Hooray for Fall

Grace Burrowes by Grace Burrowes September 3rd, 2010

Fall has always been my favorite season, despite the fact that it has meant going back to school for me and then for mine. I perk up in the fall, I get some energy for a change. Maybe this is a function of the temperatures finally dipping out of the nineties (ahem), maybe it’s something to do with the pituitary gland and the days being shorter. I think it has more to do with a sense of thwarting death and preparing for hardship.

My first indicator that summer is ending comes from the insects. The crickets no longer  sing just at night, they’re at it all day too. The stink bugs start invading the house as soon as the first cornfield gets chopped. When the last one comes down, the field mice show up in the basement, no matter how mild the weather. Then the geese start flocking, I’m feeding my horses in darkness at one end of the day or the other, and the deer have gone from that lovely, rich red  to the tawny dun of winter coats.

The bugs are getting ready to die, the deer are trying to procreate (automobiles in the path of true love notwithstanding) before they get ready to starve. Hard times are coming. On a biological level, I think this is motivating. In fall, I’m more likely to get around to reading the Susan Mallery and Loretta Chase I’ve been hoarding in my To Be Read pile. I take those walks that are good for my rumination. I throw stuff out that has been lurking in my closets for months if not years. In short, I get off my duff. I organize my nest because in the coming months, I’ll be seeing a lot of the place.

This is the only change of season that motivates me to act, though I enjoy all the seasons. But my experience of fall may not be yours. What about the coming cooler season appeals to you, and what makes you dread it? Do you enjoy stories set in autumn, or can you not recall the last one you came across? And if fall is your least favorite season, why is that? If nothing else, the shorter cooler days mean I spend more time reading in the evening, and that’s a wonderful thing.

An Interview with Agent Kevan Lyon

Robin Kaye by Robin Kaye September 2nd, 2010

Blame it on the Muse would like to welcome agent, Kevan Lyon of the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Kevan, thanks so much for taking the time out of your insanely busy schedule to join us today. I asked my colleagues in search of the perfect agent what questions they’d like to ask you. Here are the questions I received:

The industry is looking for more of the “same” so a book can be classified, but publishers also want “different.”  How far can a writer draw outside of the lines before their book is considered non-commercial?

This is largely going to depend on the genre you are writing in.  When it comes to historical romance for example, we are now (finally!) beginning to see growing acceptance and interest in stories that are a bit less traditional (i.e. Regency/set in Britain).  So, different can be o.k., but only to a point!  In other genres such as paranormal, I think you can definitely push the boundaries quite a bit and as long as you captivate them with plot, voice and character you can go far!

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Romance, can it be defined?

Tricia Fields by Tricia Fields September 1st, 2010

Good morning! I had another topic I was supposed to talk about today, but since it’s my anniversary, I decided I would save it for another post and we could discuss romance, or to be more specific, what defines romance.  True romance is different for everyone, I believe, but in books and on TV it tends to be elaborate and sweet, symbolized by chocolates and flowers.  While those things are definitely nice—trust me, I would never say no to good chocolate—they are not the gestures that have kept my husband and me together for twenty years. Read the rest of this entry »

My Favorite Day of the Year!

Robin Kaye by Robin Kaye August 31st, 2010

Today is my favorite day of the year—the first day of school for two of my three children. The third started yesterday so we packed up her and all her belongings on Sunday, dropped her off at her host family’s house, said a not-so-tearful goodbye, and got the heck out of Dodge. I know that sounds harsh, but believe me when I say Twinkle Toes, my ballerina, is almost impossible to be around unless she’s dancing 40 hours per week.

Sunday evening freedom was so close at hand, I could almost taste it. My husband and I went to dinner on our way home and spoke of nothing but how lovely it will be when our kids are firmly ensconced in their much-dreaded schoolwork, when my day will consist of six blessed hours of silence, when I have time to write with no child poking his or her head in my office door to ask how my writing is going, when I can have a train of thought that won’t skip the tracks do to a fight between hormonal teenage girls (some of which aren’t even mine), the cacophony of competing YouTube videos, iTunes, and the ever-present television – all of which seem to be in my office or just outside my door will not longer intrude, when I can officially impose a 10:00 bedtime and maybe spend a few minutes alone with my husband before he too is asleep.

Freedom is sweet, even if it’s only for six short hours, five days a week if I’m lucky. The person who designed the teacher’s in-service day or the dreaded teacher planning half-day, seemingly on a weekly basis is, in my opinion, the devil’s spawn. How is an author to write when kids come and go on what seems like an endless cycle of three and a half or four-day school weeks? Still, compared to having three teenagers at home for the last month, the promise of them being out from underfoot for most of the week seems like heaven to me.

This day, August 31st is the happiest day of my year. It’s Christmas, my birthday and Valentine’s Day all wrapped into three large brown-paper bags, each containing a juice box, a sandwich, and an apple. It’s all that and a bag of chips.

What’s your favorite day of the year and why?

I Love Weddings

Hope Ramsay by Hope Ramsay August 30th, 2010

One of the things about being the author of romance stories, is that it gives me a chance to write about one of life’s important passages — that moment when a man and woman leave their respective families, and through love, create a new family.

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“Animal Cruelty Rears Its Ugly Head”

Cadence Denton by Cadence Denton August 27th, 2010

Have I gotten your attention? Probably, if you’re anything like me. In fact, being the owner of 3 dachshunds and 1 cocker spaniel those words captured my complete focus and had me devouring what followed in the Wednesday edition of my local newspaper’s Letters to the Editors. Here one Charlotte Nettles told of the heinous poisoning, via antifreeze, and subsequent death of a most beloved family dog.

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Music for the Muse

R. R. Smythe by R. R. Smythe August 26th, 2010

object>I have deja vu. Last year I participated in a blog of the same title. Apparently many writers use music to lure their Muse out of hiding. Can’t imagine why…

So you’re home, after a long day. You’ve shuttled kids to activities, muddled through dinner, fielded, “I need that folder for TOMORROW” leading to an eight p.m. Staples run, and then from a separate, equally as stressed young adult, ”The printer won’t PRINT!”

Your spouse is away. Your Muse pricks up. You could get in one hour, if you want it badly enough. You briefly think of jabbing the pencil in your hand into her eye socket…but it passes. She can’t help herself. She’s a junkie. A word junkie.

A thesaurus wielding, plot juggling juggernaut. Sigh.

You slip into your bedroom, and open the document. You need to get ’in the zone’ and fast, or you’ll be snoring loud enough to resurrect the zombies floating around in your head. So you pop on the headphones…..BANG! Your there. 

Nothing gets me to the pages quicker than music.   

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Simple Yet Flaccid

DT Tarkus by DT Tarkus August 25th, 2010

      Having trouble getting started today? There goes my muse again, popping in whenever I don’t need her. I tell her go away, I’m trying to do some serious writing. Oh you want serious she says. I suck in a breath to temper rising frustration. When she gets her dander up, there’s no ignoring her. She slaps one of the many cooking magazines I collect on top of my laptop, the page open to a recent assesment of Australian wines.

    Have you ever tried to wordsmith wine reviews? Where the hell is this going? My approach to grading wines is either: “hey that’s good shit”, or “not bad”. Book stores overflow on the subject. All you need is a post graduate degree in literature, or a good thesaurus.

     Au contraire she says. It’s visual writing, the very thing you struggle with. No, I struggle with a muse that fills my head with distraction. Damn, I’m getting that look again. Fine, I’ll play along, but do you promise to leave me alone? Read the rest of this entry »

A Hitchhiker on the Social Networking Highway

Angi Morgan by Angi Morgan August 24th, 2010

I have to admit that the more I learn about the social networking highway, the less I want to get behind my own wheel.

Yes, this is me with my thumb in the wind, hitchhiking my way through the promotion of my first book. There are definite advantages to selling a book and waiting two years before it hits bookshelves. My time line was less than ten months (and a second sale four months later).

Whoa, that isn’t a complaint, just simply too much to learn in too little time. (THIS IS ME JUMPING UP AND DOWN WITH EXCITEMENT over my career taking off at a fast-pace.) There is just sooo much to learn on a daily basis and hopping onto the Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Blogging, Website interchange is definitely like driving to a new destination without directions (and definitely without a GPS).

So I’m asking for advice today.  YOU are in the drivers seat. I’m at a crossroads and need a ride. Which way first? How long do you spend? And what kind of car are you driving?

~~Angi

HILL COUNTRY HOLDUP, Harlequin Intrigue, September 14th

AngiMorgan.com

Stories

Tricia Fields by Tricia Fields August 23rd, 2010

I used to be really envious of those people who have always known they wanted to write.  You know the ones I’m talking about—they wrote and illustrated their first book at age 3 and self-published their first novel on their home computer in high school and sold it to their friends and two elderly aunts. Read the rest of this entry »