Friday's at the Piedmont Grille

Good morning everyone. As you can see, my internet/modem/power outage/stupid thingy messes are gone. Yay! I can blog and comment again without having to worry if I'm going to crash.

I want to say as well, that I haven't gotten around to following all my new 'friends' back yet because of my dastardly internet but I'm hoping to rectify that situation this weekend.

For those of you who may have missed it, I guested an article at the Guide to Literary Agents blog on Tuesday. Which you can find here.. Chuck Sambuchino did a great job editing it for word count. If you'd like to see the whole article as it appearred on my blog awhile back, I've made a pages link on my side bar. Click on the title and wah-la, there it is.

I've also posted a short story which gained me an honorable mention and pub credits in the Genre Wars Anthology hosted by the Literary Lab last year. High Tide. Don't know where it came from. Have tried to write another but it just seems I can't do it.

I've also decided I'm going to put some other "pages" up -- namely the pages that aren't going in my books. I've some from Genna & Tony, some from MASQUERADE, some from Richard's book. I know I've had one agent take a peek over here recently and I don't want her thinking I'm just a blogger, but that I should be taken seriously as a writer, and how would she know that if she can't read my writing. Pretty smaht of me eh?

Now, while I was dealing with my modem crisis, Sarah Jayne wanted to know what kind of sex Genna & Tony had -- Angry? Make-up? Reflective? Great question. My answer, sort of all of the above. I know I needed them to have sex at some point in the story, otherwise the story wouldn't have made any sense. I mean really, what's the point of all the angst if Genna doesn't realize why she has the angst. Which is also why, I decided to put the sex in the first act, right away, so she can carry that guilt with her when she meets Pete. Pretty genius huh? I'm hoping to post the sex scene next week. (Okay okay, for those of you who are horrified at the thought I would actually post a sex scene on my blog, don't be. I don't write sex. I write sex through a closed door. For those of you who are disappointed, sorry, I write stories, not erotica.)

My other Sarah wanted to know what 'writing' books I've been reading because when I don't write I read. Hooked by Les Edgerton. Very insightful for what makes a great first chapter, first paragraph, first line. Let me tell you, if you haven't read it, find it. Great stuff in there.

I also read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published by Julie Beard. Okay, done laughing now? It's an interesting book, helpful in it's own way. The parts on writing didn't shed any light on anything I didn't already know, but the chapters on the publishing aspect were wonderful. She discusses the various lines in the industry (altho written 10 years ago and lines have come a long way) she was very informative and helpful from the money, to the contracts.

Just for fun I also picked up Merriam-Webster's Concise Handbook for Writers. I only browsed through this because it was dryer than crackers in an oven. Kind of like Strunk & White (and if you don't have Strunk & White, you better get one).

Now late next week, I'm leaving to go back to Rhode Island for the 4th of July family reunion. I won't be blogging until I come back, sometime around the 7th. I've already promised to post the scene from Genna & Tony so...stay tuned.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Get some writing done!