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!