Home from Huntsville

The Heart of Dixie Romance Reader's Luncheon was lots of fun, but I've discovered I'm not a good traveler. Although the bed was perfectly lovely, it wasn't MY bed, and so I didn't sleep well. The room had a nice air conditioner, but I like to sleep under a fan with the air circulating, so I felt hot all night.

But it was lovely to see all my Heart of Dixie buddies. Stephanie Bond gave a hilarious (and uncomfortably close to home) luncheon talk about procrastination and deadlines. And I got to sign my first autograph!

It's constantly amazing to me that readers will drive for miles (one lady came from OHIO!) just to meet the writers whose works they love. It's also humbling when you're in the position of the writer and realize that people really care about the stories you tell.

I met one lady, Ismaina (and I know I've probably bungled the spelling of her name--sorry!) who drove up this morning from Pensacola--a six hour drive--just because she loves the writing of Linda Howard and Beverly Barton. She said that Linda's McKenzies series was like prozac for her after a stressful day. Beautiful--and awesome. She's a mosaicist and has done a mosaic of characters from Linda's books. Linda made those characters so real to her that she was able to find in them inspiration for her own art.

I've decided now that that's my goal as a writer. I want to write well enough that an Ismaina out there finds my stories and characters so compelling and real that they inspire her to create something new and beautiful of her own. It's a worthy goal, don't you think?

It's HERE!

I'm holding my book in my hot little hands (well, not this second--I'm typing with my hot little hands at the moment). It's so purrrrrty!

I ordered it from eHarlequin and had it sent rush because my author's copies haven't arrived yet, and I wanted to have a book to put in my basket for Saturday's Heart of Dixie Readers Luncheon. I ordered three copies so I'd have one for me and one to send to a reviewer who's requested it. They arrived this afternoon.

Wheeee!

It's so strange to see my words and my characters on a printed page. So very strange.

And lovely.

And the Blond Hottie Winner Is...

Josh Holloway

Southern and sexy, with dark depths that keep you off balance, Josh Holloway took the character of James Ford, aka Sawyer, into fascinating territory on LOST. Mercurial, tortured, ruthless and self-destructive, Sawyer is possibly the most watchable character on the show, and much of the credit has to go to Holloway.

And his dimples.

Interesting Article About the Romance Industry

In yesterday's WASHINGTON POST, writer Sara Fitzgerald looks at Romance, Writ Large, covering a variety of romance genres and publishing houses in this serious, straightforward look at what romance literature has become in the 21st century. There are some interesting insights from authors about their own genres, including a thought-provoking quote from Kimani Press-Arabesque author Michelle Monkou:

Monkou notes that in the African American sub-genre, "street fiction is the big thing, ghetto lit, urban lit . . . cautionary tales using gritty real-life examples. So instead of the hero being middle-income or a CEO, maybe the hero is an ex-drug dealer who is now trying to turn his life around and the street is calling him. It's definitely not the type of story that would have fit in the romance guidelines of yesteryear. These books are flying off the shelves with fairly young ages, which is kind of scary."

As they say, read the whole thing.

It's here!

FORBIDDEN TERRITORY is available for purchase from eHarlequin.com.

Eeee, I'm all squealy at seeing it there on the Harlequin website.

Website Redesign

I managed to go a whole seven or eight months before I completely redid my website this time. I just decided the white background, while very readable, wasn't very atmospheric for a romantic suspense writer.

So I redid the site. I also created my first ever Flash movie for my book--go to my website and check it out! (But when you reach the end of the movie, don't click where it says click--instead, click on "skip movie" to get to the next page. I'm not sure why the click-through doesn't work, but I've done about all the web design I plan to do today).

Final note--tomorrow, May 1st, FORBIDDEN TERRITORY should be available through the Harlequin Website.

Guys Watching 24

This is hilarious.

I just want to know how they managed to get the commercial break to last that long. I can't even take a quick bathroom break without missing the first part of the next act.

Where Have All the Blond Hotties Gone?

I'm trying to cast the hero of my new WIP, and I thought I'd go with a blondish hero for a change. But I'm having a hard time casting him. I think the problem is that while I find some blond guys cute, I don't always consider them romantic suspense hero material.

Take Dierks Bentley.

Cute, cute, cute, and sexy in a boyish way. Boyish being the operative word. He's perfect as a beta hero in a sweet romance, but I'm just not buying him as an action hero.

How about Jensen Ackles?

Sexy, pouty, pretty. Too pretty. And a little too young.

I've always had a soft spot for Sean Bean. Rugged, British, sexy.

But he's edging toward too old for a category romance hero, and definitely too old for my current hero.

What about Leslie Wainger's beloved Viggo Mortensen?

Kinda hot as Aragorn. Not so hot as Viggo. Don't tell Leslie I said that.

I know, I know! David Wenham.

Sexy as Faramir. Freckly and dorky as David.

And while I'd say Kiefer Sutherland's definitely hero material...

...he's already cast in my WIP as the ruthless CIA spymaster who will manipulate several couples over the course of my upcoming series before he meets his own love match.

So tell me. What blond hotties am I forgetting?

Contest! (UPDATED)

I'm running my first contest, and the prize is a $20 gift certificate from Amazon.com.

This is the easiest contest ever! All you have to do is go to my website, check out the contest corner and click on the link to an excerpt from my upcoming book, FORBIDDEN TERRITORY. Answer the question posed there and be the first to email me. Voila! Instant gift certificate.

Once I get my author's copies of FORBIDDEN TERRITORY, I'll be holding more contests to give autographed books away.

UPDATE

Congratulations to Jennifer McKenzie, who correctly answered the contest question first and will receive a $20 gift certificate.

Check back often for more contests.

Chunk RIP

Best. Cat. Ever.

I'm going to miss her terribly.

Four Stars from Romantic Times!

I have no idea what the Romantic Times reviewer actually said about my book, but she gave it four stars!

Anybody with online access to RT's subscription services want to check it out and e-mail me the details? My e-mail's listed in my profile. (I'm an RT subscriber, but my magazine comes in a wrapper, and I always forget and throw away the wrapper before I save my membership number, which is what's necessary for registering online).

UPDATE

Thanks bunches to Gina Black for e-mailing me the review, which is just lovely:

FORBIDDEN TERRITORY
by Paula Graves
RT Rating: 4 stars
Category: SERIES
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: June 2006
Line: Harlequin Intrigue

Psychic Lily Browning may be the only hope a kidnapped child has, but dubious detective J. McBride suspects she has ulterior motives. Lily is used to the doubts about her gift, but is drawn to help the child; McBride is tough and tender, and reluctantly sizzles in Lily's arms. A past incident has colored McBride's perception but he can't deny the attraction he feels as he wades into Forbidden Territory (4) in Paula Graves' wonderfully twisted story of compelling people dealing with a terrifying situation. When McBride's secret pain is revealed, can he trust Lily enough to love her?

- Pat Cooper

Chunk Update

Chunk is staying at the vet's overnight. It's still up in the air whether or not she can improve. She doesn't have diabetes, and her liver function is fine. But the doctor's worried about her kidney function, plus she's still not eating. He's putting her on IV fluids and a stronger antibiotic for her upper respiratory infection. By tomorrow, we'll have a good idea whether this is something she can get through or not.

Difficult Weekend

My oldest cat, Chunk, the love of my life, is going downhill. She's only sixteen, but she's had thyroid trouble for the past couple of years, and over the past three or four days, she's deteriorated quickly. My mom's taking her to the vet again tomorrow morning. The doctor will probably do tests to see if she has diabetes, too, and then we'll have some decisions to make.

If he doesn't think she'll get significantly better than she is now, even with treatment, I can't let her go on this way. She's tottery, has lost interest in food or socializing, and it's just no life for a cat. It will break my heart, but seeing her the way she is has already broken it, so what's a few more tears? At least she'll be at rest.

So, y'all be thinking of me and my cat tomorrow. I'll post an update when I know more.

Free Books!

Tracy Montoya's giving a free book to the first three people to post comments on some of her past blog entries. If you haven't read her Intrigues, you're in for a treat! Go. Comment. Win!

Today on Romance Magicians . . .

I blogged on using the neglected senses in your writing over on Romance Magicians, my local RWA chapter's group blog. While you're there, check out some of the previous blog entries--we have a talented bunch of writers contributing to the blog.

"Don't Make Me Do It, Helen..."

Blogs4Bauer suggests that, with the resignation of Scott McClellan as White House spokesman, the perfect replacement would be Jack Bauer.


B4B's Top 10 Changes Jack Bauer Would Bring to the White House Press Corps:

10. Positive stories about Bush increase 145% in his first hour alone.

9. Five moles weeded out of press corps by Bauer.

8. Ask a stupid question; get hooked up to the sensory deprivation device.

7. Podium replaced with bullet-proof barrier with gun ports.

6. All press conferences last an hour, with all tough questions coming at 45 minutes past the hour.

5. By the end of a press conference, a minimum of 34 people would have been killed.

4. "No comment" replaced by "We don't have time for that question".

3. Gary Bauer mistakenly showed up to a press conference, once.

2. All comments will be yelled.

1. Blogs4Bauer starts to live-blog press conferences.

Post-Easter Opportunism

So my six-year-old niece comes into my room last night, carrying a little tray of her easter candy. "Aunt Paula, would you like a piece of candy?"

Awww, how sweet. I pick out a little yellow M & M and make a big deal of how good it is.

Ashlee flashes me her sweetest smile. "Two cents, please."

Free market grade-schoolers. Gotta love 'em.

(But she needs to work on her pricing analysis. I bought a little chocolate bunny for a quarter, when I figure I'd have paid at least twice that at the grocery store. Free market goes both way, baby cakes. Welcome to Capitalism).

Someone Must've Bought a Book

As of 8:44 pm CDT, FORBIDDEN TERRITORY was ranked #10 among all Intrigues on the Amazon.com top seller's list.

I know it's really not much to be #10 on such a narrow list for such a narrow period of time, but I'm all squishy inside about it anyway. :)

My Version of the Biological Clock

So I had this dream last night about kittens. In the dream, I found four little kittens, darling little things about six weeks old, just weaned. I can even remember what they looked like--three were tabby mixes, two brown tabbies with a lot of white and one silver tabby with a lot of white. The fourth one was a tortoiseshell. A male tortie, which made him extremely rare, since most tricolored cats are females.

I decided to keep the tortie and spent the rest of the dream trying to find good homes for the other three. When I woke up, I wasn't sure whether to feel sad or relieved.

When I first moved out of my family home many years ago, I got a couple of cats to keep me company. Within three years, my cat household grew to five, despite my conscientiousness about spaying and neutering, because I am apparently a stray magnet. However, of the original five, only two are left. Chunk is sixteen and in relatively fragile condition due to her thyroid problem, and Samantha is thirteen and still fairly healthy, but she has a growing dark spot in her left eye that the vets say is probably a slow-growing tumor. My mom had a cat with the same condition. She eventually lost the eye, not too long before she finally died at the age of nineteen.

As my cats get older and my time with them grows shorter, I'm struggling with the need to have a new little face in my life. I can't do that, though, because I no longer live alone. My mom and my sister and her kids live with me. And I'm not the only one in the household with cats. We have two young ones--under the age of three--that my mother and I found when they were tiny kittens. My sister has three cats of various ages, from eight to seventeen, and my mom has a seventeen year old cat as well. Plus the two dogs. We don't need any more animals.

But if a male tortie wanders up, I swear I'm going to consider it a sign . . . .

Fishing With Mom

Alas, we didn't exactly fill a creel this morning when my mom and I went fishing, but the day was enjoyable regardless. We drove up to my uncle's little RV trailer on the banks of Lake Guntersville and caught a few bluegills. Only one was really big enough to consider keeping, but since I'm the fish cleaner in the household, I quickly decided it was going back into the lake.

The sunscreen did its job; I'm a little more freckled, perhaps, than usual, but no sunburn in sight. And we really didn't get hot until around 11 am, and even then, the occasional breeze off the lake kept us from getting too uncomfortable.

It was nice to spend time with my mom doing something we both love to do. Unlike a lot of mothers and daughters, my mom and I have always had a close relationship, as much friends as parent and child. I suspect that if I'd been a more difficult or rebellious child, that relationship wouldn't have been possible, because my mom is pretty firm about being a parent to her children and setting boundaries. But I never felt constricted by her boundaries, and I'm very grateful to have had such a terrific mom all these years.

When my ultra-pragmatic father tried to convince me that I was wasting my time trying to write and get published, my mom was the one who didn't let me stop dreaming. She always wanted to be a writer when she was young, and she made sure I never had to give up my dream the way she'd given up hers.

When I sold my first book, she was out of town. The most vivid memory I have of that day was trying to track my mother down at the beach to tell her I'd sold a book. I reached her, finally, when I got home from work, and our conversation was short because she and her friends were headed to the beach. But it wouldn't have felt real without talking to my mom. Unfortunately, my father never lived to see that my goal of selling a book wasn't so unpractical after all. But I think he knows about it anyway.

A Book by Any Other Name . . .

My friend Debbie Matthews pointed out this interesting article on book titles.

I got lucky with FORBIDDEN TERRITORY. Not too many books by that name, believe it or not. And I haven't found many books with the title DANGEROUS PURSUIT, either, so if my second book sells and the editor likes the title, I may be in good shape there, too.

Just Dribs and Drabs

A few things that have occurred to me over the past couple of days.

1) I don't have a problem with President Weenie on 24 being behind a lot of the bad stuff going on. Sometimes great evil comes not out of strength but out of weakness. However, I'm having a lot of trouble buying that a guy like RoboCop would actually kill innocent people to protect President Weenie.

2) Who's idea was Queen night on American Idol???

3) The first season of Nashville Star was great. The subsequent seasons have gone downhill. Now we're stuck with Wynonna Judd and Cowboy Troy as the cohosts, and the show couldn't even manage to get three judges to agree to judge each night, so they have a guest host each week. And I swear, if Wynonna does any more of her WomynPower schtick or calls one more woman "sister-friend," I may explode. Yeah, we get it. Women are powerful and awesome and have a right to seek their dreams. Now shut up and let the contestants sing, please! (On the up side, the contestants each year have been pretty darned good. And I rather like Phil Vassar, one of the judges).

4) I had a dream the other night where I conflated Tom Amandes of Everwood with Hugh Laurie of House, MD. Apparently I have a thing for sarcastic, dyspeptic TV doctors.

Super News

Literally. Congratulations to Adele Gautier, my FTHRW chaptermate who just sold to Harlequin Superromance!

How Did I Miss This?

Belated but heartfelt congratulations to Marley Gibson, whose quest for publication I've been watching for a while, on selling a YA series to Puffin, a subsidiary of the Penguin group.

Way to go, Marley!

Standalones vs. Series

If my editor buys my second book, then my first two published books will be connected books rather than standalones. The heroines of these two books are sisters, both with paranormal gifts that affect the plot of the stories. There's a third sister, but I currently have no story for her. It may just end up being a two-book series.

I have another completed manuscript that I think may eventually sell, but it's not connected to anything I've written before or anything I've got in the works. I suppose there are secondary characters in the story who could warrant their own book, but I haven't really thought toward that. So it may turn out to be a true standalone.

And the WIP I'm working on now is planned to be the first in an ongoing series about a private international security and threat assessment agency made up of former government agents from a variety of agencies (and even countries) who all shared a common past experience--a deadly terrorist incident in a fictional central asian country. This experience will in some way inform and affect the characters and their stories in each manuscript.

Personally, I love interconnected series. I'm a big fan of Gayle Wilson's Phoenix Brotherhood, Deb Webb's Colby Agency books, Dana Marton's SDDU series, etc. But do readers get turned off by series, fearing that if they come in on things in the middle, they won't know what's going on?

So, what about you? Do you like series books (specifically in category lines) or do you prefer standalones? If you're a writer, which do you prefer to write?

Today on Romance Magicians

Well, I managed to come up with something to blog.

Check out "The Creative Power of Dissatisfaction" on Romance Magicians.

Performance Anxiety

Tomorrow I have to blog on my RWA chapter's group blog, Romance Magicians.

And I got nothin'.

Zip.

Anybody have any ideas? Any burning issues in publishing that need to be addressed? Any superduper new software that writes your synopsis for you? (hmm....money-making idea forming...)

Oh No He DINT!

I don't normally Idol-blog. It's not something I'm proud of watching or anything. But I just have to say this...

Excuse me, Mr. Simon "My tight T-shirt cuts off the circulation to my brain" Cowell...but that Keith Urban song you just dissed was written by Mr. Rodney Crowell, who has more musical talent (and sense) in the fingertip of his little finger than you have in your whole swelled head. Normally, I'm with you on about all of your judgments, Simon...but you have no business judging Country Music night when you obviously don't have a clue what Country Music is all about.

By the way, Simon has been right about most of the song choices on this particular American Idol episode. Um, Taylor, baby, I was expecting something like "Desperado" or one of the half a freakin' billion bluesy country songs out there. Not "Country Road, Take Me Home," which was old and stale THIRTY YEARS AGO. What were you THINKING??? That's the song I taught myself to play guitar with...when I was EIGHT.

Mandisa singing Shania is just wrong. On a bad day, Mandisa makes Shania sound like a karaoke queen. She has the pipes to sing the stew out of a Trisha Yearwood or Martina McBride power ballad. I'd have paid money to hear her do "Georgia Rain" or "Independence Day."

Ace, Paris, Bucky, Kellie, Chris and Katharine all chose good songs. Props for that. Elliot continues to impress.

Still shaking my head over Taylor's choice, though. Let's hope it doesn't get him kicked off the show. That would be a shame.

Update on Book Two

I heard from my editor. She's given me the greenlight to proceed with DANGEROUS PURSUIT (good thing, since the first draft is finished). She had notes for me, none of which looked scary, and I'm hoping to have a polished full to send to her by the middle of May. (Wish me luck!) She said she thought it had the makings of a salable book. Whee!

Pantsing It

I've confessed in previous blog entries that while I started life as a pantser, I've learned that I'm more productive when I do the work necessary to plot out a basic outline for my book.

However, on my new WIP, I'm pantsing it, at least for the opening chapters.

I do have a basic idea of what the story is about, who the villain is, and some of the turning points for the story, but it's very nebulous and, at the moment, completely in my head (as opposed to written down somewhere). Instead of focusing on my plot points, I'm sitting back for the first three or four chapters and letting my characters do all the driving.

I think one reason I can do it that way is that the hero and heroine, and even most of the secondary characters, are very real and fully formed to me already. I don't know every detail of their backstory yet, but I understand who they are, if that makes sense. I can see them and hear them. I know how they'll react to situations. I know the kinds of things that will drive them together, threaten to tear them apart, push their buttons and break their hearts. At the moment, I can't list specific events that will create their escalating conflict and crisis points, but it doesn't matter. I know Audrey and Connor.

I'm very curious to see where these two characters and their band of merry co-conspirators will take me over the first few chapters.

I love when a book gets under my skin and won't let go. It doesn't happen every time I start a new story, and I've gotten to where I can still write a book in a relatively short time even when I'm not consistently "in the zone." But there's nothing like writing when everything's clicking, when it's a movie playing out in your head and no matter how quickly you can type, you can't keep up with the story flowing into of your fingers.

It's crack for writers. ;)

A Little Intrigue Insider Info

One of the things I've always liked, as a reader of Harlequin Intrigues, is the helpful Cast of Characters page you find at the front of an Intrigue. It introduces the main characters as well as the various suspects in the mystery that makes up the plot of an Intrigue.

However, until I sold FORBIDDEN TERRITORY, I always assumed that the editors wrote the cast of characters. So I had a mild panic attack when my editor asked me to work up a Cast of Characters for my book. However, it turned out to be easier than I expected, and I've actually figured out that I can use the cast of characters as a plotting tool.

Usually when I start plotting a story, I have a basic idea of the overall plot (is it an adventure, a mystery, is it gritty or cosy, is it a caper or a thriller, etc.) and I know the hero, heroine and probably the villain. What writing the Cast of Characters forces me to do is think through my characters and their goals, motivations and conflicts. What drives the hero and heroine into the heart of my mystery plot? Who's going to be an ally and who's going to be an obstacle (if not an outright villain)? Who are my red herrings? (Every Intrigue should have at least two or three, minimum, although their strength as red herrings may vary). Who is my ultimate villain?

By creating the Cast of Characters, I not only get a better look at my main characters and the conflicts that will drive them through the story, I also get an idea of some of the steps they'll have to take along the way (in order to meet some of the secondary characters I've created in my cast of characters). It helps me get a mental roadmap of what my protagonists will face over the course of the story. Once that's in place, it's exponentially easier to fill in the blanks of the plot.

So if you're ever floundering around, looking for a road map for your story, try creating a Cast of Characters page for your own story. It might work just as well for a straight romance as it does for a romantic suspense.

A Bleg

(That's a beg for information via a blog, hence...bleg.)

For my next book idea, the hero is a Brit, a former MI-5 agent who has emigrated to the U.S. My heroine is a former CIA agent who had a forbidden romantic relationship with him a few years earlier before she had to choose between him and her job and chose her job, a choice she's since come to regret.

This book is going to take a lot of research, and I'm looking for suggestions for where to get started. Here are some of the research needs I have for this manuscript:

1) Insider info on MI-5 (at least, that which won't earn me a visit from grim blokes with pasty skin in Savile Row suits).

2) Inside information on life inside a U.S. Embassy. (I have bought a few books that will be helpful, but if anyone knows anyone who's actually worked in a U.S. embassy abroad who might be willing to talk to me, that would be fantastic).

3) Someone who lives in or is intimately familiar with life in the Smoky Mountains, either on the Tennessee or North Carolina side of the range, or a good travel guide or book that will give that sort of non-tourist picture of the area.

4) Anyone who lives in or is familiar with Key West, or a suggestion of a good travel guide or book for people who want to experience the non-tourist side of life there.

5) Any information on the inner workings of the CIA that won't involve a breach of U.S. national security, men in black knocking on my door in the middle of the night or the sudden appearance of black helicopters buzzing my neighborhood.

6) Information about torture methods of foreign countries. (Google's more than happy to tell me all about the allegations of torture by Americans, but the links on foreign torture are hard to find. Must have something to do with open societies vs. closed ones).

Any and all accurate information will be greatly appreciated. Any tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theories will be saved as story fodder for future books. Contact me here.

Patience is a Virtue, Redux

My editor has had my proposal on book two for approximately two months. Not a long time, I realize, but I'm antsy to get another book in the HI pipeline, and I hate waiting. I'm not quite ready to start another book yet, but I do have a completed manuscript waiting in the wings once I hear back from her, whether the news is good or bad. I just want to get a second sale, to take the pressure off, you know? Who wants to be a one-sale wonder?

I feel a little guilty whining, however, when I know of several great writers who haven't yet sold the first book. I keep up with many of them, and I ache with frustration for them, because I know they're sooooooo close, and yet they're having to wait and wait and wait for an editor to finally say those words, "We'd like to buy your book." I feel greedy griping and groaning about whether and when I'll sell book two.

So for all my writer friends out there who are teetering on the verge of selling (and you know who you are as well as I do), I apologize for being selfish. And know that I'm almost as anxious for y'all to hear from an editor as I am to hear from my own editor.

Who still hasn't gotten back to me yet, darn it! ;)

Can't...Stop...Writing...

I promised myself I was going to dive head first into my To Be Read pile as soon as I finished the first draft of DANGEROUS PURSUIT, but I can't seem to get out of the creative mode. I spent last night cutting a previously completed manuscript down to 262 pages so it would better fit the new Intrigue word count. I also did some brainstorming on upcoming projects.

Apparently I save my lethargic, I don't want to write ANYTHING moments for those precious moments right when I'm in the middle of writing manuscript that needs to be finished on deadline.

I have a keen sense of time running out, I think. I realize I'm only in my early forties and a lot of highly prolific writers didn't start selling until they were much older, but I've been working at this goal of publication since I was in my late twenties, and I feel as if so much time has slipped away when I could have been establishing myself. So now that my foot's in the door, I want to be prolific and successful.

And, I must admit, I'm also highly competitive. I have a lot of friends who are fast writers, and I don't want to lag behind. I want to write three or four books a year, have them all be brilliant and sell every one of them. Of course, that may be a tough goal to reach, given my demanding day job, but I like to set my sights high.

And They Lived Happily Ever After

Ladies and gentlemen, I finished my WIP. The first draft of DANGEROUS PURSUIT clocks in at a lean, mean 262 pages, officially the shortest first draft I've ever written. I have no idea how well it holds together as a cohesive novel, but, well, that's what critique partners are for, right?

To Be Read pile, here I come!

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Blogs4Bauer.com

Because you just can't get enough Jack.

Golden Friday

Yup, today's the day Golden Heart calls go out!

I'm no longer eligible, but I have so many friends with entries out there that I'm almost as nervous as if I'd entered the contest myself. So, best of luck to all of you who entered.

I also have several friends who entered the Rita, RWA's published author award. I fell between the cracks this year--not eligible for the GH OR the Rita. Maybe next year. Meanwhile, good luck to all my published friends who entered.

If you want to keep up with the GH & Rita finalists real time, or want to report a final so the rest of us can know about your good news, Melynda Beth Skinner is keeping a tally again this year.

UPDATE:

The GH and Rita finalists are up on the RWA website! Congrats to my cyberfriends Dianna Love Snell, Shane Bolks and Stef Feagan for their Rita nominations, and Mary Fechter, Trish Milburn, Tawny Weber, Robin Perini, Linda Rooks, Laurie Kellogg, Stacey Riemer and Anna Sugden for their Golden Heart nominations.

Best of luck to you all!

Drive By Blogging

Just this and that. . .

Congrats to my friend Kelley St. John, who just sold to Harlequin Blaze. It's book #3 for her, but her first Harlequin. Welcome to the H/S family! (And man, Harlequin and Silhouette are buying stuff right and left these days!)

I'm about 18 pages from my target goal for my WIP, and it's mostly action/mystery from here on, which makes it easier. If I can finish it before my editor gets back to me on the partial, it will be a victory. ;)

Garden update—who knew it was going to get all freezy and frosty in the middle of March?! Not I! The little fellas are going to have to sink or swim over the next few cold nights, because they're already in their big pots, and we don't have anywhere inside to put them. We're bringing the tiny seedling pots in, though, to give them a fighting chance. Think kind thoughts for my little plants.

And don't forget to check out Romance Magicians--heroes are the topic for today.

Romance Magicians

I'm blogging today on Southern Magic's group blog, Romance Magicians. My topic: What do you do when your character's aren't in the mood for love?

A timely question for me at the moment, as my WIP's hero and heroine aren't cooperating at all.

Speaking of Covers...

My friend Kelley St. John has her cover for book #2, REAL WOMEN DON'T WEAR SIZE 2. Check it out and if you have a little time, be sure to see what other great stuff she has on her website. My favorite section is her collection of "The Call" stories—very inspiring!

Taxes

Well, finished my tax returns. I need to call my broker to see what I need to do about putting some money into my IRA before the deadline so the tax return I just signed is correct, but at least I actually have money to contribute to the poor IRA this year. It's actually an IRA set up over a decade ago when I was with a different advertising agency. My current agency doesn't offer a pension plan, and to this point, I've just been staying ahead of the bill man every month, so the only increase in my IRA was interest and dividends. Thanks to my book advance, I actually have a little money to contribute this year.

Of course, the book advance also made my taxes a little more complicated, thanks to the self-employment tax. I was already filing a schedule C for my freelance graphic design work, but the extra money added a layer of complexity to filing my taxes.

You'd think the nation that put the first man on the moon could come up with a less bloated tax system.

Planting Day

Some of you may remember my gardening adventures from last year. I started a container garden on our back deck last year around the middle of May, mostly on a whim.

This year, we're getting started a little earlier and mostly growing vegetables—bibb lettuce, mesclun, spinach, tomatoes, bell peppers, green onions and herbs so far (a salad garden, obviously). We're also planting strawberries and blueberries, and this fall I think we're going to plant a muscadine arbor that will hopefully produce fruit next season. We already have a small fig tree, and I think we're going to plant a peach tree this year, too. We're quite the little organic farmers, aren't we?

So, does anybody know any other vegetables that grow well in containers? I'm willing to experiment. ;)

Back Cover Copy

So, today I get the copy that will go on the back cover of my book:

Walking away wasn’t an option

“Help me!”

For Lily Browning, there was no escaping the visions that had haunted her all her life. And now a little girl’s desperate cry for help had brought enigmatic, disturbingly masculine Lieutenant McBride to her door...

McBride didn’t have time for psychics. He had a kidnapper to catch. But the honey-haired woman with the golden eyes seemed to see things no one else could—including his own tragic secret. With a child’s life at stake, he had to trust Lily…even as each step plunged them deeper into danger and into the uncharted territory of irresistible desire....

Pretty good copy, huh? I like it, too. Except my heroine isn't honey-haired. Her hair is dark brown, nearly black.

Then again, with Mr. Hottie McBride on the front cover , who's gonna worry about Lily's hair color?

Cover!

Copyright © 2006 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher.

Ain't he purty?

And the photo actually corresponds to a scene in the book, wonder of wonders. Of course, McBride wasn't wearing a t-shirt, but now I wish I'd thought of it myself!

Tagged!

Mary at The Bandwagon got me.

Four movies you would watch over and over:
Pride and Prejudice (either the mini or the new movie. Obsessively)
Die Hard
Independence Day
Sound of Music

Four places you have lived:
Birmingham, Alabama
Gardendale, Alabama
That's it.

Four TV shows you love to watch
Lost
24
Battlestar Galactica
House

Four places you have been on vacation:
Denver, Colorado
Washington, DC
New Orleans, Louisiana
Gatlinburg, Tennesee

Four websites you visit daily:
e-Harlequin
The Corner on NRO
Protein Wisdom
Day by Day

Four of your favorite foods:
Sesame Shrimp
Chocolate
KFC Honey Barbecue drenched Chicken Strips
Fried green tomatoes

Four places you would rather be right now:
At home writing
The Smoky Mountains
Montana
Gulf Shores

Four friends you are tagging that you think will respond:
Jill
Olga
Tanya
Gina

If Patience is a Virtue . . .

I'm not particularly virtuous.

The June book covers have started going out from H/S. Have I received mine yet? Why, no. No, I haven't.

Grrr.

One thing I've learned since selling my first book is that the whole publishing process teaches you not patience but resignation. ;)

Nice Weekend

The kids were at my aunt's house, which meant the house was quiet from about 11 am Saturday to around 4 p.m. on Sunday. The weather was gorgeous—sunny and mild—and I took the opportunity to turn off the television and hang with my mom. We planned this year's deck garden (more vegetables and fruits, fewer flowers) and I finally got around to reading my friend Kris's book HELL'S BELLES. I was blown away by how good it was. Textured, complex, funny, heartbreaking, scary—in short, a great read. I highly recommend it.

I also managed to write 14 new pages on my WIP over the weekend, bringing my page count to 242. It's going to run long, which means lots of trimming during the second draft edit, but the light at the end of the tunnel is finally in view.

To Agent or not to Agent

I recently turned down an offer of agent representation, largely because I don't see myself writing anything outside of category for the next three or four years. Frankly, with H/S being the only game in town for category length novels, and with their contracts offering very little wiggle room for negotiating terms, I don't see the point of handing an agent 15% to do what I can do myself.

My five year plan includes writing enough category books to build a name and reputation for myself. I think my voice works well for Harlequin Intrigue, my preferred line, and I think I have plenty of category length stories in me. I like reading category and writing category, so it all works out.

However, I know that some day, even if I'm still writing category, I'm going to need an agent to take me to the next step in my writing career. I just wonder--when will I know it's time to take the agent step? Was I wrong to turn down the agent who was willing to represent me? I have one more submission out there, under consideration with an even bigger agent. What if that agent wants to represent me? Should I consider signing with her, even though I don't think I'm going to be writing a single title in the next couple of years?

Gah, I hate making decisions, sometimes.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Don't forget you can pre-order FORBIDDEN TERRITORY from several of the on-line bookstores. There are links to Books-a-Million, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com on my website. I'd love to have great sales for my first book—it'll make it that much easier to sell the second!

When it gets closer to June, I'll start posting some "behind the scenes" stuff about FORBIDDEN TERRITORY and how it came into being, how I conceived of the characters, how the characters have evolved over the course of the multiple rewrites and revisions, and how a book targeted for Silhouette Intimate Moments for a decade found its home as an Intrigue.

Also, I'm going to open up the comments section of this post for questions. Anything you've ever wanted to know about selling your first book, writing for Intrigue, writing category length romance, etc. If I know the answer, I'll give it, and if I don't, maybe some of the other authors who occasionally leave comments will have an answer.

So, have at it!

In Vain Have I Struggled

Sorry for the lack of recent posts. I've only now dragged myself away from my DVD player since the arrival of the new PRIDE AND PREJUDICE movie in the mail earlier in the week.

As a hugely obsessed fan of the 1996 BBC/A&E miniseries and the owner of almost all of Colin Firths available films, I think my creds as an aficionada are pretty much self-evident. Therefore, I'm as shocked as I can be to say that I think Matthew MacFadyen made a lovely Darcy, one who is coming to rival Firth's Darcy in my affections.

Spoilers ahead, so if you haven't seen it, turn away now...

The miniseries definitely hewed more closely to the book than the feature film. Because of the time constraints, the two-hour movie, of necessity, had to conflate several scenes into one, trim out characters (Bingley has just one sister in the movie) and give shorter shrift to others (Wickham's role, while pivotal, is much shorter). That said, there was a lot about the feature film that I liked better than the miniseries.

I always thought Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth was too mature and self-composed for her age. Keira Knightly captured the girlishness of Elizabeth that Jennifer lacked, which I think added to the moral of the story: that Elizabeth's pride and vanity--common and universal flaws especially in the young--led to her gravely mistaking the characters of both Darcy and Wickham.

And speaking of Wickham, I always thought the casting of Wickham in the miniseries was a weakness. I didn't find that Wickham physically attractive to begin with, and the actor's choice of how to play him made him seem far too smarmy to ever attract a girl as sensible as Lizzie. However, the feature film's Wickham, Rupert Friend, is, well, pretty hot. Friend played Wickham as a subtle charmer, and it worked much better for me than the Wickham of the mini.

Finally, the chemistry between Knightly and MacFadyen was sizzling. Every scene between them sparked, especially the doomed proposal scene. In the miniseries, this is one of the most excruciating scenes, one I usually cringe my way through. In fairness to the mini, the scene is much more true to the book than the one of the movie. However, I'm going to forgive the movie for straying from the book because the way the proposal played out on screen made my palms sweat. Even as Lizzie and Darcy argued and antagonized, the sexual tension between them set my TV ablaze.

On the whole, the romance worked better, for me, in the movie because it was not so rigorously constrained as it was in the miniseries. Even though there was no kiss until the very end, in a coda that gives us a brief, lovely glimpse of the newly married couple at home, the passion between Elizabeth and Darcy pulsed in every scene between them, growing inexorably until they meet early one morning and confess their love in a sweetly understated moment that throbs with emotion.

My first time through the movie, I found myself missing the things that had been in the miniseries but not in the movie. However, on second viewing, I really appreciated the elements the movie chose to highlight and illuminate that the miniseries didn't.

Lovely, lovely adaptation. I highly recommend it.

Throw Me Somethin', Mister!

You just can't keep a party city down.

I've been to Mardi Gras a few times, mostly in Mobile, Alabama, home to the oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the U.S. Mardi Gras in Mobile is more laid-back and somewhat more family-friendly than the bacchanal in New Orleans. My favorite of the Mobile parades is the raucous and crazy Joe Cain Day parade, which is sort of the equivalent to a GDI in collegiate Greek society. It lacks the focus and discipline of the Krewe parades, but makes up for it in sheer creativity and enthusiasm.

I have been to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, once. Since I don't drink, smoke, toke, or bare my breasts for beads, it wasn't exactly a fun experience. However, I've visited New Orleans at other times of the year and loved it. I'm glad to see the old city slowly coming back to life. May she live to throw down for centuries to come.

Oooo, Looky!

I'm one of the Intrigue Authors!

My next big milestone is coming up quickly---I should get my June bookcover in the next couple of week. I've heard cover horror stories, but I'm really liking the current Intrigue covers. I like the new emphasis on the author name (well, duh, of course I do) and the more stylistic art appeals to me in a big way.

Here are some of my recent favorite Intrigue covers:

SECURITY MEASURES by Joanna Wayne

HOUSE OF SECRETS by Tracy Montoya

PRIMARY SUSPECT by Susan Peterson

PERSON OF INTEREST by Debra Webb

BENEATH THE TEXAS MOON by Elle James

As you can tell, I like the "evocative scene" covers better than the "lone hot guy" or "clinch in the midst of danger" covers. Although I must admit to some fondness for the "lone hot guy" covers, too. :)

I'll probably be happy with any cover I get--just getting a cover the first time will probably eclipse any more esoteric considerations. But I'm hoping for an "evocative scene" cover that really captures the eerie undertones of my story.

Bronze, Baby!

Congratulations to the U.S. Men's Olympic Curling Team (aka Team Fenson) for winning the first ever U.S. Olympic medal in curling!

As I noted in a previous post, I've become addicted to this little known and little understood sport (at least down here in Dixieland), thanks to the Olympics. Curling ran early morning on MSNBC, for the most part, and I was able to watch a good bit of it (especially the days I was out sick from work with the crud). Once I got the gist of how the game works, and what the strategies are, I found it utterly fascinating. It's a finesse game, full of thinking and strategy, easy to learn and difficult to master.

I'm not sure I'll ever go curling myself---the whole ice-o-phobia I have would make it problematic---but I'm definitely a fan of the sport now.

(And look! An online curling game!)

Blogging Blues

I'm in some sort of blogging funk. I haven't been able to think of anything to blog about that's not political, and I don't do politics on this blog, so I've just been silent. Part of it's due to the nasty upper respiratory infection I'm battling. Part of my funk is also dealing with my prima donna of a writing muse, who apparently took one look at the cold, rainy February weather, grabbed her hot pink bikini and hopped the first plane to Tahiti.

And part of it is my strange new obsession with the game of curling (I blame Paul Gross and the U.S. Men's Olympic Team). It's a very weird new obsession for an Alabama girl who thinks traversing ice by foot, ski, snowboard, skate or curling shoe is insane. (You could slip, fall and break something!)

Also did Sasha Cohen really have to skate such an amazing short program just when I'd talked myself out of getting sucked into the women's singles competition?

Maybe I have ADHD.

Die, UM, Die!

Some things are just sacred.

;)

Know Jack?

Jack Bauer's Friendster Profile.

We Wuz Robbed

And no, I'm not talking about the Super Bowl. I didn't really care which team won.

I'm talking about the rain falling outside that was supposed to have been at least mixed with a little snow. The local weather guys were practically salivating last night at the prospect of a little of the white stuff, but noooooo. Just rain.

I know, I'm silly to wish for snow in Alabama. It only mucks everything up. But it's so rare down here that just the prospect of it is enough to make me giddy, and having the rug pulled out from under me, as usual, still stinks.

Can You Tell I'm a Frustrated Artist?

I can't ever get happy with the look of my website or my blog. I'm more limited on the blog due to using Blogger software and templates, but I wanted at least a little coordination between my blog and my website, so I decided to go for a blue-toned blog theme.

I'm a little obsessive about blue. It's been my favorite color from childhood, and I love to be surrounded by it. It makes me happy.

Is that weird?

Wow, That Was Fast!

Congratulations to my fellow GH 2004 finalist, Tessa Rallis, who gave an online pitch to Silhouette Desire on January 9th, earned a request for a full, and got The Call today. Way to go, Tessa!

Done!

My proposal is packaged up, ready to go in the mail to my editor tomorrow. I'm going to have to get right back on writing the rest of the book soon, but working up the synopsis for the proposal helped me outline the rest of the book, so hopefully it'll go faster now.

To celebrate reaching my goal of having the proposal ready to go before the end of January, I treated myself to the Battlestar Galactica miniseries and first two episodes on DVD. My critique partner and former best friend Jenn talked me into giving the series a try, the evil wench. I can see why she likes it so much, but did I really need another television show to obsess over, I ask you? Did I? Some friend she is!

Off to watch episode 3...

I Need a Hero

From The Listkeeper in the comments section of a "24" thread on PoliPundit: (some words masked for content - see link for uncensored list)

Some random facts about Jack Bauer:

1) If you wake up in the morning, it’s because Jack Bauer spared your life.

2) If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he’d shoot Nina twice.

3) Upon hearing that he was played by Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer killed Sutherland. Jack Bauer gets played by no man.

4) Jack Bauer’s favorite color is severe terror alert red. His second favorite color is violet, but just because it sounds like violent.

5) Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.

6) Jack Bauer got Hellen Keller to talk.

7) Jack Bauer killed 93 people in just 4 days time. Wait, that is a real fact.

8) Jack Bauer was never addicted to heroin. Heroin was addicted to Jack Bauer.

9) 1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.

10) Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas.

11) Jack Bauer doesn’t miss. If he didn’t hit you it’s because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.

12) Lets get one thing straight, the only reason you are conscious right now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.

13) When you open a can of whoop-ass, Jack Bauer jumps out.

14) If Jack says “I just want to talk to him/her” and that him/her is you… well amigo, you’re *******.

15) Killing Jack Bauer doesn’t make him dead. It just makes him angry.

16) When life gave Jack Bauer lemons, he used them to kill terrorists. Jack Bauer ******* hates lemonade.

17) In grade school, a little boy punched Kimberly Bauer, and Kimberly ran home to tell her dad. That little boy’s name? Stephen Hawking.

18) Jack Bauer does not sleep. The only rest he needs is what he gets when he’s knocked out or temporarily killed.

19) No man has ever used the phrase, “Jack Bauer is a *****” in a sentence and lived to tel-

20) In kindergarten, Jack Bauer killed a terrorist for Show and Tell.

21) Jack Bauer literally died for his country, and lived to tell about it.

22) As a child, Jack Bauer’s first words were “There’s no time!”

23) Jack Bauer’s family threw him a surprise birthday party when he was a child. Once.

24) If you get 7 stars on your wanted level on Grand Theft Auto, Jack Bauer comes after you. You don’t want to get 7 stars.

25) Guns don't kill people, Jack Bauer kills people.

26) Everytime Jack Bauer yells “NOW!” at the end of a sentence, a terrorist dies.

27) Jesus died and rose from the dead in 3 days. It took Jack Bauer less than an hour. And he’s done it twice.

28) If you send someone to kill Jack Bauer, the only thing you accomplish is supplying him a fresh set of weapons to kill you with.

29) Jack Bauer could get off the Lost island in 24 hours.

There are a few more, but I'll let you read them yourself.

This, That and the Other

I've had a breakthrough on my sucknopsis, and as soon as I track down the author of the method I used to achieve it, I'll share it with you. It's a fill in the blank questionaire that I used to brainstorm the book idea, and I've also been using it, with minor tweaks to take into consideration changes that happened during the writing process, to set up my synopsis. I've tried every "write a synopsis in six easy steps" method known to man, I've read every article titled "The Dreaded Synopsis," and I've even listened to RWA conference tapes on the subject, but this method was the first one that ever actually worked for me.

So I'm ahead of where I thought I'd be, and it looks like I'll easily make my self-imposed Monday deadline to mail the proposal to my editor. To celebrate, I'm going to allow myself a brief, stream-of-consciousness blog post.

Read in my daily Publisher's Lunch e-mail that Frederick Forsyth will have a new book out this fall titled THE AFGHAN. I'm a sucker for a good political thriller, and I liked the only other Forsyth book I've read, so I'm looking forward to reading it. It reminds me, also, that I need to see if Tom Clancy has put out any Jack Ryan novels I haven't read yet. One of his later Ryan novels gave me the seed of the idea for one of my novels, the one I'm planning to turn into the first in a series for Intrigue (think Deb Webb's Colby Agency books or Gayle Wilson's Phoenix Brotherhood series).

Has anyone been watching AMERICAN IDOL? I didn't watch the first season, but thanks to Birmingham boy Ruben Studdard, I got sucked into Season 2. Fantasia kept me there for Season 3 and local boy Bo Bice for Season 4. I promised myself I wouldn't watch it this year, but slowly I'm being sucked back in, this time by a pretty girl with an amazing voice named Paris Bennett, granddaughter of inspirational soul singer Ann Nesby. She's terrific, gutsy (her song choices were Dixie Chicks and Billie Holliday) and charming. If she makes the top twelve—and why in the world wouldn't she?—I'm probably doomed to watch it again this year.

I'm also watching LOST again this season, and I'm still loving it, especially the slow transformation of bad boy Sawyer from surly maverick loner to surly maverick community member. They're doing a good job of softening some of his harsher edges without turning him into shapeless mush. I like it. Could do with a lot less Charlie and Jack, though.

And belated congrats to Hugh Laurie of HOUSE, MD for his Golden Globe win. Much deserved. HOUSE is a great show and Laurie is phenomenal in it.

That's it for now. Hopefully more regular blogging will resume when I get my proposal out the door.

Drive-by Posting

Crazy busy at the moment with more than just the writing thing, although the writing thing is enough. If you're bored and looking for something to spend time on, try this.

You can curse me later.

BAMM!

Books-A-Million now officially has FORBIDDEN TERRITORY listed on their website for pre-order. If you're a BAMM club member, you get a discount! So what are you waiting for?

Order now. Order often.

Also, in related news, The Writing Playground's May/June contest will feature an autographed copy of FORBIDDEN TERRITORY as one of the prizes, so if you're going to be all penny-pinchy and stingy and not order my book yourself, you can always enter that contest for a chance to win it. I'll also be one of the June author interviewees, so keep a look-out for it.

Nerves of Mush

Well, my editor is supposed to call this afternoon to discuss WILD CARD and future projects. I'm trying not to freak out. (And thank goodness it's a relatively slow day at work).

My gut instinct is that WILD CARD is a no-go. Since the word count change, it won't fit SIM as is, and I'm not sure it was that great a fit to begin with. I don't think it really works for Intrigue, either, and unless she sees it as a perfect fit for Superromance, I can't see where else it can go at H/S. That's why I'm peddling it around to agents.

As for future projects, I'm 203 pages into an Intrigue, with about 55 pages or so to go to meet my page goal for the book. I do think this idea works well as an Intrigue, and it's a sequel to FORBIDDEN TERRITORY, which I hope will please my editor. If not, I have some other ideas to pursue.

Not that any of that makes the butterflies in my stomach go away as I wait for the call.

UPDATE:

Okay, heard from the editor. She's not buying WILD CARD yet, because she thinks it needs substantial changes to fit Intrigue, just as I thought. But, she didn't reject it outright, and she's going to send me a revision letter, although she stressed that I should backburner it for now, because she wants me to have a couple of books waiting in the wings after FORBIDDEN TERRITORY hits, and she thinks that the revisions to WILD CARD will take up time I'd better spend writing new stuff specifically targeted to Intrigue.

So I'm sending her a proposal for CODE NAME: WILLOW next week, since it's finished, and I'm going to work up a proposal for my WIP, DANGEROUS PURSUIT, which isn't finished but isn't far from it, to send to her by the end of the month.

Whew. Nerves back to normal.

Jack is Back!

Twenty-four more hours of heart-pounding, breath-stealing television, and it starts in just four hours.

Can. not. wait!

Triskaidekaphobia

I'm probably about to jinx myself, but today's turning out to be a pretty good day. I got a raise at work, my revisions are off to the editor, the online contest judge seminar I was co-teaching is finished, and in an hour, I get to go home for the weekend.

Not a bad Friday the 13th, as such things go.

Ugh

Up to my eyeballs in edits on FORBIDDEN TERRITORY. Have to get them in the mail by Thursday morning.

Drowning...

Talk to you Friday. Maybe.

Discipline in Small Doses

A while back, I discovered the joys of using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to track my editor and agent submissions and my contest entries, finals and wins. It didn't take long for me to discover that I could also use Excel to keep up with my daily writing schedule as well.

Last year, when I wrote my 80,000 word novel WILD CARD within two months, part of what kept me going was setting up a daily page goal in Excel and doing all I could to keep to it. I was lucky that WILD CARD was one of those marvelous creatures, a novel that practically wrote itself. Keeping to my daily writing schedule wasn't hard; many days I went over my total and got to subtract pages, even days from the entire schedule.

I used the Excel trick when I was revising two other books, including the one that would become FORBIDDEN TERRITORY. I was able to revise as much as twenty to thirty pages per day using the Excel method.

But then came my current WIP. I wasn't what I'd call bogged down, exactly, but between the holidays, my work schedule and my family responsibilities, my goal of writing five or six pages per day clearly wasn't working. I'd come home from work dead tired and mentally drained, look at my Excel schedule and see I was supposed to do six pages per day. Overwhelmed by the very idea, I'd just punt and add days to my schedule.

Finally, I realized that I had to give myself small, reachable goals every day. Two pages I could do, even on a brain-dead night. The thought of it didn't overwhelm me. And I soon discovered that when I gave myself permission to do only two pages a day, I often did five or six a day once I got going on the story.

The fact is, if you don't set up a disciplined writing schedule, where you write every day or almost every day, you will not finish a book. And if you don't finish a book, you'll never sell a book. So you have to face the fact that writing a book, while it can be fun, is at its core hard work, and you have to make yourself do it. Every day.

But don't overwhelm yourself, either. Set a reasonable goal, one you can meet virtually every day, while being flexible enough to account for unexpected setbacks and obstacles.

Look at it this way: if you write two pages a day every day, by the end of four months, you'll have approximately two hundred and forty pages. That's a short contemporary romance novel, a short mystery or a young adult novel. Two pages a day on week days and five a day on weekends, and you're looking at a long contemporary or a single title romance, mystery or historical at the end of four months.

Those are doable goals, if you're willing to put in the work. And if you can do more pages a day, even better. You can finish a book in a month, or two months.

I started this version of my WIP on November 29th. I now have 192 pages, well over halfway through my novel, and I'm on track to be finished with the first draft by the end of January, all because I gave myself manageable goals that I could meet or exceed.

You can do it, too.

Saturday Morning CatBlogging

About three years ago, I was packing up stuff from a rental house to move into the house with my mom and sister. I hadn't been to that house in almost a month, since I was already living with my mom, and unknown to me, someone had broken into the back door of the rental house. They stole a few things that I wasn't that attached to, but in the process, they'd left the back door open. So when my mom and I went into the house to pack the stuff up, not only did we find the break-in but when we looked in the open cabinet under the kitchen sink, we found three tiny kittens. They were wild as hares, having never seen a human before.

Their mother was nowhere to be found, so we gathered the kittens up and put them in a box (though not before I got the stew bitten out of me by one of the kittens), and continued with our packing. When we were ready to go, we had no choice but to take the kittens with us. We couldn't leave them in the house, since we were closing it back up, and we couldn't put them out to fend for themselves with no idea where their mother was. So we took the tiny fuzzballs home.

Taming them was an ordeal. The one who tamed earliest, Oliver, turned out to have feline leukemia. probably contracted from his mother. We had to have him euthanized. However, Toby and his sister Sophie were leukemia free, and somehow, we managed to tame them (although with Sophie, I had my doubts it would ever happen).

Now, Sophie is a delightful, quirky little cat, a long-haired tortoiseshell with a sweet disposition. Her brother Toby is a large buff tabby who's a little more stand-offish but lets my niece manhandle and drag him around at will, without ever scratching or biting or even putting up a fuss. Since my sister's digital camera is new (a Christmas present), we haven't gotten a picture of Toby yet, but here's a nice shot of Sophie:

The side shot doesn't do her justice; she has gorgeous two-tone eyes—chartreuse on the outside and olive green around the pupils. And she's silky soft, her hair long enough to make her fluffy but not so long that her hair tends to matting.

Can you tell I'm sweet on her? :)

It's All About Me

Well, me and a half-dozen or so new Harlequin/Silhouette writers. The eHarlequin website has my bio up now. Whee!

If you want to read a little bit about me and how I sold my first book, check it out here.

By the way, if you write category-length books and you're not a part of the eHarlequin online community, you're missing a gold mine of information, access and support.

Money Money Money

Got the second half of my advance in the mail today. I'm rich!

Well, richer than I was. Which isn't saying much.

But it was nice to see "on acceptance" checked off. Between that and the thing that I promised not to blog about today, it really feels official.

I'm an author.

Amazon.com Sales Rank

Today: #297,570 in Books.

What's the hold up, people? I should at least be in the high hundreds! Get crackin'!

Seriously, I'll try to go tomorrow without blogging about my Amazon.com page. Really, I will.

Lt. Danny Agan to Speak at So. Magic Meeting

*******Permission to forward is granted*******

Southern Magic, Birmingham, Alabama is pleased to present:

LIEUTENANT DANNY J. AGAN, ATLANTA POLICE DEPARTMENT (Ret.)
Date: Saturday, February 25, 2006
Time: 10 AM to 3 PM
Location: Homewood Public Library, 1721 Oxmoor Road, Homewood, Alabama

Cost: $10 for non-Southern Magic members (paid at the door); $0 for S-M members

Lunch will be provided: Sandwiches, chips, dessert. Everyone to provide their own drinks

Bio: Danny Agan joined the Atlanta Police Department in 1974. Following graduation from the Atlanta Police Academy in July 1974, he was assigned to the Foot Patrol Unit for two years. In 1976, he was transferred to the Narcotics Unit as a plainclothes officer. In 1978, he was promoted to the rank of Detective, which soon led to an assignment with the Homicide Unit the following year. As a Detective assigned to the Homicide Squad, he gained experience investigating aggravated assaults, officer involved shootings, murders and other death investigations.

Agan continued to rise through the ranks with promotion to Sergeant in 1982 and then promotion to Lieutenant in 1990.

During his tenure as a supervisor with APD, Agan was assigned to the Sex Crimes Unit for 5 years, the Field Operations Division for 8 years, and the Homicide Squad for 8 years, 4 years of this time spent as Homicide Commander. Agan has extensive experience in the field of violent crime investigation, particularly murder and rape. Job experiences over the years have included investigating and supervising serial offender investigations.

Agan retired from the Atlanta Police Department in 2003 and is currently working as a consultant in the field of violent crime.

During his program, Danny will take you through a mock crime scene, show how evidence is processed and witnesses and suspects are interviewed. You will get the opportunity to see what a real homicide detective does on a crime scene.

Please email Christy Reece (bjcreece@aol.com) to reserve a space. This will help us determine an estimated number of people expected to attend.

For directions, go to www.southernmagic.org.

Link-O-Rama

Today, I don't have much to say, so I'll let a few of my writing friends do the talking.

Mary at The Bandwagon has a book recommendation.

Trish at Writing, Reading and More, Oh My! has a genre recommendation.

Gena Showalter is asking for book recommendations.

Tanya at My Irrationalities has some good news.

So does Robin D. Owens.

News from Toni, the Romance Writing Mom, could be better, but it does have a humorous aspect to it.

Dixie Belle (and Thomas Jefferson), offer smart rules to live by in the new year.

Kelley St. John's book, GOOD GIRLS DON'T, is still available, and don't you forget it!

You can also still buy Kristen Robinette's 2005 RT Reviewer's Choice finalist, HELL'S BELLES.

And just in case you forgot, my book FORBIDDEN TERRITORY is available for pre-order from Amazon.com.

All done. Bye-bye.

Shriiieeeeeeekkkk!!!!!!

My book is listed on Amazon.com.

I'm all tingly!

Pre-order it now. Come on, you know you want to.

Update:

Large Print edition available too, for all you out there like me whose eyes could use a rest.

An Early Spring

Or at least, a nice attempt at one. It's seventy-five degrees today in sunny central Alabama, a simply glorious day for January. It won't last, of course; we're due for colder weather this weekend, but today was a day to break out the short sleeves and sandals and enjoy a sunny day with low humidity.

Oh, and the Crimson Tide won the Cotton Bowl. Yay!

I haven't done my scheduled writing for today, but I did manage to get two of my unsold manuscripts printed out and ready to go to an agent who requested them, so I've not been a complete slug.

And so far, I'm keeping my New Year's resolution to blog something every day. Even if, as you can see from this post, I don't really have much to say. :)

Happy New Year!

I wish I could say I spent my New Year's Eve doing something exciting and glamorous, but the truth is, I sat in my living room with my mom and my nine-year-old niece, watching various TV programs until around ten central time, when we turned it to Fox News Channel to see their coverage of New Year's Eve in Times Square. I started nodding off around ten thirty, as did my mom, so we decided to break out the "bubbly" (in our non-alcoholic household, sparkling white grape juice) a little early. The three of us had a little nip of the sparkly stuff and managed to make it to eleven, when the ball dropped in Times Square. Then we all went to bed.

I tried to stay up 'til midnight, really I did, but I dozed off around eleven thirty. I did wake up around twelve-thirty, groused to myself about missing midnight in the central time zone, and went back to sleep.

I woke sometime later in the night and couldn't go back to sleep, so I found GROUNDHOG DAY on one of the movie channels and watched it. Great, underrated movie. Brilliantly conceived and written, and good acting, even from Andie MacDowell. Bill Murray was terrific.

Anyway, happy 2006, everybody. I hope we all have a spectacular new year!

Auld Lang Syne

As usual, I'm stealing from Mary at The Bandwagon. But reflecting on the past year and looking ahead to the next year is appropriate for Dec. 31st, so here we go:

Name Five Bad Things That Happened to You in 2005:
1. I lost my cousin in a car accident
2. I had to have two of my old cats put to sleep
3. My jerky ex-bro.in law wrecked my car
4. My mom had to have gall bladder surgery
5. I had to be out of work for over two weeks with cellulitis

Name Five Good Things That Happened to You in 2005:
1. Sold my first book
2. Won several contests, including the Duel on the Delta
3. Gained a new niece (Catherine) and a new potential niece (Amber)
4. Received my first advance check
5. My friend Kris's book, HELL'S BELLES, made the RT Reviewer's Choice finalists list.

Name Five People Who Have Touched You in a Special Way in 2005:
1. My mother
2. My best friend Jenn
3. My editor
4. Lonie
5. My wonderful RWA chapter

Name Five Things You Achieved in 2005:
1. Sold my first book
2. Won several contests
3. Got a several agent requests
4. Refinanced my house from 30 to 15 years at virtually the same monthly payment
5. Submitted four different manuscripts to four different editors

Name Five Things You'd Like to Achieve in 2006:
1. Finish DANGEROUS PURSUIT and two more books
2. Sell all three of the aforementioned books
3. Get an agent
4. Lose weight
5. Enter the Rita contest

Pretty good year, overall, I'd say.

Unexpected Day Off

Is there anything better than your boss coming into the office around 4:50 pm Thursday afternoon and telling you that since your biggest clients are taking the next day off, you don't have to come into work on Friday before a long weekend? Okay, I guess there are a few things better, but it's right up there with Hershey's chocolate kisses and finding ten bucks at the bottom of your purse that you didn't know you had.

So I had today off, and while I'd like to say I didn't waste any of it, I can't. I did, however, manage 13 pages on my WIP and reached my big Act Two complication spot. (If my book were a one-hour television drama, we'd have just reached the half hour commercial break). I'm up to 162 pages (so, actually, page-wise, I'm a little past the half hour mark, but whatever). That means I'm past the point where I was a month ago when I tossed all but the first five pages and started over.

I'm still on track to finish the first draft by the end of January, and that's with a schedule of only two pages a day on weekdays and five a day on weekends and holidays. Very doable. And just in case I need a little more incentive to write, my To Be Read list is growing. Tracy Montoya's MAXIMUM SECURITY came in the mail today and joins Gayle Wilson's DOUBLE BLIND in my growing stack of reward books.

Meanwhile, Mary at The Bandwagon has a book recommendation that looks intriguing. I read the Romantic Times' reviewer's blurb on GRIN AND BEAR IT, and it sounded like it would be a great read. Also, check out the comic strip Mary posted. If you're a reader with children around, or other similar demands on your time, it'll look extremely familiar.

And Now for Something Completely Different...

I get a little focused on romance, given my chosen writing genre, but I read pretty widely when I get the chance. Some of my favorite books are thrillers, and here are a few I've loved enough to read again and again.

THE STAND - Stephen King
The great, apocalyptic Good vs. Evil story of modern literature. Sure, it's a tad overwritten and windy, especially the unabridged version, but the characters are compelling, the story complex and all too believable, and the ending is deeply satisfying.

NIGHT FALL - Nelson DeMille
A well-written, complex fictional exploration of the crash of Flight 800 over the Atlantic east of Long Island. Running with the rumors of a missile streak seen shortly before the plane exploded and fell from the sky, DeMille's hero, John Corey, explores the mystery behind the crash and comes to startling, timely conclusions. The last chapter is stunning and sobering.

PATRIOT GAMES - Tom Clancy
Jack Ryan back before he became a politician. Action, a smidgen of romance, IRA terrorists looking for vengeance, loved ones in danger and a visit from royalty. What more could you want from a political thriller?

RED STORM RISING - Tom Clancy
It's a little light on characterization, although there are a few characters who stand out in my mind, but the shocking events of the story are compelling, and I happened to be reading it when the first Gulf War began, so this novel about an unexpected war had extra immediacy for me at the time.

WATCHERS - Dean Koontz
Einstein, the genius Golden Retriever, made this my all time favorite Koontz book.

BLACKOUT - John Nance
Maybe it's the combination of political intrigue and flying that really got me with this book, but Nance delivered a heck of a story. Like a lot of thriller writers, he's not great at writing the romantic elements of the story (DeMille, listed above, does a much stronger job with romantic relationships between his characters, as does Koontz and even King), but the action and suspense is non-stop.

I really need to read more female thriller writers. I love thrillers in my category romances like IM and Intrigue, but I haven't really gotten attached to any single title thriller writers who are women. Anybody have suggestions?

Contest Judging Opportunity

And this one's for the non-writers among us.

My local RWA chapter, Southern Magic, is currently accepting entries for the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence for published writers. You can find out more about the contest on our website.

We're having terrific response for the contest, and we need more judges. The contest is judged not by other writers but by avid romance readers and booksellers who are not writers themselves. The score sheet couldn't be simpler, and the judges keep the books as a gift from the authors. If you are interested in judging this contest, or you have friends or family who might be interested, contact the contest coordinator at GWContest@southernmagic.org.

And by the way, if you're a published writer of a book with a 2005 publication date, you have until January 15th, 2006, to enter. See the website listed above for more information.

Post Christmas Link-a-thon

First, I read this post at Tightly Wound and had a good laugh. Kids today!

Then, at IMAO, there's this rather perplexing nativity scene. For the record, I agree with the commenter who says they're made of plywood, but it was the Yosemite Sam comment that really made me snicker.

How about a story that has a happy ending, but sends your stomach cramping before you get there (especially if you're a writing using a computer)? Check out this poor woman's tale of woe and triumph.

And if you're interested in blogosphere minutiae, there's a poll on Jim Treacher's blog that seeks an alternative term for the now played-out "fake but accurate."

The Day After

If I never see any more wrapping paper or bows, it'll be too soon.

Despite my big plans to get extra writing done over the holidays, I didn't do squat. Well, actually, I did figure out how to proceed with the next few scenes of my WIP, but I didn't commit any words to paper (or computer screen—whatever). So I've got to do seven pages today just to start catching up. Except I'm fat and lazy today, and I don't wanna. And the newest Gayle Wilson HQN romantic suspense, DOUBLE BLIND, is sitting there, tempting me...

I am such an undisciplined slug.

Update:

Well, all the gifts are opened, the ham, white beans and cornbread eaten (we were pretty lazy with our Christmas dinner this year), and everybody's either napping or, in my case, just up from a nap.

The kids were very pleased with their gifts. They got several smallish things, plus the elder two received scooters and a three-in-one game table shared between them. The baby got a LeapStart™ Learning Table that she hasn't really gotten to play with yet, because her biological parents whisked her off to visit her maternal grandparents and brought her back just in time for a nap. But she'll get to play with it when she wakes up.

We probably went a little overboard, but the kids had hard lives before they came into our lives, and I guess maybe we want to make it up to them, at least at Christmas.

I hope everyone had a happy, safe Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho, Hee Hee Hee

I admit, I'm shamelessly stealing this from Mary at The Bandwagon (so please click the link and go visit her blog, which is great, to make me feel a little less guilty). But this link is just too cute not to share.

As my baby niece said when she saw this little web video, "Ho ho! Ho ho!"

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas.

Just try not to sing along. Just try.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

::sigh::

It never snows here for Christmas. Or, for that matter, just about any other day of the year. It's part of that double-edged sword called living in the deep south. We have gorgeous springs and pleasant falls, but summer is hell and winter is too cold to be comfortable and too warm to snow.

Not. Fair.

Oh, I'm not wishing for a blizzard like the one that passed through here in on a weekend in March 1993, leaving as much as 15 inches of snow in some places (including my back yard). That weekend, the snow weighted down tree branches which broke, taking out powerlines just in time for the temperature to drop to the teens. With no power and no fireplace, we didn't dare go out in the snow; there was no way to warm ourselves back up when we came back inside. So we shivered under piles of blankets and cursed the cold white stuff.

But 1993 was a long time ago, and there haven't been many snowfalls since. Is it really too much to ask to have four or five inches of the stuff on the ground, just enough to turn a winter day into a vacation day from work without being so bad that ambulances and fire trucks can't safely navigate the roads?

Just sayin'.

Another Step in the Process

I got my line edits from my editor today. I haven't had a chance to look at them yet, being at work, but just knowing they're there, waiting on me to address, gives me a little chill.

I also got a request from an agent to see two full manuscripts. Whee!

Update:

I'm home now, and I've looked through the editor's line edits. Beyond the nitpicky stuff, which I expected, there were only three suggestions that are going to require a little bit of thought. One was a plot point that's going to be hard to dispense of, so I'll have to rewrite it to work better for the editor. One was a timeline question that I'll just have to chart out so that I have all my days in the right order. And the third request was to punch up a chapter ending so that it was more of a page turner. Of the three, that one might take the most thought of all.

Of course, I haven't seen the copy editor's notes yet. Yikes.

This, That and the Other

Whew! Looks like the revisions on FORBIDDEN TERRITORY were accepted, and now I can breathe a small sigh of relief. June 2006 is still on!

Update on the WIP: I mentioned earlier that I was going to have to backtrack and revise. Basically, I started over at page 6. 152 pages down the drain. Well, not really; there's a lot of the already written stuff that I'm incorporating into the new version of the WIP, but still, that's a lot of writing to have done only to start back over from nearly the beginning.

On the up side, I think the first 50 pages of version two are a LOT stronger than the original draft. The story is more streamlined and makes more sense, it creates a more immediate sense of danger for the heroine, and the relationship between the hero and the heroine is more adversarial and suspicious at this point, adding to the overall sense of suspense. It's definitely more of an Intrigue-style book in its second incarnation than it was.

And now, a few gratuitous plugs for some friends:

If you like sexy, sassy contemporary romance, check out GOOD GIRLS DON'T by my buddy Kelley St. John, JANE MILLIONAIRE by American Title winner Janice Lynn and CHERRY ON TOP by Kath Long. For romantic suspense, you can't go wrong with DOUBLE BLIND by Gayle Wilson, SILENT RECKONING by Deb Webb and KILLING HER SOFTLY by Beverly Barton.
And if you like sassy hen lit, you can still get my friend Kristen Robinette's delicious HELL'S BELLES.

Hmm--all these Amazon.com links bring up a question: who sends book information to Amazon for their listing? Authors or the publishing house? I'll have to look into that.

Purple Fingers

Iraq the Model is live-blogging the Iraqi election. Lots of correspondents reporting from various parts of Iraq, plus plenty of photos. It seems to have gone very well, at this point.

Christmas Music

In my ongoing effort to get into the Christmas spirit and stay there over the next twelve days, I've been listening to the local adult contemporary station, which became "all Christmas all the time" after Thanksgiving. Their playlist is pretty traditional--Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, lots of Carpenters and Amy Grant, plus the occasional Harry Connick, Jr., Barenaked Ladies and Paul McCartney.

I definitely have my favorites. My top songs in the "secular Christmas" category, in no particular order:

Sleigh Ride - Leroy Anderson
A clean, fast-paced version of the classic, with a jazzy little interlude near the end. Love it, love it, love it.

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch - Thurl Ravenscroft
How can you not love a song with a jazzy beat, Ravenscroft's ocean-deep voice and lyrics like: "The three words that best describe you,are, and I quote: 'Stink. Stank. Stunk.'"

Carol of the Bells - David Foster
Synthesized instrumental with a flourish. It's this close to over the top, but doesn't quite make it into cheesy territory.

The Holiday Season - Andy Williams
I dig it, man. Don't forget to hang up your sock, 'cause just exactly at twelve o'clock, he'll be comin' down the chimney down! I'm there.

Deck the Halls - SheDaisy
The tight harmonies of this pop-country trio are amazing, especially on this song.

And in the religious Christmas songs, my favorites in no particular order:

Silent Night - no particular artist
The simple beauty of Silent Night never fails to move me, no matter who sings it.

We Three Kings - Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan
I just heard this one for the first time a few days ago. It has a light, breezy sound to it that somehow manages not to eclipse the spiritual essence of the carol.

Do You Hear What I Hear - Bing Crosby
My all time favorite from childhood. I can still remember sitting in the back seat of my dad's Plymouth Fury, listening to Bing sing this song on the radio. We kids knew all the words and sang them at the tops of our lungs, much to my father's annoyance. Good times.

O Holy Night - no particular artist
Like Silent Night, O Holy Night is gorgeous and moving regardless of who sings it.

The Little Drummer Boy - Lou Rawls
Another one of those childhood holdovers. I'm not sure it should even be considered in the "religious" category, since it's not strictly biblical, but it captures the wonder of Christ's birth as told in the Gospel of Luke.

Do you have any favorite Christmas songs?