Lynn Raye Harris

THE SPANISH MAGNATE’S REVENGE will now officially be a Harlequin Presents novel! I don’t have the full details yet, but I got the magical call this morning. I’ll post more about that tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who cheered me along the way. Keep working on your own stories, because you can get there too.

One of the lessons I’ve learned in my past few months working with an editor is this: if you have the character backgrounds pretty firmly fixed in your mind, you might save yourself some rewriting.

I’m getting ready to start a new book while I wait for the verdict on TSMR. I’ve done several things that aren’t like me. I’ve written a synopsis — I never do this, except when forced, and I know things will probably change as I go along anyway (it’s a good thing to be forced, actually, because it makes me think through issues I won’t otherwise). I’ve written the character backgrounds — this helps me know why they do some of the things they do. Who are they? Where do they come from? What are their issues? What do they want now?

These are important things to know. If I throw two characters into a situation without knowing who they really are and what made them that way, then how can I have a coherent story? Because they could do anything for the sake of plot if I don’t know them. It’s when you know what your characters would and wouldn’t do that you are ready to write their story.

I still consider this pantsing, btw. Plotting, to me, is mapping out everything from the first kiss to the first turning point, the black moment, the resolution, etc. And then not deviating from it, or deviating only slightly. I need more room than that because I grow bored otherwise.

But not so much room I rewrite the book three times. I’m determined to slice those rewrites in half at the minimum. So I’m writing backgrounds, forming a synopsis, and brainstorming 20 things that *could* happen during the course of the story (this is a trick I gleaned from a Jane Porter workshop). I already know the first scene, and I’m beginning that today. I may learn something new as I go along, and I may have to rewrite a scene or two. But I really, really hope I’m figuring out how to cut the rewrites down to size with all this pre-writing.

If you’re a panster, do you do any prewriting? If you’re a plotter, how much plotting do you really do before you begin? And do you ever deviate from what you’ve predetermined? How do you plot and not feel stifled by the roadmap you’re created?

Here is Hubby’s new media room. I was a bit wary about black on the ceiling. Okay, seriously wary. But he insisted that a theater needed a dark ceiling to absorb light (this is also why the screen wall is black). And then of course there was the complimentary color because no way is the whole room going to be black.

Enter Eddie from Sherwin Williams, who definitely saved the day with his recommendation of “Red Bay.”

I love it. I think it turned out wonderfully. We still have decorating to do, and there’s a pool table and bar in the future, but watching television in here is awesome. The sound is amazing, the colors really make it seem like a theater, and the popcorn machine is fun.

So, after 22 years of moving around in the military, the man finally has his cave. He deserves it. But, uh, honey, can I have the girls over for a chick flick…?

I’ve wanted to see The Rookie for a long time — six years, in fact, since it came out in 2002. Dennis Quaid plays Jim Morris, the real life guy who tried out for major league baseball at the age of 35, long after he should have been through and long after he’d bombed out in baseball in his 20s due to injuries. But the guy threw a mean fastball as he got older; in fact, it was even better than when he was younger. And the high school baseball team he coached made a bet with him:

In 1999, Coach Morris made a fateful bet with his perpetually losing team. If they won the district championship, Morris — who threw a 98 mph fastball — would try out for the majors. The team went from worst to first, and Jim, living up to his end of the bargain, threw caution to the wind and was on the road to becoming the oldest rookie in the major leagues.

I love stories like this, because that’s what writing is about too. Not giving up. We don’t have to contend with aging bodies making our dreams physically impossible. We have only to contend with the doubt demons in our heads, the rotten contest scores, the rejections from our dream agent, or the editor who loved our concept but hated the execution. It’s tough and it can be brutal.

But you have to keep trying. That’s why I love movies like this. Because they remind me that someone had a dream and suffered to make it happen. That someone took all the hard knocks and managed to make it anyway.

What are your favorite inspirational movies? Do you like baseball movies? I don’t care for the actual sport, but I love baseball movies. (Bull Durham is my all time FAVORITE baseball movie — Kevin Costner and the “long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last for three days” speech — how can you go wrong?)