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Back to OCC

June 6, 2013 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , ,

I’m back! Or, rather, I’ll be back at OCC this Saturday after a two-month absence. Both of those were the result of family, or at least partially so. I had a visit from family in April, and then was in the east in May both for some writing events and to visit family.

 I will be running the PAW meeting on Saturday, delighted to do so although it will also feel bittersweet. Despite being listed on the OCC website as a co-liaison at PAW, I’m more of an assistant this year. But I previously served as a co-liaison with Charlotte Lobb. As you probably know by now, Charlotte has passed away. She was always funny and charming while running PAW meetings, as she was even when not running a meeting, and I know she will be missed by all of us at PAW as well as everywhere else. Charlotte was excellent at all she did, including promotion, and that’s a segue into our PAW topic this month: promotion tips. I’ll be eager to hear everyone’s ideas, since I’m always looking for more to try.

I’ll also be looking for published author volunteers to help out by hearing pitches and staffing tables at our July meeting to discuss writing issues. See you on Saturday!

Linda O. Johnston
http://www.lindaojohnston.com/
http://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com/

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Juggling Act

May 6, 2013 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , ,

I love to write–but I love to have written even more!
 
Over the past week, I’ve been juggling between a few stories I’m working on.  For one, I have to complete a proposal for a Harlequin Nocturne romance that I’d suggested some time ago.  I had fun getting back into that story and into Alpha Force mode.  Alpha Force is my Nocturne miniseries about shapeshifters.  Love them!   I wrote a rough first draft and I’m now editing it.
 
Plus, I’ve come up with some ideas for a couple of new mystery series.  I’m also working on proposals for them.  And, yes, I’ve done rough first drafts, for one of them, at least.
 
I must have a lot of characters occupying my brain, since I do have to call on them, usually one at a time, and have them speak up even when I’ve been working in a different genre.  They always come through for me and tell me what comes next on the page.  It’s a good thing I’ve been at this for a while.
 
How about you–do you have more than one character or type of story in your mind at a time?  If so, how do you handle them?

Linda O. Johnston
http://www.lindaojohnston.com/
http://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com/


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Missing a Meeting

April 6, 2013 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , ,

I unfortunately won’t be at the upcoming OCC meeting. It sounds wonderful, but I’ll have family in town. And family comes first! Especially since the visitors will include my little grandson, who’s ten months old. He, and my son and d-i-l, live in Chicago.

I saw them just over a week ago, too, on a Florida trip that I blogged about in my weekly Killer Hobbies blog. Great trip, one on which I’d intended to do a lot of writing. But despite the best of intentions, I spent more time with family than writing. Since then, I’ve pretty much caught up on what I’d hoped to accomplish, which makes me even happier that I did what felt best at the time.

Will I get much writing done next week? Maybe not. But I’ve fortunately met the most compelling of my deadlines, so I can afford to have fun and spend time with family.

So how about you–does family come first, or your writing, or your day job, or other obligations? Or are you able to juggle them all so nothing is ignored?

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SoCal RWA and OCC

March 6, 2013 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , ,

This weekend’s OCC meeting will be a prelude to the first SoCalRWA chapters’ joint conference, California Dreamin’!  As you probably know, it takes place on March 15-17 at the Doubletree Hotel in Santa Ana. 

I’ve belonged to two of the four participating RWA chapters forever–OCC, of course, and also the Los Angeles Romance Authors, LARA.  It should really be fun to get all four chapters together so their members can extol the individual virtues of each chapter while we all do what RWA does best: encourage romance writers to write! 

Unfortunately, because of some deadline issues, I may not be there for the entire conference, but I’ll attend as much as I can.  I’ll definitely be there on Sunday, at least.   That’s one good thing about a local conference.  There’s more flexibility in attendance.  And I’m really looking forward to whatever I’m able to participate in. 

In any event, if you’re going, I’m sure you’ll have lots of fun. 

Oh, and by the way, I’m also attending the RWA National Conference this year, too, in Atlanta.  Do you get the impression that I’m a conference lover?  Well, you’re right–and I’m not even mentioning (much) the mystery writers’ conferences I’m attending this year. 

How about you–do you enjoy attending conferences?
–Linda O. Johnston
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Our Next OCC Meeting

February 6, 2013 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , , , ,

Our February OCC meeting is next Saturday. I’m really looking forward to it–as usual. But my reasons are a little different from why I’m usually filled with anticipation.

First, there’ll be a drawing for me to provide a critique of someone’s first chapter. I always enjoy doing things like that–contributing a little bit, I hope, to encouraging someone to keep on writing.

And then there’s our program. Our all-day speaker is Patrick Brown, the Author Program Manager for Goodreads, and he will be talking about how to promote your wok on Goodreads. I need that! I’ve been a member of Goodreads for a while but haven’t adequately utilized it. I did give one book away on Goodreads once, and I receive emails on updates about people who’ve friended me on Goodreads, but I know that there are a lot of aspects of the site that I’ve never used, or have used incorrectly.

Yes, I’m one of those people who use social media, but only a few things like a page on Facebook–the “friend” kind, not the “like” kind. I blog a lot, weekly on Killer Hobbies and monthly here at A Slice of Orange. This month, I’m also starting to blog on the 18th of each month at Killer Characters–or at least my characters are. Plus, I’m currently doing a lot of guest blogs to help promote my two new releases. And I post now and then on a wonderful blog that’s run by some delightful and talented OCC members: Writers In The Storm.
But I don’t tweet, since I’m sure I’d spend too much time on Twitter. Goodreads, if I knew how to use it better, might be another good resource, though, so I’m really looking forward to learning more.

How about you? Do you participate in Goodreads? Will you be at this month’s meeting?

By the way, there won’t be a PAW meeting this month, and I usually look forward to them a lot, too. But there’s always March…

O? —
Linda O! Johnston
LindaOJohnston.com
OODLES OF POODLES, February 2013
Berkley Prime Crime
UNDERCOVER WOLF, February 2013
Harlequin Nocturne

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