Sunday, September 27, 2009

World's Shortest Fairytale

This fairytale was forwarded to me by my co-writer Dave:

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl 'Will you marry me?'

The girl said, 'NO!'

And the guy lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles
and went fishing and hunting and played golf a lot and drank beer and
Crown Royal and had tons of money in the bank and left the toilet
seat up and farted whenever he wanted.

The End

I could say a lot about this, but I won't. I'm going to give my brother his moment to shine in the "spotlight" because, of course, I'm the best sister ever.

Chapter 15 is posted

Chapter 15 of "Quest for Nobility" is up over at our author site, Otharia.com.

Our unlikely trio, Darius, Dyla and Eclair, have just completed their first objective in the Grand Competition. Eclair has done something no one else has ever seen, but there's a long way to go before they can relax.

If you're enjoying the story, leave us a comment here or sign into our guest book at the author pages. We'd love to hear from you!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Royalty Check

I watched "Bones" last night and loved how Brennan casually threw out her sales numbers and oh yeah, she has already received a "very large" royalty check.

If only it could be that easy.....

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Future of Health Care?


Here's a cartoon from the MIT's Faculty Newsletter about the future of health care. It's quite clever and a little scary. What do you think? Don't you love those MIT techies?

The bat on the bottom is for anesthesia and the Mental health lists says:
1) Bang your head against the wall
2) Stop
3) Feel Better?
4) Repeat as necessary

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

MacArthur Foundation awards 2009 Genius Grants

It is awesome to see the MacArthur Foundation select a poet, short story writer and a novelist among its 2009 Fellows. These grants are very prestigious. Fellows receive $500,000 "genius grants."

The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, the Foundation works to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology is affecting children and society.

Congratulations to all the 2009 Fellows. Click here for the link to the full list.

Thumbs Up for the Writers of "House"

Last night's episode of "House" was raw and engaging. I'm glad for something different instead of the usual formula - you know--a patient gets assigned to House and his team, they usually nearly kill him two or three times before House has a quirky connection and bam, the patient is diagnosed and cured.

I hope the rest of the season focuses more on the emotions of the cast and not so much on the medicine. I'm looking forward to it.

500 Visitors!

Wow, the visitor count hit 500 yesterday. That's awesome, but still a long way to go before we gather a loyal following.

So leave me your comments and let me know what you're thinking!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Querying Again

"The Crystal Facade" featuring the Otharian twins, Darius and Dyla Telkur, has been finished now for a few months, numerous rounds of edits have been done and Dave and I are satisfied with it. It's time to start the querying process.

Lots of research to do trying to match our science fiction story with agent wants. Sending out queries in batches of 10 or so to see how agents respond to our query letter. If we get too many rejections in a row, we'll know it's time to tweak the query letter again.

Persistence, perseverance and patience - the 3 P's of the querying process. Oh yeah, throw in some luck with that too! Hopefully, we'll catch the eye of an agent this fall.

In the meantime, it's back to the hero of our WIP. BTW, we changed his name to Rathbone Blare - has a nice ring to it doesn't it?

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A Fantasy is Born

After numerous discussions and a lively 3-hour long Skype session on Sunday, Dave and I have hammered out the outline for our next writing project. We are moving ahead on a fantasy this time.

We went back and forth many times on the main characters, conflicts, and the general characteristics of this new world. It was engaging, stimulating and at times frustrating, but we kept an open mind and our egos in check and came out with a great new story.

We're both happy with the general outline and can't wait to start writing the adventures for our hero, Christian.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Hubble is awe inspiring



New pictures are being taken by the newly repaired Hubble Telescope and they are unbelievable. The colors that are out in space are gorgeous.


Looking at these galaxies gives me so many new ideas for my science fiction writing. How many alien races do you think there could be in each of those billions and billions of stars within the 3 galaxies? Just mind blowing stuff.


Friday, September 11, 2009

September 11

September 11 evokes all kinds of memories for each individual. I'll never forgot that day. My daughter was getting ready to head off to her college class when she called me to say a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers.

Everyone in the office gathered around a television and watched helplessly as the second plane slammed into the second tower. It was surreal - like watching a movie, except it wasn't a movie. It was horrifying.

My heart and prayers go out to all those who lost loved ones on that terrible day. I hope that in the intervening years, you have found some peace.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Be Mindful of What You Write/Post

I was having a conversation the other day with a friend explaining how I was trying to build up a web presence, but also being very careful about what I actually post on the internet. Agents, editors and publishers suggest to unpublished authors that it will serve them better if they have a blog and/or a website. That's all well and good, but be careful what you say.

Janet Reid's blog mirrors this very sentiment. Remember agents and editors google your name too and if they come across your blog/website with content they don't like, you may be sabotaging your chances for a book sale without even knowing it.

So, be wary people!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Writing Blogs

There was an interesting conversation going on over at Pimp My Novel about how unpublished authors who try to build a web presence are finding it difficult to get their blogs known. With over 18,000 writing blogs out there, how do you make your own blog read and more importantly known throughout the writing community?

I read a good number of agent and editor blogs and try to comment often. Perhaps if people see your name enough, they'll click on your link and become a fan. I know that I have found some funny and interesting blogs that way.

In the meantime, I will continue to post to my blog, facebook and twitter accounts so that when my novel is published, I'll be an old pro at this stuff.

Happy 90th Birthday


This is the Martin family gathered here in Vero Beach for Mom's 90th birthday. We're at one of her favorite restaurants, Capt. Hiram's for lunch. Nancy and Bob flew in from Delaware so we could all be together. It's been fun, but I think poor Mom is exhausted. We've been taking her out everyday, sometimes twice a day. She says she hasn't eaten so much since the last time we were down here.

We're here til Tuesday and then we leave Mom again in the capable hands of Bonnie from Helping Hands.

Friday, September 4, 2009

The Writing Pyramid

Found this great article at the Kill Zone posted by James Scott Bell where he talks about writing. He's talking to a young writer who is lamenting about her writing life. Bell explains the different stages of writing with a pyramid diagram.

Dave and I are actually on 4th level (out of 5). We've written 2 complete novels and are starting on our 3rd together. The only other level for us is being published. Well, I'm all for that and as soon as an agent falls in love with book 2 and then actually sells it to a publisher, we will have completed our own pyramid.

Getting everything lined up perfectly, however, is like playing Bejeweled. Takes lots of practice and luck!

Off to FL!

I can't believe it's Labor Day weekend. The summer [that wasn't] seemed to fly by. I'm glad to be off today cause tomorrow we'll be heading down to Florida to celebrate my mother-in-law's 90th birthday. Mom is doing great, still sharp as a tack. It will be good to see her again.

Dave will put up more chapters over at our author site on Sunday. Hope you're enjoying the story. Who's your favorite so far? Nils? Grand Duke Vogdo? Darius and Dyla? Eclair?

My favorite has always been Eclair.