Gabriella Hewitt

Apparently Orbit Books has one of its summer interns write a report on cover art. This year’s intern compared the differences between 2008 and 2009 cover art for urban fantasy heroines. If you want to know the results. Click here. Apparently someone clued into the fact that stilettos aren’t the best for chasing after other worldly critters. We’re looking at sturdy, kick-ass boots. I wonder if they’ve got steel tips at the toes.

It gets better. Click on this link and you’ll find The Chart of Fantasy Art, which breaks down the types of objects found on the covers of urban fantasy novels for 2008 and 2009. The big losers are swords, castles and glowy magic. The green bars are pretty cool since they track new trends. I’m seeing the first hints of steampunk with dirigibles and zeppelins.

I have to say I wish when I had been in college that I’d lucked out on a summer intern position like this. It sure beats out some of the jobs I had.

It’s hot and humid outside. I had all these plans for summer, but it’s hard to do anything when sweat drips down your face in your own house. The air conditioning only cools the living area. When I’ve got the AC on, you’d have to pry me from my chair to get me to tackle the jobs I need to in the other rooms.

The flip side is I’ve spent a lot of time focused on writing. It feels really great. I finished Out of the Shadows and it’s off to an editor. Crossing my fingers, but the feedback from my cps was fantastic. They loved it from start to finish. My bones say this story will find a home.

My cps are a wonderful group of ladies. Although, we’ve only recently gotten together, everyone is extremely supportive and brings helpful advice to each critique session. Two of the ladies have gotten manuscript requests from agents and I’m super excited for them.

I’m also taking another Laurie Schnebly workshop called, His Personality Ladder. This has been really useful since my I’m going to start my next project and need to work out the strengths and weaknesses of the characters. The homework assignments are forcing me to dig deep, which is painful, but likely to produce better results for the reader–I hope.

Amazon has been getting a workout from me. As soon as a book arrives I dig in. This came last night and I already finished it. If you like cozy mysteries and enjoy one with a touch of paranormal–the heroine can find lost objects by touching the hand of the person who lost the item–I can recommend A Timely Vision by Joyce and Jim Lavene. I enjoyed the characters and the town of Duck and the mystery keeps you guessing until the end. I’ll be looking for the next book in the series.

I am almost officially on my summer break. I have tests to correct and grades to figure out, but no more classes. I am so psyched for summer. Since I’m going nowhere (boo hoo), I plan to focus a lot on writing.

Here are two blog posts that came my way that I’d like to share. The first is from Suzanne Lazear over at Steamed. She writes about the niche genre Elfpunk. I never realized there was a separate genre for books that focus solely on the elf world. She gives a good list of authors who fall in this category. I have to admit I’ve never read or even heard of some of them. I look forward to checking them out. Click on the link to find out “What is Elfpunk?”

The second blog post came via a Latina newsletter. Marcela Landres, author of the e-book, How Editors Think: The Real Reason They Reject You has a blog post up at The Lit Coach’s Guide to the Writer’s Life. In it she tackles the issue of Creating Your Original Voice. She raises a good point that while it might be helpful from a marketing view to categorize your writing as “just like Nora Roberts,” you won’t hold an agent or editor’s attention for long if you don’t have a voice of your own, a style and sound that set you apart from others.

I just finished Death by Diamonds by Annette Blair. This is the third book in her vintage magic mystery series. The main character in the series is Maddie, or Mad to her friends, a former fashion designer, now owner of a vintage clothing store in Mystick Falls, CT. Maddie discovered that she has a rather unusual talent–she can read certain pieces of clothing by touching or wearing them. Of course, that leads to some interesting adventures in sleuthing. Over the course of the three books so far, we see how Maddie is growing into her abilities and becoming more accepting of them.

In this story, Maddie’s on again, off again relationship with Nick Jaconetti, her former high school boyfriend and a current FBI agent continues. Additionally, we’ve got Detective Lytton Werner, Maddie’s third grade nemesis, showing up once more. Nick, from all descriptions, is hot. The relationship he has with Maddie is big on passion, but short on emotion because the two are too afraid to test deeper waters. I usually don’t like stories where the female lead is attracted to two men, but Blair handles this very well. Maddie and Werner dance around the attraction, though it’s the big elephant in the room, particularly in this story. And in this story, it’s developed with considerable humor and freshness that I found myself looking forward to Maddie’s interaction with Werner over Nick’s. Go figure.

The mystery this time provided plenty of suspects and an engaging cast of characters. But, deep down, I know I’ll be buying the next book to see what happens with Maddie and her two “beaux.” Hopefully, Blair will keep the uncertainty going. I don’t think I’m ready to see Maddie make a choice.

If you’re looking for a good light summer read, you can’t go wrong by picking up the first book in this series, A Veiled Deception.

Calcio. Futbol. Soccer. Doesn’t matter what you call it, when it’s played on the world stage, it’s simply the best sports entertainment. I haven’t been able to watch as many games as I would’ve liked. The time difference means the games are on real late, as in starting at 11pm or even 3am.

The other night I watched the Italia vs. New Zealand match. The first half ended by 11:45. I tried to stay awake during the intermission but by midnight I was toast. I have to be up at 5:30am at the latest, so forcing myself to stay up would have been stupid to do.

Italy is on again tonight and like before, it starts at 11pm. The Japan team comes on at 3am. I know I will have students who never went to bed and will decide class time means nap time. I thought about setting the alarm at 3am to get up. Consider that a thought that died aborning. No way will I wake up. It’s just not going to happen.

I had really hoped to catch the American team. They’ve been playing well and I wanted to see them Unfortunately, the American game wasn’t shown and I have no idea why. I’m sort of bummed about that, but excited to hear they made the next round of play. I think there will be a good chance their next game will be broadcast.

I have no idea who is going to win and I’m not making any bets. I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the show!

If the first step to recovery is recognizing you have a problem…well, I’m not there yet.

I first got hooked on workshops through RWA’s Kiss of Death chapter, for mystery and suspense writers. KOD offers a workshop on craft and another on matters related to crime and detection each month. The classes last a month and the instructors I’ve come into contact so far have been fantastic.

Lately, I’ve branched out and have been taking classes through the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter, the San Diego Chapter, and others.

I just finished a terrific workshop with Jodi Henley on Organic Structure. It was exactly what I needed to figure out what was not working with my current wip. Talking it out with Jodi and reading her comments on other workshop participants’ stories, really got me thinking and back on track with where I needed to go. Click on her web log page and scroll down. On the right side you will see various articles she’s written on plotting, characters and organic structure. They are highly accessible and worth your time.

I also took a mind-blowing workshop on Promo with Marcia James called Guilt Free Promo. There was so much information packed into this course that the cost of the workshop was repaid many times over. Marcia covered the spectrum of promo options for authors and even offered a huge bible containing everything you are likely to need to know about promo. She has another workshop coming up in August through the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the RWA. If you have time and money to spare, check it out.

At the end of this month I’m signed up for another FF&P workshop called Beyond Fangs: Creating New & Interesting Paranormal Characters by Deborah Blake. It sounded like fun. I may simply lurk, which I often do, but I know I’ll come away with something from the experience.

My BFF sent me a mail. We had plans, but she wrote to say she’d forgotten that she’d signed up for a trial Zumba class, did I want to go? What the heck is Zumba, was my first thought. Okay, so I’m just not into the exercise scene. Turns out Zumba is HUGE. It’s salsa and mambo with an aerobic spin.

I said I’d join her. It was a total riot. I could not salsa for the life of me. Trying to get those hands going at the same time as the feet moved was impossible. The instructor said it was really only four steps she was using. I told her it was three too many.

But, I sweated up a storm and had fun. It really didn’t seem like exercise as much as dancing. And boy, do I suck at it.

One wall was covered in mirrors to point out all those areas you’d prefer to ignore, you know? It made me wish for Freaky Friday so I could simply get the instructor’s body. She was really toned without being too skinny. I know, I know, to really get a body like that you need to exercise regularly and eat less. But a Freaky Friday event would be so much simpler.

Anyway, I haven’t decided if I’ll join the class or not. On the one hand, summer is coming and it would be nice to get in shape. On the other hand, it might look like dance, but it’s still exercise.

A little over a year ago, I was in a B&N bookstore browsing through the stacks. An interesting cover design will catch my attention as will a clever or witty title. The back cover blurb, though, is what will get me to actually by the book.

So back in those stacks, I came across a mystery by Kate Carlisle called Homicide in Hardcover. The main character, Brooklyn Wainwright, is a young woman whose job is to repair old books. It doesn’t sound like the most exciting job, but murder spices things up. The story was set in the general Bay Area and is filled with quirky characters. I have to admit that having lived two years in Berkeley, I love books that remind me of all the odd and wonderful people and places of that region. This story was more than satisfying and so I picked up the second book in the series when it came out recently.

If Books Could Kill is the title of the second novel. This time Brooke travels to Scotland for the Edinburgh book fair, where unfortunately she stumbles across murder again. Sometimes second books don’t live up to the promise of the first. I have to say this may be a case where the second book is even better than the first. The backdrop of the Edinburgh book fair adds color, but the author never overwhelms the reader with too much detail of the book industry. The intriguing Derek Stone is back, a very hunky Brit, who sets Brooke’s and every other woman’s pulses humming. There is a mix of returning characters and new characters but I have to say my favorites are Brooke’s parents. They have some laugh out loud lines that are priceless.

Overall, there are a lot of twists and turns, plenty of characters for suspects and enough layers to keep you guessing. If you need a relaxing break, you can’t go wrong by picking up one of Kate Carlisle’s books.

May 5th, familiar to many in the US and in Latin America as el cinco de mayo, is celebrated as Children’s Day in Japan. This day is a national holiday and varous activities revolving around children take place around the country. It is traditional on this day to fly carp, one representing each child in your family. You can see them in the picture. This day used to be known as Boys’ Day since March 3rd is considered to be Girls’ Day, or Hina-Matsuri, and it is still celebrated on that day. However, once May 5th became a national holiday in Japan, the name was changed to Children’s Day.

Today is also the last day of Golden Week, the term given to a series of national holidays that run together. We’ve had a great weather and I wish I could say I did something fun and fantastic, but really it’s been a quiet holiday. Pleasant and relaxing.

On the writing front, I can say I did get one story submitted and have been busy working on another, so in terms of my writing, the holiday has been put to good use.

I hope your May is a good one. And if you have kids, take a moment and give them a hug. They really are a blessing and I think it’s pretty cool that there is a day to remind us of that.

I’ve been swamped lately with work and family. There must be a knack to juggling it all and I simply haven’t figured it out. I’ve been listening to music a lot to relax me, to keep me focused, and sometimes to energize me. I put music on in the background in the classroom and the kids love it. This generation does just about everything to music. If they’re not on their cell phone talking, their plugged into a set of earphones.

Anyway, I ran across a You Tube video of jazz singer Melody Gardot. I listened to the song Quiet Fire on her CD titled Worrisome Heart. I’m not a musical expert who can rattle off songs, and artists and make comparisons between musicians. I simply go with what I like. Melody Gardot has an amazing voice and an amazing story if you check out her background. I bought the CD online yesterday and it should arrive today. I can’t wait.