My Jeep

This is an essay I wrote for a writing class. I have tweaked it a bit. You know what they say. A work of writing is never done. 

            My Jeep wrangler is my daily driver, as well as my ride to adventure. My husband and I love to go on adventures together. Her name is Baby Doll, and she is seldom sparkling clean. She is built to play off road.  She has a cargo rack on top to hold our survival and recovery gear for our trips. She has enough lights to make daylight out of the nothingness that is dark. She has a soft top that folds down so we can have the heat of the sun and the movement of wind on our faces. There are drain plugs in the floor so we can drain the water out if we drive through a deep puddle; if we get mud inside we can wash it out with a garden hose. 

She has large fenders to cover large tires. The tires make a humming noise when driving down the highway. When a small rock is picked up in the tread it will make a clickety clack noise while driving on pavement, similar to the sound of tap shoes. The Fenders don’t keep mud from flinging up the side of my Jeep. It is not uncommon for the driver and passenger to take mud showers. Mud is not always the best smelling stuff on earth.  Mud from old river beds smells like old rotting fish, mud from a field can smell more of livestock droppings. If you are not careful you may get to enjoy the taste of the mud. Not something I would encourage.  Luckily these smells often go away once the mud dries and leaves a crusty mess on my jeep. When the mud dries it feels the same as if you were to run your hands over parched rough ground.  This always makes me think of the old Westerns. The ones where the cow boy is staggering through the desert and the scavengers are flying overhead.

She is loud to ride in. When the top is up you hear all the wind drag noise from the top flapping. When you have the windows out or the top down you hear all the wind rushing past.  There are days I think about stocking her with ear plugs.  You have to yell if you are going over 35 mph to speak with your passengers. Riding in a jeep is not like riding in a car or truck. When driving down a paved road it is not uncommon to be tossed side to side when hitting uneven spots in the road. I often feel like I’m on a roller coaster swaying from side to side and jerking back and forth. This is due to the fact she is built to make my off road ride smoother.  I enjoy this sensation it brings back memories of past adventures with my husband.

Interview With YA Author JILLIAN BOEHME

JILLIAN BOEHME writes MG and YA science fiction and fantasy and runs a successful blog for aspiring authors. She is the homeschooling mom of 5 incredible offspring and wishes someone would make gourmet meals for her and clean up the kitchen every night. Or at least rub her feet while she's writing. She lives with her husband and children in the rolling knolls of Middle Tennessee.

     I met Jillian many moons ago on a website for stay at home parents. We we won't go in to how many moons ago because that could give away some age details. We all know you never ask a woman her age! We have been online friends for most of that time .Jillian has been willing to indulge my amateur interview skills. Someday ( hopefully in the not to distant future) Jillian will be a famous author! 

   
1) When did you realize you wanted to be a writer? Have you always just known? Or was it one particular event? Maybe it was gradual?

          It's funny; when I revisit my childhood, I can see so clearly that I've always been a storyteller. I wrote my first rhyming poem when I was six, and my collection of illustrated picture books grew large over the years. I was one of those kids-who-like-to-do-lots-of-things, though, and in the end, my love of music won out. I got a degree in Music Education. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I rediscovered my love for writing. There was a web site called Themestream that paid its writers 10 cents per click. I made hundreds of dollars and paid for Christmas that year! Unfortunately, the site's business model was flawed, and they eventually ran out of money and shut down. I came away from that experience calling myself an "essayist" and believing that I could never -- I mean NEVER -- write a novel.

Silly me. I think I was meant to write novels all along. :)


2) How did you figure out what genre you really wanted to write? What is your genre of choice.
          

          My first novel was fantasy -- no surprise, since that was always my first love. Like all first novels, it ended up with the label "practice novel" and tucked away. But my love for science fiction and fantasy hasn't changed. I'm not sure why I decided, at first, to write for teens, but now I can't imagine writing for any other audience. So my genre of choice is definitely YA, and I've written fantasy, dystopian, and--my latest--a paranormal.


3) How do you find time to write without the distractions of life around you? I know as a home schooling stay at home mom your time must be limited. 

          Actually, quite the opposite is true! As my children enter high school, most of their work is independent, via CD-ROMS and such. I outsource the higher sciences, so they take those classes at a tutorial. My four-year-old naps from 1-3, so that's my writing time. Period. In fact, it's SACRED. I won't make appointments or anything during that time. (And woe is me, because my daughter is starting to outgrow her naps!) Also, my kids are supportive of my writing, and that helps. If they were wee, things would be a lot harder. But the older and more independent they become, the easier it is for me to write, and to work on all my writing-related things.


4) I know you are like me in that you like to start your writing in a notebook. Letting it flow on lined paper with a pencil just seems to work so much better than sitting at a computer and letting my fingers type away. The big question is can you read your own writing? I know For me I struggle a bit to figure out what I wrote LOL. 

          My handwriting is AWFUL! I think way faster than I can write, but for some reason I keep trying to catch up anyway. I use my notebooks for working out plot, and sometimes even sketching characters (very badly -- I mean, seriously!). But once I start the actual draft, it's all on my laptop. Scrivener is my tool of choice!


5) Speaking of reading a topic you and I have discussed on occasion. What is your favorite genres to read?
          Fantasy! Though I also love nineteenth century novels; Jane Austen is my favorite author. But I was one of those kids who read Nancy Drew and was frustrated that the ghosts and magical elements always ended up being someone pretending. Once I discovered the world of books that contained magic *for real*, I was hooked!


6) I know you are a self-published Author of “My Lima Beans Are Allergic to My Spoon” . This Is a book every parent or soon to be parent should read. Do you think you will ever self-publish again?
          You know, if I were to write another non-fiction book, I would definitely self-publish. It was a great experience! But I don't believe self-publishing is necessarily the best choice for fiction. Not unless you have many thousands of dollars to invest in order to do it right. Pursuing traditional publishing can be VERY frustrating, but I'm blessed with a great agent who is enthusiastic and supportive.


7) I know you have a new book in the works. Are you at a point you can share a little bit? Or are you still in the hush hush stage?

          The novel I'm currently tweaking with my agent is a YA paranormal set in a small beach town in New Jersey. It's funny, because when I started writing it, I was sure it was going to be urban fantasy. It sort of turned into a paranormal all by itself!


8) Is there anything else you would like to share about your writing that you have always wanted to explain to others?

          I gave up trying to explain myself to others a long time ago! ;) But I think I would like people to know that when I'm sitting and staring out the window or at my blank screen, I'm actually WORKING. Because plotting is hard--it makes the inside of my head hurt! Logic doesn't come easily for me, so the plotting really stretches me. I guess I'm trying to say that writing novels is HARD WORK. That doesn't make me wonderful; it's just the truth. I'm glad I didn't know how hard it was when I first started, or I may have given up!

Interview with RS Author Betsy Horvath

BIOGRAPHY
     Betsy Horvath was raised on MGM musicals, old skool Harlequins, and Nancy Drew, so it should not have come as a shock that one day she'd be writing romance novels. The biggest surprise was that it took her so long to actually buckle down and do it.
     After mild flirtations with other genres and the completion of her B.A. in English, Betsy took a good look at her bookshelves. She realized that although she owned about a million romances, she hadn’t picked up anything by William Faulkner or James Joyce in years. An epiphany ensued and Betsy embraced her destiny as a romance author.
     Betsy lives in quiet, tasteful, splendor at the Palatial Horvath Estate surrounded by four cats, an elderly zebra finch, and far too much technology. You can usually find her at her website (www.betsyhorvath.com), on Twitter (www.twitter.com/BetsyHorvath), or hanging around Facebook (www.facebook.com/BetsyHorvath)

     I discovered Betsy through author Toni Anderson. It all started over an invite to Google+ I had one to give and Betsy wanted one. At that point I had no idea she was an author about to have her first book HOLD ME  released by Carina Press .  Once I discovered Betsys secret identity as an RS author me being me had to buy it and read it. I know big shock right? I fell in love with her leading lady Katie! She was brave, cute and wholesome all at the same time. Lucas wasn't bad as a leading man either :-) He had sex appeal, charm and self doubt.

Now on to the interview! 

1. I think most readers are under the misguided impression that all authors are rich and all they do is write for a living. I use to be one of those misguided readers, but I have learned a lot since talking to authors. I know you have a day job. What do you do for your “day job”? ( no need to give away company secrets!) 

     That's the dream isn't it? And boy, I WISH all authors were rich! LOL I think authors are like actors - there's a small percentage who can support themselves by writing, and the rest of us merely aspire to reach that point. :D I do indeed have a day job. I work with an extremely large marketing database - basically I write query language to help the marketers implement various projects and strategies. It works for me, because it's actually pretty creative - you ask me for "female, age 50-60 in Florida" and I figure out the best way to get the database to cough up that data. On the other hand, it's nothing like writing, so I don't use up all of my fiction juice before I get home. Plus, working with computers so much helped a lot when I was setting up my blog. :D 

2. You talked on your blog about things you have learned from the process of becoming a published author. Your first book HOLD ME came out on September 5th 2011 What one thing sticks out most? 

     Yes, this is the first book I've ever had published, and MAN, have I learned a lot by going through the whole publishing process. I have to say that one of the biggest things I've learned is that I can do it. I CAN get edits back on time. I CAN make my deadlines. I CAN network and blog and participate in a community. The other thing I've learned is how to handle people actually reading my book. Some people like what I've written, some people don't, and I have absolutely no control over who reads it or how they feel (or what they say about it). It's been both a joyous and humbling experience. So, okay, that's two things, not one - LOL 

3. As you were going through the process of finding a publisher and getting HOLD ME published what was the best part of the process? What was the worst part of the process? 

     Well, the best part about finding a publisher is the acceptance call! LOL But I think that goes without saying. :) Other than that, I think my favorite part was getting personal rejection letters from editors and agents. I learned so much about what they were looking for, and why they thought my book wouldn't work for them - they gave me an incredible amount of useful information. My favorite rejection letter was from the lady who became my editor at Carina Press, Rhonda Helms. HOLD ME was initially rejected, but I was invited to revise and resubmit. I'd made call-backs! And, obviously, I did revise and resubmit and the rest is history. :D 

     For me, the worst part about the hunt for a publisher is writing the query letter and the synopsis. It's not that I can't write them, because I can. It's just that I'm never sure they're GOOD enough. And there's so much information out there about writing a query and a synopsis that you can drive yourself crazy. I stew and stew over those darn things until I'm finally satisfied. Then I look at them a month or two later and find things I wish I had changed. 

4. In an effort to get to know you a little better I spent some time reading over your blog. So you can sing the entire score to Oklahoma? WOW can you expand on why you can do this? J Oh and I think the wind swept house on the Oregon coast would be wonderful! Then I could come for a visit when I go on vacation. ( for more on this topic see Betsy’s Blog entry ) 

      Okla-homa! OKLA-HOMA! OKLA-HOMA!!! I know the entire score to Oklahoma because I was stage manager for our high school production. I wasn't a very GOOD stage manager, but I was there! LOL I also know it because my mind is a trash can full of knowledge - stuff goes in there and just sticks sometimes. By the way, I know the score for Carousel because I played a dancing bear. While I fainted from heat exhaustion in my costume, the music swirled around me. :D 

And doesn't the windswept coast of Oregon sound nice? Someday....someday.... 

5. I always ask how a person figures out what genre they want to write, but you answered this question in your Bio. So instead I will ask what do you think interests you most about the Romantic Suspense genre? What parts do you like writing the most? The suspense or the romance? 

      I love how the romance and the suspense work together in the Romantic Suspense genre. In a good RS story, the strong emotions generated by a dangerous or life-threatening situation only serve to heighten the sense of intimacy between the hero and the heroine. All pretense is stripped away. 

     And for me it's all about the romance, baby! Some authors are different - for them the romance is a backdrop for the suspense. But I want the suspense to serve the romance. I want the suspense to be the vehicle that brings the hero and heroine together. 

6. What did you do to celebrate the release of HOLD ME? Anything fun and exciting? 

      Oh, it was VERY fun and exciting. I was on the computer most of the morning answering emails and tweets and such, and promoting myself on another blog. Then I cleaned the house. Living the dream. LOL 

7. Anything you would like to tell your readers that you may not have yet? 

       The only thing I have to say is, don't give up. If you have something you love to do, if you have a dream you'd like to pursue, then don't give up on it. It may take you a while, you may not get there as quickly as someone else, but you CAN do it. The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. :D

Rambling thoughts once again. What can I say it's how I think.

     It's gray and blah today. I have no motivation to do what needs to be done. So I am going to pretend I'm an insect and I'm basking in the warmth of the morning sun. AHH I feel much better now! All warm and comfortable.
     I do have some exciting news though. First time published Author Betsy Horvath has agreed to an interview on my blog. :-) I love picking the brains of authors. I always have these silly little questions pop up when I'm reading. I'm currently reading her book. I am really enjoying her protagonist, but this is not a book review site so you will have to read her book to make your own conclusions .
Right before I sat down to write this blog entry I had 20 things running through my head I wanted to touch on. and POOF! my butt hit the chair and my brain went blank.  Lets see I could touch on... No Politics is not a topic I will discuss. Hmmm I could talk about off road-ing again. No not again. OH I know School.
     I'm really enjoying school again this term. Well my writing and research classes are fun and keep me motivated. PE/health not so much. LOL I am so not a physically motivated person. I know for my own good I really need to change my life style and truly I am trying. It is just not near as fun as reading and writing. Although it is nice that the husband is taking the class with me. Makes it much harder to not do what needs to be done when he is doing it too. We can encourage each other and well the competitive edge in me can't let him get it done first LOL and his perfectionism keeps me from being too sloppy LOL
     Guess I should stop day dreaming about the sun now and get back to real life and to the chores that need to be done.

Have a great weekend!!

Me Enjoy Writing?

Study Partner

     Who knew that I would come to love writing so much and I would want to go to school to learn more about it. Yep that's correct the English flunky LOVES I repeat LOVES writing. Sure I still have a ton to learn about proper writing, but I'm learning and enjoying as I do.
     I have blogged for years now. Some of my readers have been with me for more than ten years and more than a few blog moves. They have also put up with my sloppy sentence structure, horrible punctuation and we won't even talk about my spelling before spell check in browsers LOL 

      I have always loved to share about my families adventures and my life as a stay at home mom. I never thought about using that enjoyment of sharing to work toward a career. I'm not sure exactly what I want to work toward but at least I have a direction to look in to now.  I have never known what I wanted to be other than the stay at home mom that I was. It is nice  to have something tangible to think about.
     I still need to go in and talk to my academic advisor and have my major changed. The community college doesn't offer a "writing" degree so I will have to do some sort of general study degree that will let me take lots of writing classes. I would really like to do my major in  journalism. They have a journalism class but not a degree. I will have to wait until I get to the University for that.  
     Another thing I never thought about was research. I have always been the sort that if I didn't know what something was I looked it up. I want to know what people are talking about around me and learn new things. So research is something I have done on a small scale for a long time.  I never thought about taking a class in how to research until my writing teacher suggested one on our syllabus. I figured what the heck it won't hurt to take it. Who knew I would enjoy learning research techniques LOL Yep I'm actually enjoying the text book.   NEVER in a million years did I think I would enjoy a text book especially on research LOL

Ok off to do more home work

Must Sleep With Notebook! Yawn

     I have a short essay do on Monday. I have not really put much thought in to it. The ideas are just kind of rolling around in the back of my head.

     It is now 1:30 am Saturday morning I'm done with the other home work I needed to finish. I go to bed because I can no longer keep my eye lids open. I snuggle down in to my nice soft warm bed. I pull my blanket up to my chin, breath a sigh of contentment and start to drift off in to the place between wake and sleep. A blissful place of no worries and no stress. A deep dark black nothing.

     Just as I reach my little black bliss BOOM!!!!!!!!!!! my head explodes with my essay. Words are swimming around in my head bouncing off my mostly empty cranium. The words start forming an introduction paragraph. My eyes fly open and I sit straight up. I KNOW from experience If I don't get this down on paper I will forget before morning.  I toss my nice warm covers off and run half naked to the living room. Hoping all the while my son stays in his room! I grab my note book and run back to bed.

     Ahhhh The words start flowing from my head to my hand. I'm writing as fast as I can. Trying to keep up with the flow of words that have stopped bouncing around and are forming complete thoughts. Well as complete as ones brain can be at 1:30 am after a day of school work. Now the hard part! Trying to read my awful handwriting LOL yep I have chicken scratch for handwriting and have a hard time reading it myself.

     So far this is how all my essays start out. My eyes flying open and rushing to get my thoughts down on paper. I try to be prepared when I know I have a paper to write, but once in a while I get caught off guard with out my trusty notebook. I should just make it a habit to take it to bed every night even when I'm not working on a paper. That would mean I would have to be more organized and well that may just never happen :-)

Interview with Romantic Suspense Writer Toni Anderson

Biography

Toni Anderson is a former Marine Biologist turned Romantic Suspense writer who now lives in the Canadian prairies with her husband and two children.  Her stories are set in the stunning locations where she’s been lucky enough to live and work—the blustery east coast of Scotland, the remote isolated mining communities of Northern Labrador, the rugged landscapes of the U.S. and Australia. Check out Toni’s website for a list of current titles, her blog and Facebook Author Page for writing news and her personal Facebook page and Twitter for constant nonsensical chatter. She is also part of a wonderful group blog—Not Your Usual Suspects. Come introduce yourself.


   
     I discovered Toni Anderson on a lark. I was in need of a long book to listen to while I did some work around the house. I checked out the Romantic Suspense genre at Audible.com ( one of  my favorite genres). Toni had the longest book in the list of books that looked interesting. That book  SEA OF SUSPICION . I was hooked. After finishing this book I looked  to see if she had any other books. WOOHOOO to my delight she had two more books on the shelves. STORM WARNING   and her first book published HER SANCTUARY .


     After reading all three books, I wanted more to read and I wanted to tell the author how much I enjoyed her books. I hit google up and found her on facebook.  I messaged her and told her just how much I enjoyed her books and how I really hoped she had another one coming out. Luckily for me she didn't find me as stalker-ish as I'm sure I sounded and accepted my friend request on facebook.  Toni has been nice enough to indulge me in my amateur  interview skills and is granting me an interview for my blog. Toni describes her books with the tag line  Atmospheric Tales of Love & Murder. I have to agree.  Now on to the Interview. 


1.     I know you had a full career in marine biology before you became a published Author. When did you know you wanted to be a writer? Well a fiction writer anyway? I’m sure you did plenty of writing as a marine biologist J

     If you want references to my old papers I am sure I can track them down...just kidding J. The weird thing is I did a lot of writing as a kid. Poetry, songs, torturous diary entries, but then my older sister read my diary and exposed my secrets to the world and I don’t think I wrote another thing—outside science—for 20 years. Then when I moved to Canada in 1995 (for the first time) I discovered romance novels and this really gave me the impetus to at least think that I could try my hand at writing a novel. When I was back in Scotland, expecting my first child, I finally got the time to give it a go.

2.       How did you figure out what genre you wanted to write?

     I knew what genre I loved to read—Romantic Suspense—and the types of TV shows I love to watch (CSI, Criminal Minds, NCIS), so Romantic Suspense and Mystery seemed like a good fit. I love the idea of people falling in love in difficult, even dangerous, circumstances. Actually, I did once write a straight contemporary aimed at Harlequin Presents (it’s still on my PC). It was the hardest thing I’ve ever written (perhaps barring my current snow leopard story) because you have to maintain tension without any external help. No bullets or bombs to bring the hero and heroine closer together or to drive them apart. It opened my eyes as to how something so simple can actually be incredibly hard to achieve

3.     I know you have shared writing strategies on “Not Your Usual Suspect “ blog such as WIP organization and character naming. Do you enjoy sharing your writing strategies with others? I know I enjoy learning how others go about things.

     This is a difficult question. I do enjoy sharing writing strategies, but I’m never sure I have that much to offer other people. There are so many more established writers out there, and some fantabulous writing books, that what I’m sharing seems very minor. However, if I do help anyone, offer encouragement or inspiration, well, that’s a good thing

 4.      You have your 4^th book  EDGE OF SURVIVAL. Coming November 21st, 2011, from Carina Press. I know your readers are excited for its release.  (if I could I would have stood over you with a whip until you were done! )  When you published your first book HER SANCUARY  could you imagine your 4^th book coming out just a short 2 years later (ok not so short for us readers!) 

*Ouch*. No whips. I’m work hard, honest J. And thank you for being excited J.

     When you say four books in two years it actually sounds pretty good, huh? But, yes, I could imagine it because I’ve been working on these stories for a long time. I’ve been writing for 12 years so no overnight success for me. One thing I would say, I’m not someone who is easily satisfied and I’m never 100% happy with my work, but I am cognizant of the fact that there is a time when you must let it go. I’m getting better at letting go.

5.   Is the release of this book as exciting to you as the first time?

     Yes! Actually I really love all my books. They might not be as perfect as I envisage them before I start writing, but I really love the stories and the characters in my books. I was super excited to write a story set in Northern Labrador and I adore my hero and heroine (just hoping others do too!).

 6.      Do you do anything special to celebrate each release? Like send the kids to a sitter and enjoy some peace and quiet J or do you and your husband go out for a nice dinner and night on the town?

     We go out as a family for a meal, usually fish and chips in the great British tradition. To be honest my hubby is Irish and any excuse for a night on the town, he’ll take it J

7.      I know you are a stay at home mom. When school is out how do you manage to get time in for writing with the little ones running around?

     It can be pretty intense being a mom and a writer. At first you have to pound it into people that you aren’t at home, you’re writing. When the kids are out of school my sanity is strained (understatement). This summer, I took to getting up at 6 am to write. This is totally out of my natural sleep rhythm. I’d write until midday and then I’d do stuff with the kids. I also use earplugs—isn’t that awful? J But my workspace is on the ground floor in an open plan house, so I put earplugs in and ignore everything except blood and broken bones.

8.  Is there anything else you would like to share with your readers?

     I’m always thrilled to hear from readers (well, less thrilled if you didn’t like the book but thankful you paid your hard-earned money to buy the book J). And I love connecting with people online (just ask Doris J) so drop me a comment on my blog, Facebook Author Page or Facebook page.

Again Thank you Toni. I appreciate your willingness to play along. 

Next Author Interview will be with up and coming YA SFF writer Jill Schafer Boehme.