Flipped Out

by Jennie Bentley

Happy October, fellow Stiffs!

It's release week for me, so I'm going to cheat a little. Flipped Out, the 5th DIY book, hit stores everywhere on Tuesday, and I'm staying busy with signings and appearances and guest blogs and the like. Besides, I'm sure some of you heard my big news a week or so ago? I'll be writing a 4 book series of space opera romance? Well, that's keeping me busy too, especially since the first book is due to the publisher by February 1. It's gonna be a crazy end to the year.

So...

I will simply let you enjoy a tiny bit of Flipped Out today. Here you go, from the scene in chapter 3 (I think) when the visiting television crew is starting to film the five days of quick-flip renovations:

“And . . . action,” Nina said.

I made sure to stay out of sight while Wilson panned the living room—it wouldn’t do for us to be peeking around the archway and ruining the shot—but once Adam started speaking, we knew Wilson had finished his pan and was focused on Adam, so we leaned into the living room to watch.

“Hi,” Adam said, grinning dementedly, “and welcome to Flipped Out! I’m Adam Ramsey, your host. Today we’re here in Waterford, Maine—”

“Cut,” Nina said. “It’s Waterfield, Adam. Do it again.”

Adam grimaced. Wilson went back to the doorway. Derek and I ducked out of sight, and it all started over again. And again. Adam couldn’t seem to get the hang of it. He was very handsome, he probably photographed extremely well, he had a nicely modulated voice, but he couldn’t remember details to save his life. If it wasn’t the name of the town that slipped his mind, it was another word he mispronounced or stumbled over. After five or six takes, he had finally got the introduction and the name of the town and everything else just right, but when he moved into the kitchen to introduce Derek and me, the problems started all over again.

“Here we are with this week’s team of renovators, Erik Ellis and—”

“Cut,” Nina said, her voice beginning to show signs of wear around the edges. “It’s Derek, Adam. Not Erik. Do it again.”

Wilson looked put out. Adam looked pained. “Sorry, Neen.”

Nina was making an almost visible effort to be nice. “I’m sure you are, Adam. Just do it again, please.”

Wilson moved back to the doorway, Derek and I exchanged a glance, and Adam took a deep breath and blew it out again, flashing another broad smile. “Here we are with this week’s team of renovators, Derek Ellis and Ivory Baker—”

“Cut,” Nina said. “It’s Avery, Adam. Derek and Avery. Not Erik and Ivory. Do you need a break?”

The not so subtle subtext was, “Take a break, Adam. And come back ready to get it right.”

Yeah,” Adam said, “I think maybe I do. I’ll be right back.”

He left through the laundry room and headed into the backyard, where he’d probably either punch a tree to make himself feel better, or wander around for a couple of minutes, kicking at tufts of grass and muttering. Hopefully he’d come back inside in a better frame of mind.

***

So there you have it. Flipped Out is available in paperback format in a store near you, as well as in digital format from a long line of online retailers. The price is $7.99, and well worth it, if I do say so myself. ;-)

Until next month!

New Beginnings

by Jennie Bentley/Bente Gallagher

So it's August. Back at the beginning of June, it seemed like it would never really come. Just like when I was a kid, and summer vacation stretched out in front of me forever. Or so it seemed.

But all good things must come to an end, right? And in just over a week, it's time for school to start again. The kids aren't much looking forward to it, but I am. I mean, I love them and all... but they're wreaking havoc with my writing schedule. I have to deliver DIY-5, FLIPPING OUT! to my editor by September 1st, and with two kids underfoot all summer, it hasn't been easy finishing the manuscript.

As a child, I always looked forward to the beginning of school. I looked forward to summer vacation, too, but by August, I was ready to see my friends and get back to a regular schedule and have normal life start up again.

To some people, New Years Eve is the beginning of the year. That's the time to make resolutions and changes.

To me, autumn has always been about new beginnings. New friends, new crushes, new teachers, new school every few years...

If we haven't picked a suggested and optional topic for the month of August yet, I'd like to propose that one. New beginnings. And if nobody minds, I'll start.

Two very exciting new things coming up for me a little later this fall: we're trying to buy a condo in Florida - just about five miles from the wonderful Nancy Haddock, whom I adore - and if things work out, we're thinking of possibly making a move down there in the next six months or so. With kids and school and DH's work and other considerations, it's all still very much up in the air, but we're thinking and talking  and praying hard. We've moved ten or twelve times in the past fifteen years, but all within Nashville; this would be the first city-to-city move since we left New York back in the early 1990s. It's scary, but exciting too.

The other new thing is a switch in focus for my writing. After I deliver DIY-5 to my editor on September 1, I'm once again contract-less. I have at least one, maybe two books to write for the Savannah Martin series, to finish the story arc, but I write those on my own time and ship them to the publisher when they're done. Book 2 is under contract and will be released next summer. Book 3 is finished, and will be coming in 2012, assuming the publisher likes it and wants to keep the series going. I'm ahead of the game by at least a year there. So between September 1 and the release of DIY-4, Mortar and Murder, in January, I plan to write something new. Something different. Something exciting.

To kickstart my new direction, I'm taking an online class right now in writing romantic suspense, and the first weekend of October, I'll be driving up to Columbus, Ohio, for the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Conference, Write from the Heart, to listen to people like Suzanne Brockmann and our buddy CJ Lyons talk about writing romantic thrillers. 

(CJ just won a Daphne award this past weekend, by the way. In case some of you hadn't heard. Be sure to congratulate her.)

So that's my big news, and my new beginning. Feel free to take the rest of the month to talk about yours.

Till next time!
xoxo