I don’t know how in-tune everyone is with news be it sports, entertainment or social media issues, but in my house it’s all the time. We have 5 cell phones, 4 iPods, and 4 computers between the 6 of us. Someone is ALWAYS online (seriously—ALWAYS). Between my online kids (one doesn’t care yet, thank goodness), I pretty much know most of what’s going on. So one of the things we’ve been talking about recently is Manti Te’o and his getting duped online.

One of my kids (the sports nut) is incredulous and can’t understand how this could possibly happen—he thinks there was no way Te’o could get duped and he had to be lying every which way. But you know what, it can happen. Hell, I know someone it happened to (not naming names, but... someone was fooled and fooled damned good; gifts were involved, some serious lies thrown about, it wasn’t pretty when the truth came out—and did they feel stoo-pid!). Lesson learned there! When the Te’o news story broke, I guess because of my knowledge of the possibility, I didn’t understand the whole hoopla going on (and on and on) about it.

In the writing world, with pseudonyms and whatnot, this could happen much more frequently. Folks need/want to cruise through social media, but don’t want there “real” name out there for various reasons. more than half the writers I know use pseudonyms (and I have to say, I never know should I call them by their “real” name or the name on the book—I tend to go with the name they are introduced to me with, FYI). I knew a girl a few years ago who wrote under two name. I interacted with her for over a year before I realized it was the same girl. She wasn’t trying to hide it, I was just not paying enough attention at the time... We both laughed when I admitted to her I’d figured it out.

It does make me a little wary when I see “Like to help get...[fill in the blank gift for fill in the blank issue]”. Makes me wonder if it’s real. I will often times still hit the like button. So far as I can tell it doesn’t adversely affect me to do so... though, it might tear a little piece of my soul if I find out it was a lie *sniff-sniff*. To me it’s not that strange, or unexpected I guess, that someone could get confused and/or duped.

Has it happened to you? Have you been a victim be it deliberate or just didn’t catch on as quickly? Have you done it for a reason or another (I’ll be honest, I have thought about creating a fake online persona to get on my kid’s FB page since he won’t let me on now, but 1) I’m too lazy to try and 2) I’m just trusting him... for now.)? What would compel you to do it if you haven’t?

I love plotting...more so than writing sometimes—which is ironic since I can’t plot my books too heavily as I’ve mentioned many-a-time before. (I think it’s because once I’ve plotted something whether it’s mine or a writer-friend’s I can totally picture the entire novel right then and there. I like it to be a discovery as I write. That’s just my process. Having said that, and because of that, I do like to come up with deep backstories for my characters. I personally like to know how they lost their first tooth and up to how they handled their senior prom. I t helps me flesh out the characters in the books even if I don’t include the info.

Last week I finished up a book (done, done and done some more) and sent that baby out (fingers crossed—will update if/when news comes through—on a side note, can I tell you, it took me a year to write it. It’s never taken that long, but as I have writer’s ADD, it wasn’t the only book I was working on and ...life can get in the way sometimes—I need discipline bad! Anyhoo...). Naturally, a completed and out the door novel means I needed to get right/write back into. Too long of lag times is bad. It makes me lazy and often I have enough crap that pushes the writing aside anyway, I don’t want to add to the gaps when I can help it(as evident of me taking a year to write the last book).

My process can vary from book to book. And I never know which process I will get until I sit down to plan the next book. This time around, I had a particular idea I wanted to work through (the hero is a bodyguard). That’s all I had, and by all, I mean all I knew was I wanted a bodyguard book. Doesn’t seem like much to go on, but that’s where I have/had to go from. I had a few fits and starts with the whos and whats—and I had to get past the hubby singing Whitney Houston every time I brought the book up trying to bounce ideas off of him (needless to say, he was banned from the thinking room while I was working).

I have a decent handle now on my new people. I still have a few kinks to work out, but I am excited to start a new book—I am always excited when a new books starts. The possibilities are endless, and I love playing the “what if” game so it’s pure fun for me. Now check back in with me in a month and I may be cursing said book due to lack of plotting and I have worked myself into a hole, but even that *is* fun, especially when you do get yourself out of it, have a finished book that’s ready to go out the door.

Have y’all started anything new recently? Where are you in your current book process? Are you at the “still in love with it” stage or the “hair pulling” stage? Which stage do you find more creative (sometimes it is the hair pulling stage for me, because I have to work at it just a wee bit harder)?

I have too much paper. For my books. And not that I am printing out the books. Well, I do usually/partially. I actually don’t like to waste paper printing out a manuscript. I know it helps with editing at times, so when I do print them out, I will usually do four manuscript pages per sheet of paper (it’s tiny, there’s eye strain but it’s a quarter of the pages it could be). But I also take lots of notes and jot lots of things down. By the end of a book, I will have a file folder jammed to capacity.

But...then...what am I supposed to do with it?

As a hoarder-in-training, I abhor throwing things away. Especially things that may be useful at some point—who determines that, eh I don’t know. So throwing away the workings of my books is like throwing away my kids’ baby clothes. To special and precious. I. Can’t. Do. It.

Could be, since I am still in a certain phase in my writing career—i.e., all my books are currently still under contract and I have haven’t gotten any rights back so I haven’t had to go through and re-edit something before I put it back out myself—I am not 100% sure what of it I may need to keep a hold of. So I keep it all.

Now, however, I am finding that I have so much of it, it may become overwhelming. I am running out of places to store the umpteen file folders. Sure I could always move it to the garage or attic, but then my easy access, should I ever actually need it, would be gone and a chore to get to. (this is overthink mode, sure, but as I tripped over a folder just this morning, it’s a necessary overthink, I think)

Do you have hardcopies/notes/jottings for your books or WIPs? Do you keep it any or all once the book is finished? If you keep it, at what point would you get rid of it? I really want to know, because I am not sure what to do with what’s making piles in my office. Truth be told, I’d love nothing more than to have on of those tall round bookcases that fit three-inch binders all the way around and keep one binder per book as I work on them. Maybe something to think about. I am sure I could find room somewhere for it.

I have just finished the 1st and 2nd drafts of a new book. I am going over it one more time before I send it out, but I have one glaring problem. No title. I have no idea what to call the dern thing. Right now, it’s saved under M&J which is the H/H’s first initials. Can’t use that.

In the past, I wouldn’t even get to chapter two without having a title ready. I’d have the H/H names, the gist of the book, then the title and go. The last three books I’ve started, however, are just initial&initial and blam, the book starts rocking. This is the first of the bunch I have actually finished so now I am stuck trying to work up a title.

You wouldn’t think it would be such a difficult task. I mean, hey, I just completed a 200+ page manuscript the title should be the easy part, right?!?! But truth be told, the title is it’s very first selling point. You can’t just have Buy My Book, It’s Good, I Swear on the cover. While on the surface it sounds like it says it all, right (who wouldn’t buy that book...HA!), it just won’t cut it.

I have really been dragging my feet on this last round of edits not having the title. And to be honest, it’s freaking me out a little bit that it *is* so difficult. Have you ever gotten hung up on something so minor and so important at the same time? How did you get past the block? And lastly, what would you title my book...it’s about a local girl makes good cupcake shop owner and the new chief of police who is the town’s former All-American boy come home... aw never mind. I’ll think of something. Eventually! (I hope)