Does the Date Matter?

It's almost Valentine's Day. What will we do? Probably not go out to a special romantic dinner. Restaurants are overbooked, many choose a "special" (translation—limited) menu, and service is likely to be under par. Normally, if we're going to celebrate with a restaurant meal, we'll go out the day after.

Does the day itself matter? We'll acknowledge the holiday with cards and hubby might provide some chocolate (unlike the year he gave me an electronic tire pressure gauge), but we feel no obligation to celebrate on the 14th. Maybe this got started early on, when his travels almost always had him out of town on my birthday, so we'd choose another day to celebrate. (And to my reckoning, since I only count birthdays when he was home to celebrate on the official day, I'm at least 10-15 years younger than my passport says.)

Between workshop presentations and conferences, my schedule would be full enough without including packing and moving, much less adding holiday celebrations. Hubby and I are thinking we ought to find time to choose at least one special thing and have one special dinner. We can consider it a 'going-away' dinner and have the official Valentine's Day and birthday dinner another time, when things are less crazy and stressful.

That Magic Decoder Ring

How do you read? Decoding or Sight Words? And yes, this will get to a 'writing' topic, so hang in there. Please.

When I volunteer for the Adult Literacy League, training new tutors, one of the things we discuss is how people learning to read must be able to decode the markings on the page into meaningful words, sentences, and paragraphs. There are many ways we do this.

What does a reader do when confronted with a word he doesn't recognize?

We use our phonics skills, but they don't always work, since the English language is rooted in too many other languages that don't comply to those "rules." They work much of the time, however, so the ALL recommends using a phonics based approach as a basic starting point.

Another tool: In our training sessions we talk about Word Patterns, or Word Families, which might also draw on phonics skills. Can you compare the word to another that you already know? For example, if the student can't read the word "Shake", but can read "cake" and "bake", the tutor can use this as a way to help the reader recognize that "ake" makes a specific sound, and from there, can extrapolate how to form other words that end in "ake."

Of course, it won't always work. My favorite example is laughter. Change the "l" to a "d" and the words sound nothing alike. (Unless you're in my family, in which we've been know to refer to our dafters.)

It's a Wrap.

I met my goal, and as of Thursday night, Draft 1 of my mystery is complete. It came in at close to 96K, which is long. But it's done, and I am very pleased with the storyboard tracking method I used.

I ended up with 32 chapters, which just so happens to be the number of squares on my board. I didn't really plan it that way; that's just how I'd originally set up the board based on space available. Whether I'll consolidate chapters on edits, or simply tighten things remains to be seen.


My idea board isn't empty. I had a good number of thoughts stuck up there that weren't needed. If I'd been outlining, I fear I might have tried to hard to incorporate everything. This way, I can just toss the leftovers away.


And how does it feel to be finished? Strange not to have something to work on. Friday seemed to have many more hours than a typical day. I did spend time working on handouts and the like for Saturday's book signing, but there's this hole where my characters used to be. I'll be rejoining them soon enough for edits, but I intentionally didn't even open the document all weekend.

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Saturday's book-signing went very well, although the day began with a bit of a jolt. Since the signing wasn't until early afternoon, I planned on a leisurely morning. When we got a phone call from a Realtor wanting to show the house in 2 hours, things moved into frenzy mode. There wouldn't be time to leave for the time window he wanted to bring his buyers by and come back before leaving for the signing. Hubby was off fishing, but didn't expect to be gone long. Still, one never really knows what "not long" means.

I hadn't even showered yet, done the breakfast dishes, or packed the car with my signing stuff. We'd had fish for dinner Friday night, so I popped some chocolate chip cookie dough (thank goodness for those pre-made little squares) into the oven (better it should smell like chocolate, not fish) and rushed to make myself presentable before starting on the house cleanup.

Hubby got home, showered and got dressed. Then the Realtor called. His buyers had decided they loved one of the other houses they'd seen first, so they wouldn't be coming by. (Mental question – if I hadn't requested we be last on his route, would they have fallen in love with our house? Not worth worrying about. My rationale: if our house was "close" in meeting their criteria, they'd probably have wanted to see it just to be sure they'd found the right one.) I think that's the only time I've been relieved at a no-show. And ever so thankful that Realtor was one of the courteous ones. I'd have thrown lightning bolts had we done all that work for a no-show.

So, we got to relax a bit and leave for the signing in a more organized fashion. Check my website for more pictures. The Adult Literacy League is the real winner, because they'll get a donation of 20% of the book sales. I met some folks who "know" me from my blog, and a couple of Facebook friends as well. I even ran into a couple of people from my original critique group.

Many people had no clue we were the authors of the books, and looked at us differently once they knew we weren't bookstore employees. One gentleman wanted to know why all these women writers wrote about romance. We pointed out that everyone there was a member of a romance writer's organization, which was why all the books were romances. We were "interviewed" by students whose teacher gave extra credit to anyone coming to the signing.

Have you gone to book signings? Have you wandered into a bookstore and an author sat there with a stack of books? Are you one of those people who avoids eye contact and looks for an alternate route to wherever you were going? Don't be. We love to chat. We know we're not going to sell everyone a book. But maybe you know someone who is looking for the kind of books we write. Take a bookmark, pass it along. It means a lot. So far, I've never been bold enough to request a solo book signing, and this event was massive as signings go, so we had a lot of people wandering around the circle of tables. And I did sell some books. At least a couple of copies of all my titles.

Tomorrow, mystery author Elizabeth Spann Craig is going to explain how she uses Twitter. I'm interested, because so far, I haven't grasped its value. The entire social networking thing confuses me, although I do participate to some degree. However, there are days when I agree with Garry Trudeau and Doonesbury in his Nov. 9th strip.

"The End" Doesn't Mean You're Done

What I'm reading: Kindred in Death, by J.D. Robb



I'll be one of about 20 authors signing books on Saturday. I know the majority of you aren't local, but this is our RWA chapter's annual event to raise money for the Adult Literacy League in Orlando. Twenty percent of the proceeds will be donated to the organization, thanks to Barnes & Noble. Literacy is near and dear to me, and I've been a volunteer for the Adult Literacy League for over a decade. I'm plugging the event here because I'd like you to think about donating something -- time, money, in-kind donations -- to a charitable organization you choose.

As I type this, I'm optimistic that I will have reached "The End" of my first draft of my mystery before this post hits the blog. Endings are harder for me than beginnings, and since it's a mystery and not a romance, I'm entering new territory. The bad guy is in custody. He's confessed. The hostage has been rescued. And the twist on the missing "secret" will hit the page.

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The issue, as I'd mentioned earlier this week, is that since I know all the facts, the writing gets tedious. How can I present it to the reader so they feel the tension? Because I don't share those feelings. It's more of an, "Okay, get on with it" feeling. I've known what's going to happen long enough that there's no thrill.

However, I'm optimistic that one way or another, even if it's a dull, dry info dump, it'll be on the page. And then I can start to fix it. Allison Brennan shared numerous versions of her first chapter on her blog at Murder She Writes on Thursday. Knowing that a prolific, best-selling author doesn't get it down in one--or two--drafts makes me feel better.

And the final word count will be longer than my target. However, cutting 10% is always step one in edits. I'll be a lot closer after that step. Some of those cuts will be scenes that aren't needed. Some will be threads that never went anywhere. (Although I know I'll have the urge to expand them and work them in!)


But before I get to edits, I'm going to hit "save" and close the document. The first thing I'll do is indulge in one of the chocolate truffles hubby brought home yesterday.

I'll be back on Monday to let you know how everything went.

Get Some Warm Fuzzies: Volunteer

Because I announced yesterday's book giveaway on a number of message groups, and the digest post option often takes a day to show up, I'm not going to announce a winner until tomorrow (when it'll be another chapter from the annals of Detective Hussey).

You can leave a comment either here or scroll down to yesterday's post.

The "For Sale" sign is in the yard, so I guess it's official, although I haven't seen the posting on the MLS site.

I know I've spent a lot of blog time on my pet charity, Adult Literacy, and it's still a worthwhile topic. Saturday I'll be training another batch of tutors. Yes, it's a holiday weekend, but the need is there. The Adult Literacy League here in Orlando has a backlog of people waiting to be assigned tutors. The economy is hitting them hard. On a slightly brighter note, we've seen a rise in the number of tutors--many of them have also felt the downsizing crunch and now have more time, and are choosing to use it to help others.

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My first student was a 50-year-old woman who had completed 9th grade, but had been passed through the system because she was a quiet and cooperative student. Her learning difficulties had pretty much been ignored. I spent 3 delightful years working with her, and we both took great satisfaction in watching her progress.

My next student reflected another literacy issue … people whose native language isn’t English. I enjoyed the ups and downs of explaining the vagaries and complexities of our language to a woman born and raised in Korea. Although she was in the U.S. for almost 20 years, she had only recently made the connection between the fact that without good language skills, her ability to obtain promotions at work had just about ended. I probably learned as much about grammar as she did (at least I learned official terminology for all the rules I took for granted). Her pronunciation was another challenge--being Korean, she had problems with Ls and Rs. "Squirrel" was almost beyond her capability. And since she worked for Walt Disney World, we spent a lot of time practicing that one.

Or idioms -- one story spoke of a character being "in a rut." Because she pronounced the word "rot", not "rut", her interpretation was that the man had a "rotten life."

The rewards of having someone tell you that they read a magazine article that warned of the dangers of eating rare hamburger, or that they finally got the Monday – Friday work schedule they’ve always wanted cannot be measured. I urge everyone who has an hour a week to find a literacy group in your community and give something back. You can check ProLiteracy Worldwide to find a program in your area. Get in touch with someone today.

And if you don't think you have what it takes to work with a student, your local literacy organization needs volunteers for so many other tasks. Can you help with mailings? Will you answer phones? Can you manage a photocopy machine? And, if you feel you still don't have the time or skills, these organizations will never say 'no' to your checks!

Books for Mothers Day?

What I'm reading: Loitering With Intent, by Stuart Woods

(and be sure to read to the end -- there's a Homicide- Hussey bonus for you)

I'll be with six other members of the Central Florida Romance Writers at Barnes & Noble in Orlando on Saturday: Dara Edmondson, Catherine Kean, Judith Gilbert, Shauna Hart, Michelle Young, and Cillian Burns. It's the day before Mother's Day, and there's normally a good turnout. But I have to wonder about the economy, and whether it will affect sales.

I know I haven't stopped reading – I can't imagine ever doing that – and although I've cut back on buying, it's more because of the idea of moving more books than I already have than because of the budget. I'm buying more e-books, simply because they don't take up space.

There are a lot of mixed feelings about used book stores. Some authors don't like them because they aren't getting royalties. It's never bothered me. I've found many new authors I might not have tried otherwise, and I'm more willing to take a chance with a discounted book. I think I found my first Susan Wiggs book at a used book store, and I've bought everything else she's written.

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Another budget-cutter is your library. I'm also a strong believer in libraries. I'm a strong believer in anything that gets people reading (as I'm sure many of you know from the countless times I've mentioned my association as a volunteer with the Adult Literacy League here in Orlando).

If you read yesterday's post, you saw that I'm having a contest that runs all this month. (I'll wait while you scroll down and read it – I'll find something else to put in the prize envelope while you do.)

You're back? Great. One of the 'rules' of the contest is that you check with your local library for one of my books, WHEN DANGER CALLS. The publisher, Five Star, targets the library market, and having it in as many libraries as possible is a triple bonus.

One, the publisher sells a book. Two, the author (in this case, me), gets the royalty. Three, the reader (you) gets to enjoy a great read at no cost. Of course, I have no objection to you deciding you just HAVE to have the book for your collection (or to give to your Mother for Mother's Day), but seriously, I know the hard cover books are pricey.

I'll be interested to see how it does at Saturday's signing.

So – how has the economy affected your book-buying/reading habits?

And, because tomorrow is reserved for Detective Mark Hussey's next installment, I won't be seeing you until Monday. If you're in Orlando Saturday (May 9th), drop by the Barnes & Noble at Plaza Venezia, 7900 W. Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32819, between 1 and 4 pm. We're giving away a $15 Barnes & Noble gift card to one lucky winner – no purchase necessary. All you have to do is come in and say hello.

And, just because this post feels a little too much like a 'commercial', I'll leave you with a bonus. Last week, the beginning Civilian Police Academy class had their session on the Homicide Division. Their speaker was none other than Detective Mark Hussey. If you've been following his Friday posts (and if you haven't, shame on you – they're great!), you know he has quite the sense of humor. He opened his talk with his own personal Top Ten Reasons he became a Homicide Detective:

10. You develop the bladder capacity of 5 normal people.

9. Chances to teach seminars entitled “Suicide--getting it right the first time”.

8. Discussing dismemberment over a gourmet meal seems perfectly normal.

7. You can identify a negative teeth-to-tattoo ratio just by looking at someone.

6. Opportunities to hang out with a 10 day old stinker on the hottest day of the year.

5. It’s nice to be the only person introduced at social gatherings by your profession.

4. Exhaustion becomes your favorite hallucinogen.

3. Caffeine is available to you in IV form.

2. Advance notice of soon-to-be-available apartments and cars.

1. Free Chalk.

Be sure to come back tomorrow. His chapter is called "Adventures in the Paranormal."

RT Recap 3

What I'm reading: Tears of the Moon, by Nora Roberts

First: Yesterday I mentioned hearing Michael Connelly speak at the Adult Literacy League Fundraiser. A local bookstore, Urban Think! recorded his talk and has shared it here.

Friday. Another free food breakfast mixer. I'd decided to play that one by ear, but since I was awake, I wandered down, got in line, and was even early enough for a bag of goodies from The Shadowdwellers. I had my stint in the "Club RT" room after breakfast, where authors get a table to sit at and hand out promo items and chat with anyone who comes by. Most of the traffic is people entering drawings for all the big raffle baskets donated by attendees. I think I chatted more with the cover models than readers, but heck – that wasn't exactly a hardship.

The next session I attended was, "Kill Me!" with Debra Webb, who I 'knew' from her Murder She Writes blog; CJ Lyons, Karen Rose, Andrew Peterson & Tom Lowe. Very interesting discussion when someone asked the men how they dealt with 'romance.' We segued off into 'romance' vs 'sex scenes'.
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Not surprisingly, when someone asked the male panelists (who wrote thrillers) how they worked romance into their stories, since this was a 'romance' convention, both spoke that they included sex scenes. How XY of them. One thing I enjoyed about the panels I attended was the opening the discussion to input from the audience rather than sticking to a formal Q&A pattern.

After that, I'd planned to hide in my room for a bit and grab some of my food stash (lesson learned long ago; I always travel with some kind of sustenance), but I bumped into Nancy Cohen who said Harlequin was hosting a "potato martini" luncheon in celebration of its 60th anniversary. Free food. I joined the line. She'd been expecting a sit-down lunch based on the menu description, but in reality it was a bunch of food stations. Having done many conference meal events from the other side, I would definitely have done this one differently, but eventually we got to one of the buffet setups. Too late for the book giveaway, though.

The deal: you get a martini glass. There is a huge vat of mashed potatoes. Scoop the desired amount into your glass. Then there were 3 'toppings' – bbq chicken, some sort of beef (I don't know what 'flavor': I don't eat dead cows), and a faux Creole shrimp dish. Also, for purists, the basic bacon, chives, cheese toppers.

Note: next time, go very light on the potatoes and fill the glass with mostly the bbq chicken, which was very good. After lunch, they drew 10 names for special commemorative tote bags (and I won one!),


and then two or three people won Sony readers. After the event, I got together with Sandra McDonald, my first writing mentor, who had driven down from Jacksonville just to scope things out and attend the Saturday book fair. We had a nice visit. Hubby joined us at the hotel for dinner—the Vampire Ball included a full meal, but that wasn't going to be until nine, and I needed something more, given that lunch had been a martini glass of mashed potatoes with a little bbq chicken – oh, and a special commemorative cookie (or two).

I changed for the ball and went back to --- yep, stand in line. But the company was interesting.

I'm not a costume person. I thought I might be out of place, but from the looks of things, I'd say about 30% of the folks showed up in "costumes". Most of the rest just wore some variation on black. We were treated to a theatrical production of a murder. The audience was supposed to figure out who did it and why. Well, the sets and costumes were great, but the skit seemed typically corny for this kind of an event. Until the music started and Heather Graham belted out "House of the Rising Sun" which brought the house down. Shades of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent. And do you think it's fair that Heather can write AND sing?

Music and dancing commenced after the show. I lasted about another half-hour. I didn't recognize the music, being totally out of touch, and the noise made conversation impossible. As usual, I'm happy curling up with a book.

Saturday was yet another breakfast event. This time I did get another bag o' books and Barry Eisler was signing a copy of Fault Line for everyone as they entered. Note to self: learn how to do a scribbly signature instead of having to be careful with all those loops in the cursive version of Odell – go ahead: write it yourself. It's nothing but tall, short, fat and skinny loops.


After the breakfast, it was time to set up for the book signing. All three of my allotted books were there. Once again, I sat beside Jana Oliver and her stuffed ferret. The person on the other side of me was a no-show, so I kind of encroached on her allotted space and spread out a bit more. I've learned that sitting and waiting for people when you're a relative unknown doesn't do anything for meeting people or making sales, so I tried to talk to passersby. A lot of them did stop when I said my books were mystery-romance, because that's a genre they enjoy. I had chapter books, postcards, magnets and chocolate—more when I started than when it was time to pack up. I met readers and booksellers and figure making contact was well worth the time spent in that huge, crowded, noisy room.

When the signing was over, I packed up and decided I was too drained to hang around long enough for the Cover Model competition. Maybe if I'd been 20 years younger, I'd have had the strength and the inclination – but these guys were almost all younger than my kids. Not that they were hard to look at, mind you, but definitely not the kind of guys I'd fantasize over.

So … that's my first RT. If you want more details, leave a question in the comments.

This was a long post, but I wanted to get the blow-by-blow done to give Homicide - Hussey center stage tomorrow. I'll try to get the PMS (Phony Male Syndrome) notes up on Monday.

Giving

What I'm reading: Rita entry 6 of 9.
Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child

What I'm working on: Presentation modules for the monthly tutor training at the Adult Literacy League.

It's been a while since my schedule has meshed with the Adult Literacy League's training, and I confess to being a bit rusty--not to mention the entire program has been revamped and updated.

Literacy is way up there on my list of Important Things. As a person, I can't imagine not being able to read. As a writer, having more people able to access my work is a definite plus.

So, for the past fifteen plus years, I've donated my time (and some bucks as well) to the Adult Literacy League. I've had two literacy students. For the past dozen years or so, I've trained new tutors.

Literacy is defined as "The ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve goals, and to develop knowledge and potential."
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One in every five Central Florida adults reads at or below the 5th grade level. For them, simple everyday tasks present real problems. Reading product labels, following street signs or filling out job applications can be difficult and frustrating.

Families suffer, too. Parents with low literacy skills have trouble reading to their children and many don't even try. Sadly, the literacy levels of children are strongly linked to the educational levels of their parents.

Thankfully, the Adult Literacy League, Inc. is here to help. Through volunteer and donor support, we're able to reach more and more adults and families . . . and in doing so, help expand their world one page at a time.

I hope you'll all consider doing something to give back to your community. Maybe not for literacy, but we all have things we believe in, things that are important to us, for our own personal reasons. Times may be tough, but giving shouldn't stop.

And special thanks to CJ Lyons for sharing her time with us. She had some compelling stories to tell, didn't she?

What are you giving back?

I'll be at the Orlando Adult Literacy League all day today, training new tutors to teach adults how to read, or improve their reading skills.

Literacy, or the lack of it, is a major problem in our country. While Nora Roberts can afford to donate much larger sums of money than I can, at least by giving a day of my time once a month, I can do my part.

Check out ProLiteracy Worldwide to find a program in your area. And if you don't have time, yes they all take checks.

What are you doing to give back to your community?

Literacy and Nora Roberts

What I'm reading: Shoot Don't Shoot by J.A. Jance

What I'm writing: Finished my draft of my mystery short; tentative title: Redshirted.

This morning, in my never ending quest to keep the pile of paperwork on my desk down to a manageable level, I picked up a renewal form from ProLiteracy. I've been an advocate of literacy for years--my whole live, actually. Where would we be if we couldn't read? I can't remember not reading, and I swear my kids popped out of the womb as bookworms.

I've taught school, I've volunteer tutored for our local Adult Literacy League, and I'm now involved with their program to train new tutors. The Laubach Way to Reading, which is one program used to teach adults reading says, "Each One Teach One" and it's something we should all strive for. There's nothing more rewarding than to see a learner's eyes light up as they discover how to make sense of those markings on a printed page.

The Romance Writers of America supports ProLiteracy Worldwide, donating the proceeds from their annual multi-author book signing at their national conference. So does the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, among many other groups.

Back to the renewal form. Normally, I just tick a box, fill it out (or go on line), but a name popped out at me. Nora Roberts. I read the paragraph. "I agree that literacy is a basic human right that should not be denied to anyone in today's world. I also understand that my renewal contribution will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, by a generous gift from author Nora Roberts. "

I will admit I doubled my normal contribution. I can't afford to match gifts the way Nora Roberts can, but I can certainly budget a little more to help the cause.

Even if you've never donated before, I urge you to visit the ProLiteracy Worldwide website
and make a contribution. Better yet, find a program in your community and sign up to teach someone to read. All you need is an hour or two a week.


(I haven't forgotten my cover contest -- check back Friday for the whole cover and a winner)