Surprise Sale! A Fistful of Fate

Love a bargain?

I just discovered my novel, A Fistful of Fate, is on sale for .99 for Kindle!

With summer around the corner, now is a great time to start lining up those beach reads.

Would you die for the one you love...twice?


William Montgomery, a blacksmith wrongly sentenced to death in 1806 for the murder of the woman he loved, cannot rest. His ghost is bound to Clayton Creek. For over two hundred years he’s been waiting for the soul of his true love to find him and set his soul free.

Rebecca Prescott is tormented by the recurring nightmare of her ancestor’s murder. Drawn to a two-week colonial reenactment at the scene of the ancient crime, she doesn’t count on one charming blacksmith or past life memories of an undying love to shatter her reality.

As Rebecca searches for answers from the past, William needs to win her love and earn her forgiveness to undo the witch’s curse that bound him to Clayton Creek. Can Rebecca’s soul finally reunite with her destined love or will she repeat the past and die once again for the man she loves?

Excerpt 

William Montgomery stood in the shadowed doorway and watched the woman he’d waited two hundred years for kiss another man. But Reginald Merriweather wasn’t just any man. He was the man William blamed for Rebecca Beauregard’s death all those years ago, a crime Will had been accused of and paid for. With his own life.

It didn’t matter that Will had been executed. He couldn’t have lived another minute without Rebecca by his side. In truth, his heart had stopped beating the second the bullets had pierced her body. Had he known she would jump between their dueling pistols, he never would have fired.

Now Will’s heart pumped a frantic rhythm he barely remembered in his chest. Two centuries spent in his ghostly form had dulled that particular memory. His blood began to tingle in his veins. Looking down, he saw his legs, his boots, and then his limbs had vanished once again. The change so abrupt he wondered if he’d imagined it.

Rebecca was alive, not a figment of his imagination. She stood on the street between his home and his blacksmith shop, dressed in twenty-first century clothing that showed so much more of her skin than he ever remembered seeing. Her dark hair bounced off her bared shoulders beneath a wide-brimmed hat. So full of life, her smile intoxicated him even from this distance. He wondered if her eyes were the same shade of hazel with green specks and full of mischief, if her skin would still smell like freshly picked lavender.

He stepped out into the summer sunshine to venture closer, expecting her to notice him, to recognize him and call out in the voice that had haunted him these long, lonely years. But she didn’t. She didn’t notice him at all. Neither did Reginald. Will was nothing more than a breeze, still a ghost.

Buy for your Kindle for only .99!

A Rose by any other name...

As Shakespeare so eloquently said, "a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet."

Is that true in a novel?

Are all the names an author can choose for their characters created equal?

No. I don't believe an author can just pull any name that makes them feel good at the moment out of the air and stick it on their hero or heroine. One size does not fit all!

Honestly, naming my kids was easier than it is to name my characters - and I don't have an easy last name to pair that perfect first name with!

The first thing to take into consideration is the time period of your story. Nothing pulls me out of a story quicker than a heroine named Tiffany in a Medieval (unless it's a time travel and she's a modern day heroine.) There are plenty of research books on period names, some name books will even given the origin of the name and the approximate date it was first recorded to be used - make use of those resources! It only takes a few minutes of your time and your readers will appreciate the attention to detail.

Want to ensure I don't make it past the back blurb and your book doesn't come home with me or get loaded into my Nook? Give your characters names I can't pronounce!  This could just be me, but nothing frustrates me more than a name that I'm not sure about and make up the pronunciation on my own - this means that as I read in my head I am spending more time trying to figure out the character name and how to say it than anything else. Not really what most authors are going for.

Getting back to Rose...let's face it, some names just conjure up an image in your head. A hero named Jack or Max is definitely going to give me a different impression than say, Milton. Yes, if you name your heroine Rose, I'm going to think soft and sweet (I have a sister-in-law named Rosie, and she IS sweet!)

Now, the real fun begins - how do you choose your character name?

I use a combination of name books - some with origins and meanings, and another involving letter sounds and personality traits. I usually have an idea of the personality of my character and of course, the time period that book will be in. Then I start pulling names that fit both time and personality and start picturing my character being called my chosen name - in anger, in a conversation, and in the throes of passion.

If I like the name in all three situations, I've got a winner!

What's your process or what's your character name pet peeve?

Days of (in)sanity

Wondering why I decided to call my new blog "Scribbling to (in)sanity?"

I'm no different than most people I know. I'm a busy, working mom of three kids (one on the autism spectrum.) I've got a house to take care of, a husband and a to-do list that's a mile long every week. All things considered, sometimes life can be pretty insane.

Oh, and I write romance books. That's the part that keeps me sane.

On most days...hahaha

I wasn't born a writer. But, I was born a dreamer and a storyteller - I can't remember a time I wasn't dreaming about a fairy tale and creating new characters and new endings to keep the stories alive in my head. Eventually the world of writing and storytelling merged and I found the stress relief from everyday life I needed to keep my sanity.

Yes, I write pure fantasy. When you open a Debora Dennis book, you're most likely taking a journey to another time and place. I've always been a sucker for a "fish out of water" story and spent most of my school years dreaming of living in a time with chivalrous men, but with kick-ass women who fought right alongside their hero.

Like most writers, I constantly hear voices in my head and can't stop thinking about plots, dialogues and characters. You'd think THAT would drive a person insane, but for me it's sometimes the only sane part of my week.

Some weeks, the insanity takes over. :)

Writing romantic fiction is what keeps me sane in an insane world!

Over the past week, I've set my microwave on fire, signed up to have a professional website designed just for me (which meant moving and creating a new blog) and hosted Mother's Day dinner for 12 (at my new dining room table...yay!) But, the winner of the most insane, goes to how I watched in utter surprise as a fellow romance author was issued a C&D letter from Sony and Google to stop using her LEGAL first name because it somehow infringed on the singer/songwriter Adele(tm). Now THAT folks is what I call insanity! You can read about that, here.

To keep myself sane, I've spent the last week with my modern-day heroine Lilly, who's managed to find herself in a very lawless California town during the Gold Rush with one sexy Sheriff!

Monday Minute - Fresh Start

     Sometimes a quick decision is years in the making.

I've been blogging a long time - maybe close to 5 or 6 years (that's a lot of blogging!) In that time, I've gone through several platforms and too many designs to count. I've also been doing my own website (with some graphics help for headers along the way.)

Over the past year I've been realizing more and more that I just don't want to spend the time on that end any more. For me, it's a great way to procrastinate - change my webdesign, the color scheme, etc. (too much procrastination and playing with html = not enough writing or cleaning or feeding my family!)

This past week, I finally took the plunge and contacted the designer of some romance author websites I've been admiring for years. Yes, I've contacted her before - three years ago. I didn't take the leap all those years ago because I wasn't ready to give up control (a problem I have with a lot of things in life! LOL) Three years later, her policy hasn't changed - but I have.

Even though I'm not scheduled to have my site done until July (she's got a waiting list...given the quality of her sites, I fully expected that!) she's already answered many of my questions and we've spoken on the phone about an important aspect of what I've signed on for: Branding.

I want my website and my blog to reflect ME - what I write, who I am and what I want YOU, the readers, to feel when you visit me. I want a solid theme.

My new designer doesn't work with wordpress, and prefers Blogger. If I want a continuous click-though theme, I had to make the switch to blogger...Oh My! There are several reasons she's gone this route (and to be honest, after my wordpress was hacked several months ago and caused so much trouble for me - I even had to switch hosts to iron everything out - I'm ready for a change.)

So...here I am.

In just a few minutes last week, I made the decision I've been thinking about for years.

Welcome to the beginning of a new blog. Fresh, clean and open to all kinds of possibilities! I hope you'll come by and visit me to dish the dirt about coffee, chocolate and writing romantic fiction - and if you like what you read and follow me - consider yourself hugged!

Happy Monday!

Happy Mother's Day

Wishing all of you a Happy Mother's Day!

Long story...short answer

Yes, it's a new blog. A new location, a new platform and a new name. Welcome. Let the fun begin.