The other day one of my co-workers asked me what I was reading. This is an every day occurrence. In fact, I’m asked several times a day what I’m reading. There aren’t a lot of people in my office who read; there’s only one other girl who has her nose stuck in a book on her lunch and breaks like me.

It seems people who read are an oddity in my office.

That’s okay, though. I don’t mind being an oddity. In fact, I revel in it. I have always been what I would call eccentric, always outside the norm. But it seems I’m even more outside the norm because I read romance. And I write it.

I love love love romance. I read tons of it. You write what you love to read, right? As a romance writer, I’m almost duty bound to read romances; I’m pretty sure it’s in my contract somewhere.

But people always get wierded out by the fact that I read romances for two reasons. I’m a guy and I’m gay. People assume that, since I’m a guy, I shouldn’t read romance and, since I’m gay, I wouldn’t want to read straight romances.

They’re wrong on both counts.

I love romances not just for the sex scenes, but for the story, for the characters. I don’t know what it is about romance but the characters always seem to be more alive, more real than in regular fiction. Plus you get passion, excitement, harrowing plotlines, danger and disaster at every turn, conflict galore AND a happy ending. What can be better than that?

If any kind of writing was popcorn or candy for the mind, romance would be it.

I always love watching people’s faces when they realize that I’m reading a romance novel. While I was reading The Hollow by Nora Roberts, one co-worker looked at the front of the book and scratched her head.

“Nora Roberts?” she said. “That’s like romance, right?”

“Yep.”

“With sex scenes?”

“Yep.”

“Like, straight sex scenes?”

“Yep.”

“But….aren’t you gay?”

“Yep.”

“So you don’t…get off on the sex scenes do you?”

She was startled when I started laughing. I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t answer and had to walk away, leaving her with bemused look on her face. I thought it was the funniest conversation I had had in weeks and still do.

In the end, I love reading romances and I love writing them even more. For whatever reason, my characters always come alive more if they’re in one of my little romantic novellas.

I’m particularly proud of Valentine (available now from Cobblestone Press) and Finding Beauty (coming soon from Cobblestone Press). To me, they are some of my best pieces of writing that I’ve done.

Thankfully, there are always new stories to write and to read. I will forever be a romance writer and a romance junkie.

     Recently I was reading our local newspaper and came across a head-line that read:

     Man kills self after receiving heart from man who also committed suicide.

     From Hilton Head Island, S. C., attributed to an Associated Press Writer.

Obviously it got my attention. It went on to say a man who received a heart transplant twelve years back and later MARRIED the donor’s widow died the same way the donor did, authorities said, of a self inflicted gun shot wound. No foul play was suspected.

I turned to my husband and said, “There’s a premise for a story.”

He laughed at me and said, “It’s too contrived, nobody would believe it.”

I tore out the article and put it aside. Since than I’ve been wondering about the contrived premise. If you saw a blurb on a novel that read something similar to the head-line, would you be interested or would you shake your head and move on?

The concept made me look deeper into my story lines. While I hope mine aren’t perceived as contrived, this story line kept sticking with me. I wanted to define the reason for the first and second suicides. I wanted to know about the widow? That started a round of reasearch, including how people choose their weapon and why. When I Googled the mans name, I got 1,250,000 hits.

Other head-lines read, “2 men share heart, wife and manor of death” and “Suicide links heart donor and recipient.” I stopped reading by the third page, the articles all basically saying the same thing, yet they came from newspapers and news channels all around the country.

I’ve had this subject inside my head for a time now and still can’t wrap it up neatly. I suppose it wasn’t meant to be. This is my question to you; Is this story line beyond what you’d accept as plausible? I give it to all of you with imagination and determination. Where would you take this story line and why?

(Of course my sympathies are with the family which is why I’ve left out the family names. If you’d like to pursue the story line further, let me know and I’ll get you the information.) 

I like stats so much I created a program to keep track of how much we write and on which projects! Some people got a glimpse of it when I blogged about it on the website, but I’m now working on version 2.0, the version which (hopefully) anyone will be able to use online if they want.

Only now that I’m in the final planning stages, I find myself needing the input of other authors. What are the things you most wish you could keep track of when writing?

Right now, the program goes a little something like this…

You start out by adding a project.

Once you have a project, it will show up in your drop-down menu when you go to add progress:

So you can add progress whenever you want. I usually wait until I have a few hundred words, but sometimes I add after 50. You can do it 100 times a day. It doesn’t matter, because the database just keeps track each time you add. (You only add when you’ve written something new. So If I write 100 words, then write 50, I enter 100 words the first time, then the next time I enter 50. The database keeps a running tally, because it’s smart like that.)

So what is the point of all this entering? Pretty stats, of course! Here’s a peek at one of the reports I ran to tally up our April Word Count.

I know I want to add something that keeps track of important dates, but now I’m wondering…what else? If you were in a world where you could have your dream tracking software…what would it do?

Or am I the only one who goes to sleep and dreams of statistics?

Tell me!

Moira Rogers (a.k.a. Bree & Donna)
Website | Livejournal | MySpace | Blogger

Or the high price of a good time.

Saturday night I let #2 son go to the movies with the girlfriend (yes I KNOW he’s 12) at the mall. #1 insisted tickets were 9.00 and I said no they’re 7.00–we were both wrong. They’re 8! OMG WTF!

And if we go to the movies at the mall as a family, it costs me 50 bucks. Never mind paying 4.00 for a coke water…a 20 ounce bottle of Dasani is 2.75. I could buy a SIX PACK for that price WTF! So I started sneaking in my own. I mean damn it’s WATER PEOPLE!

On Sunday for Mother’s Day I really wanted to see Iron Man but I just couldn’t bring myself to pay … 24.00 for all three of us to get in. So we drove across town to the cheap movies. The seats aren’t as comfy, you don’t get free refills but it’s 3.25 a person for matinées. I saved like 30.00 even after we got popcorn and drinks. And the movie rocked. So what if my back hurt a little afterward.

So come on and fess up. Do you sneak drinks or snacks in? Or does your theater allow you bring food in and how much are movie tickets where you live? Let me know I’m not alone in my misery.

Leave a comment and even though this post has NOTHING to do with my new release, other than you can entertain yourself for less than a five-spot by buying a Wicked, I’ll be back after five to draw a winner at random.

I love having a new release out.

It’s just so fun and satisfying to see that sexy cover on the front page of the site. I get all giggly and make my beloved hubby come and look, admire the design, listen to me rave about how awesome a fit it is for the story and why.

But even in the midst of that new release high, there’s something tugging at the back of my mind…a tiny voice whispering, “So what’s next?”

I swallow past the knot in my throat, pretending I didn’t hear. But the voice, tiny though it may be, is persistent. So here I am, wondering what’s next.

Honestly, the only thing I love more than writing is my family, so it’s no hardship to get rolling on a new story. What I do occasionally struggle with is deciding exactly where to focus my energy. I write in a variety of genres (though Contemporary is my fav) so I could go any number of ways.

Here’s what I’m looking for: A little inspiration. Motivation. Direction. I’d love to hear what your favorite genre to read is and why.  Maybe you’ll sell me on it and I’ll know where to go next.

Anyone who posts a reply in the comments will be entered in my contest to win a free download of my latest release, ICING ON THE CAKE. You’ve got until the new releases go up on Friday to reply and I’ll post the winner in the comments after that time.

Want to know more about ICING ON THE CAKE? Check out my website for a super saucy excerpt! www.moiramctark.com

~Moira McTark