M.J. Compton's Blog, page 47
March 8, 2017
National Proofreading Day
Happy National Proofreading Day!
This is a day anyone who writes anything should celebrate.
I really try to turn in as clean drafts as I can to my editors, but sometimes things slip through anyway. Extra eyes are always welcome.
The best method of proofreading for me is reading aloud what I’ve written. That’s when I catch the missing words, the double words, the echoing words, and the (I blush to admit) places I’ve used the wrong version of it/it’s, your/you’re, their/there/they’re, and to/too/two.
Sometimes the brain and fingers are racing so quickly the weirdest things make it onto the page. Sometimes I use a word incorrectly and need to look it up to make sure it means what I need it to mean at that moment in the book. And sometimes I simply make mistakes.
So here’s a big THANK YOU to all the proofreaders out there who are on top of the written word.
March 5, 2017
Mask of the Queen
The third and final novella of my Mask series, featuring baseball player Tag Gentry and caterer Skye Schuyler comes out on Tuesday, 3/7.
Skye Schuyler’s business is failing because of a reporter’s lies, yet telling the truth about baseball player Tag Gentry’s injuries would destroy him. She loves him too much to betray his confidence. But his marriage proposal is only damage control, suggested by his agent, and Skye wants more from a relationship than Tag seems willing to offer.
Tag won’t take no for an answer. It’s bad enough an injury cost him his career, but now he seems to be losing his best friend, too. He can’t figure out why Skye won’t marry him when marriage to him should convince everyone she didn’t betray his secrets to that reporter. Wanting to fight every man who comes into contact with Skye doesn’t mean he’s jealous, despite what his brothers think. He wants to protect her the way she’s been guarding his secret.
But when a vicious attack on Skye’s business also threatens her life, Tag is forced to reevaluate not only his feelings for her, but also his plans for the future. Now all he has to do is convince Skye to unmask her true feelings and join his team…permanently.
On Sale March 7 at Loose-Id
March 1, 2017
Commuting vs. Productivity
Many authors work a Day Job in addition to writing.
Sometimes I envy people who commute via mass transit because they can read. Or write. But that’s the only thing I do envy (other than not having to drive in a snow storm). I’ve heard of authors who dictate while they’re driving, but I would worry that I would get so caught up in the story I would become a menace on the road.
I feel bad for some of my writer pals who drive long distances every day. After a particularly nasty drive–which is not uncommon this time of year–they are too drained to write.
I tend to have Day Jobs that are less than two miles from my home, so I don’t commute. (I don’t walk or bike either, but I should.) This saves me a lot of time that I use for writing. I can listen to a song or two from my book sound track, depending on how many traffic lights I hit. And if I have a tiffany, I don’t have to fumble for my phone to make a note or try to remember it until I get home, because home is only moments away.
When I started my current Day Job, my office was located in a suburb. I had a minimum fifteen to twenty minute commute each way every day. I couldn’t dash home for lunch. But I did find a way to rig my car’s cassette player to my mp3 player and listen to RWA workshops, so the commute became educational.
I’ve learned to take advantage of every moment I can.
February 26, 2017
Mask of the King
I have a new novella coming out on Tuesday (Feb 28)–Mask of the King.
Injured baseball player Tag Gentry and caterer Skye Schuyler are both lured to a Mardi Gras house party by false promises of work. Skye is waiting for her contract with the baseball team to be renewed, but the front office is giving her the runaround. No one knows how bad Tag’s leg injury really is, but speculation says it career ending. He’s not telling…and he hasn’t reported to spring training. He’s starting to wonder if there is life after baseball.
When Tag’s reporter ex-lover shows up in New Orleans, Tag pays extra attention to Skye, telling himself it’s only to deflect his ex’s attention. But his ex hopes the truth about his injury will be her next big story, and nothing is going to stop her, not even Tag’s involvement with another woman.
Skye realizes the promises that brought her and Tag to New Orleans are lies and wants to leave before things get any more complicated.
The only problem is they’re both targets for revenge, and Tag’s jealous ex may be part of the plot. Everyone is wearing mask, and not just for Mardi Gras. Tag and Skye don’t know who to trust—including each other.
Available from Loose-Id
February 22, 2017
National Cook a Sweet Potato Day
Yes, this really is such a thing.
And since my sweet potato dish is requested at all non-summer family events, I thought I would share the recipe here. I originally published most of it in November of 2014.
But here you go.
MJ’s Sweet Potato Side Dish
6 long, skinny sweet potatoes, scrubbed, then sliced.
I like to use a rippled mandolin.
1 large sweet onion, chopped.
mix the onion and sweet potato together with Wegmans Basting Oil (or other seasoned cooking oil) in a large oven-proof pan (I like my lasagna pan for this).
Bake at 425F for about 40 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.
One of the great things about this recipe is that it can be made ahead of time and reheated in the microwave, which makes it perfect for my family’s gathering.
February 19, 2017
Men and the Art of Carrying Things
For the first years of my marriage, I felt like a pack mule, especially when the children were young, and I had to haul their things, too. My husband was always asking me, “Do you have room in your purse for this?” It could have been a camera, a flyer he saw somewhere and wanted to further investigate, or his sun glasses. The assumption was, the wife carries.
Maybe this comes from the hunter/gatherer stage of human development, when women gathered the berries, nuts, roots and such that ensured survival of the species. Men carried their spears. We hauled everything else. They had to be ready to hunt or defend at a moments notice. We lugged the babies and provisions.
Or it may come from the fact that for many years, women’s clothes didn’t have pockets. Having pockets for our wallets and such would ruin our “profile”. (Men wouldn’t be able to ogle our bosoms and backsides.) So we needed bags for our house keys and sunglasses.
My children, however, are now grown. And I am wiser. When TV Stevie and I go out, I carry a tiny bag just large enough for my cell phone, a purse-pack of tissues, a house key, a credit card, my ID, and lip balm. I am now as unencumbered as he is. And I like it.
February 15, 2017
National Singles Awareness Day
It’s National Singles Awareness Day.
What does that mean to long-time married me? Well, I write romance. Which is primarily about single people. And it’s hard to write about single people today when the world is so different than it was a couple of decades ago, when I was a single woman. So I try to understand them.
I work with a lot of single people. Many are in long-term relationships, but they’re still legally single. Much of what I hear baffles me. It may be the business my current Day Job is in, which is vastly different from my former Day Job. The business itself requires a different kind of individual. (That is not a judgment, simply an observation. After all, I have spent time in both.)
I also have two single twenty-something children. My daughter’s co-workers are primarily single men. The stories she shares with me provide another perspective on being single in the 21st century.
A woman in my RWA chapter subscribed to Cosmopolitan for many years in order to stay abreast of what being a single woman in the USA entailed. (It was also a tax write-off: research for a romance author who wasn’t in the magazine’s targeted demo and who wasn’t single.)
So yes, I am aware of singles, but probably not in the way the organizers of this day meant.
February 12, 2017
Favorite Love Song
Valentine’s Day is coming up in a few days.
I was going to make a list of my Top 10 Favorite Love Songs, but I don’t have ten. Or maybe I can’t limit it to ten.
However, I do have a favorite. I consider it the best rock & roll love song ever written/recorded.
The Moody Blues, “Nights in White Satin”.
Enjoy.
February 8, 2017
Movies About Women: My Reviews
The Academy Awards (Oscars) are coming up. That means TV Stevie is trying to see every motion picture nominated in the major categories–and not so major categories if the films are readily available for watching.
A few weeks ago, we decided to go to an early showing of Twentieth Century Women. The trailers lured me into thinking the movie was something it wasn’t. It was well acted. The ramshackle house in which most of the action took place was a nice metaphor for people who lived there, as was the vineyard in which the defining moment took place.
But something was…off about the movie. One of the women was born the same year I was, and I should have been able to relate to her, her music, and her state of mind at that age, but it was like a foreign country to me. In fact, I couldn’t relate to a single character.
And the pacing was off. I do have a difficult time sitting during movies, even at home, and when I start to wonder how much longer I have to sit through this, I know it’s not me. At home, I can stand and stretch. Run to the kitchen to refresh my beverage. But I can’t do that in a movie theater. I wanted to do that several times during this picture.
TV Stevie and I then grabbed lunch and returned to the theater to see Hidden Figures. I am so glad we decided at the last minute to do this. This motion picture is wonderful. Just incredible. Although I haven’t seen any of the other contenders for Best Picture, I want this one to win. It’s about women. Powerless women. And even without power, they made their voices heard and were able to make great contributions. It’s about time those contributions were acknowledged.
No pacing problems here. I didn’t want the film to end.
February 5, 2017
Showering with a Friend
Today is National Shower with a Friend Day.
My favorite showering-with-a-friend scene in a book comes from Linda Howard’s Mr. Perfect (which happens to be one of my all-time favorite books). The scene comes at the end of book, when the villain has been caught and the hero and heroine are about to embark on their happily ever after. It’s not a particularly sensual scene. In fact, it’s funny. Whenever I hear “shower with a friend” I think of this scene, and that’s the best thing an author can do.
