Every Book a Challenge

One of the joys of writing books under contract is finishing one on deadline and sending it in. Somehow, miraculously, the plot threads have tied together, the hero and heroine worked out their issues—but not until the conclusion—and the author can collapse on the sofa with a well-earned dish of ice cream (my indulgence of choice).

There she will lie until the editor asks for revisions. Oh, wait. There’s another book on the contract? And it’s due when?

People ask me if writing books gets easier when you’ve sold ninety of them. My reply is that, as with ballet, it becomes not easy but possible.

Exposition or back story continues to be a challenge, especially with a continuing series such as my current Safe Harbor Medical. Book six, The Surgeon’s Surprise Twins, comes out in October and last month I started writing book nine. (Book seven, The Detective’s Accidental Baby, is due in February 2012, and book eight, The Baby Dilemma, in April.)

The trick to making each book fresh is to write as if this were a single book, standing on its own. I try to include only as much background and only as many characters as the reader needs. Learning to handle this is one of the skills I’ve acquired in nearly thirty years of published writing.

This brings me to a promise I made here last month, to show you a cover I designed using my fledgling knowledge of Photoshop. I turned my years of writing and teaching experience into a short book (roughly 80 pages if it were published in print) called How to Write a Novel in One (Not-so-easy) Lesson. I posted it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble for $2.99, and designed the cover myself. My husband took the photo.

Lest you think I simply paused in front of my bookcase one day, this is not my usual bookcase, which has a mirrored back incompatible with photography. I had to haul all ninety books and umpteen zillion foreign editions upstairs, strip a wooden bookcase of its assorted books, and set this up. Then I had to put everything back. Ouch.

So here’s my self-made cover to go with my self-made book. Meanwhile, it’s back to my favorite medical center’s fertility program, where everyone is guaranteed a happy ending (don’t we wish!).

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Sly and the Family Stone sang about it in 1969, but “fun” isn’t the appropriate word for this year’s summertime in the Midwest, Mid-South and eastward.  This is the year that spending a vacation on the West Coast would be cool.  And I do mean cool.

Where I live, smack in the middle of the country, we had our hottest days in July, breaking records right and left.  The day after a record breaking official 111 degrees, my AC went out.  It was repaired the next afternoon and we thought we’d never get cool again.  Ten days later, it quit again, and the temp in the house made it to 98 degrees.  It was all anyone talked about for weeks.  And as you can see, we still are!

I shouldn’t complain.  I spent twenty-four years in a farmhouse with no AC.  My oldest was born in what was the hottest summer on record—1980—until that record was broken this summer.  We set several records this year, beating the ones that were set back then.  It was the hottest July we’ve ever had, with twenty-four 100+ degree days.  There have been thirty-six 100+ degree days this year thru July 31.  I live a few miles from the Air Force Base, and the temperature there one day was 114, although not official for the U.S. Weather Service.

It has finally cooled off, at least for a few days.  Today was 91 with a heat index of 98, thanks to 50+% humidity.  Tomorrow will see triple digits again, or at least that's the rumor.

Those in Texas have had it even worse, with no rain since May and drought conditions only getting worse.  I’ve heard there’s been a little rain in some areas.  Linda Warren, I hope you’ve gotten some of it!

We’re expecting a few more 100 degree days here before this is all over.  School started today, and I’m thankful that most schools are air conditioned.  Trying to stay awake in a hot school building can be a struggle, even for the younger set.

If your summer has been hot, hot, hot, relief is on the way…in a few weeks.  And if you’ve been one of the lucky ones with cooler weather, your turn will come, sometime in the future, I’m sure. ☺

New and improved...or is it?

We recently went to see a little theatre production of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. For those of you not familiar with the story, here’s a brief description:



Ten people are invited to an isolated mansion on a private island. On prominent display in the mansion are copies of a poem about the deaths of ten little soldiers, as well as a grouping of ten small ceramic figurines representing...you guessed it. The soldiers. Not long after the guests arrive, they’re cut off from the mainland—and then someone begins murdering them one by one. The circumstances of the murders match the deaths in the poem, and as each victim is claimed, one of the statues goes missing.





The actors were great, the set appropriate to the time period, the mystery as intriguing as ever. They’d even found a clever method of eliminating the statues at the time of each murder. But...





The ending of the play didn’t match the ending of the book.





As a romance writer, I have to say, the different ending to the play satisfied me. But as a long-time mystery reader and a huge Agatha Christie fan, I’ll tell you truthfully, I was crushed. It didn’t help at all for me to learn that the new ending for the play had been written by Agatha herself.



FYI, all this didn’t come as a surprise to me; I’d read the book and seen both the play and movie versions many times before. But, still...



I was crushed. LOL



How do you feel about it when one of your favorite books is turned into a script for the stage or the big or little screen? Are you okay with the new version? Or do you wish they’d stayed true to the original?





All my best to you,



Barbara



~~~~~~



Barbara White Daille

http://www.barbarawhitedaille.com

Stress

Everyone has stress, no doubt. One person’s is a little different than the next, but we all have it at times. And we all deal with it differently. I have a young friend who shuts down when things get on top of her. She just doesn’t deal with any of it. A boss I had years ago said she methodically dealt with it. She’d pick up something off her desk or open an email and wouldn’t move on until she’d successfully dealt with that one thing. Then she’d go on to the next until she was done. In her mind it was a waste of time to keep opening the same thing numerous times. Just deal was her approach when things were too much. My mother gets snippy and angry. Snaps at anyone about anything and if you try to help her, you’re the one who gets snapped at the loudest. I admit, I learned a bit of that technique growing up, but I’ve tried hard to break it.

When I have a bad time like this summer when it seems that one thing after another goes wrong, I feel out of control. Being somewhat of a control freak, that does not work for me. Often I can’t control the things that are really stressing me out, but I can control a few others. When my grandmother died years ago, I cleaned my house, my car, my mom’s house and her car. And I don’t mean surface cleaned, I mean, deep down get the cobwebs out of the corners clean. Later in years when my boys were teens, my house was always full of kids and chaos. Whatever I organized, just as quickly got disorganized. When I got stressed, I had the cleanest, best organized underwear drawer in the country. It was the only thing in the house that nobody but me touched. But hey, I was totally in control and it helped.

After putting in some extremely long hours at work this week, I was exhausted when I got off Friday night. But did I relax and maybe turn in early? No! I started cleaning. I vacuumed the bugs and spider webs out of the windows, washed the inside of all the windows and shutters, cleaned out a closet, cleaned and polished the kitchen counters, cleaned baseboards, even scrubbed the shower down.

I’m exhausted and my back hurts, but feeling a little less stressed. Since I fully realize that stress is just something we all have to deal with, I’d love some suggestions that maybe are a little less strenuous. Any thoughts?

Stuck on the sofa instead of my big green chair!!

In the hospital, my toes were the only thing looking good!!

Where to start . . .  Right after returning from NYC, I finally went to the doctor about a nagging stomachache that'd been dogging me for a few weeks.  My doctor ordered a gazillion tests, most of which came back fine.  Meanwhile, my formerly nagging tummy was now screaming!!  Weeks and more tests passed and I had surprise gallstone surgery.  I was actually pretty pleased about this, as now that I finally knew what was wrong, I could finally get back to living instead of frowning on the couch!!  The surgery was a great success and soon I was back on my couch, only with the promise that in a matter of days I'd be mostly back to normal.  Hubby was a fantastic nurse and my dogs even managed to stay off the worst of my ouchies!! 

Fast forward a week and I'm off pain meds and guess what's back?  My original stomachache!!  Screaming louder than ever!!  Grrr.  Meanwhile, Hubby landed an amazing new job, which is great, but the downside is a transition in health insurance.  Do we even have it?  Once we got documentation proving we're insured, back to the doctor I went, and next week I'm all set up for a flurry of new tests with a new specialist.  Yay!!

Daisy pouting when I wouldn't let her sleep on my tummy!

Until then, I'm still on the sofa instead of my big green chair.  Seeing friends for a few hours at a baby shower yesterday reminded me how much I'm missing my usual life.  Being upright for three hours might as well have been running a marathon.  I went straight home to sleep.  So far, the only good thing to come of all this is losing a few pounds, but as a diet expert, I know there are far easier ways to diet!!  LOL!!

Have any of you had a mystery illness?  If so, if you don't mind my asking, did it ever get fixed?  I could really use a happy ending about now!!

TEXAS IN CRISIS

I’ve lived in Texas all my life and we’re in the worst drought I’ve seen in my lifetime. The other day the headline in the newspaper read: Texas is on fire, which is partly true. There have been wildfires everywhere due to the severe drought. A few weeks ago one was about fifteen miles from our house. Too close for my peace of mind.



Now we have these insane high temperatures that are unbearable. It was 107 degrees yesterday (Thursday) and I think today was the same. When I go outside it feels like I’ve stepped into an oven. If you live in Texas, you know what I’m talking about. And the temperature keeps rising. Lakes and ponds are drying up and the rivers are low. Fish and wildlife are dying. If we don’t get rain soon, I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Well, I do. In our city they’re talking about limiting water usages and I heard on the news last night that if we keep having the high temperatures, rolling blackouts will start. Not looking forward to that.



Since the lakes and ponds are evaporating in the intense heat, it’s revealing things hidden beneath the water. We live on a lake and now all these stumps are showing which used to be hidden under water. Only the taller dead trees were showing. We never knew all that was under the water. And in an east Texas lake that is low they discovered a part of the space shuttle Columbia that exploded.



I’m going on the theory that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. So I decided to channel all this frustration into a book. I can write about the heat and the fires realistically. I think. It may not be much fun though, but it will create a lot of conflict and angst.



How’s the weather in your area? Please tell me it’s raining somewhere.



Linda

http://www.lindawarren.net/

The Texan’s Secret – Aug ‘11

Garden Woes

I do not have a green thumb. That's why I'm thrilled my daughter and husband wanted to grow some veggies this summer. We planted late, due to the tornadoes and endless downpours. While they dug and seeded the ground, I tried one of those upside down hanging tomato planters. I bought a nice healthy plant, the more expensive soil, and fertilizer as the instructions suggested. My DH agreed to let me hang it on the birdfeeder pole, which he had to reinforce so it wouldn't fall over. But it started to bend anyway. eeks So I bought a special hook for the back fence, which put the plant in the sun all day. Then the weather turned deadly hot--in the high 90s for a week (which turned into high 90s most of summer--except when we hit the low 100s), and it had to be watered twice a day (although, I admit, my daughter did it 98% of the time). In three days it was paper dry and shriveled anyway.

I have a grape tomato plant in a bucket on my porch. I call him Gilbert. (It's okay if you don't think that's funny, but it makes me laugh.) He's been cossetted like an only child--watered twice daily, talked to, moved around to protect him from getting too hot. He had some pretty yellow flowers which turned into lovely nuggets.

My husband's tomatoes and lettuce fared better, although we haven't picked many tomatoes yet. One Roma, two grape. :( But the lettuce was delicious. He served it wilted (which I find amusing), but it was terrific.

Squirrels and chipmunks are enjoying my daughter's plantings. The baby bunny is plump now with a beautiful coat. I haven't seen a zucchini yet, nor a squash, but my daughter's been shooing out the critters. We have had green beans at least, which start as pretty purple flowers.

A new visitor arrived last week, this praying mantis. He's (well, I don't know if it's a boy) cute and harmless, so we left him alone. I hope he eats bugs and scares away the bigger critters, but I'm not holding out much hope for that last bit. (I don't begrudge the animals their meals, but they could have left me one of Gilbert's tomatoes.)

This is why we rely on the farmers and their local produce. Last week, we went to Wisconsin and had amazing fresh corn off a stand that was replenished from the field several times a day. Funnily enough, the white peaches everyone raved over were from southern Illinois, not far from St. Louis. I made sure to find some when I returned--they're sweet as candy.

So although our small garden is suffering, we're blessed with the farmers in the nation who keep food on our table. Have you grown anything this year? Do you have any tips to share for next year's garden? I need all the help you can offer.

Megan Kelly
Stand-In Mom, Sept

JULY WINNER!!!

CONGRATULATIONS Barbara Scott! You’re the July winner. To receive your free autographed books please contact Shelley Galloway, Leigh Duncan and Victoria Chancellor through their Web sites.

To enter the contest simply leave a blog comment and your name will go into the drawing. Simple and painless. And FREE BOOKS.