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That’s right!  I’ve discovered startling evidence that Lisa’s new publicity photo WAS photoshopped and airbrushed.  And to prove it, I have the “before” picture right here! 

Dear Friends,
A long time ago I read a great biography of Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone With The Wind. As I recall, it took her four years to write her one massive, remarkable novel, and it started when she was laid up with a leg injury. She complained to her husband John that she had run out of books to read, and he challenged her to write her own. She set a goal of ten pages per day, hammered out on her manual typewriter.

I was amused to read that the only thing that hampered Margaret, or Peggy as she was nicknamed, was the occasional case of what she called “The Humbles.” Every now and then she would read a novel or poem that so overwhelmed her with its power and greatness that it rendered her incapable of writing for a few days.

I totally get that.

It’s an admiration of someone that leads to the dispiriting question “Why am I even bothering with this when someone else is this good?” And then, “Everyone should just go and read this book by Author X, because my work will never come close.”

However, by now I’ve accepted the fact that The Humbles will happen. I’ve learned to get over it and keep working, and all these little dents in my ego are probably not bad things to have. (In fact, someone with a shiny-clean untarnished ego is probably not someone you’d want to go to lunch with.) Besides, there’s a lot to learn from someone who gives you The Humbles.

There are many writers who can give me a case of The Humbles. Laura Kinsale and Judith Ivory are sure bets every time. They both have an unusual verbal sensitivity . . . an ability to shape language and use words in unexpected ways. It’s a sort of delicate, deep-cutting effectiveness that reminds me of a skilled surgeon, and can make me feel, by comparison, like a woodchopper with a blunt axe. So I read them knowing The Humbles will come, and go, and overall I’m better off for having read and enjoyed such accomplished work.

Who gives you “The Humbles,” in the field of writing or some other profession? Who is so great that you can easily see how they’d give other people The Humbles?

Dear Friends,
Now that I’ve finished “Mine Till Midnight,” my historical romance for St Martin’s, I have some time to prepare for my next contemporary novel. To me, this is the most difficult but also the most fun part of being a writer . . . plotting and wool-gathering. By wool-gathering, I mean the accumulation of dialogue snippets and character quirks and bits of action that give fullness and life to the story. No matter how tight and perfect your plot is, the characters are stick figures until you figure out their personal histories, and how their interactions might go.

A well-camouflaged character is always intriguing. As a reader, you’re not quite sure how you’re going to feel about a hero, heroine or villain until they reveal their true natures with some telling gesture or action. In books and also in real life, people are always engaged in PR whether they’re aware of it or not. The clothes they wear, the words they choose, their silences, body language, and the actions they take, all define them to the rest of the world.

Think about the judgments we make at a place like the grocery store . . . when we see a parent slap a child, or when a stranger helps someone who’s knocked over a few cans of tomatoes, or when someone waits patiently for a senior citizen to move down the aisle. We instantly draw conclusions.

Other times, we instinctively make a judgment about someone, but we try to talk ourselves out of it. For example, Mr. Smith can’t be an abusive husband, because he goes to church. Your supposed friend gossips about everyone else in town, but assures you that she would never say anything bad about you. But people give us clues about their true natures. Actions speak louder than words. Maya Angelou said it perfectly : “When someone shows you who they really are, believe them.”

In my novel “Devil In Winter,” the hero, Sebastian, tries to convince the heroine, Evie, that he is every bit as shallow, self-absorbed and villainous as his reputation has led her to believe. But his self-condemning words are belied by his actions. When he takes the trouble to get Evie a foot-warmer on their long, cold journey to Gretna Green, she begins to suspect there is more to him than meets the eye.

When Roarke, in JD Robb’s “Naked In Death” keeps a button that has fallen from Eve Dallas’s jacket, you know he has a serious fascination for her.

When my reputedly cat-hating husband was dating me and brought my cat a toy, I knew he has serious intentions *g*.

What gestures, in real life or in books, have given you the aha moment, when you realize someone is not what he or she seems?

In the spirit of celebrating the birth of the New Year with all of its glorious possibilities, I set out to follow Lisa’s example and make a list of New Year’s Resolutions.  But since I know I won’t be doing aerobics five days a week or giving up dark chocolate M&M’s for more than...oh...ten minutes, I decided it would be much easier if I came up with some New Year’s Resolutions for my fellow Squawkers.  Because after all, isn’t that what friends are for?

1) I resolve that Lisa shall never again wear her tiara while cleaning the commode and scooping the puppy poop out of the back yard. 
2) I resolve that Liz will be locked in a room with a black light and forced to listen to Metallica and Aerosmith records until she’s stops chanting, “Rock the Casbah!  Rock the Casbah!”
3) I resolve that Connie will get a cat.
4) I resolve that Christina will stop referring to herself as “LA DODD” in casual conversation. 
5) I resolve that Eloisa will stop insisting that we call her “Lady Eloisa” and making us kiss her wedding ring just because she’s married to an Italian knight. 

Now since turnabout is fair play and I um...actually stole this idea from Connie Brockway while she wasn’t looking, I’m going to make this blog a STICKY POST and let the other Squawkers come in BELOW with their own resolutions throughout the day.  I’m sure theirs for me will be something along the lines of..."I resolve that Teresa will stop being so thoughtful and generous toward her fellow man (and woman) and learn to pamper herself with pedicures, massages and overflowing bags of dark chocolate M&M’s.” I’ll be out of town all day today and will look forward to reading their noble and high-minded suggestions for me when I return. 

So how about YOU?  If YOU could make one New Year’s Resolution for a spouse, child, parental unit, or dear friend, what would it be???

I resolve Teresa will never spam us with another Russell Crowe picture again
I resolve that Elizabeth will reconnect with the nomadic Brotherhood of the Wii for a 4:00 a.m. Target parking lot reunion
I resolve that Eloisa will stop insisting the heroines on her cover be semi-naked (however, if she wants to insist the art department peel some clothing off of her heroes, I’m in)
I resolve that Lisa will go an entire 24 hours without applying any make-up and in addition leave the house and go shopping in this state
I resolve that Christina will become more secure and stop telling everyone, “I wish I had Connie’s style”

I’ve been thinking about Christmas romances lately—mostly because I’m writing one.  Writing romance in general requires that you have a really firm grasp of the parameters of that genre: in other words, that you know it ends happily, that you have a sense of how much the hero and heroine should be together (10 year separations taking 100 pages to describe are a general no-no), etc.  But the Christmas Romance is a whole new ballgame for me—and I’m slowly realizing that I think it has some separate rules of its own.

But I’m a professor!  No need to panic.  The answer—clearly—is RESEARCH!  So I’ve been doing that.  There isn’t a Christmas romance out there that I haven’t read.  The problem is that they’re all so different that I’m having trouble coming up with a list of what I find essential to a Christmas romance, so I thought I’d beg for help here. 

First of all, let me introduce the Christmas Romance that I enjoyed the most.  I don’t mean this as a disparagement on all the others out there—there were a number I hugely enjoyed—but I love funny contemporary romances.  I am an obsessive Susan Elizabeth Phillips fan, for instance.  I’ve always loved Christie Ridgeway’s books—but if you ask me, this book signals a whole new phase for her.  It has the depth, whallop, humor, sexiness and generall all-around can’t-put-it-downness of an SEP.  If you are anywhere around my mental space this holiday:  I’m leaving for my parents’ house, I haven’t bought all the presents, the house is a wreck, the painters are coming while I’m gone, I haven’t paid bills, I haven’t finished grading, I’m supposed to go to parties every night and I have nothing to wear but a short sleeved black thing that’s too small.... NEED I GO ON?  Anyway, go get this book.  I spent all yesterday in bed, reading and not doing any of the above, and it was worth it!

So...from my experience snugged in bed (all day! and I wasn’t sick! and the children were in school!) reading MUST LOVE MISTLETOE, I started a list.  But I need help!  What’s essential to a Christmas Romance?  We love the genre...what is it?

THE CHRISTMAS ROMANCE

1.  The romance has to be germanely focused around Christmas.  In other words, the values of Christmas have to come in there somehow-- not to be schmaltzy, but the lessons Scrooge learned are an example of a genuine focus.

2.  Serious things have to happen.  Reading Christie’s book, I realized that I want a Christmas book to have real bite.  Bad things happen at Christmas.  There’s real heartbreak in the fact that most of the nation suddenly puts on a good act of having a perfect family life and being cheerful, supportive and generous (no matter what’s going on in the background).  A good Christmas Romance has to have reality in it.

3.  Christmas is very sexy: all those sugarplums, hot chocolate, burning fires, snow… I want to mention a great novella I read in my Christmas blitz—Gemma Bruce’s story in A Very Merry Christmas.  This is really a fabulous anthology (not a dead story in there), but I thought Gemma’s took the cake—partly because of what she did with a string of tinsel.  And that’s all I’m going to say about it!  *g*

So what am I missing?  What’s in your favorite Christmas romances?  Be sure to tell me....BECAUSE...I just picked out five more fabulous ARCs to give away this afternoon!  There’s one by Catherine Anderson, and one about curvy vampires, and one about a psychic quilt maker --- they sound perfect for a day in bed, to me!

It’s time to pop those champagne corks again because...(drum roll please)...

CHRISTINA DODD is #19 on the NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST for THE PRINCE KIDNAPS A BRIDE!
and

ELOISA JAMES is #24 on the NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST for PLEASURE FOR PLEASURE!
GO SQUAWKERS GO!!!