Murder She Writes

It’s time. Past time actually.  It’s time for this brand new Grandma to say no to her daughter, son-in-law and, god help her, her granddaughter.  If I don’t, I will never write another book!  But it’s so hard…

Here’s the thing: since that little beauty came into my world she has been the biggest distraction imaginable.  She lives here with her parents in my house.  My office is right next to her room.  I hear her cooing and babbling in the morning.  I cannot possibly sit there and not go in and say hello.  Which leads to me picking her up, how can I resist? Which leads to hugs and kisses and maybe a diaper change and my daughter yawning and asking if I could take her just for an hour so she can catch up on her sleep.  My granddaughter smiles at me and I can’t say no.

The morning waxes into early afternoon.  I let my daughter sleep.  I remember those days.  I didn’t have family around to take the baby/ies so I could sleep.  I was on my own. And yes, I did it.  I did it with multiple kids and running two full time businesses.  Sleep?  What the hell was that?  But, when I look at my granddaughter, I just melt.

I have another huge distraction of late as well.  This one gives me the opportunity to think of nothing except getting my hands dirty.  I’m talking about serious gardening.  In the last month, I have spent a small fortune on containers, soil, plants, hoses, fertilizer, mulch, more containers, more soil, and more plants then you can shake a stick at.  I have lovingly potted, planted, seeded and pruned over a dozen blooming pots, in the ground plants and ground cover, half a dozen herb pots plus tomatoes and pepper pots. I created five beautiful hanging fuchsia baskets (which were a royal PIA but I loved the process). I rediscovered how truly beautiful dahlias are.  I now have three lovely pots of them. 

I just planted three five-gallon purple and fuchsia hydrangeas.  I never knew the perfect place for them was under my front living room window.  The begonias are blooming as are the New Guinea inpatients. My basil is taking over the pot. The Scarlet Pimpernel Mandevilla loves its sunny spot on the side of the house. Gardening has become almost as addictive as my granddaughter has.  Each morning I go outside and carefully water the containers.  I pluck dead heads, spray for pests, pinch off shriveled leaves and look for new growth.  I actually clapped when I discovered new growth on a fuchsia I thought I had pruned to death. There it was, a small tender green shoot, right there in the middle of the hacked up plant.

My parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme are green and frothy with health.  My geraniums pots are bursting with a kaleidoscope of color. Not only are my blooms blooming but so is the fauna, faunaing. We have several visitors this year.  More than any previous year I can remember.  Two pair of robins have nested over the koi pond, two sets of morning doves have also taken up residence.  One on top of a patio column and the other under the pavilion.  We have a family of scrub jays in the cypress, a hummingbird family in the magnolia tree out front, a nest of finches just across the driveway in the sycamore tree, and covey of California partridges holing up in the gargantuan lavender bush by the mailbox.

My yard is just bursting with new life.  I sit out back with my granddaughter, Gianna, on my lap and we are quiet.  She loves the waterfall on the koi pond and the sounds of the birds all around her.  She will literally sit with me, quiet and observing for as long as I sit there.  Her mom is as in tune with flora and fauna as I am. I think Gianna will follow in our footsteps.  I can’t wait until she can walk with me through the garden and help tend the flowers.  And it will be yet another most happy distraction.

So tell me, what is your most happy distraction?

It’s easy, especially in this crappy economy to be grumpy and look around and notice what we don’t have.  I mean, we work our butts off, shouldn’t we have it all?  I certainly feel as if  have earned certain things in my life, but fate, or whoever/whatever is in charge of handing us what we deserve didn’t get the memo that Karin Tabke deserves it all!

Yesterday all of us murderous ladies had a marathon conversation about this crazy business called publishing.  And once I was done having my little pity party, and went downstairs, the sweetest picture in the world emerged: my granddaughter smiling so brightly at me as I walked into the room that her entire body shimmied and shook. I instantly let go of a lot of the crap I’d been holding onto. 

It was like I just opened my fists and it all fell away.  For me, a worker and one who generally does not whine or complain but just does it, I do have my moments where I need to vent.  As I did yesterday, and God love them, my fellow murderous gals were there. I look at each one of them and think wow, what fabulous women!   I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you are defined by who you call friend.  I’m rich beyond measure, and remembering that, coupled with my granddaughter’s sunburst smile, it grabbed me, shook me, and made me realize, just how blessed I am. 

Later in the evening when I took my youngest son down to his grandfather’s to pick up some camping gear and I watched the two of them interact, I had to laugh at my father-in-law’s parting words to his youngest grandson (who is leaving for a 3 day camping trip this morning with 16 of his best friends): “Will, don’t get into any shit.” This from a man who in the thirty years I have known him, have heard him say shit maybe three times (my mother-law?  She’s Italian, she more than makes up for dad’s politeness).  My fil just does not swear. My smile, even during the momentous occasion (him swearing) was a bittersweet smile.  My fil is slowing down.  He has some health issues, we worry about him. So I am grateful for every day he is here.

It’s really during these quiet poignant moments that I’m reminded that while I have the essentials by which to exist:  a roof over my head, food, water, I could not really live if I was not blessed with the greatest gifts of all, my family, good friends and a job that I love despite the frustrations it often creates.

So, while I’m feeling melancholy, I have a $15 BN gift card up for grabs. To be eligible to win, just tell me, what is your greatest blessing?

I’d like you all to give my good friend and the nicest person in publishing, Cindy Gerard, a warm MSW welcome! (oh, and that hunk ‘olicious pictured below is RISK NO SECRETS hero Wyatt Savage, the pretty lady is Cindy  )

And The Years Roll By

     Sometimes I have to sit back, take a deep breath and remind myself that once upon a time my goal had been to write a book someone would want to
buy.  Amazingly, after 4 rejections it actually happened.  That was a few years ago and this week I’m celebrating the release of my 43rd novel and I’m working on #44.  When I sold that first book, I never dreamed I’d be looking at 44 books (and counting). I’m not going to take you back through the maze that prompted all those books but I would like to tell you a little about how Black Ops., Inc. came to be and about RISK NO SECRETS, Book 5, in the BOI series that  officially hit the bookshelves this past Tuesday, May 18th! (Yea!)

     I started out on the BOI quest some time ago with the intention of writing a 3 book series about a group of elite shadow warriors who fought for freedom and justice even after they had parted ways with Uncle Sam.   It all began in a back alley behind a seedy cantina in Buenos Aires where the hero and heroine of my 6th Bodyguard book, Into The Dark, had found themselves boxed into a corner with the baddest of
the bad guys closing in. I had no idea how they were going to get  themselves out of their fix when out of the shadows, stepped Gabriel – the Archangel – Jones.

     Gabe was larger than life, totally unexpected and on the dark side of shady.  It was lust at first sight on my part.  I didn’t know who this guy was or where he’d come from but one thing I did know: THIS man was amazing. THIS man was going to have his own book!!

     So when Gabe, in turn, introduced me to his buddies, the stoic Sam Lang and the outrageous flirt, Johnny Duane Reed, I had my 3 heroes and Black Ops., Inc. was born. But, guys like these, capable, courageous, loyal and well, hot, they had to have some buddies, right?  So I tossed in their boss at BOI, Nate Black, the cute Latino, Rafael Mendoza, and then stirred two former CIA agents, ‘Mean’ Joe Green, and Wyatt – Papa
Bear – Savage into the mix.

     I should have known that these secondary characters were going to demand stories of their own. That worked out pretty well because as it turned out, I heard from a LOT of readers who also wanted to hear their stories which meant my publisher wanted more, too. It was a win/win all the way around. (Thank you all by the way, for putting the first 4 BOI books on the New York Times! I’m still stunned over that turn of events and I owe it all to you!)

     Anyway, RISK NO SECRETS is Wyatt Savage’s story.  This slow talkin’ Georgia boy – Papa Bear to his buddies – was content playing wing man until someone very special to him ended up in trouble and needed his help. And that’s when Wyatt willingly stepped up to the plate and into a true hero’s role. I love this story about Wyatt and Sophie. I love the action, the surprises I discovered about Wyatt, and the love story that survived in spite of all odds against it.

     Naturally, I hope you’re going rush right out and buy RISK NO SECRETS but most of all, I hope that if you do, that you love the story as much as I do.

     Just to whet your appetite, here’s a link to an excerpt
http://www.cindygerard.com/excerpt_may2010.html
AND here’s a link to the book video. http://www.cindygerard.com/
AND, a little something extra if you click this link
http://www.simonandschuster.com/search?term=cindy+gerard it will take you to the Simon and Schuster website and you can check out several short videos of me talking about the books. How’s that for a test drive or two to help you decide to buy the product?

     Seriously, check it out and then come back and make a comment about either the excerpt, the book trailer or the videos featuring moi ) OR about your favorite BOI character OR about your favorite hero of all the books you’ve read and I’ll send an autographed copy of RISK NO SECRETS to a randomly selected winner.

BTW – thanks for letting me join you today, ladies.  You guys rock!
www.cindygerard.com

Thank you for taking time out of your very busy schedule and visiting us today, Cindy!

5  1    8

It’s a fact.  Once a mother we are never not again.  Giving birth changes everything.  And while most of us at one time in our lives have had a battle or two with our moms, as a mother myself, I understand so much.  My daughter became a mother last November, making me a grandmother.  I forgot how easily the heart swells to accommodate the sudden burst of love a new addition to the family evokes.  My granddaughter is my bliss.  Her appearance on this earth changed everything.  I find myself sacrificing so much for her, most especially my writing time.  I simply cannot resist her.  I joke that she is like crack.  I’m addicted.  I felt the same overwhelming love for her mother when she was born, and for her uncles as well.  I’d take a bullet for that baby, as I would any one of my children.  And God help the person who hurts any of my babies. 

To commemorate moms everywhere, because I think we are the most special people on earth, the glue, the foundation, the giver of life, I think we deserve an entire month of recognition!   But then if that happened nothing would get done and the world we labored so hard to create would wither and die!  So, 24 hours it is, ladies!   Take every moment of this Sunday and celebrate yourselves and all that you have gifted the world! 

 I’ve compiled a few quotes and sayings regarding our awesomenss!

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.  ~Rajneesh

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.  ~Honoré de Balzac

She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn’t take them along.  ~Margaret Culkin Banning

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts.  A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.  ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

Motherhood has a very humanizing effect.  Everything gets reduced to essentials.  ~Meryl Streep

Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother.  A child is a child.  They get bigger, older, but grown?  What’s that suppose to mean?  In my heart it don’t mean a thing.  ~Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987

A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands.  But a mother’s love endures through all.  ~Washington Irving

There’s nothing like a mama-hug.  ~Terri Guillemets

Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother’s love is not.  ~James Joyce

It’s not easy being a mother.  If it were easy, fathers would do it.  ~From the television show The Golden Girls

My mom is literally a part of me.  You can’t say that about many people except relatives, and organ donors.  ~Carrie Latet

A man’s work is from sun to sun, but a mother’s work is never done.  ~Author Unknown

All mothers are working mothers.  ~Author Unknown

The phrase “working mother” is redundant.  ~Jane Sellman

 I think this one is my favorite and really sums up a mother’s selflessness:

 A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.  ~Tenneva Jordan

 Happy Mother’s Day!!

Karin*

1  1    11

Sounds like a book title doesn’t it?  Recently I had the pleasure of hanging out with some terrific readers who were introduced to one of my romance books.  And as is usually the case, they asked lot’s of questions. Many of my answers were eye-opening to them. I’m going to list a few misconceptions that were brought to my attention recently and also include some of the same old tried and false common misconceptions I have heard for years.  Feel free to add to the list!

 *Authors create their book covers.  No, the publisher does.  And while some of us have cover input and approval, we do not hire the models and arrange the photo shoot or pay for it!

*It’s the authors fault for reprinting old books and suckering readers in. No, it isn’t. Blame the publisher. And just to be sure you aren’t getting a reprint in new packaging, always check the copyright date.

*Authors make a lot of money:  ROFLMAO!  That’s all I have to say.

*It’s the author’s fault when there are typos in the book.  Yes, the author does have culpability, but in our defense, sometimes we just don’t catch everything, that is what a final proof reader is for!

*Apparently, romance is one of ‘those kinds’ of books.  If by one of ‘those kinds’ of books you mean compelling, uplifting, empowering, heart pounding passionate and to die for heroes and heroines who fight the good fight and end up happily ever after, then yes, romance is one of ‘those kinds’ of books.

*Authors make a lot of money:  Still ROFLMAO!

*Love scenes=smut.  No comment.

*It’s easy to write a book.  Um, no, actually it’s kind of hard.  (and I was happy to hear at a recent readers group I visited with that they didn’t think it was easy but were quite in awe of the fact I had written not one but over a dozen books.)

*Anyone can get published. 

Prove it. 

My friend paid to have his book printed; he sells them from his house. 

I did not further engage this person. 

And so I could go on and on, but I’d like to hear from you, either share a common misconception or, feel free to ask us MSW ladies anything about publishing and we’ll be happy to answer to the best of our ability!

I have a bound galley of Karin Harlow’s debut paranormal suspense, ENEMY LOVER, up for grabs. The winner posted Sunday!

3  1

I recently spent a week in Catalina with Sylvia and Maya Banks.  The three of us try to get away once a year to recharge and write.  For me, this year was most needed.  You see, I have a new distraction that no matter how hard I try to ignore it during the day (which is my prime writing time) I just can’t.  It’s impossible.  Mostly because I don’t want to miss a thing, and because, I am deeply in love with my granddaughter.  I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing me blab about her, but she is my true joy.  A precious gift I thank God for more than once a day.  See what I mean?  Is she too cute for words?

There is one wee itsy bitsy downside to all of this happiness: I haven’t been writing.  I have been spending way too much time enjoying Baby G.  She’s like crack.  I cannot keep my hands off her. So, as much as I hated to say goodbye a couple of Sunday’s ago, I had to.  And it’s a damn good thing I did, coz we goils not only had a blast, but all three of us had some serious writing related break-throughs.  I had two conversations with my editor to make sure what I thought were epiphanies actually were.  In the week that I was gone, while I missed everyone, (but hubby sent me daily videos) I made serious headway on my next book. Hell, for the entire series!  I needed to do some serious world building, and I did.  I could not be happier.  Now there are those who took issue with the fact that I was in Catalina under the pretense of working.  So here is proof.  Actual photos taken as I slaved over my wip.

We took a helicopter to the island.  No stinkin’ ferry for us jetsetters!

Life here on the island is tough.  But someone has to enjoy the scenery.  That was shot from our balcony.  Such a hardship it was too.

That’s Syl working really hard.

See?  I’m working too!

For the writers out there, do you go on writer’s retreat and actually get work done?  And for you non writers, if you could go on a retreat, what kind would it be?

1  1

I was inspired a few weeks ago to write this blog, and was reminded of it by Edie Ramer’s blog the other day over at Magical Musings, and also by a guest blogger there yesterday. 

The video Dare to Suck really hits the heart of the matter.  We all suck at whatever it is we endeavor in the beginning.  And it’s ok.  It’s normal.  And we’ll continue to suck  if we don’t make the regular concentrated effort to improve.  There’s that 10,000 rule that takes you from sucky to superior. Practice makes perfect.  There is no such thing as perfection, you say?  Maybe, maybe not, but that’s just an excuse not to strive for it.  If you had to guess, how many hours have you invested in your sport, hobby, job or education?  Say from late teens to now?  10,000 hours?  That’s almost 40 hours a week for nearly 5 years.  That’s a lot of time perfecting one single skill.

Now let’s go a step further:  How do you practice those 10,000 hours?  Dabble, just running through the motions or really digging in and practicing at a higher level?  The deep practice is what separates the gifted from the proficient. (Check out http://malcolmgladwell.com/ for a deeper explanation.)

I came to learn about the 10,000-hour rule a few weeks ago at an all day RWA chapter workshop.  Guest speaker, and life coach, Koren Motekaitis, http://howshereallydoesit.com/ who was amazing, spoke and touched on this 10,000 hour rule as a model for becoming a better writer.  She really got through to me.  On many levels. 

When one of the attendees raised her hand and said, “I practice my instrument everyday, why is insert name of musician heree so successful and I’m not?”

That’s when Koren tapped into something so profound for me, I am still shaking my head.  Profound in that it all clicked when she explained it. Profound it that I let go of so much crap I had been holding onto.

So here was Koren’s response to the above question, (paraphrasing) “How does that person’s business affect yours?”

The attendee sat there for a long minute then said, “It doesn’t.”

“You’re right it doesn’t.  That’s their business, not yours.  Focus on your business and your business only.”

Hello!  I know this! 

But it gets better!

Koren stepped back and explained that there are three types of business in the world as we know it: the universe’s business, i.e. the weather etc.  We have absolutely no control of the universe’s business.  No one does. If it’s freezing outside we have the choice to stay outside and freeze or go in inside where it’s warm. Bitching about it won’t change it. We cannot change the universe’s business. 

Secondly, there is everyone else’s business, business that is theirs to deal with, not ours, no matter how much we care about them or want to butt in.  Everyone is in charge of his or her own business. 

The only control we have is of the third and most important business: our own business.  When we sit around and wonder why everyone around us it more successful we’re wasting precise time and energy.  That’s their business, it has nothing to do with our business.  If we want success, we have to put in the 10,000 hours and then put in the overtime hours.

I jokingly asked Koren how the hell I was suppose to butt out of my children’s business!  We had fun going round and round with a current dilemma of mine that involves one of my adult kids and she was able to boil it all down to this:  I may not like the choice my child maes but she has to live with it, not me.  Ugh!  Hard to swallow but it’s the truth. 

I came away feeling revived and very focused on continuing with my writer’s journey and surpassing the 10,000 hours, but more importantly, focusing and centering on what in my life I can control: and there is only this: I can only control me and what I do.  If the universe has other plans, I’m screwed.

So, have you put in your 10,000 hours?  And how do you manage to keep out of other people’s business?   Or do you? 

K*

1  1  2

Everyone, please give my good friend and one of the nicest people in the world, Eileen Rendahl, a warm welcome to MSW!

Thank you so much for inviting me to guest blog here at Murder She Writes. If you can judge a person by the company she keeps, then I hope everyone sees me here. It’s an honor to blog with such a talented fabulous group of writers.

I thought I’d continue what seems to be a theme here this week and talk about the heroine of my new book, DON’T KILL THE MESSENGER. Melina had a near-death experience as a three-year-old and started seeing and hearing a lot of things that no one else seemed to see or hear. Since then, she’s been pressed into service delivering messages and packages for supernatural beings. Be it a note from a love-sick Sasquatch or a package to a dwarf, Melina has to suck it up and take it where it’s meant to go or suffer the consequences. And trust me, there will be consequences.

Melina strolled into my life completely unbidden. I wasn’t looking to start a book or for a new idea. In fact, I was on deadline for another book. She just showed up and while I had to figure out how she came to be and what precisely she was, I knew instantly what kind of person she was. Smart, sarcastic and a bit of a slacker. Or, as my mother put it after she read it, “she reminds me of you, but she has bigger problems.” 

After I figured out how she came to be, I needed to start populating her world. Where did she work? What did she drive? What was her family like? And most importantly of all, who were her friends?

I grew up surrounded by sisters and female cousins. I’m very comfortable surrounded by female company and have to admit that I’ve become suspicious of women who don’t have girlfriends. The last few times someone has zinged me with one of those back-handed compliments or nastygrams that we’ve been discussing this week? It’s been a woman who later made some comment about how hard it was to get along with other women.

Go figure, huh?

My characters tend to be surrounded by girlfriends and sisters. As a writer, they give me a great opportunity to show different sides of an issue or different ways of handling similar situations. There’s another side to this coin, though. If you’re writing a romance, having a loner heroine makes it so she might not have anyone else to turn to except the hero. Now that’s good romance.

 Sadly, though, as a reader, my suspicion of girls who don’t like girls colors my perception of heroines who don’t have other women in their lives. Melina has a lot of faults. Really, she has a lot of them. Maybe too many. Not being able to get along with other girls is not one of them.

So how about you? Is a loner heroine with no friends a deal-breaker for you? Or do too many friends make it harder to focus on the relationship between the hero and heroine?