The first review is in for Love and Rockets!

Reviewer Keely Skillman says, “Fantastically refreshing in its viewpoint, Love and Rockets by Charlene Teglia had me laughing until my sides hurt. It was wonderful to read a love story where the man was the one top over tea kettle in love from the beginning and aware of his love. This is one of those wonderful tales of love that leaves you with the hope that there really are men out in the wide world who know how to romance a lady for something other than getting her clothes off near the bed.

Love and Rockets is a work of art! Pure delicious romance from the moment the main characters meet. And the characters, all of them are so personable I came to think of them as friends and empathize with them. This is one of those classic romance tales that I find myself drawn to again and again because the story is just too satisfying and dreamy to be read only once.”

My case of the Mondays is cured. : )

I’ve got a case of the Mondays. Fortunately, there’s a cure. Actually several cures. Wanna know what they are?
1. Sluggy Freelance! Always completely insane and guaranteed to jolt the brain in a different direction. (If you’ve never read Sluggy before, check out the viewer’s guide. There is method to the madness.)
2. iTunes. Energetic and upbeat or melodic and soothing, there’s always something that’s right to change a mood.
3. Listing out all the things I’ve accomplished and all the good things I have to be excited about. Kills the blahs.
4. Taking a nice walk. Miles of trail right outside my back door. Not only does a good walk get more oxygen to my brain, it releases endorphins and is now scientifically proven to cure real depression. Mondays don’t stand a chance.
5. The world is full of good books. I can always enjoy a story and keep my enthusiasm for my profession alive.
6. Writing out affirmations such as “I accomplish all my work today with energy, enthusiasm and endurance.”

BIAW wrapped up yesterday and I got so much done. Last week was just huge on the event scale and I was still very, very productive. I’m really happy about that. Didn’t quite finish revising Dangerous, but considering everything else I got done, I’m not going to whine. I’m thrilled to have it nearly done and Spell out the door.

I also came across something pretty funny in my bookshelves. I’d forgotten I had a book signed by Jennifer Crusie wishing me well on my contemporary romantic comedy, Love and Rockets. I found it the week L&R released! One of those funny synchronicity moments.

Back to work time. If you have a sure cure for the Mondays, share it with me!

I’ve been missing Rob Brezny’s Real Astrology column, so I did a search and found his website with, yes, horoscopes! He’ll even email them directly to your inbox. (Naturally, I signed up. And told my husband I was a Gorgeous Genius!) His site also has an article about how he got started writing his column, which explained to me why I’d always loved it. It’s a great description of my own view of what writing is.

Today’s the last day of BIAW, so I’m off to the Dreamtime. I did 0 pages yesterday; had a sudden attack of tiredness. But I’ve kept to my goal all week otherwise, so I’m pleased. And today is a good day to write, to paraphrase a battle cry.

Did my author chat yesterday and it was fun. Lots of questions, I really enjoyed the interaction with readers. I got to talk about the research behind Love and Rockets, why I write these kinds of stories, and all sorts of other things. A very fun and interesting group!

In the middle of the chat, I found out Yule Be Mine got a 5 Angel review from Fallen Angel Reviews. Hurrah! It’s really a stunning review, I’m very pleased. It’s going up on Yule’s page with the other reviews probably later today.

BIAW: slow day yesterday due to the chat, but I did get through all the changes. Not sure how many pages that translates to, but it was a decent amount of work. I’m pretty happy with how far I’ve gotten on Dangerous with all the other things I’ve had going on this week (new release, another project to revise, rename and return, chat day).

Lastly, if you who haven’t heard about Dara Joy’s upcoming release, you can preorder your copy anytime up to March 31. Sounds like another fun read!

Under A Spell is revised, returned, and the new official title is Love Spell! The front page will get changed to reflect that. BIAW group said those pages counted towards my total, so I went over my goal for yesterday. Hurrah!

The fun part about revisions, aside from cursing Word and all denizens of Redmond (I mean, can somebody tell me why hitting “delete comment” does NOT delete the comment?!), is that it’s the first reader feedback I get. Lois McMaster Bujold wrote a beautiful piece about the silent collaboration between writer and reader which you can find in Dreamweaver’s Dilemma, and it’s true. A piece of writing doesn’t feel complete until it’s been read and responded to.

So yesterday along with agreeing that I’d misused more than one comma in Spell, I got to read the first comments on the story. I’d had a general “I loved it” when I got the contract, but this was more in depth; a paragraph highlighted with comments on how beautifully the action demonstrated the hero’s character and central dilemma. More sentences and sections marked to tell me how well it worked. Until I get that feedback I don’t really know that I’ve pulled it off, that I’ve succeeded in what I wanted to do. I know it works in my head, but will it works in a reader’s? I have to wait to find out. And the revisions are the first confirmations.

I’m still working my way through Dangerous and getting the same experience. I’m also looking forward to reader response coming in from reviews and other readers as Love and Rockets gets underway. Writing a book is like starting a conversation and then waiting for somebody to answer. I’m my first reader (I write for myself first, because it’s the story I want to read) and then I wait to see if others feel the same way.

These reflections brought to you by remarks around RTB and other blogs about who a reader is. All writers are readers. Editors are readers. Agents are readers (see JJ’s RTB column). Reviewers are readers. And the person trying to decide whether or not I’m worth $6 and a couple of hours of time is a reader. We’re all readers or we wouldn’t be in this business. I don’t know about you, but I’m here because I think it’s the greatest way to spend my life there is. I may not be rich and famous, but I’m happy because I always have a story and somebody to share it with.

Got the revisions back on my Cavemen anthology story that releases in June. I’m putting aside BIAW temporarily to get that done. It should be pretty much accepting changes (where Wonder Editor fixed my punctuation and inconsistent verb tenses) but I need a new title in a hurry. Turns out there’s a recent anthology with a too-similar title. I had a couple of other working titles for this project that I’ll dig up, and I’ll see if anything better comes to mind while I revise and get it ready to return.

I am still on track for BIAW. Hurrah! Well, I did want to clear the decks and this will do it. I’ll have nothing between me and finishing Jane’s Addiction, the next installment in When Sparks Fly.

20 years later: it’s dawned on me recently that 1985 plus 2005 equals 20 year high school reunion. So I went out and signed up for one of those find your classmates websites and lo, there’s a reunion in the works for August! I posted a thing that said I didn’t know if I’d make it (it’s a month after my due date), but here’s what I’m doing now and love to hear from anybody. Not one hour later I get an email from one of my best high school friends! Turns out she’s living about 4 hours away in the same state so even if I don’t make the reunion we can get together. How cool!

And here’s my public service announcement for the reunion planners: there are about 300-odd graduating members missing and not heard from yet. Soooo…if you or anybody you know is a Capital High School class of 1985 graduate, go register for the reunion! It’s free to sign up with the site, you don’t have to commit to going, but check in and say hi. We’re all curious about what you’ve been doing.

Of course, this led to lots of Deep Thought on my part about what I’ve been doing the last 20 years. “Learning to write” sounds glossed over, but that does sum it up. I’m a self-actualization Mazlow freak and I do believe life is about becoming more your authentic self. My authentic self is a writer so that’s what I’ve been working on all this time. In the process of growing into myself, I’ve been discarding all the pieces that weren’t really me.

Anyway, I’ve put the August reunion down on my calendar with a tentative maybe. If I make the trip it seems I ought to combine it with business, so I will put out some feelers about doing a joint signing at Borders or Waldenbooks or both.

Today’s the big day. Rockets has been moved from “coming soon” to “new releases” on my front page. Happy day!

BIAW continues to go well. Met day 2’s goal. In fact, if I wasn’t trying to add 10K to Dangerous Games, the revisions would be done and returned already. This is a solid, tight story. I think there were 15 edits in the entire manuscript, which I point to as proof that BIAW works. Yes, I did my own revisions and cleanup before submitting it, but I wrote it fast. That and I keep honing my craft so I make fewer mistakes. I really do believe fast writing gets to good, strong stuff, though. You don’t have time to second-guess or back away from it.

Don’t know how productive I’ll be today but I plan to keep working towards my goal. I am giving myself a little time to enjoy success, though. This is a landmark event and I want to celebrate it, not just rush on. A book I wrote 8 years ago because there wasn’t anything else like it and I wanted to read that kind of book has reached publication after I don’t even remember how many rejections. Whoopee!

You can launch your own fireworks display to celebrate with me. Happy Wednesday, everybody.