Guest Post: Heather Hummel and Giveaway

Today I have the pleasure of having Heather Hummel here as part of the blog tour for her newest book, Write From the Heart. In October, I was part of the blog tour for another one of her book, Whispers From the Heart. You can read my thoughts here. I am so excited to have her back and to have had a chance to read her latest book.

In October, Heather talked about the voices in her head and about how she writes. This time, I asked her some questions about this series that she has been writing. Thanks for stopping by, Heather!

Tell us how the idea for this series came to be. Did you know it was going to be a 3 book series? 

The Journals from the Heart series was unintentional at first. I incorporated, as the name indicates, journal writing in both novels, but they were originally titled Through Hazel Eyes and The Universe Is My Sugar Daddy…neither of these titles connected, but the common theme was journal writing. So, after the second book was released and I started noticing how well people with series were doing, I consulted a publishing guru who suggested I retitle and recover the books - an exterior makeover! From my consultation with her, Journals from the Heart was born and Through Hazel Eyes became Whispers from the Heart and The Universe is My Sugar Daddy became Write from the Heart. I love the new series, titles and cover. They much more represent my theme. It goes to show that consulting with a professional, or at least someone with a different perspective who’s in the industry, can make a big difference. Since then, the series is taking off.

I always knew I wanted to write one more novel with journal writing as the theme. The first, Whispers from the Heart, is from a teacher/student perspective; the second, Write from the Heart, is from the perspective of a woman reinventing her life; now the third, Wisdom from the Heart, is from the perspective of a fourteen year old who finds out she’s adopted. It alternates between her as a teenager and as an adult. I’m really enjoying the characters and how they’re coming together in this third novel. 

When did that become apparent?

When I left my job as a high school English teacher six years ago to launch my writing career, I knew I’d be a writer for as long as I could or lived, whichever comes first! I knew I would write a lot of books, and expected I’d do a series. What I didn’t expect was that I’d be ghostwriting for people. I’m now done with that and am focusing back on my books only, which is a great place to be in.

And are there more stories that may make this more than 3 books? 

There are always characters showing up in my head to tell their story. Both Madison in Whispers from the Heart and Samantha in Write from the Heart showed up and told me their story, and now Jamie is here writing hers. I never know when they’ll show up, but when they do it’s a journey that can’t be stopped. (read more of Heather talking about 'the voices')

I also have two other books that are works in progress…one a novel titled $1 AND $100 where money is the protagonist, and another nonfiction book that blends my photography with my writing. The photography one is just starting to come together. I’ve won two awards for my books and four for my photography, so it’s only natural to do a book that combines both. These two books break away from the chick-lit genre, but I imagine I have a few more of those in me as well.

Thank you so much for having me as a guest! 

Heather Hummel is a "Photonovelist" who blends her love for photography with her award-winning career as an author. 

Her published works include:

Journals from the Heart Series:
Whispers from the Heart (2011)
Write from the Heart (2011)
Nonfiction
GO BIKE & Other Signs from the Universe (2011)
Gracefully: Looking and Being Your Best at Any Age (McGraw-Hill, 2008),
Essays:
Messages of Hope and Healing ( Sunpiper Media, 2006)
Blue Ridge Anthology (Cedar Creek, 2007) with David Baldacci and Rita Mae Brown
Awards:
2009 Mature Media Awards, Merit Award
2009 New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention

Heather's books have appeared in newspapers such as: Publishers Weekly, USA Today and the Washington Post; and in magazines that include: Health, Body & Soul, First, and Spry Living, a combined circulation of nearly 15 million. A graduate with High Distinction from the University of Virginia, Heather holds a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies degree with concentrations in English and Secondary Education. She is currently earning a Ph.D. in Metaphysical Sciences.

Visit Heather’s website
Like Heather’s Facebook Fan Page
Follow Heather on Twitter @HeatherHummel

**Everyone who leaves a comment on the tour page will be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card! If you purchase your copy of Write from the Heart before March 19 and send your receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, you will get five bonus entries!**

I received a copy of this book for my honest opinion. 

On Tour: Write From the Heart by Heather Hummel and Giveaway

Journals are a woman's best friend... 

When Samantha Sounder quits her office manager job the day after yet another boyfriend breaks up with her, the emotional havoc of these two events launches the beginning of her new life.

Samantha dives into therapy with Ragnar Axel, a traditional therapist who explores her failed relationships and sends her on a wild goose chase through her old journals to rediscover herself.

Despite the unsettling reactions of her best friend, Amanda, and Ragnar, Samantha decides to walk away from the corporate world and follow her dream as a novelist. She sets out to craft her first novel, Winter's Truth. Hesitantly, she accepts the unexpected guidance from Craig, an unlikely man she meets at the coffee shop.

Along her journey, Samantha picks up a new journal and titles it her "Positive Journal," declaring to only write positive thoughts in it. Samantha's life transforms from one of despair and loss to hope and faith as she navigates through new territory and explores the possibility of finding love over lattes. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads 

My thoughts about Write From the Heart~~ 

I read Heather's first book in this series, Whispers From the Heart, in October and loved it! I was so excited when I was asked to read and review her second book. I love the way she writes and knew I would be in for a treat.

Samantha is just an ordinary woman leading a life that does not make her happy. Her boyfriend dumps her and the next day she just up and quits her job. Okay, so maybe that's not so ordinary. How many of us could handle 2 major life changes like that, at the same time? Anyway, Samantha has always dreamed of being a writer so she makes up her mind to pursue that dream.

She had always kept a journal (something I only think about doing) and on the advice of her therapist she goes back and rereads them. She discovers how negative she was in those journals and makes a decision to change that. She starts a 'Positive Journal' where she writes only positive thoughts. She fills the journal with her dreams and wishes and soon her life changes for the better. It really made me stop and think about starting my own 'Positive Journal'. It can only be good, right?

I very much enjoyed being in Samantha's world and getting to know her friends. Ms. Hummel also shares with us a little bit of the writing/getting  published process, which I thought was very interesting. It really gives the reader an interesting look into what happens to a book before it lands in our hands.

(I did have one thing that puzzled me. Samantha was using the postal service to send off parts of her books to agents. Is that really how it's done now ~ or is it all done by email? Seems like email would be the way to go nowadays but maybe not. Just a little glimpse into my mind there - sorry)

I really enjoyed reading this book. Heather is a wonderful, natural writer who creates beautiful worlds and believable characters. There will be a third book in the Journals From the Heart series and I will definitely be reading that one when it comes out.

Tune in tomorrow when I ask Heather some questions about her series and her writing. 

**Everyone who leaves a comment on the tour page will be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card! If you purchase your copy of Write from the Heart before March 19 and send your receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, you will get five bonus entries!** 
 

I received a copy of this book for my honest opinion. 

Author Post: Heather Hummel ~ Whispers from the Heart

 Enter my giveaway for Deep Blue Secret - ends November 1st.

I am so excited to have Heather Hummel visiting The Book Bag today! She is the author of Whispers from the Heart, one of the books in her Journals from the Heart Series. Her book Whispers... is currently on a Chick Lit Plus Blog Tour

I read her book and posted my thoughts yesterday. I loved this story and can't wait to read her other Journals from the Heart book, Write from the Heart.

So Heather ~~ I have heard other authors say that they 'hear voices in their head' and that is how they write their books, the characters are telling their stories. I think that is a very interesting concept. 

When some people hear voices, we get them medical attention, others become writers. How do you come up with your stories?

The Voices

This is true! Characters have the tendency to crawl inside an author’s head, set up shop and not leave until the book is complete. Then there are the unexpected guests. The ones who decide to ring the doorbell of your brain in chapter, oh six or seven. Phil in Whispers from the Heart, did just that to me in chapter seven. I was writing along quite merrily with Madison, Michael and Olivia leading the way, telling me just how each chapter would all go down, when suddenly, in chapter seven, on a Friday night while they’re out at a pub, a dashing oceanographer friend of Olivia’s boyfriend (Gregory) shows up! The discussion over their beers on tap is now about Phil’s upcoming trip to California due to a grant he received to study elephant seals. Little did I know when this handsome stranger appeared that he would play a pivotal and very important role in Madison’s life; as such he ended up being a most welcome character.

There are task driven authors who outline their chapters, create character descriptions that can go on for pages (or often as Post-It-Notes stuck to their four walls), and draft chapter summaries, all before writing their book. And then there are authors like me who count on their muse, mine is cycling, to develop a plot, storyline and characters. A good portion of my best ideas about a book’s concept, characters, or a line in a chapter have often come to me while cycling. The trick to having a muse that sets in when you’re anywhere from two to ten miles from your laptop is to remember what you thought of so when you do arrive home, you can jot it down. I’ve trained myself to really think a thought through once an idea pops into my head. That way I’m more likely to remember it an hour or so later. 

I have been invited to ride my bike with groups of other cyclists, and 99% of the time I decline. People think I’m riding alone, but in actuality, and as you suggest in your question, I am not alone! I can have as few as one or as many as three or four sidekicks as I pedal. Except, they’re inside my head…telling me how it’s all going to go down in the chapter I’d be writing that evening.

When the chatter of characters stop, that is when I’ll need the medical attention. In the mean time, they are quite welcome and have become some of my most favorite people.

Thanks Heather - you shared some very interesting insights into your writing. People, this is a great book - you need to read it! 

Heather Hummel is the author of the Journals from the Heart Series. She is an award winning author and celebrity ghostwriter. 

Her published works include:
Journals from the Heart Series: Whispers from the Heart (2011 eBook) and Write from the Heart (2011 eBook)
 

Nonfiction: GO BIKE & Other Signs from the Universe (2011 eBook) and  Gracefully: Looking and Being Your Best at Any Age (McGraw Hill, 2008), - Merit Award of the 2009 Mature Media Awards,

Heather's books have appeared in newspapers such as: Publishers Weekly, USA Today and the Washington Post; and in magazines that include: Body & Soul, First, and Spry Living, a combined circulation of nearly 15 million. 

Visit Heather’s website at http://www.heatherhummel.net/

Follow Heather on Twitter @HeatherHummel
"Like" Heather's Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/HeatherHummelFanPage

Blog Tour: Whispers from the Heart by Heather Hummel

Enter my giveaway for Deep Blue Secret - ends November 1st.

Whispers: The heart's way of speaking...

Madison Ragnar is a high school English teacher determined to connect with her students, to finish the next running race with a respectable time, and to avoid ever falling in love again.

But life has other plans for Madison. A man named Michael shows himself in the most unexpected places, raising questions from her best friend, Olivia, and issues around Madison's last relationship.

In the classroom, the death of a student prompts her grieving ninth graders to depend on her for answers. They turn to journal writing as a form of understanding the weight of what's happened in the walls of their teenage existence.

When Madison meets Phil, who throws a wrench in her declaration to not fall in love, it seems that her escape through miles of running is the only real footing she has in life.

Will fate determine Madison's life? Or will she have a say in its outcome? 

My thoughts about Whispers from the Heart ~~

I loved this book! The author is a great writer and I loved the world that she put me in. Madison is a high school English teacher and I so wish I could be in her class. She is an awesome teacher and just a really nice person! Her students really admire and respect her. 

Madison leaves a not-very-nice situation and as a reader, I was always on the edge of my comfy couch worrying when that bad element was going to show up in her life. The author did a great job with that suspense.

Madison has to go through some tough times but I was rooting for her all the way - I just wanted her to be happy in her life. I really cared about her - another kudo to the author's writing. 

Whispers from the Heart is a great book and I highly recommend it! I am also very excited to see that Heather Hummel has written another story in this series and I will be reading that one very soon. She is an author I will be watching, to see what she writes in the future!

Tune in tomorrow for a guest post from Heather ~ it's a great one!   

**AND if you purchase your copy of Whispers from the Heart between September 12 and October 31, and send your receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, you will be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card!**

Heather Hummel is the author of the Journals from the Heart Series. She is an award winning author and celebrity ghostwriter. 

Her published works include:

Journals from the Heart Series:
Whispers from the Heart (2011 eBook)
Write from the Heart (2011 eBook)

Nonfiction
GO BIKE & Other Signs from the Universe (2011 eBook)

Gracefully: Looking and Being Your Best at Any Age (McGraw Hill, 2008), - Merit Award of the 2009 Mature Media Awards,

Heather's books have appeared in newspapers such as: Publishers Weekly, USA Today and the Washington Post; and in magazines that include: Body & Soul, First, and Spry Living, a combined circulation of nearly 15 million.

Visit Heather’s website at http://www.heatherhummel.net/  
Follow Heather on Twitter: @HeatherHummel
"Like" Heather's Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/HeatherHummelFanPage