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Upcoming Round Table Chapter Meeting

June 6, 2016 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston, Writing tagged as , ,
by Linda O. Johnston
Did you realize that today is 6/6/16?  That’s right–sixth day of the sixth month of twenty-sixteen.  Lots of sixes–which are hopefully good luck despite their possibly bad reputation when grouped in sets of three.  I like sixes anyway.  And in addition to my romances and other mysteries, I happen to write the Superstition Mysteries.
But, boy, this year is certainly going fast–nearly at the halfway point.
As I mentioned last month, I missed several OCC meetings early in the year.  I did attend the one in May–and now I’ll be there for the June one, too.  A bunch of published authors have been recruited to lead discussions at various tables at the afternoon meeting, and I’ll be at the one where we’ll talk about traditional publishers.
 
Yes, I’ve been at this a long time, and although I’ve done a bit of self-publishing, including republishing some of my earliest backlist as e-books, mostly those published by Dorchester, I still remain mostly traditionally published.
And enjoy it.
For my mysteries, I’ve written for Berkley Prime Crime and am now being published by a smaller publisher, Midnight Ink.  I’m fortunate, since both have worked out well for me.
For romances, I’ve had a long-standing relationship with Harlequin series romance.  In fact, my next published novel, due out in August this year, will be COVERT ALLIANCE, a Harlequin Romantic Suspense.
I guess I’m qualified to talk about traditional publishing!   And I hope those of you who come to the meeting will join me at my table, along with Tara Lain, so we can talk about the pros and cons of it.

See you there!
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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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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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The Plot Thickens by Linda O. Johnston

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

In my September blog, I asked people for ideas of what they would like me to address in my posts on A Slice of Orange. My apologies, but I didn’t use those ideas last month because I’d just attended the West Hollywood Book Fair and was jazzed about it, so that was what I talked about in my post.
But now, here’s a topic that one of the commenters mentioned in September: plotting. Holly wrote: “My biggest issue is keeping the plot/subplots simple and not too many. It is like ideas pop into my little head and I add them instead of filtering. How do you filter through them to keep the storyline flowing?”

That can be a problem, Holly. I’ve found it particularly affects me when I’m writing some of my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries. Kendra is my alter ego, and she keeps throwing ideas into my mind about what’s happening in her life while I’m writing about her.

What I generally do, though, is tell her that I need to stick to the synopsis I always create before I start writing one of her stories. I don’t do detailed outlines or scene lists any longer, but I have found that if I go off on a tangent that isn’t in my original synopsis I generally have to remove it.

That’s not to say you can’t save it for another book. I certainly do! That’s such a great thing about computers. I always keep lists of ideas in the same folders as the stories I’m working on. Then, when it’s time to plot the next story and create its synopsis, I generally can pick and choose from ideas I’ve already jotted down.

Of course, everyone writes differently. Not everyone can work with a synopsis or outline. There are a lot of seat-of-pantsers out there, too–and I’m sure it’s more difficult for them to ignore new ideas as they crop up.

Another caveat here. (Yes, I’m also a lawyer, so I use legalese at times!) Even if you are someone who writes a synopsis, outline or scene list first, if something comes to you that you haven’t already included and it’s a real doozy that you think readers will love, you don’t always have to save it for the next book. But think it through before you run with it. It may make what you’re doing a whole lot harder to finish–especially if it’s also interrupted by other ideas!

So–was this helpful? Any other things you’d like for me to address in the future?

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

Linda O. Johnston is the author of 16 romance novels and several novellas, including a Nocturne Bites that is also in a current print anthology AWAKENING THE BEAST, with more Nocturnes upcoming. She also writes the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime and is also working on the spin-off Pet Rescue series.

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Book Festivals

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

There’s nothing like a good book fair for fun!

On Sunday, I attended the West Hollywood Book Fair in–you guessed it!–West Hollywood, California. I was on a panel called Ghosts, Ghouls & Goblins: Exploring the Supernatural in Mystery Fiction. Several of us on the panel write both paranormal fiction and in other genres, so it was enjoyable to discuss our decisions about what paranormal elements to include, and which stories to include them in.

I also signed books at the Sisters in Crime/LA booth, and I helped to staff the Mystery Writers of America, Southern California Chapter, booth, to tell people what MWA is about. Yes, I belong to MWA and SinC as well as RWA. Each organization provides something different–and valuable.

At the times I wasn’t otherwise scheduled, I sat at the Arfriend booth with my Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Lexie and Mystie. Lexie stars in my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries–or at least her counterpart, also named Lexie, does. It’s a natural thing to take her along to promotional events where dogs are permitted. Mystie goes along for the ride whenever possible, and she steals the scene as she chases sunbeams, real or imaginary.

Arfriend, BTW, is a wonderful organization that acts as a resource guide for human and animal friends. Check out its website: http://www.arfriend.org

And, yes, I brought my own dog-sitter along for when I couldn’t pay complete attention to my pups. Fortunately, my husband Fred is a good sport and excellent pooch minder.

So… what book events have you attended lately? Which have impressed you most?

Linda O. Johnston

http://www.lindaojohnston.com/

http://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com/

Linda O. Johnston is the author of 16 romance novels and several novellas, including a Nocturne Bites that is also in a current print anthology AWAKENING THE BEAST, with more Nocturnes upcoming. She also writes the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime and will soon start working on the spin-off Pet Rescue series.

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