tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48171472912250764192024-03-13T12:44:37.184-04:00Jello WorldWriting and life are like a bowl of jello - malleable, uncertain, open to interpretation, with endless possibilities.J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.comBlogger182125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-42883965584018559262015-06-28T12:07:00.000-04:002015-06-28T12:07:01.564-04:00I Didn't Know to Dream ThisThis weekend I had the pleasure of attending Gather at the River, a two-day choral conference put together by the New Hampshire and Vermont chapters of the ACDA. It was held at Dartmouth College, in the lovely little town of Hanover, NH. You can visit the link above to see the rundown of the things we did during those two days, but it was basically workshops, learning, and singing with dozens of J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-81240026642390273912015-04-21T04:00:00.000-04:002015-04-21T04:00:13.434-04:00New Release! DARK LIGHT by Richard Pieters
Dark Light
Richard Pieters
Sci/fi
Blurb
Storm clouds have stalled over the sweltering, riverside town of Avebury, Ohio and something dark and deadly is spreading when Carter Collins returns home. His quiet hometown is falling under the sway of an evangelist whose form of salvation is anything but holy. Those opposing the "way of the righteous" are silenced. Carter's J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-75800475903842679312015-02-27T02:27:00.001-05:002015-02-27T10:13:44.798-05:00Nuances of Punctuating Dialogue: Em-Dash vs EllipsisThis is a fairly specific post about punctuating dialogue. If you're unsure on the basics of where commas and other punctuation go in relation to quotation marks, dialogue tags, and action beats, this post won't answer those questions. Sorry! Perhaps that's something I can touch on later. What I want to cover today is how two specific punctuation marks, the em-dash and the ellpisis, can change J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-46751771485527648052015-01-12T08:00:00.000-05:002015-01-12T08:00:07.534-05:00How I'm Using Crowdfunding to Attend a Writing ConferenceCrowdfunding. Maybe you love it. Maybe you hate it. Maybe you don't know all that much about it. If you don't, it's pretty much exactly what it sounds like: people asking other people to help fund their project or cause. Some of the most popular sites for this are Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe. People ask for funds to help them create something tangible like a comic book or movie, or for J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-68150872657581332302015-01-02T01:02:00.000-05:002015-01-02T01:02:20.490-05:00Compersion for the New YearNo, that's not a typo in the title. I did mean compersion and not compassion. I came across the term in some reading a few years ago (oh, the things you learn as a writer!) and it has stuck with me ever since because I think it fits a part of me that I never knew how to name. Compersion is a word coined by members of the Kerista Commune in the '70s, I believe, and it was used in the context of J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-47970258215719178712014-11-22T11:47:00.000-05:002014-11-22T15:22:32.132-05:00Pushing BoundariesQuite a while ago I wrote a post about how I wished the "trashy" erotica out there would go away, because it gave erotica in general a bad name. I hated the idea of people who might very well enjoy reading erotica being turned off or scared away from giving it a try because all they knew of were "those" stories. And by "those" stories, at the time I referenced mainly things like pseudo-incest J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-91573284794136922082014-11-06T14:34:00.000-05:002014-11-06T15:47:27.817-05:00Live Free or DieLive free or die is the state motto of New Hampshire. My husband and I (and our dog, of course) moved here at the end of July, and I'm still discovering new and quirky things about the area that differentiate it from other places I've lived. We're enjoying it here so far and are cautiously waiting for our first New England winter. There are lots of things that I find awesome, weird, funny, or J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-35846080992339409362014-08-09T17:55:00.000-04:002014-08-09T18:21:08.071-04:00I Emailed Hachette on Amazon's Behalf... Sort of**Edited to add: It didn't take long (literally, just moments) after I sent the email for me to regret wasting the time of those I copied on the message for the sole purpose of saying "See, annoying, innit?" Please forgive my dumbassery on that point.**
I'm sure by now many of you have heard about the tasteless email Amazon sent out to KDP authors late Friday/early Saturday. I answered their callJ. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-35306269766707023992014-06-17T20:10:00.000-04:002014-06-17T20:10:20.624-04:00Maybe When I'm 30I started another blog a while back to talk about being childfree, but I haven't updated it in quite a while and decided there's no reason I can't share all my thoughts right here. So over the next few weeks I'll be re-posting some of the things I originally posted there. This post was originally from last year, just as I turned 30.
Maybe when I’m 30…
That’s what I used to say when people askedJ. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-35459240970767482782014-05-23T23:03:00.000-04:002014-05-23T23:03:26.923-04:00Anniversary Time! A New Ebook Cover and New PriceOne year ago today, my first novel went live on Amazon. It has been a year of learning, growth, and (I won't lie) some WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING???? moments. I think taking the plunge and self-publishing has magnified certain aspects of my personality that I can never be sure whether they're good or bad. Like my stubbornness about what I like and don't like, my perfectionist tendencies, my J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-15510779060753092592014-05-22T03:28:00.000-04:002014-05-22T03:28:17.933-04:00For the Love of David Tennant and Real-Life Heroes
On Monday I shared this photo across a few of my social media outlets. If you know anything about me, you know how much I love David Tennant. Not just because he's hot, but because he played one of my favorite heroes of all time, Doctor Who. When I saw this picture, I didn't look too closely at it. I just swooned, pretty much. Then a friend on Twitter burst my bubble when she said she was J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-43104253465316136922014-03-31T12:09:00.001-04:002014-03-31T12:09:54.781-04:00My Writing Process Blog TourI was tagged by two wonderful writing friends, SK Keogh and Precy Larkins, to participate in a blog tour where authors answer a few questions about their writing process and what they're working on. SK Keogh writes historical fiction. You should check out her Jack Mallory Chronicles, of which two books are published and a third is on the way. Read more about her writing process here. Precy J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-42896375943513404122014-02-05T16:46:00.000-05:002014-02-05T16:51:47.691-05:00On Happiness and Mental HealthA friend asked me recently if I consider myself a happy person. I do. Most people would say I am. One of the most frequent comments I get is about how much and how often I smile. Even in spite of the I love humanity/I hate humanity dichotomy that lives in my brain, my default is positivity. Sure, I'm happy. Easy to answer. The next question was a little tougher.
What makes you a happy person?
J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-5510424973314143002014-02-01T03:30:00.000-05:002014-02-04T10:30:17.023-05:00The Journey of Self-AcceptanceBelieve it or not, this is a GIVEAWAY post! I've teamed up with four other lovely ladies for a giveaway just in time for Valentine's Day.
As most of us know, there's a certain amount of self-acceptance that you need to have to be happy and fulfilled, both in and out of romantic relationships. The five of us chipping in for this giveaway all have books that feature strong female characters who J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-70495671746737155982014-01-15T05:00:00.000-05:002014-01-15T05:00:00.920-05:00Giveaway and Cover Reveal: Angie Sandro's DARK PARADISE
DARK PARADISE
Angie Sandro
July 1, 2014
Grand Central Publishing/ Forever Yours
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Pre-order available!
BOOK BLURB:
DARK LEGACY
Mala LaCroix has spent her whole life trying to escape her destiny. As the last in a long line of “witch women,” she rejects the notion of spirits and hoodoo and instead does her best to blend in. But when she finds a dead J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-76550490737554478532014-01-09T23:26:00.000-05:002014-01-09T23:26:37.051-05:00On Waffling
via Wikimedia Commons
Mmmm.... waffles. Buttery, sweet, yummy... oh wait, sorry. Not those waffles. I meant waffle the verb. From Dictionary.com:
waf·fle
verb (used without object), waf·fled, waf·fling.
1.to speak or write equivocally: to waffle on an important issue.
I'll come back to waffling in just a sec.
Several months ago I updated the look and feel of the blog here, and I had J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-73222909457263672622013-11-01T01:32:00.001-04:002013-11-01T01:35:56.002-04:00PARTAAAY with WHISKEY AND GUMDROPSToday I am super excited to have my author friend Jean Oram on the blog in celebration of her new release! We'll chat about her books in a moment, but first a little shop talk.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
Give us a little background about Jean Oram, regular gal.
Regular gal Jean likes to ski and grew up in an old schoolhouse. She has two kids, a dog, two cats, and a husband she calls her best friend.J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-43965711444629218742013-07-26T16:15:00.002-04:002013-07-26T16:15:17.888-04:00Go Ahead -- Call Me SelfishSELFISH
*gasp* Oh, the horror!
What a terrible thing for someone to call you, right? There are times when I feel I care a little too much about other people, so for someone to accuse me of the exact opposite would hurt, for sure.
Have you noticed how selfish has become a really vile insult to toss at people? Or is that just my own perception of the word clouding my judgment? As a childfree J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-48707661894000377522013-07-15T11:00:00.000-04:002013-07-18T17:34:14.755-04:00NAmazing Adventure!Welcome to my stop on the NAmazing Adventure, a blog hop featuring over 60 New Adult authors, and prize packs that include ARCs, signed books, gift cards, swag, and more! If you're not sure what the NAmazing Adventure is, please click the banner below to start from the beginning and read the complete rules on the NA Alley website.
If you have no idea what New Adult is (whaaaaa? have you beenJ. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-58125556678752699182013-07-12T19:15:00.000-04:002013-07-12T19:15:07.409-04:00Q&A With Elephant's Bookshelf Press
I'm super excited to have a Q&A session with Matt Sinclair, founder of Elephant's Bookshelf Press. EBP published the anthologies Spring Fevers and The Fall: Tales from the Apocalypse, both of which I am proud to have short stories in. EBP's newest anthologies, Summer's Edge and Summer's Double Edge are due out July 15, 2013.
Jello World: Tell us a little bit about the theme for this J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-41943238241400152422013-05-29T11:44:00.003-04:002013-06-04T19:25:25.204-04:00Time for a GIVEAWAY!EDIT: I clearly underestimated how many people are out there just downloading free ebooks without much promotion on my part. I've just about made my June 19th goal, and there's still more than two weeks to go! So, I've decided to increase the overall goal to actually make it a challenge. I've also increased the number of winners, and added another way to gain entries!
My novel, Sorry's Not J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-82213313941734073492013-05-20T21:24:00.001-04:002013-06-04T19:25:25.211-04:00Free Short Stories, and Novel Release DateA brief update on my publishing journey! I've been super busy. First, I've released a collection of five short stories so that anyone not familiar with my writing can get a feel for it. Best of all - the collection is FREE! The five short stories explore romantic relationships of both the more tame and the more erotic varieties. One reviewer had this to say:
Mouthwateringly hot, insightfulJ. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-50961823008623603812013-04-11T22:07:00.000-04:002013-06-04T19:25:25.208-04:00The Next Big Thing, and My Cover RevealYes, I did just say MY cover reveal! Keep reading to find out more.
My friend Ty tagged me in The Next Big Thing blog hop whatchamacallit thingy that has been making the rounds. Please make sure to read his post, about his novel Flowers for Dionysus, which you should all be jealous to know I read an early draft of. And now onto the questions and my answers.
1. What is the working titled of one J. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-87133159406028141782013-04-05T15:24:00.000-04:002013-06-04T19:32:08.692-04:00Review: The Siren, by Tiffany ReiszThe Siren by Tiffany Reisz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I've been trying to write a thorough, intelligent review for some time now, and I'm having trouble putting my thoughts into words because I want to do the book justice. There are so many reasons why I enjoyed this book, why it's better than so much other erotica out there, and why it just works, but my brain refuses to compile that into aJ. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817147291225076419.post-83954147961134734852013-03-25T20:21:00.000-04:002013-06-04T19:32:08.685-04:00#Scintilla13: Letting GoGoing back to a previous prompt for today's Scintilla post.
B: What have been the event horizons of your life–the moments from which there was no turning back?
Letting Go
She stared at the little black box, which held the promise of one particular future life. Marriage, kids, a house and a job most likely within twenty miles of the small town where they'd grown up. In theory, they could makeJ. Lea Lopezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127268567300257974noreply@blogger.com2