March 8, 2007

WHO’S AFRAID OF THOSE SUNSET ENDINGS?

Not me .

This one’s for the Canadians out there — don’t forget to catch BRAVO’s WHO’S AFRAID OF HAPPY ENDINGS at 5:30 p.m. pacific time.

This is the blurb:
A documentary about the cultural phenomenon and billion-dollar industry of
romance fiction, featuring the stories of three Canadian romance writers as
they try to find success, and interviews with romance’s biggest stars.

I remember a call going out way back when for authors who wanted to particpate. Don’t know who they are yet, but it should be worth a watch.
 

March 6, 2007

DEADLY BEAUTIFUL

That’s DH at the back, carrying the snowboard.

We (being Whistler) lost someone out there in that beautiful backcountry this past weekend. A chain of unfortunate events resulted in the death of a visiting skier. He was found several days after he went missing, without his clothes, or skis, having traveled many miles from where he was last seen. I  am given to understand people in advances stages of hypothermia sometimes strip naked under the illusion they are hot.

Another young skier died in-bounds, in the lift line-up, from health-related issues.

And a brave 20-year-old local woman managed to climb out of her VW after a freak car accident on a slushy road and walk for help carrying her severed arm. She kept her cool, never went into shock, and was determined to live AND keep her arm. It was reattached in a 9-hour operation.

In other community news, tourists doing the zip-line on Cougar Mountain were witness to a cougar killing a coyote right under the line as they sought their thrills above.

What does any of this have to do with my writing, you may ask? Absolutely nothing.

Yet.

But these odd little daily occurrences — stories of life and death that stand out in our minds in some way, or the emotions and ideas that spin off them, have a curious way of ending up in our books down the line. We write what we know, and who we are. We write what moves us. We are a result of our little daily experiences … and where they take us.

Personally, my most extreme effort today was a 54-minute walk in slush. But the writer in me couldn’t help imagining what it might have been like to walk that distance carrying my own arm, losing blood, slipping, weakening. Or trying to find my way out of a gulley thick with snow and dense with conifers, wondering if help would ever come as it grew dark and temperatures plunged.

Hmmn … maybe that’s why I was tired when I got home.

Okay — back to the Art Fact Sheet

March 5, 2007

ON TRACK

I’m on track with my plot. I hope. I’m also back on track with my exercise now that my knee is working fairly normally again — an hour of walking each day at the moment. I’m going to try and throw in a little running and skiing next week in the hopes that the old tendons and ligaments will hold up.

March is also multi-task month for me … I have to get the hang of this – DANCE WITH THE DRAGON in the morning, CONTINUITY book in the afternoon, Art Fact Sheet for DEAL WITH THE DEVIL in the evening, and we could be throwing revisions and edits into the mix soon. Plus there’s reading. And research. And the next proposal to think about. Oh, right, and living

I do find it tough to switch characters/plot/setting at a set hour, and it does give me a whole new respect for editors who juggle much more at any given point in a day. It also makes me feel somewhat ‘employed’ . So no complaining there!!!

Any tips for smartly switching focus from one MS to another ??

March 4, 2007

CAN YOU SEE IT?

The teensy candle of bright yellow near the base of the tree? An emerging skunk cabbage lily — the first sign of spring. This means the bears will be waking. The hardy skunk cabbage is among the first available food for the season for the bruins. Soon these wetlands will be abalze with yellow — very pretty, and pretty skunky as the plants mature.

Somehow I feel like winter happened while I was working.

Must. Pay. More. Attention.

March 1, 2007

HONORED

I am tickled to have been awared a 2006 CataRomance Reviewers’ Choice Award for THE HEART OF A MERCENARY.

A very special thank you to CataRomance reviewer Amelia Richard, and also to Cata’s Ally Anderson, and Donna Zapf, and anyone else who supported the decision– thank you!