And ND rocks da house. You bet I will.

As mentioned, right now, the band's in a leased rehearsal space, SOMA - they basically have it on longterm lease, complete with security and lockup, and the equipment/PA rig would be stashed there and just wheeled out into the space by the techs and roadies when rehearsals were happening.

You know what's scary? I'm so far gone down the road from my old rock and roll days, I don't even know if the Bay Area even has any world-class recording studios anymore. We sure as hell used to - Wally Heiders, the Record Plant in Sausalito (oh, the memories...), His Masters Wheels (ah, Elliot!), but nowadays? No clue.

Happy Birthday, Teppy baby.

Deb, I wasn't able to read the rest cause when I got home, my electricity was turned off (in 95 degree heat, AND they coulda CALLED me).

So I'll be reading the rest today.

Erin, 'tis cool. BTW, last night, I took Marlene's rec and added a character to the mix in a scene in Chapter 16 - an Assistant DA. Needed there, doesn't actually say much, but does have to be there physically, because in the end, a certain decision would be his to make. Doesn't affect the outcome, but he's added in. If anyone wants that revised 16 - as I say, it doesn't change anything and is minor - yelp.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY, angelic Teppy, to whom I sent music.

t bounce bounce bounce

One of the romance writing discussion loops I belong to has an author in this week doing a workshop on voice and finding your niche/brand in the market. You posted your questions, along with the opening page of one of your books, and she'd respond.

Given that I'm far from shy about this stuff, I posted an abbreviated version of my "historical romance v. historical epics w/ strong romantic elements" questions along with the first page of the wip. Since I was in the middle of the pack of question posts, she answered a dozen questions or so before she got to mine, and I started getting nervous. This woman, you see, pulls no punches. It's not that she takes pleasure in putting others down or can only appreciate her own kind of writing (and there are plenty like that out there, oh yes there are)--just that she's blunt and doesn't sugarcoat her advice in piles of nicey-nice writerly monkey grooming. So by the time I got her reply this morning I was braced for impact.

Here's some of what she said:

Wow. Nice voice. Nicely lyrical. Getting the epic flow. You're right. It's not the immediacy of a shorter read, but I'm there with her. Well grounded. So yes, you have a voice. And you're right, it's an epic one. You don't have to write like Diana Gabaldon or Patrick O'Brian. You just have to write like you.

...But forging your own genre path is HARD, HARD, HARD. It is however, a path forged by many great authors. And you may be one of them....But you know the problems. Epics don't generally fit in today's hurried lifestyle.

...Market wise, I'm hearing a "danger, danger Will Robinson!" On the other hand, the better you write, the better the chances that some editor out there will love your work and insist that it gets published. So...how long are you willing to wait? How much are you willing to compromise in the search for your dream?

She goes on to suggest that it might be easier to break in by finding a way to keep myself to 100,000-word romances, then build to epic length and style once I've got an editor on my side and a bit of a reader following, but that that was just her advice with no claims to be the Word From on High.

Even given that this is just one person's opinion, it's put me in a very good mood and provided some confirmation that I'm on the right path, mostly because I can tell she wouldn't have doled out the praise unless she meant it.

Excellent feedback, Susan!

Susan roooooooocks.

Somehow reading it finally made sense of my writing contest experiences for me, too. I'd been so confused by getting positive feedback in non-contest contexts and mediocre scores that I was starting to wonder if all the positive feedback was just people trying to be nice. Monkey grooming. Never mind that some of the positive feedback was from people who didn't know me before they happened to read an excerpt I posted somewhere and then contacted me to invite me to join a critique group or tell me about a resource they thought might interest me. But now it hit me that there's a real pattern to my contest feedback, especially the recent stuff--it's, "Nice voice, strongly written, engaging chapter, but can you make there hero more aristocratic/lose some of the dark, sad bits/start the book AFTER they get home from Spain?" IOW, "As you're writing this now, it isn't really a Regency romance." My epiphany is realizing that A) they're right, and B) that's OK.

This came into my brain at 11:30 last night. I know not whence it may go or why, but, heck, I thought I'd share.

I was heading down to breakfast when I was stabbed in the back. As this was the sixth morning in row, I was beginning to get a mite peeved. I grabbed the cardboard dagger out of Sedona's hand.

"You keep this up, and someone's going to think you're strange," I told her.

She raised her chin and gave me her best tragic gaze. "I am doomed, you know. A fey spirit haunts me, and I can only follow where it leads, till my fate be writ in blood."

"Your fate is going to be writ in a switch taken to your back, if you're not careful. Scotty doesn't have my even disposition and good temper." She sighed mightily. "And you're too young to be Sarah Bernhardt. Or are we channelling Bette Davis this morning?"

"But mine is a tale fraught with woe! My curse is to offer the story of my fate to all passers-by, warning them against the dark path I now tread."

"Is this going to delay me getting to breakfast?"

Sedona turned her head and breathed deeply. "A tale so over-bourne with portent and lesson will hold. I smell sausage."

the brain, it is an odd place.

Glad you shared, connie, it's cute!