#Elana Johnson

[jolieeason]

April 2024 Wrap-Up

Here is what I read, posted, won, received, and bought in April. As always, let me know if you have read any of these books and (if you did) what you thought of them. Books I Read: Books Reviewed: The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin—review here The Trail of Lost Hearts by Tracey Garvis Graves—review here Off the Air by Christina Estes—review here Sincerely, The Duke by Amelia…

[irisblobel]

#NewRelease "THE SEASIDE STRATEGY" by Elana Johnson #preorder @InkslingerPR

#NewRelease “THE SEASIDE STRATEGY” by Elana Johnson #preorder @InkslingerPR

We’re so excited to be sharing the final book in Elana Johnson’s HILTON HEAD ISLAND ROMANCE trilogy–The Seaside Strategy is coming August 16th! Title: The Seaside Strategy Author: Elana Johnson Genre: Contemporary Romance Release Date: August 16th About The Seaside Strategy: Lauren Keller understands strategies. She adores them and never enters a marketing meeting without Strategy A, B, and C…

[queerism1969]

Here are 50 books Texas parents want banned from school libraries:

"Drama," by Raina Telgemeier

"When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball," by Mark Weakland

"Lawn Boy," by Jonathan Evison

"Better Nate Than Ever," by Tim Federle

"Five, Six, Seven, Nate!" by Tim Federle

"The Bluest Eye," by Toni Morrison

"Out of Darkness," by Ashley Hope Pérez

"Ghost Boys," by Jewell Parker Rhodes

"l8r, g8r," by Lauren Myracle

"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl," by Jesse Andrews

"White Bird: A Wonder Story," by R.J. Palacio

"Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11," by Alan Gratz

"Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic," by Alison Bechdel

"Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)" by L.C. Rosen

"City of Thieves," by David Benioff

"Gender Queer," by Maia Kobabe

"This One Summer," by Mariko Tamaki

"We Are the Ants," by Shaun David Hutchinson

"The Breakaways," by Cathy G. Johnson

"All Boys Aren't Blue," by George M. Johnson

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky

"Michelle Obama: Political Icon," by Heather E. Schwartz

"Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You," by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

"New Kid," by Jerry Craft

"Class Act," by Jerry Craft

"Salvage the Bones," by Jesmyn Ward

"Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice," by Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Olivia Gatwood

"Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness," by Anastasia Higginbotham

"How to be an Antiracist," by Ibram X. Kendi

"A Good Kind of Trouble," by Lisa Moore Ramée

"We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices," by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson

"On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God," by Louise Rennison

"The Kite Runner," by Khaled Hosseini

"It's Perfectly Normal," by Robie H. Harris

"Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out," by Susan Kuklin

"Monday's Not Coming," by Tiffany D. Jackson

"Happier Than Not," by Adam Silvera

"George," by Alex Gino

"What Girls Are Made Of," by Elana K. Arnold

"I Am Jazz," by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings

"So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed," by Jon Ronson

"King and the Dragonflies," by Kacen Callender

"Go With the Flow," by Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann

"Last Night at the Telegraph Club," by Malinda Lo

"Weird Girl and What's His Name," by Meagan Brothers

"Flamer," by Mike Curato

"Milk and Honey," by Rupi Kaur

"A Court of Mist and Fury," by Sarah J. Maas

"47," by Walter Mosley

"Girls Like Us," by Gail Giles

[nanowrimo]

So You Didn’t Hit Your Word Count… Did You Have Fun?

Sometimes we don’t reach our word count goal. And that’s okay! Longtime NaNo participant Michael Chatfield has a few words of advice on how the most important part of writing is the journey itself. There’s a regular responses to missing your word count— “I’ll just increase how much I write tomorrow, I’ll spread it over the remaining days!”

If that works for you— go for it!

If that doesn’t and you’re starting to beat yourself up about not hitting those numerical milestones and your obstacles are starting to look like blockades, this might be for you. My limited nuggets of wisdom I can give you on the all fearing word count.

I’m going to talk a little about passion, some about joy and a lot about how while numbers are great— they are not the be all-end all of writing. Showing up, getting lost inyour world, exploring it everyday and putting in the time is the win. Sometimes that results in words, we hope, but sometimes that means we don’t hit the numbers we want to.

Many times when we don’t hit that all important word count, there comes a sinking feeling. You may say to yourself something like — “I’m slipping”, “I’m behind”, “It’s going to be so hard to catch up”, “I’m failing!”. These are all a variation of “I didn’t get x words today so I’m losing”.

Woah— wait, you’re losing? You’re falling behind? Let me steal some words and heavily paraphrase what I heard fellow writer Elana Johnson say. Writing is like climbing a mountain, we’re each going up it on our own path in our own way. When we take a pause we feel like we’re slipping down the mountain. That’s just plain ridiculous, you climbed up to this point.

You’re HERE!

Take a look around. Your love for an idea, for a group of characters has led to this point. Draw from the excitement, that passion that got you here.

Get excited by that next scene that’s bursting to come forward, that next juicy tidbit you see ahead that opens a pit in your stomach, or fills it with butterflies!

Are you chasing numbers, or are you chasing those feelings, those scenes and parts that send a thrill through your mind and out into the world?

Ground yourself in where you are, just like a trek up a mountain, rarely do you do it in one damn bound.

You walk, take a break, take in the view, study the path behind, the path ahead. Maybe you want to be at a higher place than where you are right now.

Okay, totally fine, hell maybe you want to charge all the way up to that next lookout perch. Or maybe you didn’t move at all, you just took in the view.

That’s totally fine too, you didn’t start falling off it (base jumping is a whole different exercise).

Here’s a couple of thoughts/rut busters to think of:

If you’re stuck on something you need to do but having such a damn hell of a time doing it: Write a note. Dump all the information you have on this part. Now move onto the next thing after this.

When you have momentum use it, when you start seeing a scene coming together, start writing on it.

Write how you want to write. Some go from beginning to end, some write in chunks and fill it in, some use pen, keyboard or speech. Others hangout with friends, discuss a topic and write it all down. How do you want to record your stories? Do that. If you don’t know, then explore! Try out the most romantically writerly things you can think of like writing in calligraphy, on a typewriter, or with a cup of something. Picture how you think an author writes, try it out.

Writing your thoughts out can be a great help and allow you to go from writing out where the story is going to putting down the words that will get it there. Give thinking and thoughts space too. We often think it a waste of time or “doing nothing”.

I heard this from Neil Gaiman first and several other writers since. When writing, I can write or do nothing. Give writing the time it deserves and fully devote yourself to enjoying that time. Sometimes doing nothing is amazing. It’s known to cause thinking and boredom, which has been linked to increased creativity and energy.

You decide if you win or lose. If you show up, write, think, and be bored, you’ll honestly be surprised with the results. You win by living in your passion, you win by having fun. Don’t try to define failure, recognize when you’re having fun instead.

After all, writing is the author’s adventure.

Have fun, Michael Chatfield (Like all advice, it is only as useful as you find it. If this doesn’t gel with you, don’t worry, this wasn’t for you, there might be other advice that helps! Writing is your journey, find the information that works for you.)

Michael Chatfield is an international bestseller who likes to create character-driven stories set in fact-paced worlds. His main genres are Fantasy, Science Fiction, and LitRPG, but he enjoys adding enough realism to make the stories leap off the page. His book, Connection Unknown, can be found here.

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

[the-book-queen]

Hide your wallets, it's that time again! Your daily thread of romance deals is ready, FREE to $2.99!

FREE ✦ Beach Club Boxed Set by Elana Johnson

3 books, including:

~ Former Air Force pilot + recently divorced heroine trying to start over

~ Second chance, stormed in together

Contemporary Romance (MF) | https://amzn.to/4dW6ASw

$0.99 ✦ All Duke and Bothered by Mariah Stone

BatB vibes. Brooding Duke forces his enemy's sunshiny, artistic daughter into marriage for revenge.

KU Title

Historical Romance (MF) | https://amzn.to/3URS6KF

$2.99 ✦ Getting Hot with the Scot by Melonie Johnson

She's an American pop-culture reporter, he is Scottish and hosts a series of pranks and hijinks online.

Contemporary Romance (MF) | https://amzn.to/4azbqly

$2.99 ✦ The Earl is Mine by Kieran Kramer

Charismatic Lord on the verge of becoming a successful architect + aspiring artist fleeing an arranged marriage. They have some history -- she is the best friend of his ex.

Historical Romance (MF) | https://amzn.to/4aF9O9Y

$2.99 ✦ With Just One Kiss by Francis Ray

Friends to lovers. He runs a NYC bar. She writes for a fashion magazine.

Contemporary Romance (MF) | https://amzn.to/4dRFQSZ

Putting these lists together takes time. If you appreciate this content, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi. http://ko-fi.com/danielletbq

[white-cat-of-doom]

Highlights from last of two performances at the ETSU Martin Center for the Arts in Johnson City, TN (07 March 2023) in US Tour 6.

Luke Bernier did a takeover of the theater's Instagram account, and answered questions and to talked to some other cast members. The full compilation of footage below.

Featuring Rachael Haber covering Grizabella, Dominic Fortunato as Pouncival, Megan Arseneau, Clara Hevia, Ellie Chancellor, and Jonathan Heller.

Megan Arseneau helped to wrangle Kitties.

Rachael Haber covering Babygriz, Allyson Duarte as Jellylorum, Taryn Smithson as Rumpleteazer, and Elana Valastro covering Tantomile.

The Kitties also have many tickets available to give away for the upcoming stop in New Jersey.

Michelle E. Carter as Jennyanydots, Gracie Anderson covering Rumpleteazer, Brian Craig Nelson as Mungojerrie, Hank Santos as Rum Tum Tugger, and Ibn Snell as Mistoffelees.

[joyffree]

✨IT'S FREEBIE FRIDAY July 7th - ADVENTURE- ROMANCE-MYSTERY 🛫 READY - SET - GO! ➱ Free eBooks on All Platforms

I present to you this week's bag of mixed delights

Rook: A Chess Club Mystery by TK Eldridge

Darkness Awakened: Fantasy Romance by Stephanie Rowe

Warbringer: Epic Fantasy by Aaron Hodges

Second Skyn: A Cyberpunk Action Thriller by Damien Boyes

The Billionaire Club: Clean Beach Billionaire Romance by Elana Johnson

Fireball: An Enemies to Lovers Romance by Lainey Davis

Summer Chaparral: American Historical Romance by Genevieve Turner

Protecting Fiona: Military Romantic Suspense by Susan Stoker

Her Fake Irish Husband: Romance by Michele Brouder

By the Pact: High Fantasy Sword Sorcery by Joanna Maciejewska

I Do (Not): An MM Office Romance Comedy by Anni Lee

[abcnewspr]

HIGHLIGHTS FOR ABC NEWS’ ‘GOOD MORNING AMERICA,’ MAY 29-JUNE 3

The following report highlights the programming of ABC’s “Good Morning America” during the week of May 29-June 3. “Good Morning America” is a two-hour, live program anchored by Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan, and Ginger Zee is the chief meteorologist. The morning news program airs MONDAY-FRIDAY (7:00-9:00 a.m. EDT) on ABC.

Highlights of the week include the following:

Monday, May 29 — Businessman and TV personality Mark Cuban (“Shark Tank”); authors Kiley Reid and Carley Fortune; chef and cookbook author Susan Spungen on Memorial Day cooking tips; professional pickleball players Parris Todd, Alix Truong, Hunter Johnson and Yates Johnson with chefs Chad Rosenthal and Elana Karp; a chat and performance by Jake Owen

Tuesday, May 30 — Businessman and TV personality Robert Herjavec (“Shark Tank”); author Bruce Feiler (“The Search”); actress Amanda Seyfried (“The Crowded Room”); “GMA” Book Club June reveal; actor, singer and author Hayley Kiyoko (“Girls Like Girls”); actresses Betsy Wolfe and Lorna Courtney (“& Juliet”); a performance by the cast of “& Juliet”

Wednesday, May 31 — Businesswoman and TV personality Barbara Corcoran (“Shark Tank”); English footballer Harry Kane; ABC News correspondent Eva Pilgrim celebrates being biracial in the AANHPI community for National AANHPI Heritage Month

Thursday, June 1 — Businessman and TV personality Daymond John (“Shark Tank”); drag queen Prada G. Major for “GMA”’s Out Loud series; a chat and performance by Lily Rose; Deals and Steals with ABC e-commerce editor Tory Johnson

Friday, June 2 — “GMA” Out Loud series continues with actors Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka (“Drag Me to Dinner”); “GMA” co-anchor Janai Norman celebrates Black Music Appreciation Month; a chat and performance by Jelly Roll

Saturday, June 3 — Drag queen and queer artist Kandy Muse (“RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars”); Deals and Steals with ABC e-commerce editor Tory Johnson

ABC Media Relations

Brooks Lancaster Brooks.Lancaster@abc.com

Daniela Urso Daniela.Urso.-nd@abc.com

-- ABC --

[safehavenbookshelf]

Go ahead and check out my first book review! Aloha Hideaway Inn by Elana Johnson, a beautiful sweet romance you'll love!

[thesonnast]

Sweet Romance Giveaway

My friend and sweet romance author Elana Johnson was generous enough to gift me one of her book boxes to give away to one of my readers! Enter below for your chance to win! a Rafflecopter giveaway

[irisblobel]

#NewRelease "The Paradise Plan" by Elana Johnson @InkSlingerPR

#NewRelease “The Paradise Plan” by Elana Johnson @InkSlingerPR

The Paradise Plan by Elana Johnson is out now! Check it out and be sure to grab your copy of the sweet beachside romance today! Title: The Paradise Plan Author: Elana Johnson Genre: Contemporary Romance About The Paradise Plan: Cassandra Haslam loves plans. Lunch plans, wedding plans, and floor plans—they all bring her joy. In fact, she’s had her entire life planned out—career, marriage, and…

[the-book-queen]

Hide your wallets, it’s that time again! #TBQsBookDeals

Your Tuesday thread of #romancedeals is ready, FREE to $1.99. Happy shopping! 📚❤

 Incoming #romancedeals, FREE to $1.99. Happy shopping! 📚❤

 ~ * ~ * ~

  FREE ✦ The Day He Drove By by Elana Johnson

Widowed florist/single mom + the paramedic who also happened to deliver her daughter years ago.

Contemporary Romance (MF) | https://amzn.to/3RjWIaj 

FREE ✦ Of Valor and Vice by K.J. Jackson

Widow in need of a way to support herself and her nieces decides to turn the dower house into a gaming house + Duke who came to stop her -- or marry her, whichever.

Historical Romance (MF) | https://amzn.to/3JthemO 

$0.99 ✦ Mr. Grier and the Governess by Sophie Barnes

Spinster accepts a governess position while determined to live her life to the fullest with a bucket list. But only her stern employer can help her with the last item..

Historical Romance (MF) | https://amzn.to/3DrsEDX 

$0.99 ✦ Submission Impossible by Lexi Blake

He's a security specialist hired to find a corporate spy at a biochemical company she works at.

Contemporary Romance (MF) | https://amzn.to/3HjAnVx 

$1.99 ✦ A Ghost in Shining Armor by Therese Beharrie

She can see ghosts and helps them with any unfinished business. And oops, he's a phantom.

KU Title

Paranormal Romance (MF) | https://amzn.to/3RkoSSc 

 Putting these lists together takes time. If you appreciate this content, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi. http://ko-fi.com/danielletbq