.@PlottingPrince1 - 18 Things You Want to know about: #author Patricia Kiyono #MFRWorg #

Plotting Princesses :

18 things you want to know about...

Welcome, Patricia Kiyono to the Plotting Princesses where we like to poke our guests and get their gory details.

Here's a bit about her: Patricia and her husband live in SW lower Michigan, near their five children and nine grandchildren. She teaches college students part time and loves scrapbooking, sewing, and making music. 

Favorite movie: Memoirs of a Geisha
Favorite book: Gone With the Wind
Last book read: Bluebonnets for Ellie by Sandra Nachtlinger
Favorite color: Blue Stilettos or flipflops: Sneakers!
Coffee or tea: Both!
Ebook or paperback: ebook
Pencil or pen: pencil
Favorite song: Cherish
Streak or not: Not
Favorite dessert: chocolate
Champagne or gin: Allergic to both
Paranormal or Historical: Historical
Ginger or Mary Ann: Mary Ann
Favorite TV show: Who Do You Think You Are?
Hot or cold: Hot
POV: Rosy
I'd die if I don't have: chocolate

.@PhyllisMiddleton - Oh what a feeling....

The song "What a Feeling" from the movie Flashdance sums up my feelings and inspiration in just several of the lines. 

"What a feeling, being's believin' I can have it all." That line got me inspired to write, to edit, to cut, to add and change some of the characters. In essence, making it worthy ( in my mind anyway), to send it out.  Many us realize this is a very scary time. The story you spent night after night up with it, cried over and prayed over it, is in the hand of someone else. They have the ultimate chore of telling you what they thought of it.

Every writer out there who dreams of seeing their stories in print ( or digital) know the let down in your heart when you hear back from them.
"We like the story, but..." or You're a good writer, but...." and the most common line I heard..." We like the story, but it just doesn't fit our line."
I knew I should have stuck more sex in there!   

After some discouragement set in, I picked up another line from the lyrics and decided to make it my theme and push me to move forward. 
"Take your passion and make it happen!"

So I did.

Michelle Miles: Cat on Fire

I wish I was making this story up.

It was a Sunday night. I’d baked potatoes in the oven. When I do this, I roll them in olive oil and sea salt and then wrap them in foil. I put a pan covered in foil in the oven to catch the drippings but invariably, it leaves a stench behind. We have a small house. So when something in the oven is stinky, it stinks up the whole house. (However, the potatoes were DELISH.)

Now. Just to give you some idea of the setup. We have an open concept living/dining/kitchen. There’s a bar where the stove/oven is and a small walkway between that and the sofa. Husband was sitting on the sofa watching Sunday night football. And I decide I’m going to light some candles to get rid of the smell.

Dexter the Cat has a bed which he’s a tad too big for. He’s fat but he’s losing weight. The candles are on the bar area right above him. He’s happily sleeping in his bed when I grab the box of matches. I strike the match but the stupid thing breaks in half. I watch the match end – as if in slow motion – fall toward the cat lighting in midair.

Two things cross my mind in about 2.3 seconds.

.@PhyllisMiddleton - An official announcement & time to party #MFRWorg #PlottingPrincesses

!!! AN ANNOUNCEMENT !!!

!!IT’S PARTY TIME!!
 

It is official. Earlier this Month,

I signed a publishing Contract

with Soul Mate Publishing for

my debut book

NINE LIVES, TWO DOWN

A romantic suspense

This book is ‘my baby’ and written In three months

in 2005, following My joining RWA and dara.

I was So inspired by these organizations

That The story figuratively ‘hit’ me in the head

 in One night in which I wrote the big black moment

 first and the first chapter next – in that one night.

I’d been writing stories since age 13, But it wasn’t

until 2005 that I decided To get serious about

writing and Learning the craft on my road to Becoming

a publisher writer. It’s been a 9 year journey.

I am thrilled to be able to Share with you

the EXCITEMENT of This ride.

By the way – I am the last of the plotting princesses

To become published. Well, somebody had to bring up the rear!
 

Phyllis Middleton

princess

.@VickiBatman ~ Stuck in a rut? Is too much of a good thing bad? #MFRWorg #PlottingPrincesses

Stuck in a rut?

Is too much of a good thing bad? 

On the way home from Mahjong, I realized I'd eaten some chocolate and couldn't even remember what it tasted like. Yikes!

At a visit to the wine country, I did some tastings and realized none of it tickled my palate.

I would read romance after romance and now, am reading more mysteries.

I have been known to consume vast quantities of Virginia peanuts. Nope. Not any more.

So what's going on? I haven't a clue. It's sorta like the day when you gave up eating 

for a

What's growing in Karilyn's #garden? by Karilyn Bentley

As those of you who follow my Facebook or Twitter feeds know, I love to tinker in my garden. Not that I'm any kind of gardening expert, my philosophy on plants is I'll give them water and dirt. If they need more than that they should go live at someone else's home. <g> But I do love to watch them grow.

With that said, here are some pictures of various plants I'm trying to grow this year. One of the newest additions to the garden this year is corn. No clue on how to get it to produce, but several stalks are popping up.

corn stalks

Saloon Girls of the Old West

Yeah, I knew that would grab your attention right away, and I aim to please. If you were around in the sixties and even the seventies, I’m sure you saw Gunsmoke with Marshal Matt Dillon. And who else…Miss Kitty.

Did anyone else realize that Miss Kitty ran the saloon and would have been a well dressed whore? I was only five years old, how would I have known that she was sleeping with the cowboys for money. And why didn’t the sheriff ever marry her?

Since I like for my westerns to be as historically accurate as possible, I do a lot of research on the west.  One of my favorite books is Hell’s Half Acre by Richard F. Selcer. This book is about the half acre of Fort Worth, Texas back during the height of the cattle driving days.  He talks about prostitution back in the old west and how it contributed to the local economy. Women were not allowed in most saloons, but they were close by. Most women rented rooms above the saloon where the randy cowboys would pay them a visit.  

While we like to think of a prostitute in the old west looking like Miss Kitty, most were between the ages of fourteen and twenty and were hardened women with names like Big Nose Kate, Squirrel-Tooth Alice, Irish Kate and Monkey. Yes, can you imagine a cowboy coming in and asking for Monkey?   

My Inner Wicked Witch, by Kelly L Lee

Have you ever had one of those days where your kids make you crazy, your boss is unreasonable, the dogs destroy your favorite shoes/bag/sofa, and the sound of your husband's voice makes you want to poke yourself in the eyeballs?

No? Good for you!

But for those mere mortals like me who can relate....Welcome to the club.

Those are the days when my inner wicked witch dons her pointed black hat (or pointed pink high heels) and releases the flying monkeys. On these rare (ish) occasions, I have several coping mechanisms ... most of which involve internet shopping and cocktails.