Complicated mommy issues = beefy book club fodder in THE MIDWIFE

My review of Jolina Petersheim's THE MIDWIFE is almost as conflicted as the main character, a gestational surrogate who absconds with the unborn child she's carrying for a wealthy couple.

(Plus a few words about the importance of grammar.)

American Blonde = triumphant return of a terrific character

One of my favorite books so far this year! Girl pilot/spy Velva Jean returns to America and is swept up in LaLa Land politics and intrigue.

If you loved Jennifer Niven's first three Velva Jean Hart books, you won't be disappointed by this witty, well written story set in post-WWII Hollywood. If you haven't read the first three books (I haven't, but I probably will now), you'll have no trouble falling in love with this character and following her continuing adventures.

I thoroughly enjoyed it! 

Join us on Joni's List for intelligent, snark-free reading recommendations!

In its brief existence, the GWTST has enjoyed over 55,500 visitors. (Thank you!) The most popular posts are listed below. From now I'll be blogging at Joni's List. Join us!

 

THE PROMISE = a compelling duet in a rich historical setting

THE PROMISE is set in Galveston circa 1900 and told as an intimate duet, both voices speaking in first person.

Nan, an earthy Texan housekeeper struggles to keep her promise to care for a little boy and his widowed father, Oscar. Catherine, an exile from polite Midwestern society, escapes disgrace by marrying Oscar and struggles to adjust to a drastically different life on the Gulf Coast. A maelstrom of emotion (and other stormy things) ensues.

A beautifully written novel I'm highly recommending for book clubs.

Adventure + Enlightenment = Great Buddha Gym for All Mens and Womens

A terrific travel memoirella. Sallie Tisdale makes her way through the tourist traps and complicated travelocity of India to explore the places where The Buddha lived, taught, and died. Smart, funny, and -- gotta say it -- enlightening.

Too short for book club selection, but perfect for a flight from Chicago to NY, if you can't go to India today.

The Chronicle of Secret Riven = another lyrical journey for Hunger Games fans

Sequels suck. Almost always. This one, happily, does not.

Last year, I was swept away by the lush, imaginative MAPMAKER'S WAR, so I was anxiously awaiting Book 2. It delivers, neatly avoiding that sucking sequel dynamic. Anxiously awaiting Book 3!

Highly recommended for anyone who loved the Hunger Games books.

TEMPLE GROVE: Scott Elliotts compelling prose vividly captures the essence of its wilderness setting

If you loved The Wilding: A Novelby Benjamin Percy, you might be into Temple Grove: A Novelby Scott Elliott, the story of an intense wilderness struggle between a logger with a troubled past and an environmentalist being pursued by the FBI as an ecoterrorist.

Densely written literary fiction that takes patience but is well worth reading. The descriptions are in depth, but the characters and story keep it moving, I promise.

I went from "Do I really want to read this book?" to "I cannot leave this book."

APATHY AND OTHER SMALL VICTORIES by Paul Neilan is only good if you enjoy things like laughter

The only thing Shane cares about is leaving. Usually on a Greyhound bus, right before his life falls apart again. Just like he planned. But this time it's complicated: there's a sadistic corporate climber who thinks she's his girlfriend, a rent-subsidized affair with his landlord's wife, and the bizarrely appealing deaf assistant to Shane's cosmically unstable dentist. When one of the women is murdered, and Shane is the only suspect who doesn't care enough to act like he didn't do it, the question becomes just how he'll clear the good name he never had and doesn't particularly want: his own.

#2MinRevu Transcendent SEAL WOMAN by Solveig Eggerz creates rich emotional history

Highly recommending Seal Woman, a beautifully written novel of love, loss and self-discovery in the shadow of the Holocaust.

Jerusha was proofreading the manuscript for the publisher and said, "Mom, you have to read this book so we can discuss it!" An invitation I could not resist.

Book clubs: There is much to love and discuss in this powerful story (including a surprising storytelling choice toward the end over which Jerusha and I strongly disagreed.)

Salley Vickers' lovely CLEANER OF CHARTRES = Enigmatic protagonist + charming French setting

Highly recommending Salley Vickers' lovely novel about a woman who cleans the cathedral and becomes a sort of touchstone for the people of Chartres who can't help but spill their stories. Excellent writing, perfectly detailed setting, resonant characters.

Plus...dolls are scary.

Guest Blog: Linda Gillard chimes in on #HowIWrite

Two years ago, I sat on a panel at the London Book Fair with the fabulous Linda Gillard. I was utterly charmed by her grace, wit, and artistic integrity, promptly bought three of her books, and have been a devoted fan ever since. Linda appears as a guest on writing blogs far and wide. Delighted to tag her here for the #HowIWrite Q&A that's currently trending:

What are you writing?
I’m planning my eighth novel. It will be about reconciliation and healing. I think the main character (and possibly the narrator) will be an old, neglected garden that surrounds a once-grand Victorian country house, now a nursing home. The garden has witnessed the rise and fall of family fortunes for more than a century and has now fallen into decay, but it has stories to tell about the original inhabitants of the estate.

In the present day, my forty-something heroine comes home to look after her elderly artist mother who can no longer paint or live independently. Mother and daughter get to know each other again as they restore a remnant of the old garden. In the process, they discover the poignant story of the man who had to abandon the garden – and the woman he loved – to go off to war in 1914.

How does your work differ from others of its genre?
It’s different because it doesn’t belong to any genre, or rather no single genre. I’ve written a three-generation family saga, a country house mystery, two ghost stories and three love stories where the hero or heroine is disabled or mentally ill – not exactly “romances”. Three of those novels are literary fiction, but I’d describe the others as commercial women’s fiction (though some of my best reviews have come from men!)

I’m a marketing department’s nightmare. But for me it’s not about genre, it’s about the story and the characters.

Why do you write what you do? 
To find out what I think. I don’t know what I think until I see what I say and I’ve never written a novel knowing how it will end. (If I knew, I doubt I’d write it.) I’m looking for answers to all the questions that rattle around in my head. It’s really a form of control freakery. Telling stories is my way of imposing order on the mental and emotional chaos within.

But I can’t shoehorn my books into a particular genre. I don’t see life like that and I want my fiction to have some bearing on real life. The stories are fiction, but I hope when you read them, you think, “Oh, yes. That’s so true...” And that’s what I try to do. Tell true lies.

How does your writing process work?
The genesis of a novel is a combination of visual things and questions – “what-ifs?” The ideas usually come with people attached to them and snatches of dialogue.

Often I don’t know the significance of these visions. I don’t understand what I’ve written, or rather why I've written it. I think you need to be able to trust what you've written, trust the process, trust yourself as a writer. That requires a leap of faith.

When I’m plotting, I just keep asking “What if…?”, making situations and relationships as complicated as possible. My plot, such as it is, arises out of those. But really, not a lot happens in my books. There’s no action in EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY, but readers tell me they’re up all night finishing it. It must be because so much has happened in the past. The novel is an excavation – sometimes an exhumation!

I always find what goes on inside the mind of a character much more interesting than what goes on outside it, so I don’t actually need a plot to start writing, just a situation and some characters.

........................................................

Linda Gillard lives in the Scottish Highlands and has been an actress, journalist and teacher. She’s the author of seven novels, including Star Gazing, which was short-listed in 2009 for Romantic Novel of the Year and the Robin Jenkins Literary Award (for writing that promotes the Scottish landscape), and House of Silence, a Kindle bestseller selected by Amazon as one of their Top Ten Best of 2011 in the Indie Author category. Linda’s latest is Cauldstane, a contemporary ghost story set in a decaying Highland castle. Find Linda on Facebook and check out some of her wise writing advice.

My personal nomination for your next summer read: Emotional Geology, an offbeat, award-winning love story that showcases this author’s mad skills with character, dialogue, and throat-burning emotion.

THE INCREMENTALISTS asks deeper questions than your last yoga class

The Incrementalists—a secret society of two hundred people with an unbroken lineage reaching back forty thousand years. They cheat death, share lives and memories, and communicate with one another across nations, races, and time. They have an epic history, an almost magical memory, and a very modest mission: to make the world better, just a little bit at a time. Their ongoing argument about how to do this is older than most of their individual memories. 

Phil, whose personality has stayed stable through more incarnations than anyone else’s, has loved Celeste—and argued with her—for most of the last four hundred years. But now Celeste, recently dead, embittered, and very unstable, has changed the rules—not incrementally, and not for the better. Now the heart of the group must gather in Las Vegas to save the Incrementalists, and maybe the world.

#HowIWrite Blog Hop: Free-falling, being 50, and four fab authors you need to read this summer

Tagged by my author buddy Jen Singer for the #HowIWrite blog hop. I’m supposed to answer four questions and tag four author friends to do the same, which struck me as a fun summer chain letter sort of thing to do. Plus I do love any opportunity to tout the big talent of Roz Morris, Barbara Taylor Sissel, John A.A. Logan, and Linda Gillard. (Sharing a stellar summer reading recommendation from each.)

First, the questions:
What am I writing? 
Well, at the moment, this blog post—one of several short pieces I owe right now. This past winter was pretty intense personally and professionally, and I fell wretchedly behind. (Amazing how clear one’s priorities become when one is in the crucible.) But in general, I’m not a great multitasker. Things tend to pile up while I’m writing a book. I go down the rabbit hole and forget about the real world until I’ve either exhausted myself or finished the thing. Right now, with the third (hopefully final) draft of my next novel fermenting in the wine cellar, I’m catching up on commitments, domestics, and sleep so I’ll be ready to check out again and obsess through revisions.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I’ve never been able to settle into one genre, but as Shakespeare said, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” The uniqueness in any author’s work is the unique life experience, emotional intelligence, and personalized vocabulary s/he brings to the page. Your soul knows a story no other soul has ever known. For better or worse, my work is different because it’s mine.

Why do I write what I do? 
Because I bloody well feel like it. Look, I spent my teens pleasing my parents, my 20s accommodating various employers, my 30s facilitating my children, my 40s being a team player for publishers and agents. Later this year, I’m releasing an essay collection with the working title “50 is the New F#ck You.” I’m in the Power Decade now. If a woman’s not doing what she wants to do at this point in her life, what exactly would she be waiting for? Trade publishing has done a lot for me. I’m grateful for the craft skills I gained under the thumb of so many wise editors over the years, but I intend to spend the rest of my life drunk on creative autonomy, writing what I want to write, publishing under my own imprint, and helming my own financial destiny. Hopefully, there will always be a bit of money in my particular brand of quirky fiction and memoirellas. If not, I’ll dine on cat food and greet the evening with no regrets.

How does my writing process work? 
Surprisingly well. At the beginning of a book, I always feel overwhelmed. No way I can see myself climbing this mountain. I know from experience that doggedly clinging to an outline doesn’t work for me; I’m a research hound, and that always takes me in wonderfully unexpected directions, so every book is a free fall during the writing phase. Then comes the editing; you get jerked up short by your parachute. Everything slows down. You take a breath, look around, get your bearings. When I finish a first draft, I’m in love with the characters, and that gives me the energy I need to push through two or three rounds of revisions. So I guess my process involves being sufficiently inspired to leap and confident enough to trust my craft skills on the way down. I have the tremendous advantage of an excellent freelance editor on my speed dial: my daughter, Jerusha Rodgers of Rabid Badger Editing. The kid has an eagle eye and has never flinched at critiquing my prose or my wardrobe.

Enough about me. Time to tag my author pals, each of whom has written more than one book I can highly recommend for your summer reading joy, but I forced myself to narrow it down:

Roz Morris's fiction has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide, although you won't have seen her name on the covers as she ghostwrote for high-profile authors. She is now writing fiction under her own name, starting with her critically acclaimed novel My Memories of a Future Life. She is a writer, journalist, fiction editor and the author of the Nail Your Novel series for writers. Roz’s writing blog: Nail Your Novel. Find Roz on Facebook and Twitter as @Roz_Morris.
Best summer read: Lifeform Three, a richly imagined fable in the tradition of Bradbury and Atwood, one of my all-time favorite books.

Barbara Taylor Sissel once lived on the grounds of a prison facility in Kentucky, which might explain the nature of her writing, especially her latest: Safe Keeping and Evidence of Life. Driven by the compelling reality that at the heart of every crime, there’s a family, her novels are issue-oriented, threaded with elements of suspense and defined by their particular emphasis on how crime affects families of both victim and perpetrator. She now lives and writes from her bucolic Story House near Austin, Texas. Find Barbara on Facebook and Twitter and Goodreads.
Best summer read: A Sophie of a choice, but I'll go with The Ninth Step, a lovely garden of complex characters entangled by a painful past, perfect for fans of Picoult and Shreve.

John A. A. Logan is the author of The Survival of Thomas Ford, Storm Damage, and Agency Woman. His fiction has been published by Picador, Vintage, Edinburgh Review, Chapman, Northwords, Nomad, Secrets Of A View, and Scratchings; with reviews of his work in Scottish Studies Review, Scotland On Sunday, The Spectator, and The Hindustan Times. His work has been published internationally in anthologies edited by A L Kennedy, John Fowles, Ali Smith, Toby Litt; and he has been invited to read his work at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. He blogs monthly for Authors Electric. Find John on Facebook and Twitter.
Best summer read: The Survival of Thomas Ford, an intense psychological thriller about batshit crazy scariness in the wake of a car wreck, perfect for fans of Stephen King and Dean Koonz.

Linda Gillard lives in the Scottish Highlands and has been an actress, journalist and teacher. She’s the author of seven novels, including Star Gazing, which was short-listed in 2009 for Romantic Novel of the Year and the Robin Jenkins Literary Award (for writing that promotes the Scottish landscape), and House of Silence, a Kindle bestseller selected by Amazon as one of their Top Ten Best of 2011 in the Indie Author category. Linda’s latest is Cauldstane, a contemporary ghost story set in a decaying Highland castle. Find Linda on Facebook and check out some of her wise writing advice.
Best summer read: Emotional Geology, an offbeat, award-winning love story that showcases this author’s mad skills with character, dialogue, and throat-burning emotion.

#howilibrary Mom and I discovered the world at the Tomah Public Library

Library Journal is encouraging us to share our library flashbacks and fetishes with the #howilibrary hashtag. The library was a huge part of my childhood, starting with the grand old Tomah Public Library on Superior Avenue in Tomah, Wisconsin. (It's probably not as enormous in reality as it is in my memory, but they have a nice website and seem to be going strong, which makes me happy.)

Starting as early as I can recall, Mom and I stopped by the library almost every day after dropping off my older siblings at school. The summer before I started kindergarten, I was dying to participate in the summer reading program with the "big kids," so Mom took me to the librarian's desk and had me demonstrate that I could read.

The librarian chose a book so she'd know I wasn't just reciting a book that had been read to me many times. (A challenge, because many, many books had been read to me many, many times.) I don't recall the book, but I remember the librarian being very impressed and my mom proudly telling the Avon lady and myself getting lost in a haze of blissful summer reading.

Of course, I had no idea back then what the library meant to Mom. Never really thought about it until after she passed away this spring, and Dad told me that my mom's first inkling that a library existed was a class trip in 8th grade. She thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. When she and Dad moved to Tomah, they were in their 20s, expecting kid #5 (me) and poor as church mice. Neither of them had finished high school, but they were both intelligent and creative, eager lifelong learners. I understand now that while I was wandering the stacks or curled up in a corner at the library, my young mom was working on her GED, preparing for college, and discovering a new world for herself.

Flash forward forty years. My sister bought a used hardcover of my first novel, Crazy for Trying, from Ebay. Inside the front cover was a faded blue ink stamp: "Property of Tomah Public Library." Mom and I both got a huge kick out of that.

So how do you library? Library Journal wants to know, and so do I! FB, blog, or tweet about it with the hashtag #howilibrary.

Brainy gender bendation in dystopian sci fi warzone: Kameron Hurley's BRUTAL WOMEN

On the prowl for talented indie authors doing art they'd never get away with in the corporate publishing world? This excellent dystopian sci fi short story collection is recommended for HUNGER GAME fans, free-thinkers and adventurous readers of all persuasions. Well-rendered alien environs and the starkest possible circumstances are fertile ground for an experiment in gender reversal.

Think "Apocalypse Now" if Brando and Sheen are on their periods.

I'm Baaaack -- Reflections on Three Years of Freelancing

I can't even remember when I last posted on here, and for that I am sorry.  In fact, some of you may not even remember me! I would give excuses, etc., but honestly, now that I am freelancing, I've just had to be super careful how I spend my time, and that includes my writing time.  That said, I have resolved to be more active on this blog, as this community has in the past been great supporters, and, well--I miss you all!

The last time I was on here, I think I had decided to stop teaching and instead begin a freelance writing and writing coaching business.  I told myself that after a year of full-time freelancing, I'd evaluate the business and what it had taught me.  Well, the fact that one year turned to three sort of sums it up for me.  I can't believe it's been three years, but it has, and they've been the fastest, busiest, and yet most rewarding (by far) of my life.

In that time, I've cultivated a list of long-term clients who are as devoted to me as I am to them, and I've worked with thousands (yes, literally, thousands) of others.  I've worked with more projects than I can count.  I've blogged about, edited, coached, cajoled, listened to, urged, and interviewed more than three hundred writers, and I've helped develop more than a hundred manuscripts.

In short, I've had a blast.  But what I've not done as much of as I'd like to lately is my own fiction writing.  I think back to where I was three years ago and laugh, because I originally started my business as a way of having more freedom to do my own writing.  And in some ways, that is still true.  I still have the flexibility of taking on work or passing on a project, and I can generally do it on my own timing.  The problem--and it's a nice one to have--is that I've been completely booked.  Quite literally, since the day I quit teaching and started full-time freelancing, I've had work, and generally more than I can even do at one time.  It's been sort of mind-blowing how very easily the work has come, especially compared to how very difficult so many other parts of my career have been, and for that I am deeply grateful.

Right now, my calendar is more full than I'd like it to be, but I'm just sort of going with it.  I'm still making time to write, just not as much as I'd like to.  But for now, for this moment, for this season in my life, it feels right.  What I'm doing and the balance I'm finding is necessary for my growth and development.  It's also really teaching me a lot about the business -- so much so that I know the next time I begin a novel or even a short story, I will approach it far differently than I have in the past.

And as for the novel I had going, way back when?  No, I haven't given up on it.  Currently, I am at a crossroads with it because I received feedback that felt "right" but will take the work in a very different direction than I'd planned.  I'm not sure that it's the right direction for the story (it involves adding a whole other narrator), but it feels good.  At the same time, I know how long each rewrite has taken me, so I'm really thinking hard on this before I commit to it.  It will almost be like writing a whole other book.  And yet--maybe that is what I need to do, given the knowledge I have now.

Regardless, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities I've had to make a steady living freelancing, a living that has been more than five times as lucrative as the one I was eking out as a "part-time" college teacher.  And that, sadly, says far more about the system of adjunct labor than it does about the virtues and values of freelancing.

Most importantly, though, I am happy.  For the first time in my adult life, I can say that, without shame and without reservation.  I am happy, and I look forward to what the future will bring.

Muddling through my first Mothers Day without my mom

My mother, author/historian Lois Lonnquist, died six weeks ago, ending a long journey through the valley of Alzheimer's. So I was afraid I'd find all the opportunistic tenderness of Mother's Day marketing especially depressing this year. (Melodrama tends to chafe in the presence of real drama.) Instead, I find that the shell-shock is giving way to gratitude. Mom always said, "You've got to bloom where you're planted," and this year, I am planted in the reality of losing her, but I have the fertile ground of a happy childhood well hydrated with music, lovingkindness, and frequent trips to the library.

Mom lived a creatively vibrant life of the mind, so Alzheimer's was a horrifically ironic way for her to die. She stubbornly refused to go easily and let us off the hook; in death as in life, she compelled the best from us, not because she bullied us but because she was so completely, tirelessly, respectfully present in all our lives. That kind of love is magnetic; it attracts great things from the universe and draws out the noblest qualities in the people who orbit nearby. 

The amiable steadfastness with which my father fed and cared for Mom was an echo of the preceding decades, during which she set before him thousands of dinner plates, countless cups of coffee, carefully balanced checkbooks, sleepy babies and lively conversations, high standards and low tones, brutal honesty and forgiving rationalizations. My sisters and I hovered around her during the last three days of her life, singing four-part harmony, checking her pulse and blood oxygen, loving each other and letting our differences slide, because each of us is, in her own unique way, our mother's daughter.

My parents raised six children: a tight quartet of girls bookended by an older and a younger brother. Mom was a savant play-anything-by-ear musician, a freelance journalist, newspaper librarian and editor, meticulous research hound, and lightning fast typist. She could pilot a small aircraft, develop photos in her basement darkroom, and make a decent supper out of the unlikeliest trove of leftovers, pantry staples, and clearance items from the dented can cart. She was a busy woman, but she had her priorities straight. What was most important was not always most immediate. She made us know the difference.

Starting the year I turned 16, I sent my mom flowers every year on my birthday in January. Not on her birthday - on mine. Because on her birthday, I was just another face in the well-wishing crowd of people who loved and admired her. Even on Mother's Day, I was #5 of six, which is a long line to stand in when you want the attention of a woman as multi-talented and driven to achieve as my mother was. On my birthday, the day I was born, she belonged to me. I know what I was to her in that moment, because I've held my own babies and felt the rest of the world momentarily fall away. The fact that my mother kept that moment alive for me - and for each of my siblings - until her brain literally shriveled like a raisin is a testament to the kind of mother she was. She didn't make us feel precious. We were precious. That was our reality, not a feeling we had.

On my 16th birthday, I was working as a cashier at a local grocery store, and Mom was at school, hacking away at the bachelor's degree she carved out by inches and in betweens over more than a decade. I left the flowers on the kitchen table with a note so she would see them right away when she got home from class. We were miles apart (geographically and ideologically) for most of my birthdays after that, but she always sent me a present and a card with a lucky penny in it, and I always had flowers delivered to the house and eventually to her office at the Helena Independent Record. I always knew that at some point during the day, I'd answer the phone, and Mom and Dad would sing "Happy Birthday to You" in the robust harmony that soundtracked my upbringing, and I would know I was as unconditionally loved and celebrated as any mother's child could hope to be.

Mom's decline was agonizingly dragged out, but the trajectory was plain; I knew in January that this was the last year I'd give her birthday flowers. She was no longer mobile or verbal. Her universe had collapsed to the confines of the living room, where Dad lifted her between a red leather recliner and a railed hospital bed. We took turns holding the cup and straw while she vacantly sipped at cranberry juice and Ensure. I stayed most of the winter in the spare apartment on the lower level of my parents' home in Helena, sitting beside Mom every morning and evening, playing ukelele and singing songs from my childhood, Googling the words on cowboylyrics.com, watching and waiting for the occasional spark of connection in her eyes. 

One day, spelunking the downstairs storage cupboards, searching for a waffle iron among the old popcorn tins, punch bowls, and Tupperware, I discovered a cache of cheap glass vases, brittle baskets, and oversized coffee mugs in which my birthday flowers had been delivered over the years. Apparently, a particular budget-conscious favorite was the FTD Sunshine Bouquet, which came in a squat white mug with a rainbow on it. There were several of those. She'd kept them like you'd keep your child's artwork. Not because it has some great decorative or archival value, but because you can't bear to let go of the moment.

In the evening on my birthday, I brought my mother roses - soft orange, vibrant yellow - and I told her, "Thank you for being my mom. I know it was a tremendous amount of work, and I didn't make it easy. You did all the important things right. And you got the less important things just wrong enough for me to believe I could do it too."

We weren't sure how much or how well she was able to see, so I carefully removed the thorns and spread the roses across her lap, and we sat together for a long while, running our hands over the petals, pulling them apart, setting them in rows. 

How silly, I suddenly realized, to always stage flowers out of reach. There is nothing you can do to make them last forever, and there is such great tactile pleasure in the textured lightness and deckled edges. Look at a rose, and you recognize that it is lovely. But hold it in your hand as its life comes full circle, and you know how precious it really is.

Enter to Win a New Kindle Paperwhite!

Last week, my publisher, Montlake, sent me a lovely, brand new Kindle Paperwhite to celebrate the sales of my romantic suspense novel, Fatal Error!  It was a wonderful surprise, and I've been enjoying it so much that I've decided to give away another (sorry! you can't have mine!) along with a copy of The Best Victim (or any of my other books!) to celebrate the paperback, audio, and official Kindle e-release of The Best Victim. Entering is easy. Just click the link to find out how.

Win a Critique from Author Colleen Thompson

During the month of May, bid on a chance for to win my critique of the first 50 pages of your romantic suspense, suspense, or thriller, followed by a 30-minute follow-up meeting at the national RWA conference in San Antonio this July, or a follow-up phone consultation if you'd prefer. All proceeds to benefit Author Brenda Novak's Auction for Diabetes Research.

Invisible is the new black! Meet me & Jerusha at #SXSW Monday

They say everyone has a book in them. We say everyone has a spleen in them too. Either way, it takes a special skillset to take it out.

In the new publishing universe, collaboration is key. With help from my daughter, freelance editor Jerusha Rodgers, I work with celebrities and other extraordinary people to create killer proposals and memorable memoirs.

Monday at SXSW, I'll talk about the business of extracting stories with surgical precision while Jerusha gets down to brass tacks and tech savvy. 

Tweet your questions to @JoniRodgers and @TheRabid_Badger

Hashtags: #ghostwriter, #SXSW

Favorite Fictional Pets: Enter to Win!

To celebrate the release of The Best Victim,

which features an adorably feisty old dachshund named Dumpling, I'm giving away another $10 Amazon gift card and a copy of the book to readers who tell me the name of their favorite fictional animal.

To enter this week's contest, please follow the link to my Rafflecopter giveaway! Best of luck to you!

Win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

To celebrate the release of The Best Victim in paperback, audio, and full e-book editions (April 22nd, Montlake) I'm running a Rafflecopter drawing to win a $10 Amazon gift card and a free download of the Kindle edition. Please visit my Facebook author page to enter and find out more about how you can increase your odds of winning!

Notes from the Research Vault: Can you trust your Caller ID?

In my upcoming release, THE BEST VICTIM, (earlier releasing as a Kindle Serial from Montlake) the protagonist is fooled into picking up the telephone by a "spoofed" Caller ID, which makes it look as though the other party is a trusted caller. The truth is, it's all too commonly done, and so easy to do that anyone with web access can pull it off completely legally--as long as one claims it's being done as for "prank" or "entertainment" purposes. I've even done it myself while researching the book, calling a friend who was rather confused as to why she was getting a ring from The White House. But can you imagine the harm a stalker or scammer could do with this technology?

Read more about spoofing in this article by David Lazarus of the LA Times.

Need a creative kick in the head? Read this bit from David Bayles' ART & FEAR

From Art & Fear by David Bayles:

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right side solely on the its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scale and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pounds of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot - albeit a perfect one - to get an "A". 

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

Buy the book.  

6 Things That Make Me Cry Laughing (Indulge me! It's my birthday!)

The past eight weeks, I've been in Montana with my mom, who is dying of Alzheimer's, and my dad, who is showing his true colors as a devoted and extraordinary caregiver. There's a garden level apartment below the main floor of their home, so I have plenty of living/office space, and he doesn't have to have me all up in his grill. He's created a place of peace and music. The sheer power of his love for her is humbling and wonderful.

I cook breakfast and dinner every day and sit with Mom for about 90 minutes, playing ukelele and singing, reading from the Poetry Foundation iPhone app, holding her hand. She's no longer able to communicate really, but she seems to engage with the music and every once in a while, she breaks out in a huge smile. Most of the time, Mom is vacant or cries, as is typical with end stage Alzheimer's, but sometimes she laughs.

Of course, I'd like to think that these are the moments she is most lucid, because laughter has always been the coping mechanism of choice in our family. Years ago, when I was going through chemo for blood cancer, Mom came down to Houston to help Gary care for me, and we laughed a lot. We'd laugh until we cried, and those were the most cathartic, open-hearted, soul-cleansing tears. Tears of anger or sorrow you squeeze into your pillow are so much less satisfying. It's like that great line in the play Steel Magnolias: "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion."

So without further ado and at the risk of revealing my sophomoric side, here are six things that never - no matter how bleak, broken or lost I feel - never fail to make me laugh:

1. This photo of my kids with a terribly unlucky Easter Bunny. Self-explanatory. I will add that my children are now full grown, well-adjusted people who both love Donny Darko.

2. Penguin falls over and makes squeaky toy noise.Why is this so dang funny? I don't know. But I defy you to look at it only once. I can't stand it. I showed it to my daughter-in-law, who is a psychotherapist, and she thinks it's funny too, so I don't feel too bad.



3. Mitchell and Webb: "Write this." Oh, Mitchell and Webb. You got it so agonizingly right. My own private giggle: He suggests, "What if the main character dies at the end of Chapter One?" I couldn't help myself. I had to write that.



4. Radiskull and Devil Doll! Back in the day when Elf Bowling was hi tech and my darling middle school age son Malachi (now a grownup married man) was discovering this new thing called the Interwebs or Interest-net or something like that, I kept pretty close tabs on what he was consuming online. And it was this. I cannot explain why it slays me. Maybe there's a bit of middle school boy in all of us.



5. The Doors do "Reading Rainbow" theme song. Having heard this little ditty hundreds (if not thousands) of times while my kids were growing up, I got a huge hoot out of Jimmy Fallon's rendition a la Jim Morrison. I also love everything Fallon does as Neil Young, especially "Pants on the Ground."



6. Contemporary Dance How To with Contemporary Eric. So you think you can dance...

Make LOVE, Not Points

I have a strict rule in Words With Friends: Make LOVE, PEACE and JOY whenever and wherever possible, even if you don't score a lot of points for it.

Four books, one box, three bucks. Shaboom.

I've been boxed. Not like Rocky. Or like a turtle. But more like a turtle than like Rocky, but you know what I mean. Stella Link Books has released four of my novels in one sweet little ebook. Just $2.99 this week only, then it goes up to $6.99.

And then it's only available for another 60 days. Then it goes back in the vault, and you'll have to buy the books individually again. So I hope you'll grab it now.

Shaboom. Thank you. 

Stormy Sexy Crazy Sweet digital box set includes: 
SUGARLAND
The quiet suburban lives of two pregnant sisters are shattered and rebuilt in this poignant modern retelling of the Psyche and Eros myth. “Richly appealing…” ~ Library Journal (starred review) “Bittersweet…priceless…” ~ Chicago Tribune “Every character resonates with life.” ~ Southern Living Magazine

THE HURRICANE LOVER
After Hurricane Katrina, a deadly game of cat and mouse unfolds and a stormy love affair is complicated by polarized politics and high-strung Southern families. “Vivid images… rich rounded characters… colorful, gutsy… a powerful book that deserves to be read both for the yarn it spins and for the real-life story it uncovers. Highly Recommended.” ~ Triskele Books Blog

CRAZY FOR TRYING (Barnes & Noble Discover Award finalist)
A reclusive Montana rancher falls in love with the voice of a late night disc jockey who turns out to be a young runaway struggling with body issues and a complicated past. “Think Jane Eyre with rock’n’roll.” Houston Press “Rodgers writes unconventional love scenes that scorch the pages.” ~ Orlando Sentinel “Refreshing and provocative…” Houston Chronicle

KILL SMARTIE BREEDLOVE
Agatha Christie and Dashiell Hammett offer clues to the hardboiled plot when a dishonored cop teams up with a free-spirited pulp fiction writer to solve a murder. “A deliciously quirky whodunnit woven with skill, humor and compassion.” ~ KND “Smart, sassy, hugely entertaining… a stinging critique of the publishing world.” ~ Reviews By Leila

What is Joni's List?

What are you reading?I ask everyone. My friends, my sisters, my kids, the lady sitting next to me on the airplane, any dude who dates my daughter. The answers break ice, spark conversations, and speak volumes about who we are. And when I hop online to buy my a book, those personal recommendations mean a lot to me.

The online book world is bloated with BS reviews. Fake raves, trolls flexing their muscles, blowholes who haven't read the book but can't resist venting. It's wise to "consider the source," right? How can we do that if we're not looking that person straight in the eye.

That's why all my reviews here will be personal unedited videos. Me talking to you. Reader to reader. And I'll try to keep it under two minutes so we can both get back to the book we're reading.

I'm a picky reader, but my reviews are overwhelmingly positive. If I love a book, I can't wait to talk about it. I'm happy to devote time and energy to sharing a great read. If I a book disappoints me, I'm not willing to invest additional time b*tching about it. I hate snark. Besides, that I very rarely finish reading a book I'm not enjoying, and I don't review books I haven't read.

I'm required by law to tell you that publishers, authors, and PR minions often send me books for free, but I don't read or review every book that comes my way. Whenever I can, I'll pass those freebies on to you, so subscribe for updates if you'd like to score publisher giveaways!

If you read a great book, let me know! I'd love to hear about it, and if I share your recommendation on my blog, I'll send you a free book as a thank you. :)

Peace, love & grooviness ~
Joni Rodgers
www.jonirodgers.com