TGIF

Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
~Mark Twain

Boy, am I glad to see Friday! It’s been an incredibly busy week, mostly because I took Monday off for traveling and thus came back to a desk piled high with work…

I’m headed to my local RWA chapter meeting this weekend, which will make for good discussion as always, and possibly a home and garden show as well (hubby wants to go…somehow with a foot of snow still on the ground it’s hard to think about that!).

Oh, and did I mention that I joined Absolute Write last week? They have great forums with some terrific members who actively post on a regular basis. It’s easy to spend an awful lot of time there ~ but do check it out if you have the chance.

I also registered my blog with Google Analytics, which tracks my site traffic. It’s interesting to see how often and from where people are stopping by, how long they’re spending, which pages they’re visiting, etc. And again, it’s too easy to spend more time than I should studying my stats instead of writing.

Writing. Oh yeah. I should do some of that this weekend, too. One Night in Memphis is about 1/3 done and needs some attention. And I’ll probably be working on promotional stuff as well.

Okay, I’m off...be back on Monday!

Happy Weekend!!

The Day After the Debut

"Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say. "
~Sharon O'Brien

By all accounts, yesterday’s Writers’ Wednesday debut was a hit, so I will definitely be continuing it in the future. Thanks to all for the content ideas, too! And remember: if you’d like to write a post as a guest blogger, I’d love to have you! Just leave me a comment here, or email me through my website (there’s a link over there, on the sidebar). Don’t be shy: you have more expertise than you might think!

Good news from The Wild Rose Press: they’ve read my partial of Lost in Paradise and requested the full manuscript. So that’s exciting. Still, no matter how many times I’ve sent out fulls, it remains more than a little nerve-wracking to send your baby out into the big bad publishing world for a stranger to review.

Cross your fingers for me, and I’ll keep you posted!

Welcome to Writers' Wednesdays!!

Welcome to the debut of Writers’ Wednesdays!

Each Wednesday, on my blog, I’ll be posting a brief article (and I mean brief: 300-600 words) on a “How To” aspect of the writing (and publishing) process. I’ve discovered, through much trial and error over the last few years, that I’ve gained a lot of experience that other writers might find valuable before they struggle through it themselves.

If you have a topic you’d like to see addressed in one of the “How To” blogs, let me know! Or even better, if you’d like to write one of the Writers’ Wednesday posts, contact me to be a guest blogger. Spread the word to your friends and fellow writers, too.

Without further ado, here’s Writers' Wednesdays #1: How To Write a Novel

Visit any library or search engine, and you’ll turn up hundreds (maybe even thousands) of resources that will give your advice on how to write a novel. Some of my favorites include Stephen King’s On Writing and Bob Mayer’s The Novel Writer’s Toolkit.

Definitely do your research; there's no substitute for solid advice from published pros. But to give you an idea of what's involved, before you read an entire book (or bookshelf) of guides, here in mini version are my top 5 tips for beginning a novel and working your way through from start to finish. Stay tuned for additional Writers’ Wednesdays blogs on all the details…

1. Devise your storyline. In one sentence, state what your story will be about. (This is also called a logline – a general statement that summarizes your entire story.)
Examples:
An alliance of cowardly deer hunters searches for treasure in a dungeon.
Or
The bohemian nephew of a timid politician’s ex-wife has only 1 hour to live.
Note: This sentence should excite you; it should be the one thing that will remind you why you loved the idea, when get frustrated halfway through the novel.

2. Brainstorm the details. Who are your main characters? What is their conflict? What are they searching for in the story, and how will they be different at the end than they were in the beginning? What are their names? Where is the story set? A fictional or factual location? What is the black moment in the story, and how does the story end? Some people like to outline all of this. Some write from scene to scene. You need to figure out what works for you, in putting all these pieces together. But you do need these pieces.

3. Set a schedule and workable goals. This is the most critical piece. Set a deadline for yourself. Really. Too many people start out strong and then lose steam as the weeks and months go by. Pull out a calendar and decide, realistically, how many words you can write in a day. Not sure? Start with 500 and go from there. How many days can you write in a week? Total up your days in a month, allowing a little bit of time for the unforeseen, and set a goal for yourself every month (I will have 5000 words written, or I will have finished three chapters).

4. Write everyday. Taking into account the demands of your daily life, commit yourself to writing X amount of days each week. Then do it. Don’t make excuses. Don’t find something else to do. Don’t say you’re too tired. Sit down at the keyboard (or the pad or paper, or the microphone), and compose. It’s too easy to lose focus when you take time off.

5. Reward yourself. Writing is hard work! Give yourself some incentive when you reach a milestone: that first 2000 words, or the halfway point, or the end (definitely the end!). Chocolate is good. Or a shopping spree. Or a Starbucks nonfat latte. Or a bubble bath. Or...you get the idea.

There’s more, of course, but this will get you started. You can write a complete novel, if you really want to. You can!

Scenes from the Beach

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach; one can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few."
~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

A view of the Florida Gulf Coast shoreline:

and my mom and I on the beach:

(It was pretty cool and windy, but still warmer than NY, that's for sure!!)

My Sunday-Monday Blog

"My parents didn't want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty, and that's the law."

~Jerry Seinfeld

OK, those of you who visit on a regular basis know that I usually take the weekends off from posting.

But today I had to write, because tomorrow I probably won't, because...

Guess why?

Guess where I'm sitting right now?

In sunny Florida, about 60 miles south of Tampa and 5 miles from the Gulf Coast.

Seriously.

I took the weekend to visit my parents, who are newly retired and wintering down here, and I'm flying back tomorrow morning. (I really, really, do not enjoy flying, but I haven't figured out any other way to cover 1000 miles in less than 3 hours.)

It's been a wonderful respite from the cold and gray that is New York winters, and I know how lucky I am to be able to hop on a plane and leave that behind for 3 days.

So here's an interesting question for you: if you could go anywhere in the world, for just 3 days, where would you go, and why??

Writers' Groups

Why I love writers’ groups:

1. They understand the meaning of query, synopsis, partial, black moment, hero’s journey, POV, H/H, WIP, and RWA.

2. They are brutally honest about why the scene in the middle of your story absolutely, 100%, does not have to be there. And they will pick you up when you’re finished mourning after deleting it.

3. They will bend over backwards to help you research a city/celebrity/disease/time period for your latest WIP.

4. They will meet you at Border’s on a Thursday evening and willingly give you feedback on your latest chapter even though it’s 6:00 and they could be at home sitting down to dinner or having a big ol’ glass of wine with their feet up.

5. They will celebrate with you at every milestone on your writing journey.

What do you appreciate most about your writing group/critique partners?

For Your Reading Pleasure...

"March, master of winds, bright minstrel and marshal of storms that enkindle the season they smite."
~Algernon C. Swinburne

Congratulations to the winner of my February Giveaway: Cynthia Borris!

Hope you’re all enjoying this first day of March (is it here already??)

For a little something different, I thought I’d post an excerpt from my WIP Lost in Paradise, which is in its umpteenth revision since being pulled from Virtual Tales. It’s also being read as a partial right now by The Wild Rose Press, so fingers crossed.

Here, the hero and heroine reunite after a fight…

“Ash?”
She’d almost made it to the stairs by the time his door swung open. Eddie stood on the other side, bare-chested and dozy-eyed. He wore a pair of cut-off sweats and nothing else.
She forgot how to breathe.
“What time is it?”
“I’m sorry.” The words came out in a rush. “I shouldn’t have--were you sleeping?”
He shook his head and ran one hand over his hair, standing it up on end. “Watching TV.” He paused for a moment, then pushed the door open all the way. “Want to come in?”
“Okay.”
The living room smelled of him, that complicated scent she associated with baseball games and late nights on the porch and winks in the bar as he sat and watched her count tips. Ash stopped near the recliner and looked around. The kitten, now a few pounds rounder in the belly, slept on a towel Eddie had tucked into a cardboard box.
“You ever give it a name?”
He closed the door and stepped beside her, breathing the words into her ear. “Call ‘im Tiny. Seems to like it.”
She smiled. “Fits him.”
He sat on the edge of the couch. “So--”
“I’m sorry,” she said again. Second time in less than five minutes, she thought. Why don’t I just apologize my way into tomorrow? But there didn’t seem to be any other words to fit the enormity of what she needed to say.
“Sit.” Eddie cocked his head at her. “Stop being so god-damned nervous and tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s complicated.” She worked her way toward him. “I’m not--”
“So, start with something small.” He leaned back as she edged onto the couch. “Start with--I don’t know. Why you decided to leave Boston.”
Ash laughed. “I wouldn’t call that something small.” That’s the biggest part of what I need to say, she thought. And the hardest.
He didn’t say anything after that, didn’t press, didn’t keep questioning. He just studied her with that intent gaze of his, until she felt sure that he had stripped off every last stitch of clothes she wore, skin too, and saw through to the heart that beat erratically under her skin.
One hand worked its way across the cushion, until it rested on his bare leg. “What happened the other night--”
“Was nice. Was good. Should happen a lot more.”
She let out a long breath. “Yeah.”
Eddie’s hand reached for hers, five fingers twining their way around her own. Ash let her gaze move across his chest, over the pale fuzz that spread there. Up to the tattoo on his triceps. Over to his square chin, that bobbed when he spoke too fast or got too excited. Down, just for an instant, to the waistband of the cut-offs that dipped below his navel. Then up, where blue eyes met hers and a mouth looked as though it was waiting for her to make up its mind.
“There’s so much I need to tell you.”
“Okay.” Eddie pulled her toward him, working his hand from hers, slipping it around her waist and drawing her across the pillows so that her curves melted into his.
“Eddie--” But there was nothing she wanted to say. Nothing she wanted to explain. A dizzying rush of desire came over her, so strong and so sudden that she felt as though all the air had been sucked out of the room.

Sex and the Story

"There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection is the entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstances can the food be omitted. "
~Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behaviour

There was a great discussion on Romancing the Blog yesterday about all the sex in today’s romance novels, and the fact that readers can’t seem to find a romance that isn’t either filled with sex or--opposite end of the spectrum--a “sweet” story with a sugary hero and heroine who wait until marriage to do anything more than hold hands.

But most of the posts seemed to agree that publishers (and agents) are wary to sign anyone who doesn’t fit into one or the other. There is, it seems, an absence of the good old-fashioned contemporary love story, which focuses on the emotional relationship and not the bedroom. And surprisingly, that’s what a lot of readers are looking for.

This was refreshing to me, especially, because in my mind, that’s exactly what I write: contemporary love stories. Novels about men and women who meet and fall for each other and then have to deal with the messes that life throws in their way. I don’t write sex. It just doesn’t interest me within the pages of my novels. But I’m wondering how to market myself, both in the publishing world and to my friends and family. (I have quickly discovered that “romance novelist” translates to “porn writer” in most of their minds).

So what do you think? Take a look at the posts from yesterday, then come on back here and let me know.

And on this subject, I discovered a new author at Samhain who, unlike most of their authors, doesn’t write steamy/sensual/erotica.

Her name is Kate Johnson, and she writes romantic comedy. I knew I had to take a closer look when I read the disclaimer on her newest novel: Warning, this title contains guns, swearing, dark thoughts about cheerful people, incomprehensible Britishisms, and painful sarcasm.

I downloaded her short story “The Twelve Lies of Christmas” and will give you the low-down when I’m through…

P.S. - Last day to sign my guestbook and qualify for the February giveaway! What are you waiting for???

What's On The Tape??

That, of course, is the all-important question after last night's Prison Break episode. It was another good one, lots of conflict and tension and near-misses...but they also killed off another main character (or at least it appears they did. I'm still hoping he'll be alive next week).

Which leads me to wonder if the rumors are true: is this show near its end?

I suppose the Scofield brothers can't be on the run forever. And there are only so many times they can avoid either death or capture, what with clever FBI Agent Malone on their tails. Still, if this show does wrap, I'll miss it.

I continue to think the writing is tight and the characters well-developed. And I'm glad that, in these last few episodes, Michael and Sara have finally gotten together. ;)

Still, I always thought they should have spent more time breaking out of prison. That first season was filled with such great episodes and interesting character interactions. So in honor of the early days, here's a Fan Vid from Season 1. Enjoy.

Where Do You Find Your Ideas?

"If not for heart and imagination, the world of fiction would be a pretty seedy place. It might not even exist at all."

~Stephen King ("On Writing")

Where do you get your story ideas?

When I first started writing, I felt as though I had about 3 (yes, 3) good plots inside my head, and after I used them up, I would never be able to think of another interesting, original story.

Really.

I struggled with it. I’d jot down ideas only to realize the next day they were tired and old. Then thing started to change. I‘m not sure why, but occasionally (usually at those weird times, like in the shower or at 3 am or when I’m supposed to be grading papers) a crazy little sliver of an idea would spring up, and I’d grab the closest thing that resembled a piece of paper and write it down.

After a while I retyped them all into one computer file, which is where I still store new ideas. Last time I opened that file, I had about 10 or so. Not a lot, but enough. And finally, the finding of the ideas has become easier.

I get ideas from articles I read in the newspaper or tabloid headlines in the supermarket. I get ideas from songs and TV shows. I get ideas from watching people in Borders and Target. And I get ideas from talking to people. It’s great.

Last Friday, hubby and I went out with another couple we work with--great new bar for happy hour, great new restaurant for dinner. And we all told stories. The terrific thing is that our friends are about 20 years older than we are, and former hippies, so they have the best stories in the world. I’m serious. My mind was cataloging great characters and great situations all night long.

For example: they moved to a Idaho town (population 500: 498 cowboys and hunters, and our friends) right after they got married, since he was going to school out there. One day the woman, who’s a liberal NYC girl, activist, pacifist, and vegetarian, goes downstairs in her apartment complex to do the laundry, and there’s an entire gutted deer hanging there, in the laundry room.

How great a moment is that?! Can’t you just picture working that scene into a story?? Talk about multiple conflicts, and a terrific opportunity for character development, and a perfect way to suggest the setting of the town.

So I’m a little less worried these days that the Idea Well will run dry, that it’s a finite collection of plots and characters out there for me to work with. Now, I can’t wait to go to the mall, or the grocery store, or the gas station. Who knows where I’ll find my next hero or heroine?

What about you? Where do you find inspiration for your writing??

You Just Never Know...

"People die in front of us everyday. But I believe Meredith will survive this. I believe, I believe, I... I believe in the good. I believe that it's been a hell of a year and I believe that, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that we will be okay. I believe a lot of things. I believe that... I believe that Denny is always with me... and I believe that if I eat a tub of butter and no one sees, that the calories don't count. And I believe that surgeons who prefer staples over stitches are just lazy. And I believe that you are a man that made a terrible mistake marrying Callie and I believe that because I'm your best friend I can tell you this and we can be okay. I believe that even though you made this mistake you will be okay. I believe we survive, George. I believe that believing we survive... is what makes us survive."
~from "Grey's Anatomy"


Update: I sent a query for the newly re-titled Lost in Paradise to The Wild Rose Press yesterday morning, and by the afternoon I had received a request for the partial. So that’s encouraging.

What was even nicer is that the editor remembered me (I had submitted One Night in Boston to her as well, back when I was querying a few places simultaneously). She congratulated me on the upcoming publication with Samhain and welcomed a look at my new work.

I sent off the partial…now we’ll wait and see!

Any Grey's Anatomy fans out there? What did you think of last night's episode? A tear-jerker, for sure, but I sort of felt manipulated....like, here's another week where Meredith whines about her "awful" life. This time we had to spend an entire hour watching her discover that, really, dating McDreamy and having good friends and a challenging career isn't the most terrible thing in the world. Does anyone else want to tell her to get over herself?

Best part of the whole show. by far: seeing Denny again, especially the moment when he and Izzie touch at the end. Magic.

Happy weekend!

Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out...

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."

~Alan Cohen

So I made the decision to terminate my publishing contract with Virtual Tales.

There were a few reasons, really, one of which was that, despite the fact that they don’t have many stories up for sale on their site (they’re relatively new), it was taking them *forever* to draft me a cover or send me my first round of edits. And believe me, I know how slow the publishing process can take, but I’ve been lucky enough to have some experience now with Samhain, and it’s just a completely different story.

I also want to market my story in more ways than just an e-serial, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that with the electronic rights tied up at VT. Honestly, when I first queried them, I didn’t think the story would develop as much as it did. I thought I’d end up with 30K words, tops. Now I’m at 55K and I love it, I want more, I want to see it in print.

The nice thing is that the publisher let me out of my contract without any problem and waived the 90-days notice as well, so I have all my rights back ASAP.

The funny thing is that it took him less than 8 hours to remove everything from the website: my bio, my promo page, my name under the authors’ listings. And we're talking an overnight wonder: I emailed him at 10:00 pm (my time; I think he's on the West Coast), and when I checked at 7:30 the next morning, it all was gone. Maybe if they’d moved that fast with everything else, I’d still be working with them!

Oh, well. I know it’s the right decision. But now I’m back to the beginning with marketing Paradise, USA--which I thinking of renaming Lost in Paradise, by the way. What do you think?

A Very Blah Day

I have nothing the least bit interesting to say today, other than to tell you that I’m struggling with a decision to terminate one of my e-pub contracts. It’s a long story, and I’ll fill you in sometime when I have the energy.

I watched all 2 hours of American Idol last night because I was too tired to do anything else (and I hate wasting time like that, but sometimes it happens)…and was anyone else bored? Tip to the guys, no matter how good-looking you are: don’t pick a love song and then come out so frozen by nerves that no one can hear you sing the lyrics.

(It’s fun being an armchair critic, isn’t it??)

Here's a meme for you...play along!

Hypotheticals: If you could bathe in a vat of any drink or food item, what would you choose? Chocolate, no question.

Anything Goes: What world-changing event would you like to take credit for? Women's suffrage. I think Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are the bomb.

No-Brainers: What song do you keep hearing over and over again? For some reason, "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks.

Personals: What are you most proud of? Oh gosh, two things: my teaching career and the fact that I have amazing relationships with so many of my former students; and my writing career and the fact that it's progressing toward publication.

The End...Or Is It??

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”
- Cyril Connolly

Story endings: I find them incredibly difficult.

Some of my writing friends love them; they claim that the ending is sometimes the only thing that’s absolutely clear in the whole novel-writing process.

Not me.

I mean, sure, I have a general idea of where I want my characters to end up, but I stumble over the wording when I get there.

This weekend, for example, I was revising an ending for a novel that’s been about 4 years in the making. I finally got all the plot points worked out, but then I couldn’t decide if I wanted a flip, upbeat ending, or a more serious, God-I-can’t-believe-how-much-I-love-you ending. Either one would work with the tone of the novel, I think.

What do you think makes a good ending, especially in a love story? Do you like to see everything revealed and tied up neatly? Or is it okay if something’s left to the imagination?

Are there any stories you can think of where the ending stayed with you because it was so memorable, or so well done? Or, are there any stories where you felt supremely let down by the ending? (Yes, Marianne, I know: every Nicholas Sparks book. :) )

Oh, and in honor of last night’s new Prison Break episode, a yummy picture of the brothers to enjoy all day long:

My Schizophrenic Weekend

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
- Groucho Marx

Hubby and I love to travel, but we spent this Presidents’ Weekend at home this year, working around the house (him), writing (me), and doing our taxes (both).

And for some reason I decided I would tackle every writing project that’s on my four burners right now. Though I felt at times as though I had major mulitple personality disorder, I did get some good writing accomplished. Just to bring you up to date, here’s what on my plate right now:

Paradise, USA - This is the serial novella that’s been contracted by Virtual Tales. I’ve been emailing back and forth with my editor about the cover, which I think should be in the last stages of completion. I also worked on revising the last half of the story, since she only has the first half because that’s how this publisher works. I still love this story; I love the characters and I love what happens to them. I did run into a little snag near the HEA, only because I'm not happy with how the last few pages unfold, but I'll get it.

One Night in Boston - This is the full-length "24 hour romance" novel that’s been contracted by Samhain Publishing. I haven’t gotten the edits back from this editor, so the only thing I had to do was finalize the promotional blurb for her. That will probably be up on their website in a few weeks. Oh, you can also take a peek at my author's page, here.

One Night in Memphis - This is another full-length, “24 hour” romance that I’m really pushing to finish by June 1 to submit to Samhain. I would love another contract with them and am crossing my fingers that the 24-hour concept will catch on among readers. I’m about 1/3 of the way through this one, though I have an earlier draft (from a couple years ago) that I’m working with, so it’s not all brand new. Just most of it!

Summer’s Song - Finally, this is a single title romance that I wrote about 4 years ago. I shopped it briefly and had some interest from a couple of publishing houses, but no offers. I still really like this story and think I’ve figured out a way to make it stronger, so I spent some time this weekend working on the outline and the characters. I plan on shopping this one to traditional print houses and would love to have something complete by the fall.

So…that’s what I did this weekend! I feel good about my progress but, again, more than a little split between projects. I'm not really good at it, nor do I like it. I'd rather focus on one thing at a time. But that's not always possible.

What about you? If you're a writer, are you able to shift between projects? Or do you need to finish one before moving on to another? And if you're a reader, can you read multiple books at onc? Do you have a novel in the bedroom, one in the living room, and another in your bathroom? Do you have any problem picking up and moving from storyline to storyline?

One Last Love Story

"The best love is the kind that awakens the soul, that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds."

~from "The Notebook"

So with all this talk on my blog this week about romantic movies and love and Valentine’s Day, I can’t believe I forgot to mention The Notebook. This is probably the only story where I actually preferred the movie to Nicholas Sparks’ book.

Talk about true love! If you haven’t seen this one, I definitely recommend it. (It turned me into a huge Ryan Gosling fan, too).

And so here’s a little something for your viewing pleasure. Happy weekend!

Why I Run

"It doesn't matter how slow you go, as long as you do not stop."
~Lao-Tzu

Many of you probably know that I’m a runner. The definition of that varies day to day, from “person who jogs a few miles after school to clear her head” to “person who ate too many cookies over the weekend and needs to burn off some calories” to “person who is more than slightly insane to take on the elements on days when no one else is outside.”

This past weekend I fell into the third category. I ran a 5K (that’s 3.1 miles) with about 220 other insane people in temperatures that hovered around 20 but felt more like 5 with the wind chill. And as I headed up the last hill, lungs frozen and breath catching in my throat and legs feeling about one hundred pounds each, that familiar thought popped into my head: Why I am doing this?

Fortunately, that thought shows up quite a bit but never stays around long, because I know the answer.

I run because I always feel better when I finish. Maybe not always physically (though I’d say 80% of the time I do), but mentally and emotionally? Always. I know there’s a physiological explanation for it: the endorphins shoot off inside my brain like little drugs and give me some kind of high. But it still amazes me that the simple act of moving can change my mood 180 degrees.

It amazes me that when I cross the finish line of whatever race I’m running, whether I’m first in my age group or somewhere in the middle of the pack or near the end, I feel such a sense of accomplishment. It amazes me that I feel most beautiful when I am sweaty and flushed, with my hair stuck to my face and a t-shirt stuck to my back.

I wish more people could experience it. I hope, if you’re not a runner, you have something that revs you up, that chases away your blues, that inspires your creative juices, the way running does for me.

It’s so simple: put on a pair of running shoes and step outside. Yet it’s so complex: it changes your body, your mind, your spirit. Because if you can run ______ (fill in the blank here: to the mailbox, down the street, a mile, a 10K, a marathon), imagine what else you might do.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

"You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into your lover's arms can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip."

~Jonathan Carroll, "Outside the Dog Museum

Hey, everyone, I'm blogging today at Romancing the Blog...drop by and leave a comment!

Well, it finally arrived: the winter storm that's been blasting the rest of the country, and just in time to deliver a lovely Valentine's Day gift: a snow day from school for hubby and me! Now, if you're an educator (or even if you remember those blissful days from childhood when the radio crackled the school closings while you waited at the breakfast table with crossed fingers), you know the treat that early morning phone call brings.

And on a Wednesday!

And on Valentine's Day!

And two days before a holiday weekend!

Speaking of the world of education, one of my writing friends sent me a hilarious email yesterday, that I have to reprint here. Hope you'll get a kick out of it. I did.

And if you found your way here from RTB today, thanks for stopping by! Make sure to check out my website and sign my guestbook for a chance at the February giveaway (it involves Lindt chocolates... need I say more??)

Finally, have a WONDERFUL Valentine's Day, wherever you are and whatever you're doing. Cheers!!

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND---The Football Version

1. All teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If after two years they have not won the championship their footballs and equipment will be taken away UNTIL they do win the championship.

2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time even if they do not have the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. NO exceptions will be made for lack of interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves or their parents. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL!
3. Talented players will be asked to workout on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all of their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don't like football.

4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th game. It will create a New Age of Sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum goals. If no child gets ahead, then no child gets left behind.

Covers and Things

"Two souls and one thought, two hearts and one pulse."
~Halen

Yesterday I shared 9 “movies about love” that our local paper featured, but I forgot to mention which I’d seen and enjoyed. So here you go:

“Beaches” Saw it and wept. Wouldn’t watch it again.
“Citizen Kane”
“Driving Miss Daisy”
“Field of Dreams” Have seen it multiple times. Definitely a ++ recommendation for anyone who hasn’t seen it (that means you, Judy!)
“Harold and Maude”
“Lost in Translation” Keep meaning to rent this one…
“Mary Poppins” Of course! I knew all the words to all the songs, as a child.
“Pay It Forward” A good one, not a big box office draw but really touching. Sad ending, though,
“Rain Man” Another “of course!” Loved both Cruise and Hoffman in this one.

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Yesterday I saw the “first attempt” of my cover for Paradise, USA (my editor’s wording, not mine). So I’m not really sure if that means I get input on it, or not. But let me tell you, it was so weird to see someone else’s conception of what my main characters look like!

Ash is perfect, just the way I imagined her. But Eddie? My dashing, drop dead gorgeous, sexy, to-die-for hero? So different than the guy who’s been inside my head for the last 5 years. Taller, and thinner, and with much longer hair. Long hair! Where did that come from? He’s got a great six-pack, though, and he’s looking at Ash with one hell of a smoldering gaze, so I can’t complain too much.

I did email my editor back with a couple of thoughts, but we’ll see if anything changes. From what I’ve heard, authors don’t get too much say on their novels’ artwork. I don’t really mind; it has the title and my name on the front: a first-time novelist’s dream come true. What more do I need?

Incidentally, do you let the cover art of a book influence your visualization of the characters, once you start reading? If there’s already a picture of the H/H done for you, do you stick to that artist’s conception? Or do you form your own instead?

A Good Weekend

"I get by with a little help from my friends."
~ John Lennon

So this past Saturday, I hopped into my little salt-covered car and drove about an hour to check out the closest RWA chapter. After getting lost twice, I finally arrived…and really enjoyed myself, overall.

I’ve been lucky enough to develop such good working relationships with online writing friends, that the idea of meeting and discussing and critiquing with people *in the flesh* seemed almost odd.

Not to worry. It was nice to be in a room with 8 other people who write romance and are at various stages in the publishing pipeline. Interesting discussion, honest feedback on ms. pages, and an easy camaraderie that comes from having a common element. I’m hoping this will be the beginning of a good year with this group.

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In our local paper over the weekend was a list of movies to “warm your heart without romance.” ("Each of these stories is about true love, for sure, just not the cliché kind…")

So tell me: which of these have you seen and enjoyed? Which would you recommend to someone else, and which would you watch again?

“Beaches”
“Citizen Kane”
“Driving Miss Daisy”
“Field of Dreams”
“Harold and Maude”
“Lost in Translation”
“Mary Poppins”
“Pay It Forward”
“Rain Man”