Lisa ~
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Going home can be dangerous…
Kara Cartwright returns to her hometown on the same night Anthony Benton is murdered. But she doesn’t know anything about that. She only knows she vowed never to come back to Riverton, New York or to see Matt Kalli – the man she once loved and still lusts for.
Matt has made a vow of his own. He’ll never forgive Kara, the woman who loved him then betrayed him nine years ago. And he can’t forgive himself for the way she’s stuck in his heart – and in other parts of his body too.
All these two have in common is their undeniable sexual attraction for each other and their hatred of Anthony Benton. Now Benton’s dead and they could be suspects. People they care deeply about could be suspects too. That gives Matt and Kara something else in common – a dangerous search for the real killer before he murders again.
A Wrong Way Home is the first book in The Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series featuring the Kalli family, the four Kalli brothers and others who find safety and a warm welcome at Kalli Corner on Riverton Road. A Year of Summer Shadows is the second book in the series and launches on May 15, 2015.
WWND – What Would Nora Do?
by Alice Orr
A day in the life of a writer can be a pretty frenetic time. There’s this thing called deadlines. Do you know why they’re called deadlines? Because guess what you’ll be if you miss one.
So the problem becomes this. How can I possibly get everything done? Marketing. Social media. Keeping up with email. Taking time to exhale fully once in a while. And oh yes I almost forgot. Writing. Like many writers, I’m concerned about productivity on the page. How many words must I write today to be on track for my deadline? So I won’t – like I said – get dead.
This isn’t a new problem for me. When I first became a book editor – back in a previous incarnation – I was still under contract with my own publisher and had – guess what – a tight deadline to fulfill. That meant the publisher I worked for and the publisher I wrote for were pulling me hard in different directions with me in the middle about to lose my mind..
Then something wonderful happened. I was scheduled to speak at a conference where Nora Roberts was also on the program. Nora Roberts was the queen of productivity then just like she’s the queen of productivity now. I had a wild thought. Maybe she can help me. I understood that Nora is in great demand at these events but I was desperate so I hunted her down anyway.
I found her in the conference hotel lobby and hurried over to explain my predicament. She’d settled into a big comfortable sofa and obviously needed a little down time more than she needed me plopping down on the cushion next to her. But Nora is a classy lady so she listened patiently. Then she gave me the simple yet profound advice that carried me through the deadline I was facing then and many more since.
“You have to learn to write wherever you are,” she said.
I knew at once what she was talking about. I’d always confined my writing to orderly places and specific blocks of time. Nora set me free from that. I’d always carried 5x8 inch index cards with me everywhere I went. From that Nora moment on I used them for writing – any time and any place I had a few minutes to spare.
Modes of transportation became favorite writing spaces. Subway cars and taxicabs and especially airports and airplanes. First I’d pull up my collar. Then I’d hunch over my index cards and write furiously – between stops or appointments or airport runways. Nobody ever interrupted me. Probably because I looked a bit intense and possibly more than a bit insane. I didn’t care. All I wanted was to make my deadlines. And I did.
Then I stopped writing fiction to become a full-time professional grandma for several years. But eventually my grandchildren got older and I went back to writing. Once again with productivity issues. Believe it or not I’d forgotten Nora’s good advice. I needed to be taken by the shoulders and shaken hard and thank heaven the speaker at my RWA chapter’s next meeting did just that.
She was a time management expert and she talked about writing wherever you are. She was channeling her inner Nora for sure and I channeled mine too. She said to get a notebook and carry it everywhere and write in it everywhere. I had a notebook – a small one that fit perfectly in my bag. It had been a gift from another writer. What would we do without each other?
The next day I woke up with Nora’s wisdom rattling through my head once again – or was it the time management guru now? It doesn’t matter which brilliant woman set me back on course. It only matters that I heard her voice – or their voices – and I rediscovered that simple but profound secret that can keep me from turning up dead at deadline time.
I write everywhere again. I live in New York City and subways are among my favorite writing venues now. I take local trains because the express trains get where I’m going too fast. On the local I’ll have more time between stops so I can do more writing. Waiting rooms are another favorite. When whomever I’ve come to see is behind schedule I don’t just cool my heels. I whip out my notebook which seems to have totally supplanted index cards by the way.
My productivity has soared and I enjoy the writing too. I no longer feel so much like a prisoner of time – too little time that is. I no longer feel limited by space. Wherever I am is my writing room. And as an added bonus my writing has been cut loose also to be more spontaneous and free.
I thank that lovely time management lady and my always wonderful RWA chapter for inviting her to speak so I could hear and get slapped up side of my head when I so badly needed to be. But mostly I thank Nora. Because as my grandma used to say – the proof is in the pudding – and nobody’s productivity pudding is as sweet as Nora’s. Wow. Does that woman work hard or what? And I’ll bet she still writes wherever she happens to be. Just like me.
Contact Alice by email at aliceorrbooks@gmail.com
On Facebook at www.facebook.com/AliceOrrWriter
On Twitter at www.twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks
At her website www.aliceorrbooks.com
Or by regular mail at P.O. Box 6224 – Long Island City NY 11106.
On Facebook at www.facebook.com/AliceOrrWriter
On Twitter at www.twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks
At her website www.aliceorrbooks.com
Or by regular mail at P.O. Box 6224 – Long Island City NY 11106.
She’d love to hear from you.
