Writers' Wednesday: "New Adult"

I got caught up in the season premiere of LOST last night and didn't get a chance to write about this as thoroughly as I wanted to, but...

There's a new genre being tossed around by St. Martin's Press: New Adult. It's YA all grown up, apparently, with main characters college-age or a little older and a target audience of 20-28. One definition is this one: “New Adult is about young adulthood, when you are an adult but have not established your life as one (career, family, what-have-you).”

I haven't done a lot of reading on it, but here are a couple of links with more information. Will it become the next hot genre? Let me know what you think...

Guide to Literary Agents - Editor's Blog

Diana Peterfreund

Uncreated Conscience Blog: Postadolescent Fiction

Monday's Mentionables: Freebies and Contests

Here's some exciting news: as part of a Samhain Publishing promotional offer, One Night in Boston will be available as a FREE Kindle download from April 1 - 14th. Yes, that's right: if you have a Kindle, you can download my first contemporary romance novel ABSOUTELY FREE! Spread the word to your friends...and I'll be reminding you again before then!

And speaking of getting things for free, since it's February and the month for love, romance writers everywhere are offering contests and giveaways. Here are just a few:

Win a signed copy of the YA novel The Naughty List by entering your "secret agent name" on the host blog, here.

Red Sage authors are featuring an entire month of giveaways on their newly redesigned blog.

All Romance Ebooks is featuring several free reads - click here to discover a new author at no cost!

Suggest story ideas for a historical romance anthology It Happened One Season. Grand prize winner will receive a $1,000 American Express gift card and a signed copy of the book!

Finally, I'll be participating in the Brenda Novak Online Auction again this year. This is a terrific opportunity for readers, writers, and the general public to bid on a variety of items, with all proceeds going to benefit research for juvenile diabetes. I'll be donating a "One Night" basket, complete with my three autographed "One Night" books and some time-related goodies. More info to follow, so stay tuned!

Friday Fun Facts: This Day in History

"Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, 'Give me a challenge and I'll meet it with joy.' They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us..." ~from Ronald Reagan's speech after the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster

A big thanks to Charity, who not only recommended some YA authors for me the other day, but suggested I do some Googling of YA debut authors, to find out what's selling. Let me tell you - there's a lot of them out there! There was even an article in the latest Romance Writers' Report about what you should think about when considering whether or not to attempt YA. It's definitely the hot genre right now - whether or not I'll produce anything worthwhile in it remains to be seen :)

And, just because I think it's cool, here are some random notes about this day in history:

1595 - William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet is probably first performed.

1845 - Edgar Allen Poe's "Raven" 1st published (NYC)

1896 - Emile Grubbe is 1st dr to use radiation treatment for breast cancer

1916 - 1st bombings of Paris by German Zeppelins takes place

1919 - Secretary of state proclaims 18th amendment (prohibition)

1936 - 1st players elected to Baseball Hall of Fame-Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson & Walter Johnson

1951 - Liz Taylor's 1st divorce (Conrad Hilton Jr)

1958 - Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward wed

1966 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Peggy Fleming

1983 - 40th Golden Globes: Gandhi, ET & Tootsie win

1990 - Exxon Valdez capt Joseph Hazelwood goes on trial due to oil spill


Finally, yesterday in history, Jan 28, 1986, the Challenger space shuttle exploded during liftoff. That is one of those moments you remember exactly where you were when you heard, I think. I was a freshman in high school, standing in our guidance office, when an upperclassman walked in and said, "Hey, that teacher going into space just blew up." I'll never forget it.

Writer's Wednesday: Happy Birthday up to Heaven

"In the end, I think that I will like that we were sitting on the bed, talking & wondering where the time had gone." ~Brian Andreas

Today would have been my father's 68th birthday (he passed away last January). Hey, Dad, still miss you lots...........

Monday Mentionables: Researching the World of YA

"Those awful things are survivable, because we are as indestructable as we believe ourselves to be. ... We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail." ~from Looking for Alaska by John Green

Most of my regular readers know that I've been kicking around the idea of a YA (Young Adult) novel for the last few weeks. Well, I'm still inspired, still writing, and up around 27K words after this weekend. I like my characters, my plot seems to be going the way I thought it would, so I'm pleased so far. Still waiting for the axe to fall and things to start falling apart, though...

Speaking of YA, I'm trying to do some research and reading the most popular books & authors out there on the Young Adult shelves right now. I'm almost through Carolyn Mackler's The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (meh...I'm lukewarm about it...it's a little simplistic for teen readers, in my opinion) - next on the pile is Sarah Dessen's The Truth About Forever - then something by Ally Carter - and maybe The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I've already read Meg Cabot and of course Stephenie Meyer. For me, John Green (Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns) still stands out as brilliant in the genre, along with Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak, Wintergirls).

My question for you: have you read any of these authors? What did you think? Other strong YA writers you'd recommend?

Special Writers' Weekend: An Interview with John Le Beau!

Thanks for joining me today, for a look into John Le Beau's new novel, Collision of Evil. At the end of the interview, look for a chance to win a signed copy!

Hi John ~ thanks for being here today! Can you tell us a little about your background?

Most of my adult life was spent as an intelligence operations officer in the Clandestine Service of the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. In that capacity, I spent the better part of a quarter century in intelligence work, most of it outside of the United States. I had the distinct privilege to serve with an extraordinary group of people at CIA and to work in some fascinating parts of the world. Having retired from CIA a few years ago, I am currently very engaged in my new position as a professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch, Germany.

Once again, I have been fortunate to associate with another highly talented, very dedicated group of professionals dealing with transnational security issues for an international audience. The Marshall Center position allows me to travel to various locations around the world and to pursue the theme of terrorism studies, which is one of the major security issues of the 21st century. At the same time, I am honored to serve as the chairman of the Combating Terrorism Working Group, a component of the Partnership for Peace Consortium.

Wow, very interesting! Now, tell us about your latest writing project or published title.

My first novel, Collision of Evil, has recently been released by Oceanview. Although I have written non-fiction pieces on intelligence activity and terrorism, this is my first venture into the world of fiction. Collision of Evil is a thriller dealing with contemporary terrorism and intelligence operations, but is also meant to link with malevolent forces from the past. The book is set in several locations, but its anchor is in the Bavarian and Austrian Alps, an area that I am well familiar with – and where I currently live – and an area that I hope will appeal to readers as something a bit exotic and exciting.

The book revolves around the investigatory work of a German Kommissar of police, who is a detective, and a CIA case officer. They enjoy an uneasy relationship, coming from two different cultures. The American is sort of in-your-face and optimistic, his German counterpart considerably more reserved, a bit irritable and perhaps pessimistic. I would like to think that this underlying tension to their relationship adds a bit of drama to the story as well!

How do you balance writing with the rest of your life?

That is not always easy – and I expect that answer likely holds true for many writers. I have daytime and fulltime responsibilities aside from writing, which means that I have to carve out time to put pen to paper. I find that I do most of my writing on weekends, when I have some blocks of time at my disposal. Of course, I do write some evenings, but that can be a bit difficult after a long day, and I do want to spend time with family members and on recreation. So, if I am working on a text in the evening, it is often really some editing, re-reading or polishing language a bit. I find that if I have a couple of hours, I can write productively.

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?

Writer’s block, so-called, can affect non-fiction as well as fictional endeavors. It can and often does stem from two things. Either you have not adequately conceptualized where you want to go with the written word in terms of coherent structure (with non-fiction) or with plot (for fiction), or you just have a feeling that that mystical and expressive, creative dimension is temporarily absent.

Both of these developments do ‘block’ the ability to write. In my own case, I find it valuable to try to discipline myself to write, even if I feel that I am not in the optimal state for that. Sitting in front of the PC, or at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a pad of paper, sort of forces you to attend to the task at hand. I will often start by refining some prose I have previously put together and that seems to transition me often into more active new writing. It is important to know what you are about to convey – to have a fairly detailed sense of where the plot is going, what a chapter is supposed to contribute to the overall storyline. I find that I sometimes outline on paper where everything is going, and how various disparate story threads need to come together to form a satisfyingly entertaining, credible and cohesive whole.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

My position at the George C. Marshall Center keeps me very busy, with lectures, leading seminar discussions, arranging security-theme programs and the like. It also has entailed a notable amount of professional travel to areas such as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Turkey. My CIA career also required considerable international travel. So, during my free time, I am generally content to hang around in one location. We live in Garmisch, Germany and also have a residence in Austria, arguably some of the most naturally beautiful places in the world, and I am quite happy to spend time in those venues.

I love to walk and hike around and find that very rewarding. I cross-country ski in the winter as well,. We have a circle of friends, including Americans, Germans and Austrians, and I enjoy spending time in that social setting. I still like to learn, and, to be honest, I very much enjoy writing fiction; it is a real pleasure for me and rewarding in many ways. I am currently about half-way through the manuscript of a second novel and am anxious to bring it to closure. The Kommissar Waldbaer and case officer Hirter characters return, along with some new additions, some benign and some malevolent, and involve themselves in another international thriller plot. Some of this has a nautical setting, some of it takes place in Azerbaijan and Jordan, but the center of gravity is the Alps, giving Bavaria and the Austrian Tyrol their due.

John, thanks for a wonderful interview! Now, for readers, if you'd like a chance to win a signed copy of Collision Evil, simply go to John's book tour page HERE and enter your name, email, and PIN# 6772.

Entries from Allie's Musings will be accepted until 12:00 Noon (PT) tomorrow. No purchase is required to enter or to win. The winner (first name only) will be announced on his book tour page next week.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Fun Facts

NOTICE: Tomorrow I'll be featuring author John Le Beau on his book tour for his novel Collision of Evil. Here's the blurb to whet your appetite:

As evening falls against the majestic backdrop of the Bavarian Alps, Charles Hirter, an American tourist, is savagely murdered. In the peace, quiet and pastoral splendor of this magnificent setting, Charles Hirter draws his last breath. Was Charles simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Kommissar Franz Waldbaer, the German detective in charge of the case, faces an investigation that yields neither clues nor suspects nor motives. A gruff, go-it alone detective, Waldbaer is dismayed by the arrival of Robert Hirter, the victim's brother, who insists on joining the investigation. But there is more to Robert than meets the eye.

As Robert and the Kommissar uncover a nefarious nexus of evil past and evil present, they find themselves probing dark, long-forgotten episodes from the Third Reich in order to identify the present threat.

Thrust into a violent world of fanatic passions, malevolent intentions and excruciating urgency, Robert Hirter and Kommissar Waldbaer must race against the clock to stop a sophisticated, covert, and deadly plot.

Stop back tomorrow to read John's interview and enter for a chance to win an autographed copy of Collision of Evil!

***

My new favorite poet/author is Brian Andreas. Have you heard of him? His quotes have been bouncing around for a while now; I just didn't know who he was until recently. Here are some of the most well-known/well-liked:

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

"We lay there and looked up at the night sky and she told me about stars called blue squares and red swirls and I told her I'd never heard of them. Of course not, she said, the really important stuff they never tell you. You have to imagine it on your own."

"Are you a princess? I said & she said I'm much more than a princess, but you don't have a name for it yet here on earth. "

"In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, if we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand."

"A few said they'd be horses. Most said they'd be some sort of cat. My friend said she'd like to come back as a porcupine. I don't like crowds, she said. "

Writers' Wednesday: Changing Editors

"If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it." ~Mary Engelbreit

Quick update:

WC on Entwined, my "literary romance" that jumps between time periods and follows 2 love stories: 80K and finished! Now sitting for a few weeks until I go back for another revision.

WC on The Dance Club, my women's fiction novel based on the women in my Zumba class...which will probably not find a publishing house because the genre isn't selling right now: 16K.

WC on my untitled YA novel: 16K and moving along well. Funny how smoothly the writing is going. I suppose that's partly because I'm around teenagers ALL THE TIME. (Now watch me jinx myself!)

***

And in other news, I recently got the news that my editor is leaving Samhain Publishing :( She was the second editor I'd worked with there, and she edited both One Night in Napa and Summer's Song. She was tough and a stickler, and I'll miss her. I'm being reassigned to another editor, but at Samhain so much of what's published is super-hot/erotic romance, that I'm sure the Executive Editor is tearing her hair out and thinking, 'Hmm...where to put this Allie Boniface with the closed-door sex scenes??' Haha. Well, we'll see what happens. Nothing is ever certain but change!

Monday Mentionables: I Have a Dream

The biggest mentionable today, of course, is that it is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. And in honor of that, here's his famous speech, "I Have a Dream". I would like to think that he was looking down from heaven last election day, heart overflowing, at the fact that this country elected its first black president. Yes, we still have a ways to come. But I see and hear the way the next generation treats each other, and there is cause for much hope that in the next years, and in the next decades, we will come that much closer to bridging the distance between all of us:

Friday Fun Facts

"The brain that doesn't feed itself, eats itself." ~Gore Vidal

Fun Fact #1: Carina Press, the new digital imprint at Harlequin, is actively seeking submissions in a variety of genres. Angela James, who used to be Executive Editor at Samhain, is heading up things at Carina, so if you submit/are accepted, you'll be in good hands.

Fun Fact #2: Merpoint is a brand new e-publisher that's also currently seeking submissions. As with any new, start-up company, proceed wth caution if you're considering submitting there.

Fun Fact#3:William Paterson University (NJ) is holding its annual one-day writers' conference on April 17, 2010, and I highly recommend it. For only $50, you get breakfast, lunch, a keynote speech, and two valuable workshops (morning and afternoon). It's one of the most affordable and useful workshops I've attended.

Fun Fact #4: The first Super Bowl was played on this day in 1967. Green Bay beat Kansas, 35-10!

Happy weekend!

Writer's Wednesday: YA and Absolute Write

"The troubles of adolescence eventually all go away - it's just like a really long, bad cold." ~Dawn Ruelas

In case I haven't mentioned it before, Absolute Write is a terrific place for writers of all genres/abilities/etc to spend time, share stories, and get feedback. They have forums for everything from perfecting your query letter to asking questions about agents and venting about your latest rejection.

Since I've been toying with the idea of writing Young Adult, I've been spending a fair amount of time lurking over there lately, reading other people's excerpts and experiences with the genre.

And speaking of that, here's a little taste from some freewriting I did the other, opening pages. I discovered (or remembered) that I really like writing in first person:

"OK, here’s the thing: I understand why my parents pulled us up by the roots. Why they moved me and Paul from the only place we’ve ever lived, the only home we’ve ever slept in, and trekked us in two U-Haul vans four hours away, to a town in the middle of Nowheresville, New York. I’m sixteen, not stupid. They can sing us their excuses until they’re blue in the face. They can tell us stories with painted-on grins that they think we can’t see through. They can explain that Dad wanted to return to the place where he grew up, and that Mom wanted to give up her crazy whirlwind of a job (the job, which, by the way, gave her a company car, trips to Europe twice a year, and enough money that Paul and I both already have four years of college paid for) and trade it for a teaching position in – what did she call it? – “a quaint small town where everyone still knows their neighbors.”

Terrific. I knew my neighbors back in Pound Ridge. I liked my neighbors. And if every town in Westchester County, with its rolling hills and old brick homes and Main Streets lit by white lights all year round, isn’t quaint, I don’t know what is. But that doesn’t matter now. None of it does, when you become That Family, the one in the neighborhood that the devil takes by the throat and turns black with the evil that seeps under all the doors, no matter how much you try to keep it away. When you become That Family, your parents move you as quickly and quietly as possible, which brings us back to why I am sitting in an empty room staring at walls painted an awful green color and wondering how my life got to this point..."

Monday Mentionables: The 2010 Promo Push

"Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days." ~Zig Ziglar

I'll admit it: I haven't done much in the way of book promotion in the last few months - well, since school begin, really. And promotion is a big part of the lifeblood of an author's success. You'll hear it in many, many places, and it's true: be prepared to do A LOT of your own promotion and marketing when you sign that publishing contract.

Now that the new year has started up in full swing, I'm trying to plan my promotion, especially since I have 2 books coming out in print and 2 coming out in audio book. Whew! Yes, of course I'm happy about all that, but it's a lot to juggle in my head.

What kinds of promotion will I do? Well, I've just ordered a slew of new bookmarks and oversized postcards for excerpt booklets, from Vista Print. I actually just got an email from a bookstore in Ohio asking me for some more booklets (I had sent them some about a year ago). I've taken out some cover ads on a couple of well-known romance reader websites and booked a few blog/author interview spots for around the time of each release.

I'll also send out press releases closer to each release date, and I'm starting to set up a few signings for the year as well. Oops! Guess that means I should update "Allie's Appearances" on my sidebar :) I'll be at the Yonkers Barnes and Noble on February 7 with some other local romance authors, and the woman who coordinates the book club in my hometown, where I've spoken the last 2 summers, just emailed to see if I'd be coming back again this year. Of course!

So...slowly but surely I am trying to get a handle on this promo thing! Now, it's off to work...

If you're an author, what kinds of promotion do you find works the best for you?

Friday Fun Facts: Tackling YA?

"Adolescence: A stage between infancy and adultery." ~Ambrose Bierce

I picked up a couple of YA novels yesterday (The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things The Truth About Forever, Paper Towns), and I have a bunch more on my list. Why? Well, I teach high school students, and I like to keep up with what they're reading. But I also (gulp) am toying with the idea of writing a YA novel. I know, I'm probably out of my mind to tackle a brand new genre. But here's the thing: I listen and talk to teens every day, 180 days of the year. I hear their voices in my head even when I'm not at school. I know the things that stir them up, I know what they do behind their parents' backs, I know what they're scared of and what they strive for.

All this, of course, doesn't necessarily qualify me to write a YA novel. However, it's a hot and growing market, and there's a local writers' conference here in April that has a YA focus this year, and I have the germ of an idea...so yes, I might just dip my toes into the water. Plus, a full-length novel only has to be 50K words minimum not the blasted 90K of an adult novel!

What do you think?

Writers' Wednesday: Three Book Reviews

I had a chance, over the long holiday break, to get through 3 books on my TBR pile. Here are my thoughts on each one:

A Summer Affair - Claire Danner Crispin, a harried housewife with 4 young children, finds herself the chair of Nantucket's summer gala, a huge fund-raising affair that requires her to rub elbows with both her modest neighbors and the elite New Yorkers who vacation there. Suddenly, she finds herself having an affair with her co-chair, questioning her devotion to being a stay-at-home mom, and longing for the innocence of her adolescence and first love (who just happens to now be a famous rock star who agrees to come and play as the headlining act at the gala). Elin Hliderbrand has an easy writing style, and it was enjoyable to get caught up in this sopa opera-type women's fiction novel. I wasn't conpletely in love with the heroine, and I thought she got out of the sticky immorality of her affair a little too easily at the end, but A Summer Affair is still an engaging book with a slew of fascinating, believable characters. I'll probably look for other books by this author.

In a Perfect World - My mom gave me this book for my birthday last month, with the warning that "It's a little weird..." I tend to agree. The story revolves around Jiselle, a former flight attendant who marries a dashing pilot and becomes stepmom to his 3 kids. The Phoenix flu is sweeping the nation, though, killing celebrities and average citizens alike, and it's only a matter of time before the herione is left alone to raise the children and deal with a changing society in the face of a terrifying plague. The most interesting thing about this book, for me, was the fact that it was so realistic, that I believed today's world could be felled by a pandemic like the fictional "Phoenix flu" before we know it. The author, Laura Kasischke, did a lot of research on the Black Plague, and it shows.

Living Dead in Dallas - This is the second book in the Sookie Stackhouse series (the TV show True Blood is based on it), and while it wasn't quite as engaging as the first, I still enjoyed it. Mostly, I love the voice of the main character, a blue-collar barmaid who can read people's minds and who's in love with a vampire. In this book, Sookie is called to Dallas to find a missing vampire, and of course she's kidnapped and almost loses her love and her friends in the process. I'm not a vampire-genre fan, but the humore and the local color in these books really pulls me in. And the main character's voice. Did I mention her voice?

Right now I'm working my way through Club Dead, the next book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, and I just borrowed Nightlight from a student. It's a Harvard Lampoon parody of Twilight, and I'm loving it so far (since I wasn't a huge fan of Twilight to begin with). Here's the back copy, just to give you a taste:

About three things I was absolutely certain. First, Edwart was most likely my soul mate, maybe. Second, there was a vampire part of him–which I assumed was wildly out of his control–that wanted me dead. And third, I unconditionally, irrevocably, impenetrably, heterogeneously, gynecologically, and disreputably wished he had kissed me. And thus Belle Goose falls in love with the mysterious and sparkly Edwart Mullen in the Harvard Lampoon’s hilarious send-up of Twilight. Pale and klutzy, Belle arrives in Switchblade, Oregon looking for adventure, or at least an undead classmate. She soon discovers Edwart, a super-hot computer nerd with zero interest in girls. After witnessing a number of strange events–Edwart leaves his tater tots untouched at lunch! Edwart saves her from a flying snowball!–Belle has a dramatic revelation: Edwart is a vampire. But how can she convince Edwart to bite her and transform her into his eternal bride, especially when he seems to find girls so repulsive?Complete with romance, danger, insufficient parental guardianship, creepy stalker-like behavior, and a vampire prom, Nightlight is the uproarious tale of a vampire-obsessed girl, looking for love in all the wrong places.

Have you read anything good lately?

Happy New Year!

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." ~Marianne Williamson

Yes, I'm back! I know, I know, I took off last week entirely from blogging and I didn't even tell you ahead of time. Sorry. But I hope you had an enjoyable and restful holiday season, wherever and however you spent it.

Now here we are in a brand new year, 2010 (and have you heard about the minor controversy regarding how we're supposed to pronounce it? "Twenty-ten" NOT "Two thousand-ten" according to the National Association of Good Grammar, which coincidentally or not is abbreviated NAGG...hmm...). With the new year come articles everywhere you look about how to improve your life, how to make resolutions and keep them, what resolutions you're supposed to make in the first place, and on and on and on....

But I stopped making New Year's resolutions a few years back, when I realized that, honestly, just the fact that the calendar reads January 1 doesn't mean it's a better (or worse) day to begin a new chapter in my life. In fact, looking back on 2009, which was the most tumultuous year for me in a very long time, I felt even more certain about my belief that new chapters in one's life often happen when you least expect them. For me, in 2010, I'd like to continue to live in a way that makes me happy, passionate and challenged, while giving back to the world and the people around me the best ways I know how. FYI, today's quote is one of my favorites, and I'm going to do my best to remember it this year.

I'm going to continue to blog 3 days a week, and my goal is still for Monday's Mentionables to be updates on what's going on in my life and writing; Writers' Wednesday to be either author interviews or information useful/helpful to writers; and Friday's Fun Facts to simply be a day to share interesting facts about whatever's on my mind.

I hope you'll stick around with me in 2010; I have 2 print releases coming out (One Night in Napa and Summer's Song), along with 2 audio book releases (One Night in Memphis and Lost in Paradise), and fingers crossed that I will finish at least one other book and sign a contract for it as well.

In the meantime, I have 2 books up for Preditors' and Editors' "2009 Best of..." Poll: One Night in Napa and Summer's Song. If you have a chance, would you stop by and vote? Thanks! ~ and that's my only mentionable of the day. See you Wednesday!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a blessed and joyous Christmas ~ I hope all your dreams come true!

Santa and His Singing Reindeer

Here it is, a Christmas favorite. Enjoy!!

Monday Mentionables

"Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life." ~Mark Twain

Mentionable #1: It's the first day of my winter break! This is actually quite unusual, to have 2 full weeks off from school. Usually we teach until the 22nd or 23rd, at least. But we started soooo early this year (before Labor Day), that I guess we're enjoying the trade-off now. Of course, I have a list of things I want to accomplish over the break, including a fair amount of writing. We'll see how that goes. We'll be heading to Florida after Christmas; maybe the warm(er) weather will inspire me!

Mentionable #2: We escaped the worst of the winter storm over the weekend, thankfully, since we threw a big holiday party Saturday night. We watched the weather report in anticipation, but the storm hit south of us, and we really only ended up with a couple inches of snow after it was all over with. Thank goodness.

Mentionable #3: I really hope to be able to spend some time reading over this break, since I've already gotten a few books for my birthday (last week) and early Christmas. On my bedstand right now: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Comeback, A Summer Affair, In a Perfect World, The Mysterious Benedict Society, Socrates in Love.

Have you read any of them?

Friday Fun: An Excerpt from The Dance Club

OK, here it is as promised: an unedited excerpt from The Dance Club, the as-yet non-planned-for-publication book based on my adventures at the gym with my girlfriends. Part chick lit, part women's fiction, part nonfiction, all fun to write so far.

Lola leaned over and read aloud. “New dance class starting January tenth. Lose weight and have fun while learning all the hottest Latin steps.” She smiled. “C'mon. let’s try it. We don’t have anything to lose.”

Roxy sighed. “Girls, I’m a friggin’ trainwreck when it comes to dancing. Or anything that requires rhythm and counting. I think I’m gonna skip this one.”

Zoe waved the slip of paper in front of her friend’s face. “C’mon! You’re gonna pass up a chance to spend an hour looking at a hot piece of South American ass? No way. I know you better than that. We all do.”

Roxy frowned. “You think he has an accent? Like one of those really sexy ones where you can’t really understand what he’s saying but it all sounds good anyway?”

Soleil rejoined them and set down her coffee. “He does. I heard him talking to some little redhead in the lobby when I was picking up the flyers.”

“Is it sexy?” Roxy asked. “I mean, really, like, to-die-for sexy?”

Soleil blew on her coffee and smiled. “There’s only one way to find out, right? First class meets next Monday night. What d’ya say?”

###

“Check out the blonde in the front,” Roxy whispered. “What is she, six feet tall? She looks like a giraffe.”

Lola laughed out loud and then slapped a hand over her mouth. “You’re awful.”

“I’m just making an observation.” Roxy turned in a slow circle and surveyed the rest of the room. “And what’s up with the geriatric group in the corner? Damn, I thought I was old.”

“You aren’t old,” Soleil said. “You aren’t even close.” She adjusted her t-shirt and stared woefully at her chest. “I’m having these done the summer I turn forty. I told you all that, right?”

“You’re crazy,” Lola said. “I’ll get a facelift before I’ll get a boob job any day.”

“That’s because you already have boobs.” The voice came from behind them, and all three turned as Zoe skipped into the room.

“I hate you,” Roxy said.

“Why?”

“Look at you.” Lola poked her friend in the ribs. “There’s nothing to you. You’re beautiful. Perfect. You don’t need to lose weight.”

“I need to tone up. Plus I want to see this hot dance instructor.” Zoe glanced around. “Where is he?”

The stocky Chinese woman standing beside them shrugged. A pair of brunettes in matching pink sweatsuits, hoop earrings, and full makeup craned their necks in the direction of the door. A balding man dressed in fatigues and another thirty-something woman with a belly hanging out over too-tight sweatpants made up the rest of the crowd.

“Huh.” Soleil looked around. “Kind of a motley crew, aren’t we?”

“Well, it’s only the first night. And the place has only been open a few weeks. But you were right. It’s nice.” Roxy waved a hand at the polished floorboards and the mirrors that covered three of the four walls. “I’m loving the juice bar in the lobby, too. Think they’d slip a little vodka into one of those smoothies if I paid extra?”

Writers' Wednesday: What Am I Working On?

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." ~Scott Adams

I only have time for a quick post today, but I thought I'd share my 2 current projects (of course, they haven't gotten a lot of attention in the last couple of weeks since it's finals week for the College English classes I teach, which means piles of research papers and in-class essays everywhere calling my name). But beyond the final grade submission deadline, I have 2 glorious weeks of holiday break, and I'm hoping to make some headway on...

Entwined, my literary romance which right now is about 75K words long and really, really needs to be wrapped up and just finished already. It's been just about a year that I've been working on it, and while the end is in sight, I also know it needs some serious revision work beyond that end. Still, I really want to finish the last 10 chapters and then just let it sit for a month or so. Then I can move on to...

The Dance Club, a silly something I started a couple of weeks ago that is based solely on my experiences with my girlfriends at our Zumba class. There are about 5 of us who've become quite close, and they keep asking me to write a book with their/our stories, so I sat down, sketched out some ideas, and started writing. I don't know that I will even try to publish it - it will probably resemble chick lit (which is dead in the publishing world) or maybe women's fiction (which still has a chance). Either way, it's just for them, and I'm having fun at this point, only 5K words in. Friday I'll post an excerpt...until then, have a great week!