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.

###

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.

###
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”

TGIF

"True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked."
~Erich Segal

Wow! Grey’s Anatomy certainly handed us a cliff-hanger last night. A little bit of everything, too: drama, humor, romance, suspense (and what’s up with that near-catatonic blonde girl hanging around Meredith?) Was I the only person who couldn’t look straight at the face of the pregnant woman crushed under the pylon? Yikes.

So, I recently had to write up a promotional blurb for One Night in Boston, and when my editor sent it back with a few wording changes yesterday, I got a peek at my tentative e-pub release date: July of this year. Exciting! And the print version comes out 3 months after the online release. So it looks as though (fingers crossed) you might be able to put it on your Christmas list for 2007!

Any interesting plans for the next couple of days?? I’m just trying to stay warm--it’s been in the single digits all week. At least there’s very little snow on the ground, so when the deer come to feed in our front lawn (there were 4 last night), they actually look as though they’re finding something.

Happy Weekend!

The Writer's Life

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
~Ray Bradbury

I joined Writers Village University about 5 years ago, when I decided to take the plunge and see if writing was a hobby or something I really wanted to devote more time to (can you guess which I discovered?) And really, it’s been a great experience. I haven’t taken advantage of the classes they offered as much as I could have, but the writing groups I joined turned out to be invaluable in helping me grow as a writer. Sometimes I still marvel at the way you can become such good friends with people you’ve never seen or met in person.

Anyway, the other day one of the women who’s been in and out of one study group emailed me--she’s the columnist for WVU’s partner ezine, T-Zero, and she asked if she could interview me for an upcoming issue:

…All of us unpublished writers want to know how it feels to see our words in print and long to learn what it takes to live the writer’s life. Give us a taste of your achievement…

It was a surreal request, really, because sometimes I really don’t think of myself as someone that other writers would want to read about. The writer’s life, I’m finding, is not that much different after I signed contracts than before. The only difference is that I feel busier than ever! But I’m flattered all the same, and in thinking about her questions, I decided that this is what I would tell anyone who’s unpublished:

Be persistent, and believe in yourself. There are so many times on the lonely writing journey when it would be much easier to give up. Many times when you could spend an afternoon watching movies or working in the garden or curling up with a good book instead of struggling with your own. Many times, especially if you’re in the query pipeline, that you’d rather toss out all those rejection letters along with your stupid manuscript which is never going to be any good at all, and dive into a pint of ice cream for solace. Don’t.

Writing is hard work. It takes more time and self-discipline and dedication than you might ever imagine. But you can’t let the frustrating times get you down so low that you stop altogether. If you want to write, write. If you want to be published, learn everything you can about your target market and the business and the craft itself. Then come up with the best story you can think of, the one that makes you fall in love with the characters every time you think about it, and write it. Enlist the help of others: friends, family, fellow readers and writers, support groups. Revise your work until you can’t stand to look at the words anymore. Find new agents, new editors, new markets. But don’t give up.

Believe me, you never, ever know when you’ll have that one opportunity, when that single editor or agent will tell you they love your ideas and can’t wait to work with you. And when it happens, you’ll be over the moon.

I'm Cheating Today

"Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat."
~ Mark Twain

Since I have a huge presentation at work today (tonight, actually), today's blog won't be about much of anything at all. I've been writing, yes, and doing some marketing and publicity, yes, but those updates will have to wait 'til another day.

In the meantime, for your viewing pleasure:

my cats, sunning themselves on the loveseat yesterday…

and a fun read that Marianne had up on her blog a few days ago (it's worth a rerun)...

FOR PET LOVERS -

To be posted VERY LOW on the refrigerator door - nose height.

Dear Dogs and Cats, The dishes with the paw print are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Please note, placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

For the last time, there is not a secret exit from the bathroom. If by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years -- canine or feline attendance is not required.

The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough!

To pacify you, my dear pets, I have posted the following message on our front door:

To All Non-Pet Owners Who Visit & Like to Complain About Our Pets:

1. They live here. You don't.

2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. (That's why they call it "fur"nature.)

3. I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.

4. To you, it's an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn't speak clearly.

Remember: In many ways, dogs and cats are better than kids because they:

1. Eat less

2. Don't ask for money all the time

3. Are easier to train

4. Normally come when called

5. Never ask to drive the car

6. Don't hang out with drug-using friends

7. Don't smoke or drink

8. Don't have to buy the latest fashions

9. Don't want to wear your clothes

10. Don't need a "gazillion" dollars for college.

And finally,

11. If they get pregnant, you can sell their children.

Sex or the Story??

"If sex doesn't scare the cat, you're not doing it right."
(Anonymous)

Okay, I have to know: how many of you read romance for the sex? And how many for the story?

See, here’s the thing: I don’t write sex. I write a few scenes that might involve a kiss or two, a touch, some want, but I don’t delve into the bedroom scenes like I know a lot of romance authors do.

Why not? Well, I suppose it’s just not my M.O. I’m way more interested in the emotion of two characters getting together than the mechanics. I’ve read too many romance novels where the love, and the entire storyline, took a back seat to the scenes of “lust-driven pleasure” and “his quivering member” and “desire feathering up her spine.” And honestly, it’s a reason I resisted categorizing myself as a “romance author” for a long time.

I also have a hard time finding sex scenes that actually make me appreciate the moment and not cringe at the writing, so I’m less than inspired to try it myself. It seems as though clichés run rampant in romance novels, [see above] and when I’m reading them, I just want them to be over, so we can get back to the plot moving forward and some interesting dialogue.

I like happy endings. I like watching characters struggle through conflict to be together. I like desire that strings you along. I like painful separation and exhilarating reunion. And while, sure, sex can play a satisfying part of the coming together (no pun ended), I’m just not interested in spending time writing about it. But I think that puts me in the minority of romance writers.

So back to my original question: do you read romance for the sex, or for the story? Or both?

Football Heroes and Defensive Driving

When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team.
~George Raveling

Well, I was happy to see the Colts win the Super Bowl last night and Peyton Manning finally win his first championship. I remember him from his days playing at Tennessee, and I did always like him. Plus he's a cutie, and he and his brother rolled up their sleeves and helped out New Orlean a lot after Hurricane Katrina last year.


Hey, how many romance novels do you think feature pro atheletes as the hero? I remember this discussion on a blog somewhere a while back, and I think the answer was close to zero, for a variety of reasons: they have no time, they're too in love with themselves, they aren't the "typical" romantic hero in our society. What do you think?

###########

OK, so somehow I let my husband convince me to take a defensive driving class, the next two Monday nights. Yeah, yeah, I know it will lower our car insurance. But the last thing I want to do on a Monday night in February is spend 3½ hours watching videos of car crashes and listening to someone talk about the correct way to pass and merge.

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t be so irritated about it. It’s a good thing, right? Everyone should probably be mandated to take the course, on a regular basis. ‘Cause I’m pretty sure those women driving their SUVs down the road while on their cell phones and checking on their kids in the back seat and weaving in and out of lanes at 85 miles an hour could use a reminder about safe driving.

But Monday night?? Now I have to miss Prison Break (and you *know* how much that pains me). I'll be sitting there listening to strategies for safe merging and dreaming of Wentworth Miller heating up the screen with his doctor love. Darn it.

Winter Weather (or not)

"There are only two seasons: winter and baseball."

~Bill Veeck

Hey all, if you didn’t get a chance to see it, my article on character development is up at WOW. I love what they did with the graphics and the pics ,too. Very cute. Got an email from the editor yesterday afternoon telling me one of their regular writers saw it and mine was the first article she read in the Feb. issue. She loved it!

In other news, all the teachers and students around here spent yesterday hoping for snow to fall and cancel school today ( it didn‘t). See, with the crazy warm temperatures we’ve had so far this season, we haven’t had a single school closing.

Now let me digress: I grew up in central NYS, smack in the middle of the lake effect snow belt. Then I spent 6 years in college and graduate school living in 2 cities on the Great Lakes. More lake effect snow. So when you talk about winter to me, it means temps below zero and wind chill WAY below zero. It means shoveling snow from November to March and having at least 2 ice scrapers and 3 extra pair of gloves in the car at all times. It means learning to take your driver’s test when you’re 16 on snow-covered roads, and mastering the art of the controlled skid, because otherwise you’ll have to wait months to get your license. It means the kind of cold where, when you breathe in, the inside of your nose crinkles up.

It does not mean, as people in my newly adopted hometown think, 3 inches of snow that falls in one night. It does not mean temperatures that flirt with zero overnight and then inch their way up to 30 during the day. It does not mean school closings for 2 days straight because the towns can’t manage to plow the roads.

When I was growing up, one of the most familiar sounds in the wee hours of the morning was the plow going down the street, scraping it clear and taking out people’s mailboxes on the way (we had to get a new one every spring). School never closed. Ever. Are you kidding? We would have missed ¾ of the days from December to February.

But here? We get an average of 5 snow days each year. And don’t even get me started on 2-hour delays. 6 a year? 10? No limit, apparently. I’d never even heard of the concept of the 2-hour school delay until I moved here. I guess it allows the plow drivers to sleep in until 5 or so and get the roads clear by 9, so that the buses can lumber on to school and collect their state aid for the day.

One time a couple of years ago (this is the best), every school in the county closed because of the threat of a storm. Guess what? Not a single flake fell.

Sorry for the tirade, but sometimes I just have to laugh. OK, have at it: what does “winter” mean to you??

Happy Weekend!

P.S. - If you haven’t signed my guestbook yet, what are you waiting for???

Today's the Day!

“Do everything with so much love in your heart that you would never want to do it any other way.”
~Yogi Desai

Today’s the day! My article about character building is supposed to be up at WOW. Of course, I jumped out of bed extra early this AM to see, and the February issue hasn’t been posted yet, but maybe by the time you read this, it will be. So check for me, OK?

Meanwhile, Marianne has a fun meme going on at her place, so drop by there, too!

Sign My Guestbook!

“Real love stories never have endings.”
~ Richard Bach

My goodie bag arrived yesterday from WOW, for earning an honorable mention in their Fall Flash Fiction contest. Too cute!




Update to yesterday's news about my guestbook:

Anyone who signs it during the month of February (and yes, this means those of you who lurk out there too) will be automatically entered into a drawing for a giveaway of freebies which will include…

Lindt chocolates (come on, it’s the month of Valentine’s Day…what did you think?)
AND
James Patterson’s best-selling novel Honeymoon
AND
A $5.00 gift certificate to Virtual Tales, so when my serial novel Paradise USA is released, you’ll be able to get about half the installments for free!

Now isn’t that worth stopping by and leaving me a comment? Spread the word to your friends and fellow bloggers, too.

And have a great day!

What Are You Up To?

“Remind yourself that the book you’re bogged down in was once bright and sparkling.”
(JoAnn Ross)

Well, Prison Break was only so-so last night. [Still, it gives me an excuse to post pics of Wentworth Miller on my blog :) ] Looks like, from the previews, that next week’s episode will be action-packed, though. Good thing!




I’m adding a guestbook to my website (and the link is here, too, on my sidebar), with a little incentive: anyone who signs it during the month of February will qualify for a freebie giveaway (and given that February is Valentine’s Day month, you can pretty much guarantee that at least part of the giveaway will have something to do with chocolate). So scurry on over there, and I’ll count anyone who signs it today and tomorrow in the February pool too. Giveaway to be posted later this week, so stay tuned!

I’m loving my interaction with Samhain Publishing, by the way. They have a terrific editorial team, along with several author chat groups on Yahoo and wonderful resources posted in the files there as well. I’ll post some periodically to share.

How about you? How’s your writing going? Anything new? Digging out the old to dust off and revise? I was skimming my latest Romance Writers Report, which arrived yesterday, and came across an author interview in which the author warned against not finishing manuscripts just because they get hard somewhere in the middle. Unfinished manuscripts will always be unpublished manuscripts, or something like that.

Well said! Now tell me what writing project you’re working on these days…

So How Old Is Old, Really?

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

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

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

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

With ourselves.

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

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

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

I said, “How old is older?”

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

Oh. God.

TGIF

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

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

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

My Muse
January 26, 2007

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Weekend!

To Market, To Market

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

~ from the movie “City of Angels”

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

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

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

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

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

Hump Day

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

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

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

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

Time to tackle some more revisions…

An Almost-Published Author

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


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

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

Weird.

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

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

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

Counting the Hours 'Til Prison Break

The hottest love has the coldest end.
~ Socrates

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

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




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

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

Falling in Love Again

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hmm...OK...

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

Not too bad, I guess.

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

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

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

A good exercise. Try it.

Happy weekend!

The Day The Words Went Away

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

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

Too young!

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

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

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

Finding New Words

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conflict

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

~Brian Andreas

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

Conflict.

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

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

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

Making a Difference

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






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






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

You've Experienced 88% of Life

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

How Much Life Experience Do You Have?

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

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

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

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

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

What about you? Doing anything interesting today?

Vote!

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great weekend! Now go and vote!

Waiting...

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

What do you do when your characters bore you?

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

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

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

Any advice?

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

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

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

I’m not a good waiter, by the way.

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

What Have They Done For You Lately?

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

Try this map game from Judy...

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

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

Guess what he ended up doing?

No, not dying.

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

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

What have your characters done for you lately?

Hard Work

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

Your Hippie Chick Name Is:

Skye

Your Hippie Chick Name

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

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

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

Hard work. Wow. Who knew?

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

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

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

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

I Never Had to Do This Before...

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Weekend

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

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

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

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

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

Wading Through Contract Language

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

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

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

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

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

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

Motivation vs. Discipline

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

Touché.

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

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

Rats With Islands

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy New Year!

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


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






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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

Time for Vacation...

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

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

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

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

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

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

~ Unknown

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

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

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

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

What about you? Favorite gifts? Tangible or intangible?

Merry Christmas!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Holidays!

This and That

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


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

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

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

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

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

“After Love” (by Maxine Kumin)

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

Judging the Golden Heart

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

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

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

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

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

Exploring Possibilities

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Holiday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TGIF

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

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

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

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

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

Happy weekend!

Free Stuff

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

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

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

Check it out!

The (Wo)Man Behind the Curtain

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

~Dr. Seuss

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

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

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

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

That D*@!^$ Holiday Newsletter

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

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Charlie Brown Christmas

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

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

Aww…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, the Holidays...

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

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

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

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

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

Celebrating Early

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

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

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

Have a great weekend!

Running Late

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

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

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

First Impressions

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

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

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

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

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

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

Try it!

A Drop in the Bucket

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

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

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

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

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

Writing the Awkward Stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Does anyone else ever worry about that?

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

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