Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Tidbit Tuesday: Work In Progress

Sweet/Clean authors who write historical novels set in North America during the years of 1820 through 1920, share a 100-200 word tidbit from your current work in progress in the comments section. On Wednesday I will share this blog post with its comments containing your tidbits on several appropriate Facebook pages plus they will show up in Google+. Please include the working title of your novel and your author name.

Please read yesterday's post which you can reach by clicking HERE.

Do you contribute to three or fewer group book/writing blogs? (This does not include your personal blogs.) Does your writing fall within the sweet/clean/proper criteria listed in the Sweet Americana Sweethearts Guidelines? If so, and you are interested in joining Sweet Americana Sweethearts as a contributing author who will commit to a monthly blog post on your assigned day of your assigned week, please contact the blog administrator. Details are at the bottom of the Guidelines.


For those interested sweet/clean/proper historical writers who already contribute to four or more group blogs, please wait until September. If there are open slots at that time, I would love to add you. In the meantime, consider contacting the blog administrator about a guest post on unassigned days.


If you have an upcoming blog tour for a novel or novella that fits in the Sweet Americana Sweethearts setting and time period, either strictly using blogs or in conjunction with a Facebook/Google+ event, please note that we schedule those on Tuesdays along with the tidbits.  Contact the blog administrator if interested.

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