Hauntings in the Garden: Be-Witching Halloween

The Hauntings in the Garden anthology is an excellent way to study the variations in length, story style and genre you can fit into a short novella.

The next step is to plan your own.

Outline Your Novella

An Internet search will produce hundreds of documents, all aimed at helping you outline a novel. I spent years following the 

Snowflake Method. It is thorough, effective, and works, but in order to produce a novella in a limited time, I felt the need of a simpler step-by-step plan.

Searching for this article I found the helpful resources page from annie neugebauer and liked the pared-down novel help sheets as they outline the steps to take one by one.

I have never been able to master the ups and down of story arcs, the graphs, the long explanations. I just want to get on with the writing but I needed a flexible plan to keep me on track for the days I get stuck. No, it's not writer's block. I just write myself into a hole that I can't dig my way out of :-)

Hauntings in the Garden:Brighten Your Blog

And for Day 5 in the Hauntings in the Garden series of posts featuring the nine mini-novellas from The Wild Rose Press, an unfriendly ghost is all set to make an appearance.

Award-winning author Alicia Dean is the motivating force behind this series of Hauntings in the Garden posts. This is her first ever ghost story and it's a cracker

Caster's Unfriendly Ghost

A year after her husband’s death, Emily Tillman is ready to start dating again, and hopefully, find what she’s always wanted—marriage and children. But the man who broke her heart five years ago is back. And he’s anything but the marrying kind.

Confirmed bachelor Reese Caster is perfectly content with his life—and he’s finally over Emily, the one woman who almost made him commit. Now, his world is rocked when her dead husband shows up, demanding that Reese pursue Emily to keep her out of the clutches of her latest suitor—a jerk who is only after her money.

Being around Emily again has made Reese reconsider his bachelor life style. But now that the threat of the other man is gone, the pesky ghost wants Reese to break things off. Can he and Emily find the love they were denied, or will the ghost of her dead husband destroy their chances?

Halloween
Rating: Sensual
Page Count: 67
Word Count: 15385
978-1-62830-569-2 Digital

Find more about Alicia and the other stories and authors at her website, aliciadean.com and read her take on the books in the series with fun facts about authors in her blog here

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Using the Hauntings in the Garden banner for this series has given me a taste for brightening my blogger headings by using more banners.
To brighten your own blog, have a look at The Cutest Blog on the Block, where I found the heading for this post, and browse its selection of goodies for Blogger, Twitter, Facebook and WordPress. A helpful tutorial section has guides to improving and personalizing the appearance of your blog.

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Vikki Kestell is offering her short story The Christian and the Vampire free until November 3. Readers in the UK should access it here.

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For other giveaways you may have missed:

Day 1: Planning and Purpose with download link to Lazette Gifford's free 130 page ebook on preparing for NanoWrimo

Day 2: Writing "small": analyse blurbs for style and content.
Day 3: Covers and Blurbs:with download link to small ebook on good book and cover design.
Day 4: Inspiration and Motivation with download link to creative teaching pack based on the work of Niki de Saint Phalle.

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Hauntings in the Garden: Finding Inspiration

Halloween Reads and Discounts

This is a very special day. It marks the birth date of artist Niki de Saint Phalle, as Google doodle fans will have noticed, as well as Day 4 of the Halloween celebrations for Hauntings in the Garden--the series of nine mini-novellas from The Wild Rose Press.

For those of us looking for an inspiration or motivation, the Tate Liverpool has a downloadable pack on the work of New York born video artist, painter and sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle.

Not only does it explain her life and her work with illustrations but it also suggests exercises and activities which could cross-fertilize your own creative activity. It's a teacher's pack so, with care, you could also adapt many of the activities to keep the children entertained over the half-term break.

For other giveaways you may have missed:

Day 1: Planning and Purpose with download link to Lazette Gifford's free 130 page ebook on preparing for NanoWrimo

Day 2: Writing "small": analyse blurbs for style and content.
Day 3: Covers and Blurbs:with download link to small ebook on good book and cover design.

Day 4: Inspiration and Motivation
To continue with thoughts of dreams and inspiration, the Halloween novella by Linda Carroll-Bradd featured today is a tale to recapture the pleasures of sea and sail.

Click the link below to read an excerpt:

Unlocked Treasure

Aleen MacRae blames the lure of the sea for breaking apart her family and then her engagement.  When her interest is caught by a man she sees both in person and in a dream, she resists—afraid to believe in her aunt’s prediction that her future is tied to the sea.

Braden Williams is on the hunt for treasure buried centuries earlier by Rhode Island pirates. His search brings him to the property where Aleen lives. Collaboration on genealogy research draws them closer, and Braden steers her toward his true passion—sailing.

Attending a party with Braden’s family lets her glimpse what she’s been missing. An unexpected discovery before her date with Braden at the Halloween Midnight Organ Recital forces a decision. Will Aleen play things safe or accept what this free-spirited man offers?

Rating: Sweet
Page Count: 67
Word Count: 15820
978-1-62830-602-6 Digital