Friday Funny: A 3 Hour Tour

Caturday: My Little Helper

Thursday Thought: How Dare She!

Blackout: Stop SOPA

Monday Muse: 100 Word Challenge

Ok, so I’m posting my Monday Muse very late. In just 90 minutes, it will in fact be Tuesday. So sue me. I got a lot of stuff done today, and I’m getting to things as I can.

The truth is, kids, we tend to put our writing off. As a wife, mom, lawyer, volunteer, church worker, and all the other roles I claim, it is easy for “writer” to get shoved in the back of the closet. And that, as you know, is death to your muse. They have to get out regularly for a good stretch, or they just curl up in the closet and sleep their mythological little lives away.

The only way to write is TO WRITE. Write something, even if it sucks. Write often, write regularly, but above all, write! So I’ve signed on for the 100 Words a Day Challenge. No matter what, however chaotic the messy life of mine gets, I am gonna write 100 words each day on my WIP.

That sounds like nothing, no? But sometimes, when there is a Board Meeting at work, the oldest has the flu, the youngest has a term paper, the DH has his grump on — you know, getting 100 words is right up there with turning water into wine. A miracle of Biblical proportions.

Other days, there isn’t so much going on, and the first hundred is only a gateway to a couple of thousand. But if you don’t start, you’ll never get any words for the day. So, a doable goal, but one which often takes me way beyond the bare minimum.

I’ll be posting my daily wordcounts every so often, so y’all keep me accountable, ok?

TODAY: 746.

Caturday: Not the Last Cookie!

Friday Foto: Silken Sands

If you’re up in the snow, wouldn’t you rather be here? Silken Sands Writers Conference, March 16 – 18, 2012!
http://www.gccrwa.com/silkensands/

Fan Mail? Me?

Stupified. Absolutely gobsmacked. Astounded, dumbfounded and flabbergasted, even. These are the only words that come anywhere close to describing my feelings over the past week or so. You see, after living in the Valley of Writerly Despair for so long, I have suddenly chanced upon a mountaintop, and I’m not completely sure how to react.

Y’all may recall, if you’ve dropped in on my little bloglet before, how often I’ve bemoaned the fate of a writer. I’ve toiled long and hard over my little stories, and I’ve sent them out into the great harsh world with no one to protect them from the big mean haters who would criticize them and judge them unfairly. I’ve told you about the rejections, the times I’ve decided to quit with the whole silly business. But I couldn’t, you know? I had to keep writing. Those people in my head are very insistent.

And over the past week or two, I’ve finally gotten to see the other side of the deep dark valley. This week has made it all worth the effort. Sunday, one of the members of an eloop I’m in mentioned that she was in the top whatever of romances on Fictionwise. Hmm. I’d never thought of checking to see how my book might be doing. After all, it’s my first book, no one knows who I am, etc. But I surfed on over to Fictionwise and –!!!! O.M.G. Dear little PROOF OF LOVE, my first novel, so dear to my heart, seems to have made its way into other hearts as well! It was sitting right there, pretty as you please, at #9 in romance and #11 for all fiction. Shee-yut, y’all! I’m a best-selling author!

But better than that, absolutely the greatest reward for all the lonely hours at the keyboard, was the email I got today. I’m gonna quote it, because, basically, it is the greatest thing anyone (other than DH and my daughters) has ever said to me. I took out some of the identifying details, but basically, here’s what it said:

Dear Arabella,

My name is Patti and I am a friend of your sister-in-law Jane.

Anyway…. I just wanted to tell you that I read your book, Kindle edition, and thought that it was great. My only criticism was that it ended too soon, but I see that you are going to write another. Jane said that you are in the process of writing something else right now but you should get back to your “other” novel sometime.

I just wanted to kinda of give you, not that you need it, an atta boy. There are those of us that happen to read this genre when we aren’t in the mood for heavy reading and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks again!

Oh, wow. Yes, I am deep into writing my second historical. After all, my public is waiting!!!

A Most Gratifying Reception – by Guest Blogger, Her Grace the Duchess of Danesleigh

My dears, I once again turn to this odd laptop device to communicate my thoughts. Please pardon me for any breaches of “Internet ettiquette,” though I must say such a phrase seems contradictio in terminis, do you not agree?

But I digress. (As my husband points out, I seem to do so quite frequently. Silly man.) As I was saying, or typing, I have commandeered dear Miss Stokes’ computer apparatus to “blog” my thoughts to you. (Again, I must say that is a most unfortunate word. It sounds like “blunder” and “frog” smashed together. A disturbing mental image, no?)

I want to thank each of you for so graciously welcoming the Duke and myself into your homes. Miss Stokes is quite excited this evening – it seems that her book about my husband and myself has hit the bestseller list upon something called Fictionwise. As best I can tell, this is some sort of electronic book shoppe, and Miss Stokes work is being sold there at quite an amazing clip.

While I know that in general, the success of her book is the result of the genteel yet interesting life led by the Duke and myself, I must admit that I am pleased with the way in which Miss Stokes told our story. Except, of course, for what I call the “naughty bits.” I am quite sure that these more intimate details should have been omitted. Still, the Duke assures me that such things are commonly discussed openly in today’s society, and, as they say, “When in Rome…”

(I am beginning to question my husband’s judgment regarding modern morals, however. Last night I caught him listening to Miss Stoke’s “iPod” whilst some person called Nelly Furtado sang about being a promiscuous girl. My dears, I nearly swooned! Merely research about this bizarre era, His Grace assured me. Hmph. We shall see.)

Alas! Miss Stokes is returning to the sitting room to “log off” for the evening. I must fly, mon chers! A bientot, and thank you so much for reading Proof of Love!!!

Everybody’s Got One…

Hi. I’m Arabella, and I write Romance Novels. (Hi Arabella.)

Sometimes I feel like there ought to be a twelve-step program for writers. God knows, it’s an addiction, this pouring our souls out onto paper. It isn’t like most of us make the big Steven king- style bucks. We get about as much respect as Rodney Dangerfield; Just ask my kids how they feel about Mom’s writing if you doubt me.

After having met with a really positive reaction to my first novel, Proof Of Love, I thought I was, as we say in the South, someBODY. As in, my bodily waste is not odoriferous, you know? I thought I was all that, plus a bag o’ chips, with a pickle on the side.

Then tonight I dropped by a book website to see my cover (I like just visiting it, you know?) and what do I find but – shock and awful! – a new review, which kindly points out that the author didn’t like my book.

But you know what? I had planned for this eventuality. Given the snotty things Mark Twain said about Dear Miss Austen, I knew this day was coming. I was ready to retire to the shore, to live out the rest of my days in a small cottage, forever mourning the unfortunate circumstance of an unflattering review. But, no. Didn’t happen.

After reading the review and checking to see the writer’s other posts, I’m cool with it. If someone wants to make a life of telling writers how crappy they are, well, good for him/her. Ain’t gonna bother me tonight, as the song goes. I prefer to concentrate on the people who have told me they liked (even loved) my book. And I am too busy writing my next story to worry about every stray opinion out there.

And hey, no matter what, that reviewer paid me for the right to read my story. Call me whatever you like, just be sure and call me when the royalty checks go out, yaknowwhutImean?

I shall simply close with a quote that has come to mean a lot to me in this crazy world of publishing:

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat – TR Roosevelt.