Category Archives: Where the Heart Lies

Publication Day tomorrow! Win a NOOK!

Posted on by

Tomorrow is the day I’ve been waiting for since I got the acceptance from Carina Press. I still remember the thrill of that acceptance, and every step of the process toward publication of WHERE OF THE HEART LIES has been nothing short of fantastic and enjoyable. Now the day looms…and I’m in the mood to give stuff away!

Tomorrow is all about this blog, right here. I’ll be celebrating all day with excerpts and trivia about WHERE THE HEART LIES. And at 5 p.m. eastern time I’m planning to give away a NOOK Simple Touch to one luck entrant. Want to enter? Mention WHERE THE HEART LIES in a Tweet, on Goodreads, your blog or a Facebook post tomorrow and email me at michellegflye@gmail.com. You can enter as many times as you like (two tweets gets you two entries, etc.). Friends and family of me are still eligible as you guys are my fan base. 🙂

Look forward to seeing you here tomorrow!

A new review and partying with The Romance Studio!

Posted on by

Wow, I’m overwhelmed by the reviews. NOT that I’m complaining! Especially when they cheer my coffee like the one from Book Reviews and More by Kathy. Here’s a quote:

Where the Heart Lies by Michelle Garren Flye is a beautiful and heartwarming novel that is quite compelling. —Book Reviews and More by Kathy

Can’t get much better than that, right? How about this?

A lovely contemporary romance with a few unexpected twists and turns,Where the Heart Lies by Michelle Garren Flye is an engaging novel with charming and likable characters. –Book Reviews and More by Kathy

Awesome! Thank you so much, Kathy! I’m thrilled to hear you liked the book and feel you can recommend it.

The praise put me in the mood to party, so I headed on over to The Romance Studios to post about WHERE THE HEART LIES. You can check out me and lots of other folks here: The Romance Studio Release Party. BYOB, but streamers and confetti provided!

New Review from Ravishing Romances! But why doesn’t anybody like Penny?

Posted on by

Yesterday I found another review, one of the best I’ve gotten yet. No, not best as in totally good, but best in the sense that the reviewer was so clear about what she did and didn’t like, I really felt like I could see how at least some readers might read my book. What I discovered kind of surprised me.

Nobody likes Penny.

Penny is the good friend of Alicia, the heroine of the book. She was a good friend of Alicia’s deceased husband Ty, and over the years she’s maintained a close relationship with Ty’s parents, Alicia’s in-laws. Unfortunately, Penny has a secret, and her secret affects Alicia. To keep her secret, she really doesn’t want Liam, Ty’s best friend from high school and the only other person who knows Penny’s secret, getting involved with Alicia. She knows he’ll want to be totally honest with her if he does, and Penny’s secret would come out.

So in a way, Penny is a bit of a villain.

However, she’s also loyal and very good to Alicia when she arrives in her new home. She’s a loving mother, a good wife, and scared of losing it all.

At least two reviewers have failed to see her that way, though, so I’m starting to think I failed in her respect.

At any rate, I was very impressed by my 3.5 star review from Ravishing Romances, and I’d like to thank Musing Sallie for the thoughtful read. She did like Alicia, Liam, Lulu and the in-laws, so I didn’t fail utterly. She even liked Sandra, a very minor character who starts out as a bit of a villain and ends up with more to her than you expect. I very much encourage you to check out Sallie’s other reviews, if you have any interest in romance. Here’s a bit of the positive stuff from her review of WHERE THE HEART LIES:

Where the Heart Lies by Michelle Garren Flye has the workings for an epic novel. The premise is heart stopping. —Ravishing Romances

Sounds good, right? I wish it hadn’t gone downhill from there, but at least I know why. And I can take notes and do better next time! Thanks, Sallie.

Two more reviews! And your chance to win a Nook!

Posted on by

Any news at this point is good news, so I’ve decided to give you links to both of these reviews, even though one is a two-star review and really didn’t say anything positive. However, it’s only fair that I report both reviews to you, since these people were kind enough to spend time reading and thinking about my book.

We’ll start with the good review, which was from Mother & Daughter Reading Team (indubitably the cutest idea for a blog I’ve ever seen). Maybe when my daughter is old enough, we’ll start one of these. I browsed through some of their other reviews and found some interesting stuff. Here’s a short quote and a link to the review:

This was a great book with likable characters and a few interesting surprises, all things that kept me engaged. — Mother & Daughter Reading Team

And the flip side of the coin, a review from Jo’s Sanctuary. Two stars. Jo says it was “ok”, and if you want to know why she thinks so, you’ll have to read the review. Anyway, you can’t please everybody.

My thanks, again, to both reviewers!

By the way, WHERE THE HEART LIES is the top most popular book on the Carina Press website today, and it’s only 99 cents during the month of July! And you can enter to win a Nook Simple Touch to use by the pool just by tweeting the news! (Or posting on Facebook, your blog or pinning it on your Pinterest board). You can find convenient links at the top of the left-hand column of this blog. Of course, after you do it, drop me a line at michellegflye@gmail.com, so I can put your name in the hat to win!

The Good and The Bad…but not The Ugly

Posted on by

I’ve been trolling the internet looking for reviews again. Good or bad, I want to know what people are thinking about WHERE THE HEART LIES. I’ve turned up three kinds:

1. The Good. Overall positive review. The reviewer liked the book, explains why, may point out anything they didn’t like, but gives it a positive rating.
2. The Bad. Negative or somewhat negative review, still well-written. The reviewer explains why he/she didn’t like the book, giving me the opportunity to take notes on how to make my writing better.
3. The Ugly. Negative review, but no real explanation of why. Usually full of grammatical errors. I don’t plan to advertise these reviews on my blog.

I’ve recently found two reviews, representing both Good and Bad. One of these I knew about ahead of time since it was on Goodreads. I thanked the reviewer for taking the time to read and thoroughly review the book, even though her overall impression of it wasn’t all I would have hoped for. The other was an unexpected surprise, and a very sweet and encouraging review. Here are quotes and links to both reviews:

“…a good story and deals with some really serious issues. I really felt for Alicia and the difficulties she faced moving on with her life without her husband Ty with her. It made me think about all of the real people out there who have lost someone important to them because of the war. It really was heartbreaking. Michelle Garren Flye does a great job of expressing Alicia’s pain and frustration throughout the book.”

—The Book Garden, 3.5 stars

“…a lovely book with some sad, yet feel good moments and is about love, trust and friendship.”

—Anglers Rest

My thanks to both reviewers!

How to earn prizes for WHERE THE HEART LIES online release party!

Posted on by

It’s now less than nine days to the release of my fourth book (ebook), WHERE THE HEART LIES. I’ve got high hopes for this one. It’s on sale for 99 cents during the month of July, it’s gotten some pretty decent reviews and it’s already garnered a higher sales rank than any of my other books—and that’s just pre-sales. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to recruit you all to help me sell my book between now and July 16. And to give you an idea of what you’re helping promote, here’s a short excerpt:

Alicia took her time getting ready for bed. Finally, looking at her cleaned, toned, moisturized face and hair brushed to the edge of staticky chaos, she couldn’t put it off any longer. She turned to the bedroom with reluctance. The empty bed looked uninviting. One side was turned down and she focused on that neat triangle of rose-colored sheets against the darker wine-colored bedspread. She closed her eyes and pictured Ty on the other side. “This isn’t how I imagined our first night.”

She climbed into the bed and curled herself into a ball under the thin chenille. The room was warm enough, but cold permeated her body. Or maybe it was loneliness. Ty wasn’t there and never would be again. She remembered the sound of his voice and the feel of his body and let the tears come at last, her shoulders shaking with her sorrow while she tried to keep her sobs quiet so she wouldn’t wake Jason.

After a while, she slipped from the bed to the hall closet and found another blanket. It was an old quilt, probably one Millie had owned when Ty was a child. She held it to her face for a moment, taking comfort from its age and sense of history. Wrapping it around her shoulders, she got back into the bed, pulled the sheet up to her chin and fell asleep.

And one more:

Liam watched her minivan disappear down the road. He sighed and looked at the tiny crushed body in the road, thinking that just a few minutes before, it had been a living, breathing soul. Now it was just a pile of meat and bone.

“That’s the way it goes, my friend,” he said. “One minute you’re trying to find the sweetest patch of clover, the next you’re lying facedown in the road with tire tracks on your back.”

His mind turned to Ty and how death had come for him so suddenly. He didn’t know the details, just that he’d died in Afghanistan. He hoped it had been quick for his old friend. Ty hadn’t been hopping around looking for a sweet patch of clover. Ty had been doing a job, and from what Liam understood, he’d done it very well right up until the end. A hot surge of guilt and self-disgust filled him. If Ty was the rabbit, he was the minivan who’d run his friend down.

WHERE THE HEART LIES is Alicia’s story about love and loss and starting over. And it’s Liam’s story about recovery and forgiveness and finding love. I think you’ll like it. So here’s the deal. On July 16 at 5 p.m. I’ll be giving away a Nook Simple Touch. I just bought one and I love it. It works outside, inside, in the car, just about anywhere you want to read. Plus, you can download the Nook app to your smartphone or computer or tablet and if you bookmark your place on your Nook, you can pick it up on whatever device you happen to have on you. You can literally read anywhere. Plus, if you want to become Nook friends, you can send me your email and I’ll figure out how to input it and we can trade books!

Here’s how to enter:
1. Pin my book cover on Pinterest. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Carinapress.com and many other ebooksellers.
2. Tweet about the July 99 cent sale on Twitter using one of the buy links at the top of the left column of this blog. Tag me in the post @michellegflye.
3. Post a link on Facebook or your blog.
4. Put my book on your Goodreads, Shelfari or LibraryThing shelf.
5. Any other good ideas? Let me know!

For everything you do, email me at michellegflye@gmail.com to let me know and I’ll enter you to win the ereader on July 16. I’ll also be giving away ecopies of all my books and some gift certificates to Amazon and Barnes & Noble, so make sure you stop by for the party!

Embrace your velvet-cloaked vampire: Go ahead and publish that book

Posted on by

I just read an article in Forbes called Don’t Publish That Book. It’s worthwhile reading. The author Suw Charman-Anderson publishes a Twitter conversation she had with authors Steve Mosby and Lou Morgan in which the authors bemoan their early stories, one of which was evidently about a vampire in a velvet cloak.

I enjoyed the article. It encourages writers to write until they’re good enough to be noticed and not to rush to self-publish. Charman-Anderson seems to indicate that if you get multiple rejections, there’s probably a reason for that. She’s probably right and I agree with her. Too many self-published books are published before they are ready. Please, please copy edit. Don’t rely on spell-check. It’s not infallible. And let a manuscript sit for a few weeks after it’s done, re-read it and then decide if you want to publish it. You might be surprised by the answer you give yourself. My self-published book Weeds and Flowers sat on my hard-drive for years before I got the go-ahead from my inner editor.

With that said, I will also add that we all have our stories about vampires in velvet cloaks. C’mon, if you’re a writer who started publishing within the last fifteen years, you have that story. That one story that’s still floating around in the ether somewhere waiting to come back and bite you in the ass. I know where mine is. Do you?

My point is that we live and publish in a different time. A new age for publishing. An age in which our mistakes and growing pains may make it into “print”. Yes, we need to watch ourselves, but we also need to embrace this new age. Imagine if we could read Stephen King’s first stories. I’ve heard Nicholas Sparks say his first novel was a horror novel. Now that would be some interesting reading.

One of my favorite books on my bookshelf is A Whisper in the Dark: Twelve Thrilling Tales by Louisa May Alcott. Of course, I don’t love the tales so much as I love the book. You see, Louisa May Alcott was my inspiration for becoming a writer. I loved all her books, read all of them, but my favorite, of course, was the semi-autobiographical Little Women, in which Jo, the character Alcott based on herself, writes “sensational” tales for the paper. The first time I read Little Women when I was about nine or ten years old, I couldn’t imagine what “sensational” meant. Later I got the idea that they must have something to do with sex, especially since Jo destroys them all in a fit of shame in the book. I read A Whisper in the Dark much later as an adult, and I wondered what on earth Alcott was talking about. They’re corny by today’s standards, and probably pretty dark and risque in the nineteenth century, but not the awful stuff I’d half been expecting.

Only now as I begin (notice I said “begin”) to reach my own maturity as a writer do I understand where she was coming from. But as a writer, I’m grateful not all of Alcott’s early works were lost. It makes some of my own early growing pains easier to bear.

Even now when I look back on Secrets of the Lotus, published almost exactly two years ago, I see things I would do differently. The same for Winter Solstice. If I’m fortunate enough to continue growing and developing as a writer—and I hope that will be a lifelong process—in five years I may reread Where the Heart Lies with tolerant disdain.

It’s a process. So whether an editor or publisher will take the time on your work or you self-publish it, you have to know that if you are one of the lucky ones, you won’t like what you write now in five years.

50 Shades of Awesome!

Posted on by

Sorry, couldn’t resist that title. This post is going to be about Fifty Shades of Grey, but I’m on cloud nine right now. People are buying Where the Heart Lies! This is (kind of) a new experience for me. I’ve never had a book up for pre-order before (at least I don’t think so), and my editor just tweeted to let me know Where the Heart Lies, which doesn’t come out until July 16, is the second most popular ebook on the Carina website. Wow! Admittedly, it’s on sale for 99 cents during July, so a lot of the buyers that would balk at $5 plus might be willing to take a leap of faith for less than a dollar. Anyway, if you’re interested in keeping track of my newest book’s progress, you can check out the Carina Press website.

And now on to the actual blog post. Fifty Shades of Grey. Seems like everybody’s talking about it. I actually resisted reading this one for a while, but I eventually realized it’s going to be an important influence on my chosen genre. Plus, people kept asking me what I thought about it. And I kept reading what other people thought about it. And finally I decided I needed to make up my own mind about it.

Let me start off by saying that in no way do I consider this a review, and I hope it won’t influence anyone either to read it or not. That’s entirely up to you. I really don’t think Fifty Shades of Grey is going to be everybody’s cup of tea, but, on the other hand, I can now see why it’s made such an impact.

Let’s look at the book honestly. It’s erotica. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Especially when it’s well-written erotica with a bit of a plot, which Fifty Shades definitely is. Is it a book you’d want your mom to catch you reading? Probably not. Your husband? Maybe. Is it a book you can discuss with your friends? Yes. In a book club? Um…probably not. At a quilting bee? Ummmm…. Leave it where your kids can read it? NO!

Fifty Shades of Grey is knocking down barriers. I classify it not only as erotica but as romantic erotica. My first thought when I finished it was, “Wow, the world has changed when a book like this can make it onto bestseller lists and become a household name.” Remember when you had to search a romance for “the good parts”? Well, there’s no searching necessary in Fifty Shades. Flip a couple of pages and you’ll find a good part. Guaranteed.

My second thought was, “Damn. She cheated.” She being the author, E.L. James. Why do I think she cheated? She didn’t finish the story. At least, she didn’t finish the story I wanted her to finish. In fact, she hinted at answers, led me on until the last page. I followed her heroine all the way through to the end, and honestly, I couldn’t believe the last page was the last page. I even double-checked to make sure my Nook had all the pages. She couldn’t end the damn book that way! No author would do that!

Of course, I knew at the time that the book was a trilogy, but I have to admit, I would have preferred that she cut out some of the sex scenes and finish the damn story I wanted her to finish in one book. I’m not sure I want to wade through two more books to have the questions answered that I want answered. I may, but then again, reading time takes away from writing time and I’m not sure I want to spend it on her books. So there, E.L. James! Take that! I may not buy your other books. You can’t make me!

But I probably will.

And that’s where I realized James succeeded where many others fail in the erotica world (and romance and scifi and any other kind of literature). I care about these characters. Amidst all the sex and bondage and other stuff, she created two characters I actually like. I want them to resolve their problems. I want to know the answers to the questions James raised in the first book. And the only way I can find out how the story ends is to read the other books. At least, that’s the only way I’ll be satisfied. (Ahem.) I could probably find a friend who’s read the books and could tell me how it ends and what the answers are, but I want to get there myself. So yeah, I’ll probably be investing more money in James’s career, helping to send Fifty Shades of whatever right back to the top of the bestseller lists. Even though she cheated, I’m going to let her get away with it.

Damn it.

Get Where the Heart Lies for 99 cents! And win stuff at The Romance Reviews!

Posted on by

Whoo-hoo! July is here and you can definitely tell it here in North Carolina where the heat index is supposed to hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit today! Ouch.

What better time to cool off in the air conditioning (or on the beach, or at the pool) with a good book? And just in time, my publisher has lowered the price (temporarily) on WHERE THE HEART LIES to 99 cents! At a five dollar savings, that leaves plenty of change in your pocket for ice cream or the beverage of your choice. Here are a couple of links for you to pre-order WHERE THE HEART LIES now!

Buy WHERE THE HEART LIES for 99 cents on AMAZON!

Buy WHERE THE HEART LIES for 99 cents on B&N!

Speaking of sizzling (remember the 115 degree Fahrenheit thing?), The Romance Reviews Sizzling Summer Reads has just kicked off, which gives you plenty of time to win loads of prizes! More than 400 authors are participating, including yours truly. With so many authors participating, you know there are loads of chances to win ebooks, books, gift certificates and more, including the grand prize of a $100 gift certicate! You can check it out here:

See you by the pool!

Tremendous news and why it makes me nervous

Posted on by

It seems like my whole life I’ve been writing stuff hoping somebody would pay attention. That’s what we writers do, no matter what we say we’re doing. We write because we have words inside us that need to get out (writing is kind of like belching), but we publish because we want people to pay attention, to give us feedback, to read those all-important words that are, after all, a part of us.

This is why I don’t want to review. Reviews can hurt. As an editor, I read a lot of stuff that just made me want to fall down on the ground and cry, “Why? Why do you think you can string two words together in a coherent fashion? Seriously?” I never did that. I sent rejections that were as kind as possible. If all else failed, I fell back on form rejections, even though I hated to. I never enjoyed the selection process, and I often felt that it sucked a little of my own writing verve away from me with each rejection I sent.

I’ve gotten as far away from that as possible. I limit my editing to proofreading and editing after selections are made. That’s usually fun and writing life affirming. In helping other writers fine-tune their work, I often learn a little something that helps me along the writing path.

What does all this have to do with awesome news that makes me nervous? Well, although I don’t review, I have tremendous respect for those who do stick their necks out there. Some in particular. I recently approached a few of my favorite reviewers to ask for a favor: review my newest book. The very first of the reviewers I approached was Sarah of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I have read a number of the reviews on this site, and let me tell you, these chicks are not easy to please. I figured if I could get even a C grade on this website, it would be worth bragging about. Hell, if I could just get reviewed it would be neat.

Well, I’m not reviewed yet, but today my editor tweeted me with this link: 3 Must-Read Summer Romances, written by none other than Sarah and listing my book on her “Can’t Wait to Read list”. Sarah says in the article, “While usually nebby townspeople bug me, I’m so curious about this book because of the newcomer vs. longtime resident dynamic, and the way in which the characters struggle with the way other people see them.”

I’m fighting the self-doubt. Are my townspeople intriguing enough and did I address the issues Sarah mentions in a cogent enough way for her to love my story?

The truth is, I know there is no way to answer that. I mentioned earlier that I got one two-star review on Goodreads. That bothered me for about ten seconds, and then I realized, I can’t help the way somebody else reads my book. I can’t help the way it makes them feel, and anyway, aren’t I supposed to have thicker skin than this by now?

To be honest, I don’t know how I’ll feel if a reviewer I really respect comes out and says they don’t like my book. It probably won’t be easy. Which is why I don’t review (and why my Goodreads page is a wasteland). And why I respect the people who do. If it’s tough for me as a writer to get a bad review, I think it’s probably ten times harder for a reviewer to give one. I’m certain the really good reviewers out there put a lot of thought into their reviews, and I respect that.

All I can say right now is, it’s gratifying to be listed as a “must read” by such a reviewer, and I’ll keep you posted if Sarah does review WHERE THE HEART LIES.