Inglath Cooper's Blog

Blue Wide Sky – Book One in the Smith Mountain Lake series. http://amzn.to/2nsb5ed

The post First love . . . forever love appeared first on INGLATH COOPER.

Check out my most recent newsletter here. I have a new contest going on and more reader goodies!

Free books anyone? Subscribe to my newsletter and get the first four books in my Nashville series free!

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If you’re looking for your next great escape, see a list of my books here.

The post Reader Newsletter September 15, 2016 appeared first on INGLATH COOPER.

Check out my most recent newsletter here. I have a new contest going on and more reader goodies!

Free books anyone? Subscribe to my newsletter and get the first four books in my Nashville series free!

The post Reader Newsletter for September 15, 2016 appeared first on INGLATH COOPER.

So I’m a little late to the party for the Nashville TV show, but I actually have a really good reason.

After spending a great deal of time in Nashville learning how to write lyrics, and loving the community more than I could have imagined, I decided I wanted to write a fiction series based on my experiences there. When I was finishing up Book One – Ready to Reach, I heard there was a TV series coming out called Nashville.

At first, I thought, oh, no, everyone is going to think I copied the idea, but honestly, it was a complete coincidence. As much as I wanted to watch the show, I decided I wouldn’t until I had completed my own series. I didn’t want to be influenced by the show’s story, and I wanted my series to be its own thing.

After ten books, I’m not saying I’m done with my series, but I did recently decide to start watching the Nashville TV show on hulu.com. Turning on the first episode was like dipping into a container of chocolate gelato you’ve been saving until you thought you finally deserved to eat it.

I kind of held my breath through the first couple of episodes, hoping my own books would not feel too similar. And they don’t. The similarities are the obvious ones. The Nashville setting itself. The hallmarks of the songwriting community there. The Bluebird cafe. The dreams of songwriters and aspiring singers.

The story is always in the characters, and the characters in the Nashville TV show are very different from my Holden, CeCe and Thomas. So I can continue watching without fear of being influenced.

I stayed up until one o’clock last night watching because I couldn’t stop myself from going to the next episode.

My favorite character so far? Deacon Claybourne. Sigh. He’s the hot, smart, serious artist type that I love. And there’s the whole Deacon and Rayna thing. It’s why we readers love a great love story. Theirs is that. Derailed of course. Destined to be constantly interrupted and put off. But it’s one of the main threads that pulls us forward episode to episode.

And why wouldn’t Rayna be crazy about him? He’s the man her husband can never be. First love. The real thing.

Their backstory and the reason they are apart is completely believable. When they were young and starting out in Nashville, Deacon had a substance abuse problem. Went to rehab repeatedly. But it took until the fifth time for it to stick, and by then, Rayna had given up on him and married someone completely different.

In Episode One, she’s now famous, and he’s lead guitar in her band. They’ve found a way to be at peace with their past and go on with their lives. But the pull is still there. And off we go.

If you haven’t yet watched the Nashville TV show, you can do so on hulu.com. (What a bargain this streaming option is at $7.99 a month.)  When ABC canceled the show after the fourth season, it was picked up for a fifth – Yayyyy!!! – by CMT and is being shown the day after original airing on hulu.com.

Start watching, and I have a feeling you’ll be as hooked as I am!

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If you love the Nashville TV Show and want a reading experience that might give you the same kind of goosebumps, click here to read Book One in my Nashville series free.

The post Nashville TV Show – Why I’m Just Now Indulging appeared first on INGLATH COOPER.

Like me, I’m sure you remember exactly where you were the moment you first heard a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. Like me, I’m sure you simply couldn’t believe it could be anything other than a horrible accident. But then we saw the pictures, and the second plane hit, and there was no denying that an atrocity of unimaginable proportions had just taken place in our country, against our citizens.

The images flashing across our television screens that day and on the days to follow are the kind that never leave our memory. Human beings jumping to their deaths because what waited below them was a better choice than the one behind them. I sobbed for those people then, and I cry again for them today as our country remembers the day that changed us forever.

Human beings have incredible capacity for kindness, love and compassion. Human beings also have the ability to be persuaded in the name of perceived truth to do unspeakable things against other living beings.

I was in my twenties the first time I truly understood this. My husband and I were on our first trip to Europe, and we decided to visit the concentration camp memorial in Dachau, Germany. My grandfather had been a prisoner of war in World War II, and something in me needed to see a piece of what he had experienced.

But I was completely unprepared for what I saw and felt in that memorial. I cannot adequately explain the tangible awareness of what happened in that despicable place. But from the moment I stepped inside, until we had finally driven away, I could not stop crying for the people who died there and the suffering they had known.

So it is with our 9-11.

A sign over one of the doors at Dachau read: So We Do Not Forget.

It is my prayer that our country will look back through the door of today, and we do not forget.

The post So We Do Not Forget appeared first on INGLATH COOPER.

I spent part of my weekend going through some boxes that included manuscripts I wrote in college and letters from my family while I was away.

I’ve never been good at looking back. I’m not one to sit down and go through old photo albums and such. It makes me sad to see the faces of people and pets I’ve loved who are no longer here.

But Saturday, I pulled a letter from the box of those I’d saved. They were all still in their envelopes, their much less costly stamps in their righthand corner. This one, in its green envelope, was from my Grandma Johnson.

I removed the card and opened it up, her handwriting so instantly familiar, and then the sound of her voice attached to each word as I read. “Hi, sweet. Thinking of you and love you as usual.”

I got no farther than that before tears welled up inside me, and I read the rest of the note, unable to hold them back. Grandma had ended with, “I hope it won’t be long until you can come home.”

I closed the card and felt a renewed wave of grief for her loss in my life. I thought about the simple words of her message and realized in a way I never have before how few people have loved me the way she loved me. The way our grandparents and our parents love us.

It is a completely different kind of love. A love without conditions, without expectation. It’s pure and beautiful. And the most rare in our lives.

I think of the young woman I was at the time she wrote me this note and of how much better I could have been at letting her know I missed her and would be up to see her soon. I think of the place that had been her home, the wonderful food she prepared when she knew we were coming. And that this place no longer exists except in my memories.

I miss her so much. And selfishly, I miss the way she loved me. The way she saw me.

I’m not the first to discover that our older selves recognize the selfishness in our younger selves. The ways in which we took for granted the things that would end up being most important.

But I’m reminded with this note that we don’t have forever here with those we love. And that there is nothing more valuable we can give to them than letting them know with our words and our time how much they mean to us.

“The only way love can last a lifetime is if is unconditional.”

—  Stephen Kendrick

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As a reader, I love getting a peak into writers’ lives. I hope you’ll enjoy this glimpse into the life of Eva Lesko Natiello, an Amazon #1 ranked author for her psychological thriller, The Memory Box.

Eva also writes for the Huffington Post and the New Jersey Monthly. For a chance to win a copy of The Memory Box, sign up for Eva’s newsletter by sending in the contact form on her website.  Just write ‘From Inglath’s newsletter’ in the subject line. Now on to the interview!

Available on Amazon.com

What inspired you to become a writer?

That’s an interesting question. Honestly, I never intended to be a writer. For me it was always more about storytelling. In fact, not until I had finished writing The Memory Box, did I really come to terms with the fact that I had written a book. It had felt like I was telling a story through my fingertips. (Well, that was the draft!) Then the hard work . . .

How do you balance your personal life with your writing time?

This is very difficult for me. I often don’t get the amount of writing time that I really need. But I’ve become very good at using my non-writing time. When I am not writing and life calls me into different directions, I take advantage of that time to think. That’s because I bring my brain everywhere I go! Half of writing is thinking, imagining, problem solving. For me, these things happen away from the keyboard, so that when I sit down to write, I have direction.

What do you think is the most important thing a reader can do for an author whose work she enjoys?

Talk about it with friends! I credit reader excitement and word-of-mouth for the success of The Memory Box. Mentioning a book you like on social media is a tremendous help to authors. And of course, writing a review on on-line bookstores, Goodreads, blogs, or anywhere you connect with book lovers on social media.

Do you have a favorite setting for your books?

Since I love to write psychological thrillers, I think they are especially creepy when they are set in very relatable places. The Memory Box is set in the suburbs of New Jersey, but honestly it could be anywhere. I’ve had readers in Australia tell me they thought it was their town! As soon as a reader is able to relate to the setting, they become more emotionally invested. Then when they discover something strange is going on in this town, they start to wonder about their own town . . .

Do you prefer eBooks, paperback, hard cover, all of the above?

Paperback.

“Writing from the intersection of oops, yikes, & awe” is written on your website. Can you elaborate for readers what you mean by that?

Years ago, before I started my blog, I attended a writer’s conference. One of the sessions I attended was on branding and how a writer’s website and blog should be used to communicate your brand. I remember talking to the presenter after the session about how my “brand” may not fit in a neat box. I write humor (often about personal blunders—of which I have many), satire, thrillers, about things that leave me contemplative and also, I write about writing. She encouraged me to find an umbrella term that would encompass those themes. That’s where writing from the intersection of oops, yikes & awe came from.

Eva Lesko Natiello

You’re a native New Yorker who moved to the New Jersey suburbs. Do you still live in New Jersey and, if so, why do you prefer it to the city?

Yes, I still live in New Jersey. I moved out of New York when my second child was born so that we could raise our kids in the suburbs. But I still love New York!

What about moving to the suburbs of New Jersey inspired you to write your first book?

There are a couple of reasons I chose Farhaven, a suburban town which is loosely based on the New Jersey town I live in. I’ve always been intrigued by stories which have beautiful, upscale settings which juxtapose a dark, subversive storyline. The Stepford wives introduced me to this idea. It provides the first misconception to the reader, that only upstanding people could live in a place like this. The other reason it seemed right for the story was when I started to write The Memory Box, I was relatively new to the suburbs. I had just moved to New Jersey from New York City. It presented an instant learning curve. With my young children starting school, I was plopped into a new social circle of suburban moms. There is a definite way things are done in the suburbs that’s different from the way they’re in the city. I knew instantly that I wanted to set this psychological suspense in a bucolic, upscale suburb where the community of stay-at-home moms, a sub-culture all its own, would help highlight the juxtaposition of conformity and deception.

So you have a particular fascination with misconceptions. You say it appears in your second novel – is it in your first, as well?

Yes! I believe misconceptions often manifest from facades. And there are several facades in The Memory Box. Some are in the form of objects: a beautiful house, or well-manicured lawn, for instance. Or even the location of the story, the suburb of Farhaven, acts as a façade. Sometimes misconceptions happen from limited information, like hearing parts of a conversation, or even the lack of information. It is human nature to fill in the blanks when there is a lack of facts. Sometimes filling in the blanks will lead you to the wrong place. More than that, I cannot tell you!

You also mention an interest in the concept of control. Are these innate fascinations or did someone in your life influence these particular interests?

That’s a good question! When I was young, I do remember thinking that when people would say “It wasn’t meant to be” it was a cop-out of sorts. I felt that people would use that expression when they didn’t want to work hard at something. They would disguise a lack of determination or work ethic with this cosmic decision of “it must be the universe telling me something.” I thought to myself, you have the control to make things happen, just try a little harder. But then I thought about the opposite of those “It wasn’t meant to be” people: someone who thought they could control everything. And make everything happen. That idea was really creepy to me. A character who thought they could control every outcome. Sometimes it can be evil and sometimes it can be unintentionally catastrophic. This theme is present in The Memory Box and book #2 (yet-to-be-named) but I’m not revealing any more.

When I heard of the passing of Merle Haggard yesterday, I remembered how much my mom loved his music when I was growing up. WNLB was the country music station of choice at our house, and Merle Haggard was a regular on the play roster.

Mama loved Merle.

With the typical teenage attitude of ‘current is best’ I think I pooh-poohed her opinion on this in favor of whatever was in the Top 40 at the time.

But as is the case with most things, Mama was right. Merle Haggard was a legend and a pretty great example of what it means to get to live your dream for most of your life.

With new talent constantly pouring into Nashville, staying at the front and center of music lovers’ hearts is no easy feat. True talent and a love for the art of writing and singing a great song is what separates the temporary from the lasting.

Merle Haggard certainly proved himself to be that. There’s something to be said for doing what you love right up to the very end. For me, that’s as much a mark of success as anything I can think of. Getting to do what you love for a long-enduring audience who loves what it: that’s well done.

Gratitude to you, Merle Haggard, for the legacy you have left behind. I hope you’re now singing in Heaven.

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Books by Inglath Cooper

My Italian Lover – What If – Book One

Dragonfly Summer – Book Two – Smith Mountain Lake Series

Blue Wide Sky – Book One – Smith Mountain Lake Series

Rock Her

Crossing Tinker’s Knob

Jane Austen Girl

Good Guys Love Dogs

Truths and Roses

Nashville – Part Ten – Not Without You

Nashville – Book Nine – You, Me and a Palm Tree

Nashville – Book Eight – R U Serious

Nashville – Book Seven – Commit

Nashville – Book Six – Sweet Tea and Me

Nashville – Book Five – Amazed

Nashville – Book Four – Pleasure in the Rain

Nashville – Book Three – What We Feel

Nashville – Book Two – Hammer and a Song

Nashville – Book One – Ready to Reach

On Angel’s Wings

A Gift of Grace

RITA® Award Winner John Riley’s Girl

A Woman With Secrets

Unfinished Business

A Woman Like Annie

The Lost Daughter of Pigeon Hollow

A Year and a Day

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Abundance. What is it? How do we know when we have it?

One of my favorite podcasts to listen to on my phone is School of Greatness with Lewis Howes. Lewis interviews people from all walks of life who strive for success in their personal lives as well as their careers. Through his podcast, I’ve been introduced to so many people I’d never heard of before but have now learned so much from.

Yesterday I listened to his interview with Lisa Nichols, an uber successful life coach and CEO of one of the first publicly traded self-development companies.

In this episode, Lisa talks about abundance. Not just that which comes from financial prosperity but the kind that comes from placing emphasis on the relationships in our lives.

Lisa talks about her start in life, how she came to build a literal empire from her self-help seminars and how it would all mean nothing without the people in her life who love her.

I found Lisa’s talk so inspiring that I bought her new book Abundance Now: Amplify Your Life & Achieve Prosperity Today. It’s in my lineup of books to read next.

If you like spending your driving time, grocery store time, workout or train time listening to things that inspire you, check out Lewis Howes’ podcast and start with Lisa’s interview. Hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I did.

Subscribe to Lewis Howes on iTunes.

Read Lisa Nichols’ new book Abundance Now: Amplify Your Life & Achieve Prosperity Today.

You might also want to read Lewis Howes’ recent book School of Greatness.

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Coconut oil is my favorite beauty product. And I could be a walking test market for most of the products that have touted their benefits in major magazines and on TV.  It’s hard to resist those hooks – makes fine lines and wrinkles disappear, smoother skin overnight!

I’ve found plenty of lotions and creams that I like, but I finally found one that I love. A natural beauty remedy. Coconut oil. Just regular old made by nature coconut oil.

I had read about some coconut oil uses in nutrition books and articles over the years. But I hadn’t thought about using it for skin care until I ran across a jar in a health food store labeled for skin and hair and decided to give it a try.  Coconut oil at regular room temperature is a solid like Crisco.

Every winter, my skin gets a case of the extra dry blues.  Still, it seemed like a crazy idea.  Straight oil?  But the first night I rubbed it onto my face, I could almost hear my skin sigh.  It soaked right in, and my face didn’t look like I’d just globbed oil on it.  It looked. . .nourished.

And so I used it again the next night.  And the next.  I kept thinking I would reach a point where my face would say enough, but that wasn’t the case.  I now use it every night as my main heavy moisturizer.

My favorite Coconut Oil for the shower and bath.

At some point, I considered other coconut oil benefits and decided to try it as an overall body moisturizer and bought a big jar for the tub. I apply it while in the bath, and it chases Winter dry off with a big stick. Just be willing to towel the tub clean of oil when you’re done.

You can also use coconut oil for hair conditioning in the same way you would use a conditioning mask. Apply it to your hair and leave on for an hour or so before shampooing it out.

I love the idea of feeding my skin something that I would also eat! This is the one I like to use.

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If you’re looking for your next great escape, see a list of my books here.

The post Natural Beauty with Coconut Oil appeared first on INGLATH COOPER.