Guest Post & Giveaway: Karen White, author of On Folly Beach

Today I welcome Karen White to Jenn’s Bookshelves.  Karen discusses the preparation she went through prior to the start of her tour for On Folly Beach.

I’m sitting right now at the Costa Rica airport in Liberia waiting to board my plane that will take me home to Atlanta. I’ve been here with my family (husband, two teenaged children) for a week for their spring break and for much-needed sanity break.

I don’t think I’ve ever needed a vacation as much as I needed this one. Georgia, like most of the country, is just now emerging from one of the longest and coldest winters I can remember. I’m one of those people who think it’s cold when the thermostat hits 65 degrees so picture me wearing heavy sweaters, thick socks and gloves—and that’s just to go to sleep! A thoughtful person even gave me those Fagan gloves (fingers poking out) so that I could still type when the mercury dropped.

In Costa Rica, the temperature’s been hovering around 100 degrees—heaven!—with no rain in sight (the rainy season doesn’t start until next month). Perfect for a vacation where all I have to do is lie comatose by the resort pool and let other people bring me food and drinks. After barely meeting three deadlines in the last 12 months, in addition to preparing for the publication of three additional books in the same time frame, I’m pooped. Literally. The brain cells simply aren’t firing. I needed this vacation.

My family had other ideas. My teenagers insisted on doing a harrowing ATV ride (akin to a trip to Six Flags but without the safety bars) through the jungle, a 4-hour zipline tour across the jungle canopy, and a jungle/beach horseback ride. Every bone and muscle in my body has been jarred, twisted, pulled, or yanked in the last 5 days. I had to make a visit to the spa just to recuperate from my vacation.

Granted, I was allowed a lot of zombie time at the pool, and I’m grateful for that. I’m also (reluctantly) grateful for my family for pulling me outside my box, to try new experiences; experiences that I was afraid to try but am now proud to say, “I did it!”

I have a deadline on May 1st but I haven’t written a word. But that’s okay. Because what I’ve been doing in the last few days is what we writers call “filling the well.” When our wells of inspiration run dry, we search for experiences to fill it again. I don’t know a single writer who only writes. To write about the world, we need to live in it.

So I’m sore and a little sunburned, but I feel like a new person; a better writer who is recharged to tackle the next chapter for my next deadline (the third book in the Tradd Street series). And more ready to meet my readers with a calm smile when I meet them as I tour for my May release, ON FOLLY BEACH.

Let the fun begin again!

Thanks, Karen, for stopping by!  Now on to the giveaway! 

Thanks to the publisher, I have two copies of On Folly Beach to give away. To enter, please fill out the form below.  You MUST fill out the form to be entered; comments are not considered entry into the contest.  Open to US and Canadian residents only, please.  No P.O. Boxes.  A winner will be announced on Friday, June 4th.