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Monday, January 26, 2009
"Indelible" Heads for the Finish Line
Despite Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and a business trip up to Portland, Oregon that coincided with my birthday,
I have managed to navigate my way through the third draft of "Indelible" and am now within 50 pages of completion. I
like to do a hard copy edit for this draft, which has allowed me to take chunks of the manuscript wherever I go and given
a few minutes, pull it out and use the red pen to mark up whatever needs some revision.
The synopsis started out of the gate reasonably well, but I found myself bogged down by details from the chapter by chapter
outline. I finally made it to a critique group meeting last night and they set me straight and put me back on track.
Today I jotted several bullet points I want to include and my brain came out of its editorial fog to cooperate with using
its creative side once again.
I've been feeling a bit overloaded lately, and it showed up in my writing. I can edit the existing manuscript without
any problems whatsoever, but creating from scratch obviously wasn't going as well. Maybe I've also been (no, scratch
the 'maybe' from this statement) putting pressure on myself to produce something that will have such a high wow factor, no
one reading the query letter, synopsis or partial manuscript will be able to pass up asking for the rest.
Maybe I've set such a high standard for myself that I'm having trouble meeting it.
I could come up with a half-dozen really valid excuses for degenerating into a mundane list of "just the facts, ma'am,"
when I know I can do far better. I need to set my mind free and it will come, kind of like "Field of Dreams."
I tried to push out this synopsis in one regurgitation and my brain refused to cooperate. I have to listen to it.
And then maybe, just maybe, I can reach up on tiptoe and touch that perfection goal with the very tip of my index finger.
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Hobbies:
Travel. Anywhere, at any time. Two years ago I spent New Year in New York with a friend who
lives in Lower Manhattan; took a trip with my son to Death Valley, Bishop and the Alabama Hills in the Spring; spent a
long weekend with friends in a cabin in Mammoth late summer and 5 days in November visiting friends in Houston.
Last year, I returned to Houston unexpectedly in February due to a very dear friend's illness, visited more close friends in
Spokane, Washington in April and took a research trip up to Maine for the 3rd book in the "Rose Tattoo" trilogy, "Maine Issues"
(working title,) and then Salem and Boston for pleasure/business in September. This year, my son came with me up to
Portland Oregon as we both have wanted to check it out for the last couple of years. EPICon made it a business trip
with 2 days of pleasure on either side. We drove the Columbia Gorge and hiked to a waterfall. We had dinner in
Chinatown. It was too early in the year to go hiking up to Mt. St. Helen's or visit some of the other attractions.
The only day we had to drive to the coast, rain was forecast. We may just have to go back...
Other hobbies: Hiking and camping with friends in the Sierras. I've even learned to fish.
Reading (of course!)
Researching (why do people think research has to be boring?)
While growing up in England, I read everything I could get my hands on. The bookshelf my parents
gave me became overloaded with everything from the classics through mysteries, romances, science fiction and even horror. I
not only read, but began writing and won a novel contest while in high school.
My other time-consuming interest became travel. After trips to Italy and the South of France during childhood,
I took a cruise around the Mediterranean with my godparents, visiting Malta, Portugal, Egypt (I saw the Pyramids and
the spectacular Cairo Museum,) Turkey, and Venice, Italy.
After that, I decided to immerse myself in the French language by living in Paris. There I met two friends
who even today remain among my closest. We traveled from Paris to spend the summer in Florence, Italy, and
then with one of them, I went on to visit Portugal and Morocco extensively, then on to Spain, where after touring from one
end to the other and spending a summer on the coast in Marbella, I met my future husband in Madrid and stayed four years
before coming to the U.S.
I've continued my globe-trotting ways by crossing the continental United States twice and living in six States.
Now the divorced mother of two grown children, I currently live in Monrovia with Taffy, the Canine Escape Artist.
Throughout these years, I not only benefitted from enriching, colorful experiences I've since woven into my
novels but also learned how to communicate effectively in three languages and how to be flexible and productive, whatever
the challenges.
My writing started with a 500 page historical (that resided somewhere in the bottom of a closet until my last move,
when it finally went into the shredder,) and then progressed through romances to mystery and suspense. I've also
published short fiction and non-fiction articles and completed the first draft of a screenplay for "tweens" (ages 11-13.)
Always looking for new challenges, while living in Boston, Massachusetts, I produced, wrote, directed
and edited two documentaries that aired on cable access (NewTV13.)
My e-published short contemporary romance and romantic-suspense novels are hopefully only the beginning.
I have many other stories to tell, and I'm a prolific writer, so expect more from me in the near future.
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