A Whole Lot of Gray

It started off cloudy and rainy this morning but turned out to be rather nice. A good Mother's Day.

As everyone says, being a mom is a hard job. When you stop and think about it, everything you say and do/to/for/with that child will be imprinted on his/her personality forever. (To make this simple, I will say she/her for the rest of the blog.) If she has any mental issues, she'll blame her parents. Even after she has children she may blame them but maybe, just maybe, she'll realize they are only being human. Besides even children aren't perfect.

I use to tell my kids that I tried to improve on what my parents did right or wrong and when they had children of their own, they can improve on the things I did, but they will make their own mistakes.

You know, I think being a writer has helped me understand a lot of what makes people do the things they do. And as a writer my mind has broaden enough to see all the possibilities and understand there are two or more sides to everything we know. Like how one witness to a crime will say the guy had a gray shirt on and another will say it's blue. One person will say he should be thrown in prison for stealing, while another say he was only trying to feed his family. One person will write him off as a loser, while another will want to give him a second chance.

So as the old saying goes, nothing is black or white. The world is a whole lot of gray.

Hurry up! Whoa!

Have you ever felt that way? You rush, rush, rush and then something happens that cause you to go WHOA! It could be good or bad, only by the way you look at it. That happened yesterday. I'm behind on my daily word count.  So I was rushing along -- well, it took me four hours of messing around and staring at the screen before my brain kicked in, but anyway -- when I received a tweet that I wanted to answer. Then I decided to tweet one more time about Circle of Desire being only $1.99. Yes. It's easy for me to get off track. Since I wanted to set up a link to the Amazon page showing both of my books (includes Circle of Danger coming out June 5), I searched my name and then BAM! 

Whoa, Nelly!

I had three books showing and not just two. They already show Circle of Deception (yes, they're keeping the title) as releasing November 27!

Now for me to get back to writing and moving that story at a faster pace.

A Whole Lot of More

This weekend was so much fun. For ten years I've attended the (HOD) Heart of Dixie's readers luncheon. In fact, Saturday they celebrated their fifteen year of hosting romance authors and their fans. This year's keynote speaker was Lori Leigh. But for the first time, I decided to stay the night before in the hotel next to the Von Braun Center and I'm so glad I did. It was so much fun.

I roomed with Lexi George (check out her funny "southern-fried paranormal romance") who is as funny as her books. Who doesn't like to laugh -- a lot?  And Christine Glover (who will be published with Mills & Boon before long) brought a bottle of champagne. We celebrated a lot of things, but one was my first year anniversary of gettting THE CALL from Avon. One year ago from May 4. Hard to believe it had gone by so fast.

Friday night, we met with several ladies and had dinner on a patio in a beautiful shopping center. There are several restaurants in the center, and all evening, teenagers walked by in their prom regalia. They were beautiful. So many bright colors and lots of bling. I had a blast talking with Janette Kenny whose agent is with the same agency as mine.

Then at the luncheon the next day, HOD set up a time for authors to bring their promo stuff and hand them out to the attendees.  It was a little chaotic and I felt funny standing there with my bookmarks and collector cards while readers raced toward Lori Leigh and Linda Howard. But a few took pity on me and stopped to ask what I wrote. I enjoyed it so much. I never feel comfortable talking about myself (I hated job interviews for that reason), but I could talk all day about my characters and their motivations. That was fun and their eyes didn't glaze over.

Afterwards, the luncheon began and Lori gave her speech and then the part a lot of the attendees truly love started. Each author brings a basket (or chest, box, bag, or in my case, vase-sized brandy glass) filled with goodies and their book(s) and they're given away as door prizes. A nice lady by the name of Bonnie, won mine.  The "brandy glass" was filled with chocolate Kisses, my book CIRCLE OF DESIRE, cell phone clutch with $10 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble or Amazon, skull & cross bones scarf, heart shaped picture frame, rhinestone necklace and earrings, a small scented candle, and a string of flashing heart shaped lights (plays music too).

I met so many strangers who were kind and so excited about the luncheon. Either as authors or readers. Each time I attend a function like this, I appreciate being published more and more. And that's a whole like of MORE.  LOL!

Hooks Of All Types

No. I haven't gotten into fishing. Most writers know what hooks means. And I might've posted on this before some years ago, but it was on my mind. Hooks are devices used in books that catch a reader's attention.

Hooks can be through the plot or the central characters career or personality. The ones I love to read are cowboys, cops, bad boys, assassins, bodyguards, force marriages, and lately chefs. I didn't misspell the last one. The movie NO RESERVATIONS showed me how sexy chefs can be.

Of course, I love anything with swords in it. So medieval romance novels are a favorite, but lately I haven't found one that doesn't have the heroine acting too modern (she'll have trade and be too independent).  While others have the woman or man being too stupid to live.

I'm sure there are more that ring my bell and I'll think of them later.

Other hooks that people like are secret babies (where the mother won't tell the man he's a dad and later he finds out), brides (I've been told if you put a bride in full regalia on the cover, the book will fly off the shelf especially in June), woman in jeopardy (think the movie KNIGHT AND DAY - love it! Or any romantic suspense where a killer is after the woman), reunions (they had a relationship that didn't work out but they want to try again), etc.

And there is another form of hooks. It can be the first sentence or paragraph in a book. You know how we love reading the first page or so to get a feel of the writer's voice. That helps in the decision of what to buy.

The first paragraph in my third book (CIRCLE OF DECEPTION) coming out late this year is: Ankles bound by duct tape and rope to a massive hook suspended from the ceiling, the man swayed back and forth. A bare light bulb at the end of a long wire swung in the opposite direction, casting drunken shadows across every inch of his sweat-coated skin.

Does that make you want to read more? It even has the word 'hook' in it.  LOL!

One of Many Reasons I Love To Write

I love writing because it’s as close as I can get to bossing all the men around in my little world. Of course, occasionally they stage a coup and do what they want, but usually I get them in line pretty quick and have them apologizing on their knees to their women.

Is It Better To Be Rich Or Poor?

As I'm apt to do, I was reading a little article that pop up on my laptop's sidebar about lottery winners and the title was Can Winning The Lottery Buy Happiness? 

Personally, I've been poor (more than once) and middle class (for a few years before the crash) and never rich. When I was a kid, my dad made pretty nice money, and we were certainly considered upper middle class for a short time before my parents divorced, not rich by any means. Of course, I remember after that having lots of meatless meals. We didn't do without, but we didn't take the nice vacations like we use to. Dad and his new wife and family did. He would promise to take us kids but rarely came through. C'est la vie. His wife didn't like us around much and since they were married, he knew it was best not to press. It would've made our lives miserable too.

But I wouldn't mind winning the lottery. I would like giving it a try and being rich. Sure, some family members would act like horses' pa-tooties, that's a given due to other things that happened in the past. Of course, I would share if it was enough money after I gave some to my two girls, but even if I did, someone would get upset. Definitely a given.

Anyway, I would do some of the things Linda Howard's character in her book BURN did. Not tell a soul until I hired a money manager (or whatever they're called - it's been a while since I read the book) and then live off the interest. So I wouldn't necessarily live high off the hog as they say in the South, but I would travel and not worrying as much about regular bills like groceries and gas for my car.

What would you do with your money? Let's say $10 million?

Change Is Good

Lately, I've felt in a rut. You know, going in the same spot as everyone else and not getting anywhere. So I decided to start by changing up my blog. Few people read it (Love you, JoAnn!) and I haven't been happy with it for a while. As I had mentioned not long ago, I planned to stop (at post 1000 - 4 more to go). Well, I was thinking about moving all my thoughts and so over to Facebook. Well...I've decided not to do that. I'll continue to make comments there, but most likely I'll send them to my blog. But I may move my blog to Wordpress. Just thinking outloud(?) here.  I'll be sure to post here whatever decision I make and when I make it.

Anyway, what do you think of the set up? I'm not sure if it will stay looking like this as I've lost all my info on the sides, but then again that info is on my website too. We'll see. Change is good.

What It Means To Be PAN

Today, I received some wonderful news. I qualified to enter the PAN (Published Authors Network) area of the Romance Writers of America. I had to meet a criteria to do so and for some, they qualify even before the book is released by having an advance (I didn't get one) and others have to wait until book two or three. It actually took me a little under six months with my first book. I probably qualified last month and just didn't think to check.  Not bad.

A few years ago, I asked my writers group's loop what is so important about being in PAN a couple times and received not one answer. After becoming published, I realized the answer is vast and can be vague at times and maybe that's why most authors can't answer.


Here is a list (surprised?) of why I think it's important.

1) RESPECT - amazing how many people (published/unpublished) think you haven't really "made it" until you qualify for PAN. Crazy but true.

2) PAN LOOP - I've heard the info is awesome on that loop in regards to what to ask your agent or editor, providing promo suggestions, and general "business" info that all published authors need to know.

3) LIBRARIANS DAY - this is held at the National conference and you must be PAN to attend (unlike the Literacy Signing). Librarians ROCK! They mold young minds and provide mental food to adults. They recommend books to read and can help an author's career. Plus there are few other workshops at the conference only for PAN members.

4) PASIC chapter - this is the only RWA chapter that you're required to be a PAN author before joining. I've heard good things about it, especially their conference.

5) RESPECT - yes. I said it twice. Some people do get tied up in labels and it's the main reason I will apply for PAN and thumb my nose at those who 'diss' me. Well, that and the Librarian Day function.

For Your Listening Pleasure

Sometimes I enjoy listening to old tunes. Such as Joe Crocker, The Animals, The Beatles, Janis Joplin, Grand Funk Railroad (from my pre-teens and early teens) and Uriah Heep, Pink Floyd, Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Marshall Tucker Band, Nazareth, Elton John (Yellowbrick Road days), Lynyrd Skynyrd  and many others that bring memories back of my youth (later teens and early twenties), even those from the 80s that I look fondly on because my kids were little and they were fun. Think Billy Idol. But I’m not like some people my age who only listen to ‘oldies but goldies.’ I prefer the more current ones for my daily listening pleasure.  If I listen to old tunes all the time, I start feeling so depressed.  You know, time flying by and all that.

So nowadays I listen to Nickelback, Gotye, Lady GaGa, Kings of Leon, Threes Doors Down, Adele, Train, Kelly Clarkson, and so many more.

Linda Howard Interview

I love this interview of Linda Howard. So much of her personality comes through. She's really that down to earth.  She was interviewed same day as me last year.