Author: Cindy

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

I Need Me More S.E.P.

I hope all the moms out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I know I sure did. You see, my iron broke—what a Mother’s Day treat that was!

Wow, I’ve been lucky in the book-reading department lately. First, Gemma Halliday’s SPYING IN HIGH HEELS, then Augusten Burroughs’ RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, and now Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ MATCH ME IF YOU CAN. I finished MATCH last week. Like the aforementioned Halliday and Burroughs, I loved it. But then I love nearly everything S.E.P. writes, so it’s not a surprise that MATCH ME IF YOU CAN fell into that category. But there’s something about this novel that puts it in my “Fav S.E.P.s” category. Here’s a blippy (taken from S.E.P.’s website, it’s not exactly the same as the back cover blurb on the mass market paperback, but I can cut and paste it, and I can’t cut and paste the back of the paperback):

You met star quarterback Kevin Tucker in This Heart of Mine. Now get ready to meet his shark of an agent, Heath Champion, and Annabelle Granger, the girl least likely to succeed. But that’s going to change now that Annabelle’s taken over her late grandmother’s matchmaking business. Why does the wealthy, driven, and gorgeous sports agent Heath Champion need a matchmaker, especially a red-haired screw-up like Annabelle Granger? When the determined Matchmaker promised she’d do anything to keep her star client happy . . . did she mean anything? If Annabelle isn’t careful, she just might find herself going heart-to-heart with the toughest negotiator in town.

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A cute-sounding story, right? Also fun and uplifting, which does my heart good on a Sunday afternoon. MATCH ME IF YOU CAN is Book #6 in S.E.P.’s Chicago Stars (that’s a football team) series. Athlete stories are supposed to be hard sells in romance, but for S.E.P. they work because of her characterization. Her heroines are often screw-ups, but they persevere and come out victorious. I think I identify with them (well, except for the big-busted ones), because I am a self-acknowledged screw-up and also persevere (and am waiting for my multitudinous victories, which can happen any time now, thank you very much!). Annabelle Granger in MATCH ME IF YOU CAN is such a heroine. But what I really love about this book is how, although it’s marked as a Stars book, it really has nothing to do with football and yet it reintroduces the reader to characters we’ve come to know and love in previous Chicago Star stories—Phoebe and Dan from IT HAD TO BE YOU, and Kevin and Molly from THIS HEART OF MINE (one of my absolute all-time fav S.E.P.s). There’s something comforting about becoming reacquainted with fav characters from my reading past. I can already see several future S.E.P. heroes and heroines in the making…as the children and teenagers in MATCH ME IF YOU CAN grow up to become the heroes and heroines of their own books (if Phillips chooses to write that long). Oh, yeah, Phillips claims that NATURAL BORN CHARMER, her next book after MATCH (that I really need to buy), is the last of the Chicago Stars series, but we’ll see. As long as her secondary characters keep cropping up in books of their own, I don’t necessarily need football to accompany them—I don’t even like football!

Much as I enjoyed this book, DREAM A LITTLE DREAM is still my #1, All-Time Favorite S.E.P. I loved how it was a little darker than her standard fare. Are you an S.E.P. fan? Which of her books are your favs?

No Takers?

So far no one has tried to guess the identity of Lucienne Diver’s agent. Need a hint? Okay, okay. Read yesterday’s blog. I’ve named her agent there. There, that narrows down the choices. You can either guess straight out or surf the agents’ websites (hint #2: check their client listings). Put your answer in the comment trail of this post or that one. I’m not picky. If you guess right, well, maybe I’ll be nice and promo your own blog or website on this one (if you have one) (as long as it doesn’t contain objectionable material…and, yes, whether the material is objectionable or not is entirely up to me. I’m ornery that way.)

I hope to update the Articles section of my website this weekend. That means my latest Girl Talk column with Jamie Sobrato will go into Archives. I’ve interviewed Silhouette Special Edition author Mary J. Forbes for Chatting With, and unless I run into major problems installing the family’s new router and helping Youngest Son set up his new laptop, the interview will go on-line. I’ll announce here when it is. In the meantime, if you want to read Jamie’s and my differing philosophies on Writerly Procrastination, feel free!

Lastly, Happy Mother’s Day in advance to all the wonderful moms out there (including mine).

Agent Lucienne Diver Moves to TKA

I was all set to publish a post about my latest Susan Elizabeth Phillips read when I found some big news in my in-box. Yes, folks, it pays to subscribe to agency newsletters. Today The Knight Agency newsletter reports that agent Lucienne Diver, who worked at Spectrum for fifteen years, has joined TKA. Very exciting news. Congratulations to Ms. Diver and everyone at TKA.

I had the pleasure of accidentally meeting Ms. Diver during the Death by Chocolate party at RWA National in Reno in 2005. I say “accidentally,” because I entered the party late and needed to scramble to find a seat for the Daphne Awards. I sat at the first table with empty chairs that I could see. As it turned out, the two women seated to my right were both writers, but Ms. Diver and agent Sha-Shana Chrichton were sitting to my left. Both were gracious, but once I realized who they were I didn’t want to bug them, so we didn’t speak much that I can recall, and I’m sure neither remembers I was even there. Then along came a friendly woman who asked me if she could take the chair between me and Ms. Diver. I said yes, because Elle Muse is invisible, after all, and therefore doesn’t mind if people sit on her. She just slides under the table and melts into the floor. Very accommodating, that Elle (sometimes). So the aforesaid friendly woman sat down and began conversing with Ms. Diver. Then I read AFW’s name tag. She was agent Kristin Nelson. Nice person that she is (see how good I am at sucking up?), she asked me a question or two about my writing. My mind went blank, and I said something ridiculous and she pretended not to notice. Thereafter Ms. Nelson and Ms. Diver engaged in spatterings of conversation between the presentation of the Daphne awards.

Moral of story? Well, there isn’t one, I guess. Can you come up with one for me?

Here’s another interesting tidbit about Ms. Diver. Like her new colleague, Deidre Knight, Lucienne Diver is a published author as well as an agent. I accidentally found this out while surfing the web a couple of weeks ago (as you get to know me, you’ll realize most of my life is a series of accidents). Ms. Diver has published a couple of short stories and a novel with Five Star under the name, Kit Daniels. Her first novel under her own name, VAMPED, releases in 2009. And guess who her agent is?

I mean it. Guess.

First commenter who answers right wins…well, nothing. But I will congratulate you on your brilliance. Isn’t that enough?

More than Magic

The good news I hinted at yesterday? BORROWING ALEX is a finalist in the Romantic Comedy category of the More than Magic writing contest! The finalist names aren’t announced on the More than Magic website yet, however I noticed that the Romantic Comedy winner from last year was none than other than Vicki Lewis Thompson. Am I thrilled that my book is even sharing “former finalist slot space” with a writer of Vicki’s caliber? You bet!

Of course the coordinator needed the 2 books for the final rounds delivered in two days—a difficult task when shipping from Canada unless you want to pay mega, mega-bucks. But the coordinator came up with the great idea for me to order my 2 copies off Amazon and have them shipped to her house. I hadn’t thought of this option, because neither BORROWING ALEX nor HEAD OVER HEELS are available on Canadian Amazon (although Canadians can order them from U.S. Amazon—hint, hint). What a wise and helpful contest coordinator, huh?

What made the news about my final even more wonderful is that I logged on to one of my email loops yesterday morning to learn that my good friend, the talented Diana Cosby, is also a More than Magic finalist with her November historical romance, HIS CAPTIVE. I’ve read HIS CAPTIVE, and it’s a fantastic debut from Kensington. Congratulations, Diana, my friend.

Tell Me Tuesday

How’s everyone doing? Any news to report?

I can’t believe I’ve finally made it past page 100 in my WIP. Yay, yay, sis-boom-bah. I still have a fair bit of new writing to wade through before I get to revise scenes I fast-drafted during my never-to-be-repeated NaNoWriMo experiment. I’m sure I’ll appreciate NaNoWriMo once I revise those scenes, but right now the whole idea of knowing where the story is going just aggravates me. Someone please remind me why I did this? Oh, yeah, to prove I couldn’t.

I also signed up for my RWA National editor/agent appointments yesterday. The PAN/PRO appointment schedule doesn’t open up until next Monday, May 5th. However, as a Golden Heart ’07 finalist, I was allowed one week’s head-start. For anyone interested, after the GH and RITA ’08 finalists finished chewing through the appointment schedule this past week, I’m happy to report that as of this morning when I logged onto the RWA website, there was only one agent not showing any available appointments left. A couple of other agents look like they won’t have appointments left in a matter of days (including the agent I booked—sorry!), but still others remain wide open. So I nabbed my agent appointment, and then I grabbity-quick headed to book an editor slot (oops, no, actually, it was the other way around—I booked the editor appointment first). An editor at a major single title publishing house requested one of my full manuscripts in the fall and looked at it rather quickly, then gave an encouraging rejection letter asking to see more of my work. So I felt it wise to get some face-to-face time with her.

I also have one other piece of good news to report, but I received it right before I wrote this post, and now I want to hoard it, rub its belly, and kiss its nose. Return Wednesday, though, and I’ll share.

Miss Potter

potter.jpg“Stories don’t always end where their authors intended. But there is joy in following them, wherever they take us.” Beatrix Potter in MISS POTTER.

Isn’t that the truth?

(There’s also aggravation in following them, but I’m trying to remain upbeat.)

I had the very great pleasure of watching MISS POTTER over the weekend. Has anyone seen this movie? Were you lucky enough to catch it in a theater? What did you think of it? I totally adored it. I’m not a raving Beatrix Potter fan (as a preschooler, Dr. Seuss was more my speed), but I am a raving fan of this movie. It’s a true writer’s movie. I think that’s why I loved it so much. Starring Renee Zellweger as Beatrix Potter and Ewan McGregor as her publisher and suitor, not only does MISS POTTER have excellent characterization and breathtakingly beautiful cinematography, but the way it portrays the writer’s imagination—down to the details of her stories coming to life before her eyes—well, to me it was bang on.

I watched this movie alone, which, in my opinion, is how it deserves to be watched. Especially if you live in a testosterone-driven household and are usually subjected to hockey games and super hero films. Well, I wasn’t totally alone. Allie McBeagle was sleeping on my lap (being a “yump,” as she puts it)(translation = “lump.”) My dog, um, figures predominantly in my imagination. I won’t go into exactly how (although I may have already…), because then I’ll have made public several reasons to have me carted off to the loony bin, which my children are already threatening to accomplish when I’m eighty. However, let’s just say I totally identified with Miss Potter’s feelings of affection for her creations, and the romance and tragedy of the story also swept me completely away.

Rent. Or Buy. This Movie.

Watch it with your favorite beagle—uh, bunny.

No Regrets. I promise.

(Fine Print: Promises made on this blog are not legally binding. If you buy or rent this movie and don’t love it as much as I did, no, I won’t reimburse you, and, honestly, you should think about developing better taste).