Are You A Word Freak?

Are you a word freak? Here is a short quiz to test yourself. Be honest–no one is looking!

1) Do you have a favorite word?

2) When you’re asked #1, do you have to stop and ask, “Favorite word, as in how it sounds? Or favorite word, as in how it looks?” For example, “egregious” sounds awesome, but looks gross. “Glimmer” looks gorgeous, but is kind of blah in the ear.

3) Do you have a most-hated word? And can it change from year to year? For instance, I’m in a writing program right now, and the next person who says “trope” to me is taking a big risk.

4) Do you know, and even use, any of the nonsense words, like “brillig” or “snicker-snack,” from “Jabberwocky”?

5) Do you rarely have to say “lalala…dum-de-dum” when you’re singing along to your iPod? Do you always know almost all the words?

6) When you come to a grammatically incorrect lyric, do you ever correct it as you sing? I mean, no one corrects “I can’t get no satisfaction,” but what about “I’m not willing to lay down and die, because I am an innocent man”?

7) Have you ever painted a room a color like “Pool Party” or “Amethyst Haze,” just because you love the name?

8 ) Do you steal great lines from your favorite movies and use them in your own life? “Frankly, my dear,” you might say when someone points out there are 1,000 calories in that slice of cheesecake, “I don’t give a damn.”

9) Do you ever write down your wishes, as if that gives them reality and power? Do you sometimes refuse to speak your fears out loud? Do you have your own “He-who-must-not-be-named?”

10) Fill in your own Word Freak Truth here. Chances are, if you’re a Word Freak, you probably didn’t have to take this quiz to know it.

If you answered “Yes” to five out of the ten questions, you’re probably a word-lover, at least.

Six or seven “Yes” answers, and you’re definitely a member of the club!

Eight or more? We’re best friends and just don’t know it yet!

So, come on…share your Number 10 with me! What quirky thing do you do that proves you belong to this club? I can’t wait to hear!

Author, Take Me Away!

When I’m under a lot of stress, I use my entertainment hours (if I have any) to calm myself down.

When I’m stressed out and want to read a book, I almost always pick something dramatic and full of tension and suspense. It’s as if I want to remind myself that there are far worse problems out there than mine….like zombies, monsters,serial killers, madmen and ghosts. I especially love a writer who shows me an average person taking on the Big Bad Things and winning. If they can conquer the werewolf, then surely I can conquer my …insert problem here…

But when I decide to cope with my stress by watching a movie, I am completely the opposite. I want sweetness and light. I mean seriously sweet. Red velvet cake with sprinkles sweet. Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream sweet. Musicals and cute kids and sparkly costumes and flower-filled fairy fields and satin wedding dresses.

Taken together, those stress-relieving techniques can make me look pretty schizophrenic. Take yesterday, for instance. I sat in the family room with a few of my favorite people. By my side was my Dan Simmons horror novel, “Summer of Night,” in which a group of pre-teen boys ride their bikes to a showdown with the Forces of Evil. And on the TV was my favorite sweet-treat musical, “The Slipper and the Rose,” in which Richard Chamberlain’s Prince sings and dances to win Cinderella’s heart.

How about you? How do you calm down when the world is pressing in a little too hard? Do you go for the wild ride for total distraction? Or do you cuddle up to some warm fuzzies? I’d love to hear what works for you!

New Author Page For The Win!

Hi, everyone! I’ve created a new “author” page , and I hope you’ll stop by and “like” me!

This is the spot where I’ll be posting all the latest news about books, writing, reading–and, of course, contests!

In fact, I’ll start a new one right now. THE RULES HAVE CHANGED HERE, as I try to make sense of FB’s contest rules!

Over the next week, anyone who comes by this website and leaves a comment on this blog entry will be entered in a drawing to win a $25.00 gift certificate from Amazon.com! Remember, this contest is run by me, and not by Facebook, and you’re giving your information to me, not to them! (This is me trying very hard to comply with their rules, because I believe in following rules!) You do NOT, repeat, do NOT have to “like” my page in order to be entered. Just leave a comment here and let me know what you think of the page!

I love to hear from my readers, and I always value–and USE–your comments and advice! It’s wonderful to have an ongoing dialogue about what makes a good book, and which books you’re loving right now! I hope you’ll come join the fun!

The Magician Wins!

I think maybe being a writer has made me a bad reader.

I still love to read, of course—nothing short of a brain transplant will ever change that. But I don’t read the same way I used to. I’m afraid I no longer read the way “normal” readers do.

First of all, some insecure part of my psyche is always weighing the book I’m reading against the books I write. Deep inside, I’m whining something like, “Rats…I couldn’t ever think of something this clever!” or “Arghghghgh! Why can’t I write like this?”

But every writer I know does that. We learn to tune that annoying little voice right out.

What really worries me is that, because of my years as a writer, I focus on all the wrong things in a book. I am afraid that I’ve forgotten how to just sit back and enjoy the magic.

Here’s what makes me think so: The other night, my daughter and I went to see Agatha Christie’s play, “The Mousetrap.” My son-in-law had a role—he was terrific in the part of silly Mr. Paravicini—and we had a wonderful time.

But on the way home, I began thinking about the plot, and I began saying things like, “Didn’t Christie use too much coincidence, though? Why was she staying in the hotel, in the first place? Why was he there, too? I just can’t buy that much coincidence!”

Was I wrong in my criticism? Maybe not, technically. The play does rely heavily on coincidence, something all writing teachers, editors and contest judges tell us is a huge no-no.

But does that mean the play isn’t well written? Does that mean the play isn’t good? Obviously not! As Agatha Christie’s own site tells us, this is the longest-running play in the world. In the world! Since it opened on the West End in 1952, it has never been out of production.

Clearly something powerful happens when audiences watch this play. They are entranced, and they don’t give a darn about whether Christie followed the so-called writing “rules.”

The same is true, for instance, with J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. It’s filled with adverbs, what the writing teachers like to call “LY” words. “LY” words are lazy writing. “LY” words are literary dead weight. “LY” words must be hunted down like zombies and have their heads lopped off.

And yet, all the “LY” dead weight in the world can’t sink a Harry Potter book. I bet most readers don’t even notice them, and if they do, they couldn’t care less.

So, bottom line is…I’m afraid I might have worked so hard to learn the “craft” of my profession that I’ve forgotten how to enjoy the magic of it. No one jumps onto Amazon, eager to post a review that let you know “This book has perfect punctuation!!!!” No one calls up a friend and says, “OMG! This writer hasn’t used a single LY word!!!!”

It’s a lot easier to pick apart a book and see where it might have broken some rules than it is to pinpoint what the author did right. And, in truth, it’s easier to weed out your “LY” words than it is to seed in some enchantment.

What about you? Do Rowling’s “ly” words bother you? What about Christie’s coincidences? Do your bookshelves (or Kindle lists) hold some story that is mocked by snobs but still warms your heart? Have you ever had to defend a beloved book from the naysayers?

I have a feeling that, in a duel between the rule-maker and the magic-maker, the magician wins every time!

The Doctor and the Good Girl Geek

I don’t like science fiction very much. If you mention robots or spaceships or machines that…..zzzzzz. See? I’m already asleep.

So imagine my surprise when, at my age, I finally fell in love with Doctor Who.

BBC and I have always been good friends. The Pallisers, The First Churchills, Upstairs, Downstairs, Brideshead Revisited, Lord Peter Wimsey, Inspector Lynley—love, love love. I’ve had a date with BBC every Sunday night for decades.

But when Doctor Who ruled the counterculture airwaves back in the 60s, 70s and 80s, I was almost entirely unaware of its existence. Frankly, I wasn’t cool enough. I’m definitely a geek. A book geek, a word geek, a grammar geek. Good girl geek I have down pat. But geek chic? Never even came close.

Then, a couple of years ago, my daughter got hooked on The Doctor. Slowly, casually, at first. Not enough to make a dent in my anti-sci-fi resistance. Gradually, though, it grew into a passion, and I noticed.

She and I share a lot of interests. We tend to like many of the same movies, TV shows, actors, and books. So when she’s hooked, I can’t help wondering… Plus, she’s a bit of a zealot, and tends to try to convert everyone around her.

A few months ago, I succumbed. We started with the Christopher Eccleston season. For the first few episodes, I was lukewarm. Okay, I thought. It’s fun, kind of silly, kind of sweet…but not completely enthralling. I don’t have much free time, so it took forever to get very far.

But somewhere along the way, I fell in love. It snuck up on me, the way love sometimes does. And when that season came to an end, and Christopher Eccleston made way for David Tennant, I cried like a fool.

I still don’t really understand myself. So…if I have any Doctor-Loving readers out there, I’d love to know what you think. Why did the series finally capture this Good Girl Geek? It’s creative, with good acting and sharp writing, and a pinch of romantic tension that plays well. But couldn’t that be said for lots of science fiction shows?

But please remember….geeks are a little uptight about spoilers!

TBR…but WHEN?

I don’t have enough time.

Yeah, I know, I’m not the first person to say that. But it’s starting to get on my nerves. For the first time in decades, I actually like a whole lot of shows on TV, and they’re starting to stack up in my DVR. His Highness is grumbling (mildly) about how the HD hours are running out.

Here are the shows I’m hooked on these days:

THE BORGIAS (with Jeremy Irons. Need I say more?)
The Mentalist (with Simon Baker. Ditto.)
Dancing With The Stars (with sequins and corny music.)
Glee.
30 Rock.
Upstairs, Downstairs.
Camelot.
Game of Thrones.

It’s hopeless. I’ll never catch up!

And then there’s the book problem. When the Borders near me closed, it was my solemn duty to help them clean off their shelves. Right? Here are a few of the books I couldn’t resist, which are now stacked up on my desk, sending out their siren song as I try to finish my essays and PowerPoints and lesson plans for school:

The Distant Hours, Kate Morton
Inside the Victorian Home, Judith Flanders
The Girl With Glass Feet, Ali Shaw
The World from Rough Stones, Malcolm MacDonald
The Gravedigger’s Daughter, Joyce Carole Oates
Mrs. Astor Regrets, Meryl Gordon
The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
Changes, Jim Butcher
Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
At Home, Bill Bryson
Nation, Terry Pratchett

What about you? What’s stacking up on your desk this month?

The book of the past

I’ve just done something very exciting. I’ve decided to revisit a past love.

Okay, not a living, breathing human being kind of past love. This heartthrob is one who lived only between the pages of a book I read when I was…maybe 16? But frankly I’m as nervous about meeting this guy again as I possibly could be about meeting the real boyfriend I had that year. Maybe more so. What will I think of this man now? What will re-reading his story tell me about my 16-year-old self? What will my new, middle-age reaction tell me about what I’ve gained through the years–and what I’ve lost?

Back then, I was a big fan of Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances. One day I woke up and discovered I’d read all the Heyer books. So I went hunting, and I ran across a book that promised me it was “IN THE TRADITION OF GEORGETTE HEYER”!

The book was Barbara Cartland’s Desire of the Heart. I know today that Barbara Cartland was a romance machine, and her dozens of books make “real” writers and readers smirk behind their hands. But I didn’t know it then. This was my first, and last, Barbara Cartland novel. I had no preconceived ideas, except that she might provide a temporary Heyer fix.

Somehow, that book was perfect for me. It starred Cornelia, a plain, unglamorous Irish girl sacrificed in marriage to the dark and dashing Duke of Roehampton. The Duke was already having an affair with a sophisticated older beauty, and he wasn’t at all interested in his boring new wife. So Cornelia ran away and created an exciting new identity for herself as an exotic mystery lady named Desiree. And of course Desiree’s first conquest is…the Duke!

For decades, I thought about the book off and on, wondering if it could have been as magical as I remembered it. Why would an insensitive, adulterous husband, however handsome, be appealing in any way? Why would I love a book whose message pretty much was…get glam, or your brute of a husband won’t love you? Through the years, I forgot the title, forgot character names, forgot everything but the broadest outlines of the plot.

When Google came around, I casually searched databases of Cartland titles, wondering if I could find the one that had meant so much to me. But my details were too sketchy, and her library is too large. I never found anything I recognized.

Until last week…Last week I stumbled onto a site that provided plot outlines, and I was able to narrow it down to one title. Desire of the Heart. I went to eBay and found a used copy just cheap enough to seem worth the risk. Today the book arrived at my door. I’m neck deep in other commitments, so I can’t take time to read it now. And I’m almost relieved.

As I look at the cover, so many memories from that year come back that it’s almost overwhelming. The summer I turned sixteen–I’d forgotten how tumultuous that year was. Our family moved to a new neighborhood, the first move I’d ever made. I started a new school, very tough for a shy girl. And for the first time in my life, I fell in love. Or at least…let’s say that I got a serious crush on a boy, the first one who actually seemed more important to me than Paul McCartney.

I was such a kid, really, but I could see adulthood from there, and it was simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. I had so much to learn. Somehow I feel as if this might have been the last book I ever read with a totally romantic heart, if that makes sense.

What do you think? Will I be disappointed? Will I be annoyed with that silly girl who still thought bad boy Dukes were romantic?

Should I even read it?

The value of persistence (and a good editor)

I’m so excited. Terri Backhus, one of my best writing buddies, has just finaled in the Golden Heart! She’s written a wryly funny romance about a washed-up guitar player getting a chance to take his revenge on the columnist who sank his career. Appropriately, it’s called GETTING EVEN.

Terri had entered the Golden Heart before. She had not finaled. Most people don’t. But the amazing Terri, who is a lawyer by day, a drummer by night, and a writer…God knows when…isn’t a quitter. Here’s her story about how she tried again:

My father used to say, “Terri, even a blind squirrel sometimes finds a nut.” So, it shouldn’t have been such a surprise when I became a Golden Heart Finalist for my single title manuscript, Getting Even. Was it because of talent? Hardly. Luck? Not so much. Perhaps editing? Yes. Yes. Yes.
I’ve seen the light. I’ve sipped the Kool Aid and become a true believer. Repent sinners and kneel at the altar of the red pen. The secret to success is in the edit.
It took a friendly wager before I finally realized the value of killing your manuscript darlings, their spouses, offspring and pets. You see, my critique partner bet me $100.00 that she could edit my first few chapters so that they would final in the Golden Heart contest. Mind you, the partial had finaled before at the Moonlight and Magnolias contest a few years before. But, the ultimate prize…the Golden Heart was always beyond my grasp…until the bet.
I should have known. Kathleen O’Brien had taught me the value of the edit long ago. My friend, Donna Pruneau, and I sat in her romance writing class gobbling up bits of wisdom she tossed our way. When Kathleen kicked us out of the romance nest, we were too young (figuratively speaking) to appreciate what she meant in class. Finishing a manuscript was such a huge accomplishment for us that re-writing it seemed unthinkable. The manuscripts were safely tucked in our hard drives while we suffered rejection after rejection. We remained editing non-believers.
Still, we didn’t quit. Donna worked hard and became skilled at composing a kick ass partial. She finaled in almost every contest she entered; the Golden Heart, Daphne Du Maurier and Moonlight and Magnolias contests.
I procrastinated. I never met a botched tense or sentence fragment I didn’t like. And, I finished one book for every two Donna completed. Contests were not my friends, until manuscript number three– Getting Even. It was a story about Cadillac Carl, revenge and romance on Wilde Mountain in Nashville, Tennessee. What made manuscript number three a Golden Heart finalist?
The edit.
Donna’s $100.00 edit. Kathleen’s teaching, and despite my best effort to cover it up, Ann Evans’ faith that my writing had a voice.
The takeaway is that editing by someone you trust is not an option. It’s a requirement. A good editor can see the tense problems, the renegade commas and the logic blemishes on your beautiful baby. Like a moyle at a bris, it’s essential to have a steady hand on the red pen.
Whether I win the Golden Heart for Getting Even or not is almost irrelevant (I said almost). I learned a lesson…finally. What’s important is that, win or lose, Getting Even is a good story. It’s better because I had good editors. Yes, even the lowly unpublished need the best editors we can beg and bribe into helping the cause.
If I don’t get a chance to say it on July 1st, I’m a better writer because of Donna, Ann and Kathleen. If I win, I’m planning a tent revival for the faithful believers in the red pen at Ruby Foo’s on Broadway. Sake and green tea sundaes for everyone. Donna’s buying. After all, she won the bet.

Making love out of nothing at all?

I love that song! Remember it? Air Supply…super corny (my favorite kind)…ultra romantic!

I’m guest blogging today over at Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs , and I’m trying to find out what you, the readers, need in a romance novel to convince you that what the hero and heroine feel is really True Love.

Is it just a matter of the author conveying the feelings clearly enough that you recognize them as love? Or do you have to see specific reasons why the two people are made for each other? Does the heroine have to offer something specific to the hero, and vice versa?

It’s a dilemma all writers face, and I’m eager to hear what you think!

While I was sleeping…

Hi, everyone! I’m feeling soooo guilty, because right after I posted my last blog on Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs , I got wickedly sick. I’ve only recently emerged from the flu fog, and I realized I haven’t posted the winners of that blog!

So here they are! Linda H, Pat C and Mary…your names came up in my random drawing. Because you guys have been so patient, I’d like to send you each two books instead of one! If you’ll send me your addresses, and which titles you’d like, I’ll get them out to you asap! The only two I don’t have on hand are Matthew Quinn and Happily Never After. Sorry, but I just can’t keep them around for long!

And if anyone else would like a chance at a free book, stop by Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs today, and join in the conversation about men and dogs. No, not men who *are* dogs, but men who love dogs. In my opinion, men who love animals are the only kind who could possibly make a Hero. Do you agree? I’d love to hear about the ones who make your life happier–either the men or the dogs!

Now that I’m (almost) completely well, I’ll try to be a better correspondent! Hope everyone else out there is staying healthy!