The third book in the Eyes of Garnet trilogy, Double Vision, is rapidly coming to its end. I should have it finished by the beginning of the new year. 'Course, finished is relative. After I complete the story, there's a period where I work on the cover art, the graphics for the chapters, cover text, etc. Then I go back and rewrite. And rewrite. And rewrite some more. It'll easily be March before it's ready to go to the publisher.
But, I'm truly excited about it, and can't wait to begin another book. I guess that makes me a real writer. Or a glutton for punishment! Perhaps they're one in the same.
As small publishers gain favor for their tolerance for new writers, as does self-publishing due to the fact that the big boys are getting more and more difficult to play with, I'm pleased that I can have my work out there and actually have people enjoy it. It's not that I doubted it could happen. If I did that, there'd be no point in going forward with any of it. But I'm truly pleased with my fan-base and the fact that they help to spread the word via friends and family.
Now all I need to do is get the movie sold and made. Diana Gabaldon's Outlander is being optioned for a big screen event, and Randall Wallace of Braveheart fame has been chosen to write the script. If it can happen to her, it can happen to me, though I do so pity Mr. Wallace for the task of taking only enough from the book to make a two, to two and a half hour movie out of it. No matter what he does, there won't be anyone happy about what and who gets cut out. That's why I wrote my own screenplay. So much easier to live with myself and not have to kill another screenwriter for leaving out the true plot of the story.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Pick Up Lines and Book Signings
Yes, you read the title to this post correctly.
I was at the Barnes and Noble store in Newington, NH Sunday doing a signing. Now, I really do enjoy meeting people and talking to them about my books, so what better way to do that then at a crowded bookstore. Well, crowded may be exaggerating. It was actually pretty quiet, but given the sucky economy, there were still people buying books.
There was a lull in the action so I was browsing the new David Baldacci book. My peripheral vision caught sight of an approaching person. I looked up to find an elderly (in his 80's) gentleman with a cane staring at me.
"Hi," I said.
"I know you from somewhere, don't I?" he asked, still staring.
I told him I didn't think so, as I never forget a face.
"You're very pretty," he told me.
By this time, I'm thinking he doesn't care if I'm selling my books or women's underwear. This guy's trying to pick me up using his best lines from WWII!
I try to focus his attention back to my books, rather than my looks, by asking him if he had one of my books.
He said no, but perhaps his wife did.
"See, that's probably why you think you've seen me before."
"But you're very pretty," he reiterates. "I know we've met."
My husband is behind me hiding behind a bookshelf snickering the entire time, wondering how I'm going to get out of this one. He's always amazed that this can happen to me anywhere I go, although it's usually the mentally challenged who are the ones who brazenly approach to talk. I tell him I just look friendly.
After a few more minutes of staring, he told me he was with his daughter, who was about my age and that he'd see me later. Great, now I get to meet the family.
True to his word, about a half hour later, he's introducing me to his daughter, and we go through the whole conversation again. His daughter was finally able to steer him towards the door, but I never was able to sell them a book.
I was at the Barnes and Noble store in Newington, NH Sunday doing a signing. Now, I really do enjoy meeting people and talking to them about my books, so what better way to do that then at a crowded bookstore. Well, crowded may be exaggerating. It was actually pretty quiet, but given the sucky economy, there were still people buying books.
There was a lull in the action so I was browsing the new David Baldacci book. My peripheral vision caught sight of an approaching person. I looked up to find an elderly (in his 80's) gentleman with a cane staring at me.
"Hi," I said.
"I know you from somewhere, don't I?" he asked, still staring.
I told him I didn't think so, as I never forget a face.
"You're very pretty," he told me.
By this time, I'm thinking he doesn't care if I'm selling my books or women's underwear. This guy's trying to pick me up using his best lines from WWII!
I try to focus his attention back to my books, rather than my looks, by asking him if he had one of my books.
He said no, but perhaps his wife did.
"See, that's probably why you think you've seen me before."
"But you're very pretty," he reiterates. "I know we've met."
My husband is behind me hiding behind a bookshelf snickering the entire time, wondering how I'm going to get out of this one. He's always amazed that this can happen to me anywhere I go, although it's usually the mentally challenged who are the ones who brazenly approach to talk. I tell him I just look friendly.
After a few more minutes of staring, he told me he was with his daughter, who was about my age and that he'd see me later. Great, now I get to meet the family.
True to his word, about a half hour later, he's introducing me to his daughter, and we go through the whole conversation again. His daughter was finally able to steer him towards the door, but I never was able to sell them a book.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Living in the Past
It's hard not to think about my next series of novels even though I'm still writing Double Vision, the last of the Eyes of Garnet trilogy. I'm really looking forward to putting Gregor Macgregor's story onto the page. He's such a character, and I'll be writing as a man and in the first person. A change that I welcome.
I wonder if I'm painting myself into a corner writing another set of historical fictions. But they're just so much more interesting than the time period we live in now. Not that there isn't much going on now, it's just so complicated. I've always been attracted to the past, not that I want to relive those terribly difficult times, but when you think of what our ancestors went through ... and still managed to survive it all. It's amazing in of itself.
Can you imagine people of today going back to the 18th century? I believe people are people, not matter what time period they've lived in, but would one have to be stronger to survive it? What would most of us do without the internet, or a washing machine, or something as simple as getting water from a faucet? I feel most would have a very difficult time of it.
There would still be the rich. There would still be the poor. But the street people of today would be the ones coming out on top in that world, having the knowledge of living by their wits and making do with what they have on their backs.
We've grown soft, fat, lazy, and all too willing to pass everything that involves work to someone else just because it inconveniences us. Sad really.
So with all that said, I guess I'll stick to historical fiction for the time being. Besides, it's so much easier to have men with magnificent physiques because they had to do so much manual work. Their hands were big and rough. Their shoulders wide and chests thick. And they probably weren't gay to have those bodies! ;o)
I wonder if I'm painting myself into a corner writing another set of historical fictions. But they're just so much more interesting than the time period we live in now. Not that there isn't much going on now, it's just so complicated. I've always been attracted to the past, not that I want to relive those terribly difficult times, but when you think of what our ancestors went through ... and still managed to survive it all. It's amazing in of itself.
Can you imagine people of today going back to the 18th century? I believe people are people, not matter what time period they've lived in, but would one have to be stronger to survive it? What would most of us do without the internet, or a washing machine, or something as simple as getting water from a faucet? I feel most would have a very difficult time of it.
There would still be the rich. There would still be the poor. But the street people of today would be the ones coming out on top in that world, having the knowledge of living by their wits and making do with what they have on their backs.
We've grown soft, fat, lazy, and all too willing to pass everything that involves work to someone else just because it inconveniences us. Sad really.
So with all that said, I guess I'll stick to historical fiction for the time being. Besides, it's so much easier to have men with magnificent physiques because they had to do so much manual work. Their hands were big and rough. Their shoulders wide and chests thick. And they probably weren't gay to have those bodies! ;o)
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