Blocked!

Can it be? Moi? Unable to scratch out even a few words? Well I guess I am doing it now, but under duress. Under the weight of extreme embarrassment. Such a struggle, it should not be…

So a few words.

My delightful little grandson was born 4 weeks ago today. He’s already playing Scrabble and longboarding down the street. Well, maybe not. But he’s holding his bitty head up now and again! Little sweetie. My dear son and dearest DIL are settling in to the routine. Her wonderful parents are visiting from Singapore. All good.

Our cabin seems to be constructing itself right before our amazed eyes. Might be occupied by mid January (?) (!)  There is snow up there now, but the roof is on and the windows are installed. All good.

Thanksgiving was super good. I brined the turkey for the first time. Made wonderful gravy-for the first time. Daughter made chipotle mashed sweet potatoes that were spicy and yum. Lotsa work, lotsa fun, very thankful and all good.

On the down:  My 2 month old Kodak EasyShare broke. I have to mail it to Kodak, at my expense, for repair.

I have been summoned for Jury Service at the U.S. District (Fed) Court in downtown Los Angeles. If called, I will have to board a bus at 6:30 am tomorrow and ride for 1.25 hours to the courthouse, then repeat after 5 pm to come home. I am stressing beyond belief. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps it’s a phase in my life.  A few years ago it wouldn’t have bothered me much. But now, I’m a wreck. And I have to be on-call for 2 weeks. Bleh.

Did you know that Grand Jury appointments last for 6 or 12 months? Yep, you have to go once a month for the duration. Somebody hand me a Tums?

PS – I’m supposed to remind everyone that POINT SURRENDER is still on sale at Amazon & BN.com! Just 99 cents for your reading pleasure…

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CAPE SEDUCTION: Update!

St. George Reef Lighthouse, the off-shore beacon that provided the inspiration for this mysterious tale, is located six miles off the coast of Crescent City, California. It is currently being painstakingly refurbished by a group of hardworking lighthouse lovers and is only accessible by helicopter. For the novel, I did extensive research on the lighthouse, even locating and interviewing one of the last Coast Guard keepers who lived out on “the rock” in the 1940′s and 50′s. This gentleman provided a great deal of information that helped me to add authenticity to my story. Fascinating details about storms,  accidents, and the day-to-day workings of keeping the light shining.

Late this summer, I plan to visit the St. George Reef Lighthouse Preservation Society and share with them the excitement of CAPE SEDUCTION. You, however, won’t need to wait that long. Fire up your nook, Kindle or other ebook reader and get ready to download the story of the lonely lighthouse, the sassy starlet and the devastating winter her promising life unraveled.

Look for an exciting contest soon! Details to follow! In the meantime, read the first two chapters here.

CAPE SEDUCTION by Anne Carter, coming June 1^st from Echelon Press!

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Mad Hatters and E-Readers

March Madness! We love March. March is…

• Small press month
• Women’s history month
• National Nutrition Month
• National Kidney Month
• American Red Cross Month.

See anything interesting yet? Maybe you’re not up to a whole month of anything, so consider this: it’s Read an ebook week! Yes, those annoying tree-huggers are back, admonishing you for still reading paper books! I’ll admit to reading both, although I prefer the “e” variety and have for many years. Do I have a dedicated ereader? Yes, and no. My ereader is the granddaddy of all ebook reading devices, the Rocket eBook, and it’s like 8 years old already. Heavy, clunky, but adorable.

On Monday, I noticed the woman on the next treadmill was jogging while reading a Kindle, placed on the magazine deck of her machine. She had to reach up every few seconds to press the spot that would turn the page as she ran. Very jazzy. Poor me, trying to read about Johnny Depp in Entertainment Weekly, while the overhead fan kept blowing the magazine’s leaves. Hrmph.

To celebrate REBW, my niece and I went to B & N yesterday and she scraped up $280 in cold, hard-earned cash (she’s 18) for a nook™ ereader. (Yes, it’s lower case. Go figure.) We were both so excited and spent quite a while playing with it later. While I am enamored with the upcoming Apple iPad, I am so not enamored with the $500+ price tag. So I’m going to wait a bit, get the feedback from my niece on the nook and see if I get a chance to test drive the iPad when it comes out. In the meantime, I’ll play with her nook. Say, look what she’s reading!

POINT SURRENDER is available for your nook, your Kindle, your Sony reader and even your Rocket eBook. Read it on your computer, your iPhone, your MACBook. Your Pocket PC, your Blackberry, your Palm Pilot. And even (shhh! – don’t tell everyone) available in dead-tree version! (On sale at B&N.com for $11.69!)

Happy Reading!

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Movie Lighthouse: Seguin Island Light, ME

I suspect that this picturesque lighthouse has appeared in more than Message in a Bottle. According to my sources, it is one of three that show up in the film, along with Chicago Harbor Lighthouse and Pond Island, also in Maine.

I confess to not re-viewing this film lately. I couldn’t wait to see it when it came out, ten years ago, for two reasons. One, I was a huge Kevin Costner fan at the time, and two, I’d read the book by Nicholas Sparks (also available for Kindle, Sandy!). I bought the book in the airport as we were getting ready to board a vacation flight to Colorado. I read it in one day. I was disappointed in the book; the story was great, but the mechanics were poor. Not well edited, IMO. Head-hopping so often I couldn’t tell who was thinking what. Simple, but annoying habits like repeated use of the same adjectives. Sentence structure was uninspired. I mention this because it was that day that I got out my old, dusty manuscripts and decided I would one day be published. Thanks, Nick.

Aside from my then-schoolgirl-type-crush on Costner, I’ve had a life-long love affair with Paul Newman. I could watch him do a paper towel commercial and drop into a full swoon. Not that he ever did such a thing. He (and Costner, to some extent) was the inspiration for the character of Dane Pierce in STARCROSSED HEARTS. If you want to see Paul in one of his (IMO) sexiest early roles, see WINNING.

But I digress. Seguin Island Lighthouse is located in what is one of the foggiest places in the world, according to those wonderful Lighthouse Friends. It is Maine’s second lighthouse, and was authorized by George Washington. That’s old. The Fresnel lens is 13 feet high, and still operating, thanks to the Friends of Seguin Island, who also see to the volunteer keepers year after year.

For die-hard romantics and hanky twisters, the film is worth seeing. And you, lucky readers, got two movie recommendations for the price of one!

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Friday Potpourri: Aug 21

Lots of buzz on the ebook front. Anyone who reads me knows it’s a hot issue right now. Have been working with my publisher, Echelon Press, to create unique ways to sell digital versions of our books at festivals and booksignings, and we are coming up with some great ideas. Can imagine downloading 3-4 books at once from a publisher’s booth, right into your Sony Digital Reader or iPhone? Or bringing home a very cool flash drive loaded with the books you’ve chosen on the spot? (You know those USB drives plug right into some of the ereaders!)

I have a vested interest. CAPE SEDUCTION is slated for a November 1st release in electronic format. Fourteen formats, to be sure. And you can bet LOTS of people will be getting digital readers, iPhones and Kindles for Christmas this year. Forrester recently released a report that is paraphrased at BNET. Apparently, “from 2008 to 2009, Amazon sold an estimated 600,000 Kindles. But Sony sold an estimated 400,000 of its e-readers.” That’s a million readers, folks. And it doesn’t count the number of iPhones, iPod Touches, PDA’s, laptops and other ebook reading devices already in use. Now that Sony has lowered prices on devices and ebooks, and has determined they will support the ePub* format, we will start to see them pull ahead of Amazon. Mark my words. (*See great WSJ article about ePub and DRM here.)

Speaking of Cape Seduction, I’m ecstatic to say that cover art is in the works. We have obtained rights to photos that will be mysteriously ‘Shopped into a spellbinding cover! So stay tuned on that front.

My calendar says my next personal appearance will be at the Duarte Festival of Authors. Have never done this particular festival and am looking forward to sharing some space with fellow Echelon author Gayle Carline. Gayle and I met at L.A. Times Festival of Books in April, when she was selling her new release, FREEZER BURN. We get along great except for when it comes to horses… she’s an equestrienne extraordinaire and I’m more the type that likes the wooden ones that go ’round and ’round in the mall. Is there a 12-step program for equine-o-phobes?

Good news/bad news department:  We now think our guinea pig has a benign lipoma. A fat bump. Not dangerous in itself, and should just be watched for awhile. The bad news? Son is not coming home now.   He did assure me he’ll be home for Christmas (why do I hear Bing Crosby‘s baritone in the background?) Ugh. Sadness. Why does Singapore have to be so far away (and so expensive to commute?)

Have started a new story. Don’t know yet if it is a full length book or not. Takes place in the 1980′s, about a glam rocker and a makeup artist. Has to do with gay performers hiding their sexuality (or not). Not sure how readers will take this topic. Not really worried, either.

Haven’t fired up the new Pink KitchenAid Stand Mixer yet. Will plan to do some whirling this weekend and will, of course, share the results, if only virtually. Daughter wants to paint flames on the sides, like Alton Brown‘s. I told her I have enough trouble with burning food.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something, something likely only interesting to me and my stalkers. Oh well. It will wait.

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Interview With a Hero: Jack McKenzie

Jack McKenzie is a hard guy to catch up with! But we finally found time to talk–albeit at the local ice hockey rink.

Pam:   Can I get you a towel? You’re dripping.

Jack:   I have one here. Thanks. So what’s this for? A blog?

Pam:   Yeah. You are my hero of the week.

Jack: (drying off face) I’m flattered! Wow. Brad Pitt wasn’t around?

Pam:   Brad isn’t a character in one of my books. So, did you win?

Jack:   Hockey? Oh, no. This was just a pick-up practice. I’m a little out of shape. I’ve been up north, working with a buddy on a big project.

Pam:   Case McKenna.  His after-school club for kids.

Jack:   Yeah! How’d you know?

Pam:    I wrote his book, too. About Point Surrender.

Jack:   Oh. Of course. So you know about the lighthouses.

Pam:    I should hope so. But let’s talk about you. You are married?

Jack: (grins) Maddie. (Shakes head in reflection) She’s the best. And since you’re going to ask, we have four kids. Hers, Todd, who’s a challenging teen but a good guy; Duncan, mine, from before, you know, and then Davey and Mae. Mae’s in preschool.

Pam:    You’ve known Maddie a long time?

Jack:   We went to high school together. Then we met again one day in the park, just a fluke, I was taking Dunc for a walk. I couldn’t believe how much she’d changed. I mean, she grew up. Into this very hot, sensitive woman. She needed help. With Todd, with her ex, all kinds of stuff. Todd’s dad had disappeared. I took her to Paris to try to sort things out. I can’t even tell you… well… it was weird.

Pam:   What was weird? Paris?

Jack:   What we found when we got there. It just about ended everything between us. I almost packed it in. But you know, I was… I was in too deep by that time. I just couldn’t let her go.

Pam:   I’m sure our mutual fans are glad. What’s up next for you?

Jack:   Don’t laugh. I’m thinking of buying my own lighthouse.

Pam: (rolls eyes) Don’t do this to me. You do realize, I’m the one who has to write this stuff.

Jack:   (broad, gleaming teeth smile) Yes, I do realize that. Wanna get some coffee?

Jack McKenzie and Maddie Cross are both characters in IN TOO DEEP by Anne Carter, from Wings ePress, Amazon and available for your Kindle, iPhone or other ereader from Fictionwise.

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