Hi gang, sorry about this quick post, but if anyone is having problems posting to this blog, please email me at allison @ allisonbrennan . com (no spaces) and let me know your email and web host. Thanks a bunch!

Now back to your regularly scheduled program . . .

A friend called me on Saturday and said, “I just need to talk to a rational person.”

“What’s wrong,” I said, ignoring the rational part. Given that people talk to me in my head pretty much all day long, I think we can safely say that rational is not on my resume.

I can however multi-task; I can talk a friend off the ledge on the phone while listening to the people in my head grumble because I am not telling their story correctly.

This, by the way, IS NOT MY FAULT. It’s NOT. And if the chatter will stop for a single minute, I can explain.

So my friend…she’s living a nightmare. Trying to do about six remodel projects on her house and yard at the same time. While working a full time job. And without committing murder. It’s a very trying time. A lesser woman, LIKE ME, would have snapped by now and committed bodily harm all the while laughing manically.

But my friend, she’s made of sterner stuff and hasn’t drawn any blood yet.

The plumber situation alone should require at least minimal bloodletting. She’s had several plumbers already, many of which turned out to be Invisible Plumbers. Those are the ones who have a voice on the phone that swear they will be out there Monday morning at 8 am. They still haven’t shown up on Friday. Do you know why? Because they are INVISIBLE. They only have a voice to make false promises but no actual body to do the work.

My friend did finally find a Visible Plumber who arrives and does some work. Well leave the plumbers alone for a minute.

Let’s talk to the gung ho tile guys. They are very friendly, guys, who swear they can get the job done in a couple days. Kitchen, family room, living room, bathrooms, these guys are magicians! Leave it to them.

So she does.

And when she gets home from work, there are no working toilets. Three bathrooms and not one of them had a toilet. The tile guys removed ALL OF THEM AT ONCE, then left for the night.

Meanwhile the outside painters have “forgotten” to paint under the eves and one entire wall.

My poor friend is spending her days on the phone trying to get everyone to do their job, in the correct order, so that all the work can get done.

A week later, the plumber and tile guys are arguing back and forth about whose fault it is the sinks don’t line up—with my friend in the middle trying to just get her sinks in her bathroom! Finally, that’s the done, and they move onto the shower.

Saturday morning when my friend called, she water was bubbling up in a slow leak from her shower floor. She called the plumber who said he’d come out Monday to fix it. Monday—two days later! I’m afraid to call and find out of the leak turned into a gusher.

I tried to assure my friend that once that house is finished, it will be worth all this agony.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking to myself—this is exactly what this book I’m working on right now feels like. It’s not MY fault I’m not telling the story correctly as the people in my head are pointing daily. It’s THEIR fault. Some characters don’t show up like they promise, others show up too soon and throw off the schedule. Still other characters only tell me a fraction of their story at the beginning, then dump the rest on me later so that I have to go back, round everyone up and “remodel” what I thought was finished. Then a plot problem appears out of nowhere like a leak, and threat to blow a gusher, destroying all my hard work.

And yet…it will be worth it. If I can just get everyone to cooperate and work together, I think it’ll be a good story. Just like my friend’s house will be wonderful once it’s finished.

I actually love conquering my book. I must love the process more than I think I do because it pulls me back every time I try to walk away. The challenge is getting everyone’s story to intertwine and mesh into a book filled with passion. And that kind of passion doesn’t come from easy; it comes from sleepless nights of worry and days of sweat.

But I don’t think I want to remodel my house anytime soon! What about you all, any remodeling horror stories?

Thank you all for playing! It’s tremendous fun being The Contest Witch–except for the choosing part. I assigned numbers and had my husband randomly pick two numbers. And now, without further delay, the two winners are:

Reading IsSoMuchFun
RachaelfromNJ

Congratualtions! I need the two winners to email me at Jenapodaca@aol.com with a mailing address and how they’d like the book signed. I’ll get the signed copy of EXTREMELY HOT and the $10.00 B&N gift card into the mail as soon as I can.

I think as I age I’m getting softer, more tolerant, and things that bugged me even last year don’t bug me anymore. In so being, I have also become extremely discriminating in who I associate with and what functions I attend.

Two major factors factor into the equation. Trust and time.

On the trust issue: I can spot a fruit loop at 100 paces. I make a wide circle around them.
Emotional vampires? I have garlic and a wooden stake at the ready.
Those that just plain ol’ get on my nerves? I smile and keep walking. And, as I run don’t walk to the nearest exit, I realize, even if I wanted to get sucked into other people’s manufactured drama (which I don’t!), I don’t have the time to. I’m too busy living my life and the drama of it. And there is drama. How can there not be? I have four kids!

Whenever I see my youngest daughter’s phone number flash up on the caller ID I get a little quake in my belly. When I say, “Hello.” and she says, “So, Mom, guess what?” in that tone that means something dramatic has happened, I cringe. She is her mother’s daughter. My mini me. She takes on the world and has no fear because she feels just in her causes. But damn, I get tired of that few seconds of holding my breath waiting for the shoe to drop.

As far as events go, it’s all about time. I have so precious little of it these days. I have been to only one of my husband’s football games this season. One! Of course they played out of state for several but, I have had my writer’s meetings two Saturdays out of the month, and on the others my writing had been my priority. I was told, I will be there this Saturday for his last game. Then I was informed, there is a party afterwards. Fine! I’ll go. Only because it’s the hubster. But I’m not cooking Sunday!

So now to the point of this blog. Yesterday I did a phone interview with an LA Times reporter who is writing an article on mature heroines in romance. She wanted to know why there weren’t many around. I had to really think about it. After I probably stuck my foot in my mouth several times I came to this conclusion: We mature women have been there and done that. In our forties + we’re seasoned, we know what we want. And hell we just go get it. We’ve done the kids, the career, the men, and well, it’s our time now. Am I saying we can’t fall into a mad passionate love affair? Of course we can, but it’s… different. Mature women don’t make the same mistakes women in their 20′s make, and if they do? I’d smack them. And so would readers.

As mentioned in the first part of this blog. I don’t put up with stuff a woman 20 years younger would put up with. Which brings to my point. I’m freakin’ boring! I have stretch marks. I’m set in my ways. I have kids that would make another man in my life miserable (hubby, I’m speaking hypothetically here, well they would drive another guy crazy, but only if you were out of the picture, which isn’t the case. I’m just drawing a parallel, oh, hell, you know what I mean!).

Here’s my point: Who would want to read about a heroine like me? Coz, listen, a mature heroine comes with some mileage. That fact you cannot photo shop out.

So I’m of the strong opinion a heroine like me would be better served in women’s fiction. Not a romance.

And this brings me to my question: Mature heroines in romance or not? And explain why or why not.

Last week I shared my UK cover for KILLING FEAR, which comes out in the UK and Australia in March of 2008.

Today I also received foreign covers for others books–specifically, THE PREY and THE HUNT in German and Japanese. I thought it might be fun to look at the different focus of foreign covers.

For example, Germany focuses heavily on the suspense and the Spanish translation focuses heavily on the romance. France is very “romantic suspense.” But for the “art” of cover art, I think Japan wins hands down. There’s something subtly sexy about the Japanese covers that I absolutely love.

THE PREY: German

THE PREY: French

THE PREY: Spanish

THE PREY: Japanese

THE HUNT: German

THE HUNT: French

THE HUNT: Spanish

THE HUNT: Japanese

If you’re spending some time procrastinating, you should go to one of the foreign amazon sites (UK, German, Japan, among others) and peruse the foreign covers. It’s very interesting how there are different feelings in different countries, all for the same story.

When I move and have my own office, I’m going to get some folding screens, you know, the kind that can be used to separate rooms that are like 4 or 5 feet high. I’m not going to have a lot of wall space because the one windowless wall I’m having bookshelves built across, so I need a place to hang my cover art. I have a thing for cover art. I love it. I have my six covers framed on the wall above my desk at home, and those will get the limited wall space. But the foreign covers will be fun, I think, and add something colorful and hopefully inspirational to my pending office.

I’ll have somewhat of a view–rolling hills and lots of green (brown in the summer, I’m sure!) but there is also a small pond below the house and a covered bridge. I hope I don’t stare out the window too much . . .

When I worked in the Legislature, I was in a cubicle. I had a window, but it was covered with screens and there wasn’t much of anything to see on the outside–it simply looked into other windows. For inspiration there, I had pictures of my kids, political posters and memorabilia, and a screen saver that gave me a new picture every ten seconds. The pictures I chose were diverse, from nature shots to interesting faces of strangers. Whatever I could get online through the web service that provided the screen saver slide show. I had hundreds of pictures . . . all gone when I quit my old job. (Not that I’m complaining!)

What’s the view from your office? What gives you inspiration inside it?