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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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Concert in the Park

September 5, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as , ,

While much of the east coast was being pummeled by hurricane Irene, my husband, a friend and I were enjoying a concert in the park performed by the Torrance Symphony Orchestra.  Lots of show tunes, a couple of operatic arias by a wonderful tenor and soprano, and a classical violin piece performed by a young lady who is about 16-years-old. (Makes me feel like I wasted my youth!)

If I can make you envious for a moment – picture a clear blue sky, 74-degrees with a light breeze blowing. Music lovers seated in folding chairs on a hillside, some enjoying picnic lunches, toddlers making mad dashes only to be snared up into a parent’s arms before they could get into trouble, and dogs and puppies straining at their leashes.

In the shallow pond in front of the bandstand ducks are swimming in the water or napping on the concrete shore. The alpha seagull defends the ‘best’ perch against all comers.
Overhead, palm trees sway and eucalyptus leaves shimmer silver and green in the breeze. When the audience applauds, a flock of pigeons take flight, soaring over the trees.
What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon — and to celebrate my birthday!
What do you like to do to celebrate your birthday?
Books that leave you smiling –
by Charlotte Carter
Big Sky Family, Love Inspired, 10/19/2011
New Beginnings, Guideposts Books, 9/2011
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