernard's backlist, leave a comment. The winner will be announced Monday morning.
Things I'm Thankful For This Year
How can I not be thankful this year? This was the year of letting go and I’m always going to be grateful for all the wonderful lessons that invoked. Like a lot of people, when the economy shook like an earthquake, we just tried to hang on. And anyone living on the west coast knew better than to congratulate themselves on surviving too quickly. After all, what’s an earthquake without a few aftershocks? And sure enough, this has been a year of aftershocks—financial and personal.
But we simplified our lives, and I announced at the dinner table that instead of looking at it as “cutting back”, I wanted us to think of it as a real opportunity to “do better”. (Boy, did that meet with some blank stares! ;-) But I boxed up the stuff we didn’t need, cleared out the garage, sold it if it wasn’t nailed down and remembered all those old-fashioned skills I’d once considered hobbies for a rainy day. I discovered my inner homemaker; banished any illusions I was aiming for Martha Stewart perfection and just accepted that eclectic and colorful were going to be my mantras.
Life is too short to worry about matching flatware.
We’re eating together (whenever we can) and I’ve perfected my meatloaf. Our art projects cover the walls, and my girls and I have invented our own style of belly-dancing. We don’t go to the movies, but Fiona has a puppet theatre stage show that is always changing and I love the live performances. We don’t go shopping (this is one I’m very grateful to give up since it’s an activity I never enjoyed) but NOW, we set up our own “store” and take turns being the shopkeeper. My four year old is a ruthless bargain hunter and extremely savvy when it comes to selecting shoes.
I told a friend that your pride dies first when you land on your rear end, but strangely enough, once you’ve dusted your pants off, a person’s sense of humor just takes its place. I’m thankful to be able to laugh. If you can’t laugh, you can’t love. And if we gained any ground in my little clan, we ruled in the category of love. I’m so thankful to have this family and to be loved (despite mama’s odd hours at the computer keyboard).
I know the life of a romance writer is supposed to be about glamour. I should be describing how grateful I am for that trip to Europe or that wonderful vacation we took to the south of France or make something up about a second home in the mountains… Ah, the joys of fiction! But I think it’s more important to share how vital it is for me to escape in those books and pages, to allow those characters to insert themselves into my life and let me “pop out” whenever I have a few minutes to work at my desk. I’m grateful for the creative outlet that allows me to be productive with these voices in my head vs. heavily medicated and mumbling to myself in corners ;-)
Every Tuesday night, hosting “Canned Laughter and Coffee” on Reader’s Enterainment, I got to laugh and talk to other writers and I’m way past grateful for the giggles that reminded me each week that I’m: a) not alone in the craziness, b) lucky not to be powering my computer with a bicycle and c) not writing fast enough!
This was the year that my fictional world took off. My historical romances, the Jaded Gentlemen, kept me distracted, but I also managed a few other manuscripts while no one was looking (a time travel, a science-fiction/fantasy romance and even an erotic romance—keep your fingers crossed!!). Instead of being set back by events of the past year, the writing thrived and I thrived with it.
Most of all, I’m grateful to the readers that chose to escape with me. Of all the books they can read, they mystically and benevolently pick up mine, and I’m continually amazed by this miracle. I’m grateful for every email and note of encouragement and have vowed to answer every single one to make sure that those strangers realize the wonderful impact of their words.
It's the final day of our Thanksgiving countdown, and Knight Agency vice president of sales, Pamela Harty, has written our final send off for the holiday.
I am always a bit intimated to post on our TKA blog. Working every day with such amazing writers, I know just how much my own writing pales in comparison. That being said, it may sound funny that my blog post title is Gratitude is an action word knowing full well gratitude is a noun.
