Luck, Collector's Item Release Party, and Monday Fortune Cookie 5/13/13

YOU WILL BE SHOWERED WITH GOOD LUCK!

SNARKY RESPONSE: Wow! I hope it doesn't leave a stain.

You will be showered with good luck!

Actually, I'm feeling VERY LUCKY this week. Why, you ask?

Because on Friday, May 17th,

COLLECTOR'S ITEM is being Formally Released

by The Wild Rose Press in ALL eformats!

In case you haven't picked up my various posts, hints, blogs, and such about my new paranormal romance, let me share once more the totally fabulous cover and a little hint about the story:

To find her missing aunt,

a headstrong shapeshifter joins forces with a cynical Alpha

to investigate an illegal hunt club,

but when their plan backfires

can she escape a trap of her own making?

In honor of this momentous event, I'll be hosting an all day VIRTUAL RELEASE PARTY on Friday, May 17th! I will posting here, on facebook, and (gasp) tweeting all manner of things COLLECTOR'S ITEM related. And since I can't offer you libations or edible delectables via the www, I'm going to be offering a variety of fun prizes.



Also, All Week (May 17th through May 23rd), I will be offering chances to Enter to Win one of these truly Collectible COLLECTOR'S ITEM mugs filled with various forms of caffeine and oh so yummy chocolate. I'll be sharing all the particulars about the contest on Friday, May 17th here on this blog.

And, as luck would have it, I'll also be Guest Blogging over on the Delightful Delilah Devlin's blog that day! Talk about being showered with luck!




I hope you'll join in all the fun beginning on May 17th!

SHAPESHIFTERS WORLD TOUR

On the Third Thursday of Every Month, my MYTH PERCEPTIONS blog appears at Words, Women, Wisdom.

My current series of Myth explorations revolves around shapeshifters.

This month is about Foxy Ladies - Asian Fox Spirits - Some very interesting spirits with a dangerously mischievous side. Sometimes even deadly intent. But, as the old radio show said, "the shadow knows." These fox spirits are often betrayed by their shadows. So, if your foxy lady is a bit shady, shy of bright lights, you might be in for heartbreak or an unintentional organ donation. Visit W3 to see what I mean.

The Kinziscale, Lost Girl

Oh, and as a bit of late breaking news - One of my absolute fav Syfy series, Lost Girl, featured kitsune as the fae-flavor of the night. A whole sorority of foxy ladies.



Last month was the kick-off post contrasting Werewolves and Shapeshifters - My understanding is that these terms are not precisely interchangeable. Traditional werewolves respond to the call of the full moon. The historic representation of werewolves involve a curse or unsolicited bites. Modern tropes are changing. Shapeshifters have never been unable to control the where and when of their changes.

I'll be continuing my tour of shapeshifter mythology next month with Kelpies.

If you like shapeshifter stories, please check out my book, COLLECTOR'S ITEM, currently available exclusively on Kindle - www.collectorsitembook.com

OOO, SHINY!

Thank you, Alexa Day, for nominating me for the Very Inspiring Blog Award. She and I are happy dancing these days with shiny new books coming out. Alexa's Illicit Impulse will be released by Ellora's Cave on March 1^st.

So, in keeping with the rules of the award, here are seven things about me.

1.    Seven is actually my lucky number. It appears in so many ways in my life that it's positively spooky.

2.    I firmly believe that my home is not a home without a cat. I believe this was actually something I said when I was a teenager and we were catless. The wonderful thing was that not long thereafter, my mom surprised us with a kitten.

3.    If I could visit any historical person in history, my first choice would be Elizabeth I. She was an amazing (and probably terrifying) woman making her mark in a man's world. Such a mixture of majesty and tragedy.

4.    I have "a need for speed." Just ask any of my coworkers. We went go-karting and I tore UP that track. It amazed folks how competitive and focused I was behind that wheel. I dream of being able to take a powerful car (no specific model, just FAST) out on the salt flats and floor it!

5.    It's impossible for me not to sing along with the radio. Sorry.

6.    I'm terrified of heights. I do okay if I'm enclosed, but open air and, heaven forbid, without a railing, I'm a shivering wreck.

7.    If I were given a free trip to anywhere in the world, I'd choose the British Isles.

So, here are my nominees for this prestigious award. Please give them a read.

Angela Drake

Annamarie Bazzi

J.S. Lee

Leila Gaskins

Stephen King

Vernon Wildy, Jr.

V. Mark Covington

MONDAY FORTUNE COOKIE, 10/29/12

LET SOMEONE KNOW HOW SPECIAL THEY ARE TO YOU

SNARKY RESPONSE:  Awww, I didn't realize Hallmark owned stock in fortune cookie companies. You know, they've got a card for that!

Let someone know how special they are to you.

It's amazing how many people touch our lives and how those touches, no matter how small, contribute to our experience. Don't miss any opportunity to let folks know how much you appreciate them. It makes them feel good and it makes you feel good. Win/Win

So, here's my attempt to do just that - say a little "Thank You" to some of the folks who have helped my along my writing path!

JRW Contingent & Local NaNoWriMo Liaison

As an aspiring writer, I was fortunate to become involved in several wonderful groups which led to friendships that have become stronger with time.  As a member of the James River Writers, I've met (and continue to meet) such a wonderful diverse group. Some of them were at the NaNoWriMo Kick Off Party last night and posed for a little group shot.

My W3 Avatar

Virginia Romance Writers has brought me into contact with a great group of women. In fact, I've joined with seven of them to create a fun group blog entitled, Words, Women, Wisdom (W3 for short). You can visit us through the link. We're a diverse group of writers and I think we offer something for everyone. Please drop in and then come back to visit, often!

Most influential on my growth as a writer have been the two critique groups I was blessed to find and join - RichWriters and Writers Endeavor. These two groups have done more to help nurture my craft and my confidence in my writing than I can every repay. The members, ranging from aspiring to published, non-fiction to popular fiction, have given so freely of their time and thoughtful consideration and I never fail to thank my lucky stars for every one of them.

This is FAR from a complete list and I hope those I didn't include in this post will understand. It would take pages and pages, but these are the ones I felt driven to THANK today.

As John Donne said, no (wo)man is an island and for me, this is my opportunity to show exactly how true that has been for me.

Now I encourage you to take a moment to recognize and thank those who have helped you along your path. None of us can do this alone.

JRWC12 Tidbit #4 - Priceless Website Insights

Every author is told to develop their web presence as soon as possible. Join social media and set up a website. But if you're new to the whole shebang, what are the basics? How do you pull together the best web presence you can before you've even sold your first book/story?

JRW's session, Insight Into Your Site: Website 101,  offered attendees plenty of helpful points and information. The panel consisted of Erin Blakemore (author, The Heroine's Bookshelf), Colleen Lindsay (community manager, Penguin's BookCountry.com),  and Anna Sproul (agent, Ross Yoon Agency) and was moderated by JRW's Maya Payne Smart.

Suggestions, hints, and advice flew around the panel like bees around honey. Or perhaps it was my own desperation to absorb every possible tidbit that made it seem like this session was a motherload of good stuff.

The most valuable thing for me was a list of Basic Website components:

• Keep the design simple and clean. No music. No crazy dancing graphics. No "Enter Here" preliminary page.
• All content should be your best writing and carefully edited by yourself and at least one other pair of eyes
• The Home Page needs to be constantly updated/refreshed with new information - it was suggested (strongly) that your blog be the Home Page/blog frequency 1X per week minimum
• Contact Me tab/button/page should not be a form to be filled out by the visitor but contain a professional email address, your name, any current projects, and a professionally taken photo
• Social Media links should be prominent and link to an ACTIVE social media presence. If you don't use twitter, don't put it on the website (yet)
• If you're published, make sure you have a Call to Action on every page - Buy The Book - with links to your book

This led to some discussion about social media. Again, if you don't like facebook, don't link to it, don't promote it. Only link to those media platforms you intend to maintain properly.

Something I'd forgotten to do - Your Twitter Home Page should also be nicely worked up with a photo for your handle and appropriate personalization. No one likes or trusts the anonymous little eggheads. I came home and spent a little time personalizing my own Twitter Home Page. You Like? Well, it's a WIP.

Oh, and speaking of Twitter, be sure that you don't tweet "Buy my book! Buy my book!" but that you DO tweet good content. Links to articles you think would be interesting. Tweets by people you follow and respect. Tweets that you feel inform, entertain, and/or relate to your passion. And try to make sure you keep the character count low enough that it can be successfully RETWEETED.

Whew! See what I mean? Now, get crackin'!

MONDAY FORTUNE COOKIE, 10/22/12

Romance is likely; strike up a conversation!

SNARKY REPONSE: Just hope no one decides to strike you back! Fresh!

Romance is likely; strike up a conversation!

In a way, that's exactly what I've been doing all week-end at the James River Writers Writing Conference. This three-day event was held at the Richmond Convention Center and featured a diverse cast of talented speakers on a plethora of informative panels. And everyone from feature speakers to first-time attendees are in the throes of a serious romance with the written word in all her glorious forms.

From the welcome session to the closing 10th Anniversary Celebration, I was surrounded by writers seeking better ways to woo their chosen muse. Conversations always included the key question: "What do you write?" offering everyone the opportunity to share their love affair with writing openly with others who could understand and share the attraction.

View of the Conference Marketplace

Some of my takeaways were:

• Poetry Warm Up provided by author and performance poet, Allan Wolf, challenged us to consider where we were going to place our "pea of truth"
• Our First Page HAS to set place, person, and plot
• Resist the urge to edit while writing that "shitty first draft" - something that's often easier said than done
• Your blog should be the home page of your website to provide fresh renewed content for visitors with suggested updates of once a week at least, though daily (a concept that boggled my mind) would possibly annoy your readers - as Sabrina tells Linus in one my favorite movie quotes "sometimes more is just more"
• Your website "Contact Me" should not be a form but an actual "professional" email address - visitors are put off by the impersonal form
• Successful agent/editor queries are based on careful research - know who they are and why your book would fit their niche

While there were many wonderful pieces to the event, I felt it was beautifully book-ended by the Saturday First Pages critique, an always insightful though oft painful reading & critique of anonymous first pages and the Sunday Pitchapalooza where we listened to brave souls give a one-minute pitch in front of the entire assembly for critique by The Book Doctors and Alec Shane, agent.

If you've never been to the JRW Writers Conference, please be sure to put it on your short list for 2013.

MONDAY FORTUNE COOKIE, 10/14/12

Never judge a work of art by it's defects.

SNARKY RESPONSE:  Hah! Tell that to all the folks who make a professional living out of judging art.

Never judge a work of art by it's defects.

I think today's fortune cookie is about self-criticism as much as it is about external criticism. Most beginning writers, and even experienced writers, can be their own worst critics. We will nitpick and second-guess ourselves into a muddle or a self-induced case of writers block.

Now, I'm not saying that judicious self-editing doesn't have it's place, but it should not become a bludgeon with which we beat our WIP and ourselves into oblivion. Be constructive with that criticism, not destructive. 

It's said that challenges should be considered opportunities and discovering issues with your own writing should be treated the same way. Look at ways to strengthen, tighten, and enliven your work not ways to delay, postpone, or just plain give up.

We have to be fearless. We have to be determined. And we have to be willing to face the good, the bad, and the ugly of our process in order to produce something that we know will be all that is powerful, beautiful, and  worthy of ourselves.

After all, we're doing something a lot of folks just talk about. We're committing ourselves to our dream, putting our visions on paper, and doing the work to reach our goals.

Keep writing and growing!

Look! Show and Tell!

Blog Sister, Tracey Livesay tagged me for a fun game and explained it this way:

"My friend, Debra Kristi, recently posted a blog about a new meme making the rounds.  It’s called “Look” and the rules state that I do a search for the word in my current work-in-progress and paste the surrounding paragraphs. Afterwards, I tag others and the game is afoot."

I love a good game, so here's my section from my current Work-In-Process - "Aces Down":

He shook his head, though he dropped the cuffs into my hand. "You'd better hurry up with those. Hawkins won't stay down long."

"Really?" I muttered as I maneuvered one pair over Hawkins' feet and up around his ankles. I yanked them tight and then rolled Hawkins onto his stomach. He was heavy as a damned log. After I secured his hands behind his back, I pushed myself to my feet, stepped over him, and leaned over to look at Tristan's wound. As far as I could tell, the bleeding had slowed. Thank the stars for shapeshifter healing.

"How're you doing?" I asked, looking at him to make sure he was in full control of his wolf. We needed to get him inside, but I didn't think he could do it without a little help. Help that would put me way inside the wolf's personal space.

Thanks, Tracey for tagging me and I'm gonna tag the following talented bloggers/writers/poets: Shawna Christos, Joanna Lee, Erica Orloff, Meg Medina, Gigi Amateau, Shann Palmer. Check them out!

Tracey & I also blog with a group of Virginia writers of romantic fiction. the Wise Wenches. You can find the link to our blog here.

MONDAY FORTUNE COOKIE 7/23/12

"One must dare to be himself, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be."

SNARKY RESPONSE: Hmm, do the names Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ring any bells?

"One must dare to be himself,
however frightening or strange that self may prove to be."

I'm participating in the James River Writers Book Club, an informal book club for the months running up to the annual James River Writers Conference in October 20-21, 2012. We're reading books written by the featured speakers for the conference and our first book was The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown.

One caveat – I am a genre reader through and through so this book was definitely outside of my usual aisles. That lack of familiarity with this writer's genre may create a level of naiveté to my review, but here's what I thought. And bear with me, I'll explain why I chose a book review for this Fortune Cookie.

Cover of The Weird Sisters
by Eleanor Brown

In The Weird Sisters, Eleanor Brown explores the lives of three sisters. Daughters of a professor of Shakespeare, they are named for three of the Bard's heroines and being three, the analogy of the Weird Sisters was a natural. However, the three women are facing personal crises when they are then brought together in a family crisis. How they deal with all these pressures on their lives and each other makes for a truly interesting read.

In a semi-spoiler, I'd have to say my impression of the story makes it tie in with today's Fortune Cookie. I feel that each sister is forced to face the reality of who she truly is instead of the "she" built on expectations or camouflage. As the Bard said "to thine own self be true" and I feel that The Weird Sisters is about the characters' discovery of who that "true self" is and how to accept it.

Oh, and as another "spoiler," the book is written in Omniscient First Person Plural (We not I), a format I was not familiar with and one that took some SERIOUS getting used to. I must say that about one-quarter to one-third through it became less annoying as I just fell into the story. I've heard some folks continued to be annoyed by it to the end, so be warned. Just don't let that put you off on it.

If you read literary fiction, I would recommend this book.  If you've read it, I'd love to hear your impressions.

MONDAY FORTUNE COOKIE 7/2/12

"From now on your kindness will lead you to success."

SNARKY RESPONSE: And "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Yeah, that little comment will likely get me struck by lightning.

Or, "no good deed goes unpunished." Ouch! Okay, I'll stop!

From now on your kindness will lead you to success.

So, seriously, the fortune cookie sage has handed me an old adage and attached a carrot. The Golden Rule is a universal maxim to which most of us aspire. However, when the act is not spontaneous, but must be actively chosen, there is that tiny bit of self that wonders why, what's in it for me? And here is where the fortune cookie sage dangles that carrot—because kindness will lead me to success. Tiny bit of self is hereby appeased.

However, I must ask, is kindness with an ulterior motive truly kindness? This is perhaps were the fortune cookie sage shows his true "sageness" because he does not explain what act(s) of kindness or what kind of success. Not knowing means you cannot be selective in your kindness but must be kind in all possible instances. And in the end, I believe, kindness is its own reward in that momentary (or longer) sense of warmth and connectedness which is what we all crave, is it not?

Makes ya' kinda go hmmm, doesn't it?

MONDAY FORTUNE COOKIE 6/11/12

"Behind bad luck comes good luck."

So, this is the first of your Weekly Fortune Cookies.

You know all those fortune cookie fortunes you abandon on the table or tuck into your wallet to be forgotten until you dump all your change into your change bowl? Well, I've been stockpiling mine in a small bowl on my writing desk and I've decided that I would pull one, try to be creative with it, and then subject you, Gentle Reader, to my result. The selected day will be Mondays, and this week's selection is:

                            "Behind bad luck comes good luck."

Snarky response: Well, after a case of bad luck most anything different will feel like good luck.

Okay, so my snark needs a little work, but it's true, right? I mean, when you've been dealing with something bad, and it ends, that's good! It's over! The relief factor will elevate the mere cessation of stress to a level of wonder and gratitude in orders of magnitude directly proportionate and opposite to the stress. Hence, good luck!

As a fortune, I'm thinking it just means - hang in there, things'll get better.

RESEARCH SIDEBAR – Ever wonder who writes those fortunes? Here's a link to a New Yorker article about one such pithy writer –  Cookie Master by Jeremy Olshan, The New Yorker - Thank you, ilovegoogle, for posting this link.



So, that's your first Weekly Fortune Cookie. See you next week.

Ruminations Upon Getting Started

I've been neglectful of the blogosphere and hereby intend (operative words) to become more attentive. As a writer, the primary focus is, and should be, on the work--writing, but how many blogs on writing can the blogosphere support? So, it then comes down to identifying a niche for myself and here's my first attempt. And I should warn you that this is totally subject to change without notice or provocation.

I have been a writer my whole life, though I did fall away from it after a particularly painful encounter with a writing instructor. It took me gaining some years and perspective to acknowledge that like a particular bodily orifice, everyone has an opinion. I don't have to agree or accept it. So, as an adult, I decided to jump back into writing. And here's my plan.

I shall blog here about many things, small or large, wonderous or wandering, but mostly it'll be about my experiences as a woman of a certain age pursuing the dream of writing. This experience may entail meditative musings, technical tantrums, and selective silliness. It may include soulful scenarios, blatent bragging, and cackling commentaries. However it falls out, I will promise you this--I'll always give you my best shot!

Hope you'll come back to read and COMMENT!