Category Archives: Carina Press

Book News!

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If you look to the left, you’ll notice a lovely new cover for Weeds and Flowers. I’m kind of proud of this one. You see, I made it myself. The flower is one in my front yard. Anybody know what it is? I am not a flower expert, but I have lots of those that I inherited from the former owner of the house, who evidently was a flower expert. I also figured out how to convert a file from .doc to .pdf format, then realized, I would have to convert it again to a .jpg in order to share it on here. I found a lovely site online that does that kind of thing for you (Zamzar) and wa-laa!

If you can’t tell, I’m getting excited about the re-release of Weeds and Flowers on Tuesday, February 14. I’ve cleaned it up, and I think I’ve gotten all the typos out and fixed a couple of minor editorial mistakes. I’m also working on a preface for it. Is it worth re-reading if you’ve already read it? Maybe, if you really loved it, but the changes are very minor. Is it worth downloading a new copy if you already have one but haven’t read it? Definitely. Please do, and remember it’s totally free on February 14. Of course, if you love it, I’d love to have some more five star reviews on Amazon.

Now for the Carina Press news. I finally found out what the new title for The Sixth Fold will be. It has been re-christened WHERE THE HEART LIES. Isn’t that beautiful? It’s actually much, much better than either of my original titles, and much more expressive of the heroine’s journey in the novel. So, gotta go, but please check back on Tuesday for my re-release party for WEEDS AND FLOWERS!

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!

Where did I go wrong? The musings of a frustrated author…

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So I’ve been beating my head against a brick wall over my latest work-in-progress since November. I started it for NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month) got to the 42,000 word mark and realized I couldn’t make it any further. I kid you not, I could have written 8,000 more words of crap and finished the 50,000 word novel but I realized what I was writing would never be publishable. Ever.

So I started over.

It takes a lot to throw out almost 40,000 words of hard work, even if you know it’s crap. I did it. I started a rewrite. I made it almost to 50,000 words and hit the same roadblock. This time I threw out about half of it. Started again. A few days ago, I thought I’d figured out where it went wrong, cut out some of the scenes, rewrote some. It’s better now, and I think I can keep plugging along, but damn. It’s hard. I’m starting to wonder if I’m beating my head against a brick wall for no reason. My editor at Carina Press says I’ll have her line edits in a few days. Maybe I should just wait, get myself into editing mode. Maybe I should work on the second edition of WEEDS AND FLOWERS.

I decided to pull out a novel I finished a few months ago. I love this novel. I tentatively titled it DUCKS IN A ROW, and it’s about twin sisters, Cady and Cam, who are experiencing completely different problems in their lives but find the answers to them together. I read it. It’s got some problems and it needs a little TLC, but to be honest, I couldn’t actually believe that story came out of me after all the problems I’ve had with my current work-in-progress. It’s one of those stories where I’m pretty sure those characters actually came to life and told me their story.

Like my other novels, I feel like this one has magic in it.

So what to do? Put away my current w-i-p and all the blood, sweat and tears I’ve put in it? Start a new story? Get this old story ready to go and put it out there to be accepted or rejected as the publishing world sees fit? I think I’ve made up my mind. I’m happiest when I’m writing, but I’ve been through this before, too. Sometimes you just have to accept that the story you want to tell isn’t going to work no matter how much life you try to breathe into it. I’m hoping this one is just comatose and might wake up one day.

Excerpt from DUCKS IN A ROW:

“We’re not having an affair.” Cady glanced over her shoulder, keeping her voice low as her sister cleared the table.

“What would you call it?” When Cady didn’t answer, Cam set the plates she’d brought into the kitchen aside and faced her. “Did you kiss him?”

“It wasn’t like that.” Cady bit her lip. “I mean, yes, but—”

“But nothing.” Cam shook her head, turning on the water in the sink to rinse the dishes before handing them to Cady to put in the dishwasher. “Kissing’s more intimate than sex, if it’s done right. Did he do it right?”

Cady couldn’t help a little smile at the memory, and that was evidently all her sister needed. She shook her head. “See? You know what I mean then. Cady, you’re going to regret this.”

“I know.” Cady faced her sister and turned off the water Cam had absently left running. She glanced at the stairs her daughter had gone up a few moments before and the closed study door. She could hear Neil’s voice on the other side. Either he’d gotten the call he was waiting for or he’d grown too impatient to wait any longer. She sighed and looked back at Cam. “I already do. Not just for me or my family, either. For Will. He should have a family, somebody he could love.”

“So why the hell are you doing this?” Cam grabbed her sister’s arms and shook her. “Why are you taking this chance with your life and his?”

“I love him.” The words felt right in her mouth, even while she knew how wrong it was to say them.

Cam stared at her, then sank into a seat at the kitchen table. She stared at nothing while Cady finished the dishes and made two cups of coffee. When Cady sat across from her, Cam accepted the coffee automatically.

“Are you okay?” Cady peered at her sister anxiously. Cam looked so pale in the dim light.

“I just can’t believe this is happening.” Cam shook her head. “You’re really in love with him?”

Cady nodded. She took a sip of her coffee. “And you don’t have to tell me how wrong it is. We both know. We didn’t mean to—it just happened.” She reached over and touched the glittering diamond on her sister’s hand. “Like that, actually.”

Cam pulled her hand back, covering the ring as if it were too precious to be subjected to the current conversation. “That has nothing to do with it. What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?” Cady raised her eyebrows, leaning back in her chair.

“You know damn well what I mean.” Cam made an impatient movement as if to push something out of her way. “Are you going to have sex with him?”

Cady winced. “Geez, Cam. Way to couch those words in gentle expressions.”

“It’s sex even if you call it making love. It’s giving something intimate to someone besides your husband.” Cam’s expression challenged her sister. “And you didn’t answer the question.”

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!

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.