Killer Perspective

As a writer, I live in the world of "things are not always as they seem." It's standard operating procedure for those who make things up as a living, so there are some conversations that make perfect sense to me that make no sense to others, or, worse, send a different message than intended. However, these can be good for helping people gain a sense of perspective.

For example, I had lunch the other day with a couple of friends, one a writer and one a fairly normal person (ha ha). My writer friend, whose specialty is thrillers, has been married for 25 years this last Saturday. My non-writer friend, whose specialty is stained-glass and swing dancing, has been married for 19 years. Each is happy in her life, but they way she expresses it is completely and utterly different, and, for me, quite entertaining.

Somehow the conversation--perhaps it was the red wine or maybe the trout sandwich--turned to our spouses and how we knew they were the "one," or at least not "one of the 'not the ones'." My non-writer friend wove a lovely tale of a two people caught up in a flurry of passion, separated by jobs in different parts of the US, who found that their long distance romance struggled under the weight of individual responsibilities to their families and to their individual dreams of success. She wanted to be a rock star accountant to prove to her family that their "baby" could make it on her own; he wanted to make it in graphic design because of his passion for art and technology. They dated all through college and decided to let fate guide them as they applied for jobs during that ever so important senior year. Those "dream" jobs took them miles apart.

Fast forward six months and their relationship is feeling the strain, as do most long distance connections. Like many couples, the came to the conclusion that being so far apart had helped them discover that maybe their relationship wasn't meant to endure, and they decided to break it off. After many tears, they both choose to move on with their lives...alone.

Fast forward another six months. All is going well with his job, although something seems to be missing. All is also going well with her job, although something for her is also missing. They dated others, trying to move forward with their lives based on their belief that their love for each other wasn't strong enough to sustain a long distance relationship. They were living the dream, but they were both miserable.

Then along comes election day, which was the day that he first kissed her outside of their polling precinct years before. Apparently, that moment of nostalgia was overwhelming for both of them (there is nothing like a presidential election to get the ol' romantic juices flowing). He called her, just wanting to hear her voice, and she had already texted him but he hadn't seen it before he called. Their conversation went something like this:

HIM: Are you dating anyone?
HER: No, are you?
HIM: No.
BOTH AT THE SAME TIME: I'll move!

So they had both decided that they'd give up their jobs to move to where they other person was, and that was how they knew they wanted to be together. In the end, the both decided to quit their jobs to find one in a completely different city they had both decided on, and it worked out. That's how my friend explained how they got together, and I have to admit, it got me teary-eyed. So then I tell my story, which you've all heard, and then my other friend tells how she knew her husband was the guy she'd spend the rest of her life with. In short...

"I never once tried to come up with a way to kill him."

Now, I realize this might seem odd to you, but to me, it made perfect sense. My writer friend writes thrillers and spends a lot of time plotting out heinous crimes and all kinds of mystery stuff, and she often--because she's sassy--includes people she knows as her characters. To date, in her novels she's killed off several people who, in real life, had offended her. It's cathartic, she says. However, not once did it--or has it--crossed her mind to try to find a way to off her spouse. My non-writer friend sat there staring and then gulped some of her wine. Not quite the response she was expecting, I guess.

In any case, we had a great lunch and I was reminded of how, sometimes, different perspectives can expand your world, or at least remind you to be more cautious around thriller writers. Happy Reading!

The Big V

It's a comin'! Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and I'm really looking forward to it. However, probably not for the reason you think. Don't get me wrong; I love getting romantic with my guy. I love wining and dining with him because I love being with him, but engaging in these fun holiday traditions appeals to more than my lover's heart; it appeals to my writer's soul as well. What better time to people watch than on the most erotic and romantic day of the year?

As a writer, I love to watch people and wonder what their stories are. I get lots of ideas for stories for just observing what goes on around me. On Valentine's Day, it's not unusual if we go out to eat to wait at least an hour, and that's an hour that I get to watch the human mating dance in full force, the desire to engage in one basic instinct--romance--being fueled by another--hunger. I've seen people on first dates, couples on their 50th Valentine's Day, and everything in between. Families, couples, and, yes, even singles, venture out to eat on this most loving of holidays, and I get the benefit of it.

I'm very unobtrusive. No one really knows I'm eavesdropping, and I try not to stare. I just listen and make up stories in my head to fill in the blanks. I used to feel bad about it, but then I figured there's someone out there like me probably watching and listening to my Valentine's Day adventure, and so it all evens out.

Whether you're observing others or being observed yourself, I hope this Valentine's Day brings you much joy and love.

Happy Reading!

Buchanan Clan Bear Sold! Another 5 Star Review for Hero of a Highland Wolf!

Aug2

Here is Buchanan Clan Bear and he’ll be off to his new home soon. He’s wearing the ancient plaid of the Buchanan. Working on Armstrong Clan Bear today and a Navy bear. I still have a stack of orders to get done. I’ve ordered tartan fabric for two more bears, blue fabric for 2 more, and another wants purple. :) Plus more.   Wilde & Woolly Bears
I only got 1,000 done on Call of the Cougar yesterday, but finished two Buchanan Clan bears, and am halfway done on an Armstrong Clan bear. I hope to get 2,000 done on Cougar today. I had an idea of the near end scene, but still 17,000 or so words to get there. I might just write the scene and then go back in and write the rest of the story to get there. Sometimes I have to do that because a scene will come to me that isn’t in the perfect linear order. I actually was sewing up bonnets for the three clan bears when it came to me. I had to stop what I was doing, and write them down. Or I’d forget it!

Thanks, Åsa Maria Bradley, for sharing this photo! Love it!!! This way it’s not just my word we ACTUALLY rode “home” in it. Had fun with you and Cheryl Brooks and Mia Marlowe Connie Mason! Cheryl is to the left of me. And I’m the one who is all smiles. Having a ball.

But I’ve also been trying to come up with the plots for 3 more stories, and have one for a jaguar Christmas story, and just about have one for another SEAL wolf story, and then need to write another Silver wolf one.

Aloha On My Mind–Kim took a picture of several of us signing, which was really nice because I can’t take pictures of me and I never think to ask anyone! This is for Literacy and raised $53,000!

And another 5 star review!!!


I give this book 5 stars.
Well done, once again Terry Spear you have given us a book that kept me engrossed from the start to the finish, so much so that I read this book in one day. This is about an American woman that inherits a castle in Scotland from her family and a pack of Highland wolf shifters that live there.
Amazon –
Barnes and Noble – http://bit.ly/1il2cxw
iTunes – http://bit.ly/1n64Qsf
Kobo
And I’m here with an interview at Authors Interviews!

Watermelon crepe myrtle in full bloom.

Two crepe myrtle volunteers in between the big ones. Everything is looking so colorful!

A view of the crepe myrtles, storm clouds, that didn’t rain, but at least made it cooler, and the cornfields, ready to be harvested. It sounded like the wind blowing through a forest the other day, or ocean waves, the way the wind blew through the dry cornstalks.

Off to get ready for the writing and bear-making day!

Have a super lovely day! It was only 87 yesterday, and it was beautiful. Supposed to be 100 or close to it most of next week. :(

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
www.terryspear.com
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Happy Early Mother's Day!

I know that I’m jumping onto the Mother’s Day bandwagon early, but I won’t get to post again until after Sunday and I wanted to send happy wishes to everyone who celebrates this special day in some way. Not everyone is a mother, but everyone has one, or someone like one, somewhere. Typically, Mother’s Day for me is a bit tough, having lost my mother some years ago; however, I try to think happy thoughts and enjoy the memories that come flooding back as I watch the hustle and bustle at restaurants and stores on Mother's Day.

Like many writers, I was lucky enough to have a mother who read to me when I was younger, and later we read books together sitting at our kitchen table. Also like many writers, my mother was my biggest fan. Anything I wrote, she would read. She encouraged me in all of my artistic endeavors even though she knew that a job in the arts isn't necessarily one of those professions that guarantees a living wage. She never discouraged me, though, and always wanted to read more of my writing. It is because of her I continue to put pen to page (or fingers to keyboard as it were).

In honor of mothers everywhere, especially the mothers of writers who continue to support their literary offspring with their tireless love and weary eyes outfitted in extra-strength reading glasses, I'm posting some quotes about mothers by writers that I've culled from a variety of sites around the Web. I don't know how accurate the attributions are, but it's the meaning of the words that is significant (of course, they're from writers!). I hope you enjoy them, and if you have a quote to share, please do post it as a comment.

Happy Mother's Day!

"God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers."-Rudyard Kipling

"Motherhood: All love begins and ends there."-Robert Browning

"Youth fades; love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavour by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts." - Washington Irving

"Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not." - James Joyce

"Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children." - William Makepeace Thackeray

"All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his." - Oscar Wilde

“Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother.  A child is a child.  They get bigger, older, but grown?  What’s that suppose to mean?  In my heart it don’t mean a thing.”-Toni Morrison

“And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see — or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.”-Alice Walker

“Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.”-Pearl S. Buck

"I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars."-E.M. Forster

“Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to ‘jump at de sun.’ We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.”-Zora Neale Hurston

“Because I feel that in the heavens above/The angels, whispering one to another/Can find among their burning tears of love/None so devotional as that of “Mother"/Therefore, by that dear name I have long called you/You who are more than mother unto me.”-Edgar Allan Poe

My Closet Muse

A long time ago, someone brought up the discussion of muses on one of the lists. Silly, I thought. I deal in reality. Right…with my vampire, werewolf, fae, and--you name it-- stories….reality. So why does a writer who loves fantasy and the paranormal not have a muse? Because I’m the one who works hard to think this stuff up. No way am I going to give credit to some fantastical entity. No way.

And then one day one of my critique partners asked our group about everyone’s muse. She’d been to an RWA workshop, and felt like I did. She didn’t have a muse, didn’t want to think about it. Silly. But she really got into it, described her muse, and had a lot of fun doing it.

So for the first time, I began to think of my muse. She’s my height, same coloration, beautiful--just like me--only she’s thinner, younger, wears fairy-like clothes and hides in the closet.

And that’s why I don’t have a muse. What good is a closet muse? About that time I was having one of those, I refuse to call it writer’s block, but you know, something like that…when the words just won’t jump out of my fingers onto the keys and appear on the paper. I’m usually really annoyed with myself when I have this…this frustratingly annoying non-creative, non-productive period. Until I latched onto that muse and realized the problem. It was all her fault! She refused to come out of the closet.

I also had to blame my critique partner, because if she hadn’t introduced me to my muse, I wouldn’t have ever blamed anyone but myself for not getting back to my writing.

The good news is I’m busily at work again, despite the fact I have a closet muse. So remember, whether you have a muse or not, writing is an important part of a writer’s life and nothing should stop that natural drive, even if it has to be given a nudge every once in a while.

Sometimes I go months without thinking about my muse. It just happens. The idea comes to me, the words get written, the story is completed. I’m a writer. Other times, I have to drag the words out of the gray matter, hash and rehash the words on paper, and finally, with a great deal of effort, finish the story. I’m still a writer. Does my muse help?

You’d have to ask her. She won’t come out of the closet to speak to me.

What about you? Do you have a troublesome muse? What is she or he like?