The five stages of grief as defined by Kübler-Ross help us understand what people go through when they suffer a devastating loss of any sort.  The five stages are:

1)  Denial

2)  Anger

3)  Bargaining

4) Depression

5) Acceptance

These stages can also be used to move a character through a story so that by the end the main character has experienced growth.

Additional substages of grief might also include feelings of guilt, fear and shock which could show up in any of the first four stages.

Try applying these stages to the growth arc  of your character and see what unique insights you are able to include for your readers.  You’ll be surprised at the new depth of your work.

This list was just released over at Comcast.Net as being the most popular boys names for 2009.

1. Jacob
2. Ethan
3. Michael
4. Alexander
5. William
6. Joshua
7. Daniel
8. Jayden
9. Noah
10. Anthony

(more…)

If you are a fan of horror you’ll be sure to enjoy the collection of short stories by Steve Barber.  In Blob and the Sous-Chef you’ll get a taste of it all…ghosts, monsters, aliens, even vampire.

Author Steve Barber’s unique take on relationships, life, death, and human nature are explored in this collection of  short stories. He looks into our memories, our fears, even our deepest secrets. Reflected in a cracked mirror, you may see the woman down the street, whose son seems just a little off, the literary writer who let his rejections get to him a bit too much, the young man whose turn it is to take over a terrible family obligation, or the celebrated chef whose gambling gets him in way more trouble than he thought possible. Or you just may find your own secret self hiding among the pages.

Aspen Mountain Press is proud to present the works of horror authors such as Steve Barber, Jefferson Dane, Melissa Glisan and Chris Morrow.

The beginning of the school year is another chance for you to start anew with your writing dreams.  In order to get your aspirations off the ground you need to work SMART.  Teachers learn about goal setting in their classrooms.  TSWBAT stands for The Student Will Be Able To…and then an achievable, concrete goal is developed, one that has a measurable outcome.

We can take this concept and apply it to our writing using the acronym SMART.

S-is the goal specific? Is it designed to stretch your abilities? I will be able to write 500 words a day five days a week is specific.

M-is the goal meaningful to you as a writer? Will the above goal get you to your over arching goal-that of completing a story or novel?

A- is the goal achievable?  Can you measure your progress? Is the goal too easy, or too difficult?  A goal should stretch you but not discourage you. It may take a bit of trial and error to refine an achievable goal.

R-Is it realistic?  If your goal is achievable, do you have a plan for getting there?  If you set a goal of 5,000 words a day, have you exercised your writing muscles enough to get there or do you have to work up to it?    if you’ve never written a word before 5,000 words is not going to be realistic.

T-is your goal timely?  Do you have an end date you are aiming for?  Will the goal you’ve set be something you can accomplish by the end date? Do you need to rethink either the goal or the date you’d like it to be finished by?  Do a little math.  If you have a goal to write a 60,000 word novel by the end of the year, how many words do you need to write in a week?  How many days of a week are you willing to write?

If you are SMART you can set stretchable, achievable goals and look forward to a bevy of accomplishments.

Welcome to the Aspen Mountain Press blog (stop#2) via the 1RomanceEbooks.com Happy Anniversary contest and the last blog you visited at Cherie De Sues.

When my husband, Jeff, started 1RomanceEbooks a little more than a year ago, he worked hard, trying to make a re-seller site as user friendly as possible for both publishers and readers. 

He would know. 

He helped build the Aspen Mountain Press web site and saw first hand the successes and frustrations that I experienced as a publisher.  He took all the lessons I could give him from Aspen Mountain Press and applied it to 1RomanceEbooks persevering against the road blocks and hurdles set before him. When giving up would have been easier, he stayed the course.  When sales were low in the beginning, he created plans to encourage readers to find 1Romance and buy stories from to fill the need for romance in our lives.

Now on the eve of our 24^th wedding anniversary, the 4^th anniversary of Aspen Mountain Press and the 1^st anniversary of 1RomanceEbooks Jeff’s hard work is paying off.  I’ve never been more proud to be associated with a man of integrity, honesty and honor.  A man who understands good customer service, a man who works tirelessly to provide a good experience for all those who visit the site and one who supports a future and a vision for eBooks.

To celebrate the myriad events occurring this summer Aspen Mountain Press is proud to give one lucky winner a signed print copy of DEAD Done Right, a contemporary vampire romance by Lizzie T. Leaf.   The book includes two great stories available NOW as eBooks at Aspen Mountain Press. 

In Waking Up DEAD Deb Stein wakes up to the scent of pine and the discovery that her life has changed forever.  Now instead of the glare of paparazzi flashbulbs, she’s in the spotlight as Lovey Divine who takes it off for a room full of lusting strangers, her one goal to seek revenge on the man who turned her into one of the undead.

And, as a vampire what could possibly be worse than fainting at the sight of blood?  Yet that is precisely what happens in the novella DEAD Faint when Billie Joyce comes to New York City only to be turned into a vampire .

The Aspen Mountain Press blog also has information regarding the upcoming Aspen Mountain Press anniversary bash in which we will be giving away an eReader, gold aspen leaf jewelry, beautiful picture frames, keepsake boxes and more.  In order to win a prize, you must be a member of our newsletter where you will receive more information about how you can win these fabulous gifts.

To win a copy of DEAD Done Right, be sure to leave a valid comment about this post or any others here, along with your participant number and an answer to the following: name one other Lizzie T. Leaf title now available at Aspen Mountain Press other than the ones mentioned in this post.

The next stop of this blog tour will be #3 with Teresa D’Amario.

Congratulations to the man I love and the wonderful company he is building.   May there be many, many more anniversary celebrations.

The attendees at this year’s Romantic Times Booklovers convention held in the convention center of Columbus, Ohio were treated to some beautiful covers on some of our Aspen Mountain Press stories.

An 8 foot long display featured Bride of Death by Celina Summers and Cover Me by L.B. Gregg.

Celina wasn’t content with the 1 foot square space allocated by RT for placing promotional items (although, the apportionment of the space was well done and kept things organized on the tables), so she built up.  Great idea Celina!

Look for more innovative displays for next year’s Romantic Times Convention held at the Bonaventure in L.A.

I’m writing this from the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus, Ohio where the Romantic Book Times convention is going on. 

After a tiring travel day Tuesday, the RT Convention started off with several emotional, heart felt tributes to editor Kate Duffey. 

AMP author, Celina Summers finaled in a comepetition that could garner her manuscript a review by an agent with the possibility of representation.  You go girl!

A beautiful poster featuring the covers for Bride of Death by Celina Summers and Cover Me by L.B. Gregg adorn a large column in the 2nd floor bar that nearly everyone has to pass through to get into the main convention area.

Authors ZA Maxfield, Celina Summers, Laura Baumbach, Helen Hardt, Sam Cheever, Lizzie T. Leaf, Lucynda Storey, and Cynthia Vespia have all represented Aspen Mountain Press at this event and have been a delight to hang out with.

Finally, I am tickled beyond belief that a stranger felt comfortable approaching Cynthia, Celina and I (later joined by Laura) in asking us how to make the most of his RT experience.  The stranger, is no longer a stranger but a friend who introduced  us to two more of his friends.  We are thrilled to have added to our list of compadres Brett Battles, Robert Gregory Browne and James Scott Bell.  They’ve shared with us their zany sense of humor and a little bit about the world of thriller writing.

 We are already making plans to be at RT next year where it will be held at the Westin Bonaventure in L.A.

So many of us are pushed for time these days.  Families demand our attention as do our civic commitments.  We get up early trying to get one extra thing done.  We stay up late trying to finish just one more thing from our ever-extending to-do list.

We need more time we groan.  And it’s true, we do need more time.  But…how much time do we manage to waste in a day?

The first thing you need to know is when is your most productive time of the day?  Early morning? Mid afternoon?  Late at night when even the mice are sleeping?

Second, limit the number of items on your ‘to-do’ list to four or five of the most CRITICAL items.  If you absolutely MUST pay your utility bill or be shut off, that becomes a critical item.  Forwarding on the latest Maxine cartoon is not. (more…)

If you love gay romances with shapeshifters and a healthy dose of thriller, you will be sure to enjoy this week’s release by Emily Veinglory.  Kerry is a werewolf and Bern is a vampire and the two are on the run, seemingly from everybody.  A strange situation for two men employed by the local police agency.

Bern is a quiet sort of man who works as a receptionist at a police station.  He is legally registered as a vampire.  Not so, Kerry, a born werewolf, who is keeping his paranormal status quiet.  But when a murder takes place, Kerry knows that he’ll be suspect number one.  The victim was attacked by a wolf.

Prejuidice takes shape in all sorts of forms and this time it is between humans and ‘otherkin’; and between the ‘born’ not ‘made’ groups of paranormals.  Kerry and Bern have trouble all around them and it’s going to take a lot for an unasumming vampire to step up and keep Kerry safe.

Visit Aspen Mountain Press today and pick up a copy of Blue Murder.

At the end of January I attended Digital Book World in New York City.  The two day event was interesting. The first day was spent doing a lot of hand-holding for print publishers and talking about price-fixing (I’m pretty sure that is illegal according to anti-trust laws, but my history is rusty) and the Apple iPad.  There was even a speech about how publishers could save money on shipping by using another company’s product and procedure…that had absolutley nothing to do with digital books or digital publishing.

The real treat, for me, came on day two.  I listened to Raelene Gorlinsky tell the audience how Ellora’s Cave made $5 million dollars selling just eBooks within a few years of their opening (Ellora’s Cave is TEN this year); and that they’ve been around as long as they have been selling eBooks.  There was literally a corporate gasp from the tables near where I sat and then a stunned sort of silence.

Publishing has changed.  This isn’t new news.  In the ancient days, books, the few there were had to be copied by hand.  This made them highly valuable to the owner and costly as well.  Then along came Guttenberg.  Books came down in price.  Then came Luther and others like him who had the radical idea that books should be in your home language.  The Industrial Revolution automated the publishing material.  Costs dropped again. (more…)