Baskets, Books, & Bling: The 2014 Heart of Dixie Readers' Luncheon Open for Registration

My first book cover.

I'm so excited to be part of the 2014 Heart of Dixie Readers' Luncheon this year. I'm attending this event and co-hosting a table with author Kelsey Browning. The College Kid will be there and so will my critique partner Pam Mantovani. And I'm stoked to hear Eloisa James speak because she is so inspiring.

If you live near Huntsville, Alabama and want to attend this fabulous event, there's still time to register. Just go to www.heartofdixie.org and you'll find all the details.












There are lots of fantastic reasons to go to the luncheon. Here's short list:

1. Books, books, books.
2. Meet your favorite authors and have lunch with them.
3. Bling!
4. Goody Bags filled with books and swag.
5. Author Basket Door Prizes.
6. Over 35 Raffle Baskets filled with books, swag, gift cards, and more.
7. Support literacy.
8. A $5 coupon good toward buying a book.
9. My Debut Novel Author Basket for the Maverick's Red Hot Reunion is waiting for a lucky winner.
10. Eloisa James is in the house!

I can't wait to see who wins the my basket this year.

Hope to see you there!

Mission Confirmed: Write My Own Story My Way

This weekend I attended the Moonlight and Magnolias Conference hosted by the Georgia Romance Writers of America. My writing friend and I managed to survive our trip of four plus hours with little incident (uh, well there was that weird pick up line by an unwashed person in McDonalds and a strange toothless person who quite liked my buddy and a wild animal chaser running across the freeway, but I am happy to report no lives were lost during the incident.... but I digress--come on a road trip with us one day and have fun).

But here's the deal: all these adventures are worth the end result for me. First, I bond with a fabulous writing friend as we discuss our writing, life, and the universe. Then I get to hang out with amazing authors, writers and workshop leaders. And I get to celebrate the MAGGIES.

So first up, I attended the workshops. Allison Brennan doesn't plot and I LOVE her for that!! But what I really love is this wisdom: write YOUR story YOUR WAY. Michael Hauge's workshop was about plot and structure and the hero's journey and I learned so much my head ached by the end of the day. But here's what I really learned beyond my ah ha moment about the ying and yang of the conflict of false ego running from true essence as revealed by relationship with another who sees one for who she/he is inside: I learned to BELIEVE I DESERVE TO WIN.

My epiphany. My story. My end result. Someone else might have another one. But this was mine. I own it.

Finally, goal setting with Kelly Stone. Hmmm. I always set goals, so what could I learn? But I learned I had limited my goal setting. I set them by the year and break them down. Now? Oh, wow. I set them by 20 years, by 10 years, by 5 years. I want to see what it will taste like. It will be good. It will change. It will be fluid. But it will be good. Why? Because it is MY STORY TOLD MY WAY IN MY TIME AND I AM STOKED.

Okay, so I am on a conference high. And on a little *ah, I got a first place in the Emerald City Opener Contest and a second place in the same contest* high. Yeah, and I might have had a bit of chocolate. Oh, some champagne. Oh. Yeah. Some dancing occurred, too. All good.

But at the end of the day, here is what is really wonderful. I have a fortune cookie fortune in my jewelry box that I have kept for quite a while. It says: YOUR ABILITY TO FIND THE SILLY IN THE SERIOUS WILL TAKE YOU FAR.

This is my VOICE! Seriously. I mean it. A cookie fortune has pegged my voice in a nutshell. Or perhaps  in a cookie shell? Whatever. This is me. This is my voice. This is my story.

I have the ability to find the silly in the serious, and it will take me far.

Oh, and if you want the lucky numbers? I can be bribed with dark chocolate and champagne.

The Lovely Bones: Movie or Book?

Yesterday, after a very productive writing morning, I spent the day with my DD. DH is in Texas visiting his father, who is doing much better this week, and DD had requested to go to the movies.

After hashing out my plot and looking at all the restructuring and work remaining, I was all to eager to be her movie date. Oh, but she chose such a sad movie. THE LOVELY BONES. For those of you who may not know about this movie based on the book with the same title, it's about a 14 year old girl who is murdered and it's told from her point of view after she dies.

For any parent. this is a HARD movie to watch. For a writer, this is a story I wish I had written. Amazing first lines: My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. 


I can't do the story justice. Buy the book by Alice Sebold, read it and go to the movie. To be honest, I haven't read the book (too painful and sad), but my daughter did. And she said the book was so much better only because the book could explore the complexity of the story, the people's lives, the girl's perspective more intensely and vividly than a movie.

I have raised a true reader. And I love discussing the differences between the books and movies based on them with her. Why directors and screenwriters make decisions to cut or compress stories so they can fit on the big screen. They are going for the overall theme and mood of the story, but they have to cut a lot to bring the story to life. On the other hand, they have the benefit of the visual, music scores and acting to bring the characters and the story to life.

Sometimes I wish I could add visual, real visual components and musical scores to my stories. But as an author, all I have is words. And the words I use must give the reader the sensation of being in the story and living in each scene.

How? I keep going back to the words of Maass: create sympathy and empathy for your characters. Bring them to life with strong conflict and let them face the conflict and win (if you're a commercial writer) by the end. Do it well. Hone your craft. After you get it plotted and polished to the best of your ability, read it with the mind of a movie director. Share the story with trusted CPs and beta readers. Make sure you have created a story that creates depth of feeling and emotion within the reader because the reader cares about the characters and what happens to them.

Some people might come away from the movie, THE LOVELY BONES, saying the movie didn't meet their expectations because they read the book. But I think Peter Jackson succeeded in meeting mine. Even better, his vision on the screen convinced me to face the pages in the book because he proved the beauty of the story outweighs the horror.

And the GH Scores Arrived ... Du Du Dummmmm

The GH scores arrived and I opened them. I wasn't going to open them. But I did. It's like scratching a scab. You got to do it. Any rate, I didn't do nearly as bad as I thought I would. The scores were good enough to get me at the top of the bottom half and I missed the top half by .3. Not bad. There wasn't a score under 6.5 and I had a top score of 8.7 (out of 9!). I threw the scores into the MS box, patted myself on the back, and then I told myself if the POS that I sent in did that well, then the rewritten work will do even better next year! Whoot! Of course, maybe I'll never be a GH finalist or winner because I'll sell my book before next November after it gets requested by my favorite publishing house and editor at HQN. 

One can dream.

And the story is so much better now. The synopsis is so much better. It's all so much tighter and well-written. I know it can do better in the GH next time around. Or sell.

I met with my new writing friend at the Barnes & Noble coffee shop yesterday. We met our individual writing goals and then we set new ones. I encouraged my friend to set the GH as her goal for her MS. She has to finish this first draft, revise it and polish the first 50 pages for the GH. It's a goal. She's going for it!

I am very glad I entered the GH. I have solid work to pitch and submit. I have a good synopsis now, and I have a great query. I am ready to roll. 

I was going to query HQN, but now I am waiting until after the Editor/Agent line opens up for appointments the RWA National Conference. I have my top editors and agents highlighted (they have a handy grid on-line), and I am ready to roll. I am not sending any queries out until after the conference. If the agent and/or editor don't request my MS, then I am pitching all other agents on my list as well as the three e-houses I'd be honored to work for.

My upcoming writing goals are very simple. First I am signing up for my editor/agent appts. Then I am researching my agent list to see what their submission guidelines are. Third, I am finishing my revision and have end of June as my target for that work to be completed. Fourth, I am entering two contests: the Maggies and the Sizzle Contest with the MS. Fifth, after I complete the 3rd MS, I am beginning revision on the 4th. And finally, I am polishing my pitch for the 3rd and 4th books.

All this has to happen before July 10. The fourth will be in revision, but I will polish the first fifty pages and enter it into the GH this year. 

It's exciting to have goals and feel like I am edging up the "career ladder."

And speaking of career ladder, I have two fellow chapter writers who just came out with new books. I bought them at the bookstore yesterday and can't wait to read them.

Kira Sinclair, Afterburn

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Christy Reece, Rescue Me

Edging Toward Book In A Week/BIAW

Well I am on Tuesday before the big writing week starts. We officially start on Saturday, but that's Valentine's Day and I have a HOD meeting that I want to attend. I figure the most I can write is about an hour or two in the morning. But it's better than nothing. I am also writing Sunday for two hours. Then I'll put the big push in the Monday - Friday of next week. I have about 14,000 words inputed into my scene/sequel pages. That means technically I have 36,000 to go. I plan to add to that a bit this week, but just in case, that means 6,000 per day over 6 days. I think I can handle that fine. It's 6 scenes a day. hahahah time for a hysterical laugh.

I just heard back from my writing buddy re: my third book and she agrees with the judges about the "kiss" scene. It's too bad it's early in the book as that is the only stumbling block to finaling. The rest of the writing is much better, tighter and well-paced. But that's how we grow as writers. We had a good chat this morning about it and I feel ready to fix it in March. Last 50 pages will be tackled first. Then I'll go into the heart of the book.

Meanwhile, back in France... I wish... but I do have a lot I want to accomplish and top on the list is getting the queries out there. I'm tackling that tomorrow.

Today I am reading through my lessons, adding new brainstorming ideas to the scenes and playing around with the story in general. I'll keep plodding along and eventually it will get done.

Now, back to the writing trenches.