NaNoWriMo 2009

I did it! 50,103 words as of November 30, 2009. Woo Hoo!!

I think it was a much better experience for me this time around. I found I was doing it a lot more regularly than I did last time and I feel it has helped me to get into that daily writing habit, which has always been a problem for me. And I found myself thinking about the story a lot, even when I wasn't actually sitting at the computer.

It wasn't a perfect experience, of course. After the first week I fell behind due to a kidney stone - if you've never had one count yourself lucky and do whatever you can to avoid getting one. So that screwed me up a bit. Plus, Larry and I host for Thanksgiving so I had all that prep work going on which made things a bit hectic.

But it is done and I am so glad. My story is not finished, though. It's about halfway through and I plan to keep doing a thousand or so words a day on it until the first draft is completed. In addition, I plan to spend the next two or three weeks polishing my already finished manuscript and writing the synopsis for it and getting that sucker in the mail. I have been dragging my feet long enough on that. Then my next task will be going back to work on the manuscript I wrote for last year's NaNoWriMo. And getting back to critiquing the last chapter that I have for Dyann's novel (I haven't forgotten it Dyann! Thanks so much for your patience.). Those are my immediate 'must do' goals. A few longer term goals are to blog more often and, of course, to get ready for Christmas.

I am also gearing up for another 31 in 31 in January. Noreen (also a NaNoWriMo winner - congrats, Noreen!) is planning to do it again this year, too. Please join us if you feel so inclined. It is a great opportunity to get rid of some junk out of your house. I was pretty good at dumping some stuff while getting ready for Thanksgiving, but I still have a long way to go. I am feeling inspired about it, however. The house looks so nice after the major cleaning it just got and I really want to keep it that way and that just won't happen if I don't do some serious dejunking and decluttering.

So that's about it for now. I am expecting the next two weeks or so to be a bit busy as I catch up with stuff that got ignored during NaNoWriMo as well as sticking to the above mentioned goals. But after that I think I might be able to catch my breath. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Drama Queens

Why do people feel the need to be drama queens? I am in a local writing group and most of the time things go well with it. But every now and then there is one member who seems to feel the need to get uppity and at times downright rude. And it is always over something ridiculous. She proceeds to talk as if everyone in the group is outraged by whatever alleged infraction has set her off when in fact she is the only one bothered by it.

Normally I would just ignore such a person but I am on the board of this particular group. And so is she. So I and the rest of the board have to deal with the nonsense. And matters are made worse because as the Drama Queen quotes bylaws and policies, another member of the board hangs on every word she says and gets all nervous and agitated and sends out mile long emails about what we can do to prevent the supposed infraction from ever happening again.

But here's the kicker - whenever I go to the bylaws to confirm what she says, I either can't find any reference at all to what she is talking about or I find that they say something totally different. So I finally asked her to share her copy of the bylaws with the group since apparently the ones I am reading are different from hers. She then has the nerve to tell me that she doesn't have a copy of the bylaws because she cleaned out her files but, and I quote, "trust me, it's all written down somewhere." What a load of crap! All this time she has been quoting and telling us all how wrong we do everything, when in fact she hasn't a clue as to what she is talking about. She's just making it up!

And what makes this even more interesting is that for most of the time that I have known her she has been a warm, friendly and generally intelligent woman. When I was new to this group she went out of her way to be gracious and make me feel welcome. We have met occasionally for coffee or lunch just to gab and it's always been very nice. Yet every once in a while she just goes off. It has never been at me in particular (not yet, at least) but usually at the board in general and another board member in particular. I'm not quite sure why she has it in for this other board member, but as far as I can see it is totally unjustified. The term 'bi-polar' has been floating around all week.

Anyway, her latest rant and its fallout has sucked up a huge amount of my time and I am anticipating it will suck up a bunch more in the next couple of weeks. It's just ironic that we are a writing group and instead of spending our time writing and improving our craft we are spending it dealing with this bullshit.

Oh well. C'est la vie. It's time for me to get over it and move on. I'm going to try for a happier, less whiny post next time. Thanks for letting me vent! :)

Glitter City Sweets

I have a very good on-line friend named Shae Wilhite. I got to know her through an on-line writing group we both joined about a year and a half ago. In that time we have gotten as close as two people who live two thousand miles apart and have never actually met can get. We, along with Dyann Hunter, have been staunch supporters of each other’s writing endeavors, providing critiques, read throughs, and even writing a ‘round robin’ story together. And above all, we have been there to offer each other unconditional moral support, not only in the writing arena but through some personal difficulties as well. I finished my first manuscript since getting to know Shae and Dyann and I can honestly say that their support was invaluable in helping me to reach that milestone.

One of the first things I got to know about Shae was that she is a die-hard foodie. Since I am just generally grateful that I remember where my kitchen is, reading about Shae’s culinary exploits on her blogs has always impressed the heck out of me. She is always experimenting and one of her writing goals is to author a cook book. She loves to bake and earlier this year she bravely took on preparing the delectable baked goods served at her brother’s wedding.

Over the years, she has provided her fabulous cupcakes and cookies for various occasions for family and friends, and always to rave reviews. This year, after some encouragement from her friends and loved ones, Shae decided to launch her own on-line gourmet goodie business, working towards that ultimate American dream of doing something you truly love for a living.

And thus, Glitter City Sweets was born.

A visual artist as well as craftswoman in the kitchen, Shae’s goodies are a treat for the eyes as well as the taste buds. She can design cookies and mallows in just about any shape you can think of. My personal favorite is how she will custom design cookies to look just like your wedding dress/bridesmaid’s dresses. All you have to do is send her a good picture of them. Have a look for yourself:



And how cute are these for a baby shower?:





Shae mentioned that since she opened her business a few months ago that her mallows have been doing exceptionally well. So naturally I couldn’t resist ordering some. I chose the standard vanilla flavored ones as well as Shae’s custom Johnie B’s Malted Mallows. When my order arrived, not only were there the mallows that I ordered but some of Shae’s signature “Thank You” cookies (it pays to proof read someone’s new website for them, especially someone who bakes cookies!).

I am happy to report that I loved all of my goodies. The vanilla mallows are way better than anything you will find in the supermarket. They have a much truer vanilla flavor and a creamier texture. I had never tried a chocolate flavored mallow before that I recall. Shae’s are great. Plus, she puts one of those malted chocolate candies in the center of each one. I’m getting a great chocolate rush just thinking about it as I write this. She also makes them in other flavors like lemon meringue, peanut butter swirl, and strawberry, just to name a few. I’m looking forward to trying those, too.



The cookies were fantastic and decadently buttery. And the bright and cheerful frosting with “Thanks” written on them in various languages made them almost too pretty to eat. Almost…



And here are just a few more of the wonderful things this woman can do with baked goods and frosting:

Hydrangea Cupcakes

Gorgeous custom cakes and cupcakes

Business Card Cookies

So next time you are planning a special event, or are looking for something a little extra special to bring as a hostess gift, please keep Glitter City Sweets in mind. Check out the website and I am sure you will be amazed at all the great and creative ideas that Shae comes up with for cakes, cupcakes, mallows, cookies, and lollipops. And I know she is always willing to customize her designs as her clients desire.

Congratulations, Shae! I’m so proud of your current success and wish you all the best for the future!

Life Lessons from Charlie's Angels

I was in the bookstore the other day and found myself flipping through a couple of magazines dedicated to the life and times of Farrah Fawcett. Looking at all those photos of her from her hey day period brought back a lot of memories. Not only had I sort of forgotten just how exquisitely gorgeous she was, I was also reminded of the tremendous hoopla that surrounded her and that much maligned vehicle that made her famous, Charlie's Angels.

Today I was doing a writing exercise in my journal and part of it got me to thinking about those pictures again. Which further led me to thinking on what kind of influence that show really had on me. I was just starting high school when the Angels burst onto the scene and I was instantly a huge fan. Like most people, Farrah was my favorite and I wished I had fluffy gorgeous blond hair just like hers. But I genuinely liked all the Angels through the years (except maybe Tanya Roberts, but in her defense the show was pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel by the time she showed up so there really wasn't much for her to work with).

I have always been a tad ticked off by how little respect that show has gotten over the years, even by the women it catapulted to fame. "Jiggle TV" was the most common phrase that I remember. And it was indeed jiggly, no doubt about it. But as a young girl, I never really noticed all that. I saw three women leading an attractive lifestyle that was both adventurous and glamorous. But more importantly, I saw three women who were absolutely independent. They were strong, clever, and able to take care of themselves, not just with the bad guys but in their personal lives as well. They were completely self sufficient. I remember thinking how I wanted to be like them in that regard. Sure, I fantasized about the action and the clothes and the glamour, too, but I always knew deep down that that part of it wasn't all that realistic. There were a couple of episodes that had scenes that took place at Kelly's (Jaclyn Smith) house. It was a small, simple little place, nicely decorated and had a big brass bed and flowers in vases. I think I remember more about that than any of the outfits they ever wore. I liked Jill's (Farrah) beach house, too, because of its location, but Kelly's house was my favorite. Owning a home like that seemed like a realistic goal to me.

It was the independence that those homes represented that was important to me. My father was an alcoholic and at many times was not the most pleasant of men. I can remember wanting my mother to leave him but she never thought she could. She grew up in Ireland (as did he) in a time where women were totally dependent on men. They were there to bear and raise the children and keep the house. That's it. Living in America did not change that for her. She never believed she could take care of the five of us without Dad. Looking back, she may have been right, but who knows how things might have been different if she at least believed she could try?

So I wanted to grow up and be like the Angels. And I have grown up to be like them...to a degree. I'm strong, fairly clever, and I can definitely take care of myself. I'm just not a private detective chasing bad guys! And I definitely need to lose about 40 pounds if I am ever to even have a hope of looking half as good as they did in clothes, skimpy or not!

I'm sure I'm not the only woman in America who was influenced so strongly by Charlie's Angels. It was far too popular for that not to be the case. But there were plenty of women who hated the show. I never quite understood that. I get why they were annoyed about all the swimsuit scenes, but even in spite of that I think the show did quite a bit of good for the feminist movement. I think it is a little ridiculous to have scorned the show so badly because, in addition to smarts and independence, the Angels also had sex appeal.

So I am proud to say I was, and still am, a Charlie's Angel fan. I'll watch reruns whenever I can. And even though the passage of time has made them a little hokey to me now, they still remind me of a great time in my life. A time when I was young, open to ideas, and knew that I could grow up to do whatever I wanted. And a show that helps to motivate a young teen like that is a show that deserves some respect. Hats off to the Angels and all they represented.

RWA National Conference

Wow, it has been about six weeks since I blogged. I knew it was a while but I didn't realize it had been that long. Oh well, c'est la vie. Work has been very busy but I think it is winding down now so hopefully I can get back to doing what I would much rather be doing than work!! :)

I was fortunate enough to take some time last week to attend the National Conference for Romance Writers of America. It was an absolutely wonderful experience. It was held in Washington D.C. at the Marriott at Wardman Park. This was a great facility and the staff could not have been any nicer.

First off, on Wednesday I went to a luncheon given by Heart Beats, one of RWA's online chapters. They specialize in medical romances. I'm not writing medicals (at the moment, at least - who knows in the future) but one of my local chapter members was supposed to go (she's writing a Scottish historical so I'm not sure why she's hooked up with this group but this was only the beginning of things that make you go hmmmmm for me) but she had to back out at the last minute for health issues so she gave me her spot at the luncheon. In the long run it didn't really matter about the medical stuff. In fact, I don't think any of the people I met there were writing medicals. But it was a great way to get started because as I sat down at a table full of strangers and introduced myself it turned out that one of the very first people I met there was Donna Alward. She's an author for Harlequin and it just so happened that I read one of her books just a few weeks before the conference. She was so happy to hear me say that. She's new enough as a published author to still get a thrill from having her name recognized. She and everyone else at the lunch were very nice and we all had a good time.


On Thursday, the conference officially started. First up was an opening speech by none other than Janet Evanovich. I am a HUGE fan of the Stephanie Plum novels so this was a big draw for me. I got down to the ballroom early and as soon as they opened the doors I made a mad dash for the front of the room. I made it to the table in the first row, center stage and got a great seat. I was quickly joined by a few other die hard fans. We were all quite thrilled and dubbed ourselves "The Janet Groupies."



Janet gave a terrific talk, answering questions that had been written up on index cards. She is as funny in person as she is in her books. But also made it quite clear that she takes her profession seriously and puts a lot of time and effort into it. One of the best moments of her talk for me was when she recounted how she first got into the business. She had been writing for years and had accumulated a large storage box full of rejections. In disgust one night she took them outside and burned them all one by one. The next day she went out and got a job. Two months later, after picking up her daughter on the way home from the office, she arrived home and her husband and son ran outside to tell her that her editor called - they offered her two thousand dollars for one of her manuscripts. At this point in the speech Janet had to stop talking because she was getting all choked up - as was everyone else in the room. It was very touching. She went to work the next day with a bottle of champagne and promptly quit.





Afterwards, Janet signed autographs and posed for pictures. She was so gracious and patient. Her daughter, Alex, was with her and she, too, was great, generously offering to take the pictures. It was a wonderful experience for me. Can you tell from the pictures? Also, I had just gotten my hair cut and colored - Janet and I now have the same hair color, who knew? :)

















Next was what was probably the dullest part of the conference for me. It was the Annual General Meeting. I'll probably skip this part next time. It was an hour and a half or so and dealt mostly with the rules about who can and cannot enter the Golden Heart and Rita contests. There were a couple of other topics but that was the real hot button issue. Folks got up and spoke their minds about it, and I liked that people were given the opportunity to speak directly to the board, even if I didn't have any particular opinion on the issue.

Lunch was next and we were treated to another wonderful speech by best selling author Linda Howard. She writes romantic suspense but I'm telling you the woman missed her calling by not getting into comedy. She was incredibly funny. A southerner from Alabama, she has one of those strong southern accents and she shared with us some wildly amusing anecdotes about her family, who she referred to as "The Nuts." I'll have to recount it for you in full in another post.

The afternoon started the workshops and the first one I took was "Honing Your Pitch." It was being presented by an author named Winnie Griggs and by Wanda Ottewell, the senior editor for Harlequin Superromance. That's one of the lines I am specifically targeting so I really wanted to hear what she had to say about pitching. I found it very helpful and when I got back to my room that night I wrote up a pitch using their guidelines.

Friday morning I got on line to see if I could get a wait list appointment to see Wanda or one of her co-workers from Harlequin. I had been unable to obtain an appointment in advance. Wanda was fully booked, of course, but I was able to get time with an editor for the American Romance line, Johanna Raisanen. She was soooo nice and while she wasn't sure that my book was right for her line, she can also acquire for the Super line and she invited me to send her three chapters and a synopsis. Needless to say, I was on cloud nine after that.

The rest of the morning was more workshops followed by lunch where we were treated to yet another fantastic speaker. Best selling author Eloisa James, writer of historical romances, gave a speech that was funny, heartbreaking, moving, uplifting, and completely inspirational. The first workshop I went to after her talk was being given by Donald Maass, agent and author of "Writing the Breakout Novel," and he even commented on how incredible her speech was.

Mr. Maass's workshop was very good. Rather than give handouts and have us take notes, he had us do practical exercises right there in the workshop and use our own work in progress as the starting point. It was great. In less than twenty minutes I had two rough scenes that I want to put into my manuscript. (That was the one downside of this conference - realizing that my manuscript is not really in the final polishing stage as I had thought. It still needs a LOT of work. But I am glad to have realized this before I sent it out anywhere.)

Saturday was more workshops and my second pitch appointment. This one was with Victoria Curran, an editor with Superromance. She pointed out some red flags in my story but she still invited me to send her three chapters and the synopsis. I told her Johanna had asked me to do the same and what was the proper etiquette in that situation. She said for me to pick one of them and then indicate in my cover letter that the other one was interested in it as well. So I was feeling pretty good about that. The rest of the workshops went well, with the one glitch of a fire alarm going off in the afternoon and we had to evacuate. But we got back inside shortly and it was only one workshop that was lost. Oh well.

Saturday night was the awards ceremony to present the Golden Heart and Rita winners. I didn't realize that this was going to be a formal event so I was a bit under dressed. Some ladies went all out with ball gowns, jewelry and hairdos. This really is the Romance Writers Academy Awards, complete with an emcee (the delightfully charming and witty drama queen Anne Stuart), a deep voiced announcer, humorous video clips, music matched up to book titles, and many tearful and funny thank you speeches. Nora Roberts was there and won an award for her book Tribute.

After the awards was a reception with chocolaty desserts and a cash bar. At that point I was exhausted so I made it a fairly early night but it was nice to see everyone relaxing and enjoying themselves after three days of workshops.

Sunday morning I slept in a bit before hitting the road back home. I had been toying with the idea of going to the zoo before I left as it was about two blocks from the hotel and I had already done the Smithsonian and other museums on previous visits to the D.C. area, but in the end I decided against it. It's summertime and between me and home is the New Jersey Turnpike, bound to be chock full of weekenders heading home from the Jersey Shore. I think I made the right choice because while I didn't hit any truly god-awful traffic jams, I did hit a few significant slow downs.

So all in all I had a fantastic time. I learned a lot and had plenty of fun, too. And there were lots of books given away as well as pens, bookmarks, buttons, and other assorted paraphernalia - I hit the Goody Room several times (yes, it's true, I have no shame). In one of the workshops given by an author, she gave away some of her books and autographed them afterwards. Her name was Susan Enoch and I kept thinking that name was very familiar to me although I was sure I had not yet read any of her books. Later on it came to me that my pal Dyann wrote a post about attending an event in Las Vegas where Ms. Enoch was a speaker - click here to read Dyann's post on the event.

I'm hoping I will be able to go to this conference again next year. It's in Nashville and is sure to be just as great as this one.

Our Boy Thespian

Weekend before last, I had the pleasure of going to Virginia to see my nephew, Mikey, and his fellow high school classmates put on a production of Romeo and Juliet. They did a great job and as I was sitting there watching, I realized it was the first time I ever actually saw Romeo and Juliet from beginning to end. I never actually read the play in school (although I certainly remember slogging through Hamlet, MacBeth, and The Merchant of Venice) but I have seen bits and pieces of the various film versions. Not to mention that R & J has been the backdrop of other films and TV programs over the years, most notably in Shakespeare in Love, and also (probably less notably) in that classic Brady Bunch episode where Marcia's nabbing of the coveted Juliet role goes straight to her pretty blonde head, much to the annoyance of the rest of the Brady clan. Anyway, I realized that although through the process of osmosis I knew the major plot points and, of course, the tragic ending, there was quite a bunch of little stuff that I didn't know.

For instance (spoiler alert!!), did you know that R & J actually got married? And they spent a night together? I didn't know any of that. I thought they were virginal lovers (I guess that's an oxymoron, isn't it?) from rival houses who died before they had a chance to wed or consummate their love. There were a couple of other little things, but that was the biggie for me.

Anyway, back to Mikey. He played Juliet's father, Lord Capulet. For the most part, this is a fairly calm role. However, there is one scene (another one I didn't know about, I might add) where Lord Capulet loses his temper with Juliet. Not only does he yell at her, but he slaps her around a bit and grabs her and shakes her by the hair. Now, for those of you that don't know him, Mikey (he'd probably hate it that I'm calling him Mikey here in public but I can't help it, he will always be Mikey to me) is a big guy. He's seventeen years old, about 6 feet two inches tall. I'm not sure of his exact weight but I'm guessing it's upwards of 180. And of course, the young lady playing Juliet was a sweet looking, petite, blonde sixteen year old. He simply towered over her, and it looked as though he could have flung her across the stage with one hand if he wanted to.

Mikey did such a great job with this scene. His real life personality is fairly quiet and very good natured, sprinkled with the occasional spate of serial joke telling. Watching him onstage in this scene had me ripped in two. One part of me had my eyes bugging out of my head to see my sweet nephew acting so nastily with such vehemence. The other part of me wanted to go up on stage and clean his clock for picking on such a defenseless and darling young girl. I can only imagine how her family must have felt watching that scene!

Afterwards, I asked him about that scene. Juliet, who also did a great job, had squealed so convincingly I was wondering if her hair really got pulled a bit during the process. He never actually slaps her, you could tell that from the audience, but it's so easy to pull hair, even if you don't mean to. He put my fears to rest, explaining to his paranoid Auntie Maura that once he put his hand on her head, she grabs him by the wrist and then she is the one who actually pulls his hand around and he just follows her lead. Very clever, these acting folk!

The rest of that weekend was spent visiting with my sister's family. Besides me, Mikey's Aunt Sheila (on his dad's side) came to see the play as well. I hadn't seen Sheila in ages so it was really nice to catch up with her. We spent our time eating great food, drinking good wine, and laughing a lot.

Below are some pictures from the play. The ones of the actual play came out a little blurry but I had to try and capture that scene on "film" (actually it was a digital camera but 'capture it on digital' doesn't sound quite right to me). But the ones after the play was over came out all right.

Mikey graduates high school this year and is off to college in the fall. He is already planning to join the drama club there and I am looking forward to seeing him in his next production!


































Lord Capulet and his parents













With his Aunt Sheila














With one of his fellow castmates and her boyfriend (I feel terrible because she is so nice but I forget her name; the boyfriend was not in the play).









With two of his fellow castmates - the young lady on the left, Lexie, was his date for the prom.

Bird by Bird

This will be a quick post since I have been wacky busy lately, and will continue to be for the next day or two at least. I have a few topics I want to get to and hope to do so as the week progresses. However, in the interest of trying to blog a little more regularly, tonight I am just going to give a quick review of Ann Lamott's book, Bird by Bird.

I just finished it the other day and it is definitely a book I will be re-reading as I continue to work on my writing skills. The book imparts some great advice and is done fairly straightforwardly. Ms. Lamott has a wonderfully wicked sense of humor and I found myself snickering my way through many portions of the book. She is also slightly neurotic and is not at all shy about sharing her insecurities and paranoia. She also shares some heartbreaking stories about her father and her best friend, both of whom she lost to untimely illnesses. And as she is a mother, it can almost go without saying that she shares some great stories about her son, Sam. And she pulls all of this into her instruction on writing. I think the fact that she shared so much of her personal story and how she wove it into her writing life is one of the reasons I liked the book so much. She seemed like a very real person to me, much more than just words on a page.

So Bird by Bird gets a big thumbs up from me. If you ever read it, let me know your thoughts. :)