So, Now I’m A Restoration Project… by Claire Gem #Romance #Writing #RB4U

As one way to come up with ideas for blogs, new plot lines, or interesting social media posts, I subscribe to Google Alerts. For those of you who don’t know how this works, you can set criteria in the form of particular words in the Google Alerts “bot.” Every day, if something posts on the Internet—anywhere—with one or more of those words in the title, you will get an email with a link to the piece.

For my paranormal/ghost romances, I have alerts set for the terms “ghost,” “haunting,” and “paranormal.” I get some really interesting stuff on those three almost every day. I also have an alert set for my pen name, Claire Gem, just in case. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be named a NYT Bestselling Author and the email announcement will end up in my spam folder.

I occasionally get pieces with both words – Claire and Gem – in the title, but not usually in order or having anything to do with me. Recently, however, I received an alert with this title:

Curbed Inside: Touring an Expanded, Modernized Lake Claire Gem

Hmm. Better check this one out. Especially since a lake played a very critical role in my last release, Hearts Unloched (Loch Sheldrake, N.Y.).

Turns out the piece is from a real estate site based in Atlanta, Georgia. There is, apparently, a Lake Claire there, where a vintage home was recently renovated—A Lake Claire Gem. Me, right?

From what Josh Green who wrote the article says, I was “curvy” and dated “from 1987.” Well, he got the age off by about twenty years (maybe thirty…), but what the hell? I’ll take every compliment I can get.

However, he also described me as an “anomaly on a dead-end street” that “was beginning to show its age.” I never even met this guy. How dare he? And how does he even know???

Of course, I’m just kidding. Mr. Green goes on to describe how the present owner of the two-story residence, designed by Architect Dan White, had a vision to “modernize and expand the property in a mellifluous, exhilarating way.”

Okay, I admit it. I had to look up mellifluous. It means “sweet or musical, euphonious (had to look that one up too), honeyed, and mellow.”

Sounds pretty good. And from the photos in the article, it seems they’ve succeeded in bringing a forgotten, outdated house into the 21^st century—with euphonious mellifluence.

Wish somebody would do that for me.

My point here: Google Alerts is a very useful tool for the writer. Would I ever have known there was a refurbished home—my namesake!—in Atlanta, Georgia, without it? If you don’t already use this handy little tool, you can access it here. Figure out what key words would inspire you, generate ideas for the genre you write in, and fix you up an alert. It’s a very handy, free, and sometimes enlightening tool.

I mean, how would I ever have known about my snappy, updated home in Atlanta without Google Alerts?

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Claire Gem writes intensely emotional contemporary romance, sometimes with a paranormal twist. Her last release, HEARTS UNLOCHED, was an award-winner in the 2016 New York Book Festival.

Her new release, available TODAY, is A TAMING SEASON: Book I of the Love at Lake George Series.

Manhattan domestic violence counselor Zoe Anderson is going on the most important vacation of her life.

Before she can move on, help other women, Zoe needs to heal herself. Her Cinderella life shattered three years ago one fateful night, leaving her a young widow, scarred inside and out. In an attempt to reclaim her life, bury her demons, and save her job, Zoe sets out for picturesque Lake George to claim the treasured family cottage she recently inherited. The place where she found happiness—before. Reboot, restore to an earlier time.

What she finds is a rundown shack.

The neighboring resort mogul, Jason Rolland, whisks in to her rescue, insisting Zoe stay at his upscale Lakeview Lodge. The wealthy, handsome, star of his own radio show, Jason's Lair, he's a terminal bachelor. But Jason figures he might use the gifts God gave him to convince the sexy redheaded stranger to give up the crumbling eye-sore next door. A challenge he’s definitely up for. He’s been trying to buy the cabin—and demolish it—for years: the last reminder of his own tragic, childhood memories.

Zoe can’t deny her attraction to the tall, dark-haired Jason with his pool-water blue eyes. Definitely fling material—if she can just get past those flashbacks from the night everything changed. And the knowledge that when it comes to happy-ever-after, you usually don’t get a second chance. Hardly possible with the Tiger of Jason’s Lair.

What Jason doesn’t figure on is Zoe’s charms melting his emotional armor. But with his reputation, can he ever win her heart? Can a tiger really change his stripes? Or will their pasts come back to bite them both?

Join Claire and many of her friends and fans at the Facebook Launch Party from 3-6 p.m. EST.