The Romancechick Speaks

Please bear with me as I update my site to include my current WIPs and those books that are finished, searching for a home.

Thanks!

I bought a Wii, and for the record, I actually bought it so I could have Wii Fit, so technically, it’s my Wii. I do, of course, let The Boy play it and he loves it.

He plays it almost every day, except for the times that he is “grounded” from it. And this morning, I had to ground him again.

My little boy has a habit of putting things in his mouth and apparently, eating some of them. When I got the Wii, I didn’t know anything about what I needed or anything so I asked a salesman at Best Buy and he was great. We got the “fancy” controller covers that are designed to make it harder to drop or let go of the controllers when you use them.

Well, my darling son, chewed on the plastic of the covers until they literally fell apart.

I broke down and went to Amazon and bought two new covers – a pink set (both controller and nunchuck) and a blue one.

This morning I got up to do my Wii Fit exercises and discovered he’s been chewing on the nunchuck cover. So, I confronted him and now he’s not allowed to play the Wii today.

Well, he got into his defensive, angry mode and told us that we (Beloved and I) are mean and we just don’t want him to play. Beloved told him that it is the result of his actions that he can’t have the game today.

Then he moved into what I call irrational argument phase. He told us then that “I guess I’m just a vampire who bites things.”

Sigh. I guess so.

Okay, so there isn’t actually film. I’m sitting in the lobby of the Dolphin hotel on the Disney World Property. One thing you can say about Disney. They’re subtle.

This has to be one of the most OVER THE TOP lobbies I’ve ever been in. Okay, so I’m not a huge world traveler and I haven’t been in tons of fancy hotel lobbies but this amazes me. I’ll try to get a picture of what blows me away.

This is the ceiling of the lobby. My roommate and I discussed whether this is actually fabric, which is what it looks like, or if it’s concrete made to look like fabric. Given that it’s Disney, it could be either and either one would be amazing and totally over the top.

That’s what I love about Disney. It’s super big and the detail is…wait, did I say amazing?

I’m here because Romance Writers of America is holding their annual conference here. This is the conference that was supposed to be in Nashville and one I saved up for two years to attend because Nashville is a doable drive from my house. However, our hotel was flooded and with in a week, the conference was moved here.

Orlando is less of a fun drive, but actually yesterday wasn’t bad. My friend Lynn is with me, although she isn’t really interested in writing romance. She’s a screenwriter and copy writer and probably won’t renew her RWA membership next year.

Still, though, the drive went by fast enough that it didn’t feel like 11 hours, not counting stops.

We got in around 7 local time, checked in and got up to our room, which has NO view unless you count the air conditioning units! Also, the light above my bed doesn’t seem to work, which I need to talk to guest services about. But, you know what? I’m not here for the room. I’m here to absorb as much writing energy as I can and meet people and network and learn!

I know I’m more excited to be here than Lynn is and I think I’m okay with hanging out alone, but I really wish someone would talk to me!

When I came to this conference in 2006, I felt very much out of the loop. Everyone seemed to know other people and groups congregated together. It seems to be a little that way this year, too. I guess that’s to be expected. Some people come every year and have LOTS of writing friends. All, or most, of my writing friends are just online friends that I’ve never actually met in real life. I’m hoping to do that here, at least a bit.

I’ll try to keep you posted on my doings. Back to work, writing, and trying to look approachable.

Okay, not totally terrible, but I went down to the Dolphin lobby early because I wanted to meet people, find someone to chat with, you know, hang with lovely romance writers.

Well, it turns out that if you have a computer in front of you and your fingers are flying across the keys, people “think” you’re working and they leave you alone. I was sitting on a sofa at the back of a conversational grouping of seats. A woman sat down in a chair next to the sofa, but oa the other end. I smiled but she was on the phone and I just went back to my book. Then, kinda big name author (whose name will be redacted because I’m not stupid and I won’t burn bridges) came by. She and the other woman commented on how impressed they were that I was working, then they proceeded to have what sounded like a fun conversation together. Now and then I would look up – I had told them I was spending more time watching people go by than actually writing – and glance their way, but while one or the other of them would look at me, I wasn’t actually included in the conversation.

Then more big names came by to speak to the big name near me. They all hugged. And squealed. And Ooohed and Aaahed over each other’s clothes.

And they all got introduced to the woman that first sat down.

But not to me, since no one had actually asked me anything.

I began to wonder if this was going to be a boring, lonely conference. My roommate, as I think I mentioned, isn’t a romance reader or writer, but she is a writer and she is interested in meeting and networking, but I wanted to meet and chat with other romance people.

Later, however, I went to the room where the Literacy signing was going to take place to volunteer to help set up.

I walked back and forth and around a literal Disney sized ballroom for two hours, including putting RITA finalist flags at the spaces for about 50 authors (out of 500). The authors were seated alphabetically by last name (Duh) but the list of finalists was alphabetical by FIRST name, so I went from the As to the Ws then back to the Fs and then to the Ms and so forth for probably an hour!

I was tired and about 1.5 hours before the signing, I went back to my room to relax.

Then I went to the signing. I had a list in my head of authors I know personally that I wanted to see and my ego was stroked big time!!

Terri Brisbin sat next to me at a book signing at New Jersey Romance Writers in 2004 and she was SO nice to me, a new, unknown epubbed author (back before Kindle told everyone was ebooks are), and she jumped up when she saw my name tag and was thrilled to see me.

Ditto Alyssa Day from whom I’d taken a Chick Lit writing online class when she was writing as Alesia Holiday and Jax Abbott. She also sent my daughter a copy of her second Jax Abbott book.

Anyway, it ended up being great for my ego.

We were getting ready for Mass and the Boy was dressed to go.

We have a wall in our dining room that is all mirrors. Don’t ask; it came that way.

Anyway, he walked into the dining room and said, “Let’s see. Do I look handsome or really handsome?”

Gotta love that boy.

Just called a magazine I’ve been getting for years, but haven’t received for several months. The subscription is supposed to run out in July this year so I called to find out why I hadn’t gotten any for the last few months. First, they couldn’t find me in the system, but they found another woman in my zip code with my name but a different address. However, they had no record of me, my account number, nothing. Here I stand with June 2009 in my hand with an address label on it and the woman on the phone is puzzled. She even got a copy of that issue just to be sure I was calling the right magazine. At this point, I’d begun to doubt that I was although the publishing info from the old one matched the issue I bought at the store today!

Finally, she put me on hold for a couple of minutes and came back and said, “Okay, would you like me to send you the back issues you’ve missed or extend your subscription because your last issue will be mailed in a few weeks?” I told her I want the back issues (it’s a cross stitch magazine) and I’ll renew it online.

Then I asked if she could tell me what had happened.

“The system changed your address.”

Hmm…I’m wondering if someone found my magazine by accident and changed the address to “steal” my subscription!

Anyway, I don’t know how the “system” changed my address any other way.

Just an interesting event in my day.

How’s your day going?

Me: I’m thinking about making my hero a veterinarian.

Beloved: You know, veterinary school is very hard to get into.

Me: That’s one of the joys of being a writer. I can just say it’s so and it’s so. No tests, no grades, no hassle!

When the Girl was little, she made up the names for her grandparents – Rugga and Bumpa. I guess a lot of kids do that. I have a friend who called her mother “Bimma.” When we were roommates and my mother called, she told me my Bimma called. I told her I don’t have a Bimma, she does!

Anyway, my son has started calling our guinea pig a perb, as in, “Oh, aren’t you a little perb??” He told me that “perb” is something that’s cute. Um, okay.

The Girl made up a word like that when she was little. She used “mudge” for what I would call a gray-peachy color, kinda like Caucasian skin tone. Anyway, we use “mudge” for that color now (and she’s 20). I figure we’ll start calling things “perbs” soon, too.

I finished Sword & Illusion! This was the final editing. Beloved is now going to read it for what I’m calling “polishing.” I do NOT intend to do any more rewriting or scene adding or anything like this.

I’m going to RWA’s National Conference in July in Orlando, and I fully intend to do my best to get an editor and/or agent appointment to pitch this book.

Very excited for both things!!

As you have probably guesses since it’s been over two weeks since I posted my last career plan update, things haven’t been moving along on the Cherry Challenge book.

However, I am getting Sword & Illusion polished.

This has been a growth experience for me.

A couple of months ago, my sister-in-law (Beloved’s sister) and her husband came to visit her parents who are now living about a mile and a half from us.

Sister-in-law and her husband are artists. Painting/sculpting type artists. They had a business both when they lived in New Jersey and then again after they moved to California where they live now doing murals and faux finishes for both businesses and private homes. Their work is amazing.

Sister-in-law has painted the Girl’s bedroom twice (once in PA, once here) free of charge. Someday, she might do the same for the Boy.

Anyway, after all this time, both of them (SIL and her husband) have developed some back problems and the mural business isn’t working as well for them. So, they’ve been looking for other art-y type work.

Her husband was talking to Beloved and me about the struggles SIL has been having in finding her own “voice” in art. She would do something – he’d make suggestions – she’d do it his way – she wouldn’t be happy.

As he talked to us about this, we kept exchanging glances because it sounded so similar to the process we’ve been going through in our writing. Her husband is interesting to talk to because even though he isn’t a writer, he gets the creative process and we have great talks.

Anyway, that conversation has been instrumental in my “taking ownership” (I really hate that kind of nonsense blabber speak) of my own creativity and my writing. Beloved makes comments and will write whole new paragraphs/scenes to fix a plot hole or add a new cool idea to my story.

Sometimes, a lot of the time, what he adds actually does make the story better, and I generally just change the words around to make it sound more like how I would have written it.

However, sometimes, what he writes doesn’t fit in with the vision I have for the book. That may be because I haven’t shared everything that’s in my head with him. I might have thought I did but I’m find out I didn’t.

Also, I cut this book in half for length reasons and there are loose ends that need to be tied up and he came up with some ways to do that. Some I’m okay with, but some I’m not.

It’s very hard for me to tell him I don’t like something he suggested. Mainly because he gets so excited about what he wrote and he often thinks we agreed to something that I don’t think we did, so I go in one direction and he goes another way. I finally have had to tell him that I just don’t like something he wrote or some idea he had.

It’s been a tough process because I have some insecurities and pretty much believe he’s a better writer than I am and I would rather just do it his way than fight about it. But that doesn’t make me happy, so I have had to learn to be honest and say, “Hey, I don’t like this so I’m rewriting the scene to fit my vision.” Usually we can find a compromise, but in the end this is my book, which he recognizes, and I have to be strong enough to stand up for it.

All that being said, I honestly think I see a day when I can proclaim the book totally, 100% finished.

I don’t quite know what life will be like when I don’t have this book to work on, but I’m looking forward to that day!