On Fathers

On the hundredth anniversary of Father's Day, I want to wish all the dads out there my best on their special day. I've been so fortunate to have both a truly wonderful father and a husband who is an awesome dad to our children as well.

My father is the smartest man I know. When I was growing up I would roll my eyes every time I saw him reading the encyclopedia for fun, or when he'd spout off some historical fact hardly anyone knew. But he isn't just intelligent, he's also kind and honorable. Everyone who knows him knows this about him. My son has inherited so many of his traits. How lucky is that?

My husband is what a friend's guy referred to as a "man's man." Yeah, I've got to say, I've based more than one of my fictional heroes on him. Now, he's not perfect. We often joke that he's a "work in progress." He still does things like leave peanut butter fingerprints on the cabinet, but when it comes to the big stuff, he's pretty terrific.

So today is a really special day for me. Although it's fathers who should be celebrating, I get to reap the benefits of their awesomeness!

Political Voyeurism

I can't help it. I'm glued to the TV, switching between channels to catch the latest installment of a captivating reality show. Only it's not about some spoiled celebrity or a family with a gazillion kids, it's the gripping struggle of the Iranian people to make their voices heard. As the violence escalates and the stakes grow ever higher, we get up to the minute reports from ... where? Twitter, of all places. I search #IranElection and the updates are coming so fast -- up to 50 every few seconds -- and I realize we live in a changed world.
Over the last few years we've morphed into the soundbyte generation. That byte was just pared down to 140 characters. I wonder where those soundbytes will take them. I hope, to the freedom everyone deserves.

Coming in July!

Summer Lovin' Young Adult short story collection is released in print July 10. Stay tuned for a contest to win your own copy!

Award winning paranormal and romantic suspense author Cynthia Eden drops by for an interview!

Romance Divas Workshop

Please hop over to Romance Divas and check out my workshop on The Ins and Outs of E-Publishing. Mention something you read in Part 1, 2 or 3 in the comments here and I will enter your name in a drawing for a download of any of my e-books. Your choice!

New Time Suckers

I've been diligently trying to stick to a writing schedule for the last few weeks, and for the most part, I've done a good job. Until this week. Suddenly I have doctor appointments and medical tests galore! Nothing earth-shattering, just things that will require some time draining intervention. It seems like when I have an appointment, it burns up a big chunk of my day and I have to forgo part of my daily word count.

In addition, DD is out of school, not yet gone to camp. So she's begging for rides to the mall, to her friends' homes and the like. But there's light at the end of that tunnel - she leaves for camp for a week on Sunday!

We've been having problems with our router lately. Until our tech support (aka DH's best friend) returns from a business trip to fix it, we only have Internet on one computer, not mine. The silver lining there is that one particular time sucker is a little further removed. I have to get up from my desk and go to DH's to check email. I find that alone has boosted my word count! Problem is, I'm writing a story that requires lots of research, so every time I hit a wall, I have to get up and hope no one else is using that computer.

So what about you? What drains your time more than anything?

In Praise of Editors

I've been working all week on revisions for my next erotic romance novella. This story required a lot of reorganization to make it more of an arc, rather than leaning to the episodic side. This is something my very talented editor, Alicia Rasley caught. She also asked me to change a few other details that when finished, really made the manuscript shine. I love working with such a talented editor. Aside from making my work better, I learn so much. Alicia is no ordinary editor, though. She's a teacher and a talented writer herself. If you've never heard her speak, pick up her book, The Power of Point of View.

Aside from Alicia, I had one editor at another publisher who really made me work! And my books were better for her suggestions. She didn't sugar-coat anything. In fact, when one of my characters had a reaction the editor didn't buy, her comment was bullsh#*&! Conversely, when she loved something, she told me so, and that was like the gods were smiling on me!

I've also had the misfortune to work with a very novice editor who had hardly any changes at all on a 300 page manuscript, and those were mostly line edits only. Needless to say, I'm not terribly proud of that book. In fact, I'd kind of like to forget it! But even my experience with that editor taught me something - it taught me when to cut bait!

I can honestly say that each and every book and story I've written and revised has been a learning experience and hopefully, I'm getting better with each book. What about you? Do you always follow editorial suggestions? Do you buck all suggestions, take it all to heart or something in between?