What I'm Working on Now: a Random Selection from Novel-in-Progress

Written today...

Aaron woke to an insistent tapping on his arm and a small voice saying, "Can we watch another one? Can we?"

Startled, he glanced at the clock: 4:40. Holly would be there within a couple hours. "I think we can do that," he said. "Until your mom gets here."

He felt a little guilty for falling asleep on the job, but as he was changing the movies, Nick surprised him -- and nearly knocked him over -- by throwing himself at Aaron and squeezing him tight. It was what Holly called his "aggressive form of love" and it touched Aaron in a way that he wasn't ready to analyze...

A Book After my Own Heart

I've found author who writes like me!

Nicholas Evans "The Smoke Jumper" has everything I love in a story: dangerous occupations. War and chaos. A handsome, brooding male character. A love triangle ... and a happy ending (I'm a sucker for those).

Hmm ... sounds familiar!

Evans did a masterful job of using traumatic events and showing how the characters develop because of (or in spite of) them. The 'voice' of each was authentic and even though there were four points of view (telling their stories) I didn't have any moments of confusion like I have in other books.

All the things I use in my writing (although I try to keep my point of view to only TWO characters)!

The only weakness I encountered was an image of a moose on fire. Although I understood (as the main character did) that it had significance to his path in life, it was not clear in the end how it impacted his life.

It has gotten me thinking about the novel I'm working on now. There is a similar recurring 'theme' in it, also, and I will take this as a timely message to make sure there is a strong purpose in writing it into the story!

Last Chance Rescue Video Now on Amazon

If you use amazon, you probably already know they have some neat features. They've just added the ability for us authors to upload videos on our Amazon Author Pages.

So, of course, I did! You can check it out here!

Good Mom, Bad Writer

It has been a good weekend to be a mom. But not such a good weekend to be a writer.

I wanted to work on my novel, but every time I thought I'd have an hour of peace, I found my children yakking at me (my very sociable 7-year-old) or trying to pull all the ornaments off the tree (yep, that's my toddler). Now here it is Sunday evening and I'm too pooped to get my mind into writing or even work on my writing to-do list. Sometimes it's really frustrating!

So here is a reminder to self: focus on what I HAVE been able to accomplish rather than what I haven't.

Last week I updated my 'newsletter,' which has blurbs about recent reviews of "Last Chance Rescue" as well as a short (and interesting) essay about how I got into flying helicopters.

Some 'newsletters' include virtual interviews with characters and even sneak previews of upcoming writings.

You too can receive these missives - once every 6-8 weeks - simply by subscribing here. I hope you'll join me in this journey, and I promise it will be interesting!

When Inspiration Strikes...

I found this quote the other day, and it struck me as TOTALLY appropriate to my writing life...

"Before I had kids, I wrote when inspiration struck. Now I find inspiration strikes when I have childcare and enough caffeine." – Brad Parks

I couldn't have said it better!

No "Sickly Sweet" Romance Here!

"Last Chance Rescue" was reviewed by Linda at Rhode Island Roads Magazine! Here's the first and last part of what she had to say ...

I was a little reluctant to read [Last Chance Rescue] at first. I've had my fill of gushy, sickly sweet romance novels and I just didn't want to read another one. Surprisingly, I found myself not able to put the book down once I started reading it. I wasn't expecting such an action-packed book, full of vivid imagery, knowledge about rescue maneuvers and extraordinary character development ...

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that likes action-packed, never-ending adventure with a roller coaster romance thrown in the middle of it all. It is well written from the author's medi-vac and pilot experience making the flow of the book superb. The characters' development and self-discovery throughout the book transitioned satisfactorily from one chapter to the other. Plain and simple, it was a great book!

Aw, thanks Linda! To read the complete review, click here.

Photo from Author Signing

In November I teamed up with fellow author and friend Cheri Andrews for a book signing at the Davinci Academy Holiday Marketplace. My sister came by and snapped a photo of "The Authors" (hey, that's me!). I was hoping I'd sell more books but the people were fun. You can see the picture here (and read some cool reviews too!).