Category: Writing

Home > Writing

TINA RALPH: At the End of the Day

June 1, 2006 by in category Archives tagged as

Today we begin the Going To The Chapel Blog Contest. Every weekday for the month of June, we will post a new story. We have a special judge to select the winner. So please come back everyday and read the blogs! Tina Ralph is launching the contest with her entry–At the End of the Day. Enjoy!

Driving down highway 20 with my best friend beside me, I had to ask the question. “Are we sure, we wouldn’t rather go to the zoo?”

“Nope, we’re going to get you married.” Cathy said with determination.

The sudden sound of extra tread hitting the pavement had us rolling our eyes at each other. Sure enough, the flop, flop, flop, was coming from my car. I pulled to the side of the road.

Was this a sign from God? Should I go to the zoo instead of getting married? Again the question reared up and rode across my mind.

I checked my tire. It had lost its rubber but it wasn’t flat, just a little naked like a bald man’s scalp. In the days before cell phones, we were stuck. I thought about flagging someone down and contemplated putting on my wedding dress to get someone to stop. But a nice man in a small truck saved me from that fiasco. He tried to change the tire, but the damn thing was stuck.

Following us to the gas station, he made sure we were safe and went on his way. An angel put me back on the road to my wedding.

After calling my dad — every girl calls her dad to save her, I was no exception — he came to pick us up. Thrilled to be back on course, I was somewhat surprised, to find I’d arrived before my future husband.
Not to worry, Michael was rarely late.

Wrong.

His one task before coming to our celebrated event was to pick up the cake. You see, I had a simple wedding, outdoors, in Texas, in the month of June. We were only having a little cake and punch after the ceremony–simple, quiet, serene.
Others, granted, had more colorful adjectives to describe that day, but I won’t repeat them.

A phone call informed me of his dilemma. The bakery had given our cake to someone else. My beautiful cake was at another bride’s wedding.

The trip to the zoo was looking very appealing about this time.

My comment to my fiance was, “Get a cake, I don’t care if it’s a ‘Q#!@’ birthday cake.” My mother proceeded to give me a lecture on the use of certain language. I walked out.

The guests began to arrive. I stayed holed up in my aunt’s house, waiting for my future husband to get there with some kind of cake.

Michael, to say the least, was fighting his own battle. I would not have wanted to be the person behind the bakery counter. But the man came through, he got us a cake. Another angel was watching over our shoulder.

Now you may be wondering if I was seriously considering the possibility that someone didn’t want us to get married. And yes, it did cross my mind multiple times, but strangely enough, the harder the problems became, the more my resolve was strengthened.

My mantra became “At the end of the day I will be married.” With my eye on the goal, we overcame the obstacle of leaving our own wedding without a car. Remember, mine still had the bad tire that no one could pry off. My fiance didn’t bring his.

Here, the best man saved us. We left in his car with the maid of honor. We had a great time driving back to Dallas, rehashing and laughing about the events of our day.

This year on June 21st, we’re celebrating our twentieth anniversary. We’ve gone through some tough times and have made many happy memories.

At the end of the day, the route to the chapel led to an incredible adventure with a wonderful man. Now, with two teenage boys, two dogs and a bird, I have a zoo in my own backyard. I couldn’t be happier.

Tina Ralph
OCC/RWA Membership Director

2 0 Read more

Joan Johnston – Success Is A Journey

May 31, 2006 by in category Archives tagged as


After twenty years, forty-six books and eight New York Times bestsellers, Joan Johnston is a savvy business woman who knows a thing or two about success. Here she shares some of her secrets.

Q – Is there a downside to success? What are the challenges that face you now that you are a success?

A – It’s harder to write with money in the bank. Forty-six books later, it’s difficult to remember the time when if I didn’t finish the book and get the “on acceptance” check I wouldn’t be able to pay the light bill or the car payment or the rent (I couldn’t afford to buy a house). That can be a tremendous impetus to keep the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair and be productive.

It’s also harder to write (endure the isolation of writing) now that I’m a happier person. When I started writing I was in an unhappy marriage and had a job I didn’t like. If I went into the closet (literally) to write, I could escape from a life I didn’t particularly like. Eventually, I got out of the marriage and the job (went from being a lawyer to being a college professor, then to writing full-time). At first, writing helped pay the bills. Then it became who I was. I’ve been working for balance ever since.
Things have changed a great deal in the publishing industry, so you really need to be productive (write at least two books a year) to keep your name in the public eye. In the old days (before Nora Roberts proved them wrong), publishers believed you would be “overexposed” if you published more than one book a year. They still believe one hardcover a year is plenty, but they would like to sell that paperback you write as well. That really gives you three books out a year (including the paperback reprint of the hardcover) and maybe four, if they decide to reprint something from your backlist.
Can you write only one book a year and still be successful? Yes. But you’re not going to grow your career very fast, and you may even lose ground. Nowadays, publishers encourage you to write as many books as you can per year. More money for them, more money for you. Of course, less time for you to spend that money…

Q – After so much success, do you feel successful? Do you ever still feel like a hack? Do you ever feel afraid when you start a new book?

A – You never get over feeling afraid that this will be the book where people realize you could never really write. When I go back and read books I published years ago, I’m amazed at how good a read they are. I marvel, did I really write that? Where did I come up with those ideas? How did I know that would make you cry? Make you laugh? Make you empathize so much with the characters? And I wonder how I will ever do it again.
I still have feelings of inadequacy all these years—and books—later, precisely because writing is never easy. It’s always work. It’s always a challenge. New characters, new situations, maybe even a new genre, if I’m being adventuresome. In the back of my mind is a mantra that someone must have put there forty-six books ago—you’re only as good as your most recent book. That’s a lot of pressure to live with, book to book to book. And you’re always trying to write a better book—despite the fact the book you just wrote is the very best book you could write.
But it’s no different than any other creative job, where you can’t quit being creative and hope to stay on top. You have to challenge yourself constantly to do better, to do more, to dig deeper, to find something that pulls your heartstrings and “go for the choke.”

Q – As a bestselling author forty-six novels, do you ever have a problem coming up with new ideas?

A – No. The problem is getting them down on paper in some semblance of what was in your head.

Q – Have you ever suffered writer’s block? If so, how did/do you get past it?

A – Yes. Suffered through it for a year (when it made me physically sick to go anywhere near the computer) and went back to work. This happened about ten years ago, in a career that’s now spanned more than twenty years, so anyone with this problem right now should just grit their teeth and keep at it. There are so many excuses to quit writing. You have to want to keep doing it.

Q – There’s a great quote on your website “It isn’t the process. It’s the product.” I love that. But have you noticed if a certain process produces the best results for you? If so, what?

A – I know there are people determined to write 5 or 10 or 12 pages a day—no matter what. I tried writing like that, but it didn’t work for me. I might get 5 pages one day and none the next—because I stopped to think about where I’m going next, and what the long term results of that character’s choice are going to be.
Yes, you can put words on paper and edit them later. But imagine a Y in the road and your character can go left or right. If you need to finish pages and arbitrarily head right, what happens 50 pages later when you realize your character should have gone left? You’re a long, long way from where a person going left at the Y in the road would be.
I think too often writers won’t throw away the fifty pages. So they fake it, make up some explanation for keeping on in the direction they’re going, and end up with a book that’s less strong because of it. I vote for stopping and thinking, even if it means I don’t get a prescribed number of pages written in a day.
I’ve written 50 pages in a day. I’ve written a paragraph in a day. It isn’t how many pages you get done day-to-day, it’s staying focused on the book day-to-day, even if you’re not sitting at the computer to do it. Most of the book is done in my head long before I sit down to write it. So, it isn’t how you get it down on paper—whether it takes you 3 months or 3 years to write the book. It’s the quality of what you have on paper when it’s done.

Q – You say you learned to “go for the choke” and create characters that lived and breathed and tore your heart out. What did you change in your writing that allowed you to do that?

A – It’s not enough to tell what the characters are doing. You need to show the reader what the characters are feeling while they’re doing it.

Q – You started out writing with a six year old and a six month old. Where did you find/make the time to write with them?

A – If you’re determined to write, the time is there. Get up earlier. Stay up later. Write during lunch. Write when the rest of the family is watching TV. Making time is all about wanting to make time. It’s there. It’s how you choose to spend it.

Q – Is it any easier to make that time to write now or does life still get in the way? If so, how?

A – Life is always in the way. My children are grown now—and I’m baby-sitting grandchildren. I’m dating, which takes a lot more time than having a steady significant other. I’m trying to find time to exercise, to read in the thriller genre, to finish the book I’m working on, to sell a house, buy a house, pay the bills. Okay, live a very busy life. Because you write at home, it’s always a challenge to make it a priority. You just have to do it!

Q – On your website you talk of a friend in the business who’s given you invaluable advice on how best to do promotion to help your sales. Can you share any of that advice?

A – I believe in self-promotion, but it’s a full-time job—web site, newsletters, postcards, contests, giveaways. Once you can afford to have someone else take over that responsibility, I’d recommend it.

Q – What are you dying to try next?

A – Thrillers! I’ve always had some sort of mystery or suspense—murders and suicides—in my romantic family sagas. I’d like to do something that’s more keyed to the romantic suspense/suspenseful romance genre.

Q – Can you tell us about your next project?

A – I’m working now on then next book in my Bitter Creek series. It’s the sequel to The Next Mrs. Blackthorne, with continuing characters Kate Grayhawk and Jack McKinley and Breed Grayhawk and a young woman who’s a new character. This book gave me the opportunity to do research in San Antonio and Austin, Texas, including great interviews with the DEA, the Texas Rangers, war veterans from Iraq who are amputees, a private tour of the State Capitol in Austin, and discussions with physical and speech therapists. Does that give you any hints where I’m going? It will be a hardcover when it’s finally done. It doesn’t have a title yet. That’s a first for me. I’ve asked my readers to help, and have gotten a number of suggestions, one of which I’m leaning toward, but which hasn’t yet gotten finally approval in New York.

Q – What’s the best thing about being a writer?

A – Getting paid for doing something I’d be happy to do for free.

Q – Are there any words of inspiration on your computer, in your office or in your mind when you write?

A – “Success is a journey, not a destination.” This framed quote from a friend has sat on my desk for a very long time. It has never meant so much as it does now, when I’ve achieved what most people would call “success” in my field. Becoming a New York Times bestselling author wasn’t the end of the challenges, it’s only the beginning.

0 0 Read more

New Contest!

May 21, 2006 by in category Archives tagged as

Announcing A Slice of Orange Blog’s new contest, GOING TO THE CHAPEL. We are looking for blogs on the wild, wacky, side-splitting funny or incredibly romantic trip to the chapel.

Maybe you have a passing acquaintance with a real life Bridezilla? Or Groomzilla?
Know a funny story about wedding disasters?
Or a romantic story about a Cinderella wedding?
Or maybe the Cinderella wedding turning into a nightmare, but the simple little wedding in a Las Vegas with the cheesy Elvis impersonator turned into a dream come true?
Know anyone who got to the chapel but their bride or groom didn’t—but they met their real soul mate?
What about overcoming incredible odds to get to the chapel?
Or a story about a couple who has gone to the chapel more than once?
Maybe there was even a ghost at the chapel during your wedding?

We’re writers, so use your imagination and have fun with it! These are the parameters:

Between 250 to 1000 words
May include a picture in Jpeg (no guarantees it will appear in the blog)
Blog can be fiction or non-fiction
Send blogs to Jen Apodaca at Jenapodaca@aol.com

We will select 22 blogs to appear each week day on A Slice of Orange Blog during the month of June 2006. We will have a special judge, most likely an editor to select the winner!

Good luck!

0 0 Read more

Emily Brightwell – Never Tell Me The Odds

May 2, 2006 by in category Archives tagged as

By Dana Diamond

What do you expect out of a cozy mystery author? Sweet, gentle and demure?
How about warm, funny-as-hell and candid about everything from grave robbing to muses and the worst advice she’s ever received! After thirty-plus books and eighteen years in the business, cozy mystery star, Emily Brightwell, knows what it takes to make it in this business. Lucky for us, she sat down to dish with me for Orange Blossom’s The OCC Interview.


Q – Are there any words of inspiration on your computer, in your office or in your mind when you write?

A – “Never tell me the odds” and “Crap can be fixed.”

Q – Do you have any writing rituals? Schedule?

A – My Mrs. Jeffries books are always 11 chapters long and I also do the ritual cleaning of the office whenever I start a new book. Actually, it’s about the only time my office gets cleaned.

Q – What is a cozy mystery?

A – A comfortable setting, a murder that isn’t graphically described, a list of suspects and no sex – though sex can be a motive for the crime.

Q – Why do you think cozy mysteries are so hot right now?

A – Maybe we’ve all over-dosed on serial killers, CSI, and too many episodes of Law & Order. The popularity of the sub-genre waxes and wanes, sometimes it’s hot, sometimes you’re only writing for a niche audience. But I love writing them.

Q – Among other things, your Mrs. Jeffries books are known for their accurate depiction of Victorian England. What is the best or most interesting piece of information you’ve found?

A – I found that the spikes on top of iron fences surrounding Victorian graveyards were put there to cut down on grave robbing. Robbers used to steal corpses and then sell them to medical schools.

Q – What’s next for Mrs. Jeffries and the rest of the cast? Is there anything you can tell us without spoiling any surprises?

A – There is a surprise coming in the book that I’m working on right now – I just hope it doesn’t make everyone hate me.

Q – What are you dying to try next? Why?

A – Actually, I’d love to write a political thriller. I hope to do so one day.

Q – You’ve written YA’s and romance too. Which is your favorite genre to write in? Why?

A – I love all genres, but I most enjoy writing mystery and YA. Romance was actually very difficult for me.

Q – Why was romance difficult for you?

A – Because I kept killing people.

Q – Which is your favorite of your books? Why?

A – My favorite book is the very first YA I ever wrote; Remember Me became very special when a dear friend died as I was writing the manuscript. I couldn’t write the last ten pages – and I swear, this is true, I was in my office feeling sorry for myself when I suddenly heard Nancy’s voice in my head. She was a schoolteacher so her voice was very distinctive – she said, “For goodness sake, Cheryl, quit procrastinating and get those last ten pages done. I want to see how you’re going to end it.” I finished the book in less than an hour. The book was dedicated to her memory. She was a wonderful person and I still get fan mail for this book.

Q – Is there a downside to success? Or what are the challenges that face you now that you are a success?

A – There is no downside to success.

Q – How do you stay motivated? What drives you to keep writing?

A – Pure and simple, I love to tell stories. I just wish I could tell them without having to put in so much hard work.

Q – Muses or hard work?

A – Hard work – if I waited for my muse I would spend most of my time sitting on the couch watching Korean Soap operas (which, by the way, I do enjoy but only if they’re dubbed in English)

Q – What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

A – I heard it in a Star Wars movie – it was Han Solo and he said, “Never tell me the odds.”

Q – Worst advice?

A – I’ve heard plenty of bad advice – but the absolute worst was to send a “thank you” note to editors who reject your work and make it clear they have no interest in seeing anything else from you. Rejection is bad enough, thanking someone for it is just one step away from out and out masochism.

Q – What is the one thing you’ve never been asked, but you wish someone would?

A – I wish someone would ask me how many words I’ve written that didn’t get published!

Dana Diamond is the OCC/RWA Secretary, a columnist for OCC’s award winning Orange Blossom Newsletter, a contributer to The Writer’s Vibe and hard at work on her book. You can visit Dana at http://www.danadiamond.blogspot.com/ or http://thewritersvibe.typepad.com/the_writers_vibe/

2 0 Read more

Michelle Thorne: Book Groups

April 28, 2006 by in category Archives tagged as

By Michelle Thorne

I love my book group. 10 women. Married, divorced, widowed, and single. From 70+ years old to our young one at 38. Children, no children and furry children. Work at home and outside the house. Over 350 years of reading romance and everything else. Do we all get along, mostly. Do they drive me crazy, sometimes. Do I love them, ABOULETLY!!!

We have been meeting once a month for almost 15 years. We started out with six members and we tightened and expanded as needed. When we started, we really had only two rules: No Oprah books and we didn’t want to be socially redeemed. When we started out, people were so serious about book groups. If you didn’t want to open a vein at the end of reading the book, you were doing something wrong. I couldn’t understand it. Books had always been my refuge. They’re where I went when all else failed. Books made me happy. No one in their right mind would be an independent bookseller if they didn’t love books. I hear all you out there questioning my right mind but that’s for another day. Anyway, books have always made me happy, not sad and depressed. So that was how the group started, and it is An Oprah-Free Zone.

Now you know the first rules but there were more to come. We started out with munchies during the meeting, but we meet at 6pm, so for a year or so we had potlucks. What a fine mess that turned out to be. Sometimes we had roast beef and cous cous.

Then we had theme dinners. Better, but still some odd “taste sensations”. We moved on to 1 person, one dinner a year, pizza once and we go out to really nice restaurant at Christmas time. Our latest change was last year when we instituted “you feed us…you get to pick the book” Great idea, but we are an “Oprah-Free Zone” no more. Okay, 15 years have passed, we grown, we’ve matured, but I still don’t like to be depressed when reading. So another rule change, if you want to read deeply you must let the shallow have another choice. It works, for us, in fact some of our best sessions have been when we all read a different book and then gave a short synopsis. A months worth of great reads laid out one after another.

So why an I telling you this. If you write, I assume you read and you should. READ, Read, read! In your genre, outside your genre, fiction, non-fiction…everything. If you are like most authors I know, you tend to hole up in your offices, on deadline or not, and let those little self-editors in your head make you doubt that you can ever write another coherent sentence. You read, you critique partner’s latest missive, and they read yours, but not for pleasure or knowledge. You probably sell yourself short and think “I should be writing.” But back to reading, you probably mean to read, but again you don’t give yourself permission to just read for you, and that’s why you need to join or start a reading group.

It’s really easy. You can check with your nearest bookstore and see if they have an established group already, or you can post a notice that you want to start a reading group. I suggest that you don’t announce that you are a writer, or you’ll find out more about your fellow members likes and dislikes than you wanted to know, and they will look to you for brilliant criticisms as an author, rather than just a reader. Also you’re doing this for yourself. You’re in a group that meets once a month and you HAVE to read the book. Cool! You have to read a book. It’s like a job and I know you take your work seriously. Whatever the group picks for a read, it will give you a great look at what is going on out there with other authors and how your fellow book clubbers are reacting to them. Please, Please, Please, even if you don’t join a book club, give your self a break and read. You know you want to.

More next time on how Authors can use book groups to grow their readerships and numbers.

Books are like shoes…You can never have too many.

Michelle Thorne
RWA Bookseller of the Year 1998
Bearly Used Books…123
Home of A Great Read
123 So. First Street
La Puente, CA 91744
(626) 968-3700

1 0 Read more

Copyright ©2017 A Slice of Orange. All Rights Reserved. ~PROUDLY POWERED BY WORDPRESS ~ CREATED BY ISHYOBOY.COM

>