Live to Love on the Edge Blog

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The Home Stretch

stretchWith only a few weeks left until the deadline to deliver my next book – STRONGER THAN SIN – the second book in the SINS series, I’m in the home stretch, racing toward the finish.

Just a little bit more work, some polishing and the book will be finished. Always a rewarding feeling, especially when I’m liking it as much as I am.

I always think of writing a novel much like running a race. Start off slow and get a solid foundation in the first few chapters. Start picking up speed, but keeping mindful of the pace and where I am with both the romance and suspense so that the synergy between the two is keeping things moving.

Not so easy at times, so there is an occasional stumble. There are other obligations to handle in my life, like work. My family, who always comes first. Writing obligations, like prepping everything necessary to promote SINS OF THE FLESH which will be out on shelves on October 27th! 😯

Woo hoo, but scary. My first single title paranormal romantic suspense (and isn’t that a mouthful of a description?).

I’ve waited a long time to see that happen, another kind of race. Building a career and trying to take it to the finish line for this race because inevitably, the time in the winner’s circle is short before you have to hit the track again. 😕

But if you think about it, life is a race also (and hopefully not a rat race!). I like to think of it as a race against myself and not others. Always striving to do something different and to improve. Reaching for personal bests.

How about you? How do you deal with your reaching your goals, whether it’s writing or something else? We’d like to hear your thoughts on this Thoughtful Thursday.

Also, while I’m at it, the winner for last Friday’s Favorite Hero contest is Kayla! If you could send your postal address to cpsromance at att dot net, I’ll get your prize out to you.

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Write Until It Hurts by Gary Morgenstein

Jesse's GirlI have with me a very special guest today. Please welcome Gary Morgenstein, the author of JESSE’S GIRL who is going to offer up some tips on writing!

Without further ado, here is Gary’s WRITE UNTIL IT HURTS!

Writing is a muscle like any other requiring exercise. Relentless, agonizing, sweat-drenched, every single day. No time to rest sore muscles. Sorry but, as Vito Corleone said, that’s the life we choose for ourselves.

Beyond the pain, a writer must, as Faulkner said, be able to devour its young. As I learned in my thriller Jesse’s Girl, sometimes you have to let go. You know, Luke Skywalker closing his eyes and feeling the light saber?

Jesse’s Girl is about a widowed father’s search for his adopted teenage son, who has run away from a drug wilderness treatment program to find his biological sister. Now when I started the book, I had all these ideas. A small story, small canvas, almost a two-hander of a father and a son overcoming their troubled relationship.

So much for that. I wrote the opening scene where Teddy, the father, gets the call from the wilderness program that Jesse, his son, was missing, and after that, all bets were off. Characters I had thought of changed or vanished. New ones beamed down into me. Storylines emerged. Suddenly it was a thriller. I had to discard all my pre-conceived notions. From the excellent reviews Jesse’s Girl has been getting, I’m glad I did.

Admitting you made a mistake is essential in writing. Never be afraid to say you’re on the wrong path. Just because it sounded good in your head or in an outline doesn’t mean it will necessarily work as a story. How many times have you played out a scene in your head and then wrote it down and said, Ew!

Philip Roth said that there were times he wrote 100 pages only to realize that inside that was the one paragraph that contained his story. The rest of the 99 plus pages was simply the path to get him there.

As life is the constant journey for a writer, so is writing the constant road to your art. You might get ambushed, but that is the process. To paraphrase FDR, the only thing we have to fear is not writing.

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In addition to Jesse’s Girl, Gary Morgenstein’s most recent novels, both available exclusively on Amazon.com, are the political baseball thriller Take Me Out to the Ballgame and the romantic triangle Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman. His chillingly prophetic play Ponzi Man played to sell-out crowds at a recent New York Fringe Festival. A PR consultant for Syfy Channel, he lives in Brooklyn, New York, with lots of books and rock and roll CDs. You can visit him at www.facebook.com/people/Gary-Morgenstein/1011217889 or at http://redroom.com/member/garymorg.

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Fall into Autumn Color

mumWoke up to a brrr in the air. There’s no doubt that fall is here, but that doesn’t mean the end of color in your garden.

Best bet – Hardy mums! Treat them right and they’ll survive the winter and come back for more fall foilage next year. Plus, there is such a wide range of colors to brighten a possibly dreary autumn day.

If you’re going to cut the mums as a gift, just be careful to whom you present them. In some cultures, Latins and Italians, the mum is known as the “Flower of the dead” and is typically not presented to someone as a bouquet.

Next best bet – flowering kale. Fill your borders and other low-lying areas with colorful kale in deep purples with bright white centers or totally white ornamental kale.

Another good bet is one of my favorite flowers – pansies/violas. They’ll survive a mild frost and violas are perennials, so look for them to return next year. Also, pansies are excellect reseeders, so don’t be surprised to see them coming up in the early spring as soon as it starts to get warmer.

Last but not least, colorful asters will provide awesome fall blooms and better yet, they’re perennials so they’ll be back next year for more color.

Hope you enjoyed today’s Tuesday Tip! What are your favorite fall flowers?

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Guily Pleasures Monday

I was watching the Giants game when they pulled Eli Manning and put in David Carr.

David Carr! How had I missed this hottie before!

While I’m sad to see Eli hurting, it was great to see David out on the field and he did an awesome job. Even ran one in for a touchdown.

Hope you like this Monday’s Guilty Pleasure. Do you have any favorite hottie football players?

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Favorite Hero Friday

Today is a departure from our usual Fun Fridays, although I hope that it will still be fun for you!

My friends at eHarlequin asked me to blog about my favorite hero from THE CALLING Vampire Novels. Now I know most of you would expect for me to say my favorite hero is Ryder, but there’s a surprise dark horse that’s come out of the pack.

So join me over at eHarlequin to find out who is the mystery Favorite Hero and get into his brain.

If you leave a comment on either this blog or the eHarlequin blog by Midnight EST Saturday, October 10th, you’ll be eligible to win a SINS OF THE FLESH T-shirt!

Click here to visit My Favorite Hero or cut and paste this link: http://community.eharlequin.com/node/125987

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Thankful Thursday

thanksgivingWhile doing my weekly shopping, I’ve noticed that the commercial juggernauts of Halloween and Christmas are seemingly displacing one of my favorite holidays – Thanksgiving.

I love Thanksgiving. I look forward to going to my sister’s house and getting together with family and friends to celebrate the wonderful gifts we’ve been given. As we sit down to eat our delicious meal, replete with so many tasty treats, we all take a moment to express for what we’re thankful. Even though some of those thanks seem redundant – family and friends – there are lots of things in our minds which we may not have the time to express in that short Thanksgiving moment.

So this year, take a moment to reflect and be thankful on your blessings. No, not the new car, Wii or other material things. Be thankful for those things that can’t be measured, like the Liberty that’s safeguarded by our military men and the sacrifices of their families, the law enforcement officers and firefighters who keep our homes safe, good health, friends who’ve got your back and of course, the family that supports you in all that you do.

It makes me think of a saying that I’ve seen recently – The important things are not things.

So true. I’ll carry that thought over to Christmas and remember the reason why we celebrate on that day.

How about you? What will you be thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Also, if you’ve got the time, come visit with me and my friend and fellow author Chris Redding. I’m blogging there today! You can click here or cut and paste this link: http://chrisredddingauthor.blogspot.com

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Alleviating the demands of Social Media Promotion

My friend Rayna Vause and I were recently at the Moonlight & Magnolias conference in Atlanta to give a workshop on publicity and promotion in cyberspace. One of the topics we discussed was Social Media and how to use it to help build your brand online.

One of the major concerns expressed by many was the time demands of being in so many places online. It’s a truly valid concern. With so many authors still holding down jobs and/or the needs of family, spending time on the web and social media sites can be a major time suck, especially when you’re also trying to write a book.

But it is possible to use technology to alleviate some of the demands of Social Media promotion. If you’ve got a blog, Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, it’s possible to automate many of these applications so that you’re content will be available on all of them with minimal work. How do you do that?

Feed your blog to your Twitter, Facebook and/or Myspace pages:

Both Twitter and Facebook allow you to feed content automatically from your blog. In Facebook, find your NOTES section and you will see a spot where you can add your blog feed to bring it into your Facebook profile. With Twitter, you can use Twitterfeed to automatically post your blog content as a tweet.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a similar application for Myspace, but it is possible to create a widget for your blog feed that you can embed on your Myspace page or in other applications that accept Widgets. I’ve used Spring Widgets and find their RSS feed widget very handy.

Feed your Twitter, Facebook and/or Myspace to each other:

It’s possible to feed your various tweets, status changes, etc. from one Social Media site to another.

To feed your Facebook status to Twitter and vice versa, you can use this Twitter application on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=twitter&init=quick#/apps/application.php?id=2231777543&ref=search&sid=1130005412.376077238..1

To feed your Tweets to Myspace, you can try out this application:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=463617608

Keeping track of your Social Media Sites:

There are a number of applications that will allow you to view and take action on your various sites at once. Two of the more popular and useful applications are TWEETDECK and HOOTSUITE.

Tweetdeck is a desktop application that will allow you to see tweets, respond, retweet as well as view your Facebook and Myspace content. Hootsuite is a web-based application that also does much of the same, but also allows you to schedule tweets. A great ability to have if you must get information out but know in advance that you will not have access to the web.

I hope you found today’s Tuesday Tip helpful and that it will help you avoid the possible time suck of Social Media. If you have any good applications that you can recommend, please let us know by posting them to the comments section.

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