Yes, I'm still alive. I've been out with the flu. Not fun. Can't remember the last time I was so sick.

So, I didn't get much writing done the past week, but once I was able to sit up straight without my head feeling like it was going to roll right off my body, I did do a little web surfing and came across a great quote. Since I have no exciting news to report, I'm going to leave you with this one special gem. (And my apologies - for the life of me, I can't remember who said it or where it came from, but it's so fitting.) Enjoy.

"The difference between a published author and an unpublished author is the published author never took no for an answer."

I've been out sick this week (hack, hack, moan, whine...) which is why I haven't been around much (and no, Piper, apparantly it wasn't the smoke at the restaurant the other night giving me that massive headache but the onset of the flu!). However, I'm pulling myself up to the computer long enough to congratulate my fabulous critique partner JOAN SWAN on finaling in the Golden Heart Romantic Suspense Category with her manuscript, Hiding In Plain Sight!

Way to go Joan!!!!!!!!!

In case you missed it, Allison Brennan is giving a great class on The Romantic Suspense Triangle over at Romance Divas this week. You have to register, then click on Forum and scroll down to Class In Session. Great stuff there, even if you don't write RS.

I'm sick. Again. How is this possible? Seems I've been more sick this year then I was during my first year of teaching. ARGH. Sucks. I did drag myself to boot camp hell, er, my group power weight-lifting class though this morning. Of course, now I have no energy to do laundry. Wonder how the Gremlins would feel about wearing dirty underwear tomorrow...

Today's my day to post over at Romance Worth Killing For. Check it out.

Gotta go proof a couple of submissions and think about the WIP. Must. Finish. Soon. (Gonna keep repeating that until it sinks in.)

Later.

I love secondary characters. They are the good stuff in a book. The best friend, the comic relief, the valley between the mountains, the tension relievers. My problem with secondary characters is that in my own work, they tend to try to take over. Case in point, the heroine of my current WIP was a secondary character in a previous book who I toned down in revisions of said earlier book. After that, I vowed never to write her story. I lost.

So in honor of my conniving heroine-who-used-to-be-a-secondary-character, I'm going to share some of my favorite secondary characters with you:

Samwise Gamgee - The Lord Of The Rings

I've loved Sean Astin since his Goonies days. Partly because that movie was filmed in my home state. Partly because as a kid I just thought he was cute. And I loved him in Rudy, too. What's not to love about a guy going against the odds and attaining his dream? But he was phenomenal as Samwise Gamgee in The Lord Of The Rings. Samwise is - in my opinion - the unknown hero in The Lord Of The Rings. He's all of the things above - best friend, comic relief, tension reliever, valley, and in this case, he's the one who really saves the day.


Dr. Henry Jones - Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade

Okay, I'll be honest. I picked this picture because Indy's in it. And I looooves Indy. But Sean Connery was the perfect secondary character as his father in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. Talk about comic relief! And conflict. He was great. I sure the heck hope he's in the upcoming 4th movie.













Inigo Montoya - The Princess Bride

Originally, I was just going to pick Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, but when I saw this picture, I remembered how great Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) and Fezzik (Andre The Giant) were. Wonderful secondary characters - one evil at heart, the other two redeeming themselves in the end.



Riley Poole - National Treasure
Whenever I watch National Treasure with my seven-yr-old, she always asks, "Mom, what do we call that guy again?" (Meaning Justin Bartha who plays Riley), and I always laugh and say, "Comic relief, honey." I know some people find him irritating, but Riley Poole makes me laugh every time. I think it's his dry sense of humor, or maybe the fact *I* find his sense of humor funny.





And gee, I'm starting to see a pattern here. All my favorite secondary characters are male. Hmmm..... Oh, wait. there is one female I can think of:

Gloria Cleary - Wedding Crashers

Fabulous psycho "stage-five clinger". Isla Fisher was hilarious as Gloria Cleary in Wedding Crashers. And she's got the best eyes.













So who are your favorite secondary characters?

When I was in college, my DH bought me a book one year as a Christmas present (among other things). It was Alexandra Ripley's Scarlett: The Sequel To Gone With The Wind. I loved GWTW. Loved the book. Loved the movie. And I waited, rather impatiently, for the sequel to be released. DH knew that, hence why he got me the book. Now, if you've seen Scarlett, you know that it's thick, and loooooong. And after my DH bought that book for me, he vowed never to buy me another book as long as I lived.

You see, once I get started on something, I can't stop until I'm done. Ob-sess-ive. I opened Scarlett and didn't stop reading until I was finished. I neglected everything around me including my studies. I'm like that with any book - whether it's one I like or don't like. There's something in me that can't rest until I finish whatever it is I'm focused on. I will stay up until 3am reading if I can, simply because I'm obsessive.

And that explains why I have been slack in blogging this week. I've been busy writing, trying to finish the WIP. And I'm making good progress, moving into the climax and the nitty gritty stuff of wrapping up the whole thing. Hopefully I'll get there soon.

*Sigh*

Poor DH. :( Little did he know all those years ago his wife would decide to write, and it wouldn't just be one book, but a whole career of books that would eat up her time.

Happy Writing.

Home With Good News

So it's not as great as selling, but . . .

MMB won the grand prize in the Romancing The Tome Contest! I got the news on Tuesday and didn't have a chance to post because I was without internet access. The grand prize winner gets a paid RWA Nationals conference registration . . . so it looks like I'm going to Atlanta!!!

That news made my week!