Greystone Manor Tour Continues

My apologies for abandoning the blog for a couple of months -- and my thanks to the followers who have followed up with me to say they've missed the posts, especially the promised tour of Greystone Manor, the miniature house that my husband built for me.

One of the "residents" of Greystone is a little girl about eight years old. Not a very neat little girl, you'll notice from the way her toys and board games are strewn around her bedroom -- but one with varied interests, from dolls to soccer. Yes, that is a dollhouse at the foot of the bed -- a 1/144 scale Victorian farmhouse that even includes a few pieces of furniture. All the drawers open, and one of these days I really must get her coverlet finished and on her bed...

Signing Books & Making Friends

While I was attending ORACON this weekend (the Ozark Romance Authors' annual conference in Springfield, Missouri) I got to share a table with Jennifer Brown and Steven Anderson Law at the Barnes & Noble booksigning event. That's Jennifer and Steven sitting at the signing table.

Jennifer has been a favorite of mine since a mutual friend recommended I read HATE LIST -- and I loved it. The subject matter is heavy, but Jennifer's treatment of the aftermath of a school shooting is compassionate, sensitive, and even upbeat -- without being Pollyanna-ish. The best thing about it is that there's not a single stereotypical character in the entire book. Nobody is predictable.

Though I hadn't met Steven before, I was delighted to learn that he's a fellow Iowan at heart and he even attended the college that's less than a mile from my house. Plus I learned a whole lot about promotion and publicity from this talented guy.

Great events sometimes come in small packages. ORACON is a one-day conference, but its impact on writers and readers is huge. Mark your calendar for September 21, 2013 -- the next ORACON!

A question from a reader about creating and using secondary characters prompted me to think about the people in a book as though they were actors in a movie -- complete with pay scales.


If an actor speaks in a movie, even if it's just one line, the pay scale requires that he be paid a great deal more in terms of money and screen credit than if he just walks through as an extra. And of course, the more actors you hire for your movie, the more money you're paying out -- even if most of them don't talk.


So authors can often benefit from asking themselves this question, before they create yet another character: "If I had to pay this person to show up and say these lines, would it be worth the money? Or could I give that comment to a character who's already in the story, and save the fee?"


In writing, of course, extra characters don't actually cost money. But we "pay" for them with space, and word count. Each new person has to be established and identified, and that takes up room on the page. But if we can use a character we already have in the story, then we can save the space it would take to create that second person -- and use it to further develop the hero, the heroine, and the love story.


Though this is especially true in romance novels where we keep a tight focus on the hero and heroine, it's something for every author to think about. Sometimes (like with a cozy mystery or a romantic suspense) we need to have more characters so that the bad guy isn't obvious. But even when the cast is bigger, it's wise to ask -- "Do I need this person? Does he play a significant and unique role in the story?Or can I combine his attributes and his contribution and his dialogue with someone else, and keep things simpler for the reader?"

Chief Wapello Comes Down

A storm packing heavy rain, lightning, and 70 mile-per-hour straight-line winds hit my town this weekend, tearing up trees, tearing down power lines, and tearing a bronze statue off the top of the county courthouse where it has stood for 120 years.

 

The statue of Chief Wapello, for whom Wapello County, Iowa, was named, used to stand on the tall peak just to the left of the crane arm (above). During the storm, the statue tore loose and slid down the roof peak to lodge in the valley three stories up, head aimed toward the street, with nothing much holding him there.

























After much maneuvering, the crane operator gently lifted the statue free and swung him to the ground as the storm clouds gave way to a beautiful sunset.

Free book on Father's Day Weekend

I often write about glamorous characters who eat very fancy food -- which is why I keep my elaborate cookbooks in my office and not in my kitchen. :-)  As a working writer, I need an easier way to keep my husband fed -- so the cookbook I actually use is one I put together years ago and published, mostly so I'd have extra copies whenever one got splattered up. (Do you have any idea of the mess it makes when a pumpkin pie doesn't make it into the oven? A whole lot more than if it was dropped on the way out!) However, as the years go by I've found other recipes, fine-tuned some of the earlier ones, and moved on to an e-reader instead of hard copy... so I redid the cookbook. It's going to be a free download on Amazon this weekend -- June 16 and 17. http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Good-ebook/dp/B007XIZLVU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1339426867&sr=1-1   '  You don't have to be a member of Amazon Prime to get the free download (though it's only free on Saturday and Sunday). And you don't need a Kindle to read it -- you can access it on your regular computer if you have the Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac free software.

To give you a bit of a preview, most of the recipes I've shared here in the blog are included in the Simply Good cookbook.


I hope you'll enjoy sharing some of my favorite food! 

Writing is easy... or is it?

"Writing is easy. All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead." Gene Fowler

Anybody besides me take exception to that comment? 

Yes, writing IS sometimes that difficult (though I usually refer to those moments as "pulling out fingernails" rather than sweating drops of blood). There are tough patches in every story, and once a writer goes pro and makes the writing a job, going to work is sometimes not fun  -- just as any job has a downside.

But if writing is consistently that difficult, then something needs to be changed. 

The kind of story? (If the author's trying to write something trendy even though it's not to his/her personal taste, it's going to be a rough road. What do YOU want to write?) 

The working conditions? (Some writers pack up and go to a hotel for a weekend -- or  week -- when they're on deadline, so they can focus. But even moving to another room, or writing with pencil on a legal pad instead of on a keyboard, can help.) 

The pace? (Has the author committed to too many hours, too many words, too much writing to be feasible along with the other demands of life? And I'm not just talking about people with contracted deadlines here. Any of us can set the goals so high we fail and end up hating ourselves and our story. What's realistic for you?)

Yes, writing is work. But unless it's fun, too -- at least a good part of the time -- take a closer look at what you're doing and what you can change in order to get the fun back, so you don't have to sweat those drops of blood day in and day out.

The tour continues...

This is the dining room of my miniature house, Greystone Manor. The chandelier is electric, but the red candles on the side tables are real. The tea cart at the far end of the room is set up and ready to serve, and the art lying on the dining room table -- waiting to be framed -- are actual watercolors painted by favorite artists. The swinging doors to the left lead to the kitchen, and just visible across the hall is the living room.

Now if I can just get the teeny-tiny maid to come in and tidy up -- straighten the chairs, gather up the used mug, and take those watercolors to the frame shop.... :)