Like many folks, I’ve been a little fascinated by the recent prediction of the end of days. Although I don’t subscribe to the belief that you can calculate the day and time of what some call the Rapture and others call Judgment Day, I can’t say I exactly approve of some of the things that are being done. Rapture parties and sales of services for those “Left Behind” seem a little too in-your-face to be addressed to the Great Power That Is. I think maybe some people have forgotten who they’re dealing with.

Suppose for instance God is watching. (That’s what we’ve been taught, right? He sees everything?) So, Harold Camping thinks he’s calculated the exact day and time of the return of Christ. He’s studied the Bible closely, he’s prayed and he’s thought hard about what God is trying to tell us. So far, I don’t see anything there that God might do more than shake his head and smile over. On the other hand, there are all those non-believers who are offering to take care of pets for those lifted by the rapture or to transfer electronic files to relatives and friends of those taken tomorrow. Of course, such services should be paid for ahead of time. Well, really, that might almost be enough for God to decide maybe May 21 isn’t such a bad date for the end of the world, after all. But maybe May 22 would be even better. You know, to catch us off guard and avoid those last-minute Rapture hangers-on.

So instead of attending a rapture party, I’ve made my plans. Like any other Saturday evening, I plan to be with the people I love the most and with the ones I can’t be with held close in my heart. And hope I’m ready for whatever happens then or any other day.

Since HONEOWP is a group effort, I thought I should share the thank you email I received from Prince William and Princess Catherine (Kate).

Dear Ms Flye,

We would like to thank you so much for your charitable gift. We are immensely touched by your thoughtfulness and generosity.

Your donation will be a great help to the work of those charities you have chosen.

We are very grateful for all the support that has been given to the Charitable Gift Fund and it is our hope that we can use the occasion of our Wedding to make a real difference for these very important initiatives.

Thank you again for thinking of us,

With our very best wishes,

Prince William & Miss Catherine Middleton

Very nice. Sort of made me feel like part of it all in a very, very small way. Of course, this is a computer-generated form email, but still. It was nice to get it. Reminded me a little of the thank you notes I had to write way back when I got married. Despite my aching fingers, I remember feeling good that so many people wished us well. I’d love to know how much the royal couple’s charitable effort has produced.

In other news, I sent back the final line edits of WINTER SOLSTICE today. If you missed the cover art for WINTER SOLSTICE, well, what the hey, here it is again:

He looks a little cold, doesn’t he?

And in other news, I’ve officially retitled my latest book (the one I’m shopping around now). ALWAYS FAITHFUL is now titled THE SIXTH FOLD. The title is a little more ambiguous than ALWAYS FAITHFUL, so here’s the explanation: when a military officer is buried and the flag on top of his coffin is folded, it is folded exactly thirteen times. Each one of those folds has come to mean something, and the sixth fold represents where the heart lies. My main character Alicia had to bury her military husband Ty and she starts her new life in his old hometown. Was that where his heart was when he died? Was it with her? Or was his military service so important to him that his duty didn’t allow him to think of her in the moment of his death? As she confronts these doubts and carries on with her dead husband’s plans, Alicia has to figure out where her own heart lies.

I’ve been very busy this week because I no sooner began querying agents about my new finished novel than I started having second thoughts. Was it really ready? Shouldn’t I re-read it one more time? Fortunately, I guess, the first agent I queried turned it down. With a sigh of regret for lost opportunities, I decided to read over the completed manuscript, even though I still had some queries out.

I know it’s not necessarily a good thing to re-think yourself. Second thoughts are often a bad thing. And I didn’t even find anything glaring to fix in my book. I tweaked a few phrases and fixed a couple of typos (how do those escape your notice when you read and re-read a manuscript?). However, I’m glad I read the manuscript again because it convinced me of something essential for pitching and selling a book.

It’s good.

I knew it was good. It’s a solid premise for a romance and I’m a decent writer (not for everybody, I know, but hey, if you like a good romance I’m your gal). So I knew in my brain that the book was good. What my re-read did was convince my heart. I’ve worked on this story for so long at times I hated it. Anything that takes up so much of your life can excite a bit of a love/hate relationship and that definitely happened between me and my book.

But now I know in heart and brain that my story is good, I can throw myself behind its sale wholeheartedly. Here’s a little sample of the wares I’ll be peddling:

He turned toward her and placed his right hand on her hip, pulling her slightly into him, his eyes fixed on hers. She giggled and he tsked. “Now, that’s not what we’re going for here. You’ve got to feel the spirit of the dance.” And he whirled her across the walk in a mock tango that had her laughing out loud. When they finally stumbled to a stop, he smiled down at her, still holding her against him. “You have such a nice laugh. You should do it more often.”
Somewhere in the back of her head, an alarm went off, but it was faint and Alicia didn’t back away. She enjoyed the comfort of his touch even though she knew she had no business being in Liam’s arms when her heart still ached for Ty. She dropped her gaze just as he bent his head a little. Their lips just inches apart, their breathing intermingled, she spoke his name on an exhale. “Liam.”
He dropped his hand from her waist, releasing her and backing away. “I’m sorry.”
She caught his hand. “No, it’s just that I was thinking about Ty and missing him. I’m sorry. I’m sending so many mixed signals. I love being with you and it felt really good just now—too good.” She bit her lip, embarrassed but determined not to hide anything from him. “I’ve been feeling really guilty all night for going out with you, and maybe now I know why. I’m really not sure what to feel right now, but I am sure you don’t have anything to apologize for.”
He smiled a little sadly, tightening his grip on her fingers for a moment as he brought her hand to his lips. “Yeah.” He sighed. “I do.”

Happy Easter!

Easter is symbolic of new beginnings. Conveniently timed to coincide with things like dogwoods in bloom, longer days and warmer temperatures, Easter is the holiday I’ve always viewed as a renewal of my personal hope and faith in things to come. Please understand that my faith is sort of like the waves of the ocean; it rises high at times, falls low at others, but through it all, there’s a strong undertow that’s pulling me in one direction. I figure my early Sunday School education has something to do with that undertow.

So why, when my faith is being renewed not only by Easter but also by the fulfilled promise of spring itself, am I thinking of the end of the world? Could it be my old horror roots are seeping into my consciousness again?

Far from it. I happened across an article about end-of-the-world bunkers, designed to help you survive the 2012 doomsday many predict because of the end of the Mayan calendar. I couldn’t help but smile. If the end of the world really IS coming in 2012 (and I doubt we’d have a calendar to tell us so), do you want to survive buried in the earth? Could you hide from God down there — and why would you want to?

So, on the next to the last Easter on the Mayan calendar (and the Mayans didn’t celebrate Easter as far as I know), I’m renewing a resolution I try to remind myself of every so often. Tomorrow is never a guarantee, regardless of the date, so I will live today the best way I know how.

That’s right! My next book is officially “Coming Soon”! You can see its status on my Lyrical Press Author Page. I’ve had so little to report recently, I jumped at the opportunity to update my blog, of course, and I also made a slight change. The tab that used to be called “Secrets of the Lotus” is now called “Books”. For now it just has the Lyrical Press “Coming Soon” image, but I hope to have some cover art to reveal to you soon.

In the meantime I’m hard at work on my next two, ALWAYS FAITHFUL and DUCKS IN A ROW. DUCKS IN A ROW is still very much in a first draft stage, but I hope to begin sending ALWAYS FAITHFUL out into the world very soon.

ALWAYS FAITHFUL is really waiting for me to concoct that perfect query letter. In spite of all the advice on how to write the irresistible query letter, it is far from an easy task. If only there were an exact science, an ABC to follow! I nearly failed high school chemistry, but if I could pull out a pipette and a Bunsen burner to cook up a perfect query, I’d do it in an instant. Nobody would measure the perfect amounts of persuasion and enticement than me. No one would adjust the flame for heating my concoction more carefully, and when my letter was removed from the beaker, no agent (or publisher for that matter) would be able to resist. Every agent I sent it out to would immediately request at least a partial, if not a full manuscript.

Of course, if I don’t stop dreaming and get to work on said query, ALWAYS FAITHFUL will continue to molder on my desk and that doesn’t get us anywhere, now does it?

SECRETS OF THE LOTUS is my first novel, released in ebook format by Lyrical Press in July 2010. It’s received a lot of great reviews and I have personally gotten a lot of great feedback from readers. For more information on how to purchase SECRETS OF THE LOTUS, check out this page: SECRETS OF THE LOTUS. If you want a better taste of what my writing is like, see SHORT ROMANCE and FREE FICTION.

And if you want a tiny taste of SECRETS OF THE LOTUS, check out this excerpt:

“You told me once the lotus flower had some significance to you. I was thinking about that. What does it mean to you?”

Josie hesitated. Thinking he’d asked too personal a question, Dan said quickly, “You don’t have to tell me.”

“That’s not it.” She bit her lip. “I was looking for the right words. I guess the lotus fascinates me in the same way it has fascinated people for centuries. It grows in muddy water and blooms on the surface without a spot on it. You have this beautiful, pure flower blooming on top of mud and muck.”

“So that’s why it symbolizes purity.”

“Purity and spiritual awakening. And new beginnings.”

“New beginnings,” Dan echoed.

She shrugged. “Yeah. It’s silly, probably. I’m sure the flowers get dirty once they’ve bloomed. I mean, if a dirty toad jumps on one, the dirt’s going to stick, right?”

“Maybe.” He thought how beautiful her hair looked in the morning light. “Or maybe it’s just there, blooming perfection in the middle of all the nastiness, and no matter how the dirt tries, it can’t stick to the lotus blossom.”

“You should have been a poet, Dan.”

“Who says I’m not?” Dan sat back and took a sip of his coffee. He thought how perfect the lotus blossom was as a symbol of Josie, but that made him wonder if he was the toad threatening to splash muck on her. He knew if she ever found out about Morrow, she would think he was worse than a toad and he realized how much he cared about that now. He decided it was finally time to make some changes in his life.

All this is old news, though, right? Well, I hope not for everyone checking out my blog. I personally love my little romance novel, and I have lots of reasons to think you will, too. And if you do (or did) love it, consider reviewing it! You can post your review on whatever website you bought the book from or on Goodreads, if you’re a member. And if you email me a short note at michellegflye@gmail.com and tell me it’s okay, I’ll share your review right here on my blog! I’m that confident you’ll like it.

Amanda Von Hoffman, author of BEHIND GREEN GLASS, has officially joined our HONEOWP movement this month. Amanda is donating 10 percent of the cover price of her book to the American Organ Transplant Association. You can read more about her HONEOWP effort on her blog: Gossamer and Lichen.

Moving on, I should have an update for you on my own efforts in a week or so when I receive my March royalty statement. Here’s hoping we’ve raised lots of money for Share Our Strength. Remember you can donate directly to Share Our Strength and find out about their effort to end childhood hunger on their website here: Share Our Strength.

Also, remember that there are so many ways you can help support my HONEOWP effort. If you’ve read Amanda’s or my book, post a review on Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble’s websites, blog about us or mention it on your Facebook page. It’s not just about selling books for us HONEOWPs. We want to make a difference doing what we do best: writing.

For more information about HONEOWPs and what we do, see my HONEOWP FAQ. For more information about buying SECRETS OF THE LOTUS, go here.

I have ten minutes to make a badly needed update! Sorry but the afternoon looks busy here, and it’s been MONDAY in all caps. Started out setting off the alarm because I forgot it was on and opened one of those “instant alarmed” doors. Then I took my eldest son to school only to find out it was a teacher workday I’d neglected to make note of. Sigh. THEN I make plans to pick up my daughter from preschool and have a “picnic” in the car with her and my son before her dance class only to have her decide she needs desperately to go to the potty when we’re parked outside the dance studio waiting for the teacher. I had to run her into the Italian restaurant next door to visit their potty, and a big thank you to the folks at Paula’s Pizza for being so understanding about a 3-year-old’s bladder.

So that’s why I now have five minutes left to update you on what I’m doing. Fortunately, it won’t take much more than that. Still hoping to have a lot of folks buy my book this month since all royalties go to Share Our Strength, dedicated to ending childhood hunger in your neighborhood, mine and the ones all around the United States. It’s a worthy cause, so consider buying my book. For tips on how to do it, check out the SECRETS OF THE LOTUS tab at the top of this page.

About two minutes left before my next kid pickup, so I’ll just say I’m having a great time reading all the latest releases from my friends. I demolished Ellen Meister’s THE OTHER LIFE and Kevin Wallis’s BENEATH THE SURFACE OF THINGS (more on this one later) and I’m loving CRYER’s CROSS by Lisa McMann with G.C. Smith’s WHITE LIGHTNING waiting in the wings. Gotta come up with a plan to get myself out of reading and back into writing, though! I’m working on it.

Author’s Disclaimer: The following was written in a moment of absolute giddiness, so please excuse any attitude I cop and don’t let it ruin my career. Thank you, Michelle Garren Flye, author extraordinaire

Dear Literary Agents and Publishers:

I find it necessary to notify you that on this 28th day of February 2011, I have finished another one. Yep. I’m sitting here looking at 175 pages (single-spaced, I haven’t properly formatted it yet) and 84,400 words of romantic goodness.

You know what that means, of course? It means I’m on the hunt yet again. I need a publisher for this latest masterpiece, and to get one, I probably need a literary agent to get me into the gate of literary publishingdom. So that means you’ll be hearing from me.

The first round of query letters will be aimed at the few literary agents who’ve given me reason to hope in the past. Second round will go to the best literary agents I know who are currently accepting romantic subs. Third round will be every other agent I have the energy to send an email or letter to. After that I’ll start addressing every reputable publisher that doesn’t actually require a literary agent.

Eventually, I’ll find a home for ALWAYS FAITHFUL. It’s a good story, and I wrote it well.

If you’d like to get a jump on your competitors and have a preview of ALWAYS FAITHFUL, just drop me a line at michellegflye@gmail.com. I’m sure I can find time to email you a chapter or two.

Thanks in advance,

Michelle Garren Flye
Author of three of the best romance novels ever

It’s been a long time since Rush Limbaugh was able to say anything to upset me. In recent years, he’s seemed more like a pitiful old man trying to stay in the limelight than anything else, but he finally did it again. He got under my skin. In this day and age of every woman wanting to look like the models on the front of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, ol’ Rush decided to point out that our first lady wasn’t swimsuit material.

Really, Rush? Like you ever have been.

Let’s look at Michelle Obama with a critical but unprejudiced eye. She’s 47 years old and she’s had two children. She dresses nicely and she’s always well-groomed when in public. (Not so sure I can say the same for Rush!) She started the “Let’s Move” campaign to promote public awareness of childhood obesity and hopefully help prevent it. Rush, for some odd reason, seemed to think he was qualified to criticize Mrs. Obama’s eating habits.

Okay, time for a reality check. Women today need to stop being ashamed of their bodies. I’ve had three children, and I’ll tell you, my body does NOT look like it did when I was 18 or 19 years old. My last kid was really tough on my shape, and I’ve got bulges in spots that probably will never go away, at least not without surgical assistance. However, I don’t think I’m a cow, either, and it makes me sick to hear anyone call a decent-looking, average weight, middle-aged woman “overweight”…or worse.

It’s time to get over this obsession with looking like movie stars. I don’t expect all men to look like Christian Bale or Johnny Depp, though it might be nice. Women have curves, guys. Some of those curves aren’t always in the right spots, but if a woman eats reasonably and exercises regularly, maybe we all need to accept that curves and even bulges aren’t necessarily a bad thing.