Category: Writing

Chatting With…Mary J. Forbes

secret_child.jpgI’ve updated my Articles page with a Chatting With… column featuring award-winning Silhouette Special Edition author Mary J. Forbes. Mary talks about Fogwalking (you’ll have to read the article to find out what that is) and provides tips for aspiring writers.

Mary just won the Holt Medallion for Short Contemporary with her July 2007 Special Edition, HIS BROTHER’S GIFT, and several of her books have received 4.5 star reviews from Romantic Times. THEIR SECRET CHILD, the first book in her “Home to Firewood Island” trilogy, is in stores now. Here’s the blurb:

SKIP DALTON WAS THE LOVE—AND HEARTBREAK—OF HER LIFE

But that was all in the past. Addie Malloy had moved on and made a life for herself and her young child. Except now Skip had come home. And he’d brought someone with him.

Skip was determined to make amends for running out on Addie when she needed him most. But how would the single mother react when she discovered that his daughter was her daughter, too? Would this be the end? Or could this long-awaited reunion be a new beginning…for them all?

Mary is known for delivering issue-driven, emotion-filled reads. I’ve read all her books and am eagerly awaiting my copy of THEIR SECRET CHILD.

Go. Read. The Interview. Then return and tell me…Are You a Fogwalker, Too?

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.

I’m a Shout-Out!

Thanks to Google Alerts, I discovered that I’m in MediaBlvd Magazine. Well, technically romance author Jackie Kessler has an interview in MediaBlvd. An excellent interview it is, too. Go read it. Now. (I’m waiting). Oops, did I forget to say, after you finish reading it, come back here?

Did you see? Huh, huh, huh? Jackie mentioned Moi in her interview. And MediaBlvd spelled my name right! We all know how obsessed I am with the spelling of Procter. Whenever I see it spelled correctly, I am blown away and filled with such awe and gratitude that I feel compelled to give my own shout outs. Thank you, Jackie and MediaBlvd for spelling my name right. Thank you, Jackie, for mentioning my TPT: Talent, Persistence and Timing “Secret to Selling” philosophy in your interview – and for giving me credit. You’re a class act!

It’s All Fodder

I scalded my mouth and throat the other day testing my homemade chicken soup broth that had only been boiling, oh, 4 or 5 hours. Dimwitty. It was just one tiny spoonful, but, wowza, what an effect! I knew right away that I was in trouble, and I drank a glassful of very cold water. Then I went on to other things. So yesterday I think I’m getting a sore throat. As time passed, I realized the soreness is a result of the soup-scalding and not a virus. It’s in the exact same place as where I felt the burn when I swallowed that damn tiny spoonful. Today, the area is even more tender and was especially so upon waking. So what do I do? Get a flashlight and shine it in my mouth and investigate the effects of swallowing a spoonful of scalding chicken broth, because who knows when I’ll want to maim a character in such a way? Yeah, maybe I could work scalding-chicken-broth-down-the-throat into a torture scene of my WIP. Maybe, if I really wanted to torture the character and not just inconvenience him, I could have the villain force his mouth open and pour way more than one tiny spoonful of scalding liquid down his throat. Yeah, baby!

I’m happy to report that one tiny spoonful hasn’t damaged my throat in any major way I can tell. I mean, I don’t normally shine a flashlight into my mouth. I suspect the skin at the back of my throat is meant to be pinky rather than kinda white, but at least I didn’t give myself throat blisters. Would my character get throat blisters, though, if he swallowed more than one spoonful? Hmm. I’m not about to use myself as a guinea pig and find out. But the funny thing that strikes me about the whole episode is how willing we are as writers to use any little experience in our lives as fodder for our stories. It’s all research…it’s all fodder.

Have you ever accidentally hurt yourself and then used the “research” in one of your stories?

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