There was a post recently on the Wicked Writers loop about regrets. The talk was around what we don’t do enough of, such as spending time with kids, exercising, etc. Some of us, however, talked about regrets for decisions we’ve made in our lives.

‘Tis a slippery slop to be sure, but it really got me thinking… most stories begin with the phrase “What if…”

So let’s play a little game here. Take one big decision in your life, one that put you on the path to where you are today. What if you chose differently. I’ll start!

One of my huge decisions was college. I applied to three colleges and was accepted at all of them. One offered me a full scholarship (Southern Methodist University), one a partial scholarship (New York University), and one $500 (Syracuse University).

Since I was born and raised in New York, I chose the middle ground, NYU. Now part of this decision was because it was close to home and close to my BF (now my DH). A train ride away in fact.

BUT, what if I’d chosen SMU… where would I be now? What would I be doing?

I think I’d be living in Texas, working as a copy editor or something similar, and still dreaming of writing books. I don’t think I would have married my BF therefore I would not have my two teenage sons. My life would be significantly different methinks.

Perhaps I would have met someone in my late twenties or early thirties, and be in the middle of the journey to raising kids, rather than at the tail end of school.

Interesting to think of what might have been, but I don’t regret my choice because I’m here now, and I am happy with what I have. I wouldn’t trade my life for that other one, but what if?

So, now it’s your turn…

***

Beth / Emma

–
http://www.bethwilliamson.com / http://www.emmalang.com

I just received ARCs of Ruthless Heart, my first Emma Lang book for Brava. I looked at the cover, at the name, and thought, it’s time to become Emma.

People have asked me why I chose to write under a new pen name. What was wrong with Beth? Don’t I have a following?

There’s nothing wrong with Beth, and yes I have a following as Beth. I will continue to write as Beth in other venues, but for Brava, I am becoming Emma.

I’ve always been a private person, keeping things to myself rather than sharing them. When I started writing, and got published, I had to come out of my private little space and meet the world. I won’t tell you it’s easy because it’s not. I still struggle with it… as Beth.

Emma is going to be one step beyond that. She’s going to be the woman who finds her strength and let’s it loose on the world with grace, dignity and a bit of femininity. (Beth is more of a tomboy)

As Emma, I will continue to write books, putting my heart and soul into every word. I’ve just re-read Ruthless Heart and I made myself laugh, squirm and cry. I hope it does the same for you.

So, who out there would like an ARC of my very first Emma Lang book, Ruthless Heart? Commenters have one week to tell me YES!

One of the things I enjoy as a reader is a series of books. Nothing fills me with glee to get my hands on the next book in a series I enjoy.

As a writer, the same holds true. I love to write a series, to get comfortable with characters and revisit them with each subsequent book. I get many questions from readers as well, asking me when I will write so-and-so’s book.

I’ve even been asked if I’m going to write second generation stories! It’s a compliment, believe me, to have readers identify so much with my characters that they want to find out what happens next.

Now, my first two Emma Lang Brava books are in a series beginning with Ruthless Heart in late June, then the second book Restless Heart in February 2011. There is a character in Restless Heart, Lettie, who deserves her own story (Reckless Heart) and I so want to write it. I’m hoping I will publish it with Kensington in 2011 (stay tuned!).

I know there are writers who truly intend on finishing a series (like me!) who just don’t get the opportunity to do so because of one reason or another. I would hope no one actually abandons a series intentionally, not after involving their readers. I’m worried if I don’t get Lettie’s story written, there will be readers who are in the annoyed category. The last thing I want to do is alienate my readers – after all, we’re not writers without readers. It’s a partnership!

Now for those of you who read series books, tell me, if you wait for a final book in a series for a long time, does it annoy you? Or possibly even push you away from reading it once it finally arrives?

I’m pleased to announce my third Brava novel is now available! *tosses confetti* The Stranger’s Secrets is the final book in a trilogy set in Restoration Era Colorado in the 1870s.

This is a very special book to me, emotional and a bit gut-wrenching to be truthful. The heroine, Sarah, is the sister of the deliciously tortured Micah in The Redemption of Micah. She hasn’t seen him in over 10 years and her journey from Virginia to Colorado is a defining junction for her. It is a life-changing experience that leads her down a path she didn’t expect or want.

Not that it’s a bad thing. Sarah falls in love and that, ladies and gents, is usually unexpected. She’s spent so long fighting the ghosts that inhabit her heart, she allows Whitman Kendrick to sneak in there without even realizing it.

The juxtaposition of a southern belle who had been crippled with a man who was starting a new life with a bride waiting for him gets even more sticky when we find out Whitman is an ex-soldier. A Yankee soldier’s cruelty is the very reason Sarah is disabled.

You can imagine the sparks fly, as do the sharp words and amazing sex. Sarah’s story made me cry when I wrote it, and each time I read through it during the editing process, I cried again. Sheesh. I think it’s safe to say I’m emotionally connected to her and I hope you feel the same way once you read her story.

I’m including an excerpt below – enjoy!

Excerpt:

Sarah found herself holding back a chuckle. What was it about this annoying Yankee that set her on her head? Aside from being handsome, there wasn’t anything else remarkable about him. She needed to figure out his appeal so she could combat it and keep her distance, at least as much as she could considering they were stuck in a train compartment together for fifteen hundred miles.

“Then you won’t mind if I continue being honest.”

He nodded. “I wouldn’t expect any less.”

Why in the hell did that make Sarah’s heart thump like a bass drum? Back home when she ate a meal, it was with her friends, a group where everyone chatted and relaxed. Sitting with Whit made me feel jumpy and awkward—a condition Sarah was definitely not used to.

“You make me uncomfortable,” she blurted.

His eyebrows went up. “I do?”

Now that she’d gone down that path, she had to finish her thought. “I’m sure you’ve heard the song before, Mr. Kendrick, but Yankees aren’t high on my list of favorite folks, much less one I have to rely on. It’s going to take some time for me to ah, adjust, so if you can, be patient with me.”

Whit nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

She didn’t want to demand anything from the man. After all, there was no reason for him to help her. His actions told her more than anything that he was a gentleman. “When life kicks you once, you get back up and move on. When life kicks you a dozen times, you’re less willing to forgive and trust.” That was as far as she planned on going with that train of thought. He seemed like a sharp guy and could likely understand why she felt uncomfortable.

“Don’t worry. I won’t give you any cause to kick me back. I promise.” The sincerity in his gaze made her want to believe him.

Ridiculous of course, why should she trust a stranger? She had to rely on him to be her companion, however that would turn out. Yet expecting him to carry her bags was a far cry from trusting him with her life. Sarah could take care of herself, for the most part anyway, and she regretted the fact she couldn’t do it all the time.

“Good because I bite when I kick.” She fought back a grin.

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me in the least.” He smiled as the waitress approached the table.

The young blond thing sparkled like a new penny when she caught sight of Whitman. Sarah wanted to trip her with the cane.

“Good evening sir. Can I fetch you something to drink? Or an order of meatloaf, it’s the best in the county.” The young woman smiled while her face flushed.

“Sarah harrumphed at the obvious tactics the girl used. “I’d like some of that meatloaf and hot coffee.”

The girl looked surprised to see Sarah sitting there.

“I’m sure Mr. Kendrick here will have the same thing.” Sarah shot Whitman a challenging look, daring him to contradict her.

“Meatloaf and coffee would be lovely. Thank you, miss.” He graced the girl with another smile, sending her scurrying to the kitchen.

At least the food would arrive quickly considering the girl was already enamored of Whitman.

“Are you always this honest?” Whit picked up the spoon in front of him.

“Yes, I am. Does it bother you?” Sarah was ready to show him just how forceful she could be with her words.

“Not at all.” He breathed on the spoon and stuck it on the end of his nose. Sarah almost choked on her spit as she watched a grown man play at a child’s trick. What the hell was he doing?

When he smiled, the force of it snatched Sarah’s breath. She could do nothing but look at the grin behind the spoon and wonder if she’d stepped into a dream of her own twisted mind. He was beautiful, a Yankee, and charming as all hell.

Sarah was afraid she’d lose more than her spoon to Whitman Kendrick.

As a writer, I love words. New ones especially, however I also enjoy a play on words. The Washington Post does it very well…

The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are the winners:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus : A person who’s both stupid and an a$$hole.

3. Intaxicaton : Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation : Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy : Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7. Giraffiti : Vandalism spray-painted very, very high

8. Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

9. Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Osteopornosis : A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon : It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido : All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.

The  Washington  Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

And the winners are:

1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.

6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.

7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster, n.. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men

I have to admit, I’m a series ‘ho. I love to read books in a series from book 1 onward. God forbid I read book 3 first, then it’s just a frackin’ mess and I’ve ruined the series forever in my mind.

Okay, that’s my confession for today. Anal retentive? Moi? Oh, it is to laugh… but yeah, especially about series.

I’m writing the second book in a series for Brava under the name Emma Lang. The first is called Ruthless Heart set in Utah 1872, which comes out in June, 2010. You can see the delicioso cover here. Now the second book, tentatively titled Boundless Love (not sure on that one so speak up on it), is the story of Angeline, sister to the heroine Eliza from Ruthless Heart.

Angeline is in the book a total of 6 pages. Now I tell you, creating book 2 from bits and pieces in book 1 can be challenging. People often ask me where I get my ideas. Well, sometimes they’re from crumbs, literally. Angeline is very young, just 18 in her story, beautiful, blonde and has always done what everyone has expected of her until she runs away – note that she has also been raised to be a good Mormon wife. She’s torn between what she’s been brought up to believe, to practice, to live with what she knows to be the right thing to do.

Therein are the crumbs of her story. She’s on the run from an abusive husband (she’s wife #3) with wife #2. So you can imagine she’s paranoid, jumpy, secretive and obviously a lot stronger than she thought she was. It’s crumbs, but they are rich crumbs, ones at the bottom of the crumb cake box that are the best part of the cake.

I’ve started with just a name before, so Angeline’s story isn’t completely barren. I know she’s going to discover a lot about herself and she’s going to find out that love can be stronger than the law. I know her hero, Samuel, is going to find out that a crooked leg isn’t as weak as he thinks it is. And at the end, I’ll sigh because Angeline and Sam will find their happily ever after.

Yep, romantic here. Proud of it.

Similar to the fact I didn’t have a Facebook page for the longest time (I do now of course), I don’t tweet and don’t have a Twitter account. I know it’s the current thing to do, and even celebrities do it. I just don’t know if my life is interesting enough to tweet and honestly if I’ll have the time to make it interesting to follow me. So I figured I’d put the question out there and perhaps y’all can chat about it with me.

It really makes you think to twenty years ago and how we got our news. I was fresh out of college, armed with a writing degree and no place to go. LOL. So I worked as a typesetter for a real estate magazine – at least it was in publishing right? I was 21 years old and ready to conquer the world, but my news and information still came from actual paper newspapers and magazines. The closest I came to immediate information was the 6 o’clock news on tv. Even then it was old stuff – some of it even 12 hours old.

Fast forward to today, where we know about disasters and events within seconds. That includes pictures, videos, news feeds and tweets. People twitter constantly – like when the guy jumped off one cruise ship and a Disney cruise behind it rescued the fool from the sea – one of the passengers tweeted as they were plucking him from the water.

My author friends tweet a lot. I envy that passion and enthusiasm for providing details on a single moment in your life. I, for one, am so damn boring that no one would be interested. So here are some sample tweets…

- Two brown bananas, made banana bread even though I can’t eat it.
- Finished laundry and made bed. Woo! Nothing like fresh sheets.
- Couldn’t figure out how to print booklets for RAW. Finally pushed the right button.
- No one cleaned the downstairs bathroom. Had to do it myself, ugh, skid marks.

Yeah, that was my day yesterday in tweets. B-O-R-I-N-G. Seriously, I have a full-time job, part-time career as a novelist, two teenage sons, a husband who’d like attention now and then, and yeah, I’d like to read a book occasionally too.

I can’t imagine doing all that and tweeting about it. Am I being old-fashioned again? Anyone out there tweet and can offer me a good reason why I should do it? Or do you y’all agree and tell me to keep my skid marks to myself.

I’m right in the throes of my first Emma Lang book (my new pen name for Kensington beginning in June 2010) and I find myself following along in the same habit I’ve done for many books – saving the sex for last. Don’t panic! I don’t mean one sex scene at the end of the book. God forbid ’cause that would be a boring book, right?

No, what I mean is, I get right up to the point where the characters are going to have sex, then I stop and write MORE and move on. Before you ask why, let me ‘splain.

Sex between the main characters is an expression of their relationship, sometimes it’s hard and rough, other times gentle and sweet. Since much of what I write can be in the “panster” mode (as in write by the seat of my pants) even with a full synopsis, I don’t want to write the sex until the end of the book.

Then I go back and look for MORE (snicker) and write each sex scene at the end. That’s a lot of sex, you might be thinking. Well, yeah, it can be, but at that point I know the entire story from page 1 through page 400. That gives me the perspective to know exactly where the character’s heads (and bodies) are at during each intimate moment.

I don’t mean kisses or petting or accident boob brushing though. I definitely write those in because that’s what leads the characters to be intimate, heightens the anticipation if you will.

Does anybody find that odd? I’m hoping the answer is yes, but now that you’ve ‘splained, I get it. Any other authors do something similar? Or am I the lone wacko in a sea of MORE sex? *blush*