Welcome to HBIC Nation

A few months ago I spent the best weekend I've had in a long time with five of my fellow authors. We holed up in a house in the middle of the Virginia countryside surrounded by rolling hills and cows mooing in the distance. The six of us were there to reconnect, write, and recharge. On the second to last day, after eating a huge picnic out under a tree on the unseasonably warm February weather, we stared talking about how being a part of this group of six had gotten us through the good and the bad in our careers. Personally, everything changed for me as a writer when I found a community that both supported and taught me, but that wasn't unique. All of us had stories to share about what "finding our people" meant to us.

Sipping wine and soaking up the unexpected sun, we began to wonder about how to share that experience with other people. The more we talked, the more we realized that all six of us wanted to do the same thing: foster a community for creatives where they could find support, grow, and celebrate success. We didn't just want to cater to writers but musicians, actors, designers, and others as well because we firmly believed that we can all learn from each other.

HBIC Nation was born on that February day. It's a website, a Facebook group, but most importantly it's a place for creatives to gather. An HBIC is a Head Bitch in Charge—because we know "bitches get stuff done"—and we welcome all HBICs who dream big, do the work, and dominate.

You can join HBIC Nation by going to our website, clicking on the "Citizenship" tab, and signing up. We're also kicking off a supportive, inspiring Facebook group where we'll start applying the principles of HBIC Nation right now. Expect to be challenged to think about your career, celebrate the HBICs who inspire you, and enjoy getting to know your fellow creatives!

We also have shirts for sale because who can launch an empire without a great logo for continuing inspiration? Use this link to get 15% off your purchase automatically until May 11. (No promo codes required.)

We hope you'll join us, and we can't wait to see how you'll grow!

How to Organize Your Writing Life: Setting Daily Goals

When you're a writer, the struggle to stay organized is real. Different drafts. Different books. Different projects. Release days. Blog posts. Facebook parties. No matter the stage of your career, you all have responsibilities pulling you in different directions. Organization is key to making sure that everything gets done when it should without leaving you feeling completely overwhelmed.

Every Wednesday throughout the month of May, I'm sharing some of the tips and tricks that I used to keep my writing life in order. Last week we talked about keeping your calendar straight. Today I'm going to talk about how setting attainable, realistic daily goals can transform your writing life.

The To Do List

 

My to do list drives the day-to-day of my writing career. I use it to keep myself on track and organize my long-term and short-term goals. It's also the place I turn to first when I'm feeling overwhelmed. If you use it well, I promise that it will help you take back control of your crazy writing hours.

I go over my to do list every day and update it. I write down everything that feels like a task to me, even if it's as simple as "pack lunch" or "write 1,500 words." Facing down more than one deadline, I've absolutely written down "take shower." Your to do list isn't going to judge you. It's a tool that lets you write down all of the random things zipping through your head, demanding attention. It also lets you let go of those things and say, "I'm going to take care of you, but you aren't my top priority right now." Once you do finish whatever task is bothering you, you can cross it out. You get a sense of completion, plus you can see physical evidence of all of your hard work. Non-to do list believers, trust me when I say it's an incredibly satisfying feeling.

Once I run out of things to add to my list, I look it over. I mark anything that must be handled that day as high priority.* I group similar tasks together so that I can complete them all at the same time. I usually look for tasks that have been on my list for a few days and try to figure out whether those are really necessary or whether I'm just avoiding them. If I'm avoiding, that's usually a pretty good sign that it's time to get that task crossed off the list.

 Three Daily Goals

I'm guessing that most of you already use a to do list to keep you organized. Now I'm going to show you how I take that information and move it off my list faster. I use a technique I think of as my three daily goals. Every day I write down three things:

• Three Goals
• Red Flags
• Successes

The three goals are the the three things that I'm going to do today that will help me move my writing career forward. These could be massive things (finish novella draft) or small tasks (post to Facebook). I recommend a mix. On March 12th, my list read like this:

• Set One Week in Hawaii cover reveal date
• Call with Alyssa Cole, 8 PM
• Finish new hockey scene for sports romance

Each of these things were pulled from my to do list and prioritized. They were also tasks that I knew that I could finish that day. That is one of the key elements of this three daily goals exercise. You're getting things done by breaking your larger deadlines into small, manageable tasks.

The next step is to identify any red flags you might have on that day. These are any activities that are potentially going to eat into your time and keep you from completing your three goals. For me, things like RWA meetings, friends visiting NYC, and unusual deadlines at my day job are the most common red flags. Identifying them can help you plan a strategy to not only comfort those red flags but also complete your writing goals.

And finally, I believe in celebrating little successes, so at the end of the day I write down the things that I did that day that helped further my writing career. I'm not always perfect with completing my three daily goals, so sometimes my list is as simple as, "Posted a release day promo to Facebook." Other days, I hit a good stride and overachieved. Wherever you fall on the spectrum of work success, find something out of your day that is a positive and celebrate that. We're writing big long books. We deserve a little bit of a boost throughout the process.

*I use my Mac's Reminders app since it syncs with my phone. This lets you mark anything high priority with !!!, something I find really helpful when scanning my list.

How to Organize Your Writing Life: Maximizing Your Calendar

When you're a writer, the struggle to stay organized is real. Different drafts. Different books. Different projects. Release days. Blog posts. Facebook parties. No matter the stage of your career, we all have responsibilities pulling us in different directions. Organization is key to making sure that everything gets done when it should without leaving you feeling completely overwhelmed.

Every Wednesday throughout the month of May, I'm sharing some of the tips and tricks that I used to keep my writing life in order starting with the basics: your calendar.

Keeping Your Calendar

I shouldn't have to say this, but I suspect that it's necessary. If you're going to take your writing career seriously, you're going to need a dedicated calendar. Just like you have to keep track of deadlines in a day job, you've got to keep things straight when it comes to your writing.

I use separate calendars for my writing, day job, and life events. They're loaded into my iCal that syncs to my phone and Mac. I do this because I'm never without my phone, and I can always keep it updated on the fly. I color code my writing calendar in blue so that it's easy to find at a glance, and I can uncheck the other calendars to isolate it when I need a writing overview.

Deadlines 

Whether these are set by your publisher or by you, you need to take your deadlines seriously. You're a professional. You wouldn't blow off a big presentation at work. Your manuscript isn't any different. But even when you take those dreaded deadlines seriously, sometimes they get away from us, making them a whole lot scarier when you finally remember them. If you use it correctly, your calendar can minimize the changes of that happening.

Here's what I consider a deadline in my own writing calendar:

• Each draft of my book. For my latest indie release, One Week in Hawaii, that meant my first, second, and third drafts. Then, once copy edits came back, my final draft. I was working with anthology partners so I also included the dates I had to get them back first and second draft critiques back. If you're working with a traditional publisher, you want to note the dates that you need to get all of your various edits back.
• Blurbs and cover copy
• Updates to back matter
• Cover art and formatting if I'm publishing independently
• Marketing rollout
• Cover reveal
• Release date
• Blog posts, articles, and other things I owe other people. This includes publisher blog obligations as well as blog tours and the occasional Facebook party.

I input each of these things into my calendar in all caps as soon as I find out about them. This means that I'm positive I have the most up to date information about what I owe who and when. If there is a change of date, the first thing I do when I find out about it is update my deadline in my calendar. My apartment could be on fire, and I probably would still stop to make a calendar adjustment. If I don't, there's  a 25% chance I will forget.

Writing Life

Your writing life is everything else that takes up your time or you need a reminder about. Some people block out time on their calendars for their daily word count to make sure that they know that's a permanent appointment. These are their office hours.

Since I have a day job and I write when and where I can, I don't keep office hours. I do, however, write down just about everything else I do related to my writing career. Here are some of them:

• Conferences
• Workshops and signings
• Articles for my blog
• Website updates
• Teasers, excerpts, and other materials for any upcoming releases
• Swag/business card order reminders
• RWA chapter meetings
• Writing dates with other authors
• Broadcast dates for First Draught, the writing talk show I co-host

I use my writing life calendar in conjunction with my to do list which includes emails I owe people, social media post reminders, maintenance on sites like Goodreads and Amazon's author page, and little day-to-day things that need to get done. Just like I mentioned in deadlines, the moment something comes up that will require my attention it goes on the calendar and possibly the to do list too.

Using Your Calendar

Writing all of this down is just half the battle. Now you actually have to put that beautiful (possibly color-coded) calendar to good use. I open mine every day and look at two views: the daily view and the monthly view. I'm looking for any red flag, deadlines, or projects that may have slipped my mind. I also try to do a three month look ahead once a week so I know that I'm looking ahead to. This helps minimize deadlines creeping up on me (especially blog posts I've promised to other people as those have a nasty habit of lurking in the shadows of my calendar).

Hopefully this gives you some jumping off ideas about how you might start managing your writing calendar to make it work harder for you. Now it's your turn to share. What advice can you give to writings looking to optimize their calendars and stay organized?

Upcoming Workshop

Just a quick invitation for those you going to the New England Chapter RWA Let Your Imagination Take Flight Conference. Audra North and I will be teaching a workshop about the ins and outs of building indie box sets and anthologies. What: How to Publish a Boxed Set or Anthology: A Practical Workshop

When: Friday, April 24, 2:30 PM

Where: NECRWA Let Your Imagination Take Flight Conference, Boston Marriott in Burlington, MA

There are some fantastic speakers at this conference like Loretta Chase, Sabrina Jeffries, Lauren Dane, and Megan Frampton. Check out the full schedule online now. We can't wait to see you Friday!

Do You Have to Get to "I Love You?"

An earlier version of this post appeared on the Contemporary Romance Writer's blog and in the RWA-NYC April Keynotes. One of the cardinal rules of romance is that a story has to end with a happily ever after. But does that mean a couple has to say, “I love you,” at the end of every romance? Maybe not.

It’s a question I asked myself when I wrote “Seduction in the Snow”. The story unfolds over a week at a ski resort. Both Evan and Lydia tell themselves that their sexy hot tub encounters are just a vacation fling. Lydia is particularly tough to sell on the idea of love. Having seen relationship after relationship fall apart after a few short months, she’s scared of the big “L” word.

Of course, this is a romance so we all know where the story’s heading—for the happily ever after—but given Lydia’s resistance to the very idea of love, I didn’t feel that a big, “I love you,” exchange at the end of the novella would be fitting with her character. Instead, I decided that Lydia and Evan should show us their deep commitment and potential for future happiness in a different way.

As authors we have a responsibility to really get to know our characters. What are their fears? How can we push them out of their comfort zones? Would they actually say the words that we’re writing on the page? While “I love you,” is the backbone of many happily ever afters, it doesn’t have to be if it doesn’t fit with your character’s personality.

Another thing to consider is your book’s timeline. Romance authors tell stories that unfold over decades, months, weeks, days. There’s such vast variation in the timelines in our genre that a one-size-fits-all approach to the happily ever doesn’t always work. If a character is more in touch with their emotions and open to the idea of falling in love, the, “I love you,” exchange rings true. But we know our heroes and heroines will continue to grow after our stories are complete. If that’s the case, “I love you,” may realistically take them longer to get to.

Whether you decide to have your hero and heroine say, “I love you,” or not, the most important thing to remember is that it’s our job as authors to write a convincing love story. That means you’re not just telling the reader that the hero and heroine love each other. You’re showing their deep commitment through the actions and emotions. Write your story with that in mind, and you’ll have your readers falling in love.

My novella "Seduction in the Snow" appears in the sexy, contemporary romance anthology One Week in Wyoming. For more posts like this one, follow my blog or sign up for my newsletter.

Author Branding on First Draught Tomorrow!

A quick reminder for you that First Draught is coming up tomorrow at 8:30 PM EST! Alexis, Mary Chris, and I are very happy to be welcoming Laura von Holt and Amy Jo Cousins on for a discussion about building your author brand. We'll talk about why branding is important, how you should go about creating your online and in real life presence, and why it's important to start now even if you don't have a book out. RSVP to our live event to be sure you don't miss a minute of our live conversation. If you can't make it on Tuesday, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel or check out our brand-new First Draught website!

Laura von Holt is a marginally famous writer and performer from Hawai’i who lives in New York. She writes paranormal romances about mermaids, and literary fantasy about the dark side of fairytales. She is also a Pulitzer-nominated playwright and the Co-Artistic Director of Little Lord, a Brooklyn-based theater company. Laura is best known as her pinup and performance artist alter ego, von Hottie. When Laura is not on the ground, she is in the air as the sparkly half of the international aerial comedy duo, Flaming Mermaid Broken Star, which creates and performs "stunning feats of how-dare-they" on the regular.

Visit Laura's website: vonhottie.com

Subscribe to Laura's newsletter: http://eepurl.com/OqvlD

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Amy Jo Cousins writes contemporary romance and erotica about smart people finding their own best kind of smexy. She lives in Chicago with her son, where she tweets too much, sometimes runs really far, and waits for the Cubs to win the World Series.

Fun facts: Amy Jo can get back into a kayak in the open water if she falls out of it, taught herself and her son how to say I love you in seventeen languages, and once ran the table in a game of eight ball.

Visit Amy Jo's website: http://amyjocousins.com/

Subscribe to Amy Jo's newsletter: http://bit.ly/1CriI2U

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Hot for Friday: Book Boyfriends Cafe

Hey there, blog hoppers! Today I'm participating in the Book Boyfriends Cafe Hot for Fridays. This week they've asked us to share a swoon worthy line from our hero. I'm road testing a little sneak peek of my upcoming book One Week in Hawaii and introducing you to Chris and Annie. He's a hot, young chef from LA who is a guest at the wedding that she's planned. And it turns out both of them have a taste for moonlight beaches, classic movies, and champagne. 

Chris wasn’t ready when Annie said, “No one’s ever brought me champagne before.”

He stared at her. How was that even possible? “Then I’m glad I’m the first.”

“It’s part of being a wedding planner,” she gave him that small smile again, as though the admission were an apology. “We’re usually the ones coordinating the big gestures.”

“Well, tonight you get champagne.” He pulled the glasses out of his pockets and handed them to her. “Do you mind?”

She took them from him with a raised eyebrow. “Not at all.”

He set about peeling the foil off the champagne’s cage.

“Does this make you William Holden?” she asked after a moment’s silence.

His hand stilled. “William Holden winds up with glass in his ass. I’m Humphrey Bogart.”

“You know Sabrina?” she asked, a little incredulous as he stuffed the cage into his pocket and eased the cork out of the bottle. It sighed—one of the best sounds in the world.

“I know Bogey. A man’s man.” He poured out her glass with a flourish before moving on to the other one. “Besides, there’s a whole culinary school b-story in Sabrina. It’s practically required watching.”

When he glanced up at her, she was smiling. A real smile that lit up her whole face. “You could just admit you love the movie.”

He laughed, clinking the edge of his glass against hers. “Or I could just admit I love the movie.”

If you liked this little preview of Chris and Annie, sign up for my newsletter. That way I can let you know as soon as the book (and its sexy cover) are up for preorder and sale. And don't forget to check out Book Boyfriends Cafe for all of the swoon worthy heroes you can handle!

First Draught & The "I Love You"

Just a few quick things to tell you about today. Read

I'm over on the Contemporary Romance Writers' blog talking about why your characters don't always have to say, "I love you," at the end of your romance.

Meet

I will be speaking at the NECRWA "Let Your Imagination Take Flight" conference from April 24-25. Audra North and I are presenting a practical guide to self-publishing an anthology or box set with great tips about idea creation, organization, and royalties distribution. I'll have more details on that appearance in the coming weeks, but if you plan to be there please say hello and introduce yourself.

Watch

The women of First Draught are back at it again talking about problematic heroines. Why can it be so tough to get a heroine just right? Are we harder on our heroines than our heroes in romance? Plus we dish on the heroine tropes we just can't stand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh4xBxK2Pws

Also keep an eye out for updates about One Week in Hawaii, the next anthology in the One Week in Love series featuring novellas by Audra North, Alexis Anne, Alexandra Haughton, and myself. We're getting ready to release our very sexy cover and get this book up on preorder.

If you would like to be the first to see that cover and help us spread the word about One Week in Hawaii, check out this quick form.

And don't forget to sign up for newsletter for the very latest preorder and release date information as well as exclusive excerpts!

Go Forth & NaNoWriMo

For my little band of writer friends, the end of October isn't a time to ask, "What are you and/or your kids going to be for Halloween," but rather, "Are you going to do NaNoWriMo?"

I've done National Novel Writing Month three times and "won" it once. Each time I've gotten something valuable out of the experience.

Sure, it's meant putting aside some basic human necessities like laundry and food that takes more than 10 minutes to prepare.* Hitting a 50,000 word count in the space of a month that also has holidays like Thanksgiving rolled into it is tough. But here's the thing. You're going to have 50,000 words of editable work if you win. Even if you don't, you're going to have something on a page and that's a lot easier to craft and edit than a blank Word document. .

After winning NaNoWriMo for the first time last year, I also noticed an unexpected side benefit: I write more. Rather than the 1K I was cranking out a night after my day job, my numbers started ticking up. If you break NaNoWriMo's word count down into equal parts, you wind up with 1,667 words a day.** Now I routinely write between 2,000 and 3,000 words a day, five days a week. That's a whole lot of words that I can directly attribute to NaNoWriMo ratcheting up my productivity.

So, to all of you who are on the fence about NaNoWriMo or anyone who has always wanted to write a novel but didn't know how to go about it, I'm challenging you to write along with me. The words you get out on the page don't have to be good. They just have to be words, and I want you to write them fearlessly.

Now go forth and NaNoWriMo!

---

*I basically live off of pesto and grilled chicken during the month of November.

**Once you write to that 1,667 words a day goal for a month, you will never be able to forget that magic number.

First Draught: The Old is New

I'm zooming along the rails of the mid-Atlantic to make my way to Richmond for a little retreat with Mary Chris Escobar and Alexis Anne. They're probably going to be sick of my voice by the end of this weekend because this past Tuesday we got together thanks to the power of the interwebs for a First Draught chat about going back to abandoned manuscripts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LsgcyrCEN0

We're always happy for suggestions of what to talk about, so if you've got a topic you'd like us to explore just let us know by leaving a comment!

What We Talked About This Month...

Amazon | B&N | iBooks

Amazon | B&N | iBooks

Amazon | B&N | iBooks

Amazon | B&N | iBooks

Amazon | B&N | iBooks

Amazon | B&N | iBooks

Amazon | B&N

Defending the Marriage of Convenience

This article first appeared in RWA-NYC's September Keynotes newsletter as part of the tropes issue. I love a good historical marriage of convenience romance. I just do. I know some people find the trope tired—like an old friend you’ve seen one too many times—but my love for the “we have to get married because we just do” storyline will never die.

Historical settings are removed enough from my every day life that I can easily accept that there might be social and economic reasons for a hero and heroine to marry even if they don’t love each other. Take the Regency period. Between securing a woman’s financial future and ensuring a man’s lineage through heirs, you’ve got plenty of reasons why a man might ask a woman to marry him whom he hardly knows—let alone loves.

As an author, getting the wedding over and done with achieves a few things. The marriage immediately creates conflict because these two relative strangers must now figure out how to live together as a couple. At some point, the barriers between them start to fall. Even though they might resist, affection grows between them. And the best side effect of the marriage of convenience? Our hero and heroine no longer have to worry about those pesky societal rules saying they can’t kiss or, you know, have sex. Often it is that physical intimacy that shows the hero or heroine that they’re falling in love even as they try to resist.

Now, you might notice that I’ve only talked about historicals so far. I generally have a tough time enjoying marriages of convenience in contemporary settings because I’m always left asking why?

Why would a modern hero and heroine who are intelligent, attractive, independent people have to get married if they don’t want to? If a man said, “My inheritance is dependent on us getting hitched,” to me I’d probably run in the opposite direction the moment I realized he was being serious. Likewise, when I read about a man who must get married because his corporate environment only trusts so called “family men,” my first thought is always, “It’s time for a new job.”

The problem with using the trope in contemporaries is that it becomes a lot harder to justify forcing the hero and heroine to wed. Let’s take a look at some of the common external conflicts forcing historical couples together. Pre-martial sex has become the norm in this country. With entails a thing of the past, how many families are really desperate for a male heir these days? And even better, most women now have the means to hold a career, own property, and manage their lives as they see fit.

So what is a contemporary author who wants to play with the marriage of convenience trope to do? Get creative.

The key to using a marriage of convenience across genres of romance seems to be finding new, interesting ways to twist and update the trope. If you set off to write a marriage of convenience romance, ask yourself what you can do to avoid sending the hero and heroine down the normal path to love. Breathing new life into the old trope can help keep readers racing to the end to see how your hero and heroine will finally fall in love.

Book Bundles Abound!

The wonderful people at iBooks have been featuring outstanding book bundles for 99c/99p to help readers in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand discover new authors. My debut One Week in Wyoming is included in this deal, but so are a bunch of really wonderful books. I just wanted to share with you a few of recommendations. All of these books have reached the top 100 paid books in the US at some point during this book bundles deal.

Historical

Seven Wicked Nights by Courtney Milan, Tessa Dare, Caroline Linden, Sherry Thomas, Carolyn Jewel, Erin Knightley, Leigh LaValle

(I'm actually reading this bundle right now, and it is wonderful)

New Adult

Up All Night: A New Adult Collection by Erin McCarthy, Viv Daniels, Heidi Joy Tretheway, Ronda Helms, Lark O’Neal, PK Hrezo, KK Hendin, Shari Slade, J.L. Flynn, Jen Frederick

(I cannot highly recommend Shari Slade's novel The Opposite of Nothing enough)

Suspense

Danger and Desire by Amber Lin, Pamela Clare, Katie Reus, Dianna Love, Carolyn Crane, Kaylea Cross, Norah Wilson, Dee J. Adams, V.K. Sykes, Misty Evans

Contemporary

One Week in Wyoming by Alexis Anne, Audra North, Julia Kelly, Alexandra Haughton

YA

Breaking Ties (The Breaking Series, Book 3) by Tracie Puckett

(It isn't a book bundle, but I wanted to highlight my friend Tracie Puckett's new novel Breaking Ties which is a force to be reckoned with. It's been bouncing around at the top of the charts for the last few days, and rightly so. Tracie is a YA writer with a lot of EQ, and her stories are always gripping)

Happy reading, all!

VIDEO: Learn to Love Your Research

Yesterday night First Draught tackled the question of research and writing. How do you get the details right, where should you start, and how do you know that you're just avoiding writing the book? A.L. Parks shared her stories about interviewing members of the FBI, Alexis Anne discussed the pros and cons of writing about fictional vs. real places, Mary Chris Escobar talked about authenticity, and I tackled the historical side of things. UPDATE: Looks like a gremlin got into one of our computers and caused some feedback for a few minutes in the middle. Bad gremlin. The problem does resolve itself pretty quickly, and we will try to figure out how to prevent it in the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMRN7X8MW5k

If there is a topic you want us to discuss, reach out to one of us! We're always happy to take suggestions.

First Draught is Live Tonight

First Draught is back tonight at 8:30 PM EST on Google Hangouts. Mark your calendars because this month we're talking about research with A L Parks! RSVP to make sure you don't miss a minute whether you watch the live or recorded session.

Mark Your Calendars!

Mark you calendars! First Draught is back this Tuesday at 8:30 PM EST (can you believe that it's already a new month?). A.L. Parks is joining Alexis Anne, Mary Chris Escobar, and myself (and maybe a surprise special guest) to talk about research and writing. We'll discuss how we approach research in our different subgenres, and why it isn't just the responsibility of historical authors to get the details right. RSVP to let us know you'll be watching live, or keep an eye out for our YouTube video after the show is wrapped.

First Draught: Music as Muse

I love technology. It lets me write and edit so easily I often take it for granted. It's brought some incredible people into my life and helped me keep in touch with old friends and family. It's fantastic. Until it doesn't work.

That's what happened Tuesday when the women behind First Draught and I tried to talk about music and writing. Our chat experienced major technical difficulties both as we were trying to get on air and then while it was going. However we pushed through, and here it is in all its hot mess, hilarious glory.

http://youtu.be/dGTpYrISYBs

As always, comments and questions are welcome!

Listen While You Work

Tonight I'm talking music with the women of First Draught. I've been doing my homework before our live Google Hangout and going through all of my old writing playlists. I'll talk more about this tonight, but typically when I start a new project I begin pulling songs that either evoke a certain mood or have lyrics that fit with these love story I'm trying to write. Some songs pop up on my playlists over and over again. I've been dancing Swing, Lindy Hop, and Blues for a very long time, and I've always found those really expressive songs fit my playlists well. They show up on my all the time.

So here you go! 15 songs that I can't stop listening to whenever I write.

Make sure to watch tonight as Alexis Anne, Mary Chris Escobar, and I talking music with special guests Lashell Collins and Tracie Puckett. We'll be watching out for questions and comments on Twitter and Facebook, so be sure to let us know what you think!

Coming Up: April's First Draught Chat

On April 1st the ladies of First Draught will be talking about music and writing with a couple special guests! We'd love to hear from your comments and questions while we're broadcasting live! You can RSVP to the Google Hangout here. And be on the look out on Facebook and Twitter as we gear up for the big day.