Howdy Pardner!

Today I seemed to be fighting to stay awake. Wrote way too late last night. I’m deep into Tobin’s story and loving the writing.

I had a great autograph party Saturday. The fan club had coffee and cake before the party. It’s funny, but I think the fan club is made up of people I’m a fan of. I love and care for them all and they make me feel great just showing up to say hello every time I have a book come out. I think the fans and readers sometimes don’t truly understand how important they are to the writer. I wish I could tell all my readers that, “We’re a partnership. Without you, there wouldn’t be me.”

I got a note from my editor this morning that says I will be on B&N’s bestseller list this week. I’m number 48 out of 50. It’s the bottom of the list, but I’m on. I remember the first time I was on the USAToday list. I think I was 149 out of 150. I was showing it to my young son and saying, “I’m not very high on it.” He didn’t see it that way at all. In fact, he said, “Mom, you should call that writer at 150 and say, “Hello, I’m kicking your butt.” Of course, I’d never do that, but it did make me laugh.

Until next Monday….

Question of the week from Mariana: Who do you love to read?

Answer: If a book takes me away I love it. I don’t really have a favorite auther…more like a hundred. Writers are readers and every time I good to the bookstore I find another one I love.

Question from Gayle: From TEXAS RAIN Series: Will Sage have her own book?

Answer: I’ve done this before and enjoyed it. Sage will play a part in all three of the brother’s stories, first Travis, then Tobin, then Teagen. But my plan is as of now to have a fourth book all about Sage.

Time in a Bottle

Good morning.

This is an exciting week for me. The first book in my new series comes out tomorrow. I’ve been waiting for this book to be born for a year and I can hardly wait to see it on the stands. I’ll only be doing one autographing this time. I’ll miss doing the tour, but I have another book due Jan. 1 so I’m pretty much locked in my study.

This weekend I went back to Texas Tech. We had a great time watching my brother get a much deserved award on Friday night and then Sat. we when to the game. Loved all of it. At one point Tom and I were walking ahead of everyone and we smile and started running. Almost as if we could run hard and fast enough we could get back to being 21 and students again. The weekend was one of those rare times you wish you could freeze and keep forever.

Until next Monday

'Til the Clouds Roll By...

Monday came a few days late this week. That happens now and then.

I’m deep into the second Whispering Mountain book and I have to stop next week because TEXAS RAIN will hit the stands Nov. 7th.

Autographing frightens me a little. I think most writers feel that way. We like watching, or talking one-on-one. I love meeting the fans and seeing friends who always come to the parties, but the crowd makes me uneasy.

I took my mother to an autographing once. The lady sitting next to me was afraid of crowds. My mother thought I said ‘clouds’ so she ran up to the woman and started hugging her telling her, “Dear, there is no need to be afraid of clouds. When I was a kid, clouds would come up all the time and my dad would make us all run for the cellar.” My mother meant well, but I wonder if that woman ever did another autographing. Sometimes when the party is getting ready to start and the noise level is high, I can almost hear my mother’s voice reminding me not to be afraid of clouds.
Best,

Drop Everything And Read!

It’s totally Monday. I worked and slept most of the weekend. Loved it. The second story of Whispering Mountain is coming so fast I feel like it may run over me. The biggest problem with this book is finding time to write fast enough.

I did take time out to see a play this weekend. Marfa Lights. There is something about plays that I’ve always loved. I used to make my mother drive me to Canyon to watch the plays here at the university. I’d sit in the back all by myself loving every play.

My most asked question this week was: If you think you want to be a writer, where do you start?

I’d have to say start with reading. Once in a while I see people who want to write who are not readers. (the last fiction they read was a high school requirement) I think that makes it hard. By reading, you pick up how a book moves. Read books in the area and style you want to write, and read books on writing. In talks I often say I checked out the section on writing at the library one summer. Many of the books offered little, but a few gave me great clues into how the writing process works. Second, I tell new writers to write every day. Start a pattern, even if it is only 15 minutes, of writing. If you have little time the writing could be an idea book of stories you’d like to get to someday. I have idea books at every desk just in case I set down and don’t have anything to write one day. I keep writing in them, but I’ve never used a single idea to date. Other ones keep getting in the way.

Have a great week and remember: Any day above ground is a good day.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Good morning. It’s a rainy day Monday. Rain always makes me feel like writing.

I’d like to start today talking about the questions that came in the most last week. “Where do your ideas come from?”

I wish I knew. The truth is sometimes I can’t really place when an idea first drifted into my brain.

Maybe from a song, or one line from a movie, or maybe just something someone said to me. It’s like a seed that starts growing. Sometimes ideas come from playing the ‘what if’ game. What if a woman wrote as a dime novelist under a man’s name? What if a pregnant widow landed on the cost of Texas with no one to help her? What if a family believed they could dream their future? Once an idea starts growing it’s like a movie playing in the back of my mind. I drift back and watch it now and then until one day, I can’t leave. I have to see it through. When that happens, I start writing because I want to see what happens.

Now, to work. I’ve been looking forward to today for a week. I’m stepping back into the past and working on my historical. I’ve been away from it for a few weeks, so I’ll start from the first and read. Rainy days and reading—life is good.

Computer Woes and Short Stories

Good Monday morning. I’ve spent most of the morning fighting my computer. I know we should all feel blessed to have all this technology at our fingertips, but some days.

I finished reading my new short story over the weekend. I like doing short stories from time to time. I love that the story is quick and fun, but I usually end up wishing it were a book because I want to spend more time with the characters.

On a side note, I love fall. I love the leaves turning and the cool weather. For some people it may seem like the end but for me fall as always been a time to begin. Maybe it was all those years of going to and teaching school, but fall always finds me making lists and planning the year.

My Second Home

I’m hard at work in the library this morning. It seems I’ve spent so much of my life in libraries that they are a second home.

As a kid I always loved going to the library at 10th and Polk in downtown Amarillo. I’d find a book and curl up in a corner to read all afternoon. I remember feeling like I discovered a book. Like I was the first and only person to read it. From there, I think I developed a need to own books. Once I read them I wanted them near just in case I wanted to go on that adventure again. You’d think after awhile I’d have enough books, but no. I still love discovering the next one.

Writing is the same with me. I discover a plot, or character, and let them take me on an adventure. For a while, it’s a private affair I have with the imaginary people in my head. Then, as I fill pages with their lives, they grow up and don’t need me anymore. Their story begins to live in a book. Slowly, sometimes painfully, I turn them free and go on to other people with other dreams and problems. My story becomes a book, but it’s not my story, really, it’s the characters’ and when someone finds their story and tells me how much they enjoyed it, I find myself thinking, “I knew and loved those people too.”

When someone comes up to me and says, “You don’t know me, but I read your books.” I always think, “Yes, I do. We’re related.”

Have a great week,