It is currently in the mid-nineties here in Ohio, and much much hotter in other parts of the country.  The temperatures are reaching record-breaking levels, and it’s nothing short of miserable outside.  I think it probably goes without saying, but please make sure your pets have shade and water if you are leaving them outside. 

Yesterday I was reading about woman who busted out a stranger’s car window because a little dog locked inside appeared to be having a heat stroke. I, myself, am the proud mama of three canine babies and the thought of them dying in a hot car sickens me. Kudos to the lady who had the guts to bust the window and save the poor animal. Should I happen upon a similar situation, believe me when I say I will enthusiastically do the same. Regardless of consequences, it is the right thing to do, plus… I just like to break stuff.  Don’t give me a reason.  Maybe my hammer and I should head over to Wal-Mart parking lot right now to do a safety check… 

I’ve been lazy, procrastinating, just completely uninspired to finish up the next Lily Drake book. I love the book, I love where it went (I don’t always know these things as I start writing), and I’m super excited about the project, I just haven’t been feeling it lately… until yesterday.

As I goofed off, surfed the internet, made my rounds checking out whatever came to mind, I came by Robert McCammon’s website.  If you don’t know Robert McCammon, you should.  I just recently got turned onto him myself, and I now loooove him.  He’s wonderful (and has a nice smile to boot). Anyway, to get back on track, I watched this little video and it really struck me. McCammon says “you have to believe that what you’re writing…will be the greatest book ever written.” Well, when he writes I totally could see HIM feeling that way, he is genius, but then I remembered how I felt as I finished the first novel. I felt like I had to get the story out there, that Lily’s story needed to be told.  Thanks to one super talented and scary fellow Southerner, I’m a writing maniac again.  I will try to post the video below, but I’m a writer, not a technical genius…

Of all the questions I get asked regarding my book, “why did you choose Mount Vernon as the setting?” seems like the most self-explanatory one, yet it gets asked so often.

Well, easily enough, it’s because I live in Mount Vernon. Write what you know, right? Well, I know all about it, it’s easy for me to envision when I need to describe it (with some exaggerations) and I like it here.

I’m not originally from Mount Vernon. My family and I chose to move here. Wanting to live in a place more like my hometown, we decided on Mount Vernon when we came to look at some potential houses. While we were house shopping, we found the residents were actually friendly! People here are incredibly nice, much like what I’m accustomed to being from the south.

Many of the places in my book are actual Mount Vernon landmarks, with the names changed a bit. Lily’s favorite restaurant is modeled after one of my favorite restaurants here in town.  The Memorial Theatre is real and has some wonderful events, and the Chapman Mansion… if you know Mount Vernon you know all about this one. Granted, it’s a bit larger in the book and I took some creative liberties with it, but it’s not that far of a stretch.  Much like Lily, someday I would love to own it, but as far as I know vampires don’t live there.

Do books have to end this way? Where did this idea come from? Personally, I love a good tragedy. In college, I despised reading Shakespeare’s comedies, my personal favorite was Othello…forbidden love that winds up with a husband killing his wife.  Give me a great tragedy anytime. Makes a person feel better about their own life, you know? Case in point, my favorite author (who won a Pulitzer Prize, by the way) Edith Wharton. Almost all of her novels ended up in tragedy or at least an unhappy ending, and they are classics. Why is it readers now expect a happy ending out of a romance?

The original ending of The Life and Death of Lily Drake ended much differently than it does now. As I work on the sequel, I toy with the idea of going all Edith Wharton and leaving someone maimed, miserable or dead. Maybe this melancholy mood will pass, or maybe not… one of the characters might just make me mad.

So you get published.  Life is wonderful, you scream, you jump around the house, you terrify your dogs in the process.  You go out with your family to celebrate and hold your head high as a “published author.” Then your manuscript goes to the editor.  You may be wondering what my title means by now, editors are like dentists… Well it’s like this…

Going to the dentist sucks, but you know they are helping you out.

Editing a manuscript flat out SUCKS.  This person, the editor, picks out every single, knit-picking thing you could have possibly done wrong, makes you feel like an idiot for not noticing these things and then makes you revise them.  Over and over again.  You start to hate them.  You despise when you see an email from them in your inbox.  You wonder who made them so smart and perfect.  Then you finish the editing process, you realize all the mistakes the Editor from Hades saved you from having published, and this sadistic devil of a person is suddenly your saving grace.  My editor is a genius.  Ask me when she’s working on the second book though, and I may tell you she’s a monster.  So, the lesson for today’s blog – Be kind to your editor.  You won’t ALWAYS want to stab pins in voodoo dolls fashioned to resemble them.