Cover!

This is the new cover for Dead and Kicking. It goes on sale December 1st and it'll be the third book in the Ghost Dusters series.

As you can see, it is a TOTALLY different look than the other two covers. My editor thinks the new look will drive up sales. I love the colors.

What's your opinion? Does the cover speak to you? I want it to shout: PICK ME UP! BUY ME! READ ME!

Point of View

Recently I've been attempting to write the same scene using multiple points of view. It's a writing exercise I use sometimes when I don't feel I have proper emotion in a scene. The problem is that this particular scene didn't feel particularly right in any point of view. In the end I had to admit that it needed to be deleted. Not that I ever really delete anything LOL. What I do is save it in a separate file in case it can ever be used again elsewhere. I have deletion issues he he.

When I'm really enjoying a story I rarely pay attention to point of view. However, if anything in a story is annoying I find myself checking pov and sometimes wondering if the scene would've worked better from a different character's angle.

My Ghost Dusters series is written in deep third person with only Sadie's pov. It wasn't a decision I made. It just kind of happened that way. I thought I'd get a lot of comments/emails/flack about it but only one person has ever even mention it.

Do you have preferences for point of view when you read or write?

Is it really JUST a number?

I've been thinking a lot about age lately. More specifically, I've been thinking about a character's age. I originally had her about 28. I wanted her young but not too young. Old enough to know better, but still capable of youthful mistakes. When talking to a friend though, she thought 28 was too young. She figured 35 was the new 28.

That conversation brought about a landslide of "what ifs" and "do you remembers". We had much conversation and discussion about what age we'd choose to be, if it was a choice. My friend announced if she could go back, she'd want to be 35 again. I'm happy being 46 but if I had to choose a year to re-live it would be 28. So there you have it. We both wanted my character to be the age we wanted. Interesting.

How about you? If you could pick any age to re-live, what would you choose? Or are you happy at your current age?

Batter Up!

It's Victoria Day here in Canada. In my neck of the woods there is very little actual celebrating of Queen Victoria's birthday. Instead, the May long weekend means one thing around my house. Baseball. Every May long weekend there is a ball tournament and that means for a few days we are punished, um, I mean thrilled to have the opportunity to sit on hard wooden bleachers for hours on end during pour rain, freezing cold, or blistering heat. This weekend we've had all three.

I confess that I'm a rather enthusiastic spectator. That means I'm a screamer. I yell, "You can do it (insert name)!" to every one of our pitchers and batters and other nonsensical comments like "he's coming!" to warn the catcher someone's trying to steal home or "C'mon on now, up and over" to encourage the pitcher. Then there's "c'mon trim that tree" or "to the fence now" to bolster the hitter. It's a huge responsibility to be the official screamer on a team. It's a dirty job but somebody's gotta do it :)

During the non-tournament season I've been known to sneak off with my laptop and write a few pages in my car. It's surprising how a bad call by the ump can translate into someone being murdered on the page he he.

Are you a baseball fan? Are you a screamer?

What if you had some extra cash?

Yet again my research has taken me into some weird and wonderful places on the web. I had a character who came into some extra cash and vowed to use it for something silly. Of course silliness can come big or small. Take the above pictured magnetic floating bed you could pick up if you had an extra million or so.

<-- If you only had $10 to buy something silly. You might go with something like Captain Corndog and Baron Von Broccoli.




If I was to blow a few bucks on something silly it might be a shirt for my dog or a crazy hat. Although I don't know if a cheese hat would be my thing... -->

My character still hasn't decided what kind of nonsense item he'll buy. How about you? What kind of silliness could you blow a few bucks on?

Chocolate Powered

This car from Warwick Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre is powered by chocolate, has a body made from potatoes, and a steering wheel made from carrots.



<----Another thing powered by chocolate.


Yesterday I went to the market and loaded up on tons of fresh fruit and vegies to nibble while I worked at the computer. In the end, the berries and broccoli went uneaten and there was a pile of Hershey kisses wrappers. I am sooooo weak!

Lately, I've had a real craving for chocolate. How about you? Any cravings you're caving into, or are you going strictly healthy these days?

Shop for a Cause

Today marks the beginning of the 5th annual online diabetes auction put on by author Brenda Novak.

I've donated the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Bundle you see in the picture above.

There is a ton of fabulous stuff up for auction! If you like to shop, and I know you do, then pop on over to Brenda's Site and bid often!

If you have your eye on something particular, let me know in the comments.