Diary of an adult runaway

Guest blogger: Terri DuLong

I'm proud to be hosting author Terri DuLong, who's talking about her latest release, Spinning Forward. (Terri and I are RWA-WF chaptermates; if you're writing women's fiction, you should definitely join.)

1. Welcome, Terri! Tell me about your book.

 

A New Englander born and bred, the last place Sydney Webster expects to find herself starting over is on an island off the west coast of Florida.  Yet here she is in Cedar Key, trying to pull herself together after her husband’s untimely death—and the even more untimely revelation of his gambling addiction.  Syd takes shelter at a college pal’s bed and breakfast, leading her to discover her true identity and feminine soul.  Her passion for spinning and knitting draws attention due to the unique composition of her wool and a door is opened.  She finds herself in the embrace of a community rich with love, laughter, friendship . . . and secrets.  A tale of new beginnings, old friends and lives forever bound.

 

2.  What pulled you into the story and made you think 'I have to write this'?

 

The actual people of Cedar Key, the small town where I now reside, made me feel I wanted to write about the closeness and caring of a small community.  As far as my main character, not all women have the final say-so when it comes to decisions or financial matters in their marriage and although it may seem fine and easy at the time, my story deals with the fact that women owe it to themselves to be aware of these issues.  For Sydney, her uninvolved attitude came back to bite her.

 

3.  When did you first begin writing?

 

I've been writing all my life.  As an only child, I had an imaginary playmate and looking back now, I feel that’s when my creative process began.  I've kept diaries and journals and I began writing professionally for Bonjour Paris about eleven years ago.  I did over forty travel articles based on my travel to France through the eyes of a fictional canine character.

 

4.  What is your writing process and where do you write?

 

When I'm on deadline, I begin around ten in the morning and generally work six to eight hours a day.  When we moved to Cedar Key, we had a writer's studio built for me, detached from our house but connected by a screened lanai.  So this is where I work.

 

5.  What is your favorite thing about writing?  What is your least favorite thing?

 

I'd have to say my favorite thing about writing is all the feedback I get from my readers.  Their comments on my characters, plot, how my story affected them, etc.  Least favorite?  Call me Pollyanna, but I really don’t have one.  I love writing and the feeling of accomplishment when I finish a story.  

 

6. How do you fight writer's block?

I've never really had “writer’s block.”  I've had episodes where I momentarily get stuck about where to go and what will work to take my plot forward, but when that happens I get away from the manuscript for a few days.  Give it time to percolate a little.  However, I'm constantly thinking about it the entire time and somehow I find my way back to where I want to go.

 

7.  Movie time. Who do you envision playing your main character? The love interest? A bad guy?  And you can be in the movie too--what part would you play? And why?

 

For Sydney, my main character, I envision a few actresses.  Sally Field is the major one but I could also see Michelle Pfeiffer or Rachel Ward being my Sydney.  For the love interest, Noah, I envision Richard Gere or Kevin Costner.  I honestly can't see myself as any of the characters. Ah, I know………Maybe Miss Polly, the hairdresser in town because she gets all the gossip and as a writer, I love gossip and details!

 

8.  Please name the five movies and the five books you want with you if stranded on a desert island.   

 

5 books would be:  A Woman of Substance, To Kill a Mockingbird, The House at Riverton, The Shellseekers and The Thornbirds

5 movies would be:  Casablanca, Pretty Woman, Saving Private Ryan, Ghost and Steel Magnolias

 

9.  What is your advice to aspiring writers? 

 

Don;t ever give up.  If writing is your passion, then keep writing.  Believe in yourself and make great things happen. 

 

10.  What is next for you? 

My Christmas novella that I'm doing in the anthology with Fern Michaels headlining will be released November 2010—the same time that my second book in the Cedar Key series will be out.

Thanks, Terri! Please visit her site to learn more about Spinning Forward and for a chance to win a $50 Macy's card.

Oh yeah, good news

First, I just finished work on this:

I freely admit that I love this site! Weird stuff. One day I thought "I want to make a site for Keris. And there shall be birdies!" Next day, Keris asked me to do the site. "Can it have birds?" I asked. "I want birds!" she said. Her will was done.

(Need a site? Come see me, I'll do you a good deal.)

Next, I'm a double finalist in the Launching A Star contest, with The Lake Effect and Learning How To Stay. And The Lake Effect is a double finalist in FTHRW's Wallflower contest. Wish me luck!

How did they know?

So, being an Apartment Therapy freak, I couldn't resist trying this online quiz about what my decorating style might be. And here it is:

This is so me, it's not funny. Especially the scent thing. Whenever I'm home, there's a candle burning--right now it's Pacifica's Brazilian Mango Grapefruit (which is also the soap I'm currently using--thanks, Tee!) After my belongings arrived from Paris, I felt like I was back there because the boxes smelled of the candles/cleaning products I used there. This place smells differently because now I'm using Method cleaning products--they smell fantastic (cucumber, anyone? Or how about some mint?) and are safe for kitty paws to pad across.

It's also very, very important to me that people feel like they can kick back and relax. Because of that, my living room is on about its fifth iteration since I moved in. I still don't have what I would call the perfect flow, mainly because the other day I moved my desk from the enclosed balcony into a corner where once sat a big armchair. Yeah, it might sound precious, but I don't feel settled if I don't have the right work area. I thought the balcony was going to be perfect but the floor slopes, so my chair kept sliding sideways, I didn't like having the french doors behind me, the windows were too high, and it got hot/cold in there pretty quickly. So instead I turned it into a sitting room and created a work space in the living room. The windows are at the right level, I can regulate the heat (yesterday when it was 90 outside, it was 75 at my desk--and only 70 down in the kitchen), and I've strung icicle lights outside so it feels magical at night. Here's what it looks like:

I'm getting a different office chair--either lime green or chocolate (or maybe white?!), I haven't decided--and keeping the furniture off-white. My happy home colors are a little brighter than the quiz came up with--I have quite a bit of lime green and orange and pond blue, but mainly as accents. And red! I can't stay away from the red! Which is great come Christmas and winter, because I can change out cushion covers, etc. I luuuuuuurve seasonal decorating.

The section on the outdoor room is spot on, too, and I've made a start on that. Bought a few pots of lavender and geranium the other day, and only lost 1 geranium head to the resident possum. I'm hoping there's something I can spray on them to keep him/her at bay. The other problem is I seem to have lost possession of my Ikea rocker to a certain kitteh (seen here sniffing the air because a neighbor was cooking something delicious-smelling):

It makes my heart happy for the boys to have a safe outdoor space after 5 years on a small balcony. At 17, they're too old to go climbing over fences. I make them come in at night, though, because of the possums--which means that Pumpkin comes whining to me around 5.30 because he needs to get out so he can keep his space safe from passer-by dogs, who've learned, to their displeasure, that the boys are not interested in being their friends, so keep your snout out of the fence holes, thank you very much!

And as for the ice and limes...well, no truer words were spoken. And in that spirit, I leave you with the formula for my new favorite drink, which I'll be happy to serve you if you drop by. It's called a Paso Noble, but I'm renaming it HELL YEAH BABY!!:

1 part tequila
1 part Mandarin Napoléon
passionfruit juice & pulp
lime juice

You're welcome :-)

I *was* going to...

NaNo outside in my super-comfy Ikea rocker, but then I found this:

Being a complete sucker, I don't have the heart to move him. So it looks like I'm going to be inside on the sofa with this one:

And then when all my wordage is done, I'm heading here for one of these:

Good times, babykins, good times.

Oh, how I wish I didn't have to post this...

...but it sure is funny! (H/T to Mel)

This, my friends, is how it's done

 

This book is absolutely awesome. But a little hard to read when you're busy taking down notes. Mr. Tropper, you have once again exceeded my expectations.

Now who do I see about the drink I snorted out my nose when reading the cheesecake-up-the-ass scene?

Can't wait

Release day: Bite Me!

Yes, I know, it's me, you're itinerant blogger. I promise I'll get better soon (ha!) but I'm just running by now to say you MUST buy this, the first release by über-fab Melissa Francis:

I've ordered my copy from the Book Depository (free shipping anywhere in the world!) and can't wait to get stuck into it.

I'm sure it's going to be a welcome change from the book I just slogged through. The tween protagonist was described in reviews as "precocious" and "witty" but, for me, she sounded too old for her age. The mother was flat-out a whiny pain in the ass and the manner in which family secrets were revealed was annoying. Silly me, I kept reading when I should have set it aside but I was waiting for the book to redeem itself. Oh well, at least it had a pretty cover ;-)

Proudness

So. Years ago, Robin warned me--whatever I did--to never dip my toe in the big black hole of scrapbooking. And I understood her logic, I saw what it did to the people around me, how it consumed them more than the most lethal party drug, took over their hours and turned family rooms into "craft studios". Considering I had very little time and even less space in Paris, I took her advice.

To a degree.

By that I mean I bought paper and other stuff and hoarded it away for when I had the space. I let it out to play every now and then, say when I was make collage boards for manuscripts (all those character and setting pics looked better when placed on Basic Gray's Phoebe collection) or "altering" (what happened to "covering"?) a journal for last summer's road trip.

And then something happened. On the same day, I stumbled across Lainie's Ladies "Goddess of Writing" cards, Kaisercraft's Waterberry range, and Keri Smith's Artist's Survival Kit with "How To Feel Miserable As An Artist."

Et voilà, mon premiere scrapbooking:

 

Sorry, shitty photo, the goddess blends with the paper a little better in the real thing. And I'm not entirely happy about the gap between the "miserable" and "artist" but I'd already started the rub-on lettering so tant pis. I'm not sure if it's finished, I might cut around the...whatever that shape is (die-cut?) before I frame it. I'm pretty bad at this whole language, but Lordy, am I enjoying the toys! Over the last few weeks I've amassed enough paper, pearls, brads, glue-dots, stamps and ribbon to keep the principality of Lichtenstein busy until at least Christmas. I feel that black hole lapping at my ankle.

More proudness: I heard this morning that my entry won the mainstream category of the Chicago North RWA Fire & Ice contest. It's also a finalist in this year's Orange Rose, which means it's sitting with 2 editors. Fingers crossed! I received fantastic feedback and help from the first-round judges on how to make the ms stronger. This is my Topanga one, which I (ha!) always thought was strong but not quite there. And for a long time I didn't know how to get it there, so I was writing other work and soaking up the atmosphere in Topanga (read: soaking up margaritas at Abuelita's) and that's helped me. Not to mention Margie Lawson's brilliant Deep Edits course, which kicked my ass--and gave me the excuse to buy 8 different colored highlighters. 

Office supplies = always a good thing.

Hope you've got lots of good things happening in your world today!

Me likey

Right now, I'd like to be here, sprawled on the sofa as I continue reading Sarah Addison Allen's magical Sugar Queen:

Or maybe here would be nice:

Or how about here?:

Yeah. Nice.