Same Song, Next Verse

News update. Steeple Hill very kindly said "no-thanks" to MY SILENT HEART, so I turned around & sent it somewhere else . The editor's comments, however, were very encouraging--she liked my character, liked my voice. She did use the phrase "not quite there yet", so I'm working on a new story to submit there. Hopefully this one will be "quite there"!

My new book will be a romantic suspense or a mystery. Not sure yet. Since this is a new subgenre than I've tried before, I have to plan it completely differently, and THEN sit down to write. Its working title is TOUCH AND GO. My hero is coming together rather rapidly. Marc Watts is a cop and a sport pilot who's not dealing well with a job-related tragedy. I'm playing with the idea of that tragedy leaving him with agoraphobia, but I'm not sure yet.

Funny--I usually get the female character first, but in Marcus's case, I "know" more about him than I do about my heroine, so I'm dying to see what she'll turn out like as she communicates her character to me. My crit partner says Mercedes Montoya is a lousy name for her, so maybe I'll change it.

That'll be after the holidays--I've taken December as family time. I do love the composting part of the writing process, but during Christmas, my family doesn't care for the thousand-yard stare when they speak to me.

Merry Christmas. I strongly suggest all my readers enjoy family & worship the living Christ.

Let the Music Play!

There's news--MY SILENT HEART may be going places. At least the full MS has been requested and I'm tweaking to send it back! I'm really pleased they want to read the full. Once again I have hopes of "selling big" as they say. Or at least, bigger than previously.

Stay tuned! There may yet be more music!

Waiting to Music

Want the MY SILENT HEART update? I sent the revised and enlarged partial manuscript June 9. I'm still waiting. Eight weeks is not too long to wait for a publisher's reply, but I may give the editor a "status of the project" call this week to find out what I can.

Meanwhile, ANGEL WITH A RAY GUN released as an e-book on July 29. It's available as a print book, too, so I went ahead & ordered. I'm pretty pleased with the quality of the print book. Since this is a much smaller press than my previous publisher, I viewed the print exercise with some trepidation. They use Lulu.com as a print vendor, and of course Lulu's primary business is as a self-publisher. But this one is a bit of alright.

More on the music later. Really.

Writing to Music

Somewhat sheepishly, I need to confess I've entered the 21st century. I'll explain. My 18 year old got a new iPod. So that left the old, less high-tech (and therefore, comprehensible) iPod for Mom. Her nickname is Bean, so her iTunes listing became the Bean Pod. Mom's became the Mom Pod. So I put a whole bunch of my music on it, feeling very proud of myself 'cause there are over 100 songs currently on it. The fun thing is, I'm more productive at the writing thing when I'm listening. Doesn't seem to matter whether I'm writing an upbeat section of a story and listening to mellow, soulful music--the opposite is also true. I think it helps me concentrate.

In other news: the publisher who was reviewing MY SILENT HEART called! Yes! Called! They want revisions and a resubmission, so I'm happily working on that now.

If they want a contract next, you'll be among the first to know. VERY LARGE GRIN...

More later.

Just Tell the Story Redux

Wow, it's been a while since I posted on here. Let's see -- what news? Quite a bit in a short time. MY SILENT HEART went to Harlequin in February and is under consideration there. Haven't heard yet. I sold a novel called ANGEL WITH A RAY GUN to ByGrace Publishing, a small press. It comes out in July, so I'm pretty snorkin' happy about that. Currently, having surrendered work on A ROSE IN LATE OCTOBER, I'm working on revisions to a romance called DAMAGES and working up a new genre (mystery) called UNEARNED. UNEARNED has been really fun to work on, since its main character insists on being a AAA baseball player. I'm learning a lot about how to tell a mystery story and about baseball, at the same time. So it goes -- I keep trying to tell ever-better stories, learn the publishing business, learn my craft...