Archive for July, 2006

My son (youngest) has a thing. I call it a thing because I really don’t know what to call it. It starts with this: he does not like McDonald’s food. He loves to go to the playland, but refuses to eat, because according to him Burger King is the only place to eat chicken tenders and fries (and hamburgers are simply out of the question).

So, now, here’s where the thing comes in. My husband and I have affectionately dubbed it ‘The Hot Factor’. He will put his french fries on a napkin along with those little cups of ketchup. Then, he picks up a french fry, palms it in his hand and wraps his fingers around it (almost like he is squeezing it). The purpose of this is to check how hot it is. If it is not scalding to the perfect degree, he will put it down and never touch it again. Each fry goes through this careful inspection before it gets put in his mouth.

Strange. Weird. Silly. But it got me thinking….when it comes to books, how do you test their ‘hot factor’. And I don’t mean in terms of sexy. I mean in terms of absolutely, positively, captivating, must devour read. Do you stick to the tried and true authors that you love? Or, if you like to give new authors a shot, what draws you in, and what keeps you going back for more?

Oh! And, is there anything you do in your writing to ensure that your books will be someone’s ideal definition of ‘hot factor’?

This week Diana Peterfreund is giving a fabulous workshop over at Romance Divas about pitching your book to agents and editors. Go check it out!

Unfortunately, I won’t be attending nationals this year, but this is information that I KNOW I’ll need at some point, so I’m finding Diana’s information extremely vital (as well as valuable).

I finished my tough, tension filled chapter edits and am now ready to move on to another tension filled chapter. Yes, this book is going to kill me by the time I type ‘THE END’. I’m just hoping when it’s all said and done, I’ll be able to “knock one out of the park” and sell this baby!

Hope everyone had an awesome Independence Day!

We went to the local parade in the morning. My husband and I did a lot of eye rolling as we watched. Watching a small town parade can be like watching the twilight zone. But, the thing that irritated me the most? The marching band wasn’t freaking marching! The entire band was seated on a trailer that was pulled by a truck. What? A trailer? Come on, people, it’s a parade. You. Are. Supposed. To. Be. Marching.

Yes, you are all probably thinking “oookay, why is this bothering her?”. LOL. I just think that a marching (note the emphasis on marching) band is a huge, integral part of a parade experience, and since the rest of the parade was fairly lame, I looked forward to seeing the damn band march! And I was denied, dagnabit!

Later that night, we went to the highschool to see fireworks, but before the fireworks had started the local radio station was doing karioke. Never, never, never, have I experienced anything so, so…hideous and cringeworthy as this. And to compound matters they were brodcasting it on the radio. It was like we couldn’t escape. We finally had to go to the other end of the field (where the school playground was) to get away from it all.

But, once the fireworks started it was fun. My boys kept trying to predict which firework would go the highest. And then when they would pop and sizzle, they would shout, “Wow! That’s explostastic!” They were really in to it, so that was cute.

Nose to the grindstone tomorrow to finish working on a really tough chapter of my WIP. It’s a really important scene and I’m having a hard time getting the mood right.