Wednesday, April 11, 2007

New time on Statesboro Signing!

Ooops ... my bad!

The Statesboro Wal-Mart will start at 11 a.m., not 10 a.m., on May 5.

Sheesh. I'll never get the hang of this!

My book's on the shelves!

I have news! I've wanted to share it, but unfortunately Blogger and I have had a disagreement about whether I should move to the New and Improved Blogger. Grrr.

Blogger won.

Double-grr.

Onward to news: My book, THE BABY WAIT, is now on the shelves! People -- complete and total strangers -- are picking up my book, turning it over, reading the blurb, flipping open to the first page, and ...

Eeek. I don't know what's next. Will they buy it? Or will they say, "Eh, not for me."

Oh, well -- it's a treat for me to see it on the shelves! My friend Cindy Miles spotted it first -- and called me to share the good news!

Later that day, I took Kate and my dh to see it -- and while I was standing there, I sold and autographed two books -- to complete and total strangers! Yay!

More news: I am doing several signings, basically because I am a nut and won't believe what experienced writers tell me -- it's a waste of time. I'm a hard-headed person and I have to learn this for myself.

On Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m. -12 noon., I'll be at the Vidalia Wal-Mart. That's during the middle of the Vidalia Onion Festival, so come for the air show and stop by Wally-World to see me.

Later that day, (April 28) from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m., I'll be signing at the Dublin Wal-Mart.

I know, I know, two signings in one day -- I must be a loon, right?

On May 5, you can catch me at the Statesboro, Georgia Wal-Mart -- home of the GSU Eagles! I'll be there from 10 a.m. until noon.

On May 19, I'll be signing at the Barnes & Noble at the Forum in Norcross -- I believe that signing will begin around 2 p.m. I know I'll be signing with one other pubbed author of GREAT talent -- Berta Platas, whose CINDERELLA LOPEZ I just absolultely loved!

On June 23, I'll be signing with loads of talented ladies at the Savannah B&N -- I'll update you on who all will be there soon, I promise! (Especially now that Blogger and I have come to an understanding!)

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Writing: How do I do it

Tess Gerritsen, a thriller writer I much admire, on her blog had a very interesting pair of entries. They were about how she wrote.

She is a pantser -- a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants, where she has no idea who the bad guy is when she first starts out with the book.

I'm amazed that anyone could do that. I'm a plotter, a planner, a list-maker extraordinaire. It drives me crazy to go grocery shopping without a list, so how on earth could I write a book without at least a little planning?

She does it, and does it well, so I'm not knocking it. It's not for me, though.

People ask me how I do it. How do I plan so much of the story and not get so bored out of my mind that I can go ahead and write it?

The trick is to have faith that your characters will surprise you. A minor character will leap off the page and take over -- like in WHERE LOVE GROWS, my Superromance that will be released in October. My heroine visits a farm only to be introduced to a guy who surely loves his porcine pets. He was such an unexpected, loveable character that I plan to use in him in a spin-off novel (please, Lord, let my editor like it!)

I don't want to know EVERYTHING about my characters -- just enough to have more than a conversation of smalltalk with them. Later on, like I do when making a new friend, I'll discover new and small things. I'll discover my heroine hated Spaghettios or never got to wear a pair of red ruby slippers she coveted (I'm making this up about these characters -- but it's got my creative juices flowing).

For me, it all comes down to the old saw about luck being preparation meeting up with opportunity. If I wasn't sure where the story was going, I might be impatient and ignore these subtle clues my brain is using to help me improve the story. As it is, I have learned to listen ... but I'm still not able to leave home without the map.

Sorry to be MIA

OK, OK, so I'm the world's worst blogger and I haven't blogged in ages. But I come bearing excuses: (a) the dayjob is kicking my backside; (b) I've not long got off the revised version of WHERE LOVE GROWS -- it's in production, according to my lovely and talented editor Laura Shin, who swears it's "very far from crap." (That's good, isn't it?); (c) I've been working on proposals ... and (d) the fact of the matter is, life's swamped me.

Today I caught up on tax prep (ewww, yuck. Why CAN'T I be organized and do this expense stuff monthly), took Kate to an Easter Egg hunt and gardened. This is the first year in a while that I've actually took the trouble to put a garden in. I do it by the Square Foot method ... anybody ever heard of that?

I also (yay!) got some writing time in, though only six pages, not my usual 10. Still, I only have about four pages left to write of this partial, and I think I can finish it up tomorrow.

Operative word there, think. I have church, a visit to my mom, and Kate's singing in the special Passover service at church tomorrow night. But I'm determined! And sleep is HIGHLY overrated!

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Oops ...

Okay, upon looking at my Blogroll, I find I don't have my fellow Super author Amy Knupp on there ... but you can find her at www.amyknupp.com (and no, I can't make that a live link -- remember, browser issues?).

While I'm at it, I'll tag Stephanie Bose, CP extraordinaire, and Tammy ... why not share the love and find out weird things about my buds?

Six to Ten Weird things about myself

Teresa has tagged me, so I guess I should honor her tag and figure out six to ten weird things about me.

I'm a fairly boring person, so I don't know that I can come up with three things, but I'll try.

Hmmm ...

Weird Fact One: I'm only 4'10" tall. That means I go through life at arm-pit level to everyone else. So PLEASE, for the vertically challenged around you, wear your anti-perspirant.

Weird Fact Two: I wear a size three and a half ladies shoe ... which means that I have a heckuva time finding shoes to wear.

Weird Fact Three: Something about my elbow, shoulder or wrist joints is super-flexible, and I can rotate my arms in a way that makes my dh gag.

Weird Fact Four: I have not very much feeling in my left big toe. I kid you not, I can't even test bath water with it.

Weird Fact Five: I'm dyscalculic. I'll let you guys look that word up. Consider it your vocabulary word of the day.

Weird Fact Six: Speaking of dictionaries, when I was little, on rainy days when I had exhausted all the books in the house, I actually DID read the dictionary. (Yes, I know I'm weird. Isn't that the point of this exercise?)

OK, that's about it. I can't think of another weird thing that wouldn't make you guys yawn with boredom. I'm back to Art Fact Sheets that are due on Feb. 22 (Happy Birthday, George Washington!) and proposals that my editor is asking for as she reads over WHERE LOVE GROWS (which is, by the way, the official title of my book that will come out in in October.)

Oh, hmmmh, I suppose I should tag some other folks. I'm on a 9.2 version of Mac OS, which means my browser is giving me fits (yes, I know, I know, I should upgrade ... but that comes after the dayjob, the writing job, the kid, the hubby and the laundry -- and notice dusting isn't mentioned ANYWHERE in that list.) So use my links to my favorite blogs to get there from here.

I tag Cindy Miles and Tanya Michaels and Amy Knupp. All three of them are probably swamped, but they'll get to it eventually.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

GOT MY COVER!!


Who knew a paragraph here and there would be so impossible?

Not me... but I do now, what with a book that is finally in the hands of my editor-- yay -- and then on the other hand, sheer terror!

But I did want to share my early Valentine's Day present with whomever might still be tuning in ...

Igot my cover! Isn't it a beaut? My hero looks just like Joe, and Sara looksa whole bunch like some actress that I can't place ... any guesses or isit all just in my head?

As an added plus, I'm actually on Amazon.com ... eek!

Of course, I would highly recommend you buy any online copies from, say, eHarlequin.

I am also considering doing a contest giveaway ... would anybody be open to, say, a lovely batch of Supers?