Maggie Robinson Means Romance

The End of the Beginning

2009-11-15T00:00:00.003-05:00

Maggie Robinson Means Romance. The title started out as a mistake when I was registering on Blogger and then I just ran with it, figuring no one would ever read my blog anyway. I was wrong! Now, almost three years later, I'm getting ready to move on and I hope to drag as many of you with me as I can to my new home. You will be relieved to know I still mean romance, but it's not in the header to make you roll your eyes anymore. ;)

I'm so happy that Frauke Spanuth of Croco Designs has launched the official, elegant websites for Maggie Robinson and Margaret Rowe

Both are Dot NET sites. I will still be blogging, for how can I shut up? To celebrate , for everyone who links to my new site and/or comments on my first offical post on the new blog (to be entitled First Official Post...how original)and/or signs up for the newsletter and/or tweets the grand unveiling this week, I promise a special something when I get my special somethings. An arc? A bookmark? A coverflat? Something else rare and valuable? Only time will tell. :)

So, please bookmark and visit www.maggierobinson.net/blog if you want to see how things are going. This is my last post on MRMR. Sniff. I'll miss my wistful little rose-bedecked woman that Haven Rich designed for me. Thank you so much for sharing the journey thus far with me. See you on the Web!

Editricks

2009-11-13T08:14:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I sent off the copy edits for Mistress by Mistake. I spent about 10 hours on Wednesday reading every single word---again, for the zillionth time---and was so impressed with my copy editor. She (he?) caught all sorts of stupid things. Me for be? Heaving for leaving (honest)? The marks were an interesting secret code, and my favorite is 'stet'---let it stand. I did write that a few times, but mostly the copy editor was right. So whoever you are, thanks a bunch. While there may yet be mistakes (did you know that Persian rugmakers always made a deliberate mistake in their pattern to show humility because only Allah is perfect?), it won't be for lack of attention to detail.

I laughed at the funny parts. And I cried at the end, as if somebody else wrote the story. I hope you will too!

Baby Steps

2009-11-06T20:29:00.005-05:00

1. Rented post office box. Hope I don't lose the keys.

2. Ordered address labels with new post office box #.

3. Ordered business cards.

4. Receiving copyedits for Mistress by Mistake next week!

5. Working on cover copy for Any Wicked Thing.

6. 65,000 words on Master of Sin as of Sunday. Slooooww.

7. Buying ad with other Bradford authors in June RT.

8. Was quoted in December issue of RT (p.30*g*).

9. Reserved room in Gaylord Opryland Hotel for RWA.

10. Set up new desk and managed to re-plug-in the computer correctly.

11. Changed my Twitter (above right) and MySpace backgrounds, not that I use either very often. I'm all about the dark, rich reds now...so passionate, LOL.

12. Margaret Rowe site almost ready! (Tiny sneak peek at banner, left)

13. Pinching self on a daily basis.

What are you doing?

Tempting Eden Cover Copy

2009-10-29T16:10:00.004-05:00

You know what the front looks like (see below). As promised some time ago, here's the back cover copy for Tempting Eden:

Set against the backdrop of Regency England comes a scorching new novel about a perfect gentleman and the imperfect woman who makes him forget all his good intentions.

Eden Emery is no stranger to sin. To keep her sister safe from harm, she’s paid a steep price with her body—and very nearly lost her soul. But when Baron Ivor Hartford, the very Devil himself finally dies, her troubles are far from over.

Major Stuart Hartford, the late baron’s nephew, is in the market for an honorable wife, but first he has to take care of the matter of his Uncle Ivor’s ward—a young woman who makes him question the virtue of being proper. For the passion she incites burns away his inhibitions and inflames his heart.

But Eden has vowed to never again cede her destiny to a man. And Hart is left with no choice but to tempt the temptress herself, to show the woman he longs to possess forever that passion can heal, that the sins of the past can be overcome, and that submission can be the greatest power of all.

OMG Part Deux

2009-10-23T13:49:00.002-05:00

Last Friday, I (Maggie Robinson) got the beautiful Mistress by Mistake cover. This Friday, I (Margaret Rowe) got the absolutely tempting, equally beautiful cover for Tempting Eden, my June 2010 Berkley Heat release. I feel overwhelmed and grateful and giddy. Kudos to my editor Kate Seaver and the Berkley art department. The cover gods have got me covered! Thanks so much to everyone who had a hand in creating this exquisite cover. I only hope my words will live up to the beauty outside.

Somehow, I don't think next Friday can top the past two, LOL.

OMG

2009-10-16T14:19:00.018-05:00

Here is the gorgeous cover for my April 27, 2010 release Mistress by Mistake!!! I could not be more excited! Thank you cover designer Kristine Mills-Noble, illustrator Alan Ayers, and my editor Megan Records at Kensington, who wrote the perfect, perfect cover copy.

My scanner did not quite pick up the rich reds and maroons. In person, the coverflat is darker, more raspberry than orange, absolutely exquisite. I'm off to have a little cry.

Progress Report

2009-10-11T07:49:00.006-05:00

So, I'm back on my Scottish island with Andrew and Gemma in Master of Sin, and they are 45,000 words away from their happy ending if I'm aiming for 90,000. Half-way there, kids!

My websites are being worked on.

Mistress by Mistake is on Amazon, available for pre-order! (see sidebar)

Any Wicked Thing (a Margaret Rowe book) has a tentative publication date of January 2011 from Berkley.

I got sucked into Say Yes to the Dress and am so happy one of my daughters bought a beautiful wedding dress for $250 with no drama.

I'm spending my advance money at the dentist. Ah. the glamorous life of a writer.

What's new with you?

Quote of the Day

2009-10-08T00:00:00.003-05:00

Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of sh!t.

One-Way Ticket to Madrid, Por Favor

2009-10-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

Now, who can resist a poll like this? A public service announcement from MRMR.

WORLD'S WORST LOVERS
1. Germany (too smelly)

2. England (too lazy)

3. Sweden (too quick)

4. Holland (too dominating)

5. America (too rough)

6. Greece (too lovey-dovey)

7. Wales (too selfish)

8. Scotland (too loud)

9. Turkey (too sweaty)

10. Russia (too hairy)

WORLD'S BEST LOVERS
1. Spain

2. Brazil

3. Italy

4. France

5. Ireland

6. South Africa

7. Australia

8. New Zealand

9. Denmark

10. Canada

Wicked Good

2009-10-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

So what if you haven't bought your Halloween costume yet (I know you've snuck some candy)---aren't you in the mood for Christmas? Run right out and buy The Heart of Christmas, featuring Courtney Milan's This Wicked Gift. Deck those halls and bookshelves!

Persuasive

2009-09-29T00:00:00.002-05:00

Another tempting Tessa Dare treat! A Lady of Persuasion releases today!

Wrap It Up

2009-09-24T06:43:00.005-05:00

Yippee! Any Wicked Thing is predominantly finished. What does that mean, you say? It means that when I first started to write the book in May, I began each chapter with brief diary entries written by Sebastian Goddard, the Duke of Roxbury and Frederica Wells. Somewhere in the middle of the book, those diary entries disappeared. My dilemma now: do I add the missing ones, or delete the written ones? Time (and my crit partners) will tell. I'm going to step away for a short while and then revisit that remote Yorkshire castle to make sure all the loose ends are securely tied up. Then it will be back to my storm-tossed Scottish island and Master of Sin!

Cover Quote

2009-09-20T00:00:00.003-05:00

"MISTRESS BY MISTAKE sizzles off the page. A marvelously sexy romp." ~the fabulous Anna Campbell

Thanks so much, Anna, for taking the time to read MBM. I can't wait for November's Captive of Sin, which I am quite sure will sizzle too!

The End is Nigh

2009-09-16T07:11:00.003-05:00

Over 85,000 words now on Any Wicked Thing. I have two more chapters to write from scratch and three scenes to finish. The ending is tied up with a big, wet sloppy bow already---I got a little weepy writing it, because I love love love Sebastian and Freddie (mostly Sebastian, LOL).

And here's another one of my LOLRegencies.

Zombies? Zounds!

2009-09-12T00:00:00.001-05:00

Elizabeth vs Darcy: She certainly did not hate him. No; hatred had vanished long ago, and she had almost as long been ashamed of ever wishing to drink the blood of his severed head.

True love, yes?

Over 80,000 words on Any Wicked Thing! But I'm not drinking blood from severed heads to celebrate yet.

Back to School

2009-09-06T08:44:00.005-05:00

I celebrated by watching Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall. While my school is nothing like the gray, dismal place depicted (and as far as I know, we do not grind up kids for burgers), I do question at times the efficacy of public education. It certainly hasn't seemed to work on a lot of adults I encounter. ;)

So it's back to waking up at the crack of dawn to write before work. 15,000 words to go!

What's Wrong with This Picture?

2009-09-02T19:21:00.005-05:00

Nothing! But I did go slightly crazy when I discovered that Susan Gee Heino's debut Regency Mistress by Mistake is coming out in December 2009 from Berkley. My debut Regency Mistress by Mistake is coming out in May 2010 from Kensington. I e-mailed Susan and she's lovely. Her book won the 2008 Golden Heart when it was Mistaken by Moonlight (also a great title*g*). So---2 books, 2 authors, 1 title, 5 months apart. My editor says stuff happens like this all the time. She told me to breathe (sensible advice). So I hope everybody buys both books and loves them!

Isn't this a beautiful cover? I'll post mine when I get it. :)

Goals, Goals, Goals

2009-08-29T08:41:00.005-05:00

So I'm liking my mini-blogs. They've been very liberating, and I don't have to drone on about drone-able subjects. Since school has started, I'm even more goal-oriented. I'm hard at work on Any Wicked Thing and hope to have it finished by mid-October at the latest. 23,000 words to go.

Some months ago, the clever ladies at Risky Regencies sponsored a contest. One had to find a suitably vintage picture and caption it in the manner of LOLCats. I entered a bunch of them, and I won, but not with this particular illustration, although it is my favorite. It works very well for AWT. :) Check back here for my other entries in the upcoming weeks for your amusement.

Quote of the Day

2009-08-26T07:22:00.003-05:00

“The velocity and volume on the Web are so great that nothing is forgotten and nothing is remembered. The Internet is like closing time at a blue-collar bar in Boston. Everyone’s drunk and ugly and they’re going to pass out in a few minutes.”~Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic

Present company excepted. :)

A Good Trip

2009-08-22T19:54:00.003-05:00

Just watched Across the Universe. I knew all the words and sang along. What happened to all those idealists?

Buy This Book

2009-08-18T23:30:00.003-05:00

Best. Book. Ever. You know I don't do book reviews---I'm way too lazy. But A Most Lamentable Comedy, a fabulous romp by Janet Mullany, will have you laughing over every page except the last, where you will have a lump in your throat and get a bit teary. I ordered it from the Book Depository UK, which has free shipping.

Any Wicked Thing

2009-08-17T17:20:00.002-05:00

Kate Seaver, my Berkley Heat editor, approved the proposal for Book #2 , Any Wicked Thing! Sebastian and Freddie are so relieved, not to mention Margaret Rowe. Maggie's happy too!

Seeing the Light

2009-08-12T13:45:00.006-05:00

The book should be a ball of light in one's hands.

This is what I got in a fortune cookie the other day. You might remember I have a thing about fortune cookie fortunes---I collect them on the bulletin board over my desk. I always wonder what message the universe is trying to send me. Good thing I love Chinese food, for I have a plethora of philosophical sayings to ponder.

Of course, I immediately related the fortune to the Berkley Heat book I'm working on now, which has not exactly been a ball of light, although it is nowhere near as dark as Tempting Eden. Any Wicked Thing does have balls, I'll grant you that. It is beyond being the sexiest book I've ever attempted. At some point I'll have to get the h/h out of bed, although they might object. They seem perfectly willing to wallow wantonly for weeks, LOL.

I have two more weeks before school starts up. Push will come to shove, as I have February and March deadlines for two novels, and April and July deadlines for two novellas, and, best of all, book releases in May and June! I predict (without the aid of any fortune cookies or crystal balls) that my blog time here will be somewhat reduced in the next few months. I'll still keep you in the know, however---I'll be posting the cover copy for TE soon, and tell you if anything else exciting is happening (Fabulous writer Elyssa Papa has signed with fabulous agent Kim Witherspoon! Yay, Ely!). I'll still write a couple of times a month for the Vixens. But right now, the light is flickering here at MRMR---my weekly posts may turn out of be semi-monthly, or maybe even monthly, if I can discipline myself to shut up. I should have my new websites up and running shortly, though...so don't forget to check back for the info! See you in a little bit.

MJP Winner

2009-08-08T09:00:00.001-05:00

Just got back from a week under the desert sun. We had a wonderful vacation, made even better by receiving the cover copy for my June 2010 Berkley Heat release Tempting Eden. Talk about hot! I'll post it soon.

I was pretty good---brought the laptop and tried to write a little every day, but not by the pool. The 80s pop music mix was kind of a Regency castle-killer. Right now I am stuck in the middle of a food scene. Must have breakfast and finish it, LOL.

I was very inspired by all the suggestions for making a writer's life luscious. Thanks so much for the great ideas. Mary Jo Putney's Loving a Lost Lord goes to Irisheyes! E-mail your address to maggierobinson8@yahoo.com and I'll get your prizes out to you.

I have trouble writing with music/noise in the background. What about you?

A Break and a Book

2009-07-24T00:00:00.004-05:00

Summer is my mega-writing time. I have a little over two months off, and am now at the half-way point. I've gone from 15,000 words on Any Wicked Thing to 45,000 in a month, so I'm half-finished with both the book and the vacation. It has helped that it's rained practically every single day here in Maine---I've not been tempted to leave the house very often.

I'll be taking a break from blogging for a few weeks (but I'm on Twitter, so please follow me, not that I say much there). Contest!To get you to come back on August 8, I'm offering a brand new bright and shiny copy of Mary Jo Putney's Loving a Lost Lord. My Kensington editor sent me a 'Kensington Care Package' with a slew of Kensington titles to welcome me. There were 17 books!!! Needless to say, I was excited.They were all new to me, too, except for MJP's book, which I had already purchased and read. So the extra copy will go to one random commenter on this post, with a couple of other writerly goodies.

Here's my question: If you were making up a care package for a writer, what items would you include in it? Any particular books? Comfort items? All serious and silly answers welcome.

See you in August!

Go On and Win Something!

2009-07-21T19:32:00.005-05:00

Go visit another Bradford author's blog! Elisabeth Naughton's Stolen Heat
is being kicked off by a fabulous month-long contest.

For details on how to win a $100 VISA gift card and other fun stuff, go to http://elisabethnaughton.blogspot.com/. She'll have daily guest authors blogging, and each day she's giving away prizes---books, jewelry, gift cards, etc.

You can also visit http://www.elisabethnaughton.com/ to watch the cool book trailer and find out all about her Stolen Trilogy. Go on, what are you waiting for?

Self-Imposed Exile

2009-07-17T00:00:00.003-05:00

I didn't go to Washington, D.C. for RWA's national conference. I thought about it, but scheduled a vacation, some necessary dental work and doctor's appointments for my summer off instead, so there went any discretionary $. (New glasses! I'm excited! I can actually see the computer screen now...who knows how that may positively affect my writing?*g*) I was going to have carpal tunnel surgery too, but now that I have to finish two books, I'd better have two free hands. I know I'm missing out on all sorts of fun networking, so I've sulked and sweat over the keyboard, trying hard not to check out live-blogging and Tweeting.

I challenged myself to kind of avoid the Internet for the duration of the conference, with the exception of e-mails from Tiff, who was there, and Kris and Ely, who were not. My goal was to have 40,000 words on Any Wicked Thing by the end of Sunday, July 19. I flunked the anti-Internet test, and as of today I've only got 35,000 words. Hmm.

Next year, however, I plan to be in Nashville. Yee-haw!

If you went to D.C., stop in and let me know how much fun you had so I can gnash my teeth. If you did not, what was your goal this week? What are you looking forward to?

Smug Update: As of July 19 at 7:38 PM, I have 40,138 words on AWT. Yay!

Chirp

2009-07-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

I have fallen out of the nest onto my head. Yes, I signed up for Twitter. I've updated my MySpace and Facebook pages too, so my social networking has taken flight.

Now, I'm a friendly person in general. Strangers speak to me in grocery store lines and tell me all sorts of things I don't really want to know. But I really like to keep a low profile. However, I do see the advantages in keeping current with the writing scene. I just have to make sure I'm not too sucked in. I already spent way too much time picking out the background wallpaper, LOL. This is my solemn pledge that I will not tweet on what I ate for lunch or how much my new shoes cost. (Actually, I haven't even bought any new shoes in a couple of years. Must remedy that. )I shall be judicious and infrequent with those 140 characters.

Are you tweeting? What are you doing with your life? Have you bought new shoes?

Mayday! Mayday!

2009-07-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

Danger, Will Robinson...I mean Maggie Robinson. Mistress by Mistake is now coming out in May 2010! Two months sooner than I expected, two months less to get myself prepped for publication. I'm excited, I'm nervous, I'm just a little crazy. But you knew that. :) The Vixens are calling me their May Queen, and funny thing---when I went to college in the Dark Ages, I almost was the May Queen. You can see me in my May Day heyday as second runner-up. I still look just the same. Ha.

Now, I don't want you to get the idea that I keep old newspaper clippings at hand to relive my skinnier glory days. As it happens, I was in my basement last week on a mad search for something and came across this amongst the various boxes that are labeled 'miscellaneous.' No word was ever truer. I found college term papers and WW II-era telegrams, baby pictures of unknown babies and mouse droppings. I never found what I was looking for, and now I think I need to spend even more time in the damp dank storage room and start pitching stuff. The task seems overwhelming. I teased one of my daughters that she can take care of it when I'm dead, which seems only fair, as half the stuff in those boxes comes from our late parents' cellars to begin with.

So storage and archiving have been on my mind. But I really need to be writing, not walking down memory lane and sneezing over crushed cardboard boxes. Once again I'll postpone the clean-up. My husband and I talked about how so much information is now scanned and saved to disks and pendrives, eliminating the possibility of mouse droppings. He told me I'd better flee the burning house with the pendrives that hold my manuscripts. Just in case, I've mailed every book to myself. My agent and editors have copies too. But basically, I am not organized and orderly. I stuff things in drawers for 'later,' and when 'later' comes, I wonder why I ever saved any of it. I need an assistant!

How do you keep track of important things? Save your work? Anybody want to come to my cellar for the summer?

The Scenic Route

2009-07-05T00:00:00.004-05:00

In the last book of the Courtesan Court trilogy, Mistress by Marriage, a character from Caroline's past became so strong I had to send him away to Italy before he completely took over the book. Andrew Rossiter is the Master of Sin in the fourth Kensington book that, if approved, will follow the trilogy. I guess I could almost call the series the Courtesan Court Quartet, which would thrill my alliterative heart. I have 1/3 of this book finished, but need to write "The End" on something else first. I can tell Andrew's getting impatient, but he and Gemma will have to wait until Sebastian and Freddie battle it out on the battlements of Goddard Castle. *g*

The main action in MOS takes place on a remote Scottish island, which has become a kind of character itself in the WIP. I've been to Scotland several times, but never to the Outer Hebrides. Bless you, YouTube. I've watched a clip of St. Kilda (which for some reason I cannot embed, but you can click on the link below), which is really Outer (with fabulous music that never fails to put me in the mood, so turn the sound up).

After spending quite a bit of time doing research, I've decided to create my own little universe, mostly based on Barra Head, which is now uninhabited except for "air so thickly crowded with birds as to produce the appearance of a heavy snowstorm."~H.J. Elwes, 1868. What an image.

I have a little experience living on islands myself. First, there was Long Island in New York. Yeah, I know, not isolated, but pretty wild if you know the right hangouts. ;) Early in my marriage, we lived at a boarding school on an island in Boston Harbor, accessible only by the school's launch. Later on, we lived on Isleboro in Penobscot Bay, served by the Maine State Ferry System. But after 4:30, you were stuck on the island for the night. If you had that craving for a midnight chili cheeseburger, you had to make it yourself. It was really the prettiest place we've ever lived, and I hope to channel some of my island memories as I write MOS.

Are you an Island Girl? Do you have secondary characters who jump up and down at you? Are your settings characters in themselves?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNyrGFOkq_g

Sin-chronicity

2009-06-30T00:00:00.002-05:00

For fun, I went back to my old blog posts to discover when I realized I had a series on my hands. It was June 8, 2008. Go ahead. Click on the link and refresh your memory. I'll wait.

Hi again! When I wrote that paragraph in Mistress by Midnight, it was like everything else I write---it just happened. I like the term organic, which implies some sort of natural, healthy growth. We all know it means disorganized and half-crazy. As you know, I'm a pantser of mega-organic proportions,and I find my mind to be a mysteriously strange and fertile thing. So often, I've dropped a psychic hint or planted a useful seed or whatever you want to call it that suddenly makes sense later and takes the story in a new direction. So while Midnight will be Book Two in the Courtesan Court series in December 2010, I wrote it first and owe it everything. And how good is it to go from June 2008 to June 2009 and have the books wrapped up in a pretty Kensington Brava package? It's sinfully good!

I submitted my proposal for the second Berkley Heat Margaret Rowe book. This is where my organic pantser-ness has a downside. Write a synopsis before I've written the book? How the heck do I know what's going to happen, LOL. That means trying to tame those squirrels in my brain, and they have resisted. The delivery date on the manuscript (Any Wicked Thing for now) is next February. Let's hope my editor likes it so I can plot and plod along---and the squirrels cooperate and don't eat up all the seeds.

Here's an introduction to my very naughty hero, Sebastian Goddard, Duke of Roxbury:

The answer to all of Sebastian Goddard’s problems is right in front of him. He needs money and someone to bend to his dark fantasies, and there is Frederica Ward, all grown up, mostly willing and rich as sin.

Sebastian would recognize sin---he’s spent over a decade indulging in all manner of it, sometimes so thoroughly it’s impaired his memory. Ten years ago, he ruined his father the Duke of Roxbury’s ward, although he has no absolutely recollection of the event. Sebastian may be the duke now, but he’s dead broke thanks to his father’s obsession with medieval miscellany. He hasn’t thought of his childhood friend in years, but since her fate is in his hands, he begins to see a way out of his financial predicament and into her bed.

Plotter or pantser? Plantser? Do you dread deadlines? Do you work on more than one WIP at a time? What sinfully good stuff is happening in your life?

Jumping for Joy

2009-06-25T21:00:00.001-05:00

What a week! A new me (Margaret Rowe) and a new title (Tempting Eden) for Berkley. And now from Publishers Marketplace---

Maggie Robinson's MISTRESS BY MISTAKE, a Regency-set historical romance and the first of the Courtesan Court series about the women who inhabit London's infamous mistress row, to Megan Records at Kensington Brava, in a four-book deal plus two novellas, for publication in Summer 2010, by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.

I am so thrilled my mistresses have found a home of their own. They won't have to live in anonymity on Jane Street forever. (known as 'Courtesan Court' to the fictional Regency ton, and hopefully to a much wider real audience next July!) And I won't be pseudonymous this time around---the books will have Maggie Robinson on the cover. To say I'm happy is a vast understatement. While I haven't wrapped a big gold bow on myself and started leaping around, I'm coming pretty close. So Mistress by Mistake, Mistress by Midnight, Mistress by Marriage and Andrew's book (working title: Master of Sin) will be out in the next couple of years. Counting the two Berkley titles, I have quite a bit of work ahead of me, and I hope everyone who is reading this will keep me company on my adventure and slap me around if you think I'm slacking.

Thanks again to my husband and kids for believing in me and being so supportive, and my genius agent Laura Bradford who is helpful, humorous, and handy with the red font writing MORE on my sex scenes. Because of her, I've gone from two sentences to two paragraphs to at least two pages, LOL. Her advice has been absolutely invaluable since she signed me in August 2008. My critique partners Ely, Tiff and Kris are so dear to my heart just thinking about them makes me weepy. They're like extra Robinson girls, and you know how much I love my girls. Every single person I've 'met' online over the past three years has contributed in some way, and you've got my eternal gratitude. The romance community really is filled with a lot of love, and not just inside the book covers.

So Maggie Robinson/Margaret Rowe will keep you posted. But right now we've got to write some books....

Tempting Eden

2009-06-23T18:13:00.003-05:00

Paradise, like Maggie, has been rechristened. No holy water was involved, however. *g* With the help of my crit partners and agent, we submitted a list to Berkley. My very favorite of the choices, Tempting Eden was approved. Eden is my heroine's name, but it works on other levels, too. My tortured heroine will make the transition from hell to her own kind of heaven, thanks to Hart, a man of unusual honor who risks everything when he's tempted himself.

The contract has been signed and mailed, so each day everything becomes more crystalline. Here's an interesting paradise quote which works so beautifully for my story courtesy of Laura Bradford:

Ah, to think how thin the veil that lies Between the pain of hell and Paradise. George William Russell

So, what's your idea of heaven on earth? Sleeping in? Unlimited chocolate? Cute shoes? World peace? Somebody take over now.

Introducing...

2009-06-21T00:00:00.001-05:00

There's been a flutter of activity. My Berkley editor's assistant has asked for a bio and a book summary, they're meeting Tuesday with the art department to discuss the cover, and everyone has agreed on the new pen name for my more erotic offerings. You've probably noticed already....ta dah! I'm Margaret Rowe! Margaret Rowe sounds like a buttoned-up librarian who goes a little crazy after a Margarita, which would be entirely accurate. Rowe is a family name (my son's name is Christopher Rowe Robinson). My husband calls me Margaret when we're fighting (see bio below), which really was the start of it all. So that's the new me. I've registered www.margaretrowe.net which will someday be up and running thanks to the genius that is Frauke. Here is the mock-up (not quite finished) for the naughtier me. I'm saving Maggie Robinson for less edgy pursuits (and so I can keep the day job, LOL).

Here's what I sent Berkley:

Several years ago, I woke up in the middle of the night, really annoyed with my husband. Instead of smothering him with a pillow, I decided to get up and write--- to create the perfect man. I'm still married (and reluctantly admit I'm not perfect myself), but have created several pretty perfect heroes since that fateful night. It was time I finally put my English degree from Adelphi University to work.

Until my midnight keyboarding, I'd been a teacher, librarian, newspaper reporter, administrative assistant to two non-profits, community volunteer and mother of four. Now I can call myself a romance writer in Maine. There's nothing I like better than writing about people who make mistakes, but don't let the mistakes make them. I'm all about the redemptive power of love---and a good night's sleep.

I left out Realtor in that long list, but I was one for eight years. I was an Antique and Vintage Properties Manager for a large real estate company in Connecticut. As soon as I got my Realtor's license, the market tanked. We lost $25,000 ourselves selling our house when we moved. I had deals fall apart at the closing and septic fields rise, waited months for commissions, showed one couple about 100 houses and they didn't buy anything. So while I do have some happy memories getting a young Coast Guard couple into their first home and selling a charming little red schoolhouse, I tend to block out The Real Estate Years.

What job would you leave out of your bio? What's your favorite drink? I'm very fond of sangria with tons of fruit. All that Vitamin C, you know. ;)

Jane in June

2009-06-18T00:00:00.002-05:00

So, it's official. I'm on vacation. I spent last weekend revamping my writing room instead of my writing. I'd been using a tiny folding desk left over from a daughter's college dorm room, so I brought up our Thanksgiving-extra-seating folding table, which gives me another foot or so to make a mess on. The room is really too small for any sort of real desk. I've got masses of research books and files shoved under the table now. If I get ambitious, I might get some Velcro and fabric and make a skirt. Don't hold your breath. I took four huge black trash bags of keeper books upstairs to the spare bedroom, and discovered all sorts of things. Apparently I own two books entitled Jane Austen, Feminism and Fiction and Presenting Miss Jane Austen. I'll let you know how they are (again, don't hold your breath).

But now that my desk is newly arranged, Sadie noticed my Jane Austen Action Figure and tried to remove the quill from her cold, dead hand. Sadie's middle name is Jane, so she seemed entranced with the little plastic Jane. She kept putting Miss Austen to sleep on a pillow whispering "shh" and then yanking her up, giggling maniacally. No naps for Jane or Sadie Jane, or for me either. I've been pretty tired---it's been a looong school year---and even Sadie noticed when the air went out of my balloon Sunday afternoon. She put her arms around me and asked, "Matter?" Empathy, and she's not even two. I have great hopes for her.

So I'm back to writing a book which features a two year old boy on my sparkly new desk. Write what you know, right? How do you feel about kids in romances? What do you know about Jane Austen? How clean is your desk?

For a double-dose of me today, check out my writing tips post on Vauxhall Vixens, totally pirated from another site. Good stuff.

Not Ready for My Close-up

2009-06-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

I guess I need to have a professional portrait done pretty soon. I've gotten very used to the image that accompanies my Blogger comments, taken almost two years ago on my birthday. It's cropped from the larger shot, where I'm surrounded by the other Robinson girls in my life. I haven't had a 'real' picture taken since I sold real estate---no more shoulder pads and power suits and big hair, thank you very much. So I'm contemplating what to wear, whether I should get my hair and make-up done by people who know what they're doing, if I should smile showing teeth or not, LOL. Inside or outdoors? Turtleneck or V-neck? Vaseline on the lens or Photoshop?

Decisions, decisions. Help me make them! What should I shop for? How should I smile? Natural or spackled? Do you pay any attention to author photographs? Whose picture stands out for you? Do you photograph well?

Above is Edward Steichen's famous portrait of Gloria Swanson. Most of us, however, remember her like this from Sunset Boulevard. Yikes.

Countdown

2009-06-08T00:00:00.003-05:00

June 16. That's when I kiss all those library books and teenagers good-bye for the summer. I know just how lucky I am to have two months off, even if I don't get paid. I've got the usual big plans---to finish at least one of the two books I've started. If I don't get lured out into the sunshine too often, it will happen. I know I could sit in my Adirondack chair with my laptop, but I seem to be tied to my little folding desk in my little writing room (which is a mess again, so another big plan will be to clean it up). I'm also judging a writing contest, which should be interesting. We'll go away for a week in August, and I've got a slew of doctor and dentist appointments and a standing weekly date with Sadie. Before I know it, it will be time to go back to school. Ugh.

What are your summer plans? What's growing in your garden? (We're on our third batch of tomatoes and peppers because of freezes...our heat still comes on at night!) Can you write anywhere, or do you stick to one place?

On the Edge

2009-06-03T00:00:00.002-05:00

Here I am, just starting out. I should be networking madly, adding to my Facebook and MySpace friends, bloghopping and commenting and supporting other new authors, participating weekly in Snippet Saturday, where author excerpts on shared topics are posted. (the promo brainchild of Lauren Dane of the Bradford Bunch. Yay, Lauren!) Instead of promoting the goodness and wonder that is me, I find myself crafting a proposal, writing, waiting nervously to hear how the revision went, wondering how the Courtesan Court trilogy is fairing, wanting to completely unplug and go underground. Not even wanting to blog, for heaven's sake! Maybe I'll rally as time goes by...or when I know the name of the book, LOL. Right now I'm hanging back, trying to balance everything.

For various reasons, D.C. is out this year, though Nashville looks good. But promotion is a daunting thing. I've been reading up, and know that I need to go beyond bookmarks. I've enjoyed watching Tessa Dare take to the blogwaves and Beverly Kendall craft The Season. My new website will be a start, but I'm open to any suggestions on how to "get out there!" I'm probably going to publish the Berkley books under a brand new name, Maggie Rowan. Still working out the details...so not only do I not know the name of my book, I don't know mine, either, LOL.

What's your favorite feature of a writing career? What do you fear? What's your pen name?

Snippet Saturday

2009-05-30T00:00:00.008-05:00

This week we're all about the kissing, the first kiss, that is. I'm working on a proposal for a hot Regency historical and posting the actual second kiss between my h/h, Sebastian and Frederica. They have a history together, but Sebastian, the dog, does not remember it. Freddie is interested obtaining some experience and real estate from Sebastian, and is determined to do Any Wicked Thing to get it. Real estate is always an excellent investment, and Freddie is a practical girl, except when it comes to Sebastian. Enjoy, and don't forget to visit the other authors below to taste their first kisses!

******************************************************************************

She’d been a naïve child the last time she’d seen him naked, and had been hopelessly impressed with every decadent scrap of him then. If the planes and angles of his face caused her heart to stir now, his body had more than lived up to its early promise. He was broad and well-muscled, without an ounce of fat. He looked as though he could defend her from ghosts or dragons or anything inconvenient. Except for himself.

Oh, she was naïve now. And for what? The uncertain roof over her head? But it was too late. She took another step forward. And then another.

He pressed his thumbs to her cheeks, his fingers resting lightly on her temples. His pupils were huge, black as his soul---if he still had one---ringed in dark, fathomless green. She longed to touch the bump on the bridge of his nose, the only imperfection she could detect in his shadowed face. He was whispering something scandalous, but she couldn’t listen for watching his lips move. Then he smiled and slanted them over hers, the soft strength of them warm and insistent. Her mouth opened in protest and his tongue traced the seam of her top lip slowly, as if he were measuring by touch, calculating the inches of pink. He did the same to her bottom lip, shocking her with his gentleness.

When they’d last kissed, he’d tasted of too much brandy and smelled of sweet smoke. Tonight there was the merest hint of wine. His clean skin was scented with the rose petal soap she had made herself from the overgrown canes that tumbled over the outer wall. What should have been feminine had been converted into something else altogether---he’d captured the briar as well as the bud. She hoped to steady herself with a deep breath, but instead was swept away to the wild roses and the heat of last summer. Her skin beneath the pressure of his fingertips tingled as he drew her closer, his mouth skimming effortlessly over hers, brushing, savoring. There was nothing to do but meet his tongue and shiver as he tore her defenses down lick by wicked lick.

She felt herself sway, and reached for something to hold on to, although she was still sweetly trapped between his hands. She should touch him, if only to feel his smooth brown chest or span his narrow hips or tousle his curling dark hair. But there was no safe place to touch as he brought her to him, his velvet mouth angled expertly so that even the corners of her lips received attention.

Frederica had dreamed of kisses like this, though doubted their existence. How odd that her oldest friend and newest enemy was the man to prove her wrong. He lulled her into discomfiting comfort, banishing all thoughts with the steady skills of his tongue and teeth. His fingers slipped through her hair, loosening the braids. Her scalp tickled as he massaged her head and she felt a wash of heat down her neck. Her nightgown was suddenly too heavy, too warm, her arms useless at her sides, her knees weak. Sebastian seemed to know the exact moment of her capitulation, broke the kiss and lifted her from the floor.

“I’m going to carry you upstairs now.”

Frederica nodded. She could not have spoken if her life depended upon it. Her hand went to her swollen lips, still so sensitive that her own fingers sent shoots of longing through her. He held her as if she weighed nothing and climbed the circular stairs. His room blazed with light---too much light. The tub was still centered in front of a roaring fire, the dropped towel on the carpet. The least he could have done before he came downstairs to slay her was wrap up in it. No mortal woman could withstand his male beauty for long. It had taken just one kiss---one consummate, carnal kiss---for Frederica to lose every shred of sanity.

********************************************************************************

Lauren Dane Cynthia Eden Vivi Anna Sylvia Day Moira Rogers Mandy Roth Anya Bast Viv Arend Beth Williamson Elisabeth Naughton Michelle Pillow Jaci Burton Taige Crenshaw McKenna Jeffries Victoria Janssen Shelli Stevens Maggie Robinson Juliana Stone Sasha White Maura Anderson Shelley Munro Jody Wallace Eliza Gayle Kelly Maher

Scot Free

2009-05-26T00:00:00.002-05:00

As far as I know, I am not Scottish or Irish---I am completely un-Celtic except if you go back about 1,000 years. Like our president, I'm a mutt. My mother was from Austria. Her father's parents were Italian but he was born in Hungary. Cue the gypsy violins. My maternal grandmother was a Viennese girl. We're waltzing now. My father's family was almost entirely from England---and traced themselves back to the Mayflower, of course---except for his maternal grandfather Anthony Miller whose family came from Germany. It was considered such a blot on the family escutcheon (perhaps because of two world wars)that this Germanic connection was always hushed up. No oom-pah music, please.

However, I get to be an honoray Scotswoman. Bring on the bagpipes! My husband's family emigrated to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia from somewhere in Scotland in the 1800s. Eventually they wandered down to Maine, changing their name from Robertson to Robinson to ditch their Canadian roots. When we visited Scotland we came home with a bolt of the Robertson plaid which serves as our Christmas tree skirt. It was originally intended for pants, but John decided the wool was too itchy. :) Even though he's got great legs, a kilt was never considered.

When I go back to work on Andrew and Gemma's Scotland-set book, I will listen to Celtic music and look at gorgeous pictures. The location of the book plays more of a role in the plot than anything I've ever written, although the proposal for Any Wicked Thing comes close. I'm having a ton of fun researching castles and medieval life. Sometimes I find it hard to get back to the 21st century.

Have you ever visited a castle/Scotland? Do your characters sometimes seem more real to you than the people you work with? Do you wish you could ditch your Real Life roots and stick to fiction? Where is your family from?

Snippet Saturday

2009-05-23T00:00:00.006-05:00

Lauren Dane came up with a cool way to network, promote and share excerpts from authors' works. She invited a bunch of writers in different genres to participate in a round-robin every Saturday. They all will follow a single topic---and we know that even if they're writing about the same thing, everyone's voice is completely different. This Saturday's theme is "Defining Moment." The authors below have all posted a writing sample on their blog. Next week is "First Kiss," and I'm hoping to join the crowd and lipsmack away. In the meantime, please visit as many of the sites below and enjoy the snippets!

http://www.laurendane.com/blog

http://www.cynthiaeden.com/blog

http://www.vivianna.net/blog

http://www.sjday.net/news

http://www.moirarogers.com/blog

http://leahbraemel.blogspot.com/

http://mandyroth.com/blog/

http://www.anyabast.com/blog/

http://vivarend.blogspot.com/

http://www.julianastone.com/blog/

http://savannahjfoley.com/blog

http://myblog.bethwilliamson.com/

http://elisabethnaughton.blogspot.com/

http://michellepillow.com/blog/

http://www.jaciburton.com/blog

http://taigecrenshaw.com/blog

http://mckennajeffries.com/blog

http://www.sashawhite.net/blog

Castles in the Air

2009-05-20T00:00:00.015-05:00

I've sent my revisions off and started a new book. A proposal, actually, for the second Berkley Heat book. Berkley Heat is, as the name implies, a hot line, which means I must cast my demure, shy, ladylike with pearls self into the corner. This gives me the opportunity to stretch my boundaries and give cause to my grandmother to spin in her grave. (Actually, now that I think of it, she was in an urn in my father's basement. Not quite sure where she is now. Oh dear.) I have settled on a seduction theme, although it will be unclear as to who is seducing whom. Paradise-soon-to-be-renamed is rather dark, but Any Wicked Thing/His Last Mistress (can't decide on a working title) is apt to be lighter. I've decided to go all-out and have a devilish duke and a crenellated castle on the Yorkshire moors. We'll see if my editor likes it or says ho-hum.

For a brief period of time, I considered an 1890s Maine-island-summer-colony-Gibson-girl-tortured artist book, but I worry that the era and location are not what's expected of historicals. And most everything else I've written is late Regency or 1820s England. What's your favorite historical period to read/write about? Would you pick up a historical that was set in Maine, or anywhere in the United States?

Oh, and thanks to Tiff, I have the perfect Sebastian Goddard, Duke of Roxbury to drool over! Even if his book doesn't get written, one picture is worth a thousand words. *g* Please advise: Any Wicked Thing or His Last Mistress?

Blahg

2009-05-13T00:00:00.006-05:00

My husband teases me that I'm got a family of squirrels in my head, chattering and pelting each other with acorns. It's perfectly true I feel very distracted. For someone who's a pantser in real life as well as writing, all of a sudden I've got to think of the future and organize the squirrels into formation. A cadre of them have taken revision notes from my Berkley editor Kate Seaver and are attempting to arrive at the same place in the manuscript by a significantly different route. Several artistic squirrels are contemplating favorite colors for a website design (Yay Frauke! Coming eventually: http://www.maggierobinson.net/). A few distinctly grumpy rodents are still doing laundry and cleaning the toilet and going to work every day, counting the days until summer vacation on their tiny paws. Some are working on proposal ideas for another Heat book. There is one mangy, desolate little furball who is curled up in a corner, forbidden to even think about Gemma and Andrew until Hart and Eden get squared away and sent again. And to top it off, they're all on nut rations, because the squirrels were getting awfully fuzzy. They've been drinking Slim-Fast instead of pina coladas and they are not in a celebratory mood. They're not rabid yet, but it's getting close, although collectively they've lost 5 pounds---a mere drop in the bucket of fuzz.

So writing a blog post becomes a challenge. There is not much to say except the squirrels are leaping from tree limb to tree limb, hoping they don't crash to earth. Squirrels don't bounce.

What are your squirrels up to?

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T00:00:00.003-05:00

Here are two very special people I'm going to spend my Mother's Day with. Whether you're a mom or someone's precious baby, have a lovely day!

A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart. ~Author Unknown

Not Hidden Anymore!

2009-05-07T14:08:00.000-05:00

I bet you've been checking and checking, saying to yourself, Maggie posts once a week. She's dependable, like a good bowl of oatmeal with cream and brown sugar and maybe even a pat of butter. Where the heck is she?

I've been lounging about like these ladies to the left, sitting on exciting news. Congratulations to Tiffany Chalmers, Vixen Extraordinnaire, on the sale of her exotic, delicious Hidden Beauty! Much better than oatmeal! Tiff is St. Martin's Press's (look at all those esses and apostrophes) latest author. We're pretty excited in the Pleasure Gardens, so drop on by and wish Tiff the best as she begins what will be a long and luscious career.

As for me, I have been madly ripping apart the last seventy-five pages of Paradise (eventually to be re-titled). I said somewhere it's been like drowning kittens. But when I'm done I hope to have a stronger third act. My perfect hero Hart's bad boy side is finally showing itself. I always knew he had it in him. *w* My Courtesan Court trilogy is also making the rounds, so synopses had to be written and a few things tweaked. For a day I was working on four books simultaneously and I'm happy to say my head didn't explode.

What secret have you been keeping? What's making your head explode? Tell all!

Back to the Future

2009-04-24T00:00:00.001-05:00

My husband and I had a delightful time in Sin City. The temps were in the 90s, and I sat slathered in sun block and read Marrying the Captain by Carla Kelly, Cocktails for Three by Madeleine Wickham, Why Mermaids Sing by C.S. Harris, The Secret Wedding by Jo Beverley and Beyond Heaving Bosoms by those smartypants bitches Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell. The latter, a gift from Ely, is a hoot. Since I've been giving major thought to what makes the 'essential' romance, I'm paying careful attention to their theories and themes.

My books fall pretty solidly into what I call the Redemption Range. Everything I've written in the past couple of years features characters who have made mistakes, usually when they were much younger, but have not let the mistakes make them. Oh, there's plenty of guilt and regret to go around, but I'm reminded of the layers necessary to form a pearl. Without the irritant, that mollusk would not secrete the calcium carbonate and conchiolin to create one of nature's beauties. Everything in our past determines who we are today.

I'm looking forward to transforming Paradise's Hart and Eden into lustrous, smooth, layered characters. It's been a while since I reflected on them. Eden's mistakes are rather more spectacular than the usual Regency heroine's, and I'm sure I made a few of my own as I worked on the manuscript. I'll keep you posted.

Read any good books lately? What's your theme?

The Call

2009-04-18T08:00:00.001-05:00

Thanks so much to all of you who stopped by to give me your good wishes! You didn't ask, but I'll tell my Call Story anyway. *g*

It was April 15, that dreaded day for taxes and tea parties. :) I was at work in the high school library. It was quiet, extremely quiet. Usually I have about 25-30 kids and adults working on projects and using computers until 5 P.M. But when I got The Call, I was down to two teenage girls and one of the custodians, who came to take a break and eat a forbidden snack in our back office. Don's a really nice guy. We talk philosophy and non-fiction, politics and family. I'd been out sick for three days with bronchitis, and we had a lot of catching up to do. The school and the country really can't run without us. ;)

Then my cell phone rang. When that happens, I hardly ever answer unless it's a number I know. I don't need to pay for a call that tells me the warranty on my car is expired (duh, it's a 1996 Ford Explorer---I'm surprised the damn thing even starts up in the morning) or that I 'won' a cruise if only I'd pay for it. But I recognized the area code of my agent, Laura Bradford. She'd e-mailed me that something might be in the works for Paradise. So I answered, and she talked. Trade paperback. Berkley Heat. 2-book deal. Summer 2010. Some revisions. We were disconnected TWO TIMES, and I was beside myself. Finally on the third connection, which was still all crackly, we agreed she'd call me at home after work. I kept saying, "I'd make more noise, or talk about sex scenes, but I'm in the library."

When I got off the phone, Don had disappeared. One of the girls---I don't even know her name---was smiling at me. I told her I'd sold a book, and the girls got excited, more excited than I was, because I felt like I'd been hit by a very large, very yellow school bus. I'm just now picking myself up off the road.

I finished Paradise 3 1/4 books ago, in December 2007. My agent and my editor are more familiar now with it than I am, LOL. So, I'm off to reread, revise and tweak. Now I'm really going to Las Vegas.

And btw, do you know what happens when you type 'woman' and 'phone' into Google Images? Hello phone sex!

Wow

2009-04-16T13:05:00.000-05:00

Words kind of fail, so I'll just let this snippet from Publishers Marketplace say it for me:

Maggie Robinson's PARADISE, in which an honorable man in the market for a virtuous wife must address the complication of his late Uncle's ward, who he discovers was also his late Uncle's mistress, the subject of an erotic book called The Education of a Young Lady of Doubtful Virtue and the woman who makes him forget all his good intentions, to Kate Seaver at Berkley Heat, in a nice deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in Summer 2010, by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.
Posted:
April 16, 2009 at 1:05 p.m. Eastern

Thank you, Laura Bradford! Thank you, Kate Seaver! Thank you, best critique partners ever---Elyssa Papa, Tiffany Chalmers and J.K. Coi. Thanks to the wonderful women I've met along the writing road---super-inspiring authors, Pirates. Vagabonds, FanLitters and Bon Bons. Thanks to my family, most especially to my husband, who has done without dinner and matching socks for several years now.

This is beginning to sound like an Academy Awards speech, so I'll stop babbling. Going off to pinch myself and celebrate in Las Vegas. The trip was planned long before recent events, LOL. The laptop is coming along for revisions. See you in a bit!

Do I Dare?

2009-04-13T00:00:00.006-05:00

April is National Poetry Month. This year's poster is kind of subtle, mostly shades of gray, but interesting. It features a foggy wet surface with finger marks dragged through quoting T. S. Eliot: "Do I dare disturb the universe?" It is formidable to think that one's words have the power to alter the universe, but it's true. Just ask Shakespeare, Thomas Paine, Voltaire or Jane Austen. While I don't think anything I write is in the 'disturbing' and 'important' category, I hope to provide a few hours pleasure and release from everyday life.

(And that is a disturbing and important thought. For the book you spend months on---perhaps years---will be read in just a few hours. If writers got paid for the amount of time actually writing, we'd probably be getting invisible fractions of a penny per hour, LOL.)

As you know, I'm back in the risky business of taking a seriously fractured hero and taping him up together in Master of Sin. I need help with Italian (iGoogle!) and psychology. I've got to create a fictional Scottish island too, because my husband says we can't afford the "research" trip to the Outer Hebrides. Heck, I'd settle for the Inner Hebrides. :) But before I get too far into the book, I need to have my feet firmly planted in Andrew Rossiter's universe, where poetry is a luxury and "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

Classical poetry may have fallen out of fashion, but many song lyrics speak to the poetic souls in all of us. Here is humble romance from Jamey Johnson's In Color:

This one is my favorite one---

This is me and grandma in the summer sun

All dressed up the day we said our vows.

You can’t tell it here but it was hot that June,

That rose was red and her eyes were blue.

And just look at that smile,I was so proud

That’s the story of my life---

Right there in black and white.

And if it looks like we were scared to death

Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other

You should have seen it in color.

A picture’s worth a thousand words,

But you can’t see what those shades of gray keep covered.

You should have seen it in color.

Go color your universe! Any lyrics/poems you'd like to post?

You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you. ~Joseph Joubert

Progress Report

2009-04-08T00:00:00.004-05:00

I woke up the other morning at 3 A.M. and there she was, like an even ashier Cinderella. She was tiny, scrawny, brown and dirty. Her hair was a mess, her tongue as sharp as an adder. She was my unlikely heroine for my unlikely hero Andrew, and she was still nameless. I kept thinking of the fabulous Shakespeare Re-Told Taming of the Shrew. Shirley Henderson played Kate, and while a bit over the top, kind of fit my mental profile. So here's when Andrew first meets Miss Peartree:

He tiptoed down the hallway as quietly as he ever had eluding a suspicious wife or husband, coming at last to the kitchen. A raggedy serving girl dressed in what appeared to be stray Tartans and tablecloths was bent over an empty fireplace, a pitiful pile of sticks on the hearth. At the sound of his footstep on the bare slate floor she turned and shrieked.

Some of Andrew’s childhood Gaelic had come back to him the further north he’d come. Immersion with the village women earlier had helped a bit too. “Gabh mo leithsceal.” Excuse me.

“Does bloody anyone in this bloody place speak any bloody English?” the girl muttered.

She looked like a street urchin. Her brown hair was a nest, her pointed, unfashionably brown face was smudged and her brown skirts muddied. She was so very brown. Surely she couldn’t be---

“Miss Peartree?” Andrew asked, praying not.

The little wren’s mouth hung open like a baby bird waiting to be fed. Then she looked like she tasted the worm. “Oh, good lord. Mr. Rossiter?” She curtseyed, nearly tripping on twigs.

A little later on in the day, she became Gemma, because she is a jewel just waiting to be polished.

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night to write?

Wet and Wild

2009-04-04T00:00:00.004-05:00

Some people think baths are yucky. These are the "You're soaking in your own filth" crowd. But I'm definitely in the liquid relaxation line, beginning almost every morning with a steaming hot bath. I don't have to worry about falling down while shaving my legs, and I've got one of those removable showerheads so I can wash and rinse my hair. I've lived in houses with tubs only and houses with showers only. If I had to make a choice, I'd take the house with the tub every time.

Now I know you're asking yourself, "Why the hell is Maggie talking about her personal hygiene routine?" It's simple. I finished Mistress by Marriage on Thursday. And what did I want to do to celebrate? Drink champagne? Eat a pound of chocolate? Nope, I wanted to take another bath, even though it had been only three hours since I took the last one. So I talked myself out of it, because I hadn't done anything to get myself dirty except touch a keyboard and my skin is still kind of dry from the longest winter ever. But now you know my mad method of having fun. I am one wild woman.

What do you do when you finish a big project? Do you prefer to shower or bathe?

There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. ~Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (uh, perhaps not the best bath advocate out there)

Abandon Ship

2009-04-01T00:00:00.004-05:00

In the last couple of weeks, I've put down almost as many books as I've picked up. Yes, I'm picky. Perhaps part of the reason I'm so nonchalant about abandoning them is that I don't have a vested cash interest. Ely paid for them. She and I swap books. I love getting boxes from her that have little stickies on each book with pointed comments: "Not so horrible, just so-so for me," "The best part about this book? The dog on the cover," "Spooge! It's so bad have liquor nearby," "Oy vey, the Scots are coming."

Now, the fact that I can shut a book midway, or skim ahead to the HEA is something new. I used to be a good girl who read every word until the bitter end. Now I operate on the "Life is short so eat dessert first" principle. If something tastes bad or boring to me, that is The End, even if I'm on page 127.

Do you abandon, skim or read the last chapter first? Do you do a book swap or donate your books? (I do both.)

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. ~Albert Einstein (who probably never read a bad romance novel, and who was definitely not an April fool.)

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2009-03-25T00:00:00.001-05:00

Sometimes a child can make you see things a whole different way, simply because she doesn't want to see things a whole different way. Sadie and I were playing with Play-Doh the other day, and she had a fit if I changed the shape of the stuff. Rolled it like a hotdog? Shriek. Flattened it like a pancake? Shriek. Cut it in half? Double shriek. She wanted the purple blob just the same way it came out of the can and was crabby when she couldn't get her way.

Most of us are like Sadie---we want the comfort of our known world. We buy our favorite authors, we watch our favorite shows, we hang out with our favorite friends, we visit our favorite blogs (and thank you if you're reading this). We know what we like, and that's not a bad thing. But I never want to get too comfortable. My next book will be a challenge I hope to pull off. My hero will be kind of unheroic---a morally challenged, damaged man who will be transformed by the love of a good woman (the still first nameless Miss Peartree). What have you done lately to stretch your Play-Doh?

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Job Core

2009-03-18T00:00:00.000-05:00

Not Corps. Don't want you to think I don't know how to spell. My current heroine is a writer of gothic novels, and her writing plays a central role in Mistress by Marriage. This is not the first time I've wound up with a writer-heroine. They do say to write what you know, and when you're stuck in front of the computer, you forget there are other possibilities out there.

One of my very earliest novella characters was a romance writer who didn't believe in love. She got the guy anyway, and had twins to boot. *Snort*. Then there was infamous Kelly King, who wrote several romances simultaneously, much to the dismay of her mixed-up couples.

It's hard to find the proper 'career' for a historical heroine. Writing historicals is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you can get away with all sorts of Uber-Alpha-Maleness and unprotected sex that would be extremely irritating in real life. On the other hand, women were expected to play a very different role in society, and to be true to the era, you really can't have a heroine running around claiming she wants to stay unmarried and be 'independent.' Are you telling me that instead of having a nice warm hero in her bed, she'd rather be at the mercy of her father, her brother or some cross-eyed cousin? I don't think so. Getting the balance right between 21st century sensibilities and 19th century reality is tricky.

What are 'acceptable' activities for your historical heroines? If you write contemporaries, how big a role does employment play in your plot?

March is Women's History Month. Go out and make some!

It's All Greek To Me

2009-03-12T00:00:00.003-05:00

The other day was "Find Out What Your Name Means Day." We celebrate these odd 'holidays' in the library. I post a little sign at the circulation desk and add a book if I've got one. So that day I brought in 20,001 Names for Baby, which I bought long after I had my four kids. I use it for my heroes and heroines, although mostly they pop up in my head with their nametag already on. My name from the Greek means 'pearl.' It is 'one of the standard female names in the Western world.' It's no longer quite so popular, but in my family (on both sides), pretty much everybody was named Margaret, including my mom.

A couple of posts ago, I invited you, my divinely faithful readers, to help me with my next book. Never mind that I still have about 22,000 words to go on the current one. Ding ding ding. We have a winner. Ely suggested Master of Sin for the title, which I love with ever fiber of my pure, pearl-like being. Andrew seems to be sticking as Andrew. In Greek, it means 'masculine.' which is interesting as his backstory is complicated. Miss Peartree has yet to find a first name. I suppose she can stay Miss Peartree for an indefinite number of pages until Andrew gets her out of her laces and into bed. At some point she will give him permission to use her Christian name, whatever it is.

My current hero Edward is Old English for 'wealthy defender,' which suits him nicely. His heroine Caroline is the feminized version of Old Germanic Carl/Charles, which means 'man.' Hmm.

Do you know what your name means? If you don't, I can look it up for you. :) Do you pick your characters' names with a nod towards symbolism? What have you named them?

Words have meaning and names have power. ~Author Unknown

Change of Pace

2009-03-06T16:55:00.008-05:00

This has nothing to do with romance, but something to do with love. I'm so proud of my youngest daughter. She works for the non-profit organization Citizen Schools as a team leader in their after school program in the Boston area. Like many non-profits, Citizen Schools is feeling the pinch of the economic downturn. Campuses have closed, there have been staff layoffs, and kids are at risk. Employees have been asked to raise money, and I'm providing the link to Abby's donation page. Don't worry. You can read her page without money being sucked immediately through the Internet, and find out more about Citizen Schools, too. Any amount, no matter how modest, will be appreciated. Citizen Schools was featured in Time Magazine's 21 Ways to Serve America. Read Abby's story and spread the word!

P.S. I told Abby I was going to put up this post, and she thanked me profusely. Then she squealed. "You mean, it's right above your last post? The one about, um, about..." It's tough to have a romance writer for a mom, LOL.

Talking Dirty

2009-03-04T00:00:00.004-05:00

I'm a big fan of Thesaurus.com. I often have it minimized when I write. Do you know if you type in clitoris, this is what you get?

No results found for clitoris:
Did you mean clamorous?
Thesaurus suggestions:
glorious
culture
glitz

literacy

cauterize
cultural
cultured

I kind of like clamorous. I picture the little erectile organ all party-like, making some kind of insistent squeaky noise. Glorious is great, too. Center of my womanhood and all that. I'm not sure my clitoris is glitzy (shades of the Glittery Hoo-Ha. Do you know my husband called it a hoo-hoo when he was little? I guess he didn't get the memo. My family called it a quincy, which confused the hell out of me when I had to memorize the presidents and came upon John Quincy Adams.) It may be cultured and I'm very grateful it's not cauterized.

Why, you ask, am I even looking clitoris up? It all has to do with literacy.I have been steeped in sex. (Ely says this would be a great name for a soup or perfume.) I have spent a considerable time in recent days lengthening (ha) my sex scenes in the first two Mistress books. Once again my grandmother had scrubbed my mind from any dirt, and the writing results were disappointing. I made my two line and two paragraph scenes turn into two pages. At least. Voila!

I'm never going to be a Tab A/Slot B girl. I skim reading other writers' sex scenes, although I'm sure they suffered and slaved away writing them. I'm more interested in the emotional dynamics of the couple. My agent Laura Bradford sent me a hilarious book for Christmas: The Big Book of Filth. In it is just about every historical slang word for body parts and sexual acts. Somehow I don't think cockshire is going to replace vagina any time soon. I'd rather go with name-it-not and call it good.

Here's the BBOF's 19th century slang for clitoris. There's no jewel or pearl or bud or rose to be found. Please tell me your preference, or suggest your own!

little shame tongue

little ploughman

man in the boat

little old man in the boat (yeah, that makes me feel much better)

button

Sex: the thing that takes up the least amount of time and causes the most amount of trouble. ~John Barrymore

Live It Up

2009-02-28T00:00:00.005-05:00

I'm still on a vacation high, even if it snowed two feet the other day. Yes. Two feet. But I came home filled with a refreshed zest to write and have knocked out thousands of new words on four different projects (amongst them, more spice to the two Courtesan Court books, which my agent likes. Hurray!). My new hero is haunting me, too. If Paradise had a really tortured heroine, this next book is going to have a really tortured hero.

He's Scottish. Bad. Bent. Looks like an angel with golden curls and blue eyes. Right now his name is Andrew Rossiter. The Rossiter stays, but I'm not sure about the Andrew. He's done things he should be ashamed of. Isn't. But his reformation is right around the corner, aided by an Italian-speaking governess (who isn't necessarily Italian) named Miss Something Peartree. And that's all I know so far. I'm kicking titles and names around, and I need help. I'm thinking of Master of Something (to go with the Mistress books). Here's your chance to name my book and my characters. If I ever get published, you'll be in the dedication.

Andrew is not quite a drag queen, but he's crossed a line or two. That's Daughter #2, who encountered these gentlemen on the street in Key West and had the presence of mind to take the picture. Ah. Memories.

Marathon

2009-02-22T19:09:00.004-05:00

No I'm not talking about Marathon Key, although we did drive through it on the way to Key West. The vacation was in so many ways perfect---the weather, the laughter, the girls dancing in the street outside Sloppy Joe's, seeing my handsome son for the first time in almost two years. But while we were away, I never checked e-mail or phone messages. Didn't watch the news or pick up a newspaper. Apparently a lot of stuff happened.

One thing was that my agent requested the first two books in the Courtesan Court trilogy. Paradise has made the rounds. Although it's still out with three houses, the upshot is that the writing's good but the subject matter's too edgy. I knew that it was risky from the get-go (not for nothing do I think of it as "The Bad Book"). But almost everyone who's passed on it wants to see what else I've got. So I spent all day Sunday---over 12 hours---making sure Mistress by Midnight and Mistress by Mistake were all shiny and devoid of those pesky red and green lines in an editing marathon. (If someone knows how to turn off the sentence fragment warning feature, please let me know.)

I'd already done revisions, but wanted to double-check that everything was clean. It was kind of weird. I cried at the sad parts and laughed at the funny parts, as though somebody else had written the books. I don't know what that means, but I'm hoping it will spur me on to finish the third book, Mistress by Marriage. I did indeed lie under the palm trees in Florida in 2009 and contemplate London in 1820, and I'm raring to go.

So, I'm ready to be in limbo again. Or still. Or always. I'll keep you posted.

Do you ever write outside your comfort zone? What plot points turn you off?

On Writing

2009-02-15T07:00:00.001-05:00

True confession. The writing---it's not going so well. Well, that's an exaggeration. It's not going so fast. I've been in the middle of Edward and Caroline's book for almost a month. I love them---it's an 'Opposites Attract' story. Caroline is frisky and feisty and Edward is proud and prickly and there are sparks galore. They are the last book of a trilogy, and I've been analyzing why it seems so difficult to finish. Mistress by Midnight was done in 6 months, Mistress by Mistake in 4. Am I experiencing separation anxiety? I do have something to look forward to---I actually know what I'm going to write next and am relatively enthusiastic about it even though it's all very amorphous.

I didn't start Mistress by Marriage until the beginning of December, so it's not like Edward and Caroline are withering on the vine, their edges curled, their skin fragile. They're still plump and juicy. But I spend many of my waking hours wondering just how to get them to their HEA. So far I haven't a clue.

So I've done something shocking. I took Stephen King's On Writing out of the library. I love this book so much I might have to break down and buy it. Now, I'm the original bumble-around-in-the-dark girl. No helpful hints about craft for me, which explains why I didn't know about GMC and POV for the first three years I wrote. The book, in King's words, is 'snapshots out of focus,' vignettes of his development as a writer. I stopped reading King's fiction somewhere during his alcohol and cocaine-fueled years---the books were becoming progressively darker for me and I do hate waking up in the middle of the night wondering if something is under the bed (besides my first three manuscripts). But he is a brilliant writer (my favorite is The Stand) and still married to his college sweetheart, which I love. He includes a poem his wife wrote in one of the chapters, and to me it was a truly romantic gesture. It is obvious he respects her words and her consistent support. Without her partnership, the first few pages of Carrie would have stayed crumpled up in the trash can.

I've been thinking a lot about support systems. Everyone who visits here (especially the Vixens) is part of mine. My husband is convinced without ever having read one word of my stuff that it's absolutely great (poor sap). My heroine Caroline is a writer, and she's blocked, too. I believe it's time for Edward to overcome his prejudices and help her out. So by writing this blog, I may have uncrumpled a page or two. And major, major public thanks to Elyssa Papa, critiquer extraordinnaire, for reading the first 50,000 words and giving me so much insight into my own characters. I'm bringing her notes with me on vacation this week, where I shall sit by the pool with a drink or two and think about what she wrote. Become inspired. Or drunk. (But that won't be Ely's fault.)

How 'crafty' are you? Do you know what you're writing/reading next?

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

Valentiny

2009-02-13T00:00:00.004-05:00

Come slowly, Eden

Lips unused to thee.

Bashful, sip thy jasmines,

As the fainting bee,

Reaching late his flower,

Round her chamber hums,

Counts his nectars -alights,

And is lost in balms! ~Emily Dickinson

May your Valentine's Day be filled with nectar, kisses and humming chambers.

I generally hate Valentine's Day, though. I keep having flashbacks to grade school, where the number of Valentine cards you got was such a big deal. It didn't get much better as an adult. Once my husband gave me a metal table for the basement so I could fold laundry. He has been since warned that practical presents are prohibited. What's the best/worst gift you've ever gotten?

We Interrupt this Broadcast

2009-02-06T00:00:00.003-05:00

I woke up the other day---just another morning in Maine. Daughter #2 got us the handy-dandy L.L. Bean weather station which is perched on an old-fashioned oak icebox (very fitting) in the hallway. Without stepping outside and squinting, I could see it was minus 13 F. Daughter #1 got me ice creepers to put on my shoes for Christmas, because one morning I slipped under the car as I was brushing snow off it in my driveway. Daughter #3 put a pumice stone in my Christmas stocking for my dry wintry feet.

Enough. These feet are going barefoot during my school's February break. All the schools in Maine shut down for a week for the state basketball tournament. Yes, it's true. And the games are televised. For this old New Yorker, I couldn't quite comprehend it when my husband told me he'd been on television playing high school basketball a thousand years ago. But I've got videotape of Daughter #3 shooting baskets when she captained her high school team, and last year I got to watch my husband make announcements on TV when he served on the Maine Principals' Association tournament committee. Weird or what?

This year, no one's playing or announcing, so we're going to Key West to see Son #1 and Only, and all three girls (and one son-in-law) are sharing a condo with us at the Parrot Key Resort. I'm more than ready to be stunned by the paradisiacal gorgeousness. It will be the first time in over two years that the siblings will all be together. I can't wait.

Of course, the last time we went to Florida, there was an ice storm which completely screwed up our travel plans. I need you all to keep your fingers and toes crossed for me that Mother Nature behaves herself on the 16th. I don't care if we get trapped in some airport on the 20th, so you only have to pray for me once.

How do you feel about winter? Where's your ideal vacation spot? What should I order to drink?

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking. ~Earl Wilson

China Syndrome

2009-01-30T00:00:00.002-05:00

I hit Wal*Mart the day after Christmas 2008, looking for presents for Christmas 2009. I found a cute Santa mug, a Santa plate, some scented candles and ornaments, and a bamboo tray loaded with bath and body products reduced to $7.50. The tray itself was worth that, I reasoned, and I needed a body polisher bad, not to mention bath crystals and a rubber massage thingy. Yes, I bought it for myself, but when I got home and opened it, there was a curious sticker on all the potions and lotions: Do not apply around eyes or lips. Keep out of reach of children. Hmm. So now I'm freaked out, wondering if I'll go blind or kissless...or if the poison will go directly into my bloodstream when I nick myself shaving.

There's been so much talk of dangerous products coming out of China, yet so many items are made there. My Wet n Wild lipstick? Fabrique` en Chine. The wide-mouth thermos my husband got for his lunch? Made in China. My black velour sweater? You guessed it. I read an amusing article about one family who tried to go without buying Chinese products for a year, how difficult it was not only because of prevalence but pocketbook. Things cost a whole lot more when they don't have those three magic words on the label.

And even if what you buy is made/assembled in the U.S., there's this: almost 80 percent of the world’s wheat gluten (found in most breads, cakes and cookies) comes from China, and 80 percent of all sorbic acid (a preservative in almost everything) is made there too. I'll never look at a Twinkie quite the same way again.

In these tough economic times, many people want to buy American, shop locally, shop green, concepts which should be easy but aren't. Most of us are being conservative with our money. As someone who used to easily spend $25 a week on books, I spend much less than that a month now. I haven't been to the movies in ages, or out to dinner anywhere fancier than our local Chinese restaurant, LOL. Yum to chicken lo mein and crab rangoon.

Has the economic downturn affected your entertainment choices? Are you buying fewer books/reading less? Got any tips for stretching my allowance? I'm working on a display for the library and looking for ideas teens can use to consume less and conserve more.

And just because I'm hungry, what do you order when you go out to eat?

Seeing Red

2009-01-23T00:00:00.003-05:00

Those of you who've been my cyberfriends for a while know that Third-Rate Romance, that late lamented novel that spent a year (almost to the day) on an editor's desk (only to be regretfully rejected*), featured a total of five red-headed heroines. (Hmm..perhaps a few heroines too many. But I digress.) My latest project, Mistress by Marriage, mercifully has just one red-headed heroine. As the last in a trilogy featuring a blonde and a brunette, a redhead was obligatory---not to mention reflective of my own three daughters, who look very little alike except for their beautiful smiles.

Redheads are hugely prevalent in romances (hence my choice in the spoof TRR), but did you know they make up only about 2% of Americans? Scotland has the most at 13%. (yay, Jamie Fraser) According to National Geographic, redheads are headed for extinction. Thank goodness for L'Oreal.

I've had two forays into the world of coloring my blonde hair red. The first time, right before I got married, it just looked weird. The second time, about fifteen years ago, I had a strong resemblance to Ronald McDonald. The hairdresser who colored my hair on Saturday called me up that night at home and opened up her shop for me on Sunday morning to fix it. I was so stunned when she was done Saturday, I was speechless, but she didn't miss the look of shock and possibly tears welling in my eyes. So I've learned my lesson to admire redheads from afar and in fiction.

Good thing that I have this lovely site to look at them in nineteenth century art. Enjoy!

Do you have any hair disasters to report? Written about a redhead? Any rejections (see below) to share?

*Sorry you had to wait so long and sorry to say no. Third Rate Romance was very clever and often quite funny---I just can't see how to market it to romance readers, who, as a rule, do not like their beloved genre mocked, except maybe on websites like Smart Bitches Trashy Books or Rip My Bodice. Satire, even one as affectionate and witty as this, has always been a tough sell and it's tougher than ever these days.

But please keep us in mind for other projects. I like your originality and I like your style. Best of luck.

Scent Sense

2009-01-17T00:00:00.002-05:00

We all know that the five senses are important to writing. I never feel I incorporate them enough. While I'm primarily a visual person in RL, I'm pretty sensitive to scents, and love to wear perfume. Unfortunately the woman I work with is allergic, so I've abandoned my Chanel No. 5 in the interest of keeping my job. The most aromatic I get on weekdays is from applying Gold Bond Skin Therapy Lotion, which works wonders on my dry elbows and feet. It has a very pleasant smell that so far has not made my boss sneeze. But I miss eau de cologne.

My first grown-up perfume was Arpege by Lanvin. My parents always bought it for me for Christmas, but I can't even remember what it smells like anymore. I was a Charlie girl in college (cheaper), tried Shalimar but it stuffed me up. Chanel No. 5 and 19 are old favorites, but I also loved something called Champagne, which had to change its name because of conflict with the wine trademark. I've worn Beautiful and Sunflowers and Green Tea. I like floral and citrussy things, but can't deal with musk. One whiff of something and I can be instantly transported to a different time and place. Who will ever forget the sharp tang of Clearasil at a high school dance or the soft scent of baby powder on a little bottom?

My interest in aroma must be genetic. Distant relations manufactured Murray and Lanman's (my maiden name) Florida Water, which has a pretty bottle. (That monkey above thinks so too. The illustrations here are from vintage advertising cards.) In doing research on the product, I've discovered some people use it in witchcraft rites. I don't think my dead relatives would approve. *g* I prefer something less spiritual on the men in my life---Old Spice will do just fine. My current hero Edward's signature scent is lime; his heroine Caroline wears jasmine.

Are you a perfume person? What do your characters smell like? What's your favorite scent? I love fresh-cut lemons and oranges. Peonies and lilacs. Raspberries and blackberries. Coconut sun lotion and ocean breezes. Fall leaves and summer rain.

Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume. ~Jean de Boufflers

Shakespeare in Like

2009-01-10T16:12:00.006-05:00

I Brake for Culture

I was an English major. My college even tapped me for the English honorary society. I took a million English courses, but just one in Shakespeare in my sophomore year. I had a dreadful teacher who must have been in the middle of a bad divorce or something. He seemed to hate Shakespeare, students, and women in particular. I have absolutely no recollection of a damn thing except I got a B. It might even have been a B-, the bastard.

I've pretty much avoided reading Shakespeare since then, but I've been to numerous stage productions and movies, even the highly energetic and amusing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) in London. I recently spent a delightful Saturday afternoon watching some of the BBC's Shakespeare Retold mini-series, watching Much Ado About Nothing and Taming of the Shrew in nine nine-minute increments on YouTube at my computer instead of writing like I was supposed to. Set in modern-day England, the familiar plots got a distinctive twist. If you have the patience and frugality to follow my example, I highly recommend you do so, if only to enjoy luscious Rufus Sewall in high-heeled boots and eye makeup. Or you can order the whole four-part series on Netflix like a normal person.

Fess up. What classic English literature have you shunned?

Balancing Act

2009-01-07T00:00:00.009-05:00

I'm not juggling quite so many balls as I used to. No kids at home, no elderly parents to take care of, no 4,000 square foot house to clean. No smelly basset hound, no volunteering. I only work 27 1/2 hours a week, although believe me, it feels like 40+. So why does it seem there aren't enough hours in the day to do things?

Since it's a new year, I'm supposed to make New Year's Resolutions. But when I make them, I always break them. I'm not good at setting limits and goals, and I hate the guilty feeling I get when I fall short of my own expectations. But there is one thing I was determined to do before 2009.

Clean my closet. My seasonal-appropriate clothes are all in the small bedroom I call the Writing Room. (Note the capital letters---it's where Important Issues are Addressed, as well as where I get dressed every morning.). My desk wasn't so bad, but the closet---let's just say I lost my favorite red handbag in there for a year and had to go out and buy another red handbag because every woman should have a red handbag. The initial impetus for the Pre-New Year's Resolution was to search for the black tank top and the black sweater that I knew was in there somewhere. I won't bore you with a list of the other stuff I found, but it was an educational experience. So now I'm ready to face the new year, a lot smarter and dressed in black.

What have you been putting off in your own life that you're determined to tackle in 2009? (My dresser is next, I promise.) How are your writing goals coming along? What's in your closet? Do you own a red handbag?

Many congratulations to Stephanie, who is the randomly selected winner of my MRMR Second Birthday/Anniversary contest! Please e-mail your mailing address to maggierobinson8@yahoo.com Many, many thanks to all of you who visit and comment. My year would not be the same without you.

Happy Birthday and Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T00:00:00.001-05:00

No, it's not my birthday. That's October 8. I'm a Libra: diplomatic and urbane, romantic and charming, easygoing and sociable, idealistic and peaceable. Sounds just like me. (Perfect, right? Not like the Libra negatives:indecisive and changeable, gullible and easily infuenced, flirtatious and self-indulgent, which cut a little too close to the bone.)

But it's MRMR's second anniversary, which makes this blog a Capricorn:practical and prudent, ambitious and disciplined, patient and careful,humorous and reserved. (The dark side of Capricorn says pessimistic and fatalistic,miserly and grudging, but my idealistic Libra self won't pay any attention to that. My husband is a Capricorn, by the way. Pity me.)MRMR---two whole years of me nattering on and on on the Internet. Amazing. Or something.

So, it's time to celebrate the New Year and this portentious anniversarial event with the promised naked men and a contest. What's your sign, baby? How true are its attributes to you? Do you read your horoscope every day? Do you believe in the Zodiac or think it's a bunch of B.S.? I'm reading Gallileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel right now. When Gallileo discovered new heavenly bodies, it didn't only just affect the Catholic Church and its earth-centric teachings. All doctors in Gallileo's time were well-versed in astrology, as they needed to cast their patients' horoscopes and mix up their medicines 'at the right time.' With new stuff in the sky, they had to throw out their charts and start fresh. Just another reason to be grateful to live in the 21st century and get our drugs on demand in the drive-thru instead of waiting for the moon to be in Venus or wherever.

One commenter will get some things from my romance stash, and a book thong made with my very own romantic---if clumsy---hands.

Happy New Year (and happy birthday today, Terri)! Party all week long and check back on January 7 when I announce the winner and ponder the wonders of the universe without a telescope.

New Year's Day is every man's birthday. ~Charles Lamb

Tis the Season

2008-12-20T01:37:00.014-05:00

Sitting under the mistletoe

(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),

One last candle burning low,

All the sleepy dancers gone

Just one candle burning on,

Shadows lurking everywhere:

Some one came, and kissed me there.

Tired I was; my head would go

Nodding under the mistletoe

(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe)

No footsteps came, no voice, but only,

Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely,

Stooped in the still and shadowy air

Lips unseen - and kissed me there. ~ Walter de la Mare

Lots of Christmas kisses! Have a great holiday! I'll be taking some time off for good behavior (yours, not mine).See you next on December 31, when I celebrate the second anniversary of mis-named Maggie Robinson Means Romance. There will be a prize! Virtual champagne and cake and confetti! Naked men!

What are you asking Santa for this year? Do you have a favorite kiss you'd like to share to make us all dreamy?

Wrong Number

2008-12-13T01:50:00.006-05:00

I hate the phone. For somebody who considers herself a communicator, who talks to the public all day long, who actually worked for New York Telephone for a year, I am surprisingly shy. When I come home, I don't answer the phone. I've turned into my grandmother, who grew up without a phone, and always viewed the instrument with considerable suspicion. Convinced that someone had died or wanted to sell her something, she wouldn't answer it, and this was in the day before voice-mail. Who knows what opportunities Granny missed?

We just got new phones for the house, as the Caller I.D. conked out on the old ones, like an Etch-a-Sketch that had lost its magnetization. Numbers were unrecognizable and when I missed a call from my son in Florida, I knew it was time to head to Wal*Mart. I do talk to my kids---quite happily and frequently---but for most of the rest of the world, I'm incommunicado. Shoot me an e-mail. Send me a letter. Knock on my door if you have to. Just don't call me up and expect me to chat. I may get The Call and never know it, LOL. And don't even ask about my cell phone, which is never charged.

I'm a changed woman from my high school and college days, when I'd talk for three or four hours at a stretch. About everything. About nothing. I still love my friends, but I'm giving them a Christmas card instead of a Christmas call. My kids complain that they always have to call me, and it's true. As the perfect mom, I don't intrude on their lives. When they're bored or want something, they've got my number.*g*

I wonder if I've turned off the phone because I'm so steeped in the nineteenth century. Love letters played an important part in Mistress by Mistake. Now, a love letter---that I could live with.

Phone-phobic or chatterbox? Do you text? I don't do that either. I will be calling my oldest daughter Sarah on December 13, her birthday!

If The Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me. ~Song title by Jimmy Buffet

Word Up

2008-12-06T02:01:00.004-05:00

I used the words "miasma of evil' the other day to describe the rather unsubtle aroma and ambience that was to be found in one of the rooms of my house. My husband was impressed and challenged me to use it in one of my books, where I promptly told him I already had.

I had great English teachers who made us memorize all sorts of fancy words that one rarely has a chance to use, and after all these years, they seem to be bestirring in my brain. My current heroine is a writer, and here is her situation:

She felt an enormous pit of emptiness, which she would only dig deeper when Edward came tonight. And he must come. If he didn’t---

Well, she’d simply go on. Alone, alone, alone.

My, but she was being maudlin. Positively lachrymose. Lugubrious. Sepulchral. She spent much of her time with a dictionary handy trying to broaden her vocabulary for her novels. One had a duty to educate one’s readers after all.

Most of us don't read with a dictionary handy, though. What do you do when you come across an unfamiliar (obscure, recondite) word or phrase? Do you skip it, look it up or try to figure it out on your own? What's your favorite fancy/weird word?

I like the word "indolence." It makes my laziness seem classy. ~Bern Williams

Cup of Bitch to Go

2008-12-01T01:45:00.007-05:00

I used to wake up and bounce out of bed with a smile on my face. I still wake up, but my bouncing and smiling days are over. I am such a bitch in the morning. Don't talk to me. Don't interrupt me. Let me get my breakfast and leave me the f*** alone. Somewhere below I posted my morning routine, but I neglected to add that my sunny self does not appear until rather late---10:30 A.M. in fact, when I must (wo)man the circulation desk at the high school library. I am sweet as sugar then, because lots of kids need to be smiled at.

My poor husband has only recently discovered he married a BIM (no BO, just Bitch in Morning). Our schedules have changed lately, and he actually gets to see me before I put on my lipstick and my smile. Poor guy, he wants to talk. Fat chance. I want to drink my tea, read my blogs and write.

For the last book in my Courtesan Court Trilogy, Mistress by Marriage, I've decided to use my crankiness as a plot point. What happens when opposites DO NOT attract? Nothing good so far. My heroine Caroline has been banished by her husband to live on the most infamous street in London. How they patch up their differences is as yet unknown, as I am a Pantser-Plus. But it's going to be fun to figure it out, and maybe I'll learn how to manage my own marriage a little better. (For a sneak peek of the new WIP, you can read the first few paragraphs here.)

Yes, I finished writing Mistress by Mistake yesterday, almost 4 months from the date I started.

93,175 words. D-U-N. Yahoo!

Beauty or Bitch in the A.M.?

Thank you. Thank you very much.

2008-11-24T00:00:00.002-05:00

In the immortal words of Elvis, I thank you faithful MRMR readers very much for accompanying me on my writing journey. I'm off to catch the turkey so I can put a cute hat on it before I eat it. Have a wonderful holiday with the ones you love (and even those you merely tolerate because you're related to them in some way. Just drink plenty of wine.).

Tofurkey or the real thing? Sweet potatoes or mashed? Pumpkin pie or apple? What's on the menu? Who's cooking? What's your favoritest thing to be thankful for? I say Sadie and Juliette and my four kids. And happy birthday today to Jessie, my Thanksgiving baby!

Fur Real

2008-11-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

The calendar may not yet mark winter, but I live in Maine, and I'm cold. It's supposed to snow this week. Ugh. I'm in my red LL Bean 3-in-1 jacket, gloves in the pocket.

Years ago I had a silver fox fur jacket that I bought at a vintage clothing store in Greenwich Village, but I wouldn't dream of buying a fur coat now---not only because of the money, but because of the ickiness of it all. Yes, I eat meat and wear leather shoes. But somehow the idea of wearing dead little woodland creatures has lost its appeal.

My husband tried to buy me a mink coat once. We lived in Connecticut, and every single woman in our circle of friends had one. He sat back in a plush chair in the store as a saleswoman brought out coat after coat. As glam as I felt in chocolate brown fur that matched my eyes (that's the saleswoman talking), I couldn't do it.

My mother had one of those hideous snapping mink stoles that scared the bejesus out of me when I was little. Full bodies. Beady little eyes. Jaws biting onto tails and paws. Shudder.

Yet I've dressed my historical heroines in fur-lined cloaks. They've had fur hats and tippets and muffs. There was no PETA then. Nobody was throwing buckets of red paint around in protest. Fur is fine in fiction. Historicals give you a little leeway in the political correctness department.

What have you run across reading that would be icky in real life but that's just ducky to read about? How do you feel about fur?

No one in the world needs a mink coat but a mink. ~Murray Banks

Book giveaway! The utterly fabulous, desperately delightful Eloisa James guest blogs tomorrow, November 20 on Vauxhall Vixens! Be sure to visit!

Words of Wisdom

2008-11-13T03:13:00.003-05:00

We all know that the Internet has enhanced the romance community in a fabulous way. When I first started to write, I knew absolutely nothing about anything. I'd even stopped reading romances. So I gingerly clicked for advice, finding Jenna Peterson's Passionate Pen, which is a great, generous place for aspiring writers. In the intervening years I've had online and e-mail contact with some of the best names in the business. It never ceases to amaze me that Eloisa James wrote back to me about flawed heroes or that Karen Hawkins complimented me on a snippet I wrote or that Christine Merrill appreciated a comment I left about her. She's even sent me her latest, Miss Winthorpe's Elopement. A couple of the things she said really resonated:

So if you’ve got an agent to love you, don’t worry too much on what’s ahead. Really, I think that editor rejections are much easier to take than criticism from the unpublished, who can be unmerciful. Editors tend to break things down into “will make money” or “won’t make money”. Good or bad doesn’t enter into it as often as it should. And nothing works for everyone, so don’t worry on that account. The stronger your voice, the more likely you are to get off the wall criticism. So the out of left field, sand-bagging can be written off as ‘not your reader’.

In another e-mail she writes:

In my experience, you are in the worst stage of the writing/publishing process. The spot right before you sell is a lot harder than anything, IMHO. And it feels like it goes on forever, while everyone around you gets a call.

There’s the learning curve, where you have to figure out how to write, and you suck but don’t know it, and get a bunch of rejections.

And there’s all the stuff that published people whine about, like reviews and sales numbers.

But in between there’s the point where you reach a level of competence sufficient to write a good saleable book, but the rejections are still coming. It’s not like your craft won’t continue to improve as long as you write. But I think the style can mature years before the market is ready to buy. Or maybe it all happens over night. There’s really no telling. And it’s hard because you won’t be able to make the changes that some of the editors will be looking for, because they either won’t serve you story, or they will be just plain crazy. If you have an agent who gets your work, that is half the battle.

But welcome to limbo. When it feels crazy, remember, it’s not your fault.

Word to live by! I knew I was innocent, LOL! In my ivory tower, AKA writing room, I'm apt to forget writing is a business as well as an art.(*snort*...forgive my hubris...I know I'm not Jane Austen) In this iffy economy, there might not be an HEA for every writer. But I'm willing to keep trying and typing until "The End."

Here's hoping there's an HEA for Vauxhall Vixen Tiffany Chalmers, who just signed with the Cornerstone Literary Agency! Yay, Tiff! Welcome to limbo!

And here's a chance to give kudos to your real-life writer heroines who inspire you. What have you read lately that you love? Go read Christine Merrill's books right this instant! I can't wait to dive into Miss Winthorpe's Elopement. But first---I am finally reading Outlander. I know, where have I been? Only 410 pages to go....

Opening the Vein

2008-11-08T00:28:00.003-05:00

I’ve entered very few writing contests: the Golden Heart last year (where one judge gave me a perfect 9 and another a 2), two where I won first and third place, and two where I didn’t final. I’m grateful for the feedback, even when I feel a little like a yo-yo, going from one extreme to another. The most recent (and probably the last) contest I entered is a case in point. The perfect score was 99. My scores? 94, 82.5, and 65. That’s a 29-point difference between the high and low numbers.

I’m in full disclosure mode. I’ve condensed the judges' most salient comments into one paragraph each.

Judge #1:The writing is quite good. You have an easy, readable writing style, and the first page was wonderful and engaging. Your writing style is engaging and fun to read, and I really appreciate that you are giving me just as much backstory as I need to understand and pique my interest, but not so much as to make me roll my eyes. Great job! The dialogue is generally good, but there is too much irrelevant conversation and narrative. I find my attention span drifting for the most part. The characters don’t have distinct voices, either, and so I am at a bit of a loss. I suggest that you take a hard look at what you are writing and ask yourself whether every sentence—every sentence, mind you—pushes your story forward. If it doesn’t, delete it. Because, as a reader, I only care about the story. Everything else bores me. Of course, tastes differ, and you will likely get different responses from other people, but to me, this does not sound like a book I would like to read.
(M.R.:Ouch. Edging into the cave. Whimpering.)

Judge #2:The author has a WONDERFUL voice. I enjoyed this story very much. At first, I was a little confused as to exactly what was going on, and not entirely clear as to why the H & H couldn’t be together, but better understood the conflict as the tale unfolded. There are a few places where the author gives quite a lot of back story, which slows the pace in those parts. Some judicious tightening would help. Overall, she does such an excellent job of description that I was quite intrigued. The young H&H are delightful and reminded me of Heathcliff and Catherine before she was made to be a lady. This author has amazing descriptive ability. What areas do you feel need improvement? Not a thing. This entry is ready for publication!
(M.R.: peeking out of cave to catch the ray of sunlight.)

Judge #3:I found the first scene gripping. Great tension. I think you are a strong writer. I think the writing is strong and the first scene was very tense and drew me right in. I liked the heroine in particular – especially during the first scenes. She was very strong and you made me really curious about what had gone on in the past between these two characters to make her decide to accept his proposition. I simply didn’t buy the conflict or think it was big enough to carry a novel. I feel like the story is a little too predictable, and that the conflict could be too easily resolved with a couple of frank conversations.
(M.R.: Frankly, I’m not going to enter any more contests!)

The same manuscript evoked three distinct reactions. I may not agree with all the points (except for Judge #2, LOL), but they remind me how subjective writing is. Just enough backstory. Too much backstory. Great description. So much description my eyes are glazing over and I hate your book. All I can do is keep writing. Easy, right?

Do you enter contests? Are you doing the Golden Heart this year? Are you curled up in your cave like me or ready to take the leap?

There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. ~Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith

We the People

2008-11-05T20:11:00.003-05:00

Other people will be far more eloquent than I could ever be about the historical significance of the 2008 presidential election. But I thank the suffragettes who made my vote possible, and thank the American people who voted for hope. Now it's time to get back to writing!

Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence. ~Lin Yutang

Pounding the Keys

2008-11-01T01:09:00.006-05:00

I'm wearing my fat pants. After a rainy summer spent indoors on my protuberant posterior writing (and apparently eating) like a fiend, I have discovered the 10s and 12s of yesteryear do not fit. Oh, I can get them on. Barely. The question is, do I want to spend six hours in the library in them, afraid to bend down to put a book on the bottom shelf? Rrrrip.

Coincidentally, my current heroine Charlotte Fallon is on the fluffy side. The painting to the right was my inspiration for her. She's short and very curvy. Her hero, a frustrated artist, loves nothing better than to get her naked and sketch her. Well, actually, he loves nothing better than to get her naked. The sketching comes after, or before, depending on the scene. I've noticed heftier heroines in several books, and I'm so glad. I've been fluffy all my life, save for three years in my early twenties when I didn't ever eat potatoes and weighed 125 for about a week and a half. Pass the home fries, please.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What are your characters' physical "flaws?" Do you want to smack down those perfect heroines in fiction and RL? Are you currently on a diet? Any tips for me?

Witchy Woman

2008-10-25T04:12:00.008-05:00

Let's be honest. It's a whole bunch of fun to create characters who always say and do the right things. And even when they say and do the wrong things, it's because you made them that way.

Writing is like casting the ultimate spell. We have the power to turn our craziest fantasies into fiction. Dress up our protagonists in costumes. We have so much more control over our heroes and heroines than we do our kids or significant others or our friends. I suppose in some ways writing is like playing dolls or "let's pretend" for grown-ups.

As a kid, I'd go into my family's only bathroom and imagine all sorts of scenarios. It was the only room with a lock in the house. Needless to say, I did not make myself too popular with the three other people who lived there. But in my wildest imagination, I never would have foreseen that umpty-ump years later, I'd be writing books. I used to get criticized for "dreaming." Now I consider it my job to dream.

Still, it's not always easy to get your characters to cooperate fully. Sometimes they have dreams of their own. They surprise you on the page. They say things you didn't think of. They even change their names. Take Sir Michael Xavier de Bayard in Mistress by Mistake. He just didn't like the"de." Too French. He fought the Frogs valiantly in the Peninsular War and was going to distance himself, no matter his Norman ancestry. He's now just Sir Michael Xavier Bayard, Bay to his friends.

He was Major Sir Michael Xavier de Bayard to me long before he ever consented to be in the current book---originally he was supposed to escort a freckled young widow and her teenage pupil from India to England in quite another story, but he was having none of that. The logistics were onerous. There were going to be elephants. Uprisings. Swarms of locusts. Desert sands. Altogether too much research about Mr. Waghorn's overland route. The teenage pupil had designs on him too, and he thought that was awkward and undignified. He has now happily retired from the army and has a fine oceanfront property in Dorset, where he is busy falling in love with his new heroine Charlotte Fallon, who is not the freckled young widow Delia Winters at all. I think we all share the relief except for the naughty schoolgirl Alice, who was last seen in her shift up in a banyan tree in the seventeen abandoned unnamed pages where she and Major Sir Michael and Delia made their ill-fated debut.

So, how are your love potions bubbling along? Is your wand working or do you want to recharge the batteries? Are your characters behaving? Time to bitch, witches. And have a Happy Halloween!

Good Morning

2008-10-18T05:30:00.004-05:00

5:00-6ish A.M.: Hands are numb. Painful. Carpal tunnel alert. Get up. Brush down hair, which looks like I've been electrocuted by John in the night. Potty. Pills.

In the kitchen: Boil water for tea. Toast toast. Butter. Honey or jam. Carry this gourmet treat to writing room.

Writing room: Power up the Dell. Check two e-mail accounts. Respond when necessary. Read New York Times, Bangor Daily News and Lewiston Sun Journal online. Depressed now. Check MRMR and Vauxhall Vixens. Romance Writer's Revenge. Romance Vagabonds. Several other romance/writing blogs. (Hey, Tessa! Originals! Links on sidebar.) Cheer up. Look at weather. Wonder what to wear for work. Read some political sites, which make me grateful I took my blood pressure meds. Pray. Open up Mistress by Mistake. Stare. Read back a few pages. Sometimes type something.

9ish: How the hell did it get so late? Bathe, dress, leave for work by ten.

And these are the first 4 or 5 hours of my day. It takes that long before I'm fit to join the madding crowd.

How do you get yourself started in the morning? When's your writing time?

I'll tell you how the sun rose a ribbon at a time. ~Emily Dickinson

A Voyage of Discovery

2008-10-11T05:34:00.004-05:00

Things have changed a great deal since I was in school, or even when I taught school. Columbus Day is now not the shiny happy day off it once was. Historians have discovered many unpleasant truths about Chris and his impact on the new world. But I'm not here to argue national pride or genocide. I'm going to talk about my own exploration as a writer. This post was inspired by Pirate Sin over at the Romance Writer's Revenge. Believe me, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria have met their match with Captain Hellion's crew.

Although I dabbled as an English major who wrote bad poetry and indifferent short stories, it wasn't until five years ago I was compelled to wake up in the middle of the night and write. (See? Two examples of bad poetry in this post already.) I believe I've gone on record that my first "book" was 23,000 words. Who knew Word had a word-count feature? You must remember I grew up typing term papers on an old Royal upright that my father bought at the Salvation Army and I would have to hand-count each and every word. The 'e' key stuck. (Any idea how often you type the 'e?' You watch Wheel of Fortune, I'm sure. ) It was a huge deal when Dad went to the Salvation Army again and found an electric typewriter when I was in college. Welcome to the 20th century! My adult jobs did not require much computer literacy. Exploring the computer has been a challenge but I've finally figured out how to get 25 lines per page and turn off the widows and orphans feature.

It took a good three years and three books for me to follow the map without running aground. The last two years have been buffeted by strong, favorable winds and better friends, who've shared their expertise, hopes, dreams, frustrations and support. I've discovered I'm not alone, bobbing in circles in the middle of the ocean. I may not ever reach my destination, but the trip itself has been worthwhile.

So thanks to all of you in the flotilla with me. Godspeed and safe harbor.

How long have you been on your writing journey? Do you navigate by stars or compass? Ever feel like throwing yourself overboard? What New World have you accidentally discovered?

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. ~André Gide

Untangled

2008-10-04T03:09:00.002-05:00

"I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair...."

I don’t know about you, but it drives me crazy when I run out of cream rinse when I’ve still got plenty of shampoo left. I mean, I went to a lot of trouble buying two plastic bottles of cheap shampoo/conditioner that smell alike (this round it’s Tropical Coconut, in attempt to imagine I’m on a beach somewhere with a pina colada. Or two.) So because I was a writing recluse this summer (see post somewhere below), I decided to skip using cream rinse so that eventually the bottles would match up. I was on vacation and the only people I saw regularly were an eleven-month-old baby, the postmistress, the lady at the library (who should really cruise the Miss Clairol aisle), and my husband, who doesn’t care what my hair looks like as long as it's not too short.

I’m just grateful I have some hair left. It’s a lot thinner than it used to be (I blame having four children), and bends funny. The strangest thing---it’s actually looking better since I’m not ‘replenish[ing] the natural beauty of [my] hair with this special formula combining humectants and vitamin E’ with cream rinse. What is a humectant anyway? So I’m making do with the cheap shampoo and a dollop of styling cream, which has fruit micro-waxes. Umm, Delicious.

Hair is such a funny thing. Here are dead cells which somehow bring us to life when they're looking good. Hair in fiction is important, too. In the historicals I read and write, hair fanned across the pillow or cascading in satiny curls is de rigueur. Long hair does seem to have power over men. I wear my hair in a longish bob with bangs, so my power is limited, LOL.

What's your style? Do you have preferences when it comes to the hero's/heroine's hair color? What have you given up that you thought you couldn’t live without? What do you absolutely have to have to write?

Fall in Love

2008-09-27T09:38:00.002-05:00

Summer has been officially over for days. As much as I enjoy two months off from work, fall is my favorite season. This probably stems from the fact I always liked school. (The new clothes! The new notebooks and pencils! Turning over a new leaf, ha ha.) Plus, my birthday's coming up. While it no longer holds quite the excitement it used to, I am grateful for every new year.

Here in Maine, the leaves are indeed turning. And falling. The nights are cold enough to crank the heat up. I'm still stubbornly clinging to capri pants and sandals for work, but pretty soon I'll have to find matching socks.

What's your favorite season? Does the time of year play any part in your books? The trilogy I'm working on starts in the late spring/summer of 1820. I'm going to see if I can't get the last book into the fall and crunch some leaves underfoot!

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

Banned Aid

2008-09-20T07:15:00.005-05:00

I just finished putting up the display in the library for Banned Books Week, which is September 27-October 4 this year. "Closing books shuts out ideas" is the theme. I found several other quotes---"Free people read freely," for example. Here's a list of the ten most challenged books of 2007:

1) “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

2) The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence

3) “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language

4) “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman Reasons: Religious Viewpoint

5) “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain Reasons: Racism

6) “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language

7) "TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

8) "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou Reasons: Sexually Explicit

9) “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit

10) "The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

We have eight of them in our high school library, and lots more that hit the Top 100 Banned Books list year after year. To see them, click here.

Locally, a woman recently stole a sex-education book from a Maine public library, claiming it was pornographic. She refused to return it or pay for its replacement, so her pastor did. Interestingly enough, several library patrons replaced the book and there are about six copies now instead of one. With the revelation that the Republican vice-presidential candidate asked her town's librarian the "rhetorical question" (I believe she meant hypothetical question) on how one went about banning books, Banned Books Week has taken on an even greater interest to me.

The image of a librarian is a conservative one---the glasses, the bun, the sensible shoes so one can creep up behind miscreants who are defacing books. But beneath that veneer lies the wildly beating heart of a libertarian. I don't have a Masters in Library Science, but I believe I have the right to make my own decisions as to what I read, or , when they were younger, what my children read. I agree with Granville Hicks who said "A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to." I'll leave you with some other thoughts to ponder.

"I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man."-- Thomas Jefferson

"Censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretense, has always been and always be the last resort of the boob and the bigot."-- Eugene O'Neill

"Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose."-- George Orwell

"Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime."-- Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart

Getting off the soapbox now. Go read a banned book!

Pulling Up Weeds

2008-09-13T16:14:00.007-05:00

We had to tear out the tomato plants the other day. Maine was very rainy this summer, and even though there were lots of green and pink globes on the vine, they were rotting and bug-infested. Being the cautious soul I am, I wanted to look over each one, just to make sure. My beloved husband just ripped them out and threw them into the woods.

This approach to the tomato plants can be viewed on so many levels. Me: I make excuses, I live in hope. Venus. Him: Scorched earth, take no prisoners. Mars.

I wonder how people can see the same things but interpret them so differently. This political season is particularly rife with diametrically opposed viewpoints. I wonder what it is about my face that indicates I'd like to engage in debate. I'm an independent voter, so there's no bumper sticker on my car. I don't wear buttons or partisan T-shirts. But I listened politely as the furnace repairman lectured me on socialism in my basement yesterday. I kind of wondered what century he was living in. Just last week the copier repairman gave me the same spiel in the faculty room at school. There must be something in the toner or on talk radio.

But getting rid of the bad tomatoes reminds me of editing. Sometimes you just have to delete the words. Root out the evil. Vote the bums out.

I have a bumper sticker now.

Is this campaign season affecting you? Are you a proponent of the Venus-Mars theory? How did your garden grow?

Webbed Foot

2008-09-09T04:14:00.004-05:00

I had the shock of my life yesterday. Well, perhaps I exaggerate---I write fiction, that's what I do. I visited my agent's website to look over the list of her authors. I wanted to check out their websites. Despite an aborted effort trying to build my own (can anyone say decisive, diffinitive disaster at least 10 times?), I'm still curious about more of a web presence than this blog. I clicked under 'Our Authors.' There I was, Maggie Robinson, listed alphabetically by first name, with a link to this blog! So you could go there, and get right back here! It made my whole writing journey feel more real somehow. Thank you, Laura Bradford!

So once I get domain name issues straightened out (there are other Maggie Robinsons out there), I'd like to become a www. What makes a good writer's website? Any advice appreciated.

I'm Singing Her Song!

2008-09-05T06:13:00.005-05:00

Congratulations to critique partner and Vixen Extraordinnaire Tiffany Kenzie for finaling in the Melody of Love Contest with Jinan (Hidden Beauty)! Yay, Tiff! Let the harem girls dance!

Update! The results are in for the Golden Claddagh Contest. More congratulations are in order for Elyssa Papa's second-place win in the contemporary category for Take a Chance on Me! My Mistress by Midnight came in third in the historical division. Bring on more dancing girls!

Fooling Around

2008-08-29T06:15:00.002-05:00

I've been killing some time lately---just like I said I wouldn't---with MySpace. My site has undergone some schizophrenic renovations lately, from the Corinthians love quote to paintings to pink wallpaper. I've settled (for now) on a blue and white pattern, and decided to jazz it up with a slide show. Some of my artistic inspirations for my heroines and settings are hereby presented for your perusal. Enjoy! And have a safe, fun Labor Day weekend!

Pesky Real Life

2008-08-25T04:54:00.005-05:00

School starts today. My days of lounging around in my bathrobe typing or sitting in the garden reading are over. I am actually going to have to get dressed and go back to work, smile at a couple of hundred people every day and try to remember how to do things I've forgotten how to do over the summer.

But the most challenging thing will be to keep up the pace of my writing. Lately I've gone a little bonkers, writing thousands and thousands of words a day. This is NOT like me, LOL. The other day I got notes from my agent (I'm sorry---I'm officially insufferable. I go around saying "my agent" all day long *g*). There were about 35 pages of Paradise that needed one thing or another--- some just a word change, some lengthening of scenes (those would be my short sex scenes, because somewhere, my dead grandmother is blocking my creativity). I wound up adding 5,000 words (and no, they weren't all sex). Now it's back to Mistress by Mistake.

Are you writing every day? Do you have set word count goals? Is pesky real life (or your dead grandmother) getting in the way of your creativity? Got any tips for sex scenes?

Sign Me Up

2008-08-18T04:01:00.000-05:00

It's been a wild week. I am thrilled to announce that Laura Bradford of the Bradford Literary Agency has offered to represent me and Paradise! According to Publishers Marketplace, she's ranked #2 on their list of top dealmakers in romance fiction. Even after I babbled like a complete, consummate, crazed idiot on the phone for forty-five minutes, she didn't change her mind. I'll be doing some tweaking to get it ready. Cross your fingers, toes and eyes.

In other news, I made it through the first revisions of Mistress by Midnight. I also entered it into another contest. I'm 1/3 of the way through Mistress by Mistake, too. (That's 32,600 words in two weeks.) And I've worked on the premise for the 'Courtesan Court' trilogy.I've actually plotted! Not a lot, but still. *g* I'd have to say the summer was pretty good writing-wise, even if it rained a lot. The weather kept me indoors hunched over a hot keyboard. ;)

But one of the best things to happen this past week was to talk on the phone to one of my Vauxhall Vixens critique partners, Elyssa Papa. She and Tiffany Kenzie and J.K. Coi have been so super supportive! (and they put up with my alliteration too) I don't know what I'd do without them. They even sent me a basket with wine and goodies to celebrate. I told them I'd try to save the wine for when we finally all get together, but I can't make any promises, LOL. And one bottle won't be enough anyway. Vixen kisses and hugs all around.

Congratulations to Courtney Milan, who also had a great week. Her first book Proof of Surrender will be published by HQN in the fall of 2009!

Back in the Saddle Again

2008-08-09T05:45:00.001-05:00

I have a zillion printed pages of Mistress by Midnight to go through with a fine-tooth comb, a red pen and a stack of stickies. I want to revise. I do. *snort* I've even started. But mostly I'm riding into the sunset (well, actually dawn---I write much better early in the morning) with my new WIP, Mistress by Mistake instead.

I always gallop in the beginning. The dust hasn't been kicked up, and there's no horsesh*t yet. Hi-Ho-Silver-Away! Silver isn't tarnished or lame or swaybacked in the middle. I wrote 15,000 words this week! I worry I'm like the John Travolta character in Phenomenon, who gets a burst of creativity and then croaks. Pray for me.

Here's a snippet. Remind me later to beat myself with a riding crop to finish. Set up: Our heroine Charlotte Fallon is mistaken for her sister Deborah, a notorious courtesan. (hence the title) Hilarity ensues. To sooth you from your icky thoughts, the hero Sir Michael has engaged the services of Deborah as his mistress but has not yet had the opportunity to seal the deal, so to speak.

As if she heard his thoughts, she stiffened beneath him. And then she screamed.

Ear-piercingly. Perhaps she had not recognized him when she woke. But honestly, who could she be expecting? She was his.

He looked up at her, suspicious. She gave him a look he’d seen only in battle, when the other side was hopelessly outnumbered, pushed beyond recklessness and there was nothing left to lose. He hoped very much that she was not sleeping with a French bayonet beneath the mattress.

“You! You!” she sputtered.

“Yes, my pet, it is I. I know I gave you no notice, but thank you for your very warm welcome last night. It was worth every minute of the harrowing six weeks we spent apart.” He set back to massaging her nipple again with his tongue.

She hit him on the head with a fist. “Get off me! This instant! You are much mistaken, Sir Michael. I am not Deborah.”

Was this some sort of fantasy? Perhaps she liked her loveplay rough. To be the reluctant virgin, he the barbarian conqueror. His ex-mistress Angelique had liked to play highwayman and victim, as he recalled. He was the victim, and a most willing one. He stood, and he delivered.

“I shall call you anything you like, sweet, but please don’t strike me again. It’s not a bit sporting when I don’t know the rules of your game. But I’m willing to learn.”

“This is not a game, you stupid man! Oh, I do beg your pardon! But you are under a severe misapprehension, sir.”

She was scrambling under him quite provocatively. Her skin was on fire for him, blushing most delightfully. And here he had thought La Fallon cool and a little calculating.

“Hush, my dove.” His lips captured hers and she squeaked. Soon he would make her sigh again. See, she was softening already. Her lips opened and he swept into the warmth. His tongue tangled with hers in a dance as old as time. He was fisting his cock to slide between her smooth thighs when she bit him.

***

Where are you now in your writing/reading? The bright beginning, the muddy middle, or the glue factory?

Take Five

2008-08-04T04:30:00.007-05:00

You wonderful regular readers know I've been immersed in Mistress by Midnight since early spring. The first draft, all 93,000 words of it, is finished and I am beyond excited! I aimed to stop at 85,000 but something happened...kind of like when we had the perfect family with a boy and girl and then had two more girls. Those extra words are just as precious to me as the last two children---like the kids, they continue to surprise and delight me. Generally my endings are written well in advance, but that didn't happen this time. I wondered if there would ever be an ending.

In every other manuscript I've completed, there has been an element of self-sabotage. Unfaithful heroes? Books One and Two. Metafictional kitchen-sink craziness? Book Three. BDSM unpleasantness? Book Four (known in the Robinson house as "The Bad Book"). But Book Five---hey, I gotta tell you, I love it. Yes, there's angst, betrayal, pyramids, a secret baby and sheep, but I don't mind claiming authorship---at least until I go through revisions. We'll see if I'm still surprised and delighted then.

Maybe the fifth time is the charm.

The YouTube clip shows you what I've been using to inspire me. You now have a glimpse into my head (a very scary place to be). Enjoy. What's in your head this week? Check the post below for other August news!

Awesome August!

2008-08-01T15:06:00.006-05:00

What a great way to start the month. Vixen J.K. Coi's second book in her Immortals series Immortal Kiss is out today. And Vixen Elyssa Papa wins first place in the Fool for Love contest with Take a Chance on Me! Congratulations to them both! Success!

And there are thirty more days to go...

Conference Call

2008-07-26T04:31:00.007-05:00

My oldest daughter thinks I've become a recluse. She doesn't seem to understand when I'm at work, I talk to hundreds of people every day, and in the summer, all I want to do is write and not talk to anybody (except for my husband, kids and their kids...and even then...*g*). But the Other Grandmother, a wonderful woman who shares my joy with Sadie, invited me out to see three published romance writers at her local library, a place with which two of them were amazingly familiar.

Yes, Kensington vampirist Kathy Love and Golden Heart nominated, Harlequin and LBD author Julie Cohen both grew up a few towns over, went to high school together, hung out at the library and now take the romance world by storm. They were joined by debut romantic suspense author Anna Louise Lucia.They made me laugh, answered my obnoxious questions, and gave all the proceeds of the sales of their books to the library. I had my own mini-RWA conference right here in Maine and now have three authors to glom. Their call stories were inspiring. Anna waited eighteen months to hear about her book from a publisher. I've only been waiting ten, LOL.

This week the romance world will go simultaneously dark and bright. San Francisco will be the epicenter of light; those of us not there will glumly go about our business in the gloom, living vicariously. My goal is to 'almost' finish Mistress by Midnight, when perhaps the Internet distractions will not be so alluring. If you're going to SF, what do you hope to achieve? If you're not, what's your goal this week? Do you want to go to Washington, D.C. next year? What authors have you met/inspire you?

Putting the Me in YouTube

2008-07-21T04:15:00.008-05:00

Some months ago, I made an impassioned plea to myself to forgo Internet time. I want to finish my work in progress (Mistress by Midnight---15,000 words to go!), and now that I actually know what will follow it (Mistress by Mistake, Mistress by Marriage), I’m all kinds of itchy to dive into Trilogyland.

But I’ve discovered YouTube. By a distinctively un-hip route. I’m watching kids’ programming. My nine month old granddaughter Sadie is fascinated by Elmo and the Muppets, so Elmo it is when she comes to visit. This little wiggleworm sits absolutely still in my lap while we watch Andrea Bocelli sing Elmo to sleep, the Goo Goo Dolls turn Slide into Pride about Elmo being ‘furry, proud and red,’ REM bounce to ‘Furry Happy Monsters.’

I’ve watched YouTube clips I’ve stumbled over on blogs before. I’ve seen the kiss from North and South and the Filipino prisoners dancing to Thriller. But now…Michelle Obama on The View? Check. The entire movie Amazing Grace in eleven parts? Check. You know my obsession with Ioan Gruffudd. I discovered the last scene in Great Expectations (just beautiful even if I’ve never seen the whole movie), and even watched him speaking Welsh for eight minutes in a swimming pool and In-N-Out Burger, having absolutely no idea what he was saying. This could be dangerous.

What are you watching on YouTube? Do you watch authors on sites like Romance Novel TV? Are you ready for your close-up?

Feeling Sheepish

2008-07-16T04:33:00.001-05:00

Sheep. I know next to nothing about them. I am just like my hero Hart in Paradise who “now owned a vast quantity of sheep about which he knew absolutely nothing, save that they tasted delicious and their wool was warm.” Wool sweaters make me itch, and I can’t even remember the last time I ate leg of lamb.

When our kids were little, we restored (or tried to) an 1820s farmhouse on 40 acres. We had a fenced pasture, and our neighbor would put his sheep in it, and later his Clydesdale horses. It was perfect for us to experience the animal part of farming without the work. The only thing I could tell you for sure is that sheep sh*t a lot. But somehow I have gotten Mistress by Midnight’s Marquess of Conover, Laurette Vincent and their children ensconced in the West Yorkshire dales with a flock of sheep.

I know. As the mistress of my domain, I could have kept them in London or Dorset, totally sheepless. But honestly, how could I resist? The Marquess’ given name is Desmond Ryland, and there happens to be a sheep breed called Ryeland. Ovis Kismet. Ovis, by the by, is Latin for sheep. I now know drovers’ tracks through Britain, and that if sheep are not sheared, feces sticking to the wool breed maggots which kill the host. Ugh. According to the Medieval Bestiary, “The sheep is a defenseless, placid animal. It is covered with soft wool. Sheep gather grass in early winter before it is destroyed by frost. The ancients first offered sheep as sacrifices, rather than bulls.”

If you want to see an adorable lady with her adorable sheep, click here . According to her site, she met with Prince Charles and he and he is now the owner of two of her sheep. King George III (Farmer George) also owned Ryeland sheep, so if they’re good enough for royalty, they’re good enough for me.

How did I, a middle-aged woman who grew up in a suburb of New York City, veer off into sheep territory? I’ll do anything for romance.

What’s the most unexpected thing you’ve written or read about? What's your favorite farm animal?

The concept of two people living together for 25 years without a serious dispute suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep. ~A.P. Herbert

Huge thanks to all of you who played along with Finish This Mess last week. Secret sheep and babies around the world are grateful for the recognition. You just don't know how your support and hilarity has helped me get closer to The End. A big bad baa goes to Terrio! E-mail maggierobinson8@yahoo.com so I can send you your prizes!

Contest Crazy

2008-07-09T09:38:00.003-05:00

You'll see a new picture on the sidebar. Mistress by Midnight finalled in the 2008 Golden Claddagh contest! And fellow Vixen Elyssa Papa's Take a Chance on Me is also a finalist! I'm pretty excited. My pages will be read by an Avon editor and I'm hoping to get valuable feedback. I'm in the homestretch now, about 25,000 words to go to get to HEA-ven. For the first time in ages, I haven't written the last part first. The whole book has been freakishly consecutive. In fact, I don't really know how it's going to end, because, as we've established, Pants R Us.

I have a few balls in the air. The evil uncle may not really be dead. A good guy may turn out to be bad, or at least a bungler. There are two children whom I do not wish to seriously imperil---as the mother of four, nothing is scarier to me than children-in-danger themes, even if my babies are grown up with babies of their own. Serious secrets need to be revealed, and since no therapists are handy in 1820, I need to have a reasonable resolution. All in all, I have written myself into a challenging corner.

(And then there are the sheep. To find out more, come back to read my next post on Wednesday, July 16.)

Contest: Who wants to write my ending for me? Here's your chance.

Hero: Desmond Ryland, Marquess of Conover (AKA Con) (age 32)

Heroine: Laurette Vincent (age 29)

Con's son: James (age 11)

Con's and Laurette's secret baby (yes!!!): Beatrix (age 11)

Evil, possibly undead uncle: Lord Ryland (if alive, 70s)

Good/bad guy/bungler: Jacob Carter, retired soldier/farm manager (40ish)

Setting: West Yorkshire dales. There are caves. Ruined outbuildings. Sheep (see above).

Time: Summer, 1820

Serious or silly entries only. Those participating in Finish This Mess (hereafter known as FTM) will automatically be entered into an MRMR contest with a fabulous, or at least free, prize package! Random winner selected and announced on 7/16. Enter early. Enter often. Tell your friends. Extra points for talking sheep.

And is it finaled or finalled? Spellcheck hates either one.

The Convenience Store

2008-07-05T08:34:00.007-05:00

I had good intentions. I had my husband's laptop. I had the pendrive. Unfortunately, the computer could not read one word of 62,000 of them in Mistress by Midnight. Everything suddenly became coded into little rectangles and doohickeys. After I panicked, thought I might vomit, took my blood pressure medicine, I decided it was a sign from God to just relax and have fun on vacation. So I did.

Since we were in Vegas, I thought it was appropriate to watch What Happens in Vegas on pay-per-view. I don't get to the movies much, and this looked appropriately silly. A romantic comedy, it had all the trappings: the marriage of two strangers (one of my favorite tropes, even if they were blotto), forced togetherness, man vs woman sabotage, big bucks riding on the line. There were lots of things which were annoying (the interoffice intrigue came off as racist to me), but on the whole I laughed out loud quite a bit.

It made me think of how little romantic love had anything to do with marriage until recently. In some cultures marriages are still arranged, and they often work out as well or better as those founded on severe attraction/lust. Marriages of convenience are fun to read, although they work better in historicals than contemps. It's difficult for an independent woman to imagine being stuck with some random guy. But with half of all marriages ending in divorce anyway, there's no guarantee that love will last.

Could you marry a stranger? Could you live with somebody for six months so you could split 3 million dollars? Could you live without a bathroom door? Could you live with a guy who thought of empty beer bottles as decor? Do you wonder why men sit with their hands down their pants? Who would think a fluffy romantic comedy could be so thought-provoking?

Breaking News: Stop by Vauxhall Vixens July 7 to read Eve Silver/Kenin's excellent guest blog about her tortured heroes. One lucky visitor will win an ARC!

Just a Joke

2008-06-26T06:22:00.000-05:00

Last night my friend and I were sitting in the den and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle to keep me alive. That would be no quality of life at all. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."So she got up, unplugged the computer, and tossed my wine in the garbage.She's such a bitch.

Thanks to my friend Claudia (who is not a bitch) for the joke. I am unplugging for a bit and will not be blogging until after July 4. Have a wonderful Independence Day (and every other day, too)!

Red wine or white? What's your favorite cocktail? Should I take the laptop with me on vacation?

Fresh Out

2008-06-21T05:17:00.001-05:00

School's out for summer. Aren't you hearing Alice Cooper right now?

Well we got no class

And we got no principles (principals)

And we got no innocence

We can't even think of a word that rhymes

There seems to be an issue with the word principle in the lyrics. I guess it can go either way. I hope in general I have class and principles (I know I have my very own principal.*g*). My innocence is definitely gone, and while I don't want to be a poet, there are plenty of times when I search for the right word. I keep Thesaurus.com minimized for handy reference when I write. I find I blank sometimes when I'm talking, too---that name or word just eludes me. I prefer to think my brain is simply too busy, not that I've got senile dementia. :)

Keeping things young and fresh is important in writing. I make an effort not to repeat certain things from chapter to chapter and book to book. I discovered when editing Waking Beauty, the heroine Penny blushed so much she must have owned Covergirl stock. I'm now conscious of the whole blushing scenario and try to flush it out every time I'm tempted. For some reason I'm stuck on the phrase 'velvet agony' and must embed it in at least one bedroom scene. Stop your snickering now.

Do you have a habit of repeating yourself? Do you have deja vu when you read your favorite authors? Do you marvel that Nora Roberts can write a million books and come up with a million ideas? What are you doing this summer?

Note the illustration provides both blush and velvet. Agony not included.