The HEA Cafe

Forgive me, but I’m too excited not to indulge in shameless self-promotion this month.  My ebook, Suburban Secrets, comes out on Friday and it’s all I can do not to squeal.  This isn’t my first book (it’s my second) but I’m just as excited as the first time around.

Suburban Secrets

Lindsey Dameron, desperate for money after a divorce she never saw coming, has a new job with a private investigator.  Her assignment?  To blend into suburbia and uncover suburban secrets–not stumble across a dead man and a missing socialite.

Local pariah and former defense attorney Ethan Wayne needs to clear his name before he’s arrested for the disappearance of his soon-to-be ex-wife and the murder of her lover.  But all he can afford is Ace Investigations, and the only person available is a woman who looks more like a soccer mom than a private eye.   She doesn’t even have a license.

Lindsey hates lawyers, Ethan needs a real investigator.  But when a reward is offered for his missing wife, they team up to find her, and agree to

split the reward.  Will they succeed before Ethan is arrested and Lindsey loses the only home she’s ever known?   Or between dodging bullets and explosions, will they find love, instead?

One more plug – Laura did a great job of explaining the Unleash Your Story event, but I want to encourage you to support the writers of RWA Online who are participating.  CFF is a great organization working to heal our kids.

It’s safe to bet that none of us here at RWAOL need a reason to write.  We write because we can’t not write, it’s that simple.  But for the month of September, we have more reason to write, and it’s for an amazing cause.

Unleash Your Story is a write-a-thon (or read-a-thon) to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  If you, or anyone you know, is even remotely affected by this disease, you know how important it is to find a cure.  They’ve come a long way since I first learned about CF thirty years ago, but they still haven’t found a cure, and we need to help them do that so that our children’s children won’t have to live with this disease. 

Debbie Macomber is our pace setter for the month and she has set the bar high.  Her goal is to write 30,000 new words this month and it’s up to all the participants to set their own goals.  Our hope is that this first year will raise $10,000 and we’re well on our way to that goal already.  We have individuals signed on, as well teams who combine their totals.

If you would like to sponsor us in this event, please go to our CF site and make a donation.  Simply type in the name of someone who’s participating (like me!) and your donation will help that person reach their personal donation goal.  We do not handle the money at all – it goes directly to CF – and you can rest assured they will put it to good use.

And if it’s not enough fun to write or read all month, there’s more!  We have prizes to give away, too!  So please take a moment to read about this event.  We have stories from families who are affected by this disease which will help you see why it’s so important to find a cure.  Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated and CF will provide you with a tax receipt for all donations.

I’m going to stop blogging now because I have some serious writing to do if I have any hope of keeping up with Debbie!

I have to admit, when it comes to books I can be a complete snob. When I find people who don’t read, and I mean quite literate adults who choose not to read, I have to wonder what I have in common with them, if anything.

But today I want to praise an area of literature that I believe too many adults overlook as not worth their time, or too unsophisticated, and that is YA novels. “YA” is shorthand in bookstores and libraries for “Young Adult” and covers the novels written to appeal to a teen audience. So many of them are outstanding, and adults who don’t seek them out are doing themselves a disservice.  Some publishers are aware of the appeal of YA for all ages, and you only have to look at how many adults were caught up in the Harry Potter phenomenon to realize what an untapped market this is.
When people ask me to name my favorite romance novels, I have my list that includes the usual suspects, but I also add into that Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw.  I first read it when I was in the 6th Grade, and for the first time I fell in love with a novel.  Mara had it all–a plucky heroine, a mysterious and hunky hero, exotic settings in ancient Egypt, character development and more.  I still own a copy, and re-read it last year.  After all these years, it still entertained me, and I can’t say that about many of the novels I’ve read that are written for adults.

Good writing is good writing, no matter who the target audience is.  Of course, I can only re-read Harold and the Purple Crayon so many times and eventually I’ll stop uncovering hidden meanings and puns, but YA novels have more substance.
This week I read A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson, and I adored it. I laughed, I cried, I was totally enraptured by the characters and their tale. Russian emigre Anna, with her commitment to being an excellent housemaid at an English estate, was a heroine in the mold of Cluny Brown, another favorite of mine. Despite the loss of almost everything in her short life, Anna never loses her core of sweetness and strength. But she’s not a dishrag of a heroine, far from it! When she sees wrongs perpetrated against those who are even weaker, she’s quick to rise to their defense and take a stand. It’s also a great love story, with an aristocratic war hero who has to choose between love and duty.

A Countess Below Stairs also deals with issues of class, equality and the upheaval of the Post WWI era.  It’s not Brideshead Revisited, but it’s still a darn good read and can be enjoyed by anyone who likes a good romance.

Another YA novel I love is Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt. This is one of those YA books that you want to wave under the nose of adult readers saying, “Hey! Don’t overlook it because it’s shelved in the kids’ area!” It was a wonderfully poignant story of love, and Death, and making our dreams come true.  But be prepared!  Have you hankies ready for this one, it’s a real weeper.

Other romance-oriented YA authors I enjoy are Sharon Shinn, Robin McKinley and Patricia McKillip.  If you haven’t yet discovered the joys of YA, I encourage you to look for their books as well.

Next time you’re at the library, look to the YA shelves.  There are reading treasures hidden there.

Recently several discussions on various loops have had me thinking about writing rituals. Things like a special pen, a certain color of paper, special music, a favorite pet at one’s feet. I figured I didn’t have any rituals and then I considered my day and had to rethink my stand.

First, I have a morning routine that I perform and if I don’t do it, it’s a fight to get into the swing of things. My routine includes a cup of specialty coffee and writing in my journal. I could call it a routine but perhaps it’s a ritual.

 I ‘warm up’ by checking my email. I’ve tried to skip this when I’m under a tight deadline but somehow it ends up making me slower rather than faster. Guess I have to confess to another ritual.

When I can’t work out some little detail of my characters or plot, I like to go for a walk. Another ritual, perhaps?

Then there’s the one that got me thinking of my rituals–napping. The discussion on this took place on an author’s loop and a surprisingly large number of the authors napped. I call it power napping or crashing. It’s like I’m floating down a long tunnel and when I hit the bottom I crash and wake up. Even more surprising, my brain is re-energized and ready to tackle more challenges. I don’t nap every day but days when I’m putting in long hours at the keyboard it is especially refreshing.

There are probably other rituals I am unaware of. I know I work best in my office with a familiar keyboard and screen. I know I like a certain radio station on. I like my notebook and to-do list close by.

What about you? What rituals are you aware of? What ones haven’t you realized were your rituals? And where do you stand on napping? Do you nap? Or not?