Rainy Days and Mondays

Well, today isn’t Monday, but as I was writing this blog post, it was. And it was definitely raining. Most of the day, in fact. But, unlike the song, those kinds of days don’t “get me down.” I tend to like the rain. And sleeping to the sound of thunder is just bliss.

What wasn’t so blissful was the cold that went along with the rain, since we’re headed into winter, and the days are getting shorter. But what does make me happy is that I just got my story bible for the continuity I’ll be writing. And it’s a Christmas story. One of my favorite kinds of books to write! Did the editors plan it that way, hoping the festive lights and tinsel would light my muse’s fire? I don’t know, but I think it’s going to work. I’m very excited about the plot I’ve been given, and on Monday, I was busy setting up my chapters in Scrivener (the writing program I use). So, right now, it’s literally a series of twelve chapter headings and an expanse of empty pages. My imagination is running wild with how I can make this story my own.

Monday’s rain just added to my momentum, since I couldn’t get out and do anything. In fact, I drove to a nearby supermarket parking lot to get some peace and quiet, pushed back the seat as far as it would go and listened to the rain while I got my program set up. It was wonderful. Just me, the warmth of the car heater, and my still-to-be-written book.

The view from my car on a rainy Monday

And I can’t wait to start! I just came off a frenetic writing schedule and finally had time to stop and recharge my batteries. So just like the rain that was washing the thin layer of dust from my car, it cleared the cobwebs from my mind too. I’m ready to write.

I’m in love. With my characters. My story. My life. Even on a rainy, Monday morning!

To add to my joy, I just received the cover for my latest book. I love that too!

How about you? Do you like rainy days?

The Blessings We Love to Curse

It’s been a crazy two weeks for me. Joel and I have been on an entertainment binge.    Been to a hockey game,  a Broadway tour of ‘The Book of Mormon,’ the musical ‘Cabaret,’ a Joe Bonamassa concert and a festival of Christmas carols.

 

 

 

 

 

 We have another few things lined up to get us up to Christmas. And tickets to these were so easy to purchase – zip into a website online, pull up a seating chart, plug in the credit card and—voila, ticket on my phone. And when I say phone, I don’t mean the old-fashioned kind like the one that hung on my parents’ kitchen wall, but the one that gives me instant access to the world via the internet, keeps track of my grocery list, wakes me up on time, sends me reminders from my dentist and brings me a delightful good-morning message, every morning, from my sister-in-law who lives 1000 miles away.

Did I say internet? The vehicle that let me have a chat with a friend in India the other day, research the most prominent kind of pine tree in Montana for one of my books, and served as the device for a majority of my Christmas shopping this year? The same vehicle through which I bought a new washer three weeks ago and a brand new car two weeks ago? The place where I pay my bills, check the weather and watch movies, British television and Broadways plays?

It wasn’t that long ago that my husband dragged home this clunker of a computer, one with no internal storage and everything went to large floppy disks. “This is the future,” he told me. I didn’t believe him, but since he’d spent a lot of money on the thing and told me it was mine to use, I used it. Then upgraded, upgraded, upgraded. Got a laptop, a phone with way more capabilities than my first computer, and a tablet which my 4-year-old niece uses to watch her movies.

                My car is computerized. It has all kinds of neat little gadgets I’ve yet to explore. It syncs with my phone, gives me a rear-view back-up and I’m not sure, but I think it makes coffee. My television is hooked up to a speaker system that’s probably better than the speaker system of any movie theater I went to when I was a kid. And my refrigerator—don’t even get me started on what it can do. Yes, I remember the one that simply froze water and meat, and chilled food. But mine will sing me a lullaby if I let it.

 Yet, we are a discontented society as a whole. Nothing is ever fast enough. Nothing ever has quite the right amount of capabilities. In fact, the online response time on my computer had bogged down to a whopping 5 seconds, and I was pretty darned frustrated by how slow it was. I wanted that pine tree information, and I wanted it NOW! So, I called my internet service provider and complained that their service was too slow, it was wasting my time. They pressed a switch on their end, upped my band width and gave me a 2 second response time. I was so happy. Makes me wonder how happy I would have been in the old days when I’d have gone to the library just to research that one little fact. Back then, I thought it was amazing that so much was available to me in any number of books I could check out and take home. The other day, I thought it was downright awesome that I was given back 3 whole seconds.

This is the time of year when everybody is more mindful of their blessings. Friends, family, pets, good fortune in our lives, health. We do have so many things to be grateful for, and I am. But when I got home from a Christmas tree display (which I’d found online) I got a message from a friend I rarely see because she lives so far away, I turned on my computer to write this blog instead of trying to do it on a typewriter (because I can’t type on a typewriter) and I sent a lovely picture of a Christmas tree made from books to all the people who follow me on Facebook – a picture taken on my phone. And you know what? These are blessing, too. Maybe not the ones that complete us and make us better as individuals, but the ones that make our lives easier, and quicker and more convenient. I’ll admit, I’m the first one to get angry when my computer slows up or my phone has to be rebooted. It’s frustrating when I can’t click right into Acorn and get my fix of ‘Doc Martin’ because something isn’t feeding properly at that precise moment. And heaven forbid I should be delayed from my Broadway streaming when I want to see ‘Les Miserables’ or ‘Phantom of the Opera.’ But last night, when I took a picture of MacKenzie, didn’t have to wait for a day to see it developed, and was able to send it to everyone in my family within minutes, I was grateful for that phone. It allowed me something I wouldn’t have had so very long ago—the chance to share the best moments of my life with the people I love. That’s what this season is about—sharing those moments. And sure, they may take you an extra 3 seconds if your computer is bogged down, but when I look at the tin type of my grandmother from 1889, and consider the amount of time her family had to wait for that photo, and the one minute it took for me to snap MacKenzie’s picture and send it to my aunt 2000 miles away, I know that something we love to curse is really a blessing that enhances our lives every day, in little ways, and in big ones. It’s a beautiful thing.

“Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity.” (Oscar Wilde)

From my family to yours, I hope you have a lovely  holiday season.

And, wishing you health & happiness

Dianne Drake (www.Dianne-Drake.com)

                                                                     Out February, 2017.

 

 

 

 

Puppies, Puddles and Pant legs

I’m away at a horse show today, but while I’m gone, I’ll share some pictures of our newest addition to the family. A puppy! A cute, uncomplicated, well-mannered little doll. Okay, so none of that is true except for the cute part. You can guess from the title of this blog post that a) we have a puppy, b) she makes puddles in unfortunate places, and c) she has a penchant for grabbing the hem of our jeans and letting herself be dragged along (no matter how many times we tell her that it’s simply unacceptable).

Yesterday I was texting my husband about the puppy’s latest escapades, and he finally texted back: I thought empty nests were supposed to be quiet (we just sent our youngest off to college last year). Hmmm…he had me there. I finally responded: Well that would be true, if we actually left it empty. Score one for me. Or maybe that point goes to the puppy.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite puppy moments:

1. The day we brought her home from our friends’ house, where she was born. One would never suspect the changes that would soon befall our little household, where only a cat, a chinchilla, and an elderly pug reside.
2. . This is our pup’s normal routine: Find stuff. Chew stuff. Make puddles and piles. 
3. Redecorating the house. Every home needs a dead tree in it, according to Miss Puppy. And yes she can fit through the cat door. For now. She’s only nine weeks old and growing fast!
4. Getting ready for bed. My favorite time of day. She loves her pillow. And we love that she loves her pillow.

What about you? Any funny pet stories you would like to share? Or training tips that have gotten you through the worst of the worst?

And because I also have a book being released this month, I’ll share my cover. I can’t help but wonder what this sweet scene might look like if our puppy had her way! 

A He-Rose by Any Other Name???

What IS in a name? Especially a hero’s name.

Ever thought you’d fall in love with a George? Would you picture someone reliable, slightly dorky, who had his own set of socket wrenches or a daredevillishly handsome cad?

I would pick the former. But then again…Mr Clooney? Who knew a George could be so sigh inducing?

Or a Hugh (Jackman, Bonneville, Grant) or a Bradley (Cooo-aiiiii-carumba-Cooper) or a Benedict. Benedict? Yup. We seem to have collectively swooned at the magnetic pull and dying-to-be-traced cheekbones of ol’ Bennie Boy Cumberbatch.

So this morning – coming up with the name of my new hero (I landed on Dr. Aidan Tate – Boom chica woo woo!) I went through a list of names with my pal and she tried to convince me Howard was a sexy name. I don’t know. I couldn’t bite. Then again – I returned to the George scenario. To me? Not sexy. George Clooney? Knee weakener. Howard? Eww. I still wasn’t there. But then it hit me – the name is less important than the man. Who is this guy? Could I make Howard sexy? Howard Halt.

Nah.

Howard Wetherly.

Enhhh. Not so much. A but too costume drama.

Howard Stone.

Hmmm. He might be up to something. Howard Stone. Blonde or brunette? Piercing blue eyes or dark as a vat of Ecuadorian chocolate brown? Bolshie Alpha hero or a gentle paediatrician who would really love to settle down with someone who was as passionate about having a family as he was. A Howard Stone who would drop everything to help a mother whose child has been pushed off the top of a slide and a Howard Stone who got the other kid to apologise not by shouting but by getting him to realise the error of his own ways through humour. A Howard Stone who makes a ‘famous’ lasagna and laughs at your jokes. All of ’em. And has one of those Kirk Douglas dents in his chin that keeps teasing you to trace a finger along it.

Okay. I could probably like a Howard.

And a Will, a Tim, a Jack(!!!), a Finn and a Sam. I clearly like my solid, non-wavering, monosyllables. As long as the man who comes with them likes to talk. Okay – the floor is open: what are some of your favourite names and why?

PS – my latest hero to hit the shelves will be Jack Keller – fireman and chocolate milkshake lover. If you read The Surgeon’s Christmas Wish and want to find out what happened to Liesel….this is her story!

Hubba hubba Wah Wah!

Moving on…

I have finally done it. After a lot of thought and a great deal of soul searching I have put my home of forty years on the market and am hoping to move house some time this year. It’s been a big decision as I have been very happy living here. It’s where my husband and I raised our family so this house holds a lot of wonderful memories for me. However, now that I am living here on my own, it’s just too big. The dog and I don’t need all these bedrooms or this massive garden so I shall be downsizing and moving into a lovely, bright and modern apartment. It’s going to be a great place to live and I am looking forward to it but it’s still a daunting prospect. I mean, how do you whittle down a whole house full of furniture etc to fit into a two bedroom apartment.

I keep doing tours of the house, wondering if I should take this with me or that. I know that my lovely Spanish style dining suite won’t fit but if I can’t take it then what will I do with all my glass and china? Should I take the antique Willow pattern dinner and tea service I have been collecting for so many years, or forfeit it so I can take the far-more-practical, dish-washer safe one? Decisions, decisions! And this is before any prospective buyers walk through my front door!

OK, I know I shall get there in the end, but for someone like me – a real stick-in-the-mud – it is definitely taxing to have to pick and choose, and then work out what to do with the leftover items. I must keep focusing on where I hope to be living very soon, in that bright and airy apartment with its views over the canal and the countryside beyond, and not start panicking. However, it any of you have any tips to make the move less stressful then do share them with me. I mean, I haven’t even thought what I’m going to do with all my books!
Jennifer

image courtesy of ddpavumba/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

NEW YEAR, NEW RULES

Now you could call them rules, or you could call them promises, or you could call them hopes, or you could call them wishes, or you could call them plans, or you could call them ideas, or you could call them decisions, or you could call them goals, or you them intents…

OR you could call them RESOLUTIONS.

Whatever we call them, I only have four for 2014:

1. I resolve not to download any more free e-books unless I REALLY plan to read      them.
2. I resolve to consider the pleasure versus the consequences BEFORE I eat      something.
3. I promise myself not to spend more than thirty minutes on social media on any given day.
4. I resolve to write two more Medical Romances, one Special Edition and turn in a three book proposal for SE in 2014.

Anything beyond these promises will surely be broken, so that’s my list, short and sweet.

How about your New Year resolution list?  Care to share one or two items?

New on January 15th 2014 Harlequin Medical Romance will release four of my earliest books in e-book format, two of which have never before been available in North America. All Available at Amazon NA.

Her Baby’s Secret Father was my first sale to Medicals – Never before in NA in any format.

Her L.A. Knight, my second book, and a popular one, too, but never as yet in e-book.

 

 

 

 

In His Angel’s Arms , also never available before in NA.  In this one, the doctor becomes the patient.

 

 

 

 

Pregnant Nurse, New-Found Family, though available in NA in print before, never ever digitalized until now.  This was a totally re-written version of the first book I ever submitted to UK Meds, which got rejected.

 

All four of these books have something in common; the link is they take place in or around the fictitious Los Angeles Mercy Hospital.  I must admit, I’m happy to have the option to share these books with new Medical Romance readers.  I hope you’re out there.

Don’t forget to share one or two of your top promises for 2014!

Happy New Year!

Lynne Marshall

The Best Medicine

I went to the doctor for a sinus infection a couple of weeks ago and he told me to go home and take Nyquil.  Several days later when the infection was worse, I went to another doctor who told me to take something else, and also prescribed an antibiotic for a viral process (antibiotics don’t work for viruses).  But as the infection kept progressing, I finally went to an emergency room where the doctor gave me yet another course of meds, completely different from anything previously prescribed. Luckily, they’re working.

So what’s the deal? One illness, with so many choices of treatment.  All I wanted to do was get better. So far it hasn’t happened, which is why I’m a day late with this blog.  Yesterday was my day to post to the blog, but I literally slept through most of it.  Today, I’m a little more alert, marginally on the mend, and coherent enough to think about all the different ways the various doctors treated me.  Then it occurred to me that what happened to me isn’t so different from the way we choose our books to read.  There are a lot of choices out there, more now than ever, and some work for us, while others do not.  I’m a diehard romance fan, and I love the genre, but I’ll admit, quite frankly, there are some romance novels that I don’t want to read, or can’t read, or hate to read.  They’re all meant to do the same thing for me, as the reader, the way all those various doctors’ prescriptions were meant to do the same thing.  Only, two of the three prescriptions didn’t work and I’m going to have to read all the way to the end of this last one to see if it will. 

Anyway, I decided to catch up on some reading during my down time, and went straight to one of the books I’ve had for a while in my to-be-read pile.  Written by one of my favorite authors, I was anxious to have time to get through it uninterrupted, but by the time I was a chapter into it I was disappointed.  It was like my Nyquil prescription…well-intended, but just wrong for what I wanted or needed. Like the Nyquil, it got deleted.

The second book was a little better.  Another fav author, another book I really wanted to read.  But man, it just didn’t work for me.  In fact, I couldn’t tell you how many times I dozed off trying to get through it.  In the end, rather than reading it I scanned it just because I wanted to make sure I had the ending figured out. (I did.)  It was like chasing a viral with antibiotics – you know they’re not going to work but you take them anyway, mostly because the doctor said to.

With the third book I read, I hit the jackpot.  It kept me awake, satisfied me from beginning to end, and did everything a good book is supposed to do, including taking my mind off my illness.  So was that art imitating medicine?  Or was that just the way it goes?  Some books (and medicines) work, some do not. 

The more I write, the less time I have to read.  In turn, the less time I have to read means the more inclined I am to put aside a book that doesn’t grab me from the start.  I didn’t use to do that.  If I started it, I finished it.  No exceptions.  But these days, I’m making exceptions because just like I don’t have the time to be sick, I also don’t have the time to read a book that doesn’t strike my fancy.  And you know what? I’m OK with that.  It took me a while to get to this point, but nowadays I find it just as easy to delete a book from my reader as I do reading it all the way through. 

Now, is there a point to this?  Not really.  In my stupor, as I get ready to put it down for my fifth nap today, I was just thinking about how my life, in so many ways, is just like the way I read. Could be I’ve designed it that way because reading is my favorite thing to do.  Or could be simply the way it turned out.  Whatever the case, I’m reading yet another good book in between naps and not feeling so bad for those intervals when the books I’m reading take me to a place where I’m not sick.  Makes me wonder if doctors should prescribe a good read along with the pills.  Here’s a prescription for and antibiotic and an Agatha Christie.  Surely, they’d work well together, wouldn’t they?

As always, wising you health and happiness…and lots of books to read.

Dianne

 

DO YOU LOVE ER ROMANCE?

Lynne Marshall here.  Thanks for stopping by the Medical Romance blog.

Once in a blue moon (to go forward from Amy’s latest blog) I get an opportunity that is too good to pass up.  It happened last fall with The Mammoth Book editor Trish Telep when she asked if I’d be interested in participating in a multi-author anthology. Fortunately for me, she didn’t accept my first reply, and when she asked again I decided to join several of my fellow Medical Romance authors, and many more fabulous authors from all genres, in contributing to the book.

We were given a word limit of 12K.  Having never written short before, except for a few short stories I wrote for Woman’s World magazine at lK (only one of which ever got published) I worried I couldn’t tell a well rounded story so quickly.  As it turned out, I decided to write three acts (or chapters) each highlighting a piece of the bigger story.

When the story begins Ellen and Adam Deed, both ER doctors, are married but separated.  My job in three chapters was to show the passion they still felt for each other, explain the reason they separated, and come up with a way to get them back together.  YIKES!

I went the dramatic route with IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE.  I tortured my characters by asking these questions: What one thing could tear a loving couple apart and make forgiving seem impossible?  What one thing could make Adam, a man devoted to his wife, family, and profession turn to drinking and lose hope?  What would it take for Ellen to finally forgive Adam and let him back into her heart?

I worried I’d bitten off more than I could chew undertaking their story, but somehow I managed to pull it off in 10K! Reading time approximately fifteen minutes or there about?

If you love the drama of the emergency room, if you want to succumb to completely addictive and highly contagious medical romances, if you like something short to read on your lunch break or before bed, then I hope you’ll check out THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF ER ROMANCE!

Mills & Boon contributing authors: Wendy S. Marcus, Lucy Clark, Sue MacKay, Janice Lynn, Dianne Drake, Tina Becket, Fiona Lowe, and Lynne Marshall.

Plus an International list of contributing authors: Karen Elizabeth Brown, Cassandra Dean, Sam Bradley, Julie Rowe, Alina Adams, Jacqueline Diamond, Abbi Wilder, Cynthia D’Alba and Patti Shenberger.

Seventeen ER romances for your reading pleasure.  Check out the book in US here:

And in UK here: 

QUESTION FOR READERS: What is your favorite setting for Medical Romance?

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Lynne Marshall

Acquiring a taste for…

It’s an acquired taste.

How many times have we heard that expression? When I say it, it’s usually in reference to something I don’t much care for (like beets). Sometimes you really are able to acquire a taste for something, and sometimes not. I’m still working on the beets!

I was reminded of this the other day when I was piling green peppers onto a fajita, and my husband commented that he remembered when I couldn’t stand the smell of peppers. It’s true. My best friend from childhood lived with us for a while when my husband was in graduate school. She used to try to sneak little bits of green pepper into the meals she cooked. The second I walked into the house, I would smell those suckers and cringe. Yet I credit her with desensitizing me to peppers, which I now love. So yes, for me, green peppers were an acquired taste. Judging from the ratio of peppers to meat in my fajitas, I’m now a fan. Taste acquired.

Living in a country other than my own has been a learning experience. We once hosted

Acquiring a taste for tacos!

a Mexican-style meal for a group of dear Brazilian friends. If you look closely at the picture, you can see little note cards on the wall that tell how to construct a taco, burrito or a fajita and explains what guacamole and sour cream are (things that Brazilians don’t normally eat). In fact, guacamole was a very different taste for our friends, who normally eat avocados in sweet dishes. One of our friends told me she likes to sprinkle sugar on a slice of ripe avocado and eat it for breakfast. So to have them mashed and served in a savory dish took some getting used to—just like eating them in desserts has been new for me.

One taste I have definitely acquired is bacalhau (a variety of dishes made from dried

Tina with friends at the “House of Bacalhau” restaurant in Brazil

salted codfish), which I learned to eat and prepare while living in Portugal. Brazilians also serve bacalhau from time to time, especially at Easter. The first time I tried a bite, I detested it. It’s salty and tastes strongly of fish. It’s said the Portuguese have 365 ways to prepare bacalhau, one for each day of the year. It’s true. I have a cookbook to prove it! The second time I tried bacalhau, it wasn’t as terrible as I remembered. But the day I helped a dear friend prepare it was the day I fell in love with bacalhau. It’s a long, labor-intensive process which involves soaking the fish for a couple of days in the refrigerator in order to rehydrate it and remove the excess salt. And you don’t just shove it in the fridge and forget about it. You have to change out the water several times. Then you boil the fish. Then you let it cool and take off the skin and pick out hundreds of bones (some of which are tiny—and are incredibly hard to remove, since your hands become slippery within minutes). Finally the bacalhau is ready to use in whatever dish you’re making. You have to truly love someone to make bacalhau for them. I still fix a small casserole dish of Bacalhau com Natas (codfish in cream sauce) every Christmas. And I still love it. Taste acquired!

What about you? Are there any tastes you’ve acquired over the years? It might not even be for a certain food, it could be a book. Is there a genre you didn’t expect to like but now can’t devour fast enough? I’m currently having a love affair with YA (young adult) books that are written in first-person. One of my daughters has gotten me hooked on Meg Cabot. In fact, this particular daughter is coming home from college in a few days, and she called and said, “Guess what? I’m bringing a new Meg Cabot book with me. We can fight over it.” 😉 Taste acquired!

A change of career?

When I was growing up I went through all the usual choices of career. First of all I wanted to be a vet. That ambition lasted until I discovered that I would have to put very sick animals to sleep and I underwent a massive change of heart. My next choice was to be a teacher, then an air hostess (yes, that was what it was called back then – flight attendant definitely didn’t have the glamour!) I ran through umpteen different ideas before I finally settled on being a librarian, and no, that didn’t seem glamorous but it did mean – or so I thought! – that I’d get to read lots of wonderful books.

I loved my job and never got bored of doing it. I only gave it up when I decided to write full-time. And since then I have never looked back. I love writing and feel extremely lucky that I can spend my days doing a job I adore. So why would I even consider a change of career? Because this week I have realised just how brilliant doctors and nurses really are.

I was in a coffee shop in town on Monday afternoon, listening in to someone else’s conversation -one of the perks of my job – when a man at the next table collapsed. One minute he was drfinking a cappuccino and the next he was on the floor, gasping for breath. The two ladies I’d been listening to sprang into action. They checked his pulse and breathing then started CPR. By the time the paramedics arrived, he was stable all thanks to them. As they returned to their table, and their cold coffee, I complimented them on their speed and ability but they shrugged it off. They were both doctors at the local hospital, they explained. It was all part of their job.

Deeply impressed, I carried on with my day which included a visit to the hospital. Whilst I was there, another patient suffered a bad reaction to the drugs she was receiving and went into cardiac arrest. Once again, people sprang into action and yet another tragedy was averted. Once again I was impressed.

So if I had my time over again would I choose to be a doctor or a nurse? I’d like to think I would but I’m not sure if I’d be any good at it. You need to be a particular type of person to cope with life and death situations, don’t you? Although I am not someone who panics, I once did a First Aid course and it was the most terrifying thing I have ever done. Waiting for the light on that dummy to flash and prove I was performing the chest compressions effectively really freaked me out!

My admiration for those who spend their lives caring for others is immense. It’s why I think doctors and nurses are the perfect heroes and why I choose to write Medical Romances. But even though I admire them so much, I don’t think I shall be making a career change in the forseable future. I know my limits!

Right, as a little light relief from a basically important subject, here is a photo of my granddaughter Isobel dressed up for World Book Day as Ariel. Enjoy!