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Fictionella Blog Tours

Heather Grace Stewart

June 9, 2014 3 Comments

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About author, Heather Grace Stewart: Heather Grace Stewart is a Canadian magazine writer, author, and poet. Her first poem was published in her school newsletter when she was five, and she’s been hooked on writing ever since. Heather’s debut novel, Strangely, Incredibly Good, will be released by Morning Rain Publishing on June 5, 2014. Heather’s screenplay The Friends I’ve Never Met is her bestselling Kindle book to date, reaching #28 in Action & Adventure in Women’s Fiction in November 2013. Her third poetry collection, Carry On Dancing (Winter Goose Publishing, March 2012) charted on print and Kindle bestseller lists in Poetry and Canadian Poetry in Canada, the US, and the UK. Heather is also the author of the Kindle bestselling poetry collections Leap and Where the Butterflies Go, two non-fiction books for youth, and a book of children’s poetry,The Groovy Granny. Born in Ottawa, she lives with her husband and daughter near Montreal. In her free time, she loves to take photos, scrapbook, cartoon, inline skate, dance like nobody’s watching, and eat Swedish Berries — usually not at the same time. For more information, visit Heather’s blog and her official website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

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GUEST POST

I Ate Bugs for This: My Road to Becoming a Chick Lit Author 

by Heather Grace Stewart

My road to becoming a chick lit author has been a long one, and it has taken some rather sharp turns, too.

I didn’t actually set out to be a chick lit author. I didn’t even set out to be a women’s fiction author. For the record, I don’t believe any book should be labeled as just one genre, or that only women can read books by women. I just wanted to write the kind of book that I wanted to read myself.

Since the time I could write sentences, I’ve known I love the feeling of creating a story, getting it down on paper, and sharing it with others to entertain them. I love the process of recording that story so much I often lose track of time. Days could have gone by if my mother hadn’t come to collect me in our basement playroom when, at ten, I got my hands on Grandmother’s old Underwood typewriter and wrote a poem about a swing, and all the children it had loved.

After I volunteered at our local newspaper at 15, and worked as a writer-reporter for a local TV news show at 16, I knew I had the writing bug. I decided to get a Journalism graduate diploma after studying Canadian Studies (English, French lit and History) for four years at Queen’s University.

Back then, I had no clue I’d one day be penning a humorous tale about a modern day woman who meets a genie. I’ve always been fascinated with people, though, and love telling their stories. My first newspaper column, ‘Grace’s Goad,’ one that went with the gig of Chief Reporter at The Monitor when I graduated from J-school, was an eclectic mix of interviews with citizens, politicians and war veterans. When I became an associate editor at Harrowsmith Country Life, Equinox and Canadian Wildlife magazines, I really loved speaking to the freelance writers and photographers who called in. I soon realized that was because I, too, wanted to freelance.

As a freelancer, I started a column about being a 20-something, ‘Hangin’ Out,’ for my alma mater magazine, The Queen’s Alumni Review. I wrote about graduates still living at home at 29, dating, getting married, having babies. I even wrote about being a single 20’s chick whose cat pooped on the floor in front of me if he didn’t like one of my dates. I wasn’t always writing about women, but I was always telling people’s stories; getting to the heart of what made them want to get up in the morning. I also got to travel a great deal in my 20’s, often on press junkets. I floated in the Dead Sea, spent my 29th birthday line dancing with strangers in Nashville, and I trekked a B.C. mountain with a llama as my hiking buddy.

All this while, I was becoming a novelist, and didn’t even know it. Here’s to all the times I chased after a city bus because I was late for a press conference, and tore my nylons and broke a heel in the process. Here’s to the time I had to eat crickets and beetle larvae sauteed in a tomato sauce, so I could authentically “describe the taste,” for children reading the kids’ magazine, Wild!

So, finally, here’s to the journey! It was all worth it, and it was all Strangely, Incredibly Good.

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“Strangely, Incredibly Good” by Heather Grace Stewart

Book Description: Cat Glamour is an overweight 38-year-old divorcée who is struggling with finances, self-esteem, and balancing her personal life. While her 91-year-old, decidedly different, grandmother provides emotional support, Cat needs to take control of the life that has been shattered by her abusive ex-husband and tragic events of the past. On the day Cat decides to start an exercise routine, the last thing she expects is a modern-day Genie to pop out of her Wii machine. Unfortunately for Cat, her Genie is somewhat unreliable in his wish-granting capabilities. In a series of hilarious misadventures, he sends Cat to a castle in France and back in time 20 years in an attempt to solve both Cat’s weight issues and emotional stresses. Cat’s journey is one filled with quirky adventures, realistic love, and above all, self-discovery.

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**Click HERE to see more stops on Heather’s Fictionella Book Tours!

Filed Under: Heather Grace Stewart Tagged With: Book Fature, Books, Chick-Lit, Fictionella Blog Tours, Heather Grace Stewart, Incredibly Good, Strangely, Women's Fiction

BOOK FEATURE: She Sins at Midnight

May 15, 2014 Leave a Comment

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“She Sins at Midnight” by Whitney Dineen

Excerpt:

The buzzing intercom interrupted her conversation, and Lila told Jilly that she would call her later. Hitting the button on the other line, she inquired, “What’s up Josh?”

“Did you send Tibber’s script to DreamWorks yet?”

“About twenty minutes ago. They should have it in another ten.”

“Good, good. What about my reservation at the Ivy?  Is everything all set?”

Lila nodded her head. “Yep, two o’clock, table on the patio so the paparazzi can get great shots of Melinda.”

Melinda Forrester was one of Josh’s hot young clients. At twenty-six she had just received an Oscar nomination for her depiction of a drug addicted hooker/college student who beats the habit and becomes an Olympic track star, only to discover that she’s contracted AIDS from her hooking days.

It never ceased to amaze Lila that scripts like that got made into feature films. What didn’t amaze her though was how Melinda acquired the starring role. She assumed that the actress got the lead in the same way that she snagged Josh as her agent. The Hollywood rumor mill had it that Melinda spent copious amounts of time on her knees, and this just in, she wasn’t the religious type.

Lila held Melinda in such low regard that the star had become the prototype for many of the scheming sluts in her stories. Melinda had morphed into such characters as Wanda Toolmaker, street walker extraordinaire turned blackmailer; Lucy Gosling, scheming housemaid, and most recently Isabelle, Countess of Trent, whorish actress who was desperately trying to sleep her way into the upper echelon of society.

Lila was always solicitous and pleasant to Melinda in person. She truly didn’t set out to dislike her. But Melinda, being Melinda, simply made it impossible for Lila to do anything but despise her. Melinda was by far the most vicious, calculating celebrity Lila ever had the misfortune of dealing with. That was a pretty damning statement when you considered the magnitude of the egos that paraded through Amalgamated’s doors every day.

Lila picked up her reunion invitation and absentmindedly tapped it on her desk. She wished she could show up and share her real accomplishments with her old friends. Yet that wasn’t possible. Jilly would die of shock if she knew what was in the letter safely locked in her desk. And if Jilly would be shocked, her mother and father would probably disown her! No, Lila was raised to be a lady. She was from good stock and she wouldn’t risk everyone’s disappointment by telling them the truth. She would simply show up single and childless and face the pity of her peers, her success safely hidden away from discovery.

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Click HERE to see other stops on Whitney’s Fictionella Blog Tours!

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Filed Under: She Sins at Midnight Tagged With: Books, Chick-Lit, Fictionella Blog Tours, She Sins at Midnight, Whitney Dineen, Women's Fiction

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