Retirement is tiring. I've been on the run since the day I left teaching. First was a trip to Key West to the Mystery Writers Conference. Heather Graham was on several panels.

Mary Marvella rode shotgun on that trip.

We had a ball. We ate great seafood!

We signed our books.

http://amazon.com/author/mjflournoy
 A Matter of Trust
http://amzn.com/B00FDWOL3C A bit of self-promotion here, if you haven't read A Matter of Trust, please download, read and review. It's lonely over on Amazon.

We went on a bar crawl!

Then back home and to Atlanta for a GRW meeting and a girl's night out before the meeting.

Well, this was still Key West, but you get the idea!

In July we were on the road again, well actually in the air. We flew to San Antonio for RWA National.

Then I had to go back to school shopping for my granddaughter who is starting her first year in high school.

We have many more plans. Weekly critique meetings, a monthly writer's retreat and another road trip in September. Whew, I'm tired. I might have to go back to work to get some rest.

Today's guest is Jennifer Echols, one time GRW member and brave person. The girl is funny! She has a book out today and she's with us. How cool is that?

The bug stops here

I live in Birmingham now, but the story I am going to tell you takes place in Atlanta. In 2004 I was a member of GRW, and a fellow writer you may know named Mary Marvella explained to me how to get to the one and only meeting I ever attended, at a steak house way up on the northern edge of town. I lived way down on the southern edge of town and it took me fourteen hours to get to the meeting and fourteen hours to drive home, by which time my husband was hysterical that he had been left alone so long with the toddler. I moved back to Birmingham soon after that. I actually got my agent the same week we sold our house in February 2005, and I sold my first novel in June.

But in November 2004, I wish I’d known what was just around the corner for me, because I had an experience that threatened to derail my writing career. I had spent a long hard year making a big push to get a novel published. I worked at home as a freelance copyeditor, I had to get that work done while the baby was at Montessori school, and my husband worked the night shift at the Yamaha plant in Newnan. The only time I had to write was before bed—my least creative time of day, believe me—and during my daily workout at the YMCA. Yes, I wrote huge tracts of books WHILE EXERCISING ON THE ELLIPTICAL MACHINE. Looking back I find this a little hard to believe too.

By November my completed manuscript was ready to go. It was a hilarious and sexy romantic comedy (if I do say so myself) set in the Birmingham neighborhood I was homesick for, and I just knew it would be snapped up for representation by an agent. I had particularly high hopes of being represented by the agent of an up-and-coming Atlanta novelist whose first book had just come out. You may have heard of Emily Giffin.

By November my daily routine had become more difficult because my husband had taken a job back in Birmingham and had moved ahead of the baby and me. I stayed in Atlanta with the house. So it was basically the same routine as before, minus husband, plus realtors showing the house three or four times a day. We thought the house sale and the move would be easier if we got rid of some of our baggage, so one Saturday when my husband was home, we held a yard sale. These things start at six in the morning in the South, you know, and I had endured an entire work day’s worth of strangers talking me down on my twenty-five-cent prices and maligning my baby clothes when the mail came.

2004, remember? We had e-mail, but a lot of us still didn’t know how to use it, and few were the agents who insisted on e-queries. Emily Giffin’s agent was one of the many who did everything by snail-mail. I had a feeling about the mail that day. I watched the truck come down the street and stop at my mailbox. I watched it go. I walked down the driveway as quickly as possible without frightening the garage sale shoppers. O joy, here was my letter from the agent!

I held it in my hands and pictured success. You know how the self-help books are always telling you to picture yourself successful but it never seems to work? That’s what I did for a moment, hoping for the best, and then I opened it.

Revise and resubmit.

Revisions that I didn’t agree with.

And then, just to add insult to injury, a yellow jacket flew out of the mailbox, zoomed down the back of my pants, and stung me on the butt.

Did I face this crisis alone? Did I whine to my unsympathetic husband who never really understood why I wanted to be a published author? I didn’t have to do either, because I had RWA. I went inside and typed a whiny message and posted it to the RWA PRO list. I got all the sympathy I wanted, plus advice on how to deal with the revise-and-resubmit letter, plus advice on treating a yellow jacket sting.

I could very easily have taken the sting as a sign that I should stop pursuing the goal I’d worked toward so long, an easy way out. But I did not, and today is the release day for FORGET YOU, my seventh published novel.

Let this be a lesson to you, my friends. You can’t let a sting on the butt get you down. This is the South and the South is full of bugs.

ENDLESS SUMMER - Simon Pulse - In stores now!
FORGET YOU - MTV Books - Coming July 20!
www.jennifer-echols.com

Can you beat that story? Ask the woman questions! She loves them!

If you would like a chance to win FORGET YOU, comment!

Hi, there pink fuzzy ladies and guests! Scarlet is coming to you from the Hilton Hotel in northeast Atlanta where Georgia Romance Writers Moonlight & Magnolias Conference is in full swing. What a blast it is, you should be here.

MM and Scarlet arrived about 8pm last night and immediately began to renew friendships with attendees of the conference. Sitting in the hotel lobby we were joined the fabulous Jennifer St. Giles.

Getting an early start this morning, we were up and at it by eight. The first session was a cold read panel with Raylene Gorlinski, Becca Stumpf, and Monique Patterson. Brave souls had emailed the first pages of their novels to the coordinator ahead of time and sat breathless while their work was read aloud, then given the treatment by these editors and agents. It was interesting to hear how far into the first page they would have read before making a decision to pass or to request more.

Next was the editor/agent panel which focused on what they were looking for and how they required submissions to be made. I’ll report more later on what they were looking for and where they thought the market is headed.

There was a pitch workshop to sharpen a writer's skills in putting their best effort forth for their editor or agent interviews. I skipped this session, but having participated in it in the past know how valuable it can be.

We had a working lunch, which was a great idea! There were two sessions and both were great.

After lunch came an intense workshop on archetypical character types as the basis for characters in our novels. This was another great workshop and I took a ton of notes, which I’ll try to add to the blog at a later date.

We wined and dined at the welcome reception tonight, shared great fellowship, renewed old friendships and made new ones. The food was good, the conversation was inspiring, and the total atmosphere has been great.

Tomorrow there will be more great workshops, editor/agent appointments, and more great networking opportunities. Will keep you posted on how it goes. Scarlet is working diligently to keep MM out of trouble!

Karen, we are excited to have you here. I miss seeing you at GRW meetings. Ladies, help me welcome Karen.

Hi, and thanks for hosting me on the Pink Fuzzy Slipper Writers blog! I’m excited to be here and I’m celebrating the release of TAKE ME TWO TIMES, the second book in my series about an agency that recovers stolen art. (For more info please visit www.KarenKendall.com.)

What was your first published book and with whom?

My first published book was SOMETHING ABOUT CECILY, which was released by Avon Books in May, 2001.

How many books did you write before selling one?

I wrote four complete manuscripts before selling the fourth.

How many books have you published?

At this point, I’ve published eighteen, written four more and am under contract for another three.

What themes go through your books?

Interesting question! I’d say themes of honesty, growth, materialism vs. what really matters in life, and all different kinds of love . . .

How would you best describe your books?

I’d say my books are character studies, romps, capers – but with some very serious themes like forgiveness, redemption, etc.

How did you write with kids and deadlines?

Well, I have no kids (unfortunately) but I do have two very tolerant greyhounds, Merry and Lilah, a funny, sarcastic, sweet husband, Don – and a demanding cat, Boo.

Which other jobs have you had?

I’ve worked retail, I’ve worked for small museums and galleries, I’ve done merchandising. I’ve been a grants writer . . . lots of odd jobs! Funny, they’ve all ended up helping me in my writing career.

What do you love most about writing and do you not like?

I love creating characters, bringing them to life, exploring a new story world. I love the process of writing, even though it always feels like a pressure-cooker because of the deadline . Hmmm, what do I not like? That pressure-cooker feeling, the fact that I know I can always make something better if only I had more time, and nasty reviews. LOL. Also, the pressure to increase sales is nerve-wracking.

What are you writing now?

Right now, I’m working on the revisions for TAKE ME FOR A RIDE, which is the third book in the TAKE ME series. (Book one is TAKE ME IF YOU CAN and book two, which just came out yesterday, is TAKE ME TWO TIMES.)

What would you write if you could do write anything you wanted to write?

You know, I really, really love this series that I’m writing now! I feel lucky that I’m able to work on these books. They draw on my art background and also my love of exciting intrigue—movies like the Thomas Crown Affair (remake) and the Alias series and old films like Cary Grant’s To Catch a Thief.

Why do you write?

I write because I love to. I can’t imagine doing anything else, despite the pressures of promotion and sales and all those other things that don’t come naturally. I love bringing characters to life and telling stories about human behavior and what motivates it . . .

How do you write?

It’s funny—I’m a combination of what they call a “pantser” and a “plotter.” What I do is start with some basic plot points in the classic three-act story structure. Then I flesh those points out into a synopsis. And from there I do the first few chapters of a proposal. Then, LOL, I hope my editor buys it!

After that, the story may change or I may restructure it. Some of those changes can be drastic (like when I threw out 200 pp. of TAKE ME IF YOU CAN and changed the villain to the hero!) but most often they’re subtle.

Do you write what you know?

I love this question! I think that a fiction writer always produces a combination of what he/she knows and what he/she imagines and researches.

What’s next for you?

Coming next is the third book in the TAKE ME series, which is TAKE ME FOR A RIDE. It’s a really fun story involving a family heirloom necklace which once belonged to Catherine the Great. The hero is a bad, bad boy—in fact, the girls at ARTemis, Inc. (my art recovery agency) love to call him McManWhore. But even bad boys fall in love—it just takes the right woman!

Thanks for having me on the Pink Fuzzy Slipper Writers blog—it’s been a lot of fun. Ask me anything you’re curious about, okay? And be sure to check out the sizzling hot, sexy series video trailer for the TAKE ME series at www.KarenKendall.com!

I’m also giving away a copy of TAKE ME IF YOU CAN to a lucky commenter. Have a great spring full of lots of wonderful books! All the best,

Karen Kendall

I thought I'd run a blurb or two by you for my "new and improved" web site (how can something be new and improved??)

Love For Sale - Pushing the big 40, divorced and disillusioned, March Marlin has given up on love until, by chance, she discovers an ad selling sentinent androids that are indistinguishable from humans AND programmed for love.

Gambler's C hoice - Wealthy Virginia socialite Becc a McQuad finds her perfect horse but dark, mysterious and handsome Austen Heath won't sell his winning mount or succumb to her charms until tragedy throws the rivals together in his gothic mansion.