Travels that Inspire by Merrillee Whren

My husband and I have taken a couple of trips recently. In April, we went to the practice round of the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. We went to the practice round because you can take photos, which you can't do during the tournament itself. The golf course is beautiful. Here are a couple of photos that I took.

At the beginning of May, we journeyed back to Ohio, where we visited friends, before attending the Kentucky Derby. As we drove up the road to our friends' house, I was thrilled to see that their dogwoods were in bloom. Here are a couple of picture I took during our visit.

The first photo symbolizes a decision. Which fork will I take? The second photo symbolizes a journey into the unknown. What lies ahead?

After we visited our friends we spent the day before the Kentucky Derby exploring Cincinnati, the city where we met and got married. We did a number of things that we never did while we lived there. We walked along the river front on the banks of the Ohio River. The river walk wasn't there when we lived there before so we had an excuse for not having done that.

We also visited a cemetery. When my husband said the number three thing on the list of tourist attractions in Cincinnati is a cemetery, I had to laugh, but after our visit I understood why it is number three on the list. Here are just a couple of photos I took in Spring Grove Cemetery.

Whenever I take a trip, I always wonder how I can work that into a book. What kind of story do you think I could write that would incorporate these places?

I will give away the first two books in my Village of Hope series to one person who leaves a comment. I will draw the winner on May 18, 2016.

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Bookcovers by Merrillee Whren

Here is the cover of my latest book, HOMETOWN PROPOSAL, which is the second book in my Kellerville series, about a small fictional town located near Cincinnati, Ohio. Here is a blurb that tells a little bit about the book.

Before single father Seth Finley became a full-time dad—and a Christian—he wasn't exactly responsible. But now he can't seem to convince his former girlfriend that he's changed. Nothing is more important to Seth than family, faith and love. And since he's found Elise Keller again, he has another shot to show her what kind of man he truly is. A man who'll love, honor and cherish her the way she always deserved. But will the once-burned, twice-shy Elise ever accept his hometown proposal?

As I write this blog, I'm attending the Romance Writers of American Conference, being held near Orlando, Florida. Since I live in Florida, I had an easy drive to the conference. On my way, I stopped at a Super Wal-mart just to see whether HOMETOWN PROPOSAL, was on the shelves yet. I was happy to see it sitting there among the other August Love Inspired books. The thrill of seeing my book for sale in a store never gets old. I love the cover. It says small town USA and the Fourth of July. In the story, the hero and heroine go to the big Fourth of July parade held in Kellerville each year. When I first saw the cover, I knew it was a snapshot of the little town that I had created in my mind.

Do you ever wonder how the covers for books are created? Each publisher has a process for creating the cover. For Steeple Hill books, the authors fill out what is called the Art Fact Sheet that gives information about the book to the art department. Then using this information, they can produce a cover that will create an interest and give the reader an idea of what the book is about.

I also had an interesting thing happen with this cover. The mother of the little girl who was the cover model for the child on the cover contacted me. It was so fun to hear how excited the mother was to see the cover for which her little girl posed.

What kind of covers do you like to see on books? What kind of covers attract your attention?

Thanksgiving and the Internet

Merrillee here. During this time of year, at least in the United States, we are thinking about being thankful. Thanksgiving is a time to count our blessings. I have many--too many to lists them all. The most important are my faith and my family.

But as a writer, I'm so very thankful for the Internet. Research has become much easier because of the information found there. I can find out hundreds of things just sitting in my chair. For the book I'm working on now, HOMETOWN PROPOSAL (the second book in my Kellerville series), which will be out in August 2010, I've used the Internet to find out about people who work on cruise lines. That is part of my hero and heroine's back story. I've researched things about Cincinnati, Ohio, and the surrounding area because my book is set in an imaginary town in southeastern Ohio close to Cincinnati. I lived in this area over thirty years ago, but I needed more up-to-date information.

There is a two-and-half-year old girl in the story. I needed information about how a child of that age would be talking. There is a site on the Internet for that. I researched toys for children that age. I learned about parade floats because my hero and heroine ride on a float in the town's Fourth of July parade. The heroine's father loves Karaoke, so I studied Karaoke machines and found dozens of songs that my characters could sing.

My hero is in a car accident and breaks his leg. I needed to learn about broken legs. Did you know there are Internet sites where people share their broken leg stories? My characters play wiffle ball on several occasions, so I looked up information about wiffle ball. This was the most entertaining site I found. A guy tells the story of how he came to have a wiffle ball stadium in his yard. I love this story. You can find the story by going to www.youtube and searching for wiffle ball.

What are some of the things you are thankful for? Do you have any interesting Internet sites that you have found?