Some Housekeeping Items:

Hello all - summer's nearly half over and I've taken alot of time for reflection and rest and come up with some new things for my writing life. I'm going to be making some changes to my blog and use it for other things than what I've been doing over the past four or five months.

First of all - the title's going to change. I'm writing an historical now, and while I will keep writing suspense, I want to come up with a more generic title (oh, something original like my name!) that encompasses everything I do!  I've got plans for the upcoming year for my writing and I wanted to expand that as well as my blog.  So, for you subscribers who've hung in with me, stay tuned for the next day or so because when I disappear on you I'll be visiting *your* blogs to give you my new name etc. 

Second of all - I'm writing inspirationals now after a long, long, battle within myself for the past three years. It began with fighting with my husband over writing only inspirationals and that just got my back up over it. It began because he didn't want me to write sex scenes.   It began because deep down I really didn't think I had anything worth saying about God or anything else connected to Him.

I wrote three books - placed in a couple of big contests and had two of the three requested by editors and agents. I came close to selling one to a big publisher and rewrote it for them twice but no cigar. (Lesson learned - NEVER do rewrites unless you have a contract in front of you!) I went on a writing hiatus for nine months, except for doing book reviews. I figured that was "keeping my hand in", and I've learned about about writing and book structure from reading and dissecting those books.

So, did God speak to me from a burning bush? From a pillar of cloud in my garden? No. He told me I could write sex scenes if I wanted, but it wasn't getting me anywhere. He told me I'd learned alot about writing in three years and now it was time to do something with it. And that maybe I did have some things to say for Him. That He'd tell me what to say, and He'd give me the stories. And the very next day, a newspaper clipping caught my eye that gave me the idea for a story for an historical that resonates with what we're going through in the world today.

It was easier when God talked through a burning bush. We're not all Moses - he was lucky! The average, day to day Christian doesn't get to see the face of God - we couldn't stand it if we did. But we can listen for Him. I'm trying to listen better, and do the things that I know will draw me nearer to Him. If I can get closer to Him then I believe He will let me know what stories need to be told and how. I just have a glimmering right now of what a young couple on the verge of their lives will go through in war. I have some characters full blown and some still shadows.

I rejoined the Faith, Hope, and Love Inc. Chapter of Romance Writers of America. I did belong back in the days when I didn't believe I could write inspirationals, and it all seemed too hard and irritating. I wasn't in the right "space" for it and no doubt there was some spiritual warfare involved. I'm so glad to be back and have the support of those women and their experience. It's been a big step to go back, like the Prodigal Daughter, and admit that you need them - identify with them, and say - ok I'm not published but I do need to make this choice and I've done it!

It makes me so happy to see my dd run off to "The Wood's" which is what they call Sunday School at our church, and my ds jump out of the car and yell "see you guys" to go to the portable for Jr. High's. So far, no trouble in keeping them interested in church and learning. We have an active, youth-oriented church to thank for that!

Some people have asked me what my picture is supposed to be on this blog. It's an aerial pic of my house, taken by my dh when he was practicing flying this winter before going for his military training. I don't have any promo pics of myself for writing, or any cute graphics. I certainly don't have any family shots of myself that I'd want anyone to see in Internet land!  So, in desperation, I stuck up the pic of our house from the air, and I realize you can't tell which is our house but I know which is ours and that'll have to be good enough. So, that's the explanation!

Okay, the look will be changing, likely something simple, but thanks for reading and next time I'll write about my future plans for my writing this year - contests I hope to enter and things like that. I'm busy writing down my goals and making a 12 and 24 month plan. It's time to get back on track! 

Missing In Action:

Well, I certainly have been away for awhile. The simple story is that I've had a bout of depression, but it's going away now and I'm feeling more like myself. Winston Churchill used to suffer from times of crippling depression and he'd say "the black dogs are after me". That's an apt description of how one feels.

Life stops for awhile and you're overwhelmed, feeling as though you're on a hamster wheel or being chased by something. There seems to be no rhyme or reason why it comes on; maybe there's a stressor in your life or maybe there's nothing going on at all. At least Winston got Britain through WWII and then was voted out for his valiant efforts. Must've had a whale of a depression after that!

I've spent a good time reading and while I haven't felt like writing book reviews, I have been reading and trying to keep my brain in gear for something useful. I think it's been time well spent. I'm on a WWII kick right now, hence my Winston Churchill trivia. I took a Grade 13 course in high school about Canada's role in both WW's but it's amazing how much you can forget in nearly 30 yrs or so. Those wars shaped the way the world is today and the way politics will affect my own husband's military career for the next twenty years. It's a sobering thought at how generation's lead into each other and bleed the future into their children and their children's children.

If any of you have been watching the international news these past few days, you'll know that Canada just released our most notorious female serial killer - Karla Homolka. She's served out her 12 year manslaughter sentence with no parole, and now has conditions set on her for another year. She got manslaughter in a deal with the Crown Attorney (our version of the District Attorney, for those who might not know) that she not be prosecuted for murder in return for testifying against her husband who was also charged with the killings.

Late last week her lawyers were arguing in court that the media NOT be allowed to print anything about her - she's so afraid of someone identifying her, death threats and all, you know. What does she do within about 5 hrs of getting out of jail? Goes on TV with French CBC TV - TV, no less, to give an interview in french, once again trying to portray herself as a victim, expressing remorse, and how she'll "be in a prison" for the rest of her life.

Pardon me while I hork up a hairball. And because we're all so inflamed by reality TV we'll suck up her appearances like the scum they are and she'll be the worst kind of "celebrity" - trailer trash killer who's claim to fame is that she's a serial killer who'll likely do it again, right under our noses. And everyone will wonder why, scream at "the system", and the country will spend it's time pontificating on a wreck of a woman when they should be spending their time figuring out how to send more aid to Africa, spend some REALLY big bucks on their military, figure out how to organize their health care so that people are stopped in their tracks at Emergency Departments and sent away with their sniffley noses, and maybe even proclaim a long weekend in February! Now there's a thought. It's a better idea then following Homolka around with a camera and hanging on her every last, vacant, self-serving, and self-indulgent word.

If you're *really* remorseful, Karla, and I doubt you are, get a job like the rest of the country, pay your taxes, and shut the hell up.

I've Been Tagged:

The last book I bought:  "Sadie-In-Waiting" by Steeple Hill Cafe - something to take a break from the books I've been reviewing. It's a funny, poignant, look at three middle-aged sister's coming to terms with looking after their septagenarian father, and finding their mother who abandoned the family after the third sister was born.

Total number of books I own:  This would be hundreds, because we belong to the Folio Society of London and have all the Classics and Post-Modern Classics in hand-crafted covers; hundreds of paperbacks, and my writing craft books, not to mention childrens books!

Last Book I read:  ALL SHOOK UP: An Eddie Dancer Mystery. For any regular readers you already know how I feel about this book, if you're just dropping by, scroll down and you can read the review. :)

Five Books that mean alot to me:

1) More than 5: My entire Mary Stewart romantic suspense collection in the original prints, which are now falling apart on me and can't be replaced. Eg. My Brother Michael, Nine Coaches Waiting, The Moonspinners, etc.

2) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Because it was better than the movie, and after cutting my teeth on those stories above, it made me think in Grade 11 that I might actually be able to write someday.

3) Frenchman's Creek and Jamaica's Inn by Daphne du Maurier. (see I said more than 5!) These books drew me into writing historical fiction and they're by far her best books but received little review.

4) All the Queen's Men by Linda Howard. This was the first mainstream, gritty, sensual book of hers I had read. I'd read her early Harlequin/Silhouette stuff bought from a thrift store and thought that she and Brockmann and several others had just happened to be in the right place and time to be published at all. Her writing had so improved that this inspired me to achieve something equally superb.

5) Son of the Morning by Linda Howard. She beat me to this story and although mine wasn't a time travel, I wish I could've written this book. Again, superb, lyrical, sensual, a delight to the reader and you just didn't want it to end. My first novel attempt was about the Templars and in my research I lived and breathed them. Obviously, she had too.

Ok, michael_bracken, and mommo5 - you're tagged next! :)

(And inspired by creativity - you can get in there too if you're a reader!)

WINNER GOALS:

I think I've talked before about the fabulous January online course I took with Margie Lawson about Defeating Your Self-Defeating Behaviours. This past week my critique partner and I decided to rev back up to giving each other our weekly "Winner Goals" - the goals we thought were achievable that week, and our "Superstar" goals we thought we *might* get to if life didn't get in the way.

This is the first week in a *very* long time that I've been able to stick to my "Winner Goals" and do a bit extra AND receive my Superstar Goals which was to have her send me a couple of extra chapters to critique, as she re-edits her book. It feels good. Really good. My long, hazy, doldrums must be coming to an end. I still feel as though the anemia is there - the iron hasn't changed much but my mental ability is coming alive and that feels really, really good!

I wrote two book reviews and sent off them plus two others I'd written to the two review sites I write for. I finished one book and am reading two more - one for review and one for pleasure/cum research. I've been brainstorming on my series character PI for my inspirational book that's tugging at my brain...she's getting loud in there and banging around wanting to be let out. There's also another character up there who's yelling at me to tell her story too, and for so long, too long, it was just vacant quiet.

I took down half of the clutter on my desk and either pitched it or filed it properly. Now you can see wood! There's still some necessary papers and my dh would say more could go into filing, but for me, it's a miracle - so it'll stay like this for now.

I took on the task of researching possible locales for a small writer's retreat for next fall. I need one in eastern Canada, and one in the Maritimes, as I have one in the mid-west and one in the Rockies that are quite nice. Then I will present them to the Chapter and see what the concensus is for locale. This is something I enjoy doing; putting things together and planning a big event. If you can plan a wedding you can plan a writer's retreat!

All this and kept up with an online website course, two kids with myriad school needs, but I didn't get the dog walked - to my shame! It's the holiday Monday tomorrow though, so she'll get walked, the garden will get hoed, and most of the lawns will get raked - it'll be better than going to the gym.   Yay! I should surprise dh and buy a garden gnome for the front garden.

It's taken nearly 8 years for me to feel this close to writing inspirational fiction, and nearly 8 years for the inspirational market to grow and become something that you can sink your teeth into - although there still are so many, many "thou shalt nots" that it may "should" me to death yet. I can't imagine me writing prairie romances, or the level of grade 8 writing that so many of the stories seem to require, but I will make a serious stab at my series PI character with her personal and professional life entwined. I just can't decide if she should start out a non-Christian and end up a Christian - which to me is more interesting but then I want the book to be a series; I could keep non-Christian friends coming back into her life though, of if she should be a new Christian. I think she should be a non-Christian at the beginning, or by the end of the book.

If anyone has any feedback on this, feel free to chime in. This character will be a cop first, PI second. Not original in concept, but it's all in the execution, as Leslie Wainger is fond of saying at H/Silouette.

And with that thought, I'll leave you all to enjoy your Holiday Monday! Hope your BarBQ's are hopping!

This is a review that I just sent off to ECW Press for their book ALL SHOOK UP by Mike Harrison. Americans can order it online through www.chapters.indigo.ca for $15.95. It is well, well, worth the money!

Eddie Dancer is a welcome figure on the Canadian crime genre landscape. He’s as tough as Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, with a dry wit and a cast of friends from the wrong side of jail bars. He takes things in stride; going days without money, doesn’t blink at cons who lie to him, and enjoys the come and go friendship of his associate Danny Many Guns. His curiosity and humanity often make him go beyond the case he’s working on. It seems trouble follows him wherever he goes.

Harrison solves the white man/Indian partnership (reminiscent of Spenser’s partnership with Hawke) immediately by having Eddie remember when Danny Many Guns told him once that "Kemo Sabe" meant "white trash". The character of Danny Many Guns is enigmatic and three-dimensional. He has his own code that he lives by, and Harrison gives us a glimpse into some of the culture of the Plains Indians that is both horrible and yet needs to be understood by whites.

Eddie isn’t afraid to mix it up with anybody in his pursuit of the truth. He’s relentless, a street warrior who works hard for his own cause. He takes on the DEATH HEAD biker gang with a box of jelly donuts, using self-defense techniques Danny Many Guns taught him. In the end, he makes a friend of the biker leader for life. We know this guy will show up in another book. The character of Jimmie Faddon is too well developed to be thrown away. The plot is twisted, fast-paced, and flawless. High stakes and a movie rated ending make this story a hard to follow bonanza for another series book. Harrison has served up an exciting tale of the underworld, the double-cross, corruption, along with the code among criminals. And Eddie dances with them all.

This debut series novel bodes well for a starlit career for Mike Harrison. You can buy ALL SHOOK UP at any Chapter/Indigo (or order from them online) or from your local independent bookstore.