Phyllis A. Whitney Dead at 104

Honestly I had no idea if she was living or not. All I know is that when I was in 6th grade, I read ALL of her young adult books and probably some adult mystery type books, too. She had a great influence on me, she and author Dorothy Eden. I'd graduated from reading all the dog books in the school library, and I just remember the gothic, sort of cozy mystery feel of these YA authors' writings.

So according to her obit, Ms. Whitney was indeed 104 years old when she passed away recently. She had written for over 50 years. When she was 79, she said she'd always thought when she "was old" she would read her books over again. But she never felt old!

I think that's the secret to longevity, don't you? If you never *feel* old, or act old, then maybe you fool your body into believing it's still young and you keep on going! LOL

Anyway, I'm just in awe of people like Ms. Whitney. The obit said she and her first husband divorced after I think 5 years, and it implied that he did not support her writing and that was a cause of their parting ways. I'm glad my hubby supports my writing. I can't imagine living with someone who didn't believe in me. What kind of love is that? Fortunately for her, Phyllis Whitney remarried and that one must've been a good guy cuz they were married until his death in the 1970's. She outlived him by a lot!!

Well, two great influences on my writing have passed away lately, the other being Kathleen Woodiwiss. She turned so many of us on to romance novels, and got us involved in the industry. She made a writer want to put the passion behind the prose. Man, was she good at it.

Kathleen and Phyllis, I'm sure you're entertaining the crowds up there in heaven!

Tag, You're IT!

Okay. I just *lost* the entire post I'd just written! GRRR. If anyone reading this knows how to copy a post or save it so it doesn't disappear, please let me know. I can't seem to keep rough drafts. It *said* it autosaved, but it didn't.

Writer Cat Schield "tagged" my blog as one that she enjoys. Thanks, Cat! Apparently tagging is a way to connect to other writers and share thoughts and supports and updates, so I'm all for that. There are rules to the game of tag here. I'm supposed to share 6 unimportant things about myself, and then link back to Cat's blog and others' and to post the rules on here. So here goes:

6 Unimportant Things about Mel:

1) I'm addicted to reality shows. I started with "Survivor" and "The Mole." Got bored with Survivor years ago, and The Mole has been off for forever, but I now watch "Intervention," "Mission:Organization," "Rock of Love" and "Project Runway," to name a few! Never got into "The Great Race" but can't wait for each "Big Brother" or "American Idol." Love "First 48," where detectives work on the first 48 hours of a real homicide case. If you want to know what makes me love these shows, read Unimportant Thing about Me #6.

2) Roses aren't my favorite flowers. Roses are so...popular. I like the fresh-picked look of a wildflower arrangement, as long as it doesn't contain mums and other hothouse-looking stuff. I like to garden, so maybe that explains my preference.

3) I love to sing. I'm not very good at it, but I know a LOT of songs and have a knack for remembering lyrics. I can just enjoy singing to myself or unfortunate family members, but I have no pressing need to really perform for others. Sadly, I don't feel that way about writing. It pains me to not have a book out there that people believe in. It makes me feel inadequate. I would love to be writing and selling. Writing is different from singing in that a book proves you can do it! At least, it proves it to the author. It doesn't really matter how many people say it's cool that I can even put sentences together. I just want the publishing industry to believe in me! Correction: it *does* help when people compliment me for being a writer. It helps a lot. The way I feel about not having a big publishing contract is just me being hard on myself, and I know that.

4) I was sick a lot when I was a kid, bouncing back and forth between sore throats and bladder infections. I only became healthy when, at 10, I had surgeries to correct their causes. So I had to spend a lot of time alone. That's when I learned to entertain myself with needlework and reading. And imagining. I feel that's what made me able to be happily alone most days, which is quite conducive to writing.

5) I LOVE St. Pattie's Day!! We like to celebrate it. It's a great time of the year to have a party cuz it's after the big holidays and before Spring break. We love to fix Irish stew, corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread and have Irish beer. I love green! It's my fave color.

6) I'm constantly amazed by people. I think something that fascinates me most is the dichotomy of all the wonderful, big-hearted people, and all the selfish people. But really, everything about people is interesting to me. I'd be happy for the rest of my life if I could just talk to people, observe them and think, "Why are they that way?"

Now I'm supposed to post the "Tag" rules, so here they are:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your blog entry.
5. Let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs.

The six people are: Cat, Mary, Chelle, Carla, Angi, Cynthia.

Write on!

On submissions, Improv Comedy and one Crazy Dog

Current mood: upbeat

I *should* be tired since it's 1:12 am and I'm not in bed. Gotta get up at 7 am, but oh, well. I haven't blogged in a while, and I can always sleep!

I'm feeling encouraged because I've got The Daddy Issue out for review and I just now emailed Mending Rafe's Heart out to a publisher. So will be waiting to hear on those two manuscripts. Meanwhile, I dropped the idea of writing something for the Harlequin Presents contest. It was a good idea until I actually tried it. I don't think I have the voice for that line. But at least I made an attempt that I canned *before* I wrote a 50,000-word manuscript.

I've decided to try writing an amateur sleuth mystery. There may be a dash of romance in it, and then again, maybe not. I'm thinking that with my love of fleshing out the main characters by showing their interactions with those around them, cozy mysteries may be the better way to go. That gives me a cast of suspects with motives! Sounds like fun! And God knows we writers have to have fun with the process. If not, we dig in our heels and do things like, well, anything but write.

Meanwhile, improv comedy is sooo cool! It's HARD. It's fun. It's frustrating. Imagine coming up with jokes about corn at 10:30 at night. Or if that's not up your alley, how about acting out a scene with another player where every line has to start with the next letter of the alphabet?That's improv!

Dog agility training, on the other hand, is not fun when you have the class clown dog. My dog wants to bark, to play, to lunge. He thinks running thru tunnels and walking up and down A-frames is tame compared to what HE can do, which reminds me of that white bear in the Dr. Seuss book, Put Me in The Zoo. When I think about my dog Shadow, I'm always playing this rhyme from that book over in my head: "They would put me in the zoo if they could see what *I* can do!" But alas, this Aussie cattle dog must live (boringly) at home with us, in our once peaceful home. Arrgh. He'd be a halfway decent dog if he wouldn't seek out entertainment like chewing the feet off my 100-year-old doll! And that's just one of his many feats around here. Shadow also reminds me of the movie "Napoleon Dynamite." Remember the scene where Napoleon is on the bus and the younger kid goes, "What're you gonna do today, Napoleon?" And he answers, "Whatever I *feel* like doing. GOSH." That's the cattle dog mentality. Today my friend Emily said Shadow looks like the Blue Dog. I agree. He has that same intense gaze. Too bad I can't sell Shadow for $22,000, which is what Rodrigue is getting for his original Blue Dog paintings these days! Guess I'm stuck with my practically free pound pup. Good thing I love him.