Wild Texas Roses

After a strange few days, things are finally settling down to normal around here. As if it's ever truly "normal." I look forward to getting back to work on my manuscript tomorrow. Yay! I've missed writing.

See the pretty yellow flowers in the picture? Those are prickly pear blooms. I have prickly pear--straight from Texas, where my mom still lives--in my back yard and they thrive here and bloom like crazy. Unheard of in Kentucky, as far as I've seen. I've given pads from my cactus to everyone who's asked so they can start their own, and they always die on them. Very strange. All we have to do here is cut off a pad and give it a toss. It will take root wherever it lands and start growing. So I don't understand why no one else around here can have any luck with them. A friend once told me, I have a very strong desert vibe going on, so maybe that has something to do with it. LOL!

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.
Here's another shot of a starter pad in bloom right beside the steps going out of the garage. This little baby grew into a colossal patch of pads and thorns, completely overrunning the space we had allotted. My husband dug it up after my son tripped one day and fell into the middle of it. Ouch! Poor little guy (he was still very young at the time). We spent at least an hour pulling the nearly invisible spines out of him with tweezers. Very pretty, but if you get near them, they get you.

Hope everyone has a nice April fool's day tomorrow. And stay out of those cactus! :o)

Devon

To Blog, Or Not to Blog...

This week I've seen an awful lot of pros and cons about authors blogging. Mostly cons. There was a discussion about it on the Kentucky Romance Writers private loop and there's also a post about authors wasting their creative energy on blogging over at Smart Bitches.

Do I think authors waste creative juices they could better use writing their next novel? No. At least, I don't. For me, the blog is usually the place I turn to after I've expended my creative energy for the day and want to wind down. I blog to feel like a part of the community. It's like turning to an old friend to share triumphs or disappointments and spill my guts about the daily tedium of writing a lengthy romance novel. And sometimes friends drop in to commiserate or congratulate. So, I feel I'm not alone in my pursuit of an (often) crazy dream of writing. Without the blog, or some other outlet such as email, my voice would go unheard, except by my husband who really has no interest in my daily musings or rants about the writer's life. All he's wants to hear is results, just don't tell him about the struggle to get there.

There are authors who reveal way too much of their personal lives that have nothing at all to do with the pursuit of writing or the writing community. To them, I say, mmm...yeah. Might be better to tone it down a little. The whole world is watching you, sister.

I also have a pet peeve about authors who blog solely for promotional purposes. They disappear for months and then reappear and start chatting it up when they have a book due to be released. To them I say, you're boring me. If you have nothing more to say than, "Buy my book!" do me a favor and restrict your pitch to an actual ad or promo loop. No one (well not me, at any rate) is buying the sudden friendliness that disappears as soon as the book has been launched.

As usual, there's no real point to this post. I guess I'm just a little tired of having the people who don't blog get all superior on the rest of us who do and tell us we're wasting time we could have spent crafting a better novel.

Peace,

Devon

David Cook is my IDOL

Watch this performance from last night's show. I've already chosen "my" next American 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!

Rita finalists--
Toni Blake for "Tempt Me Tonight" -- single title

JR Ward for "Lover Revealed" -- paranormal

Golden Heart finalist--

Cindy Nord for "No Greater Glory" -- historical

CONGRATULATIONS, LADIES!!!

Devon

Frustrating Delays

Since it's past midnight (way past), it's now been six days since work on the manuscript came to a screeching halt. I did manage to write a very detailed thirteen-page synopsis. That took a while because the story isn't completely written, I had to stop and think it through every step of the way. The black moment and subsequent events that bring about the resolution turned out better than I had originally planned. Things came up (nice surprises) that I never knew were there. And I ended up with a circular plot, meaning the story ends with much the same scenario as it begins, coming full circle for all involved.

Still, I'm not finished. Now I have to start culling out unnecessary lines and words to cut it down drastically before I send it to the agent. No way would I send her thirteen pages of synopsis. This long first draft is printed and I'll keep it for my own reference because it does go into detail on certain key scenes, or events that act as turning points, and explanations of motivations, etc.

Delays have made me antsy. I want to get all this finished and submitted so I can get back to the real, and much more enjoyable, work of writing the manuscript. But life stops for no one, and there are a hundred and one things that daily drag me away from writing. Today, nearly the entire day was taken up with a trip to the eye doctor with my son. We were in the doctor's office for five hours. No kidding. I've never seen a medical practice run as this one was, and hope never to see it again. If my son hadn't seriously needed to see the doctor, I would have walked out at the three hour mark. But we had to sit there and be shuffled around from one exam room to another, for this procedure and that. It turns out, my son has blockage of the glands along the rims of his eyelids. It turns ugly and my handsome son is looking pretty pitiful at the moment. Hopefully, he'll be back to his gorgeous self very soon.

And, hopefully, I'll get back to my normal writing routine.

Devon