Sweet Nothings

Okay, I admit it. I went into full-panic-mode when I received the reminder that today was my blog day on To Be Read. Normally, hot air balloon that I am, I can usually find some topic to carry me away. But not this week. Maybe it’s the weather. With more snow predicted over the next forty-eight hours for my region, I’m suffering from some major league cabin fever. But I’ve also got a full plate of extra-curricular activities where my mind is truly focused so I can’t be my normally witty, wonderful, insightful self right now.

When I’m writing and these types of tragedies occur, I immediately flock to my books of quotations for inspiration. And so, with that most romantic of days, Valentine’s Day, this coming weekend, why shouldn’t I share some words of wisdom from those far more talented with a pen than I? Sit back and enjoy.

“Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips.” – Percy Shelley

“Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale.” – Author Unknown

“Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.” – John Lennon

“Take away love and our earth is a tomb.” – Robert Browning

“What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.” – Pearl Bailey

“Romance is the poetry of literature.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Love is being stupid together.” – Paul Valery

“When love is not madness, it is not love.” – Pedro Calderon de la Barca

“I think I mentioned to Bob that I could make love for eight hours. What I didn’t say was that this included four hours of begging and then dinner and a movie.” – Sting

“If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?” – Author Unknown

glitter-graphics.com

How do I procrastinate? Let me count the ways

Any amateur can slack off, but fine procrastination is an art. Social networking, blogging, family visits, and housecleaning are obvious slacker favorites. Pausing to do laundry because your lucky writing shirt—the only one that can possibly be worn for the next scene—is in the hamper? Coming up with something like that requires a little more thought. It’s incumbent on us as professionals to hold a higher standard of work avoidance.

I always draft my plots on large pieces of newsprint. I can say with some pride that I successfully wasted at least an hour wrestling the roll out from the back of an overpacked closet. The fact that my cat was helping accounted for twenty of those minutes. Pets are some of the best procrastination tools ever, and I’m not too proud to employ every strategic advantage.

And then there’s the research excuses—every so often a chapter can’t possibly progress until you ferret some obscure fact out of the ether. When things aren’t going well, those occasions usually become too numerous to mention. I mean, I really needed to know every how many buttons an eighteen-century infantry captain’s coat had, right?

Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we do this especially when we can’t afford the time?

Elaborate procrastination schemes can be part of writer’s block, or caused by something as simple as a bout of laziness. More often than not, I find it’s due to being a) tired and bored or b) the story’s stuck. Discipline can solve the first. The second is most often a symptom of sloppy thinking. The story gets vague and hard to manage, and I’m not quite sure why. When that happens, there’s usually something I haven’t thought through—either character or plot. That’s when it’s time to back off and do some basic writerly homework. A solid ten minutes of diagnosis and repair can prevent days of dancing around the problem.

Unless, of course, a vacation is the point. When that happens, I think it’s better to just admit you’re going AWOL and ditch the guilt.

What are your best procrastination techniques? How do you break through them?

Rules to Write By…or Not

On the bulletin board above my monitor I keep a list of writing rules. They are:

1. Never give up!
2. Don’t await a break. Losers wait for the breaks. Winners make the breaks happen!
3. Ignore rejection slips!
4. Develop a thick skin!
5. Persevere!
6. Writing is demonic possession. Accept that!
7. Learn to live with fear and not to let it destroy or stop you!

I will admit that at times over the years it has been hard to live by these rules. That’s when I fall back on the 8^th rule:

 8. Forget all the rules and just write!

And then there’s my favorite motto of all time which applies to all parts of my life and which I repeat like a mantra:  Find a way, or make a way.

Do you have any rules or favorite mottos that help you in your struggle through life?

Count down!

Many years ago I determined to write for Harlequin some day. Well, the day’s arrived (almost). In less than 4 weeks my first Harlequin Blaze will hit the shelves.

Possessing Morgan was a book that came to me in stages. First, I realized a heroine in another book (as yet, ahem, unsold) had once been friends with a car thief turned tow truck driver. That friend had to be a woman. Morgan Swann was born.

Much time passed as I wrote erotic romance for Kensington Publishing, but still that tow truck driving heroine would poke me in the eye and pester me in my dreams.

I cannot recall when or where I was when the next bit of Possessing Morgan came to me. All I knew was that I had to write a scene with an old, rumbling tow truck hauling a fine new piece of automotive luxury down a driveway.

The hero, naturally, would be the owner. Kingston “Mac” McRae was born.

That image stayed with me for years while I wrote other books (including the one that had started it all, ahem, the as-yet-unsold one).

I never considered writing that book without that scene in it. It took several revisions, many questions and a few sleepless nights to finally accept that given the situation, Morgan would not, could not, take that car.

I confess to a pang when I allowed her to release the car and drive off without it. But it was the right thing, the only thing to do with that car.

Sometimes I hate it when editors are right. I’m sure when that one little question was typed in that revision letter, my editor didn’t know how long I’d had that vision, or how much I longed to write that scene that way.

But in the end, she was right and the story makes more sense the way it’s written. But believe me, in my mind, she hauled-ass out of those gates with Mac’s car.

I’m so pleased to be able to say that Page Traynor of RT Book Reviews Magazine has given Possessing Morgan 4 stars and says:

“. . . Edwards combines very hot sex with an unusual heroine to make her latest a winner.”

I hope my readers agree…this book was a long time coming but it’s been worth the wait.

Cheers!

Bonnie Edwards

Inspiration

Inspiration can come in many forms.  For me, this weekend, it came in the form of a waterfall.

I snuck away for the weekend with my husband and son. We went to the mountains, enjoyed some great water falls, and, yes, when I came back home, I’d outlined four books.  A pretty good trade-off, I think.

I’ve heard writers say that different things inspire them. Music. Scents.  Some are inspired by the beach. Some by long walks.

For me, I just need some time to relax. Time to let my mind wander and play a bit–then the story ideas start to evolve.

For the writers out there, tell me…what do think inspires you the most?

Happy writing!

Cynthia Eden

www.cynthiaeden.com

ETERNAL HUNTER–Available now from Kensington Brava

We Have A Winner

Congratulations to EllenToo, drawn from all the lovely readers who commented on last week’s posts as winner of my giveaway. The prize is a copy of the HM&B Australia re-release of two of my earlier books ZANE: THE WILD ONE and QUADE: THE IRRESISTIBLE ONE. Ellen, please contact me via my website within 30 days to claim your prize.

Thank you to everyone who visited To Be Read this week. Hope you’ll visit again and that this week you read something wonderful. There are so many authors, and so little time…but always new favorites to find here at To Be Read!

I got the fever

It’s January, and in the midst of trying to do some book promo for my release this month, (Heart’s Blood, a Victorian fantasy romance) I am getting spring fever.

Luckily, I live along the Texas Gulf Coast where the weather has been lovely the past several days. I mean, shirtsleeves and sunshine. The boy has been wearing shorts and flipflops to his last semester of college classes. (Can you tell I’m ready for him to graduate? So is he.) It hasn’t been as warm as 70 F (21 C) but with the sun shining, it doesn’t matter. The neighbor’s jonquils have been blooming since Christmas. The spider/airplane plants that serve as ground cover in my front flower beds look awful since the hard freeze we had a couple of weeks ago, but I think they’ll live. And Mardi Gras will be here in a week and a half.

Galveston is kind of like a baby sister to the party town of New Orleans. The food is similar. The architecture is similar (except Galveston has wider streets & sidewalks in the historic part of town). The party attitude is similar. (What happens on the island stays on the island.) We’re still suffering post-hurricane too. We’re just smaller. (Even more smaller since the hurricane.) And a little more family friendly during Mardi Gras.

I’m looking forward to the party. I get to ride in the first parade on the first Saturday and throw beads. Last year, the weather was lovely, until the very end when the rain started falling. I have my fingers crossed for this year.

Spring is the best time of year in Texas, in my humble opinion. Fall weather is also lovely, but because our winters are mild, we don’t get much in the way of fall leaf color. And I’m allergic to ragweed, which blooms in September and October, so I don’t get to enjoy the outdoors much then. What we do have is wildflowers. Lots and lots and lots of wildflowers. More wildflowers than most people can believe. Because we have optimal wildflower climate and geography–lots of sunshine, open space and mild winters. One of the things on anyone’s Bucket List ought to be a visit to Texas in the spring for the flowers.

I have to wait a little while longer, but it won’t be too long before the actual warm weather arrives, the Gulf waters warm up and the flowers start to bloom. Galveston doesn’t get many bluebonnets (that blue field above), but we do have lots of tickseed and Indian blanket (coreopsis and gaillardia), and they bloom most all year. I can’t wait till they start again this year.

So. What has you in a fever of waiting? Books you want to read? Warm weather? Tax refunds?

Share! Comments get you in the pool for Bron’s prize!

TEN YEARS AGO

With the new decade less than a month old, I though it the perfect time for a nostgalic (hopefully, fondly nostalgic) look back at ten years ago and the start of the last decade. Where were you and what were you doing ten years ago?

On this day I would have been celebrating Australia Day. That’s our equivalent, I guess, to the 4th of July. While the date has historical significance, it’s become a day for celebrating pride in today’s Australia and our achievements. Most communities host an Australia Day ceremony and party. Many award their community contributors with special honours, new Australians become citizens, and the Queen announces an honours list.

Australian of the Year is announced by the Prime Minister on Australia Day. In 2000 that was Sir Gustav Nossal, an eminent medical researcher who was also recognised for his work on Aboriginal reconciliation. Young Australian of the Year was swimming champion Ian Thorpe. Our boys were ten years younger and rowdy schoolboys. Ten years ago they were on summer holidays; there’s a strong chance we’d have been swimming somewhere, possibly the local pool, and there might have been a swimming carnival (meet) where they dreamed of being the next Ian Thorpe. In the evening we’d have packed our folding chairs, our billabong rug and esky, and headed to our local racetrack for the annual Cup meeting. (We’ll be doing the same tonight.)

Writing wise, I was working on the story which became my second published book. I wanted it finely polished to enter in the Clendon Award, RWNZ’s contest for unpublished full manuscripts. The previous year my entry had finished second but since I’d not heard from the judging editor (although I’d been told the manuscript was “under consideration”), I was attempting to block that out and to keep working. I was at my computer working on the story when the editor called in February with the news that she wanted to buy my manuscript for Silhouette Desire.

Although the rest of “what I was doing ten year ago” is vague — I confess, I had to check photo albums to see if we’d been away on holidays that January and I needed google assistance on the Australians of the Year as I wasn’t sure how long we’d been doing that! — I remember the day of my call very, very clearly. I remember finding my husband at the sheepyards and his “what’s wrong?” when he saw my tears and obvious emotional state. I remember our hug when I finally managed to blubber out that I’d sold a book. It had been a tough year on the farm; this was very, very good news.

So, what is your clearest and fondest memory of ten years ago? Was 2000 a good year for you?

Thinking Write

http://www.kellylstone.com/

I’m reading this book right now. Thinking Write by Kelly L. Stone. Now, I may be someone who can rattle off my own disease and explain it so well that even doctors are impressed with my knowledge, but I am also the student who earned a grand 0.9 GPA in Anatomy and Physiology despite all my studying. I am a scientific moron. Just make it easy for me to regurgitate and I will score superb on fill in the bubble tests. LOL

So, when I say Kelly keeps it real for the layperson, I am not exaggerating. She starts by explaining Freud’s 3 parts of the mind, Conscious, Pre-Conscious and the Subconscious. She explains relaxing techniques and memory recall techniques. Then she explains brain waves in the different stages of sleep and how they relate to creativity.

I now totally understand why I cannot write new words and play sudoku in the same day. Even though I am published and the Evil level at www.websudoku.com rocks.

The sad thing? After whipping myself into a morning routine of take meds, get dressed, eat, exercise and then begin my day, Kelly advises getting out of bed and staying in that half-sleep “hypnagogic” state, complete with pajamas is a great thing for writing.

So now, to all the people who demanded I get up, get dressed, wear shoes and have a routine, I say, “Ha!”

*Reposted from www.JamieLeighHansen.com/blog, because this book is that good.

Win This Book

This week on To Be Read all commenters will be entered in the draw to win a signed copy of this Bestsellers Collection from award-winning category romance author Bronwyn Jameson. The HM&B Australia February 2010 publication reprints ZANE: THE WILD ONE and QUADE: THE IRRESISTIBLE ONE, Bronwyn’s third and fourth books for Silhouette Desire.

Visit Bronwyn’s website for more information.

To be in the draw to win a copy, visit To Be Read between now and January 30 and comment on any post. The winner will be announced next weekend.