At The Beach

That's where I'll be when you're reading this. My best friend and I are taking two boys, four yoga mats, art supplies, Stargate Atlantis on DVD and some killer tunes with us a for a week-long getaway on the beautiful, quiet and wild North Coast of California.

We could be in for sun or fog, maybe a day or two of blustery wind. It won't matter; the little house we rented has a fenced yard, a nice deck (perfect for daily yoga), a wood-burning stove and a hot tub. We're a short 1/4 mile on a trail through the dunes to beaches with no public access whatsoever. There's a full moon rolling in and we'll be out underneath it in a circle of candles on the sand, making magic and celebrating life.

I'm bringing some books along, naturally. I was just packing them up, which got me thinking about summer reading. I admit - I don't read nearly as much as I used to now that I'm a full-time writer. At the end of a day's work, the last thing I want to look at are more words. I try to keep up with my blog mates' books, and my CPs are pretty darn prolific. So when the opportunity to snag something off the shelf just for the heck of it arises, you'll usually catch me grabbing non-fiction, poetry, or YA/UF. I'm not sure the latter qualifies as "free reading" though, because I'm writing in the genre so I read with a clinical eye. Also, a lot of the non-fiction is research related; does that count?

So what am I taking on vacation?

1) Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone. My 6-year-old loves the movies and is dying to hear the book. He's a great reader for his age, but that's still above his abilities. So the rest of us will be taking turns reading aloud.

2) The White Page: Twentieth Century Irish Women Poets (I love a little poetry with my morning coffee. It's kind of become a habit of mine.)

3) Voodoo and Hoodoo. (Okay it's research. Don't you know writers never really take vacation?)

4) The Bushido. (Also research. *rolls eyes at self*)

5) Yeah Dave's Guide For Livin' the Moment: Getting to Ecstasy through Wine, Chocolate and Your iPod Playlist. (So NOT research! *laughs* Unless researching a healthy life-work balance counts.)

6)My current WIP. (Remember that thing about writers not taking vacations? Um, yeah.)I'm at that sticky mid-point where fogwalkers start to get seriously lost. It always helps me to go back and read the whole thing through before I continue and besides, I'm hoping that will keep the Insidious Other Story from sneaking into my brain and latching on like a barnacle. Normally, I don't worry about stuff like this, but the IOS takes place in the exact part of the world I'll be visiting, so ideas are bound to come up. And up. And up...

For my eldest, I'm taking the final two books in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. He's completely nutso about these books - just read and re-read the first three back-to-back. If you have a middle school aged boy in your life, I highly recommend them.

My youngest gets Mo Willems latest - Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed - and Lois Elhert's Feathers for Lunch. Both of these authors write terrific picture books. I've never met a kid who didn't love them. This rounds out our collection of both of their works. It's exciting that my little one can read books to me now instead of the other way around. Bedtime is always my turn, though. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Your turn! Tell us what you're reading this summer. I won't be here to respond today, but I'll definitely be eager to see what books all of you are digging these days.

When A Book Is A Challenge

My parents and I visited a lot of ghost towns during vacations and they always fascinated me.

And I always knew I would use a ghost town in one of my books. Using that for background for Thea, the diva romance writer witch seemed more appropriate. After all, she’s the one who thrives in haute couture, who stays in 5 star hotels and prefers not to look back on her time living during those centuries where there wasn’t indoor plumbing, central heat and air, and spa services.

I thought “easy peasy”. Send the arrogant witch to a ghost town where she’s back in the late 1800s. I have lots of reference books on ghost towns, so that’s a help.

Uh huh.

But there’s a lot more to it than just dumping her in a long deserted town that holds a lot of secrets. A town that’s basically frozen in time and hasn’t moved past 1872.

That means anything I write for that town has to work for that time period. I spent a lot of time on line making sure the guns I mentioned were around during then, clothing styles were correct, song titles, even trying to find slang for then. I wanted to do everything I could to make sure I remained in the correct time period and that no reader would say, “hm, she didn’t do her research.”

The book has been fun to write, surprises even popped up that I didn’t expect, and it proved to be a real challenge.

I just hope my readers will enjoy my efforts.

Linda

The Shift of the Seasons, The Comfort of Routine

I felt the shift of the seasons Saturday. I was sitting here at my desk, taking care of some business, and all of a sudden the world turned. Yes, it was still extremely hot for the area and we’ll probably still have a few hot spells between now and the fall, but I could feel it—autumn calling from the distance, a hint that summer is on its way toward a definite end. And it gave me a burst of energy, a sense of ‘let’s hurry up and get ready for autumn and work and productivity.’

For me, summers have always been lazy—not for want of work, not because I feel lazy, but between vacations and summer sports, it feels like it takes me twice as long to get in touch with people I need to as it does during the rest of the year.

But once September hits, it’s back to business. I suppose that’s what I find comforting about the autumn. I am a creature of routine—I have a mild OCD condition, but it’s strong enough to make me uncomfortable when my schedule is interrupted. I jokingly compare myself to the cats—they don’t like interrupted schedules either and get Very Distressed when it happens. So do I, unless I’ve planned for it ahead of time, and even then I get mildly anxious.

So yes, this week I felt the shift of the year. And it put me in the mood to start planning out my autumn and winter activities—I love flipping through my Day-Timer and jotting down “decorate for autumn” and “Yule party” and “Lughnasadh celebration”…it gives me a sense of continuity, of tradition. Summer is chaotic to me—maybe that’s why I always feel disconcerted during the summer months, even though I love warm weather. But once we’re back to the bare beginnings of autumn, a sense of order and routine return. And with it, traditions and rituals.

I suppose that’s what it comes down to for me: traditions and rituals, even if it’s as simple as putting up a few garlands or holding an annual dinner. For me, these activities mark the milestones of life—they represent the turning of the years, the coming back to touchstones. The faces at the table may change over the years, but some continue on. Circumstances change for the worse or the better, but the comfort of the ritual remains. As I fall into the rhythm of planning the dinner, I remember dinners past, cooking for friends, and I think, “I remember the year when Brad clogged the garbage disposal” and I tell Samwise, “Do you remember the year when we caught Luna hunting through the goodies on the table at the Yule party?”

Memories, rituals, traditions, connection with friends, for some reason they all come to the front for me as autumn begins to peek through the summer haze. I think of heavy wood furniture, good china, leather chairs, cats curled by the heater, my favorite pen and personal journal, and the golden glow of the living room lights against a gusty, rainy night…And I remember why autumn’s always been my favorite season.

What significance does this in-between time have for you? (Here’s in the PNW, our summers are short, so we are definitely on an in-between point as we head toward August). What do you associate with this time of year?

Yasmine

Urban inspiration, or how did that story start?

Like many writers, I can't tell you where the inspiration for a particular story comes from. All I know is that one day a sentence or, less frequently, a title appears in my head. And from that single sentence or title, the whole novel or story arrives fullblown as if from the head of Zeus.

I know that sounds a bit fanciful, but it's true. I have no freakin' idea where it all comes from. Truly.

But what I can tell you is that a whole heck of a lot of those sentences or titles comes from walking around the city and on the beach and through Stanley Park. Maybe not quite all of them, but most of them for sure.

So I can show you a little bit of what inspires me and where particular stories came from. DRAGONFLIES AND DINOSAURS was my first published novel and I can remember exactly where it happened. It was a rainy fall day and I was walking on the Seawall - right about here...

And I started counting great blue herons just like this one (though those of you who read the book might be wondering... the herons turned into red-tailed hawks in the book - again, who knows why things happen?)...

The tide was out and there are always more of them around when the tide's out. They're standing so gracefully in the water waiting for a frog or a fish to move. They'll stand still like that for hours and if you're not patient, you won't see them move at all.

Walking to work one morning, I saw a shape on the sidewalk. It was a cracked heart somehow embedded in the pavement. That became the inspiration for a story - Castle of the Heart. Another morning, I spotted some graffiti and it became the title of a story and a collection of stories - Naked for Jesus. I'm still wondering about that one - what was the graffiti artist thinking about? Didn't matter - turned into a great story for me.

This little raccoon - yes, there are plenty of raccoons in the neighborhood - along with his coyote and skunk pals inspired me to put a forest in my latest novella, THE DEMON NEXT DOOR. The forest (and a grizzly bear) play a big part in the story.

There's always something to see in the city, always something to take your attention away from the mundane and the practical, always something that seems so fantastic it can't possibly be real.

If I were a true romance writer, this boat on this day would inspire me to write a romance - but not your traditional one with the Greek tycoon and his child's young nanny. Nope, my romance would be about the guy who cleans these boats waiting for his big break as a cellist. And she, she would be a lonely, sad woman who walks by the boat and falls in love with its beauty. Not at all your traditional romance, I'm afraid, because he never does become a world famous cellist and she just works in an office, but they fall in love and live happily ever after.

What about you? What inspires you?

Kate

Another Fine Mess You've Gotten Me Into...

So, July 4th was this weekend. Of course that means fireworks and fireflies and noise and celebration and bunnies and screen doors and...

Ten month old puppies Who Haven't Got A Clue going through screen doors when said door is not open. Because there was a bunny and a firework and the two things together were absolutely unacceptable. The first had to be captured and slayed (it got away this time), the second had to be escaped (or captured and slayed, depending upon your point of view). When she slammed it, the whole door came off, pop, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It was gone, not even shreds left.

It was an amazing feat - especially when she realized it about 30 seconds after she hit the ground at a dead run after the bunny without even noticing that she'd bounced through an obstacle first. The expression on her face then was priceless - and yes, we quickly dissuaded her from the idea that going through doors without opening them would be of future use to her. She is now working on doing the latches by herself.

She's a revelation, is our Miss Olivia. Boxer and bull mastiff on her mother's side, dad ran off before anyone could determine what he might have brought to the mix. She's a joyful, generally intelligent airhead who must have something in her mouth at all times and prefers to mow the lawn and chase swallows above all things (because she's a modern day coach dog, she is, and mowing the lawn entails going back and forth and around and about at a dead run beside the lawn tractor, proving that she is much much much faster than it!)

I raised a son who weighed in at 10 pounds 12 ounces when he was born. My mother, keeper of 8 children herself, could never quite get her mind around this child of mine and labeled him Bam-Bam right from the start. It was an appropriate name, given his ability to rip child-proofing safety measures right out of the walls and plow through them on under-counter and -sink doors by the time he was in his walker. Olivia rivals his abilities - or perhaps I should say proclivities. *sly grin* At 28, my son is a wonderful combination of gentleness and strength, everything I could hope for and more. Right now, as I sit outside in my screenhouse office and eye the Evil Queen of Puppydom watching me from behind the closed glass doors on the deck (she would decimate my screenhouse and I'm At Work!) I can only hope she follows in my son's footsteps and eventually becomes

The Sunshine Princess of All I Survey.

But perhaps I like to fantasize too much... ;-)

Terey

Happy 4th of July & We'll See You On The 6th!

Have a happy, safe, and healthy 4th of July!
Don't drink and drive, watch out for the currents if you go rafting, and when you jump out of that airplane skydiving, make sure you take your parachute with you!

~grins~ We're taking a few days off to enjoy the summer so we'll see y'all on the 6th as usual.

Yasmine, Linda, Lisa, Terey, Candy, Kate, Annette, Maura & Cathy

Candy's Writing

I have a new book, "Dragons Prefer Blondes," coming out Tuesday, July 7, and I'm having a bit of freak out. As much as I planned for the promotional tour for this book, it still came around much faster than expected. I feel like a hamster in one of those wheels and I'll never catch up. :-)

Not that I'm complaining. Really, I'm not. In fact, having a book come out is pretty darn exciting. I've already received some emails from early reviewers who loved it, and that's the sort of thing that can make my day/month/year. I don't think my readers have any idea just how much their lovely emails mean to me. I try to tell them, but I think only another writer really gets that feeling.

What we do is art, and can be interpreted in so many way. For me, it's exciting that people get my books on different levels. I write them that way. Someone can pick one up and it's a good, fast read. Another person sees the comments I'm making on society. They are both right, and I appreciate one's opinion as much as the other.

Those letters are what help me during this freak out period when I'm worried about book sales, and if I've done enough to get the word out. So this is a thank you, to those of you who do take the time to write. I love and adore you all.

And I'd like to hear what you do to keep yourself from worrying about things you can't control.

By commenting here TODAY ONLY on my post you are automatically entered into a contest to win an Amazon gift certificate and other prizes. I’m also running a treasure hunt and you can find all the details at www.candacehavens.com.