Deborah Coonts

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FRIENDS ALONG THE WAY

Writing has given me many gifts. Some expected. Some not so much. Some appreciated. Some not so much. Some helpful. Some…yes, not so much.

It’s been a wild ride, at times exhilarating, at other times soul-crushing.

But the biggest gift by far that I have received from this crazy career are the people I’ve met along the way, especially the lovely ladies who have allowed me to share this blogging space with them.

To a one they have been kind, supportive, crazy in a recognizable way, interesting, delightful, always there with a kind word….okay, everyone except this one publishing professional I queried years ago. There is a special place in Hell for folks like him.

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Posted in Day in the Life of a Writer, Deborah Coonts, Uncategorized

A NOTE TO MY PRE-PUBLISHED SELF

Although I’ve been at this writing game professionally for a relatively short amount of time, I’ve learned a lot. Most of it the hard way (My mother will tell you that’s how I’ve learned everything I know, but I’m not so sure. My mother can’t be trusted.)

Certainly I’ve learned the intricacies of the traditional publishing world. What an interesting “legacy” business. I don’t think anything in that world has changed since the introduction of moveable type. I’m not laying blame or casting aspersions–it just is what it’s always been, which can prove to be daunting at times. And, having come from the world of business, I can tell you that if any of the industries we rely on to provide our other necessities were set up along the same lines, we’d all still be rubbing sticks together to start a fire.

So, what have I learned that I wish I’d known when I jumped into the game?

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Posted in Deborah Coonts, Uncategorized, Writing, Writing Life

IT ALL STARTS WITH THE WINE

A wonderful friend of mine who is an avid reader (I wouldn’t know what to do with anyone who wasn’t) and is quite brilliant (yes, I use my friends to make me look better, basking in their brilliance) started quizzing me the other day about ideas. No, he didn’t want to know where I got them–he has quite enough of his own, trust me. He wanted to know what I do with them when I get them.

Good question–one that sort of baffled me. After delving deeper, I realized what he really wanted to know was how do I get into a story. Is it theme first, plot, character? What?

For me it’s usually starts with something I want to know, or a place that I find intriguing and want to know more about. And if I write about it? Well, that’s just a very clever way to get Uncle Sam to pick up a potion of the tab.
So, Lucky started with Vegas–and endlessly amusing and interesting town. A place where naked folks asleep in stairwells, porn stars, male strippers, magicians, showgirls, washed-up fighters, entertainers clinging to careers long past peak, misbehaving sports figures, and vacuous Hollywood celebrities willing to help them are the stuff of everyday life. What’s not to like?

And this next series I’m getting of the ground? Well, it all started with copious amounts of fabulous wine…and a guy I dated who knows a lot about the fermented juice of the noble grape.

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Posted in Deborah Coonts, Writing Life

GETTING OLD SUCKS…..SORTA

Sometimes life gives you little reminders of how much of it has slipped into the past. For instance:

One day it dawns on you that you really can’t cop to being in your forties when your son is almost thirty–although I am from the South…and complex math is not my strong suit.

When a bartender who looks like he never had to live through the indignities of the 70’s nor even the rebound of the 80’s tells you that the drink you just ordered is the drink of middle-aged women everywhere. (Between you and me, he didn’t deserve to live….but he wasn’t worth the jail time.) You give him a jaundiced eye and ask him why it seemed like a good idea to tell you that. And he shrugs and says, “You want to avoid stereotypes , you know. Okay, maybe he was worth the jail time….

You realize that somehow the word f**cking became an adjective and you missed it.

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Posted in Deborah Coonts, Life, Love, & All That Jazz

A BOOK BURNING PARTY

My son loves a dog-earred copy of a book as much as his mother.

He is also a storyteller albeit a visual storyteller–he’s in advertising. One of his favorite pastimes is to scour the web for a brilliant ad or guerrilla marketing campaign. Invariably he’ll send me the link to his favorites and we’ll have a great time discussing why that particular campaign works. He was one of the first to find the little boy Darth Vader Volkswagen commercial.
Brilliant. I still watch that commercial when I need a smile for my heart. Once I had a little boy who dreamed of being a superhero with special powers.

Recently my son, who actually grew into a super hero (at least to his mother), told me about a campaign he’d heard about, to save the library system in Troy, MI. Now, this doesn’t have the cachet that would normally garner a particular 28 year-old-male’s attention, so I figured it must be good.

I was right.
So, the story goes something like this:

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Posted in Deborah Coonts, We Can't Make This Stuff Up

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FRIENDS ALONG THE WAY

A NOTE TO MY PRE-PUBLISHED SELF

IT ALL STARTS WITH THE WINE

GETTING OLD SUCKS…..SORTA

A BOOK BURNING PARTY

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