My Dear Watson

Remember how taken Fiorella has always been with fires (in the fireplace, of course)?  Well, she's decided to put her fascination to use by having the heroine of WHERE THE HEART LEADS get all hot and bothered as she watches Tall, Red and Handsome start a fire from scratch.

There's something elemental about a fire.  And sex is pretty damn elemental too.

Christmas in March

Hooray for Fiorella!  She's used her breaks to take down Christmas decorations and now only has two swags, high ones that she has to use a tall ladder on, to go.  Plus the plastic snowflakes on the tree out front, of course--and the dining room table, which is piled high with everything Fio has taken down.  And the tree, which she has undressed, but not yet dismantled.

March is the latest that Fiorella has ever had her decorations up, but it's also the first time she's been riding a writing deadline for a 325 page novel.  And yes, she's gonna make it.

In Memoriam

Happy birthday to my father, who sang "Little Brown Jug" to me as he drove me to Sunday School when Mother was in the hospital giving birth to my brother, who taught me how to swing a golf club,  who financed my daughter's college education.  Dad had a generous heart and a noble spirit.
And I hope he is with me still.

Sounding Off

Fiorella wishes "they" would stop improving personal computers.  Her laptop has three different ways to control the size of print--the one labeled "font," the one that has a plus and minus on it, and the built-in mouse thing that suddenly enlarges the whole page if Fio so much as looks at it.

Fiorella is willing to learn how to do something--ONE way to do it, that is.  She doesn't need options.

And while she's on the topic, she doesn't like the way her font will suddenly up and change out of Times New Roman either.

Three Excepts from WHERE THE HEART LEADS

They’d met when they were sixteen.  All the high school students from the Bosque Bend end of the county had been transferred over to the newly-constructed consolidated school, and it had been a hard adjustment for Rafe, especially since he’d had the flu and was starting the semester a week late.  His first day back, he’d been standing in the center of the front hall and trying to make sense out of the list the office secretary had given him when a beautiful girl smiled at him and asked if she could help.  

The girl had guided him to his history classroom, then hurried off down the hall with a smile and wave of her hand.  He saw her later that day in English.  She’d smiled at him again and he knew he was in love.  
*****
The Christmas season went into full swing the next day.  Cars sprouted felt deer horns out their windows and cheerful plastic wreaths on their grills, cedars along the road wound themselves with tinsel garlands, Santa Clauses sat on rooftops, reindeer pranced on parched lawns, and  a Salvation Army bell-ringer had stationed himself in front of WalMart.  

*****

“Moira, Suh-weetie Pie, I’m so, so sorry, but I won’t be able to make it to—uh—Texas

this trip.”

An airplane engine roared in the background, and Moira could hear a flight attendant instructing passengers on how to use the drop-down oxygen mask.

“You understand.  I’ve been talking to Covergirl about representing their line of skin products for—um—older women.  I’ve let my hair go white—it’s the new blonde, you know, and makes my skin looks gorgeous”  Her voice dropped to a whisper.  “Hold on a minute.  There’s a hatchet-faced stewardess looking my way.  I’ll have to put you down and get a Vogue to hide behind.”

Onward and Upward!

Fiorella is invigorated.  She attended Far North, the critique group she moderates, and came home high as the proverbial kite.  There's nothing like palling around with other romance writers to get the old juices flowing.

The group started with just three people, but now there are twelve on the roll, with attendance bouncing between three and six.  It's all women, of course, but we'd welcome any male romance writers who want to join our merry crew. We read each other's pages, offer what we hope are helpful comments, tell funny stories on ourselves, and laugh a lot.

As moderator, Fio spends a lot of her time soliciting and sending out pages, planning topics for discussion, reminding current members of the meeting date, and talking to potential members, but it's worth it.  Every meeting, she comes away empowered.  Yes, she can shape this book up!  Yes, it will sell!  Yes, she is the queen of the world!

Power Play

Fio has conquered the office bitch, the one who delayed her appointments and blamed it on the insurance carrier.  And Fio did it through the use of the greatest power in the world--knowledge.

Fio didn't argue with the woman.  Instead, Fio side-stepped her and called the insurance company herself.  She called twice, in fact, to confirm that her treatment was authorized and that the insurance would pay for it.  But when she contacted the OB, the woman told her she would have to wait an extra week for the treatment to allow ninety days to pass since her last visit.  Fio got out her calendar and realized that those ninety days would indeed have passed by the date of the appointment she was trying to set.

Fiorella got her appointment when she wanted it.

Knowledge is power.