Comicon, where else can you chat with the Grim Reaper

Friday and Saturday I did panels at the Phoenix Comicon. I've got to say, it was a memorable experience.  Here I am chatting with the Grim Reaper. Turns out that Grim is a fan. Who knew, right? I guess even Death needs a laugh once in awhile.

Here I am with my fairy wings, getting ready for my panel on the fair folk with awesome authors, Janni Lee Simner and Aprilynne Pike.  Great panel and pretty well attended considering  it was at the same time as William Shatner's panel. (It never fails; whenever I teach at a conference, my class falls at the same time as a class I want to go to.)  But this is what made my outfit extra awesome.  Author and jewelry maker Shelia Nielson made me a Chrysanthemum Everstar fairy necklace.  Here is a closer view of it:

And if you're reading this before midnight Sunday night head on over to her blog because she's giving away a really cool mermaid necklace to go with her book Forbidden Sea. (I'm already jealous of whoever wins it.)
http://www.windwaithemermaid.blogspot.com/2012/05/forbidden-sea-mermaid-contest-giveaway.html

Why I hate graduation decorations

Okay, here's the horrible thing about parenting.  You put in 18 years of work, love, and care into your children--nurturing them from the time they were nothing but a lump of cells, and then when your children graduate from high school--Bam!--they leave home. FOREVER.

I see no reason to celebrate this event. I cried for two weeks when my oldest daughter graduated. When my oldest son graduated, I sobbed all day--and I knew he was living at home while he went to college for the first year.

My point is, why do retailers think we need balloons and streamers to remind us of the impending end of childhood?

This is what retailers think I see when I walk into the grocery store:

This is what I actually see:

Yeah, and that in a nutshell (or a piece of cake) is why I hate graduation decorations.

In Which I lose again

It's that special time of year--the time when I lose the Whitney Award to someone else. (This year, to Rob Wells for his book Variant.) As is the tradition (that I started, by the way. I am an experienced loser.) the losers gather after the event to drown their sorrow in cheesecake and to glower.  Personally, I think it's the funnest thing that happens at the Whitneys.

Here I am with the lovely Michele Holmes, Julie Wright, Jenni James, Jessica Day George and Theresa Sneed. A fine class of losers if I do say so myself.

And here's another picture where Melanie Jacobson joined us in the cheesecake circle.  You can see Dan Wells is trying to sneak into the picture--because yes, we are that cool. But he is totally not part of our in crowd. True, he lost his category, but then he went and blew his photo op opportunity by winning best book. Whatever, Dan. Maybe you can join us next year.

In which I hop and give away a fairy godmother

Actually, I'm not hopping--you are. Which is a good thing because frankly I'm too tired.  Inspired Kathy, who put this blog hop together, told me that I'm not allowed to give you long lists of things to do in order to enter my give-away.  However, she didn't say I couldn't require you to walk into your nearest bookstore, grab one of my novels to your bosom and shout, "At long last I'll own a Janette Rallison novel! I can die happy now!"

Yeah, do that.

And also leave a comment telling me a fairy tale you'd like to see in my next fairy godmother book. Once I get done with the four novels I'm working on now (Yes, four. Someone shoot me.)I'll need to figure out where Chrysanthemum Everstar will send the next poor hapless girl she's trying to help.

May the magic ever be in your favor.

Deep thoughts while I wait for Friday

Inspired Kathy just emailed me to remind me that I signed up for a blog-hop giveaway on Friday. At first I was a little reluctant to do a blog hop, as hopping sounds dangerously close to exercising, and I do enough of that wandering around the house trying to find my car keys. (Don't laugh. One day you will be old, too.)

I didn't want to put up some time-consuming and perhaps meaningful post just to rip it down Thursday night. So instead, I will leave you with a few deep thoughts that I'm sure you'll want to ponder until then.


Are entrances automatically entrancing?

Shouldn't 12:00 pm follow 11:00 pm?

If caterpillars turn into butterflies, what turns into margarine-flies?

How did Harry Potter ever find his invisibility cloak once he set it down?

If all books become ebooks, will trees that are no longer being chopped down for paper still not make a sound when they fall in the forest?

Will I be able write an 80,000 word book by Sept. 1?

That is the most questionable question of all . . .

Book Signings

My first book signing happened a few months after I'd given birth to 13 pounds of twins. So beforehand, I went shopping to find a magical dress that would hide the fact that I still looked like I was carrying around an undisclosed child in my stomach.

I still remember the sales clerk's reaction when I told her about the event.  She looked at me dreamily and said, "I've always wanted to do a book signing."

I've thought about that statement several times over the years. During some signings, I wish I'd taken her name and number and hired her to do mine for me.

Because yes, some of them really are that bad.  Once only one person walked into the bookstore during the entire signing. (On the bright side, I did sell him a book, so in that regard it was my only 100% successful signing.)  Another time the bookstore obviously forgot I was coming. They'd done no advertising and just set me up in a chair in the corner of the store and ignored me. And I'll never forget the time I brought a pen with golden ink so my signature would be distinctive. It was distinctive all right. It leaked all over the books.

If you have a bucket list with Do a Book Signing written on it, let me save you some trouble. Choose a store, set up a table, and sit there for an hour or two while people rush by you avoiding eye contact. Then cross book signing right off your bucket list.

That said, I'll be doing two book signings in the next week. Yes, actually I am a glutton for punishment, why do you ask? (No, I'm just joking about that. Both places I'm signing are awesome, or trust me, I wouldn't have agreed to it.)

Utah friends:

Friday, May 4th 5:00-6:30 p.m.
The Provo Marriott Hotel
101 West 100 North
 Provo, Utah 84601

A ton of other authors will be there too. Literally, a ton. Although none as wonderful as me, so don't you dare go stand in their lines first. Just saying . . .

Arizona  friends:

Monday, May 7th at 7:00
Changing Hands Bookstore
6428 S McClintock Dr.
Tempe, AZ 85283

Authors Shelley Coriell and Amy Dominy will also be there. Changing Hands is promoting us as Funny Girlz, so one of us should do something amusing. I'm voting for Shelley, because she's a new author and therefore should be subjected to hazing.

Truth in advertising, why writers are needed

This morning when I got the strawberries out of the fridge, I noticed that the package said they were “limited edition”.  I hate to disagree with packaging, but how can strawberries be limited editions?   Does this mean I should expect strawberries to disappear from the grocery store shelves soon? The earth made them for a few millennia, but it will be discontinuing them?

Or did the package mean that those particular strawberries won’t be around long? Eat them now before they mold.  If so, doesn’t that go without saying?

It made me think about all the other inaccurate packaging that products use.  For example:

Good and Plenty

Good yes, but only plenty if you have no children. If you have children, they will descend on you as soon as they hear the sound of the box opening and you will end up with only three pieces of candy. Perhaps they should have gone with Good and Adequate If You Don’t Have a Sweet Tooth.

Life cereal.

Who came up with this product name and why?  I’m guessing it’s probably because we all wish our life was like Lucky Charms—full of rainbow marshmallows that are magically delicious—but instead life is actually more like crumbly little squares that aren’t nearly as sweet as we’d like.  It's life, baby, get used to it.

Hershey’s Kisses

Unfortunately, these kisses are a little too waxy tasting. It makes me wonder who Hershey was kissing. If someone is going to be kissing my lips, I want it to be Lindt. Almond Roca would be acceptable too.

Thin Mints

These have yet to make me thin, although I keep trying.  (You can see this blog has swerved into thoughts on chocolate and will probably not leave. Chocolate. Mmmm.)

Snickers

I love the candy bar but it makes you wonder what other names were tossed out in the marketing meeting before they decided on this one:  Scorns? Scoffs? Disdainful Deriding? General Mockery?

What is this candy bar really trying to say, and does it have anything to do with what people think of your rear end after you eat too many?

Almond Joys

Okay, this packaging has it right.  I’m pretty sure this is what joy actually tastes like.

Suddenly, I have an overwhelming urge to eat chocolate. But anyway, this is just one more example of how writers are clearly needed in the world.

Write on, folks.

So you've written your book--now what?

One of my most common emails (that I get, not that I send--just clarifying) is from people who have completed their novel and they want to know what to do next.

My first response is: rewrite it.

I don't tell people that because I don't want to discourage them. They'll get plenty of discouragement from agents/editors/publishers. Besides, for all I know said optimistic writer has already rewritten the thing 17 times.

I usually tell people about agentquery.com It's a great resource for authors. You can search agents by genre and the site gives you all sorts of useful information like the agent's submission guidelines and what sort of chocolate to send in order to bribe them. Okay, the website doesn't really tell you about agents' favorite chocolate, but it should. If I was an agent, that's the first thing I'd have listed there.

Anyway, here is the checklist I should give people before they submit anything.

1) Have you read any books on writing? If the answer is no, you're not ready to submit. If the answer is yes, but you've only read one or two, you're also probably not ready to submit. Writing is like playing the piano. Most people who are self-taught are not going to be all that good at it.

Here are some great writing books for novelists:

Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King
Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain
Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham (Actually anything by Jack Bickham)
GMC Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Deborah Dixon (You need to go to the publisher's website for this one.)
Anything by Gary Provost
Character and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card

If you write non-fiction or picture books, get and read the books that pertain to those genres. Ditto for romance books, westerns, whatever. Blogs on writing are also very helpful. For example, if you need to write an action scene involving angry grapefruit, you'll want to read my last blog.

2) How many times have you gone over the manuscript yourself?

If the answer is twice, you're not ready to submit. For first time novels, you need to send that baby out to lots of readers for critiques. Don't just send it to your mom or friends. They'll tell you that it's great--and they might even believe it. After all, they love you. You need to have a network of fellow writers or well-read friends that can give you tough love. If you don't have that, pay for it. Revising is the difference between selling and not selling.

3) How long have you let the manuscript sit, unread?

If it's only a few days or a couple of weeks, you're not ready to submit. One of the truly weird things about writing is that you can't see your own mistakes when you write them. This goes for missing words but it also applies to unclear dialogue, bad description, etc. The story works beautifully in our minds, and so that's what we see on the paper. Let your manuscript sit for a month. Two or three months is better. (Which is why it's great to send a manuscript to an editor and then not get the revision letter for a couple of months. By that time you can look at it with fresh eyes.)


4) Have you ever gone to a writers' workshop or conference?

If not, why not? If you want to publish you probably should go to a conference that addresses your genre. You'll meet people who know about the industry. You'll get advice from pros, and you'll get tips about what's selling and what's not. If paranormal is a hard sell (which it is right now, by the way) and you're pitching your paranormal romance, you may run into problems. Not knowing why something is rejected is one of the most frustrating things about this business. Stay up to date about what's going on.

Besides, a good writers' conference will energize you. That's why people go back year after year.

5) Have you bought all my books?

Actually, this step might not really help you, but it would help me so I'm including it.

Happy submitting!

What I'm doing now

You'd think that after writing twenty plus novels it wouldn't be hard anymore. Maybe it wouldn't be if I kept writing the same novel over and over again. (Hey it worked for Barbara Cartland . . .) But unfortunately I keep writing different novels and the one I'm working on right now is an action novel. Yep, action.

Action, I've decided, is hard for me to write. I mean it's such a visual thing in a non visual medium. Plus, I've never really cared about fight scenes or car chases. Give me witty banter or romantic smoldering looks any day.

I was trying to make my daughter help me with a good guy-bad guy fight scene for the Erasing Time sequel and needed something to stand in for my people, so I grabbed a marker and some grapefruit that were on the counter.

Yes, This is what I've resorted to:


I'm pretty sure Ian Fleming didn't use this method. Sigh. And in case you're wondering, the pineapple is just an innocent bystander.

The bribery continues

First off, let me say that I really thought I was through bribing blog readers to do random things. I mean, I never intended this blog to be like those What-would-you-do-for-a-Klondike-bar commercials. Although it isn't readily apparent, I have more class than that . . . at least some of the time.

But this time what I'm asking you to do will be really easy. Two seconds of your time.

My engaged daughter called me yesterday to tell me she was chosen as one of the five finalists for a wedding give-away and asked me to ask my friends to vote for her and the son-in-law-apparent. (You know you want to see his picture anyway)

Sooo in a shameless attempt to buy votes I'll be giving away paperbacks of My Fair Godmother (because I have a ton of them) Vote. Leave a comment telling me you did. And I'll give-away a copy of MFG for every four comments I get. In other words, if I have 20 commenters, I'll give away 5 copies of the book. Your chances are good--so take 2 seconds and vote for Asenath and Alex--number 4 at this link:

https://inspiredgiveaway.wufoo.com/forms/q7x3a1/

Oops--the voting doesn't actually have their picture. To see that go to: http://inspiredweddinggiveaway.blogspot.com/
and scroll down to number four. Why does my daughter appear to be checking to see if her fiance has a heartbeat? I have no idea, but there are rumors of vampirism . . .

11 Ways not to start your novel

I'm about to read a lot of first pages from hopeful authors. I've done countless critiques over the years, and so I both look forward to and dread this job.

Opening up the pages of a book is a bit like opening up the front door for a blind date--except that it requires no effort on your part . . . such as doing your hair, or sucking in your stomach so you look thinner, or whatever else you do on your blind dates. (Really, it's none of my business, and I don't want to know.)

The point is, you're hoping for something good and you're often disappointed. In the gentle-hearted spirit that I am well known for (Oh, all right, Sarah Eden still refers to me as Attila the Hun because of a certain edit I did for her) I'm going to offer fellow writers a few tips.

Here are a few ways not to start your novel.

1) With your character waking up.

I wake up at least once a day. You could say I am a veteran at waking up. I never like it when I do it, and I probably won't like it when your character does it either. Give me something more exciting.

2) With your character running away from someone or something.

One would think that this would nicely take care of my first objection, and it would--if I hadn't already seen it about a hundred times. A good chase scene is nice, but not at the beginning of a book because A) I don't know enough about your character to care if they get away and B)I'm pretty certain your main character won't be killed off in the opening scene as that would make for a very short novel. So it isn't really a high tension opening anyway.

3) With huge chunks of back-story.

Yeah, I know, Charles Dickens gave us character life sketches right off, but styles change and this sort of thing doesn't work now. We also don't wear top hats anymore. Go figure.

4) With action that is so confusing I don't know what the heck is going on.

Sometimes an opening starts with people being bombed, or someone being attacked, or just people sitting around talking about other people. Whatever it is, it has to make sense. I'm already doing the brain-intensive job of transforming printed words into a lush and vivid landscape in my mind. Make it easy for me. This isn't the place to be obscure or mysterious.

5) With so many characters I can't keep them straight.

It's always better to start with a limited amount of characters until the reader has time to get people straight. Opening with lots of characters feels like one of those parties where you meet fifteen people at once and you know that no matter how hard you try you won't be able to remember any of their names tomorrow.

6) With a mean character.

Hey, if I'm going to step into a character's skin and be that person for hours or days, I don't want to be someone I don't like. Ditto for stupid characters. And while you're at it, please make me pretty too.

7) With a run-on sentence.

This is akin to getting your first glimpse of your blind date and noticing his shirt is dirty. If he didn't take the time to fix that, the rest of him is probably not going to be much better.

8) With a statement that doesn't have anything to do with anything else.

For example, if you start your first chapter with the sentence: Betty's ghost was not the forgiving type. (Which, by the way, is a great first line. I should use it sometime.)You should let us know about the ghost and why it's holding grudges fairly quickly. Don't go on and on describing Veronica and her trip to the mall. Your reader will be gritting her teeth and thinking, "Who's Betty? Did Veronica kill her? What is her part in all of this? Is this author trying to irritate me?"

Probably not, but the result is the same anyway.

9) With a bland sentence.

I have enough bland sentences in my life already. They're sort of like dust and they settle on everything. If the first sentence isn't good, what are the chances I'm going to find captivating ones later on?

10) With a flashback.

If you need to flashback in the first scene, you probably haven't started your book in the right place. Plus, editors and agents tend to hate flashbacks. Many of them were bitten by flashbacks at some point in life, so you really can't blame them for this prejudice.

11) With the phrase,"The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit." (Apologies to Scott Westerfeld) Okay, it's original, but I have a large supply of cats, and now any time one of them throws up, I think, "Um no . . . I don't think I've ever actually seen the sky that color . . . I wonder what Scott's cats have been eating?"

You just don't want to do that to your reader.

My First Kiss

My first kiss was a bit usual. As a teenager, I loved drama (the kind on stage, not the kind that happened with a bunch of mean girls whispering at their lockers) and when I was 15 I was in a play where my character kissed a guy. I wasn’t allowed to date until I was 16, so kissing wasn’t a familiar activity for me.

Granted, I had thought about kissing. Well, worried about it actually. Because according to the massive amounts of romance novels I had read, the first kiss was really important. Apparently you were supposed to feel all sorts of mystical fire-like sensations that left you dizzy and incoherent.

Plus, I had heard all sorts of horrible tales about people who were bad kissers and the social damage this produced. The problem was, I had no way of knowing whether I was a bad kisser or not. It’s not really the sort of thing you can practice beforehand.

What exactly was a person supposed to do with their lips the whole time? No one had ever told me this vital information.

I don’t remember why I took the part of the girl who kissed a guy in the school play. Perhaps I didn’t thoroughly read the script. Perhaps I thought that the drama coach wouldn’t actually have me kiss a guy—just like drama coaches don’t actually make characters kill other characters in the production.

But no, the teacher wanted a real kiss. And that meant we had to practice the kiss. There is probably no more awkward way to have a first kiss than to have it in a lit auditorium in front of your peers while a teacher yells out stage direction.

Yeah.


That said, I offer my public apologies to Blake Limburg who was a very nice guy and much more adept at kissing than I was. I don’t think I was ever able to look him in the eyes again.

Thankfully, fiction isn’t real life, so my characters have much better first kiss experiences. Here’s Cassidy’s first kiss in my new ebook, Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards.

(SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know which guy Cassidy kisses until you read the book, don't read this scene.)


Josh was still studying me. “You’re not mad at Elise for going after Bob, are you?”

“No. He’s just a friend.”

“Oh.” Josh nodded, considering this. “Is there anyone you like more than a friend?”

My gaze went to Josh’s. Why was he asking? Was he just making small talk or did he have a personal interest in the subject? He was looking at me intently, his blue eyes locked on mine.

I shrugged. “There might be.”

“Anyone I know?”

“Maybe. You know a lot of people.”

Josh put his arm on the back of his seat, his fingers nearly brushing against my shoulder. “What’s he like, this guy?”

Normally I wouldn’t have admitted to anything, but I was tired of all my moments with Josh being ordinary, safe. This was one I was going to seize. “He’s the usual sort of guy that girls get crushes on. Smart. Funny. Really responsible.”

“That’s the usual sort? Why don’t I have girls swarming me?”

“He’s also tall, dark, and handsome,” I added, “Plus he’s got these gorgeous eyes—all deep blue and mystical.” I looked away from him then. I couldn’t keep looking at the eyes I’d just described.

Josh leaned a little closer to me. “A rich guy with a sports car?”

“Not really.”

Josh nodded, his gaze still intense. “Would I approve of you with this guy?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Would you?” I let my gaze slide to his then, just long enough to see him smile. I wasn’t going to say more. I wasn’t about to admit to everything when he hadn’t admitted to anything yet.

“I think I might approve of this guy.” Josh kept smiling. His voice was soft now, as lulling as the heater. “You said Bob didn’t kiss you. Have you ever been kissed?”

“Sure, if you count the time in the fourth grade when Jonny Miller cornered me in the coat closet.”

“No, I’m talking about a real kiss.” Josh moved even closer to me. “You’ll always remember your first real kiss.”

I thought about asking him if he remembered his first real kiss, but on second thought, I didn’t want to hear about any of his past kisses. “You’re probably right,” I said.

“If I was to kiss you now, I’d go down in your personal hall of fame. The opportunity is irresistible.”

And then he kissed me, and it was a real kiss. He pulled me closer. His lips were soft against mine, a question—one that I wanted to answer. In essay form.

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Other-Teenage-Hazards-ebook/dp/B006HN8MSG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330969137&sr=1-1

In which I attempt to bribe you

Okay blog followers, stick with me while I tell you about yet another cause. (This one involves bribery though, so keep reading.)

Leslie is one of my dearest and oldest friends. She is like the perkier, prettier version of me, but with all sorts of graphic designing talent. Plus she is always, always cheerfully helping other people. Really, if I used her as a character in one of my books, readers would think she was unrealistically charitable and they would leave snarky comments on Goodreads saying that people like Leslie don't exist in real life.

Leslie donates her graphic design skills to help nonprofit groups even though she herself has struggled financially all her life. Now she's entered a contest that can give her seed money to start her own business, but she needs people to vote for her dream. (The top ten people will be interviewed by American Family.)

It will take you two minutes or less to register to vote (link below) and then a few seconds to scroll through the top dreams and vote for hers.

Here's where the bribe comes in. If you register and vote for Leslie, (Leave me a comment telling me you did.) I'll send you a free ebook. (Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards or Playing the Field--although if you live near me or will see me at a conference soon, I have a variety of paperbacks you can choose from too.) If you also vote for Leslie for the next four days (You can vote once ever 24 hours--and once you're registered, it only takes a few seconds each day.) I'll promise to send you my next ebook free too. (It will be a rewrite of either Masquerade or Dakota's Revenge, whichever I get to first.)

Here's the link to register: (Leslie's screen popped up when I did this.)

https://longlivedreams.com/?key=lesliesafe%40cox.net

Here's a video Leslie made for the contest that shows her picture

In Which Janette Wants to Save a Chateau

You might think this blog has nothing to do with literature, but trust me, you would be oh so wrong. Have you ever imagined walking through Pemberley or Tara, or any of those mansions that heroines frequently find themselves at? Have you ever played Clue and wondered if houses with conservatories and billiard rooms actually exist?

You want to visit Chateau de Vie. I'll show you a few pictures so you get the idea. A fairy tale theme runs through the mansion, which makes you feel like a princess.

This next picture is of the front stairs. It's got this beautiful mural that I'll show more pictures of at the end of this blog. (You know it's a piece of art when you need four pictures to show it.)

One of the lights

The place has indoor balconies. I totally want an indoor balcony now.

This is one of the dining rooms. My friends who bought the Chateau have been restoring the original paintings. Here you can see the one in this room is being worked on.

Before I post more pictures (Which don't show the really impressive details, by the way) I'll explain a bit about this historic Chandler landmark. (And why I want my blog followers to take one minute and email the Chandler city council.) When the Chateau was built decades ago, Chandler was a rural, sparsely populated place. Since then Chandler has grown up around the Chateau and now it finds itself directly off a major, busy road. Anyone who could afford this sort of mansion wouldn't choose to live so close to a major road. My friends bought the Chateau after it had been foreclosed. A lot of the landscaping had died and vandalism had happened. Because it's on ten acres and situated so close to a major road it's perfect for a wedding reception place. My friends have been working to turn it into one--which is great because then it would be open to the public and so many people could enjoy it.

A few neighbors don't want this to happen. They would rather see the Chateau torn down then to have it turned into a business. Which in my opinion would be destroying a work of art. They've been vocal to the city council, despite the fact that nobody lives close enough to be impacted by the zoning change. (I believe there is some sour grapes in all of this.)

Anyway, I'm urging folks to take a minute of their time and email the Chandler city council at Mayor&Council@ChandlerAZ.gov

Just put in put in your subject line Approve Chateau de Vie and then say that you're for saving the Chateau.

Many thanks from all the people who will be able to enjoy this beautiful building, and pretend they are strolling through some literary setting. Here's more pictures.

This is the billiard room

I totally wanted to find a candlestick and hit Colonel Mustard with it.

It seemed that every room had a fireplace and they had each been created by artisans from exotic countries, or possibly elves. I loved this one:

This library was two stories tall--absolutely huge. Look at those shelves. Seriously, when I walked in the room I wanted to cry out of pure envy. Finally a place I could fit all my books.

Another indoor balcony.

Okay, here are the murals on the front stairs.




Here is a secret passageway. How cool is that? Again, I want one.


And that isn't even all of the downstairs. Anyway, again, this place is a piece of art that should be enjoyed by many. The only way that will happen is if the city council approves of the zoning that will allow it to be used. If you're still reading and you haven't emailed the city council to tell them you support the Chateau, please do so: Mayor&Council@ChandlerAZ.gov

Why writers marry engineers

I've met lots of other writers over the years. I've found three things that many of us have in common.

1) We're daydreamers--otherwise known as having ADD. Hey, what's going on in our imaginations is way more interesting than what's going on in real life. Why should we pay attention to the real stuff? Or remember incidental things like the fact that we were supposed to pick up our kids from school fifteen minutes ago? In my mind, I have been happily living as a member of the Galactican fleet for years.

2) A background in drama. I'm not sure which produces the other. I do know that those drama classes ended up being some of the most helpful classes I took in high school. Drama makes you pay attention to dialogue and it also makes you dig deeply into your character looking for motivation. (Now every time I think about finding motivation, I remember the movie Galaxy Quest. If you haven't seen it, you should. One of my favorite movies, ever.)

3) A surprising amount of us are married to engineers. (Or that type. Adam Rex is married to an astrophysicist, if I'm remembering right.) I have no idea why this is. Opposites attract? Nature's way of protecting the artistic type? (Without my husband, I would probably forget to do things like pay taxes or put the garbage out on the street and would either be dragged off by the IRS or die of some garbage-related disease.) Or perhaps the spouses of engineers are just forced to find an artistic outlet? (A lot of my husband's work is classified so he can't talk about it. I don't mind.)

Whatever the reason, this Dilbert cartoon made me laugh. This is what would actually happen if I worked at my husband's company. Except it would probably also include a galactic space fleet.

Editing mistakes--or: Why, yes, my character does have super powers

Before I published my first book, my editor told me there would be mistakes in it. "No matter how hard we try," she said. "There's no such thing as a perfect book."

At the time I didn't realize how right she was. I get it now, though.

Go ahead, ask me about the hay-straw debacle. (Although I tried to change every reference to horses eating straw in My Unfair Godmother, one still slipped through.)

Or there was that time when my heroine's hands were tied, then untied, then magically retied.

Someone just emailed me and pointed out that I have a character pressing the gas pedal on his motorcycle in Slayers. Did you know that motorcycles don't have gas pedals? I clearly didn't.

A few years ago I got back the rights to my first book, Deep Blue Eyes and Other Lies. After I got over the horror of my bad writing (I wrote the thing 16 years ago. I've improved since then) I went through it, rewrote portions, and put it up as the ebook Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards. I had it copy edited, but the problem was that I also made changes to the manuscript per the copy editor's suggestions.

I've sold something like 1600 copies in two months. I just reread it because I'm going to have it formatted for a paperback and I found all sorts of typos.

I also found a place where the characters refer to an event that hasn't happened yet. (Funny line, too bad it doesn't make sense to the readers.) I'm not sure whether I should be gratified or not that none of the 1600 people who bought the ebook have told me about this problem.

Maybe they just haven't gotten to the book yet. (Sort of like those three stacks of books that I've bought but haven't found time to read.)

So, for anyone who already bought Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards--Why, yes, my characters are psychic. In fact, they put the chic in psychic.

And the fixed version should be up late tonight.

On the subject, Virginia Maughan Kammeyer wrote a poem about editorial errors :

WESTERN DAZE

Moving as rapidly as light
You type a novel in a night,
Then galloping at frantic pace
Over the hills your heroes race.

From cattle ranch, to gambling room,
To mesa bluff and back they zoom.
How can you, writing at such rate,
Keep places, plots, and people straight?

Your marshal, now—I fear that he
May someday meet catastrophe,
(A mix-up by some typing elf)
And handcuff, jail, then hang—himself.

So, so true

And the winners are . . .

Since I had so many comments, I chose two winners. (Random.org helped though. Random is an awesome guy that way.)

Tiana Smith

Liz

You know the drill. Send me your addresses and I'll try to get your books to the post office in the next few days.

For everybody else, don't worry. There are more give-aways on the horizon.

blog hop give-away

Inspired Kathy emailed me and asked if I wanted to be part of a blog hop. I said, "Sure," because a blog hop sounded like a sock hop and I thought it might involve dancing. Besides, who am I to argue with someone who's inspired?

It turns out there is no dancing in a blog hop, but if you feel inspired to dance, I won't stop you.

I realized upon reading Kathy's last email that this give-away is supposed to involve a paranormal romance. I just happen to have written a paranormal romance, but my editor is reading it right now, so it's not actually available in book form.

Therefore, I'm giving away a signed copy of My Fair Godmother. After all, it does reference Edward Cullen, and if you squint, fairies sort of look like vampires, all sparkly and whatnot.

So leaving a comment will get you one chance, and promising to put my books face out on the shelf the next time you are in a bookstore will give you two. (Yeah, that's the kind of followers I have, baby. Rebels to the core.)

Erasing Time--the cover is finally final.

Notice any differences? I didn't. (Which is why I'm lousy at all of those picture games where you're supposed to find six differences in what appear to be two identical pictures.) Anyway, I'm very happy with it. It's an awesome cover.

The book is coming out September 2012, and I'm writing the sequel right now. (Must figure out a way to put the cover on my sidebar and website . . .)

Which Cover Do You Like Best?

I put Playing the Field, one of my earlier books, up as an ebook last month. I needed a new cover and couldn't decide whether to use one that would appeal to boys--because the main character is guy, or one that would appeal to girls--because most of my readers are girls. And, after all, a lot of girls read books with guys as main characters.

Then fellow writer, Robin Brande, suggested I do two covers and see which sells best. Which was a great suggestion and would have been a very interesting cover experiment. The only problem is that Amazon (and I suppose other sites as well) don't let you put up two different covers for the same book.

So, I'm going to ask you all which you like best. Does the boy cover appeal to you even though it's clearly a boy cover, (The guy does have a sort of hot wrist, after all)or would you pass that one by and only buy the girl cover?

And, in case you really do feel like buying a good middle grade comedy, I've just lowered the price to .99 on Amazon and on Smashwords (which lowers it on B&N, right?)so you can also vote by buying one copy or the other.

Here's the link to the girl cover:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/108937

Here's the link to the guy cover:
http://www.amazon.com/Playing-The-Field-ebook/dp/B006HWV3KG/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1326779906&sr=1-2