The Social Graces of Pre-teens

Two of my former students stopped by yesterday to say hello. They’re both about twelve years old, and I had to hide a laugh when they showed up. I have a special fondness for the social awkwardness of pre-teens. They both obviously went to some trouble to find out where I lived and to come over together. They wanted to see me, to talk with me, and visit. But when they arrived, they had no clue what to do.

I gave it my best shot, asking them about their summers, trying for any conversation beyond “Yes” and “Not much.” It was as if they’d planned this visit but once they saw me, it became surreal for them. I offered them cookies and a chance to sit down and talk, but they passed.

Maybe they just wanted to see if I really did have a house and kids instead of living in a closet at school. I think kids secretly believe this. They can be chatterboxes and social butterflies at school, but if they see you in Wal-Mart, their tongues get tied into knots. I can almost hear the voices buzzing inside their heads.

Me: “Hi, there.
Them: It’s Mrs. Willingham! Oh my God! What’s she doing here? She doesn’t have a life outside of grading papers. “Uh, hi.” (Kid hides behind bangs or tries to disappear behind Mom.
Me: “Well, nice to see you!”
Them: Oh my God! She saw me. What does she think of me? She hates me. I know it. That’s why she flunked me on my last test. My life is over now. “Mmmrgrh.”

Middle-schoolers. Gotta love ‘em.

Favorite Junk Foods

My friend Mary is going to England this fall, and while I am insanely jealous of her, it started me thinking about what I miss most about England. I used to live there from 1984-1986 and some of my favorite junk foods were Cadbury’s chocolate and Hob Nobs. Hob Nobs are a delicious cookie, a bit like oatmeal cookies, and there are some wonderful ones dipped in chocolate.

But my favorite Cadbury’s chocolate bar was called a Picnic bar. It’s been about 15 years since I’ve had one, but it was chocolate, peanuts, raisins, wafer, and caramel, if I remember correctly. Oh, God. It was Nirvana. When I get another chance to visit the UK, I am STOCKING UP on Picnic bars.

Which leads me to my other junk food loves. I adore BBQ chips, tortilla chips with Nacho cheese sauce, popcorn dripping with butter, peanut M&Ms, and Twizzlers. My beverage of choice is Dr. Pepper.

What’s your favorite junk food?:hungry:

Updates

I finally updated my links page. If anyone is interested in historical links, I’ve tried to group them by category.

In other news, I hit a personal best of 15 pages today! That’s the most writing I think I’ve ever done in a single day. Wow!

Keeping it Fresh

I’m rocking my way to the end (28 pages, people!) and I have my good old Rodale’s Thesaurus sitting next to me. I’ve learned that I have “pet phrases” and whenever I don’t know what else to say, they creep out. Here are some of my worst ones:

She met his gaze.
There was only one way to find out.
She lifted her chin.
She squared her shoulders.

Whenever I see myself writing one of these phrases, I’m tempted to yell–”Stop! Quit writing the same stuff!” :starwars: It’s a particular challenge to keep the work fresh, but at least I’m aware of the phrases. I also have to go back and eliminate the words: still, only, gaze/eyes, and a few others. But that’s what revisions are for.

My eldest enjoyed his gymnastics class yesterday, though I think the most memorable parts for him were the green cartoon stamp he received on his hand and the popsicle they gave him afterwards. If you involve tasty treats, my son will love you forever. His pediatrician was a sucker for his goofy baby grins and would always give him cookies or stickers. He came to associate her doctor’s office with food and good things. Now he begs me to go to the doctor. My daughter would rather hurl herself off a cliff. She remembers all the shots. Plus, she’s suspicious of strangers and doesn’t offer the cute little baby smiles which earn cookies. She’ll grip my neck like a vise and scream when a stethoscope comes near her. Poor thing.

Cue the Rocky Music

Okay, it’s that time. Cue the Rocky Soundtrack. I have outlined in anal-retentive detail the remainder of my book, and I’m ready for that last blast-through to the end. If all goes well (fingers crossed), I’ll have the book done by the weekend. Then it’s onto a few revisions (I’ve been revising as I go), and I’ll be done! Can’t wait. There’s just no better feeling than finishing a book. Maybe I’ll even have to go to Philadelphia, run up the library steps and start waving my fists in triumph.

Or not.

My son was bouncing off the walls today. He’ll get to attend his first gymnastics class. I’ve never seen anyone so excited. He went to a birthday party once where they had tumbling and play, and he never forgot it. That was nearly a year ago. Hopefully he’ll have fun.

When I was in high school, gymnastics was the sport I chose. I must be masochistic. :confused2: I couldn’t even do the splits (still can’t) and the hardest trick I could do was a cartwheel. But there were all of seven people on the team, and they didn’t really make any cuts, so I made it. I never competed my first year, except for one exhibition. I had so much fun, though, I kept taking lessons at a local gym and finally got good enough to compete my senior year. Now mind you, this is still not all that good. I learned how to do back handsprings and my routines were AVERAGE. But I had so much fun, and there was something exciting about learning new skills and becoming stronger and more flexible (and no, I never did get the splits, though I came awfully close. I think my body just doesn’t go that way).

I would love to try an adults gymnastics class. Of course, I’d probably kill myself, but I have such fond memories of my high school years, it would be a lot more interesting than step aerobics. :headspin:

What’s your favorite kind of exercise?

Old Cookbooks

So yesterday I was still plugging away at the book, trying to figure out WHY I wasn’t able to just blast through to the end. I’m so close! Really, I could have this book done in a week. But I wasn’t making any progress.

Then a fun idea occurred to me. My heroine loves to cook, and I have an 1887 Cook book. Okay, so it isn’t 1858, but the recipes had been compiled by the author since she was a girl. As long as the ingredients were around, it’s safe to say the recipe has been around a while. I got the fun idea of putting a few quotes from the cook book at the beginning of each chapter. You know, like, “First, kill a chicken.”

It occurred to me that there would likely be copyright issues, even with an old cookbook, so I adapted the recipes, deleted an ingredient or two, added one of my own, and the new “cook book” is one by my heroine. Such fun.

Then last night I outlined my book to see if I could find YET AGAIN where I had gone wrong, and suddenly it struck me. As I outlined, I saw places where I needed scenes. Then there were places where I needed to add the hero’s point of view. I woke up this morning completely fired up to write. I’ve made some great progress, and added three new pages. I had to break one chapter into two, since it was running on toward 25 pages long, so I think I might even have a fourth page. But best of all, the story’s cooking, if you pardon the pun. Thank goodness.

In other news, I went to my son’s daycare to read stories today as the guest reader. I chose “One Dark Night” and “Stellaluna.” Three and four-year-olds are a wonderful audience. Not only were they participating, but at the end, I got hugs and kisses.

Then my son realized that I was leaving and not taking him with me, which caused the sobbing to start. Oh, that mommy guilt. (Michelle runs and hides.)

But back to the cooking question…do you have any old cookbooks in your house with a story surrounding them?

Huge Fish Eats Child

Okay, not really. But it sounded like a fun topic.

My wonderful husband wanted to dust off the old family aquarium and set it up for our son. We had a thirty-gallon tank for the first few years we lived in this house and it was fun…initially. Until I learned that cleaning a 30-gallon tank was a pain in the patootie. So, when our son was still an infant, I traded the fish for store credit at a local pet store and boxed up the aquarium.

A side story, if you will. One of the last fish I had to get out of the aquarium (before taking the thirty or so fish to the store) nearly proved to be the death of me. I hate touching fish. Can’t stand it. Especially twitchy fish who jerk around like they’re Linda Blair, possessed by demons. We had one mother of an algae eater, probably two pounds or so, about eight inches in length. Yes, really. And I had to somehow transport him to the pet store. He was too big for a Zip Loc, so I got a bucket. He was too big for my fish net. Somehow, I managed to nudge him into the large bucket and I thought I was home free. Then he decided to take his own leap toward freedom (cue the “Born Free” soundtrack) and landed on the carpeted office floor, flopping around like crazy. Instead of scooping him back in the bucket, I threw a towel on him and screamed, “Honey!!! Help!!!” My marvelous husband leaped up the stairs and proceeded to rescue the poor demented critter while I quivered in a shrinking mass of pitiful fish-nerves. Did I mention I hate touching fish?

So when the idea came up of reviving the tank, I compromised. We could put the smaller tank up, on the condition that I would not have to clean it. He agreed. (The angels sang, the heavens opened forth….)

Tonight my son picked out three Neon Tetras for the tank. I’m hoping that they survive for quite a while because I’m not quite ready for the Pet Death conversation.

In other news, I received an interesting letter from Dorchester on my first book My Wild Irish Rogue. This book, I believe, has lots of potential but it has issues that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. The letter informed me that, while I did not make the finals for American Title, she thought the opening chapter in the heroine’s point of view was hilarious (her exact word. And yes, I’m thrilled with that.) :headspin: She wrote (handwriting, people! NOT a typed letter!:hello2: ), “I would have preferred if the wry wit continued.” She marked my weakness (it had a checklist too) as the hero.

Huh. Maybe that was my problem. Maybe my hero wasn’t as developed, not quite man enough for the heroine. Well, there you go. Now I know what to fix. So entering the contest was a good thing for me and I have a better sense of my strengths and weaknesses.

Toddler Training

You’d think that after one child, I would “get it” by now. I would realize that toilet training is completely individual and one size does NOT fit all. (An aside–why is the lowest size in training pants 2 T? Do they not think 18-month-olds can figure it out anymore?)

I got the bright idea that YES! I would try to begin the toilet training process because:
A) I have successfully managed to get my daughter to pee five times in the porcelain bowl of wonder
(Okay, so technically most of those times were moments when I discovered a dry diaper and fled at top speed into the bathroom, ripping off her diaper while the theme to “Rocky” played in my head.)and
B) Because she’s a girl (and everybody says girls are easier)


It started out well, with her clapping each time she went on the toilet. I armed her with those triple-ply cloth training pants and prayed to the toilet-training gods for a happy experience.

I have since been humbled. Why, you may ask? Because I have learned that girls do not wet training pants in the same way. My daughter resembles a puppy in that, small puddles follow in her wake.

But she can say, “Potty” now (or at least Pah-ee). And she’ll beam, point to it, and after I take her off again (after three minutes of endless waiting for something to happen), she’ll proudly baptize the floor.

Sigh. Back to the Pampers.

P.S.–I have posted links on the For Writers page to my notes on the guidelines for Bantam/Dell and also for St. Martin’s Press. The booksellers listing will be updated as people send me more information.

Calling all Booksellers!

I think I may be out of my mind, but last night I thought of an idea that could potentially benefit a LOT of the romance community: An online database of romance-friendly booksellers.

Many new authors want to host book signings or give away promotional items but don’t know which booksellers to contact. More seasoned authors might already know which booksellers love romance authors and who would love to receive items for their customers. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a nationwide listing of stores to benefit both authors and booksellers?

If we got a listing of even 5 stores per state, we’d have 250 resources. Imagine the possibilities! I’m especially interested in some of the smaller stores, who might not be as well-known. Here’s our chance to support them.

If you would be interested in helping out with this project and you have a few local bookstores where the managers have been particularly kind to romance authors, please e-mail me with the following information:
Store name, address, phone number, contact person, list of items they enjoy receiving, and whether they like to host signings. I’ll take care of the rest and I’ll post it online when we have enough information.

Please pass this onto other authors you know, and let’s see what we can create!

Thinking Outside the Box

There are more spotlight notes up today on my For Writers page.. I put up the notes from the Warner spotlight.

One of the greatest lessons I took away from the conference was this–if you want to break into a single title house, you need an idea that will sell itself. Something bold and different (like Julie Kenner’s soccer mom who slays demons–I mean, who wouldn’t want to read about that??). I think for my next proposal I’m going to really try to think outside the box. I still want to write historicals, but I need a unique twist on them, something that stands out. So that’s what I’ll be shooting for.

So that leads me to a question: What are some common traits in books you enjoy reading?

For example: kidnappings, arranged marriages, Cinderella stories, rescues, vampires (okay, I threw that one in). :headspin: