Harnessing My Inner Picasso

A few months ago I felt inspired to do a little painting. Here are some small portraits of a few of Jane Austen's characters from her novel, Emma. Each portrait also has a quote about that character. The first is Emma who had "a disposition to think a little too much of herself."

Next is Mr. Knightley, who said, "Men of sense...do not want silly wives."

Here is Miss Bates, "a great talker upon little matters."

Here is Jane Fairfax, the portrait I actually sold! Her quote is, "A style of beauty of which elegance was the reigning character." 

Finally here is Mr. Woodhouse, Emma's father who thought, "Where health is at stake, nothing else should be considered."

It was a fun little lark and I was pleased with how they turned out. :)

Joe won't wear suspenders

I am deep in rewrites for Asking For It. My editor, Grace, and I had a discussion about the changes, and the book is going to be fantastic, however, one of the changes we discussed was changing Joe's profession from Army man to firefighter. I was all gung-ho, until I started enacting the change.

He didn't take well to being a firefighter. The words that had come from his mouth didn't feel right for a firefighter to utter. I think it's because in my mind soldiers are raw, gritty and unashamedly aggressive--living, breathing hunks of masculinity. Firefighters, on the other hand, are like contemporary knights--noble, brave, and honorable--living, breathing hunks of chivalry. They're sort of evolved and a little more civilized.

I know I'm stereotyping, but there ya go. A man's profession is vital to his character. And Joe's just not liking the idea of being a firefighter. Not. One. Bit.

Sorry, Grace.

T-Shirt Hilarity

I am becoming more disenchanted with the Bella and Edward world. I just watched the movie last weekend and was less impressed than I was with the book. I wanted to laugh several times (at non-funny parts), but thought that might ruin the experience for my family. (My 15 year old son liked the movie.)

So, an online writer friend sympathized with my disenchantment and told me about this t-shirt. Here's the blurby thing from the site where you can buy it.

Don't you think the vampires-are-people-too thing has gone a little too far? I mean, the whole point of a vampire is that they survive by sucking your blood. I don't care if his skin glows and twinkles and he smells like kittens and fabric softener, he's still just a glorified syringe. Remember the last time you had blood drawn? Yeah, me too, and it sucked! It's time we put an end to this nonsense: Edward, may I treat you to a stake dinner?

Now, I have never watched Buffy, but this still cracked me up. Kittens and fabric softener? LMAO!

Thursday 3: Twilight Semi-Fan

Thursday 13 is too much. I only do three.

I just finished New Moon, the second Bella and Edward book. Again, I'm underwhelmed. Here are three reasons why (spoilers may ensue):

1. It begins with 400 pages of not much: Bella angsts over losing Edward (a hell of a lot), hallucinates, and makes a new best friend. The final 100 pages or so are better. Stuff finally happens.

2. Bella uses Jacob horribly. As soon as Edward comes back into the picture, she dumps him. Bitch. Jacob deserves better. Bella is not a heroine I like.

3. I'm sorry, but I can't buy that a roomful of tourists are drained of their blood in Volturra and no one in the media makes a big fuss. Is this a regular occurence? Why haven't the authorities discovered the existence of a vampire coven?

I'm going to give Eclipse a chance, only because a friend at work said number four is really good. I hope the library is able to get me a copy before I lose interest. The movie should be arriving via Blockbuster tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

Romance Junkies High Five

At last! A review for A Wolf at Her Door! Romance Junkies gave it FIVE BLUE RIBBONS! Woot! Here's what the reviewer, Ladybirdrobi, had to say:

I thoroughly enjoyed A WOLF AT HER DOOR. It was definitely a page turner, complete with all the right moves for a happily ever after. Adam is stunning and Paige is a woman many would admire. Unveiling the mystery page by page was a joy for me and it held just the right amount of passion. Ms. Willoughby will have no complaints from me but she will get a high five for a job well done.

I didn't really know there was a mystery, but hey, it's cool that she was intrigued!

Out of the Blue!

I won an Eppie Award!!! EPIC, the Electronically Published Internet Connection, is a professional organization that holds annual awards to recognize "outstanding achievement in electronic publishing." There are a lot of categories. This year I entered my book, A Wolf at Her Door, in the Paranormal Erotic Romance category. There were eighty other books entered in that category. Out of that eighty, eight finalled. Out of that eight, mine WON!!!

I really didn't expect to win because paranormal fans usually like their paranormal dark and disturbing. Werewolf heroes are typically brooding, tortured. My Adam was not either of these things. He was just a nice, albeit very sexy guy, who happened to be a wolf shifter. No one was trying to get him with silver bullets or wipe out his clan, of which he would, of course, be the alpha. Nor was he trying to protect the heroine from dark forces.

So, after getting the news this morning, I felt like I was walking taller all day, but I realized that was an illusion when, at the market, I still could not reach the soup I wanted on the top shelf. LOL

After you go buy the Eppie Award Winning book, A Wolf at Her Door, (LOL) do check out this week's Woman's World story analysis/review on my other blog.

Thursday 3: Juvenile Fiction

Someday I plan to write for kids. That's how I started writing seriously. I wrote a story intended to be a picture book. I was so green, I think I submitted it to a publisher without a cover letter. But it occurs to me that to make my mark in history, I should write something for kids. If a children's book becomes really popular, it never goes out of print. When kids grow up, they end up buying it for their kids.

Anyway, I went off on a tangent. I mean to give a list of three series that I have enjoyed.


1. The Vampire Plagues by Sebastian Rook. These were fantastic, historical fiction that was somewhat gruesome. But that's to be expected when you're dealing with vampires. My boys loved these books.



2. Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism, by Georgia Byng. How can you not buy this book when there's this wacky pug dog on the cover? While the book starts out with a cliche--an orphan in an orphange where she is unhappy--it veers away from that soon enough in unexpected twists and turns.

3. Lastly, there are the Artemis Fowl Books by Eoin Colfer. If you have boys, they must read these books. They've got Bond-like gadgets, magic, fart jokes, and a young anti-hero who is very flawed, but for who you can't help but root for.

Do you ever read children's fiction on your own? Got any recommendations for me?

Thursday 3: 2009 Books To Write

Every Thursday, as part of a popular meme, many people blog a list of thirteen items. I only do three. Sue me.

For this year's first Thursday 3, I'm listing three books that I have yet to write.

1 and 2. The third and fourth books in my Be-Wished series for Ellora's Cave. Three friends made wishes on woven bracelets, and in each book their wish is granted by Davina, a wacky wish fairy. The third book is about half done. It centers around Livvy, the third friend. Her wish goes awry in many, hopefully funny, ways.

The fourth book belongs to Davina, the wish fairy. I've been dying to write this book. Davina is probably the most eccentric character I've ever created. It's going to be so exciting to see where she'll take me. If you've read the first two Be-Wished books, you can probably tell who the love of her life will be.

3. Finally, I'd like to write another tale set in the world I created for Secrets of the Jin-Hakku. The Shinwa culture was so much fun to romp around in, that I feel compelled to revisit it. I have a rough idea about someone involved in horses, someone with long, straight, coal black hair. Remember that Indian character in Dances With Wolves, Wind in His Hair? I loved that guy. I loved his hair.

Or, I also want to write something for the 2010 Ellora's Cavemen Anthology. Those need to be 15K and simple. If I can think of an idea between now and summer, I may tackle this, too.

So I guess this was a Thursday 4, after all.