HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY TO US !!

 THE 2010 ORIGINAL CREW

Cat Shields, & Maureen McGowan, Jill Stone, Simone St. James, Angi Morgan & Heather Snow
(Not pictured: Donnell Ann Bell)

Angi, E.E., Nan and Lizbeth

E.E. Lizbeth, Nan, Jacqui & Angi

Linda Lovely & Jacqui

Angi, Lizbeth and Cat Shields

Donnell Bell, Lizbeth & Angi

Jacqui

Angi accepting Golden Heart

E.E. Golden Heart Night

Wild Deadwood Reads

C.H. & Amanada

E.E. & Amanda

Amanda & C.H.

Amanda & C.H.

C.H. & Amanda

C.H. & Amanda

Amanda, Lizbeth, & Angi

Amanda & C.H,

Angi, JoAnna Grace & Lizbeth

C.H. & Amanda

Nan, Chris Kenniston, E.E., Lizbeth, Angi & 

Angi, E.E. & Kat Baldwin

Jacqui, Nan

Jacqui & E.E.

B.J. Daniels & E.E.

RaeAnne Thayne & Angi

Lizbeth, Chris Keniston & Jacqui

Angi & Nancy with a photo bombing Katherine

December 1, 2010... seven authors launched GET LOST IN A STORY. This multi-genre group of authors hoped to create a forum that not only introduces authors to readers, but where we can all explore our love of great storytelling in its various forms.  Angi wanted a blog that brought storytellers closer to the ones  reading. Writing is too often a solitary accomplishment and writers rarely make contact with their audience. "It should be fun connecting with those who love stories as much as we do."

Get Lost In A Story emphasizes interviews and posts primarily about books, but occasionally about television, film or other media, as long as fantastic storytelling is involved. We also offer debut and established authors a chance to promote their upcoming titles to readers, and in doing so, we hope to give readers the chance to connect with new and favorite authors, ask questions and make comments. There are fun giveaways, and something new to delight every day. 

We hope you come back again and again, not only to meet fabulous authors, but to share your love of a good story with us. 

Check out the ABOUT US page for info on our current hosts:

 Angi, Amanda, C.H., E.E., Jacqui, Lizbeth & Regan.

Angi & Regan

The authors who joined us as hosts:

Alexa Bourne 2012

Susan M. Boyer, Clover Autrey, Lizbeth Selvig, & E.E. Burke 2013

Lara Lacombe, Kathleen Baldwin & Vicki Batman 2014

Regan Walker & Nan Dixon 2015

Avril Tremayne & Amanda McIntyre 2016

Katherine Garberra & Nancy Robards Thompson 2017

Jacqui Nelson & PJ Fiala 2018

C.H. Admirand & Regan Black 2019

THANKS TO OUR READERS

FOR TAKING A LOOK AT

2,234 POSTS & 

JOINING US FOR NINE YEARS OF FUN!

SEASONS GREETINGS

On the Writer's Road - We are all Heroes

Hi GLIAS friends, it's Lizbeth again--coming to you from the writer's road, and I have a question. Is meeting your favorite author something that’s on your bucket list?

My super hero: Kristan Higgins

I have a second (even more fun) question. Have you ever actually met your favorite author?

It might surprise readers to know that authors also have favorite authors, and we have fangirl dreams of meeting the people whose books we love to read.

No maybe this is my super hero: Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Have you ever wondered why authors, who are people we rarely see except as slightly unrealistic photos on the backs of their books, are elevated to the status of celebrity in some cases? So what if they pick up a pen or sit at a keyboard and type words. They aren’t movie stars or sports figures, right?

With my true tribe: hubby in the back, sis-in-law on the right and absolute super readers turned good friends Shari & Jon Bartholomew

Another thing that might surprise you, is that not only do authors want to meet other authors—we also want to meet readers. In fact, we’re almost as excited to meet them as we would be to meet, say, Nora Roberts.

Why is meeting Nora Roberts such a thrill? Why does a reader feel such satisfaction when an author recognizes her and knows her (or his) name? Why do authors like me absolutely love spending time with readers? Three words:

Networking. Support. Empowerment.

GLIAS' own Angi Morgan (first a fellow writer and now a serious BFF),  me, and the amazing Sharon Sala.

In this time of “me too,” and heightened awareness of women and women’s rights, we need more than ever the amazing circle made up of authors and readers—especially in the romance genre.

Networking is maybe most important to authors. All fellow authors understand each other, and we’ve all got experiences to share, writing processes to compare, and encouragement to give. Those of us in the middle of the pack look to the “A-listers” (think Kristan Higgans, Nora, Barbara Samuel…) for hope and inspiration.

Love this lady:  Barbara O'Neal (aka Barbara Samuel)

 Brand new authors look to people like me for the same. Without writer heroes (for me, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Eloisa James) we can’t survive thosethe times we want to quit (and they happen) and we can’t see the top of the mountain we want to climb.

Readers need to meet other readers to hear about new books and new authors. They need to compare stories and critiques and analyze good books and not-so-good books.

 

Smart, witty, fabulous writer Grace Burrowes

Authors and readers also need to network with each other. Readers need to know what their favorite authors’ lives are like and that they're are no different than non-writers. And authors truly hope to find readers who become friends and who’ll support not only their books but also the ups and downs of life.

Support goes hand in hand with networking. Once you’ve found your author/reader “tribe” you know you have people who’ll always need you and be there for you. For friendship, of course, but also for beta reading, for spreading the word about books, for connecting with book clubs and online groups of people who like the same thing you do. Mostly, though, we find other women (and sometimes men) who know that reading romance isn’t something to hide. That through the years, romance readers are happier, healthier, and have better self-esteem than almost any other readers. And when we forget this—we remind each other. 

My Minnesota Tribe--Fab authors Ellen Lindseth, Kathryn Kohorst and Nan Dixon. The perfect picture of support!

Finally, meeting your favorite author and readers IS empowerment. Romance has come a very very long way since the days of true bodice rippers and Fabio. Today’s heroines are strong, resourceful, bright women who overcome every kind of obstacle and bad situation. They give us the hope that any situation can be better if we work to make it so. And that true love is not just a pipe dream. Even back in the days of Fabio, romance stories were written to defy the “rules” that women were supposed to live by. They were naughty, they were scandalous. They were wonderful.

And meeting our favorite writers lets us meet strong women who write about strong women in person. That's why it doesn't matter that authors aren't sports stars or actors. They are role models and meeting role models is definitely empowering.

The point of all this is that the road to being a writer isn’t really that glamorous—just as the world of every reader is sometimes mundane, even difficult. We need each other. So—if you’re shy about meeting or writing to an author—don’t be. She’ll love hearing from you. If you’re an extrovert, please know how much you’re appreciated. If you’re a writer who doesn’t want to promote or “bother” people (ahem—of course I’m not talking about myself)—stop it. The readers want to hear from you, too.

Revel in your heroes because you’re someone’s hero, too. And we’re in a very cool tribe. We love romance!!

A true writer hero and mentor and a Minnesota "sister"- Eloisa James.

I'd love you to tell me who your favorite author is and if you've ever met her (or him)? If so, was it awesome? I'll tell you what--it always has been for me! 

See you on the road!

First Fridays with the Crew - Summer Stories

Avril Tremayne

The salt water pool at Bondi Beach, Sydney

It’s winter here in Sydney, Australia – my second favourite season of the year (autumn is far and away my #1)! But since I’ve been dwelling in summer as I’ve been putting the finishing touches to my third Harlequin DARE novel – set at Bondi Beach in a full-summer December – I’ve decided to pretend I’m with the other Get Lost in a Story authors in the northern hemisphere and invite them to tell a tale of summer – real or fictional! And to set the scene here’s a photo of Bondi Beach – still my favourite Sydney beach, where I used to frolic with my school friends on so many summer weekends, jumping over the clean cool waves, making a very poor body surfer, an even more diabolical board surfer, eating lemon gelato, and roasting myself under a hot Sydney sun!

Nan Dixon

My family had a cabin in the lake district in Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. So my summer memories are all centered around the cabin and the lake. And most of my aunts and uncles had places on or near the lake, so there were scads of kids running around all summer long. Now my sisters and I have the lake place. (After a number of expansions, it has seven bedrooms--three bathrooms!)

I've started a new tradition--prosecco on the dock which I try and and document on my Facebook page.  Cheers!

Amanda McIntyre

Having just finished another Fourth of July here in the Heartland, I think back on the years spent with family and friends doing the simple things that have become tradition. What began as taking my kids to parades when they were young, evolved to watching each of them march in those same parades as teens, and now we’re watching parades  involving their students.

In truth, coming full circle to now experiencing the little pleasures of summer with our grandson as well as our adult children. 

In addition, the summer spent with my grandmother (namesake variation on my pen, McIntyre, btw) down in southern Missouri are some of the best memories of pure freedom as a child. Picking blackberries to have on ice cream, catching fireflies barefoot in the yard at night, walking to the library to find a new book to read, playing board games, listening to my aunt sing and play piano. No computers. Very little television. Stories told on the porch swing. These are the memories so ingrained into my persona that it translates into my writing. That sense of child-like freedom, security, and family is what I hope to convey in my storytelling and leave as my legacy to my grandchildren.

As the saying goes, “It’s the little things in life that mean the most, for one day you will look back on them and realize they were the big things.”

Nancy Robards Thompson
Like Amanda, some of my fondest memories are of spending summers with my grandparents in Missouri. My parents both worked full-time. It was a welcome break for them to bundle up my brother and me and send us to the Midwest for the summer. We were fortunate that both sets of grandparents and a plethora of aunts, uncles, and cousins -- and for a magical time, two great-grandmothers -- lived within miles of each other.

It seems like a lifetime ago, but I when I think back on those endless summer days, two cherished memories push to the forefront. The first is the family parties and old-fashioned Fourth of July celebrations on my mother’s side of the family. We would all gather at my aunt and uncle’s house. They had some acreage “out in the country,” and we would grill and cool off by digging for ice-cold soda buried under ice in a cooler on the porch. In my mind, the star of the holiday –even more so than the modest fireworks we’d ignite as soon as the sun went down and the fireflies appeared—was the homemade vanilla ice cream that my uncle would patiently churn by hand. It was cool and creamy and delicious and we would anticipate it all day.   (the photo to the left is of my maternal grandparents)

We also spent a lot of time at my father’s parents’ home. My Mimmi had the most incredible garden where she grew tomatoes, corn, green beans, rhubarb, gooseberries, and

blackberries, among other bounties. Her garden was so abundant that even after canning what we couldn’t eat fresh – and giving away baskets of vegetables to friends and family – Granddaddy still had enough left over to set up a tomato stand in the front yard. My cousins and I would tend the tomato business for as long as it held our interest, which probably wasn’t a very long time. His stand mostly operated on the honor system because my cousins and I were too busy riding the pony he kept in the barn, climbing the mimosa tree, and getting into harmless mischief. (That's Mimmi and me in the photo on the right)

Granddaddy had an old truck and he used to let us take turns driving it in the open field behind the garden – much to Mimmi’s dismay. She was so afraid that one of us would get hurt (or plow over her garden) when she heard the old truck’s engine turn over, she’d run outside and stop us before we could get very far. Do you think that stopped us? Of course not. We devised “Plan B,” which involved popping the gear into neutral and pushing the truck to the field, where we would carry on as planned. We never got hurt or hurt anyone or Mimmi's garden. We didn’t mean to be disrespectful, we were a bunch of energetic preteens egging each other on, but meaning no harm. My brother was the lone grandson (and second to the youngest) on that side of the family. He somehow managed to stay above the fray. (That's Granddaddy and me on Thunder the pony in the photo above)

I know Mimmi didn’t hold it against us. This is best illustrated by “the corn and the butter” story. Most meals at Mimmi and Granddaddy’s house would include fresh hot corn on the cob straight from the garden. Everyone knows the easiest way to butter hot corn on the cob is to simply roll it on a stick of butter. Mimmi didn’t appreciate this because after it left an unsightly divot in the butter. I remember so clearly one time when she got up from the table to get something and – I don’t remember who started it – we each took turns rolling our corn in the butter.  When she returned, she zeroed in on the butter divot and asked, “Who rolled their corn in the butter.” All the girls pointed to my brother and blamed it on him. Without skipping a beat, Mimmi said, “Girls, who rolled her corn in the butter?” Before we could answer, she smiled and shook her head.

If you’re looking for a summer read, I hope you’ll grab one of my books. You can find them on my website and on my Amazon author page.  

Angi Morgan

When Avril asked this question I was on vacation, driving though 10 states. I think one of the best moments was visiting Devil's Tower. We were so lucky to catch it at sunset. Very breathtaking. Some of my best summer memories are on Lake Texoma with my grandparents or visiting aunts, uncles and cousins.

We'd load up a boat and motor over to an island to swim. At night we'd tell ghost stories and play hide-n-seek in the graveyard (no kidding, it was across the dirt road from my grandparents' cabin). There were always bottle rockets and catfish and sunburns along with plenty of food and fun. OH! I shouldn't forget the poker games. Yeah, the adults had a great time playing. I still have that set of poker chips.  More recently, Tim and I go to Eisenhower State Park to camp and swim here...in this cove.

I'm fortunate to have a husband--and dogs who love to travel. Discovering new places, enjoying the sights and searching for the perfect sunset...well, I love it !!

Hey, did you know that RANGER GUARDIAN (Heath's story from Tx Brothers of Company B) is out right now? It's available both in paperback and in digital. And checkout my brand-new website! 

Got any summer stories of your own to share? We'd love to hear them! Please share, and if you include your email address (or pop over and see me on Facebook and leave a private message) mentioning Get Lost in a Story, I'll enter you in the draw to win an e-book of my 2018 RITA finalist The Dating Game!