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!