Making a list

One of the odd things about finishing a book is the vaguely bewildered feeling I have after I rejoin the real world. I’ve been so utterly immersed in what I’m doing, I don’t notice the march of time.

I popped my head out Monday morning, a little like a dazed gopher, to discover the holiday season is upon us—at least according to the retailers. Where moments before grinning jack-o-lanterns had leered from every shelf, now Santa is menacing us with his reindeer. As I am in Canada, Thanksgiving is far behind us. There’s no pause for turkey; we’re right into the hard-core shopping with a vengeance. We may be a polite nation, but don’t come between us and the electronics store during a midnight madness event. Everyone has their dark side. Just check out the malls.

Naturally, I was asked for my Christmas list. My first thought was “sleep.” Really. Time to do nothing. No responsibility for seven whole days. Find my prettiest Laura Ashley bedding and hibernate.

When the chorus of laughter died down, I was left with the task of organizing my holiday cheer along with everyone else’s. So here goes: a gift giving guide for writers.
Stationery – Tell your elves to check out Levenger.com for nifty reading and writing toys. My personal fave is the “how to” links. I have a desk, they have “deskscapes.”

Dark gold – Extreme Chocolate is a gateway to everything chocolately goodness. On a diet? Don’t worry. There’s Organic Dark Chocolate Mocha Body Scrub from 100% Pure

Champagne – Need celebratory lubricant? There are a ton of sites that will deliver to your door. With live support and a zillion brands, shopping is easy.

If that’s too fancy, then spread a bit of simple cheer! Send a free holiday ecard and a donation is made to help an animal in need! Click here for a dose of AWWWW.

What does the author in you want for the holidays?

Merry Christmas, Cowboy! is on the shelves

My November, Silhouette Special Edition, Merry Christmas, Cowboy! is available this month. It seems to be selling well. For the first week in November it was #77 on BookScan! In case you’re not familiar with BookScan, it monitors sales from chain bookshops, internet book sites, discount outlets and independent bookshops in the leading English language markets.

Merry Christmas, Cowboy is the third book in my Meet Me in Montana triology. I loved writing this book so I’m happy it appears to be doing well. Here’s a brief blurb about the book:

Lauren Van Meveren came to Big Sky country to complete the research for her dissertation. Unlike her two friends who unexpectedly found their perfect matches in Sweet River, Lauren has no illusions there’s a happily-ever-after for her in the Montana stars. The daughter of two prominent academicians, Lauren’s career path was determined long ago.

Widower Seth Anderssen vowed on his wife’s deathbed that he wouldn’t marry again until their daughter was grown. But when Lauren temporarily moves in to help him care for his injured child, keeping his heart safe proves an impossible task. But Seth is a man of his word, and he’ll keep his promise… even if that means the woman he’s grown to love can never be his.

My question to you is…if you were single, do you think you’d have an issue marrying a widower and raising his child (or children) as your own? There are no right or wrong answers. I’d just like to know your thoughts.

Spinning Plates

Sometimes I feel like that guy in the circus who’s spinning all those plates atop long poles, trying to keep them all going at once. For me, life is a juggling act. I work a full-time day job which, thankfully, I love. My husband is away often for weeks at a time, so that leaves me to take care of everything—the house, the bills, a high maintenance dog, the family, driving my widowed mom and aunt to their doctor appointments. You name it, I do it.

Have I left anything out? Oh yeah, writing books. It’s hard sometimes to be creative when you have to stuff your creativity into a few brief stolen hours here and there. Sure, there’s the weekends, and that’s when I get most of my writing done, when my husband is away, that is.

When he’s home, it’s a different story. He’ll come into the office, plop himself down on the couch without saying a word and just sit there. You’ve heard about the 800 pound gorilla in the room? Well, that’s nothing compared to a 180 pound man who makes his presence known by shooting mega-rays at me with his eyes until I finally stop what I’m doing and turn to face him. “What?”

Oh, nothing, he’ll say.

Then why the hell are you here, I’m tempted to ask.

Instead, I remind myself of a vow I took in the distant past, something about for better or worse, and smile sweetly and ask if there’s something he wants. That’s when I’m hit with a medley of choices. Do I want to go for a walk, to a movie, out for lunch, grocery shopping (he knows I’m sucker for a buy-one-get-one-free deal at the supermarket).

Well no, babe, I say apologetically. As you can see, I’m working.

That’s when he gives me the look. You know the one. That little stray puppy-dog look that says ‘I’d be so happy if only you would play with me’. So, I do what any woman would do. I bargain. Tell you what, I say. Let me just finish this chapter and then we’ll go out and get the car washed.

His eyes brighten. What is about men and the car wash?

He leaves the room, and I’m feeling pretty crafty because I know damn well it will take hours to finish the chapter I’m working on. But the joke’s on me, because 20 minutes later he pokes his head in to ask how it’s going.

Not now, not now, I’m in the middle of a love scene.

A little while later he calls from the other room to ask if my characters are finished screwing.

They’re not screwing, I call back, annoyed. They’re making love.

I hear a disgruntled, whatever, and get back to work.

Some time later the door cracks open. He’s afraid to come in, I can tell. Are they finished doing it yet, he wants to know through the crack.

Oh, they finished doing it pages ago. Now she’s telling him how much she hates him and never wants to see him again. I can almost hear his eyes rolling behind me.

On and on it goes, until he finally gives up. By then, the chapter is finished and I’m feeling pretty good about it. Good enough to want to celebrate.

I find him in his favorite chair with a book. Okay, babe, I’m ready now, I announce. Wanna go out for dinner? He looks up. Not now, I’m reading. There’s no malice in his voice, no pay-back intended, just an honest disinterest. So I do the only thing I can do. I sit down and shoot mega-rays at him until he looks at me and asks, “What?”

How do you handle a bored spouse when you’re trying to keep those plates spinning?

Contest winner announcement

Congratulations to Jane! She is this week’s contest winner and has won herself an autographed copy of MEN ON FIRE.

Jane, email me at susan@susanlyons.ca with your snail mail, and I’ll send the book to you.

Happy reading everyone!

Friday the 13th: Lucky or Unlucky?

Yes, today is one of those special days…it’s Friday the 13th. Sure, some folks think this is a day destined to bring bad luck.  But others–well, they like the day.

I like Friday the 13th. 

I think it’s a fun day, a day rife with superstitions, true.  But a day with just a little bit of magic thrown in to spice things up.

Now, there are those individuals out there who literally fear Friday the 13th. They suffer from paraskavedekatriaphobia, and I’m quite sure today is gonna fall under the “bad” category for them.  But really, a day is what you make of it, right?  And why not make today fun? Why not let it be a bit magical for you, too?

Have a great Friday (the 13th!).

Cynthia Eden
www.cynthiaeden.com
HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT–mass market re-release 12/1/09
ETERNAL HUNTER–available 01/10 from Kensington Brava

Exiting the Stress Zone

First, happy veteran’s day and a big thanks to all veterans, including my formers students and my dad.

As I write this, I’m about to climb aboard an airplane and head to Washington, D.C., for the national high school journalism convention. I have about 20 minutes before I need to slam my suitcase closed and get out the door.

This blog is the last thing I need to do. Nothing like the last minute. But that’s been life lately. Every time I think I get ahead, life throws me a curve ball. Yesterday I got everything ready to go–and my phone died. Now I have a replacement phone for a replacement phone and the ATT guy swears a new (another refurbished, honestly) one is on its way. So I put my SIM card in an old Go-Phone. It works. Not well, but works.

I’ve also been dealing with my 72 year old mother–whose medications were changed and she then got them all wrong. At 10 p.m.  last night I was putting pills into one of those “morning, noon, evening, bed” containers to get her back on track.

Life has been crazy. I’m hoping that today as I finally get on the airplane with 14 of my students, my good friend and her one student life will calm down. I’m praying we all learn a lot, stay safe and have a great time.

Then when we get back, it’s game on again. The high school newspaper is due to the printer. The yearbook has pages to submit. I have a book due 12/1, and my house is for sale.

Maybe I won’t be exiting the stress zone. But darn it, I’m going to pretend.

Michele Dunaway is an award-winning high school journalism instructor who is receiving the Journalism Education Association’s Medal of Merit Nov. 14. In her other life she writes novels for Harlequin American Romance and is working on the Complete Idiot’s Guide to the World of Vampires.

 

How Flawed Is Too Flawed?

Do you like your heroes to be perfect, a little flawed, or a lot flawed? How flawed is too flawed? And how about your heroines?

At the start of the story, the romance heroine and hero both need to be at least somewhat sympathetic, or we’re just going to hate them and not read any farther. They also need to have some heroic qualities. But if they’re too perfect, then there’s no room to grow, and it seems to me the truly great romances involve character growth.

Depending on the story and characters, a romance may be more “her story” (i.e., she has the most growing to do) or “his story” and sometimes it’s pretty equally balanced between the two.

My November novella, “Too Hot to Handle” in Men on Fire, is an example of the latter. Both my heroine and hero are moderately flawed.

Jade Rousseau has a nice safe, cozy life: a terrific job with the Families First Foundation, loving parents, and two amazing girlfriends. Her only problem is that she hasn’t found the right man, but she knows what he’ll be like: a nice, sweet, conservative, safe guy. The one thing she can’t handle is risk. Her dad, a cop, was almost killed on the job. After that, her traumatized mom convinced him to take a nice safe desk job. So, Jade’s issue (which she doesn’t recognize as one) is that she’s way too risk-averse.

Quinn O’Malley is a firefighter. And not any normal firefighter, but one who has a personal vendetta against fire. It took his parents and kid brother and if he has his say, it’s not going to take any more lives. He’s heroic for sure, but he goes too far and takes too many risks. He has a superstitious belief that he’s invincible and fire will never get him – because, after all, he escaped the fire that took his family. Well, obviously his approach to fire-fighting has some pretty serious drawbacks.

Aren’t Jade and Quinn the perfect couple? LOL. Okay, at first glance, they’re not. And yet, isn’t the perfect mate the one who challenges you to look deep inside and confront your own flaws? To change and grow, no matter how painful that may be, in order to deserve and win true love?

And isn’t that what we, as readers, love to see? Don’t we want to be there every step of the way, rooting for the heroine and hero to find the internal strength to become better people and win the love of their life?

That’s my take on romance. Now tell me, what kind of romances, and what kinds of heroines and heroes do you most enjoy? How many and what kind of flaws are just right for you?

Life happens

And all we can do is roll with it.

I’m writing this at my parents’ house in rural central Texas, on my dad’s computer. If there are typos, that’s why-I’m not used to the keyboard, and the monitor is out of focus. Which is kind of a metaphor for my life these days. I’m not used to it, and it’s all out of focus.

See, my dad was just officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Daddy was a nuclear physicist, a brilliant man who knew more about math and science than he could ever communicate to me, but he can scarcely add two numbers together now.  He’s easily confused, gets disoriented and sidetracked from what he was doing.

I would tell him he ought to call the doctor and see if he could get some kind of medicine, but he never got around to it till I called him back after a visit and told him “Call today. As soon as I hang up.” So now, the diagnosis is official, and he’s on a medication patch. It won’t cure what’s already been done, but it will help keep it from getting worse. And I’ve noticed an improvement in his moods.

Now, I have to get my mother in to get diagnosed. Her memory issues aren’t the same as Daddy’s, but they’re there.

It has become apparent that they really need someone to go with them to their doctor’s appointments.  The doctor will ask “How are you doing?” and Mama will answer “Oh, pretty good,” and have to be reminded that only yesterday she was moaning because she felt so bad. Daddy will go on a long, rambling discourse which might get to the point, and might not. So I make the 2-1/2 hour drive and come up when I can.

All the driving and being away from home  does tend to make it difficult to write, but you do what you have to do. I feel lucky to still have both my parents–they’re both over 75–and they are still in the mild stages of the disease where they know who we are, who our children and grandchildren are, even if they can’t always remember whether they took their pills or not. Between my sisters and brother, all of us doing what we can, we’ll get by.

I want this to be an optimistic post, because honestly, I feel pretty good about things. We’re doing okay. Mama and Daddy are doing pretty good. They’re living on their own, hanging in there. And that’s what life does. It happens. It’s what you do with that life while it’s happening that matters, and looking from this end of it, theirs looks pretty good.

They’ve been happily married for more than 50 years, raised four kids to reasonably successful, happy lives. (We all get along with each other–that sounds successful to me!) And even now, we can still have fun and tell stories and laugh with each other. Stories do come to a close, and while it’s sad to know it’s getting close, a happy ending always feels good.

Prize announcement: win 3 hot firefighters!

As the weather chills off in my part of the world, it’s time to think of things that are lovely and warm: crackling fires, steaming rum toddies, and of course . . . hot firefighters!

This week, one person who posts a comment at To Be Read will win a copy of MEN ON FIRE, hot off the press. It has three sexy novellas with firefighter heroes, written by me, Rachelle Chase, and Jodi Lynn Copeland. I’ll announce the winner on Saturday.

And in the meantime, try to keep warm!

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

A picture says a thousand words, but what are these pictures saying?

 

You’ll see the four pictures below and the best caption will win a copy of Divorced, Desperate and Deceived.   So go ahead, get creative, and let’s have some fun.  Write a caption for one, or write a caption for all three.

 

And speaking of words, here’s some words from two reviewers on my November 24^th release.   My hubby is poking me saying, “See I told you didn’t have to worry.”  And he’s right, now I can stop worrying about this book and start obsessing over my next release in June 2010, Shut Up and Kiss Me.

 

RT Book Reviews:

 

Divorced, Desperate and Deceived, 4 ½ stars, TOP PICK

 

The latest in Craig’s Divorced, Desperate and . . . series is fast moving, exciting and suspenseful, with the many delightful characters Craig always provides.  The secondary romance is a wonderful touch, and much of the humor originates with and is provided by the male characters.

 

Though Kathy Callahan’s friends are determined to find her a man, Kathy has her eye on one who seems to have lost interest now that she’s ready to date again.  While her son visits his dad for a month, Kathy hopes to connect with plumber Stan Bradley who, until recently, showed all the signs of being very interested in her.  Only Stan isn’t really Stan; he’s Luke Hunter, an FBI agent in the witness protection program.  Just as Kathy makes her move, so do the bad guys, and she winds up on the run with Luke.  But some of the bad guys aren’t so bad – something that just may save Kathy’s and Luke’s lives.

 

Publishers Weekly:

 

The action only stops long enough for steamy passion in this fast-paced conclusion to Craig’s contemporary romance trilogy (after 2008’s Divorced, Desperate and Dating). Kathy Callahan is the last member of the Divorced, Desperate and Delicious Club to remain single, thanks to her distrust of men and her devotion to her son, Tommy.  Sparks are flying between Kathy and plumber Stan Bradley, but Stan is actually Luke Hunter, an undercover FBI agent hiding out until he can testify against organized crime boss Lorenzo.  When Lorenzo’s men—including hilariously reluctant mobster Joey Hinkle –catch up with him, Luke and Kathy have to flee, unable to trust even their closest friends.  Craig keeps the sexual tension as high as the suspense in the mad dash Kathy and Luke make toward what they hope is safety, and maybe even love.

 

Okay . . . make sure you post your captions.  Here are the pictures:

 

Photo #1:

 

Photo #2:

 

Photo #3:

 

Photo #4:

 

Christie