I came across this picture the other day when looking for pics of guys grinning for my little “Show Me Your Grin” contest. 😉 It immediately made me think of Simon and Michelle from my books. They have such a close friendship — best friends forever. And I love them and their instant connection.

I adore the actors pictured here (from the movie “Love, Rosie”). Sam Claflin is one of my favorites, though I think he’s a little shorter than what I imagine Simon to be. And Lily Collins is beautiful, but she is super short to be Michelle (like 5’5″ when Michelle is 5’10”). But I love this picture, and it makes me happy when I think of Michelle and Simon as real people, not just characters in my books.

So, I thought I would share the first words Michelle and Simon ever said to each other with you today. A little setup for the scene: It’s move-in day at college, and Michelle has gone to the gym to check things out. There is a group of guys there playing 3-on-3. She stops just inside the door to watch. And …

     One of the guys immediately turned her head. He was tall and handsome, with nut brown hair and an athletic physique. But he was a terrible shot, hitting the backboard way too high at least half a dozen times. He suddenly lobbed the ball at the basket and completely missed, sending it bouncing in Michelle’s direction.
     She retrieved the ball and dribbled it in place, glancing his way.
     He jogged over to her, and she tossed him the ball.
     “Thanks,” he said with a grin. “Do you play?”
     Michelle flipped her long, dark ponytail over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow in reply. “The real question is … do you?”

Hehehe. So cute, right?

If you’ve already read Goodbye, Magnolia, then you know how things turn out with them, and you’ll get to see it all unfold in Until Then, which comes out on May 24th.

Last weekend, while on the way to our daughter’s gymnastics meet, my husband, Jake, was reading my latest book, Until Then. Though my contemporary romance books aren’t really his cup of tea, he is very well read and I trust his opinion and input when it comes to my stories. So, I’m driving along and he makes a comment that there is a lot of grinning going on in the first part of the book. There was some discussion about a line where I said she gave a weak grin, which launched into what exactly a grin looks like.

My mom and I both showed him our best grins. I would show you a picture of us grinning, but these guys do it better. So this is what we both picture when we think of a grin:

Jake shook his head and said, “That is not a grin, that’s a smile!” and proceeded to look up the definition online.

The official Merriam-Webster definition of GRIN:
to draw back the lips so as to show the teeth especially in amusement or laughter; broadly. To smile widely.

This is how my husband thinks all the characters in my book are looking at each other:

The official Merriam-Webster definition of SMILE:
to make the corners of your mouth turn up in an expression that shows happiness, amusement, pleasure, affection, etc.

What? How have I gone my entire life thinking it was the other way around? At what point did I start to think closed mouth = grin? I’m sure I was taught the correct definition in school. I guess you learn something new every day, right?

So the point of all this was to see just how many people agree with me and how many agree with Jake. How many have come to believe that those handsome guys at the top of this post are grinning at us? And how many picture the cheshire cat when they think of a grin?

THE RESULTS:
Four people shared their selfies with me. It was actually a 50/50 split. So I’m not the only crazy one that thinks a grin is a little closed mouth smile. Even my mom-in-law agrees with me, but my sister-in-law agrees with Jake. 😉

The winner of a signed paperback
of any one of my novels,
wearing a very pretty “grin” is:
KELLEY
Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone who participated. 🙂

So … last weekend, my hubby and I got into a disagreement about what a grin looks like. When you’re reading along in a book and it says “she grinned at him”, what do you picture? What does a grin look like to you? I thought it would be fun to do a little selfie contest to see what you all think a grin looks like and have a giveaway at the end of the week.

SHOW ME YOUR GRIN!
To enter:
• Take a selfie of you grinning
• Share it in the comments of my Facebook post HERE

On Friday, I will share the whole story and draw a name. One person will win a signed paperback copy of any one of my books. (US residents only. Sorry!)

Thank you for your help!

Like a crazy person, I have started writing a new book, even though I’m in the middle of editing my current book. No details to give yet, but I’m having so much fun writing this one already. Last night, I spent a good amount of time “driving” along the Pacific Coast Highway using Google Street View for research. I really wish Jake and I could just hop on a plane and physically go there to do research, but I’m thankful for technology that allows me to at least see the area in pictures.

I found this beautiful photo the other night of the pier in Malibu and shared it on my Facebook Author page. It is breathtaking. Part of the new story takes place in this area and I’m excited to learn more about it and hopefully do it justice in the book.

Happy Wednesday, all. We’re about to start Spring Break in a couple days! Wish we were on our way to Malibu. 😉

Yesterday was a day of sharing around here. I posted this image with another quote from Until Then. A couple of scenes take place at this little waterfall at Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids between Michelle and a certain someone. 😉

My newsletter went out last night with some very special announcements.

• RELEASE DATE — UNTIL THEN finally has a release date. MAY 24TH!!!! That’s right. Michelle’s story will be coming out in May. I seem to have a thing for that month. Both of my previous novels were published in May, too.

• CHAPTER ONE — Newsletter subscribers got a link to download a little advanced reader pdf of CHAPTER ONE of the novel.

• PRE-ORDER — UNTIL THEN is now available for PRE-ORDER on KINDLE. Order now and the book will be automatically delivered to your Kindle or Kindle App on release day.

Lots of excitement and getting good feedback on the first chapter already. Still so much work to do to prepare it for publication, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you.

I’ve been working on story edits of Until Then for the past month. It’s serious business cutting lines, paragraphs, even whole chapters sometimes. Many chapters have been rewritten. A new chapter was even added that ended up bringing one particular part of Michelle’s story full circle, which was very unexpected, but happily so. I sat in tears staring at my computer screen after that one. 🙂

I’m finally to the point where I’m working on line edits now, which is where I go over each paragraph line by line to make sure that it flows well, that I’ve described mood and setting properly, that dialogue sounds realistic and not forced, that I haven’t used the same words and phrases over and over again, etc. I’m into the nitty gritty now. This is where it all starts to come together. I’ve set a deadline to finish all edits by the end of March.

I’ll also be sharing promotional images in the coming weeks and months. This is the first.

Getting Michelle out of Chicago is top priority for her family because of the rough neighborhood she lives in and the sketchy guys she hangs out with. Her grandparents offer to pay her college tuition is HUGE and the answer to all of their problems. But they have one condition – choose one of three Christian colleges they have handpicked for her. This does not go over well with Michelle. Not at all.

If you’d like to be among the first to learn when the book will be released, sign up for my newsletter below.

I promise I won’t bombard your inbox with emails. I send out my newsletter every month and your email address will only be used for that purpose.

I’m more in love with writing than ever. This month, I decided to be crazy and participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) while still editing my next book, Until Then. It’s been a lot of fun. I am working on the young adult dystopian/fantasy novel that I’m sure I’ve mentioned here before. This idea has been knocking around in my head for a year, so I decided to get the first draft of the first book written. I’m fairly sure this one will be a series of a few books. This is also allowing my mind to think about something besides Until Then, which has been pretty much all I’ve been thinking of and writing for months. NaNoWriMo is a crazy mad dash to finish a 50,000 word novel in thirty days and I’m right on track to finish. I passed 20,000 words last night. That’s more than 40% of the way and it’s going well. My main characters are forming and the hero is getting into all kinds of trouble. Good times! 😉

Sometimes I feel like all of my words are for my books. I write and write into the evenings, my mind constantly on the story, and there don’t seem to be enough words left over for blog posts lately.

There’s so much I want to share. I want to talk about the new book and how hard it is to write Michelle’s story, but how I love the way it’s coming together. I want to show you more pictures of our 20th anniversary party, which was such a fun and special day. I want to share about things that have been going on around here since school started. It’s been a constant stream of friend drama, sleepovers, gymnastics for the girl, gaming conferences for the guys, book promotions for me, and some sickness thrown in there. And writing. Lots of writing. It seems there’s been one thing after another for months and I haven’t yet stopped to let it all soak in.

I know I will. Soon. But if I simply share pictures around here for a while, you know why.

Goodbye, Magnolia has had plenty of sales lately, so I thought it only fair to give Drew a little discount as well.
Now through Sunday, October 4th, The Truth About Drew is only 99¢ on Kindle ebook.
Get The Truth About Drew HERE!