A new month, again!

Here we are in yet another new month -- where is the time going?

Oh, I know. Edits.

That's right, I'm hard at working making editor-requested revisions on my vampire books coming out next year. It's funny how finished I thought I was until my editor got hold of it! Not that the changes have been hard, but it makes me think about how often I make the same mistakes.

Like those pesky "-ly" words -- you know, regretfully, longingly, seriously, beautifully and their relatives. It's so easy to drop one of them in rather than use a bunch of nouns and verbs. And then there's my tendency to use the "has been" form of verbs, like "She had watched" or "He had waited."

I have a real attachment to the words "just" and "very," too. I'm too chicken to see how often I use them in a 70,000-word manuscript, but I wouldn't be surprised it they make up 10 percent. So I've just decided to be very careful in using them from now on. (Yeah, see how they creep in?)

My goal is to get the first manuscript squeaky clean by next week so the changes are back to the editor before I have to worry about getting plastic on the upstairs windows and checking for the best price on turkeys. And then we'll roll into a new month and more challenges ... like getting the next manuscript cleaned up and to the editor before Christmas rolls around.

Ready for the ghoulish good time?

Halloween is just a week away and yes, I have already eaten most of the candy I bought for the darling little trick or treaters. That means I'm off to buy candy I don't much care for this time around.

I've always been a fan of Halloween. Considering that I write paranormal romance, I suppose that's much of a surprise. What is surprising is that I'm still as enthusiastic as back when I was a kid. Granted, I no longer get to dress up and ring doorbells, but decorating my porch and lawn is almost as much fun.

I've already done some scarecrow and pumpkin stuff, but the big guns come out this week. I'll be setting up the fake tombstones and hanging my ghost Lydia (complete with bright red LED eyes!) in front of the window upstairs. Add a few skeletal parts hanging from the dogwood tree in the front yard and we'll be ready.

Oh, and that candy that didn't make it to kiddies? Chocolate fangs, for the vampire lover in us all.

One short jump to Christmas

Guess what? It's fall!

Okay, here at my old Kentucky home, it's still summer. The fans twirl merrily to keep my house cool, I run around in flip-flops and capris and air conditioning flows from every store and restaurant around. Still the calendar says the season has changed, which makes me happy.

As I see it, I'm only a few football games and a hayride away from the Christmas season. Once upon a time, twinkling lights didn't go up until the last of the Thanksgiving turkey was devoured. These days, tiny goblins and princesses trick-or-treat by the light of the neon nativity scene.

I must confess, I have already begun my Christmas shopping. I'm one of those people who see the perfect item for someone I know and snap it up. Giving is much more fun for me than receiving, as long as no one expects their gifts to be perfectly wrapped.

The reason I'm a writer is because I do not have the makings of an artist. My creativity lends itself more to passionate prose than perfectly shaped ribbons. That's why I love those colorful gift boxes. All I have to do is slap a label on and voila! I'm done.

One thing I'm trying to do is give books by people I know to people I know. Call me old-fashioned, but there's nothing I like better on a cool evening that curling up under a fuzzy blanket with a cup of cocoa and a good book. In fact, it's such a wonderful escape that for hours on end, I won't even think about how few shopping days there are to Christmas or ponder why I left the snowmen on the end table ever since last year.

Sling me another burger!

I've spent the last two evenings at the local county fair, working alongside my fellow Lions Club members in our hamburger wagon.

The Greenup Lions Club burgers are regionally famous, thick with diced, cooked onions and a quarter-pound burger that brings folks in just to buy one or a dozen. I've eaten them for a long time, but only started working in the wagon once I became a Lion a couple of years ago.

Within the confines of our small workspace, the world shrinks to shouts like "Three up regular and one plain!" and a whole lot of laughing, talking and the occasional friendly argument. Since women are in short supply in the club right now, it's me and the guys, pushing out those burgers as the line grows toward the midway.

I sit at the window, taking orders and handling the money, shouting back to the guys. Some folks just order and go. Others like to talk or give me a hard time. But it's all good. I like being part of the team that makes the hamburger sales a success, and brings in the money to fund our scholarships, eye projects and other good works.

Working in the hamburger wagon reminds me a little of the writing process. Yeah, I'm the only one taking orders and making change, just like I write by myself. But there's a support team behind me, ready to pitch in whenever I need help, to make sure things run smoothly, just like the editorial team at Resplendence Publishing that will make sure my book is the best it can be.

And like those folks who keep coming back for a Lions Club hamburger, I hope my readers will keep coming back for my books with the same enthusiasm for something fun and good.

The vagaries of time

Last week, I escaped for a few days to my mother's home in northwestern Ohio, and enjoyed every second of it. As I was leaving, I was reminded of how time never flows the same.

At home, the days would have dragged on as usual with work, home life and the demands of my dog and cat. At my mother's, the time flew, although we really did nothing of any importance. In fact, to be honest, we did nothing of importance.

Remember how the last days before summer break dragged when you were a kid? And remember how fast the first weeks of school flew by?

It hardly seemed like we were back in school before it was time to celebrate Columbus Day and get excited about Halloween. But didn't the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas drag, where these days, they seem to fly by?

Of course, anticipation makes time crawl. No matter what you're looking forward to, it seems an eternity until the moment arrives. For some people, it's their wedding day or the birth of a child. Right now, in this moment in time, it's the publication of "Out of the Shadows," the first book in my Shadow Ancients vampire romantic suspense series. The book will be coming in March, 2010, from Resplendence Publishing, which seems a million years away right now.

I realize the big day will be on me before I know it, and then I'll be looking forward to the next book debut and the next Big Moment in my life -- and to sharing it with all those who love me, like my dear mother!

Of laundromats and novels

I'm a newbie ... not to the writing world, since I've made my living writing for newspapers for somethun, somethun years ... but to the elite circle of published authors.

I'm thrilled that RP will be publishing my vampire romantic suspense series, starting with "Out of the Shadows" next March. I'm also a little anxious about entering this whole new world. Which leads me to a little story.

My washer's gone to the great appliance store in the sky so I've become the queen of laundromats. My experience must show because a strange man came up to me, uncertainty written across his face, and said, "What do you do if the washer won't open up when it's done?"

Oviously, a laundromat virgin. I sent him to the convenience store next door that operates the laundromat. He thanked me ... and then asked for advice on the dryers.

Use the big ones, I advised. They're hotter and cost less.

We discussed the specifics of his laundry and decided it could all go into one dryer. I also passed along the tip to check his clothes before the dryer stopped in case he needed to add money. If you add while the dryer's tumbling, it's a quarter; wait until it stops and it takes fifty cents to start it back up.

With this bond between us, he felt the need to chat. Which is okay. Total strangers target me for conversations, and some of them have been real doozies.

The laundromat guy was fine. It seems like he put his house up for sale, expecting it to take several months to sell. It took three weeks, so everything that didn't fit in the camper he's using as temporary housing is in a storage unit.

He felt the need to explain that he was good at doing laundry, just that he'd never used a laundromat before. My function, I think, was to serve as his security blanket during this first time.

I know how the guy feels. I've written all my life. I've got a wall full of awards for writing on the wall behind my desk. Yet as I begin the grand adventure of seeing the world in my head become a published reality, I feel a whole lot like my laundromat buddy.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing ... but it's nice to know there's a safety net there, too.