On a recent movie-going trip I really enjoyed It’s Complicated, with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and a surprisingly likeable Steve Martin. I won’t give the story away, but it was refreshing to see romance between some very mature folks. Alec Baldwin was particularly hilarious as an aging enfant terrible.
We need more stories like this for old broads like me. It made me think of writing Jasper and Katherine’s story (see Thorne/Ward series ) and publishing it online myself. What do you think?
Mea culpa. Lo siento mucho. I apologize profusely. Folks have told me they haven’t been able to reach me.
Oops.
I hadn’t planned on disappearing. Unfortunately, my gmail account got corrupted in a way I still don’t understand and can’t access on the computer I used to use in the same way.
I have had sooo much going on that real life overtook the life of my fiction and my communication with you all. I’ve had to deal with folks getting ill, folks falling down and not getting up, myself catching the (ahem) tail end of the piggie fluj-like that afflicted us here in New York. On the flip side, I’ve also been healed of an illness I’ve been dealing with since childhood and discovered I have a calling I hadn[t anticipated (more on that at a later date).
But I’m back hoping all of you will forgive me for not posting the results of the contest sooner (again, couldn’t access mail) but it is up now. Congrats to our winner Phyllis Lamken. Way to go!
I’m also announcing the classes I’ll be teaching this summer and fall. First, we’ll have a little summer suspense thing. In September I’ll focus on helping you make your love scenes sizzle.
So thanks for your concern folks. You can always reach me on my contact me page.
Until next time –
Dee
I’m sitting here watching The View and an interview with the actor who plays Dick Cheney in the new movie W. I’m also thinking about the most pervasive question I get as an author: where do you get your ideas. Now I know you are wondering how exactly these two things intersect, so I’ll tell you.
Many, many, (many to the tenth power) years ago, I was young, adventuresome and caught in a downpour trying to get from Vineyard Haven where my cousin and I had gone to swim back to Oak Bluffs where we were staying (this is Martha’s Vineyard folks). We had walked there but now we were soaked. So my cousin decides what we really need to do is hitchhike the rest of the way.
Now, a few years back, when we were teenagers we’d hitchhiked as a group. Our caveat was that we we only allowed to accept rides from little old ladies. Yeah, we followed that. But on this particular day I was convinced that no one was going to stop for two soaking wet women but an ax murderer with a gun under his seat. You can see that at an early age I had a flair for murderous fantasy.
Still I wasn’t too worried since not a soul stopped for us . . . until a lone car slows and eventually stops in front of us. The first thing I notice as we approach the car is that there is a baby seat in the back. So okay, how bad could he be if he’s got a back seat stuffed with baby toys? Still, as the two of us squeeze into the front seat, I tell my cousin to get in first since this was her idea. If this guy starts anything I’m throwing myself from the car.
So we’re finally in and I’m so squished I can’t see who’s driving. I can only hear his voice, which sounds oddly familiar. He’s telling us about how he only stopped for us because he was lost and he was hoping we could tell him how to get back to where he was staying.
And it hits me who the voice belongs to. I can’t see him, so I have to ask. “I may be completely crazy, but are you Richard Dreyfuss?” He laughs and says, “Yeah, and my hobby is picking up strange women in the rain.” My cousin elbows me and tells me she was trying to play it cool. Oh, well.
Well, we show him where to go, then he drops us off at our B&B (The Pequot, by the way, only two blocks). We try to tell him how to get back to where he’s staying. From the befuddled look he gave us we figured he’d be looking for some other drenched folks for further instruction.
The funny thing is, this happened a couple of years after Jaws was filmed on the island. So it couldn’t have been his first time there.
But THAT is where I got the idea for my hero Jarad Naughton’s faulty sense of direction in Spellbound.
And, yes, I did climb the mountainside at Gay Head on a dare. What the hell was I thinking?!?
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the bookstore–my first book Spellbound is being reprinted this month by Parker Publishing. Pay no attention to the wedding cake on the cover. It’s not a story that ends in a wedding, but what happens when my heroine Ariel arrives on Martha’s Vineyard to attend her cousin’s wedding. Let’s just say that I wanted the tagline on the book to be because every good bridesmaid deserves fun. LOL
It’s a lighthearted romp around the island where I spent the summers of my misspent youth and where I started writing. It’s the story that made me the debut Rising Star author at Romance in Color and the book that spawned the series that included Holding Out for a Hero, Lady in Red and the upcoming Forbidden Games.
If you’ve read this book and loved it, please share it with a friend (makes a great holiday gift). And don’t forget to enter my new contest to win an autographed copy plus an iTunes gift card.
Actually I’m really communing with my muse on deadline. So if you don’t hear from me for a couple of days, you know what I’m doing. Hope you’re enjoying whatever you’re up to.
I forgot yesterday when I posted that I would be blogging here again today that it’s my turn to do the deed at Blogging in Black. So if you want to know what’s on my mind today, head on over. I’ll meet you there.
I’m doing my blogging thing over at Bettye Griffin’s blog, Chewing the Fat with Bettye. The particular bit of grissle in my molars is learning to protect your writing. You can check it out here. I’ll be back blogging over here tomorrow.
As I’m working on my own paranormal series, I was interested in story elements/characterization stereotypes. In other words cliches that I wanted to avoid. I have a couple of articles posted on the website regarding romance cliches, but damn if there don’t seem to be more in fantasy.
For me this bears a bit of irony since of the two genres romance is the more restricted. In fantasy you can make your own world in ways you can’t with romance. You can go to the past, the future, a parallel world or one that exists only in your own mind. You can have a love interest if you want, but you don’t have to. You can have a happy ending if you want, but you can also be a bleak son of a bitch if you desire. Your characters can be shape-shifters, vampires, invisible pixie-like ‘droids if you want them to. So why so much conformity?
Part of the reason, I’m sure, is that unlike pure fantasy, fantasy publishing exists in the real world where what is expected to be a success tomorrow is the thing that was a success yesterday. The mantra tends to be give me exactly what I had yesterday, except just different enough not to incite cries of plagiarism. I mean how many versions of The Incredible Hulk do we really need.
I think it’s also true that people write what they’ve seen and liked and thought they could put their own spin on. Hey, the Bard of Avon did it. His Romeo and Juliet is based on another work Romeo and Giuliet (I think that’s how it was spelled, but it’s been a long time since I took that Shakespeare course). To the Elizabethan (and other minds) the true merit of a story was not its originality by the skill the author showed in telling their version of the tale.
vs. 
Given the recent spate of remakes of previous works everywhere from the movie theatre to the bookstore to Broadway, it appears the do-over is de rigeur.
So that begs the question, what to steal and what to leave behind? Here are a few websites to help you decide. Each features cliches to avoid.
What cliches do you hate seeing in science fiction/fantasy/paranormal works? What would you like to see more of? Inquiring writers want to know!
I finally got my author copies, and I must admit the book looks good–if I do say so myself. But I walked into my local Barnes and Noble and was disappointed not to find it. So I’m calling on you folks. Do me a favor and let me know if you spot it.
By the way, we got our first review from APOOO (at least the first review I’ve seen) Here’s how Sharel Love starts her 5-star review:
Soldier Boys is a wonderful book of short stories that pays great tribute to our servicemen, and lightens the heart with a story of romance and love.
And it only gets better from there. If you spot a review, please send it to Black Scarab Promotions. If you would like a copy of the book to review–and that includes blog reviewers–please e-mail D at Black Scarab Promotions with review copy in the subject line.
My regular 29th of the month column is up at Blogging in Black. It’s about . . . websites and other author woes. Leave a comment for me over there and you’ll get a chance to win an autographed copy of Soldier Boys! Enjoy!
