I remember...

Forty years ago, the summer of '69 - was a momentous time. The thing I most remember is the lunar orbit and landing. My family was on a camping trip and the owner of the campground hauled out lines of extension cords so they could put a small black-and-white portable TV on a picnic table in the middle of a clearing. All of us there gathered around and watched the momentous occasion through snow and static. But we saw man land on the moon. Although I'd always been a fan of science fiction stories, that experience solidified my fascination with all things dealing with space.

That was the highlight of that year for me. But in addition to this, there were other newsworthy events taking place that . For instance:

August - Woodstock. Need I say more? No, I wasn't there, but I knew people who were.

November - SESAME STREET is born.

There were more things, of course. Many of them horrendous(Charles Manson) or disturbing (Kennedy and Chappaquiddick), but Sesame Street and the moon shot are the ones that will forever hold a place in my heart.

R.I.P. - And through all those times and more, I remember the voice of Walter Cronkite. The world has lost a great newsman.

A Good Cozy Mystery

I just finished reading a really good book. "Homicide in Harcover" by Kate Carlisle is a nice little cozy mystery - and I loved it. Were I to give it a grade, it would be an A+.

Her characters are quirky and funny and real, the plot well thought out, the mystery keeps you guessing and the setting (San Francisco) vivid without being overbearing. There was even a little romance, and family issues that would have been enough for some books, but Kate took them, blended them in and came up with complete and complex characters. For all those things, I would have enjoyed the book. But what really got me hooked was that I "got" the background.

The story centers around bookbinders and restorers. People who love old books, yet tear them apart in order to repair and restore ancient masterpieces. As a librarian and someone who has done a little binding and restoration, this is actually something I know. The author was speaking my language. And I loved it.

Okay, I know some people might find this boring, but I loved it. I loved the way she blended the terminology in with the story so it's not overdone. I loved that I understood what they were doing and why. I loved that there was a nice juicy mystery to solve while reading about something I knew.

In case you didn't get it yet, I loved this book.

Thank you Kate! And I hope there are more to come.

Guest Blogger - Delilah Marvelle

When I was in high school, I had a dream. I was going to be the next Stephen King. Heh. Yeah. Stay with me. Please. I knew my ideas were fabulous and I knew all it would take is for an editor to look at it and they would offer me up the moon and the stars and best of all, a contract. I had my girlfriends read everything I wrote. And they kept telling me, “This is fabulous! It's SO funny! Hilarious!” Seeing it really wasn't supposed to BE funny, I immediately changed course realizing I actually had a better handle on being funny than scary. I also figured adding a romance into it would even make it better since that is what I loved to read.

I then entered college as an English major. I was going to be teacher and write during the summers. Even then I was a smart girl who knew I wasn't going to make jack and that I needed a job to support the “creative” one. Throughout all of college I wrote historical romances. One right after another. And kept submitting. And submitting. And submitting. And kept getting rejected and rejected and rejected. In the meantime, I got married. I had two kids. I joined RWA. I got critique partners. I did honed and honed and honed the crap out of my writing. And kept writing and getting rejected. I eventually racked up over 200 rejections and had written over 40 books in those 11 years of trying to get published.

When I finally sold my first historical romance, MISTRESS OF PLEASURE, and my second book, LORD OF PLEASURE, I was beside myself. It didn't feel real. To FINALLY arrive at a destination I had been traveling toward for 11 long years seemed like a mirage. Which fortunately, I quickly snapped out of. Because after all, most of my friends are all published and unpublished writers and the stories they all have told me throughout the years made me realize I had to fight with fists up for myself every step of the way. I knew publishers did little to no promotion for their authors, so I spearheaded my own promo, ready to be more than just an author. And even though I was budgeting very well and spending countless hours networking and promoting on websites and blogs, doing tons for free, I still ended up spending $7,000 on my first book. Which was way more than my advance. But hey, every business starts in the red. Right?

Then the reviews started coming in about my series set in 1830 London England about a school that educates men on the topic of love and seduction. People loved it! Wow. It got nominated for awards. Wow. Readers are e-mailing me raving. Wow. Readers from France, Austria, Poland, South Africa and from all over the U.S and the world.. Wow. It just kept getting better and better. I was beginning to feel as if every penny I spent was all worth it (even though my family and I weren't going on any vacations and were eating out of cans). Because all that mattered was that my publisher loved me and my readers loved my series.

Come contract time, I'm ready for whatever they wanna throw at me. Or so I thought. Mistress of Pleasure, though completely sold out and unavailable anywhere (unless it's a used copy, some going for a ridiculous amount of $40.00), hadn't done as well as my publisher had hoped. So without waiting for the second book to come out to see if the series was even worth saving, I get a rejection from my own editor citing lack of sales.

I have to say this rejection felt more personal than any of the other two hundred and some rejections I'd received. Because it was no longer “Your book isn't good enough” it became “Your sales aren't good enough.” Since when is an author supposed to be a market guru AND a fabulous writer? Eck.

I love this series. The men in it make me laugh and it broke my heart to think that my readers will never get a chance to read about Lord Brayton, my glorious male virgin. The only alpha virgin I've ever written about. Then I realized something, why I am letting a publisher decide what is worth holding on to? Shouldn't that be a reader's job?

Ah. Herein lies the purpose of my post. I am challenging everyone, be they readers or writers to help me do something that's never been done before. Save a series from a death sentence given by a publisher. Can it be done? Who knows. But I eat challenges for breakfast and I hope you do to. Please join me in saving my series. Come August 4th, tell everyone you know (yes, even you're 72 year old grandfather) to buy the book, Lord of Pleasure. In doing so, you'll have a chance to win one of three $50 Visa Gift Cards. How? Check out my website for details at www.DelilahMarvelle.com

That said, thank you for all the support and love everyone has already shown me by allowing me to blog about this. Feel free to post and repost this to everyone under the moon and the stars. To all you readers out there, thank you for supporting us writers. To all you writers out there, don't ever give up on your writing. The moment you do, you give up on yourself. Which is why I'm not giving up on my series.

Cheers and much love,
Delilah Marvelle

Writer's Block

One of the lists I belong to has been having a discussion of late about writer's block and ways to deal with it. I can't say that it's a problem I've ever had to deal with, though at times I've been stuck on a particular story, I've always had something else to jump to.

I find it interesting all the different ways people have of dealing with it. Many of them use music - picking songs that inspire, excite, or calm them. Many others put music on that reflects what they are currently reading - exciting music for action scenes, love ballads for bedroom scenes, and so on.

Others go for walks, or go shopping, or to a coffee shop...a change of scenery can jumpstart their brains so they can get back to work.

For some, like me, changing projects seems to help. If you're stuck on one, go to another and work on that until you can return with a new perspective on the first.

Basically, each individual finds what works for him or her and uses that to inspire their writing.

so what do you use when you're blocked? How do you deal with "stuckitis?"