Seton Hill Crowd

Just popping in to say thank you to the ladies in the Seton Hill College "module" I taught this morning. You were a wonderful class. I can easily predict good things for all of your futures!



My next workshop is the online version of Can This Manuscript Be Saved. Once in August and again from mid-September to mid-October for the Orange County California chapter. I'm pretty sure you can register from the OCC chapter website.





susan

I'm back!

My beach vacation is now a memory, but what a wonderful memory!



Before I talk about that, though, I'd like to say thanks to the Philadelphia Writer's Conference for inviting me and to say hello to all the great people I met there. We had three wonderful workshop hours and I had conversations with a few people whose names I'm sure we'll see on book covers this time next year!



So thanks Philly! And good luck to all the wonderful students!



Back to the beach...



My family is huge. I don't even say big anymore because with 11 kids in the original group, most married, most having had 2 or more kids -- some of whom are also married and now having great grandchildren for my mom -- we will soon need a football stadium for Thanksgiving dinner.



So when six of us get together, with kids, and rent an enormous beach house, with pool, nothing but chaos results. But what wonderful chaos! We watched Miss Lainie, the newest addition to the family, take her first dips into the pool with her mom. We witnessed a reluctant uncle make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a gaggle of kids who barely came up to his knee! We drank beer poolside (when the kids were napping) and fought over what decade had the better music...thanks to satellite radio!



Texas Hold 'em was the game of the evenings, and, sadly, I lost every time I played. I'm no match for the wit and poker wisdom of the Beyer clan. My husband and I were the last to leave. With only our oldest son in tow, we had the time and free hands to make a last minute sweep through the place to make sure it was clean, and I have to admit I cried. I wasn't sure if I'd miss the beach house or didn't want to go home to my house which always seemed to need to be cleaned. But big tears filled my eyes.



I love the beach, but I love it most of all when I'm with kids who play in the sand, ask a million silly questions and chatter about shells.

Are we risking our lives for ice cream?

I have to admit I love ice cream. Pumpkin. Peach. Chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. My mouth waters just typing the flavors.

Now...

I also have to admit I gained twenty pounds in the past year. First my bum knee kept me from walking, which was the way I kept my weight under control. Then the recovery month sealed the deal. Two weeks of sitting in a chair, getting minimal exercise and then only through rehab, made the twenty pounds official. :)

For the past week, now that recovery is over and summer is nearly here and I can't fit into any of my summer clothes, I've been pondering the fact that I face a choice...lose weight or buy a new wardrobe.

The new wardrobe is very tempting. It's the path of least resistance. And who doesn't salivate at the prospect of getting ALL NEW CLOTHES!

But keeping the twenty pounds has ramifications in terms of family pictures. I won't merely be taller than everybody in photos...I'll be the fat one. Ye Gawds.

Plus, last night something else struck me as my husband (who also needs to shed a pound or two and who has high cholesterol) pulled the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from the freezer. I suddenly realized that extra weight translates to lots of "heart" things...and that reaching for that half gallon of bliss every night could be considered like scaling the side of a mountain.

In Susan Wigg's latest release a few secondary characters climb an icy mountain for the sheer joy of it and I gasped, thinking...I'd never risk my life like that. Then I dipped my scoop into the half gallon of delight and realized that maybe I would. LOL

Just returned...

Good morning, everybody!



I just returned from an intense one-day workshop I presented for the multi-genre writers group Pennwriters. What a great time! The hotel was wonderful...the lunch divine! Ayleen Stellhorn, who coordinated the event, deserves a round of applause!


But the students in this class were exceptional. Very talented. Very personable.


In the morning, we took apart the concept of "plotting" and I saw some ah-ha moments in the crowd. Making the distinction between the skills needed to come up with a story, decide what to write as a scene and then create those scenes with word mastery helped a lot of people. But the magic plotting formula of action/reaction and decision really brought down the house. LOL


In the afternoon we worked on characters and creating external conflict with goals and internal conflict because of an incorrect core belief. We even hit a bit on Michael Hauge's (screenplaymastery.com) identity and essence theories.


But the real lightbulb moments came when we distinguished between our book's theme and the "idea" that showcases the theme and learned how to write a one-paragraph pitch designed to easily relate your story to an editor or agent so you don't spent a whole pitch session saying...Um...Well..Ah...Instead, you easily get to the heart of your story and make yourself look super smart!


So it was a good day. We all had fun.


I think we also learned something!



susan

http://harlequin-theweddingplanners.blogspot.com

http://harlequin-theweddingplanners.blogspot.com

Two years ago, some friends and I got together (online) and created a continuity series for Harlequin Romance, The Wedding Planners. We enjoyed creating the continuity so much that we hung out together online for almost two years! And in our conversations we came up with the idea of creating a Wedding Planners Blog.

Because each of our characters was involved in a different facet of wedding planning, every one of us learned something about planning a wedding when we researched our books.

The blog is informative, but it's also a lot of fun.

If you want to read some interesting information on planning a wedding and hear some great stories about the weddings of the ladies involved in the continuity, skip on over to the blog. I put the addy above.

Deeeeeeal or No Deal?

Winter got so boring this year I started watching more TV and now I find myself a huge fan of Deal or No Deal. I think Howie Mandel is adorable, and I love the models...but, frankly, I love watching ordinary people get the chance to change their lives by winning a sum of money they wouldn't otherwise ever see.



The show isn't about the game. It isn't about the banker. It isn't about the challenge of picking the right cases or even the guts to stay in the game when the odds shift against you. It's about the people.



All those other things, like luck, the banker, the odds...those bring out the best of the worst in a contestant. But they're window dressing. The truth is...I want to see each contestent get as much money as he or she can. I want to see them triumph...Win.



Watching last night's show I realized how much that feeling is like the feeling I get when I read a book that I really like. I want to see the contestants win the same way I want to see the hero and heroine resolve their conflicts in a romance. The way I want to see the protagonist save the world in a thriller.



It's all about the character...achieving a goal, finding love, saving the world.



All the other stuff is window dressing.

My Life as a Laundress

My Life As a Laundress

Have you ever noticed how much you can learn about your family from what you find in your laundry basket? When there are jeans in my son's things, I know the weather has dropped below zero, otherwise, he wears shorts. Seriously. He's hot blooded. When my daughter's dating someone there are lots of pretty blouses in her basket. When she's not, it's T-shirts.

I get a lot of change that immediately goes into my poker cup. If you leave two quarters in your pocket, kiss it goodbye. Once I find it, either in the laundry basket or in the washer tub, it becomes mine. House Rule. If you don't like House Rule you are invited to do your own wash. So far no one's taken me up on that.

Because I work at home, I almost exclusively wear pajamas. I have more pajamas than a fully stocked Victoria's Secret before Christmas or Valentine's Day. My husband realized a few years ago when I quit working and began writing for a living -- thus living in my PJ's -- that he can go to any department store and find pajamas from sexy lace to work-horse flannel and these make excellent gifts for any occasion. He doesn't have to know a specific size, just be in the ballpark, and if he's got money he can spend big bucks. If he's sort of broke, he can get me something as pretty at WalMart. Unfortunately, before he discovered pajamas, diamonds were his gift of choice. Though I love my PJ's, I'm not sure I made out in that deal.

We use heavy duty, extra strength detergent and we're not stingy about it. We like our clothes clean. Which is probably why each of us changes a few times a day. And why laundry is such a big deal in my life. I do a lot of it. Luckily, there is no water shortage in our city!

My son who now lives on his own is allergic to a certain kind of laundry soap, so we never bought it. Still don't. It's like a ban that's never been lifted, or an old law that's so antiquated it makes us laugh. It's still in force, even though it's no longer needed.

Every morning, I sort out two loads, wash them and put them in the dryer. When the dryer dings, I dump them on a chair and the clothing owners have 24 hours to get their things off the chair and into their rooms. If they don't, then I take the clothes into their rooms. If a drawer accidentally falls open as I walk by and ... well ... I see things then it's on them because I was only in their room to put away laundry that they should have put away.

You'd be surprised what THAT particular adventure has netted me in terms of news and information.

I grew up in an era when women began to fuss and fume about having to do all the housework. I'm not in their ranks. I sort of like housework. Don't get me wrong, if I could afford to pay someone to scrub toilets that person would be living with me right now. But I don't mind dishes. Washing them is very soothing. I love to scrub. Who doesn't love to toss water on a floor and watch a mop try to corral it? But laundry is my favorite. It's like keeping in touch with kids who are growing away from me.

I knew immediately when my daughter switched to thongs. Not because she told me or because I bought them (though in some way, shape or form I'm guessing I did) but because I washed them. I've watched their taste in clothes mature. (Even if their underwear declined.) I washed fatigues when Spunky was in the army. Blood stained shirts after Mikie's trips to the hospital.

I guess in a way, laundry is a history of sorts. Or a way to stay in their lives when they're struggling for independence. A chance to say a quick prayer when you see your kids are growing, growing away, growing into themselves.