Lisa Kleypas Does it Again

My favorite romance author is Lisa Kleypas. I adore her writing voice, and her memorable characters. I just finished the newest release in her Texas contemporary series. Smooth Talking Stranger is another gem in this awesome series. The heroine, Ella Varner is tough, soft hearted, and the glue of her dysfunctional family. When she is faced with the responsibility of caring for her newborn nephew, after her sister abandons him, her life is turned upside down. However, Ella takes it in stride, and in the process meets Jack Travis, a sexy, self- made millionaire. Although Ella and Jack are polar opposites, they share an undeniable sexual chemistry. In caring for baby Luke, Ella finds herself, and discovers she wants far more out of life than she was receiving. This is a love story in double proportion. Ella falls in love with two men. One that slobbers, and totally depends on her, and the other, who makes her drool, and wants to take care of her. Also in the mix is the reappearance of Hardy Cates *swoon*, Haven, Liberty, Carrington, Churchill, and Gage Travis. We loved them in Sugar Daddy and Blue Eyed Devil. They play memorable roles in this one as well, and their appearance gives the reader a much wanted update on their lives. Lisa introduces Joe Travis who is the youngest Travis sibling. One can only hope that Lisa's next offering in this wonderful series is a book for Joe. I give this book 5 stars. In my opinion, when you read the last words in a book, and you want to start all over again, you've found a winner. Lisa Kleypas gives her readers another literary gift with the third book in this Texas series.

A Character is Born

A thousand random thoughts travel through my mind at the speed of light. I reach out trying to grasp one that will make me, or break me. A scenario is waiting just behind the next wall of fog, dying to become my next WIP. I'll form a character from the images that flutter through the darkness, whispering to me the snippets of their existence.

Characters are like real people. They want, they dream, and they disappoint. As writers we create a shell of existence on the page. We breathe emotion, physical features, and actions into the outer and inter shell of their existence. The shell becomes a person with conflicts, flaws, and the desire to love and to be loved. Sometimes our characters never expect what we have in store for them, and most of the time they fight us tooth and nail with their own agenda. In each character, whether male or female, we leave a part of ourselves behind. We grow, we cry, and we conquer the world with them. And in the end, we are better writers for having created them.

We can never dream too high, or work too hard to make a character more real. The characters that I can remember from favorite authors are memorable for a reason. They spoke the right dialogue, they made me laugh, and they were good even when they were bad. But most of all, they made me want to be a better writer. They made me want to put a pen to paper.

I have a character wreaking havoc in my mind. He's strong, dark, and fleeting. He's a mystery man. He's a loner. He has the physical strike of a rattler, and the stealth of a ninja warrior. He doesn't know it yet, but he wants a woman in his life. He could use his brawn to make a dire situation change for the better, but he doesn't see it that way. He lives by his own rules, and when he talks, people listen. When a certain lady enters the picture he discovers a voice of reason, and that maybe women weren't created for one use only.

His name is Jack Blue. And he has a story to be told.

How do your characters present themselves? Do you see a part of yourself in each character you create?

Write On

I haven't writen an original thought in over five months.

I thought by taking a break from writing I would find out if writing was as important to my existence as I once thought. I was very surprised to find that I didn't miss writing.

So should I surmise that being a writer is not who I really am?

Writing is hard work, and I found writing an original stressful. I'm a perfectionist at heart, and I revise as I write. I want to be the type of writer who writes now and thinks later, but it's not in my constitution. I truly miss the idea of writing. At this point I feel stagnate... as if I'm letting an opportunity of a lifetime pass me by. Writing the next great American novel has to be a driving force in one's existence to make a difference. Without the desire to get words on a page, the realm of appearing on a local bookshelf seems a pipe dream.

At this point in my life publishing is not even a thought. I just want an idea for a story that I truly believe has to be told. I want the burning desire to type words.

I want to feel like a writer all over again.

A Walk on the Dark Side

All of my life I've been conservative. I've always been leery of the unknown, and a creature of habit. Unfortunately I make assumptions about things in life before ever exploring the possibilities.

Shopping is the only thing I do impulsively:)

I love to read, have no idea how many books I have consumed in my lifetime, but I assume the number would be in the thousands. I've always read books with a romantic theme. I've often had books recommended to me by friends. Over the years I've been recommended several paranormal series, but refused to read them because I could never grasp the concept of shape shifters, vampires, and fantasy. I like to read what I can relate to, and I like to dream about my fantasies. Before I found the JR Ward Black Dagger Brotherhood series I never dreamed about vampires, but now I do.

JR Ward has created a world out of vampires, lessors, ans shellans that pulls a reader in to the dark side until you never want to escape. You become apart of this world where a group of vampires form a brotherhood and fight the lessors who are out to destroy their race. In the process they love, forgive, and make you forget they aren't human. The vampires in the Brotherhood are strong, mean as hell, and hot enough to make you squirm at the vision Ward creates. What I love about this series is that the characters are so real it seems incidental that they are vampires.

Ward's sarcastic writing voice, and ability to paint a realistic picture of vampires bonding as true male friends makes this series get better with every book. I'm so glad I discovered the Twilight series. Thanks to Sin's recommendation it opened my eyes to a world of paranormal books that I would have otherwise never sampled.

Oh Boy, what I've been missing!

Twilight~The Movie

I recently had the pleasure of reading the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. I picked up Twilight in the bookstore many times before I read it, I was fascinated by the cover art. The blurb on the book also fascinated me, but since it mentioned the word vampire I declined reading the books because I'm not a paranormal fan. What a mistake on my part. This is undoubtedly one of the best series I have ever read. I'm hooked! I can't believe how the romance in this series carries the entire plot of all three books. I can't stress enough how if you are a romance lover at heart you will enjoy this young adult series. I am highly anticipating the release of Breaking Dawn on August the 2nd, it will be the fourth and final book in the series. Twilight-the movie will be released on December 12th in a theatre near you!

Failure to Launch

After much thought and hair pulling, I've decided to take a break from writing and reassess my goals. It seems the past few months I've been writing in limbo, nothing seems to click anymore, and the burning desire to publish seems to have burnt out. I know a lot of writers experience this, and take time to step away and reevaluate their approach to writing. I feel I jumped into blog mode long before I got my writing sea legs, so my plan is to put the horse in front of the cart and slowly start at square one again.

This may seem discouraging because it appears I'm doing things at a snail's pace, but that is usually how I operate. I never want to approach anything in a half way manner. I always have my ducks in a row before I try to make a statement.

I'll check in from time to time, and I'll still be floating around in cyber space researching and finding my way in the great big world of writing.

So this is not goodbye, it's hello until we meet again.

Confessions of a Conference Virgin

I have my first writer's conference under my belt!

What an awe inspiring experience. It was so interesting to see things through the eyes of an agent, and two publishers. I learned about classifying the genre of my WIP, and using my internal editor to my advantage. I also gained a valuable resource through an ATF agent that gave a workshop on guns, ammo, and the ATF's relationship to other law enforcement divisions.

I heard a beautiful keynote speech by author Pamela Cable entitled "Coming Out of the Darkness Into the Life of a Writer." What a powerful and thought provoking speech. She discussed using the hardships in your life as fodder for ideas in your WIP or for new imaginative stories. She was once homeless with two children, and today she is a wonderful, talented author, with a book called Southern Fried Women.

I was so excited to receive some very nice compliments on my WIP during an open critique. I also won a full critique of the first three pages of my WIP from an agent as a door prize. I look forward to seeing what advice she has for me. I hope to use it to push me in the right direction with my WIP.

Most entertaining workshop of all was given by a publisher from Ellora's Cave. She gave out a list of inappropriate terms to use for the human anatomy when writing sex scenes. I won't bore you with any since I already shot my load on the pirate ship... but I'll leave you with the thought of my favorite.

Lacy trailed her fingertips down his muscular chest, over his washboard abs, stopping just above the object of her oral affection.