My Own Thanksgiving Twist

I was listening to the story of Thanksgiving on AM Radio and it occurred to me how strange/funny/fateful life could be.

Here was a group of people who, because of fate, fled their homeland to start anew in a strange new world. They didn't know a darn thing about how to survive there and with the onset of winter, out of 110 of the Pilgrims, only 50 were alive. So they prayed for help.

Out of the woods came an Native American. What are the odds that this particular man would walk out and be a savior to these people?

Yet, this stranger came strolling out, like a deux-ex-machina flag in a bad tv episode, and...he spoke ENGLISH. He spoke perfect English, in fact. He taught the Pilgrims how to harvest maple from the trees and grow Indian corn; he single-handedly saved the last 50 pilgrims from starvation.

Of course, my curiosity grew as I listened to this story. Who was this native American? And how did he get to know English, of all things? What are the odds of an ENGLISH-speaking Native American coming out of the woods?

His name was Squanto, and it turned out that he was the only left of his tribe. He had been sold as a slave in England and had, during his travels, came to be with a monks and learned to speak English through them. He had returned to the New World to find his whole tribe extinguished.

A very sad story here but...what are the odds of a native boy who, because he had been enslaved, survived a whole tribe's massacre, learned English, and then returned to his homeland, and not only that, he played a role in saving another group of people (a tribe, yes?) from going extinct too? This story is getting more and more layered, isn't it?

The Thanksgiving story can be looked at from so many different angles. From the religious side, you have the Pilgrims praying to God. A man literally showed up on their doorstep--a strange man, who should be their enemy, yet he spoke English. He saved their lives. To the Pilgrims, their prayers were answered.

From Squanto's point of view, he found meaning in his whole existence. If we were to write his story from his viewpoint up to the moment he walked out of the woods, what would it be like? A man tested? A man alone, certainly, and if he were a thinking man, and I will be romantic and say he probably was because he studied under monks, he would be asking many existential questions. And imagine the revelation dawning in his mind when he came face-to-face with 50 starving foreigners, all speaking ENGLISH, needing his help. His enslavement, with the torture and pain of the loss of freedom, his being taken away from his own people, his returning home and finding nothing...and it would appear, walking out of the woods and coming upon these poor pilgrims, that he was chosen for that moment and that purpose. Ah, fate, huh?

Let me tell you about a strange twist of fate. I have not used my name Gennita for 18 years before I sold my first book. Outside of family and a few personal friends, everyone knew me as Jenny or Jenna or Jenn. I was even JLow before there was a JLo ;-). I don't use Gennita because it was an odd name and nobody could remember it in college, and even before that, the schoolboys liked to tease my name, spelling it with the obvious sexual connotation.

It never "bothered" bothered me. It was just an inconvenience to have to spell my name out over the phone, to new teachers, to hospital employees, that kind of thing. Besides, I felt Gennita was so exotic...being penniless didn't make me feel exotic, for some reason, LOL. At the lowest point of my life, I decided that I was going to simplify my life.

So I shortened my name. Plain Jenny Low. Until 2002, that is. I sold Into Danger and my new editor, Gena Pearson, told me Avon Marketing didn't want to use Jenny Low as the new suspense writer. Do I have another name?

I hesitated. "Ummm...yeah," I said, over the phone.

"What is it?" she asked. "Can we use it? It's got to be more exotic than Jenny. We could use a pseudonym, if you like. What's your real name?"

"Gennita," I mumbled, thinking of how Avon is going to scream AHAHAHAHHAHA! Not that name! It's a horrible name!

"What?" A long pause. "That's your name?"

You see? She hates it already. "Gennita," I repeated, "but we don't have to use that if you don't like it. Really, it's okay if you hate it."

"I don't hate it." She laughed. "I was just shocked, that's all. It's not a name I expected to hear. You see, that's my name."

It was my turn to be shocked. "What?"

"My name's Genitta Pearson. It's easier to call me Gena."

"Oh my God."

"Yeah."

And after decades of having a name that didn't seem to fit, after years of wondering why Gennita, and after years of shortening my name to its smallest denominator, my book was bought by another Genitta. What are the odds of that? We both had never met another Gennita/Genitta. And of course, it all made sense--EVERYTHING made sense--at that very moment.

What are the odds of, after a few dozen rejections, a woman strolling out from behind all the queries and editor appointments to read my book, loving it and buying it, and her name turning out to be Gennita too? And the odds of me seeing Gennita Low on my book cover?

Fate is a very strange thing, ne ce pas? Here's me sticking my tongue out at those nasty schoolboys.

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Thick Skinned Spies

The December Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine is out on the stands now and it has given Sleeping*** a 4 1/2 stars. No Top Pick this time but hey, with a title like Sleeping **coughwiththeagentcough**, I'd take points off too, LOL. It's a great review too, so I'm not complaining:

That she was forced into betraying her best friend is a horror that Lily Norestski lives with every day. Rescued from abuse as a young girl, she was taken by the CIA and programmed with mind-control experiments. Lily was unaware of her programming until she was triggered by a renegade CIA operative. She was stopped from completing her horrific mission, but she can’t forgive herself. Lily is now on the run from various groups, all of whom want to get their hands on her.

Navy SEAL Reed Vincenzio has been sent after Lily to see if she’s still under mind control and discover her plans for a dangerous detonator. Lily knows she’s in deep trouble, but her first concern is the young girls she has smuggled out of Macedonia. Finding them passports and moving them on to new lives is the most important thing. Lily was never big on trust, but these days she can’t even trust herself. She can’t do this alone, but was it a mistake to place faith in Reed?

This is a top-notch espionage thriller from an author fast becoming a big name. Multifaceted characters with multiple motives make this story rich in drama and adventure.

;-)

Hopefully, it will encourage new readers to pick my book up. I know some readers hesitate because they don't want to start in the middle of a series but really, I think all three of the SEAL books can stand pretty much alone.

Oh, while I'm tooting my own horn, can I post a link to another review of Sleeping***? It's from the wonderful review site, Romance Junkies, and I'm really excited about this one because the reviewer had never read me before:

here

It's always cool to read some positive reviews just before the book comes. Sort of strengthening the armor before the criticisms start splattering!

I do get emails from writers asking me how I deal with bad reviews of my books, especially the kind that really get nasty. Some of my published friends get really depressed over a bad review and can't sleep for days while obsessing over every criticism. It's tough to put your baby out there and have people talking publicly how ugly and stupid it is, you know?

My advice is that it's okay to feel indignant and hurt, but don't let it ruin your day. After all, it's only an opinion, and sometimes people don't see the world your way. A little snark can be fun, sometimes, and it generates talk about your book, if nothing else.

Like the old song goes, "Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative." That's basically my philosophy in life. Reaction is always good, in my opinion, even the vitriolic ones. And if it's really bothering ya, don't read them any more.

Talking about reviews, while leafing through the RT magazine, I'm amazed at the quotes given to the new paranormal/dark erotic fantasy IT girl, Cheyenne McCray's book, Forbidden Magic. WOW! She has about 20 authors--big name authors too!--giving her the thumbs-up (pg. 23) It's tough enough for any author to get a quote from ONE author, let alone a dozen or two on ONE BOOK. I wonder how she did it! I bow in wonderment.

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Survive Thanksgiving

Survive

Click on the link above for a bit of fun.

Of course I overate. It's one of the reasons why you give thanks--for abundance :). Thanksgiving is almost as overwhelming as a Chinese 10 course celebration banquet. I have had lots of practice with the latter so surviving Thanksgiving is do-able, even as I get older and my supposedly wildly out-of-control metabolism has slowed down just a tad.

Just to make you groan out loud, here is the usual Chinese 10-course celebration dinner. There are variations but they consist about the same kinds of food because each one symbolizes abundance of some sort in life. You usually have ten course dinners for weddings, big birthdays, New Years, in fact, every darn time you feel like it ;-).

In a banquet, each dish is served one at a time. It's about bounteousness, the host's generosity and prosperity, and the joy of celebration. So everything is over the board. And you're supposed to eat every dish to show your enthusiasm for the host's choices. Heh.

1) A cold course.

2) Now something hot. Shark's Fin's soup (and the wealthier you are, the more expensive kind of sharks' fin. Some goes for $800 a lb!) The Chinese believe shark's fin promotes good health, esp. to the sexual libido.

3) Cantonese Fried Rice (a lightly sauted version of the American weird stuff that you get in the Chinese restaurants here, LOL. It has very little meat and looks really pretty with green peas and tiny snippets of red roast pork).

4) Decorative dish, with lots of samples of different meats--shrimp, lobster, chicken. Very pretty to look at.

5) Steamed fish. It's always fun to watch a good waiter cut the fish into various portions, expertly removing bone and yucky parts. It's also always fun to watch the faces of Americans (and other white people, LOL) who can't believe there is a fish head with its eyes intact watching back at you. The fish head is pointed at the guest of honor. Yes, yes, we serve the fish whole, folks. I remember bringing a boyfriend to one of these dinners once and he must have repeatedly mumbled "You guys eat the fish head?" a hundred times through the whole meal. Poor man. Did NOT Get the LOW family stamp of approval. I wonder whether he'd ever dated another Asian girl? ;-)

When my family flew from all over the world for a celebration in Las Vegas one year, we were at one of the top Asian restaurants at the hotel. At this point, it's been years since I've sat at a ten-course banquet, so my mouth had become Americanized.

When I found out that the fish alone cost $800 I made the mistake of looking shocked and joking to the waiter, "What, is this fish extinct? Are we eating the last one from the ocean?" and got a might smack from my mother sitting next to me.

So...the black sheep of the family still retained her reputation. Heh.

6) and 7) Some kind of vege dish and a spicy tofu (beancurd) dish. You will notice that each dish contrast in taste and texture as they are being served one after another. Green also means $$$, so lots of green is good.

8) Meat dish. Depending on celebration. For a special event like the 1st, ot 50th or 80th or 90th birthdays, sometimes the family orders roasted baby pig. Yes, you get the WHOLE pic on this tray, roasted and glazed to perfection, arranged with ribbons and fruits. I know it sounds bizarre to some of you.

This isn't a cheap dish and it has to be ordered months ahead. A family which is having a real HUGE celebration, such as getting a whole extended family together for this event, might have 10-20 tables and a roasted baby pig for each = beaucoup $$$.

More commonly, it's a chicken dish. Or duck.

9) Are you burping yet? Because here comes the noodles, the length of which means long life.

10) I can't remember! Well, would you at this point? Burp. Oh yeah, it's time for sweets. Chinese-flavored icecream, or Chinese dessert that's rich and sweet.

So don't you guys complain about overeating at Thanksgiving! You have a few thousand more years to refine your banquet!

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A Spy's Got To Have a Game Plan

I've been busy playing around with the first four chapters of my SSS (Super Soldier Spy), Book 1. :coughprocrastinationcough: I've been tinkling with the beginning of each chapter, seeing how I could insert a short one or two paragraphs of Hell's previous training in italics.

Here is the problem. I tend to just start a story right in the middle (haven't you noticed? LOL). There's very little set up. Marlena Maxwell in Into Danger walking into the bar--all the information reader gets is what Steve gets, and very little else. And Nikki Harden in Facing Fear walking into Rick's life. She thinks of her "other life" in third person, so I projected that in both her and Rick's thoughts.

In other words, I tend to work backwards, then forward it again somewhere after the middle of the book. It's a pattern I have no control over because--yes, it's that awful admission again--I don't plot. I just write and hope to discover the secrets along with the readers.

In the five books I've written for Avon Books, I usually have a single theme in my head as guidance. For example, Into Danger is all about the surface. The sexiness, the characters' outward beauty, the way things appear are played up to the point that readers have to read between the lines to see what's happening and understand the characters' own different motivations. There is a lot of outward movement and action to hide what's going on inside.

On the other hand, Facing Fear is all about internal drama and taboo. I had to slow the pacing of the book down because the characters' lives were basically frozen. Redemption is a slow process; you can't make a man horribly wrong in the beginning and then he's a good guy again by chapter three. All this is also reflected by the government departmental investigation process--red tape and bureaucrats with each repetitive level. The pacing only picks up at the end of the novel when Rick finally goes into action.

With Hell in SSS, I have a slight problem, to say the least. In the beginning, Hell is the already the winning candidate of the SSS competition among the agencies. She's COMCEN's offering (through GEM) and she's, obviously, COMCEN's toy as well as the curiosity on display for all the agencies.

The rules I've set this time is more "plot-like" (arrghhhhh) because a three-book arc of the same characters is a fairly complicated process and so there's got to be some rules. The first one is that Hell is among a small number of candidates (each agency has one) and they are all trained by each agency at a certain skill to a certain level. So, let's say, she spent half a year training with a few operatives from Special Forces, learning things and being graded while another candidate spent some time learning COMCEN specialties. Then she spent three months with the CIA to get a hang of their kind of covert field work. All in all, each SSS candidate has had two years of training before the winner's announced. Thus, the title Super Soldier Spy.

All this is the background information because Hell's story began with her already as the winner, and she is now in COMCEN going for the ultimate challenge, the test that all the agencies had wanted their candidates to be doing. Have I lost you yet? I told you this is a complicated plot.

It's ONLY complicated because of the back story, really. Because the beginning is really simple. It goes like this:

Prologue:
1) The Man Who Will Be Hell's COMCEN Trainer is deciding whether he wants to be Hell's ComCen trainer. He sets up a test.
2) Hell is tested and of course, passes.
Chapter One:
1) Hell wonders about the identity of her Trainer. It's been a month (two?) and he's still anonymous. (At this time I won't how her training is done).
2) Hell finally meets with her Trainer--sort of.

Simple and straightforward, right? But in between all this simplicity and straightforwardness, I have to info-dump about WHY Hell was chosen and how she won the "competition."

My new publisher, MIRA, won me over the other bids because the buying editor "got" what I was trying to do with my story. Two of the bidders thought my concept too scifi because there are so many cutting edge experimental stuff. One editor loved the story but wanted me to start EARLIER, with a whole thing about Hell's training ala Demi Moore in that SEAL movie. (Again, it's the Gennita Low tendency of starting in the middle of a story thing here) I was okay with that idea but not totally keen because I really didn't want to write a book on training a tough woman. This book is about a woman with a few very special skills already, who's going to be going through a bunch of questionable government experiments, like putting the newly developed drug that makes a soldier less in need of sleep and emotions in her body.

My main focus and interest is: Why the hell would a woman (or a man) want to do that to her body? What's her motivation? And finally, what's going to happen when she goes through these experiments? Will she really be less emotional? Then what? So many kewl things that I'd rather explore than "okay, watch the Demi Moore-heroine battle through her SEAL exercises....

Nonetheless, an editor's concerns are always with merit. Her job is to make sure my story doesn't lose the reader from the beginning. So I've been playing with these starting chapters, wondering how to info-dump without being too info-dumpy. Info-dumpy is when your eyes start glazing over after 20 pages of Clancy suddenly cutting in a scene when a plane is about to blow up and start telling you how exactly a bomb is made from what materials and how these materials were collected together. ;-)

So, my final solution--one or two paragraphs in italics, using an omniscient second person voice that follows an exercise/test/skill that Hell was doing in those two years of training and then the following chapter will echo this skill/exercise/test in a more sophisticated way (because Hell is two years more trained now).

Yes? I'm insane, I know. It would be just so much easier to make my hero the Super Soldier Spy and just goes on a mission ;-). But noooooo...

Oh, and the prevailing theme that I keep in mind as I write: Greek mythology. Such as Hades and Hell. And also Cupid and Psyche. And that's all the hints you're going to get!

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A Spy's Sexy Acronym

You keep emailing me:

What does GEM stand for?

So, I did a google: click on
http://sexy.namedecoder.com/

G.E.M. stands for:

Goddess(es) Exchanging Massage

Hmm...that sounds kinky!

G.E.N.N.I.T.A. stands for:



Well then...that sounds much better, LOL.

GLOW stands for:




OMG! LOL. I guess I should stop while I'm ahead!

What's your Sexy Name?

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Facing Your Fear--a Spy's Dilemma

In case you don't know yet, my life revolves around my furbabies, the mutant poms. Five of them are a family--mom, dad and three babies (there were four but BoomBoom left us a few years ago) and then there is Lilah, my Commando baby who's about two years old. My furbabies are old--dad is fifteen, mom is going on thirteen, and the three kiddos are nine. I've been very fortunate that they had always been in great health. In spite of all the dog hair and peepee pads, they enriched my life all these years with unconditional love.

Magic turned diabetic this year and I had been steeling myself that her time to leave me is drawing closer. She's been a proper fighter, letting her mom and doctors administer tests and shots and more tests as we try to stablelize her sugar and electrolyte levels.

Magic had a horrible seizure last night while I was doing laundry. I had never seen a seizure before but you know one when you see one. She was flopping around and all I could do was helplessly called her name as I tried to put some sugar on her tongue (SOP). When she came out of it, she was obviously very frightened because she made these almost-human sounds that could have been a person wailing.

I called my dogsitter, who, blessed her heart, drove straight over so she could drive me to the emergency clinic. Magic seemed better--calmer--but I know she's not well. She's there still but she had two smaller episodes last night under the doctor's supervision, so she was stablelized.

I have no idea what's happening next. The vet's doing blood work, a full profile, and an X-Ray, and costs aside, I'm wondering, like any fur-baby moms, whether it's time to let go. I look at Marlon Brando, my oldest baby, and see him milling around looking for his wife this morning. He misses her, even though Magic tends to bully and bitch at him. He even sleeps on her spot.

As a writer, I have a bad habit of dissecting my own emotions, dividing it in skeins so I could examine every aspect of them. It's not natural, I know, to be holding on to your dog after a seizure and feeling one of your characters rising out of your soul taking over the moment. "He" was quietly reminding me that I had considered a certain scene in the story in which he would be holding his love who has had a seizure too.

I have no control of moments like these and I don't like them because they interrupt my private life. This was my time and yet part of me had to share it with...well, myself, actually. Sigh. I'm not making any sense, am I?

I guess I'm sharing this private instance of my life with you because I wanted to show how emotions are used in creating life in my writing and my work. It's easy to make sweeping generalizations when one writes--black is black; white is white. It's always more difficult if one starts mining one's own experiences because it makes everything gray. You're stealing from your private self and you feel a bit guilty, yet to be true to your character and creation, you have to do this.

So I was holding Magic and I was extremely frazzled. Yet, way, way, in the back of my mind's eye, I see my character carrying his lover against his heart and his was breaking just as mine was. A moment's guilt, but I felt double the pain--his and my own.

It isn't easy being an uber-writer sometimes.

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Bugs--Isn't That A Spy Gadget?

Yesterday, I pulled up carpet from the rental. How exciting ;-). The thing is, that carpet is barely half a year old and it looks like...a pack of animals had rumbled through it over and over. Sigh. I wonder whether the ex-tenants treat their own stuff this carelessly.

My first rental down here was a small apartment by the beach. I remember the carpet well. It was that puke-green, duck-shit color that blend in so well with age. LOL. I couldn't stare at it everyday without thinking about how my life was turning out like my carpet, so one day I went behind a carpet store and got permission to pull out their discarded inventory in the back that they were throwing out. I bought my first straight-blade knife (boxcutter to you) and cut this roll down to the size I wanted. My living room was a nice ice-blue and my bedroom an off-white. My apartment looked much better and my life started improving...coincidence?

Anyway, it was one of those days when everyone seemed to be calling me on the cell, wanting to meeting me, and generally bugging the heck out of me while I'm trying to do something ;-). I think I received ten phone calls in a matter of half an hour while trying to fold a dirty carpet in half. Ranger Buddy showed up to "help" me, which meant he was bored and needed something to do. Well, at least he provided the muscle to push some heavy stuff out of the way while we cut the carpet into smaller pieces.

Then the cleaning lady I made an appointment with wowed me arriving in a Harley in full leather gear. Somehow, I had this generic image of a van, with a cleaning logo on the side, with a woman in teeshirt and jeans and swinging a mop, LOL. Nope, this was a full-fledged biker-lady. Really cool.

Real estate agents...handy man...people with tapes and clipboards, you get the idea how my day went. So not much writing was done, even though I didn't roof. You know how that goes. I always think that if I don't have to roof that day, I would have LOTS of free time to write! That, apparently, is a myth.

Then in the middle of it all, the male friend, the one who blows up if there is any kind of puter problems his end, called. Of course it's his computer. Of course he couldn't understand a word I was saying (and I'm not that techy). You see, a frustrated male doesn't listen to logic. It always puzzles me why I can communicate with all these people about construction and taxes and legalese, and yet when it comes to the man in my life, it's like talking to the brick wall ;-/.

I'm not done yet. The termite and lawn people are coming today. Life is so full of bugs! Take my bugs, please.

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If Spies Have Underground Newsletters....

Here's what it might read like:

A certain spy, GLow, is on the move to another agency. Her handler reported a good deal in negotiations. Lots of classified documents will exchange hands. GLow is expected to report in by 2006. It is unclear how many dead bodies she'll bring in.

;-)

Okay, so I'm sounding just a tad relief that it appears to be official. My name's in Publisher's Lunch, a news thing for publishers:

Women's/Romance -- Gennita Low's SUPER SOLDIER SPY series, three books, to Tracy Farrell for Mira, in a good deal by Liz Trupin-Pulli at JET Literary Associates (world).

So that makes it official. This spy's at another agency: MIRA. My last book with AVON is coming out 28 December 2005, but of course, I'll be bringing along my merry cast of characters.

One thing I must always stress to new writers--always, always get a good agent-handler. They are your best friends and good ones will not only get you good contracts, but will also protect your interest.

Take, for example, the importance of making sure that you have total and future control of your characters/world, that they are your sole property, so that if you leave one publisher for another, you won't be forbidden to use them ever again. Suzanne Brockmann couldn't write about Team Ten in her Ballantine books because of this.

On more important news: Britney Spears threw her boytoy husband out. Heh. I think I like these mini rag-mags updates. It amuses me. Question: Do you think Britney will regain her figure and become the most downloadable IT girl again? I think she's lost a bit of ground to...oh...trying to remember, they all look and sound so alike...Hilary Duffy, is that the new IT girl? Or is it the over-exposed Jessica? Or her ad-libbing sister?

Other items of interest: I'm trying to sell my rental house. I'm going to spend the next week tearing up carpet and repainting that place for the umpteenth time. Yes, I've finally got rid of the renters from Hell, who'd run off with the month's rent. So I'm a grand in the hole already and I'm tired of begging people to pay their rent, as if I'm the one who begged them to stay at a house they couldn't afford in the first place. I was praying (yes, PRAYING) that their new landlord/lady wouldn't call me up for references because I wouldn't have, in good conscience, been able to say anything good about their payment habits.

Decision: Do I sell it myself or go through a broker who will probably charge an extra $15000 or more to the price? I have never sold a house before. Time to learn, I guess! I've been telling friends, waitresses, neighbors that I'll give them $1000 if they help me sell the house...I wonder whether that's any good?

One thing's for sure, I'm tired of cleaning up after these folks and then trying to find suitable tenants who will just abuse me all over again.

On the writing front--I've made the beginning of Hell even darker, much darker than the last three books. Seduction and virtual reality--it's one of those "should I cross the line" things. Remember in Facing Fear, how it started with Rick, another woman, and a certain toy? Well, I figure I could get hotter than that. Heh. Is that enough teasing?

Ranger Buddy and Window Guy joke of the week: "Did you hear about the sperm whale that attacked the Russian submarine last night? It bit the back end off and sucked out all the seamen." Yes...from baseball players last weekend to roofers/construction workers today...the male intellect just keep me wondering....

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Spy Eyes

This is my second post for the day because I couldn't resist sharing-->

You have to check this link out:
http://www.arseiam.com/fx/08.htm

Put the cursor on the eyes and see what spying can do to your sight, LOL.

Weird, huh?

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What To Give That Foreign Spy For Christmas

I'm looking around at these Christmas decorations in stores--is it me, or is Christmas getting earlier and earlier??! I mean, it's not even Thanksgiving yet! Are they really trying to panic me into buying more presents this year?

It's tough to feel Christmasy in Florida, anyway. It's 85 degrees today and there aren't any thoughts of a jolly old guy in a red wintry Santa suit in my head at all. Or sleighs...he would never be able to get anywhere on those things around here! One year, it was 90 degrees on Christmas day and everyone went to the beach. Someone brought along a Christmas tree and planted it in the sand so we all could get into the mood. It was a memorable Christmas, what with the tide coming in and sun beating down on our heated bodies.

My first Christmas here in the States was very memorable. I stayed with a foster family called The K--tners (to protect the innocent, haha). I was seventeen and looked oh-so-innocent you would puke. The K--tners was the typical mid-western family of mom, dad, two kids and grandpa, except that I found out that the kids weren't really dad's. Turns out that mom's ex and dad's ex did the dirty deed and divorced mom and dad K--tner. So mom and dad K--tner got married.

I was seventeen, from a country where divorce was still something bad. When this situation was nonchalantly explained to me by the daughter, you could imagine my round eyes and mouth. Whoa. So...this is how being an American is like! LOL.

Anyway, my first Christmas with them was also my first snowfall! I ran out in my very thin PJs and played in the snow like every crazy foreigner would at the first sight of the fluffy stuff. I amused those Americans so much. They gave me a blonde little girlie doll as a present which amused ME no end. I haven't had a girlie doll since I was ten. Then one of the kids gave me a blonde wig. That was just weird but I wore it anyway. So there I was, in my lopsided blond wig holding on to a blonde doll. All of seventeen and about to enter college.

You understand now why I decided that Christmas that I'd rather stay in the dorm for my college education, even though it was more expensive that way. I guess I sacrificed some good stories about living with the K--tners! Still, the few months I was with them filled up a whole note book of memories so I still have much strange American stories to share! LOL.

What's your strangest Christmas present/experience?

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Spying At Men Is A Scary Thing

After this weekend with the boys, I've come to the conclusion that woman was created to make a man out of the male ;-). Below are a few reasons why I reached this conclusion. Please remember these men are all over 38 years old and 90 percent are married and with almost grown-up kids:

1) Left alone, men will moon each other at the first opportunity. It's a male fraternization thing to show each other their asses. And I don't mean a nice pull-down of the pants and baring of the flesh...I mean in the grosses fashion you could think of that would make most women smack their children for even thinking of such a thing.

2) Left alone, men will stare at women in bars, in restaurants, on the beach, in the laundromat when they go out together. And they will talk of melon season as if they were still teenagers who had never looked at bare breasts before.

3) Left alone, men will push each other into a swimming pool no matter how old they are. They think it's fun to try to catch a football and belly flop and splatter water all over the place.

4) Left alone, men still like to stick stuff down each other's underwear and cackle like boys when the victim puts them and starts cursing. Now you understand why those teen movies ALWAYS makes money.

5) Left alone, men can watch hours of TV. Hours. HOURS.

6) Left alone, men will happily eat greasy food forever.

7) Left alone, men will scratch their butts in front of each other.

8) Left alone, men will catch lizards so they can make their own Animal Planet show by feeding the poor lizards to the big cranes that fly down to the pool side. They think it's the coolest thing to watch the poor lizard "run" across the water in vain.

These are just a few mentionable things that I've witnessed. Since I've seen a LOT worse from roofers, I'd thought it was just because they were roofers, but now I know better. It's men. They are all like that. =8-O Mind you, these are pretty responsible men when I see them in their home units--very daddy-like, very responsible, CLEAN people who seldom curse, who don't make sexist comments, and whom I'd never thought would wear underwear over their heads.

Now you too know the biggest spy discovery of the year. Don't let your spouse/mate out of your sight....

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Uber Spies Don't Slant Their Eyes That Way!

I'm currently watching Night Stalker (yes, it's still not cancelled!) and it suddenly occurred to me that there've been many Asian actresses and references lately on night time TV. Tonight alone, we had Alias's Sydney talking mandarin (okay, it wasn't her, but she adlibbed pretty well, LOL) while dressed up as an East Indian (verrrrra preggers East Indian, dudes. An aside to those who watched: am I the only one who thought the last scene in which she played a tape recording of Vaughn talking against her baby tummy was mighty weird? I mean in real life, Michael Vartan (who played Vaughn) is her ex-lover and this baby is Ben Affleck's--the guy who replaced Vartan--but in the show, she's carrying Vaughn-Vartan's baby, which means her and Affleck's baby is doing an ALIAS as Vaughn-Vartan's kid. HAHAHAHAHAHA.)

Okay, back to the topic at hand. Anyway, right after Alias, here's another Asian guest-starring in Night Stalker. Other TV shows have their Asian co-stars too. There's the Korean couple in Lost. There's the Sandra Oh character in Grey's Anatomy. Does anyone still watch ER? Is the Chinese doctor still there?

I heartily approve, especially when the portrayals aren't the usual Asian stereotype. The cultural references are still there, but the actors and actresses are given a chance to actually go deeper.

I'm also happy to see that romances are bringing in more Asian protagonists too. Jade Lee's Tigress series is an example. I think buying editors are interested because the marketing department is telling them something ;-). I don't know how many Asian readers at signings have told me how happy they were to find a fellow Asian writing about an Asian heroine/hero. And in a way that they approved ;-).

Certainly, Asian characters have come a long way since the Chinese mistress in Tai Pan. I remember reading it and going...wow, we need to update this stereotype! It's tough, though, because when you're writing about a culture, you have to include certain stereotypes.

When I was watching the movie The Good Earth, based on Pearl S. Buck's novel of the same name, they had a whole cast of Caucasians with very THICK make-up acting as Chinese villagers. The result was sort of hilarious to an Asian chick watching it for the first time in Malaysia. But one character stood out and I remember him so well. He played the very greedy and very conniving rich guy who kept saying a line like: "I predicted this! I predicted it all along!" It didn't matter whether things were happening for the good or bad, but he always "predicted it." And although I can't remember the whole plot of that movie and book, I always remembered this character, played so outrageously well by the actor. Why? Because there were many Asians I'd known who bahaved exactly like that.

Today, I don't think a movie like The Good Earth could be made in quite the same way without MANY protests from the Asian community. ;-) Can you even imagine The Last Emperor with a cast of thousands and the main characters all Caucasians in heavy slant-eyed makeup?! LOL. Maybe in a Saturday Night Live skit, like the memorable John Belushi Samurai.

The point I'm trying to make is that it's good to see Asian writers/actors given the chance to write and act out their culture. Too many times we've seen episodes and books written by non-Asians and although they might be great works, they were rarely anything beyond a part of the story. There always seemed to be a lack of Asian-ness, if I can say this without making everyone start calling me names.

What I mean is...the character is named...oh...Li Ling or something Asian, and that's it. She looks Asian, she's given a set of Asian parents, but rarely do you see anything else...no cultural references that she's really Asian. The talk, the thought process, the jokes, emotions, everything--there's no reference of Asian-ness at all. It's like writing about a Jewish family and taking out references of their Jewish-ness. Am I making sense? Every time I read a book like that I start to question why even bother making her/him Asian then?

So here's another smoooooth segue ;-). I like to leave this little nugget of news till the end so you have to slog through all the boring stuff first before you get to the goodies, LOL. I was invited to submit an idea for an anthology. So, in the works is a proposal in which there will be three novellas with three Asian heroines. And each one will bring her Asian heritage onto the table as she kicks some ass and makes some love. I'm bringing in a myth about an ancient Chinese sabre with Chinese immortals familiar to Asian readers. I'm layering it with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon stuff. Throw in some spies and operatives from different periods. And yet, they will also be contemporary romances. I'm crossing my fingers that this proposal will be bought. Wish me luck!

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Spying Perk: Tight Butts

Here is a link to an interview I did in July at Romance Readers Connection:

here

In the latter part of the interview, I talked a little bit about the story I was working on at that time, which happened to be Hell's proposal. Thought you'd be interested.

On the adventures front, this Friday, I'll be driving to Tampa to check out some baseball players butts. This is research, ladies, that I can't pass up ;-).

It's The World Series for certain national leagues and men of all ages come from all over the country. My friend is in the finals so of course I have to go play cabanagirl...I mean ball girl...I mean good cheerleader. Heh. He's the over-38 group but there are many, many fields with over-28 groups playing too. This ballgirl...I mean good cheerleader...sometimes gets lost while looking for...balls. LOL.

My friend still demands lots of adoring cheers and screaming, of course, which I plan to give, but I refuse to wear a baseball hat of a team called The Screaming Pelicans. "What team are you with?" "The New York Angels. You?" "Umm...The Screaming Pelicans."

Ah well, anything to watch men in tight butts swinging at balls, I say. And here's the best part: I get to stay with five of them and they all take me out to dinner. Now that's an early Thanksgiving item to be thankful for, heh. Let me tell you, it's not easy to entertain five rowdy and women-less guys at the same time. But I'll try my very best.

And of course, the faithful laptop comes along for an hour or two of writing in between fun. I wonder whether they have internet access in cabanas....

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Can You Feel My Pain?

Some authors make me dizzy with their recount of pages that they write everyday. "I wrote 15 pages! Boy, am I tired!" they boast, or "I have three chapters done yesterday! I'm busy, busy, busy!" they inform me, in blogs and forums. I once was in a chatroom frequented by an author who came in as sort of a break in between her writing, and her greeting EVERY time was, "Hi, whew, I'm soooooo tired, I just wrote 5000 pages and need a break!" (Okay, I exaggerated the number output but it began to sound like that after about the fifteenth time!) Then there was the author who detailed every single scene and how she then cut 10 and added another 15....

Therefore, I feel rather inadequate because all I have to write and update about is...my wrist ;-P. I wish I could say that the pain is caused by writing 20 pages a day. But I can't even have that as an excuse.

Anyway, this morning, the pain in my wrist is affecting my typing. I have to stand and type because it hurts least at this angle. It's no longer swollen--just painful--and no, I can't rest it, darlings, I have to use a nailgun everyday ;-). Ah well, hairline fractures heal by themselves sooner or later, right? Just kidding, just kidding!

But back to the main thing about writing 20 pages a day. So I admit to being envious of the writers who do this regularly, but do they have to tell everyone too? LOL. Do I tell them, "Wow, I wrote two pages today and whew, am I exhausted!"? I do not. (insert snotty tone of voice, please) Do I announce that "I've just rewrote an entire paragraph and taken out two sentences"? I do not. There you go.

Take Laurell K. Hamilton's blog, for example. I love her Anita Blake series and I get to wander over to her blog (as well as many other author blogs...) when I procrastinate and you can imagine my guilt at reading about page 970 and counting of LKH's work-in-progress. I'm procrastinating, dammit! Don't spoil it!

I have also noticed that some author blogs are also written just for writers alone. There are endless rants about what's going on inside the genre and business; lots of philosophizing of genre and what it means (like: what is romantica vs erotica); plenty of interesting but repetitive scoldings of what's wrong with the industry; gossiping about insider news about which only members of RWA would know.

Which is fine--I don't want anyone to think I'm criticizing those blogs--but as a reader, and I traverse these blogs as one, I find my eyes glazing over at the high dosages of genre and craft. I keep asking myself, do my readers want to read about these topics? And if so, why? As an author promoting myself and my works, my main goal is to get them interested in my world and share a bit of myself, not just as a writer, but also a crazy individual, and perhaps, get a few new readers to try my books.

Blogging, to me, isn't a daily course to teach my readers anything. I don't have anything to teach, anyway. But what I want to do is to share how writing affects my daily life and vice-versa. I'm fortunate enough to love both jobs but trying to balance both in my life can be a challenge, especially if I want to be fair to my business partner. But I don't want every entry to blare out that THIS IS THE PURPOSE OF MY BLOGGING. When you're ranting that loudly, no one cares; they will just talk about your shouting more than your message.

There is an author who loves her genre (erotica) very much and she blogs, not as much about her love, but about how she hates that her genre is considered soft-porn and she hates being considered second-class because she is e-pubbed. Every day. Every entry. After a while, I begin to wonder whether it really is on her mind that much. And the more she rants, the more she brings in many other e-pubbed authors to comment on her blog, and the more cliquish the place became, until I no longer hear anything about this author's writing. So I left.

And that isn't why authors start blogging, is it? My wrist hurts but I don't lose sight of the fact that it's going to be a part of me for a while and the more I whine about it, the less anyone will care. I feel the pain when I swing that hammer or type, and yes, it's very, very annoying not to be able to even turn the car ignition without wincing in pain, but it's okay. I can deal with it my way.

I suppose that's what every blogger is doing. They are dealing with it--whatever "it" is--their way. But must they make me wince about their page counts when I'm trying to procrastinate???! ;-) Why can't they talk about their boring wrist or dogs or luggage problems like me, huh, huh? Don't they know they're supposed to be entertaining me so I can avoid writing?! Tsk.

Perhaps you can tell me why some blogs work for you and some don't. I have this morbid fascination about other people's procrastinating habits, LOL. Perhaps I bore you to tears and you want to rant about me! Okay, now that I'm done whining about my wrist this morning, off I go to climb a roof and yell philosophical curses at stupid crapenters....

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Introducing My New Spy, Heath Cliffe

Gasp! Last night--out of the blue--I realized I omitted one of my FAVORITE books in the Best Book list! I'm talking about DE BOOK that turned me into a writer, for goodness' sakes--how could I have forgotten about it?!

I blame it on the injured wrist ;-).

I'm talking about another first person book, Bronte's WUTHERING HEIGHTS. It was, in essense, my first romance that brought an awareness inside me that emotions are powerful and human beings are capable of powerful emotions. Before that, romance was all sweet and fated; charming and funny; something to sigh over and dream about.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS changed all that for me. For the first time, I appreciated what it meant (to me as a teenager) to love or feel in a bigger sense of those words. There was a shocking rawness between Heathcliff and Cathy that drew me into their world. Let's just say I touched the darkness, and barely understanding it, began my journey as a writer ;-).

I still reread this book every few years and it still gets me in the gut every time. I love Heathcliff, even his mad cruelty. I love Cathy, even her selfish possessiveness. There was a little bit of everything in this book--the gothic beginning, with the first POV and "beauty and the beast" story; the larger than life romance; elements of the gothic-horror genre; madness and angst; the cinematic presence of the moors and fog; a ghost story; and finally, a bittersweet sliver of happy endings for the heirs to the tragedy.

It's strange how I can forgive a character like Heathcliff. It'd never work in the romance genre today, of course, what he did and especially that ending. There are enough taboos in this book to make the traditional romance lover scream in horror--even a hint of sex with a corpse! It's even more remarkable since this book was written and published in the 19th century, when the "novel" was still in its infancy, when authors usually interject their omnipotent commentary into their stories. Emily Bronte ruled!

So...we smoothly segued to my new writing project--The Hell Experiment--as I call it. Actually, the working title is A View To Kill. Or A Dangerous Woman. Take your pick ;-).

I was talking to a buddy about my prologue, which is unusually long for one since it's now running around 20 pages, how I want to set up the three book series with it. I have to introduce Hell from the hero's POV because she is going to be the most dangerous woman EVAH. The female super soldier spy with a talent that goes beyond just your average spy.

Who would be interested in such a woman anyhow? Hence, the prologue. Her monitor, the person who's going train her, will introduce her as he watches her. The thing is, his character is right on this side of gray, if you know what I mean. He's going to be darker than Mr. Ricardo Harden from Facing Fear, down to those sexual thoughts and games, and who could top Hard-On when it comes to those topics? I mean, without crossing the romantic line.

You see, he watches her even when she's supposedly having those private moments a woman should have. Not only that, he admits to doing it without feeling any moral guilt at all. And yes, he admits to having a pretty healthy male reaction to her.

So the prologue is going to be dark and dangerous for ME, since I'm trying to win the reader over and my friend is already warning me that even though SHE as the reader is totally excited and enraptured, other readers will probably be turned off. It's like Harden's first scene in Facing Fear--his sexuality and his use of sex sets the tone. But at least I gave Harden a world-weariness and some angst, even at the beginning, that hinted that his darkness was a product of pain. My current anonymous hero--The Monitor--doesn't show any angst here at all. He just admits that he likes, and his weakness is, dangerous women. There is a coldness and arrogance about him that can either make a reader weak in the knees or make her hate his guts ;-).

Ah well, the point is...he is sort of a Heathcliff. I need to make the reader love him so much that she'll forgive his dark arrogance and his, sometimes, heartlessness. And yes, he's a master of seduction--how can he not be? ;-) He likes dangerous women, so he likes to seduce them, yes? Now, if I can just line up nine COS Commandos and even an anonymous tenth never-mentioned before, a "trainer", whom I shall name Heath Cliffe in honor of my first dark hero, and strip them nekkid and go inny-meenie-miney-mo, which one of you is the hero...who would you choose, dear readers? LOL. Yes, I've been reading torture magazines again!

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Fluffy Spies

I thought I'd end this week with fluff, since uber-spies should know trivial things. I know some uber-authors and uber-spies eschew reading RAGS as if they are even lower than the term BODICE RIPPERS ;-) but they have the most interesting gossip. LOL.

And yeah, nobody cares about Aniston-Pitt-Jolie, nope, not romance authors!

I don't like reading dirty laundry being dished, per se, but...relationship dynamics fascinate me. For example, it hadn't dawned on me till I recently saw three pictures side-by-side that Tom Cruise's ex-es and his current fiance are taller than him. Conclusion for a spy: a man who likes tall women because ??? Heh, you fill in the blanks.

Yesterday, I found a new sex position in some magazine that's called the 77. What's fascinating was that the magazine is prominently among the teen and fashion magazines, with the usual voluptuous perfect model flashing her perfect white teeth and tan. You would never realize the main read of that magazine was mostly about PLEASING the man with these sexual techniques. For years I'd thought it was mostly fashion and make-up. Conclusion for romance author: good research material!

Did you know that the dude playing the protagonist in Night Stalker is Charlize Theron's boyfriend? I never knew who CT was till she played the murderess from Daytona Beach in her Oscar winning role, but afterwards, when I saw her all dolled-up for the awards, I was amazed what makeup and false bad teeth could do to drop-dead gorgeous women. Conclusion for spy: T. is tall and blonde too, isn't she? ;-) As for that Night Stalker dude, his name is Stuart Townsend and he isn't quite as interesting to look at as his name, but the TV show is growing on me. Maybe they won't cancel it this season after all.

I want to say this: SOMEONE please help that kid...Nicole Richie. I just saw her in a bikini. She's obviously in trouble. It's scary how the magazine is just chirpily talking about how thin she's become and not being horrified about it.

I can hear you now...you're telling me that you don't care for such stupid trivial. Back to the original fluff of the day: Aniston-Pitt-Jolie. Who cares, right? But I like to look at each of these people and see characters. How do you write a classic "wronged" woman without looking around you? With friends and neighbors, you tend to just see one side of the story--the bad wife or husband--but in a "rag," you have pictures of both sides, speculation, and events "after the fact." It helps the writer in me understand.

My spies are people too. They have to deal with personal relationships and these relationships aren't going to be perfect. If, for example, I'm ever going to write about T and Alex, I have to figure out what it means to each of them, dealing with the ghost of his wife. It isn't going to be easy. If, for example, I'm ever going to write about Jed, I have to see how his woman is going to deal with all those women in his past! And how's he going to deal with his job in the future? After all, in romance, he can't...umm...keep seducing sexy/dangerous/bad women when he has a woman of his own!

Ya see? They aren't just RAGS. Oh, okay, I'm just a shallow, nosey-parker who enjoys looking at pictures of celebrity caught without their makeup. LOL.

This weekend, I'll expound on the political and weapons magazines, like Foreign Affairs and Guns & Ammo, that I read up to balance out my shallowness. Ahem.

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Non-Spy List

Yesterday's list was Top Ten ROMANTIC SUSPENSE list, so yeah, I cheated ;-). It would have been very hard to pick a Top Ten Romance list, I think.

Here is something different. Can you give a Top Ten Non-Romance Books list? Just standard fiction? They can have a romance, of course, but they aren't considered in the romance genre. I suppose a lot of you will put in Gabaldon's OUTLANDER, huh, since she is pretty adamant that her story isn't a romance.

Although I haven't read much outside romance the last couple years, here is my Top Five. I'll have to leave the last five spots for an updated list for books like Dan Brown's or any of the highly touted books sitting on the TBR mountain.

6. Ayn Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED
5. Katherine Neville's THE EIGHT
4. Frank Herbert's DUNE
3. Umberto Eco's FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM
2. Anne Rice's INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE

and my #1 Non-romance Fiction book is: Leon Uris TRINITY

The strangest conclusion: I find that in fiction, anyway, the FIRST PERSON stories resonate the most to me. I think four out of the five above were written in first person. They also deal with history or alternative history, or different takes of history, with great romantic elements that are very layered.

If you never tried Foucault's Pendulum and are into alternate history and is PRE-DAN BROWN, try it. It is probably better than that big thick Dan Brown book anyway (heh...yeah, yeah, the hype stops me from reading it. LOL. That, and knowing that I've already read the whole story before in Holy Blood, Holy Grail years and years before).

Would you classify Outlander as a non-romance? As you know, there are millions of readers out there who swear Jamie and Claire are the Bestest Couple In All Romance. It's funny, don't you agree, that no matter how much the author insists her book isn't a romance, that so many millions who buy her book disagree with her? LOL. Quack, quack.

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Spy Favors

So someone emailed me for my top ten favorite romantic suspense books and I thought I'd share my list here. Of course, I don't know really whether it's really my top ten, but here are my favorites of favorites anyway:

10. Unforgettable by Meryl Sawyer
9. Naked In Death by J.D. Robb
8. Black Ice by Anne Stuart
7. Kill and Tell by Linda Howard
6. Hidden Riches by Nora Roberts
5. Diamond Bay by Linda Howard
4. Night Fall by Anne Stuart
3. Shades of Twilight by Linda Howard
2. Quinn Eisley's War by Patricia Gardner Evans

and my # 1 is A Man To Slay Dragons by Meagan McKinley.

The characters and scenes in these books resonate to me and I always reread certain scenes in them. If you have read any of the above on my list, which one appeals to you? And why?

As a writer, I ask myself that all the time. Why this scene? Is it for the character(s) or because of the emotional content? I find myself ignoring a lot of the mystery/whodunnit aspects, so I know that doesn't interest me at a deep level. I devour all the passages where the protagonists learn something about themselves as they deal with the element of danger, the edge of reason so to speak--the hidden truth that's the core inside them. Those are the moments of the story that captivate me.

That's why you'll find Anne Stuart and Linda Howard on my rereads every time. They deliver an emotional punch to me every time. And that's the reason why I reread them.

I have enjoyed many wonderful books, stories that are full of intrigue and surprises, with great characters and hot romance, and yet I don't reread them. I'll give you an example--Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard. I think that's a great book and many readers raved about it. It's a departure for La Linda too--totally funny, almost like a Sex In The City feel to it, and no male POV till 130-plus pages into it. I laughed out loud reading it and recommended it to friends.

But I have never reread it. It never got my gut and I have never gotten over the fact that there was no male POV till one third of the book is gone. That's not the main reason (I reread certain Harlequin Presents--guilty pleasure--and the lack of male POV in them doesn't bother me) but I couldn't seem to make the emotional connection with that book like some readers did. And that is what I'm after. It's almost like reading non-erotic erotic scenes--slot A goes into slot B and touch C...ooh ooh ahh ahh.

So is there a popular book that you've read and enjoyed but have never gotten that emotional payoff that other readers rah-rah about? You know you have it. It's on your shelf, part of your collection of your favorite author, and you actually feel guilty because you never pull it out like you do with the books on either side.

Hey, you can even use my books as an example! ;-) I definitely have a certain group of readers who abhor Facing Fear and love Into Danger and vice-versa. I wasn't even surprised by it, since I had deliberately written Facing Fear as a counterpoint to Into Danger. And perhaps that's why I can't get into certain books by favorite authors; they too were doing the same thing.

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