Authors’ Luncheon

This week has been exciting!  I was invited to speak at that annual Scottsdale AAUW Author’s Luncheon.  It was my first speaking engagement as an author, so I was really excited and honored to be invited.  I really had no idea what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised to find about fifty congenial women who were interested in hearing what I had to say about my Tender Offer Books – enough so that they actually bought some. (Imagine that – I still can’t get used to that idea.  I’m still not used to this book signing thing though.  I find it difficult to understand why anyone would want my signature on anything that is not a check, but I digress.)  I had a half an hour to talk.  I worried on what I would say and how I would fill the time, but believe me, I wasn’t lost for words when someone handed me the mic.   The time flew by as I rattled on about how I wrote the books, the characters, the plot, the unsolved murder and why my villains are so villainous. It truly was grand fun.

I actually shared the stage with a well known bestselling author, Betty Webb.  Talk about blowing my socks off and keeping me humble, all I can say is “Wow!”  Betty is absolutely incredible.  She writes the Lena Jones series that are filled with socially relevant themes that have been the leading force for meaningful change.  Her book “Desert Wives” told the seamy side of Warren Jeff’s polygamy and was picked up by television.  It ultimately forced attention on forced marriage, and the reality of a cult lifestyle that most chose to ignore or worse, snicker about.  It is not often that I sit in awe of a person, but I have to say, on this occasion I was captivated — totally and completely awed.

My first thought was, “Boy!  Am I out of my league!”   It was humbling, and that’s a good thing.  (All lawyers need to be humbled once and a while. It keeps us livable.  Otherwise, we would be even more over bearing and obnoxious.)  As humbling as this experience was, there was much to be gained.  I’ve been mulling over how to react.  My first instinct was to say, “Who am I kidding?  I’ll never be a real author.”   Or, I could simply brush it aside and simply say “Well, she’s great, but she’s been doing it a long time,” and rationalize it as just one of those flukes that happen in life – kind of a mismatch.  Or it could be easy to shrink into my shell and say, “Well, I’ve had a great run as an attorney and I’ll never be as good of an author as Betty Webb.”

I’m not sure there is a correct way to react to a situation like this.  If there is, I admit, it has eluded me for decades.  All I can comfortably do is charge forward and keep trying.   Betty Webb will serve as my inspiration.  It may well be true – I may never be in Betty Webb’s class.  I may never again have an opportunity to share a stage with her, but I did have that one time.  I will let her be my new found star.  She will be my inspiration to keep me going.  So, thank you Betty Webb.  I may never be in your league, but thank you for graciously sharing the stage with me.  You are incredible.

Springtime in Arizona

This blog a departure from my usual ones about what’s happening with my books as I undertake this exciting, painful and exhausting journey from lawyer to author.  Right now my life is filled with distractions, but all that is happening with my books can be summed up in a single word – “nothing”.  Well, that’s not entirely true, this week I will be an invited author at the AAUW Scottsdale Annual Author’s Luncheon.

Somehow, the books have taken a backseat position as I emerge almost as from a cocoon to the promise of renewal.  All of a sudden it’s spring in Arizona.   I find that it is impossible to focus.  I’m too busy relishing the joy of being alive and just sensing the wonders about me.  Springtime in Arizona is a wonderful restorative event that must be savored first hand to really understand what it is about.

To all you fans who traveled to Arizona for the Super Bowl thinking that you would kill two birds with one stone and get a bonus of wonderful sunshine in the middle of your winter while watching the game only to find Arizona with three days of consecutive rain – the first time in ten years — I want you to know that I’m sorry you didn’t get to share our glorious weather, but understand, it really is part of a secret plan.   It is a scheme to lure here with promises of wonderful warm sunshine just to get you here.  If you saw Arizona as it really is, you might want to stay.  So to set the record straight, I just want you to know that as soon as you left Arizona to return to your snow and cold, our glorious weather came back with clear beautiful days, flowers in the deserts and sunsets to die for.  Of course, it is a conspiracy to keep you from deciding that Arizona is so beautiful that you had to go home and sell everything to move here.  Arizonans are never inhospitable.  We would never do anything to make you feel unwelcome.  So we roll out the welcome mat and pretend that three days of rainy and cold weather is normal and that we like it – just like we pretend that the summer isn’t hot because it’s a “dry heat”.   The truth is that there are so few cloudy days that a few days of cloudy weather is nice for a change — however drizzling rain – that’s another story.  We love to have you visit, but want to keep the best place to live in this country as a secret for ourselves.  With more and more people moving here, it is harder and harder to keep this paradise to ourselves.

Just so you know what you are missing, as I sit writing this, my windows are open.  It is bright and sunny outside with temperatures in the high sixties heading for the low eighties.  The wonderful fragrance of orange blossoms fills the air.  The streets are lined with plum trees displaying their annual formal dress of white blossoms.  There is a gentle breeze whispering though the trees and yes, it feels like spring.

So, to you who had to go home to winter, you have my complete sympathy.  Since I am originally from Buffalo, New York, I truly can feel your pain of enduring gray skies, snow at your feet, frost on your windshield and icy roads.   For me, the rest of your winter will be endless sunshine, wide open spaces, beautiful mountains, balmy temperatures and endless flowers.  I am sorry you missed it, but you can come back anytime and see the real Arizona without the Super Bowl or the golf tour or the car sales, but then it wouldn’t be as much fun.  So you see, we really do want you to come, we just don’t want you to stay.

Good Old Fashioned Villains

Not many of us remember the early days of the movies with the “Perils of Pauline”.   The classic series came out about 1914, and was one of the first silent movies.  Because there was no dialogue to carry the story line, the acting was all.  Mind you, I am not old enough to actually remember going to the movies to see the weekly episodes of “Perils of Pauline”.   Although I am old – old enough to be referred to as a senior citizen—I  am not that old.   What I know about the “Perils of Pauline” is not much, but I do think the character Pauline was forever being rescued from a multitude of villains.  She carries the historic brand as the beautiful but trouble-prone female that always needed to be rescued.  (Not my kind of character at all.)  However, the series is notable because it started the trek down the screen path to villainous villains that will live forever in our collective memories as wicked characters.

And, this brings to mind another one of the early screen characters who was really the archetype of all villainous characters to follow in the next several decades.  You’ve probably heard the name Snidely Whiplash — the most evil of all creative characters.  Snidely Whiplash was the arch enemy of Dudley Doright, that stalwart Canadian Mountie who always got his man.  Somehow, Snidely always managed to escape capture though his evil plotting.  In the episodic  adventures, the audience was held spellbound by the conniving that marked Snidely a villain.  In fact, Snidely Whiplash probably set the standard for truly wicked characters for at least five decades.  In the world of over the top acting, Snidely Whiplash carried the day with his pure unadulterated nefarious behavior.  There was no one more cunning, devious, or just plain despicable than good old Snidely.  The audiences loved seeing a villain escape justice.

Make no mistake about it though, in those days, good was good and evil was evil.  The audience might cheer for Snidely, but it was always clear that he was the bad guy.  As Hollywood got more sophisticated, the bad guys wore black hats and the good guys wore white ones.  There was no possibility that the audience would get it wrong.  There was no “Fifty shades of gray” to cloud our perception with regard to the actions of the actors or judgments as to morality.

Move forward nearly a hundred years, and much has happened.  The biggest change is that Hollywood no  longer has good guys and bad guys.  The supposed good guys have flaws which undermine their characters, and the bad guys are all warm and fuzzy endowed with the milk of human kindness as they engage in cold blooded murder.  This is supposed to be provocative and I agree, it is that, but it leaves the viewer disturbed.  It is discombobulating to find justice elusive and good blurred into evil and vice versa.

All of this leads me to look critically at characters in books.  Have the villains in books become more villainous?   And if so, what makes them so villainous?  What do readers expect of the anti-hero?  And then, I have to ask myself, “What do I lean toward—the nuanced villain, or the Snidely Whiplash variety?”   I suppose I like villains that are real life anti-heroes, but that being said, I want my villains to stay in character.  I would not expect someone capable of murder to be compassionate, or to empathize with the victim.  I look for a type of calculated coldness – a state of unfeeling.   Conversely, I would not expect my female protagonist  – remember, I like strong female characters – to succumb to the ravages of temptation and fall into the black despair of evil.

I understand that there’s a kind of rogue villain—the one you love to hate because he is likeable even though he is naughty.  That’s just it.  He’s naughty–not wicked. The rogue is in my mind more like a  little boy who manages to tell an adorable lie.  However, this type of character will never manage to achieve my standards as a true coldhearted died-in-the-wool villain.  The rogues will have to remain on the sidelines in my books.   I’m in for black and white – good guys and bad guys.

So where do you put Aaron Rose?  Don’t know who I’m talking about?  For shame!  You need to read Tender Offers –both books — to see about him and how you would classify him.  Let me know.

So What Makes a Strong Female Protagonist?

I’m sitting here wondering – what makes a strong woman?  I know that we all love to read about them.  Perhaps, we even know one or two women who fit into that category, but we would admit that they are few and far between.  They serve as role models.  They hold families together in the face of adversity. They give us encouragement when we’re down and they certainly are women that we want to emulate, but why?  I don’t think that I’ve ever given much real thought to what qualities makes a person strong.

In some ways, I think it is easier for a man.  We all know the qualities that we like in men although frequently what women say we like and what we really like may be two different things.  On one hand women want men to be courageous and brave, to assume a leadership role and give us a strong shoulder to cry on, but at the same time we want them to be unafraid to display emotional sensitivity, and of course, always communicate deep heart-felt feelings.  So much for the brave, silent type of man of years past – you know, the men that went out and fought wars and gave their lives so that we could live in freedom – they have faded from the popular culture.  Sometimes, I wonder if men have as much trouble forging their roles in today’s world as women have.  I’m not sure that I really understand all that goes into making a strong male protagonist in today’s literature, but I digress.  I’m really obsessing about the role of the female heroine, today, because I think it is so much more complex.

If, through the course of the ages, men have claimed not to understand women, how much more confusing it must be for them today.   Books are written on the subject of just what women want.  To know what women really want, you would have to really find a strong woman to tell you out straight – someone who would be unafraid to tell you what makes her tick.  So just what makes a woman strong?  What key qualities make her memorable?  Inspirational?  Compelling?  What are the qualities that are most admired?  There are a few I can think of.  Certainly courage comes to mind, but it is a different kind of courage than the kind of courage men have, at least from my observation.   Men are brave with the body; women are brave with the heart.  It’s usually not a type of courage that demands recognition, but it is more like doing what you have to do as dictated by circumstances and done out of self sacrifice.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am not saying that men are courageous for status or recognition.  Nor am I saying that our women soldiers are not as brave as the men in a combat situation.  I have the greatest admiration in the world for our men and women in the service of our country.  I’m just saying that whatever that quality is that drives men, it doesn’t seem to be as much of a motivation factor for women.

So what else goes into a strong woman? Willfulness?  Maybe somewhat, but I’m not sure that it is willfulness alone.  Willfulness can easily be misconstrued as stubbornness, and I can hardly call that a desirable trait.  However, willfulness has a certain kind of ‘stick-to-it-ness’ that allows recovery from mistakes and gives a drive to go onward.  More importantly, willfulness can be beneficial when it creates determination that allows one to learn from mistakes and pick up the pieces and keep going.

But certainly there must be more to strong women than just courage and willfulness, and indeed there is.  I think the truly strong female has learned early on to love completely.  I’m not talking about a soppy kind of romantic love or a hot romp under the sheets kind either.  No, I am talking more about a love of life, a love for new adventure, a love of people and a zest for life that is contagious.  She is the type of protagonist that sticks in our heads long after the book is complete.   And really, that is the most difficult kind of protagonist to create, possibly because she is so rare in real life.

I’ve been blogging almost a year now.  Wow.  Still have more questions than answers.

Strong Female Protagonists

Do you like strong women?  Do you like to read stories about them?  Do you like to get inside their heads and find out what makes them tick?  I do.  I always have.  When I was a child I was first introduced to a strong female character in the Nancy Drew Mysteries when I was about 8 or 9 years old.  I was mesmerized.  I read them all.  Then I moved on to the Nurse Barton stories and read all those too.  I’ve read so many books that I’ve forgotten them all, but I’ve never forgotten the strong willed female who always knew her own mind.  Those are the types of heroines I like the best. They inspire and challenge and motivate me.

It seems as if fiction is filled with strong minded female personalities.   There’s Emma Woodhouse from Emma by Jane Austin, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm fame by Kate Douglas Wiggin, and of course, Scarlet O’Hara by Margret Mitchell – who could ever forget them?  Then, there’s Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace always using her wits to get the power and position she so desperately wanted.   They made the pages of literature come alive with their willful personalities because they were out of step with the women of their times.  On the pages of the novels they let women dream of a life which was out of reach for most of them.

Who can forget the indomitable Dagny Taggart from Atlas Shrugged?   Now there was a modern woman who never waited for her hero to ride up on a white horse and rescue her from anything.  She was my first example a woman making it in the business world.  I think that I have read this book three or four times.  It is always one my favorites and probably always will be.

Novels are fun, but to get to the really strong characters, you have to go to the biographies.  At 13 or so, I started reading serious books as I called them.  My first real life female heroine was Anne Frank, author of the Dairies of Anne Frank.  I read this book several times, too.  I will be forever impressed by the sense of courage and equanimity she exhibited as she matured from child to adult in the space of one to two years under unbelievable circumstances.  I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult her life was.  It impressed me so much that she could still find thanks in her heart for the woman who brought her family food.  The most marvelous thing about Anne Frank is her lack of hatred especially in circumstances when that probably would have been the most universal emotion against those who treated her so cruelly.

The parade of woman heroines from the pages of the books paved the path for the modern woman as she has braved the dramatic societal changes of the sixties and the advent of women’s rights.  They served the function of guiding the women of my generation to an understanding that anything was possible. They all helped create the modern strong willed female.   They helped to forge a sense of independence of the modern woman.  She is adventurous and not afraid to go where few women have gone before.  Sure, she is willful and perhaps, stubborn, but she has to be.  The point is, the women of the old novels and classic stories could only dream of living the life most women live today.  But their dreams set the pace.  They were unusual in literature because they dared to be different – to do the unexpected.  If anything they showed a generation of women who were learning new roles how it could be done.  How grand is that?  Certainly, living as a female lawyer has been one of the most thrilling adventures of my life.  Sure, I was born at the right time, but I had all these heroines from the books to show me the way — to mold my world view to make all things possible.  What a gift.

I expect that strong female protagonists are mainly appreciated by other women, but maybe not.  I am certain there are men out there who are secure enough in their own sense of self not to be challenged and to welcome the intellectual equal that today’s modern woman has become.

So many distractions

My books, Tender Offers, have taken a little side trip the past few days.  My inability to concentrate made it easy to run away and play.  I am now learning that writing is really hard work.  I am not claiming that it is hard physically, although, there are days when the aches and pains of sitting too long at the computer seem to suggest that there is a physical part to it.  No, it is not that.  The problem is concentration.  It’s so easy to get side tracked and become distracted.  Notwithstanding, my resolution to be faithful on my once weekly blog — to say nothing about my book promotion activity – this week has been a disaster in a nice way.  It’s fall.  Leaves are turning the brilliant colors of fall and the days are golden, right?  Ah, but you’re skeptical.  You’re not buying my excuse.  “She is just looking for any excuse not to write,” you say.  “After all, do the leaves really turn in Arizona?”

I’ll bet you thought that the land of perpetual summer didn’t have any fall color.  Believe me it is a well kept secret.  True Arizonans like to live with the myths that they create.   You have heard them all.  It is always summer in Arizona.  The summer in Arizona is too hot – but it is a dry heat.  It’s always warm and sunny.  It never rains.  Scorpions are everywhere.  Rattlesnakes get into the houses.  There are myths that Arizonans concoct to keep out the would-be transplants that live their lives chasing sunny skies and greener grass.  Like most good myths though, there is just enough truth to sound convincing.

Except in this case, Arizona really does have a change of seasons.  It’s here; you just have to go find it.  Unlike the New England states, where no one can possibly ignore the splendor of the colors that paint the landscape, our colors are much more subtle.  To find autumn in Arizona you have to go to the high country – the higher the better.   Once you get up above 7,000 feet, then the beauty of fall opens up with spectacular vistas.  The aspens get a vibrant shade of yellow and the pines become a deep almost black-green.  If you add in the clear blue big sky and throw in a babbling brook, autumn in Arizona takes on a whole new meaning.    It fills the senses.  You just have to feel it, smell it, hear it and of course, see it.  Who could possibly work on a day like that?

It’s interesting.  I’ve lived in Arizona for years and this is the first fall that I have just been swept up with the wonder of it all.  It has been impossible to work and for the first time in my life, I have been unable to force myself to sit and stay focused long enough to write.  I don’t know if other writers hit a brick wall like this, but if they have, please share with me how you work through it without simply deciding that it is more fun to skip away and enjoy the sights and sounds all around.  How does one get re-focused?   I suspect that I have inadvertently stumbled on some profound secret of the trade that only true authors know and few are willing to share.  Even in my naivete, I can see that this is what separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls and the true authors from the wannabes.

My Video Revisited

Lately, I’ve been working with a company to promote my book, Tender Offers.   They are guiding my efforts in building up my presence on YouTube.  This is a good thing since I know nothing about YouTube.  Sure, like the rest of the world I pop onto that site once in a while to watch a funny video, or to see something interesting, but I’ve never used YouTube to promote my books.  I am ashamed to admit that I really don’t know how to upload a video or anything else.  It truly is times like these that I regret not have a 10 year old at my disposal.  Of course, the younger set knows all about this new computer stuff and probably understands how to upload a video more than they know how to balance a checkbook. YouTube is their playground.

My video has been uploaded now and I’m trying to have as many people look at it as is possible. Sound familiar?  Again, I am a novice in this area.  After months of not liking my video at all, my voice, my appearance or my mannerisms, I think I like it now.  As a vote of confidence, my husband’s only comment was that the music sounded “spooky”. That’s okay.   After all it is nearly Halloween and the season for spooky everything.  I get to ride my broom again and engage in some Halloween fun.

Remember now, when I started down this path of being an author, I had absolutely no idea of this thing called social media. I was not on Facebook, and I never twittered. I had no idea what a blog was.  Here I am, almost a year later, and I am still learning.  Now I feel ready to tackle YouTube, with help, of course.

This is a big step for me. I am constantly fighting with myself trying to balance my need for privacy verses my need to promote my books.  The two desires are constantly in conflict. I’ve built a successful law practice with a low profile existence.  Naturally, I thought in my delusionary thinking that I could have a successful marketing campaign for my books with an equally low profile.  That has to be one of the mistakes I’ve made.  I totally misjudged social media and the force it has in connecting with people.  I really haven’t addressed the impact of YouTube in our daily lives.   So here I am, learning new tricks, meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends.  Every day is exciting and a brand new adventure filled with challenges for this septuagenarian.

I haven’t retired from the practice of law yet, but more and more I am recognizing that, yes Crystal, there is a life out there beyond being a lawyer. It is invigorating, stimulating and exciting.  I am constantly learning new tricks.  So for everyone who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks – I say “Nonsense.”   This is one old dog who is not intimidated by learning new things.

Author Blogs

Is anyone really aware of how many authors are writing blogs on the internet? I mean, the number must be astronomical.  A year ago, I didn’t even know what blog was.  Because I didn’t know about blogging, I missed reading all these wonderful blogs that introduced me to the minds of some very interesting people. You might say that I was a social media virgin.  (I like that.  It’s the only time I’ve referred to myself as a virgin in any context in over fifty years.  It makes me feel young, almost innocent.  But, I digress.)  In the past year, I’ve opened the Pandora’s Box of marketing.  I learned about Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and a whole lot of other social media outlets.  I’ve learned YouTube, and I’ve actually done a few videos.  I watched videos that other authors have done.  But, most important of all, I’ve learned to blog.  While, I am by no means an expert at this, I think I have climbed some major hurdles and have learned to navigate around the edges.

For nearly a year, I have written a weekly blog that has described my adventures and misadventures of entry into the society of authors. I find that I am one of millions authors, each with an interesting tale to tell.  There are many blogs by authors describing their successes and frustrations writing and marketing their books.   Some bloggers have even told of adventures they experienced which are similar to my own. They offer helpful advice on technical things like correct grammar, manuscript formatting, and plot development.  They share their secrets on how they have successfully marketed and promoted their own books.  For me it is the sharing of their struggles, their accomplishments, and even their complaining, that keeps me reading their blogs.  Through their blogs, they give an insight of who they are as people.  I feel privileged to know these complete strangers because of their blogging.

Reading authors’ blogs has been entertaining, but most of all it has been a lifeline to creative thinking. There’s been an unexpected bonus as I have read many of their books – books I never would have even looked at without the blogs.  For that, I am grateful.  The books have been on subjects that I never would have read if left to my devices of choosing a book by a title or cover. These authors who have taken the time to blog regularly have kept me going, forced me to think, made me laugh or cry with them as our joint experiences open into the reality of being an author.  Not since the horrid days of law school and the intimidation of the bar examination, have I felt more connected in an untold alliance with these authors who, like me, are taking to the airways to promote their baby – the books created by their efforts.  So in recognition of the enjoyment I have received from other authors who blog, here are some of the books I’ve read:

JC Gatlin- Prey of Desire

James Rose – Pabby’s Score

KL Docter – Killing Secrets

Bobby Blaze Smedley – Pin Me, Pay Me

MP Zarrella – A Tangles Web

All of these have been entertaining and all worth the read. Thank you.  But for your blogs, we never would have met.

Tender Offers Is Now Trademarked

I reached another milestone. Today, I received in the mail my Federal Trademark for Tender Offers®.  I’m excited.  I know that it is very unusual to get a trademark for a book title. Usually, only really famous authors (that’s me by a long shot) have the money or the wherewithal to get a trademark.  But I figured what the heck.  It is worth a try.  Who better to know how to do it than a lawyer especially one that practices in intellectual property?   I figured if I couldn’t do for myself, then I couldn’t do it for clients either.  But that’s just the point.  Of course I could get it because I knew how to do it.  I got the trademark without a hitch.  Sometimes I surprise myself.

In reality, I guess a trademark isn’t all that special, especially when you consider the millions and millions of trademarks that have been issued. It is true that trademarks are only good if you actively are marketing something.  Sure, my books are being marketed, but there’s marketing and then there’s what I call marketing.  I’m not sure that they are the same thing.  But having a trademark is not all about marketing.  That’s not the only reason I wanted a trademark. I look at the whole picture a little differently.  The trademark is just one more little thing to make Tender Offers mine, a unique piece of me put out for public consumption.   In a way it gives my books life and a sense of purpose.   It brands them with a distinction that isn’t very common and is somewhat hard to get.

Every new venture is marked with the step by step of small achievements. That’s how it is with Tender Offers.  Some days it’s two steps forward and three backwards.  Other days the journey forward is the one that advances.  It doesn’t matter which kind of step it is, it is the steps that count.  The constant trying, failing, and trying again that keeps me focused on not only the big successes but the small achievements along the way.  I savor each and every success accomplished.  And, I look upon each failure as part of the learning process.

So I have a trademark now. Great.  That was my big step forward this week.  Okay, now I’m almost set for the next great merchandising opportunity that comes along.   Tender Offers® is now ready for licensing. Yep.  Look out, Mickey Mouse® here I come ready or not.

Been Writing Again

It’s such a slow process, this writing thing. Some days it seems like no progress is made as I labor over a sentence for hours.  Sometimes it is incredibly slow.  I’ve written 50 page contracts in less time than I can write a page. But in a flash it changes so that the words flow and the characters wake up. Nothing is ever set in stone and I cannot predict how much or how little I can write at a sitting.  Even when I think something is complete, I come back and change a sentence here or there, so nothing is ever finished, or so it seems.

The truth is I’ve been writing all summer long. The first was a project that I promised to do someday, and someday arrived.  Years ago, I wrote a how-to-do-it manual entitled “Sell Your Home Yourself and Save Thousands”.  The book was very successful and launched me into the private practice of law.  Because the brokers hated it so much, I had lots of attention with TV appearances and radio spots.  Soon I had more clients than I could handle and the book got put aside.  It’s been out of print for years.  From time to time I’ve had publishers contact me about revising it and bringing it back to the marketplace.  It was something I promised to do ‘someday’ but never found time to do.  Well, this past year, I found time.  I updated it and totally rewrote the whole book.  Much has happened in the industry to make it easier now than ever before to successfully sell your own house.  The book is now in a final editing stage.  The brokers are sure to go apoplectic again.  Oh well.

Simultaneously, with revising “Sell Your Home Yourself and Save Thousands” I’ve started another novel. It isn’t far enough along to reveal the plot but it is clearly in my head.  I know where I’m going, and I definitely know the ending.  As it unfolds on paper, I surprise myself with the characters that dance from my fingertips.  I think I’ve known them all my life.  To those of you who have read Tender Offers, Books One and Two, this is not a sequel.  Even though many of you have asked for a sequel to Tender Offers, it’s not going to happen right now.  Brittany is going to have to find her own way with no help from me. I’ve left her or she has left me for now, but Brittany may return someday.

My new novel is an entirely different story about powerful female lawyer, but that‘s all I’m going to say.  Right now it is flowing from my fingertips with surprising ease.  I’m sure I’ll hit rough spots, but it’s like I must get it down on paper.  At this stage of my life, I do not have time to waste.  As a septuagenarian my energy is limited, but my interests are not.  There is a young person in me, dying to get out and play.  I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do when I grow up.

I’m still writing the lawyer stuff – the contracts, the trusts, the wills, the legal opinions and the dry stuff of my existence, but it is far less gratifying. It is much harder now to stay focused in the legal world.  It is much more tempting to just be Peter Pan and refuse to grow up.