No rules. Just write.

Crazy in love with Japanese anemones

2009-08-20T19:05:00.010-04:00

I wonder why Ogden Nash never wrote a poem about Japanese anemones? The words roll trippingly off the tongue and suggest all kinds of delicious rhymes:

Japanese anemones.
See them dancing in the breeze.

They're my favorite late-summer flowers. Their strong, graceful stems rise high over lovely mounds of foliage to offer up unscented, nearly translucent flowers featuring adorable green-ball centers surrounded by egg-yolk-yellow ruffs. I mean, just look at this beauty:

I must plant some more of these
Japanese anemones.
The whites are charming, but I think
I should also have some pink.

Rhubarb cake recipe

2009-07-02T20:31:00.005-04:00

If you watched yesterday's Road Trip video, you know I enjoyed some rhubarb cake at a family reunion in Owatonna, Minnesota last Saturday. I don't think I've ever posted a recipe on this blog, but friends have been e-mailing, so I'll just drop the recipe here (Thank you, Gloria!) and point everyone to the link.

I don't know where this recipe originated, so I'm calling it:

Cousin Gloria's Minnesota Rhubarb Cake

1½ cup brown sugar
½ cup shortening
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 t. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1½ cups rhubarb
2 cups flour

Spread in a 9 x 13" greased pan, then mix topping:

½ cup sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts

Add topping and bake at 325° for 45 minutes.

I just got the recipe today and haven't tried it yet, so let me know if I've got something wrong. Gloria didn't say whether she used frozen or chopped fresh rhubarb, but I'm sure either would work.

This is a fairly coarse snack cake, and not terribly sweet. I'll serve it with morning coffee or afternoon tea rather than as a dessert. The rhubarb adds a wonderful tartness.

UPDATED AUGUST 20, 2009:

Can't believe I made such a dumb mistake, but I neglected to include the baking soda in this recipe! My deepest apologies to those of you who tried the cake and wondered if you had done something wrong. (The recipe you see above has been corrected.)

A Twitter friend has asked about the topping. I assured her it is not a streussel topping--no butter, no flour. Just sugared nuts.

My husband made the cake last weekend. It's a very simple snack cake, but we loved its moistness, its sugary, nutty topping, and the tang of the rhubarb (he used fresh, uncooked).

Road Trip

2009-07-01T17:58:00.002-04:00

We just got back from a quick car trip to Minnesota, where we attended a family reunion with our eldest son. Here's a video that might amuse some of you:

See who's reading romance: The 2009 RWA Reader Survey

2009-06-16T12:11:00.008-04:00

Romance Writers of America recently posted its (May) 2009 Reader Survey, a web-based survey of romance fiction readers. Here are some facts uncovered by the survey on our favorite genre's current readership:

74.8 million people read at least one romance novel in 2008.

The core of the romance fiction market is 29 million regular readers.

24.6 percent of all American [sic] read a romance novel in 2008, versus 21.8 percent in 2005.

29 percent of Americans over the age of 13 read a romance novel in 2008.

Women make up 90.5 percent of the romance readership, and men make up 9.5 percent.

The heart of the U.S. romance novel readership is women aged 31–49 who are currently in a romantic relationship.

Pop over to the Readership Statistics page of the RWA website for more information on today's romance readers, including purchase behavior and some surprising tidbits like this:

45.1 percent [of survey respondents] were not aware that authors receive no royalty payment for the purchase of used books.

Sunday evening garden tour

2009-06-14T19:51:00.009-04:00

Last fall, my hunk o' burnin' love got tired of being my garden slave and started his own garden in the dappled shade of our woodsy backyard.

It's looking pretty good for a first-year shade garden. Today I dragged the teakwood glider over so we can sit there together and watch his hostas, ferns, astilbe, lily-of-the-valley, and coleus grow into lush waves of color and texture.

Speaking of garden seating, the smartest thing we have ever done in our yard and gardens was to scatter plenty of tables, chairs, and benches around. (No, it doesn't have to be expensive. You can scour flea markets for sturdy, inexpensive furniture.) We sit outside nearly every day because everywhere we look, there's an inviting seat. I take my computer out to the patio or to the back yard where I can see and smell flowers, hear birdsong, watch butterflies and bees and hummingbirds and so on while I'm writing.

Have you tried writing outside? It's a change of pace and a treat for the senses that will refresh your writer's spirit. If you don't have a laptop computer, just print some pages to edit outside. Even if you live in a city apartment and "outside" means the fire escape, you can sneak a pot of colorful petunias and a comfy chair out there, right? Make it your summer office.

Back to my husband's shade garden. Here's a close-up, seen through the spray from a sprinkler. Looks like an Impressionist painting, doesn't it? (Click on the pic to see the amazing full-size image.)

Oh, look. A few more sunny days and I can pluck the season's first strawberry. If my husband doesn't beat me to it. He did last year, the rat--and his face took on a blissful expression as he described how warm and tart and sweet it was. The rat!

Here's part of the front garden. I love the red-tipped barberry bushes, but they're getting out of hand. Must cut them back because this garden is supposed to be all about the flowers.

I noticed today that the lilies are budding like crazy. There will be lots of flowers next month... unless the wretched deer come along and nibble off all the buds like they did two years ago.

If you like my garden photos, keep an eye on my Twitter feed, because I've been linking to pictures from there instead of posting them all on this (ahem!) writing blog. You don't have to join Twitter. Just watch the stream (you can also see it in the sidebar of this page) and click the link whenever I post a photo.

And now, I'll get back to writing romance. Here's hoping we all have a fun and productive week.

Should you hire a book doctor?

2009-06-10T18:32:00.005-04:00

Today one of my Twitter pals asked if it's worthwhile for an unpublished writer to have her manuscript professionally edited before sending it to a literary agent. At the risk of offending those who make money editing manuscripts for unpublished writers, I must say that paying a "book doctor" to edit a manuscript in the hope that she will transform it into a salable novel is a colossal waste of both money and time.

Self-editing is a huge part of writing well. A writer who has not yet learned how to ruthlessly edit her own work simply isn't ready for publication. Even major tweaking by a paid professional won't turn the lackluster manuscript of such a writer into anything that would interest an agent or a publishing house.

Publishers are used to looking past grammatical and punctuation errors and even awkward scenes dropped here and there. They know all that stuff can be cleaned up because they do it every day. They're always impressed by a "clean" manuscript, but what they're really looking for is a gripping story told by a talented and skillful writer. That being the case, paying a book doctor to make your story more tempting to agents and publishers makes about as much sense as painting a pig's toenails so it will fetch a higher price at the livestock auction.

A published writer is someone who has learned how to edit her own work. She knows how to tell a good story clearly and concisely. She puts words together in such a way that her sentences sing, her paragraphs dance, and her scenes and chapters begin and end gracefully. Some of that ability came from raw talent; the rest she developed through hard work and by paying close attention to the technique of published authors she admires.

Have you ever eaten at a restaurant where the paint was peeling off the walls and the table was sticky but the food was fabulous? If so, you probably went back again and again for the great food. Contrast that with the experience of dining in a scrupulously clean establishment with cloth napkins and sparkling glasses--and ordinary, unimaginative food. Do you go back to those places? Not if you can help it, you don't.

Publishers know how to take a great story told in an engaging way and turn it into a good book. They're not afraid to buy manuscripts that are a little bit awkward, a little bit messy--as long as those manuscripts sing and dance and fascinate.

The bottom line? Depending on your current level of writing skill and how teachable you are, paying a reputable freelance editor might help you learn some valuable lessons about grammar, word usage, and basic story structure. What it will not do is take a story that's not quite ready for publication and turn it into something wonderful.

You will have to do that all by yourself.

Yesterday in the garden

2009-05-26T08:41:00.003-04:00

Picked up this jazzy red watering can over the weekend. Just looking at it makes me grin.

Yesterday I sat on the bench in my front garden and stared for a good ten minutes at these shocking blue irises with their bright slashes of yellow. We planted just six last autumn because I wasn't sure they'd do well in this spot. Now I can't wait to get more.

If you're viewing this on a large monitor, you'll notice the patio is all weedy. I like the bits of bright green moss, but the weeds have got to go. (I'll get my hunk o' burnin' love right to work on that!)

I've forgotten the name of this rose, but isn't it a beautiful color?

These delicate blue campanulas just don't photograph well. This is the best I could do.

Welcome, summer!

Memorial Day: Folding the flag

2009-05-24T23:55:00.004-04:00

I spent more than an hour over at YouTube looking for a good video to share with you all on this Memorial Day. My selection might surprise you, but I hope it will move you to spend a few minutes giving thanks for those brave Americans who have sacrificed their lives in service to our country.

Near the end of each funeral conducted at Arlington National Cemetery, the American flag covering the military service member's casket is carefully folded into a neat triangle and presented to the next of kin.

"It's done very reverently because...it's the token of gratitude from our nation to [the service member's] family."

A step-by-step guide to enjoying a glass of lemonade on a sunny summer afternoon

2009-05-23T15:15:00.011-04:00

It's Memorial Day weekend, so I thought I'd remind everyone how to make and enjoy a refreshing glass of lemonade. Here are the basic steps:

1. Be sure to make your lemonade on a hot, sunny afternoon--especially if you have just cut the grass. (Or if someone has just cut the grass at the park nearest your city apartment.)

2. Don't trust others to make your lemonade. Do it yourself. You will want to be in complete control of fine-tuning the sweet and sour balance. It's perfectly fine to start with a packaged mix, but be sure to use less water to make it extra sour and extra sweet (because you're going to add a whole tray full of ice cubes when you're finished).

3. Forget the ratty old Tupperware thing you've had for three decades and use a glass pitcher. Nothing looks as inviting as a sparkling, sweating glass pitcher full of icy lemonade.

4. Slice and add one whole lemon. This is crucial for reasons of appearance, aroma, and flavor, so if you don't have a lemon, go borrow one from your neighbor.

5. If you grow your own or can buy it at your local market, add several sprigs of fresh spearmint. This is almost as important as the lemon. (Unless you don't like mint--and if you don't like mint, what in the world is wrong with you?)

6. Now fill a tall, clear glass. For some extra zing, add a splash of pomegranate juice and/or some tonic water. Up to you. Garnish with a lemon slice and more spearmint. (I meant to photograph my glass of lemonade for you, but the glass just couldn't seem to stay full long enough for me to aim and focus the camera.)

7. Take your lemonade to a shady spot outside. A bench near some blossoming honeysuckle is ideal.

Or sit next to a splashing fountain.

And now, the last and most important step for enjoying your lemonade:

8. Do not sip it. Gulp it. And allow a sweet, sticky drop to slide down your chin the way you did when you were five years old and your grandma let you drink lemonade until your tummy felt funny.

After that first long pull, be sure to wipe your mouth with the back of your hand and say "Ahhh!"

There. Isn't that delicious?

And aren't you glad you're not a bird? You are able to enjoy an icy glass of lemonade on a fine summer afternoon.

And you don't have to worry about being eaten by the neighbor's cat while you're grabbing a quick drink out of a fountain, either.

Authors: Stressing out over online promotion?

2009-05-19T09:30:00.004-04:00

If you're an author who's been feeling pressured to do more and better online promotion, maybe this freshly-posted column of mine at Romancing the Blog will afford you some relief: Taming the Internet Promotion Monster.

I'd love it if you'd share your thoughts over there or even right here.

Like a red, red rose

2009-05-16T12:17:00.005-04:00

O, my luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I,
And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
O I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

Robert Burns

I'm in the mood for love poems today because the winner of this season's first-rose-to-bloom race in my garden was the perfectly-formed, incredibly fragrant Mr. Lincoln, which popped open just this morning. I like white roses best, but this one is my own hunk o' burnin' love's favorite, so it will always have a place in our garden.

Hope everyone out there is having a beautiful weekend.

Tuesday afternoon in the garden

2009-05-12T15:20:00.010-04:00

Just grabbed my camera and took a stroll around our little half-acre. Click on the pics if you want to make them bigger.

In this first photo you can see a small wedge of the sun-dappled front garden. Those are pink dogwood blossoms at the top left and a not-quite-ready-to-bloom Zepherine Drouhin rose in the center. The daffodil foliage (in the foreground) is beginning to look a little messy, but it will soon be hidden by the other plants coming up around it.

The copper "sculpture" is actually a spinning sprinkler. And that wave of tiny blue flowers is brunnera, which would take over the whole garden if we let it.

We bought two new rose bushes last night because there's no such thing as too many roses in a garden. Here they sit, waiting for somebody to grab a shovel and plant them.

This is my hunk o' burnin' love's favorite daydreaming spot. That's a pale purple Korean lilac blooming in the foreground.

Bleeding heart is my favorite spring-bloomer. These little pink necklaces are already beginning to fade, but that just means warm weather is on the way. And hot sunshine will bring the roses!

The sun was playing peek-a-boo, so this photo is horribly overexposed, but I wanted to show off these exuberant primroses. Using an old birdbath as a planter has turned out to be one of my better gardening ideas, so when the hot summer sun saps the strength from these beauties, I'll yank them out and plant something else in their place.

I took this photo last week, but the dogwoods are still dressed in this pretty pink. I love being able to see them (and a good chunk of the front garden) from my dining-room windows.

That's it for now. I'm going back out to the garden to pull a couple of weeds and do a little watering...

Napoleon Bonaparte, romance novelist

2009-05-11T08:49:00.006-04:00

I just about choked on my tea and toast this morning when I read this in The Guardian:

"I feel numb. Come to me without delay," may not have quite the same panting ardour as his famous love letters, but then Napoleon had not yet met his Josephine when he wrote the words.

There's more where that came from, 40 pages more. The first English version of the pieced-together fragments of his long lost novella, Clisson and Eugénie, is due out this autumn, the Bookseller magazine reveals today. Two years ago when the lost first page resurfaced and was identified by Peter Hicks, an English expert on Napoleon responsible for the translation, it was sold at auction for £17,000.

Napoleon turned to literature, or at least an early precursor of chick-lit, at a wretched time when he seemed to have stalled his glorious career and lost his woman.

In the years of his power and glory, when he was painted by artists including Ingres as a god-like figure shining in cloth of gold, he kept the unfinished tale of a brilliant young soldier who loves tumultuously, loses, and dies heroically in battle "pierced by a thousand blows". Napoleon wrote it when he was a brilliant, youngish soldier tumultuously in love.

Never having been terribly interested in the Little General, I was unaware that when he died on St. Helena at the age of 51, he left behind the manuscript of a novella. Neither was I aware that it had recently been published in French. So naturally I did a double-take when I read that it will be published in English this October by the London-based publisher Gallic.

Here's more from The Guardian:

Jane Aitken, director of Gallic, insists the book will reveal Napoleon as "an accomplished writer of fiction".

"Although the piece of writing is short, it does cast an extraordinary light on Napoleon, who is someone we all think we know. We in Britain think of him as a military man, but here we see the romantic side to him."

This is very interesting, non? And I rather like the cover art.

Is that a poem in your pocket?

2009-04-30T11:00:00.001-04:00

You probably know that April is National Poetry Month. What you might not have heard is that Thursday, April 30 is Poem in Your Pocket Day, a celebration that will be observed by schools and libraries throughout New York City.

Hey, there's no reason the rest of us can't tuck poems into our pockets on Thursday morning, is there? Imagine the water-cooler conversation at your office. After your coworkers mention what they watched on television the previous night, you could surprise and delight everyone by whipping out a poem (yours or someone else's) and reading it aloud.

If you need some ideas, try the Poem-A-Day page at Poets.org. Or just go with this classic from Ogden Nash:

Sure, deck your lower limbs in pants;
Yours are the limbs my sweeting.
You look divine as you advance –
Have you seen yourself retreating?

For something longer, try Alexander Pope's hilarious "The Rape of the Lock." (Read this study guide first, so you won't miss any of the great jokes.)

Call me sappy and sentimental, but I like Wordsworth. You can find his complete poetical works at Bartleby, indexed by first lines.

If you'd like to carry a hideously awful poem in your pocket, try absolutely anything penned by William McGonagall.

Or this poem, which I wrote a couple of years ago.

Or just make up a poem of your own. Yes, really--go ahead. I mean, how could you possibly be any worse than McGonagall and me?

UPDATED Thursday, 8:10 PM

Hmm. I posted this thinking today was Wednesday. So I've been walking around all day without a poem in my pocket.

Does Twittering sell books?

2009-04-27T09:01:00.002-04:00

"So. Is Twitter any good?"

"It's turning out to be very good for me," I told my author friend. "But I take it you're talking about the potential for book marketing?"

She was.

"Probably not so good, then," I said.

I've been Twittering for the past ten days, and I'm liking it a lot. What's Twitter? It's been called "micro-blogging," because each Twitter post is limited to 140 characters, which is almost exactly the length of this sentence. If you want to see what one side of a Twitter conversation looks like, check out the right-hand side of this page (scroll down a little) for my up-to-the-minute Twitter feed.

If you want to know how to use Twitter, Google that, because I'm not going to go into it here. But I will tell you why to use Twitter.

Like author websites and blogs, nobody has studied the Twitter phenomenon and determined whether it actually boosts book sales. It's tempting to assume that it must, but unless someone tells you outright that they bought your book because of something you wrote on Twitter, how would you ever measure your Twittering success in those terms?

For me, Twittering isn't about business. It's a break in my day. Five minutes at a time, tops. No, I don't read every single message from the nearly 100 people I'm currently "following" on Twitter. Several times a day I scroll through my subscriptions looking for quips, for surprising and helpful information, for garden photographs, for links to good blog posts, and so on. I've had Twitter exchanges with people I've never met, but who interest me because they're deeply interested in and involved with the world around them.

On Twitter I have connected with a couple of old friends and made a few new ones. I have picked up some useful gardening tips, learned that garlic mashed potatoes can be improved by the addition of some chopped prosciutto, had a few laughs, and had my creativity jump-started by some witty and profound writing quotes collected by novelist James Scott Bell.

But is posting on Twitter going to sell any of my books? Maybe one or two, but that by itself would have been no reason to sign up. I can tell you that yesterday I "unfollowed" (stopped receiving updates from) a writer whose every message strongly hinted that I should buy his book. Twitter wasn't meant to be used as a marketing machine. Twitter is a fun thing, a social thing, and I believe the people who understand that are the people who will get the most out of it.

As a novelist I place a high value on anything that helps me relax, encourages me to learn new things, or boosts my creativity. And in the past ten days, Twitter has been doing all three.

A welcome-home party for the birds

2009-04-26T17:04:00.006-04:00

It takes more than color and scent to make a beautiful garden. You also need sound and movement, and one way to achieve both of those elements is to invite hummingbirds to party at your place.

During the growing season, I usually have several ruby-throated hummingbirds buzzing around my garden. Did you know that they can hover like little helicopters and even fly backwards when the mood strikes them? I love the zoom, zoom sound their wings make as they race from one stand of flowers to another. Hummers also make adorable little chirps and squeaks. The tiny birds can be difficult to spot in the garden because of their size and speed, but once you've become familiar with the sounds they make, you'll always know when your garden is being visited and you'll have fun trying to spot your little friends.

I keep a hand-blown glass hummingbird feeder just outside my office window, where the hummingbirds can entertain me all day. Sometimes I pick up the pair of opera glasses sitting here on my desk and spend a few moments studying my fascinating little guests.

Once hummingbirds have found a feeder, they'll return to it year after year. But to attract them in the first place, you have to get their attention--and nothing says "Party!" to a hummer like bright red ribbons tied to a feeder and stirring in the breeze like flowers nodding on their stems. Once several hummers have investigated and accepted your feeder, you can remove the ribbons, because the birds will have memorized its location.

I put up my hummingbird feeder several days ago, but it appears the hummers haven't yet returned from Florida or wherever they've been all winter. Today I put fresh sugar-water in the feeder and then raided my gift-wrapping supplies and found this huge floppy gold-trimmed Christmas bow. Yes, it's a bit much, but now every time I look out my office window, I smile and wonder how soon the hummers will show up for the party.

You can quote me on this

2009-04-23T09:05:00.009-04:00

A while back, someone ridiculed me for using air quotes on this blog. I didn't correct him, but I'll confess to having been a little annoyed by his ignorance. I had actually used scare quotes, and I did use them correctly.

Today I came across an amusing blog. At least, I think it's a blog. There's some confusion because of its title, "The 'Blog' of 'Unnecessary' Quotation Marks." But before you click over there for a couple of laughs, let's do a little quotation-mark review.

No, wait a sec. First I'd like to mention that the British have some crazy notions about quotation marks. They use singles when they should be using doubles, and vice versa. For example:

'You are doing it all wrong,' she said.

Which is of course all wrong. The dear Brits are stingy with their quotation marks, and won't use a double one unless they're enclosing a quotation inside of a quotation. Like so:

'Oy!' Basil punched his companion's shoulder. 'Can't you hear them playing "God Save the Queen"? On your feet, yank!'

But never mind all that. As the Brits have shown no interest in removing the superfluous vowels from their "colours" and "favours", we probably shouldn't hold out any hope that they'll come to their senses about double and single quotation marks, either. So let's get back to air quotes.

Trust me, you have never seen air quotes on this blog. That's because air quotes is (are?) a hand gesture. To make it (them?) you must raise both arms, fist your hands, and then extend the first two fingers of each hand. Now, crook your fingers. Try it sometime when you're making clever conversation at a party and want to convey that a certain word or phrase is what someone else has said or might say and is not how you would characterize whatever it is you're describing. For example:

"Even though I told him it was going to rain, my [insert air quotes here] 'genius' boyfriend left the top down on my convertible!"

Scare quotes are the written form of air quotes. Like air quotes, they are not employed to indicate a direct quotation, but to allow the writer to use certain words and phrases while maintaining a careful distance from them. Scare quotes allow a writer to say, "Don't blame me if you don't agree with this use of the word or phrase I've just highlighted." A writer uses scare quotes to cast doubt on a subject or even to ridicule it; her tone might be scathing or humorous or just about anything in between.

The "clever" guy who jeered at my "overuse" of "air" quotes will probably never read this blog entry. But it's my hope that a few other people might find it entertaining and informative.

A sunny Saturday in the garden

2009-04-18T14:52:00.010-04:00

Although the viburnum blossoms started popping today, there's nothing much happening in the back garden other than the daffodils and the potted pansies and primroses I showed you two posts ago. But there are several things blooming in the front garden: grape hyacinths, brunnera, bleeding heart, two young rhododenderons, and of course, the daffodils and jonquils.

Does this garden look a little messy to you? It's totally a matter of taste, but I love my cottage garden, which is essentially a mad jumble of shapes and colors. I don't like carefully manicured shrubs surrounded by neat mounds of mulch with perhaps a few well-behaved geraniums or petunias added for color--which is a good thing, because that kind of garden is a lot more work than the kind we have. We do very little shrub-trimming because I like the wild look. There's hardly any weeding because the plants are too crowded for weeds to gain a foothold. And there's no drawing up of complicated plans or dithering about color-coordination and balance. We basically just stick plants into the ground wherever there's space, and then we water them in and whisper, "You can grow nicely, or you can be compost. Your choice!" (Come to think of it, that's almost exactly the way we brought up our two rascally boys.)

But I'm rambling, just like some of my roses. And some of you new NRJW readers may be wondering what all of this has to do with writing novels.

In a nutshell, my gardens inspire me. I spend much more time daydreaming in them than I do actually working in them. I call the patio my summer office because on nice days I drag my computer out there and write romance among the roses.

Is it any wonder all of my books have happy endings?

Does this make me a twit?

2009-04-17T08:35:00.002-04:00

I signed up with Twitter yesterday. Those of you who care can follow me here. Those of you who don't care will kindly disregard this post. And those of you who want to tell me why you do or do not care are welcome to do so in the Comments.

The intrepid flowers of April

2009-04-14T12:38:00.007-04:00

Some pesky health issues have zapped my desire to do any serious blogging so far this year, but I figured the least I could do was post a few flower pics so you all will know I'm still among the living.

Apart from the cheery daffodils and a couple of eager azalea bushes, there wasn't too much happening in my garden last week, so I rushed to the garden center and found some courageous little pansies and primroses to pot up. Like the daffodils in my front and back gardens, they can take the heavy frosts we're still enduring.

I think these pansies look charming in this old copper washtub on a bed of English ivy.

Aren't primroses just the cutest things? Don't the white ones with yellow centers remind you of hard-boiled eggs?
Here are some more primroses in a repurposed birdbath. I like the height of this little collection, which invites visitors to inspect the individual blossoms at close range.

Behind the primroses is a bed of periwinkle that started sending up masses of little blue flowers a couple of days after I took this photo.

I stuffed a handful of daffodils and some flowering quince into my favorite Beleek vase, which is the perfect size and shape to hold the little boquets I make for my small writing table. The surprising color combination of the daffs and the quince gives me a little thrill every time I walk into my office.

I'll try to come back soon and post something clever and thought-provoking about writing. Failing that, I'll just give you some more garden pictures, okay?

The daring of the green

2009-03-17T16:40:00.002-04:00

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I suppose, my garden has cautiously begun to show some green. Our frost-free date isn't until May 15, so we could still be in for some long cold snaps and even an ice storm or two, which could kill off these daffodils that are just peeping above ground. Good thing we've planted lots. (That's lots as in last fall, we put in a hundred more bulbs.)

In search of more green, I just walked the perimiter of our property (not an arduous task, as it's only a half-acre), but the only other flowery things I found were two tired snowdrops and two half-hearted crocuses.

Ah, well. April is coming. And I've been very clever about the daffodils, planting them in bunches of twenty or more in various locations in the front and back gardens. We have bulbs of different sizes and colors, some with earlier bloom times and some with later, which means that whatever happens, at some point this spring there will be several patches of daffodils in the Coulter garden. Stay tuned for photographic evidence.

My hunk o' burnin' love has filled the whiskey barrel fountain in the front garden and the stone fountain on the patio, so even if it doesn't look pretty outside, it sounds good, what with all that splashing water and birdsong and the occasional dong of the windchimes, all heard through my office window, which I have just opened for the first time this year.

I know we're just a few days away from the vernal equinox (I think it's March 20 this year), but I won't believe spring has arrived until I see it in my own back yard.

My regular column is up today at Romancing the Blog. Click over and let me know what you think.

Writing for impatient readers

2009-03-03T12:34:00.002-05:00

Yes, I'm still here. Once again, life has been getting in the way of my blogging. But I was working on a manuscript just now and wanted to share something I've been meaning to blog about for a long time.

As much as I enjoy thumbing my nose at the "writing rules" splashed all over the internet and yammered about in critique groups and at writers workshops, I have imposed at least one such rule on myself: No paragraph can be longer than ten manuscript lines. Ever.

When one of my paragraphs begins to approach ten lines, I roll up my sleeves and start yanking out words and trimming sentences. Why? Not because of anything I learned in a workshop or a how-to-write book, and not because my editor makes me. I do it because of the way I read novels.

I am an unapologetic skimmer. When a chapter or scene of a novel I'm reading begins to grow tedious, I move on. My practiced eye zips down the page, down the next page, and so on until I find something that reengages my interest. What I'm looking for is a nice bit of "white space" created by a few short paragraphs or a snatch of dialogue, some convenient little hole in the page where I might burrow back into the story. Simply put, long paragraphs will be passed over, no matter how clever or evocative or informative they are.

Because I figure I'm not the only reader who behaves that way, I keep my paragraphs short. It's my hope that if a reader's interest begins to flag and she skips down a page or through one of my chapters, she won't go very far before she falls back into my story.

Ten manuscript lines. It's a completely arbitrary limit, but one I strictly adhere to. I adore long sentences, the kind that need a handful of commas and perhaps even an em-dash or a semicolon, but I can't abide long paragraphs. (At least, not in a contemporary novel. Authors like Henry James, Jane Austen, and even Georgette Heyer may ramble on as they please.)

I write in Courier New, 12 pt., with one-inch margins. A paragraph that takes up nine lines of my manuscript makes me worry. So on the rare occasion that I allow a ten-line paragraph to stand, I have a darn good reason for doing so.

It's often said that the internet encourages shorter attention spans, and I suspect there's a lot of truth in that, but I was an impatient reader long before I was exposed to the internet. So I'm going to stick with my pithy paragraphs.

Whether you're a reader or a writer, and especially if you read or write romance, how about leaving a comment to share your thoughts on paragraph length and "white space" in books?

Download free romance e-books from Harlequin

2009-01-29T12:41:00.004-05:00

To celebrate its 60th anniversary, Harlequin is offering free downloads of 16 full-length romance novels in e-book format. Readers may choose from:

• Tender romances
• Suspenseful adventures
• Heartwarming stories
• Tales of passion
• and many more

Harlequin invites you to download, read, and share any or all of the 16 books. Click over to Harlequin Celebrates and you can be reading a free e-book just a couple of minutes from now. (Each file is available in four formats: MS Reader, eReader, .pdf, and ePub.)

Flowers for brightening a dull winter afternoon

2009-01-24T17:53:00.005-05:00

It's 20 degrees Farenheit in my neighborhood, with snow on the ground. Earlier today, alone in the house and sorely missing my flower garden, I cruised the web to find some comforting photos and videos. I stumbled across these gorgeous pics of a cottage garden in Alaska and then found this video of a garden in Devonshire England:

As you can imagine, those lovely images banished most of my ennui. But what really cheered me up was being surprised by my hunk o' burnin' love, who came home cherry-cheeked from zipping around town in his topless MG Midget and dropped a snugly-wrapped bundle of cream-colored roses on my desk.

And here they are. Sorry about the jacket slung over the chair, the stack of garden catalogues, and that dribble of tomato soup (lower right); I'm afraid this is a typical Saturday-afternoon look for our kitchen table. And yes, the vase is too similar to the tablecloth, but these roses are going to my office just as soon as I give it a few licks with the feather duster and the vacuum cleaner.

If any of you are shopping for bridal bouquets, the creamy roses are Vindela and the antique-looking ones are Sahara. They're both imported from Ecuador.

Video: Snowy Afternoon

2009-01-15T12:24:00.000-05:00

Here's a video treat for those of you who wish you lived in snowy climes...