Back from the NEC conference (okay, a week later) and as always, revved to get back to the grind and get another book out. Everyone who saw the gorgeous cover art for Orphans in the Storm loved it. I got to attend a wonderful workshop with Emily Bryan on writing sex, and found Sally MacKenzie (she of Naked noblemen fame) makes a delightful lunch partner. I was able to tell her how much I'd enjoyed her presentation last year on writing linked books and that her entry in the Lords of Desire Anthology was waiting on my nightstand for me at home. ::Happy sigh:: I love conferences. Must attend more.

Good results; my roommate for the conference got a request for her first thirty pages of a novel with romantic elements, I won a free critique of first three chapters and synopsis from Sourcebooks, but the big news is...drumroll...I got a request for the full ms of Endless Summer from Leah Hultenschmidt at Dorchester! ::does cartwheel:: Time to polish and send out.

The not so good result of the trip, though, was driving away with my suitcase still on the hotel curb, but the DH and I went up with our friend, Linda, to retrive it, everything was there, and we stopped at Chili's on the way home, so all's good there.

Barney is here in my icon to remind me that the payoff for putting bottom in chair and fingers to keyboard (instead of playing Sims2 all day, which is what part of me wants to do) is success at my ultimate goal.

Another great reminder that the goal is in reach is having a good friend tell me I have to wait to talk to her because she's reading Orphans in the Storm at the moment. Positive feedback is always a good thing. Tell a favorite author what they're doing right and dollars to donuts, there will be an extra bolt of energy when they sit down to do it again. As much fun as writing is, there are times when it's hard or inconvenient or we don't feel like it. Then again, imagine if your doctor or bus driver didn't have to go to work when they didn't feel like it. What if a homemaker didn't feel like wrangling some combination of kids/pets/seniors/housework? Nope, we all have work, and we all have to do it. As a former writing group facilitator of mine used to say, the process can lead to the passion, or as my mother used to say, the more you do, the more you'll want to do. They are both right.

Yet another reminder is the fact that I am in the start of the end of the second draft stage. In a handful of days, I will be at the NEC conference, pitching Endless Summer, possibly to its future home. There's an incentive if there ever was one. Plus the free promo items (I will never have to buy a pen again if I can go to enough conferences, truly.) and free chocolate (source of my "I can only have Lindor truffles if I wrote" rule) not to mention free books at every meal. Even better than that is the fact that I will be among other writers for the better part of a weekend, metric tons of creativity in the air.

Here's the part of my post where I remind myself to add a random Orphans in the Storm fact: the look of Eben, Simon's friend and right hand man, was inspired by British decorator Laurence Llewllyn-Bowen.

::Cartwheel:: It's here! It's here! Orphans in the Storm is finally here!

It seems like a lifetime ago that Jonnet and Simon came into my life, but now that they're ready to mingle with the wide world, it's easy for me to slip back into their world. I've always loved the history of the British Isles, and a project with a collaborator, begun a few years back, gave me an appreciation for Dutch history as well, so it was a natural that an idea would present itself at a time when British and Dutch history intertwined.

Near the end of England's Civil War, times were tough in Charles II's Court in exile in the Netherlands. Loyal British subjects who longed for their king's return and the end of the Protectorate contributed the finances needed to bring their rightful monarch home. Throw in a guilt-riddled hero with a strong sense of duty, a heroine out of her element but determined to prevail, even in the face of serious family dysfunction, and an adventure that sweeps from the Isle of Man to the frosty Netherlands, and Orphans in the Storm was born.

Sound interesting? Go here to read an excerpt.

I meant well today, I really did. See Barney there? I showed up at the puter with every intention of reconstructing the six pages the puter ate at the end of work yesterday (eventually found them and saved them the right way, but I'm whining here)and...poopy. DH and I were both poopy-feeling puppies last night (him more than me, but nobody slept well) and I spent the day waiting for someone to come look at the tub and figure out why the drain doesn't drain (one guess who never showed)and though I noodled with the ms today, it feels flatter than a smushed pancake. Especially deflating as yesterday, I was on fire at the keyboard. Such is life. That's why they make tomorrows, as I say, but today, poopy, poopy, poopy.

Things about which I will whine:
General but manageable poopiness in the physical department.
Feeling like the day was spent applying head to brick wall again and again.
The tub which may or may not be able to drain.
Someone in our family is going to have to go grocery shopping or we will be forced to embark on the breatharian diet.
The really great dialog I banged out yesterday but have no idea where it goes in the current ms.

Things about which I will squee:
I banged out some really great dialog yesterday, and all I have to do is find its right place.
I recovered those six missing pages and can add more tomorrow.
Discovering the DJ function on my mp3 player (I know, fancy name for "shuffle" but I love it.)
The fact that DH may be braving the grocery store at this very moment. (May is the operative word, but I hate grocery shopping, and he is my superhero, so he will save me the chore if he can.)
That I know my hero and heroine well enough that when they're together on the page, things fly.
That my dream editor, Leah Hultenschmidt, will be at the New England conference in March.
That Orphans in the Storm comes out in March, so I'll be attending with a current release.
That the tub may be back in business tomorrow (and if so, I am pulling a Maggie Osborne and sinking up to my neck in bubbles, likely while writing on a pad held above same -- but will not photograph this or use is as my new author picture)
I can watch Lost with the DH tonight and share theories during the commercials.

Hmm, all in all, the squees outweigh the poops, so I'm calling it a good day. How's your poop/squee ratio?

Shippy Goodness, part the first

Ever since I decided that embracing my inner fangirl is actually good for the creative process, life has been a lot easier. Give me a couple with chemistry and a story will form around them -- then it, and they, will pick up stakes and tromp off to some other century, leaving me no choice but to follow behind, furiously scribbling notes. Of course they'll pick up other influences, discard a few points of source canon along the way, and when all is said and done, there's something entirely unique and new that comes out of it. Since I tend to blog more when I have a theme to follow, let's go with that.

Today's entry is the newest pairing to tickle my fancy, a bit different from the usual, but that's what makes it interesting. Barney and Robin from How I Met Your Mother. Romance readers will spot a soon-to-be-reformed rake, I do believe. Whether you've had the pleasure of meeting them before or not, here are a few gems I've stumbled across on YouTube. None of them mine, so credit where credit is due.



one to feed my angstbunny:


and for our neighbors to the north, some Sandcastles in the Sand, eh?