Characters/Plots Are Only Part of the Process

Oct. 10, 2009

Book club day. Small turnout. Only six folks showed up to discuss Luanne Rice. Overall it was agreed she is a plot and character driven author. Edna loved her book Beach Girls so much so that she ordered 3 more from her audio store and enjoyed them too. I read Dream County. It's about 500 pages and I'm only on page 260, but she hasn't really engaged me yet. I don't like any of the characters. I find them stilted and stereotyped. It seems that she opens many of her books with a killed/dying/lost child. Still, when the vote was taken, half said they'd read her again and half said no. Now, it's on to Raymond Chandler for next month.

Cindie Miller brought me a signed copy of her hot off the press new book Ask Me No Questions. It's available from Amazon. Check it out. It's a fiction based on fact story or spousal abuse. It's a page turner.

Cindie and I went to lunch and discussed the marketing of our books. She feels strongly about doing something with The Four Goddesses title that we've given our Denny's Thursday night critique group. We all had a book released this year and are looking for ways to market them. She's coming up with some great ideas and I for one am all in favor of it.

She invited me to dinner tonight for some abalone. Never having tasted it before, I jumped at the chance. It was delicious. Had a nice visit with her and her husband, Doug. He is so very supportive of her. You can see how much they adore each other just by looking in their eyes. Oh, I embarrassed myself by thinking abalone was tuna. Later, I remembered I was thinking about albacore. Duhhhh! Anyway, it was fun experiencing another first!

Need to check with Awe-Struck publishing about the schedule for Finding More Than Gold. It's supposed to come out in Jan. and I haven't seen the final galley yet. Also, it's been three months since I submitted A Meandering Road to them for consideration. I haven't received a rejection so that in itself is a good thing, I guess.

Tomorrow, Cindie and I are going to see Shakespeare in the Park. An Arizona theatrical group are going to perform Much Ado About Nothing. I've seen it several times at various places, so I'm anxious to see how they are going to cover it.

So, guess I'll leave you with a Shakespearean quote today. It is something that all of us who are serious about our writing, should remind ourselves of from time to time.

"We know what we are, but not what we may be." William Shakespeare