10 Things You Probably Already Know About Me

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Today is one of those Mondays. It started with rain, but morphed to sunshine. My overbooked schedule righted itself in a win-win fashion. The guest speaker in my class this morning left me feeling upbeat about myself, my students and the work I do, leading me to bounce off campus, delighted with the life I have. 

Yeah, I know. I'm nauseating -- or fun to be around, depending on your perspective. And, while I've tossed a few blog post ideas around this morning, no one topic stuck, so today, I'm going with a list post that reflects where I am on this now-sunny Monday. If you're a long-time reader, few of these will come as a surprise -- and you might even have a few observations of your own to add in the comments (please do). 

So, here's me. 

1. I love my job. Sure, I complain sometimes about the details but, big picture, I love working with young adults and daily, I meet young people who shatter the notion of a lazy, entitled younger generation.
2. I am an optimist. Most days, #1 fuels this.
3. I appreciate excellence and have little patience for people who don't do the work.
4. I love creating characters, whether for the stage or the page.
5. I live for a flexible work schedule. I've done the traditional work day, and this is much, much better, but I also work more hours now than when I did the typical work week.
6. Becoming a mom is the best thing that ever happened to me.
7. I have a love-hate relationship with technology. When it works, it's a fabulous tool, but I'm always not-so-secretly afraid something will go wrong and I will look foolish. (It's happened).
8. I love to learn new things. These days, you're more likely to find me reading (and writing) non-fiction than novels.
9.  I am grateful beyond words for the life I have. Yes, bad things have happened and no, I haven't simply ignored them. But, I know that neither good nor bad will feel that way every moment of every day. I know what I'm good at and I'm willing to work hard. And, I have a husband whose job provides health insurance.
10. No matter where I am or where I live, I will always, always be a Jersey girl.

Muddling Through Monday

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Today is a muddled kind of Monday. Celebration aftereffects have co-mingled with reality and the burgeoning independence of my newly minted graduate to create a mental morass that makes it hard to focus on a topic, let alone write about one.

Then I remember. Writers don't need to be constrained by anything as mundane and inconvenient as reality. If today is too confusing, too upsetting, too overwhelming, I merely need to leave it behind and enter the world of my characters. Doing so is hard work, and the on-ramp to this world is often uphill, but writing is also a vacation of sorts; it's a way to leave behind the puzzling pieces of the real world and weave a world of my own choosing where I am the master of what occurs. At least until my characters step in to voice their opinions.

Speaking of which, my characters will be doing the talking right here, beginning this Wednesday as I kick off a new feature where I interview some of the players from Casting the First Stone and Chasing a Second Chance. I've spoken with a few of them already (yes, I know how that sounds), so I have a few interviews ready to go, but I'm also happy to take requests, as I'm subjecting all of them to the same interview process.

Also, if you're looking for some fun summer reads, I hope you'll visit The Beach Reads Bonanza, a Facebook party which kicks off tomorrow at noon CST (1 PM ET). I'm up first, hosting from 1-1:30 or so, and will be followed by a flood of authors chatting and sharing book information. There will be games, prizes and great titles to add to your summer wish list, so I hope you'll stop by :-) The Beach Reads Bonanza runs through Monday, June 13.

And now, back to reality...or not. I hear it's overrated.

Photo: Pippalou via Morguefile

Casting the First...Vote?

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Today was one of those days where I had no idea what to write about. I get them every so often, but usually stumble upon a topic early in the day.

Today was not that day.

In the midst of running errands late this afternoon -- long after this blog should have been posted -- I got my idea. Stole it, actually, from a radio ad on NPR. It seems that later this week, they'll be interviewing an author (I want to say Richard Russo, but I can't be sure) and one topic of conversation will be who his characters would vote for.

Bingo.

To really make this true to character and avoid further polarizing one of my characters, I'm going to have to flash back a bit, to earlier this week when there were a few more candidates still pursuing the nomination.

With John Kasich, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump as Republican contenders and Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton as Democratic contenders, here's who I think my characters would vote for:

• Marita would vote for....Hillary. Definitely. 
• Angel would vote for....John Kasich. She'd definitely vote Republican, but she doesn't trust Ted Cruz. And she thinks Donald Trump is a bully. 
• Jim would vote for....Trump. In fact, there's a part of Jim that wants to be Trump.
• Bets would vote for...Hillary. She thinks Bernie Sanders is cute, but she likes Hillary's chutzpah.
• Lukas would vote for...Bernie Sanders. And not just because his youth group kids talked him into it.
• Gina would vote for...Hillary. Or, she'd mean to, but she'd probably have to work late and forget to vote. 
• Charli, if she were old enough, would vote for....Bernie Sanders. She's not so sure about Hillary and the e-mails and she thinks Bernie's kinda cute.

What do you think? Whom do you think my characters would vote for?

4 Characters I Met Last Weekend (Plus One it's Good I Didn't)

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Creating characters is my favorite part of writing fiction. I like dreaming them up from scratch, so to speak, but since real life and fiction are intricately connected through the vessel that is the writer, the elements blur and blend. Though I've never used an actual person in one of my books, some of my characters definitely have traits in common with people I know. And sometimes, it's the other way around.

Last weekend, for example, I met Nurse Loretta from my soon-to-be-released novel, Chasing a Second Chance. She was disguised as a clerk at Macy's in New York, but I recognized her as soon as she spoke. Of course the fact that she was coming to my rescue (as Nurse Loretta does for Angel) probably colored my perspective, as did the fact that she was unfailingly kind to me, while refusing to suffer fools (other customers -- you had to be there) gladly.

That got me thinking about other characters I met over the course of the weekend. Here are a few of them -- along with one it's probably good I didn't meet.

The down-on-his-luck sweet talker. We met this man between 11pm and midnight while waiting for our connecting train at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. Quick to share his [prior] success and his sad story of the day, he was probably not who he said he was, but the desperation of his situation was most likely real. Though he appeared to appreciate the $7 we gave him "for a train ticket," his eyes lit up at the food I offered. Scammed? Probably. But in the end, we were safe, and I hope he was as well.  He left me wondering how he'd gotten from the success he professed as present truth to the alcohol-infused fast talker standing in front of me.

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The Broadway "show sellers" at TKTS. These young people made a long line at TKTS seem to go faster (we even got to see a snippet of a number from Chicago). Most had the same opening line ("What show are you hoping to see?"), but they were full of energy and enthusiasm, along with a bit of trivia and insight. It was like getting an insider's view from a friend who'd seen everything, and it was fun talking to them. When I did a little research after the fact, I wasn't surprised to find that they're "highly trained working theatre professionals." They definitely had the energy necessary to bring a character to life on stage.

The jerk on the train. The train was "sold out" (more likely overbooked) on the way home, and we got split up. We figured we'd find new seats when people got off in Philly, but more people got on than off. My husband did find us seats with a bit more leg room, and while he retrieved our luggage from the overhead compartment and waited patiently to come back against the traffic of those seeking seats, my carry-on held his seat and I had to refuse many travelers. I felt bad about this in every case except one -- the 20-something guy who walked by (without asking if the seat was taken) loudly saying, "Yeah, that's right. Keep that seat for your bags." As it turned out, I didn't need to respond. Someone sitting nearby who'd heard me explain that the seat was taken called out to him, "Someone's sitting there!" followed by a sound that echoed my own frustration. The jerk on the train was a stock character. The woman who came to my defense is the one I want to write about.

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Though I didn't meet the rude coffee drinker who spilled a substantial portion of his/her latte on the bench in the shoe department at Macy's, I did have a few choice words for him/her. While it's true that I should have looked before I sat, I didn't expect half a latte to be on the bench...or to soak through my pants, turning my solo shopping trip at Macy's Herald Square into a quest for dry clothing. This character may very well show up in a book, because I do, indeed, have a few things to say to her. And yes, she's already morphed into a female character because the bench was, after all, in the women's shoe department.

But without her less-than-desirable tendency to spill and run, unwelcome though it was, I wouldn't have met Nurse Loretta.

And, unlike the latte and the jerk on the train, she was a welcome surprise.