Category Archives: Breathing moment

Music that isn’t mine or why there’s a gay woman in Where the Heart Lies: About Lulu.

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I’m sitting here in my house listening to music that isn’t mine. We’re having work done (leaky windows), and the workmen have music. It’s good music, and I know you need something to listen to when you work, so I totally understand and don’t mind. But that music that isn’t mine got me thinking.

Why did I decide to put a gay woman in Where the Heart Lies? Heaven knows when I was writing her character, I felt like I was listening to somebody else’s music.

Lulu is a divorced mother of a five-year-old girl who befriends Alicia when Alicia moves to Hillsborough. Lulu is tough. She divorced her cheating husband and took over his sex shop in the heart of downtown Hillsborough. (Okay, there is no sex shop in downtown Hillsborough and probably never has been. I made it up, so don’t go looking for it!) Lulu worries about how her sexual orientation will affect her daughter, whether she grows up with one mommy or two. She’s able to shake off the disapproving looks and whispers that follow her around. She’s not a gossip, but she does enjoy the power of knowing who shops with her, and she hates the fact that her mother thinks her ex-husband “turned” her gay but she’s resigned to it.

Freud would probably say that Lulu is a part of me, but I don’t think that’s right. I think Lulu is a conglomeration of the things I’ve learned about the gay community over the years, even from my limited contact. Because I listen, I can hear their music, even though it isn’t mine.

I wish we could all remember to listen to other people’s music. Whether you’re ultra-liberal or ultra-conservative or (like me) somewhere in between, listen. Every community, every family, every individual has music and a story. Listen to it. The music may not be yours, but you might appreciate it, even if you don’t enjoy it.

Release day approaches and the return of HONEOWP

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Hi everybody. I’ve been struggling some with my writing since summer began. I think I’m just going to take a breathing moment and spend the summer with my kids. I know the writing bug will strike again, but until then I’m just going to relax, work on finishing up a couple of manuscripts and marketing my upcoming releases. I have two that I can lay claim to. Of course, you know about WHERE THE HEART LIES by Carina Press, but there’s also the Turquoise Press anthology FOREIGN AFFAIRS, which I’m thrilled to say includes my short story “Agapi Mou” (translation: “My Love” in Greek). FOREIGN AFFAIRS will be out sometime this fall, and as soon as I have a cover and a release date, I’ll let you know.

With these upcoming releases, I have decided it’s time to revive HONEOWP. If you remember, I began HONEOWP as a way of doing something good with my writing. I’d love to think that my writing somehow makes a positive difference in the world, but I have no illusions. I don’t really write change-the-world type stuff. So I decided to donate my royalties for a year to charity. During the course of that year, I managed to donate over $300 to charity (which doesn’t say much for my book sales). I also wore myself out researching charities and keeping up with posts about how much was donated to which charity. Not that I minded, but toward the end, it felt like it was slowing my writing down a bit.

So I’m simplifying things this time around. I’ve chosen one charity, No Kid Hungry. However, once again I’m inviting all other writers, novelists, editors and bloggers to join me in the effort. If you’d like to join up, send me your information and I’ll add it to my HONEOWP role call. You don’t have to pledge all your royalties, and you don’t have to even tell me how much you’re donating. Just post about HONEOWP and the charity of your choice on your own blog/Facebook/Twitter. I’ll blog about you and your charity and your books (if you have any) on BREATHE. If I have time (which I probably will), I’ll send you a few questions about you and your charity of choice.

So welcome back, HONEOWP, and don’t forget to join me right here on July 16 for my release day celebration!

Slacking off: Writing is hard work!

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The New York Times published an article recently about the amount of productivity being required of authors in the digital age. At one time, the article said, a book a year was considered enough, and any more would glut the market. However, with the advances in e-publishing and the other demands on readers’ entertainment time, much more was required of authors to keep their audiences. James Patterson, it was pointed out in the article, produced a book a month with the help of co-authors. Another author interviewed said she writes 2,000 words a day, seven days a week.

The article sparked a tidal wave of discussions on writers’ websites and blogs. How can you maintain quality when so much quantity was required? Aren’t writers supposed to have a life? Writing is hard!

And the grousing continues. Yes, it is hard, and if you’re a good enough writer, when your publisher comes to you and says “I need you to produce a book a month,” you can just say no. Seriously. If you’re a good enough writer, then when your next book is ready, the publisher and your audience will be there. The critics will love you for not giving in to a system attempting to squeeze literary juice out of very sour turnips.

Look at J.K. Rowling. What if someone had gone to her and said, “Okay, you’re going to lose your audience if you don’t turn out the next six books in your series within the next year. I mean, if you put out a book a year, by the time you’re done, your audience will have grown out of Harry Potter.” What would her reaction have been? I can imagine.

I encourage writers to do what I plan to do. Write true. If that means writing a book a year, good. If it means you can turn out a book a month that you’re proud of, do that. But don’t fall into the trap of killing yourself to write trash. (Funny, that, coming from a writer of trashy romances, huh?) But seriously, writing is a journey when you do it right. Your characters take you on that journey and if you try to rush them, you’re going to get a badly written, sketchy travel plan.

I’m going to swipe a quote from the article from author Steve Berry, with whom I once discussed cheesecake while riding on an elevator in New York City. He said, “You don’t ever want to get into a situation where your worth is being judged by the amount of your productivity.” Write on, Steve! (But take a breathing moment every now and then…)

Breathing moment: Quotes about writing

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One of my favorite authors who I am grateful to be able to call a writing buddy, Ellen Meister, recently posted an inspiring quote from J.D. Salinger on her blog. You can read it here: Side Dish.

I’d never read this particular quote, but I found it very inspirational. I love quotes, especially by writers or about writing. When I hit a roadblock in my writing, I troll the internet for inspirational quotes. Every year I put a quote in my Christmas card—something that means something to me and that I hope will mean something to my friends and family.

Anyway, Ellen’s quote got me thinking about some of my favorite writerly quotations. One of my absolute favorites and one that I try to live my writing life by:

“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” — Elmore Leonard.

Here’s one that’s a little less light-hearted, but one that I also love:

“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.” — Maya Angelou

That quote right there is why I rewrite and rewrite some sentences. I don’t know if I’ve written sentences that go straight to my readers’ hearts yet, but I’m working on it.

But I have to give one of my favorite authors credit for really nailing why I write, and why I try to write something new every time. Mark Twain said it best, didn’t he, when he said:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

I hope one day I will have broken new ground in the writing game. If not new ground for other writers, at least new ground for me.

Don’t forget to breathe today!

Breathing Moment: I miss the snow.

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I grew up in the mountains where winter meant school would be punctuated by snow vacations. We went to bed on some nights when snow was predicted almost as excited as on Christmas Eve. And when dawn broke on a frozen white world, we couldn’t wait to get outside, sledding and snowball fighting and snowman-building. One of my favorite things to do actually came a few days after when the snow had formed a thick crust on top. Since we usually got several inches at a time, it was fun to try to walk on top of the snow. We’d compete to see who could take the most steps before falling through. As I was quite light back in those days, I was pretty good at this game. That probably wouldn’t be the case now.

Of course, now I don’t actually live in a place where you’d expect a lot of snow. For snow to fall in Eastern North Carolina, the humidity must be just right, the temperature must fall to freezing during a front, the heat miser must make a deal with the cold miser and everyone in town must leave their freezer doors open at the same time. Well, it seems that way, anyway. If we’re lucky, we see half an inch of snow maybe once a year.

I miss those snow days. The last snow day I really remember was in 2000 when I lived in Hillsborough and was six months pregnant with my first child. My husband and I were literally snowed in for several days by two storms. The snow was so deep we didn’t have a prayer of getting out of our driveway, and I would not be kept inside, although my husband worried about me falling on an icy patch. To this day I’m so glad I didn’t stay inside. I’m glad I got out and enjoyed that snow, even though we had to eat macaroni and cheese for several days because we couldn’t get to the store and the power went out and we had to burn a lot of firewood to keep warm.

If it snows near you, get out in it. Let the snow insulate you from the rest of the world for a day or two. Enjoy the sensation of not having to be somewhere, of having more time. Make a snowball. Build a snowman. Get wet and cold and then go inside and peel your soaked jeans off and put new ones on. That’s one of the most wonderful sensations ever! Then make yourself a cup of hot chocolate and sit by a fire, if you have a fireplace. If not, try sitting close to the heat register of your furnace. Breathe.

There’s something about being cold that makes us appreciate the heat more.

Where the heck have I been? (First breathing moment in two weeks!)

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Holy cow. I think it’s been two weeks since I updated my blog. Actually, a little more than two weeks. That is sort of inexcusable. In spite of that, I have a good excuse.

You see, I got my first round of line edits on The Sixth Fold (working title) back from my Carina Press editor. And may I say I love my new editor almost (well, maybe as much) as my old editor? She’s fantastic. The changes she suggested, while nothing drastic, smoothed the storyline out tremendously. I’m really excited about it.

I didn’t expect it to be as hard to edit The Sixth Fold as it was, however. You see, I’ve never edited a manuscript as long as this one. It’s nearly 90,000 words and believe it or not, when you get past about 50,000, you start to wonder if what you’ve written in the second half of the manuscript matches up with what you wrote in the first half. I’m not a writer who often makes a lot of notes, but if I’m going to write longer works, I may have to! At one point, I even started wondering if I had made my heroes eyes blue or green at the beginning of the book. It’s these little details that get you.

Suffice it to say that every time I sat down at the computer over the past two weeks, I edited. I simply didn’t have enough energy for anything else. Last night I sent off the last of those edits back to my editor, who will now try to figure out if what I did was actually fix my poor manuscript or simply apply bandaids. And if I did fix it, what else can we work on to make this the best book I’ve ever written?

So now I’m back and conversely, I have more energy than ever. I guess all that steady work over the past couple of weeks sharpened me up a bit. I plan to pull out WEEDS AND FLOWERS and get to work on the “second edition”. Once that’s up, I’ll put it up on Amazon for you to download and enjoy at your leisure. I also plan another giveaway on February 14, so stay tuned to get your free copy, hopefully typo free!

Hit me when you see an opening…

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Did anybody else ever play that game when they were kids? My brothers and I played it all the time, pretending we were boxers and yelling at each other, “Hit me when you see an opening!” Of course, we all got hit a few times, and it usually degenerated into a serious scuffle that prompted my mother to send us all outside to play.

Can you tell I was sort of a tomboy?

Anyway, that’s the way my schedule has been recently. If you want something from me, hit me when you see an opening. Unfortunately, I’ve let my blog fall by the wayside, too, and that’s no good. Anyway, to keep you up-to-date, here are a list of my activities so far this year:

1. Received and sent back a contract to Harlequin Enterprises. That was kind of a thrill. I’m now officially a Carina Press author!

2. Am working hard on my currently untitled work-in-progress. I recently started over for a third time! Ouch. That hurt. Couldn’t be helped, though. Every time I got to the sex scene between the hero and heroine, I just couldn’t make them do the deed. They haven’t fallen deeply enough in love. They like each other, but they’re not there yet. I’m really hoping the third time is the charm. I’m now 25,000 words into it and by rearranging and rewriting some existing scenes, I’ve salvaged some of the 50,000 plus words I’d already written. I do hate throwing hard work away!

3. Have gotten a few typos from readers of WEEDS AND FLOWERS. I have to say I’ve been sort of blown away (in a good way) by the reception my little novel received. I happen to love that story, but it was a gamble whether any of you would feel the same. I plan to give it a careful going through with a fine-tooth comb for the last of the editing mistakes and issue a “second edition” sometime in February. Be on the lookout since I’ll have another “free day” once that’s done.

And now I need to go buy a new vacuum cleaner, make a doctor’s appointment, call the bank, and draft a “room mom” letter for my son’s class. And any other of the myriad things that I put off because they get in the way of my writing.

Maybe if there’s an opening, a breathing moment will hit me!

Seven and a half hours (and a bit) left to enter E-Reader Giveaway!

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A short reminder: The winter solstice hits the east coast at 12:30 a.m. tonight, and I’m accepting entries in my e-reader giveaway right up until then (one per person, please). My hat’s filling up, but you still have a pretty good chance of being the winner. Tomorrow morning I’ll put the last entries into the hat and have my sweet daughter pull the winner, just so there’s no chance of favoritism (since she can’t read yet and doesn’t know most of you, anyway).

Don’t forget to check out the veritable garden of Roses I’ve planted over the past couple of weeks. Autumn Piper, L.K. Below, Lori Green, Sutton Fox, Stephanie Beck, Diane Escalera and Cristal Ryder have been here already, and I’ll wind things up, appropriately enough, with Rebecca Rose on Friday! It’s been wonderful hearing how other romance authors go about the character-naming process, and I hope they’ll all stop back by at some time or another.

Good luck with all your last minute holiday preparations wherever you are, and don’t forget to take a breathing moment from time to time!

Making a Joyful Noise…Good News!

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I got some great news today.

Carina Press, the digital-first imprint of Harlequin (!!!!), has accepted my book THE SIXTH FOLD (don’t get attached to the title, because it’ll probably change). I am thrilled, to say the very least

It’s on days like this that I think of my favorite Bible verse: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord…” Well, you probably know it. Not that I’m a Bible thumper or even a dedicated reader of the Bible (you wouldn’t have guessed that from my Sunday School choice of verses would you?). In fact, I tend to think of the Bible as a guidebook to be referred to when I’m feeling lost. It’s always there to help me out.

Anyway, whenever I read that particular Psalm of David’s I think of him on top of a green mountain, probably surrounded by sheep, yelling a hymn at the heavens. I think he’d probably just received some good news, because that’s how I always feel when I get good news.

The news about Carina Press is that kind of news to me. The kind that takes your breath away, makes you want to jump up and down and then quiets into a breathing moment, sort of like a stone being thrown into a pond. I’m breathing now and reflecting on my good fortune. It has to do with my career and how I now believe I’m on the right track. I’m not just whistling the day away when I steal three hours away to write.

I’m enjoying it.

HONEOWP Update: I got a nice bump in sales from WINTER SOLSTICE last month, so Rainbows International got a little donation. This month’s HONEOWP charity is one of my favorites. Toys for Tots never fails to bring tears to my eyes. The thought of real heroes playing Santa for children who wouldn’t otherwise have a Christmas…well, the romantic in me responds well to such things. You can donate directly by clicking on the link (above and under HONEOWP Charities to the left) or by purchasing one of my books. All my royalties for November will be donated to Toys for Tots.

A Lesson I Learned…at Walt Disney World of All Places!

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Before I begin writing this post, I just want to say I have every respect for the so-called “cast members” of Walt Disney World. I just got back from vacationing there, and I have to say that of all places I have ever been, the members of the service industry there are overall the hardest working and most cheerful I have ever encountered.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. On this particular trip, we met one cast member in the Magic Kingdom who was, well, on a bit of a power trip. Armed with a flashlight and a bad attitude, he roamed Main Street during one of the evening parades, ordering those of us who had been held up at dinner to stay behind a white line on the sidewalk instead of pressing forward into the backs of those who had evidently arrived well before the beginning of the parade.

“Get back behind the white line!” he yelled, brandishing his flashlight. “This sidewalk must remain clear!”

Honestly, Walt Disney himself could have told this man what would happen in his obvious effort to diminish the spirits of young folks out to have a good time. The man, who must have been near sixty years old, had probably never seen a Disney movie or he would have never attempted it.

My boys were in a mood that night and noticed the poor guy’s name tag. Deprived of a good view of the parade and with no immediate way to get across Main Street to Futureworld and their real destination of the Buzz Lightyear ride, they decided to get their fun out of this guy we’ll call Steve. As we waited as patiently as possible for the parade to end and everybody to get out of the way, my boys peered down the sidewalk, deliberately stepping into the middle of it, then scampering back. “Here comes Steve!” they yelled gleefully. “Get back, quick!”

For the better part of fifteen minutes they enjoyed themselves in this fashion, then the parade ended and we started up the sidewalk only to encounter Steve waving his flashlight wildly and shouting, “One way only! This sidewalk is one way only, going that way!”

Bewildered, we looked around at the mass of people going every which way, but Steve was obviously not about to let us past him, so my husband turned, walked several steps in the indicated direction and stepped off Steve’s sidewalk into the tide of people on Main Street. He turned again in our original direction and my sons yelped in unison, “But, Dad, Steve said we had to go this way!” They were obviously delighted by my husband’s disregard for Steve’s authority and, with me holding onto their shoulders just to keep them from disappearing into the crowd, they formed a makeshift Conga line singing something about how Steve was going to get them. We drew many smiles from passersby and some even joined in our little dance.

I will go on record right now to say I was not dancing. I may have been shaking so hard some people might have gotten the wrong impression, but it was from laughter.

At any rate, on the other side of Main Street, we encountered another cast member holding a flashlight, who stood back, smiling, to let us pass. My sons immediately read his name tag. We’ll call this man Jim. “Hey, that’s Jim!” cried one. “He’s a lot nicer than Steve!” replied the other.

And we danced on.

What lesson did I learn from all this? Well, obviously Steve didn’t really intend to have a real effect on our night. He was doing his job. He was probably sick and tired of sweaty, stinky tourists who insisted on doing the exact opposite of what they should do and expecting to get away with it because they’d paid a freaking fortune to spend a day at the Magic Kingdom. Steve didn’t care about the price of tickets or the little girls who wanted to dress like princesses or the little boys who wanted to meet Buzz Lightyear or Jack Sparrow or the parents who wanted to indulge their kids’ every whim. Steve just wanted to do his job and go home.

He certainly didn’t intend to impact our vacation in a positive way. And yet that is exactly what he did. For the rest of our time at Disney World, every cast member fell into one of two categories. The “Steves” were unpleasant. The “Jims” smiled and waved and made us feel welcome. And whenever we encountered a “Steve” we had only to say the name to elicit a smile from each other.

My point is this: we don’t really know what effect we have on the lives of the people we meet. We may not even be trying to be unpleasant when we impact somebody’s life. We might be just doing our jobs in an uncaring fashion. But if we become Jims, we might make life more pleasant. And if we insist on being Steves, we might just find ourselves the unwitting butt of somebody else’s joke.