Just One of Those Days...

You know the kind, right? A Tear-Your-Hair-Out Day.

I'm having one. Can't get my latest proposal to work. It's just all...blechhh.

Now, I know it will work eventually. I mean, I know it from experience. Because it always does. In time. After I've lost another head of hair.

Eventually, I'll get it. Eventually, I'll have an actual story here...

Too bad at this point, when every word I write is spelled c-r-a-p, "eventually" seems a long, long way away.

This book doesn't feel as if it's ever going to work. My hero has no...identity. I can't decide who the guy is, you know? One minute he's in executive protection (meaning a bodyguard) and the next, he's a land developer.

And the murderer? Whodunnit? Really. I'm the author, and I need to know. I've got a heroine--a nice, stable woman with a meaningful job teaching primary grades. And I've got a victim--her identical twin.

But the rest?

Let me spell it for you...
C-R-A-P.

I'm sure tomorrow will be better. I'm also sure that after all these books I've written, this should be easier. Shouldn't it?

But it's not. What's up with that? Do other people's jobs get easier? Or is it the nature of work well done that you get there by hacking your way through the jungle of your own mind.

That's me today. Hacking my way through my own personal jungle, tearing out my hair and wondering whatever possessed me to imagine I could write books for a living....

Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know...

Whether he's Cole on CHARMED or Christian on NIP/TUCK, Julian McMahon does it for me...

Put a Little Sizzle in Your Life

I loved this book. Read it on the plane on the way home from Las Vegas and plot group. I laughed and cried and sighed.





The crying part was a little embarrassing. The strangers seated to either side of me kept casting me nervous glances. So I would put Sizzling aside for a minute or two to get a grip.

And then get lost in it all over again.

This is a book we plotted in plot group a while back. It's always interesting to see where one of my plotting buddies took the story we brainstormed.

Susan was a little nervous about the hero, Reid, as I recall. This book is part of a series and I remember her saying that Reid's story would have to be one of the later books because the guy really needed to grow up a little.

Oh, my. She did a truly amazing job--taking a lazy lothario who doesn't even remember all the women he's had sex with, and....oops. Better not go too far. No spoilers in this post.

Let me just say that Reid is the handsomest, sexiest, woman-doingest guy around. And Lori, the heroine, is warm and down-to-earth and takes no crap from a guy like Reid. If only she didn't have that pesky yearning to jump the guy's bones, well, there'd be no problem. But she does. And things get more complicated from there.

If you love sexy, warm books that rip your heart out--and still somehow manage to make you happy you're alive, try one of Susan's.

Try Sizzling.

Those Naughty Bits...

So I was at one of those artsy-fartsy functions a few weeks back. I enjoy them. The wine is always on the cheap side, the more-than-one-glass-and-here-comes-the-headache side. And the fingerfood is dry within the first hour. But that's fine. I don't need extra food and one glass of wine is more than enough.

At such functions, there are nice pottery and paintings to admire. I enjoy art. I love to stare at it and imagine what the artist might have been up to with that particular work, I love to wonder how close what I'm "getting" about any given piece is to what the artist intended. A lot of artists have really unusual minds, so it's fun to try and go where they went during the creative process.

Best of all, there are people to watch and interact with. Often, at art shows and benefit programs, the people are somewhat snooty. But they're usually intelligent, so I can bear their annoying snobbery.

However.

At the function in question, I met up with this woman I'd met earlier at a private party. Fiftyish. Short, shiny gray hair; loose, flowy clothing and chunky jewelry. Attractive. Warm. She couldn't remember where we'd talked before. I brought her up to speed a little, said my name and that I wrote romance.

And that was when she said, "Oh, that's right. Soft porn."

It was one of those moments. You know, where I wanted to toss my glass of cheap wine right in her tastefully made-up face. I didn't. I let it go.

And later, I pondered...

Not only her ignorant snobbery, but also my furious reaction to her thoughtless remark. I think it's the word "porn" that got me. The whole "no socially redeeming qualities" issue.

Because. Yes. I do love a good sex scene. I love to read them. And I love to write them. I love erotica, which might be another word for porn. Not sure and I'm too lazy right now to check. I mean, I do have to get to work here in a minute...

But no kidding. Let me make this clear. As a rule, I like a nice, hot book. The hotter the better. True, I'm picky. Those sex scenes have to soar. But if they do, I'm right there on that one. Sighing. And panting.

I love Emma Holly. She never wrote a sex scene that didn't deliver. Her latest, Prince of Ice, opens with a sex scene--which is generally a no-no in romance. Because like, who wants to watch people we know nothing about--let along care for yet--do the hot, wild thing? But Emma pulled it off. And the couple in question weren't even the H and h. I adored Lisa Valdez's Passion. Omigod. So hot. Hot, hot, hot.

And come on, face it. One of the biggest bennies of falling in love is the sex. It just is.

So I guess what I need is a good comeback for these snooty sex-hating types. Any suggestions?

Hel-lo Casper!

I always do like a wet guy on Saturday. This is Casper Van Dien.

I Have Been So Very Good...

On the left? That's one of my two cats, Tom. For Christmas, the DH and I gave younger son, the J, a digital camera. It does color and B&W and little movies he can put up on YouTube. Also has little frame thingies as at left. So fitting. I'm not kidding. Tom so leads the beautiful life!


And how, exactly, have I been so very good? Why, by staying offline all morning and finishing the line edit for my latest completed SSE, THE MAN WHO HAD EVERYTHING. (Release month: July) Line edits, where the manuscript comes sailing back at me after I just turned it in like two week ago, all marked up with the editor's changes and suggestions, can be painful. These weren't bad. Mostly the problems were of my own making.

Why is that every book I ever write has some fresh and thoroughly irritating bad habit in it? Don't answer. Even if you're right, I probably won't listen. LOL. Bad habit this time: constant word repetitions. As in, I use the word "want" in one line and then again in the next--and not because I'm doing something interesting with it, which would be okay.

And then, there's always some new word I fall utterly in love with and use over and over until, while reading the line edit, I want to hurl. This time it was "sleek." My heroine was sleek everywhere--her hair, her skin, her butt, her legs. She was probably a seal in her last life.

Anyway. It's done. It's gone. Big yay! Now, I'm on to my romantic suspense single title proposal which includes a good twin (heroine) and an evil twin; their mother, the shrink, who does her very best to seduce every man in sight. And murder and mayhem. And a hero who once dumped the heroine for her bad sister and knows now what a big mistake he made. Oh, I'm going to make him pay. It'll be so much fun!!!

Romance at the Library...

Love this event.

To the left is a picture from last year. That would be Merline Lovelace, Rinda Elliott, Moi and Darlene Graham. At lunch. After the program.

Here's the info on the program this year....




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lauren Tucker
Norman Arts Council
405.360.1162
pr@normanarts.org

Discover Romance at the Norman Public Library

Prepare for Valentines Day with a weekend of romance writing! Love is in the air at the Norman Public Library as the library, Pioneer Library System, Friends of the Norman Library, the Norman Arts Council and the Oklahoma Arts Council team to present a weekend of romance book sales, panel discussions and a writing workshop.

The annual Friends of the Norman Library Romance Book Sale will be Saturday, February 10, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, February 11 from 1 to 5 p.m. The sale will feature an assortment of romance novels and short story collections, as well as a selection of videos and nonfiction sharing a theme of love and romance. Proceeds from the sale are used to support projects and programs of the Norman Public Library.

From 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, February 10, four Oklahoma romance authors will present Discover Oklahoma Romance. Ron Stahl, Director of Marketing for the Oklahoma Tourism and Travel Department and co-host of the Discover Oklahoma television series, will moderate the panel discussion.

Joining Stahl will be best-selling romance authors Sharon Sala, Christine Rimmer, Mel Odom, and Crystal Inman. The authors’ areas of specialty include paranormal romance, contemporary romance, suspense/thriller, and comedy.

Romantic door prizes will be awarded and include fragrance gift baskets from Dillard’s, discounts at the Montford Inn, and arrangements from Betty Lou’s Flowers. The Romance Authors’ Panel is free and open to the public. No registration is required.

Following the panel discussion, author Mel Odom will conduct a Romance Writing Workshop at 1:30 p.m. for aspiring or fledgling authors. Odom is a full-time writer with many published works to his name. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Professional Writers Hall of Fame and received the Alex Award for his fantasy novel The Rover. The first novel in his Apocalypse series, Apocalypse Dawn, continues to appear on the best-seller list. Odom resides in Oklahoma with his wife and five children.

The workshop event is free and open to the public; however, registration is required due to limited space. For more information and to register, contact the Norman Arts Council at 405.360.1162.

The Pioneer Library System, Norman Arts Council Hotel Tax Fund, the Oklahoma Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts provide funding for the Discover Oklahoma Romance Panel and the Mel Odom Romance Writing Workshop for the Arts.

The Norman Public Library is one of the hometown public libraries operated by the Pioneer Library System. For more information about the programs and services offered by the library, call 405.701.2600 or log on to http://www.justsoyouknow.us/.

Body Art and Everything but Writing...

That was today. A ride up the interstate to visit Jimmy, my genius hairdresser. I looked a long time for Jimmy and I refuse to give him up--even if I have to drive thirty miles over black ice to get to him.

So I got a nice haircut and Jimmy explained to me the meanings of his various tatts. He has one on his forearm that could be crossed swords. He explained that it's actually scissors. Just guess why...

Above the scissors, a skull. Because the scissors alone were too literal, he said and the skull cradled nicely between the open scissors handles and in Mexico, skulls don't mean death, they mean eternal life. Jimmy's not only about hair.

He's slowly doing his arms from the shoulders down, one side is red and black, an intense pattern in constant flux, he says. He changes them and adds color as time goes by. The other arm has blue and black swirls, like a storm or wind patterns all studded with stars. Beautiful. I believe he has more, but, well, he's my hairdresser not my husband.

I came back home to... Long story. You really don't need to know. Sometimes things just don't work out. So...that's done.

Now I need to do a bio for the faboo Vickie Denney at WWW.NewAndUsedBooks.com. She'll be doing some great promo for me for RALPHIE'S WIVES out next month.

Better get on it...

Oh, and the guy in the picture is skaterboy extraordinarie Josh Wald, the inspiration for my 2008 HQN, BET ON IT. My hero in that book, Devlin, has a tattoo across his back, too. But his is the heroine's name...

My new blog

So...

Was on DeadlineDiaries with four other wonderful authors. We went on hiatus.

And guess what? I so miss our blog. So...starting my own.

We've been....iced in here on the prairie. But now the sun is shining and the ice is melting and I'm more than ready to get back to work.

I've spent the past three days sitting around watching movies and reading. Not really a hardship. Believe me. But I'm ready to work now.

Now, I'm on to writing two proposals. One for a future Silhouette Special Edition Bravo book and one for a new Romantic Suspense HQN contract. Those of you who know me will know that the Bravos are an ongoing series of books I write for SSE. And the HQN books are mainstream stories.

Here's the cover for my first HQN coming up in March.



I love it. My name could be larger, but other than that....