Posted by: Author | June 4, 2011

Good Ideas, Bad News, and So What

About a year ago, I had a great idea for a story. I took about a half page of notes, named the hero and heroine and notated about a 40 word premise. I never did anything with it. Periodically, I’d go back and glance at the notes, then move on.

The other day, Cynthia Eden posted on our RWA chapter loop info about the Kensington Brava contest coming up. That got the old wheels a turning. I reread those year old notes last night  and got up today with three scenes in my head.  I met two friends at Books a Million and wrote for 3 hours. Got 11 pages done when I had to stop to go get my kiddo. Planned to come home and write more.

When I tweeted Lindsay Below to update her on my novella progress, she tweeted me back that we e-pubbed writers aren’t eligible for the contest.  Can you say major bummer? I was all excited about the contest and my entry.

Then, I took stock. I love this little story I started (my first shifter story) and by golly, I’m gonna finish it. So what if I’m not eligible for the contest? I think I have a first rate story anyway and one of  my publishers will probably be thrilled with it. So there ya go, yo-yo day is back on track.

Here’s  my inspiration for my hero, Cord.

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Posted by: Author | June 3, 2011

Friday Facts- June 3, 2011- Wives of Henry VIII

Sorry this is late.  Been on a quest to get an old manuscript ready to submit and have been obsessively working on it every spare minute.    I love the series called The Tudors. I’m a huge history buff and what better way to make history come alive than to have a television show? Especially one with the lovely Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the King.  Henry never looked so good, huh?  LOL! 

The other night, I had on an episode for background noise as I edited. #1 son came in the room and asked me what happened to all seven of Henry’s’ wives. After I set him straight on the actual number, I told him about Henry’s pattern. I know those of you that follow this blog have seen me yammer on about how much I like patterns and symmetry. Old Henry must have been a pattern man himself because he followed one in how he got rid of his spouses. Check it out:

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived (now, if he’d lived longer, I’m sure she would have died-just because I like the symmetry of that- LOL)

The other patterns  were that 1/2 of his wives had Catherine, Katherine or Kathryn as their name; 2 of his wives were named Anne;  and 2 out of the six were cousins- the 2 that were beheaded at that.  How wild is all that?

So, Catherine of Aragon- divorced;  Anne Boleyn-beheaded;  Jane Seymour- died of natural causes; Anne of Cleves- divorced; Kathryn Howard- beheaded; Katherine Paar- survived the king.

I sometimes wonder if Jane had survived, would he have been content with her since she was the one to have a son or would he have tired of her as well.

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Posted by: Author | June 1, 2011

Wordless Wednesday

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Posted by: Author | May 31, 2011

Tag, You’re It!!

I’ve been tagged by the awesome Ciara Knight:http://www.ciaraknight.com  She had her character from her YA paranormal novel, Rise from Darkness, coming out in March 2012 from Turquoise Morning Press answer these questions so I’ve asked Liam Cormac, the hero from my historical novel due out July 15, 2011 called Redemption for the Devil  from Desert Breeze Publishing, to answer the same questions.

1. Do you think you’re hot? We didn’t use that term in 1920, but since I know what it means, I can answer that very easily.  Of course, I’m hot.  I’m tall, handsome and Irish, how could I fail to be hot? And, I’m pretty tough, too. No one messes with me.

2. Upload a picture you are using at the moment: Here is the RMS Mauretania where a lot of my story occurs:

 

 

 

 

3.  When was the  last time you ate chicken meat?  It must have been in the last week. Since I moved to America, it seems to be something I eat a lot. In Ireland, we ate more lamb than chicken.  Chicken is popular on the menus in the speakeasys where I croon on stage so I grab a bite between sets.

4.  The songs you listened to lately?  Yellow Bird and Danny Boy are some of my favorites. The music I like to sing is usually sad. I think it’s because of my background.

5. What were you thinking as you were doing this?  I was thinking about lunch. I find that I’m quite peckish at the moment.

6. Do you have a nickname?  Absolutely not. I abhor nicknames. I am Liam Cormac and I don’t tolerate any name besides Liam. If you call me by some nickname, it’s  likely I’ll over react and you never know where that will lead.

I’m tagging the following people:

Danica Avet: http://danicaavet.wordpress.com/

Arabella Stokes: http://www.arabellastokes.com/

Darlene Henderson: http://dandwh.wordpress.com/

Rita Bay: http://ritabay.wordpress.com/

Falyn Donaldson: http://falyndonaldson.com/

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Posted by: Author | May 31, 2011

Can You Believe It?

I find it hard to believe that tomorrow will be June 1st.  Where the heck has this year gone?  My oldest son and the spouse have been planning a hike of the Appalachian Trail for months and now, here we are. They leave on Saturday. When they started talking about it, it seemed a long way away. I hope they have a fun time- to me, it would be torture. I like nature, but I like a bed at night, not a camp roll. 

Today is my day at http://fourfoxesonehound.wordpress.com/  where we are celebrating Memorial Day all week with tributes to our armed forces.

Tomorrow is my day at http://llblog2010.wordpress.com/  where I have no clue at this moment in time what I’m going to talk about. Pop in and see what the heck I come up with. If you want to pop by today, the awesome Laurie Ryan has an equally awesome chocolate chip cookie recipe on tap for you, and, after all, who doesn’t love those?

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Posted by: Author | May 30, 2011

THE END

La la la la la la la la!!!!   Just wrote “THE END”  on the first draft of the Queen Mary WIP which is now named A Taste of Honey.  I’m so happy to have this first draft done. It kicked my butt for a while but once my friend helped me pinpoint the problem, I was able to write close to 20,000 words this week. I had a goal to get draft one done by June 1, so I’m ahead of schedule. Now, I can get to work on polishing the manuscript I want to pitch at RWA National. The name of it is Mystery on the Coast.  IF I get a chance, I’ll pitch A Taste of Honey as well since I can take a bit of time to polish it if anyone wants to see it, too.

Just for fun, here’s a picture of my inspiration for the hero in this manuscript, Dirk McSwain.  Of course, this is Jeremy Northam.

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Posted by: Author | May 28, 2011

Feeling Singularly Disgruntled

I’ve had one of the worst weeks in recent history. It was not the day job, it was not the writing work, rather, it was in interpersonal relations. I had my feelings hurt by a friend, my  mother interfered in my law office and my father, poor thing, got to hear all the things that bugged me in my whole life it seems.  I feel bad about all these things and I don’t have a clue how to fix any of it. All I know is I feel sad and singularly disgruntled.

It’s been a week of wishing I was on a desert island with no communication with anyone. Sometimes I think that might be better. I like to laugh and interact with people but this week, I should’ve been a hermit.  I don’t think I want to have another week like this one. Ever.

Southern Sizzle blog has an interview with Sue Perkins who I had here a couple of weeks ago. Check her out:  http://southernsizzleromance.wordpress.com/

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Posted by: Author | May 27, 2011

Friday Facts- May 27, 2011- Napkins

Ever been to a fancy restaurant and they remove your white napkin to give you a black one? Wonder why?  When my son graduated, we went to a posh restaurant for dinner after the ceremony. I had on a navy blue dress.  Everyone else in my group had on light colored clothes, including the men. The table was set with white napkins. The waitress came over and took mine and handed me a black one.  You know why??

LINT! The answer is LINT!!  They do this so that the person wearing dark clothes doesn’t stand up after dinner with white lint all over his/her clothes.  How’s that for service? Pretty cool, huh?

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Posted by: Author | May 26, 2011

TORCHWOOD

I love, love, love the show called Torchwood. It’s a spin off and acronym of  the sci-fi show Doctor Who.  They are coming back to Starz Network. The uber-sexy John Barrowman reprises his role as Captain Jack.   Thank you, God – And Starz. 

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Posted by: Author | May 25, 2011

Wordless Wednesday

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