Lacy Hart's Blog

Hello there! I know it’s been a while since I have posted anything on the blog and I apologize for that. I have been working hard on getting my next book completed, and now that it is done and going through its first round of edits, I have a little bit of breathing room so I can take some time to get back here. The balancing act of writing, editing, proofreading, marketing, social media and having an outside life is all still pretty new to me, so finding the time to do everything I need to do and everything I want to do still has a learning curve for me.

On top of that, I have already started thinking about the next book that I want to write. It’s in the very early stages of planning, but it’s never too early to start mapping things out, right? The book I just completed stays with the single Dad, small-town romance theme, but the next one I am considering moves a bit away from that. It will have all the elements I love to include – a sweet romance story in a small town (and of course, a happy ending), but I have some other ideas that I may use in this one as well. Since I’m still planning everything out, we’ll have to see how things go. The beauty of writing is that you can change things as you go along. You get new ideas, see different directions, get new thoughts for characters, and all of a sudden things take off for you in a new way.

The current plan for the book I just finished is to hopefully get it published in June, and I’ll keep you posted about the progress of it so you can know when to expect it to come along. In the meantime, my other books, Change Up and Burnt, both continue to do well (thank you all so much!) and are available on Amazon if you want to check them out. It still amazes me that the books are out there and have been well-received and reviewed. It gives me a good feeling to know that readers have enjoyed the stories and characters, and I hope as my writing continues to grow and develop that everyone will love what they see and look forward to each new book.

In the meantime, I hope to have more time to come on here and do some better interaction than I have over the last month or so. I’m always available if you ever want to send me a message at lacyhartauthor@gmail.com, and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or follow me on Goodreads. If you’re interested in learning about getting an Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) of my books before they come out so you can give a review, you can follow me on Booksprout as well.

I just wanted to give you a quick update to let you know what was going on, and that I’m working on some ideas for topics for the blog that I can share as we move forward to the next book and beyond. Thanks again for going along for the ride!

It would be great if you could wake up every day and have the motivation you need to do your job well, no matter what you do. No matter what you do for a living, there are always days where you do not feel like you are on top of your game or can give your best effort. When you are a writer, this can be a particularly defeating feeling. There have been more than a few occasions, including today, where you just look at a blank page staring back at you, and you try to figure out what it is you want to write or say. I probably stared at the screen more than I wrote today as I went back and forth over what I was doing, if I liked it, or if it even made any sense and went along with what I wanted to say.

Finding motivation can be a tricky thing, and everyone has their methods to get their brain working in the direction they want it to go. For me, I use a few different things to help with motivation. My workday typically starts pretty early because I like to work early in the morning. I get up at 5:30 AM, fire up my computer and start my day. I usually spend some time checking email and social media and then, before I even attempt to write anything, I play a couple of word games. The word games work well for me because they help me get my brain focused and working the way I want it to work. The games typically only take me about ten minutes to play, and then after that, I am ready to get to business.

Listening to music is a big part of helping me get motivated. I turn to my playlist on my iPod, or, as I do most often, go to Spotify and get my list going. I have pretty eclectic music tastes, so I have a little bit of everything on my list – rock, pop, country, jazz, classical, heavy metal, dance music – you pretty much name it and you will find it on my list. I put my noise-canceling headphones on to block everything out, turn my music on, and start writing. My writing is a lot more productive when I get into the music I listen to, and if there is a particularly long song that I get into, like a jam from the Allman Brothers or some jazz from Charlie Parker, I can bang out quite a few pages in a short amount of time.

Of course, then there are mornings like today when none of that seems to work. We all have days where we easily get distracted away from what we want to do or have to do, and we do anything and everything except the work we want to get to. For me, like many other writers I know, I often have a specific word quota that I work to get to each day before I  can consider the day productive. Sometimes I can hit that number in just two or three hours if I get on a roll. On other days, it might take me eight or ten hours to get there, or perhaps I don’t get there at all.

There are also some days where I need some extra motivation to help me with my writing. Sometimes I just feel stuck with a story I am working on and don’t know where to start or go with what I am doing. Days like this I often turn to writing something completely different from what I should be working on to help me get my brain moving again. I have several boxes of cards known as Table Topics that have different prompts on them that are great not just as conversation starters, but help me write something out, even if it is just a paragraph or two. Very often that is more than enough to help me get my creativity out of the rut I might be stuck in.

I also take advantage of Reedsy Learning and the help they can offer with writing. Reedsy emails writing prompts every Friday, with different topics that you can write about for that week. They have four or five ideas each week you can work on to write short stories for yourself or ones that you can share with their blog and get a chance for publication and win $50. I have used those ideas in the past to help give me ideas for writing, even if it is just something silly for me to write down and use to get started.

Whether you are a writer or not, you must have a strategy that you use when you need some extra help getting motivated. What helps to get your brain working in the right direction? I’d love to hear your ideas and what works best for you. You can share your comments here anytime.

If you ever have any questions for me about my books (Change Up and Burnt are both available on the Amazon Store) or my writing, feel free to leave a comment here, contact me through Facebook or Twitter, or email me at lacyhartauthor@gmail.com and I’ll be glad to respond. You can also find me on Goodreads and reach me there.

Talk to you soon!

Change Up got off to a great start this weekend, punching its way into the top 400 on the Amazon Kindle Store for a big part of the weekend, and in the top 30 in its Romance/Sports category. I can’t thank everyone enough that bought the book and downloaded it, and I hope you are enjoying the read. It was a fun book for me to write because I have such a keen interest in the subject matter. I do get asked a lot where I get my inspiration for the plots of my stories, and I find it interesting to learn from other authors what piques their interests and makes them write about the things they write.

For me, the plots of my stories come from a lot of different places. One excellent source for me is, of course, my own life. While I certainly do not have the adventures or experiences like any of the characters you might see in Burnt or Change Up, the feelings and emotions that help to drive the plot do come from experiences that I may have had in my own life. We all have experiences from our past where there may have been a lost love that you have thought about or a family experience that stands out to you. I try to use the things I have experienced in the past to help form the basis of a lot of the stories I write.

I also tend to choose plots that I think readers can relate to more closely. For me, it is easier for me to write about subjects and characters that seem more real to me. Granted, we all like to read a great fantasy store like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or read fabulous romance stories involving the billionaire princes from foreign lands, or the brooding, tortured soul of a strong, magical character that falls in love with a beautiful woman. Escapism is half the fun of reading and lets you get lost in the story, even if it is just for the brief ten minutes you get to read on your lunch break. I love stories like that too, but for me, as a writer and a reader, I find it more enjoyable to read about characters that seem like people I could meet in real life or might know. Of course, Wes in Change Up is a millionaire professional baseball player, something not everyone can relate to, but Kristin is a very relatable character as the local librarian that loves to read and has an every day, ordinary life until Wes comes along. I like to read stories about teachers, firemen, military people, waitresses, bartenders, office workers and the like because these are the people I know and understand the best. I feel like I can make them more relatable to the reader.

I also get my inspiration for stories from outside sources. Music lyrics, movies, and television can act as great inspiration for characters, plot elements, and ideas. There are many times where I will be sitting there watching a movie or TV show and see something, even something small that may seem insignificant to the main story, and see that the idea has fantastic potential for a story of its own. Music affects me the same way, and I do have some book ideas that focus around particular music lyrics that I hope to get to write one day, one of which I think will be fantastic as a story.

Another inspiration for me is one that people may not always want to admit to but happens very often. Eavesdropping on the real world can provide you with all kinds of great story ideas. Whether it is while you are out to dinner at a restaurant, waiting on-line for your morning coffee or at the supermarket, or just picking the kids up from school or sitting in the stands at one of their games, you are going to hear all kinds of conversations. Sometimes these conversations may seem pretty mundane or ordinary, but other times you may listen to just a tidbit of something and realize that this can be a fabulous inspiration for a plot point. Sometimes it means lingering around a little longer than you might typically, like adding extra creamer to your coffee or taking a little longer to put your groceries on the conveyor belt, just so you can hear the end of the captivating story, but it can be well worth it.

All of these are ways for me to get story ideas and plot points, which is why I keep little notebooks everywhere for when an idea strikes me. I keep my primary notebook and journal here at my desk and do a lot of my concept writing in it, but I also have smaller notebooks in the bedroom, living room, kitchen, and even one in the car. Sure, I could put everything down on my phone and do it that way, but to be honest, it’s too hard to whip the phone out, type ideas out quickly before they get away, and then make sense of them later on. Writing things down by hand works well for me, and avoid my fingers fumbling with that tiny keyboard.

So, where do you think great plot ideas can originate? I would love to hear input from readers and writers to see where your inspirations can come from each day, or what romantic plot ideas you think you would like to read at some point. Feel free to leave a comment here and share your insights with me and everyone else. You can always reach out to me too if you have a question by leaving a comment here, on my Facebook or Twitter pages, on my Goodreads author page, or even at my email at lacyhartauthor@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you with questions, comments or anything else.

Here’s a look at my beat-up journal on my desk. Take some time today to look at the world around you and see what might make for a good story!

Hi all! Just as a brief follow up after I posted the first blog entry to say thanks to everyone that is pushing Change Up further and further up the Amazon Kindle Store list. It is unbelievable to me the book is doing so well and catching on and hope everyone that reads it enjoys it thoroughly. Thanks so much to my family and friends, my supporters on social media, and Scarlet Lantern Publishing for the work that they have done to help me. Also, you can still get the book for its release special price of $.99 through the weekend. The price goes up next week to $2.99 (still a great bargain), and you can also get a paperback copy as well if you are a traditionalist and want to have a book to hold. Thank you again so much!

Hello and welcome to my website and blog! I’ve had some fits and starts getting this blog going, but I think I finally have everything straightened out to where it will start working as the place I want it to be. Excuse the mess while I play with things like themes, fonts, and more to try to get the space looking where I am comfortable and happy with it. But for now, it gives me an excellent place to begin so I can write, chat with everyone, and let you know what is going on.

The question for me as always been – how to begin? Beginning for me not only goes to whatever story I happen to be working on but my entire writing life. To say I came to getting published late is an understatement. I have been writing for many, many years, all through junior high, high school, college and beyond, but never even considered that what I wrote was going to be good enough to get published somewhere. I kept the stories to myself, and they were a wide range of stories – everything from dramatic, to funny, to paranormal, and more. One common theme always seemed to run through what I was writing though – it had some romantic element to it. There was romance to be found everywhere, in one form or another. Even if it was just the slightest hint of it, some romantic tension somewhere, it was always there.

So when the opportunity came along to actually write something romantic, an erotic romance or a sweet romance, I decided to take a chance at it and see what I could do. I was incredibly fortunate to meet up with Scarlet Lantern Publishing, who was willing to take a chance on me as a writer and let me give a shot at building an audience. My first book, Burnt, was well received and help me get my brand started. Now, my second book, Change Up, was just released yesterday and is off to a great start. I think both stories say a lot about who I am – I’m a sucker for romance, for someone getting swept off their feet, falling in love, and finding a way to make it work. What’s most important to me in a story, and probably in my life, is that there is a happily ever after that comes along as well.

We all want that happily-ever-after moment – the moment where we know we are with the person that is most important to us, that makes us feel safe, secure, and loved. A soulmate is something that I think gets overused a bit today, and people confuse it with the emotions they may feel at the moment when they are with someone. You truly know when you are with the someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. The comfort and security are there, you feel at peace, and like you don’t want to be anywhere else or with anyone else, and, to borrow from Jerry Maguire, you feel like the other person completes you.

That is why I want to try to bring across in my books. The two books that are out already are a great start towards this; I think I will only get better and better at things as I go along. I have lots of great story ideas from all kinds of sources that I cannot wait to share with everyone as time goes along. Hopefully, you will want to share in the ride with me, enjoy the books and see what comes along. I plan to use this space to talk about my writing process, what inspires me, what I like, how things move along, and anything else that may cross my mind. I also want this to be a space where you can share with me and let me know what you think about what I write, ideas I have, ideas you have, what you might like to see and more. Let’s make it a space we can share with each other and have some fun.

So, now that we have a beginning to the blog, we can talk about beginnings. As a reader, how do you decide what book you will begin or choose? What helps draw you into a story right away? If you’re a writer, what helps get you jumpstarted on your story? Where do you like to begin your process or start your story? Let me know, and I’ll be happy to comment as well. You can also always comment to me on social media on my Facebook page, on Twitter, or at my email at lacyhartauthor@gmail.com.

Until next time, let the journey begin!