As all of you know my latest book, Paint It Red is now on the stands.  In that particular book I mention a restaurant that is a real restaurant, one of my husband's and mine favorite places to eat.  My parents, who are the best publicity agents in the midwest, decided to take my book to the restaurant to let them know about the mention.

They were pleased and in fact placed the book in a prominent position in the lobby, which I thought was so nice!  So the other night we go to eat there and I introduced myself to the owner.  He told me he'd been waiting for me to come in because his wife is a writer and wants to talk to me about getting her things published. 

I graciously gave him my phone number and I'll be more than happy to talk to her if and when she calls.  What interested me is that he mentioned that she writes song lyrics and I think he just assumed I'd know all about that business.

I also received a manuscript in the mail from my niece's young daughter.  She wants to know how she can get her work published. 

People just assume I know all this because I'm an author.  I don't know anything about songwriting and I know nothing about the childrens' book market.

It's amazing to me how stupid I was before I got published and now how I'm perceived to be so smart!   Unfortunately when I speak to these people I'm going to lose points for being uninformed about all things writing related.

I'm still madly working on my deadline that is the end of this month.  Sundays are always great writing days for me.  My husband plays golf, the house is quiet, television is usually good and it's one of my favorite days to write. 

I've been using some lilac wax beads in my oil burner and my office smells lovely.  I also got a new bookcase and re-arranged my office in an effort to keep the creative juices flowing.  What I've noticed is that when I'm reaching the end of a project I start to want to clean up my workspace, add something new or arrange different my stuff.  It's almost like a ritual, something that needs to be done before I move on to the next project.  Okay, nobody ever said I wasn't weird!

That's it from me for tonight.  I'm going to try to post more often from now on, but I'm not making any promises!

Take care and keep reading!

Carla