A Writer's Favorite Words

The End.
Man, does it feel sweet to write those two simple words.
I just finished my second book in the Mace Bauer Mysteries series, Mama Rides Shotgun.
Of course "finishing" and "being finished'' are two different things.
It's about 15 pages too long. I think I forgot to put in a few clues. And I need to retrace the route of the Florida Cracker Trail horse ride so I don't have Mace and her mama trekking past Lorida before they get to Myakka.
But I give myself a pat on the back and permission to raise a glass (though not at the same time, or the wine will spill).
Here's to me, and my two favorite words:

__The End__

Butt in the Seat or Ear to (Someone Else's) Phone?

I'm a disciple of the butt-in-the-seat writing school, though kind of a lapsed disciple at the moment. A long weekend in New York for a family wedding, and I didn't even crack open my outline for MAMA RIDES SHOTGUN.

It's so much easier to pick up the thread of your story when it looks and feels familiar. Too many days out of the seat, and you're like, "Is this my thread? I thought my thread was blue. All I see here are a bunch of red and yellow threads. ''

Granted, the eyesight's not what it was. But I should at least be able to FIND the thread, no?

So, I'm in the seat, yet I'm wasting time here at the public library . . . blogging, checking emails, listening in on people's cell phone conversations. (Note to self: Start a campaign to ban cell phones from public libraries.)

The outline's sitting there at my right elbow. And I'm SO close to the end of the book: Chapter 39 out of 45.

But this woman next to me is fighting with her boyfriend on her cell. I have to keep eavesdropping to find out how it turns out. Who knows? Maybe she'll end up murdering him, and I'll have the first thread of my next mystery!

Cracker Gal Musings

I'm deep into writing my second mystery novel, Mama Rides Shotgun, set on the Florida Cracker Trail.

The best part of being a writer is getting the chance to live through your characters. I'm a city girl (with country overtones), but my tomboyish main character, Mace Bauer, is all country.

In recent months, I've embraced Mace's (and my) redneck side: taking shooting lessons, riding the cross-state Cracker Trail on horseback, going to the rodeo in Okeechobee, Fla.

Here's a photo of a painting by an artist who specializes in Florida Cracker scenes. His pictures were on exhibit at the rodeo on National Cowboy Day. (In Florida, they were always called "cow hunters'' or "cowmen,'' but that's a story for another day).

Thank God I'm out of the Biz

Here's what I would have been doing today if I still worked in the news biz: Chasing a 14-year-old shark bite victim all over south Florida in 90-degree-plus heat, gathering quotes for yet another story on Is it Safe to Go Into the Water!!??

Instead, I can sit back and watch my husband do it for TV news. Thank goodness I'm now a novelist (at least a would-be novelist), and not a reporter.

Fortunately, the kid is fine ... the shark latched on and wouldn't let go, requiring the response of emergency rescue personnel. The EMT brought a giant hatchet, just in case, but the five-foot nurse shark let loose after somebody gave him a punch in the nose.

All's well that ends well, except in cable TV news, it never ends. The interviews just keep getting played over and over and over .... until the next story of nature on the rampage comes down the pike.

I'm Driving this Baby Again!

OK ... I think.

I successfully erased the big fingerprints of my fictional character from MY blog ... and I feel like I'm back in control again. (We'll see how long that lasts!)



In the meantime, I've found a new spot for Rosalee Deveraux, the "Mama'' in my down-home Mama Mysteries series. She hijacked my profile, inserting her own, when I tried to build an advice blog in her "voice.'' These pesky fictional characters really have a lot of nerve!

Check out Ask Mama's new site: http://ask-mama.blogspot.com/

And we'll see if I can keep Rosalee on the page and out of my life . . . though her long-suffering daughter, Mace, would tell me that's a very difficult thing to do. At least that's what Mace would tell me if she weren't a fictional creation, too.