Here in the northeast, it's somnolent weather. Which is fancy writer talk for hot and humid wherein one is prone to dozing at the first opportunity. Weather saps energy and initiative so it's a good thing my work involves staying inside and making stuff up.

It also helps that I'm currently researching things Carribbean and piratical and at least getting virtual sea air. But more on that later. I did promise a recap of the Long Island luncheon, so you get the quick version today.

Ferry rides there and back were fantastic and reminded me why it is I love having ships in my stories. There's something about being on the water (in joke for Jane S -- on a BOAT. A BOAT. On the WATER.) that puts one in a different frame of mind.

I went with my chapter sisters, Shirley, Jane and Melva. Despite one of Jane's car windows getting stuck in the open position right before boarding the ferry (packing tape and plastic sheeting to the rescue)and almost accidentally being stowaways -- it took all four of us to figure out how to handle passage for passengers in the car, but all was done in proper fashion, we had a great time getting to know each other better and enjoying some time on deck.

As soon as we got to the hotel, we began circling the tables like vultures to see if there was assigned seating (only for the editors/agents) and then to see who was sitting where. I ended up at a fabulous table and could have sat there yapping all day with my tablemates. I'm not going to name-drop as I'm self-conscious about that, but the best-best part was getting to see a dear family friend after far too long. Okay, that and getting requests for partials on both books from Dorchester and also from agent Maura Kye-Casella from the Denise Marcil agency. Talk about esteemed company.

Wonder of wonders, I actually won one of the raffled gift baskets, and will now share my strategy for such auctions. I bid on those baskets with tea things in them. I loves me some tea.

For those who know my esteem of artist Elaine Duillo, yes I was a slobbering, stammering idiot when introduced to her. Especially since she remembered a letter I'd written her upon her retirement, also gushy, but I am a raving fangirl here.

I'd hoped to use this post to recap the Long Island Romance Writers Luncheon this past Saturday, but the darned phone went off and family sutff requires me. Feh.

Recap will have to wait for tomorrow. I will say though, that I got a lovely mention (albeit misspelt) on Bertrice Small's summer newsletter:

http://www.bertricesmall.com/newsletter/index.htm

Note to Camilla -- I've tried three times to respond to your comment but for some reason my computer feels compelled to eat the response. May be a post of its own, but short version -- I think that's a very big part of things. I love historical romance dearly and I don't think happy ever after has to mean exactly the same ever after or in a bubble ever after. But more on that later.

"Don’t write what you know—what you know may bore you, and thus bore your readers. Write about what interests you—and interests you deeply—and your readers will catch fire at your words." ---Valerie Sherwood

Today's quote was found at: http://www.susantaylorbrown.com/quotes.html

Very apt that I found it today -- and how much do you want to bet that's going to find its way into an appropriate font and printed on specialty paper for my office? I'm currently reading a new (as in released this year) historical romance by an author who is usually a favorite (no, I won't give name/title) and am overcome by a big dose of "meh." The "I will finish reading but after that straight to the UBS bag" sort of meh. Which I don't entirely like having.

So it's likely time to dip into my stash of old favorites. Could be time for a Sherwood, at that. Never mind the accusing glares (oh yes, books can glare) of read but to be reviewed books that are right next to the desktop. Never mind the smaller stack of books that need to be read for review. Never mind the books still with their perfect, intact (okay, I admit it, I like to rub unbroken spines before opening a new book for the first time) spines still with the straight from the Waldenbooks bag aroma. Never mind the box of books from yesterday's library book sale (except for the big thick ones on the histories of soap operas and sitcoms -- which I have zoomed through in the last 24 hours) I need me some swash and buckle to fill myself for the writing week to come.

Especially since I am headed for the Long Island Romance Writers Luncheon on Friday. Hopefully some good networking, definetly some good company. Hmm, can I call diving into a nice thick classic historical "training?" Maybe after the grocery shopping. There is still the real world. But the quote definetly does apply.

HEA required?
(inspired by Camilla's blog at http://www.camillabartley.com/journal/)

For romance, yes. I will be the first to say there are some fabulous love stories out there without it -- Remains of the Day, where the female lead decides to stay with her husband, with whom she is not in love, for the sake of their unborn grandchild, rather than return to the love of her life and the house they both loved. Mary Canon's historical O'Hara saga (I'm jumping in the wayback machine here) where the first book ends with the male and female leads forced to go their separate ways, never to see each other until his deathbed nearly twenty years later. I still get choked up over his final words to her, "We had some times, didn't we, girl?" and sobbing myself, because yes, they did, and though separated, loved each other to the last. One of my favorite Angela Elwell Hunt historicals (CBA fiction, not marketed as romance) has a love story between an Egyptian queen and a slave, which because of class, can never be. Romantic? Yes. Romances? No.

There is a difference. In fact, one of the reasons I chose romance as my genre was the absolute delight I take in seeing if I can take some of those devices used in stories such as the above, but have it work out so that the hero and heroine do get their HEA. To me, the HEA is, at its very best, like climbing Mt. Everest. Yes, they've been through hell and high water, and dash it all, come out together and on top. I want to feel the pull of the pain h/h feel at the prospect that things may not end well, and the joy when it does.

This does not, however, mean that everything is wrapped in a neat shiny bow; I like a little more grit than that. I'm fine with beloved secondary characters taking a dirt nap, the family estate going bust or burning down, our h/h being on the losing side of a war. Starting fresh in a new place can be HEA as well. What it all boils down to, for me, is that the h/h's union is greater than anything else that may have been lost. Not that the other things don't count, but that with their beloved in their lives, they can handle it. Those are the books I sigh over as I hug them after closing the last chapter. The books I love to write. In short, for me, the best HEAs have a cost attatched. How high the price would depend on each individual couple and their own mountain to climb.

It's catsitting time again, when early mornings begin with trotting off to see to a friend's two Maine Coon Tail cats. This annual event coincides with the arrival of summer, and usually blazing hot weather. I could do without the weather, but I enjoy the extra exercise and a double dose of giant kitty love is always a good thing.

I'm also putting together my summer reading/rereading list. Recent discussions at and happen to echo my own thoughts of late -- it's no secret I miss the sweep and adventure that were once upon a time the norm in romance. While they don't appeal to every reader, those are the things I always gravitate for, and having finished reading the wonderful debut Viking historical by Diana Groe, Maidensong I'm more determined than ever to see exactly what it is that catches my fancy and how I can put my own touch on it to offer something unique.

Which means rereading old favorites; Small, Sherwood, Woodiwiss, McBain, Busbee, etc as well as poking about for authors of that era I missed the first time around, and newer titles like Maidensong that have the same feeling. Will I be able to read through Karleen Koen's Through a Glass Darkly duo before September? Will I be able to hunt down any new to me Aola Vandergriff titles at any of my UBS haunts? Will I actually keep some sort of a record of this? Stay tuned.