Who Knew!

In complete deference to my I Feel Pretty fluff post...I was on Julie Cohen's blog and she pointed us all to a site that was discussing her fab book, Being A Bad Girl. All the romance blogs I've ever seen have been done up by authors, either social or promotional. This...this is educational!

Teach Me Tonight looks at romance novels from the academic perspective, showing the symbolism in Being a Bad Girl or the metaromance as seen in Nicola Marsh’s Contract to Marry. Fantastic!

There is also a Romance Wiki set up to collect scholarly bits on the genre.

Who knew!!

I Feel Pretty

The downhill slide

It's the downhill slide of the week, not my workload. Ever feel that time just got away from you?

I finially finished the first draft of the partial for my lovely editor. I thought I'd have turned it in by now, but she said to take my time, so I did, letting it stew and rewriting things a million differnt ways. Well, seventeen. But that seemed like an awful lot. I hope to get the partial off to her on Monday. New week, new story...I'm hoping she'll still be in love with it.

My agent is going gangbusters on submissions, which makes me want to pass some more of my ST stories his way...but they aren't where I want them. I want to add a few scenes to each of them, but haven't had the time. To get back into a project I have to read it through first, then work in what I planned. The time just isn't there right now - not with my health issues, HubbaBubba's new job, the babes both starting school. I see why so many writers wait until their kids are older and their SO's job is stable before trying to focus on writing. There are only so many hours in the day!

And then there is Her Cinderella Complex, my decadent plotless story that may be on the road to nowhere, but I love it. I left it when I heard back from the lovely editor, and now want to get back to the characters. I left them in the pool, fighting in the afterglow. No wonder I want to dive back in!

Writers' Wednesday with Jenna Bayley-Burke

Go check out my Stumbling Blocks on the Pink Heart Society!

(http://pinkheartsociety.blogspot.com)

Did someone say FREE!!!

The collaborations are available FREE as an ebook from Harlequin!!

They are part of the Round Robin progam HQ hosts. I checked out Isabel Swift's (HQ VP) blog and found out all sorts of new things :

Harlequin ... announced the launch of four digital entertainment ventures, specifically:

Harlequin Mini ™ eBooks

Harlequin Mini™ Round Robin eBooks

eBook Boutique on eHarlequin.com

Write Harlequin, a platform for gathering reader-generated content...

like the Round Robin minis!

It is one of my weird writerly goals to start off a Round Robin. It used to be to be selected as a chapter...but now that I am published I'm out of the running for the chapter contests. I need to get successful enough to start one off! They are such fun.

My legs are swollen

I think I'm having a reaction to MSG that must have been in some Chinese food I had on Saturday. And my left hand is numb. I suspect carpal tunnel. And...yeah I didn't get to writing today. Did take the kids to the zoo though. And did a huge homework project with BigBoy.

Yes, he is in kindergarten. He is the Shining Star of his class this week, so we journaled our weekend with the Shining Star Bear (pirates, Red Robin, new shoes, visiting grandparents, bike rides, and the zoo). Then we made a poster all about him. Which was fun...but we have to let him do it himself so what I thought would take an hour at most...took 3. This is why parents do their kids homework I think.

Write A Book (or 2) With Trish - Just One Night

Heroine :: Sienna Lawrence








Hero :: Justin McKay









Location :: her work / nighclub / his ranch

Alpha Males - Arrogant or Confident? Proud or Conceited?

I haven't written an alpha male in a while. I am a gamma girl all the way. Even though my MX heroes are considered alpha, I think of them as baby alphas, alpha gamma straddlers. Wow, that sounds like a fraternity. Anyway, Curtis, the hero in Cinderella doesn't straddle. He's alpha. all the way.

Why? Well, it was his choice really. But in my last two Rs, the stories were lacking emotion...and watching an alpha get his come-uppance (aka 'the black moment') is emotional. As is not liking the hero as much as the heroine does.

But...when is it too much? I'm wondering if I've crossed from MX into Modern/Presents territory with this hero. Hmmm.

HER CINDERELLA COMPLEX :: 30,053 / 60K (50.1%)

That Darned Pool

So here I am, thinking I'm all clever and sexy getting my characters to go skinny dipping. And then...they're making it all emotional on me. Well, her. He's just a horny guy. But still. Emotion is slow writing for me. Don't they understand I need to bang out this drfat so I can get to the story my editor likes?

In other news...my cookbook (The Pocket Diet) comes out in January. Just in time for all the people looking for a diet. Perfect, I say.

The Mommy Track

Wednesday was all about my babes. Not a stitch of writing. Which makes me feel intensely guilty, hence why I am posting this when I should be sleeping. I just...should have written today.

But there was the Children's Museum (where I got to show off my skills at face painting and making animals out of clay) and then my boys fave restaurant Sweet Tomatoes, and then we came home and played a few rounds of Dinosaur Dominoes before HubbaBubba announced he wouldn't be home until late so there would be no evening write.

I'm always saying you don't have time to write, you make it. Yet today, I didn't make time. I did have a great day (save the uber-late Hubba). Got to chat up Karen, hang out with my cousin, and laugh with my boys. Except for BabyBoy's bathroom incident. That was NOT funny.

I know that when I turned in my career keys and opted to stay home with my boys, I was officially on the slow moving mommy track. In the slow lane since I wasn't even trying to balance work and kids. But now that I am working again, albeit on my own schedule, I feel guilty when I don't. When I am pulling off to the shoulder instead of moving on.

I'm glad I have the flexibility to take days like this - even though being beaten at dominoes by a three-year-old is hard on the ego. But I also wish I had more support to work. I wonder...daycare gets something obnoxious like a dollar a minute when you are late picking your kids up...so he owes me...$145 so far. That ought to cover a lot of postage and contest entries! ;p

Writing a book with Trish, step 3

SETTING

So I have my hero & heroine, now I need a place to put them! After a while I'm going to stick them here. It's a private island in the middle of Lake Shastina. I can't write those secluded tropical islands very well...so this one is in the Northwest.

This prestigious 10,000 sqft mansion sits on top of a 75 acre private island. At the base of Mt. Shasta, in Lake Shastina in Northern California.


I know just how to work in the sunset and the pool. Now, outside of the house I need...


Heather's bedroom (the pink is a surprise since she dresses for work in black) & Curtis' bedroom (all black and white, which he hates).




Then comes the office.
And the church she runs away from.

Phew.
I think I have this one in the bag!

Talk Pirate To Me!

Ahoy, god day e'eryone, gar! Let's have some fun, shall we? Tis' Talk Like A Pirate Day, gar! Do your worst...

Argh, gar! Whar's me PepsiOne?

The lo'ely editor called and helped me work through the worst o' my issues with Just One Eve. By jo'e, I think I''e figured this one out, shiver me timbers! Whar I was thinkin' I'd have t' pull characters, she helped me see how t' just highlight them diffarntly. So...tis' still my story, just focused more.

Thank goodness for editors who will hold your hand, e'en when they should be goin' home because it is late in London and they have a cold. She literally talked t' me until she lost her 'oice.

Ahoy, i'm off t' sit on my dungbie and get some work done!

Ahoy, translate your own text int' Pirate-speak with the Pirate Translator!

HER CINDERELLA COMPLEX : 27,916 / 60K (46.5%)

Stops and Starts

Stories come to me in big streams, huge deluges of words and actions that I have to race to get on the page. It's fantastic...unless I can't write. I know I won't be able to get the sparkle of the idea back...and it is frustrating as all get out when I am plotting a story.

When I am just writing, letting the story flow...it is so much easier to deal with interruptions. If I don't get down this scene, another one will come to me. It's less stressful one the writing side, more taxing on the business side. Will the lovely editor like this book? I have no idea, since I have no synopsis, no idea where it is going.

HER CINDERELLA COMPLEX :: 26,469 / 60,000 (44.1%)

On the other hand...I am percolating her suggestions on JUST ONE NIGHT, and have recruited the help of one of my Diva friends to help decipher what my editor saw in the synopsis, because she repeatedly said she liked it, but I couldn't hear what it was she liked because she had issues with so many key elements.

(insert long sigh here)

Someday I am going to have this writing thing figured out and act professionally, i.e. keep my mouth shut about my frustrations. Until then...I'll look forward to tomorrow, when I get to write the first yummy scene of Cinderella. In a pool...

Layering Your Novel - Cherry Adiar workshop

My local RWA hosted a workshop with Cherry Adair this weekend. She is one funny chica! She has no pretensions, fully admitting very little separates a NY Times best seller from a pre-published author. She had some great pearls of wisdom I thought I'd pass along:

• If you have been working on a book for longer than 9 months, you are working on the wrong book. That book is dead. Move on.
• Never hang around waiting for a sale or rejection. Get to work on the next book.
• The best humor comes from voice, not jokes.
• Publishers not only want a good writer, they want a prolific writer. The quicker you write, the better chance you have at selling. A competent writer who is punctual will get the slot over a fantastic writer who is slow and unreliable.
• Be very careful who you tell your story to. Our subconscious needs to tell the story. Every time you tell it, it dilutes it in your brain.
• Start scenes as late as you can, and end them as soon as you can. In other words, know what point you are trying to make, make it, and get out.

HER CINDERELLA COMPLEX: 25,644 / 60,000 (42.7%)

Wanna Write a Book With Trish?

I am seriously crushing on Trish Wylie. Besides the obvious reasons (brilliant author, cute accent, grand dame of the Pink Heart Society), she's always doing helpful workshops and lessons on her blog. Right now, she's holding our hands and walking us through the writing of a book! No, I am not kidding.

Day 1 (Wednesday) we found our hero. Huge surprise she chose Hugh Jackman. Because she doesn't like him at all.
Day 2 (Thursday) we found our heroine. Rosamund Pike got the nod.

There is plenty of time to catch up. Go ahead, get started on your next novel.

I just started on the book I refuse to plot. Maybe my editor will like this one better than Just One Night redux.

Curtis:
Heather:
I'm not plotting, just making sure I know my 32-year-old real estate developer (Trump, but sexy) & his 23-year-old personal assistant (Angelina without the confidence and with 20 extra pounds). He's sick to death of playing the media darling, she started drooling when she started working for him and has developed a full-on case of lovesickness. So when he asks her to get the media off his tail by marrying him...what choice does she have? Everything is great, except for HER CINDERELLA COMPLEX.


HER CINDERELLA COMPLEX:
23,403 / 60,000 (39.0%)