Hey, where are you headed for Spring Break? The kids are almost free from school for a week, and it’s time for a quick idea for a little get-away. Check out The Alamo San Antonio is always a fun place to visit, and this site can provide lots of details for any spring break event. (One of the best reasons to visit. . . not many college kids head to The Alamo for their break—probably too much like studying.) But my younger crew has always enjoyed walking through the museum, re-enacting the last Alamo battle, and then finding some great Mexican food or real Texas Chicken Fried Steak on the River Walk to top off […]
Lone Star Meanderings Blog
Classic Reads . . .
Great fiction is worthy of reading effort. My oldest child, a lover of timeless literature, has shamed me into reading DEEP titles. She’ll ask my opinion on a certain classic, and I’m dreadfully guilty of giving her a blank look. Searching my collegiate memory, I can only remember struggling through the mightily complex House of Seven Gables. Did I read more than one classic while obtaining my Liberal Arts degree? You betcha. Perhaps, I was too simple-minded, too youthfully naive to understand great books at that time. So with age, does true wisdom come? Maybe, or maybe I’m simply capable of seeing between the lines now. Mandy Moore, in ‘A Walk To Remember’, practiced an […]
The Edits Are Finished . . .
Yippee! Yep, that describes it! As my stories are set in modern-day Texas, the Yippee gets it done. I’m waiting for one final read-through from a fresh set of eyes, then it’s back to the editor. I’ve utilized an ‘Edits’ notebook throughout this process. More on this in another blog. Honestly, without a technique, I’m not sure I would have been capable of keeping all the changes straight. As this is a Romantic Suspense, multiple threads must be woven through the entire book. Just like with crocheting, drop a stitch and the whole afghan unravels. A disappointed reader is the last thing I want, so I’ve pulled the threads tight to ensure a happy ending […]
Business Card Website
Useful writer site:http://www.vistaprint.com/ Looking for self-promotion ideas? Business cards lend the air of professionalism to any business–why not to a writer? I found a great site at Vistaprint to order ‘nice’ business cards for reduced rates. I clicked on their webpage and and signed up for their mailings and received a number of Free offers. Okay, they were FREE from a select grouping of their stock paper and IF I paid for the shipping, which was reasonable. Below are the cards I had made for just the cost of shipping. That’s inexpensive enough to use a different card for each of my book releases. Hey, I believe it thinking positive and that I will have […]
The Edits Arrive . . .
They’re here! The edits from my editor. I was pretty darned excited. Okay, not the most eloquently written, but you get my point. This is my first go round on having a paid professional critique my work. (Yes, a few published authors had read it and my Critique Partners have lavished their attention over it—but those people know me, and somewhat like me.) This professional and her invaluable opinion needed to be brutally honest and totally objective so I could produce the best book possible. Was I nervous to open the document? Um . . . of course. What if she bled red ink across my beloved manuscript pages? DOUBLE scored scads of witty dialogue […]
A good day writing
As writers, we love those ‘ah-ha’ moments. We call them epiphanies. Big word, bugger to spell – I always get it wrong on the first try! As writers, we weave the ‘ah-ha’ moments in for our readers: characters learning something new on page, discovering a breakthrough in their own personality, or the unfolding of the plot. However . . . if we are very lucky, sometimes the epiphany belongs to the writer. Today was a good writing day. I, actually, should say an excellent writing day as the epiphany was mine. For months I’ve been honing the skill of front-loading the suspense in my under construction manuscript. The first three chapters have been written no […]
Ain’t It The Truth
A few nights ago, my intellectual college freshman related this quote from her ‘Something-Something-Study-of-Gender-and-Something class.’ I normally just say, ‘um, how interesting’ a lot, because she manages to hit cruising altitude over my feeble head in a hurry. Of course, college is all about flying in the clouds, zooming above the mundane, and expanding heavenward, so I get that she and her fellow classmates should recognize these historical and possibly obscure people and what they accomplished in their lifetimes. HOWEVER, it’s been a day or two since I finished my college degree, and I’m a little behind on the ‘in-the-know’ scene. The following quote is from Sojourner Truth, an abolitionist, who survived incalculable hardships and […]
Trickle of Lies —- Current Work Progress
( ###============== )15,000 / 95,000 : 15.8%
Author Shock
It seems as though I’ve been writing forever. I’ve always had a book under construction—for those who write, the ‘under construction’ makes perfect sense. Friends encountered at PTA meetings or the occasional night-out gathering, folks met in the grocery store line, strangers in the bank line, and those considered ‘stranger still’ in the gas line would strike up conversations and ask the inevitable. “What do you do?” My answer–three words, simple to say, impossible to explain—“I’m a writer.” The responses, over my forever writing career, have been varied and entertaining—some of these unique individuals will certainly show up in one of my future manuscripts. As I started publishing articles, poems, and fillers to finally earn […]
Unbelievably Great News and Time-Travel
GREAT NEWSI still feel like I should be pinched awake from a dream. I received the news this past week that HARM’S WAY (my first romantic suspense) will head to print release sometime in May 2007. Print Release – Wow! When I signed the contract with Wild Rose Press (the publisher), I expected digital release and maybe print if my numbers were good enough. But I learned through an email with my editor that HARM’S WAY has been tagged for a print version. The folks at Wild Rose Press (www.wildrosespress.com) have been wonderfully supportive. It feels surreal to open emails from my editor. I need to backup and say that again—my editor. Wild Rose Press […]
