Juggling Crocodiles

Writer Friends

One of the most important tools in a writer's kit is the Writer Friend. This is the person who is going to understand why a hand written rejection letter can be cause to celebrate, how an email from an editor can make you cry or why the first three chapters have to be completely rewritten before you send it to your agent tomorrow morning. You may have a wonderful spouse and amazing kids, but unless they also write, they're just going to stare at you blankly and wonder what kind of impact this news will have on dinner. 

A Writer Friend will whoop with you when your story gets sold, will sniffle and sob with you if the deal falls through and will take up the sword and yell Screw Em, They'll Be Sorry! at those who reject you or treat you poorly. They are your peeps, your tribe, your kind, your support system and your life line.

I am lucky enough to have found not just one of these rare gems, but a triplex of them. Immeasurable thanks girls, for your company, your camaraderie, and your counsel!

• Liz Goulet Dubois
• Lynda Mullaly Hunt
• Barbara Johansen Newman

If you like interesting, creative, wickedly smart and funny people who also happen to be talented writers and illustrators, then do yourselves a favor and stop by their websites. Oh, and if you happen to be in need OF a beautifully DESIGNED website, stop by Liz's exceptionally gifted husband, Eric Dubois' site. 

Thank You to All of Our Armed Forces

Veteran's Day is a wonderful opportunity to remember and pay tribute to the people that are working, and have worked, so hard to keep the rest of us safe and free. My father was a Marine during WWII and I know his service was his proudest accomplishment. Semper Fi, Dad.

The holiday is a small way of repaying the sacrifice that our soldiers have made and continue to make for us, but if you'd like to do something more regularly to show our deployed soldiers your support, I strongly suggest you join me over at an incredible volunteer group called Soldier's Angels. 

I've been volunteering as part of the Soldier's Angels Letter Writing Team since June 2007. As a writer, I felt that it was a natural fit. It's easy, it's something I can do from home, it's meaningful and from the letters and emails, and even one wonderful family visit, I absolutely KNOW that I am doing something that is appreciated and helpful. Shh...don't tell any of my editors or clients, but the feeling I get from making a soldier's day with my one of my letters is EVEN BETTER than cashing that pay check. 

If, for some reason, writing letters to these amazing people doesn't interest you, there are 27 other teams and projects that you can volunteer to become involved in. Like to knit, crochet or quilt, join one of the three Blanket Teams. Do your craft for hospitalized veterans through the Blankets of Gratitude group, for deployed soldiers through Blankets of Belief or our wounded heroes through Blankets of Hope.

Love to bake, become part of  Angel Bakers. Into coupons, share the ones you don't use with families of the deployed at Operation Outreach. There are programs designed to help female soldiers, the wounded, families of the deployed, veteran's, medical staff and K-9's and their handlers. Believe me, there is a team or a project that matches up with your interests, hobbies and talents. 

And this is all on top of the main mission of Soldier's Angels which is to have volunteers adopt a deployed soldier and send him or her monthly care packages from home. The SA slogan is, May No Soldier Go Unloved, but the love goes both ways and I have gotten WAY more out of this than I could ever possibly give back. Celebrate Veteran's Day by making a real difference in a soldier's life, volunteer today. 

Parnell Hall Makes Sure That They're Dead

I've always loved puzzles, so it makes sense that sooner or later I would run across Parnell Hall, creator of the Puzzle Lady series, as well as the reluctant private eye, Stanley Hastings series. 

It turns out though, that not only is Parnell an EXCELLENT writer, he's also a very entertaining song writer and performer. His Signing at the Waldenbooks is legendary at various mystery events, but now he has released his first YouTube video, Kill Em. 

Not only is this a wonderful montage of some of the greatest mystery, suspense and thriller movies of our time, but it's a fun peek into the life of a mystery novelist.  

Keeping Promises, Even When Embarrassing

I promised I would post an update on both my NaNoWriMo-ing and on The Great Left Over Halloween Candy Battle of 2009...so here goes:

NaNoWriMo-to sum it up...BEHIND. At 1666 words or there bouts a day, I should now be up around 13,330 or so. My word count as of this morning is a pitiful 4,589. 8  days in and I'm more than 8, 700 words behind the recommended daily goal. Surprisingly though, I am neither panicking, beating myself up or thinking about quitting. Well, the quitting thing did cross my mind a few times, as did completely changing the genre, topic and tone of the novel. But, then I took a shower that triggered some creative synapse firings and now I think I'm back on the right track with it. I also have a big writing weekend coming up with three friends in the wilds of the northern NE, so I have every confidence that I will not only catch up, but end up over 50K by the end of the month. I have a lot of failings, but keeping my writing brief has never been one of them. See every post I've ever written.

Lagging behind at NaNo, I can deal with. When it comes to writing, I have the utmost confidence in myself and my ability to always hit my deadlines, no matter what contortions and hell I have to inflict on myself. In the Great Leftover Halloween Candy Battle of 2009 though, I am chocolate covered road kill. I managed to keep from even touching the stuff until Oct. 30 when I had to work with it in order to decorate the Haunted Gingerbread House. That was the beginning of the end though.

It started with the Tootsie Rolls. Not a bad choice you might say, no fat, but when eaten or I should say ingested in the vast quantities we're talking about here, the lack of fat is nothing compared to sheer sugar and calorie load. And load I did. Saturday afternoon while putting the treat bags together, Saturday night while waiting for trick or treaters. After 9pm, REALLY ripping into the leftovers. And then Sunday, when the Tootsie Rolls finally started to run low and all that was left was was the chocolate bars that I thought I didn't like...Baby Ruths and Butterfingers.

But, guess what, when on a candy binge, eventually, everything is edible, and not only edible, but damn good. Even Butterfingers...even chocolate covered raisins, even black Dots and Gummi Bears. Nothing was left but a killing field of candy wrappers by mid week...that and the unmistakable sugar hangover that rivals anything from my tequila swilling days. All sense of control...gone. All good sense and good intentions...gone. All progress made in the months leading up to this...gone. I am an idiot and worst of all, I STILL have no idea why exactly I do this to myself and more importantly, how the hell to stop it.  

Hungry For Your Love-First Review

Night Owl Romance posted our first review of Hungry for Your Love: An Anthology of Zombie Romance today! They gave us 4.5 out of 5 stars and made us a Reviewer Top Pick!  As a nice extra feature, the reviewer, Lexile, also included a short overview and opinion of each of the 21 stories. Very, very cool.

Ravenous Romance Giving NaNo's Some Love

I promised myself I wasn't going to blog about NaNoWriMo again so soon but this morning, Lori Perkins, my editor over at Ravenous Romance posted the most amazing offer to NaNo participants...

From Dec. 1 through Dec. 31, Ravenous Romance WANTS you to send them your completed NaNoWriMo novel if you think it's good enough. If THEY think it's good enough, you just might end up with a contract and a $200 advance. Plus some other goodies like interviews and oh yeah, having your book published in 2010. 

This is an AWESOME and very unusual offer from a publishing house. One of the first things I noticed as a new NaNo participant was the number of editors, agents and publishing houses that I follow on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks that put out multiple announcements, tweets, entries and blog postings stating loudly and emphatically (and in some cases snarkily) that they did NOT want to see any NaNo projects. 

While I understand their reluctance and sympathize with the amount of pure crap I'm sure collects in their inboxes and slush piles every December, it's wonderful and heartening to see that Ravenous Romance is, instead, welcoming this as an opportunity to find new writers and projects instead of raising the shields and circling the wagons against the anticipated shit storm.

Shhhh.....

  Can't talk, NaNo-ing...