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A Fantasy Life by Janet Quinn Cornelow

September 28, 2011 by in category A Fantasy Life by Janet Cornelow tagged as ,

I have been writing in the limited time I have with the classes I have been teaching. I put the fantasy story aside for the moment and dug out a historical time-travel that I started several years ago. I have to polish the beginning, but I have it all plotted out, so hopefully it will go along smoothly, or at least as smoothly as any book goes. This story includes a father and his son going back in time and ending up on a horse ranch where the heroine is in need of help since her father died. She is training horses for the Calvary and of course there are those who do not want her to succeed.

I put my fantasy short stories up at Kindle. They used to be Whiskey Shots, but now they are all together in one volume. The fun part about putting them up at Kindle was that I could include the illustrations I had done for them. They can be found at: http://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-of-Augeas-ebook/dp/B005MVAQ7O/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1

They are called Chronicles of Augeas and are set in the city-state of Augeas. The city is a combination of those with magic and those without. Those without want to steal the magic or destroy it. They are also destroying the city and there are those who wish to stop them. There are six stories in all.

The newest member of our household, Count Rugen, is growing by leaps and bounds. For six months he is huge and can get on top of everything. I have had to redecorate most of the surfaces. All of the breakables are now in the only bookcase he can’t reach. He now has a kitty condo which is a major redecoration of its own. It takes up a large amount of space. When he first got it two weeks ago, he could reach the ceiling beams if he stood on his hind legs. Now he can reach them sitting on his bottom.

I wish everyone a good month of writing.

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Heck Yeah! Lawyers are so Appealing

September 15, 2011 by in category The Write Life by Rebecca Forster tagged as , , , , ,


By Rebecca Forster

If you are a lawyer, a judge, a clerk, a bailiff, I love you. Really, I do. And so do millions of fiction readers. They can’t get enough of you, in and out of the courtroom. In my book* you are exciting, intelligent, mysterious, courageous, resourceful, thoughtful, witty, well-spoken and you are heroic. Of course, there are times when you are vicious, deceitful, brilliantly cold and cruel and that is pretty nifty, too.

I am married to a judge (he’s pretty sedate) but he was once a lawyer and that is how my fascination with you all began. Yet, years of trial watching, staff chatting and transcript reading has created a bizarre obsessive/compulsive need to figure you all out. Since I haven’t been able to, I can at least explain why you are irresistibly inspiring to this novelist and fascinating to those who love to read about you.

1) You speak legalese. It is like French: mysterious, irresistible, intimidating. Throw in a little Latin – a quid pro quo or prima facia – and you can melt a woman’s resolve and strike fear into the hearts of mortal men.
2) You are confident. Is there a super- secret-double-indemnity-swear-on-your-mother’s-grave-and-never-tell class that teaches you how to argue any and every point of view with grace and conviction? **
3) Bad guys listen to you. They even pay you to tell them what to do. That makes you a little edgy by association and who doesn’t like a bad boy -or girl?
4) You’re altruistic, defending bad people because you believe everyone deserves a defense.
5) You’re altruistic, prosecuting bad guys because you believe in justice.***
6) You are eye-candy. From the couture clad divorce-attorney-to-the stars, to the public defender sporting a plaid jacket and pony tail and the plaintiff’s lawyer in that Italian suit you turn courthouse hallways into runway.
7) You are funny. Sometimes you mean to be funny. Either way, a funny attorney is charming.
8) You are excellent secret keepers, which is not to be confused with being trustworthy. Though I believe you are trustworthy, that is a point of debate.
9) You are curious and tenacious.
10) You are heroes and not just in the literary sense. In real life you (and your expertise) are often the only things standing between a person losing something important to them: their children, their fortune, their reputation, their freedom and, yes, their life.****

*Actually, in all my books since I write legal thrillers.
**This also means that your significant other, children or parent can never win an argument. Experience tells me, the only recourse a normal person has when arguing with a lawyer is to cry and proclaim: “You are right, you are always right.”  Works for me.
***A characteristic that make you the perfect inspiration for novels and films.
****You have my permission to show this list to anyone who questions your lovability, capability or worth. You may also use the aforementioned in advertising, closing arguments, opening statements and speed dating.

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SURF’S UP

September 13, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as , ,

by Bobbie Cimo
With the end of summer near, I realize two things; One, I hate to see the summer end and two; I grew up loving those teen beach movies. Don’t know why, since I couldn’t swim or surf. However, I did manage to learn how to float on my back in case of an emergency, like if I were lost at sea and had to wait it out to be rescued. Luckily, I never had too.
I guess the real draw about those movies for me, were the cute guys who played in them–because it certainly wasn’t the plot or storyline, since most of them didn’t have one.
Like all people, who didn’t grow up near an ocean, the first thing I wanted to see when I moved out to California was Malibu. And with all the enthusiasm of a seasoned swimmer, when I did see it, I ran out to sea. I got about knee high into the water, when I felt my lips turn blue (okay you can’t actually feel your lips turn a color), but if one could… Nobody told me that the Pacific Ocean was freezing, even in July.
If I couldn’t enjoy the ocean, I could at least enjoy the sunrays and work on my tan, by basking in the California sunshine. Well, I could if it wasn’t for the fact that with every initial sunbathing session, I tend to break out with a zillion red dots on my legs (maybe a zillion is a little bit of an exaggeration). But enough red dots to make my legs look like I went stomping in a vat filled with purple grapes. The doctors call it sun poisoning. I call it annoying. Once the purple fades away, I usually end up with a pretty good tan.

Ah, then there’s all that lovely beachy air–unfortunately, I have a problem with that too. It seems whenever I’m near anything that has to do with humidity or dampness, my hair comes down with a terminal case of the frizzies. In other words, if I had red hair, I could easily be mistaken for “Little Orphan Annie”
So just because I couldn’t be a surfer, didn’t mean I couldn’t like those silly beach movies or have my picture taken with a teen idol, like Frankie Avalon, who played in them. And I could do it, without the blue lips, blotchy skin, and frizzy hair.

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Reading Just Might Be My Favorite Routine

September 9, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as , , ,

We’ve talked about a lot of routines at Routines for Writers in the last few years. Things to routinely do, things to routinely avoid, things that break up your routines. But I don’t know that we’ve talked much about a routine many writers say they have no time for – reading!

Available for your reading pleasure end of September. 

I am amazed by the number of times I hear writers say they don’t have time to read. But I also understand the dilemma. There are only so many hours in a day, a week, a year. Many of us complain that we don’t have enough time. Many of us worry we aren’t using our time wisely. How does the value of one hour of reading compare with one hour of writing, or sleeping, or time with family?

When taken out of context, it’s difficult to compare these things. But I think most things in life fall into cycles. For me, that cycle is most notably one day. I do certain things at certain times of the day and, when it comes to reading, I can almost always count on having 15-60 minutes at night.

I find I sleep better if my mind relaxes around a story, something I don’t have to think about but can just float on. When I read non-fiction at night, I usually dream about the topic – not great for a good night’s sleep, but I used to solve math problems this way in college!
Like my own target audience, I am a reader who sometimes craves an escape from my everyday life. When I’m really stressed out, I need to read romances. In fact, high stress situations are almost the only thing that make me return to a book more than once. When I’m calm and relaxed and nothing interesting is happening in my life, I crave excitement and danger in my reading life.

But I’m finding those reading cycles incredibly helpful to my writing. Because I read at least a little of so many genres, and because it might take me a year or more (or as little as a month) to cycle through romance, YA, suspense, fantasy, and more, my story brain is constantly being fed new and different ideas. Those all combine like eggs and flour and cocoa make brownies – to help me create some sweet treats of my own!

I love reading and my guess is you do, too. I encourage you to make – and keep – reading one of your writing routines. When you need a break from life, from work, from writer’s block, or you just have a few minutes to relax, reading is the perfect routine.

Kitty Bucholtz is a writer and speaker, and a member of Romance Writers of America and Romance Writers of Australia. She co-founded Routines for Writers, a web site dedicated to helping writers write more, and she recently completed her M.A. in Creative Writing. You can follow Kitty on her web site or on Twitter at @KittyBucholtz.

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Yes, I’m Blogging About Blogging

September 6, 2011 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston, Writing tagged as , , , ,
by Linda O. Johnston


I’m not sure I’d even heard the word “blog” five years ago. Or maybe I had, but hadn’t imagined I might ever blog myself. I know now that blogs existed before then. But they’ve clearly grown in scope and importance.

And, yes, I realize that blogging is just one part of today’s social media. It’s probably one of the oldest–or not. Apparently Facebook was founded in 2004, and Twitter in 2006. I discovered them more recently, too, though–and I’m still managing to avoid Twitter.
In any event, blogging seems to remain one of the most utilized social media outlets. It has survived for a while and appears to keep growing.

It certainly does in my life.

I’m delighted to blog here on A Slice of Orange on the sixth of each month–a wonderful habit I began at the end of 2007. I’m in excellent company here, considering who the other bloggers are.

Every Wednesday, I blog at KillerHobbies.blogspot.com –the result of the mysteries that I write involving animals. Of course I’m always clear on the fact that pets aren’t hobbies, they’re family. Even so, I enjoy being a Killer Hobbies blogger. I began blogging there in 2007, too–earlier in the year. Once again, I’m in good company!


But that’s not all.

The delightful bloggers at Writers in the Storm–members of OCC–recently invited me to be a frequent guest blogger, mostly about mysteries and how I plot and write them. That’s always a pleasure to think about and describe, so of course I said yes.

At the moment, I’m obsessed by blogging. Why? Well, my second Pet Rescue Mystery, THE MORE THE TERRIER, a Berkley Prime Crime book, will be an October release. So will my next Harlequin Nocturne Bites, HAWK’S CHALLENGE, part of my Alpha Force miniseries about a covert military unit of shapeshifters. My next Bites, COUGAR’S CONQUEST, will be a November release. I’ve been setting up a blog tour to promote all of them. So far, I’ve got about ten blogs scheduled in late September through the end of October, with, I hope, more to come.

I’ll write them all. Each of the blog sites has faithful readers as well as new ones. I can’t wait to connect with every one of them!

I wonder how many blogs actually exist in the cyber universe. How many bloggers there are, and how many readers and followers. I tried to do a search before posting this blog and found a lot of references to sites that count statistics for other sites.

One website, Technorati, links to 1,278,867 blog sites, or it did at the moment I looked at it. I’d imagine there are actually more blogs than that, though.

I’m particularly curious about how many blogs there are by and about writers. If you happen to know, please tell me. I’d also love to hear what your favorites are–and be sure to include A Slice of Orange, Killer Hobbies, and Writers in the Storm.

Feel free to tell me about your own blog. And invite me to guest blog. After all, I’m psyched right now to blog. Bring ‘em on!

Did I mention I’m currently obsessed by blogging?

O? —
Linda O! Johnston
LindaOJohnston.com 
http://killerhobbies.blogspot.com/
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