Hurricane Katrina

I've been watching the news reports with horror. Just like the tsunami, you cannot grasp the magnitude of the path of disaster that swept across four states on a 32" television screen. If you can help, please do. American Red Cross

GCC: Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner

Okay, I have the pleasure of talking about a book written by one of my best friend's in all the world -- Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner, which has been #1 on Barnes and Noble's SF list for the past SEVEN weeks!!! First of all, the book is fab, fun, and full of fights and frights (okay, it's not THAT scary, but it is very suspenseful).

The blurb:
Carpools. Crabgrass. Creatures from the depths of hell. Suburbia has its problems too...

Lots of women put their careers aside once the kids come along. Kate Connor, for instance, hasn't hunted a demon in ages...

That must be why she missed the one wandering through the pet food aisle of the San Diablo Wal-Mart. Unfortunately, he managed to catch her attention an hour later-when he crashed into the Connor house, intent on killing her.

Now Kate has to clean up the mess in her kitchen, dispose of a dead demon, and pull together a dinner party that will get her husband elected to County Attorney-all without arousing her family's suspicion. Worse yet, it seems the dead demon didn't come alone. He was accompanied by a High Demon named Goramesh who, for some unknown reason, intends to kill off the entire population of San Diablo.

It's time for Kate Connor to go back to work.

The praise:
"What would happen if Buffy the Vampire Slayer got married, moved to the suburbs and became a stay-at-home mom? She'd be a lot like Kate Connor, once a demon/vampire/zombie killer and now "a glorified chauffeur for drill-team practice and Gymboree play dates" in San Diablo, Calif., that's what. But in Kenner's sprightly, fast-paced ode to kick-ass housewives, Kate finds herself battling evil once again." -- Publishers Weekly

"I loved CARPE DEMON! It was great fun; wonderfully clever... ninety-nine percent of the wives and moms in the country will identify with this heroine. I mean, like who hasn't had to battle demons between car-pools and play-dates?" -Jayne Ann Krentz, New York Times bestselling author of Falling Awake

Now you're ready to read it, right? You can find it in the SF section in the book store, or order from Amazon

GCC: Shaking Her Assets

Chick lit meets the graphic novel in SHAKING HER ASSETS (Berkley Trade Paperback Original; May 3, 2005), a clever and quirky debut novel featuring the adventures of a modern-day Manhattan heroine.

Meet Rachel Chambers, New York City copywriter, collector of vintage compacts, and self-proclaimed eBay-addict. For the second time in less than a month, Rachel finds herself standing on the street, holding a collection of her personal effects, trying to catch a cab at rush hour. Only this time, instead of juggling a box of coffee mugs and pilfered office supplies, her big paper shopping bag overflows with the remnants of her now defunct two-year relationship.

With no job, no boyfriend, and no back-up plan, Rachel has no choice but to reinvent herself. Instead of getting a conventional new job, she starts her own company—sort of. Rachel and her best friend Ben conjure up a business idea as a complete joke, and it unexpectedly starts to take off. But it's a risky stealth effort, with lots of improvising, a dose of guerrilla marketing, and copious amounts of total bluffing.

Meanwhile, Rachel’s been temping, and when the art director at her temp job gets wind of her romantic and entrepreneurial misadventures, he turns her into a comic book superhero, illustrating her hilarious escapades. Suddenly Rachel is taking New York by storm, remorselessly tossing aside losers and nay-sayers in her never-ending quest for success—and before long, Rachel's man-eating comic alter-ego has got her believing that she just might be able to pull this off in real life…but maybe without the cone-shaped bra.

Hailed by Alison Pace, author of IF ANDY WARHOL HAD A GIRLFRIEND, as "A funny, heartwarming page-turner for the entrepreneur in us all," SHAKING HER ASSETS gives New York women a superhero to call their own.

"SHAKING HER ASSETS is funny, smart and hugely entertaining." --Jill A. Davis, author of GIRLS' POKER NIGHT

A Rose that Blooms in the Desert, does it not still smell as sweet?

From the "I'm not quite sure what this means" file:

The Perverse Fascination Continues: Sheikh-Themed Romance Novels

Drive, Drove, Driven

I went to see March of the Penguins this weekend and thought it was a great movie that knew just when to end, which is a good quality for a movie to have. As I watched the story, penguins marching off to find a mate, shag a mate, lay an egg, offload the egg to the father, eat, come back just in time for birthing the baby, and then feeding the baby. Expect for the 'offloading the egg to the father' bit, it could have described my post-collegiate years (and if I could have offloaded the egg to DH during pregnancy, the movie might have been spot-on).

As I nibbled on popcorn, watching the wind blow over the frozen tundra for the 80th time, I thought to myself, "Why isn't this boring? This should be boring.' There weren't many cute penguin moments, and it's not like the penguins were out there performing Macbeth, but it kept me bound to my seat, and when the credits were rolling, I had a marvelous light-bulb pop over my head. Those penguins were motivated penguins. They were passionate about what they were doing. They didn't sit down and contemplate their existence, (nor their navel), they just set out on a 70 mile path, and didn't complain or whine, or even stray -- not once. That's determination, that's steadfastness, that's pretty much the entire movie. And you really got into their journey. This wasn't even a survival story for Mom and Pop. It was just about birthing little penguins. You wanted them to succeed, you want to see them get what they wanted, because they cared so much, and ergo, the audience cared as well.

Sometimes it doesn't matter whether the protagonist is a story is sympathetic, or empathetic; we like characters who know what they want and go out to get it. If Darth Vader huddled in a group of Little Darths to keep warm in 70 degree weather, we would find ourselves cheering for Darth. We want to see people succeed in their goals. Cute and cuddly helps, but it's not impossible to create a driven character who is unlikable and nasty and still have the book be a captivating page-turning best-seller (see Day of the Jackal).

The best characters are those who don't waver from a path unless absolutely necessary, which is part of the reason that Linda Howard characters are to fun to read. They don't ponder the meaning of life. They want what they want when they want it. And Outlander, and oh, the list can go on and on and on….

This isn't an absolute, but if you're wondering why you don't care when your characters achieve their goal, perhaps it's because the characters themselves don't care enough about what they want.

Just saying.

Pitching a Tone

I'm continuing in my right-side of the brain segment today, discussing tone. Tone is not quite voice, but a part of voice -- definitely (and please note that you'll never look up voice or tone in a dictionary and find something that all authors or editors will agree on, so I'm just using my own terminology. Sue me.).

Chick-lit has a tone. Sarcastic and satirical. Harlequin Presents have a tone. It's not satirical at all, and florid in it's verbiage. Temptations had (sniffle) a tone. I just adjusted the tone on a proposal for Harlequin because my tone didn't have enough of the chick-lit voice that they expected from me. This doesn't mean shoes and designer names. It means sass.

What is your favorite tone to write? I would suggest sitting down and writing a first person account of something silly. Perhaps toilet-training your dog or cat, or how garbage is collected in your area and if recycling truly matters. Use your own experiences and feelings and see what comes out of you. That's probably your native tone, and is probably a good place to start if you're creating a writing career from scratch.

When I write, I hear voices in my head that read the words. Each book has a different reader. In Touched By Fire, I heard Emma Thompson. In Diva's Guide, that was Marisa Tomei from My Cousin Vinny. In my Bach Pact books for Temptation, that was just me. It's always interesting where the voice comes from, because I don't consciously choose one ahead of time, it's just there. These voices represent the chorus of tones inside me, and in my humble opinion, I believe that lots of writers can work different tones, too. Nora Roberts uses one tone for her JD Robb books and another for her romances. You can see the same voice, but they're uniquely different from the other.

Different sub-genres really need different tones, although I've read sassy historical romances and florid contemporaries, so that's not a hard and fast rule. I think it's harder to write outside the standards of the sub-genre, but not impossible.

I've heard 'tone' described as 'style' as well, but I like tone because I literally hear the words, so tone is what makes sense to me.

Snarking the Light Fantastic

An article on Next in the Guardian. Obviously not written by a Harlequin fan (although in the spirit of true journalistic integrity, I love One Hundred and One Dalmations -- the book-- as well. Read it about 40 times.)

Kathleen's Theory of Creativity

I've decided to write up some short little articles on miscellaneous writing stuff, sort of my own frequently asked questions. I'll just refer people to my website! Sounds easy, right?

Ha.

Anyway, I considered whether I wanted to start off with the state of the market (BO-RING), the Pathetic, Whining Writer's Guide to Getting an Agent, Money (always popular), and Promotion/Publicity. But I'm tired of business-stuff right now. This business has got so…I don't know…businessy, that I feel like I'm back working for the insurance company. Rules…blah, blah, blah… branding…blah, blah, blah….money… Okay, that one perks me up. Anyway, I think I'm going to start out with writing stuff, because you know, I'm like, a writer!

A lot of fans write me about my originality and my creativity (well, okay, that happened after Diva's Guide, and I'm surprised that that's the one thing that really made the book take off, but I'm certainly not going to whine about it). My parents are happy that I've at last got an outlet for my imagination instead of talking to non-existent people (even as I child, I was always character, rather than plot-oriented). People ask, where did you get the idea for Diva's Guide? The correct answer is that it came from a ton of places. I was fascinated with the female caste system in New York, which plants gossip-columnists at the top of the food chain, I've always loved the Faust story, and hell is probably my number one fear ever. Never seen the Omen, never seen the Exorcist. And won't, either. People say the best way to exorcize your fear is to keep facing it until you master it. And thus, the story was born.

Stories are all around us. Especially the newspaper, although if you live in Dime Box, Texas, I'm not sure the newspaper is a good source. When something intrigues me, it's enough to start me going on an elaborate game of 'what's that person like?' Which is a close-cousin to the classic "what if?" game that most plot-oriented people will talk about. Close behind newspapers in character-creation are magazines (I devour Newsweek every week). I like reading book synopsis, or pitches. Not because I want to steal them, but because it never fails to get me off and running into something new and different.

Movies are a good source for me, TV, not so much, although I'm not sure why. Possibly because TV has very few solid plot-driven shows, and I definitely need plot to get me started on my "what's that person like?" game. TV seems to be more character driven, and I need no help on creating characters, and also, I only want to create new and improved characters, not people that I already now.

Oh, and speaking of people that I already now. If I'm confessing trade secrets, I'll mention that I frequently use people I know or people I see in the world as taking-off points. It's not the complete person, more like one specific trait that captures my imagination, and then I begin a game of, "How to Best torture that person." I think people believe that characters in books actually exist in real life. In some cases yes, but in most, building a character is like playing with Mr. Potato Head. You use one set of eyes, one annoying trait, one funny trait, one secret hope, one secret fear, possibly big ears, and then plug in whichever feet work best. I love just sitting and listening to people talk because it never fails to inspire me in some way.

My last morsel of wisdom is about the question: what happens when you run out of ideas? There are two sorts of writers (actually there's more than two, but in order to infuse this article with some semblance of authority, I'll stick to two): those that have one story to tell, and those that have a brain full of stories to tell. Some of the greatest books have been written by authors who were one-book wonders. Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, and well, I'm blanking on everybody else, but I'm sure there are tons more. And then there's authors who actually have "collected works." No offense to those who only have one book in them, but make sure that either, a) you write a modern-day classic, most likely optioned into film, or b) adopt a wealthy patron or c) do not let writing interfere in your quest for food and rent. Most writers who envision a career in writing have millions of bits and pieces of stories in their head, floating around like little flotsams in the sea of hypothalamic goo. If you have no little flotsams, I would suggest that you start looking for things that inspire your flotsams to be fruitful and multiply. If it's movies, go for it. Newspapers, other books, TV, people-watching, whatever it is, you nurse that sucker into your flotsams start to grow strong, feeding on other little flotsams until a full-fledged story idea is produced. I will run out of breath before I run out of ideas, which I suppose is why I'm a writer.

A Trio Most Romantic

The Last Reilly Standing by Maureen Child

The Back Cover Copy:

Thankfully, the longest three months of Aidan's life were coming to an end. Only three more weeks and he'd be the winner of the no-sex-for-ninety-days bet he made with his brothers. He could almost taste victory!
Then he'd met Terry Evans.

Her voice was soft and dreamy. Just the kind a man liked to hear coming from the pillow beside his. Aidan groaned from the absolute misery of having to look at this gorgeous woman and not be able to turn on his usual Reilly charm. Or work his magic until he had her right where he wanted her. In the dark. In his bed. No, it would not be an easy three weeks, not if he was going to be the last Reilly standing…and not on bended knee!

This was the first book I've read by Ms. Child and I really enjoyed it. One of the lovely things about category romance is that you can read them in one sitting, or preferably, the bath. Sometimes with a glass of wine. It's my own version of the Calgon moment. But I digress….This is apparently the last of the three in the Reilly Brothers Series, so I'm coming in late, but it didn't take a long time to figure things out. Aidan Reilly is the Marine who performs marine rescue and loves his family, too, and most of all, he is a wonderfully written male. I can see why Ms. Child is as popular as she is, because there is a talent to writing the male POV. Linda Howard does it, Suz Brockmann does it, Sherilyn Kenyon does it. They all capture the quintessential Y-chromosome, and somehow place it on the page. I enjoy reading these heroes, the Dennis Quaids of romance-land, although sometimes I worry that they'll all turn 50 and buy a red Corvette and then run off with the 20 year old blonde bar-maid from the tavern down the street, which is why I believe Nora Roberts actually writes better heroes, because you can see her heroes at age 60, middle-aged paunch, still hunkering down over the lawnmower, or griping about doing the dishes, but finding the time to swat the wife on the rear, or give her that special look that couples have after they've been married for 30+ years…

Ahem, I digress….. Back to Ms. Child's particular talents: The other bit that I noticed was the marvelous sense of place that I got from the South Carolina town. I've only driven through South Carolina, but suddenly I wanted to go and experience this charming southern locale. I could smell the sea, taste the beer, and I swear I've met some of the townsfolk. I don't know if she's ever been a travel writer, but I have to say, it takes an exceptional writer to go on about setting and keep me interested. Ms. Child succeeded. All that said, I do have one quibble. The heroine had one moment where she forgot to put on her thinking cap and I was rather perturbed. I'm not going to spoil anything, and in case any of you have read the back, and are thinking, "Well, I didn't have any trouble…," I feel I should keep my mouth shut. However, I don't want to be on a boat with YOU in event of emergency. That's all I'll say.

I'll be chasing down the other two in the series, because I have to love a family named Reilly, not spelled in that pansy-asped R-i-l-e-y way. You spell it out enough, and you learn to appreciate the folks who get it right on the first try.

It's In His Kiss by Julia Quinn

The Back Cover Copy:

Meet Our Hero ...
Gareth St. Clair is in a bind. His father, who detests him, is determined to beggar the St. Clair estates and ruin his inheritance. Gareth's sole bequest is an old family diary, which may or may not contain the secrets of his past .. and the key to his future. The problem is -- it's written in Italian, of which Gareth speaks not a word.
Meet Our Heroine ...
All the ton agreed: there was no one quite like Hyacinth Bridgerton. She's fiendishly smart, devilishly outspoken, and according to Gareth, probably best in small doses. But there's something about her -- something charming and vexing -- that grabs him and won't quite let go ...
Meet Poor Mr. Mozart ...
Or don't. But rest assured, he's spinning in his grave when Gareth and Hyacinth cross paths at the annual -- and annually discordant -- Smythe-Smith musicale. To Hyacinth, Gareth's every word seems a dare, and she offers to translate his diary, even though her Italian is slightly less than perfect. But as they delve into the mysterious text, they discover that the answers they seek lie not in the diary, but in each other ... and that there is nothing as simple -- or as complicated -- as a single, perfect kiss.

Ah, ah, ah…. I love The Bridgerton's. Especially D-B-C… E not so much, which I suspect is Ms. Quinn's 9/11 book (the book worked on while the author is dealing with September 11th ) but I digress…This one…. H!!! I think I have a new favorite. It's In His Kiss is marvelous. Gareth St. Clair is pretty much my fav JQ hero. He is charming, because of course, a Julia Quinn character without charm, is like a day without sunshine. It must not be. BUT, he has a wounded edge to him, which is marvelously done. And Hyacinth is perfect for him. Smart, mouthy, caring, and slightly obtuse to the world. In my current reading binge, I've had an opportunity to sample different romances, and this one was a romance with a capital R. There were no huge mysteries to solve (one minor mystery that drove the plot, but it never overshadowed the romance), only a hero who didn't quite believe in himself, and the heroine who did. Redemption plots are hugely popular, some work, some don't, but when they do, you just want to say, "ah!" Any of you who have this one in your TBR, read it now!

Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase

The Back Cover Copy:

IMPOSSIBLE...
Rupert Carsington, fourth son of the Earl of Hargate, is his aristocratic family's favorite disaster. He is irresistibly handsome, shockingly masculine, and irretrievably reckless, and wherever he goes, trouble follows. Still, Rupert's never met an entanglement--emotional or other--he couldn't escape. Until now.

OUTRAGEOUS...
Now he's in Egypt, stranded in the depths of Cairo's most infamous prison, and his only way out is accepting a beautiful widow's dangerous proposal. Scholar Daphne Pembroke wants him to rescue her brother, who's been kidnapped by a rival seeking a fabled treasure. Their partnership is strictly business: She'll provide the brains, he, the brawn. Simple enough in theory.

INEVITABLE...
Blame it on the sun or the blazing desert heat, but as tensions flare and inhibitions melt, the most disciplined of women and the most reckless of men are about to clash in the most impossibly irresistible way.

Because I don't get to read as much as I used to, I'm choosey about what I read. I don't auto-buy authors anymore; my auto-buy list got too long, and I refused to knock anyone off it, so I decided to cut off the practice and buy my books on a case-by-case basis only, which means that anything I read is something that I particularly want to read. And such was the case for Mr. Impossible. The inimitable Ms. Chase, of the Lord of the Scoundrels fame, who has more wit in her little finger, than I have in my head (at least according to my husband), makes me remember why I used to love Regencies. Her dialog, her turn of phrase, the bon mots, the marvelous British sensibility. This book lived up my Regency standard (which is very high, indeed), and it was set in Egypt.

I considered quoting some of my favorite lines from the book, but I realized I would be quoting pretty much the entire book. Daphe is the Regency blue-stocking and yet she wasn't cardboard, or brought in from casting central; she has an extra little something, a sense of realness that Ms. Chase seems to grace all her characters with. Rupert was a darling, although not as carefully drawn as Daphne. And I should note that if you don't like Egyptian things, don't read this book. I enjoy Egypt (any of you ever play Sphinx on PS2?), I loved the change of scenery, and I realized that I love Ms. Chase's narration: her authorial moments where the scene changes, or we're given a little aside. I skimmed over the Amazon reviews before I wrote my own, and I noticed some negatives because the book focused so much on the adventure, and less on the romance. That's probably true, especially since I read this one on the heels, of the wonderfully romancey romance, It's In His Kiss. However, I must defend her choice, since I believe the adventure was the only way to bring out Daphne's character without boring us with forty pages of psycho-therapy and tedious soliloquies. That's an author's prerogative to figure out the best way to show and develop character, and I'm with Ms. Chase on this one. And yes, the adventure was FUN!

I still have a few more books to be read, and I'll be putting up some more reviews when they're done, but I have to say, this has been a blast. I forget how much I love to read and how much I love reading romance. If anyone has more book recommendations, please send them my way. I've been reading some great books!

Words, words, wrods....

Lately themes have started showing up in my life. It's rather strange, like some James Joyce is out there, pulling strings and saying, "Oh, and this would parallel nicely!" I'm usually very careful about my verbiage, because I do understand the power of the written word. The written word has to stand the test of time. It will be out there forever, unlike the manuscript that may remain hidden under the bed, to be enjoyed by the dust-bunnies alone.

The theme started with a discussion of criticism for education and criticism for sour-grapes. Can a writer stand unmoved by criticism? The short answer is 'no.' Writers are pretty much the most emotive people I know. They hide it very well, but trust me, there's a cauldron of emotional droppings boiling and popping under the surface. However, these two truths remain self-evident: One. People will always criticize your work. Some you'll never know about, but it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And two: writing is a craft, just like painting and macramé. You make a mistake that you don't know you made, someone points it out, and boom, next time, you won't make that mistake again, or perhaps not at the same level. So, yes, writers get hurt by criticism, and yes, criticism can help. But there's chaff criticism and wheat criticism, and a writer has to figure out what's chaff and what's wheat. And that's a tough job. I have to say, that I have two of the best critique partners in the world, with a high-wheat output. I've been lucky, and I think it's helped me to ascertain what's valuable to my craft and what's not.

The next little episode in my criticism theme is a post I made on a loop. Usually, I pride myself on being erudite and scholarly (no snickering, please), keeping all emotion out of the point I'm making. The emotion I save for the books. However, this time I suspect I unwittingly insulted someone who I consider an old friend, without a bit of emotion at all. Can I fix it? I don't know, I'll try. But the words were put out, not to insult, but to educate, and in the process, I suspect I harmed someone I didn't mean to at all.

The last little episode is someone telling tales out of school, and causing a general kerfuffle about the incident. The tellee thought she was doing the professional thing, but unfortunately, most of the others involved didn't feel that way. And the words are already out, zinging their way through broadband connections everywhere. Sides have been taken, swords have been drawn, and lawsuits were threatened. Badness, all because of words, or in these case, wrods, which is a word used badly.

Never assume that your words won't be misinterpreted, misquoted, mistaken, or misanthroped. Writing is such a solitary sport that you often forget the reader(s). But they're out there, just like the dust-bunnies, waiting to jump on the words. And in that split-second, words transform into wrods, something lethal and vindictive. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but bones can heal. Words can hurt forever.

From Candice Proctor

Candice Proctor has an interesting take on why romance doesn't get any respect. I think most of her points are spot-on, but I don't think there's much the industry can do. Every week you can find an article about the different aspects of entertainment and how they are struggling to survive in a market that's declining (except for video games, which is huge, but I think they're a new market and will hit a plateau in the next ten years). In a perfect economic model, the number of books, movies, music, etc would shrink and the choices remaining would be of higher quality. I don't think that's true anymore, though, because the cost to entry are so small. Heck, Xerox has a commercial about "how anyone can be published."

As the saying goes, "quality will out," but so will good marketing. So how knows what we're going to end up with. I think I need another cup of coffee. :)

Breaking News!

This just in. Al Qaeda claims responsibility for the RWA Rita/Golden Heart Ceremony in Reno. The ceremony involved a montage of tragic events that covered the last twenty-five years. Audiences sat in stunned silence as they watched clip after clip of the lowest moments in American history. In a tape just released from Osama bin Laden's #2 man, they indicate their unhappiness with "the tyranny of hot paranormal romance." In an obscure line, one of the demands mentioned is the return of Fabio to the famous "clinch" cover, which is the term used to describe a man and a woman in a passionate embrace. Al-Zawahiri states: "We will not rest until his pectorals once again flow like heated lava across bookstores everywhere."

RWA Article

A nice article on romance and RWA from the Sacramento Bee.

GCC: A Dollar Short by Karen Gillespie

Okay, I picked up this one at the bookstore on Monday and I LOVE HER VOICE! It's so Southern, and so funny, and OMG, I KNOW people who talk like this. Here's the blurb for Karen Gillespie's book:

It isn’t every day a movie star steals your husband. Former beauty queen Chiffon Butrell faces that dilemma when her husband Lonnie wins a trip to Hollywood. Lonnie meets mega movie star, Janie Lynn Lauren—known as Jay-Li to her elite circle- and leaves Chiffon behind in Cayboo Creek, S.C., with three kids and no money.

Chiffon’s manages to lose her temper and her job in quick succession—only to discover that Lonnie’s paycheck from the Nutra-Sweet plant has been forwarded to a California address. With three kids to feed, Chiffon comes up more than a dollar short.

Her good friends, the Bottom Dollar Girls, try their best to pitch in. But there are too few hands to lend, what with Elizabeth and her husband Timothy expecting their first baby any day, and the rest of the Bottom Dollar Girls knee-deep in their secret—and possibly scandalous--plan to raise money for the Cayboo Creek Senior Center.

When a slick of Wesson Oil at the Winn Dixie gets the better of Chiffon’s ankle, there’s just one thing to be done—call on estranged older sister Chenille, who hails from Bible Grove, S.C. A prissy, fussy spinster prone to dressing her dog Walter in matching plaid “mother-son” outfits, Chenille is everything Chiffon detests.

Chiffon's little house is soon overrun with buzzing paparazzi, and the tabloids are having a field day with the starlet's affair with a down-home country boy. Jay-Li declares war when she appears on national television to assassinate Chiffon’s character and to declare her intentions for Lonnie by wearing a t-shirt that says, “Chiffon, Be Gone!” Things get ugly in a hurry in the battle of wills between the mother of three and the world’s greatest movie star.

Through all their trials, the Grace girls find solace in the centerpiece of the series, the Bottom Dollar Emporium. Whether it's the straightforward advice of eighty-five year old Attalee, or the helpful ministrations of Elizabeth, the women of the Bottom Dollar stick together.

Not to be missed, A DOLLAR SHORT (Simon and Schuster, August 2005) sparkles with energy and wit, as well as the compelling story of emotional loss and the strength to endure. It is a hilarious saga of loss, sisterhood, and the will to survive in small town Cayboo Creek, South Carolina.

And praise from the masses:

“As tart and delectable as lemon meringue pie… a pure delight!”

--Jennifer Weiner, author of Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and Little Earthquakes

“Never a dull moment…. this fast-paced screamer of a romance begs a giggle, if not a guffaw. —Booklist