The real story

What a week! I've heard from so many friends who've stopped by to check out my blog. Some are from as far away as California, where it's sunny and warm. I will get to San Fran some day Cindy. And then there's friends from NYC, hi Rosemary and Maria from Tennessee, who are too shy to blog but are readers. I'm so happy to hear from all of you. If you're lurking, e-me!
The highlight of my week was the receipt of the cover of my first book, Never My Love. Isn't it beautiful? That's Mirror Lake, Lake Placid, New York, in the fall. Just spectacular. Cassie and Evan re-meet there one beautiful fall day. But that's all of the story I'm going to reveal now. Stay tuned.

This time of year the real story is the weather. Up to this week, mother nature had Central New Yorkers fooled into thinking she went right from fall to spring. We got four inches of snow. NBD Usually we have four feet. I'm not complaining. I have to drive forty miles to work every day and I'm loving the lack of the white stuff. We had an unusually warm fall and a green Christmas with temperatures in the low sixties. I can't believe I rushed like a lunatic to get my Mustang off the road by Halloween. The car has never seen snow, and I wanted to keep it that way. Too bad I missed the convertible days in November.

Yes, I have a Mustang convertible. My new toy. A birthday present to myself that was long overdue. Ladies, do yourself a favor and don't ask for diamonds. Get a convertible. Mine's a 2001, laser red with beige roof and interior. Gwen knows! She's been cruising with me. Yes, Cindy, I have a cool car. You should see it. It's the first car I've ever owned that I really wanted, and it took me a year to find it, but it was worth the wait. The sun behaved for weeks and I went cruising every weekend. I had the Beach Boys or Turtles blasting, or my daughter favorite download, Mustang Sally. What fun! I can't wait to get it back on the road. Lake Placid or bust!

Just another Sunday?

Hi all,

I want to thank Melanie and Nancy for stopping by to say hi. Melanie, I can't wait to meet you in Dallas. I hope you like to party! I can't wait to introduce you to one of my favorite authors and fellow CNYRW, Nancy Henderson. She'll be there, too!

Just another Sunday?? After last week I thought I'd be in better shape today. Not physically, I've given up on ever being a size four again. I'll be lucky to stay in the teen sizes if I don't get my butt to the gym! Anyway, I've been mentally exhausted from returning to my for-pay-day-job, while my other-fulltime-job, can't turn off. Yikes. The writer in me, Susan, is trying to take over my day job!
Do you know what it's like teaching to a class of eighth graders and being struck by an idea? Imagine this.... I'm trying to teach them the science behind why we are afraid of falling objects, and for the guys I used the example of spitting from the top of the Empire State Building. You can't do it, not because it's gross, but it hurts(and you'll be arrested). The spits got added energy due to it's height, even in your mouth. (of course they loved that example) For the girls I had them imagine getting engaged on Valentine's Day. How romantic! But when you catch your dream-man less than a week later kissing another woman, you head back up those steps to the top, and you know what you want to do with that ring? Now, what do you think would happen to your ex-fiance if your former engagement ring hit him in the head while he stood on the sidewalk...
Suffice to say I got my point across about the energy of falling objects depending not only upon the weight of an object, but times the height (always the teacher). Then it struck me. I knew who this scene was made for. Emma! She's the best friend of a run-a-way bride in, "The Politics of Love," my WIP romantic comedy set in Boston. Unfortunately, Emma's story is the last in a trilogy centered around people who meet and have opposite politcal offiliations. But that didn't stop me from pounding out the first scene for Emma's book on my lunch break!

I'm often struck with ideas at the worse times, like yesterday, driving to our month meeting of the CNYRW. My mind works overtime on that drive. By the time I got home I was exhausted! But before I went to bed, I jotted the ideas down. So you think my alter-ego would be finished and just shut up today so I could relax? No. Rather than relax, which means phoning friends or reading a romance novel or e-book, I still felt supercharged. I jumped out of bed, changed my T-shirt and went right over to my laptop. After several hours, I had a plot outline and characters GMC for this paranormal I've been dying to write but never figure out how it ends happily. Whew! I don't know if this happens to other authors, but I'd bet my house that it does. Fellow writers, would I lose my house?

I have to say that without making a penny from my writing I feel like I've hit the lottery by becoming a romance writer. And if I inspire just one person to pick up a pen, and believe they can become a writer, that makes me even happier. *g*. See you in a week!

first blog

Okay, I decided to try blogging today...

Last year's New Year's resolution, a personal goal, actually came true. A RWA recognized publisher offered to publish one of my books! I received the "call " 8-1-06, from the submissions editor at Triskelion, and my entire life pivoted 180 degrees. Now, I'm one of those people thats addicted to reading romances. My keeper shelf in my bedroom is a unit with at least 100 books. In my computer den, I have two more units with at least 300 more keepers. There's no way of knowing how many I've borrowed from the library or given away. I read about 4 books at once, and rarely miss a day of reading. There's books in my car, different areas of the house, even my garage. I like just about every kind of romance except the real gory stuff. That kind of stuff lives with me for days and I'd rather be thinking about a Lisa Klepas character, or expecting to run into one of Susan Elizabeth Phillip's characters on the street. They are two of my favorite writers, and there are so many more. (some other blog). A few summers ago, while sitting peacefully by my pool, I reread every book I had saved. Not only was it the first summer in twenty years that I'd had off, but by the end of the summer I'd decided to stop dreaming of being a writer and rejoin CNYRW.

It's still hard for me to believe I'm a writer, let alone soon to be "published." In my head I'm still just a fan of romance writers, the most hard-working, creative, self-less writers on the planet. You don't believe me? Well, here's the story about my first National Conference in Reno: First of all, I was so excited to attend that I got to Syracuse's Hancock airport a day early. No kidding. When the ticket lady asked me if I knew what day it was, I thought she was joking, (I'd been up all night afraid I'd miss the 6:30am flight) . I had two choices, come back the next day when my ticket was good, or catch a later flight. I'd entered the airport so early that my ticket was flagged and I got the full body pat-down check. To make matter worse, my connecting flight was delayed due to bad weather in O'Hare. I was so tired by then I was nauseous and wished I'd stayed home. As luck would have it, I spent the four hour lay-over with Charly Phillips, who I absolutely love. We kept each other sane. When we finally boarded, I spied Heather Graham , another writing goddess, in first class. We'd never met, but I'd brought one of her books with me to get autographed at the conference. Later we ended up playing craps together at the hotel's Casino. Turns out we both love the game. This was just the beginning of a slew of cosmic-level coincidences, too numerous to mention. The next day I picked up my badge, and spent the day star struck. Besides an avid reader, I'd previously been an online reviewer for aromancereview.com. At the afternoon booksigning event, I flitted around visiting all the author's that I'd critiqued. I even snagged the very wonderful, and goddess in her own right, fellow CNYRW Kris Fletcher, two-time Golden Heart finalist, to be my personal photographer so I have the pictures to prove how giddy I'd been that day. I was such a groupie, that I forgot I was a writer until some women who'd come all the way from San Fransico for the booksigning event noticed my first-timer badge. We were waiting in line for Deb Macomber's autograph, and naturally chatting when they asked me what I wrote. They were amazed that I was a new writer, and asked if I had a business card. When I handed them my business card, it finally hit me. I'm a writer! I missed the Atlanta conference, but I've booked my flight to Dallas, as a PUB. Yippee!