Friday Field Trip - Africa 2

When I was visiting my parents, my mom shared a few pictures she'd taken on an African safari years ago. I thought I'd share some of them, plus some of my own from my 2007 trip that I didn't put up in my February post. Enjoy.

RomCon Report 3

One thing there's a lot of at reading/writing conferences is swag, or all those free giveaways. RomCon was no different. Everything from business cards to bookmarks to notepads to pens to postcards to excerpt booklets. Plus the slightly more unusual: a tape measure, luggage tag, and a gizmo I had to Google to discover it's actual use.

And of course, there are books

Sunday morning, I opted to go to a discussion group run the by The Book Reading Gals. Although it was designed as a place where readers could discuss their favorite books, authors, genres (and pet peeves), authors were allowed to attend. After all, we probably read a lot more books than we write.

RomCon Report 2

Thanks to Sharon for yesterday's post. Lots of things to think about. Being a writer is a lot more than writing books, isn't it?

Back to RomCon.

I stopped yesterday before I mentioned the Western dinner. To be perfectly honest, my budget doesn't usually allow the "high-priced" hotel events. Having been on the conference planning side for years in my previous life, I know there aren't many economical options when dealing with hotels and their food and beverage services. But, since the theme was Western, and I'm now an official 'Westerner', it wasn't like I had to deal with buying anything new. I did buy them recently, but not exclusively for the conference.

I hooked up with Nancy and Donna, two of my buddies, and we worked our way through the chow line. Now, unlike most writing conferences, where the icebreaking question is, "What do you write," here it's "What do you read?" Everyone was friendly, and it really doesn't matter if you know a lot of people when you mingle at these events.

After eating, I let Nancy be the brave soul who tried the mechanical bull. Too risky for my back. But I did let one of the cowhands try to teach me how to rope a calf. Let's just say the cattle population of Colorado (and the entire US, for that matter) has nothing to worry about. I got the theory down, but execution left a lot to be desired. (Unless you were the calf). And no, they weren't live, just metal mockups.

Letting Go

My guest today is author Sharon Hamilton, who writes paranormal romance and contemporary SEAL romance in Northern California. 

Is this Indie craze for you? Are you too late?

There are so many wonderful opportunities today for authors, especially with the rise of the Indie publishing wave. At the recent RWA Convention in NYC, I heard it said that this phenomenon is broadening the window a bit, giving readers more variety, and therefore expanding the numbers of authors who can participate. Indie has not only changed the lives of authors, but it has changed strategy for literary agents, and for publishers as well. The reader is now getting a plethora of new authors to explore, getting these books faster and cheaper. Will more books be sold? Are readers reading more than before? I don’t know the answer to those questions.

As with any changing market trend, there are pros and cons. Just when we think we’ve learned how it all works, everything changes again. Authors who never made much money on their books that languished out of print can resurrect them, dust them off, edit and re-launched in eBook format, where they can keep the lion’s share of the profits. This new life has brought instant riches for not only NYC best-selling authors, but mid-list authors as well. Author’s backlists are paying some serious bills, and allowing some to look forward to an actual retirement. Every week we are flooded with names of people making mega six figure incomes. It all looks so easy.

RomCon Report 1

From last week's guest post. Colleen & Shaun have announced Cindy as the winner of How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths

What I'm reading: Silver Lies, by Anne Parker (book club); First Thrills (anthology), Lee Child (editor)

I'm writing this after nearly three full days of conference activities (especially if you count drive time in your day), so forgive any incoherence.

RomCon is a reader-focused conference, so very little in the way of craft type workshops, but a lot of information nevertheless.

First off, the conference has a 'buddy' program, where attendees are matched and an author is part of each group. I want to say how thrilled I was to meet and spend time with Heather, Donna, and Nancy, and I hope they weren't disappointed that they didn't get a more famous author assigned to them.

First event was a welcome, where Sue Grimshaw, who's always keeping her finger on the pulse of the marketplace took a brief survey of the group. Bottom line: almost every person at the conference reads both print and e-books, and shops in brick and mortar stores as well as on line.

After that, I was one of the authors participating in a Build a Hero game. Two authors (I was fortunate to be paired with the wonderful Robyn Carr) sat at a table with a group of readers, and we were given worksheets to determine what a "perfect" hero would be. We discussed his appearance, background, fears, goals, desires, what he would never do, and any other characteristics we felt were important.



It was fun and interesting, as we were required to come to a consensus, and with ten individuals with ten different ideas of what makes a perfect hero, the discussions were both heated and funny. One thing we discussed was the fact that the worksheet didn't really have any place to consider the plot (although we kept getting sidetracked with plot ideas. It also didn't allow for the difference in the character at the beginning of the book compared with the ending.

Friday Field Trip - WODOC

I'm in Denver at RomCon, but while I'm gone, here are some more pictures I took on my recent trip to Los Angeles.

Not far up the street from my parents' house is a place that might look familiar to anyone who watches television or goes to the movies. Franklin Canyon Park, which is frequently invaded by Hollywood film crews is part of the National Park system. WODOC, which is the William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom is part of the area. We went up and walked around a bit while I was in LA. Here are some pictures.

RomCon - A Reader-focused Conference

What I'm reading: A Moment in Time, by Deb Stover

Don't forget to leave a comment on Tuesday's post for a chance to win Colleen & Shaun's book. (And even if you don't want the book, it's a great post.)

This afternoon, I'm heading down the mountain to visit with family, spend the night, and save about an hour of early-morning mountain drive time on my way to RomCon first thing tomorrow morning.

RomCon is a readers' conference. Instead of the things I'm used to a writing conferences, like craft-focused workshops and speakers, this one is all about readers getting to meet and mingle with authors. Last year I was on the 'reader' side of the conference, but this time, I'm an official author attendee.

I don't pretend that there will be people dying to meet me—or even recognize my name. But from a professional standpoint, one hopes that by the end of the conference there will be a few people who do know who I am and what I write.

Non-Writing Aspects of Writing

Today, I'm over at author Kelly McClymer's blog, where I'm talking about some of the "non-writing" parts of being a writer, including the dreaded cover blurbs. I've got an offer for a free copy of one of my books, so please drop by to see how to get one. It's not a contest, just an offer.

And, in other news: 

I just found out last night that The Red Room has chosen DANGER IN DEER RIDGE as their book of the day today.


Have you checked the Deals & Steals tab this month? There's a limited time (2 weeks) offer on discounted books at All Romance eBooks.

And don't forget to leave a comment on yesterday's post for a chance to win a free book.

Writing a Rural Surveillance

Today I'm welcoming a writing/private investigating duo, Colleen Collins & Shaun Kaufman, who are going to give us some handy hints about private investigators and surveillance. They're giving away a copy of their book, so be sure to read through and leave a comment. You have until Friday to leave a comment, but I won't get the winner posted until Monday because I'll be off the grid at RomCon.

When many people think of a private investigator, they think “surveillance.” Typical images that come to mind are the PI in his vehicle following a subject’s car through traffic or a PI parked somewhere, watching the subject’s residence or work. If a writer is crafting a city surveillance, she’ll take into consideration such things as the flow of traffic, how closely the PI follows the subject’s vehicle, and possible side streets the PI might take.

But what if your story is set in the country? Or your big-city investigator must travel to a rural area to conduct a surveillance? Here’s some tips from a couple of real-life PIs for writing a rural surveillance starring your fictional PI.

Know the area: In our part of the country, we have some impressive, wide-open stretches of country outside of “the big cities.” When we’re going into a rural area, we’ll first check online maps (for example, MapQuest and Google Earth). Have your fictional PI do the same. We’ve scheduled rural surveillances in areas that are so remote, they don’t even show up in online maps! In such cases, we contact the sheriff’s office for that region and request help with directions and maps.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for more conflict in your story, have your sleuth circling around and attracting unwanted attention in that small town!

Research the Details—But…

What I'm reading: Rogue Warrior by Richard Marcinko; One True Love, by Barbara Freethy.

I recently read a book where a character was learning to fly a small jet. The character was already an experienced pilot, but hadn't been trained on this type of aircraft. The author is also a pilot, and as I read the scene—pages and pages of it—it was clear enough to me that the author was simply showing his readers how much he knew about the topic.


To me, it was a hair-pulling couple of chapters. Maybe pilots enjoy it, but to me, it would be like showing a person learning how to drive a car, and following the along as they learned where to put the key, how to turn it, where the brakes were, and then followed along every inch of driveway and road on their first excursion. Had absolutely nothing to do with the story other than getting the character qualified so he could drive the company plane.

The trick to showing details is not to show the reader how much research you've done, but to use only what the POV character needs to show in the scene. If it's a naïve character, then they're likely to be thinking more about the details, either a how-to, or a more detailed description as they absorb new surroundings. But if they're experienced, then they're probably barely going to think about things. How often do you walk into your bedroom and notice the color of paint on the wall, or the precise shade of blue of your bedspread?