Month: June 2016

Loving Day: Getting Political

I try to avoid controversy/politics in my author persona.

Today, I make an exception.

Today is Loving Day, which may not be precisely what you think.

On June 12, 1967, the US Supreme Court struck down laws in 16 states which forbade “interracial” marriages. The defendants in the case were Richard  and Mildred Loving, a black man married to a white woman, who were arrested because their marriage was illegal in the state in which they lived.

Their surname was appropriate to the situation.

  • I am a romance author.
  • I believe in love.
  • Love should not be legislated.
  • The person you love is none of my business.
  • I am happy for you because you’ve found love.

 

 

Best Friends

1 Comment

Today is National Best Friends Day.

I’ve had many friends over the years. I’ve stayed in touch–or gotten in touch again, thanks to social media–with many of them. I’ve been blessed with wonderful people in my life.

For the past 15–and that’s an estimate–years, my best friends have been members of my writing community. My tribe. They’re the ones who understand the frustration. The joy. The women who respect my process and who share their processes as we all muddle through this thing called writing books.

Image credit: andrejad / 123RF Stock Photo

An author’s best friends respect her need for solitude. Respect her need for last minute brainstorming. Her need to celebrate the victories and mourn her setbacks.

During interviews, I’m often asked what advice I would give to aspiring authors. My opinion on this never changes: find your writing community. Find your tribe. Find your best friends.

Killing Your Darlings with Author Janis Lane

“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair—the sense that you can never put on the page what’s in your mind and heart.”

“Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again. You must not come lightly to the blank pages.” Stephen King

In my opinion there’s nothing more terrifying than facing those blank pages. There’s also nothing more exciting. I have learned to flash my vocabulary in the first write, but after I read Mr. King’s memoir on writing, I learned how sparse should be my identifying adverbs or adjectives. It hurt, but limiting those modifying words forced me to strengthen my nouns and verbs. It’s an exercise in discipline. Not particular fun, but necessary.

Where do those wonderful words go?

A particular florid paragraph can be saved. (I looked up the definition of florid. When I read ostentatious, I got excited. I love big words.) I tuck them into a file called “little darlings.” Don’t know who coined the phrase, but we all know what it means. Occasionally I check them out. You never know when those pearls that dropped from my mind will come in handy. They never have, but you never know, and it makes me feel better that they weren’t completely wasted.

Meanwhile, and hopefully, the dialogue is strengthened and to the point. It feels brutal, but after all, it’s no more than getting a hair cut. Grooming your manuscript is a necessity.

WHISPERS of DANGER and LOVE

When Cheryl realizes her new next-door neighbor is someone she loved as a young girl, she immediately puts the brakes on her emotions. Never again would she allow the gorgeous hunk of a man to break her heart.

Ruggedly handsome Detective David Larkin isn’t used to pretty ladies giving him a firm no. He persists, even as Cheryl fights her own temptations. The two struggle to appreciate each other as adults, even as they admit to deep feelings from their childhood.

Available on Amazon.com

Whispers of Danger and Love_200x300 (1)

Janis Lane lives in Western New York near a small town on a few picturesque acres with her ever patient husband. They own and operate a small herbtique which keeps their days busy and interesting during the summer months. She writes Cozy Mysteries as Janis Lane and Regency Romance as Emma Lane.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Follow Janis on social media:

Facebook

Twitter

Website

Amazon

 

 

Why I Hate Socks. And Athletic Shoes.

1 Comment

First of all, my astrological sign is Pisces, which rules the feet. I don’t really know what this means, but I don’t disagree.

When I was a child, my parents didn’t have a dryer. My mom used a wringer washer.

wringer washer

In the winter, my mother dried the family laundry on clothes lines in the cellar. My sock were always stiff and scratchy. I hated putting them on. We fought nearly every morning before school because she insisted I wear those devices of torture.

For many years, I had to wear shoes and socks year round. I would get a hideous rash on my feet (mistaken for athlete’s foot). I actually have a condition known as dyshidrosis, a form of eczema once believed to be caused by perspiration. Once I convinced my mother my feet needed to breathe, needed to shed the shoes and socks, I got rid of the rash on my feet.

To this day, if I can’t kick off a pair of shoes immediately, I won’t wear them. I won’t even wear sandals that strap me into them. My feet need to be free.

Pedicures are a sybaritic indulgence.

purple toes

By the way. Happy National Go Barefoot Day.