On the road again . . . again

After you have written 61 books (which I have, apparently) and you are embarking on the 62nd, you begin to think you've been this way before.

Maybe not quite this exact same way, but some of the memories evoked are the same even if the sights along the way are not.

When I was reading Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit last spring I wrote several blogs -- one of which is here -- about it which, having gone back and re-read them now, make me recognize the efforts. It isn't that I wasn't aware of them before, but I think it's the ritual I am more aware of now.

There is, of course, the box. Or the collage. Or the heap of papers, books and sundry junk piled in the corner that is my treasure trove for the book. Every book has one. Or at least it has something -- some collection that I go to in order to discover the flotsam and jetsam that I will need to create the novel.

Oddly, though, when I did the collage for Flynn and Sara, nothing in the book turned out like the collage -- well, except for O'Mally and Liam.

Flynn changed as the book went on. Sara did, too. So did the castle. And the setting? Well, it started out in New York and never went there at all in the finished book.

Much the same thing happened to Sebastian and Neely and their box. The box is wonderful -- very impressive. And nothing much remained of the things I put on the box, either. The story took on a life of its own.

It began with the box, yes. But then it took off from there.

So starting over with Christo and Natalie, I don't expect to end up with what I start out with, either.

Just as well. It shows the characters are growing, developing their own story, finding their own way to their happily ever after.

At least I hope that's where they're going. They haven't seen fit to tell me yet.

But I'm turning up every morning -- and so far it's working.

I Told Her So

Hi,

I'm Seb. Anne's been talking about me on this blog for months. Worrying. Fussing. Wringing her hands. Muttering about deadlines.

It's simple, I told her. Write the book.

She muttered. She dithered.

She knows better. You just put your mind to it and you do it, I told her. You've done it before.

Yes, but -- she said.

No buts. You just get it done. It's what I tell my sisters. And my brothers. And my stepmothers. I tell this to a lot of people. Sometimes they even listen.

You have to focus. Know what you want to do and take it one step at a time.

"Bird by bird," Anne mumbled.

Well, I don't know about that. I didn't say anything about birds, but if it works for her, yeah, all right.

The point is, you have to have goals before you can accomplish them. Get my book done by May 1st, I told her. Simple.

And do it right. Again, simple.

I'm an architect. If I don't do it right, the building falls down. So I do it right. You should, too, I told Anne.

She said it wasn't that simple.

It is.

She got it done by May 1st. She took off to see her granddaughter and told me if the editor wanted revisions I could wait til she got back.

I said there wouldn't be any revisions.

She just looked at me.

Is the building falling down? I asked her.

She looked at me some more. She can look pretty exasperated. She also sighed. She sighs pretty exasperatedly, too.

Like I don't know what I'm talking about.

I know. No revisions. That's what the ed said today.

I don't mean to sound smug and arrogant and all that rot, but . . . didn't I tell her so?

Hop, Hop, Hopping along

Well, you know frogs. They don't do rows.

But they're gone!

Wrangling Frogs

The ducks were easier.

But only because they're finished. It's while you're rounding them up that they seem so difficult. Now I sit back and think, "Ducks? Get 'em in a row? Easy. Piece of cake."

Frogs? Different story.

The chapter eight frog -- who took his own sweet time showing up -- was an absolute angel when he got here. It's chapter nine who is cutting up rough and making me nuts. So I've taken him to task and we've had a long chat.

I even brought in a frog counselor to discuss his errant ways with him. Now we've figured out his issues -- he has to learn to trust -- and I am hoping we can go on from here.

Actually I'm confident we can go on from here. I have my airline ticket to prove it. So excuse me while I go finish the book. I'll be back when I have.

In the meantime, think positive things about frogs on the march.

Not quite Missing-in-Action

He's here!

Chapter Eight has put in appearance and I know why he was gone. He's The Love Scene. And of course he was a little embarrassed to be doing his thing in public, as it were.

So he very circumspectly waiting until I, too, discovered what was going to happen in Chapter Eight -- and then he deigned to show up.

Today we've been finishing up Chapter Eight and both the frog and Seb and Neely are pleased. Little do they know that Chapter Nine will send everything sliding right downhill again. As it does, of course, when the Black Moment arrives.

Chapter Nine, eager to be of help, turned up early to prove to me that all was not well that seemed well (provided S&N actually got that far). And justified, he's now gone out to lunch while Eight and I get things sorted and polished up. Ten, of course, is rubbing his flippers together and saying, "All's well that end's well," and other such platitudes.

Except I'm inclined to agree. Not only that, but it looks like they'll be packing their bags and heading off to Richmond right on time. Bless their amphibious little hearts.

I'm packing my bags, too. Though I must say that I was a bit annoyed today when the airline sent me an email telling me that if I wanted to take a second bag it was going to cost me $25 extra dollars.

What's up with that? First they take away food. And now they charge us more for luggage? Not that I was planning on taking two bags anyway -- I'm only going for four days -- but it's the principle of the thing.

These are the same people who, when we were coming home from our son's wedding, couldn't see fit to send a second crew to our departure airport when they knew the first crew who'd arrived the night before were required to have eight hours off before they could fly again and that all of us would miss our connections.

Remind me again why I'm flying with them? Oh, yeah. Cheap airfares. Well, not so cheap apparently.

Or maybe I'm just testy because of my almost but not quite finished book which is in the throes of The Love Scene (and while Chapter Eight did his bit by showing up, now I have to do my bit and write the blinkin' thing). Ah, but there is the granddaughter at the end of it.

Definitely at that point all will be well.

# # # #

If you haven't already been to The Pink Heart blog for Temptation Tuesday, stop by. I'm blogging there (it's already up because it's Tuesday in half the world already). Post a comment (you guys know how to do that). Win a copy of Spence and Sadie's book.

Or just say hi and tell me where you'd go to "get away from it all."

You all know where I'm going!

GBGA -- This Week's Winner

This week's winner of the Great Book Give-Away is Lidia!

Congratulations, Lidia! And thanks to all the rest of you who commented this week!

Lidia gets the five books promised, but if Dina, Ellen, KimW, Mads, Mags, and Christa will also go to my website, hit the "contact Anne" tab and send me a mailing address, I'll send along a book for each of you as well. Some of you have won earlier, but all of you have been faithful in the extreme. Thank you for that.

So, send me your address and I'll send you a book from the GBGA bag.

Today I went to my genealogical conference which was excellent. Colleen Fitzpatrick spoke on "forensic genealogy." It's fascinating and she has a really interesting website if you're interesting in taking investigative skills and such to the genealogical and local history front.

I'm blown away by some of the information she can get out of a photograph or a database.

In life on the writing front, tomorrow the MIA Chapter Eight frog will be making his appearance at last.

I know now why he's been missing so long. I don't want to spook him, though, so I'm not commenting until he's here and things are under control.

Gunnar says thanks for the treats to everyone who entered. He hopes we'll do it again -- soon.

And I hope you'll keep coming back and commenting anyway because it's not as much fun talking to myself.

They're predicting a 50% chance of snow tonight. Good grief!

Brick Walls and Mazes

No, I'm not talking about writing novels, though I could be.

There are times when writing Sebastian and Neely's story has felt like I've been wandering around in a maze, and that the only way out is to scale over a brick wall, but someone keeps moving it!

Fortunately it wasn't like that today. Today Seb and Neely and I had a very good day, and I've left them happily liplocked for the moment while I come over here to announce that today's book is a hardcover copy of Charming Grace by the talented amazing Deborah Smith.

If you have read Deborah's books, you already know how great she is and you need no introduction. If you haven't, you should. And Gunnar will try to see that you win this week because Deborah is an amazing writer. Charming Grace is an amazing book.

Grace is dealing with enough pain in her life for any ten women -- most of it suffered when her dearly beloved husband Harp was killed in the line of duty as a member of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation while protecting a hospital's patients from a killer. Harp is a hero -- and someone wants to make a movie of his life.

Grace is not thrilled. And she's even less thrilled when she comes face to face with the man making the film and his bodyguard/sidekick/enforcer ex-con buddy, Boone. Grace has issues. Boone has issues.

And Deborah Smith does inter-personal "issues" better than anyone. She never skims the surface of her characters. They are real and flesh and blood, and if you look closely you can see them bleed on the page.

I love her books because she doesn't shy away from tough stuff. Smith's characters never get to take the easy way out. You will laugh with them, cry with them, and cheer for them to find their happy ending. And chances are it won't be exactly the ending you expect.

Great book. Comment this week and get in the drawing.

I spent the day when I wasn't with Seb and Neely preparing and then giving a talk on Brick Wall Ancestors and various ways to trick them into telling you what you need to know about them. It's surprisingly like writing, really. You have to sneak up on them, come at them from where they least expect it. And never give up.

It works lots of the time -- for both genealogy and writing books.

And thanks to all who asked, the frogs are mustering. Making great efforts to get themselves properly aligned before send-off. Of course frog # 8 is still MIA, but I have hopes he'll turn up shortly.

Gunnar's Pick!

Gunnar and The Prof have come up with another winner.

Of course you're all winners in my book, but this week's winner of the five book give-away is Patricia!

Congratulations, Patricia. Now you'll have more multi-tasking to do while you read all the books as well as do all the other stuff you have in your life!

Go to my website and hit the Contact Anne tab to send me your snail mail address and I'll post your books as soon as I can. Hope you enjoy them!

Gunnar says he wants to pick more winners because having to wait for Saturdays for his treats is getting old. But I like going to the post office once a week, so we shall see who persuades whom.

Anyway, starting on Monday there will be a new set of books for this week (while Gunnar and I negotiate)

In the meantime I'm trying to get Seb and Neely out of the gate. They have less than two weeks to get all their frogs in a row (we've gone off ducks this year. It's the year of the frog hereabouts -- which is appropriate seeing as how the back yard has been a swamp since the snow cleared off). So wish them luck. The frogs are hopping every which way at the moment.

GBGA -- end of week III

I feel like I'm writing sequels here with these acronymns and roman numerals. But that's shorthand for Great Book Give-Away and, obviously, the last of week three.

As I had trouble getting to my books this week I've been slacking and haven't given you daily updates. Sorry. Next week more of the furniture will be back in the bedroom and out of my office, presumably allowing me to actually get at the books.

In the meantime, the last two books for this week's give-away are Scandal's Daughter, the terrific first novel by yet another fabulous Australian writer, Christine Wells, and the inimitable Stephanie Bond's mystery/comedy/romance/whatever, I Think I Love You.

In Scandal's Daughter, Sebastian Laidley, is your rather typical regency rake, but he's no stereotype. He's complex and layered and in a quandary when he discovers that the girl he's known forever has somehow grown into a very appealing woman -- and her dying grandfather who is his godfather, expects him to find her a husband.

This is not as easy as it might be since Gemma is the daughter of a scandalous woman -- and since Sebastian discovers, to his consternation, that no potential husband measures up and he would prefer to have her to himself.

The relationship between Sebastian and Gemma is great fun. Christine's dialogue is witty and her characters' dilemmas worth reading about. I loved this book and am waiting with bated breath for Christine's next title.

What can I say about Stephanie Bond? She is a writer of so many voices and so much talent. And I never quite know what to expect from her books, so opening on is always a bit like getting a present from a favorite aunt on Christmas morning. I never know what it's going to be, but I'm always pleased.
I Think I Love You is the story of three sisters, Justine, Regina and Mica -- and the chaos that is their life -- or lives. Or something. Add in a local bad boy, a pair of squabbling parents, a lifetime of sisterly battles and resentments, an unsolved murder and you have a story with more twists and turns than a bowl of rotini.

So that's the week's books:

• Odd Mom Out by Jane Porter
• Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts
• Untouched by Anna Campbell
• Scandal's Daughter by Christine Wells
• I Think I Love You by Stephanie Bond

And a pretty appealing bunch of books they are, if I do say so myself.

If you've commented in the last three weeks, you're in the drawing -- not that I wouldn't like to hear from you again and often -- but once you're in the drawing, you're in the drawing.

Gunnar will choose on Saturday morning (he's sending me out for more treats this afternoon). And I'll post the winner as soon as he and The Prof have done the ritual and Gunnar has made his choice. (postscript to Byron: he has not yet seen any bribes . . .er, treats from across the pond).

If you win, please let me hear from you by Tuesday or Gunnar will have to go through the whole terrible ritual again (unless he picks a backup, which he probably won't because, um, well, there will be treats involved, won't there?).

# # # #

Seb and Neely are getting down to business, I'm happy to report. They seem to have been inspired by my jaunt off to see Miss Pettigrew. Neely has been muttering things about "living for a day" too. I wonder if they saw it, too.

Books and Miss Pettigrew

I said on Tuesday that I couldn't get to my bag of books to give you titles for the give-away. Well, I still can't, so I'm going to have to just tell you what the top two books in the bag are, and they can be the next two books, though I can't give you much of a rundown on them because it's been a while since I've read either one of them.

Suffice to say, they're good books or I wouldn't have bothered to hang onto them.

First, Nora Roberts's Midnight Bayou which I've had for a long time, but I'm weeding out hardcovers and it's a hardcover. It's set in New Orleans. There's some spooky stuff going on, I do remember that much. And it's one of those Nora books that I often went back and dipped in when I was wanting a little deep south atmosphere without having to get on a plane and go there.

The other I do that with is Tami Hoag's Lucky's Lady, but I can't give you that because I've lent it to someone. Maybe later.

And the second give-away today is one of two Anna Campbell's RITA finalist books, Untouched. It's the story of Grace Paget, who is kidnapped and taken to a remote country manor surrounded by a high unscalable wall, and told she must give herself to a madman -- satisfy his every desire -- or lose her life.

Talk about high stakes. The story of Grace and her 'madman' is intense indeed. Read it and you'll see why Australian Anna Campbell has taken the world of historical romance by storm.

# # # #

Seb and Neely and I have been having long days and nights and I'm happy to report that we're getting somewhere. Can't exactly tell you where without giving away the book, but rest assured it's moving. And keep your fingers crossed that we don't hit any doldrums between now and the end of the month.

# # # #

I went to a movie today -- because Seb and Neely had cooperated so well I thought I'd do them a favor and leave them to their own devices for a while (no, it's not that time of the book yet, but they had a good time anyway).

So I went to see Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day -- and loved it. I went because of Lee Pace, who I first discovered in Wonderfalls and have now seen in a lot of stuff. And I make it a point to watch what he does because he makes interesting choices in the roles he picks, and he's grown up to be quite a hunk. And even if he is a month or so younger than my youngest son (argh!), he's very appealing!

And then I discovered Ciaran Hinds was in it, too. And if I've got to get old, the fact that Ciaran Hinds is around for 'older women' certainly takes the sting out of it!

Not only that, there were Frances McDormand and Amy Adams and Shirley Henderson to delight in, and a wonderful late 1930s period piece that was beautifully shot and brought to life.

It was a pure delight all the way around. Couldn't have found a better way to spend the afternoon. Thank you to everyone involved in Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day. It would be worth paying evening prices for. And I don't say that often.

Great Book Give-Away III

One side of Jane Porter writes great intense, emotional rollercoastery books for Harlequin Presents.

Another side of Jane writes quirky lively chick lit/mom lit books like Odd Mom Out, which is this week's number one give-away book.

I love Jane's quirky single title books. I love her characters, like Marta, who is so not what her conformist daughter Eva wants her mother to be, and Eva, who is so not what Marta expected in a daughter.

This is a wonderful book about expectations -- about our own and the ones that others have for us. It's all about discovering who you really are -- and that whoever you are, it's okay. Jane does a brilliant job with vulnerable people trying to be tough enough to survive. She knows them inside and out.

I loved the book. And apparently the preliminary RITA judges did, too, because Odd Mom Out is a RITA finalist this year. I'm crossing my fingers for it.

Drop by and comment and you could be the lucky winner of Jane's Odd Mom Out and four more terrific books this week.

* * * *

All the grandsons were here for the basketball tournament. That was fun. I even got some pictures. Now I won't have to scrabble around at the last minute for photos for the Christmas letter come December!

How nice to get something done ahead of a deadline for once.

* * * *

Seb is discussing life with a bloodhound and a litter of kittens. Neely has stood him up. Oh, dear.
What is it about middles that reminds me of knitting? Badly.

Smile!

Over on Tote Bags 'n' Blogs yesterday I had a post about sitting down and getting things done, not just thinking about it.

In the blog I quoted a couple of bits of great advice: If you build it, they will come, from the movie, Field of Dreams (which I was actually IN) and "Just take it bird by bird, buddy," from Anne LaMott's terrific book Bird By Bird.

And then I asked for other bits of great advice -- and I certainly got some. It's a set of comments well worth printing out. In fact that's exactly what I'm going to do.

I said I would choose a winner from among the commenters, and she would get a copy of Flynn's book.

It was difficult to choose -- and I couldn't leave it up to Gunnar because he's working on tomorrow's winner here of the great pile of give-away books, and I didn't want to overload him with treats. Plus, I really wanted to choose the best.

Well, you can't really choose "the best," can you, from so many bits of good advice? So I had to choose the one that I though spoke the most to me. And that was from Dina, who said she was always reminded to "smile at least once a day."

Well, yes.

And as one who sometimes looks less than thrilled even when I'm feeling perfectly happy, I find that Dina's advice resonates with me not because I do it, but because I NEED to do it.

So, thank you, Dina, for the reminder!

Go to my website and click on the "contact Anne" link on the left hand sidebar. There you can send me an email giving me your address and I'll post a copy of One-Night Love Child to you on Monday.

Many thanks to everyone who entered their best bits of advice. I loved reading it. You are all winners in my book.

If you want another chance to win One-Night Love Child (is anyone going to have to buy this book?), go to Kate Walker's Launch Party and make a comment there.

Mitch and Micah are going to pick the winner from that bunch on Sunday.

Tomorrow Gunnar is picking the winner of the 2nd week's Great Book Give-Away. The last book in this week's give-away is by no means least. It's a spectacular historical romance by Julia Ross called Clandestine.

Guy Devoran is Sarah Calloway's only hope for finding her missing cousin. So she goes after him, becomes a part of his life and, heaven help him, he falls in love with her.

The last person Guy wants to fall in love with is Sarah. There are things in his past he's not proud of. One thing in particular, he is sure, will destroy Sarah's love for him if she ever finds out.

But not telling her is as bad as telling her, for if he doesn't, she will never understand why they cannot be together.

The moral dilemmas in Clandestine abound. It's a book of secrets and passion and, above all, it's a book about honor. I loved it. I hope the lucky winner will, too.

So there you have it. This week's give away books are:

• A Wife On Paper by Liz Fielding
• Beau Crusoe by Carla Kelly
• Miranda's Big Mistake by Jill Mansell
• Hot by Julia Harper
• Clandestine by Julia Ross

and last week's Tempting by Susan Mallery because last week's winner had already read it.

Six super books. And tomorrow morning Gunnar is picking a winner from the blog commenters, so check back to see if you've won!

By the way, Neely's favorite advice from the Tote Bags blog was "Look for the silver linings."

As she is presently painting the houseboat a lovely soft gray called "Silver Linings" she totally agrees with that sentiment. It is the core of her character. Thanks to Michelle Douglas for reminding me of that!

Miranda's Big Mistake

Here's another book I wouldn't be parting with if I didn't have another one on my shelves.

A friend visiting London brought it back to me, without realizing I'd already ordered my own from an online bookseller the instant it came out.

Miranda's Big Mistake by the wonderful witty Jill Mansell is a BIG book. 506 pages of delight in which to wallow as you watch kind-hearted, mistake-prone hairdresser Miranda make a mess of her life.

There are, as there always is in every Jill Mansell book -- great characters, joy, humor, pain, wisdom and, of course, a satisfying ending when Miranda, bless her heart, finally gets it right.

When I was writing The Great Montana Cowboy Auction, I read a lot of Jill's books because they're fun and humorous and because she handles legions of characters and more plot twists than I could write in 50 books with great aplomb.

I did my best to figure out how she did it.

I don't do it nearly as well, but I learned a lot. But even if I weren't reading it to learn, I'd read any Jill Mansell book that came my way.

In fact, I have them all on standing order so that I get them almost before they even hit the shelves.

Leave a comment if you haven't already and you could be the one who gets Miranda as well as Carla Kelly's book, Liz Fielding's book and Tempting by Susan Mallery.

Gunnar says that he is susceptible to bribes, too, but I probably shouldn't be telling you that!

As for me, I wish Jill would write a book about an architect with a leaky houseboat. Seb and I could use some advice.

Great Books Give-Away II -- Liz Fielding

I hate giving this book away.

I loved it. But I want someone else to love it, too.

It's A Wife On Paper by the incomparable, stupendous, absolutely spectacular (can you tell I like her books?) Liz Fielding.

Liz writes terrific books. She's done 50 of them. And this is, in my estimation, one of the best.

Certainly it's one of my favorites.

What I like best about it is all the repressed emotion. Guy Dymoke has had feelings for Francesca for a long, long time. But she belonged to his brother. And Guy -- being a hero you understand -- wasn't the sort of man who poached. He bottled everything up, buttoned it down, got on with life, and survived without her.

But he didn't forget her.

And when Francesca is widowed and circumstances throw them together again, well, you can guess what happens. But it's best to let Liz tell you.
A Wife On Paper is the first of this week's give-away books. But the pile already has a head-start because Tempting by Susan Mallery (from last week) is still here as Chris, who won it, has read it already and said she would leave it for someone else to enjoy.

She's getting my own In McGillivray's Bed instead. Thanks for asking for Hugh and Sydney's story, Chris. I hope you enjoy it.

* * * *

Seb's past the halfway point. It's all downhill from here, I told him. He thinks I need to make sure I know what I'm doing so we don't back slide. He might be right. But I'm not telling him so.

After all, who's the author here?

Gunnar's Choice

I sent Gunnar off with The Prof and a jar full of treats and little slips of paper with names on of everyone who commented this past week.

It was their job to decide on a winner. I gather that they went through some complicated ritual that allowed Gunnar as many treats as possible while still remaining upright. And they returned with a winner of this past week's five books.

So . . .

Chris, if you are out there -- you are the winner!

Congratulations! Gunnar seems to think you're the perfect choice. (It's possible he had to eat through all the treats to get to your name. I don't know the means they used to make the decision.)

I realize from reading your comment that you have already read Tempting, so if you would rather have another book from my bag, I'll substitute another one for that and hope you haven't read it. If you do want a substitute, I'll include Tempting with next week's books.

Please go to my webpage and click on the contact link and send me your mailing address and I will send the books out to you on Monday.

Thanks to everyone who commented this week. I'll be putting up more books in the week to come and Gunnar will pick a new winner next weekend. So keep on commenting!

* * * *

Seb says to tell you that he's cooperating and that we're getting the details and he had no idea 'scratching' could be so interesting.

I'm not precisely sure what he's referring to.

As he's being particularly close-mouthed at the moment, I wonder what he knows that I don't know -- yet.

I wish he'd get his nose out of the newspaper and hurry up and tell me.

10,000 Words Down . . . A book to go

I realized this morning that I have a month to finish Seb and Neely.

Last week that sounded like plenty of time. But last night I threw out the better part of a chapter. And so I'm in the hole.

I've also got other commitments this month. Seb and Neely and I, sadly, do not live an in vacuum. We have taxes, we have articles, we have wallpaper to scrap off (remember the wallpaper?). We have paint to choose and walls to scrub, and we have blogs -- like this one -- to write.

So this morning at 6 a.m. I got up and set to work.

I wrote three articles today. I wrote four blogs. I sorted and added all the expenses columns for my quarterly taxes. I'm too fuzzy minded to add them tonight (I do know my limits). But I still managed to sort them.

I figure that today I have written -- conservatively -- 10,000 words. If I could write a book at that rate of speed I'd have it done by Friday.

Hahahahahahahahaha.

What is it about non-fiction that is so darn easy to write? I guess it's that you've got facts, building blocks, as it were. And while you have to make it make sense and sound like someone over the age of four wrote it, you aren't obliged to make up the motivations of everyone you're writing about.

I can't tell you how restful it to write 10,000 words none of which has anything to do with motivation -- at least not any motivation that I'm responsible for. It's positively liberating. I love it. I know if I did it every day, I wouldn't love it at all. I'd feel worn down by it.

But right now, I'm feeling really accomplished. As if I've scaled a foothill and dumped half a dozen rocks out of my rucksack on the way up. It's pretty much me and Seb and Neely now for the rest of the month (once I add my columns of figures).

Wish us luck!

If you write, do you multi-task? I mean, of course, most of us do to some extent, but do you like to multi-task? Or do you like to focus singlemindedly on the story at hand? I'm usually a multi-tasker. But there is such a thing as being toooooo fractured. That was going to be me if I didn't have a day like I did today.

Whew.

Prowling the bookshelves

Or, dusting, part II . . .

One of the books I dusted the other day was Donald M Murray's Shoptalk: Learning to Write with Writers.

A Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and writing teacher, Murray died in late 2006. But his books live on and continue his mission to teach.

Shoptalk is a book I've had for probably ten years. And it isn't one that I have listed in my top four or five that I turn to again and again, but it probably should be as it's a collection of significant writerly wisdom. It's definitely a book to keep.

If you're unacquainted with Shoptalk, it's sort of a commonplace book for writers. In it Donald Murray has gathered quotes from many writers -- novelists, poets, non-fiction authors, pretty much a Who's Who of those who make their vocation working with the written word. He introduces each chapter with thoughts of his own on the topic, then he lets the authors speak for themselves.

It's not a book you read from cover to cover. It may not even be a book in which you read an entire chapter.

It's a book to dip into, to read here and there, to listen to soundbytes of wisdom,
and find one that speaks to you right where you are.

It's sort of an I Ching of writing aphorisms.

You can take your current problem -- a scene, a character, an inability to sit down at the computer (or anywhere else) and actually write -- and find someone else whose words resonate with your dilemma. It gives you a different perspective from which to study it, someone else's view to filter it through.

It's a comfort -- and it's a challenge. And I'm glad I plucked Shoptalk off the shelf to dust -- and re-read bits and pieces of.

The quote that resonates with me at the moment is in the chapter called "Planning for the surprise."

It's about that curious dichotomy that exists between planning a story and being surprised by it as you go along. While certainly some of us are more plotters and some are more pantsers (those who fly by the seat of theirs), each book, I think, has an element of both.

I'd be hard pressed to imagine a book plotted so tightly that the author was never surprised by anything the characters did or said. And equally, I would find it hard to imagine a book coming to a satisfactory conclusion if the author had absolutely no idea at all where it was going or whether he or she was writing horror or romance or a western.

So . . .

as I am in the "oh-gosh-there-is-a-Saturday-in-Seb's-week" and something has to happen then (surprise!), and I have lots of plans for Sunday, should we ever be lucky enough to get there in the book (debatable at this point), I particularly appreciate William Maxwell's comment.

He wrote: "Undoubtedly if I knew exactly what I was doing, things would go faster, but if I saw the whole unwritten novel stretching out before me, chapter by chapter, like a landscape, I know I would put it aside in favor of something more uncertain -- material that had a natural form that it was up to me to discover."

Ah, yes. I, too, am a fan of the surprise. And I don't think I would like everything plotted and sorted and neatly boxed.

So I'm out here in Saturday of Seb's week and looking for the surprise. It's not exactly comfortable, but it's challenging.

I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be.

Spring Cleaning

I'm not a big fan of spring cleaning.

Truth be told, I'm not a big fan of cleaning (the act of) in general.

I acknowledge that it's necessary and it makes life more livable. But I don't go around looking for things to clean, dust, sort, straighten and otherwise meddle with. I'm a live and let live sort of person when it comes to, um, clutter.

Which is not to say I don't vacuum and dust and deal with it as it comes along.

However . . .

There comes a time, say, every twenty years or so, when it's time to paint a bedroom.

And if we're going to paint, we probably ought to put down new carpet. And if we're going to go to all that trouble, the mattress on the bed is pretty awful and isn't that a spring jabbing me in the back every night?

And, well, one thing leads to another (though I've tried telling Seb that to get him through this chapter and he just shrugs and goes back to his CAD program as if to say, That's your problem, not mine).

So I've left him to his CAD program and I'm stripping wallpaper.

Did I mention the wallpaper issue? Probably not. The wallpaper is, thankfully, only on one wall. It will be gone by noon tomorrow. I guarantee it. Then I can get the paint and call George my friendly retired school teacher painter person and say, The room is almost ready.

And that, of course, will galvanize me to get the rest of the stuff cleaned out, boxed up or thrown away. You'd be amazed at the books I've discovered that slipped off the cedar chest and are lurking behind it. Well, maybe you wouldn't be -- but I am.

And while I'm doing my painting, Seb will be doing his. Always nice to have art imitating life as well as the other way round. I started feeling a bit smug when I wrote that. And then I turned back to the chapter and discovered he's just showed up with a violin that belonged to his grandfather.

Where did that come from?

It seems to be staying. So I'm going to have to think about that. It will give me something to do while I clean.

Does cleaning inspire you with creative thoughts? Are you a Natural-Born Neat Person? If so, I'm really impressed.

What do you do to get creative juices flowing?

Cleaning the oven seems like overkill somehow. But what do I know? I so rarely try it!

Alpha heroes

There's a lot of talk about alpha heroes in romance novels.

They are often accused of being cruel, arrogant, haughty, and downright nasty -- until, of course, they understand how wrong they were about the heroine and then have a metanoia sort of conversion somewhere around page 186.

Far be it from me to deny they can exist. Though I wouldn't necessarily call all the men who behave like that "heroes."

But I suppose really, it depends on what your fantasy is. If you like those guys described above, that's what works for you.

It doesn't work for me.

My alpha hero doesn't do 'cruel.' And he doesn't do 'mean' or even 'downright nasty.' Arrogant, yes. Haughty, sometimes. Silently judgmental? He can.

Oh, yes, he can. (Ask Seb). He can even be judgmental out loud.

He can also be wrong. (No surprise there).

But when he is, he has to be honorably wrong.

If he's going to make judgments, he's got to have a believable reason for it. He's got to have a backstory that predisposes him toward such a belief. He's got to think he has evidence for it. And he's got to be believing it in service to a higher good.

He doesn't jump to conclusions just because he's the hero -- especially wrong ones -- just so he can repent in the end.

And if he's a McAllister hero, even if he believes the worst, he doesn't do anything that would make the heroine rightfully hate him. If he did that would simply prove he has no right to be her hero.

I'm spending a lot of time thinking about this because I am dealing with that issue in Seb's book.

I'm also thinking about it because I just re-read Jane Donnelly's story The Man Outside. Last Thursday on the Pink Heart Society blog, I wrote about Jane's books and, especially, her heroes.

To do so, I got a stack of JD's keepers off my shelf and began to re-read them. Several of them have heroes who believe the worst of the heroine. Not always -- not in my favorite, Behind a Closed Door, in which the heroine believes the worst of the hero.

But in The Man Outside, Piers Hargreaves gradually opens up to Polly's interest and then learns the truth -- but not the whole truth -- that she was dared to try to reach him. The implication is that her interest is a sham, that she is manipulative and doesn't care for him at all.

He could react cruelly. He could do his best to destroy her because he does have all the power and influence an alpha hero should have.

But he also has the honor that allows him to absorb the pain, and the intelligence to look for the root cause of it (that would be the jealous other man who has told him this 'truth'), and to recognize who is really telling the truth.

He doesn't displace his anger. He does something constructive with it -- because that's the kind of man he is. And over the course of the story he has learned from Polly how to reach out to other people, how to risk his emotions, and ultimately how to demonstrate his love.

So when circumstances might allow him to be cruel, he is anything but. He is remote, he is standoffish, he is quiet and self-contained. But he is honorable. And because he loves Polly, he has a long range plan that will turn the tide his way.

As the end approaches and Polly fears all is lost, we readers trust that it's not.

We know that she has loved him well, that she has seen the man inside Piers Hargreaves -- and that her love has helped him find the means of expressing who he really is.

He is strong and steadfast, intelligent and powerful, relentless and singleminded in his pursuit of her. But he will do it in a way that proves to Polly he's every bit the man she believed he was -- an honorable man, a determined man, a commanding man with an inner core of gentleness that will never allow him to hurt the woman he loves.

For me that's a real alpha hero. It's the man I want to find inside Sebastian.

If you haven't read Jane Donnelly, seek her out. Discover that the alpha hero often gets a bad rap. He isn't at all what his detractors make him out to be.

The Big Thaw

This has been a long hard winter. The snow has been up to our eyeballs, literally, for months.

But this past three or four days we have seen temps above freezing -- and this means we have been outside chipping away at the alps of ice that have been accumulating in front of our house. We have, in fact, been chipping for most of the winter. But we haven't had much success until this week.

I am considering my success on the ice front to make up for the fact that Sebastian has been lying on his back thinking of a thousand sundry things, none of them conducive to getting me past where I've been for way too long.

Tomorrow, I told him, you move. You roll over. You do something! Anything! You've just got to get out of bed. It's not as if Neely is even anywhere in the vicinity. She's out sailing with Max.

Who's Max? you ask.

Well, Seb knows exactly who Max is -- and he's not happy about it.

That's one of the things that's keeping him awake. But ten days of indecision while he -- and I -- decide where to start this scene when we know exactly what it has to contain -- is tooooooo much.

So, tomorrow, Seb -- up and at 'em. If not, I'll be back with the ice shovel and shift you.

As for Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle -- it's everything I imagined it would be. Gross, funny, very much the sort of film that my teenage sons adored. It's deja vu all over again! I wonder if any of them have seen it. I'll have have to ask.

We didn't manage to see it all because the film was defective and scratched and so it's going back to be replaced by another one. Sigh. You'd think we would have seen enough of it to just call it quits. But when you're engrossed (and I use the term advisedly) in young men's angst, you have to see it through to the end. Leaving them where they were when they irrevocably locked up is, um, disconcerting . . .

Holding out for a hero

I wrote about researching heroes on my guest blog at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs today. Naturally I flashed a pic of Hugh-in-a-towel. There would have been screams (notably from Kate) if I hadn't.

And I also put up a pic of the man who is becoming Sebastian. Or who Sebastian is becoming.

As I said there, he's no longer the guy I thought he was. He's more buttoned-down, more serious, more intense. He's one of those guys who thinks he has all the answers. More this guy.

Ooops.

Well anyway, I needed a pic that expressed the harder-edged, buttoned-down-ness of him, the unsmiling intensity of him. And because Kate was wrestling with Santos (not a bad pastime if you ask me) I said, "Who is he? Let me see him."

So she showed me a pic.

Not this pic, mind you -- but this man. And we decided he needed further research. And the more research I did, the more I found pix of a man who was everything that my Sebastian was becoming -- Intense. Unsmiling. Hard-edged.

A real Presents hero? Good grief. My editor might die of the shock.

I said, "I think I need him."

So Kate, dear friend that she is, is sharing.

Her Santos has his own incarnation in this guy. He will be no more like my Seb than any of our other heroes are alike. We just found visual inspiration in the same place -- and she was nice enough to share.

This means of course that I will have Mr Smiling Shaggy Hair standing on my doorstep looking for his own book now. But that's not precisely a hardship. We'll see what we can find for him.

And speaking of heroes -- here's one of my very favorites (Favourites? he would say. And then he would say, Favourite, dear lady. Singular.) Well, he would. He's that sort of cat. He has a starring role (by his definition) in One-Night Love Child.

He hopes you'll read it and send him fan mail. You will, won't you?

Oh, and happy St Piran's Day to all my fellow Cornish all over the world.

Flynn's Out!

Well, Sara is, too, of course. But you know what I mean.

I was at the drug store/post office this morning -- sending off some homemade Grasmere gingerbread to a friend who loves it and, incidentally, buying a gallon of milk before The Big Snow hit this afternoon -- and there on the shelves sat Flynn and Sara, otherwise known as One-Night Love Child.

Right there at eye level. They looked lovely. Very appealing.

I'm sure all the other books did, too, but to tell the truth, I didn't notice much. I will next time I go. I promise.

But I straightened their stack and then I decided to buy a copy to give to my mother. It isn't that I don't have author copies, but I thought Flynn and Sara would enjoy being purchased. And my mother will enjoy having it -- even if her eyes are not the best anymore.

I think of it as priming the pump -- purchasing the book -- now maybe other people will, too (she said hopefully). If you want to try before you buy, remember you can check out an excerpt here.

Now I must go shovel off some snow. We're up to our eyebrows in the stuff and there's more coming down!

Seb says hi. He's whistling at the moment. He's about to get the shock of his life, though. Poor Seb.

The Repressed Hero

We were talking about heroes last week and the week before, and I don't think we've said all there is to say.

In fact I know we haven't.

And while I was trying to articulate the problem my current hero, Sebastian, is having with the woman who is turning his world upside down, I discovered that Pam Rosenthal had done it for me.

A Rita Finalist this year for her long historical, The Slightest Provocation, the talented and insightful Pam wrote a wonderful blog piece about Jane Austen, Mr Darcy, Colin Firth and repression (which I am not going to link to here because it's on an over-18 blog and this will doubtless be the day my teenage grandson decides to visit granny's blog!).

In it she quotes Colin Firth who, as we all recall, created a Darcy for the ages in the 1990s BBC version of Pride and Prejudice.

When asked how he got into the character, Firth said, "I thought to myself: 'This is where he wants to go across the room and punch someone. This is where he wants to kiss her. This is where he wants sex with her right now.' I'd imagine a man doing it all, and then not doing any of it. That's all I did."

He repressed it.

And with that, I knew that Pam -- and Colin -- had nailed Sebastian's dilemma.

Like Mr Darcy who didn't want to fall in love with Elizabeth Bennet, Sebastian doesn't want to fall in love with Neely. Fall in love? He doesn't want to be anywhere in the same universe. She is everything he distrusts in a woman. And he's sure she's about to destroy the life of the man who has been his mentor for years.

And yet, even as he is convinced that she was the last woman on earth he would ever want anything to do with, he finds her getting under his skin.

He can't stop looking at her. He is always aware of her. If she's in the room, he knows exactly where.

He wants her. Wants to touch her. To kiss her. To go to bed with her.

And at the same time, damn it, he doesn't want to want any of it!

Like Mr Darcy, Seb is mortified by his attraction to this wholly unsuitable woman. And at the same time, he can't quite stay away.

Well, the fact that they're sharing digs makes it difficult anyway, but he can't get away from her at work either and that makes his life even more difficult.

Then there's the inkling that perhaps she isn't exactly what he thought . . .

Perhaps there's more to her than that. Or perhaps he's misjudged. But how was he to know? And now that he thinks he does know . . .

Well, life will get more complicated before it gets less. Poor Seb.

Poor Mr Darcy.

But we, as readers, Pam points out, love the repressed hero, the mortified hero.

"And we especially love it," she says, "when the author has first introduced him in all his smug, hunky, thoughtless toughness and now shows his inner writhings and torments."

Indeed we do.

And we want to be there to witness him stick his foot in his mouth, then have to extricate it, regroup, rethink, and know, all the while, that he deserves the very torment he is experiencing because he once spurned the woman he has come to love. We want to see him grow, change, and learn to value her as she deserves to be valued.

I just hope Seb is hero enough to do it.

Thanks, Pam, for giving me the words to articulate what Seb is going to be going through in this book.

I told him to take notes. I wish he could take a master's acting class from Colin Firth. On the other hand, this won't be an act. It will be his life as I write it.

What do you think about this 'repressed hero' idea?

We get very used to expecting heroes to 'go after what they want.' And of course they must. But does it alway have to be overt? Jane Austen seems to prove that it doesn't. And Darcy certainly convinced me.

Do you remember other similar 'repressed' and 'mortified' heroes? Of which books? By whom? Tell me. I never mind adding great books to my TBR pile, and I definitely want to read more Darcys.

And if you want to read the article from which Pam quoted Colin Firth, you can find it here.