City of Love

I'm getting excited about the coming edits for The Love Seekers. Now let's admit it, edits are never fun, but I miss this book so much. Not sure if it's the characters, or the places Emma goes that I miss, but I am totally ready to jump back into action. Ask me in three weeks, and I might have a different story to tell.

When I began the first draft it wasn't a concrete idea to have Emma go to Paris, but then it is the city of love after all. I spent a lot of time on the internet watching videos and looking up maps and locations before writing that whole section. It did overwhelm me, to be honest. I thought, there's no way in hell I can effectively carry this off—I've never been to Paris! I've never even left the country! But something compelled me. There is French lineage in my family and I guess it's gonna come out, regardless of where a person grows up.

And now . . . I want to visit Paris. Things are in a state of unrest at the moment for them, and I have no money (what's new!), but someday it will happen. I've always loved Montmartre and all the characters who lived there. I want to kick it like La Goulue and Jane Avril in front of the Moulin Rouge, hehe. And I have some long legs, so watch out! Anyway, I'll keep dreaming and someday I'll get there.

For now, I get to do it through writing and editing. I get to be Emma and live in a small apartment in Montmartre. I get to buy 'shit art' and meet a young French man who'll compare me to the Statue of Liberty. It's a nice way to pass the time . . .

Hope all my friends here are safe and warm today. Thanks for reading!

Peace & Love to you!

Let's be honest

I'm going to be honest and admit that it has been painful to see The Time Seekers not get off the ground the way I'd want it to. But . . . I also understand why it didn't, and feel no animosity about the whole deal. Just a slight depression and guilt. It was a hard book to write and maybe it's a hard book to read. My mother loved it, haha. Though she's a tough critic and I do actually take her opinion with high regard. If she liked it and said it was good, then I believe her. Here's what I think happened: the publishing industry is inundated with a gazillion books, and most of them are super high concept, or they have that nice addictive quality that hits a person's 'sweet spot.' The Time Seekers is a quiet, secretive story about a marriage that isn't working, and a friendship that ended too fast, and Time. That kind of stuff doesn't compete well in a fast-paced world. The other explanation is that it sucks. But you know what's funny? I write what I like to read, and I've always loved really obscure books about relationships—the kind of books shoved in the back of a library with dust all over the cover. I can't stand best sellers. They irk me. Maybe I should take a drug for this condition? So. . . there you go.

But I am extremely happy to work on the third book and see it move toward publication. Maybe I can find a little bit of victory here . . . redeem myself. Lordy, lordy, lordy, let's hope it's possible.

So, we had a few awesome days here in Kansas and now it's awful again. I'm listening to Paul Simon and just trying not to be a huge asshole. What are you guys up to?

Winter Sucks

Well, I've been everywhere when it comes to blogging, but unfortunately I haven't been here. I guess I don't have much to say about myself, or anything in general. I'm a total bore! Maybe it's the time-of-year—it forces one to go into a hibernation mode, just waiting, waiting for March to arrive.

Last week I heard that my edits for The Love Seekers will start up, so that's good news. Maybe working on something again will get me out of this funk. Out of the three, it was probably the most fun to write. I really let Emma do whatever the heck she wanted. So, yeah, you can't beat that. It's every writer's dream to take a character and say, "What am I going to do to you today . . .?" What I love about Emma is, she changes with every affront to her situation. She hurts, she gets mad, she reacts. There's some things in this third book that made me feel so close to her as a fellow woman. She is forced to make some big decisions, and she does face them, and I think she'll surprise readers with the way she evolves throughout the book. Another thing, I had the ultimate experience of writing out what it would be like to be on an 80s 'rock' tour. Pretty crazy! She also goes to Paris, New York, and beautiful Aspen, Colorado. That whole part of the book was like magic to me. I can't even describe it. Hopefully whatever I felt as the writer comes through to the reader, fingers crossed. It was quite something, and I'll never forget the experience. There are times as a writer when you say, can I really pull this off, is this possible, will people believe this? And then there's time you you don't even think, you just create, and that's when the magi happens. It's real, because it's real to you. And that's all that counts.

As always, I thank you fine people for reading my little blog here. Are you sick of winter yet? Have you begun to plan out the garden, or maybe even a delicious beach-side adventure?

Take care and Peace.