Veronica Blake's Blog, page 10

SUMMER MEMORIES

Do you have a treasured summer memory from your childhood? One of my favorite memories involves my little brother, rainy days and comic books. It seemed like every afternoon in the summer, we would have a rain storm. My brother and I would grab a coke (in the bottle), a Hersey candy bar and a stack of comics and race out to our old blue Chevy in the driveway. With the raindrops providing a steady rhythm on the roof of the car, we would devour our treats and escape into the world of fantasy and adventure in the comic book we had chosen to read that day. I smile every time I think of those cozy afternoons spent in the driveway. ♥ ♥ ♥

BOTHERED

It really bothers me that I’m bothered about this subject, but since I’ve been using my blog to complain lately (sorry) I’ve decided to get something else off my chest.  I was reading Arthur Crandon’s blog this morning and something he wrote really struck a nerve with me.  Quoting Arthur—and I hope he doesn’t mind—he wrote, “I just want to start this weeks’ blog on a personal note.  I am usually a very understanding and forgiving person.  But yesterday someone ‘unliked’ my fan page – http://www.facebook.com/arthurcrandonauthor.  Whoever you are, I just want you to know that I will hunt you  down like the dog that you are, imprison you for many days of excruciating torture, then set packs of wolves on you to tear you limb from limb.  I mean that, of course, in a very loving way.” 

Although I giggled when I read the opening paragraph of Arthur’s blog post, I could identify with every word, in a very loving way, of course.

It’s not like I don’t have enough to worry about in my crazy life, but for some unexplained reason the fact I cannot entice people to join my Facebook Author Page drives me even crazier. I agonize over the fact that I have 839 friends on my personal Facebook page, yet; only 299 of them have joined my author page.  Yes, I know, I shouldn’t care. But, sadly, I do care enough to write this blog about it. It’s not like my friends don’t know about my writing page…I post the link to it on my personal page at least once a week with a little blurb, “Please ‘like’ my writing page, because I want to share all aspects of my life with my friends.” Shouldn’t that be blatant enough?  Shouldn’t they want to follow my writing life if they are my friends?

I’m not totally obsessed with the idea of having lots of fans on my Facebook page, but, I do keep a watchful eye on how many people ‘like’ my page, and when the number goes down rather than up, I do experience a little biting sting of rejection.  And, trust me, as a writer I’m used to rejection.   Everytime someone ‘unlikes’ my page the same questions arise:  Why have they left?  Am I boring?  What didn’t they like?  I try to be witty;  maybe that’s why they left.   I’m probably not as witty as I think.  Less silliness and more serious writer talk, maybe?  Sometimes, I post things to get creative juices flowing for myself and for the fans on my page.  I’ll write a scenario and ask people to continue on with the story, and that will spark some interest occasionally. My favorite song lyrics and romantic pictures will get a good conversation going once in awhile. Love poems seem to fall flat, and promoting other writer’s pages doesn’t seem to draw any attention to my own page.  If I just post reviews and excerpts from my own books I start to feel way too egotistical. I really do try to post something for everyone; okay, I admit it, the drop-dead gorgeous men on Hump Day are mostly for me.

So, once again, if you aren’t too bothered, would you mind ‘liking’ my author page on Facebook?  It would mean so much to me.  And, if you do ‘like’ it, please don’t ‘unlike’ it.  I really don’t want to hunt you down like a dog…in a very loving way, of course.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Veronica-Blake-Author/224473460912244

(Thank you to Arthur Crandon.  His full blog post is at: http://www.arthurcrandon.com/blog-blog-blog.html)

DIVORCING GRANDMA

My daughter-in-law said it wouldn’t change anything.  She promised things would be exactly the same as they had been for the past nine years.  But, I knew everything would change.

Although my son and his wife had separated several months earlier, I still prayed everyday they would be able to work things out.  I loved her like a daughter and my heart was breaking for my six-year-old grandson.  I didn’t want him to suffer the same hardships my three children had endured when I had divorced their father twenty-five years earlier.

Now, she was telling me she had met someone new.  I cried; I couldn’t help myself.  I knew this would mean there was no chance she and my son would ever get back together.   She felt bad telling me about her new love; I have no doubt she loves me and didn’t want to hurt me.   Maybe she really did believe things would remain the same for me, after all, I would always be grandma and that is the one thing nothing could never change.

Luckily, my son shares joint custody with his ex-wife, so I see my little grandson often when he’s with his daddy.   But when he is with his mommy, he is at the house my son and daughter-in-law had shared before they broke up—the house where my six-year-old grandson has lived since he was just a few months old.  This cozy house had been like a haven to me.   I always felt welcome there no matter what time of day or night.   I loved their home as much, maybe even more, than I did my own home.   My grandson and I played, laughed, and shared silliness in every corner of every room and closet of that rambling old house.

Now, the new man lives in this house and I haven’t been there since he moved in.  I stopped by once—before he had actually moved in—but, he was there and it was so awkward for all of us that I left almost immediately.   My grandson asks why I don’t come to hang out there with him anymore, or why grandpa doesn’t stop by all the time like he used to, and we don’t know how to respond other than to say we’ve been really busy lately or some other lame excuse that I’m sure he knows is just that…a lame excuse.   We try to make up for it by spending time with him in other ways, but it’s so hard because his life is split in half now between the time he spends with his daddy and the time he spends with his mommy.

I want to go there—to that home where I spent so many happy times—and just hang around like I used to do; I want to go there so badly it actually hurts just to think about it.  But, as I knew it would, everything has changed now.  I don’t blame my ex-daughter-in-law for moving on; she and my son’s relationship was just not meant to be anymore.   She has tried to make an effort to stay in touch with me, but of course, she doesn’t include me in anything she and my grandson does with her new man.   Why would she put us all in that awkward situation again?   I understand.   Besides, the house where my son had once lived; had once put all of his hopes and dreams of a happy future in; had helped remodel to make it the perfect house for his family; had once shared in the raising of his son for six years, is now filled with another man’s things.  Another man is sitting at the dining table where we had all shared so many meals; this man is relaxing in the recliner in the living room where we had watched so many movies and had so many family get-togethers, he is using the beautiful shower my son had been so proud of building, and he is sleeping in the big bed in the master bedroom, next to my grandson’s room where I had spent so many nights having slumber parties or just spending the afternoon playing.  So many cherished memories still dwell in my mind and heart, but I’m so afraid there will be no more new memories made in that house for me.  I can’t even put into words how hard it is for me to write about this, let alone, live with the reality of it.

When I drive through the little town where this house is located, which about 20 minutes from the little town where I live, I don’t drive down the street where the house sits because it hurts too much.  I can see the roof of the house from the main street as I drive through, and I always cry no matter how hard I try not to, but I can’t help myself.   Because, everything has changed.  On the days my grandson is at this house, he is sharing his life with a new man, and the new man’s family and friends.  They are people I don’t know.  I used to be a constant part of my ex-daughter-in-law’s family.   When they were visiting, I was always included in everything they did.   I love them all.  I miss them so much.  Ever since the new man entered the picture over eight over months ago, I have not seen them or talked to any of them.  I suppose they are getting to know the new guy’s family now and sharing their lives with them.  Maybe they think I should make the first move to stay in touch?   Maybe I am, like my son, just a part of their past.

I’ve cried more in the past few months than I’ve ever cried in my entire life.   This is the only divorce I’ve ever suffered through that was not my own and I really don’t know what I’m supposed to do?  Old clichés about moving on and starting over don’t really apply to this situation.  I wonder how long it will take before I can stop crying about a divorce that isn’t even mine.   Something tells me it will take a very long time.

IT’S ALWAYS TWILIGHT IN MY WORLD

In the spring of 2009 I was in the throes of a deep depression.  I had made a horrible financial error and was facing bankruptcy (That terrible mistake will be another blog post someday).  Ashamed and disgusted with myself, I didn’t even want to leave my house except to go to work.  And, even that was a struggle.  I just wanted to give up on everything.

In June of that awful year, my friend and co-worker, Cathi, came into my office with a book.  She said, “You have to read this.”  It was Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.

I made a face and replied, “Isn’t that for kids?” I vaguely remembered hearing something about this book, but I really didn’t know anything other than it was for teens.

“It’s about vampires and romance, and those are two of your favorite things.”  Well, she was right about that.

I agreed to take the book; although I was sure I would never read it.  But, we were going camping that weekend and reading was my second favorite thing to do when camping besides riding my ATV.  Twilight was lying on my dining room table as I was packing for the camping trip, so I tossed it into the bag with another book I was reading, just in case I finished the other book and got desperate.

Saturday morning, June 9th, awake before everyone else in camp and sitting by the campfire I had just built, I got curious about that book .  Vampires and romance?  Umm?  I thought I’d just read a couple of chapters to satisfy my curiosity.  By the end of Sunday night, I was finished with the entire book.  Within a week I had read all four books in the Twilight Saga and rented the Twilight movie.  Yes, Twilight had won me over and from that time on I would be proud to be called a Twihard, although many friends and family (and even people who don’t know me) would think I had lost my mind and harshly critique everything I did that involved Twilight from then on.

Why did a series of young adult books about a tortured teenage vampire and his clumsy girlfriend affect me so deeply, you ask? Stephenie Meyer wasn’t the best writer I had ever read, and there were parts in the books that made me shake my head in wonder.  But, wow, she did know how to write about intense emotions.  These books touched something that had been hidden deep in my heart for so long I had forgotten what it felt like…falling in love for the first time.  Remember those passionate feelings of loving someone so much that it physically hurts; they were so strong that you were sure you would die if you ever lost that love?  Through all the heartbreak I had suffered romantically in my life, I had locked those tender feelings of hope, excitement and joy so far away that I forgot they had ever existed.  But now, reading this first book in the series, I remembered them all.  I was transported back to the magical time before two divorces and broken romances, back to the idealist young girl I had been at fifteen when I still believed in true love and destiny and being together for eternity.  Twilight and the following three books in the saga brought romance, hope and a sense of adventure back into my life, even if it was only in a literary way.  But, that was only the beginning.

I needed to know if there were other women my age who had found such a deep meaning from these novels.  My friend, Cathi, who had first given me the Twilight book, loved the series, but she did not feel the deep connection with it that I did, so I was worried I was being totally irrational about my love for this saga.  I began to search the Internet for others like me, and guess what?  I found them, thousands of them.

I joined an Older Woman’s Group on the Twilight Saga website and began to connect with other women—not teenagers—who had found some deep meaning in the Stephenie Meyer novels.  They understood why I loved it so much, because they had all felt similar emotions when they had read the four books in the series.  Some said it made their marriages stronger or inspired them to lose weight or pursue some lifelong goal.  Our love of Twilight brought us together on so many levels.  We began to talk on the phone, Skype, find ways to meet one another in person, and lifelong friendships began to develop between us.  These friendships have reached far beyond our love of the Twilight Saga.  We share our entire lives with one another, and even those of us who have not met personally know one another better than many friends we have had for years and years.  My Twi-sisters, as we call one another, are always the first (and sometimes only) ones to respond to my posts on Facebook or Twitter.  They are the most compassionate and caring group of women I’ve ever met.

In spite of personal hardships I had encountered in my life, my depression faded. I bared my soul to these new friends and they never judged me, unlike some family and old friends did when they heard about my financial situation.  In time, my money woes eased, and I was able to attend Twilight events where I met more of these amazing women.  Some of them are my best friends now, and it’s like we’ve known one another forever.

Since discovering Twilight, I have gone places I had never even imagined going before; I’ve met the most wonderful people I never would have met if it had not been for Twilight.  My writing career has received huge support from the Twilight community and I’ve reached new fans who had never even read an Historical Romance novel before they met me at a Twilight event or online through some Twilight Facebook page or website.

The world created by Stephenie Meyer changed my life.   I’ve read the books over and over and watched the movies too many times to count, and each time I can identify with the feelings of love, loss, desire, life and death, because I’ve lived them all.  But in the Twilight world I know that eternity exists, and it’s a total diversion from real life.  When I’m on the Facebook page I created to share my love of Twilight I have so much fun escaping into my fantasy world that for the time I’m there I’m not worrying about my elderly parent’s health, all my never-ending family drama, my job issues, my money problems or all the other stressful concerns in my life.

I have given up trying to explain it to the critics, because they will never comprehend it all.  But recently my oldest grandson asked me why I was so obsessed with Twilight and this is what I told him, “It’s not just an obsession, it’s been the ride of a lifetime and I wouldn’t trade the friends I’ve made and the adventures I’ve had in the past four years for anything in the world.”

He nodded and smiled, “Okay, Grandma, I think I understand now.”

MOVING FORWARD…I AM NOW AN AMAZON AUTHOR

Amazon Publishing Acquires Publication Contracts to Over 1000 Books from Dorchester Publishing

 

SEATTLE—August 30, 2012—Amazon Publishing today announced that it has acquired through an auction the publication contracts of over 1000 books from Dorchester Publishing. As part of the process, Dorchester authors were offered the opportunity to join Amazon Publishing and receive the full back royalties that Dorchester indicated were owed. 

 

“Working with the Dorchester author community during this auction process has been a tremendous experience for all of us,” said Philip Patrick, Business Development Director at Amazon Publishing. “We are happy to be able to pay their back royalties and we’re thrilled to welcome them to the Amazon Publishing family.”

 

“Amazon Publishing is breathing new life into my series, and I’m very excited to see what the future holds,” said Tracy Madison, award-winning author of the Gypsy Magic series.

 

“I am excited beyond words about being offered this chance to join Amazon Publishing.  I cannot thank them enough for stepping in and giving former Dorchester authors the chance to move ahead,” said Deborah MacGillivray, author and agent of the late Dawn Thompson, author of The Ravening. “Dawn literally lived for her writing. Amazon Publishing is helping me safeguard Dawn’s legacy, and to see that new readers can continue to find her books,” said Dawn’s sister, Diane Thompson.

 

“This new relationship will enable the works of countless talented fiction writers to serve their established readers and reach new ones across the globe,” said Gregg Loomis, author of The Bonaparte Secret.

 

“The transition from Dorchester to Amazon Publishing means that our authors will now be able to reach so many more readers and markets worldwide than they ever could before.  That truly is something to celebrate,” said Vicky Piekarski and Jon Tuska, co-owners of Golden West Literary Agency, in a joint statement.

 

Going forward, the acquired Dorchester titles will be published under the appropriate Amazon Publishing imprints: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror titles to 47North; Romance titles to Montlake Romance; Mystery and Thriller titles to Thomas & Mercer; Westerns and other titles to AmazonEncore. Titles will be available both in print and as Kindle books. Under the terms of Amazon’s bid, any former Dorchester Publishing authors that chose not to work with Amazon Publishing will have their rights revert back to them to pursue other publishing opportunities including self-publishing via the Kindle Direct Publishing platform.

 

Amazon Publishing is the publishing arm of Amazon.com. Amazon Publishing’s West Coast Group includes imprints AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, and 47North. Amazon Publishing’s East Coast Group publishes adult trade, children’s and young adult titles. For more information about all imprints of Amazon Publishing, visit www.amazon.com/amazonpublishing. Amazon Publishing is a brand used by Amazon Content Services, LLC.

 

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. The new latest generation Kindle is the lightest, most compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch, most advanced electronic ink display that reads like real paper even in bright sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the Kindle family with an easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes – still with all the benefits of the most advanced electronic ink display.  Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line e-reader and offers the same new design and features of Kindle Touch, with the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G.  Kindle Fire is the Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games and web browsing with all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync, Amazon Silk (Amazon’s new revolutionary cloud-accelerated web browser), vibrant color touch screen, and powerful dual-core processor.  

 

 Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including http://www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr,www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, and http://www.amazon.es. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

THE AGENT NIGHTMARE

In 1993 I signed a contract with a literary agent.  When she said she wanted to represent me I thought I was finally hitting the big time.  She seemed as enthused about being my agent as I was about being her client.  I found her through a mutual writing friend who had just signed with her to oversee a movie deal he was working on.  His first book was being made into a mini-series for television.  He thought she was the perfect agent for his project, and to represent me, too.

A couple of weeks after signing a contract with this agent, she flew from her home on the west coast to Colorado meet me.  She spent several days with me.  I was amazed she did this and felt honored she would travel all that way to meet me in person.  It was summertime and we spend the days by the river, or biking and hiking, while discussing the way my career would proceed. We got to know one another and talked about how she was going to take my writing career to new highs.  At this time, I had just sold my eighth book to Zebra Books, a romance line at Kenningston Publishing.  My contract with them read that they had the first option to purchase anything I wrote for an indefinite period of time.  My agent was appalled at the contract I had signed with them and vowed to get me out of this contract so she could find me a higher paying publisher.  I was thrilled!  I was only making about twelve cents per copy at that time and my books were selling pretty well.  I thought I might finally reach my lifelong goal of actually making a living as a writer.

When my new agent left, I sent my file folder full of numerous synopsis and possible book ideas with her.  I have always had more ideas for books than I’ve had time to write.  Being very optimistic, I was certain she would love all of my ideas and I was just waiting for her to pick the one she wanted me to finish writing first.  I envisioned this woman would make me a literary star.  She seemed like a real mover and shaker in the literary world.  Although, she lived on the West Coast, she was constantly flying back and forth to New York to meet with publishers.  Late night talk shows, book tours, and maybe even a movie, were surely in my future!  Geez…what an idiot I was.

Imagine my disappointment when my agent didn’t like the story about the first circus that traveled through the Old West?  Really, it was so unique?  But, why didn’t she like the time travel; a high adventure pirate love story set in Spain?  She really hated my romantic tale about the silent film industry when movies were first being made…it was such an amazing time in our history.  Okay, so why did she hate the paranormal story about the old Indian legend that became a reality a hundred years after its prediction?  All my friends really loved that one. Then, there was my amazing (my friends and I thought) story about the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.  Now, that had mini-series or epic movie potential, didn’t it?  Well, she didn’t think so.

My spirits were low.  Nothing I submitted to this agent seemed worthy of having her submit to a publisher.  But then, she called me with great news (?)…she could get me out of my contract with Kenningston Publishing so she could find me a new publisher who would pay higher advances and royalties.  Nervously, I signed the release papers.  Now, I had no publisher and nothing worth publishing.  Or, so my agent thought, anyway.

By now, winter had set in and my agent’s teenage son wanted to spend a week with me so he could go skiing at our world class ski resort.  No problem.  I picked him up at the airport; he slept on the extra twin bed in my son’s room, and I drove him back and forth to the ski area everyday.  He had an awesome vacation.  My agent seemed very indebted to me and vowed to find me a new publisher soon.  I feverishly write more proposals and send them to her.  We had some late night conversations about why they are not really up to her standards.  I was feeling completely defeated now.   How had I sold eight books on my own, which had done reasonably well,  if I was such a terrible writer?

It was about this time that my personal life was falling apart.  I was going through a brutal divorce that had been dragging on and on, my youngest son was getting in trouble with the law, I was barely making ends meet and needed to get a second job. Everything seemed to be overwhelming me.  I called my agent…I needed to discuss something with her.  But she had a new assistant (there had not been an assistant when I first signed with her, so I was a bit surprised) who told me she would have her call me back.  My plan was to tell my agent, whom I also considered my friend, I was going to take a year off from writing to deal with all my personal issues and I would submit new proposals to her at a later date.  But, guess what?  She never returned my call.  So, I wrote her a letter and explained what was going on and guess what?  She never wrote back.  I was really hurt she would ignore me this way.

That brings me back to my friend whose book was being made into a mini-series for TV.  By now, he was starting to have doubts about this agent we had both been so excited to have represent us.  His television series had aired and was a huge success.  He had even been in Los Angeles for the filming and was looking forward to the royalties he was sure would come his way.  After all, his (our) agent said he would see a large payoff from this exciting venture.  Too make a long story short, many years and lawyers later, he finally had to accept the fact that he had signed a really bad contract with a really bad agent, and although she had received her share of the money from the movie deal, he was only getting a small portion of what he was expecting to get.  He had trusted his agent to go over all the small print, and apparently, she had only looked after her own interests.  After hearing his story, I thought maybe she had just decided to give up being a literary agent and maybe that’s why I never heard back from her.  Besides, I had too much going on in my life to worry about it back then.

My crazy life went on.  The year sabbatical somehow turned into twelve years.  Not possible!  I wanted, no needed, to write again.  I dusted off one of the Indian stories I had submitted to my agent years earlier.  How could she not like this one?  I thought it had great potential and I was going to prove her wrong.  After updating some of the scenes, I was ready to submit it.  But, was I still under contract to my agent?  She had not contacted me in over twelve years, but I had to know for sure if I was free to submit the manuscript to publishers myself.  Sure enough, my old contract with her said that if I wanted to dissolve our business contract, I must state so in writing.  Since I had not actually stated this intent when I had written her years earlier, I figured I needed to look into this further. I got online to see if she was still in business and there she was…still going strong all these years later.

This time I was no longer hurt, just angry.  It appeared not long after she had signed with me, she had also signed with another author who had become very successful.  It’s a name you would all recognize immediately from books, television and movies.  My agent obviously decided to ignore me so she could concentrate on her new star.  At least, that is how I felt.  But, I just wanted to move on, so I wrote a brief letter telling her I would no longer require her to act as my agent and I would appreciate a response back acknowledging the dissolution of our contract.  And, guess what?  I never heard back from her!  I considered this the end of our contract.

I submitted my manuscript to a publisher on my own again.  Black Horse was the manuscript my agent did not think was publishable, but it was published by Dorchester Publishing in October 2009; White Owl was an August 2011 release.

Now, I feel the time is right to find an agent for my new manuscript, a Paranormal Romance.  But, as you might guess, I’m more than a little nervous.  I have no visions of glory.  I’m just hoping I will find a good agent, and they will believe in me and in my writing.  If not, well, I will just keep doing it on my own.  It’s not like I haven’t done it before.  

NO PLOT…NO PROBLEM?

I am reading a book that is driving me CRAZY!  It was free for Kindle and it sounded scary; my kind of book.  It got a few really scathing reviews, but most of them were decent reviews, so I decided to give it a try.  Besides, I try to ignore most reviews because who is to say what kind of book (or movie) I will like or not?   In my opinion, however, this book the most poorly written book I’ve ever read.  It has page after page after page of nothing but text…every character’s life story is told in huge chunks of narrative with no dialogue at all, even when two characters are supposed to be talking the author just tells you want they said.  Grrrr!  I, personally, am a huge fan of dialogue.  I love to see how every character reacts and talks as each event unfolds.  But, in this book, I’m being completely robbed of that sort of interaction between the characters.  So, why you ask, do I continue to read it and complain about it?  Because the plot is so dang good!

It’s a horror novel and the descriptions of the crime scenes and victims are graphic and very well done, and the building suspense of learning about the beast that is doing the killing has me totally engaged.  I don’t want to stop reading, yet at the same time, I am so frustrated I want to give it up.  So, how can a writer be so good at writing a plot and so horrible at writing dialogue and emotion?   I’ve always felt the plot is not all that hard once you have a basic story idea in your head, and I find that my plots usually end up taking their own twists and turns once I really get going with it.  But bringing the characters to life with depth and dialogue, which is unique to each one is an entirely different issue.  I think of my characters as my babies since I create them, first as nothing more than a vague image with a possible name.  Then, I flesh them out and breathe life into them with their own individual appearance and traits.  They become real to me because I’m inside their heads at all times.  I want to know everything about them; what they were like from birth through death even though I am only writing about one small period in their lifetime.

Another thing bothering me in this book is the point of view issue (POV).  This writer switches point of view from one paragraph to the next.  Now, years ago, when I first started writing in the late 1980’s (ah, the 80’s were the best) I was also guilty of switching POV at the drop of a pin.  But, this is a terrible crime in the literature world now, and it was something I worked very hard on correcting so that I could keep up with the new literary guidelines.  Now, reading a book (even my very old ones) that does not follow this rule is so distracting I can barely get through it.

I checked to see who the publisher of this book is that I hate to love and it’s self-published.  Since all of my past books have been published through a traditional publishing house, I’ve always had to adhere to all of the strict guidelines of my editor and publisher.  However, this is not to say there have never been any errors in my books, because unfortunately there has been.  Even writers and editors make mistakes.  I know, hard to believe. LOL!  But, with self-publishing, do all the ‘proper’ rules and guidelines go by the wayside?

Please, self-publishers, don’t send me hate mail, because there are amazing self-published books and very talented self-published authors out there.  I know the majority of self-published writers don’t publish their work until they have made sure all the grammatical errors are corrected and the sentence structure is as perfect as possible.  They fret as much as any of us about point of view and character development and believable dialogue.  But, what about the ones who don’t take the time to have their manuscripts reviewed by a professional copy editor and are not qualified proof readers themselves?   Well, obviously they can just publish their books and hope their readers won’t care.  I’m sorry, but I care.  When I buy a book at a bookstore or for my Kindle I know I’m getting a book I might not like once I start reading it.  That’s a chance I’m willing to take and its okay.   What’s not okay is getting a book by an author who thought I would be okay with pages full of grammar mistakes, confusing sentence structure, no character development and no dialogue.  So what’s a reader to do?  I suppose we just keep taking chances, just like we always have when we buy or download a book to read.  Like everything in life…you win some and you lose some.

THE TRUTH ABOUT WRITERS

WRITING AND RANDOM THOUGHTS BLOG POST

I found this article on a great site: Writing and Random Thoughts and it really struck a cord with me.  For weeks I have been trying to decide what I should do about the money Dorchester Publishing owes to me and the two books I wrote for them, which are basically lost to me…I can’t even get copies for future events, but after reading this it sounds like there is nothing I can do.  Authors are just “above pond scum” when it comes to the legal issues of a publisher going bankrupt.  Wow, I really feel special now!

http://rehunter.org/2012/03/08/what-happens-to-authors-when-their-publisher-hits-the-wall/

MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE TITANIC

There’s a room painted pale blue in my house that we refer to as the Titanic room.  Actually, it’s the guest bedroom, but it’s filled with antique furniture from the latter part of the 1800’s and the turn of the century.  The room proudly displays the few Titanic mementos I have collected.  I love hanging out in this cozy area.  It transports me back to a time I have fantasized about on many occasions; a time of innocence, chivalry, grandeur and elegance.

You might have guessed by now that I’m a total History nut.  Maybe that’s why I’ve written eleven Historical Romances.  Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve daydreamed about cowboys, Indians, pirates, sea captains and knights in shining amour, and romanticized the time periods of the past.  I’m sure that’s why the idealistic and catastrophic story of the Titanic has always fascinated me so much.

Although, I have to admit I did not become a complete Titanic fanatic until I saw the movie with Leonardo and Kate for the first time in January 1998.  Every Saturday afternoon, and an occasional evening, from January to April 1998, I would sit in my local theater (with a co-worker and friend who was as obsessed as I was) filled with anticipation to see the doomed love story of Jack and Rose, and the tragic tale of the condemned luxury liner, Titanic, over and over again.  I would tear up the minute the word Titanic appeared on the black screen.  My tally for seeing this movie at that time was twenty-five times in the movie theater and would have been more if the movie had been at my theater longer.  Never before— or since— have had I gone to the theater that many times to see a movie.  Obsessed?  Yes!

Even though I adore the fictitious love story and am in awe of the epic way the disastrous sinking is depicted in the movie, I am equally as fascinated by the exquisite costumes worn by the actresses. The movie did an excellent job of  accurately portraying the clothes of the time.  In the darkened theater I would study the number of buttons running down the back of the gowns, memorize the sophisticated hairstyles, or watch closely to catch glimpses of their feet to see what types of shoes the women wore with each dress.  And, the hats…oh those gaudy magnificent hats of the era!  To me, the fashions of the Gilded Era, or Golden Age, are styles that embody ultimate romance and refined elegance.  They were not the heavy cumbersome gowns worn in medieval days, the modest calico garments worn by women in the Old West, or the flashy scandalous dresses that would come later in the roaring twenties.  They were designed to accentuate the feminine body with low necklines, fitted waistbands, and long flowing, intricately detailed creations of silk, and satin, adorned by delicate lace and pearl buttons.  The jewelry was elaborate and flamboyant, and the shoes and boots were baby soft leather with high heels and dainty laces.  The hats were created to accent the beautiful dresses, and the magnificence of these hats outshined even the most gorgeous Parisian gowns.  Everything from long plumes of feathers to masses of flowers decorated these splendid creations.  The brims were enormous or curled up at odd angles, and the hats were designed to set anywhere on the head they could perch; over the forehead, off to the side, tipped to the back, anywhere a hat pin could be secured.  My neck starts to ache just thinking of how the women had to hold their heads to keep those gigantic hats from tumbling to the ground.  But, it would be so worth it.

Aside from my fascination with the fashion of the Titanic era, is my never-ending interest in learning about the real passengers who were onboard during that fateful trip a century ago, including Captain Smith and his crew.  I want to know where they were headed and why, who went down with the ship, which ones were saved, and anything else I can discover about all of them.

The idea of that glorious ship rotting away at the bottom of the dark deep sea breaks my heart, and I watch every documentary I find about expeditions to the ship and the artifacts being recovered from the ruins of the Titanic and the debris field surrounding it.  One of my goals was to see a traveling exhibit of the artifacts.  In Las Vegas a few years ago, I fulfilled this goal.  Words cannot express what it meant to me to actually see the fragments of the great ship, fragile white dishes with the White Star emblem, articles of clothing, jewelry and even a wallet with paper documents that had miraculously survived decades in the water.  Priceless remnants of shattered dreams and lost lives rescued from the murky depths of the devouring ocean.

Once I joined the Titanic Historical Society, my addiction to all things Titanic grew.  The quarterly newsletters and magazines have even more information in them than I can find in books or online.  I have an entire bookshelf dedicated to books about the Titanic and I read anything and everything I can find in regards to the ship and its passengers.  For years I planned to be on one of the hundred year anniversary cruises, which are happening right now.  However, my entire life I have been terrified of water and could not overcome that paralyzing fear enough to consider boarding any ship, even one as special as those commemorating the 100th anniversary of Titanic’s departure.  Now, I anxiously scour the Internet daily, reading everything I can about the cruise, and savoring the pictures of the people lucky enough to be aboard this amazing journey.  But, I don’t have any desire to be there with them.

Remember my friend and co-worker whom I mentioned earlier?  She loved the movie as much as I did, but was not interested in the true Historical facts.  However, she found my fear of water an interesting aspect in light of my overwhelming obsession with the ‘real’ Titanic.  During a visit she had with a fortune teller a few years ago, she decided to find out if there was a link between my water phobia and the sinking of the great ship.  This is the conversation as she relayed it to me.

“In a former life did my friend, Veronica, drown on the Titanic and is that why she is so terrified of water?”

After a long silence, the fortune teller looked intently at my friend and answered, “Her former self said it’s none of your business.”