Cynthia Hickey -- Why I Write

Author Cynthia Hickey

WHY I BECAME A WRITER

By Cynthia Hickey

Funny how this roller-coaster business can tug on someone until it’s either write or die. A bit dramatic, yes, but that’s how most writers feel. Writing is like breathing, or eating.

I started reading at the young age of five and became hooked on words and stories. Being a shy child, I would make up stories to act out, but it wasn’t until Junior High and an English teacher assigned a writing project that I realized how much I loved putting the story to paper. I began writing short stories in which my younger brother was featured as the hero or I’d write a romance featuring me and whatever boy I had a crush on at the time.

When I turned fifteen, I wrote my first “real story” about terrorists taking over a high school. Funny how I have now seen that very plot made into a movie. I couldn’t be stopped after that first “book”. I kept writing, keeping my stories in a notebook, which I unfortunately lost when I married and moved out of state. Then, life happened and I didn’t take up writing again until the age of forty when my children were older and I had time to devote to the art.

In 2007, I published my first cozy mystery, Fudge-Laced Felonies, with Barbour Publishing and haven’t slowed down since. Fifty plus books later, and several genres added to the mix, I have no intentions of stopping this crazy career any time soon. In May of 2013, I left behind the day job and became a full time writer. Scary, but worth every busy minute.

My husband and I now own a small press with over seventy authors on our roster. How do I do it is a question I’m asked over and over. Post it notes and lists! Add that to God’s grace and I can’t see myself slowing down any time soon. 

(CFP: One of the Forget Me Not Romance collections is O' Little Town of Christmas which Carrie Fancett Pagels' novella, The Substitute Bride is included as well as Cynthia's lovely Christmas Stamp is, and four other novellas by Debra E. Marvin, Becca Witham, Teresa Ives Lilly, and Linda Baten Johnson!) 

Watch for Poison Foliage, book three in the Shady Acres mystery series.

Website at www.cynthiahickey.com

Also www.forgetmenotromances.com

Bio: Multi-published and Amazon Best-Selling author Cynthia Hickey had three cozy mysteries and two novellas published through Barbour Publishing. Her first mystery, Fudge-Laced Felonies, won first place in the inspirational category of the Great Expectations contest in 2007. Her third cozy, Chocolate-Covered Crime, received a four-star review from Romantic Times. All three cozies have been re-released as ebooks through the MacGregor Literary Agency, along with a new cozy series, all of which stay in the top 50 of Amazon’s ebooks for their genre. She had several historical romances release through Harlequin’s Heartsong Presents, and has sold over half a million copies of her works since 2013. She has taught a Continuing Education class at the 2015 American Christian Fiction Writers conference. You can find her on FB, twitter, and Goodreads, and is a contributor to Cozy Mystery Magazine blog and Suspense Sisters blog. She and her husband run the small press, Forget Me Not Romances, which includes some of the CBA’s best well-known authors. She lives in Arizona with her husband, one of their seven children, two dogs, two cats, three box turtles, and two Sulcata tortoises. She has seven grandchildren who keep her busy and tell everyone they know that “Nana is a writer”.

Giveaway: An ebook copy of O' Little Town of Christmas Collection. Leave a comment.

Diana Flowers Reviews 'Tea Shop Folly' By Carrie Fancett Pagels

Tea Shop Folly By Carrie Fancett Pagels

Tea Shop Folly (A Teacup Courtship Novella)

By Carrie Fancett Pagels

Forget Me Not Romances, July 1, 2016

Reviewed By Diana Flowers

~5 stars!~

A Delightful Novella!

Author Carrie Fancett Pagels has crafted a delightfully charming novella which takes our penniless, despairing heroine from the impoverished Blue Ridge Mountains—to a lovely estate set amongst the lilacs, maple trees, hydrangeas, and poppies of beautiful Michigan.

Almost destitute and finding she has inherited a house from her great-aunt, Lilly travels to Michigan to investigate. Upon her arrival she is amazed to discover she actually owns a three-story home, a carriage and horses, and teacups! Teacups?...yes, hundreds of them! Apparently her eccentric aunt loved collecting tea cups, saucers, teapots, and other tea paraphernalia. Thinking Lilly's new home is a Tea Shop—handsome Theo, a Soo locks engineer—visits frequently in the hopes that he will find the perfect antique teacup for his mother's collection. What ensues are plenty of sparks as Theo recommends Lilly's "tea shop" to potential customers, and they certainly fly between the pretty Lilly and the striking engineer!

Tea Shop Folly is a very well written, impeccably researched story and I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to the Upper Peninsula...learning many interesting things about it that I wasn't aware of. This enchanting novella drew me in from page one—filled with amusing situations, romance, lovable characters, a beau-tea-ful setting, and plen-tea of trouble brewing! I guaran-tea that everyone will totally enjoy this wonderfully engaging story and this lady particularly loved the floral names of Lilly and all of her sisters...for obvious reasons! ;) 

This book is now available in paperback or ebook format on Amazon!

GIVEAWAY: A copy of Tea Shop Folly in choice of format to one blessed commenter! Be sure to leave your email address for contact purposes - written (at) and (dot) to protect yourself from spammers.

Review & Giveaway - Starlight Serenade by Debra E. Marvin

Starlight Serenade by Debra E. Marvin

Part of the "Get Your Kiss on Route 66" collection from Forget Me Not Press!

"Clean Read - A Perfect Voice for this 1930's Story!"

Review by Carrie Fancett Pagels

I read Debra E. Marvin's delightful new novella while sick in bed. What a wonderful diversion. I will tell readers that this is a "clean read" rather than a Christian fiction. I checked with Debra on that and she confirmed it. While there are subtle references to faith and to church, there is not a spiritual arc in this story nor it is a story of faith. However, it is a clean read and enjoyable, especially if you enjoy this unusual time period -- 1930's. Debra E. Marvin has a perfect voice for this novella and for the heroine. She includes great details of the time period. I loved how she went into depth with the details of the Lowell observatory and the cute quotes at the beginning of each chapter, that had to do with stars! 

One cool thing was that Debra included a younger 19-year-old brother who is an autistic musical savant.  She did a good job of how she developed this special character.   

Blurb: The Englishman would look back one day and blame it all on Jazz…

Flagstaff, Arizona 1930. Full-time Astronomer, and part-time sharp dresser Julian Dyson didn’t discover Pluto but he does discover a nasty case of self-righteousness when a former Ziegfeld Girl’s folly threatens his good name.

Broadway understudy Clara Longworth and her peculiar younger brother are on their way to a new life in Hollywood when they are stranded along Route 66. Clara is asked to fill in as nightclub entertainment, but her good intentions set her up as accomplice in the blackmailing of a government man who makes the real thugs look classy.

Until Julian and Clara put their heads together for more than dancing the Black Bottom, their big-as-the-night-sky dreams are on target to fail. Maybe they need a telescope to see what’s right in front of their starry eyes.

GIVEAWAY: An ebook copy of Starlight Serenade to one commenter! Answer the question -- what is the last 1930's era fiction you have read?

When You Can't -- God Can! By Carrie Fancett Pagels

I blogged last week about some packing suggestions for folks with autoimmune or other chronic health issues. I haven't made any more progress with our packing, I confess, but this week I was enabled by God to transport my son up and down the road to the College of William & Mary for an ID Tech Camp. Isn't that a great statue, above? It's in the lovely business building where my son took classes!

To many people, commuting a child may not be a big deal. It didn't used to be to me -- or rather I didn't think it was until during an arthritis flare I fell asleep in the parked car after commuting my then-elementary school aged daughter to horseback lessons. But I've learned since then what some of my limitations are. So in this case, the weekly experience for my son was something I thought -- I will just stay out in Williamsburg all day and drive him back later rather than  thirty to forty minutes up (and returning - for a sum total of about two and a half hours driving for the day). And I did pray about this camp before we enrolled Clark. I quickly discerned that staying all day up in Williamsburg was going to be more physically taxing than attempting a double round trip drive. Hubs also offered to go up and get Sonny if I couldn't. 

To make a long story short -- I don't believe I could have commuted my son up and back every day, twice a day, without God's help. The first three days I did it, praise the Lord! The fourth day, my husband picked up our son afterwards. And on the fifth day, we both drove up together to attend his graduation, during which he received his certificate and they had a "Graduation Ceremony" which was fun!

That same day I learned my novella, The Substitute Bride, was a Maggie Award finalist for Published Authors in the Romance Novella category!!! My book is the only Christian fiction among the five finalists, and again that is just a God thing! Winners will be announced in October at the RWA Georgia conference. The fortunate Maggie winners will receive that gorgeous medallion pictured above left!!!


Tea Shop Folly by 
Carrie Fancett Pagels

My new novella, Tea Shop Folly, in A Teacup Courtship collection (Forget Me Not Romance, July 2016) is about what happens when you can't do something but God can. Here's the blurb:

Almost destitute, Lilly has run out of hope when she inherits her great-aunt’s home -- but it’s not the Tea Shop that a handsome young gentleman thinks it is. Lilly’s inherited house is crammed full of tea cups. Theo, a Soo Locks engineer, visits frequently in the hopes he will find the perfect antique teacup for his mother and is charmed by the lovely 'Shoppe owner.’ Lilly can’t turn the bachelor away when he persistently peruses her aunt’s collection, which she’s trying to pack up and remove from the house. Is the man only interested in the teacups, or in her? When Theo begins referring people to Lilly, and the genuine Tea Shoppe owner sets the police on Lilly for her lack of a business license, sparks fly!

  Maggie Award Finalist The Substitute Bride 

Giveaway: A copy of The Substitute Bride (choice of format) and Tea Shop Folly (ebook only - print releases in August.) Answer this question -- Has God ever done something for you that you knew you couldn't do under your own strength?