Tag: new jersey

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#WriteWed – Liberty States Fiction Writers Conference

As both a writer and a reader, I love attending conferences, especially my local ones! As the President of Liberty States Fiction Writers and a presenter at this year’s conference, I am doubly stoked to attend! We’ve got an awesome line-up of keynote speakers with the amazing Julie Kenner and Dee Davis. We’ve also got 24+ Writers’ Track Workshops and 16+ Readers’ Track Workshops for you to choose from as well as a Saturday Night party and Book Fair! This year we’ve also introduced a Young Writers track for students (17+) and writers at all levels who wish to either learn or refresh select writing skills.

If you can’t make the conference, I’d love to see you at the Book Fair which will be held on Saturday, March 24 and will be open to the general public in addition to all conference attendees. Here’s some more info about the conference!

9th Annual Liberty States Fiction Writers Conference

Saturday, March 24 thru Sunday, March 25, 2018
at the
Renaissance Woodbridge Hotel
in Iselin, NJ

Featuring

Keynote Speakers:

New York Times Bestselling Author
J. Kenner

AND

Award Winning Author
Dee Davis
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Dee Davis

Please click here to register for the conference.

Please click here to reserve your hotel room.

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#FunFriday Liberty States Fiction Writers Conference

I’m looking forward to the Liberty States Fiction Writers Reader and Writers Conference in March! I’ll be a speaker there, will attend the book fair, and I’m sponsoring the Mardi Gras themed after party on Saturday. It looks like it’s going to be a great conference and I hope some of you will be able to make it. Did I forget to mention we have giveaways for you, like free books from some of our speakers? Thanks to awesome Dee Davis for this donation, but also look for donations from the wonderful Julie Kenner, myself and others like Sourcebooks! For more information on the conference and to register, please visit http://www.libertystatesfictionwriters.com/conference/.

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#WriteWed – Between the Pages of a Book SOLID GOLD BACHELOR by Kathye Quick

I have been struggling with focus and a massive project at work that is mentally draining me. Because of that, I needed something to take my mind off things and relied on my go to therapy – reading a book. “Between the pages of a books is where I want to be!”

Nothing could be more true and I was lucky enough to have received an arc of SOLID GOLD BACHELOR by Kathye Quick which is now available for pre-order. The ARC was received in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this second chance at love story between the responsible rich girl and the bad boy rock star from the wrong side of the tracks. Add in mobsters, murder and a secret baby and the story had my attention until the very end. Plus the icing on the cake was that it was set in New Jersey, adding that hometown element to the feel of the story.

Hope you have an easy Hump Day!

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#ThrowbackThursday Wedding Inspiration for ONE SUMMER NIGHT

I’ve always been a beach girl. Growing up on Long Island, a lot of my summer was spent on Jones Beach and now that I’m a Jersey Girl, I spend as much time as I can down the Jersey Shore. When the idea came to me for the At the Shore series, there was no doubt that there would be a wedding on the beach for one or more of my Jersey Girls. Years ago, hubby and I attended a fabulous wedding in California and as I started to write the wedding scenes for ONE SUMMER NIGHT, I remembered that West Coast wedding and thought about how a New Jersey version might look. Here’s a photo from the California wedding. Gorgeous, isn’t it?

Special Pricing for a limited time!

FYI – My publisher has dropped the price of ONE SUMMER NIGHT to .99 cents for a limited time! If you haven’t already picked up your e-book, you can do so at the following retailers:

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#ThrowbackThursday My Pride and Joy Helping Others After Hurricane Sandy

It’s been five years since Hurricane Sandy barreled into New Jersey wreaking havoc in so many places and forever changing so many towns, especially along the Jersey Shore.

My daughter had only just opened her surf and skate shop when Sandy hit her quaint town. She was lucky that her shop didn’t suffer physical damage although the town did. Parts of the town were flooded, the boardwalk was destroyed in sections, the Great Auditorium was damaged, and a large portion of a fishing pier disappeared into the surf.

In addition to the physical damage, the economic downturn was devastating to so many small businesses including my daughter’s. But as much as she was hurting, that didn’t stop her from helping others. She sold tickets to a One Direction concert that she had fought hard to get and saved to by and she donated that money and a portion of her surf and skate shop’s income to the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting association so they could rebuild and help local residents affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Here are some photos of the day my daughter went to present them with a check for their rebuilding efforts. I am so proud of her and the kind and giving person she is!

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#WriteWed – Inspiration for Sea Kiss from ONE SUMMER NIGHT

As you might guess from the At the Shore series name, the stories in my new contemporary romance series are set on the Jersey Shore in the fictional town of Sea Kiss. Sea Kiss is a mix of several of my favorite towns along the Jersey Shore. Today I’m going to share a little bit about Ocean Grove which is one of my favorite shore towns.

Located just south of neighboring Asbury Park, Ocean Grove is a quaint town filled with lovely Victorian homes and a shopping district with a hometown feel. You’ll get to taste some of that atmosphere in ONE SUMMER NIGHT as the characters stroll through town. There’s even a little homage to my daughter’s surf and skate shop on Main Avenue. You’ll actually get to meet her in #2 in the series, WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER.

Ocean Grove was originally founded by the Methodists and is today still owned by the Camp Meeting Association. For that reason, the town is dry and many of the homes are on land that is owned by the Association and only leased to the homeowners. Not that long ago, residents could not park their cars in town on Sunday and to this day, the beach does not open until noon on Sundays to allow residents to attend religious services. Some of those services are actually held in a small pavilion on the boardwalk.

One of the most interesting elements in town that track to its faith-based mission are the tents which are erected every May and taken down in late September. The tens are a holdover from when the Methodists would hold their camp revival meetings on the beach. At some point the structures became more permanent with small sheds to hold the kitchens and bathrooms and the tented area for sleeping. They are lovely to see and are decorated quite nicely by the summer residents. Over 100 of them remain in town.

In ONE SUMMER NIGHT, the families of the heroe and heroine have lived in Sea Kiss for nearly a century and have grand Victorian homes on the beachfront. It was so much fun to craft these homes and the nearby town to give you a taste of what I love about the Jersey Shore and Ocean Grove in particular. The town is a unique gem, so much so, that the entire town has been designated a National Historic landmark.

I hope you enjoyed this look into the inspiration for Sea Kiss, my little town in the At the Shore series. I hope you’ll check out ONE SUMMER NIGHT which is now available for pre-order and will be out in print and e-book on October 3. The second book in the series, WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER, will be out in late Spring 2018 and you’ll get to spend some more time with Owen’s brother Jonathan and Maggie’s best friend Connie Reyes. Plus you’ll get to see a little more of Sea Kiss!

You can pre-order ONE SUMMER NIGHT at the following retailers:

Amazon Kindle: http://amzn.to/2krMwfE
Amazon Paperback: http://amzn.to/2kYLWZV
B&N: http://bit.ly/2kNuo0p
iBooks: http://apple.co/2qsqdwx
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2fuEphL

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#WriteWed Inspiration for ONE SUMMER NIGHT and the At the Shore Contemporary Romance Series

My idea for ONE SUMMER NIGHT got started when the heroine, Maggie Sinclair, just didn’t want to leave me alone. She kept on bugging me to write her story, an enemies to lovers with a marriage twist, and then brought along her best friends, Connie and Emma, to have them nudge me as well!

Maggie is spunky and determined to save her family’s Fifth Avenue department store for a number of reasons. She wants to protect the many loyal employees who had worked there for so long. She wants to salvage the legacy of a mother who died too young. Last, but not least, she wants to put her own stamp on the store where she had literally grown up.

Maggie has to raise a lot of cash to implement needed changes in the store, but to do that she has to reach out to the one person who is going to make her life difficult: Sexy Owen Pierce. Maggie has had the hots for Owen since they were teens, but there’s one big problem: Their families have been feuding for the last twenty-some years.

As for Owen, he’s just as interested in exploring his attraction to Maggie. He thinks she’s smart, beautiful, independent, and stubborn, but wants to explore the sizzle he feels whenever she is near.

Owen and Maggie decide to toss aside their normally responsible selves and find a way to end the rift between their families. What follows is a story that has humor, heat, and heartbreak, but also the happily ever after you want, just in an unexpected way.

I hope you’ll take the time to check out ONE SUMMER NIGHT at these retailers:

Amazon Kindle: http://amzn.to/2krMwfE
Amazon Paperback: http://amzn.to/2kYLWZV
B&N: http://bit.ly/2kNuo0p
iBooks: http://apple.co/2qsqdwx
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2fuEphL

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