It's Been a Long Time

Wow. It's been a very long time since I've posted.

Blogging can be way too much fun. A total time suck. There are plenty of other distractions that stole bits of my novel writing time since my last post, but none that I would give up. Travel, weddings, rescue puppies, a grandbaby, our baby off to college and the new empty nest. So blogging got the boot--but I'm back! The novel is almost complete.

April 2012

If you're truly a writer, you write through everything. Writing is what you do. You can not not do it. All this no-blogging while, I've been diligently working on a realistic (contemporary) YA, clearly not a "speed project." (Ideas of how to do the next book faster are lining up in my head.)

I used to be uber competitive with word counts and page accumulations, but I had to let that go. What I want in the end is an excellent, complicated quality tale. I'm blessed to be a fast writer whose grammar should make her teachers proud, but I am indeed a slow plotter. I added a lot to the beginning of my novel as I approached the end. What was page one is now approximately page 85. I tried so hard not to include backstory, I left out a gorgeous chunk of the story.

Of course, there will be critics. Oh, believe me, I've dealt with them. At first I took what people said so seriously. I embraced the good stuff. What I interpreted as negative or harsh made me grumpy. I doubted myself. I whined. Complained. Buried contest results. But then I got brave and reread everything. The comments weren't as negative as I thought. Some were "twisted" help. I threw all suggestions in the big mixing pot of my imagination (What if she is right? What if I...) and what do you know! I could take what I wanted and ignore the rest. You can fix problems if you know about them. I swear someone told me this a long time ago. I was just too sensitive to hear it.

My pride in finaling in several contests last year was leveled when my desktop computer crashed in April. I'd saved EVERYTHING on flashdrives and another computer--except scoresheets and ultimately contest entries. This was not my first computer crash. I should have been smarter and taken my time to back up EVERYTHING. (I told you, I needed to slow down!) I can't tell you the names of all the contests I entered. I can't even tell you the names of some I finaled in. If I sift through my 6000 saved yahoo emails, I will probably find my submissions and scoresheets again... but sift is the keyword. Sift is a slow word. Like sifting through sand. An unproductive slowness. Sifting through emails won't get the book finished. But what wasn't lost is what many of my awesome judges gave me: confidence. 

Since I last blogged, The Novel has undergone severe revisions. The story's not what I thought it was going to be--it's better. I accept that some will say it absolutely is not better. (I didn't write it for them.) I'm eager to yell, "I'm done!"--which should be, "Done again!"  So I will leave you for now and get back to work. I wish you a happy whatever-you're-doing today!

Wear yourself out!

The Good Ship Bowden Rides Techno-Wav​es

This was a techno-difficult week on the Good Ship Bowden.

Working hard to get on line to read my Emily contest judges' feedback knocked the wind out of my sails on Tuesday. (I tied for second place in the YA category!) Once I was in possession of the score sheets and comments, I was pleased to find good news--and some of what I expected. In all, lots to think about,lots to put to use. 

The internet "weather" calmed down, and the Good Ship Bowden sailed smoothly--for two whole days--before hitting rough water again. This time it hit a storm. Hours of battling dueling Hurricanes Comcast  and Xfinity before sending out the SOS. After an entire hour with an uncommonly brilliant tech rep somewhere in India, our internet was back up and running. But it's amazing what frustration can do to your creativity. Like sink it completely. Not forever, but for most of the day.

I needed distraction and decided to watch "Lost in Austen," a clever time travel about an avid Jane Austen fan who finds a character from the novel she's reading in her bathroom.

It turns out there's a door in the bathroom wall that leads to... well, I won't give it all away. It's worth watching if you're a fan of time travel and/or Jane Austen. I give it a "not quite" B+.  

Par for the day, wouldn't you know, the copy I ordered from Amazon.com had issues? I am still not laughing. Skips and blips, digital scrambles, dialogue coming from the wrong lips, etc. Arrgh! It was a long, long movie, what with rewinding several scenes over and over again, trying to figure out what was going on. (I pay great attention to dialogue.)

Our heroine's singing debut was cut entirely, probably due to copyright issues. I'm guessing it was a rendition of Petula Clark's "Downtown." I would have liked to have seen it.

I had to run the end of the movie three times to see it, thanks to phones, door bells and barking dogs.

Tomorrow will be better. It always is. Which reminds me of that song from a 1980's movie, sung by a little orphan girl with red curls. Hmmmm. If I need a creative distraction tomorrow, perhaps I'll create the soundtrack to my WIP. As long as iTunes is working.

Setting of a Previous Novel

   Sometimes I wonder if I love taking photos more than I love writing. It's not true, but I do love my camera...

   Everywhere I go, I take pictures. My dogs get majorly annoyed with this, by the way. They are probably the most photographed dogs in the universe. And there is my super-photographic family. Thanks to digital, I'm not going broke on my photography habit (yet.)

   I take pictures for possible scenes in novels I think I might write. For some reason unknown to me, if I take a picture, I will forever remember what I see through the view finder. I have thousands of photo files but don't refer to them often. I don't think this is photographic memory, but I wonder if I should take faux-photographs of every textbook page I read. Maybe I should try it with Bible verses I'd like to remember.

   Last April, while researching my current WIP, I drove to Austin on what is often called "The Blue Bonnet Highway" in the heart of the blue bonnet season. Blue bonnets are not in my WIP.

   Because I was by myself, I stopped along the road to my heart's content. (I could insert a thousand photos here. I will not. I'm guessing you are so pleased.)

    I turned off the highway at the tiny town of Giddings to find the tinier town of Dime Box which has always intrigued me. I didn't find it. Maybe it's so small I drove right past it.

    Actually, the search for Dime Box wasn't my first detour. I'd already 

turned off 290 at Chapel Hill, opposite the corner where an Exxon gas station advertises the best kolaches (sausage in bun) in Texas, which is absolutely not true.

   Once through Chapel Hill, the scenery along the road forced me (at gun point) to stop and take photos. A certain novel I've written and abandoned came to mind.

   Perhaps I forgot the novel takes place during blue bonnet season????? Did I include blue bonnets? I think not. Perhaps I needed to pull out the novel and look at it again???

   Okay not now, I told myself. I am sticking to my 2010 New Year's Resolution: One novel at a time.



This could have been the place!


   I got to Austin later than expected that afternoon. The usual two and a half or three hour drive, depending on traffic, took five highly-inspiring hours.

   I know many writers collage the novel they're working on and that's always sounded like really good fun (alas, distraction.) I've bought the poster board and glue sticks after collecting pictures I've cut from magazines and... but they wind up forgotten when I get busy and write. 

   But inhaling the setting of a future page? Standing in the middle of it? 

   I have to tell you, I did get back on track with the work in progress. In fact, the day after I arrived in Austin, I was given the most fantastic tour and forgot all about blue bonnets and my previous novel which I will revisit one day, perhaps when I am finished with this one. Well, I couldn't ignore blue bonnets entirely. They are, indeed, everywhere around Austin in April. But I became consumed with the hills, rocks, water and coffee shops (yes, ha ha) that are in my WIP. I took more photographs (okay, only seven hundred.) Before long the WIP was off and running in my mind... and on the page. 

   BTW, I didn't make a 2011 New Year's resolution, but if I had, it would be to
1. take more pictures! :)
2. blog on a regular basis! :)
3. finish the WIP and take a peek at the old one--curiosity is killing me.

   Time for coffee and the WIP...

Great Expectations

No, this is not in Texas.

      So yesterday school was cancelled for today. With the promise of snow and constant TV progamming interruptions last night, thousands of Klein ISD kids in Spring, Texas went to sleep knowing they could 1. sleep in late and 2. play in snow (maybe for the first time in their lives.) 
     I hope they enjoy sleeping in, and I wonder if breaking icicles off the roof will be as much fun as building a snowman would have been. While all things are supposed to be "bigger" in Texas, snowmen are the one thing that breaks the rule. Generally, Texas snowmen are knee high or shorter due to our teeny, tiny snowfalls. And, like today, there are the snowfalls that don't quite make it to Spring, Texas.
     I grew up in the Chicago suburbs where I experienced blizzard conditions and walked to and from school in them (up hill and down, in barefeet--NOT.) The only time I remember a school cancellation was for the
one particularly gianormous January 
blizzard in a year that I will not reveal so I can remain eighteen-til-i-die. On my day off, I dug snow tunnels in the backyard, and my dad and I walked to the local grocer's for bread and milk. We got the last loaf of bread and found the milkman and his truck stranded in a snowbank and bought milk 
right there on the snow covered street. That's about it, memory-wise. Snow=pretty much no big deal to kids in Chicagoland. In fact, by now, I imagine there are lots of kids who are tired of it.
     But in Texas... 
       No snow today in Spring, Texas is a disappointment, even for me. I'd charged the camera batteries (yes, more than one) for those great photos I would take... :(
     The characters in plots I write often have great expectations and, of course, playing God to my characters, I twist the plot to delight or disappoint them. Nine times out of ten, their reactions to disappointment are much more exciting to write (and hopefully to read) than their reactions to whatever makes them happy, fulfilling their desires.
     Several brilliant authors have said it quite simply, "Make it worse. Make it worser. Make it the worst thing ever. Hurt your characters." 
      So with that in mind, I will trudge through another very cold but snowless South Texas writing day with emotional weapons in hand (well, in my mind) and give my characters a few good pokes and see what happens.
     But coffee first!

A late welcome to 2011--I'm back on track!

   This post has been a long time coming! 

     Blogging "eighteen" took the back seat to real life which included adopting another amazing rescue puppy who, uh hem, chose to blog her experiences adjusting to life at the Bowdens'.

That's me holding Layla on top of Annie in October. Their sizes are now reversed.

         I no sooner started eighteen-til-die when the family calendar filled up with irresistible activities that could inspire both sitcom and and heartwarming drama. Tux fittings. Finding something for me to wear to--oh, did I mention our second daughter's wedding was one year and one month after her older sister's wedding? Thus, a dress for me to find (for me.) Tux fittings for the father of the bride and the youngest groomsman. Bridal photos. 

The shower. Packing for the out of town wedding. Boarding Annie and Layla. Creating a festive hotel hospitality room, aka our room. The arrival of relatives. Yay!



The bride and flower girls at the wedding venue, the UT Austin Alumni Center



 And another fantastic family reunion in the hills of Austin...

The Family Tree missing a few members, including me

Of course there was Christmas and, earlier, Thanksgiving-- a very happy full house and puppies running around.



Birth sisters Ellie Wynn and Layla Bowden

    AND then came the event that really prohibited getting back on track with all-things-novel-writing. My mother's heart attack at the tail end of 2010. (She came through it like a champ!)

    I spent the first two weeks of 2011 in Chicagoland. Talk about research for a novel. I thoroughly explored life in the ICU and nursing homes. I cleaned and redecorated my mom's apartment in her retirement for her eventual homecoming. I drove in the snow.  I photographed snow.

   I figured out that layering up in cold winter weather is the best way to stay warm when the temp gets down to single digits. I quickly remembered, how while in Houston, you wear a sweater indoors in the summer so you won't freeze in the air conditioning and, how indoors in Chicago in the winter, you peel off your clothes indoors so you don't melt indoors in extreme heat. Surely antiperspirants sell better during the winter months in the northern United States. And I proved this: Chicago is dryer than Houston--no frizzy hair (but lots of static.)

   I made friends with a darling friend of my mom, an amazing first generation American who told me stories of her family's arrival from Italy that must be written down or fictionalized. My mom's stories about growing up in rural Illinois and moving to the Big City after high school graduation are inspiring too.

   I stared down at the beautiful, snow covered garden from my mom's second floor nursing home window, and realized it was the last place my kids visited with my dad before he died. It gave me an intriguing idea for another young adult novel, something completely different from anything I've ever thought of writing.



The window of my mom's room



         

The garden, mid-day





 

The garden, late afternoon



 

The garden, at night



    Which brings me right back to where I was on December 30th, 2010, the day I got the call (about the heart attack.)  I planned to get back on track, reconnect with my favorite critique partners and finish polishing the book. After Thanksgiving, in the middle of all this comotion, I got the call--it finaled in the YA category of The Emily, West Houston RWA's annual writing contest! The first twenty-three pages of my novel had been sent to an agent and an editor for final judging.

   The awards are February 12th, and I won't hold my breath--my novel is realistic YA fiction, not vampires or werewolves or anything supernatural. My competition is--whoa!--fellow unpublished authors I respect.

Nevertheless, the way I look at it, I'm a winner, no matter what. I entered The Emily to get anonymous feedback on the project when I was in doubt. Finaling is far beyond my wildest expectations. I'm honored.

   So a whole month later than expected and not a penny richer (except in experience,) I have begun completion of a novel that began as little nuggets of ideas in Laurie Campbell Schnebly's on-line writing class "Plot Via Motivation" a year ago this month--ideas that systematically formed a plot that's held me captive for an entire year!

Wish me luck! No, wish me writing time! :)

(www. laylastail. blogspot. com  No spaces!) 

Dana Wright Talks about Barnes and Noble and Book Sales

A couple of years ago, Dana Wright was eavesdropping while she worked at her Barnes and Noble. She overheard me say I write Young Adult and ran after me. She caught up with me at the check out counter. Turns out YA is her "baby." She not only sells it but reads it and writes it.

A friendship was born that day and, last week, when I learned she was speaking at the next Houston’s MG/YA writers' meeting, I was thrilled. Dana has worked in bookstores since she was in high school and possesses a wealth of knowledge on the subject of books and bookstores.

Here are my notes from Saturday's event...

According to Dana Wright, who works at Houston's Champion Forest Barnes and Noble, everything starts with "Receiving." Individual stores order some books, but essentially the corporate office chooses and sends books to the stores. Monday through Friday, the store receives one hundred to four hundred cases of books to put on the shelves, which means older titles must be removed to make space for the newer ones. If a book is not moving, three months on the shelf is too long, and it will be sent back.

Dana is the Merchandise Manager at her store. Barnes and Noble stores' Community Relations Managers (CRMs) are in charge of author signings and acquiring educational accounts from schools and libraries. As a Merchandise Manager, Dana has approximately six hundred assigned tasks per month. In addition, she networks with publishers and authors and receives many ARCs (advanced reading copies) which she enjoys and often reviews.

The first third of the store is prime "real estate" for bestsellers and new release hard covers and whatever publishers want you to see. Publishers pay for their "real estate," which includes every Barnes and Noble store nation-wide and lasts about a month. The teen and middle grade area is growing very fast, and teen novels get two endcaps on the main aisle. (Endcaps are the sides/ends of shelves.) The teen area of the store includes themed shelves determined by the corporate office. Dana has one table that is "her baby." It's in the center of the school and has great visibility, and she gets to pick what's on it.

"Brick and Mortar" (real) stores work hard to get you through the doors because of competitive internet sales. Of course, Barnes and Noble keeps a finger on the pulse of this with their digital option, The Nook. Right now there's a Nook kiosk as you walk through the doors of Dana's store, but soon there will be a Nook boutique, which will look very Apple-esque. Check your local store for informational Nook workshops. Other changes include Bible boutiques, educational games and toys, and adult puzzles and games. The Woodlands (TX) store is adding a teen boutique.

Dana confirms that the YA trend is HUGE. She can not keep her YA table full. TWILIGHT is slowing down. CATCHING FIRE, MOCKINGJAY, and HAUNTED are selling fast. Paranormals and novels with edgy, gritty teen issues are still moving. Dana doesn't read as much MG as YA, but she has noticed lots of middle grade paranormals and zombies. She has a tougher time finding MG "boy" books to recommend to customers than MG "girl" books. For girls, there are clique series type, paranormals and gritty realistic stories. There are more YA girl books sold than YA boy books, but MG sales are 50/50.

To find out what’s selling, Dana suggests reading store blogs and YA blogs, and subscribing to Publisher's Weekly. She also suggests reviewing what you read but warns be careful what you say. Be honest but nice. "Netgalley" (online) is for people in the book industry, bloggers, booksellers and librarians. If you review books and post your reviews online, you can sign up for Netgalley and read books before their release date for an extended amount of time.

Dana's advice: Watch the teen and middle grade sections of your local store and study your rival base. Make friends with your bookseller! Introduce yourself! The people working the departments are the people you want to talk with; the general manager is probably too busy. Booksellers LOVE to talk to authors. Bring samples. Ask questions. Booksellers are voracious readers. Hand selling works.

I can tell you this for sure, nobody talks about the books she loves more enthusiastically than Dana Wright! She took me for a spin around "her table" and the rest of the store yesterday, and I couldn't resist her recommendations. Needless to say, I didn't come away empty handed. You want this woman recommending YOUR books!

If you have a question for Dana, be sure to post it. She says Tuesday is her busiest day, so please be patient waiting for her reply.

THANK YOU, DANA!!!!

The next meeting of Houston MG and YA Writers is 9am, Saturday, October 16th at
La Madeleine's off the Sam Houston Tollway near Town and Country Mall.

Fingers to the Keyboard Week

Since I am behind on my self-imposed deadline,

I am not allowed to blog. I wish I was landing at La Guardia (NY) to meet with my editor... However, publishers don't publish unfinished novels. So it's Fingers to the Keyboard Week.

See you soon!

In the Clouds When I Should Be Writing

If you ask my husband what he "sees" in the clouds, he will, every single time, tell you that he sees "a bunny." When I look at clouds, I see texture and shades of color and possibilities.

Thanks to my first grade teacher, the grandmotherly Mrs. Walker, who took us to the grassy playground, told us to lie on our backs, look up at the sky and describe the shapes we saw, I developed a passion for the sky and fell in love with clouds. However, when you move to the cornfields of Illinois and later the Gulf Coast, you quickly learn clouds aren't just bunnies and elephants and Abraham Lincoln's hat. They can be funnel clouds dipping to to the ground or the fury of a hurricane headed for land. They often revise your plan for the day.

Lately, I've been cloud-gazing again, and I'm convinced Texas clouds are the biggest and best-- probably the meanest and most dramatic, too. I've been snapping clouds pics for a few months now. From the car... in flight... through the branches of the trees around our house. I took the photo above when we were leaving the Grand Canyon. It's hard to believe there's a canyon nearby! The clouds below are Texas clouds. I took the photo from the car yesterday. It poured an hour later.

I write a lot in the car and on planes and, when I get stumped, a good long look at clouds is often just what I need to haul me over a rough spot. I'll allow my mind to wander just long enough to untangle an issue with my WIP or figure out what should come next...

What do YOU do to give yourself a short, creative break?

WIP Clue for the week is: Austin, Texas


Writing Tip of the Week is: Find a creative break that is not reading. Free your mind from words for a bit, and watch them flow when you return to your writing.

I guess that's all for now. Today, while I drink my first cup of coffee and write the next chapter, Annie and I will imagine our bags are packed, we're ready to go... to Washington State! Scroll to the bottom of the page for a beautiful view that will explain WHY Washington. We're so ready to feel a cool autumn breeze... Are you?




Sunrise over New Mexico or Arizona

Sometimes Winning, Sometimes Losing

I have to admit, I could buy all the raffle tickets but one, and it would be the winner. I don't like calling it losing. I'm accustomed to Not Winning. I've had some nice near misses and some pleasant runner-updoms. Okay, you know I make up words, right?

Long story, long... Remember Flat Stanley? Well, if you don't, YOU ARE OLD. (Maybe not. Sorry. Maybe you're just deprived.) Flat Stanley is a picture book that winds up in most elementary school classrooms. The main character, a boy named Stanley, is flattened when a bulletin board falls off the wall. Being flat allows him to slip under doors and have some great adventures. When I taught second grade, my students cut out, colored and named their own Flat Stanleys and then sent them off in snail mail to relatives and friends across the country to seek adventure.

Last week, Tina Ferraro, author of young adult novels The ABC's of Kissing Boys, How to Hook a Hottie and Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress had a contest on
YA Fresh, a blog she hosts with Kelly Parra. To enter a random drawing for a critique or a novel, all I had to do was post the name of the song I thought her new, very flat friend "Critter" was listening to on his iPod. I'm pretty sure Critter is a distant alien cousin of Flat Stanley. Since Critter was headed to college, this is what I wrote: "I think he's listening to the Glee version of 'I'll Stand by You.' A little melancholy, the whole college thing! Wow, I'd love a critique! (Heck, I need a critique, lol.)"

Well... yesterday, while wondering what clever topic I'd blog about today, I discovered I'd WON the critique by Tina Ferraro! This is a big deal! I read her blog. I read her books. I met her at a conference. I know I sound like stalker... but, quite simply, I respect her work!

T H A N K Y O U, T I N A F E R R A R O! (And I will calm down now.)

I was still pondering ideas for this blog and got to thinking how the whole Critter/Flat Stanley thing is a bit like The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Critter is, without a doubt, distantly related to Flat Stanley... or at least the idea of Flat Stanley. And here's the thing... Last month in our hotel room on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, I discovered I've been carrying around a Flat Stanley in my make-up bag since 2002. I'd taken it to Disney World that summer and thought I'd lost it. I'd written a letter of apology (and a really good Flat Stanley-type tale) to the student who knew she'd get it back at the end of summer and didn't. I never heard from her and figured it was either no big deal or a really big deal. Her teacher messed up badly. :(

So it turns out, "Flat Amy" has traveled with me for eight years under the fabric flap at the bottom of my make-up bag. Besides her original trip to Disney World, the sneaky stowaway has been to Chicago, DC, San Francisco, New York City, Yellowstone, London, Boston, Phoenix, the Grand Canyon, LA and Disneyland to name a few places. She's been to writing conferences too. My guess, she's written a novel!

Unfortunately, there are no pictures and, honestly, I would photograph her now, but she's gone missing again. Don't ask me how I let this happened again. Here's my theory: Shia LaBeouf was shooting Transformers III down the street from our hotel on Michigan Avenue. I think Flat Amy did whisper that she has a huge crush...

This week's WIP clue: cats on a couch in a dark alley

Writing tip of the week: Good critique partners are worth their weight in print cartridges and reams of paper! Find a critique partner--find several! Remember you, in turn, critique too!
Be the kind of critique partner you'd like to have!

I guess that's all for now. While I drink my morning coffee and write the next chapter, Annie and I will imagine we're on the grounds of Polesden Lacey, an Edwardian house in Great Bookham, Surrey, England. Perhaps I should be drinking tea! Check out the pics way way below. I don't know about you, but we can almost feel the cool breeze sweeping over the lawn... Oh that's right, it's the air conditioner again...

What do you mean, summer's over?

So tell me, if it's gone, where did it go? I'm not sure I want it back--it's hot enough out there and will be for another month or so, at least here in Texas. I realize I spent some time away, but really! I was supposed to have finished The Novel by now, and I have a long way to go. I am way behind schedule!

Yesterday I.WAS.READY to kick-start the writing frenzy. The boys left the house and I got dressed, packed up my writing gear, prepared to find a distraction-free location with coffee and promptly fell asleep on the couch. Luckily, when I woke up two hours later, the energy I'd acquired was excellent stuff. Pretty sure I'd been dreaming my next pages, considering the way the words flew onto the computer screen when I sat down to write.

Last night I stayed up too late reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth. We get up early around here, so I'm really s l o w this morning. But today I shall, repeat, shall exit and write. Two chapters? Three? Must finish the book soon because I've got other ideas that have been simmering in the back of my mind and are rapidly coming to a boil. I refuse to get sidetracked. (Hear that, distracting good ideas?)

Writing tip of the week: For a fresh view of your work, email your pages to your Kindle. Typos stick out wickedly but, you never know, you might just dazzle yourself with your brilliance. (Well, it's possible.) Hugs to friend and author Pauline Baird Jones for this suggestion. It was just what I needed!

This week's WIP clue: a 2002 Honda Odyssey with a crack in the windshield. And that's all I'm saying. Except, if you see this "clue" on the street, remember there's a little bit of the author in every piece of fiction. And be kind, the car was clean 'til I drove through the work zone at Klein High School in the rain.

Kudos to: The Houston YA/MG Writers Group, which was organized by Mary Lindsey, Jessica Capelle, Rose Garcia Moriarty and Iona McAvoy. Hugs to each of those terrific women for the grand thing they've started! The group meets the third Saturday morning of each month (currently at La Madeleine's near Town and Country Mall on the Sam Houston Tollway.) The August 21st meeting included an active discussion about "Plot Pitfalls" led by Rose Garcia Moriarty. Attendees offered great suggestions for avoiding little buggers like premises that aren't very compelling, illogical sequences, shallow/boring/frenzied/too predictable plotlines and unsatisfying endings that disappoint readers.

Special note: If you're wild about musicals like I am, check out PBS' gorgeous "Encore" presentation of South Pacific, brilliantly filmed on The Lincoln Center's stage in NYC. Check your local listing for dates and times.

I guess that's all for now. While I drink my morning coffee and read a few pages before writing a few pages, Annie and I will imagine it's March and we're in Wyoming, on the road to the Grand Canyon. Check out the pics below. I don't know about you, but we can almost feel the frosty wind in our faces... Oh that's right, it's the air conditioner again...

See ya next Tuesday!

Launch Date!

No, that's not lunch date! "Hellooo!!!!" (in the voice of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless) But I do love La Madeleine's strawberry and spinach salad, which sounds delish... Extra pecans, please. Where are my lunch buddies when I need them??? Oh, that's right. They're probably still sleeping on this last Tuesday of summer vacation.

Today is the launch date for this blog, the title stolen from Bryan Adam's song "18 til I Die" because it seems appropriate. I'm pretty sure I'm way more immature than anyone my age--which would be about--well, hmmmm, let's just say 31+. Tapping into my inner teen, creating characters and events, I write Young Adult novels and, technically, lie for a living. Of course, I'm not published yet--so I haven't made a living at this yet. It's not a race, and I'm definitely following a winding path to publication.

My WIP at the moment? For normal people who don't lie for a living, WIP= work in progress or current project. This week's WIP clue: My novel is realistic YA fiction with a love triangle. It's set in Texas, and nobody wears a cowboy hat. Okay, that's three clues.

Writing Tip for the Day: Read what you've written out loud--novel pages, note to child's teachers, grocery list... If something doesn't sound right, there's a good chance it's not, or something's missing, or it could sound better another way.

I guess that's all for now. While I drink my morning coffee and write a few pages, Annie and I will be imagining we're sitting on Huntington Beach in California (aka Surf City USA.) Check out the pics below. I don't know about you, but we can almost feel the chill in the breeze... Oh wait, I think that's the air conditioner kicking in...

See ya next Tuesday!

Testing the blog!

Testing. Testing. 1.2.3. If I can drive on the left side of the road, I can do just about anything!