For those that were not able to attend the Nationals this year, I thought I'd share tidbits from the sessions I attended. I encourage you to add to this if you wish. I'll just give a nibble each time in order to spur discussion. I picked up my notes today and flipped open to a page that said "Use the Rule of Three". Here's the essence of that part of a lecture given by Allison Brennan and Sandra Brown: Rule of Three -- Setting: What three things will your character notice when they walk into a room or place? This has to be character specific. Use those in your description of the setting based on the POV you're working from. What does this mean? If I'm an FBI Agent, I will look for specific details that may pose a threat. The smell of a space only matters if there's an odor that [...]

I attended the National RWA (Romance Writer's of America) Convention in Anaheim, California last week. I was a "first timer" and had this wonderful little banner on my name tag that announced my newbie status for the world to see. I was told it would make everyone be nice to me but I didn't really need it. Everyone was nice anyway. It was an incredibly positive experience with both novice and career authors present. I attended several seminars hosted by names as big as Jayne Ann Krentz, Cherry Adair, Nora Roberts, and Michael Haugue. It was fantastic and I was in awe. I even did a pitch to an Agent just to try out my presentation skills. Silly me, I picked the only agent that specifically states she's not taking any new clients. It's posted in big text on her website -- what the hey, there's nowhere to go but up from that [...]

I made it back from Anaheim and the RWA National Convention yesterday. What a great trip! I highly recommend everyone attend a convention of this type. It's a great place to rub elbows with established and new authors. You'll walk away very inspired. It also put me in touch with several other authors in my genre and gave me a chance to sit in on many of the workshops. Some of my favorites were given by Cherry Adair and Michael Hauge. I traveled home with several pounds of books in my suitcase (fortunately I had extra space) plus a lot of new information to charge up my writing.

Okay, I bet everyone agrees that writing gives us a chance to write a character that has all our most attractive traits and none of our, ahem, less attractive ones. Right? So, pretend for a minute you're exactly the really awesome person that you think would make the best heroine ever. What traits would that person have? Since I was born a redhead, but am getting blonder with age, I'd want long dark flowing locks of silk. I like my eyes so I'll keep those (blue). And I hate freckles and I have millions of them -- so, wouldn't it be fantastic to have this perfectly smooth olive complexion? You betcha. Body - tall and lithe? Sounds good to me. Personality? Well, that opens up a myriad of complexities. I could really build a long list here. What about you?

Recently my husband and I decided to rent a lake house for the summer. It was a stretch for us because our schedules don’t make it easy to commit to something long term when it comes to our weekends and vacations. And yes, there was an expense involved. However, this time, with our youngest child not a baby and time’s toll creeping up on us physically, we set a couple of goals for ourselves. One, decide if the lake life might be more than a dream and possibly the future when we decide to “settle down”; and Two, fulfill our desire to expose our children to water sports before we are too old to participate ourselves.What I had forgotten about excessive sun and water has actually turned out to be the best part of the entire thing. It makes you really relax and have fun, despite any possible effort not [...]