The HEA Cafe

Archive for 2008

I vote because I can.
I vote because my father was at Pearl Harbor.
I vote because my brother was in Viet Nam.
I vote because I don’t want my two sons to have to fight in a war.
I vote because I’m the first generation of my family born in America.
I vote because I was able to get a college degree, with government assistance.
I vote because while I grumble about my taxes, they “buy me civilization”.  I shouldn’t complain about how my taxes are gathered or spent if I don’t vote.
I vote because I truly believe each vote makes a difference.  Trust me on this, I’m a Floridian.

At the end of this day, history will have been made in the United States of America.  Either a black man will be president, or a woman will be vice-president.  Whether you’re red, blue, purple or some other color in the rainbow, vote.  It is the single most important thing you can do as a US citizen.

October is over. Somehow I have no idea where it went or what I did though by looking back over my calendar I can see I was busy. I had company. We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. I took a short trip to Colorado to visit my daughter and her family. I even went to a Saturday writing workshop. Writing wise I worked on a new three-book proposal while awaiting approval on a complete I had sent in early September. Approval came without a call for revisions. Yahoo.

  

Why am I telling you all this? Maybe so someone can tell me how it is that some months simply disappear? (Remember when we were young and thought a year between birthdays, or until the next Christmas or even summer vacation took FOREVER?)

  

We live in a fast paced world, multi-tasking so much we hardly remember what we’ve done two days after we’ve done it. I’ve decided it’s time to stop and savor the moment. With that in mind, I do several intentional things that make each special moment memorable.

  

One thing I do is journal. I have for years. At one time it was a way to keep sane—write down my thoughts, keep track of what I did (to prove to myself if no one else that I had actually done something noteworthy with my day.) Now I do that but I also note things that are special, fun, and memorable. Like the story my grandchild told me. Or the beautiful sunrise I see out my window. As Socrates says, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

  

Another way to savor each special moment is with my camera. I focus to take the picture. I savor again as I view each on my wide screen monitor. Then I print the best and put them in a photo album for further enjoyment.

  

I try to NOT multi-task when there is something special happening so I can really enjoy the moment. Multi-tasking is fine for household chores and mindless activities. But not for times spent with people and many other things. I am trying to learn to STOP and smell the flowers.

  

How about you? Do you find your world so fast paced it speeds by in a blur? Have you found ways to savor the special moments? I’d love to hear what others do to make those moments more memorable.

Growing up, I often heard my dad say he never trusted a man who didn’t like dogs. I extended his philosophy in my own life to include animals in general, but the dog-specific element influenced my story Operation Sheba. When I started the story, Pongo, a sweet Rottweiler, showed up as Michael’s pet. In many ways, he mirrored Michael’s character: rock solid, well trained, handsome and agreeable…until you piss him off.
            Pongo’s presence acted as a way to spotlight Julia’s character as well. When the need to sacrifice Pongo in order to save Michael and a group of hostages arises, she racks her brain to find a way to save both the people and the dog. (So I don’t spoil anything, I’ll have to leave you wondering what she does and if it works.)
            I also used Pongo’s kennel as a plot element. As spies, my main characters have to use common items in their environment to get the job done. Situations are never ideal, so forcing them to use their imaginations and view miscellaneous objects in a new light is a way to give them the upper hand against the bad guys. The kennel, Julia’s iPod, and a hearse are all significant tools my spies use in the story. As an author, I love to play MacGyver as much as my characters.
            The final way I used Pongo to add depth to my story was a specific tribute to my father and his philosophy. One of the less admirable characters in Operation Sheba, a power-hungry senator, doesn’t like dogs. He’s Michael’s opposite in all ways so the trait fit him well. I didn’t make a big deal out of it within the story, just mentioned it in passing dialogue between Michael and another character, but that tiny detail reveals as much about the senator’s personality to me as any of his other actions, thoughts, or words.
            Dogs have played a large role in real life for me and I value what they can bring to my stories, but like all characters and plot elements, their purpose in the story can’t be forced. It either fits or it doesn’t. I’ve read books and seen movies where an animal – usually a pet – is dropped into the story without real purpose or clarity, often so the author can kill it off for shock value. Unless your reader has established a bond with the animal, that technique will fail. And if you’ve done a great job creating a bond between the pet and your reader and then you kill the animal off, beware. Your story will end up in the kitchen garbage disposal.
From what I’ve observed in real life as well as fiction, dogs bring out the best and worst in people. My philosophy as an author is a simple take on my dad’s wisdom: whether you’re a writer or a reader, never trust a character that doesn’t like dogs.
            Do you have a favorite fiction character who’s an animal?

Yesterday was a lovely day in here in Ontario, bright sunshine, warm, my flower beds looked lovely, pretty, with pink impatience and yellow snapdragons.  But it is October. Any day now we could have snow and those bright pink impatience will go all yucky, a sort of wet, cold, soggy mass that freeze your fingers when you try to pull them up.  But killing plants that are so vibrant and alive just seems so awful.

But, having pulled up the wet soggy masses in the past, or worst yet, dealt with the wet soggy masses in the spring when the snow has gone away, I gritted my teeth and put perfectly happy plants in a big brown paper bag, so the recycling folks could collect them this morning.

While I was wreaking this destruction, I was thinking about blogging today. I was also thinking about editing my next manuscript. The little plants became symbolic of all of those lovely scenes I have written, bright little descriptions of happy little events that have to be cut. Scenes that were beautiful that have to be cut. Scenes where the prose seemed to flow, that have to be cut.

Pretty pink and yellow scenes, that aren’t working hard enough. Every scene has to do at least three of the following things, or it is pretty and useless.  It must advance the plot, reveal something new about a main character, reveal backstory or foreshadow something about the future. And in addition, every scene must have conflict. Because if they are only pink and pretty, quite soon they will be horrible soggy messes holding your story down. You have no doubt heard this before, (you know, kill your darlings) but it doesn’t hurt to hear it again. It helps me to think clearly as I begin my day of revisions.

Today it is a cold and wet rainy day in Ontario, my flower beds are tidy and my wet soggy masses of plants are sitting in brown paper bags at the curbside. Today, I will be looking at my scenes with a jaundiced eye, ready to pull them out if they are not working hard enough or making sure they do.
Have a lovely day.

I’m in edits this month–just finished substantives and copy edits arrived at my door. So the part of my brain that dredges up pithy blog topics is on a bit of a hiatus. So I asked my readers on my fan group what I should blog about here and received (and am still receiving) quite a few interesting ideas.

One I’ve chosen for this 11th-of-the-month offering is author Lynne Connolly’s, where she noted:

“How about … Harlequin’s recent contention that in times of trouble sales of romance books go up, because people are looking for escape?”

I admitted I was totally unaware of the supposition–edits tend to keep me nose to the keyboard, lost in world of my own making. The best I can do at those times is scan Publisher’s Lunch when it plops in my emailbox. But it’s a good topic because it highlights not only the value of reading but the resilience of the romance genre. I think it also ties into author Margaret Carter’s recent blog at Alien Romances, where she offers:

The August-September issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND contains an article on the importance of storytelling. Benefits of stories for human beings include expanding the capacity for empathy and learning how to function in social groups. One psychologist suggests that stories “may act as ‘flight simulators’ for social life.”

So, are romance readers escaping into flight simulators? What a thought.

I am hopeful that this readjustment of the financial markets will make people see the value of a $6.99 book as opposed to a $250 DVD player. Both are escape mechanisms but in my humble opinion, the book is one that provides a much deeper, long lasting and you-don’t-need-batteries-with-it-experience (unless you’re Kindle-ing…).

But the advantage of the romance novel (or a novel written to the romance genre’s required HEA) is the overall positive tone generated by the book. That, to me, is what makes the genre special and what also makes it powerful.

You are what you think is perhaps an overused slogan from the 1970′s but there is a lot of truth in the adage. Focusing on the negative makes you negative, or more prone to be negative. I’m not just making this stuff up out of my little blonde over-edited head; there’ve been studies done that state so. So when you have a roomful of people thinking, Ohmigod, this is awful and then a cityful of people thinking, Omigod, this is awful and then a planetful of people thinking, Omigod, this is awful…things can get pretty awful.

Hold your fire. I’m not advocating blind Pollyanna-ism. (I originally typed BLOND instead of blind…how’s that for a Freudian?) I’m advocating a realistic appraisal of your ability to choose what you want to focus on and how you want to feel.  

It’s the old glass being half-empty or half-full analogy and where romance novels come into play is they can remind us that the glass can well be half-full, if not overflowing.

Romance novels are far more than just stories of two people falling in love. They’re also stories of faith, hope, perseverance, resilience and determination. They’re an analysis of the personal dynamics between people that often transcend logic.  They’re about strength and they’re about vulnerability. They are the human drama of the heart, and perhaps there is no better time to rediscover that than when the non-human elements of politics and finances seem to overwhelm daily life.

So maybe a resurgence of interest in romance novels isn’t so much an escape as a reminder that yes, this really is what life is all about.

“you shall above all things be glad and young.
For if you’re young,whatever life you wear

it will become you;andif you’re glad
whatever’s living will yourself become…

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.” ~e.e. cummings (1894-1962)

 

~Linnea

HOPE’S FOLLY, Book 3 in the Gabriel’s Ghost universe, coming Feb. 2009 from RITA award-winning author, Linnea Sinclair, and Bantam Books: www.linneasinclair.com 

It’s an impossible mission on a derelict ship called HOPE’S FOLLY. A man who feels he can’t love. A woman who believes she’s unlovable. And an enemy who will stop at nothing to crush them both.