... after "The Call."  That was the subject of today's workshop at Dallas Area Romance Authors, presented by my buddy Jane Graves.  As usual she did a fabulous job of amusing us while getting into the nitty-gritty of life as a published author.

Afterward some of us authors listened to practice pitches from people who have appointments with editors and agents at the national RWA conference.  I remember how nerve-wracking it was the first few times I pitched to a real-live editor.  Sometimes it still is.  New authors make the same mistake almost every time--they focus on plot rather than character, conflict, setting and theme.  Hey, you have five minutes at most to tell the editor what your book is about.  You can't waste it saying, "... and then this happened, and then this happened ..."

Once writers figure this out it's like a lightbulb going on over their heads.

After the meeting Rob and I went grocery shopping.  Then it was too hot to do much of anything except flop.  I caught up on e-mail and read some from a writing book that I'm sure is going to tell me how to fix my plot (in the MOB book) which is suffering from a lack of twists and turns.

Rob cooked dinner--he makes a mean spaghetti sauce, made meaner still by fresh herbs from my little herb garden.  (something is eating my basil--eek.)

After dinner we worked on the workshop we're doing for RWA on how to quit your day job.  We have way too much to say in an hour.

Thanks for visiting,
Kara