Category: Life

Life

Are you proud of what you’ve done? Or should you be ashamed?

While I was occupied with proofreading ARe’s Wildfire newsletter yesterday (yes, I am the one to blame if it goes out with a typo), the program on the television I was mostly ignoring as I worked changed from the noon news to a game show. As the contestant sought to become a millionaire, and I was about to turn off the TV, one question captured my attention. It was about Randy Pausch and The Last Lecture. The one hour plus video of a lecture delivered by a little known professor at Carnegie Mellon University captured the nation’s attention. The video on YouTube now has over 10 million views. Why? Because Randy was dying of pancreatic cancer and that was literally his last lecture to his students. Even though by some strange coincidence that proves it is indeed a very small world I happen to be friends with Randy’s cousin who is a member of my Junior League, I watched Randy’s final months play out in the media just like everyone else. For once the media got it right; instead of just covering the lives and deaths of celebrities who don’t deserve the time we give to them, they devoted lots […]

Life

I’m no Jane Austen

This shouldn’t be a surprise to any of you. No, not much of a resemblance between her and I, but apparently I thought I was Jane Austen for a brief period. I wrote a novella using what I thought was a very up to date and catchy premise. Think Gossip Girl meets Dukes of Hazard with a few of the Golden Girls thrown in for color. A spoiled rich girl acts out for attention and gets into trouble, prompting her grandmother to ship her off to an old friend’s cattle ranch in Colorado where she has an epiphany, makes a dramatic transformation, and meets two really hot cowboys. Yes, the heroine is unlikeable in the beginning. She is flawed. It’s not her fault. It’s how she was raised and the environment she was brought up in. But she sees the error of her ways and changes with the help of the family who takes her in. Flawed heroines are not a new thing. Think Jane Austen’s “EMMA”. Emma is not so nice. She’s cruel to the spinster, she’s manipulative in her dealings with her friend and men, she jealous, yet she learns a lesson in the end. But I’ve read […]

Life, writing romance

Working Writers

I always learn so much from the authors I interview on the radio show that it amazes me. One thing I am still trying to internalize, something other writers have already achieved, is accepting other people’s opinions of what I do. I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, I love my job as a romance writer as much as I hate it. I love the creativity, the positive feedback, the freedom and the people I meet. I hate the negative feedback, the arbitrary nature of the biz and the judgment I often receive because what I write is not “important”. Hell, I know that I’m not penning great literature, but what I am writing is something that might just help the reader escape for a little while. If I make that reader laugh, or smile, or forget the laundry, or economy, or heartbreak of the real world then who cares if I haven’t written the next Oprah bookclub pick? I liken it to this… how many times can you watch Schindler’s List before you need a break from the drama with a little Mel Brooks? There is room in this world for both. I always feel […]