Life as a Writer, Or Something Close to It

Support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

2009-12-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

Make Cures Happen! Please help fight cancer by giving to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! My husband is running a marathon -- that's 26.2 miles -- in support of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Help him help them by donating money to the cause. You can give as little as five dollars, and it goes right to LLS. Visit the page they set up for my husband here, and click on the link there to get to the donation page. If a lot of people give even just a little, together we can make big things happen. Please share the link with friends and family.

Thanks for your help!

Help Building Characters: And Keeping it All Straight

2009-09-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

I get questions almost daily from people who visit my site. A lot of those questions come from other writers, and many are in some way about building characters and then keeping up with all of the information about each. Let's face it, well-built fleshed-out characters take a lot of work and thought. It's easy to come up with those cardboard cutouts, those true to form characters who are little more than a layer thick and always react in a stereotypical way. Easy is seldom the best way.

Here are some tips I've learned over the years to help you build your own memorable characters and then keep up with who has blue eyes and who hates cats. (I've added links to some books, sites, and programs throughout this article to give you extra help.)

When I get ready to write a new story, I like to start with some basic information about a character. Stuff that pops into my mind usually with a scene that he or she is staring in. That scene is enough to get me excited about the story. (In fact, I have a whole pile of them put aside. Word of warning. If those scenes or new ideas for stories pop into your mind when you are working on something else, probably at a point where you are having trouble with that old story, type up a few notes and file them away, then get back to work on your work in progress. Once it's done, you can pick a new one. If not, if you let the sparkle and shine of those new ones call you away, you'll end up with a pile of stories in various forms of completion, with few to none finished. Starting a story is the easy part. It's working through the whole thing and reaching the end that is the hard part. Even rewrites are easy compared to getting that rough draft out there and the end typed.)

Okay, let's see, where was I? Oh, I remember.

The new story that you are supposed to be starting. Back to that basic information. It's good to know some little things about your character right off. Who she or he is, where she is, how old she is, why she's doing or reacting the way she is. Then you need to know a lot more. A good way to do that is with a character chart. I have a free and very detailed one up on my site.

Now don't panic. I know there's a lot of questions and blanks there. Maybe more than you know or want to know about your character. That's okay. You don't have to fill it all out now. You don't even have to fill it all out later. You can copy and paste it into Word and then delete sections or give yourself more room. Fill in what you think is important and add more later if needed when you really get to know this new character. The chart will help you dig deeper into the character though, figure out what makes her tick and why and how she will act and react. It's just one tool to help you add layers to that character.

After I get a feel for my character, my next step is a name. I sometimes name them first, but once I know them, the name doesn't always seem to fit. To find names, I like to use The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook by award-winning romance author Sherrilyn Kenyon. It's a big book with lots of sections, all kinds of names, broken up by type and gender. As I glance through the pages it seems like one name will stand out and belong to the character. Almost as if the character says that's me, that's my name. There are some good sites on line you can use as well. Check out my page here. If you have baby naming books on hand, those are good too.

Even though by this point I have that name, an idea of what my character looks like, who he or she is, and even how she dresses, I often need a reminder. I'm working on a series right now, and there's no way I could keep it all straight in my head. Sometimes I can't even recall what I did ten minutes ago. Even if not working on a series, there are characters that have small parts, but that you would like to make stand out or be sure to get their look right. For this I use a game. A computer game. Yes, a real game. One my kids loved. I saw them playing it and thought wow, could I use that.

It's call SIMS. I use SIMS 3 now. If you have an older computer you might want to try SIMS 2. (Check the information on what your computer needs to have to run SIMS before you pick out one.) Some people like 3 better than 2 while others like 2 better. You can do most of the stuff with SIMS 2 that you can do with SIMS 3. Though 3 is much more fine tuned. I'm going to use SIMS 3 to explain things, since that's the one I have fresh in mind. With SIMS 3 you can build a character, give her or him a hair style and color that fits. Makeup and eye color, skin color, and even pick out body type and outfits. In the story I'm working on the hero's kid sister is kind of testing her freedom now that she's nineteen. She wears odd and sexy clothes and has an eye-catching hair style and makeup. Her hair is bright red with black tips and green highlights.

I was able to do that with her hair in SIMS 3 with ease. I was also able to pick out some odd outfits, give her a tattoo, and take some snapshots of her with yellow contacts in and black eye shadow and lipstick on, and other shots with her wearing black contacts and blue eye shadow and lipstick. You can take snapshots right there in the Build A Sim feature in 2 or 3 while building your character, and move those pictures to another program and keep up with them.

You can even build their homes and decorate each room and take pictures of that. Really helps you remember where the back door is in the hero's home, or what the heroine's bedroom looks like, even what color the blanket on her bed is. With 3 you can also pick out special things about your character, like a green thumb or loves to cook, or hates the outdoors, even good or evil, ect... If you don't want to use SIMS, you can simply find pictures of people on the internet and use them, or even tear pictures out of magazines, but I like to have all of my information on the computer. (Don't forget to do backups, often, and save in other places or ways. Computers don't live forever and things can go wrong. The same goes when it comes to saving your writing.)

Sooooo.... Once you have those charts filled out, those pictures, ect... How do you organize all of it?

My favorite way to keep up with notes and pictures about my work in progress, and even other works, is with Microsoft OneNote. I actually had this on my computer for awhile, but never used it. Then I kept hearing other writers talk about how helpful it was, so I gave it a try. It took me a few false starts to figure things out and get comfortable with it, but now I wouldn't want to try and put a story together without it. You can have OneNote open, and have tabs across the top for stuff like Characters, Outline, Plot Points, Setting, Extra Info, even the title of a few different stories, ect.. You can click on one of those, say Character, and add tabs down the side of it, one for each character. I do one tab for each main character, and then one titled Other for less important characters.

For each of those main characters, I have a lot of stuff on their page. Like Amber, the heroine in the story I'm working on now. On her page I have a few face shots from SIMS of her, and then a few full shots of her in different outfits, even different hair styles. I also have some pictures I did a copy and paste of from the internet of a 1974 Ford Mustang. Inside and out of it. Since that's her car and she's put a lot of work into it, so it's important to her and I know I'll have to describe stuff about it in the story. I also have her character chart, a bio, and other stuff on her page. It's all in that one neat spot.

If I need to get to info about the hero, a glance to the side and a click on his name tag, and I'm on his page. It's easy to copy and paste and move stuff to any page. It's also easy to add new pages, tabs, sections, ect... I just leave OneNote open while I have my Word program open writing, or even if I'm just doing research. Saves a lot of time and trouble. By the way, if you don't have Word or OneNote, you can buy them together with Microsoft Office Home and Student.

I hope this article and the links within it helps you get to know your characters better and keep up with that information in an easy way so you can write the best book you can.

Good Promo, Tax Cut, and Help a Cat

2009-04-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

I'm sharing the below info from author Lucinda Betts. If you have
any questions, please e-mail her at Lucindabetts77@yahoo.com.
Vist her at http://www.lucindabetts.com/

It's a great idea. You get to maybe reach a new reader with your
book, you can use the cost of the book or books, and probably
even postage, as a tax write off, and you get to prevent lots of
kittens from being brought into a world where they will they
won't be cared for.

*******PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD THIS*******

A local animal shelter is having a book fund drive in May. They are selling new and used books on May 11th to raise money to spay and neuter feral cats. Any book donation you make will be acknowledged with a receipt that can be used as a tax deduction.

You can send books to:

Volunteers for Animal Welfare
15 Mastic Rd
Sound Beach, NY 11789

They should be received before May 3rd.

Get 16 Free Romance Novels

2009-02-05T04:45:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Harlequine is giving away 16 of it's romance novels for free. You simply download,
then read. The link is below. You can pick through and download the ones you want.
You don't have to sign in, even give your name or e-mail address. No catch, just
enjoy. Smile.

http://www.harlequincelebrates.com/index.php

How About a Vote for My Resource Site and My RWC Group?

2009-01-07T02:58:00.000-08:00

The Preditors & Editors Poll is up again, and this time I'm thinking to mention it before the voting time is over. :-) I'm rather proud of myself for that. hehehe

If you have found my Resources for Romance Writers site helpful, please pop by the Preditors & Editors Poll when you get a chance and give my site a vote. It's listed under the Resource/Information/News Source page part.

If you belong to or have taken part in my free RWC groups for writers and found it helpful also, it's up for voting too, under Writers' Discussion Forum.

It takes only a second to vote. You do have to give your name and e-mail address, and then click on a link they send in e-mail to get your vote counted, but that's to keep people from voting more than once for the same thing. Keeps things fair. :-) The site is on the up and up, and they won't do anything with your name or e-mail address, other than use it to count your vote.

Either way, thanks for taking the time to read my blog post either way. By the way, while at the P&E site, don't forget to vote for the other things there, like your favorite author site, novel, review site, ect....

Charlotte Dillon

Join My Newsletter
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CharlotteDillon
Resources for Romance Writers -
http://www.charlottedillon.com
Learn about my free groups for writers -
http://www.charlottedillon.com/RWC.html

SNOW! Here, yes, snow!

2008-12-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

As many of my online friends know, I live in the South. Way south. Like Southeastern Louisiana, not too far from New Orleans and even closer to Mississippi. Well, believe it or not, those white covered objects in these pictures are mine. My house, my car, my fence, my cactus, my banana trees, my grass, ect... Didn't think to snap one of the orange tree which was still full of lovely oranges...

It was over seventy here a couple of days ago, and in a couple more days it will be back up there -- but today...

Well, let's go back to last night. It rained all night. This morning about five I had gone back to bed and was listening to the rain fall. My husband, who had made it to work, called to tell me it was sleeting and that there was some snow mixed in. I thought sure, a few flakes. Never even stick to the ground. A few minutes later I got another call. It was really snowing, so I was told. I grumbled and crawled out of bed, figuring I'd be lucky if in the glow of the porch light I could see even a few tiny flakes. I made my way to the back door and opened it to look out.

It was really snowing! It was really snowing real snow!

In a few minutes, it was really, really snowing. I ran and dragged my daughter out of bed with the news. By the time we made it back to the door, the flakes were huge, falling fast, and actually sticking to things. We rushed and dressed, and my son who is a married man now and lives next door, came over with his wife in tow just as I was slipping on my shoes. We all ran out into the dark, into the falling snow and watched in wonder and laughed like children.

By the time the sun came up, we found ourselves in a winter wonderland, like those we have seen on TV. We built a snowman, the kids threw huge snowballs back and forth at each other. We slipped and fell on the ice and laughed even more. We let the dogs out and they tip-toed around through this white unknown and then began to run and play too.

There was much fun had by all the two legged and four legged family members. Even hubby got sent home from work before noon. The schools were closed and when we tried to watch TV, all normal programming had been pushed aside so all of our local, which is New Orleans for us, news programs could broadcast about the snow that was falling. It continued to snow until noon. We got five inches of snow. Snow that stayed on the ground. It's night now, and there is still snow on the ground, though the patches of non-snow are getting bigger and bigger.

It's been an amazing day for us! Smile Hope something made yours just as nice. Most of us spend too little time smiling and acting like kids. Smile

Gifts for Writers -- Laser Printer & Word

2008-12-09T04:38:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for a great gift for a writer, even if that writer if yourself, then I've got a couple in mind, and right now Amazon has them with lots off, up to 52% off.

First up is a laser printer. If you are like me, you've been wanting one forever, both for the speed it prints and the much cheaper price per page. They've always been way up in price, my idea of way up anyway, and the ink for them was also too high. I found a really great one though with ink that won't break you. It even comes with a starter toner cartridge that prints a 1000 pages. It's the Brother HL-2170w 23ppm Laser Printer with Wireless & Wired Network Interfaces. It prints high-quality 2400 x 600 dpi resolution and has a 250-sheet capacity tray.

When you order it, go ahead and oder the Brother TN360 High Yield Black Toner Cartridge to go with it. It prints 2,600 pages. That means between it and the starter one you get with the printer, you are good to print 3,600 MS pages. Pretty good deal!

If you aren't in need of a good printer, check out Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. It includes the 2007 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and One Note. I perfer to use Word, since you'll find that it's the standard most editors and agents, even in articles and such, request you use when they want a copy of CD or e-mailed to them. It's at a great price right now. I personaly don't use Excel or PowerPoint, but I have a daughter in college, and she often has work she has to do in one or the other, so with this program I covered myself and her. If you look at the price of Word alone, or Excel or PowerPoint, you will see what a great deal this is. Hey, as writers, we have to save every cent we can. Smile.

Do You NaNo?

2008-11-13T08:45:00.000-08:00

I have a number of writing friends who are busy doing NaNo. The month is halfway over and I've found a lot of them running out of steam. If you took the challenge to write a novel in a month, don't give up during these last couple of weeks. Even if you don't reach your goal, maybe you'll have a whole lot more written than if you hadn't joined the NaNo writing challenge. I'm not leaving a blazing trail of new words, but I am getting a good bit of writing done. Doing more than your normal is a pretty good goal, so be proud of what you are getting done and just keep on keeping on. Smile

By the way, thanks for all of the happy birthday wishes that came my way this week. Made me feel pretty speical. Smile

Remembering Katrina and facing Gustav

2008-08-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

Three years ago today I was braced with my family in the kitchen in my home, watching water rise beneath our feet and listening to the roar of wind and the resounding snap and pop of tree trunks. The wind was actually loud enough that we didn't hear the thud of the trees hitting the ground or other things, no matter how big.

I never would have guessed that day, that three short years later we would be preparing to face another bad hurricane. I've lived in Southeastern Louisiana all my life. In fact, in the same town, Bogalusa, all of it. I could count on one hand the bad hurricanes that have hit us hard in all of that forty plus years. So two within three years is just shocking to everyone I have spoken to.

If you are one of my fellow Louisianans, or even in one of our neighboring states since there's still a chance Gustav could change his mind about where he wants to attack, then this message is for you.

Please, if your parish has or does call for a mandatory evacuation, there is a reason, and you should following that recommendation. I know how hard it is to leave things behind, we had to after Katrina, but it's better to leave and be safe, than to stay if the authorities believe it is really not safe for you to do so.

No matter where you live, if you leave, please...

Check on your neighbors and family and friends. See if someone wants to go but has no way. Maybe you have a spot for them in your vehicle? Maybe you can help them find someone else to ride with, or you can see that they call for one of the buses that is set up to take people out of some areas.

Don't leave your pets behind to fend for themselves. Not in a yard, not inside a home. In a yard, there will of course be strong wind and rain, there will probably be flooding, if in a fence, the fence could come down. I saw where dogs actually drowned because they were chained up and couldn't get out of the water. Also during a hurricane, things fly about, and your pet could be hit by something, or a tree could fall on them, ect... If you leave them inside, then the flooding could also be a problem, things falling on the home, and even after, just the heat of being shut up inside a closed house. If they survive all of the above, then what if you aren't able to return home for days or even weeks. So many pets that somehow lived through the storm, then suffered and died from lack of water and or food. If you can't take your pets with you, check the news' stations, or with your local SPCA. They do have plans in place this time to help people with their pets because so many animals died last time, and a number of people died as well because they wouldn't leave their pets behind and had no way to take them with them. Remember your pets are pets, not wild animals. They depend on you to protect them, feed them, and care for them, even in hard times.

When you leave, take important things with you. Your meds of course, some clothes, food, water, paper work, any supplies or special food or items for anyone sick and for your pets, ect... You can make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches pretty cheap, and they don't have to be kept cold. The same with lots of snacks. You could be on the road for hours and might not be able to stop like you'd like...plus you might end up staying some where for a week or more, so these things are important. It's also a good idea to take pictures before you leave, of your home, the stuff in side, the stuff in your garage, of any car or such you leave behind, ect...

If you don't leave, you'll need the same things and maybe more of it. If you are in one of those places where they asked people to leave and you don't, they have said they will not be helping you. So if you stay, think about that and what it will be like to be totally on your own if a tree comes through your home, water floods it, you run out of food or water, someone gets sick or hurt, ect... After Katrina, the flooding went away, we had our home and enough food and water to make it those first days, but it was still so hard and so scary to be on our own and know that there was no 911, no help if needed because even though we weren't told we had to leave, things were so bad afterwards that help couldn't even get to each other, much less us. You also have not home phone or cell phone, so family can't reach you to see if you are okay, and you can't reach them.

If you are staying, I hope only in a safe place, make sure you have enough of the things I mentioned above, the same things you have been hearing them repeat over and over on the news. Food, water, meds, food for babies or pets, batteries, ect... If you are in a house, make sure you have something to cut your way out if you have to.

Some hints... A tent is actually great. It was so hot here at night after Katrina, and we don't have a lot of windows in our house, so that didn't help. It was much cooler outside, but people got sick from being bit by misquotes. A tent and an air mattress could mean the difference between you being able to rest at night, and you being too hot to sleep. I think part of the reason I got so sick after Katrina was the not being able to sleep. I think in the first four days I maybe slept a totally of that many hours.

If you have a grill, or a crawfish pot and cooker, you can cook some stuff outside. If the meat in your freezer is going anyway, cook it up and invite the neighbors over and even feed the pets. (Wish I had thought of this, but I guess I was kind of in shock and didn't think of a lot of sensible things until weeks afterwards.) If you have a gas stove, you can cook inside, but it will heat your house up so quickly.

Miscellaneous. Make sure you have a five day cooler. They work. Those cheaper coolers let the ice melt so quickly, and there's not going to be any where to get more ice for at least a few days probably. Make sure you have camping stuff, like battery operated lamps, flashlights, a radio, small portable TV, ect... Don't forget collars and lead ropes or carriers for your pets.

Food. Make sure you have more than enough food. Food that will keep without ice. Peanut butter, fruit, bread, Spam, canned stuff like stew, beans, ect... Lots of snacks too. Don't get microwave popcorn. I know someone who did for Katrina, and we both laughed about it later. Little Debbie cakes, cookies, chips, crackers, canned cheeses, nuts, all of that stuff is great snacks. Don't forget pet food, baby food, special foods for people who have special needs, like someone who doesn't have teeth or someone who is a diabetic, ect...

Water. It's more important than food. You can live longer without food than without water. And it's going to be hot, so you are going to need it. I keep some empty jugs strung together and hanging from a hook in the shed. I do buy water and some soda and such, but I also rinse out and fill up all of those jugs, even soda bottles. Don't forget you need enough for the pets too. Also fill up your tub, your sink, ect...

Here's an article I wrote about preparing for a hurricane. I did this weeks after Katrina when things were fresh in mind, so I probably thought of some important things I didn't think to add here. Also at the bottom of the article are some pictures and info from that time. Might help you make up your mind about leaving or not. That info along with the track of the hurricane, the type of home you live in, the parish you live in, your health, and every thing else, will hopefully help you make the right choice in the next day or so, no matter how hard.

The Power of Scent - in Life & Writing

2008-07-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'm making fig preserves today. I've never made them before, at least not on my own, but when I was growing up I sure did help my mom put up enough fig preserves--and watermelon rinds, mayhaw jelly, pear butter, dew berry jelly, tomatoes, plums, peaches, okra, squash, ect...

Anyway, once those fig preserves got to boiling today, and that scent filled my home, suddenly I was back in my mom's kitchen, I could hear our chatter, the click on the glass jars, the little pops as the jars cooled and the lids seals, I could all but see the sun shinning in the kitchen window over the sink, feel the heat in the room from the big bowling pots, the stiffness in my fingers from using a knife for so long, the sweetness on my tongue because every now and then I'd pop a really rip fig into my mouth instead of tossing it into the bowl.

Funny how that one little scent dancing through my home took me back in time so easily, and how all of those other senses joined in to help me relive those days that I thought I couldn't stand, days that I would give anything to have now.

I hated canning time. It was hot, long work. Too bad I didn't notice all of the fun we had at the same time. Other ladies usually came and helped, some brought their own fruits and vegetables, jars and sugar, ect... Others who didn't have any or much, helped and left with some of the finished products for their time and effort.

I realize now as a grown woman with grown kids of my own, that those were really great days. My mom has been gone for over a decade, most of her friends, the ladies who gathered in our little kitchen and helped, are also gone, but thanks to a big pot of cooking figs, picked from one of my mom's old trees may I add, I spent a few moments in my her kitchen this morning, with all of those voices and sounds and smells and feels surrounding me.

That's how powerful our senses are.

When you are writing a scene, don't forget that power. If you do, you miss sharing a lot of your story with the reader. You miss the chance to bring a scene to life. What does the wind feel like, how warm is it in the living room, is there the sound of a train in the distance, are there wind chimes on the porch that the wind plays through and what does it sound like? How about that chair your character sits in, is it hard and cold, or over stuffed and soft so she sinks into it's comfort? When a character walks into a bar, what dose it smell like, sound like, look like, even feel like? What does the beer he orders taste like? What does it feel like to share a first kiss, to run for your life, to jump into that cold water, to cut your finger, to give up hope, to hold your baby for the first time? What dose an empty house sound like, what about an old car, a thunder storm, the wind through the trees? What does fear taste like, what about a warm plum your character just picked from the tree, or the blood where his lips split when he was punched, or the lips of the woman he loves? What does the sunlight look like through a dusty window, how does a field of wheat look with a storm coming, what about the moonlight on water? Don't forget scent, the sense we started this with. There's the smell of food cooking, of rain on the wind, of hay and horses in a barn, of soap or shaving cream on skin right after a bath, of fresh mowed grass, even of gunfire, traffic and death. After all, the bad things are as important to a story and the setting as the good things.

To wrap this post up without making it the length of a story, let me just say that there's an endless list of things we sense every day and often don't even notice.

Which leads me to a word of warning before I close. Don't overpower us and describe everything, but describe enough of what a character sees, hears, smells, feels, and tastes, to put us there with that character, to put us in the setting, in the moment, to ground us and involve us, but don't burry us. It's a balancing act, using enough without using too much, but most parts of good writing is some kind of balancing act. You'll get better at it the more you try to keep the balance.

(Yes, before you ask about me using the words grown and kids together, I do still call my daughter, who is twenty, a kid. Worse, I do the same to my son, and he's married and twenty-four. hehehe)

Happy writing!

It’s All About Character

2008-06-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

When you write a story, there’s a lot of stuff to fill in. Of course there’s the story, the plot as it may be, the telling of the tale. How about the setting, you know, the house, the town, even the kitchen? As you work out all of the hundreds of details that are going to make your story a story, don’t forget to put a little extra sweat into those characters that are going to populate the tale. A great setting, even a strong plot, isn’t going to help much if your characters fall flat.

A character is more than just Bob who lives in a little Northern town and works at the local mill. Bob is who he is, Bob reacts how he reacts, Bob goes and does and says what he does, all because of who he is and what his life is like and what his history is and what his situation is. Tony might live in that same little Northern town and work at the same local mill, but if these two characters were real people and you followed them around for a few days, you would see that they were nothing alike, not inside.

So often when I read the work of new writers, I spot Jane Doe and John Smith over and over again in the writing. It seems every character in the story is the same person. Sure, they have different names, different jobs, lives, are different ages, but they all talk the same, think the same act and react the same. In real life, this doesn’t happen, unless the Pod people show up.

What can you do to keep Jane Does and John Smith from taking over your story?

It’s really easy…okay…it’s kind of easy. It just takes a little work. A little time and effort spent on each character, even that little walk through character that is only going to pop up now and again. This work starts with just thinking about who you want and need a character to be. Then you dig a little deeper. Maybe you do this by just typing in information you think up about him or her, maybe you fill in a character chart on the character or do some kind character interview, or maybe even a mixture of it all. What ever it is, you need to use what tools work for you to help you make those walking bones become flesh and blood. The more important a character is to your story, all the better you should know that character, no matter if she is the heroine or the villain.

Take Bob and Tony.

Bob was born in Louisiana and raised on a small farm. His father was tough and seldom fair. They were poor, and Bob learned to work hard at an early age. As hard as his father could be, he was always gentle and respectful with women. Bob’s mom worked hard on the farm too, because it was a small family farm and it took them all working hard to keep things going, but his father cared for her and protected her, and worked to please her as much as he could.

When Bob was nineteen, they lost the family farm. When his family moved to town and his father took a good job there, Bob felt he was needed any more and for the first time in his life, decided to put his own wants first. He traveled and moved from job to job. Until he landed and settled in that small Northern town where he found a job he loved and people who made him feel welcome. He even liked the weather.

When Bob speaks, you’ll hear his southern drawl. Bob’s family farm raised both sugarcane and milk cows. He knows a lot about both. He isn’t scared of hard work and grew up to be a pretty tough man himself, though unlike his father, he bends over backwards to be fair because he got the wrong end of fair too many times. His views of women and marriage came from his family. He doesn’t plan on divorce and thinks women are strong but need to be cared for. He’s had two serious girlfriends, but things didn’t work out. He’s still looking for the woman he’s going to marry.

Bob also likes spicy foods, strong whiskey but doesn’t drink often, he doesn’t cook anything that takes more than a couple of steps or the pushing of a microwave button, he loves dogs, in fact, he loves all animals and doesn’t hunt, even though he had done so with his father often to put food on the table. Bob likes horror moved, motorbikes, and believe it or not, the smell of flowers because his mother used to almost always keep a bunch of some kind of flowers on the table in the kitchen. The smell of flowers reminds him of her.

Tony grew up one town over from where he works at the mill. His mom was on her third marriage by the time he was ten, but at least Mr. Third had money and staying power. Mr. Third gave in to Tony’s mom anytime she shed a few tears, and she often laughed about what an easy touch he was. The man wasn’t too bad of a stepfather though, and spent time with Tony, took him on out of state hunting and fishing trips each summer.

Tony fits in well with a lot of the people in town. He’s kin to some of them. His stepfather got him the job at the mill. Tony knows this is about his last chance. Mr. Third paid for college….two of them….but Tony ended up flunking out of one and getting kicked out of the other. Mr. Third got him a few jobs during and after, but Tony likes free time a lot better than working.

This time though, his mom has put her foot down. There will be no more schooling, no more handouts, no more anything. Tony will do the best he can at this job and take care of himself, or live on the streets. She no longer cares and isn’t going to see any more money wasted on him.

Tony does a good job at work, but doesn’t do one more thing than he has to, or spend one minute longer there than he has to. He loves to spend his nights off at one of the local bars. He likes junk food better than meals, and his favorite drink anytime of year is ice-cold beer. He’s experimented with some drugs, but nothing too heavy or too often. He dates a lot, but never the same woman for very long. He doesn’t really trust women. They all seem to remind him too much of his mom. It doesn’t take them long to start trying to find out how much he earns and what he owns. Anytime things don’t go their way, they are usually pretty quick to turn on the tears or the guilt. He just doesn’t need the hassle.

He likes war movies and comedies, video and computer games, and spends a lot of time on line.

See, two guys, same age, live in the same town, work at the same job, but if neither would do the same thing for fun or eat the same thing as a favorite, or even react to a woman the same way.

That’s why when you write a story filled with Jane Doe’s and John Smith’s, people talk about cardboard cutouts. If someone reads a chapter of your story and meets three characters in that chapter, each of those characters should be, well, be a character.

If they were talking together, their speech would be a little different. One might have an accent, one might be bad about repeating things, one might curse, another might always have some kind of smart comeback. If someone has a lot of college behind them, they will probably use different words and ways of saying things than someone who didn’t even finish high school. A nurse might compare things to some medical situation, like if someone blushed she might say that the person’s face was as red as if she were burning up with a fever. A Louisiana cook might compare a blush to being as red as a fresh boiled crawfish.

If these characters went out for a meal together, they wouldn’t each order a taco with extra hot sauce and beer in a bottle—unless that was all they could buy there or all they could afford. Even then, they wouldn’t all request extra hot sauce.

Along that same line, they would each pick a different fun evening, a different kind of movie, ect… Even if they all went to the same place or the same movie, they would each act and react differently.

Different is all you have to remember. We are all different, even twins. I have a good friend who has a twin sister. I can’t tell them apart by looking unless it’s one of those times when they aren’t wearing close to the same hairstyle. And yet, if I see one of them in a flower shop, I know which one it is, because the other one doesn’t care for plants at all. If I talk to one of them for a moment, after just a couple of sentences, I know which one I’m speaking too. When we were in high school I could even tell sometimes just by what clothes one was wearing or what kind of notebook one carried. One liked short skirts, one jeans. One liked notebooks with animals on it, and one seemed to always have a solid colored notebook with drawings all over the cover that she did while sitting in class.

So if a reader picks your story, when she meets each character, even if their names aren’t used in a section, just by speech, action, taste and style, they should be able to tell which character is which. And if you know your characters well enough, you should be able to pull that off with ease.

It just takes a lot of work beforehand to make it that easy later.

If you'd like to try one, you can find a free character chart on my website at... http://www.charlottedillon.com/CharacterChart.html

Step Five - And So It Goes

2008-06-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

I've actually been writing some.

Still flopping around like a fish tossed up on the sand, but doing better. I'm learning to accept life as it is, my health issues are there and are a part of my life, but people deal with worse and work around it. I'm having a hard time with my blood sugar counts right now--for a few weeks now. They tried upping my meds, adding more meds, and are going to try removing some teeth that aren't the best, to see if that will help. I know something will work soon and my blood sugar will come down and I will feel human again. Until then, I'm going to keep on the best I can keep on.

Back to the writing: I tried starting something new, but got no where fast. I think while I was sick in bed for all those months, I spent too much time thinking about the characters in the book I have started and in a couple I have finished. Those characters won't let go, so it seems hard to move on.

Okay, now what?

I've thought about working on a rewrite of the two short contemporaries I have finished, and then starting a third for the series. I'd like to work on the long paranormal suspense at the same time, after all, it is half completed. Don't know if working on such totally different projects at the same time will be a good thing though.

So....

I'm going to try and focus on one thing, or one project at least. The short contemporary series. The stories are all set in the same town. The work is targeted toward Harlequin American Romance. Before I get too deep in rewrite or start the third book, I thought, what else, but more market research. I wanted to find HQAR books out that were debuts, recent debuts on top of that. Didn't have a lot of luck. Thought I'd settle for new debuts or new books by new authors, even if not their first, and maybe even books that just seemed really strong and got great reviews.

After a whole lot of homework, I ordered five Harlequin American Romance books. The winners are....

Runaway Cowboy by Judy Christenberry

An Unlikely Mommy by Tanya Michaels

Marrying the Boss by Megan Kelly

Down Home Dixie by Pamela Browning

The Best Man's Bride by Lisa Childs

If there's anything that's just as much fun as making up my own stories, it's reading good ones by other authors. This should be lots of fun then, but I'll let you know.

Now, which one do I read first when they all look so good?

To be continued...

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hi to all you other moms out there. Just wanted to take a second and wish you all a very Happy Mother's Day! By the way, even if you are a mom, if your mom is still around, don't forget to make her the center of your day! It's her Mother's Day too, and you're her baby. Yes, even if you are well over thirty. (Smile) That reminds me. Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I know you're smiling down on me right now, remembering the Mother's Days we had together. I bet you are still laughing over some of the gifts I got you when I was a kid. Like the time I got you shot glasses because I thought they were such cute little glasses. You never said a word about what a shot glass really was. (Smile) Even though you didn't drink or ever use them for anyone else, after I was long grown and you were gone, I found them in the kitchen, in the back of a cabinet. I can't believe you kept those silly things just because I gave them to you. Well, that's not true. Since I'm a mom, I guess I understand.

A Great Notebook For Writers - A Real Keep All

2008-04-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

When starting a new novel, or even after digging up one of your old ones that needs a little love and care, you need a way to keep up with lots of info. The believability of your story depends on it. Even after you finish the story and send it out, there's tons of stuff to keep track of, like when you mailed that manuscript, who you mailed it to, when it was rejected and by who, and when you sent it back out and to who, ect...

I've found a work in progress notebook that you can buy in print or in e-book, that helps keep it all together, and more. (Nope, I don't get a kick back and didn't even know the author of the book until someone explained what the Novel Notebook was. I just found it so helpful that I wanted to share.)

I've pasted the quote below that I gave Jeannie after using her notebook.

I have the e-doc version of Jeannie Ruesch's Novel Notebook. I'm not the kind of person who gives good quotes unless I mean them, so this is my honest opinion. I love the Novel Notebook because it's a complete keep-everything-in-one-place solution for your novel in progress, and even your completed and submitted novel.

Since Jeannie is a fiction writer herself, she thought of everything a writer would need to keep up with, and placed a section for each in this book. There's places to list everything from your working title and date started to the date completed who you submitted the manuscript to and when.

You'll also find plenty of space to fill in things like characters profiles, info on each chapter, sub plots, conflict, setting descriptions, a timeline chart, and more. Like I said, everything a working writer needs to keep up with about her newest baby, all in one place.

The e-doc version is in Word, so it's simple to make a boxed section bigger when you want to add extra info, or to delete and retype things when you make changes in your story. It's also easy to print up, save to CD or a zip drive, or even send to yourself as an attachment that you can save in an e-mail account that's not on your computer, so you won't lose all of that needed information.

Best Wishes and Happy Writing ~ Charlotte Dillon

Step Four - Or Am I Back to Step One?

2008-04-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

Since my last post I've spent my free time digging through publishers' guidelines, as well as my to-be-read pile of books, my keeper-pile of books--and reading some of both.

I thought about them all, about what I liked and why I liked them. Seems not a lot has changed, at least not in the last few years. I still like cowboys, paranormal, and suspense. Paranormal suspense wins over just straight romantic suspense, mostly. When it comes to paranormal and suspense, not all of my favorites are romance books though, but they have some of that romance sparkle in them, if not a good romance in them. They just might not have that happy ever after ending.

In fact, two of my favorites are from authors who have the same characters star in book after book. A series of suspense novels by Jeffery Deaver that star criminalist Lincoln Rhyme and his protégé Amelia Sachs. (If you haven't read the books, you might know them from the one book in these series that was made into a movie, The Bone Collector.) Now these books aren't romance, but the building care, trust and love between Lincoln and Amelia is positively a draw for me, along with the great writing and stories.

The second series is from author Kim Harrison. The main star in these books is the witch Rachel Morgan. This is paranormal in a world of its own, wrote in first person of all things. (And I didn't even think I liked first person, but Kim Harrison's stories made me change my mind.) There's some romance in these books too, but no way are these books romance either. Oh, there's also suspense, since a lot of times you think Rachel is going to bite the big one for sure this time. Smile.

Okay, so I know some about today's market, I know what kind of books bring me the most pleasure to read, but I'm still not sure where I'm going. Seems the more I try to focus on it and force myself to settle on the next step, on centering on just exactly what kind of romance I'm going to write, the larger the knot gets in my stomach and the more I feel a building panic taking hold. I think I scared to death of failing again. Of writing the wrong thing, of starting something I won't finish, of spending more of my time writing something that will never see the light day.

Would you believe even scared of making it, of finishing a book and having it published and knowing they are waiting for a next one and me not being able to pull it off again. My sister always says "fear is bondage".

Maybe it's time I work on some of those ties that bind?

To be continued...

Free Workshop to Help You Get Back to Writing or Keep Writing!

2008-04-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry I didn't think to post this until now. We've had a free workshop, Write Like You Mean It, going on over on the main RWC group for a few days. The person giving it is Avon author Jenna Petersen. http://www.jennapetersen.com

RWC is my free Yahoo Group for romance authors. There's still today and all of tomorrow to take part in the workshop, and the posts that have already come in will stay on the group page so as a member, you can go in and look at the ones you've missed. Jenna really shared some great info that went right along with the problems I've been writing about, and lots more.

RWC is a huge group for romance authors, published or not, who are working at being the best writers they can. It's not a social group, so there are a lot of rules that all members have to follow to keep posts under control and make the group easy to use. Of course I expect members to be respectful to each other, so people can't come in and get away with flames and meanness that I've seen on so many groups. In other words, if you can't follow rules or if you like to fight, or if you want to chit chat, RWC isn't the place for you. But if you are a romance writer who can follow the rules and allow others their own opinions, and you are working at being a writer, then RWC might be just the perfect place for you, and I'd love to have you join us, even if it's just to take part in the end of this workshop.

You can find the link to join the main RWC group and more info about it and its sister groups for critiques and more, all here:
http://www.charlottedillon.com/RWC.html

Sorry again for not thinking to post this sooner.

Step Three – The Plan… So Far

2008-04-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

If what I’ve tried the last few times hasn’t worked, and I’m going to try something new, what should it be? Is there anything new left to even try?

The most success I had at starting back to writing and sticking to it was when I started something brand new. It was a paranormal suspense. That worked out so well for me. I was back on track and seemed to be doing great.

I think if I hadn’t lost my father, got over that only to get sick and find out I was a diabetic, and just get that under control and begin to feel better when I had to deal with hurricane Katrina, I wouldn’t even be writing this now. I would have finished that story and moved on to the next one, and probably the next, and so on. After all, a great agent had read part of the manuscript and was waiting for the complete, the market was hot for that kind of work at the time; I had already basically outlined two more books to follow the first, a series. There were also characters in there that would have been able to carry books of their own, so I could have done many more than the three I had in mind. I was trucking right along and having a good time doing it. Having a good time is important. If you aren’t enjoying your writing, it’s going to be hard to do and the end result is going to show your struggle. At least for me and I think most others.

Maybe the success I had at that time with sticking to it and enjoying writing again was in the fact that I had started something new. I didn’t have to backtrack or repolish or rehash. It was all new and fresh. But if I start something new again, in a few months will I just end up with another half finished manuscript to add to the other three I haven’t completed? I’m just not sure what to do.

Doing nothing isn’t going to work though.

So, I thought some more, and some more. Finally I decided that I’d have to risk the chance of having another half-finished story. Better a half-finished one than nothing. The thought of doing a rewrite on one of my completes right now just holds no interest for me. I’ve tried to keep working almost daily on that paranormal suspense since I’ve started back, tried to keep the story moving forward, but it’s a push every time I open that file, and I feel like the writing I’m doing isn’t going to be something I’m proud of when I’m done. I really think my pushing is showing through and the writing is suffering, like I mentioned above.

If I’m going to start something brand new though, what should it be? At least I’ve already done that taking inventory part. Maybe it’s time to really ask myself what kind of romance story is calling to me now days, and to do a lot of market research.

To be continued….

Step Two – More Inventory

2008-04-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

Since I’ve gone through the rejections and figured out what I did when, I supposed the next step would be to see just what I’ve got--written that is.

To that end, I went through my computer files and non-computer files and found all of my novel-length romance fiction, completed or not. I listed them under completed, partial, or openings. I realized I had jumped around a bit. In my romance fiction I found short contemporaries, long contemporaries, long western historicals, suspense, paranormal, and even paranormal suspense. Okay, so I need focus. No one can write in that many styles can they?

Yet more inventory. I went to my bookshelves and scanned titles and authors. If I was going to try and focus in on one or two kinds of romance, then maybe seeing what kind I read the most would help me figure out where my heart really was and what manuscript I had that I should turn my full attention to.

Surprise, there was a big mixture in my bookshelves too. But I was looking for a recurring pattern, a majority. I kind of ended up with a four-way tie though, between short and long contemporaries, paranormal, and suspense. Simplified, I came up with contemporaries with or without paranormal and with or without suspense.

What about sexual content? A mixture there two, but at least there seemed to be a clear majority in that area, which was simply the middle ground. I had only a handful of what you would call sweet romances, and less than that of what you would call erotica. Of course that could just be because the middle ground is what’s the most available. So I’ve decided not to put too much weight on that part of my inventory. In fact, I think you could be comfortable or happy reading some types of sexual content that you might not be happy writing. I know some of my work is about as hot as good soaking bath water, while other stuff might nearly boil that water.

With all of that inventory behind me, I went back to my files. I don’t have anything I’d send out without a rewrite. What I’ve been working on since I started back writing is a manuscript that was about halfway done when I stopped writing before. It doesn’t seem to be working for me this time either.

So, should I do some rewrites on the finished manuscripts and get them out there? Should I finish this partial or another one of my particles and get one or more of them out there? I have three particles, each halfway or better done. One is a very old western historical, the other two are long contemporaries, one more of a paranormal and one more of a paranormal suspense.

My mind screamed for me to pick the easiest, which would be to polish one of those completes up. The responsible side of me said to finish the particle I’ve started back to working on. After all, how many times have I told other writers to finish what they start or they’ll end up with a pile of started manuscripts and never complete a single one of them. The realistic side of me--boy I have a lot of sides--says none of this is, or has, worked for me the last few times I’ve tried to get back into the habit of being a full-time fiction writer.

So, now what? I guess it’s time to find another way to skin a cat.

To be continued….

Step One - Taking Inventory of Your Writing

2008-03-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

To move forward, you kind of need to know where you’ve been.

I did something today that I think would benefit a lot of my fellow writers who are struggling. See, I save rejection letters. I know, sounds kind of morbid, but it's really very smart and helpful. I will admit that even with time, there's a sting to seeing those rejections, but there's a lot of information in those letters too. (Hint, if you don't do so, start saving your rejection letters in a nice neat folder.)

I got my rejection folder out today and put the rejections from publishers for each story in a pile of its own. Just the novel-length fiction stuff, since that's what I've decided to concentrate on.

I was shocked when I realized a lot of things by digging through those rejections. First, the pile for my last completed manuscript was small. I had only sent it out to publishers twice. Only two times! And, gulp, the last time was in 2002. That was a hard blow. It's 2008. That means in the last six years I haven't completed one novel-length story and haven't even sent my old fiction stuff out to one publisher.

Kind of hard to make a sale when the work is in your computer. (I've told that to hundreds of starting writers over the years. I always say, "Finish that manuscript, set it aside and double check your homework on where you are going to send it, give it a last polish, then get that query in the mail and get to work on that next manuscript. After all, you can't get published unless you finish the manuscript, often a number of them first, and send them out." That's very true.)

Too bad some where along the way I stopped listening to myself.

I learned some good things too though, by looking through my rejections. The ones from the last couple years I was submitting work was personal rejections with comments from the editors on what they felt worked and what they felt didn't. They were also mostly rejections on completes, since it seemed almost every query earned me a request for a complete or at least a partial. In other words, I was doing something right. I was getting some where.

By 2000, I hadn't written fiction for a number of years, doing freelance writing instead because it offered something fiction didn't--a steady paycheck that came every other week. In 2000 I went back to romance, but looking over my records I discovered I gave it a very short two year go, and then I lost my father, and put all writing aside for a while. I've started back a few times since then, but never really got the ball rolling. I got close a couple of times, and then something else big happened, and I just gave right in. I even went back to non-fiction a little over a year ago and completed a book, found an agent for it, and it's been shopped around. Still, I've done little more than start and stop with my fiction since I stopped writing it for fulltime non-fiction work.

The truth is, I'm not in my twenties any more. Okay, or my thirties. It's time to, excuse my French, but as my mom used to say, "It's time to piss or get off the pot." As I've mentioned before, I've tried to get off the pot, but it's like I've got an evil twin in me that loves writing and loves writing fiction best of all and won't let me forget about it.

That's why I sat down and went through those records today. I've been working hard on making fiction writing a daily -- at least five days a week anyway -- habit for me. It's not getting much easier, so I've decided I've got to be doing something wrong, or maybe I'm wrong, and I can walk away and just haven't tried hard enough. Before I toss in the towel on all of the years of work I've put into romance writing and helping other writers write it, I've decided to step back and take a long hard look at what has worked for me, what hasn't, and what I want and what my writing goals really are.

I started with those rejection letters today. If you are kind of in the same spot, that might be a good place for you to start too, even if you don't have them all in one folder, you probably have them jotted down or recall most of them. Maybe you even have better records, like of when you started each manuscript and when you completed it.

If you look over any of the dates above, and you find that they are way far apart, maybe like me, you need to get your ducks in a row, make a plan, set some goals, apply your butt to the chair and get to it -- or get off the pot.

Okay, so now I need a plan and a goal, oh, and some ducks.

To be continued....

Getting Back to Writing

2008-03-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I've been sick for a long time. I was in bed for months, but I'm getting well enough to get back to life. Well enough to get back to writing. Every time I've taken a break from writing though, getting back to it seems almost as hard as getting through what ever took me away from it. They say once you learn how to ride a bike, you never forget. That doesn't mean you're likely to go jump back on one either though.

When we take a long break from writing, I don't think we forget how to do that either, it's the jumping back on, or jumping back in as it may be, that gives us the trouble.

I still know how to write, and the story I was working on and the one I was editing are both still alive in my mind, but it's like they are on life-support. Getting them breathing again, getting me writing again, might take a little CPR.

Having been through this before, I know there comes a point where you just have to stop putting it off, set a date and jump in. I started Monday. It was supposed to be Monday morning, but I had some really important things I had to handle first. Like, well, there was these dirty clothes in the bathroom, and I found grime in the kitchen sink. Oh, and Monday's are good days to pay the bills, and who wants to start writing when you have a backlog of mail in the in box. Then the dogs did kind of need a bath, and there was.... See, all very important things that couldn't be put off. Right?

Finally I took hold of myself, forced my butt into the computer chair, fought with my hand to keep it from opening up my e-mail program, and made it open the file that held my incomplete manuscript instead -- and then stared at it for a good fifteen minutes as my brain rebelled and other things tried to call me away.

After that, I began by reading over the last chapter I had written. Funny how I recalled some of it so well and wondered if someone else had written other parts of it while I had been away. I had to resist the urge to go back to page one and read the whole story away. I need to do that I'm sure, but I needed to write first. In the end, before I closed the file, I wrote two pages. Yes, two pages, that's it. Those were two very hard pages to write. It felt like trying to get ice out of a cactus.

The next day, I found things to do, and I didn't feel very well, but I opened that manuscript a little sooner than the first day, and I did two pages again. The last half a page was a real push. I had wanted to go up a page and do three, but I knew when it was time to call it a day and let myself be satisfied with what I had accomplished. Today, I've already done my two pages, hoped for three again, but didn't make it again. It's early enough though, that there's a chance I might get brave enough to give it another try. No, I'm not going to count this as writing, since it's non-fiction and my goal is fiction.

I'm not going to be too hard on myself either. After all, I'm in training. At least that's the way I look at it. My husband runs marathons. The full ones. You know, the 26.2 mile ones! (Bless his crazy little heart.) He trains for weeks before one. When he starts out, he doesn't run 26.2 miles, or even 13 miles, or eight. He starts small and just keeps building. It's a daily thing for him.

When I first got where I could get out of bed again, walking through the house left me winded and feeling like I had been doing one of his workouts. Being up on my feet for more than a little while left my back feeling like it would break just from holding me up right. I didn't push myself and go outside and walk for an hour...although I used to walk at least an hour five days a week. I just kept walking around the house, standing longer, sitting longer. Slow day after slow day. Now I can walk for thirty minutes or more before I start wearing down. I can stand up for an hour and half or longer before my back screams enough. I got here, and will get further, by taking it easy on myself, going at my own speed, and getting back to what once was my normal at a comfortable pace for my body.

I'm handling my writing the same way. Right now my goal is to write at least five days a week. Even if it's only two pages, or even if it's less. I'll keep building, letting my writing muscles get stronger, and one day I'll be back to where I was. I've never been one of those writers who can put out twenty pages a day, but on good days I used to be able to pull ten or so. I will again, if I hang in there and don't give up.

By the way, friends have asked me why I don't just give up. If it's that hard to get back to it, then why not just call it a day and move on to something else? I've asked myself that before. Okay, I've screamed that at myself a lot of times.

This is not by far my first long spell away from writing. I didn't write for over a year after I lost my mother, for months after my father died, for months after we recovered from hurricane Katrina. One time I just found myself depressed with all of the rejections and with all the wasted time I had put into my writing and gotten no where. Another time I gave up my fiction writing to do freelance non-fiction for a few years so I could help pay the bills. When I started the freelance work, I thought I could do both, but I was so drained by the time I finished my deadline and turned in my work each week, there just was no writing left in me for my fiction.

So, if I've had to fight so many times to get back to my fiction, why keep fighting? I wish I knew. I've tried to walk away for good a number of times. I really have.

The same thing happens every time though. Once the bad gets better and I start getting over that black spell of time, whatever it may be, the characters in my stories won't stay out of my head. I think about my storylines, about my characters, I plot things out, build in more conflict, map out whole scenes in my mind. Openings for new stories pop into my thoughts, new characters show up and whisper something like, "Do you want to know why I fell in love with him?" The next thing I know, even if I'm not writing, it's taking up such a big part of my life, that there's just no way to completely give it up.

That means the choice becomes either keeping these stories growing only in my mind, or sitting back down at the computer, opening up Word, and getting on with it. It's like one part of me fights getting back to it, but another part fights just as hard to get back to it, and I'm just caught in the middle and finally have to give in and go with the stronger part--that writer in me that won't say die. (Wonder if there's a 12-step program out there for it?)

So, here I go again!

If you've got that stronger writer part in you, and you can't get away from it even when you try your best. Maybe it's time you give in and start back. Answer that character that won't leave you alone, that story that keeps plotting itself out even as you try to block it. If I'm brave enough to give it another go for the I-don't-know-how-manyth time, I know you are.

All we have to do is take one step at a time...or just write one word at a time. The story you finish this time might be the one that helps you reach whatever your goal is.

Last Update of My Sister's Grandbaby

2008-03-07T03:24:00.000-08:00

I want to thank everyone who sent prayers, light and good wishes for my sister's grandbaby. Each time I asked, there was an outpouring of the above. I'm very grateful for each and every message and post that was sent. This time I'm asking for those same things for my sister and her daughter. The baby lost his fight last weekend. They said he wouldn't make it to two years, but he made it two months longer than that. It was a hard two years though. He went through so much, hurt so much, that as sad as I am that he is gone, I'm glad that he isn't hurting or having to fight anymore. He was a strong little boy who smiled through things that would have made a grown man cry.

Happy Holidays

2007-12-25T04:32:00.000-08:00

I wanted to wish everyone happy holidays and a happy New Year. I hope you have been enjoying a wonderful holiday season filled with lots of great food, plenty of fun, and most important of all -- filled with loved ones and friends. Here's wishing you each a great 2008! May this be the year your biggest dream comes true.

Hugs,
Charlotte

Cooking Stuff

2007-11-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

I've got some links and info up on my cookbook site about some different kitchen need-to-haves or want-to-haves. One of the things I have listed is a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. A number of people have mentioned it before and thanked me for telling them about this mixer. I know it's the best mixer I've ever used! (No, I don't own stock in the company.) Smile. My Mom and my sister both have used them, had them for years, but the price is high and I never got one of my own.

Well, I found a great deal today at Amazon on them. The highest, most powerful one listed there is about the price that the cheapest KitchenAid was at Wal-Mart last year. For a limited time Amazon is doing 40% off, a 50 buck rebate on top of that, and free shipping. They even have price cuts on the attachments you can buy to use with the stand mixer, including a meat grinder and a shredder. Heck, you can even make ice cream and sausage with this stand mixer. (See why I've been wanting one forever!)

So, if like me, you've been sitting and waiting and hoping, now might be your chance to grab one of your own. They have two smaller ones that are even less, both also with price cuts and rebates. I told hubby he could count mine as both my X-Mas for this year and my birthday. Now I just have to try and wait for it to get here! Smile!

Long Time No See

2007-10-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I know it's been a long time. I have been sick and dealing with more than one health issue that has taken me out for three months so far. During that time I've handed over the day to day running of my RWC on-line groups to some wonderful ladies who have worked hard to keep things running so well that I'm sure members didn't even notice that I've been missing in action.

Sadly, I couldn't hand over my website, my blog and my e-mail to others, so those things have just had to sit and wait. I have a ton of back e-mail from this blog and the contact link on my website. Please don't think I'm being rude or ignoring your comments or questions. If I got them and you gave a correct e-mail address for my reply, and one was needed or requested, you will get a response from me. I promise.

I'm still not well and my up time is very limited, so please know that it might still take me a good while to get to each message. I know more waiting time is a lot to ask since some of you have already been waiting for three months. I'm sorry about that and will do the best I can to get to each message as soon as I can on the days when I do feel up to tackling my mail. Thanks so much for understanding and for all of the messages of support and encouragement that I've gotten from those who have learned about my illness during the last weeks.

Hugs and best wishes to you all -- and happy writing and reading!

2007 Brava Novella Contest

2007-07-26T04:34:00.000-07:00

The 5th annual Brava Novella Contest will begin accepting entries at midnight central time on August 1, 2007 and will stop accepting them at midnight central time on September 30, 2007.

It's free to enter. The top twenty finalists will be judged by Kensington Editorial Director Kate Duffy. The contest is open to unpublished authors and those published with houses other than Kensington.

The contest will have a theme this year -- reunited lovers.

For more info and to enter, visit...
http://www.bravaauthors.com:80/novella-contest

Writing Prompt Contest

2007-07-12T05:28:00.000-07:00

The Heartland Writers Group is using one of my writing prompts for a free writing contest they are holding. You don't have to belong to RWA or anything to enter, no entry fee, and there's a five dollar prize. (Smile) I'll be judging the entries, but no one's name will be on them so I'll have no idea who wrote what. If you'd like to give it a try, the contest info is pasted below. Please read it before you write a scene since there's a word limit, a way you have to submit, and such. (You have a couple of weeks left to give it a try and there's only been a couple of entries so far.)

Here's the link where you can read the short scenes that have been entered and see later who wins.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=179976555

By the way, the free on line group I own for writers has a sister list just for weekly writing prompts. If you are interested you can find info about the RWC groups here....
http://www.charlottedillon.com/RWC.html

-------------------------------------------------

HEARTLAND WRITERS GROUP MONTHLY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISES!!

JULY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE CONTEST INFORMATION: :ONCE AGAIN, IT'S TIME TO HONE THOSE MUSES!! SINCE THERE WILL BE FIREWORKS SIZZLING THE SKY, I THOUGHT WE'D HEAT IT UP A BIT.... HERE IS THE CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE CONTEST INFORMATION FOR JULY, 2007:::

THE PROMPT: She's a nosy single-and-looking neighbor.He's the sexy single moving in next door.She's being her nosy self, trying to find out who's moving in and everything about him.He catches her.Then What?

In approximately 500 words or less, write a sexual tension scene between the two characters. Spice level medium to hot--No erotica, please.

****Special THANKS goes to romance author Charlotte Dillon for permission to use The Sexy Neighbor Writing Prompt.****

Send all entries to grievekathleen@ yahoo.com They must be received by July, 31st, 2007 no later than 12 noon central standard time to be considered. You must have "HWG JULY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE" in the subject line.

All entries will be posted anonymously on the HWG MYSPACE BLOG. Winner gets her/his picture posted on HWG MYSPACE, a $5 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble, and will start the second HWG CONTINUING MYSTORY--details to follow.

This months judge will be romance author Charlotte Dillon. To find out more about Charlotte, you can go to her website: www.CharlotteDillon.com

Congratulations to June's Contest Winner--Patricia Martel. The entry was # 4 on HWG'S MYSPACE BLOG. Hers will be the first BIO posted on HWG's Newsletter, "Muse News", her picture is posted on our MYSPACE , and she received a $5 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. COME AND JOIN THE FUN WHILE LIGHTING A FIRE UNDER YOUR MUSE!!!GOOD LUCK!

KathleenHeartland Writers Group

25 Years & Counting

2007-07-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

Today was a special one. I've been married for 25 years. Okay, so well, hubby has been part of it too. At least half of it. (Smile) This is a picture of the cake the kids surprised us with. Look at all of those huge chocolate covered strawberries. I'd actually never had chocolate covered strawberries until today. Needless to say, it wasn't a sugar free cake, so I only ate a small slice and a couple of the strawberries, but it was so good and the card they gave us was as sweet as the cake.

Minutes for the Troops

2007-07-07T16:44:00.000-07:00

As an Army vet, Monica Burns knows first-hand how the sound of a loved one's voice is music in a soldier's ear. When she was stationed 3000 miles away from home, she lived for the sound of a familiar voice or the occasional care package that came showed up at mail call. That experience on intense homesickness has prompted her to organize a Minutes for the Troops donation program.

Monica has a troop contact in Iraq that she can send AT&T phone cards to. The minutes are then allocated to soldiers so they can call home. Apparently, AT&T phone cards are the only cards that work relatively glitch free with Iraq's phone system dialing out to the USA. If you'd like to help the American soldiers stationed in Iraq communicate with loved ones, here are your options:

Option 1 - AT&T phone cards are available at retail stores such as Wal-Mart. Once you've purchased the card, email Monica with the phone number and the pin number that are listed on the back of the card, along with the number of minutes on the card (knowing the minutes helps fairly allocate minutes to the troops). Send your phone card info to monicaburnsauthor @ comcast.net (eliminate the spaces before and after the @ symbol). Place "Minutes for the Troops" in your email subject line so her SPAM Assassin doesn't eat your email. She'll compile all the phone card information and forward it to her military contact so the troops can use the minutes you donate to make their calls.

Option 2 - Some people can only afford to spare a couple of dollars, so if you have a PayPal account, Monica is willing to take donations via her personal account. She'll purchase phone cards with those donations and forward those to her troop contact. The disadvantage is that your contribution has 3 percent removed from it by PayPal, so if you want to claim the donation on taxes, you'll have to allot for that 3 percent deduction when you calculate your donation. For instance, if you wanted to donate $1.00 you would actually only be donating 97 cents. Just keep this in mind if you want to donate via PayPal.

Option 3 - If you can't afford to buy a phone card, and don't have a PayPal account, you can always send a check or money order to Monica Burns, Post Office Box 68, Richmond, VA 23235. Monica will apply your contribution to the purchase of a card. A copy of the check or money order should suffice for your charitable donations write off on your taxes. Please do not send cash due to recordkeeping restrictions.

Monica thanks you, and the troops thank you.

Website Update & Changes

2007-06-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

It's taken me days, but I've finished a major update on my website. Well, not really finished, since there are still a lot of pages to work on, but I've finished all the main pages for both the writer's and the author's sides of my site. I hope the way things are done now will make it even more easier for people to find their way around on both sides. After all, it's no fun going to a site for information and then having to do a search and find forever to actually find the one thing you came for.

When you get a chance, check out both sides and let me know what you think! You can find the link on the side bar, or just go to www.CharlotteDillon.com

Time Saving Tip: Frosting

2007-06-15T06:27:00.000-07:00

Want a quick frosting that won't taste like just another spread on can of it?

Once your cake is cool, simply warm up a can of frosting -- not too warm, just warm enough that it is easy to work with -- then put it in a bowl and stir in a container of Cool Whip. Adjust the amount of Cool Whip, using more for a milder frosting and less for a sweeter one. You can use any flavor of frosting you like. (Of course once spread on the cake, the cake will have to be kept in the fridge.)

My family doesn't care much for frosting from a can because it is just so sweet, but everyone who has tried one of my cakes made this way loves it and thinks it's some kind of frosting I made from a recipe that required work. (Smile)

Warning About Flea Treatments

2007-06-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

I've really, really had my hands full the last week, especially the last few days. If any of you have been to the pet page on my website, you know I have way too many dogs. (But I love 'em all.) We've had a time with fleas this year. Used to, Frontline seemed to work, along with this flea dip I can't get any more. Then Frontline got where it just wasn't working that well at all and wasn't even lasting very well. On top of that, the price has gone up a lot in the last couple of years until it got to the point that I really just couldn't justify or afford the huge cost with the number of large dogs I have.

Well, things were already going bad first thing Tuesday morning. I've been dealing with a very sick puppy for a few days, making trips back and forth to the vet. Tuesday morning I awoke to find the two dogs that stay outside, were both missing. Some how the gate had got opened during the night and they were gone. After searching the neighborhood, we managed to find one, but not the other. I had to have the puppy back to the vet for another IV at eight-thirty, so I gave up after another hour and came home to get ready to go.

Believe it or not, on the way to the vet, I actually found my other missing dog walking down the road with a woman. We were late for the vet, but I was so happy to have found Kane and Clover and have them both home safe and sound.

I was at the vet a long time, Korin's IV bag takes nearly two hours. We made it home and Korin was doing so much better than he had been doing for days before, that I actually felt hopeful he was going to make it. Since I was feeling a little better about him, and was feeling a little better myself since I had been dealing with a stomach bug too, I thought I would go on and treat the well dogs with some flea stuff I picked up at Wal-Mart. It was Sergeant's Gold Flea & Tick, the kind in the little tube that you squeeze on down their backs. (I've used a lot of different kinds over the years, cheap and not cheap.)

After I used this one though, in less than an hour, Lucky started throwing up. I thought with dread that he was taking the same nasty virus that Korin had. Then Lucky began to shake, then shake worse, then he couldn't walk. I thought about the flea stuff and grabbed him up and bathed him twice. I then handed him to my daughter and ran around checking on my other dogs. All seemed well until I looked outside at the two out there. Clover was drooling every where and shaking all over. That began a mad dash to wash every dog at least twice, once with a shampoo and then after doing a little research on line, we used dish washing liquid. During the research we found page after page of info from people who had lost their pets after using this flea stuff, or some other one like it.

It was a very long evening after an already long last few tense days, but by yesterday morning, Lucky and Clover seemed to be over it, and all of the other dogs were acting fine. I took Korin back to the vet and he is off the IV, doing well, eating, on meds by mouth, and the vet said she doesn't need to see him again. I still almost ended up by there yesterday. I have a dog that has seizures and wouldn't just know that he had to have one yesterday just when everything seemed to be calming down again. But he is fine and I was able to control the seizure and get it stopped without a trip to the vet. (I didn't put the flea stuff on him, Korin, or Kane.) I hope they all stay fine for a long while now. So does my credit card. (Ouch!)

Long story short...

If you have a dog, please be very careful with any of these once a month flea treatments, especially this one and other over the counter types that promise to act quickly and last a long time. If you have a cat, be even more careful, since it seemed there was even a larger listing of people who had lost cats from one of these types of flea treatments.

Prayers & Good Wishes Needed

2007-05-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

Over a year ago I wrote a message here about my my sister's grand baby needing prayers and good wishes. Well, he needs them again. He's in the hospital once more, this time on life support. Back then they didn't give him much hope of seeing his first birthday. Well, he made it. Now we are hoping for a second one. He was born with something called Autosomal Recessive Cutis Laxa Type One. There are only a couple of hundred people or less in the whole world with Cutis Laxa, and his is the very worse kind. It is a rare genetic disorder of the connective tissue. On the outside it shows up in loose and hanging skin, but it does worse stuff inside. He has had one battle after another, and has seemed to be doing so well lately. He just started walking and seemed to be so happy, and now this. I'm hoping there's some way for him to have more time, if it can be good time. More time for him to laugh, to play with his big sister and his grandma's dogs, to enjoy the new freedom he's found since he has a special daycare where he can spend a few hours at a time with other children. So, if you have a moment, please say a prayer, a blessing, send good thoughts, white light, what ever you can, that he'll beat the odds and be laughing for one more birthday.

Pet Tip: Giving Your Dogs Medicine

2007-05-21T04:51:00.001-07:00

If you have more than one dog, like I do, when it comes time to give them all medicine, it can be a little overwhelming. (Smile) I give my dogs heartworm medicine every month, and the regular wormer about once a year. I've learned a few things to help make it not so overwhelming.

First, I keep a piece of paper in the drawer where I keep the meds. On that paper I have each dog's name with their weight wrote out next to it. (You don't have to reweigh them more than once a year unless you have a growing puppy or you notice by looking that your dog might have gained or lost weight.)

Next I bring out a couple of disposable foam plates and a marker. (I only do two dogs at a time instead of wasting a pile of plates.) I write the dog's name and weight on the edge of the plate with the marker. I put some can dog food on the plate, the amount depending on the size of the dog. You don't want to put too much because you don't want to take a chance on them maybe not cleaning their plate.

Now that I'm ready to measure the meds, I have the dog's name and weight right in front of me. That way I'm not likely to make a mistake, and I'm not going to mix the plates up and give Max at 67 pounds the plate I fixed for Clover at 53 pounds. I've worked hard to train my dogs that when a plate is put in front of one, that the food on that plate belongs to that dog, but them being dogs, you still have to watch closely until those two plates or clean. If you can't get your dogs to do that, then put the food and each dog in a room away from the others so there is no chance of someone not getting all of his meds, or even worse, of someone getting an overdoes.

When those two dogs are done, I pick up the plates, mark through the names and weight on them, write in the next two dogs' names and weights, and repeat until they have each had their meds.

The last thing I do is mark it on the calendar so I'll know for sure what date they were given the meds on.

On To The Next Publisher

2007-05-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

Well, after a few rejections on my starter book for romance writers, my agent, Elizabeth Pomada, is at it again. She's in New York right now and has pitched my starter book for romance writers to St. Martin's Press. When I talked to her tonight on her cell, she said she will be sending the complete to them.

Sooooooo.....cross those fingers and toes for me once again. (Smile)

The other publishers who have rejected the book said they thought there wasn't a big enough market for it. 'Market' being romance authors who would need my starters from time to time. I think there's a whole pile of us out there who hit blocks and need starters. Right? (Smile) Now I just have to hope that St. Martin's Press knows that too, or is willing to take a chance on it.

Happy Mother's Day

2007-05-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

To all the moms out there -- Happy Mother's Day!

Bogalusa Almost Two Years After Katrina

2007-04-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

The two-year anniversary of Katrina is drawing nearer. I remember those first days, and even first weeks, after the hurricane hit here, thinking how things would never, could never be the same. In fact, there were days when I even thought things would never get better.

That first spring afterwards, there were still scars everywhere. You could see them in the destroyed and damaged buildings, in the broken and downed trees, in the abandoned businesses and homes, and in so many other places and ways, even on the people who carried scars on the inside.

But…it’s 2007 and this is a brand new spring. Life does renew itself. You can see that all over Bogalusa. Yes, there’re still scars. The city is still tearing down homes and other structures, some people are still in FEMA trailers, there are still repairs going on in lots of places here. The city just last week finally came and removed four huge oak trees from my street. Three weren’t healthy before the hurricane and more damage just meant they needed to come down all the more. One, the biggest, was a giant beauty though, until Katrina tore the top half out and split sections of the big limbs that were left. My street sure doesn’t look the same without those four majestic trees stranding guard and protecting us from the heat of the summer sun, but it’s what needed to be done.

We lost some great stores and companies, but there are a number of new businesses being built here all at once. Some new things, like a restaurant called the Big Easy Grill, and a new Hot Links sausage company, actually came here from closer to New Orleans. Seems their loss was our gain in a few areas.

People who had their homes too badly damaged to live in, have, or are, moving back into those repaired homes or newly built ones. Places that had really major, major damage, like one of the big churches not too far form me, finally was fixed up enough to have services last Sunday. The city is planting some new trees too and planning things to make the area better.

We learned a whole lot too. The city and the people here will be far better prepared if another Katrina paints a bull’s eye on us.

As for now, help still comes in. The kind that requires muscles and sweat. Bogalusa has had a number of college kids and even members of churches and such, come down for days or even weeks, some even from other countries. At first they might have helped remove trees from roadways and homes and do kind of emergency-need stuff. Now they come and offer free labor to those who were maybe able to buy stuff to repair damaged roofs, floors, or walls, but maybe aren’t able to afford to pay for labor or do the work on their own.

After the hurricane, at first it seemed all anyone heard about was New Orleans. Probably because of the number of people there and the flooding and mostly and sadly the number of lives lost. But there were so many towns and cities that took just as hard of a hit, and even harder, than there--but thankful without the number of lost lives. I think smaller places just didn’t make as good of press. Months later, all you seemed to hear about was the people who had pulled scams and wasted money, and cheated and lied and…it was just all kind of sickening. I think just like some people didn’t notice other places besides New Orleans has suffered, after all the bad press they forgot that there were lots of people who weren’t scamming and cheating, who really needed and appreciated whatever help they got.

I know my family sure did. Still does. Members of my RWC group, some people from where my sister lives in Arkansas, and a couple of friends who lived near one of my cousins in Nashville, all seemed to take us under their wings during those very first few hard weeks. Together they gave us the help we needed to get over the hump. I never added up all of the money and gifts, but it was probably over fifteen hundred. The army gave us meals and water, the Red Cross helped us buy a new water heater and some needed odds and ends. I can’t tell you the number of cards and letters and messages I got from people who simply wrote to say hi and offer hugs or words of support. It was a combination of all of the above that had us back on our feet in record time. We still have floors to replace and shingles on the roof too…but those seem like small things now.

I can’t tell you what it felt like to be able to move back into my own home after the hurricane. I had a lot of great moments back then I can’t explain. It’s funny, but I don’t think I’ve stepped into the shower or crawled into a comfortable bed or ate a hot meal once since I came home, and not thought of how wonderful those things are. Or what’s it’s like to be so low, and to realize that people who you’ve never seen before will reach across a country to offer you what they can. It’s true what they say, without the bad, how can you ever know just how great the good is.

I guess sometimes homes, people, and even cities, are better for their sorrow and their scars.

Spring has Sprung!

2007-04-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

I love this time of year. I know it will be too hot all too soon, but for right now most

days are just right. Kind of cool in the morning, warming up during the day, only

beginning to get too hot just when it's time for the cool down to start back over. My

yard has been in full bloom for a while now. I took these pictures this evening of some of the flowers I like the best. It was getting late, starting to get dark, but they still came out pretty good.

Some are of my roses, one is from my dogwood, and I don't know what you call

the purple star, but the flowers are huge and there are a lot of them. It comes back

each year and climbs toward the sky. I hope you spring has sprung too.

Help Find a Cure for Diabetes

2007-04-11T03:21:00.000-07:00

Author Brenda Novak puts together a huge on-line auction for the benefit of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation each year. If you are a writer or not, you will find great stuff there to bid on. She's still putting together the items for the auction right now, and the more the better. So....Please....if you have an item, a product, or a service that you would like to donate, you can do so here.... http://www.brendanovak.com/auction_index.php The item might be a
gift certificate or gift basket you put together, a ring, CD, Beanie Baby, ect. If you make crafts and sell them, maybe it's something you made, like a quilt, a necklace, or painting. If you make websites, maybe it's making a free web page, graphic, or banner or ect... If you are an agent or editor, maybe it's a critique. If you are a published writer, maybe it's a signed copy of your latest book or a critique. Since the auction is for readers, writers, and everyone else, if you've got something to donate there's probably someone willing to bid on it to help out with a good cause. (Smile) Hey, if you have big stuff, I'm sure that's fine too, like a laptop, ect... Big or little, it all adds up.

Thanks so much for your help!

My Son at the Zoo

2007-03-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

This is a picture I took of my son at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans where he works. I took it yesterday, the day we went with him so he could show us around. I'm sure it was just another day at work to him, although it was his day off, but I just had the best time there. Most of you know how much I love animals. So of course a day with wild ones was just the best. (Smile) I got to hand feed some of the animals, got a little look at some of the behind the scenes stuff, and just really felt like a special guest. Everyone was so nice to us and spoke so well of our son. The zoo is still in some disrepair and some animals are missing, thanks to hurricane Katrina, but there is still so much there to see. People are working every where too, putting in new plants, redoing exhibits that were ruined, getting ready even to add some new stuff. I was just really impressed. So, if you live close enough. on ever go on vacation to New Orleans, make sure you go to the Audubon Zoo. And if you see the guy in the picture working there, tell him hello. (Smile) Find out more about the zoo and even about how to help it recover, by visiting its home page here.... http://www.auduboninstitute.org/site/PageServer

Oh What a Ride

2007-02-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

We went to New Orleans today to the zoo. It should have been less than a two hour drive there and the same back. Instead, it took over three hours to get there because they were signing up people for a lawsuit and we had to go down that road to reach the zoo. It took us a whole hour to get down that one road.

When we left hours later to come home, we hoped that road would be cleared. They had moved people out into the middle of the road and were letting people in cars just pass by and hand over their lawsuit papers to be filed. Wish they had thought of that sooner.

We were so glad to be moving at a good speed, and then we hit another jam, this one seemed to be every where. We heard there was a crane over, and that another way there was a bad wreck. We ended up stuck in traffic again. In the end a ride that should have taken us a little over three hours there and back, took over six. Now I know why I love living in a small town. Okay, so we don't have a zoo, but all peaches have pits. (Smile)

The picture is of the Causeway Bridge we have to cross over to get to New Orleans. Ain't she a long one? We had already been on the bridge for a while when I snapped this picture. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest bridge in the world at 23 miles long. I think there's a longer one now, maybe a couple, but I think not in the US.

Goodbye Reba – Reba McEntire’s Sitcom Cancelled

2007-02-09T05:14:00.000-08:00

They say laughter is good for the soul--and for the body and mind. There are so few new shows on now days that give me that good laughter. One of my very favorites is the sitcom that stars well-known country singer Reba McEntire. The show is rightly titled Reba and centers around the main character Reba Hart who is a divorced mom of three. Her ex-husband Brock lives next door with his new wife Barbra Jean. Reba’s oldest daughter Cheyenne is married to Van and they have a baby. The young couple and child live with Reba along with a younger sister and brother.

Together all of these people are a modern day family and some how go through all of the ups and downs of life while making us laugh almost non-stop. I think a lot of that laughter comes from the characters of Barbra Jean and Van. They are both so dingy and funny and such endearing characters. Reba is just a down to earth show that the whole family can watch together and enjoy.

Sadly, even though Reba is one of the top rated sitcoms on the CW network it airs on, CW has decided to cancel the show without a warning to the show's many, many fans. There was still a contract in play, but no ends for the characters will be tied up, so some other shows could have at least be done to show fans how the characters will move on. The CW isn't going to do that though, they are just going to play the last three shows they have already recorded, and that’s that.

The actors wanted to stay around, but the CW spokesman said the show wasn’t aimed at the kind of audience they wanted to reach. Makes me wonder what kind of audience they do want? I would think any audience that moves a show high up in the all important ratings game on your network would be the kind of audience you would want to keep around and maybe even aim some new shows toward. Looks like not. Maybe that's why I've heard so many disappointed Reba fans say that when the last of Reba airs, that's the last they'll watch of the CW. I guess they feel there is no need to stay where they aren't wanted.

The final two episodes of Reba will air on the CW back to back on Sunday, February 18th starting at 7/6c. This show had so much more left to give. I would have at least have liked to seen them take the time to wrap up things, maybe have Reba find a new love and Cheyenne give birth to the new baby we just found out about. I wish another network would step in and take the show, saving it, but we all know that things like that don't usually happen. So...so long Reba. It sure was fun while it lasted.

All That Sex!

2007-02-08T08:44:00.001-08:00

There was a time when few novels, even romance novels, had much sex in them. There were many embraces and lots of panting and kissing and even some petting, but in a large percent of the books, when it went beyond that, the bedroom door closed and the scene broke off right there to leave the rest of the encounter to our own vivid imaginations.

By the time the new millennium rolled around, those bedroom doors were often being left wide open--if the impassioned couple even waited long enough to find a bedroom. Some authors began to feel pressured to write out those encounters in more and more detail when it became clear that a lot of the women who were buying romance novels were no longer satisfied with a closed-door policy.

I began to get messages from new authors who were working themselves into a tizzy of it all. “I can’t write sex scenes no matter how hard I try.” “What if my mother or one of the ladies from the church got the chance to read what I wrote?” “When I write sex scenes they read flat, with no sizzle at all. Kind of like directions on how to install a dishwasher.” “I write those hot scenes, but it’s like pulling teeth because I’m so uncomfortable about it.” ect…. All of them ended with a cry for help, a “What should I do?” or a “How do you write them?” or something along those lines.

The truth is, anytime you try to write something that you don’t want to write, that you don’t like, that you are uncomfortable with, it’s not going to work out as well as it should. It’s never going to be your strongest writing, the writing that will show off your real talent for story telling at its best. Just because there is a trend for publishers to buy paranormal romances or erotic romance or humorous romance, doesn’t mean you should try to pen one. You will do your best writing when you spend your time writing what you enjoy, or at least writing within your own comfort zone.

If you are comfortable writing it but fear what others will think of you, well, that can hold you back just as tightly. Maybe it would help to write under a pen name so you can put that worry away and write freely. Sadly, many people will read a book where six women are kidnapped, tortured and then hacked to pieces, with it all described in great gory detail, and not find any offence in it, but those same people will almost hyperventilate over an adult couple making love with it being described with any real details at all.

When you figure out what you are comfortable writing, then you’ll know just how much sex should be in your stories. Don’t forget there are romance publishers out there that still buy books with no sex in them at all and others with mild sex, or limited sex. Even in a pretty hot romance, sex is a very small part of the story. The romance is the sexual tension between two people who are falling in love, the tingle when his hand brushes hers, the way her heart races when he stares into her eyes, the way the scent of her perfume distracts him beyond reason, or the way his palms itch because he wants to touch her so badly. A story can vibrate with sexual tension without one sex scene.

What We Do For Our Pets

2007-01-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

My dog Bugsy has seizures. I've talked about him and them here before. Yesterday it was time to go buy more meds for him from the vet. Two bottles, enough to last less than six months, is almost 150 bucks. Then there is the blood work, the ER trips in the middle of the night if he has a bad one that won't stop with the meds I have here--thankfully those are very few and far between, maybe once a year. In fact, knock on wood, it's been over a year since we had to call the vet out after hours for him. I had to call a couple of weeks ago about two in the morning, but by the time I got her on the phone, the seizure stopped. She talked to me a few minutes, waiting to see if it would start back, but it didn't. I felt awful for waking her, but she was really nice about it. Phone calls are free. Even at two AM. (Smile)

Still... I know even the cost of his meds and yearly tests are a whole lot of money to us and to most people, but hey, what else is plastic for? (Smile)

Hubby went with me to the vet to get Bugsy's meds this time. On the way he mentioned that he had told a friend where we were going and what the meds cost. The friend said he would "take that dog out in the woods and shoot it before he would spend that kind of money on it. That it was just a waste and the animal would be best put out of his misery."

Bugsy isn't in any misery, I can promise you that, as long as he doesn't miss his meds and gets them every day, he only has a seizure once in a while...sometimes none for months, and he is perfectly healthy and happy the rest of the time. Well loved and spoiled. I make sure he's almost never left alone, and if he is I try to make sure it's never for more than an hour at a time, just in case he has a seizure. If he has one, it usually takes a dose of extra meds to bring him out, sometimes a shot, so he has to be watched. If anyone is being inconvenienced, it's me, and I don't really mind.

The only other option is to simply take him to the vet and have him put to sleep. If he was sick and couldn't get better and suffering, I could understand. But I can't look into those lovely brown eyes and tell them to kill him over money. I guess I just don't see why others can't understand that. It's not just hubby's friend, I've had friends, even family, tell me almost the same thing. People say I'm nuts to put out money like that, and to tie myself down for a stray, a mutt. It used to hurt my feelings, but it's got where it makes me angry instead. Maybe I shouldn't feel either. I guess we all say things without thinking sometimes. Maybe if they don't have a pet, they just can't understand? Of course some of these people have pets, so I don't know. Guess I just wanted to vent. (Smile)

Time for Friends

2007-01-22T18:47:00.000-08:00

Remember when you were in your teens, even in your early twenties, (if that's now, then this is for later, when you are older) and your friends were such a big part of your life? They were actually in your life, daily. You visited in person, talked on the phone, or later, even shared e-mail messages. Pen pals shared letters, yes paper and pen letters, at least every couple of weeks and sometimes maybe even a phone call.

As the years went by, there were jobs, children, and endless responsibilities that seemed to strangle out a lot of that friend time. If you had time, she didn't, that kind of thing.

Lots of once dear friends slipped through the cracks and faded away. Others hung around but were a mere wisp of smoke compared to what they had been in your life. Those daily communication became every other day, then a couple times a week, then weekly, and then a couple times a month, and before you knew it or how it had happened, sometimes you went a month or two or more without a word, sometimes even much longer.

I had the pleasure of hearing from two of those lost friends this week. One that I used to share e-mails with pretty regularly, and one who was a pen and paper pen pal of mine for years.

The e-mail friend is one of those wisps of smoke. I know she's still there. We share a very rare e-mail message with each other now again when something big or bad happens in our lives. We even exchange Christmas cards, but that's about it. Well, she called me this week and suddenly there she was in my life again, the wisp of smoke blew away and there was flesh and blood, a voice that came through a phone line. There was laughter and memories, some good and some not, but it was comfortable and familiar and felt like it should.

The pen pal friend, she was one of those who slipped through the cracks. I haven't heard from her in years and years. Suddenly a message popped into my in box from her. She had found my website and my contact link. It was so great to hear from her again after so long. She promised to write back and fill me in on all of the changes in her life, and I can't wait to hear them all. I have a few of my own to share. Like I said above, it felt comfortable and familiar to read her words. (I even got a surprise Christmas card from another old pen pal I hadn't heard from in years, so maybe this is the year of friends refinding each other. Smile)

Funny, though friendship transforms are weakens and rebuilds, if it was a real friendship, it never really completely fades away. If you were a real friend, you are still a wisp of smoke in that person's life. So how about reaching out and becoming flesh and blood again? You might not have the time to keep in touch as often as you once did, but you could keep the line of friendship open, and maybe in a lot of years, when you are both old and gray and have plenty of time on your hands, that old friendship will become again what it once was. You'll never know unless you reach out and try.

VOTE for RWC & My Site for Writers

2007-01-11T18:19:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Both my site for writers and my on-line group for writers are up in a poll for favorites. If you like either one, please take a moment to pop over and vote for one or both.

My site is listed under the section titled Writers' Resource/Information/News Source. You can get to it here http://www.critters.org/predpoll/writerinfo.shtml
My sites listing is Resources for Romance Writers (Charlotte Dillon's) http://www.charlottedillon.com/WritingRomance.html

My on-line group for romance writers is listed under the section titled Writers' Discussion Forum. You can get to that page here http://www.critters.org/predpoll/writerforum.shtml My group listed is RWC (Romance Writer's Community) http://www.charlottedillon.com/RWC.html

Don't worry about giving your e-mail address to vote. They just do that to make sure that each person only gets one vote per section. They run this poll every year and no one has ever had any trouble with it or them. It's an on the up and up thing. Smile.

Thanks so much for your vote! Or just for popping by if you didn't vote.

2007 Already?

2007-01-11T09:55:00.000-08:00

My, but how time does fly. Before we know it, it'll be 2008.

Most of us start the new year of with a list of goals we hope to accomplish or do better at over the next twelve months. Often, those good intentions last about as long as I am tall...and that ain't very long. Smile

So, since we know 2008 will be here in a few breaths, what goals have you set that are really important to you? By important I mean they will improve your happiness and your health. Haven't done 'em yet? Well, go ahead. I'll wait.

Okay, all done? Good.

I bet there are a lot of the same goals on your list from the year before, and you didn't accomplish them or follow through. So, now, what can you do different this year to come out a little better? Maybe knock some of those goals off. Stick with the most important ones. Maybe that's to lose weight, stop smoking, spend more time with your kids, plant butt in chair and actually write every day, ect....

Got just the most important ones left? You sure? Not too many now, and not too big. Then as I was saying... If you need to lose weight, don't set a goal of five pounds a week. And if you have only been writing maybe a couple of hours each weekend, if even that often, don't swear you'll do five pages a day, seven days a week.

Okay, now we have important goals and we have realistic ones.

You're off to a better start already. Let's go slow though. If your goal is to write more, add only a little more writing time each day, or a couple more days each week, then add more when that becomes a habit. The same with losing weight. Start walking thirty minutes at least three times a week, then move up to five times, then maybe up to an hour some of those times. Cut out your bedtime snack, don't get seconds at meal time, put more green beans on your plate and less rice and gravy and then pass on the roll.

Don't set big goals and then go for broke, because you'll probably be what breaks.

Best of luck during 2007 with all of your goals, wishes and dreams!

Sugar, Sugar Every Where! What's a Diabetic to Do!

2007-01-02T16:51:00.000-08:00

Well, not just sugar, but anything that turns into sugar after you eat it. You know, bread, potatoes, pasta, ect... This time of year is the worst. I've been trying so hard to make it through Thanksgiving and Christmas and now New Years, and still keep my blood sugar counts under control, but I'm not doing so well. Even though I'm trying to watch what I eat, it seems any simple carbs at all just spikes my blood sugar. This time of year with all the extra good food and sweets around, it's just awful. Now I'm feeling all depressed because everyone else had cornbread with supper and I didn't dare, and they'll be having cake, and my blood sugar is already over 200, so I don't dare.

I've had a weight problem all my life, which means I've had a food problem. Food has been my friend and my comfort. In my family food was what we mourned with, celebrated with, and did everything in between with. Suddenly my friend and comfort, which I still crave badly now since I'm depressed and upset, is my enemy. It's a hard blow, and one I understand in my mind, but it's not helping me accept things or deal with the way I feel right now.

I've had food battles all of my life. I went on my first diet when I was eight. Thanks to the battling, I've managed to keep my weight under two hundred, but I'm still too often about fifty pounds over my idea weight. The food battle has moved to a new level now. If I give in, not only will I fear the scales moving up, but I could actually end up at the ER, or even dead. That's what's moved the battle to the front lines, to this take-no-prisoners point, and me to the point where I want to just wave the white flag and give up already.

If you aren't a diabetic yet, but have a weight problem, please take a stand and start the battle now. You might never have to deal with being a diabetic if you take care of your health now. Believe me, you don't want to be here if you can help it. If you take care of your health, even if you become a diabetic, maybe it'll happen at fifty instead of forty, or maybe even sixty instead of fifty. My father was diagnosed in his early thirties. With my long spells of working out and keeping my weight down closer to normal, I put it off for almost ten years longer than he did. He took two shots a day, and so far I'm only on pills.

Believe me, I know it's no fun to diet, but it's so much easier to do when a bowl of low-cal fruit isn't going to push your blood sugar up, or even a bowl of Special K, or a baked potato. Pick your battles, pick your stand, and fight now, while you can still fight on your own terms instead of on the terms of a deadly disease. I know I wish I had fought harder. If I had only had one of those darn crystal balls. (Consider me your crystal ball.)

Mastectomy Hospital Bill in Congress

2006-12-29T19:18:00.000-08:00

The below was sent to me a few minutes ago and I wanted to pass it on.

If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery. It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important...please take the time and do it really quick!

Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill - Important legislation for all women. Please send this to everyone in your address book. If there was ever a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those times. If you're receiving this, it's because I think you will take the 30 seconds to go to vote on this issue and send it on to others you know who will do the same. There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the "drive-through mastectomy" where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on. PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below. You need not give more than your name and zip code number. http://www.lifetimetv.com/health/breast_mastectomy_pledge.html This takes about 2 seconds.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON to your friends and family, and on behalf of all women.

A Case of Nerves

2006-12-29T14:09:00.001-08:00

I guess it never gets any better. Every time I send something out to a publisher, I get nervous. I double check and triple check, then I'm still sure I missed something or forgot something or did something wrong. I entered the Harlequin Great American Romance Contest. You only had to send in the first chapter and a short synopsis, but I still got my normal case of nerves. (Smile)

The judges are HQ editors and the rules say that the potential winners will be picked by Feb. 8th and then notified by mail. Maybe even if I don't win or place, the story I sent will be strong enough to earn a request for a complete. That would be good enough for me. (Smile)

To anyone else who entered, best of luck! Even if we get no where, it was a free contest, the postage wasn't bad, and we at least gave it a try.

Happy Holidays and a Great New Years!

2006-12-29T14:03:00.000-08:00

I didn't get a chance to post a holiday wish before Christmas, but better late than never. (Smile) And since I'm here, and it's almost the last day of the year, here's wishing you all a wonderful 2007! May all your dreams come true and you find no need for tears for the whole of the year!

Enter My Latest Contest

2006-11-28T05:48:00.000-08:00

Time's almost up. The drawing is on November 30th...that's only two days away.

The prize is a fifteen dollar Amazon.com gift certificate. Just in time for X-mas shopping. (Smile)

All you have to do to be entered in the random drawing is to sign up for my free newsletter. You can find info about the newsletter and contest here... http://www.charlottedillon.com/Newsletter.html You can also join by simply sending a blank e-mail message to CharlotteDillon-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Once you subscribe to the newsletter, you are automatically entered in all other contests' drawings as long as you stay a member.

Best of luck to everyone!

Happy Turkey Day!

2006-11-23T05:06:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to take a moment to wish y'all a very happy Thanksgiving. I hope you get to spend the day with those you love around you, with a warm roof over your head, and plenty of good food and fun.

I know all of you aren't in the US, but the same wish can go for you as well, just leave the happy Thanksgiving part out. (Smile)

Hugs,
Charlotte

Agent Kristin Nelson Workshop

2006-11-15T11:45:00.000-08:00

Agent Kristin Nelson is doing a free workshop hosted at my RWC group. So, if you are a romance writer and want to take part, hurry up. (Smile)

To join, send a blank message to RWClist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

There will be other workshops and Q&As coming up over the next year, all free for RWC members. By the by, RWC is free too. (Smile)

If you are a romance reader, I haven't forgotten about you. That's why there's the RRC group for readers. There will be some really good romance authors doing short Q&As there over the next year too. RRC is also a free group, and the guest authors will often be giving away prizes. To join RRC send a blank message to RRClist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Oh, and yes, authors are as welcome at RRC as they are over on RWC. (Smile)

E-Mail Trouble again

2006-11-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

This time the trouble isn't mine. It's Yahoo. If you use Yahoo for mail -- not Yahoo Group mail but Yahoo personal mail -- and you sent me a message and you are still waiting to hear from me, it's not me. I can't reach any Yahoo e-mail address. It seems Yahoo mail is blocking my ISP, BellSouth. I don't know why, but every time I try to send mail to any Yahoo address, BellSouth tries for three days, and then finally has to bounce it back to me. So, if you have sent me a message from a Yahoo address and are now wondering why I never sent you a reply, please send me another message and include a different e-mail address where I can reach you and I'll be happy to reply right away.

By the way, if you are using a Yahoo address and you are waiting for other messages that should have come but haven't, other servers might be blocked too, so you might want to contact anyone you were expecting to hear from who uses not only a BellSouth address, but others also, and just let them know you haven't heard from them and give them a second e-mail address that isn't a Yahoo one where they can reach you at.

My Desk is Under There

2006-11-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

At least I think my desk is under there. The computer is sitting on something. But there are so many papers and odds and ends on my desk, maybe they are just what's holding the computer up.

I don't know how the top of my desk gets so messed up. I swear I just keep the things near to hand that I need the most often. Okay, maybe there are a few things that I don't need that often, but I do intend to get to them soon, so might as well keep them close.

Even notice there are a number of places in your home that seem to be the perfect catch all? I think every home has at least one, either the kitchen table, a coffee table, a counter top, and end table, ect... I guess my desk is just the catch all in my office.

Since I've had to shuffle and dig to find three things already today, maybe it's time to take a computer break and see if I can clear things out some.

Now let's see...where can I move things to? I hear the second catch all spot calling to me, and since I did just clear it off yesterday, no need to let all of that room go to waste. (Smile)

Reading Glasses

2006-11-02T12:25:00.000-08:00

I finally gave in and admitted I needed glasses. A few months back I went to the eye doctor, and a couple of days later, I had my glasses. He said I only needed them for reading. I will admit I spend lots of hours a day either writing or reading, so I guess my eyes deserve a break since I am mumblemumble years old.

I thought reading glasses wouldn't be bad at all. I wouldn't have to wear them all the time. Reading glasses were surely better than the kind you have to wear from the moment you wake up until you go to bed.

WRONG!

They are awful!

I'm one of those people who usually has five things in the fire at the same time, so I'm almost never just sitting here writing or doing e-mail. I keep the TV in the room going and glance up to watch what ever, especially if I'm doing e-mail or working on my website. I have my desk in kind of a center spot in the house, so from where I sit I can see into the kitchen, into the living room, and even into my daughter's bedroom a little. Family members pop through and ask me this or tell me that, dogs come up wanting in and out, I lean forward a little and glance into the kitchen to see if I really did cook the flame out from under supper, ect... The same thing happens if I'm reading a book or doing paperwork or paying bills.

Well, with reading glasses, it turns out doing other things at the same time isn't as easy as it used to be. As long as I'm looking right at what I'm writing or reading, all is great with the world and my eyes hurt so much less. But...if I have to look up to see who is coming in the door, or to talk to someone, or even to see what one of the dogs is doing, or what's happening on TV, it's a whole other story. While the words look fine, looking any further away that a foot, means every thing just blurs out of focus, so every single time I look away from my papers, computer, or book, I have to lower my glasses. In my situation, that can be every couple of minutes sometimes. That means instead of typing on or trying to read on, I have to completely stop, lower or remove my glasses to see who or what I want to see, then when done, put the glasses back in place. Talk about slowing me down. I think it will be better when I just move up to the kind you have to wear all day. At least I'll be able to put them on and leave 'em there until I'm done with my eyes for the day. (Smile)

Update on My Book

2006-10-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

I heard from my agent yesterday. The pitch worked. (Smile) My non-fiction book is with the editors at Random House Reference. Now it's time for more waiting. Keep those body parts crossed a little longer. (Smile)

VACATIO*N

2006-10-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

I can hear that old song playing in my mind. The one where you spell out the word vacation. (Smile) That's because I'm on vacation this week. That means I'm doing only a little e-mail and leaving most things until next week. So....if you sent me a message and haven't gotten a reply, just hang on. I'm going to jump into my in box starting Monday morning and catch up with everyone. (Smile)

The Race

2006-10-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

That's hubby finishing the 5K run this morning. He came in 4th in his age division, 11th over all. Not bad. He finished in 25 minutes and 30 seconds. It was only his second race, so he was really happy with his time and his placement.

He missed getting 3rd by only about 40 seconds. He actually had a bus thing pull in front of him on the road and had to stop and go around it, and then just before he made it back to the fair grounds he had to go around some people, or he might have cut off some if not all of that extra 40 seconds. We were still proud of him. (Smile)

It's fair time.

2006-10-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

This time of year, every year, there's a big country fair near where I live. We start going to it when we are babies, and when we grow up, we take our babies. I don't have any babies to take this year, but I'm going. (Smile)

My husband, our daughter, our son and our daughter-in-law will be going with us. The first thing we are going to do there tomorrow is support hubby. He has signed up to the 5K. This will only be his second race--don't have them often around here. He's trained so hard though, so we are really hoping the best for him.

After the race, and hubby has some time to catch his breath, we are going to jump right into the fun. I like to go through the section where they have old log cabins and other log buildings, make soap and cracklings and cornmeal and fresh sugarcane syrup.

Then we are going to go see all the farm animals, then go through and see which quilts and cakes and jams got the blue ribbons. There are a few other things to look at and do, including the rodeo and all of the rides, and all of the food booths. They have normal things like ice cream, funnel cakes and burgers, but they also have alligator gumbo and hot pigskins and lots of other fun stuff that taste great but is oh so bad for you. (Smile)

Don't worry, I'm going to be good. I've lost nine pounds so far, and my blood sugar is doing better, so I'm not going to ruin all of that hard work with a funnel cake, no matter how badly I'd love to have one.

Thanks & No Mail For Me

2006-10-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

First, I want to thank everyone for all the good luck wishes I got, and all of those crossed body parts. It was so nice to open my e-mail program yesterday and see all of those wonderful messages. That goes for those you posted here or sent through the contact form on my site as well.

Which brings me to today's problem. (Smile) My e-mail has been down since last night. I can actually get on line, and get to my on line e-mail program, but that's not the normal e-mail address I use. It's a big outage here, so my normal e-mail address might not work for a couple of days or so. That means if you sent me anything after yesterday evening, I haven't gotten it. That goes for my normal BellSouth address, the contact form on my website, and even all of the group owner addresses for RWC. I'm hoping I'll get all of those messages when things get back up and working. Hope! Hope! For now though, if you need or want to reach me, please use this address charlotte@charlottedillon.com You can find it on my site, www.charlottedillon.com, on the contact page, but don't use the form. Look below that contact form and you will see a link you can use by clicking on it. That's for the other address, the charlotte@charlottedillon.com

Thanks again for all of the congrats and the so sweet wishes! It's amazing to me how many of you seem to be cheering for me and wishing me only good things.

Good News!

2006-10-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have good news to share! (Smile)

Not only have I signed with an agent but she will be pitching my non-fction book for romance writers to some editors in New York next week.

Please cross those fingers and toes and send prayers and white light and what ever you got, that one of those editors just falls in love with my book. (Smile)

A Big Change

2006-10-09T16:50:00.000-07:00

Other than the website, I've made another huge change in my life in the last couple of weeks. For the last nearly six years I've spent most of every day running the RWC groups for other romance writers. That means approving messages and members, moderating each messages, sending out reminders, sending out talk prompts, writing prompts, writing challenges, and so on, seven days a week from usually before five in the morning until at least nine at night.

At first it wasn't that big of a deal, but the little group I started and hoped to see maybe have fifty or even a hundred members one day, now has almost 1,600, and that's on the main RWC group alone. There are ten RWC groups in all, and since people can belong to any they wish and not any they don’t wish, there's no way of knowing how many RWC members there are in total.

With ten groups and so many members, it has become a draining job over the last three years or so. I finally had no choice but to either close down the groups, are yell for help, and lots of it. There are now about sixteen of us doing what I had been handling all along. I've removed myself from a lot of duties, or at least will as soon as everyone has their sea legs---moderator legs that is. (Smile.)

I've really enjoyed helping so many people with their writing, but I've been short-changing my own writing for too long now. I realized I'm not getting any younger and I've been pushing my own dreams to the back burner and then to the back of that burner even. I either have little time to write, or will to write by the time I take care of every thing and maybe get my head bit off a few times for sending someone a reminder when they broke a rule. In the end, most days I just never make it to my own writing.

I've been through this before because of a sick parent or major health issues of my own, and even because of a hurricane, but those things we have no control over. This is something I do have control over, so it's just silly for me to let more time slip away when others are willing to help me with the groups so it's not too much on any one person. The groups can only become better from the extra time and energy these members bring with them, and time to take care of myself and work toward my own dream can only make me a better person. I think this is a win/win situation for everyone involved.

After I get all of the moderators and helpers doing their thing, I'm going to take a couple of weeks off to get myself together, and then we'll see if I'm willing to put as much effort into my writing as I've poured into RWC. It's easy to talk the talk, but hard to apply butt to chair, fingers to keyboard, and actually keep writing even when you don't feel good, you've gotten a rejection, or the story is just giving you a hard time.

By the way, did you notice my new site is now centered around my author page instead of my writing info pages for other writers? Don't worry, all the same info is still there, it's just that now the home page is my author site and to get to the writing info there is a link on that site to click on. It's my way of saying to the world that my writing is going to come first for a change.

Stayed tuned. (Smile.)

I Hate Needles

2006-10-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know this sounds like a big baby complaint...but diabetic or not...me and needles don't mix. At all. (Smile) I don't have a normal fear of them. I have a full blown phobia. I was in labor for a couple of days and wouldn't take a pain shot. Had surgery and wouldn't take a pain shot afterwards, so I had nothing for pain for hours because the doctor didn't have pain pills in my paper work. I thought I was honestly having a heart attack one day, and didn't go to the ER for hours because I was more afraid of a needle than of the heart attack. See, not just normal dislike of shots. (Smile)

I have to test my blood sugar levels at home, but I was so upset when I first started, for months. It doesn't even hurt really, since I can do it in my arm instead of my finger tips, but it's still a needle. My saving grace with that I think is that it's that little pin like thing. You just put it against your skin, push the button, and the sticks done. So you don't actually see the needle or have to see the stick...and like I said, it doesn't even really hurt. Most times I don't even know I've done it. I'm trying really hard to eat right and work out so I don't need daily shots. That would not be a good thing for me. (Smile)

All of the above explains why I'm doing every thing I can for my Trigger Finger to avoid a shot.

A New Look

2006-10-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

Notice something different? (Smile) I've updated my website, and the blog's background now matches it. I think it looks pretty good. It did mess up the text of old posts some how. Guess I'll have to try and go in and edit each one over time.

I'm not finished with my website yet. Still have some pages left to do, and some of the links aren't working yet. But when you get a chance check it out and let me know what you think of the new look. I like it so much better. I kind of already miss the opening Charlotte's Web page, but so many people told me I should use my author page as my home page, and then let people go to the writing side or reading side from there. I finally had to agree with them. (Smile)

www.charlottedillon.com

Health Warning for Writers...

2006-09-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

...Or for anyone who spends a lot of time on the computer.

I've spent years on the computer, and years before that with pen and paper or on my old Brother Word Processor. In between I drew and painted.

Needless to say, my wrists and hands have paid the price. I've had CT, corporal tunnel, for years and now I have a new little problem that's turning out to be a bigger one than the CT. It's known by most of us non-doctor types as something simply called Trigger Finger. It is in my ring finger on my right hand.

At first it started as just a little catch, a little ache at times. Then it got where I could reach and grab something small and the middle knuckle on that ring finger would lock up, kind of feel like it slipped out of joint when the hand closed into a tight fist. I could stretch the hand back open and I would feel the finger snap free, --where the name Trigger Finger comes from-- like the knuckle popped back into place or something, and the finger would open and be fine. It did hurt when it did it, but not bad. I was sure I must have just jammed my finger or hurt it in some other way. I was spending a whole lot of time on the computer then, even more time than normal. I have my RWC groups to deal with daily, my website, other e-mail, I was finishing up that non-fiction manuscript to send in and went right from it to trying to rewrite one of my romance novels. I was spending more times scrolling with the mouse sometimes than typing.

Then it got worse. The finger would lock up even when I wasn't making a tight fist. Instead of happening a couple of times a day, it began to happen four or five, then seven or eight. Then I started waking up at night with my finger hurting and realized it was locked and I'd have to make it open. It was starting to get where I couldn’t stretch the hand open and free up the finger sometimes. I was having to actually straighten the finger out with my other hand. Most of my hand was beginning to hurt more often now, kind of even felt sore. I wondered if maybe this was some new part of my CT from all the extra long hours on the computer. I finally asked on line. I got a few very quick replies from people with the same problem. Within minutes I had the name Trigger Finger. I did a little research on line...which hurt like H E double L since my right hand is my mouse hand and using the mouse had gotten almost too painful to even do by that point.

I learned from my searching that Trigger Finger had to be caught quickly and treated early, before the finger started staying locked. If not, it can lock in a closed position and stay that way. Surgery is often needed, especially if it isn't caught soon. I also found out that diabetics, which I am one of, are at a greater risk of getting both Trigger Finger and Corporal Tunnel, and both are harder to treat in a diabetic. A cortisone shot in the hand can help, but often doesn't.

If you catch it soon, take it easy on the hand, use ice, stretch the fingers, get help early, you might never really have a problem at all. Of course I let mine go way too long because I had never even heard of something called Trigger Finger. I'm hoping the right people will see this post and if it starts happening to them, they will know what it is right away and be able to take care of things before they get in the shape I'm in.

I'm still trying to use ice often, I have a splint for the finger, I've switched to one of the keyboards that's supposed to be better for people with CT, and I'm now using a touch pad instead of a mouse, but so far nothing is helping much. I'm really limiting my computer time and other things that hurt a lot, like pealing and cutting up stuff, or even stirring thing--limiting as much as I can anyway. I'm hoping something will help, but I guess only time will tell.

Picture of New Pup

2006-08-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

I told y'all the other day about our newest dog. We've named him Kane and this is a picture of him. Getting one wasn't easy. He is never still. (Smile) By the time I would get ready to snap the picture, and actually have him looking my way, or being still, he was off and gone again. My husband finally got him part-way into his lap and I snapped this one quick. I think it was the best of the ones I got.

I'm not sure how old he is, but he's still a puppy and as you can tell by the size of that front paw, he's going to be a BIG dog one day. Right now he jumps on everyone and bites and chews everything, but he is a baby. (Smile)

Waiting and Waiting...

2006-08-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

It has been almost eight weeks since I mailed off my completed non-fiction manuscript, along with what I hope was a detailed and well-done proposal. The agent's site says to allow six to eight weeks, along with mailing time, to get a response.

I hope that means I will be hearing something one way or another soon. I've never been really good at waiting. (Smile)

Good news or bad news, I'll be posting the news here the day I get it.

A New Dog

2006-08-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

When I lost my dog Red a few months ago, I swore I wasn't going to get another dog. After all, we have seven--SEVEN--so we didn't need eight. I've seen strays, had people try to give me dogs, and even saw one stray that looked like Red that really pulled my heart strings. Through it all, I stood strong. No more dogs!

Until a couple of days ago. (Smile)

My husband and I had gone to Wal-Mart to get some things, including dog chews and dog food. We had two bags of dog food so one was in the buggy and the other was under it. A stray dog, a puppy really, came up to us just outside the store and began to follow us. I fastened my eyes straight ahead and refused to even look at the puppy.

Before we reached the truck he had got ahead of the buggy and was smelling the bag of dog food under it. A few more steps and he was biting at the corner of the bag, trying to tear it open to get at the food. We kept going.

When we reached the truck he stopped too, then went to work whole-heartenedly on the paper bag of kibble. I had those chews in the buggy, so I tore the bag open and tossed the poor pup one. He grabbed it up happily while my husband--who could no doubt see the danger of where this could go--rushed to get our stuff into the truck.

The puppy only gave the chew a few seconds before he decided correctly that it was a hide chew and not real food. With determination he turned his attention back to the bag of dog food under the buggy.

With my heart breaking, I told my husband to open the bad and pour the puppy some food out. Of course then I was afraid someone might hit him with a car if he were standing there in the parking lot eating and maybe not moving because he didn’t want to leave the food, so we decided against pouring out some food for the pup.

My husband tried to put that last bag of food into the truck and the puppy tried to follow it into the truck. I just couldn't stand it.

To make a long story short. We left with our stuff and one puppy in the truck. He's keeping Clover, Red's friend, company in the big back and side yard. He's eating a lot, loves to play, and I think is going to be a huge dog in a very short time. Clover is so happy to have a playmate again, since the other dogs are all inside dogs and he only spends time with them when they go out or I let him in for a little while. The new pup's name is Kane. He looks like he has a number of breeds in him, including maybe some pit bull and boxer. I'm not so happy about having a puppy again. They chew on everything. (Smile) And yet he already feels like part of the family.

The Limbs are Down

2006-08-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

I know it looks like a whole tree, but that's the limb that was holding on by a splinter to the big oak you see a glimpse of standing beside it. In this picture the smaller limb is still up. You can see it leaning against the backside of the oak. Hubby decided if we waited for the city to come take care of it, the thing would either end up on one of our pets, one of us, the truck, the house, or something else that wouldn't be good, depending on which way it headed when it came down.

I'll admit I wasn't happy about him trying to get it down. A man he worked with was killed after Katrina, trying to get down a leaning tree. That limb my husband got down this evening was about as big as a tree. I sat inside, my stomach in knots, through the hour or more it took him and our son to get that biggest one on the ground. Even inside the house with the doors shut and the AC on, I heard the thud when it finally gave way and landed in the drive with a crash. The sad thing is, there are other huge badly damaged limbs up in that tree. I know it's only a matter of time before they too snap and come down.

My husband and son are still out there in the dark, as I write this, trying to cut the limbs up and get them out of the way so they can put the fence back up. Both have to leave for work before daylight in the morning.

But what are you going to do with men?

Excuse the Fit, but I'm Throwing One!

2006-08-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

This was taken in my back yard. Not in August of 2005 after Katrina, but today, August 6, 2006.

Under that huge broken oak limb that’s hanging by a splitter from the trunk of that even bigger oak tree, is my husband's gas grill, charcoal grill, a patio chair, and a number of my plants and flower pots. The biggest part of the limb is still stuck against the trunk, but when it comes down, and it will, it's crashing through my chain link fence. (It would probably get the truck too, buy my husband parked it across the street and is leaving it there until the limb is gone.)

If I hadn't been so angry, I think I would have just sat right down in the middle of the new mess and cried. I tried to get that tree with its spilt limbs taken down. Or even just the limbs taken out. It’s a big, big oak tree, and I never wanted to see it go, but Katrina just got the best of it. The limbs, like the two that came down today, have spilt-off hunks missing from them.

After I signed papers, FEMA came out and looked, took down two small pieces of limbs, had their tree expert agree the tree needed to come down, and then they refused to do it. Said it was really on city property and a city (Bogalusa, Louisiana) problem. I told the FEMA tree expert that those splintered limbs couldn't hold their weight up there, and they were going to come down on my property no matter who the tree belonged to. He said they would come down, some year. (He said that only weeks ago.) They were supposed to be taking down any trees or limbs that were leaning or a danger to homes.

Well, that the tree is on city property, I know that, and it is all fine and good I guess, but the corner of my house, my truck, my yard, my fence, and other things like my plants, don’t belong to the city of Bogalusa, and those things, my family’s things, are what’s going to get crushed when those big limbs come down. Like today. (It would cost hundreds for me to pay someone to come take it down for me. It's a city tree and they should pay to have it removed if FEMA says it's their problem.)

The city of course isn't going to touch the tree--I'll bet you. The tree on the other side of my driveway is a hollow oak and has a big dead limb that sticks out over the driveway, over my car. (My new car that I had to buy because I couldn’t leave my other car parked in my own driveway because I thought during Katrina that hollow tree would come down on it. I had to move it to protect it. Well, the tree actually stood, but the lower land spot beside my house where I moved the car to, flooded so badly that my car was totaled.)

That tree has been sick and hollow for many years. The city of Bogalusa marked it after I complained, and said they would take it down. That was some where around fifteen years ago. My mother's been gone for eleven, and it was years before she died. They've marked it a couple of other times over the years, after I've fussed again, and all that's happened is the paint mark has worn off with time. That tree and the one that lost the limb today, were both marked to be cut after Katrina. But that didn't happen then either. Seems FEMA was ticked at the city for having to take down trees on city property that the city should have handled, and I guess the city was ticked at FEMA for leaving a lot of those trees for the city to take care of later.

And guess who is paying the price for their battle?

Sorry for the little fit, but sometimes you just gotta scream or you'll just blow up.

Sometimes all it Takes is...

2006-07-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

...a Big Fat Zero.

No, really. I started doing this for my workouts. I hate to workout, but know I need to. So, in an effort to get myself to do it more often, I took a notebook and drew out three columns on the page. In the first I put the date, in the next I put my weight, and in the last I put how many minutes I work out for the day. I soon found that having to draw a big 'ol round zero in that column was something I didn't like to do. I also don't like looking back at the page and seeing too many zeros in a row or even scattered about. I'm still not working out as much as I should, but I'm working out more often, just to keep from having to add another zero. (Smile)

So, why can't the same idea work for your writing? No reason that I can think of. If you have been having a hard time writing and just skipping too many days, grab a notebook—doesn't have to be fancy, just what ever's around—and draw lines down the page to make three columns. Put the date in the first, what kind of writing in the second, and the amount in the last.

Date, I don't need to explain. What kind of writing, well, you can just put the word Type, and then when you fill in that column use words like rewriting, editing, new writing, ect... Make that middle column the biggest so you have a little room if you like. You can even add things like promo, research, or such, depending on what you did that day. The last column is for the amount. You can put hours if it was research or promo or even a workshop you did on writing for income or promo, and for the actual writing you can put a word count, the hours, or the pages. Since it's your record, you can set it up to cover what and how you want.

The hope is though, if you start noticing days in a row where there is only a line of zeros, you'll try to make them appear less often, which means your writing will increase. (Smile)

Wish Me Luck

2006-06-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

And cross your fingers too. (Smile) I've been working on a non-fiction book for writers to help them, what else, but write. An agent who handles such non-fiction books looked over some of it and asked for the complete. I mailed it out today after spending the last few days getting it polished and ready to go. Now all I can do is wait.

Found Missing Gril

2006-06-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

The missing gril I wrote about in my last post has been found. :-) She isn't home yet, but an aunt and uncle who weren't too far from where she was found, picked her up and in a couple of days she will be back home.

Help Find Missing Girl!

2006-06-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

One of the ladies on my e-mail group has a daughter who has been missing for over 12 hours as I write this. This lady has her daughter's picture up and information about her on a website. I have added the link to it below. Please take a moment to look and to pass the link on.

I know this lady. She has been a member of the RWC group a very long time, so this is no joke.

http://www.marjoriejones.com/staci/missingx.html

Rewrite Without Fear

2006-06-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

I've put the manuscript aside that I've been working on, or trying to work on. The short story starter helped me accomplish a lot, but I think I'm still caught up in that sagging, dragging middle blues. In other words, I just felt like I needed a break from it, and maybe another long story would move along better for me right now. Instead of allowing myself to start something new, I decided the best use of my time would be to work on a finished story I have that I really like, but that could use some touch ups--some kind of big ones.

Each time I opened the file and started to make those deep changes I had in mind, I froze up. I finally realized I was fixating on all of the hard work I had already put in on that manuscript, and how it would be lost if I deleted big sections of it, reworked the story, and found it had worked better the way it was to start with.

I don't know why I hadn’t thought of this before, but suddenly I thought of a way to set myself free from that fear. It was so easy that it was just a duh moment. (Smile)

I simply copied and pasted the whole manuscript into a new Word file, renamed it so I knew which copy was which, and pulled out the word hatchet. I could delete, add, move around, or what ever else I wanted to do with the story with complete freedom without any worry of what was lost or messed up.

With that freedom I've made some big changes to the plot, to one of the main characters, and even added a few other characters. I’ve only reworked the first few chapters so far, but I don't think I'm going to need to go back to the old copy. I have a feeling the story is coming out much stronger in its new reincarnation.

So the next time you aren't happy with a story and you think it needs some deep cutting and some major reworking, free yourself to play around with it without fear. Make another copy and just let yourself go. You might come up with almost a totally new story, and one that is so much more interesting than the original. You don’t have anything to lose if you give it a try.

Win Four Free Books

2006-06-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

One of the e-mail groups I own and run is RRC. All the other groups are for writers, but this one is for romance readers....though writers are also welcome.

RRC is holding its first RRC Summer Read contest. I've lined up four wonderful authors who are willing to put up prizes--each author is offering one of her books. In fact, I had more than four authors offer books, so I did a kind of random pick to line up the first four for this first contest. There will be another contest later, maybe even more than one. :-)

The first four books are....

Dance of Desire
by Catherine Kean
www.catherinekean.com

The Prey
by Allison Brennan
www.allisonbrennan.com

Rawhide Surrender
by Elysa Hendricks
www.geminimoon.org/

Virtually Yours
by Crystal Inman
http://chryswriter.tripod.com

It's really easy to enter the RRC Summer Read contest. All you have to do is belong to RRC. To join, send a blank message to RRClist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or visit the group page here
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RRClist/

The winner of the above listed books will be drawn randomly on July first. I will announce the winner on the RRC group. She will then contact me off list and give me her snail mail address. I will pass that address on to each author listed above, and each will send the prize they offered to the winner.

Best of luck!
Charlotte Dillon ~ www.charlottedillon.com

Avon Editors Have A Blog

2006-06-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

If you are a fellow romance writer and hope to send a manuscript to Avon, there's good news if you'd like to know a little more about the editors there. Right now the Avon editors are working together, posting info to the Avon blog--taking turns as it was. May Chen has a post up about herself today.

You can check it out here.... http://www.avonromanceblog.blogspot.com/

Two Graduated at the Same Time

2006-05-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

I just have to share like any proud mom. (Smile) I had not one, but two children graduate this month. My son graduated from college with a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences. He just landed a job working at the zoo in New Orleans. He'll be working with primates, which was his hope. My daughter graduated from our local high school, fourteenth in her class no less. She will be attending the same college my son did his four years at.

One part of my life is over now. (My daughter was the baby.)

That's okay. The next part might be even more fun. My son will be married a year next week, so maybe in a couple of years it'll be time for grandbabies. (Smile)

Recipe for Mailing a Complete Manuscript

2006-05-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

Almost all big publishers and agents ask that completes not be sent in a box or bound. That means for a newer writer figuring out a good way to send a complete, printed manuscript that’s often three hundred plus pages, is enough to bring on nightmares and a case of the cold sweats.

It’s not that hard to do though, and still end up with a nice, crisp manuscript when it reaches New York—or where ever it’s heading.

Needed Ingredients:
Printed complete manuscript (include query, synopsis, ect…)
Two large Tyvek priority envelopes
Two large rubber bands
One page-size piece of cardboard
One medium point permanent marker and/or labels of your choice
One post office

Directions:
Even a thick manuscript fits nicely in one of those large priority envelopes that you can get free from the post office. A great support for that thick stack of printed pages is a simple piece of cardboard. When you order more than one book or move at a time from Amazon, they come with the perfect size piece of loose cardboard enclosed in the box. I save mine every time I get anything with that cardboard page-size piece precut in it. If you don’t have any, you can cut a page-size piece of cardboard off of any kind-of-thick brown cardboard box you happened to have around.

Before you put your finished baby inside that big priority envelope, stack the pages nice and neat on your piece of cardboard. Next, place one big rubber band length ways around your stack, and one more width ways around it—make sure they fit well, but not tight. (Don’t forget to add your cover page, query, synopsis, and anything else you were asked to include, on top of the manuscript pages before you put the rubber bands around them.) Slip an SASP (Self addressed stamped postcard) under one of the rubber bands on the top page, so it stays in place and won’t be over looked. This can be used to let your know the agent or publisher has received your manuscript.

* (I like to skip adding that SASP and just pay an extra fifty cents to the postal clerk to have a Delivery Conformation slip attached to the outside of the package instead. No one has to sign for it, so it's not a problem for the agent or editor. It's not really any extra money if you think about what you'd pay for a postcard and the stamp for it. You can use the tracking number from the Delivery Conformation slip to see that the package made it.)

Address one priority envelope to the agent or publisher, and the other one to yourself—after you pay for and attach the postage, this will become your SASE. Put your prepared manuscript into the correct envelope, but don’t seal it. (If this work is requested, make sure you write the word requested on the outside of the envelope and enclose a copy of the request letter on top of the manuscript. If the request came over the phone, through e-mail, or after a meeting, make sure you mention how, when, and where in the query.) Fold your large SASE and place it inside the first one.

Now head to the post office. Once there, ask them what it will cost to mail your envelope. After they weight it, take your SASE out and tell them you need the same postage on both envelopes so the pages inside can be returned to you if needed. Place the SASE in with your complete manuscript, seal up the envelope addressed to the agent or publisher, don't forget Delivery Conformation slip if you are using it instead of a SASP, pay the postal worker and hand that baby over.

*(Some publishers are willing to destroy the MS if you don't want it returned. If you are okay with that, and the publisher or agent is too, just add a note giving them the okay and a business size SASE for them to send you a letter about the MS. I have gotten a rejected complete back with edits from the editor written on it to help me, but that isn't the norm. The choice is up to you if you want the pages back or just the letter.)*

The hard part comes at this point. You have to trust that manuscript with these strangers and turn around and leave it. Worse of all, you have to go home, go on with your life, and wait and wait and WAIT.

By the way, the best thing you can do while you wait—which could be for months and months—is to get to work on that next story.

Mother’s Day Reminder

2006-05-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

Nope, I’m not reminding you that tomorrow is Mother’s Day -- though it is if anyone reading this hasn’t got their mom a gift yet, or given them a hug and an I love you —maybe cleaned the house or cooked a meal. Yes, those do really mean just as much to a mom as a gift. (Smile)

I got a special gift today, a great big one. I went to my son’s college and watched him take that long walk to the stage to get his BA in Biology, after four years of hard work. I was so proud to be sitting there watching him, but I didn’t really think about how lucky, how blessed I was to watch him take that walk. There was one name called, and instead of the young lady walking up on the stage, her mother went in her place. The daughter had recently died so her mother accepted her diploma. When they placed it in the mother’s hand, she paused and held it up toward the sky, as if saying, see baby, you got it. She cried all the way back to her seat, and left a short time later.

My heart broke for her. I can only guess at how hard it was for her to sit there for the long while waiting for her daughter’s turn, watching all of those young people take that walk that her daughter never had the chance to take.

I was, am, so proud of my son, but more than that, I was blessed that he was there, and that I was there, and that we got to share that moment together. It felt so wonderful when he received his diploma and in those fleeting seconds as he walked from the stage, his gaze tuned to the section where he knew I was sitting, and searched me out. The way he smiled, the way he waved that green diploma holder at me, time just stood still for a moment, and I saw him as a baby, saw him taking his first steps, saw him dressed for his first day of school, heading out for his first date, driving away for his first day of college, and finally, today, watching the result of all of those years. I was there with him and got to watch those steps, and he’s still here to take more.

In a few days I’ll be sharing another milestone, this one with my daughter as she does the walk at our local high school to get a diploma of her own. (Smile) I’ll be double blessed during one short week.

Keeping Up With Characters

2006-05-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

I have a number of important characters in a couple of stories that are going to cross back and forth -- some not so important ones who will too. It can get really hard to keep up with all of the names, not to mention the hair colors, eye colors, cars they drive, jobs, and all of the rest. I’ve used a storyboard for a long time, but it was across the room and hard to put every thing on.

So…I decided to try something new, and it’s working out great.

I save pictures from sale papers and magazines, or even sometimes print some up from a website. I use those pictures to find my characters. When a picture yells out a character’s name to me, I glue it to a sheet of paper, write the character’s name on the top of the page, and then other needed details at the bottom or down the side, like eye color, height, weight, hair color, character traits, ect… on another sheet I can do a whole character chart if I like, on another I can write a little of the history or such of this character. On another sheet I can glue a picture of his home, his car, his pet, something that is special to him, ect…

I slip each page into a thin plastic sheet protector, then put them in a notebook. I can flip through at will, move order as I like, add anything new, and never have to worry about keeping up with all of those characters’ information again. If in chapter one of my story Uncle Charles has a bald spot, clear blue eyes, drops g’s on the end of words, walks with a limp, and has a brown and white dog named Puddles, I know Uncle Charles will still be the same in chapter twenty or book number two, and so will Puddles.

Sure saves me a lot of back tracking and trying to remember. (Smile)

One Way NOT to Do Promotion

2006-04-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

I’ve seen lots of good tips on doing promotion for your book. Or for anything else you want to do promo for, like a newsletter, a site, ect…

But let me give you one tip on how NOT to do promotion.

Don’t spam!

No, seriously, don’t do it!

It really doesn’t work. It just makes people angry…or either they don’t notice at all and just hit delete. Never subscribe someone to your mailing list or newsletter unless they ask to be subscribed. Better yet, set things up where they can subscribe themselves.

Always make sure there’s a link in what ever you send to those subscribers where they can easily unsubscribe if they wish. Include a link for them to resubscribe if they wish too. People do change e-mail addresses sometimes and want to rejoin, or sometimes they just want to share the link with a friend so they can join.

If you pay others to do promotion for you, it’s your job to check and make sure they are doing so on the up and up. You don’t want to get a backlash of anger because they are running your information and sending it to people who don’t want it, didn’t ask for it, and just want it to stop.

This is a sore spot for me right now because a few days ago I suddenly started getting this announcement list that is filled with info about which author is going where, which book is out, how great this e-publisher is doing, and well…you get the idea. (It really all seems to be about this one e-publisher and their authors.)

There’s one big problem though, I’ve never heard of this listing. I didn’t sign up for it, I don’t want it, and they’ve made it hard for me to leave it. I get too much spam as it is, I don’t need or want more.

I went to their site and tried to unsubscribe, but quickly found out that I had to have a password to do so. That’s a little hard to have since I never signed up for anything. The site said if I didn’t have one, I had to fill out information and get one to unsubscribe. I really don’t think so! Why would I want these people to have more info about me?

I tried blocking the address, but it’s coming from more than one sender’s address. It hasn’t been fun trying to get away from it. I did at last though. I finally got a message a few minutes ago saying I had been unsubscribed. I hope that’s the end of it. Since the messages were coming from more than one sender though, I’m not so sure. Time will tell.

If the authors who were having their books or book signings placed in this listing -- even if it’s their own publisher -- did so without knowing that this place subscribed people without their permission and then made it hard for them to leave, then those authors might get a hostile response they didn’t even see coming. That’s why I said that the person who’s paying for the promotion has to check into things and find out how that promotion is being done. You don’t want people thinking you are spamming them when you had no idea about it. Heck, you don’t want people thinking you are spamming them at any time. (Smile)

What Kind of Reader are You?

2006-04-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

Do you savor or do you devour?

I’m sure about every one of you has been on a diet at least once. Do you remember how good it felt when you ate something sinfully bad-for-you the first time after a long spell of lean meats and salads? Did you take your time and savor every single bite, placing the smallest amount in your mouth and letting the flavors swirl around for as long as possible before you swallowed? Or did you just dig in and devour bite after bite until suddenly it was all gone and you were wondering how it disappeared so quickly?

I’ve found that devoted readers can be the same way. One of the above; they savor or they devour.

When I’ve been waiting for a new release from a favorite author, and I finally get my hands on the book, maybe after waiting a year, I savor. (Smile) I don’t sit down and read the whole thing. After all, I probably have months to wait for that next treat. I read slowly, a few pages or a couple of scenes at a time, trying to make it last, conscious that the end is coming and I want it to last. The better the story, the more I savor.

If I finish a book really quickly, like the first day or two or three, that’s usually not a good sign--unless it as a very short book. (Smile)

If I like a book a lot, but don’t love it, I don’t mind just reading it and letting the story flow, but even that takes me a while since I prefer to read a good book when I have time to relax and enjoy it. But….if I don’t like a book, I skim and try to finish it as soon as I can. (After I spend money for a book, it’s hard for me to just toss it. It feels like a waste. Some have been just so awful that’s happened, and it makes me really mad. Thankfully books that bad are very few and very far between. Not only is that a waste of my money when they are that bad, but think of all of the poor trees that died for nothing.) (Smile)

I would much rather have a book to savor. Then again, if the greatest books came around often, I guess I’d forget to savor them. It’s probably best the way it is. Good books most of the time, great books once in a while, and only a really bad one here or there to make me appreciate the good ones, and the great ones, even more.

New E-mail Address

2006-03-31T19:53:00.000-08:00

I’ve had the same i-55 e-mail address for almost ten years. That’s a long time. That’s almost as long as I’ve had internet service. (Smile) Now, i-55 has become part of a bigger company that I know nothing about, so I’ve decided it’s time to move on at last.

I know many people use my i-55 address and have it saved in their address books, but it ain’t gonna work any more. (Smile) Well, I guess it probably will, but I won’t get anything sent to it. Instead, please use the link here on my blog.

Where? There. Over that way >.

It’s under the title Links, the last listing, Contact Me. If you click on that it will take you to a page on my site where you can send me a message through a form, or through one of the addresses listed there.

If you are a member of one of my RWC groups, you can also reach me with the group owner address. That address can be found on each group’s Yahoo home page.

Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to spring forward….you know, move your clock up an hour Saturday night before you go to bed. Yes, it’s already that time of year again.

Those Short Stories

2006-03-30T11:52:00.000-08:00

After my last post about trying short stories, I’m happy to report shorter is better, at least when you are trying to find your way back to writing. Yesterday I was working on a short story and I actually completed fifteen full, brand new pages of writing, all in one day!

I can’t even remember the last time I ever managed that many fresh pages in one day. Even better, I enjoyed every minute of it. (Smile) The short stories I write are for me only. I’m using them as a way to get to know the characters a little better in my novel. Since these stories are for my eyes alone, I don’t have to worry about rules, about length, about style, about anything at all. The only person I have to please with these stories is myself.

That’s a wonderfully freeing thing at this point in my life.

All I have to do when I write a short story is go with the flow, have fun, add what ever plot twist or non-twist I want. It’s all about me and what my muse is telling me. I think I had forgotten how much fun creating a story could be. For years now I’ve worried so much about the writing, that the fun part, the creating, the story telling, took a back seat to the self-doubt and the picky little editor sitting on my shoulder.

I think maybe that’s why when any extra stress came into my life, I couldn’t write. The second guessing every word I wrote was enough stress, so any thing else just toppled it all. Writing became only something that I hoped I would get paid for. It was work. There wasn’t anything fun about it. And since I'm not gettnig paid rigth now... well... how many of us would go to work at something we didn't like every day with only the hope that just maybe, one day, some day, we might get paid something for it, just maybe?

I had fun yesterday. (Smile) I was stressed about other things; I’m sick as a dog right now with the worst cold, I’ve been writing letters trying to raise money for a program at my daughter’s school, I have two children graduating in a little over a month and there are a hundred little things I still need to do, sick or not, and yet yesterday I just pushed it all aside, didn’t even worry about cleaning house or cooking, and just let my writing take me away from all of it. I remember when that was always what my writing did. It was a release, a safe place, somewhere to run to where there were no worries.

I think if I really keep trying, my short stories will help me get back to the novel I need to be working on. I’m going to find my way back on my own terms though. Some how I’m going to figure out a way to bring the joy of writing with me. I think that’s going to take awhile, since someone else will be looking at the novel, but I’m going to get there. I don’t ever want to force another story again, long or short.

I think I feel like writing a whole novel is too much work to be fun now, so I can't just push everything aside and write it how ever I want, like with the short stuff, but who knows how I'll feel in a few weeks, or maybe even sooner. (Smile)

Could Short Stories Be the Way Back to Novel Writing?

2006-03-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

My last post was about my fiction writing, well, about my not writing. About how when anything really bad happened it threw me off and I had such a time finding my way back. It felt like I was alone, the only person who was that way. I felt like maybe that meant I wasn’t willing to try hard enough, or I didn’t have enough love for writing to stick it out through the hard times.

Today I was reading some articles in my latest copy of Writer’s Digest Magazine and found an interview in there done with author Alice Hoffman. (I loved her book Practical Magic. The movie was great too.)

Anyway, in this interview she mentions going through some bad times in her life, when it seemed a lot of things were going wrong, and how during that time she found she didn’t have the energy to work on a novel. Instead of trying to tackle a novel, she took what energy and time she did have and worked on short stories. When she wrote, she didn’t allow herself to go back and second-guess the words, she just put down what came and kept going.

When I read this it was like someone opened a door for me. Right now I feel like there’s no way I can even work on my novel. It seems like trying to climb a mountain when someone has tied my legs together and hooked on a hundred pound boulder just for good measure. The thought of writing a short story at this point, still feels a little like standing at the bottom of a mountain, looking up, squinting into the sun, knowing I have a long way to climb. But…at least it doesn’t feel like my legs are tied or that I’m dragging a boulder with me. It just seems much more doable at this point and place in my life.

Alice Hoffman used short stories to find her way back, to build a bridge to her longer novels. I don’t see why I can’t do the same thing.

An idea popped into my head right away. That’s a good sign. (Smile) I think I’m going to write short stories with main characters that are minor characters in my novels. That way I’ll get twice the bang for the same work. Writing these short stories will help flex my writing muscles, help me find my way back into the comfort those novels once offered. At the same time, using minor, but important, characters from my novels, especially the main one I was working on before the hurricane, will help me stay in contact with that novel, help me flesh out some of the characters even more, and maybe add some extra pull toward that bigger story for me.

Maybe it would work for any of you who find yourself in the same writing blocked mode. It’s at least worth a try.

I Wish I Could Write Through Anything!

2006-03-01T19:51:00.000-08:00

Long ago I found I couldn’t. Well, mostly I couldn’t. I did fine with my daily writing schedule for a number of years, but I couldn’t write a word after I found out my mother had cancer. After she died, it took me over a year to even glance at one of my manuscripts again.

A year or so later, I landed my first full-time freelance writing job. It was non-fiction, short biographies of singers and musicians. I did the research, the interviews, and then wrote up the bios, including adding HTML tags in the text as required. My weekly payday depended on my output and my meeting each week’s deadline. The more I produced, the more I got paid. It wasn’t really creative writing like my fiction, and I knew there was an editor waiting for it each week and waving a paycheck. As long as I did the correct research and wrote good bios, I got paid for them. (There’s no such guarantee with fiction, not even after a good bit of success.)

I went from that first job to writing greeting cards, then on to another bigger company doing bios again, and then reviews. During the years I did all of that non-fiction writing, I never seemed to have any energy or time or writing left in me to work on my fiction. It made me sad, but as a wife and mother with more bills than money, I did what I had to do. Through it all, no matter what was going on in my life, I never missed a deadline. I remember losing two dear friends during that time, and one Christmas week deadline pulling all the holiday stuff together for my family, completing all my bios, and doing it all with the flu and a double eye infection. There was no joy to my writing. It was a job. So I did it when I was supposed to do it. Even if that meant being up until two AM before a morning deadline.

A few years later, I was upset when the company I was working for cut back and tightened its belt to the point of getting rid of about 80% of their writers, including me. I tried to find another writing job at first, but when I didn’t find one soon, I was actually relieved. After years of non-fiction I finally decided to put it aside and turn to my fiction full-time. It was something I had been dreaming of.

I did fine at first, finished a couple of long manuscripts in pretty good time, then my father got worse and I spent more and more of my time caring for him, along with of course having to care for my children and be a housewife. I found it hard to be a full-time caregiver for my father, a full-time mother for my children, a full-time wife for my husband, along with handling all of the housework, shopping, bills, ect… Still, I found time almost daily to work on one of my stories—though not as many hours as I would have liked. Sometimes it was only minutes.

In June of 2004 my father became even more seriously ill. When he was put in the hospital, I spent hours with him daily. When he died. I fell back into not being able to write at all. I managed to pull myself out of the grief in less than a year this time. I turned back to my fiction writing and found comfort in it.

Then, this time, I got sick. I was thirsty all of the time, sleepy all of the time. I couldn’t sit still long enough to write because I would almost fall asleep. I just felt awful. I soon found out why, I was a diabetic.

Just about the time I began to feel well enough and awake enough to face the computer for longer than the time it took to do a few e-mail messages, I found out my blood sugar counts were getting worse instead of better. Learning I would need to start doing daily blood tests at home, as well as go on daily meds to try to control the disease, knocked me for a whole new loop. I’m terrified of needles, so just the thought of what I was facing, along with what I knew about being a diabetic because my father had been one, was enough to send me in a brand new downward spiral.

I caught hold of the cave sides on the way down, and climbed right back up this time. At first every word was a fight, but I slowly started to get back into the rhythm. And then…

Yes, you knew something else was coming. This time it was hurricane Katrina. Talk about turning my world upside down. She even turned it inside out. It’s been six months today since she hit my home, and I’ve yet to write more than a few words. I have even shied away from e-mail messages, mainly only doing the ones I have to for my groups, and answering friends after long lags. Many days I have a great idea for something to write here for my blog, and I let those thoughts slip away too.

I’ve tried hard, but I just can’t seem to get anywhere at all. I think I’m actually afraid that if I start writing again, and get back into a normal writing routine, or anything near it…something else will happen. Maybe even something worse than the other times. It feels like fate doesn’t want me to write my romance novels, and slaps me down with glee anytime I start doing too well at it.

I’ve felt this way, or close to it, before, and thought maybe just not ever writing again would be the best thing for me. I’ve tried that. But even now, when I can’t write, I can’t leave it completely alone either. The story I have started calls to me. The characters walk through my mind at the oddest times and whisper secrets to me. Plot points pop into my thoughts, ideas for a new story, a better way to end a scene, those kinds of things that only other writers know the power of.

Always before, the story and the characters kept on pulling at me until I could no longer resist the comfort of their world, until I willingly slipped back into its brightness with them.

I know that will happen again, I just can’t leave it for good. Part of me wishes that I could though, unless there was some way for me to turn into one of those writers who can write through any thing. I know some of them in person, and nothing, nothing short of their own deaths, would stop the flow of words for them. I wish they knew some little secret that they could share with me. What ever it is they have found that makes them able to write on no matter what. But I guess even if they could, the secret that works for one probably wouldn’t work for another.

I guess there’s nothing I can do but sit here and wait, try to reach out when the pull comes, and hope that sooner instead of later, I’m able to slip back in.

Are You From Bogalusa? Did You Leave After Hurricane Katrina?

2006-02-20T04:46:00.000-08:00

If so, and you left, it's time to come home. :-)

I get at least a couple of messages a week from people who have found my blog or site and want to know if it's okay to come home yet, if things are still as bad as they were when they left, ect....

If you are one of those who left here before or after Hurricane Katrina, like I said above, it's time to come home to Bogalusa, Louisiana. It's safe to come home. It's been months since Katrina, and since then, lots of people have been hard at work.

I’ve posted updates here on my blog, but I think many people aren’t used to reading blogs and get here from a search that takes them to an older post and that’s the only one they read, so they miss the updates. I made sure to put both Bogalusa and Katrina in the title of this post, so search engines would pick up on it and maybe direct people here instead of to an older post.

I want people from here who left to be assured that it is okay to come back now. Has been okay to come back for a while. The roads are clear…mostly. They are still trimming trees and taking damaged ones down, but it’s no big deal and they are only working in a section or two at a time. So you might find one or two roads blocked for part of the day, but you just go a street over and go on your way. The newspaper comes three days a week -- I don’t know if or when it will go back to six. The mail runs six days a week…and yes it seems to take two weeks or longer for mail to get through sometimes, just a few things, and some of my magazines don’t show up every month like they should, but most mail, at least 97%, is coming right on time. It seems all bills are, so that’s not a problem. (You knew those bills were going to get through.) (Smile)

The grocery stores, dollar stores, and even Wal-Mart, are all back open and now seem well stocked. The same for gas stations and drug stores, and all of the odds and ends. Some do close a little earlier or open a little later than they used to, but not by much. Some few things aren’t open and probably won’t be. But like I said, it’s few things. Even the fast food places are open. They close a little earlier too, and sometimes they don’t have enough workers to run both the drive through and lobby, so they close one or the other, but even that problem is getting less often. You can go to your doctor, your vet, and the hospital. The phone, lights, cable, and even the cell phones work fine. (Okay, the cell phones still break up or drop calls more than normal, but not much more.)

So, again, it really is fine to come home to Bogalusa. And hurry! We are even going to have our normal Mardi Gras parade -- it’s this Saturday, the 25th in the evening. You don’t want to miss that, do you? (Smile.) We are also having the 5K run a few hours before the parade. My husband’s gonna be runnin' in it. So wish him luck.

Update on My Sister’s Grandbaby

2006-02-18T15:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much for all of the e-mails y’all sent filled with prayers and good thoughts for this darling little baby boy. His name is Travis. It breaks my heart to report that things haven’t gotten any better for little Travis. In fact, the doctors have taken away all hope. It’s doubtful he will live to see his first birthday. They do know what’s wrong with him now. He was born with something called Autosomal Recessive Cutis Laxa Type One. There are only a couple of hundred people in the whole world with Cutis Laxa, and his is the very worse kind. There is no cure and no treatment for it. It simply keeps on until the last of the fight is gone from the body it’s destroying. All the doctors can do is try to treat the symptoms and the damage and buy Travis, and his mother, more time.

I wrote in my blog a short while ago about how sad I was over losing one of my dogs. I can’t even guess at the amount of pain my niece is dealing with! Comparing the pain of losing a dog, even as much as I loved Red, to the loss of a child, seems like comparing a drop of water to the ocean. I know my brother died when I was ten. My mother died twenty years later, and she hadn’t gotten over his loss even then.

Protect Your Family Pictures By Sharing Them

2006-02-10T12:45:00.000-08:00

We’ve gotten so much fixed on the house now, I’ve kind of moved on from what was lost, accepted it as is--all but for my family pictures and keepsakes. There’s nothing I can do to bring them back, and that hurts most of all. I have the first few years of my children’s life, and then nothing until now. I’m a picture nut….have always taken tons of them of my children, of family, friends, pets, places, ect…. Now years’ worth of them are just gone, completely gone, forever gone.

The “if onlys” are enough to drive a person crazy, so I just fight the thoughts and sadness as best I can. You can’t go back in time, not to take more pictures or to make sure the ones you had are safe.

It wouldn’t be so bad if there were other copies, even of part of them, but there aren’t. I almost always got double prints of my pictures, and for years I gave copies to family and friends, mostly to my mother and my sister. But in ’95 my mother died, my father had already been sick for years, my sister moved far away, and other family members moved off or drifted out of touch without Mom to pull us together. In ’96 I got my first computer and the Internet. I had lots of pen pals back then, and often shared pictures with them and family members when I sent letters. But pretty soon letters became a thing of the past and we were all doing e-mail.

After Mom died, Dad was in really bad health and I had to take care of him, I also had two kids to raise, a husband, and I started working, doing full-time freelance writing. Suddenly those double-prints just stayed in those packs, both sets of them. I didn’t even put them in albums any more. It just seemed there was never enough time.

(Thank goodness my older pictures weren’t with them. Most of the older ones are safe and sound, though there were black & white pictures and family keepsakes in the same big box, but thankfully those didn’t include my wedding pictures some family pictures of my parents, and the first few years from my children.)

I just wish so badly that at least some pictures from all of those missing years could have been saved. I learned a really hard lesson from all of this and I hope it’s one I don’t need a second teaching of, and that it’s one that I can save some other people from having to face.

We all know there are hurricanes, tornados, floods, house fires, and yet some how most of us always think the worst won’t happen to us. Then it does. Losing your home and clothes and everything else might hurt, BADLY, but things are things. Pictures of your loved ones are so much more to you and to those who come after you, than simple things. Those pictures and keepsakes are your family history, the faces of those long dead, of your children when they were learning to skate, or leaving for a first date, the letters your mother wrote your father or a clipping of your grandmother’s hair when it was red instead of white. There is no way to replace those if there isn’t another copy of clipping of it.

There is at least something you can do to protect your precious family pictures, and it’s not that hard and it doesn’t cost that much.

Get double prints. It’s only a little more, and most of us get them anyway. If you can’t get them every time, get them at least every other time or two. Then put them somewhere else, with someone else. Share some with your mom, your dad, your grandmother, your brother, your sister, your aunt, or close friends. If nothing else, find a friend who is willing to trade and share with you. When she gets double prints she can send you the ones that are really important to her and you will safe keep them, in return, you send your important copies to her, and she will safe keep them. If any thing happens to one of your homes, the other person will at least be able to replace those important family pictures that were shared.

You can do the same thing with old family letters or really old family pictures. Copy them, share them, even scan the most important ones in to your computer and e-mail them to yourself and others.

Some things you can’t do that with, like a memory book, baby books, and such. At least, as my mom would say, don’t put all of your eggs in the same basket. Keep them in a safe place, but maybe in different places. If you can afford it, keep the most important keepsakes in a safety box at the bank, or maybe in the top drawer of a fireproof file cabinet. Get creative if you have to.

Think about things you don’t want to think of. I’ve lived in this house for over twenty years and never had an inch of water in it during that whole time until the day two feet came rushing through with Katrina. If your house caught on fire and you couldn’t get anything out, is there some place things would be safe or stand a better chance. Even if you don’t flood, a tree could crash into your home and allow the rain to pour in. You just never know.

No matter what. When it’s said and done, you can go to Wal-Marts and pick out another TV, more clothes, pots and pans. You can go to Sears and replace your stove or washer. Yes, it all takes money, but it’s just things and money. You can have all of the money in the world, but there are things you won’t be able to replace no matter what. Life being first, and your important family pictures and keepsakes being second.

Those things, once lost, are the things you never forget or forgive yourself for.

My Own Room!

2006-02-04T17:32:00.000-08:00

It's taken five very long months, but last night I got to sleep in my own bedroom for the first time since hurricane Katrina!

Getting the use of that room back has made such a big difference in the rest of my home. We have so much more room now and things look so much more like they used to. Even better in some cases...like my bedroom is all fresh and new now. I even completely changed the color. I had a Coral Rose paint on the walls…but everyone who saw it said it was pink. (Smile) Now the room is a color called Sugar Blossom. In other words, it’s white. (Smile)

Prayers, good thoughts, white light, ect...

2006-02-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

My sister's two-month old grandson is in Little Rock's Children Hospital in NICU. He is one very sick little boy. The doctors aren't offering a lot of long-term hope for him. If you could send any prayers, good thoughts, white light, or what ever you use to send love and healing, please do.

Thanks!

Katrina Update from Bogalusa, Louisiana

2006-01-31T18:59:00.000-08:00

I’ve gotten a number of messages from people wondering how things are going around here now. I know my posts are sometimes, if not often, few and far between.

So here goes…. (Smile)

Life is much more normal in Bogalusa than it was even a month ago. Hurricane Katrina left her mark but we are rubbing her out--one blotch at a time. There's much, much less debris around on the sides of the roads, many of the damaged trees that remained standing are being trimmed back or marked for removal, homeowners are putting in lots of elbow grease and cash to get things back to how they were before the storm and in some cases even better than they were, slowly the blue tarps on homes are being replaced with new shingles, most businesses that are going to open back up have and they are keeping more normal-type hours even though many are still begging for employees and offering good pay and even bonuses to get them.

It's also a lot easier to find the common things you need now, or things you still need to replace. Cable is back for those who didn't switch to satellite. As far as I know, it seems everyone has phone and electric services if their homes are livable, and even the cell phones are working like they should again--most of the time. Mail is still a little slow, and the newspaper still only comes out three times a week. It might be months before those things return to their old ways.

Personally: My husband's truck has been repaired and my car has been replaced. I miss my older car, mostly because it was all paid for, but I really like the new one even if I don’t like the monthly notes. (Smile)

Work on the house finally seems to be moving forward. There was a point where we just wanted to throw our hands up and give up, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. We have some more sheetrock to take out and replace, more painting, then we need to replace the floors, and this spring we'll redo the roof, but it feels like there is an end date and I can see the progress of all of our hard work.

We should be able to move back into our master bedroom maybe even by this weekend. It’s twice the size of the tiny little room we have been staying in. The extra room that we use as a workout room, now only needs the flooring put down and the doorway finished, then it’s ready to move my bike, treadmill, and my husband’s weight bench into. I need to get back to working out better and more often. I’ve kind of let that slide and my blood pressure and my blood sugar, as well as my weight, are all telling the tale on me. Having those two rooms completed and usable will make this whole house so much less crowded and jammed. Maybe I’ll have places to put things again, and actually be able to find them once I put them somewhere. It will certainly feel more like the home it used to be.

In a kind of backward twist, we finished rebuilding my husband’s little workshop in the backyard first. With so many of his tools and equipment inside, we were climbing over stuff with almost every step. There really wasn’t room to even work inside the house and there was no where else to put the tools and such, so we did the workshop and all of his stuff is out there now. That was a big help.

I’m not sure what we are going to do next. Almost all of the floors will have to be replaced, but we only have the sheetrock left to redo in the living room, wash room, and the second bathroom--which we can’t even get into right now. And the whole roof to put new shingles on of course. I think when we can get back into our bedroom and get things in the workout room so I can use them again, we might just take a break before we start the next step. If the money doesn’t run out before we wear out. (Smile)

The kids are also doing better. Acting more like they used to. (They are 22 and 17 and hate me calling them kids, but they will always be kids to me.) Their school schedules are back to normal and everything is going fine for them. My daughter will graduate from high school in May and my son will graduate from college with a BA the same month after four long hard years. I’m so proud and happy for them both.

My smaller kids…my dogs…are doing well too. They’ve taken it all as just a little bump in the road. Well, they are all doing well but one. A little over a week ago I lost Red. I spent the last few days of his life with him, petting all of his favorite spots, feeding him chicken and other things he loved that I cooked just for him, and telling him what a great dog he was and how lucky I was to have had him as mine. I sure hope he’s in a special place now. I sure do miss him.

Well, I guess that’s about the end of my update for this time. There’s probably more that I’ll only think of after I send this, but that’s just normal for me and I’ve decided I really like normal just fine. (Smile)

E-Mail H E Double L

2006-01-16T13:51:00.000-08:00

I hooked up my first computer ten years ago this year. A few months later I got Juno free e-mail. It was a long distance call for me, so I received and sent mail only once a day. (Talk about seeming like a lifetime ago.) hehehe

If you take the e-mail trouble of each of the nine of those years and add them all together, you wouldn't come up with half the e-mail trouble I've had in the last year alone. In that last year I've lost e-mail from two computer crashes, from an e-mail program failure twice, a virus, from a bad motherboard, and ect....

It’s like some how I offended some god of e-mail and I’ve paid for it over and over. Everything seems fine now—knock on wood! The last few weeks my computer has worked fine, my e-mail program fine, and all seems right with my little e-mail world. (Smile) Knock on wood again!

OR WOULD SEEM RIGHT.

There’s just one little, tiny, bitty problem. My e-mail.

Talk about a mess! I really don’t even know how or where to start. During all of the trouble, I’ve used different addresses, different e-mail programs, and even different computers. Now that every thing is fixed and I’m trying to catch up, it seems an impossible task. I have messages that I need to reply to scattered between no less than three computers, six e-mail programs, and I’ve lost count of the number of folders. Even worse, some of them are duplicate messages from where I was sending things around trying to save things, especially messages I needed to reply to.

On top of that, I’m a diabetic and my blood sugar counts have been crazy lately. So I’ve been trying my best to spend less time at the computer sitting, and much more time up moving around.

It’s gotten to the point where when I do open some of those e-mail folders, I don’t even know where to begin to try to catch up. Just keeping up with the day-to-day messages from the groups I manage can be an overwhelming job at times.

I am trying though. I know I did lose a lot of messages, so a number of people already think I was too stuck up to reply to them, so I don’t want to miss any that I can answer. I guess all I can do is take my time, answer those that aren’t lost, and hope everyone understands.

So, if you are waiting for a reply from me and it doesn’t come, feel free to resend. If the e-mail god is all through taking revenge on me now for whatever I did wrong, maybe the next nine years of e-mail will work out as well as the first nine. (Smile) I don’t think I could take another one like the last!

Contest: Win Four Romance Books

2005-12-31T06:04:00.000-08:00

I run a contest a few times a year through my free newsletter. Anyone who signs up for the newsletter is entered in the drawing for the prizes. My next drawing is going to be Sunday, so if you don't belong to my newsletter and want the chance to win a few good romance reads, make sure you sign up today or before tomorrow evening when I will be doing the drawing. Winners are always picked from those who belong to the newsletter, and members are welcome to unsub at any time. (I also never share anyone's address or use it for anything more than the newsletter than goes out just a few times a year, and for contacting the winner of the prize.)

To sign up, just send a blank message to CharlotteDillon-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CharlotteDillon/

Drawing Date: January 1, 2006.
Prize: One person will win the following romance books.
Kill a Painted Pony by Kelsy George http://www.kelsygeorge.com
The Oldest Kind of Magic by Ann Macela http://www.annmacela.com
Temperature's Rising by Karen Kelley www.authorkarenkelley.com
Haunted Memories by Melanie Atkins www.melanieatkins.com

So Long 2005!

2005-12-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

I can’t say I’m sad to see this year end. 2004 was a bad year, and then along came 2005. Ouch! Here’s hoping 2006 will be a better year. Happy New Years, everyone!

My Computer Works Again – Or – There’s Nothing Like An Old Love

2005-12-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

I got my computer back last night. AND IT WORKS! It was the motherboard, so all’s well that ends well. (Smile) Okay, there’re still some problems. Like with my e-mail. I use MS Outlook Express. All of the shutting down the motherboard was causing fried Outlook Express. I can get and see my mail, but I can’t reply or even open my address book. (That means if I had your address before, I don’t now.)

So I’m using another e-mail program. I’ve tried others before, including Hotmail and Gmail, but Outlook Express was the first one I ever used, and nothing else seems to match it for me. Maybe it’s just because I’m so used to it. You used to could download Outlook Express and Internet Explorer at tons of sites….all free. They are after all free programs. But darn if I can find OE now. When I try to open my address book in OE it says to reinstall OE. That’s fine, if it would just tell me how and where to do it. (Smile)

Oh, well. I guess no relationship is perfect. (Smile)

It’s a Love Hate Thing

2005-12-09T09:16:00.000-08:00

My mom used to have a saying about men, “You can’t live with ‘em and you can’t kill ‘em.” Of course she said this only in jest when she was teasing my father—though maybe there were some days in their many years of marriage when there wasn’t as much jest in her words as there were on other days. (Smile) Her jest was a rewriting in a way of a much older saying about men, “You can’t live with ‘em and you can’t live without ‘em.” I think the original saying fits my topic best.

It’s computers.

My computer.

It’s in the computer hospital today, so keep your fingers crossed that it lives. It’s been sick ever since I was able to come back home after the hurricane. I think with the house flooding, no AC, the heat and the humidity in here took a toll on it. Some RWC members seem to think so too, and so does the computer man. The hope is a new motherboard will take care of things.

I love my computer. I’ve loved everyone I’ve had. I sure use them enough, but sometimes I just really, really, really hate them too. (Smile) I guess it’s that thin line between love and hate. When my computer is working well, or even pretty well, I’m a happy girl. But when something goes wrong, it’s a nightmare. I handle so much stuff on my computer that it’s like losing a lifeline when something goes wrong. I’ve learned one lesson at a time about backing up, saving in other ways, but it still leaves things spread out, messes up my mail since I still mostly use Outlook Express, and generally disorganizes my whole routine of daily life.

This time I knew my computer was getting worse, so I made darn sure I saved stuff in other places and sent lots of important stuff to my husband’s computer, including lots of recent e-mail I needed to handle or have on hand. So wouldn’t you just know that now his computer is sick too. It got some kind of bug and opens pages on its own and blocks other stuff. It’s so bad that it’s pretty much impossible to use his computer on line at all. He is trying his best to clean it out, so maybe…

It’s just such bad timing. That leaves me using my very slow little ‘ol laptop. I’m just so lucky and thankful to have it. Best four-hundred I ever spent! Still, I’ve never used it for anything but writing, so I hadn’t worried about the internet stuff very much. It took some extra work, but I set my mail up on it, put some virus protection on it, hooked it up and updated every thing, and here I am—in love again. (Smile)

Guess I’m Normal After All

2005-12-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

The day after I wrote my last post to my blog, the one about me being so upset and depressed, I found out I’m just normal. (Smile)

They had this whole thing on our local news the next day about how now, three months after the hurricane, it’s suddenly hitting people again. Sometimes with an even harder blow. They said it was a mixture of the holiday season, the extra stress, survival’s guilt, burn out, shock wearing off, flash backs, and people accepting that this was all real and not going away. Seems a whole lot of people are suddenly having trouble with depression and outburst of anger, even fear. They set up a 1-800 number so people could call to talk to someone about it all.

I guess between my blog and my many wonderful friends, I’ve gotta a head start on working through things. (Smile) It’s still nice to know if I’m going nuts, at least the boat’s gonna be full. (Smile)

By the way, I did finally send out X-mas cards, so I must be getting some better.

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