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Happy Holidays!

Today is my first regular day to blog, and it may seem like an odd time to start, right before the end of the year. Or perhaps not.

Friday was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day, and longest night, of the year. It signals the beginning of winter, so we string up lights on our houses and city streets to keep the darkness at bay, for a little while, at least.

This celestial event has long been a cause for celebration. The Romans called it Saturnalia; the Celts called it Yule. Today we call it Christmas. Chanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, also occurs in December, though not always in conjunction with the solstice.

The one common element in all of these festivities is the notion of bringing light into the darkness, whether it’s lighting the candles on a Menorah, a yule log burning in the fireplace, electric lights on the tree, or a star shining brightly, leading the way to Bethlehem.

My wish for you this holiday season is that the light of inspiration will fill your mind with wonderful story ideas, irresistible characters, and sterling prose in the upcoming year.

Happy Holidays!

Linda McLaughlin / Lyndi Lamont

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The Lone Writer: How I’m Spending My Winter Vacation

December 21, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as The Lone Writer

I’m feeling quite proud of myself at the moment. My family is supposed to leave for the ski slopes any second now and I’m sitting here typing away. That’s commitment people!

As a Southern Californian living in the land of eternal drought there is something so magical about snow. I guess snow is kind of like Las Vegas at night, with all those fun noises and the lights shining bright you don’t sit there and think about how sad everything looks during the day. Snow is an amazing white blanket that hides the dirty stuff. It’s fantastic.

I know what you’d all like to ask…do I ski? Yes, and I love it! Last year I spent several days on skis zooming down the slopes (Dana zooming, not this-should-be-on-tv zooming). This year I hope to at least manage a snowboard lesson.

I always see pictures like this and it looks fun. How about you, dear reader. Do you ski or snowboard? do you have any advice?

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WRITING TIPS from a Member at Large

December 19, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Member At Large

At the recent LERA (Land of Enchantment Romance Authors) Christmas party, we exchanged gifts and writing tips. Some of the tips were old stand bys, some were new, and some came at just the right time. The one impressing me the most was: “Set a timer clock for fifteen minutes, and write until the timer goes off. It doesnâ€™t matter what you write, even “I hate writing, I hate my computer, I hate books, this is stupid, why do I put myself through this torture.” Well before the end of the fifteen minutes youâ€™ll be writing in someone elseâ€™s mind, and youâ€™ll be back to a story instead of a blank screen.

Or so the theory goes. It canâ€™t be much more difficult than answering e-mails and heaven knows weâ€™re nearly all good at that. You just donâ€™t take your hands off the keys for anything until the fifteen minutes are up.

Iâ€™m writing this while my husband takes a shower, which is usually about fifteen minutes. No timer yet but itâ€™s probably not as important as just plain writing. Another tip was to read Lawrence Blockâ€™s “Telling Lies for Fun and Profit.” Okay, that was my tip, because that one book has done more to help me over this non-writing hump than anything else. Going to seminars didnâ€™t help, hearing about contests I could enter didnâ€™t help. Reading that book did help. The hint that meant the most to me was what I wrote down for my goal next month. Take your writing seriously, and take yourself seriously as a writer. Have respect for yourself as a writer, and treat writing like the job you want it to be.

This really hit home. How much respect was I giving myself as a writer? And not just a placer of words on a page, but a writer of readable fiction. Was I just skating on the fact Iâ€™d written five books, who cares how good they were? Or on the fact Iâ€™d actually published for money, albeit it articles for dog magazines? And isnâ€™t that a thrill and a half, to hold that first check? Not quite enough of a thrill to frame it in lieu of cashing but still pretty darned cool.

So Iâ€™m taking that advice, writing fifteen minutes every day and turning out something, good or bad. Exercise builds muscle, and you burn calories even when you canâ€™t exercise like the pros. Iâ€™m exercising those imagination muscles – they were getting pretty flabby!

Showerâ€™s off, and looky here I wrote my blog for the month! Hereâ€™s wishing creative thoughts and flying fingers this holiday season

Miss you all!

Monica Stoner

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Writer On The Verge

December 18, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Writer on the Verge by Kate Carlisle tagged as Kate Carlisle, Writer on the Verge

Why I Canâ€™t Blog Today

1. I have a headache. No, really. And no, itâ€™s not a hangover so just donâ€™t go there. Itâ€™s my sinuses. Iâ€™ve got bad ones. And with the rain and the changes in barometric pressure, I get all stuffed up. Iâ€™ll be okay, but I really canâ€™t blog today.

2. As mentioned above, itâ€™s raining. And rain effects the electrical connections in my house causing little brown-outs, which messes with the router and I lose my internet connection. How can I post the blog without an internet connection? I can’t. So I’m really sorry, but I canâ€™t blog today.

3. I canâ€™t concentrate on blogging because Iâ€™m stuck in Chapter Seven. Why am I stuck in Chapter Seven, you ask. Because in Chapter Seven my heroine has to go home, and I have to describe all that â€œhomeâ€ stuff. Now, some of the home stuff has little to do with the mysteryâ€”and some of it does. But the point is, this is the chapter where Iâ€™ve got to introduce some of the ongoing characters who will appear and re-appear in subsequent books in the series. It all happens in Chapter Seven. So you see my dilemma, right? I mean, what if I give my heroine a sister with twins and a nice husband and a cozy lifestyle in the mountains near Lake Tahoe and it turns out in Book Four that the sister shouldâ€™ve been a New York fashion editor? I could screw up the whole series. Or what if the heroineâ€™s mom is a bi-polar hairdresser and her dad owns a liquor store, and then it turns out in Book Twelve that I really needed the heroine to be an orphan? Youâ€™d think Iâ€™d already worked all this out, and I haveâ€”for Book One. But what if I was wrong? What if–well, you get the idea. Who has time to blog when all this turmoil is eating away at my brain?

4. Christmas is less than a week away. I know most of you are just sitting around waiting for the fun to start but Iâ€™ve still got a pile of Christmas cards to write and address and mail, and a whole bunch of presents to buy, and hey, Iâ€™ve got to finish that stupid Chapter Seven (see Item No. 3 above), then start Chapter Eight, then pack for the trip to momâ€™s, and oh yeah, and Iâ€™ve got to stop at the drugstore to pick up sinus medicine (for my headacheâ€“see Item No. 1 above). But before that, Iâ€™ve got to make breakfast, take a shower, get dressed, go to work, FedEx a bunch of stuff to the family back East, then come home, wrap all those presents, finish Chapter Eight, pay bills, and bake cookies for the office holiday party.

So I think I’ve made my point here, right? Iâ€™m just too busy to blog. Sorry. Maybe next month.

But meanwhile, yâ€™all have a Happy Holiday and a Wonderful New Year! Cheers!

[Kate Carlisle would’ve posted her really cute photo and some of her truly impressive writing credits but she was just too busy!]

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The Write Way (because there is no ‘right’ way)…….

December 17, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives

Just finished my latest work in progress and God, what a good feeling that is! Nothing quite like typing those two beautiful little words, The End.

But…for a working writer, The End only means a brief pause before typing the words, Chapter One. Although, every writerâ€™s different. Some of us, when we finish a book, pop open some champagne, shut down the computer, walk out of the office and donâ€™t even glance at the closed door for a month or more.

And ooh, sometimes I envy those writers! But you have to know yourself, and since I know me all too well, there will be no shutting down of the computer for me. Oh, Iâ€™ll take a day or two, it is Christmas, after all! But then Iâ€™ll open up a new document and start work on the next book.

See, I learned a long time ago that if I take a couple of weeks off, I get so far out of writing mode that it takes me several more weeks to get back in. Itâ€™s painful to sit in front of your computer and feel as though you donâ€™t know how to write anymore.

Itâ€™s much easier to simply stay in writing mode. For me, at this time of year, that means writing one or two pages a day. Itâ€™s enough to keep my head in the book and easy enough that Iâ€™ll still feel as though Iâ€™m getting some time off.

So, during this great time of year, be kind to yourself. Play a little. Hug your kids, drop some money in the Salvation Army kettles. Give a gift to someone whoâ€™s not expecting it. Eat some cookies, sing some carols and do just enough writing to keep you ready for all of those January pages.

Maureen Child is the author of more than 100 romance novels and novellas. At the moment, sheâ€™s baking cookies and wishing you allâ€”no matter what holiday youâ€™re celebratingâ€”a Merry Christmas and the very best of the season!