Madeline Hunter's Blog, page 48

TGIS! (thank goodness it's spring!)

[image error]This week, finally, at long last, after much grief and misery, spring came to my town. In fact the temperature hit 80 today. I looked at sunshine all day. I put on flip-flops. I stood outside in warmth until it was almost too warm.

It was wonderful. Delicious. I haven't loved spring this much since I lived in Chicago.

I'm not alone, right? Somewhere in this country there may be a few corners where the weather this winter did not suck big time, but I don't know where they are. Too much cold and ...

Pursuing Trivia

Nowadays, it is supposed to be easy to find information on anything. Just boot up your computer, type in a question and voila', there is the answer. Or answers. Often when I do this I get many answers, not all the same, as if knowledge is a pick and choose smorgasboard. I normally can sift and figure out the right one, however.

There are books out there too, geared to satisfying our aimless curiosity about how and why things work. Facts, information and explanations surround us in abundance.

An...

A Different World, A Different Me

[image error]I was out of the country the first ten days of March. It wasn't a vacation as such, but it wasn't 9 to 5 work either. As often happens when I travel, I entered a different world. Not only geographically either.

Almost every habit I have got turned on its head during this period. I woke early and was in bed before midnight, instead of being a night owl. I got exercise, instead of being my normal sedantary self. I drank less coffee and ate less food.   

I rarely watched television because it was ...

Title Trauma

Today is the release of Provocative in Pearls, the second book in my Rarest Blooms series. It also marks the first time that a title that I chose ended up on one of my covers. This is pretty pitiful when you realize this is my 19th book. I mean, I know authors who have titled all their books. I have too, just my publishers have changed my titles to other ones.  

[image error]I used to pick the title when I started writing a book, so those later changes bugged me at first. I had lived with that title for...

Each Way is the Best Way

We have ten writers blogging here, and I'll bet we have ten different ways of writing. We get comments from other writers too, and each of them probably has her own way of getting the words down. Some listen to music while others require total silence. Some use the "edit as you go" approach and others swear by  "charge through the first draft then go back and revise."  Some writers do all the dialogue first, then fill in the rest.

Writers, however, for all their various craft techniques, tend ...

Dates from Hell, Dates from Heaven

[image error]Our special blog celebration coincides with a week that ends on Valentine's Day. That is appropriate for a romance blog, don't you think?  But I have a confession to make. I have had a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day. Due to February 14th, I have been to both hell and heaven.

Valentine's Day has a way of creating romance expectations that the significant others of the world (translation: men) often don't meet. In my case, a whole series of boyfriends seemed to go out of their way t...

New Release Neurotic Syndrome

Today is a big day in my writing career. Ravishing in Red is released today. It is the first book I have had out in a year. The first book in a new series. And the first book with my new publisher.

[image error]Now, maybe you think the title of this blog should be Cheers, Celebrations and Delerious Happiness but, well, this is ME and I like to be honest with all you other goddesses. Trust me, my title is more appropriate to where my head is today.

The truth is that release days are stressful for me, and...

Share Your Gems

[image error]The recent rerelease of a book got me thinking about my private collection of little gems. These are books or films or even television shows that are not necessarily famous, but that impressed me either for their emotional content or because they were beautifully crafted. Often they are quiet stories, or are told in a different way from others of their ilk. Sometimes they defy conventions, or seem out of the mainstream. On occasion they are stories that are not especially unique, but the...

Cool Stuff

[image error]On one of my email lists, some writers were talking about a special writing program available only for Macs called Scrivner. I only paid passing attention because I don't have a Mac. However, it was pretty clear that this program falls in the category of Cool Stuff. It was so cool that I think some of us were thinking of changing computer platforms just so we could use it.

I am a fan of Cool Stuff. I like finding it, and I like hearing about it. Cool Stuff is anything that is unexpectedly...

Dreams, Goals, and 5 Year Plans

[image error]A few years before a publisher agreed to put me in print, one of my writer friends got "the call." Just in time too. Her 5 year plan was almost up. She had given herself five years to work at this,  at which point, if she had not yet been published she would—-?

It was never clear to me what was supposed to happen then.  Was the five years just a period when she gave herself permission to do what she wanted without doing a cost/benefit analysis? Was it supposed to make her work harder because t...