Sorry for the delay in posting, I've been a little busy. My husband got a new job and started in November. This has required him to travel back and forth for past several months until the new plant he's soon to be working at is actually built, which won't be until May of this year. In the meantime, we had our first grandchild born, a precious baby boy named Bentley Hayden. Such a blessing.

​Here's the deal. My husband and I knew this move would happen as we sensed the Holy Spirit leading us the past two years. However, the plan was always to move to Nashville where my other two sons now live. Things didn't work out with that particular location, but we did manage to get a little closer. But now this move will leave us miles away from all our kids and our grandson. Consequently, I'm not as excited about this moving process as I once was before the Grandbaby Express railroaded me. I've fallen in love with my Bentley and will miss him sweet gurgles and coos. But the time has come to put the house on the market, and we must move forward with our lives. It's hard to uproot once again after living someplace for 14 years and now we are middle-aged, just us and no kids. I have to start all over with no family and no friends in a completely different state which I am not familiar with at all. Huntsville was not my plan, but evidently it was God's plan. I have to believe He's got this. For the past several months, it's been like a roller coaster ride, and I'm still waiting to exhale. Whew! Not much writing has been done, which is frustrating me to no end. I just can't focus long enough with all the interruptions.

My son is a new, only 24 year-old father who requires my help on weekdays. He works at night and does the daddy daycare thing during the day while his wife works morning shifts and doesn't get home until after noon. Of course, all this will change once we make the final move. Until then, not much writing is getting done. I forgot how exhausting it is to care for a newborn who screams bloody murder for his bottle and then suffers through the gas and sensitive stomach issues to the formula. Ugh! Hopefully, he will get past this stage and eating solid foods before I have to leave. But I have to say the inbetween times are sweet. Just looking at that precious face while he sleeps and seeing him smile at me makes up for every crying spat. He's adorable, of course. I just have to take all this in stride and carry on. I will make frequent trips to see him. This young couple has a long way to go to get on their feet and establish a home for their family yet. But I'm sure all will work out as has for centuries before them and me. So I must accept this challenge of making a new life for myself elsewhere, while embracing the blessings of today. And soon, I will exhale and breathe a sigh of relief once all this part's done anyway, and I can get back to writing those novels and finishing the series. God help me to do this, please. I hate leaving things undone. Dear Reader, hang in there with me. I'll get back in the swing of things soon.  

Rain, rain go away, come again some other day. I guess I should be thankful for the rain, since without it there wouldn't be spring. And then there is this problem of flooding. Thank God our home has never been damaged, but many in our area have lost everything. The problem is where they choose to live is low lying or too close to a major body of water. Some neighborhoods do not have adequate drainage systems to accommodate the deluge of 5 and 6 inches of rain within a few hours. Yet, these people always rebuild in the same exact place only to suffer through the lose of everything again and again. One would think a lightbulb would come on, and the individuals might figure out they need to move to higher ground. 

Higher ground is an interesting concept. Higher ground represents a safe place. With spring right around the corner, I am looking forward to seeing the trees bloom and flowers budding. My garden is a mess and desperately in need of grooming. The hummers aren't coming until April this year as opposed to mid-March. so I do have a little time yet. Funny how those little birds seem to know the perfect time to take flight and migrate. They seem to  have an intuitive, built-in warning system. Inclement weather requires a warning system to let people know when to take shelter from Tornadoes or to evacuate and move to higher ground, a safe place. The bad weather also sometimes ruins fresh blooms, tearing delicate petals away, which lay like blankets on the ground. 

Deadlines are like bad weather warnings. They help keep us focused on the task at hand. The closer a deadline looms, the faster we must move to higher ground, a higher way of thinking, a better train of thought to save our manuscript and book contract. If we are constantly missing deadline and not changing our habits in order to be more efficient with our time in the future, then we are being just like the people who rebuild a house in the same exact place the house was destroyed by a flood in the first place. That's just not smart, because invariably the house will get flooded again, and possibly within a short amount of time, depending on the weather. 

Strategic goal setting can help us make the deadline on a project. Strategy is wisdom to move forward in a way that will benefit you and not destroy your creative germ over and over again. So create a goal setting chart for yourself. You can simply write a certain number of words daily or pages daily. And then set weekly and monthly word count or page number goals. Decide how many days a week you can actually write, realistically, and consider the number of hours as well. Setting realistic goals will help you stay on task and meet those deadlines. 

Busy-ness is like a storm brewing on the horizon. If you let other things take priority over your writing goals, then you will end up in a flood zone up to your neck in high water with the heavy burden of trying to get too much done too fast. A deluge of overload will suddenly overwhelm you, and you won't write a manuscript worthy of your creative genius. Prioritizing your time and managing your writing goals will help you get the work done and on time. 

First of all, I'm so excited to learn that "Where Two Rivers Meet" made the longlist for the INSPY Awards. To be nominated alone is a great honor and unexpected blessing. Also, I want to announce that "Where Two Rivers Meet" has also been entered into the Colorado Romance Writers contest for the 2016 Award of Excellence for published authors. Finalists will be notified March 15 and the winners will be announced on May 14, 2016. I'll keep you posted. 

Contests are always a great way to get your book not only seen but respected by publishing industry professionals and peers. There are all kinds of contests out there for authors, both published and unpublished. If you are an unpublished author, you should look into this opportunity and submit your work. In fact, one of my first introductions into the writing world was through a blog contest. It was a very simple, short story about my special needs son who sold the most popcorn in his Boy Scout Troop, proving how sheer determination can perpetuate even the perceived weakest among us. I won $500.00. Wow! That's a lot of money for about 250 words and not much time. I didn't even tweak the story much as I recall. Just submitted it online, a very simple process. Winning this little known about contest helped jump start my writing career and gave me the needed confidence to keep pursuing my craft. 

After laboring for years over "Where Two Rivers Meet," my first-ever historical fiction romance novel, I finally got up the courage to submit it to publishers and agents. I actually did get an agent to pick it up at one point, but that failed to produce any fruits for my efforts. Much disappointment lingered over two more years of editing and lots of money spent. I finally decided to discontinue my contract with this particular agent since I didn't feel they were doing anything with my book. This action left me hanging, not knowing what to do next. I kept on submitting, but with few responses. Most of them were the standard rejections, but one in particular was quite extensive and critical of my writing prose. This left me devastated as this particular editor (not well-known, small press) did not seem to have anything nice to say about the book at all. She only hounded on everything she found wrong with it. And, this came after months of expensive editing. Needless to say, I fell into a deep depression, feeling as though I couldn't write at all. What in the world was I thinking? Who did I think I was? Perhaps I was never meant to be an author. Thank God, one editor's disparaging words is often times another editor's treasure. I decided to take one last stab at it and submitted my title into the Frasier Contest, which is sponsored through ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers). Low and behold, my book actually placed and won a Bronze medal. This was the shot in the arm I needed to regain my confidence for writing. I finally secured a contract with a publisher and my book is now available to the general public and nominated for the Inspys Award. So the story here is, don't let one bad rejection stop you. Keep trying and keep submitting, especially to contest. You just might get surprised. Go for it!

     The thought of preordering a book seems a bit presumptuous of the author. However, there are very good reasons to offer preorders in today's market. Competition is fierce for all book publishers: traditional, indie, and self-publishing. Preorders can help your ranking on Amazon the very first day of release. Offering preordered signed copies at a significant discount which includes shipping will prompt your readers to want to make that purchase. 

     If you are self-published or an indie author, this is still very possible to do and very much within your best interests. Preorders can provide you the necessary revenue for you to place a significant initial order at your author discount rate. 

     Example: the retail price is $20.99 plus S&H and in some states tax. Your author rate is $8.40 per book. You could offer a preorder rate of $15.00, which will cover your author rate, plus S&H, etc. and still have change to spare. Preorders are not intended to generate royalties, but rather to buzz about your book and reviews on Amazon to boost book ratings. 

Promoting your book weeks or even months prior to its release will build the needed word of mouth buzz. Accepting preorders just makes good sense or cents rather. Once the book does release, most of the promo work should be done. At that point, your book could be riding the wave of a successful pre-release campaign and word of mouth sales could then bring those desired royalty sales for months to follow. Building your book buzz will benefit your signing events and help open doors for media interviews. 

To preorder a signed copy of my newest book for only $15.00, which includes shipping and tax, please contact me at londahayden@gmail.com and request an order form. "Where Two Rivers Meet" is the first in the Washington's Woods series. The sequel, "Where Chains are Broken" is in the works now along with the third book, "Where Love is Spoken."