In addition to TonyaRice.com, you'll now find me at Front Porch, Sweet Tea, and A Pile of Books. The Reading Corner here has been great, but I love this new spot myself :)
Please join me there and thanks so much again for your continuing support!!
by Tonya Rice
I've been working on the first book of my upcoming series, "The Boutique Series", for a few months now. It's in the rewrite stage and I'll admit I'm anxious to let her go since Book #2 knows what it's all about and I can't get to that one before publishing the first!
Aah, writer problems - but, I'm glad to have them.
Well, in order to get something new out there in the marketplace after publishing The Heirloom: A Novelette, I wrote Burying the Bitter: A Boutique Series Short which introduces Josi's Boutique, the setting of the series.
This piece is free on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Since its release in March, on Amazon, Burying the Bitter been in the Top 50 for Family Life Fiction!! I'm stoked!
It's not a soft story by any means. It seems to represent the type of stories that I go for - the raw emotional, character-driven, unexpected-angled ones. Here's the blurb:
Eveline Weaver is returning to Richmond for her uncle's funeral, a service she'd prefer to miss. Uncle Neville was not the kind, old uncle the rest of the public deemed him to be and remembering his life is not what she wants to do. During the service she's counting down the minutes for her flight back home in Atlanta. When she spots a familiar face from her past, she reconsiders going back so soon: Dodge Mallory. In this short trip, she must face more than she expected.
I was also thrilled to see how it had reached one reader's heart and as it continues to hang high with the works of best selling authors, Ruth Harris, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, and Erin Hillenbrand, even in the free list, I am one happy and motivated writer!!!
Here's the review...
GREAT! I enjoyed reading this short story! Emotional stories attract me and this one had just the right amount of emotion while dealing with a serious topic.
If you haven't gotten your copy yet, please click here for yours! I'd also be honored if you share your review.
by Tonya Rice
I'm also thrilled to share that WITHOUT YOUR GOODBYE: A NOVELETTE* has reviewed a five-star review on Amazon!
RICE HAS A FANTASTIC SENSE OF HUMOR: First, Rice has a fantastic sense of humor! (Don’t believe me? See if you can manage not to choke after reading the also-known-as *insert periodic table* bit.) Second, it’s downright impossible to review this book, without “spilling tea.” Let me simply say – Read It. This book has sass, deceit, folks with sense, folks with no sense - but great fashion, twists, turns, and the ability to leave you wanting more (I mean there's no way he…she…can get away with this, right? *mopping tea*) It’s not easy to write about your hometown without reading as though you have been issued an official City Tour Guide Badge and the author pulled it off with literary Instagram appeal. Grab this for your indulgence moments or directly after calling-in a little late due to an unforeseen “emergency” (finishing the last few pages on your iphone does constitute.) It’s certainly something Francisco (or Ann?) would do!
If you've had the chance to read it, please feel free to offer your review. If you haven't yet gotten your copy, please click here to buy.
*(Without Your Goodbye: A Novelette was originally published under the title, What Your Friend Means to Me: A Novelette)
by Tonya Rice
THE HEIRLOOM: A NOVELETTE has reviewed a five-star review on Amazon! I'm so excited to share it here with you!
GET SOME TISSUE: A short story with a big heart about the realization of unconditional, transcendent love and how it blossoms even in life' s darkest hours. Heirlooms are traditionally built upon legacies between women. Yet, here, Rice has managed to tenderly and unobtrusively include a man in this incredibly touching relay of love. A very unique jewel indeed.
If you've had the chance to read it, please feel free to offer your review. If you haven't yet gotten your copy, please click here to buy.
by Tonya Rice
During my MFA studies, I’ve had to step away from the books on my to-read list and substitute them with required readings. It's been hard because the list gets longer and I so want to dive into those stories. Not long ago, I was asked who influenced me as an author. I waltzed all the way back to my teens when my writing steam had really increased. Back then my favorite books featured glamorous jet-set lives penned by Judith Krantz and Jackie Collins. I got a hold of Krantz’s Scruples and subsequently the rest of her books soon after my beloved childhood author Judy Blume paved my way to grown-up reading with Forever and Wifey and never looked back. In a way that other authors hadn’t, Krantz and Collins really showed me how to write without fear. To let it rip. I’d been doing so in my journals, so I realized that my little short stories and poetry deserved the same charge.
When I was introduced to Lee Smith’s work in college, such as Oral History and Black Mountain Breakdown, I was mesmerized by her southern voices and her measured pace which was more familiar to me. Her stories were about straight-forward folks dealing with complex, familial situations steep in secrets, haunts, tragedy in all kinds of levels, relatives and neighbors who weren’t supposed to be talked about - stuff I recognized hearing about in my own family over the years. During excitement, their chatter was high-pitched, full of elation. Otherwise, they spoke in hushed, sympathetic tones for the “pitiful”, as my aunt so loved to say. Soon after, I went on to read classic southern literature by various authors, such as Flannery O’Connor and Zora Neale Hurston. I’ve finally begun to read Faulkner, after years of planning to, and I’m glad I have - to experience what he does with the written language has become a valuable education to me. As I enjoy the stories these writers have spun, I take in the psychology of developing characters.
In an earlier novel of mine, currently in two folders: one on my desktop, the other in my file cabinet, protracted secrets unravel a family. To me, it’s those pesky little generational secrets that create a major aspect of Southern literature, and as they say, chickens will always come home to roost. My main character, Johnny*, in his late-40s, is the youngest of two. The presence of his mother, the matriarch of this family, is prominent throughout the book, even when it’s not her scene. He and his sister have a challenging relationship with her, and so does his wife, with whom he’s now in conflict after twenty years of bliss. On top of that, he’s dealing with a change in his parents’ relationship and his mother’s crisis, one he thought she’d shut down long ago. Of course he and his sister don’t even know what it is and they want to. He’s growing weary, but with his family’s help, he’ll soon discover how strong he will need to be.
Here’s an excerpt from my [still-untitled] WIP (Johnny’s mother, Ellen*, is on the phone with her lifelong best friend discussing Johnny’s wife, whom Ellen never addresses by name):
Secluded alone in a silent house, Ellen sat in her favorite chair next to the living room window and sighed. She’d just returned the phone call to her best friend, Rosa. “Why is Johnny’s wife still so mousy around me?” she asked. It was a longstanding question that exasperated her. “She couldn’t even bring her little elf-sized self up here to say ‘Good morning’.”
“She’s always been that way. You said so yourself and I know it, too,” Rosa said. In her usual soft-spoken manner, calming down Ellen, she continued “Look, I’m calling you so early this morning, since you were on my mind late last night. Are y’all going to North Carolina?”
“Pete* says we should...”
“You might as well go,” Rosa said. Her tone was authoritative, leaving no room for questions. “If you don’t, you’ll never make peace with it.”
“That dream woke me up in the middle of the night again. If I don’t go, I’ll never get a night’s peace of sleep either,” Ellen said. She closed her eyes and shook her head, getting a brief glimpse of the nightmare that once again faced her at dawn, just a couple of hours earlier.
“Since Pete’s going, you’ll be just fine,” Rosa said.
Ellen felt reassured with that. “I think so too,” she said. Her words were soft, almost distant. After taking a deep breath, her voice had grown a bit stronger. “You know I still think Johnny’s wife’s hiding something.”
“Not that again, Ellen. I thought you were going to leave her alone.”
Ellen glared at a speck on the wall. “I have... but I still think so.”
While writing this book, I realized just how vivid the voices of that older generation have been to me than those of my own peers. I recognize how they influenced me growing up, in terms of respect, reverence, and humor, and they’re still with me. This was another fine element of Southern literature I recognized in my readings, and it’s an impact of my own writing that I cherish.
Also... I still enjoy reading my Jackie Collins.
What are some of your writing influences?
For immediate publishing updates, please stop by my website and sign up for my newsletter. My thanks to you is a FREE story - Shelf Space: A Short Story!
*character's names will change
by Tonya Rice
When the title of this post popped in my head, so did Mel and Sigourney from The Year of Living Dangerously. Funny how the mind works and as this year comes to a close, I need to maintain my sense of humor, no matter how warped or corny it may seem to be.
Looking deeper into my year in review, I realize that this was perhaps my best year in writing since college - many years ago.
I returned to grad school for my MFA in Creative Writing. I completed two major publications - The Heirloom: A Novelette and Without Your Goodbye: A Novelette - which are available through Amazon!
In conjunction with that, through class and general inspiration, I began writing my examiner.com articles again AND I've written over twenty stories. They're the start of additional novellas and novels. Also, in progress is a full-length historical novel that will be my thesis.
After reviewing my blog posts over the last few years including those consisting of goals, I noticed this was the first year that most of what I've dreamed of accomplishing came to light.
Getting that book through Amazon made me a published author. I have my name on the cover of a book! The momentum flourishes from there as I complete the rewrite of my second book: a novella which is the first of a series! It's all so exciting.
So exciting, that it takes me away from real life and I sometimes resent when I'm pulled back into it... BUT, I refuse to think of that as I bask in the glory of 2014 which has finally called me "Author".
For my immediate publishing updates, please stop by my website and sign up for my newsletter. My thanks to you is a FREE story - Shelf Space: A Short Story!
Thanks for reading and here's to another Happy, Healthy, Prosperous, and Wonderfully Literary New Year!
edited 05/09/15
by Tonya Rice
I felt like a bonafide author once this page was up! Links to my blogs and tweets are featured and I've just edited my bio.
Do visit! I'm thrilled to say that Without Your Goodbye: A Novelette is a part of the Amazon list. It's available for Kindle and can be purchased through One-Click and Kindle Unlimited!!
Get your copy today and please share your review!
Also available is Rich Fabric - An Anthology: The Symbolism, Culture and Tradition of Quilting. I had the honor of having my short piece, "Always Warm", published here, which describes a favorite quilt I'd once had. It's a wonderful book, full of other stories and poems honoring family lore and love through quilting. I highly recommend it. Proceeds go to the Twilight Wish Foundation - a non-profit charity that grants wishes to senior citizens who live below the poverty level.
For immediate publishing updates, please stop by my website and sign up for my newsletter. My thanks to you is a FREE story - Shelf Space: A Short Story!
Thanks for reading!
edited 05/09/15
by Tonya Rice
Since What Your Friend Means to Me: A Novelette was published a week ago, I've encountered a rather busy week! With Christmas a few days away, my writing can't stop. I can pause a bit, but I simply can't stop.
Rewriting and editing my upcoming book, which is the first of a series, has taken a close second to the Christmas events with the family - the tacky light tours, movies, last-minute shopping. I'm pooped, but - see that stack of papers to the left? It's where my head's been buried when it's not shopping nor seeking out ways to get Shelby's story out to my readers. I have to stay focused in that world too!
Marketing the new book through familiar outlets such as my Facebook page and Twitter, as well as other mediums I'd never considered until suggested by fellow authors, has been fun. It detaches me and allows me the chance to look at the book as an outsider, giving me a deeper appreciation for Shelby and her story. I've joined several genre groups in Facebook and I've become a part of several genre communities in Google+. That Google+ moment marked my very first time in that arena and it's pretty exciting. I'm thrilled by a review I'd received and I'm hoping that others also find it an enjoyable read!
Well, that stack of papers beckons again. I've got to keep the momentum going so my latest story's out by the end of the month!! Besides, the folks of Book #2 are trying to push their tale through, so Book #1 must be completed!
I must keep writing...
For immediate publishing updates, please stop by my website and sign up for my newsletter. My thanks to you is a FREE story - Shelf Space: A Short Story!
Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas!!!
by Tonya Rice
Now that my first book, What Your Friend Means to Me: A Novelette (Magnolia Bay Publishing, 2014) has been published and is now available through amazon.com, I’m simply beyond thrilled. This blog is about three years old and over these years, I’ve completed one novel, stuffed it in a drawer, begun another, only to abandon it for another. Feel free to scroll through the posts here tagged “Writing” for those notes. When I started my graduate studies toward my MFA in Creative Writing, I became more focused and even more confident in my vision to become a published author. This novelette is a result of that shift and I am thankful.
After writing and editing this story, the process of preparing it for publication was a much more detailed and an often grueling experience. I knew it would be, but living through it was a test and I passed. So, now that the first one’s out of the way, my subsequent stories will be a lot easier to add to my bookshelf and thus be more frequent.
As a longtime amazon.com customer, I’ve stared at many authors, covers, and book descriptions looking for something to read for pleasure or a text for class. Yesterday, to see my book there - with my name, my cover, my story description – was pretty surreal. I couldn’t stop looking at its’ website page. I stared at it on my computer screen, my tablet, and my phone!
Now, I also have my own amazon.com author page!
Well, since that the first book’s published, I’m not in any position to get comfortable. The second story’s in the final edit stage right now and should be up before Christmas next week. Then another is soon to follow for the New Year! In the meantime, Shelby Kingston will always hold a dear and special place in my heart - she's my first published heroine.
Thanks to all who have been supporting my writing dreams and me, waiting for this first story, What Your Friend Means to Me: A Novelette. Thanks also to those who are joining this journey - becoming my readers. I’m truly grateful.
by Tonya Rice
