Bad Mom Award

Rules are made to be broken, right? Before school was out, I told my daughter she was limited to an hour and a half of tv time per day. But, the bottom line is I need to finish this book this week. Yesterday it was chilly and raining and none of her playmates were available. Being the good mother that I am, I told her until the book was finished, the time limit on the boob tube was off and she was free to turn her brain to mush by watching as much tv as she wanted. I think that certainly earned me a parenting award -- yeah, the Bad Mom Award. Oh, well. It's not the first time and it surely won't be the last.

On an equally fascinating note, there's this weird cosmic connection between my hair and my deadlines. Could I ever get through the last week of a book without having too little time, too much hair, and godawful roots? Apparently not. There's definitely a cut, color and a pedicure in my future...next week.

Jen



Jennifer on 05.31.05 @ 09:18 AM EST [Entry Link] [No Comments]

The Sentiment Behind the Holiday

Wishing everyone a safe holiday as we all reflect on the men and women who are daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers, just like us, who serve in the military. This morning my heart is with the soldiers patroling the dangerous streets of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. Regardless of whether I embrace our military presence in these countries, I embrace the man and women serving there and offer a prayer of safe-keeping.

Jen

Jennifer on 05.30.05 @ 09:05 AM EST [Entry Link] [1 Comment]

Summer Starts

For me, summer officially begins today. It's the girl's last day of school. I'm both excited and melancholy. Melancholy because another school year has come to pass, but excited because I'm looking forward to a break from the school routine and I think we're going to have a fun summer. (Check me on this, however--when it's BTS time, I'll be ready to get back into the routine.) So, this afternoon it's party time. Pizza, ice cream, water balloons, and music on the boom box.

I've tried to adjust my writing schedule accordingly. The girl has a couple of day camps so that gives me work time and I'll also be rolling out of bed around 5 a.m. to get most of my writing done before she's up. I will, however, be working through this week-end and Memorial Day. If you're traveling for the holiday, I wish you safe travel.

Have a great holiday and hope you get some reading time in! (That's my idea of a great afternoon--parked in the sky chair with a good book. :hehe

Jen

Jennifer on 05.27.05 @ 10:34 AM EST [Entry Link] [2 Comments]

The Great and the Not-so-Great...

...aspects of writing. I'm hyperventilating over this book. It's due. Soon. As usual, I'm not as close to finished as I'd like to be, so while the family's out playing, I'll be working through the week-end. Long days. Pretty much nights too. Same story for next week-end and Memorial Day. Even though I try hard to not let this happen, I always seem to fall behind and there's this crazed, frantic rush the last two weeks of the book. I think my husband has begun to accept it as a way of life (although he doesn't particularly like it) and he just steers clear and takes the girl with him.

The fairly great aspect of writing is that for a bit of time--before the mosquitoes take over the world and it's too stinking hot and muggy outside to think about anything other than how hot and sweaty you are--I can haul my handy dandy laptop outside and work on the top deck which is a bit like a giant treehouse.

Oh, I'm feeling the crack of the deadline whip...off to do pages....

Jen

Jennifer on 05.20.05 @ 10:34 AM EST [Entry Link] [No Comments]

Sweet Southern Springtime Scents

Returning from my daughter's school along a winding two-lane road with my windows down, the scents of springtime in the south were sublime this morning. Rampant honeysuckle and a native shrub I call sweet shrub because it's covered with small white fragrant blooms banked both sides of the road. The air, soft and sweet with a hint of the day's coming heat, perfumed the morning's cool crispness. It's so funny to me--what smells cloyingly sweet when it's replicated in a candle or a room spray or even a perfume, smells divine with the morning sun warming it. I hope wherever you are today, you'll stop to smell the roses, or the sweet shrubs or whatever's in bloom in your part of the world.

Jen

Jennifer on 05.19.05 @ 10:19 AM EST [Entry Link] [No Comments]

DARING IN THE DARK Excerpt

FYI, the first chapter of my September Blaze, DARING IN THE DARK, is on the web site under Books.

Now, I have to get back to working on this book.

Jen

Jennifer on 05.18.05 @ 09:09 AM EST [Entry Link] [3 Comments]

Water

I think I was meant to live near the ocean, or at the least near a river or stream. There's just something about the sound of the movement of water that soothes my mind and nurtures my soul.
For years, I carried a fantasy in my head of living on a house boat in the Carribean. I know. Take another look at my photo. Can you say SPF50+? And everything works out the way it should I suppose because the last time I checked, my bank account wasn't accomodating ocean-front property--either in the Caribbean or the US of A. Instead, I compensate. From almost any spot in my house, I can hear running water. We have a fountain in the foyer audible, albeit faintly, from my bedroom. Outside my office is a garden pond with a small waterfall and there's a fountain on the back deck. And my screen saver was taken in Baja last year. Some days it's harder to compensate than others.

Jen



Jennifer on 05.17.05 @ 09:19 AM EST [Entry Link] [1 Comment]

Information Overload

An excerpt from an article I read last night in The Week, a recap of the best of U.S. and international news under Health & Science:

The flood of e-mails, cell-phone calls, and text messages that bombard modern workers can lower their IQs twice as many points as smoking marijuana, a new study says. Researchers at the University of London found that trying to work while checking messages temporarily knocks about 10 points off a person's IQ. (Smoking marijuana, by contrast, results in a loss of four IQ points.)

There you have it. Enough said. I knew there was a reason I no longer stay dialed into the internet all day.

On other fronts of information overload, I realized yesterday that we get over 15 magazines a month at this house. All very interesting--well, that's a lie, I find Kiplingers a dead bore but in a moment of misguided ambition decided I should be more money savvy and ordered it, but really, it doesn't get much page turning--but it's a lot of information to take in (not a single decorating or fashion mag in the bunch). Oops. Rolling Stone just came in the post and I'd forgotten about it, so now we're 16+.

I could go on to talk about the month of May--Field Day, Talent show, Chorus performance, choir performances, soccer games, teacher's gifts, Honors Day, costumes for talent show and chorus performance, summer camp registrations, and a book due on the last day of school--I could talk about those things but I fear I'd be speaking in whine-ese, so it's best if I just don't really mention all of that.

After working with a computer guy for about an hour yesterday, we determined that my chapter can't be recovered....so, I'm going to turn off my phones, log off the internet, and get to work. God knows I don't need to further lower my already compromised IQ.

Jen

Jennifer on 05.12.05 @ 09:05 AM EST [Entry Link]

Idiot Award

Sometimes I really don't like myself very much. Today's one of those days. Give me the Computer Idiot Award.

Last week I blogged that I thought I had the wrong POV in a chapter, which was why I was stalled out. Instead of deleting what I had--in case my new stuff didn't work--I created another file. Switching the POV was exactly what I needed to do. The pages flew and it was really working. I was so pleased with what turned out to be an entire chapter over the course of two to three days. I saved the new material in my new file name and all was right with my world. The next day I decided to go in and muck around with the previous chapters. I added some pages and fleshed out a couple of scenes. When I started to save my work, I realized I was in the old file. Hey, no problem. When I was saving, I simply saved it to my new file and blithely went on my way.

Hel-lo. Anyone home in my brain? I FREAKING WROTE OVER MY ENTIRE NEW CHAPTER. An entire chapter that rocked--gone, vamoose, bye-bye, nada, no more. And of course, Ms. Clever didn't figure it out until today, after she'd saved over the file many more times. Right after I realized what I had done, for about 30 seconds, I thought all was not lost because I had a hard copy on my desk. Hey, I'd just key it back in. Nope. I'd printed the hard copy after I'd saved the old file on top of the new. Brilliant.

I suppose there's no point in relaying this story if I'm not going to be absolutely truthful. I cried. Blubbered like a big baby. For quite a while, in fact. Then I turned up DMB really, really loud and worked out with some arm weights (good for inner hostility). Then I sat back down and went back to work on what I had.

This evening three friends told me they think a data retrieval specialist may be able to retrieve the old file. Bright and early tomorrow morning, I'll be tracking down a data retrieval specialist. In the meantime, I've started a new practice which I will abide by from now on. I've created a secondary screen name and emailed myself my work. And I'll do that tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after....Not replacing files or deleting them, just leaving them out there. Insurance against another really stupid move on my part.

And for now, I'm going to have a glass of wine, go to bed, and hope for the best tomorrow.

Jen

Jennifer on 05.10.05 @ 10:57 PM EST [Entry Link]

Going to the movies and Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms! Enjoy the day. The dh and the girl have gone over to my m-i-l's for a bit. I'm going to sit out on the top deck with my galley's and a glass of wine.

OMG, I do believe I'm in love! Went to see Kingdom of Heaven last night by myself (the dh and the girl were at the races and I love to go to movies alone). Liam Neeson, Orlando Bloom, and Jeremy Irons. Please. It was almost more than I could stand. Throw in chain mail and all that knightly garb....I've never been a big Orlando Bloom fan, but I think I read that he put on about 30 pounds for this role. It suits him. Wow. Unless you've got a monstrous big screen at home, don't wait for this to come out on DVD. It really is a movie made for a theatre's big screen. Neeson, Bloom, and Irons are well worth the price of admission.

Jen

Jennifer on 05.08.05 @ 02:29 PM EST [Entry Link]

Art Fact Sheets and Galleys

Today I have to do my art sheets for the book I'm working on. A question I'm often asked is how much input do I have on my covers. Do I get to choose the people? Do I get to choose the background? If I don't like it, will they re-work it? No. No. And no. My input is limited to filling out and submitting art fact sheets. Harlequin publishes over 90 books per month and the art fact sheet is a way to let the art department know what's going on in your book. (Believe it or not they can't read all 90+ books and then design covers for them. )

So, what's involved in an art fact sheet? It's a standard form and the author fills in the blanks. First, I let the art department know what the tone of my book is--sensual, sweet, very sexy, home and hearth, etc. Then I let them know if it's developed around any particular holidays or events that could possibly play into cover development. Next, I submit a one-page story synopsis. Then it's on to the characters. One sheet for each character that might be on the book cover. I fill in age, hair color, hair length, eye color, body type, build, the way they dress, characteristics. Next I give them three scenes--two specific to the book and one generic. For each scene I give the art department info such as setting, time of day, mood, what characters are wearing, what they are doing in that scene. I'll tell you, my art fact sheets are a whole lot easier and less complicated than the ones my SuperRomance and Intrique friends submit. On the section that asks, "What are they wearing?" My answers are usually, "A sheet." or "A towel" Makes it so less complicated when they spend most of their time undressed. So, now you know how much input we have on our covers. Trust me, I'm always holding my breath, and hoping the cover gods have smiled upon me, until I see what they've come up with for each book.

Woohoo!! My galleys for DARING IN THE DARK arrived while I was blogging. Galleys are last chance, do-or-die opportunity to double-check the book and right any wrongs before it goes to print.

Quick infomercial on stages of a book. I write it and send it in. My editor gets back to me with revisions. I slave over revisions and make suggested changes, or not, and usually find my own changes to add to hers and slave some more. Send the revised copy back in. Copy editor goes through and looks for inconsistencies, bad word choice (they usually tell me to clean up my language if I haven't edited most of the *earthy* language out :rolleyes, word reptition, awkward construction, time lines, etc. I think being a copy editor would be a horrendous job. So, the copy editor writes all over my manuscript and then sends it back to me. I go through the copy edited version and makes notes on any changes I disagree with. This can be a very painful process. After I've gone through a manuscript and flagged it--there are usually at least 100 flags. Then I look back over the flags and decide what changes I can and cannot live with on the book. I put together a form that includes page number, line, and proposed changes. I don't see it again until I get the galleys and go through for line edits. Now, I see if the changes I asked for at the copy edit stage have been made. I read the manuscript line by line for any typos, inconsistencies, problems, etc., using my handy-dandy little flags again. Then I put together another document similar to copy edit document delineating page, line, change and send that back to my editor.

I've got a super busy week-end, so not sure when I'll get through my galleys, but as soon as I do, I'll get the first chapter of DARING IN THE DARK up on the web site! Probably in the next week. Keep an eye out for it and I hope you like it!

Jen

Jennifer on 05.06.05 @ 10:57 AM EST [Entry Link]

List Time and Brownies

Ack! What happened? The book I loved writing last week fell apart on me yesterday. And I'm feeling a tad overwhelmded by the book, the last month of school and all the stuff that comes with it--field day, teachers gifts, and all the stuff that comes after school that I haven't taken care of--like camps and that vacations. So...I'm getting myself back on track. Popped my vitamins and fish oil capsules after a healthy breakfast and now I'm going to make lists. I'm going to make lists of all that "stuff" I need to do so that it's on paper and out of my head. Then I'm going to make a lists for this book. What scenes have to come next? What does each scene accomplish? I'm also going to go back and look at the last two scenes--they've been very hard to write and have gone painfully slow. It occurred to me that I may need to switch the pov. Sometimes a scene is fine, but it's just hard to write and goes slow for me, but often that's a signal to me that I'm not coming at it from the right point of view and that I need to be in the other character's head. Okay, so that's my plan and I'm sticking to it. Wow, I already feel a lot better.

Okay, now I'm going to do something I never thought I'd do. I'm going to put a recipe here on my blog. Hey, if you're not interested, just don't read it. But, I'm telling you...they're the best damn brownies you'll ever eat. It's essentially the recipe on the Ghirardelli cocoa can, but I've mucked around with it a bit. And I highly recommend using the Ghirardelli cocoa--it's good stuff.

Ghirardelli Award Winning Brownies with Jennifer LaBrecque's Input

2 eggs
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c butter, melted
1 c Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate & Cocoa
2/3 c unsifted flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c chopped walnuts
Big blob of chocolate syrup

Mix the wet stuff. Sift in the dry stuff. Throw in the walnuts. Put it all in greased 8 or 9 inch pan. Bake at 350. If it's a glass pan bake at 325. 20-30 minutes. Invite Jen over.




Jen

Jennifer on 05.03.05 @ 09:17 AM EST [Entry Link]

True confession time...I didn't get a stinkin' bit of work done yesterday at the track. It was 70-something degrees, two of my friends were there and there wasn't a lot of lag time between our husband's racing. So, we gossiped, held our breath while our dh's made their runs, ate brownies, and enjoyed a gorgeous day.

Today is one of those days when working at home is difficult. We were gone so much this week-end, we were only here long enough to make a mess and then leave. I have to remind myself that if I were in an office somewhere, throwing in a load of laundry and cleaning up the kitchen wouldn't be an option. So, I'm going to tune out the laundry, unmade beds, stack of mail, and the kitchen and get back to Nick, Serena, and Sheila. BTW, we ate out last night and our waitress was named Sheila. I almost blurted out, "Hey. The blow-up doll in the book I'm working on now is named Sheila." But, thank goodness, for once I actually thought before I spoke....

Jen

Jennifer on 05.02.05 @ 09:10 AM EST [Entry Link]

Drag Racers-R-Us

My dh is a drag racer, so this morning, the girl and I are driving two hours to watch him race. If you ever had the need for speed, this is the place to go. I know NASCAR is really popular, but it doesn't do a thing for me. All those caution lights and stuff. Drag racing is a different dog altogether. Two cars line up on a line and see how fast they can go. Yeah, baby!

These aren't the top fuel dragsters. He races EZ Street division. They're street legal cars with big motors, a turbo or a couple of nitrous kits, and added safety features like roll cages. They go from 0 to 133 mph in 5.5 seconds on a 1/8 mile track without wheelie bars or parachutes. That's fast! The dh offered to let me take his car down the track on a test and tune run. Nuh-uh. I'm not afraid to drive fast, I'm just afraid to kiss the guard rail in his car. If I'm getting a divorce, it's not going to be because I wrecked his car. Not to mention that his fire suit would be just a wee tad big on me.

So, I've baked a double batch of walnut brownies (made with real butter and Ghiradelli chocolate) which will make me one of the most popular people at the track--at least with all the kids. I've packed my cooler with fresh strawberries, oranges, and a Caesar salad. This is one situation when I can't ascribe to the "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." I can't go for that track food. The dh, being the king of junk food, loves it. I just can't go there. I've learned to bring my own. And being the diligent (translate to always behind) writer that I am, I've printed my manuscript to take along and work on while I'm there.

Jen

Jennifer on 05.01.05 @ 09:08 AM EST [Entry Link]