Gabi Stevens's Blog, page 16

Countdown to Pub Date

April 24. One month and some days. That's when WISHFUL THINKING will be available for purchase. But that doesn't mean I'm not worrying about it now. I have tons to do before then. I just received my ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies), and  I'll be sending them out so the reviews start pouring in. Last year, AS YOU WISH wasn't reviewed in RT (Romantic Times) although my publisher assures me that it was sent. That was a blow. They assure me that WISHFUL THINKING  was also sent this year, but I don't know if it made the magazine yet or not.  In any case, the ARCs are going out.

I also have to decide what contests to run. I have a great magic wand to give away, some copies of THE WISH LIST and AS YOU WISH, and some magic wand charms, so stay tuned.

Because the life of a writer isn't just about writing. It's also about marketing and getting publicity, which despite my efforts hasn't made me a household name. (Not sure I'd actually want to be a household name like Betty Crocker or Mr. Clean.) In any case, it's an aspect of writing as a career that, should you choose to undertake this path, you should be aware of.

So I start again with the reviews. I'll keep you posted how this book, the last and final part of the story started in THE WISH LIST, is received.

--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Midsummer Moon by Laura Kinsale
Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure by Diane Kelly

How I put myself in my books

I was just working on my latest manuscript (revising-- I love revising; so much easier than actually creating pages), when I reached a tiny event in the story. In the novel, my heroine's father has left her his journal, and she treasures it not because of its contents but because of the handwriting. Here's where that incident originated.

My father never went shopping for Christmas presents early. He was notorious for going out  the afternoon of Dec. 24, and coming back with the coolest presents for my mother, my sister, and me. But in December 1989, my father died about two weeks before Christmas. Several months after his death, my mother gave me a Christmas present that my father had bought for me (he purchased one for my sister as well) early that year.

Apu (that's Dad in Hungarian) was a mechanical engineer, and one of his last projects was designing a nut or bolt--I don't know which--for the stealth bomber. Lockheed Martin made silver coins available for purchase to the people who helped in the production of the bomber. My dad bought one for each of his daughters.

I collected coins as a kid, and still keep interesting ones. When I received the commemorative silver coin, it wasn't the coin itself that held my attention. Tucked into the box, written on a tiny card made from the cut-out corner of one of the extra invitations from my wedding (my family was nothing if not frugal) were the words, "Love you, Apu." I have the coin to this day, but the treasure in its official box isn't the silver, but that piece of repurposed paper with three simple words in my father's handwriting. I would recognize that script anywhere.

--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
The Other Guy's Bride by Connie Brockway
Third Grave Dead Ahead by Darynda Jones

Bah Humbug

I think I may have a genetic trait that appears on days liketoday (it's February 14, in case you didn't know). Call it the cynical gene,call it the disbelief gene, call it what you will. I like to call it my rebelgene (because if you knew me, you'd know how funny that was). I don't getexcited about Valentine's Day. My husband and I (I think he may have the samegene) don't celebrate. There's nothing wrong with a day to celebrate love, butwe don't like to be told that today is the day, especially when commercials andads bombard you with messages about the importance of the day.
I was in a store last week and ran into a friend who wasbuying Valentine's Day presents for her kids. Really? Don't get me wrong. Itotally spoiled my kids (and still spoil the kid at home), but not in the nameof a non-holiday. I have the same reaction to my anniversary, my birthday, StPatrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo, the Superbowl, and Halloween. I think I may justfeel that these "holidays" have spiraled out of control with bigger and biggerexpectations each year. Oh, we give each other presents on birthdays, but if wecan't do it on the day itself, that's no big deal. And for our anniversary thisyear we decided to get a bed (not the mattress; we have one of those; I mean apiece of furniture that holds the mattress; I've never had one), but we stillhaven't bought it. The last anniversary we decided to get a bed (clearly not anew idea), we spent two days shopping, and then decided it would be more fun totake the family to Hawaii instead.
It could be that I've trained myself not to expect anything.After all, I married a man who can't understand the appeal of buying metal withrocks in it that has no express purpose (jewelry, for you non-engineeringtypes). In the dark ages before the Internet really existed, he gave me a modemfor a present. I had no idea what it was. Turns out, he was right about itsimportance.
Now there's nothing wrong with celebrating family,milestones, events, etc., but to me celebrations mean more when they are notprescribed by the day. When I've had a bad day and my husband bring home abunch of flowers just because, that's romantic. When he calls up and offers topick up dinner, that's romantic. When I ask for help and he drops everything todo what I've requested, that's romantic. When he takes the dogs to the dog parkbecause the last time I went some idiot hit my dog and yelled at me becauseshe's high energy, vocal (she barks when she's exuberant—you should see her talkingto me while I'm in the kitchen), big, but so sweet and has never hurt anyone orany dog, that's romantic. When he got down on the floor and played with ourchildren when they were little, and even now takes our developmentally delayeddaughter to basketball games and takes the time to play video games with her,that's romantic. And when we still plan our future and what we want to dotogether despite having been married for 27 years, that's romantic. And when welaugh together, and discuss politics together, and watch movies together,that's romantic.
So go ahead and celebrate Valentine's Day. There's nothingwrong with it. I'll do nothing special today except what we do every day. And Iwill love every minute of it, even the bad ones.
But I still expect special treatment on Mother's Day. Oh,yeah. Nobody gets out of that one.
--GabiP.S. I have a giveaway running here until Feb 19. See thefollowing blog entry.
Books I'm reading nowA Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

It's February...

It's February, and you know whatthat means.That'sright! My mother's birthday. Anyu (That's "Mom" in Hungarian) has reached anage where I'm sure she'd prefer using only the term "significant," and in a"significant" age, she has reached a "significant" milestone (one easilydivisible by 5 or 25). An incredible woman with an incredible history: Sheescaped from Hungary at the age of 18; married to the same man (my father, alsoHungarian) for thirty-four years until his death; survived a burglary that robbedher of many sentimental Hungarian artifacts, an earthquake that damaged herhouse, and just two years ago a fire that burned her condo to the ground (shelikes to joke—yes, joke—how she's been the recipient of Red-Cross care packagesthree times in her life—once when she was a refugee, once after the earthquake,and once when her house burned down). She speaks and reads English well, but westill laugh at some of her mangled idioms: just this past Christmas, she wasspeaking with my daughter about never having received a speeding ticket, "knockon the door". So in honorof February and my mother's birthday, I'm giving away three Kindle copies ofTEMPTATION'S WARRIOR, my ebook release of an earlier hardcover novel (don'tworry; other formats coming very soon—and I'll do a giveaway then too).Coincidentally, or maybe not so coincidentally, TEMPTATION'S WARRIOR isdedicated to my mother. And if you're confused about the author name, GabiAnderson is the name I published TW under. TEMPTATION'S WARRIOR is medievallight—look for fun, not density. (See this post for more details)So if you'dlike to be entered for one of the three Kindle copies, please leave a commenthere telling me you'd like to enter or shoot an email to GabiStevens505@gmail.com. I'd alsolove to hear a story about your mom. I'll draw the winners on February 19.That's Anyu's birthday.--Gabi
Books I'mReading Now:One moreRITA®book to go. Still not telling.

Technophile

I hate cell phones. No really. They suck. The reception isbad, they lose service at the most inopportune times, and frankly I don't wantto be connected 24/7. I have never figured out why I need a camera on my phone(I've tried to use it, but I hate taking pictures. I used to hate it beforeevery phone had a camera. I had to force my self to remember my camera when wewere on our European adventure this summer). I have one mostly because you can'tnot have one these days, and honestly, how often do they get used in anemergency? (Parents always say their children need one in case of emergency—really?In a real emergency, they get in the way far more than they help.) I hate thenew mentality that everyone MUST be perfect at all times—no more errorsallowed, no misspeaking, no tripping and falling—because if you make a mistakeyour flaming takedown will be posted for all the world to see in a matter ofseconds. Really? I though being human was about learning from mistakes, but noone seems to be willing to give anyone a second chance any longer.
I don't have an iPad, though I crave one, because I just can'tjustify it. I work at home. Why would I need a portable tablet? We don't have500 TV channels or Tivo or DVR. Our TV is relatively small in comparison tomost that I've seen. I don't have GPS in my car (although it was handy in the Europeanrental car) and when I taught, I rarely used technology, although I will admitto looking up facts on the Internet—on those sites that weren't blocked.
You'd think that I'm a technophobe. I'm not. I honestlythink technology can save mankind. I'd rather fly in a plane with a computer atthe helm. I'd rather have a robot surgeon. I'd love the see the technology ofself-driving cars (keep the idiots from getting their hands on the wheel. BTW,Flying cars? No thank you. Can you imagine what dumbass drivers would be doingup in the sky? You really want that texter behind the wheel of a flying car? Idon't think so.), and smart houses. My husband has a PhD in Robotics. He's evenworse than I about gadgets. Because gadgets aren't what will save the world.Oh, they're fun, but is the world really a better place because we can takepictures with our phones? (Although in the case of the Arab spring, thattechnology was crucial, but that was a mighty powerful exception.) I haveembraced Twitter, and FB, and blogging, but they aren't as important as solar energyor wind power or wave energy.
I guess what I'm saying is I don't have any problem withgadgets, but don't expect me to jump into the 21st century any timesoon. I don't want to be attached to my phone. Or have my picture taken.--Gabi
Books I'm reading now:Still working on the Rita books I have to judge.

Why Romance is NOT porn

To all you ignorant, self-righteous dullards1:

In my last book, AS YOU WISH, the story is told in 306 pages.Of those, let's say ten are pages of sex2. That's approximatelythree percent of the novel. The sex is between two consenting adults who areattracted to each other and end in a committed relationship with each other.Now, I don't know about you, but that's usually how a committed relationshipexpresses itself—with sex. I've been in a committed relationship for 27 yearsand, yes, I still have sex with my husband. It's the natural progression ofshowing affection for someone.
Porn is intended to do no more than cause sexual excitement.While passages in Romance may do that, the stories celebrate love,relationships, how those relationships form and characters the reader comes tolove (we hope), root for, and earn a happy ending. Most often this relationshipis not with the pizza delivery boy or copier mechanic.4
For those of you simpletons who still insist Romance is justporn with a prettier name, let me apply your definition to other media:            Bridesmaids: clearly porn. The openingscenes and then the ones at the closing credits. It's obvious really.            Shawshank Redemption: clearly gay rape porn. Forget the message. It's allabout the sex. And those pin-up girls...tsk, tsk.            Schindler's List: Again, message unimportant; the only scenes that matter arethe ones with sex.            Notting Hill: there is a sex scene, therefore porn.            The Firm:in the book Mitch cheats on his wife on the beach, therefore, porn.            "AfternoonDelight": Really? Need I say more?
Don't want to read Romance? Fine, but don't parade yourignorance. You're embarrassing yourself.5
1In general I have nothing against nor am Ioffended by cussing or stronger words, but I don't use them much myself. I likethe extra sarcasm offered by non-profane vocabulary. Shakespeare had insultsdown to an art without the crude language. As for those words, they haveappeared in my books, but not too often; only when I found them appropriate andconvincing, as when my two Guards in WISHFUL THINKING are yelling at someoneand drop the f-bomb. These two men are essentially military. I doubt they wouldsay, "Gosh darn you." But feel free to replace "dullards" in your head with anyappropriate synonym you might think of.2
2And yes, it is okay to end a sentence with apreposition. That's one of those fake grammar rules that teachers plague theirstudents with because it's easy to remember. Others are never start a sentencewith a conjunction (I can think of many sentences that are just fine grammaticallyeven though they start with a conjunction) and never split an infinitive (thatone goes back to Latin and German construction.)
3I counted the pages and it works out to lessthan nine if we count actual lines, but I'm being generous here and counted theparagraphs leading into and out of the scenes.
4 I didn't mean to single out you pizza deliveryboys or copier mechanics, but those are the clichés that pop to mind. And nowyou know how it feels to be judged on clichés and not substance.
5By the way, your parents had sex. At least once.Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah.
--Gabi
Books I'm reading now:It's RITA time. I'm reading, but I'm not telling you what. I'llcontinue with Discovery of Witches afterI'm done judging.

Error Proof?

Here in the middle of January with the sky gray, the air cold, and the day too short, I have finally finished the last iteration of fixing WISHFUL THINKING. I've pored over the galley proofs, corrected errors and sent it back. I'll be receiveing ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) next to send out for review and then the final product, the book itself. The scariest part is that in 320 pages of galley proofs, I found 147 errors. Oh, most of them were commas instead of periods, or periods instead of commas, or missing end quotes (and a couple of missing beginning quotes), but I also found repeated words (I fixed those--and some repeats are on purpose), or awkward syntax, or outright mistakes, like a character standing in one line, then three lines later he stands again.

Collector's cardWhat's scary is that this book has been through so many reads. Not only by me while revising, but also by two beta readers, then me again, then my editor, then me again, then by the copyeditor, then me again, the typesetter (or person who puts it into the way it looks when printed form--they don't really set type any more), then me again. And yet in that last step I still found 147 errors. Now it goes to print. I honestly believe that no manuscript (of any significant length) can be error-free. There will be typos, wrong punctuation, and other mistakes. That's the reason why I have never read one of my actual books. At that point there's nothing I can do about it, so I don't want to know. I've had another author tell me in one of my early books (pre-Gabi Stevens) that I have envelope rather than envelop. Not helpful. I can't fix it. Maybe if it went back into print, which it won't, but in any case not helpful.

Now, in TEMPTATION'S WARRIOR (now available on Kindle and I'm working on the other formats) if I find errors, I can fix them. That's the nice aspect of self-pubbing.

I know some readers get very annoyed with errors in a published book. Every book will have errors. Especially after writing the thing and reading it umpteen dozen times, you can't see your own words. I guess I'm asking readers to be a little more forgiving. Oh, not if the book is error-laden (and I've read a few of those--that's just wrong) but you really need to overlook a few misplaced or missing commas, periods, and quotes. And I'm not talking about the ebook versions of books. I've had more trouble with the format of books than I care to deal with. (Not my own, other books)

Of course, WISHFUL THINKING will be clean now. I hope. :)
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
11/22/63 by Stephen King
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

The new year

This is the second year in a row that I haven't celebrated New Year's because I was sick. I'm still coughing, but at least I'm healthier now. Except for cancelling our annual game night (we don't party, we play board games...with incredible competitiveness), I don't mind much because, honestly, it's just a date, but it is a traditional party date and I missed that. Twice now. So I think I'm going to throw my New Year's Eve party next week when I'm healthy again and ignore the calendar.

Speaking of calendars, it's 2012.  Are you worried about the end of the world? Me? Not so much. As I used to tell my students when they'd mention that the world was ending this year, it's just the end of a calendar. We don't panic when we throw out our calendar and put up a new one. The Maya Calendar is just a longer calendar. (Don't harp on my accuracy, folks. I'm making a point). So I fully expect to drink champagne Dec 31, 2012, and see January1, 2013 and have my annual party.

Unlike this year.

--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Winning the Wallflower by Eloisa James
11/22/63 by Stephen King

Random movies

While visiting family in California, my husband was flipping through channels and happened upon Casablanca. What a great movie. I was quoting the lines ahead of the actors (I'm sure it was totally obnoxious), loving the the humor that was thrown in throughout, enjoying Bogie and Bergman. I don't have cable TV at home, so I don't have that accidental access to great classics, but seeing Casablanca again made me think of other great, great movies that I love and I will watch every chance I get. These are oldies: nothing after 1970.

The Bridge on the River Kwai--Great actors, great story, great suspense, amazing movie. And the music is unforgettable.
The Great Escape--What a thrilling story. And again, the score is phenomenal.
The Magnificent Seven--I'm not a Western fan, but when it's done well, you can't beat a great Western. And have you heard this musical theme?
The Dirty Dozen--It's just fun. Turning bad guys into heroes. What more could you ask for?
It Happened One Night--if you haven't seen this classic comedy, quick, find it, watch it. It's said that Bugs Bunny was based on Clark Gable's role.
Bringing Up Baby--Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant in a zany comedy. Too fun.
To Catch a Thief--Again Cary but this time with Grace Kelly. During the filming of this movie she met Prince Ranier and soon after became Princess Grace.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers--musicals aren't for everyone, but this one is such a great romance. (Okay, you have to suspend disbelief a little, but I love it)
Singing in the Rain--perhaps the best movie musical ever made. It certainly tops my list.
Psycho--still one of the scariest movies I've ever seen.

I've left off so many. What are your favorites? I would love to see some oldies I've missed.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
The Bad Luck Wedding Dress by GeralynDawson

Best cookie recipe ever

I don't cook or bake much. Really, I have burned water. (Making hummingbird nectar--almost burned the house down). But these cookies are the simply wonderful Rich, buttery, and not too hard to make.

Buffett's Sugar
Cookies
1 lb. butter2 C. powdered sugar1 egg1 tsp. salt (you can leave this out unless you use sweet butter)1 tsp. vanilla4 C. flour Cream butter and powdered sugar.  Add egg,
and mix well.  Add salt, vanilla and flour (add the flour 1 cup at a time
and blend between cups).  Roll dough on a floured surface 1/4 in.
thick.  Cut into desired shapes.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes
(depending on the oven) until slightly golden around the edges.  Cool on rack, and decorate as desired, or freeze and decorate
later.  These cookies freeze well and are also good plain, without the
icing.   Cookie IcingCombine 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (sifting
makes it smoother) with a couple drops of vanilla or other flavoring (I use
vanilla), and enough milk (2-3 Tbsp.) to make a smooth, slightly runny
icing.  Color if desired.  Decorate with colored sugars, sprinkles, crushed peppermint, etc. while the icing is still wet.  Allow time
for icing to set to a firm, smooth, glaze finish, especially before
packaging.  Once iced, these cookies store well and stay soft for several
days in a tupperware type container.