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Blogging About What I Love by Linda O. Johnston

February 8, 2010 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , ,

Blog = web log. That’s elementary. And what’s a log? It can be a kind of journal. That’s how I look at it, anyway.

I always enjoy blogging on A Slice of Orange. As you may know, I also blog weekly at killerhobbies.blogspot.com. I was invited to join a long time ago because Killer Hobbies’ focus is on hobbies that are featured in mysteries. My Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series features pets, and I’ve always maintained that pets are family, not hobbies. Even so, I usually try to mention pet-related things on my posts there. Of course I love writing about pets, so that works out well.

Other times, I focus largely on writing, its fun and frustrations. Since writing is so important to me, that’s fun, too. It’s often when I get the most comments. Same appears to go for my blog sisters, too.

This week, I blogged about writing short stories, and I was pleased at the number of comments that came up early in the day–faster than usual. Not a huge amount, as some other blog sites get, but a bunch just the same.

So… since A Slice of Orange is the blog of OCC, it’s natural for me to focus on writing here, at least more than pets. I love writing. I do it all the time, and I’m always looking for more! I can always talk about what I’m working on, and that’s a lot of what I’ve done here so far. But I’d still love to hear more about what YOU are interested in hearing. Feel free to ask me to reveal secrets. If I know the answers, I’ll have to gauge whether I want to make them public, but you’ll never know how much I’ll give up till you ask.

By the way, I’m going to be giving a class soon at the new online school, Story Stew University. It’ll be on Blending Romance and Suspense. Check it out, along with other classes at: storystewuniversity.com

Linda O. Johnston

Linda O. Johnston is the author of 15 romance novels and several novellas, including a current Nocturne Bites, with 2 more Nocturnes upcoming. She also writes the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime. HOWL DEADLY, the newest title in the series has just been released.

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The People’s Choice Awards by Bobbie Cimo

January 13, 2010 by in category Eye on Hollywood by Bobbie Cimo tagged as ,

Not so long ago I received an E-mail from the Nokia Theatre, advertising for the People’s Choice Awards. The ad said they were on sale at a 50% discount. The $40.00 tickets were going for $20.00 and the $200.00 orchestra seats were now $100.00.
Surprised by the ad, I blurted out loud in the office, “They’re charging for them now?” It never dawned on me that they were probably always charging for these tickets, only I didn’t know it. For one reason, I think in the back of my mind, I always thought the attendees were invited guests of the celebrities who were receiving the awards. However, I did know who the people in the cheap seats were–the ones in the balcony. They were people like me, who got their tickets for free.
Every year at the end of November a flyer would come around the building at CBS, announcing the possibility of free tickets to the “People’s Choice Awards”. It stated very clearly that the dispensing of tickets depended solely on the availability of the production company. Which meant we wouldn’t know for sure if we had tickets, until somewhere between Christmas and the end of the year. That was cutting it close, considering at that time the event took place on the Sunday following the holiday. We were instructed to limit our request to four tickets per employee and asked to dress as though we were attending a party.

There was one more stipulation. If after making your request, you pulled a no-show, you’d be banned for life from requesting tickets again. Okay, maybe “for life” is a little strong…but the word “forever” was implied when signing the dotted line.

I have to tell you what sometimes seemed like a perfectly wonderful idea at the end of November, doesn’t necessarily seem so terrific by the following January. Especially after you had devoured every fattening type of food imaginable, in the past thirty or so days. So your first obstacle is finding something to wear that isn’t going to be showing every lump and bump you’ve just developed in the last month. And then there’s the shoes. Besides being dressy, they’ll have to be comfortable–keep in mind, you’ll be standing in line for approximately three hours. Did I mention, when you gain weight, your feet get fat, too?

Now if you’re lucky, it’ll be a cool January day, which means you’ll get to cover up your holiday sins with a lovely dress coat. Mine was velvet. Hopefully the day will be dry and you won’t have to worry about lugging around an umbrella or dripping water on anyone around you–or worse, ending up having a really bad hair day. And occasionally, like me, your friends at home will see you on TV. And thanks to the rain, you‘ll be easy to recognize, as you’ll be the one with the frizzy hair.

Anxiety grows as you stand in line, wondering if you’re going to get a good seat or if those annoying teenagers with the high shrieking voices ahead of you will be seated next to you. But as time goes on, you make friends with those around you. Your feet stop hurting, and you bless the person who invented the elastic waistband on your pantsuit.

Then miraculously, once you’re inside you find there are no bad seats. And the excitement of the audience, especially coming from the cheap seats, fills the air as everyone points out to each other the celebrities they’ve spotted below.

When the show was held at the Pasadena Auditorium, after the ceremony, you could actually stand on the proverbially red carpet and mingle with the stars as they waited for their cars. Some, if asked nicely, would even pose for a picture. The superstars like Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, would usually slip out a side exit into a limo. But even then, you could still manage to get up-close and personal and snap a picture or two.

Now, if you had asked me earlier this year if I was sorry that we still don‘t get free tickets to this event, I would have said no, that I had my fill. But that would have been before I knew that Johnny Depp and Hugh Jackman were both attending this year’s ceremony. Trust me, if I had, there’s not a doubt in my mind that I would have found an outfit and happily poured myself into it just for the occasion.

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Thought for the day

December 24, 2009 by in category From Isabel Swift tagged as ,

Happy Holidays!

I wanted to share a quote from Marianne Williamson’s A RETURN TO LOVE, Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles. She had a lovely and profoundly simple point that gave me a new insight into what a miracle was:

“A miracle is just a shift in perception.”

The more I thought about that, the more true I realized that’s exactly what a miracle was. We can use other words: Belief. Faith. But it really is just that small; just that big. A shift in perception.

How do we shift that perception? How do we move from believing something is impossible to believing it is possible?

Sometimes it entails finding a new path. Or gaining greater strength in an area of weakness. Maybe it’s just having someone else truly believe in us. And with that realization, we need to acknowledge and remember that we have the power to perform miracles in others. It’s a tremendous gift.

Give it freely.

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Advice to Myself as a Newbie Author: Jennifer Lyon

December 22, 2009 by in category Advice to Myself as a Newbie Author by Shauna Roberts tagged as ,

by Shauna Roberts
http://www.ShaunaRoberts.com
http://ShaunaRoberts.blogspot.com

Today’s Guest: Jennifer Lyon

Jennifer Lyon always wanted to be a witch. When her witch powers didn’t materialize, she turned to creating magic in her books. Soul Magic (Ballantine Books) debuted in October, the second in an enchanting, passionate supernatural series. Jen also has a super secret alter ego known as Jennifer Apodaca, the author of the award-winning Samantha Shaw Mystery Series.

If you could travel back in time to before you were first published, what advice would you give yourself?

Once when I was a teenager and complaining about something or other, my mother stopped what she was doing and said, “Whoever told you life was fair? Quit whining and work harder.”

Boy, I had no idea back then how much that advice would end up shaping my career. I’ve had my share of setbacks, some which were my mistakes and others that were beyond my control. But each time, I heard my mother’s voice say, ‘Quit whining; work harder.’ And each time, working harder paid off–and sometimes not in the way I expected.

That’s my mom’s advice. Now here’s a few of the things I’ve learned so far, things that I wish I’d known or fully grasped before I published.

1. Write faster and learn to juggle. Everyone says this, but I have to stress it. Like it or not, it takes at least two books a year to really build a strong fan base. And once published, you must juggle other things along with the writing, such as revisions, line edits, copy edits, galleys, and promotion.

2. Build a team. This has two parts. Part one is your professional team, which consists of your editor, agent, research contacts, web designers, or designers for bookmarks, whatever you need. I try to keep a Rolodex of people I can rely on in a professional capacity. Part two is friends and critique partners. I have many, but there are about five core people I critique with and go to for advice or just to talk to. I can trust these people implicitly.

3. Be flexible. Few careers in publishing move in a straight line. There will be changes; editors leave, agents retire, lines close, the economy tanks, a genre suddenly stops selling–it happens. Every day. It’s taken me a while to learn to roll with these things. Canceling a series or rejecting a project is just part of the business. Stay flexible and move on.

4. Be professional, reliable, and self-confident. The first two I did from the start; the self-confident part has been harder. I have learned to project a bit more self-confidence in dealing with editors and agents. It makes everyone feel more secure if the author is reasonably sure she can do something.

Lack of self-confidence caused me to turn down an anthology I probably should have accepted. I wasn’t sure I could make the deadlines, which is really valid. However, it was with a New York Times bestseller, and that exposure may have been worth the risk.

5. Make decisions based on facts and research, not emotion. In the changing face of publishing, it’s a little harder to grasp all the facts. But the old adage still applies: ‘If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably false.’  Do your research, really listen to people with experience, and try to base your decision on facts, not emotion. Before I sold to a traditional publisher, I went with an electronic publisher that was less than reputable because I just wanted to believe and ignored some red flags.

6. Don’t give up. Ever. If one thing isn’t working, then you need to step back and evaluate the project. What’s not working? The idea or the execution? If it’s the idea, consider putting it away and working on something else. If it’s the execution, then roll up your sleeves and get to work. Abandoning a project that isn’t working is not giving up. It’s simply a risk that didn’t work. Take what you learned and then turn the next project into a success.

So that’s it. And for the record, I’ve done okay with the ‘work harder’ portion of my mom’s advice. But I still have a tendency to whine.

Thanks so much to Shauna Roberts for having me as a guest today!

 

You can learn more about Jennifer and Soul Magic at her Website and blog at http://www.jenniferlyonbooks.com/. You can find Soul Magic at your local bookstore as well as online from Amazon.com and other online stores.

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Holiday Season by Linda O. Johnston

December 6, 2009 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , , ,

I recently returned home from a trip to Branson, Missouri. Talk about Christmas spirit! Most of the shows are at the ends of their season, but nearly every entertainer included a lot of Christmas carols.

I’d never been to Branson before and enjoyed it—including all the shopping! I still needed a lot of holiday presents and was able to check off a quite a few people from my list of those I still needed to shop for by the time I got home. Of course that ruined my ability to fly back home with only carry-on luggage.

I did see my latest Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery, HOWL DEADLY, on bookstore shelves for the first time in Branson, at a Books-A-Million. It’s a December release, and that, as always, was a kick!

My writing suffered some on this trip—too busy to get much done. But I did take an afternoon to do nothing but write, and also was able to edit on the plane home. I had a couple of appearances as soon as I returned—a talk on promotion at the East Valley Authors chapter of RWA at the Azusa Library, and a holiday party at the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore in San Diego. I’ve other parties I could be going to now… but it’s time to get down to work!

Happy holidays, everyone! And come see me at the OCC meeting next week. I hope to be signing HOWL DEADLY.

I’d love to hear what’s keeping you busy during this holiday season…

Linda O. Johnston
http://www.lindaojohnston.com/
http://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com/
Linda O. Johnston is the author of 15 romance novels and several novellas, including a current Nocturne Bites, with 2 more Nocturnes upcoming. She also writes the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime. HOWL DEADLY, the newest title in the series has just been released.

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