The Pumpkin Carver

Happy Halloween, everyone.

My son's never gone for the traditional triangle eyes and jagged mouth kind of pumpkin. When he was younger, he did Hobbes. This year, he sent a picture of "Pumpkin #1, with promises of "Pumpkin #2" to follow. As soon as I have it, I'll add it to the post, so check back.
















































Daughter did this one


Meanwhile, don't eat too much candy. Hubby bought our supply this year, and while it's chocolate, most of it has peanuts, which is a good thing for me. I don't like peanuts, so I'll be able to keep my hands out of the bowl.


And... as a follow up to yesterday's Customer Service post, today, I look at the sidebar and what do I see? Amazon, in all its wisdom, changed the RIGHT price to the WRONG price, so now they have both books listed at $16.99. Try Barnes & Noble or the Publisher until you see them listed at the correct price (which should be $9.99, unless they have it on sale) here. It's a tough enough business without being sabotaged by the vendors.

And ... We're back to customer service

I had to deal with the dreaded "Customer Service" folks again lately. Three different companies, and three different experiences.

First: We live near one of the major theme parks in the area. They have roller coasters. They test these roller coasters by running them through cycle after cycle in the morning before the park opens. They're not supposed to start before 7 AM, because the constant barrage of low-frequency noise carries over great distances, and it's LOUD. Wake you up from a dead sleep loud. Or, they've got a concert and they neglect to keep the decibel levels within range. I've had MANY dealings with the man in charge of community affairs. Each time, he assures me it shouldn't have happened, that he's going to make sure it never happens again. Until it does, of course. And these events never happen while he's on duty, so there's nothing you can do except call and leave a voice mail. To me, this is Lip Service Customer Service. He's polite, sincere, but pretty much useless as far as being able to control the situation.

Next: check the sidebar on this blog. Several days ago, I noticed that the price for my book, What's in a Name? jumped from $9.99 to $16.99 at one of the sellers. Checking with the publisher verified that it is WRONG. The book is still priced at $9.99. Trying to reach Customer Service through the website is a lesson in navigating a labyrinth. And once you do find the right site, you have to figure out how your question matches the ones they want you to ask. Then, you get an answer that has nothing to do with your question. Can you reply? NO. You have to go all the way back to square one and start over. So, if you want to buy What's in a Name? either wait until you see the right price, or go to another seller's site. I finally went through my publisher, who has a more direct route to the right people. I'm waiting to see how long it takes to fix the problem ... I was told yesterday it would be within 24 hours. I'm watching. To me, this is Pain in the Neck Customer Service.

Lastly, due to my own total clumsy stupidity, I didn't pay attention to where I set my e-book reader when I went into the restroom at the hair salon, and I knocked it off the edge of the sink. It landed, as all things must, "jelly side down" and the faceplate was cracked. The device is way out of warranty, and it was totally my fault, but I emailed customer service and asked what I could do. Within hours, I had a response that although this was not an easy fix, if I'd send the unit back (with a check, but a very reasonable price considering), they'd send me a replacement. Not a refurbished unit, or a fix of mine, but a brand new reader. They told me exactly what to do, and yesterday I received notice that my new one has been shipped. AND, they gave me rather detailed instructions on how to get all my books re-loaded. To me, that's Good Customer Service.

How real do you want it?

What I'm reading: Last Call, by James Grippando

What I'm writing: Chapter 34

One of my crit partners said he had a problem with one of the elements of the story. There's a major plot thread that deals with a company dealing with research for treatments for "orphan" diseases. Those are the sorts of rare diseases that don't get much attention, because not 'enough' people suffer from them to make it profitable to do the research to treat them. The company I name doesn't exist, of course. Neither does the disease. My rationale was that if I used a real disease, I'd have to come up with some kind of treatment option that might actually work, and it might give readers the wrong idea. However, my crit partner (and at least one other person he discussed it with) said it would bother them. They didn't mind that I made up the names of towns, restaurants, or shopping centers, but they wanted a real disease.

This really confused me. Enough so that I was bold enough to try to make a survey. Will you take a minute and let me know what you think? If you want to elaborate, you can comment here, but I'd like to get an overall view of "yes/no/don't care".
Click Here to take survey

Voting, Reviews, and Excerpts.

It's been over a week of trying to vote. Every time I've driven by the library, the places is jammed and there's no parking for blocks. Wait times have been two hours. Not my cup of tea. Today I revised my strategy thanks to hubby's suggestion, and arrived at our library about twenty minutes before the polls opened. Pleasantly surprised that there were still a few parking slots IN the library lot, I parked and joined the line of people waiting to vote. A cold front blew through last night, and it was about 48 degrees, which is decidedly brisk weather in central Florida. I should have anticipated that they wouldn't have the lobby open before the official ten AM opening time, but I didn't, so I didn't have particularly warm clothes on.

Things did move efficiently once the doors opened, and I was inside by 10:15 and out by 10:30. Check-in was very high-tech, but the voting was on a paper ballot using a black ball-point pen to fill in the bubbles. Since my hands were still frigid from waiting outside, this was more of a challenge than it might have been. The longest line was waiting to feed the ballot into the counter. But it's done, and I feel good that I've done my part. Now, if this information could somehow be transmitted so that I'd stop getting phone calls and, even better, so there wouldn't be any more political ads on tv, I'd really be in 'good citizen heaven.

Other news: I got my first review for When Danger Calls last night. And I've updated my website, so there's now an excerpt from the book. It's the first time I've used an excerpt that doesn't start on Page 1. My editor and I discussed it when I had to give them something for the back cover copy, and she thought something from chapter 3 was a better choice. If you check it out, let me know if it makes sense. Do you like an excerpt that comes from later in the book? I'm so anal about things being in order, I often feel like it's a spoiler if I know what's going to happen later.

On being a writer

I write books, and yes, I hear voices in my head, but aside from that, I don't think I'm much different from anyone else. However, I'm scratching my head about something that happened after my library presentation. The organizer had suggested I bring about ten handouts, so when the had to bring in extra chairs to accommodate about 15 people, I was delighted. I ran through my "How I Got Started Writing by Mistake" anecdote, and proceeded to run down all the things I was clueless about when I started writing, and what I've learned. I stopped after about 30 minutes and asked for questions, and those went on for another 30. I handed out goodie bags with chocolate (hey, I'm a romance writer, we live on the stuff), chapter booklets, magnets, bookmarks, etc., and even sold a few books. Everyone seemed satisfied, and I felt pretty good. After everyone was gone, the chapter member who'd come to make sure I had at least one person in the audience introduced me to her daughter, an exchange student from Germany. Since one of my daughters had been and exchange student to Germany, we started chatting. As we spoke, another woman who'd been at the program came back. She indicated that she'd wait, because she wanted to speak to me privately.

Once my friend had left, the woman proceeded to tell me that I had been very rude during my program. I was astonished, because I couldn't think of anything I'd done or said that might offend anyone. She explained that she'd come with her daughter, and I'd skipped right over her while I was chatting informally with the group as we were getting started. I absolutely could not recall doing so, and apologized profusely, and told her it was inadvertent, and probably due to people arriving, and my getting them handouts, or pointing to empty seats, that I must have lost track of where I'd left off and missed her daughter. She then said she might have overlooked that, but then I 'cut her daughter off' when she tried to speak. Now, I'm an old schoolteacher, and everyone in the group was raising hands to ask questions, so if her daughter had said something, I certainly didn't hear it, or notice. Again, I apologized.

The woman would not leave. She went on and on about how I had offended her daughter (who wasn't even in the room at this time), how her daughter studied Creative Writing, was a writer herself, and edited for a publisher that the mother was sure I'd be impressed with if I knew who it was. She told me I could never tell who was in the audience and how important it was to pay attention to everyone, repeating again that I had slighted her "important" daughter. I tried again to apologize, and suggested that I would have to come up with a way to make sure that I never overlooked anyone if I did another introductory "are you a reader or a writer" segment. At that, she rolled her eyes and said I'd just insulted her for the third time and she stormed off.

Now, things like that will get to me. I had no idea I'd done anything 'wrong', and normally, I'd have stewed over it for a while, because I don't like people not to like me although I know that's an impossibility. I know not everyone will like my books, and it's hard enough not to take that personally, but this was definitely an attack on me as a person. I've tried going over it again (and again, and again), and I still can't figure out what pushed her buttons so badly. I had slighted her daughter, she told me over and over, and she was coming to me as a mother protecting her young. All I can think is that maybe she wanted me to apologize by giving her a free book, and because I wasn't offering to do so (because to me, that would have been like buying her approval), she kept harping about how rude I'd been.

But, the kicker for me is that to me, the woman is a stranger. I have no idea who she is, or who her daughter is. However, she knows who I am, and she can give me negative publicity and she has the power to do harm to my career. It's one thing to have to smile and accept whatever the "public" says about you, but what can you do if they just won't go away? You certainly can't tell them they're wrong.

Just for fun

What kind of dog are you?

Fun quiz. According to my responses.I'm a boxer. Not 100% sure I agree, but like I said, it's just for fun.

You Are a Boxer

You are playful and energetic. You bring joy to everyone who crosses your path. You are hyper to the point of being a comedian. Everyone is wondering what you will do next. You energy can get the better of you if you're not careful. You can have a destructive streak when you're bored. You're very strong willed and powerful. You get you way without even trying to.

What Breed of Dog Are You?

More "real" blogging tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by.

Waiting and Blogging

What I'm reading: Rough Weather, by Robert B. Parker

What I'm writing: Chapter 33

Murder She Writes had an interesting post about blogging today. Made me think about what I'm doing over here. Judging from hits and comments, my posts about workshops seem to be the best received.

I also like sharing other aspects of "life as a writer" which, for the most part, isn't much different from "life as anyone else." And putting something up here regularly gets my mind into writing mode, although that's what I get out of it, not necessarily what readers do.

I almost didn't post, because I'm second guessing the value of my pieces of bandwidth, but I decided to go ahead. Today it's about waiting. (And if you're a frequent visitor, you'll notice that this post is later than usual.)

I'm not a very patient person. I think I used up most of my patience on my kids. I've got my annual physical soon, and the doctor wants all the labs done before he sees patients. They give you the paperwork, and then tell you to "just walk in" to the nearby lab.

The tests require a 12 hour fast, so I went to the Y for my morning workout as usual, and planned to arrive at the lab sometime after 9:30, since hubby slipped me some M&M's while we were watching CSI last night. I arrived at 9:55.

Now, I'm not saying I bring bad luck or carry bad karma, or whatever, but let's just say you don't want to stand in whatever line I'm in at the grocery store -- or the airport security line, or anywhere. I think my presence brings out the snafu gods. Something always delays the process. While all the other lines move along like bullet trains, I'm stuck on the local -- and it's the one that keeps breaking down.

So, today they were a person short on the intake end of things. It also turns out that the lab DOES take appointments, and those folks get shuttled in faster. So, when I finally got out of there at 11:15 (munching the granola bar I'd stashed in my purse), I continued on to phase 2 of my planned morning, which was to vote. I figured (silly me) that since it was the end of the week, the big rush would have petered out. Besides, it was a rainy day, so who'd want to go out just to vote? Everyone, apparently. There wasn't a parking place for 3 blocks. Having used up all my waiting credits for the day, I drove on home.

I'll try again Monday. I definitely believe in voting. I just don't want to have to wait around an hour to do it.

HIPY PAPY BTHUHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY

HIPY PAPY BTHUHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY

Anyone recognize the above quote? I trust my daughters, for whom it's intended will, and that they might have a few fond memories. Enjoy your day, both of you. Wish we could be together.


I "met" someone at the Y today. The quotes are because we always nod our hellos, and we've chatted. First, about why we torture ourselves with working out. Then a little more personal--that we've traveled to some of the same places. But today, we actually met. Why? It started out innocently enough, a brief 'hello, how was your recent trip?' kind of thing. And somehow, the topic of writing came up. Turns out he's written a mystery/suspense/thriller and ... well, the connection was made. Suddenly, there's someone who understands all the things that drive someone to write. We talked about goals, both our own and how our characters must have them. About how much of ourselves shows in our books. About how he's waiting for his book to be perfect before he submits it. I told him it would never be perfect, just do it. That if your dream is to be published, writing the book is only step one.

You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any other artist, you are learning your craft--then you can add all the genius you like.
~Phyllis Whitney

At the end of our chat, we'd finally exchanged names. He left, saying he was inspired to move forward. I left, feeling validated, that I've learned enough about the craft to be able to help motivate someone. Because if you're not writing, you're not a writer.

As cows need milking and sweet peas need picking, so writers must continually exercise their mental muscles by a daily stint.
~Joan Aiken

He Fights, She Fights - Part 3

What I'm reading: Hot Mahogany by Stuart Woods

What I'm writing: Chapter 32

To wrap up the fighting workshop, we'll look at women fighting women. Compare these points to the ones in yesterday's post about men fighting men.

In a cat fight, anything goes.
Fights tend to be short and violent.
They don't stop when one participant is subdued.
Women never forget the outcome or the reason for the fight. (You remember that time in third grade when you scribbled on my homework?)
Women don't want their appearance diminished.
Women will go for what is most precious to her opponent. (Ruin expensive clothing, pull hair, etc.)
Women are embarrassed about fighting and seldom brag.
Women slap rather than punch, to avoid injury to hands.
A woman trained in fighting will be more violent and hold a grudge longer than a non-trained woman.
Women will sacrifice just about everything to protect their children and loved ones.

Advice to women (regardless of the gender of the opponent)

Make noise. Lots of noise. Attackers don't want to be noticed.
If you can get away, don't stop to look back. Get somewhere safe first.

In writing, remember that for characters in fights, all scenes have consequences, both physical and emotional.

Deb Maynard also suggested that unless you know a lot about the specifics of the various martial arts, it's wiser not to mention them by name. You might have your character performing moves that are totally out of place for that method. She divided the martial arts into two basic styles: Wrestling and Boxing.

Wrestling includes: Judo, jujitsu, Aikido and Hapkido.

Boxing includes: Karate, Kung Fu, Kenpo, Tae Kwon Do (which she pointed out is more martial sport).

He Fights / She Fights - Part 2

What I'm reading: Playing Dead, by Allison Brennan

What I'm writing: Chapter 32.

To continue with my notes from Deb Maynard's workshop at the Emerald City Writer's Conference:

Men fighting women. (Women, these are things to be aware of)

1. Grabbing clothing or purse straps.

2. Grabbing long hair (wonder if hubby will accept that I'm safer with short hair!)

3. Grabbing from behind, around the neck.

4. Lapel grabs.

5. Pushing a women against a wall.

6. Ambush.

7. In bed asleep.

The way men fight other men. Again, as I said yesterday, these are all generalizations. We all know exceptions, but these are the basics for men who fight.

Men will fight for just about any reason.

Men fight until one gives in

Men enjoy the fight. Often it's, "Great fight, now let's grab a beer."

Men brag about fighting.

Men are more physical, they will take more damage without worrying about injury or appearance. In fact, bruises are often badges of honor. And again, it's likely to be, "Great fight, now let's grab a beer."

Men fight and then let go of the reason for the fight. When it's over, it's over.

Men anticipate a fight and are more aware of surroundings and possible outcomes.

Men see fighting as part of their nature.

Men are proud to defend and protect (goes back to that hard wiring and the his brain/her brain)

A man's ego is engaged in the fight as much as his body.

Men see fighting in terms of a winner and a loser.

Tune in tomorrow for the last installment.