Category Archives: Writing

Deep Breath In

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Deep Breath Out.

SO. American Title 3 starts tomorrow at Romantic Times. You can vote there (and read the work) or you can vote by email …

TO:webmaster@romantictimes.com
SUBJECT: RISING SIN

I’m a little nervous, but I’m bearing up under the strain. Just in case you are not entirely sure what’s happening tomorrow these are the details…

At approximately 11AM EST Romantic Times will post the ten finalist’s biographies, pictures and first lines. THE JUDGES will have commented ala Simon, Paula and Randy style.

You then click on the voting link. Put RISING SIN in the subject line if that’s your choice…I’m not above begging at this point, so please do! Now press Send.

Tell all your friends about the contest. Tell all your family. Tell everyone. This is a wonderful thing to have happen and I’m delighted to share the experience with you all and delighted that you’ve come to support me. Thanks!

NOW a random sampling from the judge’s comments in the very first American Title contest…you can see how their approach differs.

FLAVIA KNIGHTSBRIDGE: Your previous entries really shone, but this one makes the story seem cliched.
HILARY ROSS: The mix-up that has the hero and heroine rooming together doesn’t seem credible, at least as presented. And the heroine’s “tick-list” that the hero helps her with seems a rather bizarre contrivance.
LESLIE KAZANJIAN: Kate and Nick sound adorable, the plot wackily wonderful. I fully expect these two to make major waves with their reluctant shipboard romance–and to tug on our heartstrings along the way. This story promises satisfying character development along with a fun plot–always a winner in my book.

I’m not sure what the judges will have to say about my entry, but I’m bracing for the worst and anticipating the best. That way I’ve got both spectrums covered.

Friends and Family

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Thursday, October 19th, 2006

Boys laughing

Can I just take this opportunity to say how glad I am to have friends and family like you?

The efforts that you are all making on my behalf are tremendous and I appreciate them so much.

And to those of you who are popping up out of the woodwork (hi Terrina!), don’t be afraid to drop me a line in the comments box. I’d love to hear from you!

Honestly, you have no clue what your support for the contest means to me. It warms my heart and brings tears to my eyes.

You guys are the best.

Rocking With The Goat!

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Monday, October 16th, 2006

The GoatTune in tomorrow morning between 10:30 am and 1:00 pm (MST) as I give a little interview with Kasz and John on the Daily Grind brought to you by the fun folks at Border Rock 106.1 FM The Goat!

Quick Facts for American Title III

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Voting begins Oct. 16-29 for Best First Line.
My entry is RISING SIN.
One vote per email address.
The webpage at Romantic Times with the contestant’s pictures, biographies and First Lines will be up SOON. Keep checking!

To join my yahoo group, go here.
There are links to my fellow finalists in the sidebar (those who have websites/blogs).

Queries, concerns, congratulations? Feel free to use the comments!

Fingers crossed!
And don’t forget to spread the word!

American Title III

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My home page tells me…

Information which you receive from others and from within your own heart could impel you to participate in some ambitious projects, dear Libra. They may be work-related, or they may be connected with a group, or they could be your own. Whichever they are, you’re likely to find them interesting, challenging, and personally gratifying. New opportunities for advancement and self-expression could be opening up for you, and it’s best to move ahead now. Otherwise they might pass you by.

And FreeWill tells me…

“Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo,” writes the poet Rumi, as translated by Coleman Barks. “You might say, ‘The world outside is vast and intricate. There are wheat fields and mountain passes and orchards in bloom. At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding.’ You ask the embryo why he or she stays cooped up in the dark with eyes closed. Listen to the answer. ‘There is no other world. I only know what I’ve experienced. You must be hallucinating.’” Now I say to you, Libra, that you are the embryo Rumi and Barks are addressing. Consider the possibility that they’re telling the truth. Come out and take a look around.

So in lieu of that…

ahem…cough…cough…stepping up to the podium.

I am thrilled to announce that RISING SIN, my romantic suspense manuscript is a finalist in the Romantic Times American Title III contest.

I’d like to thank Romantic Times for this opportunity and all of you who have helped me arrive at this point. Thank you all ever so much.

…stepping back.

I’m going to have to get better at self promotion, aren’t I?

Seriously, I might seem too calm and composed for such news, but it’s only because I’ve had almost a week to let the information digest.

For those of you who are unaware, there are 10 chosen finalists and each month starting in OCTOBER 16 people like YOU will vote for their favorites until only 2 finalists remain. The winner is awarded a PUBLISHING CONTRACT with Dorchester Publishing.

So. You can see that this is a BIG deal.

When I received the news (by email) DDs thought I was losing my mind. I don’t blame them. I yelled and jumped and WHOOTED.

I scared the dog, too. He’s still leery when I’m around.

But, as you can see, I’m in control of my faculties now. I hardly ever yell and jump and WHOOT anymore.

Well, not all three at once anyway.  ;)

Sorry, I Meant to Say…

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The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are 2005’s winners:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and a you know what.

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting some.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

11. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

12. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.

13. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

14. Glibido: All talk and no action.

15. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

16. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

17. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

18. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.

The Golden Heart

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Today’s the day, folks. Honestly, I’ve not been counting done the days or anything like that, just glancing at the calendar every once in awhile noting that the day is closer and closer.

Doing that has made me realize how quickly the time is passing and I find it rather alarming.

I remember the days of my youth when time would draaaaaag out and it seemed I’d never get to that next aging ‘pinnacle’, whether it was getting my driver’s license or turning 18 or whatever. Once you’ve passed all those milestones, it reinforces (to me, at least) that it’s important to keep setting your own goals and milestones so that you don’t become bogged down in a one-step-after-the-other, putting-in-your-time kind of attitude that takes you into old age where you suddenly say, “Where did my life go?”.

Because honestly, that’s scary.

Yes, the bills need to be paid and the housework needs to be done, but there’s so much more to life!
Sea to Sky highwayWe’ve each been given a life to celebrate, so let’s each one of us make the best of it.

Day in and day out finding happiness and looking for the beauty in all the little things…the way the sun glints off water…the way a snowflake falls to the ground…the laugh of a child…the lines of wisdom marking your face or that of someone you love.

Patterns of beauty are all around us. We only need to take the time to appreciate them. And ourselves.

So much to see and do. Pick the important stuff.

Be good to yourself. Be happy.

And if you want to keep track of the finalists for both the Golden Heart and The Rita, I’m told this is the place to be.

Lessons Learned

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When David Morrell’s Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing was first published, I didn’t read it. Saw it advertised and it piqued my interest a bit, but my TBR pile was already *huge* and I didn’t much feel like adding to the stack already leaning precariously.

But then Toni, Loreth and I were having a discussion awhile back (as we are prone to do) and Loreth recommended it.

Whammo! Instant bypass of the TBR pile (similar, in fact, to a MS bypassing the slushpile with the coveted ‘Requested Material’ moniker).

And now I’ve read it and I’m glad I did.

The thing I like the most about it?

First of all, what’s not to like, but besides all the great practical advice presented in a practical manner, I am impressed with the fact that Mr. Morrell doesn’t look down his nose at the varied genres of fiction.

At all.

It’s a we’re-all-in-the-same-boat-folks-let’s-row-together kind of attitude he presents and it’s refreshing to say the least. As some of you know, that’s not an attitude every writer/agent/editor shares. Should be, but unfortunately it isn’t. Mr. Morrell does his best to dispel of it, though. Kudos to him. And to Loreth for recommending the book.

Confessions

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It’s confession time.

On a few fronts.

First off.

The other day?

I’m loathe to admit it, but the green-eyed monster of envy raked her insidious claws through my psyche and made me bleed.

It wasn’t pretty by any means.

I brought it on myself and I should have known better, but still, it happened and I’m not going to pretend it never happened.

You see, my mother-in-law sent me a STARS calendar because she’d made a generous donation and they’d given her extra…

…you’re rolling your eyes right now, aren’t you?… Thinking, ‘Oh, boy, here she goes again on some wacked out dot-to-dot tangent that may or may not demonstrate a correlation to her title up top’…

Well. You’re right. This is going to be one of those dot to dot kinds of stories, because sometimes things just aren’t as linear as we’d like them to be. Now. Back to my point and I do have one–honest.

So, I’ve got the STARS (Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society) calendar hanging on my office wall and of course, I read January’s story about the poor little girl who’d impaled her palette and then her brain with a chopstick (she’s okay, don’t worry!) and because this particular incident happened near my hometown, I’m looking at the picture of the little girl and her mom and I’m thinking, “Do I know this lady?”

I don’t recognize the mom, but then I read the story again and take better note of the little girl’s last name. It doesn’t take much for me to determine that quite likely, given this little girl’s age and her last name, that I know and went to highschool with her dad (believe me, the towns where I grew up are small–we’re talking two hundred and fifty if you count the cats).

So now I’m thinking about this little girl’s dad, who I didn’t know that well, but he happened to be friends with one of my friends.

Now I lost track of this particular friend years ago. So what does one do in this day and age to find someone?

They GOOGLE!

So I GOOGLED my friend and guess what?

Turns out he’s a columnist for a prominent national newspaper and after the two seconds it takes me to be glad and think, “Cool! Good for him,” something entirely different rolls in and takes over.

Something along the lines of “What makes you think you’ve got what it takes to be published?”

KAPOW!

Totally blindsided and there I was…down on myself, green-eyed and snarky.

It was quite the experience as I’m not usually prone to that kind of stuff and I’d like to say I talked myself out of it, but I didn’t. In fact, I stewed and brewed and got worse (and that is not an writer’s euphemism for ate myself sick and drank myself silly, either!)

Luckily, there’s such a thing as mail in this country and it just happened that I was in town to get ours and in it was the SASP that I’d included with my thank you letter to Jessica Alvarez (who you remember had RISING SIN) offering her a chance to look at TRAIL OF REDEMPTION.

And on that SASP was her request for TRAIL.

Not the partial, but the full and I didn’t even send a synopsis! Bless her dear assistant editorial soul, she’s willing to read it because she’s liked my previous work.

Good-bye green eyes, welcome back blue!

So there you have it. My first installment of confessions. Stay tuned for more dirt.

TextAloud

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It’s been ages since I’ve been. Apologies, but we’ve been steamrolled with activities in our house.

RISING SIN is in the mail. It’s not in Texas yet, but it should be arriving any second now. Well. Not really. They won’t deliver on the weekend, so let’s just say Monday. :)

SO, while I was editing the ms for the Golden Heart, I stumbled across a tidbit of advice on one of the RWA writing loops regarding TextAloud.

Basically it’s a reading program that reads your work, emails, webpages, ebooks, etc. to you. I quite liked using it — I was able to catch repeated words that I’ve never noticed before (when you’ve got “delicious” sitting 3 times within 2 paragraphs, it’s bound to drive some reader/editor crazy — and not in a good way).

My only complaint is that the free download trial version gives you “Mary” who doesn’t sound as nearly as spiffy as any of the Natural Voice crowd (who you pay the big bucks for…kinda like a high school clique thing, I guess).

*But*, that being said, I got quite used to Mary and her slightly stilted pronounciation. I even became accustomed to her pronouncing my hero as Za–cheery-ah Boddin instead of the more masculine and American sounding, Zachariah Bodine. It gave him a kind of international flair, I thought. ;)