Nah. I think it was John Dryden who said that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. So this year I decided not to make any. That doesn’t mean I plan to sit back and rest on my laurels. What are laurels anyway?
I just decided that instead of making plans, making good intentions, I would act.
Haven’t stopped since I woke up at 6:00 on New Years Day. I know. I didn’t see the New Year come in. The party I was invited to was canceled at the last minute so I went to a girl friend’s house. We drank some excellent champagne, ate shrimp and pate and brie and I was home by 10:30.
It’s that getting up early to write thing. It just gets implanted and it’s hard to buck.
So I started the New Year doing just one more edit to a proposal that I sent to my agent the next day.
I just finished a marathon day of tax prep to send off to my CPA. That wasn’t a resolution either, but my daughter is going to college in the fall and I have to get that fafsa form completed.
Now, I’m done and I’m going to read a book for pleasure. Good thing I didn’t make a resolution to read more. I might have broken it.
Anybody else planning to wing it this year? Or do you have better success at sticking to your resolutions?

The thing about writers is that it’s hard for us to rush through anything, except maybe copyedits. Take setting up my Dickens village. You know those houses and figures right out of Oliver Twist and The Pickwick Papers.

Over the years my village has grown into a metropolis, filled with people, animals, carts, stage coaches. Last year, I didn’t even take it out. Instead, I put together a seaside village of just a few pieces and wrote right through the holidays.

This year my daughter was adamant. So the storage boxes were brought up from the basement and each piece was lovingly taken out of its Styrofoam box. Days later, I have one street completed, while I contemplate such questions as: Should the poultry woman stand outside the Poulterer’s Store or should she travel door to door selling her chickens?

Each year, the master of Brownlow Manor waves to his children as they go out to sled. Haven’t they grown after all these years? Should I change their names and send them to another family? Maybe, Mr. Brownlow should be welcoming guests. Who would they be? Friends come to stay for the holidays? His grown children, now married with children of their own?

But the big question is will I have everyone’s story and place in the village decided before Christmas is over.

What are your December rituals?

In keeping with the holiday, I’ll randomly choose someone to send a copy of A Very Merry Christmas, the anthology that includes my Christmas novella, “Bah Humbug, Baby.”

May your month be merry and bright. And all your holidays be right.

UPDATE!!
MERRY HO-HO TREN !!!
Send me an email at Gemma@gemmabruce.com and I’ll get your present in the mail.

It turned cold over night here. I made a chilly run down to the end of the driveway to get the paper, then hurried through windshield scraping while the car heater struggled to pump out warm air. Now I’m back at the computer, feeling toasty and writing about summer.

I started this new book in August when the livin’ was easy, but had to lay it aside to do copy editing and proofing of another book. Now I’m two thirds of the way through a new action adventure story that takes place in the Hamptons in July. (For you landlubbers, The Hamptons have the best beaches in Long Island.)

So this morning I’m writing about a midnight clam bake that goes really wrong. Never invite a psychopath to a cookout. My heroine is wearing short shorts and a tank top, I’m wearing jeans, two sweaters and my furry UGGs.

That’s the great thing about fiction. It can take you where ever you want to go. What do you like to read when it’s cold outside?

This past weekend my chapter, New Jersey Romance Writers, had a booth at one of the local street fairs. It was a festive, if very long, day. Lots of people stopped by to find out more about romance fiction and to buy books. We got a few people who said I don’t read romance, and walked on. But a lotwanted to hear more, some avid readers and some who didn’t read romances, but ended up buying books.
But what I found amazing were the number of peole who were writing books, planning on writing, or wished they had time to write. Especially husbands and boyfriends were anxious to tell us all about their ideas.
It was pretty cool. Like finding unexpected friends at a party where you didn’t think you knew anyone.
Coupled with all the entries we received for the Brava Novella contest (Good Luck, everybody!) It made me think about the need people feel to put their ideas down on paper.
How about you? Do you write, or want to? Or is reading just as satisfying?

I don’t know about you. But summer always goes too fast for me. You wouldn’t think that it would be any different than any other time of the year. The kids are out of school, but between soccer, social engagements and summer jobs, I hardly see them any more than I do during the year. And my job isn’t tied to the calendar—just the deadline!!! I work all year round and take my breaks (brief though they are) whenever I’m between projects.

And besides, I’m not a beach person, don’t love the heat, and don’t have time to work in my garden.

Right now, I’m on my “gotta get it done” schedule. Up at 6:00. Coffee and the NY Times crossword puzzle and I’m at the keyboard by 6:30. I’m working on a new series that is really exciting about four very special women each with a penchant for excitement and dangerous men. The first book takes place in summer. Thought that would give me a double whammy of warm weather and sunny days. (Plus it’s easier to write love scenes when you’re not dealing with coats, gloves and snow boots.)

But I still feel the days tumbling toward fall. Which is a good thing. I love fall. The leaves and the smells, and all that other good stuff, like pumpkin picking and hot apple cider. Plus the crisp clear air makes me feel really creative.

Which reminds me. I love winter, too. Oh yeah, and spring, too. So I guess I’m glad one season turns into another after all.

What about you? Which season is your favorite?

I love puzzles. Maybe that’s why I began my writing career as a mystery writer. I have a new mystery series about Sudoku and a puzzle museum curator. All my romances have a mystery to them. I can’t help myself. I even have a puzzle room in my house. There’s always a jigsaw in progress. It’s a great way to relax. Quiet. Without all that incoming stimuli from TV, CDs and DVDs.

And boy does my puzzle room come in handy when I’m writing and my characters are going somewhere I hadn’t planned, and the plot has thickened and I wonder what the heck is going to happen. I just sit down for a few minutes, pick up one of those lovely little pieces of cardboard and look for a spot where it fits.

Out of total confusion comes a pattern and finally a picture. Writing is sometimes like that. I look at all the different pieces, the characters, the setting, the plot, and I think, Yikes. Part of me knows I’ve got the total picture in my mind somewhere. But part of me just hopes that I can get them pieced together into a fulfilling story.

Then slowly the story begins to emerge and I know all the pieces had always fit together, even though I didn’t always see how.
Puzzles are like that. I guess that’s why they’re so intriguing. And why they’re so helpful for focusing your mind.

Anybody have a favorite technique for seeing the whole picture?

Ah! Vacation time. A time to relax, get away from it all. Which isn’t as simple as it sounds, even if you head to the wilderness. (Though my idea of a vacation these days, centers more on room service and drinks with little umbrellas in them.)
It’s amazing how many things we need in order to relax. And not just the swim suits, rafts, tents and golf clubs. There’s cell phones, Blackberries, and lap tops, iPods, video games. And did someone check to make sure the hotel or cottage has cable and a DVD player?
Yikes. I’m tired and I haven’t even left yet.
Every summer when I was growing up, we vacationed in the mountains of North Carolina at a huge stone lodge that would rival any gothic castle.
There was no television or radio. There was a phone at the registration desk that I suppose guests could use for emergencies though I don’t remember anyone ever using it.
We had plenty to do. Watch the hummingbirds outside the breakfast room window. Hike, fish, canoe, and play badminton during the day.
At night everyone gathered in the game room, a huge place with sofas, club chairs, tables and a grand stone fireplace on one wall. We’d pass the time playing cards, chess, or checkers. Working jigsaw puzzles or crosswords and playing Parcheesi.
Remembering those vacations, I determine to make this summer more simple. But as soon as I think about leaving my laptop behind, I break out in a panic. There might be an important email. And my cell? What if my agent calls?
I might long for a simpler vacation, but when I get in that car, I know I’ll be carrying my computer and cell phone. The rest I might be able to leave behind . . . maybe.
Is it just me? Or does anybody else have trouble vacationing without electronics? And if you don’t, how do you do it?

I think it was a Marylon French character (female) who said, The best men are written by women. If I remember correctly, she was referring to all men, real and fictional, which gives the statement an extra bite.

I like the quote a lot. It’s been the source of some lively discussions. (Arguments?)

What men come immediately to mind when we talk about fictional heroes? Men that are so wonderfully constructed, we wish they were real. Heathcliff? Mr. Darcy? Rhett Butler?

One of my favorite all time male characters is Sylvester, from the Gerorgette Heyer novel of the same name, subtitled, The Wicked Uncle. Sylvester is a peer who has a nephew, whose welfare is bequeathed to him by his deceased twin brother. Sylvester becomes the talk of the town when a young girl anonymously publishes a “horrid” novel in which an evil uncle, Count Ugolino, kidnaps his nephew and rightful heir to his title. The story is purely conincidental, but the real Sylvester’s oddly shaped eyebrows inspired the character and everyone recognizes the count as Sylvester.

Sylvester is outraged, vows to ruin the poor authoress. We know where this will lead. Georgette Heyer is not only the mother of the regency, but also the master of characterization. He eventually falls in love with the maligned authoress, only to be spurned by her.

What’s the hero to do?

In a lovely twist, he seeks advice from his mother. The mother turns the trick in his favor.

I think this is a bold move. We don’t really think of our heros running to their mothers. It makes them appear weak, a mommy’s boy. But in Heyer’s expert hands, it makes him more sympathetic and in a way stronger than the arrogant man he was.

There are archetypes and there are those who break the mold. They run the gamut from cowboy to vampire, from corporate shark to small town pediatrictian.

I like a hero who is strong enough to ask his mother for advice.

What about you? Who’s your favorite hero? Do they have a softer side?

I had to laugh at Amy’s post yesterday. I just finished watching the first season of Buffy. Okay I’m sometimes slow on the uptake. So when fiber optics came to my neighborhood, I signed up. First on my block. Cutting edge. It’s great. Fast internet, clear television. Only one little hitch. When they set it up, it disabled all my printers. Fortunately I ran a test while the installer was loading up his truck. He knocked around my computer for an hour and nothing. So he left.
Like a good ostrich, I went to dinner.

Needless to say the problem didn’t go away. In fact, not only did I not have a working printer, my entire computer queue was gone! I reinstalled. Nothing. I went to bed. A full day, three hours and ten minutes of which were on the phone to tech support, an hour at the computer store and I don’t know how many reintallations later, I still had no printers. I tried a USB connector. I was so over sharing my printers with anyone. I just wanted them back. Even the old slow workhorse that I complain about all the time, but never lets me down. (Are you wowed by all this computerese? Desperation makes you an expert fast)

That’s when I started really appreciating all those authors who wrote (and some who still write) with a pen. No changing around paragraphs and cutting and pasting for those writers, unless they used scissors and a scotch tape. All those strike throughs and rewrites made reading a nightmare I’m sure, but at the end of the day they held their work in their hot little hands.

I love hard copy, the feel of the paper, the way the pen moves across the page. I always edit from hard copy. Often if I find a scene moving too fast, I move away from my lap top and write it out long hand. It slows everything down and lets me savor the action, the emotion of a scene.

Imagine someone like Dickens writing installments of Oliver Twist for the newspaper. No getting to chapter twenty and deciding it should be where chapter four is, and chapter four should really be chapter seven, and with a few keyboard commands. Voila! The changes are made. Dickens was stuck with what he wrote as he wrote it.

It’s kind of mind boggling. And I bless my little laptop. But I still have to have that print out. And always will.

And if anyone wonders what happened next in my technology saga: today I have a printer. Not my printers, but a new printer with a USB connection. But I also have a new stack of spiral notebooks and a package of ball point pens. Just in case . . .

Do you love technology or long for simpler times? Am I the only person just catching up with Buffy?

That sounds awfully philosohical, doesn’t it? But it’s really a question all of us writers keep asking.

I did a signing with some other New Jersey Romance writers on Saturday. It was our first warm sunny day for a while, and the day before the big nor’easter was going to move in. So we didn’t have a lot of traffic.

Which was okay because it gave us time to gossip and catch up, talk about our careers and the future of our writing.

A lot of “stuff” came up in the conversation about where romance writing is going. If vampires had glutted the market, if kick-butt heroines are out or in, if inspirational and erotica are the happening sub genres.

It’s something I don’t think about when I’m buying a book. I just buy what I think I’ll like to read. But I have noticed lately that my bookstore is giving more space to one sub genre or the other. We discussed this for a while, then one of us said, all we ever talk about is where the market is going. What about where we want it to go?

That brought on some lively discussion, I can tell you. We all had our favorite niches, one loved fantasy, of the unicorn and lost world varieties, one loved dark paranormal, I like action adventure, romantic comedy, and another said westerns were the only thing for her.

So many different kinds of romance.

So I thought I’d take a poll. Where would you like to see romance go? Suspense? Inspirational? Historical? Romantic Comedy? Erotica? Paranormal? Old fashioned boy meets girl? Any other venue?

If you could decide, what would you like to see more of on the shelves the next time you go into your favorite bookstore?