Category Archives: Just stuff

Big happy face

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As I sit here typing, I’m wearing a big, silly happy face. I was going to post a picture, but I also have a big cold sore at the moment, so I’m not getting anywhere near a camera!

Why the smile? Because my editor just said we are done with all our work, and my novella has moved on to the copy editor. As I understand it, the copy editor is the one that checks the punctuation and format…which means my book is almost ready to go. My editor says the release date will probably be about 3 months. Once I get the final date…and a copy of my cover…I will post them here.

I am soooooo excited and thrilled, and just beside myself. To make things even more exciting, Eilidh (my editor) asked me if I have another book ready. So I’ll be working this weekend on Golden Star, what I hope will be my second novella. The story is pretty much done but I’ll be trying to do some of the edits to this one that Eilidh already had me do to my previous one. Of course I realize it is better for Wild Rose Press if they can have multiple books under my name and hopefully generate a following, but I still can’t get over the fact that they liked my first book enough to ask for a second.

In the meantime, if I was going to post a photo, it would look something like this: smile

How to embarrass and/or disgust your teenage daughter

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There are several ways to embarrass and/or disgust your teenage daughter.

One…dance.
It does not matter how good you are…or think you are…she will not appreciate it.
And if you do it in front of her friends, she will appreciate it even less.

Two…tell her you think the teenage boy in her class is hot.
Yes, you could say “handsome” or “attractive”, but in an attempt not to sound old-fashioned, you use the word “hot” and, well…ewwwww!

Three…tell her your editor wants you to make the sex-scene in your book longer.
The Daughter is actually upset that I will not let her read the book because of the sexual content. She insists on telling people that I will not let her read it because “mom writes sex”. The Daughter wrinkles her nose and makes an ugly face as she says it, so what is it…does she wants to read it or not?

The fact that she is too young (under 30 in this case) does not seem to mean as much to her as it does to me, but suffice to say she has a few more years ahead of her before I let her read many of my stories.

Knowing the response I would get, I did have to tell her that I was working on edits today because I had to add more sex. “Ewwww” she said. How did I know?

By the way, I was dancing when I told her.

Writing without a computer??

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I am in the middle of editing Silver Blade, and I can’t help wondering….how did they write before computers?

I remember starting to write a book back in high school. I worked at McDonalds at the time, and it was loosely based on me and 3 of my friends/fellow employees. It was a fiction, starting with us in high school with boyfriends very similar to those we had (it was going to be fiction, really!), and then the grown-up lives I imagined us having. The thing I remember most about my book (aside from the fact that one of the girls always wore yellow rubber rainboots), was the number of times I had to re-write pages….over and over and over. I would try to scratch and scribble and add arrows, but I always had to rip out pages and re-write them. I remember the frustration of having to start over again as one of the reasons why I gave up on the book.

So, as I said, I’m currently in the middle of editing my book…for like the 100th time. The first 99 times were before I submitted it, so needless to say I thought it was pretty much done. Eilidh, my editor, came back with some very helpful comments, stating that they were just suggestions and I could disregard anything I didn’t agree with. Well, I’m not THAT crazy that I’m going to argue with someone who edits for a living. I have no preconceptions that I am the next Stephanie Meyers. And now my “done” copy is completely covered with red edits and arrows and scratches, oh my. I confess, I read and make changes on my stories in hard copy, and I apologize to all the environmentalists out there for all the trees I’ve killed, but hey, it’s only 40 pages!! But my point is…what if it was hand written in the first place…or even God forbid, done on a typewriter?! And what if it was 400 pages? Would it end up going in the garbage like the book I started in high school?

Yes, I start most of my stories with pen and paper, but as soon as they get substance, I have them on my computer, using word processing to cut and paste and move and spell-check and…well, you get the picture. Kudos to the great authors like Shakespeare, Dumas and Tolstoy. I certainly couldn’t have done what they did! And thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for the computer!! Not only has it kept me employed in a day-job for 25 years, but it has made my book possible.

Of course, it has also made it possible to stay in touch with all of you. But that is just icing on the cake.