Julie Garwood is keeping me from writing.

Okay, I know that sounds odd. I have been feeling a little blocked lately. Not a total block, because I am putting out new pages on a paranormal romance. But when I start to put too much pressure on myself to write, I revert back to being a romance fan.

I picked up a Garwood historical. Her books are sublime. The problem is, most are either in pairs or small series. They’re like Lay’s potato chips — I can’t have just one.

Reading my “keepers” is like coming home after a long vacation. They give me comfort and the kind of happiness only reading can offer. I enjoy some of these stories so much, I find myself reading instead of writing.

So if I don’t finish my paranormal in time for the Golden Heart, it will be all Julie Garwood’s fault.

I am pleased to say that Murphy’s Law is a finalist in the Golden Gateway competition.

I entered the story way back before I headed to Dallas. I think the From the Heart chapter that sponsors the contest has a super reputation, which is probably why I chose that contest. In all honesty, I don’t remember sending the entry.

I’m not a contest queen. I’ve only entered a few. Honest. I guess I’ve just been lucky enough to place high in most of the competitions I’ve entered. I didn’t final in the PASIC Book of Your Heart. I entered Murphy’s Law and Free Falling because the contest is prestigious and the judges were booksellers and librarians instead of fellow writers. Both stories did very well, just not well enough to final. Both received at least one perfect score, so I’ll give myself a satisfied nod and move on.

My beloved Critters are welcoming a new member. We have our first meeting tomorrow, and I’m thrilled to have Adrienne Hogan join us. She’s talented, funny, and I think she’ll bring an awful lot to our group. I just hope our slightly odd collective sense of humor doesn’t scare her off. Welcome to the Critters, Adrienne!

This has been a good week. I really like my new students. My writing received appreciation in the form of a contest final. I have a great day of critiquing planned for tomorrow.

Who could want for more?

It’s a brave new world.

I now have a facebook. My own munchkins have had their own for quite a while, and I’ve had several students send me invitations to start one. So I did, sarcastically figuring it was just what I needed. One more thing to do. I knew I’d hate it.

I was wrong.

In the first couple of days, I had more than 100 former/current students contact me. Today, a little less than a week later, I have 146 “friends.” The upkeep is minimal, and being the anal retentitive person I am, I manage to check it a couple of times a day to see if anyone needs to “talk.” I’ve been able to catch up to students I spend so much time with who disappear every May on their way to the real world. I hand them diplomas, shake their hands, shed a few tears, and seldom hear from them again. I now have a way to know how they are doing, to assure myself that they’re happy. And on my birthday, I had forty-five individual greetings from people who care about me. I have never felt so loved in my whole life.

So I’m embracing technology, yet again. We’ll see where it takes me.

Back to school.

There is only one other time when so few words held so much sway over my life. Back in 1983, I said, “I do,” a couple of times, and I’ve been haunted by it ever since. I am officially back to school on Wednesday. How will that affect my writing?

I think I write with more focus when I’m teaching. During the summer, I know I have time to waste. I can check my email. Repeatedly. I can update my facebook and check on my students and former students. I can browse blogs of friends and fellow writers. I can do everything except write.

During the school year, my free time becomes a limited commodity. I use it wisely. When I sit down to pound out a few new pages, that is exactly what I do. Evenings are the best. Jeff works on running the stable or puzzles out a sudoku, and I prop my laptop in my lap and beat the keys.

I still haven’t decided which story to send in for the Golden Hearts. I suppose I will decide when I see how much progress I make on the paranormal in the next month. I’ll keep you posted.

So, I’m heading back to school. Maybe it’s just what I need.

To enter or not to enter, that is the question… (My apologies to the Bard.)

It’s about the time I need to be deciding whether to enter a manuscript in the Golden Heart competition. I’ve only been down that road once. Of course, I’ve only been writing for eighteen months, so it wasn’t as if I’ve had a lot of opportunities. My story did fairly well, receiving scores well above average but not strong enough to make the finals. I might have fared better had I actually entered it in the correct category. But, newbie that I was, I didn’t realize there was a distinct difference between Single Title and Mainstream. A big “duh” on my part.

My dilemma mostly revolves around which story to send. I would really like Murphy’s Law to receive some notice. It’s such a solid story, if I do say so myself. I think it would fare well in Mainstream. On the other hand, the paranormal I just started is probably the best story I’ve ever written. Unfortunately, it is still in the drafting process. I’m about a hundred pages in, and none of it has gone through the Critters.

One of the biggest differences between the Golden Heart and other contests is that the manuscript has to be complete. I think that is wonderful! It prevents contest divas who have written nothing more than the first twenty-five pages of a manuscript they don’t really intend to complete from entering. But can I finish the paranormal before the deadline?

A couple of things stand in my path. School begins a week from today. Because I love my job, I can’t “phone it in” and lay rubber hurrying from the parking lot to get home and fire up my laptop. My students will demand and receive a lot of my time, and I give it to them without reservation. I also have the horses to think about. We are down to four racing, but even that small a stable requires time and energy. I’ll keep plugging away on the paranormal, but I am leaning toward sending Murphy’s Law.

I suppose I have four good stories to choose from because the trilogy is complete, as is Turning Thirty-Twelve. Decisions, decisions…

We’ll see what choice time makes for me.

Writing has helped me meet so many interesting people.

At the Dallas conference, I spent time with people of all shapes, sizes, and levels of fame. I saw so many new faces, it reminded me of the first day of school when I have 180 new students and I desperately want to remember each and every one of their names. I can still recall every face, from Nora Roberts to the newbie writer from Georgia who sat with me at the new member gathering.

I have “met” several more new people since I started judging for Indiana RWA’s Golden Opportunity Contest. The entries are all around fifty pages of manuscript and a synopsis, and I’ve been working on them for a few weeks, hoping to have them done before school starts in (shudders) two weeks. What is interesting is that I feel like I know these women very, very well after spending so much time develing into their work.

One thing I really dislike about some of the contests I’ve entered is that a judge will count points off, but she won’t always explain why. I decided that if these writers were paying our chapter good money to enter this, then, by golly, they were going to get a damn good critique. (That and the fact that the English teacher in me cannot seem to help herself.) This takes time, but the process also helps me get inside each writer’s head.

I have laughed aloud at some of their work. I have been choked up by a scene or two. And I’ve wanted to scream in frustration when one of them makes the same mistake consistently. The only excuse for that is that no one sat them down and said, “Hey. This is how you punctuate dialogue.” I realize now just how blessed I am to have my Critters, my father-in-law, and my mother. They did take me aside and tell me what I was doing wrong. God love you all! I truly appreciate your caring and your help.

As I continue to write, I hope I always continue to be so very lucky to meet and get to know so many talented people.