Like, who knew?

I had to cut my visit to RWA short and head home, which was OK, I guess. RWA conventions are wonderful and terrible. Wonderful because I see people I know and want to see (and some I don't, of course) that I would never see anywhere else. Terrible because I never feel adequate enough. There's always some other prize to win that everyone else seems to have--more talent, fame, money, smarts. Whatever.

Then tongiht I accidentally hit Treva Harte in look for the name in the blog rather than going to my blog. (I did say some people have more smarts, right?) And people mentioned ME. They had read me and reacted to what I wrote. That was really helpful right now. My self-esteem could use a little boost.

My Upcoming Books

Thanks, Kimberly, for suggesting that.

This week--while I'm away with limited Internet, of course--my novella Turns is due to come out. I hope you enjoy it. It's about a world famous athlete of the future who meets an errand runner who delivers pizza and surprises into his life. The idea is that every few weeks a few people can transform themselves into someone entirely different--but they need a partner to help them do so. Lucy, the errand runner, is convinced that she's met her partner when she meets the athlete, C.J. He's not quite as convinced, but he'd sure like to sleep with the errand runner. And then some other stuff happens. Check out www.Changelingpress.com

And sometime in the not too distant future, I will be releasing my sequel to Walk Away. This one is called Stay and it's about the were who got away in the last story--Lowell. Lowell finally meets his mate but he's a moody kind of guy and his romance isn't an easy one.

Romance in RL

I had lots of readers suggest that I talk about how to keep romance alive in marriage or my most romantic moment or generally romance in RL. MY Real Life! Huh.

The DH is sort of Mr. Anti-Romance. I don't mean he's not passionate or things like that. But the night he proposed we were at a party and went off by ourselves to look at the sun setting on a lake. No. He didn't propose. He took me home and then went out to do errands. Then, when I was asleep, he woke me up to pop the question. Yeah, yeah, whatever, honey, let me sleep.

Right now we're trying to work while the kids are home for the summer (and don't get me going on that because THAT is anti-romance as well.) So romantic moments are few and far between.

But, you know, I'm all right with understated romance. I like to feel sure things are real and not fantasy in my own life. So here's a romantic moment that might not seem like a lot to other folks. The DH usually scowls (he can brood really well) but when he sees me in a crowd, his face lights up. And I'll take that because it's real to me. I like real romance.

What I Miss/Love in My Life as a Writer

I'd love for you to talk about what you miss in life because you are a writer now, and what you love so in life now because you are a writer.

And ask readers to write about what they want in life yet, and how they will work for it
Cathie

This was another suggestion from a reader during a newsletter contest of mine. And yes, do check out the newsletter. I have a download of Turns riding on the next one.

But what do I miss...time. I probably never would have down time in my life because I juggle a lot of roles and people and responsibilities. Not writing might give me a little more time to just veg. I don't really do that. The brain may haze over from overwork, but it's not the same and really relaxing.

OTOH, what I've gotten is joy. My writing is still a source of joy for me. I had writer's block for twenty years and when I finally sat down to write again, it was like the best drug in the world. I was sooo buzzed! That was many years ago. Writing is a bit more of a chore than a drug nowadays, but it's a really, really good chore.

newsletter: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TrevaHarte

Newest Release for July

Pretty, huh? That's my Turns cover. As you can probably tell from the cover, it's going to be released at Changeling Press (www.changelingpress.com)

The publisher (who is actually a friend and CP, I swear) asked me what I was on when I wrote it. I thought of the idea on a plane to an RWA conference. That's my excuse. It's just your average futuristic shapeshifter where people are constantly shifting every month or so into some other mutant/human. And no one likes mutants, if they believe they exist at all.

It will be out late July. When I'm at another RWA conference and maybe will get yet another idea.

In Response to Last Month's Contest: Where Do The Ideas Come From?

I asked for ideas in my newsletter for my blog, which gets sadly neglected.

Here's the first one:

On your blog you can talk about where a writer's ideas come from and how you go about setting this on paper.Joy

Nora Roberts is famous for cringing when she gets that question. I can't cringe because no one ever asks me. I think they're afraid.

The answer is that I have no clue. I'm pretty sure that often they come from conversations I have with people that sort of merge together in my brain and come oozing up in some mutant form. Sometimes I get an idea from a scene in my head that springs up and won't go away. I love coming up with titles and trying to think of a story to go with them, but I always forget those stories...usually because I think of them while driving and they're long gone by the time I get to anywhere I can record them. My last stories started with me thinking about why the heck do people like werewolf and vamp stories? I wasn't too interested until I started to think about pack hierarchy with wolves. That interested me and I took off with it because if humans are willing to be dominated, there has to be a reason. Now if they're half-canine and half-human--that's a twist.