Latest On The Nocturnal Nina Blog
Love Your Body, Hack Your Mind
Nina Crespo welcomes guest blogger and author Megan Morgan, who will be wrapping up the Reader, Writer and Wellness blog event.
Writing is a desk job.
Sure, it differs from working in an office. Hopefully your view is better than three gray cubicle walls, your coffee is of better quality, and you don’t have to deal with annoying interoffice memos. You may also at times find a cat wedged between you and your keyboard or even draped across it. I’ve run into this malfunction a few times. Some things are the same, though: you sit, clicking away on a computer all day, there’s deadlines, stress, paperwork, and sometimes your boss is a jerk to you–even more so when you’re self-pubbed.
Being a writer means a lot of sitting on your butt. Though the mind is active, the flesh is an immobile, sometimes over-caffeinated, oftentimes junk food-eating lump. When you’re deeply entrenched in a scene and the writing is going well, but your stomach is all, “hey, remember me?” it’s much easier to cram a handful of chips or a slice of last night’s cold pizza in your mouth than make a healthy, balanced meal. Shut up for right now, stomach. Mama is trying to write!
A healthy body makes a healthy mind. Exercise has been proven to boost creativity, sharpen mental focus, and even alleviate the symptoms of depression. I get some of my best ideas when I’m walking. Fresh air and sunshine boost vitamin D. If you’re stuck on a scene, exercise can possibly help. Jogging jogs the mind!
Likewise, eating right is an important part of staying healthy and keeping your mind sharp. Fish, berries, nuts, and whole grains are all good for the brain. Healthy foods keep blood pressure down and maintain systems throughout the body. Energy and creativity come from putting the right fuel inside us. Sickness and disease make it hard to be creative. If you don’t believe me, try writing a story the next time you have a raging case of the flu. Although, if you’re taking enough cold medicine, you might just hallucinate the best plot ever.
Another health issue writers might face is consuming too much caffeine. Caffeine in moderation can be difficult. Yes, I put the words ‘caffeine’ and ‘moderation’ in the same sentence because I like to live dangerously. Personally, I could be hooked up to a coffee IV and live life in bliss. However, too much caffeine can be bad for you in many ways: raising blood pressure, causing indigestion, and sparking headaches. Caffeine can also make you jittery and scatterbrained. Water is good for you and can even have some of the same effects as caffeine first thing in the morning, as part of our grogginess is due to dehydration that happens overnight. I’m not saying stop drinking coffee–good gravy, no–but also lapping it straight out of the coffee pot like a dog dish is not the best idea either.
The same goes for the other writer’s drink: wine. Moderation is key. Although personally, I’ve never been able to write with alcohol in me.
The secret to being a productive writer is being a healthy person. Every once in a while get up (place the cat gently on a pillow to your left), go for a walk, make a salad, brew a pot of decaf (just kidding), and sit back down with a clear, refreshed mind. Your internal organs and new brain children will thank you later.
Megan Morgan is a paranormal romance, erotica, and urban fantasy author from Cleveland, Ohio. Bartender by day and purveyor of things that go bump at night, she likes her fiction scary and sexy. She’s a member of the RWA and trying to turn writing into her day job, so she can be on the other side of the bar for a change. Currently published with House of Erotica and Muse It Up’s erotica imprint Muse It HOT! She is also the author of a three-book urban fantasy series coming in March 2015 from Kensington.
How Book Club Fun Can Add Something Special to Your Life
Joining Nina Crespo‘s Readers, Writers and Wellness blog event is guest blogger Marcie Kremer, author of Torch in the Forest.
Book clubs? Fun? Some readers may think those two terms are mutually-exclusive and have nothing to do with each other. Of course, we all know there are “those” kinds of book clubs – where a leader with a vengeance complex intimidates all the hapless members with a condescending, “you didn’t do your homework?” sort of attitude. That’s not the kind of book club I belong to, and I hope you don’t either.
The book club I belong to is, first of all, very lighthearted. Yes, we all read the same book, but, sometimes (gasp!) we don’t read it! That doesn’t mean we can’t come to the meeting and enjoy fruit (wine) and fiber (popcorn) and listen to everyone’s opinions and chime in when we feel like it. There is no penalty for not reading the book. Imagine how empowering that is. Imagine this – we all have lives to lead, and, sometimes, having the time to read a book just isn’t part of it. But, the camaraderie we share more than makes up for any possibly intellectual comments we might have made.
When we do discuss the book – and, yes, we do – we’ll usually use the questions that either the publisher or author has posted on the internet or that are available inside the book. Do we need to make deep, insightful answers? Um, I don’t think so. Because we are a lighthearted group, we respect each other’s views, no matter what they are. We’ve found that doing this increases our appreciation of each other’s differences. Talk about validation.
With these kinds of principles, it’s probably easy for you to see how we can have so much fun in our book club. We’ll go off-topic sometimes (oh, goodness, you should have heard the comments when we talked about Karen Essex’s Leonardo’s Swans, or Alex Sokoloff’s The First Mrs. Hemingway.) Being able to gossip and share life adventures that are inspired by books and the discussion are such an important part of the uplifting and enjoyable times we have at our book club. Of course, you can certainly guess how many giggles were provoked by my own historical romance Torch in the Forest: “I can’t believe you wrote THAT, Marcie!” No, it wasn’t a book club pick – my friends read it all on their own! We’ll go home smiling and giggling – and ready to pick up the next book we’ve selected to read and lose ourselves in its pages.
And if we don’t – no worries. It’s all about being with our friends and sharing experiences, wh
ich most definitely give us all a lift in life!
About Marcie Kremer: Growing up in Europe and seeing castles on a daily basis made me sure I wanted to live back in the Middle Ages. Since that wasn’t likely to happen, being a child of the 20th century, the next best thing I could try to do was to write about this enthralling period in history. Having studied medieval history in college, I loved doing the research about how people really lived and spoke and dreamed and loved, and so TORCH IN THE FOREST came to be, thanks to my dear husband, who encouraged me to write about Eleanor and Hugh. When I’m not writing, I’m reading, or traveling. I love hearing from readers and am happy to do book club conference calls!
Healing Grief Through Books
Contributing to Nina Crespo‘s Readers, Writers and Wellness blog event is author Selena Fulton.
As an author, I love to share the news about books with my friends. I will share announcements of new releases on my Facebook and Twitter and my blog. I love to talk about books to my friends or coworkers. I love sharing what I’ve enjoyed reading that gave me the pleasure of escaping to another world, or perhaps another time. I’ve also recommended self-help books if it has made a difference in my life and I might feel it would help someone else.
This post is about one of those books that made a difference in my life.
In January of 2012, my mother died. She wasn’t just my mom. She was my friend, my cheerleader, my confidante. And now she’s gone. As my first novel came out a few weeks ago and amid all the joy of my new release, tears fell down my cheeks one day, wishing she could see the cover, wishing she knew I finally made it.
Wishing she were here.
After Mom died, I called a friend, and we commiserated about how it feels to lose a parent. She had lost her father not too long before that and suggested I read a book called Heaven is For Real. She said it gave her comfort.
Of course, I downloaded the book and read it. It was a wonderful book and did give me some peace. But my post doesn’t end here.
Losing my mom didn’t just affect me. My dad lost his wife of 53 years that day too. We talked on the phone daily, crying together, talking, grieving. My dad and I were always close, but now we’re even closer. Sometimes he even goes to church with us.
But what really hit me today as I consider what to write for this post was something he said this morning. I speak to him every morning on my way to work, even though this week he’s out of town visiting his sisters. He told me how his sister suggested he read Heaven is For Real and asked if I’d heard about it?
Um, yeah.
You know, I don’t know if I’d mentioned the book to him or not. Those months following Mom’s passing are a blur for me, but this morning, I was thrilled. I told him I’d read the book and it was very good. I was excited about the thought of him reading it.
He told me when he gets home, one thing he’s going to do is renew his library card, and then he’s going to check out Heaven is For Real. Not only do I think he will find some comfort from this book as I did, something else makes me happy about this news.
You see, one of the things Mom and Dad shared during their long marriage was their love of books. He hadn’t been reading much since she died, because it made him miss her. So I am very happy to see that he is following his passion again. I’m happy to see he will be visiting the library again.
All because of books.
Selena Fulton enjoys camping, morning strolls along the seashore, making jewelry, and reading. A multi-published author, she belongs to First Coast Romance Writers and Romance Writers of America. Currently VP of Membership and past Secretary for First Coast Romance Writers, she believes in “paying it forward” by working with fellow authors in her critique groups and judging contests.
Selena’s Website
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Now available from Selena Fulton THE CRYSTAL SLIPPER
Embracing My Inner Bookworm
Nina Crespo welcomes guest blogger Amanda Byrne, author of One Night in Buenos Aires, to the Reader, Writer and Wellness blog event.
I was having dinner with my family a few weeks ago when my parents started talking about planning a family camping trip. Somehow this led to a conversation about camping in general, and I think I made a comment about how easily bored I got on our past trips. To which my sister replied that her memories of our childhood camping trips involved me sitting around the campfire with a book in my hand.
You know what? Those are my memories, too.
I’ve loved reading since I memorized Go, Dog. Go! at age 4, but reading, for me, really took off when I discovered chapter books in elementary school. Nancy Drew, the Ramona Quimby novels, The Baby-Sitters Club…I still have the gorgeous full color illustrated copy of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess that my best friend gave me when we were kids (and it’s still one of my favorite books).
As I grew older, my tastes changed, but I never stopped reading. And now days, it’s pretty much the only time I can turn my brain off. My day job gives me a fair amount of stress, and I’m a very distracted writer, so being able to just drop into someone else’s world and stay there for a while gives me a welcome break from life. The end of the day, when I get to shut off my laptop and ignore the phone, the dishes, and everything else, where I’m curled up on the couch with a book or my Kindle – that’s my favorite time of day.
When my sister moved across the country with her now-husband, I’d loan her books from my shelves and send her pages filled with other recommendations she could get from her local library. I started a blog several years ago and posted occasional reviews of books I’d read, and my coworkers and I constantly trade book recommendations.
Those random posts and recommendations evolved into full on book reviews, and about two years ago, I joined Vampire Book Club as a reviewer. I’m a fast reader, which means I read a lot. I’ve been known to glom whole series in a span of days (I read three of the four available Fever series books by Karen Marie Moning in a 36 hour period once. Talk about a book hangover). I regularly post reviews on my own blog, Byrne After Reading. I kind of have to. When I read a book I love, I go into total fangirl mode and can’t stop yammering about it. I recently bugged my critique partner until she caved to peer pressure and read a couple of books I’d been talking about for a while. When it seemed like everyone at Vampire Book Club but me had read Written in Red by Anne Bishop, I gave in and read it, too. Then I immediately turned over my copy to a friend because it was so original and engaging that I had to talk to someone about it or I’d go nuts. The same goes for books that turn me off – I’m still warning people way from books I read years ago, they bothered me that much.
Talking about books – whether I’m recommending them or warning people away from them – is a piece of the whole for me when it comes to reading. It’s not enough to read a book. I need to talk about it, too, whether it made me smile or made me throw the book at the wall. I want people to get the same things I’m getting from those stories, and the only way that’ll happen is if I talk about it.
And I’m always on the lookout for book recs, so tell me, what are you reading now?
About Amanda K. Byrne: When she’s not plotting ways to sneak her latest shoe purchase past her partner, Amanda writes sexy, snarky romance and urban fantasy. She likes her heroines smart and unafraid to make mistakes, and her heroes strong enough to take them on. If she’s not writing, she’s reading, drinking hot chocolate, and trying not to destroy her house with her newest DIY project. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and no, it really doesn’t rain that much.
The Things I Should Do
Nina Crespo welcomes guest blogger Lynn Cahoon, author of the Tourist Trap Mystery series, to the Readers, Writers and Wellness blog event.
We all have a list. Lose ten pounds. Exercise more. Eat more fruits and vegetables. But as we all know, life gets in the way.
For me, right now, life is kicking my butt. I just got off deadline, have another book due before end of year, and work a day job. Finding time to walk the dogs can be a struggle, let alone find time to go to the gym or put a fitness video into the DVR.
Yet I know, it’s those things that will help me reach the items on the list. And, I know one more thing. As a breast cancer survivor, I have to prioritize my health, just like I make my daily word count.
In 2006, we moved from Idaho to Illinois. I got a new job, and then, when my insurance kicked in, I scheduled appointments with all new doctors. I even got a mammogram. When I got the letter in the mail saying everything was okay, I almost threw it away unopened. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had.
Because it wasn’t a thanks for coming in letter. It was a return for more tests letter. Within a week, I had been diagnosed. I had cancer. I also had a new job with little to no vacation or sick time. I didn’t qualify for the short-term disability program as I hadn’t been there a year. In fact, I didn’t even qualify for the federal family leave act because of my short tenure. My employer could have said, sorry about your luck and come back if you live.
But they didn’t. They worked with me through my surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation that year. When I hit a year, I actually had leave allowing me to get paid when I ran to doctor appointment or to get blood drawn. At the end of chemo when my body was totally exhausted, I was admitted to the hospital for three days. The day after I was released, I returned to work. Because I had to – Financially and mentally.
2007 was the year of cancer. So 2008 became the year of fun. But still, I wasn’t living healthy.
So I started walking. And then I added fruits and veggies to my diet. I cut out most alcohol. (I still enjoy a beer every now and then.) These small steps helped me lose most of the weight I’d gained during the year of cancer.
Since that time, I’ve had gains and losses. But I’ve learned a few things I’d like to pass on to you.
First – Practice Turtle Thinking: You know, slow and steady wins the race? This hint works for weight loss and writing. I’m always more excited to write on days where I know where the book is heading. Developing a daily writing habit makes me a healthier writer. Developing a daily exercise habit makes me a healthier person.
Second – Practice Scale Living: Not the bathroom scales. You need to balance your life. For me it’s a mixture of work, writing, me time, family, and fun. Typically fun gets the short stick in my house. My husband and I bought four-wheelers for our anniversary and we’ve spent a summer having fun. You don’t have to go to that extreme, but really, when was the last time you did something like fly a kite or go swimming?
Third – Love Yourself Today: Good or bad, heavy or skinny, you need to accept who you are today to move past the fear of becoming a better version of you. I can’t count the number of times I’ve held off buying a new coat or a pair of jeans until I lose weight. Be the best person you can be now. And later.
After surviving breast cancer, I have one boob (can I say boob here?) that’s bigger than the other. I have scars from surgery and the port where they took blood. Mentally, I have other scars. Walking into the hospital for my semi-annual well baby checks, I always worry. Is this the time they’ll find something strange. I’m by nature pretty positive, but not on those doctor appointment days.
I’m a different person than I was in 2006. Now, I’m a survivor.
So, readers, your turn. What one thing are you going to stop beating yourself up about today?
USA Today and New York Times, best-selling author, Lynn Cahoon is an Idaho native. If you’d visit the town where she grew up, you’d understand why her mysteries and romance novels focus around the depth and experience of small town life. Currently, she’s living in a small historic town on the banks of the Mississippi river where her imagination tends to wander. She lives with her husband and four fur babies.
Mission to Murder available on Amazon and Nook
Lynn Cahoon Amazon Author Page
When a Crisis with Your Health Adds New Life to Your Characters.
Nina Crespo welcomes guest blogger Linda Bond, author of Alive at 5, who will be kicking off the week-long Readers, Writers and Wellness blog event.
Readers love to relate to the characters they are reading about. Give your hero a flaw that makes him a little less than perfect, and he’ll seem more real, the kind of man a woman can fall in love with. Give your heroine a problem she’s too embarrassed to share, and you’ve made her more relatable.
Twice in my life I’ve faced debilitating health problems, one more life threatening than the other, but both found their way into my writing. In my just released romantic suspense novel Alive at 5, my heroine Samantha Steele suffers panic attacks. This is a big problem since her profession is to report the news on the air, and the panic attacks hit right as she’s about to go live.
It’s a struggle I had to work through personally. Imagine sitting on the anchor desk and your heart starts to race, you begin to sweat, and your mouth goes dry, making it hard to read the stories rolling through the TV news prompter. Nothing like losing your **** in front of thousands. It’s humbling.
I had to learn to breathe and regain control over my hijacked thoughts, which would start 
racing around like bumper cars on jet fuel. Now, when something happens live on the air, I know how to slow down my thoughts and my breathing before they start affecting my ability to do my job. Making Samantha Steele work through her panic attacks, something she had to overcome both with and without the hero’s help, gave her one more layer of depth, and one more flaw the reader can connect with.
My second health crisis happened three years ago. A diagnosis of breast cancer at 44. It brought me to my knees and challenged me in ways I’d never imagined.
In my current work in progress, EYEwitness, my heroine is a 28-year-old woman who had a double mastectomy after a breast cancer diagnosis. Like me, my heroine watched her mother die from breast cancer and only wanted to dance with this devil once. What the heroine didn’t count on was the physical and emotional scars that come with fighting cancer and going through invasive surgeries to remove your breasts. When her first love comes back, she hides her scars and the truth, thinking her first love couldn’t love a less perfect her. Working through that emotional internal war is what makes my heroine grow.
My hope is to use this book as a platform to show women that scars are not ugly and do not make you ugly. They are badges of honor, bravery and courage. And for many, they are the tattoos that symbolize a win in a battle for your life. My husband tells me I’m sexier today than ever before. And I’ve learned to embrace that as my new truth. I’m still writing EYEwitness, but I know my heroine will too.
Linda Bond ~ Her romantic side is a thrilling place to be.
Linda Bond is an Emmy award winning journalist by day and an author of romantic adventures by night. She’s also the mother of five, four athletes and an adopted son from Cuba. She has a passion for world travel, classic movies, and alpha males. Linda currently lives in Florida, where the sun always shines and the day begins with endless possibilities. You can become a Bond girl and share in her continuing adventures at www.lindabond.com.
Linda on Facebook: /AuthorLindaBond
Linda on Twitter: @AuthorLindaBond
Alive at 5 now available!
http://bit.ly/Aliveat5Amazonlink
http://bit.ly/Aliveat5BandN
http://bit.ly/Aliveat5iTunes
http://bit.ly/Aliveat5Kobo
