I had jury duty last week. I have to go back this week to sit on a panel. They’re selecting for a long trial—about two months. Part of me thinks, wow, that might be interesting. Another part wonders what will happen to my writing flow, my other interests—the rest of my life—if I’m selected. All in all, I’m not thrilled. Please don’t think I’m trying to get out of doing my duty. I believe in the jury system and all that. I’m even fascinated by the chance to watch any real life court proceeding—as long as it doesn’t involve me paying a settlement or serving time. The educational experience can only help me as a mystery writer. It’s just that I’ve done this duty so many times, it lost its novelty a long time ago. (more…)

My current novel started out as a story told from a single point of view, that of a young woman named Iris Somerset, who’s a tarot reader. She gets caught up in a murder investigation, mainly because the police don’t believe she had a psychic vision of the murder. She doesn’t really blame them. She can hardly believe it herself.

The first draft seemed to go great, and I finished it quickly.

It felt a little flat to me. There was a lot more story seeping into my mind, as the original idea developed and morphed over time, than was apparent in that draft. The main problem was the limited viewpoint. After debating with myself for a while, I decided the story needed a second viewpoint character. Actually I have to admit the character himself told me this. Yeah, sounds a little crazy, huh. But this is fiction. He was coming to life, and he wanted a voice.

The character was already there. I just had to make him a viewpoint character, change some scenes that involved him so he could tell a portion of the story from his perspective, reveal some of what he knew.

It sounds so simple. (more…)

I doubt I’m alone in having run the gamut of emotions this past week while the world watched as tragedy unfolded along the Gulf Coast. Sadness, horror, anger, rage, helplessness. I doubt anyone in the world who bothered to pay attention escaped most of these feelings. What I used to see as melodrama in disaster films became stark reality.

A couple of times I started posts here, and I found that just writing about it didn’t feel right. It was too much like what I saw leaders doing, or appearing to do, merely talking about the problem when action needed to be taken. And how can I really complain about them? What am I doing? I saw what was happening as horribly familiar—it reminded me of the lifeboats on the Titanic, only on a much larger scale. Suddenly class, racial, and economic distinctions stood out in relief. I found myself wondering what it meant about America when the Gulf Coast called 9-1-1 and got put on hold. (more…)

Comprehensive information about the hurricane and resulting devastation are available at the Wikipedia Hurricane Katrina page. I don’t know who put this page together, but it’s an impressive source of up-to-date information.

Violetismycolor asked in her comment to my previous post: “How did your dog learn all that?” I think she was referring specifically to the number of words he understands, and maybe to his insistent communication with me about my cat’s behavior on one occasion. But there’s a lot involved in both, and it has to do with our overall approach in how we live with and train our pets. My answer went long, so I decided to make it a new post. (more…)

Pics added 08-18-2005

He doesn’t speak English, but he understands quite a bit of it, mostly words related to food. He knows how we spell b-o-n-e, and one of his favorite words is soup.

His version of soup isn’t the canned or homemade variety we eat, but the stuff that results when we deglaze the pan with water after cooking plain meat, then let it cool. We eat lean cuts of meat, so it’s not full of fat, just meat flavor and water. Sometimes we add a bite or two of leftover meat. He adores it, and it’s one of the few human foods he’s allowed, because he has a touchy stomach. Actually it’s not a human food—we never eat plain weak broth, ourselves. But because we call his version “soup” every time he hears the word “soup” he hopes for some. (more…)

Several years ago, while listening to a classical music radio station at my workplace, I heard a recording I knew I had to own. I scrambled to jot down the name of the piece when it ended. As soon as the opportunity arose I bought the album. This was the era just prior to CDs. When I got the record home and listened, I read the cover carefully. I noticed a name I didn’t take as anything extraordinary at the time.

The recording was Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, performed by The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, with Neville Marriner conducting, and guitar solos by Pepe Romero.
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Every now and then the subject comes up on DorothyL (DL) of whether authors should be, or ever are, paid to include real product names in their fiction. A few authors jokingly ask who’s getting paid to mention products, so they can find out how to get paid too.
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If I were perfect, I’d be able to write books really fast and post on my blog every day, like those amazing, super-productive super-people out there. You know who you are.

Unfortunately, I’m terribly slow at both, and I need to focus on one or the other for extended periods of time in order to get much accomplished at either.

I’ve been busy working on my book, so I’ve been away from this blog, the other blogs I love to read, and even my email.
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In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron recommends periodically going an entire week without reading—anything. If you choose to try this, you’ll discover just how much the written word permeates your life, whether you read many books or not. (more…)