The Review That Made Me Cry

I wasn’t looking for another review and, honestly, I cringe every time I load the Amazon page for Dacie Mae: Midnight Under the Magnolia. Every time, I’m waiting for that inevitable scathing review. Happily, we’re still sitting at seven, unsolicited five-star reviews. How do people manage to get solicited reviews, anyway? Short of paying for them?

Last month I went to Amazon to get my link and there was a new review. It was so unexpectedly wonderful, I actually started crying. Dacie Mae is my best work yet. It took six years (on and off) to overhaul it and seamlessly add 30,000 words. Mind you, I’ve had two more sons in the past six years. This rewrite was no easy thing. So, to see someone take of their time to not only read my work but to leave such a wonderful, thoughtful review, really touched me. It also happens that on that same day, I was once again telling myself I was awful and not very good at storytelling anyway. Readers, reviewers, you have no idea how important your words are to us who are struggling to bring stories alive for you. Thanks to all of you who take the time to leave thoughtful, constructive reviews. (Please note: this is the last weekend Dacie Mae will be available on Kindle Unlimited.)

“So Unexpected

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2021

It isn’t often that I will forgo sleeping to stay up late and then wake up early to finish a book that I just could not stop thinking about. I had to know how it ended, it wouldn’t let me rest until I did.

Everything about Dacie Mae captured my attention from the very first few chapters and pretty much insisted that I do nothing but read it (or think about it) from that time forward. It haunted me when I wasn’t reading it and left me finding any little bit of lag in time to pick it back up and sneak just one more page. I devoured it as fast as I possibly could and thought for sure once I finished it, I would be satisfied and would be able to go on with my day. And while the ending did leave me satisfied, I was far from thinking about it.

I am STILL thinking about it.

About Hank. About Henry, about Dacie Mae. I want more and I don’t think my poor brain will rest until I get it.

I love a good mystery that will keep me guessing. I love good characters that stay with you long after their story is over. And I love writing that flows smoothly right off the pages and into your very heart. I got all of these in Dacie Mae. I loved her wit, her southern sass and the town that promises to hold so many more adventures to come. I truly can not wait for more. Ms. Wright is definitely an author I will be keeping an eye on. It’s been a long time since I have been this excited about a good indie mystery writer.”

Amazon Store

Everything is in progress

Dacie Mae: Midnight Under the Magnolia

I am so very awful at staying engaged here and I apologize. Not everyone is on Instagram and I need to honor that. Dacie Mae book 2 is at about 21k words right now, as is Book 4 of The von Strassenberg Saga. I’m also working on a project for traditional publication. Hyperactive? Apparently I am. I write books the same way I read them: eight at a time. It may not seem efficient but if I get hung up or burdened by one story, I can always pluck away at another. I AM behind where I intended to be by now, but not horribly so. It’s just I’ve been overwhelmed with my Scouting and (old-school) homeschooling responsibilities. I’m always overwhelmed in the Spring. I would like to share that my second son, who is a high school senior, just earned his Eagle Scout rank! My third son is still working on his Eagle rank. As a merit badge counselor I have been revisiting some of the merit badge requirements I’m responsible for helping teach and serve as a guide through. It’s just been a LOT of actually important stuff distracting me lately. Even if I’m not typing, I’m always working, plotting, finessing, sorting things out, scrapping scenes. By the time I actually get to the typing, it’s often a breeze because I’ve sorted it all out in my head. I also wanted to say I’m thinking of removing Dacie Mae from Kindle Unlimited soon. There just isn’t enough profit being made to justify keeping Dacie Mae from other platforms.

Haven’t read Dacie Mae: Midnight Under the Magnolia? Here’s an unsolicited review that actually made me cry:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

So UnexpectedReviewed in the United States on January 15, 2021It isn’t often that I will forgo sleeping to stay up late and then wake up early to finish a book that I just could not stop thinking about. I had to know how it ended, it wouldn’t let me rest until I did.

Everything about Dacie Mae captured my attention from the very first few chapters and pretty much insisted that I do nothing but read it (or think about it) from that time forward. It haunted me when I wasn’t reading it and left me finding any little bit of lag in time to pick it back up and sneak just one more page. I devoured it as fast as I possibly could and thought for sure once I finished it, I would be satisfied and would be able to go on with my day. And while the ending did leave me satisfied, I was far from thinking about it.

I am STILL thinking about it.

About Hank. About Henry, about Dacie Mae. I want more and I don’t think my poor brain will rest until I get it.

I love a good mystery that will keep me guessing. I love good characters that stay with you long after their story is over. And I love writing that flows smoothly right off the pages and into your very heart. I got all of these in Dacie Mae. I loved her wit, her southern sass and the town that promises to hold so many more adventures to come. I truly can not wait for more. Ms. Wright is definitely an author I will be keeping an eye on. It’s been a long time since I have been this excited about a good indie mystery writer.

See on Amazon

I promise to be better at keeping everyone here up to date! Stay warm!

Parallel Lines

The von Strassenberg Saga is a dark and twisty soap opera of a book series. That’s the best way of describing it. You might think I had it all intricately plotted out beforehand. The reality is much more baffling. It just happens. Very rarely do I plan it out, it just happens, and it’s happening again with book 4, The Devil’s Children. There are explosions going off in my brain as I realize what’s happening and wondering if it will all tie together nicely in the end. It always does, so I’m just trusting the process. I had no intention of making Peter and William have these parallel experiences but I’m here for it, it’s brilliant. I just wish I could take the credit but I didn’t PLAN it. It’s just happening. I’m so excited.

Cover Reveal: The Devil’s Children

I know I’m supposed to wait closer to my publication date and there’s supposed to be a lot of build up to this, but listen, people have been anxiously awaiting this book for 7 YEARS and I’m not going to play with their emotions any more than I already have. So, without any fanfare, I give you the cover to book 4 of The von Strassenberg Saga.
The story picks up right where we left off…in 2010. I’d tell you more but it would all be spoilers for any potential new readers. The one thing I can tell you is that when I wrote some of the von Strassenbergs into Dacie Mae: Midnight Under the Magnolia, it was just for fun but now those characters have become a major plot point in The Devil’s Children. I don’t have a release date yet and won’t really have an idea of when until the first draft is complete. Right now we’re at 14,000 words and 90,000 is my goal.
I hope you like the cover! I promise to keep you posted!

A Thousand Words a Day

A line of dialogue drifted through my head tonight. A line spoken by Tess to Josepha in what will be the fourth book in The von Strassenberg Saga. From that one line the whole story went spinning but the pieces all fell happily into place, not just with this series but with the Dacie Mae spinoff. It felt amazing to open my laptop and have my von Strassenberg Saga playlist looping in my ears as my brain just took that line and ran with it. I ignored all the desperate wonderings, “How will this fit? Where will this go?” And just kept writing through it. Rewriting Dacie Mae has shown me that the magic is truly in rewriting. It’s okay just to vomit this first draft out. With so many different storylines and eye colors and plot twists to keep straight it can be tempting to just stop and check on something but I won’t let myself. As we say in filmmaking, “We can fix it in post.” Let’s finally get this done. A thousand words a day. Ninety days. That’s a novel. With some persistence I can manage a thousand words a day. They may not always be great words, especially if I have to wait until 11:30 at night to write them, but they’ll be words and in the beginning that’s all you need. BUY The von Strassenberg Saga here!

The Von Strassenberg Saga

Not all romances are fairytales.

In 1877, Katherine Demure, brimming over with discontentment, is swept into the arms of the mysterious Viktor von Strassenberg who is newly arrived from Europe with dark rumors preceding him. Hoping to find love and adventure, she instead becomes the centerpiece of a mystery that will take generations to unravel.
The responsibility falls into the hands of her granddaughter, five times removed, who has no inkling as to the origins of her strange name or the reason she has no connection to her family. All that changes and begins to unravel when she makes the mistake of being found.

From Refracted Light Reviews:
Wright’s formatting of this book is part of what makes this book so “un-put-downable.” (Yes, you can quote me….lol.) She switches the story’s POV chapter to chapter (first person for Rocky and third person for Katherine) and masterfully keeps the mystery moving through both storylines, revealing just enough to make sense of both stories, and often leaving you with mini cliffhangers until that heroine’s next chapter. I’ve read some books recently where the shift between narrators is just a confusing mess; however, this is never a problem in Filter and the shift between narrators/timelines is one of this story’s greatest strengths. Another aspect of the shifting POVs that I absolutely LOVED was that each POV was written to the period of the narrator. I absolutely hate when period pieces sound too modern day, but Wright has expertly tailored each girl’s POV to their respective times.

I don’t want to give anything away in this story, but Filter is a dark gothic romance and to me evokes a little Bronte, and some other authors that I won’t mention for fear of revealing too much….*wink wink*. Wright really has created something original and lovely with Filter. (June 2011)

It’s a dark mystery that encompasses three families, the von Strassenbergs, the Demures and the Drexlers; secrets, betrayal, romance and tragedy abound. Gwenn artfully navigates multiple narrators as they tell their stories over several generations and as their experiences begin to form a cohesive picture of the secrets that surround these three families. It’s fascinating. It sucks you in. And while not a paranormal book, it does have elements of the gothic and strange. (December 2011)

From BunnyCates.com:
Filter is book one of a series, and thus the beginning of the story. In this installment we are following two timelines of events: the late 1800s and present day St. Louis. Told through alternating P.O.V. we meet the 1800’s young Katherine, and we also meet present day Rocky. Normally, I am not a fan of the alternating point of views in a book. It usually ends up distracting from the story instead of enhancing. However, in Filter, the author has written the p,o.v. transitions with such skill that the story just flows through the changes. I can’t imagine it being written any other way.I have to admit, I loved the Katherine/Viktor storyline (picture me saying “Veek-tor”, lol). There, I admitted it. I can no longer deny that I enjoy romance. *sigh* What has happened to me?! Katherine, a prominent St Louis attorney’s sickly headstrong daughter. Viktor a foreign Dr/Scientist’s sickly and handsome son. Meet. Sparks. Parents forbid them to be together. Ahh, young love.
Rocky’s storyline: A headstrong orphaned teen, who flees to St. Louis on the hopes of finding her own path (and a promise of wealth through an unlikely bloodline). She is strong, independent, and smart. Usually. And “the Third”. OMG, *swoon*… yes, “the Third” makes my toes curl and my face to girl giggle…haha.
How they are connected is a mystery, and the story is basically page after page of adventure as we try to fit together the pieces of the puzzle. The story is dark, gothic, romantic, and tragic.

I want my .99 copy!!!

(Also available for Nook and in a lovely paperback.)