Blog Stats–ROFLMAO–at times.

Do you ever look at the stats on your blog and wonder what the heck people were thinking when they googled some word or phrase that eventually leads them to you?  I am constantly amazed by the ones I find on my stats and I check them several times a day, if for no other reason than they sometimes make me laugh–and you know what they say about laughter.

While some of the phrases make sense, some of them are just um…flat-out weird.  And no, I’m not going to include them in this post–wouldn’t want to inadvertently embarrass the originator of those thought-provoking phrases–but, really, what were they thinking?

The thing is…with all the search engines–I think that’s what they’re called, but I could very well be wrong in my computer idiocy–on the Internet, I imagine there are a lot of phrases out there that will never cross my blog stats.  For instance, I have a friend who writes erotic romance.  She has at least three blogs, maybe more, and all of them deal with sex in one way or another.  And I just wonder what kind of phrases she gets?

I think the next time I need an infusion of good humor, I’m going to ask her.  I know I get a good laugh out of some of mine, and can’t help but think hers would have me rolling on the floor laughing my ass off–literally!

Wow!  Would you look at that!  I think this is the first time I’ve ever written a blog entry that came in under 300 words–which is what I hear bloggers are supposed to shoot for, but I always go over.

Good for me…and I’m shutting up now before I cross that line! 

Shopping…blech! Spending time with my niece and sister…priceless!

My sister, Christy, and her daughter, Meghann, are coming to visit today and we’re going…shopping?  Yep, shopping.  One of my least favorite things to do.  I used to love it, but as I get older, it’s become more of a bother than anything else.  Still, we’re not shopping for me, we’re shopping for my niece…specifically, for her wedding dress!  So I’m excited and really looking forward to it.  Plus, there’s the added bonus of spending time with her and my sister–two of the people I love best in this world!

Also, my sister’s sixth–yep, sixth!–book was just released and is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, among other places.  I was lucky enough to read the book before it went to edits and have been privileged to share in this fantastic journey with Christy.  She’s the one who got me started writing, the one who’s always encouraged me, the one person who’s always believed in me.  She’s credited me several times with helping her through the process of writing a book and dedicated one of her books to me.  And this time the main character has my name–well, not really my name, but the nickname her son, Jonathan, gave me when he was a baby–Giki.  But, in this book, Giki is a rock star and she has quite a few quirks and character traits that I don’t have, the least of which is she can sing and I, well…can’t.  

This book, the third in her Bodyguard Series, is entitled The Bodyguard and the Rock Star.  I’m in the process of splashing the review I wrote for it anywhere I can think of to post it, so I thought I’d put it up here instead of writing another blog entry about the Cassie Edwards thing, the edits I’m doing on my book, what I’m writing at the present, the way life is treating me, etc., etc., etc.

So, here it is:

With The Bodyguard and the Rock Star, Christy Tillery French has once again taken me on an enjoyable roller coaster ride of heart-stopping thrills and rib-tickling humor.

In the third installment of Ms. French’s Bodyguard series, Natasha Chamberlain eagerly takes on her latest assignment—guarding English rock star, Giki, on a tour of the Southern United States.  Natasha is convinced this will be an easy job.  True, Giki has a wild streak, and at times she’s uncontrollable in her desire to experience every facet of being a rock star, from sex to concerts to…sweets?  Yes, Giki has a sweet tooth that is sometimes irrepressible, along with several other bad habits, and Natasha soon feels more like a babysitter than a bodyguard.  No problem, she can handle the aggravation of that, but Giki has a secret; a cyber-stalker who is willing to do whatever it takes to end the rock star’s career.  And Natasha is suddenly caught up in a job that’s far more dangerous than she first assumed.

When she’s shot at the first concert, her fiancé, Jonce Striker, shows up at the hospital, and the battle is on as single-minded alpha male clashes with strong-minded, determined woman, adding another delightful twist to the thrilling plot.  Natasha loves Striker and would do just about anything for him, but the one thing she’s not willing to do is give up her job.  She knows she can protect Giki, and she’s going to prove it to Striker once and for all.  Jonce, however, is worried and despite her protests brings in the competent, but completely adorable duo of Pit and Bigun to safeguard her.

And well, let’s just say, chaos ensues as Natasha struggles to find her balance between Striker and her chosen profession and, as she always does, manages to get her man.  No spoilers here, I’m not going to tell you which one she gets, you’ll have to read it for yourself to find out!

As with all the books in her Bodyguard Series, Ms. French has peppered this one with laugh-out-loud humor, nail-biting suspense, familiar, lovable characters as well as a few new, quirky ones, and dialogue so realistic it practically leaps off the page.  Then there’s the constant and stimulating tug-of-war between a strong man and an even-stronger woman.  Throw in a delightful tour of the cities of the South, which Ms. French writes about with obvious love and pleasure, and you have a very satisfying read that will keep you glued to the pages until the end.

Needless to say, The Bodyguard and the Rock Star is going to join the other books by Ms. French on my keeper shelf!

Now, let’s see if I can remember how to get the cover up…

Hey!  It worked!  Woo-hoo!  It’s a little small, but it’s there.  Wish it was bigger so you could see the details, because there’s an image of Natasha, the main character, on there who looks amazingly like my niece, Meghann, who Natasha was modeled after.  The cover artist didn’t know that, has never met Meghann, and still she came up with that image.  Can we all hum the tune from the Twilight Zone? 

The thing is…Meghann’s getting married in August and in the next book in this series, Natasha is thinking about marrying Striker, her former boss and her true love.  Will she do it?  I don’t know.  I don’t think my sister even knows.  I do know this is Meghann’s second engagement–thank God she broke the first one off, because her fiance now, Roberto, is perfect for her and they’re so happy they glow–so maybe Natasha will have to go through some struggles of her own before she finally marries Striker.  Hmmm…I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Okay, I have to get dressed.  I’ve got to track down the perfect wedding dress for my wonderful niece!

Once more…with feeling!

Okay, so I thought the Cassie Edwards thing had pretty much faded out of the limelight, but something happened over the weekend that stirred it up again.  Another romance author was heard from, posting some totally irrelevant comments on her blog and challenging Nora Roberts’ right to speak about the whole plagiarism issue.  I have to tell you, that was a real WTF moment for me.  I mean, come on, every romance author out there knows that Roberts was a victim of plagiarism and that alone earns her the right to give her opinion on this whole sorry mess.

But it’s not just the people who have been a victim who should speak up, it’s  all of us.  When Ms. Roberts said plagiarism hurts every author, not just the one being stolen from–sorry for the paraphrase, I don’t have time to go back and look up the exact comment–I wanted to stand up and cheer!

Because she’s right!  Plagiarism does hurt all of us in one way or another.  I know this whole thing has hit me on a number of levels.  And I admit, the ones that are really getting to me, are the personal ones.  Like the fact that I’m currently in edits on a book which is based on a Native American legend and I wasted three hours the other day re-reading my research and comparing it with the words I wrote in a scene where my main characters discuss the legend–and driving myself totally apeshit in the process!  There’s also the fact that my writing focus has shifted in the last year and now I seem to include a Native American element in all my stories as Ms. Edwards did in most of hers, making me worry about comparisons–which will likely never come.

My personal feelings aside, I agree wholeheartedly with Ms. Roberts.  Plagiarism is wrong and when an author chooses to sink to that level, every single one of us should have the courage to shout it from the rooftops.  And I don’t care who the guilty party is, just as I don’t care that Ms. Edwards is a grandmother or that she’s a skilled violinist–which should give you an idea of the irrelevance of this latest author rant.  I mean, WTF does that have to do with anything?–or how many books she’s sold.  Whatever she is and how ever many books she’s sold, the fact remains, she’s a thief.  There is, in my mind, no valid excuse for that!

The thing is…beyond the lame-ass excuses for why she did what she did, there are a lot of people out there shrugging this off and wishing everyone would shut up and move on to something else, but I’m sorry, I just can’t.  I don’t think I’ll ever get to that point.  This is something that will be with me for the rest of my life, especially the rest of my life as an author.  Because I believe as an author, it’s my words that define me.  They’re mine, they come from my heart, my brain, my imagination.  The fact that I’ve written them down and choose to share them with others doesn’t give anyone the right to take them away from me.  It’s as basic as that.

So, a note of thanks to Nora Roberts for standing up and saying what needed to be said and showing me what it means to have the courage of your convictions.  And to Cassie Edwards, Janet Dailey, and all the people out there who are trying to convince us that this issue isn’t worth getting worked up over, a hat-tip for reminding me of how important honor and integrity are to me.

And speaking of hat-tips, a huge wave of mine to the New England Patriots and the New York Giants for the awesome play-off games yesterday.  Congrats!  

Are you a good blogger?

Maria Schneider, one of the WD bloggers, recently wrote an interesting post on her blog, The Writer’s Perspective, which listed twenty, count ‘em, twenty, tips for being a good blogger.  Here’s the link if you’re interested:

http://www.writersdigest.com/writersperspective/20+Tips+For+Good+Blogging.aspx

<note to self, learn how to do that link thingie!> 

Going by what she wrote, I’m sorry to say, I’m not a very good blogger.  I don’t think I do even half of the things she lists, and being a computer moron, I don’t understand some of them!  But she didn’t put the post out there to make me feel bad about my sloppy blogging habits.  She put it out there to help me become a better blogger.  That works for me.  I think I’ll print off what she wrote, hang it on my bulletin board, and see if I can’t follow some of her suggestions.

And maybe, just maybe, I’ll end up a better blogger–but I’m not holding my breath.  There are too many times I don’t have anything at all I want to blog about, and too many times I just don’t have the time, and too many times I…well, you get the idea.

The thing is…there are also times when I’d love nothing more than to have one of those cool blogs, you know, where people hang out and post comment after comment.  And then I think about some of the blogs I read on a regular basis, and some of the comments they get and well, no thanks.  Invariably there’s at least one person on there who makes me want to throw my computer against the wall and go looking for the idiot who had the nerve to post such a stupid, inane comment and beat some sense in them.  S0…nope, not for me, definitely don’t need that kind of aggravation and rage in my life.

And, as I look down at the word count now, I see I’ve failed at yet another of Ms. Schneider’s tips, keeping my entry down to around three hundred words.

<sigh>

Oh well, looks like I’m doomed before I start.

One last thing before I go, I dare you to take a look at her blog entry, and see if you’re a good blogger.  It’s really kind of fun, especially if you don’t take it too seriously, but if you’re a serious blogger, you probably already do most of what she says and…yikes!  I’m almost at four hundred words.

I think I’ll shut up now!

Lessons Learned from Cassie Edwards

Yesterday, when I posted my thoughts and feelings about the Cassie Edwards plagiarism thing, I stayed away from Ms. Edwards’ publishers.  Like most everyone, I was outraged when the letter from Penguin/Signet came out saying she’d done nothing wrong, but they’ve since retracted that statement and said they will investigate.  No word from her other publishers yet–or if there has been, I missed it.  I have no doubt it’s going to be a while before we hear anything else from Penguin/Signet, so I’ll wait until I hear their verdict before I address the publisher issue further.  

As for Ms. Edwards, like I said in my previous post, I feel a small amount of pity for her, and I imagine she just wants this whole thing to go away so she can get on with her life and her career.  Sad to say, that’s probably what will happen.  If she can endure the storm currently raging against her and a slap or two on the wrist, all will be well in her world again at some point in the future.

We have only to look to Janet Dailey for proof of that.  Ms. Dailey is a proven plagiarist, was even gutsy–or stupid–enough to steal from Nora Roberts, the best and the most widely-read romance writer in the business.  She was caught, taken to court, claimed it was a case of psychogical stress or some such nonsense, and a few years later landed another contract with another publisher.  She’s back to writing, her books are being published and all is right in her world.  

I think the same thing will likely happen to Ms. Edwards.  She has a product to sell, she’s made a lot of money for her publishers in the past, and like Janet Dailey, someone, somewhere, at some point in time, is going to offer her another contract.  I don’t agree with it, but the fact is Cassie Edwards sells, and that’s what a publisher is going to look at; how much money her books made in the past and how much money they might possibly make in the future.  Some publisher, willing to take a chance, will sign her and if her first post-plagiarism book makes them money, she’ll be offered another contract after that one–probably for more money–and so on and so on and so on.

The thing is…for me, this raises the question of how do Ms. Dailey, or Ms. Edwards–if my prediction comes true–deal with being a known cheat in their chosen profession?  How do they have the guts to go out there and do book signings after what’s been said and proven about them?  How do they withstand the constant snickers and finger-pointing aimed in their direction when they do?

After giving it a good deal of thought, I think I know the answer; confidence in one’s self and belief in one’s writing.  

I don’t have that, but I’m hoping it’s a learned trait and will come with time.  Janet Dailey has it and I suspect, so does Cassie Edwards.  It’s an admirable quality, one I’d like to have, but if I do ever get to that point, I hope I don’t have to go through the kind of public ridicule these women have gone through to get it.  Not that I feel sorry for them, they’re both cheats in my eyes, and they brought it on themselves.  But after all was said and done, at least in Ms. Dailey’s case, she came out…well, I won’t say the better for it, but she survived and is once again doing what she loves.  The jury’s still out on Ms. Edwards.

So, to all my fellow struggling authors, I hope you take note of the lessons buried beneath the feelings of outrage, disgust, and betrayal in this whole Cassie Edwards thing; believe in yourself and your writing.

Because when you get right down to it, that’s all that matters. 

Memories from the Past: Brad Renfro and Laura Lawson

Amid all the uproar about Cassie Edwards and plagiarism, the edits on my next book, and waiting to hear about the one I just submitted, comes the sad, although not completely unexpected, news of Brad Renfro’s death.

Brad was a student at Lincoln Park School in Knoxville when I first started teaching there.  He was never in my class, but Lincoln Park was a small inner city school and all the teachers knew all the students.  And well, Brad was one of those who would’ve stood out even in a school of a thousand or more students.  You couldn’t miss him.

In fifth grade, his teacher was a good friend of mine, Laura Lawson, and hearing of his death brings her to mind too.  Laura, who turned her classroom into a castle one year, who could handle even the worst behaved student, who died at an early age of breast cancer.

But before she left us, she changed our lives immeasurably, probably Brad’s more than anyone else’s.  You see, Laura was the one who told the D.A.R.E. officer about Brad.  So while the officer, Dennis Bowman, saw the casting call for the character of Mark Sway in the movie based on John Grisham’s The Client, and sent Brad’s name in, it was Laura who first saw the possibilities in her young student.  Brad fit that role to a T.  And he got it.

Then, when the time came to film the movie, it was Laura they called when they started having trouble keeping Brad in line.  She was with him during the second audition and she took time off from teaching to be with him during the filming.  Brad could be, like all young boys, a nightmare, but one you couldn’t help but enjoy.  Or maybe that’s due to the fact that he was a smart-ass, and of all the kids i ever met, I have a special fondness for the smart-asses.  Brad was also street smart, quick-witted, and attractive, with charm oozing from every pore of his body.  The things I remember most about him; he wore a long trench coat to school almost every day, he loved Led Zeppelin, and on Valentine’s Day, he wore a cardboard sign around his neck:  Will Work for Valentines.  

After his debut in The Client, he went on to other roles in other movies, but his best in my opinion was young Michael Sullivan in Sleepers.  Brad Pitt played the grown-up Michael, and like the character of Mark Sway, they couldn’t have chosen a better actor for that role. 

He was only twenty-five when he passed away at his home in California yesterday.  He’d had trouble in the past with drug and alcohol addiction, so I’m not sure what they’ll find when they do the autopsy, and to be honest, I don’t really care.  I’m just sorry he’s gone.

God be with you, Brad.  I’m sure Laura’s waiting at the gates of heaven to greet you.

The Cassie Edwards Thing

Yesterday I said I would post my thoughts today on the Cassie Edwards plagiarism issue, so here we go…

But first, a warning, this has generated a lot of different feelings in me, so this post may at times veer into rant territory, but these are my opinions and I stand by them.

Feeling number one–astonishment.  This woman is a multi-published, best-selling author.  Why would anybody who’s written over a hundred books feel the need to steal from other authors?  There have been a slew of answers to that question and I’m not going to include them all here.  Suffice it to say, there are some I agree with, and some I disagree with, but since I’m not Cassie Edwards, I’m not going to venture to say why she did it.  The fact is she did it, and now she’s paying for it.

Feeling number two, sympathy.  I’d hate to be in her shoes right now…but sympathy can only go so far.  She brought this on herself and she needs to stand up and deal with it, which leads me to feelings number three, four, and five; disbelief, laced with disgust and cynicism–all of them coming from the teacher side of me.  Ms. Edwards claims she didn’t know what she was doing was wrong.  How could she not know?  One of the first things we’re taught in school is not to copy off of someone else’s paper.  Beyond that, one of the first things we’re taught in life is not to steal.  Those lessons are usually closely followed by the one about taking responsibility for our actions.  Pleading ignorance may be bliss, but it’s no excuse.  I could go on and on about this, but I think it’s enough to say, she was wrong, she knows it, and she’s not willing to stand up and admit her guilt–which pretty much wipes out that small flash of sympathy I felt before. 

The next feeling is one of…um, I suppose you could call it identifying with her to a certain degree.  Like her, I write romance, and also like her, I’m part Native American.  My great-great-great grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee and if you’ve read my blog, you know I’m what some people call a Twinkie.  I’m proud of my heritage, despite the fact I have no documentation to prove it, and many of my stories have a strong Native American element woven into them.  Unlike Ms. Edwards, I’m not a history buff, so I don’t write historicals.  I also don’t ”borrow” passages verbatim from books I’ve read as part of my research.  Added to that, I would never, never include the word “savage” in one of my titles.  I haven’t read any of her books, but judging by her titles alone, they are offensive and stupid–like I said, my blog, my opinion!  She claims she’s proud of her Native American heritage and yet she uses the word savage in a great many of her titles.  I wouldn’t call that proud, I’d call it insulting.

So, there you have it, a few of the feelings this situation has generated in me, but the thing is…the one emotion that’s been circling over and over in my brain, superseding all the rest is worry.  Yes, worry.  Perhaps it’s egotistical of me, but I’m concerned about how people are going to view my next book when it comes out because it’s based on a Cherokee legend and has several Cherokee characters.  Will they read the blurb, put it back on the shelf and say, “Another Cassie Edwards, I wonder if she’s a plagiarist too?”  And if some day, I’m lucky enough to have one of my books accepted by a big NY publisher and it actually sells a few copies, are people going to pick it up and start googling like mad?

I don’t kid myself, I know the odds of that happening are astronomical, but this whole thing has touched off an inner debate in me about writing.  Should I stop writing about my Cherokee ancestors?  Am I, as some Native American people are saying about Ms. Edwards, just using them to further my writing career?  Is it stealing when I read a legend and it creates a spark for a story?  And even, should I just quit writing altogether?

I guess you know how that last one makes me feel.  It pisses me off, but still…as we’ve all seen from the Cassie Edwards thing, writing is a tough business and every author out there needs to police what they do and make sure their i’s are dotted and their t’s are crossed.  Is it worth it?  Of course it is, if only for the feeling I get whenever a publisher writes and says they like my story and would like to publish it.  Or when someone reads something I’ve written and tells me how much they liked it.  And besides, I’ve never found anything else I enjoy as much.  So, I’ll continue on, all the while doing my best and never forgetting the lessons I’ve learned from this whole messy Cassie Edwards thing. 

And Ms. Edwards, I have a suggestion for you, go to the library and check out Robert Fulghum’s All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.  There are a lot of valuable life lessons in there that will benefit anybody, no matter how old they are and no matter how many mistakes they’ve made.  If I were you, I’d pay particular attention to the one about afternoon cookies and milk followed by a nap–maybe that will make this all a little bit easier to bear. 

Uh…

That just about sums up how I feel right now…wasted and without a clue what to write about.  I think I may have done some serious damage to my muse with my latest writing binge–two novellas in two months!–and I don’t know whether to get down on my knees and beg her forgiveness or just leave her to sulk in a dark corner of my mind until she gets over it.  Probably better to leave her alone and let her cool off a bit, she’s liable to kick my ass if I don’t.

So, I’ve been writing, and like I said, I’ve completed two novellas, one a cougar story which needs some serious polishing before I do anything with it, the other a…I’m not sure what to call it.  I submitted it as a paranormal romantic suspense, but now that I’ve had time to think about it, I think it’s more of an urban fantasy, with elements of romantic suspense.  It’s not paranormal–I don’t think–and I hope the publisher doesn’t throw it in the trash because I sent it under the wrong genre.  Just another thing to chew on my fingernails about while I wait to hear from them.  Nineteen days and counting…

I do have something to keep me busy while I wait; the first round of edits on Snow Shadows, my paranormal romance that’s coming out later this year with L&L Dreamspell.  But since I haven’t written anything on this blog since shortly after Christmas, I decided I needed to get in at least one or two entries for January before I sink into the mire of rewrites and revisions.

Plus, a couple of things are weighing heavy on my mind right now.

First the owner of the now defunct e-publisher, Twilight Fantasies Publications, which shall not be named, did something I find truly despicable and repugnant, she’s self published a fifty page novella she once offered as a free read on her publishing site.  When I heard this, I had a true WTF moment?  Not the first this publisher’s given me and probably not the last.  Anyway, not only was the book once offered as a free read, it’s now up for sale for over sixteen dollars (hardback) and just under seven dollars (paperback).  I mean, come on, who’s going to pay that kind of money for a book that size, much less one that’s already been released for free?  It is offered in ebook format for under four dollars, but still…

The thing is…this author, who put this book out originally under her pen name, is now offering the same book under her real name.  I guess that’s a case of changing the names to protect the innocent, huh?  Not that she’s innocent in any way or form in my mind.  She’s slapped a new cover on it, listed the publisher as Twilight Fantasies (I assume to make it look like the book was good enough to get accepted by a real publisher), put the original editor’s name on it (who I understand was never paid for her work), and is asking an unbelievable amount of money for it.  Can we all say scam?

I have no idea what this particular vanity press charges to publish something, or if they even charge, could be they take it out in royalties, or something, but if they do, my question to this scurrilous woman is; did the money you owed your authors, editors, and cover artists pay for this?  And if so, when can we expect our percentage of the royalties?  Will you pay them or will you slink off into hiding like you did before, complaining all the way about people being mean to you?

Beyond that, I feel sorry for any reader who purchases your exhorbitantly priced book, they could’ve gotten your fifty pages of nothing (totally my opinion of course) for…well, nothing!  Kind of makes me wish I was vindictive enough to prove your point about how mean people are by posting a message to any readers out there who want to buy your book and offering to send it to them for free.  But alas, woe is me, one of the first things I did when I severed ties with you was delete my copy of the free download.  Oh well.  And, knowing you and your pompous jerk of a husband, you’d probably sue me for copyright violation or something.

Which brings me to the next thing on my mind–Cassie Edwards and her “alleged” plagiarism of various authors.  This one really pisses me off, for a number of reasons, all of which I’ll comment on tomorrow–I hope!

Right now, I’ve got to see if I can coax my muse out of hiding.  I may need her when I work on  those edits!  Hmm…maybe an imaginary trail of white chocolate macadamia nut cookie crumbs will do the trick. 

Oh, and before I forget, Go Pats!  And, sorry Peyton!  You didn’t make it this year, but I’ll be rooting for your brother in the play-offs.  Eli’s coming…