Friday, December 09, 2005

So How's Your Day?

Here's mine:



Poor birdies (can you even see the feeders in this photo?):



I suppose it's sort of pretty if you're not the one who has to shovel it or drive in it:



Good thing I got the pictures when I did, I can hear hubby bombing around the yard in his snowmobile. We never get to keep pretty, pristine snow in this place.

Regardless, this never fails to make me smile, even on a gross, cold, wet, snowy day -- my daughter's best friend, Patch:



In other (writer-ly) news:

I was sitting and reading a category book today, about (now this is shocking) a COWBOY. Yeah. Really.

And it got me to thinking about formulaic writing. Should we? Does it make it easier to get your foot in the door? I've puzzled about this before, but I went to the library and checked out the first 50 or so books in this line that I saw without pre-screening for anything, and the first three I grabbed had the word "cowboy" in the title.

I'm married to a cowboy, I'm not sure I want to write about one. Where's the fantasy in that?

But how cool it would be to get your foot in the door, write a few big-selling formula books (hey, it's my dream) and then, like Nora, write whatever you want. Of course, I don't assume I'll be the next Nora -- but, after all, I don't imagine that Nora thought she'd be Nora. You know?

In the meantime, I suppose I'll just keep working on my strange, quirky books and see what happens.

But... it does make you think, doesn't it?

I'm babbling. My brain must have frost bite.

I really, really miss California on days like this.... waves to C in Marina

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not to make you feel bad Maria, but the sun is shining here. We get snow on the mountains around in winter but I'm not a fan myself. Yes, I agree with you about the cowboy books. I'd just like to write a great story-romance of course and get it published without including a cowboy, baby unless it's relevant, brides or sheiks. I read a lot of category and just like a good story and characters. No progress on mine as yet. Are getting M-I-L assessed but it will take time for that to happen.