Gone Fishin'

I hope your summer is going well! I am about to take a much needed vacation--sort of. I'll be traveling to sign books in stores and talk to some bookstore owners (like everyone else, they've had a tough economic year, so if you can get there and buy a book to read buy the pool, it would be much appreciated). But the fun part is that while I'm on the road I'll get to catch up with some dear friends and even spend a little time fishing on the beach with relatives. See you guys again in July, but meanwhile, you can still catch posts from me and other authors at Supernatural Sisters to discuss the CW hit show "Supernatural" and Deadline Hellions to discuss all things book-related!

Life Imitating Art

Last week was a new first for me in my writing career--I was on TV, being interviewed about my book, Baggage Claim (by Tanya Michna). Right before I went on the air, I remembered that in a book I had out in 2005 (Spicing It Up, an award-winning romantic comedy) I wrote about a chef who had to go on TV to discuss a book she'd written. Which got me to wondering about my other characters, the things I've researched for them to do or the places I've researched for them to go that I've never done or been. But maybe I will!

What is something you've read (or even written) in a book that you hope to one day experience yourself?

And by the way, if you're interested in seeing the 3 minute interview, this should work:

Too Good to Be True?

All right, I write romance novels for a living, so a certain faith in happy endings is sort of a prereq for doing the job well. But I still have those cynical moments of wondering if something is too good to be true--usually moments after purchasing something I saw in an infomercial. Tonight, I'm doing a cooking experiment. Part of me is giddy with joy over finding a new recipe that sounds this good; the rest of me is skeptical. Just where is the fine line between buoyant optimism and gullible stupidity?

I love a good risotto--but it's a pain in the butt to make. It requires lots of patience and lots of stirring. The times I've made it where it turned out as delicious as it deserved were tag-team efforts, such as when my best friend and I were chatting and laughing and taking turns stirring and when my sister and I made it, alternately pouring white wine into the pot and stealing a glass for ourselves.

Last time I was in the pediatrician's office, scanning a magazine, I found a "quick" and "easy" recipe for shrimp and asparagus risotto. I love shrimp, I love asparagus, and as a mom with two kids home for the summer and books out with two publishing houses, I am easily seduced by "quick" and "easy." Even though these are two words one does not associate with a good risotto.

What about you? When was the last time you attempted something (or purchased something) despite your suspicion that it was "too good to be true?" Did it pleasantly exceed your expectations or reinforce the theory that, if it SEEMS too good to be true, it is?

I'll let you know how the risotto turns out...

The Morning Post

Okay, I know it might not look like I blog often, but that's so not true. Why, just this morning I've already published blog posts over at Supernatural Sisters (a tongue-in-cheek look at the life lessons we've learned from Sam and Dean) and Deadline Hellions (where I talk about popular themes revisited in literature and one of my faves, Beauty and the Beast.)

See, I do post! You can click here or here for further proof and to add your own comments.

If You're Anywhere Near Atlanta...

I have a reading/booksigning for my new novel BAGGAGE CLAIM. It's Thursday, May 14, from 6-7 at the GA Tech bookstore. Hope to see you there!

The Lost weekend (not that kind)

Okay, so a certain friend of mine has been razzing me about my reluctance to join the current milennium, by which I mean joining Facebook. When my women's fiction novel Necessary Arrangements came out in 2007, my publisher asked if I had a MySpace page. Truthfully, I didn't think I had the time for one and wasn't sure most of my audience even used MySpace. My friend and I had a similar conversation about Facebook a few months ago as we anticipated the release of my novel Baggage Claim (which hits stores on May 5!) Well, she called me last week to say, "You know how we doubted many of your target readers were on Facebook? We were wrong--everyone's on Facebook." So last Friday, I bit the bullet.

I spent time inputting info, searching my computer for photos to upload, then friending people, then looking through all their photos and info. I read through the list of people who were in my high school graduating class (nearly 300 of the 400+ grads). There were a few things I had (and still have difficulty) figuring out, but my friends were in double digits by the end of the first day. And then I began getting requests from people I've never heard of--which is in no way a bad thing, but I realized just how quickly and exponentially my little personal community could grown. A weird little personal community. I mean, some of the funny, saavy authors I've met in my decade in RWA write erotica for a living. So they're posting their bookcovers and comments on my wall. Meanwhile, I have a young niece friended and a cousin who's fourteen. Er... Is it really good to have a community that includes your favorite drinking buddy from college and your pastor? Your husband and an old college boyfriend? (These are hypthetical examples, mind you.) It's fascinating and addictive, but also time consuming. If I don't have time to update my own websites and blog, do I have time to receive constant updates like "I am now stuck in traffic on my way to the store." "I am currently at the store and can't remember what I came to get." "I'm in the check out now and, oy!, prices today."

So what about you? Have a facebook page? What do you think the pros and cons are?

Card-ja Vu

Okay, clearly I am losing my mind. I stood in the card aisle of my local grocery store for twenty minutes, trying to find the perfect Mother's Day Card for my Mom. (I have a fantastic mom.) Whenever I look for cards for my husband on Valentine's Day or our anniversary, I can never find one I like. With my mom, I am having a completely different problem. I saw several that made me laugh out loud, cards that seemed PERFECT for her! And I'd reach for one only to ask myself, wait, that card really does seem perfect. As if it's written just for her. As if I might have even--hold on a sec, is that the card I got her last year?

So I'd put the card back and reach for my 2nd favorite which by that time also seemed familiar. Because I'd read it a few seconds ago? Or because I sent it a few years ago? I don't know! I'm experiencing some kind of Hallmark-themed deja vu. All I can tell you for certain is that I left the card aisle empty-handed.

Dear greeting card companies, please do me a favor. In publishing, books have a copyright page. Sometimes reprints are given new covers and the only thing that saves me from buying the exact same book four or five times (I stink at remembering titles) is looking at the copyright and going, "This isn't a new release! This is from 2003!" I would appreciate if you could start printing copyright dates on the backs of your cards. At least then I have a fighting shot at knowing whether I sent Mom the card two years ago or not. Thank you. Sincerely, Tanya

Don't forget: Mother's Day is May 10, 2009

Summer Vacation on the Cheap

Summer is fast approaching (there have been a few recent afternoons with temps in the high eighties when it feels as if summer might already be here) and in less than three weeks, my children will be out of school and home with me. All day. Every day. Please excuse me while I breathe into a paper bag...

Traditionally, in that last week of school, teachers start asking the kids, "What will you be doing this summer? Are you going anywhere?" My dad has old home movies of his family driving across the country during the summer, visiting the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. Of course, that was before gas was two dollars a gallon or more. I don't have the money to whisk my kids to Disney for the summer, nor do I have the cash to visit Italy (although I can laze away an afternoon re-reading Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Tuscan-set Breathing Room and then make a nice lasagna for dinner).

I want my children to have nice summer memories, but I also want to have enough cash to be able to pay for groceries this fall. So hear are a few tips for having a fun (and affordable) summer:

1. Local pools. A lot of people we know spend money to go to the White Water amusement park fifteen miles away and if you can afford the $36 per person admission, enjoy! Those park employees need job security, too. On the other hand, we can use our subdivision pool for absolutely free and a lot of local community pools for nominal charges of 1-5 dollars. Granted, White Water has thrilling ginornmous slides, but my kids are too short for some of those and hate standing in the long lines (and heat) anyway. If you do think you want to spend time at big local attractions this summer--whether it's an amusement park, zoo or museum--consider getting a season's pass early on. That way, you can go back throughout the summer for free and the pass may pay for itself before June is even over.

2. Don't overlook your local libraries! Okay, I'm an author who desperately needs people to buy her books in order to pay for electricity and water, so I heartily endorse buying new books. But let's be honest. None of us have a limitless wallet. I regularly buy my children new books for their collections, but we also make big use of the library. It allows us to check out new authors and strange stories we probably wouldn't have spent money on yet and it allows us to read in bulk. Also, the library regularly sets up free events like children's story time and crafts. Plus, books aren't the only thing you can check out! Last summer, the kids and I checked out (at no cost) the movies Neverending Story, E.T., several animated Disney classics, the entire "Henry" the gecko series on learning about animals (educational and vastly entertaining), the original Errol Flynn Robin Hood movie and lots of more modern releases too.

3. Scavenger hunts. If you have a dollar store in your area, you can find some silly, kid-friendly novelty items. What I do is get a few of those and then we have a pirate day (bandanas on our heads, fishsticks for lunch). My kids get a kick out of strange little things anyway but it was even more fun (and killed more time) when I made them hunt for the "treasure". You could dig up your backyard, bury it and make a map if you want, but my husband would throttle me if I dug up our yard. Plus, it's too dang hot. So I wrote up word clues that were hidden all over the house, one leading to the other until they found the booty. The extra bonus? This gave them lots of reading practice without it feeling like homework.

4. Free movies! Although they aren't advertised through the regular channels (such as the internet or theater phone line) most of the movie theaters around here open early on weekdays in June and July and show free G and PG movies at 9 or 10 in the morning that end before the regular noon showings. You just have to find out what theaters near you partipate and then go to the ticket box to request a schedule. These aren't new movies, but we've discovered a few that my kids were too young to appreciate when the film first came out. In a few cases, they've seen the movie before, but it's still fun to sit in the dark (and blessedly cool air conditioning) and catch it on the big screen.

5. Church camps. Several of the churches around here offer two to three hour morning "camps" where the kids sing, paint and play with water balloons. All of them include some praise and worship, but most of them aren't denominationally specific and welcome kids whether they're members of that church or not. The ones we went to last year, in lieu of a registration fee, asked for a donation for their food pantry. My son and I went to the grocery store where I sent him up and down the aisles in search of cans and boxes advertised "buy one, get ohe free". Which helped again with the reading skills, spending time together, and teaching him about giving back to the community.

So what about you? And cost-cutting tips for enjoying the summer?

A look at six years...

By strange coincidence, I sold my first book--a now out of print comedy The Maid of Dishonor--a few weeks after I gave birth to my first child and it actually hit bookstore shelves a few weeks before I gave birth to my second child. (Publishing moves pretty slow, plus I had my kids pretty close together.)

Well, the baby of our family turns six this week. Whilst I was ruminating on this (in the form of where did six years go? I'm getting old! Or at the very least older and holy cow, at the rate the kids are growing, they'll both be taller than me before they finish elementary school!
My ruminating, btw, can be a bit spastic... )

Anyway, when I realized that the kiddo was six, I realized that I've also been a published author for six years, not counting that strange year plus limbo of having sold books but not yet having had any released. Parenting is a tricky business and you often wory that there are so many things you could/should be doing better; publishing is also a tricky business that can make a writer--no matter what level they've reached in their career--feel as if all progress has ground to a halt. So this week I've been taking a look back. What, as an author, have I accomplished in the past six years? What, as a mother-child team, have we accomplished in that same amount of time?

Little One can now tie shoes without parental assistance (and will in fact protest parental assistance so loudly that even the neighbors are aware of this milestone.) In fact, Little One has hit several more "can do it myself" achievements this year which would include showering without help if only I didn't require that all the shampoo actually be rinsed out. My kids feel that I'm very picky on this--apparently, they prefer to take the suds with them as some sort of headpiece souvenir.

I've sold to three different publishers a combination of novels, short stories and nonfiction.

I've received fan mail.

Little One wrote (and illustrated) an entire book called Pam-I-Am Likes Blue Eggs and Ham. The rhyming prose and pictures were delightful. We'll tackle the concept of plagiarism in the next six years...

I've not only had books published, they've been published in German, Korean, Czech, Polish, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek and a few others of which I am uncertain. I did find out that one of my milder romances--a novella in which I wrote absolutely no love scenes--was given the rather racy title "The Sins of His Youth". And I've noticed that some of my European cover art is a bit racier as well!

My Little One is blossming into a very independent thinker with distinct opinions and personality quirks. Which alternately adorable and gratifying--except when I'm being told I'm wrong and being treated as if I'm kind of stupid.

However, readers, librarians, aspiring writers and fellow publishing professionals take me seriously enough that I've not only been invited to present workshops and all-day seminars but, this past year, to be a featured welcome speaker at the conference that was my very first I'm-trying-to-learn-how-to-write convention ten years ago. So, in that respect, I've come a long away baby!

So has Little One. The child who seemed content to crawl and showed little interest in learning to walk now has four sports trophies. The bookshelf has always been full of kids' stories, but now a lot of them can be read without my assistance. We still have the nightlight, but we no longer have to leave the hall light on for half the night and it's been months since I woke up to a small, scared child asking to sleep in my room.

Some days, I probably seem frazzled to anyone who talks to me. I am underpaid, definitely overworked, and only about half sure at any given moment that I know what the hell I'm doing. But when I stop, take a deep breath and consider my life, I always reach the same conclusion: I have the two best jobs in the world.

Recs for Younger Readers

It's pretty standard for me to mention what I've been reading (this week, the nonfiction collection Way Off the Road, a compilation of stories about quirky small towns--including one so small they didn't have enough blocks for a parade route). But perhaps even more important than encouraging adults to read is encouraging kids to read

(BTW, in keeping with my total adoration of actor Nathan Fillion and my lifelong love of books, I direct you to this worthy cause.)

For elementary school readers, my son currently recommends the irreverent chapter book The Pencil of Doom by Andy Griffiths, as well as multiple books in the Magic Tree House and Geronimo Stilton series. My kindergartener suggests The Pigeon Wants a Puppy (everyone in my house is in love with Mo Willems' mad genius) as well as timeless standbys Green Eggs and Ham and Go, Dogs, Go!

I've been reading quite a bit of YA lately, including Saving Juliet (contemporary fantasy with bonus Shakespeare thrown in), Notes on A Near Life Experience (I couldn't put it down until it came to an abrupt end, forcing me to. And actually, to call it abrupt is unfair of me since the concise prose and artistically disjointed style were part of its charm. I'm just pouting because I wanted more) and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, which managed to incorporate both poignant emotion and wit. And this is an excellent opportunity to remind you to look for Tricia Mills' debut YA novel, Heartbreak River, in stores this month!

Prime summer reading days are fast approaching--stock up so that you have something fun to read poolside, but make sure the kids in your life are well-stocked with great books, too.

Random Obseration #413

Judging my by house, apparently there's a universal rule that carpet lint must always be disturbingly spider-shaped so as to give me a mini-heart-attack as well as make me feel guilty that I didn't vaccum during that last manuscript deadline.