Great Review of The Shell Keeper!

A New Year's Writing Challenge-Join Me!

I tried to join a writing challenge today with my friends at Pikes Peak Romance Writers, but for some reason the Chatzy site that is hosting it either doesn't like me, or google, or both. So I am going to try to rise to the task by making a challenge of my own to get my New Year's writing habits back into order by writing daily. Their challenge is 250 words per day, which seems like a cake walk, don't you think? Well..a page at least.

Yes, it's not a challenge on par with NaNoWriMo...but I think we talked back in November about doing our own version in February, so this is close enough. My goals are a mix of a few writing projects vs. just one. One might be simpler, but I've just got too much on my author's plate to focus on only one. The others are nibbling at my subconscious when I ignore them.

First up, some promo writing for Framed-the cozy style mystery that I am about to publish. There's some techie stuff as well...but I'm awaiting the arrival of a new computer before addressing that challenge. Did I mention my computer has crashed multiple times in the last 2 weeks! Oh boy...

After that, it's on to the sequel to The Shell Keeper. I have no working title; that will come. But I'm full of ideas. Those who have done critique with me know that I have a love/hate relationship with another manuscript, The Lottery (coming of age set in 1960's Missouri). Yes, yes, it's still alive, but it is such a large undertaking, in many ways, and I have found sometimes it's best to let it percolate on the back burners of my brain while working on other projects. Usually, like coffee, it comes back stronger.

Questions..is this a New Years resolution kind of thing? Oh, maybe. But really it's more of a kick in the a-- kind of thing. It must be done and the sooner I do it the better for everyone involved. Oh, and am I writing romance now? Just because a gal hangs out with romantics doesn't mean she is one. Or maybe it means she's one at heart. Either way, they are writers on a mission, and that works no matter the genre!

One last question: what task/resolution/kick-in-the are you facing down this New Year? Let me know... misery loves company--I mean, creativity loves inspiration! Or something like that. (fyi: in case you are wondering...that's 411 ;)

New Year, New Book!

Welcome to the New Year...and yes, I am planning on publishing my second book in the very near future. Just have to remember how I did it the first time! I know, it's pathetic, but all this techie stuff is endlessly over my head. Clearly, my number one resolution is to take better notes as I go along. Particularly if I'm likely to ever be asked again how the heck I did this!

Soon, my holiday company will be gone and it will be, once again, just me and my computer. We have a love/hate relationship. When I'm writing, and the screen has words growing into pages, into chapters...I'm in love. When I in publishing mode, there may be some foul language employed, though, aside from personal catharsis, it never seems to have any great affect on my laptop.

The final edits are nearly in place. Then I will once again resort to begging the techie offspring to help me figure our MOBI, HTML and Calibre (maybe). However, there is a tentative cover-check it out and let me know what you think. Does it catch your eye? The lovely Julie is tweaking it so expect a new version, with a touch more 'darkness' to denote foul play!

Meanwhile, I am wishing you all a Happy New Year! May it be one filled with blessings for all of us!

Win a Copy! And...Thoughts and Inspirations for The Shell Keeper

Originally printed at: http://www.peekingbetweenthepages.com Visit this link to register to win a copy of The Shell Keeper!

I’m certain every author can relate an incident where their friends or family have attributed the feelings or actions surrounding their fictional creations to the author’s own life events. While my life inspires my writing, I don’t write about my life. I take those inspirations, stir them with the amply available ingredients I find in the world at large, and after hours at the keyboard, and many more procrastinated hours spent doing laundry/vacuuming/general puttering, my tale is born. It’s as simple as that!

Okay, maybe not so simple, or for that matter, maybe not so detached from my own reality. None of the three women whose stories I tell in The Shell Keeper are me, but parts of them may inhabit my soul. Unlike the sweet and naïve Del, I have not hidden out in the back yard on my kids’ swing set smoking Camels in a blizzard, contemplated the vast and colorful array of available condoms for purchase or even struggled to find my comfort zone sitting at a bar for the first time. But like Del, I have been a newly divorced mother of young children. Del is, perhaps, every insecurity I may have felt-times a hundred!

I don’t own a bakery, like Gwen, or worry about a loss of income if my husband’s union goes on strike. But I am a big believer in baking therapy, as my family can attest. Nothing hits the spot like late night brownies! Like Claire, I have been a Realtor. Her stress-filled life, with its endless paperwork, and clients that run the gamut from thoughtful to life threatening is most definitely inspired by reality, though not always my own. I definitely don’t have Claire’s style, unfortunately. She knows how to ‘work’ a wardrobe.

Clearly, I am not my characters, but my life is tucked in between the lines. The idea of The Shell Keeper evolved over time, but it got its start many years ago when a friend recommended a slim book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Gift from the Sea. Ms. Lindbergh wrote the book during an escape from her own reality for a long visit to the peaceful beaches of Captiva Island, Florida. While there, she considered the amazing variety of shells washed up on the shore and compared them with the phases of a woman’s life.

My copy of the book has been well read. Its pages are ambered with age, corners bent, multiple ink shades coloring the margins and underlining sentences from years of highlights and notes. Her words were, and are still an inspiration for all women. You might ask how a book written in 1955 could still speak to generations of women who weathered the feminist revolution and all its consequences. But it does, and the reason is the woman who wrote it.

Anne was no ordinary gal! She started life in a quiet and privileged home. Her father was an ambassador and a senator and along the way, in 1927, she met one of the most famous men in the world at that time, Charles Lindbergh. They fell in love, married and Anne soon shared his passion for flight. She was setting flight records alone, as well as with her husband.

Her first child, at 20 months, was kidnapped from their home in March of 1932, his body later found in the nearby woods. The search for the killer and the ensuing trial created a media storm probably beyond even contemporary standards. The heart rending tale even inspired Agatha Christie’s classic Hercule Poirot novel Murder on the Orient Express.

You’d think after that, that Anne would seek quiet and seclusion, and for a while she did, moving to Europe with her husband. But World War II brought them back home and they eventually settled on the island of Maui in Hawaii. After her husband’s death, she moved to Connecticut to be near family, and in 2001 she died at the age of 94. Life’s heartaches had not bowed her. She’d been a decorated aviatrix, multiple published author, and mother to 5 more children, after the tragic loss of her first born.

In my opinion, a woman with this sort of grit had something worthwhile to say to other women in any age. Gift from the Sea still speaks clearly all these years later. It inspired me to take the ups and downs of my life and create a story of three women struggling to overcome the challenges thrown their way. I like to think they did it with humor, grace and some of the occasionally minor insanity of life.

In Anne’s words, I decided to throw Del, Gwen and Claire ‘together on this island of living’ where they found unexpected friendship and support. Life’s a funny thing, the way we sometimes come upon our friendships in surprising ways.

If you have a special friendship you found unexpectedly, I’d love to hear about it!

Holiday Deadlines!

Whether you're making a living writing, or perhaps in an honorable profession (ha-ha, couldn't resist...) you may be juggling the normal workload on top of all the holiday's gaiety and insanity that ensues this time of year whether we like it or not. Somehow our best laid plans run up against end-of-the-year deadlines, expectations and traditions; it's a pressure cooker of a combination!

I used to play catch-up by working late into the night. The wee hours are a great time to get things done-no phones ringing, no last minutes issues at work, no one else up to get in your way except maybe the dog...but he's keeping your feet warm, so you can't really complain. These days, however, I find I'd rather be catching Z's than facing down a blank 'page' on my laptop. As much as I like that cocoon of privacy the nighttime offers, my daytime demands that I give my brain cells adequate rest.

I've toyed with rising early...it sounds so simple, but I've never been a morning person (even though I married one) just ask my family! That leaves the daytime and, like everyone else, I have to squeeze in the necessary along with all the extras that come along this time of the year.

So here's the deal...I'll cut you slack this month if you'll do the same for me. Maybe the best gift we could all give each other is a little less stress...and some sympathy. Hang in there, it'll be January soon enough, and we'd hate to miss out on the joy of the season!

(ps...I'd love to know how you keep your cool, decompress and juggle stress this time of the year-please share any wisdom in the comments below!)

photo courtesy of acelebrationofwomen.org

Pinterest Pastimes...

This was a low key Thanksgiving. I was reminded of Del in The Shell Keeper, who found herself attending rather than hosting the turkey dinner for possibly the first time in her life. On the one hand, there was the melancholy of parting with tradition...but on the other hand, there was a lot less work!

Of course, even though I wasn't in charge I couldn't resist making way too many desserts: apple and cherry pie, pecan pie squares, chocolate cake. Did I mention I love dessert? My time was well spent in lovely Breckenridge, Colorado, where our family convened for food, fun and general family mayhem.

It was also a time to put aside anything work related and do fun things...like pinning items of interest on my Pinterest board. I don't know who invented this idea, and at first I thought it was fairly useless. It is, after all, just a place to save ideas, dreams, designs and maybe plot some creativity. Nothing it actually done there.

But then I realized that pulling together those bits and pieces, then perhaps combining them into something concrete in your life is an awful lot like writing a book. And I would never say that was a waste of time...so I guess I'll go pin some more...

Photo courtesy of Pinterest.com

Editing, edditing, editting....

I'm on the home stretch with the final edits of FRAMED, my next book. It's amazing sometimes to see what still remains to be tweaked...when I think of ALL the eyes that have seen this manuscript thus far! FRAMED is a humorous mystery that readers of The Shell Keeper will also enjoy.

Here's a little sneak peek at what our heroine, Kay, thinks of her son's soccer coach, Gary Bell...

His mere physical presence, every muscle pumped to its max, was enough to intimidate even a naturally cocky, thirty-something, under-insured, single mother such as myself.

"You're late, Mrs. Conroy," he said in a guttural tone that reminded me of his Cro-Magnon lineage. The late afternoon sun was hot, and perspiration already glistened on Gary's well defined musculature. Clasping his hands behind his head, he revealed sweat drenched armpits. Where's an air freshener when I need one?

"Actually, I think we just made it on--"

"Punctuality teaches boys respect." He paused.

Bell wasn't tall, in fact he was well shy of six feet, but he had made the most of what God (or the other guy) had given him. Every pec and glute was visible beneath the flimsy soccer shorts and tank top he invariably wore to practice.

He surveyed my insolently late arrival with a proudly hulking elegance. I smiled, teeth gritted beneath my lips. All that stood between me and insubordination was my personal belief that Gary's brain pan couldn't have progressed much past that of his Paleolithic ancestors.

"I'm very sorry," I said, ignoring the pits as best I could. Could I have been any more sincere? I didn't think so. It was no secret I didn't like his militaristic style. I'd even tried, ever so politely, to point this out early in the season. Maybe Gary's inner child was insecure...maybe he was just an asshole. Whatever; he had not appreciated my constructive criticism. Generally, Bell flat out avoided me and I gladly returned the favor.

Hope you enjoyed the peek. I promise more to come as we near publication!