If you haven’t already had some of these, then trust me they’re coming. I’m not talking about the mornings you wake up and you just aren’t feeling it – that happens and you just work past it, or you give yourself permission to take the day off. Everyone needs sick days now and then. No, I’m talking about the days where you sit down and you write one sentence and it takes fifteen minutes to write the next. Now, I understand there are some writers who write this way, every day, but for me, this is a bad writing day. And I’ve had a string of them lately.

I know what’s causing it. I’m distracted. I have stuff going on in my family life right now that’s taking up all of my emotional energy so that when I sit down to write, I have nothing left to give. It’s making forward progress on this book extremely difficult. But I do it everyday and have for the last two weeks. I’m behind schedule, which totally isn’t like me as I’m usually ahead and when I say schedule, I mean my own. Because I am still ahead of my deadline, at least I think I am.

That’s the thing about writing that is so different from other jobs. You’ll hear successful authors say that in order to make it in this business you must see it as your job. And they’re right. You have to make it a priority or you simply won’t make it. But it’s really not like other jobs. Not really. I’ve had other jobs and writing is so different, in both good and bad ways.

For starters, you can’t leave your work at the office. When you’re creating, it’s always going on in the back burners of your mind, you can’t turn it off, it simmers constantly. Secondly, it’s intensely emotional. That’s not to say that other people aren’t emotionally involved with their work, I’ve had one of those jobs too and they can be draining. But writing is all you. No one else can make those characters come to life. And no one but you has the emotional well from which your characters draw that life. So if your emotional life is tapped or under stress, your writing will be too. You can go to a regular job and work through just about anything, go through the motions if you have to. You can’t go through the motions with writing.

So what do you do? How do you get past bad writing days especially several in a row? You do the best you can. That’s the extent of my brilliant advice. And that is how I’ve been writing lately. One word at a time and the best I can. Hopefully things will settle down soon and I’ll be able to spread my emotional energy out into other areas of my life. For now I’m just doing what I can.

EVerybody has their own way of getting a book down on paper (er, screen). There are those who write in a linear style, which means they start at the beginning and work their way through the story until the end. Front to back. Others write scenes as they come into their heads and eventually hook them all together. Another group writes scenes during the preparatory phase of the book and incorporates these ideas when the appropriate moment comes up as they write.

Some writers do a ton of research before they even start writing. This research might include the setting and/or characters. They take copious notes and make time lines, some make posters or collages of their characters and settings, with pictures, dates and other facts that are important to their mental process. They’re tools that help keep the writer ‘grounded’ in her story. Other writers are very comfortable with the general ambiance of their era (as well as the historical facts), so they do whatever research is necessary as they write, looking up particulars that might be unfamiliar. Many write great characters without making any notes whatsoever on them, writing spontaneously, or ‘from the gut.’ This is true of contemporary authors, too. They might not be dealing with historical eras, but their settings and characters can be problematic if they don’t do their homework at some point. It’s quite easy to yank a reader right out of the story if the author hasn’t got his or her facts straight . (This happens to me when I read medical passages that are unrealistic or wrong).

I know writers who keep on writing until their daily page goal is met, whether they’re nice, final pages or not. Some like to have ‘good’ pages at the end of the day – the kind that won’t need much revision. There are those who compose at the keyboard, others who write longhand. A few writers I know like to make a ‘soundtrack’ of music for each book – music that sets the mood and tone of the story and helps the author get into the right frame of mind to write. Others like music of any sort … and then there are those who need silence.

The point to all this is that every author has his or her own personal process. What works for one might not work for another and it’s important for each writer to figure out their own process. Don’t let workshops and advice by ‘experts’ sway you from the way you work best.

OK, so I should get back to my ‘linear, partially researched, music-enhanced, non-postered, 10-good-pages-at-the-end-of-the-day’ manuscript. See you later!

I had a long emotional post about September 11th, and my experience that day, but I’m sure so many of us will be emotionally inundated that I decided to set that post aside and write this short one instead.

September 11th, 2001 was the day I started writing romance. Started writing a story that was hopeful and happy and so different from the crushing emotions of the day. And since everything else that Tuesday was out of my control, I started something I could control.

There was zero internal conflict in those fledgling pages, but that didn’t matter. The escape was what mattered. The victory and redemption. The belief in something good and lasting and happy.

And while now, five years later, I am working on my fifth book, a veritable angst fest for my characters, who walk around on the tips of their conflicted toes…that happy ending is still there. She is always there, waiting quietly, or perhaps even impatiently, for her moment.

And that is one of the reasons I will always love romance.

“Always late but worth the wait” is the license plate frame I wanted to get, but my husband was not amused. Yes, I am frequently late. Hey, I was even born two weeks late – it’s not my fault.

Okay, yes it is my fault. Usually. Sometime this means a dramatic entrance, which is cool. I’m learning to come out of my shell and be more outgoing. But being late on a book deadline is not cool. Neither is having to stay at the keyboard 16 hours day, six or seven days a week for the last month or two before a book is due, in order to not be late. Did I mention I’m a procrastinator, too?

A while back a fellow writer, a brilliant woman who also has many of the same attributes I do (as well as the scars in the foot to prove it) mentioned she was trying the First Draft In 30 Days plan. Finishing a first draft in five months was an amazing feat of speed for me, so naturally this piqued my interest and I bought the book. The author’s idea of “draft” differs considerably from mine – it’s more of what I consider a long outline. But supposedly all the story problems are worked out in the outline instead of the manuscript, which should preclude the need for an emergency plotting party six weeks before deadline. Not that that has ever happened to me, nosirree…

So earlier this week I began the Plan while I wait to hear about my proposal. Gotta do something to avoid biting my nails. I sailed through the work for Days 1-6 (creating the characters and story idea, problems, resolution, scene ideas, etc.) in just one day and was feeling pretty smug. Then I realized that was the same work I’d done to create the synopsis, which took me … well, a whole lot longer than one week to write. And revise.

Now I’m in the research phase. An entire week dedicated to nothing but research, guilt free. It’s frustrating when I can’t find the information I want, or someone checked out the exact book I need and is late returning it to the library. How rude! But then I find tidbits I didn’t expect, that trigger ideas, that clarify my plans, point me in directions I hadn’t considered but which now seem inevitable, and I remember why I love this phase.

On Friday, one of the guys at the office informed a co-worker that my muse is Johnny Depp. Well, he’s not really (I have The Girls Downstairs), but I have often found Johnny to be quite inspiring. While filming the Pirates movies, Johnny and director Gore Verbinski became fascinated by the lore and fable of pirates and sailors, and one of the results is a new CD out called Rogues Gallery, a collection of pirate ballads and sea chanteys. Much of the story for which I’m researching takes place on a 19th century Tall Ship that’s already appeared in two of my books. But this time the hero is Nick, the captain of that ship, and he knows a lot more about sailing and life at sea than previous main characters. I can’t bluff my way through this one; I have to know a bit more. Nick would know sea chanteys, so I need to know a few, too.

What a world this opened up! No, I didn’t order that particular CD (yet) but I’ve bought a couple others and have been listening to them at every opportunity and studying the liner notes. And yes, singing along. I can almost smell the salt air. The language can be a bit salty, too. When sailors needed to work in unison, setting sails or turning the capstan to weigh anchor, they’d sing chanteys. It’s much like the call-and-answer singing/chanting the military does while marching. Ballads, or fo’c'sle songs, were sung when the work was done. Yup, just like the military, there’s a lot of frantic work to be done on a ship at sea, and then a lot of time with not much to do.

Here’s a few verses near the end of Row, Bullies, Row. It’s also known as Liverpool Judies. (With songs decades or centuries old, there are a lot of variations.)

Oh, along comes the mate in his jacket of blue,
He’s lookin’ for work for the sailors to do.
It’s “Ship tops’l halyards!” he loudly does roar,
And it’s “Lay aloft Paddy, ye son-o’-a-whore!”

Chorus:
Singin’ row! Row, bullies, row!
Them Liverpool judies have got us in tow.

I remember one day we was crossing the line
When I think on it now sure we had a good time
She was divin’ bows under, her sailors all wet,
She was doin’ twelve knots with her mainskys’l set.

(Chorus)

Here’s a health to the Captain where’er he may be,
He’s a friend to the sailor on land and at sea,
But as for our chief mate, the dirty ol’ brute
I hope when he dies straight to hell he’ll skyhoot.

I’ve learned “the girls have got us in tow” was an expression used when the ship was going fast; maybe a reference to sweethearts hurrying them home. Crossing the line refers to the International Date Line and the stormy seas around Cape Horn (a huge number of sailors and ships were lost in that dangerous route). Twelve knots is about the top speed of the Lady Washington under sail. As to mainskys’l (which isn’t on the Lady’s sail plan) and skyhoot (which isn’t in Webster’s), well, that will require a bit more research.

Fair winds and following seas!

I suppose it was only a matter of time. Nothing good can last forever, but I was really, really hoping it would.

See, we authors start getting reviews for our books about a month before the book actually comes out. The first one I usually get is from RT (Romantic Times magazine). I don’t worry a whole lot about my RT review. RT is always professional in its reviews. They don’t love me, but they don’t hate me either. I generally get either 3 or 4 out of 5 (actually 41/2 Top Pick! because they rarely give 5s). NO MAN’S BRIDE got a 4, which, to tell the truth, I didn’t expect.

Of course, I never expect good reviews, usually because by the time a book is about to come out, I’ve written 2 more, and they seem soooo much better than everything that came before. So I was pleasantly surprised by RT’s review.

After RT, the online reviews start to come in. Fresh Fiction, Romance Reviews Today, and Romance Junkies always email me with a copy of the review and let me know when it will be posted. Often I get notices from other sites as well. I remember these sites specifically because they all contacted me about NO MAN’S BRIDE, and all the reviews were good.

I’m not trying to brag—believe me, read on and you’ll see—but I was honestly shocked that I had received 4 good reviews. That has never happened to me before. Never.

So then I decided to check out Amazon. Yep. More good news there. Harriet Klausner was kind once again.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 good reviews!

And then, of course, I had to press my luck. I had to go check out another review site. I knew I should just leave it alone. I knew I should be happy with my 5 good reviews.

And that’s when I saw it: the Really Not Very Nice review. You’ve read them, right? They don’t just say the book isn’t good, they say the book should be used as toilet paper, the author should be tarred and feathered, and the publisher should be put out of business. Well, it was one of those.

I mean, after I read it, even I thought my book sucked. Whoever wrote that review should get a job in advertising because she certainly had me convinced that I’d written the stupidest book ever.

Apparently, there was nothing good about it. Nothing. The reviewer gave me an F.

And that’s what killed me more than anything else. An F? F?

I have never failed anything in my life. I am one of those do all my homework, raise my hand and ask questions, study at the library on Friday nights kind of girls. I don’t fail.

Until now.

Funny how one Really Not Very Nice review can wipe away all the joy from 5 Good reviews. Not even a Bad review is that potent.

But, you know what got me over all of this (though Ultimate Sportsfan might argue the fact that I’m blogging about it sort of proves I’m not really over it, but we’ll ignore him, right?)? What got me over it was a call from my friend Laura. She’s read all my books and has always been kind about them. But she called me on Tuesday to say that she had finished NO MAN’S BRIDE while on a trip and had absolutely loved it. She thought it was my best book yet.

Suddenly, who cared about that silly reviewer and her mean comments? Who cared about getting an F? My friend liked my book. My friend was proud of me. And that’s way more important that any Internet site reviewer.

Why do I write? Because I love to tell stories, and I enjoy entertaining people. There are so many times that a good book has swept me away and given me hours of pleasure. If I can do that for my friends and my readers, then who cares what grade some online site gives me?

This isn’t a standardized test, and there aren’t any right answers. When I used to get stressed out about school, my mom’s advice was always “Just do the best you can.”

And though I rarely took her advice in those days, I’m going to take it now and just keep doing the best I can.

Believe it or not, dreams can tell you an awful lot about a person. What is important to them, what sort of things may be bothering them, and details about their personality. Do you dream in color? Do you remember your dreams? Are they bizarre and disjointed or do they make perfect sense?

From the time I was a little girl, my dreams have always been full-length mini-movies, very vivid and detailed. I don’t always remember them when I wake up, but more often than not, I do. I’ve heard that this is a sign of a creative mind, and I have gotten several story ideas from my dreams. In fact, the secondary romance between teenagers Emily and Peter in my first book, A Kiss in the Dark, came from a particularly memorable and very Oliver Twist-ish dream that I had one night after watching the movie musical Oliver! (And no, I didn’t sing in the dream. )

So, are you up for some dream interpretations? To test your dream knowledge, you can try taking one of these fun quizzes at www.mydreamvisions.com How good are you at interpreting your dreams and how well do you remember them? Surprisingly, I scored pretty well. How about you?

Home

I live in a beautiful part of the country. Right in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains and our views are really quite breathtaking.

Less than 2 hours from our house is the Cherohala Skyway (http://www.telliquah.com/skyway.htm), said to be the most scenic drive in America. We’ve been out there a few times and it’s always so pretty. I can’t wait to see it in fall with all the spectacular leaf colors.

Bald river falls – a short jaunt from the Skyway.

This is a view from one of the drive-off areas on the Skyway.

This is a view from a bluff overlooking the Tennessee river in downtown Chattanooga.

But despite the fact that I’m surrounded by all this beauty, it’s just not my home. I miss my sprawling Texas that’s so big you have to drive 5 hours in some directions to leave the border, 10 hours in others. I miss Spring in Texas, despite my terrible allergies, nothing is prettier than a field of bluebonnets and other wildflowers. Most of all, though, I miss the sky. Texas is known for having the biggest sky and, in my opinion, the bluest. Especially in the fall/winter time when the blue northerns blow in. Sometimes when we’re driving around here, I just feel so trapped by all the trees, I don’t feel as if I can “see” around me. Don’t get me wrong, the tress are beautiful, but I just miss the openness of what I’m used to. So here are some pictures of my beautiful home state of Texas.

The Texas capitol, in downtown Austin, with the lovely bluebonnets (and maroon bonnets) in front.

Look at the color of that sky! Man, I miss that.

This is called the Texas Hill Country and is the part of the state where I grew up. It’s hilly and shrubby with the short cedar trees and prickly pear cactus, and I just don’t think Texas gets any prettier.

So what is it about your home that you love?

The Perfect Seduction, my second book for Avon, was released last week. It’s a follow-up to The Bride Hunt, which came out earlier this year

The books are connected, but each one stands alone, so they can be read in any order. Or you can read just one .

They’re the stories of two sisters who are abducted from their father’s Norman holding by Scottish raiders during the time of William the Conqueror.

The Bride Hunt is a ‘road’ book – in which the hero and heroine have to overcome odds to get back to England and safety. The Perfect Seduction is a ‘stationary’ book – in which the heroine must learn to live in her new situation. With the hero.

The Perfect Seduction is a title my editor came up with, and it fits. Edric is the Saxon hero, and though he has no liking for Normans, he eventually decides to seduce the heroine and make her is mistress. But the irony is that when he falls in love with her, he is the one who is seduced, perfectly. By her love.

There were quite a few Saxon lords who retained their estates under William the Conqueror. Most lost their lands, of course, but the hero of The Perfect Seduction is one of those who kept his lands and had to learn to cope with his Norman conquerors. It made for a wonderful conflict between him and Kathryn.

There had to be a few episodes of sabotage at Edric’s holding, and I decided to cause problems with the village mill. So I had to do quite a bit of research on the workings of a medieval mill in order to figure out how the saboteur could cause trouble. It was fascinating, then, to see some actual millworks at the museum in Edinburgh.

My editor nixed the first version of this book (fortunately, that happened during the proposal stage, not after the book was written). I had planned on having Kathryn escape from her captors a year after her capture, and arriving pregnant at Edric’s holding. Obviously this meant she’d been raped and abused by the Scots…and then there was the question of what to do with the baby.

The next version was nixed, too … I guess my writing had become overly dark since we’d just learned my mom was terminally ill. We finally agreed that it would be better to have Edric rescue Kathryn soon after her capture, and prevent her captors from assaulting her.

So I have to thank my editor for steering me toward a better book. I hope you pick up The Perfect Seduction and give it a try!

Any big plans for the day? Barbecues? Picnics? Family football games? Relaxing with a book? Writing? Working? Watching a movie?

BBQ’ing and writing for me. I got my play time in on the other days of the weekend, and since I’m on deadline, writing can’t be helped. Hope everyone has a great day!

A famous author once said a writer is someone on whom nothing is lost. We never know where we’ll get our ideas or what will inspire us. Who would have guessed a Navy SEAL would give me a really cool way to almost kill my Regency hero?

He told me about one of the training exercises conducted during Hell Week, where their hands and ankles are tied just before they’re dropped over the side of the boat out in the ocean, and the instructors don’t come back to pick them up for an hour. So how do they keep from drowning? Tony explains on page 268 of Kiss From A Rogue.

Today was another example of inspiration striking in the oddest of places. The 4-H goat barn at the Oregon State Fair, to be exact. Friday I sent off the proposal for my fourth book, so now I’m in the pre-writing stage which entails writing down scene ideas, snippets of dialogue, character descriptions, a shopping list of details that need to be researched, etc. Basically, gathering ideas.

The book has a high seas race. The hero is Nick — readers met him in Rogue and will see him again in Confessions of A Viscount in December. Nick’s been a bit problematic in that he’s neither fish nor fowl – he’s captain of a ship, but he’s not a pirate, smuggler or merchant, and not in the Navy. He’s a viscount, and it’s just not good ton for members of the aristocracy to engage in (gasp) trade. So how did he get that ship (which I shamelessly modeled after the Lady Washington), and what the heck has he been doing with it? He’s the closest I’ve written to a Bad Boy, so I don’t see him lollygagging about on yachting type cruises just for the fun of it. Yes, I’ve figured out the answers, but I’m not going to share just yet since they’ll probably change as the book progresses.

Right, the goat barn. On the ride to the fair, I was brainstorming about who’s on Nick’s ship, what kind of crew, and how many there are. We entered the fair through the Blue Gate, which is the odiferous section because all the barns are right there. I raised goats when I was a teen, so this is a trip down memory lane for me. At one point I had a herd of 12, including two pygmy goats. I had planned to show them at the fair but never quite got around to it. An enterprising youngster who did join 4-H and was showing her goats this year put together a nice display with information about pygmy goats. The tidbit that caught my eye, that was new to me, is that pygmy goats came from Africa and Asia and were brought to the US on whaler ships because they were a compact source of fresh milk and (if needed) meat. Hmm. Goats on ships.

Scene ideas started popping, involving a fussy ship’s cook and a pygmy goat. Since they’re a herd animal, very social, it would be cruel to have just one goat, so there has to be at least two of ‘em. And of course Nick has to have a cat on board, since mice and rats were a serious concern. So here’s my Bad Boy hero with at least two pygmy goats, a cat, and maybe two crew members who… Oops, don’t want to spill too much.

So. Today we heard Tommy Tutone sing Jenny/867-5309 under the stars, I bought sunglasses to replace the pair I left on a plane last month (the exact same style!), found out my husband is a total wet blanket when it comes to the really wild carnival rides I love, and I came up with a bunch of ideas for my next book. All in one day.