So How Old Is Old, Really?

There is a place you can touch a woman that will drive her crazy. Her heart.
~ Melanie Griffith, Milk Money

Is there a moment, somewhere in your past, that you look back on once in a while? Is there a day you yearn for? Is there an hour you’d capture, pin down, try to do again? Do you remember what it was like to look on the person you’d fall in love with someday and be left breathless with that desire of first glance? Do you recall the power in being a child, on the young side of twenty, looking forward and holding tight and leaping without knowing what was waiting for you but wanting, more than anything, to do it all with the person beside you?

Sometimes I think that’s why we read romance--and why we write it. To remember those awesome, and sometimes awful, sweeping emotions that knock us over. That exhaust us. That exhilarate us. It is amazing to me how the details of everyday life, how jobs and families--as wonderful as they are--can carry us so far away from the magic falling in love.

With the high school quarterback. With the gorgeous rock star. With the boy next door. With our first true love. With our second one. With our first sex. With the bad boy. With the good one. With the one who’ll eventually get down on one knee and ask us to stay.

With ourselves.

###
Now that my contracts are in with Samhain, I have all this work to do: put together a promotional blurb, choose an an excerpt, write up tips and requests for my cover art, send a bio to their site for my author’s page. It’s still all a little surreal to me. Who knew that having a manuscript accepted was just the teeniest bit of the iceberg? It’s exciting but overwhelming too.

###
A funny story from work: last week my high school seniors read the short story “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield. It’s about an elderly woman who goes to the park each Sunday to people-watch, knowing she will be missed if she doesn’t show up, only to be made fun of by a young couple in love.

I asked my class how old they thought the main character was (she’s probably 70+ or so). One girl raised her hand and said, “Older?”

I said, “How old is older?”

She thought for a minute, and then, in all seriousness, looked up at me and answered, “Thirty?”

Oh. God.

TGIF

“A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous“.
~ Ingrid Bergman

Just received the proof of my article that’s appearing in the WOW February issue and am really happy with the way it turned out. It debuts next week…keep an eye out for it!

And, because my brain is sort of shot by now, a Friday Meme to end the week:

My Muse
January 26, 2007

1. What inspires you?
Mmm... a good book, a movie, a run, a song, a shower, a dream. Yeah. I get inspiration from pretty much anywhere.

2. What blocks your creativity?
Too much on my plate at work. Darn that day job, anyway!

3. Do you do anything special to get your creative juices flowing?
Actually, not really. Usually discipline works the best: telling myself to sit down and write for X amount of time.

4. What time of day do you feel most inspired?
Well, if I had time, I'd write in the AM, since I'm a morning person. But (see day job above) since I can't drag myself out of bed before 5:30, that pretty much leaves any other time in the day to steal a few minutes and tell myself to feel inspired.

5. How do you like to express your creative energy?
Um...writing...of course. OK, I play the piano, too.

Happy Weekend!

To Market, To Market

I would rather have had
One breath of her hair,
One kiss from her mouth,
One touch of her hand,
Than eternity without it. One!

~ from the movie “City of Angels”

OK, be honest: how much of your writing time ends up devoted to other things?
And I don’t mean the time during the day when you’re working or cooking dinner or running errands or spending time with family.

I mean the time you set aside to sit down at your computer, determined to write the next 1000 words or whatever goal you’ve set for yourself that day…

And you end up surfing the Internet/blog-hopping/playing games/checking out fave sale sites/planning your next vacation/emailing your friends from college that you haven’t heard from in umpteen months??

I haven’t written anything new in 5 days. Not good. It’s not that I don’t want to; it’s just that I seem to squander all my time in front of the computer doing other things. I’ve decided it is not at all good to be perennially hooked to the Web. In fact, maybe that should be my solution: writing on my laptop instead, which isn’t wireless and doesn’t do much but word process.

In other news, I just ordered the book 1001 Ways to Market Your Books and can’t wait to start going through it and getting some ideas. It’s a little more than slightly intimidating to search “romance writers” online and see the hundreds--wait, make that thousands--of hits that come up. How on earth does anyone become close to a best-seller, with all the prolific authors out there?

Hump Day

“Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."
~ Franklin P. Jones

Does anyone remember when Wednesday used to be called "hump day"? Or maybe it still is, and I just haven't heard the term in a couple of decades. My mom always called it this, when I was a kid. (Am I dating myself??) But it feels like it fits today, like if I can just get up and over it, the weekend and some time to relax might actually be in sight from the other side.

I added a fun little poll on my sidebar, so make sure to check it out and vote for your favorite romantic movie! I know, there’s a finite number of choices listed there, so if your fave isn’t one of them, make sure you leave a comment and let me know what it is! One that I just recently saw and enjoyed (more than I thought I might) was The Lake House, with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. The time travel/futuristic element is a little hard to adjust to at first, but it’s a great story about finding your true love--and waiting for him or her--even with tremendous obstacles in the way.

On another note, I really can’t say enough about my positive experience working with the Editors at WOW on my article that’s coming out in their February issue. If you get a chance to interact with them in any way, whether it’s offering an article or entering a contest or just checking out their many writing links, definitely do so. Angela, the editor I worked with, is super kind and professional and 100% committed to putting together a really resourceful ezine.

Time to tackle some more revisions…

An Almost-Published Author

One advantage of marriage it seems to me is that when you fall out of love with him or he falls out of love with you it keeps you together until maybe you fall in again.
~ Judith Viorst


A rockin' good episode of Prison Break last night...that is, as one of my college friends used to say about "ER", the fastest hour on television. Great writing, great characters (especially Robert Knepper playing the uber-evil T-Bag), great twists and turns. Only thing missing was a reunion with Michael and Sarah (c'mon, it's the romantic in me--you know I want the love story too!).

Yesterday Marianne asked me how the life of an almost-published author was going. Here's the answer:

Weird.

First I have to get past that "almost-published" idea. I mean, I suppose in the back of my mind I always thought I'd like to be published someday (who wouldn't?!), but for it to be on the horizon, taking shape? That's a different animal altogether.

And because I am negotiating these weird waters for the first time, obviously every step is new. I'm waiting on the edits for Paradise (they're thinking late Feb. release) and to get my contract back from Samhain so that process can start going forward too.

Meanwhile, I haven't written anything new in 3 days. Amazing how even a little time away can get me out of the rhythm. So today I have to strap myself to the keyboard and WRITE!

Counting the Hours 'Til Prison Break

The hottest love has the coldest end.
~ Socrates

Ooh, I’m so excited: Prison Break is back on with a brand new episode tonight!!!!

Not only do I like watching yummy Wentworth Miller as the intelligent and incredibly sexy escaped felon Michael Scofield, but the show’s overall writing, and the character development of all these bad guys, is not to be missed.




C’mon, check it out if you’re not already a fan. You know you want to…

In other news, it looks as though my article “Character Trouble? Try Man’s Best Friend” will be in the WOW Freelancer’s Corner on February 1st. Mark your calendars, and I’ll keep you posted!

Falling in Love Again

“Savor each breath and each blessing. Remember the time you laughed so hard, jumped so high, held so tight. Remember the hour when you watched the scarlet sky fold to night. Remember the holy moment when you touched the tiny fingers of birth. Miracles are not to be asked for. They are to be witnessed, discovered, and praised, for they are happening, all the time.”
~Mike Levine

Last week I wrote about a novel I was pulling out to revise, another 24-hour novel that I thought had potential for Samhain.

And I was bored by it. The characters had no oomph, no flavor, and the plot fell flat. Ugh.

Guess what? I like it again. I re-outlined a major section and changed up the ending and a driving force of conflict. Then yesterday I spent a few hours writing like mad, and it was one of those times when the characters worked and the dialogue worked and I liked where it was heading.

It’s amazing how sometimes you can tweak things and fall in love with your writing and your story ideas all over again.

From Marianne's blog:
A meme from Booking Through Thursday:
Grab the book closest to you.
Open to page 123, look down to the 5th sentence.
Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
Include the title and the author's name.

Hmm...OK...

From Paradise, USA:
Ash was asking him something. Eddie fought back the fog of anger and tried to focus. “Sorry. What?”

Not too bad, I guess.

From One Night in Boston:
Maggie stood in the middle of the dance floor and fought for stillness she couldn’t find. This isn’t happening to me. It can’t be.

Decent (notice the repeated use of "fought." Hmm)

And from One Night in Memphis, the WIP I'm currently revising:
Resentment seeped into her brain. She hadn’t wanted this. She had avoided any connection with everyone here tonight.

A good exercise. Try it.

Happy weekend!

The Day The Words Went Away

“…we are part of one another--laughing, loving, losing each other in the endless universe of fire and ice and darkness and finding each other again, a union of souls and stardust. The wonder is not that we die, but that we ever were.”
~Mike Levine

Our community suffered a great loss over the weekend: the editor of our local paper died at the age of 54.

Too young!

He was a great champion of the community. He was the kind of guy you felt as though you knew personally. And he was a brilliant writer. Readers would clamor for his columns to be re-run, especially the one about giving thanks at the holidays & the one about watching children grow up as you say goodbye on the first day of school. It ran every September, the latter one.

He left, a few years ago, to take a bigger position at a NYC paper. Within 5 years, he had returned. He missed the small town feel, he said. And the community embraced him for it.

And the saddest thing for me, really, is that I'll never read another column by this witty wordmaster. Makes you realize how much the written word can get inside and affect people you never even meet in person.

Finding New Words

“Of course I hang on tight, she said. You can’t believe the kind of stuff that happens when you let go.”

Anyone watch American Idol last night? I watched the first 3 seasons devotedly, but the last 2 I sort of lost interest. It’s been interesting to watch talents like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood make it big, though, and you wonder how many other really talented singers there are who never get discovered.

Or how many really talented writers there are who never get published…

I was working on a new (well, a serious revision of an old) 24-hour novel yesterday and BAM! This idea for a completely new story leaped into my mind like it was about to take up residence for the long haul.

I brainstormed like crazy for about an hour and churned out an outline that I really like. The I reluctantly added it to the file of “Story Ideas” while I returned to the one I was actually working on to begin with.

Do you ever do that? Find yourself torn between ideas?

Side note: I’m reading The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards right now, quite an interesting story about a doctor who delivers his own twins (this is 1964) and when the daughter turns out to have Down’s Syndrome, sends her away with the nurse and tells his wife she died at birth. The nurse, rather than give the baby to an institution, leaves town and adopts her. And that’s as far as I’ve gotten.

I like the author’s writing, and I think the story and the characters have a lot of potential. The one thing that’s bugging me right now? Every other chapter, she refers to a baby’s (or even a small child’s) hands as “stars” or “starfish.” Well, yeah, it’s a good image, but it’s getting overdone.

Ever notice writers who do that? Use the same mannerisms or comparisons or phrases in the same book or from book to book? I haven’t decided if it’s an author’s mark, making it sort-of OK, or the inability (or lack of desire) to think up a new turn of phrase. Ah, well.

Conflict

"'Anyone can slay a dragon,' he told me, 'but try waking up every morning & loving the world all over again. That's what takes a real hero.'"

~Brian Andreas

Only time for a quick blog today, as I’m off to school after a 3-day weekend. The weather says the storm that hit the Midwest is heading this way, but it’s not here yet…

Conflict.

Why do I have such a hard time creating it in my writing? I noticed, over the weekend, that 3 of the novels I’m currently working on end up with the hero and heroine having their Black Moment in (or just about to enter) a hospital. As soon as I realized that, I changed the plot of one of them entirely. But why is that? Why do I equate conflict with pain and injury and possible death? I suppose that is one way of creating a desperate, tense climax. But it’s not very creative, I’m afraid.

I have another writing friend who falls back on a natural disaster--storm, tornado, flood--to create her Black Moment. The third novel she wrote with this M.O, she finally took a second look and realized she should use something else.

Do you find yourself relying on the same techniques to up the conflict in your writing? And if not, how do you avoid it?

Making a Difference

“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy…Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”
~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.






If you didn’t see Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (and I didn’t, but wanted to), you can go to this website and get a free DVD: SHARE THE TRUTH






I do believe we have an obligation to be careful consumers while we’re here on this earth, both of natural resources and material items and intangible ideals, and as much as possible strive to make it a place where our children will be cherished and safe in decades to come…

You've Experienced 88% of Life

You have an amazing amount of life experience. In fact, you've seen and done more than most people. So congratulate yourself on what you've done so far. The future is only going to be more of the same!

How Much Life Experience Do You Have?

Hmm...so I guess in 2007 I should work on experiencding the other 12%, whatever that is...

Got my contracts from Samhain Publishing this weekend, signed and popped them in the mail. Exciting!

Am currently working on a writing-craft article about using animals to show character development, and the editor at WOW-Women on Writing is interested on publishing it in their March issue. She’s been terrific at email correspondence, sending these very long and detailed letters about her thoughts & suggestions. My impression is that WOW is a brand new ezine trying hard to make it, and, from the looks of some of the author-agent-editor interviews they’ve had, and the level of activity with their contests and links and columns, they’re doing pretty well so far.

Today? I'm enjoying a day off from work and revising some old stuff to get it newly ready for submission in the coming months.

Oh! And I ran a 5K yesterday (that’s 3.1 miles…the .1 is very important) in 26:34, which is pretty good for an old lady like me, better than I had hoped for.

What about you? Doing anything interesting today?

Vote!

The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love.
~ Pearl Bailey

OK, go vote in the Preditors & Editors 2006 Reader’s Poll…

and make sure to cast one for Marianne’s short story (romance), “Now That We’ve Found You” and either Virtual Tales or Samhain Publishing in the E-book Publisher Category (I have to promote both my publishers here, so take your pick. Samhain is currently running 1st in the results, which makes me feel good…)

I finished Paradise! Really and truly, it’s finished. OK, well, it’s not entirely finished. But all 30 chapters are done, and only the last 15 have to be left to simmer for a few days until I go back over them one more time. I’m not entirely happy with the last line(s), so that needs a little work. But it’s about 55K words, which is longer than I anticipated.

So…here’s hoping that it will be available on Virtual Tales sometime soon…

Have a great weekend! Now go and vote!

Waiting...

“Men are like firemen. To men, sex is an emergency, and no matter what they‘re doing, they can be ready in two minutes. Women, on the other hand, are like fire. They’re very exciting, but the conditions have to be exactly right for it to occur.”
(from “Seinfeld”)

What do you do when your characters bore you?

I’m serious. I dug out an old story with thoughts of revamping and submitting to Samhain, another “One Night” story that’s about 55K words.

And I don’t really like it. I mean, the writing’s OK, but the characters sort of make me yawn and I don’t even feel like I care if they get together at the end.

Has that ever happened to you? And did you just trash the whole thing, or did you try to save something? I mean , I do have some ideas about improving the plot and the conflict, but still, the characters…

Any advice?

On other fronts, I am waiting. Waiting for my Virtual Tales cover art and waiting for my editor to finish the first half of Paradise. I know they have other work to do. I know my story isn’t the only one waiting to be put up for sale. But I want to be done with it! I want it to be up and published and ready for people to read it! Is that too much to ask?

I’m also waiting for the publisher from Samhain to get back to me about the contract questions I emailed last week. Now of course I’m worrying that by not just signing and returning the contract, I’ve somehow jinxed myself into losing the publication offer altogether. That doesn’t happen, does it?

I’m also waiting to hear back from WOW-Women on Writing, as I submitted a query for a writing craft article to their ezine. They liked the concept and wanted to see sample paragraphs, so that’s a plus. But now more waiting.

I’m not a good waiter, by the way.

Actually, I was an excellent waiter (or rather, waitress) back in graduate school, when I was supporting myself in the restaurant biz, but that’s a story for another time…

What Have They Done For You Lately?

To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.
~ Lao Tzu

Try this map game from Judy...

I got 84% right, 40 miles average error, 483 seconds. I drove cross-country one summer, which is probably the only reason I sort of remembered where all those Midwestern states are. But come on! They’re all square! Give me a break! (Sorry, Marianne…I know Colorado must have its own unique qualities, square or not)

So last night I was working on the final chapters of Paradise, USA (why are endings so hard for me? Are they hard for you?). My hero is in the hospital, on death’s door, and he’s supposed to be (according to my outline) thinking about how the heroine is giving him a reason to live.

Guess what he ended up doing?

No, not dying.

He ended up talking to his dead younger brother. I didn’t even know the brother was going to make an appearance in the novel! How weird. And yet it does make sense, because my hero has to move on from his brother’s death before he can really commit to falling in love again.

Why did my characters know that better than I did? Gosh, I hate when they do that. (OK, not really.)

What have your characters done for you lately?

Hard Work

"I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox."
~ Woody Allen

Your Hippie Chick Name Is:

Skye

Your Hippie Chick Name

Skye, huh? Actually, I kind of like this name. And I'm looking for a new name for one of my heroines. Hmm. I'll have to think it over.

There’s a great article in this month’s Romance Writers Report about setting goals. Shelia Rabe writes,

“We don’t reach a goal simply by wiggling our noses or clicking our heels together and chanting ‘There’s no place like the top.’ We reach that goal by mapping out a strategy for achieving it. Here’s where many of us writers fall down, because it’s often so much easier to talk about what we want to achieve than to go about the business and rolling up our sleeves, digging in, and working through the stages required to get there.”

Hard work. Wow. Who knew?

That reminds me of the people who, after the New Year arrives, start taking pills or going on crash diets to lose the extra 30 pounds that holiday cookies and eggnog chunked on. Newsflash: the only thing that works is exercise and cutting calories. Hard work. Discipline. Believe me, I know. But why are we so loath to commit ourselves to it? Is it because our society has turned into a place where you can have just about anything--microwavable food, $$ from the ATM, a downloaded song, answers to your kid’s research on koala bears, the weather report in China--in just a few minutes?

Anyone else think that we (and especially our children, raised in this amazing and sometimes frightening era of technology) are losing the ability to sustain effort over a long period of time? Have we forgotten how hard “work” really is--and how good it can feel when it pays off? Has the term become relative? Or does it not even matter, when everything is so easy to get?

Except a story. A well-developed, complex story with characters who are so real they make you cry and a plot that weaves together in just the right ways. I guess that’s why writers--published or not--deserve praise for committing themselves to a goal that at times seems unreachable. It’s work. Hard work.

What about you? Do you have a tough time committing to goals? Have you found a way to break down the big ones into smaller ones that you can manage? And what’s the last thing you accomplished that required really hard work? Better yet, how did you feel (and how did you reward yourself) when you came to the end and saw what you had done?

I Never Had to Do This Before...

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”~ Mother Teresa

How’s this for karma: four days after I received my offer from Samhain to publish One Night in Boston, the Wild Rose Press asked for the full ms. (I’d sent them a partial a few weeks back). This is on a story that, when sent to agents in the fall, had a handful of requests for a partial and no follow-up requests for a full.

I read somewhere, recently, that it’s tougher to find an agent than sell a manuscript. That may well be the case. I’m just hopeful that, after some e-publishing credits of my own, I might snag either an agent or a print publishing deal. You do have to consider that an agent automatically takes 15% of your profit, though, so you’d better hope they do a really good job of selling your work to the top publishing house out there.

Anyway, it was the first time I actually had to email anyone back to say the story they wanted had been contracted by another publisher. Weird. And sort of nice.

Coupled with temps in the 60s this weekend, it was a pleasant Saturday and Sunday!

Happy Weekend

“Love, like a river, will cut a new path
whenever it meets an obstacle.”
- Crystal Middlemas -

The winners of the WOW-Women on Writing’s Fall Flash Contest are up (in the fine print near the bottom is my honorable mention). It’s always interesting to see what different authors do with a prompt, the different directions they take.

What’s on tap for this weekend? Well, I’m probably going to cave and take down our Christmas decorations. We’re also working on refinishing a linen closet (when we moved into this house a year ago, none of the closets were finished. And the house was built in ‘88. How do you live in a house that long with unfinished closets?).

I’ll also try to (change that--I really would like to) get some writing done this weekend. Maybe finish Paradise? Ooh, that would be great. We’ll see.

What about you? Any plans for this first weekend of 2007?

Wading Through Contract Language

“Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.”
~Erica Jong

Imagine my excitement to print out the contract that Samhain Publishing sent for One Night in Boston.

Imagine that it lasted all of about 60 seconds, and you’ll be on the right track. Because yikes! It’s a lot to wade through. I feel lucky that I signed a really basic one for Virtual Tales, and also that I discovered a sample one at EPIC’s site. RWR also does a good job of printing articles every so often that deal with contracts.

Still, I’m not a lawyer. So after a couple of hours of reading through, and jotting down questions, I emailed the publisher back. Hey, they said I could request changes…

We’ll see what their response is. Really, I only asked them to specify a couple of things (as in, author is not responsible for paying for editor’s services…author is allowed to use publisher name and trademark for promotion purposes…author would like some terms of termination just in case…)

I’ll keep you posted. Boy, is this a learning experience!

Motivation vs. Discipline

“The most precious possession that ever comes to a man in this world is a woman's heart.”
~ by Josiah G. Holland ~


Easing back into the routine of school…mmm…why does it get harder each time? All I know is, 5:30 comes awfully early in the morning!

These next couple of weeks, I really need to finish up the final chapters of Paradise, USA. The thing with Virtual Tales is, they’ll accept partial manuscripts as long as you have a clear outline of where you’re headed. Nice on one hand, but on the other hand…boy, it lets you squeak by on a ½ or ¾ finished story for a few months.

Now, I know where I’m going with the story, and since it was an old manuscript, I even have old chapters I’m resurrecting. I have a detailed outline I sent them before it was accepted, which I think is pretty tight.

I just have to write the damn thing. I have 6 chapters to go, about 2000 words each, so 12K words isn’t really that bad. Sitting my butt in the chair and forcing myself to do it, when I have other ideas running through my heads about other stories I want to work on, however, is another thing altogether.

I had a friend in college who was a serious wrestler. One time, I was complaining about not wanting to go to the gym to work out. I told him, “I don’t have any motivation today.”

His answer: “You don’t need motivation. You just need discipline.”

Touché.

What about you? Ever have a really hard time buckling down and actually doing the writing? (Oh, come on. I know that’s a rhetorical question. Who hasn’t?)

Okay, but how do you motivate yourself--or rather, how do you discipline yourself into actually sitting and doing?

Rats With Islands

“Love is like pi -- natural, irrational, and very important.”
~ Lisa Hoffman

Here’s a good piece of advice from Jenny Crusie, stolen from Teach Me Tonight’s blog:

What's the worst that can happen? [...] at the end of your life you look back and say, "I had a dream and I fought for it, I believed in myself and my work, and I never, ever gave up.” That's a life well lived, folks, a helluva lot better than, “I had a dream but it wasn't realistic so I quit and watched television.” Do not let reality push you around, do not be sensible and kill your own dreams, and for the love of God do not let people who are only guessing about what's going to happen next tell you that you're a fool for believing in yourself and your stories.

And an interesting take on e-publishing, courtesy of Dee Tenorio:

Used to be that writers shunned ePubs because they wanted the big fish and found ePubbing detrimental to the goal. Now, though, we're all realizing that there's something to ePubbing that you can't find in endless contests and the speed of sand submission process: experience.

Want to find out what it is to be truly edited, complete with deadlines? Learn what it takes to make a book truly readable and complete instead of just hoping it is? Discover contracts and how they effect your career? Want feedback that matters in the bigger scheme of things---a buying public and reviewers? Creating a backlist and a readership before you sell to your first print only publisher? Figure out how to promote your work and take your career into your own hands instead of walking blindly into an ocean of questions? Even earn while you learn?

This is really what I hope to take away from my experiences with both Virtual Tales and Samhain Publishing. There is so much to know and learn about the business of writing, from giving wings to that very first idea to combing your way through contract language to choosing the perfect outfit for your Oprah appearance (*grin*).

E-publication may not have the glamour and prestige of print publication. It may be getting hard knocks from authors and agents and readers and writers alike. But you know what? If it’s one way for me to start swimming toward the island of my dreams, (complete with cabana boys, thank you very much), then I’m grateful for the opportunity.

Happy New Year!

“Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain.” ~Leo Buscaglia


A brand new year…exciting! And just to start it off really well, 2 great things happened to me in the final days of 2006:
#1. I got to meet, in person, one of my virtual writing friends, Marianne






It’s a funny thing, seeing/speaking/sitting down and having coffee with someone you’ve come to know online over the years. We met way back at WVU, and though we’ve both jumped to a couple of different writing groups along the way, we both write romance and, interestingly enough, are both at about the same point in our journey to publication, so we have a lot in common. Plus we’re both witty and charming (not to mention good-looking, right?) ha ha…

But it was really nice to talk to someone else who writes. To talk about character, and conflict, and the struggles of breaking into the market. To bemoan contest judges who give a 100 and a 62 to the same entry. To vent about trying to find the time to write and be a wife/mother/homemaker/professional too. That’s why writing groups are so great, right?

But there is definitely something nice about doing it in person, too. To think of yourself as a writer first. To admit, out loud, that yes, you do hope to publish in print someday. Once you’ve said it, it’s somehow more real. More scary. And more possible.


#2. My manuscript One Night in Boston was accepted by Samhain Publishing!!!!!!


I love this novel; I really do. It was my second attempt at writing a “24 hour novel” - a romance that takes place over the course of a single day and night. I thought the idea was interesting, thought it hadn’t been done before, and so plunged in…and found it a lot harder to manage that I first imagined.

But thanks to my wonderful friends at WVU, along with some painful but ultimately helpful feedback from agents like Susan Ginsburg (and her assistant Emily Saladino) at Writers House, I finished it.

Then no one wanted it. Agents liked the idea but not the story itself, apparently. I decided to try e-press. And lo and behold, I come back from vacation to find an email from Samhain’s editor saying they love it.

I like a couple of things, especially, about this e-publisher: first, it was started up by a former editor of Ellora’s Cave, so she knows the business and the genre; second, the novels they publish go to print after the first 2-3 months of release; third, what research I’ve done seems to indicate that their authors are really happy with them; and fourth, (I’ll admit it), they offer a modest advance of $100. And it’s not so much about the $$ as the fact that they believe you’ll sell enough to cover that, which is a nice vote of confidence in your work.

So today I’m actually celebrating by going shopping for myself, something that doesn’t happen too often. Then it’s back to the computer, for a few more precious hours of writing before school starts up again tomorrow.

What are your plans for this first day of a brand new year?

Time for Vacation...

“Falling in love consists merely in uncorking the imagination and bottling the common-sense.”
~ Helen Rowland

Since it’s winter break, and since hubby and I are both teachers (in the same school, with the same schedule - even better), we are off on a 3-day vacation today. And how’s this for karma: hubby picked the place, a bed & breakfast on a lake in New Hampshire, about a 5-hours’ drive away. I had no input on the decision (this is important)…

So guess where we’re staying? In a town v.v. close to (1) one of my dearest friends from graduate school, who I haven’t seen in about 10 years, and (2) one of my good online writing friends, Marianne. Go figure! I’m hoping to meet up with both of them and really can’t wait.

Looks like I’ll be absent from posting until 2007 (gulp), so here’s a big holiday wish that everyone has a safe and happy New Year’s Eve. See you on the other side!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

"Love is like playing the piano. First you must learn to play by the rules, then you must forget the rules and play from your heart."

~ Unknown

Top 3 favorite Christmas gifts this year (not including getting to sleep in past 6:30 am or see some relatives I hadn't in a while...):

1. Reuniting with a group of last year's students, who came back to visit at our annual school holiday party. They are an amazing group of girls, strong and smart and mature and insightful. Gives me hope for the future.

2. Some books (of course!) to add to my TBR pile: For One More Day, The Audacity of Hope, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, and The Tenth Circle .
(Note: if you enjoy animal stories, check out Unleashed, by Beth Quinn. She's a columnist for our local paper and every so often writes terrific, witty, heartfelt columns about her dogs. This is a collection - bought it for my MIL for Christmas.)

3. Finding out I won an Honorable Mention in the WOW-Women on Writing flash fiction contest I entered last month. Hard to believe someone in the writing world was still working and sending out emails on Dec. 23, but they were!

What about you? Favorite gifts? Tangible or intangible?

Merry Christmas!

Have a wonderful day, whether you are eating or drinking or celebrating or working or writing or dreaming or hoping or praying or parenting or singing or simply being thankful...

Christmas Break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
I don't care about presents
Underneath the Christmas tree
I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true ...
All I want for Christmas
Is you ...
~Mariah Carey

Last day of school for a whole week! Hooray! You know, I think when we were kids we never really understand that huge grin on our teachers’ faces as we raced out the door for winter recess/spring break/summer vacation. Boy, when you grow up you sure do!

I have no writing news to report, no ups or downs, just a plan to do some concentrated writing over break to shape up a couple of manuscripts I hope to send out anew in 2007.

Really, my goal is not to eat every single cookie or plate full of food that is put in front of me this holiday season…and to try and limit the eggnog and the red wine, as well. But it’s everywhere - have you noticed? I walked into my bank the other day to cash a check and they had a whole spread laid out: cookies, chocolates, coffee, cider.

Didn’t I read somewhere that people gain more weight between Thanksgiving and New Year’s than any other 6 week period?

Here’s to our writing gaining weight instead: our words getting plump and full, our plots swelling with juiciness, our characters bubbling over with flavor (and how’s that for a metaphor or two to start the weekend?).

Happy Holidays!

This and That

"The magi, as you know, were wise men - wonderfuly wise men who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents."
~O. Henry


Click Here to get this from pYzam.com!
I love the Christmas season; I really do. I think part of it may be because I have a December birthday as well, so it’s a festive season times two for me. Though I’ll admit that growing up, I always felt a little cheated when it came to presents. I mean, my parents were super about making sure my birthday (the 15th) and Christmas were two completely different and separate days of celebration. Still, I always envied the kids who got to have pool parties for their summer birthdays. Plus, they got gifts every 6 months or so. Me? All jammed together within 10 days.

However, the gift thing actually became an interesting barometer for the guys I dated when I got older. Anyone who tried to give me one gift to cover both birthday and Christmas wasn’t going to stick around long. I actually had one guy write “For Birthday/Christmas” on the tag. I mean, come on! Would he have tried to pull the same thing if I’d been born in March?

My future husband, however, knew instinctively that they were to be celebrated as two completely different occasions. I knew there was a reason I married him…

As a gift to myself this December, I picked up “Good Poems for Hard Times” edited by Garrison Keillor. Didn’t even know the book existed, but I was browsing in a local bookstore and stumbled across it. Keillor’s introduction itself is worth the $12 price tag. He talks about how poetry -- really, all writing -- should be accessible to everyone, not a mystery for academics in ivory towers to puzzle over.

And so the choices he’s made to include are varied and wonderful. Here’s one of my favorites:

“After Love” (by Maxine Kumin)

Afterward, the compromise.
Bodies resume their boundaries.
These legs, for instance, mine.
Your arms take you back in.
Spoons of our fingers, lips,
admit their ownership.
The bedding yawns, a door
blows aimlessly ajar
and overhead, a plane
singsongs coming down.
Nothing is changed, except
there was a moment when
the wolf, the mongering wolf
who stands outside the self
lay lightly down, and slept.

Judging the Golden Heart

"Love is a friendship with erotic moments."
~Antonio Gala

I signed up to be a judge for the RWA Golden Heart contest again this year (it’s the one for unpublished writers), and my 5 partial manuscripts arrived yesterday.

Last year, I was a little disillusioned with the whole process, because of the 5 I read, the one I scored lowest, by far, ended up being a finalist. I still have no idea how that might have happened. Anyway, I thought it would be good of me to participate, so I volunteered for another go-round. This time, I’m reading ms. in the category “Novel with Strong Romantic Elements.” Should be interesting, right?

I’ve just skimmed the opening pages, but it looks as though 3 are pretty mainstream, one is a paranormal (cool, esp. since I never read that genre…good for a change), and one is…ahem…borderline erotica. I question a little what “romantic elements“ actually means, but we'll see...

Anyone else ever judge writing contests? Thoughts on the good, the bad, and the ugly of the experience?

Exploring Possibilities

“Every writer has to figure out what works best - and often has to select and discard different tools before they find the one that fits.”
~Nora Roberts

In this month’s Romance Writers Report, a feature interview with Harlequin editor Beverly Sotolov discusses their new line, Harlequin Everlasting Love.

She writes: “The series is open to a wide range of plots and situations; each story requires a significant conflict that creates urgency, excitement, and momentum. Structurally, there are many more options--interesting and nonlinear ways of organizing the story--than the traditional series romance typically allows. The narrative can start at any point, can include diaries or letters, can move freely back and forth in time, etc…”

Seems like an interesting, if challenging, idea. I’ve never targeted a Harlequin line because I don’t think of my novels as category, per se. I’ve picked up a couple in the past and not been totally impressed (sorry). I just think single-titles have more power and complexity; they’re more interesting to read. For me, anyway.

But I might go back and take a look at one of my earlier works and see if it might fit this new Everlasting Love line. Always have to explore the possibilities, right?

6 shopping days 'til Christmas - yikes! Anyone have any cool stocking stuffer ideas?

The Holiday

I have found almost everything ever written about love to be true. Shakespeare said, "Journeys end in lovers meeting." What an extraordinary thought.
~from “The Holiday”

So I saw the movie “The Holiday” over the weekend (dragged my hubby with me because it was my birthday - the fact that he was one of 3 men in the theater didn’t really amuse him).

Very cute movie, not too terribly predictable, and of course since I’m a romance writer I was interested in how they created character and conflict and how believable it all was.

The story, if you haven’t seen the previews, is about two women who switch houses on a home exchange for 2 weeks: one in the English countryside and one in L.A. And of course, both have just broken up with their boyfriends, and both find love (or at least its potential) while they’re away from home. The thing I found hardest to accept was the fact that it all happens in 2 weeks - but of course that’s a nicely built in external conflict, and it’s Hollywood, so…

The best part of the movie, honestly, were the actors: Kate Winslet is matched up with Jack Black (sort of an odd pairing, but it seems to work), and Cameron Diaz is matched up with Jude Law. Now, say what you will about his real-life personal antics, but Jude Law is definitely easy on the eyes. I could look at him for well over 2 hours.

Actually, he has probably one of the more interesting characters to play in the movie. And the way Diaz (and the viewer) discovers the secret he’s hiding works well, I think.

It’s a cute movie, so if you’re looking for something light and entertaining this holiday season, you could definitely do worse.

TGIF

An archer, half-man and half-horse, symbolizes the ninth sign of the zodiac, Sagittarius. According to astrologers, Sagittarians, born between November 22 and December 21, enjoy versatile physical and intellectual powers. Associated with the element of fire, Sagittarians exhibit a burning enthusiasm that helps them reach their potentials...

I've always thought that was sort of a lot to live up to, but... anyway, yeah. I’m old today. ‘Nuff said.

Got one of those “really nice” rejections yesterday for One Night in Boston, a novel that I had been shopping to agents in the fall. I’ve put it away for the time being, seeing that it must need some work as a bunch of agents requested partials but then went no further.

Anyway, this one was from Michelle Wolfson, not a big name agent, so I wasn’t devastated. She did, however, take the time to make some very personal comments and questions about why the first 3 chapters didn’t hook her. I was grateful…though at the same time, one of her comments left me scratching my head. “Cut all scenes that don’t advance the plot” (then she gave an example). But the example she gave leads directly to the reader’s discovery of a really important characteristic of the heroine - that she can’t have children. So wouldn’t that be considered a scene, or knowledge, that advances the plot? Maybe she meant I should get that information across in another way.

Food for thought, at the very least. And she ended by inviting me to send any other works that I had. We’ll see. I have to figure out where I’m heading with my writing in 2007. Just not today.

Happy weekend!

Free Stuff

“Love cannot endure indifference. It needs to be wanted. Like a lamp, it needs to be fed out of the oil of another's heart, or its flame burns low.”
~ by Henry Ward Beecher ~

OK, so check out this Christmas link…it’s adorable (turn the volume on your computer WAYYYYYY up)!

I discovered Vista Print yesterday - quite a handy little site for authors (or anyone) trying to do some self-promotion while keeping one eye on the wallet (which is looking oh so empty these December days). Anyway, they offer free business cards - they print, and you pay the shipping. For 250 cards, it’s not a bad deal. They also have a few other freebies, as well as what looks like some other reasonably priced products and printing options.

Check it out!

The (Wo)Man Behind the Curtain

"And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so? "It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!" And he puzzled and puzzed, till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't thought of before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. "Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"

~Dr. Seuss

Watched “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” last night as I was wrapping gifts. I don’t think it’s possible to get tired of that holiday special. I mean, I’ve watched it about every year since I was a kid, and it still has the power to make me stop what I’m doing and stare at the television screen. And laugh. And sniffle a tear away.

But then the network followed it up with some kind of “how the movie was really made” TV commentary, which I promptly turned off because, really, that’s not where the magic is. I don’t want to know how the drawing went from 2-D, black-and-white to 3-D and animated. I don’t want to see the man behind the curtain. I just want to enjoy.

I guess that where the true talent lies, when it comes to authors as well, huh? The really good ones make us forget we are reading words on a page. They transport us to somewhere else entirely. They make us fall in love with characters and miss them when the story’s done. They rarely remind us of all the sweat that goes into the effort of making that experience so easy for the reader.

Darn it. I knew this stuff wasn’t easy…

That D*@!^$ Holiday Newsletter

“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.”
~Charles Schulz

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Each year, you really get into the spirit of Christmas. Which is much more important to you than nifty presents.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

Aww…

Anyone else do a holiday newsletter? I did one for the first time, last year, when I decided I just didn’t have time to write 50+ cards individually (and I guess for me, being a writer at heart means actually writing a few personal sentences on each card).

I love sending holiday cards, I really do. I think it’s mostly because I have so many friends from my college and graduate school days that live all over the place, and it’s one of the only times I get to say hi and find out what they’re up to.

So anyway, last year I did a newsletter…and got such rave reviews from my husband’s side of the family (pretty much all non-writers) that I thought I’d give it a go again in 2006.

Holiday letters are tricky, though, you know. You want to make them newsy and fun, but while you’re sharing all the high points of your year (because who really wants to hear about that mad dash to the Emergency Room with your nephew back in the summer, or the way the hot water heater burst in the middle of the night after you‘d just returned from the plane ride from hell?), you also want to try for a good dollop of humility.

So after much deliberation, I did decide to share my news about Virtual Tales picking up my novel. I figure most of my family and friends will be happy for me, and if any of them grumble behind my back that it's just shameless self-promotion, then too bad!

We’ll see. The newsletter is done, but the picture that’s supposed to go along with it, well…is still waiting to be picked up at Walmart. Hubby has 4 choices and then they MUST be printed and sent out by Friday. That’s my goal, anyway.

Well, maybe by Saturday. Friday’s my birthday, after all, and a girl’s gotta do a little celebrating, right?

Oh, the Holidays...

“People shop for a bathing suit with more care than they do a husband or wife. The rules are the same. Look for something you'll feel comfortable wearing. Allow for room to grow.”
~ Erma Bombeck

Had a lovely time over the weekend celebrating an early Christmas with my side of the family…although we drove into snow and suffered through 20-degree days the whole time we were there. Brrrrrr!!

I liked the post on yesterday’s Romancing the Blog, especially since today I looked at the things looming on my To Do list for the next two weeks and wonder writing is supposed to fit into it all!

Well, I have determined that I will attempt to do small tasks: finish up a book review I’m submitting to a writing ezine, draft one (very rough) chapter of my latest WIP, plan my writing goals for 2007 (nope, haven’t done that yet).

Some coffee to start off my Monday morning, and we’ll go from there…

Celebrating Early

“There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.”
~Bill McKibben

Well, hubby and I are off this weekend to an early Christmas getaway with my parents and sister/brother-in-law. We pick a B&B each year and do the holiday there a couple of weeks before the crush of the 24th and 25th. Then my parents trot off to Florida to do the snowbird thing for the next 5 months.

All I can say is…fireplace and whirlpool tub in the room we got this year. Yummy! And maybe when we return, I’ll be newly inspired to finesse that love scene I’ve been struggling to write this week (it shouldn’t be so difficult, should it?).

Have a great weekend!

Running Late

"Dancing is just a conversation between two people. Talk to me."
~from "Hope Floats"

Uh, oh...woke up late today, so no time for a regular blog this morning.

In the meantime, though, check out the Women-on-Writing ezine. Lots of helpful articles!

First Impressions

"Truth is, I gave my heart away along time ago, my whole heart, and I never really got it back."
~from the movie, "Sweet Home Alabama"

Gosh, I like this movie a lot too. Who isn’t completely charmed by Reese Witherspoon, anyway? (Oh…maybe Ryan Philippe…but that’s his loss)

Found an interesting writing exercise as I was blog-hopping yesterday: Julie Cohen’s first-page challenge. Try it and see how well your opening paragraphs hold up…

It was a good kick in the butt for me to look back through some of my own. I despise writing opening scenes anyway, find them incredibly difficult but of course they’re OH SO IMPORTANT in hooking the reader (who just might be your *fingers-crossed* editor or agent someday).

Yeah, I know. First impressions are everything, so no matter how challenging, we writers have to figure out how to create good ones.

But I also realized from doing this exercise that it’s really hard to write an opening scene well unless you know how your story’s going to end: how the characters all change and what is essential to reveal at the start (and what is best kept hidden).

Try it!

A Drop in the Bucket

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."
~from "Shaw Shank Redemption"

Fantastic movie, by the way. I watched it again a few months ago and was blown away by how much I speaks about the human condition and the power of belief.

Here’s something I noticed the other day, as I was skipping about the Internet: there are an awful lot of published romance writers out there. Really. If you Google “romance authors” you get umpteen sites and umpteen authors listed on those sites.

One time, at a conference, I listened to a speaker talk about how rare it was for aspiring writers to actually finish and submit a complete manuscript, so those of us who have should feel good about it. OK, maybe it’s somewhat uncommon. But rare? Not according to the stats out there.

I suppose it’s good that, right now, the market supports all those authors, but you gotta wonder: is there a point where it will become saturated? And do those of you who write (and if you're really lucky, publish) ever feel like a teeny tiny drop in the big ol' bucket of talent?

Writing the Awkward Stuff

“Ninety percent of true love is acute, ear-burning embarrassment.”
~ Terry Pratchett

My writing friend Marianne has her short story, "Now That We’ve Found You," up at the Wild Rose Press. Go check it out!

So…um…(clears throat here) yesterday I…(feels herself blushing) wrote the first sex scene for my hero and heroine in Paradise, USA.

Actually, it was the first sex scene I’ve ever written.

See, I usually focus more on the emotional relationships in my novels. I like the hesitance of first touches and the fire of first kisses. But when I submitted this novel, for the heck of it, I thought I’d conform to what people seem to like most about reading romance.

And that’s the sex, right? Well, and the falling-in-love part too, I suppose. But I know readers love the sex. Look how popular erotica is, right?

Anyway, this scene was a lot harder to write than I thought it would be. Part of me kept thinking, Oh God, my family and my friends are probably going to read this at some point and WHAT WILL THEY THINK OF ME???

Does anyone else ever worry about that?

I mean sure, I think the scene was needed, and after it’s been tweaked about a hundred times, it might actually come across as believable and crucial to advancing the plot. But in the meantime, I feel like I’m going to be hemming and hawing around the keyboard the next few days, trying to get the words right and trying to banish the inner editor who, strangely enough, sounds a lot like my mother and one of my aunts.

Hmm. Anyone else have difficulty - or advice - when it comes to writing explicit love scenes? And how explicit do you get, anyway?

December and It Feels Like Spring Outside!!

"The dedicated life is the life worth living.You must give with your whole heart"
~Anne Dillard

Not much on the writing front to report, because I haven't done any writing this week. Busy week at work, and busy afternoons and evenings at home, trying to get ready for the crazy December rush of holiday shopping and parties and sending out cards and...

But this weekend I have to get myself back on track. I have to! Which means working on the second half of Paradise USA so it can be sent to my editor, and also setting some 2007 goals for myself. Not sure what I'm planning on tackling in the New Year, writing-wise. I have a novel that needs revising and sending out (it went out once before and made it to a final read-through at New American Library before being rejected). And I also have a couple of new ideas simmering that need development, so I'm excited about those as well.

Mostly, I'm glad to still be excited about writing, esp. since I went through a low period a few months back. I suppose having a story accepted at Virtual Tales has made a big difference, with the idea that someone else values my work and thinks it has merit, though I hate being weak enough to admit that I need external praise.

Anyway, it's 60 degrees outside this morning, on this first day of December, which sort of makes it difficult to think about carols and Christmas lights, but I'll try! Have a great weekend~

A Moment at Work

“I want to tell you with my last breath that I have always loved you.”
~from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”

One of the nicest things happened to me yesterday, which has nothing much to do with writing…except it sort of does, in a really round-about way…

One class of my high school students discovered the library I keep in the corner of my classroom. (We’ll ignore the fact that they’ve been sitting in this classroom for 12 weeks now. They don’t ever notice something until they’re ready to.) Anyway, I have a crazy collection of books, mostly used PB but a few hardcover, that range from my own leftover college texts to classics to YA to best-sellers and really, anything I pick up at a library book sale or a used book store or the occasional splurge at Border’s.

Yesterday they had a few extra minutes at the end of class, and when one of them asked if they were “allowed to” borrow the books, and I said yes, half of them headed straight for the corner. Let me tell you, there are very few things more heart-warming to see than a group of teenagers huddled around a bookshelf talking about which ones they’ve read and which ones they want to.

At the end of class, about 10 books traveled out the door. Part of me doesn’t even care if I ever see them again.

Hooray! The love of reading and of appreciating good writing may not be entirely dead!

Holiday Recommendations

“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never ever the same.”
~Flavia Weedn


OK, who has movie or book recommendations for me? I’m looking forward to “The Holiday,” a cute-looking romance with Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black, and Jude Law (yummy…) coming out soon. Also “Charlotte’s Web,” though even the previews are making me teary just because although it’s a terrific story, the ending, well, you know…

I put on my Christmas list For One More Day (Mitch Albom), The Tenth Circle (Jodi Picoult), Lisey’s Story (Stephen King) and The Audacity of Hope (Barack Obama). Hmm, can you say an eclectic collection? Actually, I really don’t have a favorite genre when it comes to my taste in books.

Anyone else have anything they’re really looking forward to seeing or reading?

Prison Break

When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out.
~Elizabeth Bowen

Let me count how many ways I love this show.

I love the characters: complex, well-developed, mysterious, compelling.

I love the premise: bad boys break each other out of jail and make you cheer for them even though they’re felons.

I love the writing: clever and just twisted enough to keep you on the edge of your seat the entire 60 minutes.

I loved last night’s finale. What a shocker! The only bummer is that now I have to wait until January 22 for it to start up again…

I found an interesting article yesterday as I was browsing info about characterization. Now, I do agree with what the speaker said here about making male characters “real” enough, and I thought she had some great points about the ways in which men and women differ that ought to be clear in novels.

But here’s a question: do we need to read romance to remind ourselves that men "use less words” or that "men's humor tends to be cruder than women's"? Or do the vast majority of romance readers pick up a novel to fall in love with a hero who is different than Mr. Everyday? Isn’t part of writing romance to create a character who is both ruggedly masculine and in touch with his inner softie, one who can be authoritative and develop a thought that is outside the realm of SPORTS-SEX-WORK?

Do we write what we know, or what we dream of? Do we read to agree, or to escape? Or a little bit of both?

Happy Monday

“I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all. No…not the artful postures of love, not playful and poetical games of love for the amusement of an evening, but love…that overthrows life. Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture.”
~from ”Shakespeare in Love”

Just a quick note for this sleepy, hard-to-get-going, after-holiday Monday morning:

My bio and “Coming Soon” banner are up at Virtual Tales. Exciting!

Have a great day~

So Here's The Problem...

"When they asked me what I liked best, I'll say it was you."
~from "City of Angels"


I realized yesterday, as I was helping my sister prepare the big meal, what my one work, One Night in Boston, is missing (doesnt' inspiration strike at the oddest times?) It's the fact that my hero and heroine don't officially meet until almost half-way through the story. I gave them both a lot of conflict up to that point, as well as some flashbacks to remind them about each other...but they don't see each other face to face until chapter 10 of 24.

Hmm...that may be a problem.

I mean, I know there are other romances where the H/H don't meet right away, but then how much *real* romanctic tension is driving the story forward? I know my story doesn't have to be totally formulaic, esp. if I want to write mainstream rather than for a Harlequin category or something, but still. When I compared it to the other work I'm actively preparing for publication, the latter one is filled with sexual tension almost without my trying, because on every damn page the H/H are running into each other, from chapter 1.

So while the realization depressed me a little, because I like ONIB and think it has a decent storyline, I think at least if I go back and tackle another revision, I might have a good idea of what needs to be fixed.

Sigh. Oh, well. Live--and write--and learn.

Giving Thanks

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.”
-- Alice Walker

I have decided that if I ever write an article about character development, it will focus on using animals to develop character traits and storylines. My writing friend Marianne does it all the time. And when I needed an extra chapter in Paradise, USA, showing the developing friendship and attraction between my hero and heroine, I tossed in (well, not literally, of course. That would bring PETA running) a kitten. A very small, very pathetic kitten caught in a downpour. And guess what happened? It turned my hero into a mush--which my heroine liked--and it turned my heroine into an assistant in the rescue--which my hero liked.

And I mean, when you think about it, you can tell a lot about someone from how they treat animals. Right?

I’ll be away for Thanksgiving but back on Friday. Here’s wishing all of you a wonderful holiday to spend with family and friends--don’t forget to tell them how much they mean to you!

I am thankful, of course, for every single person who has supported me on my writing journey. That’s all of you out there!

Making Progress

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart. And try to love the questions themselves.”

~Rainer Maria Rilke

I love Rilke’s poetry, by the way. If you’ve never read any of it, you should.

Yesterday I got a response from another e-publisher who is interested in One Night in Boston. The editor of Samhain Publishing wrote, “I read your manuscript with great interest. You have an engaging voice and a knack for writing interesting characters. I was immediately curious about the story and look forward to reading more. If the complete manuscript is still available, I am interested in reading it. Though I am enthusiastic about the project, I am certain that you understand that this request does not guarantee that I will offer you a contract…”

Well, yeah. I’ve certainly been through that whole full-manuscript-request before, so…

Still, it's nice to get a full-ms. request. Samhain does seem to be one of the more reputable e-publishers, with quite a list of authors and genres; they also publish in print, though I’m not sure how they decide which ones they’ll do. Anyway, it’s a nice compliment and always good to explore options, so I’ll send that off later today.

Happy writing!

Thinking in Pictures

“The heart has reasons that reason does not understand.” ~ Jacques Benigne Bossuel


Yesterday I put together my suggestions for my cover for Paradise, USA and sent them to my editor at Virtual Tales. And I have to admit, it took longer than I thought it would. It was actually a challenge, because of course we writers have these ideas in our heads of what the setting of our stories look like, and we do our best to bring them to life over the course of a story.

But think about trying to convey the world and the mood and the key elements and the most important scene of a full-length novel in a couple of paragraphs. Tough!

My writing friend, Marianne, makes collages of her works, which I’m beginning to think is a really good idea, because then you have in front of you the physical makeup of your characters and your setting. Hmm. Maybe I’ll give that a try next time around.

In the meantime, I’ll confess that I really can’t wait to see what the artist comes up with for my cover. I’ll share it with you as soon as I see it!

Happy Friday

“It seems right now that all I‘ve ever done in my life is making my way here to you.”
~ from The Bridges of Madison County

Did anyone else enjoy this book (or the movie version, with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep)?

I’m going to break with what I think is majority opinion and confess that it didn’t really do anything for me. I mean, okay, I did appreciate the romance, because I’m a sucker for a love story, especially one that lasts a lifetime, but I don’t remember swooning over it the way some of my friends did.

Maybe it’s because I read it when I was in my early 20s and couldn’t really identify with a middle-aged hero and heroine. I also think something in the idea of a woman cheating on her husband, for some guy who just showed up on her doorstep one dusty afternoon, left me cold too.

Actually, now that I think about it, there was really little fallout about the fact that the story is centered on an extra-marital affair. Wonder what that says about readers’ concepts of love/romance/commitment…Hmm…

Anyway, I’m spending this weekend working on a final (hopefully, but who knows what that word really means, in the world of writing) revision of the first 15 chapters of Paradise, USA, which I’m going to have to send off to Virtual Tales soon. I’m also supposed to be thinking of ideas for my cover, which is exciting but a little unnerving too.

I suppose I should fit some time in to visit the grocery store as well, before everything that might appear on a Thanksgiving table is completely sold out.

See you Monday!

Self-Promotion

"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."
~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

As soon as I found this quote, I knew it was a no-brainer for today's blog. I started playing the piano when I was eight years old, and my greatest idol in the world of classical music has always been Mozart. His music is spell-binding, brilliant in its construction and purely pleasant to listen to…even more so when you discover that he wrote so much of it before the age of 25. Pure genius.

Well, as any published or aspiring author knows, promotion is the key to success. A few years ago, a writing friend of mine told me to start “getting my name out there.” I sort of said yes, yes, and then returned to my writing without worrying too much about it.

But here’s the thing I realized after awhile: really, it doesn’t matter how good a writer you are. Even if you manage to get yourself published, there are a thousand other writers out there who have also managed to get themselves published…and you’re all competing for readers and name recognition.

So how do you get it?

What do you think is the best way for an author to get his or her name in the public eye? What’s caught your attention, in the past? Reviews? TV spots? Oprah’s recommendation? A friend’s recommendation? Have you ever discovered a new author by browsing in the bookstore or the library or even online?

I know there are a few of you out there visiting for a quick read. Drop me a post and share your thoughts on this one!

Working Hard

“If I may so express it, I was steeped in Dora. I was not merely over head and ears in love with her, but I was saturated through and through. Enough love might have been wrung out of me, metaphorically speaking, to drown anybody in; and yet there would have remained enough within me, and all over me, to pervade my entire existence.”
(from David Copperfield)


‘Tis the holiday season (how many shopping days left?!), and Virtual Tales is offering a promotion for anyone who buys one of their gift certificates: a free serial copy of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (check out the link on the right). What a great timeless holiday story, right?

So I’m working hard on finishing up one WIP that was recently requested for full ms. review by Red Lily Press, an e-publisher that is opening up as of December. Since I didn’t have a lot of luck with agents (I have a few partials out for review but it’s been a while), I’ve decided to explore the world of e-publishing a little more closely. While I still admit to having this feeling that e-pubbing is not “real” publishing, I suppose if I want to see my work in print I should set aside my pride a little. I also like to think that building my writing resume is a good thing, and that can include some online credits, as long as I’m careful which avenues I look into. Just from the searching I’ve done so far, it looks as though there are many, many e-pubbing sites, some obviously more professional-looking than others.

So we’ll see. Meanwhile, check out that Dickens promotion! And hey, if you put a Virtual Tales gift certificate on your holiday list, it will come in handy when my novel Paradise, USA comes out sometime next year!

I Do?

“You told me it was a matter of life and death.”
“A woman always is.”
(“Ever After”)

Did you know that a man’s life expectancy actually goes up after he gets married…while a woman’s goes down? Makes you wonder what, exactly, each gives to and gets from the relationship, hmm?

I was in the store yesterday and heard the woman beside me talking about her husband who had just passed away. They’d been married 57 years. Wow! Some people, of course, see marriage to one person as a primary goal in life--not only a goal, but an achievement of tall order, considering the instant gratification and throw-away society in which we live. Others see it as an institution in which to raise a family. Still others see it as a trap, a mistake, a commitment that takes more than it gives, in the end.

How many people today do you think like to see a romance novel that ends with a marriage, or at least the promise of a marriage? How many just want to see the hero and heroine together at the end? Has marriage, as a convention, become passé in the genre? Is it the author’s job to sell a happy marriage, and all its benefits, to her reader? Or is a commitment in the here-and-now enough to satisfy most readers?

Well, in other news…I signed and mailed my contract with Virtual Tales today. Exciting! Now it’s back to one final read-through of the first 15 chapters before I start working with my editor. Looking forward to each new step…

Good Friends and Loving Faces

"And yet, all the same--life and human nature being what they are--with a new generation always coming up, the most satisfying thing of all really is to reach the end of the race with the same companions who were with you at the starting post." (Cicero)


Went back to my hometown and visited my oldest and dearest friend from grade school this weekend (she's on the right)...



Also spent some time working with the local animal rescue people, who have been trying to save 250 cats that were rescued from abhorrent living conditions back on Labor Day. The cats are now (finally, after a lawsuit in which the woman who had hoarded the cats was told that no, she did not have the right to get them all back) looking for good homes...so if you know (or if you are) anyone who lives anywhere close to central NY, consider finding a home for one of these cherubs. How can you resist this face? Check out their site if you're interested...

Happy Veterans' Day, and Happy Weekend

"Without affection and kindly feeling life can hold no joys."
(Cicero)

It's true.

I'm going out of town for the weekend to visit family and a dear friend from grade school that I haven't seen in a couple of years. Should be nice.

Then it's back to the computer, back to the thrilling and overwhelming experience of editing my newly accepted story and starting to work on marketing too.

Scary!

Have a good one - and make sure to thank a veteran today. So much sacrifice over the years, and many times we forget how much we benefit from it...

Overwhelmed

"Swoon. I'll catch you."
(from The English Patient)

Ah...I loved this movie, too, even though Ralph Fiennes does spend the majority of it wrapped up in bandages. Who wouldn't want to hear those words? Who wouldn't want to know that someone is standing right beside you, right behind you, with arms outstretched? I'll say it again: ah...

OK, having celebrated for 24 hours or so, after hearing that my story Paradise, USA, was accepted for online publication at Virtual Tales, I have officially moved into the overwhelmed stage.

Maybe this is due to the 5 emails I received today from the people at VT, diving right into the gritty details of contracts and editors and cover art and marketing and...

What's the famous saying? Be careful what you wish for? Because if publication is the goal, it really and truly does leave you less time for the actual writing part. Hmm...

Not that I'm complaining, but it's just interesting to see how much of a business it really is.

Good News

"I love that you get cold when it's seventy degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get that little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend a day with you I can still smell your perfume on my clothes, and I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night...I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
(from "When Harry Met Sally")

Ah...who doesn't swoon over the moment when Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan finally figure out they are meant to be together?? This remains one of my favorite movies; I'm not sure why. I know some of the lines are funny enough to make me laugh out loud, and I know I love the actors and actresses who star in it. Maybe it's just that it's so real. The characters don't fall in love at first sight. They even date (and marry) other people. But they finally discover that there is someone out there you are meant to be with, someone who is your friend and your lover and the perfect match for you despite all your flaws and despite all his. I love it.

In other news, I got word today from Virtual Tales that they are going to publish my short novel, Paradise USA (it's been through 2 or 3 other titles), in serial format.

Exciting!

So it's not print. And it's not exactly full-length ebook either. But hey, it's publication nonetheless, and at least a first step to getting my name out there.

So I guess I have some work to do...starting with that 8 page contract I now have to read!

Quotable Quotes

"I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary."
From "Variation on the Word Sleep" by Margaret Atwood


I love quotes. I really do. I love when an author just knocks me over with a combination of words that takes my breath away. So in honor of all the terrific quotes out there, especially the ones from romantic books and movies that make us as readers or viewers want to swoon, I'm going to feature some of my favorites over the next few days. Feel free to jump in, of course, and share some of yours.

Today's is one I first discovered when I was in college, and for a long time I thought it was the epitome of what I wanted love to be: silent and yet all-powerful and all-consuming. Breath-taking (maybe even literally) without saying a word. When I look at this quote today, though, I tend to see the one-sidedness of it. Like, why does the speaker need to be unnoticed? Isn't the best kind of love worthy and recognized in both partners?

Hmm...

Cheers to the First-time Sellers

It's that time agian, when Romance Writers Report comes out and I check to see who's made a first-time sale and how long it took them...

Oh goody, we have some real people this month!

Only one claims she's been "seriously pursuing publication" for 18 months, which is a blink in the book world. I mean, it takes that long for some people to query an agent, get a request for a partial, get a request for a full, and sign a contract. And she sold her first book in that same amount of time?

Only one who sold her first manuscript (Really? The very first one you ever wrote? Come on...that first one is usually written just so it can be buried in the bottom drawer or perhaps hold open a door at some point).

We have one who's been writing for 2 years, one for 5 years, and one for 7 years. OK, I'll give the latter two some props for perseverance.

Ah! My favorite of the bunch: a women who's been writing for 10 years and reports that her first sale "was one of 15 full-length manuscripts she completed before selling."

15?! Wow. Just imagine how much you could learn from creating that many plotlines, that many characters, that many love scenes, and that many black moments. Makes my 4 seem almost paltry.

Cheers to the first-time sellers!