July 2008 Archives

This is so cool!

This article appeared in the summer issue of Topsail Magazine. Now Glen Pierce, one of our frequenter commenters here on the blog, put the article up on the Topsail Island website. The writer, BJ Cothran, did such a great job with it and I know she generated lots of interest in my books among vacationers, many of whom showed up at the signing at Quarter Moon Books.

I hope you enjoy it.

 

Do you believe we can be in touch with the other side? Ever since Before the Storm was released, I've been hearing from people who relate strongly to seventeen-year-old Maggie. Maggie "connects" with her father who died many years earlier in a collision between a boat and a whale. Maggie seems to have touched a chord in many of you, and I've enjoyed hearing the stories of your own experiences.

I'm not an airy-fairy sort of person. Bucking conventional wisdom, I don't even believe that "things happen for a reason." But I have had a couple of unexplainable experiences myself. At times, my logical, grounded mind takes over and I chalk those experiences up to wishful thinking. At other times, I simply give myself over to the mystical. As my friend, author Emilie Richards, once said when I was pondering the possibility of 'the other side,' "Who could ever have imagined this world?" Her words still really hit home for me. Most of the time, anyway.

So when people ask me if I believe that Maggie was truly connecting with her father, I tell them the same thing I tell myself: What matters is how it feels to Maggie. That's the only thing that counts.  

Well, this is all good news, although I know some of you won't think so, so I'll get the semi-bad news out of the way first:

After the Storm won't be published until June 2009. Ack! I know. A long time to wait for a sequel. My publisher, Mira Books, calls the shots on the publication schedule, though, and I have to bow to their judgment on this. In the meantime, I've done my very best to make the story worth the wait.

Now, quickly moving along to the good news! Good news part one: Before the Storm has been selected for Levy Home Entertainment's September Need-to-Read program. Levy is a huge book distribution company, and that means Before the Storm will be able to reach lots of new readers when it's prominently displayed at outlets like KMart, WalMart and Stop and Shop. Okay, I guess that's more good news for me than for you, since if you're reading this post, you've probably already read Before the Storm, but it is very good news for me.

Good news part two is good for all of us: Mira will be re-issuing two of my older books, one in April 2009 and another in May. I know we've all been hoping for those re-issues for a long time now, and it's finally going to happen. I'm thrilled that all the readers who've struggled to find my older books will finally be able to get their hands on a couple of them. Mira hasn't yet decided which two books to re-issue. For obvious reasons, they won't select any of the books from the Keeper of the Light trilogy. Currently, they're considering The Courage Tree and Summer's Child. Which books do you think they should choose? 

Here's the information on accessing my live interview on Blog Talk Radio Thursday night (July 24th). I have to say, though, that I tried to listen to their program last night and was unable to hear the show. I hope those of you who are interested will have better luck!

It's a fifteen minute program starting at 8:30 PM eastern standard time.

Go to Blog Talk Radio/Circle-of-Seven around 8:20 or so Thursday night and click on the "Today's Author" program link. You'll see a countdown to showtime. When the show goes live, there is an orange button to click to listen in. The call-in number to speak with me -- 646-200-4071 -- will be on your screen. You do NOT need to log in or register to be able to call in.

                                                                                    Hope this works!

I love doing radio interviews!

Both Before the Storm and The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes are full of meaty subjects for discussion, and of course I enjoy talking about my books, but that's not why I love these interviews. I love them because I can do them without make-up, while relaxing on the recliner in the sunroom in my pjs, if I so desire. Better yet, I can listen to the radio station on my computer in the minutes prior to my interview.  That way, I get a feel for the host and I know what's being talked about on the show. (Right now, I'm listening to a station in Connecticut and they're saying  some people spotted UFOs over Waterbury last night. . . I go on the air in a few minutes, and I'm not sure how I'm going to tie Before the Storm to UFOs, but we'll see.)

I particularly like the call-in shows. Next week, Thursday, July 24th, I'll be on  the "Today's Author" program on Blog Talk Radio, which is a station you can listen to on your computer, and you can call in to talk with me. I hope some of you will! I love talking to my readers on the air. It's a 15 minute program starting at 8:30PM eastern time. The call-in number is 646-200-4071. I hope you'll join me!

I go on the air for today's interview in three minutes, and now they're talking about how our world as we know it will collapse if the aliens land. This is going to be a hard act to follow!

 

 

I know, I know. It's summer and I'm talking about soup, but trust me. This is a good summer soup recipe! It has nothing to do with writing, but since we had one of those supermarket rotisserie chickens for dinner last night, this recipe's on my mind and I thought I'd share it. It's the addition of fresh avocado, lime and cilantro that makes this soup taste so summery to me.

My best friend, Cher, gave me this recipe long ago. It's simple, inexact, and very modifiable, so here we go.

After eating as much of the chicken as you like, cut or pick off the remaining meat and refrigerate. Then you're going to make a stock with the carcass (we really need a nicer word for it!). You can do this right after you've finished your chicken dinner or you can wait until the next day.

• Put the carcass into a large pot, along with a quartered onion, a bunch of celery leaves and stalks, some chopped carrots, some mushrooms (I use the stems for the stock and save the caps for the soup) and a couple of bay leaves. Cover with water and/or low-fat, low sodium chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for a couple of hours. Strain all the solids out of the stock and refrigerate overnight or a few hours to let the fat rise to the top. (Or, if you've mastered one of those fat-removing gizmos, you may use that, but they've never worked for me). Now you have a yummy base for the soup.
• When you're ready to make the soup, skim the fat off the stock, then add the following:

             -one large onion, coarsely chopped

             -carrots, coarsely chopped

             -mushrooms, quartered

             -any other vegetables you'd like--zucchini, turnip, potatoes, etc   

             -another couple of bay leaves

             -salt and pepper to taste

• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about fifteen minutes
• toss in a handful of rice and the reserved chicken
• while that's cooking, chop up a bunch of cilantro leaves, juice a couple of limes, and cut an avocado into chunks. Pour half the lime juice over the avocado to keep it from turning brown.
• when the rice is cooked, turn off the soup, remove the bay leaves, and stir in the cilantro and some of the lime juice (taste the soup--you'll be adding more lime with the avocado, so you don't want it to be too "limey" at this point.)
• ladle the soup into bowls and let people top their servings with the avocado

Serve with a crusty bread or corn bread.

Enjoy! And let me know if you have a prettier word than "carcass" to use in this recipe.  

  

           

 

 

Life is funny sometimes. Here's what happened:

• The book I just finished revising, After the Storm, involves the disappearance of a central adult character. (I'm not giving anything away; the reader will know this in the first few pages).
• If a commenter on my blog has a link connected to her name, I'll often click on the link to see if that person has her own blog.
• Denise is one such commenter, familiar to those of you who regularly spend time on my blog. So one day I clicked on her name and the link took me to Project Jason , which turned out to be a--you guessed it--site for families of the missing. Kind of a spooky coincidence!
• I contacted Denise to see if she'd be willing to help me with some final research details. Denise told me she is "just" a volunteer with the organization, and put me in touch with the founder, Kelly Jolkowski. I spoke with Kelly on the phone for about an hour, and she was gracious and generous and full of the information I needed. I also learned about her own story: Jason, her shy, gentle and kind-hearted nineteen-year-old son, disappeared without a trace from the family driveway while waiting for a ride to work. That was seven long years ago. can you imagine having your child vanish into thin air? Realizing how few resources there were for the families of missing people, especially missing adults, Kelly and her husband started Project Jason, a non-profit organization, designed to offer hope and assistance to the families of the missing. As I spoke to Kelly on the phone, I could imagine being one of those family members. How desperate I'd be for someone like Kelly, who could offer me her wealth of knowledge and her compassion.
• In honor of Jason's 27th birthday, Project Jason is in the midst of a fund-raising drive to raise $2700 by October 6, the 5th anniversary of the organization's founding. This is truly a "kitchen table" organization, a real Mom-and-Pop venture, in more ways than one. I've sent in my $27. Maybe some of you will be moved to do the same when you read this family's story .
• Thank you Kelly, and thank you Denise, for your help with my story and its characters. More importantly, thanks for the help you give those flesh and blood people who need that help in a way I can only imagine. 

I'd almost forgotten.

During the last few of months, I wrote all the material for a new website, worked with the site designers, set up a new blog and dealt with all the resulting snags, helped create a book trailer, traveled for signings, visited bookstores for stock signings, did the revisions from h-e-double toothpicks, and been interviewed umpteen thousand times. I certainly don't regret a moment of it, but until yesterday, I'd nearly forgotten why I went into this business to being with: I love writing.

Yesterday morning, I went back to the Opium Den. My local O.D. (Starbucks) was just remodeled and they have new cushy leather chairs, so I plunked myself down and opened the folder containing the notes for my next, as yet untitled, novel, and I began to create.

Oh. My. God. It was so wonderful. It felt like a homecoming, only better. Brand new characters to get to know. A complex (and I do mean complex!) story to puzzle out. I felt a joy I haven't experienced in months. Maybe not since I started working on Before the Storm. Although I certainly loved writing After the Storm, I already knew those people and their story inside out and backwards. Now, I get to work on something completely fresh and new, and I'm very, very happy about it!

As I wrote the above, the Fed-Ex guy rang my doorbell, bringing me the line edits for After the Storm (wow, my editor works fast!) So my joy was short-lived, since I need to go through A the S one more time. At least I had that brief reminder of why I'm a writer, and that will keep me going until I can open that yummy folder once again.

 

 

The booksigning at Quarter Moon Books was fabulous! QMB is in the heart of Topsail Beach, and since an article had appeared about me in Topsail Magazine, lots of vacationers knew I was going to be there and I think every one of them showed up. I loved getting to meet so many new-to-me readers, and I hope they're enjoying Before the Storm. QMB owner, Lori Fisher (with me at left) did a terrific job.  

 

 

 

Jean Beasley the director of the Sea Turtle Hospital stopped

by, as did Lottie Koenig the realtor who was my guide on my first research trip to Topsail.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the signing, we joined some friends whose office building overlooked the fantastic Surf City fireworks display. It was like being in the middle of the display itself--seriously, I was combing cinders out of my hair the next day! John had a blast taking pictures. Here's one of my favorites.

I'm going to see how many pictures of me with my readers I can cram into this post. The woman in the first picture is Susan Manning, a frequent visitor to the blog. It was so nice of her to make the effort to come to the signing! It was a great day. Hope your fourth of July was just as much fun.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The After the Storm revisions are finished!

As of yesterday, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I was able to get 8 hours of truly restorative sleep last night. After a few weeks of 5 hour nights, that was glorious! I knew I still had a problem with a few short chapters at the end (the denouement). This morning, I sat out on my porch and studied them until a lightbulb went off in my head. They were in the wrong order! I moved them around, and voila! Then I worked slowly but steadily, rearranging them on the computer, playing with wording and structure, and finally. . . finally. . . I typed The End.

Again. Because I'd already finished this book once, you might remember. And soon, my editor will send me the line edits and I'll be at it once more. But for now, I need to simply savor those two beautiful words.

It came to me last night why these revisions were so hard for me. I believe it's because I never truly outlined this book. I'm a notorious outliner, my outlines often stretching to fifty or sixty pages. But since After the Storm a) was a sequel and b) needed to be written in about half the time I usually take to write a book, I simply skipped that step. Instead, I jotted down a couple of pages of notes regarding the general themes in the book. The themes never did change, but jotting them down was a classic case of telling rather than showing, and the showing is always the challenge. Without an outline, a five-hundred page, very complex story told from four characters' first-person points of view can get out of control very quickly, let me tell you! I will never skip outlining again. Ever.

Now, though, all is remarkably well. At least, I think it is. I'll see if my editor agrees, but I have to say I was really pleased with the story by the time I typed The End. It made me weepy many times over. (as my previous post indicated, though, that might not mean a thing).

My characters are far better off than they were on page 1 (well. . . at least some of them are.). And I am definitely better off than I was a few days ago. Tomorrow, John and I leave for Topsail Island for my Thursday book signing at Quarter Moon Books. I've never been to TI during high season and I imagine it's going to be quite the experience! I plan to eat seafood, sign books, watch fireworks with some of my new Topsail Island friends, and SLEEP.

Have a great July 4th, everyone!