Jacqueline Barbour's Bodacious Blog

Out with the Old, In with the New (A Contest!)

2008-01-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

So, it's 2008 and this is post number 200 on Jacqueline Barbour's Bodacious Blog. It is also, as it happens, the last.

But please, don't despair! (Yes, I'm sure you were on the verge of tears at the thought of no longer reading my ramblings, lol. Unfortunately, I'm not going to make it that easy for you to get away from me.)

You see, I've made an executive decision (and since I'm the executive of my writing career at this point, I'm the decider!) to use my Jackie Barbosa pen name exclusively going forward. At the time I contracted my first Jackie Barbosa book to Cobblestone Press, writing under two pen names appeared to make sense. But increasingly, the only manuscripts I'm working on are Jackie Barbosa books, and that's the name and the brand I want to build on going forward. (And I really must give special props to Maven Darcy Burke here for coming up with Barbosa for me. It still rocks!)

Plus, it's a lot less work! I've noticed the frequency with which I'm blogging has decreased exponentially in proportion to the number of different blogs I have to maintain.

Before the holidays, I mentioned that I would be holding a contest to celebrate my 200th post, and I still intend to do that. I also have another sale to celebrate, because two days after Christmas, Cobblestone contracted my latest novella, a contemporary first person called The Gospel of Love: According to Luke. This novella is scheduled for release in June, hopefully to be followed in quick succession by its sequels (bonus points to those who can guess the titles).

(You're all welcome to throw confetti, toot your blow-ticklers, and happy dance with me at this moment if you like!)

A final bit of news: I am scheduled to appear as an author-guest on The Spiced Tea Party blog tomorrow. I'm very excited about this opportunity and hope you'll come visit me there. But even more, I want to give you an incentive, so...here's how the contest will work:

1. Come visit me on Jackie Does Dish and post a comment on today's post (which will be virtually identical to this one!).

2. Come visit us at the Manuscript Mavens blog any day this week and post a comment on any of our posts. (We are blogging our writing tips, so it's a great week to drop by if you haven't before.)

3. Come visit me at The Spiced Tea Party and comment on my post there.

Anyone who manages to make comments in all three places between today and next Tuesday, January 15th, will be entered in a drawing to win one of the following three fabulous prize packages:

1. A $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com and a free copy of The Gospel of Love: According to Luke (which will be sent to you on release day, whenever that turns out to be).

2. A one-pound box of See's Candy (chocolate...yum!) and a free copy of According to Luke.

3. Any three of the following books (some are signed by the authors, some are not) and a free copy of According to Luke.

Books:

Now, how can you resist an offer like that? Go forth and comment. The winners will be announced next Tuesday on Jackie Does Dish.

And happy 2008 to everyone!

P.S. The Manuscript Mavens blog is a nominee in the Preditors and Editors Readers' Poll. We're hugely honored to have been nominated, but we'd love to win even more. So please, hop on over and vote!

All I Want for Christmas...

2007-12-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

...is more time!

Time to write. Time to read. Time to blog and bloghop and promo my little heart out. But most especially, time to do nothing at all.

Pretty please?

Okay, since I can't have that, I'll just let y'all know that I'm over on the Mavens today blogging about Critique Partners as Crutches and I'll be there again the next two Fridays blogging about something, but this blog is going on vacation until the second week of January. I've just got way too much on my to-do list (and as if I didn't already have plenty to do, my Golden Heart entries for judging arrived today).

When I come back, however, be prepared for a rockin' good 2008 kick-off contest and par-tay. Because my next post will be my 200th, and if you don't think I'm going to be celebrating that, you've got another think coming!

The Two Hardest Words

2007-12-14T11:10:00.000-08:00

And no, I don't mean "I'm sorry."

I just got back from our elementary school's "Winter Program" performance. Our oldest son is in the fifth grade, and they were the last group to perform. As they were singing Let There Be Peace on Earth, it suddenly hit me that this is the last time I'll ever see this particular child on this particular stage. And I admit it, I got the teeniest bit weepy. Because I see the end of a phase in his life--in our lives--approaching.

I've been thinking a lot about endings in the past couple of days because I am almost finished with the novella I started a couple of weeks ago. In fact, with any luck, I should be writing the words "The End" on it today.

Yesterday, when I realized how close I was to the end, I realized that this will be the first manuscript I've completed since January (when I wrote another, slightly shorter novella in about two weeks). And although I do have a vague recollection of having finished a (terrible) novel when I was in junior high or maybe high school, the only other manuscript I've ever written through to "The End" is now gracing the Magical Mulch Pile.

Read the rest of this post...

Writing Like a Fiend

2007-11-30T13:12:00.000-08:00

No, not Unbridled. After my initial excitement at thinking I'd finally sorted out the major problems with it, I concluded I hadn't. In chat with another writer, I think I realized that the inherent issue with the book was always that the plot wanted to overshadow the romance, and everything I tried to do in pursuit of getting the romance to take precedence just added more plot. It was sort of a lose-lose proposition no matter how I went about it.

That said, I'm almost 5,000 words into a new short story (projected word count of 12.5K) that I started on a whim on Wednesday (yeah, this Wednesday). I didn't plan to start a new project--I have plenty of other existing WIPs to keep my company!--but when I got this idea, I decided I should at least jot down some notes so I wouldn't forget it later. But when I started the note-jotting, I got story instead. So I'm just going with the flow on this one.

No one's seen a word of this yet (well, that's not entirely true; another writer I do challenges with in chat has seen little chunks of it), but I have to say I'm super excited about it, perhaps in part because I think I'm going to be done with it by the middle of next week. I pitched the concept to Deanna at Cobblestone and she loves the idea (I think her exact words were "There's something dark and dirty about this concept. I love dark and dirty."), and since it's too short for print, I plan to send it to her when it's done and edited.

And, as is always the case with me, there are sequels...

And now I have to get back on it. Ta-ta for now, my friends!

When Your Characters Are Smarter than You Are...Listen!

2007-11-23T12:52:00.000-08:00

Betcha thought I'd be so stuffed with turkey and trimmings today, I'd forget to post. No such luck :)!

As you know, I started working in earnest on revamping Unbridled last week. My goal was to have a revised version ready for submission to agents/editors by the end of March.

I rewrote the synopsis last week and started writing the new scene that I thought would mark the end of the partial. It was supposed to feature lots of sexual tension between the hero and heroine, plenty of angsty conflict, and end with a kiss. In the synopsis, it looked like the scene made perfect sense and would make an excellent turning point in the romance as well as the plot.

But when I sat down to write, Patrick and Rosalind flat-out refused to cooperate. Hard as I tried to tap into their feelings of frustration and jealousy and distrust, I couldn't. Because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make them feel those things--yet.

After fighting with the scene for four days, I gave up. I was trying to force a square peg in a round hole for the sake of what I thought would make a good scene because it would have lots of conflict. But the characters just weren't there in their relationship yet, so even though I wrote the conflict, the emotion fell flat.

I felt pretty depressed about the whole thing all day yesterday (but not enough to spoil my appetite, LOL, and I'm lugging around a couple of extra pounds to prove it!). I couldn't see how to push the story and the romance forward without that scene. At the same time, I knew in my heart of hearts that it was the wrong scene for these characters at this point in their story. (And maybe ever. The truth is, my characters don't fight with each other nearly as much as they fight their inner demons.)

The Magical Mulch Pile(TM) was looking pretty good, but I thought maybe I should purloin a h/h scene from the original manuscript that I really liked and see if I couldn't find a way to use it at this point in the story. I did my cut and paste job, read through the scene, loved it just as much as I always had, but still wasn't sure how to make it fit.

Ten minutes ago, it hit me. I know what comes next. It changes parts of the story downstream (hello, synopsis...again!) but it's I think exactly what the story needs. Before, the heroine she was just waiting for the axe to fall. Now, she's getting her own axe. Plus, it's funny. Potentially very funny.

So, bottom line, I'm all excited again. Yay!

Bad Blogger

2007-11-16T12:43:00.001-08:00

I know this post is a week overdue. Life just got away from me there, as it has a habit of doing from time to time.

So, what have I been up to? Mostly, not enough, however, I am now fully engaged in replotting Unbridled. I started out by trying to write a scene-by-scene storyboard using an Excel spreadsheet (I'm not a sticky note kinda girl). It looks like this:

I like the visual effect of the colors to indicate point of view, but ultimately concluded that I just couldn't see the story scene-by-scene yet, and so I decided yesterday to tackle a new version of the synopsis. I managed to crank out 1,750 words of what should be about a 2,250 word synopsis yesterday. Ultimately, I'd like to cut that down to fit within five pages at TNR 12, but it's mostly for my own edification at this point, so the length isn't that important. I'm pretty sure I see now how the story should end, so I should be able to hammer out the remainder of the synopsis today.)

From there, I plan to use the spreadsheet to map out the story 3-5 scenes at a time, write those scenes, then return to the spreadsheet to map out the next 3-5. I've realized that although I can see the broad outlines of the story, I can't necessarily see the next few scenes until I've written what comes before them.

So, that's what's happening in my world. Now for something completely different:

From Crackle: Sen. Craig's New Music Video

Free Stuff Alert

2007-11-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

Jackie's running a contest to help her title a book. Go to her blog to play!

Creepy, Crawly Little Writer

2007-11-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

Stephanie Rowe, multipublished author of the Rita-nominated He Loves Me, He Loves Me Hot, the newly released Sex and the Immortal Bad Boy, Must Love Dragons, and Date Me Baby, One More Time, is guesting today over at the Manuscript Mavens blog and, I have to confess, reading her daily page count goal put me pretty much to shame. She shoots for 12 pages per day, 7 days a week. She usually gets more like 18.

And she does it as the mother of a toddler!

My God, when I was the mother of a toddler (actually, I was sometimes the mother of multiple toddlers, but let's forget that whine for the moment), I could scarcely form coherent sentences half the time, much less coherent characters and plots. And I certainly couldn't have written anything sexy, since my idea of bliss at the time was climbing into bed and going to sleep! (Oh, my poor husband. Truly, I feel for him now!)

Even now that my kids are all in school six hours per day and I get an average of eight hours of uninterrupted sleep each night, I still only manage to average about 2 pages per day, 5 days per week. Good Lord, at that pace, I'll finish my first full-length book about the time I'm eligible to collect Social Security (which is coming much faster than I'd like to think!).

True, that "average" over 5 days per week includes days when I don't write anything at all for one reason or another. I do have a full-time job, of course, I'm actively involved in my older son's Cub Scout Pack and my daughter's Brownie troop, I have a house to keep in a minimal state of cleanliness between the housekeeper's weekly visits, and I have a husband and kids who perversely want my attention (and also like it if I feed them regularly). So I have good excuses for my low page count.

But ultimately, they are just excuses. I should be able to write considerably more in the roughly two hours I have each weekday to devote to writing. There's no excuse for writing at the ridiculously slow pace of a page per hour!

As if to create a perfect storm of making me feel utterly inadequate, yesterday saw the beginning of NaNoWriMo. My friend and fellow Cobblestone author, Yolanda Sfetsos, is "playing" and in two days, she wrote over 10,000 words. (A couple of days before that, she finished a 15K word story in two days, picking it up from 1,500 words.)

How is this possible? Are these writers robots? Ultra-caffeinated word-producing ninjas? Inquiring minds want to know!

So, how about you? How many words/pages do you write per day on average? How much time do you devote to writing each day? Do you give yourself a daily goal (whether it's a specific page/word count or a scene count)? If you do, do you usually meet/exceed it, or fall short? (I confess to mostly falling short.) What techniques have you found for helping you meet your daily goal?

All's Quiet on the Southern Front

2007-10-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we are safe, never had to evacuate, and the threat has subsided. For the second time in four years, we've managed to dodge the wildfire bullet and we're incredibly grateful.

The kids will be out of school until the end of the week and the air outside is barely breathable. Although the winds dying down is good in one sense (it stops pushing the fire), it's bad in another (the smoke hangs around indefinitely).

Since everyone here is stir crazy, I'm planning a short-term evacuation to the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center today. One more day cooped up in this house might result in homicide, and I'm not entirely sure whether it would be infanticide, matricide, fratricide, or some combination thereof.

Closing In

2007-10-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

To give you a sense of how close this fire is, here's the map from last night. We live just to the west of the road marked "Rancho San Diego" on this map.

And here's this morning's 360 degree view.

There's still no evacuation order for us and we're staying put until there is. I took pictures of every room in the house for insurance purposes, just in case. School is out until next week at the earliest.

360 Degree View from Our House

2007-10-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

I have to say that the blue skies right over us are almost eerie!

Due east

North--light haze is due to the Witch Creek fire
Due west
Due south--plume of smoke is Harris Fire

Fire Update

2007-10-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

We have not yet been asked to evacuate, but the evacuation zone for the Harris fire now extends to an area about two miles to the south of us. The fire is supposedly moving south and west, but the evacuation zones keep spreading to the north, so we're not out of the woods.

My sister's family, our nephew's family, and some good friends of ours have all evacuated. My sister went to stay with a friend in a one-bedroom apartment (that should be fun!), our nephew is at my mother-in-law's, and we don't know where the friends are.

The primary issue at this point is that, should we have to get out, is that we don't really have anywhere to go that's a whole lot safer. My mother and my mother-in-law both live on the west (leading) edge of the Harris fire, which means they're right in its path. The hotel we partially own is full. And I do NOT want to camp out with thousands of people at Qualcomm Stadium.

I suggested to my husband that we could camp out with the air mattresses on the floor at his office. Not the most glamorous thing in the world, but I think it's probably better than an evacuation center.

Obviously, I have no idea what the next few hours will bring. Cross your fingers, wish me luck, and then get your mind off the whole thing by voting on Darcy's installment of the Manuscript Mavens' Choose Your Own Adventure game!

Sorry, no time to copy the trademark stuff on CYOA, so look at the post below!

My World's on Fire

2007-10-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

San Diego County is burning. Big time.

For the moment, we seem to be reasonably safe. We're tucked in between the two big fires, one to the north of us and one to the south. With the current prevailing winds, both should skirt us as they blow to the west.

School has been cancelled for the day and it's too smoky to go outside. I'm stuck at home all day with three kids who are bound to be bouncing off the walls within a couple of hours. Lucky me...

From now until Halloween, the Manuscript Mavens are putting on a Halloween-themed Choose Your Own Adventure® story, where You The Reader get to vote on what happens next, and a different author will continue the story each day based on your feedback. The Mavens are giving away tons of prizes to commenters, including autographed books. Definitely bookmark it!

Choose Your Own Adventure is a trademark of Chooseco LLC, Waitsfield, Vermont. Check them out at www.cyoa.com. The trademark has been used by permission herein. Thanks, CYOA!

The "Will I Ever Finish?" Blues

2007-10-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

It has been a great week in Romancelandia, with my friends Tessa Dare and Carrie Ryan both making their first sales (Tessa at auction, Carrie in a pre-empt). I am so far beyond thrilled for them!

Aside from the fact that I know Tessa and Carrie, I have to say, it's always encouraging to see writers make their first sale. It proves it can be done, no matter how daunting the odds may appear. I can't help thinking, "Hey, that could be me!"

But then, I remember something frightening. Something depressing. The first step is up to me.

I have to finish something I feel is worthy of submitting to agents and editors. It means not just writing a book until I read "The End," but revising and polishing that book after the thrill of completing the first draft has long since worn off. Given that I've always had a problem maintaining enough enthusiasm for a story to get to "The End" the first time, the whole notion that I have to keep working on it even after that point is difficult to stomach.

The reason I've been thinking a lot about this is:

I want to sell a book, damn it (preferably more than one, actually)!

To that end, I've decided to tackle my full-scale reworking of Unbridled beginning in November. (Why am I waiting until November, you ask? Because Jackie's got to finish her novella first!)

I have some ideas for making this task a little less painful (starting with a Excel spreadsheet version of Maven Erica's storyboarding technique; I don't do paper!). I have to throw out some parts of the story, but many existing scenes will probably stay. The first thing I need to do is identify what stays, what goes, what replaces what goes, and what plot points, scene goals, and backstory/motivation needs to be added or removed. Hopefully, if I have a good game plan before I start (instead of just pantsing my way through the entire enterprise, which is pretty much what I did the first time!), I can be the New England Patriots of revision (without the sneaky sideline cameras, of course).

On the other hand, I worry that I won't be able to maintain my enthusiasm for revising a book that, to a large extent, feels like it should already be done.

To that end, I'm asking you all for your tips and tricks to sticking to a manuscript once you get into revision mode. I know some writers LOVE revising. If you do, tell me why you love it. Maybe that's my problem: I just don't see the attraction but it's really been lurking there all along. Or, if you're like me and allergic to revising, tell me how you keep from breaking out in hives while you do it.

Because we all have to do it, right? Nobody writes a perfect book in the first draft. (And if you did, you are not allowed to tell me so :)!)

Update:

Just opened my LA Times to find an op-ed piece by Rob Long that begins with the following paragraph:

As a professional writer, I've always been pretty good at not writing. Not writing, in fact, is one of my chief skills. I can not write anywhere -- on a plane, in a coffee shop, in my office -- and I often feel that a day spent without not writing is a day wasted. I even keep a notebook by the side of the bed, in case I wake up with an idea at 3 in the morning and don't want to write it down in case I don't forget it.

One more choice excerpt:

When I think of writing, that's pretty much what comes to mind: sitting around, drinking a pumpkin latte and checking my e-mail every seven seconds.

OMG, this is me, this is me! (Okay, less the pumpkin latte. I like my coffee unleaded, thanks!) But ahhhhhh, I'm not aloooooone...

For the rest of the article, click here.

A Reminder

2007-10-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Today's Jackie's day. And while she didn't have anything very exciting to say, she did have some fun linkage to post :).

Odds and Ends

2007-10-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

Didja notice I changed the template? Didja, huh?

Emma Petersen did some fabulous work for me earlier this week, redesigning my website and prettying up the graphics for Jackie Barbosa's site. Since I'm kind of an idiot when it comes to the Blogger template, I'm waiting for Emma to have the time to mesh this blog with my main website so they all look the same, but in the meantime, I decided the black template "matched" the new website better than the old one. If you haven't already seen the new websites, go have a peek and let me know what you think. (I personally think they're both gorgeous and I've been blowing Emma kisses of gratitude all week.)

In other news, you should really go check out Gerri Russell's post on the Manuscript Mavens blog today. It's chock full of fabulous tips for getting the most emotional bang for your buck in your book. Now, if only I were as good at implementing advice as I am at reading it!

This weekend is our last family camping trip until spring. Much as I enjoy actually camping, I despise getting ready and would gladly pay almost any amount of money to be able to contract the task out to a third party. Anyone interested?

My Favorite Meme

2007-10-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

So, my friend and CP, Emma Petersen, has tagged me again on the eight random facts meme. Since I'm not a fan of randomness and I had the devil of a time coming up with eight things the last time I got hit with this one, I thought I'd do something a little different.

So, my eight facts will be eight of my favorite non-romance novels, in the order I thought of them (not at all the order in which I read them).

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
Lyrical, dreamy, and delicious.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
A punster's wet dream.
Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis
The first (and best) of the Marcus Didius Falco mysteries set in second century AD Rome.
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Brilliant, timeless historical fiction.
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
Bizarre yet oddly believable and unimaginably clever.
Holes by Louis Sachar
A tour de force of interwoven plot lines and rich characterizations.
Anything by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
I know this is cheating, but I can't possibly limit myself to Slaughterhouse Five or Breakfast of Champions or Sirens of Titans or...
Pompeii by Richard Harris
You are there! No, I swear, it really is like you're there!

Okay, that's my eight. Of course, this isn't even close to a comprehensive list, but it's a pretty good start.

The meme also calls for me to tag eight other people, but since almost everyone I know online has been tagged recently on this one, I'm going to leave it to anyone who wants to do the eight random facts meme to do it on their blog and then leave a comment for me letting me know you did so I can come read it.

Also, in a quick bit of news, Jackie Barbosa launched her own blog today. She needed a place to push her books under her own name :). She'll be posting on Mondays beginning next week, while I'll be posting here on Fridays and at the Mavens on Tuesdays. We've decided we're taking the remainder of the week (Wednesday and Thursdays) off to write!

Golden Heart Eligibility Update

2007-10-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let y'all know that I finally got a definitive answer from RWA regarding my eligility (or lack thereof) for the Golden Heart. Unfortunately, I've been asked not to share the exact nature of the answer I received.

What I am at liberty to share, however, is that if you are uncertain as to whether your published book qualifies as a "novella" under the rules or have any other reason to wonder whether or not you are eligible, you should email contests@rwanational.org.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled Friday madness.

We Had Joy, We Had Fun, We Had Caesar in the Sun

2007-10-03T13:37:00.000-07:00

I am sad to report that, a little over a half an hour ago, I found our elderly cat, Caesar, dead on the back patio. I was not especially surprised, and in fact, I'd been checking on him about every hour since we got up this morning because I was concerned that he was going downhill fast. He didn't look well yesterday at all, but seemed better this morning. Still, he didn't eat much for breakfast, so...

All in all, I'll confess to being selfishly glad he died of natural causes at home, lying in the sun in his own backyard. I dreaded reaching the day we'd have to put him in a box and take him to the vet to be euthanized while he cried in the car. That would have been much more traumatic for all of us, I think.

He was a lovely, wonderful cat. Always friendly and loving. And he had a long, happy life. For that, I will be eternally grateful.

Caesar, b. May 1990, d. October 2007
May he rest in love, peace, and harmony

Heartless

2007-10-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

I wasn't planning to enter the Golden Heart this year. I simply don't have any manuscripts that are in contest-ready format all the way through to the end. But I did think I might want to enter next year if I hadn't sold anything significant enough to achieve PAN status by that time.

It turns out, however, that I shall be forever heartless. Cobblestone Press has received recognition from RWA as a non-Vanity/non-Subsidy publisher (yay!) and, although I haven't earned the $1,000 minimum required for PAN eligibility, for purposes of the Golden Heart, I am now considered a published author.

I have to admit to feeling a bit dumbstruck by this. Because Cobblestone wasn't a recognized publisher at the time I submitted Carnally Ever After and because the story was well under novel length (and even shorter than a standard novella), it simply didn't occur to me that I would be giving up my eligibility to ever enter the Golden Heart by selling it. I'm not sure I wouldn't have sold it even if I'd known, but I certainly factored maintaining my "unpublished" status into the equation when I made that decision.

And for most chapter contests, I'm still clearly eligible as an unpublished author. The rules for most of these contests either clearly specify that you must not be published in "novel-length" (which means 40,000 words and up) or that you must not be PAN eligible. On both counts, I still qualify.

But the Golden Heart eligibility rules for published/unpublished are much less generous:

The Golden Heart contest is open to writers who have not accepted a publishing offer from a non-Subsidy, non-Vanity Publisher for a novel or novella by the contest entry deadline. Entrant must retain all rights to the entry and not have granted any of them to a publisher or any other party by the contest entry deadline.

Now, it's still not 100% clear to me that I'm ineligible because I'm not sure what word count constitutes the line between a novella and a short story. A publisher author of short stories is apparently considered unpublished. So if Carnally Ever After is considered a short story by virtue of being under 20,000 words (which is often the word-count I see associated with novellas), then even if I were to earn $1,000 from it, I believe I'd still be eligible for the Golden Heart. (I did email RWA for clarification. I haven't heard back yet.)

It Was the Worst of Times, It Was the Best of Times

2007-10-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

Warning: This story has nothing to do with writing. Unless you consider the fact that I'm writing it, of course!

This is a tale of three kitties.

Target and Hunter are siblings and are probably about a year old. I don't know exactly how old they are because they were strays given to us as very tiny kittens last November. I think they were roughly four to five weeks old when we got them, so working backwards from when they came to us, they'll be a year old sometime this month.

The third cat, Caesar, is seventeen and a half and fading pretty fast. His hind legs are arthritic and can hardly support him. Though he eats well, he is very bony. He has a constant runny nose. We know the day we'll have to put him to sleep is coming soon, but we keep nursing him along because he still seems to get some enjoyments out of life and doesn't appear to be in pain.

(This backstory/infodump is all going to become important. Trust me!)

Friday night, I came home from a function at my kids' school around 8:30. It was dark, but as I pulled into the driveway, I could see Caesar sitting off to one side and Target and Hunter on the other. Caesar stood up and began ambling, slowly, toward the car, but I figured he was smart enough (after seventeen years!) not to get to close. I stopped at the bottom of the drive and got out to open the garage door.

As soon as I exited my minivan, I heard a cat wailing in pain and/or fear. I looked around the other side of the car and discovered to my utter horror that my poor Caesar's had in fact gotten too close and one of his hind legs was trapped beneath the rear wheel. I rushed back into the driver's seat and rolled the wheel off his leg, thinking to myself that NOW I was surely going to have to take him to have him put down because I must have crushed his leg beyond repair.

I got back out and ran around to pick him up, only to discover that he had gotten up and walked away! The leg that had been trapped beneath the car was gimpier than before, but not apparently much worse for wear. I picked him up and felt the bones, figuring he'd howl in pain if it were broken, but he didn't protest. I put him back down and opened the garage door. He walked in, looking for his dinner.

I couldn't believe it, but of course, I was incredibly relieved.

I pulled the van into the garage and called for Target and Hunter to come in. (We always bring the cats in at night because we have lost multiple cats over the years to the coyotes in our neighborhood.) They wouldn't come and I knew why. They'd been frightened by Caesar's howling. I tried several more times before we went to bed, but we ultimately decided there was no choice but to leave them out for the night and hope for the best.

But on Saturday morning, only Hunter showed up for breakfast. We were worried, but not overly concerned until we noticed parts of a half-eaten animal carcass in the lawn. At first, I thought it was a rabbit and figured Hunter and Target had killed and eaten it (since they've been known to do that), but when Target still hadn't turned up by late morning, my husband looked a little closer at the remaining fur.

"It looks like tabby, doesn't it?" he asked me.

I had to agree, it did.

"And look at these feet. They have claws like a cat."

I had to agree, they did.

And so, we figured, that was that. The coyotes had gotten Target in the night. I had the unenviable task of picking up my oldest son from his best friend's house, where he'd spent the night, and explaining how I had essentially killed his cat. He cried and cried when I told him.

It was shaping up to be the worst day of my life.

Later in the afternoon, I came across a dose of tapeworm medication and, knowing Caesar was infested with them and they were probably adding ot his overall decline, I decided to give him the medication. He took it readily enough, but around 4pm, he didn't look very well and was panting as though he were in pain.

My son started crying. "He's suffering, Mom. We should take him and have him put to sleep right now."

I could only shake my head. How could we lose two cats in one day? I just didn't think we could handle it, emotionally.

Cooler heads prevailed and Caesar started doing better once we moved him out of the sun and got him some water. We theorize that the medication had probably started to work and was giving him a bit of an upset stomach, but that it passed quickly. By the time we were getting ready to leave for dinner at my mother-in-law's house, Caesar was eating his dinner and looking as well as we've seen him in a while.

One bullet dodged.

My son went to bring Hunter in for the night while his friend headed out the front door to walk home. A few seconds later, the friend came back in with a cat in his arms and a very puzzled look on his face.

"Doesn't this look like Target?" he asked.

I looked at the cat. "That's because it IS Target!"

We all crowded around, scarcely able to believe it. Somehow, that rotten cat had managed to stay out of sight ALL DAY LONG! We now assume that the dead animal in the lawn was, as I originally believed, a rabbit and that the cats killed and ate it during the night. It was quite a large rabbit, so it's likely Target simply wasn't hungry enough to be bothered to come in when called for breakfast. (Maybe he was too full to get up!)

And so, after all the worry and fear, we still have three cats!

To top off the "best of times" part of the weekend, I learned that Darcy received second place in the Maggies in the Historical category and India received Honorable Mention. Way to go, ladies!

Also, Carnally Ever After got a pretty nice review from Fallen Angel Reviews. Check it out!

Jesus Saves; Jacqueline Apparently Does Not

2007-09-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

Warning: Do not read this post if you are easily offended by religious humor. While I think this joke is perfectly inoffensive (not to mention very funny), you may feel differently.

So, in my other life, I work for a software development company. Which means I work with a lot of programmers. And that's how I came to hear this joke years ago, one I admit having retold many times because I love it so much.

Jesus challenged Satan to an 8-hour programming contest. Whoever had written the best code at the end of that time would be the winner, with God serving as the judge.
Both Jesus and the devil programmed furiously for hours with God keeping an eye out for cheating. Just as the allotted time was coming to a close, the power went out.
"Well, that's it," said God. "I hereby declare Jesus as the winner."
"But how can you know?" Satan protested. "You never read his code!"
God just smiled. "Ah, but you see, Jesus saves."

I recalled this joke yesterday when I came home from work, opened my work-in-progress, and discovered it to be missing two whole scenes! Nearly 2,000 words, vanished!

Now, I'm sure I saved many times during the writing of those scenes and when I finished them and closed the file. But there was no getting around it--the file had been resaved without those scenes, though I have no idea how. (I suspect either children or gremlins.) I was able to get one scene back because I'd sent it out in email to my CPs, but the second, which wasn't quite completed, is gone forever.

/Weeps

I suppose losing portions of files is an occupational hazard for the modern writer. Even if you save religiously, things can go awry. Crashes and power outages aside, I'm sure all of us have probably made the mistake of saving the wrong version of a file, deleting a file we intended to keep, and so forth. Nobody's perfect (except maybe Jesus).

But I do pine for a piece of software my boss had on his Mac years ago. It was called Ghostwriter and it created a file of every single keystroke he typed that was saved constantly. And while it was usually filled a garbled mess of text, he never lost anything important. He could always go back to that file and reconstruct whatever he had written throughout the course of the day.

What about you? Ever accidentally deleted or saved over a scene you'd just written (and worse, loved)? Tell me your horror stories so we can commiserate.

P.S. Let's all cross our fingers for Maggie finalists Darcy Burke and India Carolina, who are in Atlanta for the Moonlight and Magnolias conference. I hope they're having a rousing good time. Woot, woot!

Getting Back on Track...and Derailed Again.

2007-09-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

After my dismal failure at being a full-time writer last week, I started this week armed with your suggestions (thanks!), a positive attitude and a healthy dose of determination. And it seemed to work. Since Monday, I've managed to write about 2,500 words, which for me borders on light speed.

Unfortunately, I also got called into the office today to observe/teach a class, which promises to derail me for the rest of the week. I would try to write during lunch and breaks but, er, I'm in the middle of something pretty sexy and I'm just not sure I want to risk my coworkers or company clients looking over my shoulder. So, I'm afraid there won't be any new scenes today, though I might get a break tomorrow afternoon if I'm lucky.

In other news, I took a long, deep breath and decided to run the new opening of Unbridled through the Emily and at least one other contest. Some of you may remember I'd started on a fairly significant re-engineering of the story a while back on the heels of some rather worrying contest feedback, but then ran out of steam and set the project aside to let things percolate (or fester, as the case may be). The old version of the opening then went on to final with excellent scores in the Put Your Heart in a Book contest (final rankings out late next week), which of course made me wonder whether I was reinventing the wheel for new good reason.

But, I've since reread both versions and decided I really prefer the new one (and love the hook I wrote to go with it, which I can't say about the old version of the story), but feel like I need some good feedback/comments on it from people who don't have familiaritis (as all the Mavens and a lot of my other writing friends do!) with the manuscript to see what's working and what isn't.

So, what are you up to this week? (Those of you who haven't heard Ann Aguirre's great news should pop over to her blog to check it out and congratulate with her. She rocks!)

P.S. Did you watch House last night? Did you miss Foreman, Cameron, and Chase? Should Dr. Cuddy be wearing dresses like that if she expects to be treated like a professsional? Discuss!

The Perverse Power of "Supposed To"

2007-09-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

After the insanity that was my work life for the first two weeks of September, I took this week off with the express intention of writing at least one scene per day each day. With no paying work to be done, the kids in school, and my only other obligation being to catch up on the housecleaning I've been letting slide for ages, it should have been easy.

But did I accomplish my goal? Um, no! Sadly, I haven't even managed to finish ONE scene this week (though today's not over yet, so there's still hope :->). Eek!

Yesterday, whilst chatting with my IM bud and fellow Cobblestone author Emma Petersen, I had an epiphany. Part of the reason I am having trouble writing is because it's what I'm supposed to be doing.

You see, when what I'm supposed to be doing is my paying work, I find it terribly easy to avoid it by writing. But when what I'm supposed to be doing is writing...hmmm, it just became work. And so, what do I do? Avoid it! (You do not want to know how much daytime TV I've watched this week. SCARY! And, er, I've actually vacuumed and cleaned the bathrooms TWICE! Something is definitely very, very wrong with this picture.)

For a long time, I've pined for the day I can give up the day gig and write full-time. But after this week, I'm not so sure. If the only thing I was supposed to do, day in and day out, was writing, would I do it? Or would I spend all my time putting it off in favor of something else, even something as plainly unpleasant as cleaning the bathroom or watching endless reruns of Law & Order: SVU?

Obviously, I haven't got the answer for this conundrum. But perhaps you do! Do share!

Playing Catch Up

2007-09-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

Well, after almost two weeks away from the blog, I hardly know where to begin. Some of you may already have heard most of "news" on the Mavens blog, so bear with me if this is all old hat to you.

First, the final results of the OVRWA's Summer Sizzle contest were announced a couple of weeks ago. Darcy's Glorious finished first in the Spicy category and Carnally Ever After finished first in the Sexy category. It was really exciting and gratifying to share my first contest win with Darcy!

The editor who judged the Sexy category (Teresa Stevens at Red Sage Publishing) also requested a full manuscript, but since I sold it to Cobblestone shortly after entering the contest, I can't rightly send it to her. I am hoping to send her another project with a "leg up", though.

Also very exciting, Carnally Ever After debuted at #2 on Cobblestone's bestseller list for the month of August. A big thank you to all my readers for making that possible!

Last, but not least, please give Erica Ridley a warm round of applause. She was a triple finalist (in three categories) in the TARA contest. The final results came in last week, and she finished with two seconds, a first, and a request for a full. Awesome work!

I'll be back on Wednesday with a more substantial post, but until then, I'm catching my breath (and cleaning the house!).

What have you all been up to while I was gone?

Sorry to be AWOL

2007-09-05T13:22:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to let you know that the blog will be dark until the week after next. My company's conference is next week and I'm knee-deep in preparation madness this week. Next week, I'll actually be at the conference all day.

Take care and I'll see you in mid-September!

What's on Tap This Week

2007-08-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

I'm busy blogging, but not so much here!

I'll be posting at Romantic Inks today through Wednesday as my alter ego, Jackie Barbosa. And tomorrow, I'll have my regular post at the Manuscript Mavens. This week's topic will be ebook promotion--which I'm still getting a handle on!

Since I'm leaving for a family camping trip this coming Friday afternoon, I'll probably wind up skipping Friday as well, but I do expect we'll have something fun for you at the Mavens' site, so stay tuned over there!

Getting with the Program

2007-08-22T15:57:00.000-07:00

Warning: This post is not writing-related. Those who want crafty, witty writing advice had best hie on over to the Manuscript Mavens.

Back in the 20th century BC (Before Children, not Before Christ), I was in pretty good physical condition. In high school and on through college, grad school, and the early years of my marriage, I swam. A lot. Competitively in high school, then mostly for fun and fitness.

But AC (you got that one, right?), I pretty much fell off the wagon. Oh, I tried to get back into the habit of swimming on a regular basis, but my life just didn't seem to allow for it. I tried other forms of exercise (biking, walking, etc.), but I'll admit that I simply don't like any of those activities enough to do them religiously.

This week, however, with the kids back in school and the weather very warm, I've managed to carve out a half an hour or so to jump in the backyard pool and do some laps. And it feel fabulous. I'm still very out of shape (I managed a mere 300 yards yesterday and 400 today), but I'm hoping it doesn't take me too long to get a fair amount of my former mojo back. I used to swim 1,500-2,000 yards 3-4 days a week, but I don't expect to get up to those kind of distances in my 10-yards-per-lap pool--I'd get dizzy first. Not to mention that the unheated pool is going to get a bit too chilly to keep up swimming much past mid-October. So, I'm expecting to have to buck up for a YMCA or gym club membership so I can keep swimming through the winter, but I am determined to do it.

So, what's your program goal this week?

Bonus Post

2007-08-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

Darcy's already outed my good news in the comments on the post down below, but in case you haven't read them, go on over to the Manuscript Mavens and check it out!

Sending My Baby out into the World

2007-08-20T14:37:00.001-07:00

And no, I'm not talking about my book this time, but my youngest son, who today started kindergarten.

Oddly enough, I didn't feel particularly sentimental when I sent my older two children to school for the first time. This time, I do. It's probably because I know this is the last time I'll have a child starting kindergarten. And I know this is just one more in a long string of lasts.

With my oldest, everything was (and still is) a first. Firsts are fun and exciting (and occasionally terrifying). With the middle child, all the major milestones are more like a second chance to get right what we did wrong the first time. But with the youngest, all the milestones are just last times. And lasts are...well...still exciting, but a little sad. The nostalgia sets in pretty much right away with lasts!

I suppose it's fitting, then, that this last coincides, more or less, with a first. I didn't know what to expect when it came to being published for the first time and it's been all the things a first usually is: exciting, fun, and a little terrifying. Happily, everyone who's read it so far and been thoughtful enough to post here or send me an email has apparently liked the story (yay!) and I haven't gotten any "Oh my God, this is the worst thing I ever read!" messages, so I'm feeling quite pleased. I'm sure someone will eventually find fault with it, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying the ride.

So, what do you feel more sentimental about: firsts or lasts? Have any exciting milestones, personal or professional, to report? Do tell!

Release Day Par-TAY!

2007-08-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

It's official. Carnally Ever After is available for sale at Cobblestone Press! Just click the picture below to be redirected!

For more "insider" information about the book, check out my posts today at:

And please, enjoy!

Better Late Than Never and...Wet Again!

2007-08-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

Busy day today, but at last I have a few minutes to post.

First, thanks to everyone for the encouragement and suggestions of "things to do" over the past couple of days. I really appreciate them. And while I think the only one I actually took in any way was Isabel's (although I didn't watch a movie, but watched several episodes of The Closer instead--God, I love Brenda Leigh Johnson!), they were all good ones and none of them were housework, thank heavens!

But the happy thing is, I've written about 2,000 words in the past three days. I realized I was forcing a project I'm not really ready to do, and that's what was making me miserable. Setting it aside in favor of something else (even something that wasn't really talking to me beforehand) brought the voices back. So, yeah, it means I'm not going to be getting my requested partial out any time soon, but better to not send it at all then send something that isn't ready for prime time because I'm not ready to write it yet.

Those of you who are looking forward to the release of Carnally Ever After in two days (and if you are, I thank you profusely!) may be pleased to know that the project I decided to pick up is the sequel, Carnally Yours (retitled because Kelly Krysten got the title of CEA wrong in a comment once and I loved the "wrong" title for the first book far more than the original title for the second one). I'm about 4,000 words into what I think will wind up being about a 20,000 word story and having fun with it, which is the whole point to this writing thing (for me, anyway).

Finally, if you want a laugh, you need to swing by Sara Lindsey's blog and then go hang out some more at Brotherhood 2.0. OMG, those guys slay me.

P.S. Unbridled in Your Pants

Dry Spell

2007-08-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

Rather than attempt to explain my current predicament, I'm going to ask you all for your tips and tricks. What do you do when you experience a writing dry spell?

I don't want to call it writer's block--that would imply that I want to write but can't. My problem is more global than that. I just don't feel a compelling need to write. Which, given that I've scarcely been able to keep my fingers off the keyboard for more than year is more than a little alarming.

The voices seem to have gone on vacation. What do I do with myself until they come back?

P.S. Please don't say housework!

Apologies and Shameless Promotion

2007-08-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I didn't post on Wednesday. I have a good reason, though--I had a very nasty summer cold that laid me low for a couple of days with a 100+ degree fever, aches, and chills. Who can blog in that condition? Well, maybe you can, but I can't.

Now, onto shameless promotion. Carnally Ever After will be released by Cobblestone Press next Friday. Just in case you haven't already decided to buy it, here are the top ten reasons you should:

10. No trees were harmed in the making of this book. (Seriously. To my knowledge, there's never been a printed copy of this manuscript.)
9. It has a great title.
8. It has a gorgeous cover.
7. The heroine is not a perfect size six beauty.
6. The hero wants her anyway. A lot.
5. And he's hot, too.
4. The cucumber scene.
3. The love scenes.
2. Because you know you want to.
1. Because I asked. Pretty please?

Brand New Day

2007-08-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

And a brand new laptop!

Maybe this isn't big news to you, but it's big to me. Over the weekend, my husband and I agreed it was time to buy me my own, personal laptop.

For years, I've been doing everything on my company-issued laptop--everything from "real" work to writing to blogging to upkeep of my iPod. Over the past few months, however, the company has been tightening security policy (and for good reason, I might add!). The rules keep getting stricter, so that now, every time I even plug in a Flash drive that's not issued by the company (to say nothing of my iPod), I'm busting the security policy.

As if that weren't worrisome enough, however, I got an email last week telling me that my laptop is one of the 100 oldest computers in the company and they generously want to give me a new one. My immediate response? NOOOOOOOOOOO!

See, my computer is my brain. And not just my work brain, but my personal life brain. It's not just my manuscript files and so forth that I fear losing: it's everything from my email address book to last year's taxes to photos to... Well, you get it.

So, knowing the company was going to take away both my work brain and my personal brain in one fell swoop AND that I didn't want to keep breaking company rules just to make my life easier, it became real apparent that the time had come to get a new computer, and on Saturday, we did the deed.

I'm still in the process of moving stuff from the old work laptop to this one, and some things don't seem to want to come over (if anyone has a brilliant suggestion for making the Windows Mail import manager see my old Outlook 6 DBX files, let me know. It's driving me bonkers!), but by and large, it's going pretty smoothly.

And at long last, my work life and my private life can be decoupled!

So, what did YOU do this weekend for fun?

UPDATED: Bad, Jackie, bad! I forgot one very important super-squee for my critique partner, Darcy, whose manuscript Glorious is a finalist in the very prestigious 2007 Maggie Contest (Georgia Romance Writers). Yay, Darcy!

The Official Release Date...

2007-08-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

...for Jackie Barbosa's Carnally Ever After is August 17! Cobblestone's website still says the release date is TBA, but I have it on good authority that it will actually be out two weeks from today.

I'm really excited and, yes, a little nervous about this release. It's a little like getting undressed in front of a new boyfriend you really, really like for the first time. (And since I've been with my husband for almost 19 years, I have to say that a) I haven't sufficient recent experience with this situation to be certain it's the correct metaphor and b) I would probably be even more nervous about that than I think I would be!)

To read an excerpt that will give you flavor for the story, click here. (If it doesn't work now, try again in a couple of hours. The files are in the process of being uploaded to the site and may not be there just yet!) And enjoy!

Just Call Me Calamity Jacq!

2007-08-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not usually motivated to post about disasters, but this is different.

You see, my husband just called me to tell me about this bridge collapse in Minneapolis: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20079534/?GT1=10252. You may recall that I was in Minneapolis (or at least in St. Paul and the surrounding areas) just last month.

Obviously, it's freaky when weird stuff happens in places you've been recently, but what makes this doubly freaky is that two weeks ago, this happened in Dallas where, yes, I had been only a week or so before.

Coincidence, I ask you? I don't know, but if I were you, I think I'd hope I wasn't visiting my home town any time soon!

Mission Accomplished!

2007-08-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

I finished the rewrite of Chapter One a day earlier than I hoped and am preparing to dive into Chapter Two. Since I am much too busy to write a scintillatingly interesting post about writing, I'll give you some writing instead.

Here's the new first page of Unbridled:

Berkshire, England – March 1839

Lady Rosalind Brighton’s first thought on seeing the man who awaited her in the drawing room was that she would marry him in a trice. The second, equally absurd, was that he’d forgot the flowers.

“I am sorry to have kept you waiting, sir,” Rosalind said from just inside the doorway. “I was on my rounds when you arrived.”

His head turned at the sound of her voice—breathier and more apologetic than she’d intended—and his eyes widened a fraction beneath black, slanted brows. As she crossed the gold Aubusson carpet, one of the few remnants of her estate’s former opulence she had not yet been forced to sell, he rose from the white and blue damask settee.

“So said your housekeeper, my lady.”

By some miracle, she neither stumbled nor gawked despite her surprise. He was Irish. Though muted, his Gaelic lilt was unmistakable. The low, vibrant tenor rolled across her skin like a sandpapery caress.

Other facts crowded her senses in rapid succession. His face and hands were tanned. His dark, wavy hair grazed the top of his white cravat, unevenly cut and a trifle too long for fashion. And though she’d thought him tall, at closer range, she realized he was not exceptionally so, but only seemed that way due to the broadness of his shoulders and trimness of his waist, both accentuated by the strained fit of his black wool coat.

Not another gentlemanly suitor, then, but a common working man in his Sunday best.

Except that there was nothing remotely common about him.

So, are you hooked?

Bad Blogger!

2007-07-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

No, not the software, me! I missed Friday and almost missed today.

But the truth is, for the moment, I have nothing interesting to tell you. I'm slogging my way through the first chapter of Unbridled, using some old stuff, adding lots of new stuff. My progress is slow but reasonably steady and I'm hoping with a little luck and lot of stamina to have the new first chapter completed by Wednesday. I'm hoping things will come easier after that (famous last words).

So, what are you up to this week?

And the Winner Is...

2007-07-25T12:17:00.000-07:00

Obviously Unbridled, by a full body length.

Which is a good thing, because I have to admit, it's my favorite of the bunch, too. Not to say I disliked any of the others, but I feel like Unbridled has the most punch from a standpoint of being both unique and hitting on multiple story aspects simultaneously. (This is a hot romance--or I like to think so, anyway--so the double entendre works pretty well.)

So, Bill and Tessa now get to duke it out over the prize. However, since Tessa went to National and may very well have a signed copy of the book in question (or so many signed copies of books in general as to be utterly out of additional shelf space), I'll offer it to Bill first. Bill, email me at jacqueline at jacquelinebarbour.com to claim your prize!

And thanks to everyone who participated. This was tons of fun! Or it was for me, anyway!

P.S. Maybe we can rewrite the first chapter by vote, too?

Name That Book, Part 2

2007-07-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

I know I said I'd post this Friday, but, well, life happens.

I've narrowed down the list to the ten I think would work best (in alphabetical order) and now it's your turn to vote. Looks like Isabel, Maggie, Kelly, Tessa, Bill, and Bev are in the running for the prize. (There's one in there that I have to attribute to both Tessa and Bill, since Tessa suggested Unbridled Passion and Bill suggest Unbridled Filly. But I cut it down to one word. So if that one wins, I reckon we'll have to flip a coin for the prize.)

A Tantalizing Offer
Lady of Scandal
Passion's Prize
Reins of Desire
Scandal's Offer
Sensual Surrender
Sin's Reward
The Greatest Prize
The Bridal Path
Unbridled

All right, vote away. You can vote by number or the actual name. (And I'm only counting one vote per customer, so stuffing the ballot box won't help ya!)

Name That Book!

2007-07-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned on Monday, I have been struggling forever with finding a good title for my first manuscript. It began life with the title Living in Sin, but the feedback I got from contests and other sources was that it was both misleading and a little cliched. After a lot of discussion with the Mavens, I retitled it A Scandalous Liaison earlier this year, but even though I liked the idea behind it, I wasn't sure it completely described my book, and when I pitched it to Elaine Spencer of the Knight Agency at National, the first words out of her mouth were, "Well, it is a little cliche."

/Sigh

So, since National, I've reworked the hero and heroine's underlying motivations and pieces of the story a bit and written a new hook for the book which I hope is sexier and catchier than what I had before. Here it is:

After a disastrous near-marriage to the man who took her virginity but wanted only her fortune, Lady Rosalind Brighton has sworn off men, money, and matrimony. She plans to secure her future by managing her thoroughbred breeding estate. Unfortunately, Society doesn’t approve of a woman running such a business and the former estate manager has absconded with most of her operating capital. Rosalind could gain access to her dowry by wedding one of the impoverished lordlings who regularly pop up on her doorstep, but she prays for a miracle instead.

Her miracle comes in the form of England’s most renowned—and most dashing—racehorse trainer. Determined to uncover a scheme to run horses under false pedigrees, Patrick O’Brien makes Lady Rosalind a tantalizing offer: he’ll lend her his credibility and training skills in exchange for complete control over her horses and half the profits. His plan progresses splendidly but for one complication—the passion that simmers beneath the surface of his every encounter with the delectable Lady Rosalind.

After weeks of smoldering glances and increasingly intimate caresses, Lady Rosalind makes a tantalizing offer of her own: she’ll take him as her lover for the duration of their contract. But Patrick’s an old hand at such indiscretions and he won’t be another aristocratic lady’s plaything. He’ll have Rosalind as his wife or not at all. So begins a battle of wits and sensual temptation, with surrender the greatest prize.

So, now it's your turn. What title would you give this book? What would make you pick it up off a bookstore shelf and turn it over to read the back cover copy? Help! Remember, there's a signed copy of Barbara Pierce's Wicked Under the Covers in it for the poster with the best entry!

What a Ride!

2007-07-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

I'm back from Dallas and, wow, what a ride! I had the most incredible time. I also didn't sleep much, which accounts for why I'm still a wreck today.

I got two requests from my pitches, which was nice, though I have to say the best thing about pitching was discovering it's not nearly as intimidating to do when the person sitting there is someone who's sole purpose for being there is to listen to your pitch. It was, oddly, way harder to do it in a hotel room for the Mavens and Courtney, India, Sara, and Tessa (with whom we had a "pitch giggle-fest" on Friday night).

The most useful workshop I attended was presented by Leah Hultenshmidt of Dorchester and an author, whose name I have shamefully forgotten. It was about how you can use title and premise to hook an agent, editor, or reader before they've even read a page. I've always known I have a title problem with A Scandalous Liaison/Living in Sin/Whatever the Heck It's Called and I know I need to fix that before I start actively cold-querying it. To that end, I'll be running a contest later in the week asking for title suggestions. Whoever's suggestion I use (or build upon) will receive an autographed copy of Barbara Pierce's Wicked Under the Covers. But before I can start, I think I need to post you all a short synopsis/hook, because it's awfully hard to come up with the right name for a book you haven't read and know nothing about. (I came up with a slew of great book titles immediately after leaving the session. Too bad I couldn't simultaneously come up with the stories to go along with them!)

For more about my fun, fun times at the conference, hop on over to the Manuscript Mavens blog, where I have a much longer (though by no means complete) post up (today's not usually mine, but Erica and I swapped).

See you Wednesday!

The Vacation Report

2007-07-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I'm a few days late. As always seems to happen, it took me longer to right the ship after getting home than I expected. It's amazing how much work a house that's been empty for ten days requires to become livable again!

So, for those who asked, we had a fabulous time in Minnesota. Honestly, I think this was the best vacation my kids ever had in their lives. They went fishing, trap-shooting, and spear-throwing. (Well, the oldest did the trap-shooting and spear-throwing; the younger ones watched.) They saw wildlife galore: deer, a fox, a family of bald eagles, beavers. And they had an entire day at the amusement park in the world-famous Mall of America. Life was good. They're already talking about going back next summer.

The only drawbacks to the entire trip were the mosquito bites (mine are still itching!) and the fact that I didn't write for ten days. The not writing for ten days was particularly horrible because now I'm gearing up to leave for Dallas and the RWA National Conference on Wednesday afternoon, which means not much writing since I've gotten back, either. Instead, I'm thinking about what to wear and whether I should actually pitch A Scandalous Liaison or not, and whether my business cards stand any chance of arriving before I leave.

In view of this lunacy, I leave you now with a few pictures from lovely, mosquito-infested Minnesota.

My aunt and uncle's farmhouse

The boat and the lake

Out on the lake

The BIG one (12")

The triumphant fisherfolk return!

On Vacation

2007-06-27T12:07:00.000-07:00

The blog and I will both be on vacation until July 6th. I'm in Minnesota with my husband and kids, staying with my aunt and uncle at their beautiful old lakefront farmhouse. Wonderfully relaxing and regenerating, which I find I'm needing to gear up for National.

So, see you all next Friday. In the meantime, feel free to post a comment and let us know what you're doing with your summer.

Manuscript Mavens Launch Party Jamboree

2007-06-22T08:36:00.001-07:00

Over on the Manuscript Mavens blog today, we're having our official launch party today. The 100th commenter on our collective post will receive a critique on the chapter of her (or his!) choice up to 20 pages from all four mavens.

But if you think you might be too faint of heart for a multi-Maven crit, never fear. There's more. We're also giving away three one-Maven critiques to three random commenters who also post to their blogs about the contest and link to us. Go forth and pimp, my friends!

Speaking of pimping, my first post is scheduled for next Tuesday, and I plan to talk about book and self-promotion. Since I'll be on a plane to Minnesota for a family vacation by the time the post goes up, I won't be able to answer your questions in comments until after I return, but I promise not to ignore you. I'll do a follow-up post in July (right before we all leave for National!) to answer 'em.

Your Editor Is Your Best Friend

2007-06-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

Lacey has a great blog post up today about crits, both giving and receiving. Her musings inspired me to write a little about taking criticism once you've actually sold your book and have an editor critiquing your work.

Now, Cobblestone has a policy of doing three edit rounds on all their publications. Which, if you ask me, is great. I don't want my story to be published with some totally goofball error in it that could have easily been corrected if it had been properly corrected. And I've only just finished the first round of edits on Carnally Ever After, so my experience with the whole process is (so far) fairly limited.

Now, you have to understand that I'd been warned by both Ericka Scott and Deanna Lee that at least one author has compared Cobblestone's editing process to an anal probe. (Aside: I wonder how many weird hits that's going to produce from Google searches?) So I was more than a trifle anxious about what I was going to find when I got my first round of edits. What would my editor find wrong with my story? What if she wanted me to change major plot points or characterization? What if she wanted me to add or remove scenes? Worst of all, what if she hated it?

You'd think the fact that Cobblestone wanted the book in the first place would be enough to give me confidence in my abilities as a writer and in my story's charm and wonderfulness, but somehow, the thought of putting myself in the hands of yet another critiquer turned my knees to jelly.

When the file showed up in my inbox on Saturday night, I studiously ignored it. I just wasn't ready to burst the bubble of happiness I'd been floating on since I sold the story with whatever I was going to find in red inside that document. I told myself I'd wait until Monday and then tackle it like it was my job, not my heart.

Which was really not the brightest idea I've ever had. Because instead of sleeping Saturday night, I tossed and turned and worried over what was in that file. (Have I ever mentioned that I am a terrible control freak and an inveterate worrier? I can drive myself insane over the stupidest little things. I once tossed and turned all night because I forgot to put a bill in the mail the previous day. And it wasn't even due yet. Talk about stupid!)

But I digress. (Isn't that what blogs are for?)

So, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, I got up on Sunday morning and opened the email. To my pleased surprise, the cover letter said my editor thought Carnally Ever After was a great story (with an exclamation point, no less) and that she found one scene in particular worthy of an ROFL.

Hmmmm, that didn't sound too bad.

Cautiously optimistic, I opened the attached file. And yes, it was covered in red marks. Clauses and sentences reorganized. Phrases added or deleted. And the occasional story or word use question (e.g., "Why does the hero think that?" "What's a fall?"). But by and large, the changes my editor suggested were line edits for clarity that I almost universally agreed with. There were a few things I quibbled over or suggested revising in a different way and I also took the opportunity to make a few changes she didn't suggest. Still, nothing scary or terrible. Certainly nothing I could equate to an anal probe, LOL! (The Mavens are way harder on me. But then, maybe that's why there weren't many issues!)

I sent the file back to her early Monday and haven't seen the second round of edits yet. Which means I know the harder edit may be yet to come. Maybe she just wanted to get the small stuff out of the way in the first go-round and address the larger issues in a later edit. All of which means I'm still a little nervous about round two.

All of that said, I know my editor is my best friend when it comes to putting out a story I'll be proud of when it goes to print. So even if the next round of crits is more...well, critical, I hope I can be "big" enough to take them as they're intended--as helpful suggestions to make my book better. Because once she's done with it, there's no going back and fixing the problems. Every little error will be out there for the world to see (and complain about)!

The moral of this little story is that, no matter how hard it is to accept criticism of your work, you're never really finished receiving it. First, you get it from critique partners or contest judges. Then, if you're lucky enough to sell it, you get it from your editor. And finally, you'll get it from your readers, some of whom will probably not luuuuuurve your story as much as you know it deserves to be loved. But that's another blog :->!

Today's question: Have you ever been afraid to look at a critique? Ever get one that was especially good or especially bad? Don't be afraid to share!

The Manuscript Mavens Speak!

2007-06-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

If you have a few extra minutes in your blog rounds, please stop by http://www.manuscriptmavens.com to read the very first post in the new Manuscript Mavens blog. It's going to be loads of fun over there, what with Darcy, Erica, Lacey and one very special Mystery Maven contributing tons of insights and tips and encouragement on writing and writer writer life. I hope you'll join us.

On Friday, we'll launch a "very special contest." Please come play!

I Won the Cover Art Lottery!

2007-06-18T12:54:00.001-07:00

Today would have been my father's 77th birthday if he were still alive. And since yesterday was Father's Day, I was going to write a very touching post about how much I miss my dad, who's probably the only person in my immediate family who would have really gotten my writing obsession. (My sister seems to have gotten over it, although she's only 36, so there's time for it to come back and bite her after she turns 40 like it did me!)

Buuuut, over the weekend, I got the cover art from Cobblestone for Carnally Ever After and it's sooooo gorgeous, I decided I had to share that instead.

Sable Grey did this and I think it's just beautiful. I feel so fortunate to have gotten something I absolutely love on the first try. Totally amazing!

For those of you who love it as much as I do, she also sent a desktop version of the file that I'll post on the Jackie Barbosa site for download (as soon as I figure out how to do that in html, LOL!).

School's Out for Summer

2007-06-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

But not forever.

And I can't decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

You see, every time summer break rolls around, I vacillate between whether I'm sorry school's over or glad.

The pros of school are pretty obvious:

The kids are out of the house for almost six hours every weekday, which gives me plenty of time to work and write without interruption.
It's public school, so it's effectively six hours of free children-out-of-my hair time.

But list of cons, to me, seems much longer:

Homework. (They start giving homework around here in kindergarten. Wait, no, in preschool. It's madness.)
The school's schedule runs our lives. Everything, from the time we get out of bed in the morning to the time we go to bed at night, is driven by when the children must either arrive at or be picked up from school. (Have I mentioned before that I hate schedules?)
Homework.
There is always just enough time after school for the kids to fight with each other and or whine about being bored, but never enough time to do anything really fun or meaningful.
Homework.

So, at least for now, there's no homework and the schedule is nice and loose, just the way I like it. The downside is that I have three kids here to pester me pretty much all day, every day.

And, today, they're all sitting around moping because there's no one to play with but each other. Everyone seems either to have gone away on vacation already or to be busy today.

Will I be happy or sad when school starts again in August? Probably a little of both, just like I am now.

When Contest Feedback Is Actually Useful

2007-06-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

The Mavens (Darcy, Erica, Lacey, and Janice--naughty Janice has no website!) like to tease me about the fact that I rarely read my contest feedback beyond a quick glance at my scoresheets. There are a number of reasons for my reticence to read the comments closely. Primarily, it's that by the time I get the scoresheets back from the contest, I've already revised the portion of the manuscript I submitted so drastically that the comments probably wouldn't be helpful anyway.

But also, I'm always a little afraid to see what these strangers really think of my writing. I don't want my spirit crushed.

And now I know you're laughing, because thus far, my entries have been finalists in 3 of 4 contests. "How can your spirit be crushed by feedback on a FINALING entry, for Pete's sake?" you're asking. (I know final is not a verb in standard English. But it should be, darn it. Like medal in the Olympics.) "What a wimp you are!"

Um, guilty as charged.

The thing that's odd is that I can take blunt, even harsh, criticism from my critique partners and be okay with it. But I think that's because 1) I know and trust them and 2) if I don't agree, I can argue with them. (I'm sure they'll all pipe in and tell you how much I luuuuuurve to argue, LOL.)

By contrast, in contests, I get feedback primarily from strangers (the exception being the editor/agent who judges the final round, but I haven't always gotten feedback from that person beyond a placement) whose credentials I don't really know, but worse, I can't talk to them about it if I don't understand the criticism or to help me figure out how to correct the problem.

Aside: One of the Mavens just got her scoresheets from a contest she didn't final in, and though she was pleased overall with what she got from them, some of the feedback was just...um...wrong and bizarre! I wanted to go find the judges and ask them to justify their ridiculously low scores on some items. (See, I told you I love to argue!)

So why do I keep entering contests, you ask? Well, first of all, I've been entering a lot these past few months because the "official" query season is closed and won't open again until September. (I hear most agents pretty well take the summer off.) This means contests are one of the few ways I have of getting my work into an editor or agent's hands quickly right now. And since I do seem to have a pretty good hit ratio when it comes to finaling, I figure it's not a bad strategy.

But also, of late, I haven't been raping my manuscripts quite as much between contest entries as in the past. In particular, I entered Lady Libertine's first ten pages in the Wisconsin Fab Five and then didn't change a word of those pages in the intervening months. The entry went onto the finals, much to my excitement, since in large part, I'd entered it to find out how judges would react to the story's rather unconventional heroine.

During the same week I received my offer from Cobblestone on Carnally Ever After, I learned that the manuscript wound up placing third overall in the historical category. Fortunately, I was so excited over having a manuscript accepted for publication, I didn't have too much time to be disappointed by the fact that, once again, I was unable to crack the third spot, even with a different book.

Well, last weekend, the scoresheets came in the mail, and after trembling and angsting over reading them, I opened them and had a look. And wow, the feedback was meaningful. Most of the comments were positive, even from the editor who placed it third and passed on requesting the partial (boo :->).

The maximum possible score for this contest was 60. Lady Libertine received one 60, a 59, and a 58 in the first round, all from judges who are published authors (although only one is published by RWA standards). The lowest score came from the RWA published judge, but she said in the comments that she absolutely loved the story and hoped it would be published so she could read the rest. Best of all, everyone who read the entry loved Amelia, the heroine. And that, my friends, was very encouraging because I've really wondered whether I can sell a heroine who's had multiple lovers and enjoyed it in the historical market. Judith Ivory's Sleeping Beauty notwithstanding, it's pretty difficult to find unrepentant sluts in historical romances.

But the other useful thing I got out of their comments was that the final round editor and two of the three judges weren't quite happy with the pace of the first scene. It wasn't that they didn't like the scene or think it started in the wrong place, but rather that it took a bit too long to develop and felt stilted.

At first, I didn't quite get this complaint. After all, when I first wrote the scene, all the Mavens oohed and aahed over how fast-paced and conflict-filled it was (even though it's just a conversation in an office; I do seem to like to start books in offices :->). Then, one of the comments finally sunk in. One of the judges said I had too much stage direction in the scene. Reading it again, she was right. The stage direction distracted from the conversation I was trying to highlight. In addition, I realized there was about a page of dialogue that wasn't contributing anything to the plot. So, I tweaked the scene just a bit, and I'm pleased to say I think it reads better.

Guess we'll find out soon enough, because I'm entering it in the Emerald City Opener!

Web Site Updates

2007-06-12T14:46:00.000-07:00

So, while I'm migrating the Jacqueline Barbour site from its old server (which required me to have ads at the top of the page) to the new one (which doesn't), you might as well go and have a peek at the new Jackie Barbosa site, which I'm happy to say is up and running (thanks to Erica, who is a website guru extraordinaire in addition to being one hell of a writer).

Sorry I Missed You!

2007-06-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

Today turned out to be a little crazier than I expected.

First, my oldest son ended up home sick with a stomach bug that just will not quit. (No vomiting, but lots of discomfort and unhappiness.)

I was SUPPOSED to go into the office for an interview with a prospective employee and a training class, but ended up having to do both by phone. (Very disorienting.)

And finally, I was the last of the Mavens to get to a partial that's supposed to go out to an agent (requested) tomorrow. So I HAD to get through that.

Blogging sort of slipped to the bottom of the list. But it's good to be busy. I think!

Thank You!

2007-06-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

This has been a completely crazy week in every way (mostly in a good way!), so I haven't time for a proper post this afternoon, I'm afraid.

But I wanted to say thank you again to everyone who's dropped by with congratulations on my sale to Cobblestone. Yesterday, I finished all my initial homework from them and last night, I received notice of my editor assignment. It's all happening so quickly, my head is spinning.

Before I sign off for the weekend, though, I want to say a special hello to Janice, the so-called "Silent Maven," who is a sometime member of our Manuscript Mavens critique group. In addition to coming out of lurkdom to post a comment here, Janice has also been informed that she's the first place finisher in a very prestigious contest. I won't spill all the beans until the announcement has been made "for real," but I'm just so pleased for her.

I also want to wave to Clisby, a friend of mine from my Usenet parenting group days. Thanks for stopping by, Clisby, and yeah, swing by more often, will ya :->?

Happy weekend, ya'll!

Thirteen Things I Did on My Birthday

2007-06-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

Obviously, one thing I did not do on my birthday (yesterday) was my usual Wednesday blog post. Because of that, in lieu of Lyric Thursday, I'm going to do a Thursday Thirteen this week. Here goes!

Finally took cats to the vet to be neutered. Cats were not happy. Ever tried putting a cat in a carrier with his legs splayed out to the side? Very interesting.

Redesigned my website. I love the new look and, better still, it matches the business cards I ordered for National. How slick is that? Now I just have to get it moved over to another server so I can lose the auto ads at the top of the page!

Worked on the design for the Jackie Barbosa website. I love the look of this one, too, but I'm not quite ready to launch it yet. Check out the banner graphic:
Angsted over writing 12-word and 25-word loglines for Carnally Ever After. (Have I mentioned how much I suck at loglines? Oh, yeah, I have!)

Angsted over writing 50-word hook and 50-word synopsis for Carnally Ever After.

Picked up minivan from the dealer, where it had been for two days to have the rack replaced. (Scary to realize I was driving around with a bad rack for a month or more.)

Discovered cats have tapeworms. Ick!

Picked up cats from vet. Cats not happy. Much hissing and meowing and clawing of cat carriers ensued on the way home.

Belatedly realized daughter's vague stomach complaints over the past few weeks could be due to tapeworm infestation. Double ick!

Went out to dinner with my family at our favorite beach restaurant.

Watched my kids play in the surf while I froze my butt off after dinner. (Kids are nuts!)

Came home and watched my Padres beat the hated Dodgers (ahhhhhh!) while Trevor Hoffman got his 500th save. Sa-weet!

Went to bed and the rest, I'm afraid, is TMI for this blog!

It's a Done Deal!

2007-06-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

I just signed and sent off my very first contract with a publisher. And now I'm ready to squeal like a demented pig about it :->!

Some of you may remember that I wrote a short novella (a little under 15,000 words), titled Carnally Ever After, back in January/February of this year. It was originally intended for the Ellora's Cave Naughty Nuptials series (and I have to thank Annie Dean for having given me the idea to write it in the first place!). Ellora's Cave turned it down, however, leaving me with a story I thought was pretty darned good, but didn't know what to do with. I toyed with trying to expand it to true novella length (say, 30K words), but ultimately decided it wasn't worth the effort. The story really felt complete to me as it was written, and I couldn't imagine what I could add that would improve it. So, I sent it to Harlequin's Spice Brief's line back in April, but decided not to send it anywhere else until I heard anything.

But after two months, I got antsy. To make a long story short, I decided to send the manuscript to Cobblestone Press, which I knew has a line for manuscripts of exactly this length. I'd heard good things about Cobblestone from various people and had good experiences with stories I've bought there (Ericka Scott's Crystal Clear, for example).

I clicked send on the submission early last Thursday morning and sat back to wait the 45-60 days for a response. I'm sure you can imagine how I felt when I got a response from Deanna Lee less than 8 hours later. Especially when I opened it and realized it wasn't because there was a problem with the file or the format was all wrong or anything like that, but an almost-offer. Change one small thing and we'll make you a contract offer.

I was gobsmacked. I looked at the manuscript and saw that only about three sentences were affected. I made the change and sent the revised version back to Deanna that evening. By Friday night, I had a contract in my inbox.

Of course, I didn't want to look too easy, so I read the contract carefully over the weekend and did a little homework, contacting some of the authors I know who publish with Cobblestone to pick their brains about their experiences. (Thanks to Ericka, Sara Dennis, and Cora Zane, who all offered incredibly helpful insights!)

In the middle of writing this blog, I got a phone call from Deanna and we chatted for quite a while. Turns out she's hoping to have Carnally Ever After released in August (how's that for light speed?), she already has a cover artist in mind for me, and she's assigning me to an editor. Whee!

Because I want to keep the Jacqueline Barbour name for my full-length historicals (which I hope will someday make it to print!), we agreed I'll be using a different pen name for my Cobblestone release (and hopefully releases; I do have a few more ideas!). At Darcy's suggestion, I've settled on Jackie Barbosa (a little pirate-y and very fun, I think). Among the many other things I'll have to do leading up to the release is to set up a new website in that name. (But I'm only going to blog here! Well, and at the Manuscript Mavens when we get that up and running. Soon!)

Oh, did I mention my birthday is Wednesday? This is easily the best birthday present I've ever gotten. A few days early, but who am I to quibble?

Derailed

2007-06-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

So, both Lyric Thursday and my writing goals got derailed yesterday by some very unexpected and potentially squee-worthy news. I promise to dish as soon as I'm confident I can! Meanwhile, just know that I'm pretty thrilled.

I am also hella busy today. I've got a bunch of family-related errands to run today and I also don't want to miss my quota today like I did yesterday. Hence, this is a very short post.

Thanks to everyone who shared "creativity-related" family histories with me. It was fascinating!

Until Monday, my friends...

Maybe It's Just in My DNA

2007-05-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

I have observed before that the need to write is a strange compulsion, one that is almost impossible to explain to anyone who doesn't suffer from the same affliction. Despite the 80% or so of Americans who seem to think they could write a book, few seem to want to do so badly enough to bother. Those of us who do bother are...well...not normal.

Even if you aren't like me and don't feel compelled to do it, even if you don't turn into a complete monster bitch if you can't find the time for it, if you are actually writing a book, you are different from most of the people you know in your real life.

But while I was growing up, I didn't feel particularly different because I wanted to write the stories that careened like drunken butterflies in my head. Because, you see, I think my need to write might just be genetic.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned on the blog that my father, who passed away in the summer of 1998, was a writer. Primarily, he wrote articles for many auto racing magazines. He often joked he was a freelance writer with the emphasis on "free." But after he retired from the Border Patrol, where he was an anti-smuggling agent, he sat down and wrote two novels based on his experiences. Two wonderful novels which, as yet, remain unpublished. One of these days, I hope to get them out in the world. And he always said that he didn't write because he wanted to, but because he HAD to.

Like me, my younger sister wrote stories (in her case, mostly fantasy/science fiction stuff) from about the moment she could construct a sentence on paper. In my immediate family, the only person who didn't display this trait was my mother, but although she didn't write fiction, she read it voraciously (and still does!).

So, growing up in a household where 3/4s of the members suffered from the same "disease," I never felt particularly odd. I sort of assumed everyone told themselves stories in bed at night to put themselves to sleep and often found themselves preoccupied by snippets of dialogue between the imaginary people who lived in their heads. I probably didn't grasp the "unusualness" of my condition until I was in high school.

It wasn't until I was in high school or college that I learned the writing compulsion goes back a good deal farther in my family than I'd previously thought, and that I had it coming to me from both sides.

Turns out that my mother's father, a minister turned Psychology professor who died in 1958, years before my birth, also wrote a novel. (Among other things, I found the announcement of his marriage to my grandmother when I googled his name. It's here.) His novel was a mystery. And he didn't quite get to the end of it. I read the manuscript when I was in my late teens, I think, and I thought I figured out how the detective had determined "whodunit" and could've written the ending, but I don't think I'd ever have mastered his voice, so I didn't try.

And my father's grandfather was also a writer, though of non-fiction. He wrote non-fiction articles for Field and Stream magazine back in the early part of the 20th century, many of which were illustrated by my famous artist great uncle, Francis Lee Jaques. (I didn't get the artist gene apparently, drat it all. When my first son was born, I dreaded the first time he asked me to draw something for him. I was right to worry!)

Now, I'm sure most writers don't have ancestors who were writers. I just find it fascinating that there's such a strong thread of writing in my family. Arguably, I write because I patterned it from my father (except that I wrote fiction long before he ever did), but I doubt he patterned it from his grandfather (his father and grandfather were somewhat estranged) and I couldn't have patterned anything from my maternal grandfather, either, since he died before I was born.

So, maybe there is something in the genes.

What about you? Why do you think you write? Do you have any writers in your family tree? And do you think your desire/need to write was learned or is innate?

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to You!

2007-05-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

I'm off to Cub Scout Family Camp at Mataguay Scout Reservation with my family (and half our Pack!) this Saturday and Sunday night. I just finished packing up the car with the food (husband and Webelo son left an hour and a half ago with most of the camping gear) and after giving the cats more food and water and a quick pee, the two younger kids and I will be heading out.

I hope to get some writing done via the notepad method over the next few days, but fortunately, I managed to use a spare 45 minutes or so this afternoon to write about 300 words, and I have to say, I'm feeling much less bitchy!

Hopefully, everyone has a fun and productive weekend ahead. Best to all of you and please, keep those brave men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan in your thoughts and prayers. I know they'll be in mine.

I'll see you all on Wednesday. (Yeah, I'm taking a long weekend.)

It's All Been Done

2007-05-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

I picked up the Barenaked Ladies' greatest hits CD on Mother's Day (the lazy woman's way out, I know--I should've read reviews and figured out which of their releases to buy instead, but...) and this song, originally on an album with the same title, really caught my ear. Perhaps the lyrics don't seem as engaging or clever without the music, but they immediately gave me an idea for a decidedly paranormal romance! See if they don't do the same for you.

It's All Been Done
by Steven Page and Ed Robertson, copyright 1999

I met you before the fall of Rome
And I begged you to let me take you home
You were wrong, I was right
You said goodbye, I said goodnight
It's all been done
It's all been done
It's all been done before

I knew you before the west was won
And I heard you say the past was much more fun
You go your way, I go mine
But I'll see you next time

It's all been done
It's all been done
It's all been done before

And if I put my fingers here,
And if I say "I love you, dear"
And if I play the same three chords
Will you just yawn and say

It's all been done
It's all been done
It's all been done before

Alone and bored on a thirtieth-century night
Will I see you on The Price Is Right?
Will I cry? Will I smile?
As you run down the aisle

It's all been done
It's all been done
It's all been done before

Non-Writing Writer = Bitch

2007-05-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you weren't expecting a Wednesday post from me, but you're getting one anyway. Verra late, to be sure, and likely short, but it's a post anyway.

You might remember a few weeks ago, I was angsting over the time I spend writing and feeling guilty about the time and money I "waste" on this pursuit. Well, this week, I've done next to no writing at all. I managed to finish up a scene on Monday afternoon (roughly 500 words of which I wrote that day) and since then, I've managed a sum total of eight sentences.

And you know what?

I am a complete and TOTAL bitch. Not only am I just plain tired (the class that I'm teaching this week is very heavy on lecture and instructor-led discussion and light on student practice, so I don't get much time "off-stage"), but I am pissier than hell because I haven't been able to write.

The bad news, of course, is that I'm a cranky, exhausted wreck. But the good news is, I feel so much more sanguine about all the time I normally devote to writing. When I don't, I'm a far worse mess than I am when I do.

'Nuff said.

P.S. Lyric Thursday will occur as scheduled. I have another Barenaked Ladies song to share. This one has sparked a story idea for me, which may not seem unusual to a lot of you, but what makes it unusual for me is that the idea is definitely in the paranormal realm, and we all know I normally don't do paranormal.

Crazy Week

2007-05-21T07:40:00.001-07:00

Just popping in to say that this week's posting schedule may be interrupted as I'm teaching a class all week. Of course, this also means the writing schedule will be interrupted.

/Sigh

Friday Fourteen

2007-05-18T12:36:00.001-07:00

Okay, so there's this Thursday Thirteen blog thing that lots of folks are doing lately (Annie's WWND thirteen from yesterday is positively brilliant!), but since I have Lyric Thursday, I haven't been participating. But yesterday, Erica posted a Thursday Thirteen of her "beginning hooks" from Trevor and the Tooth Fairy. And that was a really fun read. Lacey followed up with a Thursday Twenty-Six of beginning and ending hooks from If You Asked the Devil to Dance.

Natch, this got me wondering how the scene hooks (both beginning and ending) in my books stacked up. I've never thought much about starting hooks. I think a lot about ending ones, though.

So, without further ado, here are fourteen scene-ending hooks from A Scandalous Liaison. In a couple of cases, there's more than one sentence for reasons that should be obvious.

“I have a proposition for you, my lady.”
“Mayhap their destiny is about to change.”
Except that she might sneak a peek to determine the color of his eyes.
All he had to do was convince one very pretty and very suspicious lady that he had her best interests and not his own at heart.
Child’s play.
“I assure you, Mrs. Ellis,” Rosalind continued, undaunted, “that Mr. O’Brien is quite harmless.”
Or will be, provided I don’t actually look at him. Provided I forget he is by far the handsomest man I have ever laid eyes upon.
A week suddenly seemed a very long time.
He’d know in seven days what his punishment would be.
It seemed a long time to wait.
Whether her heart was safe from itself, she chose not to ponder.
His virtue might not be in any danger, but hers very probably was. Perversely, the knowledge thrilled her.
The only thing more dangerous than desiring the wrong woman was feeling sympathy for her.
But maybe it was time he concocted a plan of his own.
If he got through the next eighteen months without succumbing to temptation, he might prove himself more a gentleman than he had ever hoped to be.
The closed box was all the more seductive, all the more entrancing, for needing to remain closed.
Comprehension dawned. She was waiting for him.

Looking at my scene openings, I think I need to work on those. Maybe next week, I'll post scene opening hooks from Lady Libertine. I think the openings of the scene in that book are stronger than in A Scandalous Liaison. Maybe that means I'm getting better at this whole thing!

So, what about you? Do you think about scene opening hooks, scene closing hooks, or both? Do you try to make chapter hooks stronger than scene hooks, or do you try to make all of them equally strong?

Nipple to the Bottle

2007-05-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

I think the album this song appears on, Living My Life, may be the best record hardly anyone owns. I gather it was more popular in the U.K. than here in the States. If it weren't for my husband, I never would have heard it, either. Until he introduced me to this album, all I knew about Grace Jones was that she was very tall, had very short hair, and possessed one great set of cheekbones.

This record opened my eyes, to say the least. (And I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to quote these lyrics to various people in my life!)

Nipple to the Bottle
by Grace Jones and Sly Dunbar, copyright 1982.

Colour and warmth came into your world
It makes me crazy
When you don't get what you want
You scream and you shout
You're still a baby

Don't give me a line
Keep the lid on the bottle this time
I'm still a lady
I won't do it tonight
I won't do it tonight
No way, baby

I won't give in and I won't feel guilty
Rant and rave to manipulate me
From the nipple to the bottle
Never satisfied
From the nipple to the bottle
Now the cow must die

Power and wealth surrendering myself
It ain't easy
Embarassing my store by opening up my door
When it's breezy
You showed me your force
Exaggerated stamina and energy

No place for that
No place for that
It's not that easy

Rant and rave to manipulate me
From the nipple to the bottl
Never satisfied
From the nipple to the bottle
Now the cow must die.

You ain't gonna get it
I ain't gonna give it
You ain't gonna get it
I ain't gonna give it

If I don't give it, how you gonna get it?
I ain't gonna give it, you ain't gonna get it,
If I don't give it, how you gonna get it? (fade)

Un-Mother's Day, Part II

2007-05-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

From the comments, it appears there's quite a bit of support for Un-Mother's Day. A few of you with adult children pointed out that they grow up so fast, the day when every day is Un-Mother's Day will come all too soon.

And to that, I say, "Well, that's why we have Mother's Day!" To remind all those rotten adult children (ourselves included) that they have mommies. But for those of us in the thick of child-rearing (mine are 9, 7, and 5), Un-Mother's Day might be more appreciated. Because every day is still mother's day for us!

Un-Mother's Day

2007-05-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely Mother's Day with my family yesterday. After church, my husband and kids took me to Borders where I spent an exorbitant amount of money on new CDs (yes, I'm still old-fashioned enough that I like the actual disc!) followed by a delicious late lunch/early dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter. We also spent an hour or so with my mother-in-law, drinking coffee and eating copious quantities of See's Candies. (Okay, not really that copious. I was too full from my lunch/dinner.)

I tell you I had a lovely day because, if I didn't, you might misinterpret what I'm about to say as a complaint about Mother's Day. But it's not. I like Mother's Day. Mother's Day is a day to spend enjoying the fact that you're a mother and reveling in your family.

It's just that I also want a new holiday on which all mothers get to pretend, for one day, as if they were not mothers. One day to live completely, utterly, selfishly as though she had absolutely no maternal obligations to anyone. Footloose and fancy-free to do whatever she likes, whenever she likes. (And just to be clear, I'm equal opportunity here. I'm all in favor of a corresponding Un-Father's Day.)

Now, I suppose technically, I could request a day like that as my Mother's Day gift. But that seems rather petty to me. On Mother's Day, I want to pretend I'm not anyone's mother? I want to shut out my kids and go off on my own on the day I'm supposed to be celebrating my motherhood? Nope, doesn't work for me.

But sometimes, I do get tired of being the mom. I'm always on the hook to somebody for something. It's 24/7 and it never stops. So I'd love to have just one day a year when I could chuck it all and act as though my kids didn't exist.

I hope that doesn't sound as if I don't adore and appreciate my kids or that I'm sorry I had them. Because I do adore them and I'm not in the slightest bit regretful that I'm a mother. But for just 1/365th of a year, I think I'd enjoy being an unmother.

Drive-By Blogging

2007-05-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

Sort of literally. I'm between dropping my oldest son off at piano lessons and picking him up fifteen minutes from now. But I gotta shoehorn it in because, darn it, I blog on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with Lyric Thursday as a bonus, and if I miss a scheduled day...well, let's just say I don't like to miss them, okay?

But if I'm so overwhelmed, as I said in Wednesday's little descent into Maudlinville, how come I put pressure on myself to blog three times a week? I mean, that schedule is completely self-imposed; it's not like ya'll are out there begging me, "Please, Jacqueline, post or we will wither and die without your wisdom." As if!

Several of you noted in the comments on Wednesday's post that blogging probably increases the pressure on us all because we feel the need to use our blogs as a way to get our names out there, promote ourselves, etc. And while I originally started this blog with those goals in mind, the truth is, I blog almost entirely for its own sake.

I find the interaction comforting. It's nice to share my thoughts and feelings with all of you, especially when you share yours back. I also find I can often talk myself through problems in a blog post in a way I otherwise can't, even in email with my friends and critique partners. Many times, when I'm struggling with something (as I was on Wednesday), your comments provide me with validation that I'm not just some loony suffering this stuff alone. And someday, I'm sure I'll look back on all these blog posts as a very special diary of a certain period in my life that I'd otherwise never have captured.

Above all else, however, I don't kid myself that this blog is some vehicle to launch my stardom. I know who most of my readers are and it's a pretty select group: my CPs, a core group of FanLitters, and a few other writers I've had the privilege to meet through other blogs. This is a fun way to keep in touch with all of you all, but it's not making me famous! And that's okay. For now, it's all it needs to be.

Today's question: If you blog, why do you blog? If you don't, why not?

The Denial Twist

2007-05-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

First things first. Things looked up a little bit yesterday afternoon, because I managed to squeak out about 500 words for the first time in days. And it felt SOOOOOO good. Yeah, baby, this is why I write!

Today's lyrics come from Jack White of White Stripes. Seems to me that there's no middle ground on White Stripes. Either you love them or you hate them. Personally, I love them. And part of the reason I love them is because the lyrics are often just so darned clever.

The Denial Twist
by Jack White, copyright 2005

If you think that a kiss is all in the lips
C'mon, you got it all wrong, man
And if you think that a dance was all in the hips
Oh well, then do the twist
If you think holding hands is all in the fingers
Grasp hold of the soul where the memory lingers and
Make sure to never do it with the singer
'Cause he'll tell everyone in the world
What he was thinking about the girl
Yeah, what he's thinking about the girl, oh

A lot of people get confused and they bruise
Real easy when it comes to love
They start putting on their shoes and walking out
And singing "Boy, I think I had enough"
Just because she makes a big rumpus
She don't mean to be mean or hurt you on purpose, boy
Take a tip and do yourself a little service
Take a mountain turn it into a mole
Just by playing a different role
Yeah, by playing a different role, oh

The boat, ya you know she's rockin' it
And the truth, well ya know there's no stoppin' it
The boat, ya you know she's still rockin' it
The truth, well you know there's no stoppin' it

So what, somebody left you in a rut
And wants to be the one who's in control?
But the feeling that you're under can really make you wonder
How the hell she can be so cold
So now you're mad, denying the truth
And it's hidden in the wisdom in the back of your tooth
Ya need ta spit it out in a telephone booth
While ya call everyone that you know, and ask 'em
Where do you think she goes?
Oh yeah, where d'ya s'pose she goes, oh?

The truth, well you know there's no stoppin' it
And the boat well ya know she's still rockin' it
The boat ya you know she's still rockin' it
And the truth ya you know there's no stoppin' it

You recognize with your back in the back
That it's colder when she rocks the boat
But it's the cause hittin' on the Cardinal Laws
'Bout the proper place to hang her coat
So to you, the truth is still hidden
And the soul plays the role of a lost little kitten but
You should know that the doctors weren't kiddin'
She's been singing it all along
But you were hearin' a different song
Yeah, you were hearin' a different song
But you were hearin' a different song

Wednesday's Child

2007-05-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

You've probably heard this poem before:

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child that's born on the Sabbath day,
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

I was born on a Saturday, for what it's worth. But the reason this sprang to mind is that today's post does not promise to be an especially upbeat one. I am definitely feeling like Wednesday's child today. Now, I'm going to try to keep myself from sinking into actual woe and avoid a pity party, but Monday's positive outlook has been replaced by a cloud of crushing realities. And if you prefer me in my sunnier and funnier moods, I recommend coming back another day!

So, here are the things that have dampened my enthusiasm over the past few days.

I'm overwhelmed. With work, family, writing, and with just day-to-day living (groceries, cooking, cleaning, laundry, even BREATHING seems like a chore lately). It's crushing me. And it's not like there's a piece I can jettison. Well, except for the writing, which obviously I don't HAVE TO do in any objective sense. Except that I have to do it for my sanity, which brings me to the next issue.
I haven't been writing the past few days. After an awesome flurry last week, and despite the fact that the words are right there when I walk away from the computer, when I sit down to write them, I lose them. And this is because...
I've lost my emotional space for writing. Because I'm so overwhelmed, I feel guilty about any time I devote to writing. This is not helped by the fact that my writing doesn't do anything for anybody except me (although maybe my CPs would kindly disagree by saying that it does something for them because they like reading my stuff, but this is supposed to a downer blog, remember?). However, given how overwhelmed I feel about all the other aspects of my life, it's hard not to ask myself why the hell I'm spending so much time on writing when:

a) I haven't earned a dime at it.
b) A realistic assessment of the probabilities suggests I will never earn a dime at it.
c) I am spending what would otherwise be my family's discretionary capital to support this habit for things like contest entry fees, mailings, web hosting, and--the big Kahuna-conference fees, travel, et.c for National.

This leads directly to #4.
I was hoping to send out some query letters this week. Some with partials, some without. And then, after I got a very insightful and helpful critique on my query letter from the inimitable and exceptionally talented Annie Dean, I thought, "What the hell am I doing? I could write it exactly as she suggests and the query letter would be fabulous. But do I have a fabulous manuscript to go with it?"

Answer, obviously, was no. Because, while I have a good partial, the current version of the manuscript has several fairly large holes in it where I slashed and burned scenes and now have to reknit everything back together. A task I have been slacking in favor of writing Lady Libertine because I find writing from scratch infinitely more enjoyable than revising.

So, let's say I got a request for a full from someone to whom I sent a partial? What then? I'd be scrambling like a madwoman trying to put something together and I'd know it wouldn't be as good as it would be. And what's the point of sending an agent/editor anything less than the very best manuscript I have to offer (when I finally have it to offer)? Obviously, there isn't one!

This internal dialogue led me to ask myself why I was in such an all-fired hurry to query when I know I'm not ready. And I know. It's because if someone requested my full from my partial or my partial from my query, I'd feel in some sense validated. Like this whole writing thing isn't some gigantic time-and-money sucker that's sapping the emotional life out of me and, by extension, my family.

But that is a suck-ass reason for trying to sell my book before it's ready to be sold. It's a suck-ass way to validate what I'm doing with my time, money, and emotional energy. If I can't think of a better reason for writing than to prove my writing is worthwhile by some external measure, it probably is a waste.

So, after drenching my CPs' shoulders yesterday with my woes, I came to the conclusion that it's time for me to step back and just let stuff come when it's ready. No more forcing it. If I'm ready to pitch at National, I'm ready. I have my editor and agent appointments, but if I know for sure what I have just isn't up to snuff, I'm cool with canceling them and letting someone who's in a better place have my slot. I'd like to be ready, of course, but I'm not going to pressure myself to have something ready.

Because it's the self-pressure, along with the self-doubt that goes along with the need for external validation, that's sucking the joy out of writing and that, in turn, is sucking the joy out of everything else. I have to write to be happy. That's all I need to know to "justify" doing it. The other stuff will happen when it's good and ready to happen. Forcing it will only make me miserable.

Settling in with all of this hasn't been easy. When I was a teenager and my family got a piano, I gave up on piano lessons very quickly because I didn't want to learn to play piano--I wanted to play it. Now, damn it! But just like learning to play the piano, learning to write a book takes time and practice. You can't rush it. Good things come to those who wait.

So perhaps Wednesday's child should be full of wait.

Good Comes in Twos

2007-05-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

And maybe, if we're lucky, threes or even fours!

I'm sure Erica will post this on her blog herself, but if I'm faster than her, all I have to say is "Neener, neener, neener!" Today, she got a request for a full of Trevor and the Tooth Fairy. This upon the agent's reading the partial. Yeehaw! This is sooooo awesome.

Tomorrow (if not sooner), we'll find out about Darcy and the Four Seasons.¹ And later this week, I hope to be a doing a bit of querying and partialing myself.

Things are rolling, folks, rolling.

On the downside, I've only written a paragraph today. Which is why this promises to be a short blog post.

Over and out!

¹This used to say "three seasons." Darcy asked which one they got rid of. My answer? Hey, I live in Southern California. You're lucky I think there are as many as three seasons!

Start Speadin' the News

2007-05-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

Warning: Bonus post!

I'm just pleased as punch to be the first (I think) to announce that my CP (and dear friend) Darcy Burke's manuscript, Glorious, placed second in the Yellow Rose Chapter's Winter Rose contest. We just got the news earlier this afternoon and I am absolutely ecstatic for her. Glorious is such a great story, told with both humor and sensuality, and if it were up to me, of course it would have finished first, but second is just fabulous.

So big congratulations to Darcy and wish her luck on Tuesday, when we'll find out whether or not Glorious also finaled in the Four Seasons contest.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Incoherent Ramblings

2007-05-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

I promised a post full of caffeine, alcohol, and sleep-deprivation induced ramblings, and as always, I aim to please. And so, in no particular order (because if they were in some sort of order, it wouldn't be incoherent, would it?), here are my observations for today.

If you forget to do your homework the night before, you can always get it done twice as fast if you wait until morning. (Bad Mommy forgot last night. The kids got their assignments done in record time before school. Bad Mommy wonders if she should be bad more often...)
No matter how many times you tell a nine-year-old to a) bring his shoes in from beside the trampoline, b) close the gate, and c) feed and water the cats, he will always act as if the first time he has ever heard any of these commands.
You can kill a story by over-analyzing it. Yes, the characters need GMC and an arc. Yes, their actions have to make some kind of sense. But people's feelings aren't always rational. And romance is an emotional genre. Sometimes, the characters feel and do things that don't seem logical. And they shouldn't have to.
Since I had wireless enabled on my laptop yesterday, I discovered I have access to several wireless networks in my backyard. None of them are mine. But I can connect to them. Way cool. If slightly unreliable.
My house is a dirty, disgusting mess. I should clean. I will clean. Someday... Maybe when I finish writing my book. Any of them.
Updated: As further proof of my incoherence, I had to come back and add this one. I've realized my heroes are not tortured. Pained, perhaps. A little bit twisted, maybe. But not tortured. I just don't do tortured. Methinks I see I problem...

Okay, that's all for today. What incoherent ramblings would you like to share with me? I'm all...um...eyes.

Man Out of Time

2007-05-03T15:03:00.000-07:00

I have to say, this one pretty well speaks for itself (although I can't believe it's taken me this many weeks into Lyric Thursday to get to Elvis Costello--the man's a freakin' poetic genius!). If you're looking for the song itself, it's on the classic 1982 release, Imperial Bedroom.

Man Out of Time
by Elvis Costello, copyright 1982

So this is where he came to hide
When he ran from you
In a private detective's overcoat
And dirty dead man's shoes

The pretty things of Knightsbridge
Lying for a minister of state
Is a far cry from the nod and wink
Here at traitor's gate
'Cause the high heel he used to be has been ground down
And he listens for the footsteps that would follow him around

To murder my love is a crime
But will you still love
A man out of time

There's a tuppeny hapenny millionaire
Looking for a fourpenny one
With a tight grip on the short hairs
Of the public imagination

But for his private wife and kids somehow
Real life becomes a rumour
Days of dutch courage
Just three French letters and a German sense of humour
He's got a mind like a sewer and a heart like a fridge
He stands to be insulted and he pays for the privilege

To murder my love is a crime
But will you still love
A man out of time

The biggest wheels of industry
Retire sharp and short
And the after dinner overtures
Are nothing but an after thought

Somebody's creeping in the kitchen
There's a reputation to be made
Whose nerves are always on a knife's edge
Who's up late polishing the blade
Love is always scarpering or cowering or fawning
You drink yourself insensitive and hate yourself in the morning

To murder my love is a crime
But will you still love
A man out of time

Gluttony

2007-05-02T14:39:00.000-07:00

This morning, my husband left for the AIA Conference in San Antonio. Although I'd rather hoped to go with him (or that the entire family would go), all the hotels apparently booked up right away, and he has to room up with his business partner. So, much as I love San Antonio, I'm stuck here with the kids and the cats and my work and my writing.

Hold the phone! He's gone until Saturday night? That's almost four full days during which I can write whenever the mood strikes me (provided the kids don't need to be fed, put to bed, or kept from killing themselves or one another, of course). Woohoo!

Okay, I don't want to give the impression that I'm happy my husband's gone. I'm not...exactly. But a spousal relationship does require a certain amount of effort and spending time together, and the muse has a tendency to want to get in the way of that. For some nonsensical reason, my husband doesn't feel my sitting with the computer in my lap while my hands fly furiously (or slowly) across the keyboard while he sits next to me watching the baseball game counts as quality together time. Gosh darn it, he wants my attention!

And of course, I can't blame him. It does not please me at all when he spends the entire evening after work doing something solitary, even if he's sitting right next me while he's doing it. If I don't feel included in whatever it is he's up to, I might as well be by myself. Writing is an essentially solitary experience. You can share the end product with another person, but unless you're one of those rare people who actually writes with someone else, you can't share the act of writing.

For those of us who came to this calling rather late in life or came back to it after a long hiatus, I suspect it's especially difficult for our significant others to adjust to the demands writing makes on our time and (perhaps more profoundly) our attention. I know if I'm feeling the next scene in my story and desperately want to write it, it's nearly impossible for me to be fully engaged in any conversation or interaction with an actual live person who happens to be nearby; the people in my head can scream so loudly for attention at times, they sometimes drown out the real people in my life.

Because I didn't write for so many years, I sometimes feel I pulled a bit of a bait and switch on my husband. I have plenty of faults my husband had ample opportunity to take into consideration before he married me, but my tendency to withdraw into the world inside my head wasn't one of them. And truly, he's NOT against me writing; he'd just rather I didn't do it during our time. That's something I have to respect, because I know I'd feel the same way if he came home every night, shoved his dinner down his gullet, then ran upstairs to hole up and draw architectural plans or paint or do some other hobby that excluded me!

But it also means that when either of us goes on a business trip, I have this tremendous sense of freedom when it comes to writing. Because there's no opportunity for we time, all my free time is me time, and I can do with it what I want.

And so for the next several days, I plan to gorge myself on writing. Oh yeah, I'll do all the necessary stuff. The kids will get to and from school, they won't starve, they'll go to bed on time, and they might even get the odd bath and bedtime story. And I'll get my work projects done. (I have a nasty one due tomorrow that involves writing blurbs for conference sessions, many of which cover topics that can't be fully nailed down for months because the software's in flux. Hmm, how'd I get chosen for this job? We all know I suck at blurbs and hooks!)

But other than that, I'm going into full writing gluttony mode for the next three and a half days. Who needs sleep? That's what caffeine's for! Who needs food? That's what beer's for!

See you all for Lyric Thursday tomorrow (I think Elvis Costello is on the agenda) and probably some incoherent ramblings on Friday (because by then, I'll be running entirely on the caffeine and beer of which I spoke)!

Done!

2007-04-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally finished rewriting the first chapter of A Scandalous Liaison. Actually, what I wound up doing was writing the first chapter almost completely from scratch, then starting the second chapter with mostly new material that ties into end of the existing first scene. I made some minor edits to the scene that used to start the second chapter, and the whole thing will come in just under the 25-page limit for the Golden Claddagh, which is the contest I plan to enter it in to see if I've finally nailed it.

So, barring any major "Whoa, dude, this sucks!" emails from my CPs in the next day or two, I'm done with this revision of the front of the book. Which only leaves me with, um, 100,000 or so words left to revise.

Um, yeah, that's progress for ya!

So, how are your revisions coming along? Do tell!

Athena

2007-04-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, this post is a day late. I forgot yesterday. Pretend it's Thursday. Hey, it's like getting an extra day this week!

I'm back to mining oldies this week. Maybe I love this particular song by The Who so much because it has a good Classical reference, but I'm sure that's not the only reason. Mostly, I think I love it because a) the tune is absolutely infectious and b) the lyrics are so simultaneously bizarre and poetic, they give me serious writer envy. And I do wonder if this song isn't the origin of the expression "the bomb" as in, "You're the bomb." Anyone?

Athena
The Who, copyright 1982

Athena, I had no idea how much I'd need her
In peaceful times I hold her close and I feed her
My heart starts palpitating when I think my guess was wrong
But I think I'll get along
She's just a girl - she's a bomb

Athena, all I ever want to do is please her
My life has been so settled and she's the reason
Just one word from her and my troubles are long gone
But I think I'll get along

She's just a girl - she's a bomb
Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
She's just a girl

Athena, my heart felt like a shattered glass in an acid bath
I felt like one of those flattened ants you find on a crazy path
I'd of topped myself to give her time she didn't need to ask
Was I a suicidal psychopath?
She's just a girl - she's a bomb

Consumed, there was a beautiful white horse I saw on a dream stage
He had a snake the size of a sewer pipe living in his rib cage
I felt like a pickled priest who was being flambed
You got me requisitioned, blondie
She's just a girl - she's a bomb

I'm happy, I'm ecstatic
Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
She's just a girl

Look into the face of a child
Measure how long you smiled
Before the memory claimed
How long would children remain
How long would children remain

Athena, you picked me up by my lapels and screamed "leave her"
It felt like waking up in heaven on an empty meter
And now you're stuck with a castrated leader
And I hate the creep, I didn't mean that
She's a bomb
I just said it
She's a bomb
I didn't mean it, please
She's a bomb

Athena, I had no idea how much I need her
My life has been so settled and she's the reason
Just one word from her and my troubles are long gone
But I get along
She's just a girl, she's a bomb
She's just a girl, she's a bomb

The Critical Importance of Stage Direction

2007-04-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. Jacqueline Barbour, LAU.¹ But I've still managed to get around to this post, however tardily!

To fully understand what I'm posting below, you have to read Lacey's post today. Don't worry, I'll wait.

So, Lacey's criticism of the nose wrinkling was absolutely valid. She'd hit on a spot on the scene where I was already uncertain/unhappy with the stage direction, so that wasn't really a surprise. What I found interesting was what she interpreted based on that poor stage direction. To wit, she thought Patrick's offer was a) insincere and b) unmotivated.

Now, I've never believed stage direction wasn't important to a scene. It's very important. But when you're struggling for the "right" action on the part of your characters, sometimes you do stick stuff in that ends up not working. In this case, though, it not only didn't work, it actually made parts of the "plot" implausible.

You see, I wanted to get the characters out of the stable to give my heroine time to regroup, but I didn't want it to be the heroine's idea. Primarily because I didn't want her to be giving the hero the impression that she is actually considering entertaining his proposal, and if she asked him to her office, that's exactly what she'd be doing. She doesn't trust him at this point, and for some logical reasons, so she shouldn't be offering to do business with him, even though he's offering to do business with her.

But when he suggests they find a better place to talk, he's giving her the opportunity to put herself at ease. A reason to trust him. And he needs to give her those reasons if he's going to sway her to accept his offer. I also needed a way to show the reader (from the heroine's POV) that the hero notices things about other people and acts in thoughtful ways based upon them.

So, after much discussion and gnashing of teeth, I came up with this:

“Aye.” He looked around the stable, pausing to give Cato a passing caress. When his gaze traveled back to her, he studied her and she realized she had been rubbing her hands over her sleeves in an unconscious effort to warm them. He nodded in the direction of the open stable door. “Perhaps we could find someplace warmer and you will permit me to explain?”
For the first time since she had seen Mr. O’Brien’s horse, she registered how cold she was and how damp her habit had become in the course of her visits to her tenants. The roaring fire and hot tea that likely awaited her in her study would not come amiss.

I think this is much better than before. It shows us he's noticing her chill--before she does. And acting upon it.

Question for today: What do you do when you're stuck for a stage direction? Tired of people nodding and smiling and frowning and cocking their heads to one side? How do you come up with meaningful gestures and actions for your character that show rather than tell what they're thinking? Inquiring minds want to know.

¹Late As Usual, a mock title my high school US Government teacher once gave to a member of Congress who regularly appeared late for scheduled appearances.

Sex and the Thinking Blogger

2007-04-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

Now that I have your attention...

Seriously, I know I got off my usual posting schedule last week, and I assure you, I angsted over it all weekend. (I know that makes you feel better *g!) However, I fell off the wagon for good reasons:

I was writing. For me, I wrote like a fiend. (Actually, like a sex fiend if you want to get technical, but maybe we shouldn't go there on the blog.)
Erica nominated this post of mine for a Thinking Blogger Award, and between Lacey and Annie, I had half my nominations stolen from me before mid-morning on Friday. So I been workin' on mine since Wednesday.

For those who are as yet unfamiliar with the Thinking Blogger , the rules are:

If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote

Here's my pretty award icon (because hey, if you got it, flaunt it, right?):

Now, for the hard part: my nominations. This was a tough call, my friends! In alphabetical order (because I can and because I'm just a tiny bit anal retentive), here they are:

Beverley
Beverley's a FanLit friend, and I will be eternally envious of her because she completed one full manuscript in less time than it takes me to shower and dry my hair. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. This post, however, which isn't even writing-related, is especially thought-provoking and lovely.
Lainey Bancroft
I think I identify with Lainey in large part because we seem to have such similar lives: husband, kids, etc. This post, about how hard (nay, impossible) it is to make one's family understand this whole writing thing, however, struck a major chord with me.
Maggie Robinson
Maggie writes almost as mean a blog as a FanLit entry. Her posts are nearly always thought-provoking, but this one in particular, about her parents' romance, truly touched and inspired me
Meankitty
Meankitty's blog was an obvious choice. Because it's just so damned funny, but also because I love the insights I get into a cat's way of thinking as a result of Typing Slave's efforts. This post, in particular, sparked by my tag of Typing Slave in another meme some time ago, was especially amusing. And, hey, it's also totally not writing-related.
Pam Skochinski
Pam actually has a blog under her Ericka Scott pen name as well, but the specific post I wanted to nominate lives here. Back in January and February, Pam posted a series of very short stories on Fictional Friday. Now, I do not have a knack for writing short but it's a skill I'd love to cultivate, so Pam's stories, complete in just a few hundred words, really impressed me. This one, a riff on Cinderella, was my favorite. (Pam, feel free to post your thinking blogger response on either of your blogs! Makes no nevermind to me!)

So, that's that. Whew, now I can get back to writing like a (sex) fiend!

Writing Sluts

2007-04-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

So, the topic of this post presented itself during a chat session I had this afternoon with Erica and Darcy. (All the Manuscript Mavens are supposed to chat once a week, but we rarely manage to confine ourselves to that! In fact, I still have a chat window open, just in case someone should come back and want to talk.)

The thing is, I've been reading Annie Dean's Average Girl's Guide to Getting Laid (which I purchased hot off the presses yesterday) and feeling woefully inadequate in the hot love scene department. (Ladies and gentlemen, this book is smokin' hot. And I'm not sure that even comes close to describing it! And yes, this is a rec, peeps. Go buy!) And since I left off yesterday at a moment in Going Greek that wasn't as scorching as I'd like and came back into Lady Libertine this morning at a supposed-to-be racy moment, the last thing I needed was another kick in the inadequacy department, but I got one anyway when Lacey sent out her incredibly hot, emotionally textured, totally kick-ass love scene from If You Asked the Devil to Dance. Yow, having her own place to hunker down and write has turned up her mojo big time!

/Me considers wisdom of running away from home and decides against. Drat!

Now, Darcy and Erica were quick to reassure me that my love scenes are plenty steamy and I don't need any help in that department, but once you're bitten by that bug of doubt, the drug seeps through your veins, whether it's about your love scenes or any other part of your manuscript.

But Lacey, bless her, had some great advice, which I should have remembered from writing Carnally Ever After, which was (I paraphrase) let your inhibitions go when you write a love scene. Get whatever's in your head out on the paper and worry about whether people are going to think you're a freak later. And I definitely didn't think Lacey was a freak after reading her scene and apparently, no one who read Carnally Ever After thought I was a freak (or if they did, they thought I was a hot freak, which is okay), so it's obviously the right way to fly.

But what does all this have to do with the title of this post, you ask?

Well, we started discussing the relative ease or difficulty of letting all those inhibitions go and one thing that we all agreed makes it harder is when you're writing a heroine who's a virgin. Which, let's face it, is the pretty typical setup in a historical, and we've all at one time or another written a historical. Lacey's love scene came from her hero's point of view, so that made it a bit easier, but her heroine is also pretty atypical (she's a Shawano warrier transplanted into England) and therefore has a lot fewer inhibitions than your average upper class English rose.

As you know, the heroine of Lady Libertine is also atypical in this regard. To put it bluntly, she's a slut *g. (And what's wrong with that?) But I've realized it does make it easier to let go and write her sex scenes. She has the vocabulary. She has the experience. She knows where she's going and what she wants. Erica's been writing paranormal contemporaries lately, so she isn't experiencing the virginal heroine problem. Darcy, on the other hand, has nothing but virgins. We all agreed, she needs a slut. But where to find one for her? Write if you have suggestions!

Today's question: What helps you let go and write a steamy love scene? Do you love writing them or hate it with the fire of a thousand suns? Or a little of both? (I vote for the a little of both. Maybe I'll blog about that some other day!)

Drumroll, Please!

2007-04-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get around to posting all day, just to reassure you all that five days without Internet didn't kill me.

Actually, technically, I wasn't completely without Internet the entire weekend (Lacey was right about that *g!). We did stay at a hotel that had a terminal in the lobby, which was a good thing, as I needed to log in a few times to check information about various places we wanted to visit and make a hotel reservation for Saturday night after we changed our plans. But I certainly didn't have time to read email or blogs or chat with anyone.

But what finally motivated me to post was the phone call I got five minutes ago. The first ten pages of Lady Libertine finalled in the Wisconsin RWA's Fab Five Contest. Does that rock or what? I'm soooooo pleased. Mainly because the heroine of that book is very non-traditional for a historical (she really is a libertine and she has done plenty of sleeping around before the story commences), so I wasn't sure how she would play to judges. So yay Amelia!

I'd love to share all the gory vacation details with ya'll, so I'm sure you'll be terribly sorry to hear I have to go to the grocery store to prevent us all from starving to death. (Five days away leaves bare cupboards. Whatever you still have is pretty much spoiled by the time you get back!)

So, I'm glad to be home but still trying to get my groove back. (I did, however, write 1,500 words this morning. Not bad!)

Lest There Be Rumors of My Demise...

2007-04-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

When Annie didn't post to her blog for several days this week, numerous commenters expressed concern that she might have met some hideous fate. As it turned out, it was just spring break.

Now, I'm not nearly as popular as Annie, but I wouldn't want anyone to wonder if I've fallen under a bus, so I hereby announce that I shall be on vacation from tomorrow through Sunday.

I will not be posting to this blog or reading/commenting on anyone else's. I will not be emailing. I will not be writing.

Okay, maybe the rumors of my demise will not be exaggerated. All three of those put together may well kill me.

But if they don't, I'll be seeing you all next Monday!

The Muse Takes Over

2007-04-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

I know, I haven't posted since Thursday. Very unlike me. Erica has complained that she's tired of Jimmy Olsen and would I please post something.

But, you see, the muse has been running rampant. Well, actually, that's not entirely true. I'd been writing great gangbusters when my CPs smacked me upside the head with a cluestick and told me a couple of my initial story points pretty much sucked. So then I had about two days of major anxiety and stomach pains before I found a way to fix what was wrong and move on. I didn't completely buy my CPs' suggestions that I come up with a completely different conflict and plot, but I did find a way to overcome most of their issues without raping the story.

Of course, this weekend was Easter, which means it was a total loss, writing wise. But I was able to pick up where I left off today and write about 1,500 words, which is about three times my typical output. And that's despite several hours' worth of frantic IM'ing with Erica and Darcy about their plot problems. So I'm a happy camper.

Jimmy Olsen's Blues

2007-04-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

This just happened to be the song that came up on the iPod on shuffle just now, and I always get a kick out of the lyrics. I love twists on familiar pop culture. Plus, I have to admit that I almost never sympathize with the superhero.

Jimmy Olsen's Blues
by Spin Doctors, copyright 1991

I don't think I can handle this
A cloudy day in Metropolis
I think I'll talk to my analyst
I got it so bad for this little journalist
It drives me up the wall and through the roof
Lois and Clark in a telephone booth
I think I'm going out of my brain
I got it so bad for little miss Lois Lane

Chorus:
Oh, Lois Lane, please put me in your plan
Yeah, Lois Lane, you don't need no Superman
Come on downtown and stay with me tonight
I got a pocket full of kryptonite

He's leaping buildings in a single bound
And I'm reading Shakespeare in my place downtown
Come on downtown and make love to me
I'm Jimmy Olsen, not a titan, you see
He's faster than a bullet, stronger than a train
He's the one who got lucky - got a cape around miss Lois Lane
I can't believe my dilemma is realI'm competing with the man of steel

(Chorus)

I don't think I can handle this
A cloudy day in Metropolis
I think I'll talk to my analyst
I got it so bad for this little journalist

(Chorus)

Speed Post

2007-04-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

I'm normally more garrulous on Wednesdays, but I'm saving my words for my books instead of my blog. You see, I'm kind of on a roll.

After chatting with my CPs this week, I've had a major breakthrough on Going Greek, my chook-lit (as Cara Maena called it) story. Turns out, there's a blog in it. The blog will work its way through the entire story and plays a major role in the plot. And it's so topical. I really love the idea and it's motivated me to write more and faster.

So, that's what I'm doing today and I hope, tomorrow, and the next day. Along with continuing to work on the new first chapter of A Scandalous Liaison, which has taken the book in a direction I'm very happy with as well.

All in all, a good week thus far, despite the (nearly interminable) interruptions associated with having kids at home for spring break. I should be just about ready for that vacation by the time it rolls around next Wednesday.

Today's question: What drives you crazy when your muse is really singing? And how do you keep the muse on topic ('specially if, like me, you try to blog regularly)?

Good Tidings of Great Joy

2007-04-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

I love Monday mornings. Unlike most people, I look forward to Monday because it means the beginning of my writing week.

But this Monday is especially good because I got word yesterday from Leigh Dennis, one of my critique partners, that her manuscript, The Unbound Heart, is a finalist for the Colorado Romance Writers' Heart of the Rockies contest. And since she doesn't have her own blog, I have the distinct honor of announcing her feat to the world. This is her first final, so naturally, she's ecstactic and I couldn't be more pleased for her. Natasha Kern of the Natasha Kern Literary Agency is the final round judge. Let's all wish her luck in the final round!

In other "good" news, I finished the familial taxes (or as much as I need to finish to file for an extension) and it looks like I actually got the withholding allowances right for a change. We owe, but just a little, which is exactly the way I like it. I got a blurb for Going Greek written and posted on my website. I'm still looking for a log line for the book, but I'm hoping something will come to me. I completed and sent in my RWA PRO application thanks to Lacey's speedy burning and mailing of my CD. I even went shopping and bought a couple of nice but comfortable outfits I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing at National in July.

And finally, though I can't take any of the credit myself, the first coat of paint in the dining room is finished. My husband got it all done on Saturday. I'm so pleased with the base color. Bright, springy, and cheerful.

And then, just because I feel like it, here's a photo of my daughter petting a baby alligator at an animal show at the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Discovery Center's opening event last weekend. She's the one in the bright yellow shirt. And she says alligators feel like rubbery plastic.

Burning Down the House

2007-03-30T14:59:00.000-07:00

No, this is not an accidental Lyric Thursday post featuring the famous Talking Heads song. I actually almost did burn down the house earlier this afternoon. I put a pot of beans on the stove to boil and forgot about them. You know what happens next! I was just lucky that the smoke became apparent before I left to pick the kids up from school.

Sigh.

I'm too busy. Busier than any absent-minded, disorganized person should ever allow herself to become. I'm going to have to ramp down a bit. More paying work, a little less writing work (not that there's been much of either lately). More family, less writing. More down time, less writing.

The question for today: How do you maintain balance? Or do you?

Bank Job

2007-03-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

So, this weeks Lyric Thursday is courtesy of the Barenaked Ladies' 2006 release, Barenaked Ladies Are Me. I luuuuuurve this album! It's got maybe three songs I skip over because I'm not crazy about them, but with 13 tracks, that's a high signal-to-noise ratio. (I see the second half, Barenaked Ladies Are Men, was released in February. Duly added to my Amazon shopping cart!)

I love the lyrics to this song in particular because I find them so funny. There is a particular point (which I won't give away) where EVERYONE I've ever shared this song with laughs. Until that point, they kind of furrow their brows with concern. But after that, they're always sold!

Bank Job
Steven Page and Ed Robertson, copyright 2006

It was an upset in two minutes flat
We were back on the freeway, foot to the mat
I can't understand it; we had it down pat
It's very upsetting, could we leave it at that?

We all had positions; we each had a role
We'd over-rehearsed it; we had full control
They can't teach you acting, it's there in your soul
It's the same with a bank job, and each thing we stole

So I don't need attitude
Cause you knew just what to do
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
Wait by the phone

I was the driver; you ran the show
You had the last word, the go or no go
I knew every laneway in Ontario
But it's not what you're sure of, it's what you don't know

It should have been filled with the usual ones
Throwing their cash into mutual funds
We all had our ski masks and sawed-off shotguns
But how do you plan for a bank full of nuns?

Well, I guess we panicked - we all have taboos
And they were like zebras; they had us confused
We should be in condos with oceanfront views
Instead we're most-wanted on the six o'clock news

So I don't need attitude
Cause you knew just what to do
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
And wait by the phone

Inside the police car you tried to explain
Your crisis of conscience; the voice in your brain
And now that the whole thing has gone down the drain
I think we all know who should shoulder the blame

Cause you made a choice there, almost sublime
I'm all for compassion, just not on my dime
You looked like an amateur, and that's the real crime
So I'll take a walk now, and you do the time

And I don't need attitude
Cause you knew just what to do
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
There's no need to phone

We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
Leave me alone

First Pages

2007-03-28T06:51:00.000-07:00

The first page of any manuscript is important, especially for the unpublished author who's trying to gain the (positive!) attention of an agent or editor. It's your first chance to make an impression. And if the impression you make with yours isn't a good one, it can mean your otherwise wonderful manuscript gets thrown in the slush pile with the rest of the ones that are getting form letter rejections.

I wrote the first few pages of A Scandalous Liaison a very long time ago. Probably more than a year ago. I've polished and perfected the entire scene over months, tweaking and adjusting, tightening here, expanding there. After all this time, I was pretty satisfied with the scene, in which the hero and heroine meet. At one point, I added an earlier scene between the heroine and her brother to provide the reader with more information about her situation before she met the hero, but after reading the feedback from the last contest, I realized that scene was a bit confusing since it introduced a hot, manly man who wasn't the hero! Um, duh? So I stripped that back out because it stole the hero's thunder.

Then on Monday, good old ballsy Erica cold-queried three agents on Trevor and the Tooth Fairy. Curious about the submission guidelines of the agents she'd queried, I started poking around. I discovered that quite a number of agents who accept e-queries wanted the first two to five pages of the manuscript added at the end of the letter.

So I pulled out ASL and read the first five pages. I tried to think like an agent receiving them at the end of a cold query. And the agent thought my writing was technically just dandy, but booooorrrring. Where was the action? The conflict? The sizzle? Oh, sure, there were hints of it, but it took forever for the writer to get to it. "Cut to the chase already,"I thought. "There's probably a story here, but the reader will fall asleep before she gets to it."

And then I had my epiphany. That first scene was holding my manuscript back. It was the reason I kept finaling but only managing third place.¹ (Or maybe one of the reasons. I guess I should re-examine the rest for other boring scenes before I decide that's the only one that's a problem :->.)

After chatting with Erica and Darcy a bit, I came up with an entirely new way for the hero and heroine to meet that's much more fun and exciting than the original version. I've only written four pages of it, but I'm 99% sure it's a much better scene. And the first page (technically, the first 250 words) are far stronger than before.

So, just for fun, here are the two different first pages of ASL. I won't say whether I'm putting the new one or the old one first; you guess. But hopefully, you'll be able to tell right away which one is snappier and sets up the conflict more clearly. (If not, I may have to go back to the drawing board again :-.)

Rosalind Brighton reined in her cantering stallion at the crest of the hill overlooking the stables. An unfamiliar horse stood tethered to a post. The dark bay was not one of hers. Apprehension swelled her throat. The animal was too fine to belong to one of the villagers and customers arrived—when they came at all—in carriages.
If her brother had sent a manager without her consent, she would…
She would what? Her younger brother was the mighty Duke of Aylsbridge. She could do little to thwart his will.
Other than to send his minion straight back, she reminded herself. She did own this estate and Lionel could not force anything or anyone on her, at least not until April.
Pulling Canterbury up outside the building, she dismounted and wrapped the gray stallion’s reins around a nearby post. After marching into the stable, she surveyed the aisle between the long row of stalls, squinting to make out a human figure in the faint light. She saw only horses and few of those, as most were out for exercise and training at this time of day.
Odd.
She frowned and pivoted on the heel of her well-worn riding boot, hoping to locate someone who’d seen the intruder. Only after she’d taken several steps did she hear the low, crooning voice behind her.
Brow furrowing, she spun around again. He must be in one of the stalls. Indignation burned her chest. What business did an estate manager have trifling with her horses? His job—which wasn’t his at all—was records and bookkeeping, not animal husbandry.

That's option #1. Here's #2:

“There’s a gentleman here to see you, my lady.”

Lady Rosalind Brighton looked up from her estate ledgers with a surge of excitement. “By all means, send him in, Mrs. Ellis.” If Rosalind could sell even one animal, she might stretch her funds another few weeks.

“Are you certain?” The small, trim housekeeper, who stood in the open study doorway, wrinkled her nose as if she smelled something unpleasant. “He’s Irish.”

Rosalind sighed. She cared about her horses’ pedigrees, not her customers’. “I’m sure Irishmen need horses just as much as Englishmen do.”
“Very well, my lady. But I don’t think he’s come to buy. He came alone and on horseback.”
Not a good sign, Rosalind agreed. Customers, when they came at all, arrived in their carriages with staff in tow.
Mrs. Ellis returned a few moments later with the caller. He was taller than average, broad-shouldered, and obviously well-muscled as evidenced by the close fit of his clothing. His dark trousers, waistcoat, and topcoat were of good quality fabric, clean and well-maintained, but without the refined cut and polished elegance an upper-class gentleman would demand.
His clothing notwithstanding, he was arrestingly handsome. Dark, wavy hair grazed the top of his shirt collar in devil-may-care fashion, and a cleft relieved his strong, square jaw of too much sobriety. He might have middle-class togs, but he certainly had first-rate looks.
Doing her best to ignore the unfamiliar hot, jumpy sensation in the center of her chest, Rosalind stood and crossed the room to greet him. Whatever his reason for coming, she wanted to hear it.

Actually, putting the two of them side-by-side makes me think the original version was better than I thought yesterday. Even so, I think I'm on the right track with the new one.

Today's questions: How much do you angst over your first few pages? How do you know when you've started the story both in the right place and in the right way?

¹The results of CONNections, in which ASL finished third, have been posted. Although I was once again a bit disheartened to see that the first and second place finishers garnered requests, I was encouraged when I realized that the first place finisher, Elizabeth Stock, is a Golden Heart finalist, and the second place finisher, Christie Craig, has sold at least one manuscript. I was up against some talent, peeps!

Goals, Goals, and More Goals

2007-03-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

If you're ever going to be successful in the writing business, you've got to have goals. And I don't mean vague "someday I'll be published"-type goals, but real, measurable goals with hard-and-fast deadlines. (Which, of course, if you're me, you will miss, but let's not go there now, 'k?)

So as of this morning, I have knocked off a bunch of small, but measurable goals I had for myself this year and I'm feeling really rather pleased with myself. To wit, since Friday, I have:

Written and posted my "back cover" blurb for A Scandalous Liaison and (new this morning) for Lady Libertine.
Bought my plane ticket to Dallas (non-stop both ways, round-trip for $233; I feel like I committed theft!).
Registered for the RWA National Conference.
Sent my manuscript to Lacey to burn onto a CD for me so I can send in my PRO application soonest. (I know, I know, get into the 20th century and get a CD burner already! On the other hand, I think RWA should get into the 21st century and take the file by email or ftp :->.)
Made reservations for the familial vacation during the second week of April. (Okay, I know this one is not obviously writing-related, but it was taking up space in my brain which was pushing out writing, so it is writing-related after all. Come to think of it, everything is, really!)

It didn't hurt that I got up extra early (before 6:00 a.m.) and knocked off a bunch of the small stuff before the kids got up for school.

So, what remains on my goal list? Since I like to keep my goals short-term (if the deliverable date is more than three months from now, it's not a goal yet--it's a wish *g!), here's what I still have to accomplish:

~~Read and critique a chapter for Nana, whom I met at the RWA San Diego chapter meeting, by tomorrow.~~
~~Select and post an excerpt from Lady Libertine to my website by Wednesday.~~
Write a blurb for Going Greek and post it to my website by the end of the week.
~~Submit PRO application by April 6 (the Friday before Easter). Of course, I'm relying on Lacey to get my CD burnt and back to me by then, so it could slip depending on her schedule.~~
Have a relaxing vacation! Do not think about writing! (Yeah, right!)
Finish revising A Scandalous Liaison by May 1 and query to several agents by mid-May.
Complete a polished partial of Going Greek and find an appropriate contest for it (no later than mid-May).
Complete the rough draft of Lady Libertine by my birthday (June 6).

The first five should be easy. The last three...not so easy. But having goals keeps me focused and focus is good.

Today's question: What are your short-term goals? And how do you motivate yourself to meet purely self-imposed deadlines?

Writing Blurbs: My Nemesis

2007-03-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

When Darcy emailed her proposed website blurbs for her Black Bandit trilogy of books earlier this week (you can read them here), I:

a) Had serious pangs of envy; and
b) Begged her to write my blurbs for me.

I'm really bad at blurbs. I have a terrible time distilling my story down to a couple of paragraphs. Especially two or three paragraphs that are catchy and sexy and still manage to tell the reader something meaningful about the story. That's asking a lot, IMO. Especially of someone who has written well over 200,000 words in pursuit of a novel that will wind up being around 100,000 words long. Brevity, shall we say, is not the soul of my wit.

And yet, Darcy seems to do it with ease. I hate her :->!

Two other writers whose blurbs are so good, they make me want to weep are Annie Dean and Jody Wallace/Ellie Marvel. (Those links'll take you to their blurb pages. Read 'em and, well, weep!)

With a little help from Darcy and me (and mostly Darcy, since as I said, I suck at this!), Lacey also came up with a very kick-ass blurb for If You Asked the Devil to Dance. (She also has a great one for If You Asked a Rake to Reform, but the web page is screwed up for some unknown reason so you can't really read it.)

But, back to me (because we know it's all about me, right?) and my weak, stinky attempts at blurbing A Scandalous Liaison. (I haven't even tried to write one for Lady Libertine or Going Greek yet, although I know that writing the blurb is one of the very first things many writers do when they're exploring a new story.) After an afternoon of chat with Darcy followed by some email input from Lacey and more chat with Darcy, we did manage to come up with a tagline and blurb that I think is pretty darned good. You can read it here.

Now I just have to go through the whole horrible, stinking process again for two more books. A writer's work is never done!

Today's question: What's your writing nemesis? Blurbs? Synopses? Query letters? Or something else? Do share!

Cry on Demand

2007-03-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

Today's Lyric Thursday comes from the UK band Gomez and their 2006 album, How We Operate. (That link'll get you to Amazon where you can listen to a 30-second sample of this song, which I recommend doing. )

I admit, I'd never have found this disc if I hadn't heard the band interviewed on NPR. What a shame that would have been! For Darcy's benefit, I have to mention that this album is their first on Dave Matthews' ATO label.

Originally, I was planning to post the lyrics for Barenaked Ladies' hilarious Bank Job, but that'll have to wait until next week. (I figured it was well past time to start posting lyrics from songs recorded after the end of the 20th century.) I decided to post this song instead, however, because the heroine in Going Greek is listening to it on her iPod when she meets the hero.

Cry on Demand
by Gomez*, copyright 2006

I wish I could cry on demand,
Boo Hoo, Boo Hoo
Given all these troubles on my mind,
The tears won't come out.

I've been shaking, shaking in my boots
Every time I hear my telephone ring
It can't possibly be you,
You never call,
Not since my little accident.

I didn't mean to cause any trouble
I didn't know we were so serious
Yeah, I didn't mean to burst our bubble
It can only float for so long

Now I realise, I realise they were wrong,
'cos what happens in Vegas,
Don't take very long,
To travel accross continents,
And onwards overseas,
Onto our little island,
To our city, our home,

ButI didn't mean to cause any trouble
I didn't know we were so serious
Yeah, I didn't mean to burst our bubble
It could only float for so long

Sometimes I wish, I could cry on demand
Boo Hoo, Boo Hoo
Given all these troubles on my mind,
The tears won't come out.

I didn't mean to cause any trouble
I didn't know we were so serious
Yeah, I didn't mean to burst our bubble
It could only float for so long

Sometimes I wish, I could cry on demand
Boo Hoo, Boo Hoo
Given all these troubles on my mind,
The tears won't come out.
I wish, I could cry on demand
Boo Hoo, Boo Hoo

Given all these troubles on my mind,
The tears won't come out,
The tears won't come out,
The tears won't come out

*Gomez are Ian Ball, Paul Blackburn, Tom Gray, Ben Ottewell and Olly Peacock.

Happy Dancing!

2007-03-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

So, today you get a bonus post because my critique partner, Darcy Burke, just learned that she finaled in the Yellow Rose Chapter's Winter Rose contest. She let me know by chat a few minutes ago, right after she got the phone call.

I'll tell you, I got major butterflies and the shakes at the news. It was just about as great a high as finaling in a contest for the first time myself.

Since she's my critique partner, I must admit I feel nearly as invested in her book as she is. Of course, all my CPs have told me they feel the same about my work as I've been contesting it over the past several months, but I don't think I fully believed it until this moment. I'm so delighted she finaled. I realize I would have been crushed if she hadn't.

Anyway, now it's on to May Chen at Avon and the final round.

Good luck, Darcy.

So Many Ideas, So Little Time

2007-03-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in Monday's frantic speed-post that I had loads of writing-related stuff to share and said I'd do so today. So I will.

Last Saturday, I attended my first ever, real-live meeting of an RWA Chapter (the San Diego chapter, to be specific). I've been a member of a number of online chapters for a while (including The Beau Monde), I haven't taken the plunge to join the San Diego chapter because their regular chapter meetings are at an incredibly bad time for me (the third Saturday of the month from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) and I didn't figure it was worth the investment if I couldn't attend the meetings on a somewhat consistent basis.

However, last Saturday's slate of speakers included Sally Van Haitsma from the Julie Castiglia Literary Agency. (The photo there of Ms. Van Haitsma does not do her justice. She's much prettier in person...and very tall!) The topic was "What Agents Want from Writers" or something along those lines. Now, Ms. Van Haitsma (pronounced Heights-ma) doesn't represent genre fiction, so I knew I'd probably never have an opportunity to work with her, but I did want to hear about the query and pitch process from an agent's perspective. So, I took a morning away from my family (on the worst possible weekend, since Sunday was our Cub Scout Pack's Pinewood Derby and Saturday needed to be spent setting up and testing for it) to go hear her speak.

Even though I didn't feel like I learned much about how to query an agent properly, I did learn a lot of things I didn't know before. I share these now in no particular order.

Of the 12-15 or so writers in the room (of perhaps 50-60 attendees) who were published, only two or three had agents. That surprised me. I would have expected the proportion of published writers with agents to be much, much higher. It turns out, however, that many of the published authors have been small-press published, and because the small presses generally don't offer advances and have smaller payouts overall, many agents aren't interested in representing writers with "small press" books. In simple, mercenary terms, it just doesn't make financial sense because it takes just as much time and effort on the agent's part to pitch a project to as small press as to a large one with better payout.
Having been published, especially in small press, turns out to be not-very-helpful in getting an agent for future projects. That surprised me, too. I would have thought someone with a track record of having been published at all would have better luck getting an agent than someone unpublished. And while it's probably true that publishing credits help, it turns out not to help that much.
Of the queries she receives, Ms. Van Haitsma said that roughly 75%-80% were obviously either not ready for prime-time or something she knows she doesn't represent. A significant proportion of the "not-ready-for-prime-time" category are incredibly unprofessional (hand-written, addressed "to whom it may concern," full of grammatical errors or typos, etc.). I was really shocked to discover that so many writers are either sloppy/lazy or don't do their homework.

Ms. Van Haitsma also talked a bit about the marketplace for literary women's fiction (and apparently, erotic fiction can fall into this category; she said she'd like to read some erotica at any rate). Even though that's not what I've been writing lately, I realized that I do have some ideas for books she might be interested in. I really wanted to find a few moments to talk to her about one of them in particular (a historically-based story set in ancient Rome that I think is infinitely marketable because there's currently so much interest in all things ancient) just to see if she'd be interested at all in seeing the query should I ever actually write the book, but I had to leave immediately after lunch and didn't get the opportunity.

This book has been kicking around in my head literally for YEARS as a high concept, but I've never been able to attach a plot or scenes to it. However, thinking about it got me jazzed to write it just because I know it could be a winner if I did it well. The problem is that I need to do a lot of research to re-immerse myself in ancient Roman culture and history first as well as to find the plot and scenes to go with the fabulous high concept. So, I walked away with a new project to tackle, but no additional time in which to tackle it (typical!).

The other thing Ms. Van Haitsma mentioned that got my creative juices flowing (although I didn't realize it at the time) was that many publishers are looking for books in an as-yet unnamed category that's sort of a counterpart to ChickLit. Specifically, they want stories with romantic elements about older women (in their thirties and perhaps forties as opposed to the twenty-somethings of traditional ChickLit) and, ideally, younger men. Apparently, the initially proposed name for this category was MatronLit (horrible; it will never sell), followed by HenLit (better, but not appreciably so).

Ms. Van Haitsma's suggestion was CougarLit. I have since discovered that cougar is a slang term for an older, financially secure woman who dates younger men. (Man, I'm out of the loop!) I'm not sure I like the term, but it's better that the two previously proposed alternatives.

When I first heard this, I thought, "Nice idea, but I don't do contemporary so I'll never write anything remotely close to fitting that category." But then, on Sunday morning, an idea sprang into my head, full-blown, complete with plot, characters, and setting. I'm not entirely sure it will wind up fitting the CougarLit category, although it is about a woman in her late thirties who takes up with a man in his late twenties. It's just that the plot is much more typically "genre romance" than "literary fiction with romantic elements." It could also easily wind up being no more than category length. On the other hand, I expect it to end up being very hot, verging on erotica, so I'm really not sure where it will wind up fitting when it's done. But when an idea comes to me that fully formed, I know it's a message from my subconscious that I must write it.

So I am. You'll see a new progress meter on the right for it. The working title is Going Greek because much of the action (especially of the hot boinking variety) will take place in Greece. As Jody mentioned in her comment on my Unfinished Business post, I'm going to crack out a partial at least and get some feedback to see if it's worth pursuing to the end.

Does this mean I'm going to stop writing Lady Libertine or give up on my efforts to revise A Scandalous Liaison? No way, baby, I'm doing it all! Am I insane? Probably. Will I get anything done if I don't concentrate on one project at a time? I don't know.

I do know, however, that I have to go where the stories and the characters take me.

Today's comment questions: What's your approach to multiple projects? Do them all at once? Concentrate on one at a time? Do you ever set aside a project in the middle to concentrate on a new one? If you do, do you go back? Or does setting aside a project mean it joins the never-to-be-finished pile?

Monday Madness

2007-03-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

I have way too much on my plate. So much that I shouldn't be blogging, but I usually blog on Mondays and I hate to disappoint my public. (Yeah, I know. Allow me my delusions of grandeur.)

Long story short, I just finished changing the template for this blog so that it matches my website a little better. I'm sure when Erica gets back from Costa Rica (:-P), she can 'splain to me how to get the graphic's resolution a bit cleaner. Right now, it's too pixellated and the original isn't like that, so I must be doing something wrong. I also updated my website a smidgen and finally got the www version of the website address working.

In addition, I want to point out the new link on the right side there under the header Manuscript Mavens. Darcy Burke is now officially in the land of cyberspacer! Yay! I've also moved my links to Lacey and Erica up there, since they round out the Manuscript Mavens quartet.

Of course, that barely scratched the surface of what I'm hoping to get accomplished this week. Writing-related stuff aside (and there's loads of that--I'll tell you more on Wednesday, I promise), I have to get the cats into the vet, enroll my youngest son in kindergarten, and clean the house. Oh, and I haven't had lunch or a shower yet. Guess I better get crackin'!

So, what's on your agenda this week, writing-related or otherwise?

Unfinished Business

2007-03-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

In last Friday's post, Of Milestones and Manuscripts, I mentioned in passing that finishing A Scandalous Liaison was a major accomplishment for me because I had so many quarter- and half-written manuscripts littering my past. In the comments, Jody (aka meankitty aka Typing Slave) asked me to 'fess up as to how many in a blog post.

Well, the truth is, too many for me to be able to tell you how many.

The first piece of fiction I recall writing was a story about a fairy and a jack-o-lantern (hmmm, Erica, this is sounding frighteningly familiar!) back in the second grade. I don't think I want to tell you exactly how many years ago that is, but suffice it to say, it was quite a long time ago and the beginning of what I suspect will be a lifelong obsession. Even in the decade when I wasn't actively writing (from several years after I got married up to last February), I did write in fits and starts--bits and pieces of stories that never quite got up enough steam to get me to commit to them.

Of course, most of what I wrote when I was in junior high and high school (and even college) was craptastically bad. I took a creative writing class in college where the instructor took my stories apart with a gigantic red pen and left them as bleeding carcasses on the floor. At the time, I thought he was harsh and just didn't like my stories because they weren't "literary" enough, but now I realize it was just because they sucked. Oh, they had a few redeeming qualities (I'm pretty certain all the sentences were grammatically correct and accurately spelled), but other than that, I can't think of much that was good about them.

The only thing I ever wrote back then that had any real promise was a bit of Star Wars fan-fic set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I couldn't wait for the next installment, so I had to write my own. And I felt very sorry for Luke after he discovered Leia was his sister, so I gave him a love interest in the form of Emperor Palpatine's daughter. I thought Jedis should get a little up-n-down, too, ya know? Before I finished it, however, ROTJ hit the theaters and writing it became a moot point. Although it still didn't look like Luke was ever gonna get any hot girlie action... (I almost wish I knew where to find that piece now, but I don't. It was written long before computers on a manual typewriter, so it's probably decomposing somewhere in a landfill now along with most of the rest of what I wrote back then.)

Looking back, I suspect that the primary reason I didn't finish anything I started (with the rare exception of a few short stories and one very bad YA novella) was because I knew what I was writing wasn't very good. It was mostly mental masturbation, a way to entertain myself. I never shared anything I wrote with anyone else (at least, not until that disastrous college course that flayed me alive, LOL). And after a certain point, the stories always stopped entertaining me and I moved onto the next one.

So, what changed between then and now? I'm not sure, but I suspect it's a combination of factors. The primary one, though, is that I found a community of writers with interests similar to my own. (That group includes pretty much everyone who reads this blog, of course! So thanks to all of you.)

I do have to give the lion's share of the credit for the fact that A Scandalous Liaison is both finished and not a complete piece of crap to Lacey, though. That's not to say my other critique partners aren't fabulous! They are and have all contributed enormously to everything I've accomplished this last year.

It's just that Lacey was the first to work with me and she pointed out a lot of things in the first version of my manuscript that I didn't know enough to see on my own: passive constructions, telling rather than showing, weak stage direction, POV problems, etc. When I started to apply the simple pointers she gave me, the story got instantly more interesting and entertaining to me, and it seemed infinitely more worth the effort to finish it. (And it's more than a little humbling that she taught me this stuff while being young enough to be my daughter. I wasn't a bad writer when I was her age because I was young; I was just bad!)

So, today's question for ya'll is: What motivates you to keep working on a manuscript until you finish it? And how many unfinished (and possibly never-to-be-finished) books and stories are taking up space on your hard drive or in your file cabinet? Or in landfills?

And the Winner Is...

2007-03-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

Erica!

She has won the prize in the 100th post on Jacqueline's blog contest.

In case you're wondering how I picked the winner, I put the names of everyone who posted on both my blog and Annie's into a spreadsheet and alphabetized them. Then I went to http://www.random.org and used a tool there to randomize them by the number values for each position in the list. Erica came up first in the randomized list.

So, Erica, you know how to contact me when you want to do your next contest entry!

Get Started, Start a Fire

2007-03-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

This gem is from Graham Parker's 1997 release, The Mona Lisa's Sister. I freely cop to being a Graham Parker fanatic. My husband and I went to see him at a small club here in San Diego back in the mid-90s. It was just him and a guitar. It was easily the best concert I have ever seen. Hands down.

I don't know exactly what it is about these lyrics that so delights me. Maybe it's the juxtaposition of the Mona Lisa, Marilyn Monroe, and Joan of Arc. Whatever it is, I hope you enjoy them!

Get Started, Start a Fire
by Graham Parker, copyright 1997

The Mona Lisa's sister doesn't smile
She tried to pose but only for a while
Leonardo sent her home
Since then she has lived alone
With her few belongings and a copy
Of a painting of herself unhappy
She is going to burn it when she's ready

Chorus: Get started, start a fire

Marilyn was lying all alone
With an empty bottle by the phone
Kennedy was not around
She was cold when she was found
But she'd gone where goddesses are sleeping
Where the molten tongues of flame are leaping
Or where the angel's hearts are heating

Joan of Arc was burning at the stake
Somebody had made a big mistake
She had lit a cigarette
In an aiport where you get
Your fingers taken off for smoking.
Meanwhile up the road a factory's choking
The ones who killed her work there I'm not joking.

Characters with Minds of Their Own

2007-03-14T16:07:00.000-07:00

First, a big thanks to everyone who posted words of encouragement after my bad writing day on Monday. They helped!

Also, welcome to Shelli Stevens and T.J. Killian, who kindly posted their first comments in the past week. It's always nice to have a little new blood around the old blog!

This post is going to have to be brief because the kids are screaming at me to go swimming and I always get some of my best writing done out by the pool. (That's because I don't have wireless Internet and so I can't fork around on blogs and reading email/chatting, so there's nothing else to do.)

But, as it turned out, the reason the scene wasn't working on Monday was because I was trying to make my heroine behave in a way that's completely antithetical to her nature. Once I realized that, it was easy to see how to fix it. The only problem now is I'm going to have to write a love scene much earlier in the book than I originally anticipated and they always take forever! I enjoy writing them, actually, but they're difficult to get right.

So, today's post question is: What do you do when your characters refuse to behave as your plot demands? Do you beat them into submission or change the plot? Or a little of both?

And now, the pool!

Bad Writing Days

2007-03-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

I just had one. Or actually, three. You see, I've been working on a scene for three days. My characters won't cooperate and do what they should. And they bored me to tears. So after investing hours and hours trying to get them to do what I wanted, I pitched the entire thing. I'm going to have to try something else. But I have no idea what. Nor do I have any scenes that come after it that are sufficiently crystallized for me to just skip ahead and write them.

Since I am feeling demoralized, I'll ask you: What do you do when you have a bad writing day?

Of Milestones and Manuscripts

2007-03-09T08:26:00.000-08:00

Blogger is kind enough to inform me that this post is my 100th since I started this blog. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad one. It seems to me like I got to 100 rather quickly, which suggests I've been blogging rather too much and writing rather too little.

But either way, it's an exciting milestone and it got me thinking about a couple of other recently or soon-to-be-achieved milestones in my writing life.

I started writing A Scandalous Liaison a little over a year ago. (The file's properties claim February 19, 2006 as the creation date.) I hope to finish the third (and I hope both final and agent/editor submittable) draft by the end of this month. I'll be taking Candy Havens' Revision Hell course, starting March 19, in hopes of achieving this goal.
I found the Aspiring Romance Writers Yahoo! group and made my first post there on March 15, 2006. Through that loop, I met up with four of my critique partners, starting with Lacey and ultimately including Darcy, Erica, and Leigh. These ladies have all motivated and inspired me in countless ways. Without them, I'm sure I'd have given up on my first manuscript long ago.

All in all, it's been an amazing year. When I started writing Liaison, it was simply a compulsion. I had a story in my head and it had to get out. But then, about 40,000 words along, I started thinking, "Hey, this is pretty good. Maybe...just maybe...this could one day be a publishable book." And that led me to ARW, my critique partners, RWA, and contests. Contests I finaled in! Then, I actually finished the manuscript. (Oh, if you only knew how many quarter- and half-written books litter my past!) I was ballsy enough to query my manuscript to an agent. A little over a year after embarking on this journey, I'm eligible for RWA Pro status. In addition, I've submitted a manuscript to Ellora's Cave and, not to be beaten down by rejection, have already sent it on a wing and prayer to another publisher (Harlequin's Spice Briefs line is getting the next crack at it).

I know I still have a long, long way to go. But I feel I've already come an awfully long way.

So, on this 100th post day, I'm sponsoring a contest of my own. First, to be eligible for my prize, you must go over to Annie Dean's blog and comment on her 100th post. (She's offering either a $50 Amazon gift certificate or a box of Godiva chocolates--your choice--to the poster of the 100th comment, so there might even be something in it for you!) If you do that and post a comment here, I will enter your name in a drawing for my prize, which is to pay your entry fee for an RWA-chapter sponsored contest of your choice, not to exceed $35. We'll work out the details later!

Update: Lacey notes in her comment that I didn't specify a deadline for this little contest. Since Annie's already at 55 comments and counting, I don't think I can say it's closed when Annie gets her 100th comment. So, how about we close this next Wednesday?

UpUpdate: The winner of Annie's 100th comment contest was Carrie Lofty. I was number 99 and 101. How unfair is that? But you still gotta post on both Annie's blog and mine to be eligible for my prize.