Anne McAllister

Caught by a sheikh

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:52:00 +0000

It is rare that I am caught by a sheikh and can't put him down. Sheikhs are not my fantasy. Never have been. Never will be.

Except Liz Fielding's Fayed.

Fayad al Khalifa is the hero of Chosen As The Sheikh's Wife, which is Liz's contribution to 100 Arabian Nights, an anthology (with Kim Lawrence and Meredith Webber) that is out in UK now.

It may never see the light of day in the US or anywhere else except maybe Australia and New Zealand (though it might). But don't despair. I know how you can get it.

But first, let me tell you why you should.

Fayed is fantastic hero. He is strong, powerful and, of course, drop-dead gorgeous. More than that he's responsible, dutiful and determined to drag his nation into the 21st century without destroying the best of the past. He is also wounded. Deeply. Life has not been kind to him -- but he surviving.

Still the last thing he needs is an ancient knife -- a khanjar known as The Blood of Tariq -- to show up and complicate his life. Even less does he need Violet Hamilton who just happens to have it in her possession.

Violet doesn't want it in her life any more than he wants to deal with it in his -- for entirely different reasons. Oh, sure, it could maybe save her from being tossed out on the street when her home is repossessed. But there's a downside to the Blood of Tariq -- and it doesn't take Violet long to figure that out.

It would be hard to imagine two more different people -- the all-powerful Arab prince and the English working girl. And on the surface, that's true. But on the level where their hearts and souls meet, Fayed and Violet share a destiny.

If you want a little taste to whet your appetite, Liz has provided an excerpt on her website.

It hooked me. I went right out and ordered it. Fayed and Violet arrived in my mailbox right before lunch yesterday. I was planning on spending the afternoon with Christo and Natalie.

Fat chance.

Fayed swept me away. He didn't even have a camel. He just swooped in and transported me, first to London and then to his kingdom. It was a magical afternoon. My only complaint is that it wasn't long enough.

Liz's books are never long enough when they're 190 pages or so. This one, as a novella, was less than that. I wanted more.

I still want more. Liz is celebrating the publication of her 50th book this year. But I would like a hundred at least -- so I hope she's got her nose to the grindstone and her fingers on the keyboard.

Fayed and Violet were delightful and their story will live in my mind and my heart forever.

Lucky UK readers can just nip down to the local bookshop or wherever it is they buy books and get their own copies off the shelves. Or they can order it from M&B, I guess. The rest of us have to go to Book Depository and order online.

This is not such a hardship as you might think because dear dear Book Depository will ship 100 Arabian Nights post paid. So all you have to pay for is the book. It will come air mail. You should have it in a week or so.

It's definitely worth it -- even though it made my daily quota for Christo and Natalie fall behind. I'd do it again in a minute.

In fact I will do it again the next time Liz has a book out!

On the road again . . . again

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:50:00 +0000

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.

The bus stopped!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:17:00 +0000

Happily Christo and Natalie and I are no longer standing on the corner watching all the buses go by. Ours has stopped, the door has opened, and we have hopped on.

We have a story!

At least we think we do. And we're giving it a shot. It remains to be seen how long the euphoria lasts. But at least the bus hasn't passed us by. We even have something of a route map. Though I don't put a lot of stock in them as they've been known to mess me up before.

Still it's fun to be underway. Keep your fingers crossed that we have a good trip.

We get to go to Brazil for part of it. That should be exciting. Sadly I'm not going to get to go in person. Not this time.

But I have a friend who lives there, and a son who spent a year working there, and surely there must be some of you out there who would like to chime in with details I can't live without.

Christo's father is a former footballer (soccer player for the Americans among us) from Brazil. I haven't decided where he's from yet. Sao Paulo? Rio? Fortaleza? My son's friend from work was from Fortaleza so he spent time there. My friend lives outside Sao Paulo. I have another friend from Rio.

But Brazil is a big country. Suggestions, anyone?

I'm filling the box for Christo. And while I'm at it, I'm filling a couple of other boxes as well.

Remember George, the physicist who never comes out of the lab? He's on the list, believe it or not. He's actually going to get a book! He even has a heroine. Who knew!

So does Demetrios, his brother. Not the same heroine, I'm happy to report.

Three new heroes. Yikes.

So Christo and Nat and I have to get moving -- otherwise Demetrios and George will be misbehaving. Heroes don't like to stand around. If they have to wait in line for their books, they are inclined to be difficult.

Standing at the bus stop

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:00:00 +0000

That's what I feel like I'm doing.

Me and Christo and Natalie, all of us together -- not quite looking at each other as people at bus stops don't -- while we wait for the bus to come along and pick us up and take us where we need to go.

That would be to The End.

But first we need to have the bus show up, and then we need an open door. The bus had better show up by Monday when I intend to start C&N in earnest. The door had better materialize by then, too.

It feels odd to have a story and no way in. I usually have a first scene in mind long before I ever get to the book. And ordinarily that's good and works well -- except in the case of Flynn and Sara where it worked for about 35 pages and then not only the door vanished, but the bus did, too.

So I'm working at coming up with some scenes that will work for them -- something that will throw them right at each other -- so I can step back and let them carry on from there.

I like them both. They don't much like what they know about each other at the moment. So that's good. A little conflict never hurt anyone.

I hope.

What the Heck???

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:30:00 +0000

Kate Walker sent me an email yesterday with photos in it documenting the first encounter between her Maine Coon kitten (now a gorgeous teenager) Flora (aka Princess Flora Flooziebelle) meeting her first hedgehog. She's also just written the account up on her blog.

You may remember the hedgehog family who lives at the bottom of Kate's garden.

I christened them The Hecks after a series of Yorkshire villages we'd passed through the afternoon I arrived for my last visit in Sept 2006. The villages were called Great Heck and Little Heck and there may have been a Lesser Heck and even a Really Big Heck. One wonders what Heck meant in the days when villages got their names.

Anyway, the description seemed to fit the hedgehog family, who turned out for cat crunchies after dark that evening and allowed themselves to be photographed. They looked like a series of nestling Russian dolls -- albeit prickly ones.

As Sir Sidney, Flora's big brother, tends to give hedgehogs a wide berth, and Dylan (aka Dyl the Vil) has nothing good to say about them (not surprising as Dyl rarely has much good to say about most folks, except electricians with big hands -- and Bridget Coady who is His Favorite Person In The World), it was a surprise to see Flora and her new friend.

Apparently she wasn't quite sure what this new amazing creature was -- especially because it was Eating Her Food!

So she got closer, tentatively touched it with a paw, edged a bit closer with her nose (ouch!) and finally just decided it wasn't worth bothering with.

Rolling around on the ground and basking in the sun was far preferable.

It's an amazing world, as Flora is discovering. Glad to see you and Littlest Heck are becoming pals, Flora.

Enjoy your new friend!

The Name Game

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:43:00 +0000

I ended up writing about names today over on Tote Bags 'n' Blogs.

It was a topic in the forefront of my mind this past week because I was still aware of Natalie and Christo and how they came to have their names (two of my cousin's grandkids sport those names as a matter of fact, and I thought the name Christo suited my hero, and my cousin's descriptions of Natalie made me think she'd definitely be A Force!)

But after that, I kept thinking because my friend Anne Gracie bullied me into writing up two more ideas for books because she kept saying, "What if --" and "I like that. I think you could get more out of this if you only -- " and so pretty soon, there I was, looking for more names.

They were heroine names because I already had heroes -- two of the Savas brothers, Demetrios and George -- and I needed heroes equally as strong as the men in question.

And, as luck would have it, I got both women's names wrong the first time around. Adriana is right -- but her nickname I thought would be Addie. Turns out it's Annie. She won't answer to Addie. Interesting.

Even weirder is Sylvie -- but I think I owe that to Liz Fielding. She had a Sylvie not long ago and I could see the picture of her Sylvie as being rather like George's heroine. But my fingers knew better. They've been typing Sophy ever chance they get. No question now but that she's a Sophy.

Makes me wonder what my fingers know that I don't.

And the winner is . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:09:00 +0000

Kate Walker!

I suspect Gunnar of being bribed, but he insists that I am the one who put the treats on the names. He's only the eater.

And Kate's name was the one on the slip of paper he gobbled his first treat off of.

So, Kate, you are the winner of the signed copy of Tess Gerritsen's The Mephisto Club -- and a definite departure from your normal reading fare it will be.

I'll post it on Monday. Gunnar hopes you enjoy it. And of course, so do I.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week. I appreciate the discussion.

I spent part of the afternoon at the movies enjoying Indiana Jones -- and the other part with the three ideas for future books I sent my editor yesterday.

We are going to discuss them on Monday. So I need to be prepared. It's not often I juggle three book ideas in my head at once. It's not often I even have enough plot to talk about one of them. Let's hope I do on Monday.

So the next guy up might be Christo -- or it might not.

I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, on Sunday I'm going to be blogging over at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs, so drop in and say hi. I'll come back and make a live link when I've put up my post.

I was wrong!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:51:00 +0000

A closer look at my trade-sized foreign edition has convinced me I erred. It isn't Dutch (it didn't look quite like Dutch somehow, but I knew it wasn't German).

It's Afrikaans.

It was printed in Natal. That's the give-away. At least I think it is. Maybe it's Dutch as spoken in South Africa. I can sort of read it. A little. Very little.

Anyway, I'm thrilled as not all my books get translated into Afrikaans. I hope some readers will enjoy Spence and Sadie's jaunt to Fiji in Afrikaans -- or whatever languages it gets translated into.

I'll be back as soon as Gunnar has determined the winner of Tess Gerritsen's The Mephisto Club.

He's just had breakfast and can't be counted on to do justice to a number of treats so soon after (unlike Mitch and Micah who will snarf them down with nary a qualm). Gunnar is, um, fastidious. And inclined to be grouchy when I impose on him.

So . . . stay tuned.

Oh, and a Japanese edition of The Santorini Bride appeared late yesterday afternoon.

Where Have All My Red Dots Gone?

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:43:00 +0000

Those of you who drop by here frequently might have occasionally glanced at the sidebar and noticed the ClustrMap which shows the whereabouts of people who drop in here. Or if not the people themselves, at least where their IP address is coming from.

I love seeing those little red dots turn up. Between ClustrMaps and Neoworx I can get a feel for the global scope of my readers and casual visitors. And it's always a thrill to see new dots or discover the flag of a new country.

Neoworx's flags turn up right when the visitor appears. ClustrMaps redraws its maps every time there is a 10% increase in the number of visitors, so there is delayed gratification as the numbers build. Below is last year's map. We've started over on the sidebar.

My 88th country was Albania. Someone from Tirana (waving to Tirana!) turned up last week. And I was eagerly awaiting my red dot on Albania.

But -- alas! -- ClustrMaps did their yearly archive of my map yesterday. And now I have just a few dots again. No dot in Albania. So I hope whoever it was in Albania comes back. And I hope lots more people from lots more countries visit. It's always a thrill.

I know Kate Walker's flag list is well over 100 now -- creeping up toward 150 when last I looked. I have 12 more to go to reach 100. Hmm.

Could we have a concerted effort here, do you think? Write to your friends in Burkina Faso and Chad and Bolivia and Norfolk Island and tell them to drop by. Not to mention all the places that already have flags but whose dots have been archived!

# # #

Tomorrow is the day I'm giving away a signed copy of The Mephisto Club by the brilliant talented personable Tess Gerritsen, who is -- it goes without saying -- a terrific writer who scares me to death in her books.

Maybe if you're into the less terrifying stuff, you won't want to read Tess. But if you have friends who love that 'edge of your seat' 'what's going to happen next' and 'oh God, it's worse than I thought' then they really need to drop by and comment to get in the drawing.

Or better yet, just tell them to go out and buy Tess's books!

# # #

Post script: 89! I just got my 89th flag -- from Colombia!

Ask and you shall receive, I guess. Anyway, welcome, Columbia, whoever you are. So glad you stopped by.

And to add to the international flavor of the day, the postman just brought books -- The Santorini Bride in its Polish edition and a trade-sized paperback of The Boss's Wife For A Week in Dutch (I think. Well, it's almost German but not quite. But I can't see a place of publication. Must go examine it more closely).

In the meantime, who will be country #90?

Titles and Possessives

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:01:00 +0000

I think there is a trend in titles (at least in MY titles) toward possessives.

It goes back a long way -- maybe the mid-90s -- when I wrote Finn's Twins, shortly thereafter followed by Fletcher's Baby and Gibson's Girl.

Not to be outdone, the cowboys in my Code of the West series started getting possessive, too.

They went from titles like Cowboys Don't Quit and The Cowboy and the Kid to A Cowboy's Tears and A Cowboy's Secret and A Cowboy's Pursuit.

Not long ago back in Presents, I had Nathan's Child and McGillivray's Mistress as well.

And in October I have a reprint in a book called His Child (with Sharon Kendrick and Catherine Spencer). I don't know which story it is, but presumably the hero has a child (Nathan again? Or maybe my very first Presents, Lightning Storm, which also had a hero with a child, who is old enough, come to think of it, to be a hero now in his own right!).

His Child (whoever he is) will be followed immediately in UK and slightly later in the US by two more possessive heroes.

Antonides' Forbidden Wife (that's Elias's brother PJ's story) will be out in November in UK and January in the US. And then sometime next year we will see Savas' Defiant Mistress, which is what they are intending to call Seb and Neely's book.

This is all news to me.

I don't even try to come up with titles anymore. I just use heroes' names. It's easier. It's just their book.

I suppose the possessive angle makes it his book for marketing, too. And then they add on a couple of buzz words.

Do you think? Or is there more to it than that?

Whatever. It seems to work -- or they say it does. And sales seem to be improving (thank you, all of you). So who am I to quibble with them.

Though I did find admitting to having written something called One-Night Love Child a bit, er, dicey. I'm sorry but I generally still call it Flynn's book.

Flynn's book means something to me. But I realize it's not likely to get anyone to pick it up.

And hard as it is to admit it, Savas' Annoying Roommate doesn't have quite the same ring as Savas' Defiant Mistress, does it?

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:14:00 +0000

I worked my tail off.

I'm still trying to read through all the handouts I got in my government documents and law libraries research course at Samford University's Institute for Genealogical and Historical Research.

They asked for comments on the evaluation, and my main comment was: Give us the handouts a week early. Then maybe we'll have time to read them before the class is over.

It was a terrific week. It gave me lots of ideas for future research and exploration. And it even provided me with a few clues to follow up on research I'd already begun and had thought I'd probably exhausted. Turns out there is a lot more there.

And, of course, I determined that Natalie dropped out of law school. Always a plus. Now I just have to figure out why she would have thought it was a good idea to go there in the first place.

And I need to think about more of the back story. Maybe do some writing. Scratch a bit -- like Twyla Tharp in The Creative Habit. And I'm reading a book by Sol Stein called On Writing, which I've had for years and which I've only dipped into a few times. It looks like a good book.

I've got photos to download -- including a lovely one of Tess Gerritsen from her visit here two weeks ago. And I have a signed copy of her book, The Mephisto Club, to give away, which I will be doing on Friday. Make a comment and get in the drawing for Tess's book.

If you can give me a good reason why Nat dropped out of law school, you get two spots in the drawing.

I noticed that Anne Gracie is blogging on Tote Bags 'n' Blogs today about being a serial killer. She's pretty much a softie, so I think you can take that with a grain of salt. But there's a great tribute there to her dad on his birthday as well, and that's absolutely heartfelt. Check it out.

on the road

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:12:00 +0000

I didnt mean it literally when I said I was over my head earlier this week!

Not under water, at any rate.

But it's getting close to being literally true. We are in Paducah, Kentucky tonight, and we've driven through three torrential downpours today, and sat in a restaurant watching a fourth this evening. If we'd dared go out in it, we'd simply have been pounded into the ground by the sheets of rain or blown away.

At the moment I hear thunder and see lightning and there are way more sirens outside than I want to think about the meaning of. Paducah is a really neat city, and I don't like experiencing it this way. And I don't imagine the folks who live here do either.

Ordinarily we make the trip in one day -- but given the fact that coming south we had to ford a river in Illiois that was crossing Interstate 57, we thought a running start would be good so we didn't have to deal with floods in the dark.

That may have been a good move. Or not.

But I have been told that the dogs are well and the house is above water, so I guess we are in better shape than many.

Our eldest son, who lives much closer to the high water than we do, is keeping us posted. We're hoping for blue skies and light breezes and sunshine for everyone.

And for the record, yes, Natalie did drop out of law school. I'm getting my groove back.

over my head

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:35:00 +0000

I'm taking a course in using law libraries and government document repositories in genealogical and historical research.

I'm drowning.

And you're reading a woman who grew up in libraries and who worked in one for five years at university.

But I don't have a clue.

Fortunately I have good teachers who are doing their best to make sure I get clues and are working me to a frazzle with lots of "problems" to solve and stuff to find -- and the means to find it, if only I can figure out how.

I had an aha! moment at the very end of this afternoon's class on using computer search engines like LexisNexis and Readex and several others. It made me fall in love with Readex because I actully found one of the people I was looking for using it. But I'm supposed to figure out how to use books as well.

That's going to be more than a week's worth of work, believe me.

I think maybe Natalie dropped out of law school. That's about as much inspiration as Im capable of at the moment.

Oh, and I think I terrify one of my professors who is afraid he might turn up in a book someday.

On the move!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 04:02:00 +0000

I don't know where I ever found time to write books. It seems like I'm never home.

Saturday I'm leaving to attend Samford University's Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research for the third year in a row. I'm taking a course in Government Documents and Law Libraries.

Lest you think this is all very dusty and boring, let me tell you what it really is -- it's about people. It's about stories.

I was thinking the other day about the "theme" of my blog, because while it's largely about writing and writing-related stuff (yes, Hugh-in-a-towel is writing related. How could you think otherwise?), it's also about other things that interest me -- like genealogy and local history, about travel and books and films, about dogs and grandchildren.

And I got to thinking what they all had in common -- and basically, it's story.

Genealogy and local history are means of learning about peoples' stories, who they were, what they did, why they did it. All the things plot-challenged people like me love to learn about.

Travel brings me into the sphere of other people, teaches me about their lives, their culture, their stories. Books and films, of course, do exactly the same thing.

Dogs -- well, dogs are stories in and of themselves. And grandchildren are both the continuation of my own story as well as stories unto themselves.

All of it is grist for the mill. I never know what's going to spark off an idea. It will be interesting to see if Christo and Natalie get any new bits this week while I'm gone.

Speaking of ideas and bits, last night I had the pleasure of meeting fantastic medical thriller writer, Tess Gerritsen, for the first time. Her books are fantastic (and give me the creeps), and it was great fun to listen to her talk about how she gets her ideas for stories.

Not the same stories I get, that's for sure. But the gut level instinct that says, Yes, I have to write about this -- that's the same. I was comforted, too, when she said she didn't plan her books but just wrote and discovered what happened.

I have a signed copy of her Mephisto Club that I'll be giving away next week when I get back. If you want to be thrilled and scared by a very fine writer, drop in and comment sometime this week. I'll put your name in the hat.

Celebrating a First Book!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Several years ago I ran into a writer on the eharlequin site called Anna of Cumberland. She was bright and sparkling and witty and had a wonderful voice.

When I first 'met' her, Anne Louise Lucia (aka Anna of Cumberland) was writing a book. And then she'd written a book. And then she was trying to sell the book. And then she sold it!

It was called McAllister's Wife. Is there a better title than that? Surely not.

Still her publisher changed it. I'm not sure when the title got changed (I'm sure Anna had nothing to do with it because, of course, she wouldn't tamper with a great name like McAllister), but now it's called Run Among Thorns, by Anna Louise Lucia.

And it just came out onto the shelves on June 1st!

I have my copy on order -- due to arrive tomorrow according to the tracking records -- and I'm dying to read it because I love simply reading Anna's blog. And I am soooo looking forward to a whole book by her.

I'm counting her continuing to have her wonderful voice, but now she'll be providing me with story and suspense and excellent characters (McAllister, of course, among them).

Sight unseen I'm recommending it. But I'm not the only one.

Kate Walker loved her book. Romantic Times gave it a 4 1/2 review. Harriet Klausner thought the suspense and characters and writing were all terrific.

I have no doubt that all this praise is well-deserved. And it couldn't happen to a nicer person.

Besides being a terrific writer, Anna is a terrific person.

She and her husband took my husband and me around Millom (of Cumberland) looking for dead relatives a couple of years back. I'd casually mentioned an interest in going there, and Anna, who went there frequently in her day job, offered to show us around. She did her homework, scoured the graveyard, looked up people in the register, and marched us all over downtown Millom in search of places my ancestors had once lived.

It was fitting to discover that one of them grew up in a place on Lapstone Road that is now called Greetings and is a bookshop! I hope they stock dear Anna's book and sell piles and piles of copies.

My copy of Run Among Thorns is going with me to Birmingham this coming week t0 be my solace when things get tough in government docs and law libraries. It will make a change!

Catching Up

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:46:00 +0000

I have been to Missouri -- and back.

I'm about to head off on Saturday to spend a week in Birmingham, Alabama at Samford University's Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research.

In the meantime I've gone a hundred odd miles in each direction to visit the 100 year old cousin and celebrated her birthday in grand style .

Perhaps "catching up" is not the right term. I feel like I'm still driving. And driving. And I have another 1000 miles to go later this week.

But it's been good -- and I will share some of the art gallery opening with you when I finally drag my camera out of my bags and can upload the photos.

I'm very glad that I had the chance to go, to visit old friends and make new ones. It's a little bit amazing how peoples' lives intersect and move apart and at a much later date, intersect again. It's rather like a tapestry, warp and woof and all that sort of thing. Though heaven forbid I should actually see any pattern to it.

Makes me think, though -- about ideas and where they come from, about characters' pasts and present and future. About the influences that occurred many years ago that may serendipitously come back to touch them when they least expect it.

I'm discussing this with Christo at the moment. And with Natalie. I'm still looking for Natalie. Anyone got any good pics?

Christo and Natalie are talking to me about the past. It's funny about that. Some of the things Christo talks about are things a very early hero of mine, Jake Brosnan in Lightning Storm, talked about. I think it's because a guy I knew used to think about those things. I don't know him anymore. Have no idea where he is, but his influence is still here.

I don't see much of the future yet. Maybe a couple of scenes. Not sure how they're going to play out. Maybe Christo and Jake's far distant source will tell me if I think about it long enough.

Good thing I don't have to come up with a notion of the whole story in the next week or two. Maybe by the time I get back from Alabama I'll have an idea.

In the meantime I need to do quarterly taxes and clean my house and post something about the art retrospective and celebrate the publication of the first novel of a wonderful British writer who very kindly hauled me all over Millom a couple of years back.

I'll be back tomorrow to do that.

While I'm doing that, see if you can find some pix of Natalie, will you? Think of it as your contribution to Christo's future happiness. And mine.

Meet Christo

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:37:00 +0000

This is Christo.

He moved in last week. He's raided the refrigerator and has generally made himself at home. At least at home as he's likely to be anywhere.

He's been filling me in on his back story, and the woman in his life -- who is not Natalie.

Well, give him time. He'll figure it out eventually.

Keep good thoughts for us. We'll be working together this week while I'm in Missouri visiting friends and going to an art retrospective.

Stay tuned.

My new box

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Sat, 24 May 2008 17:10:00 +0000

Those of you who have been here a while remember when I was reading Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit.

I blogged about it a lot and probably sold quite a few books for her along the way. I still find myself going back to it again and again, thinking about the current book or about the books to come or just about being creative.

As Seb has now gone on his merry way, I needed to go back to the beginning -- to ideas and inspiration and suchlike -- the flotsam and jetsam out of which, eventually, a story will appear.

Often that starts with characters. Sometimes with a situation. Rarely with a plot (sometimes there never is a plot, or so it seems). Occasionally with a place.

This book started with names. In a conversation about our family history that I had with my cousin a week ago, lots of names appeared. Most of them disappeared again back into the family pictures and stories and whatnot, and will doubtless appear again when next we talk.

But two stayed. Two said, "I have a story." They weren't the people we'd been talking about at all. But they shared their names. I wondered if they would stay around, tell me their story, or if they would drift off again. Some do.

These aren't going anywhere. They've moved in, settled down and are raiding the refrigerator even as I write. He's every bit as hard-edged as I need him to be. His mother's Greek. His father's missing. But he wasn't Greek. He might have been Portuguese. My hero has a soft spot for only one woman -- the heroine's mother. He doesn't know the heroine exists. Yet.

The heroine knows he exists. She's never met him. She's bound to run into him. Our house isn't that big -- and we only have one refrigerator. And then there's her mother who has plans of her own.

The new box is filling up. I don't have a location yet. Some big city. Maybe SF. Maybe Seattle. Maybe NYC. Maybe London. Maybe LA. I haven't done an LA story in years. Still thinking. I think I'd like an ocean nearby. LA is sounding more and more likely.

This actually is fun.

Check back in the coming days and you can meet my hero.

Free Time

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:17:00 +0000

This business of 'no revisions' has freed up my time. From waiting for the other shoe to drop, suddenly they've been neatly put away in the closet and I am allowed to get on with my life.

Weird.

Pleasant, of course. Don't get me wrong. I love not having revisions. But weird all the same.

It's giving me time to go visit with friends I haven't seen since Christmas. It's allowing me to actually read books written by other people in the middle of the day. It's given me the luxury of saying, Why not? when someone suggests a last minute, Why don't we do thus and such?

I could get used to this.

But I probably shouldn't. I should just get on with the new book. I'm giving it serious -- well, sort of serious -- thought. I get bits and pieces as I think about other things. Or I get glimmers of ideas that might work. It's sort of interesting, this watching myself pick over pieces of flotsam and jetsam and evaluating them. I've never done it before. Haven't had the time to do it.

Is this a good thing?

Who knows? But I'm enjoying it.

By the way, pictures have not been loading on my blog since sometime on the weekend. So if they start showing up, you'll know the problem is fixed. They're there. But they don't get up on the site. And today nothing much is loading. Hmmm.

I Told Her So

noreply@blogger.com (Sebastian Savas) — Wed, 21 May 2008 04:54:00 +0000

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?

Truth in Fortune Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:46:00 +0000

We had take-out Chinese the last night my cousin was visiting. No one was especially inclined -- besides me -- to enjoy the fortune cookies at the end.

I am a sucker for fortune cookies, untraditional though they may be. I am not necessarily a believer in the fortunes -- because my local restaurant seems less given to fortunes than commentary, perhaps -- but I like the taste and texture and ever since I got one that said "beware of bananas," I've been bemused by them.

This week's were perhaps truer than most. I picked a cookie and took it out of the cellophane and broke it -- and it fell on the floor -- to be instantly consumed by Mitch who is vigilant when it comes to anything on the table that might have gravitational pull.

The only thing he left was the fortune. It said: "Your mind is precise and discriminating."

I think that's why I dropped it. Not that Mitch is more precise and discriminating than I am, but there is that possibility.

Still I am not given to precision or, in those terms, discrimination. I'm pretty waffly and not exactly detail oriented. Mitch is very detail oriented when it comes to food (though not precisely discriminating, though at least he didn't eat the paper).

So I opened the next one. It didn't fall on the floor. I ate it (minus the paper).

It said: "You are a dreamer and your thinking is inspirational."

See what I mean?

How true is that? If it had said, "You will never get to the bottom of the mess in your office," it would have been only slightly more accurate.

Then just to prove whether or not it was a fluke, I opened the third one (I told you no one else wanted any), and it said: "You believe in the goodness of people."

Of course I do. Three out of three.

So, I'm a believer.

Now I just wish they would print plots on fortune cookies. It would make life much easier. On the other hand, maybe they have.

If a precise and discriminating hero met a dreamy inspirational heroine who believed in the goodness of people . . .

There's certainly potential for conflict at least.

Cleaning Up

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Sun, 18 May 2008 15:18:00 +0000

I've had a busy week. My cousin's visit meant I spent a lot of time with him and not so much time with you (apologies, but I did enjoy his visit a lot).

Now I am faced with MY OFFICE which is beyond awful, because I cleaned out our bedroom to paint, and then I cleaned out the guest room to make sure he had plenty of room and somehow all of the excess ended up in my office. So there are STACKS and STACKS of books and papers and whatnot (it's the whatnot I'm particularly concerned about) that I need to go through and sort and get rid of or file or figure out what to do with. And it's not like I have a spare bookcase or a spare filing cabinet just sitting around looking hopefully for STUFF to fill it.

Sigh.

Anyway, that's my job this week unless Seb reappears for revisions. We shall see. For the first couple of weeks after I finish a book I feel relieved and glad not to see him. But by this time he's beginning to feel like another shoe about to drop -- and I wish he would so I can deal with him and get on with things.

I don't multi-task as well as I used to, and I don't like having him hanging fire while I'm actively trying to think about characters from another book. I spent a while last night in search of a hero. I think I have found a pic of him. Just need to let him 'simmer' a while and see if that's really him or not. I thought I knew who Seb was, and he turned out not to be anything like, so I had to do a new search halfway through the book.

So . . . today I look for more pics in between shoveling out the office. Tough work, but someone's got to do it!

Making Other Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:56:00 +0000

I realize that I said I would post Ellie pix this week. Actually I think I said, "tomorrow," a few days ago.

But while I was planning to do that, life was making other plans.

My cousin has come to visit and we've been going places and doing things -- as you do when you have a life and not only a book -- and today we are going to visit the old home of our grandfather and the cemetery where his parents are buried.

Then we're going to visit our almost 100 year old cousin (June 1 is the Big Day!).

We discovered we bought her the same birthday card because, actually, how many cards do you suppose Hallmark makes for 100 year olds? And don't they realize that when someone reaches that amazing milestone that lots of people will buy them cards -- AND THEY WILL INVARIABLY BE THE SAME ONE?

Well, we hope she enjoys the symmetry of it.

No word from the ed yet, which is good since I have no time to do anything about any 'tweaking' of Seb she may want. Seb thinks tweaks are beneath him, but I've assured him they aren't.

I'm quite taken with the Greek with the chip on his shoulder and the taming of the shew notion set in San Francisco that lots of my fence painters on the Pink Heart blog were suggesting for a follow-up to Seb.

The Greek with the chip has a name. I think the heroine is coming into focus. She may have a name. She definitely has an attitude. No story yet, but the people are getting sharper.

Weekend Wind-down Winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:09:00 +0000

A little alliteration never hurt anyone, right?

So, the winner of last weekend's wind-down on the Pink Heart blog is Debora. Congratulations, Debora. Gunnar picked your name from the treat-covered slips of paper to win a copy of The Boss's Wife For A Week.

If you will email me from the contact Anne tab on my blog with your snail address, I'll send you a copy this coming week.

Thanks so much to everyone who gave me their choices. You had some great ideas. I'll be considering them and will let you know what I come up with. In the meantime it sounds as if some of you have good ideas for books of your own based on that list.

I have finally downloaded the granddaughter photos and will be posting the high points of my R&R this week. The last three days I spent cleaning my house for an impending visit from a cousin. He is here now -- and very impressed (so he says) with the spotlessly clean guest room he's inhabiting (never mind the upside down lowboy in the corner. It's decorative -- and it has a bum leg and until we can get it fixed, there it stays).

Of course my office is in worse shape than ever as the overflow from the guest room moved -- guess where? Why are there never enough book shelves in my house?

I'll have to show you my beautiful roses, too. Daughter and family sent lovely roses for mother's day. Actually son-in-law is responsible. (I am very fond of him). Tomorrow I will show you. Tonight I'm going to crash.

If you haven't been to Michelle Reid's newly revamped website, give it a look. I will try to post the link tomorrow (having trouble doing it tonight), but if you go to Kate Walker's blog (link in sidebar) you can get to Michelle's website from there.

Birthdays!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne McAllister) — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Back!

Wonderful trip. Hope you all had a great time without me. Sorry I only missed you a little, but the granddaughter more than made up for all the great people here. When I get the pics downloaded, I will bore you with a few.

In the meantime, it's birthday celebration time! While I was gone, I missed Michelle Reid's. So, very sorry, Michelle, but you were thought of. And I'm glad you got your revisions finished and are taking a deep breath and -- I hope - resting between books.

And happy birthday to Mitch who was FIVE yesterday (and no, not months, though sometimes he acts like it!). We'll celebrate today, Mitch!

Also, happy birthday today to my wonderful daughter-in-law Marie who made me so welcome these last few days. She and son and granddaughter gave me a memorable vacation with them. I wish I'd been there to babysit tonight so the adults could go out to dinner and the granddaughter and I could hang out (except she goes to be with the chickens, so I wouldn't get to play with her much in the evening -- unless I was corrupting her! -- and I wouldn't want to do that because she's a very good sleeper and her parents have worked hard at it.

And a special and wonderful happy birthday to my dear friend Kate Walker who shares Marie's birthday and thus proves that May 7th must be a stupendous day to be born. Kate, too, just survived the revisions process and is recuperating. So enjoy your book-free days, my dear. Though I know you are still very very very busy!

Anyone who wants to leave birthday greetings for them here, I'll be sure to pass them along -- and they may get here to see them themselves. Certainly Mitch will!