A List of Happenings

Wow, so May took me by storm (literally) and had me in tears (good ones). So much happened that I'm still stunned, though exhilaration has crept in on soft cat paws. Yay! So let's catch up with all the news...

I'm participating in a paranormal romance anthology, Alphas Unleashed, with some awesome authors: Carolyn Jewel (I love her stories!), USA Today best selling author S.E. Smith, and my friend & RomCon darling Michele Callahan. SQUEE! I'm honored and thrilled to be working with all of them. Check out our fabulous cover (received in May):

Available: June 15!

I also found out Wildfire, the book of my heart, is a finalist in both the 2014 Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence and the 2014 Prism Contest. Wow, yes, this news made me cry and laugh. It has kept me happy dancing throughout the month. What a wonderful nod from my peers. And, wow, there are others who love my story as much as I do...SQUEE!

And then there was RT in New Orleans. About 3000 people attended the conference and then add in all other people who were at the hotel for different reasons...yup, you can imagine the crowd. It let me frazzled, dazed and confused for the most part. However, I did manage to meet up some awesome authors I have loved and admired and that was so much coolness!

(Met up with my mentor CJ Lyons! This was even more special because the first time I met her was in a Master Class that just happened to be in New Orleans....)

And I totally gushed and fan-girled over Marjorie M. Liu and Megan Hart, fortunately they handled me with grace and amusement. I also had a very nice breakfast with Rachel Caine, visited an oyster bar with Cathy Clamp, and hunted down oatmeal with L.J. Charles. I went on a ghost tour with Cynthia Eden, Katie Reus, Kaylea Cross and friends...yup, made lots of wonderful memories!

Then I returned home to tornado warnings, hail and, blessed, rain. After living with drought conditions for a long, long while, watching it dry out our lakes and turn much of West Texas brown, I'll take the hail and be thankful for the rain that filled our lakes and nourished our gardens.

While I'm grateful for all the wonderfulness of May, it's good to be back home and in my own space. Happy reading y'all!

Author CJ Lyons Is Inspired By Everyday Heroes

New York Times bestselling author CJ Lyons has lived the life of a pediatric ER doctor and creates many of the medical worlds of her thrillers with authenticity and heart.

CJ has been called a "master within the genre" (Pittsburgh Magazine) and her work has been praised as "breathtakingly fast-paced" and "riveting" (Publishers Weekly) with "characters with beating hearts and three dimensions" (Newsday). I learned the importance of character-driven stories and how to take my writing to the next level thanks to her.

Back in early 2010 I was an unpublished author and thinking of giving up my dream. CJ's Master Class was the last hurrah...and then she shared her experience, encouragement and craft. Without her, I would never have written THE DJINN'S DILEMMA and been published. She helped me believe in myself again amd reclaim my dream. So, without further ado, let me present my personal writing hero CJ :) 

What inspires my writing?

When I was a kid, it was my own need to learn how to become a hero, someone strong enough to change the world for the better.

After my pediatric internship when one of my fellow interns was brutally murdered, writing became my way to understand my grief and control the chaos around me. That's when I wrote my first thriller, BORROWED TIME, and I dedicated it to Jeff's memory.

(FACE TO FACE, her most recent release, came out Nov. 7!)

Much of my fiction since then has been inspired by my patients and their families. Ordinary people facing tragedy with courage and grace, proving that heroes are indeed born everyday.

I still search for order in the chaos--after practicing pediatric emergency medicine and pediatrics for seventeen years, that will never change. But now, after having sold hundreds of thousands of books and receiving fan letters from all over the world, I have another inspiration: my readers.

Discovering that I had the power to connect with people I'd never met, to inspire as well as entertain--that felt almost as good as saving lives in the ER! 

I treasure each fan letter as much as the very first one.  There have been people facing the pain of chronic illnesses who have been able to make it through the night because of my books.  Fellow medical personnel, EMS, firefighters, and police officers have written, thanking me for the way I "tell it like it really is."  And readers who simply needed an escape from their lives have found refuge in my words.

Honestly, no matter how much money or which bestseller lists I hit, I can't imagine any feeling as wonderful as the feeling I get when I hear from readers who have fallen in love with my books.  It's an adrenalin rush that fuels my writing and inspires me everyday!

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Woot! Thanks CJ for visiting with us and reminding us courage, love, and heroic acts are a part of everyday life. We just have to be aware of the world around us to find inspiration. Do you have an everyday hero? How has this person touched your life?


If you want to know more about CJ or her Thrillers with Heart check out her website. FACE TO FACE is the third book in her gripping Hart & Drake Series. The first book, NERVES OF STEEL, is on sale right now for 99 cents. Go check her books out!