Maggie Jaimeson: What Shall I Be When I Grow Up?

Today is my 60^th birthday. Yes, I have actually been on this earth that long, though I think in my mind I’m still about 28. My body begs disagree, but it is my mind that counts.  When I look back on my life I have been pretty blessed. I’ve enjoyed at least three careers—computer programming and IT management, teacher and academic executive, and now full time author. I love learning and I’ve done it through education and travel and lots and lots of reading—both fiction and non-fiction.

One of the great benefits of being an author is that I am always learning—learning about my characters, learning about the craft of writing, and learning about the people and places and cultures and decisions that impact my characters and their stories. I get to vicariously live many lives through my characters, and most important I get to control the final outcome to be what I want it to be. I get to create a happily ever after no matter what tortuous journey my characters have undertaken.

All of my stories are some reflection of me. I can’t help but do that. It doesn’t mean I’ve personally lived those lives, but I believe our human experiences of grief and joy and discernment are universal no matter the country, the culture, or even a different world than earth. Often the lives of my characters are ones that I dreamed I could have for myself, but never had the guts or the time or funds to pursue them. For example, in my Sweetwater Canyon series I follow five women in an Americana band. I played piano and violin as a child and into high school and college. I had dreams of being in a band, but I never pursued it as a career. I couldn’t imagine supporting myself as a musician even though I often dreamed of it.

In my Forest People fantasy series, my young adult heroine not only has to figure out who she is and what her gifts are, but she has to save not one world but two. And she is only sixteen! I can remember being a teenager and feeling like the world was on my shoulders. I was bound and determine to make a difference and to do the right thing. Figuring out how to do that is really the journey of moving from young adult to adulthood.  I’ve learned that most of us re-evaluate that journey at every decade in our life. My path at 25 was not the same as my path at 40, and now at 60 there is even more that I want to accomplish in my life.

In my new romantic suspense Shadow Finders series, my Marine Corps buddies are backed up by the women who love them. They take on truly evil people, corporations, or governments to save those who are forgotten or lost. Though I grew up at a time when women in combat or as police officers or other typical male roles was not at all common, I still fantasized about being a big hero—whether that was as an EMT or a mercenary or my version of superman as a woman. Yes women can kick butt too, but I would do it with less violence and more thoughtful and permanent changes. Shadow Finders allows me to explore the tension between violence and peace and change while still believing that love conquers all.

What were your dreams for your future? Do you still have some of those dreams? Have your dreams changed over the years? If so, in what way?

Because this is an important birthday for me, I’m giving away a free fiction ebook of your choice. Anyone who answers my question about your dreams for your future can choose any ONE of my currently available fiction titles in the ebook format you desire.

Go to http://maggielynch.com to read more about each of my books. Choose one that appeals to you. Complete this form and I’ll send you the book of your choice.

Happy Reading!

After more than 30 years in careers including software development and training, distance learning, and executive leadership in academic computing, Maggie decided to follow her first love and pursue writing full time. She writes adult fiction in romance and SF under the name Maggie Jaimeson, young adult fiction under the name Maggie Faire, and non-fiction under the name Maggie Lynch. You can find all of her books at http://maggielynch.com 

Dream House : : Anne McAllister

I’ve just been writing a flashback scene in my book which has to do with a tree house.  My hero and heroine – adversaries from childhood – have been, in a rare moment of collaboration, building a tree house. 

And I’ve been thinking back to my own childhood – of dreams of tree houses, lavish and rustic at the same time and real tree houses (not an easy fit in a eucalyptus tree, let me tell you!).  And my fingers have been itching to get out the pencils and paper and draw them all over again.

They were my original dream houses.  I wanted them high, where I would have a room with a view, and sturdy, though with just enough sway to let me know I wasn’t on the ground anymore.  I wanted them wind-proof and water-proof and with lots of bookshelves (a girl can’t look out the window all the time!). Besides, this was my dream.

A couple of my sons built a tree house in the woods not far from our home.  It was drafty and teetery and I had visions of them plunging out of it when the least breeze came up. But I managed to shut my mouth and not voice my concerns. It was ‘their’ dream house – and boys have to have dreams, too.

I remember going to Disneyland when I was young and, as I recall, there was a sort of Swiss Family Robinson tree house there.  Or may be I dreamed it. But it was everything I thought I would want in my dream tree house. 

When I was looking for images to illustrate this piece, I found this one from the Disneyland at Hong Kong (or so it says). I didn’t even know there was a Disneyland at Hong Kong (I thought there was one in Japan).  It speaks to me, too. And I wouldn’t mind having it right on the edge of a river or lake like this one, either!

These images all resonate with me. Some are way more lavish than any kid could make. They are certainly more lavish than my hero and heroine are making.  They’re more lavish than I dared dream of as a child.

But they do two things – they prove to me that my dreams are shared by a lot of people, and that sometimes dreams can coincide with reality, even if in the instance of tree houses, mine didn’t.

They inspire me. They make remember childhood dreams and they make me dream still.

They also, honestly, make me want to go round up a few grandkids and watch Swiss Family Robinson again. 

Did you ever dream about making a fantastic tree house?  Did you make one?  Just how universal is my tree house dream house fantasy, anyway?

 

Attributions: Tree house 1: By http://flickr.com/photos/emdot/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/emdot/9672473/) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Tree house 2: By Grandy02 (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Tree house 3: Stanley Howe [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Tree house 4: By Dave Q from flickr.com - http://www.flickr.com/photos/goodspeed/ CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Call it coincidence – by Kandy Shepherd

Coincidence? Wish fulfillment? Who knows—but fictional incidents I create for my novels have a habit of actually happening in my own life!

DREAM HOUSE COME TRUE

In my contemporary romance, Something About Joe, my heroine Allison Bradley lives in a charming little terrace house (row house) in McMahons Point, a harborside suburb of Sydney, Australia, ten minutes from the city center where she works.

At the time I wrote the story, I lived in an outer suburb, considerably more than ten minutes from where I worked. In fact, to get into the city for my “day job”, I had to get up at the crack of dawn (I’m an “owl” and loathe getting up early) and dress my daughter while she was still asleep to get her to daycare and me to the office on time.

I wove my yearning for a closer-to-town home into the story, living it vicariously through the house I created for Allison. Who would have imagined some years later we would find a decrepit, uninhabitable little house in McMahons Point, spend several years renovating it, and move in.

A house something like the one I created for Allison in SOMETHING ABOUT JOE

Yes, it was every bit as convenient to live there for me as it was for Alison.

No, a hot handsome hunk of a babysitter like my hero Joe Martin never came knocking on my door!

(If there are any more dream houses going to come true for me, there’s the most perfect house in Sausalito, California, I created for my hero in Home Is Where the Bark Is… )

HARBORSIDE PLAYGROUND

In Something About Joe, two pivotal scenes take place in a small harborside park in McMahon’s Point. There’s a park bench there and in my mind’s eye, I can see my fictional characters Joe and Allison sitting there together.

The view of Sydney Harbour Joe and Allison see from the park

Long after the book was written I found myself spending happy hours right near that bench teaching my daughter to jump rope (or skipping rope as it’s called in Australia) with magnificent Sydney Harbour as our backdrop and backyard substitute. I could never have imagined that! 

MORE NIGHTMARE THAN DREAM

Spoiler alert! There’s a scene in Something About Joe where Allison’s eighteen-month old son Mitchell suffers a febrile convulsion and ends up in the emergency room at the local hospital.

I thoroughly researched the symptoms and the hospital procedure. Lucky I did, because several years after writing the scene with Mitchell, a high fever triggered a terrifying series of convulsions in my daughter (long after the age my research told me was usual) and I knew exactly what to do. I also got all the details of what happens at the hospital right, though to tell you the truth I wasn't thinking about my story when I was there with my daughter! (She was fine, with no after effects at all, thank heaven.)

No febrile convulsions for this happy baby!

Has anything quite unexpectedly come true for you? Something you dreamed about, longed for, read in a book or saw in a movie, heard about from someone else?

Leave a comment to win a free download of my new e-book Something About Joe. Be sure to include your email address.

Something About Joe is available for just $0.99c at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other e-retailers.

Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction.
www.kandyshepherd.com

Sydney Harbour Bridge photo © Deb22 http://www.stockfreeimages.com

Baby photo © Melkinghttp://www.stockfreeimages.com

Mermaids and misstarts—Kandy Shepherd

When my daughter was 4 years old she knew she was going to grow up to be a mermaid. She grew up to be a good swimmer but now as a teenager she’s thinking she’d like to be a dietician. Yesterday she did a barista course and now she’s wondering about hospitality. (See below what she made her dad this morning--I think she might have a future in coffee!)

When did you know what you were going to do in life? I can’t remember not wanting to be a writer. As soon as I could form letters with my pencil, I was scribbling stories and wanting people to read them.I had my first short stories published when I was 21—and then got diverted into magazine journalism. Hey, I got to write and I got paid well—what wasn’t

there to like about that? Answer: I wasn’t writing fiction. And that’s what I really wanted to do. My dream never went away and now I have two contemporary romances, LOVE IS A FOUR-LEGGED WORD and HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS, published by Berkley Sensation. I still work freelance as a magazine editor and get to write fiction too—I’m so lucky to be able to work in both my worlds.

What about you? Did you always want to pursue a certain career or role in life and single-mindedly set your path on getting there? My friend Emma wanted to be a ballet dancer from the time her little legs were strong enough to glide her around the room. Through hard work, determination and talent she achieved that dream.

But a dancer's life is a short one. Now she teaches ballet and Pilates and is content to still be in the dance world if no longer actually on stage. (Oh, and she’s just about to become a mother which is also another dream role for her!)

Or did you find what you wanted to be only after a few misstarts? My friend Kim wanted to be a schoolteacher but wasn’t encouraged in her dream. This year she is going to graduate as a schoolteacher, having fitted in her studies around a full-time job and three children. Another didn’t-get-there-straight-away is Patrick, a former high school teacher. Now he’s a farrier, shoeing horses and enjoying being his own boss. Then there’s Louise, who started out a nurse and ended up managing a housing construction company—and her six kids!

The heroine of my latest novel HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS, Serena Oakley, barely made it through high school. She dropped out of college. Flitted from one job to another. Beat herself up for not being able to stick at anything. Then finally found her ideal career—running her own doggy day-care center. But just as she’s finding success, her business is threatened by a series of identity frauds. Enter my hero, Nick Whalen. Nick knew one thing for sure—he wanted to get out of the small rural community where he grew up and was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps as a farmer. He ended up as an FBI agent and by

the time he meets Serena he’s a private investigator in his own business—and tracking Serena down as his prime suspect.

I love talking with people about how they got to where they are—their first job, their worst job. I’d love to hear about you. Did you have a dream you never gave up on? Or maybe you found your career/role almost by accident. Please leave a comment for a chance to win one of two prizes—a signed copy of HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS or a HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS T-shirt (my covers make cute T-shirts!) If you want a chance at the prize, please include you email address.

http://www.kandyshepherd.com

It’s All About the Dream... Except When It’s About the Fantasy - Tawny Weber

by Tawny Weber

Dreams... We all have them, don’t we? Some special dream we like to think about. Maybe it’s to write a book or to craft a bigger career. To find Mr. Perfect and/or raise a family. Or my current favorite, to have a body we personally admire. Or maybe that vague thing called financial security.

My dreams right now focus on a little bit of all of those.

But for Drucilla Robichoux, the heroine in my September Blaze, RIDING THE WAVES, her life is completely focused on building her dream career as an astrophysicist. A great dream, right? Except she’s so busy with that, she finally realizes that her love life totally sucks. Suddenly, she’s obsessed with the fantasy of having at least one memorable sexual escapade. Something she can look back on and smile over, that might not keep her warm at night but will give her plenty of memories to use to warm things up on her own if she has to. So she takes her friend’s advice and heads off to a luxury beachside resort for vacation. On her first night, she discovers the answer to her dream –or in this case, her fantasy—in the form of a hot, sexy surfer who makes her insides melt. She gives in to the fantasy and has a wild, intense and memory-worthy boy-toy fling.

Then she heads back to the dream. Only her fantasy is there, waiting. So... how does she reconcile her day to day dream and her hot sexy fantasy? Well, let’s put it this way... She doesn’t do it very well *g* At least, not at first.

So this made me think. I’ve got quite a few dreams. And I’ve got a few fantasies. For instance, nurturing my marriage and growing old next to the man I love is a wonderful dream that I work on every day (well, to tell you the truth, I’m trying to avoid the growing older part, but so far no luck). But my Johnny Depp fantasy is pretty awesome. And yet, as much as I love both, I probably can’t combine the two. At least, I haven’t figured out how, yet :-D

How about you? Is there some special dream you’re working towards? How’s that going? Do your dreams and your fantasies ever conflict with each other? If you care to share, I’ll pick one name from the comments to win a book from my backlist!

What makes talent?

Recently I read Malcom Gladwell's The Outliers about why some people are super successful. It is an interesting book but missing a concluding chapter. He does point out that success is more than an individual. It is based on a web of inheritance and community that gives the individual the drive to take full of advantage of opportunities. Some of the opportunities may be masquerading as obstacles but ultimately the lessons learnt provide incentives.
He explodes the Amadeus myth -- basically that there are some people who are so blessed that they never have to work at achieving. He also points out that raw intelligence scores do not tell you very much about how someone will succeed as being successful takes more than just intelligence. Beyond a certain threshold, it is more a matter of drive and desire. Gladwell pointed to a study done by K Anders Ericsson of musicians who attended the Berlin Academy of Music. Those who were thought to the ones who would teach basically spent three hours a day practising so by the time they were 20, they had amassed 2,000 of work. Those who were tipped to be concert soloists practised significantly more, increasing the time spent with each year and by age 20, had amassed some 10,000 hours of practice. He then looked at professionals and found the same thing. Those who succeeded worked much much harder than anyone else. They did not find any genius who simply was. And neither did they find a grind -- someone who had actively put in the hours practising and got nowhere.
The need for putting in the hours also goes some way towards explaining why people are generally super successful in one area and not necessarily so clued in in others. There are literally only so many hours in a day.
Mozart is not touched by God but a man who was hothoused from an early age and encouraged to devote his life to music. Without his father and the era into which he was born, it is doubtful that Mozart would have become as great. He lived and breathed music. He put the hours in at a very early age and was encouraged to do so. He was lucky because of the encouragement. However despite his undoubted mathematical talent (music depends on maths) Mozart was not over gifted in managing his money.
The same holds true for authors. Those who really succeed have generally put the time in. They have learnt their craft and put the hours in. They did not just dream about it but worked hard. They are also supported and encouraged along the way -- mainly Sometimes the public have been able to see the journey --for example Hemingway learnt his craft through journalism. But others have stacks of short stories, half finished novels etc gathering in the attic. Still others spent hours recounting stories to their children, siblings etc before they ever started to write them down. I think it would be impossible to find a highly successful author who did no writing or storytelling BEFORE they wrote their first book. Equally it is entirely possible for aspiring authors to take courses etc and never put in the hours practising. They simply want to be. The will to succeed is not there or perhaps so many other things hold the person's interest. Not everyone wants to be as single minded as an outlier. Some people like to have a life. It is always about the choices the individual makes.
So what do you think? And are you willing to put the time in to pursue your dream? And how have you encouraged others to pursue theirs?

Michelle Styles still reckons that she is putting in the hours to make up the 10,000 needed. It takes about 250 -500 hours to write a novel. Her next novel, her 10th published for HMB, The Viking's Captive Princess is published in December 09 in the North American market.

Dream Big!

When I was a kid, I didn’t know how to dream. I couldn’t see ahead in life and didn’t dare think of a future. Some people I knew had dreams of a knight in shining armor dropping into their lives, while others dreamed of having lots of children in big families filled with love. Even more people I knew had dreams of becoming famous or being the first to do a thing or even of possessing great wealth. Not me. I can’t explain why, but I never wanted to see myself in the future.

Looking back now, it was a strange way to live, and it caused me plenty of problems along the path. I found the love of my life in a chance encounter. I stumbled into being a stockbroker, a job I had wanted for years but never thought I could have. I decided to write fiction on a whim and a promise to give it a try that I made to my dying mother-- after giving up that idea many years before.

I’m not sure what the problem was for most of my life, but maybe it stemmed from being afraid to dream. Afraid to wish for things that might not come true.

When I sat down to plot the story for the fifth book in my Night Guardian series, SHADOW WARRIOR, I decided it was time to write about a woman who is afraid to dream. Lexie Ayze has a much better reason to be afraid of her dreams than most; she’s a medium who sees ghosts in her dreams. But she is also a woman who has allowed life to push her along from one thing to another just like I did. She has always been afraid to wish for things that might not come true.

Lexie does have one important trait in her make-up; a strong desire to do the right thing for her child. At first, she just doesn’t know what’s right. When she finally gives up and allows dreams into her life, everything changes. Lexie learns to go after what she wants. She finds out that improbable goals take risk, hard work and persistence, but she is willing to try.

SHADOW WARRIOR is the intimate story of one woman coming to terms with who she is meant to be…then learning to fight for the man she loves.

Have you always known what you wanted? Or were you more like me? Afraid to wish? Do you have a dream or goal you still haven’t reached? Improbable goals are the best, but they’re also the scariest. What are some of yours?