Sorry for the later in the morning post…I am knee-deep in revisions and I totally blanked! Apologies!

Speaking of revisions…I’m working on doing some changes to two different novellas, both of which will be released this summer. I’m posting about the process (for anyone who might be interested) on my Facebook fan page.

The thing that struck me–but that wasn’t surprising because I’ve been doing this for so long–is which story requires more work. Novella #1 is a 20,000 word novella that took me 5-6 months to complete. Novella #2 is a 30,000 word novella that took me two weeks to write. If you guessed that Novella #1 is the one that requires the big rewrite, you’d be correct. #2 needs a few tweaks I should be done with by the end of the day.

It didn’t strike me because the shorter novella needs more revision. It didn’t even really strike me that the short story that took me longer to write requires the most dissecting and reconnecting. What struck me was that after 40 books, I didn’t realize that my struggle came from an intrinsic problem within the story itself instead of because of ME.

I really did think, as I was struggling with this story, that I had totally lost my mojo. I really did believe that maybe I had simply told every story I had in me and it was time to put my computer out to pasture. I really did subscribe to the idea that my stressful life had finally caught up with me and that I had better start looking for something else to do with myself.

Never ONCE did I say…wow, maybe your character’s internal conflict isn’t strong enough to sustain a whole story or your characters aren’t coming to life on the page because they really aren’t materializing in your brain. Rest assured that all these problems will be fixed by the time the book goes to print. I’m doing a massive rewrite, adding scenes, deleting filler, honing in on the parts that were pretty good, but lacked impact because the reader had no reason to connect with my characters from the start.

I think the longer we write, the harder we are on ourselves. I know it’s a common misconception that writing gets easier the longer you’ve been doing it and I won’t deny that in some ways, it does. But with experience comes a whole host of other challenges and sometimes, those challenges get the better of us. Or at least, the better of me. Luckily, then my editor swoops in and helps me see the light.

(It also helped that I taught a story logic class last week online that brought me back to the basics again…the combination of good insight and a recap of very basic storytelling technique helped me decide what to do with my revisions.)

That said, thank God the second story came so easily and that when I re-read it, I really loved it…and that yesterday, both my editor and the other author in the collection (Kimberly Raye, squee!) wrote to me to tell me how much they loved the story, too. That boost of confidence will help me tackle the mess that is the other story…in fact, like I said, I’ve already started and I’m already liking the story much better.

So I have to ask…does hearing about the writing process here at Plotmonkeys, occasionally, bore you? I mean, do readers simply want to read a good story and not know about the man behind the curtain?

You all know that I homeschool. One of the most fun things my daughter has done this year is take a Spanish class. Okay, maybe she doesn’t think it’s so much fun (actually, she really does enjoy it) but I’m having a blast following along with her.

Most people who know me assume that I speak Spanish. I don’t and never have. My maternal grandparents spoke fluent Italian (and only Italian) and my paternal grandparents were tri-lingual, speaking fluent English, Spanish and Italian. Growing up, I heard a great deal of Spanish and Italian, but I never actually spoke it because my mother, who grew up with parents who did not speak English in the house, wanted us proficient and accent-less. She regrets that now and so do I.

Studying Spanish in high school, I was never very good. I would get confused between Spanish and Italian, because that’s what I heard. Then in college, I decided to study Italian…and I wasn’t very good at it, either. Same problem. The languages are very similar and I understood just enough of each to confuse myself. Now, it’s been so long since I’ve been exposed to either that it’s coming a little easier.

For my daughter, who has never heard Spanish on a regular basis (my father can speak Spanish, but he rarely does), she’s coming at it clean and doing pretty well. Yesterday, she had to listen to a whole conversation in Spanish and then translate it and she did very well. And learning Spanish is helping her with her English grammar because the lessons give us a chance to dissect the Spanish and discuss how we do it differently in English. (We put the adjective in front of the noun and Spanish does it in reverse, etc.)

So I have to ask…did you study a foreign language in school? Did you hear a foreign language at home? If you could study a foreign language, which would it be?

I’d still love to learn Italian. It is such a gorgeous language to listen to!

I am not a pet psychic, but I generally have a good idea what my dog is thinking. Dogs, which is the pet I grew up with, are fairly transparent and if you pay attention, you can figure them out rather easily. They are simple creatures who want love, attention, food, water and the occasional walk or trip outside. Some want a little more, but those are the basics.

Cats, on the other hand, are creatures from an alternate dimension. Websites are devoted to the strange and unusual behavior of cats–they are enigmas wrapped up in riddle inside a mystery or whatever that quote is. In my house, however, we prefer to call Almighty Isis, our Lynx-point Siamese, the comic relief.

The funniest part? She’s not really funny. She doesn’t have to actually DO anything to make us laugh. She can just be sitting at us, staring, or as she is now, perched on the side of my desk like a sphinx and I think she’s hilarious.

We’ve had her for over a year now and we still think everything she does from pawing at the strings to my jacket or crawling into the See’s Candies bag is the most gut-splitting thing ever. (Actually, I wish I had a picture of the cat in a bag…it was crazy.) I’m sure our dog, who is cute as a button, is completely tired of my daughter and I summoning the other to whatever room we’re in because the cat has done something that must be witnessed…like unexpectedly burrow under the sheets in my bed or climb up the porch screen in an attempt to catch a squirrel.

It just never gets old!

(BTW, the dog is at a distinct disadvantage. Not only is she ten years old, but she’s a dachshund. She can’t really climb on things or, because of her nails on my wood floors, pop up when we least expect her. But she is really, really cute and the sweetest dog ever. But she’s the straight man, no doubt about it.)

So…do your pets crack you up with stuff that probably wouldn’t be funny to anyone else? Or are they really funny?

And I can’t help but wonder what the heck the cat is thinking when we’re laughing hysterically at her non-antic antics.

FYI: the cat just tried to climb the ladder that I use to change the light bulbs. It’s folded up against the wall. She didn’t quite make it, but is unharmed. Daughter and I? Can’t…breathe…laughing…

The winner’s of Janelle’s Monday giveaway are the following names. Please contact me at janelledenison @ sbcglobal.net and let me know which book you’d like from me!
Debra G (Comment #1)
Chey (Comment #42)
Martha McKenna (Comment #76)

Thanks, everyone, for all the congratulation messages on my digital backlist releases. I now have six books up and it’s been quite an adventure in self-publishing. It’s a very good time to be a reader, I think, with so many choices!

Especially for the winner of the $20 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card…

#43 Throuthehaze!

Please email me julie @ julie leto . com and I’ll get the gift card out to you ASAP.

Now, for the funny…

…but I don’t have one. No one sends me funnies anymore. However, this is one of my favorite sites to visit when I want to laugh…click the link for Friday’s post, which was both shocking and hilarious!

Cakewrecks.com

So…just as a reminder…

If you have a spare buck or two…and a digital reading device…head on over and pick up a copy of PHANTOM PLEASURES, which is currently on sale everywhere for only .99! Also, DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, the first in my Marisela Morales romantic suspense series, is also only .99 now at Barnes & Noble and iTunes. (Amazon to come soon, I’m sure!)

What am I reading…well, I can’t tell you. I’m reading entries for the RITAs, the peer-judged awards for romance novels sponsored by Romance Writers of America. Since I’m a judge, I can’t say what I’m reading…but I can tell you that it’s really good and I’m enjoying myself immensely.

Unfortunately, I have 7 other books to read in the next month, which is hard for me because I am a very slow reader.

What will come after that? I will be able to finish Leslie’s IT HAPPENED ONE CHRISTMAS (I had to stop reading immediately to start the RITA books or I would never finish in time) and then I’m not sure. Probably Kresley Cole’s LOTHAIRE, which is sitting right beside me all nice and shiny and sexy. Or perhaps one of the urban fantasy recommendations I got a couple of weeks ago via Twitter.

What about you? What are you reading?

Woohoo! It’s Friday! Cue Rebecca Black.

No…wait, don’t do that.

But let’s celebrate!

First, an announcement. If you follow me on Facebook & Twitter you already know, but I recently re-released my contemporary paranormal trilogy digitally. The first book, PHANTOM PLEASURES, is available for Kindle, Nook, iPad & iPhone and at Smashwords for all other devices for only .99! Be sure and pick up a copy. The sequels, PHANTOM’S TOUCH and KISS OF THE PHANTOM (my favorite of the three!) are on sale for $3.99.

Next…the contest!

$20 Gift Card from Amazon or Barnes & Noble to one lucky commenter…go!

TGIF!

So in the name of research, my daughter and I went to the rodeo last week. Apologies to those of you who follow my Twitter stream…this will be a lengthier recap of my tweets of the night.

The first question you might be asking yourself is why is the city-slicker author who writes mainly about corporate CEOs or the occasional spy or secret agent writing about the rodeo? Well, my answer is Kimberly Raye. I was invited to do a novella collection with her, a Blazing Bedtime Story. We chose to riff our stories on the Peter Pan oeuvre, with her taking on Peter and Wendy and me taking Hook and…the alligator. (Crocodile, alligator…try making a cute heroine name out of Crocodile. Can’t be done. Her name is Allie and that’s that.)

But because Kimberly is a queen of the sexy Western-set story, we decided to set the story in the fictional world of Lost Gun, Texas. I’m sure Kim could punch out her story without a lick of research (see, it’s already starting to rub off on me, even if I still use words like “oeuvre”) but not this chick. I’m around horses weekly, but it’s one thing to go to the barn and tack a horse with an English saddle and quite another to go “rodeo.” So I did some checking and when a rodeo ended up about an hour and a half away from home, I bought a couple of premium seats, got my newly 14 year old daughter to trade her Crocs for boots and we headed out.

Here are my impressions…initially in 140 characters or less.

#1: I was surprised that in addition to beer, you could have a martini. Not that I saw a single person buy one.

I drank a Dr. Pepper and ate a corn dog. It seemed like the right thing to do.

#2: Too much cotton candy is not good for my 46-yo stomach, esp. after eating tuna tartare for lunch.

Yes, I also had cotton candy. Freshly made. Soft as a cloud. Purple. Yum. And yes, I had tuna tartare for lunch…like I said. City slicker.

#3: I’m glad my daughter rides English (Hunter/Jumper) rather than Western so her horse NEVER has to go that fast.

I must have tweeted this one right after the barrel-racing, which I loved. But damn, they had eight year old girls riding at about a hundred miles an hour. Okay, maybe not quite that fast, but it sure looked about right. I get heart palpitations when she jumps one-handed–and her jumps aren’t that high yet!

#4: I love horses. (I knew that one before we went, but this solidified it.)

I really do adore them and the breeds the cowboys use are particularly gorgeous.

#5: Bucking broncos look WAY more dangerous to ride while rider is on than bull. Bull looks more dangerous when rider goes off.

The broncos are fast. And when they buck, they look like they really want to kill. The bulls, on the other hand, seem to want revenge after the damned rider is off. Both are scary, let’s be clear.

#6: You don’t have to know how the scoring works to enjoy yourself. They didn’t make a big deal out of winners, etc. At last, at this event.

That surprised me…I knew they were awarding points, but there was no presentation, no announcement of a winner, no nothing at the end of each event or at the end of the whole rodeo. I wonder if this is because we were there the first of two nights. This means more research.

#7: Cowboys have very different “styles” in how they ride a bull. One rider was fluid. Another stiff. Both rode the full time.

This didn’t exactly surprise me, but it was very interesting to see such divergent styles. I swear, the one stiff guy looked like a mannequin. The other guy looked like he and the horse were part of the same muscle mass. It was fascinating.

#8: Barrel racing was hands down the most compelling event to watch. Though gals rocked.

I can’t tell you how much I loved watching the barrel racing. The skill of these women and young girls…and horses! I could watch this event forever.

#9: Bulls/calves are smart animals. Know exactly what to do/where to go. Especially calves, who outsmarted more than one cowboy.

The calf roping event was actually hilarious because to borrow a phrase, it was clearly not these animals’s first rodeo. However, as they are calves, they are young, so they couldn’t be too experienced! And yet, in more than six separate attempts (might have been more like ten), the calves knew exactly what to do to make sure the cowboy’s rope didn’t get anywhere near them. One feinted right, then went left. One stopped dead and the cowboy overshot him. It was funny to the point where you couldn’t help but root for those adorable beasts!

Overall rodeo impressions: #10 Yes, cowboys are adorable. (Daughter wondered if it was a pre-requisite.)

Especially when they are sitting on the rail during a break, eating cotton candy. (Blue, of course.) Although I shouldn’t say “of course.” At least a half-dozen cowboys wore pink or lavender shirts. Real men, apparently, wear pastels. My favorite cowboy, whose name was Shane (I kid you not!), wore a deep amethyst purple for two events, then changed into white for the bull riding. I’m telling you…cowboys? Fashion plates.

And those are my impressions of my first rodeo. And I know it won’t be my last. (Actually, it wasn’t my first rodeo…I went years ago when my daughter was probably around two and I was miserable. But it was an outdoor rodeo in July in Florida.) So I will do a lot to accurately research my books, but it’s so much better when it’s January in Florida, indoor and with box seats.

Have you been to the rodeo? Do you want to go?

The winners from Monday’s blog who have won a copy of Samantha Hunter’s STRAIGHT TO THE HEART are:
Pat Cochran (Comment #40)
Limecello (Comment #36)
Angie T (Comment #8)
You can contact Samantha at samhunter @ samanthahunter.com for details!

My daughter’s birthday comes soon after Christmas…and for the past three years, she has celebrated her birthday with a sinus infection.

Nice present, huh?

This year is no different. She’s currently in the other room after a long drive to our pediatrician, is on antibiotics and watching television because she’s too weak and tired to be on her computer. That’s how sick she is.

I had the doctor check and for three years running, she’s been in this time of year. I do think this is related to her allergies…and I suspect that my parent’s house, where we spend most of our Christmas holiday, is the source. Not sure what it is. We go over there all the time. But rarely do we stay for such prolonged periods, with so many people around. We had 41 people for Christmas Eve and 34 on Christmas Day. It was hot and the air conditioners could barely keep the house cool…I suspect mold.

That’s my daughter’s biggest allergy. For those of you who have been reading this blog from the beginning, you might remember when we discovered the mold in our duct work and how we had to have it replaced and a UV light installed that keeps it from reoccurring. So far, it has been very effective. That’s one of the downsides of living in Florida…humidity that breeds mold. My parents are going to have their duct work tested. It can’t be a coincidence that three years in a row, she’s gotten sick after spending nearly two solid days at their house.

She even prepared this year…on her own, she doubled up on her Vitamin C, Vitamin D and enchinacea. What she didn’t do was take her allergy pills every day for the month preceding. That *might* have helped. But we don’t know.

In the meantime, I’m feeling a little under the weather myself. Just another reason for me to do the “bah-humbug” thing!

How about you and yours? Any holiday related illnesses to contend with???

So, my daughter is 13 years old. Up until this year, Christmas has been a time of total and complete mirth and happiness for her…the anticipation of presents, time off from school, sleepovers and play dates. This year that changed…and she’s not happy about it.

She’s not angry–don’t get me wrong. This time of year means a lot to her…especially since her birthday is a week later. This is *her* time of year. She owns it. But this year, she had a bunch of unexpected responsibilities thrust on her…and she finally realized why I’m not so thrilled with Christmas.

I’m not a grinch…but I’m close. I love the holiday once it happens, but the preparations are outrageous. I find it all overwhelming and wasteful, to be honest. (Yeah, I know…bah humbug!) Dead trees. Extra electricity. TIME. Oh my God, the time! Shopping, wrapping (only to have things unwrapped!) cooking…it’s the one thing I don’t mind so much because at least we get to eat and enjoy time with family while we do it. But the rest? Not for me.

Not for her so much, either. Not anymore!

I have a feeling my daughter–who was just a couple of days ago searching for her saucy green Santa hat and humming Christmas tunes–is about to turn into an Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Trust me when I tell you that I did everything I could to stop this from happening to her, but growing up means more responsibilities. I feel badly asking her to do certain things…but I know I must! And then other people ask her to do things, too. On the upside, I’m taking her and her two best friends to the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH for her birthday. I think that will undo any damage done.

So…are you like me, a closeted Scrooge? Or do you genuinely love all the hub-bub and hectic anxiety of this time of year?

By the way, I posted the cover of the third Phantom book on my website and it’s my favorite of the three. Check it out!

Oh…and the 8 free books from Smashwords promotion will be running through December 30th. If you’re giving anyone a Kindle or Nook for Christmas (or are receiving one for yourself) be sure to make note of the codes so you can download right after the holiday!

The winner of this week’s $20 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card is…

:santa2: #7 elisa v! :santa2:

Elisa, email me julie @ julieleto . com so I can get it out to you!

And hopefully, this will get you in the mood for the holidays…