Crazy April!!

What a crazy month!! I'm exhausted, and April's not even half over!!

Taxes are always fun, then our daughter hurt her shoulder pretty bad, which has necessitated tons of doctor trips. In between that, both boys have had colds and sinus issues, meaning every time I try to work on my May 1st deadline, one kid or another is having trauma!!

Speaking of kids, they want their bathroom painted, but it turns out that the wallpaper already on the walls was applied to the drywall without any sort of primer. Meaning, with every micro inch that comes off, so does a chunk of drywall. Ugh.

Plan B is to apply plaster. Now, Trading Spaces is one of my fave shows, and Doug is all the time doing Venetian plaster techniques, but I don't think I'm going to get that fancy. Last night Son #2 and I picked up a jumbo tub of gunk (the thing weighs 48 lbs!!), that I'm hoping will be lovely by the time I'm done slapping it on. Stop laughing!! LOL!!!

Meanwhile, it is my solemn vow to hold a yard sale sometime before the end of the summer (stop laughing at that, too!! ). We've hauled junk from misc. places all over the house, but seeing how it's either rained or snowed every Saturday for the past few weeks, then next week I'm off to OKC with my fave friend and author, Margaret Daley, for the OKRWA meeting, then the weekend after that, I'm off to Ladies' Weekend at a friend's lake house, it looks like it'll be May before we finally have our sale. Double ugh as the stuff pile keeps gathering dust.

In fun news . . . I have a book out this month called THE RIGHT TWIN!! I love, love this story, though it was a nightmare to write, trying to keep all the names straight. If you enjoy movies like the The Parent Trap, then this is a good read for you!!

If you'd like a shot at winning an autographed copy, sign up for my mailing list at lauramariealtom.com.

Happy Saturday!! I'm off to plaster!!

Laura Marie ;-)

Ellis Island

On my recent trip to NYC, I made the pilgrimage to Ellis Island. For anyone who hasn't been there, I can highly recommend it. It was poignant, it was educational, and more importantly, it renewed my realization that we are so blessed to live in this country.

Can you image the hardships our ancestors endured to become Americans? As I was viewing the displays (which may I say, were extremely well done), my empathetic side took over. I could visualize leaving behind my family, my country, my language - and then getting off the boat at Ellis Island with nothing but what I could carry. Would I pass the medical exam, and even more importantly, would my children be deemed healthy. Think about the terror that question would create for a mother. But thousands of people went through that process and became productive members of society. And those folks were our ancestors. Let's give them a round of applause for their tenacity and bravery.

As an author, I could see that the plot possibilities were limitless. So, if you're ever in New York - take the Ellis Island trip. Ann

Ann DeFee
Georgia On His Mind - August 2007 - Harlequin American Romance
Summer After Summer - September 2007 - Harlequin Everlasting Love
The Perfect Tree - November 2007 - Harlequin American Christmas anthology

Guest Post: Johanna Raisanen

Greetings to all our HAR authors and fans! Thanks for inviting me to the party. I was asked to write about what it’s like being an HAR editor. Well, I’m not sure what I do in a day could accurately convey what goes on, so I thought I’d give you a snapshot of a week.

Monday

Arrive at work for 8 am, which usually means running in the door at 8:10. Curse Monday mornings. Boot up computer and change outgoing voice mail message. Head to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and pour some milk on my cereal, then eat breakfast while checking emails.

Finish revision letter I’d started last week and email to the author. Pull out manuscript I read on Sunday and start new revision letter. Going through the manuscript page by page I make notes and suggestions. Cajole fellow editor Wanda Ottewell to go out for lunch with me. Back in the office, I meet with Kathleen, HAR senior editor, about scheduling issues, book titles and upcoming deadlines for RWA registration. Email final version of the revision letter to the author. Finally head home around 5 pm.

Tuesday

Spend some time chatting with coworkers about last night’s episode of Dancing with the Stars over a cup of tea. Read over and approve art fact sheets and respond to emails before an art meeting at 11 am. Kathleen and I head up to the 8th floor to meet with the HAR art director and marketing product manager. It’s up to us editors to tell the rest of the team what each book is about, give scene suggestions and pass along the author’s input. The art director takes our ideas and works up sketches for approval later in the process.

Spend lunch hour eating at my desk and inputting Dear Reader letter, dedication and author bio into our prelim template (prelims include back cover copy and all the front pages before the book). Look over copy submitted by freelance copy writers and finish up the prelim package and email it to Kathleen.

At 2 pm attend a brainstorming meeting to help come up with new ideas for limited continuities. Then call a west-coast author on her lunch hour to answer questions she had about her revision notes.

Wednesday

Work-at-home day. Since it’s almost impossible to actually edit in the office, most editors take at least one and sometimes two days to work on line edits or reads at home. I also work on some other series (as most editors do) and will start my Superromance line edit at 8 am. Lunch break consists of taking my dog for a walk in the park, giving me an opportunity to get some fresh air, too! Quit editing for the day around 6.

Thursday

Finish line edit at home. (330 pages in 2 days. Whew.)

Friday

Check in with Kathleen to see if there’s anything I need to know after being out of the office for two days. Head to the 8th floor where the good photocopier is and make three copies of the finished line edit. One copy for me, one for the author and one for the freelance copy writer. Kick the photocopier a couple of times to try to fix a paper jam. Finish photocopying on the 6th floor. Hand the line edit in to production and breathe a sigh of relief that I’m on time.

Back in my office, I tackle the slush pile. I read and evaluate manuscripts from unpublished authors and write correspondence. If the manuscript is turned down, I write a rejection letter. But if I find a true gem, I write a report for Kathleen giving reasons to buy the book. At the end of the day, I get an email saying there’s cake in the common area! Yippee!

So that’s a typical week for an editor. Meetings, edits, revision letters, art briefs and a whole lot more. And some fun along the way. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else!

Johanna

Oh the places you'll go

One of the fun things about being an author is attending writing conferences. At the end of March I took the opportunity to attend the Published Author Special Interest Chapter's Power Conference. I flew into Newark, took a car to Manhattan, and Thursday night began with the industry reception where published authors mingled with editors and agents. By the time I left on Sunday morning, I was tired and exhausted, but yet at the same time reenergized.

Writing is a solitary business. It's you and your computer, and a bunch of names you know via email. It's fun to meet everyone and connect with everyone.

The picture above is of me and Lisa Childs (I'm on the right). Lisa will have a four book series out in 2008 with Harlequin American and I should have two releases as well. I'll also have two releases out with Harlequin Special Releases: Stories set in the World of NASCAR. Lisa and I are at the M&M store in Times Square, posing with a "writer." We'd met two years ago at PASIC, and decided to room together this year. We'll also be presenting a workshop on revisions at RWA in Dallas this summer. It's a subject we both know a lot about. :)

BTW, Ann DeFee, Tanya Michaels and Ann Roth also attended and I'm sure they've got some great stories to tell as well! Lisa and I also took a great trip to Mars 2112, which is another story. All in all, conferences are a great way to recharge the batteries and they reconfirm that a writer is never alone. So now I'm off to go write those books.

Happy writing,

Michele

The Pain and the Glory: Titles

I just found out a couple of days ago that I get to keep my original title for the Harlequin American that comes out next January: Good Husband Material.

You might not realize this, but more often than not we authors do not keep our original titles, for myriad reasons. Sometimes the author's original title is simply a clunker. Thus, my original title for a paranormal romance, The Crimson Cat (sounds like a cozy cat mystery) became Witchy Woman (much catchier, recalls that old Eagles' song). The Doctor's Fake Fiancee, a Harlequin American, was thankfully changed to the much snappier Plain Jane's Plan.

But often the reasons for making a change are harder to understand and seem quite arbitrary. For example, I had a Silhouette Intimate Moments that I called The Bounty Hunter, and it got changed to Midnight Confessions. That's an okay title, but I preferred the stronger-sounding original. A few years later I wrote a Harlequin Intrigue that I called Breathless. And what does it get changed to? Bounty Hunter Ransom.

I once had a perfectly lovely title, Taken by Storm, which was about storm chasers. It fit beautifully, but for reasons I will never understand, the title was changed to Hell on Wheels.

Sometimes titles are changed not because they are bad titles, but because they don't fit in with the line. My very first Harlequin American was originally called The Perfect Seduction. "Great title," my editor said. "If it were a Harlequin Temptation." Instead, the book was re-christened Virgin Promise, cashing in on a popular buzzword of the day.

For my firefighter trilogy released this year, I thought up an oh-so-clever series of fire-related titles: Sparks Fly, The Heat is On, and Fanning the Flames. But those were all no-go's; they didn't say enough about the stories. After about a hundred alternate titles flew back and forth between me, my editor and the senior editor, we settled on The Family Rescue, Her Perfect Hero, and An Honorable Man. But I'm tellin' ya, the search for three catchy titles that also fit together nicely and accurately reflected the stories almost drove us all crazy!

Now I'm working on an idea for a trilogy revolving around a fishing charter service. These are my tentative titles:

His First Mate
Catch of the Day
Her Safe Harbor

Any bets on whether they'll survive, should the trilogy sell to Harlequin American?

--Kara Lennox

From Start to Finish

Recently I received an e-mail inquiring about my book-writing process. My first thought…I have a process? Then I considered the book I'm writing now for my *Heart of Appalachia* series and decided that yes, I do have a process--though much different from when I began writing. My first three books for Harlequin American had been written, re-written and re-written. I used characters charts, outlines, worksheets…anything I could get my hands on to help me write the story. Now the only thing on my desk is a pocket folder. Every project gets it's own folder and sometimes I have as many as three or four folders on my desk at one time.

In a nutshell, I begin with a bare bones synopsis that I always deviate from--hopefully, because I've made the book better than the synopsis. I write a chapter a week, taking two days to write a rough draft, then I spend the rest of the time revising the chapter before sending it off to my critique partner. When I'm on a roll I'm able to complete 5 chapters a month. During the week I'll tweak the previous chapter my CP offered feedback on, so by the time I write THE END the book is in good shape.

BUT…there's still work to be done. You see, I'm a sticky-note writer. When I add new characters, insert new information or whatever, I use sticky notes as reminders of changes I've made to the plot, character, setting etc as I write each chapter. By the time the book is complete the cover of my folder and the inside pockets are plastered with sticky notes.

My next step is to go through every sticky note and fix the place in the manuscript the note addresses. After that, I do a computer read and tweak small stuff--mainly looking for inconsistencies that jump out at me.

Finally, if I have time I print off a hard copy of the book and do a read for word repetitions, sentence variation etc. If I'm down to the wire, then I pass on the hard copy read and send it off to my editor, knowing that I'll be tweaking those sentences during the revision stage.

Anyone else care to share their Start-to-Finish story?

Happy Reading!
Marin Thomas
http://www.marinthomas.com/

SNOW ON THE BLUEBONNETS

I’m stopping in to wish everyone a HAPPY EASTER and a happy love filled day.

It has been a very strange Easter here in Texas. There’s snow on the bluebonnets. At Easter! We’re probably going to remember this for a very long, long time. We rarely have snow here, but Saturday the white stuff was falling just about all over the place. We got flurries and mostly ice at my house, but North Texas received much more of the real stuff.

Can’t help but think that it much more like Merry Christmas.

Due to Mother Nature my mind is in a warped pattern and I really need to be writing. We went to early services, spent the day with family and ate too much. Will diet tomorrow.

Now I’m staring at a blank computer screen. My eyes keep straying to the window and the yard with the icy snowy spots that have not melted. I know I’m not dreaming, but it sure feels like it.

Happy Easter—spring or winter.

Happy Easter

Wishing you and yours a happy and joyous Easter weekend.

Michele

Two books out this month

This is a big month for me. It Happened One Wedding, the second in my To Wed Or Not To Wed series will be out this month. Two days ago, my women’s fiction debut, Another Life, hit the shelves. Talk about exciting!

There was more excitement at the end of March. I spent four fabulous days in New York city for a writers’ conference ( PASIC). The Harlequin American offices are in Toronto, but the Silhouette offices are in the old Woolworth building on Broadway, just a few blocks from where the Twin Towers once stood. I’ve been there before, but went back for a tour and lunch with Mary Theresa Hussey, who is a great editor (not mine—I work with the amazing Kathleen Scheibling, who’s in Toronto) and a wonderful person. Best of all, she gave me my pick of books to bring home. Needless to say, my to be read pile is now humongous!

I visited the Kensington offices, too. They are far away from Silhouette, but just as impressive.

Publishing houses always amaze me. They are constantly acquiring manuscripts, editing, designing covers, doing PR and marketing, and a number of other things. Well-oiled machines, for sure.

New York itself amazes me with its fantastic museums and shows. While I was there, I saw three shows. Avenue Q, which is an irreverent, funny musical with a message to enjoy today because tomorrow things may change. The Pirate Queen is brand new and pure romance. I don’t know for how long it’ll be around, but I certainly enjoyed it. The Year of Magical Thinking is a serious play with only one actor—the amazing Vanessa Redgrave. Joan Didion wrote both the book and the screenplay and I truly enjoyed her beautiful writing.

During the day I enjoyed conference stuff—panels, talks and discussions—and loved all of it. I reconnected with friends I only see at conferences and forged a deeper friendship with my roommate, Ann Defee.

All in all, a wonderful experience. I wouldn’t trade a second of it. And yet… it’s great to be home again.


Ann Roth
It Happened One Wedding, April, 2007
Another Life, April, 2007
www.annroth.net

A DOUBLE four-letter word... by Barbara White Daille

Exercise. Yuck.

Physical effort and I don't get along.

As I may have mentioned in a previous blog entry, I've found the stationary bike makes a great place to hang fresh laundry. I've since learned the jump rope substitutes for a clothesline. The barbells fill in for paperweights. The stair climber holds a whole bunch of books.

And I think I'm allergic to sweat.

Still, when you get to the point you need to buy new pants if you want to breathe while sitting, something has to give—and, hopefully, that doesn't mean the seams of those pants!

So this weekend, I started an exercise program. (Let's not think about the fact it began on April Fool's Day, okay?)

On Sunday, I took all the laundry off the bike and put everything away in the closet. What a workout!

On Monday, I dug out the tape that came with the bike. All that crouching in front of the video cabinet gave me cramps in both calves.

On Tuesday, I did several minutes of stretching, because of course you can't just jump into exercise without the proper warm-up. (See Monday.) Got so warmed up and cozy, I fell asleep on my yoga mat.

Today, Wednesday, I actually sat down on the bike and pedaled...for about a minute and a half.

I feel so much better already!

Well, maybe not.

Seriously, though, it's about time I get going on an exercise program. And I swear, it's more for the health benefits than it is about being too cheap to buy new pants.

I'd like your help with this.

How did you get started with a fitness routine? What makes you keep going when you want to quit?

And how do you motivate yourself to do it...again and again and again?


All my best to you,

Barbara

~~~~~~

Barbara White Daille
http://www.barbarawhitedaille.com

CONQUERING FEARS

My family went on a cruise last week. With two teenagers, it’s the perfect vacation for us…plenty to do, relatively safe surroundings, sun and plenty of places to sit and tan and relax. For one week, we did all that. I returned last night a whole lot tanner, a whole lot more relaxed, and with a whole lot of laundry to do.

The highlight of the trip was an all day excursion called ‘Conquering Your Fears’. It involved hanging from a zip line in the Costa Rican jungle, followed by lunch and then hanging on for dear life while white water rafting.

No, this wasn’t my choice.

For some reason, I gave birth to two children who have no fears when it comes to either heights or deep water with big rocks in it. Nope, when it comes to excitement and fun, they’re my husband’s kids, through and through. At 7am, when we boarded the bus, they were all smiles. I looked longingly at the group of people off to study sloths.

First up, the zip-line. After outfitting us with helmets, liability forms, and a whole lot of hooks and cords, our group climbed a rather narrow, steep path to a platform. Then, one by one, we were hooked onto the zip line, given instructions how to slow down, and told to jump. Yeah. Being the good mother that I am, I made my kids go first. My husband, knowing me as well as he does, made me go before him.

I jumped and sped along the line, doing my best not to scream so I wouldn’t embarrass my 14 year old. I was never so happy to see the platform and the cute Costa Rican with arms outstretched, ready to grab me and pull me back to solid ground. But, no, it wasn’t over. I had to do it all over again six more times.

Whitewater rafting wasn’t much better. Oh, I’ve rafted before on the Colorado River. Somehow, though, it’s a whole lot different when we were subjected to an hour and fifteen minutes of class II and III rapids and monkeys laughing at us from the trees. Lucky for me, they had a guy taking pictures in a nearby kayak.

Now we have lots of memories of me holding on for dear life while trying not to scream.

Ten hours later, we boarded the ship just before we left beautiful Costa Rica. My husband, being the good guy that he is, let me use the shower first, handed me a drink, and told me he heard Baked Alaska was on the menu for dinner. For the first time all day, I smiled.

Did I conquer my fears? No, not really. I jumped and clung and closed my eyes and prayed. I experienced things I know I’ll never forget. And I told my family that they should never, ever doubt how much I loved them…because I wouldn’t have done that day for anyone else. And my kids and husband, God bless them, said the day wouldn’t have been the same without me. Hearing that, as they say….was priceless.

Frustrated Bargain Hunter

Why is it that every time I see something I really, really want, it's too much money? I'd like to believe it's because I have good taste, but I think it's more along the lines of bad timing--just missing the sale.

I don’t know about anyone else but I'm a bargain hunter. I keep a list of things (my want list, not my need list) in my purse at all times. For the past four or five months I've been searching for something to go on the wall above our bed. I finally found it--a gorgeous mirror at Pier One Imports. I've been watching it for two months--never goes on sale. I joined their e-mail list and received a promise of a fantastic coupon "soon." It's been a month and no coupon. Made two trips back to the store--still not on sale.

The other object of my desire is a framed picture from Hobby Lobby for the master bathroom wall. The one I found in the store was damaged and even at a 60% discount I didn’t think I could repair the frame. So I asked for a rain check and they assured me it would be in last week. Nope. No Picture. They gave me another rain check and told me to return next week if they didn't call me. More waiting.

Yesterday my husband asked me to tally up the savings on both items…$60. Then he asked how much money I spent in gas keeping tabs on the items. Over two months, maybe $10-15. Then he asked me how much writing time I gave up to track the items, maybe 5-6 hours. I always stop and check out a few other stores along the way--but that's beside the point. You see where I'm heading with this….?

So I'm proud to report that I bought the da**ed mirror yesterday! Yeah!! As for the picture, I'm still waiting. (Sigh)

Anyone care to share their latest bargain hunting woes?

Happy Shopping!
Marin Thomas
www.marinthomas.com

Ouch! That Feels Good

Imagine this conversation among a group of women at the local park, while they keep an eye on their romping kids:

1st Woman: Molly, you feed your son too much junk food. And frankly, he needs a good spanking.

2nd Woman: I’m not sure I agree about the spanking, but he’s definitely overactive. You should take him to a psychologist.

3rd Woman: It’s probably the sugar that’s making him act up. If I were you, I’d empty all my cabinets of sweets. Also, he’s outgrowing his clothes, and those pants have big holes in the knees.

Can you imagine Molly’s response? Possibly, “Who the heck do you people think you are?” Or, “You’re not so perfect yourselves!”

Yet we authors voluntarily do this to each other. I’ve belonged to a critique group for more than thirty years, and every other week, we take turns reading our work aloud and receiving criticism. There’s praise as well, but plenty of suggestions for improvement.

In case you’re wondering if it hurts, the answer is yes. We’d all love to be told that no one can find a thing wrong with what we’ve written. But that’s pointless. A dedicated writer wants to improve any way she can. She HAS to improve, for the sake of her readers and her career.

I’m fortunate to belong to a group of terrific writers whom, over the years, I’ve had the great pleasure of hearing read their work aloud. Among past and present members: Neal Shusterman, Donald Stanwood, Elizabeth George, T. Jefferson Parker, and the late Barbara Seranella. I can’t claim that my critiques made a significant difference in their novels, but perhaps I helped with a tweak here or there.

Writing’s hard, no matter how long you’ve been doing it. Every story is a challenge, and when I venture into new territory, such as women’s fiction, I have to learn my craft all over again. True, at a higher level than when I started, but there are still a lot of stumbles. I’d rather hear about them from my friends than from a disappointed reviewer or reader.

I’ve outgrown the stage of life where I take my little kids to the park and share a bench with my fellow moms. But I’ll never outgrow my need for constructive criticism from my fellow authors.

Time Off for Good Behavior

Writers in general are awfully hard on themselves, and I am no exception. Way back in the dark ages, when I decided to quit my job to become a full-time writer, I made a promise to myself. I was not going to be one of those writers who played around at the craft, who wrote "when I have time." I was a full-time, eight-hours-a-day writer, often including weekends. I did not take vacations or sick days or mental health days. I intended to give it all I had, every ounce of time, energy and determination I could squeeze out of myself.

And I did.

Flash forward twenty years. Although I'm not quite the whip-cracker I used to be, I still spend at least seven or eight hours a day in my office minimum, working on writing or writing-related activities. If I travel for any reason, I take the laptop with me so I can write during any lull in activities. In my car, I listen to writing workshops or I use my little recorder to dictate my writing. I am literally afraid to take time off. I'm afraid the gods will punish me for being "lazy."

But I've just come off an incredibly difficult year of tight deadlines, lots of revisions, editor changes, and teaching lots and lots of workshops. I promised myself I would take some time off to handle everything I've neglected in recent months--getting my hair cut, for example. Taking my pets to the vet. Income tax forms. Scrubbing the bathtub.

My original plan was to take off a year from Harlequin American. Yes, a year! I have books scheduled pretty far into the future, so I wouldn't be interrupting my publication schedule. I wanted to take one month off of writing completely, then spend the rest of the year working on a couple of other books (big suspense books) that I never seem to find time to write.

I quickly revised the initial plan. A year without Harlequin was unthinkable. Six months would surely be enough of a break to refresh me.

But now, two weeks into my "vacation" (hah!) I'm already starting to get antsy to write another Harlequin American. As a matter of fact, I have a proposal for a new trilogy almost ready to go--it just needs a bit of polish. It's calling to me from its file folder with its siren song. Forget that dark, scary suspense book. Come play with me, I'm light and funny!

Three weeks off is enough, right?

More than One Way to Turn Pages...by Tanya Michaels

Does anyone remember that ad campaign for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (mmmm, peanut butter cups) about how there’s “more than one way to eat a Reese’s?” Well, it never occurred to me that there’s more than one way to read a book. I assumed most readers followed a similar pattern to mine…pick the book up, start at that opening first paragraph and read (often compulsively and through the night!) until I hit the last page, then sigh in satisfaction as I close the covers and reach for the lamp.

Yet there seems to be—gasp—an epidemic of people who do nearly the opposite! Imagine my surprise when I learned that my sister, best friend and favorite aunt all read the last chapter first. This blows my mind. “But doesn’t that spoil the ending? Aren’t you taking it all out of context? It probably makes more sense when you understand…” Yet these people hold firm that if they hate the way it ends or there’s an unhappy resolution, they don’t want to waste their time reading the 300 pages that come before.

What about you guys? Do you like the safety of knowing how a book or movie ends before you spend time or money on it? Do you trail the internet looking for spoilers on your favorite television shows, or when someone starts to tell you the latest rumor of who breaks up with whom on Grey’s Anatomy, do you cover your ears?

I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. I love romance novels because 99.99% of the time, the hero and heroine resolve their differences and find happiness together, so in a way, I do know the end. But I like taking the journey with them instead of “cheating” and looking at the map ahead of time. Of course, my husband would tell you I wouldn’t get in half as much trouble as I do if I bothered to read maps, but that’s another story…

New York, New York

Hi guys,
I'm off to the Big Apple - home of Times Square, the Statue of Liberty and knock-off purses. I've been up to my neck in deadlines, but I managed to finish everything yesterday. Yeah! And now I'm ready to go to the PASIC (RWA's Published Authors' Special Interest Chapter) conference. It'll be a wonderful opportunity to meet new people, learn some great stuff about the publishing industry, and see a couple of Broadway shows. What better way to spend a long weekend? So until later - right now, I'm heading downstairs to pack. Ann

Spring has sprung

I love spring. Here in the Seattle area, spring means vivid and abundant color. Cherry and magnolia trees, forsythia, tulips, daffodils, and a host of other flowers—we have them all in our yard. But while I love the beauty, I don’t enjoy pulling weeds and keeping the plants healthy and producing.

I’m what you call an armchair garden lover. I appreciate the beauty and like to sit outside and enjoy it, but I don’t do much of the upkeep. If I lived alone I’d hire a gardener, even if it is expensive. Fortunately, my husband loves to putz around in garden as often as possible. Weather permitting, he’s out there pulling weeds, digging, planting, mulching. All organically. Yep, he’s one of those.

Out of chicken wire he made a compost bin where we dump our non-meat, non-dairy food waste. It’s out back, on the side of the house, and for some reason, doesn’t smell at all. Every so often he turns the decomposing goop with a shovel. When it decomposes enough, he spreads it over the garden to enrich the soil. This year he and a friend drove to a farm and picked up a truckload of manure. Now that smelled. I stayed inside that day! But I’ll reap the rewards when the raspberry and blueberry bushes produce huge crops.

I’m thinking that writing is a lot like tending a garden. We writers have our own brain compost piles, that creative well within. We’re always tossing in tidbits—overheard snippets of conversation, intriguing newspaper stories, or anything that catches our interest. The mixture sits in our head awhile, and now and then we stir it a bit, thinking, I wonder whether… What would happen if? And voilá—a story is born.

As for the manure… Well, I’ll leave you to draw your own analogies.

Happy spring, everyone.


Ann Roth
It Happened One Wedding, April, 2007
Another Life, April, 2007
www.annroth.net

What's upcoming????

I just heard from my editor last week about my release schedule for 2007 & the first part of 2008.

Thought this would be a good time for the HAR authors to chime in and comment on what you can be looking forward to for the rest of 2007. I know I'm always curious as to when things are coming out, and eharlequin only gives you a few months in advance. Now you'll be able to access the archive if you forget when that next book by your favorite author is out.

Here's mine:

Nine Months' Notice (4 stars from RT), out April 2007 (so look for it next month)! This ends the American Beauties miniseries.

Hart's Victory, my NASCAR continuity book, out in November 2007.

The Christmas Date (formerly titled Picture Perfect), a Harlequin American out in December 2007.

Michele Dunaway

TEACHING AND WRITING AND BEARS, OH, MY

The hero of A Small-Town Girl is Cary Hudson. Cary’s a high school teacher…Algebra to be exact.
I had a lot of fun imagining his life at Lane’s End High because for ten years, I taught school, too. And, if I’m going to be completely honest, I miss the friendships I made, and the sense of community a faculty has more than I miss being around twelve year olds. Hmm…maybe because I have two teenagers at home?
I seem to run into a lot of writers who are former teachers. I stopped teaching because we got transferred to Ohio and my husband encouraged me to finally give writing a try. Usually, I never think about the days of sweaty classrooms or ‘morning work’. But every now and then, a memory surfaces, and I have to smile.
Yesterday was one of those days. My son was talking about taking drivers ed in a trailer and how thin the walls were—a Jazzersize class was going on next door.
For two years, I taught in a mountain school in Colorado, in a trailer. We’d just been transferred to the Denver area from Dallas, and I was extremely lucky to get a job. But what a change that school was! No longer was I teaching executives’ kids in suburban Dallas…now I was teaching rancher’s kids, country kids…kids who did chores at six in the morning before coming to school. I learned a lot about life from them, and I’m sure they got a laugh out of me…the city girl from Texas who wore heels and didn’t know a thing about snowstorms, cattle ranches…or bears.
Yep, one day, there I was, teaching spelling, when I noticed not a one of them was paying a bit of attention to me. They were all looking out the window. Next, I got a message on the intercom, telling me not to let any kids out of the trailer—there was a bear on the playground.
I ran to the window, and finally noticed what my twenty-five kids had already seen—a big black bear, just twenty feet away, wandering around.
I had never read anything about bears in the teaching manuals. Doing my best, I swallowed my fear and told everyone to REMAIN CALM.
And that’s when it hit me…they knew that bear. He’d been in a couple of the kids’ trashcans just the week before. He visited the school a few times a year. I was the only one freaking out. Those fifth graders started laughing at me. Finally, I started laughing, too. Spelling went away and we spent the next hour sitting on desks and watching the bear. The kids told me stories about his antics and I learned to appreciate being in a mountain school.
Any other teachers or former teachers who remember little stories like that? When the lesson plans go out the window and life takes over? Here’s to all of us having little experiences that are new and different and perfectly memorable.

Welcome, Spring!

Hello on this first day of Spring, 2007. In Dallas it is rather dreary but warm today. The birds are chirping and the squirrels are searching and I'm sneezing. Well, the pollen count is rather high down here in Texas. Since I grew up in a colder climate, I'm actually pretty glad to see Spring right now, rather than a few months away.

The weather often reminds me that I would rather be outdoors than sitting at my desk, writing my new proposals for "Brody's Crossing," my new series for Harlequin American Romance which begins in July. I've tried to take my laptop outside, but then the dog wants to play ball, and I see some weeds that need to be pulled, and the little fountain needs water. On and on. I believe that's called writing avoidance. I'm rather good at it! Fortunately, once I do get focused, I'm a fairly fast writer, so I try to make up some of the time I should have spent writing.

I'm very excited about my new stories. They are about characters I've introduced in the first two books - the brother of the hero from the first book, and the childhood best friend of the hero in the second book. I also gave my new Texas town a female mayor. I've tried to set up defunct businesses like we see in most small towns - motels that have failed, an empty train station, former small businesses that have gone away once a megastore moves in. My mayor is on a quest to revitalize the town, so I gave her plenty of places to work her magic. And, for me, plenty of opportunities for new characters to come to town. For example, the heroine in the third book that I'm working on right now is going to fix up the Sweet Dreams Motel in a retro style that will be a lot of fun to research. There are several motels in Texas already done this way. And, of course, since I'm of "a certain age," I remember the actual style when it wasn't retro!

So, happy springtime, everyone, and happy writing, whether you are currently looking out your window at storms, snow, sunshine, or clouds.

Victoria