March 13, 2006 [Monday]
Where does the time go? Since I last blogged, the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl (or I guess I should say, the referees lost the game for them). I watched Dancing With The Stars to its culmination, and agree completely with Drew and Cheryl's win. They were fun to watch and always gave entertaining performances.
The Oscars have come and gone, and while watching them has always been a family tradition, I found myself not all that into it this year. Maybe I'm too busy to focus on an awards show; maybe I've seen so many of them in my lifetime that they don't do for me what they once did; maybe the show itself just wasn't that spectacular. Parts of it were very funny, and parts were only okay. The gowns were beautiful with only the occasional What Was She Thinking! (the Naomi Watts shredded tissue paper dress comes to mind). I thought all three songs were horrible (And only 3 this year? What happened to all the beautiful Academy Award winning songs of years' past? Are all the good songwriters dead?). The "song" that won was simply a very bad joke.
Sighs Matter is due to hit the shelves in 2 weeks. Wow. That's amazing to me. If feels like I wrote it forever ago, but it was just last year. Since I turned it in, I've written and completed Nobody's Darling and am now writing Drop Dead Darling, which, after some revisions, was accepted by my editor. While ND is the story of Nate Darling and Tabitha March (he's a San Francisco detective; she's a psychic dream interpreter who has a client who may or may not be a murderer), DDD is the story of Ethan Darling and Emilie DiVasi. He's a very straight-laced former detective turned private investigator, while she's a popular San Francisco author and TV show personality whose into feng shui, natural foods, and positive affirmations. Needless to say, they clash, especially when a special interest group targets Emilie and possibly means to do her harm.
I had a ton of fun writing ND, and can hardly wait until it comes out next March (2007). I think it's my favorite book so far. I'm also enjoying DDD because Ethan is a much darker hero than I've written before, and he's keeping me up at night (so to speak).
Well, it's late, I'm sleepy, and I've gotta go-ta work tomorrow. Spring begins next Monday, and I'm sure ready. How about you?!
February 2, 2006 [Thursday]
Ah, the best laid plans. I meant to blog a few days ago, but I've been down with the flu. First my 14 year-old daughter had it and was home from school, then, just as she got well, I came down with it. The only bad part is, as a (recent) single mom with no family of my own anymore, when I get sick, I don't have the luxury of curling up in bed while somebody else goes to the store to stock up on Cambell's Chicken Noodle soup. So I grabbed a handful of tissues, threw on clothing of some kind - I don't remember what - slogged off to the grocery store (and I mean slogged; it's been raining here for the last 80 days, almost without break) and got some 7-Up and orange juice. Miracle drugs. I'd gotten a flu shot in November, but apparently I caught the kind not covered in the vaccine. Wouldn't you know.
To add to my misery, the proposal for Drop Dead Darling didn't quite pass muster, so I had to toss my synopsis and first three chapters and start over. Note to aspiring authors: Just because you're published doesn't mean every brilliant idea you have is going to be acceptable to your editor. So I've done some rework and with a little luck and some more work, it'll get the green light. I should find out next week. Actually, I like the new premise much better, and the hero and heroine have more sexual tension and chemistry going between them. It's not always easy to look on the bright side or throw good work away with a smile on your face, but it's been my experience that things happen for the best, so I just try to go with that.
I'm not into football all that much, but when the local team who's struggled for years and years makes good and ends up in the freaking Super Bowl, a person can't help but get excited! I'll be watching the game on Sunday, along with everybody else in the Northwest, to cheer for the Seattle Seahawks!!
I bought an interesting book the other day: Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent. In it, she chronicles her 18 months as a woman disguised as a man in order to find out what being a man is really like. It's enthralling, absolutely absorbing. Since I've been sick, I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but I'll hit the highlights in future blogs.
Tonight's Dancing With the Stars. If anyone had told me I'd get hooked on such a show, I would have scoffed (yes, scoffed!). But the dancing is just fantastic and I can't believe these actors have learned how to dance, new steps, and new routines in only a week.
One of the reasons I've stayed away from reality TV is because it's so contrived. Scriptless, sure, but the producers edit the film in such a way as to tell the story they want the audience to see. It's very manipulative, plus (and this is a big problem I have), everybody is so mean. Whatever happened to being a gracious winner (or loser)? Whatever happened to respecting your opponent? And the judges . . . do they have to be cruel? The answer is No, they don't. But it makes for such "good" TV, that it's encouraged.
Maybe it's because I'm from a different generation, but I was raised to be kind, and if you can't be kind, say nothing. Stand up for yourself if you've been wronged, but that's different. But being kind would make for very boring TV this day and age, but every reality show I've happened to wander past has been the same - cruel, cutting remarks for no good reason except to get a rise out of the contestant. Then they can bring that camera in real close while this poor sap falls apart. What's even sadder to me, is that these shows are so popular.
When I was a kid, they had amateur hours and tryout shows where unknowns would try to break into show biz - singing, dancing, acrobatics, stand-up comedy, etc. They had what was known as The Applause Meter (anybody remember that?). The old Applause Meter told the story. Whomever got the most applause, won. No cruelty, no harsh words, no cynical remarks - when you've put your heart on the line and gotten up there and given it your all, isn't losing on national television cruel enough?
January 22, 2006 [Sunday]
Sundays have that special kind of quiet that only Sundays have. There's a middle-of-the-night quiet, and a lull-before-the-storm quiet, and a the-kids-are-at-school quiet, but Sunday quiet can only be found on Sunday. Know what I mean? Stores, streets, neighborhoods have a different feel to them on Sunday. Sometimes I like that; sometimes, I don't.
When I was a kid, on weekend days, grown-ups would always ask, "So, what's your plan for the day?" As the daughter of Depression Era parents, even time was not to be wasted - let alone odd lengths of string, used wrapping paper, or even one spoonful of food. You had to have a plan for the day so that not a single moment would pass unproductively or be squandered. As a result, I still feel guilty sitting and gazing out a window, or watching TV without doing something productive at the same time (I've dealt with this torment by knitting or crocheting or quilting while I watch TV).
I don't have a plan for today, except, at some point during the day or evening, I will write something. I'm writing right now, but it doesn't count. For it to count, I would have to open my latest manuscript and compose a scene or a chapter. But maybe I'm writing this blog-piece so I don't have to open my latest manuscript and write a scene or a chapter. I'm giving myself an excuse to avoid it. Here's a secret - writers hate to sit down and write. They'll do anything to avoid working on the project they're working on. They'll write grocery lists and clean the bathtub and weed the garden and log onto their computer and play Solitaire before they finally click on that little icon and open their WIP (work-in-progress) and write a scene or a chapter. Why? Because it's h-a-r-d. Psychologists understand this. Humans pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Writing is seldom a pleasure and is often painful. But having written is paradise. Ah, the completed chapter; pure bliss. Now I need to write the next chapter? Time to sweat.
Creating something from nothing takes focus, concentration, luck, talent, more luck, experience, more luck, inspiration, perspiration, and a little luck. You have to have faith that the well won't run dry just when you need it most. The well running dry is called Writer's Block and it happens, my feeling is, when you're on the wrong track and are not writing what you should be writing, or when your story took a wrong turn somewhere a ways back. I'm tasting a little of that right now.
My WIP (Drop Dead Darling) is going along, but slowly. I'm waiting to hear from my editor about the proposal (which consists of a story synopsis and the first three chapters) and whether she likes it. When she gives me the go-ahead (cross your fingers!), then I'll know how to proceed, but right now, without knowing whether she's pleased with the proposal or not, I'm at a standstill. I don't want to write too far ahead only to have to toss it (ouch!), or to have to go back and do too much revising, so I'm moving forward slowly. I expect to hear from her by Tuesday.
DDD is the second in the Darling Detectives trilogy and is Ethan's story (Ethan is the older brother of Nate, who first appeared in Midight in the Garden of Good and Evie, and is the hero of Nobody's Darling, due out early next year). Ethan is hard-nosed and handsome and the "darkest" hero I've written so far. He has a strong sense of responsibility, and is tormented by his monumental failure to protect someone he once loved. I like Ethan. I understand him in ways I haven't understood some of my other heroes. Maybe because I'm an oldest myself and understand the burdens placed on an oldest by parents and others.
"I'm counting on you to set an example . . ."
"You are responsible for watching out for your sister . . ."
"You're the oldest; you should have known better than to . . ."Sigh. As for Ethan, his one failure cost him something dear, and he's determined it'll never happen again. Enter Emily DiVasi . . .
Well, I can't avoid it any longer. Time to open my WIP and write a scene or a chapter. Thank you for giving me a reason to procrastinate just a bit longer before I have to dig in and do it; you're a good friend.
January 20, 2006 [Friday]
Hello, and welcome!
BLOGS (I so wish a better name had been coined early on) being all the rage these days, and every marketing article I've read recently urging writers to start one, I figured maybe now would be a good time. I warn you, I lead a very mundane, boring, average, unglamourous life, but I'll try to remark on those instances of fun and frivolity that might make you smile or laugh, stop and think, or at the very least, be entertained. A BLOG is pretty much an open diary, and I've never been one to keep a diary for very long, so this will be a new experience for me. BTW, I've never slept with anybody famous, so don't expect anything juicy <g>.
To get things rolling, I'm often asked how my books are related to each other, which book came first, what I'm working on now, and when the next book will be out. To simplify everything, I created a cheat sheet of sorts. Click here for a chart that should answer all those questions.
I've never been one to watch reality shows (mostly because I hate them, and as a writer, wonder what all those out-of-work writers who used to write TV shows are doing these days to put food on the table). However, I started watching Dancing With The Stars this season, and am hooked. I love watching ballroom dancing anyway (myself, I can't dance; guilty feet ain't got no rhythm or something) and one of my favorite movies is Strictly Ballroom, so I thought I'd give this show a shot. I missed the first episode, so I never saw the first team that got voted off the dance floor, but I caught the second. I agree with the judges and voters that Tatum should get the hook. Not because they were the worst dancers, actually, but because she was so whiny about why she didn't do well. "I'm an actress, not a dancer!" Like, hello? Neither are the others. Anybody watching this show? Agree; disagree?
I saw Brokeback Mountain last weekend. Brokeheart Mountain would be more appropriate. The word "haunting" has been used to describe this movie, and I have to agree. Perfect performances, incredible writing (!), lyrical music, and heartbreak. Academy Award nominations will be announced on January 31st and this movie is certain to garner (and win) many. Heath Ledger is astonishing in this film. I liked A Knight's Tale but never saw the depth this actor was capable of until Brokeback Mountain.
I've always watched the Oscars; it was a family tradition. My mom was a huge movie fan, and my father worked at MGM Studios during WWII (he made the miniature airplanes and ships they used for war films). He met lots of Really Big Stars back in the day, and got lots of autographs. He told me that, in person, Lucille Ball was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, and that Jimmy Durante (anybody remember him?) was as sweet and kind as he appeared to be. Anyway, I'm looking forward to Oscar night again this year. Who will you be rooting for?
Any topics you want to discuss? Drop me a line!
