Monday, June 29, 2015

New Blog to Feature Sweet/Clean Historical Authors


 During a recent online marketing discussion among the Prairie Rose Publications family of published writers, it was agreed that one of the most effective means of reaching our reading audience is through group blogs. These blogs differ from individual blogs in that several people take responsibility for writing and publishing a blog post on a regular basis. These posts are not strictly for the purpose of "hard selling" a book. The contributors offer short articles with information of interest to potential readers of the kind of books the author writes.

Preferably, these posts include
Mountain Men of the West
a generous number relevant images.


Several authors I know write not only for the Prairie Rose Publication family of blogs, but they write for other blogs geared to their interest groups. Many of these are considered either western romance or historical western romance. This blog is intended to include historical western romance, but is geared to a slightly different reading audience.

First, let me explain how I came up with the name:
  1.  Sweet covers writing described as sweet / clean / proper. 
  2.  Americana is defined by dictionary.com as: "...books, papers, maps, etc., relating to America, especially to its history, culture, and geography." (origin 1835-45, Americanism)
  3.  Sweethearts refers to the romance elements in the novels written by our featured writers.

    Union Soldiers - colorized photo
    Because I enjoy reading and writing about historical topics  (including American Civil War stories) outside the approximately fifty year period from 1850 through 1900 set in the "old west," I chose the time period of 1820 (mountain men and rendezvous era) through 1920 (post World War One/flu pandemic era). I also chose to include the entire North American continent. 

As for the sweet designation, I'm aware that readers who prefer novels free of graphic sex scenes and excessive profanity like to know that their reading material falls within that category. We don't like to get into a novel only to discover it has "too much information." This blog is designed to feature SWEET / CLEAN / PROPER romance only. The intended audience is those readers seeking books with that kind of romance.
World War One bond poster


On the other hand, other readers may consider sweet romance too tame. If authors prefer to write romance that is more spicy/steamy/sexually explicit, I encourage you to create and join a group blog designed to feature your work to the reading audience which prefer that heat level in their romance novels.

If you are an author of sweet/clean/proper romance set in the Americana time period of 1820 through 1920, and you are interested in participating in a group blog once a month, please read the Sweet Americana Sweethearts Guidelines. If your work falls within the guidelines and there are blog dates open, please contact the blog administrator. The details are toward the bottom of the Guidelines.

The portrait used on the blog banner was taken from an early family photo of George McKinley  and Laura Agnes Echols. These sweethearts were married when she was barely sixteen and he was still fifteen. They died within months of each other after  fifty-seven years of marriage. The background image was taken in the Genoa, NV museum and the flowers are from my garden.


 Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. Her novel, Family Secrets, was published by Fire Star Press in October 2014 and her novelette, A Christmas Promise, was published by Prairie Rose Publications in November 2014. The first two novellas in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine and A Resurrected Heart, are now available. 


Zina Abbott Author Links

Website   Blog                Pinterest         Facebook        Goodreads

Purchase Links for Big Meadows Valentine:

Kindle                 Nook               Smashwords

Purchase Links for A Resurrected Heart:

Kindle                 Nook               Smashwords
 

 




4 comments:

  1. I love the headline photo. What a beautiful story of the two. Marriages seemed to have different dynamics than now. I wish you well and think this is a great idea. Doris

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  2. Great blog and I also think this is a great concept! If you need someone to join in on a blog occasionally, let me know...I am also a sweet/proper kind of romantic :-) .

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    1. Thank you, Gail. I'll contact you about a guest spot to feature your latest book, July's Bride.

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  3. Thank you, Doris. I will contact you regarding getting you set up on our monthly schedule and getting you access to the blog. I look forward to your future posts.

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