Sunday, May 11, 2008
Happy Mother's Day!
Hope all of you have a joyous day with loved ones and lots of sunshine and flowers.
Love and peace,
Devon
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Sloan Seymour's Debut
Monday, April 28, 2008
Inspiration?
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Light Bulbs -- Warning!
~~~~~~~~~~
The startling alert came as health experts also warned that toxic mercury inside the bulbs can aggravate a range of problems including migraines and dizziness.
And a leading dermatologist said tens of thousands of people with skin complaints will find it hard to tolerate being near the bulbs as they cause conditions such as eczema to flare up.
The Department for Environment warned shards of glass from broken bulbs should not be vacuumed up but instead swept away by someone wearing rubber gloves to protect them from the bulb's mercury content.
In addition, it said care should be taken not to inhale any dust and the broken pieces should be put in a sealed plastic bag for disposal at a council dump – not a normal household bin.
None of this advice, however, is printed on the packaging the new-style bulbs are sold in. There are also worries over how the bulbs will be disposed of.
~~~~~~~~~~Thursday, April 24, 2008
Joys of Writing
I managed to get some words down on the page today. But it's very hard to sit here in my cave while the weather is so glorious and the temperature topped out near 80 degrees. Nature, flowers in bloom, trees and bushes leafing, and yard work beckons. Outside, the air smells sweet with the natural perfume of lilac and dianthus, vastly preferable to my stuffy office with Zeb cat's litter box hidden in a corner behind the armchair. Ugh. There's just no place else to put it. Lately, I've been mighty tempted to ship him outside with the rest of God's critters. Only the thought of him actually being out there, having access to the road and any huge dog that might wander past stops me. The poor guy has spent his entire life in this house and I can't bear the thought of putting him out the door. He thinks he belongs here, with us, and I guess he does. And, wow, did I ever meander off topic.
Well, I have no idea how I started out talking about gunfighters and ended up with my cat. But there it is. It's late, so I guess I'll call it a night. Later...
Devon
Monday, April 14, 2008
Oh, The Drama...And a Lovely Surprise
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Earworms That Eat Your Brain
Monday, April 7, 2008
T.G.I.M.
Who knows. This is the age-old question that's driven writers batty... well, for as long as I've been part of the writing community. It's a question I've wrestled with for the past eleven years. Maybe I should go back and read my own blog post where I advised, Write what you feel passionate about.
Friday, April 4, 2008
What's Your World?
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Follow Your Passion
Years ago, right after I joined RWA, I remember going to my very first critique session with some of the ladies from my local chapter. I took a synopsis and the beginning of a Medieval werewolf story I had started and felt pretty excited about. After reading my material, the ladies expressed disappointment that I wasn't working on one of my westerns. They told me paranormals weren't popular and NY just wasn't buying them. They strongly advised me to put away the werewolf story and pick up where I'd left off with my western historical.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Wild Texas Roses
Back to my point. I posted the picture because these are the Wild Texas Rose(s) I refer to in the title of my current manuscript. During a very nice turning point in the story, my hero makes up a story for my heroine about The Yellow Rose of Texas.
Friday, March 28, 2008
To Blog, Or Not to Blog...
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
David Cook is my IDOL
EDITED to add: Well, my video's gone. I removed it from the post because YouTube pulled it and all the other performances from Tuesday night.
Devon
Congratulations KYRW RITA & GH Nominees!
Toni Blake for "Tempt Me Tonight" -- single title
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Frustrating Delays
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
And the Winner Is...
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Back on Track
Monday, March 17, 2008
Dead Standstill
Saturday, March 15, 2008
The Neverending Scene
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Computers Are Sneaky
Late last night, I sat here and pored back over a scene I had just finished, adding a line here, changing a word there, deleting an unneeded comma. That sort of thing. I got to the very end of the scene and ran across a word that defied the built-in thesaurus, so I turned around and opened my trusty (and huge) Rodale's on my lap. When I turned back to my monitor, my document had disappeared. It was in plain blue mode and the words SHUTTING DOWN were emblazoned across the screen.
Mentally, I screamed, "No! Nooo! Wait! Don't do this to me!" Computers always turn a deaf ear to our panicky pleas. It shut down anyway.
When it came back up, I immediately went to my document. Just as I feared, none of the changes I made were there. All that meticulous proofing and tweaking had vanished into cyber hell. At that point, my computer had the audacity to pop up a little screen to tell me that updates had been installed and it had restarted. Duh. No kidding. What happened to asking my permission to do all that? After all, computer, you're supposed to be working for me! And yet, I've always been a slave to your little whims and glitches.
Just an observance here, but it seems like since getting my first computer years ago, I've spent an awful lot of time trying to work around the glitches and trying to recover lost words and even whole documents.
I'm just venting. After my computer pulled the sneaky on me, I got disgusted and shut down. Now, I have to go back and try to remember all the little changes I made last night. For all the ease computers give me with my writing, I would hate to know the hours I've spent during the past several years with do-overs to try and hang onto what I've written.
Computer, you are on my list today, and I'm going to be keeping my eye on you every minute. You've been warned.
Devon
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
What I'm Reading
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Indulgence
Thursday, March 6, 2008
High Concept
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Who's Your Hero?
I've been thinking about the hero in my current work in progress today. The challenge in writing a hero is making him appealing to all women who read the story. If we can get the reader to fall in love with our hero, at least for the duration of the story, then we've done our job. And since romance novels are mostly written by women for women, it's all about the hero.
That doesn't mean the heroine is completely without purpose. She must be someone the reader can identify with on some level, have goals and motivations the reader can get behind and want her to succeed. She must have strength of character and be worthy of the hero's love. But, let's face it, do we really care if the heroine in a romance novel is dripping with sex appeal?
Which leads me back to the hero. What makes a hero universally appealing? It's got to be more than looks. Though that sex appeal I mentioned doesn't hurt a thing. He must have some noble and worthwhile attributes that go more than skin deep. Even when he's acting like the bad boy, there are certain lines of behavior he won't cross. And speaking of bad boy heroes, they're my favorites and the most fun to write.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Too Much Information?
It is the the fluffy "heaving bosoms" of romantic literature (such a nasty set of words without flavor or intention) that force women to stay in the sexual place like dogs on leases set at the feet of their masters. In truth, sexuality and erotica are not filled with the women who lack the ability to think, feel, and react in a way that is raw (sometimes) and real (always).
Saturday, March 1, 2008
In Like A Lamb
Friday, February 29, 2008
Colin Farrell's Son
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Doing The Homework
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Let It Snow
Monday, February 25, 2008
It's Been A Good Day
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The Voices in Our Heads
Skin Deep
It seems there's a contingent of readers out there who are sick and tired of the heroines in romances novels always being stunningly beautiful. On one forum, they even list their gripes and ask authors to please not write these types of heroines anymore. Here's just an example ---
- No more blondes, please
- No more redheads
- No more blue eyes
- No more green eyes, or amethyst eyes,, or violet eyes
- No more unrealistic figures, such as melon-sized boobs, or impossibly small waists (you know, the ones a guy can span with his hands and have his fingers touch) LOL!
Get the picture? It appears this (very small, I would think) contingent of readers wants us to write heroines with bad hair, preferably brown. They'd also like brown eyes, I'm guessing because that's the only color they didn't ask us not to write. They'd also like the heroines to have average figures. By average I'm thinking anywhere from a rack of bones to a plus, plus size.
Hooo-kay. I guess these readers don't realize that romance heroines do actually come in all shades and shapes. They only seem to be paying attention to (and griping about) the ones who happen to be beautiful.
On the other hand, these same readers had no complaint whatsoever about the stud-muffin heroes we write. I guess they kinda like them tall, and with all those ripply muscles, not to mention certain other exaggerated (ahem) endowments. They definitely want a hero who's drool-worthy and will play into their fantasy. Go figure. Looks to me like there's a bit of a double standard going on out there. What else is new?
Devon