Spend a day with Catherine Anne Collins

First of all, I’d like to thank Hannah for being kind enough to host me on her blog today. I was fortunate enough to meet her at the RT Booklovers Convention in Columbus, Ohio just a short time ago. It was a fun week and I certainly enjoyed the experience…the convention, as well as meeting Hannah.

To be honest, I had trouble deciding what to write about for the blog. My creative juices just weren’t flowing the way they should be and I was stumped. So, that’s what I decided to write about. Stroking the creative muse. Stoking the writing fires. Striking the old gray matter into full drive…you get the idea.

Part of what pushes me to write is my own warped sense of reality. Yup. I have a warped mind, but don’t tell my husband because he tells me I do and I keep denying it. Anyway, I love to write about places that exist only in a briefest flicker of memory tucked in a hidden part of our minds. You know, Avalon, Atlantis, Lemuria, Camelot. Creating these places as they might have been and populating them with characters who each have a story to tell is what I love. Ideas run through my mind daily and trying to shape them into some semblance of a story that my readers might enjoy is one of the motivating factors of my writing.

The other thing that motivates me…ahhh, I wish you could see and feel what I do at this moment. I’m sitting in our front yard inhaling the scent of lilacs, watching birds of all kinds dive to the feeder and fight for the peanuts on the ground. A gentle breeze blows the cedar trees that surround our house and yard, while cows low a mellow sound in the distance. Once in awhile one of our resident red squirrels scatters the birds from the ground as he runs in for a peanut and darts back to his hideaway under our flowering bush. (Don’t ask me what kind of bush. The flowers are pink, that’s all I know.) Soon, I’ll go down to the barn, where the sun will be setting beyond the forest of trees and my goats will run to greet me—crying all the way. As they all get their hugs and I put fresh straw on their bed, peace will swell within me. The peace of nature at its best and the love of animals that I’ve raised from kids. That is the other half of what motivates me.

Now you know my secret. I’m fed by the love of a mystical story and the surroundings of 50 acres of nature that I’m fortunate enough to enjoy every day. I’ve told you what motivates me to write 1000’s of words a day, (okay, 100’s of words a day) now, I’d love to hear what gets you motivated. If you’re not a writer, that’s okay as well. Share with us what motivates you to make it through your day, whether you’re a stay-at-home mom, career woman, student…whatever.

Oh, gosh, I had better not forget to promote my books. My two most recent are The Crystal of Light and A Witch’s Lament and you can find information about them here: www.catherineannecollins.com/books.htm

Thanks again for having me, Hannah. I hope everyone has a great day.

Finding Time for Mef by JM Griffin

Writing is a wonderful outlet, though when it comes time to stop, I often find it difficult. The words keep flowing, but the body says “Enough”. How do I overcome this problem? It isn’t as if I don’t try, but when my eyes cross instead of my t’s, then I know I need fresh air, some exercise and a good cup of tea. Prying myself away from the computer screen is the easy part. Staying away from it for at least a brief period of time is what’s hard. When I do return to work, though, I find that I have a fresh view of what I’m doing and where my characters are heading. Since I’m a pantser, this is fairly easy. But, I digress….


Finding me-time can take planning, strategy and doesn’t always work out the way I want it to. Since I have no children at home you would think this is easy, right? Wrong! It takes more planning. At least when I had young ones running around, I could acquire a half hour of quiet time (you know, nap time for the little darlings). At this juncture, I find the only time I take for myself is when I am driving to and from the market or to Walmart. Since I drive across a causeway sandwiched between two bodies of the Scituate Reservoir, I find serenity in the scene and often take a few moments to stop and admire the view. I guess that counts as “Me-Time” in a way.

I can’t stress how important it is to take time for yourself. Even if it is fleeting, it allows your brain to recuperate and energize. Something we all need. So take a break, plop your feet on your desk, look out your window and dream of the place you would like to be most. Let the image sink in, surround you and block out all the stresses in your life. Now, don’t you feel better? I sure do!

For more information about JM Griffin and her titles please visit her site http://jmgriffin.net/

New Book Trailer

Pretty isn't it.  Hoping it's still right there when I post this.  The book will be out May 25th.

Boy - it's not easy to find pix that go with Historicals.  I'm slowly trying to put together a collection of pix but mostly they're just undatable(is that even a word?) pix.  Vague things that no one can say - that's the wrong time period - when they see them.  Realized it'll be a long time before I get up enough pix to try to do one on my own.  The mind boggles over what there might be for any of my Murray tales.  Oh, there are pix of men in kilts but they are so obviously modern they can't pass the vague test.  And the hours it takes to scroll through the sites that offer Public Domain pictures are ones taken away from what I should be doing - not to mention the strain on the eyes.

Anyhoo - hope you like this one.

If He's Wild by Hannah Howell

Organization.

No there's no reason my cat Jackson is there except that he looks like I feel a lot of days.  Lazy and easily annoyed by anyone bugging me - like an idiot owner with a camera who ought to be writing so that she can buy me all the best food and toys.

I have decided that I need to get organized.  At least a little.  So far this past month I've misplaced my character cards - the large cards on which I write down all descriptive phrases and facts concerning the hero or heroine.  I could only find the one for the secondary characters.  So - hours of searching ensued and I found them holding my place in a huge book with pictures of houses in it.  Why were they there?  Because I was reading the book at my desk and grabbed the first thing at hand to hold my place while I went and did something else.  Upon returning I obviously moved the book because it was in my way.  I've also lost or misplaced my rather large holder of cds for playing music in the car, my inhaler, a lot of e-mails my friends in the Rhode Island Romance Writers group sent me to answer a question about superstitions so I could write a clever blog about it, plus some pix I took( I know they're on the computer somewhere but which folder?) and --

Well, you begin to get the picture.  I seem to live on the edge of utter chaos.  Strangely enough the papers I need for the far too many conferences I signed up to go to this year are all neatly in a folder - marked clearly, and in the file drawer of my desk.  My actual manuscript in the process of being written is in just the right place and I can put my hands on research for 1479 Scotland - the setting of my current WIP - in a heartbeat.  My CDs and DVDs are all organized as are my bookshelves, research papers, and writing tips.
Anything beyond that and it becomes a crap shoot.  Paperwork done or needing to be done while I am working on the next book?  Easily lost.  Notes on a phone call I just got, especially if it interrupted me while I was working on a scene?  Who knows.  Things I printed out because they could be useful in some future story?  The gremlins ate them or they joined all those missing socks that never escape the dryer. The diningroom table?  Buried beneath weeks of mail and magazines and catalogs.   Hence saying I am on the edge of chaos.

Solution - get organized.  Question - when?  Also - can I do it?  When I'm writing I get very, very focused on that and that alone.  I may have a nice conversation with you on the phone but if you've interrupted me while I was writing I might not recall much of it after I hang up and have been back at work for a bit.  Did I say I'd do something?  Better remind me.  I can organize but am obviously very choosy about what I organize, thus the ever encroaching chaos around me. 

So I have decided to give organization a try.  Hopefully it will work out for me better than all my attempts at clear, complete, and well-charted plotting did.  I will organize one thing every morning.  Morning being the time when I am not really fit for writing.  My Muse likes to sleep late.(Wish I could do the same)  It can't be any harder than writing, can it?  Actually, for a pantser like myself it could be a lot harder but I need those hours I waste looking for something.  Not to mention the fact that not being able to find something you want becomes a little nagging worry in your head and that certainly doesn't help you concentrate on the old WIP.  So wish me luck.  I am about to confront the devil Chaos and wrestle it into submission.  I'm giving myself a month, making lists, and checking items off as I progress so that I can be inspired to continue.  I figure by the end of a month I will either have made a very good dent in the chaos or will be in the process of spending hours trying to find where I put those lists.

Nerds that rock by Jessica Andersen

Nerds that rock (and fight, fly, investigate, and do other very cool things)

Mayan lore and modern science warn that 12/21/2012 could bring a global cataclysm … a threat that is far more real than we imagine. Dark forces stand poised to overrun the earth and crush humanity beneath a vicious rule of terror and blood sacrifice. Our only hope rests with a group of saviors living in secret among us: modern magic-wielding warriors called the Nightkeepers.

Now, in the last few years before the 2012 doomsday, these magi must find and win their destined mates in order to protect the barrier of psi energy that forms humanity’s last line of defense against an ancient and powerful enemy.

Hi all!

(Waves.) Thanks to Hannah for letting me hang out at her e-home, and to you out there for joining me today as I celebrate the release of Demonkeepers!

It’s funny—although I love reading historical romance (Hannah, Elizabeth Hoyt, and Connie Brockway are among my faves), I always swore I wouldn’t ever write a historical because of the research involved … and then I ended up writing a series that is set in modern day, but draws heavily on the ancient Maya. Go figure!

The new book, Demonkeepers, is particularly close to my heart because at its core, it’s the story of a pair of nerds coming into themselves and realizing that they’re really only limited by their own self images. Since I’m a nerd with occasional delusions of coolness, Jade and Lucius’s story really speaks to me.

Lucius has been one of my two favorite characters to write throughout the series—he’s an expert in Mayan hieroglyphics, regularly gets himself into academic trouble for believing in the Nightkeepers and the 2012 doomsday, and wants to be somebody’s hero.

It was a real pleasure to finally get to his book—Especially since I was pretty hard on the guy in the first three books, what with the whole possessed-by-a-Mayan-demon thing and his habit of doing Very Bad Things whilst under the demon’s influence.

Jade, too, has been locked into librarian mode. Even though she’s a Nightkeeper by birth, and has some magical skills, she’s a member of a non-warrior bloodline and to her disgust is most useful playing support staff to the other magi.

And then, the one time she and Lucius broke the rules and had crazy monkey sex in the archive … well, more Bad Things happened, making them seriously leery about going back there. But when they’re reunited in a wild race to unlock the ancient library of the Nightkeepers’ ancestors and rescue the sun god from the underworld, they learn that they’ve been warriors all along … and that crazy monkey sex can sometimes lead to Very Good Things.

I’m guessing you can tell that I love these two together. In fact, I’m a big fan of The Nerd That Roars in books, TV and movies. I’m an X-Files geek from way back, think everyone deserves a Clark Kent-to-Superman moment, and am totally jonesing for next week, when we (finally!) get a new episode of Bones. And in the ‘new reads’ department, Linnea Sinclair’s brand new Rebels and Lovers has a most excellent glasses-wearing, data-crunching hero.

So, to celebrate rocking nerds, warmer weather, greener grass, and the release of Demonkeepers, I’m giving away a signed copy of Demonkeepers today. All comments are entered to win—name your favorite brainiac hero or heroine, comment on the books, or just say ‘hi.’ I’ll be here all day, and would love to hear from you!

For more information on Demonkeepers and the other Nightkeeper novels, please check out www.JessicaAndersen.com.

Hooray! March is over.

This has been a hellish month weather-wise.  Most of the time has been spent hoping all that water falling from the sky won't get in the house and then mopping up what does.  Three nor'eastahs(as we call them here) in a row giving us the wettest March on record.  I like breaking records but could have lived my life out quite happily without breaking that one.

Oh - and that's a Scottish castle.  Trying to remind myself that I need to get cracking on my next Murray tale.  Simon and Ilsabeth are not happy with me right now.  Trying to explain that I need to keep an eye on my home as the winds hit near hurricane force and rip the shingles off the roof is not cutting it with them.  They say - posh(always wanted to use that word), we need to get it on now, woman. My telling them to stuff it and not to get their knickers in a twist, that I need to mop up water in the basement again, gains me little sympathy.  I think they're responsible for the very loud deadline clock now ticking away in my head.  I will be sure to make them pay for that.

Oh, I have managed to get some things done on it but nowhere near what I had hoped to accomplish by now.  My cunning plan was to get it done by May 1 so I would have tons of time to work in the garden before the weeds grew bigger than I am.  Not looking good for that.  There'll be a lot, too, with all this rain. That's the annoying thing about weeds.  While all the plants you want to grow are struggling not to drown or get some disgusting mold, fungus thingy, weeds are popping up all over the place. Even under the water covering the back garden I can see those evil, smirking, green dandelion leaves.

The few times I have gotten to sit down and write I've found the story is behaving in a very peculiar manner.  I never planned to have children in this book.  Yet, there's my heroine, preparing to go to Simon and what - or who - should creep up to her campfire but two orphans.  Even as I'm scribbling away, I'm thinking, where the heck did they come from and what am I going to do with them?  My brain struggles to figure out how they'll fit into the story as my evil-minded Muse snickers in my ear.

Now - when that happens, I have 2 choices.(aside from smacking my Muse upside the head)  Scratch them right out of there or let the Muse rule and do a little replanning.(Notice that I didn't use the word plotting - something I'm not all that comfortable with)  I know they're going to cause a problem or two if only in my ability to give Simon and Ilsabeth a lot of alone-and-get-hot-and-sweaty time.  The smart thing would be to scratch them or even just bring them into the story later.  But, when the story takes a turn I hadn't seen it taking, I'm reluctant to stop it.  There's a part of me that thinks this is the way it's meant to go.  Even if it does cause a problem or two, there must be a reason why I wrote that twist in there.  I hope.  I pray.  The Muse is not always my friend so we will see.

Well, now that the weather promises to be civil for a week, thus drying up some of the foot or so of water we've gotten in the last couple of weeks, I will return to my writing.  But - as I say - I will find a way to make Ilsabeth and Simon pay for being so pesky while I was busy trying to clean up after storms.  (And spending this whole afternoon waiting for the roofer to come and he's proving to be a no-show)  And I will figure out why those two children appeared.  It will work itself out.  I just don't know how yet.  That is something I know would freak out a number of my writing friends but, although it's got me puzzled, I feel I must go with the flow.  Maybe they will help the cold, just-the-facts-ma'am Simon show his softer side - if he doesn't get too annoyed about the fact that he won't be able to seduce Ilsabeth whenever the mood strikes.(Payback's a bitch, Simon, m'boy. insert evil laughter here.

For all my complaining about the evil weather - I wasn't affected as badly as some.  My cellar didn't flood.  The water was moppable.  I have a couple wet spots on my ceilings below where the water came into the attic and the insurance has already sent a check to help repair the roof.  I may be near a river but the bank is 50' high and it'll take Armageddon or 2012 to make me worry about the waters rising high enough to get me.   Others here in New England have suffered far, far more than I have and I send them many prayers that recovery will go smoothly and that they haven't lost too many of the things they cherish to the water.

As for March - farewell and I won't miss you.  Here's hoping April will be better and summer heat and humidity won't come too soon.

A side note - please tune in on Monday as my guest author will be - Jessica Andersen - author of the 2012 series, a contemporary paranormal about the Mayan's predicted end of days.