KATHRYN R. BIEL: AUTHOR

'Twas the night before pub and all through the place, I know I should be writing instead of staring into space. There's reviews to seek and ads to make, Yet all I can do is eat another piece of cake. It's true--I want all the cake. Oh, and it is indeed the night before release for my thirteenth book, Ready for Whatever (The UnBRCAble Women Series, #1) . I'm in love with this book on so many levels, but let's start with the most basic. Would you look at this incredible cover? But more important is the story behind the conception of this book. Rewind to last July. On Sunday, I finished going over the first draft of Paradise by the Dashboard Light  and submitted it to my editor. Monday, July 8, left me without a current work in progress (WIP). In my head, I was going to write the women's fiction/family drama that I'd been taking notes for. However, my title for that book began with S. I needed an R title. (Yes, I title my books in alphabeti...

The year was 1989. I was a mere 13 years old, babysitting for the next door neighbors while they had a night out on the town. The kids were safely tucked in their beds, and I put on the TV. Just in time to catch the beginning of the second half of Gone with the Wind . I'd never seen this movie, but I'd been aware of the book for years, as a battered copy sat on my mother's bookshelf. Ok, so it's a bit more battered, but yes, this is it. When I got home, I told my mother and had all sorts of questions. What happened with Ashley? Did he tell Scarlett he would marry her? My mom, ever the dedicated reader, was disappointed that I saw the movie first. It was then that this battered, 862-page classic became mine. So I read it. Twice. And then I saw the movie. And then I bought a copy of the screenplay while on vacation. Luckily, it was the 50th anniversary of the movie, so there was lots of memorabilia available. And then my mom began getting me the plates from t...

To anyone who's been around romancelandia this year, or to anyone who scrolls through Twitter with a bowl of popcorn, it should come as no surprise that sometimes people get into it on Twitter. A lot of times, it's a case of people behaving badly. This one's on me. No one behaved badly, but feelings were hurt. And for that, I am deeply sorry and greatly apologize. You see, I was (and still am) coming from a good place. I'm still okay with my original post, which was, to me, a very funny graphic about rom-com books. It was designed by my friend and fellow author, Whitney Dineen . She, like many rom-com authors, got fed up with defending her preferred genre from yet another  person who dismissed her accomplishments because she only  writes romance and romantic comedies (as opposed to literary fiction or something that is apparently better-- you know, real books). I'd like to say that Whitney's experience was unusual and someone was having a bad day, but ...

One of the fabulous authors I've come to know and love along my journey is Erin Huss. We met and became fast friends, instantly bonded with a sense of humor and shared parenting experiences with children who are not neuro-typical. To put it mildly, 2018 has not been Erin's year. She's having some medical issues, and yesterday she wrote a blog post about finding The Silver Lining in it all. I'll wait for you to go read her blog post and then come back. No, seriously. Go read her post. The rest of this post won't make sense unless you do. So like the friend I am, I wrote her some nice words of encouragement. Despite the fact that people pay money to read my books, sometimes I'm not the most eloquent. I also use inappropriate humor as a defense mechanism. So I sent Erin a message that said this, "Hang in there. Eventually shit will go right. You can meme that." The following pictures are what happened next. So let's take a minute ...

This was my feeling after the weekend dance recital. Let me clarify-- my  dance recital. It was also my daughter's recital. I guess we should call it our dance recital. But still, I want to go all Stephanie Tanner on the audience. Let me set the stage (see what I did there?): We dance at a decent-sized family run studio. I've been with this studio since I was 5. The people there are like my family, and my dance girls are my crew. Many of us have children now dancing as well, and it's fantastic to see the next generation rising up. The studio is non-competitive. We don't have teams and there's a welcoming atmosphere. The studio is inclusive, including all shapes, sizes, and abilities. While we strive to do our best, it's certainly not a Dance Moms  atmosphere, and I don't think any of us are auditioning for So You Think You Can Dance?  That's not why we're there. We're there because we love to dance. Week after week, parents sch...

Some things you need to know about me. I like pretty dresses, especially gowns. If I could wear a gown every day, I'd be happy. I don't get abstract art, including haute couture fashion. I am Roman Catholic. This morning, I went to mass. I don't often go during the week, but this was a funeral for a family member. Even though I'd never set foot in that church before today, I knew what to expect, what do do, how to show reverence, and how to go about giving a reading. After 12 years of Catholic school, I've been to a lot of church. That being said, I don't go as much as I should, and I don't live as well as a Catholic should. I may not be the best, most pious Catholic, but my faith and my church is very important to me. I've made the sacraments of baptism, reconciliation, eucharist, confirmation, and marriage within the church. I will have a Catholic funeral someday as well. Like I said, not the best Catholic in the world, but definitely Catholic....

No, I'm not talking about what they do to cattle, although I sort of am. When you own a business, branding is very important. You want to create a look/icon/symbol that instantly make the consumer think of your business. Everyone knows what brand the swoosh represents. I don't even have to put a picture of it up. You know who and what I'm talking about from a simple word. Over the past few months, I've been working on my own brand. You might have noticed that blogspot is no longer my primary website. I've got a beautiful new page at www.kathrynrbiel.com . I've been working on my graphics as well (mostly because I needed new business cards and signs for upcoming book signings). I had a tagline ("Telling stories of resilient women") that I've been using, but it's slowly evolved into: Telling Stories of Resilient Women with Humor, Heart, and a Happy Ending. My husband thinks I'm giving away the ending to all my books. I want the reader to ...

I've spent the last few weeks re-doing my logo and all my signs, business cards, social media, etc. to better represent my brand. It falls in line with the website redesign I did this past winter (isn't it pretty?). Anyway, I've been really happy with it all and sometimes catch myself staring longingly at my headers. If you haven't seen the new look, here it is: So pretty, right? And tonight, after my gazing was complete, I decided to google myself. It's something I do to make sure no one's talking smack, find reviews where people completely bash me, get angry at all the a-holes who are offering pirated copies of my books, and basically do anything I can to procrastinate with actual writing. I found a pretty recent hit for my name, so I clicked. It had my name and then following KATHRYN R BIEL AUTHOR it said BAD CAKE DECORATING. You can see it here . And there was a picture!!! They stole it from this blog post  in which I talk about all the cakes I...

Today is March 2nd, which for anyone with a school-aged child, we know is Dr. Seuss's birthday. I dare anyone who is a book lover to deny some love of early literacy as a result of Dr. Seuss. We, of course, had books in the house, and my grandfather belonged a book of the month club where he received pretty much the whole collection of Dr. Seuss and related books. I can still picture them on the bottom of the built-in bookcase in the TV room (FYI and totally unrelated, my grandparent's house is now a restaurant, and you can eat in that room with those bookcases still there). What a great gift for all the grandchildren (there were 24 of us, so it was probably a wise investment)! As a child, my personal favorite Dr. Seuss stories were The Sneetches and What Was I Scared Of?  They were both part of the collection, Sneetches and Other Stories , which overall, is fantastic. My other favorite was The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins . I don't know why I liked ...

I think I may be getting old. Don't get me wrong, it beats the alternative but ... While watching pro-sports, like the NFL, I realized that any players my age are "super old" and many are retiring. It's odd to think that Peyton Manning and I would have graduated high school together. I'm technically 3 months older, but we don't need to focus on that. Pretty soon, there won't be anyone "my age" left in professional sports. And then, spilling across my Facebook feed is the sad news that Dolores O'Riordan from The Cranberries died suddenly. She was 46. I remember when The Cranberries burst onto the scene. I was in high school. It never occurred to me that the lead singer was relatively close in age to me, about the same age as my oldest brother. That news, along with the news of her death, is hard to process. There are days when I feel old beyond my years. There are days when I simply cannot even entertain the fact that I'm middle-ag...

I'm lucky that in my (almost) 42 years on this planet, I can look back and see pivotal moments that changed the direction and shape of my life. In fact, without even realizing it, I've often blogged about them. There's the one when a sick day spent at my grandmother's house and a piece of "junk" mail led me to the medical field and working with kids. You can read about that one here . Then there was the time I was getting allergy shots and my next door neighbor's step-mother said the words that gave me direction in my career. That story, in addition to directing my career, also gave me inspiration for the book of which I'm most proud, Live for This . That book even won an award this year. You can read that story here . And how about that time that the use of a standard comma instead of the oxford comma led me to meet my husband? That's a funny one, although not really, because the PT/Speech therapy cap is STILL limited by that damn lack of co...

When I was in college, at the apex of the grunge/alternative music movement, I grew to like Stone Temple Pilots. They were (and still are) my favorite of the 90s bands. While at work one day (I was a waitress at an Applebees), the bartender, my friend Jeff, mentioned how he'd gone to the STP show the night before at UMass. I was terribly envious that Jeff had been to see them live. Jeff didn't realize I was a fan, and if he'd known, he said he would have brought me. Jeff went onto describe the opening number, STP's cover of "Dancing Days" and how Scott Weiland sang it sitting on a couch wearing an afro wig. It was well known that Scott Weiland was a heroin addict and was most likely losing that battle. This was early 1997. Neither Jeff nor I thought Scott Weiland would live to see another tour cycle, and that neither of us would see him perform live again. We were only half right. June 26, 1997, while driving home from our apartment, after a night of drink...

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, as one does on a Saturday morning, sipping my coffee, when I came across an article (from a radio station) about how "Motherhood is less and less appealing to Jennifer Lawrence" or J-Law as apparently we're supposed to call her. Here's my advice. Don't do it. I am the mother of two. I love my kids. They are without a doubt the best things in my life. And I ABSOLUTELY wanted to be a mother. My whole career was literally planned around it. But, man, is it hard. Like, hard . There are days (perhaps one or two this week) when I want to give up. When I want to run and hide. And my kids are older (13 and 10). We're not in the screaming all night, potty training, "I do it myself" phase. My kids are relatively self-sufficient human beings. In fact, the 13 year-old made the coffee and delivered it to me in my room, complete with a biscotti (side note: I highly recommend teaching your kids how to make coffee). ...

I'm tired and I'd rather just vlog this than type it all about but the bags under my eyes are horrendous due to lack of sleep. So, I apologize in advance for the disjointed, rambling nature of this post. Consider this some true blather, more a collection of my thoughts. August is over. Holy crap, where did it go? Summer, come back. Please.  I had 3 days of work this week. It sort of sucked especially since my kids were off. My parents were super awesome and took the kids, but I missed them. I liked being at home this summer. I'm having difficulty watching the news out of Houston. It makes me anxious and panicky. It doesn't mean I don't feel terrible about what people are doing down there, and I'll be doing my bit (besides the praying I've already been doing) to help. But I don't want to see it. I'm about to launch my 10th book. I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that I've written 10 books (9 novels and a novella). Tha...

I just got back from RWA 2017. For those of you not in my writing world, RWA is the Romance Writers of America, and this was their national conference, held in Orlando, FL. But to me, RWA stands for Really Wicked Awesome. Why was this week so great? So. Many. Reasons. First of all, I got to go and hang with my posse. My inner circle. My writing peeps who I talk with every day online, who are with me every step of the way, and I with them. It's extra special being able to actually see them, hang out with them, brainstorm with them, and laugh until you cry with them. These are my friends  and seeing them for four days a year isn't nearly enough. Melissa Baldwin , Becky Monson , and me at the RITA Awards Taking the boat to Disney Springs. It's the only Disney experience I had the whole time because I was too busy learning. Last day, so sad. :-( Next, I got to meet in person people in my outer writing circle. People I've "known" online for y...