Dragon in the System by Cindy Spencer Pape--G

It's MONDAY! And that means it's time for the Mini-Review and Interview. My guest today is Cindy Spencer Pape, my third critique partner. She was gracious about answering my nosy questions. And of course, we all know she looooves dragons, so right there we have something in common. With that, we'll just plunge right in.



1) If you could start over with your writing career, what if anything would you change? I’d start earlier! Much earlier.



2) What was the best piece of advice you received regarding the life of a writer? The great author Douglas Adams once wrote “drink lots of coffee and buy a desk that can withstand having your head banged upon it.” Substitute Diet Coke for the coffee and there you go.



3) If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be? Well there are several politicians living and dead that I’d like to meet just for the opportunity to smack them upside the head! Other than that, Marie Curie, perhaps? Jane Austen? Thomas Jefferson? Leonardo DaVinci? Nah, none of them would talk to me anyway.



4) If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be? Dr. Watson. You know he had to be the stabilizing force in that duo.



5) What do you want to be when you grow up? Grow up? Bite your tongue. I have no intention of doing any such thing. Now growing old is a different story. I plan to spend my old age sipping cocktails on the beach and banging out stories on my laptop. Oh yeah, that’s the life.



6) In the next century, what do you hope people will remember you for? Heck, I hope they remember me at all. Hmmm- being remembered for my writing would be cool. As a loving wife and parent? That crazy writer who sat on the beach and wrote all those sexy stories?

Dragon in the System by Cindy Spencer Pape from Cerridwen Press

There was a funny thing that happened on the way to me reading this story. I read a bunch of other dragon stories so I had a pre-conceived notion about how this one would go. Hah! Was I wrong, thank goodness! Cindy very skillfully leads the reader down the uh, steam tunnel without giving away the secret, so I sure won’t spoil all of her hard work, except to say that the fun has barely begun. At least one of the characters already has his own book and I’ve really been lobbying for more.

To be perfectly honest, my entire college experience was part-time as an adult (graduated in my forties!) Most of my time at college was a mad dash from work to class and then another mad dash for home, so I have no frame of reference when it comes to academia. But the story made me wish—just a little— that I had been able to have that experience. Certainly, Cindy uses the refreshing backdrop of a small college town combined with intelligent characters with the complete confidence of experience.

The characters were ordinary men and women caught up in something so unusual that they demonstrated their strength and courage and ingenuity by rising to the occasion. Eric is one hot geek. Yeah, he is and Lori isn’t too bad herself. Keep the fan on high and the ice water close when these two get together.

If you want a hot entertaining read, get yourself a Dragon in the System.



Anny

Here to Stay by Jenyfer Matthews--G

It's MONDAY again and time for Mini-Review/Interview. My guest today is Jenyfer Matthews, a fellow author and another of my valued critique partners. I sent her the same bunch of nosy questions and she was gracious and answered them for me.

Just let me take a moment to do a couple of house-keeping chores... Last week when I started posting my blog at a second location I neglected to post the urls. So the myspace blog is at http://blog.myspace.com/annycook and the blogspot blog is at http://www.annycook.blogspot.com/. I guess I was just too excited to think of everything. So if you want to comment, now there's no excuse not to.

Hmmm. Now back to our previously scheduled programming. I'm posting early as Jenyfer lives in Egypt--don't you think that's cool?--and I would like for her to be able to read it before she goes to sleep.

1) If you could start over with your writing career, what if anything would you change? I started writing just over ten years ago (with a couple of years-long hiatus in there to have babies!) in total isolation - just me and my computer, the blue screen and gold text of Word Perfect my only companion. I had no idea what I was really doing and whether or not what I was writing was any good. (Looking at it now, it's pretty bad!) If I could start over again I'd probably seek out some sort of writers group to join for support and feedback - which thanks to the internet I have now.

2) What was the best piece of advice you received regarding the life of a writer? Since I was on my own no one ever really gave me any advice in person. I read books and the things I learned were: a rejection isn't personal and it isn't the end - it's one person's opinion which you can take or leave; learning to self-edit is a vital skill; andperseverance is as important as talent when you are trying to get published.

3) If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be? This is a tough question. I'm not much of one to idolize people and from my travels I have discovered that there are many, many fascinating people in the world who are just regular everyday people whose names wouldn't mean anything here.

Practically speaking, I'd love to meet Nora Roberts so I could pick her brain about how she keeps coming up with such great stories, time after time after TIME!!

4) If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be? Of all the books I've read the first two that spring to mind were Scarlett O'Hara - I'd like to slap her upside the head and say "What were you thinking?" and Roland from Stephen King's Dark Tower series. He's an intense and fascinating creation.

5) What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be Superwoman - able to juggle family life and all that goes with it along side a bestselling writing career with style and grace (and no yelling!)

Either that or Queen of the World.

6) In the next century, what do you hope people will remember you for? If they don't remember me its okay, new things come along all the time and people forget. It would be nice if people would continue to read and enjoy my stories though.

Want to know more about Jenyfer? Read her blog at http://jenyfermatthews.blogspot.com/

Here to Stay by Jenyfer Matthews from Cerridwen Press

Jenyfer has given us a lively story about second chances. Julia and Patrick are near the end of the painful process of divorce. Julia has providentially inherited a house in New Jersey that she has decided to renovate and keep. Patrick travels from their former home in Chicago, determined to try one last time to convince Julia that they belong together. It’s a tough sell.

Julia, still hurting and uncertain about her future, is not inclined to listen to Patrick. Seeking a reason to stick around, Patrick hits on the idea of helping her with her renovations. And things aren’t too bad until he falls off the roof. In a hair-raising series of odd events, Julia and Patrick must work together to solve the mysteries surrounding Julia’s inheritance.

This was an interesting book for me as getting-back-together-in-the-ninth-inning stories are not generally my cup of tea. But Patrick and Julia kind of sucked me in with their story. I wanted to shake them both sometimes and they certainly got me involved. They say if you don’t care about the characters the author hasn’t done her job. Well, I was involved and if I hadn’t been reading it in the middle of the night I probably would have groaned and yelled and shouted, “Look out! He’s behind you!” or something similar. If you want an exciting, romantic who-done-it next, I heartily recommend that you get your own copy of Here to Stay.

Anny

The Seventy Day Writing Challenge...

So I joined a writing challenge. Four to six pages every single day for the next seventy days. Hmmm. I betcha I get a lot of stuff done. There's nothing like a challenge to get your ideas flowing. The challenge begins today and runs through September 20. Oh, boy.

No excuses. The way I understand the challenge, I have to post my total word count every Wednesday. If you miss one day of writing, you have to make it up another day. But I figure if I post it each day on the blog, it will motivate me to keep on task so beginning tomorrow, I'll post my output--words and pages. We'll see how this goes.

Housekeeping stuff... Remember that Monday's are the Mini-Review and Interview. Tomorrow's guest author is Jenyfer Matthews. And I will be reviewing her Cerridwen Press novel, Here to Stay. You won't want to miss out on this chance to get to know her.

On Thursday, my second book, Dancer's Delight will be released by Cerridwen Press. I can barely believe that I'll have two books! Two! So on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'll also post a couple of short excerpts just to give you a sneak peak.

My friend and fellow writer, Amarinda Jones, reviewed Chrysanthemum on her blog yesterday. Wow, I'm really impressed with myself. I'll probably need a hat a couple sizes bigger after reading that review. (And don't worry Amarinda. No charge for this one!) If you'd like to read her review, you'll find it at http://amarindajones.blogspot.com/.

Since I'm going to be very, very busy for the next seventy days, I believe I'll just finish this with a wish for restful sleep and happy dreams.

Anny