Author: Cindy

I'm irritated because my posts won't publish.

Who Loves Ya, 13?

I had a different post planned for today, but then I glanced at the calendar and realized—it’s Friday the 13th! And, guess what? We get another Friday the 13th in March, mwahaha.

Thirteen is my favorite number. It has to be. My birthday is January 13th, which, if you continue counting after December (and who wouldn’t?) is the 13th day of the 13th month. As I was lamenting to someone the other day, sadly, though, I was not born at 1 p.m., which would have made me a 13th hour, 13th day, 13th month baby. Nope, I was born in the evening. Irritation sets in!

For years, I thought I was born on a Friday the 13th, because my father was working out of town, only coming home twice a week, every Wednesday and Friday. My mother assured me that I was born Friday the 13th. The year I was 13, I found out, however, that I was born on a Wednesday. Yes, I’m a child of woe, which pretty much describes my adolescence and can account for all the characters who came to foul ends in my teenage short stories.

I have a brother and a sister born on the so-called “lucky” dates of 7 and 11, so you can imagine the ribbing I received over the years that I was born on the supposedly unlucky date of us three. Now, as an adult, I’m closest to the sibling who was born on a plain ol’ nothing fancy date. That’ll teach the other two.

How do feel about Friday the 13th? Are you superstititious? Do you avoid all things 13? Will you not read my books now that you’ve found out I love 13?

2009 Indie Book Awards

Oh, sure, I find about the Indie Book Awards the year I have nothing to enter!

From the website:

The 2009 Indie Book Awards is open to all indie publishers including independent publishers (small, medium or otherwise), university presses, self-published authors, e-book authors, seasoned authors and even first time authors based in the U.S., Canada or internationally who have a book written in English and released in 2008 or 2009 or with a 2008 or 2009 copyright date.

Cash prizes range from $250 to $1000.

Here’s a comprehensive FAQ page and Entry Guidelines.

Entry deadline is March 15, 2009, so get a move-on! And, remember, if you win, the credit goes to…well, okay, you.

Published
Categorized as Contests

New Interview with Agent Kevan Lyon

I have a treat for you today. I recently interviewed agent Kevan Lyon of Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency for my Articles page. The interview is up now and will remain on the main Articles page for a few months, after which it will go into Archives.

Meanwhile, my interview with Silhouette Special Edition author Mary J. Forbes about Fogwalking is now in Archives along with interviews with agent Elaine Spencer, women’s fiction author Debrah Williamson, and a whole smattering of Girl Talk columns with Jamie Sobrato.

Tell Me Tuesday

It’s that time of the week again. What are you up to? In your writing life? Non-writing life? Sloth life? Snowflake life?

I’m judging the last of my RITA panel. I saved the biggest book for last, and now I’m glad I did. I still have lots of time to finish reading and report my scores.

I’ve really enjoyed judging the RITA for the first time this year. However, next year, I think I’ll ask for different categories. Not that I don’t appreciate the categories I received this year. But I received 8 entries in one category and only 1 in a second. I’d rather judge more of a mix-up, and I think I can solve that issue by requesting different categories next year.

How about you? Are you judging RITA or the Golden Heart? How’s it going?

In other news, I just created a new group at Facebook called Muse Interrupted Guest Bloggers. The sole purpose of this group is so I can easily send email notifications to members who wish to receive them (read that, if you’re a member, you DO wish to receive them, otherwise there’s no point in joining) regarding my guest bloggers and book give-aways. I sent out the first notification on Sunday for Susan Gable’s blog yesterday. The next notification will go out a day or two before Natale Stenzel’s blog occurring February 25th. If you’re a member of Facebook and would like to sign up for the group, here’s a link. If that doesn’t work, just log in to Facebook and search for Muse Interrupted Guest Bloggers. It’ll come up.

Writing wise, I hit a bit of a block last week (horrors!). I had this wonderful love scene already fast-drafted set in a dark room. However, no matter how much I wanted to, no matter how hard I tried, once I reached that very lumpy portion of the book, the scene no longer fit. I thought it would work, but after a lot of research, re-plotting and re-plotting, and soul searching, I realized it just didn’t work. And that’s okay. That’s one of the dangers of writing scenes out of order. When you get to revising them, you might not need them anymore! Or, in the case of this scene, it no longer made sense that my characters would make love in this setting at this time.

Once I plucked the scene out of the file and tucked it away for safekeeping in a Book Fragments file, my mind opened up and I suddenly realized another fast-drafted scene I thought was coming much later needed to fit in now. So I’m working on that scene, and the wonderful dark room love scene will have to wait for another book…maybe one of Penny’s stories. Oh, my hero and heroine still have some fun awaiting them, so all my research hasn’t gone to waste. It’s just taken on a different life.

Welcome Guest Blogger Susan Gable

HERO SHOPPINGgable_pic1

I’m a very visual person.  I always thought everyone had their own personal “TV” in their heads that they could watch.

This works well for me as a writer, because I often see (and hear!) my scenes play out on that personal TV set.

But, the disadvantage is, if I can’t see it clearly, I can’t describe it clearly for my readers so they can tune in their sets.  Sometimes I have to find visuals to help.

One thing I love to do is go hero shopping. 

Where does one shop for heroes?  Why, the Internet, of course. (How did we ever manage without the Internet?)  Most of the time I use modeling websites.  A lot of writers I know use celebrities as the model for their heroes/heroines, but I tend to gravitate more toward models who aren’t that well-recognized. Usually I know some of the characteristics I want, like blue eyes, or dark hair.  I’ll know if I’m looking for someone younger looking, or a little older looking.  What’s fascinating to me is how certain faces pop out for the different characters.  I generally create an “audition pool” of potential candidates, and then I carefully choose between them.  It’s mostly instinct at that point.

I do the same thing for my heroines, and any significant secondary characters.

Then I create a page with their pictures on it, and print it out.  Right now my current hero and heroine are taped to the shade right next to my computer.  This way, when I need to describe a certain physical characteristic, or a particular body movement or expression, I can glance over, get a really solid look at them, and put that onto the paper.

In my new book, A KID TO THE RESCUE, I’m gable_kid_coverintroducing readers to the Hawkins Family.  This family had a total of twelve children.  The hero in KID is “child” number seven. So I needed images of the entire family.  When I went “shopping” for the Hawkins characters, I tried to select people who shared similar characteristics.  It turned out there’s a very distinctive jawline that runs in the family, particularly in the men.  Also, to my surprise as I’ve learned more about the individuals, I can see those traits in their pictures—traits I didn’t know about when I picked out my models.  For example, it turns out brother Hayden is a real flirt, a real lady’s man—and you can clearly see that in his pictures. (To see the whole Hawkins Family as I envision them, with a little help from a modeling website, go here.  Please note that Kasey’s name has been changed to Kara, and some of my characters have developed back story that would make me now list them as divorced instead of just “single”—and these ages are based on the book A KID TO THE RESCUE.  Now I just have to keep them all straight as I try to write more stories for these fine, fun, people.)

I send these pictures along with my manuscript, and my editor passes them on to the art department.  The art department, also being made up of very visual folks, appreciates the fact that I give them something besides words to describe my characters. (Pictures being worth a thousand words, yada, yada…)  My covers have always been fantastic, so I think submitting the pictures is helpful.

I also shop for furniture pictures, vehicles, and home layouts. Whatever I need in order to envision things clearly so my readers can also see things clearly.

Do you have a personal TV set in your head?  When you write or read, do you actually “see” the scenes in your head?  Does it irritate you when the pictures on the cover don’t precisely match the descriptions of the characters inside the book?  Where would you go hero shopping?

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Please leave a comment or ask a question to enter for a chance to win A KID TO THE RESCUE. Entries accepted until midnight P.S.T.

To learn more about Susan and her books, please have a look at yesterday’s promo post and visit her website.