It's Valentine's Day...do you know where your hero is?

Actually, when I first wrote that line, it was Wednesday, and I was thinking "It's 8 a.m., do you know where your hero is?"

Really, do we HAVE to keep track of them constantly? No, I'm not naming the book. Suffice it to say that one I read fairly recently -- an author I'd never read before -- had so much heroic navel-gazing and going to bed and brushing his teeth (well, not really) the book came this close to hitting the wall. And I never, never do that. I mean, it's not the book's fault, right?

We've all heard it--at least those of us who write romantic fiction have all heard it--a million times. Watch your backstory (almost inevitably, navel-gazing is backstory in the key of angst). Don't write anything that doesn't move the story forward. But, you say, I NEED to show everything normal so we can all see what a jolt it is when the shit hits the fan. I know you say this, because I've been guilty of it myself (early on). I still do it too often, but I try to remember to slice up the scene when it happens. Because let's face it, normal doesn't move the story forward. At least not far. Also, it's easy to assume everything used to be normal unless the author says otherwise:

"A flash at the window. Instinct had her diving for the floor a millisecond before the glass shattered. Great. She was already on a first name basis with the locksmith; she'd hoped to avoid meeting the window guys another day or so." (not an actual quote from anything, although I might use it one day, come to think of it ... kind of has that OMG snarky tone I'm so fond of)

An opening like this, and you could be forgiven for not assuming normal was the norm. And you didn't need chirping birds and sunshine to set it up. Or a page and a half of the heroine ruminating on how much she needed to discover what really happened that dark, stormy night ...

One final little bitty note--in an hour or so I'll be doing my first "author interview" via phone to a local radio station. It's a new program, they're focusing on romance, and they contacted me yesterday to see if I'd do a phone interview. Should be fun.

PS Fortuneller is up for book of the year at Whipped Cream

Check it out--The Fortuneteller's Lay, which got four cherries from LASR/Whipped Cream and was a "book of the week" there, is now up for Best Book of the Year.

If you agree, I'd love your vote.

http://www.longandshortreviews.com/WC/BB2008.htm

I'm currently in last place, and the inimitable and fabulous Wendi Darlin is way ahead of me, and I really couldn't blame you if you voted for her instead...in fact, if you hated Fortuneteller (hah!), follow the link anyway and vote for Rough and Ready, by Wendi Darlin.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

As long as it's snowing somewhere else, that is. Not that I don't love snow, but not to drive in and there's that whole work thing. However...I feel like I'm digging myself out from a giant snowdrift dumped by the Universe.

Now, lest you think I'm just complaining, I know that all that snow will eventually melt and I'll have all kinds of water to nurture/feed everything I've got going on. Enough with the analogy. Any more and my head will start hurting!

I just realized (thanks, Terry) that I haven't posted since I ran off to Tampa to attend the Donald Maass workshop--how sad is that? This would be the Tension on Every Page/High Tension workshop, and it was fabulous. I learned things I didn't know I needed to know. Imagine three and a half days of working through (picking apart and putting back together) everything from dialogue to scenes, exposition to action, even building tension into a query letter. I came away thinking I was a worse writer than I thought, with more potential to be a great writer than I had ever thought possible. Since then, I've done more picking apart than putting back together (aiming for great seems to require rejecting 50% of what I've done and then striving to tighten what's left)., but I'm moving back into the writing from the hating....which, once I can see past this snowbank in front of my dining room window will probably work out really well.