Hello darlings, just a reminder to stop by and visit with our lovely guest, Miss Beverly Long, tomorrow. Miss Beverly is an absolute delight. She’s been seen all around town chatting with the Fillies. We’re thrilled to have such a woman of her caliber in our midst. If you’d like to partake in the fun, hustle over and join us. We’ll have lots of room for you. Maybe we’ll entice you into pulling up a chair and sitting a spell.
Month: April 2008
Panic, Process & Preview…
Okay, we’ll start with the Panic—book due in a month, partial of said book due to my editors today…well, okay, really the partial (outline and first few chapters) was due in January…which theoretically puts me waaay behind deadline (ack!). Now, if I wrote a book in a linear fashion, (starting at chapter one, then two, then three and so on), whipping out a partial would likely be no problem…but I don’t. I tend write the way I read, in a sort of scatter fashion.
Which leads me to Process. Writers and readers all have their own process when it comes to finishing a book. I tend to write a story the same way I read a book–from the inside out. When I pick up a new book I crack it open in the middle or the first quarter (no, I’m not just looking for love scenes–honest!). I can’t really explain why I start in the middle or first quarter of the book…an attention-span issue, part of my dyslexia…I dunno, it’s just my process. A great story will hook me no matter where I open the book. After I spot-read a few passages, if I’m hooked, I hunker down and devour the book in one sitting. There will be no intermissions…I 
want the whole picture all at once! When approaching my writing, I tend to follow the same process. My books never start with the first chapter (with the exception of BRIDE OF SHADOW CANYON–that one started with a woman held captive in a saloon bedroom, but scattered from there *g*). MUSTANG started in chapter three, MAVERICK chapter seventeen, and with GUNSLINGER I wrote the last chapter first–I knew how it would end, I just didn’t know who the characters were or how they’d get there! Currently I’m writing the third book in my WILD series, and this one started in chapter six. Until last week I had nearly two hundred pages, and NO beginning. I had a vague idea of what needed to happen to get my characters to the places I’d already written, but after eight attempts to find the start, none of them really grabbed me and said “Yeah, that’s the perfect start for this story!” Meanwhile, my editors are just a tad anxious to see a glimpse of the book that’s now due in a month. After a lot of panic and deleting, I found the start that FITS, and I finally have something I can turn in. Cross your fingers it will sing to my editors!! Sometimes my process is a major pain 😉
And now for the Preview! Here’s a little rundown on the book, the final book in my WILD Trilogy. Garret and Maggie are in for quite the WILD ride. We first meet Garret Daines in MUSTANG WILD at the tender age of thirteen, a hard-working teen doing his best to look out for his older sister Skylar. In 
MAVERICK WILD Garret is on his way to becoming a man and suffers some heartache when Cora Mae overlooks him as she falls for Chance Morgan…a man who casts a broad shadow Garret can’t wait to outgrow. Six years later Garret’s all grown up and finds himself in a heap of trouble with a cattle barren who’s hellbent on driving Garret’s cattle ranch out of business. An attempt to take Garret’s life in the dead of winter lands him in the healing hands of mountain recluse Maggie Slade…aka, Mad Mag. Maggie made her first WILD appearance in 
MAVERICK WILD, saving Chance Morgan from a hangman’s noose, and revealing a secret or two about her past. Maggie’s hiding a mess of secrets in her WILD mountain hideaway–none of which she’s willing to share with a handsome cowpuncher she believes has more charm than sense. Garret can hardly believe the youthful beauty he discovers hidden beneath Maggie’s trapper-woman persona. Being raised by Skylar, Garret isn’t new to sharp-tongued WILD women…in fact, he finds himself quite enamored by Maggie’s attempts to put him in his place…and has quite a time convincing her that place is right beside her. A common threat provides the common ground they need to stand on as they start to understand and appreciate each other’s “process”…making them vulneralbe to that wildly unpredictable emotion called LOVE.
So there you have it, my Panic, my Process, and a Preview!
What is YOUR process, be it reading or writing? When you start a book, 
can you put it down in between chapters and come back to it later or do you have to finish the whole book in one sitting? Do you cheat and spot read (like me) before settling in, or do you keep to the straight and narrow, starting on page one and reading to the end?
Whatever your process, I wish y’all a wonderful weekend & Happy Reading!
Lola and Lotta
My apologies to everyone for running late today. I’ve just returned from a writers’ conference in New York and am getting my feet back on the ground. Complicating things is — it seems — the ever present deadline. My new book is due Monday and there is much too do.
When I last blogged, I talked about mines. There are no more famous names in the history of the Northern Mines than those of Lola Montez and Lotta Crabtree, two women who parlayed entertainment into great fortunes during those days. One kept the fortune, the other died in poverty.
Lola — born Eliza Gilbert in Ireland — was a sensation in Europe in the 1840’s, both for her theatrical talents and her personal life. She was the mistress of Ludwig of Bavaria and later presided over soirees attended by such luminaries as Franz Liszt, George Sand, Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas.
She embarked on a tour of America in 1852 and eventually made it to San Francisco. According to “Sunset Gold Mining Country,” her famous beauty and notoriety packed the audiences but her mediocre dancing talents were somewhat disappointing to the jaded San Franciscans. She visited mining camps, injecting an element of glamour ino the often tawdry routine of mining camps, but failed in larger venues. She finally retired in Grass Valley, one of the most important gold mining towns in Califonia where she shared her home with her pets: grizzly bears and monkeys.
Lotta Crabtree lived just down the street. At seven, she would stop to visit Lola, and the bubbling irrepressible little girl caught Lola’s fancy and became her protege. Lola taught little Lotta songs and dances and soon the child was performing for Miss Montez’s guests.
About a year after they met, the Crabtrees moved to La Porte, and the two were separated. Little Lotta, though, was on her way. She went on stage at the age of eight and was a smash success. The miners showered the stage with coins and nuggets.
She toured the mines for years, often in one night stands, and built a huge following. She finally went to San Francsico, then New York and on to internatonal fame. She retired at an early age and lived gracefuly unil 1924. At the time of her death, her estate totaled $4 million.
Her mentor, on the other hand, fell on hard times. Trying to renew her career, she went to Australia, but failed there. She failed again when she moved to New York and tried to build a career lecturing. Her health failed, and her money was gone. She died at the age of 43 in poverty, just about the time that Lotta Crabtree was starting on her great career.
These two women brought glamour and pleasure to the mining camps and towns across the west. They each defied convention and lived life to the fullest on their own terms. Two terrific heroines, one with a successful ending, the other a tragic one.
Now I think I have an idea for a new book . . .
Presenting Beverly Long Saturday!
You’ll be pleased as punch to know Miss Beverly Long will arrive here Saturday. She’ll talk about the joys of book-reading, a subject that’s near and dear to my heart. Ah do love to while away the hours reading a good book. Spring is bringing quite a bonanza of authors this month and I’ll be announcing more about that a bit later. It’s so exciting though! But for now, ah do hope you’ll make plans to drop by Saturday to welcome Miss Beverly to Wildflower Junction. We’ll have more fun than a bunch of gossiping old maids at a quilting bee!
Coke–drink it? Or clean your battery with it?
Now that we’re winding down from the construction of our new kitchen, I’m in major de-clutter mode. One of the rooms hard-hit with clutter was my office. Since my daughter, Kristi, was coming over to help me with a Power Point presentation I’m doing at RT in a couple of weeks, I figured the least I could was spiff the place up a little.
As I was cleaning off my desk, buried at the very bottom of a stack of papers was an email I’d printed out years ago. I guess I thought the information contained within was so intriguing, it was worth keeping.
But in that time, I’d gotten a little wiser. And more skeptical. So I did a little checking on the validity of that email–which made claims about Coca-Cola and all its, well, intriguing properties.
Now, I’m a Pepsi girl myself and can tell the difference between Pepsi and 
Coke. And after reading about the cola, I can’t help worrying if it was all true, that drinking a can of Diet Pepsi every day could eventually dissolve my bones.
Maybe you got this same email:
1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and …….Let the “real thing” sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
7. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, And run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.
FYI:
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its Ph is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.
2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.
3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!
Still want to drink up?
Now, just so one of the big men in suits don’t stumble upon my little blog this morning and make me regret what we’re talking about, I went searching to see if Coca-Cola had any response to these claims.
They did. (Don’t you just love the Internet?)
The company claimed to be unaware of officers using the soda to clean pavement, citing the cost as prohibitive and that water or vinegar would be equally effective. Vinegar is naturally acidic and would soften an egg shell, yet it’s explained that vinegar ‘is completely safe as a food ingredient and enhances the flavor of many foods.’ They also go on to advise consumers to use the proper household products when cleaning or removing rust.
They claim that the email was all myths. Except the ham gravy part. Coke makes delicious gravy, evidently.
Now I’d like to know if you tried any of these myths to see if they were true? Ever use Coke in your laundry? Dissolve a steak in it? Clean your battery?
If so, do tell!
Do you use any other kinds of food to clean with? Your mother? Grandmother?
We’d love to know!