I've Moved!

Please visit me at: 


 My New Place

Packed up, hauled out and painted the windows red.

Stop by and visit!

Stars Wars

Stars Wars fan? You'll love it!

A Garden Day

I hear the breeze sighing through the marbled parts of my garden. I want to sit out on the wet grass, cup the white roses, close my eyes and imagine.

Literary Odds and Ends

Marjorie Liu has a great blog post up at Babel Clash, the Borders sci fi blog, about loving all challenges. It's a great reminder not just for writing, but for life too. My favorite lines:

"You never stop learning. You never let yourself grow complacent. Love the challenge of trying new things, of taking opportunities that are a risk — but a lovely risk that will feed you, and teach you, and expand your view of what is possible."

And, if you haven't discovered Slush Pile Hell, go forth! It's a hilarious glimpse at a literary agent's take on failed query letters and well worth the travel time.

Life's Changes

 "Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are." ~Bernice Johnson Reagon



There are those moments you come to in life -- the make or break moments -- where you can't truly appreciate how terrifying they are unless you're living it. Moments such as now. My Captain is out of a job, let go last Friday after seventeen years with his company. After the WTF? moment, it was hard for both of us to breathe. Two kids in college, two in high school and one week later, we're still swimming in the WTF moment.

And today, as I'm finally seeing the horizon after months and months (years) of writing and editing my first novel, I hear this from Dorchester -- yes, they're going digital with barely any notice to the authors expecting release dates in the next few months. Which begs the questions: what is happening to the publishing industry? Can authors make as much in e-book sales as in the traditional way?

I have to wonder if pursuing a writing career is really the wisest thing to do right now, especially in my circumstance. Is it even lucrative anymore, or semi-lucrative at least? Yes, it's been my dream since before I started college. Yes, I put it off to raise the kids. And yes, it's still my biggest dream, even beyond traveling to exotic lands and suddenly finding myself able to eat dairy without breaking out in hives.

But at what point should the dream stay a dream for awhile so you can get your ducks in order? Guarantee things such as food on the table, mortgage paid, bills done?

My dream is so near. I won't give it up yet because I've invested a lot in my novel. And I finally almost have it to the point where I'm comfortable shopping it. But in the meantime, I'm at a terrifying place in my life. I hope, as Bernice Reagon said above, I discover who I really am. And what I discover will be good.

National Geography's Best Wallpapers of the Year

Two of my favorites:

 Courtesy Daily Pictures For Fun

Visit here to see the rest. They're beautiful!

Amazon's Third Generation Kindle

This letter, from Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, appeared on the Amazon front page last night.

The bottom line? Get a new third generation Kindle, Wifi only, for $139.00. Or opt for 3G at the price of $189.00, still lower than what the Kindle had originally been selling for earlier this year.

So. . . wow! I'm all in.

Dear Customers,

I believe in the transformative power of reading—the ability of an author to transport you to new worlds, introduce you to new people, and even alter your perspective. Reading is important. Reading is why we build Kindles. Reading is why millions of people use Kindles.

Today, we’re excited to introduce a new, third generation of Kindle. We kept everything readers love about Kindle and made it even better.

Here are some of the highlights:

Books in 60 Seconds: Think of a book and start reading it in 60 seconds. Kindle uses the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones. But unlike cell phones, there are no monthly bills and no annual contracts

All-New, High-Contrast E-Ink Screen: 50% better contrast than any other e-reader

Read Even in Bright Sunlight: No glare

New Sleek Design: 21% smaller body with same 6” size reading area

15% Lighter: Only 8.7 ounces, read comfortably for hours with just one hand

Battery Life of One Month: A single charge lasts up to one month

Double the Storage: Carry up to 3,500 books wherever you go

Buy Once, Read Everywhere: Read your Kindle books on all your devices

Worry-Free Archive: Delete with abandon. We automatically keep an
archival copy of your Kindle books—re-download for free, anytime

Global 3G Wireless: At home or abroad, wireless works in over 100
countries

Built-In Wi-Fi: In addition to the 3G wireless, you can connect to Wi-Fi
hotspots

This latest generation Kindle is $189—you can pre-order now, and it will ship on August 27.

That’s half the news. We’re also excited to introduce a new Kindle family member—Kindle with Wi-Fi only. Kindle Wi-Fi is only $139. Kindle Wi-Fi is identical to our new $189 Kindle, except it doesn’t have our go-anywhere 3G wireless. If you’re going to use your Kindle primarily in locations where you have access to a Wi-Fi hotspot–like at home–then Kindle Wi-Fi is a good choice. At $139, we expect many people will buy multiple Kindles for the home and family.

You can pre-order the $139 Kindle Wi-Fi now, and it will ship on August 27.

Both new generation Kindles have access to the same Kindle Store with the largest selection of books people want to read—over 630,000 titles including 109 of 112 New York Times Best Sellers, plus top newspapers and magazines. Over 510,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 80 of the New York Times Best Sellers. Our vision is to have every book, ever written, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds.

Readers have made Kindle the #1 bestselling, most-gifted, most-wished-for product on Amazon for two years running. Kindle also has the most five-star reviews of any product on Amazon. We’re excited and energized by this
reception. We hope you enjoy our most advanced Kindles yet.

Thank you for being a customer.

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO

I have to physically strap myself to the chair to keep from plunging in and buying it now. 

Then again, what the hell. . . 

Writing Tips

Author Janet Fitch has an excellent post on 10 Writing Tips That Can Help Almost Anyone. Every single tip is worth reading and taking into your own writing space.

My favorites are No. 7, Smarten Up Your Protagonist: 

"They don’t have to be super-educated, they just have to be mentally active. Keep them looking, thinking, wondering, remembering."

And No. 10, Torture Your Protagonist:

"The more we love them, and the more cleverly we torture them along the lines of their greatest vulnerability and fear, the better the story."

Her blog is worthy of reading as well. The short stories she posts, based on a randomly chosen word of the week, are not just entertaining but worth studying if you're a young or aspiring writer. Even in these short snippets, she crafts wonderful, three-dimensional characters and sets a scenes that make you feel like you're living them.  

Writing Contests

Jason Evans at Clarity of Night is hosting the Uncovered Short Fiction Contest of 250 words or less. The deadline is Wednesday, July 28th. I have entered my short entitled: Synesthesia.

Glamour Magazine is having its Seventh Essay Writing Contest. Have an inspiring story about an inspiring event, an obstacle to overcome, that's defined you? Send it in! Deadline: September 15, 2010. Prizes: $5,000 and a meeting with a top, literary agent. Minimum 2,500 words, maximum 3,500 words. See website for details. No entry fee.


Real Simple Magazine's Life's Lessons Essay Contest wants you to answer this question in 1500 words or less:  "I never thought I'd. . . " Deadline: September 24, 2010. Prize: $3,000. No entry fee.


So go for it.

SPN - I Miss You

And because this summer has been so long without the boys. . .

Amazon Kindle E-books

Well, in case you've been living under a rock, it appears Amazon Kindle e-books are now outselling their hardcover books. It probably helped that Amazon lowered the price of their Kindle from $259.00 to $189.00 and that they offer a free Kindle app for Ipad, Iphones and a half dozen other devices.


According to Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com. ". . .even while our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books--astonishing when you consider that we've been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months."


In addition, Hachette announced that James Patterson had sold 1.14 million e-books to date. Of those, 867,881 were Kindle books. Five authors--Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larsson, Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts--have each sold more than 500,000 Kindle books. Amazing.


Is this a temporary upswing due to all the new e-reading devices now coming on the market, including the Apple Ipad and Iphone? Will we see a gradual plateauing and then a dip back to more hardcover sales? 


I'm excited to hear Amazon's e-books are doing so well. I love technology. On the other hand, I love a good book, physically in hand. Lounging with it, cracking it's spine, bending a corner of the page when I don't have a bookmark handy. I've had a long, satisfying and loving relationship with books and I don't ever want to walk away from them for the spell-binding allure of 3-G and blazing tech. 


Although, maybe once in awhile. Every now and again, if I ever get a Kindle. . . 

Transformer 3 Cars

And oh yeah. . . .

Cars, cars and more cool Transformer 3 cars, driving down Clark Street in Chicago.

I Love A Good Explosion

Transformers 3 in Chicago? Filming on Michigan Avenue?? Explosions and car wrecks and very cool automobiles in a blaze of glory?! Hell yeah . . . 

Shia LeBeouf on set - Michigan Avenue

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, with other actors including co-star Shia LaBeouf on Sunday before filming a scene of the third Transformers movie.

Explosion on Michigan Avenue Bridge (simulated of course)

LaSalle Street. Wooot! 

Rubble at Nathan Hale Court at the Tribune Tower

*Photos courtesy Chicago Tribune

Time of Mountains

Colorado Poet Laureate Thomas Hornsby Ferril

Time of Mountains

So long ago my father led me to 

The dark impounded orders of this canyon, 

I have confused these rocks and waters with 

My life, but not unclearly, for I know 

What will be here when I am here no more.

I've moved in the terrible cries of the prisoned water, 

And prodigious stillness where the water folds 

Its terrible muscles over and under each other.

When you've walked a long time on the floor of a river, 

And up the steps and into the different rooms, 

You know where the hills are going, you can feel them, 

The far blue hills dissolving in luminous water,

The solvent mountains going home to the oceans. 

Even when the river is low and clear, 

And the waters are going to sleep in the upper swales, 

You can feel the particles of the shining mountains 

Moping against your ankles toward the sea.

Forever the mountains are coming down and I stalk 

Against them, cutting the channel with my shins, 

With the lurch of the stiff spray cracking over my thighs; 

I feel the bones of my back bracing my body,

And I push uphill behind the vertebrate fish 

That lie uphill with their bony brains uphill 

Meeting and splitting the mountains coming down.

I push uphill behind the vertebrate fish 

That scurry uphill, ages ahead of me. 

I stop to rest but the order still keeps moving: 

I mark how long it takes an aspen leaf 

To float in sight, pass me, and go downstream; 

I watch a willow dipping and springing back 

Like something that must be a water-clock, 

Measuring mine against the end of mountains.

But if I go before these mountains go, 

I'm unbewildered by the time of mountains, 

I, who have followed life up from the sea 

Into a black incision in this planet, 

Can bring an end to stone infinitives. 

I have held rivers to my eyes like lenses 

And rearranged the mountains at my pleasure, 

As one might change the apples in a bowl, 

And I have walked a dim unearthly prairie 

From which these peaks have not yet blown away.

Thomas Hornsby Ferril was born in Denver, where he remained a resident until his death in 1988. An award-winning poet, essayist, columnist, and coeditor with his wife of The Rocky Mountain Herald from 1939–1972, Ferril was appointed Colorado Poet Laureate in 1979.

Pablo Neruda

Each Friday I'lll feature a poem by a favorite poet.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1971 - Pablo Neruda

Quotes from the  Nobel Prize Presentation Speech by Karl Ragnar Gierow, of the Swedish Academy

"To sum up, Neruda is like catching a condor with a butterfly net. Neruda, in a nutshell, is an unreasonable proposition: the kernel bursts the shell."

"

Whither Neruda's path will take him now, it is not for anyone to say. But the direction is the one already set, harmony with Man and the Earth, and we shall follow with high expectations this remarkable poetry, which with the overflowing vitality of an awakening continent resembles one of its rivers, growing all the mightier and more majestic the closer it approaches the estuary and the sea."

 Copyright 2004 Debra Galloway

Ode To the Smell of Wood by Pablo Neruda

translated by Jodey Bateman

Late, with the stars
open in the cold
I open the door.
                The sea
galloped
in the night.

Like a hand
from the dark house
came the intense
aroma
of firewood in the pile.

The aroma was visible
as
if the tree
were alive.
As if it still breathed.

Visible
like a garment.

Visible
like a broken branch.

I walked
into
the house
surrounded
by that balsam-flavored
darkeness.
Outside
the points
in the sky sparkled
like magnetic stones
and the smell of the wood

touched
my heart
like some fingers,
like jasmine,
like certain memories.

It wasn't the sharp smell
of the pines,
no,
it wasn't
the break in the skin
of the eucalyptus,
neither was it
the green perfumes
of the grapevine stalk,
but
something more secret,
because that fragrance
only one
only one
time existed,
and there, of all I have seen in the world
in my own house at night, next to the winter sea,
was waiting for me
the smell
of the deepest rose,
the heart cut from the earth,
something that invaded me like a wave
breaking loose
from time
and it lost itself in me
when I opened the door
of the night.

Holly & Meljean

Holly Lisle has an excellent post here:  Rebel Tales: My War for the Midlist concerning the current state of midlist authors and the expectations of building a writing career with royalties from their backlist titles. Most publishers allow these titles to go out of print, forcing authors to rely more heavily on the amount of future novels they generate. It was an  informative column and something I didn't know about the current state of publishing. She has outlined a plan to do something about this sad state of affairs beginning with her launch of  Rebel Tales and I am one hundred and ten percent behind the concept. I'll be watching closely and crossing my fingers that her serialized e-zine takes off.


Also, Meljean Brook's awesome Guardian Series released Demon Blood (The Guardian Series) yesterday. Go forth and buy! I am certainly going to. To read an excerpt, go here: Demon Blood Excerpt.

God Bless America - Happy July 4th

Happy July 4th - 2010

2010

Describing, Sometimes A Tough Choice

For some, description comes easy. For others, not so much.


In his book On Writing, Stephen King elaborates on the descriptive process he uses by telling us: "For me, good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else. . ."


Details. But sometimes, the details are what stumps a writer. Which details to use? Which sense to convey? 

Below is a picture that, at first glance, might evoke several kinds of emotions and descriptive words. Collegiate, barren, gray, and whatever else comes to mind. The choices to describe it are limitless. 


A good guideline is to make description personal to the character as often, and whenever, appropriate. Description can be beautiful, haunting, gross, passionate on its own. Make it personal to the character, and it becomes part of the whole that uplifts a character to unforgettable.

Straightforward: You could see glimpses of the tower through the bare branches of the old beech tree, eyeless windows reminding you of the house three doors down from where you grew up. The house where your death began.


Poetic: Light sifts in tangled shades of dusk and rose through the wizened arms of the beech tree. It echoes your shifting mood, shadow and gray, luminous and soft, as you walk slowly to the meeting place.


Humorous:  The beech tree's limbs were out of control, like an alien race who grew one arm too many and got tangled up in itself. The tower behind it glowered like I knew Mama Jo would glower, only with death ray eyes, if I didn't get myself home in time.


Succinct: Red tower. Bare winter tree. Cold and gray. Ugh. . . 


How would you describe it? 

WTF?

Now I know where the words: "Run For Your Life" came from. 

Chicago. Day before yesterday. I could have been toast.

After The Storm

Dear Jem,


What does the world look like after a storm? 


Answer:

Tornado sightings everywhere yesterday. The town sirens were in a frenzy and when you have neighboring towns adjacent to you, the symphony of sirens was almost worse than the storm. Almost. Eighty mile an hour winds, torrential downpours, and my trees looked like Muhammad Ali after a bad match. 


We survived, to this beautiful sunset.

Chimera by Rob Thurman

The official back jacket blurb for Chimera:



From Rob Thurman, national bestselling author of the Cal Leandros Novels, comes a sci-fi thriller that questions what makes us human, what makes us unique …

…And what makes us kill.

Ten years ago, Stefan Korsak’s younger brother was kidnapped. No one knew who took Lukas, or why. He was simply gone. But not a day has passed that Stefan hasn’t thought about him. As a rising figure in the Russian mafia, he has finally found him.

But when he rescues Lukas, he must confront a terrible truth–his brother is no longer his brother. He is a killer. Trained, brainwashed, and genetically transformed into a flesh-and-blood machine with only one purpose–assassination. Now, those who created him will do anything to reclaim him.

And the closer Stefan grows to his brother, the more he realizes that saving Lukas may be easier than surviving him…

I love Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series. Action-packed, unpredictable and the series reels a reader in with dark ease. It's fair to imagine looking up from a Leandros book and realizing it's way past midnight, and your alarm is set for six a.m. Even knowing that, you'll read on.

I felt a little diffident about Chimera before I read it. The elements didn't appeal so much to the kind of fiction I usually picked up. Russian mob? eh. I read it anyway, because I trust Thurman's writing. Nowhere, not even on her recently ongoing renovated website, has she disappointed when it came to the writing.

And in Chimera she killed.

Thurman's writing reaches a new level of awe, a depth that produces layers of emotion in a reader from cover to cover. Everything blended seamlessly and excitingly together -- the characters, the plot, the twists and those scenes of touching emotion, heartache and rawness that make the read unforgettable. 

 Her writing in this book also had its moments of gorgeous luminosity --

 ". . . I opened my eyes and raised my head to see blond hair haloed by oscillating red and blue lights. . . The car jerked to the left as the blazing lights careened off to the right. I went with them, pulled along in their wake until I was lost. They flew around me, brilliantly glowing butterflies. I soared with them long and far until I sailed off the edge of the world. . . "

-- combined with heart searing humor:

" Five hours later, I nearly lost my brother again.

It was in a public restroom. Forget the eye-watering stench of the flowery disinfectant that was worse than the smell it was meant to cover up. Ignore the tile colored a puke green that made your stomach heave and gave you a desire to check the bottom of your shoes.  Concentrate instead on puffy white feet, one in a cheap loafer, one bare and twisted to the side. Take a look at those as they show beneath the stall door. White, white skin splotched with purple veins and resting in a puddle of blood so fresh that the warmth of it steamed against the icy tile."

My overall assessment? Edgy characters, a plot that twists and turns at every page, an unexpected ending that's both startling and satisfying. . . Five stars. Easy.

Father's Day -- a weekend graced with good food, great drinks and fabulous conversation. You never expect to get outstanding steaks or meat from someone's cookout. You expect that from fine restaurants with chefs connoisseur. But at a cookout? Hell yeah. 


This was no ordinary burgers and hotdogs with perhaps a side of brats to tempt the palate. This was a cookout meant for kings! I just happened to be the lucky queen on the side.


The steak was melt-in-your-mouth butter. I had mine served with mushrooms and an oriental salad on the side. Afterward, there was ice cream cake. I was a heavenly passenger this weekend and no one could pull me out of my bout of divine experiences.


The awesome Lynn Viehl has a cool post listing random generators, from plotting to generating horse's names. Can you say Mr. Ed?

Turtles and things

This time of year, the turtles shamble out of our lake in the back and find the nearest mulch patch to bury their eggs -- which always happens to be my garden. They dig and destroy all plant life nearby with single-minded resolve in their effort to protect their unborn. I don't mind so much. I just replant whatever they dug up and it always survives. The law of nature I guess. But there's another law of nature that disturbs me more. After the poor turtles fastidiously waddle slowly from their homes in the lake, after they bury and rebury and sigh over the laying of their eggs, after they waddle back content that their offspring are now safe. . . the coyotes come along at night, dig up the eggs and --


Well, need I paint a picture?

Not that I want to make my first post in a long time a complaint post, but it's hard to write pithy comments when something funky's going on with the back. Yes, my back. As in 'baby got back.' I always thought I'd be pretty cool about things like pain. I felt sorry for those 'older' people who talked about their back pain in great detail at family parties. Now yep, there's me, waxing eloquent about my damn back.

I woke up yesterday and something with teeth and claws had gotten a hold of my lower back over night. I felt like an accident victim bent over all day and groaning every time I had to twist, or turn, or move -- which was pretty much all the time.

Good new though, it is better today. Not by much, but better. I still am finding it hard to write, thus here I am on blogger. Blogging. Writing to a vast audience of one. Me.

Now I'm off to go contemplate the virtues of the Kindle vs the IPad. I want both. Is that too greedy of me?

Gizmo

GIZMO


On the day you died, God gave us sunshine and warmth after a long winter. I like to think it was for you -- to give you a last day of sun, to light the way home.

You taught me to live life to its richest. To experience the simplest of moments to its fullest. You will always be in my heart, etched with the most permanent of engravings. I will never forget how you raised your tiny face to the wind, how you found the smallest patch of sun in the yard and rested, how your eyes closed under the sun’s warmth. I won’t forget how eager you always were at the sound of a crinkling treat bag, or the splashing of ice into a glass, or the clanking of your food bowls when I prepared your dinner. I won’t ever forget my loyal friend. Your footsteps followed me wherever I went. Your blue eyes watched every move I made. You defended me even from your pack mates if they got a little too rough, or more excited than you would’ve liked.

More than anything, you taught me that life has purpose. Death has meaning. The things we take for granted are the very things that make life worth living. Knowing you were alive one moment and gone the next is easier to bear only because you gave your life willingly to defend two souls whom you loved more than life itself. I know in my heart you entered Paradise with your head held high, that trumpets blared when you arrived because you are a hero, that Gabe greeted and romped with you in a sun more brilliant than any sun you could’ve felt here with us.

You taught me that courage isn’t measured by the things you are afraid of, but by what you are willing to sacrifice in the name of love and devotion. I thank you, from the deepest part of my soul, for saving my little girl and your best friend, Bear.

Rest in Peace, Gizmo. I know I’ll see you again one day and you will jump into my arms as if you’d never left. Until then, I’ll reserve a place in my arms just for you. Because you became much more than just my loyal friend. You rose to a stature most humans can never achieve.

You became my hero.

Rest In Peace, Gizmo

1/19/2000 - 3/16/2010