I Write with Cats.

{Food for Love}

§153 · February 8, 2010 · Did you know?, Ups n Downs · (No comments)

We’re all pretty familiar with the association between romance and certain foods. Champagne…chocolate…oysters. You see my meaning.

Throughout history food has been used as an aphrodisiac, and growing up, most girls were assured of the one and only true way to a man’s heart, right?

For the book I’m currently writing, I had to do a little research on the subject and have to say, it was quite intriguing. For a full list of the “love foods” I discovered, and a recipe or two to try for yourself, check out the next Love and Murder newsletter, due out on Feb. 12th.

On a personal note. Things are moving along quite well in my world, and frankly, I wish I could share it all right now!

But you know how I love suspense.

Have a Happy Happy Valentine’s Day, and for this one I’m signing off with just Love.

Suza

{I Dreamed of a…}

§150 · January 25, 2010 · Did you know? · (No comments)

…new house last night. I wanted the new house so badly that I cried.

So, the first thing I do after a dream as emotional as this is open the now yellowed pages of my dream interpretation book to see what ails my psyche. Don’t laugh or navigate away just, yet…this isn’t hocus-pocus but psychology, and I’ve found over the years that the book can be dead on.

Dreams are not always obvious, for example, dreaming of drowning can be about debt, a car represents your life and can be very enlightening if someone else is driving it in the dream. I once leaned over and started honking the horn because my father was driving my car and wouldn’t listen to me!

This morning I read that a house can represent a few things, and one of them is health. I focused in on this because, I’m dieting, of course, and also because of the room I focused on in the dream. The kitchen. This room might be about my spirit being fed : ) or my own need to be, and I quote, “more concerned about dietary habits.”

Blech. This interpretation was not so enlightening. I could have told you I needed to lose 10 pounds.

Or maybe I just want a bigger house. You know us writers. Never satisfied.

Well anyway, happy dreaming…

Suza

{I know I should…}

§148 · January 20, 2010 · Ups n Downs · (No comments)

…be writing something interesting, because the last two blogs have been much more successful than normal.

But, today I’m feeling happily frustrated! I’m getting new fans on the fan page daily and many are asking where they can get my books. Happy!!!!

Frustrated : { I want to rush and get my first book out there and type, type, type, to get the current stuff done, but that would be a mistake. There is still editing to be done, and I want my “debut” to be a great one.

I’m still communicating with an editor and should be seeing publication of one or more projects sometime this year, but hello, it’s only January!

This blog is a plea. Hang in there. Stay in touch. The promises won’t be empty!

With love and murder,

Suza

{Secrets in Love Letters}

§140 · January 13, 2010 · Did you know? · (No comments)

As a fan of riddles, clues, and mysteries, I often stumble across interesting tidbits.

As a romance writer, I found this amusing.

Probable Words ( a decryption method)

When important messages are relayed, often unimaginative choice of words could give away the encryption, as specialists in the field of cryptography have amassed a set of most probable words as the nature of the message exhibits. For instance, in decoding love letters, frequency ordering looks for words such as ‘love, heart, fire, miss, life, light’ which are most frequently used. Hence it is important to rephrase messages before they are encrypted and transmitted.”

For more you can link to the following site:

http://library.thinkquest.org/27158/decipher.html

With love, murder, and secrets in mind,

Suza

{Her Majesty’s Official Site}

§137 · January 8, 2010 · Cats, Did you know? · 2 comments

Did you know the Islamic country of Jordan has a queen? And she’s gorgeous. And she bares her legs in public, the most surprising thing for me, considering the country is still largely Muslim. I guess that’s makes me a little prejudice, or in this case, I’d actually prefer to claim ignorance.

Either way…it’s an interesting tidbit I discovered while doing some research. I mean, I can’t have my character wear a short dress in Amman, Jordan if that’s something that would never be allowed. Always check the details, right?

So I discovered Queen (used to be princess before her husband ascended to the throne) Rania of Jordan. Here’s a link to, I kid you not, how it’s listed is… Her Majesty’s official site http://www.queenrania.jo/

P.S. Fannie Mae turns out to be more allergic to Savannah than I am. Poor kitty had to get some steroids.

With love and murder in mind,

Suza

{Already behind.}

§133 · January 4, 2010 · Ups n Downs · (No comments)

It’s January 4th, and I’m already running behind. How’s that possible? Well, I had every intention of doing a newsletter for the New Year…but, um…did you get a copy?

Exactly.

I’m also very behind in the schedule I set for myself for my current writing project but plan to remedy that the day after tomorrow. (When I have the day free again.) It’s not technically due until the end of April, but hey, I want to get a jump on it, so I can return to the previous project. But all that’s been covered in another blog.

Off the beaten track- What did I do with some of my very precious time the last few days? I ate some yummy sausage balls that I made myself, cuddled with the kitties, especially Fannie Mae who is a little bit sick and will be seeing the vet on Wednesday, and I watched more than a couple of movies that, oddly enough, all had something to do with people being eaten by an otherworldly something-or-other. And it wasn’t exactly planned either. Promise.

By the way, Skinwalkers was a decent B Werewolf movie. I enjoyed it.

So…what did you do on your lazy Christmas/New Year’s time off?

With love and murder in mind,

Suza

{What do you like?}

§128 · December 29, 2009 · Ups n Downs · (No comments)

As I’m looking through my contacts on various sites, I realize that many are readers and not writers, which makes me wonder how many people are interested in the writing tips? Surely authors more advanced than I am don’t need them, and why would readers care what I learned about character arc or the perils of e-publishing?

So as we draw closer to the new year, the question I’m asking of those of you who have loyally followed the blog is this.

What do you like to read?

Have you found the writing business interesting? The cats? What is it that makes you come back to a blog, whether it is this one or another?

There are plenty of articles about “Writing a Good Blog,” but I’d like to know what makes YOU look. Did you just happen to catch it on the Facebook profile? Or maybe, just maybe there was a post that struck you and makes you check it out once in a while with the hope that there will be more of the good stuff. If so, what was it?

In a business where one needs to be their own censor, ensuring no one gets offended, it’s hard to share the juicy daily details, but maybe a compromise can be arranged.

Before I started this, I barely knew what a blog was. Now, it’s sort of an outlet for me, but I want it to be more than that. I want it to be a way of staying in touch with those who really are interested in reading more. So with that said, I’d sincerely like to know…

What do you like?

P.S. Happy New Year to all!

Suza

{MPD for Christmas}

§124 · December 26, 2009 · Ups n Downs · (No comments)

Multiple Personality Disorder… that’s what I got!

Historically, I write romantic suspense and have one in the works right now. Then there’s the paranormal novella I’m working on, not to mention the other path (that will remain unmentioned) I’m currently attempting to traverse. Everything from my computer files to my imagination has been systematically divided into three parts!

What character was that in my head just now? Oh, yeah, the sidekick to the heroine of book A. Unfortunately, the person that responded was the hero from book C. Even my characters are getting confused. : )

Actually, if you can believe it, it helps to work on multiple projects. It does me, anyway. Some would tear their hair out, I’m sure.

I’m chugging along on research for one, nailing down plot for another, and actually writing the third. Plus, the voices in my head are very distinctive, so that’s good. Can’t have everybody sounding alike, especially if they lived 200 years apart.

Oooh, that reminds me of the fourth project…but it’s just going to have to warm the shelf for a while until I get all the kinks worked out of its predecessor.

What do you think my resolution will be? ; )

Happy New Year!

{An Errant Macaroni}

§121 · December 14, 2009 · Cats · (No comments)

First, before explaining…I have to tell you, since the weather has gotten cooler,the cats all race to see who can get in my lap first. It is the warmest spot in the house. Some take a shortcut under the desk, some sprint around and get to the open side of the chair first, while Fannie Mae and Loki are the only two agile enough to just leap up on the desk then down to the lap…a risky maneuver that saves crucial seconds if done correctly.

I’m calling the mad scramble the de-cat-thalon.

So on to the blog topic.

How do you come up with a good title? For a book or anything? And don’t you just hate it when something is so perfect you feel inclined to actually come up with a new idea…so you can use the perfect title you somehow thought up?

Tonight was a wonderful night, all comfort factors in place. We ordered Julie & Julia on pay-per-view, and my boyfriend, David, was cooking beef tips and macaroni and cheese. When he announced it was ready, I paused the movie, came around the counter to wash my hands, and promptly stepped on something soft and mushy.

“Ew..ew..ew!” I cried, because I am excruciatingly OCD when it comes to raw meat and am also all too familiar with David’s cooking style. I lifted my foot to inspect, waiting to see a red piece of beef, when he said, “Oh. It’s just an errant macaroni.”

I burst out laughing as I pulled the wet noodle off my foot. “That,” I said, ” would be a great title.”

And so it is. Of a blog entry. Because there is no romance angle in the world I could think of that would justify that name for a book.

Well, I had to share, because I’m giggling even now as I think about it and the crazy man that inspires romance in me every day.

I guess I’ll have to go wash, though, because Daisy, a cat who loves pasta, is performing a sniff-purr combo on my foot.

Desperately searching for the errant macaroni.

{Eeeeeeeeee!}

§119 · December 10, 2009 · Uncategorized · (No comments)

E-book options, what a winding road of technology and changing by the hour.

There are e-publishers, both classic publishers and new, there are companies that allow you to publish things yourself, Kindle, Barnes and Noble. Goodness, another arena to learn about in the new millenium of publishing. They can publish you e, or you can publish you e…whew.

Things sure aren’t what they used to be.

I’m not as knowledgeable about e-books as I want to be, but I admit, I’m also leaning heavily on my techie webmaster. He loves this kind of stuff. I need an E-publishing for Dummies book.

But it’s not neccesarily a bad turn of events. Statistics about how much attention publishers give to their writers, how much they PAY their writers, and how much publicity work the writer has to do for themselves…well, it’s food for thought. (Yes. That was a cliche, but again, that’s the freedom of the blog!)

Well, this has been a ramble, but that’s pretty much what my brain sounds like when I start reading about anything that employs binary digits.

I’m going to go take a bath and read a book.

The paper kind. ; )

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Unique writer’s trivia with some humor thrown in the mix.

{Food for Love}

{I Dreamed of a…}

{I know I should…}

{Secrets in Love Letters}

{Her Majesty’s Official Site}

{Already behind.}

{What do you like?}

{MPD for Christmas}

{An Errant Macaroni}

{Eeeeeeeeee!}

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