Spy At The Plate

It's October and that's my month ;-). I have post-season baseball and iceskating season is starting. I usually get very busy in October too, for some reason. Last year I went on a book tour in Ohio, my first multiple-city signing experience.

This month I'll be traveling to Reno again, to meet with the Borders managers at their regional meeting with a few dozen other authors. I've never done this before so thought it interesting and advantageous to learn from people I don't see often--not readers or neccessarily romance lovers, but people in the business. Christine Feehan will be there too, so I figure I couldn't possibly lose. I can always pick Christine's brain ;-).

But back to baseball...and the Braves. In case you haven't heard, I LOVE THE BRAVES. Every year, around this time, I go through the heartbreak of watching them not making past the first or second round. I don't know why I do it except I just love the game so much, and watching them play. I have never seen them live and I'm hoping to one day go to the World Series and watching my Braves win ;-). Hey, dreaming near-impossibilities is my business, okay?

I like my boys this year, though. The Braves hadn't been an underdog for 13 years and this year, they had many rookies and a horrible bullpen. Injuries to the couple of veterans didn't help. But here they are now in the postseason. Most of the time, the Braves in the playoff is a yawner to everyone, but not this time. It's exciting to see the young ones getting homers and running the bases at full speed. One got his first homer at his first time on the plate post-season (a record). One got a grand slam today. How cool is that?

And sometimes writing feels that way. I've been reading a lot lately and some of the books have been straight homers. It's always fun to see new authors doing exciting things with their stories. I just finished J. R. Ward's Dark Lover (paranormal, vampire) and it was an absorbing read. The world building is excellent and the male characters fascinating with their realistic earthy urban talk. Ward has been given a lot of room to do different things, several times using the f-word and talking downright rough and dirty. I liked it.

I'm always looking for something new about which to be excited about. I think there are so many wonderful possibilities once an author is given the green light. When trying something different (and new), like a good ball player in the post-season, a good author has to stay cool during the pressure and deliver, if not a good hit, a home run.

I've been very lucky because my editors gave me the green light to try something different. But yeah, I feel the pressure now ;-). Let's hope I can deliver that home run.

Eeek.

Stay tune. I know things are going to happen. October just started.

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