Beginnings

Usually I dive into a story. The first chapter is my favorite to write. You get to meet new people and discover their troubles. Because I write short contemporary, I introduce the hero and heroine immediately and get them right into their conflict.

Okay, this paranormal thing is different. And I'm struggling. I've written 3 beginnings so far. Not much more than a few paragraphs that lead into action. My first attempt was because I was thinking I need to get the H/H together right away. It is a romance, after all.

He had his instructions.

And they pissed him off.

But he would do as he was told. He always did.

A warning. That was all. His employers only wanted to frighten the Marquis.

Lucien wanted the man dead.

Despite the dozen chandeliers and hundreds of candles illuminating the ballroom, a tall man with dark hair and an expression of abject boredom on his face appeared wreathed in shadow. Luc’s own height made it easy for him to keep track of the Marquis across the sea of glittering, perfumed, silk-clad ton gathered at Westerfield House for the first ball of the season.

Normally he wouldn’t have chosen this venue for the sort of task he had to perform. Frightening someone was much easier on a dark, deserted London street than in a crowded ballroom, but Luc relished a challenge. That’s what made him good at his job.

A cry of alarm went up to his left. Luc turned his head at the sound, his chin brushing the starched points of his tall collar, and took three steps in the direction of the commotion before he realized what was going on.

A diversion.

The instant the realization struck, a tingle in his left earlobe told him someone had worked a minor spell. While a dozen people milled about the unfortunately girl who’d had her dress set on fire, Luc surged into the crowd in the opposite direction.
He cursed beneath his breath as he searched for the Marquis. His employers would not be pleased if the man stole yet another book on black magic.

The tingle became a buzzing. More magic at work. A bigger spell. The flavor of it puzzled him. And drew him forward at a greater pace.

By the time he reached the library, the Marquis was gone, and the aftermath of the spell had faded like disappating smoke from a snuffed candle. Frustration flared as Luc surveyed the enormous library. If he’d been a few steps closer he might have caught the Marquis in the act and prevented the theft. It would have been satisfying to bind the man in a holding spell and turn him over for questioning.

Not as satisfying as killing him, but it would have been better than nothing.

The mood felt off. Forced. And the hero was too dark. Part of this book is funny. A dark sort of funny, but he does have a sense of humor.

Then I thought let's meet the man he's going to impersonate:

The stench of desperation in the man sitting opposite the Marquis was as palpable as dried sweat. Luc’s gaze slid over sullen face and frightened eyes of the man, .

“Come now, Rethledge,” the Marquis said, sipping at his brandy. “Surely you’re due to have a change of luck.”

There was no luck involved in the games being played this evening. It was theft, pure and simple.

“That may be true, but I have nothing left to wager.”

The problem here is that the Marquis is not a bad guy. He's actually a lot naive and a little stupid. In this version he comes off as a villain. Not what I'm looking for my hero to impersonate.

So, I'm onto my 3rd version:

Something was wrong.
Luc bound up the stairs of the Cheapside boarding house, felt the give of worn board, and hoped like hell they wouldn’t splinter beneath his weight.

At the second landing he paused and looked up. While his instincts screamed at him to keep going, years of experience held him in place. A green glow highlighted the stairs above him, a warning to proceed with caution.

I decided to start with an action sequence that involved the dark magic the hero spends the book fighting against. I have a vision in my head of what he will encounter when he gets to the room with the green glow. I hope I can pull it off.

How about you? Do you start strong or struggle?

Today's goal: 500 words of this opening.
Yesterday's achievement: I figured out what doesn't work.
What I'm grateful for: My dad's taking my daughter to his company picnic tomorrow. I'm going to go see a couple movies.
Quote: "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." -Bill Cosby (1937 - )

New adventures

As promised, I submitted my logline for the Desire pitch. Here it is.

Emma Montgomery’s dream of marrying for love is threatened when her billionaire father makes her a pawn in his latest business deal and offers her a choice, lose her inheritance or marry Nathan Case, a man who offers her passion, but withholds his heart.

Nathan is accustomed to getting his way in business as well as romance, but fighting his half brothers for control of the family business is a piece of cake compared to convincing Emma he’s seen too many lives ruined to consider marrying for love.

Lexi helped me refine it. She has a knack for asking all the right questions and making me work harder than I want to. HUGE THANKS FOR THAT!

With a manuscript sitting at Silhouette and requests for 2 others that I'm not supposed to send because they want to evaluate one at a time, I've decided to turn my attention to something new and different.

So, I'm taking a Regency set time travel historical thingy that I wrote over ten years ago and revising it (utilizing all the wonderful things I've learned in the last 2 years) into a paranormal of a different kind. After spending the last year and a half fitting my characters into a precise package for series contemporary, I'm going to (try to) let loose and go a little over the top. I'm aiming to make it dark, but funny. Sexy and hot (which it isn't now, it's rather sweet) and have a whole lot of fun throwing spells, demons and all sorts of vile things at my dark, tortured, angst-ridden characters.

The current version has some great historic detail, but is rather boring and after a brief reading today I realized why: it has no conflict (well it does, but not much). The new version has lots of conflict, and before I'm done, there will be even more.

I was inspired by the Sci Fi channel's Dresden Files. I love the down and out wizard with the dark background and even darker secrets.

Who or what has inspired you lately? A good movie? A fabulous series? An intriguing book?

Today's goal: work on my plotting sheets
Yesterday's accomplishments: Submitted my Desire pitch
What I'm grateful for: Friends who push me to do/be more
Quote: "Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods." -Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC),

Reality check

This is how I feel today. No, I'm not the puppy, blissfully unaware that I'm squashing the life out of the kitten, I'm the kitten with a stinky puppy butt on its head. This might look like great fun, but trust me, it's not.

I'm squashed beneath the rear end of indecision, trapped between the concrete sidewalk of what I want to do and the wiggling furry hindquarters that's smothering me and making it hard to think straight. Okay, enough with the stupid metaphor.

Here's a question for those writers out there. Are you willing to make changes to your story based on an editor's suggestion, even when you don't feel that the change will strengthen the story? If I make the change, it will be to make the story more marketable, not necessarily stronger. I guess that's the definition of "commercial fiction" so I should shut up and do it. What do you think?

Today's goal: Send my Desire pitch off
Yesterday's achievement: Nothing really. Took the day off from working.
What I'm grateful for: Eye opening feedback on my manuscript
Quote: "One of the most important ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present. In doing so, we build the trust of those who are present." -Stephen Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Kung Fu Panda

I took my daughter to see Kung Fu Panda yesterday. It's cute, and like so many kids movies these days there was a moral to take away. One was you must believe. The other was that there's no secret ingredient to success, no one thing that will make you better, stronger, or more capable. There is only belief and acceptance of who you are.

Po the panda can't do kung fu when he tries to do it, but get between him and food and he becomes a master. He doesn't believe he's the dragon warrior so of course, he can't be. He's not classically trained like the other 5 kung fu masters, but he makes up for his lack of training with creativity and learning to use his assets (in his case, his big belly and his willingness to throw his weight around.)

I think it's a good lesson for all of us. No matter how much we learn, no matter how many classes we take and how perfect our sentences are, what really stands out in our writing is our passion and our voice. I read a lot of contest entries where the writing is great, but the story is flat. And I read entries where the writing could use some work, but the author's voice shines. Guess which ones I prefer?

My voice comes through most clear in wry dialog and sexual tension. Have you found your voice? If so, how would you describe it?

Today's goal: Polishing Meddling for the Desire pitch
Yesterday's accomplishment: Took Em to a movie
What I'm grateful for: Friends who give great advice
Quote: "That's the thing about needs. Sometimes, when you get them met, you don't need them anymore." -Michael Patrick King, Sex and the City, The Good Fight, 2002

A woman's perogative

Is to change her mind. And so I have. I had great intentions of finishing a new story for the Desire pitch, and I believe the road to hell is paved with them, is it not?

Instead, today I decided that killing myself in the next 2 week (12 days really) is idiotic. It's summer for goodness sake. So, I'm going to pitch a book that's already in the can (that's movie talk for done) and save myself the stress. On a good note, the novel I was planning to finish I got through chapter 5. I like the characters and where it's going. I will definitely finish it, just not between now and June 30th. You're probably wondering why I didn't pitch this story in the first place. It's mostly because I wasn't sure if it had enough POW BAM for something as one in a lifetime as a Desire pitch, but it's a solid book with great characters and an emotional punch. And it has conflict too. Both internal and external. Yes, that's right, I've been learning my craft. No more rejection letters with "not enough conflict to sustain our readers" on it. Or, at least I hope not.

In other great news this week, Bending to Blackmail took second in the 2008 Spring Into Romance contest. Not bad for a little book whose finaling ration was 5/1 last year. I haven't made any major changes on it either.

I have entered 2 new stories in recent contests and can't wait to get feedback on them. One is a long contemporary, a departure from my Desire wannabes. The other is the book I wanted to pitch to Desire. I'm always curious to see how new stuff does. Oh, and I made some changes to a book that finaled a couple times last year, upping the conflict in an attempt to have a more well rounded book. The first two contests gave me identical feedback and I'm hoping a couple little paragraph switches may have solved the problem.

How is your contest hunt going? And are there any you enter every year because you've done well or the feedback has been helpful?

Today's goal: New logline for Desire pitch
Yesterday's accomplishments: Sorted through my travel photos
What I'm grateful for: Doing well in contests
Quote: "Too much of a good thing is wonderful." -Mae West (1892 - 1980)

Back in Athens

Hello from Athens. We have returned to the same lovely hotel we used before leaving for the Ionian Islands and was I glad to see George's handsome face. The trip from Vonaki harbor was 300 kilometers (220 of it mostly straight) and took us 5-1/2 hours. Which was better than the 10 hours on the trip there.

I can't begin to tell you how amazing the sailing trip was. It's rather overwhelming at this point. I do, however, have a couple lovely photos.

The first picture is Kioni on the Island of Ithaca. It's a beautiful little town. Picturesque doesn't begin to describe it. We hiked half way up the switchbacked road to get this picture, but gave up heading all the way up because of the heat. Retired to a taverna by the water, drank retsina and ate yogert with honey instead. The next morning we did make the climb at about 6:30 to see the windmill at the top. I was hoping for a sunrise, but we didn't make it for that.


The second photo looks down on our boat and some of our crew. At two stops we were unable to pull up to the quay and dock so we anchored and took the dingy in. This town is Fiskado on the Island of Keffalonia. Another lovely town. In the days to come I'll write more about it.

The last photo is taken from a town called Spartocholi. Really, there wasn't a single bad view anywhere we went. The water is incredible. And clear. I got shots of sea urchins from the dock in Kioni that don't even look like they're under water. Everywhere you look there's an scraggy island rising out of the Ionian Sea. We had light wind, but our 43 ft boat did do 6.7 knots one day.


I managed not to get sunburned. I ate some fabulous new Greek dishes (things I'll never find at home) and spent a lovely time with 6 other lovely people. We met some lovely brits (tons o' brits) and Sonia had an opportunity to chat with some Swedish fellows. We met a couple of Canadian girls working in Sivota's coffee/bar/internet cafe and one guy from Minnesota.

I winked and smiled at a lot of Greek men, received one marriage offer and had the best time ever. Can't wait to go back.

Oh, and I received word that Bending to Blackmail won the 2008 Four Season's Contest! YEAH!

On the road to Delphi

We left Athens yesterday in a van. I could probably bore you with details, but I'm not sure I could relive the experience again. Suffice it to say, it was a lot of taxis, buses, cars, motorcycles and us. No one signals turns and everyone drives as fast as they want. Renee was our designated driver. (Did I mention the van was a stick shift?) She was a pro. I think if she decides to quit her job in the states, she could become a taxi driver in Athens. I sat in the third row of seats with the luggage so most of what I saw was the back of people's heads, but it was like being on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disney. We only missed one turn (miracles) and were heading out of town in no time. We took the northern route. I was told we had about 5 hours of driving ahead of us. Not so. The roads are a series of 90 degree turns as you wind through the mountains. Our road took us along the coast. Gorgeous blue water, mountains behind. And us blazing along at 20 kilometers over the speed limit. Since most of my view was out the side window, imagine my surprise when we passed this caution sign with a cow on it. We all laughed because in Minnesota you have the same sign for deer crossing. And laughed again half an hour later when we spotted our first cow. A few (hundred) turns later, we had to stop for a herd of sheep that were switching pastures. As we're hanging out the window taking pictures of the herd all I could think was what are they thinking of all the crazy Americans taking pics of our everyday life?


We stopped at the Oracle of Delphi and hiked the ruins. This is our entire group at the stadium. When I was here in 1984, most of the ruins were accessible. , everything is roped off so the shot of us running in the stadium I hoped to get wasn't possible. So, I had to settle for a standing shot by the stadium.

We arrived at our home base for the boat around 9pm. The hotel overlooks the harbor and is very nice. It's on the hillside above the water and each set of rooms perch on the side of the mountain. A thunderstorm kept us company during dinner. We watched it converge on us from both the north and south. A lightning strike knocked out our party at about midnight. We were serenaded at dinner by a couple of musicians.


I woke this morning to the call of the church bells from the town up the road. We pick up the boat today at 6pm, so it's hanging out at the hotel pool for the day. Right now, I'm sitting on the terrace overlooking the harbor with a cup of strong Greek coffee at my elbow. It's 9am. The sun has cleared the mountains behind us and is warming the air. There is a light breeze, just enough to stir the palm fronds and bring the faint clang of goat bells to my ears from the nearby fields. Life is tough.

Hello from Greece

Here I am in Athens Greece. We've had a day and a half to see the sights. Spent some time on the acropolis. Got some nice pictures. I've been enjoying the nice weather. It's been sunny, hot and humid. Mastering the metro system has been a bit of a challenge. Their subway system itself is easy because the stations signs are in both Greek and English. The hard part is when you come out you have no idea where you are. The food is wonderful. Nothing like sitting in an outside taverna for a lunch of Greek salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese and olives) and spinach pie. Last night we had dinner at a rooftop restaurant below the acropolis. As the sun set we watched the light change on the Temple of Athena. When night fell, the lights went on and it was beautiful. Today we head to Delphi for a quick trip to the oracle, then onto the coast where we pick up our sailboat.