I’ve got nothing to blog about today. Really. My house is a mess (post-Christmas ’stuff’ still litters the floor) and I haven’t got the energy to do anything about it. So, instead, I’ll blog about my children. Works for me!

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My husband’s always expounding to my boys about the wonders of Elvis. It’s funny, but they can no recognize Elvis’ singing voice without a second hesitation.

So, we’re driving in the car a few days back and an Elvis song comes on the ready. My husband asks, “Who is this?”

My youngest replies, “Elvis. I don’t like Elvis.”

My husband: “WHAT? Who doesn’t like Elvis?!”

My youngest: “Well, I like the instruments, but I don’t like his singing voice.”

Five years old and already a music critic.

Which reminds me, I haven’t added new music to my blog player in quite sometime….maybe I’ll try to do that today.

Currently, I’m struggling with finding the proper balance between romance and suspense. I have this story to tell, and while it has a complex plot (moreso than anything I’ve written previously), I want the focus to be on the romance. How do two stubborn people, who can’t see past the wrongs they’ve been dealt, learn to forgive and fall in love? This book is all about forgiveness, and I need that to shine through in every scene. I know that, but when you get bogged down with plot elements, sometimes it’s easy to forget.

For example, Grace (my heroine) despises Keith (the hero) in the beginning. This burning resentment is further compounded by the fact that she has to go to him and beg for his help. She’s hell bent on using him, and to a lesser extent, Keith’s using her as well to find the information he needs. So, at the first chapter opening, there’s about zero physical attraction between the two of them.

It’s not until they start spending time together that they find an undeniable attraction. How is Grace going to deal with being attracted to (and falling in love with) the one man she detests? And how is Keith going to react when the woman who is little more than a “mission” to him starts to get under his skin? I’m not sure yet. :D But hopefully it will get interesting!

So, getting back to the original topic — for those of you who write romantic suspense, how do you maintain the balance? Do you know by instinct? Do you go through and check that every scene has a plot ‘consequence’ as well as a romance ‘consequence’?

Or, like me, do you just get a headache from it all?

My blog is so lonely. LOL. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to keep this up to date on a regular basis…hopefully, I’m just going through a little bit of holiday frazzle and things will settle down once they pass.

I received an “R” on my Superromance partial (THIS DARK PLACE) on Monday, and though I was bummed at first, I’m actually beginning to look at it in a positive light. It was a full page letter, explaining where they felt my story didn’t work and they ended with the comment that they see potential in my writing and would be happy to look at more of my work. So, yay, me! That’s good. An editor sees potential in my writing! This gives me hope that with a little more work and a little more time, I’ll get there.

Plus, I’ve been assured from several authors that it’s acceptable for me to rework my ms and re-sub it at a later date. This is great, because I think the things that were mentioned are completely fixable…now I just need to put my thinking cap on and figure out the best way to do so.

BUT, for now, I think I’m going to concentrate on getting HER OWN BEST ENEMY ready for submission. I’m knocking around the idea of subbing the partial as soon as it’s ready, even though the rest of the ms isn’t. Mainly because I’d like to keep my name fresh in their mind. :) But, then I worry that if the complete is not ready, I’ll make a muck of the entire submission. Anyone have any advice?

It’s lunchtime and there’s a rumbly in my tumbly (to quote good ‘ol Pooh Bear). So, I’m off…and hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow.

I have an article up at the Romance Divas Blog! I’d love it if you’d check it out and let me know what you think. It was my first writing related article….and it’s kind of thrilling to see my words on something other than my own blog.

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I’m spending the day cleaning out the ‘catch-all’ room. You know, the one where you throw everything that you don’t know what to do with. I need more space to make room for our Christmas tree and for all the Christmas presents that will soon be here!

Okay, break time over. Back to work! :)

Hope everyone is having a great day!

(Okay, I’m not sure if those are spelled right, but oh well!)

My husband will probably kill me if he sees me blogging about this. But, I’m going to let you all in on a little known secret: my husband stinks at picking out movies from the video rental.

Over the weekend, he came home with the saddest movie I’ve ever seen (sad as in horrible, not sad as in weepy). As soon as he brought it home, I wrinkled my nose and said, “What’s this about?” His response: “Ummm. I forgot. But it has Willem Defoe in it.”

Now, I’m not a big fan of ‘ole Willem Defoe, but what the heck. I went on the internet and looked up the movie reviews and they all pretty much said: “This is the worst *blanking* movie I’ve ever seen!” And guess what, Willem Defoe was in it for all of like 5 minutes….all of them completely pointless….his character basically added zipo to the story.

If this was the first time my husband had picked a bad movie, I’d shrug and say “You can’t win ‘em all.” BUT, on the account of this being the 10,890,231,589,876,456 time, I have to say:

“I love you, but you are banned from going to the movie rental place!” :D

That’s how my life has been lately. And you know what? All I want for Christmas is someone to organize my life. Seriously. It has been spiraling out of control. Between frantic shopping trips to buy gifts for my nieces and nephews (in order to mail them out in time), working on my second draft of HER OWN BEST ENEMY (I FINALLY slogged through chapter two and feel like I’ve made it so much stronger, so I’m thrilled about that), stressing about my partials–with Harl. Superromance & an agent–both of which I’ve heard nothing about and am starting to become a paranoid crazy, and figuring out where to put all the junk in this house so we can have room for Christmas decorations ——— well, I’m just going insane.

I need one of those ‘Clean Sweep’ people to come in and organize me. I’ve tried making those schedules for myself, but I never stick to them.

I. Must. Do. Better. If I don’t, my husband will probably have to admit me to the Funny Farm.

On the up side, though, I am LOVING my laptop! It’s so great to sit down and write without distractions–both internet and family. :)