Books, Books, Books

Once again the authors of By The Bay: East Beach Stories will be signing their book on April 30th from 12 to 2 pm at The Book Exchange located at 116 East Little Creek Rd. Norfolk, VA 23503.

Come join us!

Books + Chocolate = Happiness

Everyone wants a happy place.  And we all have different happy places.  But what could be better than books and chocolate?  How about getting your By The Bay book signed by the authors and then getting some chocolate?  Fabulous right?  I thought so.

February 27th we did just that.  We were at The Royal Chocolate in Virginia Beach.

Royal Chocolate here I come!

Left to Right: Jenny Sparks, Mike Owens, Jayne Ormerod,
Mary-Jac O'Daniel, Karen Harris, Michelle Davenport,
Pat Clark & Gina Warren Buzby

I'm sorry I didn't get the word out sooner.  We will be having another book signing on April 30th at The Book Exchange.  More details to come later. 

Hope to see you there!

Big Screen Dreams

So a while back on By The Bay an interesting question was brought up.  How did we see our characters in our mind's eye?  Everyone envisions a character differently, but who would we have play our characters if they were to ever be brought to life in a movie for the big screen or even television?  Hey, you never know, the Hallmark Channel might do something like that!  Something like Chicken Soup for the Soul.  It would be fantastic!

Now when I first started writing my story, I honestly didn't have anyone in mind for any of my characters.  Just some traits and vague notions.  However, as I think on it I can get a 'vision' of who would play whom.

I could see Rick Moranis playing the role of Rick Dandes.  He's adorably distracted and sweet.  I think it's a pretty good match.

As Anna I see Jewel Staite.  She's just darling and would make an adorable match with her on screen husband.

And I definitely see Betty White as Dorothy Dandes.  I think she would be fantastic!  She's so versatile.  She can be tough and wise cracking one moment and the next she's sweet as pie.

Stella was the hardest for me, as I never really gave her any features.  But when it comes down to it I would love for Laura Cohen to play her.  She's extremely capable and I think she could pull it off.  I also have to admit I was binge watching The Walking Dead at the time, so she seemed a natural pick.

Of course Stella's convertible would have to be a 1990 Mazda Miata in white.  And if a movie is ever made I want the car when the movie is wrapped up.  Hey a girl can dream!

So who did you envision playing these parts?  Did it coincide with my mind's eye?  Leave a comment below to let me know what you think.

A Smile

I admit I'm a Weird Al fan.  So when I came across this on YouTube, I just had to share.  I hope you enjoy.

'Tis The Season

Every month I meet up with a group of wonderful people and we talk/encourage each other in writing.  So last month at our monthly meeting we brought books to give to Toys For Tots.  This is a charity very dear to my heart.

So each of us brought one or two books (this isn't all of them) and explained why we picked them out.

Couldn't pass up an opportunity for a photo of this wonderful group.

May your holiday season be filled with love and laughter.

Beginning Sentences

An author always hopes that their beginning sentence pulls the reader in.  Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail.    Hopefully we succeed more than we fail.  

The writer's group that I'm in does a 'starter sentence' every month.  It can be really interesting to see the different directions people will go with the same sentence.  Sometimes that sentence will grab me, just begging for a snippet of a story and I'll come up with something that amuses me and hopefully the other writers.  Other times the sentence will stare at me ominously and growl, daring me to even try.  I'd love to tell you that I plug away and eventually overcome, but that would be a lie.  And I try not to lie to my readers.

So today I was at a workshop with some of my fellow authors at the local public library (Yes they are still there and you should go visit one immediately!) and they had this quiz with beginning sentences.  I'll admit I couldn't answer them all.

Can you?

Now don't cheat and google them.  I'll leave the answers in the comments section in a few days.

Have fun and good luck!

Which novel begins with this line:

1. "Call me Ishmael."

2.  "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

3.  "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

4.  "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

5.  "Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested."

6.  "'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug."

7.  "This is the saddest story I have ever heard."

8.  "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

9.  "The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new."

10.  "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

Halloween Thoughts

Halloween is my favorite holiday.  Don't ask me why, I just do.

So I tried to think of something profound to share, since I've been extremely lax on my posts.  But I've come up with nothing.

Instead I will share some Edgar Allan Poe memes.  Normally I'd do something terrifying like Stephen King, but I'm kicking it old school this year.

An excellent read on Halloween night.

I know many people like this.  

And just cause it tickled my funny bone.

Happy Halloween!!!