Alison Kent

Yes, it’s taking me forever, but I did get a few giveaway books sent out today. My daughter (my new assistant!) is off to the office supply store for more mailers, so I can send out another batch tomorrow! I’ve also mailed back (I’m pretty sure!) all the SASE’s I’ve received recently. (Cranky, if you’re reading this, check your Yahoo mail.)

Now, if you’ve never won anything from me before and would like a copy of THE BEACH ALIBI, post via the comment link below that you’d like one (U.S. addresses only this time!), and I’ll get with you on the details! I’ll give away ten copies if I have ten interested readers! (If no one posts to claim them, I’ll open up the giveaway in a few days to previous winners!)

For now, I’m getting back to the pages!

There was an article in a recent RWR, the November issue I’m thinking, called something like The Psychology of the Deadline. (I can’t find my copy so am relying on my horribly faulty memory; these days, I can’t even find words that should be right there and ripe for the picking!) I was so excited to see the subject addressed. I have a small group of published friends and we talk about this constantly. How four of the six of us are constantly butting up against deadlines no matter how much time we give ourselves on our contracts to write our books.

So I was totally and beyond disappointed when the article addressed NOTHING about the psychology of deadlines. I wanted meat. I want to understand WHY my friends and I do this to ourselves and have now for years. Instead, the article was a pat on the head. Good girls aren’t late. It’s not nice, and nice girls always get their manuscripts in on time. It negatively affects your editor’s and publisher’s schedule if you don’t. And if you don’t, it can impact other authors in your imprint’s line-up, as well as your own reputation and career. Blah, yadda, blah. My response? Duh! Like that’s not obvious! Obvious, yes. PSYCHOLOGY, NO! Because there *is* a psychology involved here.

One of the main aspects for me is instant gratification. The closer to deadline I get started, the less time I’ll be in this much creative pain, the sooner the book will be on the shelf. That’s a very surface-scratching explanation, but it’s basically sound. Digging a bit deeper . . . if I spend too much time on a story, I forget it. Seriously. If I’m only writing 2 or 3 pages a day, I can’t remember what’s happened without reading back every time I sit down to write. Yes, of course I remember the main action, but I tend to repeat too much in the introspective scenes. I do that “beating the reader over the head” thing that I HATE to read!

When I’m writing long sections and my writing sessions aren’t interrupted by life *g*, I am able to stay on track, to keep focused, to REMEMBER what I did yesterday instead of remembering what I did two months ago. I envy authors who can schedule four hours of writing a day, have their family time, their relaxing time, then do it again the next day. I can’t do that. (On the other hand, I have a good friend who, once she’s in the zone, writes 8 hours, sleeps 4, writes 8, sleeps 4, until the book is done!) I have to be immersed (and am thinking of trying the 8 / 4 thing!), and being immersed means getting it done quickly. I don’t like it at all because I’m quite sure if I TOOK more time (not if I had it - because I do!) my books would be much richer than they are.

Anyone want to take a stab at analyzing that??? *gg*

(Besides checking the Amazon Romantic Suspense Bestsellers list; tonight, BANE (25), SHAUGHNESSEY (15), and SAMMS (12) are all on the first page!)

I have two, but I’ll share this one now as it has some point. Go to Technorati and see how many people have linked to your blog. It can be humiliatingly eye opening, LOL! Or, it can be interesting.

Today, I found myself listed on a blogger’s sidebar in this company:

Writers’ Blogs
Neil Gaiman
Jayme Lynn Blaschke
Poppy Z. Brite
Laurell K. Hamilton
Alison Kent
Lee Goldberg
Roger L. Simon
Caitlin R. Kiernan
Wil Wheaton
Joe Clifford Faust
Deborah O’Toole
Jaquandor
Susan Gibb
Karin Gillespie
Sara Donati
Sheila Kelly
Holly Lisle
James Bow

Not too shabby, I say in my best Adam Sandler voice. *gg*

And then there’s this, where I “sussed” out the anonymous romance author claiming she’d been raided by the Feds. (No, I don’t know Lee Goldberg, but I definitely enjoyed Monk. *gg*)

Anyhow, I hadn’t Technorati’d myself in awhile, and am thrilled that so many writers have linked to me! Now I need to come up with something worthwhile for you all to read since I’ve been so BORING lately! Ack! When An Author Gets Boring! We all know what happens then!!!!! No sales! No fans! Back to dressing in polyester and saying, “Would you like fries with that?” *gg*

Oh, here’s a fun one. I voted today for Sports Illustrated’s SPORTSMAN of the YEAR. (On the far left is a scrolling menu with the choices.) No, I’m not a sports minded type at all, even if I had recently read the GQ article about Drew Henson and knew all about him when he took the field for the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. Anyhow, one of the nominees is Pat Tillman. I wouldn’t have known a thing about this but found the link on another blog that I just discovered. So go and vote!

Yes, I voted for Tillman. He gave all for his team.

Thanksgiving was the most wonderful family day I’ve had in a very long time. It was strange, though, because we were missing my stepson (who went with his grandfather to Austin) and my daughter’s boyfriend (who went to meet his parents from Tampa in Baton Rouge). That left my son, both my daughters, my dh, and me. We don’t travel because one or more of the kids (I say kids; they’re all over 20!) always works the day before and the day after the holiday, and I refuse to head out to see family elsewhere and leave them alone. It’s always been important to me that my immediate family, the dh and the kids, comes first. If we get to see extended members, all the better. If not, my heart is happy.

The cooking went amazingly fast. This year instead of an entire bird, we cooked two turkey breasts. For the past three years, my son has brought home a turkey from work, as all the employees in his shop are given one each year. He’s changed jobs since last year, so this year we were on our own. Everyone in the family wants the breast meat as it is (except my vegetarian / seafood eating daughter who brought her own salmon), so this year we had no carcass to boil for soup! It made clean-up as easy as the cooking. My youngest daughter pitched in to make all the desserts. It was the first time in memory when we haven’t cooked three or four pies - usually chocolate cream, coconut cream, pumpkin, and pecan. Instead, we had pumpkin cream cheese bars, pecan bars, and lemon bars.

Late in the afternoon, once we’d digested and were between football games (the dh and the son anyway), the five of us went in three cars *g* to the movies. (We have a huge Cinemark multi-plex 5 minutes from the house. No lie. We wind our way out of the subdivision, hit the main road that connects the neighborhoods, hit the next big road and we’re there. It’s a bike ride!) We saw The Incredibles! The dh had seen it before, but the rest of us hadn’t. I still like National Treasure a lot better, but it was definitely cute. Really fun bits of characterization, and a couple of true laugh out loud spots. When *I* laugh out loud, it’s got to be really funny - as opposed to the dh who is much more liberal in his laughing!

So, today I’m back to working on pages for LARGER THAN LIFE, but I really enjoyed the day yesterday. I did get out of the kitchen for about an hour while things were cooking and did some editing, adding only two pages, but hey - two pages is two pages! And I actually haven’t checked my email since Wednesday night! (Except for my web design address.) At this point, I fear looking at it and seeing all the Rolex watches people want me to buy!

If you’re not watching NCIS, what’s wrong with you? *gg* I think it’s the best written show on television right now. (Okay, it’s tied with House, which is another post - and another situation; that show won’t last because it’s 1) intelligent, and 2) on Fox.) The cases (i.e., plots) covered in the NCIS episodes may not be the most intriguing ever. And if a viewer watches for plot (like a reader reads for plot), she may not be totally captivated. HOWEVER, if anyone is viewing for character (like a reader READS for character), the interactions, the subtle hints of backstory, the banter, the growth and revelations that bring such about, this show amazes.

Last night’s episode had me bawling at the end. Usually the dh and I watch together. He’s even more picky than I am about television and movies, and he loves this show (and House). He was busy, however, with his kid, doing an oil change for a Thanksgiving day road trip and missed it. I could barely speak later on to tell him about it. The guest star was Charles Durning, his character a vet of WWII, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and the denouement was riveting.

Durning’s character, Ernie Yost, was suffering delayed post traumatic stress brought on by the death of his wife of 58 years. He believed he’d killed his best friend during combat and wanted to be prosecuted for it. What the NCIS team did was program a computer re-enactment of the events leading up to the taking of the island and then stage a situation to put Yost visually and mentally into the time. Using the documentary To the Shores of Iwo Jima as a backdrop, Special Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon) repeatedly struck matches (for the island’s smell of sulfur) and described what the team surmised had happened while Yost sat in the dark and watched. I was sobbing. Just sobbing.

And I think the sobbing was due to realizing how many years and in how many situations with how many lives lost our military has made a stand for our country - even while the show, the writing, the characters, the acting, etc., was responsible for my reaction, my realization, what with the command they had of the story, the authority with which it was written - and the incredible editing. Durning’s character had won (and wore) the Medal of Honor, and seeing the respect of the other military personnel for his award had my heart clutching and my stomach burning with emotion that can’t be described as anything but patriotism.

THIS is what a compelling story can do. This is what *I* want to do with my stories. I’m such a long way from having the skill but it’s a goal I strive toward with every word I write.

No, I don’t have one, but Maili does. :) I thought it was valid, so am posting a link where you can comment!

Her question is:

Do aspiring authors want casual feedback on excerpts of their stories?

Would the author be annoyed/offended if I email my thoughts? [There is no way I’d point out two errors I spotted in the excerpt because I have learnt my lesson from having my head bitten off! :D] Or is it best to bite my tongue and move on? Thanks.

Yikes, but our weather today is horrendous! Our street has been unnavigable twice today. Once while the dh was out buying turkey dinner makings! (He’s so good. He cooks an awesome Thanksgiving, and I never have to tell him what to get - almost!)

Anyhow, both the USPS and the UPS arrived at the same time once they could get through - and I received ANOTHER box of THE SAMMS AGENDA copies - 100 this time. So, I’m going to give them away. Fifty from here, and fifty from the message board at Access Romance. I’m handing all of this off to my daughter to handle, as I’m still crunching through the pages toward my deadline. I am using one email address only for instructions so pay attention! LOL! You have to follow these instructions to the letter!

Once you send an email with THE SAMMS AGENDA BLOG REQUEST in the subject line, you’ll get a response. Now, it’s a “Yahoo! Auto Response” which means it may show up in your Spam folder. That’s not my problem. :) I’ve tested the responder and I know that it works. I won’t respond to emails elsewhere about this. It’s not that I don’t love you; I just don’t have the time! Once I hit 50 requests, bwahahaha *g*, I’ll change out the responder to let you know I’m empty! You have 50 chances here, and 50 chances at the Access Romance link above. One copy per household!!! Okay? Got all that? And, I’m sorry, but this is limited to U.S. addresses as I’m requiring an SASE.

Right, so, the email address you MUST write to for instructions is this: alisonkentgiveaway***AT***yahoo.com - obviously plug in the @ where it goes!

Okay, I did the interview, but no one ever told me it was up, or that I was November’s featured category author, LOL! Check it out here!

I updated my Win Big page so I’ll have that taken care of for awhile, LOL! I should have other site updates soon, but the most important things first, eh?
;)

Since my explanation of the plotting board is long and dry and boring to anyone not writing *gg*, I’ve posted it to my message board! And you can ask me questions there!