What he said...

I've been writing long enough now to recognize that in every book there will be scenes that nearly kill you in the writing of them. It may not even be an emotional, climactic scene. I don't know why it is that some scenes do this--refuse to die, as I call it--and others don't. I can't even predict which ones are going to make me wrestle them to the ground and which ones will go quietly. I was intrigued, then, to discover that this happens to screenwriters as well and John August, whose blog I LOVE, talks about what he does to work through the scene. What I found most interesting is that the questions he asks himself are some of the same I use when I'm wrestling with a difficult scene. (And it is wrestling--sweaty, backbreaking, frustrating, so close to pinning it down and yet so far.) ETA: Not that it would be surprising for a novelist and a screenwriter to use similar questions, but I was surprised to find that many of the questions I sort of discovered on my own, after hours or days of head pounding against the wall struggling, are ones he has and uses as well. So...cool! I must be doing something right! : )

The following is from his blog entry called the Six Hour Scene:

After writing three comparatively easy scenes, I took another stab at it. I asked some obvious-but-necessary questions:

• Was I starting at the right place?
• Was I ending at the right place?
• Could another character drive the scene?
• Would changing the location help?
• Did it need to be two scenes, rather than one?
• Did the scene even need to exist?

The answers confirmed my frustration: it was the right scene. It was just a bitch to write.

Jump over to his site and read the whole entry. It's both interesting and helpful, a rare combination in the world of writing advice, IMO.

: )

Did I mention I met Fabio at RT?

Okay, technically, I didn't meet him so much as pass him in a little narrow hotel hallway. Only Lisa Shearin was brave enough to say hello! (Yea, Lisa!!!) He's better looking in person and SUPER tall. Or so it seemed to me. : )

On that topic, here's a link to a video about how they make romance novel covers (Thanks to Colby Hodge for the link! Watch for her book, Star Shadows, in the video.):
http://better.tv/bettertv/?cid=507869917&tid=1493152359

Stephenie Meyer

I loved Twilight. If you haven't read it, you must! It's romantic, beautiful and sexy...without being sexual. Not sure how to describe it. It's a novel about resisting, I guess, and there's much deliciousness in that. I loaned it to my sister a couple of summers ago, along with a few other books, and it was the only one that I put a post-it on the inside of the front cover (I do NOT write in books) that said, "Return Me to Stacey." She also has a really cool "adult" novel coming out in a couple of weeks called The Host. At RT, one of the booksellers had an advance (or is it advanced? I'm never sure) copy, and I was embarrassingly close to salivating over it. : )

 

Anyway, I was reading a very interesting article comparing her to J.K. Rowling on Time.com and found this quote, which I loved:

 

" And people do not want to just read Meyer's books; they want to climb inside them and live there...There's no literary term for the quality Twilight and Harry Potter (and The Lord of the Rings) share, but you know it when you see it: their worlds have a freestanding internal integrity that makes you feel as if you should be able to buy real estate there."

 

 

I love that quality about certain books and what I've read of Stephenie Meyers definitely has it. That is what I want for the books that I write. I want readers to care about the people that inhabit the pages and wish to visit them again and again...or possibly become neighbors. : )

 

RT in photos

Okay, here are photos from RT. Start from the bottom and scroll up. Yes, I know that's backward but it's late and I'm too tired to fix it! : )

Also, take a look at the Rebels of Romance videos on the RT home page. Days three and four are now up. They show snippets of the Mr. Romance competition and the giant book fair! They did a great job!!!

Walker on the floor in my writing room, relieved that Mommy is home after a week of being gone. : )

My favorite piece of SWAG from the RT registration bag--new mouse pad! : )

The gorgeous Chris Winters, Mr. Romance 2008, posing as one of Colby Hodge's heroes in the pose-down portion of the competition.

Aack, sorry this one is out of order. This is more from Isabo's baby shower! Authors Jade Lee, Lisa Shearin and Linnea Sinclair. Did I mention how much fun this baby shower was? : )

Authors J.C. Wilder and Isabo Kelly!

Isabo and me at the book fair. Doesn't her hat look absolutely fabulous? It is SO her! : )

Louise and yours truly at the book fair. (Thanks for the photo, Louise!)

Me, at the huge book fair on Saturday.

Isabo did her best Cousin Itt imitation! Had us in stitches. : )

Baby presents!

Author Isabo Kelly's baby shower. We had so much fun!

Another sideways one! Authors Leanna Renee Hieber and Marianne Mancusi dressed for the vampire ball. : )

Authors Isabo Kelly and Carolan Ivey having a chat in the bar.

One of the advantages of coming to RT early--prime positioning in Promo Alley. Linnea's materials are on the left and mine are on the right.

Sorry, this one is sideways and I don't know how to fix it! The hotel was under construction and this was a door they evidently didn't need anymore. I found it kind of creepy and

very Stephen King like!

Day 2 of RT: Author Colby Hodge is catching a ride down to the lobby on a luggage cart! : )

Want to see what RT is really like?

Check out these awesome videos made by authors Marianne Mancusi and Liz Maverick. Leanna Hieber, another fabulous strawberry blonde author and a new friend, also worked on these.

These videos give you a pretty good taste of the costumes, the chaos, and the crazy fun. In fact, you'll see me, for a very quick second, in the first video when they show a snippet of the Intergalactic Bar and Grille. I think Linnea is on stage, but I'm not sure. It goes by very quickly! Isabo Kelly, dear friend and fellow SFR author is interviewed, too! She looked fabulous. She was dressed as a (pregnant) ninja with a huge (plastic) sword across her back. Kick ass!

Greetings from Pittsburgh!

I'm here! I've been teaching at the pre-con workshops and catching up with my friends Linnea Sinclair, Colby Hodge, Isabo Kelly and meeting new people like Jennifer St. Giles.

 

Have I mentioned how much I love RT? Seriously. I was trying to explain it to my husband, but the feeling of community I experience here kind of defies my ability to adequately express it. Here, it's like I don't even have to explain what I'm going through or trying to figure out. Everyone here has either been through it, is currently experiencing it or has found a way around it. I LOVE that. I learn so much, even, or perhaps especially, when I'm teaching and listening to other authors on the panels. The closest thing I've experienced to this before was when I was in college and we were all going through many similar experiences at the same time and helping each other out. I just love feeling a part of this larger community. : ) Writing, as much as I love it, is sort of lonely sometimes.

 

Anyway, I arrived on Sunday afternoon and found both Linnea and Isabo at the airport. Cool beans! Never had that happen before. Of course, finding someone at O'Hare would be quite a different thing than at Pittsburgh's airport. : ) Colby picked us up at the airport and brought us to the hotel. Linnea heard about this fabulous restaurant, Palomino, so we all went Sunday night. I had one of the best meals I've had in a really long time there. Chicken Parmesan and garlic herb linguini, plus a vanilla apple como, of course. SO GOOD. Of course, we're working with hotel bar, trying to help them replicate this most fabulous drink, but no luck yet!

 

Yesterday, Linnea and I did a panel on Plotting and, as usual, enjoyed the hell out of it. We work so differently from one another and yet I think that only makes her feedback to me that much more valuable. We think differently, but we end up in the same place. I also spoke on a panel about Sensuality, which was interesting to see the range and scope of what that means these days from YA to erotica. Then another dinner at Palomino. Flatbread pizza and another vanilla apple cosmo.

 

Today was a panel on submitting and querying agents. After which, Isabo, Linnea, Colby and I headed out to do a little shopping. Had to stock up for the little mini-party we're having in Linnea's room tonight. We're assembling the goody bags for our Intergalactic Bar and Grille reader party tomorrow from 3:30-5:00. We had so much fun last year and there are so many cool giveaways this year, I wish I was eligible!

 

Okay, so that it's for now. I'm going to try to attach a picture of Colby and Linnea. We'll see if it works!

 

More later...

Quick update

Eye of the Beholder is now available on Fictionwise!

 

Yea! : )

 

http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook66279.htm?cache

 

Will be updating my site as soon as I'm back in town.

Woo me with paper products...

As almost all of you know, I LOVE office supplies, journals, pens, all that kind of stuff. One of my favorite notebook purchases in the last year or so was a side flip notebook with different colored sections of graph paper instead of lined paper. After deciding to splurge on a new notebook earlier this week (and it is splurging when they're almost ten bucks a piece), I found one in a faux-leather that is full to the brim of graph paper. Love it. Like, my heart actually skipped a beat when I found it on the shelves at Barnes and Noble. I realized then that I'm obsessed with graph paper notebooks. Lined paper implies a right or wrong way of use. Graph paper says, "Look out, I might start going in circles, and it's okay."

 

Yes, I am a complete weirdo. I've come to grips with this fact.

 

Despite the fact that I love my new notebook, I'm almost afraid to write it in. Which is typically why I don't buy the kind that are more like books (faux-leather and perfect-bound rather than plastic and spiral) than notebooks. I feel guilty tearing pages out. But you know what, screw it. I don't want it to look perfect. I want it to be a useful tool, a place to gather all the thoughts that are running circles in my head, and it should have post it notes and scribbles and pages missing. It should look well-loved.

 

Ha, take that perfectionistic tendencies!

 

(Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts.)

The latest

All right, I know I'm WAY behind on blogging. For example, we had a book launch party/community mixer event on March 29 for Eye of The Beholder. Stacy G. took fun pictures for me, but they are not posted yet. Eek. I'm just very, very behind on everything. (And they're on the other computer, which I can't get at right now, so I can't post them now!)

 

I always forget how busy this time of year is. From about January through July or so, things are a little crazy with conferences and events, family stuff, etc. Right now, I'm in the midst of RT prep. Can't wait. Next week at this time, I'll be there in Pittsburgh. That seems so hard to believe! But I've got the plane tickets (rather, the email confirming them) and the hotel confirmation number (ditto), so I'm all set...sort of. I need to get my promo items to Pittsburgh. 200 earth-shaped stress balls. : ) Fellow SFR author and panelist, Colby Hodge, has generously offered to take them with her in her car, but I've got to get them boxed up in something other than the ratty and somewhat broken-down box they arrived in or else they'll never make the trip! I don't have my promo alley stuff ready yet either. Promo alley is an area at the convention where all the authors put out their displays and people can come by and take bookmarks, postcards, etc. Some of these displays are quite elaborate. Yeah. Mine needs work.

 

Finished edits for Bitter Pill last week. Yea! It will be available for the first time at Printers Row in Chicago. : )

 

I'm wearing my glasses all day long for the first time in, literally, years. For those who missed this bit of drama, I managed to scratch my corneas with my lenses. Both eyes, though the left is worse than the right. I got a good scolding from the eye doctor and was told not to wear contacts for a week. Well, that was almost two weeks ago but it still bothers my left eye when I put a contact lens in. So, I'm wondering if I'm done with contacts for good. That would SUCK! I'm just so aware of the glasses on my face. I miss having corrected peripheral vision! But I'm being careful because I'd rather wear glasses than lose my already rather poor eyesight.

 

Anyway, what else?

 

Eye of the Beholder was available on Amazon for a brief and glowing moment...before it sold out. : ) More will be coming into stock, though, I know. I apologize to everyone who received the repeated emails from Amazon about its lack of availability. More books will be coming soon. Please continue to let me know, though, if you have trouble. I make sure my publisher is in the loop.

 

Okay, more later...

 

: )