Today, I'm so pleased to welcome author, LoRee Peery, as my guest blogger. A lifelong Nebraskan, LoRee is the oldest of seven and grew up on a Nebraska farm. She feels grounded in her sense of place and considers it a blessing to have lived most of her life in the country. She has five children and values one-on-one time with her eleven grandchildren.
She grew up singing and feels closest to the Lord when she worships through song. One of her fondest memories is ascending the basement stairs of Grace Lutheran Church in Neligh, NE singing “Oh, Come All Ye Faithful” preceding the Christmas Eve program.
Romance Writers' Sisterhood
When I hear the word “writer,” an immediate picture comes to mind. Always, a person is sequestered and hunched over in his or her writing place. For me it’s not the writer, but the workplace I focus on. I used to imagine a manual typewriter on a bare topped desk except for multitudinous wadded up papers. That evolved into an electric typewriter surrounded by scads of reference books. Then the tiny computer monitors with the huge backs and a keyboard close to the edge of the desk. Finally, laptops, anywhere. The writer is no longer sequestered.
Writers need a social life, balanced with the time spent in the chair while spewing out words. (Notice, I didn’t say playing on the Internet.) We need other people: family, church involvement, frolicking with friends, and fun away from words. We also need what I’ll talk about today, the sisterhood of romance writers groups.
Years ago, a friend and I created Lincoln Word Weavers, a Christian group that crossed all genres. I think it lasted a couple years. To my knowledge, no one published. I joined Romance Writers of America in 2002 and learned more about writing and publishing in six months than I had in the ten years prior. I realized immediately that I had a bond with anyone I came in contact with. The local chapter I'm part of now is Prairieland Romance Writers. We writers have a common passion (or compulsion), a synergy, that binds us together. From local chapters to the online chapter I’m part of Faith, Hope & Love, I can still be amazed at the camaraderie and generosity of individuals. Whether those writers are unpublished or have a hundred best sellers under their belt, they share whatever they can for the common good.
It’s a unique sisterhood that recognizes individual voice as one that cannot be duplicated. Romance writers tell the happily-ever-afters with familiar themes; but always with unique qualities of that writer’s distinctive voice. And now I’m so pleased to be part of another sisterhood, the White Rose Publishing family.
Do you belong to a group where you have a like-minded bond?
As a final note, I doff my hat to the few brave men who don’t mind being part of this “sisterhood.” You know them, they read and write romance too.
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LoRee's novel, Moselle's Insurance, the first in the Frivolities series, was released on July 30th. The cover is just stunning, and the blurb sounds exciting! The book has been receiving rave reviews. You can purchase it through publisher, White Rose Publishing. Link for more info:
click here
Blurb
Creative artist Moselle Carson gives new life to old items, but she can't seem to renew her shattered ideal of love. When she returns to her hometown to help with a new family business, memories of a broken heart and small-town gossip chip away the tough exterior she's erected over the years. Now she's forced to decide whether she'll rebuild the wall or trust that true love never dies when it is ordained by God.
Generous insurance agent and vulnerable firefighter, Eric Todd, remembers too well how he mistreated Moselle and then set her aside. Now he longs for true love and the second chance to become a husband and father. Can he learn to forgive himself and still keep the secret that may redeem him in her eyes?
