Harlequin Open House this Wednesday

Harlequin is hosting an Open House—with prizes and give-aways—Wednesday, December 15th. Details for this all-day event are at www.eharlequin.com, but I wanted to let you know about my part in this wonderful party. I’ll be joining a couple of other Harlequin American Romance authors in the chat room from 7-8 pm EST Wednesday. I hope you can join me there. This is my first on-line chat, and I'm so excited that I've been invited to the party! Won't you join me there, too? I'd love to see some familiar names!

Accessing the chat room is as easy as, well, pie! Just get onto the internet and type http://chat.eharlequin.com in the browser line. A log-in sheet will appear momentarily and you’ll be asked to Log in. Type whatever name you want to be “known by” in the chat room. It’d be nice if you made it something I could recognize so I can give you a shout-out. Though the screen asks for a password, there’s no password necessary. Yay!

Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be placed in a Waiting Room. From there, use the pull down menu (click on the Waiting Room bar at the top of the page and other chat rooms will appear), to select the chat room you want to visit. Hopefully, there will be one that says “Harlequin American Romance”. Look at the bottom of the screen. That’s where you’ll type your comments/ask questions/etc.

So, come on over to the Harlequin party! See you there!

Awesome Corn Pudding Recipe

I treasure my grandmother's recipes. She was born, raised, and lived most of her life on a farm in southern Alabama. Though I try very hard to follow her recipes, my results always fall short of hers. I think it has to do with the eggs she gathered from nests that morning, or the unpasturized, un-whatevered, milk and butter that came from a cow she milked herself.

But one recipe I have had success with came, not from my grandmother, but from my husband's great aunt. She used to fix this Corn Pudding dish every time we visited. Preparing it yesterday for my local RWA chapter's holiday party brought back so many good memories.

Oh, and the pudding? Several at the party--including the fabulous Roxanne St. Claire and the amazing Kristen Painter--said it was to-die-for. Enjoy!

Awesome Corn Pudding a la Leigh Duncan

1/4 cup butter
3 eggs
3 tbs. flour
1/2 cup sugar (or less, if you like)
2 cups milk (I use 1 can evaporated and add enough reduced fat milk to make the 2 cups)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups creamed corn (I buy a frozen "roll" of creamed corn and defrost it)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Melt butter in 9" square pan or oven-safe casserole.

Whisk eggs in large bowl. Whisk in flour, sugar, milk and salt until smooth.

Stir in corn. Immediately pour into prepared pan.

Bake 45 min. - 1 hour, until pudding is firm or doesn't slosh when the pan is gently shaken.

If the top starts looking too brown, tent aluminum foil over the casserole until it finishes baking. Do not let the aluminum rest on the pudding or it will rip off the beautiful crust.

Flash Mob at the Mall

According to Wikepedia, a flash mob occurs when a rather large group of people gather in a public place—like a mall or a stadium—where they put on an unexpected performance…and then disperse. Of course, it’d be pointless without someone there to record the event and post it on YouTube.

In this case, I’m so glad they did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

Busted Rodeo

Well, phooey! Hubby and I didn't get to the rodeo afterall. The entrance fee was an almost-reasonable $12, but...according to Friday's paper, admission also required $12 to get into the fair taking place on the same grounds and $5 per person for parking. Yikes! That's a lot of moo-la to put out for a small rodeo.

Not to dispair, though. I've checked the calendar, and there are a surprising number of rodeos in the sunshine state. Arcadia, Orlando and the Silver Spurs in Kissimmee (don't ya just love the names of Florida towns?) are all in our future. We'll mosey on over to a couple of them.

Writin' and Ropin'

I'm back to work on Rodeo Daughter and falling more in love with these characters with every word. And what's not to love? She's a Family Law specialist who once won a gold buckle on the rodeo circuit. He's a driven prosecuting attorney whose ex-wife sues for custody of their little girl. Any guesses on who the ex- hires as her attorney? Today, I'll introduce the four-year-old who can go from sweetheart to brat on a whim...and fun ensues!

Tomorrow night, hubby and I are pulling on our own boots and spurs and heading out because the rodeo is in town. Pictures to follow!

Breathe In. Breathe Out.

This week was a great week for breathing in and breathing out.

On Thursday, my good friend Kristen Painter and I jumped in the car and took a little ride across the state for the Novelists, Inc. (or NINC) conference in St. Petersburg. There, the focus was on breathing in—or taking in—information about the explosive growth in electronic publishing and what that means to the average writer. From every side we heard that change is coming and traditional print publishers are struggling to adapt to a digital marketplace. Industry professionals listed areas where publishers needed to make changes: Make books available in both print and e-formats; release back lists in e-formats; train authors to use social media tools, like Facebook and Twitter. I have to admit, as a Harlequin author I felt some warm fuzzies when Donna Hayes, CEO of Harlequin Enterprises, repeatedly said, “We already do that.” Check, check and double-check.

On Saturday, it was time to breathe out—this time sharing the story of my road to publication at the monthly meeting of First Coast Romance Writers in Jacksonville, FL. Let’s face it, selling a manuscript to a major publisher can be a daunting task. According to the statistics, less than one in a thousand writers makes the leap from “aspiring” to “published” author. We all get discouraged along the way, but why can’t you be the one who makes it? I did, and if my story inspires just one promising author to stick with it, then a three-hundred mile car trip is worth the effort. From what I heard and saw at FCRW this weekend, quite a few of their members are ready to make that leap.

By the way, FCRW’s annual contest, Beacon, is short on entries and has extended its deadline until Friday, October 15th. For more information on this all-electronic contest, go to: http://www.firstcoastromancewriters.com/contest_un.htm.
Contests are a great place to test your work, and finaling in one is a short-cut to getting your work before an acquiring editor or agent. Or in the Beacon’s case, both.

If You Thing POV is an Economy Car...

So, I was talking with a couple of my writing pals about the mistakes we made as beginning writers, and I came up with this list of things every romance writer needs to know. Take a moment. Enjoy a laugh.

- If someone says “head hopping” and you think “rabbits,” you’re not ready to publish.

- If you think POV is a new kind of economy car, you’re not ready to publish.

- If your manuscript includes the phrases “swashbuckling hero” or “ripped bodice,” you’re out of touch with today's market.

- If you think goal and motivation are the same thing, you could use a workshop or two. By the same token, if you’ve never heard of Deb Dixon, you’re not ready to publish.

- If someone says your story needs GMC and you go looking for car dealerships, you’re not ready to publish.

- If you think a black moment has something to do with the stock exchange, you’re not ready to publish.

- If you think conflict is an argument, you’re not ready to publish.

- If you’re writing romantic suspense and don’t have a villian, you’re not ready to publish.

- If the hero of your series contemporary doesn’t appear before the third chapter, you’re not ready to publish.

- If you think HEA is a sexually transmitted disease, you’re not ready to publish.

- If your hero and heroine fall in love at first glance and lovingly hold hands right through their happily-ever-after moment, you need to join RWA and educate yourself on romance in today’s marketplace.

- If you chose to write romance because you thought it was easy, you’re not ready to publish.