Summer's End

What?!  It's Friday again?

Yes, we're days away from one of the biggies:  Labor Day, the "official" end of summer.  Come Monday, you can put away your white shoes and start thinking of the new fall fashions.  We can all sit back and enjoy the next three days, free from toil and trouble.

Right?  Uh, no.

Have you happened to notice all the Labor Day sales in the newspaper, online ads and email?  Somebody has to be in those stores to take your money or answer questions as to which kitchen faucet is best.  Police and firefighters are still on the job, around the clock.  And writers just might be spending the 3-day weekend pounding their keyboards.  Okay, we don't rank up there with police and firefighters.  We don't save lives, but we do enhance them by offering take-me-away stories to readers.  Or something like that. ;)

My plans include working on edits of the first draft of CMHM (The Cowboy Meets His Match), which is nothing more than a working title, so don't read too much into that.  The day will be (I hope!) quiet and uninterrupted.  Or maybe I'll do some mowing.  Or wishing it was Saturday again.  A seven-day weekend would be heaven...until boredom set in.

I do know where I won't be.  Shopping.  Too many crowds, too many children climbing on shelves and racing through the mall.  It's not that I don't like children.  I like them when they're relatively well-behaved.  And, no, my own daughters were not perfect.  I remember how they would race down the grocery store aisle with the basket, much to my displeasure.  They would also plead for candy and fight with each other.  Typical kids.

I won't be at one of the area lakes.

• The ex got the boat in the divorce.  
• We've just managed to get out of a 2-year drought, and every person, young and old, who believes going to the lake is the ultimate summer adventure, will be there.  Again, crowds, not to mention those who have decided to imbibe in too many spirits.  And I'm not talking ghosts. ;)  Case in point:  While water-skiing at one of the lakes, years ago, we encountered a large group of nude young people in the cove next to ours.  Enlightening.
• Every time we've camped at the lake--and there have been several--there's been a storm.  Except for one time, and the wind nearly blew us away.
• After rain, rain, and more rain--to fill those lakes, of course--we've had two weeks of unbearable heat and humidity.  Being anywhere without air conditioning would be insane.  Obviously there will be lots of insane people at the lake. ;)

Still, I support a holiday for the working people.  After all, most of us work at something.

So back to editing, which is not my favorite thing to do, but a must.  I've mentioned that I do a fast first draft of the book.  That's obvious when reading through the manuscript again.  Sometimes I wonder if gremlins have had some fun, while I've left the story to "simmer."  Even the first three chapters, which my editor has read, had some side-splitting aka groan-able goofs.  This is why I put it away for a week or two, before attacking it with edits.  And there will be a third edit.  Who knows what I might have missed or messed up even more?

Sometimes we're not sure what needs editing...other than everything.  What should we be looking for when we edit?  Kristen Lamb had a great blog post a week ago.  Six Easy Tips for Self-Editing Your Fiction.  If you're not sure what to look for, take a look at Kristen's list.  If you do have a clue, use it as a refresher.  Sometimes we become so bogged down in our story and fixing sentences that have been changed by gremlins that we miss the basics.

Whatever you have planned for this weekend, enjoy it!  If you happen to be on Facebook, extolling the holiday or just goofing off, stop by the Harlequin American Romance Authors page and say hi.  Or "Like" it.  That would be even better!

If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend. ~ Doug Larson

Life's Little Adjustments & Changes

Roll With the Changes.  Or so says REO Speedwagon.

Changes are hard, and the older we get, the harder it is to make changes.  But let's face it.  Trying to fight change is an effort in futility.  It's much better to roll with the changes and make the adjustments needed.

That's where I am.  Rolling.  Making adjustments.

We're finishing up our second week of school today, so life is getting a little smoother.  I have four trips each day to two different schools, so I'm on the road for short periods of time.  When I head out on the two afternoon trips, I leave early and take something with me to read, edit, or sometimes I even play games on my Kindle, if I feel I need a real break.  It's quiet time for me, something that's in short supply in the summer.  I like quiet time. ☺

We're even having to adjust to weather changes.  We started the summer with hot and dry.  In July, we finally had rain to ease the drought of the last few years.  That rain picked up and ran into August.  At the halfway mark of this month, we'd had two days when it didn't rain.  It got a bit soggy.  Now that we're nearly done with August, it's hot and dry again.  I have no doubt that will change.

While we don't always like changes, we'd get bored without them.  Beginning something new, finishing something old, and looking forward to more new things keep us going.  And isn't that what we want?  To keep on going?

Have a blessed end-of-summer, and roll with the changes it brings.

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. - Alan Watts 

In My Little World

It's official.  Yesterday was the first day of school in my little corner of the world.  Okay, in my little corner of the prairie.  With it comes changes.  No longer will I be chasing children up and down the street or climbing on the trunk of my car with a tree limb in my hand to knock down a pair of tied-together tennis shoes, stuck high up in a tree.  Yes, sad as it is, the tennis shoe incident may have been the highlight of the summer.

Last week's blog went unwritten.  It wasn't the best week of my life.  The deadline to write book #9 in the Desperation series continues to move forward each day, even when I don't get to write.  The insanity of the approaching first day of school had g-kids acting out, as if it were the last week before life in prison.  Pushing the limits, until limits lay shattered on the ground, seemed to be their goal.

Mothers, whether stay-at-home workers--because there's always work at home--and those who go to a job away from home are celebrating.

But with school in session, adjustments must be made.  There's more time, but it's interrupted time.  Not as interrupted as summer days with nothing for kids to do except find trouble, but interruptions, nonetheless.  While last previous academic year included dropping off and picking up g-kids at one school, this year is up to four trips.  Taking the Pre-K'er to half-day morning school, picking up Pre-K'er from school, picking up elementary kids from school, and picking up one at the middle school now, along with the neighbor girl across the street.  It's a circus, all this juggling and running.  I've become the driver of the clown car. ;)

One of our writing group members asked how the published authors among us make time to write.  The answer?  We give up things others might normally do.  We get up early or stay up late.  We forego large chunks of television time.  We don't have the world's neatest and cleanest homes.  Laundry piles up, dishes pile up, but eventually are cleaned and put away.  We set goals and we work on achieving them, because as one published author put it, this is our job.  This pays the bills, puts food on the table, clothes on our bodies.  What?  You're not published yet?  Okay, start making writing a habit, so that when you do get that first contract offer, the transition won't totally blow your mind and freeze your body, keeping you from doing the job.

Writers write.  We either write or become monsters.

I wrote 67 pages during our most recent BIAW that ended this past weekend, in spite of the shattered limits and insanity around me.  After that, from Sunday through yesterday, I haven't written.  Not a blog post, not a manuscript page.  I did not write.  Today I blog and will begin the last chapter of Erin and Jake's story.  By the end of the upcoming weekend, I hope my goal is to be finished...ahead of schedule.  That's the rough draft.  Editing, smoothing, changing, are on the horizon.

Life happens.  Adjustments in life are necessary.  The unexpected comes along and ruins our plans and goals.  Yet we continue.  There will always be a way to adjust, to conquer.  Find it.

Never. Give.  Up.

  Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. - Harriet Beecher Stowe 

Romance is for Everyone

It's National Read-A-Romance Month.  Yes, an entire month dedicated to reading romance novels.  Who wudda thunk it?  The answer is simple.  Romance writers and readers.

Romance Industry Statistics
(From Romance Writers of America-RWA.org)
POPULARITY OF ROMANCE FICTION

(source: Business of Consumer Book Publishing 2013)

• Romance fiction generated $1.438 billion in sales in 2012.
• Romance was the top-performing category on the best-seller lists in 2012 (across the NYT, USA Today, and PW best-seller lists).
• Romance fiction sales are estimated at $1.350 billion for 2013.
• 74.8 million people read at least one romance novel in 2008. (source: RWA Reader Survey)

Not yet convinced?  Compare the numbers.  Romance generated more revenue in 2012 than the other fiction genres.  Romance outsold Religion/Inspirational Fiction ($1.438 billion to $707.9 million), Mystery (at $728.2 million), Science Fiction/Fantasy (at 590.8 million) and Classic Literary Fiction (at 470.5 million).  (source: Simba Information) estimates

It's true that the majority of romance readers are women.  In fact, it's 91%.  But 9% of men read it, too.  Then there are the men who read it in the more male-type novels.  Stephen King, Dan Brown, and many others often have a thread of romance in their novels.  For the women?  No.  It's there because it's a part of the human experience.  We fall in love, both men and women.

Why do people read romance?  In my very humble opinion, because,  A) It is part of the human experience.  At one time in our lives, we'll fall in love.  We want to love and be loved.   B) We like happily ever afters.  We like to see a character not only win, but grow in the process of winning and become a better person.  C)  It gives us something to wish for, hope for, and experience ourselves.

Not only to other genres contain romance, but romance has its own sub-genres.  Like Mystery?  Try a Romantic Suspense.  Do you enjoy Fantasy or Paranormal stories?  There's Inspirational Romance for those who enjoy a religious slant.  Are you a history buff?  Historical Romance encompasses many periods of history.  There are even stories for the younger set--Young Adult Romance.  Anything you like, any type of characters, you can find them in Romance.

So what are you waiting for?  Find your Happily-Ever-After and read a romance (or a dozen) this month!  August is Read-A-Romance Month.

(Statics from RWA Romance Writers of America)

“Romance novels are birthday cake and life is often peanut butter and jelly. I think everyone should have lots of delicious romance novels lying around for those times when the peanut butter of life gets stuck to the roof of your mouth.” ― Janet Evanovich