Where I have been all your life

Well really only for the past two weeks.  I know that I’ve been woefully absent since the middle of the month and I didn’t say I was going on a hiatus.  I know that I should tell people when I am going away, but I never seem to manage it. 

For four days I was at Pennwriters with my mother.  It was a lot of fun and I got to meet great people, some of whom I knew on-line, some of my mom’s friends and some that I had never met.  I’m planning on doing a whole blog post of who I met and what I did while I was there this week. 

It takes me awhile to assimilate things in my mind to get to the point of being able to really talk about things.  I’m not the person who can come home from these things in a cloud of creative energy and can just jump into everything.

That said, I have set up new facebook, twitter and a Pintrest under my ‘pen name’ (my full formal name) and as soon as I get them all spiffy I’ll let everyone know. 

When we got home I had a lot of work to catch up on as well as some editing that I had to get off of my ‘to do list’ and a few things that needed to be handled for my various ‘other jobs’, now that all that is mostly off of my list I can get back to working on a piece for my step-daughter. 

This week looks like it is going to be a scorcher at least for the first half of the week, so I may be done in by the time I get home at night.  Sometimes that is the most creative times for me, of course when I get over heated all I want to do is eat ice-cream and watch bad television. 

How about you guys? What’s been up with you?  

So my question today is where do you create?  I was going to say write, but there are artists and musicians on my friends list as well. 

This can be taken in two ways I could mean ‘where do you sit to create?’ or I could mean ‘where is your work set?’

I guess I probably mean both. 

When creating is easy for me I can do it sitting on my bed or in the room that is our office/library.  When things aren’t going as well I have a place in my room where people can’t see me from the door.  It is a pretty small area and my husband laughs about it, but I can get a lot done in my little space.  And I can reach most of my reference books without moving much.   

When I write my fiction is mostly set in and around Boston.  The funny thing is that when I lived in Boston my fiction was all set in the ‘greater Philadelphia area’ – I don’t know why I always where I am not living but it seems easier somehow.  Maybe the distance makes my vision clearer?

How about you guys? Do you have a favorite place to create? Or a favorite place to set your creations?

Oh and by the way, I do use a scratching post as desk – it is a perfect height and the cats like to climb in and out of it while I am writing.   

We aren’t entirely sure how to market this

“We aren’t entirely sure how to market this” was one of the reasons the publisher used for dropping my novel.  In all honesty I get that one.  The novel ended up being a paranormal, sports romance.  And the sport involved isn’t one of the bigger sports, it is ice hockey.  My husband (a lifelong hockey fan and a man who played until he was in his 40’s) once called ice hockey ‘the fourth ring in the three ring circus of sports in the US’. 

I couldn’t have picked a sport like football, basketball or baseball. 

I like hockey.  I’m willing to put in the time to research about hockey, about the organizations and the culture.  Heck I even have put in a lot of time to research fighting and the sorts of men that become enforcers (fighters) in the NHL, even though none of my characters have been enforcers.  If you are wondering it is normally guys who have caretaker personality who end up fighting the most.  I’m guessing that my love of the sport and my willingness to put the time in are the reason that only one of my non hockey stories have sold.

 I’m probably not going to give up the fantasy elements of my stories.  The romance comes and goes – but most of my characters have some sort of partner, but they aren’t all in the process of falling in love.

So I have to figure out a way to start and market my own sub-genre.  In the 80’s I started reading fantasy books set in modern cities.  It may have taken years, but Urban Fantasy is a common sub-genre.  So given enough time and effort maybe the ‘next new big thing’ will be ‘paranormal sports romance’, it may take twenty years, but I’m still young. 

How about you?  What is your favorite sub-genre to read or write?    

Restarting

 I realized the other night that it has been quite some time since I posted.  I’m going to try to be good about it again.  So I’m restarting. My goal is to post three times a week, but we will see.  When I restart next week I will be running a contest for comments in my Live Journal and blogger.

In other news, I signed a contract for my third Hyena short story and I am trying to rework my novel – they may, at some point, be marketed together. 

Lastly, my team has been eliminated from Stanly Cup contention.  I’m actually kind of happy about that, it will give the youngsters something to work for next year, and with the injuries that the Bruins have right now, they would have been out by next week anyway.  Plus my two Eastern ‘ex-wives’ (DC and Philly) are still in it. As well as three teams I have an emotional bond with in the West.

Takoda by T.M. Hobbs

This was a lovely short historical romance set in old west Wyoming. Sarah is a young woman who moves to Wyoming with her Aunt and Uncle after her parents were killed by Native Americans. When she gets to Wyoming, things don’t go as expected when she gets taken by a young Crow man.

This is a sweet romantic piece, if you are looking for an erotic piece this isn’t it, but it is a fun satisfying read. You can get it for .99 at Amazon or at www.bookstogonow.com

Trying to get back in the groove

I’ve been so bad at blogging for the past few months, I just need to get back into the habit of blogging again.

Things are pretty good these days. I’m editing the novel that got dropped and playing around with a new characters. The new ones seem to want to live in New Jersey.

I’ve been letting my reading back up though I think I’m up to 67 books on the ‘to read’ pile so that is a little out of control. I need to get back to reading again – I’m only reading about a book a week. Not fast enough to cut down on the pile.

On a health note, I’ve been havening a pain flare. That just means my pain is about average right now but I’m working on it, with yoga, meditation and now massage therapy. And, of course, the cat purring therapy.

I’m going to try to make a point of having more time on line in the next few months.

I’m not Pollyanna, but sometimes…

Last night I received an e-mail from my publisher that they were dropping my novel. They had pressed me to send them my rough draft three months early and I did. At that point I totally stopped being comfortable with them. I have a learning disability; I don’t like anyone seeing my first drafts.

I am a little sad I guess. I am angry. But mostly I am feeling a profound relief. I hate that I feel relived over something that should be a negative in my life.

I feel like I will be able to create again and work on the things that have been hanging over my head and maybe even participate in on line activities and get back to reviewing short stories again.

How ‘bout you guys have you ever had something so negative feel so incredibly positive?