The World of Pops' Girls: Blue Plate Special

Several years ago, about 7, I think, Sherry (Shara) Jones, said the words, "Continuity series" to me, and that was the jump off point for creating Momma, Pops, the dinner, Sissy Hobart, Sissy Peters, the diner and the town of Glen Meadow. We drew Meg Allison in, and off we went.

And what a world we created! Working in tandem to keep our timelines straight and weaving our stories together, yet writing them to stand alone, too, was quite an experience. It is my favorite writing experience by far.

Janie (formerly *Learning to Trust*) received excellent reviews all those many years ago, and you can read them HERE.

Cindi (Formerly *Lessons in Love*) also received excellent reviews. HERE.

Second Chances (Formerly *Learning to Live*), by Meg Allison...yep, you guessed it. Excellent reviews. HERE. PURCHASE.

Janie and Cindi can be found in the newly released Pops' Girls: An Anthology. Sherry/Shara and I are thrilled that these stories are available again. We hope you enjoy reading these tales as much as we enjoyed writing them.

Return to Glen Meadow

Welcome to Glen Meadow, where the neighbors know everything about you from your love life to your vegetable eating habits. Fall in love with this close-knit town where love blossoms and the peach cobbler is served warm. Follow Janie and Myles, and Cindi and Steve as they fall in love.

Janie by Laura Hamby...Janie Lowell is a woman on the run from a violent past. Fear kept her on the move, but her move to Glen Meadow gives her that elusive something she's been looking for, without really realizing that she wasn't running away from something, but rather she was running to love and safety...And a special someone - Myles Channing.

Cindi by Shara Jones...Providing math and baseball instructions to Ryan keeps Steve Richland in sexy Cindi's playing field, but will it keep him from leaving Glen Meadow and surrendering his freedom for fatherhood? Struggling waitress, Cindi Petroneli will do anything to help her brother--including reluctantly hiring, Steve Richland as his tutor. Can she resist when her resolve is tested by the sexy-as-sin professor and his lessons in love?

 

Available NOW on Smashwords and Amazon.

 

And, coming as soon as I can get it formatted and published, another Shara Jones/Laura Hamby Pops' Girls anthology, this one is our novellas, previously published with Meg Allison's contribution, in an anthology, WITH some fun extras like recipes and some historical flashback story pieces.

 

Fun Pops' Girls: Blue Plate Special Trivia

 

The town of Glen Meadow is named after one of our mother-in-law's streets. (We're going to be coy, and for privacy reasons, not say WHICH of the 3 Pops' Girls authors MIL, but it's still a fun fact.)

 

I, me, Laura, am the one who conned...er...got Shara and Meg involved.

 

None of us can believe it's been 7 years since we wrote this continuity series.

 

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(Pardon me a moment, while I get over the "7 years" part...)

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Okay. Deep breath.

 

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Here's a link to Meg Allison's Second Chances...The 3rd novel in the Pops' Girls series, on Amazon.

 

Our three novels are intertwined, but they all stand alone as novels. You don't *have* to read all three, but my question is, why wouldn't you? Glen Meadow rocks.

 

Shhhhh...I have in my files, a half-finished Pops' Girls novel...and I'd like to finish it and publish it. That's not the secret part. The secret part is that I'm going to see if I can't con...er...gently persuade (Yeah! That's it!) Shara/Sherry, my BFFITWW to write another one, too, so we can do another Pops' Girls anthology. Mebbe I'll work on Meg, too. Hehe.

 

 

 

 

 

So Much Going On

With the holidays, kids and school and my job search, it, of course, seemed like the natural time to jump into the pool and self-publish. If that wasn't enough, it occurred to me I could reissue my out of print backlist.

I have been working on It's All Greek to Me since MONDAY. Ack. I had to copy/paste it to my email, remove the paragraph spacing (took the whole day), then recopy/paste to a new document (to remove extra formatting) and yep...work on the spacing again. That took another whole day. LOL. I've been updating the story, it is, after all, 6 years old and I mentioned answering machines! Hehe. The storyline itself isn't changing. Just adding details and bringing it further into the 21st century. I'm about 1/3 of the way finished.

So, into that project (with a new novel to format and publish just waiting in the wings), I had the brilliant idea to reissue my Blue Plate Special: Pops' Girls novels. It's a continuity series I wrote with my bestie Sherry (writing as Shara Jones), and another good friend, Meg Allison what, 4-5 years ago. We each wrote a stand alone, then contributed to an anthology. Meg's reissued her contributions: Second Chances and Accidentally in Love (see her webbie, I have too many windows open on my browser at the moment...eek!), and now, I've bamboozled Sherry/Shara into reissuing hers. (Allow me to pause for a moment to laugh like an evil loonybird.) We're going to issue 2 anthologies, Sherry/Shara 'n' me...one with our two standalones, retitled (Meg retitled hers, too) simply Janie (mine) and Cindi (Sherry/Shara's), and our two novellas from the original Pops' Girls anthology.

THEN, if that weren't enough, I said to Sherry, "I'm going to also reissue Cupid on a Mission. Mebbe we could do a Valentine's anthology with a couple of novellas, and use Cupid again." Sherry said, "How long?" This morning, I realized I now hafta write a novella for this project. Bwahahahahahaha. Outsmarted myself there.

Sherry and I also have some Brides themed novellas and spooky themed novellas. Yes, the possibilities are endless.

I'm just thrilled I bamboozled Sherry back into The Game again.

Okay, so why am I blogging when I have a webbie to update, a novel to finish updating/formatting, novellas and novels to write, books to publish...?

PS...For authors looking for (at the moment) free promo, I've created a new website: Books! Books! Books! in the hopes of attracting readers to their favorite, as well as, new authors.

Now I'm really leaving.

Playin' in the Big Girls League...

My long time crit partner and verra good friend, Sherry (Shara) Jones and I have written "together" now for several years-- with the IM window permanently open while we write. As far as we're concerned, there's no other way to do it. We chat, we joke, we write, we brainstorm, we share, we problem solve when the WIPs demand it, and we both have a well-developed aim for kickin' each other's butts into gear.

We wouldn't have it any other way.

We've collaborated on a series together (the Blue Plate Special: Pops' Girls series), raced each other while writing our spookie novella's for By Grace's Out of the Shadows anthology, raced just for the heck of it, critiqued numerous novels for each other (um, she has a WICKED green pen for that-- ;) )... So it really made sense to us to take the next step together.

See, we're e-published with both By Grace and Moonlit Romance, and are now turning our attentions to "Da Big Girls"-- Print publication-- our novels nestled together on the bookstore shelves... (Hehe... even mebbe even displayed with a BNA such as... I dunno, Nora Roberts. What? It's good to be able to dream, have a goal to reach for!)

To that end, we've decided that taking this plunge ---(Okay, I'll admit it--- I've been dragging my footies for a while on this, and finally, Sherry shoved me into the water. Batted them long-lashed eyes at me and said in an uber sweet voice, "I'm writing this one for Da Big Girls. It sure would be fun if I had company") --- would be much more fun together.

Of course, I have obligations to meet for Moonlit and By Grace (and intend to continue writing for both companies), as well as "Life Obligations"-- family, home, hearth, the stupid laundry.... So she's ahead of me with her WIP. But no worries. I'll catch up with her.

To follow us along on what we're calling "Our Project," visit our blog: Two for the Show... Play'n in Write Field. We'd love to see you there!