It's November...

...so it must be National Novel Writing Month, that time of year when I mainline caffeine and lose what's left of my mind.

The goal of National Novel Writing Month (otherwise known as Nanowrimo, or Nano) is to write 50,000 words in the month of November.  That breaks down to about 1,667 words a day, or around six and a half pages.

Is it crazy?  For sure.  Hard?  You know it.  Am I going to do it?  Of course!  Even if I don't hit the goal of 50,000 I will have a lot of new words written and be well on the way to writing a new novel.

The novel I'm writing?  "Death On the High Seas."  It's about a murder that takes place on a stranded cruise ship and the woman who tries to solve the case.

I'll try to update you with my progress.  Meanwhile, if you've ever wanted to write a book, this is a great time to start it!  Let me know if you're participating!

Happy National Book Lover's Day!

Today is National Book Lover's Day!  It's a great opportunity to visit your local library, or pluck a book from your shelves to read, or charge up your ebook reader.  It's also a great day to buy books - check out my ebooks and bibliography if you're interested in adding to your library!

It would also be a good day to start writing that book you've been planning to pen.  Fire up that word processor and have at it!

I plan to work on my own work-in-progress (wip) today and read some good stuff.  Hope you enjoy the day!

What a week and a day!

Got back this week from attending an amazing Mystery Workshop.  Learned a lot about mysteries and how to write them, as well as the differences between the various flavors of mysteries, from cozy to noir.

It was an intense time of attending sessions, working on assignments, and writing.  I wrote over 9,000 words last week, quite often under the gun of a looming deadline.  (I can type very fast when I'm motivated, and I was very motivated).

The course was taught by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, an amazing writer and editor in her own right.  Her husband Dean Wesley Smith also stopped by to offer his take on things in the writing business.

All in all it was a great if exhausting week.  I got to meet or see again some very talented writers who wrote great stories that I look forward to seeing published in the future.  We had a lot of fun bonding over breakfast and during breaks.

So now I've (hopefully) caught up on my sleep and can get back to work.  I'm currently working on some writing and also hope to have some things ready to be published before the end of July.  I will keep you posted!

My take on the BONES finale

It has been over a week, but I still find myself thinking about the BONES finale that aired April 29th.  I've been meaning to post about my thoughts on it but life kept getting in the way.  Now that I am somewhat calmer perhaps this is a good time to share my views.
In case you haven't seen the episode and don't want to be spoiled, I'm adding spoiler space.  This is your cue to quit reading this post if you don't want to know what happened...
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5...I'm not kidding, you don't want to be spoiled, leave now!
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Okay.

I enjoy BONES.  When Brennan and Booth finally got together I was very happy.  What would make me happier?  Easy.  I want them to be married.

In "The Secret in the Siege," what fans have hoped for finally happened.  In the middle of the episode, Brennan proposes to Booth, in a way only she can.  It was completely in character, and a joyful Booth says yes.  I and the rest of fandom go wild with joy.

Alas, what Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan give us with one hand, they cruelly take away with the other.

At the end of the episode, the season's big baddie Christopher Pelant contacts Booth and tells him unless he calls off the proposal (without telling Brennan why) 5 random people will die.  Booth has no choice but to comply.  In an emotionally wrenching scene he breaks off the engagement, breaking Brennan's heart (and throwing fans all over into despair).  If I remember correctly, we close on a shot of a devastated Brennan.  Fade to black.

I was FURIOUS after this episode.  I wound up ranting to two friends on Facebook about it, and they fortunately were patient with me and let me get it out of my system, even though neither of them watch the show.

I am not alone in my feelings.  Many fans reacted negatively to the end of this episode, with a few vowing they were done with the show.  Just about everyone took aim and Hanson and Nathan for messing around with our favorite couple AGAIN.

BONES fans have had to wait a long time for these two to get together.  We've put up with rivals, miscommunication, lines, and a whole lot of angst to get to see them as a romantic couple.  Now, with one blow, The Powers that Be (TPTB) have put all of that at risk - why?  Do they LIKE causing us pain?  Do they think if we get what we want we'll quit watching?  Do they think?

The ending felt like a slap in the face to fans.  If TPTB wanted to tick off a major portion of fandom, they succeeded.  I'm not sure that's a great business model, however.

They do have a chance to fix this, however.  Season 9 is in four months (and fanfiction writers are already burning up their keyboards with their own versions of fixes).  And Nathan promised in an interview that "Booth will make this right."  So there is hope.

Here, in my humble opinion, is my take on what could possibly happen in Season 9:

1) Pelant has to die.  There is no way that throwing this guy in jail is going to be good enough for anyone.  Who will do the deed?  Booth is the obvious choice, but there are certainly other contenders for the job.
2) Booth will become obsessed with getting Pelant.  I think he will try to get some under-the-radar help from someone not in law enforcement.  My guess is he'll confide in Max, Brennan's dad, who certainly has proven he can live off the grid.
3) Booth and Brennan will not break up, but it's going to be tough for them.  I'd like to think Brennan suspects something isn't right about all this - she is very intelligent - but she may be thinking with her heart and letting it cloud her judgement.  While I don't think TPTB will allow her to discover Booth's real reasons for a while, my hope is she doesn't doubt his feelings for her.
4) It's going to be very tough for Booth with the Squints, since he can't tell them what's really going on.  I'm willing to bet Angela will be on the warpath.
5) Once this is all over?  I suspect it will take time for our couple to heal.  Then it will be Booth's turn to propose, and maybe, just maybe, TPTB will let us have what we've waited for all this time - a B/B wedding.

Final question: Will I watch Season 9?

That choice may be taken from me, at least at first.  I may have a scheduling conflict beginning in September that will last 10 weeks.  So unless I talk my husband into a DVR (no, I don't have one yet, despite my love of tech) or take time to watch the episodes online, I'll be missing episodes.

But then again, I cared enough to do a whole blog post on the topic.  So perhaps it's not so far a stretch to say I'll be watching.

After all, I'm still hoping for my happy ending.

Help for Ben Wolverton

Author David Farland's son, Ben Wolverton, was in a bad accident and received serious injuries.  Fellow wordsmiths have joined together to raise funds to help defray medical expenses.

Please click the link below and help if you can:

http://www.helpwolverton.com/p/books-for-book-bomb.html

Thanks.

Okay, maybe I'm just not a blogger...

...you would think that I was, being a writer and everything.  But it's been months since I posted anything and I noticed I hadn't added some books to my bibliography and ebooks page.  Almost everything is now updated and (hopefully) all the links work properly.

Anyway, is there anything in particular you'd like to see me blather about here?  I will try to do better on keeping everyone up to speed.  Any writing news I will try to report as soon as possible.  Any other news I will also try to post.

In the meantime, explore the site, let me know what you'd like to see!

Moving right along...

The past few months have seen an upheaval in my life which I am still climbing out of.  My beloved father-in-law died after a long illness in March, and a lot of things, including my writing, was thrown into disorder.

I am very grateful for the number of friends who encouraged me, emailed me, sent cards, or just said a quick prayer for me during these months.  It is good to know how many people care.

Things are getting better.  I am slowly getting things back in order.  I've been writing on a regular basis again, not very much but it all adds up.  I epublished a new short story this weekend - "In the Bag."  It's a fun crime story that I hope you enjoy.

As I strive to get things back to normal I hope to do more with this blog then have it be a placeholder for my writing.  I'm sorry for the sporadic updates, and don't even know if anyone is still reading.  But as things return to, as a friend put it, "a new normal," I'm going to try to make this blog a part of that.

Thanks for reading.  Talk to you soon!