Terescia's thoughts and such.

To keep from littering the blog with reviews while I’m in a heavy reading phase, I’m just going to offer a link to the review I wrote this morning for The Prince’s Virgin Bride. Now that ebooks are around, it’s amazing how easy it is to get hold of out-of-print series books, like this Harlequin Presents. It turned out to be a great read. If you enjoy series romance, I suggest you read it and see what you think about it. My review is here.

Review of My Favorite Marquess, reviewed by Terescia Harvey, also posted at WeWriteRomance.com (because I share the love!) Read the rest of this entry »

I just finished reading The Footprints of God by Greg Iles. Although not a romance by category, the book contained romantic elements so I’m going to talk about it here.

Dr. David Tennant is a member of the secret government agency working on Project Trinity. He doesn’t exactly believe in God, but after a Super MRI he’s developed narcolepsy and he has vivid dreams that he’s begun to believe are rememberances–of Jesus. A tragic event in his past connected him with psychiatrist Rachel Weiss. Now they’re on the run together as they try to figure out the connection between David’s dreams and the future of mankind.

Writers –> If you’re looking for advice on how to create opening hooks, read the opening of this book. It was strong enough to push me into an impulse buy in my local Walmart. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve ever found yourself trying to increase your writing productivity, read this:

If you don’t have passion and purpose, greater productivity won’t help you

If you want to write, but aren’t sure what’s holding you back, maybe you’re on the wrong track.

This post spoke to me today (and it’s not audio, so it’s a big deal to me). Having passion for your work is essential to a fiction writer, simply because it’s so easy to not write. What’s holding you back? Lack of true passion for what you’re doing? If you think you’re having trouble sticking to your goals now, just wait until you’re answering to someone for your work.

Your passion must push you to work even when you don’t want to.

If you’re having trouble writing, are you writing the right thing? Does your current work in progress have a hold on you? Is it keeping you up at night as you work out plot details, and are you growing right along with your characters? Are you thinking about your book even when you don’t want to think about it? Are you consumed by the desire to finish what you’ve started?

The truth is, work is work, but how much sweeter it is when you’re filled with a passionate desire to do that work.

I came across a great set of articles on writing today as I searched for some inspiration. I’ve read them all before, but rereading them has been inspiring. I’m still not sure why, but reading how-to’s still get me going. I never want to write more than when I’m reading someone else’s ideas of the perfect writing method. It’s all baloney of course, but nevertheless, I love it. (Not the articles, but the idea that there are any two writers who ever do the same thing to produce their written work.) Read the rest of this entry »

It just came to my attention earlier today that Madeleine L’Engle passed away late last week. Maybe this is old news to some, but I couldn’t help myself in writing this.

Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time is one of the books that started my interest in reading and writing. I remember sitting in the floor at my grandmother’s house, listening to a cassette tape of The Police while I read A Wrinkle in Time. I don’t know why but the music seemed to suit the mood of the story for me. It seems like a crazy combination, but I was a kid.

Reading of Ms. L’Engle’s passing has left me feeling strangely reflective.

Links of interest:

Madeleine L’Engle’s website – http://www.madeleinelengle.com

A Wrinkle in Time website – http://www.awrinkleintime.net

Madeleine L’Engle at Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_L’Engle

All-righty then, I now know that some habits just don’t die. During my fix up of my blog a few days ago, I discovered this post about my 2006 New Year’s Resolutions.

Let me see…

Blog more? Nope.

Write new articles for my websites? Nope.

Write some fiction? Some, but not nearly what I would consider the expected production of a dedicated author.^{(See footnote #1)}

Devote more time to myself? Oh, that’s a good one. Didn’t happen. In fact, I think I finally gave up on all my hobbies, just so I could keep up with life.

Please don’t think I’m bitter about it all. Just know it.

:-)

Okay, for real now. I love my new home and my new office. And yes, it was worth putting off a year or so of my life for, because this was and is truly my dream home. I’m watching the sun come up from my desk, because I have windows that reach from floor to ceiling right in front of me. I see trees and hear birds and can think about peaceful things if that’s all I want to do. It’s my own blank slate when I want to visualize. I can stare at a blank wall and feel nothing but sadness, but I can see into my forest of trees and brambles and brush and  feel peace. Spending time alone with your thoughts is the most powerful writing tool an author can utilize.

footnote #1
I built a new home which my husband and I had started in January 2006. We moved in in March 2007. I had a hand in a great many things–apparently to my detriment. According to a hand specialist, I did not give myself carpal tunnel syndrome as my family physician believed, but I did in fact give myself a bad case of tennis elbow. In both arms. Fascinating, huh?

I painted my beautiful two-story home with its fabulous two-story foyer and all the attendant rooms a mini-large home can have. (Mini-large defined: smallish, but not small.) Three coats for every lovely wall.

I installed hardwood flooring in every room of my home with my husband, because we were too cheap budget-minded to hire someone else to come in and install the flooring.

Did I mention that when we decided to sell the home that we were living in at the time had an unfinished addition we had started almost a year previously? Yeah, should have mentioned that. I painted that one too. And installed some fake hardwood while I was at it.

Hmm. You see that list over to the side of the page? You know, the one in the right-hand sidebar column? It says “Books to Read.”

Well, I still haven’t read any of them. In fact, I’ve spent most of my time of late reading non-fiction, such as Blink, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. (Aside: I love Malcolm, but not that Malcolm. It just so happens that my sweetheart of a husband shares the name.)

I’m on page 10 of this particular book. I thought it might give me some insights as to how–oh, get over it–I just thought it sounded interesting. Sometimes there’s no better reason to read a book than that.

Moving on, I should also say that I have been in a dire fiction funk for way too long now. The very idea of reading anything that doesn’t grab my attention before I’ve even read the first word bores me. I wish it weren’t so, because I’ve always loved reading, but maybe it’s a normal thing to go through a funk like this.

Isn’t it?

(Reassurance desperately needed here, since it has been almost a year and I can count the number of fiction titles I’ve read during that time on one hand.)

You would tell me if I were wrong wouldn’t you?

A few weeks ago, I moved Thoughts and Such from one hosting account to another. In the transition period, I screwed something up, and since I’ve been so busy working I haven’t had time to fix it until tonight/this morning.

Not that my ideal use of my time is to fix a broken blog at three-thirty in the morning, but I couldn’t sleep. I do try not to waste valuable time trying to get back to sleep once I wake up, but even for me, three-thirty a.m. is a little early. However, these days, I’m very lucky to feel energetic at all. I have to take it as it comes….three-thirty a.m. or one p.m.

It is nice to be typing again. I realize I’m very close to the bottom of the heap when it comes to being a prolific blogger, but at least I do post at least once every six months or so. That has to stand for something. :-)

AHHH!  A moth just popped me right in the face. Apparently it thinks my computer screen is a  lovely warm fire.

Anyway, now that I’ve gotten this off my mind, I think I’ll head on back to bed. Maybe I can catch a few more winks of sleep before I have to get up bright and early this morning.

Have a great rest of the night!

So, I woke at 2 PM last night, writing a new query in my head for one of my books. That hasn’t happened in a long time.  I can’t believe how interesting it was to wake up to text in my head (when I say writing in my head, I mean literal writing, word by word, no jumble of thoughts, only the flow of sentences and paragraphs).

We finally completed the new house and moved in, and I think this means that something has finally broken free.

Here’s to happy writing days ahead.