In a Flash

In a flash the week has nearly gone by. I was able to do a lot of work on Chapter 8 on Tuesday. It really helps when the day is rainy and depressing. It helps keep me focused. So goals today are to do one last pass on Chapter 8 and send chapters 1-8 to Maya, who I met at the writer's conference last year and has really helped me out with some invaluable critiques. She has a Regency romance coming out next year and another in the works, which I plan to begin reading next week and give her some feedback. She's an awesome writer and I'll have more info about her upcoming book when it's closer to print.

Karmela Johnson posted on her blog about the ending of Kick-butt Heroines (KBH) in romance. A lot of people voiced their opinion on this topic. I think that when most people think of romance, they picture a virginal woman swooning in the arms of an alpha male with rock-hard abs, who has seduced nearly every woman within the country limits and has finally been tamed by this fiesty, if not innocent, young woman whom he has just saved from nefarious men intent on taking away her said innocence. And these are all fine and good. In fact, this is probably the storyline of the majority of romances which I had read as a teenager. And in historical romance, in particular, you will almost always have the virginal young woman because it was the era. However, recenlty, I've see more heroines in historicals saving the men and not being a bumbling idiot and getting into more trouble from which she has to be saved (think danger proned Daphne from Scooby-Doo or Goodnight from Man with the Golden Gun). Some readers do not want the strong heroine and see this as a possible affront to the romance genre. But this is not true. A woman like Buffy, who can slay a hundred vamps without the help of a man, still can be saved by love. It doesn't mean that the woman doesn't need/want a man to support her and even save her, but that we, the readers, know she is capable of being on her own if she had to, fighting her own battles when left alone. Maybe it's our generation. One where many of us were raised by single moms and we want to show how important it is for a woman to able to stand on her own two feet, because some men can turn out not to be Prince Charming and leave the woman to clean up his mess. Maybe that's why I like strong women in my books, because I never had a father. In the back of my mind, I'm always thinking that the man is going to leave and if the woman does not have the ability to stand on her own when left by the man then it's hard for me to relate.

You can't please all the people all of the time, but you can please some of the people some of the time. Write what you love. There's a market for both traditional heroines and KBH. I'm not against the innocent heroines and strong heroes, I just want something different after reading these for 17 years. Not to mention that KBH is not a threat to romance but an extension. The women-being-saved romances are not going to be forced out by KBH. It's just that things are shifting now and new voices are vying to be heard over the norm and soon they will become part of the norm.

Thesis. Antithesis. Synthesis. As always is the case with anything that goes against what people find as the norm.

Write a good story with your own ending. And you will find an audience that suits you.

Beatlesmania!

Saw Rain last night, which was The Beatles tribute band and it was absolutely amazing. Check out their site at Rain's site. My husband and I were right up front. It was so much fun. At one point I got up to dance for Revolution and the camera caught me a few times and I was on the screen behind the band. There goes a few of my 15 minutes! They played songs from their Ed Sullivan days through Sgt. Peppers and Abbey Road. They sounded exactly like them. Their vocals were amazing and they received a standing ovation at the end because everyone was so pumped. I was surprised and excited to see a lot of people my age and younger. The Beatles were such a brilliant band. Their music transcends time and speaks to all generations. As John said, "The Beatles will live on long after we're gone." I can't tell you what their music means to me and how it has inspired me and help me through some tough times. Wow! I'm still running on the high!

Back to writing. I'm on Chapter 8. I rewrote the basis of it this weekend and now I'm cleaning it up today. I'm going deeper into this story and maybe it's scaring me because I'm really pushing myself and although it's taking longer than I like, I think it's going to make for a better story all around.

"Living is easy with eyes closed misunderstanding all you see. It's getting hard to be someone, but it all works out ..." John Lennon, Strawberry Fields

Birthday!!!!

You say it's your birthday, it's my birthday too, yeah!

Yes, it's my birthday and I'm now officially ... well, doing fine. Yes, that's it. I'm doing alright. I got tickets to see Rain The Beatles Experience next week, which I'm so excited about because The Beatles are my all time favorite band. Then my husband and my mom pitched in so we can go to Vegas (baby) at the end of November. Yippee!

It was a good weekend, though I'm now stuck on Chapter 8 which will get done this week. I feel renewed vigor with today being my birthday (also, it would've been John Lennon's birthday today and it is his son Sean's birthday, too). Did I mention that John is my favorite Beatle??? Of course, this renewed vigor could be because of the piece of my birthday cake that I had this morning. Hey ... it has milk and eggs and whatnot that are needed for a well-balanced breakfast.

Now, back to work!

Chapter 7 Down Sort of ..

I'm still reading it over and need my husband's opinion but I think this chapter needs to be put to bed for the time being and I need to move on to the next. Problem is ... the next chapter is changing a lot based on the new info that came out in 7. Such an evolving process but the story will be better for it.

Read an inspiring blog yesterday from Laurell K Hamilton. She talked about writing what she loved and how no one would publish her work because they didn't know how to market her book and what genre it would fit. She went to a sci-fi conference before she even had a book published and filled in for a famous author who had dropped out at the last minute. Talk about guts! She read the first 70 pages of Guilty Pleasures (which was all she had written at that point) to a packed room full of people who were there to see someone else. Wow! And she did it and they loved it and the crowd wanted more. Problem was she hadn't written anymore. So let this be a lesson to take all chances that come our way, no matter how scary or risky.

October!

I love October.

One ... it's my birthday month. Though this year I'm actually going backwards in age and not forward. Don't get me wrong, I'll be moving forward in life, but getting younger. It is possible. You just have to believe. I'm at that age when I realize what they mean by "youth is wasted on the young." Ack!

Two ... Halloween. Love it! Anyone who knows me, knows that my husband and I so enjoy Halloween and all the candies and costumes and getting crazy with friends. Whoo! Hoo!

Three ... the change in leaves. The humidity dissolves into cool, crisp air and the leaves change into oranges, yellows, reds. Beautiful!

Four ... horror movies. Every channel plays horror movies especially up to the end of the month. Then a bunch of scary movies are being released in the movies and on DVD. Yeah! Bring on the nightmares. I did see the movie "Boo" this weekend. The effects were good. The scare tactics were great. I was on the edge of my seat. I did jump a few times and get totally freaked out. However, the acting was below par and the plotline and characters were inconsistent (one guy was shot early in the movie in the shoulder then later is moving his arm fine). If they got the story on the level as the effects and literal "Boo" jump-out-and-scare-you scenes, then it would've been a really awesome horror movie. BTW: I believe that little girls make the scariest ghosts.

Found a quote that I thought is true for many of us at times:

"If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than we are." —Montesquieu

Okay, back to work. Finally figured out my latest issue with Chpater 7. I was trying to make a flashback work when obviously it wouldn't, like fitting a square into a circle. You can shove and grind and get it to fit, but the circle's going to be misshapen in the end. So, flashback out. Dialogue in. Yeah! Here's to finishing that scene by tomorrow!