Happy Mother's Day - Help a good cause

Yesterday, WHAT'S IN A NAME? was a featured book at the Kindle Nation Daily. My daughter is a triathlete who coaches and is training for an ironman to raise money for Team in Training, which gives money to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to help beat cancer. If you want to pitch in, I'm donating 10% of today's sales of WHAT'S IN A NAME?

You can buy it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, or All Romance eBooks.

It's a good cause, and you get to read a good book.

Thanks to All

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on Friday's post. And congratulations, and thanks to Nicole for her tremendous efforts. Based on the comments, I'll be making a $35 donation to the cause. If anyone wants to join me, the link to her fundraising page is here.






And if you're looking at another way to help, October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I've been doing my part--having a Pink Ribbon Bagel at Panera on our weekly outings.

Respect for the Beast

What I'm reading: Hunt Her Down, by Roxanne St. Claire.

Today, I'm turning my blog over to someone special - my youngest (by 3 minutes) daughter. It's her birthday, and I wish her (and her sister, of course!) the happiest of days, but I'd like to share her recent experience. Always warm and giving, she joined up with Team in Training several years ago, and has become a triathlete dedicated to raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Most of us would be content to sit back and write a check, but she goes after things on a much more ... active level. Last weekend, she ran a full marathon. As her mom, all I could think about was how the guy who ran the first one ended up dead ... but I'll let her tell her story.

Sunday, Oct 18th I experienced my very first marathon. I've run one half-marathon and a couple others as part of half-iron distance races, but this would be my first attempt at the full 26.2. I was part of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training (TNT) team, so there was tons of support. Our Colorado Springs team was extra motivated, because one of our teammate's daughter was at the very end of her struggle with leukemia on race day. I was also running for my aunt, Amy, who has recently been diagnosed with a form of lymphoma.

On the day before the race, I was getting the lay of the land when Jaci and her husband showed up - Jaci's daughter, Kalia, is the one fighting leukemia. We didn't expect her to be there, but Kalila told them to come so they did. She was obviously very distraught so I walked her through packet pick-up and back to the team meeting location. They were certainly surrounded by a wonderful support team.

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The team headed over to Maggiano's for our Inspiration Luncheon. It was very inspiring, to say the least. First we get the red carpet treatment as we enter the restaurant, with TNT coaches, staff, and volunteers cheering extremely loudly as we walk in. Then we watch a slideshow of the reason we are running - pictures of all the people the team knows who have fought or are still fighting blood cancers. I was sitting at a table with Jaci and Brian, and you could see them wait in anticipation every time Kalila's picture would be about to come up. I can't imagine what they were feeling.

We heard from "Mascot Dave," a Team Hero who is dealing with leukemia. He's currently in remission after several different experimental treatments. It seems that he truly enjoys giving back to others and pushing his own personal limits. "There are no mistakes, only lessons."

RACE DAY!!!

Jaci and Brian showed up but they didn't stay long. They got a call that Kalila was not doing well at all and might not make it until noon. So after a lot of hugs from the team, they headed out. A friend of Kalila's ran the half for Jaci in Kalila's honor. The troops were gathered and before heading to the race start we had a "Mission Moment" from a young leukemia survior, probably not much older than Kalila and was diagnosed a year or so ago. I think Jaci and Brian were still around for that so I can't begin to imagine how they were feeling with a young survivor speaking and thanking us for saving her life while their daughter was in her final hours. An extremely emotional start to the race morning, but it certainly put a lot of things into perspective.

I head over to the start. Crowded! I pressed start on my Garmin as I crossed the mat and I had officially started my first marathon.

Start slow. Take it easy. Get your legs warmed up nice and slow. I was taking in the vibe of running with so many people on the streets of Denver at sunrise. Beautiful feeling. I was taking it easy the first mile - my Garmin had me at 10:30 or so pace. first 3 miles were good - legs got warmed up and I was plenty comfy in my singlet and arm warmers. By mile 3 the 4:00 pace group was near me and the leader said "3 miles, right on pace." My Garmin had me at 2.7miles. OK - so don't believe the Garmin today. I started feeling good and picked up my pace.

We wound around the streets of downtown Denver. Around 5.5 miles was the TNT cheer/aid station. Crazy people in purple and cowboy hats cheering and screaming. I remember pumping my arms - woohoo and yeehaw!

Around mile 9 or so I heard my name and Becky (another former TNTer) was there and took my picture. Soon there was a TNT coach who was monitoring us on the course. He said I looked really relaxed. I felt good, even though my legs were feeling it some. I just kept going. I didn't realize I was in a park. Oh well. After the park we were close to the half-way point. I remember looking at my time at mile 12 and seeing 1:48. Still on track for a sub-4 race so I felt good. Just keep up this pace and I'll be golden.

Eastbound was slightly uphill and I could really tell. Another TNT coach ran with us for a couple blocks and then headed back down to find the next person in purple. I couldn't wait to get to the turn around on this part for the recovery on the slight downhill. Oh so wrong. At this point my legs were pretty sore so there was no recovery on a downhill, only pain. I remember looking at the miles and couldn't wait for the miles left to be in the single digits.

Then the pain registered even more. Everything hurt - well everything except the knee pain that put me into PT all last week! Hang on and keep the legs moving. I knew why I was out there - didn't question that. I knew I would finish. I just didn't know how long it would take me to get to the finish line....

Mile 17 the TNT coach who saw me at mile 9 or 10 was back. He said I looked a little sore. I agreed. He got me to shake out my arms, relax and breathe. Really breathing wasn't an issue. At this time I was going slow enough that my cardiovascular system wasn't taxed at all. I had no trouble breathing. I had trouble moving my legs. But I was tensing up in the shoulders too, so it was good to remember to shake the arms out a bit. Mile 18.

Just 8 more miles. My IT band tightness was manifesting itself in my knees. Joy. Been there, done that, don't want that again. Just keep moving. Mile 20...OK, only a 10k to go. really - just a 10k! That's still an hour...

Shuffle, shuffle, walk at an aid station. Shuffle again. Didn't even bother checking my pace on the Garmin. I hear there is a wall at mile 20. Nope, no wall, just an extremely viscous medium to sludge my way through. I didn't want to walk (other than aid stations) but I did. I admit it. I started to see more people going by me. Even though I was going pretty slow by now and was hurting (see the race photo grimace) I was moving.

The cops were managing the traffic at the intersections and the runners were very polite and thanking the cops. I usually do that too, but today it was all I could do to just smile or give a thumbs up. 5 more miles. 4 more miles. 4:15 pace group goes by at some point - just hang with them...or not. 3 more miles. 2 more miles. Another TNT coach on the course - better get to running again! He asked how I was but didn't buy the "OK" I managed to squeak out. But I convinced him I was fine other than the pain (with which I am sure he was familiar). He gave me a brief run down on the last 1.5 miles of the course, said I looked good and let me go on my way. Mile 25 marker. I was almost there. walk, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. OK maybe a little more walking.


Woohoo! There was no final kick for me, but I will finish with my head up high! Now, don't trip on the timing mats! Didn't - good. I had finished my first marathon in 4:26.

This was by far the most pain I have ever intentionally inflicted upon myself. But was it worth it? Yeah. Would I do it again? Yeah. (got to figure the pacing stuff out for sure!) Pressure is gone, right now who cares about a BQ - finishing was fine, just fine. I knew it was going to be painful and hard, but I really did underestimate the power of the beast. I definitely have a new found respect for the marathon.

And unfortunately, later that night, Jaci and Brian lost Kalila to leukemia....

This is an abridged version: the entire story can be read at Banana Death, Nicole's blog.

More pictures here and here.

As a closing note: One of my Wild Rose Press author colleagues has just received the heartbreaking news that her daughter has been diagnosed with leukemia. Thanks to all the Team in Training athletes who give so much for the cause. If after reading, you'd like to make a donation, you can do it here.

And, finally: For every comment left on this blog, I'll make a donation to Nicole's fund raising efforts. Happy Birthday, kiddo! We're proud of you.

Trust Your Instincts

What I'm reading: Hot Pursuit, by Suzanne Brockmann

What's new? My contest for August. I have an ARC—an uncorrected proof—of When Danger Calls. As we're still trying to minimize what we'll have to move, should we actually sell our house, I've decided to part with it as the prize for my August contest. Details on my website.

And a salute to my daughter who finished second in her age class at a triathlon event this past weekend in Colorado. She's doing it through "Team in Training" to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

And if you missed seeing it, be sure to check out my interview at the Author Exchange Blog.

Back to writing:

Saturday, I had my handouts ready, my tracking and idea boards packed up, my GPS programmed, and everything was looking good for the workshop portion of our monthly RWA chapter meeting. But, as seems to be the way things work when I'm added to the mix there was the inevitable glitch. We'd finished the business portion of the meeting, and were just getting into the discussion of plotting when the mall security guard poked his head into the room. It seems the meeting room had been reserved by another group, and the schedule said we were supposed to be there on the following Saturday. So, our hour-long presentation was compressed to 15 minutes.

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These things happen. It just seems that they always happen to me. I warn everyone—if I'm standing in line at the grocery store checkout, don't get behind me. It's a sure bet that either the person in front of me will be trying to pay with rolls of coins, or I'll be halfway through my order when the checker won't be able to find the magic code that will enter my tomatillos. (Although I did have one checker who gave me an item free when she couldn't find the right code.)

At any rate, I did promise to share my workshop notes, even if I was the one giving the workshop. The topic, as mentioned, was "Plotting for Non-Plotters."

Can you really write a book without plotting? Every writer plots. Without plot, there's no story. It's a matter of how and when you do it.

What works for one author might not work for another. There is no single way, no best way. You figure out what gets you from Chapter One to The End, and that's 'right' for you. For that book. You're not locked into any single method. Part of the adventure is experimenting, testing, modifying.

One of the bullet points on my handout was Trust Your Instincts. This is something that I've come to believe in. Even if you don't know your entire plot when you start putting words on the page, you've probably been thinking about it for some time. You have some premise as a foundation, whether it's a character, a scene, or even a line of dialogue. (Don't laugh—one of the short stories in my recent submission to a mystery anthology came to be because I always wanted to use a specific line in a story someday.)

When I wrote Finding Sarah, I began with the characters. I knew my hero would be a cop who had a very strong vision about the lines of right and wrong in his job, and I wanted to push to see what it would take to drag him across. When I started, that's about all I knew about him. In an early draft, he'd had a personal emotional trauma, and he went down the hall of his house, opened the door to the spare bedroom, and—surprise to me, there was a piano in there. He sat down and played. He'd never told me he was a gifted pianist. It definitely worked for the story, and when I went back to see if I had to change anything, there was a single line that had to be adjusted. Everything else fit perfectly.

In the book I'm working on now, I needed an opening "show the hero in his normal life" scene. Gordon is the police chief in a small town, so I showed him going over the reports from the night shift. Included was the following paragraph:

Back to Dunsworth's hen scratches. Suspected drug use. He looked at that one a little more carefully. Mapleton didn't need drug problems. Officer smelled marijuana, but didn't find any hard evidence. Gordon checked the name. Not one he recognized. Address was the Richardsons' B&B. Not a local, then. Table that one for now.

That was Chapter One. In Chapter Twenty-two, the character (who I went back and gave a name) turned out to be part of a thread that would send Gordon off after a red herring. Did I know it when I wrote that paragraph in Chapter One? Nope. But it worked.

And the reverse is true. If an idea hits in Chapter Twenty, you might have to go back and add details to make sure you're not springing something new on the reader.

The beauty of writing is that you have the awesome power to control time, so you can go back and fill in details as the plot unfolds, so that you've foreshadowed properly. As I mentioned in my post notes from Martha Powers' presentation on suspense, "If they buy the premise, they'll buy the bit." You can't spring something on the reader for the first time when you need it to move the story. But you do need to keep track of all the little details you've inserted, because it's quite likely your subconscious is telling you they're going to be needed later.

As an example from the movies: We've been watching the Pink Panther movies on Netflix recently. We just watched the first Steve Martin one. At the very beginning, Clouseau goes through an elaborate shtick when he enters a room, talking about the weather, then karate-chopping the breaks to make sure the room is 'secure.' Later in the movie, he overhears someone using the same dialogue about the weather and he immediately approaches the man and introduces himself as someone also 'in the business.' The reader was set up to accept this sort of exchange (and then was treated to a James Bond spoof). In yet another instance, someone had entered Clouseau's office and hid behind the drapes when he heard Clouseau coming in. We'd 'bought the premise' that Clouseau would be checking the room, so we 'bought the bit' when he and his secretary went through the weather spiel and attacked the draperies. Had we not seen it before, we wouldn't have accepted it as anything other than a forced piece of action.

If you'd like the handout, I've uploaded it to my website. If you have any questions, ask them here, and I'll try to address them in a future post.

Tomorrow: A bonus. My guest, author Rob Walker, is bringing his wife along to talk about how the two of them manage to write, killing off only their characters and not each other as they juggle their writing careers while coexisting under the same roof.

Life Imitates Art?

What I'm reading: Winter Prey, by John Sandford
Also, RITA contest entries. Book 1 of 9

I was going to start the week with something light and cheery. Until I got an email from my sister-in-law that gave me a jolt. She's younger than I am, and very health conscious, yet she's already dealt with a form of ovarian cancer. And now she's dealing with something called Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia.

This is what she wrote:

There's no cure, but the good news is that it's not likely to kill me anytime soon. It's an indolent form of lymphoma meaning it's very slow progressing. Basically, it's a chronic cancer that sometimes isn't even treated if there are no symptoms. My oncologist tells me I "could live for years and years" with this. Of course, the operative word there is "could". He didn't specify the other options. I'll question him further on that when I see him in April. In the meantime since my only symptom is cold-induced hives which are being controlled by antihistamines, we're not doing any other treatments. Let me emphasize that I currently feel fine. Hopefully, I will stay that way for a good long time.

I certainly hope so too.

The curious thing is that the manuscript I've just finished deals with the subject of 'orphan diseases' – those that don't have 'enough' people afflicted with them to warrant expensive medical research. While I created a fictional disease in my manuscript, there are thousands of diseases out there that don't get the big bucks for research.

One of our daughters has been active in Team in Training, which raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society—by running triathlons. This year, she's coaching as well. I heartily support her efforts. Until this year, she dedicated her racing to an aunt on my side of the family. This year, she'll have another relative to keep in her thoughts.

And, before I go – thanks again to Mark Hussey for sharing peeks into his life as a cop. He'll be back, I promise. I'm considering making him a Friday regular. And tomorrow, my guest will be Eilis Flynn who will be putting those New Years Resolutions into perspective.

Second Chance Rose review

I'm out of town, and have very limited time or access to email, but I did get a very positive review for Second Chance Rose from Long and Short Reviews.

Read it here

And a reminder -- there's still a chance to make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (no cost to you) if you buy the short story, or any of my other ones. Details on my website

Read and Help a Cause

What I'm reading: Dirty Harriet Rides Again by Miriam Auerbach

My idea of exercise is thirty minutes on a recumbent bike with iTunes in my ears and a book in my hands. My daughter is involved with Team in Training, a fundraising effort for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I applaud her efforts, especially since she participates in half-ironman triathlons. I was impressed last year when she completed the race, but what amazes me is that she's going to do it AGAIN, and as a trainer as well.

In support, I (of course) donate to the cause. This year, in addition to my normal donation, I'm going to kick in additional funds for every one of my books and short stories sold between now and May 1^st, and I'm inviting you to help. If you email me copies of your order confirmations from any source—the publisher, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Fictionwise – doesn't matter. I'll add $1.00 for every novel and fifty cents for every short story sold during this timeframe. This is your chance to enjoy a good read and help a good cause.

Note: This is a personal donation and in no way represents an endorsement from my publishers.

More on my website

Here's some information from my daughter:

For the last two years I trained with Team in Training to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and try new things - first the 5430 Sprint race in 2006 and then the 5430 Long Course half ironman in 2007. This year I have the wonderful opportunity to be back with Team in Training, except this year I have the role of a coach! I am so excited to help others achieve personal goals and support such a great cause. Because I believe in the mission of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, I have also decided to fundraise. I will also be training to participate in the Olympic distance race - the Loveland Lake to Lake triathlon on June 28th.

The TNT team and I are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I'm completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. Last year I raced in honor of my great aunt Margie, who succumbed to the effects of multiple myeloma. Seeing her name on the wrist band I wore throughout my race really pushed me through the tough times. (Imaging swimming for about 45 minutes, then going on a 3+ hour bike ride in the middle of summer, and then deciding, when the sun was nearing its high point, to go and run 13.1 miles on an exposed dirt road.) Sound a little tough? It was, but I don't think it is at all tougher than going through cancer treatment. The ones affected by blood cancer are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

The society was founded in 1949 and works to fund blood cancer research, patient financial aid, patient services, public and professional education, and community services. Blood cancers are leukemia, lymphomas (both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin) and myeloma. An example of the successes of research into these cancers is astounding. Forty years ago, only five percent of children diagnosed with leukemia survived. Today, 89% of children diagnosed with leukemia will survive. The next step will be to find a cure!

http://www.lls.org
http://www.teamintraining.org
http://bananadeath.blogspot.com