Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!

I'll be taking a few days away from the internet to spend some time with our family and celebrate Christmas. (And, I hope, to finish up these lingering edits!) No matter what holiday you celebrate, I hope you find yourself happily ensconced among loving family and friends with lots of good food within easy reach.

: ) Stacey

Gifts purchased: Some
Cookies baked: None
Christmas cards sent: Yeah, right.

All right, so I'm thirty pages from the end of the sequel, and I'm at a pivotal point. Not just for this book but for the story that follows. I really didn't want to be thinking this hard about book three yet. I wanted to take a little bit of a breather. But I suppose the fact that the end of book two wants to tie in so closely to book three is actually probably a good thing.

I'm sure you're wondering why, if I have a complete draft of book two, am I encountering issues like this? The simple answer is, I chickened out. I knew the conversation (the one I mentioned the other day) would be difficult--one that would leave us teetering on the edge of "is this really going to work out okay in the end?"--and I didn't want to deal with it right then. Zara had just slogged through conflict after conflict, essentially alone, and I thought we didn't want to deal with another one from someone who shouldn't be giving us grief. Except, apparently, I was alone in this thought. So, we plunged in headfirst into the conflict this time around and the trouble is, this repercussions of this conflict are big enough to potentially follow us into book three. Which is okay, except I haven't had a whole lot of time to think about this and sort of test the water to see which way everyone's going to go. And the area this conflict touches upon is more than just a delicate relationship between two people but also the culmination of the series' theme.

The kernel of truth at the heart of the series is the question, what do you do when you're called to be something more than you thought you could be? Something or someone you don't necessarily want to be? Something that will involve sacrifice and pain and making difficult decisions and being selfless. Zara does not want to be the one in charge of our little band of rebel Observers. She feels that she can barely keep her human life under control, how can she be responsible for the fate of others, possibly even the whole world? She just wants to be a good person and have her life go the direction she thought it would. In my mind, it's sort of a twisted version of the story of Moses. Except instead of burning bushes that talk, you get hot aliens with visions and psi abilities who are directing Zara toward her higher purpose. I hope that's not sacriligious. I don't mean it to be. It's just a different sort of interpretation.

Okay, I wrote more on this but had to delete it as it was very, very full of spoilers for book two. Basically, you'd know the end. Probably not the best thing to publicize before the book has even been finished, let alone published. I've got a few days off coming up in the next week or so and I hope to get through this last little bit of editing!

Anyway, here's something fun to do. Go to Barnes and Noble online and check out the list of bestsellers in the upper right hand corner. Yeah. It freaked me out for a second, too. But unfortunately, my book is not published by Phaidon Press, nor is it a cook book. But it's kind of fun to look at, right?

One more down...

Another chapter is finished. That means only three to go and I'm already working on one of them, so really only two after the current one. Yea! On Saturday, I managed to get through a difficult conversation between Zara and Caelan that I'd ducked out on in the previous draft. I told myself that she'd let a particular remark slide, due to the surrounding circumstances not being right for a giant discussion, but she has overruled me. : ) And the scene and chapter are better for it. So, I'll keep working away. I'm excited to be this close to the end. Getting through that difficult conversation was a major hurdle for me, so I'm feeling good that's done.

ButI don't have any Christmas gifts purchased, Christmas cards are a distant dream on my to do list, and I have a cookie exchange tomorrow for which I've baked no cookies. *sigh* Yeah. This week is going to be a little tricky.

Here are some fun links to check out:

-Woolly Mammoth Park. It could happen. I'd probably even pay to visit, as long Newman wasn't in charge of security and all. Best quote in that movie?

Dr. Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum): "God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs..."

Dr. Sattler (Laura Dern): "Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth..."

-I read somewhere recently that in order to attract their target audience (women, primarily), the marketing folks for Brokeback Mountain looked at movie posters for 50 of the most romantic movies of all time for inspiration in creating their movie poster. Titanic, it turns out, was a huge inspiration. I, despite having seen that movie and wept over it despite my irritation with the end (hello?!? An entire ship went down and there was only one person-sized, floatable piece of wood out there?), could not remember what the poster looked like to save my life. So, I did a little research. I found it interesting to see what similarities the marketing folks picked up on and how they chose to use them. I mean, most people wouldn't even probably notice the likeness, but I wonder if it has a subconscious effect. I bet it does. So, here you go, have a look for yourselves:

Titanic movie poster

Brokeback Mountain Movie poster

-Also, am I the only one willing to admit a junior high/early high school obssession with the works of V.C. Andrews? Oh, goodness, they were like soap operas in print. People sleeping around, sometimes with siblings (Ick!), evil or absent parents, tragic pregnancies and even more tragic miscarriages--I'm sure I'm glossing over the weirdness of them, but for some reason, I was utterly entranced by these novels. Flowers in the Attic was the first one I read. And yet, knowing exactly what happens in that book, I was totally squicked out by the new cover I saw on it at Target the other day. Here is the old cover you might be familiar with. Here is the new cover. Chris and Cathy are siblings, people. As in, incest! Am I the only one weirded out by this new romantic cover photo being used to sell incest as romance?!?

Snowing...again

This is the time of year that I always question my choice of living here. More snow. Ugh. It's pretty and I love it...as long as I don't have to go anywhere. But snow inevitably falls during rush hour, either to or from work and in some cases both. Sure, Hawaii has the occasional lava flow but I'm thinking if that affects your commute, you probably need to move a little farther away from the volcano. And possibly start looking for some help from Pierce Brosnan...

Anyway as a distraction from the crummy weather, I found a couple of fun things--

Meg Cabot's opinion on seeing Brokeback Mountain, which made me laugh:

"I will be breaking my long-standing policy of not seeing movies with purportedly tragic endings in order to watch BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (aka the “gay cowboy movie”). I urge you to see it as well, and not just because it co-stars THE PRINCESS DIARIES’s Anne Hathaway and RANDY QUAID. Even though, as my brother Matt put it this weekend, there is only one “crying show” allowed per week--and that show is, of course, EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER--I think it’s very, very important to support movies in which hot guys kiss each other.

Especially if one of them is Heath Ledger."

She also hates stories with talking animals. Finally, I'm not alone!!! I can't watch most of the Disney movies anymore because they insist on making animals talk. Now, that being said, my husband loves to point out that my two favorite Disney movies, The Little Mermaid (which I know is so wrong from the original fairy tale but come on, she has red hair!) and Beauty and Beast (Belle loves books!) have talking fish, crustaceans and normally inanimate objects like teapots. But that, somehow, is acceptable to me. I believe he thinks I'm splitting hairs at this point, but I stand firm : )

Also, Megan Crane has pinned down exactly what makes revising a book so difficult and why writers feel compelled to keep writing. Check it out here. I love finding this stuff, especially when it so perfectly describes how I feel and it's from an established, successful author (two books out, third on the way and I believe writing is her full-time job). Makes me feel less alone when I'm out there chasing the elusive perfect book that's in my head. What she says is absolutely true. The book in your head has so many exciting possibilities, so many scenes that will never make it to paper or to the final draft. That's probably why I always end up writing books in a series. I can't let go after just one. : )

Sorry you're not getting very much original content these days : ) I'm still struggling with the last few chapters of the sequel and I'm pretty sure everyone is tired of hearing that same sentence over and over again. Unfortunately, that's the main thing dominating my attention at the moment. I promise a return to new and original thought (well, as much as there ever was here to begin with) as soon as this @#$#@$% book is done. *beatific smile*

Stacey blah, blahs about current projects...and fun stuff (at the end!)

Another chapter completed in the sequel edit! That means I've only got four more to go, and I'm already working on the next one. I knew these would take the longest. With the one I just finished, I ended up only keeping a little bit of the original text, so that meant about twenty pages of rewriting.

I've been trying to teach myself techniques to move more quickly from book to book, as some other writers do. But I find it difficult. Half the fun for me is not knowing what's going to happen, so if I plan or analyze too much, it ends up being more of a chore than anything else. Unfortunately, writing without planning means I find my footing about halfway through the book and the end does not really resemble the beginning of the story in anyway. So, therefore, I consign myself to extensive rewriting and revising on nearly every book. The only exception to this has been the manuscript for Bitter Pill. That one originally came up very short, under 100 pages, and I knew it would. I could see where there were gaps in the story. So, going back in and adding subplots and scenes was relatively easy.

Don't get me wrong, I love the sequel, but I'm eager to move on to something fresh and new. I have a new Rennie idea that I'd love to explore, but I'm thinking I should put that on hold until I actually sell the first book in that series. Honestly, I haven't really tried. Sent out only four query letters, and then got preoccupied with the sequel. Plus I realized revisions were needed. But I already have a draft of the second book in the series completed (also needs revisions), so writing a third at this point might not be the wisest use of my time--though, I will do it eventually because I just love visiting Morrisville : ) What do you think about the twist of referring to her as an obituary writer (which she is) versus just a freelance writer (which is also true. She's a freelance writer who spents most of her time writing tribute articles, which are basically expanded obituaries)? I'm thinking obituary writer might have more of a hook to catch potential interest. What do you guys think?

Mystery project is up next for revisions, and that's another one that's likely going to be tough to revise. Ugh. I'm working on bits and pieces of an outline, but since the idea involves very familiar types of characters, I'm working very hard to make sure these characters are different enough from what's already out there.

I've also got a fun idea for a YA novel, but we'll see where that goes.

And now...the aforementioned fun stuff:
-Check it out--Pat Kirby and Crissa Chappell have both responded to the meme from last week. You may have to scroll down to reach it. As always, I'm not prompt with my linking.

-Has anyone seen Brokeback Mountain? It may not be out until next week, I can't remember. I'd like to see it, but I've heard that ending may not be a particularly happy one. Therefore, I need to judge whether it's worth going to see and getting all upset over it : ) I don't like movies with unhappy endings unless they're really, really good movies and even then, I will only ever watch the movie once. So email me and tell me about the movie, but especially the end so I know what I'm getting myself into.

-New Battlestar Galactica episodes return on January 6!

-Check out this new book, Valiant, that I found on Barnes and Noble. Sounds kind of interesting but I'm hesitant to spend the money on a hardcover for an author I don't know. Anyone read this book or this author before? (The link I'm providing is to the excerpt which is pretty interesting, I think.)

-Also, when you have a second or you're bored at work (I'm sure that never happens to you!), check out this site: happynews.com. It's only happy news. After weeks (well, let's be honest, months) of surfing cnn.com and msnbc.com on a daily basis, this site was a relief. And it's a cool idea, I think.

Sometimes, I get all hamstrung trying to think about what to write in here. I have so many things that I can't talk about (for various reasons), which are, inevitably, the things I want to talk about. I hope to be able to talk about those things eventually, but not yet. And there are things that I'm sick of writing about, mainly because I'm tired of hearing myself whine about said things.

So, here is just a list of good things that have happened in the last few days:

-Bonnie Vanak tagged me with the book meme yesterday. It made me remember how much fun RT was last year and realize how much I'm looking forward to seeing Bonnie and everyone else again. It sounds dumb, but sometimes being a writer is lonely and hard. Not the fun stuff, like signings and book release parties--those are great but not nearly as frequent as one would like! I'm talking about the toiling away day after day on a book or story that may or may not ever be good enough to be published, and even if it is, it may not earn you much, if any, money. Sometimes you just need to be around other people who are infected with that same strain of craziness. : )

-I tagged Megan Crane (among others) with the meme and she responded with answers that are as cool and interesting as I suspected they would be. Check it out here... Scroll down to yesterday's entry.

-My husband made pancakes on Sunday morning and woke me up to join him in the eating of them.

-Meg Cabot wrote a touching and still funny entry about the death of her grandfather, telling a WWII story about him, which reminds me of the WWII story (I think, it might also have been Korea, I'll have to ask) about my grandpa. He signed up for additional flight hours with another crew that needed him (he was a bombadier, I believe), and therefore, had too many flight hours when his own crew went out. So, he had to stay behind. His crew ended up crashing and dying. My grandpa, by helping out that other flight crew, saved his own life.

I miss my grandpa. He always made Christmas fun. He used to pretend to forget my name. "That's right, uh, Henrietta!" "No, Grandpa." "Oh, oh, it must be Georgina, right?" "No!" It would get howls of laughter from me, especially with the wackier names he came up with. This is also the man who told me I should eat my toast crusts because "it'll put hair on your chest." *grin* He had three sons. I was the first granddaughter.

-There's a new Veronica Mars on tonight!

-I read a fun new book over the weekend, Revenge Gifts by Cindy Cruciger, while relaxing in the sunshine in my favorite reading chair. It's a harvest gold, velvet (or velveteen) living room chair that my in-laws gave us to help us in our quest for furniture when we were first married and that I now refuse to get rid of or reupholster because I love the texture of the fabric so much. I would take a picture, but eh, you guys know how that'll go.

-I hemmed my own pants this morning! My boot heel pulled the old hem out and I've been meaning to fix it for weeks. Now, deciding to do so about fifteen minutes before I'm due to leave for work probably wasn't the brightest idea, but I'm fairly proud of myself.

-The Triangle doesn't suck. At least, the first part didn't. Though, being an SG-1 fan, I had their mysterious theory behind the existence of the Bermuda Triangle pegged within the first fifteen minutes, but oh, well. : ) Also, Ed, I saw an episode of Family Guy the other night and laughed hysterically. I think I finally get what you've been talking about.



Okay, I think I'm tapped out. : )

Book Meme--I've been tagged!

My friend, author Bonnie Vanak tagged me for a book meme. I'm so excited! I'm supposed to give you fifteen facts about me and books. By the way, I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but if you love historical romances, you will LOVE Bonnie's books. I'm very particular about the historical romances I choose to read (mostly because I'm a sci-fi/paranormal gal these days, though that wasn't always the case), and I thoroughly enjoyed The Cobra & the Concubine. If you want to see for yourself, check out the love scene excerpt on her web site. Wow. *grin*

Okay, so fifteen facts about me and books:

1) I get nervous and/or edgy when I don't have a "next book" lined up to read. It can't be just any book lying around my house and believe me, there are plenty. It has to be the right "next book." Don't ask me--I just know when I find one that feels right. Sometimes, in order to encourage myself to write more of my own stuff, I deny myself a "next book." At least until it starts to get to me and then I cave. : ) Seriously, there are times when I'm jonesing for a book so badly I will actually buy one at the Jewel!

2) My very first favorite book that I can recall was Go, Dog, Go. I loved the dog party in the tree.

3) Most of the time, I buy books because of the author, not the story. Occasionally, a new author will sneak in there because I've heard good things (Megan Crane is a recent example), the back cover blurb sounded interesting or the cover caught my eye. But most of the time, I'm looking for someone I already know I can trust to take me away and bring me back safely...if that makes sense. That doesn't mean bestsellers always or even usually. Nor does it mean that it's the same five people. I've got about a hundred "favorite" authors. *grin*

4) In my pre-teen/early teen years, I used to sneak into the basement where my mom kept her pile of romance novels and seek out the Silhouette Intimate Moments and Harlequin Temptations (I think those were the specific lines) just to read the "good" parts. : )

5) As a kid, I so wanted to be Trixie Belden. She had moxie. I liked Nancy Drew, too. She was the first character I remember reading about who had red hair. At least, once I figured out that's what "titian" meant.

6) Thanks to reading so many books and my subsequent lack of social interaction (ha!), my vocabulary often outpaces my pronunciation skills. My family still likes to tease me about my childhood pronunciation of lingerie, facade and soldered (ling-eree, fa-kade, and sol-dered).

7) I read very quickly, especially when I'm enjoying the book. I can, and have, finished two books (200 or 300 pages each) in a day. I don't do this very often as it gets very expensive!

8) I cannot read more than one book at a time. You can imagine how well this worked when I was an English major in college. If my interest is caught by another book while I'm still in the middle of reading the first, then I never finish the one I was reading to begin with. I have more than a few that have just stopped at a certain point.

9) Jane Austen kicks ass. 'nough said.

10) When I was younger, my favorite romance novelists were Kathleen Woodiwiss, Judith McNaught, Jude Deveraux, and Barbara Delinsky.

11) 99.9% of the time, I have a book with me. Even if you can't see it, I have it. It's in my bag or in my coat pocket or in my car. My husband loves to tease me about the time in college when we drove to the grocery store for something and he busted me with a novel sticking out of my coat pocket, like I thought there'd be time to read in the check-out line!

12) For me, the feeling of a good book just waiting to be read feels like anticipation of an amazing meal. It's like a sensation of fullness and satisfaction before I've even opened the cover. Unfortunately, when it's finished, that's when you're hungry for more!

13) Confession time...I did not read very much traditional sci-fi as a kid, or even now. Not much Asimov or Heinlein or any of those guys. To me, they never had the people aspect I was looking for. I like character stories. And romance. Real romance where it's a part of the story, though not necessarily the whole thing. As a kid, I loved Star Trek novels, however, and totally committed myself to geekdom by reading them openly in high school. My favorites were by Peter David, who is hysterical. Well, if you like and understand Star Trek, he's hysterical. I'm not sure it translates to so-called "normal" people. *grin* Linnea Sinclair does an awesome job of creating character-driven sci-fi romance, so that's who I read these days!

14) I do not crack the spine or bend the pages of a book. Any book. Even ones I don't like. Apparently, this makes people very nervous to borrow books from me. : )

15) Books that do a heavy and detailed lead up to a sex scene and then consummate the relationship in a very generic sentence or two drive me crazy!!! In some books, a detailed sex scene isn't appropriate. It just strikes the wrong tone. But there are others, ones where they've built up such momentum in moving toward this moment that it seems like the author chickened out when it ends so anti-climactically (ha!) Writing a sex scene can be difficult, I know that, but I hate it when a book takes the easy way out.

Okay, so now I'm going to tag other authors, which is, I think, how this is supposed to work. I'm picking people, some of whom I know and others I only know through their journals, but they're all people I'm interested in reading what they have to say. We'll see if they respond. : )

Pat Kirby, Crissa Chappell, Megan Crane and Marianne Mancusi--come on down!!!

Monday

A random assortment of things...

-Meg Cabot wrote an awesome entry on Friday about the 58% happy ending, a theory I completely subscribe to. Which you probably already know. I also love what she has to say about literary fiction. The reason she doesn't read it is the same reason I don't (i.e. real life is tragic enough, why would I want to read about more sad/bad/depressing stuff?) You'll have to scroll down a little to find this entry on her site (Friday, December 2) because I'm not as prompt in my linking as I should have been. Also, she has a couple new books coming out at the end of this month that look like such fun! Size 12 Is Not Fat and Avalon High. Sadly, no excerpts for either as far as I can tell.

-I had to honk at three people today. Once, when a car turned left in front of me. And then twice more at two different intersections when someone sat there and sat there and sat there at a GREEN light. I don't actually like honking, except in life-saving instances, obviously. But today, apparently, no one would be able to tell that.

-Have you ever noticed how certain words suddenly come into vogue and then you're hearing them everywhere? This is the one I've been hearing and reading lately. Most recently, on Desperate Housewives last night. I swear, I'd never heard this word until probably the last month or so and now I see and hear it everywhere. And I consider myself fairly Yiddish-aware. Huh. Anybody else noticing this phenomenon?

-My day job has apparently decided that Janet Evanovich's website is too tawdry to be viewed during daylight hours. Funny, too, because it's my friend and fellow author Bonnie Vanak's blog that always has me frantically scrambling for the downsize button on my browser when I'm at work. She puts pictures of scantily clad men in her blog entries--can't go wrong there, I guess! : ) (The link is to her website, which is acceptable for workday viewing. Click on her blog at your own risk *grin*)

-Anybody going to watch The Triangle on Sci-Fi tonight? I'm a sucker for shows like this, particularly if it involves finding eerily abandoned or submerged planes or boats. Plus, it's directed or produced or something by Bryan Singer, the guy who brought us X-Men and X-2, which I liked. The second one particularly. Sadly, though, he will not be at the helm for X-3 because he ditched the mutants for another movie about the most famous alien superhero.

-Good progress was made this weekend on the mystery project. I am, however, still stuck on the plot. Which kinda sucks. I also finished editing another chapter of the sequel. Only five more to go!

-I'm also a little concerned about this. Wearing vials of blood and Billy Bob Thornton aside, I've kinda liked what I've read about A.J.'s parenting theories. She's adopted internationally twice, which I think is a terrific thing to do and would love to do at some point in the future myself. Plus, I remember there being a to-do about some interview last year or the year before where the media made a big deal out of how she said she handled relationships with men as a single mother. Basically, what she said was that she didn't want to bring a string of dates home and, um, entertain them overnight as she feared that might cause hurt and confusion to her son. So, instead, she'd meet these dates out somewhere and address her, uh, needs away from her home. I thought this actually seemed like a fairly responsible and grown up way to handle this issue, though clearly not an option for most single parents who don't have full-time nannies or whatever to care for their children at the drop of a hat. So, you know, I hope she's maintained that sensibility and plans for some kind of permanent relationship with Brad. Otherwise, any respect I had for her will just be gone...well, whatever respect was left after watching the Tomb Raider movies. Eesh.

Good news...

In my effort to be as depressing as possible earlier this week (I managed even to annoy myself with that one), I totally forgot to share some good news. A couple of weeks ago, I contacted the organizers of Writers' Institute at UW-Madison. I love this conference. I've gone every year for the last four years, and I always learn something new and come back feeling re-energized and ready to write. I submitted a couple workshop ideas to them, and they accepted! I'm so excited!!! Not just because it's the opportunity to teach, which I love, but also because it's for this particular conference, one that has done so much to help me. I don't know yet which class/session will be offered, but I'll post it here, when I know.

I also received an email this week, inviting me to speak at the Arlington Heights Library in March or April. Yea! More details to follow...