It's time for the annual OWFI conference. Always a lot of fun with writers, agents, editors and friends. Also time to see all my writer buddies, and this year, listen to Dana Stabelow talk about mystery writing. Also, a couple of Texas friends coming. We will eat, sleep and talk writing and anything else that occurs to us. And, maybe even learn things too.
Autograph party, me with posters of two of my book covers. We'll have a good time. Tell you all the gossip when I get back.
Life is crazy right now. Have two non fiction projects to finish and my daughter is having daily seizures, so we are seeing new doctors right and left. She's getting injured way too many times. She hates going to so many docs and specialists and getting stitched up for split lip or head. She actually managed to crush a small bone in her wrist. Not good. Dr. hasn't seen that break before and he's a hand/wrist specialist.
The winner from the contest post is Margaret West. Marget, email me at this address and I'll send you the electronic copy of "Privy to Murder." Have fun with it.
Other news, all my books are still available on Amazon and Fictionwise. Come on down. This is a short, on deadline post, will talk more later.
Why is it that two small nonfiction projects (as compared to an 80,000 to 100,000 word novel, will pay more up front and with royalties than writing the fiction I love. It's the pits. Okay, I know there are people who would love to have that problem, just saying, I love fiction, that's what is fun to write, not the medical technical, infection control stuff. Whining this morning.
Weather gorgeous. Going outside to drink coffee and enjoy the sunshine, hopes that cheers me up. Daughter have more seizure issues. Have to find a neurologist who actually wants to do something to help not just throw up their hands and tell her to go to a psychiatrist for help. Continuous blunt trauma not helpful.
Conference in a couple of weeks, totally looking forward to that, writers, agents, gossip and friends. Signed up for Chisholm Trail Book Festival, should be fun and maybe sell books too. Will give a workshop and reading. Come to Duncan September. More details later.
Does anyone watch reality shows, like, real ones? Not the ones with games, and winners and strategy, but the kind where cameras are showing a slice of "real life" complete with drama and interaction. People living in a house together.What would happen if you put a writer in a reality show? Even if it were Stephen King, big household name, money the whole ball of wax. He writes horror so what kind of strange things go in in that house?What would happen? Ghost visits? Cocktail party with famous people, party all the time? Or, nothing. Okay, he's a writers, he writes every day. The camera would show someone in front of a computer typing, or not. Gazing off into space-caption...caracterization, plotting, dialogue in head-then typing again, for hours, with breaks to drink a soda, research something, then back to staring at a computer and typing.Where is the drama, screaming fights, enemy attacks, in the writer's head or on the paper, certainly not on the reality camera. The cameramen are asleep for God's sake. Writers do not lead glamorous lives most of the time, they just do their job and create a world to which the rest of us can escape.I live real life, I don't need to watch it for entertainment. Anyone watch Castle this week? I want to watch something with a beginning, middle and end, plus some resolution. Or maybe just read a good book. How about you?
I saw a heartwarming story on the news today about a nanny who saved her five-year-old charge from a fire and was badly burned in the process. She essentially ran down a hallway and stairs, through a wall of fire, carrying the little boy. Talk about courage and dedication. Wow. Now, as a writer, how could you use that same incident, but switch it around?For you romance fans, the father could feel he owes her, pay for her medical expenses, move her into their new house, of course she has to family, and they fall in love-happy ever after.ORShe set the fire herself, rescues the child, moves in the the father, mother and child and ends up breaking apart a family for whatever sinister motives are in her brain.OrThe reason she was so dedicated to getting herself and the child out of the fire was the demon chasing them. She is a world class demon hunter, in hiding, pretending to be a nanny. She didn't count on being found by the demon or becoming attached to the human child.Now, what story have you heard on the news lately that inspired you to think and plot? Share. I'm giving away a digital download of Privy to Murder, the first in the Tali Cates series, to some lucky commentator.
Yesterday my grandson boarded a plane, he's 13, bound for Oklahoma City from Houston. Diverted to Kansas. In the airport all alone and the airline said they were not responsible for him since he was thirteen and considered an"independent minor."
In the meantime, my 9 year old grand daughter boarded a plane in Oklahoma City, sat on the runway for several hours before her dad insisted she be taken off the plane to be with him until her flight could take off. Then, when her flight landed in Houston, she wasn't on it. "Oh, well try this flight?" her mother was told. No. Not on that one. "We really don't know where she is." the airline told her mother. "Just try every plane that lands. No, we can't page you because anyone could claim her, even though you would be the only one with an ID."
Hours later she finally lands. Do you really want your kids to fly alone. The airlines don't care and aren't watch the minors even when they claim to. Nuts.
I love winning. I won a gift card from Lowes, new grill I hope. How did I win? I baked cookies for a cook-off at work. Not a big deal but fun.
America loves winners, American Idol, Survivor, Apprentice. We also like to vote people off the island. Is winning so important? Some people will do anything to win, eat bugs, drink gross stuff, dislocate another contestant's shoulder (See Survivor-Heroes and Villains-First Episode.)
What is winning to you? What is winning for a writer? For me, as a writer, winning contests isn't such a big deal. Winning, for me, is writing, meeting my goal, words on the paper, the actual act of writing.
Will I feel like a winner if get published, make the best seller list. You bet. But, I will be a winner if I finish the book, do my best, own the process.
What makes you feel like a winner?
