Beth Carpenter Books

Thunderheads in East Last Friday, I decided I needed to focus on the positive and improve my attitude. With that in mind, I resolved to pay attention to the beautiful things around me every day for a week, and post  One Beautiful Thing  everyday on twitter, under the hashtag  #1BeautifulThing . Conclusion: I'm constantly surrounded by beautiful things. These are the pictures I posted, but there were many more moments of beauty every day, especially the contributions from  Bethany House  on Twitter. She elevates doodling to fine art.  When I started paying attention, I began to see beauty everywhere. I snapped pictures of a dozen beautiful things, and there were dozens more I'd have liked to captured in a photo, but I couldn't. Home-grown Tomatoes There was  t he hawk perched in a dead tree The cowdog riding shotgun in an ancient jeep Mule deer, two doe and two fawns, bounding across the road Gambel quail rustling through the brush and...

According to Christopher Booker,  there are only  Seven Basic Plots  in existence.  And romance writers, with the required ending of HEA (happily ever after) have even fewer to chose from. Most, if not all, romance stories are Plot 7, Rebirth . Sometimes Rags to Riches , a Quest , or a Comedy might get thrown in as well, but romance is really about change and growth. Two people are meant to be together, but some force within one or both of the protagonists keeps them apart. When they grow enough to overcome that force, they have earned their HEA. Successful romance writers are prolific, often writing several stories a year. So how do they manage to come up with so many different stories using one basic plot? I think it’s a little like zucchini. We have two healthy zucchini plants in our garden. If you’ve ever grown zucchini, you know a modest plant can produce an astounding number of squash. I’ve heard a rumor that people in the Midwest lock their doors...

I've been a little cranky this week. I'm not sure why: maybe minor disappointments and rain ... maybe hormones ... who knows? Yesterday, the sun came out. I went for a walk, watched the sky and the birds, smelled the pines, and I felt like myself again.  Anyway, I've challenged myself to a week of noticing the beautiful things around me. Every day, I'll post a tweet with a picture or at least a description of One Beautiful Thing I saw that day. Feel free to join me with hashtag #1BeautifulThing . Here's the first day - thunderheads building in the sky to the east while the sun shone in the west.  What beautiful thing did you see today?

Synergy - The interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc. Dictionary.com On a recent road trip, we came across this field. At first glance, it's a typical cotton field. The cotton plants take in sunshine and turn it into cotton which we make into crisp sheets and comfortable blue jeans. Plants are the original solar collectors. But for the cotton to thrive, it needs water, and rain isn't always dependable in West Texas. Wind, however, is almost constant, and the windmills on this property produce electricity. Electricity powers the pumps that produce water from an underground aquifer for the irrigation system that keeps this cotton growing. At the base of the windmill, you can see a pump-jack, pumping oil from deeper underground. The oil will be made into fuel, which powers the tractors and farm machinery necessary to plant, cultivate, and harvest the cotton. Everything...

When you hang out in writing circles, you meet the nicest people. At least that's been my experience. Writers have beta read for me, helped me craft blurbs, alerted me to opportunities, and helped me with promotion, all out of the goodness of their hearts.  Today, I'd like to say thank you the multi-talented  Liz Madrid , my latest writing angel. She read my entry for SYTYCW15 and not only voted and left encouraging comments, she's done some wonderful things to try to gather enough votes to get  As Long As We Both Shall Live  into the next round. By the way, if you haven't yet voted, there's still time up until Oct. 14th. Just follow the  link  and click the star.  Liz sent out creative messages on Wattpad and Twitter letting people know about the story. Then she created this wonderful cover for the book. And as if that wasn't enough, she made the amazing trailer below. Liz's creativity isn't limited to social and visual med...

Exciting News! I'm one of the top 50 picked for the first round of Harlequin's SYTYCW15. That's the So You Think You Can Write contest for 2015, with a grand prize of a two-book contract.  In this round, the editors judged pitches and first chapters from everyone who entered, and chose the top 50. Now, popular vote on Wattpad between Oct. 8th and Oct. 14th will determine which 25 move forward. So, if you're on Wattpad, or willing to take a few moments to register (it's easy) please take a look and consider voting for As Long As We Both Shall Live . Just click one the link and once you're in Part 1, click on the star to vote. As Long As We Both Shall Live is targeted for Harlequin Heartwarming, a line of clean romances.   Tawny broke his heart when she took their daughter and ran, but she can’t outrun a brain tumor. Now Alex is determined to save the mother of his child, even if he has to drag her into treatment. If he fails, he and his daughter wil...