Remember a few days ago I asked if you wanted to know a secret, but then I wouldn’t tell you what it was? Well, it’s officially official. My short novel WINTER SOLSTICE will be published by Lyrical Press, Inc.

I’m really thrilled with this development. For one thing, I get another chance to work with my superb editor Stef Szymanski, who really taught me a lot while editing SECRETS OF THE LOTUS. For another thing, Lyrical Press puts out a high quality product for a small, independent press. I’m very proud to have my books published by them.

But then there’s the personal reason. I did it. I wrote another one. Why is this important? Read on.

For anyone who missed it, L. McKenna Donovan recently published a series of articles on her blog McKenna’s Way about “negative scripts”. She asked me to participate in the project by answering a series of questions. Going into the project, I didn’t really know what a negative script was. However, I quickly realized I have quite a few of these little naysaying voices running through my head on a daily basis. You know, the voices that say, “Really? You think anybody wants to talk to you about that?” or “Why would you think you can do something important?” They’re the voices that hold us back from realizing our dreams.

McKenna’s project was all about overcoming those negative scripts. We can’t get rid of them totally, but we can learn to deal with them, and I was thrilled by the ideas some writers have for overcoming their negative scripts. Me, I just barrel through them, but other authors had some much more unique methods. This blog project has the potential to be useful for everyone in many different aspects of life, so check it out. Plus, you can look for my friend A.J. Brown and my hero Ellen Meister over there, too.

What does this have to do with WINTER SOLSTICE? Well, listen to these negative scripts and tell me:

What if you can’t write another book? Maybe you don’t have anything original to say? Nobody really wants to read a book by you when they can read what’s-his-name’s or what’s-her-name’s book instead. Come on, you suck.

Maybe, maybe not. At any rate, I worked through it and somebody thinks it’s worth publishing. Thank you, Lyrical Press! And thanks to everybody who’s read SECRETS OF THE LOTUS and offered positive feedback. It sure did help overcome those negative scripts.

Okay, so I’ve now got two projects more or less complete and in one pipeline or the other and I’m taking a little break from writing. What am I doing?

1. Still reading Sherlock Holmes, something I’ve intended to do most of my life. I love the twists and turns of Doyle’s writing and he was a master of characterization, something I still struggle with. By studying Doyle’s methods I hope to discover how to create a whole person out of words.

2. Watching my six-year-old son learning to read. He’s reading everything in sight now. We’re used to reading the subtitles of movies to him, but tonight he started reading them to us! He reads highway signs and magazine covers, menus and newspaper headlines. I’ll have to watch him; he might start sneaking up behind me and reading what I’m writing! It is truly wonderful sharing this moment in time with him, though. I love seeing this new world open up for him.

3. Busy working on PTO duties. It’s a busy time of the year, and I’m hoping for a lull when the month is complete. Why?

4. National Novel Writing Month. Yep. It starts on November 1, and I’m planning to do it. I’ve got a project in mind and holding off on getting started would be frightfully difficult…if I weren’t so busy…and so tired!

Night everybody!

…watched two deer as they crossed the street from one patch of woods to another.
…saw the reflection of the moon in the creek.
…noticed the first color change in the trees.
…hugged my kids.
…listened to my son play the piano.
…wrote the last words of my next romance novel.