Jordan Summers

The end of the cooking class was bittersweet tonight. Everyone was sad to see it finish. We did go out with a bang-up meal: Beef Wellington, Crab dip, Gnocchi, Greek lasagna, Spinach salad, Kabobs, and Rice Pudding. Yum! Not sure what I’m going to do with my Tuesday nights now. :/

I reached page three hundred in my edits. I still have a hundred and twenty-eight pages to go, but that’s nothing compared to what I’ve gotten through. Hopefully I can finish tomorrow on the plane and enjoy the evening reading. Ah sounds like bliss.

I’m off to New York. Catch you all when I get back. Bye!

Tonight is my last cooking class. We have a final meal for our ‘graduation’. It should be a good time. I wish I could hang a little later tonight, but my flight leaves bright and early tomorrow morning. I will be carrying a ton of work with me. (ie copyedits) I’m sitting at the halfway mark and hope to manage another hundred pages today, which will only leave me with 118 to go. :-O Yes, I WILL be working on the plane.

I’ve decided not to renew my local RWA chapter membership. It was a tough decision, but I believe the right one for me at this time.

I have so many things to get together today that I’d best get started. I’ll catch you guys after New York.

I’ll be doing copyedits over the next two days so that I can finish them in time to take them with me to N.Y. (ie I won’t be around much.) Must read faster.

Tomorrow is my last cooking class and I have to admit that I’m really bummed. I’ve been having a blast taking these classes. Sigh. It’s the first ‘hobby’ I’ve had in YEARS. Hopefully I’ll manage to take a few classes in the future.

I have to pack for the conference tonight and I have no idea what I’m going to take. New York is quite a bit cooler than where I live–like forty degrees cooler. *ggg* I will be taking my coat. It’s also supposed to rain if I read the weather report correctly. Fun times. Must add a hat to my packing list.

Been hearing rumors that Borders is about to go belly up and/or about to be bought by Barnes and Noble. I REALLY hope that those rumors are wrong. I don’t want one big conglomerate in control of all the brick and mortar stores. It’s bad enough as it is. What are your thoughts? Where would you shop if B & N buys Borders? Would it change where you shop? Or would it be business as usual?

May you all know the joy of a belly full of chocolate bunnies.

My family left early to return home. They are worried about flooding. And rightly so. If you live in the Midwest, you know what I’m talking about. It was still sad to see them go. Mom and I tried not to cry. I made it until she got in the car. Anyway, they should be home by ten tonight, depending on how many detours they have to take to get around the water. We have friends coming over later, which will be enjoyable. Tomorrow, I think we’ll run to the mall and maybe catch a movie. Today, I’m doing laundry and searching for my key guide to explain the copyedit codes. Remember, not all of you can have this much fun.

I was blog hopping and ran across an entry from an author, who was talking about writing a book for yourself. I know I’ve said it before in various places, but I truly believe that every author will hit a point in their career when they’ll decide to write a book for themselves. It may be because you’ve fired your agent and can’t get anyone else interested in your work, it may be because you’ve been orphaned at your publishing house (this normally happens when your editors leaves the house), it may be because you can’t please your agent with anything you write or it may be that you’re sick of trying to write something for market. Whatever the reason, it WILL BE the best thing you can do for yourself. Trust me, I know.

I’ve been working on a partial (with quite a bit of help from my friends). It’s one of my older books and is a story that I love to this day. I’m trying to get it together before I leave for N.Y. next week, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen because my copyedits for RED just arrived and they need to be done ASAP. When it rains and all that…;) Looks like I’ll be working through the weekend–and every day after that leading up to my trip.

Wow, just wow! Read this and you’ll see why I’m speechless. If it’s true, the storm should hit soon. :-O


In brighter news, today is my dh’s 40th B-day!!! I wish him many more as he reaches for his dreams. You’re my one, my only, my always. L, J

First off, I’d like to apologize to everyone who has won a copy of OFF LIMITS. I WILL get them in the mail tomorrow. My family is in town and things around here have been a little hectic.

I did find out that I will be signing ARC’s of RED for Tor at BEA. Woo Hoo! I’ll also be signing at the EC booth, but I have no idea when that will be. I’m still waiting to hear if I’ll be able to sign for Harlequin. My guess is probably not, since I came into this thing late.

Tonight at the cooking class is International cuisine. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the chef has come up with.

This ‘holiday’ hits me kind of strange because it brings mixed emotions to my house. The first is joy, since it’s my nephew’s birthday. But it’s also the day my grandma passed away, so I can’t quite bring myself to fully celebrate. And yes, despite the photo, I do have Irish in me. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I was thinking the other day as I made my way around blog land that there are two kinds of authors in this world. There are the ones who would bend over backwards to help another author out and there are the ones who’d step on your head if you were drowning so that they could reach the boat first.

I’m always kind of floored and uncomfortable when I meet the latter type author. It’s not that I don’t get the every-man-for-himself mentality. I do. I’m a fairly aggressive person, so I understand that aspect of a personality. It’s just that there’s a part of me that finds the ’shove everyone out of the way’ behavior kind of sad. I would think that if you behave that way there would have to be an aspect of you that would be lonely. It’s not like you’re going to have friends in the business. Anyone like that has made sure to distance themselves from the others. And anyone in this crazy business knows it’s hard enough to write alone, much less try to stand alone without outside support. I know that there’s a genuine belief that other authors are competition, so they must be kept at a distance. I suppose that’s true to a certain extent, but I don’t think it’s very healthy. I suspect it would make you fairly paranoid.

I personally can’t imagine doing this job without my friends in the industry. Sure, I have support at home. It helps that my significant other is published too, but no one understands this craziness like another fiction published author.

What do you guys think? Are you an island? Do you believe that every author is your competition? Or do you think that you get further making friends?