Temporarily Home Again

It has been a while since I posted, as usual, but I finally have something to write about that may be of interest to anyone. In early July, my publisher and I drove to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the release of my new book, Tunnel Vision. It was an eighteen hour drive, but the time passes quickly when you talk all the way. We stayed at our friends, Ruta and Joane's house and had a very nice, although short visit. On Saturday, I did a signing and even manged to give a short reading from an upcoming book at Ruta's bookstore, TrueColors Books. I was excited when fellow authors Ellen Hart, Linda Morganstein, and Catherine Lundoff were able to attend.

About a week after I returned home, I flew off to Disney World for the annual Golden Crown Literary Society convention in Orlando. For me this is always a treat because I can meet many friends and fellow authors, as well as readers at least once a year. Two books released by my publisher, Regal Crest Enterprises, won awards this year. They were Blue Collar Lesbian Erotica by Pat Cronin and Verda Foster, and Land of Entrapment by Andi Marquette. Two of my friends from Blue Feather Books also won and I was almost as excited as they were. Mavis Applewater won for Whispering Pines, a wonderful mystery about a haunted house and a century old murder. Karen Badger won for Yesterday Once More, another great book that starts in the future and goes back in time to prevent a murder. Both were truly deserving and everyone was happy for them.

The afternoon of the first official day of the convention I felt light-headed and was 90% certain I was having a minor stroke. I should have contacted the hotel nurse and gone to the hospital, but I didn't. Truthfully, I didn't want to be stuck alone in a strange city, far away from my home and partner. So I dealt with the weakness on the left side of my body until I could get home. My partner took me to the emergency room early the next morning and I spent a lovely night in the hospital and had a gazillion tests performed. I was sent home the next day. It was indeed another minor stroke, but not as debilitating as my last one about three years ago. So now we are beginning new and exciting diets that don't leave many of our favorites available and beginning a stop smoking program. We both needed that anyway. Overall, with an adjustment in my current medication, I am feeling pretty well until my body can adjust to whatever damage was caused by the stroke and compensate for it. The good news is that typing is excellent therapy to strengthen my left hand and improve my hand-eye coordination. The bad news is that I have a partial blockage of my right carotid artery and will have surgery probably in August to have it cleaned out.

This coming Saturday evening I will be signing copies of Tunnel Vision at BookWoman in Austin from 7 to 9. Then Cheryl and I are leaving bright and early the next morning for a trek to Kansas to do some research for another book. Sitting in a library all day is fairly relaxing and non-stressful and I think this trip won't be as hurried or hectic as the others and be a good thing overall. I will return to work around the middle of August and will almost be glad to do that. Work is calmer than the summers usually. Now I plan to spend quite a bit of time writing and restin whenever possible. Honestly, the lingering effects of this small stroke scared me and I may have seriously damaged my butch card in the process. But I plan to be around for a while longer.

Thank You, Monica

Well, I know I've probably already promised to do better with the blog thing, but what can I say...I'm a liar. By the time life gets through with me each day, writing in a blog is pretty far from the top of my list of things to do in my free time.

I would have been convinced that no one besides me reads these darn things if I hadn't noticed there was actually a comment after the last time I wrote something here and posted it. Thanks, Monica! If you ever come back here, I can't tell you how much I appreciated knowing that an actual human being took the time to read it. There should be a prize for being the very first person to leave a comment.

My life has been mushing along, up numerous hills and over far too few dells. Since the new year began, my partner and I have accomplished more work around the homestead and are now beginning our summer hiatus from home improvement. My fourth book, The Sea Hawk, was released in January. To celebrate, my reading group in Austin held an author event at this cute little coffeehouse. I invited seven of my writer friends from Texas to join us and we had a fabulous time. At least I did. Guess I can't really speak for everyone else. The weather was nippy, but really good for Texas in January. From left to right in the photo above: Stacia Seaman (Bold Strokes Books), Kelly Sinclair (Blue Feather Books), Carsen Taite (Bold Strokes), me (Regal Crest Enterprises), Erin O'Reilly (Intaglio Publishing), Del Robertson (Intaglio), Frankie Jones (Bella Books), and Peggy Herring (Bella Books). Anyone who hasn't read their work is seriously missing many excellent stories and books.

In mid-March my partner lost her job as part of the current economic crunch. Thankfully, she is back at work at a new job. So an economic crisis was averted. In late March I flew to Minneapolis for an education seminar about high school drop-outs (a stimulating topic) and visited with some friends who live in the area. I had a great time, even during the morning snow flurries. I felt like a kid again, standing outside and catching huge flakes on my tongue. I haven't lived anywhere that actually has snow in thirty years.

My publisher tells me The Sea Hawk is doing well and that makes me seriously chuckle. I only wrote the book as a favor and gift for my publisher. You see, romance writing isn't my thing. Now she says it's the best thing I've ever written! Go figure. But I am glad readers seem to like the story and I enjoyed the hell out of writing it and loved the research. Perhaps one of these days I'll write another romance, but it would have to involve a topic that really excited me.

I just completed the final edits on my fifth book, Tunnel Vision, which is scheduled for a July release. It's a police procedural very loosely based on a murder that occurred on my college campus when I was an undergraduate. Over the many years since then, I've never been able to get the event out of my mind and thought it could make a tolerable story. We'll see.

I foolishly allowed someone to convince to become more of a "presence" on the Internet. So now I not only have this blog to deal with, but am also on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and probably a couple of other places I've already totally forgotten about. I'll have to check my bookmarks to keep up. I confess I don't have a clue about what I'm supposed to do on most of those sites. I have put most of the books I've read on my Shelfari site and made comments about many of the books. They are not reviews, just my opinion, so don't take it too seriously. I try to not take too much about writing very seriously. I prefer to have fun with it. Usually I speak to people face-to-face and not as some hazy personage floating around in cyberspace looking for unsuspecting people to annoy. But it's a learning process and I do know that dinosaurs have been extinct a very long time, so I'll reluctantly have to force myself to get with the program or the times or something like that.

I'm anxiously looking forward to my summer vacation. In early July my publisher and I are driving to Minneapolis (again) for the release of Tunnel Vision at True Colors Bookstore. It's owned by a friend of mine who also happens to be the editor for this book. So if you find any problems with the story, please contact her. LOL In late July I am flying to Orlando for the Golden Crown Literary Society Convention. It's always fun to catch up with fellow authors and talking one-on-one with the readers who make lesbian writing what it is today. I feel like I should take them all to dinner or something, but only if I wanted my check to bounce from here to Dallas and back. Hopefully, my sincere thanks will be enough.

I've been working on a couple of new manuscripts which I hope will come out in 2010. One has been fun to research and the other is just spending it's free time jerking my leash while I try to grab hold of the storyline and make it behave. When I get tired of that battle, I just go online and play a little poker. Losing fake money isn't nearly as frustrating.

I'm in the middle of copy editing a monster-size novel right now and am supposed to be doing that instead of writing in my blog. But I am a little ahead of schedule and can spare a few minutes in case someone comes along and wants to read my babblings. I can't think of anything earth-shattering to say right now, but something may come to me later. In the meantime, keep reading and enjoy the day.

I Wish Life Were More Exciting

It's been about a month since I last launched into whatever I thought was interesting and newsworthy at the moment. When I decided I should probably add something to this blog I found that I lead a pretty boring life 99% of the time. However, maybe that's true and I'm happy with that. I have a steady, decent paying job, a few people I call good friends, a nice older home (almost as old as I am), and a wonderful partner I am proud to also call my best friend. So there you have my life in a nutshell and it just progresses on one day at a time in a predictable way with very few surprises. I really can't ask for more than that. Of course there are times when we all wish we could do something different and unique to set our lives away from the masses who are just like us, but those are mostly pipe dreams.

I can look forward to retirement in four or five years and look toward that with a great deal of ambivalence. I'm not sure what I would do with myself if I never had to get up every morning and only had a day filled with cooking and cleaning awaiting me. I hate housework and am tired of cooking. There is always my writing, but I can't do that twelve hours a day without developing carpal tunnel syndrome or something else related to the continuous use of the computer. Financially speaking, the loss of two-thirds of my monthly income is a little scary since, like many baby boomers, I've never heard of somethings called a savings plan. Last week I discovered that I am more dead than alive if I never quit working and drop dead at my desk. If I croak quietly at home, however, I am worth only the cost of my own burial. That seems like pitifully little after a lifetime of working. So I am making the prediction that I will simply be found sprawled across my desk on the job one day, leaving my partner and our children rolling in the dough. I wish them well and a long and prosperous life, but I also feel confidant they will fail to save as well.

Well, that seems a tad morbid, but it is ridiculous to ignore the eventual outcome of all our lives. In the meantime I will just continue to write and basically entertain myself until the bitter end.

And speaking of writing, I have been working rather off and on on the edits for my next manuscript. I almost never argue with my editors and figure I am just a storyteller and they make what I have to say read a little better. Sometimes the edits are embarrassing and at other times they are funny. I should have seen the errors I made, but was just too wrapped up in finishing the damn thing.

When I first began being published I had already written three complete manuscripts and simply had to submit them one at a time. Then bing, bang, boom they were all out and I had to come up with new stuff. I never have a shortage of ideas for stories, but sometimes it's a little hard to get them to a satisfying ending. Fortunately I managed to do that this year and have two new stories coming out in 2009. I have nearly twenty other manuscripts started and am only having a problem with one of them. It's a sequel to a previously written novel, but for some reason I simply cannot pull it together. Maybe I'm afraid it won't be a good as the first one. I'm not sure. I know the characters extremely well. After all, I lived with them rummaging around in m brain for a couple of years. So why can't I move them forward into another story? I'm sure I will eventually figure it all out and need to get started soon before the readers forget who the heck they are.

I think Random Ramblings is an excellent title for this blog because my thoughts are all over the place tonight. My partner is working this weekend and I should have two days of peace and quiet to finish my editing chores so I can move on. Sounds like a viable plan to me and I only hope I can pull it off. I have to rewrite another chapter and then I should be about done. I hope readers will enjoy this story. It's a romance, something I don't personally care for very much, but I had a hell of a good time writing this one and it's my first "official" romance. It's all part of my overall plan to eventually write something decent in every genre. So far I have managed two mysteries, a general drama, and a romance. At least I have a long-term goal and might actually live long enough to complete it. The only loftier aspiration I could have would be to win an award in each genre, but that seems to fall into the "yeah right" category of wishful thinking.

Since we older folks need our rest, I think I'll bring this to an end for now, I always promise to write more often, but seriously doubt anyone is reading this other than myself. It's actually a pretty okay way to empty ones mind of random thoughts. So I'm going to toddle off to sleep for a while and hope everyone out there is enjoying as wonderful a life as I am.

Valley of the Sun

I just returned late Monday from the 2008 GCLS convention in Phoenix, Arizona. It was God-awful hot, but one of the best conventions I've attended in a while. Our keynote speaker was Katherine V. Forrest, someone every lesbian reader or writer hopes to meet before they die. She was very interesting and gave much insight to the workings of lesbian publishers and what their editors are looking for. I had a chance to speak to her briefly and found her to be very kind and warm. I met many old friends from past conventions and writers I've known for quite a while. It was a gigantic family reunion in many ways.

It was a huge weekend for my publisher, Regal Crest Enterprises. Not really considered one of the "big boys," they proved that even the smallest publishing houses are now putting out quality literature for the lesbian audience. RCE had eleven nominees as finalists for the annual Goldie Awards. K.E. Lane won an award in the Romance Category, Debut Author Category, and the Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award (which is voted on by the readers only) for her wonderful book And Playing the Role of Herself. I don't read many romance novels, so if I think it's good, it's probably great. Paula Offutt won in the Debut Author category for Butch Girls Can Fix Anything. Jane Vollbrecht won in the Dramatic General Fiction Category for In Broad Daylight. Nann Dunne won the GCLS Director's Award for her contributions tlesbian literature. I was fortunate enough to be chosen for an award in the Mystery Category for Redress of Grievances. It wouldn't be too strong a statement to say we celebrate late into the night. I highly recommend these books for your reading pleasure as well as the other RCE nominees: In the Blood by Rick R. Reed, Lavender Secrets by Sandra Barret, Shimmer and Other Stories by Lori L. Lake, Come This Way by Victor J. Banis, and Face of the Enemy by Sandra Barret. It would ahve been great if we could ahve won in every category, but maybe next year.

I came home with a renewed sense of why I write other than to entertain myself. I love writing, but knowing there are others who appreciate the work that goes into producing a worthwhile story makes it even sweeter.

I'll post again soon, just as soon as I manage to come back down from the mountaintop.

Counting the Days

There's just five days left before I fly off to Phoenix for the GCLS convention. My publisher called and said she decided to attend at the last minute and since we'll both be batchin' it, it looks like the casino will be our main hang-out. I've read two of the three manuscripts I'm mentoring this year. Overall, there is a story, but they need a little help. Then again, don't we all. Considering it took me twelve years to get my first book written and submitted, I really can't talk. Guess I should have been more aggressive, but never figured anyone would actually publish the damn thing.

I'm pretty excited about hearing Katherine Forrest speak since she's the guru of lesbian literature. Of all the "oldie" writers, I must say I enjoyed her books the most, especially her detective series. They actually have a story without a truckload of gratuitous sex. It always ticks me off that so many lesbian writers think readers won't read their work unless there are twenty solid pages of sex thrown in there. Call me old-fashioned, but the journey to the bedroom is usually more erotic than the activites in the bedroom. Leave a little something to the readers' imagination! Oh, I forget. Not everyone grew up in the pre-television days like I did where you actually had to have an imagination. :) There were some great radio shows back in the day, as if you needed any more proof of my age! I recently read somewhere that 60 is the new 40. That was certainly encouraging. After all, age is nothing more than a state of mind and if you think you're old, you probably are. To me 16 seems as if it were only yesterday.

I'm supposed to be painting a recent renovation to our house, but can't get up the enthusiasm for it right now. I'm waiting for someone to come by and replace a cracked window and don't want to have to stop working once I get a full head of steam going. I have a meeting for work right after lunch and am not too excited about that, other than getting lunch somewhere. I have almost a month of vacation time remaining and hate giving up even an hour of it while I'm off. I enjoy working with the kids, but the adults drive me freakin' crazy!

So, wish me well on my journey next Wednesday. My time between flights is pretty short and one airline is all the way across the DFW terminal from the other one. Hopefully the tram will be functioning and move quickly. Wish I'd paid more attention to the layover time when I booked the flights. Oh well, it keeps life exciting. I'll have a full report once I return. Until then, take care and keep writing.

Catching Up

Now you know how terrible I am at keeping up with this sort of thing. I promised I would attempt to make regular posts here in case anyone wanted to read them, but it's been a few months since I've been here. Sorry about that in case anyone has read it. I've been working on upgrading my MySpace page, with the help of one of our children, and think it looks a little better. I've added a number of pictures and the book trailers I made for two of my books. My friend, Gary has also put up a nice website for me and I have linked this blog site and the MySpace page to it so I can sort of gather everything up and manage it a little better. My website is http://brenda-adcock.com and the MySpace page is www.myspace.com/bkadcock.

And speaking of books, I have finished the latest revision of my next book, The Sea Hawk, and sent it off to my editor. Hopefully, there won't be a truckload of changes that need to be made. My partner and I spent a week in New Orleans near the end of June so I could soak up the atmosphere. About half the story takes place in old New Orleans when it was only the French Quarter. We never left the Quarter during our visit and I learned a lot of interesting historical facts about the city when it was still relatively in its infancy. I hope the description I included in the book will make it enjoyable for the reader. It will be released in January 2009 unless something unforeseen happens.

My fifth manuscript has been accepted by my publisher and is currently scheduled for a July 2009 release. It's entitled Tunnel Vision and is very loosely based on a murder that occurred on the university campus where I did my undergraduate work. As far as I know that guy is still locked away in a mental institution somewhere. I think it's an interesting story, but then I think they are all interesting.

At the end of July I am attending the Golden Crown Literary Society convention in Phoenix, Arizona. It really a terrible time to be in Phoenix no matter how dry they say the heat there is. I don't anticipate spending much time outdoors. In fact, I will probably never step outside the resort where the convention is being held unless I suddenly develop a desire to feel my face crack from all that "dry heat". My last book is a finalist for a Goldie Award in the Mystery category, but I seriously doubt it will make it any further than that. Still, it is an honor to be recognized even a little for your work. I have been asked to be a presenter in one of the categories so it looks like I'll have a reason to wear my tuxedo again. The poor thing only gets dragged out once a year. But I enjoy the opportunity to wear it. Makes me feel kind of cool.

I'm a terrible time manager and haven't gotten much written over my summer break. I'm sure once I return to work in mid-August I will be more productive since my time will be more limited. Thus far this summer we have done a ton of renovation on our home and thankfully we are almost finished. I'm getting too old now for all that manual labor.

Well, it's getting late and I have to be up bright and early tomorrow because I was tapped for jury duty in our local municipal court. They turn no one down for city court and I get to spend the day listening to people explain why the broke a traffic law and shouldn't be punished for it. I've served in city court before and they are mildly entertaining and about half the time the jury doesn't believe the police officer. An interesting commentary on the local law enforcement system.

I'll try to post more regularly, but it's likely I won't post again until after my trip to Phoenix. In the meantime, take care.

Time Flies When You're Havin' Fun!

Well, I guess it's been a few days since I last posted anything here, but time just flies by when you're doing all those exciting things like working and paying the bills. Actually, it's been a relatively easy week for me. I only had to work four and half days this week and was out one of those days fighting a lingering bronchial infection that's become very attached to me. The only exciting thing I've really done all week was create a video trailer for another book. If you get a chance wander over to YouTube and search for Ruth Sims. The book is entitled The Phoenix and it's a great story. I had a lot of fun putting the video together and hope it gets the response the author is looking for. You know, that's the bad thing about being published by a small press. Those houses put out some damn good books, but because of budgetary problems, they often don't have the funds for heavy duty promotion. So if the videos help these authors out, then I'm one happy little camper. If you're really interested do a search for badcock24 and check out all the videos I've made. I think there are about fifteen right now and I've had a whale of a good time with each one.

My partner and I had a good weekend getting a few things done around the house. We managed to purchase a new coffee table and two new recliners for our living room. We've been working on a lot of renovations to our old house and hopefully by the time I retire in a few years it will just be our little palace on the prairie. We bought a new grill for the patio and tonight I didn't have to cook, which only goes to show there is method to my madness. We staked out Tiki torches to ward off mosquitoes and fired up the chiminia to ward off the evening chill. All-in-all it was a very peaceful weekend and we needed that to re-energize before returning to work tomorrow.

I haven't had the energy to write much the last couple of weeks, but am planning to write tomorrow evening. I have a sequel about half finished and really do need to work on that. For now it's shower time and then reading time before I go to sleep. Take care and as Arnold said, "I'll be back!"