Oh the weather outside is ....

The weather is the news this week -- snow, ice, bitterly cold temperatures. We didn't get above 0 (yes, zero) for a day or two and now the wind is whipping up, so even though we'll be above zero, it'll still feel below zero.

I like a few days like this. I've always said the best thing about shoveling the driveway is the hot chocolate or coffee waiting for me when I'm done. This nasty weather really makes me appreciate a warm fireplace and a good furnace. I like winter, too, because no one expects you to be out and about in such awful weather. A few diehards go out cross-country skiing or snowboarding, but usually people just huddle inside. In the summertime when it's annoyingly hot people still are out doing sports and I always feel vaguely guilty that I'm not out gardening or walking or doing something in the heat.

Of course, by March it's getting old. By that time there's no place left to put the snow I've shoveled and my shoulders are groaning because I can't toss the shoveled snow high enough to get over the piles at the side of the drive. But I won't think that far ahead. I'm only going to look to January, when it will still be a novelty to have winter coats and boots as part of daily attire and when I still think a fresh coat of snow is pretty.

Okay, time to go out and shovel now. Then back inside for some hot cocoa. Yum!

A world of ridiculous

It's gotten to the point that when I open a web site (I no longer open newspapers, I open a web site for a newspaper) I'm not shocked by what I see.

Selling a Senate seat? No surprise (it is, after all, Chicago).

Mother killed her child? No surprise. The mother was a teenager when the kid was born: no, she should never have had children in the first place. This happens deplorably often but don't get me started on people who insist chastity is the answer.

Car companies begging for money? This one had me flummoxed for a while. You want money because you made bad decisions and oops, they've come home to roost? You make a crappy product and nobody will buy it and your workers are overpaid and you want more money? Then I realized that the auto cars saw bankers and Wall Street execs get rewarded for just that, so they figured they could get some, too.

Cholera outbreaks overseas in a country that has a flourishing economy. Oh, wait -- the country's leader is diverting money that should go to infrastructure and preventing people from having to drink from streams that also serve as sewers.

I used to read 'end of the world' books: The Stand, War Day, Alas Babylon. The news headlines today are eerily like some of the ones ficionalized in those books. It's hard to maintain perspective, much less have any hope for the future when we are constantly bombarded by news like this.

And yet I am hopeful. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but Americans are really at our best when our backs are against the wall. That's when new innovations are discovered, new methods are put in place, new leaders emerge, and new ideas take off.

I am cautiously optimistic about 2009 but I think our country is ready for a major shakeup and change. It remains to be seen if it can be done or if we've become so entrenched in the Old Ways that we can't change. But I think we will.

If we don't, then I'll have some great ideas for plots for my next books ....

5 (count them, 5) books to promo

This is like a conjunction of moon and stars. I've got 5 books to promo this month.

Endurance, which just released in download. This is a paranormal time travel reincarnation love story starring a telepathic dog, a skeptical man, and a spunky, funny heroine.

Brilliant Disguise, which came out in download in August and is in print now. This is my "FBI vs. small-town gossips" book, which has gotten a lot of good reviews.

Autographs, Abductions & A-List Authors, which came out in download in June and is now in print. This is a first-person POV mystery starring Bea Emerson, newly published author, who attends a writer's conference and gets embroiled in a mystery.

Candy, Corpses and Classified Ads (the Pig Book), which came out in February this year and in print in August. It's up for an Eppie award, to be presented next March. The PB is about a woman whose ex-husband gets killed off and the woman's ex-lover is the cop invesigating the murder.

If Not For You, a romantic suspense book that came out in download last December. This is also up for an Eppie award. It stars an uptight businessman and an ex-hippy who get caught up in corporate shenanigans.

This is why I'm so glad my publisher, Wild Rose Press, now releases print and download books at the same time. No more of this double promo stuff -- it will make my life SO much easier!

This is what writing should feel like ...

I'm working on the Oz book -- another 1st person mystery set in Kansas after a tornado. I'm writing a few pages a day, somewhat effortlessly. The story is flowing off my fingertips and into the keyboard.

This is the way I like to write. On my previous WIP it was a struggle. I just never felt like I connected well with the characters. I think I crafted a good book, but it was just that -- a craft exercise, a placing of words on the page without that visceral connection to the plot or the setting throughout the book. I did feel that in spots, but in other spots I had to analyze what I was writing and deliberately think, "Now, what's needed here? Should Dru get lost or should I have her meet with Cal and his group?"

In the book I'm writing now, the characters are dictating the story and it's such a relief! With stories like this, I can write my draft, let it sit, then come back and review it later. I don't feel I need to tweak it and prod it and massage it. My character has determined the scope of the story and I'm just telling it. I do nudge things in certain directions, of course, but overall the feeling of the story is all done by the time the first draft is done.

I think this is my niche. Many folks think first-person mysteries are tough to write, but I find them refreshing and invigorating. Yep. My niche. I'm here.

The sign of an empty mind ....

I'm in between books again. Just finished edits on two and sent them to an editor for consideration, and not quite ready to start the next one.

As I was driving to work today, I realized I didn't 'have to' think about a book. Usually when I'm deep into writing, I'll use spare 'duh' moments (when I don't need 100% attention on the task at hand) waiting in line, TV watching and yes, sometimes, driving, to think about my book. I'll say 'where am I? Oh, yeah. Dru has gone into that room and what needs to be said next?' And I'll allow my mind to wander at will on the plot. I'll jot down ideas when I can and when I sit down to write, I'll have a good sense of what I want to accomplish.

It feels sometimes like I'm renting out 'brain cycles' to my book and letting it take me over for a time. I'm really noticing it now when I don't have anything percolating in the front of my brain. There's one spot in my commute when I can sort of relax (all the merging of cars is done and it's just a straight shot to the office). Today I got there and thought: 'hmm. No plot to think about. What an odd feeling.'

I suspect this will last about 3 or 4 days then I'll be back into it. I'm already making notes about ideas. Until then ... an empty mind. Another interesting side effect of writing....