On My Mind Today...

Book Review: Flamingo Diner

2011-07-06T09:15:00.000-05:00

Flamingo Diner by Sherryl Woods

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I added this book to my to-be-read pile based on the cover alone and didn't realize what it was about until I picked it up to read it. The subject of suicide is a touchy one for me, so I approached it hesitantly. It turns out, I didn't need to worry since that part of the story never actually reached me on an emotional level. I applaud the author for tackling such a sensitive and important issue, but I wanted it to take me deeper into the characters' emotions as they tried to put the world back together again after the family tragedy.

The story was too slow moving for my taste (the heroine vowed to find out why her father took his own life for at least half of the book without ever actually making any attempts to find out anything.) I looked forward to the strong sense of community promised on the book's jacket, but that, too, fell short of my expectations.

As disappointed as I was with the suicide story line, however, I thought Ms. Woods handled the romance between Emma and Matt very well. Their attraction built slowly, but anything more rapid would have felt unrealistic to me.

Not destined for my "keeper" shelf, but not a wall-banger, either :)

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Book Review: Celebrations

2011-03-14T09:00:00.002-05:00

Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer by Maya Angelou

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Maya Angelou is a genius, plain and simple. Her words are like honey. They trickle down into the soul, little by little, slowly, soothing pain and lifting the spirit on their way. Every piece in this collection marks some special event, thus the title Celebrations. "On the Pulse of the Morning," read at President Clinton's inauguration; "Amazing Peace," presented at the 2005 lighting of the National Christmas Tree at the White House; "A Brave and Startling Truth," which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, a poem for Oprah's fiftieth birthday, one for the bar mitzvah for Angelou's nephew, and several others.

As I set this book aside, a few stanzas stay with me, working their way through the maze of my mind and finding their permanent place in my soul. Definitely recommended.

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Foodie Friday: Chicken Bake

2011-03-11T09:00:00.006-06:00

Chicken Bake

(Serves 8-10)

This recipe is cheesy and gooey and a definite comfort food in my house. In its original version (below) it makes a lot, but it's easy to cut in half!

2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (can use cream of celery if you prefer)
2 cups sour cream
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
8-10 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Paprika

Rice, prepared according to package directions.

Preheat oven to 350.
Sprinkle the chicken breasts with paprika and place in large baking dish.
Mix the remaining ingredients together and pour over top.
Cover and bake (at 350) for 2 hours.

Serve over rice.

Thirteen Things I Didn't Know About March

2011-03-10T09:00:00.001-06:00

1. March is National Crochet Month. Seriously! I had no idea, and I love to crochet. The Crochet Guild of America (yes, it's real) is sponsoring Crochet-Along in March. Check out CGOA Now! for more details.

2. March 18th is the birthday of Sparky the Fire Dog, who is the official mascot of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). I am not making this up!

3. Each year the President of the United States designates March as Red Cross Month. Something tells me I should know this. Something else whispers that maybe I did once, a long, long time ago. But maybe I'm making that up. I really don't know. Go donate blood or something. It's the right thing to do.

Clip art courtesy of DailyClipArt.net

4. March is National Frozen Food Month. You probably already know that. I didn't. I'm going to buy some ice cream to celebrate. Again -- the right thing to do.

5. March is National Noodle Month. I kid you not. Not to be confused with National Pasta Month, which is celebrated in October of each year. What's a noodle, you ask? It's made from unleavened dough shaped either into thin, flat strips or round cylinders and cooked in boiling liquid. Derived from the German nudel.

6. March is National Irish-American Heritage Month, which should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody.

7. March is Music in our Schools Month. My heart aches every time legislators anywhere cut funding for the arts in our schools. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. The website linked to here offers a few suggestions for what we can do to help, including following the organization on Twitter and "liking" it on Facebook.

8. March is National Craft Month. Use your spare time this month to learn a new craft. Make a collage. Learn how to make jewelry. Knit or celebrate National Crochet Month. Get off Facebook and Twitter and do something crafty!

9. March is also National Nutrition Month -- a time for all of us to focus on eating right and making healthy choices. I guess that means I should buy frozen broccoli instead of ice cream for National Frozen Food Month. I'm not going to lie -- I'm disappointed.

10. March is Women's History Month. The theme for 2011 is: Our History is Our Strength.

11. March is Youth Art Month. I hope the Youth Art Month and Music in Our Schools Month folks are working together. I'd hate to think they're competing for the limited funding out there.

12. I did my research just in time. This week is National Bubble Gum Week! I can't believe I almost missed it. Thank goodness I have a couple of Blow-Pops on top of my fridge that I was saving for my granddaughters. If you're really ambitious, you can even make your own bubble gum. The recipe is here! Or, if you're not in the mood to chew your way to bubble-gum nirvana, check out this Bubblegum Martini recipe.

Photo of vintage Barbie dolls from Wikipedia

13. It's also Barbie's Birthday! My first Barbie looked like the one on the bottom row, far right. She was beautiful. I still have her, as a matter of fact. She's old. She's fragile. Her hair now looks more like the Barbie on the top row. So does mine. She and I have weathered some storms together. When my little brother was younger, he wrapped poor Barbie in Scotch tape, tied a rope around her waist, and lowered her into a mud puddle in the empty lot next to our house. I'm not sure why. I was too traumatized to ask, I guess. Anyway, she's safe now, so you can all breathe a sigh of relief. But please join me in saying Happy Birthday! to my dear, old friend.

100 Books: #18 An Affair Before Christmas

2011-03-09T09:00:00.000-06:00

Coming in at #18 on the list of 100 Books I want to read is An Affair Before Christmas by the amazing Eloisa James. Okay, sure, I'm late putting this book on my list. But not as late as you might think. It's been on my extended list for a while. Now it's moving from the big, big, I'll-Never-Ever-Read-All-These-Books-if-I-Live-to-120 list to the much smaller list of the top 100.

So why do I want to read this one?

Several reasons. Beginning with the fact that it's Eloisa. And, as everyone in romance circles knows, Eloisa's a bit of a Shakespeare buff. And I happen to love Shakespeare's work. And I haven't read any historical romance for a while, even though for a few years way-back-when all I read was historical romance. And I'm in the mood for a good historical romance. But it has to be a good one because it's been a while and I want to remember why I once loved them. So no pressure Eloisa. No pressure at all :)

Inspiration: Phyllis A. Whitney

2011-03-08T09:00:00.000-06:00

A quick blog post today. An thought that inspires me. I share it in case it may inspire some of you.

"You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any other artist you must learn your craft—then you can add all the genius you like." ~Phyllis A. Whitney

Book Review: Winter Garden

2011-03-07T09:00:00.000-06:00

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Meredith and Nina are sisters. Daughters of a kind and loving father and a remote, cold mother. Their mother's coldness affects both sisters, driving them away from her until their father dies and the girls are left to pick up the pieces, keep their promises, and make sense of their own cold lives by convincing mom to finish the fairy tale she told them as children.

The book is fabulous in many ways. I wept when the dad died. I wept when mom finally revealed the ending of the fairy tale. I wept in several places, in fact, but I won't go into detail about those.

I have to say that both Meredith and Nina seemed a bit too delusional to me in the beginning. None of us sees ourselves as others see us, I get that. But it was hard for me to believe that these two women could think how cold their mother was one minute and then fail to recognize that same coldness in themselves, even a little bit.

I really wanted to understand the fairy tale and find out what it meant in their mother's life, but there were times when the sections of fairy tale were a bit too long and detailed for me. Through the middle of the book, I found myself skimming the fairy tale so I could get back to the current story. That may have been because the sections of fairy tale seemed repetitive for a while. As a result of my impatience, I missed a couple of details along the way but none that were important enough to make me go back and re-read what I'd skipped.

But even with those two minor flaws I enjoyed the book. It's definitely worth reading, especially if you're in the mood for a good cry.

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Foodie Friday: My Mom's Meatballs with Spaghetti

2011-03-04T09:00:00.001-06:00

Meatballs with Spaghetti

For Sauce:

1 onion chopped

8 Tbs oil

1 large can (approx 2 ½ cups) tomatoes (can use whole tomatoes or diced)

2 6 oz cans tomato paste

2 cups water

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 Tbsp sugar

1 bay leaf

For Meatballs:

1 pound ground beef

1 cup fine, dry bread crumbs

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 sprig parsley, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup milk

2 well-beaten eggs

Salt and pepper

1 8 oz package of spaghetti, cooked al dente (meaning "to the tooth." When pasta is cooked al dente, you should find a slight resistance in the center when the pasta is chewed.) If you don't like your pasta al dente, cook it until it sticks when you fling it at the wall. One piece should do it. No need to fling the entire pot!

Brown onion in hot oil. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, water, and seasonings. Stir together and cook slowly 1 hour.

Combine remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly and form into small balls. Brown in hot fat.

Serve separately, or add meatballs to sauce and simmer until heated through.

Serve over cooked spaghetti.

Note: You can, if you choose, make this recipe using ground turkey. My mother started doing that a few years ago and she's very happy with it. If you like ground turkey, I'm sure the recipe is fine. If, like me, the taste of ground turkey cooked in your favorite spaghetti recipe on your birthday is a bitter, bitter disappointment from which you may never recover, stick with ground beef.

Thursday Thirteen: Websites

2011-03-03T09:00:00.022-06:00

I ran across a blog meme the other day that prompted participants to list ten things they wanted to change about themselves. Now, I'm all for taking a good, hard look at myself. I do it too much, actually. But then I clicked on one of the links and read someone's blog containing five answers followed by a note that s/he was too depressed to continue and I thought wait a tick! There's something wrong here!

There's enough negativity in the world. Too much, actually. There's always someone or something just lying in wait, ready to knock us down. So I decided today to list 13 places on the internet that lift my spirits when I click on them. After you've checked out my list, I'd love to know what sites are on yours.

1. Operation Beautiful. The mission of Operation Beautiful is to post anonymous notes in public places for other women to find. The point is that we are all beautiful.

2. Prettybooks on Tumblr.com. A collection of quotes, images and book reviews. The images make my heart happy.

3. Whitley Phipps singing "It is Well With My Soul" on YouTube. This is a relatively new song to me, but it struck a chord with me immediately. No matter how bad the day is going, if I listen to it, my spirits lift. It's not just the song that lifts me. The story he shares gives hope, especially when he says, "It is in the quiet crucible of your personal private sufferings that your noblest dreams are born and God's greatest gifts are given in compensation for what you've been through."

4. The Happy Writer. The writing life is a hard life. Staying positive is freakishly difficult. Go here. Be Happy.

5. 1000 Awesome Things. This blog, updated every weekday, reminds me to find joy in the little things, whether it's #299: Finally pulling out an ingrown hair or #899: The smell of frying onions.

6. Christian the Lion. This isn't a website, but it's a wonderful video. If you haven't seen it yet, rush right over. If you have, watch it again. It makes me happy every time. John Rendall and Anthony Bourke bought Christian as a lion cub from Harrods in 1969. They raised him in their London home for several years, then set him free to live in the wilds of Africa. A year later, against advice from experts, John and Anthony traveled to Kenya, hoping to reunite with their old friend. "They" said Christian wouldn't remember.

7. Gives Me Hope. The optimist's answer to FML. Some of the experiences people share are big -- dealing with cancer or grief. Some seem small -- one woman paying another's bus fare. But all give hope and light in a world that seems to be growing increasingly dark.

8. Greater Good Network. Their websites bring together communities that care, giving all of us the power to make a difference in the world with simple, every day actions.

9. The art work of Liz Lemon Swindle. It always touches me. At this stage in my life, I'm really touched by Mother

10. Poetry.com. For me, words can be soothing. Words used beautifully, succinctly, correctly, are like music to my soul.

11.Military Homecoming videos on YouTube. Is there anything better than seeing spouses and children surprised by a returning soldier? I start sniffling within seconds. So touching.

12. 365 Project. The 365 project is a photography project where you document a year of your life by taking a daily photo. I'd love to join in but my camera was ruined in a downpour last year and I haven't been able to replace it. The shots I get with my old camera phone just aren't that good.

13. Bible Gateway . A searchable online Bible in over 50 languages and 100 versions, featuring a verse of the day.

You may not like all 13 of my choices. You may not like any of them. But they're the places I go when I need a lift. Now ... what are your favorites?

100 Books: #17 Dipped, Stripped, and Dead

2011-03-02T09:00:00.003-06:00

I love cozy mysteries. Absolutely love cozy mysteries. My first conscious thoughts about wanting to be a writer stirred inside me while I read the Nancy Drew series. I wasn't even a tween when I identified the desire to become a novelist. And when I became a novelist, I wanted to write mysteries.

Of course, as I grew up and my reading tastes broadened, I also realized that I wanted to write classic romance stories and the great American novel. And one of these days, that epic love/adventure story set around the American Revolution is going to show up on my book shelf. Just you wait and see.

But no matter how many other types of books I add to my list of favorites, the cozy mystery stays at the top of the heap. I love the current wave of hobby/foodie cozies, which is why I'm currently writing one. And that love of cozies is what lands Dipped, Stripped, and Dead by Elise Hyatt at #17 on my list of 100 Books I Want to Read.

Divorced and strapped for cash, Candyce "Dyce" Dare starts up Daring Finds, a furniture refinishing business. But when she goes dumpster diving for discarded furniture-and uncovers a corpse-Dyce may find herself redecorating a jail cell.

A body a a dumpster! Does it get any better than that?

The Return of Some Old Favorites

2011-03-01T09:00:00.000-06:00

I'm very excited to learn that Harlequin wants to reissue a third book from my backlist as part of its Heartwarming miniseries project. They'll be reissuing some favorite romances by several authors--books that aren't necessarily inspirational, but that celebrate traditional values and true love.

I think this is a great idea since I frequently hear from readers who don't like a lot of sex in their romances. They love reading romance. They believe in the healing power of love and celebrate romantic love, but they wonder why there aren't more books available that might appeal to them. For the past few years, it seems that the only way to avoid lots of graphic sex in your romance is to read books from the inspirational category. But many readers have been wanting something in between and the books Harlequin is reissuing in its Heartwarming miniseries should fill that need.

And who knows? If the response is strong enough, maybe they'll even decide to publish new books for this reading demographic. If you're a reader looking for great romances without graphic content, give the books being reissued as Harlequin Heartwarming a try.You might just influence their future publishing decisions.

The first reissue from my bookshelves is titled NEW YEAR, NEW LOVE (the book formerly known as "A Man for Mom.") I don't have permission from HQ to use the artwork on my website yet so click on the link to check out the cover. I love it! It's going out to subscribers in March (almost, like, now!) and will be available in WalMart and other retail locations in May.

The second book is titled PICTURE PERFECT. No artwork yet, but I'll share that as soon as I can. It will be mailed to subscribers in May and available via retail locations in July.

And just yesterday I got the news that they'd like to include THE CHRISTMAS WIFE in the lineup. It will get a new title and a little updating and be available in time for Christmas. I'll keep you posted with more details as they're available.

Three of my favorite books from my backlist. Three reader favorites getting new life. I couldn't be more pleased! I hope you are too.

Book Review: Flowerbed of State

2011-02-28T09:00:00.022-06:00

Flowerbed of State by Dorothy St. James

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After meeting Dorothy St. James at a writer's retreat last year, I had the good fortune to get an advanced reading copy of the first book in her new series, Flowerbed of State, scheduled for release in May 2011.

This book is well-written and charming--a bright blossom in the garden of cozy mysteries. Casey Calhoun, an assistant gardener at the White House wakes up to find herself lying in the mud surrounded by ruffled pink tulips. How she got there is a mystery quickly compounded by the discovery of a dead body nearby.

Casey is an intriguing protagonist. She's both spunky enough to hold the reader's interest and vulnerable enough to be believable. The rest of the cast of is interesting and varied, the setting captivating. The author skillfully draws the reader into the world of the White House staff and the beautiful city that is our nation's capital. I'll definitely be reading more in this series.

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Why Judge the RITAs?

2011-02-25T10:30:00.001-06:00

This year, as always, I signed up with Romance Writers of America to judge the RITA contest. I received my package of books, unpacked them with great ritual, and then dove in eagerly. Now, just a few short weeks later, I'm coming to the end of my journey. This is both good and bad. I'm always excited to receive my box of books from RWA, but I'm also happy to reach the end of the stack and resume my regular reading schedule.

Today, as I hover on the cusp of the completed task for yet another year, I thought I'd blog about the reasons I keep signing up year after year, even in the years when I don't enter the contest myself.

5. Free books. Anybody who's a book lover can appreciate the allure of free books. Anybody who grew up in a day without online shopping and e-books can appreciate the allure of books delivered to your doorstep. It never gets old for me.

4. New Authors. I'm not gonna lie, not every book I get in my bundle is a keeper. Some are very good, some are excellent, and some ... aren't. But every year I discover at least one author new to me that I want to read again. In a world where mediocrity is rewarded with alarming frequency, that alone is worth the time and energy it takes to read a panel of books.

3. The chance to give. It's very easy to live a narrow little life. We're human. It happens. As a writer pursuing an occupation that is, by its very nature, solitary, it's very easy to focus on me, my problems, my books, my issues, my trials and tribulations. Life's a whole lot better when I can step outside of myself for a little while and think about somebody besides me. Judging the RITA contest every year is a chance to do that -- unless, of course, I get wrapped up in how it's going to affect me!

2. It's for RWA. I've been a member of RWA since sometime in early 1993. I've served on the chapter level and I've served at the national level. I admire and respect the professional staff in Houston, and I admire and respect the people who give their time and energy to serve on the board and on committees every year. As long as RWA chooses to have a contest, they can count on me to do my part.

1. A legitimate excuse to read during work hours. Nobody can raise an eyebrow when they find me sitting in my chair with a book. Not that anyone in my house would raise an eyebrow. I raised my kids right, and my grand-kids are being brought up right too. Nothing makes my heart happier than to have the two year-old toddle over to the bookcase and then run to me saying, "Want book! Want book!"

So tomorrow or the next day I'll log in and submit my score for the last book in my stack, and the moment will be bittersweet. I'm finished! I'm finished!

.... but wait! That means I'm finished

100 Books: #16 The Poet

2011-02-24T10:37:00.000-06:00

Michael Connelly's The Poet hits my list of books I want to read at #16. Yes, it's been out for a long, long time. Yes, I should have read it before now. I haven't, and that's why it's on my list.

I really like Michael Connelly's books. Harry Bosch is one of my all-time favorite characters, so I'm interested to see whether I'll enjoy spending time in Jack McEvoy's head. It doesn't always happen, you know. Sometimes you find an author and a character that just click. You like them both so well, you rush to buy that new series, only to discover that it doesn't click at all. I'm hoping that's not the case with Michael and Jack.

This series does have something else going for it. According to the blurbs I've read, Jack is a Denver Post crime beat reporter. I've never lived in Denver, but my parents lived there for over 20 years, so jumping into this book should feel a little like going home.

Have any of you read it? What did you think?

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Guilty Pleasures

2011-02-17T11:00:00.000-06:00

We all have 'em, don't we? Things we absolutely love that we don't usually talk about with friends and family? Things we'll admit to, but only with a little blush and a protest or two about why they're not really that bad. So, in honor of Thursday Thirteen, here's my list of

13 Guilty Pleasures

1. An Idiot Abroad. Ricky Gervais and his friend Stephen Merchant send their friend(?) and colleague, Karl Pilkington, around the world to visit the 7 Wonders. Karl is billed as being uncultured, and he grouses through most of each episode about the countries he visits, the people, their hygiene, living conditions, and food. It's generally hilarious, with just enough honestly touching moments to keep me from completely hating Karl and his buddies.

2. Some reality TV, like Celebrity Apprentice. Okay, so it's a train wreck. And I can still hear Joan Rivers screeching, "She's a poker player," at ... whoever the poker-playing "celebrity" was in the last season -- or was it the season before that? Obviously, I'm not thoroughly invested in the show but it is good for a laugh now and then. It's starting again on March 6th, and I just looked up the cast to see who's going to be on it this season. I've heard of about half of the people listed, which begs the question -- should this show really be called Celebrity Apprentice? Celebrity Rehab's also on the list. I know this really makes me sound like I'm hooked on celebrities, but I'm not. I swear. Like Apprentice, I usually know about half the cast. It's the human interaction that fascinates me. I use it for research. Really. I do like Dancing with the Stars, but American Idol is lost on me. I've never willingly watched a reality dating show.

3. Ben & Jerry's. I was going to specify a flavor, but I find that's impossible. Some days it has to be Willie Nelson's Country Peach Cobbler. Others, nothing but Cherry Garcia. Or Boston Creme Pie, or Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream. I was raised on ice cream as comfort food, which probably isn't a good thing. But there you have it. There's never a bad time for Ben & Jerry's.

4. My Snuggie. Who would have thought that I'd use a Snuggie in Florida! Thanks to my friend Linda for such a great gift! I'll be kind of sad when it gets warm again and I have to put it away.

5. Diet Pepsi. Diet Coke will do in a pinch, but nothing beats an icy-cold Diet Pepsi!

6. A trip to the office supply store. Any office supply store will do. An office-supply aisle at a one-stop store will do if I'm having a real office-supply moment, but as any true office-supply aficionado knows, those one-stop stores are sadly lacking. Just put me inside the front door and let me wander. If I don't have a need for that set of pens or those stacking trays, I'll invent one.

7. Sonic's Grape CreamSlush Treat. See above notes about ice cream. I first discovered the amazing taste sensation of frozen grape-flavored whatever in ice cream form at a local drive-in called the Iceberg Drive Inn. Their grape milkshake is ... well, amazing! I don't live near the Iceberg anymore, so Sonic is my source for frozen grape ice cream. My only regret is that the CreamSlush Treat is not part of Sonic's Happy Hour two-for-one deal.

8. Kurt Russell. I'll watch him in anything, anytime.

9. Maguire's Irish Pub. The atmosphere alone is worth a visit, and I've never had anything off the menu that I wouldn't order again. Their Reuben Eggrolls are out of this world.

10. Uninterrupted reading time.

11. A trip to a yarn store. A good craft store will do, as long as they have a good supply of yarn. I love to crochet. Afghans. As gifts. And every once in a while I make something for myself. I recently finished this afghan for a friend's baby. Next up, an afghan for my niece's little boy -- promised to him so long ago, I'm embarrassed to admit it.

12. Shopping for purses. They don't have to be expensive, but they do have to be cute. And different. And ... cute. Variety is the spice of life!

13. Getting my nails done. I used to have a standing appointment every three weeks with a manicurist named Shauna. The hour or two I spent sitting in that chair and talking about all the important things in the world were some of the best hours in my month. I haven't been to a manicurist in well over a year, but I'm crossing fingers that when circumstances change, I'll be able to find someone I like half as well as I liked Shauna.

And there you have it. Thirteen of my guilty pleasures. What are some of yours?

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

2011-02-16T11:00:00.007-06:00

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Overall a good book, but I thought it was too repetitive in places and a bit too long-winded in others. It contained all the expected elements -- trouble with the Malfoys, help from Dumbledore, Ron and Hermoine. A good assortment of suspicious characters to keep young readers guessing. Still, I thought it could have benefited from a little judicious editing. It would have been a really great 500-page book.

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100 Books: #15 The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate

2011-02-11T11:00:00.001-06:00

Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate are (is?) #15 on my list of books I want to read. A friend gave me this book years ago because it was one of her favorites. I know absolutely nothing about it except that. But she was a good friend and her tastes in other things matched mine pretty closely, so I accepted the gift with gratitude and promptly placed it on my bookshelf.

Now that I'm trying to compose a list of 100 Books I Want to Read (more appropriately titled 100 Books I've Allowed to Languish on my TBR Stack for Far Too Long!!) I'm resurrecting this gift and putting it near the top of my pile. What? you say! You consider #15 to be "near the top?"

Well . . . yeah! I'm a bookaholic. I have more than 1,000 unread books in my personal collection, and that's after weeding out an embarrassingly large number and giving them away before my cross-country move 14 months ago. This paltry 1,100 or so books is but a drop in the bucket. So being assigned the #15 spot ... well, it's an honor. As well it should be. If I were any kind of friend, I'd have read this one a long, long time ago!

I ask those of you reading this just one thing. Please tell me I'm not the only book-a-holic out there whose TBR piles could make up the inventory for a small book store! Come on. Confess. How big is your TBR pile?

Thirteen Romantic Movies

2011-02-10T10:00:00.000-06:00

In honor of Valentine's Day, here are my top 13 Favorite Romantic Movies:

1. Notting Hill (1999)

Starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. He's Hugh-Grantishly charming and she's ... well, she's Julia. Just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. The requisite "chasing the girl through crowded city streets" scene in this movie is one of the best ever.

2. Love, Actually (2003)

Hugh Grant again, this time with the glorious Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and Alan Rickman, to name just a few of the talented actors in this movie. The scenes between Emma and Alan's characters are particularly touching. Bill Nighy is delightfully icky, but you can't help but love him. Even Kiera Knightly, who usually isn't a favorite, wins me over.

3. America's Sweethearts (2001)

John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones are America's Sweethearts, once-married actors who made a string of romantic comedies together. Now they're divorced, but the studio needs them to appear together to promote their last movie. Julia Roberts and Billy Chrystal round out the cast. Hilarity ensues. What's not to love?

4. Overboard (1987)

Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. She's a spoiled rich socialite. He's a poor carpenter. She falls off her yacht and loses her memory. He's Kurt Russell. She struggles to find her way in a strange new world. He's Kurt Russell. The chemistry between them is unmistakable. He's Kurt Russell. Need I say more?

5. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

A classic romance. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. If you haven't seen it, don't wait. It's thoroughly charming -- and I mean that in a good way :) I find myself quoting lines from this one. "It's like a little clue."

6. While You Were Sleeping (1995)

Back in the day, I didn't expect to like this movie. The premise sounded implausible, at best. But it's one of my favorites. Kinda makes you want someone to lean, if you know what I mean.

7. Return to Me (2000)

David Duchovny plays a widower still mourning the loss of his wife. Minnie Driver is a heart transplant patient who received Duchovny's late-wife's heart. Carroll O'Connell and his band of friends are scene-stealers all the way through. One of my favorites.

8. P.S. I Love You (2007)

This movie has several things to recommend it. First, Gerard Butler. Second, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Third, Harry Connick, Jr. And Hillary Swank's pretty darned good too. Kathy Bates as Swank's mother is a great character. Does it even matter what the plot is? Barely. But the plot works and the scenery is stunning.

9. Some Like it Hot (1959)

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are on the run, hiding from gangsters after witnessing a mob hit. Their only way out of town is to become members of an all-girl band. Marilyn Monroe stars as Sugar Kane Kowalczyk and Joe E Brown is hilarious as Osgood Fielding III. Wonderful.

10. Teacher's Pet (1958)

Clark Gable plays a rough-edged newspaper man. Doris Day is a journalism professor at the local college. Since Doris Day's character despises Gable's character by reputation, he naturally pretends to be someone else when he's forced to take her class. Gig Young as Dr. Hugo Pine is wonderful.

11. Truly, Madly Deeply (1990)

Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman in a deeply emotional movie that's also wonderfully funny. If I remember right, this was the first movie I ever saw Rickman in and I became a fan for life. Stevenson's portrayal of grief in a scene at her counselor's office is one of the most realistic I've ever seen.

12. Sliding Doors (1998)

Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah in a wonderful movie about chance. What if one split-second move could forever alter the future? That's what happens to Paltrow's character, and we see her life playing out in two versions, running along in parallel.

13. It Happened One Night (1934)

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in a wonderful romantic comedy. She's a runaway heiress. He's a reporter looking for a story. The story goes that this movie was a favorite of animator Friz Freleng, and Gable's character during the hitch-hiking scene helped inspire the creation of Bugs Bunny.

2011-02-09T11:00:00.001-06:00

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even though I'm now on the other side of the country, I still try to keep up with the books my long-time book club is reading. This book is one of two books we read in January. It's one I probably wouldn't have picked up on my own, but I'm very glad that the ladies of the club added it to our reading list this year.

It's the story of a young orphan boy named Tree-ear, named after a mushroom that grows without benefit of a parent seed. He lives with Crane-man, a kind man who takes him in after his parents are killed. Crane-man receives his name because of one crippled leg. The two live under a bridge in good weather and survive by digging through rubbish bins for cast-off clothes and food.

Eventually, Tree-ear finds himself working for a master potter to pay a debt and the book traces his journey from servant to apprentice and eventually to a skilled artist in his own right. It's a touching story, beautifully written and gently told.

The book was awarded a Newbery Medal. Although the blurb on Amazon.com says it's for ages 10-14, I'd recommend it to anyone from 10 up.

View all my reviews

Ten Favorite Photos

2011-02-04T10:00:00.002-06:00

Ten favorite photos in no particular order

This one pretty much speaks for itself

My dog's first experience with a real body of water.

Home from deployment.

Big Sis and her friend Benjamin

Vanessa and me on the way home from Jacksonville

Sunrise on the Isle of Palms

Riding on the Polar Express -- arriving at the North Pole

Taken on our last Pioneer Day in Utah

Why I had a little trouble working while living with the grandkids!

This was the view from my "office."

100 Books: #14 The Magic of Ordinary Days

2011-01-31T17:51:00.000-06:00

I have this book listed as #14 on my list of books to read and it's the second alternate in my 2001 To-Be-Read Challenge list. Trouble is, as I began to write this post and I looked at the blurb on goodreads.com, I realized that I may have already read this book. The story line certainly sounds familiar. Lonely girl married to a man she hardly knows. Becomes friends with two Japanese sisters in a nearby internmnent camp . . . If I haven't read it, I read its identical twin.

So I may not be able to use this one as an alternate after all. I'd just check my copy, but I can't find it -- this despite the fact that my daughter and I have spent hours cataloging all the books in the house and making sure we know where they are. Oops! Apparently we failed.

So if I can ever figure out where my copy is and figure out whether I've already read this book, I'll either leave it on my list or take it off.

Which brings me to a question. For those of you who have TBR stacks in the hundreds, if not thousands... How do you keep track of your books? Inquiring minds and all that....

What Makes a Book a Wallbanger?

2011-01-28T10:00:00.000-06:00

I'm a writer, but I'm also a reader and every year when contest season rolls around, I'm reminded of that fact. I try to judge the books and manuscripts I'm sent as a reader, not as a writer. Your job, after all, is to create an emotional ride for readers, not to please other writers. So today, as I'm dragging myself through one of the books on my contest stack, I started asking myself what makes a book a wallbanger for me.

Let me stop for a moment to say that this particular book isn't one.

But I've read a few, as I'm sure we all have.

In my mind, there's a big difference between a book that's just okay and one that inspires me to throw it at the wall.

I've read countless books over the years, and I can only think of a handful that I've actually tossed away in disgust. There are a whole lot more that I've put down and never come back to. I think there are 3 or 4 on the floor by my bed that fall into that category.

But we're talking about wallbangers here. What makes a book a wallbanger to you?

The first book I can honestly remember flinging away in disgust is one I picked up about 30 years ago, while I was going through a divorce and struggling to support my daughter on my own meager income and sporadic child support payments. Life was tough. I was emotionally raw, spiritually battered, and struggling financially. Every day I had to worry about how to feed my child and how to give her enough time and attention, not to mention what was happening to her at the really lousy day care I could afford.

So I picked up this book about a wealthy woman going through a divorce. Life got a little unpleasant for her, so she decided to go to Europe for six months or so to "heal."

Bang!

I literally threw that book across the room. I don't remember ever doing that before, but I couldn't get that book out of my hands fast enough! I can tell you in all honesty that in 30-plus years, I never bought another book by that author. At that time in my life, at that moment, when life was so hideously painful and I was too poor to have any options at all, that book felt like a huge betrayal. In that moment, I realized that I don't read to escape my life. I read to make sense of my life and, for me, The Big Disconnect is probably the #1 wallbanger for me.

What's top on your list?

100 Books: #13 Mrs. Lincoln, A Life

2011-01-27T10:00:00.001-06:00

I'll admit I'm fascinated by the life of Mary Todd Lincoln, which is why Mrs. Lincoln, A Life by Catherine Clinton is on my list of books to read at #13. It's at #13 only because I haven't had it on my To-Be-Read stack as long as some of the others on this list.

I read Love is Eternal by Irving Stone many years ago, which is where I learned some of the things about Mary Lincoln that have made me stop and think about her over the years. She was a Southern woman who married a Northern husband--and not just any Northern husband, either. I wonder whether I'd have the courage to stand up for my convictions the way she did when people expected her to walk across the Confederate flag, or how well I'd survive losing a beloved child and my husband.

If memory serves, I was in my early twenties when I first became familiar with Mary Todd Lincoln's life. Since then, I've held my own life up to the light for closer inspection on more than one occasion. I'm interested to see how I fare when I read her story now that I have a little more life experience under my own belt.

Is there some public figure, either alive or dead, who inspires you in some way?

100 Books: #12 The Beach House

2011-01-24T09:52:00.001-06:00

Unlike #11 on my list, I'm really looking forward to reading The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe. I've mentioned before my love all things pertaining to beach and sand and sun and surf, and this book certainly appears to qualify.

When I first picked up this book, I'd never been to the Lowcountry, but that changed in October of last year, when I spent a week on the Isle of Palms with the Lowcountry Romance Writers. It was a truly wonderful week and I met some fascinating people while I was there. I'll be traveling back to Charleston in April to meet with them again. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to paying a visit through the pages of this book.

100 Books: #11 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

2011-01-21T12:39:00.000-06:00

Can I confess that I'm really not sure why this book is on my list?

I'd remove it, but it's also part of the books I listed for the 2011 To-Be-Read Challenge, so I'm stuck with it. I think I must have been watching Oprah one day--something I haven't done in a while--and she must have been waxing eloquent about this book, and I must have been caught up in the excitement because something someone said made it sound like a book I just had to read. So I probably hopped right over to my favorite online bookstore and placed an order.

That's the best thing and the worst thing about being able to shop from home. Impulses acted upon within 30 seconds. No longer do we have to wait the whole 30 minutes it might take to slip into shoes, find the car keys, and drive across town. We can act on that urge immediately!

Anyway, for whatever reason, the book is on my bookshelf and in my TBR stack, and listed as #11 in the challenge, so I'll make a valiant effort to read it.

It's not that I have anything against literary fiction. I actually like a lot of literary books. I'm not a genre snob or a literary snob or a reverse-literary snob. I don't turn up my nose at your choices, and I'd really like it if you didn't turn up your nose at mine. But even if you do, so what? You don't have to like the books I like for me to feel validated. I'm fine with it.

My hesitation comes strictly because of the time period. I'm not a fan of brown books, or brown movies -- not to be confused with black & white, which I adore. Brown means anything set during the depression, the dark ages, or or after the apocalypse. Not a fan. That doesn't mean I refuse to read books or watch movies set during those times. They're just not my favorite times to read about. And this book is set in the 1930s, which puts it on my "would probably rather avoid" list.

On the other hand, it does deal with subject I find fascinating, which is probably what made me whip out my debit card in the first place.

Editing Mark Twain

2011-01-18T09:00:00.012-06:00

By now I'm sure most of you have read and discussed the decision to publish Mark Twain's classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, replacing the "N" word with "slave." I waited a few days to post on this topic because if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's to not go public with a statement while emotions are running hot. Were my emotions running hot the day the news about the new version broke?

You betcha.

I'm an author. Words are my medium, and I don't take kindly to the notion of mucking about with anyone's words, even that the person who wrote 'em has been dead for a while. Even if the words make me uncomfortable or offend me. I may not like what you say but, like Voltaire, I defend your right to say it.

According to my grandmother, I'm also a distant cousin of Samuel Clemens. I suspect it's true because she was heavily into genealogy and she wouldn't have made something like that up. So even though I haven't personally seen the genealogy chart that links my family line to old Cousin Sam's, my blood was boiling out of sheer family loyalty.

But now that I've had some time to think about it, I've changed my mind. Now I say, by all means, make the change!

If there's one thing this country doesn't need, it's an old, tired book reminding us how horribly African Americans were treated in this country just a few generations ago. Nobody wants to think about slavery, but if we must, at least let's take some of the sting out of the subject.

All that ugliness has caused a lot of bad feelings over the years. And all those bad feelings have caused a lot of trouble. So, forgetting entirely about the sensibilities of the world's sixth graders, I say that the very last thing we need hanging around is a reminder that race relations weren't always perfect, the way they are now.

The very best thing we can do is to shave off the sharp edges and produce a much gentler history for posterity. To hell with the truth! (Sorry Cousin Sam.) Let's make sure the past looks pretty so future generations will look upon us more kindly.

On second thought, maybe Cousin Sam would approve of this change. After all, he did once say:

"Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it." -- Mark Twain

We can economize truth right now with the removal of one horrendously offensive word. We can soften the blow so that that this generation will grow up not knowing how bad things really were. By the time these kids grow up, they'll be ready to remove "slave" and substitute it with "servant." Or maybe "friend." Why stop short?

In two or three more generations, we'll have softened the truth so much, our posterity will be able to recycle the stuff we've removed from history and start all over again. And the best part of that is, they'll think they made it up!

While we're discussing the subject, let's forget that Twain wrote political and cultural satire that wasn't intended for sixth graders in the first place. So let's dumb down the books a bit further and remove all the other poky-out parts that might jab somebody else in the conscience. No sense letting the old man get a dig in now that he's not around.

And maybe when we're finished with Twain, we can take a swipe at Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. I'm pretty sure there are some things we'll want to soften in the history of the holocaust, as well.

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.

It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

-- Mark Twain

"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please."

-- Mark Twain

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word

is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

-- Mark Twain

"All right, then, I'll go to hell."

-- Mark Twain

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from the blog On My Mind Today

Stony Stratford Strikes Back!

2011-01-17T14:08:00.000-06:00

In between sentences in my current work-in-progress, I've been wondering what to blog about today. Yeah, I've been working on my list of 100 Books I Want to Read, but I don't plan to subject you to 100 uninterrupted days of me thinking about my massive TBR stack. I swear!

I was having a little trouble coming up with a topic that knocked my socks off ... until I saw this article scroll past.

First, major kudos to the folks in Stony Stratford for caring enough about the library to do this. It's amazing. At first, when I saw the image of the completely empty library, my heart sank. I thought the shelves were empty because the library was closing. But as I read on and realized that the library was completely empty because people in that village checked out all 16,000 books in the library to protest the possible closure, I experienced a huge feel-good moment.

I love the library, and have since I was a little girl when my mother took me there. I still remember the thrill of climbing the metal stairs into the Bookmobile when it came to my school and the joy of walking up and down the stacks, looking for books I wanted to read. The library meant that no matter how much money we had or didn't have, I could always get a book. The library meant that I could read thousands of books if I wanted to, and the only thing standing in my way was how fast or slow I read the books I had.

Librarians knew and understood the books. If I liked this, they could recommend that. If I couldn't figure out the Dewey Decimal System, they showed me where to find the book I wanted. As I grew older and my book needs changed, I discovered that the library meant even more than just good books to read. It means research materials, access to old newspaper archives and past issues of magazines. And if I needed a book that I couldn't find on the shelves, all I had to do was request the book and my library would get it from another library.

Sadly, that service is no longer available to me due to budget cuts. I'm not pointing fingers here or trying to place blame. There's entirely too much of that in our society already, and my thoughts today aren't about who's responsible and who's not. I just wish that more people valued books. I wish more people would realize how amazing the library is. I wish we'd put our money where our mouths are. When we claim that education of our children is important, let's not take away their ability to find a book to read, even if their parents don't have money or their parents don't especially like to read. (That's another thing that makes me sad, but it's a topic for another day.)

Everyone I know is struggling in this economy. There's not as much money for entertainment and travel. Food budgets are being slashed and people are downsizing. But at the library, you can always get a book to read. Even in my small community, where services are being cut, I can still access any book in the county-wide system, and they still provide monthly e-mails about the new books they've put on the shelves every month. And that's a good thing.

Have any great library memories or just thoughts about their status in the current economy? I'd love to hear what you think.

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from the blog On My Mind Today

100 Books: #10 Flamingo Diner

2011-01-14T10:00:00.001-06:00

Number 10 on my list of books I want to read is Sherryl Woods' Flamingo Diner. I think I picked this one up shortly after my youngest daughter and her husband moved from Utah to Florida, taking with them the wonder child who was, at that time, my only grandchild.

For months after they left, I picked up everything I could find that had a palm tree on it or some connection to Florida. Made me feel closer to them in some odd way. Until I started writing this blog post, I wasn't even sure what the book was about. Another instance of cover art swaying my book-buying habits.

Today, I actually read a blurb about the book, and I'm relieved to say that it sounds like something I'll like. A few key words appear, such as, small town, secrets, tragic death, and questions. And, oh yeah, there's a romance involved. I'm always relieved when an impulse buy turns out to be a good thing.

How about you? Are you an impulse buyer? If so, do you ever regret giving in?
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from the blog On My Mind Today

100 Books: #9 Quite a Year for Plums

2011-01-13T10:00:00.005-06:00

I'm fond of claiming that I'm not swayed by book reviews, but this is the book that proves the exception to the rule. I picked this book up several years ago because I either heard or read a review that convinced me I'd like this one. I'd never heard of the book or the author and hadn't been book shopping in far too long, so I'd had no occasion to run across it. But someone raved about it somewhere, and their enthusiasm for the book left a lasting impression.

I've never read anything else by Bailey White, but I love books set in small towns. Put that small town in the South, and I'm doubly hooked.Though I only recently moved to the South myself, my dad was born in Arkansas, and my grandmother had enough of the South left in her to create a little tug in my heart for all things Southern. I'm waiting for the day when I stop sweating through the long, hot, humid summers and start glistening instead. Then I'll know I've truly arrived.

The blurb I read for this book promises love, family and idiosyncrasy. Does it get any better than that? I love quirky characters, unreliable narrators, people obsessed by chickens who dream about chicken feet. I'm of the belief that quirky people make the world go round.

If you've read this book, I'd love to hear your opinion of it. I'll be sharing mine once I've read it.

100 Books: #8 A Thousand Acres

2011-01-12T10:00:00.010-06:00

Number 8 on my list of 100 Books I Want to Read is A THOUSAND ACRES by Jane Smiley. This is probably the first book I'm hesitant about. The premise sounds interesting:

A successful Iowa farmer decides to divide his farm between his three daughters. When the youngest objects, she is cut out of his will. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions. An ambitious reimagining of Shakespeare’s King Lear cast upon a typical American community in the late twentieth century, A Thousand Acres takes on themes of truth, justice, love, and pride, and reveals the beautiful yet treacherous topography of humanity.

Sounds great, right? I love the themes of truth, justice, love and price, and I don't mind navigating the treacherous topography of humanity. I couldn't be a writer if I shied away from that particular journey.

I love Shakespeare and am fascinated not only by how his work is still relevant today, but by how often modern writers, playwrights and movie-makers remake his stories.

But the thing is, I think I know what the dark truths are in this book, and I'm not 100% sure I'm emotionally ready to tackle this book. Whether or not I actually read this one is going to depend on a couple of factors. First, how I'm feeling when it comes time to start reading; and, second, what other readers have to say about it. Is it graphic? Is it a difficult read?

If the author handles this subject one way, it could be the very thing I need to read. If she goes another way, it could be a very bad choice. If anyone out there has read it, I'd be very interested in your opinion.

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from the blog On My Mind Today

100 Books: #7 Magnificent Obsession

2011-01-11T09:00:00.001-06:00

I'm not going to lie. I love commercial genre fiction. I write commercial genre fiction. But that doesn't mean that I don't also love classic literature or even literary fiction. I love to read, and my tastes aren't always the same. Which is why I've added MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION by Lloyd C. Douglas to my list in the #7 spot.

I've heard good things about this book, but must confess I know absolutely nothing about the storyline. I haven't even seen the movie, starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson. But, hey! It's Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson. How could it go wrong? Plus, Agnes Moorhead appears in a non-Endora role.

I do know that it's supposed to be:

An engaging and dramatic story of personal redemption and private sacrifice.

Now, I'm all for engaging and dramatic. Nothing's worse than picking up a book that you want to be engaging and dramatic, only to find it dull, repetitive, and boring. I love books about personal redemption and private sacrifice, so this books sounds like it's right up my alley.

Lloyd C. Douglas also wrote THE ROBE, which I've also never read. But I have seen that movie.

So I'm looking forward to reading this one, but I'm also wondering if anyone out there reading this blog has read the book or seen the movie. If you have, I'd love to know what you thought of them.

100 Books: #6 Up Island

2011-01-10T09:00:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite books of all time is Anne Rivers Siddons' COLONY. I love the story and am head-over-heels in love with her writing. It's lush and evocative and so beautiful that today, years after I read the book for the first time, I can still call up images formed in my imagination when I read it for the first time. Add to that a long-time fascination with the sea and lighthouses, and you may be able to guess why this book ended up on my list. Even better, according to the blurb on goodreads.com, it deals with a couple of subjects I find endlessly fascinating: family dynamics and how we cope when the world we've so carefully built implodes. I'm hoping for another magical ride through a richly drawn setting.

100 Books: #5 Don't Tell

2011-01-08T09:00:00.043-06:00

Number 5 on my List for the 2011 To Be Read Challenge and my own list of 100 Books I Want to read is DON'T TELL by Karen Rose. A few years ago, I was walking around in a publisher-sponsored book signing at the Romance Writers of America annual conference. As I rounded a corner in the crush of people, I spotted one of Karen Rose's books sitting on the table and I knew I had to have that book. Dark. Mysterious. Compelling.

I found the covers so intriguing, in fact, I stopped and got a book. Maybe two. I can't remember now. I do remember that I also came away with a bookmark which ended up on my desk a few weeks later.

My daughter sat down to use the computer, spotted the bookmark, and had the same reaction I'd had. She just had to read at least one of Karen Rose's books. And of course, after one, she was hooked. I guess great cover art does make a difference--at least with some people!

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from the blog On My Mind Today

100 Books–#4: I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason

2011-01-07T08:00:00.017-06:00

I picked this one up for the title alone. In fact, to this day I haven’t actually done more than skim the back cover blurb but that's okay. The title totally does it for me.

As a girl, I was a serious Perry Mason fan. I watched those old reruns religiously. Every night, I sat on my bed and practiced my shorthand homework while Perry, Della Street and Paul Drake made the world a safer place. I snarled at Hamilton Burger (did he ever go after the right guy?) and wondered whether the author intentionally named the guy Hamburger.

I thought Della was not only beautiful but one sharp cookie, and Paul Drake was big and strong and loyal. Though I never fantasized about Perry romantically, I marveled at his brilliance, and tried to reach the outcome before he got there. I don’t think I ever won, but I sure loved to try. So when I saw this book somewhere, I knew I had to have it. Yeah, I’m late reading it, but better late than never, right?

100 Books -- #3 Magic Hour

2011-01-06T10:52:00.000-06:00

Next on my list of books I want to read is MAGIC HOUR by the incredibly talented Kristin Hannah. This book has been on my to-Be-Read list for far too long, considering all of the good things I’ve heard about it. Check out the ratings on goodreads.com and you’ll find so many stars it will make your eyes blur.

I recently read Firefly Lane, also by Hannah, and loved it, so I’m eager to get to this one! And last, but certainly not least, the enthusiastic thumbs’ up given to this book by my daughter, whose taste in books doesn’t always match my own, but it matches often enough. She knows me well enough to have a pretty clear understanding of the books I’ll like and the ones I won’t. She’s pretty sure I’ll like this one, and that cinches its spot at #3 on my list.

100 Books -- #2 What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

2011-01-05T08:30:00.000-06:00

I first heard about this book when it became a pick for Oprah's book club. Not that I generally like to read the books Oprah selects for her book club. They're usually very dark and take me to places I've been working hard to climb out of, so I tend to avoid them. But this one caught my eye and I added it to my list. I've just never gotten around to actually reading it. I intend to rectify that omission in 2011.

Unlike the books I shy away from, this one sounds like something I might like:

This highly praised debut novel by a renowned African-American playwright/essayist is a gritty yet warm and inspiring story of hope, love, and homecoming.

Inspiring. Hope. Love. Home. All those lovely, comfort words with a touch of grit tossed in to keep it from getting boring. I'll let you know whether I think it lives up to its press when I've finished it.

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from the blog On My Mind Today

100 Books I Want to Read: #1 The Adams-Jefferson Letters

2011-01-04T09:30:00.000-06:00

I’ve decided to compile a list of 100 books I’d like to read—or read again. This isn’t something I’m going to do quickly. No, I’m going to take my time and think about it. I’m going to take somewhere around 100 days to pull this list together. Maybe even a bit longer. I’m going to require myself to have a good reason for putting the book on my list, but I’m going to cut myself some slack by allowing me to be the sole judge about what constitutes a “good reason.”

Recently, I signed up to participate in the 2011 To-Be-Read Pile Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader so I’ll begin with the first book on that list:

THE ADAMS-JEFFERSON LETTERS: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams by John Adams, Lester J. Cappon

I’m a little obsessed with John Adams. I’ll admit it. My interest in our much unappreciated second president began when I read THOSE WHO LOVE by Irving Stone many years ago. After reading JOHN ADAMS by David McCullough a few years ago, my interest took another leap. McCullough’s book made me want to become a better person. My daughter gave me THE ADAMS-JEFFERSON LETTERS a year or two after I finished JOHN ADAMS, and my goal is to read it this year.

Writing Powerhouse Scenes

2010-12-22T05:59:00.000-06:00

Just a quick heads' up for those who are interested! I'll be teaching a workshop on Writing Powerhouse Scenes at Savvy Authors in January.

Today's market requires that writers keep scenes immediate so readers can be "in the moment" with the characters in your book. Yet writing scenes that happen in the moment is often difficult to do. Too often, we end up with scenes in which there's a delay between the action and the page, or with scenes in which the author resorts to "telling" to explain what just happened.

In this workshop we'll talk about enhancing scene structure using its basic elements of goal, conflict and disaster in various ways that will keep the reader on the same page as the characters all the way through. The discussions and personalized feedback on your own work-in-progress will help you build powerhouse scenes that never leave the reader (or the editor) feeling left out -- even for a second!


WHEN:	Jan 3, 2011 - Jan 31, 2011

COST:	$15 for Premium Members $25 for Basic Members

For more information or to register, click here to visit Savvy Authors

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from the blog On My Mind Today

Act, Don’t React

2010-12-21T11:15:00.000-06:00

It may sound like simple advice, but "Act, don't react" is one of the most powerful things I know about writing.

Characters who are motivated by a negative desire are very difficult to motivate and move through a book as you write it. When I say a "negative desire," I mean that the character wants an absence of something in their life. He wants to not accomplish something, or he wants to avoid something. Maybe the character wants to avoid being fired. Maybe she wants to avoid a divorce. Maybe he wants to not get behind in paying his bills. She wants to not argue with her mother. He wants to not go back to his home town. She doesn’t want to work with her ex-husband on the big case. He wants to not have problems with the remodeling job he’s just contracted. She wants to not fall in love ever again.

So what's wrong with that?

Simply this: These people are reactors, not actors. Even though they’re very much like a great many real people, it’s extremely difficult to build reader identification with these people because they are not in control of their lives, and they are not really making any attempt to be in control.

The fact is that if my hero really and truly wants to not return to his home town, it’s extremely difficult to make him go and still convince the reader that I’m telling the truth. If he really doesn’t want to go, he won’t go. Period. End of question. It won't matter what reason I throw at him. So if I toss a reason at him and he caves in, all the pages I spent blathering about how he didn’t want to go now feel dishonest to the reader.

And that breaks the one and only real rule I have when it comes to writing. Never lie. Never ever lie.

I have found, through much struggle and hours of bashing my head against brick walls, that the best way to build reader identification is to give your character a goal that she is actively working toward. To make her sympathetic, regardless of what that goal is, she must have a plan for reaching it. It’s not enough to want. It’s not enough to hope. It’s not enough to dream. The character must have a plan and be brave enough to take the steps required to achieve it.

To tell the reader that the heroine desperately wants to keep her book store open, but then allow her to be buffeted by the winds of change, making her someone who reacts to people and events around her instead of someone who acts, is to be dishonest with your readers. If she is truly desperate, she will be the one to take action, and each time she runs into a setback, she’ll change course and try again.

People whose motivation is to avoid something will avoid it. If they don't want to go to the company Christmas party, they won't go. If they specifically (and honestly) want not to fall in love again, they will go to any lengths to avoid anyone who might make them change their minds.

Sometimes we mistake this struggle for conflict -- but it's a "conflict" on the surface only, and it’s not one that works well over the course of a novel because it's one-sided. Conflict isn't conflict without two sides of equal strength. The guy who honestly doesn't want to meet women will not start up a conversation with the flame-haired beauty by the punch-bowl. It’s just not going to happen. If you try to force him to do it, the scene you write will ring false to the reader. Either the character is being dishonest with the reader about what he wants or you are being dishonest in what you tell the reader. Either way, once the reader feels that you have veered from the truth, you’re in trouble.

Now turn that guy into the last bachelor in his group, someone who longs for love and commitment as much as he fears it or believes himself incapable of sustaining it, and you have real internal conflict. Both sides of the question have an equal pull on him, and the ensuing internal struggle is real and honest. This guy will step up to the punch-bowl and have a conversation with that stunning red-head, even though he argues silently with himself after every word he speaks aloud.

When we give our characters negative motivations and then force them to act against their will, we make victims of our characters. No person who is really made into a victim can feel strong and sympathetic to the reader. Maybe the Woman In Jeopardy is victimized for a few minutes, but what makes us like her and keep reading is the way she fights back.

Think about which of these two people you identify with most, and which you feel most sympathetic toward:

Deirdre is a 32-year-old woman who has been beleaguered by debt since her mother’s funeral. She has tried everything to get a loan, but no one will help her. After a particular harsh weekend during which she dodged bill collectors and process servers, Deirdre closes up her apartment and drives across three states to move in with a friend. If she’s lucky, she’ll find a job and maybe earn money before the bill collectors catch up to her.

Belle is a 32-year old woman who has been beleaguered by debt since her mother’s funeral. Belle has tried everything to get a loan, but no one will help her. After a particular harsh weekend during which she dodged bill collectors and process servers, Belle becomes desperate and takes a part-time job as a belly dancer in the evenings. She’s embarrassed and she doesn’t want anyone to know--especially not the members of her church group--but if she keeps her nose to the grindstone for six months, she’ll be debt free and able to concentrate entirely on her law career.

I think most of us like to believe that we’re the take-charge type who act instead of react, who move forward instead of stepping back when challenges arise. Because we want to believe that about ourselves, we are more likely to identify with and cheer for the character who takes charge, even if we don’t agree with the decisions she makes.

Before THE CHRISTMAS WIFE (Harlequin Superromance, November 2003) became an actual book, I struggled with the story for a year or more -- not with the actual writing of it, but with the conceiving of it. It's a reunion story, and the seed germinated when I was listening to the Toby Keith song, "How Do You Like Me Now?" There’s a book in that song, I said to myself, and I decided right then and there to write it -- but not the story Toby Keith told, and not until I could find an honest plot and people who felt real to me.

For months, I toyed with having the hero leave town shortly after graduation and stay away for years because of some incident. The hero was, of course, in love with the heroine all through school, but he never told her. Sound familiar? Well, it should. There have only been about a million romances written with that identical plot. And while there's nothing wrong with that, those of us trying to write the tried-and-true plots today had better include something that makes it different.

I spent months (on and off) searching for the one thing that would make my story different. I tried to stay away from the tried-and-true story where the hero was a bad boy who got in trouble with the law. That’s been done. Besides, my own personal past just won’t allow me to find a convicted felon attractive no matter how tight his jeans are, or to believe that the kid who was in serious trouble all through high school has turned out to be a productive member of society. Could happen, but not in my personal experience, and I wasn't interested in hanging around any hero who fits that bill long enough to find out.

My personal truth is that bad boys are a whole lot of trouble with very little redeeming social value. I can’t write something I personally believe to be untrue and make a reader believe that it is true, so that particular plot was out for me.

I took the hero through many different incarnations during the months I struggled with the story's concept. He was a boy raised by loving parents, a boy raised by foster parents who were mean to him, a boy raised by foster parents who were nice to him, a boy raised by a loving aunt, a boy raised by grandparents. In every incarnation, I searched for the Inciting Incident that drove my hero away from Serenity, Wyoming in the first place (not so tough) and kept him away for 15 long years (big, big trouble!)

In every incarnation, my hero felt selfish and childish for refusing to set foot back in the town where he was raised -- and in every incarnation, every word I wrote felt like a lie because Beau/Nick/Jonah/Mark/Wyatt was actually not a surly vagabond who avoided Serenity like the plague. In reality, he was a friendly sort of guy who likes people and is well-liked in return. He proved that to me every time he came on stage, and each time I tried to force him to be something he wasn’t, I was being dishonest -- with him, with myself, with my readers.

After much gnashing of teeth, I decided to let the hero be what he is anyway, and to send the heroine away instead. (I wish I could come to these brilliant conclusions much faster than I do, but if wishes were fishes . . .) Anyway, I worked on that idea for at least a month, writing and re-writing scenes in which Emily/Kate/Annie/Libby/Molly comes back to town for some reason. I created an abusive ex-husband to keep her away, but that didn't work. She was too jumpy, and (again from my own experience) women who are too recently out of an abusive relationship are not heroine material. I created an abusive step-father to keep her away, but that just made her even more determined to not come back to Serenity where he was living. So weeks passed and I kept running up against a huge brick wall and getting nowhere.

Finally, I resolved once again to start over. I spent most of one day re-plotting the book with yet another scenario in mind, yet another set of circumstances, yet another motivating emotion. And then it finally occurred to me for the first time what my mistake was. I'd been trying to work with a heroine who was reacting rather than acting, She didn't want to come back to Serenity, but I was turning her into a victim over and over again by coming up with ideas that would force her to return.

But let’s say I made her come back -- why would she attend the homecoming parade? The game? Why would she go to the dance? The truth is, she wouldn't. Either she's lying about not wanting to be there, or I was lying when I said she did all these things. But I needed her to do all those things. I needed her to walk with the hero and spend time with his kids. If she didn't, how could I convince the reader that they would all be emotionally safe together by the end of the book?

The only way my story would work is if Molly wanted to be in Serenity and wanted to take part in every activity that came along. Anything else would have been dishonest, and the reader will always feel when you’re being dishonest with her. Always. You simply can’t hide a lie when you write one. It’s impossible.

Once I discovered the true reason Molly left town, I didn't have to force her back home again because she went willingly. She went because she was curious to know what happened to her old friends. She went because her recent divorce left her feeling adrift and she was searching for a place to belong. She went because in the process of being unhappily married, she forgot who she was. She’d lost her dreams, and she wanted to find them again. And most of all, she went back to Serenity to find out what really happened the night her mother died.

My advice to you is to look at the people in your current work in progress. Are they working actively toward something, or are they just busy trying to avoid something? Do they begin each scene with a specific goal in mind? Something they can accomplish in this moment? Or do they begin each scene with the same old desire to avoid the same old thing? Are they strong active characters, or are they victims of their own circumstances?

After you study your own work, take a look at some of your favorite books written by other authors. I think you'll discover that the people you've enjoyed reading about most are those who are taking active steps to accomplish something specific rather than those who muddle through trying to avoid something -- those who act rather than react.

_______________________________ from the blog On My Mind Today

2010-12-21T11:12:00.001-06:00

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It took me a long time to read the second book in this series. I really liked the first one, but kept putting off reading the rest of the series until my daughter spurred me on. I'm glad she did. Like the first book, I thought this one was clever and well written and, like any book-to-movie adaptation, there were things in the book that I didn't pick up from the movie. And I loved the message at the end -- that it's the choices we make in life that define us. So true. On to #3

2011 TBR Challenge

2010-12-16T10:40:00.002-06:00

Once again I'm going to attempt the TBR Challenge. It's hosted by Adam at Roof Beam Reader and the goal is to read 12 books off my to be read list in 12 months. I've posted my list in the sidebar over there --> Now to cross my fingers and hope I actually meet the challenge this year. It's not that I don't read a dozen books in a year. I just don't always remember to look at my list and pick a book from the ones I decided in December I might want to read in June. I'm not that organized, I guess. Or my moods fluctuate too much. Whatever. It's a challenge to meet the challenge :)

How about you? Any great reading or writing challenges you're undertaking or hosting next year? I'd love to hear about them.

_______________________________ from the blog On My Mind Today

Talkin' about Conflict

2010-11-22T06:59:00.000-06:00

I'm blogging about conflict today at The Rockville 8. Stop by and say hello if you have a minute! http://bit.ly/c1PTQc

_______________________________ from the blog On My Mind Today

Have you Read More than 6 of these Books?

2010-11-20T14:16:00.001-06:00

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this list. Bold those books you've read in their entirety. Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma-Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno – Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome -

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyto

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare-

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I answered conservatively. I think there are several more of these I’ve started and never finished, but I can’t swear to it. So where I wasn’t sure, I just said no. I scored 26 out of 100. Not great, but more than 6! Take that BBC!

Thinking about Veterans

2010-11-11T16:10:00.000-06:00

I got up this morning thinking about Veterans Day and what it means to all of us. At first, my focus was on my dad and his service during World War II. I thought about how close he came to losing his life along with the rest of his unit, and how he survived because he came down with hepatitis and had to be moved to a hospital, which put him out of harm's way during the battle that killed everyone he'd been serving with. To his dying day, my dad professed a very deep fondness for that disease.

It didn't take long for my thoughts to move on to my son-in-law, who has been sent to the desert several times already and who will be going back again way too soon. Two of his brothers are also serving in the military, and at any given time during any given year, one of them is serving overseas and in harm's way. My daughter really clarified my thinking when she posted about her mother-in-law, and how difficult it is for her to have a son in danger all the time -- and now that they're grown, with families of their own, they don't come home to her anymore so she's never sure when she'll actually see them again.

Which made me start thinking of all those people who have sacrificed along with the veterans who have fought to preserve our freedoms.

Thank you to all the veterans who have fought for our freedom, and thank you to the families of the veterans who have sacrificed more than most of us can ever understand.

_______________________________
from the blog On My Mind Today

Things that go Bump in the Night

2010-07-27T09:31:00.000-05:00

What happened at your house at 3:30 this morning? Was everyone in the family sleeping peacefully? Not at mine, apparently. We had the grandkids for a sleepover last night, and while the 3 year-old and I were doing our part with the sleeping portion of our adventure, Auntie Val was up, praying that the 1 year-old would go back to sleep and taking the dog outside to potty. When she stepped out into the front yard, this is what she found on our lawn.

We're not sure who the car belongs to, but we're thinking it probably belongs to the people who live across the street since the car on our lawn was pretty much lined up with the driveway across the way. Maybe our neighbor got himself pointed in the right direction, but put the car in reverse instead of drive. Who knows?

I'm not saying that this empty, still-running car with its lights on was abandoned in the wee hours of the morning by a neighbor who'd had too much to drink. Not at all. In fact, our house seems to be the neighborhood's random parking lot. Just a few weeks ago, we came home to find a stray van parked in the middle of our driveway. And I mean the middle. No room for us to put our car on either side of the thing. Turns out, it belonged to another neighbor who lives across the street and down a house or two. We don't know why this is. We've only lived here a couple of months, and we're still feeling our way around the neighborhood culture and customs.

But this makes me wonder about the rest of you. What's the strangest thing you've ever found at your house?

_______________________________ from the blog On My Mind Today

Watch Out, J.K., Here I Come

2010-07-21T12:26:00.001-05:00

There I was, hard at work on my current work-in-progress, when someone on the Sisters in Crime loop posted a link I just couldn’t resist! All I had to do was plug in a few paragraphs of something I’d written. Something more substantial than Facebook posts or Tweets from Twitter.

Since I was right in the middle of an actual novel and had text to spare, I clicked the link, pasted in a few paragraphs, and got my results.

It’s official, folks …

I write like
J. K. Rowling

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Um. Yeah. I mean, sure! I can see that! Absolutely! And even if I can’t, it was good for a few seconds of fun. Looking for an excuse to look away from what you’re writing today? Well, here you go!

Beginnings

2010-06-26T09:53:00.001-05:00

I’ve probably blogged about this before, but it’s been a while. I’m in the beginning stages of a new book in a new mystery series, and once again I’m reminded how much I envy writers who say they love starting new books. The first few chapters fly onto the page because they’re so excited about the new ideas, the new characters, and the new situation. There are times when I wish that would be true for me, but in my world, it’s just the opposite.

In the early stages of any new book, the words are hard to find and painful to excavate. No matter how much pre-writing work I do, I don’t know the characters yet so putting them in new situations and getting them to the other side is a long, agonizing process. Every thought, action, and reaction requires a lot of thought on my part as I try to feel my way into the character’s heart, soul, and mind.

Add to that the pressure to make the book’s opening interesting and filled with action. And the fact that I wrote the first three chapters months ago and have slept since then, which means that I’ve lost my connection with the characters and have to find it again.

I don’t really start feeling comfortable with the book until I’ve written at least 100 pages, and usually more. By page 125-150, I’m usually hitting my stride and feeling comfortable enough with the character to write whole scenes in one sitting. Before then, I’m lucky to write 2 or 3 pages in a day.

Getting back into a book for which I’ve written a proposal and submitted two or three chapters is equally painful. All that work to find the characters and then they sit on the shelf in my head while my editor is deciding whether or not to make an offer on the book. The good news is that I’ve done this 30 or so times over the course of my career, so I know that I’ll eventually find the connection again. But that still doesn’t make the process easy.

All this to say that when I tallied my pages yesterday and realized that I’d somehow, inadvertently, unintentionally, and without noticing what I was doing, written 8 pages, I was ecstatic! Crossing fingers that I can repeat that when I get back to the book on Monday.

2010 TBR Challenge - Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

2010-06-10T10:46:00.001-05:00

Finally, I read this book that everyone has been telling me I should read for years now. My own book club read it a while ago (years, maybe. I've lost track) but I wasn't able to attend that month and was probably in deadline hell, so didn't get to read it then, either.

It's not often that I share my opinions of books with the world at large because it's all so subjective. What I love, you may hate and I don't like subjecting others to my opinion when they've expressed no interest in that opinion. But I'm making an exception to my rule with this book because I absolutely loved it. I'm not entirely sure why, and I don't want to ruin my experience of the book by trying to analyze it. I spend way too much time analyzing writing these days, and it's rare that I get to just read and enjoy. Much as I love writing my own books, I mourn the loss of my ability to read for pleasure like I once did. But this book was just that. Pleasure. I didn't analyze. I didn't rewrite passages in my head. I didn't think about what I would have done differently with the characters or question motivation. I just enjoyed. Thank you Lorna Landvik! This one goes on my keeper shelf.

_______________________________ from the blog On My Mind Today

The Research Begins

2010-06-04T12:12:00.001-05:00

I’m under contract for a new mystery series which I’ll be writing under a brand new pseudonym--Jacklyn Brady. As a kid, I always wanted to be named either Jacklyn. Or Ruby. I had a beautiful cousin named Ruby and when I was little, I wanted to look just like her. Oh who am I kidding? As an adult I wanted to look just like her, too. She died in a car accident in 1999 and the world lost someone truly wonderful that day.

I seriously thought about becoming Ruby Something for this series, but I wondered if taking her name might make me worry too much about living up to something in my own head. My internal editors are troublesome enough when I’m writing, so Jacklyn it is.

But anyway ….

The new series will be set in New Orleans and it centers on the world of cake decorating, a la Ace of Cakes. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few months researching the location, the area, and the world of cakes, but today the real research begins – baking and trying my hand at decorating.

Today’s effort will be a lemon scented white cake with a lemon mousse filling. I think I made a cake from scratch back in the olden days when i was taking Home Ec classes in school, but it’s been a while.

How will I decorate? I’m still working on that and I’ll let you know when I’ve figured it out -- just don’t expect anything spectacular. I’ll count today’s efforts successful if the cake is edible!

Friday Question

2010-05-28T14:25:00.001-05:00

I’ve really been meaning to blog more, but I never seem to have anything to say. There are at least a million blogs out there about writing, so what would one more mean? And does anybody really want to hear about unpacking boxes and trying to find places for all that little bitty stuff that doesn’t really go anywhere?

So in an effort to jog my blogging muscles, I searched for Memes and found this question:

When traveling for pleasure, who do you prefer as your travel partner? Does it depend on the length of the trip and where you are going?

The website had a poll going and listed a few choices of potential preferred traveling partners:

Spouse/Significant Other
Myself
Friend
Family
Coworker (????? are they serious?)
and, of course, the all-encompassing “Other”

So who do I pick when I’m traveling for pleasure? My daughters, hands down. They know me. I know them. All three of us love a good road trip. We almost always agree about how often to stop, which sights are worth seeing, and where to eat. If we get lost, we consider it an adventure, and nobody’s so wedded to any silly timetable that we don’t have time to be spontaneous.

Just answering this question has put me in the mood for a road trip!

So how about you? Who is your preferred traveling companion if you’re traveling for pleasure?

The Simple Woman’s Daybook 03/01/2010

2010-03-01T19:27:00.003-06:00

FOR TODAY

Outside my window... it’s dark, as night closes in after a beautiful, sunny spring-like day.

I am thinking... about how beautiful the water of the bay and the gulf were today when we went to lunch.

I am thankful for... my kids and my grandkids. They’re a never-ending source of delight and an occasional source of frustration :)

From the kitchen... nothing except the faint, lingering scent of the pot roast I made last night. The garbage disposal is fixed so we can do dishes again (drat!)

I am wearing... an old pair of jeans that is getting a little big and a blouse. Barefoot, of course.

I am creating... answers to assignments people have posted in the workshop I’m teaching this month at RWA Online.

I am going... to my daughter’s new house later this evening.

I am reading... a book for the RITAs.

I am hoping... to be in my own house by this time next month.

I am hearing... The BackYardigans entertaining the 3-year old and the 10-month old blowing bubbles in her playpen.

Around the house... Silence on the edges of the kids’ contented noises. It’s a very nice sound.

One of my favorite things... root beer. I just swigged the last of my Diet A&W and wish I had more.

A few plans for the rest of the week: staying on schedule with both workshops I’m teaching, plotting the first novel in a series I’m hoping to sell soon, lunch with new friends on Saturday.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

The Simple Woman's Daybook

The Simple Woman’s Daybook 1/23/2010

2010-01-23T19:30:00.001-06:00

FOR TODAY
Saturday, January 23, 2010...

Outside my window... It is dark. I can only see the reflection of lights inside the house.

I am thinking... How odd it is that sometimes the thing you think will be the worst thing ever turns out to be exactly what you need.

I am thankful for... My family. They’re incredible.

From the kitchen... I smell clam chowder simmering on the stove.

I am wearing... a T-shirt I bought at Moonlight Madness in Atlanta. I think it was from an RWA chapter in Missouri. It says “Heroes wanted … Apply Here”

I am creating... Clam chowder in the kitchen and memories with my grandchildren. Earlier today I created new content for a couple of web pages.

I am going... to find a blanket in a few minutes. My toes are cold.

I am reading... A book that came in my RITA packet. Can’t say more than that.

I am hoping... That everyone in the house stays well in the coming week and that my oldest daughter finds the job she wants.

I am hearing... A song I don’t recognize coming from my daughter’s computer.

Around the house... Are toys and clutter – signs of a busy, happy family.

One of my favorite things... the smell of fresh bread. Warm rolls will do too :)

A few plans for the rest of the week: Work, work, work. I need to get this proposal to my editor!

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

The 2010 To-Be-Read Challenge

2010-01-10T20:53:00.002-06:00

I tried participating in the 2009 TBR Challenge and fell far short. I read more than 12 books in the year, but only managed one or two from my list so I'm trying it again this year. The rules are pretty simple:

Pick 12 books – one for each month of the year - that you’ve been wanting to read (that have been on your “To Be Read” list) for 6 months or longer, but haven’t gotten around to.

* the challenge is to read 12 TBR books in 12 months — you can read those all in one month if you want, or one a month, or however you want to do it.
* you should have a list posted somewhere for others to see
* you CANNOT change your list after January 1st, of the current year!!!
* you can create an Alternates list of MAXIMUM 12 books, if you want, in order to have options to choose from (you can read these in place of books on your original list).
* audiobooks and e-books ARE allowed
* re-reads are NOT allowed, as they aren’t TRUE “TBRs”
* you CAN overlap with other challenges
* OPTIONAL: you can join the Yahoo! Group created for participants of the TBR Challenge, if you want to have a place to keep your list, or just to share with others about how you’re doing!
** OPTIONAL: Create a list of 12 “Alternates” (books you could substitute for your challenge books, given that a particular one doesn’t grab you at the time)
** Then, starting January 1, read one of these books from your list each month, ending December 31.
By the end of the year you should’ve knocked 12 books off of your TBR list!
I plan to read:

THE ADAMS-JEFFERSON CHRONICLES: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams
WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY by Pearl Cleage
MARY, CALLED MAGDALENE by Margaret George
SPYING IN HIGH HEELS by Gemma Halliday
MAGIC HOUR by Kristin Hannah
I DREAMED I MARRIED PERRY MASON by Susan Kandel
DON'T TELL by Karen Rose
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS by J.K. Rowling
UP ISLAND by Anne Rivers Siddons
A THOUSAND ACRES by Jane Smiley
QUITE A YEAR FOR PLUMS by Bailey White
FLAMINGO DINER by Sheryl Woods

ALTERNATES

KISS RIVER by Diane Chamberlain
MRS. LINCOLN, A LIFE by Catherine Clinton
THE MAGIC OF ORDINARY DAYS by Ann Howard Creel
FLORIDA ROADKILL by Tim Dorsey
MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION by Lloyd C. Douglas
ANGEL FLYING TOO CLOSE TO THE GROUND by Annie Garrett
SARAH: A NOVEL by Marek Halter
FIVE WOMEN by Rona Jaffe
ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BONBONS by Lorna Landvik
CHIN UP, HONEY by Curtiss Ann Matlock
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
THE BEACH HOUSE by Mary Alice Monroe

So there are my lists. Wish me luck and feel free to join me!
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from the blog On My Mind Today

Camouflage and Christmas Lights

2009-12-14T09:48:00.000-06:00

I'm thinking a lot about my son-in-law who is deployed right now in the Middle East. His birthday is in just a few days and Christmas is a few days after that. He's there doing his duty. "Getting in the game," as several military men I've talked to recently call it.

My daughter and her kids are here "in the game" in their own way. Last night, my daughter sang "I'll Be Home for Christmas" for her church Christmas program. It was very difficult for her to do, and she didn't make it through without choking up, but the entire congregation was on their feet when she finished. My 3-year old granddaughter is deeply concerned that baby calves in Farmville are put with the "daddy cows" which, of course, is where she wants to be -- with her daddy.

This holiday season, please keep our military families in your hearts.

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from the blog On My Mind Today

First Day at Work

2009-11-05T14:19:00.000-06:00

Today was my first day at work since the move, and I was more productive than I expected to be. I've worked out a deal with the kids and grandkids to leave the house at 9:00 every morning and work somewhere else until noon since there's no way I can establish the focus I need with everyone under one roof and two grandkids who (thankfully!) love their Ooma and want her attention.

This morning, I spent the first hour at the beach, which was tough duty!

Even though I spent three months here in the spring, I'm still endlessly fascinated by my surroundings which seem exotic and foreign to me.The city crews were out this morning putting up Christmas decorations, and I'm completely in awe. I haven't yet adjusted to Christmas, flowers, and palm trees.

After my laptop battery was just about depleted, I loaded everything up, turned on the GPS and looked for the nearest library. Valerie and I had scoped out a couple of libraries yesterday and I found one on the other side of the county that had plenty of space to work and convenient cubbies with electrical power but no internet connection, which makes uploading workshop discussions or answering questions a bit problematic. The library we found yesterday looks like this ... in November! Amazing!

Anyway, I managed to get today's discussion on suspense written while I was working this morning, but didn't make it to the actual writing of a book part of my day. Tomorrow, though, will be another day at the beach!
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from the blog On My Mind Today

There's No Turning Back Now

2009-10-23T17:55:00.000-05:00

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from the blog On My Mind Today

I Think I Can, I Think I Can

2009-10-17T21:42:00.000-05:00

Got a late start on the packing this morning, probably because Val and I stayed up until nearly 2 am. Since I'm not a night person, staying up that late always knocks me. We dragged out of bed at a little after 9, and took another hour to get the cobwebs out of our heads before we actually did anything. I spent the day working in my office, going through massive amounts of accumulated stuff that felt like important items in my life a month ago and has suddenly become trash. We hauled a load of stuff to the dump (free today for fall cleanup, yay!) rounded up all of our pictures from all over the house, which we're going to wrap and pack tonight while we watch yet more of the backlog on the DVR.

First up, an episode of The Forgotten which I'd really like to see do well, but may need a bit of a shakeup on the writing staff. Some of the dialogue is pretty lame. But I really liked Christian Slater in My Own Worse Enemy which suffered a cruel and untimely demise because it was an excellent show -- smart, fast, unique, and entertaining -- but it had the misfortune to be on NBC. Just look at the network's schedule for the last few years and you'll see that I'm right. If it's a good show with intelligent writing and good acting, NBC will axe it. I keep hoping that Enemy will show up on the USA Network, but I have yet to see my hopes realized

NBC's track record makes me worry for Trauma, which I think has a lot of promise -- and not just because my cousin is part of the sound-editing team on the show. I've only watched the pilot episode so far, but the sound effects were pretty amazing ... oh, and the story was pretty good too. I think the actors will come into their own and I'm hoping the show will get a real shot.

Next up: Modern Family, which is the only new sitcom I've even bothered to look at. So far, it makes me laugh, so I'm giving it a thumbs up. Last year my sitcom of choice was Worst Week, which made me laugh until I hurt for the first 4-5 weeks and then lost steam. Too bad, too. Those first five weeks were really funny.

But enough of that! I really need to get back to work. I have to be out of this house and have it completely cleaned one week from tonight. No time for lollygagging!

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from the blog On My Mind Today

Counting Down .... 8 Days to Go

2009-10-17T00:03:00.000-05:00

The big cross-country move is on schedule. We leave here in just 8 short days. In the past three weeks, I've had my moments of panic--moments when the reality of packing up all I own and heading off cross country on a giant leap of faith seems so huge and overwhelming it takes my breath today. But until today, even during those occasional "What am I doing" moments, this move felt like some kind of dream.

Today, as I arranged to have my utilities shut off -- not transferred as I've done a dozen times before, but stopped! -- the dream became a reality. This move is the right thing to do. I know it. Everybody around me knows it. But that doesn't stop those moments of panic from hitting every now and then.

Tomorrow, the serious packing begins. My books have been sorted, packed, and donated. Tomorrow, I'll pack the rest of my office.

Tonight, I'm catching up on some of the shows stored on my DVR.

I'm on the fence about NCIS: Los Angeles. I think both Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J are doing a good job. The rest of the cast feels kind if disjointed, and the writing's a little uneven but I'm willing to give them time to pull it together. But this team of government good guys doesn't feel like a team of government good guys. I get that the show's creators don't want it to feel like an exact duplicate of the original NCIS, but sticking these guys in a villa and having them run around like a bunch of hot dogs with no direction and nobody in charge doesn't really work for me.

I've moved The Good Wife off my to-watch list and onto Thanks But No Thanks! The show's trailers made it look like something new, unique and interesting--the life of a political wife in the wake of her husband's public scandal. But that's not it at all! It's just another mediocre lawyer show. Yawn.

I held onto Ugly Betty for a couple of years, but abandoned that one like a rat jumping off a sinking ship. It was charming for the first season, a little tired in the second, but by season 3 I was getting seriously annoyed. I mean, really! Wouldn't you think the girl would learn something about fashion after three years? Become just a smidgen less naive after three years in Manhattan? Not our Betty! And a person can only make the same mistake so many times without coming across as TSTL (too stupid to live.)

I've also abandoned the Walkers of Brothers and Sisters this year. A cast full of thoroughly unlikable characters doing nothing but arguing week after week. It's sad, really. I really wanted to like it, and yes, I know they're supposed to be dysfunctional, but nobody ever learns anything. Nobody ever changes anything. This week Nora screws up everybody's life by being too controlling. Everybody freaks out. Nora apologizes tearfully, and then she does it all over again the next week. I'm okay with a little bickering, but constant stupid bickering without relief just gets old. I thought about crossing it off my life last year, but decided to hang on to see if the producers would redeem it. They didn't. 'Nuff said.

And now, I believe I've procrastinated just about long enough! More soon.
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from the blog On My Mind Today

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

2009-09-30T12:17:00.001-05:00

About 18 months ago, my daughter, son-in-law and only granddaughter moved across country when Ian was reassigned to a new base by the Air Force. Because I've been a single mom for most of my kids lives, we're especially close, so saying good-bye was really difficult for me. I was excited for Vanessa in a way. I've never wanted my kids to live narrow lives, so I was happy that she got to broaden her world, meet new people, and experience new things. Living away has been good for her in a lot of ways. She's growing into an incredible woman, and I'm so proud of her. But that didn't stop me from wanting to be closer, to help when I could, and to maintain a close relationship with her and the incredibaby.

Earlier this year, Wonder Baby #2 came along, and I was lucky enough to spend three months with them, helping out, bonding with the new baby and cementing my relationship with her big sister. it was pure heaven, not just because I got to be with people I loved, but because the area where they're living is truly beautiful. I met many nice people while I was there and other than the humidity, I thought often that I could be happy there.

In fact, my oldest daughter and I set a goal of moving somewhere closer to them by October of this year, and we had every intention of meeting that goal. But then life happened, and plans went askew, and we finally resigned ourselves to staying in Utah for a few years longer. Maybe, we told ourselves, we need to be here, not there. Maybe we should just stay in case Ian gets assigned overseas. Maybe my mom needs me here. Maybe it's just not meant to be.

Last Friday, while I was happily researching for a fun new mystery series I'm working on, the mailman came to the door with a registered letter. Seems our landlady has sold the place we've been living, and the new owner wants us out. He gave us until the 23rd of October to pack up and move. After the shock began to wear off and my head began to clear again, it occurred to me that since we have to pick up everything we own and put it on a truck anyway, maybe we should be in Florida when we take it all off the truck again.

Little by little, the idea began to gel. I did some research. Lots of research. We thought a lot. Talked a lot. Cried a lot, and talked some more. By Sunday afternoon, the decision was made. In spite of myself, I'm actually going to achieve my original goal to be living in Florida by the end of October. It's a little overwhelming, but very exciting.

So here we go -- 23 days and counting!

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from the blog On My Mind Today

Hats Off to Fans of Romance

2009-09-24T17:00:00.000-05:00

In this time of economic stress, here's a little bright news for lovers of the romance genre. It's not surprising, really. Bad times or not, people need entertainment. The arts, in whatever form, are important. It nurtures our souls, breathes life into a dying spirit, and strengthens us to go on another day. Without music, art, and literature, the world would be a sad and dismal place.

This news isn't exactly hot off the presses, though. Earlier this year The New York Times reported that romance sales at Harlequin were up 32 percent over last year. And Barnes & Noble reported that although book sales in general were expected to drop slightly, sales of romance novels were up.Even USA Today
got on the bandwagon, reporting that sales at Harlequin were up 13.5% this year.

All of this is terrific news for those of us who write romance novels for a living. We love our readers, and we appreciate the loyalty you show your favorite authors and their books. In fact, we happen to know that we have the best fans in the world, bar none.

It's also terrific news for those of us who love to read romance. Some of us might write it, but we're readers first and forever, and we're as fiercely loyal to the genre and to our favorite authors as any other reader.

Recent stories on the nightly news indicate that the economy might be taking a slight upturn, and if that's true, I think it's the best news we've had in a long time. But before we forget what it's been like the past few years, I just want to say thanks to the readers who buy the books I write and who make it possible for me to do what I do. You're the best!

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from the blog On My Mind Today

Books: A Love Story

2009-09-22T13:16:00.000-05:00

I'm blogging today at Finish the Damn Book about who and what inspired me to write.If you get a minute to stop by, I'd love to know where your inspiration came from.

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from the blog On My Mind Today

They Call Me Mad Charity Cash

2009-09-19T10:55:00.000-05:00

Avast me hearties, it's National Talk Like a Pirate Day!

I don't know why this day delights me so much. It's not as if I run around every September 19th dressed like a pirate. It's not as if I spend all day saying things like "Avest ye!" or "Aye Matey," or even "Arr!" I don't think I've ever used "Ahoy!" in conversation or called someone else a bilge rat, even on ITLAPD.

It's not as if I spend the day plundering and pillaging or scuttling nearby ships. Or swaggering. Or clenching a dagger in my teeth. I don't even use any of the prepared pick-up lines provided (handily) on the ITLAPD website -- although I'll admit that I'm tempted to use #5 for pirate ladies. What true pirate among ye could resist "Aye, I guarantee ye, I've had a twenty percent decrease in my 'lice ratio!'?"

For some reason, the concept of an entire day devoted to utter silliness is almost impossible for me to resist. So batten down your hatches and hoist yerselves on over to the International Talk Like A Pirate Day website. If nothing else, prepare to be amused by the idea of pirate talk in Mandarin Chinese.

If that doesn't tempt you, maybe this will:

And who can resist the chance to get your own pirate name? Oh yeah.

My pirate name is:

Mad Charity Cash

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

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from the blog On My Mind Today

Honor our Military Families

2009-09-11T20:25:00.001-05:00

This is too important not to share. Read the full text of Dr. Biden's blog post

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from the blog On My Mind Today

World Card Making Day

2009-09-02T12:39:00.004-05:00

Oh the stuff you can learn when you're trying to learn something else. Did you know that there's a World Card Making Day? I had no idea. I knew about Talk Like a Pirate Day (which I do try to celebrate every year because ... well, just because) but card making? Who Knew?

Obviously not me.

There's even a web site devoted to the day with links to important information that I can't access because I'm not a member. So unless I sign up for a World Card Making Day membership, I will never know the purpose of the day, or get a chance to ponder the various suggestions for celebrating the day. Which is really sad when you think about it, because if I could ponder the suggestions first, I might be more inclined to sign up for that membership.

Not that I'm much of a scrapbooker. Okay, I'll admit that there's something about the concept that intrigues my creative side,

but there's no time. Although maybe I'd make more time if only I knew what the various benefits of card making were.

It's a conundrum to be sure. One that could keep me from producing pages all day if I let it.

Maybe I should go write instead.

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from the blog On My Mind Today

God Bless our Troops!

2009-08-31T17:21:00.002-05:00

That's really all I have to say today. My son-in-law is on another deployment, and my heart is really full of soft, motherly feelings for him (which would have him rolling his eyes since he's a big, tough guy, and all.)

So I'm just flying the flag today ... for Ian.

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Celebrating!

2009-08-29T23:34:00.000-05:00

A few hours ago, I hit "send" on an e-mail that's been a long time coming. My latest mystery proposal is now in my editor's in-box, and I'm thrilled. The book is tentatively called DEAD ON ARRIVAL, and it centers around Katie Scarlett O'Banyon, a cop in West Yellowstone, Montana.

As difficult as the waiting period is, I'm ready to let the work do what it was created to do. Whether she loves it or hates it, offers to buy it or rejects it, I know that I did my best and now is the time for me to stand still and let the work speak for itself.

Meanwhile, I'm ready to really dig into that romantic suspense I've been moodling on forever -- a grittier book set along Florida's Emerald Coast. This book is still in its very early stages, so stay tuned for more details!

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Copyright © 2009 Sherry Lewis

Do you Feel Lucky? Well, do Ya?

2009-08-27T11:18:00.002-05:00

I don't enter many contests, whether they're writing contests or author contests, or name that tune contests, or any other kind. I'm not sure why. People tell me I have a strong competitive streak, and I'm reluctantly beginning to acknowledge they may be right. I'm not sure why the concept of being competitive packs such a negative connotation. Our country was built by competitive people. The American Dream is all about being competitive. But somewhere along the way, we began to lose sight of just what made us great.

I'm not sure how or why it happened, but in the past few decades "we" started to think of competition as negative. Anyone who showed signs of being competitive was wrong--unless they were an adult male athlete. Then it was okay, I guess. But heaven forbid we should teach our kids that there are rewards in this world for making the effort, and that life rewards action, not intentions. The collective "we" decided, in our infinite wisdom, that our kids' feelings were far too tender to survive not being the best, and we set about giving trophies to everybody for everything they ever did. I'm sure there are other components to the cultural cocktail we've been downing for the past 30 years or so, but the result is a society fueled by an attitude of entitlement.

But I digress (as I often do.) This blog isn't about that. This blog is about the fact that the other day, as I was writing away on my romantic-suspense-in-progress, a Tweet came in from the Attorney General of the state where I live. I'm not sure how he saw my name or why he started following me, but I decided turn-about was fair play, and I clicked the button to follow him back. Being the polite Tweeter I am, and all.

Anyway, he sent me a nice, polite note about how he's running for senate in 2010, and I said, "aha! No wonder!" because, after all, my Tweets are hardly the thing a state's attorney general might want to be reading in the course of his day.

Tuesday's Tweet from the AG contained a message about a trivia question of the day and announced that the winner would win an autographed cap. Boy howdy! My competitive nature clicked on before I could even fully absorb what the message said. I mean, nothing against our illustrious AG, but really, I don't wear caps much (or ever) so, you know, an autographed one isn't exactly the sort of thing I fall all over my feet to get.

Unless, apparently, I'm sitting at my desk on a Tuesday morning dragging words out of my pores with tweezers in an effort to make my daily page quota. Apparently, under those circumstances, I'll trip all over myself to zing back an answer.

Which I did. And then reality clicked on, and I laughed at myself because, really, I had no idea what I'd do with an autographed baseball cap.

I told my kids about it, and we all had a good laugh, and that was that.

Until Wednesday morning when I logged into Twitter and discovered a message that said "Congrats! @SherryLewis...." and went on to leave the impression that maybe I had won the trivia contest. I wasn't sure. The message wasn't completely clear, so I had another good laugh and went to work on my synopsis.

A few hours later, when the synopsis bogged down in mud, I decided I really should follow through and fhind out whether I really won or not, so I sent Mr. S a private message and asked if his congratulatory message meant that I won, or if I was just one of many who sent in the right answer. A few hours later, back came this message:

You are the winner!! You get the cap! .... Congrats!

As you can imagine, this news was just too splendid to keep to myself, so I once again went through the round of phone calls with my kids. My youngest asserts that she should get custody of the cap for 6 months out of every year since she provided moral support in the early hours of the contest process.

I contend that since the contest was apparently somewhat controversial (the AG/candidate is awarding a second hat to someone who might have beat my time, but who missed the win on a technicality because the park's name was changed 10 years into its history) the value of my winning cap has increased exponentially, and it's now way too valuable to entrust to the USPS or some courier service.

But again I digress.

Because I realized last night that this is my second contest win in just a couple of weeks. I was kicking around online one day and decided to check out my friend Michelle Monkou's blog. Lo and behold, she was holding a contest to celebrate her book Trail of Kisses. The prizes were goodies she'd picked up on a recent trip to England, and I thought what fun! and entered with a little "essay" about my critique group. A few days later, I found out that I'd won the random draw, so besides my autographed cap, I also have an autographed cover flat, a cotton tea towel featuring Warwick Castle (built in 1068) in Warwickshire, England, and a 2010 calendar from Stratford-on-Avon and Shakespeare's home heading my way.

Is it any wonder I'm feeling lucky? I wonder what's coming next???

What's Your Myers-Briggs Personality Type?

2009-08-11T23:44:00.005-05:00

I just took the Facebook version of the Myers Briggs personality test, and I'm a little surprised by the results. I took the Myers-Briggs test several years ago when I was working in the federal court system and the Clerks of Court arranged for specialists to administer the test to everyone who worked at the two different courts housed in the building. At that time, I came out a strong INFJ--introverted, intuitive, feeling, and ??? Judging? Yeah, I think that's it. Tonight, my results indicated that I'm an ENFP (Extraversion, iNtuition, Feeling, Perception) The pop-up window with the results said:

You are warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. You see life as full of possibilities. You make connections between events and information very quickly, and confidently proceed based on the patterns you see. You want a lot of affirmation from others, and readily give appreciation and support. You are spontaneous and flexible, and often rely on your ability to improvise and verbal fluency. Famous people with your same ENFP personality include: Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Andy Kaufman, Bill Cosby, Robin Williams, Sandra Bullock, and Robert Downey Jr.

Now, maybe this is silly, and maybe it's not a real Myers-Briggs test. It seemed to be, but in this day of rampant online piracy, who can tell for sure? There were about 50 questions, and they were pretty similar to what I remember them being all those years ago at the federal courthouse. The point is, I'm not surprised that my results are different. I know I've changed since I took the test all those years ago. I've been through too many things, experienced too much, met too many people, had my perceptions of the world changed, and done things that have challenged my long-held beliefs about life, about reality, and about how things "should" be. (A nasty word, "should." I'm trying to ban it from my vocabulary. But I digress.) The point is that I think I'd be a pretty sorry kind of person if I'd done all that and remained exactly the same. I'm interested, but not really surprised, to learn that I've changed from someone who's introverted to someone who's extroverted. I always liked people, but it used to be that I needed a lot of solitary time to recharge the old batteries. Now . . . not so much. I may not be the life of the party yet, but I'm a whole lot more comfortable in social situations than I used to be. I'm also a lot more open to new information and opinions than I used to be -- a direct result of serving on the board of directors for RWA. If spending four years doing that job doesn't open a person to new information and opinions, I don't know what will. And now, I think I'll take my extroverted self off to bed. All this self-awareness has worn me out! _______________________________ Copyright © 2009 Sherry Lewis

Writing: A Magical Journey

2009-08-09T13:21:00.004-05:00

I'm going to take a minute to plug my local chapter's upcoming conference for writers -- and not only because I'm going to be there, or because I'll be giving a workshop during the PAN/PRO sessions on rediscovering the joy of writing. I'm going to plug the conference because it's always a good time, always informative and, once again, this year's line-up of speakers is stellar. Besides that, Park City is an incredible place to be at any time of the year. Hope to see some of you there! _____

“Writing: A Magical Journey”

Romance in the Mountains 2009 Heart of the West Writing Conference Romance Writers of America® Utah Chapter

October 9 & 10, 2009 at The Lodges at Deer Valley in Park City, Utah

Featured Author and Keynote Speaker Rachel Gibson New York Times Bestselling Author 2009 RITA Award Winner for Best Contemporary Single Title Romance Four of her novels were named among the top ten favorite books of the year by Romance Writers of America. Some of Rachel's other awards and achievements include The Golden Heart award, the National Reader's Choice, Amazon Editor's Top Pick, Publisher Weekly's Quill nominee and Borders bestselling romantic comedy for 2006.

Awards Luncheon Keynote Speaker RaeAnne Thayne Author of more than thirty books for Bantam Loveswept, Silhouette Intimate Moments/Romantic Suspense and Silhouette Special Edition. Awards include: 2009 RITA Finalist, and two previous RITA nominations.

Featured Editor Amanda Bergeron Avon Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Amanda Bergeron joined Avon in Fall 2008. Along with Executive Editor Erika Tsang and Editor May Chen she has worked closely with authors such as Lynsay Sands, Jeaniene Frost, Loretta Chase and Anna Campbell. She is looking to acquire all genres of romance, particularly Regency historicals and dark paranormals, as well as commercial women's fiction. http://avonromanceblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/four-things-amanda-bergeron.html

Featured Agents To Be Announced

Conference Registration is open between April 15, 2009 and October 6, 2009***

See Conference Highlights for details on: PRO/PAN Workshops Conference Schedule Pitch Appointments Author Panelists Extra Meal Tickets Miscellaneous Information

Authors Participating in Booksigning

Conference fee is $149 for URWA members and $165 for all others. To register, complete the online registration form. You may either pay via PayPal or check. Please see Registration and Fee Schedule to sign up. -OR- Make check or money order payable to: Utah RWA Mail check with a copy of your registration to: Utah Chapter of Romance Writers c/o Heart of the West Conference P.O. Box 997 West Jordan, UT 84084

Receiving the Emma

2009-07-29T17:53:00.013-05:00

I love going to RWA's national conference each year, and when I'm not able to go -- usually for financial reasons -- I spend the entire week feeling very sorry for myself. I love meeting up with friends I only see once a year, meeting my editors face-to-face, participating in the Readers for Life Literacy Autographing, and attending workshops when I can. I love travel, and enjoy visiting new cities or going back to places I've been before. This year, I had a special reason to attend the conference. RWA's Board of Directors voted to present me with the Emma Merritt Service Award, which is presented for: "the accumulated body of work a member has contributed as a volunteer to RWA.The award is not only for service to individual chapters, but is intended to honor major commitments of service to RWA. A member may receive the RWA Emma Merritt Service Award only once in a lifetime." To say that I'm deeply honored is a serious understatement. Even though RWA President Diane Pershing notified me of the board's decision in March, I'm still shaking my head in disbelief. My friend, Jude, managed to snap this picture as I said thanks to the luncheon crowd (that gold blob in the lights is me.) And tonight, as I try to decide on the perfect spot on my office wall to hang the plaque, I want to say it again. Thank you! _______________________________ Copyright © 2009 Sherry Lewis

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

2009-07-20T15:06:00.001-05:00

I’ve been the world’s worst blogger again recently, despite my best intentions. I spent two months with my youngest daughter, helping her when Baby Wonderful #2 came along.

I had great plans to blog every day and talk about how great it is to be a grandma again, how much I love those two incredible little girls, and how much fun it was to write on the beach every day.

Every day? Snort! Was I ever delusional. I spent most of my time making bottles and changing diapers, and occasionally trying to get a little sleep. Came home again, had houseguests for two weeks, and then packed my bags for DC and the RWA annual conference.

I even carted my camera around the hotel with me for six days, planning to get great pictures that I could post here when I came home and became a reliable and interesting blogger, but somehow only managed to pull the camera out of my bag once.

So I’m home and thinking a lot about my busy spring and summer, and really planning to get myself in gear again now that things are settling down.

Really.

I mean it this time.

I’ve Finished my RITA Books!

2009-03-02T14:08:00.003-06:00

Every year, members of Romance Writers of America donate hours of their time to judge RWA’s two major contests – the Golden Heart and the RITA. This year, I ended up with 7 or 8 books to read for the RITA (I’ve lost count) and I’ve been reading up a storm trying to finish every book and turn in my score. Last night, I finished the last book in my stack, and I’m deliriously happy.

Unlike past years, this year I ended up with a bunch of books that I probably wouldn’t have picked up to read if they hadn’t been sent to me in my contest packet. I get a few of those books every year. We all do. After all, what are the chances that you’re going to get a package filled only with books you’d pick out for yourself to read?

Like past years, this year I discovered a couple of treasures – books that surprised me for one reason or another. Books I enjoyed much more than I expected to. I also ended up with a couple I didn’t enjoy at all. That’s no surprise, either. It happens every year.

I enjoy the experience of judging books in the RITA contest, even if it is time-consuming and takes me away from my own TBR stack for a few weeks. But I’m also happy to get back to it when I’m finished :)

Creating Compelling Characters

2009-02-11T18:12:00.007-06:00

It's that time again! Registration is open for March's workshop on creating compelling characters. March 2 - 27, 2009

Registration Fee: $40

CREATING COMPELLING CHARACTERS: From hero and heroine to protagonist and antagonist, from main characters to sidekicks and walk-ons, you'll learn the art and craft of breathing life into the people who walk the pages of your manuscript. Learn how to discover your characters' motivations and conflicts, and how to add those little touches that take characters from ordinary to extraordinary.

In this workshop you'll learn:

How to discover what moves your characters

How to learn what your characters value

How to identify the conflicts your characters face

How to conduct character interviews

How to see the world through your characters' eyes so you can adequately portray that on the page.

How to create a strong, interesting character arc

Workshops are conducted through Yahoo! Groups listservs, so discussions are delivered into your e-mail in-box. Each lesson contains an exercise geared to let you practice the tools of your craft on your own work in progress, and you'll get in-depth feedback on each exercise you submit. In addition, your registration fee entitles you to a 20-page in-depth critique of your actual manuscript. Email Sherry (sherry@dancingoncoals.com) for more information or click here to register. _______________________________

Glitter and Lace

2009-02-02T18:42:00.009-06:00

I've mentioned before that I'm not exactly a fan of Valentine's Day. I can attribute some of my dislike of the holiday to the fact that I was married, briefly, many years ago and that I've been single ever since. It's not that I've been alone ever since, but back when I was still thinking a relationship sounded like a good idea, I was notorious for picking the wrong guys -- the ones who wouldn't acknowledge Valentine's Day if their lives depended on it. The other part of my intense dislike for the day stems from the fact that a couple of my most painful experiences happened around Valentine's Day -- both on February 13, as a matter of fact. They're so painful, it's difficult to talk about them, even though one happened 20 years ago, and the other 5. My only good memories of Valentine's Day are from when I was a kid -- back when we spent a couple of days decorating an old shoe box, cutting a hole in the lid, addressing Valentines to the other kids in the class, and then opening the cards we got, making special note of the friends whose parents were cool enough to let them slip in a candy heart or (be still my heart) a sucker! More than anything, I loved making those Valentines for my mother -- the ones with the red construction paper and lacy paper doilies. This year, I thought maybe I should revisit those good old memories and see if I could revive some kind of relationship with Valentine's Day by making my own Valentines. But that's all it was -- a thought. I happened to mention it to Daughter #2, and this afternoon a package arrived on my doorstep. Among other things, it contained colored paper, a variety of lacy paper doilies, ribbon, stickers, glue and glitter pens. So guess what I'm going to be doing between now and February 14th! Yep, you guessed it. I'm going to be making Valentines! _______________________________ Copyright © 2009 Sherry Lewis

ONE DOWN ... ELEVEN TO GO

2009-01-31T17:42:00.006-06:00

Last month, I blogged about my decision to take part in the 2009 To Be Read Challenge. At the time, I was struggling to read a book every two weeks -- not because I don't love to read, but because I was making everything else more important than reading. But I'm an author, and I can't do my job well if I don't read. Last weekend, my oldest daughter realized that I was spinning my wheels, which is something I tend to do more often than is good for me. She grilled me, as my daughters tend to do whenever they notice my world getting out of whack. "When you tell people what you do for a living," she asked, "what do you tell them?" "That I'm an author," I said. I mean duh! She nodded as if I'd just proved her point, not my own -- which is another thing my daughters do. "Exactly. That's your career, right?" Again ... duh!!! "So," she said, narrowing her eyes and getting ready for the kill shot. "isn't that what you should be doing all day instead of all this other stuff?" Oh. BIG duh! Yeah. I should be devoting my working hours to actually ... oh, I don't know ... working. At what I do for a living. Hmmm. What a concept. All this to say that I have a new work schedule, to which I'm sticking like glue. At 7:30 every morning, it's time to write, and I write steadily until 12:30 when I break for lunch. My lunch lasts an hour, after which I write again until 4:30 -- and then (and only then) can I tackle all the other things on my ever-growing to-do list. The beauty of this schedule is that when I break for lunch, I read. Yes! I actually spend an hour having lunch, relaxing, and reading! And because of this glorious new schedule, I read two (count them TWO!!!) books last week. And one of them (circling around so that I can finally get to my point) was from my 2009 To Be Read Challenge List! The Land of Mango Sunsets by Dorothea Benton Frank. I feel so very accomplished! _______________________________ Copyright © 2009 Sherry Lewis

The Selling Synopsis

2009-01-28T14:10:00.004-06:00

February 2 - 27, 2009

Registration Fee: $40 (includes critique)

For more information, or to register, go to DancingOnCoals

THE SELLING SYNOPSIS: A synopsis is one of the most valuable tools in your writer’s toolbox, but to write a successful one, we need to shift gears and forget almost everything we've learned about writing a great novel. Learn how to show editors and agents that you can put together a compelling story filled with sympathetic characters. That you understand motivation and know how to work with and layer conflict.

In this workshop you'll learn:

How to format your synopsis

How to decide what to include and what to leave out

How to write a functional query letter

How to establish conflict

How to present motivation

How to pace your synopsis to keep the editor hooked

Reading is still FUNdamental

2009-01-27T18:29:00.004-06:00

My daughter sent me this photo from her phone's camera this afternoon, and I just had to share. As an avid reader, not to mention an author, it makes my heart soar to see a child enjoying a storybook. This child is definitely a chip off her grandmom's block :) When she was born, 13 1/2 weeks early, doctors told those of us who weren't allowed to touch her yet that the best thing we could do for her was to read. It didn't matter what we read, they assured us, we just needed to read to her. Reading would be the best way for us to assist in her development. When she contracted meningitis a couple of weeks later, we were told that she was almost certain to have some brain damage; yet she's developing normally, with only very minor complications from her early physical challenges. Doctors who see her now are astounded to learn that she started life so small and that she fought such incredible odds to be here. A couple of days ago, I told her that I'd be coming to her house to visit soon and I said I wanted to play when I came down there. She said, "I want to play too, Ooma." "Well, of course," I told her. "We'll play together. And we can read books, too. Do you want to read books?" "Uh-huh," she said, and then she paused. "I want to read a story," she told me firmly. And, of course, I assured her we would do exactly that. We'll probably never know whether she inherited her love of books from family members who would rather read than sleep, or if having been read to for hours while she was in the NICU out of storybooks, issues of the Romance Writers' Report, mystery novels, and non-fiction books about Egypt sparked that love in her. But there's no denying that the thing this child loves most is a good book. Wouldn't it be great if more kids felt that way?

Happy?!? Valentine's Day

2009-01-15T15:36:00.005-06:00

Romance writers start thinking about Valentine's Day long before February rolls around, but I’m going out on a limb to admit that Valentine’s Day isn’t my favorite holiday of the year. It doesn’t even come close. This year to celebrate the traditional day of love, I want to hear from you! E-mail me with the worst Valentine’s Day gift you ever received, or your worst Valentine’s Day experience. We’ll pick the 10 least romantic Valeantines Days ever and share them here on my blog on February 14.

Thirteen Random Things from My Week

2009-01-08T11:40:00.003-06:00

1. My oldest daughter went downstairs for something the other night and discovered that the sewer was backing up into our basement. 2. We discovered the sewer issue at about 7:00 in the evening. The plumber left at 2:30 in the morning. 3. While the plumber was here, he asked my daughter to fill the washer with water and then drain it so he could see if the drains were working again. While the washing machine was trying to pump out the water, it began smoking. Badly. 4. The fix for the washer we hoped would be minor isn't, so it's new washer time for me! I could give you 13 reasons why this is very bad news, but I won't bore you. 5. I learned that my oldest niece, who is pregnant with her fourth baby, is having another boy, leaving Miss Jade as the only girl in the family. Sorry, Jade. 6. I learned that my youngest niece is pregnant with her first baby. I'm very excited for her because this is something she's wanted for a very long time. 7. My granddaughter, who is still in diapers, and who woke up before her mother this morning, decided to paint her bedroom. Three guesses what she used for paint. 8. I popped a bagel into the toaster yesterday, only to discover that the toaster doesn't work anymore. It still doesn't work this morning. 9. I'm not even going to talk about the mold we found growing on the basement walls, but I will mention that apparently our neighbor spent several weeks in the hospital with pneumonia thanks to mold growing in her house, and another set of neighbors moved out of the house on the other side when they discovered mold. 10. I'm going to RWA's national conference in July. This year, the conference will be held in Washington DC, and I'm excited since I've never been there before. 11. I've been invited to teach at the Low Country Romance Writers Jumpstart Master Class in 2010, and I'm very excited. It looks like it should be a fabulous experience. 12. I finished judging 2 writing contest entries sitting on my desk and hard drive. Each one took over two hours by the time I'd read and commented on the manuscript and filled out the judges' score sheet. 13. Finished chapter one of my new work in progress, a paranormal mystery. 13 1/2 ... I tried going to the Thursday Thirteen site to post that my post was up .... and it's gone

The 2009 To Be Read Challenge

2008-12-23T11:42:00.005-06:00

I just stumbled across this challenge today, and thought it might be interesting to join it. We're talking about just 12 books in 12 months, which is a meager amount of reading for someone who writes for a living .... but since I began writing for a living, finding time to read is always a challenge. Don't ask me why. I can't figure it out myself, and I've been trying for 15 years or more. I have hundreds of books on my TBR list, so I'm just going to randomly pick a few that I've been meaning to read for a while and haven't yet gotten to. The rules for this challenge are: * to read 12 TBR books in 12 months -- you can read those all in one month if you want, or one a month, or however you wanna do it. * you need to have a list posted somewhere for others to see (even if it's in a comment on the official blog site) * you CANNOT change your list after January 1st, 2009!!! * you can create an Alternates list of MAXIMUM 12 books, if you want, in order to have options to choose from (you can read these in place of books on your original list). * audiobooks and e-books ARE allowed * re-reads are NOT allowed, as they aren't TRUE "TBRs" * you CAN overlap with other challenges * OPTIONAL: you can join the Yahoo! Group created for participants of the TBR Challenge, if you want to have a place to keep your list, or just to share with others about how you're doing! :) Okay! The countdown is on!!! Get your list(s) ready, and make sure you post the link to it here ;) My List:

DEAD MAN'S ISLAND by Carolyn Hart
ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BON BONS by Lorna Landvik
ABIGAIL ADAMS, A BIOGRAPHY by Phyllis Lee Levin
THE LAND OF MANGO SUNSETS by Dorothea Benton Frank
BLESSINGS by Anna Quindlen
NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM by Jordan Dane
BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS by Anne Tyler
SWEETWATER CREEK by Anne Rivers Siddons
SEA SWEPT by Nora Roberts
HER MAN FRIDAY by Elizabeth Bevarly
SUNSET EXPRESS by Robert Crais
IN THE MIDNIGHT RAIN by Ruth Wind

Alternates:

KISS RIVER by Diane Chamberlain
THE SUICIDE CLUB by Gayle Wilson
THE LEOPARD PRINCE by Elizabeth Hoyt
THE MAGIC HOUR by Kristin Hannah
LOVE, LIES AND A DOUBLE SHOT OF DECEPTION by Lois Winston
SISTER'S CHOICE by Emilie Richards
COLD TEA ON A HOT DAY by Curtiss Ann Matlock
HEAT WAVE by Jill Marie Landis
THE SECRET BETWEEN US by Barbara Delinsky
A DOSE OF MURDER by Lori Avocato
SUMMER IN TUSCANY by Elizabeth Adler
A LITTLE BIT WICKED by Victoria Alexander

Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else?

2008-12-20T12:43:00.003-06:00

My daughter sent me a note to visit her blog this morning to see the results of a quiz she'd just taken. For years, she's felt a kind of connection to Marilyn Monroe and the results of her quiz came back saying that she is a Marilyn type. The bullet points were amazingly on target when it came to describing her personality, so I decided to take the test myself to see who I am :)

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are an Ingrid!

You are an Ingrid -- "I am unique"

Ingrids have sensitive feelings and are warm and perceptive.

How to Get Along with Me

* Give me plenty of compliments. They mean a lot to me.
* Be a supportive friend or partner. Help me to learn to love and value myself.
* Respect me for my special gifts of intuition and vision.
* Though I don't always want to be cheered up when I'm feeling melancholy, I sometimes like to have someone lighten me up a little.
* Don't tell me I'm too sensitive or that I'm overreacting!

What I Like About Being an Ingrid

* my ability to find meaning in life and to experience feeling at a deep level
* my ability to establish warm connections with people
* admiring what is noble, truthful, and beautiful in life
* my creativity, intuition, and sense of humor
* being unique and being seen as unique by others
* having aesthetic sensibilities
* being able to easily pick up the feelings of people around me

What's Hard About Being an Ingrid

* experiencing dark moods of emptiness and despair
* feelings of self-hatred and shame; believing I don't deserve to be loved
* feeling guilty when I disappoint people
* feeling hurt or attacked when someone misundertands me
* expecting too much from myself and life
* fearing being abandoned
* obsessing over resentments
* longing for what I don't have

Ingrids as Children Often

* have active imaginations: play creatively alone or organize playmates in original games
* are very sensitive
* feel that they don't fit in
* believe they are missing something that other people have
* attach themselves to idealized teachers, heroes, artists, etc.
* become antiauthoritarian or rebellious when criticized or not understood
* feel lonely or abandoned (perhaps as a result of a death or their parents' divorce)

Ingrids as Parents

* help their children become who they really are
* support their children's creativity and originality
* are good at helping their children get in touch with their feelings
* are sometimes overly critical or overly protective
* are usually very good with children if not too self-absorbed

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

Thursday Thirteen #9

2008-12-11T13:21:00.005-06:00

Thirteen Things I Like About Christmas

1. Decorations. Lights, Santas, snowmen, reindeer, trees, candles, bows, wreaths ... I love them all. The more, the merrier. 2. Christmas movies. And yes, I even like the sappy ones. I have a bunch of movies on my "must watch" list every holiday season:

White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, and Danny Kaye. My daughters and I can sing every song in harmony and recite most of the dialogue
A Christmas Story, with Darren McGavin as the dad. A classic.
The Santa Clause. I have all three of the movies in this series, but the first one is still my favorite.
Jingle all the Way. I don't know why this one appeals to me so much, but it's just not Christmas until I've seen Arnold and Sinbad battling over an action figure and heard Arnold say "It's Tyurbo Time!"
Noel. I discovered this movie a couple of years ago, and quickly added it to my list.
Christmas in Connecticut, both the Barbara Stanwyck and Dyan Cannon versions.
At least one version of A Christmas Carol. I think the George C. Scott version is my favorite, but I've been known to substitute Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on occasion.
New this year: Fred Claus. I laughed until I nearly wet my pants.

There are also a few Christmas movies I refuse to watch, but I won't list those. 3. Snow. But only when I don't have to get outside in it. I think it's beautiful on the ground and covering the trees, but I hate driving on the slick streets and walking on icy sidewalks and parking lots. Obviously--since I hate the sensation of sliding--I don't ski or participate in any other winter sports, so I could probably live somewhere without snow and be quite happy. 4. Christmas Songs. Okay, yeah, I get tired of them by the end of December, but for 2 or 3 weeks every year I'm perfectly content listening to 100 different versions of "Carol of the Bells" every day. 5. Christmas Shopping, especially now that I can do so much of it online. Even before online shopping became an option, though, I used to like shopping. I especially liked shopping for my kids. I love finding just the right thing for someone, whether it's something I know they want, or something I stumble across that I know is perfect. 6. Hot Cocoa. Yeah, I know it's not a Christmas-specific thing, but the Christmas season always makes me want cocoa, so it makes my list. 7. My Mother's Fudge, which she makes every year. She started out bringing a small box to my sister's house on Christmas Day, then added a smaller box for me to take home since my family got only one (or maybe two) pieces each year, while my sister's family happily snacked for days on all the fudge we didn't eat on Christmas. Then she had to expand again to make separate take home boxes for each of the grandkids as they grew up and left home. The fudgemaking operation has expanded yet again to include shipping now that most of the grandkids have moved to other parts of the country. 8. The scent of fresh pine which, unfortunately, you can only get from a real pine tree or pine branches. I have yet to smell an artificial pine scent that smells even remotely like actual pine. 9. Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yum! 10. Happy Tears. My family is weird. Every year it seems that someone gives a gift that touches the receiver in some deeply emotional way and brings on joyful tears. We love that gift. We love getting it, but we especially love giving it. Making someone we love weep with happiness is the ultimate Christmas experience. 11. Tradition. Of course, as families grow and change, as new people join the clan, begin their own branches of the family and move away, traditions change. That's as it should be. But some things remain the same, and that's a good thing. 12. The real meaning of Christmas. All this good will toward man, singing, eating, and showering those we care about with gifts had roots in the birth of the Christ Child. One of our family traditions is reading about the birth from the Bible. 13. Santa Claus. What's not to love about Santa? All that good will toward man, the showering of kids with gifts, the unconditional love .... That lump of coal thing? Made up by parents! Seriously! Has anyone ever actually recieved a lump of coal from Santa?

Finding the Groove

2008-11-24T16:38:00.004-06:00

Soooo. I was going to have all this time on my hands after my term as president of RWA ended on November 1. That was the plan. I even signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) as a way to get myself back in the groove. (See the little word counter bar up at the top of my blog.) I got a good start on NaNo, too. But then I'd agreed to teach a Master Class at WriterUniv for the first two weeks of November, and I really wanted to give the people who signed up for the workshop the time, attention, and energy they deserved for their registration fee. And I'd agreed to judge contest entries for a couple of RWA chapters, and my own writing ground to a halt so I could meet my other obligations. Don't worry, I told myself repeatedly. You'll have plenty of time to write once the workshop is over and the contest entries are sent back. That was the plan! But then the copy edits arrived for my next book, and I really, really wanted to get it done and back to my editor before my December 1 deadline. So I told myself, don't worry. You'll have plenty of time to write once the copy edits are done. That was the plan! Today, everything was finished. My manuscript was back on my editor's desk, the contest entries had all been returned, the workshop was finished. Nothing to keep me from writing now ... right? Well, except that I really did want to get my workshop website updated and back in working order. I stopped teaching online while I served on the RWA board, but I'm ready to get back to it in January, and I really needed to get the website up and running again. I think it's all ready to go now. We'll be back in business on January 5, starting with one of my personal favorite workshops on Motivation. If you're interested, check out the schedule at Dancing On Coals. Most of the workshops I offer are four weeks long, and all of them include a critique of pages from your manuscript. I've played around ad nauseum with the registration forms and payment options pages, and I think they're all working. If you run into a problem, please let me know! So now, tomorrow, I should be able to write ... right?

Colorful!

2008-11-03T09:38:00.007-06:00

A Manic Monday post

This week's theme is Colorful.

TGIF!

2008-10-31T14:04:00.005-05:00

1. My favorite food seasoning is ... seasoning? Um.... garlic salt, I guess. Yeah, I pretty much put it on everything, so I guess it would qualify. Or just plain garlic. The salt isn't necessary, really. 2. My granddaughter's voice is music to my ears. 3. Lucky is having the money for a trip to Florida. 4. My career and my family are something I take very seriously. 5. Many people have changed Halloween traditions because the world has changed so much. Remember how much fun it used to be to take off Trick-or-Treating without parents? Now, kids go Trunk-or-Treating. It's just not the same. 6. Dog food and deodorant are the last things I bought at the store. 7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to curling up under a blanket and watching something good (or not so good) on TV, tomorrow my plans include my local RWA chapter meeting, followed by a book signing, and Sunday, I want to read, watch Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters -- after church, of course!

Mastering Scene & Sequel

2008-10-23T12:19:00.003-05:00

Just a quick heads up that I'll be teaching a course on Mastering Scene & Sequel at WriterUniv.com in a couple of weeks. Come and check it out! November 3-15, 2008 MASTER CLASS: "Mastering Scene & Sequel" by Sherry Lewis Registration $55 at www.WriterUniv.com/ Prerequisite: Must have a completed manuscript ready to submit You've heard about scene and sequel, and the idea of using it makes sense -- but can you use scene and sequel and still maintain the fluid style of writing you prefer? Will using scene and sequel box you in, or can you still fly by the seat of your pants? Learn how to use scene and sequel to create powerful scenes while maintaining your own artistic integrity. By taking this course you'll learn how to: * Identify the anatomy of scene and sequel * Use scene/sequel structure to build tension and highlight conflict * Use it to drive your story from scene to scene * Create hooks that keep the reader turning pages * Make characterization, motivation & conflict work together powerfully * Decide what to include and leave out of your manuscript * Avoid wandering off your story's path * Tailor scene-sequel to fit your writing style and unique story Sherry Lewis is an award-winning, bestselling author, writing teacher and writing coach for both published and aspiring writers. She has been using scene and sequel techniques in her own work since 1992, and teaching it to others around the country and online for more than 15 years. Read more about her at www.sherrylewisbooks.com.

Scrapblog

2008-09-28T16:19:00.003-05:00

I found something today that could be very dangerous for me. It's called Scrapblog, and although I've never really considered myself the scrapbook type, I had way too much fun playing with it today. I made a couple of scrapbooks before I forced myself to stop. Actually, I could have spent a lot more time finding the best possible pictures and trimming everything just-so, but I have too much work to do on revisions for the book I'm working on, and it's my daughter's birthday dinner at my mother's house in just a few hours so I played just a little. Honest!

Houston: We Have a Problem

2008-09-22T14:49:00.006-05:00

Hurricane Ike hit the Houston area more than a week ago, and most of the country has moved on to more pressing matters. It's to be expected, I suppose. After all, there are a dozen other things out there hovering over the entire country, threatening storms of a different kind. But I have friends in Houston, and the corporate office of Romance Writers of America is located there, so I receive updates several times a day. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Houston still do not have electricity. At last count, the number of individual accounts still without power was 757,000. That's accounts, not people. Put just 3 people in every location, and we're talking about well over 2 million people still without power. In many locations an "open grocery store" means that someone will walk you through with a flashlight while you grab a few things (what things there are) from the shelves. Yesterday, my friend Allison saw a sign at her local grocery store that announced they now had fresh meat and dairy. People are still cooking on camp stoves outside and living on whatever they had in their cupboards when Ike hit. And now, to add to the power outage issues, the temperatures are rising and mosquitoes are infesting the area. My friend Donna sent me some pictures this morning of the devastation. I wish I could share them with you, but they're copyrighted and I respect other people's copyrights the way I hope people will respect mine, so I won't be posting them here. Some of them were too disturbing to share anyway. And most of us probably don't want to know what happened in the cemeteries, anyway. I suppose we might all be paying attention to what's happening in Houston if the economy weren't crumbling right in front of our eyes. We'd all pay attention if the people of Houston had climbed onto their roofs and waited for us to rescue them. And I'm sure the media would be tossing footage of the economy and the election into the trash can if this had happened in NYC. But Houston is our country's fourth largest city, and what happens there is going to impact all of us in the very near future. If the human aspect of the story doesn't move the media, then perhaps the economic impact will. Because if power isn't restored so that people can return to work soon, we're all going to wonder what happened to our gas supply.

Monday Morning Meme

2008-09-15T16:01:00.008-05:00

I found these questions on Write From Karen

1. Are you brunette? Blonde? Auburn? And is it natural? If you could pick any type of hair you wanted, the style and color, what would it be? (Can you link us to a picture?)

Well, let me see . . . what day is it? No, seriously, I'm brunette. And it's natural. Mostly. I started life as a brunette, grew briefly sort of golden blonde in my very early years, and then inched back to brunette by the time I was 9 or 10. If I could pick any type of hair I wanted, style and color....??? In my teenage years, I desperately wanted my hair to look like this:

Everybody else's hair looked like that, why didn't mine? The question practically consumed me for a couple of years, and I really resented those ancestors who had cursed me instead with thick, curly hair. In the years since, I've made peace with my hair -- mostly. And in the past two years, since my first grandchild was born (and her hair grew in to be golden blonde and curly) I've shut my mouth on every curly-haired complaint that rises to my lips. Not for the world will I say something that might hurt that child's feelings. How can I dislike my curly hair when hers is so cute? So now, if I could choose, I'd probably want my hair to look something like this:

2. How did your car get that little scratch/dent? (Because let’s face it, we ALL have car stories, right? If, for some reason you don’t, tell us about how someone else’s car got that scratch/dent).

My oldest daughter drove my car, a Volkswagen Rabbit, through the window of a 7-Eleven store when she was about 5. Luckily, she wasn't hurt and my car had only a few scratches. The 7-Eleven definitely got the worst of the deal.

3. In your opinion, what is the worst-tasting candy? Now, what is the best-tasting candy? How often do you eat candy? Do you keep it around your house? Do you allow your children to eat very much candy? The worst-tasting candy? Probably horehound drops. The best? Snickers Do I keep it around the house? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. And my children are grown, so I don't have a lot of say in their candy habits. 4. Are you easily agitated? What really makes your temper soar? Do you stay angry for a long time? Or do you get over it pretty fast? No, I don't think so. I can become agitated, but I don't get angry at the drop of a hat. My temper soars when I'm lied to. Lying is not only a betrayal, but it's insulting. The liar assumes that the other person will be stupid enough to believe what they're saying. I don't think I stay angry for a long time. I've learned that when someone or something makes me angry, the best thing for me to do is confront it, deal with it and get it over with. The only time I stay angry is when I allow a situation to remain unresolved. I've been known to get angry with my kids, deal with the issue, and then completely forget it ever happened.

Adventures in Food

2008-09-12T18:29:00.005-05:00

Since I'm still butting up against a deadline and not blogging regularly, I'm going to cheat again and do a meme. This one was created by Andrew at Very Good Taste and looks kind of interesting to a Food Network junkie.

Here’s what you do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions. 2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten. 3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. 4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison 2. Nettle tea 3. Huevos rancheros 4. Steak tartare 5. Crocodile 6. Black pudding 7. Cheese fondue 8. Carp 9. Borscht 10. Baba ghanoush 11. Calamari 12. Pho 13. PB&J sandwich 14. Aloo gobi 15. Hot dog from a street cart 16. Epoisses 17. Black truffle 18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes 19. Steamed pork buns 20. Pistachio ice cream 21. Heirloom tomatoes 22. Fresh wild berries 23. Foie gras 24. Rice and beans 25. Brawn, or head cheese 26. ~~Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper~~ 27. Dulce de leche 28. Oysters 29. Baklava 30. Bagna cauda 31. Wasabi peas 32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl 33. Salted lassi 34. Sauerkraut 35. Root beer float 36. Cognac ~~with a fat cigar~~ 37. Clotted cream tea 38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O 39. Gumbo 40. Oxtail 41. Curried goat 42. ~~Whole insects~~ 43. Phaal 44. Goat’s milk 45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more 46. Fugu 47. Chicken tikka masala 48. Eel 49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut 50. Sea urchin 51. Prickly pear 52. Umeboshi 53. Abalone 54. Paneer 55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal 56. Spaetzle 57. Dirty gin martini 58. Beer above 8% ABV 59. Poutine 60. Carob chips 61. S’mores 62. Sweetbreads 63. Kaolin 64. Currywurst 65. Durian 66. Frogs’ legs 67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake 68. Haggis 69. Fried plantain 70. Chitterlings, or andouillette 71. Gazpacho 72. Caviar and blini 73. Louche absinthe 74. Gjetost, or brunost 75. ~~Roadkill~~ 76. Baijiu 77. Hostess Fruit Pie 78. Snail 79. Lapsang souchong 80. Bellini 81. Tom yum 82. Eggs Benedict 83. Pocky 84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. 85. Kobe beef 86. Hare 87. Goulash 88. Flowers 89. ~~Horse~~ 90. Criollo chocolate 91. Spam 92. Soft shell crab 93. Rose harissa 94. Catfish 95. Mole poblano 96. Bagel and lox 97. Lobster Thermidor 98. Polenta 99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee 100. Snake

Okay. Not bad. Slightly more than half, so I still have a way to go. I'm open to trying almost everything on the list that I haven't tried already -- and there are a few things I think I may have had, but I'm not sure so I didn't mark them.

How about you?

All Is Well!

2008-09-02T17:11:00.006-05:00

To everyone who has asked about Baby Wonderful's health, thank you for including her in your prayers over the past few weeks. She had a follow-up visit with the doctor today, and it looks like the operation has been successful so far. Everything in her little brain is working the way it's supposed to be working. She'll have another follow-up visit in three months, but for now all is well. So, to our family and friends, to all of you who held our sweet little girl in your hearts while she went through the brain surgery, to her surgeon and the entire medical team who cared for her, our heartfelt thanks. We couldn't be more pleased with today's news.

Time to Vote!

2008-09-02T16:53:00.004-05:00

If you're a member of Romance Writers of America, you should be aware that voting has begun for next year's Board of Directors. I received an e-mail from the national office this afternoon, providing me a link and an individual election pass code so I could access the ballot. Once you're there, you can view the candidates' bios and vision statements, cast your vote, change your vote, save your vote and come back later. Just please don't forget to vote!!!! For the first time in 4 years, I'm not part of the election process. I have to say I'm having mixed feelings over it. I'm going to miss serving on the board. I'm going to miss the camaraderie with the other board members, I'm going to miss working with the incredible corporate staff that Executive Director Allison Kelley has put together. I'm going to miss being an integral part of what's going on in the organization. On the other hand, I'm going to like having a little more time to call my own. Time to spend . . . oh, I don't know . . . writing, maybe. To be fair, I can't say that my (ahem) slow writing schedule over the past few years has been board related, or even board caused. It's mostly been due to health issues that were misdiagnosed for about 3 years. But it looks as if the docs and I are finally on the right track, and now that we are, it will be nice to call my time my own as I get back into the swing of doing what I do. I'm also giving some serious thought to relocating during the coming year. I know it will come as a huge surprise that I've set my sights on Florida where Vanessa and Ian are making their home, along with the World's Most Incredible Grandbaby and, if the counter up at the top of my blog didn't give this away, the World's Other Most Incredible Grandbaby, who's on his/her way and should arrive in March. I know that people live on opposite sides of the country from their grandchildren all the time, and they survive quite nicely. Well, I've tried it, and I'm surviving it, but let's be honest here -- I don't like it. It's wrong. Sick, twisted, and very wrong. And since I can do what I do from anywhere I choose, there's no reason except fear of the unknown for me not to move. Well, there's also the lack of money, but getting back to work should take care of that issue. Which I can do since I'm not running for election this year! It's amazing how everything comes together, isn't it?

In My Opinion ...

2008-08-08T09:29:00.003-05:00

Okay, I finally saw the segment the Today Show did recently on romance while covering the 28th annual Romance Writers of America's national conference in San Francisco. I'd heard some good things about the segment, and I'd heard some bad things about the segment, and I was eager to see what the show had done. I'm told that Nora had a good interview with the reporter who covered the conference, but she wasn't completely happy with the snippet of her interview that aired. This is, of course, mere rumor because I haven't actually spoken with La Nora myself, but I'm told that she wasn't happy because, as always, the media focused on how many books she'd sold rather than on any of the other things she said during the interview. Nora is one of the genre's staunchest supporters, and I'm sure she said a lot of things we'd have loved to hear repeated on national television. Maybe we'd have heard them if the piece had been longer. I don't know ... maybe Nora's incredible sales record is what people want to hear about. If so, I don't get it. (No offense, Nora!) But, then, I don't get a lot of things, like why the world is so fascinated by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, or by Tom Cruise (shudder) and Katie Holmes. Or why "we" felt as if we owned Princess Diana, or .... well, just lots of things. On the other hand, I was delighted that the show interviewed the award-winning romance novelist, Beverly Jenkins. She may have only appeared on screen for a few seconds, but it was an important few seconds. For decades, the romance genre has been portrayed as white books by white women written for white woman. Beverly is just one of the many African-American, Asian-American, Latino and other multi-cultural women who write romance and fill the ever-growing market for multi-cultural romance. If you ask me, it's way past time to set the record straight. The other grumble I heard about the Today Show piece centered on a comment made by one of the show's anchors after the piece aired. The offending comment was something like, "Well now we know what career we should be pursuing in our spare time." And yeah, I know, they don't have a clue -- but who does? The only people who understand how damn hard it is to write a novel are the people who actually write novels. And the reporter did just finish talking about how romance authors are intelligent, insightful women who also practice medicine and the law and who have Ph.Ds and raise kids, which makes it sound as if we're all writing romance novels in our spare time. So I really can't blame the anchor. We just have to find a better way to get the message across, I guess. So it wasn't a totally bad piece (although at times it did make us look a bit like over-eager fans at a Star Trek convention -- not that there's anything wrong with being an over-eager fan at a Star Trek convention!) but it wasn't a totally good piece, either. It wasn't entirely accurate, but it wasn't entirely inaccurate, either -- which makes it your typical segment on the daily news, doesn't it? And I do think that Ms. Jansing tried to include some of the important points, in spite of the unfortunate "Sex Between the Covers" tag line and the "Sex and the City" tie in that I don't quite understand. And hey! it was the Today Show. Which says something, right? So I don't really want to complain about the segment because I'm thrilled that RWA managed to catch the attention of such a high-profile, highly respected program. I just wish that while they let us speak to the world for that minute or so, they'd let us say a bit more about the healing properties of our novels, about the many women who turn to romance for hope in times of despair, or for escape in times of stress. Or that they'd given a moment's notice to our conference theme: Romance -- Bridging the World, and mentioned that we're not just talking about American women, or white women, but about women of all races, all religions, all backgrounds, all education levels, all around the world. Or that they'd explained that the part where excited fans were seen storming the Bastille in search of romance novels was actually our annual Readers for Life Literacy Autographing, at which RWA raised over $58,000 which it donated to Pro Literacy Worldwide to assist in its efforts to erase adult illiteracy around the world. Ah well . . . maybe next year.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-07-17T09:04:00.002-05:00

Manic Monday #6

2008-07-14T09:52:00.007-05:00

The word of the day is "Bug" and it's also the beginning of something called Doodle Week where the theme of the day is also "Bug." Amazing. While usually nothing short of torture could compel me to share my "art" work with the world, I must be in the right mood today. Or maybe I'm okay with it since I can share computer doodles, so it feels less personal. Anyway, for those of you with absolutely no lofty standards for your art ..... I promise not to draw anything when I blog from RWA's National Conference!

Thursday Thirteen #8

2008-07-10T12:08:00.005-05:00

Thirteen Things I Need to Finish Before I Leave for RWA's National Conference

1. Figure out what I'm going to wear. Yeah, I know. I can feel some of you rolling your eyes at this one, but this one is really important. We all want to look nice when we're attending a professional conference, and usually it's enough to have a new outfit or two and get your hair cut and your nails done. This year, as RWA's president, I'm going to be Front and Center for the entire conference, which makes it even more important that I have something decent to wear, since I'll be strolling across the stage and standing at the podium and appearing on the big screens in the ballroom. And since airlines are charging for two bags, and since taking three isn't even an option, I have to know what I'm planning to wear, when -- right down to shoes, jewelry, and accessories -- which is about three layers deeper than I usually go when I'm planning what to pack. So no comments or eye-rolling on the wardrobe issue. 2. Figure out what I'm going to say at the opening session, the AGM, the keynote luncheon, the awards luncheon, and anywhere else I'll be expected to say a few words. 3. Finalize invitations for the past-president's annual get-together. 4. Pick up some tissue to use when wrapping gifts for board members and staff. No, I'm not going to tell you what I got them. 5. Finish signing all of the certificates for RITA and Golden Heart finalists. 6. Try to finish the book my editor is patiently (and I do mean patiently) waiting for. It's not a good idea to let your volunteer service to a writer's organization kill your career as an author. 7. Double and triple-check my calendar to make sure I've included everywhere I'm supposed to be and when I'm supposed to be there. The invitations are starting to come in, and I don't want to miss anything! 8. Write my final letter for Romance Sells -- a quarterly publication we provide to booksellers and librarians 9. Convince Angel that I'm not going to leave forever. Already, she's looking at me with those guilt-inducing puppy-dog eyes because the suitcase is still sitting in the bedroom. She knows something is up, and she's not happy about it. 10. Send back the outfit I bought for the Awards Ceremony and then changed my mind about. Wait anxiously for the replacement outfit I've ordered to arrive. 11. Make sure Vanessa ships those board/staff member gifts from Florida to arrive in time. 12. Touch base with conference speakers and parliamentarian for the Annual General Meeting. I should have done this weeks ago. :::sigh::: 13. Everything else that I don't have space to list because 13 spaces aren't nearly enough. I need to get some pictures of Abigail and her parents to carry with me so I don't appear to be the world's worst Ooma. Write my report for board meeting, read, study, and prepare for board meeting, Get my nails done. No, don't. I can't type fast enough with nails. But my nails look like I've been scratching brick walls with them. No. No! My editors have been waiting long enough! who cares what my nails look like? I need function! And obviously the most important item on the list --- hyperventilate....a lot.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-07-09T09:53:00.003-05:00

On My Mind Today...

Book Review: Flamingo Diner

Book Review: Celebrations

Foodie Friday: Chicken Bake

Thirteen Things I Didn't Know About March

100 Books: #18 An Affair Before Christmas

Inspiration: Phyllis A. Whitney

Book Review: Winter Garden

Foodie Friday: My Mom's Meatballs with Spaghetti

Thursday Thirteen: Websites

100 Books: #17 Dipped, Stripped, and Dead

The Return of Some Old Favorites

Book Review: Flowerbed of State

Why Judge the RITAs?

100 Books: #16 The Poet

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Guilty Pleasures

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

100 Books: #15 The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate

Thirteen Romantic Movies

Ten Favorite Photos

100 Books: #14 The Magic of Ordinary Days

What Makes a Book a Wallbanger?

100 Books: #13 Mrs. Lincoln, A Life

100 Books: #12 The Beach House

100 Books: #11 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Editing Mark Twain

Stony Stratford Strikes Back!

100 Books: #10 Flamingo Diner

100 Books: #9 Quite a Year for Plums

100 Books: #8 A Thousand Acres

100 Books: #7 Magnificent Obsession

100 Books: #6 Up Island

100 Books: #5 Don't Tell

100 Books–#4: I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason

100 Books -- #3 Magic Hour

100 Books -- #2 What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

100 Books I Want to Read: #1 The Adams-Jefferson Letters

Writing Powerhouse Scenes

Act, Don’t React

2011 TBR Challenge

Talkin' about Conflict

Have you Read More than 6 of these Books?

Thinking about Veterans

Things that go Bump in the Night

Watch Out, J.K., Here I Come

Beginnings

2010 TBR Challenge - Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

The Research Begins

Friday Question

The Simple Woman’s Daybook 03/01/2010

The Simple Woman’s Daybook 1/23/2010

The 2010 To-Be-Read Challenge

Camouflage and Christmas Lights

First Day at Work

There's No Turning Back Now

I Think I Can, I Think I Can

Counting Down .... 8 Days to Go

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Hats Off to Fans of Romance

Books: A Love Story

They Call Me Mad Charity Cash

Honor our Military Families

World Card Making Day

God Bless our Troops!

Celebrating!

Do you Feel Lucky? Well, do Ya?

What's Your Myers-Briggs Personality Type?

Writing: A Magical Journey

“Writing: A Magical Journey”

~~Romance in the Mountains~~ 2009 Heart of the West Writing Conference Romance Writers of America® Utah Chapter

Receiving the Emma

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

I’ve Finished my RITA Books!

Creating Compelling Characters

Glitter and Lace

ONE DOWN ... ELEVEN TO GO

The Selling Synopsis

Reading is still FUNdamental

Happy?!? Valentine's Day

Thirteen Random Things from My Week

Romance in the Mountains 2009 Heart of the West Writing Conference Romance Writers of America® Utah Chapter