Newspapers

Fiorella's mother had been a journalism teacher, and the family always subscribed to a newspaper, much to Fio's benefit.  She learned to read from comic strips, and a newspaper validated her childhood art by publishing it.  In high school, she edited the longest-running Latin student publication in the country one year and the state Latin student publication the next year.  Later on, she married the son of two journalists. In graduate school, she originated a department newsletter. Later, in between teaching and grading, she wrote for the local newspaper and even set up two tabloids on her own.  Yes, Fiorella loves newspapers. but her own children are barely aware of them.  Why bother when they have television and computers at their beck and call?

Fiorella is sad.

Can't Help It

As she lay in bed half awake this morning, Fio contemplated her literary career. It started with a four-line rhyme Mrs. Rider assigned the class to write in the third grade.  All Fio can remember of her offering is one line, "feathered Vs across the sky," which was her description of a bird migration. Then, of course, there was Baylor Children's Theater, which introduced her to scripts and drama.

In junior high, she wrote more poetry, mainly adolescent angst, and discovered comedy. That was also when, inspired by her mother's collection of Book-of-the-Month romances, she wrote the first chapter of a novel (which disappeared when Mother went through her desk drawer).

In high school, Fio penned playlets for presentation by the Latin club and the English literary club, wrote mounds of poetry, and ventured into short stories.   She also represented her school in ready-writing contests and edited the school Latin publication one year and the state publication the next.

Fiorella continued writing poetry, short stories, and essays through her undergraduate years, then added a romance novel and a dissertation to her repertoire when she was in graduate school.

And here she is now with two published books under her belt, a blog overflowing with mini-essays, about twenty short stories hanging around that she wants to re-edit, Lord knows how many poems scattered about, and more to come.

The girl can't help it.

Lament

Fiorella promises never more to nitpick about minor typos and errors in books she's reading.

You guessed it--she's spent the last four days making final edits on What the Heart Wants before sending it off to Editor Michele again, and she's appalled at what her English-teacher eye overlooked.

Perfection, thy name is Futile.

Literary/Medical Update

1) The new title of Princess of Bosque Bend is Honeysuckle Dreams.  At least so far.
2) Fio pared the last chapter down from twenty pages to five, which needed to happen, but she mourns the loss of some terribly clever dialogue.
3) Remember, Fio's going under the knife right now, so please send encouraging thoughts in her direction.

Pre-op

Fio is a born editor. Rewrite is her middle name. You may have noticed that she's already edited yesterday's ditty, altering the last stanza. And you know she's in hibernation at present, reediting one of her manuscripts.

She'll leave hibernation on Tuesday to go into Austin and get some cosmetic surgery. See--she even edits herself.