Happy Friday All, Hope you like the new layout. I saw the template on the design feature and I was like "Oooo, I like this one." So now it's part of my layout. I recently saw Bandslam. It's not your usual teen movie (at least from my point of view). I got the feeling that the appeal of this movie would be several things: > Good music. I watched the Special Features and all the actors/musicians play the instruments and sing the songs that are featured in the movie. >The Ramones were mentioned. I grew up hearing Ramones songs. I love their rendition of Baby, I Love You. (other bands are mentioned...The Clash, U2, The Beatles, etc...). >Music history/trivia is mentioned. Such as CBGB. This makes it feel more "authentic". >There's a lot of serious issues dealt with in this movie, including death of a parent. The movie just feels "grittier" to me than most teen films. I think that's another selling point. If you...

Happy Thursday One And All, I don't always know why or where I get these ideas--maybe it was sleep deprivation; but I'm guessing it's because I like making people laugh: The other day, I was talking to a friend of mine and this particular friend and the family of this friend have several animals. I started coming up with this whole scenario of what their animals were up to when their backs were turned (or they were gone). I up and decided the Doberman would conduct a Poker table, along with the Pugs that these people own. I came up with a host of supporting casts and their back stories. I had my friends laughing (which, of course, was my goal). So what about you? What do you think your pets are doing when you're not around? I think we could come up with scenarios that would make good humor books :-) Have A Thoughtful Thursday!

Happy Wednesday All, The other day I was at the library talking to someone. The subject was first on books, then turned to the fact that I'm a writer and member of a writers' group and just took off from there. The person said, "I've always wanted to write, but I don't know how to start." Okay...this is the over-simplistic answer, but it's where to start: When writing you just sit down and write . That's it. You write what you feel, you write what crosses your mind, you might even write about that crazy alley cat that jumps into your garbage and turns into a plastic eating tiger with an affinity for coffee grounds. Until you start writing, you don't know what you have in you. I often forget this when I'm sitting there staring at a blank screen thinking, "Come on, I had this idea 5 minutes ago!" But if I wrote the way I write blog posts, I probably wouldn't have that writer's block or that fear of the empty screen...I...

I know I'm late posting this for Friday, but it's just NOW I had this idea, so here we go... Hi Everybody, I was emailing with a fellow author and the topic of something being the next big thing came up. In my reply to her I said that because readers are all different (and of course, the publishing world often changes) for all we know "French speaking Leprechauns who dance ballet could make readers nuts" over the story. A lot of big name authors say in interviews "I never expected this to happen." How could they? You write a story and get into it, you fix it up. Sometimes people get excited, sometimes they don't. You just never know. I mean it could happen that purple aliens who wear high-top shoes (or rather, chucks) and parachute pants would make people rush out and buy every single book in the series. Or maybe it would be a cop who does miming in the park on Saturdays. The wonderful thing about books and writing is that as long as you tell...

Happy Wednesday Everybody, I'm excited to announce I have another email author interview for you all. (To be honest, I get excited about each one of these interveiws I do. There's some really great information in each interview, plus many of them have fabulous senses of humor, so it's just a joy to interview them).  Today, we have authors, MaryJanice Davidson and her husband, Anthony Alongi . These two talented writers have made a hit with their YA series, Jennifer Scales Novels . Their new one, Rise Of The Poison Moon has been released. MaryJanice Davidson is also well-know for her Undead series, as well as a one featuring the mermaid, Fred (3 book series) and ones centered on the idea of if Alaska never became part of the USA and stayed under a king's rule. Special thanks goes to MaryJanice Davidson's assistant, Tracy Fritze, who has been incredibly kind and very helpful in getting this interview to happen. The interview will center mostly on the ...

Happy Thursday All, As promised, I'm going to tell you about Darklight by Lesley Livingston, since I finished that Wednesday night. Okay, at the beginning I was wondering if it was gonna grip me the way Wondrous Strange did, but I needn't have worried. It most definitely gripped me. Firmly. Once again, Lesley has made a page turner. Absolutely excellent. Loved it! Unfortunately, the 3rd book, Tempestuous doesn't come out until December. I shall have to sit and wonder what will happen to Kelley and Sonny for about 5 more months. It's unfortunate, but those are the breaks of waiting for books to be released. If you haven't read Wondrous Strange I recommend it and then I recommend reading this one. Great storytelling, gripping action, sweet romance, magic (well, magick as its spelled in the books), faeries, battles, destruction, gains and losses. Both books have them all! Oh yeah, and I like the character, Gentleman Jack--he's cool! I haven...

I've already posted the official Wednesday post, but this came to me, so... In the grand tradition of Jeff Foxworthy... You might be a fiction  writer if... -Fictional characters "talk" to you -You think in terms of 'what if' rather than 'this is' -books are like air to you and without them you'd die from lack of oxygen -you're willing to throw yourself into an industry that may or may not render a good paycheck simply because you love what you do -you can't stop stories and ideas from popping into your head...even when you're asleep -rejection letter has a bittersweet connotation for you -POV, GMC, CPs, and other acronyms are part of your every day vocabulary (and anybody outside the writing world has no idea what you're saying) -Your computer/notebook/pen/pencil are extensions of yourself -your power goes out and you're crippled -you know exactly what a person means when they say "fleshing out" so...

Happy Wednesday All, First of all, note (based off of Tuesday's post) I have started reading Darklight by Lesley Livingston, so I'll let you know how that is once I'm done. Alright... It's been said numerous times and I'm gonna reiterate it: THERE ARE NO NEW IDEAS JUST NEW SPINS ON THE SAME IDEAS! Yes, it's true...your idea is not as one-of-a-kind-nobody-has-ever-done-or-thought-of-this-before-in-their-lives-I'm-completely-unique. You just have a new idea/concept/thought/plot/character on an "old" idea. On a personal note, this reality check happened to me on Tuesday night. I was in a bookstore and I got curious about his one author and so I picked up a couple of her books. Sure enough, part of an idea I had for a paranormal species (on a book I've already written but am editing and hope to query soon) was sitting on the shelf. I went through the synopsis of every book for that series. Sure, I have a different take on the concept...

Happy Tuesday All, Hope everyone is having a good week so far. My week's been pretty good. I've gotten some editing done, so I'm happy about that. Okay, last night I just finished reading Lesley Livingston's book, Wondrous Strange . It's a YA novel (although, I don't see why grown up adults wouldn't enjoy it, seeing as how I, and several other adults I know, read YA and like them). Picture if you will, taking faerie lore, Shakespeare's A Mid-Summer's Night's Dream , add some paranormal elements, and romance and presto! You've got Lesley's book. Wondrous Strange was awesome. A real page turner. I had to know what was going to happen next. I really had a hard time putting this book down.  I'm practically chomping at the bit to read the second book, Darklight . It's different than a lot of things I've read...in the sense that it mixes fairies in a way I've not seen them. They might actually be dangerous creature...

Happy Monday All, In light of the fact I've been talking about this book for at least a month and interviewed author extraordinaire, Christie Craig, I figured it was only fair I read the book, and I also thought it was only fair I reported on it to you all of you. Shut Up And Kiss Me is an incredibly funny book. A contemporary romance with suspense thrown in, Christie's usual witty style shines like nobody's business. You get to feel sorry for her character, Jose, who during the course of 3 days manages to have the following happen to him: >a car accident >fall in thorns >get sprayed by a skunk >fall through Sheetrock Scott Gomez makes a fun, uber-protective studly hero; with enough mixed ethnicity (I think Latin and Native American) to make him exotic and interesting. Shala Winters is an independent, no-nonsense heroine with a great sense of humor (gotta love her ED comment to poor Scott, who doesn't have the problem, but mishap...

Happy Thursday Everybody, I hope you're having a good week so far. (Mine's been okay). I was just watching something on my Yahoo homepage called Hollywood's Top 5 Fashionable Moms  and well, it got me thinking... You see, I've never been real big on fashion. I like looking at some of the clothes and determining if it's something I'd wear or not, but generally it's something that isn't my style. I'm about comfort, modesty, and being presentable. I tend towards things like cotton shorts or Capri pants comfy short-sleeved tops, sandals or sneakers. In the winter, cotton pants, comfy big shirts, sweatshirts or sweaters (or my cloak--thing that reminds me of a blanket with sleeves and a hood in black). When I dress up I get fancier, obviously. As writers, though, no matter our style, we must remember for certain things we have to be professional. This means dressing professionally. I don't think you necessarily have to wear a suit for everyt...

Happy Wednesday All, The editing I did Tuesday was fun. It was because I loved watching my male main character in some of the scenes. I almost like him as much as I do "my" beast. "My" Beast was the Beast from a re-telling of  Beauty & The Beast that I wrote some time ago. This is a spectacular lesson in backing up one's work: My retelling was from the Beast's point of view and it was kind of a psychological journey in one sense. I pulled out a lot of the Beast's emotional and temperamental side. I loved him dearly and there were parts that I absolutely adored (particularly, I think page 80 where he almost kisses her--forgetting he's a beast of course--but she pushes him away). Well, my computer crashed and took a good chunk of that finished manuscript with it. I had maybe a little over 100 pages saved on disc, but I hadn't backed it up. Now I have a computer that doesn't accept those types of discs (the old small A drive one...

Happy Tuesday All, Something interesting happened to me during Agent Scott Eagan's talk on Saturday (which I talked about in this post ). What happened was Scott brought up having been a Composition teacher at one point. Now there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. That isn't what invoked the flash back. What invoked the flash back was when he was talking about having "3-5" of something (I think it was publishers). His advice was very good. (Sure, I cringed, but that was when he was talking about goofy mistakes people sometimes make). I winced during him talking about those 3-5 things...but not because of having to come up with those things (although at first I was worried about what to do about it, but I'm not anymore, I've managed to figure a few things out since the talk), but because of what was running through my head: I was remembering Junior year of high school...the dreaded term paper (worth 2 grades because it was one paper for 2 cla...

This post is for Monday, July 5, 2010. I'm just posting it early. Hi Everybody & An Early Happy Monday To You, One of the things I love best about being an RWA & NWHRWA member is that I get some really awesome information on writing and submitting. I also get some great tips and suggestions from fellow writers. The NWHRWA chapter had Agent Scott Eagan (check his blog out here ) come speak to us Saturday (July 3rd) on pitching your story and selling yourself as an author. One of the interesting things he said was that writing synopsises and such were not hard, it's just that we make them hard. He said that all we had to do was say what the story was about..."How you get from Point A to Point B." He says that getting it down to 1 page is great because then it's straight to the point and concise (although, side note here...some agents request a 3-10 page synopsis, so make very sure you read submission guidelines and pay attention to what each agent a...

Happy Friday Everyone, Before I get to today's post, want to wish fellow USA-ers a Happy 4th of July Independence Day! Have a happy and safe holiday. Now onto the topic at hand... Normally these things appear in a published book...the finished product of what we writers toil and imagine and work on for hours and days and even years at a time. But, I was thinking about a fellow NWHRWA member who recently got a short story published in Suspense Magazine and how happy I was for him. Then I got to thinking about the different "cheerleaders" in my life. The people who have encouraged, prodded, supported, laughed with me, read over my work (and listened to it) and helped me learn and helped me get on this road, that I just have to name them. (And in the comment section, you can name anyone YOU'D like to thank!) So here's my list of people, whether they'd appear in the Acknowledgements of a published story by me or not, I'm still grateful to them (in n...