December 29th, 2009
Those who’ve followed my blog this year have shared part of the crazy ride. Those who’ve partaken in the personal have seen even more of the scramble. And really. let’s face it, craziness is cumulative, and 14 books in 5 years (The Unknown Daughter won it’s Gold Medal Review as my debut in October 2004) is insanity personified. It was a suspense, in the midst of the family story, but it took me years to get back to the high concept that would become what’s feeding my drive to write going into this new year–thrilling suspense + high-conflict relationships + unique twists to old themes = perfection. There have been so many changes, in the world, the publishing industry, my career and personal life, in five years, none more than this year.
Posted in A Year's Revision, Visit with Anna | 5 Comments »
December 14th, 2009
More fun pics below of my Thanksgiving freedom ride. This time of amazing Buddha’s I found lurking in a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit. Amazing treasures like this, just waiting for you to discover. How could anyone not want to live in a city like this???
But first, the rewrite of the rewrite of the rewrite of Sarah Temple’s “Secret Legacy” dream (part of the first scene of the book).Within the dream lie the clues to every mystery you’ll encounter in the book. This is just the first snippet. If you likie, I’d love to share more.
It’s still not clean or even edited by anyone else but me, but I think it’s truer to the overall story. Now that I’m writing through the middle, I can see so much more clearly what the story was trying to tell me when I first envisioned the dream. There will be more changes. Many more, if my method holds true with this book. But, IMHO, this is lovely progress. For those who like to follow the creative messiness of drafting, here’s my first crack at the dream’s opening.
Let me know… Oh, and enjoy the Buddha’s after the excerpt!
Secret Legacy Excerpt 1–Revisited
On Shelves, September 2010
—————————————–
There was beauty in the ocean’s violet blue. A sense of elicit belonging to the secrets below.
Cool channels wrapped Sarah Temple in the dream’s velvet. A promise of freedom lured her deeper. The water’s current caressed as it charmed, beguiled, seduced her into believing the emptiness could finally end.
It was the need to belong to something that propelled Sarah forward. Deeper than before. Those who wanted to save her were far here.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Anna's Secret Legacy, Excerpts, Visit with Anna | 1 Comment »
December 11th, 2009
They’re hysterical ;o) Try this one…
Batman Begins–Inappropriate Soundtrack
Let me know wha t you think.
OBTW. Anyone have any tips on how to imbedd the video itself into a Wordpress post. I’d love to leave more than a link for you to follow.
Posted in What About Everything Else? | 3 Comments »
December 11th, 2009
I find it comical that one of my favorite movie/TV review sites just got around to discovering Nora Roberts. Here’s the review of Naked in Death at Pajiba.com. The reviewer uses Castle as a sort-of high concept to explain what makes the In Death series work on a relationship level, more than as a mystery/suspense. Because if it works for TV it must be a good formula, right?
Don’t know why such a positive review about a romance on an entertainment site is bothering me, but it does. This should be a win-win for Nora and the romance community, but the reviewer’s kinda calling the plot simplistic and beside the point, and I’m kinda not digging that.
Posted in What About Everything Else? | 1 Comment »
December 10th, 2009
Sarah in Secret Legacy is hiding all kinds of things in her spooky dreams (from family, from her friends and enemies, and from herself most of all). Just like we all lose important parts of every day to our subconscious, and those parts start dancing around in the worlds we paint after we go to sleep. The thing with Sarah Temple is that her dreams tend to become reality, and she’s losing control of them (or maybe she was never in control in the first place, since a secret government unit of mad scientists has buried sleeper programming in her mind to manipulate her psychic abilities into a direct strike weapon). So, you know, not know what’s going on inside her sleeping (and maybe even waking) mind tends to make things dicey.
Yeah, scenerios like that are what’s monopolized my mind for the few weeks I’ve been away. Plus, there was the holiday travel and catch up and the the prep for the next holiday. Craziness–and I have the pictures to prove it, so look for those throughout the week. But I’ve also been hard at story work, and dream work. So Secret Legacy’s coming along nicely. And I’m in the groove and daily writing toward my first “rough” draft THE END. Which means things are going to pick up out here.
It’s amazing the things that happen in our dreams when we are minds are turned on and firing at full speed ahead. Like Sarah, my dreams are swirling. And like my Temple Twins, my dreams give me visions of what’s going on under the surface that my “awareness” becomes during the day. Yours, too, right about now, I suspect. Because this time of year we’re all running on empty and pushing to do more and trying to stretch shorter and shorter days to get the most time out of them we can. Which means there’s less energy to process everything that’s happening, and so our sleeping minds pick up the slack. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Anna's Dream Theories, Anna's Secret Legacy, Visit with Anna | 1 Comment »
November 18th, 2009
Literary Agent Michelle Grajkowski’s take on NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month) is up today on my I Write THOSE Books column. She’s an amazing, motivational industry player. Writers, don’t miss it!
I’m also guest blogging about my paranormal series at Fresh Fiction–Legacies Are Wonderful Things. Leave a comment over there for your chance to win a signed copy of Dark Legacy!
Yes, it’s a busy online day ;o)
Now, back to ready the gallies for The Firefighter’s Secret Baby!
Posted in What About Everything Else? | 9 Comments »
November 17th, 2009
Dreams are absorbing me into their mystery again. The side effect of writing my next Legacy novel. So, expect regular dream musings for a while ;o)
My current obsession… Ocean dreams. And, why yes, I DID just spend ten days by the sea…
Three years ago, I first worked out the high concept for my first two Legacy novels at a South Carolina sea shore, when I had no idea if I could execute something so challenging. Was this really the type of story I could thrive telling? Two years ago, at a retreat on another SC beach, I began detailing the synopsis my agent said she’d have to see before she could tell if I had something she could sell. Last November, we’d sold the series and I was drafting the first book with ocean waves rolling outside my window again. And now, I was rough drafting and reworking it’s sequel at the same magical place. My ocean dreams are coming true…
From the very first page of Secret Legacy, Sarah Temple’s dreaming about the ocean–you’ve seen a very rough draft that I’ve revised at least a dozen times since. And there you have it–Sarah’s obsession with the sea… What they say about pieces of an author finding their way into story is true. What’s surprising is how long it’s taken my love of the shore to find it’s way into the series I dreamed into being there. But from that simple beginning, Sarah’s responsible for her own journey ;o) So, what would that be? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Anna's Dream Theories, Anna's Secret Legacy | 3 Comments »
November 16th, 2009
Rule of thumb to keep in mind… When you go away to recharge from the stress of your life, stress builds up to fill every available second once you’re back ;o)
That’s okay, because I have visions like this (my last day at the beach) to sustain me…
And I’ll need it.
In my office waiting for me this fine Monday (while sea sounds play on my white noise machine) are:
- The galley proofs of The Firefighter’s Secret Baby (to celebrate, I’m sharing a new excerpt below ;o) that need to be printed and read and commented on.
- Drafts of THREE blog posts that go live this week: my I Write THOSE Books out Wed, including thoughts from literary agent Michelle Grajkowski; a Fresh Fiction guest blog, also out Wednesday; and a Borders True Romance guest blog that should be up on Friday.
- The first half of Secret Legacy that I worked my butt off drafting on retreat, which needs to be printed and rewritten like the dickens, so I can draft the second half (to celebrate, I’m including a new play list I hope you’ll enjoy ;o).
- The Dark Legacy contest prizes you’ve all been waiting so patiently for, which WILL get mailed out tomorrow…
So, I’m back and not going to be bored any time soon.
But I’m also feeling better and determined not to let stress take so firm a hold again. We need to breathe easy, if we’re going to be all that we’re meant to be. At least I do.
Here’s me breathing… And sharing some of the bounty with my blog buddies (enjoy a playlist AND an excerpt, while I clear my desk…):
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Anna's Atlanta Heroes, Anna's Secret Legacy, Excerpts, Visit with Anna | 2 Comments »
November 11th, 2009
Yeah, it took me longer to get back online than I thought. First, because I was working most of the weekend (and playing with one of my best friends, my agent Michelle Grajkowski, who’d come to the beach to work with me all weekend, but we played every chance we got which left no time to get online, what with the working and the playing…)
But mostly, this is why I’ve seemed so distant…
Well, and this…
And that was just the first sunrise, from the balcony of my second-floor (third, really, if you count the basement of the beach house).
Today, it’s storming, so there’s this…
and this…
Which is just fine with me, as I watch Season One of Dead Zone on DVD, listen to the storm and surf, and write Secret Legacy (which is riddled with dream sequences that deal with searching for the truth amidst turbulent ocean imagery). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Visit with Anna | 5 Comments »
November 5th, 2009
I’ve been losing myself in story all my life–since I was a child and my parents couldn’t get me to stop daydreaming. Stories have always been my life. At times, I think looking back, I’ve let them become more important than my life. But with age comes a bit of wisdom, I hope. Now I can say with absolute confidence, most of the time, that I tell stories for a living, not live for my stories.
Most of the time…
But as I look around the house I built with my family, the family that I love with all my heart, and pack for 10 days of teaching how to write and then writing like a maniac, I’m smiling because story is about to become a magical beach destination. I’m about to embark on one of those periods where I’ll live for story again, for just a little while.
I become that child again, each time I dig through the ucky, crusty stuff that’s the beginning of every book, until I find myself lost in the middle of something new and wonderful. Tomorrow I’m leaving those I love and live for, so I can find that wonder again. And they’re letting me go, because they know how much story feeds the parts of me they love most.
Time away renews us. Time with friends and with what fills our souls. For me, that’s storytelling and the sound of the ocean and knowing that I belong where I am, writing on my own, as much as I belong where I’ll go back to–a family that understands why the stories in me sometimes need a little space of their own before they’ll come to life. Read the rest of this entry »
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