Beijing Again

I'm back in Suzhou after my third, and favorite, visit to Beijing. More about that later. For now, here's proof that we climbed a section of the Great Wall on a blustery yet clear and pollution-free summer's day. I promise to make my next post writing related (since I owe you a review of The Taming of the Duke from a male perspective), but here's a romantic detail for you. My partner and I have taken photos of our hands every May since our first year together. This is the eighth photo and the second one in China.

Snapshot

Did you notice what was missing in my last post? Yes, that's right. There was no Lenora Bell, only Emily Bronte. That's my sneaky way of posting without actually having to write anything. Get those wet noodles out--I've assumed the position.

I just have to give you a snapshot of our hotel room right now. I'm sitting on the bed, alternately cheering and cursing at the television set, because I want the Houston Rockets to win this game in Utah. My bf is curled up (as much as a 6'4" man can curl up) in a comfy chair by the window, reading Eloisa James' The Taming Of the Duke. Yep, you heard that right. I'm swearing like a sailor because T-Mac only made ten points in the first half, and my better half is reading a romance novel.

I only became a basketball fan in the last few years, and he is reading his very first romance novel. Did I choose a good one for popping his cherry?

Have you given your significant other a favorite romance novel to read? What was their reaction?

I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.

--From Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Pages in Bloom

I'm going to spend the rest of April chained to my desk, finishing my current WIP, Heart of Ash. So no blogging for me (see NTW post). My parents come to visit in two weeks, and I won't get much writing done while they are here, so it's now or never. Wish me luck, and I'll see you back online in May.

I'll leave you with some pictures of spring in China, in the hope that they inspire your pages to bloom.

NTW

Sometimes things come to you when you need them the most. That's what happened today when I opened my Absolute Write newsletter and clicked on an article about writer's block by Mayra Calvani. You see I've been struggling lately. I sit down at my computer with the best of intentions. And then I inevitably get sidetracked. Last night I spent four hours reading about George Eliot's extraordinary life because I was looking for the right book to have my heroine read. Unfortunately, my story is set in 1853, almost twenty years before Middlemarch was published. One of my critique partners says this should be known as NTW (network time waster) from now on, and is to be rooted out before it can rear its ugly head. Given my propensity for NTW, the article was exactly what I needed to read.

One important point it raised was that lowering your expectations might actually make you more productive. If I set a goal that is impossible for me (20 pages a day) then I'm more likely to write nothing because I get depressed about my inability to reach the goal. But if I try to write five pages a day, I might just surprise myself and get excited enough to write more, thereby surpassing my initial goal.

I know there is only one cure for not writing, and that is to write. Author Elizabeth Hoyt wrote in a recent article on Romantic Inks:

Here’s the deep dark secret that we published authors hide: we’re not necessarily better writers than the unpublished. What we do have is a finished and polished manuscript. Ninety-nine percent of writing is finishing the product...which is why, every day, I sit down and write. I sit down and write even when I don’t feel like it—especially when I don’t feel like it.

I have a long history of writer's block. The most famous example is the college paper I turned in six years late. It was a paper about a Vietnam war book, and I finally managed to write it while I was traveling in Vietnam for three weeks. I somehow needed that historical immediacy in order to finish a task that had been weighing on me for so many years.

Have you ever struggled with writer's block? Have you done anything extreme to jolt yourself out of it, or do you have a simple little trick that works?

I know, I know. Just sit down and write.

I will.

Good News

Thank you all for being so supportive! I went to the orphanage again today, and it is so emotionally draining. I was the only volunteer this afternoon, and when I walked into the baby room there were at least ten babies balling their eyes out and no one in the room at all. It made me soooo sad. But I have really good news. There will be a team of surgeons visiting Suzhou in October to perform cleft lip and palate surgeries! They are from Alliance for Smiles, a wonderful organization out of San Francisco.

If you would like more information about the orphanage, you can pm me (link on my website). Thanks, again, for all your kind words and thoughts.

Two Tigers

Today I began a volunteer job at an orphanage. Somehow I just didn't picture all the babies with disabilities. Cleft lips and palates, Down's syndrome, preemies, they were all strapped into cribs, tearing my heart out with their bright eyes and big smiles. The orphanage was as clean and cheerful as it could be, and I was happy to hear them playing Mozart's Twinkle Twinkle variations, but there just aren't enough arms to hold them, let alone families to love them. The adoption rate from this particular orphanage is abysmally low, and I have yet to determine why. Perhaps because of the high percentage of children with special needs.

One tiny sweetie with a shock of fuzzy hair and the spindliest little legs I ever saw, fell asleep in my arms after cooing along to the tune of Frere Jacque. They have their own words to this song in Mandarin, here is the literal translation:

Two tigers, two tigers
Running fast, running fast
One has no ears, one has no tail
Truly strange, truly strange

There were over fifty little tigers in those two small rooms, and over half of them were there because of their "strangeness." It it made me feel so helpless when I saw their legs curling up from disuse, their eyes hungry for affection.

All I could do was sing them a song, and tell them they were not strange, but beautiful.

Weekend Getaway

We're going to the sleepy little town of Nan Xun for the weekend. Should be relaxing since it's not in any of the guidebooks. I'm bringing paper and a pen instead of my laptop.

Here's hoping your weekend is peaceful and productive.

xoxo

Lenora

Scrap Bag

Life is progressing...creamy magnolia blossoms unfurl...a car hit the bus we were riding in and thirty dollars changed hands outside our window before we were on our way again.

I am slogging through a synopsis of Heart of Ash because I think it's time to stop being such a complete pantser. Lydia Joyce's website has an excellent list of synopsis writing resources.

Pam Rosenthal's The Slightest Provocation is up for a RITA. Go Pam! Intelligent, lush, lyrical...her work is my inspiration.

Blocked Again

They've blocked blogger again in China--just when I was getting into a nice posting and commenting rhythm. Now I have to go through a proxy website and it takes forever...aargh!!! *shakes fist at the government censors*

My Apologies

Please accept my apologies for subjecting you to that photo--it's the cover of the box of extra underwear that most Chinese hotel rooms stock. Just because I feel so sorry for your eyes, here's some candy to make up for it.

Mmmm....Stuart...




















Feeling better now?

















How about now?

xoxo
Lenora

Senior Man Trousers

In response to the many discussions about mantitty and its dubious merits as an inducement to buy novels, I hereby submit this disturbing photo. Now this particular specimen of homomammaries is not selling romance novels, but Senior Man Trousers--for the gentleman who forgot to bring extra underwear during his stay at the hotel. What does this have to do with romance novels? Absolutely nothing. I just thought it was hilarious, and wanted to inflict share.

AutoSummarize

Yet more evidence of Tessa Dare's genius. Check out her post on AutoSummarization--the MS Word feature that allows you to distill your manuscript into ten sentences (under the Tools menu). She found it while searching for a way to make synopsis writing less painful, and it fulfilled its function by giving us all a good laugh.

Here is the ten sentence AutoSummary of the first chapter of my latest WIP, working title Heart of Ash:

No doubt his face matched those hands—blunt-edged, intimidating, restless. “Where is my great-aunt Ethel?” blurted Lucidora. “My lord, if I may--” “Raise your eyes when you speak to me,” said Lord Ashe. Lucidora bowed her head. Never look a man in the eyes.
Lucidora inhaled sharply. Fenton will show you to a room.” “Ada--” With his stained hands and dismissive eyes.

So what does your MS look like in ten sentences? Kerry? Meljean?

To National, or Not to National

We've decided to return home a month early, and that means I could attend RWA's national conference if I wanted to. Of course I would only have been back in the states for a week--but since it is the biggest event of a romance writer's year, I'm thinking I should hop back on a plane and go to Dallas. I've only been to one smaller conference, so this would be a new experience for me. And I've only been to Texas once, and pardon me for saying so, it did not leave a good impression.

I was hired by a national speech coaching company to manage their San Francisco office, but they were headquartered out of Houston, so they flew me there for training. The moment I walked into the shiny corporate offices, I knew I was going to stick out like a...well like a San Francisco girl in Texas. Everyone was coiffed and power-suited and chipper, and they could all tell with one quick downward sweep of their blue-frosted lids that I was not a member of their sorority. I will spare you the details of that painful week, but I will let you know that I quit that job a mere two months later, even though they offered me a huge raise, stock options, and money for a new, more corporate appropriate, wardrobe.

But I'm sure this time around Texas would be different. Especially if I had some friends to seek out. So are you going? Is it worth the money? If I buy you a lemon drop will you let me sit at your table?

Shoes

Pam asked about the new brand of shoes I found--so I thought I'd post a few pics.

My new favorite brand is Safiya. Inside the shoes it has a sweet little logo of a snail and the words, "My world. The Safiya's world. The young world."

My other favorite brand is Changes and Insects 100. Rather Kafkaesque.

Anyway, here are my most recent Safiya purchases:

Shoes with Scales (yes, it makes a fish if you put your feet together).















Black tap shoe style with crimson appliqued flowers.
































So what do you think? I can take orders...

Juice It

I'm doing research about the state of the romance industry right now, trying to figure out what to start writing next. I want to write a story that I'm passionate about, but I want to make sure it will be saleable, too, which is the dilemma.

In a recent interview, Hilary Sares from Kensington said that whatever you are writing you should, "...juice it to the max." This time I mean to take her advice. Whatever I decide upon, I'm going to make it dark, deep and thrilling, and that means no boring filler paragraphs, no cliches, no cumbersome backstory or dialogue that doesn't advance the plot. So now I know how I need to write--that just leaves me with what.

I have three ideas I'm choosing between, and they have to do with the following:

1. Edgar Allan Poe
2. Insane Asylum
3. Birth of Photography

Any preference without knowing more than that?

Message From Above

I sent an email to one of my favorite romance authors, Pam Rosenthal, and she wrote a very gracious reply. It was so nice of her to take the time to answer. If you haven't read any of her books, you are missing out on some of the most gorgeous writing in romance today.

From The Bookseller's Daughter:

Such a jumble, such a torrent of sensation. And such a mystery, for she couldn’t think how they’d come to be in each other’s arms in the first place. It didn’t seem quite accurate to say he’d “swept” her into his arms -- or, for that matter, that she’d “rushed” into his embrace. If there had been a crucial gesture, a shy or importunate first touch, she couldn’t specify what it had been or who had made it. The embrace had simply -- happened, like a bolt of summer lightning.

***

OK, your turn. Tell me about an author I *have* to read...

On Endings

By the end of a well-written romance novel you should be gobbling up the pages like they were cotton candy that would stick to your chin if you didn't melt it with your tongue fast enough. I just read Eloisa James's Kiss Me Annabel and I'm still savoring the spun sugar. Once I got to that ending, I didn't care that the conflict was slightly manufactured, or that certain parts of the plot felt improbable. I didn't care because she made me believe that Ewan and Annabel shared the transcendent kind of love we are all searching for. And she left me wanting more, left me with a terrible sweet tooth that only she can satisfy. Damn her.

I could just give up writing right now. Or I could work even harder to discover the elusive recipe for eliciting that kind of emotional response from readers.

Can you tell I'm still working on the ending of my book? It's just that I want it to be perfect. It has to stick to the editor's mind enough to make her pick up the phone. It has to leave her with a mouth full of melting sugar and a craving for more.

da da da da DA DA

The Muzak version of the theme song from Chariots of Fire is perpetually playing in the hallways of the hotel I'm living in. At first it just drove me crazy. Now I've decided that they're featuring it especially for me as I sprint to the finish line of my self-imposed writing deadline.

The music will swell, the crowd will roar, and I will click the send button. Victory shall be mine!

Harold M. Abrahams: If I can't win, I won't run!
Sybil Gordon: If you don't run, you can't win.

The Fifth Ring

Yes my friends, I am in the fifth ring of Rewrite Hell. I am guilty of Wrath and Gloom, and for those sins I should be punished.

At first the task of rewriting seemed straightforward enough. Add more historical detail, keep the tone consistent, decide whether the piece was full on Erotica or merely Very Sexy historical romance. I set out, like every naïve pilgrim, thinking that even though the path prove stony, I could surmount any trial with the help of my trusty pen. But then that pen led me astray. It veered off into the path of Wickedness. It started writing new characters and crossing out whole chapters. It introduced emotions and new conflict that were completely inconsistent with the earlier version. In fact, it decided to write an entirely new piece. Hence my descent into the fifth ring.

I have to finish this and send it off. I've been stuck here too long. I know parts of it are so much better than the original, but that does me absolutely no good until the damn thing is finished. Oh Wrath! Oh Gloom!

Have any of you been led astray by the very pens you trusted? How did you regain control? Did it work out in the end? Please tell me there is a path out of this hell...