Lynn Raye Harris

Not ignoring the blog, just busy trying to finish up loose ends before the inlaws arrive next week. Right after they leave, I head for the RWA National conference in Dallas. The next couple of weeks are busy, busy.

Today, I’m waiting for a mattress delivery. Not fun, but the inlaws need a bed to sleep on, so I have to do it.

Yesterday, Prez. Bush was in Northern Alabama. People lined the streets near the airport to watch for Air Force One. I used to live within a mile of AF One’s hangar on Andrews, so seeing it wasn’t a big priority for me. I remember when the 747 was new, in fact, and they built the hangar to accomodate the bigger plane (there are 2, I think, maybe more now).

I did see it leave, not on purpose, but simply because I walked out of a store and saw it climbing. It is a beautiful plane. My second thought was to call my hubby and tell him he could take the highway home. Some folks are glad Bush came here, others don’t care, and yet others managed to protest his policies. I’m just glad he was here and gone in the space of a few hours. I don’t miss living in Washington for anything.

Saturday was the Heart of Dixie RWA meeting. Have I said how much I love HOD? This is a committed, enthusiastic, sharing group of women (and one man). The group boasts more than one NYT bestselling writer as well as some fabulous authors who will get onto that list someday I am certain. And I can’t forget the unpublished writers who are dedicated and professional and who will also sell books and have careers because they won’t give up on their dreams. A talented, inspiring group to say the least.

Saturday, our guest speaker, a computer professional, talked about websites for writers. Very informative! I learned a lot. (My website, for instance, is in serious need of revamping. I’ll have to work on that.)

But you know what he said that had me thinking? He said that blogs are a timesink and not usually worth the trouble (I’ve talked about this before, but hearing it from a pro made me think about it even more). They can be, when the author has a clear purpose and a goal (such as promoting upcoming releases, holding contests, etc). As daily diaries, not so much. They take away from the writing.

And then I started looking around that room at those NYT bestselling writers. Not one of them has a blog. So I thought about the other published authors in the room. Only one that I know of blogs. The rest do not.

Other NYTBSWs do blog, so that’s not necessarily a definitive example. But it’s something to think about. Writing comes first. (And I’ve already spent at least half an hour editing this post. Things that make you go hmmm.)

No, not me, but the Instigator, aka Kira, over at the Writing Playground has sold her book to Brenda Chin at Harlequin Blaze!!!! Yay!!!!!!

Well, I did it. I plunged back into the WIP, after too much time away, and the ideas are coming along. One thing about being uncontracted is that you can spend way too much time writing a book. Too much time procrastinating and gallivanting off in the meadows.

Contracted writers don’t have that luxury. They have to write the book. They have to come up with new ideas and write new books and they have to deliver to an agent and an editor on a schedule.

It’s easy to say that we’ll be more disciplined when we have a contract, but the time really is now. It’s the persistent writers who succeed. The ones who write regularly (notice I did not say every day, because not everyone is the same), who move forward and stop revising the first novel they ever wrote (I stopped that a long time ago, but I know people….).

Back to the grindstone then. I’m on deadline.

From today’s Publisher’s Lunch:

Harlequin will develop a nonfiction line, launching in 2008, intending to publish in such areas as relationships, health, self-help, diet, fitness, inspirational, memoir and biography, along with nonfiction companions to their successful fiction, focusing on women 35 and older.

Oh dear. Wonder how that’s going to work out for them. It’s not a bad move, considering how popular things for the older female demographic are becoming. Dove Pro-Age, More Magazine, Christie Brinkley modeling again, Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon modeling for Revlon, etc. I’m not yet 40 (getting close) but I LOVE More Magazine (which is aimed at women over 40). I love those Pro-Age commercials with the older, heavier women strategically modeling their nudity. It’s about time the retailing world recognized that women don’t all come in one age and size. Let’s see what Harlequin will do with it…..