Good Tuesday to you! You will NOT believe who I found wandering around today. Mary Buckham passed our door several times, so I grabbed her and dragged her inside. Please welcome her and ask tons of questions. She loves them.

Mary Buckham is an award-winning fiction writer, co-author with Dianna Love of BREAK INTO FICTION: ™: 11 Steps to Building a Story That Sells from Adams Media, co-founder of www.WriterUniv.com and a highly sought after instructor both on-line and at live workshops around the country. To find out more about Mary, her Manuscript, Synopsis and Query help, her Lecture Packets, Workshops and Writing projects visit www.MaryBuckham.com. Mary will also be teaching her last SYNOPSIS online workshop for 2011 next week through www.Writersclassesonline.com – she hopes she’ll see some of you there!

Seven Deadly Sins of Synopsis Writing

By Mary Buckham

St. Gregory the Great articulated the original Seven Deadly Sins - – pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth –transgressions that caused the death not of the body but of the soul. Committing the Seven Deadly Synopsis Sins won’t exactly doom your soul, but they might smash your chances at getting your manuscript a decent read in the hands of overworked, and harried editors and agents.

I have had the pleasure of working with thousands of writers of all genres. I work with them one-on-one to review, analyze and tweak their synopses to make them the strongest selling tools possible. As a result I’ve been able to see, from an editor/agent’s perspective, what comes across their desks daily and why some synopses work and others don’t.

All things being equal editors and agents need, require synopses to do two things. 1) show them that you have a cohesive plot worthy of their time and attention and 2) allow them to sell your story to editors [if in the hands of an agent] senior editors, the Marketing department, the Overseas acquisition editors, etc., etc.

Strong synopses showcase your characters, your plot and your ability to structure a story. If a synopsis sucks it makes it oh so easy for an agent or editor to pass on reading your manuscript.

The following Synopsis Sins – if eliminated – will not guarantee a sale, or even a full read, but the absence of them will make your synopsis, and thus you and your story, stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Sin 1) Too Many Proper Names to Track. You’ve lived with your characters for months or years in the writing of your manuscript. But to a cold reader, which is what an editor or agent is, they are simply proper names and do not give any information. Try and keep your proper names to a limit of three. Example: If I say Jim, Bill and Bob went to the grocery story – you have no image. If I say my husband, son and dog went to the store – you have a stronger image.

SIN 2) Too much detail. A synopsis is meant to show the structure—the plot of your story. Save the details for your manuscript. Anytime you are writing your synopsis and move your characters around on the page, or include fascinating bits of research or scene specific minutia, or quoted dialogue – you are showing scene detail.

SIN 3) Making passive or past tense instead of active and present. Passive phrasing and past tense phrasing in a synopsis both have a purpose when used correctly, but when over used can 1) flatline your synopsis until it sounds like that homework report and 2) make an editor/agent wonder if whatever is being described on the page is back story or current story.

SIN 4) Not Finishing the Synopsis. Your synopsis doesn’t really tell the end of your story because you want to keep the surprising twist or revelation a secret. Not a good idea.

SIN 5) Not Using Transitions to change POV or Time or Place. Because a synopsis is a snap shot of your whole book you lead an editor/agent through your story--or through different points of view -- over just a few pages. What can easily happen as you are shifting POV’s, or shift in physical location or time passage—is you jar a reader out of your story. Every time you raise a question: But I thought the protagonist and villain were there instead of here, you risk losing your reader. Do this often enough and it’s easy for them to put down your synopsis and your manuscript.

SIN 6) Not unfolding the synopsis as the story unfolds.

Sin #6 falls closely on the heels of Sin #5 - no transitions, because the lack of transitions is often covering up this all too common problem of jumping back and forth, from back story to current story, to the POV of a secondary character’s back story, to what will happen at the end of the story, then back to the beginning. It’s enough to make an editor/agent’s head spin.

SIN 7) Raising Questions in a synopsis in the wrong places. In our manuscripts we use questions to show internal thought. But in our synopses, because we are telling, NOT showing, we don’t want to include external dialogue or internal dialogue. Both are scene detail and bog down a synopsis. Step away from the showing and summarize whatever it is you are indicating by your question. Instead of asking an editor what might happen – tell an editor what’s happening.

Now what about you? Have you taken a quick look at your own synopses and found yourself guilty of any of the sins? Or if you aren’t quite sure and want to get a cold read and feel comfortable posting up to a few sentences feel free to do so. I’m here to answer questions, commiserate over what a pain synopsis writing is in general and perhaps offer some suggestions or tweaks that can take your own synopsis from the slush pile to a stand out.

Feel free to comment and out of those who do comment one name will be drawn for a copy of BREAK INTO FICTION™: 11 Steps to Building a Story That Sells or one-on-one help with a query letter – your choice.

Thank You, Mary!

Hi Everyone,
It's another day of savings, so here goes:

restaurant.com is offering a 70% savings off on restaurant certificates with coupon code "FORK" (yes, really).

Get your free Perricone product samples at:
http://blog.perriconemd.com/thank-you/

The rumor is that CVS has clearances this week on combs, brushes, and hair accessories. I love CVS, and never go a week without shopping there, so check it out.

Target is said to be offering LCD TV's on clearance at great buys. If you purchase a floor stock model, you'll receive an additional 10% savings.

Writers always need flash drives, and superbiz.com is offering an 8 GB.flash drive for $11.99 with free shipping. Use coupon code APPLE5105, but use it quickly because it expires today, March 7th.
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=ST3U8EDB&c=CJ

Another freebie is the free Target Beauty Bag, a $25.00 value, for filling out a short survey. We writers need to take care of ourselves!
http://samples.target.com/beauty-bag/

Happy shopping!

Favorite quote: "I can't afford to save any more money".

Hi Everyone,
It's that time of month again--time to save money!

I love magazines, and these are 2 excellent choices,which are almost free. Tanga.com is offering the following specials until Sunday evening:

Taste of Home magazine is $3.99 for the year using coupon code TASTE
Family Circle magazine is $3.99 for 15 issues using coupon code CIRCLE

Panda Express is offering a free entree this week. "Like" them on facebook in order to print a free Garden Treasure Shrimp entree on March 9th.

Groupon.com (surely you subscribe to groupon!!) is offering 5 movies for $2.00 at the Blockbuster Express Kiosks nationwide.

Walmart.com is offering a free sample of Oxy Clinical face wash if you fill out the following short survey:

https://secure.startsampling.com/sm/walmart/captureAddress.iphtml?item=101663&source=&url=http://www.startsampling.com/sm/oxyclinical101633

And, Jazzercise is offering free Friday classes through the month of March. Use the following coupon:
http://www.jazzercise.com/pdfs/11free_friday_printcpn.pdf

I have another savings tip to share, which was mentioned once on a money-saving TV show. Purchase hankies at your favorite discount store and use them instead of tissues. It's great for the environment, and can save loads of money over time.

Happy Shopping!

Favorite quote: "I can't afford to save any more money".

Please help me welcome J L Murphey today.

I met Jo Murphey years ago at Southeastern Writers Workshop held each summer on St Simons Island at Epworth by the Sea. An entire week hanging around writers and attending workshops was a last!

Jo and I immediately became partners in crime and laughed at almost everything while we shared our love for writing and life in general. She agreed to share her feelings and suggestions about a topic familiar to most writers.

Welcome, Jo! I am so glad you are here with us!

Creativity Flow and the Block

I've heard many a writer complain about writer's block. This is common especially with the weather here warming up and the sun shining. Anyone with sense would rather be outdoors, because of this writers have a tendency to feel a lapse in creative juices flowing. One writer friend of mine thought she'd killed her brain cells dealing with her creativity. This was my response to her, but it works for just about any writer.

Ya didn't kilt yo' noggin'. It's jist takin' itself a wee little nap is all.

Translation needed, I've spent far to many hours in my southern fiction- You didn't kill your brain. It's just napping.

At times you brain needs a little break from creative overload-itis. Eventually, the well will run dry. You need to fall back and recharge your creative juices. Since the weather is nice, and it has been glorious here too, go outside and enjoy nature. Plant a garden, tend some flower beds, clip the hedges back.

Life is about balance. While at times, I can pound away at this keyboard for hours on end, barely eating and sleeping, and do nothing but write. But then there are the other times, when my stories stay minimized on my screen or stares at me just waiting...and waiting...and waiting. I've written five words in the past 24 hours. (Five-count 'em, thumb, index finger, birdie finger, ring finger, and pinky). It is hard to create a creative flash of genius. In fact, it's impossible. Sometimes, your brain hits a lull and as a writer you have to allow yourself this lull. Think about a river, it ebbs and flows. It is not constant. There are floods with snow melts, the every day flow, and then there is a drought where the water flow is a trickle. Creativity is the same way.

For me, I grab a handful of workshop or other author's chapters, a red pen, and head for the bathroom for a full fledged bubble bath. Something about a hot soak in the bath tub. It recharges my energies or makes me fall asleep which ever is needed most. Other times, I'll turn on the DVD player and watch favorite movies, which I know will spark something creative in me. Yet still other times, the juices will not flow (they can be stubborn in a logjam). I call this my writer's block moments. I will play scrabble, boggle, and few other word-mind games. Grab a friend and reenact a murder with water pistols in hotel hallways to see which way a body will fall. I know it sounds silly, but the idea is to lighten up. Eventually, normally within two days, the dam will break and an inkling of creativity will peek through and then... the "Ah-ha" moment, or the "What if I did this...," or the "I know how to fix this!"

The more you stress over the lack of creativity, the more you shoot yourself in the foot. Creativity can not survive in a vacuum. Which whether you realize it or not...sitting behind your desk staring at the computer screen creates a vacuum. Creativity can not flow against stress. If you are experiencing writer's block, you are stressing about it. Creativity needs to be nurtured and pampered like a newborn baby. It is not something you can force yourself to be. Be kind to yourself and your creative flow...take a break. It will come.

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jlmurphey

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/40926 E-book
http://www.wordclay.com/BookStore/BookStoreBookDetails.aspx?bookid=64722 POD

http://jomurphey.blogspot.com/ My Blog

Email contacts

jomurphey@comcast.net

Adding to Mona's post yesterday, I was a reenactor for Drake's Raid in St. Augustine at the Castillo de San Marcos. In 1585, English pirates fired their muskets at townspeople at the Santa Domingo.

Sir Francis Drake is famous for circumnavigating the globe and defeating the Spanish Armada—not for ransacking a town of 300 inhabitants called St. Augustine. However, the reenactment of that historic day, June 6, 1586, has taken place for 135 years. The Historic Florida Militia presents its reenactment at the Fountain of Youth every year beginning in the morning and continuing until nearly sundown. The Fountain of Youth hosts a military encampment with demonstrations of cooking, military maneuvers, some crafting, and other activities typical of 16th century life in a newly established Spanish colony. The sacking and burning of the town is reenacted in the evening, generally beginning at 8 p.m. on Aviles Street. A procession of soldiers marches from there to St. George Street and continues to the City Gate, where a skirmish will break out. The skirmish is a tactical demonstration of the Spanish rear-guard action with simulated combat. The activities are a symbolic commemoration of one of St. Augustine’s fiery moments in history.

I've included some pictures of my horse Alegre, me, my friend Helen and her horse Excalibur (I'm in the red hat) at the reenactment.

My favorite period for reenactments is the English Civil War but the reenactments are difficult to find. I no longer ride or participate in reenactments but both are sorely missed.

Have you ever been to St. Augustine?

That quaint city is only a few hours driving from my home in Ft. Lauderdale. To think I’ve been roaming the world and admiring foreign landmarks without realizing that I have a historical place within close proximity.

St. Augustine boasts several American first or oldest sites. It was the capital of Spain’s La Florida and a thriving coastal town before the first English settlement was established at Jamestown, VA.

Built in 1672-1695, the first fortress in America, Castillo de San Marcos, helped protect Spain’s treasure fleets from the English and pirates. Designed by Cuban Engineers, it is the oldest fort in the United States and was designated as America’s first national monument.
Government House, built in 1598 served as the residence of the governors of Spanish Florida. In 2001, spanish King Juan Carlos gave a speech from its balcony.

The Oldest House was built in 1702. It was the home of St. Augustine mayor.

In September 8, 1565, Don Pedro Menedez de Avilles came ashore and founded the first permanent settlement in what is now the United States. On that date, Father Francisco Lopez offered the first Mass here--a site that became the home of the first Catholic parish in the nation. Our Lady de la Leche is the oldest Christian site in the United States.

Plaza de la Constitucion is the town square.

The Oldest School.

If you like to travel and love to read, come and enjoy my international romances. I will take you around the world through stories that simmer with emotion and sizzle with heat.

BABIES IN THE BARGAIN winner of 2009 Best Romance Novel at Preditors & Editors and winner of 2009 Best Contemporary Romance at Readers Favorite.
Rx FOR TRUST, winner of 2010 Best Contemporary Romance at Readers Favorite and 2011 EPICON.
http://www.monarisk.com/

At long last, March has arrived.  After spending much of January and most all of February sick with one thing or another, I tottered forth into the sunshine and managed to accomplish a few much-needed errands.  Now I’m whacked and feeling it’s time for a nap.  That’s what seemingly endless virus’s will do to a body.  Considering I’m not the only sufferer in the  Shenandoah Valley or the country, I think most everyone except the die-hard skiing fanatics would agree that what we all need is SPRING!  A tonic to mind, body, and spirit.

To that end, I point out the snow crocus and snowdrops blooming here and there in sheltered spots of my yard and garden.    Welcome green shoots of crocus, daffodils, tulips…are pushing up through the earth most everywhere, and today the weather is supposed to be sunny and 60 degrees.   The pussy willow is bursting forth with catkins, and fussy barnyard geese are laying eggs.   I conclude it’s early spring and much prefer that term to ‘late winter.’  Far more mood brightening.

In keeping with the season, I’m sorting through boxes stuffed with envelopes of seeds leftover from the past year or two and ordering more (we count our wealth in seeds) as well as potatoes, strawberries, culinary herbs and all things garden.   Which as far as I’m concerned equals all things good as any true gardener will agree.  I also save seed, am a big fan of  heirloom seeds, and have been known to share  so I’m not simply hording my treasure trove.

An excellent place to be for those in want of  plants is out in the garden with me on a fine spring day while I divide perennials and thin overly generous larkspur, love in a mist, and poppy seedlings…I’ll soon tire, allowing them to take over certain spots of the garden, but in the beginning I’m imbued with the determination that this year all will be in order.  I soon concede to a more wildflower look and justify many of the weeds as ‘kind of pretty.’  We definitely have a wildlife habitat here, another justification for the unkempt tangle that encroaches as the season unfolds.  But now, all is fresh, new, and filled with promise.

In my search of every more seeds on the internet I came across an interesting site with images of vintage seed packets for sale:http://www.seedart.com/flowers.html

I have a food dilemma.


Since childhood, I have not been able to eat certain food combinations. Sometimes just their smell is enough to gag me. This is not the normal “I’ll have a taco without cheese, please,” kind of situation. It is a little more complicated than not liking a certain food. You see, to me, eating creamy (hate crunchy) peanut butter on crackers is tasty, but the idea of eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich sours my stomach. Ketchup on French fries, ditto; ketchup on any other food does not happen in my world. Pickles in potato salad are delicious, but otherwise I can not tolerate their vinegary scent for more than a split second.

My list of no-no combinations is endless.

I don’t normally think about my unusual eating habits. Avoiding them comes naturally to me. And because my family is aware of my ‘oddities,’ conversations about my issues ceased long ago. Now when everyone slathers butter on toast, they skip me as they pass the container around the table.



Triston and Ivan loves to hang out with their uncle JB.

 It was not until I had breakfast a few Saturdays ago with my two grandsons (Triston and Ivan) that I was challenged to consider my food choice from a different angle. My daughter is being deployed with the military, and the two boys are staying with me for a year.

Even when you think kids are not listening, they are always tuned in to adult conversations. Earlier that morning they must have heard me talking to my friend, because Ivan, the four year-old, looked up at me and asked, “Can you eat this grandma? It is yummy.” He held his fork in my direction. A supersize serving of pancake covered in peanut butter and maple syrup was inches from me face.

Unable to speak, I shook my head.

“You promised you’d take a bite if we mixed the pancake batter.” Triston joined the conversation.

Ivan waved the food in my face. My reaction was so strong, I wanted to throw up.

Breathe.

How was I going to get through this and still set a good example for them? After all I’d insisted the boys eat at least half the portion of lima beans I’d serve at dinner the night before. Once again, I inhaled a deep breath.

I’ll get through this, no matter how hard.

I closed my mouth over the food and chewed with resolved calm. Of course, it was one of the most disgusting things I had ever eaten. But I did not let my grandsons know my true feelings. In their eyes I was a wonderful grandma who kept her promise. Even more important they believed they were helping me.

Over the past two weeks they have prodded me into trying the strangest combinations. Some I love, others still make me gag. I’m not sure why I have held onto my quirky childhood habits for so long, but I have learned something from all this food drama.

I never accept the status quo. I get it now. To experience life fully you have to embrace new things. Two days ago, I tried sushi for the first time. While I probably will not order it again, I am glad I had the experience.

As I end this article, I catch a whiff of tiramisu. My son loves it, but since I hate coffee I’ve never given the dessert a try. Maybe I’ll take him up on his offer and accept a bite.

Now it’s your time to share…

Until later,

Pamela Varnado

It all started when the image on my computer monitor blacked out and wouldn’t come back. And I couldn’t save what was on the computer if I had no way to view it. Result – New Monitor. After all it was 8 years old, which is a millennium in computer age. Grr.

Okay, I’d been talking about setting up a docking station because I have a desktop computer and a laptop, which I take to South Beach when we make our weekly trips for my husband’s work. Result – Purchase of a docking station.

I tried hooking up the computer to the docking station, but the new docking station and old keyboard were not compatible. Result – Purchase of new keyboard.

There was one last thing to do—hook up my good, reliable printer to docking station. But wait! There was no plug on the docking station to accommodate the printer. Another trip to Office Depot. (It had been three days of trying to get everything working and they knew me by now.) I was told that any new equipment wouldn’t accommodate a printer as old as mine. (8 yrs old) Result - Purchase new wireless printer, which isn’t that expensive because the printer cartridges are.

Everything is running now. Result -I’m still in the midst of setting up files on the laptop and making sure I’ve got all the stuff properly backed up on my external hard drive.

But wait! In order to accommodate the new equipment, some of which was sitting on top of the old CPU, I needed to get a new place to put it. Result –An evening of putting together a wooden file cabinet and the beginning of the huge job of going through all my hard copy files and reorganizing them and, thus, my entire office.

End Result – Frustration at wondering why it is that instead of being rewarded for taking care of equipment, we are punished because the manufacturers have deemed them to be no longer compatible with anything new.

Final End Result – The good news – old computer was given to charity, who happily accepted them. The bad news - our budget was blown to bits.

Final Final End Result –I am able to write again, something which is at the heart and soul of me. But damn… we sure are dependent on technology! And it’s sometimes a race to keep up!

Good morning everyone,
Today I'm blogging on writing through the dumps, when you feel that you're on hold, waiting, waiting, still hanging on to hope that something good will happen, your last book will be the one, and all that you've dreamed of will soon be yours. You walk in the door each day and the first thing you look for is the blinking light on the phone. Ah, you have a message. Before you take off your shoes, or go to the little girl's room, you hit the message button, wondering if this could be "the call" from your agent, or an editor has just finished reading your wonderful piece of work and wants to buy it right now before it goes to auction.
Okay, I know as writers we all have different expectations, but when I started out 20 years ago, I only had one. I wanted to be published and make people smile, and give them the same pleasure that I experiece when I read a good story. To me, being published meant and still does, being able to walk into a bookstore, see your book sitting there on the shelves next to all the other truly gifted writers who dreamed the dream and achieved their goal. It never meant reading a book on a computer, or trying to market it yourself on-line.
I have two books published with E-Pubs, and another one under contract, and yes, I am very happy about this, and feel grateful that my books will be read, but for me, if that's all there is, it isn't enough. Writing is too hard, it takes a great deal of time, effort, research, planning, and talent and dedication to create one single book, little alone, book after book, year after year.
This business is getting tougher, and it was always an extremely difficult business, now nearly impossible, and yet, some newbies still make it, and it's so hard to give up on something you've wanted for so long, and fulfills you. So while I'm waiting, I still plug along. No sense of urgency, but if I can manage five pages a day, or most days, then I do, I keep moving forward, trying to stay mentally strong and believe that one day my efforts will be rewarded.
We writers should not be writing for free. It is a job like everything else. If we do it as a hobby, then yes, hobbies don't make money, but if we devote ourself to the craft, if we do all the write stuff, networking, workshops, conferences, and put our money behind ourselves to put out the very best work we can, then yes, there should be some financial compensation.
That's my take. What's yours?

Can you tell that I've got cabin fever? It's beginning to feel like spring here in Georgia. The Pear trees are breaking out into buds and will be snowy white in a few more days. School is winding its way toward Spring Break and Scarlet is thinking of escape. Can't you tell? My mind goes a wandering to the two lovely Mediterranean cruises my daughter and I have taken. I would so love to go again, but the unrest in the world lets me know it's not going to happen this summer. So I have my memories and my pictures. The cruise ships to the right are at anchor off the island of Santorini. Below is a picture of a canal in Venice. Everyone will recognize the view of the Parthenon.

Here again is a view of Santorini from the ship. Below is a gorgeous view of Mykonos.

This is a port in Tunisia. The cruise lines have removed this port from their schedules. Perhaps we were wise to admire it from on the ship rather than going ashore. I hope you enjoy my little mini vacation, this is all I'm likely to enjoy this summer. The flower cart reminds me of spring and that brings me back to the beginning of my little ramble. Some where when the spring breaks through!

Today, I'd like to discuss the element of time, in writing.

The statement below was made by a reader on a book discussion list to which I belong:

"After Paris it all began to fall apart for me. A lot of skipping around—unexplained time periods went by that didn’t make sense. He was in Puerto Rico, running for his life. Then he was beaten in New York. In the next scene, the heroine was upset because he was gone for months, but the timeline did not support her feelings.” (Disclaimer: The locations in this passage have been changed to protect the author.)

Did you hear her frustration with the author's work? I did.

Have you read a story which made you stop and wonder either how much time had gone by or how did a claimed span go by so fast? I’ve read stories where the time lines were totally off.

I remember in one book while the clock stuck midnight on New Year’s Eve the heroine wondered how she would provide for her unborn child. She thought this while stroking her flat stomach. Because of one missed period, she’d taken a pregnancy test earlier in the day. Pages later, it was spring and she gave birth to a full-term health baby boy. Spring stopped me. The seasonal identifiers didn’t fit the timeline of a normal pregnancy. The story, which had drawn me in, lost me right there. The author hadn’t done her job.

I’ve also read stories where the author didn’t use any time descriptor words or phases such as the next day, or later that morning, or years passed before. Which can leave the reader feeling lost.

Here's another example: Jonathan’s jaw tightened before he turned and slammed the door. (End of Chapter. Next chapter begins.) Jonathan didn’t know what to expect when he opened the door. The whole house was barren. Everything he’d owned was gone.

As the reader, do you know how much time has gone by? No. Jonathan could’ve closed the door and reopened it in peek-a-boo fashion for all we know. Which if he did, this story would have paranormal or psychological-thriller elements. But if our hero had been gone for days, weeks or months, we would see an emotional conflict.

How do you ensure a proper time flow for your story? Map it out. Draw a line. Write the important events that happen to your characters along the line and then chart in seasonal bits and pieces. If your hero is going to be gone for six months and he leaves in July, when he returns in January the weather, food, etc. should reflect the month’s setting in the area.

Also, remember to ground your readers by using time related phases.

Example: There was no more to say. Jonathan’s jaw tightened. He stalked out and slammed the door behind him. The next morning when he returned home the entire house was empty. His life had disappeared overnight.

See the difference?

So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it. ~Harold Acton, Memoirs of an Aesthete, 1948

The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say. ~Mark Twain

Don't be too harsh to these poems until they're typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction. ~Dylan Thomas, letter to Vernon Watkins, March 1938

Usually, I try to write two stories at once. That way, if I get stuck in one story, I can hop to the other while the first one percolates at the back of my mind. At the moment, I'm writing a historical short story as well as a long paranormal. All was going reasonably well until this past week, when I came to a sudden and very abrupt halt. Why? Because I reached a love scene in both stories at exactly the same time.


Groan.

For me, love scenes are the hardest to write, because along with the mechanical stuff -- tab Y in slot X, etc. -- there has to be character growth. The scene has to be meaningful in the development of the relationship between the hero and heroine, and also move the story forward without slowing down the action. (!) Not only that, this particular activity has to occur in a large proportion of romances these days. Not every story has a car chase or a gunfight, a ballroom scene or an abduction in a coach-and-four, but they all need love scenes. Sigh. My husband and I joked that maybe I should write the scene for one story, then switch the names and a few details and plug it into the other.

LOL. Nope, that would never do. So I worked my way through the scene in the historical, learning more about my characters in the process -- always a plus -- and also realized, to my great relief, that the last four chapters in the paranormal needed reorganizing anyway, so I could put off that love scene for a day or two. Whew.

Writers -- Do you find loves scenes harder to write? Easier? The same as the others? 

Readers -- Would you be just as happy with fewer love scenes, or is the romance genre handling them fine? Do authors succeed in making each one different, or do you find that a lot of love scenes seem "same old same old" to you?

(The picture, by the way, is of swans in Aquitaine, and has nothing to do with the post, except maybe that swans are romantic and so is love :))

Palomino horses can be found on ancient tapestries, paintings and other artefacts of Europe and Asia and in Chinese and Japanese art over two thousand years old. Royalty and warlords revered these golden horses.

Palomino is a color and not a breed. Breeding a palomino to a palomino does not guarantee a palomino foal. The offspring can be chestnut or cremello. The horse to the right is Saphiro, a handsome cremello stallion.

These horses vary in shade from pale cream to a rich golden color. The mane and tail is usually white but may be gold and/or have dark hairs. Like chestnuts palomino horses may be affected by the sooty gene, when they display dark dapples. The effect is not unattractive but is nevertheless considered to be “incorrect” when compared with an “ideal” palomino. The coat of many palominos changes shade from cream in the winter to golden in the summer (seasonal palominos).

Pale palominos are sometimes called Isabellas, after Queen Isabella de-Bourbon of Spain, who is much remembered for pawning her jewels to fund Columbus' voyages to the “New World”. The word Palomino is itself a Spanish surname, derived from a Latin word meaning pale dove. Queen Isabella kept a hundred golden horses (but forbid her commoners to own one!). She did, however send a Palomino stallion and five mares to her Viceroy in Mexico (then called New Spain) to perpetuate the horse in the “New World”. North America palominos originally came from the Spanish settlements, presumably descendants of Queen Isabella’s horses.

Genetics of palomino:Palominoes have a base coat color of chestnut (i.e. of genotype ee, eaea or eea at the extension locus) and genotype C+CCr at the C locus (the cream dilution gene). The CCr allele is semi-dominant and dilutes red pigment to yellow in a single dose (i.e. in palominos). The wild-type C+ allele is effectively recessive since it needs to be homozygous for there to be no dilution of the base color. (Horse Genetics.com)

The two horses in the photos are Lusitanos, which originate in Portugal.

I personally owned Andalusians, and palomino is not an Andalusian color.

Andalusians are supporting actors in Hot Spanish Nights, an erotic novella, by Bianca Swan, now available from The Wild Rose Press.

In case you have missed the recent buzz, Borders
Stores filed for Chapter 11 protection and the
company is closing a slew of stores. Here's a list
of the Borders stores that will be closing due the
bankruptcy:

http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/st_borders0216_20110216.html


Straight from the horse's mouth. 



 
 
 Comments?
 
 
 
 
 

I am sure you must have received postcards from well-intentioned friends flaunting their vacation in Florida and rubbing it in that they are sun-tanning while you are freezing in arctic weather.

Imagine a nice neighborhood of fancy high-rises lined along the seashore, each looking like a picture perfect resort, with a private pristine beach and a pool sparkling in the blazing sunshine.

These buildings have reception desks where you have to register if you don't live there. Security officers won’t let you in before checking with the people you are visiting. In other words, high-rises benefit from a tight and reassuring security.

Nothing bad could ever happen in these places. Right?

If you write romantic suspense or paranormal, stay tune for inspiration, my friend.

Something happened. More than one thing, but let’s start with the first one since it happened in a friend’s building and she told me the story before we read it in the newspaper.

The couple in my story have been married for a year.

Picture her tall, artificially blond, fashionable with tight dresses and high heeled-sandals. It’d be difficult to guess her age, anywhere between 40 and 50.

Her husband, well-tanned, rugged, looking younger. He likes the beach and often swims. She protects her face with a wide-rim hat when walking to her car. The neighbors regularly see her taking a daily jog in the morning and the security officer at the front desk greets her with an appreciative smile. Mrs. X. is wealthy and gives generous Christmas bonuses to the building employees.

So when Mrs. X didn’t show up for her daily walk for three days in a row, security got worried. Her car was still in the parking lot but not her husband’s. Security called her apartment several times. No one answered. Having an extra key, the security officer knocked on her door several times and then opened. The apartment was empty. Maybe she was gone with her husband. It was none of their business to further interfere.

Mr. X returned from his trip in the night. Two days later he calls the police saying that his wife was missing.

The police find her purse and car keys at home. So where was she?
A day later, a woman's body dressed with her bra and bikini, and high-heeled sandals is rejected by the sea and lie on the sand of a far away beach at two hours distance. The woman is identified as Mrs. X.

Mr. X collapses, crying that his wife has committed suicide and produces a medical report that his wife suffers from depression.

What is your verdict? Who killed Mrs. X and why?

For the chance to win a copy of my ebook French Peril, a romantic suspense, play Sherlock Holmes and solve the crime. By the way, it's a true story and I will give you the verdict tomorrow.

If you like to travel and love to read, come and enjoy my international romances. I will take you around the world through stories that simmer with emotion and sizzle with heat.

BABIES IN THE BARGAIN winner of 2009 Best Romance Novel at Preditors & Editors and winner of 2009 Best Contemporary Romance at Readers Favorite.
Rx FOR TRUST, winner of 2010 Best Contemporary Romance at Readers Favorite and 2011 EPICON.
http://www.monarisk.com/

I'm listening to Jim Brickman's CD Destiny and loving the piano music. It stirs the imagination and calls to my muse. I've got a lovely scented candle burning and a fire in the fireplace. A friend invited me to visit today. She has a little farm in Alvin, and I would have enjoyed her company, her fireplace and old movies, but I opted to stay home and let the words of my WIP flow because recently they've been as sluggish as molasses.

Here's a tidbit that has started to flow. Since no one had posted today I thought I'd jump in and ask if I'm on the right track. Tentatively titled, Doomsday, here you go:

As if the sun had been switched off, the sky darkened. Lightning flashed, struck a small tree sizzling along the trunk. Thunder rumbled, shaking the ground. Fear streaked through her. That was way too close for comfort.She’d make a dash for the courthouse before the storm broke. As she stepped off the curb, the car came from nowhere.

A flash of white, the vehicle struck her left hip, and she was flying then falling. Her head slammed against the pavement with a resounding thud. Road rash burned her arm and leg. She grabbed her head, felt something warm, tensed for the pain. Nothing happened. She opened her eyes to gaze into the darkest eyes this side of midnight.

“You’re hurt,” he said, his voice tender music, “but I can heal you. In fact, you must survive.”

Wavy blond hair brushed the button-down collar of his white shirt. The beautiful voice soothed the gong echoing in her head, and his exquisite his face stunned her speechless. But the strange eyes were unnerving. They were totally black, obsidian orbs ringed long lashes.

“Who are you?” She looked around, and Main Street was a psychedelic blur. “Where am I?”

“You are with me.” He lifted her fingertips to his succulent lips. “Safe.” He tensed, sniffed the air, looked around. “We must go.”

Lightning fused heaven to earth. Thunder rolled across the bruised sky, drowning her gasp of awe and dread. In her twenty-five years, she’d never seen such a splendid and frightening display of electric force. Could the doomsday prophets be right? A hard shudder resonated through her entire body. Did the end of the Mayan calendar signify the end of days?