Writing – Page 3 – Carla Swafford, Author

I’ve decided I need a friend called Sam. They’re loyal. They’ll follow you into danger and protect your back, tell you when you’re wrong, support you when you’re right, and so much more. Why do I say that? You may have already guessed. As many of you have done, years ago, I’d watched all of the Lord of The Rings movies. Now, I’m watching the Game of Thrones series. When it was originally on, I missed numerous episodes. So I decided to watch them from beginning to end. I’ve already seen several I had missed. You may remember in the two series, they have a main character whose best friend is name Sam (or Samwell). I wouldn’t be surprised to find other series with loyal friends with the same name. There has to be a reason they’re called Sam.

Writing Tip

How often have you read about the shape of a character’s furniture or the way rain hits a puddle of water? If I kept those type of descriptions in a short sentence or two of setting, I believe most people would find the description interesting enough. Even a list of items in a room, no longer than a sentence, can be entertaining. It’s when an author types paragraphs and pages describing rooms, plant uses, or the weather (etc.) that bores me. I usually skip over it. While for other people they claim such writing gives the story layers. I guess my imagination doesn’t need all the extra words to help a story along. All of that is something to think about, heh?

Next Book

Presently, I’m working on the next book of the Southern Crime Family. It’s been a rough go, because I couldn’t get a handle on Sen (middle brother) and what his deal was. Finally, I figured it out and it’s coming together. Sorry for being vague, but I should provide excerpts before too much longer.

Here’s what the cover will look like.

Audio Coming Soon

The narration for Savage Champion should be finished in a few more weeks. I keep saying it, but I’m so excited. There are two narrators (female and male) and I think you’ll enjoy it. More details to come as soon as I’m notified they’re finished.

This is the cover for the audio. Note the narrators.

As you can tell, this is a short newsletter this time.

Take care. Read, read, read. And be sure to let people know about any books you enjoyed.

Carla

My Books, Newsletter, Savage Champion, Special Price, Writing

Newsletter: Author Carla Swafford – A Little Surprise

Posted on July 7, 2024July 22, 2024 by Carla Swafford, Author

Hey, if you haven’t gotten a copy of Savage Champion yet, go to Smashwords.com and purchase the ebook using the following code. It’s for 75% off. The code is good until July 16, 2024.

CODE: YNC7M

From bestselling author Carla Swafford a new genre for fans of her gritty romantic suspense books. When a private investigator tracks down a client’s lost sister, he discovers she’s not lost or the client’s sister. The woman is a vampire on a campaign of vengeance. Somehow he must stop her killing spree and protect her at the same time.

Romance, suspense, and a female vampire with a hero complex.

Learned Something New

Probably everyone knew this but me. You can squeeze empty plastic bottles with the lid off, and then put the lid on. It will stay squashed. Makes sense, right? Taking up less room. Anyway, maybe one or two people on my mailing list didn’t know it and will find this helpful.

Movie/Show Reviews

As a writer, you should constantly feed your muse. For some people, it’s keeping up with current news. Me, I prefer watching new movies and series. Recently, I watched several episodes of My Lady Jane. It’s an alternate history of the nine-day queen of England, Lady Jane Grey. Similarly done like Knight’s Tale, but it includes fantasy. I enjoyed it, and hope for a second season.

Jason Statham’s The Beekeeper was different enough to hold my interest. I have noticed during the fight scenes my mind wanders. I guess you have to have a sword or lightsaber to keep my interest in those scenes nowadays.

Speaking of lightsabers, The Acolyte series on Disney started out so boring, but it improved along the way, Some good plot twists. I noticed the reviews are mixed.

Continue Working

I’m presently working on two books. One I’m co-authoring with my BFF and the second book of the Southern Crime Family trilogy (Sen). But this summer has been so busy and August will be crazy. More about that later.

Get All The News

Be sure to follow me at the following links.

BookBub

GoodReads

Amazon

Hope you’re enjoying many awesome summer reads.

Carla

Writing

Newsletter: Author Carla Swafford – Movies & Books

Posted on June 6, 2024June 22, 2024 by Carla Swafford, Author

The other night I was looking for a good romance movie. But it was frustrating how many were rom-coms (too many) or teenage angst. Nothing against those two, I’ve enjoyed plenty of them. Beautiful Disaster for example (college students). Hey, I even own a copy of the movie.

Except for Passionflix, a streaming service for romance movies produced by the owner, Tosca Musk, (Yes. Elon’s sister) there are few and far between serious romance movies with adults out there. And no, I’m not including Fifty Shades of Grey. She was in college.

With the recent popular age-gap romance movie, The Idea of You, and millions of people buying romance books, it’s time for more adult-age, serious romance movies to be made. Goodness there are more sub-genres that can be pulled from beside rom-com. For example suspense, historical, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, etc.

I’m not talking about a series (a la Bridgeton), but movies. Series drag out a romance and not necessarily in a good way. Too many times I’ve been disappointed by series. They have to keep pulling you in. While in a movie, it’s one and done. Ha!

What recent romance movie have you watched that you enjoyed? I need recommendations!

Book Signing & Free Book

For those who are interested in coming to my next book signing, I will be at the Decatur Public Library in Decatur, AL, for their Readers and Writers Jubilee. If you do attend, come and tell me you’re a subscriber to my newsletter and you’ll receive one of my books free (my choice). Yep. A FREE BOOK. It will be my thank you for coming by and saying hello.

Just a heads up, I’ll be at the Sumiton BookFest (Alabama) again this year. October 12, 2024. More information to come.