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My Website
About Me
I am a romance writer. That's not easy to say. Most people have preconceived notions about romances, and the people who write them. Let me tell you! Writing isn't for sissies. I got my first rejection in April 2004. That makes me a professional. In what other field are you considered a "professional" when you don't get called back for a second interview?
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Upcoming Releases
His and Hers Dalmatians Moonlit Romance April 2008
My Favorite Blogs and Websites
Bronwyn Parry, Author & Golden Heart Winner! Crystal Jordan, Author Kate Rothwell, Author Laura Hamby, Author Tori Scott, Author Nell Dixon, Author Denise Patrick, Author Valerie Parv, Australia's Queen of Romance Joanna Sandsmark, Dog and Kitty Author!!! Elisa Adams, Author Sharon Cullen, Author Meg Allison, Author Michelle Styles, Author Julie Cohen, Author Becca, Writer and People Watcher Sally Lawton, Playwright & Author Ainsley MacQueen, Author Jennie Adams, Author Cindy K Green, Author Bronwyn Storm, Doggy Author!!!
Works in Progress
Winter Miracles
The Husband Checklist
Resurrection
Professor Kennedy's Ghost
Everyday HeroThe Baby ContractAlmost On My OwnThe Stone CityDaddy's Little GirlsSkin DeepThe Dog Next Door
Previous Posts
New job, new attitude, new WIP
Archives
April 2006
Credits
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Sunday, August 23, 2009
New job, new attitude, new WIP Life was pretty stressful the first half of this year. Work became the biggest stress, and I started searching out a new job, because nobody should have to put up with the feeling that any time you do anything wrong you'll be fired. Ten minutes late? Fired. Send too many transcriptions to the department that listens to the tricky spots in the dictation and tries to help you fill in the blank? Fired. Unexpected Dr. appt? Fired. Sick? Fired. And so on. New job is much better, but it was hard to adjust to new software and new dictators. I'm settling in quite well now, thank you. Stress is down a great deal. Add to the new job the fact that the family reunion is over--and it was at MY HOUSE--ah, sweet bliss! I loved seeing each and every family member and glad they came. But it was hard juggling everything, and that's a fact. Two weeks ago, a good friend of mine passed away. While I was at her funeral, I was struck by the thought that no matter how hard times got for her, her faith in God never faltered. Neither did her cheerful nature. And I knew that I needed to imbue my stalled project, Winter Miracles, with some of Carolena's spirit. I abandoned it after my nephew Joshua died last summer. This summer my brother and his wife had a new baby girl join their family. It was bittersweet--a wonderful new member of our family who also reminded me of the child they lost last summer. I was in too much pain last year to write a book about surviving loss. With Carolena's passing, I saw my project in a new light. Tonight, I start anew. Good-bye, my friend. I won't forget you.
Posted at 11:52 PM by Grace Tyler
 
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Finished at last!
 The gorgeous dress (no snickers at the fabric choice the toddler made) is finished at last! Vintage Strawberry Shortcake with little strawberries and vines for contrast. This baby has an attached slip, double ruffle, narrow hems that I hid rather invisibly beneath the lace on the ruffle and the ribbon on the sleeves -- which were a total success, because they look like Cinderella sleeves!  The back features a needle-tatted button loop and this darling green button. Dern thread kept twisting up on me while I was making the loop. I forgot to pick up some DMC, so shame on me. Had to use the all-purpose sewing thread for the loop. Next--matching dress for Bitty Baby, who is sporting a small collection of handmade diapers now.  Labels: doll clothes, hand made clothing
Posted at 11:28 AM by Grace Tyler
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Out of print, but not out of circulation! My publisher has closed its doors. I'm sorry to say that on top of the rest of life, that news was just too much for me--the discouragement was of epic proportions. So you can't buy my book right now. I'm looking into ways to put it up for sale myself, but for now, disregard my banner. So my book is out of print. I'm not!!! New books in progress and lots of good stuff in "real" life--as if I have one! Watch for a post on voice in the upcoming days. For now, I think this excerpt from Dalmatians shows my voice perfectly. EXCERPT: A breeze lifted Hayden’s hair as he tossed the Frisbee to Ricky again. The dog caught it with ease, despite the fact that they hadn’t played for the past few weeks due to Hayden’s business trips. Board rooms and dinner meetings couldn’t compare to Saturday afternoon at the park, the sun warm on the back of his neck. He’d left his shoes beneath a nearby tree while he enjoyed the cool crush of the bright spring grass beneath his bare feet. Ricky brought him the plastic disc and dropped it before standing on his hind legs and slapping his paws on his owner’s chest. Hayden put his arms around the dog and petted him vigorously, eliciting a sharp bark and a kiss from Ricky. Laughing, Hayden tumbled the Dalmatian to the ground and wrestled him until he collapsed. The dog flopped down next to him and treated his owner to a wide smile, sporting a mouthful of teeth and wagging his tail ferociously. The first time he’d seen a Dal smile, Hayden was put off by the bared teeth. But the breeder had explained it was a show of affection and how to tell whether the dog was angry or happy. Ricky was definitely happy today. Hayden hadn’t seen that smile very often since leaving Callie’s. He covered his eyes with his bare forearm and inhaled deeply of the smell of sun and spring grass. Gradually the tension he’d been harboring for an entire month ebbed. His latest deal had been grueling, and all the while he worked on it, he’d battled his anticipation of a reunion with Callie. He hadn’t expected the wedding to be so peaceful, he thought, twisting up the corners of his mouth. Ricky flopped his head and front paws onto Hayden’s chest, and the man and his dog lay still on the ground. Ricky’s muffled snuffing and throaty grunts punctuated the sound of other people enjoying the weather and the park environs. When he really concentrated, Hayden could tune all of it out, even the Dal’s grumbling and wiggling against his rib cage, and just listen to the music of the birds overhead in the old-growth trees.
Posted at 11:53 AM by Grace Tyler
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Grace Tyler: Why I love animals This is a list of animal facts that pertain to me--so if you want to enter the contest I'm running at Manic Readers, this is the place! If you read this any time before midnight 8/31, you can enter even if you don't play at Manic Readers. Pick two of my facts and email them to me at GraceTylerAuthor@aol.com. The lucky winner will get a free copy of HIS AND HERS DALMATIANS. Cool, huh? For a second chance to win, look through my blog or my website and find the names of my two Dalmatians in the novella and include that on your email. 1. I attribute my love of animals to my parents bringing me up surrounded by animals. Mom had a gorgeous silver tiger cat named Scrapper for years. When I was very young, Dad raised rabbits--don't ask what he did with them if you're a rabbit lover--so I learned what it was like to breed and raise them. When I was in high school, Dad found an abandoned baby rabbit in a nest in the fields at work. He brought the little thing home, and I kept her and raised her. Mom took me to the pet store to get cat formula to feed her out of a bottle. We kept her in a laundry basket in my room until she got too wild, and then we had to set her free. That was quite a lesson in love and sacrifice. Wild animals aren't pets, but each life is precious. *I also remember the rabbit running around my room loose and leaving rabbit pellets in her wake after chewing her way free of the basket. Yep, my mom's a saint when it comes to letting us experience things for ourselves.* 2. Mom wanted to be a vet. Unfortunately, she's allergic to a lot of animals, so that didn't happen. Her sister is a zoologist, so the love runs in the family. Because Mom is a scientist at heart and an open lover of pets, she let my youngest brother do the craziest things. I remember getting out of the shower once and screaming because there was a huge praying mantis on the wall. Once the surprise faded, however, it was no biggie. Because Richard had bugs all over the house. Mantis were his favorite (and mine) and he used to keep them in potted plants in the house. 3. Richard got to have lizards too. He brought one home from a trip to the desert once, and that started it. We had crickets and other bugs to feed to them. Once while he was gone on a scout trip, I had to feed the lizards. It sounded simple enough, but those little bugs didn't want to go into the lizard enclosure! And to tell the truth, they kind of squeamed me out anyhow. I was good with the lizards and the mantis, but those little creepy bugs were not cool. It became a team effort with other sibs and mom helping me. Some of the bugs escaped, but we managed to keep his lizards alive until he got home. 4. We had lots of cats when I was in my early twenties. My cat Bandit was a prissy thing, and she was very possessive. I tried taking her with me to school, but she wouldn't let me sleep because she was so lonely during the day. She would sit by me and nibble my nose if I didn't respond to her mewing. I had to take her home in the end and let her be with her sisters. 5. Bandit's possessiveness manifested itself in spades when DH entered my life. While we were out on our first official date, she went around the house and knocked all the plants over, much to Mom's dismay. And when we were putting our wedding announcements together and left them unattended on the dining room table, she got up there and "marked" them! Like she knew what they were! That little wretch was the light of my life for years. 6. After we got married, we "inherited" several pets. The first was a cockatiel named Piper. He was just Bandit in a bird suit--prissy and mean as heck to me rather than the way Bandit was mean to DH. He was elderly when we got him, and he managed to stick around for eight more years to the ripe old age of 20. His last years, we had to keep him covered a lot or he would shriek. How an animal with a brain the size of a pea can have such a big personality is beyond me! 7. My mom's sister is a zoologist. Her main study has been zebra finches. She used to go to Australia and watch them in the outback every summer until she had a son. She put little hats on some of the males to see if they became more attractive to the females during breeding season. Guess what? The ones with beads or ribbons got more female attention. Finches like bling too! 8. We bought an aquarium, fish, and a little fiddler crab after we got married. One day we noticed the crab was missing. He simply was not in the tank! Another day, he was back. What's up with that? How does a crab disappear and reappear? This happened a couple more times before DH caught him going up the cord to the aquarium filter and back into the tank. Talk about a little brain doing big things! He'd been getting out, going for a stroll, then hiding back in the tank when he needed water. 9. My dachshund, Frank, was a cat at heart. He used to climb to the top of everything, including people, so that he could get a good visual. He would sit on the back of the couch and look over my shoulder. He also liked to dig up EVERYTHING--including every one of the $500 worth of bulbs I planted at our first home. 10. My current dogs are Britta, an English setter, and Sissy, a yellow lab mix. Sissy is actually my niece's dog, but we've had her for 4 years now. DH bought Britta 2 days before I had my eldest child. I told him, "That's YOUR baby. Mine's going to be here any day now." Our old lady is almost 13 now, and I'm dreading the day she crosses the Rainbow Bridge to be with Frank. After he died, she nearly starved herself to death until Sissy came to live with us. She's an absolute sweetie.
Posted at 8:37 AM by Grace Tyler
Monday, August 18, 2008
What I've Learned After going through three major family events in the past month, I took a step back to consider what I've learned. My sister's baby was premature. He's doing great now but we had some scary times. My grandmother died after a long time being trapped in an immobile prison--her body. She had Parkinson's and I don't know what all, but couldn't move or talk for so long. And then my little nephew had to come and go in the blink of an eye, due to a constellation of birth defects that would prevent him from surviving. So what came of all this? Of course losing loved ones makes you appreciate your family and friends more and prompts that feeling of reconnecting. But that doesn't necessarily last, and it's more of a reaction than a lesson. No, the lessons here for me are humbling and deeper than a knee-jerk reaction. I'm a very spiritual person and very family-oriented. Or at least I thought I was. I discovered that while the family is the center of my life, I've gotten very accustomed to living in my own head in the midst of the family--not really connected. Lesson #1, Be present in the moment. This is a hard one to keep up on a consistent basis, but I've resolved to make the effort. What are my kids' memories going to be of their mom? A lady who loves her computer. Because that's "who" I spend most of my time with. Not anymore. Writing and working and keeping in touch with my cyberfriends are important, but my kids need ME. Lesson #2, Time equals attachment. Who am I most attached to in the world right now? My 2 almost 3yo. Why? Because I spend the most time with her, especially one on one time. I have three children and a husband and a lot of extended family. I know that the circumstances were exceptional during the last month so I'm beating myself up for this, but during the last family visits I was in my room or on the couch while others were spending time together. I did have a rotten headache for that week, so I'll let myself off the hook. But I'm resolving to change this as well. Lesson #3, Service equals attachment. We had my brother's children spend the night a couple of days after the little one's funeral. Taking care of them that night and comforting their crying 2yo in the middle of the night gave me a new connection with them, and that is so precious. I felt like an ungrateful wretch for a bit, but I'm not one to beat myself up at this point in my life. I'd rather take the lesson and live better. Labels: author, balance, death, family life, grief, still birth, writing
Posted at 9:43 PM by Grace Tyler
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Precious little angel
 My brother's little baby Joshua came and went back to heaven today. He's just beautiful.
Posted at 9:46 PM by Grace Tyler
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Kissed any frogs lately?
 DH took pictures for a local jewelry designer, and she paid him with this lovely bracelet. I'm wearing it, not DH! She made a matching one for my little girl. Genuine, hand-crafted copper and a darling little frog bead in the center. EDIT: I should clarify this is NOT one of DH's professional pix, but one I snapped with my phone camera at a stop light.
Posted at 5:04 PM by Grace Tyler
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