LAST WEEK’S winners are Georgie Edgar and Maryjane Hoffman–your books will be in the mail today or tomorrow.
Winners for THIS week will be notified tomorrow and announced in Friday’s blog.
I’m pretty much over my trip-exhaustion, and glad of it. The new book is burning in my brain. 🙂 The timing for the Wyoming trip was less than ideal, since I’m already behind schedule, but there you go. The story wasn’t going any further until I knew what I was talking (writing) about. Period. Stories do that–they stall out if there’s a problem and it’s the writer’s job to figure out what that problem IS (sometimes a tricky thing in its own right) and then FIX it.
I once had a character–Jesse McKettrick in “McKettrick’s Luck”–who put the brakes on big time. I didn’t want to call him Jesse–I have a nephew named Jesse and it just seemed, well, weird–but our hero was having none of it. He wanted to be named Jesse, and that was that, and the book wasn’t going anywhere until he got his way. 🙂 Of course, he did, and things worked out fine, so I guess he was right. (Much as I hate to admit it. These story people come by their stubbornness quite honestly, after all.)
Another balky character was Jeff Corbin, who originally appeared in “Banner O’Brien”. The hero, Adam, was his elder brother. Jeff did everything he could to take over the story, and I finally had to bribe him, promising to write his story next, just to get him to stop bugging me. 🙂 Hence, “Corbin’s Fancy”.
So now you know. Sometimes my characters push me around. 🙂
Our weather turned pretty quickly–sunshine comes and goes, and the flowers are starting to look tired. I picked some glorious daisies today and brought them in so I could admire them up close. The pumpkin patch is thriving–almost scary, how big some of those things are. We will definitely be holding another jack-o-lantern carving party this year.
What I’m reading: “W is for Wasted”, by Sue Grafton. It’s wonderful–I’m nearing the end, so I’ve been dragging my feet, not wanting to finish too quickly. After all, it will be a year before “X” comes out, and with only “Y” and “Z” left to come after it, well, heck. What’s a person supposed to do for Kinsey Millhone stories??? Start over, I guess.
The old iPod is loaded with some new stuff, too–can’t wait to get at it. A novel called “Help for the Haunted” will be next–intriguing, huh?
It occurred to me that I forgot to tell you how those art experiments I mentioned turned out. The ones with the glitter and resin, I mean. Well, folks, I got mixed results, as I often do. Some of them looked really good–almost like opals, which was the effect I was going for–and others went straight into the garbage. The valuable thing about the process was this: I learned what to do and what not to do. I’ve since made some “skins”—acrylic paint poured onto a nonstick surface and left to dry–and those turned out pretty well. Now, I use a puddle of clear resin (Dimensional Magic or 3D Crystal Lacquer), adding glitter, those thin foil flakes, along with various other sparklies, and stirring things up a little with a toothpick or the end of a bamboo skewer. These turned out VERY cool.
Time to get back to my writing.
Be blessed.
About Linda
The daughter of a town marshal, Linda Lael Miller is a #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 100 historical and contemporary novels, most of which reflect her love of the West.
Raised in Northport, Washington, Linda pursued her wanderlust, living in London and Arizona and traveling the world before returning to the state of her birth to settle down on a horse property outside Spokane.
