Birds Of A Feather

I woke up at 6:50 this a.m. as the dog shuffled into the room to make sure she hadn't missed anything exciting like one of us getting up and preparing her a steak. For a second I lay there, thinking about how I'm going to figure out a plot point or two and then I sat bolt upright. (Okay, I didn't really sit bolt upright. Does anyone actually do that? How many times have I read it though? How many times have I written it? Oh, and as long as we're being honest here, I don't know for sure why the dog shuffles into the room every morning as I am not privy to her POV.)



As I was saying, I was wide awake in an instant because it was my turn to blog and I had nothing prepared. Eek! (Have you noticed how we all have little words we tend to use? Eli says eek. I say ack. Karen snorts. Danita is famous for her Ha! I'm sure all the rest of you have them too and that I'm just too fuzzy headed to recall them at this moment. Plus. we've all adopted each others...) As you may have already surmised, I still have no topic to blog about. This has happened before, of course. I've started other blogs just like this, the difference being I realize it's a cop out and eventually find a subject, but I'm pretty sure that isn't going to happen this time, so please, don't get your expectations up.

Now, this is where I cleverly work in that adorable picture you see at the top. See how all those birds are cuddled together? Remove one of them and the rest look as though they will tumble off the branch. They are feather to feather and beak to beak for warmth, support, safety and comfort, or at least it appears they are. (Here's where I draw a parallel between those birds and our little ragtag group of writers bound together by this blog.) We need each other!

Yes, it's true. Take Eli's exciting reviews this month. She shared them almost reluctantly, thrilled to have good ones, a little embarrassed, it appeared, for looking as though she was bragging. All of us said, "No, please, share. Your fortune is ours, too, it feeds the dream, we want to share your good times -- we're happy for you!!"

Last spring, I got a pretty bad review that I didn't see coming. It robbed all the joy out of the book for me -- something I admittedly allowed to happen, the reviewer just expressed her opinion. Other reviewers said they loved the book, but that one negative comment from a respected source (RT) just killed me. I finally told you guys and you guys were wonderful and supportive and it helped. Bad reviews happen sometimes. You have to get over it. Compassion helps (because face it, your family mostly doesn't get it. They understand the disappointment, but I don't know if they can actually feel the pain.)

We're sent tons of cyber chocolates to one another as bad news roles in. We've danced happy dances like a bunch of crazed idiots when it's good news and we've <> our way through a hundred problems. Most of us don't even see each other that often, most of us are at different places in our careers and in life, and despite our common mantle of the romance genre, we all write different kind of stories from erotic to suspense to heartfelt to inspirational to fantasy and everything in between.

The differences between us are even more profound than what and how we write. Not all our goals are the same. Some of us enjoy the business aspects of writing, some aren't sure they want to see their work in print, some like ultimate control over their work from blurb to cover to what's inside. Some of us are totally engaged in our work until our share in its life is in other hands and then we let go and move on (that would be me.) Some embrace the longevity of their product and stick with it for the long haul, far after it hits the shelf for the first month. It doesn't matter, it's just variations on the same theme.

To finish this up and not make it a complete waste of your time, let's do a mini check-in as we missed one this weekend. I'll go first. Chapter one done. Synopsis in progress. I also submitted a workshop to Nationals at the 11th hour (literally, beating the deadline by 12 minutes...) and agreed to speak in Portland and in Redmond this spring following the March release of a book I wrote this summer. I am trying to engage myself in my career past writing books which is out of my comfort zone, and in part if not in whole, I have all of you to thank for it as day by day and month by month you all push yourselves in different directions.

So, thanks! I think...