Friday, August 28, 2009

Friday Fun Facts

"The vampires have always been metaphors for me. They've always been vehicles through which I can express things I have felt very, very deeply." ~Anne Rice

Sigh. Here I am at the last Friday of my summer vacation. Can't believe it's gone so fast! Anyway, 2 quick things to mention today:

1. I'll be doing a book signing at the Waldenbooks in the Oakdale Mall in Binghamton, NY, tomorrow ~ Saturday ~ from 1:00 - 4:00. If you're anywhere in the area, please stop by and say hello!

2. My September e-newsletter will be going out next week, so if you haven't signed up to receive, there's a place right over there on the sidebar where you can do so.

3. Finally, I read Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris over vacation and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I hadn't heard of her until this past spring, but many of you probably read her books or at least know that the hugely successful HBO series "True Blood" is based on them. I'm not really a vampire-genre reader, but I honestly had a hard time putting this book down. I think 2 big reasons were the constant action and conflict (the main character is a waitress who can read minds, and she meets/falls for a vampire who comes to her town just as some pretty brutal killings start occurring), and the voice of the first-person narrator, Sookie Stackhouse. Sookie's really well-written, and I admit I do like first-person because you get such a good sense of the person telling the story. Don't get me wrong, the other characters are well-developed too. It's an all-around good read, and I'll be picking up her next book in the series, definitely!

Have you read any of Charlaine Harris' books? Do you watch True Blood? What do you think?

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Writers' Wednesday: An Interview with...Yours Truly

"Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself." ~Harlan Ellison

Ha! Today's Writers' Wednesday post is a little different than usual, partly because I'm still collecting and scheduling writers for the next couple of months.

So I hope you'll join me today over at Leah Braemel's blog...she's hosting me, and I'm blogging about my 15 Favorite Books. Even better, I'm giving away a download of either One Night in Napa or any of my backlist to one commenter today.

Hope to see you there!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Monday Mentionables

Vacation used to be a luxury, but in today's world it has become a necessity. ~Author Unknown


First thing to mention today: my writing friend Liz had a great short story featured at The Long and the Short of It last week - click here to read "Mother of the Year"!


*****

I got my line edits back on Summer's Song last week, and the FLE (Final Line Editor - the person who takes a scrutinizing look at the manuscript after you and your regular editor have already been through it umpteen times) sent back her revisions with these comments: "The plot is great, the back story is very engaging. Summer's character arc is pitch-perfect. The setting of the McCready house makes so many other elements fall into place." Doing a little happy dance right now!

*****

And finally, here are a few pictures from our vacation last week in the Outer Banks, NC:

Saturday morning, August 22 - if you look closely you can see what looks like fog, but it's actually salt spray from the waves, courtesy of Hurricane Bill



Some of the waves breaking - that morning they were around 10 feet but got up around 15 feet later in the day



The girls!





Wild mustangs up near Corolla - they seem to hang out everywhere: the roads, the beach, people's back yards...