12.18.2010

Resolutions, Schmezolutions ...

As posted on my Facebook page this afternoon: "Starting off the new year with a sinus infection does not motivate one to work on one's manuscript. Especially when flannel sheets are calling one's name."

It's difficult at best to come up with anything remotely profound when your head is full of ... well, suffice to say I am not firing on all cylinders at the moment. JT and I conversed briefly this afternoon (one of her lines was, you're sick again?), and I vaguely remember telling her that I firmly believed a nap was going to rejuvenate me so that I could get some writing done.

Between the telephone, the WGH and Little Bit coming home from work and school, respectively, and gathering the trash so LB could take it to the dump, said nap has yet to come to fruition. There is, however, a half gallon of Gatorade sitting on the table next to my laptop. For some reason, drinking Gatorade when I'm sick always seems to help me feel better. Maybe it's the electrolytes; that whole hydration is good for the body thing. What do I know? I'm a writer, not a scientist.

I have attempted in the past to make reasonable resolutions for the new year, most of which fall flat somewhere around, oh, February. Weight loss is always a challenge. Keeping the house clean (stop laughing, dear) - June Cleaver, I am not. One "resolution" that I held to fairly well for a couple of years was my attempt to read at least one book per week for an entire year. Fifty-two books in a year seems doable, don't you think? Heh. Have you seen my life? I actually did manage upwards of 35 or so for the two consecutive years I tried that.

I read a lot as a child. And I mean A LOT. My thirst for books has never waned over the years, but the opportunities for quiet reading time were sparse when I was in college, even more so when the kiddos came along. I did read to them, and I am proud to say that all three are good readers. LB is a lot like I was - you rarely see her without a book in her hands.

Fortunately, as my children have aged, my life has started to slow down (and yes, that's a relative term) so that I'm able to read A LOT again. In the past few weeks, for example, I've moved four books from the To-Be-Read pile to the ... er, Done-Been-Read? ... shelf.

Jennie Bentley is a friend of mine, a lovely woman and a writer I love to read. Her third DIY mystery, Plaster and Poison, is just as darling as the first two in the series. These are the kinds of books I like to read when I need something fresh and fun, light and zippy but still holds my interest with a well-written puzzle to solve.

A coworker lent me a Nicholas Sparks, whom I've not read before (I know, gasp). I'd heard differing opinions on his books, some favorable, some not, so The Lucky One surprised me. I'm a sucker for a happy ending, and although this one had a bit of a tragic twist, it satisfied my requirements quite nicely.

My sweet friend and fellow writers' group member we affectionately call Dingo gave me a book to read as a "gift" for our annual Christmas party, and I was delighted to discover that it was by an author I was familiar with - Christi Phillips - having done a review on her second book, The Devlin Diary, in a previous life.

The gift/loan was Phillips' first, The Rossetti Letter, and it was every bit as enjoyable. I'm becoming a huge fan of historical fiction, and Phillips' books combine modern-day mystery with historical romantic suspense for a fast-paced, sexy story. And I actually learned some things.

One of my top picks of 2010 is a book I mentioned back in October, The Miracle of Mercy Land by another friend, River Jordan. This is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read (and I'm not just saying that because I know the author). The pace is perfect, the story riveting, the prose flows with grace and a hearty helping of Southern charm. Really. You have to read this book.

Currently on my nightstand is another loaner, a book called The Map Thief, another of those that combines modern action with historical settings - in this case, two different scenarios set in disparate time frames. It's early on in the reading yet, but so far it's not too bad - we'll just say the jury's still out.

So, what are you reading?

11.29.2010

So much for that idea ...

As you've probably figured out by now, my November didn't exactly go as planned. That's not to say I haven't been writing. As a matter of fact, I've been working very hard on this manuscript. It's been going in stages, though, because it's a revision rather than a from-scratch, start at the beginning and write until it's finished project.

So, we'll start with the bad news. There's no way I'm going to be able to say with any degree of legitimacy that I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days. I won't "win" NaNoWriMo this year.

The good news? Where do I begin?

What's in a name? For starters, this book finally has a title. Yay. My illustrious critique partner and Wonder Twin has this thing about titles - she says she can't write a book unless it has a title first. And her titles are undeniably fabulous - four of the six are her originals (as you may or may not know, the title an author gives a book may not necessarily be the one the publisher sends to press). I'm more subscribed to the school of thought that a title can be added after the fact - although admittedly it gives me a better sense of direction if I can establish a title that fits the story. I usually come up with a title that works for me when I have the bare bones of the story down.

To say that I admire Shakespeare would be a gross miscarriage of justice. The Bard fascinates me. While I am woefully lacking in any scholarly knowledge of the man or his works, I still love to read him for the simple joy of the language. And the more I read, the more I learn, so maybe someday I'll be able to amend the above disclaimer. For now, what I take away from his works are snippets of genius that provide me with the titles for my books. Some writers have title patterns (e.g., John Sandford's Prey series, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels - even John Grisham's books, with a few notable exceptions, have a common title theme). I am one of those writers - at least until my future publisher (whoever that may be) decides to accept or reject my theory. No Evil Lost is from The Comedy of Errors. The new book's title - One Sweet Kiss - is taken from Master Will's poem Venus and Adonis. One of the lovely ladies in our critique group gets credit for steering me in that direction (thanks, Dingo!).

The gist of it. During the first week of NaNoWriMo, Harlequin sponsored a program called "So You Think You Can Write?" on their blog - a five-day workshop on writing romance; how-to tips, advice from HQ writers and editors, and daily challenges where they invited writers to submit first chapters, query letters, and questions. The Final Challenge was to submit a first chapter and synopsis. Encouraged, prodded and generally kicked in the seat by my critique group, I submitted my entry. Which meant I had to write a full synopsis of the book. Which meant I had to really nail down what it was about and what would happen over the course of the story. Most of it was in my head, tumbling around without a finite sense of order, but getting it on paper really helped me focus on the details. By that point I'd not accomplished very much toward the total word count, but at least I'd accomplished something to build on. And build I did.

Higher math. Word count is a tricky thing. No, I did not write 50,000 this month. I did, however, delete about that much from the previous version of the manuscript. More importantly, I added 18,251 words of almost entirely original material - er, meaning, of course, that I re-used some of what I'd written before.

No excuses. I didn't accomplish what I set out to accomplish at the beginning of this month. I could list myriad reasons why ... day job, illness, laziness, Thanksgiving (14 people at the house for the day), and a bazillion other distractions. But there are no real excuses. When you're a writer, you make time to write. You just ... write.

What I did do was to accomplish a lot more than just slapping words on a page to reach a goal that might not mean much in the long run. What I did was to make real progress on this manuscript, and we're in a far better place now than we were when this madness started.

For my own sense of self-worth, it's not the win that counts, it's how you run the race. And I'm still running.

10.30.2010

A Month of Madness

November is National Novel Writing Month - affectionately referred to as NaNoWriMo. I did NaNoWriMo a few years back and came up with what is actually now (after many, many revisions) the manuscript currently on submission, No Evil Lost.

This year, I'm going to do NaNoWriMo again. The concept is simple - write 50,000 words in 30 days. No editing. No polishing. Just flat-out frenetic writing. Get words on page.

I'll try to put my word count up every couple of days just so you can keep track of my progress. You'll be my accountability partners - knowing I have to report in will motivate me to keep going. Keep in mind, the day job monopolizes my Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so I won't be writing much (if at all) on those days. But Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays - count on the numbers going up, up, up.

And feel free to wish me luck. Me and the other 100,000+ writers who are about to settle in for a month of crazy.

Are you a WriMo?

10.23.2010

A Book Lover's Paradise

The second weekend in October is highlighted on my calendar every year. This is the weekend that Humanities Tennessee hosts the Southern Festival of Books, a 3-day, free festival that offers book lovers a veritable smorgasbord of authors, publishers and booksellers. In one capacity or another, I have gone to or participated in SFB for about the past 7 years. This year was one I've enjoyed more than most.

For starters, my good friend and first independent reader (we call her the WMVR, or World's Most Voracious Reader) flew in from Florida for the weekend. I haven't seen her in a couple of years, and it was good for both of us. The two of us yutzed around the Festival on Friday and Saturday - the weather was perfect, the crowd was good, and the panels we chose to attend (see below) were entertaining and well-organized.

The WMVR doesn't read books, she devours them (that's a direct quote from her dad). And she's what we call a superfan. We writers love these people. They genuinely appreciate the effort that goes into our writing, the cultivation of our art and craft. They're well-read and knowledgeable about not only our books, but about literature in general. I stand in awe of those like the WMVR (and both my daughters, for that matter) who can read a book a day. And they encourage others to read - case in point to follow.

The first panel we attended on Friday included my sweet friend Bente Gallagher/Jennie Bentley (on the right). I've read the first two of Jennie's Do-It-Yourself mystery series, Fatal Fixer-Upper and Spackled and Spooked, and am currently reading DIY#3, Plaster and Poison. Too cute - well written and very readable. At the Festival, she talked about her new series, the Savannah Martin Real Estate series, and her first, A Cutthroat Business, is on my to-be-purchased list.

Later that afternoon we selected a panel that another writer friend was on, and discovered why The Pulpwood Queen's Book Club is "the largest 'meeting and discussing' book club in the world." Founder and Original PQ Kathy Patrick (center) was the moderator; her Friday panel featured "Great New Southern Fiction" and included (R to L) my friend River Jordan, Michael Morris (a delightful Southern gentleman), the adorable Denise Hildreth Jones, and the lovely Melissa Conroy. My bank account is not going to like me much when I drain the life out of it buying their books.

River and fellow Southern writer Susan Gregg Gilmore joined forces on Saturday morning for "Nixing the Nest: Novels of Women Ahead of Their Times." I've read Susan's wonderful second book, The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove (see this post from August), her first (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen) is now on my TBP list, and I'm currently reading River's The Miracle of Mercy Land.

(By the way, I have a tee shirt that our beloved Mamasan from my writers' group gave me a couple of years ago that says, "So many books, so little time." Are you getting the idea that this statement is my mantra?)

After a quick lunch of delicious pulled pork on the Plaza, we trucked up to the Capitol building for the highlight of our weekend - the panel featuring my uber-fabulous Wonder Twin JT Ellison (right), the super-cool Libby Fischer Hellmann (left) and the simply spectacular Erica Spindler (center). These ladies held their audience captive for an hour and a half talking about their thrilling books. JT's I've read, of course, but now Erica and Libby have a new fan (i.e., yours truly). The WMVR has read several of Erica's books and has added Libby to her new-found authors list.

The case in point I mentioned a few minutes ago? We went up to the Signing Colonnade after JT, Libby and Erica's panel, and we were walking around the sales tables (lined up end to end to end in a rectangle about 40 feet or so long by 10 wide, stacked and stacked and stacked with books - did I not tell you it was paradise?). We stopped near JT's stacks, and the WMVR got to talking with a couple of the Festival volunteers, two young ladies about high school age, who both said they liked to read but had not brought any money with them. Turns out they attend the very high school that's featured in JT's latest book, The Immortals. JT and I were talking and perusing, and the WMVR went over to the cash register to pay for her selections. A minute later, one of the other volunteers came up, handed JT two copies of her book and asked her to sign them for the teenagers - the WMVR had purchased them each a book. As she put it, "Anything to get kids to read." How awesome is that? (JT was beside herself. She said, "She really is a neat lady, isn't she?" Yes. Yes, she is.)

All in all, the weekend was - to put it mildly - ah-MAY-zing. There's nothing like abundant sunshine, thousands of books and throngs of book-loving people to get your spirits up. Can't wait to do it all over again next year.

Sigh. So many books, so little time ...

9.20.2010

Let's Do Lunch

Indulge me for a few minutes while I engage in a brief exercise. (Yes, it's a writing thing.)

On Thursday, I had lunch with a few other writers and book lovers, organized by the fabulous River Jordan. My critique partner/Wonder Twin was there, along with this very nice writer/professor guy (whom I have known for quite some time now), as well as a few new faces (incredibly interesting Brad, bubbly adorable Tomi, sweet lovely Gloria - all of whom were great company). We gathered at the Capitol Grille, the restaurant in the Hermitage Hotel in downtown Nashville.

Thank God for the Internet.

I'd never been there, but I'm thinking this is definitely not the kind of place that you can schlep in wearing your faded jeans and WILL TALK BOOKS WITH ANYONE t-shirt. No. (Picture Julia Roberts walking into the Regent Beverly Wilshire for the first time in Pretty Woman.)

So I find and peruse the website. Valet parking. Dress code. Doormen in those uniforms. FIVE. STARS.

I am not - not, I tell you - a 5-star hotel/restaurant kind of gal. I'm way more comfortable in said jeans and t-shirt than I am in a dress. But dress I did (blouse and skirt and sandals, quite appropriate, I discovered), and let the buff guy in the black slacks and golf shirt park my Honda, and let the doorman direct me to the restaurant (to the right and down the stairs, miss), and proceeded to enjoy a lovely lunch (quite reasonably priced, actually) with old friends and new. I even used my knife and fork (although admittedly did eat my dainty chips of the fish-and-chips special with my fingers, as everyone else who had it did too).

I felt so uptown, tipping the valet when he brought my car back. But I tell you, I couldn't get those nylons off fast enough when I got home.

Saturday, hubby had a rehearsal with the Nashville Praise Symphony (of which he has been a member since its inception in 2002 - pardon my pride moment there). Our youngest and her friend went with me to help serve lunch to the orchestra members. We set up tables, set out the food, poured drinks and cleaned up afterward. A couple of the other wives rounded out the serving team. As I stood back and observed the crowd (a sometimes unnerving habit of mine), I couldn't help but marvel at the stark contrast between the two days.

It's quite a study, really.

Thursday: Suits and skirts, valets and doormen, tips and tablecloths, and one stunning art deco men's room (yeah, you're supposed to see it, even if you're not men - JT took me in there). A relatively quiet, conservative atmosphere. Me, being served, even pampered a little.

Saturday: Jeans, t-shirts, shorts, golf shirts. Big Baptist church choir room. Lots of activity and fellowship. Me, serving other people.

As a writer, I can look at the two scenes as described above and picture them in my head (the fact that I was present for both aside). Can you? And can you see the differences beyond what I've listed here? You can picture it, can't you?

These are the kinds of things we think about when we're setting a scene. With a few notable but rare exceptions, not every story takes place in exactly the same setting, scene to scene. Right? Wouldn't you, as a reader, be bored to tears without a little variety (as I said, notable exceptions notwithstanding) within the story? The most exciting aspect of this is that every reader has his/her own imagination that fills in whatever gaps we writers might leave (purposely, because less is more), and may see each scene just a tiny bit differently than someone else sees it.

Character and plot are important, obviously, but you have to have setting to complete the triangle. How exciting would James Bond be if you couldn't see where he was? Or Lucas Davenport? Jack Reacher? And Taylor Jackson? I'm admittedly a bit biased when it comes to Taylor, but JT does an outstanding job of describing Nashville in her series. She insists the city is a character in and of itself, and it is, especially the way she draws it.

It would be interesting to see a list of books that you (gentle readers) consider great that take place all in one setting. I'm sure there are some out there, and I'll beg your forgiveness that I don't know any off the top of my head. But feel free to contribute your picks in the comments section. Or, if you want to expound on any that do incorporate setting well, please don't hesitate to list those too. We'd all like to see what you see.

Wouldn't we?

9.02.2010

I have an idea ...

It's the age-old question, the one every writer on the planet has been asked at least once (if not a bazillion times) - where do you get your ideas for your books? And every writer on the planet has pretty much the same answer, albeit in many, many different forms. The simple answer, at least from where I'm sitting, is ... from life itself.

For instance, after I dropped our youngest off at school this morning, I took the back way home, and at a stop sign I pulled up behind an SUV that had a Northern Arizona University sticker on the back window, along with an NAU Alumni license plate frame. (Having been born in Arizona and having spent part of my Air Force Brat childhood there, whenever I see anything from or about Arizona, it captures my attention.) My first thought was, I'm going to have to hit the Interweb when I get home and find out where Northern Arizona University is, exactly. (It’s in Flagstaff, in case you’re interested.) My second thought was, how did an NAU grad end up in Tennessee?

And there it is. It sprouts from a tiny seed of wonder into a full-blown barrage of questions. Was this person originally from Arizona? If so, where? How did s/he end up at NAU? What did s/he study there? What brought him/her to Tennessee? Is s/he married? Does s/he have children who might be going to school with mine? What does s/he do for a living now?

These are the kinds of questions you ask yourself, as a writer, when you're creating a character. Where did s/he come from? Where is s/he going? What makes him/her tick? Once you have your character in mind, then you get to wonder things like, what kind of job does this person have? What if s/he's, I don't know, say ... a cop? Or a private investigator? A lawyer? Which leads to more questions: Is s/he going to work, placing the SUV in this exact spot in front of me so that I could begin to wonder about all these things? What does this job have in store for this person today? What if this lawyer's most important client just discovered a dead body in his house ... and it isn't anyone he knows?

And there's an idea for a story. Admittedly not a great one, but maybe now you see my point. Ideas for our books take root and grow from the tiniest, sometimes most innocent, innocuous thoughts. And they grow, and grow, and eventually you have 95- to 100,000 words expanding on that single, tiny thought.

Our kitchen has a bay window that overlooks our back yard from second-story height. To the south of the window, off the hallway that leads to the garage and the other levels of the house, is a deck. Attached to the deck rail on the north side is a hummingbird feeder, which is strategically placed so that I can see it from - you guessed it - the bay window in the kitchen.

I love to sit here at the table and watch the hummingbirds. I watch the field birds (cardinals, finches, chickadees, jays, and the occasional woodpecker or oriole) eat from our bird feeders, which are smack in the middle of the back yard. I watch McCartney and Calliope (our English shepherd and miniature beagle, respectively) play and romp and chase each other all over the place. In the fall, I watch the deer come out of the woods to graze the long, flat rectangle of grass between the back of our yard and our neighbor's. And I sit at my kitchen table, watching the birds and dogs and deer and thanking God I have the ability and intelligence and insight to do this, because it brings me to a place of peace and relaxation so that my mind is free to ponder on the things I have observed, those things from whence my ideas for writing come.

What about you other writers? Do you answer this question - where do your ideas come from - in the same way? Do you look at life and say, what if ... ?

8.22.2010

The TBR Pile

Anyone who reads knows that at any given time she might have half a dozen or more books on the ol' TBR (that's To Be Read) pile. And by 'or more' I, of course, mean 87.

You think I'm exaggerating. Let me assure you I am not. As a matter of fact, I'm probably underestimating the actual total by ... well, a lot.

Now that I am free of some extra writing obligations, I'm making a promise of sorts to myself. A few years ago I set out to read at least one book a week (and almost made it, 2 years in a row). I'm going to try again. At that book-per-week rate, I have enough on the TBR pile to get through the next year and a half (at least).

At some point I really need to go through the bazillion (again, not exaggerating) books on my study shelves, sort and reorganize them. I'm not a type A personality, really. But it's just a real mess. I have books shelved and double-shelved, stacked and double-stacked. It's bordering on ridiculous. My husband suggested at one point in the past that I should (gasp) get rid of some of them. My look of horror followed by the rather feral snarl that erupted from deep within my core must have been enough to convince him to never (ever) make that suggestion again.


Tuesday last my Wonder Twin and I met up at a book signing at Davis-Kidd Booksellers here in Nashville. I have a hard time going to a book signing and not buying the author's book. In this case, I'm very glad I did. Currently on my nightstand is a lovely Southern fiction book called The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore. I'm less than halfway through it at this point, but I only started it yesterday. Let me just say - AH. MAY. ZING. As soon as I finish this one I'm putting Susan's first, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, on the To Be Purchased list. Sigh. Which also has about 87 books on it.

It's a lazy, sunny Sunday afternoon in the South. The weather forecast is pretty much the same for the entire week - abundant sunshine with highs in the upper 80s to low 90s. Which would be gorgeous if it weren't for the humidity that seems to be a prerequisite for any state south of the Mason-Dixon line. Perfect for staying in the AC and reading a book.

What's on your TBR pile?

8.16.2010

Reading, Writing, and ... No, Just Reading and Writing

I can now say I have read the entire Twilight series. And enjoyed reading it. But I'm not going to get into a long, drawn-out, detailed, element-by-element comparison between Twilight and Harry Potter, as I've seen happen waaaaaay too often in the forums devoted to such. On my list, Harry wins. Hands down.

As a writer, I tend to be - at least subconsciously - more critical when I read. I'm reading our church book club selection, and it's a lovely book, but I almost threw the thing across the room when the author described this particular Veteran's Day as one of the warmest of October. What went through my mind at the time was, how did the author make that mistake and nobody catch it?

Because my Wonder Twin is about to release her fifth novel, I've learned a bit about how the whole manuscript-to-book process works. At least four people (sometimes more) read the thing before it goes to print. Could one of these four not have fixed this glaring error? (To be fair, it may only be glaring to me, considering I'm the daughter of a veteran, but still. Look at a calendar, for Pete's sake.)

Our critique group has an unwritten list of rules for writing well. One of these rules is, Variety is Queen. Especially when it comes to adjectives (which are not evil, really). Don't use the same word to describe something over and over again, or even different somethings ... for instance, do you have any idea how many synonyms there are for the word 'good'? The late, great George Carlin used to do a bit about 'nice' - "He's so nice, and she's so nice, and they're so nice together, and isn't that nice?" And from one of my fave movies, Pretty Woman: "I'm fine." / "That's seven 'fines' since we left the match. Could I have another word, please?" / "[Expletive]. There's a word." / "I think I liked 'fine' better."

Maybe I'm hypersensitive, or hypercritical. Maybe it's just ingrained in my psyche from being in my fabulous writers' group. But when I read books that break our rules, I cringe. Not that I always follow them, either, but just as there are unwritten rules with our group, there also seem to be unwritten exceptions. Not always, but sometimes.

Today I'm reading more than I'm writing. I added 3000 words to the WIP over the weekend, most of which will constitute my 10 pages to take to group Wednesday night. I'll be out of pocket tomorrow evening, so I'll probably print those 10 pages today so they'll be ready. That small burden lifted leaves me time to finish this book club selection as well as catch up a bit on my saved industry articles I've been promising myself I'd read.

Sigh. So much to do, so little time.

What are you reading?

8.05.2010

Girls' Day Out

My youngest and I are going up to the lake to spend the day with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law - 'just us girls,' while the boys are on their annual fishing trip.

I'm taking three books with me - finally got Breaking Dawn back; also have a book called Babydoll (a Saylor Oz mystery by Allyson Roy) and Karen Kingsbury's Take Four that we're reading for our church book club. Not that I expect to get all three read today, of course. But I do expect to make a huge dent ... er, let's say move the bookmark back a lot of pages.

Our day is all about relaxing and enjoying the quiet of our surroundings and doing practically nothing. Last year it was just my MIL and I, so we'll have to see how adding 2 more to the mix affects the dynamic. I have a feeling there will be card games in our future too.

Enjoy your day today - if you're in the South like me, it's darn hot, so keep cool. We're apparently going to be spending the day in the camper with the AC on. I'm okay with that. ;)

And read a book!

7.31.2010

A Writing Day

I have a lot on my plate today. The to-do list is 9 or 10 items long. But prominently featured on today's list is a goal of writing 1500 words.

Having a day job, I don't get many writing days.

Let me rephrase that. Having a day job and a household to maintain (1 hubby, 3 kids, 4 cats and 2 dogs), I don't get many writing days.

But hubby and our son are off on their annual fishing trip, our oldest is now living in her own apartment, and the youngest spent the night at her best friend's house, so I have 3500 square feet of pure peace and quiet in which to write. As my uber-fabulous critique partner would say: Bliss.

Time to put on the music and ... well, write.

Is today a writing day for you?

7.26.2010

Recent Reads

I have read some terrific books lately but have been woefully neglectful about sharing them here. Bad, bad me. So, without further ado ...

Notes from the Underwire: Adventures from My Awkward and Lovely Life by Quinn Cummings. A new friend gave this to me for my birthday eons ago, and I finally had the chance to read it. What a precious, heartwrenching, funny, marvelous book. Really. Read it. You won't be sorry.


Original Sin by Allison Brennan. Excellent paranormal thriller, the first in the Seven Deadly Sins series. Makes you want to sleep with the lights on. I really like her main character, Moira O'Donnell - she's smart and sexy, but she's one of those atypical heroines that you just have to like because she's about the farthest from perfect you can get and knows it. The second in the series, Carnal Sin, was just released in June, and it's on my to be purchased list.

Twilight. I mentioned in last Thursday's post that I've read the first three in this series. I did enjoy them, although at one point I was starting to get really tired of hearing how much pain Bella was in and how gorgeous Edward is. Whine, whine, whine. Enough, already - get to the good stuff! But she did, and I enjoyed the read. Now I just have to see how it all ends, as soon as my daughter gets #4 back from her friend's stepmother.

I'm always looking for new books to read, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to post them in the comments.

Until later!

7.24.2010

Starting Fresh

My fabulous and invaluable critique partner JT Ellison and I, along with several other members of our critique group, have been discussing my writing career. There's so much to think about! One thing I do know is that I want to be published again. The old me is backlisted forever. The new me is furiously trying to get back in the game.

I'm discovering how much has changed in the publishing industry, and I'm teetering dangerously on the brink of information overload. But I'm making a commitment, here and now, to devote at least a small percentage of each and every day to catching up on what's been happening in this crazy mixed-up, outrageously fun, virulent, vibrant world we call the publishing industry while I've been out of commission.

We'll still talk books here, but I'm adding a little bit of writing discussion to the forum too. Writing is my life (again), and I hope you'll take the journey with me.

7.22.2010

Reorganizing the Bookshelf

I'm now on Twitter - follow me at www.twitter.com/gimmeromance.

It's obviously taken some time, but I'm finally back to the point where I'm writing - and reading - again. Things may change a little bit around here, but you'll know when it does.

In the meantime, what's currently on the nightstand is the Twilight series. I'm through books 1-3 (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse) and am awaiting the return of Breaking Dawn, which is apparently on loan from my daughter to one of her friends.

I like this series, although I don't think I'll ever be as obsessed with it as I am with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. Sigh - I guess it's true, you never forget your first love. ;)

More soon. The study needs to be cleaned out, and then this writer is going to be writing again.