Last night I was talking to my good friend, Kathy Love. She writes wonderfully entertaining contemporaries and is about to come out with a very funny vampire series for Kensington Brava. Perhaps I should give you a little background about us before I tell the rest of the story. Kathy and I met at the 2001 Romantic Times Convention. I can’t remember how exactly, it was either over coffee or sitting next to each other at one of the scheduled talks. Suffice to say, we hit it off and have been friends ever since. She is without a doubt one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. She doesn’t necessarily ‘try’ to be funny. She just has a real quirky way of looking at the world. We had so much fun at the first one that we plan to laugh some more at next month’s
Romantic Times Convention.
Anyway, last night she told me about a link on Kate Rothwell’s site. I’m not even sure how to set this up other than to say that the Brawny paper towel marketing people are brilliant. If you’ve ever wanted to hear the perfect words from a guy then you MUST go to this site and watch some of the Brawny movies. Kathy and I were in tears on the phone as we watched them ‘together’.
During our Brawny giggle, I explained to her that my hero needed to die. She threw out a few ideas and wouldn’t you know it, the story clicked further into place. God, I love it when a plan comes together.
Archive for March, 2005
I woke up this morning and realized I’d agreed to go to brunch with a girlfriend. Somehow I’d completely spaced this last night. 
Probably because I attended my local RWA meeting. Anytime I go to one of those I tend to get reflective afterwards and ignore what’s right in front of me.
Last night Linda Lael Miller spoke about conflict. I’m not sure how many of you have had a chance to listen to an author who’s reached this level of success, but they really are writing on a different plane. By that I don’t mean they’re spacey. They just approach writing in such a different manner.
I think it comes from all the crap they’ve gone through to reach that level. They don’t let the small things like font size, contests, editorial changes bother them. Editors, publishers, and agents come and go. They let it all slide like water off a duck’s back. All they worry about is where their next deal is coming from, how much they’re going to get paid, and if the publisher’s check clears. They also seem to have single titles down to a formula. I don’t mean they’re writing the same book over and over, but they know exactly how to throw them together. They still have problems on occasion, but they can fix them in short order. The peace of mind in that knowledge must be astounding. I would love to have a couple of hours of one on one time so I could pick her brain.
On a completely different note, I know there’s been a lot of emails flying about the RITA’s and the latest RWA Biz email. I’m not sure I will be entering the RITA’s next year. (No, I didn’t enter them this year.) It depends on what RWA ends up doing with the spicy romances. I won’t waste my money if they don’t make any changes. As for the other email, I’m not sure what’s happening there. Rumors are aflutter that some publishers are going to lose their RWA recognition. Again, I’m not sure if that’s going to happen. I think we’ll have to wait and see what the RWA decides. I, for one, will be following this new thread closely.
I started my new manuscript and have already stalled. I never realized how much of the story I have to have worked out in my head before I begin. I always thought I got a general idea and ran with it. Uh uh. Nope. Not happening. Apparently, I need several scenes strewn together like an Indie movie in order to get the proverbial ball rolling.
Is it too late to ask for a new ball?
I don’t know Jamie personally, but I’d sure like to think that if I needed help people would come to my aid.
Dear Friends,
Jamie Denton, author for Harlequin Temptation/Blaze, and Kensington
Brava, needs our help. After years of writing stories where love triumphs and endings are always happy, Jamie needs a dose of HEA for
herself. Jamie was recently diagnosed with cancer, and like many working writers, she has no health insurance (the rates weren’t
affordable for a diabetic). We are putting together a variety of fund-raising efforts on her behalf, and ask you to help give Jamie
the assistance she needs as she faces this battle.
Raffle: We’re giving away an Alphasmart - a wireless Dana (valued at app.$429). Tickets are $1.00 each, or 15 for $10.00. To
purchase tickets, send your check (payable to Jamie Denton), an optional SASE (if you want the ticket stubs), and your name, snail mail address, email addy, and phone number to:
Lori Wilde P.O. Box 31, Weatherford, Tx. 76086. Tickets may also be sold in-person at a variety of events. The drawing will be held on
Aug. 2, 2005 and the winner notified and listed on the Jamie Denton Medical Fund website. www.DuetsAuthors.com Questions? Email Lori
Wilde.
Critiques: We are soliciting volunteers willing to give a critique on a 25 page + short synopsis submission. Most of these will be sold for a flat fee ($40), but we are also looking for editors, agents, and authors with the BIG names (you know who you are!
Books/Gift Baskets: We will be accepting donations of autographed books to be sold/raffled. Books will be sold at a flat rate - $5.00 for PB, $10.00 for Tradepb, and $15.00 for hardcover on a first come, first served basis. For Gift Baskets (multiple books or miniseries sets combined with gift or promo items - an actual basket is optional
Remember to specify if the book is mmpb, trade, or hardcover, and price and list contents of baskets (if possible, send a photo for
the website).
RWA Chapters: Does your chapter hold a conference or contest? If your group would like to donate an entry fee, we will resell it on
the Jamie Denton Medical Fund website www.duetsauthors.com. For more info, please contact:Carrie Alexander. If you’d be interested in selling tickets for the Dana/Alphasmart raffle at your chapter meetings, please email Lori Wilde.
If you’d like to simply make a contribution to Jamie’s medical fund, you can do that via our website: www.DuetsAuthors.com
Your prayers and good thoughts are also much appreciated!
Thank you for helping Jamie.
***Permission granted to forward this letter to any writers/groups/lists that may be interested.***
I’ll tell you when it rains, it pours. Yesterday, dh took the car into get serviced. This had nothing to do with last week’s service on the car. After a few hours he returns to the dealership to see if the work on the car was finished. The guy brings the car out and it’s been scraped. Apparently, ‘Sparky’ hadn’t learned how to take corners and missed. So now we’re driving a rental while the dealership puts our car into the body shop on Monday. The sad thing is this is the second time something like this has happened in the past three weeks here. A guy dropped his Porsche off at the dealership a couple of weeks ago and when he went to pick it up it had $25,000 worth of damage done to it. One of the dealership employees had driven it over to a car wash and accidentally left it in gear. It ran into a wall going close to 40mph. Porsche, at the time of the story, had refused to pay for the damages. At least our dealership was proactive in their remedy to fix the problem. Yikes!
I’m crazy about the Food Network. Most of the time I find myself watching the cooking shows on there, instead of the series programs on the regular networks. I love Paula Dean. She’s probably the only woman on television who can get way with fixing a recipe called Bill Nicholson’s Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding. I swear she’s a woman after my own heart…and thighs.
Then of course there’s Alton Brown who hosts Good Eats. He makes the science of cooking fun. I love his no nonsense approach. I used to never watch Emeril because I thought he took himself too seriously. One day I decided to give him another try and realized he was as the British say, “taking the piss out of” himself and cooking. Ever since then, I’ve been hooked.
What makes you want to curl up in front of the TV?
Yes, you read that right. Last night I cleared EVERYTHING off my project list with the exception of AQ4. Call it panic. Call it self- survival. Call it whatever you like. It had to be done because I was getting little to nothing accomplished working on my current manuscripts. I still believe in the stories, but now is obviously not the right time for me to be writing them.
Dh and I had a serious heart to heart last night. (Picture tough love and tears.) He said my face was pressed against the glass so tight I could no longer tell I was at a window. So…he suggested I scrap everything. Not throw it away, just put it aside to return to some other time when I have enough distance between me and the projects to see them clearly.
I must admit the act of clearing my calendar and filing away the projects did seem to lift a weight off my chest.
Tonight we’re going to brainstorm three different stories I have ideas for to see which one I’ll work on next. Hopefully that will be enough to destroy the blob-like inertia that has enveloped my body over the last few months.
I’ve been thinking about the use of ‘things’ in stories. By that I mean, real towns, clothing labels, newspapers, etc. I admit I’ve bounced back and forth between ‘real’ names and made up items. Lately, I’ve been wondering if I should be making up everything. I know it’s cool to read about a town/city when you’re familiar with it, but I don’t know if it’s the ’smart’ way to write.
My latest contemporary deals with real towns and one actual paper. I do not badmouth any of the places or things I use, but I still feel a little uneasy. Have any of you worried about this? What’s your take on using actual places? Should it ALL be make believe?
Here’s the follow up on the Salsa exercise DVD. It was truly fun. They encourage moving your hips in this video and I don’t know about you all, but I rarely pass up a chance to shake my big butt. LOL!
Today I met up with a fellow romance writer for coffee and some breakfast. We had a lovely chat about writing, shocker, I know. I was telling her about a book that either Maili or Vanessa recommended. I can’t remember which one of you listed Savage Membrane by Steve Niles, but after reading Maili’s blog about linking I’m giving you both credit. (wg)
Let me start by saying I do NOT like books in the first person. I don’t know why, but they don’t seem to hold my interest past ten pages or so. This book is different. I’m actually trying to figure out what he’s done (writing wise) to change my perception. I am only about halfway through, but I am loving the retro feel of this book. Have I mentioned it’s categorized as horror? Technically, that should be strike two against the book for me. I’ve…gulp…never read a horror novel. I am too much of a chicken. I prefer bad B monster movies over ’scary’ any day. I think that’s why I’m so surprised by this book. It’s breaking ALL my reading rules and making me love every minute of it.
Have you ever been surprised by a book?
Just a quick update before I head to the mall. I’ve mailed off ALL the contest winner’s books. I know at least one winner has already received her book. Yah!!!
The dh’s birthday was a success, sushi, ice cream cake, and all. 
Thank you to everyone who sent well-wishes his way. We really appreciate it.
Today will be spent setting goals again. Not sure why I’ve waited so long. I’m even going to pick up another year in a glance calendar to hang on the mirror in my office. I like being able to see EVERYTHING at once.
I was in Circuit City yesterday, picking up the Incredibles DVD when I came upon an exercise video that actually looks like a blast. (No, I never thought I’d use ‘blast’ and ‘exercise’ in the same sentence either.) I watched it to get an idea of how things go and I’m…gulp…looking forward to doing it. Wait, what is that crackling sound? Oh yeah, it’s hell freezing over. LOL!
Just returned from the mall. Good Goddess! All the stores look as if an Easter Basket exploded in them. I don’t know about you all, but pastel anything is not my color. I’m all for Spring, but enough already. Would it have killed them to put some red out? What happened to basic black? (((Shudder)))
