Random baseball post

Go Phillies!

It is no coincidence that I accompanied my daughter's 8th grade class to New York in 2004 and that we visited Yankee Stadium.

Where I placed a small, teeny tiny curse.

And look who won the World Series in 2004. The BoSox baby!

I rest my case.

I hate the Yankees.

Go Phillies!

Cantor Workshop October 17, 2009

So, here's what you need to know about Goal, Motivation and Conflict for Singers!

Based on Debra Dixon's book, GMC: Goal, Moivation and Conflict, I've adapted these tools so that singers can use them to bring more emotion and immediacy to their work. It's very easy! All you have to do is remember to express every aspect as an action verb.

Let's take Psalm 51. What is the singer's goal? In other words, what does he want? He wants to confess his sins and receive forgiveness. What's his motivation? In other words, why does he want to confess and be forgiven? He wants those things so he can feel once again God's favor. What's his conflict? Again, what's getting in his way? He is fighting against his own ability to admit his guilt and accept God's forgiveness. But you might have a different idea about any of those three questions. The main thing is to always express things as an action. Turn "to be happy" into "to cheer myself up." You get the drift.

Please let me know if you have questions! I hope to see you on 10/17!

A release date!

I am thrilled to let you know that I have a release date for Mike's Best Bet! Set your calendars to April 30, 2010!

Also, for those of you in the Ithaca area, check out this year's Star Search presentations, The Quest For the Onion of Doom, Friday evening, August 14, and the new show CSI: Macbeth: LMNOP, Friday evening, August 28. Curtain times for both shows in 7:30. Admission is free, unless you want to make a donation! Come on out and support the kids!

For those of you who don't know what Star Search is, it's a musical theater camp for teens (10 to 16). We do two shows, for which I write the scripts. The idea for the class is that we strengthen you weaknesses and challenge your strengths. Each camper must sing, dance and act, whether they're good at it or not. We've been doing this since 1988 and have had a lot of success. Some parents have told us the camp was life changing for their kids!

Happy Mother's Day!

This is the first year both my girls will be out of town, but I'm not unhappy about that. They are off being awesome! I have the best two girls any mother could wish for, and I am so very proud of them.

Happy day to all you moms out there! I hope you have a great day!

Surprised By Joy

Let me take my writer hat off and put my conductor hat on. My fabulous group, The Finger Lakes Women's Chorale, will present a concert entitled "Surprised By Joy" on Sunday, May 3, 4:00 PM at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Ithaca. We will be accompanied by the amazing Christopher Morgan Loy, Glenn McClure and Michael Wellen. The program is as follows: This is the Day (Gerald T. Smith) "Kyrie" from Saint Francis in the Americas A Caribbean Mass (Glenn McClure), "Gloria" from the Mass for Bishop Clark (Dominick DiOrio), In the Beginning (Imant Raminsh), Salmo 150 (Ernani Aguiar), Alleluia (Joseph Gregorio), The Beatitudes (Damijan Mocnik), Dancing (Scott Tucker), "Creo en Dios" from Misa Pequena (Francisco Nunez), Festival Sanctus (John Leavitt), "The Lord's Prayer" from Bethesda Evensong (Gwyneth Walker), Agnus Dei (Sonja Poorman) and Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down (Paul Caldwell and Sean Ivory).

Hope to see you there!

Mike's Best Bet

Yay! I got the galleys proofed and soon we'll have a release date for my first book, Mike's Best Bet, coming soon from the Wild Rose Press! This is the first book in my At The End Zone series.

Here's an excerpt:

He took his hands out of his pockets and held one out to her. “Dance with me.”
She shouldn’t, she really shouldn’t, but she made the mistake of looking into Mike’s green flecked eyes. They were so hot, they practically scorched her. Oh boy was she a goner. She put her champagne down, put her hand into his, and followed him onto the dance floor.
He put his hands on her hips and pulled her in close to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and melted against him while the band played Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss”.
Mike moved with all the elegance and grace of a natural athlete. The band’s alto sax lovingly crooned a hot melody that seemed made just for them. Andi sighed and lost herself in the moment.
It shouldn’t feel so good to be held by this man, but it did. He felt warm and solid and safe. Only traces of his after shave lingered, so her nose caught elusive wisps of wood and spice. His thumbs rubbed up and down on her hips, which made her shiver. He didn’t know the song, but hummed along anyway, off-key. She couldn’t remember when she last had heard more beautiful music.
The music ended. For a long moment they remained locked against each other, unaware of the applause that replaced the music. She looked up at him, then away. She didn’t want him to see more than she was ready to show him.

I will be back soon with a release date and info!

When good authors have crazy message boards

There are many authors who have message boards where they can interact with their readers. Upfront this looks and sounds like a good idea. It has its pitfalls. Let me elaborate.

Cliques arise and new posters who disagree with the point of view of the ruling clique are ostracized. A case in point: I once posted an opinion on an author's board and it was not widely popular. The in crowd disagreed with me, but did they disagree with me up front? No, they started a new post, special for them, quoting and belittling my opinion and talking about how wrong I was. It was cowardly on their part and made me revise my opinion of the author as a person and her moderators (who of course were in the clique). I won't post there again. Will I buy her books? While she keeps on writing stories I want to read, and not stories the clique demand.

Which brings me to my second point, when an author changes the direction a book series is going in because the posters on her message board demand it. I've seen an author change rules of her world to accomodate what her posters want to see. It sucks, to be blunt. Most of the readers out there are off line - how are they going to keep up? Probably they won't and will stop buying the books, especially if the author makes the leap to hardcover.

My last point ties into the one above. Special stories that are only available on the website. Many times these stories contain content that's going to be germane in the next book and if you're not in the loop, you're really confused. And that's just bad business.

Doreen